A VICTORY FOR HUMANITY

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

“Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity.” Horace Mann

In my early years I was handed down a pretty powerful concept: One day your life will review in a flash before your eyes . . . make sure it’s worth watching. We were encouraged to pursue ideas of personal responsibility and accountability. Our mom even gathered us around her in the evenings and read to us stories of character growth and development. We were expected to make the days of our lives count for something good.

Because our mom was a school teacher and principal for most of her life, we heard about another educator named Horace Mann. Some of the effects the man had on standardized education were controversial. But over all, he left an indelible imprint on the American educational system that was positive and enduring. Horace Mann was born May 4, 1796, in Massachusetts. His frugal, rural upbringing taught Horace characteristics of self-reliance and independence. Between the years of ten to twenty, Horace had no more than six weeks' schooling during any year. But he took advantage of the new, local libraries. Eventually, he graduated from Brown University, went on to law school and was admitted to the Massachusetts legal bar.

Mann became involved in Massachusetts politics and the development of the state’s public school system. At the time, American educators were fascinated by German educational trends. In 1843, Mann traveled to Germany to observe their educational system. Upon his return to the United States, he lobbied heavily to have the "Prussian model" adopted, arguing that universal public education was the best way to turn the nation's unruly children into disciplined and judicious citizens.

Building a person's character, Horace felt, was just as important as reading, writing, and arithmetic. By instilling values such as obedience to authority, promptness in attendance, and organizing time according to bell-ringing helped students prepare for future employment. He also developed the “normal schools” that specialized in training teachers. Most historians treat Mann as one of the most important and beneficial influences of educational reform in early America. He died while serving as president of Antioch College. He certainly lived out his own admonition to win some victory for humanity before you die and if his life did indeed flashed before his eyes before he died, his life was certainly worth watching!
In the city of Owerri in Imo State, Nigeria, Project C.U.R.E. became involved in an educational and humanitarian opportunity to win a victory for humanity that could not be ignored. Honorable Ike Ibe, the Nigerian Ambassador to the United States, traveled from Washington, DC to Denver, Colorado, in 2003. The trip was to specifically request help from Project C.U.R.E. In 2000, King Eze A.N. Onyeka had already made me a Royal African Chief, “Chief Uzoma of Nkume People,” at a ceremony in Nigeria. Now, the country needed help. “We desperately need to relocate the university medical teaching hospital to Owerri, in Imo State. We have enough resources to build the buildings, but we have no way of furnishing the facility with beds, medical equipment, or supplies. We simply need everything to put inside a teaching hospital! Will you please help us?”

After assessing the request, Project C.U.R.E. agreed to help them. Over the months, we processed and shipped nearly eight million dollars’ worth of desperately needed medical goods to the new University Teaching Hospital in Owerri. A huge miracle was taking place. In the late summer, I received word from Ambassador Ike Ibe that I should make plans to return to Owerri on November 30, 2004, for the grand celebration and commissioning of the beautiful, new hospital. Everyone who was important in that area of Africa would be attending. The president of Nigeria would be there, as would his cabinet, the governors, the university officials, and the tribal kings and royal chiefs. I would need to bring my royal chief regalia and be prepared to celebrate a modern miracle.

I arrived in Lagos and was flown to Port Harcourt, then escorted by car to the city of Owerri, in Imo State. The evening before the day of celebration, the president of Nigeria hosted a lovely dinner at the hotel ballroom. The next morning my hosts arranged for me to view the new teaching hospital by myself. They escorted me through the front doors and into the beautiful reception rooms and down each hallway of the hospital. They were afraid that if they made me wait until the president and his entourage and all the press toured the facility, they would not have time to personally show me and properly thank Project C.U.R.E. for the impossible miracle.

As I walked through each room and hallway, I was overwhelmed with emotion and a deep sense of satisfaction and gratitude. Immediately, I began to spot pieces of medical equipment and shelves loaded with supplies that had once been in our Project C.U.R.E. warehouses in the U.S.

Examination tables, various diagnostic scopes, blood pressure equipment, needles, syringes, and wound care kits that had been carefully sorted and packed into large ocean-going cargo containers by Project C.U.R.E. volunteers now filled the offices and rooms of the out-patient department. The only mammography machine in that part of Africa had made it safely from Project C.U.R.E. in Nashville to Nigeria, and had already been installed by bio-med technicians. The large x-ray machine had already been installed and the portable x-ray machine was proudly displayed in the hallway leading to the operating rooms.

I recognized the beds, the gurneys, the EKG machines, the defibrillators, the baby cribs and incubators, and all the items in the operating theaters. Everything had come from Project C.U.R.E. You can only imagine how terribly excited the doctors were when I came to their departments to share the moment with them.

