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Andrew Kuper

Australian flooding - The Big Picture - Boston.com - 0 views

www.boston.com/...australian_flooding.html

Australia Flood

shared by Andrew Kuper on 15 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • Cyclone Tasha
  • Hundreds of thousands of people in an area the size of France and Germany combined are now affected
  • at least nine people have been killed so far
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • the water level is expected to continue rising over the next two days and 38 regions were declared natural disaster areas.
  • Andrew Kuper on 15 Apr 11
     
    What are the effects of the Australian Floods? Citation:"Australia flooding" http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/01/australian_flooding.html Summary: The flooding seems to have gotten worse, the number of people affected seems to have gone up. What's worse is that the water level is still going up, so things are still getting worse. Questions:1. Is this new information or old?2. when will the water go down? 3. What all is being done to help those affected? *Edit: reposting after I forgot to share to WC group, old posts deleted
Andrew Kuper

Wong Sees 'Tough Budget' for Australia on Floods, Currency - Businessweek - 0 views

www.businessweek.com/...tralia-on-floods-currency.html

Australia Flood Economy Financial

shared by Andrew Kuper on 15 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • We got some short term softness -- that’s as a result of a number of factors, the floods, the cyclone, but also a cautious consumer and a strong Aussie dollar
  • The Australian dollar has risen to a record versus its U.S. counterpart
  • The government expects a A$3 billion decline in company tax revenue and a drop of A$1 billion in income tax intake, Wong said today.
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  • Economists have estimated the damage from the floods may reach $20 billion, or about 1.5 percent of Australia’s $1.3 trillion economy, while the cost of rebuilding after Cyclone Yasi may be more than A$2 billion.
  • In addition, Japan’s strongest earthquake in history on March 11 is estimated to have dented demand for Australia’s bulk commodities by almost A$2 billion in this fiscal year, shaving less than one-fourth of a percentage point from GDP, according to the Treasury.
  • Andrew Kuper on 15 Apr 11
     
    What are the effects of the Australian Floods? Citation:"Wong Sees 'Tough Budget' for Australia on Floods, Currency" http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-04-09/wong-sees-tough-budget-for-australia-on-floods-currency.html Summary: This article talks about how Australia will be affected financially following the floods. It mentioned that the total cost of the damages are equal to roughly 1.5% of the country's A$1.3 trillion economy. It also talked about how Japan's earthquake affected Australia, because they receive many Japanese imports.Questions:1. What exactly does Japan have to do with this?2. How will the people rebuild and finance all this damage? 3. Are these figures in American dollars or Australian dollars? *Edit: Reposting because I forgot to share to WC group. Old post deleted.
Leah Hop

Mexican Drug Trafficking - 0 views

topics.nytimes.com/...index.html

Mexico drug WC

shared by Leah Hop on 09 Mar 11 - Cached
  • government says more than 34,600 have been killed in the four years since President Felipe Calderón took office and threw the federal police and military at the cartels, with the toll for 2010, 15,237, the heaviest yet.
  • Mexican and American officials, crediting American training of the military and what they consider to be an increasingly professional federal police force, point out that more than half of the 37 most wanted crime bosses announced last year have been captured or killed.
  • A poll released Jan. 11 by Mexico’s national statistics institute found that more than 70 percent of respondents believed the country’s security had worsened since 2009.
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  • Obama administration will face renewed scrutiny to account for the $1.4 billion, multiyear Merida Initiative, the cornerstone of American aid in Mexico’s drug fight.
  • in June 2010 a Justice Department report described a "high and increasing" availability of methamphetamine mainly because of large-scale drug production in Mexico.
  • In October 2010, the government announced that it was preparing a plan to radically alter the nation’s police forces, hoping not only to instill a trust the public has never had in them but also to choke off a critical source of manpower for organized crime. It would all but do away with the nation’s 2,200 local police departments and place their duties under a “unified command.”
  • the rising count of gruesome drug-related murders is evidence that the government's strategy has failed.
  • Mr. Calderon dismisses suggestions that Mexico is a failed state, he and his aides have spoken frankly of the cartels' attempts to set up a state within a state, levying taxes, throwing up roadblocks and enforcing their own perverse codes of behavior.
  • United States and Mexico set their counternarcotics strategy on a new course in March 2010 by refocusing their efforts on strengthening civilian law enforcement institutions and rebuilding communities crippled by poverty and crime.
  • The $331 million plan was at the center of a visit to Mexico in March
  • The revised strategy has many elements meant to expand on and improve programs already under way as part of the so-called Mérida Initiative that was started by the Bush administration including cooperation among American and Mexican intelligence agencies and American support for training Mexican police officers, judges, prosecutors and public defenders.
  • American and Mexican agencies would work together to refocus border enforcement efforts away from building a better wall to creating systems that would allow goods and people to be screened before they reach the crossing points. The plan would also provide support for Mexican programs intended to strengthen communities where socioeconomic hardships force many young people into crime.
  • The most striking difference between the old strategy and the new one is the shift away from military assistance. More than half of the $1.3 billion spent under Merida was used to buy aircraft, inspection equipment and information technology for the Mexican military and police. Next year's foreign aid budget provides for civilian police training, not equipment.
  • But Ciudad Juárez belongs in its own category, with thousands killed each yea
  • Leah Hop on 09 Mar 11
     
