One of cancun s best

It's hard to believe that a short 30-mile bus ride from the Spring-break haven of Cancun is one of the top-ranked hotels in Central America and an exotic, unrivaled tropical paradise. While it sounds like typical romance copy, we're not just giving lip service ...the Mayan Riviera is not your standard Mexican vacation destination nor is Maroma Resort a regular lodging establishment, having recently received the Conde Nast Travel Magazine Reader's Choice Award as the #3 hotel in all of Central America. The local culture and natural resources are just some of the attractions that separate Riviera Maya from other popular destinations in Central America. For starters, the second largest barrier reef in the world is located here, providing unsurpassed water activities like snorkeling, wind-surfing, kayaking, sailing, diving, bottom fishing, deep sea and fly fishing. The unspoiled beach offers guests the utmost in privacy and unparalleled natural beauty.

Maroma Resort is a showcase for unique arts and crafts produced in each region of Mexico, including statues, hand-painted bathroom tiles, hand-loomed natural cotton bedspreads, and decorative pillows and throws and soft wool rugs. The rooms and public areas feature original art by Mexican and International artists and each room also has its own special objects. Maroma has 58 rooms and suites situated among lush gardens, cooled and shaded by coconut palms on one side, open to the warmth of the sun and sea on the other.

Relax in a king-sized bed, luxury bath with sunken tub, sparkling pool, or beachfront Jacuzzi-you decide what to do indulge in first. Afterward, let any remaining troubles melt away in the spa, where you can choose between massage, reflexology, Reiki, craniofacial, facials, whole-body treatments, mud, aromas, Ajurveda, yoga, meditation, rebirthing, crystal therapy, and the ancient art of the temazcal-the purifying and healing ritual of the Mayan steam bath.

While you'll feel a world away from unnatural office lighting, congested freeways and the demands of everyday life, you have the choice of staying connected to the modern world. Maroma? s multi-media theater features a state-of-the-art sound and projection system with over 380 movies to choose from.

Increasing the value of your jet ski for sale

After you have bought your Jet Ski, you probably would think why would you sell them after some time. Well, the fact is, no matter how much you dearly love your jet ski, there will come a time that you will sell them from one reason or another. And when that time comes, you should get your PWC ready so that you will get paid with a price you want.

Whether you plan to sell your jet ski online or offline, one thing is for sure; your jet ski must be in perfect condition inside and out to increase its market value.

Just like selling used cars, you should project a well-maintained jet ski. And keeping it well-maintained starts from the moment you purchase your jet ski. It doesn’t matter if you bought a used or a brand new jet ski. What matters is that once you start using your jet ski, you should remember to keep it in perfect condition. And when the time comes when you have to sell your jet ski, you will have lesser problem dealing with scratches, corrosions, and other value degrading matters.

After using it, make sure that you dry its entire body. Do not let any salt water to penetrate inside (although most jet skis are sealed and with components that are rustproof).

Proper storage is the most important thing you must know if you want to have a great looking jet ski. Since it will stay most of the time in your garage, your jet ski must be kept in a dry place. Keep it covered. Avoid exposing it to rain and sunlight. As much as possible clean it regularly even if it is covered and not in use.

If it happens to have minor scratches, you can buy rubbing compounds that can effectively remove these. Spending little on these would increase the value of your jet ski. In case of corrosion and dents, there are shops that can remove them without costing you so much. Again, a little spending would increase the “buyability” of your jet ski.

All these are sure guarantee that you can sell your jet ski at a higher price. And oh, you must remember that in order for you to get a better value out of your jet ski, you must keep the engine maintained. It must not only look good, it should also run excellently.

Confessions of a lapsed islamist

Is Islamism, Islam ?

I define Islamism as the twentieth century political movement to instill “Islamic” governments in Muslim countries. The intellectual architects of this movement were Sayyid Qutb, Maududi, Ayatollah Khomeini and Hassan al-Turabi, amongst others. They have formed the political and governance template for movements in Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Turkey, Palestine, Somali, Sudan and Pakistan. The Islamist movements begin with a small, religiously purified elite of the wider group of believers that are welded into a group that form the nucleus for political and community action. It is interesting to observe that this type of Qutb Islamism is now employed as a modus operandi for Christian groups who wish to transform their community support into political power. The RNC’s flirtation with the evangelicals has parallels with Ikhwan’s links to the Nasserites, right down to the betrayal, (but not the executions).

