Friday, January 31, 2020

Industry Trends and Issues Report (Tourism and Hospitality Issues ) Lab

Industry Trends and Issues (Tourism and Hospitality Issues ) - Lab Report Example This provides an excellent opportunity for the emerging nations like South Africa, to develop and project their countries as popular tourist destinations. The Republic of South Africa, situated at the southern tip of the African continent is home to some of the most spectacular places and rich and varied spectrum of flora and fauna. The country, which is considered to be the third most bio – diverse country in the world, hosts a large variety of living wealth2. It offers most exotic travel destinations and caters to a wide range of tourists that enthralls them with its stunning coastal towns of Hermanus, Cape Town, Knysna, and Durban, and mountaineering in Hogsback as well as Drakensberg. The Cape Winelands offers world class wines while the Kruger National Park attracts tourists with its wild life safari packages. It was recognized as one of the developing world’s Ten Best Ethical Travel Destinations in 2008 Ethical Traveler Report3. The existence of a rich bio diverse environment, scenic locales and breath taking views coupled with its increasing popularity as the most favorite emerging travel destinations are indicati ve of a positive wave of tourism culture which can be exploited and nurtured through proper planning and implementation of measures to support such large influx of travelers in order to encourage and sustain its image as tourism destination of choice. This report is prepared by our organization, XYZ ltd (an independent private research organization), to be presented to the TBCSA – Tourism Business Council of South Africa. With more than 10% of the country’s resources protected by conservation regulations, it has a vast expanse of unblemished land which is rich in bio – diversity, abundant wild life, a large variety of flora and fauna as well as vibrant and culturally diverse cities. This however, has been met

Thursday, January 23, 2020

Essay --

Lowi and his collaborators established four different typology for identifying and categorizing policy: Distributive, Redistributive, Protective Regulatory and Competitive regulatory. Distributive Distributive policies take â€Å"a resource from a broad group of people and gives the resource to a narrower group (Birkland, 210).† Such policies can be controversial because typically only the small group receiving the resources benefit from them. This can lead to interest group liberalism, â€Å"in which all claims to federal support and funding are assumed to be legitimate (Birkland, 212).† Detractors of distributive policy argue that government is â€Å"catering to clients† often failing to find better alternatives (Mitchell, 2014). An example of distributive property would be the Hurricane Sandy Relief Bill, which was labeled â€Å"Pork-Barrel† spending. The bill would allocate resources to specific districts that needed repair. Those districts and groups would, theoretically, be the only ones to benefit from said resources. Redistributive Redistributive policies are those â€Å"that takes a resource from one identifiable group and gives a benefit to another readily identifiable group (Birkland, 213).† Arguably the most contentious typology, redistributive policies involve taking some â€Å"valued public asset† from one group and allocating it to another (Mitchell, 2014). Affirmative action is an example of redistributive policy. It was series of policies and mandates that strove to provide minorities equal access to housing, educational, and employment opportunities, (Garrison-Wade, 24). Institutions of higher education began recruiting minorities in efforts to diversify their predominantly white population. Such policies were highly contentious as seen in... ...els. With issues such as unemployment and minimum wage, the issue has been debated and no new legislation has surfaced. President Obama has turned to these â€Å"workarounds† of collaborating with companies that help tackle his agenda initiatives due to a need for action. My argument would be, anyone that can contribute to fixing a problem, no matter how insignificant the contribution may seem, has a responsibility t do so. One of my classmates suggested that it wasn’t the president’s role to be involved in these matters. However, the role of the president has often been to use â€Å"the considerable prestige of the office to persuade people (Birkland, 108).† As long as there is logic and transparency in interlocal collaborative networks, Public-Private collaborations, and workarounds to federal legislation, citizens will still have opportunity to voice concerns and dissent.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Osama Bin Laden Research Paper

