text:
Localisation & Local Procurement Inquiry: day 1
Chairperson: Ms J Fubbs (ANC)
Prior to the commencement of the inquiry into compliance with localisation and local public procurement policy for bus procurement, the Chairperson said that the Eskom inquiry had led to the discovery that a number of protocols had been ignored when the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) had tested coal from the Brakfontein mine for Tegeta in August 2015. The Minister had instituted a deeper inquiry into the matter. Eskom might have acted unlawfully regarding the Standards Act. This Committee was responsible for oversight of the SABS as well as the National Regulator of Standards. The Departments for Trade and Industry would respond to the issue together with the National Regulator of Standards.
The Committee had requested a legal opinion on the constitutionality of aspects of the National Credit Amendment Act. The legal opinion had been received and would be distributed to Members.
The City of Cape Town made a presentation on the city's compliance with the localisation policy. Although meeting local content requirements had been challenging, the city's suppliers had met all the localisation targets for bus bodies to date. An independent auditor employed by the City had undertaken a verification process to ensure that all components designated as local were indeed local. The City requested greater clarity in respect of the verification process which should ideally be independent of the City. City officials required guidance on how to differentiate the bus body which required 80% local content from the chassis and mechanical aspects of the bus which were not subject to localisation requirements. It was a particular challenge in the face of the new bus frames. A further challenge was the limited number of producers of buses, especially in Cape Town. The lack of skilled labour in bus body building was concerning but for the industry to invest in training, there needed to be surety about the continued process of bus procurement in terms of funding streams, legislation and specifications. The City was in the process of acquiring 11 electric buses to be trialled in the city, in particular, to determine whether the apparent increased lifespan justified the increased costs.
Members asked if the City of Cape Town had engaged with Higher Education so that universities and colleges could infuse appropriate training into the system making it possible to work towards having the required skilled labour. Did the municipality have a strategy on how to address and implement localisation? What informed the high unit costs of electric buses and the lifecycle in comparison to other buses?
The City of Johannesburg made a presentation on Rea Vaya and Metrobus. The first buses in the Rea Vaya fleet had been acquired from Brazil, fully assembled, for the Soccer World Cup in 2010 which was before the local content policy requirements were in place. 134 buses had been purchased during 2013/14 for the Rea Vaya Phase 1B project. Those buses had all fulfilled the requirement of a minimum of 80% localisation in the bus body. Metrobus was a city-owned entity and had 150 dual fuel buses which had been purchased in 2014/15. Those buses had 87.4% local content.
Members were interested in how the City of Johannesburg was addressing the maintenance of the buses. Were there challenges in maintaining the buses? Who had paid for the local content verification, the City or the provider or a combination of both? What processes were in place to ensure that local content targets were met throughout the lifespan of the buses?
eThekwini presented its bus procurement policy under the banner of 'Together Advancing People's Power' although the City had not procured new buses in over eight years. However, the city was brimming with ideas on how to best implement the policy of localisation. The policy in eThekwini was to require at least 10% local content in the assembly of the chassis of a bus but believed that local content of a chassis could be ramped up to 50%. There was a grey area in verification. The City had appointed someone to verify content and labour, especially skilled labour when it had last procured buses. Local content was easy to achieve, but the ownership model was problematic. It was about the total cost of ownership model. The technical specifications drove the economies of scale, but each city in South Africa had different specifications, and the City suggested that there should be greater standardisation to create the economies of scale. The municipalities had in total only 2 000 buses of the 15 000 in South Africa. The other buses were in private hands. Another concern was the quality of bus parts. Companies supplied parts of better quality to the European market.
Committee Members asked about the auditing processes for ensuring that buses were not stripped and that what the municipality had at the beginning of the year and was left at the end of the year. The possibility that 10% local content of chassis production was doable and could be rolled out was very pleasing. Who was the person responsible for quality control?
The Committee had asked Tshwane Metro to make a presentation buses on order, owned and maintained by the municipality. The Chairperson was most disconcerted when the municipality did not arrive, nor was there any communication from the municipality.
The National Home Builders' Registration Council in its briefing explained that the Council was involved in buses only in that offices were being built on a chassis as part of an approach to providing better service to rural communities. The NBHRC was evaluating the concept of mobile offices. The tender was for 80% local content in the building of the mobile offices. The chassis, engine and transmission were required to be Complete Knock Downs (CKDs). NBHRC also required that any hang-on parts such as the fuel tank, tyres, battery, wheel rims for the chassis which could be localised, had to be specified in the bid for the tender. The bid was awarded in December 2015, the service level agreement signed in March 2016 and the Council took delivery in May 2017. NBHRC had not struggled to find suppliers that met local specification requirements.
Members asked if NBHRC had requested any verification other than a declaration by the supplier and, if so, who had paid for the verification?
Consideration of the localization of bus building raised the question of the transversal national contract, RT57. The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) was asked to comment on that contract. DTI explained that RT57 was about motor vehicles which were not designated for local content. There was sometimes a contradiction where government procured vehicles which were not built or manufactured in the country. However, there was the Automotive Investment Scheme which was an incentive designed to grow and develop the automotive sector through investment in new or replacement models and components that would increase plant production volumes, sustain employment or strengthen the automotive value chain. As it did not make economic sense to procure overseas-made cars, DTI suggested that National Treasury be asked to explain why cars could be procured overseas.
DTI was asked to take Committee through the verification process. The verification process took place after a tender had been awarded to the successful bidder. The role of the South African Bureau of Standards was to verify the actual production of what was being delivered. Currently, there were different outcomes as to how that was carried out. In 2012 DTI had given SABS the responsibility to verify local content. As DTI was implementing the localisation requirements, opportunities were being created. DTI still had a challenge with the funding of local content verification, but SABS was the institution to do it. DTI hoped to return to the Committee shortly with information on how to fund SABS to undertake the verification of local content.
The Chairperson informed the Committee that she had three issues to raise before the inquiry commenced.
The Chairperson referred Members to a letter handed out to them which was headed The Office of the Director-General. The Minister had briefed her with the DG on the previous Thursday, but the Committee had not met that Friday. The matter arose from the Eskom inquiry, where Mr Koko had testified that the decision to obtain coal from Brakfontein Mine and Tegeta was based on South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) results. SABS fell under Department of Trade and Industry. The DG informed her and the Minister that after the initial inquiry, it turned out that a number of protocols had been ignored. SABS had not collected the samples themselves, as they should have done, but samples were given to them. Against protocol, the people who had requested the tests remained in the laboratory while the samples were being tested. The tests took place after hours, which was also a protocol violation. SABS senior management uncovered a case of collusion or manipulation of results at SABS in Mpumalanga on 30 August 2015. She noted that it had occurred a long time ago but it was fortunate that the matter had arisen in another parliamentary inquiry. The preliminary information shows that there was a clear breach of established protocols.
It was disturbing that the irregularities were there. What had subsequently happened was that the Minister had instituted a deeper inquiry in the matter and the DG wanted to draw the attention of the Committee to the fact that Eskom may have acted unlawfully in terms of the Standards Act. She had asked the Minister to brief the Committee in person and to clarify any questions. The Minister, the Director-General and the National Credit Regulator would brief the Committee on 6 March 2018.
Secondly, Mr McPherson had asked for specific things to do with Africa Bank to be addressed but as he had not yet arrived, she would hold the matter over to 6 March 2018.
Thirdly, the Committee had to address the Committee Report of the oversight visit to Gauteng and that the Director-General was working with SABS to address the challenges identified. The National Regulator for Compulsory Specifications Act and the other technical infrastructure Acts would be reviewed as recommended by the Committee. The Minister had pointed out that the IT system, which Mr Macpherson had raised repeatedly, would also be addressed. The DTI would respond together with the NRCS.
The Chairperson welcomed officials from the DTI.
City of Cape Town presentation on Compliance with the Localisation Policy
Mr Henry du Plessis, City of Cape Town Director: Asset Management, made a presentation on behalf of the Transport and Urban Development Authority (TDA) of the City of Cape Town. He was accompanied by Mr John Marchese, Manager of Network Integration.
The City had 40 low floor buses and 66 high floor buses. 11 battery-powered low-entry buses had been ordered and would be delivered in about July 2018.
Mr du Plessis said although meeting local content requirements had been challenging, the City's suppliers to date had met all the localisation targets for bus bodies.
Greater clarity was required in respect of the verification process. An independent auditor did the check for the City. However, procedures and feedback required were not clear. No guidance was available for differentiating the bus body from the mechanical aspect of the bus. A further challenge was the limited number of producers, especially in Cape Town. The lack of skilled labour in bus body building was concerning but for the industry to invest in training, there needed to be surety about the continued process of bus procurement in terms of funding streams, legislation and specifications.
The City was in the process of acquiring 11 electric buses to be trialled in the city, in particular, to determine whether the suggested increased lifespan justified the increased costs.
Ms S van Schalkwyk (ANC) referred to the lack of skilled labour challenge. Had the City engaged with Higher Education to infuse appropriate training into the system so that it was possible to work towards having the required skilled labour? The local content project was a long-term one, and unemployment always had to be taken into account. Were the specifications for 80% local content for the bus bodies only? Were there penalties for manufacturers if local content targets were not met and what processes were in place to ensure that the local content requirement was met throughout the life-cycle of the bus?
Ms L Theko (ANC) asked if the municipality had a strategy on localisation in place. What did the municipality have in place to manage localisation, why was it challenging and what had city done to meet the challenges? The Committee required the names of companies that had provided local content so that the Committee could check that the municipality was meeting the requirements as per legislation.
Mr S Mbuyane (ANC) asked what constituted the local content. He asked for details of the relevant companies who had supplied the local content. What did the TDA do where there was a shortage of local content? Where did it get supplies? How was that situation dealt with? He asked if the City had a plan and a strategy to address the skills shortage.
Mr J Esterhuizen (IFP) noted that it was important to support local suppliers, but it was also difficult because very big manufacturers, such as Volvo and Mercedes, were available. He wondered whether the country had the necessary skills. There had to be spill-over effects. There had to be development of small businesses. Inferior products could not be put into R5 million buses as that would be disastrous.
The Chairperson asked for details of the independent audits. Who did the audits? The presenter had referred to challenges in the guidance and procedures in the legislation, the lack of clarity. The integrated frame structure had not been dealt with. The Committee needed the presenters to be specific. Exactly what was not clear? What informed the high unit costs of electric buses and the lifecycle in comparison to other buses? The matrix was helpful. She asked for information about tender processes and what exactly was the 80% local content e.g. wheels, body? Had the buses been produced in South Africa? She understood that South Africa did not produce the chassis. That was not clear in the presentation.
Mr du Plessis replied that the City continued to encourage various sectors of Higher Education to provide the necessary skills, but it was the uptake by the companies that was lacking due to the uncertainty of bus procurement on an ongoing basis. It was therefore a two-pronged issue: firstly, the lack of skills and secondly, the need for companies to employ skilled artisans. There was no surety that the companies would continue to need such skills. There was only one bus building company in Cape Town that met the required standards. The acquiring of buses on an ongoing basis that gave longevity and certainty to bus building companies was dependent on funding. As there was no guarantee of funding, there was uncertainty about the intention of government and companies could not afford to hold onto the skilled people if they did not have work for them. There was clear direction from national on the process, but everything was dependent on available funding. The City of Cape Town transport budget had been seriously cut for the coming financial year.