Islam is of course what we all understand it to be, the religious belief and codified ritual practice contained in the Quran and Prophetic (PBUH) Sunnah. It is the basis of what a Muslim does.

Although there is wide religious diversity amongst the proponents of Islamism there is surprising unity in political method and public governance. Khomeni for example is a “twelver shia”, Maududi founded the Jammat e Islami and Qutb was the spiritual source for movements as including the Muslim Brotherhood at one end and Al Qaida at the other. There are fundamental theological differences between these movements, but the chronology of their rise, the method of their political action and the similarities of their governance suggest that they are surprising similarities.

Islamist governments are one party structures with weak or non-existent alternative voices. Although they reach power via the ballot box they are disdainful of the transformative power of public participation in community governance. They also shun transparency, media freedom and gradualism. The governments have strong social justice commitments and high standards of personal public official accountability, although over time these are eroded by the corruption of unchecked political power. There is always a concentration of power amongst the spiritual elite, such as the Iranian the revolutionary guardian council.

Islamist governments concentrate disproportionately on the outward manifestations of Islamic observance, women’s dress, alcohol consumption, prostitution, etc. They seem less willing to understand or rectify other more important systems of government. There is no standard Islamist economic policy, but there are strong trends to a determinist economic model, although this is widely recognized as a failed model, and is ironically profoundly “un-Islamic”.

Although Islamist governments are authoritarian and keen to introduce what they deem to be “Sharia” law they are surprisingly devoid of ethic of the rule of such law, the narrow scope of legislation to certain aspects of criminal law (the Hudud), and they do not tolerate a judiciary independent of the executive. The fidelity toward the absolute rule of law or to governance based on unchanging set of legal principles is conspicuously lacking. The arbitrary nature of legal rulings itself becomes an obstacle to social stability and economic progress

Islamist governments appear to have more in common with Marxist regimes of the early and middle part of the twentieth century than with the Prophetic (PBUH) model of governance in Medinat ul Nabi in the 6th century. Their development along this abbherent path reflects the very low level of education amongst Islamists group and their unwillingness to read non-Muslim scholars and understand that this type of governance has been tried and has failed. Islamist have no understanding of Islamic finance that are rarely developed beyond rudimentary systems, nor do they understand the gradualism that is required to move societies. Islamist regimes are revolutionary and radical. they seek to impose the will of the elite on the masses without persuasion, trust and transparency. Islamist governments confuse their own survival with that of Islam, which forms the basis for their missionary zeal, resembling most closely that of Lenin’s October revolutionaries.

Youssef Choueiri details the profound similarities between the the 19th century French Nobel prize winner Alexis Carrel and the thesis of Sayyid Qutb. he goes on to assert:

"What Qutb fails to inform his vanguard, however, is that the code of conduct he subsequently elaborated in his ‘commentary’ on the Koran matches that of Carrel much more than Muhammad’s own Traditions.’ The result is not an indigenous form of governance, but ‘a Third World version of Fascism." (Courtesy of Sheikh Abdul Hakim Murad)

This is not to say that Islamism is synonymous with fascism, which clearly it is not. Nor is it to say that all Islamic thinkers are identical, they are not. Maududi’s Jaamat e Islami was enthusiastically democratic and non violent. The critique of it is different to that of Sayyid Qutb. Qutb’s later writings, especially from prison have an authoritarian and revolutionary flavor that is not authentically Islamic. The purported template for radical Islamists such as Qutb, and the source of his Islamic authenticity is their alleged fidelity to the method of the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). This assertion is false and they must be challenged on it.

In pre-Islamic Arabia, there was no government, no government structures and only the most rudimentary tribal understandings. Even during this period, and with the profound difference in understanding, the Prophet (PBUH) did not impose his will upon Medina, although the citizens had invited him to do so. Rather his community power, grew gradually with increasing community support. Political support lagged behind widespread community support in Medina: Abi Salul was allowed to sit in the presence of the Prophet (PBUH) and mock him without fear, although the Prophet enjoyed widespread community support and was de-facto ruler of Medina. He did not impose Islamic rules on other faith communities, but rather treated them generously often at the expense of strict justice to Muslims. As Islam spread the Muslim rulers were known for their minimalist intervention in local government, economics and trade.

