A great earthquake Essay Example for Free

A great earthquake Essay The magnitude 8. 8 earthquake that occurred a month ago in Chile, as well as the impending tsunami along the Pacific Rim is the product of a fortuitous event. These are events which cannot be foreseen or which though foreseen are inevitable. The quake struck at 3:34 a. m. in central Chile. The capital Santiago is about 200 miles from the epicenter and Concepcion, Chile’s second-largest metropolitan area, is roughly 70 miles from the quake’s center. A magnitude of 8. 0 or greater is classified as a great earthquake which results to communities being destroyed. The 8. 8 magnitude earthquake in Chile has killed lesser people compared to the 7. 0 magnitude that struck Haiti on January 12 that killed more than 200,000 people. It was 32 times the energy higher and 64 times greater than what took place in Haiti. The difference in the death toll lies in the buildings’ structures and their construction. Unless a building is designed and engineered specifically to withstand an 8. 0 or greater earthquake it’s going to sustain considerable damage. Even buildings that are well built sustain significant damage. Buildings that are poorly built are completely destroyed. Chile, being a more industrialized nation came up with more stringent building codes. By designing a more flexible structure, we can lessen the effect of the disaster. It makes the buildings slide or sway but not crumble to the ground. Engineers who work on earthquake resistant buildings said that current technologies prevent well-designed buildings from cracking when the ground shakes beneath them Natural disasters such as floods, tsunami and earthquakes do occur. There is nothing we can do to prevent it. However, there is something we can do to lessen its impact. Earthquakes alone don’t actually kill people; it is the collapsed structures that do the damage. Disaster preparedness as well as earthquake-proof buildings are the keys to lessen the impact of such disaster.

Free Narrative Essay - Our Big Trip to State College :: Personal Narrative Essays

Our Big Trip to State College Overwhelming, there is simply no other way of putting the impact that my first "big trip to State College" had on me. The weekend had the potential to be an explosive one, but I had no idea that it would take the turn it did. We began our trip with a stop at Sheetz, picking up all of the necessary goods, such as gas, beef jerky, and cigarettes. One might be thinking, how can one trip to State College be any different than any other. All that college kids do when they go up to State is drink, dance, and throw-up. Well this particular trip involved my roommate Jason, myself and Jason's best friend Nick's ex-girlfriend. This is where the plot thickens. Jason and I sneaked up to State for the day and neglected to mention to Nick that we were going, due to the fact that we were planning to rendezvous with his ex-girlfriend Nicole. When we arrived in State College we met up with Nicole and a couple of her friends. We proceeded to go to her friends dorm and began playing drinking games prior to t he evening of partying. Needless to say after a couple hours of drinking games we were all a little tipsy, so we then sauntered on over to a Fraternity party, where we continued working on our inebriation. After a long night of partying and fraternizing with hundreds of drunk college kids much like ourselves, we headed back to the dorm in which the whole evening started. And just as any after-school special goes, there was one kid who had just a little too much to drink, and he proceeded to put his hand through a plate glass window. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU JUST DO?!?!?!" were the first words out of every mouth. So Jason, myself, and Nicole decided to vacate the premises and head back to Altoona, which was both a good and bad idea. It was a good idea because the following morning we found out that the dorm room we were in had got busted and each person in the room received a 300 dollar citation for drinking, and their driver licenses were suspended. Although with the good you have to be prepared for the bad, which was