Mr Martheze explained that the chassis was just the engine with wheels and the body was built onto the chassis. The 80% localisation designation was in respect of the body of the bus.
The Chairperson interjected asking where the City bought the chassis.
Mr Martheze replied that the City had followed appropriate tender processes, including the localisation policy as per National Treasury requirements. The chassis were imported in kit form and assembled in South Africa. The Volvo chassis came from Brazil, but he thought that others came from Sweden. Hang-on parts such as fuel tanks, tyres etc. were made locally. The ladder chassis was fine in respect of building the body according to the localisation requirements, but the current issue was how to deal with the tubular space frame chassis which included parts of the body that were integrated into the chassis itself. The City required clarity around that point.
Mr du Plessis stated that the City could provide a list of local companies that had supplied content. The strategy for local content was quite simple: contracts were only awarded if the local content requirements were met. The City was very hard about the local content requirement. The local content requirement was either met or not met.
Mr Martheze responded to the question of life cycle compliance. All repairs were done locally by local suppliers unless the chassis or engine part had to be imported to make a repair or ensure maintenance. The bodywork was repaired locally. Which companies had the contract to build the buses? Two companies had been engaged, but both companies had contracted out. Busmark had produced bodies for both the Volvo and Scania contracts but had sourced material from 40 local companies supplying paints, timber, steel etc. They had engaged extensively with local companies. The independent audits were included in the tender so that the City could pay for the audits. The audits were done by Adler and Associates, an independent audit firm of registered audits situated in Gauteng. He offered copies of the audit reports.
The Chairperson wanted an answer. Who was the winning bid? The Committee needed to know so that it could invite the company to clarify the source of content, including the chassis, from the winning bidder.
Mr Martheze informed her that the local companies for Marco Polo and Busmark brought in chassis as required. He understood that MAN might possibly build locally, but he did know that they sub-contracted.
Mr Mbuyane indicated that his questions had not been responded to. Did the City of Cape Town have a localisation strategy? Was there a strategy to deal with the challenges raised, such as the shortage of skills?
Ms van Schalkwyk asked again if there were penalties for manufacturers that did not respect the local content requirements. At what stage was the audit performed and who paid for the audits?
Ms Theko requested a list of companies so that those companies could testify before the Committee. Were there any companies that had manipulated local content requirements by importing content that they had said was locally made?
Mr du Plessis responded to the strategy for content. Generally, there was a strategy in the City for local content. The City had succeeded, in the past three years, in acquiring over 50% of local content in all services and goods. The bus building strategy was limited in that the City had to meet the required specification demands. From raw material to product, everything had to be acquired and produced locally to count as local content.
Mr Martheze explained that the audit was done at the end of the contract. As the manufacturers ordered supplies on an ongoing basis, the audit was undertaken within a specified period after the delivery of the last bus. Penalties were spelt out in the National Treasury requirements and companies could be prevented from dealing with organs of the state if they did not adhere to the requirements. The list of companies involved in building the buses would be sent to the Secretary. He assured the Committee that no manipulation had been observed. All companies had met the requirements and the completed buses themselves had met the requirements. The City had established the imported chassis value at R970 000 and the local content value of the chassis, including assembly etc., was R275 000. While the imported value was considerably higher, the chassis did have some local content value. He did not have the exact figures or percentages with him.
The Chairperson informed him that certain questions had still been overlooked.
Ms van Schalkwyk asked who had paid for the independent audits.
Mr Martheze responded that the audits had been paid for by the City of Cape Town.
Mr Mbuyane thought it best if he asked a straightforward question. Did the City have any plans for addressing the challenges that they had raised?
Mr Martheze replied that there were no insurmountable challenges, but a recent challenge was the tubular space frame. He did not know how to differentiate between the ladder chassis and the tubular space frame. He did not have any strategy, and he did not even know when the next buses would be procured. That was something that still had to be dealt with internally.
Mr Cachalia asked if the tenders were covered by the general audit of the City of Cape Town as that would be an additional bill of health, as it were.
Mr Martheze informed the Committee that Auditor General's audit had cleared all tenders.
The Chairperson commented that the independence of the auditors was a concern. If one was paying the piper, he would dance to one's tune. How independent was such a process if the City was paying? She did not remember that the penalties were so clearly articulated in the localisation requirements, but perhaps they were clearer to others. The presenters had mentioned several challenges. If they were running a big organisation and DTI was not doing what was required, would they not engage with DTI? Had they ever contacted the unit in DTI, verbally or in writing, and just got nowhere?
Mr Martheze replied that at the commencement of the localization programme, he had had extensive discussions with DTI and even representatives from the National Association of Automobile Manufacturers (NAMSA). He had raised the concerns of the City and had given a short presentation to organs of state in Pretoria on the first tender that the City had put out. They had talked about a few issues and managed to sort them out. Regarding the independent audits, it did trouble the City. The audit ought to be a DTI or SABS process, but there was no clarity on that, so the City had arranged audits. Electric buses were to be trialled. The battery unit was the most expensive component of an electric bus, and that pushed up the price, so the cost was much higher than the cost of diesel buses. The 11 electric buses were to be tested to determine whether the alleged longer lifespan would balance out the cost of the batteries.
The Chairperson noted that Mr Martheze had had extensive discussions with DTI at the beginning of the process, but the presentation stated that no guidance had been given about the integrated framework. Did the City go to DTI? With whom had they had discussions?
Mr Martheze responded that he could not recall speaking to anyone specifically and he did not believe that there had been specific discussions on the integrated framework. The only discussions would have been with DTI and probably not have been direct discussions. But it had been a topic of discussion for a little while.
The Chairperson asked DTI if they had had extensive discussions on the integrated framework with the City of Cape Town.
Dr Tebogo Makube, DTI Chief Director for Industrial Procurement, replied that discussions had been held around local content but not specifically on the tubular space frame. The discussion was related to the first tender which was for the supply of 40 units by Volvo. DTI had interacted with the City of Cape Town on the procurement of electric buses, and the DTI had insisted on local content.
The Chairperson stated that it was incorrect to say 'no guidance' when the City of Cape Town had not gone back to DTI. It was misguided to say that the City had not received guidance when the City had not consulted specifically with DTI, despite the fact that there was a good relationship with the Department.
Mr Mbuyane noted that there was no plan for dealing with the skills development in the municipality so how could the City have a strategy for dealing with local content? The position was contradictory.
Mr Du Plessis informed the Committee that the only intervention had been to engage with the three local universities about the long-term development of skills. The issue was not only about the development of the skills, but it was also about the ongoing updating of skills in the industry itself. The industry had to take it up itself. Industry would not take up the skills development until it had a long-term take-up commitment towards bus requirements and so the skilled people moved away from Cape Town to where there was more work, taking their skills with them.
The Chairperson thanked the representatives from the City of Cape Town, explaining that if there were further questions, the Committee would get back to them in writing.
City of Johannesburg presentation on Rea Vaya and Metrobus
Mr Andre van Niekerk, Director of Operations at the City of Johannesburg, said that the first buses had been acquired from Brazil, fully assembled, for the Soccer World Cup in 2010 which was before the local content policy requirements were in place. During 2013/14, 134 buses were purchased for the Rea Vaya Phase 1B project. The total value of that tender was R326 169 772. Metrobus was a city-owned entity and had 150 dual fuel buses which had been purchased in 2014/15. Those buses had 87.4% local content.
There were some challenges, especially in finding suitable suppliers. Where there were only one or two suppliers, such as Perspex, prices were artificially high. The chassis were imported from Brazil as CKDs (complete knock-downs) and assembled in South Africa with over 80% local content and SABS audited the content. The prototype bus was audited by SABS, and audits took place in the middle of the contract and buses were audited again at the end of the process.
Mr van Niekerk stated that the City of Johannesburg was committed to meeting local content requirements.
Mr Macpherson was interested in the Rea Vaya and Metro verification. Who had paid for the local content verification, the city or the provider or a combination of both? The point was relevant to the Transnet issue as Transnet had declared that it was very expensive to undertake verification and had asked who was going to pay for it. But the City of Johannesburg had shown that it could be done.
Ms van Schalkwyk asked the presenter about the first buses that were imported in 2010. How was the maintenance of those buses being addressed? Were there challenges in maintaining the buses? She referred to his comments about the lack of local suppliers causing high prices. How did that compare with importing parts and were they encouraging the development of local businesses?
Mr Esterhuizen noted that the municipalities were forced to go to Mercedes Benz etc. He was concerned about the quality of imports. Who did oversight of the quality of imports? He was concerned about the reduced presence of SABS that affected local standards. SABS was funded by levies that users paid.
Mr Mbuyane asked what percentage of each contract was for bus bodies and what processes were in place to ensure that local content targets were met throughout the lifespan of the buses.
The Chairperson asked if the municipality complied with the BBBEE requirement when it handed out contracts. She saw that Sandown Motors Mercedes had been awarded a contract. Was that for the Mercedes chassis?
Mr van Niekerk replied that the City of Johannesburg paid for the verification, using the City's own funds and not grants. Busmark had certified the local content, and Deloitte and Touche verified the content and provided documentation. The maintenance of Phase 1A imported buses had been contracted to Biotrans, a company that worked within the taxi industry. The City monitored and made sure that the Phase 1B buses were maintained with local content. There were also Scania buses that had been built by Marco Polo in Brazil, but there was a Marco Polo company in South Africa, and Scania was local, so both companies were well aware of the local content requirement. All contracts required local maintenance of buses. The tender required the development of skills. The original maintenance tenders were five years. The new tender required full maintenance for 12 years, thereby ensuring that the buses would be cared for throughout their lifespan.
The City did not have a problem with sub-standard products as products were checked by SABS. It was a responsibility of Mr van Niekerk's portfolio to ensure that parts were of specified standards, tested and maintained. Some engine parts had to be imported as those parts were not made in South Africa. He was not sure of the percentages of local content versus the imported chassis. For tenders above R30 million, 30% of the contract had to be contracted to BBBEE status suppliers which included veterans, disabled people, etc. The City was putting out its first contract under those requirements, but the City was evaluating bids at the moment, and there did not seem to be any new challenges. SABS would be checking, and an auditing firm would also be appointed.
The Chairperson thanked Mr van Niekerk and said the Committee would make further requests in writing.
eThekwini presentation: Together Advancing People's Power
Mr Malcolm Joshua, City Fleet Unit Head led the delegation from eThekwini Municipality. He was supported by Fleet staff, Bheki Ndalosi and Siyabonga Nkanana. They were accompanied by Clr Nkosenhle Madlala of the eThekwini Municipality.
Mr Joshua noted that the bus market in South Africa was only 900 buses a year, so they had stretched their thinking into other possibilities. In 2007, eThekwini had started a localization project that was monitored by National Treasury to ensure that there was no funny business. The local content of a chassis could be ramped up to 50%.
The City had started to look at locally produced maintenance parts, for example, batteries should be manufactured in South Africa, not just supplied locally. Getting parts for fire engines had been very difficult, so fire engines were built in South Africa, but the company was in business rescue because the market size was very small.
