text:
Airlines are on the brink of bankruptcy — what happens to your voucher, travel miles and airline credit card if they go belly up?
The financial horizon looks uncertain for the airline industry.
Air travel has largely ground to a halt as people have grown wary about potentially exposing themselves to coronavirus. Many airlines have resorted to flying mostly empty flights — although in some cases, passengers have complained about crowded planes, as in the case of a recent United Airlines UAL, -5.04% flight.
Carriers' stocks have tanked in response. Warren Buffett recently revealed that Berkshire BRK.A, -0.61% had sold off all of its holdings in the airline sector, including stock in Delta DAL, -4.45%, American Airlines AAL, -4.45% and Southwest LUV, -3.25%.
" 'If one of the nation's biggest airlines went belly-up, it would create an absolute tidal wave of refund requests, and it is unrealistic to think that banks would grant them all.' "
— Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree
Boeing BA, -2.86% Chief Executive David Calhoun suggested that a major airline will "most likely" go under as a result of the coronavirus pandemic during a recent appearance on NBC's "Today" show. He added that it could take three to five years for the industry to recover to the passenger levels seen before the pandemic.
Read more: Airlines are issuing billions of dollars in vouchers — but can you still get a cash refund for coronavirus-related flight cancellations?
A recent study estimated that airlines have distributed $10 billion in vouchers since coronavirus reached U.S. shores.
Depending on how the bankruptcy is handled, ticket-holders may or may not be in the clear. Often companies use bankruptcy as a legal tool to restructure its debts — in other words, an airline that goes bankrupt won't necessarily be liquidated.
"Alitalia, for example, has been in some stage of bankruptcy proceedings since 2017 yet has continued to fly," said Ted Rossman, industry analyst at CreditCards.com on Tuesday. Colombia's Avianca airline, one of Latin America's largest airlines, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday. But he added, "Avianca hopes to get back in the air once the coronavirus pandemic subsides."
Here's what consumers need to know:
No guarantee of a refund
There's no guarantee that a liquidated airline will directly reimburse would-be passengers for the cost of their airfare.
Investors who own corporate debt and stock would be paid back first, said Sara Rathner, travel and credit-card expert at NerdWallet. In other words. That, she added, "means you're out of luck."
Customers, meanwhile, are considered "unsecured creditors," said Paul Hudson, president of consumer-advocacy group FlyersRights.org. The FAA requires airlines to have insurance for this, he said, but a payout could take a while if it comes at all.
Vouchers don't have cash value
In lieu of refunds, the vast majority of airlines have provided travelers who pro-actively cancel trips because of coronavirus with vouchers or credits. "They would lose their money," Chris Elliot, a consumer advocate, said.
Travel vouchers don't actually have cash value. As a result, if a traveler is worried about their airline going under before all is said and done, they may be better off booking a trip using their voucher and then taking out a travel insurance policy on that trip that covers bankruptcies, Rathner said.
Your credit-card company could bail you out
You can request a refund or charge-back from your credit-card company if the airline goes belly up, experts said. (Debit cards may also provide some protection in these cases, but the claims process with credit cards is generally smoother, Rossman said.)
These requests can be made online or by phone. Making a request is no guarantee of receiving a refund, warned Matt Schulz, chief credit analyst at LendingTree TREE, -0.83%.
"It certainly doesn't hurt to ask, but you shouldn't consider it a slam dunk that you'll get your way," he said. "If one of the nation's biggest airlines went belly-up, it would create an absolute tidal wave of refund requests, and it is unrealistic to think that banks would grant them all."
Timing is another critical issue. Under the Fair Credit Billing Act, consumers only have 90 days after your purchase to file a claim, Elliott said. "Banks sometimes will give you more time, but technically you only have three months," Elliott said.
Also see:Nearly 1 in 3 Americans are planning to take a road trip this summer, as low gas prices outweigh coronavirus fears
Your travel-insurance policy may not protect you
If an airline liquidation hampers your travel plans, your travel-insurance policy may cover some of the costs. The key lies in the fine print.
"Look at the policy's terms and conditions to ensure it covers financial default, and make sure the airline you're flying is a covered supplier," Rathner said.
Frequent-flyer miles may be useless
"If an airline goes out of business, it would be bad for its elite-status members and frequent flyer-mile holders, but they still might be able to get some value," Rossman said.
If the airline ends up merging with a surviving carrier through the bankruptcy process, those miles would likely be converted into the new airline's program.
" If the airline ends up merging with a surviving carrier through the bankruptcy process, those miles would likely be converted into the new airline's program. "
Some airlines have split their loyalty program into separate companies, Rossman said, which could survive the bankruptcy. Many carriers also have "status match" programs to attract frequent-flyer members from other airlines. These programs will give you the equivalent status, and surviving airlines could use these programs to attract elite members from the defunct carrier.
But retaining frequent-flyer miles or status is far from guaranteed. "Rewards are not considered property, and can be eliminated by the airline program at their discretion," said Brett Holzhauer, travel and credit-card expert at LendingTree.
If an airline looks like it will go out of business, people who have frequent-flyer miles should consider using them for flights or converting them into other purchases such as merchandise or gift cards, Holzhauer said.
Read also:Vacation real-estate markets are 'toast' because of the pandemic as Airbnb owners rush to offload their homes, Redfin CEO says
You must pay off your airline credit card
Many people sign up for co-branded credit cards from airlines to get attractive perks, including travel credit rewards, but just because an airline goes out of business doesn't mean you can avoid paying off your credit-card bill.
"Retail-card delinquencies spiked a few years ago along with store closures, with the theory that some customers felt they no longer owed a closed store like Toys 'R' Us," Rossman said. "Unfortunately for those with credit-card debt, you do still owe the card company if the airline/store closes, and there can be major consequences for your credit score if you don't pay."
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When you think of prime beach season, winter probably isn't what you had in mind. With winter storms and changing tides working together to uncover hidden shipwrecks, reefs and tidepools, the winter months are the ideal time to enjoy Lompoc beaches in a whole new way.
Here is our guide to exploring beaches in Lompoc during the winter.
The surge in swells during the winter slowly scrape the sand away, uncovering an expansive layer of rock and reef that forms natural tidepools. These pools are home to a vast array of plants and animals like octopuses, sea slugs, sea stars, crabs and more!
People also enjoy; swimming, biking, hiking, surfing, camping, sea shell hunting and more at this picturesque beach.
The best way to get to Jalama Beach is to take a 30-minute drive from Lompoc down Jalama Road by car. Along the way, you will be surrounded by rolling hills, vineyards and working ranches.
Parking at the beach is $10 per day.
Jalama Beach is fully equipped with all the amenities you could need during your trip. Refuel with world famous Jalama burger or other delicious snacks at Jalama Beach Store and Grill. Grab some groceries or sunscreen at the convenience store or bring some friends and hangout at the picnic tables and fire pits.
Dogs are welcome on the beach for a nominal $3 charge and must always be kept on a leash.
The swells that make Jalama a tide pooling wonderland uncover a different kind of magic at Surf Beach.
Over 110 years ago, the largest wooden merchant ship "Sybil Marston" was sunk by the punishing waves and currents off the coast of Lompoc. The remains of the Sybil Marston washed up on the shores of what is now Surf Beach and over time, was covered by sand.
On the occasional winter, when conditions are ideal, the wreckage is uncovered and ready to be explored.
Surf Beach is open from September-March and is accessible by car and the local Amtrak station for visitors who want to make a day trip and skip the traffic.
The shipwreck is located about a mile down from the beach entrance.
Parking at Surf Beach is free.
Surf Beach has restrooms onsite. No animals are allowed on the beach.


Opus Bank's portfolio of products, services and solutions are particularly well-suited to support small to mid-sized businesses with revenues from $5 million to $100 million and more.
Opus Bank has commercial business banking resources to help your business grow and expand. We believe in building long-term business partner relationships, so you can count on us to be there as you grow.
We know every business is unique, which is why our "common sense underwriting" is designed to help you capitalize on the opportunities that make sense for your business. Our bankers are experts at finding the right financing solution for your business.
Opus Bank has an extensive array of capital financing to help you achieve your business goals and aspirations.
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Small Business Loans - As a Small Business Administration Preferred Lender, Opus Bank can help you secure the critical funds you need.


The owner of this Chevy Camaro came to us looking to boost his security, so we armed him with a remote start. With the Viper Remote start system model 3305V, the Camaro will now have a security system that pages the customer's remote if one of the zones got triggered on his alarm system and installed a radio in the globe box. Front speakers went on the front doors, along with a nice set of Kenwood speakers model KFC-1695PS, and the Performance Series 6×9's model KFC-6995PS were installed in the rear deck. The finished results are wonderful! Professional installation of this Chevy Camaro remote start by the tech crew at Audio Express 1506 N. Lee Trevino Drive, El Paso, TX 79936 (915) 591-2690 your car audio custom installation experts. We can recommend and install a remote start to fit your car and budget.


