text:
The two players 'key to Manchester United's chances of signing Gareth Bale'
United continue to be linked with Real Madrid forward Bale in the 2018 summer transfer window.
Liam Corless
Gareth Bale's future at Real Madrid is dependent on two players, according to reports.
AS claim whether Bale will remain at the Bernabeu or not will have a lot to do with where Neymar and Cristiano Ronaldo play their club football next season.
The article by the Spanish media outlet doesn't go into further detail about exactly what that means, but the suggestion seems to be that if Neymar were to move to Madrid and Ronaldo were to stay at Madrid, Bale would be deemed surplus to requirements.
It is claimed that Madrid could demand more than 150 million euros for the Welshman following his heroics in the Champions League final win over Liverpool.
Meanwhile Sergej Milinkovic-Savic has said he won't rush into making a decision about his club future.
Manchester United might already have the next Gareth Bale
The Lazio midfielder is in demand after a breakthrough season in Serie A and United are one of the clubs interested in signing the £90million-rated Serb.
"I need a little bit of rest now," he said after Serbia's World Cup exit. "I'll return to Rome and I would be happy if I stay at Lazio, as I'm content there and I have a contract.
"I read something different in the papers every day, but I haven't thought about it yet. First I'll rest for a bit, then we'll see."
Bolton Wanderers FCAaron Morley reflects on Bolton Wanderers debut and explains how transfer from Rochdale unfoldedThe midfielder made his first start for the club in the win over Ipswich Town
Manchester United fixturesIt could be a pivotal month for Man United before the Manchester derby
Bolton Wanderers FCIan Evatt believes the football journey the striker has been on makes him fully appreciative of the opportunity he has now
Department of HealthDesperate, exhausted and poorly paid: Workers lift the lid on Greater Manchester's crumbling social careGrandparents begging for carers to stay longer, unqualified workers and a staffing crisis are some of the factors workers are having to deal with
Loose WomenThe comedian's TV career is reaching new heights
Life on the wrong side of the area's huge Airbnb boom
Two teenagers arrested after man, 21, stabbed in Trafford
TraffordA 16-year-old man and a 17-year-old man remain in custody for questioning
The freezing high rise flats where hundreds of people live in bitter conditions
Salford"They don't give a s**t, we're the poor people"
The places where you're most likely to have a Premier League player neighbour
CheshireThe local towns and villages football stars call home
Young woman terrified to work after customer 'shoved £5 note into bra strap'
Deansgate"I've read all these stories about wanting to make women in Manchester feel safe but I've waited a month with no support"


text:
Has the petrol crisis triggered you to consider an electric car now? Motor sale sites say searches rocketed 60% during fuel panic buying weekend
By Rob Hull For Thisismoney.co.uk 07:33 28 Sep 2021, updated 23:44 07 Oct 2021
Auto Trader says used EV searches rose by 61% over the weekend - new by 28%
Carwow said fuel supply crisis could be the most influential switching event ever
Reports of surging EV interest comes as some filling stations have been forced to close due to reserves being bought up by selfish stockpiling motorists
Online motor sales sites have tracked huge spikes in electric car interest in recent days, with panic buying of petrol potentially triggering the 'most influential switching event ever'.
Hundreds of thousands of commuters unable to fill up on Monday were forced to work from home, while some taxi drivers were unable to hit the road as forecourts started to run out of petrol and diesel.
Scenes of enormous tailbacks outside filling stations and motorists filling jerry cans have dominated the national media since Friday, when motorists began to rush to the pumps amidst concerns about the lack of HGV drivers to deliver supplies of fuel.
For some, it could be the tipping point for their intentions to ditch their internal-combustion-engine cars and get behind the wheel of EVs.
Has the last few days of petrol panic buying changed your mind about EVs? As an electric Tesla is photographed driving past a queue of cars waiting to fill up at a BP station in Peterborough, online retailers suggest the recent crisis could trigger many to switch to battery models now
The bedlam witnessed in recent days has sparked a massive upsurge in demand for electric cars, with the UK's biggest automotive marketplace, Auto Trader, claiming that electric car advert views have skyrocketed as more Britons toy with the idea of making the switch well ahead of the ban on sales of new petrol and diesel models in 2030.
'We are all familiar with the idea of range anxiety, but the events of the past few days mean we are entering the age of fuel anxiety,' said Ian Plummer, commercial director, Auto Trader.
'We have seen a massive surge in consumer engagement for electric cars on our marketplace over the weekend.
Panic at the pumps! How truckers ground Britain to a halt in September 2000 by blockading refineries in fuel duty stand-off with Tony Blair... sparking petrol queues, closure of schools and empty shelves
Fuel prices rise to an EIGHT-YEAR high of £1.36 a litre as crisis grips Britain - amid warnings cost could rise 10p in a week
'EU truckers will NOT help Britain out of the s**t they created themselves': European HGV drivers' union chief dashes hopes of 'short-term visa' fix - while British driver says red-tape and abuse forced them out of the industry
Jerry can sales soar 1,700pc during petrol panic buying - as warning is sounded selfish drivers could break the law by hoarding fuel
How to get cheap car insurance: Ten tips to find the best quotes | This is Money
'Not only did the number of advert views for new and used electric models increase a record 28 per cent and 61 per cent respectively versus the previous weekend, but we also saw a huge uplift in the number of people sending enquiries to retailers, with one sent every two minutes.
'This suggests that people aren't simply flirting with the idea of electric but have been encouraged to actively pursue a purchase.'
For some, the last few days of fuel shortages at filling stations could be the tipping point for their intentions to ditch their internal-combustion-engine cars and switch to EVs, according to new and used vehicle retailers
Auto Trader said advert views for second-hand electric models rose 61% over the weekend as more drivers appear tempted by the prospect of charging at home and avoiding petrol stations
Motor sales platform carwow also claims to have experienced an 'unprecedented boom' in people looking to switch to electric vehicles, with online searches increasing by 28 per cent on Friday - when panic buying began - to 43 per cent on Saturday and as high as 56 per cent by Sunday.
Sepi Arani, carwow's director of trade, said: 'The fuel supply crisis and the scenes of panic at the pumps could prove to be the most influential switching event ever, with more people than ever considering switching to electric.
'The levels of demand for EVs through carwow this weekend have been completely unprecedented and are genuine proof that more people want to make the switch,' he adds.
'After a weekend of queuing, frustration and hysteria, having the option to charge your vehicle from the comfort of your own home, or from a public charging point, seems like bliss for more and more people.
'What's more, with second-hand car prices rocketing, there's really never been a better time to sell your car and make the switch to electric – you'll get a great price for your current vehicle, you'll be more than ready for the NetZero changes that are inevitably coming, and you'll never have to worry about a fuel shortage again.
'We've also seen a huge spike – 94 per cent compared to last week – of people researching EV ownership and reviewing our electric vehicles advice hub, researching the range of vehicles, finding out about home charging and searching for their local charging points.'
Hundreds of thousands of commuters unable to fill up on Monday were forced to work from home while some taxi drivers were unable to hit the road as forecourts started to run out of petrol and diesel
Sepi Arani, carwow's director of trade, said the fuel supply crisis and the scenes of panic at the pumps could end up becoming the 'most influential switching event ever'
EVs and PHEVs outsell diesels in Europe in August
Official figures collated from 26 European markets show that pure electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids outsold new diesel cars across the continent for the first time on record.
A sharp uptick in demand last month saw these plug-in vehicles post their second highest ever monthly market share, making up 21% of all cars registered.
They combined to outsell diesel vehicles by 10,100 units.
Demand was particularly strong for the electric versions of the Fiat 500, Peugeot 208, Hyundai Kona, Opel Corsa and Kia Niro, in addition to the Volkswagen ID.3 – Europe's top-selling EV during the month.
Additional research by the energy team at Uswitch claimed there had been a 91 per cent rise in searches for electric cars on Monday alone, with the biggest spikes recorded in Cheshire.
Specialist website Electrifying.com claimed to have recorded a 75 per cent increase in searches on its website over the weekend.
Further analysis of Google search data by Carguide.co.uk also claims that online searches for electric cars in the UK on Friday 'exploded' by 16 times the average daily volumes.
It says an ongoing petrol station fuel shortage is likely to accelerate this trend of UK drivers considering an alternative to internal combustion engine-powered cars.
'This trend will likely continue, as more and more people become conscious of their viability, and almost every major manufacturer is committed to electrifying their vehicle portfolio - with the electric car ranges and capabilities increasing almost exponentially as new models come to market,' a spokesperson for the website told This is Money.
Vehicle leasing firms also reported similar cases of rising demand for EVs in recent days, with interest clearly spiking as a result of the shortages of fuel at the pumps.
LeaseLoco said that on its site in August, EVs represented 25 per cent of all searches online.
However, in the last seven days - the majority of them mired by petrol panic buying - that tally has risen to 33 per cent.
LeaseLoco said searches on its site during September showed a rise in EV demand in recent weeks as petrol cars seemed to become less attractive
Auto Trader says the most-viewed car on its site over the weekend was this electric Hyundai Ioniq 5
Second in the list of most viewed motors was the Ford Mustang Mach-E EV (pictured)
Auto Trader says that four of the five most searched for cars on its website on Saturday and Sunday were electric models, with Hyundai's new Ioniq 5 coming out top, followed by the Ford Mustang Mach-E electric SUV.
While these reports might have eco activists rubbing their hands together in glee, Ian Plummer warned that significant EV hurdles might not translate directly from interest to purchases.
'Despite this boost in activity, it's unlikely to represent a major step towards the Government's Road to Zero ambitions. That's because electric cars are prohibitively expensive for the majority of people, and despite the significant increase in range performance among new models, capable of reaching around 250 miles on a single charge, concerns of an inadequate charging infrastructure remain,' he explains.
'To make them a genuinely viable option for mainstream buyers, we need more commitment to provide greater incentives to deal with the upfront cost, as well as more investment to improve the national infrastructure to support both those rare long journeys, and those without access to home charging.
'Concern about petrol availability won't end when the pumps start up again, and so this increased interest represents a unique opportunity to inform, to excite and to incentivise car owners to make the switch.
'If the Government is serious about reaching its 2030 targets, then it is one it can ill afford to miss.'
Online dealers say electric car demand spiked during fuel panic buying