As with Cape Town, the industry needed security over a longer period, so the City had put out tenders for five-year maintenance contracts. There was a grey area in verification. The City had appointed someone to verify content and labour, especially skilled labour. The City had city buses and commuter buses and spent about 50% on the chassis and 50% on the body of the bus. Local content was built into the tender process, and the first cut in the evaluation process was companies that did not meet local content. However, the City had not found a single tender that did not meet local content requirements, at least on paper.
Local content was easy to achieve, but the ownership model was problematic. It was about the total cost of the ownership model. The technical specifications drove the economies of scale, but cities in South Africa had different specifications, and he suggested that there should be greater standardisation to create the economies of scale.
How did they get the bus market to grow? Bus population was around 15 000 buses, and buses had a lifespan of 10 years, so they needed 1500 per year, but some buses had been running for 18 years. Therefore eThekwini suggested that regulations should indicate the lifespan of a bus. Having only two glass fibre manufacturers in South Africa had led to high prices. Imported buses would be 20% cheaper than those assembled in South Africa using local content, but an increase in market size would push the differential.
The municipalities had in total only 2 000 buses of the 15 000 in South Africa, so Mr Joshua thought that consideration should be given to how the other bus companies were being regulated in respect of local content. Another concern was the quality of bus parts. Companies supplied parts of better quality to the European market.
The Chairperson asked that the last statement be put in writing to the Committee.
Clr Madlala indicated that he would respond to questions if so required.
Adv Alberts could not find information on the verification process in the document. When were the buses verified during the manufacturing process and who was responsible for verification?
Ms Theko asked about the person responsible for quality control. Was it a full-time position or was the position based on need?
Ms van Schalkwyk welcomed the excitement with which the presentation had been made. There was a lot of food for thought. She thought that the 10% local content of chassis production could be rolled out. The concerns about quality required further investigation.
Mr Macpherson stated that as a resident of eThekwini and former Councillor, he had a keen interest in the Durban fleet. He wanted to understand whether the procurement of the 150 buses was part of the new 'Durban Go' procurement or was it fleet replacement of existing stock. He recalled the problems faced by the eThekwini bus programme when there were no controls. Had things changed from those days when people stripped buses? What auditing processes were in place to ensure that buses were not stripped and that what the municipality had at the beginning of the year was left at the end? The quality assurance of spare parts had been a concern.
He explained the government could not force private companies to procure according to the local content policy as that would be in conflict with the World Trade Organisation policy which South Africa was obliged to adhere to. However, the point about standardization in government procurement of vehicles was a valid point. When the city bought vehicles, it spent a few billion rand at a time. He thought that those vehicles should be bought from local suppliers. He had challenges where his party was in government, as even there, buying of locally-made vehicles was not a requirement. Municipalities were one of the largest spenders on high-end goods such as vehicles and this was something that the Committee should take into account when considering local content.
The Chairperson stated that the points that Mr Joshua had raised on localisation were very valuable. She noticed that eThekwini did not have the same problems with verification as a previous presenter. Was that because the municipality had got support from DTI?
Mr Joshua thanked the Committee for the positive feedback. The verification process was irrelevant to his presentation because the last purchase was prior to the local content requirements. The City had had an individual person who did the ongoing assessment, but now with the local content policy, he was talking to DTI about verification. One of the questions was how deep one went when tracking local content. The question was whether the products purchased locally had been made in South Africa. It seemed that verification was generally a desktop exercise. A retired person had done the quality assurance in eThekwini and had transferred skills to staff. He wanted to build internal capacity amongst his staff.
He told Mr Macpherson that 50 buses a year were for re-fleeting. A series of controls had been imposed on those contracted to do maintenance of buses. There was a constant debate about the quality of spare parts and maintenance. The City was employing simple standard business practices. A standardization policy was written by eThekwini some years back. Local procurement was demanded, but the city could not spell out the manufacturer of vehicles as that could be challenged in the Constitutional Court. When officials attempted standardization, they were accused of manipulation.
He pointed out that there was a transversal national contract, RT57. The Committee should look at how many of the products were not manufactured locally in transversal contracts. The contract did not support localisation.
The Chairperson suggested that the Committee should give DTI time to consider the issue. However, Dr Makube had an explanation on hand.
Dr Makube explained that RT57 was about motor vehicles which had not been designated for local content. There was sometimes a contradiction where the government procured vehicles which were not built or manufactured in the country. However, the Automotive Investment Scheme was an incentive designed to grow and develop the automotive sector through investment in new or replacement models and components that would increase plant production volumes, sustain employment or strengthen the automotive value chain. It, therefore, did not make economic sense to procure overseas-made cars. National Treasury needed to explain why cars could be procured overseas. The sector had not been regulated for local content, and there was also the consideration of the WTO.
The Chairperson informed Mr Joshua that the Committee would get back to him in writing with further questions. She thought that Malcolm Joshua had given the Committee much food for thought with his passionate presentation. She understood that the delegation had to return to eThekwini, but she hoped that one of the team could watch the proceedings the following day on the parliamentary channel.
National Home Builders' Registration Council (NHBRC) presentation
Mr Shafeeq Abrahams, NHBRC CFO, explained that NBHRC was involved in buses only in that offices were being built on a chassis as part of an approach to providing better service to rural communities. The NBHRC was evaluating the concept of mobile offices.
In February 2015, the NBHRC had entered into a process to lease two mobile office buses for three years at the cost of R11 million. The Council had secured advice and expertise from that Department of Trade and Industry and from National Treasury. The tender was for 80% local content in the building of the mobile offices. The chassis, engine and transmission were required to be Complete Knock-downs (CKDs). The Council also required that the bid specified hang-on parts such as the fuel tank, tyres, battery, wheel rims for the chassis which could be localised. The bid was awarded in December 2015, the service level agreement was signed in March 2016 and the Council took delivery in May 2017.
The NHBRC had not struggled to find suppliers that met the local specification requirements. Bidders were required to complete a local content form, and that was part of the submission for the tender. The Auditor General had audited the transaction as part of its compliance audit.
The NHBRC would continue to endeavour to promote local supply and industrialisation of the services that it procured.
Ms Mantashe was happy that the Auditor General had insisted on the compliance of suppliers. Who had paid for verification?
Mr Mbuyane asked if the NBHRC had requested any other verification and, if so, who had paid for the verification.
Mr Abrahams replied that NHBRC had paid for the Auditor General and in respect of verification, the Council had worked on the declarations submitted with the written bids in respect of local content. Should there be misrepresentation on three occasions, the Council would follow the National Treasury blacklisting processes. In hindsight, he believed that the NHBRC should have paid for its own compliance processes.
The Chairperson appreciated the presentation.
The City of Tshwane representatives had not yet arrived, but the Chairperson indicated that she would wait another ten minutes. She thanked the Municipalities that had presented. The Committee was interested in both challenges and also some proactive proposals. eThekwini had made some good proposals. How could Brazil manufacture chassis but South Africa could not? She had been raising the issue since 2009. South Africa did not need to manufacture all chassis, but at the moment none were manufactured in the country. It was necessary to encourage an entrepreneur to fill the gap. There was government support, and there were subsidies. There might be a need to ring-fence subsidies. All presenters had indicated how they could be proactive and now they should take the ideas forward. The Committee had heard about political changes in councils that had derailed projects, but if a project was running well, political parties had to stop being so parochial and to accept that things had to work for the good of the country. Everyone had to do the best one could with the resources available. The party-political approach to doing things had to stop. If the previous council had been ANC or DA, there was no need for the new council to reject all the project proposals that were on the table. The municipalities were at the forefront of development, much more so than provinces or national government.
She recalled the "Indian Mynas" buses in eThekwini that were of a good size to manage the bus population.
Mr Joshua confirmed that the Metro still had the buses, but they were called simply 'Mynas.' Those buses had been a very solid size and had worked well.
The Chairperson asked Dr Makube of DTI to take Committee through the verification process.
DTI on the verification process
Dr Makube indicated that the verification process took place post-award. After a tender had been awarded to the successful bidder, SABS's role was to verify the actual production of what was being delivered. As Members had heard, there were different outcomes as to how that was carried out. In 2012 DTI had given SABS the responsibility to verify local content. Johannesburg Metro had paid SABS to verify local content in Rea Vaya. The tender had been given to Sandown Motors, but Marco Polo had manufactured the bus body. DTI had been involved in that.
Dr Makube suggested that he should share with the Committee what had happened in that case. The City of Johannesburg had wanted buses to have a wheelchair lift mechanism, but no one in the country had manufactured that type of mechanism. Marco Polo had asked DTI for an exemption as per procedural requirements. DTI had checked with the industry, and no one was manufacturing that particular product. An exemption was, therefore, given, but with the condition that Marco Polo worked with local manufacturers. His understanding was that the company was now working with local suppliers to produce that lift mechanism. In the absence of local content, that opportunity would be lost. The same had happened with the chassis, and so DTI had agreed with eThekwini that there was an opportunity for DTI to increase the local content requirements. In working with the CSIR, DTI had identified opportunities to scale up in that area. The minimum threshold was not yet 100% but, in the absence of local content, one did not realise the opportunities to deepen manufacturing. Even as the Department was implementing the localisation requirements, opportunities were being created. DTI still had a challenge with the funding of local content verification, but the institution to do it was SABS. DTI was hoping to return to the Committee shortly with information about how to fund SABS so that it could undertake the verification of local content.
Ms Mantashe said she had thought verification by SABS was already an accepted process but if it was not happening, how long would it take? Localisation was a priority for the Committee. If DTI had not budgeted for SABS to do verification, then the Committee was fighting a losing battle.
The Chairperson thanked all the presenters for the helpful presentations. It had been very constructive and had given the Committee something to work on.
The Committee had run out of time for a strategy workshop. The only day available was 22 March 2018, which was a parliamentary day. The Chairperson was looking at 12:30, but it depended on whether parties would be holding caucuses that morning. If there were no caucuses, the start time would be 9 or 10 am.
Ms van Schalkwyk informed the Chairperson that she and Ms Theko had obligations on the Labour Committee which was dealing with the Minimum Wage legislation.
The Chairperson said that everyone had to endeavour to be there as the Members needed to discuss oversight outside of field oversight. They had to undertake onsite oversight. The Committee could also conduct Committee Meetings while on onsite oversight visits. The Members needed to prioritise activities. The Committee had legislation before it that had been on the table for over a year, and there was little likelihood that the Committee would be able to carry the legislation over to the next term of Parliament. She was aware that Minimum Wage was a legislation matter and therefore those Members had obligations to Labour Committee.
Referring to the Tshwane Metro, she stated that it was not an ordinary matter to stand Parliament up. It was serious, and she had asked the Committee Secretary to summons the Metro if it carried on with the cavalier attitude. In 23 years, she had not had to summons someone. No phone call had been received before the meeting, and there had been not one call from the Metro throughout the morning.
The inquiry would continue on 28 February 2018, and the Sub-Committee on the Copyright Bill would be held at 14:00 on 28 February 2018.
Meeting was adjourned.
Localisation & Local Procurement Inquiry 2: day 1
City of Johannesburg Bus procurement Metrobus presentation
City of Johannesburg Bus procurement Rea Vaya presentation
City of Cape Town presentation
EThekwini Municipality presentation
Fubbs, Ms JL Chairperson
Alberts, Mr ADW
Cachalia, Mr G K
Esterhuizen, Mr JA
Macpherson, Mr DW
Mantashe, Ms PT
Mbuyane, Mr S H
Theko, Ms L C