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Q: Hetzner cloud : route traffic internal when using public ips i have the following example hosts:
Host A:
public IP: 200.0.0.1
private IP: 10.0.0.1
Host B:
public IP: 200.0.0.2
private IP: 10.0.0.2
If host A is pinging 200.0.0.2 it will use the external gateway, see a bunch of hops trough hetzners network and arrives finally on host B.
Is there an easy way to re-route the traffic to 10.0.0.2 what would only be 1-2 hops?
If host A is pinging 10.0.0.2 it works as expected.
I just would like to fight any mistakes where the public ip or even the public hostname is used instead of the local ip.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


We need somewhere to play, say families in Gloucester.
Parents in the Elmbridge area have come together to launch a new fundraising campaign to get a desperately needed play area.
The Elmbridge area of the city is short of good play space and equipment for young families.
Gloucester City Council agrees and has already installed a popular 'trim trail' in Armscroft Park in Elmbridge.
It's proved popular and a real destination for families in the area. So, now Friends of Elmbridge residents group want to expand facilities with a new play area and state-of-the-art swings and slides.
Friends of Elmbridge is appealing to people to back their campaign to get more facilities for families in the area.
"The Trim Trail has been great and really well received," said Sarah Fawyer, chair of Friends of Elmbridge.
They want to install equipment suitable for two to four year olds, and then for children aged five and up.
"It's going to be a centre point for families in the park. Families are already meeting here at the trim trail for picnics because it's a safe fenced area.
"This area is very under provided for in terms of play spaces.
"We want this community playground to bring all members of the community together.
To donate visit the group's online fundraising page .


In recent times Bangladeshi model Shokh scandal video release in internet and some media sectors. Some blog site release video scandal of Shokh. This scandal picture accelerates only one cell phone to another cell phone. But any website does not update this video clip because probably this video is false. Some says that girl was Bd model Shokh scandal and some one say this is not Shokh this video scandal clip only two minutes and two seconds. But who was that person with Shokh no body can not say. Shokh strongly refuse this video scandal and say that this is bad publicity and not my scandal.


Welcome to our little reading room, Heikki Hietala!
Tell us about yourself, where you're from/grew up/live now, what you do for fun, if you work at "day job" what do you do that may impact your writing, favorite pet/color/movie /book/actress/actor—you know, all that stuff that makes Heikki interesting!
I was born in Helsinki, Finland, but since I moved to Jyväskylä in Central Finland by the age of six, I consider myself a centralist.
Life then took me to Dublin, Ireland for a year's stint at Microsoft, where I translated Excel into Finnish (as one of a team of course–it's a huge project), then back to Finland to work as a project manager in IT localization and new media, then as a webmaster, and on to running a mobile phone language testing lab. For the past 10 years I have been a Senior Lecturer in IT at the HAAGA-HELIA University of Applied Sciences. I love teaching.
I'm a voracious reader; much of it is non-fiction, because I marvel at how clever people can be, and how well some authors can write text that takes complex issues and delivers a great reading experience. Historical fiction is a staple too, as is sci-fi.
But my great love is British humor. I am a Monty Python fan since 1975, when I was issued a C-cassette with "The Album Of The Soundtrack Of The Trailer Of The Film Of Monty Python And The Holy Grail". I listened to it and was hooked for life. I can still recite large portions of the movie by heart, and I have the script in book form. Still, the best Monty Python sketch is "Eric the Half Bee". Look it up on Youtube if you don't believe me.
Hey, another computer geek! I worked for the Big Blue computer company and used to live in Seattle—home of Microsoft. When and why did you begin writing?
I've always liked writing, even in school. Still, I did not consider it even to be a hobby of mine, like I'd say reading is. But it just happened that I got this idea of a chance encounter one fine morning at the office, and over a longish coffee break, wrote it down. I called the file Chapter One, just because it had to have a name. This was in 1996, and over the course of twelve years, I researched and wrote a historical fiction novel, "Tulagi Hotel". It was always on the back burner–I was busy with family life with two lively sons and a job that made me travel very much, but it was nice to write of aerial combat while sitting comfortably in a 747 at 36,000 feet. Finishing it in 2008 was something I never thought of when starting out.
I write historical fiction, speculative fiction (also called weird fiction), and sci-fi. I aim to become a versatile writer who is able to write well in a variety of genres.
My process can be called haphazard. I get ideas and then I sift through them to see what genre would be good for an idea, also whether it is a short story or should it be expanded into a novel. This process has worked fairly well, since I have had Tulagi published and also a short story collection called "Filtered Light and Other Stories" (soon out again from Fingerpress in the UK). I have two books in the works as well as some 20 short stories either finished or nearing completion.
For "Tulagi" I used Excel to stay on top of the numerous locations, events, and people that feature in the book, but the setting was World War II and a lot was going on. Usually I just write, and during editing I weed out stuff that doesn't fit.
There are many people I look up to: Nevil Shute Norway, Robert Heinlein, Roald Dahl, and a bunch of Finns no one outside of Finland has heard of because they remain untranslated. In any case I admire writers who can deliver a solid story and bring the reader into the world he or she builds.
That would have to be a short story called "The Summerhouse". My father passed away in 2008 and a few months after that I wrote the 2,800 word shortie, which has since appeared in many anthologies, magazines, and my collection. That story is very personal and it enabled me to distance myself from grieving, so it was a healing experience; it also unlocked a hidden well of short stories I had in me, and in the span of six months, I wrote a dozen more stories.
Our writing can be very healing. Where does your character inspiration come from?
I almost always go for the little guy. The world is a complex system and all of us are set in it with our individual strengths and weaknesses, and we all try to make the most of it. This is the heart of "Tulagi Hotel" too, where a country boy is given a fighter aircraft and then sent to duel with the Japanese across the Pacific. The same theme appears in my short stories too.
There's a book called "Sinuhe the Egyptian" by a Finn, Mika Waltari. Whenever I become bogged down in telling, not showing, I read a little of his magnificent book, and it sets me free again to show the world through the characters I create.
The best is getting reviews for "Tulagi" and the shorties where they tell me my writing has made a difference–a genuine WW2 veteran actually reviewed it on Amazon and said it made him go back to the Pacific after all these years. Another said my writing moved her to tears, which is about the finest thing I could hope for.
The worst so far is having a Finnish publisher read "Tulagi Hotel", then getting invited to their office, and then being delivered a ten minute tirade on how preposterous it was of me to think I could write a book in English. I have no idea where that came from, but it did leave a scar.
You don't get a review like that one when your work is subpar, in any language! What's the best/worst writing advice you ever got?
The best is from Dan Holloway, the founder of Eight Cuts Gallery and other independent writing enterprises: he said I must always listen to myself and just write what I feel inside. Not writing in my native language, which is Finnish, this has sometimes been a little hard, but with his support I've plodded on.
The worst would be any advice from any author who says–do this and you will be a success. It doesn't go that way. People get lucky all the time with the oddest books, and good authors go unnoticed. All you can do is do what Dan said.
"Tulagi Hotel" is on Amazon, and "Filtered Light" will be there too in a few weeks. I don't have the new cover for it yet, but this is the new cover for "Tulagi Hotel".
I would be thrilled if they would look into my short stories and like the variety of themes I have handled. Another thing I'd like them to know is that I spent an awful amount of time in doing research for "Tulagi Hotel", up to and including finding out how many pilots I can get drunk if I give them a Jerry can of torpedo fuel, which was 200 proof alcohol. You see, I myself like books with the background work properly done.
I see! (Laughing here) Tell us something about yourself that your readers don't already know.
In relation to my height (6'3") I have lung capacity of 130%, and I can blow a peak flow exhaust meter well into the high red. In the Army I had trouble convincing a nurse I was not fooling her by blowing into the meter with my lips closed–she'd never seen the meter off the scale.
Calling you a trickster, as opposed to being told you're a big bag of wind? (More laughter here) Where can readers find out more about you and your work?
Thank you for being with us today, Heikki. We've enjoyed getting to know more about you and your writing!
Hey, many thanks for running this interview!


Purpose: Fuel for my Dreams!!!!
Fighting Like a Small Blackbird!!!!
Have you ever had a conversation with someone and you thought you were on the same page (in agreement with a certain topic), but then they say something or do something that you realize "What the What", Wait!! Wait!!! That is not what I was talking about or the point I was trying to make….
Which Lion is fighting For Your Purpose?


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Q: Create a shared IEqualityComparer I'm doing some LINQ which requires a custom comparer, so I created a new class implementing IEqualityComparer. However, when I use it, I have to create an instance of it each time.
Dim oldListOnly = oldList.Except(newList, New MyEqualityComparer)
Dim newListOnly = newList.Except(oldList, New MyEqualityComparer)

I may be misunderstanding how .NET works, but it seems wasteful to create a new comparer each time. I really just want one instance (the equivalent of static in C++/C#).
So I tried creating a "static" class, which in vb.net is a module. But got an 'Implements' not valid in Modules error.
I then tried making the Equals and GetHashCode function shared methods on my class, but got this error: Methods that implement interface members cannot be declared 'Shared'.
Any ideas how to accomplish my goal here? Or am I simply misunderstanding what's going behind the scenes?

