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Werners, S. E., P. Matczak, and Z. Flachner. 2010. Individuals matter: exploring strategies of individuals to change the water policy for the Tisza River in Hungary. Ecology and Society 15(2): 24. [online] URL: http://www.ecologyandsociety.org/vol15/iss2/art24/
Research, part of Special Feature on Realizing Water Transitions: The Role of Policy Entrepreneurs in Water Policy Change Individuals Matter: Exploring Strategies of Individuals to Change the Water Policy for the Tisza River in Hungary
This paper offers a novel interpretation of the introduction of floodplain rehabilitation and rural development into the water policy for the Tisza River in Hungary. It looks at the role of individuals and the strategies that they used to bring about water policy change. Five strategies are explored: developing new ideas, building coalitions to sell ideas, using windows of opportunity, playing multiple venues and orchestrating networks. Our discussion on the importance of each strategy and the individuals behind it is based on interviews, group discussions and a literature review. The international and political attention sparked by a series of floods, dike failure and a major cyanide spill, which preceded national elections, opened a window of opportunity for launching ideas. A new regional coalition successfully introduced floodplain rehabilitation into the water policy arena. Our analysis emphasizes the importance of a responsible civil servant who recognizes a new policy idea at an abstract level and a credible regional coalition that advocates the new idea regionally.
Key words: coalition; individual actor; Hungary; Tisza River; transition; water policy change
The whole world had already been created when the Tisza was standing alone before the Lord's throne. Then Jesus took a golden plough, harnessed a donkey to it and told the Tisza to follow. Thus he set the plough against the soil and ploughed the bed for the river, which followed faithfully everywhere. However thistles were scattered all around. The donkey, which was feeling hungry reached after one and then another, leaving a straight path. This is why the Tisza is so unpredictable, so winding and meandering.
This paper analyzes the early 21st-century transition in water policy for the Tisza River in northeastern Hungary. In the spring of 2003, the Hungarian government issued a decree that marked a substantial shift in water management. The new water policy for the Tisza River recognized rural development and nature conservation as important objectives alongside flood protection. Floodplain rehabilitation and land-use change were introduced as water management measures to replace or complement the prevailing engineering approaches, which primarily favored flood levee construction. From an external perspective, this change in policy was surprising given that for 150-years water management had been dominated by river normalization, flood levees and drainage of floodplains, mainly serving the interests of large-scale agriculture. The development and implementation of the new water policy, called the New Vásárhelyi Plan, between 1998 and 2006 is the main object of investigation of this paper. The changes in water policy for the Tisza have been previously analyzed for example, they have been discussed from a governance perspective (Werners et al. 2009). This paper takes a new approach by assessing the role of individual actors and the strategies that they used in bringing about policy change.
We build on our research in a series of Hungarian and international research projects. We collected data in three ways: through twenty interviews with actors from national and regional organizations (ministries, water authorities, planners, academic institutions, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), municipalities, and farmers); through a series of group discussions with local and national stakeholders; and by an analysis of policy and project planning documents and background studies.
We begin with an account of why we call the water policy changes a transition. Next, we describe the changes from the perspective of five strategies (Huitema and Meijerink 2009; Huitema and Meijerink 2010):
A short historical overview of water management in the Tisza River Basin helps provide the context for and arguments why the changes introduced into Tisza water policy may be called a transition in water policy. The Tisza River is the largest tributary of the Danube, receiving water from the Carpathian Mountains in Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine. The Tisza River Basin holds almost fifty percent of Hungarian territory. Until the 18th century, river management was mainly organized around the operation of a system of small streams and channels regulating the water flow between the main riverbed and the floodplain (Balogh 2002). The inundation frequency determined land use. Mosaic floodplain production systems combined plough land, forest, floodplain orchards, meadows for cattle grazing, and fisheries (Andrásfalvy 1973). Since the 1750s, the Tisza River has been heavily modified. To cater to large-scale mono-agriculture, mills and river transport, the river was canalized and straightened, and the floodplains were drained. The 19th century First Vásárhelyi Plan set out the main changes. Dike building, river regulation, and floodplain drainage decreased the total naturally flooded area by eighty-four percent (see Figure 1). These changes ended the traditional water management system and the related production systems on which the communities along the river had relied (Bellon 2004).
The recurrence and high visibility of floods caused resources to be funneled into an extensive flood defense system (Vári 2001). Over a period of 150 years, deforestation and river normalization made the river flow more extreme and, together with population growth in the low-lying reclaimed floodplain, added to flood risks (Fejér 2004). In addition to flooding, water management was though to contribute to problems such as drought, water stagnation, soil salinisation, and the degradation of peat lands and wetlands (Vámosi 2002). The communist era following the Second World War advanced large-scale tillage and agricultural production systems that required floodplain drainage. Privatization at the beginning of the 1990s led to a drop in the operation and maintenance of the large irrigation systems and a decrease in agricultural output. At present, a high unemployment rate, aging, and migration challenge the region socio-economically (Sendzimir et al. 2004, Linnerooth-Bayer et al. 2006). On a more positive note, the region has great potential for recreation and nature conservation (Vári et al. 2003).
The annual floods that returned in 1998 after twenty years of drought were a driving force behind the development of a new water policy for the Tisza River: the New Vásárhelyi Plan (in Hungarian: Vásárhelyi-Terv Továbbfejlesztése (VTT)). Interviewees distinguished three stages in the development and implementation of the VTT:
Why do we call the development and implementation of the new water policy a transition? Huitema and Meijerink (2009; 2010) postulate that a transition in water policy should become visible in a reorientation of the policy substance or the governance paradigm. The water policy endorsed in 2003 explicitly recognizes rural development and nature conservation as important objectives alongside flood protection. Floodplain rehabilitation and land-use change were introduced to replace or complement flood levees that had been the preferred solution in water management for 150 years (Figure 2). The national planning agency VÁTI facilitated the intense collaboration of a large number of regional and national actors during the preparation of the implementation plan. This collaboration broke the hegemony of the water authority. Regional interests were represented by regional organizations such as the new Bokartisz coalition, founded in 2001 by the councils of twelve municipalities, three non-profit organizations (E-Misszió, the Hungarian Environmental Economics Centre and Palocsa Association) and individual scientists (http://makk.zpok.hu/en/node/118). An inter-ministerial committee made major decisions in consultation with regional and civic organizations. At the National Meeting of Environmental and Nature Conservationist Organizations in 2003, the environmental NGO E-Misszió was elected for full membership in the inter-ministerial committee, which allowed E-Misszió to make proposals, vote and veto. Actors involved in the development and/or implementation of the new water policy reported a "paradigm shift" or "new philosophy". The government brochure for the new water policy also captured this shift in its text and new logo (Figure 2c). The brochure also introduced examples of the rural development and nature conservation component of the policy (VITUKI 2004):
The government has adopted on the 15 of October, 2003 a decision on the most ambitious rural development program of past decades [...] The program reflects a new government philosophy, in that it takes as far as possible into consideration the interests of environmental protection and nature conservation. [...] The complex project, the basic aim of which is to raise the living standards of the people in the Tisza Region, whilst ensuring a higher level of flood safety, would be accompanied by a number of important infrastructural developments. These include land drainage and sewerage, afforestation, construction of cycling lanes, as well as environment management schemes, like the creation of a mosaic landscape pattern by water routing, streamlet rehabilitation, and conveying the water down the full length of the flood bed.
The substance of water policy and the process by which it was designed mark a transition in accordance with the definition of Huitema and Meijerink (2009; 2010). We therefore chose the development of the Tisza water policy as the subject of this paper.
This section explores the role of individuals in the development and implementation of the new Vásárhelyi water policy (VTT) from the perspective of the five strategies set forth in the introduction of this paper.
Develop new ideas
In this section, we investigate the origin of the idea of floodplain rehabilitation, rural development, and nature conservation as introduced into Tisza water policy in 2003. We asked different parties about the origin of this idea and whether one person or group of people could be identified as its source. Members from the Bokartisz coalition point to their own organization and specifically to its leader, Géza Molnár, as the key individual behind the idea of floodplain rehabilitation in the Tisza Region. They claim that their work initiated discussion of the idea within the region and brought the idea to the national level. Since the 1980s, Géza Molnár has studied the floodplain management system in the Tisza valley combining field experiments and document analysis (Andrásfalvy 1973, Bellon 1991). Together with a small group of farmers and landowners, he restored and experimented with traditional water steering systems on a small scale at various locations along the Tisza. Based on these two decades of individual experiments and theoretical studies, the founders of the Bokartisz coalition developed their concept of integrated floodplain management and floodplain rehabilitation with the aim of re-creating a mosaic landscape structure and recurring shallow flooding for sustainable rural development. Coalition members began advocating their concept under the name "Last Straw" in 2001 (Botos et al. 2002). It is important to stress that Bokartisz did not present floodplain rehabilitation as something new but rather referred back to floodplain utilization before river regulation. Their concepts derived from the shallow flooding, mosaic land-use, and community management of small-scale water infrastructure that was common in the Tisza region in the period between 1500 and 1700.