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
← Unmasking Ireland's real 'climate radicals'
Sinking ever deeper into ecological debt and climate denial →
2017: yet another year of living dangerously
Posted on December 31, 2017 by John Gibbons
And so 2017 comes, at last, to a close. From a climate and wider environmental standpoint, it has been an unmitigated disaster. It hardly bears repeating that the installation of the Trump regime in Washington was the worst possible news, at the worst possible time, for those of us interested in handing on a habitable biosphere to the next generation by mid-century.
Of the 10 years I've been operating as a journalist and activist in this arena, 2017 stands out as the most depressing of all, especially coming hot on the heels of the Paris Accord of December 2015, which, for all its inadequacies and compromises, did at least hold out the vague prospect of providing a platform for ramping up far more radical action in the next decade or two. Well, that was then. Having appeared to plateau over the last two years, CO2 emissions took off again in 2017, when human actions added a whopping 3% to global CO2 levels.
The prospect of holding global temperature increases to below the deadly +2ºC threshold is now vanishingly remote. To put a number on that, researchers calculate we now have just a 5% chance of avoiding breaching the 2ºC ceiling this century. These are lousy odds, given that the world beyond +2ºC is broadly incompatible with this or any other version of organised human civilisation.
Domestically, the political and societal response to climate change in 2017, as documented here and elsewhere, while lacking the toxic ideological rhetoric of the US, has been every bit as ineffectual. The farming lobby finished off the year having pulled a nice stroke in getting the EU to enshrine its meaningless fudge on 'flexibilities' tied in with the vague term 'land use' to allow the agri-industrial lobby to get clean away with doing precisely nothing to rein in the sector's massive emissions.
Yes, the Citizens' Assembly recommendations on climate change were a rare bright spot on an otherwise grey landscape, but that was about it on the credit side of the ecological ledger. Personal high point were getting my first article published in the Guardian in July last, followed by a second in September and a third in November. An appearance last March as a panellist on the BBC TV show 'The Big Questions', live from Newcastle, was another memorable moment.
Domestic climate coverage, while still abysmal, has definitely improved in 2017, and I found doors in the Irish Times that had been closed for the last 2-3 years open once more to serious articles on this topic. Here's to more, much more of this in 2018. Finally, below is the text of an article of mine that ran over two pages in the current issue of Village magazine.
If you find this blog useful or have suggestions for topics you'd like to see covered, do please post a comment. Feedback is always read, and (almost!) always appreciated. Happy new year.
Fish don't vote. When Ireland's Marine Minister Michael Creed said: "I am satisfied that I have managed to turn an extremely worrying set of proposals from the Commission into a much-improved outcome for the Irish fishing industry", there was little doubt as to whose interests the minister represented.
While he added that he was "especially pleased that the quotas agreed respects the scientific advice ensuring that the fish stocks in our waters will be managed sustainably", this may have been almost tongue in cheek.
In 2016, Ireland came out as number one in the league table of worst offenders for the promotion of overfishing in the North East Atlantic, according to a report published by the New Economics Foundation (NEF) an independent think tank.
The report – 'Landing the Blame' set out to name-and-shame the EU member states most responsible for setting fishing quotas above scientific advice – the very advice in fact that Creed said he "respected".
At the time the NEF report was being compiled, Simon Coveney was then our minister with responsibility for marine affairs. Coveney negotiated the largest proportional increase in fishing quotas for Ireland above scientifically advised levels in December 2015, with Ireland's quotas exceeding scientific advice by 25%. Fish, don't lobby, so their interests, including the fundamental right to exist at all, were not considered.
According to the NEF there is a total lack of transparency around the fisheries negotiations, leading to wheeler dealing where Irish fishermen, politicians and processors "celebrate" beating the system and catching far more fish than the marine system can bear. What stands out about overfishing isn't so much the destructive greed involved, it's the sheer nihilistic stupidity.
Research published by NEF calculated that the EU could actually increase its fish catch by two million tonnes a year, raise an extra €1.6bn in income from the marine sector, and create and additional 20,000 jobs in the industry. How? Simply by sticking rigidly to the scientific advice, which means allowing fish stocks to recover, avoiding targeting of breeding grounds for juvenile fish and, critically, eliminating trawling.
By its very nature, much of what happens at sea is out of sight, and therefore largely out of mind. This is the only possible reason to explain how the industrial scale vandalism involved in trawling isn't regarded as a criminal offense. If you saw a plane flying over a pristine forest and carpet-bombing it, you would be rightly outraged. Yet, this extreme level of wanton wreckage of the sensitive marine habitats on the sea floor is carried out daily by trawlers right around our coasts.
According the Irish Wildlife Trust: "trawling destroys seabed habitats and catches huge numbers of other marine organisms (known as bycatch) including juvenile cod, whiting etc. Successive cod management plans have failed and we believe the only solution is to prohibit trawling in large areas of the Irish Sea."
A trawling ban within 12 miles of shore would, according to the IWT, "repair habitats, restore biodiversity, be a boon for coastal tourism (angling, diving) and ultimately provide more and bigger fish for fishermen."
Much of the seas around Ireland are already critically overfished, and bottom-trawling in particular is uniquely destructive as well as extraordinarily wasteful. When weighted nets and trawl doors are dragged along the seafloor, everything in their path is disturbed or destroyed, including seagrasses, coral reefs or rock gardens where fish hide from predators. In one study, bottom trawling for prawns threw away nine times as much bycatch as more selective fishing gear. A 2007 study on shrimp trawlers in Belize found that in order to land less than 20 tons of shrimp involved destroying and discarding about 76 to 190 metric tons of other marine life.
Globally, marine systems are under greater stress than at any time for tens of millions of years. A lethal cocktail of pollution, overfishing, rising water temperatures and ocean acidification is pushing many systems into irreversible collapse. Any one of these threats in isolation would be serious; in combination, they risk tipping us into a world where the oceans are essentially dead, with little besides jellyfish capable of surviving and adapting to the unprecedented rate of change.
Other than the occasional dolphin or clown fish, we as humans have little personal empathy with most forms of marine life. We tend to view them as cold and slimy; hardly worth bothering about at all. David Attenborough's latest marvel, Blue Planet II, has just finished broadcasting. Hitting weekly audiences of over 17 million, it was in fact the most watched TV programme of 2017.
Great storytelling, combined with breath-taking photography has brought the exotic and bizarre wonders of the seas to amazed audiences. Blue Planet II is expected to be sold to over 100 TV stations all over the world, showing this interest, even compassion, is not just a flash in the pan.
Viewers watching resolute puffins engaging in perilous and exhausting three-hour round trips to catch fish for their young, while being harried on the return journey by raiding skuas will have some better grasp of just how tough life is, and how survival itself is balanced on a daily knife-edge for most species.
Skellig Michael, off the coast of Kerry, is a rare sanctuary for puffins, among others, yet this delicate ecosystem is being constantly threatened by human intrusions, especially since the island first featured in the 'Star Wars' film franchise, with Heather Humphries, the unfortunately named then Heritage minister signing off on the film crew's right to move 180 staff, plus heavy equipment, including lighting rigs, onto the island.
It doesn't take a trained ecologist to work out the impacts of having helicopters and drones swirling around this tiny island. By the time 'Star Wars' has finished with it, it's likely the already endangered sea birds will have long abandoned their ancient sanctuary. Still, puffins don't vote, so who cares?
While Humphries has made a ministerial career out of selling out the natural environment to special interest groups, Blue Planet II lingered long on both the beauty and the extraordinary fragility of marine ecosystems. In one truly moving scene, the cameras followed a female pilot whale as she grieved for her dead calf, which she kept by her side for days.
"It's very likely that the infant was poisoned by her mother's own contaminated milk", Attenborough confided. Staggering levels of pollution emanating from human activities are flooding into the world's oceans and the damage is ripping through the very fabric of marine life. Some eight million tons of plastic waste make their way into the world's oceans every year.
Plastic is essentially indestructible; as it weathers, it breaks down into ever small microplastic fragments. These are entering the very base of the food chain, as they are being eaten by plankton, which in turn are eaten by larger creatures, and so the contamination increases as you climb the food chain.
Autopsies of dead creatures, from whales to sea birds, find their stomachs choked with plastics. One albatross chick was found to have died when its stomach was punctured by a discarded plastic toothpick. It is, in Attenborough's own words, heartbreaking.
I wrote a newspaper article almost a decade ago on the global overfishing crisis, which cautioned that there may be, in essence no wild fish in the oceans by 2048. It included the following quote: "The recovery from the changes we're making will probably take a million years", according to Achim Steiner, director of the United Nations Environment Programme.
Steiner's comments assumed of course that we stop what we're doing right now, in order to give the marine ecosystems some chance of recovery and regeneration. Since 1970, the tonnage caught by the global fishing fleet has doubled. In 2005, for example, over 125 million tons of fish were landed.
Tons give a poor sense of the carnage. In terms of individual fish killed, that tonnage probably represents between 5-15 billion individual creatures. Oceanic fish are as much wild animals as lions or tigers, yet 99% of the world's oceans are effectively killing zones, open to all comers to take as much as they want, and dump their wastes at will.
Life on Earth began in the oceans, and our ancient cousins eventually dragged themselves from the primordial seas to begin their conquest of the land. That is now complete. If we do succeed in killing the oceans this century, one thing is certain: they are taking us with them.
John Gibbons is an environmental writer & commentator and tweets @think_or_swim
ThinkOrSwim is a blog by journalist John Gibbons focusing on the inter-related crises involving climate change, sustainability, resource depletion, energy and biodiversity loss
View all posts by John Gibbons →
This entry was posted in Global Warming, Habitat/Species, Sustainability and tagged Attenborough, Fisheries, Simon Coveney. Bookmark the permalink.
6 Responses to 2017: yet another year of living dangerously
Another very thought-provoking article John. I loved the Blue Planet 2 series too. The photography and slow-motion was stunning. The programme brought exotic and not-well-known fish and other marine creatures to life, showing their incredible lives below the waves. Hopefully the next generation was watching in numbers and will develop a care for this fragile environment, and work actively to save it.
dave kiernan says:
Just watch "Atlantic", an excellent Irish produced documentary about overfishing in the Atlantic area between Ireland, Newfoundland and Norway.
John Gibbons says:
@Eric Agree with your sentiments re. Blue Planet II, while noting and endorsing George Monbiot's comments that he felt the devastation wrought by overfishing in particular was largely glossed over in the programme. With the best will in the world, the BBC is still primarily in the ratings/entertainment game, and they share the media's pathological aversion to telling the unvarnished truth when the ugly facts are likely to be a downer for some audiences. I don't personally blame Attenborough for that; he has been heroic in the circumstances; rather, it's a systemic failure.
@Dave Yes, have seen and would strongly recommend this excellent documentary. Also, for those who haven't yet read it, Padraig Fogarty's 'Whittled Away' is essential reading for anyone who wants to better understand Ireland's vanishing ecology and battered biodiversity.
Nick Spencer says:
With regard to overfishing, I had cause to visit Killybegs, the Donegal fishing port, about eight years ago. My visit happened to coincide with a ceremony to bless the fleet, and the harbour was full of fishing vessels freshly painted and decked with bunting. There were several massive trawlers present, and it took a stretch of the imagination to reckon how many fish had to be killed in order to pay off the capital costs, the maintenance, the crewing, the various other overheads, and the fuelling of just one of these huge machines, and all that before any profit could be made. It looked to me as though a couple of these ships would soon do for the Irish fish, so I enquired where they went a-fishing. I was told, to my astonishment, that they go trawling off the coast of West Africa. That alone tells us all we need to know about the state of Irish fish stocks.
Liam Quaide says:
Excellent contribution on the Big Questions, John.


