Reed Elsevier....making Zombies through education! Rock on monopolistic capitalistic zombies.

Note: some of you who read my blog have read this on the forums. Same thing, exactly.

If you are in college, or have been in the last decade, you will recognize these names:

Reed Elsevier and Thompson Learning.

What you don't know is that this is a massive industry that literally controls who and what is researched and written and how much that information costs your college institutions.

Education should not be about commerce. Yes, in a free economy these coporations have a right to promote the sale of thier products, but have you thought as to why the prices of education have SOARED and in many places triped? Its not because your teachers and colleges are earning more money, it is because these companies control your education, which textbooks you purchase, and nearly all scholarly journals. Freedom of speech = freedom of education, and yet these companies are never criticised by the governments or education centers. WHY is that?

Because Reed Elsevier is everything:

directly from http://www.reed-elsevier.com/index.cfm?articleid=65

four of Reed Elsevier's divisions are global, and each of them focuses on a specific market for professional information: Science & Medical, Legal, Education and Business. We hold a number one or two position in all of our key markets, with strong brands, content and market reach in each.
Science and Medical

Elsevier is the world's largest provider of science and health information, Elsevier serves more than 30 million scientists, students, and health and information professionals worldwide. Elsevier is committed to making genuine contributions to the science and health communities.
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Legal

LexisNexis is a leading provider of information and services solutions, including its flagship Web-based Lexis and Nexis research services, to a wide range of professionals in the legal, risk management, corporate, government, law enforcement, accounting and academic markets. LexisNexis serves customers in 100 countries with 13,000 employees worldwide.
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Education

Harcourt Education, Reed Elsevier's global Education division, is a leading international educational publishing company serving the Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 12 Education (pre-K-12) market. It also provides educational and psychological testing in the US, the UK and France.
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Business

Reed Business, Reed Elsevier's global Business division, is a provider of magazines, exhibitions, online media, directories and marketing services across five continents. Its prestige brands serve professionals across a diverse range of industries.

Now, why isn't reed considered a MONOPOLY?????


Because they are smart enough to work with Thompson Learning.

Thomspon Learning controls the following http://www.thomson.com/solutions/solutions/

WAY TOO MUCH TO LIST HERE

So why is this a problem???????????

Simba Information shows the market reaching nearly fifty-five billion dollars in the 2002 US market, global information on the professional information sales market was unavailable at the time of this report (Simba 1999). Trends in information purchases, particularly in education, business and medical information markets increase each year (Simba 1999). Customer’s such as “ARL libraries spend well over $100 million a year on Reed Elsevier products” however, critics of the professional information market state that the larger online companies lead to a deterioration in customer service (Poyder pp 5 2001). Competition in the large-scale professional information market is limited to a few corporations, namely Thomson’s Learning (2006), although there are smaller competitors such as Dow Jones, Reuters, McGraw-Hill and Hoover’s (Poyder 2001). The market power exists between the two largest companies as Reed Elsevier and Thomson (Poyder 2001). So, while there are diverse professional information markets available, the largest amount of seller power rests with Thomson Learning and Reed Elsevier. Although Reed Elsevier is a competitor, it can not be included at a threat to Thomson. The companies have a history of bilateral communication that includes Thomson purchase percentages of Reed’s multiple businesses and have comparable price increase trends (Poyder 2001). The real threat to Thomson is the UK and US justice departments who believe the companies are purposefully creating and establishing a monopoly (Poyder 2001).

WHEN OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM BECOMES A CAPITALIST ECONOMY CONTROLLED BY A MONOPOLY, THERE WILL BE A LARGER DIVISION BETWEEN THE EDUCATED UPPER CLASS AND THE WORKING POOR CLASS.

Now here is something really, really scary. A simple PESTLE analysis of REED, I have bolded the important parts.

Political
Current political pressure for paid-per publishing professional market is increasing. Critics of professional publishers like Reed Elsevier, Thomson Learning, and McGraw Hill state that “the scientific community should abandon seeking publication in journals of the type that Reed owns in favour of the “open-source” model, in which authors pay to have their research made public” (Sarbagh pp 2). Further criticism comes from Toulouse University and the Free University of Brussels for the EC, whose research criticises that “Scientific research funded by the European taxpayer should be freely available to everyone over the internet” (Wray pp 1 2006). Other political pressure stems from the proposed monopoly, where Reed has been accused of being unethical in its acquisitions and creating monopolies that charge high and possibly unjustifiable fees to libraries and researchers (Nicholson 2000).

Economic

Economically, Reed is supported by government grants and educational facility purchases as well as private and corporate funds. The Science and Health markets are very strong, and proposed to increase as these industries expect continuous growth in research and publishing (Reed 2006). The corporate professional publishing market is also increasing, particularily in legal contracts, risk management and patent applications (Reed 2006). The education market has experienced a slump due to weak textbook markets stemming from supplemental publishers (Reed 2006). Business information markets are performing well with strong demands in online sales for business information, market trends, and other professional market analysis research papers (Reed 2006). The economic foundations are particularily strong, and expected to continue to increase as the world focuses on the science and heatlh markets, corporate risk management and business analysis markets as well as legal publication markets. Because Reed is a global organisation with multiple approaches, they must focus (at the corporate level) on the globalised market. This is a mainstay of Reed’s viable economy, and the trends in production and profit continue to play a positive role in the company’s overall well being.

Sociological
The global economy and global business societies are increasingly present as individuals from different nations with different cultural orientations rely on professional publications to analyse, research and develop. For example, a company in China may want to gain a patent on a product, and research a US based medical facility, all of which are possible through Reed Elsevier. Reed can be considered to exist beyond country and continental lines because nearly all of their products are available online, which shows that Reed has envisioned a world view for their products and services. Reed is under external pressure to provide a consistently global and culturally accepting environment between various nations and differing peoples. Without the ability to do so, the company would be under fire from media, government and corporate stakeholders.

