The role of UK government increasing the competition in the mortgage Dissertation

The role of UK government increasing the competition in the mortgage markets to stimulate the British housing marketing and even - Dissertation Example The UK too experienced housing bubble burst as a reported 37,749 homeowners in the UK lost their homes to the bank between March and June 2008 (Seeking Alpha, 2008). The crisis deepened as banks cut off mortgage lending. Banks and building societies are expected to pay about ?130bn of the emergency borrowing they availed from the Bank of England and the Treasury (Bown, 2011). Rationale for research Traditionally, in most economies, people preferred to remain tenants throughout their life. Changes in lifestyles, education and temptations by the cheap lending rates introduced the concept of becoming house owners. Businessmen in earlier days would tend to invest any extra funds into their business rather than invest in housing (Lawson, 2011). The idea was that this would grow and bring in more prosperity and ready cash to be used for personal purposes than invest in dwelling which one never disposes off. Liquidity preference theory states that the more liquid an asset, the more attracti ve it is an asset as it can be traded easily (Wyatt, 2011). Properties, even in a buoyant market take several weeks to be traded and in a recessionary economy, it may take years. It is less attractive an as investment and the transaction costs are also higher because of the stamp duty and legal fees. Motivation for the study The motivation for the study has arisen from this concept – why did people become interested to invest their savings in dwellings which may appreciate over time but can be of no use to the person who has made the investment? It would also be interesting to evaluate the role that the UK government has played in boosting housing and mortgage of housing in expectation that this would contribute to the growth of the UK economy. Research Aims and Objectives With the objective to determine that competition in the UK mortgage sector did not yield the expected returns and was in fact responsible for the housing bubble, the objectives of the study are: To evaluate the measures that the government took in boosting the housing sector To list the incentives that the government provided to enhance competition in the mortgage market To evaluate the impact of the cheap lending rates in the housing market on the UK economy Literature Review While traditionally building societies were responsible for financing house owners, the concept changed in the 1980s. The business model of the building societies was very simple but as demand intensified, there were queues for mortgages which prompted government intervention (CML, 2004). Competition in the mortgage sector intensified as centralized lenders such as housing corporations entered the market. The UK property bubble was inevitable as the valuations were stretched and lending criteria loosened (Lynn, 2007). Unsecured bad debts and mortgage arrears continued to rise as owners could not keep up payments. The government made attempts in different ways to boost investments in housing. Government intervent ion in housing finance has always existed in every economy through the creation of special circuits for funding flows (Diamond & Lea, 2000). The idea was that investments in dwellings would enhance the banking and the financial sector which would support the growth of the economy. However, political and market forces have been responsible for eroding the reasons for creating the circuits.

Jadelink Market Essay Example for Free

Jadelink Market Essay Comentario en Internet de Harvard Business Review : â€Å"The experienced entrepreneurial chief executive officer (CEO) of Jadelink International Limited strives to create a modern jewelry brand representing a new perception in jade. The CEO has achieved early success of growing sales rapidly and bringing Jadelink products to Shanghai, the trendiest city in China. But the company wants to expand business to the Asian and international luxury goods markets. This requires intensive capital to continue to build up the company scale. This case examines the consideration of venturing a new business in the China market, managing business growth and acquiring venture capital. It also allows discussion of factors leading to a successful entrepreneurship and dealing with business highly associated with industry tradition, people connection and product design and innovation†. Q1: How would you characterize Chung as an entrepreneur? What lessons did he learn in the past few years as an entrepreneur? See the comments on above Kent Chung us the CEO and founder of Jadelink International Limited, company based in HK. He is an accountant that worked for Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) and then he started his own accounting Firm. He likes business and he likes to be an entrepreneur, he: * Sold cosmetics in HK. He learned that he invested a lot in expensive furniture there. * Sold Silk stocks (medias de seda) in Lo Wu * Published Puntonghua (mandarin) Books. * Opened a Cigar shop that currently still operates in a four stars hotel (with profits). * He lost HK $12 millions in an investment of an online education project. In this case, he learned that people want pleasure and looking good, not inspiration or education. The key point is to know the desires and trends of consumers. He summarized the lessons as follows: * Business startup: Team spirit, company infrastructure, work coordination, trust. * Entrepreneur: Hard work, multitasking, flexibility, pressure-resistance, independence * Drivers of a company: Clear business direction and product familiarization. Mastering financial foundation is important. Luxury Market Tea. First Chung bought a tea garden in 2004. Rich Chinese started to buy expensive/premium tea. Problems faced: Farmers knew what leaves are better and they