text:
Are you looking for the Degree 2nd Year Result 2021? Then You are on the right plan to collect Degree 2nd Year Result 2021? Here we provide you with all the related information about Degree 2nd's different departments' results in 2021. The NU Degree 2nd exam finished on 30th September 2021. The NU Degree 2nd Year fixed all the dates of the different post Exams. After finishing all the exams, they published the Degree 2nd Result 2021. The NU Degree 2nd Year authority fixed the date and the Degree 2nd Year Exam result 2021 will be published within 30 December 2021.
Degree 2nd Year Exam Result 2021 Short Information
The circular of Degree 2nd Year was published on the first of this year 2021. A lot of candidates applied for this post. And a massive number of participants participated in the written exam 2021. They are now eagerly waiting for their Degree 2nd Year result in 2021. Let's check some short information about this job.
- Circular Published Date: 2021
- Exam Date: September 8, 2021
- Result: 30 December 2021
- ExamType: Degree
Degree 2nd Year Result 2021
We are going to the MCQ result of the NU Degree 2nd Year session 2017-18 below. You can download your NU Degre 2nd Year Result 2021 in PDF or Image format. Degree 2nd Year result 2021 is available on the NU Degree 2nd Year's official website nu.ac.bd/results as well as our site AlBangladesh.com. Let's check all the images:
National University Degree 2nd year 2021 Session 2017-18
The NU is working on the education sector in Bangladesh. For that, they need huge people. After that, they published a circular for post-graduation people. And the authority of the NU finished all the exams and procedures that are related to this. Degree 2nd Year Result 2021 will be issued after 30 December 2021. Result Link: nu.ac.bd/results
ফলাফল প্রকাশিত:
You can download your Degree 2nd Year result 2021 from the images section. It is a massive circular of Degree 2nd Year. So check your result from the above image and confirm your roll. If anything is required, just comment below.


text:
Telecom Lead Asia: LG U+ has deployed Envivio encoding solutions to power its new LG u+tv G multi-screen service, the first service offering in South Korea to support Google TV.
LG u+tv G offers subscribers access to live channels and on-demand TV integrated with apps including Search, YouTube, Google Play and Chrome, via an Internet-connected set-top box.
LG U+ uses Envivio encoders to power its TV Everywhere service, providing more than 126 channels of video to TVs, PCs, tablets and smartphones. LG U+ is a telecommunications service provider in Korea and a subsidiary of LG Group.
Hyunil Moon, general manager of the IPTV business team at LG U+, said: "The Envivio encoders were selected because they provided the best video quality at any given bitrate, on any device. This decision was reinforced by the fact that our previous implementation of multi-screen with the Envivio systems has proven to be an extremely reliable, robust architecture."
Envivio Muse Live and On-Demand software encoders/transcoders provide high quality video, in any format to any device over any network. With a converged architecture and feature-rich software-based design, Envivio Muse can be upgraded and runs on the Envivio 4Caster Intel-based appliances or HP blade servers.
More than 300 content and service providers around the globe have selected Envivio to power their multi-screen services.
"LG U+ is an innovative operator, and the introduction of this new Google TV service takes their video service to the next level. At Envivio, we are committed to providing solutions that offer the flexibility and scalability our customers need, with the feature set to support traditional TV and advanced applications on any viewing device," said Julien Signes, Envivio's president and CEO.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
NAP vs. SNAP: An Analysis on Federal Nutrition Assistance for Residents of Puerto Rico
Published on August 10, 2022 / Leer en español
The cost of food has been in the headlines recently due to a set of intersecting crises. The still ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; the Russian invasion of Ukraine; supply chain disruptions; and natural disasters have combined to generate an overall spike in food prices. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, "global food prices were 23 percent higher in May 2022 than they were a year earlier."
Puerto Rico has not been exempted from this trend. According to the most recent release of the consumer price index for the island, the cost of "general foodstuffs" increased in June 2022 by 10.3% relative to the same month in 2021. We note this increase is probably underestimated due to problems with the construction of the price index for Puerto Rico. In any event, even if it is true that the rate of inflation for food in Puerto Rico is half the rate for the entire world, many households in Puerto Rico were already food insecure prior to the pandemic due to the relatively high cost of living in the island; little local production of basic dietary staples; the requirement to use costly U.S. flag vessels to transport food and other cargo from the U.S.; low wages; and high rates of poverty and income inequality.
This is the context, then, in which Puerto Rican and federal elected officials, members of the Biden administration, and civil society organizations have been advocating for a transition from the Nutrition Assistance Program ("NAP") currently in effect in Puerto Rico to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ("SNAP") currently operating in the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. territories of Guam and the Virgin Islands.
As part of that advocacy effort, Congress ordered the Food and Nutrition Service ("FNS") of the U.S. Department of Agriculture ("USDA") in 2021 to undertake an update of a 2010 study of the feasibility of implementing SNAP in Puerto Rico. The USDA, in turn, hired two consulting firms, Insight Policy Research and Mathematica, to carry out this update for FNS. The USDA released the final report of the Update to Feasibility Study of Implementing SNAP in Puerto Rico in July 2022 (the "Feasibility Study").
For years, CNE has advocated for equal treatment in regards to federal programs such as Medicaid, Supplemental Security Income, Earned Income Tax Credit, and a transition from NAP to SNAP. In this policy brief, we take a look at some of the most important findings of the Feasibility Study and analyze their implications for the full implementation of SNAP in Puerto Rico.
Nutritional Assistance in Puerto Rico
Federal nutrition assistance for residents of Puerto Rico began in November 1974 under the old Food Stamp Program ("FSP"). Initially and during the first eight years of the implementation of the FSP in Puerto Rico it functioned just like in the U.S.: all eligible participants received paper coupons which could then be used to purchase food items from certified food retailers on the island.
In 1982, Congress replaced the FSP in Puerto Rico with an annual block grant through the NAP. The annual block grant was initially capped at $825 million or 75% of the projected FSP costs for Puerto Rico in 1982. (Feasibility Study, p. 17) This cap was kept in place for the first five years of the program.
While the Feasibility Study claims this was done "in part to control nutrition assistance costs in Puerto Rico," we disagree. There is no logical or rational relationship between the desire or necessity to cut the costs of any given program and the decision of whose benefits are cut, especially when it is decided to cut the benefits of a discrete group of beneficiaries. In this sense, it appears to us that the decision to implement the NAP in Puerto Rico as a capped block grant is yet another example in a long list of Congressional discrimination against territories based on a "racialized order of territorial exceptionalism" as documented by Andrew Hammond, professor of law at the University of Florida law school. (See Andrew Hammond, Territorial Exceptionalism and the American Welfare State, 119 MICH. L. REV. 1639 (2021))
Be that as it may, it appears that in exchange for lower funding and the implementation of the funding cap, Congress granted Puerto Rico greater flexibility in administering the program by shifting many regulatory decisions and functions to Puerto Rico. For example, when first implemented, NAP benefits were disbursed through paper checks that could be cashed at any food retailer, bank, or financial institution. However, on the negative side, eligibility requirements were stricter and benefit levels were reduced under NAP to adjust program costs to the lower funding level. Households with incomes of more than 85 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines (in July 1982) became ineligible, and benefit levels were reduced. The maximum NAP benefit for a household of four was $199, compared with the previous maximum of $221 under the FSP. (Feasibility Study, p. 17)
In 2001, the government of Puerto Rico began delivering benefits through an electronic benefit transfer system ("EBT") and limited the amount that could be redeemed in cash to 25% of benefits. In 2015, Congress directed Puerto Rico to phase out the option of the 25% cash benefit and since the beginning of 2021, all benefits have been delivered using EBT cards that can be used only at authorized NAP retailers.
During FY2021, core block grant funding for the NAP was approximately $2 billion and provided benefits to 1.5 million low-income individuals. This core funding was supplemented with special appropriations in 2017, after Hurricane Maria, and in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For FY2022, the NAP block grant amount was increased by 23% to reflect similar changes to SNAP benefits due to a revision of the federal Thrifty Food Plan. As a result, block grant funding for FY2023 is expected to be approximately $2.6 billion. Finally, two bills are pending in Congress to fully transition Puerto Rico to SNAP.
In general, the capped block grant structure of the NAP has generated discrepancies in eligibility criteria and benefit levels relative to SNAP. According to the Feasibility Study, NAP asset limits are higher than the SNAP asset limits but net income limits and maximum benefits levels are lower under NAP. For example, during FY2021, while the net income limit for a family of three was slightly lower for NAP than SNAP…smaller households [saw] a greater disparity in net income limits: A single-person household in Puerto Rico could have a monthly net income of up to $619 compared with $1,064 for SNAP. Alternatively, "larger households (of four or more) had higher net income limits for NAP than SNAP."
Furthermore, "excluding adjustments to NAP and SNAP benefits resulting from COVID-19, the maximum NAP benefit in FY 2021 was 59 percent of the maximum SNAP benefit; this trend was similar for all household sizes."(Feasibility Study, p. 18).
Transition to SNAP
The transition from NAP to SNAP would be a complicated process. It will be necessary, among other things,
- To enact federal legislation to authorize the operation of SNAP in Puerto Rico;
- To enact Puerto Rico legislation to conform with federal requirements for SNAP;
- For both the USDA and the government of Puerto Rico to issue new regulations for the operation of SNAP in Puerto Rico and to bring into alignment asset limits, income limits, work requirements, and other program parameters;
- To implement new quality control, compliance, and reporting requirements; and
- To provide for the operation of several components of SNAP that currently don't operate in Puerto Rico, such as the SNAP Employment and Training program ("SNAP E&T"); the SNAP Nutritional Education program ("SNAP-Ed"); and Disaster SNAP.