Bureaucracy and self-government Essay

When a government creates policies, regulations, laws and guidelines, it rigorously and astutely applies them through what is called an act and service of public administration. Public administration is then implemented within an organizational structure. The bureaucracy that this structure operates illustrate the various operatives and/or personnel and/or leaders that makes the decision and leads the methodologies, tactics and strategies to implement the said policies, regulations, laws and guidelines. The bureaucracy is likewise responsible in ensuring the efficient and effective ways and means for such act and service. In executing its mandate, public administration must be dynamic. It must have a natural course of evolution and appropriate change and improvements that responds to the multifarious and complex demands of public service; constituent needs and demands and expectations. â€Å"Bureaucracy and Self-Government†¦Ã¢â‚¬  is a book that gives enlightenment and on how concepts of public administration renders its appropriate service to the American people. The Book’s Insights Bureaucracy in its principle is the rational and academic structure of the organizational process in rendering service and implementing policies and procedures of any institution – like the government. The positive principle of bureaucracy has however evolved into a negative context in the modern time wherein red tape and other forms of inadequacies. It is because the bureaucracy in rendering public administration operates within two types of concepts. It is therefore very important and interesting that Dr. Cook laid out in his book that public administration in American politics is operated both within the instrumental concept and in the constitutive concept. The instrumental concept believes that the job of bureaucracy in public administration is to execute the instructions of public officials. Within the simplicity of this concept there lies the insufficiency of complete rendering of public service. That is the reason why Dr. Cook has outlined that the past two centuries of America is a struggle to create life and meaning and expectations of the instrumental concept of public administration and service. The constitutive concept believes that the job of bureaucracy in public administration is to shape and characterize public policy and political community. This concept allows formative methods that bring shape and structure to laws and policies of government. Creativity and dynamic insights and foresights of government officials and public administrators are exercised in using this concept. The concluding insight of Dr. Cook in â€Å"Bureaucracy and Self-Government†¦Ã¢â‚¬  outlines principles of responsible public administration. Firstly, with proper responsibility in governing and administering comes along an unlimited ability. A complete and consummate commitment to adherence to the law must be characterized in the proponents of public administration. Government leaders and officials must take the rule of law as their way of life. Secondly, within the rule of law â€Å"an adequate sphere of constitutionally legitimate independence must be carved†. (Cook, 1996, page 177). This principle is coherent with what government administrators have sworn to in fulfilling their duties and responsibilities. It is important that discretion of the law is carried out with integrity. The Book’s Presentation The book is presented in a very scholarly format. He extensive experience of Dr. Brian J. Cook in the study of politics and public administration render authority on the subject matter. The book is seemingly passionate in pursuing ways and means for public administration to still attain its ideals. The book traced well established historical background that served the impetus on how American government administration and management has evolved – thus providing the foundation of the conduct and manner of public administration of modern day. Whatever the course of history and evolution American politics and public administration may have tracked and traced, the book offers confidence and hope that the better of valor shall surface in public administration in America. The Book’s Author Dr. Brian J. Cook is presently a Professor in the Center for Public Administration and Policy in the School of Public and International Affairs of Virginia Tech. He earned his BA degree in Political Science in 1977 from Cleveland State University with magna cum laude honors. His further education in government and politics earned him is masters in 1982 and doctorate in 1984 – both from the University of Maryland. He has taught; lectured and done research on politics and government since 1979. Dr. Cook has been endowed with numerous foundation and university grants and government sponsored research. He has written and published three books: â€Å"Bureaucratic Politics and Regulatory Reform: The EPA and Emissions Trading† (1988); â€Å"Bureaucracy and Self-Government: Reconsidering the Role of Public Administration in American Politics† (1996) and â€Å"Democracy and Administration: Woodrow Wilson’s Ideas and the Challenges of Public Management† (2007). In addition he has written and published numerous book chapters; peer reviewed and non-reviewed articles; book reviews; conference papers and reports covering a very wide array of thoughts, principles and theories in American politics, government, administration policies. (Brian J. Cook Curriculum Vitae, 2008, pages 1-2) Works Cited: Cook, Brian J. Bureaucracy and Self-Government: Reconsidering the Role of Public Administration in American Politics John Hopkins University Press, 1996 Brian J. Cook Curriculum Vitae, September 2008 http://www. cpap. vt. edu/doc/BJC_Curriculum_Vitae_09-08. pdf [accessed 2 June 2009]