keep them for themselves. Picking tea in an intensive labor, the farmer did well but the motivation dropped quickly once they make enough money to live leisurely. Manage farmers was hard. Jade Business Jade was more suited for Mr. Chang. His wife studied gemology and his younger brother’s father in law (el suegro de su hermano menor) was a veteran of the industry that known everything of sourcing and stones cutting. Jewerly market in China was booming. He founded the company Jadelink International Limited in 2005, with the investment of a Silent Investor, and his wife. Q2: What was the value proposition of Jadelink? Jadelink controlled all the operation flow Material Purchasing and processing. * Product design, manufacturing and retailing took place in different subsidiaries. * Team in HK: Design * Plant in Foshan (Guandong province): Cutting, slicing and polishing. * Several Contractors and Artisans in HK were outsourced (for final phases of the process) in order to avoid dependence of one of them. a) Jadelink conducted market research, ask for customers’ feedback, and design according customers taste. In addition, they have an exclusive technique in stone-cutting enabled Jadelink to use almost 2/3 of a jadeite rough to make the maximum number of jewelry items. b) Chung use to ask to candidates to probe their abilities spontaneously (designers mainly). Chung selected excellent professionals to build up the company. How did Chung succeed in starting up Jadelink? Once the company â€Å"Jadelink† was founded, Chung only took 25 months to set up: * A heading office and retail store in HK * A manufacturing plant in Foshan * 8 retail shops at vantage points in Shanghai * A company website and e-business in Japan * In 2008 there are more than 80 employees. Asi o mas exitoso 3. What did Chung do to establish the company? He has a very clear idea: Jade is precious for Chinese, but if one wants to buy jade jewelry, would the person think of any particular company The initial investment was approximately HK $ 30 million. * Chung $ HK 10million (cash) * Silent Investor $HK10 (cash) * Wong (wife) invested her stock of jade merchandise 4. Outline the current problems facing Jadelink. How did these problems arise? In 2006, Jadelink had sales of a couple of million HK dollars, which increased several times in 2007. In the first two months of 2008, when the sales volume was three times the sales for the same period in 2007, the business broke even. Chung was confident that no potential competitors could emerge fast enough to threaten Jadelinks business in a few years. Therefore, he wished not only to open 30 to 50 shops in all major cities of China but also to promote the brand internationally, expanding to Taiwan, Singapore and Japan, making Jadelink a leading player in the industry. Chung believed that Jadelink was good enough to survive well in the market with this existing scale. However, if he wanted to push the growth of Jadelink forward, he would have to expand the company within five years, which would require an estimated RMB100 million (about 16 million dollars) investment. As Jade industry is capital-intensive, there is too much capital being backlogged in the raw jadeite. The production period usually lasts long, which puts a lot of pressure on capital turnover. Besides, the payback period for a Jadelink shop is two years and it requires about six months for a counter in a department store. As a result, though the company has started to make profit, the existing amount of cash flow is not satisfying enough. More stores and years are required to obtain enough funding to implement Chung’s plan for expansion. If Chung chose to develop at a conservative pace, using the company’s retained earnings, he might miss the opportunity to grow with the expanding China market. Also, potential competitors could also emerge. Therefore, Chung decided to obtain external funding from venture capitalists and other forms of private equity. Internal management problems as the management system was not clear enough. Practices were not recorded, and there is a lack of clear guidelines and training manuals. Q5: What were the issues that caused Chung to obtain external funding? In the eyes of venture capitalists, his company was small and few investors understood the jade industry or recognized the market potential. Chung was concerned they were treaty Jadelink as on their pretty production divisions and simply put it under the existing structure without recognizing his vision and Jadelink’s strengths. Q2: Give recommendations for promoting the expansion of Jadelink. 1. Optimize the internal management system. Jadelink should record practices and set up clear guidelines and training manuals. As Jadelink expands, the company will come across more problems in daily activities. Some of the problems may be similar so there is no need to discuss how to handle it every time. With clear guidelines and training manuals, employees will know how to deal with the affairs under certain circumstances. 2. Attract professional staff. Since the policies〠customers’ preference〠culture and resources are different in varies countries, Jadelink should hire experts who have a good knowledge of each country in order to adjust to and broaden the market. Designers are supposed to know one country’s custom and culture well so that they can manufacture products which cater for the need of customers in different countries. 3. When searching for external funding, Chung had better choose the investors who would respect his effort and vision in addition to focusing on the monetary value of Jadelink. Thus the investors would feel an attachment to the company and be able to relate to their own affections for the company, and they will have the same target as Chung, which is to transform Jadelink into a world-famous brand. Otherwise investors may hold different opinions against the CEO, which would make the operation and management difficult.