We distinguish between the concept of floodplain rehabilitation that Bokartisz members advocated and the more detailed implementation plans for certain locations along the Tisza, particularly the Bodrogköz area. Working both on the more abstract concept and its practical implementation at particular locations, Bokartisz members discussed the feasibility of the concept with local mayors, farmers, national park authorities, and NGOs and demonstrated its application. In the words of a representative of the Hungarian Environmental Economics Centre and founder of Bokartisz (personal communication, 9 August 2007, Budapest): "after we founded Bokartisz, we began to elaborate a land-use and flood protection plan for the Bodrogköz. By the end of 2002, start of 2003, the concept was put together. The engine, of course, was Géza Molnár."
What is significant here is that the idea to promote floodplain rehabilitation came from a bottom-up process based on two decades of practical local experience. It was negotiated with local municipalities in cooperation with a small interdisciplinary group of researchers. These actors combined elements of the traditional water steering system with floodplain rehabilitation and rural development. Thus, the new idea was developed in response to local problems independent of the national policy process and the problems recognized by the national administration.
The Bokartisz founders' knowledge of the local situation and of floodplain rehabilitation is impressive. We had to analyze, however, how widely this explanation of the origin of the new idea and its development was supported. A series of interviews and a public survey carried out between 2000 and 2001 in the Tisza region reveal that opinions on flood protection differ. Opinions range from increasing the height of the whole levee system, a measure supported by most water authority experts, to pursuing alternative solutions like partial rehabilitation of the floodplains and removal of levees to create natural reservoirs, ideas supported by most local mayors and NGOs (Vári et al. 2003). In our interviews in 2007 and 2008, mayors who are members of Bokartisz and farmers who collaborate with Bokartisz share the opinion that Bokartisz originated the alternative solutions. The planning agency VÁTI, also names Bokartisz as the originator. Other stakeholders, however, hold the alternative notion that new solutions emerged from the debates among different actors and cannot be attributed to a single player. The water board director for the larger Bodrogköz area recalls (personal communication, 22 August 2007, Sárospatak):
I have no clear memory when new ideas were introduced. It was more a vision and an evolutionary process. Many people were asking: 'If there is an option to keep the water, what extra benefits could this provide?' It was quite obvious not to use the reservoir only once every 30 years, when there is a high flood. [...] this area has low agricultural value. Nature restoration was mentioned as a potential income source. For example, in 2002 the environmentally sensitive zones were launched and gave a push to this thinking. Later, the agro-environmental payments were introduced. And we are still waiting for other financial opportunities that will be attached to the reservoir-polder scheme.
The administrative agencies bring another perspective on the origin of new ideas incorporated into the water policy. The then-ministerial head of department responsible for the new water policy (Department of Water Damage Prevention at the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Water) does not recall that floodplain revitalization and a rural development program were new elements in the water policy that the counties in the region had to request. Instead, he argues that the first version of the new water policy already allowed for these elements as the main innovation, the retention reservoirs, was already foreseen (personal communication, 30 October 2006, Budapest). In addition, the national government knew that, as an accession country to the European Union (EU), it would soon have to comply with European Directives like the Water Framework Directive (Commission of the European Communities 2000a) and was keen to make use of European funds. Civil servants were aware that ideas in line with integrated water management and rural development were more likely to comply with requirements attached to European support than classic flood protection. Representatives from various ministries had participated in European consultations and study tours where the prospects of regional support were presented. The head of the Hungarian office of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) had experience working on the WWF Living Rivers Project and brought this experience to his position as a member of the body charged with preparation of the new water policy in 2000 (Zöckler et al. 2000). However, notwithstanding these international influences, integral and participatory planning were relatively new in Hungarian water management. Many people at the water and planning authority had been trained as civil engineers and strongly believed in river normalization. Under the socialist regime, the water authority had always been a strong hierarchical organization with significant financial resources (Fejér 2004).
In the international context, the degree to which introducing floodplain rehabilitation was new is debatable. The concept of river rehabilitation did not originate from Hungary. Hungarian scientists and government officials may have taken inspiration from other countries. For example, in 2000, Hungarian scientists participated in the Conference on River Restoration in Europe that concluded with the following statement: "River restoration is internationally popular. Many river restoration projects are being implemented. River restoration will even get higher attention within the framework of the implementation of the European Water Framework Directive" (Fokkens 2001). Many countries were considering non-structural or "soft" measures from a sustainability perspective (Kundzewicz 2002, Meijerink 2005). Were there signs of investigation of river restoration and rehabilitation in the Hungarian scientific community? In the seventies, a small number of scientists in the region had studied the traditional water management system. Publications focused on the operation of the traditional system without making a link to present-day water management (Andrásfalvy 1973). In the eighties and nineties, scientists in Budapest engaged in similar studies (Lászlóffy 1982). Karácsonyi (2001) published one of the first papers in English covering the topic. Building on the Association for Local and Regional Development's study (1997), his paper highlighted the benefits of reintroducing the traditional system and floodplain rehabilitation, but did not reference a new water policy. More recently, national and international researchers started to publish on the traditional water management system to cope with present flood risks (e.g., Vári 2001, Linnerooth-Bayer and Vári 2003, Sendzimir et al. 2004).
In summary, we identified two main sources of the new ideas regarding water policy in the Tisza. Those individuals involved with the Bokartisz coalition insist that their group developed the new ideas independently of the government. Members of Bokartisz - and especially its leader - combined elements from historical analysis, theory, and field experiments. In this view, the origin of the new ideas is mostly local. On the other hand, people within the administration point out that some elements were already present in the first version of the water policy and that the new ideas evolved from the interactions during the development of the plan. What emerges from these separate points of view is that the recognition by "both sides" of the ideas as their own, or at least as ideas that were not foreign, may have been instrumental in their incorporation into the water policy in 2003.
Build coalitions to sell ideas
This section explores the strategy of individuals to build coalitions for selling new ideas. Using the definition set forth by Huitema and Meijerink (2009), we define coalitions as groups of actors from more than one organization with shared beliefs and explicit agreements on how to use resources to achieve common goals. Various regional and national NGOs emerged in Hungary in the 1980s that focused on rural development and nature conservation. In the Tisza region, a series of independent, locally driven initiatives began in the 1990s and each aimed to improve the economic and ecological situation at the local level (Government of Hungary and UNDP - GEF 2004). Typically, these initiatives involved local government, local representatives, NGOs, private companies, and scientists from a micro-region and covered one to several thousand hectares. To capitalize on local experience and to strengthen cooperation, Bokartisz was established in 2001 as a non-profit organization. Its legal status allowed Bokartisz to attract funding and become the program office for a landscape rehabilitation program that produced a set of concepts that were discussed and endorsed by all its members. Beyond concept development, coalition members contributed in various ways. The participating municipalities gave moral support and support in kind (for example, by offering office facilities). Scientific and technical support came from researchers at national institutes. Together with Bokartisz members, these researchers assessed whether Bokartisz' concepts could lead to sustainable regional benefits.
We propose that linking traditional local water management with contemporary notions of nature conservation and rural development prepared the ground for the new coalition to be formed. For the purpose of this paper, we focus on Bokartisz as a case of a coalition aiming at water policy change.
We start by analyzing the relationship between Bokartisz and the development of the VTT. In the autumn of 2001, Bokartisz hosted a meeting in the region where the responsible ministry also presented its first version of the water policy. According to the leader of Bokartisz (personal communication, 22 August 2007, Bodrogköz), "We had our concept ready and wanted to present it at this meeting." This summarizes the belief of the founders of Bokartisz that the new ideas were developed first, independently of the new water policy. Only when the government made its initial presentation did Bokartisz members realize that it went against the new concept they had developed. In 2002, they started to formulate their critique against the VTT. According to a founder of Bokartisz from the Hungarian Environmental Economics Centre (personal communication, 9 August 2007, Budapest):