In addition, Puerto Rico will have to hire and train new program officers (approximately 550 new hires just to process new applications), implement new procedures, and roll out new IT systems to manage the program.
According to the Feasibility Study, implementing SNAP in Puerto Rico could cost between $341 million and $426 million over an estimated 10-year implementation period; while administering SNAP after rollout would cost an estimated $249 million to $414 million, on an annual basis (FNS would cover approximately 54% of these costs).
The estimated cost of benefits issued to SNAP participants in Puerto Rico would be $4.5 billion annually, based on an average monthly SNAP participation of 861,000 households. (Feasibility Study, p. 155)
What to Expect Under SNAP in Puerto Rico
In general, a transition to SNAP in Puerto Rico is expected to increase the number of eligible individuals and households and raise the benefit levels of participants. However, some types of households may gain nutrition assistance eligibility and/or benefits under SNAP, while others may lose eligibility and/or benefits. The final distribution of winners and losers under SNAP will depend, in part, on policy decisions made by the government of Puerto Rico, and in part on the implementation of SNAP criteria instead of NAP criteria.
According to the Feasibility Study, the following are some of the effects that can be expected if SNAP is implemented in Puerto Rico:
- Asset Limits – In general, the NAP asset limits are higher than the SNAP asset limits. To be eligible for NAP, households with no members 60 or older may have no more than $5,000 in assets. Households with only members 60 or older have an asset limit of $15,000. (Feasibility Study, p. 31). While for SNAP, households with at least one member who is 60 or older or has a disability had an asset limit of $3,500. For all other households, the asset limit was $2,250. Thus, everything else being equal, the implementation of SNAP asset limits would result in a lower number of beneficiaries in Puerto Rico. However, the Feasibility Study states that this effect could be mitigated, at least in part, by adopting broad-based categorical eligibility ("BBCE") rules. Under BBCE, states have been able to use asset and gross income limits for TANF noncash benefits to confer categorical eligibility for SNAP, for example, by eliminating asset limits or increasing the gross income limit up to 200% of the Federal Poverty Guidelines.
- Income Limits – According to the Feasibility Study, "The types and sources of income included in eligibility determination are generally similar for NAP and SNAP, including income of ineligible household members, but the exemptions, deductions, and income thresholds differ. The effect of a transition from NAP to SNAP on the overall amount deducted from gross income would vary by household and could affect various groups' eligibility and benefit levels differently (e.g., older adults compared with parents with school-aged children)." (Feasibility Study, p. 36).
Source: Feasibility Study, p. 37.For example, as shown in the graph above, income limits under NAP are lower than SNAP's for households of one to three people. So, everything else being equal, this would mean that a larger amount of smaller households in Puerto Rico would qualify for benefits under SNAP than under NAP.
- Work Requirements – Currently there are no work requirements under NAP. SNAP, however, has a general work requirement as well as a specific work requirement for Able Bodied Adults Without Dependents ("ABAWDs"). In general, "all SNAP participants aged 16–59 who do not meet Federal exemption criteria are required to register for work, participate in workfare or SNAP E&T if required by the State agency, accept a bona fide offer of employment, and not voluntarily quit or reduce hours of employment below a 30-hour work week." In addition, "ABAWDs are required to work or participate in a work program 80 hours per month unless they receive discretionary exemptions or live in an area where the time limit is waived. ABAWDs who do not meet the ABAWD work requirement face a time limit on their benefit receipt of 3 months in a 36-month period." (Feasibility Study, p. 31) The government of Puerto Rico would be required to implement these work requirements under SNAP. In most cases failure to comply with work requirements results in losing eligibility for SNAP. While a full discussion of work requirements is beyond the scope of this newsletter we note that (1) their application in the U.S. has been controversial; (2) their impact on labor force participation has been weak or negligible in many states; and (3) their implementation would require a significant investment on the part of the government of Puerto Rico in IT, data management, and additional human resources to adequately implement and enforce these requirements.
- Several Groups May Lose Eligibility or Receive Lower Benefits – Among these groups, the Feasibility Study highlights the following:
- Older adults or adults with disabilities who are allowed to form their own "household" for NAP purposes, even if they live and purchase and prepare food with others; in most cases, this would not be allowed under SNAP;
- Older adults participating in NAP currently receive an extra 20% of the maximum benefit for a one-person household, the payment of this additional amount, which is used mostly to compensate for the inapplicability of SSI to residents of Puerto Rico, would not be allowed under SNAP;
- Postsecondary students in Puerto Rico qualify for NAP benefits; under SNAP those enrolled half-time or more would be eligible to receive nutrition benefits only if they meet certain restrictive criteria;
- Households with modest assets may be ineligible for SNAP because asset limits under SNAP are considerably lower than under NAP; and
- NAP allows income deductions for older adults, people with disabilities, postsecondary students, farmers and farmworkers, and veterans that have no equivalent in SNAP; these groups may have a higher net income under the SNAP methodology and could therefore see their benefit levels or eligibility adversely affected.
In sum, the authors of the Feasibility Study conclude that "further research is needed to determine which NAP participants would be most likely to lose nutrition assistance benefits."
- Benefit Calculation – Maximum benefits under SNAP are based on the Thrifty Food Plan, while NAP maximum benefits are based on available funding and program participation. According to the Feasibility Study, "in 2021, in the absence of relief funding, the SNAP maximum benefit was 1.8–2.1 times higher than the NAP maximum benefit." (Feasibility Study, p. 38) See chart below.
Source: Feasibility Study, p. 39.
- Estimated SNAP Participation in Puerto Rico – The authors of the Feasibility Study estimated SNAP participation in Puerto Rico using 2019 Puerto Rico Community Survey data in a microsimulation model applying both the standard federal SNAP rules and the BBCE rules. They found that under the standard SNAP rules the number of participating households would increase from an average of 723,435 under NAP to 838,418, an increase of 114,983 households, or 15.9%; the number of participating individuals would increase from an average of 1,330,902 to 1,449,360, an increase of 118,458 persons, or 8.9%; and the percentage of the total population in Puerto Rico covered by nutritional assistance would increase from 41.7% to 45.4%. Applying the BBCE rules they found that the number of participating households would increase from an average of 723,435 under NAP to 860,866, an increase of 137,431 households, or 19%; the number of participating individuals would increase from an average of 1,330,902 to 1,488,620, an increase of 157,718 persons, or 11.9%; and the percentage of the total population in Puerto Rico covered by nutritional assistance would increase from 41.7% to 46.6%.
So, what is the bottom line? As with many things in life, it's complicated. In fact, the transition from NAP to SNAP could be a case study in the difficult trade-offs between costs and benefits, flexibility and standardization of program eligibility criteria, and discretionary and mandatory program administration rules and regulations, which policymakers face on a daily basis.
On the positive side of the ledger, we find: (1) funding for nutritional assistance would increase significantly under SNAP, from approximately $2.6 billion in FY2023 to $4.5 billion in FY2031; (2) the number of beneficiaries would increase between 9 and 12 percent (depending on the final set of rules adopted); (3) the maximum amount of benefits would increase, in some cases they may actually be double the amount currently available under NAP; and (4) the increased spending in nutrition expenditures would have a positive income multiplier effect on the local economy in both the food retail and the local agricultural sectors as well as a positive impact on overall employment.
On the other side of the ledger we need to take into account the following: (1) implementation costs could exceed $400 million dollars over a ten-year period, at a time when the Fiscal Oversight and Management Board has been implementing budget cuts across the government; (2) administering SNAP after rollout would cost an estimated $249 million to $414 million, on an annual basis (but FNS would cover approximately 54% of these costs); (3) some groups could lose eligibility for nutritional assistance or qualify only for lower benefits; and (4) the government of Puerto Rico would have to gear up for the implementation of several components of SNAP which currently don't operate in Puerto Rico, such as the SNAP Employment and Training program ("SNAP E&T"); the SNAP Nutritional Education program ("SNAP-Ed"); and Disaster SNAP.
What about work requirements, are they a benefit or a cost? In a narrow monetary sense work requirements impose new programmatic costs as the government has to set up new employment and training programs as well as systems for monitoring compliance. In a broader sense, though, many advocates of work requirements argue that they produce a net social benefit as people who were otherwise unemployed become "useful" members of society. In practice, however, many nutritional assistance beneficiaries end up in lousy, dead-end jobs from which they cannot escape without losing benefits. This is what some scholars have called the "employment trap."
The debate regarding the imposition of work requirements for recipients of public assistance is as old as the Bible itself ("Whoever will not work should not be allowed to eat", 2 Thessalonians 3:10). And recurs throughout Western history, for example, in Thomas More's Utopia (1516), the Elizabethan Poor Laws of 1601, and the first social insurance schemes in Bismarck's Germany, all the way through the 1996 welfare reform in the U.S., and current debates regarding the federal Child Tax Credit.
