![]() The best way to defray higher marketing costs was to simply sell more, but high prices of the products sold by sports-goods companies placed barriers on growth. By comparison, FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) major Procter & Gamble recorded selling, general and administrative expenses amounting to 25% of net sales. This increased progressively to 20% in 1990, 29% in 2000 and 33% in 2010.Įven in 2022, that figure for Nike amounted to 32%. In 1983, a year before Jordan was to change the game, Nike’s selling and administrative expenses, of which endorsements are a part, amounted to 14% of its net sales. Of the three major sporting-goods companies, Nike is the only one for which data stretches back to the early 1980s and which clearly demarcates sales and marketing expenses. As a result, their sales and marketing expenses have soared, even as growth in their sales and profits have been consistent but far from super-normal. The Feast of the Baptism can help us turn our attention to the issues surrounding the Jordan River.As sportspersons increasingly became their dominant market face, sports-goods companies have ended up spending more on them. ![]() Also, in working for peace in the region, which will involve a more equal sharing of the resource of water. Meanwhile, Israel exploits the resources of the area and generates profit by allocating generous tracts of land and water resources for the benefit of Israeli settlers.Ĭhristians around the world have an investment in seeing plentiful and clean water run through the site of the baptism of Jesus. They also face many restrictions on access to resources and services. Palestinians living in the Jordan Valley have very limited access to the Jordan river. In years past Israel has threatened to send fighter jets into Lebanon to bomb even seemingly small-scale efforts to divert waters from the tributaries that flow into the river. The Jordan River is the main source of water for the Sea of Galilee, the largest freshwater lake in Israel and the source of much of Israel's drinking water. Israel and neighbouring Arab countries have complained about each other's projects to divert shared water sources for their own needs. In addition, political deadlock between governments sharing the river and its tributaries has exacerbated the water shortage. Over the past five decades, Israel, Jordan and Syria have diverted about 98 percent of the Jordan River and its tributaries for drinking water and agricultural use. The river is greatly diminished at this spot and the water is very dirty. Expecting to see the raging clean river described in the Bible, they come upon a sewage-laden trickle. Yet, when pilgrims have occasionally been allowed to the spot their jaws often drop. Christians believe that Jesus' spiritual birth took place here after his physical birth in Bethlehem. Israel's Qasr al-Yahud site is the third most sacred place for Christians, after the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City. Today, most Christian pilgrims who visit Israel immerse themselves in the fresh waters of the Jordan river at Yardenit, a modern-day baptismal tourist site near the Sea of Galilee, 100km upstream. The Bible describes the river, which flows south from the Sea of Galilee into the Dead Sea, marking the border shared by Israel, Jordan and the West Bank, as "overflowing". The Qasr Al-Yahud location is also revered by Jews as the crossing place along the Jordan River of the Biblical Israelites into the Promised Land after having wandered the desert for 40 years. In Jordan, it is called al-Maghtas, or "Baptism Site". On the Israeli-controlled side in the West Bank, the site is called Qasr al-Yahud, Arabic for "Castle of the Jews" or "Crossing of the Jews". Typical of the region's conflicting land claims, both Jordan and Israel maintain the New Testament baptismal site stands on their soil, and the sites face each other on either side of the Jordan. Bullet holes will be left as a reminder of the violence of war.Īccording to Christian tradition, John baptised Jesus in the Jordan River. The landmines are now gone and the church will be refurbished, under the supervision of the Franciscan custody of the Holy Land. The area was laid out with land mines and it became a fenced military zone, off limits to pilgrims. The almost 100-year-old church and monastery were vacated in 1967 at the outbreak of war between Israel and some of its Arab neighbors, including Jordan, just across the Jordan River. ![]() For the first time in 54 years, a Mass will be celebrated 10 January 2021 on the feast of the Baptism of the Lord, at St John the Baptist Chapel on the Western banks of the Jordan River.
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