Ford motors and counterfeiting in the chinese automotive industry

Ford motors and counterfeiting in the chinese automotive industry Ford Motor Company (Ford) is an auto company that manufactures and sells autos and parts globally. Similar to many other corporations, Ford has invested manufacturing efforts in China, because China is now the worlds largest auto manufacturer and auto market. Given this huge opportunity, there are numerous companies looking to reap financial profits by producing counterfeit parts. The global counterfeit auto parts market was estimated at $16 billion in 2008  [i]  . For Ford, counterfeiting not only represents lost financial sales but also brand degradation and product liability risks. While robust growth in auto sales may be fueling the fake components market, the battle against manufacturers and distributors of counterfeit auto parts, specifically Ford auto parts is not new. Ford has been waging an ongoing aggressive campaign against counterfeiters since the early 1980s. Despite its efforts, there continues to be a battle as according to the automaker, counterfeit and pirated auto parts remains a problem that is putting the publics safety at risk and costing about $1 billion US annually. Since joining the WTO, the Chinese government has been placing increasing emphasis on intellectual property rights (IPR) to help encourage foreign investment in the country. However the strength of these IP laws and enforcement has not been robust as penalties are weak and do not deter counterfeiters. As Ford continues to invest and grow within China, we propose the following recommendations to address the counterfeiting issue. First, Ford should refine its internal firm strategies through security packaging innovations and a certification process, increasing education to consumers, aligning employee incentives through benefits and penalties, and continuing with the inspections. Next, Ford needs to pursue external political and legal strategies with key stakeholders, such as the industry coalition, insurance partners, the Chinese government, and the WTO. These strategies should focus on aligning incentives to develop more robust policies around counterfeiting penalties and enforcement. 2 Overview of the Counterfeit Automotive Industry in China For decades, piracy and counterfeiting problems have affected the economy. The global market for counterfeit car parts is estimated to be worth approximately $16 billion USD in 2008 (which accounts for roughly 3.2% of the global counterfeit market) and is growing roughly 9-11% per year.  [ii]  As the counterfeiting and piracy market is becoming more and more attractive to organized crime (it offers similar profits with a significantly lower probability of prosecution and penalties), criminals are making significant investments in counterfeiting. Counterfeiting and piracy activities have flourished in developing economies and gradually diminish as emerging markets achieve higher levels of prosperity and global integration. Today, industrial counterfeiting and piracy run rampant throughout emerging markets such as China. It is in fact, the worlds largest offender of IP theft and industrial piracy. According to MEMA, China is responsible for the exportation of 80% of the counterfeit goods seized at U.S. borders.  [iii]  The E.U. also estimates that 5-10% of all replacement auto parts in circulation are counterfeit.  [iv]  Furthermore, a recent study by the Commercial Times found that 56% of auto users in China have found counterfeit parts on their vehicles. Several unique characteristics make the Chinese market distinct from other counterfeiting regions. With Chinas sheer size and growing integration into the global supply chain, counterfeiting and piracy issues originating from this region have become a global problem (affecting not only local Chinese companies but also multi-nationals). Given significant socioeconomic disparities among different regions within China, the progression and convergence towards a middle income will likely be slower, fostering an environment in which counterfeiting and piracy will thrive for the foreseeable future. Furthermore, Chinas customs and traditions have historically accepted industrial piracy further stimulating growth. As the counterfeit market in China grows, increased investment has allowed counterfeiters to strengthen the sophistication of their operation. Counterfeiters now have inside information on new vehicles and specification changes before the new car is even on the market. Counterfeiters can produce exact copies of products, packaging and documentation and sell it under a competing brand name. In 2004, General Motors (GM) filed a lawsuit against Chinas Chery Automobile Company for the alleged piracy of its Spark vehicle to create a replica branded Cherys QQ. GM showed that the two vehicles were nearly identical with respect to exterior body, interior design and key components. (See Exhibit 1). In a study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Coalition against Counterfeiting and Piracy, counterfeit part sales are costing Ford about $1 billion per year. However, it is the physical dangers and risks associated with using or installing counterfeit parts that may be the most costly. Counterfeit auto parts are a huge consumer safety problem with serious potential to injure auto technicians and end-consumers. In addition to severe financial and safety implications, counterfeiting destroys the brand reputation of legitimate companies. Legitimate companies are often blamed or brought to court to take responsibility for the negative repercussions of counterfeit products. With China surpassing the U.S. to become the worlds largest auto market (achieving sales growth of 46% to 13.6 million), it will be difficult for auto original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to ignore the Chinese market particularly since by entering the Chinese market, significant advantages may be leveraged (e.g. inexpensive labor, rapidly growing emerging market).  [v]  Currently, roughly 800 foreign auto parts suppliers operate in China, including most of the top 50 multi-nationals. And as the Chinese auto market continues to grow, instances of IP theft are likely to increase as well. It will become even more important for large multi-nationals such as Ford to take action and to protect itself from IP risks. 3 Impact of Counterfeiting and Piracy on Ford Motor Company in China A Background on Ford Motor Company in China Ford began manufacturing autos in the early 20th century. With $146.3 billion in revenues in 2008, Ford is now one of the worlds largest makers of cars and trucks. Its brands include Ford, Lincoln and Mercury and Ford receives more than half of its sales outside of North America.  [vi]   In the Asia-Pacific region, Ford operates under several investment holding companies including Ford Motor (China) Co., Ltd., Ford Motor Research Engineering (Nanjing) Co., Ltd., Ford Automotive Finance (China) Co., Ltd., Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co., Ltd., Changan Ford Mazda Engine Co., Company and Jiangling Motor (Stock) Co., Ltd. Roughly 9% of 2008 global sales may be attributed to the Asia-Pacific region which includes China. Ford sold slightly more than 300,000 units in China in 2008 and 2009 sales exceeded 440,000 vehicles (annual growth of 32%).  [vii]  In China, Ford has several joint ventures including joint ventures with Jiangling Motors Corp and Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co. These joint ventures provide it with three shared production platforms in China and also share factories in Nanjing and Chongqing. With China overtaking the U.S. as the worlds largest auto market last year, Chinese auto factories are running at full capacity. According to Ford, the two facilities it has with Changan Automobile Co. will not be able to accommodate expected future demand based on current growth expectations. Accordingly, it plans to open a $490 million factory in Chongqing in 2012, producing up to 150,000 vehicles per year and increasing total capacity to 600,000.  [viii]   B Detailed Assessment of the Political and Legal Issues Relating to the Counterfeit Auto Industry I Overview of the Political Landscape in China Although China has moved from a centrally planned economy to a market-oriented one, the Communist Party of China (CPC) still maintains political power. Having a one-party system makes the CPC susceptible to civil unrest that could threaten its power and, as a result, the CPC has been hesitant to take action that threatens local economies for fear of unrest. But as an emerging country with the worlds third largest economy on the frontier, China is struggling to balance the need to support local economies with a growing need to protect IP rights for both multinationals and domestic firms. Yet despite a reputation for considerable corruption, demonstrated by its 2009 corruption perception index score of 3.6, and a ruling CPC that often ignores counterfeiting since it supports many local economies, China still manages to attract multinationals such as Ford due to its potential for new customers and windfall profits.  [ix]   China and the World Trade Organization (WTO) Admitted to the WTO in 2001, China agreed to implement various measures that would liberalize its trade regime. Among these measures was the WTOs Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (the TRIPS Agreement). This agreement guards against counterfeit products by addressing minimum standards of IPRs protection, domestic procedures and remedies for enforcement of these rights, and dispute settlement procedures among WTO members.  [x]  However, despite these IPR protections, counterfeiting still represents about 8% of Chinas $10 trillion economy.  [xi]   To address this growing problem, in 2007 the U.S. asked the WTO to intervene, claiming that Chinas enforcement of IPR laws was so weak that it failed to limit the production of counterfeit products. Specifically, the U.S. argued that weak penalties for infringers and Chinas practice of allowing counterfeiters to sell goods seized by Chinese customs officials, provided that the fake labels were removed, provided little financial incentive for counterfeiters to cease production.  [xii]  In 2009 the WTO ruled that China breached trade rules by ignoring piracy and counterfeiting, yet it upheld Chinas criminal law on IPR; without strengthening Chinas criminal law and enforcement of IPR, it is likely that counterfeiting will continue to be problematic.  [xiii]   Conflicting Incentives for the Chinese Government Despite Chinas laws that aim to protect IPR, the Chinese government faces opposing incentives in cracking down on counterfeiters. Specifically, China must balance the economic benefits local economies enjoy from counterfeit products with the growing need to protect the IPR of foreign and domestic companies.  [xiv]  Because counterfeiting supports many local economies and millions of people, any crackdown on counterfeiting could result in serious economic losses. As this action would not be well-received, Chinese politicians are even less apt to prosecute counterfeiters or focus on strengthening enforcement of IPR laws. On the other hand, China must strengthen these laws and enforcement mechanisms if it hopes to continue attracting multinationals.  [xv]  However, many multinationals are so intent on entering the Chinese market, given its sheer size and potential profitability, that they are willing to operate in an environment with little IPR protection. As a result, the Chine se government has very little incentive to crack down on counterfeiters or greatly strengthen enforcement of IPR laws. Fords Risks in China and its Current Strategies Given this political landscape, Ford faces considerable risk in China. With three assembly plants in China, Ford has already encountered problems with counterfeit parts, claiming that counterfeiting costs the company $2 billion a year in sales.  [xvi]  Exhibit 2 Despite some multinationals willingness to live with Chinas lax IP protection, Ford has taken steps to protect against the growing problem of counterfeit auto parts and vehicles. Specifically, Ford has been using undercover intelligence to identify counterfeit producers and raid Chinese factories.  [xvii]  While these raids have prevented thousands of counterfeit products from entering the market, penalties still remain weak; the few offenders sentenced to prison can reduce their terms for $30 a day.  [xviii]  Despite Fords efforts and commitment to protecting its brand, this weak enforcement discourages any meaningful lawsuits and provides little deterrence to counterfeiters. Ford must develop strategies to work with the U.S. and Chinese governments to better protect against counterfeit products. II Overview of Intellectual Property Rights in China Chinas Current IP Environment Since joining the WTO, the Chinese government has been placing increasing emphasis on IPR to help encourage foreign investment in the country. Most recently, the Chinese State Council established a task force known as the Intellectual Property Executive Conference to look into IP-related issues. Chinas new auto policy released this year stresses the need to protect the intellectual rights of auto companies and bans the sale of auto products that violate these protections. China is also a party to many international agreements to protect IP (including the World Intellectual Property Organization and Paris Convention, among others). For example, China joined the Madrid Protocol in 1995, which requires reciprocal trademark registration for member countries, which now include the United States.  [xix]   The Chinese government has also established special IP courts to handle cases of IPR infringement more efficiently. In addition to having these specialized courts in some cities and provinces, Beijing, Shanghai and Tianjin have also established IP courts within the Intermediate Peoples Court. In 1992, the Supreme Peoples Court established an IP division as well. This increase in the legal systems capacity to handle alleged IP theft has been used to facilitate highly publicized campaigns, including activities such as raids and educational programs. Enforceability of IP Laws China has made significant progress on the legal and regulatory front, but despite stronger statutory protections, IP theft remains a major problem, as evidenced by the widespread existence of counterfeit products.  [xx]  In reality, IP laws are rarely enforced, and it is even rarer that those who are caught stealing, cheating, counterfeiting and pirating go to jail. Because China is a large country with some political decentralization, enforcing IP laws and regulations in China is a major challenge.  [xxi]   Several institutional factors undermine the enforcement of IP laws, including Chinas reliance on administrative instead of criminal measures to combat IPR violations, corruption, local protectionism, limited resources and training available to enforcement officials, and lack of public education regarding the economic and social impact of counterfeiting and piracy. At the most basic level, without adequate education with regard to IPR, there is little awareness that infringement is a crime. Furthermore, the fragmented nature of political authority in China and, more specifically, decentralized corruption exacerbates the lack of enforcement. For example, when counterfeiters have connections with local government or law enforcement officials, this may provide an easy cover for their counterfeiting activity. Local officials may create obstacles during investigations and assist local counterfeiters by letting them hide their production lines in safe places. Chinas fragmented legal system contributes to the problem as well. Protection of IP in China follows a two-track system. The first and most prevalent is the administrative track, whereby an IPR holder files a complaint at the local administrative office. The second is the judicial track, whereby complaints are filed through the court system. However, determining which IP agency has jurisdiction over an act of infringement can be confusing. Jurisdiction of IP protection is diffused throughout a number of government agencies and offices, with each typically responsible for the protection afforded by one statute or one specific area of IP-related law. There may be geographical limits or conflicts posed by one administrative agency taking a case, involving piracy or counterfeiting that also occurs in another region. Chinas courts also have rules regarding the scope of potential orders. In most cases, administrative agencies cannot award compensation to a rights holder. They can, however, fine the infringer, seize goods or equipment used in manufacturing products, and/or obtain information about the source of goods being distributed. China was also required to provide IP remedies through criminal enforcement for commercial scale piracy and counterfeiting, under the enforcement provisions of TRIPs. Chinas laws and regulations stipulate that IP administrative authorities and Customs may transfer egregious IP infringement cases to police and prosecutors for initiating criminal investigation. However, despite these criminal provisions, most IP cases continued to be handled through the administrative system. Foreign rights holders have considerably less success in encouraging criminal prosecution of IPR violations. When jail sentences are handed down, Ford officials in Taiwan say that those few offenders sentenced to prison can reduce their terms for $30 per day. Lawsuits are also often a waste of time, due to local protectionism. In 2003, Toyota lost a closely watched case in China against the countrys biggest private carmaker whose brand logo was nearly identical to Toyotas.  [xxii]  In the end, although interna tional pressure may have succeeded in getting Beijing to establish IPR laws and regulations, the enforcement of IP, as with most policy in China, falls within the domain of Chinas complex bureaucracies and local government officials. Outsourcing vs. Ford manufacturing To operate in China, Ford had to form a joint venture with a quasi-governmental partner: Changan Ford Mazda Automobile Co. in China.  [xxiii]  Fords other partner in China, Jiangling Motors Corp., makes commercial vehicles, including the popular Ford Transit van.  [xxiv]  These joint ventures are one of the biggest risks automakers face as they expand in China due to the danger of IPRs violations. The Chinese made no secret that part of their strategy in forming joint ventures was to begin to learn about the auto industry and how they can produce cars. Ford produces all of their vehicles in their own three plants in the country. However, they now source many of their component parts, which increases the risk of counterfeiting since the company has transferred production of certain parts from their own plants to third-party operations in China and India.  [xxv]  There are other issues that come with operating in a rapidly developing country. In China, factories are at risk of unscheduled shutdowns because of power shortages. Ford also faces political risk. Although the danger of nationalization or outright confiscation of Fords assets may not be high, China may not always have the best interests of foreign multinationals at heart. Despite these concerns, Ford is not shying away from the fast-growing Chinese auto market. Ford currently operates two plants in China, and it broke ground for a $490 million plant in September of 2009. The factory will make the next-generation Focus compact car, which Ford plans to sell globally. Its current plant in Chongqing makes the Ford Focus, Ford Mondeo and Ford S-MAX. Its plant in Nanjing, in eastern China, makes the Ford Fiesta.  [xxvi]   In order to set up operations in China, Ford was also required to establish research and development facilities alongside its manufacturing operations to help build the countrys technical know-how. Ford has taken steps to boost their Chinese design capabilities, which also benefits domestic Chinese companies. For example, Fords China design team is putting its own spin on the upcoming Ford Fiesta (tailored for the Chinese market). Fords Current Strategies Fighting counterfeiters is a key priority at Ford, and it has stepped up countermeasures worldwide. Ford, GM, and DaimlerChrysler formed a global industry network in 2001 to work with law enforcement agencies and governments to strengthen patent and trademark protection laws and impose criminal penalties to prevent counterfeiting.  [xxvii]  The problem is especially acute in the Middle East, where many counterfeit Ford parts made in China are shipped and sold alongside genuine parts.  [xxviii]   Ford admits it was late in its efforts to protect its IPR abroad. However, the company is now very active and has even established its own brand protection team. The unit has led a number of raids, which have led to prosecutions. Ford recently raided a Chinese factory and turned up 7,000 sets of counterfeit brake pads destined for Egypt, each stamped with a replica of Fords blue oval. A legitimate set of pads would cost the equivalent of $47 in Egypt; the phony ones might cost $30.  [xxix]   Furthermore, as a brand Ford is trying to make everything as sophisticated as possible. It has security features in the parts packaging itself and spends time on brand awareness and training exercises so people can better identify fakes. The company says this is critical to long term public awareness and stopping sales of counterfeit products.  [xxx]   III Overview of Product Liability Product Liability All auto manufacturers, including Ford, are exposed to product liability lawsuits related to the sale of autos or parts to the public, especially in litigious countries. Ford has the most exposure in the U.S. given the extremely litigious environment and its large sales. According to the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability a user or bystander in the U.S. can sue for injuries related to a defect or malfunction of the product, and, in some instances, a defective design or a failure to warn. Even though Ford does not manufacture and sell the counterfeit Ford parts it increases its exposure if the parts are believed to be manufactured by Ford and then cause accidents and injuries. Ford could be sued and incur substantial attorneys fees and possibly even settlement costs. Ford would then have to prove that the product was not manufactured or sold by them, and even if Ford is successful it will still face attorneys fees, damage to its brand, and wasted corporate resources. Product Liability History and Severity Product liability lawsuits can take years to defend, result in millions of dollars of fees and settlements, and severely damage a brand. Ford has faced product liability lawsuits in the past such as the Ford Pinto case in the 1970s that cost it millions and the Ford Explorer rollover related lawsuits in the 2000s. Ford manufactured the Pinto throughout the 70s and due to a faulty gas tank the cars often caught fire during rear-end collisions. The most notable Ford Pinto case (versus Grimshaw) cost Ford $6.5 million in 1981.  [xxxi]  Ford has faced many other product liability lawsuits throughout its history. Fords Current Strategies Ford recognizes its exposure to insurable risks including product liability related to the manufacture and sale of autos and parts. Given the critical nature of risk management Ford maintains a Global Risk Management Committee (GRMC) that makes risk related decisions and is headed by the Chief Financial Officer. Ford chooses to manage and protect against product liability risks through a combination of self-insurance and product liability insurance.  [xxxii]  The self-insurance is typically in the form of a calculated monetary fund setup to may attorneys and claims. The product liability insurance would provide Ford with attorney support and claims/settlement payments in the event of an insurable claim. Ford also has a Sustainability, Environment Safety Engineering (SESE) Team that works to prevent faulty products from being sold and to ensure Ford complies with safety and environmental regulations. They also provide technical analysis to corporate counsel on product liability lawsuits when needed.  [xxxiii]   Finally, Ford has created a Global Brand Protection group to protect consumers from counterfeit products threatening user safety. This group is tasked with: preventing the distribution of and removing counterfeit parts from the marketplace, ensuring that the companys trademarks are used appropriately, and maintaining the integrity of the sale and distribution of original equipment parts.  [xxxiv]   4 Recommendations China has quickly become the worlds largest auto maker, surpassing the US in 2009  [xxxv]  . Due to its immense scale and rapid growth rates, China is an important strategic market for Ford from a production and sales perspective. Despite the political and legal issues and risks Ford faces in China, the company cannot simply withdraw its operations from China. Ford must engage in market and non-market strategies to help manage the counterfeit problem in this market. Recommendation 1: Refine Internal Firm Strategies As mentioned previously Ford has started to invest in internal strategies, such as raids and setting up the Brand Protection Group, to help address counterfeiting. We recommend that Ford continue to refine these strategies as well as incorporate additional internal firm tactics. From a product perspective, Ford has noted that there are security features in the packaging of the auto parts and that consumers should use reputable dealers and repairers, inspect parts and packaging closely in case they spot something and if they are concerned to ask that only original parts are used or call the auto maker.  [xxxvi]  We recommend that Ford continue to invest in its packaging to help dealers, repair shops, and consumers detect fake products. The company could consider implementing a certification program where only legitimate Ford plants and OEMs are able to put a Pre-Approved by Ford label on its products. Additionally Ford needs to employ efforts to minimize spare factory capacity in these production facilities and to increase monitoring from U.S. Ford managers. In conjunction with product-related tactics, Ford needs to educate its customers (e.g. dealers, auto-body shops) and end-consumers and bring this issue to light. Because counterfeiting auto and auto parts drastically affects consumer safety, Fords customers and consumers should have a strong commitment to help prevent counterfeiting once they are aware of the issue. These educational efforts can be spearheaded by the Global Branding Team and be implemented in various public relations and marketing efforts. Most consumers may not be aware that counterfeit autos and auto parts exist and are responsible for associated safety risks. One campaign can highlight how counterfeit auto parts can lead to injuries and fatalities. The campaign can then empower consumers to ask for Ford parts only when having their autos repaired. This will encourage customers to seek out Fords legitimate replacement parts and be wary of counterfeit products. Ford also should implement tactics to educate and incent their employees, critical stakeholders. In conjunction with educating consumers, the Global Branding Team can utilize the same resources to educate its employees. This knowledge can help increase employees commitment to prevent counterfeiting and can also create a culture of pride related to high quality production and safety. Ford ca