A: Why not simply do
Dim comparer = New MyEqualityComparer
Dim oldListOnly = oldList.Except(newList, comparer )
Dim newListOnly = newList.Except(oldList, comparer )

A: Your understanding is correct, although the waste is unlikely to be noticeable.  For your situation, you could use the singleton pattern, which usually goes something like this:
Public Class MyEqualityComparer
    Implements IEqualityComparer(Of whatever)

    Private Sub New()
        'no outsider creation
    End Sub

    Private Shared ReadOnly _instance As New MyEqualityComparer()
    Public Shared ReadOnly Property Instance As MyEqualityComparer
        Get
            Return _instance
        End Get
    End Property

    'other code

End Class

A: There needs to be an instance of a concrete type that implements IEqualityComparer.  What you can do with a module, however, is define a public instance which is initialized to "New EqualityComparer".  You can then pass that default instance to the Except method.
Something like:

Public Module MyComparer
    Public acmeComparer As acmeCompareType

    Public Class acmeCompareType
        Implements IEqualityComparer(Of System.Drawing.Point)

        Public Function Equals1(x As System.Drawing.Point, y As System.Drawing.Point) As Boolean Implements System.Collections.Generic.IEqualityComparer(Of System.Drawing.Point).Equals
            Return Math.Abs(x.X) = Math.Abs(y.X) AndAlso Math.Abs(x.Y) = Math.Abs(y.Y)
        End Function

        Public Function GetHashCode1(obj As System.Drawing.Point) As Integer Implements System.Collections.Generic.IEqualityComparer(Of System.Drawing.Point).GetHashCode
            ' Note that obj is a struct passed by value, so we can safely modify it here
            ' (without affecting the caller's instance)
            obj.X = Math.Abs(obj.X)
            obj.Y = Math.Abs(obj.Y)
            Return obj.GetHashCode
        End Function
    End Class
End Module


Home/EU students may be able to borrow money to help pay for university or college tuition fees and to help with living costs.
The Courtauld Bursary provides financial support on a sliding scale for Home undergraduates registered as students at The Courtauld Institute of Art who meet set Widening Participation criteria. The Bursary is aimed at supporting students to study at The Courtauld who come from under-represented groups in higher education.
With effect from September 2017, the Courtauld Institute of Art will charge an annual tuition fee of £9250 for all UK and EU students embarking on our full- time BA History of Art programme, as approved by the Office for Fair Access (see the OFFA agreement in full).
When will I repay my SLC loan?
The Government has proposed that you would not start to repay your loans until you are earning more than £21000 per year, when your repayments will be linked to your rate of pay. You will need to repay 9% of your income above £21000 per year. For repayment purposes, your tuition fee loan and maintenance loan will be combined.
What money will I get in my SLC loan?
You will need to wait until February 2018 to apply for student finance for 2018/19 courses if you are a UK student. If you are an EU student you can apply from April 2018.
The loan is paid directly to the institution at which you study and you will have to pay this loan back.
Only full-time, UK domiciled students can get Maintenance Loans for their living costs. You may have to give details of your household income.
£11,002 per year if studying in London and living away from home.
£7,097 per year if you're studying in London and living at home.
Students receiving tuition and maintenance loans from other funding bodies will need to check the relevant website for that funding body for further details.
These loans are paid into your bank account at the start of each term, once you've registered on your course, and you will have to pay this loan back.
How do I apply for my SLC loan?
You can apply for student finance when you receive your firm offer of a place at The Courtauld and up to nine months after the start of the academic year.
Where you live determines which site you must visit.
We will determine your eligibility for support and inform you accordingly.
International students are encouraged to look at similar student finance schemes from their country of origin available to studies studying overseas.


The band captured playing live.
More videos below the main screen!
People love to dance to them, we love playing 'em. Chart hits spanning the last 60 years. For a full list see our Song List page.
Thanks to Alex and Stefan for help with video edits and camerawork.
Songs from an opening set recorded at an event in celebration of a landmark anniversary for a family business.
An October wedding - we had to do this one. Infinitely playable and timeless. To hear more songs go to Audio and to see our extensive list of tunes visit the Song List page.
Bryan Adams, Beatles, George Benson, Chuck Berry, David Bowie, Michael Buble, Eric Clapton, Eagles, Elvis, Everly Bros., Kaiser Chiefs, Killers, Kings of Leon, Kinks, Van Morrison, Oasis, Roy Orbison, Police, Prince, Lionel Richie, Santana, Status Quo, Sting, Stones, Stevie Wonder ……and many more.


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VDL Berkhof
Find sources: "VDL Berkhof" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2011) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)
VDL Berkhof was a Netherlands based bus and coach builder, founded in 1970 by Arthur Berkhof and his son Henk. It started with only 10 employees in a 1,000 m² factory. During the first 18 months the company only carried out bus repairs.
Arthur Berkhof
Henk Berkhof
Defunct
VDL Bus & Coach
VDL Groep
www.vdlberkhof.com
A Blue Line Coaches, Belgium Berkhof Axial 70 in September 2002
Berkhof Excellence 1000 coach with Volvo chassis in Lviv, Ukraine
In 1985, the operation moves to a brand new 10,000 m² facility in Valkenswaard. The number of employees was now 132. The factory expanded in 1989 by an additional 10,000 m² resulting in a production capacity of 350 units a year following the acquisition of Hainje.[1]
In 1994 Belgium bus and coach manufacturer Jonckheere with a total sales of 400 units per year and 500 employees, was acquired. The total staff number of employees of the Berkhof Groep now reached 1,200.
In 1997, the company changed its name from Berkhof Groep to Berkhof Jonckheere Groep. In 1998 it was bought by the VDL Groep and in 2010 was subsumed by VDL Bus & Coach.
The company has also built low-floor articulated trolleybuses for Arnhem in the Netherlands,[2] and Solingen in Germany.[3]
Former productsEdit
Berkhof Eclipse
Berkhof Ambassador
Berkhof Excellence and Axial
Berkhof Radial
^ In Brief Commercial Motor 16 February 1989
^ Murray, Alan (2000). World Trolleybus Encyclopaedia, p. 109. Yateley, Hampshire, UK: Trolleybooks. ISBN 0-904235-18-1.
^ Trolleybus Magazine No. 252 (Nov.-Dec. 2003), p. 132. National Trolleybus Association (UK). ISSN 0266-7452.
Media related to Berkhof vehicles at Wikimedia Commons
VDL Berkhof official website
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=VDL_Berkhof&oldid=1014446804"
This page was last edited on 27 March 2021, at 03:41 (UTC).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Australia is in the top 10 nations with the most effective soft power for the first time
Fears the Bondi Covid cluster has spread 60km away as a childcare centre is forced to close
China accused using UNESCO puppet against Australia over Great Barrier Reef world heritage listing
Queensland slams its borders shut to Sydney Covid hotspots
Australia makes it into the top 10 nations with the most effective soft power – as New Zealand charges up the ranks faster than any other country
Soft power refers to a country's appeal and attraction to the rest of the world
Germany took out the number one spot, followed by Japan, the UK and Canada
New Zealand's growth has been attributed to Jacinda Ardern's popularity
China was ranked third due to its relationships with the developing world
By Alana Mazzoni For Daily Mail Australia
Published: 04:08 GMT, 25 February 2021 | Updated: 23:09 GMT, 25 February 2021
Australia has landed itself in the top 10 nations with the most effective soft power, closely followed by New Zealand.
Soft power refers to a country's appeal and attraction to the rest of the world, and is defined as 'a persuasive approach to international relations, typically involving the use of economic or cultural influence'.
Germany took out the top spot, followed by Japan, the UK, Canada, Switzerland, the US, France, Sweden, China, and Australia at the number 10 spot.
New Zealand's meteoric growth has been attributed to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's likability and popularity following her handling of the Covid pandemic and the Christchurch massacre
Australia's climate change policy and treatment of asylum seekers and indigenous people likely hindered its overall ranking. Pictured: Prime Minister Scott Morrison
New Zealand, the fastest-rising nation, came in at 16th. Its meteoric growth has been attributed to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's likability and popularity following her handling of the Covid pandemic and the Christchurch massacre.
Melissa Conley Tyler from the University of Melbourne's Asia Institute said soft power influences where people travel, what overseas goods they buy and where they send their children to study.
'I think positive perceptions of a country's leader are very important and I'm not surprised that the Jacinda factor has worked in New Zealand's favour,' she told the Sydney Morning Herald.
David Haigh, CEO of Brand Finance, said Ms Ardern is considered by most as being 'confident, decisive and fair,' and instrumental in propelling the country's soft power for 2021.
Despite Australia and New Zealand all but eliminating the virus, Mr Haigh said leaders' decisions to implement tough border closures has worked against their favour.
'It's also likely that Australia's strict border controls and quarantine measures elevated negative perceptions, despite being effective in managing the spread of the virus, [and] sparked criticism about the restriction of movement,' he said.
Ms Conley Tyler said Australia's climate change policy and treatment of asylum seekers and indigenous people hindered its overall ranking.
China was ranked third thanks to its appeal to and relationships with the developing world.
Australia's ranking has improved after last year when it came in at 13th in the world's 60 soft power nations
'While China has been criticised by Western media for various issues at home and on its borders, these criticisms do not seem to have adversely affected the developing world which has responded favourably to Chinese infrastructure, medical, educational and financial support,' Mr Haigh said.
Australia's ranking has improved from last year when it came in at 13th in the world's 60 soft power nations.
The country was in 2020 globally regarded as 'fun and friendly', according to the inaugural Global Soft Power Index.
Global Soft Power Index
2. Japan
3. United Kingdom
4. Canada
5. Switzerland
6. United States
8. China
9. Sweden
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text:
#EkitiGate: How Obanikoro, Family And Aides Were Almost Disgraced At Senate Confirmation
Posted on February 26, 2015 by The Elites
Former Minister of State for Defense, Musiliu Obanikoro, was today forced to leave the Nigerian Senate after arriving there with his family to start his confirmation hearings. Obanikoro, a former senator and ambassador to Ghana, had arrived at the National Assembly with a retinue of aides and family members to begin confirmation hearings after President Goodluck Jonathan recently nominated him once again to fill the same position from which he resigned last year to pursue a failed dream to become the governorship candidate of the PDP in Lagos.
Several senators told disclosed that the mood in the Senate was so hostile to Obanikoro's nomination that his sponsors, sensing imminent defeat for him, quickly arranged a suspension of the hearing to spare him a grueling session and likely public disgrace.
Obanikoro is expected to return to the Senate next week Tuesday to restart the process. A PDP senator disclosed that many of his colleagues were not happy that President Jonathan did not withdraw Obanikoro's name as a ministerial nominee after the former minister's involvement in a scandal that has assumed international dimensions.
Mr. Obanikoro was one of several PDP figures whose voices were caught on an audiotape harassing a senior military officer to have his troops help the PDP to rig the gubernatorial election in Ekiti State last year.
The audiotape, which was released by SaharaReporters, revealed that Mr. Obanikoro, Minister of Police Affairs, Jelili Adesiyan, Senator Iyiola Omisore, Governor Ayodele Fayose and one Abdulkareem met with soldiers led by Brigadier General Aliyu Momoh at Spotless Hotel, Ado-Ekiti, to plot the rigging of the June 2014 governorship election.
In the tape, Mr. Obanikoro was heard saying that he was on assignment for President Jonathan and promising to help promote the army general if he did the bidding of the group by arbitrarily arresting opposition members and cooperating with PDP members who earlier received INEC's documentation to rig the elections. Towards the end of the meeting, Mr. Obanikoro asked that a bribe be given to the army general.
Since the tape became public, several of the participants have confessed to its authenticity, but with some claiming that their intention was misrepresented in the taped scandal. Even so, President Jonathan told US-based Wall Street Journal in an interview that the tape was fabricated.
As other participants in the tape admitted their presence at the rowdy session with the soldiers, Mr. Obanikoro sought to intimidate SaharaReporters for breaking the story and to harass local newspapers that had culled our reports. After threatening to sue SaharaReporters, he chickened out by hiring a major US law firm to write a "letter of warning" to the website to desist from defaming him. A source close to him said the letter, was part of the former senator's strategy to create the misleading impression that he was a target of false reporting. Mr. Obanikoro has also engaged local attorneys to harass the Nigerian media to retreat from exposing his central role in a treasonable scheme to rig an election.
A major independent firm has authenticated all the voices on the audiotape, including Mr. Obanikoro's. SaharaReporters stands ready to confront him in a law court if he would have the courage to file one.
In furtherance of his campaign of intimidation and blackmail of reporters, Mr. Obanikoro has sponsored the creation of a website dedicated to misleading the public about his involvement in the Ekiti electoral saga.
After today's disappointing outing at the Senate, Mr. Obanikoro immediately began a fresh round of lobbying of Nigerian senators, according to three senators who spoke to us. One of the sources said Mr. Obanikoro had confessed last week that he was involved in the Ekiti tape, but tried to lessen the gravity of his role as a senior Defense official telling an army general that his promotion would depend on the general's willingness to do the illegal bidding of the PDP and the president.
After his awful attempt to deny the authenticity of the tape, Mr. Jonathan has slightly changed his position. He is now claiming that he could not have investigated the rigging tape because the army captain who recorded the tape could not be found to authenticate its content. Captain Sagir Koli, who recorded the tape, fled Nigeria after Brigadier General Momoh, the officer at the center of the rigging session, threatened his life.
After the captain left Nigeria, military officials abducted and tortured his 15-year old brother who is a secondary school student. The military detained the schoolboy for five months.
Via Sahara Reporters
"Where Did You Get Money To Execute These Great Projects?" – Shonekan Asks Kwankwaso
Full Text of Gen. Muhammadu Buhari's Speech At Chatham House In London