While this newsletter is not the venue to fully address this debate, we do note that work requirements appear to be more effective in theory than in practice for several reasons. First, as we have mentioned, many people subject to these requirements end up in low-skill, low-wage jobs that provide little opportunity for advancement or for acquiring valuable skills. Second, studies of work requirements find that their economic impact has been meager at best, and statistically insignificant at worse. Third, some political philosophers argue that these kinds of requirements are an affront to and a violation of human dignity. In the end, we respectfully disagree with the authoritative St. Paul and prefer the gentler commands of the Man from Galilee, who advocated for feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, and welcoming strangers. (Matthew 25:35)
Regardless of where the government stands in the debate over work requirements, it appears that the benefits of implementing SNAP in Puerto Rico outweigh the costs, provided that adequate measures are taken to try to protect, or reduce the impact on, those who may be negatively affected by the transition from NAP to SNAP. In a transition such as the one proposed, there will always be winners and losers, but we must try to minimize the negative consequences that particular groups would face.
However, there is another argument in favor of extending SNAP to Puerto Rico, beyond a purely utilitarian cost-benefit analysis. Ending Congressional discrimination against the residents of Puerto Rico in the application of nutritional assistance programs is a good in and of itself. There is just no rational basis for Congress's arbitrary and capricious decision to exclude or limit the application of social safety net programs in the U.S. territories.
While some may have justified such treatment in the past using outdated racial and ethnic stereotypes such thinking should have no purchase in the 21st century.
People born in Puerto Rico are U.S. citizens by birth. That should be enough to warrant equal treatment.


text:
The militant and Ambassador Adhanom Mariam left the United States last Friday after a long march in the Eritrean struggle to liberate Eritrea and resist dictatorship in Asmara.
The deceased joined the Eritrean revolution with his generation in the early 1970s with the People's Liberation Forces and is considered one of the founders and leaders of the Popular Front. Throughout the armed struggle, he struggled in various advanced leadership positions without being distracted.
After liberation, the prosecutor's position and then the ambassador of the State of Nigeria were recalled, announcing that he had abandoned his position in favour of the people's struggle for a state of law and democracy. He participated with his colleagues in the founding of the Democratic Party, and then in the Eritrean People's Movement, actively contributed to the Eritrean Democratic Alliance conferences and all Eritrean opposition activities.
May God rest his soul and all the condolences of his family and friends.


text:
John F. Fox, Jr. Interview (2007)
World War II Oral Histories
Genre: Interview
Place Covered: Canal Zone, Panama, France
Copyright Holder: Louisiana Educational Television Authority
Date Issued: 2007-09-06
Duration: 00:43:12
Subjects: Fox, John F., Jr. | World War II | Military | Veterans | World War, 1939-1945 -- Personal narratives | Merchant marine -- United States | United States. Army | United States. Army. Transportation Corps | World War, 1939-1945 -- Campaigns -- France -- Normandy | World War, 1939-1945 -- Naval operations, German | Leopoldville (Ship) | D-DAY | Hurricane Katrina, 2005 | Natural Disasters
- Lefebvre, Marian Interviewer
- Fox, John F., Jr. Interviewee
An oral history interview conducted on September 6, 2007, with John F. Fox, Jr., a member of the Merchant Marines and Army Transportation Corps during World War II. He discusses: joining the Merchant Marines; transporting Army equipment through the Panama Canal Zone; joining the Army Transportation Corps; transporting aviation fuel in the Gulf of Mexico; fueling P-T boats and British torpedo boats off of the beaches of Normandy, France, for 57 days following the D-Day invasion; fueling a British minesweeping flotilla between the ports of Le Havre and Brest in France; the little-known torpedoing of the Leopoldville, a Belgian troop ship carrying American soldiers to the Battle of the Bulge, which resulted in the deaths of over 900 soldiers; being forced to relinquish his war-time souvenirs on his return to the United States; making 6 Atlantic crossings to bring troops home from Europe; his life after the war; his experience of Hurricane Katrina; and the courage of the men who participated in the Normandy invasion on D-Day.


text:
Today we hear from Andrew Mathewson – STAR Board member
Reading v Coventry City, 19 February 2012
Reading playing Coventry is a special game for me. Coventry was where I started going to football, back in the 1976/77 season, when the Sky Blues were in the old First Division. Indeed I first saw Reading play at Highfield Road. The story of Coventry City's troubles off the pitch over the last few seasons has been sad for any football fan to see. I'm delighted to see City back in the Championship and doing the best of the three promoted teams to put down roots here. My only regret is that they took three points from us in doing so. That wasn't in the script.
That defeat at the end of October led to a bit of a wobble in our form, and we've been struggling with injuries pretty much since then. But we've been resilient and go into this game in sixth place, only three points behind second placed Swansea. The emergence of more players from the Academy over that period has been one of the stories of our season.
We'll be looking for a win not only to avenge our defeat at St. Andrew's but also to consolidate our place in the play-off places.
If only we could be there to see the game! But it's still not to be. Whether we can get back to the Madejski this season remains to be seen. I'd rather hope that my football watching this season amounted to more than two home defeats! But I fear that might be our lot. In the meantime we'll keep on backing the boys, if not making much noise, from a safe distance.
And for added spice we' re now in the middle of the transfer window. As I write there's been no comings or goings. I'm sure we're all hoping for some arrivals to strengthen the squad, but equally nervously hoping that we keep the players who have done so well this season, especially the exciting young talent.
Whatever happens from here this should be considered a good season. Let's hope that we can kick on now under Pauno and really press for automatic promotion or at least a play-off place.
Come on URZ!


text:
Adidas Originals Multi-Coloured 3D Bag Geometric Pattern Sports Travel Backpack
Perfect for school, camping, hiking, travelling, sports, gym, and a holiday weekend bag. The geometric pattern illuminates and shines in different colours at various angles of light.
- Brand: Adidas
- Colour: Multi-Coloured
- Design: Luminous Geometric Pattern
- Style: Backpack
- Pockets: 2 x outer mesh side open pockets, 1 large inside padded pouch for laptops/tablets, 2 open inside pockets for phone/wallet etc.
- Condition: New with tags
Please note:
- We ship from Sydney via Australia Post within 1 business day of payment being received. We happily combine shipping for items to reduce costs.
Please note as we do our best to take photos that best display the item, it may differ slightly due to lighting and/or screen settings.


text:
The advent of the drone-based rental business has brought a significant shift in the economy in a short period of time. In fact, people now tend to use drones for both personal and business purposes.
However, they are still regarded as a tool for the rich because the price is quite high. Thanks to the drone rental business, everyone can have a chance to approach this tool and turn it to be a major part of everyday lives. When the price is not the main problem anymore, people can upgrade their lives and businesses by renting drones.
It is commonly seen that this case is profitable and potential, so people are trying to get a slice of this pie. According to trustworthy surveys, the market size of drone rental services is expected to skyrocket in the near future. No doubt that it is high time to jump into this business type.
Our article today will show you more information about this drone rental business. Let's take a look and learn more about it.
Drone rental business
What is drone
The term "drone", a new definition in technology, refers to UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). This tool can be used for different purposes. Mainly its functions are often used in military, operations, farming, package delivery, etc. Nowadays, it plays a new role in creating content, which means people use drones to make videos or capture beautiful shots from above. Those materials captured by the drones are used for both personal and business purposes.
In fact, drones were originally invented to take over some dangerous and risky tasks of humans, such as entering disaster zones, going to outer space, etc. In other words, people use them for scientific purposes as well, such as Antarctica exploration, etc.
Different drones will certainly have their own special functions and capacity for traveling. You can find many sizes of a drone, it can be large and even as small as the palm of a human's hand. So, you should consider carefully the using purposes to have the best choice.
Read more: What is Drone Business? What Should Magento 2 Merchants Know about this New Business Trend?
Types of drone
Drones offer you various options based on your individual and organizational purposes. However, there are four main types of drones that you can consider for your drone rental business.
Multi-rotor drone
This type is small and neat. You can attach a small camera, which is not that too bulky like other types. No doubt that it is the cheapest type if you want to have a simple and neat drone. Despite the price, it still works pretty well in the sky, you can easily control the drone over any positions and framing, moreover, it will give you various perfect shots from the sky which will support your photography work a lot.
The drawback of this multi-rotor drone is that there is a limitation to the speed and endurance, so this makes it hard to move in long distances. And the size of the camera needs to be suitable with the size of the drone so that it can carry along. Because it is quite small, so no doubt that it will require more energy to keep it in the air.
Fixed-wing drone
This type of drone is designed to have wings the same as normal planes. This requires less energy to move forward compared to the multi-rotor drones. This drone, no doubt, can travel a longer distance and capture a larger area. Thus, it is more efficient and highly chosen by many people. Moreover, this type of engine can use gas to run, so it can stay aloft for up to 16 hours, or even more.
The downside of this type is that it cannot hover in one spot because of its structures. Besides, the way it lands is much trickier than other types, which is certainly more inconvenient to operate. The cost is higher and it also takes time to learn how to use it, thus in case you are a beginner, the multi-rotor is more suitable with a cheaper price and easier control system.
Single-rotor helicopter
This type has just one rotor to hold it up in the sky and a tail rotor in order to control the heading. A single-rotor helicopter provides greater efficiency compared to multi-rotor drones.
Some drawbacks of this type are the cost and the danger with their spinning blades which can cause serious damage if somebody gets in its way.
Fixed-wing Hybrid VTOL
This tool can take off and land vertically. It provides long-endurance flights and you can easily find numerous types under development. The price is cheap but it is highly recommended for delivery purposes.