It was a great shock to see the VTT in that form with the 13 reservoirs [...] it was against our concept as Géza analyzed it. The good thing for our concept was that the plan could not be done between two dikes, and water had to be channeled into reservoirs. The bad thing was that the core of the plan was against the holistic floodplain concept because its only aim was to decrease the flood level between the dikes. There was not much attention to what happens in and between the reservoirs.Bokartisz held the prevailing water management approach responsible for many problems in the Tisza region. This opinion was supported by scientists who had concluded that the flood defense system had reached its limits, and dike construction alone could not accommodate higher flood levels (Timár and Rácz 2002). A central person at the Hungarian Environmental Economics Centre and Bokartisz founder recalls (personal communication, 9 August 2007, Budapest):
In the beginning of 2003, we issued a statement that the VTT in this form cannot be accepted as it conflicts with rational land-use. As NGOs do, we issued it to the press and raised our voice at all venues. As a result, the Ministry [Ministry of Transport, Communication and Water, represented by the responsible Head of Department and his Deputy] said: 'Let the civic organizations and NGOs tell what they would like.' [...] A meeting was organized in Budapest where Géza [Molnár] and Tamas Cseloszki presented the concept for the Bodrogköz and the whole Tisza. [...] This point of view was channeled into the VTT, it seemed. For me, my impression is that the high level leaders responsible for water management understood that we did not only like to shout, but that we had a concept and could work it out if given the opportunity.In February 2003, the Hungarian government endorsed the decree that included rehabilitation of the primary floodplain and rural development as objectives for the new water policy along with flood protection. These objectives were still far from the main innovation that Bokartisz was calling for: to channel water into the landscape and to connect water bodies. However, Bokartisz became one of the partners in developing the implementation plan and its leaders were thus given the opportunity to "sell" their concept.
These series of events suggest that Bokartisz members managed to convince other parties to consider their new concept. The question is then raised when they felt their ideas were taken seriously and the degree to which they were deliberately strategic in their efforts towards this result. As recalled by a founder of Bokartisz from the Hungarian Environmental Economics Centre (personal communication, 9 August 2007, Budapest):
The moment was maybe the first negotiations in spring 2003 and then when it became part of the planning in summer 2003. The proof was when we saw our work as an attachment to the government decree. We [the founders of Bokartisz] said then: 'It's real' [...] It came as a surprise. As an expert and NGO you get accustomed that you write papers, you send them in, you give your own statement, and nothing happens. Sometimes when it happens, when you open the revised plan and you find your own proposal there, it is a big surprise.This account suggests that founding the Bokartisz coalition was important in uniting the voice of various organizations in the region that had not previously been heard. The Bokartisz founders developed their concept in time for it to be considered in the new water policy, although they had not timed for this. Instead, the coalition joined the opposition as soon as it considered the new water policy at odds with its own concept. Representing the larger Bokartisz coalition, a small group of two to three people communicated with the central administration. They presented decision makers at the Ministry of Environment and Water with their critique together with their new ideas. Is this account of events enough to explain the transition in water policy? And why did the transition occur at that particular moment in time? Who allowed Bokartisz to become a partner at the negotiation table? We consider these questions in the next section by reviewing the transition in water policy and key actors from the perspective of "windows of opportunity."
Create and use windows of opportunity
This section assesses whether a window of opportunity was created, recognized or used to launch new ideas. First we describe the three streams that must couple for such windows to be exploited successfully: the problem stream (issue on the public agenda); the political stream (issue on the political agenda); and the policy stream (attention to policy options related to the issue) (Kingdon 1995).
Looking at the problem stream, events began in 1998 with the first major flood in the Tisza for twenty years. The floods that followed annually each produced a new record water level in at least one section of the river (Timár and Rácz 2002). In 2000, the eyes of the world were on the Tisza when, in January, a cyanide spill at a gold mine in nearby Romania wiped out aquatic life and led to several tons of dead fish being pulled from the Tisza. Then, in March, floodwaters rose to a 100-year high. Summer followed with a record-breaking heat wave. Another disaster occurred in 2001 when embankments broke at two places and the Bereg region was flooded, seriously damaging two thousand houses. In Figure 3, we illustrate the problem stream by looking at the Tisza news coverage. We approximate news coverage by the number of occurrences per month of the words "Tisza" together with "water" in Google News between 1998 and 2007 (line in Figure 3). News coverage shows clear peaks around the time of the floods in November 1998, March 1999, and 2001. The Tisza River received the most attention in international news around the flood and cyanide spill in 2000 and the floods in 2001 and 2006.
Figure 3 also illustrates the political stream by tracking the attention paid to the Tisza on websites of the coalition government parties. The figure shows the normalized total number of hits per year for Google searches of the coalition parties' websites. The 2001 flood happened during the election campaigns and attracted sizeable political attention. Judging by website coverage of the topic, political parties' interest in the Tisza also spiked in 2006. This attention coincided with the 2006 elections and another major flood. A second illustration of the political stream in Figure 3 is the level of attention paid to the Tisza by the Hungarian parliament. We approximated this attention by reviewing the number of occurrences of the word "Tisza" per year on the parliament website (http://www.mkogy.hu). Figure 3 shows how the Tisza gained importance on the parliamentarian agenda in 2000 and peaked in 2004 when parliament approved the "Tisza Law". The figure also shows that attention has waned and that the Tisza has not attracted the same level of parliamentary attention since 2004.
A combined account of the problem, political, and policy streams suggest that the 1998, 2000, and 2001 flood events sparked a sense of urgency at the political level to develop a new water policy for the Tisza. In June 2002, a new coalition of socialists and free democrats replaced the conservative, center-right government. The coalition members wanted to put their mark on the ongoing policy process that they had inherited. From this perspective, the autumn of 2002 provided an excellent opportunity for the introduction of new ideas. For the window of opportunity to open, the high visibility of the problem stream, the negative attention for existing policy options and the changing institutional context may have been crucial. As discussed in previous sections of this paper, the Bokartisz coalition had by this time published its ideas and started to actively oppose the existing version of the VTT plan. Support for the existing policy options was waning. Municipalities and the Hortobágy National Park authority had rejected the location of a reservoir in their territory. The need for local support was becoming increasingly clear within the administration. At the same time, the Government had to reduce its budget deficit as a condition for EU membership, making it imperative to find new sources of financing (Vári et al. 2003). European legislation, directives, and funding mechanisms, like the new agro-environmental support schemes of the European Common Agricultural Policy, favored integrated policies and management approaches. In addition, the EU promoted participation of civil society for a democratic system of government (Commission of the European Communities 2000b, 2001). The combination of these factors opened a window for incorporating new ideas in water policy development.
Did Bokartisz members actually time their interventions and local experiments to be ready for cooperation at the end of 2002 and use this window of opportunity? Accounts of its founders suggest that essentially they developed their ideas independently from the political stream. In contrast, in our interview, the ministerial head of department who was at the time responsible for the water policy expresses a conscious and purposeful consideration of high-profile problems, national politics, and policy options. He recollects using the sense of urgency after recurring floods to first secure financial support for a new flood protection program and then turn it into a national program (personal communication, 30 October 2006, Budapest). He recalls his distress when, after the 2002 national elections, the water authorities were merged with the environmental authorities and their staff and budget reduced. This situation created a need to build new cooperation to ensure successful use of the window of opportunity. He became Deputy State Secretary for Water at the new Ministry for Environment and Water. He suggests that an inter-ministerial committee was installed at his instigation to develop the water policy further. This committee both changed the role of the administration and added a new venue for the transition process. We investigate the role of the new venues in the next section.
Play multiple venues
The previous sections have looked at the origin of the new ideas, the coalitions that were built to sell them, and the opportunities for introducing new ideas into the water policy at a particular moment in time. Here, we ask whether individuals or groups of individuals sought out alternative venues to promote new ideas. We understand venues as the possible places where policy issues can be debated, including various levels of government, the forums of scientists and legislatures, and the media (Baumgartner and Jones 2002). We focus on the choice of venue of the actors identified in previous sections: the national government (particularly the ministry responsible for water policy), the local government (including the mayors and water boards), and the Bokartisz coalition.
By 2000, the EU had become a key new venue for debating policy requirements and funding opportunities (Veres 2004). Politicians and civil servants from the accession countries were actively briefed on European funding possibilities, such as structural funds, cohesion funds, and agricultural subsidies. They were invited to participate in multi-national projects and conferences in the EU. Although Europe was not a venue where civil servants deliberately lobbied for the new water policy, they recognized the restrictions and opportunities in the European regulations and financing conditions. Whereas national funding previously had supported engineering solutions, the European financing conditions offered opportunities for the new idea of river rehabilitation. Government Decree 1022/2003 on the improvement of the Vásárhelyi water policy specifies that "financial resources should be determined with respect to the European Union's common joint financing conditions".