The nurses were in their best starched outfits and busily scampering around making sure everything would be perfect for the tour of the Nigerian president and the governor of Imo State. It was an unbelievable day of history and importance for the people of Imo State. They all knew as of Tuesday, November 30, 2004 that their hospital would be judged as one of the finest teaching hospitals in Africa. They proudly declared, “This now is the finest medical facility in Imo State and one of the best in Nigeria because of Project C.U.R.E.”

We didn’t have to be ashamed. Project C.U.R.E. had not waited for some other day to win a victory for humanity. That teaching hospital would not only be the venue for saving thousands of lives in the next twenty years, but well trained doctors and nurses would go out from there to clinics and hospitals all over Africa to give health and hope to needy people.

I stood there, and through the tears that filled my eyes, just that short portion of my life flashed before me . . . and it was well worth watching!

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

REPUTATION BUILDING

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

When you set out to help other people build good reputations for themselves, a strange thing happens: you help build a good reputation for yourself. Work hard to tear down someone else’s reputation and you find that you have set into motion all the forces to see your own reputation destroyed. It all has to do with personal character.

Reputation is how you would hope other people perceive you to be. Character is the real you. And it is absolutely beautiful when the two are the same. Socrates once said, “The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.” It is always a delight to meet someone face to face and discover there is no dissonance between that meeting and the person’s reputation.

In the for-profit business world, as well as the not-for-profit business world, a sterling reputation is necessary. A good reputation will allow you to go places and do things otherwise impossible for one with a shoddy reputation. That sterling reputation is earned over time by constantly doing difficult things well.

One of the distinctive characteristics of the Project C.U.R.E. organization is that we faithfully endeavor to help other people be better off. That written objective applies to our volunteers, our staff, our money donors, our in-kind donors, and most certainly the needy recipients of the medical goods around the world. It also includes our project partners; we surely want to see them better off.

When we partner with a Rotary club in our neighborhood or thousands of miles away, we enter into that relationship with the expressed idea of helping them end up better off. We try to take their gift and multiply it twenty times in value before it is delivered to the intended hospital or clinic on the other side of the world. We insist they receive the press photo opportunities and the accolades that might flow from the multiplied totals. We want their reputation for concern and goodwill to be multiplied and celebrated locally and internationally.

Recently, we celebrated another First Ladies’ Luncheon in Denver. Nearly two thousand guests were in attendance at the Hyatt Regency Convention Center to welcome Dr. Maria da Luz Dai Guebuza, the First Lady of Mozambique. The luncheon is an annual fundraising event that brings awareness to the humanitarian e­fforts of First Ladies from around the world. The guests join together to learn about that particular First Lady’s key healthcare issues in her country, and raise funding to deliver life-saving medical supplies and equipment for approved health projects in her country.

At the most recent event, enough funding was received to deliver nearly $4 million worth of medical goods for the First Lady’s healthcare projects in Mozambique. Our desire in bringing the First Ladies all the way to Denver, Colorado, is to spotlight not only the needs of the country, but also display and enhance the character and reputation of the country, the officials, and the wonderful people of that sovereign nation. Reputation is the position that a country occupies in the world. That standing is the opinion of others throughout the world with respect to that country’s concern for their own people, their history of attainments, and their perceived local and international integrity.

Project C.U.R.E. loves to make other people better off. We can do that by helping them build a good reputation for themselves. The opportunity is not only there to showcase the current standing, but also to be the ones standing alongside, cheering and encouraging character growth and enhancement. That character development, then, serves to even further multiply the eminence of the honorable reputation.

Project C.U.R.E. feels that it is imperative to help others build good reputations, and the time to become engaged is now. Henry Ford rendered some excellent advice: “You can’t build a reputation on what you are going to do.” We accept that challenge to do it now! And as for the rewards that come from helping others build good reputations . . . we are a very happy and thankful people! Our efforts to give goodness to others have returned goodness to us a thousand times over.

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

ASTOUNDING CAPABILITIES

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

I had a friend tell me once that he estimated that over eighty-five percent of the world’s populations spent their lives as underachievers. I joked with him and asked him to please help me find the other fifteen percent. I don’t think our conversation was very scientific. But, I have observed that nothing noble and splendid is achieved without someone deciding that deep within him was the possibility of passionately overcoming the impossible circumstances and breaking the inertia of nothingness. That dream, plus passionate diligence, translates into higher levels of achievement.

