As competition grows fiercer by the day, getting your hotel to stand out from the rest is more important than ever. Fortunately, there are many ways you can improve your guests' perception of your hotel. From greeting guests with a genuine smile to renovating rooms, what you do (or don't do) impacts your guests' satisfaction, and ultimately, whether they'll stay at your hotel again.

One of your guests' first impressions of your hotel is how it appears from the outside. Improve your curb appeal by keeping a well-maintained exterior. Clean your walkways and building's exterior with a pressure washer, install proper trash and ash receptacles to collect waste, keep landscaping maintained and repair any potholes. Also, install new signage where needed and ensure there is plenty of exterior lighting for decorative and security purposes. With improved curb appeal, you'll draw in guests and give current guests a reason to return.

Once your guests are inside, does your hotel make a good impression? Your lobby and front desk should be well lit and welcoming to guests. These areas should also be staffed with courteous, friendly and helpful employees. Customer service can make or break a customer's experience, so invest in top-notch personnel to create a great impression that your guests will remember.
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Next, assess your guest rooms--they offer a great opportunity to make customers pleased with their decision to stay at your hotel. Your guest rooms should feel inviting, comforting and up to date. A fresh coat of paint, enhanced lighting, a new bedspread or updated artwork can make a big difference on how guests perceive your rooms, and these are all improvements that can be done without breaking your budget.

Another area of scrutiny for guests is the guest bathroom. Quality linens, both here and in the bedroom, make a good impression on guests. Also, plumbing and amenity upgrades show your guests they're important to you.

There are numerous ways to positively impact your guests' experience at your hotel. By following the above suggestions or implementing ideas of your own, you'll soon be on your way to ensuring you get more heads in your beds. For a free product catalog full of items to help you enhance your property, contact The Home Depot Supply at 1-800-431-3000 or visit online at hdsupply.com.

Lighting plays a significant role in guest satisfaction

While lighting may seem like an easily overlooked element of guest rooms, guests apparently are not turning a blind eye. According to a leading consumer magazine's July 2004 survey, poor guest room lighting was the No. 1 complaint, with budget hotels receiving the most complaints.

Thankfully, improving your guest room lighting is one of the most effective and budget-friendly things you can do to enhance the way your guests perceive your hotel.

Good guest room lighting should be functional and aesthetically pleasing and provide guests with the comfortable, warm atmosphere they expect from a living space. Use high-quality, energy-efficient compact fluorescent lighting in guest rooms to create the functional, warm and inviting look desired by guests, and at the same time, save substantial dollars on energy costs. Today's quality compact fluorescents (ones that have earned the ENERGY STAR[R]) provide the same soft white light output of traditional incandescents but use up to 74 percent less energy and last 10 times as long!

The first ground-up unit of The Home Depot in Mexico opened last month. At 77,000 square feet, the store in Monterrey near the California border is about one-third smaller than a traditional Home Depot, but features a garden center and pro desk. The store is among four to be built in Mexico this year, with others planned for Tijuana, Culiacan and San Luis Potosi to open this fall. Home Depot entered Mexico last summer by acquiring four-store Total Home, then bought the four-store Del Norte chain this year. Home Depot now operates nine stores in Mexico.

Rather than wait for the 'glacially slow' traditional lenders to approve a loan, home improvement manufacturer, Pacesetter Corporation turned to Kennedy Finance.

When the founders of Nebraska's Pacesetter Corporation sold two divisions to its management team this past spring, they also looked to divest their corporate real estate.

But traditional lenders couldn't deliver the funds fast enough to the buyers.

Enter Kennedy Funding, a direct private lender based in Hackensack, NJ, who provided a $3.5 million acquisition loan to enable the new owners to purchase the company's two main commercial buildings in Omaha.

Pacesetter was founded in 1962 and grew steadily over.

Outsourcing of some manufacturing, expanding the product lines, and other new efficiencies were introduced by Gary Iskra, who became the CEO and President of Pacesetter in 2002.