To prepare the implementation plan for the water policy, the national government, at the instigation of the Ministry of Environment and Water, created two key new venues. First, it established the inter-ministerial committee that represented a larger group of ministries than in the planning stage. The committee was co-chaired by the Deputy State Secretary for Water, who had been previously responsible for the water policy, and a representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development. The committee intensively consulted research institutions, national park authorities, local government, and civic groups (Váradi 2003). The second venue consisted of five open public procurement tenders to support the drafting of the new water policy. VÁTI, the national planning agency for regional development, and VIZITERV, the water resources design bureau, coordinated the tenders. Established through Government Decree 1022/2003, the tenders allowed for increased stakeholder involvement and the representation of local interests in the planning process.
The Bokartisz members used additional venues to express their ideas or undermine the existing water management paradigm. As a coalition with members from municipalities, NGOs, and the scientific community, Bokartisz had in-house experience in playing different venues. Bokartisz issued protests and statements in the press written by its environmental NGO members. The rural development NGOs and municipalities brought experience with training and information dissemination. Farmers, in particular, were approached to participate in pilot projects or public hearings and training sessions. Just like the national government, Bokartisz members looked for new financial instruments; for example, the agro-environmental support schemes and small pilot projects that farmers could apply for.
In summary, government official and coalition members used a number of new venues to sell and develop the new ideas. The national government supported the transition in water policy by creating two new venues: the inter-ministerial committee and a participatory planning process supported by open public procurement tenders. The EU offered new financial instruments and called for more participatory policy making. Together with the national government's focus on European co-financing, this influenced the prioritization of policy options. The NGO members in the Bokartisz coalition used a range of venues to discredit existing policy options and to lobby locals to support Bokartisz's ideas.
Orchestrate and manage networks
Turning to the last of the five strategies, we ask how actors cooperated, what networks played a role in the transition in water policy and whether (groups of) individuals actively influenced the operation of networks. In particular, we analyze whether individuals influenced the breakthrough in the development of water policy for the Tisza by breaking up or providing alternative policy networks.
Such an analysis requires determining what networks shaped water management before and during the transition in water policy. In the 150 years before the transition, engineering solutions dominated water management. The water authority was very powerful, especially under the communist regime. Engineers were partly trained in the Soviet Union (Fejér 2004). A strong, informal network of water authorities and contractors developed during this period, and many of these individuals still remain in key positions today. This network entails cooperation over several decades, but without the collective organization and explicit agreement on spending shared resources that are fundamental to an advocacy coalition such as Bokartisz.
Similarly, the environmental NGOs in Hungary form a strong network in which many individuals in key positions know each other from the communist environmental youth movement. In 2000, the environmentalists were becoming increasingly organized. They stressed that continuing levee construction and the resulting narrowing of the riverbed increased flood risks in Hungary. At the same time, researchers at the Water Resources Research Center VITUKI started to study the merits of water retention (Szlávik 2001a, Szlávik 2001b).
At the regional level, the founders of Bokartisz built on the existing networks of key players in the region. The long-running collaboration (or animosity) between the mayors and other central regional actors extends well beyond Bokartisz both in time and number of actors. Networks were built by people who held central positions in state enterprises (for example, the agricultural cooperatives) and in the administration under the communist regime. In the turbulent times after 1989, well-informed landowners could profit from land consolidation. The consolidation of land around the Cigánd reservoir illustrates the importance of regional players. In our interviews it was suggested that some mayors and large landowners speculated on the location of the reservoir and acquired land shortly before the site was selected. These individuals could benefit from expropriation or from the compensation and the agro-environmental support schemes proposed in association with the reservoir. Such benefits seem to have been more important to these players than any particular water policy. In this manner, they did not manage the transition in water policy but were important in influencing site selection and site-specific implementation. According to a civil servant from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (personal communication, 25 October 2006, Hortobágy):
Local mayors - who might also be members of Parliament - are among the most powerful actors. They have a voice in Ministries, since an important part of ministerial routine is to give an adequate response to initiatives coming from the local administrations; moreover, local mayors have strong capacity to influence the process of practical implementation of the plans and projects.The research community also deserves notice as a network of actors involved in the transition. Bokartisz members - especially Géza Molnár - report that they took inspiration from scientists to conduct the 1980s experiments in river revitalization. Studies of the traditional management of water and land-use were of particular importance (e.g., Andrásfalvy 1973, Bellon 1991). Following the cyanide spill in 2000, an increasing number of international research projects offered opportunities to discuss, test, and promote floodplain management and river rehabilitation. Individuals from the research community extended their networks through international research and development projects. In 2002, the state-owned Water Resources Research Center (VITUKI) won the European commission-funded Tisza River Project on sustainable use of water resources and ecological values in the Tisza River Basin (http://www.tiszariver.com). In 2004, individuals from the research community together with Bokartisz and other local organizations secured a substantial UNDP/GEF project for protecting biodiversity in the Tisza Basin (http://www.elotisza.hu) and INTERREG III project funding. The NGO members in the Bokartisz coalition sought national credibility by entering domestic and international research networks. The accreditation of VITUKI gave water management schemes crucial national support and legitimacy. As the leader of Bokartisz (personal communication, 22 August 2007, Bodrogköz) explains, "that VITUKI in 2002 was willing to test and support the idea by [hydrological] modeling to see whether the concept works gave a big push because it provided the proposed water steering and shallow flooding with a more scientific foundation."
We cannot currently say to what extent the emergence of international cooperation through research projects won new supporters for the concept of floodplain rehabilitation. We do know, however, that these projects sustained a dialogue between Hungarians across the region about floodplain rehabilitation and rural development. In addition, we know that the national government was intent on finding new sources of funding, and the projects set out above reveal that the new idea of floodplain rehabilitation attracted more international support than engineering-dominated solutions. Members of Bokartisz, especially the researchers, recognized this opportunity and used it to attract funding for promoting floodplain rehabilitation. This cooperation broke up the network of engineers that had designed most of the recent Hungarian water infrastructure and initiated a more interdisciplinary network of researchers. Facilitated by VÁTI, the tenders following the 2003 government decree allowed this network to test the new ideas. The VÁTI team leader responsible for the water policy development process recognizes the importance of strong regional cooperation and representation of local interests (personal communication, 30 October 2006, Budapest):
Another important element in this whole period is how local interests are incorporated. It is very difficult to request from them [local population] because these areas are [socio-economically] the least developed [..]. They also have low lobbying power. The reason why Bokartisz has such a key role in the whole process is that, immediately from the beginning, they were articulating their ideas as a local stakeholder and had the scientific basis and support for them. In addition, they were accepted by the locals. We [VÁTI] are coming from Budapest, and it would take us a long time to be accepted by the local people and to be part of negotiations. So throughout the work we did, we tried really to rely on Bokartisz and involve them in the whole process. They have this kind of special knowledge about the local situation that we from Budapest would never have. If there were more of this high-quality organized local representation, then the whole VTT would be much farther ahead.To summarize, we found strong existing networks at both the national and the regional level. New interactions between these networks occurred around the time of the transition in water policy. The VÁTI team leader became a major actor due to her facilitation of discussions between the national government, scientists, and local representatives. The VÁTI team admitted Bokartisz as a counterpart and representative of regional organizations throughout the planning process. VÁTI's facilitation of the planning process and its administration of the tenders for the Ministry of Environment and Water cracked the network of the water authority and its engineers and contractors.
What can we learn from the Tisza case about transitions in water policy? The recurring major floods and the cyanide spill on the Tisza River in 2000 were obviously significant, but in what way? The floods and resulting damage were severe, but these two factors were probably not sufficient in themselves to trigger a transition in water policy. They did, however, highlight the problem stream and support regional NGOs' strategy of defining the prevailing water management as unsustainable and demanding a different approach. Thus, the events proved instrumental in broadening the debate about an alternative water policy. Flood retention and integrated river basin management already had supporters in the national government, the academic world, and major NGOs like WWF. This support existed, in part, because European directives advocated these approaches and offered indispensable financial support for them. Application of these approaches required also local support and experience. The new Bokartisz coalition of municipalities in the Tisza region, NGOs, and researchers offered both. The founders of Bokartisz had just developed their concept of floodplain rehabilitation and shallow flooding for the Tisza region and had contextualized it for specific locations. In the Bodrogköz area in particular, support from the water board and mayors inside and outside the Bokartisz coalition was high and opposition minimal.