Cooking author Jean Pardue is an avid believer in cooking with passion and adventure – while keeping recipes simple.
Jean has written multiple recipe books and is published on Amazon . Com (Kindle).
& Holiday Treats for Christmas, New Year – Even Halloween!
==> Check Jean's author page for other cooking titles.
So, Are You Ready to Cook Yet?
The Jean Cooks website is all about cooking, baking, and most of all – enjoying delicious meals with your friends & family. There is no substitute for a home-cooked dinner and laughter around the table.
This rings so true. But the good news is, you don't have to prepare "leftovers" every evening. No, your family will again get excited with the variations and subtleties of 'experimental' baking and cooking – no matter if it's in a slow cooker or frying pan.
Hi, and welcome to my cooking site. I'm excited about things to come in the cooking world. And, I hope to share cooking tips, recipes & product reviews with you.


APPARENTLY SOMEBODY NAMED Roseanne something or other was fired yesterday after she put out some racist tweets. Apparently she has a show on ABC. I don't watch network television, unless it's golf or hockey, so I've never seen it. Mostly I take naps during said watching and miss everything except the important moments. Apparently it's a reboot of her old show, which I never watched either.
She is blaming it on Ambien. Hey, it's understandable. I didn't do laundry Sunday night after surviving Gus Macker because I drank a couple of beers and smoked a big old stogie and collapsed into a heap. I was still angry from dealing with a couple of idiots at the tournament, but I let it go.
This pig is probably not racist.
I have been in front of a computer many times and wanted to pull the trigger on a comment or post, and I've learned to take a deep breath and just walk away. Don Crim, the former executive editor of The Herald-Whig, told me when I became a reporter to always think twice and to be very careful about being critical when writing about issues or people.
Sheryl tends to read comments and react on Twitter, and I'm fine with it. She does show great restraint in many of her comments though. I just walk away. It's kind of like the player at Macker on Sunday whose team got beat and was finished in the tournament. He wanted to have a "dialogue" but all he did was waste my time. Eventually he ended up getting a free ride and a two-night stay at the corner of Fifth and Vermont, but again, why bother rehashing it or explaining my side? It all worked out.
So, buh bye, Roseanne. I have nothing to say about you or your shows or your tweets, because I never saw or read them, and you simply don't matter.