After buying the manufacturing and sales services divisions, Mr. Iskra and his management team were intent on the purchase of Pacesetter's corporate assets, a 100,000 sq. ft. manufacturing plant and a 3.7,000 sq. ft. office building, both to be acquired from the former parent corporation.
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"Kennedy Funding demonstrated a clear understanding of our needs," remarked Mr. Iskra.

"And rather than wait for the 'glacially slow' traditional lenders to approve a loan, we found that Kennedy provided very quick, highly professional service.

"We had our financing--and our two buildings in record time."

Jeffrey Wolfer, president of Kennedy Funding, saw the value inherent in Pacesetter's relocation and restructuring. "By acquiring several divisions and their physical assets, the 'new' Pacesetter was positioning itself for the challenges of the next decade.

"Kennedy Funding applied its quick valuation process and came up with the $3.5 million to make it all happen. Clearly, the management team knew what they were doing and where they were going.

"They just didn't want to wait for the usual lenders to take their time structuring the loan. That's where we came in, and we were happy to do so."

Kennedy Funding regularly funds diverse projects in the U.S. and around the world, structuring each loan to reflect the particular needs of the borrower.

Every week, the Washington Post Home staff talks about various ways to improve your home. Find out about new home trends, upcoming antique shows and how to reupholster your furniture.

Ask Post staff writers Annie Groer and Jura Koncius about all things home related.

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Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Good morning all...Hope you had a fruitful Memorial Day holiday (spent either buying paint, furniture, window or wall treatment.) So let's rock.

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Arlington, Va.: My bedroom is painted Benjamin Moore Misty Blue (820 on Preview fandeck), a great bedroom color! Anyway, our adjoining bathroom needs to be painted. It has bath and floor tiles with a terracotta tone, and the fixtures are brushed nickel. Any suggestions on paint color? Many thanks.

Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Why not go a shade or two lighter than the fab Misty Blue? The other possibility would be take that terra cotta and run with it...a nice, intense Adobe Dust.
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Old House, Md.: We just bought a 150-year-old house that we're very excited about renovating. What are some of the basic rules as far as keeping the old charm but moving in modern technology? There are beams on the ceilings, crown and base moldings, wood floors, etc. Also, the last owner moved in in 1975 and can't remember if it was painted then or not. Didn't paint contain lead at that time? How do we check for lead in the paint? Thanks!

Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Old House - It's a good bet that at least some of the paint on those old walls is lead based. You can have an inspector test it, or you can just assume that is what is there and act accordingly. As for updating a 19th century home, you need to think convenience and lifestyle: Upgraded wiring for such things as cable TV, a DSL line, heavy duty appliances etc. You might want to consult with your local historical society for the names of contractors who specialize in such work so there will be no surprises.

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Woodbridge, Va.: Please forgive yet another paint question: I want to paint my son's bathroom and need a little inspiration. It's a navy and white bathroom: tiles/sink/floor/cabinets are white, the shower curtain is white with navy trim, and the floor mats and towels are navy. I was thinking of maybe a khaki such as SW Relaxed khaki. Another color that would probably look really crisp with navy and white would be a nice bright yellow, but it will clash with my hallway paint, which is a buttery yellow already. I also thought of red, but my son nixed that one. Is there another color that comes to mind besides the khaki? Thanks!

Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Woodbridge - Annie, lover of gleaming white bathrooms, votes for white walls. Jura, lover of paper bag and khaki neutrals, suggests Swept Plains by Duron, which will give you a classic combo that is great for a guy's bathroom.

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Montclair, Va.: Is "C Mart" the same Maryland outlet featured in an article on the front page of the "Home" section a year or two ago? The Maryland outlet was located in a K-Mart building. If not, please let me know where the MO outlet is located. Thanking you in advance.

Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Montclair - Yes, it is very same C-Mart that Jura wrote about last year and it continues to be an incredible source of designer bargains for the home as well as the body. Recently, C-Mart consolidated its operations, moving the fashion part to the new Home store. The address is 1000 Joppa Farm Road, in beautiful Joppatown, Md. 410-538-6100 and the web site is www.cmartdiscount.com. They are open 7 days a week and currently have great samples from the High Point furniture market to offer. Keep them in mind as you traverse I-95 this summer. Perhaps you can score a frock and an ottoman in the same trip.