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Resubmission of motions to July Parliament to debate Suhakam Report 2003 and to refer Utusan Malaysia and Bernama to Committee of Privileges
(Parliament House, Wednesday): I have resubmitted for the July meeting of Parliament the motions to debate the Suhakam Report 2003 and to refer Utusan Malaysia and Bernama to the Committee of Privileges.
My motion in the last meeting of Parliament to debate the Suhakam Report 2003 did not appear on the Parliamentary Order Paper as it was unable to comply with the requisite 14-day notice as the tabling of the Suhakam Report 2003 in Parliament did not allow for such a notice period.
I had asked the government to give the motion priority which would obviate the need for the 14-day notice for an ordinary motion, but the Cabinet decided against it, with the Minister in the Prime Minister's Department, Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, claiming that the Suhakam Report could be debated on various different occasions in Parliament.
This has proved to be untrue, as there was no occasion to debate the Suhakam Report during the three-day meeting allocated for supplementary supply estimates, the one occasion which Nazri had cited was the most appropriate occasion for such a debate.
In the circumstances, I call on the Cabinet to agree that the first day of the July meeting of Parliament on July 5 should be set aside for the debate on the Suhakam Report 2003 to do double justice, firstly to Suhakam in the discharge of its statutory remit to protect and promote human rights; and secondly, to Parliament, in exercising responsible oversight over Suhakam.
On the substantive motion to refer Utusan Malaysia and Bernama to the Committee of Privileges, I was only able to give notice to Parliament on the last sitting of Parliament on Monday. As the last parliamentary meeting had been adjourned, I have re-submitted my motion for debate and decision by Parliament next month.
I am referring Utusan Malaysia and Bernama to the Committee of Privileges for distorting my speech in Parliament on 9th June, seeking to paint me as anti-Malay and anti-Islam, falsely alleging that I had challenged why a Muslim is the Prime Minister of Malaysia – which I had never done.


Our facial expressions change because the muscles in the face contract or relax. This is caused by the brain sending a signal via our nerve endings that we want to, for example, frown or laugh. When Botulinum Toxin is injected into a specific muscle it blocks the signal from the nerve to the muscles in the face. This means that the nerve ending cannot tell the muscle to move. This is not a permanent condition, although it will last for around 3 – 4 months.
After Botulinum Toxin injections, your skin around the area which has been treated will look smooth and less wrinkled. The treatment allows the untreated areas of your face to move as normal and you will still be able to laugh, smile and wink, but with less wrinkling of the skin in the areas treated & limited eyebrow and frowning movements.
After a while, most patients will notice that the lines and wrinkles around their treated areas will continue to become less deep and pronounced. This is a result of continued treatment, as the new skin has a chance to grow without being repeatedly creased. Hence, it appears to be smoother on the surface because it has not been creased by constant muscle activity.
At The White House Facial Aesthetics Clinic in Edinburgh Botulinum Toxin can be used to treat unsightly wrinkles which are the result of normal facial movement. It is not suitable for permanent wrinkles caused by excessive exposure to the sun or resting wrinkles (this will need more invasive treatment such as chemical skin peels and dermal fillers).
Botulinum toxin does not remove wrinkles indefinitely; it is usually necessary to have a treatment every 4-6 months to maintain and improve upon the original results. It has been proven to be safe to have botulinum toxin injections at the above frequency over a period of years. Although we do recommend a small rest period of movement prior to your next treatment to prevent muscle atrophy (shrinking).


