Basildon Council - Councillors To Review Funding Arrangements For Dale Farm Site Clearance

In the news:- Councillors to review funding arrangements for Dale Farm site clearance

Councillors to review funding arrangements for Dale Farm site clearance

23 June 2011

FINAL funding arrangements for the clearance of an unauthorised Travellers site at Dale Farm in Essex are to be discussed by Basildon Council. A report detailing a request to the Council for up to £1.2m of funding from Essex Police will be discussed at a meeting of the Full Council on Thursday 30 June. This would be a contribution for policing costs in relation to the site clearance, and only payable if costs exceed £5.5m. Councillor Tony Ball, Leader of Basildon Council, said: “The Council agreed its funding contribution towards the site clearance in March 2011. This contribution to Essex Police would enable the site clearance operation to proceed and breaches of planning control to be addressed, demonstrating the Council’s ongoing commitment to its green belt policy and the firm line that it takes on enforcing planning legislation. “Having negotiated so hard to get the Government to recognise the scale and impact of this operation on Basildon and Essex residents it would be unacceptable for the Council to fail its residents by not agreeing to make this additional contribution.” “Obviously, enforcement action is a last resort and I hope the Travellers will leave peacefully before this becomes necessary.” A payment of up to £1.2m to Essex Police would be met from the Council’s contingency reserve, and will only be payable in relation to additional police costs if the costs exceed £5.5m. Ends.

Basildon Marketing and Communications Contact

Alex Ellis Telephone:01268 294415 Email:alex.ellis@basildon.gov.uk

via www2.basildon.gov.uk

The heading makes it sound like a bit of waste ground that you are leveling prior to putting back to pasture - Dale Farm Site Clearance indeed!

Unauthorised travellers - Where did you get that one from? Dehumanising.

Site clearance. Site clearance. Planning permission. Fail it's residents.

Who on earth do you think you are?

Gods?

doc on health, technology, basketball, travel and living life

Children of Older Fathers Have Lower I.Q. Scores

Children of older aged dads generally scored lower on I.Q. tests & various other cognitive measures at 8 months old, 4 years old & 7 years old.

Advanced paternal age (APA) may therefore be associated with poor performance on neurocognitive measures, based upon testing at regular intervals in a variety of cognitive skills, including thinking and reasoning, concentration, memory, understanding, speaking and reading, as well as motor skills 

http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=get-document&doi=10.1371/journal.pmed.1000040&ct=1

via doc1.wordpress.com

M.V. NORWETA

MS Norweta

Originally built in 1971 as a passenger ship,the MS Norweta spent 4 years on the Mackenzie River. She then worked as a standby by ship in the Beaufort Sea for ten years. She was purchased and refurbished in 1991 by the current owners, Margaret and George Whitlock.

Rumour has it that this venerable Northern vessel may be sold in the near future, putting it's future cruising plans in limbo.

At 103 feet long, 25 feet wide and with a draught of just four and a half feet, this 265 GRT ship has just 10 passenger cabins with a total capacity of 18 passengers.

The ship cruises Canada's Mackenzie River between Hay River and Inuvik, with stops at native communities along the way. The Northbound trip (Hay River to Inuvik) will take you 8 days, while southbound is against the current and lasts 10 days.

The Deh Cho River

While expensive, the trip is a once in a lifetime experience, taking you to a part of Canada that most people never get to see, and even fewer from a cruise ship. One of the highlights for many of the passengers is crossing the Arctic Circle, located at about 66° 33' Latitude.

Interior Spaces

The cabins, while small, are well laid out, with a variety of options available.

With one passenger deck and two other decks ~ a sun and a main deck ~ this ship is not exactly a mega ship. In fact, for a cruise on the "Dehcho", as the Mackenzie River is known locally, it is a perfect size.

On the sun deck, you can experience the 24 hour sun and just watch the river go by in all its' variances. Along the way, you will see sights such as the narrow east channel at Inuvik, 200 foot high Ramparts at Fort Good Hope, the towering Great Bear Rock at Tulita (formerly Fort Norman). At Norman Wells, see the start of the Canol Trail - a 650 mile long pipeline route built to carry oil from Norman Wells over the Mackenzie Mountains to Alaska.

One deck below, the dining room and library dominate. Captain, crew and passengers dine together on food described by some passengers as "absolutely amazing" that has been prepared in the very small galley by cook Muriel. What she can do with two ovens, a grill and a few burners (which can't all be going at the same time) is truly astounding.

On some cruises, Northern naturalists and story tellers will regale you with stories of life along the river - both human and other.

As noted above, owners Margaret and George Whitlock are looking at selling the ship. If small ship cruisers are lucky, new owners will carry on the tradition and keep this classic river cruise going.

More information about the MS Norweta, the Mackenzie River and the "Norweta Adventure" is available on their website at http://www.norweta.com

The Bridge

Day packs are provided for each passenger.

Where else will you see a ship's bell suspended
on a polar bear?