Causes Of The Great Depression in Canada - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 730 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2019/05/03 Category History Essay Level High school Topics: Great Depression Essay Did you like this example? Dependence on commodity exports The Great Depression devastated many economies. But one country arguably suffered more than any other: Canada. By the time its economy reached bottom in 1932, Canada had suffered a staggering decline of 34.8 per cent in per capita gross domestic product. No other developed nation was as hard-hit. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Causes Of The Great Depression in Canada" essay for you Create order Canada was, and still is, a country dependent on trade. In the 1920s, commodities such as wheat and lumber products, including newsprint, were particularly important. In 1930, U.S. president Herbert Hoover signed into law the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act, which raised duties on many imports to historically high levels. This led to retaliatory tariffs and a drastic reduction of trade around the world. It was particularly harmful to Canada, Americas largest trading partner, where export prices plummeted. The price of lumber fell 32 percent from 1929 to 1932, and cattle prices declined 63 per cent. Smoot-Hawley sent major Canadian pulp and paper companies into bankruptcy. Canadian automakers saw their exports collapse to 13,000 vehicles in 1931 from 102,000 in 1929. Manufacturing, in general, declined more than 50 per cent. Unemployment reached an average of 32 per cent in Canadian cities. In Windsor, Ont., it reached 50 per cent. In the Maritime provinces, unemployment for ordinary labourers hit 60 per cent. The human toll was greatest on the Canadian prairies, which suffered not just from the trade wars but from drought, deprivation and plagues of grasshoppers. By the time the Depression was over, one in 12 people had left the region for good, and much of the province of Saskatchewan had been reduced to a wasteland ravaged by natural disasters. In tiny Minton, most of the population of 890 depended on government relief and charity; even the towns chickens had to depend on relief feed. Yet for all the suffering, Canadians never embraced the kind of government intervention into the economy that the U.S. did. A short-lived attempt by prime minister R.B. Bennett to copy Franklin Roosevelts New Deal was ultimately struck down by the Privy Council in London, which was still Canadas ultimate Supreme Court. And despite the human devastation, Canadians never turned in large numbers to -isms communism and socialism preferring to keep their traditional political parties. True, in 1935 the people of Alberta elected the Social Credit Party, which had unusual (one might say radical) views on monetary policy. But this was an exception. Instead, Canadians muddled through the crisis with a makeshift combination of private and public charity. Private citizens in wealthier provinces recognized the plight of Saskatchewan and sent hundreds of carloads of fruit, vegetables and clothing westward. Bennett made a habit of sending money from his personal fortune to those who wrote to him pleading for help. The government did construct relief camps for unemployed men, providing some low-wage work and alleviating the threat of large numbers of jobless in the cities. The state also used force to suppress social discontent, most famously in 1935, when the unemployed organized an On-to-Ottawa Trek from the west. The movement got as far as Regina when it was met by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and local officers. The resulting clash left one police officer dead; a trekker died of wounds soon thereafter. The movement soon fizzled out.In general, Canadians handled the Great Depression with a minimum of drama. Life was tough in a cold country, and people were accustomed to dealing with adversity. The economy picked up as the Second World War set in, and the phlegmatic nature of Canadians played no small part in the recovery. As the Canadian historian James Gray observed, the Great Depression brought out more of the best than it did the worst in people offering a reminder that people, if left alone, tend to work out their own problems for themselves; that expert advice, particularly in economic matters, is most useful when it is completely ignored. The Dust Bowl Canadas disintegrating send out picture with somewhat the consequence of worldwide over limit in a few enterprises most quite Wheat and mash and paper. Another vital reason, in any case, was the financial Fighting the wretchedness years.the strategies in this war included high taxes, send out endowments, dumpingOf surpluses in outside business sectors, cash assessment, and remote trade control. The vital objectives World to restrict imports in empower local makers in the quest for national property to the detriment. The interest was damned. Monetary fighting made a larger number of issues than it comprehended.