There are some downsides when using this drone, such as it is still not really a perfect engine at either forward flight or hovering and people are still on their ways to enhance and develop it.
In general, the four types of drones have their own pros and cons, you should depend on the purposes to choose suitable ones. The fact that each drone type plays its special role so in case you want to jump into the drone rental business, those four types are good options for you.
How popular is the drone rental business
Drone rental business experiences skyrocketing increase in recent years. In fact, like other technical devices, this business is quite competitive. Thanks to the rapid advance of technology, more people and businesses can afford the drone because it has contributed to the decrease in drone prices.
Moreover, more drones nowadays improve their functions for better shots from the sky and capture a vast range of areas. However, some of the drones are still so pricey, so the drone rental business is a good option so that everyone can have a chance to use drones for their personal and business purposes.
Besides, more and more people come up with a lot of outstanding and big ideas which are carried out with drones. No doubt that drones make ideas and plan more feasible and wonderful.
In general, drones have become a good choice for many types of businesses, which make ideas, products, and services more creative and impressive. It can be easily seen that people use drones for various purposes. Despite the drop in drone prices, some people still cannot afford it, so the drone rental business is necessary.
Opportunities and challenges of drone rental business
Opportunities: Drones play a really crucial role in many industries, such as:
- Filmmaking is a developing industry, which requires a lot of shots captured from the sky. Thus, the drone rental business is really important to save costs.
- The drone photography business is also really popular nowadays, which accounts for large shares in this service market.
- Agriculture plays important role in daily lives, so people tend to invest more in farming and inspection. As a result, drones are widely used for farming.
- People also talk about other services with drones, such as drone repair service business, mapping inspection business, etc.
- The drone can be used to advertise and marketing as well.
However, there are still challenges that you should keep in mind when starting your own drone business. Firstly, you have to start with a large amount of money to invest in buying those items, drones are quite pricey. Secondly, managing the rental system is not that easy, you should take care of both the products and services. So, it is necessary to adopt technology into your management process.
Read more: Types of Drone Business that Magento 2 merchants can try in 2021
What you need to prepare to have an effective drone rental business
Surely, the drone rental business is trending and highly recommended by many people. However, starting this business is not that easy. As always, you need a good start to have a smooth and better process. Below are some tips which are highly recommended by many drone business owners, let's take a look.
Market research
Drones can be used in various industries for different purposes. Obviously, it is really important to know the functions and roles of drones for each typical case. To do this, you need to understand clearly the local market and potential customers. What is the demand in this market? How can we use it? What types of services do I need to provide? Is it suitable? etc. Those are the main questions that those who are doing rental business need to consider.
To answer those questions and use the drone effectively, market research is really necessary in this case.
Develop your own business plan
If market research is the first step, making a plan is the second phase. Of course, you have to work on your plan based on the report of the market research process.
Developing a plan will help you have a clear vision for your project, thus predicting the opportunities as well as the risks that your business will face. Besides, market researching will help you to choose a suitable niche market based on your knowledge, financial resources, etc. No doubt that making a plan in advance is an effective way to do business.
After having a clear understanding of your suitable market, you will focus on your investment and decide on the structure of your drone rental business. Obviously, the business structure will make your process much easier. It is a necessary step for every type of business which can make a great impact on legal protection.
Make financial plan
In fact, the drone-based rental business is really new to everyone, so there will be a lot of risks during the operation. Besides, drones are quite expensive, so you should make a great effort in order to prevent some risks in the drone rental business.
A financial plan is good to go because you can consider the expense involved before operating your business. Having a clear vision of total cost will help you come up with better solutions and strategies to cover the expenses and make a profit. As a result, you should build a good team with a firm knowledge foundation in finance to manage the financial plan effectively.
Get yourself ready
The drone rental business is new and there are many risks ahead that a business owner has to face. So, getting yourself ready will help you gain more inner strength in order to face and overcome many challenges.
Choose business location
With the advent of technology and the Internet, you can both have a brick-and-mortar store or build yourself a drone rental business on some online platforms.
Rental System for drone rental business
Overview: If you are planning to build a rental business, especially the drone rental business, you should not miss this Magento 2 Rental system extension. Rental System is developed by Magenest, which is mainly used to simplify the management process for your rental business. Some of the main functions of the Rental System, such as keeping track of the products and workflow, setting up rules for renting and delivering, etc. Let's take a look at its features to learn more about it.
Key features:
- You can customize your rental system to run your business and build it in a new way to attract more customers with the Rental System. More specifically, this extension supports those who buy infrequently used items to make good use of them.
- The setup process is quite quick because there are not many differences compared to other products. You can create the type of product for rent quickly in the backend and manage it as usual.
- As an admin, you can also set the rental period for the product as well. Besides, the extension allows you to choose the price, either fixed-price or additional price.
- There are two types of delivery, including shipping and local pick up. Admins can allow customers to choose these two types based on their requirements.
- All the activities of your customers and the order can be managed effectively.
- Besides, the system will provide you the report and data of your products and orders, you can use them to make better plans for your rental business.
- The system will ensure that you never have overlapping orders.
Price: $197.10
Compatibility: CE, EE 2.2.x, 2.3.x, 2.4.x, Version 1.3.2
The rental business is now the hot trend among many industries, especially in eCommerce stores because it is such a great way to make more profit with your repeatable products and services. This business has helped many individuals and organizations to afford a drone with less amount of money. No doubt that the drone rental business is becoming popular nowadays. Despite some challenges, the drone rental business still has a great effect on many business owners. Therefore, it is important to manage your rental system well in order to build a good and seamless buying journey for customers. As a result, the Rental System is built to serve this purpose. To find more Magento 2 extensions for your eCommerce stores, feel free to visit our store for further information.


text:
Five Best Practices to Ensure It Is.
By Curt Covington
After a period of exceptional prosperity in agriculture, there are signs that the belt tightening in farm country has begun. Ag bankers responded positively to the demand from landowners by increasing lending for land purchases from $85 billion at year-end 2002 to $162 billion at the end of 2014. During this same period banks became major farm real estate lenders with farm real estate lending increasing from $38 billion in 2002 to $84 billion in 2014. Despite any potential challenges confronting banks when it comes to funding, securing, and servicing farm real estate loans, agricultural lending has become an important mainstay for many community banks and that is why ag lenders must be cognizant of the potential peaks and pitfalls that come along with farmland lending.
But how can community banks positions themselves to not only survive a possible correction in the farm economy but actually grow in less than ideal conditions? Most ag bankers around the country have memory of the 1980s to be prudent lenders when it comes to extending farm real estate loans and if they continue to adhere to these five fundamental "best practices", they can continue to profit in a more challenging lending environment.
- Conduct thorough stress tests. Unexpected economic downturns and adverse market conditions can significantly harm a bank's financial position. A well-managed bank always incorporates routine portfolio and commodity segment stress tests as part of a sound risk management strategy to identify its key vulnerabilities to market forces and assess how to effectively manage those risks should they emerge.
- Consider limitations. Having conducted thorough stress testing including a variety of scenarios, many community banks will set lending caps on real estate (e.g. maximum LTVs or maximum debt per acre), no matter how high farmland prices go. And even with volatility in commodity prices, using these practices, smart lenders will be well protected by farmland collateral.
- Invest in quality valuations. The anticipated tempering of the agriculture climate makes collateral valuation even more important. Not taking short cuts is paramount to ensure an accurate and reliable value of your investment.
- Shelter yourself from unnecessary risk. In such a prolonged low-interest rate environment, it can be tempting to reinstate the lending practices of the Savings and Loan industry of old – originate farm mortgages, fund them with deposits, and hold them in portfolio. Unfortunately, banks that operate under this model are restricted in the size and the kinds of real estate loans they safely offer. Farm real estate lending exposes them to increased credit and interest rate risk. Proper asset-liability management may cost more in the short-run, but taking the long-term view can pay dividends when interest rates begin to rise.
- Leverage the secondary market. In the darkest days of the farm crisis of the 1980s, a group of forward thinking ag lenders created a secondary market for farm real estate mortgages. Twenty-five years later, Farmer Mac continues to offer a mechanism for community bankers to increase their product offerings, improve their liquidity, and help manage any asset-liability mismatch. Another added benefit – on average, banks that have sold farm real estate loans into the secondary market have actually grown their ag portfolios at a faster pace than those who have not.
Farm real estate collateral can be an ag banker's best friend when times get tough or a boat anchor for those who fail to adequately manage the risks inherent in ag real estate lending. But, if lenders remain pragmatic in their approach and properly manage farm real estate lending risk, they can position themselves to seize farm lending opportunities that others miss during volatile times.
Curt Covington is the Senior Vice President for Agricultural Finance at the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac) the secondary market for farm real estate mortgages that was created by Congress in 1987 in response to the farm crisis. Farmer Mac provides risk management solutions to community banks that originate farm real estate mortgages.


text:
In his book Pakistan: A Hard Country1 Anatol Lieven joined the long parade of South Asia scholars attempting to A) explain what is happening, B) provide some explanatory variables C) provide specific foreign policy recommendations, and D) forecast what will happen in the future.
Scholars grappling with these issues fall into two very broad categories. The alarmist group concludes that things have already deteriorated too far and that it not a question of if Pakistan will disappear but when.