and our awesome sponsor, Honey Bee Stamps!
they have! I chose "Hello Gorgeous" for this challenge.
my card. I like the dimension and Honey Bee Stamps!
I love how you created the dimension for your card. So pretty!


text:
Donnalyn Pompper
Title: Professor, Endowed Chair in Public Relations
Email: pompper@uoregon.edu
Donnalyn Pompper (Ph.D., Media & Communication, Temple University) teaches courses in and researches public relations, corporate social responsibility, and social identity. Overall, her research provides routes for enabling people, globally, to achieve their maximum potential at work, to embrace their intersecting social identity dimensions (e.g., age, ethnicity, gender), and to critically examine these issues across mass media representations.
Pompper is an internationally recognized scholar. Most recently, she wrote Community Building and Early Public Relations: Pioneer Women's Role on and after the Oregon Trail (2021) for Routledge, co-edited a special issue of Mass Communication & Society, called What IS News? (2020), and wrote "Public relations' role as diversity advocate: Avoiding microaggressions and nurturing microaffirmations in organizations" for Public Relations Journal, https://rb.gy/s8otqi.
She has won two national book awards: the 2015 PRIDE Book Award for Innovation, Development, and Educational Achievement in Public Relations from the Public Relations Division of the National Communication Association for Corporate Social Responsibility, Sustainability, and Public Relations: Negotiating Multiple Complex Challenges (2015, Routledge); and the 2014 Top Book Award from the Organizational Communication Division of the National Communication Association for Practical and Theoretical Implications of Successfully Doing Difference in Organizations (2014, Emerald Publishing). She also has published extensively in peer-reviewed academic journals including Sex Roles: A Journal of Research, Mass Communication & Society, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, and many others.
Pompper holds the Accredited Public Relations credential from Public Relations Society of America. Prior to joining the academy, she worked as a public relations manager and journalist who brings 25 years of practical experience to the classroom and her research. She worked in public affairs management at Campbell's Soup Company, marketing public relations management at Tasty Baking Company where she created the public relations department, and as an account manager at Lewis, Gilman & Kynett (Philadelphia's then-largest public relations/advertising firm). Pompper also worked as a daily newspaper freelance reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Courier-Post, as well as news editor at a weekly New Jersey newspaper chain.
Pompper, D. (2021, in press). Community building and early public relations: Pioneer women's role on and after the Oregon Trail. New York: Routledge.
Pompper, D. (Ed.) (2021, in press). Public relations for social responsibility: Affirming DEI commitment with action. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Pompper, D. (Ed.) (2021, in press). Rhetoric of masculinity: Male body image, media, and gender role stress/conflict. Washington, D.C.: Lexington Books (a division of Rowman & Littlefield).
Pompper, D., Place, K., & Weaver, C. K. (Eds.) (2022, in press). The Routledge public relations companion. New York: Routledge.
Pompper, D. (2023, in press). Discovering answers: Research methods for public relations. Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company.
Pompper, D. (Ed.) (2018). Corporate social responsibility, sustainability, & ethical public relations: Strengthening synergies with human resources. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group Publishing Limited. The Changing Context of Managing People series.
Pompper, D. (2017). Rhetoric of femininity: Female body image, media, and gender role stress/conflict. Washington, D.C.: Lexington Books (a division of Rowman & Littlefield). Lexington Studies in Contemporary Rhetoric series.
Pompper, D. (Ed.) (2017). Climate and sustainability communication. New York: Routledge.
Pompper studies social justice, power, and social identity intersectionalities (e.g. age, ethnicity/"race," gender) issues: 1) in organizations, and 2) in mass media representations. Her research is grounded in areas of public relations, corporate social responsibility/sustainability, femininity and masculinity studies, critical race studies, cultural studies, global justice and resistance, crisis/risk communication, and environmental journalism.


Have you found any new information on Edna Howard? I have nenewed my geneology interest on the Howard family. I am Edna's niece.
Searching for location of burial of BENJAMIN F. JACKSON and NANCY FRANCIS JACKSON, my Grandparents. Heard they lived in White Oak, but have been unable to confirm. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
I am seeking any information on the following couple, possible children and descendants. Your help is very appreciated.
J.D.Young was my great-grandfather. Is there someone in Craig county that might know where he is buried? I would like to know what he died from, illness or accident, if he had an obituary, and if he was with family or if he died alone.
Does anyone know where I can find information that lists victims of accidents that may have occured in the OK/KS/MO corner area in this time frame? I am looking for three male family members who were all killed and rumored to have been working together. Thanks for any information or suggestions.
I am searching for information and photos of the TROTTER family.
You might slip on over to this web site. There is quite a lot of Haddock and other family information on the site. The counties that I can remember right now that I have data from are Cherokee, Tulsa, Bryan, Kay, Pottawatomie, Greer, Osage, Craig, Ottowa, Mayes, Oklahoma City, Muskogee, and Payne Counties.
Hillside Cemetery is the Centralia Cemetery. The Trotters are in unmarked graves there.
Hello Eddie, I am not sure if the John Wesley Revel you wrote about in your query, is the same John Wesley Revelle I have in my files. I'd be more than happy to share all I have on my John Wesley Revelle with you. I do not show he was married to a Tempia (McCord), but that doesn't mean they are not the same man, and that I just didn't have that marriage recorded. First let me begin with dates I have on John, so that at least you can verify if this is the same man.
I was looking through my files and was trying to find Tempia (McCord) - assuming McCord is her maiden name? I came across this information below, and was wondering if Tempia was related to these people? (Keep in mind, I do not research McCord folks), this info. was just in my files related somehow to my I assume to my Revel(le) genealogy research.
Hello Eddene, I found an additional McCord in my files that perhaps may be related to Tempia McCord?
Hello, No, it is not the same man. I would be glad to share what I have with you if you will contact me by email. I don't like to publicize my info unless I am well assured that I have proven out what I am talking about.
I am the daughter of Oscar McKinzie that lived in Bluejacket. My mother's name was Eva. What information do you need?
No, this Oscar McKinzie's parents were James McKinzie and Nellie Melvina Andrews. He was my father.
Looking for any information on the children, their marriages, burial sites, and family of the Thomas Vickers Ready Family, described below.
Looking for articles published regarding murder trial of Lee Monroe Betterton. He was executed 7/9/1920 for the murder of his wife Alzadia (Whittington) Betterton on 7/9/1919. Would appreciate any info available.
In researching for our DUNHAM/YOUNG/FORD family I have found that S. S. Fox was a brother-in-law of Walter A. Young. Then on the 1920 census he is a brother-in-law to John E. Ford! Can you help my confusion - IS THERE ANY INFORMATION ABOUT S.S.FOX?
I am wondering how a person could get old records from the Eastern Oklahoma State Hospital, during the 1940s, and 1950s? Does anyone know where a person could write to try and get old records from this Institution? Please respond if you do.
Go in and on front page click on Index and Database of Rolls, scroll down and click on Index to Final Roll-data base. Click on down button for Cherokee under tribe, then type in Wimer for last name, click search. Will bring up Wimer's. Click on 10781 under card and will bring up your family. You can order this Dawes Jacket and worth every bit of the $10.00 they charge. Has lots of vital information including Cherokee Roll, Department of Interior, land info, etc. There use to be a simple place in here to show how to order this, but they changed this site and you will have to look around in here on how to order. Good luck!
Will e-mail you infomation I have on Elsie Butler/Welch.