The Life Of Walt Disney Film Studies Essay

The Life Of Walt Disney Film Studies Essay When he arrived back to the United States, Walt moved back to Kansas City where he worked on several different jobs as a commercial artist and a cartoonist. One of these jobs was a temporary contract with the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio where he created ads for newspapers, magazines and movie theatres. It was at the Pesmen-Rubin Art Studio where Walt met Ubbe Iwerks with whom he set up Iwerks-Disney Commercial Artists, which Disney soon left and began working at Kansas City Film Ad Company where he made cut out animation commercials. Disney decided he wanted to become an animator, he read a book called Animated Cartoons: How They Are Made, Their Origin and Development through which he learned about cel animation which he found to be much more promising then cutout animation. He was allowed to borrow a camera from work to experiment at home. He recruited fellow Kansas City Film Ad Company employee, Fred Harman as his own first employee and the two secured a deal with local theatre owner F rank L. Newman to screen their cartoons which they titled Laugh-O-Grams. The cartoons were hugely successful in the Kansas City area and from their success Disney was able to set up his own studio also called Laugh-O-Gram and also hire a number of animators including Fred Harman and Ubbe Iwerks. The company soon went bankrupt as the studios profits were unable to pay for the animators high salaries and Walt was unable to manage the money. After the failure of Laugh-O-Grams, Walt set his sights on Hollywood, where he met up with his older brother Roy and using the twos collective funds they set up a cartoon studio. At this stage a New York distributor Margaret Winkler signed a deal for some live-action/animated shorts based upon Alices Wonderland, which Walt had worked on in Kansas City with Iwerks. Walt and Roy had now set up Disney Brothers Studio, a single story building on Hyperion Avenue, LA where the company remained until 1939. The Alice Comedies were quite successful until finishing up in 1927 by which time the focus was mostly on the animated characters in the series rather than the live action Alice, especially Julius, a black cat that resembled Felix the Cat. In 1925, Disney had hired Lillian Bounds to ink and paint celluloid, Walt dated Lillian for a brief time and two got married in the same year. In 1927, Margaret Winklers husband, Charles B. Mintz had taken over her business and ordered Disney Studios to make a new animated series to be distributed through Universal Pictures. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit was the new series and was an instant success. Oswald, a character drawn and created by Iwerks became a popular figure. The company was doing so well that Walt hired 4 more animators. In February 1928, Mintz and Disney met to discuss a new fee for the shorts. Disney was looking for a higher payment but Mintz informed him that not only was he reducing the fee per short but that he had taken most of his main animators (except notably Iwerks) under contract and could begin his own studio if Disney did not accept the cuts and that Universal, not Disney, owned the trademark of Oswald the Rabbit so they could continue to make the films without Disney. Disney declined Charles Mintzs offer and lost the majority of his animation staff and his beloved Oswald the Rabbit. After losing Oswald, Walt Disney felt like he needed a new approach to his cartoons and new character to replace Oswald. The new character was based on a mouse that Walt had adopted as a pet while working in Kansas City. Ub Iwerks took Disneys rough sketches of the mouse, making it easier to animate. The mouse was originally called Mortimer, but later christened Mickey by Lillian Disney who thought the name Mortimer was too stiff and convinced him to go with Mickey instead. Mortimer later became Mickeys rival for Minnie. Mickey first starred in two silent films called Plane Crazy and The Gallopin Gaucho, both these films failed to find a distributor. By this time other film studios in Hollywood had began using sound in their movies and after Walt had seen The Jazz Singer, the first movie with sound, Disney decided to make the fist all-sound, talking and music cartoon with Mickey Mouse starring as Steamboat Willie which was distributed by Cinephone (1928). Eight years later, in 1936 c ritics and fans all over the world agreed that Mickey Mouse was the most recognized figure on the planet. It was Walt himself that provided Mickeys voice until 1946. Although he had stopped actually drawing the cartoons himself in 1927, Disney relied on his animators to implement his ideas which included launching many other successful cartoon characters over this time including Donald Duck, Goofy and Pluto. In 1932, Disney received a special Academy Award for the creation of Mickey Mouse. Disneys Success continued to soar throughout the 30s and 40s, with 1937 1941 being known as The Golden Age of Animation. In 1934 Disney began making plans for a full length feature