Zoe’s Tale PART II Chapter Fourteen

â€Å"No, you're still too low,† I said to Gretchen. â€Å"It's making you flat. You need to be a note higher or something. Like this.† I sang the part I wanted her to sing. â€Å"I am singing that,† Gretchen said. â€Å"No, you're singing lower than that,† I said. â€Å"Then you're singing the wrong note,† Gretchen said. â€Å"Because I'm singing the note you're singing. Go ahead, sing it.† I cleared my throat, and sang the note I wanted her to sing. She matched it perfectly. I stopped singing and listened to Gretchen. She was flat. â€Å"Well, nuts,† I said. â€Å"I told you,† Gretchen said. â€Å"If I could pull up the song for you, you could hear the note and sing it,† I said. â€Å"If you could pull up the song, we wouldn't be trying to sing it at all,† Gretchen said. â€Å"We'd just listen to it, like civilized human beings.† â€Å"Good point,† I said. â€Å"There's nothing good about it,† Gretchen said. â€Å"I swear to you, Zoe. I knew coming to a colony world was going to be hard. I was ready for that. But if I knew they were going to take my PDA, I might have just stayed back on Erie. Go ahead, call me shallow.† â€Å"Shallow,† I said. â€Å"Now tell me I'm wrong,† Gretchen said. â€Å"I dare you.† I didn't tell her she was wrong. I knew how she felt. Yes, it was shallow to admit that you missed your PDA. But when you'd spent your whole life able to call up everything you wanted to amuse you on a PDA – music, shows, books and friends – when you had to part with it, it made you miserable. Really miserable. Like â€Å"trapped on a desert island with nothing but coconuts to bang together† miserable. Because there was nothing to replace it with. Yes, the Colonial Mennonites had brought their own small library of printed books, but most of that consisted of Bibles and agricultural manuals and a few â€Å"classics,† of which Huckleberry Finn was one of the more recent volumes. As for popular music and entertainments, well, they didn't much truck with that. You could tell a few of the Colonial Mennonite teens thought it was funny to watch the rest of us go through entertainment withdrawal. Didn't seem very Christian of them, I have to say. On the other hand, they weren't the ones whose lives had been drastically altered by landing on Roanoke. If I were in their shoes and watching a whole bunch of other people whining and moaning about how horrible it was that their toys were taken away, I might feel a little smug, too. We did what people do in situations where they go without: We adjusted. I hadn't read a book since we landed on Roanoke, but was on the waiting list for a bound copy of The Wizard of Oz. There were no recorded shows or entertainments but Shakespeare never fails; there was a reader's theater performance of Twelfth Night planned for a week from Sunday. It promised to be fairly gruesome – I'd heard some of the read-throughs – but Enzo was reading the part of Sebastian, and he was doing well enough, and truth be told it would be the first time I would have ever experienced a Shakespeare play – or any play other than a school pageant – live. And it's not like there would be anything else to do anyway. And as for music, well, this is what happened: Within a couple days of landing a few of the colonists hauled out guitars and accordions and hand drums and other such instruments and started trying to play together. Which went horribly, because nobody knew anyone else's music. It was like what happened on the Magellan. So they started teaching each other their songs, and then people showed up to sing them, and then people showed up to listen. And thus it was, at the very tail end of space, when no one was looking, the colony of Roanoke reinvented the â€Å"hootenanny.† Which is what Dad called it. I told him it was a stupid name for it, and he said he agreed, but said that the other word for it – â€Å"wingding† – was worse. I couldn't argue with that. The Roanoke Hootenanners (as they were now calling themselves) took requests – but only if the person requesting sang the song. And if the musicians didn't know the song, you'd have to sing it at least a couple of times until they could figure out how to fake it. This led to an interesting development: singers started doing a cappella versions of their favorite songs, first by themselves and increasingly in groups, which might or might not be accompanied by the Hootenanners. It was becoming a point of pride for people to show up with their favorite songs already arranged, so everyone else in the audience didn't have to suffer through a set of dry runs before it was all listenable. It was safe to say that some of these arrangements were more arranged than others, to put it politely, and some folks sang with the same vocal control as a cat in a shower. But now, a couple of months after the hootenannies had begun, people were beginning to get the hang of it. And people had begun coming to the hoots with new songs, arranged a cappella. One of the most popular songs at the recent hoots was â€Å"Let Me Drive the Tractor† – the tale of a colonist being taught to drive a manual tractor by a Mennonite, who, because they were the only ones who knew how to operate noncomputerized farm machinery, had been put in charge of planting crops and teaching the rest of us how to use their equipment. The song ends with the tractor going into a ditch. It was based on a true story. The Mennonites thought the song was pretty funny, even though it came at the cost of a wrecked tractor. Songs about tractors were a long way from what any of us had been listening to before, but then, we were a long way from where any of us were before, in any sense, so maybe that fit. And to get all sociological about it, maybe what it meant was that twenty or fifty standard years down the line, whenever the Colonial Union decided to let us get in contact with the rest of the human race, Roanoke would have its own distinct musical form. Maybe they'll call it Roanokapella. Or Hootenoke. Or something. But at this particular moment, all I was trying to do was to get the right note for Gretchen to sing so she and I could go to the next hoot with a halfway decent version of â€Å"Delhi Morning† for the Hootenanners to pick up on. And I was failing miserably. This is what it feels like when you realize that, despite a song being your favorite of maybe all time, you don't actually know every little nook and cranny of it. And since my copy of the song was on my PDA, which I could no longer use or even had anymore, there was no way to correct this problem. Unless. â€Å"I have an idea,† I said to Gretchen. â€Å"Does it involve you learning to sing on key?† Gretchen asked. â€Å"Even better,† I said. Ten minutes later we were on the other side of Croatoan, standing in front of the village's information center – the one place on the entire planet that you'd still find a functioning piece of electronics, because the inside was designed to completely block any radio or other signals of any sort. The technology to do this, sadly, was rare enough that we only had enough of it for a converted cargo container. The good news was, they were making more. The bad news was, they were only making enough for a medical bay. Sometimes life stinks. Gretchen and I walked into the receiving area, which was pitch black because of the signal-cloaking material; you had to close the outer door to the information center before you could open the inner door. So for about a second and a half it was like being swallowed by grim, black, featureless death. Not something I'd recommend. And then we opened the inner door and found a geek inside. He looked at the both of us, a little surprised, and then got that no look. â€Å"The answer is no,† he said, confirming the look. â€Å"Aw, Mr. Bennett,† I said. â€Å"You don't even know what we're going to ask.† â€Å"Well, let's see,† said Jerry Bennett. â€Å"Two teenage girls – daughters of the colony leaders, incidentally – just happen to walk into the only place in the colony where one could play with a PDA. Hmmm. Are they here to beg to play with a PDA? Or are they here because they enjoy the company of a chunky, middle-aged man? This is not a hard question, Miss Perry.† â€Å"We just want to listen to one song,† I said. â€Å"We'll be out of your hair in just a minute.† Bennett sighed. â€Å"You know, at least a couple times a day someone just like you gets the bright idea to come in here and ask if I could just let them borrow a PDA to watch a movie, or listen to some music or read a book. And, oh, it'll just take a minute. I won't even notice they're there. And if I say yes, then other people will come in asking for the same time. Eventually I'll spend so much time helping people with their PDAs that I won't have time to do the work your parents, Miss Perry, have assigned me to do. So you tell me: What should I do?