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Arlington, Va.: Our foyer looks incredible thanks to your suggestion of dark and light taupe stripes. The foyer hall leads into an open family room/kitchen area that is decorated with red/gold/sage rug, leather sofa, and terracotta tiles (kitchen). Do you think I should bring the taupe colors from the foyer into the kitchen/family room, or go with another color? I was thinking about prescott green (BM) or silver sage (RH)?

Annie Groer and Jura Koncius: Dear Arlington, We're always gratified when someone loves our suggestions. Silver Sage might work because it is such a pale neutral. But if you, like we, are worried about introducing yet another color, use one of the taupes to pull the eye into the room.

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Arlington, Va.: Looking for some thoughts on covering three casement windows in my family room. Great view outside but do want the windows covered in the evening at least. What do you think about white wood blinds vs. metal blinds vs. fabric-covered roller shade (or maybe rattan?) Current panels are cumbersome to open and really close in the room. Thank you!

There's an old saying in the environmental movement: Think globally, act locally. That is, keep the planet's needs and processes in mind, and take action in your own community to help those processes continue and thrive. But what if we thought galactically and acted molecularly?

On the road ahead, we can go beyond simply maintaining minimal resources or recycling a few materials. We can focus on fecundity and joy and a celebration of the biology of life, on tying the place of our planet in space--its beneficial relation to the sun--with the chemistry of the places we inhabit and the design of the products we use.

The part of this movement that draws my firms' attention is the design of cities, buildings and products. When we designed America's first so-called "green" office building in New York two decades ago, we felt very alone. But today, thousands of people come to green building conferences, and the idea that buildings can be good for people and the environment will be increasingly influential in years to come.

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Back in 1984 we discovered that most manufactured products weren't designed for indoor use. The "energy-efficient" sealed commercial buildings constructed after the 1970s energy crists revealed indoor air quality problems caused by materials such as paint, insulation, wall covering and carpet. So for 20 years, we've been focusing on these materials down to the molecules, looking for ways to make them safe for people and the planet.

Home builders can now use materials--such as paints that release significantly reduced amounts of volatile organic compounds--that don't destroy the quality of the air, water, or soil. Ultimately, however, our cradle-to-cradle design strategy is focused not simply on being "less bad" but on creating completely healthful materials that can be either safely returned to the soil or reused by industry again and again. In fact, Shaw Industries, the world's largest carpet manufacturer, has already developed a carpet that is fully and safely recyclable.

Look at it this way: No one starts out to create a building that destroys the planet. But our current industrial systems are inherently causing these conditions, whether we like it or not. So instead of simply trying to reduce the damage, we are taking a positive approach. We're giving people high-quality, healthful products and an opportunity to make choices that have a beneficial effect on the world.

It's not just the building industry, either. Entire cities are adopting these environmentally positive approaches to design, planning and building. Portland, Seattle and Boston have said they want to be green cities. Chicago wants to be the greenest city in the world.

In China, we're working with the government--which must create housing for 400 million people in the next 15 years--on innovative ways of designing cities, as well as on new cradle-to-cradle materials that can make buildings that are inexpensive, but also quiet, healthy and wonderfully insulated.

Renewable energy is an increasingly important tool. Solar collecting for hot water is already cost effective. In Japan, China and Israel it's commonplace. Solar electricity is also coming into wider use and is expected to be ubiquitous within a decade.

What might this mean for you? If you're building a house, tell your contractor, "We know solar energy is becoming cost effective. Please have my house ready to receive it when that time comes. That might be five years from now, but don't tell me it doesn't matter."

The green agenda is heading toward the mainstream. To help advance it, we have formed a nonprofit organization called GreenBlue, which has already initiated projects and coalitions in key industries such as packaging and electronics. Through GreenBlue, major companies are working together to develop practical, profitable solutions to environmental problems, and they're incorporating these changes into the way they do business.

It's exciting to be part of a movement with such tremendous positive momentum. By sharing our blue sky goals for an ecologically intelligent, prosperous and healthy future we are laying the foundation for a delightful road ahead. What a ride!