The 2002 national elections brought a new coalition to power. Water affairs were transferred to a new Ministry of Environment and Water, and this situation set the scene for the transition to consolidate in new procedures. The then-upcoming accession to the European Union favored a shift towards participatory and integral planning. In this manner, a window of opportunity for coupling the new ideas, political will and a relevant problem opened in 2002 (cf. Kingdon 1995). A key player to open and use this window was the Head of Department assigned with the development of the policy at the Ministry of Transport, Communication and Water (after the 2002 reorganization, the Ministry of Environment and Water). A government decree was passed in February 2003 that acknowledged floodplain rehabilitation and rural development and that created two new venues for preparing the water policy's implementation plan: an inter-ministerial committee and a series of tendered studies. VÁTI used the tenders to support a new network of researchers, NGOs, and local representatives in creating the spatial plan for the water policy. The national government endorsed the implementation with the October 2003 government decree and the 2004 Tisza law. Endorsement notwithstanding, since 2004 only two of the first six retention areas have been built and the related floodplain rehabilitation and rural development has either not been attained or attained only after many delays.
This paper uses the framework of Huitema and Meijerink (2009; 2010) who postulate that a transition in water policy should become visible in a reorientation of the policy substance or the governance paradigm. Future research may ask what the implications of this work are for deep system transformation where the system is understood and managed in new ways throughout society (cf. van der Brugge et al. 2005, Folke et al. 2005, Olsson et al. 2006, Pahl-Wostl et al. 2009). Our account of the transition in water policy highlights interactions among key individuals and groups of individuals. It attempts to provide a credible account of the principal actors involved. We do not argue that the result of the interactions was inevitable nor that the policy was "correct", only that the prevailing conditions and interactions made its adoption feasible. The narrative is necessarily compressed and cannot do full justice to the work of the many people who cooperated in the Tisza. However, we hope to have conveyed the main thrust of affairs.
The Tisza case demonstrates the key role of individuals and confirms the use of the strategies identified in the introduction to this issue (Huitema and Meijerink 2010): to develop ideas, to build coalitions to sell ideas, to use windows of opportunity, to play multiple venues, and to orchestrate networks. Closer analysis provides insight into the use of these five strategies. Regarding the development and promotion of ideas, the members in the central coalition who began small-scale experiments deserve extra attention. These experiments built trust and physical proof of cooperation. Here also the interplay of supporters and opponents of policy change is evident. A main challenge for the national government was to get local support. Local farmers, mayors, and the national park authorities had already rejected two possible locations for a retention area. Both Bokartisz members and local mayors outside the Bokartisz coalition were aware of this situation. They offered an area close to the town of Cigánd in the Bodrogköz region to the preparatory body for the new water policy as an alternative location for a retention polder. In the words of the leader of Bokartisz (personal communication, 22 August 2007, Bodrogköz), "Another key element in the success was that we could find a territory that we could offer. There was a territory always affected by inland water stagnation without high nature value: Cigánd." The leader of Bokartisz reported that he was aware of this opportunity before the more detailed planning process started in 2003. It remained less clear when and how the local mayors began to support Cigánd as a location for a VTT retention area. In general, they were keen to highlight secondary benefits they ensured for their municipality by participating in the planning process. These benefits ranged from national funding for a municipal sewerage system to city status for Cigánd, extending the legal status, financial resources, and status in parliament of the local government representatives. The management of interests and (financial) resources, either to facilitate or slow the transition in water policy, emerged as a strategy. A witness of the changes in the Bodrogköz stated that (personal communication, 23 October 2007, Bodrogköz) "[t]hose opposing the plan thought it would never pass parliament. When it did, they were shocked. The easiest and most efficient way to block it is though the budget." Related to interest management were strategies that sidestepped good governance principles such as transparency and accountability. These strategies of individuals deserve more attention in future research.
A further observation with respect to the analyzed strategies is the divergent framing of new policy ideas. Whereas civil servants and their technical experts described the new policy ideas as an effective response to new challenges in water management, coalition members stressed that the new ideas had roots in history and tradition and opposed prevailing water management.
With respect to managing networks in the region, legacy effects were strong, with prior social networks and the historic legitimacy of actors determining the nature of the game. Policy analysts should be careful not to overlook the activities of the private sector and consequently omit a potentially important actor and partner. Whereas the origin, advocacy, and management related to the new policy ideas in the Tisza did not lie with bigger private agents, their cooperation became crucial in implementing the new ideas for two important reasons. First, interventions in the floodplain required the cooperation of landowners. Second, implementation of water policy in Hungary could no longer rely solely on national government support. New partnerships had to be built. The new water policy required the cooperation of many partners. It called for an in-depth examination of multi-stakeholder organizations and institutions that were not well understood at the time of the transition in water policy and that represented an emerging and complex factor in many countries around the world.
Finally, it is important to consider to what extent the explored strategies are complementary. Theoretically, looking for 'windows of opportunity' is more oriented towards finding the right time to present ideas, whereas 'venue shopping' is more about finding or creating the right place. In practice in the Tisza case, however, these strategies were found to overlap, as individuals aimed to find the right place at the right time to promote ideas or oppose change.
This paper focused on individuals and the strategies they used to facilitate a transition in water policy in Tisza. With regard to the two elements of a transition in water policy - change seen in policy substance or in governance arrangements - the Tisza case exhibits little formal organizational change sustained beyond plan development. In fact, actors identified coordination and clarity of the organizational structure as components that have been sorely lacking in the implementation phase (Werners et al. 2009). This is one of the challenges that actors in the Tisza presently face as the implementation of the policy has been slow and could still fail. Close analysis of the role of individuals during implementation may uncover strategies complementary to those we discussed. In addition, an analysis based on stakeholder interest could be a valuable addition to the idea-centered approach taken in this paper.
We explored five potential strategies of individuals: developing new ideas, building coalitions to sell ideas, using windows of opportunity, playing multiple venues, and orchestrating networks. We conclude that these strategies and the focus on individuals offer a simple and edifying frame for exploring a transition in water policy. Assessing the transition from the perspective of individuals and their strategies yields a number of new insights about a turbulent time, with each strategy pointing at different key actors and events. Important lessons include that the founders of a new coalition linked different objectives to their new ideas. Furthermore, while this coalition elaborated its ideas at the regional level, national policymakers recognized a window of opportunity to link regional support to the policy change being advocated and supported financially at the international level. Development of the policy saw new venues and networks arise that proved influential during the transition. Beyond the importance of developing and debating new ideas, the Tisza case shows that it takes individuals to initiate a transition and people that can take new ideas through a period of confrontation, change, and reorganization.
Responses to this article are invited. If accepted for publication, your response will be hyperlinked to the article. To submit a response, follow this link. To read responses already accepted, follow this link.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThe authors thank Edward Elgar Publishing who have kindly given permission for the use of material from Huitema, D. and S. Meijerink (eds), Water Policy Entrepreneurs: A Research Companion to Water Transitions around the Globe, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing, 2009. Work on this paper has been supported by a grant from the European Commission through the European research project ADAM (Adaptation and Mitigation Strategies: Supporting European climate policy, Contract No 018476-GOCE, http://www.adamproject.eu), NeWater (New approaches to adaptive water management under uncertainty, Contract No 511179-GOCE, http://www.newater.info) and from the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Conservation and Food Quality. We thank all interviewees and participants of the Tisza regional workshops for sharing their experience. We are grateful for the valuable comments and suggestions of research partners, especially Joel Aberbach, Péter Balogh, Tom Christensen, Maria Gordon, Zsolt Harnos, Dave Huitema, Istvan Láng, Louis Lebel, Rik Leemans, Sander Meijerink, Géza Molnár, Jan Sendzimir and the reviewers.
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text:
Freaks!! Takes One To Know One :d
I find this website extremely uplifting & practical for everyone going through depression. The author is Therese Brochard who herself suffers from bi polar disorder writes extremely good blogs and how she coped with depression. She is funny & witty too.. Please subscribe to the website..I guarantee you will find it inspiring & insightful.. God bless !!
sushmaik 26-30, F 1 Apr 19, 2010

