Archbishop Romero and Spiritual Leadership in the Modern World presents a contemporary and integrated understanding of one of the most remarkable pastoral leaders of our time. This bishop, Oscar Romero of El Salvador, experienced deeply the overwhelming sufferings of the Salvadoran people, as well as those within himself. He cried out in vain to Presidents Carter and Reagan, "no more arms to El Salvador," but his pleas were not heard at that time. Knowing that he would soon be murdered, Romero promised that he would rise again in the Salvadoran people. This book illustrates how this is happening and conclusively demonstrates that by respecting transparency and with dogged perseverance, a nonviolent public leader can become an influential leader, even in times of the most savage repression and marginalization. Archbishop Romero accomplished precisely that through determination, courage, and honing his public skills, while simultaneously conducting himself in deeply spiritual ways.

Archbishop Romero and Spiritual Leadership in the Modern World presents a contemporary and integrated understanding of one of the most remarkable pastoral leaders of our time. This bishop, Oscar Romero of El Salvador, experienced deeply the overwhelming sufferings of the Salvadoran people, as well as those within himself. He cried out in vain to Presidents Carter and Reagan, "no more arms to El Salvador," but his pleas were not heard at that time. Knowing that he would soon be murdered, Romero promised that he would rise again in the Salvadoran people. This book illustrates how this is happening and conclusively demonstrates that by respecting transparency and with dogged perseverance, a nonviolent public leader can become an influential leader, even in times of the most savage repression and marginalization. Archbishop Romero accomplished precisely that through determination, courage, and honing his public skills, while simultaneously conducting himself in deeply spiritual ways.

The investment alternatives offered by mutual funds have had a significant effect on the savings patterns of many countries. Industry research has primarily focused on the funds themselves rather than on their management companies, but like other financial institutions, these companies, also known as mutual fund families, have experienced great periods of both expansion and contraction. It is important to address the efficiency of these institutions, as well. Carlos Sanchez Gonzalez fills this gap in our knowledge with this empirical study. He develops an innovative model that considers the management stages of mutual fund companies, overcoming the traditional dispute between the different approaches used in banking and insurance research. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA) to evaluate efficiency levels, Sanchez Gonzalez investigates the Spanish case, one of the most relevant industries in the Euro market, in order to provide insights into issues that have never been explored before. His study consists of two parts. The first explains the basic concepts, offers a brief explanation of the basic DEA models, and gives a review of the most important applications to financial institutions, all while developing a unique set of industry-specific variables in order to show how to apply the original slacks-based measure (SBM) approach. The second reviews the major concepts of SBM variations and shows how they can be applied to the Spanish mutual fund family industry in order to obtain unprecedentedly accurate empirical measures of its efficiency. This ground-breaking work offers much food for thought to academic researchers and postgraduate students of management, finance, and marketing.

I began my spiritual awakening after my flying accident in May of 1997. By "awakening" I refer to the awareness of what is within and all around us, an awareness of past events, which occurred in my life, even as early as when I was about 5 years old. It is precisely for this reason that I have included parts of my whole life in this book, to underscore the extent to which our whole lives and events are well orchestrated for a magnificent purpose. Not manipulated as puppets on a string, but collected lovingly by large caring hands that scoop up the broken fragments and weave them together as threads in a tapestry. Or like a potter who re-works the clay, using every portion of it to re-mold it into a shape of His design. But this only occurs once the potter has been allowed to model the dough, when we turn ourselves in for service. Little did I realize along the way that my calling would be a religious one. Along I went in my merry life, as many of us do, not knowing specifically what my future might bring and lacking His curious piercing foresight, I never realized the impact of what was actually happening today, let alone some of the fabulous purposes that could be wrought from the events of yesterday. As I went through my prior life, (by the way, I will use this term from now on in the book to describe my life "prior" to the flying accident) I went along growing up with all of our typical earthly accomplishment needs. The childhood accomplishments, teenage, and even adult needs, as we perceive them to be diligently and respectively accomplished. From the basic needs to the social psychological needs of even surpassing the "Jones's." No pun intended but most people can't handle merely keeping up with the Jones's but are actually taught to top them in the higher education levels of our training. I, like some "fortunate" individuals, had succeeded in attaining my Masters Degree of International Business Administration at one of the most highly acclaimed Graduate Schools of this country. Miami University, located in the international hub of the United States, was noted as being one of the best Graduate Schools in the International Business arena. In addition to all the above mentioned drives and ambitions, I also had another need, a need to attain high levels of adrenalin in my blood for short periods of times during the month. Yes at least once a month but preferably once a week I went through my entire life searching for a constant supply and ever increasing potency of adrenalin. I went from dirt bike riding as a kid to flat tracking as a teenager. From scuba diving with sharks over 19 feet long to sky diving in college after a drunken bet the night before, this was not enough What always intrigued me was the art of flying and boy was it an art. Stunt flying was my favorite source of adrenalin and an artistic one at that, maybe not a Rembrandt but most certainly a well worked Picasso, from the gentle curves to the rash Lomshavocks, a work of art indeed As I was saying in the beginning of this Preface, I began my spiritual awakening after my flying accident in May of 1997. Awakening is the awareness of what is within and all around us; awareness of some very real and fantastic things that started to happen, an awareness of past, and now present events, which occurred in my life. I have had an exciting life, no doubt, as shown in part during my descriptions in chapter 3, "Growing Years Of Adventure."