Stefano Mauri. President and CEO of Gruppo Editoriale Mauri Spagnol, vice President of Messagerie Italiane. He graduated in Literature and achieved a Master of Science in Publishing in New York. He created the literary competition lo Scrittore. He is the Italian delegate of the Association of Italian Publishers at the Federation of European Publishers and he is member of the organising committee of the bookseller school Umberto and Elisabetta Mauri. In 2012 he was honoured as Cavaliere al Merito del Lavoro.


text:
How Hong Kong's Umbrella Movement Is Being Silenced
Photo Credit: AP/達志影像
The Conversation US launched as a pilot project in October 2014. It is an independent source of news and views from the academic and research community, delivered direct to the public.
The attrition strategy that it used for quelling the Umbrella Movement since 2014 has been extended into a 'soft repression' of the pro-democracy movement.
Edmund W. Cheng, Hong Kong Baptist University and Samson Yuen, Lingnan University
Young Hong Kong democracy activists Joshua Wong, Alex Chow and Nathan Law were released on bail from jail on October 23. They will now appeal against the prison sentence for their role in the 2014 Umbrella Movement. Hong Kong's version of "Occupy Wall street", the Umbrella movement against Beijing politics was the most important protest in recent years, lasting three months.
But three years later, Hong Kong's democracy is still kept at bay.
As hundreds paid homage to the 2014 protests on September 29 in Hong Kong, the challenges facing the new generation of activists are not how to mobilize mass protests, but how to wrestle with the state's innovative strategy to manage society.
On 17 August 2017, three leading activists, aged 19 to 24, who had served their community service sentences for civil disobedience, were imprisoned following the Hong Kong government's unprecedented appeal of the ruling. Less than a month ago, four pro-democracy legislators, who were elected to office with more than 100,000 votes, were unseated by the Court of Appeal for their "insincere" oath taking.
Seeding discord
Citizens continue to take to the streets to voice their discontent, and strike without support from their union leaders. But the scale of their rallies has diminished, and their targets have blurred.
Hong Kong's liberal autocracy seems to have distanced itself from contention between state and society, while benefiting from conflicts between various groups of people. Some supporting the pro-democratic movements, some forming counter-movements.
Counter-movements have also become increasingly common. Led by pro-regime groups but appearing to be citizen-based initiatives, the participants can adopt more confrontational tactics than the government and politicians. They protest side by side in peaceful rallies, enter university campuses, and bully activists on social media. These tactics have discouraged citizens from participating in mass protests by intimidation.
Young people are either alienated from politics or favor radical actions, as seen in the so-called Fishball Revolution in 2016. This is when people took part in violent protests to defend local night food stalls and businesses.
According to the sociologist Charles Tilly, states are known to respond to protests by choosing from the classic repertoire of repression, concession, or toleration.
But the response in Hong Kong suggests regimes are not adhering to the classic responses; they're also using case-to-case and adaptive tactics to wear out challenges.
Nuanced strategy
Semi-democracies like Hong Kong cannot deploy their repressive apparatuses as readily as autocracies, for they must pay lip service to their "liberal" images. They also lack the representative mechanisms found in democracies, like full-fledged elections, for absorbing protests. Conceding to dissent is seldom an option when the demands are about political change.
During the Umbrella Movement, the state attempted to repress the nascent protest through tear gas, but it backfired when hundreds of thousands of citizens occupied several city centers. The massive mobilization, which went beyond anyone's imagination, forced the state to retreat.
So they had to come up with more a nuanced strategy to quell dissent.
The state turned to a smarter strategy, what we call "attrition," for wearing out the resilient occupation.
Attrition entails an array of defensive and offensive tactics that go beyond simply tolerating or ignoring protests.
These include a progressive effort to maintain cohesion among political elites, such as organizing summits for elites to openly declare loyalty, or punishing elites who express sympathy for the dissent. Through this effort, the state sent a powerful message to incumbents considering defection.
Pro-regime movements
The state also relies on pro-China counter-movements to curb pro-democracy activism.
For instance, during the Umbrella Movement, counter-movement groups such as the Voice of Loving Hong Kong and the Silent Majority for Hong Kong would attack and provoke protesters in the occupied sites. These groups exerted a clear impact on the Umbrella protesters: not only did these "disturbances" constrain the actions of protest leaders, they also created a violent image in the protest sites.
Such counter-protests were likely mobilized or incentivized through money or position. But no clear evidence has yet pointed to the role of the state in orchestrating them.
Three years after the 2014 Umbrella Movement, such counter-movements continue to thrive. Some have become proactive in attacking public figures whom they identify as "enemies of the state," such as by labeling them as stooges of foreign powers on social media or through mass rallies.
Even pop singers who had voiced support for the Umbrella protests, like Denise Ho and Anthony Wong, were not spared from this kind of cultural-revolution-like assault.
Legal intervention
The most effective part of this new strategy was legal intervention.
As a highly revered institution in Hong Kong, the legal system gave the government the legitimacy it lacked to scale back the protests. It became a third-party actor and shifted the burden of evicting the protest from the police to the judiciary.
Court injunctions filed by private actors, such as transport companies, helped re-frame the protests from political contention to court disputes and added a touch of unlawfulness to the protests.
Like counter-movements, the judiciary has continued to be featured in political disputes. The disqualification of popularly elected legislators and the jailing of young activists, such as Umbrella Movement leaders Joshua Wong, Nathan Law and Alex Chow, were pertinent examples.
What we are now observing in Hong Kong is an evolving semi-authoritarianism. The attrition strategy that it used for quelling the Umbrella Movement since 2014 has been extended into some sort of "soft repression" of the pro-democracy movement.
Relying on third party actors such as pro-China movements to crush the actions and hopes of pro-democracy activists, the government avoids direct confrontation and preserves its façade of an impartial arbiter amid growing social polarization.
Despite featuring the rule of law and civil liberties, Hong Kong's trajectory steadily echoes the democratic recession worldwide.
Read next: What Edward Yiu's Reprieve Tells Us about Decision-making in Hong Kong
Edmund W. Cheng, Assistant Professor in comparative politics, Hong Kong Baptist University and Samson Yuen, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Lingnan University
This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
TNL Editor: Morley J Weston
Umbrella Revolution
Candidate Certification Is the Latest Blow to Hong Kong Democracy4 years ago

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


And there are several more gems.
Woo (giving marital advice to the neighbors): If you could write yourself a letter a year after you got married, what would you say?
Moses came down the stairs one morning and shrieked: Oh!! A tarantula!
Me (a bit alarmed): Um... you mean a little spider, right?
Parent teacher conference this term was not the fiasco last term was. Woo watched the younger kids, while the older kids and I went. Everyone's doing well, but Herbie's teacher really was positive. He spent the rest of the evening walking on clouds.
I couldn't find my shoes one day, and Herbie wanted to help me and suggested we pray. He said the prayer and we found them soon after. He also prayed when we couldn't get the airplay to work, so we could get music playing in the living room. Also worked soon after.
Herbie walked around on a "crutch" all morning, due to a scratch he got from a nail on the bottom of his foot yesterday. Curiously, the second we opened the door, he sprinted out and ran all the way to church without even a trace of a limp.
I kind of lucked out with a visiting teacher who doesn't like to make visits, but LOVES the kids, so Woo and I have been able to drop the youngest three off over there while we go to the temple in exchange for being visit taught. It's one of the highlights of Linus and Penelope's life. Linus loves to mop and dust her house with her cleaning tools. And she's won Penelope's heart with her Hermione and Ninja Turtle costumes.
The weather's been very warm and rainy, but rain here still means snow in the mountains, and Woo went snowboarding a couple times this week. After working double or triple overtime last week, he scaled back to only 50 or so hours this week.
My testimony seemed to have made an impression on all of the kids, because--Hey! Legos!!
Well, that's our week. Hope you all had a great one! Congrats to our cousin Ryan on his mission call to Hong Kong!


text:
Q: passing structure directly to function I have a struct that I initialize like this:
typedef struct
{
 word w;
 long v;
}
MyStruct;

MyStruct sx = {0,0};
Update(sx);

Now, it seems such a waste to first declare it and then to pass it. I know that in C#, there's a way to do everything in one line. Is there any possiblity of passing it in a more clever (read: cleaner) way to my update function?

A: In C++, structs are the same as classes except in structs everything is public by default. So you can give a struct a constructor, e.g.
struct MyStruct
{
 word w;
 long v;

 MyStruct(word w, long v) : w(w), v(v) {}
};

Update(MyStruct(0,0));

Also, C-style struct typedef'ing is unnecessary and discouraged in C++.

A: It depends on how your Update is declared. If it expects a value of MyStruct type or a reference of const MyStruct& type, you can just do
Update(MyStruct());

This is possible because you wanted to initialize your object with zeroes (which is what the () initializer will do in this case). If you needed different (non-zero) initializer values, you have to either provide a constructor for MyStruct or do it the way you do it in your question (at least in the current version of the C++ language).

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Travel news: US aviation had another meltdown
(CNN) — In travel news this week, China reopened its borders, US aviation had another meltdown, and we take a look at Italy as a destination for history buffs.
Arrrrgh-viation news
The Federal Aviation Administration lifted their pause on all domestic flight departures across the US that they issued after the system that provides pilots with pre-flight safety notices went offline. CNN's aviation correspondent Pete Muntean reports on the impacts.
Another week, another aviation meltdown. Domestic flight departures were halted all across the United States on Wednesday after the system providing pilots with safety notices suffered an outage, causing major disruption. Meanwhile, US federal officials are still acting on "thousands" of complaints related to Southwest Airlines' holiday meltdown.
A group of passengers in Bangaluru, India, were stuck on a shuttle bus to their plane as they watched it take off without them, and earlier this month, a teen pilot flying a single-engine plane with family members on board was forced to make an emergency landing near a California highway.
Italy's historical tourism
An ancient Pompeii home most likely owned by two freed slaves before being buried in the eruption of 79 CE has reopened to the public after a 20-year-long restoration project. The house is filled with a rich array of extraordinary art. Watch here.
Some of Italy's 20th-century historical legacy is more controversial. A map of the country's fascist monuments went online last year, documenting more than 1,400 landmarks associated with Benito Mussolini's dictatorship.
One of the places cataloged is Villa Carpena, a mansion in the northeastern Emilia Romagna region that its owners say is haunted by the ghost of Mussolini and several of his family members: "This place is alive with their presence, they are all still here and we can feel them, they are constantly watching us."
China opens up
As China's borders reopened without quarantine requirements following three years of strict restrictions, CNN's Selina Wang spoke with Jane Sun, CEO of the Chinese travel platform Trip.com about what the travel industry can expect with open Chinese borders.
After three years of Covid isolation, China reopened its borders on January 8 and joyful reunions took place at airports all over the country. "I've waited for this so long," said one newlywed separated from her husband, "Now … everything starts to become better."
As well as restored flight connections, Chinese airlines are launching new routes that will make it easier for travelers in Budapest, Athens, Johannesburg and other major cities to visit China and vice versa.
Unsurprisingly, demand for outbound travel among Chinese consumers is now at a record high. CNN spoke to travelers to find out which destinations are top of their list.
Missssbehaving traveler of the week
It was a bit of a squeeze for the boa constrictor inside the bag.
Unlike snakes that move in an S shape, boa constrictors travel in a straight line. And if one woman in Florida had her way, a boa constrictor would have flown straight up in the air, too. Luckily, TSA agents found the four-foot chunky reptile in her hand luggage before any travelers got in a twist.
Love on a sleeper train
"He looks very clean and American," thought British drama student Katy Vernon when she saw US airman Randy Vanderwood on an Amsterdam train platform in 1991. Randy thought Katy and her friends were "obnoxious and loud."
A Californian used DNA analysis to find his family and it sent him across three continents.
"After a lifetime believing I was a basic White American, I learned that was only half true."
A New Yorker set a world record for eating at the most Michelin-starred restaurants in a single day.
20 carry-on essentials
Given the frequency with which travelers' checked bags have been going on their own independent adventures of late — one woman's suitcase even went to McDonald's — going hand-luggage-only is looking more attractive than ever.
Our partners at CNN Underscored, a product reviews and recommendations guide owned by CNN, have put together this roundup of 20 items to help you pack lighter and smarter, without losing any of your travel essentials.
A luxury cruise took passengers somewhere they never expected to be: face to face with the migrant crisis
When US National Parks are free in 2023


Beating Heart (French: Battement de coeur) is a 1940 French film directed by Henri Decoin, and starring Danielle Darrieux and Claude Dauphin. It tells the story of a young woman escaping from reform school who tries to steal a foreign ambassador's watch but ends up falling in love with him. The film was remade as Heartbeat (1946), with Ginger Rogers and Basil Rathbone.