A year ago, new construction remained virtually nonexistent in Orange and Windsor counties, further ailing a major housing crunch. The situation worsened, planning agencies put their heads together, homebuyers grew exasperated, and still no buildings went up. This spring, homes are shooting up by the dozen, although-it appears they will make only a small dent in the present shortage.

"If you look at the number of units being built, that's a substantial number of units, but it doesn't even touch the need here," said Shelly Hadfield, director of the Upper Valley Work Force Housing Task Force.

Last fall, towns within the Upper Valley carried out a housing needs assessment and determined that there was a deficiency of 3,600 units in the area, according to Hadfield, who reported the finding to local businesses and planning boards in a summit last November.

Hadfield thinks this might have helped jumpstart some of the new construction projects in place now. In Quechee, 22 lowincome rentals units are going up and new condos are being built for the first time in 10 years in the Quechee Lakes Development. Across the river in Enfield, 63 units are being built, along with 30 in Lebanon and 34 in White River Junction.Last year's housing needs assessment found an overall dire need of permanent housing for all income levels, particularly for individuals earning $50,000 or less. Responding to this identified need, Twin Pines Housing Trust in White River junction launched projects at three sites - Hartford, White River junction, and Wilder.

Gretchen Rittenhouse, director, said some of the sites would have clusters of multi-family units or a mix of single- and multi-family homes.

Twin Pines is unable to lease out any of the houses until the completion of construction because transactions are based on a family's income level at the time of the deal. But the organization hopes to move along the building process as quickly as possible. Rittenhouse said all three sites may contain some transitional residencies for individuals who are homeless for a variety of reasons.

These will be rented out for periods between a few days and several months, depending on each situation. Hadfield said other transitional housing is under way with 10 units in each Enfield and Lebanon. She said these projects include onebedroom apartments and larger homes, all within walking distance of schools and downtowns. Last year's housing needs assessment reported a high number of individuals in emergency-type situations needing a place to stay.

Hadfield estimated that some of these were poverty cases; others were domestic abuse victims or even young people getting a foot in the workforce. But the need from low-income buyers or renters should not overshadow the same demand of those in a different income bracket, she added. Even those willing to shell out $1 million for a home have had trouble finding anything in the past several years.

The market for high-end homes appears to be as tight as other housing demands, with very little land available for new construction and most contractors and electricians tied up a year or more with larger development projects.

"It's not just low-income housing we need, either. We need everything from very low-income to middle-income," said Hadfield. She reported that the present total deficiency could be half -filled by rental unit construction and half-filled by permanent homes catering to both wealth and average income levels.

"Communities are just so scared of housing projects," said Hadfield, acknowledging fears of increased taxes and burdens on school enrollments. But in the Upper Valley, there's not much choice at this point. In the past 10 years, job growth ballooned while virtually no housing became available to balance the population influx.

"There's a negative growth or sprawl sentiment here in the Upper Valley. But we're (task force) not saying we want to grow. What we're saying is that we don't have the infrastructure for existing businesses," said Hadfield, adding that she has heard about several businesses choosing not to locate in the area because of a lack of workforce housing.

The real estate market has minimal inventory right now, with homes selling within three days of entering the market, said Cheryl Brush of Mosely Associates. The average list price last summer was $463,000. Buyers have been paying roughly 97 percent of the list price in the past year, She said most firsttime buyers come to her with budgets between $80,000 and $125,000, but they are in store for a shock. Many have to purchase properties up to 40 miles away if they plan to work in the Upper Valley.

"The problem is that there arc very few homes in that range," said Brush. Starter houses in the area, cost upwards of $200,000, and most locals simply cannot afford such prices.

"The demand for housing in the Upper Valley is extremely crucial," said Hank Huntington, owner of Paragon Homes, Inc, a dealer of modular and manufactured homes in Wilder. In fact, many cannot even afford modulars, which cost a minimum of $140,00 in the Upper Valley.

Monuments have lost their power to enshrine permanent memories, but society has scarcely lost its appetite for grand structures. Quite the opposite: the self-important building characterises our time, partly because the size of commissions becomes ever larger under late-capitalism and partly because architects and their commercial products must compete for attention. So a strange mood has developed, something of a double-bind, where the architect and society both have misgivings about the iconic building but cannot help producing it, in ever greater numbers and in ever weirder forms. This is a cause for considerable irony, and a little analysis.