text:
Sports Evolve
Why Giants and Dodgers rivalry easily surpasses others in baseball
Brigit Adongo
The rivalry between opponents in sports is a common occurrence, and most times, or perhaps always, a showdown between rivals is the most anticipated one where fans await thrilling matches, races or meet-ups.
From football between countries and clubs to car racing between brands and drivers, all the way to tennis, basketball, and…baseball. When it comes to baseball, the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants are arguably the best rivals, and there are countless reasons to think so.
Spanning over almost a century and a half, the two sides have had heated and entertaining showdowns from their first meeting in May 1890 to date. And to keep the rivalry fire burning, both teams moved from their New York base to California.
Their competition is considered the greatest in the sport's history because both teams have been in the game for over a century, making their opposition grow from a fight between cities to a state.
The two sides won the most pennants in MLB history, the Giants losing out by one with 23 against the Dodgers' 24. When it comes to World Series titles, the Giants lead by one, as they have eight while the Dodgers have seven.
In regular-season series, the Giants have 22 more than the Dodgers, with the sides garnering 1269 and 1247 respectively. They ended two seasons (1951 and 1962) tied in the first place and the winner (Giants both times) had to be determined from the tie-breaker series.
Their largest victories differ by a single run, 18 (1993, 1938, 1944) to 17 (2014) in favour of the Giants, while the Dodgers surpass them in National League West wins, as they have 19 against the Giants' 9.
This rivalry now has a new face as they meet in the postseason for the first time. With how narrowly each beats the other in various categories, their competitiveness is probably the best to ever be seen, and fans await a good show for three days starting tomorrow.
Related Topics:baseballMLBsportsports
No move for Pogba in January
Lewis Hamilton's love for fashion is more about mind relaxation
Hamilton and Mercedes give outgoing Bottas an exciting 'little' parting gift
Will the FIA's decision on Masi stand well with Mercedes and Hamilton?
Hamilton thinks rating who is best will be easy if he and Max drove the same car
Mercedes to demand Michael Masi is fired or Lewis Hamilton 'will quit'
Usman Khawaja: Twin centuries not enough to hold Test Spot
New FIA President confident Hamilton will return in 2022
Buster Posey unsurprisingly shines in the postseason first game against Dodgers
The highly anticipated first-ever post-season game between rivals the Giants and Dodgers kicked off on Friday night and was a feast for the eyes and the heart. Fans were treated to an exhilarating show that saw a two-run opposite-field homer caught by a boater's fishing net.
The San Francisco Giants defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 4-0 in the first of three postseason games, thanks to a 3-0 homer from Buster Posey.
Unsurprisingly, Posey, 34, came in handy to help the Giants shine once more against the Dodgers, with the catcher nearly becoming the first right-handed Giants player to launch a splash hit.
Was his performance unexpected, though? Of course not. Posey has been swinging homers frequently this season, and everyone probably expected him to do that. Even though they knew he would do that, Posey was probably too good to be stopped.
Leaving a base open to venture into Posey's strike zone, the Dodgers pitcher, Anthony Buehler, paid for it dearly as his opponent played a perfect piece to earn the fifth postseason homer of his career.
The 2016 gold glove award winner was determined to impress fans after opting out of the 2020 season. He wasn't going to let off his opponents, no matter how much they knew him or what style they would play.
Buehler admitted that he knew what Posey would do, but still couldn't counter it and accepted "it is what it is."
The 3-time World Series winner admitted that he was definitely jittery, but the nerves helped him stay focused. "There are definitely butterflies, but those can be helpful…heighten focus," Posey stated. He added that he "got a pitch I can handle" after admitting that Buehler is no easy opponent.
The Giants' oldest player to get a postseason homer will be essential in their next two games against their oldest rivals as they look to take the win after a great start.
Rodgers says no timeline on injured Maddison's return
Everton2 weeks ago
Report: Farhad Moshiri in talks for £9 million attacker despite Benitez's reluctance
Brendan Rodgers takes blame for Europa League exit
Solskjaer promises 'responsible' transfer business
Manchester derby early team news and lineup
Everton2 months ago
Everton chairman makes feeling clear on Benitez future to Moshiri
West Ham make first move of summer window as low £15.5m bid is lodged for the new Vidic
Alisson Becker suffers the death of father in a tragic drowning
© 2022 SportsEvolve. All rights reserved.