Employment statistics from the US Department of Labor show what most IT people have already realized: IT jobs are getting harder to come by. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 13,000 jobs in the information industry were cut in July, bringing the total to 44,000 year over year.
Expansion of H-1b visas may have played an important factor in accelerating this trend—and making the overall effects worse. Each H-1b visa holder displaces a US worker—and has the potential to make outsourcing easier because the H-1b visa holder likely has contacts and language skills applicable to an outsourcing destination.
The US badly needs to write legislation that accurately reflects the value of US immigration rights. The way H-1b legislation was written means that companies will be actively displacing US workers even when there is a contraction in specific industries.


Live in Sydney's Blacktown and notice it worsening?
Who wouldn't? Dangerous with more daily crime, roaming gangs, Third World flooding the place? Notice the traffic congestion, all the high-rise, the increasing local jobless, homeless and struggling Australians?
Blacktown used to be Aussie – European and Aboriginal co-existing. It was hard-working and peaceful.
Then Labor, Liberals and The Greens started letting in waves of Islamic Third Worlders, without asking anyone, no background checks and then gifting them welfare and public housing ahead of needy Aussies.
But local Blacktowners don't want their home and neighbourhood to be a melting pot for Third World thousands. 'Multiculturalism' has become code for 'Islam' and crime.
Blacktown's SydWest Multicultural Services is preparing to take in thousands of Islamic Middle Easterns.
On January 11, 2017 a local Blacktown woman (58) found two intruders in her kitchen on Sunnyholt Road in Blacktown about 9.45pm. They had forced their way into her house and assaulted her in the kitchen with tins of food. She said the men also demanded money and personal belongings from her, but she was able to run outside, prompting the men to flee empty-handed. Both offenders were African in appearance.
Blacktown has an increasing spate of murders, drive by shootings, gang crime, rapes, robberies, arson attacks, muggings, home invasions and domestic violence. Blacktown has a murder rate twice the state average – mostly committed by Third Worlders. Ethnic tensions, high crime rates and aircraft noise have all contributed to the smorgasbord of reasons why Australians are avoiding to live in Blacktown.
Had enough of the invasion? Want to do something about it?
Well, next Saturday April 8, 2017 is an opportunity to vote to put Australians first, by voting for Australia First Party in the Blacktown By-Election for Ward 2.
It's a simple choice to save Blacktown.
Blacktown Council is divided into 5 Wards, each represented by 3 councillors. If you live in Ward 2 within the Blacktown Council then you can vote for Australia First for Blacktown Council.
Our candidate is the local a familiar Ms Cassie Orrock, member and candidate for the Australia First Party.
Well, Councillor Leo Kelly died unexpectedly, and it is the right thing that Ward 2 residents be duly represented on local council, so there is a by-election to replace Cr. Kelly, R.I.P.
So Blacktown residents who live in Glenwood, Kings Langley, Kings Park, Lalor Park, Marayong and parts of Blacktown, Colebee, Quakers Hill and Seven Hills will be required to vote next Saturday between 8am and 6pm.
Pre-poll voting is now open at Suite 2, 22 Main St, Blacktown, and closes on April 7 at 6pm. Postal votes must be submitted before April 3.
Cassie Orrock, our candidate, has three sons. An Australian, her background is from Croatia and my parents migrated with their families after World War II. Cassie was born in Balmain. Cassie has been involved in different vocations from modelling, promotional work including innovative business sector with female-focused initiatives.
Cassie is a business person with a hands-on understanding of the business sector, someone who can bring entrepreneurial skills to Council. Cassie holds a wholesale liquor licence and designed a beer for women, she won third prize for the bottle design in the Packaging Council of Australia in 2010 and has owned a nightclub for nine years and continues to venture into new business horizons.
Cassie, a vegan, is an advocate for animal rights and against factory farming. Cassie also believes that women need more representation in domestic and all fields of politics.
Cassie's electoral platform is to promote public awareness of all aspects of Australia's heritage as a European society, with a unique national culture and tradition, in every local government area.
"My main concerns are the influx of "refugees" (so-called) in the Blacktown area and the lack of housing available for people already living in the area.
There is also a need to build affordable housing for first time buyers, who are young families who need a break. Excessive mass immigration year-on-year flooding Sydney has meant traditionally low-cost outer areas like Blacktown have become no longer affordable.
Blacktown deserves better planning policies that enable a better standard if living and which respect the natural environment that we have left.
Last September, Blacktown residents may recall that Cassie Orrock ran for the general election in Ward 5. On that occasion she polled 2525 votes, achieving 8.65% of the primary vote!
Biased Leftists with Fairfax lied about Cassie back then, yet our Cassie successfully sued Fairfax for defamation and is awaiting a damages hearing. Cassie won't be bullied or intimidated!
Blacktown is one of Greater Sydney's areas targeted for large-scale residential developments with no democratic right. Blacktown has become overwhelmed by the growing (so-called) 'refugee' population and a local politics which reflects ethnic tribalisms.
Leftist Group 'SydWest Multicultural Services' is secretly channeling thousands of Sudanese child soldiers into Blacktown.
Australia First will also urge Council to be active in relieving the housing crisis in our City; we would locate the powers to lease vacant property and to provide if possible Council facilities to the homeless, to work with community groups to assist homelessness and families affected by domestic violence and mental illness.


text:
Nation/World News Politics
Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu's wife charged with fraud, breach of trust
SHARE Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu's wife charged with fraud, breach of trust
Israeli prosecutors have charged Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister's wife, with a series of crimes including fraud and breach of trust. | AP file photo
JERUSALEM — Israeli prosecutors have charged Sara Netanyahu, the prime minister's wife, with a series of crimes including fraud and breach of trust.
The Justice Ministry says in a statement on Thursday that Sara Netanyahu stands accused of misusing public funds by fraudulently ordering hundreds of meals to the prime minister's official residence worth over $100,000 while falsely stating there were no cooks on staff.
A former deputy director of the prime minister's residence is also charged in the case.
Sara Netanyahu has long faced allegations of abusive behavior and living extravagantly in a manner out of touch with the general public.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also faces several police investigations into alleged corruption. Netanyahu has denied any wrongdoing, dismissing the accusations against him and his wife as a media witch hunt.


Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. Nashville is the second largest city in Tennessee, after Memphis, and is the fifth largest city in the Southeastern United States. It's also home to an inspiring family belonging to Kortney & Dave Wilson.
GNR8R is pleased to be working directly with Kortney & Dave along with creative content and entertainment development company Rhino Production and Harbour Media Partners. Our work recently began several months ago and we'll share more as time passes.
Canadian's Kortney and Dave Wilson have become one of Nashville's premiere house flipping duos, renowned as much for their knowledge of the local real estate market as for their artistic design in transforming run-down and neglected disasters into stunning one-of-a-kind family homes.
Masters of Flip has received strong reviews and currently airs on the W Network and will be back for a second season. Each episode features Kortney and Dave Wilson as they convert properties for big profit. Next season we will see this couple turn more homes into dream realities.