Monumental change

Consider the decline of the monument, something that sets in with the rise of modernisation and the constant upheavals of the marketplace. When whole areas of the city, as Marx described them, 'melt into air' because of development, when the names of squares and districts change overnight, what is the meaning of a monument? It can signify anything, and often today that might be an embarrassing change in sentiment. This can be seen clearly in places of revolutionary change or military conflict. Vietnam and Iraq have witnessed the constant toppling of monuments and renaming of squares. But the shift was already apparent in eighteenth-century France.

In the space of about fifty years, the major public square in Paris next to the Tuilleries was re-named and restyled five times. First, in its creation, what was christened the Place Louis XV had a facelift and a new monumental setting for the new monument to the King, an equestrian statue based on that of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. Then, like Saddam Hussein's statues, this was toppled in a revolution, and the square was named after the event, in 1789. Then, after the guillotine had done its work on Danton, Robespierre, Mme Roland, and countless others, the Place de la Revolution was re-styled as the Place de la Concorde--for twenty years. Predictably, with the restoration it was rechristened 'Place Louis XV' and then, on schedule at the appropriate moment. 'Place Louis XVI'. Finally, because of an overwhelming desire to please the people, King Louis-Philippe re-minted the old coin for the area, calling it the Place de la Concorde. More honestly it might have been Discorde. What was the monumental strategy of Louis-Philippe? Where the guillotine was, he erected a large, granite obelisk, borrowed handily from Luxor and, underlining the point of the images and hieroglyphs carved into its surface, pronounced the great lesson for France: 'It would not recall a single political event'. Fantastique! Here is the first icon of calculated ambiguity, call it an 'icon without a clear iconography', or as I term it, an 'enigmatic signifier'. Ever since Louis-Philippe, artists, architects and now the general public have learned to enjoy, or suffer, their perplexing situation. The monument has been toppled as much by commercial society as by revolutions, by branding as by conscious iconoclasm. It's true the World Trade Center was destroyed as a symbol of American hegemony, as an icon of a foreign policy that was hated; but it is untrue to think that Americans ever liked the building very much, or thought of it as a venerable monument worth worshipping. That is, until it was brought down, repeatedly, on TV. At that point, the media gave the ruins and the previous image an enduring religious presence. An icon always has a trace of sanctity about it; it is an object to be worshipped, however fitfully.

Spiritual inflation

And this leads to the second reason that the iconic building has replaced the monument. In our time in the West, as Chesterton's adage has it, when men stop believing in God, they don't believe in nothing, they believe in anything. This epigram nicely states the problem for society and the architect. Today, anything can be an icon. The philosopher, Arthur Danto, has drawn the same conclusion in the post-Warhol world of the marketplace: 'Anything can be a work of art'. A Brillo box was Warhol's contribution to this truth, a ridiculously banal object, as unimportant as he could find. Yet with his nomination of the throwaway package, one supported by Leo Castelli and then the larger art world, this ephemeral box became expensive art. Marcel Duchamp, originator of the ready-made fifty years earlier, was piqued; at least his objets-trouves had a sculptural and industrial presence, a surreal charge, a convulsive beauty. Yet Duchamp's ire had no more effect than other attacks on Pop Art. Along with many other contemporary art movements, the politics of the counter culture ushered in the period of pluralism and relativity, the era of post-modernism.

The implications were not terribly pressing in the conservative world of architecture, at least for thirty years. Then Frank Gehry's Guggenheim and the so-named 'Bilbao Effect' did their work. At that point, developers and mayors could see the economic logic of the sculptural gesture (with its many enigmatic signifiers), and the same method was applied to any and every building type. This presented a semantic problem, inverting notions of appropriateness and decorum.