† â€Å"Get a lock?† said Gretchen. Bennett glanced over to Gretchen, sourly. â€Å"Very amusing,† he said. â€Å"What are you doing for my parents?† I asked. â€Å"Your parents are having me slowly and painstakingly locate and print every single Colonial Union administration memo and file, so they can refer to them without having to come in here and bother me,† Bennett said. â€Å"In one sense I appreciate that, but in a more immediate sense I've been doing it for the last three days and I'm likely to be doing it for another four. And since the printer I have to work with jams on a regular basis, it does actually require someone to pay attention to it. And that's me. So there you have it, Miss Perry: Four years of technical education and twenty years of professional work have allowed me to become a printer monkey at the very ass end of space. Truly, my life's goal has been achieved.† I shrugged. â€Å"So let us do it,† I said. â€Å"I beg your pardon,† Bennett said. â€Å"If all you're doing is making sure the printer doesn't jam, that's something we could do for you,† I said. â€Å"We'll work for you for a couple of hours, and in exchange you let us use a couple of PDAs while we're here. And then you can do whatever else you need to do.† â€Å"Or just go have lunch,† Gretchen said. â€Å"Surprise your wife.† Bennett was silent for a minute, considering. â€Å"Offering to actually help me,† he said. â€Å"No one's tried that tactic before. Very sneaky.† â€Å"We try,† I said. â€Å"And it is lunchtime,† Bennett said. â€Å"And it is just printing.† â€Å"It is,† I agreed. â€Å"I suppose if you mess things up horribly it won't be too bad for me,† Bennett said. â€Å"Your parents won't punish me for your incompetence.† â€Å"Nepotism working for you,† I said. â€Å"Not that there will be a problem,† Gretchen said. â€Å"No,† I agreed. â€Å"We're excellent printer monkeys.† â€Å"All right,† Bennett said, and reached across his worktable to grab his PDA. â€Å"You can use my PDA. You know how to use this?† I gave him a look. â€Å"Sorry. Okay.† He punched up a queue of files on the display. â€Å"These are files that need to go through today. The printer is there† – he motioned to the far end of the worktable – â€Å"and the paper is in that bin. Feed it into the printer, stack the finished documents next to the printer. If it jams, and it will, several times, just yank out the paper and let it autofeed a new one. It'll automatically reprint the last page it was working on. While you're doing that you can sync up to the Entertainment archive. I downloaded all those files into one place.† â€Å"You downloaded everyone's files?† I asked, and felt ever so slightly violated. â€Å"Relax,† Bennett said. â€Å"Only public files are accessible. As long as you encrypted your private files before you turned in your PDA, like you were told to, your secrets are safe. Now, once you access a music file the speakers will kick on. Don't turn them up too high or you won't be able to hear the printer jam.† â€Å"You have speakers already set up?† Gretchen asked. â€Å"Yes, Miss Trujillo,† Bennett said. â€Å"Believe it or not, even chunky middle-aged men like to listen to music.† â€Å"I know that,† Gretchen said. â€Å"My dad loves his.† â€Å"And on that ego-deflating note, I'll be off,† Bennett said. â€Å"I'll be back in a couple of hours. Please don't destroy the place. And if anyone comes in asking if they can borrow a PDA, tell them the answer is no, and no exceptions.† He set off. â€Å"I hope he was being ironic there,† I said. â€Å"Don't care,† Gretchen said, and grabbed for the PDA. â€Å"Give me that.† â€Å"Hey,† I said, holding it away from her. â€Å"First things first.† I set up the printer, queued the files, and then accessed â€Å"Delhi Morning.† The opening strains flowed out of the speakers and I soaked them in. I swear I almost cried. â€Å"It's amazing how badly you remembered this song,† Gretchen said, about halfway though. â€Å"Shhhhh,† I said. â€Å"Here's that part.† She saw the expression on my face and kept quiet until the song was done. Two hours is not enough time with a PDA if you haven't had access to one in months. And that's all I'm going to say about that. But it was enough time that both Gretchen and I came out of the information center feeling just like we'd spent hours soaking in a nice hot bath – which, come to think of it, was something that we hadn't done for months either. â€Å"We should keep this to ourselves,† Gretchen said. â€Å"Yes,† I said. â€Å"Don't want people to bug Mr. Bennett.† â€Å"No, I just like having something over everyone else,† Gretchen said. â€Å"There aren't a lot of people who can carry off petty,† I said. â€Å"Yet somehow you do.† Gretchen nodded. â€Å"Thank you, madam. And now I need to get back home. I promised Dad I'd weed the vegetable garden before it got dark.† â€Å"Have fun rooting in the dirt,† I said. â€Å"Thanks,† Gretchen said. â€Å"If you were feeling nice, you could always offer to help me.† â€Å"I'm working on my evil,† I said. â€Å"Be that way,† Gretchen said. â€Å"But let's get together after dinner tonight to practice,† I said. â€Å"Now that we know how to sing that part.† â€Å"Sounds good,† Gretchen said. â€Å"Or will, hopefully.† She waved and headed off toward home. I looked around and decided today would be a good day for a walk. And it was. The sun was up, the day was bright, particularly after a couple of hours in the light-swallowing information center, and Roanoke was deep into spring – which was really pretty, even if it turned out that all the native blooms smelled like rotten meat dipped in sewer sauce (that description courtesy of Magdy, who could string together a phrase now and then). But after a couple of months, you stop noticing the smell, or at least accept there's nothing you can do about it. When the whole planet smells, you just have to deal with it. But what really made it a good day for a walk was how much our world has changed in just a couple of months. John and Jane let us all out of Croatoan not too long after Enzo, Gretchen, Magdy and I had our midnight jog, and the colonists had begun to move into the countryside, building homes and farms, helping and learning from the Mennonites who were in charge of our first crops, which were already now growing in the fields. They were genetically engineered to be fast-growing; we'd be having our first harvest in the not too far future. It looked like we were going to survive after all. I walked past these new houses and fields, waving to folks as I went. Eventually I walked past the last homestead and over a small rise. On the other side of it, nothing but grass and scrub and the forest in a line to the side. This rise was destined to be part of another farm, and more farms and pastures would cut up this little valley even further. It's funny how even just a couple thousand humans could start to change a landscape. But at the moment there was no other person in it but me; it was my private spot, for as long as it lasted. Mine and mine alone. Well, and on a couple of occasions, mine and Enzo's. I laid back, looked up at the clouds in the sky, and smiled to myself. Maybe we were in hiding at the farthest reaches of the galaxy, but right now, at this moment, things were pretty good. You can be happy anywhere, if you have the right point of view. And the ability to ignore the smell of an entire planet. â€Å"Zoe,† said a voice behind me. I jerked up and then saw Hickory and Dickory. They had just come over the rise. â€Å"Don't do that,† I said, and got up. â€Å"We wish to speak to you,† Hickory said. â€Å"You could do that at home,† I said. â€Å"Here is better,† Hickory said. â€Å"We have concerns.† â€Å"Concerns about what?† I said, and rose to look at them. Something wasn't quite right about either of them, and it took me a minute to figure out what it was. â€Å"Why aren't you wearing your consciousness modules?† I asked. â€Å"We are concerned about the increasing risks you are taking with your safety,† Hickory said, answering the first but not the second of my questions. â€Å"And with your safety in a general sense.† â€Å"You mean, being here?† I said. â€Å"Relax, Hickory. It's broad daylight, and the Hentosz farm is just over the hill. Nothing bad is going to happen to me.† â€Å"There are predators here,† Hickory said. â€Å"There are yotes,† I said, naming the dog-sized carnivores that we'd found lurking around Croatoan. â€Å"I can handle a yote.† â€Å"They move in packs,† Hickory said. â€Å"Not during the day,† I said. â€Å"You do not only come here in the day,† Hickory said. â€Å"Nor do you always come alone.† I reddened a bit at that, and thought about getting angry with Hickory. But it wasn't wearing its consciousness. Getting angry with it wouldn't do anything. â€Å"I thought I told the two of you not to follow me when I want to have some private time,† I said, as evenly as I could. â€Å"We do not follow you,† Hickory said. â€Å"But neither are we stupid. We know where you go and with whom. Your lack of care is putting you at risk, and you do not always allow us to accompany you anymore. We cannot protect you as we would prefer to, and are expected to.