animation, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs with an estimated budget of $150,000 that ended up costing Disney $1.5 million. The studio actually ran out of money mid 1937 and had to show a rough cut of the film to loan officers at the Bank of America who gave them money to finish production. The premiere on the 21st December 1937 was met with a standing ovation. The film was released in February 1938 and earned over $8 million on its first theatrical release, at a time when the average ticket price was 25 cents. On the success of Snow White, Disney was able to build brand new studios in Burbank, which opened for business in December 1939. Over the next four years, Disney produced Pinocchio, Fantasia, Bambi and Dumbo and early production work had started on Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland. Although the ear ly forties proved difficult for Disney as many of the top animators went on strike. Personal Politics Throughout his life Walt Disney gave off the perfect public persona, but Walt has had many critics during his life and since his death. In the studios in Hyperion Ave, his employees knew him as Uncle Walt which at the time was a term of endearment and it seemed like a privilege to them not to have to call their boss Sir or Mr. Disney. The animators worked long hard hours to meet Disneys high standard of perfection, Everybody loved the studio, everybody joyfully worked over-time putting in all the hours needed without any pay, everybody liked each other and liked Walt Bill Melendez, animator at Disney Studios 1937-1941. But when the studios moved to the new location at Burbank, Disney introduced a high degree of specialization among his work force transforming animation into a production line process, here at last was the rationally planned factory Disney had dreamed of. Walt showed off the studio is a film called the reluctant dragon in which smiley white coated worked go happily abo ut their day. But reality at the new studios wasnt all that it seemed. The workers had been promised that the move from Hyperion was good for them as well as Walt, but this was not the case, in fact some workers fell that is was in some ways a deterioration in their working conditions. Marie Beardsley was one of the artists who made the move everything was segregated, everything got too big and too impersonal and I think thats where the trouble started. Through using this factory like method in the studio had created a hierarchy of jobs, at the top being the animators, all male and all hand picked by Disney beneath them was hundred of inkers and painters, who coloured in the thousands of pictures that made each scene. They were all women. Marie Beardsley said it probably never even occurred to Walt to put a man in the inking and paintingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ That was demeaning work, she recall supervisors walking around and standing behind and other women to see how well they were inking and how fast they were painting. They were timed to see were they worth keeping on. Bill Melendez recalls Walt saying that women were Ok to be used in a menial capacity because once they reached the age of thirty the hand got shaky so it was time to get rid of them. Things had changed in the new studio and Disneys increasingly tyrannical style of management meant for some that the words Uncle Walt took on a much more sinister meaning. Disney was unusually straight-laced for a Hollywood big shot; Marie Beardsley recalls a memo being sent around to all the girls in inking and painting saying that The married men in Disney were happily married and we want all of the girls to understand that, he disliked any sort of sexuality or even socialising amongst his employees. He and Lillian were together for forty years until his death and no one at Disney Studios recalls him ever showing any interest in any other women. He actually told one of his animators that he loved Mickey Mouse more than any girl hed ever known. On Walts 35th Birthday two of the animators made a film of Mickey and Minnie consummating their relationship, at the end of the film Walt stood up and said that it was great animation, he then asked who had made it, the animators who made it stood up and Walt fired them on the spot. Case Study: Disney Corporation vs Fitzpatrick In 2001, Denise and Francis Fitzpatrick, a young professional couple from Ireland did the impossible and defeated The Walt Disney Company in a legal battle over the rights to the name of their character Piggley Pooh for a TV series they wanted to develop. In 1999 Denise and Francis received a letter from Disney saying that the company was opposing their application for the trademark of Piggley Pooh in Europe because of Disneys character Winnie The Pooh. The Fitzpatricks faced an almost 3 year long battle with one of the biggest entertainment corporations in the world. In which they became emotionally, physically and financially broken. Winnie the Pooh is character from books written by A.A Milne in 1926.in 1930 Steven Slesinger purchased the rights to Winnie the Pooh from Milne for a $1000 advance and 66% of Slesingers income, by