I'LL NEVER FORGET THE FIRST TIME I met Shirley Craig-head. In a voice made harsh by years of struggle and cigarettes, she outpreached any pastor as she addressed a room full of daycare providers. The spark of Shirley's oratory touched the gasoline of frustration felt by other middle-aged Black women whose meager paychecks from the state were three months late and who had moved way past the margins of economic survival. Within six years, Shirley and her sisters and brothers in DARE (Direct Action for Rights and Equality) had revamped the state's antiquated payroll system, won nearly $100,000 in back pay and, by 1996, made Rhode Island the only state in the country to offer fully paid health insurance to women who perform the back-breaking work of caring for other people's children. As I spent the next 10 years organizing with them, Shirley and other daycare providers taught me the value of a mother's labor, in all its forms. Looking back on the successes and failures of DARE's Home Daycare Justice Committee and its successor, the Day Care Justice Coop, I see clear lessons for the trade unions that have shown a growing interest in this group of workers.

Department of Labor statistics suggest that there are about 400,000 home-based childcare providers in the United States. Unions have been going after this potentially huge group of workers by putting their tremendous political clout into lobbying efforts to get permission from executive or legislative branches of government to represent them. These campaigns are accompanied by intensive efforts to convince providers to sign up for AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), SEIU (Service Employees International Union) or both.

Family childcare is a tricky occupation to organize under traditional union models. Trade unions in the U.S. are based on an employee/employer form of work. Since daycare providers are technically individual small businesses, unions generally see legal authorization at the state level as necessary to avoid charges of anti-trust activity in collective bargaining. Community organizing approaches to childcare organizing, on the other hand, grow out of traditions like welfare rights or neighborhood organizing, in which poor people of color demand collective redress outside legal structures, often based on notions of moral or social rights. As union organizing efforts take off, the lessons of community organizing could go a long way toward building a powerful movement of family childcare providers.

It's about race. And gender, and how those systems of oppression intersect under capitalism to devalue the labor of women of color. Without that analysis, we get trapped in counterproductive rhetoric about professionalism and quality of care.

While all childcare labor is shaped by the unpaid work of mothering, the experiences of women of color in the field carry the harshest tradition of exploitation. Under plantation slavery, older women were forced to care for the children of younger women, who were put to work in the fields. That history combined with labor economics allow us to translate the atypical work and funding structure of childcare into numbers that everyone can understand-an hourly wage.

A 2002 study published by the Day Care Justice Co-op entitled Mucho Trabajo, Poco Dinero: The Labor Economics of Family Child Care in Rhode Island's Subsidy Program determined that the average wage for family childcare providers working in the state's subsidy program was $2.76 an hour, less than half the minimum wage. Yet none of the legislation or executive orders drafted by unions makes any mention of the actual hourly wage or even the fact that the compensation is dismally low. Exposing the system would debunk the myth of overpaid (read: unionized) public workers. In Rhode Island, public debate did not make this distinction, and opponents of the providers seized on the fact that one of the union's leaders grossed $90,000 a year for her daycare home, a sum that does not reflect paid assistants, substantial operating costs, long hours and an extra 15 percent self-employment tax. Instead of shamefully low wages based on the economy of racism and sexism, the public heard about union fat cats.

In the '90s, financial analysis of childcare work was often made in comparison with pay rates of janitors, sanitation workers and other laborers. The mostly white and college-degreed childcare center workers invariably reacted with indignation that they were paid the same as or less than people who clean toilets or handle trash. The rallying cry went up that "we are professionals and should be paid as such."

A decade later, the very same unions that represent janitors, sanitation workers and other laborers are in danger of falling into the same trap by embracing establishment definitions of "quality" and "professionalism." Iowa's executive order even goes so far as to cite some pretty miserable statistics about the supposed low quality of care the state system currently offers. Aside from the obvious strategic question (are people inspired to put public money into a system when you tell them it sucks?), this line of argument helps fuel a national trend to intensify the industry's racial heirarchy by tying pay rates to subjective "quality" designations. Quality of care becomes the code that makes racial disparities in compensation legitimate.