Franklin D. Roosevelt said “Happiness lies in the joy of achievement and the thrill of creative effort.” The person who is afflicted with poor motivational health spreads the contagious affliction to others, and bears within him the symptoms of discouragement and poor self-esteem. But nothing can ultimately conquer the person who desires to achieve. Every obstacle works as a weight-machine in the gymnasium of life that develops the achievement muscle. The workout proves to strengthen the powers of accomplishment.

It was Thomas A. Edison who reminded us, “If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.” Having laid hold of the possibility of the dream, we should mark out a direct pathway to achievement. We dare not look to the left or to the right or embrace doubts and fears that would cause us to veer from the course and become ineffectual.

On one of my early trips to Ethiopia, I was introduced to one of the grandest stories and one of the most intriguing venues I had ever encountered. We left the old capital city of Axum, the ancient home and palatial ruins of the Queen of Sheba, and where I had also helped rename the main street of the city to “Denver Street” in honor of Axum’s new Colorado Sister City. We flew in a small aircraft almost directly south to the very center of the country of Ethiopia. Our destination was the ancient city of Lalibela, often referred to as the “New Jerusalem” of Africa.

In the early 12th century, a baby boy was born to the royal family of Zagwe in the province of Wollo. At the time of his birth there was a dense cloud of bees that completely surrounded the baby and mother and brought honey for him to eat. The mother announced the bees to be soldiers who would one day serve her son just as they were now bringing protection and sweet sustenance to him. The mother named him Lalibela: "the bees recognize his sovereignty."

But Lalibela had an older brother, Ile, who was threatened by all the adulation, and decided to poison Lalibela. But instead of killing Lalibela, the poison put him into a type of coma for a period of time. Later, Lalibela revealed that during his sleep the angels had taken him to heaven where Jesus Christ had given him instruction to build duplicates of the eleven early churches on either side of the Jordan River. Churches on one side of the Jordan represented the earthly Jerusalem, while those on the other side represented the heavenly Jerusalem. He was to build the churches far up on the stone hillside in the province of Wollo.

In a matter of time Lalibela became king, and with the authority of the office set out to accomplish his mission. Within an unbelievably short period of twenty-three years, King Lalibela, with the help of his royal masons, chipped away and carved out eleven monolithic structures completely free-standing. To the very day of my visit nearly one-thousand years later, those hand hewn stone churches were still being used for worship.

By definition, monolithic simply means there were no cut stones stacked one upon another. The workers dug around the sides of the church, starting from the surface of the stone mountain that would ultimately become the roof. Once the entire outside of the church was carved out of the solid mountain, they chiseled doors and windows into the stone walls, entered inside and carved out the entire interior: arches, domed ceilings, altar areas, side rooms, and three dimensional carvings of the saints on the walls . . . all out of one solid mountain of stone. And, he did it eleven times!

The design and sheer magnitude of the task baffles all those who view the project even today. His contemporaries could not believe how fast he was able to not only carve out the churches, but also the stone stairways, tunnels, winding stone pathways connecting the churches, and even hidden monasteries and catacombs. Legend holds that Lalibela had the help of the angels working for him in order for such a task to be completed. King Lalibela worked by day; the angels worked by night.

Lalibela was driven by zeal and compassion. He accomplished an impossible task that still stands today and rebukes the scoffers and naysayers of this world.

If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves as well as the world around us.

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com

LEO TOLSTOY WASN'T IRISH

by Dr. James W. Jackson

Founder, Project C.U.R.E.
Author, The Happiest Man in the World: Life Lessons from a Cultural Economist

Leo Tolstoy’s novel Anna Karenina, published in 1877, has been acclaimed “flawless as a work of art.” Even William Faulkner described it as “the best ever written” and in 2007, Time magazine’s J. Peder Zane polled 125 contemporary authors who declared Anna Karenina the “greatest novel ever written.”

Tolstoy sets the stage for his epic Russian novel with his very first statement: “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” With one broad stroke of the brush, Tolstoy covers a huge portion of canvas. He introduces the concepts of perception as well as exception.

However, in order for it to be judged as a happy marriage, the relationship must succeed in many different respects: sexual attraction, agreement about the handling of money, discipline of the children, in-law influence, religion, and other vital issues. Failure in any one of the essential respects can doom a marriage even if the marriage enjoys a lot of other ingredients necessary for perceived happiness.

In real life we tend to seek easy, single factors to explain successes for the most important things, while success actually requires avoiding many possible causes of failure. Tolstoy’s parallel plots, covering nearly a thousand pages, give ample room for his many Russian characters to demonstrate how choices set into motion life-altering consequences. But it also makes the reader go back and consider just what does a happy family really look like, and what makes unhappy families unhappy in their own way?