Osama Bal Laden; the mastermind of 9/11 Christian Hanker December 21 , 2012 World History Period 1 Osama Bin Laden changed the world on September 1 1, 2012, when he orchestrated the 911 1 bombings on the world Trade center in New York City. He has also formulated many other attacks including the October 2000 attack on the US Cole, and attacks on the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dark sees Salaam, Tanzania in 1998 (Encyclopedia of World 1).Osama Bin Laden had a negative Influence on societies, economies, and religion throughout the world because of his actions in masterminding many radical terrorist attacks, and because he created and ended al-Qaeda. Osama Bin Laden had a dramatic effect not only on the society of the United States but also worldwide. These radical attacks have resulted in changes to the way society conducts business, travel, Immigration, and most Importantly, how people view and trust each other. Simply put, it has in many ways resulted in a drastic change to m any people's behavior.The attacks of 9/1 1 resulted in increased security exponentially. After these attacks, airport security was amplified. Other security measures were Implemented such as every time someone flies they are required to undergo body scanning; they have to remove shoes and belts, and all liquids over three point four ounces must be packed in checked luggage Monsoon 13). All these measures are now enforced to ensure maximum safety and security in airports. Instead of being able to breeze through the airport and board their flight, people are required to be there two hours early. Which has become a necessary inconvenience and a time consuming practice. After the 9/11 attacks, people were very hesitant to fly because they were afraid. To help ease the anxiety of flying and perform the safety sys precautions, the Nun deed t States created the Transportation Security Administration. The TTS hired over 50,000 people to work in airports across the country and have found to date over fifty million prohibited items, 5,000 of them being firearms Monsoon 7-10). Since Osama Bin Alden's various attacks, some airlines like Canada 3000 and Swiss Air were on the verge of going bankrupt.To counteract this, the airlines crammed more seats in their airplanes, cut the complimentary food service, and reduced flights Monsoon 22). This inconveniences the passengers because there s less space and comfort on board and with less flights, not everyone may get a seat on their flight. Osama Bin Laden had a direct impact on the way we travel, has put anxiety in the minds of innocent people wanting or needing to travel on an airplane, and caused changes in the way commercial airlines conduct businesses.Osama Bin Laden has affected society worldwide through the lives lost in 9/1 1 and America's war on terrorism. Osama Bin Laden was responsible for the many deaths that occurred as a result of his terrorist attacks. In the wake of 9/1 1, approximately 3000 people died (Newspape rs 1). This not only affected the people that died, but also the people that love them, witnessed their death, their neighbors, the community around them, and also the world. An enormous amount of grief was felt throughout the world and many societies were humbled.Another way Osama Bin Laden has impacted society is the number of troops, particularly American, that have been sent to Afghanistan and Iraq to fight in the war on terrorism. Approximately 70,000 troops were sent to Iraq and Afghanistan (Encyclopedia of World 23). This affected both their own lives and also their loved ones, not knowing if they are alive, outing a great amount of fear in millions of people's lives worldwide. The cost of the war on terrorism has not only been human lives.Governments across the world have had to fund the increased deployments and make revisions in their budgets for the future. Finally, there has been a large death toll incurred by innocent Muslims living in both America and on the battlefiel d. In retaliation to the 9/11 bombings, many Americans discriminated against Muslim Americans and many cases resulted in violence. Muslim lives have been lost fighting for AY-Qaeda and innocent civilians eave died, being caught in the middle of this war. Osama Bin Laden is responsible for changing society and the lives of many Americans, troops and his own followers.Osama Bin Laden left his mark on society by his role in inflicting terror into the hearts and minds of people worldwide. What is so frightening about terrorism is that it could happen anywhere and anytime. Bin Laden used this advantage of mystery to plant the seed of fear into people's minds worldwide. In October 2001, according to a Gallup poll, forty six percent of Americans said terrorism was America's biggest problem (Grief 47). This shows that Osama Bin Laden has had an enormous and lasting influence on the way Americans think and why they may do certain things.Osama Bin Laden had such a great influence on Americans and their minds that the CIA released a bounty worth $25 million for Bin Laden. New York City authorities put posters up around New York City showing again how much the capture of Osama Bin Laden was worth to America and how much he had affected society. This is evidenced in figure one, showing that officials want Bin Laden dead or alive. Osama Bin Laden destroyed billions of people's peace of mind worldwide. The 9/1 1 attacks were carried out in conditions of everyday life, which was in essence using the element to surprise as a weapon.What is more terrifying is that he managed to install his people into our communities. These terrorists lived amongst us until Osama Bin Laden gave his orders. This effectively created a feeling of mistrust and paranoia after the 9/1 1 attacks. It certainly had a great impact on the state of mind of many Americans. Osama Bin Laden impacted society by influencing the modification of the security systems, being responsible for killing thousands of peo ple, and outing terror in millions of people's minds worldwide.While Osama Bin Laden had an extraordinary influence on how people around the world feel and behave he also had a negative impact on America's economy. One way Bin Laden left his mark on the United States economy is that his actions caused the United States to spend billions of dollars for the military, defense, and security sectors. In the years of 2006-2008, military spending increased by $540 million to supply weapons and transportation to fight the war on terror and to deploy troops into Pakistan and Afghanistan to find Bin Laden (Griffin 17).This huge expense would not have been incurred if Bin Laden had not executed the attack on the World Trade Centre. These funds could have been spent on other things, like paying off the national debt or providing better education and healthcare for American citizens. Not only did Bin Laden cause the United States spend unnecessary money on finding him, but he also affected socie ty by redistributing $540 million of potential funding which could have been used in improvements in society. This money was spent on defense and the security sectors.All three of these divisions boosted the United States debt to $14. Trillion (Burger 8). Osama Bin Laden cost the United States lots of resources, money, and time in the search for their peace of mind. Osama Bin Alden's actions have caused friction amongst Middle Eastern and western countries, raising the prices of odds from these nations, in particular oil. After the 9/1 1 attacks, the unhealthy relationship between Islamic countries and America made Muslims reluctant to trade, resulting in an increase in the oil price. Before 9/1 1, oil prices were $1. 