Technological

The use of information systems infrastructure by industrial and service companies may be a source of competitive advantage for innovative and knowledge-based companies. The management of knowledge plays an outstanding role in any interdisciplinary actions of Reeds and in the development of technology-based companies. Reed must be prepared to address new technologies, innovate old technologies, while maintaining high quality of product and service.

Legal

Government regulations offer very weak mechanisms for value representation and virtually no support to communication processes that create win/win situations where multiple stakeholders—including shareholders—can successfully pursue their mutual interests. In addition to various national and international regulations, there are many more rules that stem either from regional or local governments or industry oversight committees. The end result is that Reed must juggle multiple sets of regulations on local and international levels while maintaining industry-specific regulations. To name a few of the regulatory boards must comply with SOX, GLBA, German Signatory Law, and the EU Data Protection Directive—not to mention industry-specific and SEC regulations.

Environmental

The globalisation of economic life has resulted in a highly mobile international business environment and a corresponding need for safe, transparent, efficient, user-friendly and reliable means to facilitate international business travel and temporary stay abroad. The environmental mobility of Reed’s business personnel on an international level for activities requires concerted international attention and co-operation to provide for a safe environment.

YOU WANT TO KNOW SOMETHING REALLY SCARY?????

Reed Elsevier hosts arms fairs and gun sales to foreign countries, even those which are known to harbor terrorists.

www.reedexpo.com

"It was announced on Friday 1st June that Reed Elsevier will pull out of the arms trade and will no longer organise arms fairs around the world. The decision follows a high-profile campaign, coordinated by CAAT, which highlighted the incompatibility of Reed's involvement in the arms trade and their position as the number one publisher of medical and science journals and other publications." http://www.caat.org.uk/campaigns/reedelsevier.php

DO YOU BELIEVE REED? I DON'T.

Arrows Crossed, Poem

Been waaaaaaaaaaay busy lately, getting published in some magazines, ect. ect. Yay! I'm getting there, which is pretty cool for a high school teenage mom drop out. Took me a bit longer since I'll be the EVIL 30 this year.

As always, friends, be kind and be blessed.

I hope your lives are all going great, and thanks Michelle (of Crow's Feet blog link to your right) for adding me to your top 8! You are a doll!

Anyways, here is a quick poem I wrote for a D & D ranger my son was playing a while back.

Arrows Crossed

The last sign of life

Crossed my rocky path

And flittered out of sight

I drew my arrow

Swift and narrow

And struck into the sky

I crossed the earth

Searching for my worth

But found only my sword

The last of my heart

Gave a fleeting beat

And left to the night

Wow a whole week went by

And I didn't post once! Thats horrible of me, dear friends!

OK so my man's sister gave us her old couch, which is way better than our 1970 flowery couch. So we took everything out of the living room so I could vacuum before putting in the new-old couch...and then my vacuum cleaner broke. In plumes of smoke, I threw the damned thing outside. Then I swept the carpet, and that was a bitch.

Right now I'm washing up all the laundry from the attic and closets that don't fit anyone, then I'm going to bag them up and take them to the Mission for donation.

I went to my daughter's 5th grade production of The Emporers New Clothes and it was so cute! Had a lot of fun and finally got to meet my nephew's foster mom, she's a cool lady. Her and I had a few minutes to chat, and like me, she feels that the best help I could have given my sister is by helping her get sober and stay sober. Otherwise, like his foster mom said, if I took my nephew (I can, I'm registered for foster care) then my sister wouldn't have the resources to care for herself and get sober so we both think that this way will work out best to stabalize them as a family. So, my family is kind of irritated with me for not taking my nephew and "letting" him go into foster care, but I think I made the right choice. I'd rather sponsor my sister to getting back to where she can keep her kid than take the kid and not have them be a family.

Oh, and my sister is pregnant right now, due in November.

I'm just frustrated because over the last 4 months of my sister living here, she has not done more than 4 loads of dishes. She cleaned the bathroom once. Its very irksome when I have several adults in this house and yet I have to remind people when things need to be done. Then they still don't get done and I have to throw a fit about it. So I always wind up being the household bitch. I don't really care though, I freaking work for two magazines, so I am basically holding down one full time job and one part time job. Its exhausting. Even though I am in the house and not out working, it still feeds, clothes, and pays all of my bills.

Its been such a month of work that I haven't had much time to update this blog, or really do all that much at all. So, that adds a bit more to my frustration because it is hard to find time for the writing that I enjoy, like my poetry and my fiction. And since I use my poetry/fiction to release all my own demons and frustration and generally just vent how irritated I am, I become more irritated and bitchy.

Oh, and I'm menstrating. So, now I'm like, 3 x's the bitch I normally am. I almost feel sorry for my kids and my man and my sister and her fiance--actually I really only feel sorry for my kids, but then again, not really. Thier bedroom looks like Lucifer himself came down and threw a party. It's the gateway to Hell, I swear.

Speaking of, www.scifinity.com is going to be showcasing one of my short science fictions soon. Cool website run by some very fun and friendly dudes. Great art, some cool stories and poems. Check it out if you get a chance.

Good Early Afternoon

My house is very quiet right now, and I can't think of anything interesting to say.
I have things to do, and I'm not really up for doing them any way.
So, I'm writing all this nonsense, which may be irritating you---in that case, go away.
Then again, if you're really bored, you can just read and stay.

: P

Hope you all have a blessed weekend!

Kids are fishing with my dad, my man's at his friends, so I'm just chillin'!