text:
Fellowship Presentation: Scars in the Country
NationalLibraryAustralia · Fellowship Presentation: Scars in the Country
Recording date: 20 May 2021
NLA Fellow, Dr André Brett uses the development of railway networks to interrogate the strong and enduring linkages between economic growth and environmental change.
Download this transcript
Andre Brett 20-05-21
*Speakers: Martin Woods (M), Andre Brett (A)
*Audience:
*Date: 20/5/21
M: Welcome to the National Library of Australia. I'm Martin Woods, I'm a Director of Curatorial and Collection Research here at the Library and I'd like to begin by acknowledging Australia's first nations peoples as the traditional owners and custodians of the land that we're on and to pay respect to the elders past and present and through them to all Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here.
Thank you all for attending this afternoon's presentation by Dr Andre Brett, one of our 2021 National Library of Australia Fellows. Andre's fellowship is one of three this year which have been funded by the Stokes family and we thank them for their generosity and ongoing support of the Library's Fellowships programs. Andre is an Honorary Fellow at the University of Wollongong where he held a post-doctoral fellowship from 2017 to last year. As you will see, he is a versatile and accomplished historian of British settler colonialism and experience in Australasia and his research profile integrates political, economic, environmental, transport history adopting a comparative approach to understanding similarities, differences and exchanges between these settler societies.
Andre is the author of three books, most recently 'No End of a Lesson', about the unification of Australia's system of higher education along with Stuart Macintyre and Gwilym Croucher published in 2017. His fourth book, 'Can't Get There from Here, New Zealand's shrinking passenger rail network, 1920 to 2020', is to be published later this year by Otago University Press.
He is currently researching an enviro-economic history of railways in Australasia for world war one and a history of territorial separation movements in colonial Australia. Andre's Fellowship project entitled 'Scars in the Country: Railways in Australian and New Zealand Environments, 1850s to 1915', seeks to redefine our understanding of how railways interacted with Australasian landscapes, exposing the tensions between economic growth and environmental change and how these intersect in large nation-building railway projects.
Please join me in welcoming Dr Andre Brett. Thank you.
A: [Kurikoto] and greetings, everyone. Whether you are watching online or are here in person thank you for coming and thank you to Martin for the very generous introduction and in particular I'd like to express my sincere gratitude to the Stokes family for their munificence that has allowed me to do much of the research you are about to hear today.
I would like to begin by acknowledging that we are on unceded Ngunnawal land and that normally I live and work on the equally unceded lands of the Dharawal people in Wollongong. Now, I'm a Pakeha New Zealander. Pakeha came across the oceans and signed the [speaks Maori: Te Tiriti o Waitangi]with the Maori people, [speaks Maori: Tangata Whenua or Aotearoa] and to those who are striving for similar forms of recognition over here I would like to say [speaks Maori: Kia Kaha], be of a strong.
So, I would like to commence today's talk with another visitor to these shores, one W. Anderson of the US who visited Sydney for two months in early 1880. His diary in the special collections of the National Library makes for rather lively reading. Near the end of his stay, he summarised his impressions of the city. "Sydney", he wrote, "was probably originally laid out and surveyed by a person who had formed the habit of indulging in intoxicating draughts early in life. Streets begin anywhere and end nowhere in particular".
There are further acerbic observations in his diary yet on leaving he wrote, "I bid goodbye to Sydney with considerable regret. The city is old fogey-ish but full of interest, it is 20 years behind the times yet full of novelties".
A highlight of Anderson's visit, one he described with unqualified enthusiasm, was a journey by train. "A railway trip", he wrote, "was suggested to me by almost every acquaintance as being the knee plus ultra of excursions, both for views of sublime and picturesque scenery as well as experiencing the triumph of engineering skill as exhibited in the ascent of the railway over the Blue Mountains".
So, Anderson made a day trip to Lawson. After passing Emu Plains Station he wrote that "we are face-to-face with the Blue Mountains. Here our locomotive begins to puff and tug and we commence the ascent of the Little Zigzag, going from side to side in short distances on the face of the mountain until we have risen 700 feet above the Plain". At the top, Anderson looked back from the last carriage and marvelled at what he called the "…giant ladder, which had rendered our ascent comparatively easy".
The Little Zigzag up Lapstone Hill is one of the extraordinary interventions made by railways in the Australasian landscape. A zigzag is when a railway line surmounts a steep slope with switchbacks. A train travels forward along the first leg, reverses up the second and then continues up as many more as necessary. Now, as the Little Zigzag's name might suggest to you, it was the lesser of two on the Main Western Line from Sydney to Bathurst and beyond. Here is Lithgow's Great Zigzag. Now I should say, I'm following what another NLA Fellow, Alisa Bunbury, did last week and all pictures that are from the National Library Collections I've put the captions in yellow to highlight them so if you see yellow it's from here.
So, this is Lithgow's Great Zigzag and it was even more dramatic than the Lapstone one. As you can see, it involves three viaducts as well as a tunnel and survives as a heritage railway today, which is great. So, were the train to pass through mountain ranges or cutting across river plains, railways modified and were modified by landscapes throughout Australia and New Zealand. Colonial governments harnessed railways to grow economies and to bring commodities to profitable markets and the larger the networks grew the more railways and environments acted upon each other.
I'll begin today's talk by outlining my project scope and then work through a series of themes, the role of railways and colonisation and economic growth, the demand railways generate for resources, the interaction of railways with water and dry environments, the challenge of mountains and finally reflections on the environments railways themselves created for passengers and workers.
So, the scope of my research encompasses Britain's seven colonies in Australasia, the six that federated in 1901 as the Commonwealth of Australia plus New Zealand. Australian railway historiography is heavily state-bound and I hope to show the value of a wider view. People often ask why I include New Zealand, even fellow historians, which goes to show Tony Ballantyne was onto something when he wrote about the anachronistic deployment of the nation state.
It would be highly anachronistic to exclude New Zealand as the seven colonies formed a heavily interlinked world. The colonial railways certainly saw themselves as sharing a common space. This New South Wales Railways Weekly Notice in 1901 conferred the General Manager of New Zealand Railways with a gold pass just like the other heads of Australasian railways. These men were part of one professional world exemplified in semiregular intercolonial conferences. There is no reason to exclude New Zealand that would not also exclude Western Australia or, for that matter, Tasmania.
Now my research focuses on government railways and that is for two practical reasons. First, although each colony had some private lines in all instances the government networks formed by far the largest networks. Second is simply to keep the project manageable. I visited every state archive and library plus all four offices of Archives New Zealand and this fellowship has given me the valuable push to bring everything together in comparative context.
My timeframe begins in the mid-1850s, which is when Victoria opened the first steam railway in Australasia, in 1854 and most of the other colonies followed quickly. Networks expanded rapidly because railways were the quickest, most reliable mode of transport. I take my study through to the 1914-15 financial year after which the hardships of world war one and the rise of motorised transport changed the course of railway history.
Now that said I do make some forays beyond 1915 when it suits the narrative, especially for the trans-Australian railway, which as you can see here, is the blue line across the Nullarbor on this map that was produced in 1921. The Transcontinental Line was one of the few major projects pushed on during world war one, opening in 1917 so other than that one blue line this map gives a pretty fair representation of the railway network in 1915.
It is from a Royal Commission on a uniform track gauge, the distance between the rails. Now that's not a subject of my research but it's important to mention here, especially for those of you who are not railway enthusiasts and with apologies to rail fans who persist with imperial measures I was born well after metrification so this is a 448 and a half free zone.
Australia's railways were built to three different gauges. Why this occurred, still excites debate among railway historians, but in any case in the 1850s Victoria and South Australia built to a broad gauge of 1600mm, as you can see in the black down here, while New South Wales used international standard gauge of 1,435mm, in blue, and Queensland picked the narrow gauge of 1,067mm, all of these yellow lines, and that was to save money surmounting the Great Dividing Range, a good example of the landscape influencing engineering choices.
Western Australia and New Zealand followed suit with that narrow gauge. Tasmania started with broad before completely converting to narrow, while South Australia became a muddle, as this enlargement should hopefully make clear. In pursuit of lower capital costs, it built narrow gauge lines in some regions while retaining broad in others and then the Commonwealth chose standard gauge for the Trans-Australia Railway leaving South Australia with three gauges.
So this raised the Commonwealth role. Although railways featured prominently in federation debates in the 1890s they did not pass to Commonwealth control, and remained in state hands after 1901. The Trans-Australia Railway however was a Commonwealth responsibility and it later operated other lines in South Australia, Northern Territory, Tasmania and right here in Canberra.
So you might be wondering what New Zealand railway networks looked like, so here it is in 1920. Similarly there was not a whole lot of additions added in world war one so this is a fair representation at the end of my period. These maps are from a book that I'm about to publish in collaboration with mapmaker, Sam van der Weerden, called 'Can't Get There From Here, New Zealand's shrinking passenger rail network' and this is a taster of Sam's fine work. It will hopefully be on shelves in a few months later this year.
My NLA research is going towards a book that shares its working title with today's talk and I also hope that it might come to fruition sooner rather than later. Hello to any publishers who might be listening. So I hope you are enjoying my slide transitions, they get more ridiculous as we go. I thought it would be a nice, fun little thing to do.
So let us talk about the settler economy. While I have been here at the Library, I have spent much time on the microfilm machines going through annual reports and weekly notices. In an 1859 report Ben Martindale, New South Wales Commissioner for Internal Communications, set out one rationale for rail transport, an advantage in the construction in a new country of railways on a great scale is that by inducing immigration it supplies that great want, population. An apparently lavish outlay may result in the rapid increase of the real wealth of the country.
Julius Vogel, one of the most influential colonial politicians, made a similar pronouncement in 1870 as Treasurer of New Zealand. He told Parliament that "…the time has arrived when we must set ourselves afresh to the task of actively promoting the settlement of the country…". He set out a grand scheme to address what he called the great wants of the colony, public works in the shape of roads and railways and immigration. He emphasised that these were inseparably united.
These quotes highlight the centrality of railways to colonisation. Indigenous peoples were usually dispossessed of their land before railways were approved, let alone built but these lines were crucial to settlers occupying said land and exploiting it for economic gain. The colonising language of development went hand-in-hand with the rhetoric of conquests, which has been enduring. The vanquished party is often depicted as an inanimate and sometimes difficult landscape.
Books about the so-called railway conquest sometimes do not even mention indigenous peoples, yet we're all I imagine familiar with the term 'terra nullius' and if settlers were to act on their belief that they could use the land better than its first inhabitants they needed to link resources with markets.
Land transport was expensive and onerous prior to the railway. If a product was perishable or heavy, it was uneconomic to produce beyond local needs. Even coastal regions struggled. Illawarra is not far south of Sydney yet butter from its dairy farms often reached Sydney rancid in summer. The first railways therefore linked productive hinterlands with colonial capitals and export harbours.
In some colonies, the network was highly centralised. New South Wales railways radiated from Sydney and Newcastle and Victoria from Melbourne and Geelong. Queensland's decentralised network however pushed inland from many places. South Australia had conflicting goals. Local interests of port towns feared that plans for trunk railways north and south of Adelaide would allow the capital to prosper at their expense and sought connections to what they saw as their hinterlands. Port Pirie became one locus. Lines also ran inland from Port Augusta, Port Lincoln, Kingston and elsewhere. As a result, South Australia ended up with a circuitous messy network.
Now, railways between centres like Melbourne and Geelong could survive on commercial grounds but those into lightly populated areas became known as developmental railways. In some colonies, a specific kind of cheaply built line was dubbed a pioneer railway.
Now this picture of the first train to Winton in central west Queensland in 1899 is a good example of a basic line built deep inland to locations home to only a few tens or hundreds of people in the expectation it would stimulate growth. Alan Pendleton, Commissioner of South Australian Railways, explained in 1904 his state's policy to, quote, "…build lines of communication in order to open up area hitherto more or less inaccessible. No businessman can contend that private capital would ever have been obtained for the construction of these railways".
This developmental mindset contributed greatly to public acceptance of government ownership. Charles Goodchap articulated it in 1881 as Commissioner of Railways in New South Wales. Each extension, as it is opened for traffic, assists in developing the resources of the interior of the country and promotes its settlement, fresh fields for the profitable employment of labour.
So instead of accruing profit, if railway income exceeded working expenses settlers expected this to be returned in the form of cheaper rates and fares. Colonial railways were common carriers that conveyed anything and everything. This train at Toowoomba Railway Station in about 1890 has wagons for diverse goods. When you start flicking through official notices from this period, you quickly notice special rates for all sorts of commodities, fresh fish to tallow, marsupial skins to domestic wines.
There are occasional passive aggressive instructions to crews to drive livestock trains more carefully because of complaints that cattle were injured in transit or that drovers giving water to sheep on hot days were nearly left behind when trains began moving with little warning.
Warwick Frost has coined the term 'wet frontier' to describe the heavy forests along Australia's east coast from Tasmania to northern Queensland, and it could also be fairly applied to much of NZ. We often think of the frontier of settlement as steadily inching inland but as Frost explains, heavy forests remained largely unexploited until the 1870s. Railways played a large role in crossing this frontier and clearing forests for farmland. It was only when a railway entered a forest that sawmills opened and timber carried to cities at a profit. Firewood-cutters moved in and dispatched wagon upon wagon for use at industries and residences alike. Railways themselves created a need to cross the wet frontier, their voracious appetite for timber.
Thin railways required all sorts of natural resources. Coal is perhaps most obvious, oil of many kinds were used and iron ore beneath Britain's surface became steel rails crisscrossing Australasia. Except in rare circumstances, one necessity of railway construction is sleepers, rectangular supports laid perpendicular to the rails for the purposes of load distribution and maintaining the correct gauge.
Now if you look at tracks today you will often see concrete sleepers but they were traditionally wooden. I have calculated that in peak years Victoria alone laid over half a million sleepers from the 1880s to the 1920s. Most other colonies would have recorded similar numbers. Sleeper hewing formed a major industry that provided crucial income to forest communities when sawmilling declined during economic downturns.
Now sleepers in the colonial era were expected to last 15 to 30 years and engineers experimented to find a balance between cheapness and durability. When a Royal Commission called engineers from each state in 1914, they hailed redgum and ironbark as the best timbers. Western Australia's railwaymen quickly discovered that karri sleepers suffered dry rot, attracted white ants and had to be replaced within a decade. They preferred to exploit jarrah forests like the one pictured here on the left and cut millions of sleepers from them.
Where possible railways sawed sleepers from forests near a line under construction or repair but often local timber was unsuitable or only available in small quantities so sleepers were imported from other colonies or even from across the globe. South Australia bought large quantities of jarrah sleepers from WA, and New Zealand imported over 200,000 of them in the 1873-4 financial year alone. These sleepers lasted but New Zealand had a much worse experience with Oregon pine. In 1879, it had to replace sleepers in the South Island that were laid just three years earlier.
Now in northern Australia white ants were such a problem that experiments began with steel sleepers in the 1880s. South Australia handed the Northern Territory to the Commonwealth in 1911, and the picture at bottom left shows a federal parliamentary party visiting the Darwin Railway workshops a year later. They are viewing a piece of timber that white ants had attacked which revealed why the line had been built with steel sleepers from the start in the late 1880s.
Queensland Railways had, at the same time, laid steel sleepers on the Normanton to Croydon railway near the Gulf of Carpentaria. Capital costs were much higher than wood but a quarter of a century later the men responsible for their maintenance had only praise. So their sleepers had endured, providing a smooth, quiet ride. As you can see at top right steel sleepers remain in use at Normanton.
Now anyone who has spent time in northern Australia knows that when it rains it pours. Dry riverbeds become swollen torrents. Railway engineers faced a dilemma, whether to build expensive bridges well above known flood levels or place them lower and design them to withstand floods, accepting suspension of services when waters rose.
This was often a trial and error process as the hydrological conditions of northern Australia, and many other regions, were unfamiliar to British-trained engineers. Queensland Railways often chose low-level bridges and an early example was on the Central Western Line from Rockhampton to Longreach. In 1878, Queensland Railways Commissioner, Arthur Herbert, wrote that a bridge above the reach of unusual floods would be an unnecessary expenditure because floods also made nearby roads impassable and the railway wouldn't lose traffic to any competitors. This set a pattern for the large networks that sprawled inland from Rockhampton and Townsville as well as the lines emanating from Cairns, Cooktown and Normanton. Although water could force lengthy delays to services railways became a lifeline in the wet season, able to resume operations quickly.
Now the Burdekin River posed special challenges. Pictured is the Inkerman Bridge on the North Coast Railway Line that links Townsville with Brisbane. Here engineers did not even believe they could build a high bridge, as the foundations are sand. This bridge opened in 1913. Earlier, in 1882 the Great Northern Railway from Townsville to Charters Towers crossed the Burdekin inland at Macrossan on a low bridge originally built for a road. T H Annett, Chief Engineer of the Northern Division, reported that floods in early 1890 peaked over 15m above the Macrossan Bridge. Damage was slight but priorities had shifted, the action of the water every wet season was a costly nuisance outweighing construction expenses. A high-level metal truss bridge at Macrossan opened in 1899. The Inkerman Bridge was also eventually replaced. Indian designs inspired a new bridge that rests on hollow concrete caissons sunk deep into the riverbed. It took a decade to build, opening in 1957 and is now recognised as a national engineering landmark.
Now we cannot just focus on bridges when we are talking floods, as lengthy earthen railway embankments cut across flood plains. Nicholas Crane's historical Geography of Britain describes entirely new linear habitats of railways inducing what he calls 'topographic shock'. The same was true down here and early railways often underestimated the drainage requirements on our floodplains. Sometimes this was because of poor hydrological knowledge, other times insufficient funds meant capable engineers had to cut corners and wait for politicians to appreciate the consequences.
As I have gone through the annual railway reports, a common theme is the installation of additional culverts and flood openings on existing lines. Sometimes proactively when farsighted officials had the funds but often only reactively. This is especially pronounced in the 1880s and '90s as increasingly large networks started experiencing floods higher than any that had yet occurred during European occupation. Risks extended beyond just the damage to the railway.
If floods devastated farms or towns it could mean a collapse in goods output and diminished revenue. It was in the interests of railways to avoid scenes such as those throughout the South Island in July 1879 when a storm revealed how poorly new railways were drained. Livestock drowned in their thousands when embankments trapped rising waters. A correspondent of The Lyttelton Times gave a distressing account of cattle straining to keep their heads above water line sight near Kaiapoi, north of Christchurch.
Now these photos of culverts for construction of the Trans-Australia Railway suggest another theme, the challenge of constructing and operating railways in dry environments. Surveying and construction parties made much use of camels in this arid region. A. H. Campbell, a member of a surveying party in 1908, described the work in a letter to his mother. "There are 93 camels on the job, rather a lot you might think but then we have stores for the whole trip, not to mention our water cartage which is most important of all. Without the hardy camels the surveyors would have faced far greater difficulties…".
Once the railways opened, the water requirements shot up. Steam engines are thirsty; they get their motive power from boiling water, which is why they are often nicknamed kettles. Sometimes about half the weight of a train across the Nullarbor came just from water carried for the engine. Moreover, steam engines are picky beasts. You can lead an iron horse to water and you can make it drink but you might not like the consequences. Water corrodes locomotive boilers and the physical properties of water affect the rate of corrosion. Industrial demands like this altered how water sources were understood. Potable water that sustained vibrant ecosystems was now unsuitable and needed treatment.
On the Nullarbor, the challenge was simply to obtain any water at all. Some bores tapped salty water which was bad news indeed so condensers boiled and then condensed it into water suitable for use although still quite corrosive. This process was hugely expensive so only in Geraldton, 400km north of Perth on WA's state network, did engines slake their thirst with condensed water for decades on a large scale.
Perhaps the most remarkable attempt to solve the water problem was that of scientist, Graeme Balsillie. The NLA holds his papers from so-called rainmaking experiments in 1916 at Bookaloo on the Trans-Australia Railway, 80km northwest of Port Augusta. Balsillie hated the term rainmaking. He did not believe he could conjure water from clear skies but he hoped that static electricity discharged in the atmosphere when certain cloud formations were present would stimulate more particles of water to fall as rain. He claimed the experiments were a success. Every time he operated his apparatus for over six hours, rain followed. Other scientists however were dubious that there was actually any causation here. Balsillie's experiments ended in 1920 after ridicule from the press and politicians.
The land and climate forced railways to adapt, experiment and innovate and let me take you from arid plains back to temperate mountains and the wet frontier. The cost of construction here was eyewatering. I said before that Australia's narrow gauge is 1,067mm but two government railways went narrower in a bid to save money in this rugged terrain. Victoria built four lines to 762mm gauge. The earthworks required for even a cheap broad gauge line would have been prohibitive but small trains of 762mm could negotiate tighter curves and climb steep grades as they scrambled along hillsides in the Dandenongs, Otways and Gippsland.
Tasmanian Government Railways went even narrower, 610mm from Zeehan on the west coast to the Williamsford mines. This spectacular line opened in 1896. The left-hand photo here depicts Montezuma Falls, which sometimes soaked trains with spray. In 1909, Beyer Peacock of Manchester built the world's first Garratt locomotive for this line, an articulated engine that could navigate tighter curves than rigid-framed counterparts while also being able to run on lighter and therefore cheaper track.
Elsewhere engineers stuck with the network's common gauge but chose special technology. These provide good examples of the international knowledge networks that Australasian engineers tapped. A line to the Mt Morgan mines near Rockhampton had a grade of 1:16 and a half, beyond the capabilities of conventional engines. So Queensland Railways employed the Abt rack railway system of Swiss engineer, Carl Roman Abt. A toothed rail sat in the middle of the track gripped by the cog wheels of specially built locomotives. The photo on the left shows the toothed rail and a private line in Tasmania also used this technology. A reconstruction of it operates today as the West Coast Wilderness Railway.
In New Zealand, engineers went for the Fells system for the railway across the Remutaka Range from Wellington to the fertile Wairarapa region. This route was even steeper with a ruling grade 1:15 so John Carruthers, head of the Public Works Department, settled on the third rail system of English engineer, John Barraclough Fell. Locomotives gripped a raised centre rail with horizontal wheels and despite fears of a runaway, none ever happened. The weather posed greater challenges. In 1880, a gust belted around a notorious curve called Siberia, sweeping three carriages of a train off the rails. The Fell engine gripped its centre rail but the wind tore the body of one carriage from its base, killing four people. Such severe weather prompted New Zealand Railways to erect windbreaks at Siberia and other locations. This was the only fatal accident from this extraordinary line's opening in 1878 until a tunnel near 9km long bypassed it in 1955.
New Zealand is home to some of the most remarkable railway tunnels in the world. In 1861, construction began to link Christchurch with its harbour, Lyttelton. Now as you can see from the left-hand picture the Port Hills form a formidable barrier. Canterbury province, then home to only 16,000 people, boldly authorised the world's first tunnel through the side of an extinct volcano. Trains began running through this 2.6km hole in 1867. Now if that was not enough, engineers then had to figure out how to cross the Southern Alps to link the east and west coasts of the South Island. Work began on this enormous project in the mid-1880s. Boring a hole through the main range did not start until 1907. At over 8.5km long, the Otira Tunnel was the seventh longest in the world and the longest in the British Empire when it opened in 1923.
It was also New Zealand's first electrified railway and the second in Australasia after Victoria began sparking Melbourne's suburban network in 1919. Otira was electrified for a simple reason, smoke pollution. Steam railways created their own environments and tunnels were most notorious. If you look at the bottom middle of the photo of Heathcote Station, you can see a train emerging from Lyttelton Tunnel belching smoke. In May 1895, Canterbury's District Traffic Manager wrote to the National General Manager. "Complaints", he said, "are being made by passengers of smoke in the little tunnel. Some days it is particularly offensive".
Discussion however went nowhere; some officials actively downplayed the problem. A newspaper editor in October 1909 lamented, "We have been patiently enduring the choking fumes in that tunnel and have put up with soiled raiment and sooty hands as the penalty of a trip to Port". A month later almost every Canterbury MP crowded into the office of the Minister of Railways. One after another, they described unpleasant trips. Despite assurances that the matter would be taken seriously the date on this photo, 1919, might have clued you into a succession of delays. The tunnel was not electrified until 1929.
So it's hard to overstate – oh my graphics have somewhat failed me, that little insert was meant to bounce in quite spectacularly later but no matter – it's hard to overstate how significantly steam engines modified the environment around them, especially along main lines and near bustling city terminals. This photo of Brisbane's Roma Street Station in 1890 is a great example so if you look closely at the road bridge in the inset, you can see all of the soot that has accumulated on it and I should note that the railway under it opened only a year beforehand. So within a year the soot has become thick and unmistakable. Steam engines caked everything around them in grime.
Imagine living lineside. In Dunedin one person wrote in 1907 to inform their local MP, that it is "…something terrible to live near a railway yard as we cannot get a bit of washing clean or keep our windows tidy". They signed themselves, 'A Sufferer'. Residents near Christchurch's Addington Workshops petitioned for relief from "...Smoke continually belched forth from morning 'til night, completely blackening the surrounding neighbourhood".
A Christchurch politician related an anecdote to the Minister of Railways. Now I cannot be sure if this is actually true but it is a goodun, of a man who purchased a white cow and the next morning thought somebody had stolen it and left behind a black cow. The man allegedly spent two days searching for his white cow until heavy rain washed away the soot.
Now the environment for workers was even more unpleasant. The NLA holds copies of the New South Wales Railway and Tramway Review, a monthly union paper. A column in May 1889 lamented that Sydney's old boiler shop is unfit to work in, there being four blacksmiths' fires, which discharge all of their smoke into the shop having no chimneys or other outlets. The anonymous scribe suggested that if hogs were kept in it they would have thought too valuable to poison in such a manner but of course, workmen are of no value.
Staff at Petone Workshops near Wellington must have felt similarly as they secured an MP's help to resolve their complaints in February 1906. He found the men in the Woodworking Department had severe nasal and throat problems from dust and believed this had caused a recent death. The men got a new ventilation system but matters of health and safety resolved slowly. Deliberations on this matter took nine months.
Queensland meanwhile upgraded its Ipswich Workshops around 1903 but a new woodworking shop was built without its planned ventilation. This was not installed until December 1909. Now that same month an accident on the other side of the continent underscored that these working conditions were highly flammable. The paint shop at Midland Junction east of Perth caught fire while crowded with 25 carriages and wagons, all of them burning to the ground. Worse, the WA Government Railways had let its insurance policy lapse mere days beforehand as it had baulked at a new higher premium. It could not even plead that this was unforeseen, workshop fires were not uncommon. Just six years earlier, the entire stock of paints and varnishes at Hobart fuelled a fierce blaze. On that occasion, at least the rolling stock was saved.
So, the railway environment today is almost unrecognisable. Diesel and electric traction have transformed the lineside experience. Railways are well adapted to a decarbonised future. No form of transport can exceed the energy efficiency of steel wheels on steel rails. Now the sounds and smells of steam trains evoke nostalgia. The first locomotive to run into the ACT on revenue service, New South Wales Railways 1210, is a star attraction of the Canberra Railway Museum.
I haven't had a chance to date to touch on other long gone aspects of the passenger environment such as gloomy night trains lit with stinking oil lamps or the major auditory changes. However, if you want a sample of my work on railway soundscapes please check out my article on Illawarra Railways that is coming out in the first issue of the Journal of Australian, Canadian and Aotearoa New Zealand Studies next month. Best of all it will be open access.
So, I hope though that nonetheless I've entertained you with transitions like that and nonetheless that today I have given you some glimpses of how economic imperatives interacted with the environment. Settler colonialism required railways to exploit resources and bring them to profitable markets, yet as railways stretched across the landscape, the landscape influenced them. Engineers and scientists innovated and adapted to floods, mountains and seemingly waterless plains. And as coal trains rattled from mines and expresses rushed between cities they created environments of their own. Even lines that are now closed have left reminders from new habitats in overgrown cuttings to abandoned tunnels of glow-worms and embankments that still influence local hydrology. The scars in the country are indelible. Thank you.
End of recording