Author on Bridge

Watching for Traffic

via cruiseshipreference.com

The Most Effective, Least Used Tool for Disaster Relief: Limited Humanitarian Entry | Michael Clemens | Global Development: Views from the Center

The Most Effective, Least Used Tool for Disaster Relief: Limited Humanitarian Entry June 24, 2011 By Michael Clemens in Migration Tags: disaster relief, Haiti This is a joint post with Tejaswi Velayudhan A year and a half ago, an earthquake wrecked Haiti. So many Haitians were killed that if the same fraction of the U.S. population were cut down, the deaths would outnumber the entire population of Tennessee. Commendable relief efforts are ongoing, supported in large part by U.S. assistance, but economic and political disarray have led to widespread perception that those efforts are inadequate. Unfortunately, as it proceeds with the hard work of disaster relief for Haiti, the U.S. government has chosen not to use its most powerful tool: migration policy. Migration out of Haiti has caused more poverty reduction for Haitians than all attempts at poverty reduction within Haiti combined. Remittances to Haiti have amounted to at least double foreign aid, for years. Remittances also—unlike foreign aid—go directly into the pockets of needy people, and they rise more quickly after disasters than aid does. While the U.S. government has recently and sensibly suspended the deportations of some Haitians who arrived in the U.S. after the earthquake, it has not systematically used migration policy to help even a small number of Haitians starting out in Haiti arrive in the U.S. as a humanitarian gesture. It could easily do so. Ever since one of us (Michael) first discussed this idea in the Washington Post—alongside a related proposal by Elliott Abrams—we’ve seen three common reactions. The first common reaction is that we’re proposing replacing aid with migration policy. We do not propose anything of the kind; we simply argue that since migration is obviously such a powerful force for Haitian development, it makes little sense to entirely exclude it from the portfolio of different relief policies. That portfolio clearly must include aid. The second common reaction is that we’re proposing ‘opening the flood gates’ to all Haitians (as a white supremacist critic puts it, “Give them America”). We do not suggest anything close to that. Instead, we suggest creating a limited channel for humanitarian entry by small numbers of people fleeing natural disasters, analogous to our existing, limited, successful channel for admitting limited numbers of refugees who are fleeing wars and political persecution overseas. The third common reaction is that it would be politically impossible to change the rules. But it turns out that there are several different ways that the U.S. could easily create a channel for limited humanitarian entry following natural disasters. We learned that from two experts on refugee law and humanitarian assistance—Royce Murray and Sarah Williamson—whom we commissioned to study the issue. They identified a range of small and sensible actions that the administration or Congress could take that would create exactly this type of humanitarian entry for limited numbers of Haitians. Their in-depth study is here, and a brief summary is here. They explain in detail each of several possible actions. We are now discussing these potential actions in meetings and workshops with several government officials and with the refugee policy community and disaster relief community here in Washington. One of those actions would be the creation of a Family Reunification Parole Program similar to the Cuban Family Reunification Parole Program. At the end of 2010 there were about 105,000 relatives of U.S. nationals in Haiti whose green-card applications had already been approved but whose priority date is not yet current. A similar number remain on the waiting list today. The Secretary of Homeland Security could grant parole to some or all of these individuals who can then wait in the United States to gain lawful permanent resident status. There would be no need to review their eligibility to enter the U.S.; they are already approved. And there would be few concerns about their initial integration into society since essentially all of them, by definition, have family sponsoring them to come. Several members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives wrote to President Obama earlier this year asking him to order the creation of such a program. He could easily do so. So far, he has not. Possibly Related Posts Six Important Lessons for Disaster Relief Should Natural Disaster Victims Be Offered Safe Haven and Opportunity Abroad? Assessing Humanitarian Aid

via blogs.cgdev.org

Thank you @agd_tweets for this article

Report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2010

Foreword by the INCB President

Explanatory Notes

Contents

Chapter I
Drugs and corruption
A. Drug-related corruption and its impact
B. Corruption and drug control
C. Combating drug-related corruption
D. Recommendations.

Chapter II
Functioning of the international drug control system
A. Promoting the consistent application of the international drug control treaties
B. Action taken by the Board to ensure the implementation of the international drug control treaties
C. Governments' cooperation with the Board
D. Ensuring the implementation of the provisions of the international drug control treaties
E. Special topics.

Chapter III
Analysis of the world situation
A. Africa
B. Americas
Central America and the Caribbean
North America
South America
C. Asia
East and South-East Asia
South Asia
West Asia
D. Europe
E. Oceania

Chapter IV
Recommendations to Governments, the United Nations and other relevant international and regional organizations
A. Recommendations to Governments
B. Recommendations to the United Nations Office on Drugs Crime and to the World Health Organization
C. Recommendations to other relevant international organizations

Annexes

I.	Regional groupings used in the report of the International Narcotics Control Board for 2010
II.	Current membership of the International Narcotics Control Board About the International Narcotics Control Board
III.	Other international instruments used in efforts to fight drug-related cirme

via incb.org