subset: commoncrawl


text:
For a little more Google opinion/policy:
Google will more at cloaking in Q1 2011. Not just page content matters; avoid different headers/redirects to Googlebot instead of users.
Cloaking, sneaky Javascript redirects, and doorway pages, Google Webmaster Tools Help.
For a good opinion piece with term explanations:
Cloaking is good for you, Sebastians Pamphlets, 05-July-2010.
Frankly, I would appreciate some more detail from Mr. Cutts now that he has shocked the SEO troops. That tweet was too much like 'Google will be more at fire...'
Obviously their last algo change to combat cloaking has been defeated widely enough to be of concern to SERP/AdWords quality - and not just webdevs
Expect to hear of false positives as innocents again get dumped along with a few blatent transgressors (not including any G service partners). Do I sound cranky? Must be the eggnog.


text:
Get certified - Transform your world of work today
Location: Pittsburgh PA
Lynette Zanotti, co-founder and Managing Director, is responsible for all technical due diligence for 2012 Partners, LLC and works directly with each portfolio company in addition to all daily operations. She is a seasoned Project Management Professional (PMP) with over 20 years experience in new product development, project management and design engineering in addition to being a Certified SCRUM Master (CSM) in the facilitation of agile software development.
Her experience spans nuclear component design at Westinghouse, automation and robotics at McKesson Automation, fluorescence microscopy and bioinformatics at Cellomics, speech recognition technology and WiFi at Vocollect and motion simulation for various government agencies.
Lynette has strong ties within the Pittsburgh technical community and has access to draw on very knowledgeable resources within the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University.
Lynette has BS in Mechanical Engineering from the Pennsylvania State University and a MS in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from the University of Pittsburgh. Lynette continued her education by attending classes at CMU for MS Software Engineering and also stays up to date on all the latest cutting edge technology by attending misc graduate courses at both CMU and Pitt.


text:
Martinsville Has the Highest Jobless Rate in VA Again
Martinsville, VA - The city of Martinsville is back at number one with the highest jobless rate in the state in August.
The VEC says the unemployment rate in Martinsville was at 14.6%, up from 13% in July.
The Danville region had the highest unemployment rate among Virginia's metropolitan regions at 8.1%.
Arlington County had Virginia's lowest jobless rate, followed by Fairfax and Loudoun counties.


text:
- {{matchup.date.fullday}}{{matchup.date.month + ' ' + matchup.date.day}}
Mariners stop O's in rubber match
Russell Branyan drove in three runs to help the Seattle Mariners defeat the Baltimore Orioles 6-3 Thursday night in the series rubber match at Camden Yards.
Baltimore won the game as -165 favorites, while the nine runs went as a PUSH against the posted over/under (9).
Andre Beltre had three hits and drove in one run, while scoring another for the Mariners. Garrett Olson went five innings on the mound to earn the win, and David Aardsma turned away the side in the ninth for his 11th save.
Luke Scott belted a two-run homer in a losing effort for the Orioles. Koji Uehara suffered the loss after giving up four runs off seven hits in five innings of work.


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How did he not kill u when he had the flag, dont get me wrong good triple kill, but u should not have got the overkill.
I will proclaim your name till i am dead. God for all you have done. The strongest among you may not wear a crown. A strong man stands up for himself a stronger man fights for others.
um y dou u put one over kill on bungie fav i mean y?
this is retarded why is this on bungie favorites
because in MLG when you get hit with the flag or ball, it does 50% damage as it normally does, which is only shields, not an instant kill. It makes it a lot better so people can't just camp with stuff like the ball and that. But there is a way to get an instant kill, this guy obviously didn't know how to do it.
My name is niceboy117, and yes I did just say niceboy, and yes 117. It might seem like obsession, but Halo is awsome, am I right, but 117 happens to be my favoite number or any number that has a combonation of 1s and 7s.
holy crap, that was amaizing i have some thing like that in my flle share but with sniper rifle, ocr strikes again[Edited on 08.12.2009 7:17 PM PDT]
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It's no surprise that Berks County physician Manan Trivedi wants to run again for Congress after losing two years ago to five-term Republican Jim Gerlach.
But Pennsylvania's Republican-controlled Legislature had a little surprise for Trivedi — when lawmakers drew new maps for the state's congressional seats, Trivedi's house was cut out of Gerlach's district.
"By a mile," Trivedi said in an interview. "We still get our pizza delivered from the district. My post office is in the district."
Trivedi is running anyway for the 6th District west of Philadelphia, and the race is one a few dozen on the radar of national observers watching this year's battles for the control of Congress.
When Gerlach first ran for Congress 10 years ago, the bizarrely drawn district was often called "pterodactyl-shaped," and was said to have been crafted for Gerlach, then a state senator seeking to move up.
He's won the seat five times since, the last time with a fairly convincing win of 57 to 43 percent over Trivedi.
Much of the redrawn 6th District is new (see map above), and Trivedi blames Gerlach for cutting his Birdsboro home out of the district.
"I think Jim Gerlach talked to his Harrisburg cronies and realized that I was a serious threat, and so he drew us out," Trivedi said.
Trivedi acknowledged he has no specific information about any influence exercised by Gerlach, quipping that he wasn't invited into the room when the map was drawn.
Gerlach said he had nothing to do with it.
"I did not talk to anybody to say, `Do this, do that.'" Gerlach said. "That was up to the legislators. And I can remember when I was in the Legislature it was frowned upon to have members of the congressional delegation trying to tell state legislators what to do."
District is new, shape is still odd
The new district is also oddly shaped, including parts of Montgomery, Chester, Berks and Lebanon counties. It surrounds but excludes the city of Reading, a Democratic stronghold.
The new district has a slight edge in Republican registration, both campaigns say, but it voted for Barack Obama in 2008.
Gerlach has attacked Trivedi for being disconnected from the district.
"The reality is, he lives a lot of time down in Washington in a home that he has there," Gerlach said. "In fact, at the time he was circulating his nominating petitions this spring, he was being announced as the new attending physician at a hospital in Washington. And you look at his financial disclosure forms, all of his income this year has been through his employment down there."
It's true Trivedi and his wife own a home in the Washington area. He said they bought it when he worked for the surgeon general, and his wife still does some work in Washington.
Trivedi said they haven't sold it because the housing market is poor, but that he and his family live in Birdsboro, Berks County.
"You can come to my house and we'll have a barbecue," Trivedi said. "You can ask my 2-year-old. She's pretty advanced for her age, she'll tell you where she lives. She'll tell you the whole address."
It's also true Trivedi's financial disclosure form shows only income from the Medstar Washington Hospital Center this year -- $39,000 in the first four and a half months of 2012.
Trivedi said he was mostly working on his campaign, then.
"I work part time at Pottstown Memorial Medical Center in the district. (Gerlach's) welcome to join me and work, and maybe learn a few things about health care anytime he wants," Trivedi said. "You know, there's only one guy who's working in the district, and that's me. Gerlach's been in D.C. for most of his career."
The Pottstown Medical Center confirms Trivedi's affiliation, and he's on the hospital's website.
National policy echoes resonate
Apart from the personal disputes, the campaign is being contested along familiar fault lines of national policy –- including Medicare. Trivedi said Gerlach has consistently supported the plans of congressman and vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan.
"If you look at the Gerlach-Ryan plan, it turns Medicare into a voucher system and basically gives seniors a little amount of money and tells them, for the rest, you're on your own," Trivedi said.
Gerlach begged to differ.
"Well, he's absolutely wrong about that, and that's the typical talking points coming out of the Democratic campaign committee," Gerlach said. "So he just puts those talking points in his own press release."
It's true Gerlach has voted for Ryan budgets, and that the Ryan plan gives future generations of seniors "premium support" – Republicans don't like the term vouchers – to buy private insurance. But it's also true that the most recent version of the Ryan plan is more flexible, preserving the traditional Medicare system as an option for seniors.
"The senior has an array of plans to choose from, and can choose the traditional option which exists today," Gerlach said.
So far national Democrats haven't poured money into the race, suggesting that Gerlach is seen as a favorite for re-election. Trivedi has four weeks and five days to turn that around.
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I got this in my Teavana order to see if it was any better than the Earl Grey Creme Vanilla from Upton. Really, I do think they are pretty comparable in taste. I think I am going to have to do a side by side comparison soon. I also have a sample coming from a tea vendor who sells Metro teas, and am assuming the Earl Grey Creme from that vendor is also from Metro.
Pretty enjoyable. I do like it, and since I have a thing for JavaVana Mate…I can see buying this one again if it does taste better than Upton's in the side by side. Otherwise, the Upton is a hard one to beat due to price.