An inflammatory "Make America Great Again" billboard was posted this week in Pearl, Mississippi.
The sign shows which shows guns pointed at African Americans.
A controversial billboard Highway 80 in Pearl is getting a lot of attention.
The billboard appears to depict a moment from the civil rights era and has the words "Make America Great Again" on it.
It's placed on a Lamar Advertising billboard. The display says that the signage was paid for by For Freedoms. It also says the billboard was not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
The original photo dates back to 1965, to a day known as "Bloody Sunday," according to PRNewswire. Police and protesters faced off over voting rights in Selma, Alabama.
According to For Freedoms' website, they use art to inspire deeper political engagement for citizens who want to have a greater impact on the American political landscape.
WJTV reached out to Lamar Advertising about the billboard. A spokesperson told us that since everyone is entitled to freedom of speech, they saw no issue with putting it up. They had nothing to do with the creation of the billboard.
The group behind the racist billboards ForFreedoms.org has links to liberal philanthropist George Soros.
Co-founder HANK WILLIS THOMAS has been supported by Soros's Open Society Foundation.


text:
The Works: New International Encounter
A personal view of the works of New International Encounter by Beccy Smith.
In 2001, in a chilly gym on the outskirts of Prague, three practitioners who had been teaching together locally decided their shared theatrical ambitions could translate into making a show. They wanted to make a piece of work that worked within its landscape – that welcomed in the local people from the village in which it was being created, and that related to the complex history which had shaped the imagination of this corner of Europe. They shared an aesthetic: an emphasis on performance as a collective experience shared with the audience, using a hybrid of visual styles (clown, puppetry, object theatre and music) to negate differences in nationality and language. And so Alex Byrne and Iva and Kjell Moberg began work on the production that would eventually become My Long Journey Home, a re-imagination of the true story of András Tamás, a Hungarian boy press-ganged onto the Eastern Front and lost in a Russian asylum for 53 years. It's a compelling story, exploring the barriers of language and the convulsions of politics and war that characterise Europe's recent history. The production also established core processes: drawing together a band of performers of different nationalities, who shared skills in music as well as acting, to form a company who lived and worked together in a country foreign to many of them. My Long Journey Home was a hit when it premiered at the MTM festival in Mostar and Iva and Kjell, now also acting as the company's producers, decided to focus on getting the work out to further audiences, with the three directors partly self-funding an initial tour. In the decade since its premiere the show has toured to 23 countries and the name New International Encounter has become synonymous with infectious ensemble performance whose playfulness, enthusiasm and panache supports the telling of some of Europe's most powerful true stories.
Ten years on and I am visiting the closing performance of a successful and substantial family Christmas production, commissioned by The Junction and successfully garnering national reviews. The show is making its presence felt in the city, stepping up into the mainstream in a way Christmas children's shows are especially apt at. As I circuit one of the main roundabouts in Cambridge, a huge tarpaulin banner announces the run with a cartoonish snow-clad gingerbread house that makes me double-take – for a moment I don't recognise the production I've come to see.
For this is a company whose aesthetic, whether portraying the sepia tones of 1930s Germany or the punky landscape of '70s Russia, has always embodied a particularly theatrical style, one that spawned a hundred imitators as young visual devising companies really took off in the noughties. A sort of spatial rendering of the devising process: open, often freeform staging, focused through physical direction and the use of practical lights and sound; a jigsaw of workable objects and set pieces that established the flavour of their era and were animated and transformed through lively performance. And their shows have always, one way or another, been about theatre-making. The transparency of their form – as hapless clown storytellers make a tentative offer to share a tale – invites us to share the process, to complete the illusions ourselves. Their works are always also characterised by excellent, detailed performances, both physical and psychological. Such openhanded transparency in their dramaturgy demands a quality of musical and acting performance as a counterbalance (My Long Journey Home was nominated for 'Best Ensemble Performance' in The Stage Awards for Acting Excellence on the Fringe in 2004 and the awards have come thick and fast since) and this is what strikes such enjoyable contrast in NIE's shows, as we are moved between collaborating on the theatre being made before us and being transported by it. Academics might call such a shifting dramaturgy post-dramatic.
So what will a mainstream family audience, seduced by the neon tones of sticky, stripy candy make of it all?
NIE have often been described as a company that cast a spell over their audience. Their humble performance style invites us in and their clown-esque focus on us and our reactions continuously checks its own use throughout the performance. And Hansel and Gretel proves to be no exception. Starting small, with a silent line-up downstage that metaphorically beckons their young audience closer before exploding into music and storytelling, it reminds me of just how suitable for children NIE's style is. It's not just the exuberant playfulness of the ensemble's intimacy, always a joy to feel temporarily part of, but also the no-nonsense theatricality, never seeking to hide the means by which the moments of magic are made. Both qualities have a particular appeal for younger audiences unconditioned to the unspoken 'rules' of illusory theatre. In fact, the enthusiastic support of ASSITEJ (the forward-looking international association of theatres for children and young people) has bolstered the company's international touring work for many years.
The company have transposed the fairytale into a decidedly festive, wintry setting (although the closing cries of 'It feels a bit like Christmas!' felt a little forced on my visit, but then it was January the 3rd), but have otherwise remained true to the original Grimm story. This being the third Hansel and Gretel production I've seen over the past twelve months I feel qualified to comment on their approach to the narrative and the show was a great illustration of the company's masterful handling of material: finding ways to accommodate the awkward repetitions that underpin the fairytale's structure and confronting head-on the bleakness of the content – child abandonment, cannibalism and murder, all tied up in a cautionary bow. Encountering NIE without the core cast members who have become so familiar over the past ten years – who have grown up in the family of the company and now settled to have families of their own – had the effect of throwing the company's work into relief. Their storytelling mode, which allows performers to position themselves in relation to the story, supported some sophisticated readings, offering up a couple of critiques of the Woodcutter's terrible choices, and brought home the ramifications of the children's murderous actions. Their folksy Eastern European scoring emphasised the story's Central European roots. This was the most elaborate set I have seen the company employ, but nevertheless the emphasis on key transformative objects – a bed, a tree stump, a ukelele – and a variety of on-stage powered mechanics such as a very pleasing system of pulleys, meant that the emphasis remained squarely on the performers, who owned the space from the moment we crossed the threshold and were welcomed into their home.
If I don't always feel they have fully adapted their language for their younger audience – particularly their textual style, which remains rapid, ironic and peppered with interesting and sometimes abstract ideas – there's certainly much for me as an adult to enjoy.
It's a combination of this stylistic robustness and the tightness of the ensemble that makes NIE's work so enduring and resonant, supporting their approach to a real breadth of material. The company's first three productions – My Long Journey Home (2001), Everything Falls Apart (2002) and The End of Everything Ever (2004) – formed The European Trilogy, sharing an emphasis on some of the key narratives of that Continent's history: displacement, war, separation (Agata's fateful disappearing act by nibbling her own nametag on the kindertransport in The End of Everything Ever has become a shorthand for the glorious 'Oh Fuck' moment in devised storytelling). These are epic tales that reach across history (a lifetime of Russia's recent past is held in Everything Falls Apart). Such sweep feels like a natural emphasis for a company whose creative team effortlessly accommodates more than eight nationalities. The 2006-8 show, Instant Epic, showcased this quality of their storytelling, creating a newly improvised show each night with audiences and artists from companies in Switzerland, Czechoslovakia and the UK at London's BAC.
Over time, whilst continuing to keep the above-mentioned shows in repertoire and touring the world, NIE have pushed harder at the edges of their form, increasingly exploring promenade and site-specific methods and seeking new ways to access stories that embody experiences of place and identity through participation. 2009's My Life with the Dogs saw the company pushing their aesthetic in new directions with a more electric scoring, 80s palette and punky style to retell the much mythologised true story of 'wild child' Ivan Mishukov. As the storytellers transformed their ensemble into a pack of hugely sympathetic, ravenous and loyal wild dogs, this production highlighted for me the company's ongoing emphasis on fracture-points in our civilisation placed by their interest in exploring key stories from modern European history.
In 2011's Tales from a Sea Journey / Hav, the company worked for the first time with a writer, acclaimed Norwegian poet Sjón, who collaborated on the re-casting of sea myths, shanties and real life experiences drawn from a residency on the cargo vessel GMA-CGM Fort St Louis, creating a marriage of content and form that perfectly suited the company's approach. In Linz for Das Schiff (2009), Peterborough for Tales from the Middle of Town (2010) and London for the ongoing Tales from the Thames (2012), the company have a developed a model of participation that works over a sustained period (up to three years in Peterborough) to develop stories with children to people their productions with characters and ideas that connect intimately to the places, and sites (a shopping centre, a historical steamship) where they are performed.
In 2011 NIE celebrated their 10th anniversary with a publication and a programme of performances and events which, hosted by Dramatikkens Hus in Oslo, illustrated the influence of and affection for the company in Northern Europe. Their pan-European approach to evolving an extensive and gifted creative team has proven a canny business model, allowing them to spread their support and partnerships, but has been born out of a commitment to broad theatrical styles, to shared heritage and identity. As the company enters its eleventh year, with eight shows across at least seven countries in the pipeline, and an evolving cast and creative team, I am reminded that the most powerful, and enduring, quality of their work is the sense of shared exhilaration and joy communicated by their performances. As long as this quality, which seems grounded in a close ensemble enjoying their abundant creativity together, remains, I have no doubt the company will continue reinventing itself well into the future.
Tales from a Sea Journey is touring the UK in March, in June NIE are presenting a site-specific show created for and with young people in coproduction with the Unicorn Theatre in London, and Hansel and Gretel will be played again for Christmas 2012. Elsewhere in the world, NIE are touring Twist, their co-production with Kopergietery across Belgium and Holland; touring the European Trilogy to festivals in Korea, Austria and Germany; and developing a new show based on Knut Hamsun's novel Hunger with Danish company Theater Mollen. www.nie-theatre.com
NIE New International Encounter
Feature Type


Rustic Kitchen Backsplash #0 - Rustic Kitchen Designs Pictures And Inspiration was published in March 1, 2018 at 10:50 am. If you wish to manage this photo as your computer wallpaper, you can tap the download link beneath or you can just right click on the image above and select "Save Image As" to save the Rustic Kitchen Backsplash #0 - Rustic Kitchen Designs Pictures And Inspiration or by choose the "Set Desktop Background As" section if your browser has the option. If you were no able to bring the the best picture you are expecting for, you shall go for "Search Column" at top right or browse another image wallpapers whatever you want. This photo has the file size is 83kB and the dimension of 800x532. Rustic Kitchen Backsplash #0 - Rustic Kitchen Designs Pictures And Inspiration has been viewed by 85 users and it is an image from Rustic Kitchen Backsplash.