text:
HomeGENERALBeware of Cyber Fraud at the World Cup!
Beware of Cyber Fraud at the World Cup!
25/11/2022 GENERAL, Life
Beware of Cyber Fraud at the World Cup
The World Cup brings together hundreds of millions of football fans from all over the world. Cybercriminals see the interest in such big events as an opportunity for fraud.
Cyber security company ESET examined the world cup themed fraud methods and made suggestions to prevent harm to internet users. WhatsApp messages redirecting you to unauthorized websites, fake sweepstakes, fake social media accounts or malicious advertisements are among the methods that can take you by surprise. Beware of suspicious ads and messages.
With this tried-and-tested scam, scammers make their victims believe that they have won a cash prize, ticket or accommodation package so they can watch the matches from their place. Their main purpose is to allow you to share your personal data or download malicious software that unwittingly accesses information on your device.
A convincing type of phishing scam if you don't pay attention to details are unauthorized websites that appear to be real. Links to these websites are distributed via spam emails, fake social media accounts or discussion forums. These sites are used as a tool to steal personal and financial data, login and other sensitive information, or to install malware on victims' devices.
ticket scams
To date, many people have complained that "FIFA officials" who offered them tickets for sale contacted them via email. If you want to buy tickets to watch the matches from their place, you have to watch out for the scammers. It is worth noting that only digital tickets are sold for Qatar 2022. The only exception to this is last-minute tickets, which can only be purchased by oneself from two ticket offices in Doha, Qatar.
Other fraud methods
A cryptocurrency called FIFA Inu was released recently, and accusations that it could be a cryptocurrency scam soon emerged due to the sudden drop after a steady rise. But its founders say these accusations are unfounded.
Whether it's World Cup themed or not, the way to stay safe from scammers is a few simple rules:
You can't win a raffle if you haven't bought a ticket. If someone claims otherwise, it's a scam.
Don't pay someone to get a reward. Prepayment schemes are a game to steal your money.
Beware of phishing attacks. If you are unsure of the legitimacy of the emails, even if they are spam and request your personal data, do not click on links or attachments in these emails or messages.
Be mindful of the websites you visit. If a website is asking you for money or personal information, always keep an eye out for grammatical and spelling mistakes, strange URL addresses, missing security certificates, or other signs that something is wrong.
Do not give your personal information to anyone who asks. Your personal information can be used for fraud immediately or later sold on the dark web.
Use two-factor authentication on all your accounts, especially those that contain sensitive information. This makes it less likely for hackers to crack open your accounts with stolen/phishing passwords.
Use reputable, multi-layered security software with anti-phishing features.
What is Internet Fraud? Precautions to be Taken Against Internet Fraud
FIFA World Cup Real Gold or Imitation, How Many Kilos? Is the FIFA World Cup Returned?
Operation Against Cyber Fraudsters in Istanbul
Top 5 Cyber Fraud Methods
Attention to BursaKart Online Refill Fraud!
Beware of Coin Fraud with Social Media Referral
What is Cyber Bullying? What Are the Symptoms of Cyberbullying and How to Prevent them?
New Cyber Report from STM: 'Smartphones Can Be Cyber Attacked When Turned Off'
4 Types of Cyber Attacks Worrying Cyber Security Experts
Warning From Credit Card Fraud From The Ministry Of Commerce
Down Payment Fraud In Real Estate Ads!
Doha Metro to Complete Before 2022 World Cup Opening
Russians to compete in Erciyes World Snowboard Cup
Denizli Skiers at the World Cup
Turkish Police to Provide Security in Qatar 2022 World Cup
Turkish Police Participated in All 64 Competitions in the World Cup
Fake Boss Scams on the Rise
What are the Types of Cryptocurrency Fraud?
Ways to Safely Manage Crypto Scams
World Snowboard Cup Begins in Erciyes
Snowkite World Cup Held in Erciyes
2022 FIFA World Cup Introduces 10 New Hotels and Attractions to Open Ahead of Qatar
Winners of Entrepreneurship World Cup Announced
90 Athletes to Participate in Snowboard World Cup
Free Bus From Neighborhoods to FIS Snowboard World Cup
International Mountain Ski World Cup in Erzin
Doha Metro to Reach 2022 World Cup
Countdown Starts For BMX Super Cross World Cup
2022 Days to 100 FIFA World Cup in Qatar
Two Pandas From China Are Moving To Qatar Ahead Of The World Cup
China's Software and IT Service Grows Stably
China Gathers Worldwide Ideas for Deep Space Exploration
Trainings Continue in UR-GE Projects