† â€Å"We have been here for months, guys.† I said. â€Å"There hasn't been a single attack on anyone by anything.† â€Å"You would have been attacked that night in the woods had Dickory and I not come to find you,† Hickory said. â€Å"Those were not yotes in the trees that night. Yotes cannot climb or move through trees.† â€Å"And you'll notice I'm nowhere near the forest,† I said, and waved in the direction of the tree line. â€Å"And whatever was in there doesn't seem to come out here, because we'd have seen them by now if they did. We've been over this before, Hickory.† â€Å"It is not only the predators here that concern us,† Hickory said. â€Å"I'm not following you,† I said. â€Å"This colony is being searched for,† Hickory said. â€Å"If you saw the video, you'll remember that this Conclave group blasted that colony from the sky,† I said. â€Å"If the Conclave finds us, I don't think even you are going to be able to do much to protect me.† â€Å"It is not the Conclave we are concerned about,† Hickory said. â€Å"You're the only ones, then,† I said. â€Å"The Conclave is not the only one who will seek this colony,† Hickory said. â€Å"Others will search for it, to win favor from the Conclave, or to thwart it, or to take the colony for its own. They will not blast this colony from the sky. They will take it in the standard fashion. Invasion and slaughter.† â€Å"What is with the two of you today?† I said. I was trying to lighten the mood. I failed. â€Å"And then there is the matter of who you are,† Hickory said. â€Å"What does that mean?† I said. â€Å"You should know well,† Hickory said. â€Å"You are not merely the daughter of the colony leaders. You are also important to us. To the Obin. That fact is not unknown, Zoe. You have been used as a bargaining chip your entire life. We Obin used you to bargain with your father to build us consciousness. You are a treaty condition between the Obin and the Colonial Union. We have no doubt that any who would attack this colony would try to take you in order to bargain with the Obin. Even the Conclave could be tempted to do this. Or they would kill you to wound us. To kill a symbol of ourselves.† â€Å"That's crazy,† I said. â€Å"It has happened before,† Hickory said. â€Å"What?† I said. â€Å"When you lived on Huckleberry, there were no fewer than six attempts to capture or kill you,† Hickory said. â€Å"The last just a few days before you left Huckleberry.† â€Å"And you never told me this?† I asked. â€Å"It was decided by both your government and ours that neither you nor your parents needed to know,† Hickory said. â€Å"You were a child, and your parents wished to give you as unremarkable a life as possible. The Obin wished to be able to provide them that. None of these attempts came close to success. We stopped each long before you would have been in danger. And in each case the Obin government expressed its displeasure with the races who made such attempts on your well-being.† I shuddered at that. The Obin were not people to make enemies of. â€Å"We would not have told you at all – and we have violated our standing orders not to do so – were we not in our current situation,† Hickory said. â€Å"We are cut off from the systems we had in place to keep you safe. And you are becoming increasingly independent in your actions and resentful of our presence in your life.† Those last words hit me like a slap. â€Å"I'm not resentful,† I said. â€Å"I just want my own time. I'm sorry if that hurts you.† â€Å"We are not hurt,† Hickory said. â€Å"We have responsibilities. How we fulfill those responsibilities must adapt to circumstance. We are making an adaptation now.† â€Å"I don't know what you mean,† I said. â€Å"It is time for you to learn how to defend yourself,† Hickory said. â€Å"You want to be more independent from us, and we do not have all the resources we once had to keep you safe. We have always intended to teach you to fight. Now, for both of those reasons, it is necessary to begin that training.† â€Å"What do you mean, teach me to fight?† I asked. â€Å"We will teach you to defend yourself physically,† Hickory said. â€Å"To disarm an opponent. To use weapons. To immobilize your enemy. To kill your enemy if necessary.† â€Å"You want to teach me how to kill other people,† I said. â€Å"It is necessary,† Hickory said. â€Å"I'm not sure John and Jane would approve of that,† I said. â€Å"Major Perry and Lieutenant Sagan both know how to kill,† Hickory said. â€Å"Both, in their military service, have killed others when it was necessary for their survival.† â€Å"But it doesn't mean that they want me to know,† I said. â€Å"And also, I don't know that I want to know. You say you need to adapt how you fulfill your responsibilities. Fine. Figure out how to adapt them. But I'm not going to learn how to kill something else so you can feel like you're doing a better job doing something I'm not even sure I want you to do anymore.† â€Å"You do not wish us to defend you,† Hickory said. â€Å"Or learn to defend yourself.† â€Å"I don't know!† I said. I yelled it in exasperation. â€Å"Okay? I hate having my face pushed into all of this. That I'm some special thing that needs to be defended. Well, you know what? Everyone here needs to be defended, Hickory. We're all in danger. Any minute hundreds of ships could show up over our heads and kill us all. I'm sick of it. I try to forget about it a little every now and then. That's what I was doing out here before the two of you showed up to crap over it all. So thank you very much for that.† Hickory and Dickory said nothing to that. If they had been wearing their consciousness, they'd probably be all twitchy and overloaded at that last outburst. But they were just standing there, impassive. I counted to five and tried to get myself back under control. â€Å"Look,† I said, in what I hoped was a more reasonable tone of voice. â€Å"Give me a couple of days to think about this, all right? You've dropped a lot on me all at once. Let me work it through in my head.† They still said nothing. â€Å"Fine,† I said. â€Å"I'm heading back.† I brushed past Hickory. And found myself on the ground. I rolled and looked up at Hickory, confused. â€Å"What the hell?† I said, and made to stand up. Dickory, who had moved behind me, roughly pushed me back into the grass and dirt. I scrambled backward from the two of them. â€Å"Stop it,† I said. They drew their combat knives, and came toward me. I grunted out a scream and bolted upright, running at full speed toward the top of the hill, toward the Hentosz farm. But Obin can run faster than humans. Dickory flanked me, got in front of me, and drew back its knife. I backpedaled, falling backward as I did. Dickory lunged. I screamed and rolled again and sprinted back down the side of the hill I came up. Hickory was waiting for me and moving to intercept me. I tried to fake going left but it was having none of it, and grabbed for me, getting a grip on my left forearm. I hit at it with my right fist. Hickory deflected it easily, and then in a quick reversal slapped me sharply on the temple, releasing me as it did so. I staggered back, stunned. Hickory looped a leg around one of mine and jerked upward, lifting me completely off the ground. I fell backward and landed on my head. A white blast of pain flooded my skull, and all I could do was lie there, dazed. There was heavy pressure on my chest. Hickory was kneeling on me, immobilizing me. I clawed desperately at it, but it held its head away from me on its long neck and ignored everything else. I shouted for help as loudly as I could, knowing no one could hear me, and yelling anyway. I looked over and saw Dickory, standing to the side. â€Å"Please,† I said. Dickory said nothing. And could feel nothing. Now I knew why the two of them came to see me without their consciousness. I grabbed at Hickory's leg, on my chest, and tried to push it off. It pushed it in harder, offered another disorienting slap with one hand, and with the other raised it and then plunged it toward my head in one terrible and fluid move. I screamed. â€Å"You are unharmed,† Hickory said, at some point. â€Å"You may get up.† I stayed on the ground, not moving, eyes turned toward Hickory's knife, buried in the ground so close to my head that I couldn't actually focus on it. Then I propped myself up on my elbows, turned away from the knife, and threw up. Hickory waited until I was done. â€Å"We offer no apology for this,† it said. â€Å"And will accept whatever consequences for it that you may choose. Know only this: You were not physically harmed. You are unlikely even to bruise. We made sure of this. For all of that you were at our mercy in seconds. Others who will come for you will not show you such consideration. They will not hold back. They will not stop. They will have no concern for you. They will not show you mercy. They will seek to kill you. And they will succeed. We knew you would not believe us if we only told you this. We had to show you.† I rose to my feet, barely able to stay upright, and staggered back from the two of them as best I could. â€Å"God damn you,† I said. â€Å"God damn you both. You stay away from me from now on.