South African plaintiffs are suing numerous multinational corporations under the American Alien Tort Claims Act for aiding and abetting apartheid's crimes against humanity. This article argues that Re South African Apartheid Litigation should be understood as a cosmopolitan re-membering of the nation. This interpretation runs counter to theoretical and political presumptions of an inherent antagonism between cosmopolitanism and nationhood. The apparent divide between cosmopolitanism and nation-building is bridged by the concept of victimhood. Insofar as nation-building in South Africa depends upon the restoration of victims, so too is cosmopolitanism victim-centered in its commitment to prevent harm and suffering. The apartheid litigants enact the duality of cosmopolitanism: they press for justice on the basis of cosmopolitan right, yet they do so in part because of their continued marginalization in the "new" South Africa with respect to issues of "truth" and reparation. Following on the "unfinished business" of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the apartheid litigation illustrates the intersection of cosmopolitanism with national memory and belonging.

In an action that seeks "justice without borders," South African plaintiffs have filed suit in the United States against numerous multinational corporations for aiding and abetting apartheid's crimes against humanity. The plaintiffs rely upon the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA), which grants universal jurisdiction over "any civil action by an alien for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States" (28 U.S.C. sec. 1350 [1789]). The South African government has steadfastly opposed the litigation on the grounds of national sovereignty and, in particular, that foreign courts "bear no responsibility for the well-being of our country and ... our constitution[al] ... promotion of national reconciliation" (Mbeki 2003: n.p.). Although nation-building in postconflict societies arguably might take place only within the nation, this also provokes the question, "what is a nation?" in an era of economic globalization, legal and moral cosmopolitanism, and transnational violence and injustice. The politics surrounding Re South African Apartheid Litigation (2004) bring this question to the forefront of a long-standing debate between cosmopolitanism and nationhood, which typically presumes an inherent conflict between the two. Contemporary cosmopolitanisms, theorized under the cluster of phenomena known as globalization, draw upon ancient Stoic ideals of world citizenship and Kantian principles of cosmopolitan or universal right. Cosmopolitanism in general upholds the moral dignity and equality of all human beings as individuals, regardless of their culture, nationality, or citizenship. Cosmopolitanism rejects ethnonationalism or unreflective patriotism and urges engagement with the world. It speaks of moral obligations beyond borders and of enforcing minimal standards of decency within borders.

This runs counter to the statist view of international relations. According to the statist view, nation-states are the ultimate source of legal or moral authority, and their integrity is guaranteed by principles of nonintervention and national self-determination (see Fine 2003:452-3). These two principles must be respected for the sake of international peace and because they protect different ways of life amongst nations.1 Nationalists argue that the nation provides the best context in which trust, reciprocity, right, obligation, and political self-determination can take place (see Tan 2002:435-9). This is because co-nationals have historic, political, and territorial ties; shared values and loyalties; and a common identity. A citizen of the world, in contrast, is in fact a citizen of nowhere (see Bowden 2003). Solidarity in the name of general humanity is too abstract to be meaningful. And, critics further charge, the promotion of cosmopolitan universality is inevitably the imposition of somebody else's values.

The principles of nonintervention and national self-determination are both evident in the South African government's opposition to the apartheid litigation. First, in accordance with the statist view of international relations, the South African government objects to the intervention of a foreign court in its supposedly sovereign affairs. On this view, international law ought to recognize only states as legal subjects, whereas cosmopolitan law also recognizes individuals and groups in civil society as legal persons (see Fine 2003:452-3). The ATCA decenters the state. It permits extraterritorial legal action for human rights crimes, and it recognizes individuals and multinational corporations as legal subjects. Moreover, the South African government sees the ATCA as threatening to override domestic constitutional law. This concern leads to the second principle of objection, which is the focus of this article: the fear that external interference will jeopardize South Africa's chosen path toward national unity and reconciliation. Through democratic and constitutional means, South Africa established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and other policies to deal with its apartheid past. The "new" South Africa, so the argument goes, is based on values of reconciliation, reconstruction, and goodwill-and not on the antagonistic, alienating, and retributive values of litigation.

Switching Gears in the Counterinsurgency Fight

The battlefield faced by our Soldiers today can be chaotic, complex and volatile. We are often called upon to operate independently, and we face the challenge of waging a counterinsurgency (COIN) fight that requires the successful and simultaneous accomplishment of two overlapping objectives-to kill the enemy and to win the support of the local population. An ongoing conversation on the CompanyCommand professional forum is focused on how the conduct of COIN operations affects the nature of leadership, and conversely, how leadership, for better or for worse, can impact the COIN fight. As company-level leaders, how do we aggressively kill insurgents yet at the same time win the support of the local population? How do we reconcile the apparent contradiction that is frequently presented by these two objectives? And, how do we help ourselves and our units ramp down emotionally after an intense firefight so that we can interact with the local populace in an effective manner?