The second group (often called the "muddle through" group) is more fatalistic. It believes that while Pakistan has gone to the brink of destruction on numerous occasions, it has always found a way to muddle through. Lieven belongs to this group.
There is a well-founded consensus reflected in Lieven's assessment that, "Pakistan is divided, disorganized, economically backward, corrupt, violent, unjust, often savagely oppressive towards the poor and women, and home to extremely dangerous forms of extremism and terrorism." However, unlike the alarmists, Lieven points out that Pakistan "is in may ways surprisingly tough and resilient as a state and a society,"2 and "failing a catastrophic overspill of the war in Afghanistan, Pakistan will therefore probably survive as a state."3
Lieven argues that this "resilience" is based on the unique character of Pakistani society. Pakistan is a "weak state" with a "strong society." Pakistan's deeply entrenched social norms are only partially based on Islam. Pakistanis are not the diehard Islamic fanatics often portrayed in the press. Rather, Pakistanis are inherently conservative. Their conservatism includes their attitude towards Islam, but extends to a wide variety of social and political attitudes and practices. As is the case in any deeply religious society, Islam is manipulated to provide religious sanction to attitudes and practices that are in many cases not explicitly Islamic. Many of these attitudes and practices that predate Islam were assigned an Islamic significance after Islam became the predominant religion in the region. The founding of Pakistan as an explicitly Islamic state has only speeded up and encouraged this ongoing process.
In the Pakistani context, a small minority of violent Islamists are the revolutionaries. They use extreme methods in their attempt to force or convince a reluctant population to abandon its inherent conservatism and embrace their version of Islam based on a narrow and violent definition of jihad and a stark anti-modernism disguised as Islamic purity.
Pakistan's Islamic radicals belong to a variety of groups claiming to espouse a "pure" form of Islam. The leading Islamic radical group is the Tehriq-e-Taleban Pakistan (TTP), often called the "Pakistani Taleban." The TTP is allied with an alphabet soup of Islamic extremist groups with varying agendas. Some are determined to "eliminate" religious minorities, others to wage "jihad" against India, others have extended jihad to include the United States and western countries in general. All want to purge Pakistan of what they view as non-Islamic and Western accretions.
The Islamic radicals initially received a sympathetic hearing from many Pakistanis. They capitalized on many Pakistanis' long-held antipathy against India, and a growing wave of anti-Americanism. They raised the cry of "Islam in danger," and painted themselves as defenders of the faith. Some Pakistanis viewed the radicals as heroes. However, the inherent radicalism of these movements has run into the inherent conservatism of Pakistani society. Lots of the initial sympathy has dried up, and the radicals are finding it increasingly difficult to convince skeptical Pakistanis of the inherent rightness of their program. They have had a hard time in Pakistan and have not been embraced by the people at large.
Disappointed by their poor reception, the Islamic radicals decided to terrorize Pakistanis into submission. They unleashed a wave of terrorist attacks on innocent Pakistanis that grows more violent and widespread with each passing day. The radicals have long targeted Shia Muslims and Ahmadiyas4, denouncing both groups as heretics. They then turned their attention to Pakistani Christians. Now they have begun to target the Pakistani population at large. Distressed that most Pakistanis remain heavily influenced by Sufism and Pakistani folk practices (often loosely organized within the predominant Barelvi sect5), Islamic radicals expanded their target list to include highly revered Sufi shrines, Sufi saints, liberal and westernized Pakistanis, women, and Sunni Muslims who reject their extreme doctrines.
The Pathans
As Lieven and others have pointed out, the TTP has found its greatest following among members of the Pathan ethnic group living in the wild "frontier" region encompassing the Federally Administered Tribal Area (FATA). The Pathans living in this area are culturally different in many ways from Pakistanis living in other regions. They live in a remote area and are not urbanized. They have remained largely outside the purview of the government. They have not received many of the services provided to other Pakistanis. This is particularly true of education. The culture of this region is extremely patriarchal and the role of women is high restricted. The general literacy rate is very low (30 percent for males, and only 3 percent for females).6
This region has internalized rebellion against outside authority. The inhabitants resent the presence of the government. During the British era Pathans routinely revolted against British rule, most often under the guise of an Islamic jihad, aimed at "saving Islam from danger." This pattern continued after the British departed. The government of the new state of Pakistan naively assumed that tribal revolts would cease after the British departed, as the new government would be Islamic and indigenous. The change of rulers made no difference and the rebellions continued. The Pathan code of "Pashtunwali" incorporates a profound regard for personal honor and charisma. Under the Pashtunwali code, Pathan leaders, unlike elsewhere in Pakistan, must first demonstrate personal charisma before being acknowledged. There is no concept of purely hereditary leadership as is the case in much of the rest of Pakistan.
The government of Pakistan tried to mollify this region of Pakistan by maintaining the system devised by the British. Tribal leaders ruled over these areas, while "Political agents," appointed by the government, provided advice and tried to prevent outbreaks of violent rebellion. The Pakistan Army did not operate in the region. The "Frontier Force," a paramilitary group of locally recruited enlisted men and NCOs officered by the Pakistani Army, loosely enforced the governmental writ.
This system prevented widespread violence and rebellion until the outside world intervened. Previously, much of the violence in FATA was ritualized. The Pathans were lightly armed with often out of date weapons that were not terribly lethal, and used them sparingly to settle matters of honor. This changed after the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and the American decision to support a "mujahidin" rebellion. The United States and its allies from Interservices Intelligence (ISI), the overarching Pakistan Army intelligence agency, flooded this region with modern weaponry. WWII era Enfield rifles and single shot muskets have been replaced by fully automatic Kalashnikovs, rocket propelled grenades, anti-aircraft guns, and heavy machine guns. Ritualized violence has become far more lethal.
In addition, the covert war against Soviet occupation in Afghanistan brought violent, largely Arab Muslim "volunteers," to join the jihad. These imported jihadis viewed indigenous Pakistani Islam with disdain. The volunteers joined the ongoing jihad by Afghan and Pakistani Pathans against the Soviets and their Afghan allies, but were not content to accept Afghan leadership and to simply provide manpower, weapons and money. They hoped to influence the Pathans to "purify" their local Islam to bring it closer to the Wahhabi Islam found in Saudi Arabia and other Arab states of the Middle East. Once they had cleansed the local Islam of what they viewed as foreign accretions, they hoped to enlist the Pathans into an expanded jihad aimed at India, the United States and other countries they viewed as enemies of Islam.
This latest band of Arab revolutionaries follows on a centuries old tradition. Islamic radicals from outside the region have long viewed the Pathans as potential jihadis to be recruited and manipulated. The current jihad spreading from the Pathan region into Afghanistan and Pakistan is only the latest of a series of such movements.
The flood of new weaponry and the introduction of a harsh, intolerant and violent interpretation of Islam unleashed a wave of violence in Pakistan. Lieven and others have attributed the Pathan character of the TTP to the remoteness of the Pathans living in FATA7, who have been out of the Islamic mainstream due to physical isolation. The Pathans' lower level of education, including formal education regarding the tenets of Islam, has worked to increase this isolation and make the FATA Pathans more susceptible to radical ideology.
The largely Pathan recruits into the TTP and its allied groups, have a limited conception of Islam. It can be argued that their knowledge of the Islamic faith is rudimentary, heavily influenced by local practices, and often wrong. This is particularly true of their interpretation of Islamic Law (Sharia) and their views regarding the treatment of women. The Pathans have long enforced extreme prohibitions against the active participation of women in daily life that are not found in other Muslim cultures and countries. Many of these customs and practices are pre-Islamic and are actually antithetical to the teachings of the Prophet Muhammad.
The Existential Threat
Since the founding of Pakistan, many Pakistanis have viewed India as an "existential threat." Many in Pakistan, most particularly within the Pakistan Army, and the state of Punjab, which bore the brunt of the violence and horror of partition, contend that despite its repeated denials, India remains bent on the destruction of Pakistan. The Pakistan Army has always viewed its principal duty to be to assure the survival of the nation against this existential threat.
In her March 19 article "What Pakistan Knew About Bin Laden," veteran South Asia reporter Carlotta Gall contends that she has confirmed what observers have long suspected, namely that ISI has been long engaged in a double game, telling the Americans that it is going after Al Qaeda and its jihadi supporters, while actually supporting them. She dismisses Pakistani assertions that ISI involvement is the work of "rogue agents" acting without Army knowledge or approval. She writes that "a Pakistani official told me that the United States had direct evidence that the ISI chief, Lt. General Ahmed Shuja Pasha, knew of Bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad."8 The article alleges that former Pakistani dictator Pervez Musharraf authorized bin Laden's settlement in Abbottabad, that ISI had its own desk officer dedicated to looking after bin Laden, and that,
As (Pakistan's former Prime Minister Benazir) Bhutto had long warned, a conglomeration of opponents wanted her dead and were all linked in some way. They were the same forces behind the insurgency in Afghanistan: Taliban and Pakistani militant groups and Al Qaeda, as well as the Pakistani military establishment, which included the top generals, Musharraf and Kayani.9
The Pakistan Army's attempt to use violent Islamic extremists to pursue their own ends has backfired. In 2007, the Pakistan Army was forced to intervene to violently shut down the Red Mosque after its vigilantes abducted Chinese citizens and angered Pakistan's principal ally. In the resulting carnage 10 Pakistani commandos, over one hundred Islamic extremists, and one of the leaders of the mosque were killed. As a result, the jihadi clients of the Pakistan Army turned on their handlers, attacking and killing Pakistani soldiers and mounting attacks on the headquarters of both the Pakistan Army and ISI.