November 1931 Slesinger had turned Winnie the pooh into a $50 million a year business. Walt Disney bought Winnie the Pooh off Slesinger in 1961 and was paying twice yearly royalties to A.A Milnes beneficiaries until 2001 when they paid a lump sum of $350 million. The lump sum was spread out between the Royal Literary Society, the Westminster School and the Garrick Club and family of A.A Milne. Winnie the Pooh now raises at least $6 billion revenues for Disney each year. As a young girl on her grandmothers farm in Co Meath, Denise had a fascination with the pigs that were there, she used to visit them every time she was on her grandmothers farm and loved to make up stories about them. The main character in all her stories was Piggley Pooh. Denise says she had never heard of Winnie the Pooh or Piglet or any of the animals in 100 Acre Wood during her childhood in the 1960s and 1970s, like most Irish children she read Enid Blyton and other English wirters. Her imagination ran wild throughout her childhood as to what this marvellous little Pigley Pooh would be getting up to. Denise also had a love for stories from Celtic mythology and old Irish seanchaà ­s throughout her life. This is what she wanted the Piggley Pooh TV series to be based on, a simple story for children, with a moral lesson behind it. Disney were adamant the Fitzpatricks stop the production of the Piggley Pooh TV series, or at least change the name, something Denise was thoroughly against, she would not even hear of having the h at the end of pooh dropped. After the letter in January in 1999, they decided not to let the giant corporation ruin Denises childhood dreams. Piggley Pooh was already a registered trademark in the U.S, but they were objecting to the name becoming a registered trademark in Japan and Europe. Francis met with their Trademark Agents who were quite confident that they has a pretty strong case. Disney were trying to prove that their ownership of the name Winnie the Pooh was being stolen by the use of the word pooh in Piggley Poohs name. In 2000, Denise and Francis flew over to L.A for a meeting with Steve Ackerman, Disneys chief counsel worldwide. After many attempts to postpone their meeting, Francis arrived at the Burbank Studios where Ackerman showed up 40 minutes late for their meeting without a word of apology. Ackerman straight out told Francis that the problem they had was one of theft, they had stolen two names from Disney. Pooh and Piglet. Although they had slightly altered Piglet, they had still put it side by side with Pooh, and hoped to make millions from it. This is what the Disney Corporation thought about Francis and his wife and family and it looked as if they were not going to stop at anything to get their names back. The meeting was a hostile one, with Ackerman claiming that Disney could prove that there were Winnie the Pooh books in circulation in Ireland at the time of Denises childhood. Francis was called a thief many times and an Irish bastard. But things came to a head when Ackerman threatened the Fitzpatricks children Listen Francisà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Youre not going to get the better of the Disney Corporation. Nobody gets the better of Disney. We got the recourses. We got the time. We got right on our side. Well go after you all around the world and bankrupt you. Youre a family man. You got children. You need to think again Youve got young childrenà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ You and your wife have to look after them, not waste their future Francis flipped telling the corporate giant never to mention his children again. Telling him that Disney were the thieves in all this, stealing peoples dreams, peoples rights to tell stories and stealing something that had been a part of Denises life since she was a child. After this outburst, Ackerman realised that the Fitzpatricks were serious about this and would not be backing down anytime soon. The two men continued the meeting in a civil manner, with Disney proposing a settlement out of court of $500,000 for the Fitzpatricks to give up the Piggey Pooh name. They refused this offer and met the Disney Company in the European Trademark courts in Alicante, Spain in January 2001 but no oral hearing happened, it was done behind closed doors. Three months later Francis has a phone call from their Trademark Agents telling him it was good news. They had won, Disneys objection had been overruled and they were entitled to registration as owner of the trademark. But this wasnt the end for the battle for the name Piggley Pooh. In March 2002, Royal Bank of Scotland, the bank funding the TV series decided that the name Pooh must come out of the name Piggley Pooh because of Disneys powerful stance in the marketplace was too threatening to the brand of Piggley Pooh. If a Piggley Pooh soft toy were on sale for $10 in childrens shops, Disney would sell Winnie the Pooh for $8. The Fitzpatricks were back to square one. Although they had beat the Disney Corporation in the courts they had not fully won. Out of this Piggley Winks was born and turned into a successful animated TV series.