This is a timely and relevant issue in the current fight. All Soldiers and junior leaders need training in COIN, to include handling one's emotions when transitioning from the assessment/intelligence collection phase of an operation to making enemy contact and then back again to interacting with people within the immediate area of contact. Listen in as CompanyCommand members share openly about the need to switch gears mentally and emotionally in a COIN environment, and about the importance of training this capability. Company Commander

OIF III

We knew he wasn't going to make it. First Sergeant was there looking at this Soldier as his life was slipping away. That was the first time I've ever felt this intense hatred for all Iraqis. And you have to work through that. The thing that really held me together was I knew my Soldiers were feeling all of the same things. If I'd given the order to destroy every house in that area, they would have done it. The platoon sergeant was bawling. I told him, "You have to hold it together." The thing that gets you through is you are focused on getting everyone else through it. Then when you get back, the world collapses in around you. Like, this has to be a bad dream, but it isn't. You kind of forget a lot of these guys are young kids. These are people you love ... We had a day down and then we were back at it. I talked to my guys, "We are angry but we are professional soldiers. We won't do anything immoral or unethical." You want to deal with that anger, but it would not honor the lives of those men to commit murder in their names.

Jason Pardee

Killer Troop 3/2 ACR

Leaders must understand how to fight a counterinsurgency and get their men to understand it as well. The "kill 'em all" mentality certainly won't help the Army or the United States complete its mission in Iraq or Afghanistan. The ability to understand and get your Soldiers to understand the fact that actions at platoon level can affect things at levels way above the BN, BDE, DIV and even CORPS is key to the COIN fight. Educate yourself on COIN, teach your NCOs and get your NCOs to give classes to your Soldiers.

Michael Eliassen

E Company, 51 st IN (LRS)

What is also important, yet often overlooked, is a cooling off period for Soldiers after an event takes place where you must use force with the enemy. This is important before going right back into a neighborhood when the kids want to play soccer with you. I learned a great lesson over here in 2003 from my old BN CDR; when a vehicle is damaged in an attack, you stay up until it is fixed. That way the psychological impact on the other Soldiers is lessened. It should be the same way with Soldiers who are in a raid or an attack that produces casualties of the friendly, enemy or LN persuasion; you mentally "repair" them so they are not spreading an unwanted emotional charge throughout your unit.

Jonathan Dunn

Killer Troop 3/2 ACR

Killing the insurgents is certainly the 25 meter target, and most tend to equate "winning the hearts and minds" as the 300 meter target. However, it is probably better described as the 25, 50, 100, 200 and 300 meter targets-it is a continuous objective. More to the point, it is the more important objective, because it is what will ultimately bring success. Contrary to what many junior soldiers think, it can actually enhance our ability to kill insurgents through the increased cooperation of the local population, their indifferent neutrality, or at a minimum, less active opposition towards us. I think a lot of it comes down to basic leadership, in that you must set the example and know your subordinates. You should be able to know which soldiers are more apt to be weaker at emotional control, based on off-hand comments, prior engagements and actions, etc. First and foremost, we need to provide tough, realistic training with scenarios that replicate going from "hot" (high intensity) scenarios to "cold" ones. This can and is currently being done at the combat training centers (JRTC, NTC, CMTC) right now as they prepare units for deployment. This addresses the tactical problem and can be trained extensively, both at home station and at the CTCs. However, it only addresses half of the problem, and quite bluntly, the easier half of the problem. The more difficult aspect, and also much more difficult to train, is the emotional side. At the end of the day, one's ability to "wear two faces" is dependent on the ability to control one's emotions. We can never truly replicate one's battle buddy being wounded or killed, nor of course would we want to. However, we need to be able to throw "emotional challenges" at ourselves and our soldiers. Here, the limit is truly our own imagination.