text:
, Subscribe to our newsletter
Take a look at the ten of our best new books for 2020.
British Museum Books
V&A Books
The Illustrators
Advertising & Business
Ancient History & Archaeology
Biography & Literature
Craft, Practical Arts & Hobbies
Mythology, Philosophy & Religion
Article: Women artists, it's high time to honour
Get to know three of the extraordinary figures featured in 'Art Essentials: Women Artists'.
Alina Szapocznikow Lampe-Bouche (Illuminated Lips), 1966 ©ADAGP, Paris. Courtesy The Estate of Alina Szapocznikow/Piotr Stanislawski/Galerie Loevenbruck, Paris/Hauser & Wirth. Photo Fabrice Gousset, courtesy Loevenbruck, Paris
Alina Szapocznikow was born into a Polish Jewish family in Kalisz, Poland, in 1926. As a teenager, she was interned in different ghettos and concentration camps, including Auschwitz and Bergen Belsen. Having survived the Holocaust, she moved to Prague to study at the School of Arts and Crafts and later to Paris, where she enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts.
Szapocznikow quickly rose to prominence with her expressionist sculpture, which radically re-conceptualised sculpture as a record not only of her own body, but also of memory and suffering. Her assemblage technique made groundbreaking use of new industrial materials like polyester resin, alongside mundane items like newspaper clippings and pantyhose.
The result was a unique aesthetic which nodded to the whimsy of Surrealism and mass market materiality of Pop Art, but with its own distinctive strain of trauma. "I am convinced," she said, "that of all the manifestations of the ephemeral, the human body is the most vulnerable, the only source of all joy, all suffering, and all truth."
Mujer Ángel, desierto de Sonora, México, 1979 © ROSEGALLERY, Santa Monica
One of Mexico's foremost photographers, Graciela Iturbide's art originates in loss. It was after the death of her six-year-old daughter, Claudia, that she took up the and enrolled in the Centro Universitario de Estudios Cinematográficos in Mexico City.
Her pictures, almost always in black-and-white, hold an austere beauty and sense of detachment. Her work explores identity, sexuality, ritual, and the role of women, as well as the many different experiences of her home country.
Some of her most famous photographs, including Nuestra Señora de Las Iguanas" (Our Lady of the Iguanas) document the indigenous peoples of Mexico, including the Zapotec people of Juchitán, where Iturbide was struck by the matriarchal organization of economics and politics: "Women run the economy, and they know how to manage their finances. Men, whether they are farm hands or factory workers, hand their earnings over to the women so that they can distribute money in the home. Women decide everything in Juchitán. Even physically,"
Artemisia Gentileschi Susanna and the Elders, 1610 © Schloss Weissenstein, Schönbornsche, Kuntsammlungen, Pommersfelden
Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi battled against vicious sexism in her life and her art. In 1612, as a teenage student of painting in Rome, she was sexually assaulted by her tutor, Agostino Tassi. The case went to court, but it was the Gentileschi, not Tassi, who was publicly humiliated. Over a gruelling seven-month trial, she was shamed, exposed, and even tortured to "test" the veracity of her testimony. At the end of it all, Tassi – with the protection of the Pope – walked free.
Gentileschi fled Rome and moved to Florence. It was there that she made one of her most powerful works, Judith Slaying Holofernes, remarkable for its physical and psychological intensity and dramatic lighting. Later paintings such as Susanna and the Elders and Salome with the Head of St John the Baptist kept up the themes of powerful – at times vengeful – womanhood. Of her fifty-seven surviving works, 49 feature women as protagonist.
Gentileschi insisted on similar agency in her own life. She was the first woman to become a member of the Accademia di Arte del Disegno in Florence and established herself an international clientele. In a letter to her patron Don Antonio Ruffo di Calabria, she insisted that "As long as I live, I will have control over my being".
Now recognized as one of the most progressive and expressive artists of her generation, Gentileschi will have a solo show at the National Gallery, London, in 2020.
Words by Eliza Apperly
Find more in Women Artists, a neat, smart, and essential introduction to leading women artists over the last 500 years. From Lavinia Fontana through to Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, discover the creative visionaries that are long overdue a lead place in art history.
16th Century Art 17th Century Art 18th Century Art 19th Century Art Art Essentials Women
Women Artists (Art Essentials)
Flavia Frigeri
Voyaging Out
British Women Artists from Suffrage to the Sixties Carolyn Trant
Explore Thames & Hudson
Thames & Hudson USA
Thames & Hudson Australia & New Zealand
UK Sales Contacts
Export Sales Contacts
Trade Catalogues
© Thames & Hudson 2017
This site uses cookies. Read More


I am a Special Education teacher with 10+ years' experience. I spent time at Loudoun Valley, and have also worked at Heritage and Park View. Originally a Business Administration major, I worked in private industry for ten years before moving into the education field. I completed Master's work at Old Dominion University. I am an avid sponsor of the Bluegrass Club. I have also served as head tennis coach at Heritage High School and worked as the adviser of PEER mentoring.
My wife, also a Woodgrove teacher, and I live in Round Hill. We are proud to serve in the community where we live and feel very fortunate to be able to do so.