Abstract: The main purpose of this thesis is to propose a method for using a change point detection algorithm to forecast short term limit order book price changes. The idea is to test whether a significant change of the shape of the limit order book contains any information about impending changes to mid market. Using a data set consisting of all the changes of the limit order book throughout the trading day, a change point detection algorithm is used to detect what is deemed to be significant changes of the shape of the limit order book. A measurement of the limit order imbalance is constructed as a proxy for the shape of the order book which then is used as input signal to the change point detection algorithm. A new data set is created based on the detected change points and a regression is run based on these to forecast price changes. It is found that the change point data set contains a certain amount of information about impending price changes.


This pretty much sums up the term "Eating dirt". A massive overshoot at the Redbull Rampage turns into an unrecoverable crash, which scorpions McGarry out the front door and straight into the floor face first. The most amazing part of this is that he was still in the finals competing after this crash in the run up to it!


SRO 10-095: This appears to be the first reversal in favor of a parent by the new SRO, Justyn Bates. The parents challenged the appropriateness of the district recommended summer program and sought reimbursement for 2 months of a Lindamood Bell program. The IHO found for the parent. In a well reasoned decision, the SRO found that the CSE had failed to discuss or consider privately obtained psychoeducational and speech language evaluations, that the IEP failed to contain adequate information about a good number of the student's identified needs, that the IEP failed to identify adequate goals to address these needs and that "thus, without an IEP that accurately identified the student's special education needs, the CSE failed to recommend an appropriate placement." Also of note, the SRO found that the 10 day notice of intent to seek reimbursement requirement was satisfied by the submission more than 10 days prior to the start of the summer program of the hearing request in which reimbursement was requested.


McCain, Megan Laura. 2012. From Womb to Doom: Mechanical Regulation of Cardiac Tissue Assembly in Morphogenesis and Pathogenesis. Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University.
The assembly, form, and function of the heart is regulated by complex mechanical signals originating from intrinsic and extrinsic sources, such as the cytoskeleton and the extracellular matrix. During development, mechanical forces influence the self-assembly of highly organized ventricular myocardium. However, mechanical overload induces maladaptive remodeling of tissue structure and eventual failure. Thus, mechanical forces potentiate physiological or pathological remodeling, depending on factors such as frequency and magnitude. We hypothesized that mechanical stimuli in the form of microenvironmental stiffness, cytoskeletal architecture, or cyclic stretch regulate cell-cell junction formation and cytoskeletal remodeling during development and disease. To test this, we engineered cardiac tissues in vitro and quantified structural and functional remodeling over multiple spatial scales in response to diverse mechanical perturbations mimicking development and disease. We first asked if the mechanical microenvironment impacts tissue assembly. To investigate this, we cultured two-cell cardiac µtissues on flexible substrates with tunable stiffness and monitored cell-cell junction formation over time. As myocytes transitioned from isolated cells to interconnected µtissues, focal adhesions disassembled near cell-cell interfaces and mechanical forces were transmitted almost completely through cell-cell junctions. However, µtissues cultured on stiff substrates mimicking fibrotic microenvironments retained focal adhesions near the cell-cell interface, potentially to reinforce the cell-cell junction in response to excessive forces generated by myofibrils in stiff microenvironments. Intercellular electrical conductance between myocytes was measured as a function of connexin 43 immunosignal and the length-to-width ratio of cell pairs. We observed that conductance was correlated to connexin 43 immunosignal and cell pair length-to-width ratio, indicating that tissue architecture can affect electrical coupling. The impact of mechanical overload was also determined by applying chronic cyclic stretch to engineered cardiac tissues. Stretch activated gene expression patterns characteristic of pathological remodeling, including up-regulation of focal adhesion genes, and impacted sarcomere alignment and myocyte shape. Furthermore, chronic cyclic stretch altered intracellular calcium cycling in a manner similar to heart failure and decreased contractile stress generation, suggestive of maladaptive remodeling. In summary, we show that the assembly, form, and function of cardiac tissue is sensitive to a wide range of mechanical cues that emerge during physiological and pathological growth.


Under the covers, the micro:bit will start every Forever loop in it's own fiber (a fiber is a light-weight thread that can run independently from other fibers - a bit like a separate block of code in Scratch, for example). The On Start block will run to completion, then Forever blocks will start executing.
However, if there are any pause statements (or function usage that has an inherent pause facility) inside On Start, this will cause the fiber scheduler to start all other fibers, and your Forever loops will start before the On Start has completed.
Remove any statements in your On Start that pause.
Alternatively, if you need pauses in your On Start for some reason, at the end of your On Start set a boolean flag to True, and check the value of that flag in your Forever loops - only starting the Forever loop content once that boolean flag has been set to True.


Courtney Lawes has left England's autumn international training camp in Portugal because of a back injury, the Rugby Football Union confirmed on Saturday.
Lawes has returned home from the camp in Vilamoura to undergo treatment on a pre-existing back injury but is expected to return to the squad next week.
He now faces a race to be fit ahead of England's autumn international opener against South Africa at Twickenham on Nov. 3.
"Courtney Lawes will return to England today for specialist treatment on a pre-existing back injury," England's forwards coach Steve Borthwick said.
"He is expected to return to Portugal early next week. He has taken part in modified training this week."
Eddie Jones' squad has already been depleted by the injuries to key players such as Chris Robshaw, Joe Launchbury and Billy and Mako Vunipola.
As well as South Africa, England will also play New Zealand, Japan and Australia across consecutive weekends next month.


With palm-lined, golden beaches and a casual attitude, Mazatlan is a preferred vacation spot for travelers. Ideally situated on the beach inside the Marina Mazatlan Complex, the Park Royal Mazatlan features hip, minimalist decor and great service and quality that stands above other hotels in Mazatlan.
Besides enjoying a picturesque oceanfront location, you'll find plenty of things to do in Mazatlan, Mexico. The resort's minutes from the area's best attractions, including Mazatlan Cathedral, Plaza Monumental and Mazatlan Aquarium. Avid shoppers head to Mercado Central to find deals on an array of local handcrafts and goods.
It's not hard to see why travelers in the know choose this Mazatlan hotel. Our resort's top-notch amenities include an outdoor pool, modern spa and a Fitness Center. With two specialty restaurants, you have your choice of cuisine, and both Sushi Martini and the Lobby Bar offer terrific ocean views.
Room amenities include coffee maker, mini bar, cable TV, CD player, DVD player, work desk, telephone, voicemail, bathrobe, hairdryer, private bathroom, crib (on request), in-room safe, air conditioning, iron, ironing board, and closet. Rollaways are available on request for an extra fee.
One king bed. Ocean view. Includes a Jacuzzi.
One king bed. Ocean view.
One king bed. Ocean view. Double jacuzzi facing the windows.
La Veranda Restaurant - La Veranda offers breakfast, lunch and dinner menus. The restaurant is known for delicious recipes with fresh seafood and fine cuts. Dine in the air conditioned area or on the terrace with beautiful views of the Pacific Ocean.
Lobby Bar - Take in the beautiful ocean view with refreshing cocktails and try the innovative juice therapy bar.
Snack Marlín - Enjoy a selection of snacks and refreshing drinks in this outdoor restaurant with the beautiful Pacific ocean as your backdrop.


Hi Adam, How about an update on the WC portfolio, for Q2 and Q3, 2010?
Look for lot's of improvements to MarketClub in the New Year.
I recommend using the nearby liquid futures contracts. It is less expensive to roll over a position than to go way with a distant contract when you are at the mercy of the Arbs.
I'm watching this trendline very closely - especially if a double top shows up!
how may contracts were used and how did you calculate your position sizes?
We trade one contract per mkt per signal. There is no adding to position after a position is taken.
How many contracts do you test for your results?
Were stops used? If yes or no could you elaborate.
We trade one contract per mkt per signal. There is no adding to position after a position is taken. We filter the trades and use stops based on our trade triangle technology.
How to use trade triangles in futures and Forex.
In the futures and Forex markets we use the weekly "Trade Triangles" for trend and the daily "Trade Triangles" for timing. Let me give you an example of how that works. If a green weekly "Trade Triangle" is in place it indicates that the trend is positive for that market. Initial entry point would be on the weekly green "Trade Triangle" and then you would use a red daily "Trade Triangle" as a stop. For example if the trend was up on the weekly you would exit a position on a red daily triangle. This is not to go short but only to exit the position and wait for the trend to reestablish itself on the upside. In the event the trend that does not reestablish itself and reverses with a weekly red "Trade Triangle" you would go short on the weekly "Trade Triangle" and use the daily "Trade Triangle"for money management and reentry points.


text:
Self-Help Federal
Serving California, Washington, Chicago, and Milwaukee
Visit SHFCU's Website
Hey, if you're looking for service in California, Illinois, or Wisconsin please visit Self-Help Federal Credit Union. What's the difference? Read here.
About Self-Help Federal Credit Union—California, Illinois, Washington, and Wisconsin
Self-Help Federal Credit Union was chartered in 2008 to build a network of branches that partner with working families and communities that have historically faced systemic barriers to financial inclusion. With over $1.7 billion in assets and serving more than 94,000 members in 36 branches - 19 in California, nine in Illinois, six in Washington, and two in Wisconsin, Self-Help Federal is one of the fastest-growing community development-designated financial institutions in the country. It is part of the Self-Help family of nonprofit organizations whose collective mission is to create and protect ownership and economic opportunity for all. For more than 42 years, the national Center for Community Self-Help and its affiliates have provided over $10.5 billion in financing to help over 198,000 borrowers buy homes, start businesses, and strengthen community resources.
Visit Self-Help Federal Credit Union's Website.
Our work in California, Greater Chicago & Florida