† I headed back to Croatoan. As soon as my legs could do it, I started running. â€Å"Hey,† Gretchen said, coming into the information center and sealing the inside door behind her. â€Å"Mr. Bennett said I could find you here.† â€Å"Yeah,† I said. â€Å"I asked him if I could be his printer monkey a little more today.† â€Å"Couldn't keep away from the music?† Gretchen said, trying to make a little joke. I shook my head and showed her what I was looking at. â€Å"These are classified files, Zoe,† she said. â€Å"CDF intelligence reports. You're going to get in trouble if anyone ever finds out. And Bennett definitely won't let you back in here.† â€Å"I don't care,† I said, and my voice cracked enough that Gretchen looked at me in alarm. â€Å"I have to know how bad it is. I have to know who's out there and what they want from us. From me. Look.† I took the PDA and pulled a file on General Gau, the leader of the Conclave, the one who ordered the destruction of the colony on the video file. â€Å"This general is going to kill us all if he finds us, and we know next to nothing about him. What makes someone do this? Killing innocent people? What happened in his life that gets him to a place where wiping out entire planets seems like a good idea? Don't you think we should know? And we don't. We've got statistics on his military service and that's it.† I tossed the PDA back on the table, carelessly, alarming Gretchen. â€Å"I want to know why this general wants me to die. Why he wants us all to die. Don't you?† I put my hand on my forehead and slumped a little against the worktable. â€Å"Okay,† Gretchen said, after a minute. â€Å"I think you need to tell me what happened to you today. Because this is not how you were when I left you this afternoon.† I glanced over at Gretchen, stifled a laugh, and then broke down and started crying. Gretchen came over to give me a hug, and after a good long while, I told her everything. And I do mean everything. She was quiet after I had unloaded. â€Å"Tell me what you're thinking,† I said. â€Å"If I tell you, you're going to hate me,† she said. â€Å"Don't be silly,† I said. â€Å"I'm not going to hate you.† â€Å"I think they're right,† she said. â€Å"Hickory and Dickory.† â€Å"I hate you,† I said. She pushed me lightly. â€Å"Stop that,† she said. â€Å"I don't mean they were right to attack you. That was just over the line. But, and don't take this the wrong way, you're not an ordinary girl.† â€Å"That's not true,† I said. â€Å"Do you see me acting any different than anyone else? Ever? Do I hold myself out as someone special? Have you ever once heard me talk about any of this to people?† â€Å"They know anyway,† Gretchen said. â€Å"I know that,† I said. â€Å"But it doesn't come from me. I work at being normal.† â€Å"Okay, you're a perfectly normal girl,† Gretchen said. â€Å"Thank you,† I said. â€Å"A perfectly normal girl who's had six attempted assassinations,† Gretchen said. â€Å"But that's not me,† I said, poking myself in the chest. â€Å"It's about me. About someone else's idea of who I am. And that doesn't matter to me.† â€Å"It would matter to you if you were dead,† Gretchen said, and then held her hand up before I could respond. â€Å"And it would matter to your parents. It would matter to me. I'm pretty sure it would matter to Enzo. And it seems like it would matter a whole lot to a couple billion aliens. Think about that. Someone even thinks about coming after you, they bomb a planet.† â€Å"I don't want to think about it,† I said. â€Å"I know,† Gretchen said. â€Å"But I don't think you have a choice anymore. No matter what you do, you're still who you are, whether you want to be or not. You can't change it. You've got to work with it.† â€Å"Thanks for that uplifting message,† I said. â€Å"I'm trying to help,† Gretchen said. I sighed. â€Å"I know, Gretchen. I'm sorry. I don't mean to bite your head off. I'm just getting tired of having my life be about other people's choices for me.† â€Å"This makes you different than any of the rest of us how, exactly?† Gretchen asked. â€Å"My point,† I said. â€Å"I'm a perfectly normal girl. Thank you for finally noticing.† â€Å"Perfectly normal,† Gretchen agreed. â€Å"Except for being Queen of the Obin.† â€Å"Hate you,† I said. Gretchen grinned. â€Å"Miss Trujillo said that you wanted to see us,† Hickory said. Dickory and Gretchen, who had gotten the two Obin for me, stood to its side. We were standing on the hill where my bodyguards had attacked me a few days earlier. â€Å"Before I say anything else, you should know I am still incredibly angry at you,† I said. â€Å"I don't know that I will ever forgive you for attacking me, even if I understand why you did it, and why you thought you had to. I want to make sure you know that. And I want to make sure you feel it.† I pointed to Hickory's consciousness collar, secure around its neck. â€Å"We feel it,† Hickory said, its voice quivering. â€Å"We feel it enough that we debated whether we could turn our consciousness back on. The memory is almost too painful to bear.† I nodded. I wanted to say good, but I knew it was the wrong thing to say, and that I would regret saying it. Didn't mean I couldn't think it, though, for the moment, anyway. â€Å"I'm not going to ask you to apologize,† I said. â€Å"I know you won't. But I want your word you will never do something like that again,† I said. â€Å"You have our word,† Hickory said. â€Å"Thank you,† I said. I didn't expect they would do something like that again. That sort of thing works once if it works at all. But that wasn't the point. What I wanted was to feel like I could trust the two of them again. I wasn't there yet. â€Å"Will you train?† Hickory asked. â€Å"Yes,† I said. â€Å"But I have two conditions.† Hickory waited. â€Å"The first is that Gretchen trains with me.† â€Å"We had not prepared to train anyone other than you,† Hickory said. â€Å"I don't care,† I said. â€Å"Gretchen is my best friend. I'm not going to learn how to save myself and not share that with her. And besides, I don't know if you've noticed, but the two of you aren't exactly human shaped. I think it will help to practice with another human as well as with you. But this is nonnegotiable. If you won't train Gretchen, I won't train. This is my choice. This is my condition.† Hickory turned to Gretchen. â€Å"Will you train?† â€Å"Only if Zoe does,† she said. â€Å"She's my best friend, after all.† Hickory looked over to me. â€Å"She has your sense of humor,† it said. â€Å"I hadn't noticed,† I said. Hickory turned back to Gretchen. â€Å"It will be very difficult,† it said. â€Å"I know,† Gretchen said. â€Å"Count me in anyway.† â€Å"What is the other condition?† Hickory asked me. â€Å"I'm doing this for the two of you,† I said. â€Å"This learning to fight. I don't want it for myself. I don't think I need it. But you think I need it, and you've never asked me to do something you didn't know was important. So I'll do it. But now you have to do something for me. Something I want.† â€Å"What is it that you want?† Hickory asked. â€Å"I want you to learn how to sing,† I said, and gestured to Gretchen. â€Å"You teach us to fight, we teach you to sing. For the hootenannies.† â€Å"Sing,† Hickory said. â€Å"Yes, sing,† I said. â€Å"People are still frightened of the two of you. And no offense, but you're not brimming with personality. But if we can get the four of us to do a song or two at the hootenannies, it could go a long way to making people comfortable with you.† â€Å"We have never sung,† Hickory said. â€Å"Well, you never wrote stories before either,† I said. â€Å"And you wrote one of those. It's just like that. Except with singing. And then people wouldn't wonder why Gretchen and I are off with the two of you. Come on, Hickory, it'll be fun.† Hickory looked doubtful, and a funny thought came to me: Maybe Hickory is shy. Which seemed almost ridiculous; someone about to teach another person sixteen different ways to kill getting stage fright singing. â€Å"I would like to sing,† Dickory said. We all turned to Dickory in amazement. â€Å"It speaks!† Gretchen said. Hickory clicked something to Dickory in their native tongue; Dickory clicked back. Hickory responded, and Dickory replied, it seemed a bit forcefully. And then, God help me, Hickory actually sighed. â€Å"We will sing,† Hickory said. â€Å"Excellent,† I said. â€Å"We will begin training tomorrow,† Hickory said. â€Å"Okay,† I said. â€Å"But let's start singing practice today. Now.† â€Å"Now?† Hickory said. â€Å"Sure,† I said. â€Å"We're all here. And Gretchen and I have just the song for you.†

Literature During the Early Period (1900-1930) Essay