The Islamic law was a welcome relief from the arbitrary negotiated justice of tribal law and allowed guarantee of property rights and was administered by an independent impartial judiciary, which is they very opposite of the current situation. The Islamist doctrine is disturbingly messianic, something that is un-Islamic. If one wishes to preach, it is better to actually preach the worship of God, rather than preach a totalitarianism that you may believe will in the future be congenial to the worship of God, i. e. the worship of God rather than the worship of Islamism.

Groups such as Hizb ut Tahrir take this absurdity to its logical limit when they claim that their vision of Islamist government is actually a secular system of rules that will produce a Utopian society. They therefore are not interested in preaching this worship of God, but rather the adherence to a set of political ideals which are claimed to be central to the Islamic ideals of government. These assertions are false. Islam needs to be lived first before it is legislated. Institutionalizing piety is itself problematic, as we are currently discovering.

The first generation of Islamists who are now entering the last years of their lives are full of regrets. In private conversations they admit that the errors they made were to rush into political power and compromise or distort religious principles for short term political gain. They also admit that in formulating their lofty goals they were almost childlike in their naivetй. One recurring regret is prominient, moving from a community based religious movement to a political party has been a tragedy for the former. Once it entered politics, the growth in the Islamist support stopped, then gradually declined. If one were primarily committed to the promotion of worship of Allah, this should be alarming.

As one who feels that the Muslim world will never truly be itself until Islam forms an integral part of its polity, I don’t wish to see a secular government. That model (e. g. Bathism in Iraq, Egypt and Syria) has been tried and failed. Nor has secular government given security to non-Muslim countries who have interests in the Muslim world, indeed it is regularly argued that totalitarian secular polity has been the germ that has fuelled Islamic radicalism. But the Islamist models that are on display today are excessively romantic, formulaic and shallow. Islamists need to turn down the temperature of their public religious fervor and demonstrate that they can govern a community.

Contemporary Islamism is in danger of losing its authenticity. Although it is currently in ascendancy it will not last long unless it reformulates itself without its Marxist baggage and studies non-Muslim thinkers who have already grappled with the idea of religion and society.

Aromatherapy new age fad or age-old remedy

Aromatherapy refers to the use of essential oils that have been extracted from plants, shrubs and trees. These essential oils can be used for a wide variety of purposes. They can be used to treat medical conditions or alleviate psychological ailments. Aromatherapy oils are used as cosmetics. Finally, aromatherapy can be used simply for pleasure, to help improve your mood or to reduce your stress. The essential oils of aromatherapy have the power to affect both your physical and mental state.

Aromatherapy has recently been labeled a New Age fad, but the practice of aromatherapy has a long history. The often negative use of the New Age label causes an unfortunate prejudice against a practice that has many potential benefits.

The effective use of aromatherapy requires considerable knowledge and expertise. The essential oils of aromatherapy can be applied in a wide variety of situations. They have been proven effective in treating both serious and minor ailments. Even when aromatherapy cannot provide a cure, it can improve an individual's mood.

We often practice aromatherapy on an everyday basis without realizing it. When we choose aromas, bath oils, and air fresheners, we usually choose based on what we like, or on how the fragrance makes us feel. The refreshing scent of a pine forest, the pleasurable aromas of herbs, or the many other daily experiences we have with the scents of plant-derived substances indicate that we are actually practicing and experiencing aromatherapy in many ways.

The practice of aromatherapy for treating ailments actually predates chemical-based medicine. The essential oils of aromatherapy have been used for hundreds of years in herbal medicine, disease prevention, and in religious and public ceremonies.

The proven benefits of plant-based therapies are being overlooked in favor of artificial substitutes. It's easy to forget that many commonly used pharmaceuticals were originally derived from plants. Many also doubt that something applied externally could possibly have an internal effect. But the answer to many of today's diseases has been with us from the beginning, stored in the plant life around us. Aromatherapy unlocks the power of these essential oils and applies it for our benefit.

Tips for uncovering customer hassles

Copyright 2006 Adele Sommers

Are you wrestling with cranky customers, low-vitality products, congested services, and an aching bottom line? You certainly don't need to. Why exactly does this occur?