Why is a gap in employment dates considered bad?
At the very least, employers can verify your employment history in regards to job title and job description, your start and end date for each job, and your salary history in locations where it is legal to ask. Organizations can also call former employers and share the information supplied in your resume, or job application, and ask previous employers to confirm its accuracy.... go to www.ssa.gov and get a Request for Social Security Earnings Information form. You can obtain a complete work history with dates, names, addresses, and sometimes phone numbers.
At the very least, employers can verify your employment history in regards to job title and job description, your start and end date for each job, and your salary history in locations where it is legal to ask. Organizations can also call former employers and share the information supplied in your resume, or job application, and ask previous employers to confirm its accuracy.
14/08/2006 · I do not know how much time you have for this but here is my suggestion: Request a copy of your transcripts for each year from the IRS. You can call 1-800-829-1040, I believe.


The bark is peeling off my cran apple tree. It started as a small patch on a branch and has moved to multiple branches and the trunk. The tree is blooming so it isn't dead (yet). Can you identify the problem and recommend a solution?
Some crabapple tree varieties have a certain kind of bark called exfoliating bark. This is normal for them and this characteristic adds some visual interest to the tree, particularly in the winter when there are no leaves present. It looks like your tree has this type of bark.
If it is flowering, leafing out and producing fruit normally, I would say that there is nothing at this point to worry about.
It is important to remember to prune any trees in the apple family in early spring before bud break to avoid fireblight which is a common problem along the Front Range.
What disease is affecting this crabapple tree?


Engulfment in a Sugar Hopper. OSHA Fatal Facts No. 10, (2015).
Narrow Frame Scaffolds. OSHA Fact Sheet (Publication 3722), (April 2014).
Material Hoist Collapse. OSHA Fatal Facts No. 8, (2014).
Falling Off Ladders Can Kill: Use Them Safely | Las caídas desde escaleras pueden ser mortales: Úselas de forma segura (EPUB| MOBI). OSHA Publication 3625, (2013).
Fall Protection in Residential Construction. OSHA, (2011). Provides links to OSHA tools and resources (Regulations, Directives, Letters of Interpretation, Compliance Assistance materials) to help prevent falls in residential construction.
Fall Protection Safety for Commercial Fishing. OSHA Fact Sheet, (2011).
Fall Protection in General Industry. OSHA QuickCard™ (Publication 3257), (2010).
Fall protection is addressed in specific OSHA standards for construction. Provides fall protection information related to construction.
Fall protection, for activities not in the construction industry is addressed in specific OSHA standards for General Industry, Shipyard Employment, Marine Terminals and Longshoring Industry.
Provides references that may aid in recognizing and evaluating fall protection hazards in the workplace.
Provides links and references to additional resources related to fall protection.


The Wise Words of Mrs W (The Second).
Howards End, for me E.M. Forster's finest novel, was required reading for my English 'A' Level. I had signed up believing we would be following the Austen syllabus (I was then, and am still now, a great admirer) when, suddenly we changed teacher and he changed course. By this stage, it was too late for me to change. I went into the classroom indignant. I left the course enlightened, with this work firmly in my top ten books (a ranking it has never lost) and with Margaret Schlegel as a literary heroine. It is not the best of English writing, it does not exemplify character development. Indeed, all those who feature are merely cyphers or catalysts, there to further the plot which is itself subjugated to the overarching need to 'only connect'. Yet, I reread the work regularly. Why? It transports me. It reminds me of what I truly value in this life and Margaret speaks to me. Here's to 'colour in the daily grey'!
…and yet, here I remain, half monk, half beast.
…and yet, we still love you.


While many Syria party members hailed Tsipras' victory, the reality is that Greece will be stuck in its bailout for years to come.
The terms of Greece's exit make it extremely difficult for the next government to bring life to an ailing economy. Greece may have exited the Troika austerity plan, only to enter a new austerity outside of ECB and EU protection.
After long insisting he would only wear a necktie when Greece's debt problem was solved, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras finally put on a tie last Friday, after he formally announced Greece's exit form years of eurozone austerity.
Eurozone finance ministers offered Greece a 10-year deferral and maturities extension on a large chunk of past loans as well as 15 billion euros in new credit to ensure Athens can stand on its own feet after it exits its bailout in August.
Greece's has a debt mountain equal to approximately 180% of GDP, the highest in the 19-country eurozone.
Greeks have seen their economy shrink by a quarter, unemployment hit record high and salaries and pensions slashed by about 40% since first falling into crisis in 2010.
Greece has already undergone three international bailouts.
Tsipras publicly removed the tie about half an hour later.
The Duran's Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss whether Greece's exit from austerity is really an exit at all, or just another political ploy with no real economic relief in sight for the Greek people.
In a way, the debt relief deal Greece has received as it exits its bailout makes good sense: It keeps the country on a tight leash, all but eliminating the possibility that it will go on a borrowing spree in the financial markets and misspend the money as it's done before. On the other hand, the scheme gets superimposed uncomfortably onto the country's political cycle: It puts the next government on the spot, making a backlash against it all but inevitable.
The deal hammered out by the Eurogroup, comprising the euro zone finance ministers, extends by 10 years the maturities of 130.9 billion euros ($152.4 billion) in old bailout loans, which make up about 40 percent of Greece's total debt. They are already due in more than 30 years, but the new deal also defers interest payments on them by a decade. Besides, Greece gets 15 billion euros in cheap funding (the average rate for these bailout loans was 1.62 percent as of the end of March) that it can use to repay expensive debt to the International Monetary Fund, some 2.6 billion euros of which is due by the end of 2019.
It's at the higher end of what was expected given Germany's decidedly ungenerous stance on Greek debt, and it'll let Greece tap the markets, though as Bloomberg Opinion's Marcus Ashworth writes, it's not clear investors will turn up in their numbers. The debt deferments are contingent on a large primary surplus (before debt repayments and interest) of 3.5 percent until 2022 and then 2.2 percent until 2060, as well as a whole program of tough economic and governance measures, which will be controlled by the creditors in the course of quarterly inspections. In other words, the country's exit from the bailout program is far from clean.
It's easy, therefore, for the political rivals of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to claim that Greece doesn't get much out of the deal and that it's not really a bailout exit. "Nothing exciting," Costis Hatzidakis, vice president of the opposition New Democracy party grumbled about the exit terms. He described them as putting Greece in a "fish bowl" until 2022 with enough cash to pay off maturing debt but not much ability to borrow privately: The interest Greece has to pay on bonds is still too high at about 4.2 percent.
In the best-case scenario, Greece would maintain high primary surpluses until 2022 or 2023, but a longer period of exceptional fiscal discipline, as imagined by the Eurogroup, is very unlikely. By the late 2020s, it will be clear that the Greek debt dynamics are again unsustainable. At that point, however, the costs of restoring Greek debt sustainability will be much higher than they are today, because a large new stock of expensive private sector debts will have accumulated in the meantime. These debts would either need to be restructured or — in effect — repaid by the European official sector.
New Democracy isn't just making populist noises. It's highly likely that it will run the next government, to be elected by October, 2019. It has led the polls since 2016, gradually expanding its lead over Tsipras's leftist Syriza bloc. Tsipras appears resigned to a loss next year and mainly interested in assuring his legacy: That would explain his recent efforts to resolve the dispute with neighboring Macedonia over its name, to which Greek governments have long claimed the former Yugoslav republic has no right. The compromise has led to suggestions that Tsipras deserves a Nobel Peace Prize, since the name deal would remove a major obstacle to the entire former Yugoslavia's ending up in the European Union, but it doesn't help Tsipras at home where most Greeks oppose it.
If the center-right New Democracy wins next year and consolidates power, quick economic gains will be required if it hopes to keep some modicum of public trust. After all the hardship Greece has endured, the roughly 2 percent a year growth the Bloomberg consensus forecast promises the country in 2018, 2019 and 2020 is painfully insufficient. But how does one stimulate growth while forced to maintain large primary surpluses and only borrow at rates that can make Greece's debt look unmanageable again by the end of the electoral cycle in 2023?
Ironically, New Democracy, which lost power to Syriza in 2015 because Tsipras promised an end to austerity and a debt write-off, is now in Syriza's position, bemoaning Tsipras's inability to reduce the face value of the debt and Greece's lack of leverage in speeding up economic growth. If it tries to run up Greece's private debt to spur investment, it may get slapped on the wrist or create a new debt crisis for the next four-year parliamentary period.
The heavy-handed bailouts may have helped keep Greece running and in the euro zone, but, just as their critics have claimed, they have rendered the Greek democracy somewhat redundant. Officially out of the bailout program, Greece still cannot really make its own policy. It may be doomed to a cycle of protest votes, weak governments, and, unless these governments are prudent, debt crises. Breaking that cycle might just be a goal that would justify allowing some moral hazard; it's just hard to imagine the creditors trusting Greece again enough to loosen the leash.
Η Γερμανία – ειδικά η Μέρκελ – είναι υπεύθυνη για την κρίση στην Ελλάδα.