Intrigue and drama and confusion and insights…oh my!
This year has been full of change for me both professionally and personally.
My birthday is coming up this weekend (11/26, I'm a Sagittarius…the kind who likes to travel and redecorate my house). Birthdays are my time to set goals for the year. I look back with gratitude for ups-and-downs in 2016: the happiness, disappointments, and challenges.
And even though this is not a milestone birthday year for me (I mean, really, how many times do I have to turn 39 before I just stay 39?!), 2016 has been a milestone year.
I was with BayGroup for 18 years and then the company that acquired us for another 3. Yeah, you read that right…a whopping 21 years of my life (did I just discredit my claim to turning 39?).
Well, my friends, I may finally have the answer to that question. Which I'll share with you, I promise!
I'm working on some really cool stuff right now that many of you have encouraged me to pursue. And I want to share some very personal stuff about my journey because I think you'll benefit from it.
I'm a little nervous about this because sharing is scary. Like "I hope you'll still love me" kinda scary. But you're my friends, and to quote my buddy Lisa Cummings, I think you're the kind of friends who will tell me if I have spinach in my teeth.
There will be some intrigue, some drama, confusion (that I am still figuring out!) and insights that you can use to help you get better at living, learning and loving.
One thing that has become clear for me as I look back over this last year is that authentic connection with friends and colleagues really matter to me. These connections (with you guys!) fuel my fire, so to speak.
When I've had the privilege to talk to many of you about your own journeys, I feel excited when I get to share an idea with you that shifts the way you think about something, that makes your life better.
Every authentic connection comes from our conversations. That's why conversations matter.
I'm going to share some powerful lessons about what works when you're communicating with your loved ones and your peers. I hope you'll learn something you can use right away from one of my "try this" ideas to help you live, learn and love better.
I started at BayGroup International (BGI) in 1995. It was almost exactly (to the day) my 1-year wedding anniversary. Yes, that means that Alan and I celebrated our 22nd anniversary this past summer.
How could I have spent the bulk of my career at one company (and married to the same awesome guy)?
BGI was a training company that taught people to negotiate. Teaching people to negotiate was endlessly interesting. I got hooked because I learned how to talk differently to everyone in my life.
As I learned to use these communication tools, I saw the positive results.
I learned how to ask for what I need. To be clear and concise. To make my expectations known. To never assume what personal needs are motivating the other person.
Lesson number one: try this!
Let me give you an example. Early in our marriage, I asked Alan to vacuum the house. He said, "Sure" as any partner would (because it wasn't my job alone to clean the house! It was our job.) But a day went by and he didn't do it. I stewed. I fumed inside. Why wasn't he vacuuming like I asked him to? Why did I have to ask? Why didn't he just do it, as I would have? Grrrrrr. Tension was mounting, but only inside me. He was clueless.
I learned some powerful things in my negotiation training, but this one, I think, is the one that has kept our communication really on track: be clear about your expectations.
What had I missed when I asked him to vacuum?
When I asked the next day, "Hey honey, I thought you were going to vacuum?" He said, "Oh yeah, I will." Ok…and when were you planning to do that? See the missing part in my communication? If I had a timeframe in mind, like NOW or TODAY, I need to make that clear. So "Honey, would you please vacuum?" wasn't clear enough. I needed to say, "Honey, would you please vacuum today, sometime before you come to bed?" Now that he understood. I wasn't micromanaging him, but I added enough detail to be sure that my needs were clear.
On the surface this seems like such a small thing, but it was huge for me. It made me see how negotiation skills are part of the way we communicate every single day, with every person in our lives. And I am totally convinced that the skills I learned (and constantly discussed with Alan) are what has made our marriage strong.
Lesson number two: try this!
Here's another example, a simple but powerful communication tool that made my work schedule manageable.
At my job, sales people would call me all day long asking me to create things for them or their clients: a document, an email, a presentation. They would ask, "Melissa, can you get this to me by the end of the day?" And now I need to make a choice, do I say, "Yeah, sure" after which I kinda freak out because I already have a bunch of stuff due today?
No, I don't, because I learned this through my negotiation skills training: ask questions and never assume.
I found that sales people often make up deadlines. The deadline was sometimes related to when they promised to get back to a client, but the two were not necessarily connected. I learned to ask a question, "Do you really need this today…what's driving the need for this today?" or "When do you need to get back to the client?" I wanted to find out the real deadline behind the request so I could help them but still keep a manageable grip on my to-do list.
Often they would say "Next week" but they asked for it today because they didn't want to have to remember to follow up with me next week. I found that if I promised to put a due date on my calendar and to get them what they needed by that day, they agreed. Sigh of relief! Now I could schedule that due date and get the project done without killing myself to meet a made up deadline.
My work life balance, my communication with my husband (and later my son) was continuously improving as I learned and used these skills every day.
Why would I leave a company that provided me with this endless stream of learning? Especially with the benefits of not having to commute, working with smart people I liked, and getting free snacks and Peet's coffee!
You may be wondering what all this is leading up to, it's all so happy and peaceful…where's the drama?
You've read this (and probably lived!) this kind of drama before. My employer was acquired.
We tried to play along, be good team players. But a good chunk of people lost their jobs. I was told, "It's just business." I had survivor's guilt.
And everything changed. I changed. By the end of this 3-year phase of my life, I didn't recognize myself. (How's that for drama?!) I went from being a secure, outspoken leader to a quiet follow-the-rules employee.
You're my friends, so I'm sure you're thinking, "Oh, please, Melissa, you're exaggerating!" But I promise you, it's true.
Year one: Stayed in same role. Acted the same on the outside but was suffering from PTSD on the inside. Admitted nothing, kept my head down. Drank a lot of alcohol with my new coworkers.
Year two: promoted to VP. Acted as Vice-Presidentially as I could muster. Continued to drink a lot of alcohol with my new coworkers.
Year three: Moved to a new role, was completely lost without a compass. Acted like a quiet kindergartner who didn't understand the rules of the classroom. Stopped drinking alcohol with my coworkers.
You're probably thinking years 1 and 2 were same-old-same-old (except for the drinking too much, which is another story that I'll tell you later!)…tell me about YEAR THREE!
Year three is where all that drama happened and here come the personal revelations that I promised you. I hope it was worth the wait!
I was CLUELESS about what was happening, to me and around me.
For someone who had spent my life learning about negotiation and communication, I had always been a vehement denier of anything self-help-ish. We humans are full of conflicting dichotomies like that…like I love to dress in costumes but I can't do it on Halloween when I'm supposed to do it. I just can't.
My experience at that company made me look inside myself and what I saw was a little scary.
I didn't do the self-reflection/self-help part alone. I talked to a lot of friends, mostly my women friends and my honey Alan, to unravel this drama. I read Brene Brown's Daring Greatly and was transformed by her TEDtalks on shame and vulnerability. I read Glennon Doyle Melton's Love Warrior. It was these and other women writing about bravery that got me thinking about why conversations matter.
Then I started reading about women and the struggles we have with conversations at work. I read Tara Mohr's Playing Big. I read Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In: Women, Work and the Will to Lead. Then I attended a workshop with Will Marre who opened my eyes to the strengths women bring to our work and the world at large.
I was self-helping, big time.
Most of the mistakes I made came from two places: fear and shame. I was afraid of losing my job and I was so ashamed that I was so afraid of losing my job that I got quiet and stopped contributing.
FLIGHT: we get quiet and stop contributing at all.
Sometimes we get passive aggressive or use other unbecoming behaviors. As you and I walk this path of learning together, I'll give you some alternatives to these behaviors (in another email later).
So, I responded with FLIGHT because I got quiet and when I stopped contributing, I stopped being valuable at work.
For example, I remember being in a meeting with my peers when we were planning for the next year. I was in the division where sales were plummeting and morale was very low. The few people who remained after the acquisition were leaving. I understood why our sales were plummeting. But the reasons why were very unpopular. They cut to the heart of the culture differences between the old and new companies. They involved egos and beliefs and values.
When I brought up these problems, I was called "too negative." I was in the only segment that was losing market share, so no one else was experiencing what I was. I did not want to be known as "the negative one" who was dragging down morale. Someone on another team was fired for being "too negative." So I stopped talking about it. I got quiet.
Did that fix the sales plummeting problem? No, of course not. But I wasn't seen as the negative one anymore. And I still feel bad about that because if I had held my ground, I could have helped change that dynamic.
Afraid of this new management team, for whom hard work and loyalty seemed to be only the price of admission. Afraid of this new corporate culture, which was all "rah rah" with no authentic connection to one another or our customers. Afraid that I would be the next one on the chopping block.
I'd love to tell you that I realized how unhappy I was being afraid all the time. That would make me seem so much more self-reflective and insightful than I actually was.
What happened? For the first time in my career, I got a negative performance review. All the things I was criticized for boiled down to one thing: I was too afraid to speak up. I almost feel as if I manifested this turn of events by being so fearful. When I was faced with the certainty that my job was on the line, even then I didn't stand up. I backed down, saying "I'm just not the right person for this job." In hindsight that was completely ridiculous!
I'll share more about my mistakes and the mistakes I've heard from many of you guys over the next few months, if you choose to join me.
I'll share some skills that will help you be brave in your conversations.
Brave in ways that I didn't understand until I had the time and space to self-reflect.
It's been nine months since I left my job and I feel like I'm about to give birth! Nine months of thinking, talking to you guys, and exploring what to do next.
Ideas to make your conversations better at work and at home.
Action steps to take control of your emotional triggers.
Behaviors to help you show up and be heard in a way that makes you feel calm, confident and compelling, especially in tough conversations at work.
I'll be using my 23 years of teaching communication skills to create courses and community for women. Not a woman? You can still join our tribe, these conversations will be powerful for you, too. And please send this on to the women in your life who will benefit from our community.
Because conversations matter. They matter in how we live, learn and love.
When conversations go well, we feel fulfilled. When they go wrong, we feel defeated. One bad conversation can drag down our entire day if we let it.
Melissa- YOU are the change I want to see in this world. Thank you for sharing – almost as good as going for a hike with you.
KEEP it up – we need more bravery balanced with honesty these days!
So well said, so authentic, so thoughtfully done. I can't wait. Congratulations Melissa!
Thank you Beth! I am so grateful to have you in the tribe, your voice is strong and together we are stronger. Mwah!
Janna, I am so glad to have you here. You can contribute in powerful ways to make our tribe stronger, especially with your own strong voice for our LGBTQI (we need an acronym here!).
Thank you Melissa for sharing your journey and how you have got to this point. I look forward to hearing more Yes 2016 has been a year of change for me in many aspects both from a personal point and a career point. Thank you for sharing and look forward to hearing where this path will take you. Exciting times ahead.
I'm so pleased to have you in the tribe, Ruth! I am curious to hear your story and hope that you'll feel inspired to share with our community as we get things going! Hearing your challenges inspires all of us to stand strong together.
CONGRATULATIONS Melissa…I am feeling so grateful to receive your extraordinary gifts and talents and for the privilege of being a member of your tribe taking this journey with you. I was riveted reading your story and love the way your shared it with us. Thank you for your honesty, your vulnerability, your courage, and your strength…what an inspiration you are. Thank you for leading this charge which can only lead to the change that benefits us individually and the world as a whole. Brava my friend, BRAVA!!
Tell me more, Lynn! I hope you will contribute your unique and hilarious voice here! Thanks for joining the tribe, it will be stronger (and so much more fun) with you.
wow! what a powerful piece. and thank you for sharing so openly. i can't wait to see what's coming next. i'll follow you anywhere!
So honored to have you in the tribe Joanne! I hope you'll share some of your own stories, I know you have many of your own successful entrepreneurial endeavors.
Melissa, I love the direction in which you're heading, and that you know that authentic connection is the magic of being here. I'm looking forward to hearing more.
Very happy to have you here Dana! We're longing for real connections now more than ever, I aim to provide a gathering place for living, learning and loving. Bring your book recommendations, too!
Ditto, sister! Very pleased to have you in the tribe!
Lots of love and envy sent your way! I'm a fan.
So thrilled to have you here Sophie! You always give a fresh insight on life and love!
Melissa, I am so excited and impressed!!
Nicole, I am so pleased that you're here! I hope that this becomes a gathering place as soul satisfying as any other with learning and support from girlfriends (and the men who love us)!
So delighted to receive this post; well said, thoughtful, thought-provoking, vulnerable…. Thank you for sharing yourself so openly.
Very happy to have you here Sib! I'm looking forward to your insights as we move forward together. And as a father of sons, your input is so important.
Rolene, thank you so much for your comments. Knowing that you relate and are excited to learn together is so encouraging. I've heard from many friends like you who say the men in their lives are struggling with these connections in conversations, too, which makes me think about how we can come together in our efforts!
Melissa, thank you for sharing your story. I was very moved by your honesty, bravery, and vulnerability. Being our authentic selves is so important, but not something that we often do, because of that 'fear factor'. And yet, being authentic is so important to our soul. I am inspired by your charge and would be honored to be a part of the tribe! You are an inspiration and I so look forward to the journey!
Welcome Peggy! You were there during this part of my life-long-learning, and I so appreciate your words of encouragement.
I love asking specific clarifying questions. It makes everyone happier in the end! Who will do what by when? Greatness.
Agree! So helpful yet one of the most underused skills in communication. So glad you're here in the community Serena!
Well done! Time for you to pave the way for yourself and others!!
Thanks Jen! Let's do this thing! Glad to have you in the community!