One major reason is that consumers expect products and services to work exactly as advertised, in a confusion - and error-free manner. It's easy to understand why these expectations exist because we ourselves are consumers. If given a choice between something that's easy to use and functions correctly, and something that's not easy to use or doesn't function correctly, we'll pick the former every time.

When consumers aren't happy with the quality of their experiences, what will they do? Unless it's a catastrophic situation, will they contact you to tell you about it, so that you'll know how to correct the problem? Perhaps some will, to vent their frustrations about what they've been experiencing. But research shows that the vast majority will quietly take their business elsewhere, and you might not ever hear why. To help you put a stop to the silent exodus, this article suggests four ways to uncover the causes of "customer hassles."

First, Why Do Customer Hassles Occur?

You'd think that any company that provides a product or service would put itself in the shoes of its own customers, and thus provide the very best product or service possible. Unfortunately, that's not always the case, especially if there is not much competition in a certain market. Yet even when product and service providers have the very best of intentions, here's another pervasive problem...

Any products (such as tools, gadgets, or software systems) -- or even services (such as auto repair shops, telephone companies, or transportation businesses) -- can burden consumers by introducing complex requirements of their own.

Those requirements can include queuing time, waiting time, installing or upgrading something, setting things up, programming in some cases (think about your VCR), learning curves, maintenance, wrestling with bugs, troubleshooting, waiting on hold for customer support, and potentially much, much more.

These are all examples of customer headaches of various sizes. When these extra requirements begin adding up, no matter how "good" your product or service might be, hassles can negatively affect your customers' experiences with your offerings. These are just a few characteristics:

-- Hassles can range from something that seems relatively small and only mildly annoying all the way to making the product or service impossible to use for its intended purpose. They can drive customers crazy, or make them feel really angry or stupid.

-- In the worst cases, customer headaches can cause catastrophic ripple effects that affect wider and wider circles of people, circumstances, and/or operations.

-- No bargain-basement pricing can ever compensate for the worst hassles!

What's the Antidote?

In contrast, what would you want to see happen? You'd want to have headache-free offerings that attract loyal customers, right? Good! There's every reason why you would want that.

Customer retention research shows that once companies have loyal customers, the cost of keeping them is just one-fifth the cost of attracting new ones. Research also shows that companies can boost their bottom-line results up to 100% just from increasing customer loyalty by only 5%!

So to attract loyal customers, we certainly must remove headaches, and we should strive to create consistently pleasant experiences with all interactions customers have. The interactions can include visiting a Web site or storefront, asking for more information, purchasing something, receiving order shipments, interacting with the products or services themselves, using any training and documentation, contacting customer service, and so on. Note that an unpleasant experience anywhere along the way could destroy a customer's positive perceptions of all other interactions!

Tips for Uncovering Customer Headaches

So, let's discuss how you can reveal the sources of your customers' aggravations. Below are four tips for exposing this critical information:

1. Poll customers using Web, mail, or e-mail surveys, or support calls.

You might ask what your customers love and don't love about your products and services, and how they might suggest improving them. You could even consider expanding routine customer support calls by asking customers: "Is there anything you can think of that could enable our products or services to better assist you?" Customers may find it very refreshing to finally reveal their pet peeves.

2. Comb your technical support logs to locate hassles of every type.

What's really been bugging your customers or stopping them from getting something done? See which kinds of trends you can spot. For example, are people calling technical support mainly to get training on using the system? Are they having problems installing, setting up, or getting going? Are they reporting bugs? Are the instructions incomplete or confusing? Another way of looking at this is to ask why your system is not completely transparent in helping customers to accomplish their real goals.

3. Observe your customers using your products at their own facilities.

It may be a real eye-opener to watch your customers try to install, set up, learn, and troubleshoot your product without having someone guide them through every step. If you had intended your products to be self-explaining and easy to use, this could reveal several aspects in which they are not.

4. Prioritize your findings using the 80:20 rule.

Try to determine which 20% of the hassles (the "vital few") seem to be giving your customers 80% of the grief. Then, continuously work toward eliminating the heaviest hitters until you've removed everything down to the noise level. It's easier said than done, but in the long run, your customers will really appreciate it!

In conclusion, revealing and remedying annoying hassles can stem the exodus of cranky customers and help you begin building a base of "raving fans." Your customers deserve no less than the very best of experiences with every facet of your offerings.