Dan Rather :: essays research papers

Before I begin, I'd like to thank the person who made it possible for me to be here with you all today. President Bill Clinton. By scheduling his trip to Moscow just so, I had enough of a pause between my trips to Japan and Oklahoma city and Russia that it was possible to make it to Hartford today. I'd also like to thank John Boyer. Somehow he got it into his head that I like Twain -- which I do -- and that I might know something about him -- which I don't. At least I am honest about it. However, you may want to consider that Mark Twain and I share certain unshakable philosphical similarities. We both lived in Connecticut for a while. We both like to fish. We both like to play hooky. We both like cigars. But Mark Twain's wife allowed him to light his cigars. (You can only imagine the sort of career I might've had if my wife let me light my cigars.owever, like the President, I am only permitted to chew mine.) I'm not unaware that the giving of lectures on Mark Twain is more commonly the sphere of academics. To be enjoyed by other academics. Academics can ask questions such as, "Was Huck black?" To which the rest of us would merely reply, "No." Academics prefer debate over simple questions. Academics aren't like you and me. At least, they're not like me. Such things are way over my head. I am a proud graduate of Sam Houston State Teachers College Huntsville, Texas. While those of us who went there know it to be the Yale or UConn of our part of the world, we're perfectly well aware that most people this far north have never heard of the place. Sam Houston State has about as much ivy growing on it as your average Burger King or McDonald's. I say all these things to underscore one thing. There may be great experts on the work of Mark Twain -- perhaps there are several in this room. But very few if any such great experts are graduates of Sam Houston State Teachers College. And I am not such a one. It's with that understanding that I proceed today. I don't pretend any expertise in the works of Mark Twain. I tend not to interpret much. I enjoy. In preparing for my visit I did a lot of reading and re-reading, and I did a lot of laughing out loud.

Hurricane Sandy: What Went Wrong Essay

Hurricane Sandy introduced herself to the United States in October of 2012. The super storm began its course in the Southeast, and moved all the way up to the Mid-Atlantic. The aftermath of this storm caused massive amounts of devastation to homes, businesses and shore areas. It left families grieving for those who were lost, and left a nation feeling sorry for those that were now homeless. The preceding actions that took place after the storm are what might be remembered most about this devastating storm. Epic Failure The post storm relief effort of Hurricane Sandy or lack of it is what is making news today. The lack of both a tactical and strategic plan from important leaders of our country has left victims of the storm still struggling to pick up the pieces nearly three months affect the storm. With strategic planning, â€Å"issue x is staring us in the face and we need some way to help us think about its resolution, or else we will be badly hurt.† (Bryson, 2011) But months after the storm it seems that our leaders are still thinking and not reacting. In parts of Long Island, many are still without power. New York councilmen, Mark Cuthbertson was quoted saying, â€Å"This was among other things an epic failure of communication.† (Cuthbertson, 2012) A failure of communication all comes back to a lack of planning. Everyone knew this storm was coming and the possible effects it could have so there really shouldn’t have been an excuse for a lack of communication. A benefit concert held at the famous Madison Square Garden was held to give relief to those affect by the storm. The concert producers announced the benefit performance â€Å"raised about $50 million for people affected by Hurricane Sandy.† (Mckinley, 2012) To this day however, no one really knows where that money has gone. Perhaps there giving little by little to victims but not a significant amount to start the rebuilding process. Everyone has begun to assume where the money has gone. This money was raised to help the victims out immediately, but no one has seen anything yet. Organizations like FEMA have also made mistakes after hurricane Sandy. While FEMA did give some emergency checks to some victims, the process to get any money from the organization was faulty. Many of the victims lost a lot of property if not everything. FEMA seemed to be giving a lot of the victims the run around. They were asking for documentation that many lost in the storm, which allowed FEMA to slow down the process of giving this relief money. Instead, Joel Rose of the National Public Radio reported, â€Å"FEMA is encouraging victims to apply for a low-interest loan from the small business administration.† (Rose, 2012) Many victims choose not to do this, because they were out of work and would have to pay back the loan. Relief efforts were also interrupted by politics. President Obama passed a bill giving 50 billion dollars in relief money. Many Republicans voted against this bill because they felt it puts the country into more debt. Republicans argued, â€Å"it’s spending that’s traditionally been untouchable, but it’s still spending.