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JERUSALEM — Israeli police clashed with hundreds of Palestinians throwing rocks after Muslim prayers at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site on Friday.
It was not immediately clear what set off the confrontation at the shrine sacred to both Jews and Muslims. However, there have been heightened tensions in recent days, with rumors circulating among Palestinian activists that far right Israelis are trying to gain entry to Muslim-controlled areas at the site. The rumors were false, according to Israeli police.
Violence has repeatedly erupted in the past at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which sits atop the remains of the two biblical Jewish temples. The shrine looms large in the rival narratives of Israelis and Palestinians, and any perceived attempt to change the delicate division of control there quickly sets off protests.
Friday's incident began after Muslim noon prayers. Hundreds of worshippers emerging from the two mosques in the walled compound staged a demonstration protesting the rumored plans by far right activists to enter the shrine.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said hundreds of worshippers threw rocks at police, who fired stun grenades to disperse the crowd. Najeh Bkeirat, a Muslim official at the scene, said demonstrators began throwing stones after police tried to stop their march.
Rosenfeld said 11 officers were lightly hurt by rocks. Bkeirat said about 30 Palestinians were treated at the scene for light injuries from tear gas inhalation and scuffles. Rosenfeld said no tear gas was fired and that four Palestinians were arrested.


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Marian Finucane Sunday 23 February 2014
Live stimulating mix of news, interviews, reports and discussion.
The panel toay:
Charlie Flanagan - Chairperson of FG Parliamentary Party
Oliver Tattan - Co founder of One Big Switch Ireland.ie
John Lonergan - Former Governor of Mountjoy
Noel Whelan - Barrister & Irish Times Columnist
Katie Hannon - RTÉ
Ambassador Francis Martin O'Donnell (Retired) and Dr. Erin Bauman discuss Ukraine with Paul Niland and Tadhg O'Maonaigh joining the conversation on the line.
In-depth interviews, human interest stories, consumer and lifestyle news as well as a lively panel discussion on issues of the week and newspaper reviews.
Saturday and Sunday from 11am-1pm
Presenter: Marian Finucane


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NetWellness is a global, community service providing quality, unbiased health information from our partner university faculty. NetWellness is commercial-free and does not accept advertising.
Thursday, September 21, 2017
Colorectal Diseases
Dulcolax stool softener
Is it safe to take Dulcolax Stool Softener every day?
Stool softeners, along with insoluble fiber therapy, should be safe for daily use. Be sure to avoid softeners that contain a stimulant laxative, as these can cause colonic "inertia" with long-term use.
Janice Frederick Rafferty, MD
Professor of Surgery
Chief of Colorectal Surgery Division
College of Medicine
University of Cincinnati


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Proposal for a Directive of the EU Commission on service concessions:
New EU legislation on concessions not necessary
Existing rules on concessions are sufficient / EU Commission should take the European Parliament's negative vote into consideration
"The European Commission's plans (published today) on obligatory invitation to tender for service concession contracts would limit the freedom of action of municipalities and thus affect Article 28 of the German Basic Constitutional Law. Together with the European Parliament and the German Bundesrat we consider that the Commission's initiative is not necessary. The existing rules are sufficient. Already in May 2010, the European Parliament spoke out against an initiative in terms of service concessions across all political groups. We believe that this democratic will should be respected by the European Commission", Martin Weyand, General Executive Manager of the Water/Wastewater Division of the German Association of Energy and Water Industries (Bundesverband der Energie- und Wasserwirtschaft BDEW) said on the EU COmmission's Proposal for a Directive on the legal regulation of the award of services concessions published today. With its proposal, the European Commission omits the European Parliament which considered the law in force and the previous jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) as a sufficient basis for the award of service concession contracts.
The Commission's proposal would lead to considerably tightened up regulations for the award of service concession contracts in the water and energy sectors. Especially for the water sector, services in terms of drinking water supply shall thus either fall into the regulatory scope of the Directive on the award of service concession contracts or be treated as public service contracts according to the even stricter procurement regulations under the EU public procurement Directives.
"More extensive EU regulations would not lead to an increase in legal certainty but at most to legal acts on the award of service concession contracts. This would give rise to an unreasonable limitation of the organisational scope of action of municipalities which has proven to be effective in the past. It is essential to maintain the municipal freedom of action in its present form", Weyand required. The high German quality standard holding a top position in Europe is attributable to this municipally secured water supply and wastewater disposal which nevertheless shows a great variety of structures.
A legal opinion commissioned by BDEW had clearly come to the conclusion that European legislation on service concession contracts was not required in principle. "The experts submitting the legal opinion considered that the essential principles in terms of service concessions are determined in a clear-cut and binding manner by the current EU legislation and the relevant decisions of the European Court of Justice ", Weyand explained.
BDEW underlined that the European Court of Justice already declared essential principles of the existing EU Community law to be applicable. These principles particularly refer to fundamental issues like transparent procedures for the award of service concessions and the exclusion of a discrimination of bidders applying for a concession.


text: Published with a digital code that may no longer be redeemable from the publisher. Do not purchase with the expectation that the code is still valid. Cover by Greg Land (W) Zeb Wells (A) Greg Land Greg Land (Uncanny X-Men) and Hawkeye (Avengers) drop in on the biggest new title of the year! Two stars of next summer's biggest films, together. 32 PGS./Rated T+ Cover price $3.99.


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Are the freshmen prime-time ready?
Who's going to be the next 24/7/365 day guy?
So here was Austin Etherington, a veteran in years, a rookie in leadership, embracing a take-charge role that once seemed unlikely. He's entering his third season in the program with just 23 games on his college resume, averaging just over six minutes a game. His fractured left patella (knee cap for those unfamiliar with anatomy) is fully healed, although it won't be until next month that he begins full-go activity. He practices with restraint while the others go without it.
No matter. Necessity finds Etherington in the spotlight. On a roasting Tuesday afternoon, after a rigorous team workout, he was part of a podium approach to season prospects.
"We lost quite a few guys, but we got seven new guys," he said. "It's been a lot of work for everyone coming in. They're learning their roles and getting better every day. We're working out every morning and afternoon, so everyone is putting in the time to get better."
Gone early to the NBA are Cody Zeller and Victor Oladipo. Gone to graduation are Jordan Hulls, Christian Watford and Derek Elston. Zeller, Oladipo, Hulls and Watford all scored more than 1,000 career points. The Hoosiers won 56 games in the last two seasons, had consecutive Sweet 16 finishes and won their first outright Big Ten title in 20 years.
Replacing them are six freshmen and one fifth-year senior, Evan Gordon, the younger brother of former IU All-America Eric Gordon and the older brother of nationally renowned recruit Eron Gordon.
Hoosier coach Tom Crean and his staff are using the summer to build a strong foundation for the upcoming season. One glitch — IU's two best players, Yogi Ferrell and Will Sheehey — have been gone nearly a month with Team USA responsibilities as part of the World University Games in Russia. The USA went 6-2 and finished ninth.
That left Etherington and sophomore forward Jeremy Hollowell as the most experienced returning players for the bulk of the summer, although sophomore Hanner Mosquera-Perea and Gordon also are keeping the preferred player-driven-program approach vibrant.
"The leadership has changed a lot," Etherington said. "With me and Jeremy being some of the older guys here right now, and Evan taking a leadership role right away, it's helped us out in a good way. It's made us become better leaders."
Associate head coach Tim Buckley agreed that the absence of Ferrell and Sheehey accelerated the overall team leadership growth.
"It helps define different roles. Rather than lean on those guys, the others have to step outside themselves a little bit. That's a great advantage. Nothing is at stake as far as winning and losing. They can find out who they are and who they can become."
It helps that recruiting has kept the talent level high. Indiana is bringing in a top-10 class led by McDonald's All-America Noah Vonleh, plus heralded Troy Williams, Stanford Robinson, Luke Fischer, Devin Davis and Collin Hartman.
"The freshmen are very athletic," Etherington said. "Coach Crean wants us to be a fast-break team and push the ball. There are no better recruits than the guys we have coming in to do that."
Perhaps, but the national perception is the Hoosiers are about to take a fall this year. They don't buy it.
"Coming off an outright Big Ten championship in arguably the best conference in the country, sometimes you might have guys who feel entitled," Buckley said. "That hasn't been the way the new guys have been at all.
"It's a very vocal group. It's a very high-energy group. It's a group that wants to get better. Sometimes the guys who are highly rated are acting like walk-ons. They just want to learn. They're trying to make the team. They have that great energy and spirit. That's one of the legacies of the group that is leaving accomplished, that culture and work ethic."