    Research Question: How does the Mexican drug war affect the government and people of Mexico?  Source: Hidalgo, Oscar. "Mexican Drug Trafficking." New York Times. N.p., 1 Feb. 2011. Web. 8 Mar. 2011. Summary: The U.S has been helping Mexico train their military to an increasingly professional federal police force, which have captured or killed more than half of the 37 most wanted crime bosses. However, the people of Mexico believe the country's security is getting worse. In October 2010, the government announced it was going to change it's national police forces in hope of gaining trust from the public. This strategy was later revised. Reflection: This article talks a lot about the relationship between the U.S and Mexico and how they are trying to end this drug war. However, it also talks about how the U.S and Mexico are trying to prove that they are making positive changes in Mexico's security. I think that if they are in this situation where they are trying to convince the public then this crisis is not on the right path to stopping. Questions: 1) Why does such a large portion of Mexicans believe that even after the U.S and Mexico's strategies, that the country's security is getting worse? 2) Are the billions of dollars the U.S is investing in this drug war helping or changing anything? 3) Has border enforcement and people screening at crossing points help decrease the amount of drug trade with the U.S?
Leah Hop

Mexican car wash massacre: rehab centers latest target in drug war. - 0 views

find.galegroup.com/...retrieve.do

WC Mexico Drug Trade Massacre

shared by Leah Hop on 13 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • Leah Hop on 13 Apr 11
     
    Research Question: What is the cause of all the violence associated with the Mexican drug trade?  Source: The Christian Science Monitor Source Citation: Kurczy, Stephen. "Mexican car wash massacre: rehab centers latest target in drug war." Christian Science Monitor 27 Oct. 2010. Student Edition. Web. 11 Apr. 2011. Summary: In Mexico, within less than seven days, there have been three massacres taking at least 41 lives of young people who used to take part in the drug trade. This shows that the drug lords will do anything to keep information from authorities. The main target are those who are in clinics or drug rehabilitation, and overall the ones targeted are young people. These killings have spread across the country of Mexico and have resulted in more than 28,000 deaths since December 2006. Reflection: I am saddened when I read about how so many younger people are being killed, especially those that are trying to overcome their involvement with drugs. Also, experts say that youths are turning to a life of organized crime due to a lack of job opportunities or lack of an education.  Questions: 1) Is anything being done to stop further random shootings at drug rehab centers? 2) Are there other ways Mexico can decrease youth involvement with the drug trade? 3) Are drug lords doing this just to prevent former addicts from giving information? What are their motives behind such brutal shootings?
Leah Hop

Get Shorty; The Mexican drug trade.(Shifting balances of power)(The Last Narco: Hunting... - 0 views

find.galegroup.com/...retrieve.do

WC Mexico Drug Lord Trade

shared by Leah Hop on 13 Apr 11 - No Cached
  • Three brutal Mexican massacres in less than a week have killed at least 41 people, with young people formerly involved in the drug trade making up the majority of the victims
  • massacres could signal the lengths to which Mexico's drug lords will go to prevent reformed addicts from giving information to authorities
  • "Police believe drug cartels use the clinics to recruit hit men and smugglers, threatening to kill those who fail to cooperate,"
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  • The latest attack Wednesday morning killed up to 16 people working at a car wash operated by a drug rehabilitation center in Tepic
  • "The workers were all men; they were washing cars when the gunmen, probably members of organized crime, drove up in SUVs and started opening fire
  • The coastal state of Nayarit is known as a peaceful corner of Mexico, but Reuters reports "the shootings underscores how killings have spread from the notoriously violent border region across the country."
  • On Sunday, at a drug rehabilitation center in Tijuana, 13 recuperating addicts were lined up against a wall and shot dead. On Friday, at a birthday celebration in Ciudad Juarez, gunmen killed 14. In June, 19 more people were gunned down at another drug rehabilitation center in Ciudad Juarez
  • the killings highlight how young people, and even children, are being targeted
  • Experts blame a lack of job opportunities - more than 20 percent of Mexican youth don't have access to jobs or an education - for drawing youths into an increasingly violent underworld
  • More than 28,000 lives have been lost to drug-related violence since President Felipe Calderon took office and dispatched the military to fight organized crime in December 2006.
  • Leah Hop on 13 Apr 11
     
    Research Question: What is the cause of all the violence associated with the Mexican drug trade?  Source: The Economist (US) Source Citation: "Get Shorty; The Mexican drug trade." The Economist [US] 18 Sept. 2010: 105(US). Student Edition. Web. 11 Apr. 2011. Summary: At the top of the Sinaloa cartel is Joaquin Guzman Loera, also known as El Chapo meaning shorty. Despite growing up in a poor family working opium poppies, he has later been known as Mexico's most legendary escapee and was named 41 on the list of the world's most powerful people by Forbes magazine. He controls a lot of Mexico and although he tries to focus on business, it is still brutal. Reflection: Two parts of this article that really stuck out to me where that the Mexican drug cartels are the most powerful organized-crime group in the Western world, and that even if El Chapo were to fall, there will be plenty more where he came from. These two things really emphasize the power and enormity of the drug trade. Questions: 1) If the government is able to stop major drug lords, will this help stop the drug war? Or will more rise to power as a drug lord? 2) How does someone from such a poor background come to great amounts of power? 3) Is the only way to not let the cartels be the most powerful organized-crime group by stopping people like El Chapo?
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