These deadly attacks on the Pakistan Army coincided with an upsurge in TTP attacks against innocent civilians. The TTP extended these terror attacks outside the Pathan areas. The TTP attack against Swat was perhaps the most dramatic. From 2007-2009 Swat, an idyllic and long isolated part of Pakistan was ruled intermittently by the TTP. The TTP capture of Swat served as a wake up call to many in Pakistan. Swat is only about 150 miles from Islamabad, the nation's capital, and Rawalpindi, the headquarters of the Pakistan Army.
TTP aggressiveness in Swat led many in Pakistan to conclude that it would not be satisfied until it had pushed its jihad to Islamabad itself and threatened the existence of the Pakistani state. This forced the Pakistan Army to undertake two successive military campaigns to reconquer Swat, at great expense in lives and treasure. After the Army's first victory in 2007, the government of Pakistan tried to negotiate a peace settlement with the TTP, which promptly reneged on its agreement, forcing the Army to conduct a second campaign.10
The Pakistan Army victory in Swat did not put the matter to rest. The TTP retreated to its sanctuary in Waziristan, which has remained off limits to the Pakistani military. From Waziristan, the TTP has continued its terror campaign, which has now spread to Karachi, Lahore, and other areas throughout Pakistan. Pakistan's inability to rid itself of the TTP challenge or to contain it within FATA, has led to a change of attitude within Pakistan. With Pakistanis dying every day in terror attacks, and larger areas of the country becoming ungovernable, many are asking whether India still constitutes the existential threat, or has it been replaced by an indigenous group of radical and violent extremists bent on destroying the Pakistani state?
Decision Time
Pakistan is again facing grave decisions that could determine the future viability of the Pakistani state. The Pakistan Army remains the premier institution within Pakistan and its reading of the current situation is critical to its resolution. When the Pakistan Army initially recruited jihadi clients, it never envisioned that it would have to go to war against them. The Pakistani Army has suffered thousands of casualties in its ongoing fight against the TTP and its allies.
The Pakistani Army and most particularly the ISI has a long history of support for Islamic extremism and terrorism. As long as the terrorist attacks were targeted at India and the United States, the Army seemed happy with this arrangement and remained determined to back its clients. Even when the terrorism became rampant in the Pathan inhabited areas of Khyber Patunkhwa, the Army hesitated. Its clients are now out of control and are pursuing an agenda aimed at transforming Pakistan itself.
The big question that remains unanswered is "Does the Army want to be drawn into a protracted internal conflict with its own clients that will bleed it for years to come?" As long as the Pakistani government refuses to deprive the TTP of its Waziristan sanctuaries, the extremists will continue to carry out their campaign. However, if the Army mounts an offensive into Waziristan to deprive the jihadi groups of this sanctuary, it will sever the longstanding Army/Jihadi ties. The Pakistan Army has long viewed jihadi terrorists as a useful tool to carry out their policy of fighting a "war by other means," against India (and the Karzai government in Afghanistan).
When it came to the United States, the Pakistan Army has been more ambivalent. It seemed unconcerned when the Taliban and other Islamist groups launched attacks against American soldiers in Afghanistan from their sanctuaries in Pakistan and at times even provided active fire support for the infiltrating militants. The Army has, however, drawn the line when it comes to terrorist attacks against the United States and the American population.
The nominal civilian rulers of Pakistan are forced to negotiate a deadly minefield. The PML (N) government of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is under growing pressure from the Pakistani population that is increasingly calling for determined action to end the terrorist attacks. The PML (N) claims to be a moderate Islamic political party, and has tried to maintain an ambivalent policy towards the TTP. The Nawaz administration is reluctant to authorize what could prove to be a costly and bloody military operation against the TTP that could call the PML (N)'s Islamist credentials into question. The Nawaz administration therefore opened negotiations with the TTP on February 4.11
Given the TTP's track record, most expect any agreements initialed by the Government of Pakistan and the TTP to collapse. This is because the TTP has demonstrated that it feels no obligation to honor any commitments it makes. The TTP has demanded the immediate adoption of its own interpretation of Sharia as the law of the land, further restrictions on Pakistani women throughout the nation, and the immediate release of all TTP prisoners held by the government. In exchange, it claims it will stop its terror campaign and not take over any part of Pakistan outside of the Pathan areas.
The TTP signaled its true intentions on February 17, when it announced that it had beheaded 23 soldiers from the Frontier Force that it captured in 2010,12 and posted a video of the murders on the Internet. The killing of Pakistani soldiers has caused a wave of anger within the Pakistani Army. Will it convince the Army leadership that their long association with terrorism is no longer viable? For now, the government of Pakistan and the TTP are maintaining an uneasy "cease-fire." Few in Pakistan believe that the violent conflict between the jihadi forces and the government of Pakistan has ended. Many Pakistanis have come to conclude that an all-out war between the Army and the TTP is inevitable, and that it is not a question of if but when.
Many within the Pakistan Army may have concluded that it is best to "get it over with," in one hard-fought campaign rather than to prolong the agony of the country by holding repeated rounds of fruitless negotiations with a feckless enemy who has no intention of honoring its commitments. It is not now apparent whether the Army is prepared to abandon military adventurism and move against its own clients. In her article Carlotta Gall asserts that even after terrorist violence has wracked the Pakistani population and the ranks of the Army itself, it remains unwilling or incapable of renouncing its long-standing ties to terrorism. She points to press reports that Pakistani militants are already massing in preparation for a Taliban offensive aimed at overthrowing the government of Afghanistan and placing the Taliban in power after American and NATO troops depart at the end of the year.
How Should the International Community Respond?
The international community is undergoing rapid change. Liberals are committed to what they view as progress and evolution, but have begun to modify their once firm commitment to multiculturalism. Cultural relativism is at the foundation of the modern social sciences and underlies multiculturalism. However, the trend is shifting.
Liberals are now propounding a doctrine of the "right to protect." Under this doctrine, the international community has a right to intervene to protect populations anywhere threatened by incontrovertibly proven and massive human rights abuse.13 International world opinion is shifting in regard to the United Nations, which is increasingly viewed as the agency best suited to implement a right to protect doctrine. In a 2007 worldwide poll 64% of the respondents favored the creation of a permanent UN military force. An equal number supported the right of the UN to investigate any country accused of human rights abuse, while 73% said the UN should be authorized to conduct military interventions to stop human rights abuse, and 69% said they would support a UN military intervention to stop state support for terrorist groups.14
This data should serve as a wake-up call to countries around the world, that it will not be too far in the future when they will no longer be able to claim that state sovereignty protects them from international intervention to stop widespread human rights abuse and support for terrorism. The UN's recent release of a report detailing the systematic human rights abuse conducted by the government of North Korea and the UN's call for the possible prosecution of the North Korean leadership by the International Criminal Court (ICC) is an indicator of how far this trend has advanced since the poll was undertaken.
The TTP continues to use its FATA safe havens to conduct widespread terrorist attacks against the people of Pakistan. The TTP continues to practice widespread human rights abuse, especially against the status of women, within areas it administers. This phenomenon cannot long escape the attention of the international community, and if not addressed will invariably lead to calls for international action.
These international developments have increased pressure on the government of Pakistan to take decisive action to end the TTP reign of terror and stop TTP human rights abuse. With negotiations unlikely to bear fruit, the Nawaz Sharif government may soon conclude that it must authorize an offensive by the Pakistan Army into Waziristan to stop the bloodshed. This falls within the purview of the Pakistan government, as it is required to provide security to its citizens. It now appears that concerted action against the TTP may be the only way to provide this guarantee of security. In addition, the TTP has made the Army of Pakistan a target of its attacks and atrocities. The Army has the right to respond by bringing the perpetrators of these attacks to justice.
As the country long identified by many Pakistanis as an existential threat to Pakistan's very existence, it behooves India to reassure Pakistan that it has no aggressive intentions against Pakistan and has no intention of taking advantage of Pakistan's current problems to "fish in troubled waters."
The best thing India can do in this instance is act with ultimate restraint. A military offensive by the Pakistan Army in Waziristan would be a very difficult and bloody affair. It would be a severe test for the Army and for Pakistan and would not be easy or painless. Pakistan would not be able to keep the bulk of its armed forces tied down on the Indian border and conduct a major offensive in Waziristan. India must reassure Pakistan (perhaps privately using covert or confidential channels) that it poses no threat and has not intention of moving against Pakistan as Pakistani troop strength is diminished along the India/Pakistan border and the line of control (LOC) in Kashmir. Perhaps India can express its willingness to negotiate a mutual drawdown of forces from the border/LOC as a concrete manifestation of its good intentions.
India does not wish to see Pakistan destabilized. It is in India's best interests to support the establishment of an effective government in Pakistan, which can provide essential security to Pakistani citizens.
India should not publicly comment on Pakistani policy regarding the TTP, although it likely understands that the TTP is an aberration that must be eliminated. This is an internal Pakistani matter. If India demonstrates restraint and understanding during this difficult period, it could perhaps serve as an incentive to future normalization of India Pakistan relations, and provide an impetus for permanent troop reductions along the India/Pakistan border and the LOC.