† (Keith 2013) They agreed to vote for the bill as long as the bill was offset by cuts elsewhere. Conclusion/ Summary The hesitation of the United States leaders in regards to planning are the key to what went wrong after Hurricane Sandy. The inability to show us where relief money is going has caused uproar. The faulty application process of FEMA has caused more headaches then relief. If money was raised it should be spent and spent on relief immediately. A plan should have been outlined and shown to the victims with a timeline of when, how and where the relief effort and rebuilding will occur. Hesitation only gives doubt to Americans, and that seems to be what is happening. References Bryson, John. M. Strategic Planning For Public and Nonprofit Organizations (4th ed.). Jossey-Bass, 2011 Cuthbertson, Mark. N.P.R. Group Probes Delayed Power Restoration Post Sandy, December, 2012, http://www.npr.org/2012/12/12/167029241/commission-probes-n-y-power-loss-after-hurricane-sandy Keith, Tamara. N.P.R. House Takes Up Sandy Relief Bill After It Was Dropped By Previous Congress, January, 2013, http://www.npr.org/2013/01/15/169452224/house-takes-up-sandy-relief-bill-after-it-was-dropped-by-previous-congress Mckinley, James. The New York Times. 12-12-12 Producers Say Concert Brought In $50 Million, December, 2012, http://artsbeat.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/19/12-12-12-producers-say-concert-brought-in-50-million/ Rose, Joel. N.P.R. Some Sandy Victims Tied Up With Bureaucracy, November, 2012, http://www.npr.org/2012/11/15/165233716/some-sandy-victims-tied-up-with-bureaucracy

The Chernobyl Nuclear Accident

The Chernobyl Nuclear Accident The Chernobyl disaster was a fire at a Ukrainian nuclear reactor, releasing substantial radioactivity within and outside the region. The consequences to human and environmental health are still felt to this day. The V.I. Lenin Memorial Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station was located in Ukraine, near the town of Pripyat, which had been built to house power station employees and their families. The power station was in a wooded, marshy area near the Ukraine-Belarus border, approximately 18 kilometers northwest of the city of Chernobyl and 100 km north of Kiev, the capital of Ukraine. The Chernobyl Nuclear Power Station included four nuclear reactors, each capable of producing one gigawatt of electric power. At the time of the accident, the four reactors produced about 10 percent of the electricity used in Ukraine. Construction of the Chernobyl power station began in the 1970s. The first of the four reactors was commissioned in 1977, and Reactor No. 4 began producing power in 1983. When the accident occurred in 1986, two other nuclear reactors were under construction. The Chernobyl Nuclear Accident On Saturday, ​April 26, 1986, the operating crew planned to test whether the Reactor No. 4 turbines could produce enough energy to keep the coolant pumps running until the emergency diesel generator was activated in case of an external power loss. During the test, at 1:23:58 am local time, power surged unexpectedly, causing an explosion and driving temperatures in the reactor to more than 2,000 degrees Celsius- melting the fuel rods, igniting the reactor’s graphite covering, and releasing a cloud of radiation into the atmosphere. The precise causes of the accident are still uncertain, but it is generally believed that the series of incidents that led to the explosion, fire, and nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl was caused by a combination of reactor design flaws and operator error. Loss of Life and Illness By mid-2005, fewer than 60 deaths could be linked directly to Chernobyl- mostly workers who were exposed to massive radiation during the accident or children who developed thyroid cancer. Estimates of the eventual death toll from Chernobyl vary widely. A 2005 report by the Chernobyl Forum- eight U.N. organizations- estimated the accident eventually would cause about 4,000 deaths. Greenpeace places the figure at 93,000 deaths, based on information from the Belarus National Academy of Sciences. The Belarus National Academy of Sciences estimates 270,000 people in the region around the accident site will develop cancer as a result of Chernobyl radiation and that 93,000 of those cases are likely to be fatal. Another report by the Center for Independent Environmental Assessment of the Russian Academy of Sciences found a dramatic increase in mortality since 1990- 60,000 deaths in Russia and an estimated 140,000 deaths in Ukraine and Belarus- probably due to Chernobyl radiation. Psychological Effects of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident The biggest challenge facing communities still coping with the fallout of Chernobyl is the psychological damage to 5 million people in Belarus, Ukraine, and Russia. The psychological impact is now considered to be Chernobyls biggest health consequence, said Louisa Vinton, of the UNDP. People have been led to think of themselves as victims over the years, and are therefore more apt to take a passive approach toward their future rather than developing a system of self-sufficiency.† Exceptionally high levels of psychological stress have been reported from the regions around the abandoned nuclear power station.   