3, per gallon but they have increased to a current price of $3. 65 per gallon (Mille 16). Obviously, with the price of gas skyrocketing by over $2 after 9/1 1, resources have become very expensive to obtain and has put many Americans in difficulties financially because it is a huge increase that has to be accounted for. Other resources such as gold have experienced price increases. At the time of the 9/1 1 bombings, gold was priced at $271. 5 per ounce however it is now very expensive, rising to $1821 per ounce (Mille 13-14).The price of gold after 9/11 has risen over 600%, while the American dollar has lost one third of its value. Since the 9/1 1 attacks, he increased price of many plentiful goods within the Middle East has made it more difficult for people to pay for them. Another way Bin Laden affected The United State's economy is due to his role in planning the destruction caused which resulted in the reparations the insurance companies owed, and the time and money spent cleaning the devastation.Firstly, in the attacks that killed over 3,000 people, it cost an estimated $1. 5 billion to clear the devastation where the World Trade Centre stood (Gaffing 13). This cost in clearing the remains, moving it and disposing of it was a large expense w hich otherwise would have been used on other necessary expenditure such as education or roads. These funds were spent on an event that could not have been predicted or budgeted for. The cost to America can also be accounted in for the time to thousands to workers and the tort to volunteers.Another way this incident affected the economy is in the insurance claims that were owed to millions of people. These insurance claims include life insurance, auto insurance, and property insurance. The combination of lives lost and damage of properties led to and estimated $40 billion price tag in insurance claims (Gaffing 7). This huge toll on insurance companies made many companies bankrupt, and if not bankrupt, premiums became very expensive for people wanting to purchase insurance.The cost of disposing and clearing the site where the World Trade Centre stood and the insurance claims incurred after the attack crippled the economy, especially that of New York City. After the attacks of 9/1 1, m any other struggles within the United States economy arose. One example of this is that the unemployment rate in the United States almost doubled. Prior to 9/1 1, the unemployment rate was four point nine percent but soon after, the unemployment rate rose to nine point one percent Mille 7-8).As a result of the terrorist attacks over 600,000 Jobs were lost, 226,000 of them in the travel industry (Mille 7-8). This huge cut of workers left many people struggling to survive, becoming homeless, and relying on welfare or other sorts of government aide to survive. With a large demand for supplies to aid homeless people, this increased the United States debt even further, setting the debt deeper by the millions. Thousands of small businesses were destroyed by the wreckage in New York City, from the collapse of the World Trade Centre and financially.Approximately 18,000 small businesses in lower Manhattan, particularly around the site of World Trade Centre, were either physically destroyed b y flying debris or financially crushed without income to offset the costs to repair their shops (Gaffing 8). These small businesses were particularly hurt because they did not have large cash reserves or other stores to make sure they were earning money. Instead, they were out of business for six weeks while repairs were being made in lower Manhattan.This lead to the large amount of unemployment that occurred and also left many people bankrupt. The attacks of 9/1 1 that Osama Bin Laden formulated had a demoralizing toll on America's economy by increasing unemployment, destroying small businesses, skyrocketing the prices of goods and forcing America to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to ensure safety and to find the man behind all the chaos and devastation. Osama Bin Laden was a very influential person and he used his power to change his religion for the worse.One way that he did this is that he encouraged a violent form of Islam called Salamis. With his extreme wealth, inheriti ng $300 million at age thirteen when his father died (Encyclopedia of World 4), ND power, he has influenced millions of Muslims to adopt his ideas and beliefs that encouraged violence. In Osama Bin Laden â€Å"Jihad against Jews and Crusaders†, Osama Bin Laden encourages Muslims worldwide that it is their duty religiously to kill all Americans and their allies whenever possible (bin laden, Osama).Bin Laden promoted a very extremist form of Islam and was able to spread it throughout the Muslim world. He proposed to kill other people because they were of a different religion and belief, even though they may be innocent of any religious hate crimes. He executed these attacks in many different ways, including bombings, assassinations, and cyber attacks (AY Qaeda 2). This added to his repertoire as being very dangerous and helped his followers strive for their mission of the Jihad.He was very intolerant to other religions and wanted others to tallow in his pate Laden changed views about religion and religious tolerance worldwide by increasing the stereotypes towards Middle Eastern or Islamic people being terrorists. Many forms of violence against Muslims or people with dark skin and dark hair occurred after 9/1 1 in retaliation for the attack. Osama Bin Laden therefore negatively affected religion, because innocent Muslims are being discriminated against because of Bin Laden attacks. Osama Bin Laden had a huge negative influence on religion, the economy, and society worldwide.