The United States
Pakistanis increasing identify the USA as the country posing the greatest threat to Pakistan. This severely limits American options. Like India, the USA must exhibit a light hand during this time of crisis. Any Pakistani operation would be very expensive for a country facing extreme economic hardship. The United States would likely have to provide financial support to pay for fuel, rations, equipment losses, and ammunition. It could prove to be yet another expensive bill for the United States to pay. It should pay these expenses quietly and without fanfare.
If Pakistan succeeds in making inroads against the TTP and its extremist allies, it could provide Pakistan with a wider array of policy options. A renunciation of support for terrorism and extremism could potentially free Pakistan from widespread internal violence and terrorism. It could then redirect its efforts to economic development and poverty alleviation. The USA should support these efforts.
The International Community
Should Pakistan move against the TTP, the International Community should applaud Islamabad for doing the right thing. In this instance, the Pakistani government will have demonstrated to the world that it has the resolve to manage its own affairs and address challenging human rights concerns at great cost. Any military offensive in Waziristan will displace many residents and cause considerable damage to local infrastructure. The United Nations should be prepared to work with the government of Pakistan to provide relief and reconstruction assistance. This will demonstrate to the world that Pakistan and the world community are committed to jointly meeting severe challenges.
1. Pakistan: A Hard Country, Public Affairs, New York, 2011
2. Pakistan: A Hard Country, page 4
3. Ibid, page 10
4. Ahmadiya Islam is a recent sect founded by Mirza Ghulam Ahmed (1835-1908). Some Muslims consider some of its tenets heretical and it has been declared a non-Muslim sect in Pakistan. http://www.alislam.org/introduction/
5. The Deobandi movement is aligned with Wahhabism and advances an equally harsh, puritanical interpretation of Islam. The Barelvi movement, in contrast, defends a more traditional South Asian version of the faith centered on the practices of Sufi mysticism
6. Pakistan: A Hard Country, page 383
7. It would be unfair to generalize about the Pathan group in general. The FATA Pathans are viewed as "backward" and unsophisticated by Pathans living in Khyber Pakhtunkwa, who are more integrated into the Pakistani mainstream.
8. Carlotta Gall, "What Pakistan Knew About Bin Laden," The New York Times Magazine, March 19 2014
9. Ibid.
10. You can read a firsthand account of what it was like for the population of Swat to live under TTP occupation in I am Malala: The Girl who Stood up for Education and was Shot by the Taliban, Little Brown and Company, New Yor2013, part two and three, pages 111-244
11. "Pakistani Government to Open Preliminary Talks with Pakistani Taliban," The Washington Post, February 3
12. "Day After Ceasefire Hint, Taliban Behead 23 Troops," Press Trust of India, February 18, 2014, http://indianexpress.com/article/world/asia/taliban-behead-23-pak-soldiers-peace-talks-with-govt-collapse/99/
13. Global Issues (Selections from CQ Researcher), CQ Press (an imprint of Sage Publications), Los Angeles, 2014, pages 15-17.
14. "World Publics Favor New Powers for the U.N." World Public Opinion.org, May 2007, www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/article/btunitednationsra/355.php?nid=&id=355&lb=btun
American Diplomacy is the Publication of Origin for this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with credit and a link back to American Diplomacy.
A native of Tucson, Arizona, Jon P. Dorschner earned a PhD. in South Asian studies from the University of Arizona. He currently teaches South Asian Studies and International Relations at his alma mater, and publishes articles and books on South Asian subjects. From 1983 until 2011, he was a career Foreign Service Officer. A Political Officer, Dr. Dorschner's career specialties were internal politics and political/military affairs. He served in Germany, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nigeria, the United States Military Academy at West Point and Washington. From 2003-2007 he headed the Internal Politics Unit at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, India. In 2007-2008 Dr. Dorschner completed a one-year assignment on an Italian Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Tallil, Iraq. From 2009-2011 he served as an Economic Officer, in Berlin, Germany.


text:
Employees may soon have a say in whether or not employers can access their social media accounts, thanks to Senate Bill 186.
SB 186, Social Media Privacy, was filed at the end of August, however it is one step closer to becoming a law.
The bill proposed by Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Palm Beach, was referred to the Commerce and Tourism Committee, Judiciary Committee and Rules Committee on Sept. 15. It prohibits an employer from requesting access to employees' social media accounts.
Kameron Green, manager at Computer Repair Doctor, said he is in support of the bill.
"Not everyone is ready with their social media when they're applying for a job. Social media shouldn't affect how a person actually is when it comes to working."
Green also believes that an employer has no purpose having access to an employee's account. Only if the content can "harm the company" it should not have access.
The bill also prohibits an employer refusing to hire a potential employee, as a result of that prospect's refusal to allow access to their social media accounts.
Alex Gholston, windows network engineer at The Department of Health, explained that the bill becoming law would not breach any rights.
"Access to a private social media based profile should be left to the employee's discretion. If a potential employee has a public profile though, I feel that it's open for scrutiny," Gholston said.
Gholston also disagreed that employers should not be able to view social accounts upon hiring. An employer can only see public information and "should have the right to make an employment decision" if necessary.
Laurel Blackburn, blogger for SuperStrongNana.com and owner of Boot Camp Fitness and Training and the Tallahassee Strength Club, does think checking social media before hiring is needed.
"If they have pics posted of being drunk out in bars or posting anti-government comments or racist comments and posts, then I will not be hiring them. I really think that as employers, we are left without much info," Blackburn said.
Blackburn also advises people to be aware of what they post so that it does not affect employment.
To find out about the next proceeding of this bill, visit www.flsenate.gov to track its history.


text:
Are you looking for elegant and affordable luncheon halls Southfield MI?
Whether you want to plan a get together with family to commemorate a significant milestone in life or you have a special group of friends you want to plan a special luncheon for, your first step needs to be to track down the finest luncheon halls – and we know exactly where you should start. Carpe Diem Banquet Hall is conveniently right in the heart of the Detroit Metropolitan area, within a mere five miles of some of the top-rated hotels in the city that also happen to offer exclusive deals just for our guests. And, unlike most luncheon halls, every room on our grounds has been recently remodeled from top to bottom for a sleek, neutral finish that compliments any style. We now offer two stunning luncheon halls, each with elegant chandeliers, spacious dance floors, and customizable floor plans to suit your party's unique needs. Our menu of delicious delicacies, budget-friendly bar packages, special event savings, and flexible staff rival even the most established luncheon halls. So please, invite everyone in Southfield you know to enjoy your luncheon in one of our luxurious luncheon halls. With enough space for up to 350 guests and a flawless reputation, Carpe Diem Banquet Hall is ready to be one of your favorite local luncheon halls of all time.
Luncheon Halls Southfield MI
Carpe Diem Banquet Hall is a premier event facility that offers phenomenal luncheon halls in Southfield, MI. Which, as you know, is one of the best places to host a special luncheon. Southfield is the perfect setting for any occasion. It offers the perfect small-town vibe without missing any of the important amenities that make Southfield such a unique home for the thousands of families that live here. You can set up your get-together for before a group outing to the local Park West Gallery, celebrate a sporting event win over at Catalpa Oaks, host a family reunion, and so much more. Not to mention there are plenty of hotels in Southfield for any out-of-town guests you plan on inviting. The best part is, though, is that our luncheon halls at Carpe Diem Banquet Hall are local to Southfield! And because Southfield is as much our home as it is yours, you can guarantee that our incredible event planning team will do whatever it takes to ensure every event you host with us is nothing short of magical. We know we can do it because it's everything your friends and loved ones in Southfield deserves.
Carpe Diem Banquet Hall is located at 28847 Franklin Rd. Southfield, MI 48034. We can provide you with an elegant and affordable experience for parties up to 350 guests and can help you plan the perfect setting for the event you envision.
If you are looking for elegant and affordable luncheon halls Southfield MI, call Carpe Diem Banquet Hall at (248) 358-3355, or fill out the form below or in the sidebar for your free party consultation:
Free Consultation
"*" indicates required fields


text:
"Azret Sultan" the State Historical and Cultural Reserve-Museum organized the opening ceremony of the " Returned exhibits " exhibition dedicated to the 620th anniversary of the flooding of the sacred Taikazan and the 30th anniversary of its returning to the historical place.
The event was opened by the director of "Azret Sultan" the State Historical and Cultural Reserve-Museum Akhmetzhanov Nurbolat Kadyrovich. One of the historical exhibits of the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmet Yasawi is the Holy Taikazan, which reveals the essence of the directions "ancient metallurgy of the Great Steppe" in the program article "A look into the future: the modernization of public consciousness", "Seven facets of the Great Steppe" of the First President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Leader of the Nation N. Nazarbayev, , and also widely promotes the significance of each of the elements, starting with the history of creating a valuable heritage.
The opening ceremony of the exhibition was attended by historians and intellectuals, such as Doctor of Philology, Professor Kulbek Ergobek, Ph.D., history researcher Taikazan Dildash Mustapaeva, Honorary citizens of the city, members of the Council of Veterans and Public Organizations, students and high school students, residents of the city and museum guests.
The exhibition "Returned exhibits" features about 50 exhibits. These include photographs of 1864 in the album of the Russian traveler A. Kuhn, an archive drawing that Taizkan delivered to St. Petersburg in 1935, a unique photo exhibited at the Hermitage Museum, an archive image of the time Returning of Taizakan from the Hermitage Museum in 1989, photographs persons who arrived at the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmet Yasawi and photographs, medals and archival documents of the republican tournament on Kazakh barrier among youth.