WASHINGTON, D.C. — Clare Ignatowski, a recognized expert in the intersection between youth issues and development, has joined Creative Associates International.
She will serve as Senior Technical Advisor for Youth and Systems Thinking in the Workforce Development and Youth Employment Practice Area. In this role, she will provide technical and thought leadership on youth across Creative's areas of expertise and global programs, says Earl Gast, Senior Vice President and Senior Director of Creative's Economic Growth and Education for Development Divisions.
Ignatowski will lead the Creative-supported Youth Systems Collaborative, which brings together diverse researchers and stakeholders in youth development for large-scale collaborative projects.
She has dedicated her career to studying youth development, workforce systems and education reform in international development. In her 15 years of government service, she worked with the Peace Corps, U.S. Agency for International Development and the Millennium Challenge Corporation.
She was a member of USAID's Youth Policy Task Team, which crafted the agency's overarching strategy to put youth issues at the center of development and get more young people involved in projects around the world. She also led the development of USAID's youth conflict-sensitivity toolkit and designed youth strategies for projects in more than 20 countries.
Ignatowski is a research fellow with the Center for Africana Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a master's in education and doctorate in anthropology.
Economic Growth, Education for Development and Communities in Transition – to better serve youth through Creative's projects in crisis and conflict-affected countries.
From the Caribbean to Afghanistan, Creative's projects put youth at the heart of development and strive to foster meaningful opportunities for learning, employment, healthy lives, and civic participation and leadership.


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Schools Had Plans for Federal Relief Aid. The Delta Variant Upended Them
By Mark Lieberman — August 30, 2021 5 min read
Orchard Knob Middle School Assistant Principal Michael Calloway squirts sanitizer on students' hands as they arrive for the first day of classes at the Chattanooga, Tenn., school.
Robin Rudd/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP
Some school districts are revamping their plans for the federal relief money they received during the pandemic as COVID-19 surges from the Delta variant are posing a bigger threat than expected this school year.
In some places, plans for HVAC upgrades, technology purchases, and learning enrichment programs are giving way to anticipated costs for human resources personnel, nurses and medical workers, masks and other personal protective equipment, and substitute teachers.
Federal lawmakers crafted the three aid packages—in March 2020, December 2020, and March 2021—to help schools recover the costs of mitigating the spread of the virus and supporting students academically and emotionally as they return to classrooms.
Earlier this summer, as districts began to get spending plans on track, the virus outlook was sunny. More than half of American adults had been vaccinated, case numbers were dropping precipitously, and new CDC guidance allowed vaccinated people across the country to shed masks, even indoors.
But a more transmissible strain of the virus grew dominant, vaccination rates ground to a halt, and hospitals in some parts of the country began to fill up like they did during the pandemic's previous peaks. School communities are now embroiled in passionate debates over masks, state lawmakers have restricted many remote learning options,, and COVID-related costs are beginning to pile up.
Here are three ways districts are altering their stimulus spending plans:
Hiring more nurses to manage the hefty workload for contact tracing
In Illinois, a statewide mask mandate has had an unexpected side effect. In the Maine Township High School district, because all students will be wearing masks regardless of vaccination status, unvaccinated students who get exposed to COVID-19 won't have to quarantine at home for 10 to 14 days as they did last school year. Instead, they'll get tested at school at several points in the week after an exposure. If their test is negative, they can stay in school.
This plan will keep fewer students from missing classroom instruction—but after the first day of school last week, it's clear to superintendent Ken Wallace that the district needs more help contact-tracing and testing students.
"The buildings are saying, 'We're overwhelmed,'" Wallace said. "It's taking nurses who have a million other things to do right now away from their job."
One of those other jobs, Wallace said, is combing through a state database by searching for one student's name at a time to determine whether or not they've been vaccinated against COVID-19.
"Once we get through that, we won't need that service anymore," Wallace said. "The contact tracing, we can see right away we're going to need help for that."
Adding one nurse in each of the 6,400-student district's three buildings would add at least $250,000, or roughly $40 per student, to the district's expenses, Wallace said.
Using federal funds to cover that expense could cut into planned investments in HVAC improvements, lunch programs, and learning enrichment activities, Wallace said. Finding employees willing to join the team will also be a challenge, even with money available.
One big thing out of the district's control could help alleviate this problem, Wallace said: "Frankly, the way to not need stimulus money, at least at the level that we currently do, is getting everybody vaccinated."
Adding HR capacity to help staff understand rapidly shifting COVID policies
Brian Woods, superintendent of the roughly 100,000-student Northside district in San Antonio, Texas, expects ongoing costs of $1 million to $2 million (between $10 and $20 per student) this school year for personal protective equipment and enhanced cleaning. In addition, schools will need to spend $1 million more than usual on human resources staff to answer complex questions from teachers and other employees about COVID-related leave and quarantine procedures.
After seeing more than 1,500 students out sick or on required quarantine after the second day of school, district leaders are also in the process of trying to spend $3 million to hire more nurses for contact tracing, but candidates have been hard to find so far.
"Operating in the current environment looks a lot like the 2020-21 school year," Woods wrote in an email.
There's an even bigger concern looming, though.
"Frankly, the way to not need stimulus money, at least at the level that we currently do, is getting everybody vaccinated."
Ken Wallace, Superintendent of Maine Township High School
Early numbers suggest the district's enrollment has declined once again this school year, and those declines are steeper among students eligible for free and reduced-price meals. Woods estimates enrollment declines could cost the district somewhere between $15 million and $30 million, or $150 to $300 per student, out of its $940 million annual budget.
Federal relief funds may end up having to stem losses in state and local funding that could otherwise lead to layoffs, Woods said. And the requirement to devote 20 percent of American Rescue Plan funds to mitigating learning loss will be harder to meet than expected.
Maintaining staffing in a competitive, unpredictable market
Darren Harris, business administrator of the Pittsgrove, Commercial Township, and Woodbine districts in New Jersey, is feeling the pressures of the job market on top of the escalation of the virus. Schools across the country are attempting to hire lots of new workers with the money they've received during the pandemic, even as people may be reluctant or unable to work due to the ongoing spread of the virus.
The district, like many around the country, is struggling to find employees for open positions in roles like substitute teachers, bus drivers, and paraprofessionals. Hourly rates for substitute teachers will increase from $20.25 to $22; for paraprofessionals and custodians from roughly $13.50 to roughly $15.50; and child care workers from $12.98 to $15.
Those higher hourly wages will raise expenditures for the district. But for the federal stimulus dollars specifically, Harris is more concerned about a recently approved state law that allows some students over the age of 21 to enroll in an extra year of instruction to make up for the time lost during pandemic-driven school building closures.
The district pays "tuition" for each of those students to attend a specialized program or school. Depending on the number of students taking advantage of that extra year, the district may have to dip into American Rescue Plan funds and shortchange HVAC improvement efforts in the process, Harris said.
Purchasing more masks, cleaning supplies, and HEPA filters has also cut into plans for the federal relief dollars, but not significantly, Harris said.
Administrators for the Staunton district in Virginia had been planning big purchases of technology and instructional supplies. Now some portion of those funds will instead pay hourly wages for substitutes and overtime pay for full-time employees.
"We generally assumed that we would be using the money to repair the damage caused by the pandemic and to improve the systems to better mitigate future pandemics," said Brad Wegner, the district's budget director. "It now seems that we have to shift back to triage mode to prevent this school year from being lost."
Mark Lieberman
Reporter, Education Week
Mark Lieberman is a reporter for Education Week who covers school finance.
School Funding Human Resources ESSER Funds
A version of this article appeared in the September 08, 2021 edition of Education Week as Schools Had Plans for Federal Relief Aid. The Delta Variant Upended Them
uniquepixel/iStock/Getty
Budget & Finance District Leaders Want More Time to Spend ESSER Funds as Plans Go Astray
Mark Lieberman, September 16, 2022
Budget & Finance What It Takes to Stay on Top of Improving School Facilities
Be proactive, especially with winning community support, district leaders advise.
archiZG/iStock/Getty
Budget & Finance Districts Spend Up to a Third of Their Payroll on Pensions. What That Means for Budgets
Despite healthy returns in 2021, some districts' share of retirement benefits and debt servicing has crept up to high levels.
iStock/Getty collage
Budget & Finance Teachers Take to Twitter to Crowdfund Classroom Supplies
Teacher wish lists posted under the hashtags #Clearthelists and #Adoptateacher are trending on Twitter.
Apoorvaa Mandar Bichu
Jianbi Chen/iStock/Getty
Budget & Finance From Our Research Center Despite Accusations of Hoarding, Districts Say They're Steadily Spending ESSER Funds
More than half of district leaders say they've spent more than three-quarters of their federal relief.