The twentieth century ushered in the development of Filipino literature in English. Weeks after the capitulation of Manila, the U.S. Military Government was set up and, almost seven schools were re-opened as a necessary strategy to promote the pacification of the Philippines and the dissemination of common culture. English was first taught merely as a subject because the Spanish system of education then existing in the Philippines was allowed to continue. In April 1900, by virtue of President McKinley’s directives of the Philippine Commission, English became the official medium of instruction in the public schools. In order to accelerate the pacification drive, schools were established in all parts of the Philippines. The early teachers were taken in directly from the army. To augment the small number of American teachers, the Philippine Normal School, now Philippine Normal University, was founded in 1902 to train Filipinos in the art of teaching and eventually take charge of elementary education. In the same year, the Army transport, Thomas, brought six hundred American teachers to the Philippines who replaced the soldiers as teachers. They introduced to the Filipinos English and American literature in the form of works written by Irving, Chaucer, Milton, Donne, Shakespeare, Emerson, Hawthorn, Poe, Longfellow, Bryant, Keats, Shelley, Coleridge, Lamb, Joyce, Tennyson, Macaulay, and other famous writers. These were the writers w ho became the models of the early Filipino writers in English. At first, Filipino writing in English was quite formal and imitative, thus, the common reference to this period was known as Apprentice period. Influences from the Spanish language could be seen in the use of Spanish expressions and in ornate style. Grammatical expression were at times awkward and there was difficulty in the use of prepositions and pronouns. The first thirty years of Philippine literature in English produced little in the fields of drama and novel. Drama was hardly written, because vernacular plays and zarzuela still dominated the stage. The plays produced  were highly emotional, not intellectual experiences. The short stories produced during this period were either romantic tales of the past with legendary figures or were imitations of plots or themes taken from American and other sources. The most significant short story produced during the period was â€Å"Dead Stars† by Paz Marquez Benitez. Poetry was dominated by naà ¯ve sentimental love lyrics written in a loose rhetoric without much intellectual significance and overblown to achieve intensity. Verbal exuberance made the poems bombastic, artificial and insincere. The essay took a form similar to that utilized by British and American writers, but because the essay is a free form of composition, it soon developed its own personality. The Philippine essay in English is less inhibited by requirements inherent in other literary genres. It matured earlier in the favourable milieu and successfully projected Philippine customs and traditions. However, most critics agree that the early literary output in English can be considered definitely commendable. It can be favourably compared to the Colonial Period of American Literature in relation to English literature of those times. Footnote to Youth Jose Garcia Villa Dodong, who is 17 years old wanted to marry Teang. He wanted to go home so that he could tell his father and ask for his permission. At first, he was hesitant of saying it, but he wanted him to know. For Dodong, he is a well-grown man and can handle things like marriage. When he told his father about it, a long silence surrounded the house. His father asked him if he must marry because he was still young. But Dodong resented his father’s question, and finally was being permitted to get married. After 9 months, Teang gave birth to their first son named Blas. All of a sudden, Dodong felt guilty and ashamed to his mother because of becoming a father at a very young age. But when he saw his child, he could not control the happiness in him. Dodong did not want any more children, but he could not help them from coming. For six consecutive years, a new child came along. There were seven children in all. Teang did not complain even though she secretly regretted being married at an early age. She was very thin and shapeless now because of bearing many children and the hard work of taking care of them as well as the household. Sometimes, she wondered if she would have the same life if Lucio, her other suitor who was nine years older than Dodong, was the one she married. But she loved Dodong. Lucio got married after Teang’s marriage to Dodong, but he was childless until now. When Blas turns 18, he told his father, Dodong, that he wants to marry Tona. Dodong did not want his son to marry yet because he was young and Dodong already knew what comes next to it. Dodong did not object, but tried to make his son think twice before rushing to marriage. He does not want Blas to end up like him.

Whats Wrong With Grass-Fed Beef

Although the production of feedlot beef is widely recognized as environmentally irresponsible, few people question the environmental impact of grass-fed beef. What many fail to recognize is that feedlots and other factory farming practices began because there was no other efficient way to produce large quantities of meat, eggs, and milk. Grass-fed beef may seem better because we are not wasting farmland to grow corn for the cattle to eat, but raising grass-fed cattle is not environmentally sustainable. Land Use Proponents of grass-fed beef argue that raising cows in pastures is more sustainable than raising cows in feedlots, but a cow in a pasture requires more land on which to live and does not grow as quickly as a grain-fed cow in a feedlot. The only way we can have cows grazing on vast pastures is if the majority of Americans do not eat grass-fed beef. If the practice cannot be scaled up and applied to hundreds of millions of people, it is not a sustainable solution to feedlot beef. The U.S. alone has 94.5 million cattle. One farmer estimates that it takes 2.5 to 35 acres of pasture, depending on the quality of the pasture, to raise a grass-fed cow. Using the more conservative figure of 2.5 acres of pasture, this means we need approximately 250 million acres to create grazing pastures for every cow in the U.S. Thats over 390,000 square miles, which is more than 10% of all the land in the U.S. While we might romantically imagine cattle being set out to graze previously unused grasslands, the fact is that the Amazon rainforest is being deforested to create grazing pastures for free-range, grass-fed organic beef. Allowing animals to scatter over a wide area also increases the number of resources required to manage the herd. Rounding up the animals, transporting the animals and protecting the animals from predators require more resources than managing cows in a feedlot. Also, allowing the cattle into more wild areas means that more predators - coyotes, bears, wolves and cougars - will be killed in an effort to protect ranching interests. â€Å"Marginal† Land Some proponents of grass-fed beef argue that cattle could be raised on â€Å"marginal† lands – lands that cannot be used for growing crops but can be used for growing grasses – so that the cows are not taking land away from human food production. Again, this is an infeasible solution. If the land is marginal, it will not be the high-quality pasture that can support a cow on a mere 2.5 acres. We are likely looking at the high end of the acreage estimate and would require 35 acres per cow, requiring approximately 3.5 billion acres of marginal land in which to raise 94.5 million grass-fed cows. This is 5.5 million square miles, more than the entire area of the United States. 50% more Greenhouse Gases Nathan Pelletier of Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia estimates that pasture-raised beef results in 50% more greenhouse gasses than feedlot beef. Because the cows fatten up more slowly on grass, they eat more grass, emit more methane and nitrous-oxide than they would if they were eating grain in a feedlot. Also, most of those vast pastures are enhanced with fertilizers. Public Lands and Displacement of Wildlife Even where plentiful grasslands already exist, the cows will displace other animals and cause wildlife deaths. Predators are killed to protect grazing livestock. Wild horses are rounded up and sometimes killed because they compete with livestock for grass on public lands. The fences put up by cattle ranchers on public lands restrict the movement of wildlife, making it difficult for them to find food and water. Where cattle congregate at riverbanks, their waste pollutes the water and threatens the fish. While ranchers pay for the right to graze their cattle on public lands, the amounts paid do not cover all of the costs. All American taxpayers subsidize cattle being raised on public lands, as well as factory farmed animal products. We don’t need more cows grazing on public lands; we need fewer cows. Grass-Fed is Still Crop-Fed Grass-fed cattle must eat crops when grass is unavailable in the winter or during droughts. The crops will consist of hay and grasses, but will still take land away from the production of crops that could be fed to people directly. What is the Solution to Feedlot Beef? Feeding plants to animals to produce meat is not only a violation of the animals’ rights to be free, but also very inefficient and environmentally harmful. Whether the cows eat corn in a feedlot or grass in a pasture, the production of beef is environmentally destructive. The solution is to not eat beef, or any animal products, and to go vegan.