Recently, we spent about ten days on a trip to Ireland. I have roots in the Ulster region, north of Belfast. While driving through the thinly veiled political partitions of Ireland, I began thinking about Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. Is it possible that happy nations are all alike; every unhappy nation is unhappy in its own way? I believe that Ireland is closer to being a happier nation now than it was when we first started visiting the shamrock island thirty years ago. But the noisy, jovial clink of the Guinness Stout mugs, or the hearty toast with a shot of Jameson Whiskey, belies the subtly suppressed angst and the frustrated irritability that continues to exist. Ireland is not necessarily a happy nation: tired of bombs? . . . Yes; tired of terror? . . . Yes; tired of innocent civilians being murdered? . . . Yes; enjoying the present fragile peace? . . . Yes, but not happy.

So, just what makes for an unhappy nation? Just what makes for an unhappy family? Just what makes for an unhappy individual? Is it possible that each is unhappy in his or her own way, but based on some similar and universal factors?

After visiting all the economic and political hot spots in over 150 countries in the world in the past thirty years, I have become convinced that all global, national, corporate, and individual transformation takes place at the intersection of culture and economics. Those intersections are custom made, and each intersection has the equal possibility of conflict, and change, and happiness.

Strife in Northern Ireland can be traced back to the 17th century, when the English finally subdued the island after successfully putting down a number of rebellions. The English and Scottish (Protestants) settled in Ulster somewhat apart from the rest of Ireland, (predominantly Catholic). Through the 19th century, the north and south grew even further apart due to economic differences. In the north, the standard of living rose as industry and manufacturing flourished. But in the south, unequal distribution of land and unfavorable laws resulted in a low standard of living for the large Catholic population.

In the 20th century, Protestants and Catholics divided into two warring camps over the issue of Irish home rule. Most Irish Catholics desired complete independence from Britain, but Irish Protestants feared living in a country ruled by Roman Catholics. So, in 1920, the British passed the Government of Ireland Act, which divided Ireland into two separate political entities, each with some powers of self-government, and that is where the next eighty years of brawling and bloodshed began with the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and the British forces locked in bitter struggle. Even the creating of the Irish Free State in 1949 as an independent republic, and leaving the six counties in Ulster as part of the United Kingdom, quelled the violence and bloodshed only temporarily.

“The Troubles” as they are called, erupted in the 1960s, and terrorist violence tragically escalated until 2007. Peace efforts failed time and again. Finally, as recent as March, 2007, the leaders met face to face and worked out an agreement for a power-sharing plan. Tony Blair praised the historic deal. "Look back and we see centuries marked by conflict, hardship, even hatred among the people of these islands," he said. "Look forward and we see the chance to shake off those heavy chains of history.” But it took until February 5, 2010, to even get the Hillsborough Castle Agreement signed. “Happiness” is very recent and extremely tentative in the islands of the Irish.

Of course, novelist Leo Tolstoy was not Irish. He was Russian, and he wrote a treatise on his era’s Russia. But he writes universally, and paints with words his portraits of living, breathing characters that stood in their time at the intersection of culture and economics. They lived out their lives reaping the whirlwinds of consequences they themselves had set into motion by their life-choices. They dealt with hypocrisy, jealousy, faith, fidelity, family, marriage, society, progress, carnal desire and passion, and the agrarian connection to land in contrast to the lifestyles of the city. Tolstoy doesn't explicitly moralize in the book; he allows his themes to emerge naturally, as his main characters complicate their lives in a broad array of unthinkable situations, and then leaves his readers to come to their own conclusions. Tolstoy allows his characters to debate significant cultural-economic issues affecting Russia in the latter half of the nineteenth century, such issues as the place and role of the Russian peasant in society, education reform, and women's rights.

Leo Tolstoy wasn’t writing about Ireland . . . but in a sense he was. And he was intuitively writing about happy and unhappy families, individuals, and nations everywhere, including America.

Dr. James W. Jackson often describes himself as "The Happiest Man in the World." A successful businessman, award-winning author and humanitarian, Jackson is also a renowned Cultural Economist and international consultant, helping organizations and governments to apply sound economic principals to the transformation of culture so that everyone is "better off."

As the founder of Project C.U.R.E., Dr. Jackson traveled to more than one hundred fifty countries assessing healthcare facilities, meeting with government leaders and "delivering health and hope" in the form of medical supplies and equipment to the world's most needy people. Literally thousands of people are alive today as a direct result of the tireless efforts of Project C.U.R.E.'s staff, volunteers and Dr. Jackson. 

To contact Dr. Jackson, or to book him for an interview or speaking engagement: press@winstoncrown.com