In April, Alasdair Foster will present an exhibition of work by three artists entitled 'Industry re.Imagined'. The exhibition will be staged as part of the Festival of Industrial Photography in Shenyang, northern China. The artists are Alejandro Chaskielberg (Argentina), Marcus Lyon (United Kingdom) and Roger Hanley (Australia). Each artist reveals a distinctive and unexpected vision of industry: as a fading memory, as a global network and as a theatre of the psyche.
The exhibition opens 23 April, 2016.
On Friday 29 April Alasdair Foster was the opening keynote speaker at a festival of bold childhood ideas staged at the Art Gallery of NSW by Gowrie NSW. He argued that "children are born with a strong propensity for creativity, but conventional education is specifically structured to remove it by the time they reach puberty. This shapes children to become adults in a looking glass world in which they consume other people's ideas rather than working together to find the best outcomes for their community." The one-day conference, entitled 'Down the Rabbit Hole', sought to challenge leaders in education to broaden their perspective on culture, inclusion, gender and identity.
This exhibition brings together artists from Argentina, Australia, Canada, Colombia, Korea, Japan and the United States to explore the many and complex ways in which photography and memory come together. Sometimes the one can shed light upon the other but, at others, they play a complicit game of subterfuge.
Выставка объединяет художников из Аргентины, Австралии, Канады, Колумбии, Кореи, Японии и США и исследует многочисленные и непростые пути взаимодействия фотографии и памяти. Порой одно проливает свет на другое, но временами память и фотография играют сообща и прибегают к сложным ухищрениям.
On Thursday 21 July I graduated Doctor of Philosophy. My thesis, 'Culture and the Conversive Community: Framing Arts Policy for the Twenty-first Century', questions how we might develop an egalitarian arts policy. It was passed without emendation.
This exhibition introduced Russian audiences to the work of four Australian artists: Hoda Afshar, Ray Cook, Simon Harsent and Owen Leong. These artists use photography to explore radically different concepts of climate change that span the personal, the social, the cultural and the environmental. In each case they approach their subject indirectly, through the poetic language of visual allegory.
It was my honour to chair the judging panel for the self-published category of this year's Australian Photobook of The Year Awards 2106. The winner was Jordan Madge for his book 'Red Herring', which he both photographed and designed.
Alasdair Foster is the curator of the Australian exhibit presented in Dubai this March as part of Dubai Photo Exhibition 2016. Staged under the Patronage of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan Bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai, the Australian work will sit alongside presentations from 23 countries prepared by 18 leading curators from around the world.
SO, WHAT IS IT WE DO, we people who love art and photography…?
'Dream Home' features the work of four artists and one artistic partnership hailing from four continents. They each, in very different ways, explore the psychological dislocations between the consumerist 'dream', domestic convention and the complex, sometimes dissonant, interior life of the individual. Alasdair Foster put the exhibition together especially for the 2015 Pingyao International Photography Festival, China's largest and longest-running festival of photomedia art.
On Saturday 29 August, it was my great pleasure to open an exhibition by the talented Melbourne duo Gerard O'Connor and Marc Wasiak.
Photographer O'Connor and designer Wasiak work with a team of production technicians, actors and models, and the post-production skills of Matthew Ryan at Visual Thing, to create nineteenth-century tableaux with a distinctly twenty-first century eye.
The work of artists from Australia, Korea, Ukraine, UK and USA will feature in an exhibition especially curated by Alasdair Foster for the 2015 Pingyao International Photography Festival. The exhibition explores the psychological dislocations between the consumerist 'dream home', domestic convention and the complex, sometimes dissonant, interior life of the individual. Drawing on a range of perspectives shaped by personal experience and social critique the artists each brings a fresh, distinctive and sometimes troubling insight to the place we call home.
More information about the event and the book published to mark the occasion here.
Magdalena Bors' exhibition, 'The Art of Domestic Compulsion', will tour Spain through to 2015, showing in Almería, Seville and Barcelona.
Curated by Alasdair Foster for Galleri Image in Denmark, the exhibition is presented in partnership with the Centro Andaluz de la Fotografía.
IN THIS SERIES OF INTERVIEWS, Alasdair Foster talks with cultural practitioners who take an alternative approach to creativity – their own or that of others. These individuals hail from various cultures and continents; they have diverse aspirations and idiosyncratic means for achieving them. There is no consistency, no single path. Nor should there be.
Some look critically upon the world around them – be it the institutional world of art or the wider world of human affairs. Others seek to build connections where previously there was alienation; offering a means of expression to the marginalised and the dispossessed. And some simply try to feel their way to a sense of personal truth that can be communicated outwards in the centrifugal language of the eye. Each, in their different way, suggests how a questioning mind, human connection and creativity can work synergistically to achieve results significantly more valuable than those measured by the market or celebrity.
In 2013 the respected Chinese magazine PhotoWorld commissioned Alasdair Foster to write 13 articles, each of which featured an Australian practitioner.
He selected the artists with a special emphasis on the diversity of approach and visual language at play in our country and each article consists of an introduction, interview and portfolio.
CDC will present the work of four Australian photomedia artists at the celebrated Russian festival, PhotoVisa. The artists, Hoda Afshar, Ray Cook, Simon Harsent and Owen Leong, create fables that address variously hybridity, metamorphosis, dissolution and adaptation. Curated by Alasdair Foster, the exhibition will be presented at the Krasnodar Institute of Contemporary Art (KISI) in October and November 2013.
ALASDAIR FOSTER has been named as the Commissioner for the Latin-American Pavilion at the 2013 Pingyao International Photography Festival (PIP) in China.
The selection panel comprised Glen Barkley (curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney); Isobel Ching (an independent curator based in Singapore); Andrew Varano (an artist and curator of OK Gallery, Perth); Leigh Robb and Tim Carter (respectively curator and special projects curator at PICA).
Shan is an exceptional young artist with a distinctive vision that draws on his cultural heritage. That journey is now leading him to undertake creative research in Burma.
His work was previously recognised when he won the 2012 Jennie Thomas Travelling Art Scholarship.
CDC will present the work of Melbourne artist Polixeni Papapetrou at a major South American festival this May. Fotográfica Bogotá is reputedly the continent's largest photo biennale, reaching an audience of some 80,000 people.
While in Bogotá, Alasdair Foster will present a paper at the Encuentro Teórico, Latin America's foremost photo-theory conference, which attracts some 1,200 delegates from the across the continent.
Any artist, gallerist or festival director in the West who feels life is tough; spare a thought for Issa Touma, the founder and director of the Aleppo International Photography Festival (AIPF), Syria.
Plans for the 2012 festival were ambitious, with a new venue in a former power station and 48 local and international artists to present some 870 works. When they began work a year ago, no-one imagined that by September Syria would be in the grips of civil war and Aleppo at the heart of the conflict.
Alasdair Foster has been elected the Asia-Pacific PhotoForum Ambassador, with a remit to help build new alliances between photographic festivals from across the Asia-Pacific region.
In May 2012 CDC took at a look at the challenging issues of censorship. The season included two extended interviews and an article by Alasdair Foster, along with a Q&A of the views of 14 artists and commentators from Americas, Asia, Australia and Europe.
Bringing together all the links to the various articles and Q&A responses, the OMNIBUS page is a one-stop access point for the entire season.
Please join in by adding your comments at the foot of the page of any of the articles or Q&A rounds.
FaceBook: at the foot of the right sidebar you can 'FOLLOW CDC ON FACEBOOK' by clicking 'Like'. You can 'un-Like' at any time. Or you can visit the CDC FaceBook page here and click on 'Like' to receive updates via FaceBook.
Email: in the right sidebar (between the items on iPad and FaceBook) you can 'FOLLOW CDC BLOG VIA EMAIL' by adding your email address in the box. You will be able to 'un-follow' at any time – it's an anonymous and automated process.
Newsletter: to sign up to receive CDC's quarterly newsletter go here and then click the blue 'SUBSCRIBE' button and complete the form. Alternatively, simply click on the CDC icon on the left and complete the form.You can unsubscribe at any time. Newsletters are distributed by email.
I just came to know that you've edited a book called 《One Life One Place One Year–an exploration of place, time and ecology》 according to an interview,and i have been deeply fond of you publications reading your wisdom about the consulting human beings has led to.I tried but couldn't find it.Havn't it been published yet ? Looking forward to you reply.
Mexico in China, China in Guatemala, Guatemala in Lithuania, Lithuania in South Africa, South Africa in Canada, Canada in Mexico: that's what's so refreshing about your connection concept, Alasdair. It decentralizes the medium of photography from the historically self-anointed and self-propelling power centers of the photographic world and reaches out to new sources of continuum and inspiration thus making our lens based medium, still rightfully called photography, the art of everyone as well as an art with massive potential to bring nations as individual entities together.
this is a great and very informative website.
Hi Alasdair. Congratulations for your web site. You are always surprising me in good sense. The architecture and the offers are really well done and it refreshes the cultural world.
Alasdair is the greatest thing that has ever happened to Australian photography.
guidance and support of my work.