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The media buyers said Akhtar is charging an estimated 4 crore per year and most deals are for two years.
No advertisements for Farhan Akhtar
. . . For people who are yet to figure out the purpose and motive behind their actions and existence.
Dude's all over the place. In the beginning of the Dulux ad , he looked seriously doped out. And what's up with the Mcdowell's ad production ? It really looked like one of those shady 80s pubs from the hollywood films where truckers get into a bar fight over some petty change.
Pakistani Chat room
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Usa Chat Room
Very informative, keep posting such good articles, it really helps to know about things.
Very interesting tips shared by you. I really like to read your blogs as they contains very important and informative content. I appreciate your efforts. Cheers.


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Retention marketing solutions provider Optimove announced that it now interfaces with Facebook via application-programming interface, enabling it to automatically update the social network's custom audiences lists on a daily basis.
According to Optimove, the daily updates will help improve response rates by ensuring that the most relevant messages and incentives are delivered to Facebook users, based on their recent actions and behaviors. The company's software is based on predictive customer micro-segmentation algorithms.
Optimove Founder and CEO Pini Yakuel said in a release announcing the API interface:
This new extension of our software is exciting to retention marketers for a number of reasons. It is really the first time that marketers can show a specific creative or campaign to certain segments of their customers on a paid advertising channel and accurately measure the uplift. When marketers understand the power of combining Facebook custom audiences with predictive customer micro-segmentation and automation, retention marketing will never be the same again.


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Australian 'al Qaeda boss' killed in drone strike
A CIA drone strike on July 5 is reported to have killed an Australian, Saifullah, an alleged jihadist local leader linked to al Qaeda.
Analysis by the Bureau as part of its ongoing drones project has recorded just a handful of western jihadists killed in US drone attacks in the past year, among hundreds of deaths of Pakistani and Afghan alleged militants.
Two missiles fired by a drone struck a guesthouse near the main bazaar in Mir Ali, North Waziristan, at around 11pm (Pakistan time) on Tuesday. Six people were reported killed and five wounded.
Saifullah, reportedly 50 years old, has been described as a middle-ranking al Qaeda leader, though little more is known about him.
Fresh Somalia strikes
Two fresh drone strikes were reported on Wednesday night against militant forces in southern Somalia.
As the Bureau reported , Somalia only recently became the sixth nation in which US armed drones are operating, with a confirmed strike on June 23.
According to reports, Somalia's deputy defence minister Abdirashid Mohamed Hidig has said that drones attacked 'militant camps' in the towns of Dhoobley and Afmadow in the south of the country late on Wednesday evening, killing 'dozens'.
Drone attacks and other US military interventions in Somalia are carried out by US Special Forces – the Joint Special Operations Command, or JSOC.
A spokesperson for Australia's Foreign Affairs Ministry told the Bureau: "We are aware of reports that an al Qaeda commander, Saifullah, allegedly an Australian, was killed in a drone strike in North Waziristan, Pakistan on 5 July. The relevant agencies are currently investigating the alleged Australian connection."
If his death is confirmed Saifullah would be the second al Qaeda commander killed by CIA drones in Pakistan in the past four weeks. US intelligence sources last night finally confirmed that they now accept that Ilyas Kashmiri, one of al Qaeda's most senior leaders, was indeed killed in a drone strike on June 3.
The Obama administration has been hesitant to believe reports of Kashmiri's death, which have been claimed on many previous occasions.
Sources told Fox News that "it is safe to say he's a goner."


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MiTek 20/20 Layout Level One
This is a one-day course for truss designers who may or may have little or no experience in running the layout program. The course will keep pace with a specific agenda to enable students to gain a broad overview.
Course Agenda
Basic tour
Overview of defaults
Using preset roof shapes
Wall input techniques– Box, sketch and UDLR, and angled walls
Wall editing
3D roof model explained
Using Roof, ceiling and work planes
Automatic and manual plane solving
Adding trusses – via framing files and manual input
Attic framing and associated features
Editing Trusses and tagging
Trusses labelling
Link to engineering
Whole roof takeoff
Bracing – Editing and Adding
Adding dimensions and notes
Link to PrimeCad
Course summary


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found a new home!
Plenty of my friends are looking
for one too. Find a pet to adopt.
I am already neutered, housetrained, up to date with shots, good with kids, good with dogs, and not good with cats.
Meet your Match Canineality Color is: Orange-Busy Bee!!
For safety's sake, we are looking for homes with physical fenced in areas.
Please fill out our online adoption survey at www.mackenzies.info
Zeek, a Lake Odessa German Shepherd Dog dog was adopted! Here's how you can benefit by looking at adoption as an option to buying a German Shepherd Dog for sale in Lake Odessa, or seeking a German Shepherd Dog dog from a breeder in Lake Odessa.


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ST. PETERSBURG — A man was arrested after he walked up to two police officers early Sunday and told them he had killed his wife the day before, according to authorities.
Police who responded to Donald Lee Wilmore's apartment at 728 18th Ave. S found 55-year-old Alma Joyce Pertee dead.
Wilmore, 46, is accused of killing Pertee during a domestic dispute Saturday morning.
He told police the argument started Saturday when he came home and "found an undressed man inside of his apartment," a statement released by police said. The man ran from the apartment and Wilmore and Pertee started to argue, then he choked her, Wilmore told police. The two weren't married, but they lived together as a couple and have a "history of domestic quarrels," police said.
After the killing, Wilmore wandered around town for a day before he approached the officers at the rear parking lot of the police station at 1300 First Ave. N.
Wilmore, who is listed as a registered sexual offender on the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Web site, has prior arrests for domestic battery and false imprisonment of Pertee and failure to register as a sexual offender. The disposition of those charges was unclear Sunday. He was being held without bail Sunday evening at the Pinellas County Jail.
Pertee has two prostitution convictions, for which she got probation. For a special report about homelessness in Pinellas County two years ago, Pertee told a St. Petersburg Times reporter that she was once homeless and addicted to drugs but had found her way off the streets and was working to help feed and clothe other homeless through her job at the ASAP Drop-In Center.
Rita Farlow can be reached at email@example.com or (727) 445-4157.


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Dow 'giant chalkboard' by DraftFCB Chicago
A mathematical equation on a giant chalkboard in New York was the teaser to a new campaign by DraftFCB for the Dow Chemical Company.
The chalkboard began to reveal an elaborate equation that combines mathematics with numbers that are significant to scientific human achievements throughout history.
As the painters wrote out the mathematical poem over four days, a banner read: "Solutionism. The new optimism."
Throughout the execution, maths enthusiasts and passers-by were invited to participate and guess portions of the equation through a website and the Twitter handle @giantchalkboard, which provided clues and prompts to the significance of the numbers. On the fifth day, the answer was revealed to be seven billion, which represents the soon-to-be world population.