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

How to Really Cut Government Spending

If the U.S. Congress is serious about cutting government spending, it must eliminate duplication, overlap, and fragmentation in federal programs. That was the message U.S. Comptroller General Gene L. Dodaro had for Congress when he told lawmakers that as long as it keeps on spending more money than it collects, the federal government’s long-term fiscal outlook will remain â€Å"unsustainable.† The Extent of the Problem As Dorado told Congress, the long-term problem has not changed. Every year, the government spends more money on programs like Social Security, Medicare, and unemployment benefits than it takes in through taxes. According to the 2016 Financial Report of the U.S. Government, the federal deficit increased from $439 billion in fiscal year 2015 to $587 billion in fiscal 2016. Over the same period, a modest $18.0 billion increase in federal revenue was more than offset by a $166.5 billion increase in spending, mainly on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, and interest on debt held by the public. The public debt alone rose as a share of gross domestic product (GDP), from 74%at the end of fiscal 2015 to 77% at the end of fiscal 2016. By comparison, the public debt has averaged only 44% of the GDP since 1946. The 2016 Financial Report, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) all agree that unless policy changes are made, the debt-to-GDP ratio will surpass its historical high of 106% within 15 to 25 years. Some Near-Term Solutions While long-term problems require long-term solutions, there are some near-term things Congress and the executive branch agencies can do to improve the governments fiscal condition without eliminating or severely cutting major social benefits programs. For starters, suggested Dodaro, addressing improper and fraudulent benefits payments and the tax gap, as well as dealing with duplication, overlap, and fragmentation in those programs. On May 3, 2017, the GAO released its seventh annual report on fragmentation, overlap, and duplication among federal programs. In its ongoing investigations, the GAO looks for aspects of programs that could save taxpayer money by eliminating: Duplication: circumstances in which more than one federal agency, or more than one organization within an agency, is involved in the same broad area of national need and opportunities for more efficient service delivery exist;Overlap: when multiple agencies or programs have similar or identical goals, engage in similar activities or strategies to achieve them, or target similar beneficiaries; andFragmentation: circumstances in which more than one federal agency is involved in the same broad area of national need. As a result of the agencies’ efforts to fix the cases of duplication, overlap, and fragmentation identified in the GAO’s first six such reports issued from 2011 to 2016, the federal government has already saved an estimated $136 billion, according to Comptroller General Dodaro. In its 2017 report, the GAO identified 79 new cases of duplication, overlap, and fragmentation in 29 new areas across the government such as health, defense, homeland security, and foreign affairs.   By continuing to address, duplication, overlap, and fragmentation, and without entirely eliminating a single program, the GAO estimates the federal government could save â€Å"tens of billions.† Examples of Duplication, Overlap, and Fragmentation A few of the 79 new cases of wasteful program administration identified by the GAO its latest report on duplication, overlap, and fragmentation included: Sexual Violence Data: The Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Justice (DOJ) currently manage at least 10 different programs indented to collect data on sexual violence. The duplication and fragmentation results on wasted effort and a lack of understanding of the scope of the problem in the United States.Federal Grants Awards: The National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Food and Nutrition Service, and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lack processes to ensure that their grants do not fund duplicate or overlapping programs already being funded by other agencies.Foreign-Assistance Data Quality: As a key step to addressing the potential overlap in the collection and reporting of foreign-assistance information, the Department of State, in consultation with the U.S. Agency for International Development and OMB, needs to improve data quality to ensure consistency in publically available information on how foreign aid is distributed and used.Military Commissaries: By better managing and coordinating purchasing for it commissaries across all military branches, the Department ofDefense could save an estimated $2 billion.Storage of Defense and Commercial Nuclear Waste: By better coordinating the agencies collecting data and analyzing options for the permanent storage of military high-level nuclear waste and commercial spent nuclear fuel, the Department of Energy could potentially save tens of billions of dollars. Between 2011 and 2016, the GAO recommended 645 actions in 249 areas for Congress or executive branch agencies to reduce, eliminate, or better manage fragmentation, overlap, or duplication; or increase revenue. By the end of 2016, Congress and executive branch agencies had addressed 329 (51%) of those actions resulting in about $136 billion in savings. According to Comptroller General Dodaro, by fully implementing the recommendations made in the GAO’s 2017 report, the government could save â€Å"tens of billions more dollars.†