text:
Consumer Reports Declares War On Confusing New Gear Shifters
Michael Ballaban
Photo credit: Jeep
1st Gear: This Trend Must Be Stopped
Gear shifters are increasingly getting weird. Freed from the bounds of mechanical sense by computer control, and with designers allowing their interior packaging schemes to run amok, shifters are becoming strange afterthoughts. Is it now a button? A lever? A series of intricate eye twitches and neck spasms?
In all seriousness, sometimes they get confusing, and confusion in cars tends to spell danger. Fiat Chrysler was forced to recall 1.1 million cars after 41 people got hurt, and actor Anton Yelchin was killed after possibly getting confused by the shifter in his Jeep.
And now Consumer Reports, the grand arbiter of What Is And Is Not Good, is starting to dock points from cars that have confusing shifters:
Consumer Reports believes so strongly that these types of shifters have the potential for harm that we are now deducting points from the Overall Score of any vehicle we determine has a shifter that is difficult to operate or that can be confused for other controls. We are also now deducting additional points from the Overall Score if a tested vehicle does not automatically return to Park or engage the parking brake when the engine is shut off, or when the driver's door is opened with the engine running. Some vehicles, from manufacturers such as Ford and Honda, already employ both of these fail-safes.
While more than 50 vehicles are affected, Consumer Reports is no longer recommending the following cars because their specific deductions from among our criteria drop their Overall Score below our threshold: the Chrysler 300, Lexus CT 200h, and the Mercedes-Benz E-Class and GLE.
Chrysler went on to tell CR that it plans to change the shifter in the 300, but no dice from Lexus or Mercedes.
Cool design is great and all, but not when it comes at a human price.
2nd Gear: FCA Under Investigation By The Securities And Exchange Commission
FCA is already under investigation over its diesel engines from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Justice, but now add the Securities and Exchange Commission and a whole bunch of state attorneys general to that mix, Reuters reports:
On the diesel emissions issue, FCA said it has "received various inquiries, subpoenas and requests for information from a number of governmental authorities, including the U.S. Department of Justice, the SEC and several states' attorneys general. We are investigating these matters and we intend to cooperate with all valid governmental requests," FCA said in its annual report filed Tuesday with the SEC.
Any potential fines levied if FCA is found to be in the wrong could total in the billions, and the SEC subpoenas don't help. While the EPA and DOJ inquiries look like they would be looking into issues of environmental rule-breaking, the SEC investigation would seem to indicate that the federal government is looking into whether or not FCA defrauded investors. And when investors are pissed, that is not good news for any company.
3rd Gear: British Ford Factory Is Hanging In The Balance
Seemingly anyone and everyone warned the British people that leaving the European Union was a really bad idea, and the British people did not listen. Now there are rumblings that Ford could be closing down one of its engine plants because of it, and British Prime Minister and lover of adorable children Theresa May is trying to get Ford to stay (again, from Reuters):
Britain's biggest trade union fears that more than 1,000 jobs could be lost at Ford's Bridgend plant despite reassurances from the U.S. carmaker that similar levels of employment will be needed in the coming years.
"Ministers in this government have been engaging with various companies within the automotive sector, including Ford and other companies," she told parliament.
Brexit was still a really bad idea.
4th Gear: Toyota Slimming Down At The Top
Toyota, a company notorious for its sometimes moribund decision-making process, is trying to speed that whole thing up. Primarily by getting rid of a lot of management, Automotive News says:
Announcing personnel changes for the financial year starting April, the Japanese automaker on Wednesday said in a statement it would reduce its board of director positions to nine from 11.
Under the new structure, only President Akio Toyoda and Chairman Takeshi Uchiyamada will remain representative directors after Toyota cut the number of such posts from six.
My grand prediction is that this definitely means we'll see a new Toyota MR2 by the end of the year.
BRING IT BACK.
5th Gear: GM Thinks A Border Tax Would Be Bad
General Motors CEO Mary Barra was giving a speech yesterday to the Economic Club, a club of economics, when she said a border tax could be "very problematic," USA Today reports:
Barra told the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. that the border adjusted tax "if not done very thoughtfully could be very problematic."
No kidding!
Reverse: I Have No Idea How The Hell This Is Considered Historic
On this day in 2005, at an auto expo in Geneva, Switzerland, Honda debuts the Civic Concept, a five-door hatchback. The Japan-based automaker launched the first Civic in the early 1970s and the compact, affordably priced car went on to become a best-seller in the U.S. auto market.
Neutral: What The Hell Is Preventing A New MR2 Anyway?
Not necessarily one from Toyota, I mean. But whatever happened to a relatively inexpensive, mid-engined car? What's stopping it from happening again? I dunno, I'm old and crotchety today. BRING BACK MY YOUTH.
Deputy Editor, Jalopnik. 2002 Lexus IS300 Sportcross.
Long-Voyager
Keep engineering cars to combat stupid, you're just engineering the next level of stupid.


Any investments made in Kisan Vikas Patra will double in value after 100 months. This scheme can be purchased from any post office in the country. This certificate can be transferred either from one post office to another or one person to another.
The Kisan Vikas Patra is a certificate that can be purchased from India Post which is provided in the form of a saving certificate where the amount that is invested will double in 8 years 4 months (100 months) time. This scheme was first launched by India Post in 1988. Though this scheme was successful right from its inception, a committee was setup by the Government of India that was led by Shayamla Gopinath, which gave the recommendation that there were possibilities that the Kisan vikas patra(KVP) could be misused. As a result of this conclusion, KVP was shut down in 2011, but the new government that formed in 2014 decided to re-launch this scheme.
KVP can be purchased from any Departmental Post Office. The minimum deposit amount is Rs. 1000, there is no maximum limit fixed. This saving schemes certificate can be purchased by an adult for themselves or on the behalf of a minor. It can also be purchased by 2 or more adults. This certificate can only be encashed after a minimum of 2 and a half years.
A KVP certificate can be transferred from the Post Office where it was bought to any other Post Office from the owner(s) by making it program through a form set down by the Post's Director General at either of the Post Offices. This program will be finalized by both the owners in case of a combined type certification. In case one of the owners is deceased, the program can be finalized by the remaining owner.
A KVP certificate can be transferred or exchanged if approval is sought from the Head Postmaster and the Sub Postmaster, where both belong to the Post Office where the certificate was initially released.
A KVP certificate can be transferred from the company to its worker on behalf of whom the certificate was initially bought.
A KVP certificate can be transferred from The Cooperative Financial Institution or Community, The Planned Financial Institution or The Reserve Financial Institution of India to its customer or participant.
A KVP certificate can be transferred from a Gazetted Government Officer and/or from the regional power to any system/finance/individual and on behalf of whom this certificate was organized and when this certificate was not released in the name of whom it was organized (system/finance/individual).
A KVP certificate can be transferred from the deceased owner's name to their heir.
A KVP certificate can be transferred from the judge of law and/or to another individual under the orders of the law court.
A KVP certificate can be transferred from one owner to a set of combined owners.
A KVP certificate can be transferred from combined owners to the name of one of the combined owners or the remaining owner.
In what ways can the Kisan Vikas Patra be transferred?
The Kisan Vikas Patra or KVP can be transferred from either one Post Office to another or from one person to another.
If the owner of the KVP certificate is deceased, who will the certificate get transferred to?
If the owner of the KVP certificate is deceased, the certificate can be transferred from the deceased owner's name to their heir.
If the KVP certificate was initially owned by one person, can it transferred to more than one individual?
Yes. A KVP certificate transferred from one owner to a combination of combined owners. The certificate can also be transferred from a set of combined owners to the name of one of the combined owners or the remaining owner.
If my company purchased the KVP certificate on my behalf, can I get it transferred to my name?
Yes. A KVP certificate bought by a company can be transferred to its worker on behalf of whom the certificate was initially bought.
When I want to transfer my KVP certificate, whose approval will I need to get?
You can transfer your KVP certificate if you have sought the approval of the Head Postmaster and the Sub Postmaster, both of whom belong to the Post Office where the certificate was initially released.


Description: RPG beat'em up game. Betrayed by the king, your quest is to avenge your death and the death of your men. Customize your characters by equipping armors, shields, swords and special skills, and then go into battle!. Zombie Knight is a Zombie Games.
Q,E - Previous / Next Skill.
Spacebar - Interact / Action..


text:
Pitt and Bennett call on Labor to end price gouging
Home Media Release Pitt and Bennett call on Labor to end price gouging
Federal Member for Hinkler Keith Pitt and State Member for Burnett Stephen Bennett are calling on the Queensland Labor Government to follow Indonesia's lead and cut power prices for farmers and businesses.
Mr Pitt, a former electrical engineer, said Ergon and Energex had released their yearly profits, showing $3.5 billion in dividends going straight to the State Government.
"The Australian Energy Regulator (AER) has moved to restrict Ergon Energy's proposed revenue by 27 per cent over the next five years to save customers money," he said.
"Instead of reducing energy prices across the board, the State Labor Government is challenging the AER's determination and is using Queenslanders as their personal cash cows.
"Farmers, businesses and households are hurting; they need cost-of-living relief now."
Mr Bennett said State Labor had transferred its debt to the Government Owned Corporations, rather than prudently managing its own budget.
"I acknowledge that some of the profits go towards ensuring those in the bush pay the same price as those in the city through a Uniform Tariff Policy, but that's not the problem here.
"The fact is Labor is using $3.5 billion to pay down its own debt. Queenslanders are paying for their financial incompetence," Mr Bennett said.
Mr Bennett said a 93 per cent increase in electricity prices for irrigators in six years, as reported in today's NewsMail, was completely unacceptable.
"If things continue the way they are, before too long Australians will be buying all their food from overseas," he said.
Mr Pitt said the Indonesian Government had announced it will cut energy prices for companies by reducing their revenue, to stimulate the economy and create jobs.
"There is absolutely no reason the State Labor Government can't do the same here," he said.
"Reports of $500,000 electricity bills are shocking and unsustainable. Our region has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. Farmers and businesses only create jobs when they have confidence for the future."
Mr Bennett encouraged anyone concerned about electricity prices, or any other State issues, to go along to Labor's Community Cabinet meeting in Bundaberg on October 18 and 19 and make their views known.
Bundaberg businesses grasping opportunities with both handsMonday, 5 October 2015
90 Second Statement - science forumSunday, 11 October 2015
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Pursuing valuable ideas is the best way __________.
An organizations budget program should be usedA. to have power over employees.B.
Hello Muhoilya I have attached the document. Please email me ifyou have any questions.