Digital photography tips

Few families would consider leaving home for a vacation these days without reliable, high-quality digital imaging equipment-whether it's a camera or a camcorder.

Here are some tips from the experts at Canon to help you make the most of memorable vacation moments:

Always be prepared: Don't forget to bring backup camera batteries or memory cards so you'll never miss a shot.

Creativity is key: Sunsets and mountain ranges are always great backdrops for family pictures. By using your surroundings in interesting ways, you'll be able to create images featuring an array of natural color and light while showcasing your happy family.

Share the fun: Take turns and let others control the lens for a while. A camcorder such as the Canon DC40 DVD Camcorder is so easy to use that anyone in the family can take great video. The camcorder records direct to DVD, is compact and takes high-resolution, 4-Megapixel digital photos.

Strike a pose-No!: Candid shots of family members can capture their personalities much better than carefully orchestrated photographs.

Don't be afraid: Take your PowerShot SD600 Digital ELPH camera with you on a scuba diving adventure. The 6-Megapixel camera has a 16:9 widescreen mode for full-screen viewing on widescreen TVs and computer monitors, and is the right size for taking along on any deep-sea adventure.

Use the WPDC40 underwater camera case (to depths of 130 feet) to protect the camera and snap pictures in the surf.

Hello from abroad: Print and send photos before you even get home: The SELPHY CP510 photo printer is small enough to pack in your suitcase and lets you print pictures in under a minute. And the paper used for printing photos doubles as a postcard! How's that for multitasking?

Pack lightly: Hybrid digital products such as the PowerShot S3 IS let you capture still photographs and high-quality video. The 6-Megapixel camera has a 12x optical zoom lens, image stabilization technology for steady shots, a "movie snap" feature that lets you take still images while shooting movies, a widescreen mode for full-screen viewing and still leaves plenty of room for any souvenirs you might want to bring home.

Hybrid digital products can take photo stills and shoot movies without taking up too much space in your luggage.

Making summer reading fun and exciting

Asking most kids to pick up a book during July or August is like asking them to clean their room or eat their Brussels sprouts. Fortunately, there's a simple solution to the quandary of summer reading lists: Stock them with titles that are fun and challenging and encourage kids to look beyond a book's covers.

"A Treasure's Trove" (Treasure Trove, Inc.) by Michael Stadther is one such book to consider. A beautifully illustrated fairy tale suitable for children of all ages, it became a New York Times best-seller, captured the hearts and imaginations of children and families and, through clues hidden in its pages, inspired a nationwide treasure hunt. At the request of teachers and librarians, the author has read it to children at hundreds of schools throughout North America and at the annual White House Easter Egg Roll.

The story, which appeals to both boys and girls, takes place in the Great Forest and tells a sweet (and sometimes sad) tale of friendship and greed, good and dark fairies and how love can overcome fear. There is plenty of action and suspense, plus beautiful fairies and romance. The book is all about family values, love and cooperation, loyalty and friendship. It teaches children the importance of saving the forests, about working together to accomplish their goals and that they need not be afraid of the dark.

"This book's value is truly in the words and excitement on the kids' faces," said Katie Mullins, a 3rd grade teacher at Degan Elementary School in Lewisville, Texas.

Now Available:

Free Teachers' Guide & Books

Because children quickly and easily gravitate to the book's characters and themes, teachers asked the author if he could provide additional "Treasure Trove" material for classroom use. In response, "A Treasure's Trove Teachers' Guide," developed in conjunction with a panel of leading educational advisors in the U. S., is now available for download at www. atreasurestrove. com/schools.

Intended as an enrichment tool, it is chock-full of puzzles and activities in such subject areas as reading comprehension, poetry, music composition, map reading and drawing, problem solving and critical thinking. The first 1,000 educators to register online for the new guide will receive a free copy of "A Treasure's Trove," "A Puzzle Book Companion" and the "Official Solution Book to A Treasure's Trove."

In September 2006, the book's sequel, "Secrets of the Alchemist Dar," will be released-this time accompanied by a worldwide treasure hunt. Once again, Stadther will visit schools to read the book to students in grades 3 and up. Teachers and principals interested in having the author visit their schools should sign up early by visiting www. atreasurestrove. com/schools.

"A Treasure's Trove" is available in hard - and softcover at major bookstores and Amazon. com.