The purpose of the exhibition is to popularize the history of the younger generation through the promotion of medieval values, increase their awareness, stimulate the country's consciousness, and interest in our past.
The medieval Taikazan, preserved in the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yassawi, was made by the Tabriz master Abdel Aziz Sharafuddin by the orders of the ruler of Turan Amir Temur 621 years ago in 1399 in the village of Karnak, which is 25 kilometers from Turkestan. Taizan is made from a mixture of seven different metals, such as gold, silver, copper, bronze, lead, zinc and tin.
Taikazan was sent in 1935 to the III International Conference of Iranian Masters, which was held in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg for three months, and after 54 years, in 1989 September 18, it was returned to its historical homeland. Returning of taikazan to the historical place was a great contribution which was made by the statesman and public figure, ethnographer scientist Uzbekali Zhanibekov. The meeting participants expressed their opinion on the history of Taikazan and the significance of the exhibits.
The exhibition, located inside the mausoleum of Khoja Ahmed Yasawi, will be presented to the visitors for a month.


text:
What is your take on this?
The NIS 2 million bash had already been criticized as excessively extravagant and a waste of public funds, when the girls, who ranged in age from 13 to 16, were informed by production organizers several hours before the event that at the municipality's instruction they had to don black knitted hats and wear long clothing for the performance, said Shlomi Hoffman, the director of the Jerusalem dance troupe.
The controversy over what media were referring to as the "Taliban dance troupe" brought the sensitive issue of religious coercion in the capital to the fore in an election year.
"As an Israeli and a Jerusalemite, it is very painful to see this process of frightening religious extremism," Hoffman said.
Hoffman, 58, who comes from a traditional home, said it was clear that Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski was involved in the "extremist" decision which, he said, started unfolding late Tuesday night when Deputy Jerusalem Mayor Yehoshua Pollack of the mayor's United Torah Judaism Party called the girls "promiscuous" in an interview with a haredi radio station and vowed that they would not appear at the event.
The head of the dance troupe noted that the girls - who were also informed an hour before the event that they could not perform three out of four of their planned dances - had danced in the official state Independence Day ceremony just one month ago on Mount Herzl in virtually the same attire.
"This was not a religious event or an event at the Western Wall, but an event for the public at large for the inauguration of a bridge," Hoffman said.
The girls' parents expressed outrage Thursday over the incident.
"[Up to] this very moment, I cannot understand how we allowed this to happen, and why we did not stop the performance," said Jerusalem resident Marcel Levy, whose 15-year-old daughter was a member of the dance troupe. "Since when do you force 15-year-old girls to cover up their hair?"
"This incident takes us back to the days of the Taliban," said Avi Ben-David, also of Jerusalem, whose 15-year-old daughter was also part of the performance. "This should serve as a wake-up call to Jerusalem's non-haredi voters ahead of the mayoral elections, and maybe this time they will [get out of] their apathetic state."
Jerusalem opposition leader Nir Barkat said Thursday that a red line had been crossed by the haredi city leadership, which smacked of a pattern to drive secular residents out of the city.
However if you don't live according to halacha than the rest of the post is relevant.
- I once gave a lecture in Great Neck to an Modern Orthodox audience concerning dealing with children becoming more religious than their parents. I asserted that there are many Jewish parents who would rather that their children join Hari Krishna or some other cult - than to become Chareidi. Some of the parents thought it was a ridiculous idea. However the rav of the Shul confirmed that in fact that was his experience - not only amongst secular parents but also amongst Modern Orthodox.
When I went to Rensselaer Polytechinic Institute in Troy New York - the Reform Temple had a rule - that the only person allowed to wear a kippah and talis was the cantor - who was a black woman who was not Jewish. Up until recently kippah and talis were embarrassing to the Reform Movement.
A few years ago I met Rabbi Eric Yoffie - President of the Reform Movement - at the International Book Fair in Jerusalem and he mentioned that there have been significant changes in the Reform movement in recent years. One of them was that they had appointed a new head of their New York Seminary - who accepted the job only on the condition that it would henceforth be referred to a beis medrash. He said he was sure many of the founders of the Reform movement were turning over in their graves because of the move towards more traditional forms of worship and behavior.
Bottom line is that people can tolerate and even value differences in others - if it doesn't reflect negatively on them. High standards of modesty can be tolerated by most of us - unless we perceive it as labeling us as deviants.
This talk about Taliban is an indication that the local population views such standards as indicating that they are lax in their moral standards. If they were visiting Saudi Arabia they would have no problem acting so as to not offend the natives. Or if they were hosting a Saudi Arabian diplomat they would not find it problematic to adhere to his standards so as not to offend him.
The standards of the world are changing. Constantly invoking the Taliban or mental illness or lack of common sense - just shows a fear of being judged as morally inferior.
In New York there is a community called Starrett City. The developers of the community were liberals in the old sense of the word - and they wanted to have a truly integrated community. They were advised by sociologists that whites would stay in the community with blacks as long as they were at least 60% of the community. Below that point they felt intimated by minority and would leave. So Starrett City introduced a rule that the whites must always be at least 60%.
The above rule applies to other communities. As the native population increasing views it self as a shrinking majority which is losing control over the values of the community - they get frightened and insecure and resentful.
That is one of the reasons that at least under Mayor Kolleck there was an attempt to have homogeneous neighborhoods of secular and religious Jews.
Bottom line is that it is a common reaction of the indigenous population - and there is no simple solution. There is usually a lot of very negative feelings to those who make us feel inferior and/or immoral when we have had a high view of ourselves up until the outsiders moved in.


text:
Gov't Considers Increasing Ethanol Percentage In Petrol
Energy Minister, Dr. Andrew Wheatley recently revealed that Government is considering increasing the percentage of ethanol used in petrol.
The increase would theoretically lead to a reduction in emissions in the environment as Ethanol burns cleaner than gasoline.
As a primarily plant-based fuel, Ethanol can be produced from such sources as sugar cane, corn, or sorghum.
Petrol stations across Jamaica currently offer E10 fuel, which is a blend of 10 percent ethanol from sugar cane.
Dr. Wheatley highlighted the fact that many other countries are currently using a 15 percent Ethanol blend (E15).
There appears to be some dispute regarding the risks of using E15 fuel blends but E15 was approved for use in model year 2001 and newer cars, light-duty trucks, medium-duty passenger vehicles (SUVs), and all flex-fuel vehicles (FFVs) by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2012.
Download The Jamaican Blogs™ App for your Android device: HERE
Remember to share this article on Facebook and other Social Media Platforms. To submit your own articles or to advertise with us please send us an EMAIL at: [email protected]


text:
Some would say that the answer is a simple yes, why can't one flat rate of Capital Gains Tax apply to all, but on the other hand would the same individuals suggest one flat rate of Income Tax for all, the answer is most likely no.
A report produced by the Office of Tax Simplification has outlined four broad policy choices:
- Rates and boundaries. At present Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax rates are not in line, the OTS believe that this allows businesses, families and individuals to structure their assets in such a way as to allow income to be taxed at the lower Capital Gains Tax rate. The OTS report outlines that if Income Tax and Capital Gains Tax rates were aligned, the complex rules surrounding the classification or Income/Gains would be reduced and an estimated additional £14bn would be raised each year.
- Annual Exempt Amount. The OTS report states that the current annual exemption (£12,300) is too high. The report suggests that the current exemption allows individuals to avoid the payment of Capital Gains Tax, whereas it should be set as a much lower level to simply operate as an administrative de Minimis. The suggested exemption is £1,000 which is in line with the Property and Trading Allowance that was introduced in recent years.
- Capital Transfers. The report highlights the fact that is often advantageous from a tax point of view, to retain ownership of an asset until you die, particularly a business asset. This is because under the current legislation, you do not pay Capital Gains Tax upon death and any assets which you own receive a tax free uplift to the market value at death. The rule of thumb being that you don't pay Capital Gains Tax but instead pay Inheritance Tax. But IHT doesn't always apply to business assets. So where business assets are concerned, is it a case of having your cake and eating it, all be it that it's the beneficiaries who are eating the cake at the wake.
- Business Relief. The OTS this time are highlighting the availability of Business Relief in your lifetime. The fourth policy discusses finding the right balance between stimulating business investment and offering tax reliefs to those individuals who have built up their business over time, whilst avoiding the use of Capital Gains Tax relief for Retirement Planning. A number of suggestions are offered within the report, from increasing the qualifying shareholding from 5% to 25%, increasing the holding period to 10 years, and the introduction of an age limit.
It is clear for everyone to see, that the tax system does need to be simplified, but it would be very difficult to implement changes to the Capital Gains Tax System without also making amendments to the Inheritance Tax System at the same time. Reduction of the Annual Exemption to £1,000, without the provision of clearer exemptions for personal chattels, would in my mind create an insurmountable level of administration, to a tax system which is already crippled.
We are only a little over half the way through the first tax year in which online Capital Gains Tax returns have been required in year. A system which has more flaws than advantages, to think that a similar system may be required for all gains over £1,000 in future years, is mind blowing to say the least.
With Capital Gains Tax, in my opinion the optimum outcome is to implement a new system, which is fair, generates enough revenue, but also encourages Investment in the UK economy. How this can be done, I simply do not know.