Countries and Communities Affected Seventy percent of the radioactive fallout from Chernobyl landed in Belarus, affecting more than 3,600 towns and villages, and 2.5 million people. The radiation-contaminated soil, which in turn contaminates crops that people rely on for food. Surface and ground waters were contaminated, and in turn plants and wildlife were (and still are) affected. Many regions in Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine are likely to be contaminated for decades. Radioactive fallout carried by the wind was later found in sheep in the UK, on clothing worn by people throughout Europe, and in rain in the United States. Chernobyl Status and Outlook The Chernobyl accident cost the former Soviet Union hundreds of billions of dollars, and some observers believe it may have hastened the collapse of the Soviet government. After the accident, Soviet authorities resettled more than 350,000 people outside the worst areas, including all 50,000 people from nearby Pripyat, but millions of people continue to live in contaminated areas. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, many projects intended to improve life in the region were abandoned, and young people began to move away to pursue careers and build new lives in other places. In many villages, up to 60 percent of the population is made up of pensioners, said Vasily Nesterenko, director of the Belrad Radiation Safety and Protection Institute in Minsk. In most of these villages, the number of people able to work is two or three times lower than normal. After the accident, Reactor No. 4 was sealed, but the Ukranian government allowed the other three reactors to keep operating because the country needed the power they provided. Reactor No. 2 was shut down after a fire damaged it in 1991, and Reactor No. 1 was decommissioned in 1996. In November 2000, the Ukranian president shut down Reactor No. 3 in an official ceremony that finally closed the Chernobyl facility. But Reactor No. 4, which was damaged in the 1986 explosion and fire, is still full of radioactive material encased inside a concrete barrier, called a sarcophagus, that is aging badly and needs to be replaced. Water leaking into the reactor carries radioactive material throughout the facility and threatens to seep into the groundwater. The sarcophagus was designed to last about 30 years, and current designs would create a new shelter with a lifetime of 100 years. But radioactivity in the damaged reactor would need to be contained for 100,000 years to ensure safety. That is a challenge not only for today  but for many generations to come.

Analytical Essay on Native American Health Beginnings of Substance Abuse

Analytical Essay on Native American Health Beginnings of Substance Abuse Native American Heath issues predominantly stemmed from the beginning of western colonization. In the past Indians roamed free, before the interruption of western civilizations they suffered from diseases that were common to them. Because of the fact that the diseases were common to them their bodies had also built up immunity. In this paper I intent to discuss the coming of western civilization to Indian country and how this affected the health of Native Americans and in many ways incorporated drug and alcohol abuse. When westerners came they brought many things with them, some of the many things they brought with them were diseases, which Native Americans had no immunity. They also introduce alcohol, which was also new to Native Americans, and they also didn’t have as high a Torrance or understanding of the substance that westerners had, which resulted in alcoholism to many. â€Å"In 1892, sharp-dealing speculators had extracted a ninety-nine-year lease to Salamancea’s site from the headmen of the Senecas, whose reservation snakes along the narrow valley of the Allegheny River. The way they accomplished it was by sequestering the Senecas in a local hotel and lubricating them with alcohol until they agreed to sign.† (introduction Brodewich) In many early federal dealings alcohol was used to reach an agreement between the Native Americans and the westerners in an attempt for the westerners to achieve their objective, ownership of the land. When western settlers came they brought alcohol, which was new to the Native Americans, they didn’t know anything about the substance and didn’t have the high tolerance the western settlers had. Today it is suggested that alcoholism is a biological disease that is inherited, Native Americans are reluctant to adopt this thought because in their view they see it as an excuse or a way of saying there is no cure. Also with the coming of western settlers came diseases that such as chicken pox and measles. These diseases didn’t mean much To the western settlers, they had built up immunities to the many of the illnesses they brought, but for the native Americans these illnesses whipped out thousands. Other diseases that thrived through Native American culture were S.T.D’s among those were syphilis. After being transferred to reservations, and finding the land barren, many Indians could not farm. The area also did not have animals for the Native American to hunt for food. Many of the Native women were forced to sell their bodies to solder’s in order to get food to survive. This caused the wide spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Today certain diseases and conditions are known to affect the Native American population with more frequency and/or severity than other populations. It is important for Native Americans to be informed and educated on these issues so that they may better understand how these disease processes may alter or impact on their lives.