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Firefighters battle blazes in Provence, Corsica
Issued on: Modified:
Firefighters had succeeded in stopping the progress of a wildfire that had threatened homes near Nice on Tuesday morning. Fires on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica had also calmed after destroying about 200 hectares of scrub.
After stopping four flare-ups during the night, 450 firefighters had managed to bring the blaze, which was just 19 kilometres from the French Riviera city, under control on Tuesday morning.
But not before it had destroyed 120 hectares of forest and a car scrapyard.
The flames reached three homes, without causing serious damage or harming any residents, but three firefighters were overcome by fumes.
"It's one of the most difficult fires I've had to handle in my whole career," firefighters' officer Olivier Riquier told local paper Nice Matin.
Winds blew toxic fumes into the city, even reaching the seaside Promenade des Anglais, on Tuesday morning, and planes continued to dump water and flame retardant on the scene.
Corsicans flee to beaches
The south of France and Corsica are hit by wildfires every year and high temperatures and winds have caused a number in the last few days, with 800 hectares of forest destroyed near Aix-en-Provence at the weekend.
A blaze destroyed some 200 hectares of scrubland near the southern Corsican town of Bonifacio on Monday but calmed overnight.
Local people were confined to two beaches as emergency services tackled the conflagration.
The warm weather was forecast to continue on Tuesday, with storms predicted in the north-west and the west.

subset: commoncrawl


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Head west to Gloucester
Just as attractive, and more affordable, than Cheltenham
How it rates
In every duo there tends to be a star and a sidekick. Gloucester has long been lumbered as the plainer, less desirable foil to Cheltenham, ten miles up the road. But buyers are catching on to the fact that Gloucester is not only 50 per cent cheaper than its neighbour but that it has much to offer: a vast range of period properties, great transport links, and fabulous schools and leisure activities.
Where is it?
South of Birmingham and north of Bristol, on the banks of the River Severn, and within a few miles of the Welsh border.
Less than an hour by train to Bristol, Birmingham or Cardiff, and less than two hours to London. Handy for the M5.


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This is the old United Nations University website. Visit the new site at http://unu.edu
An unequal society marked by reductions in people's status
In 1987, 37 per cent of Abidjan households earned 80 per cent of total income and 40 per cent of African households earned less than 7 per cent of money incomes (see also table 8.4). Upward social mobility, legitimized only through political capacity bestowed by the President (Cohen, 1974), gave the city a unique status until 1980. The "high and mighty" in the President's entourage, senior executives, and those who distinguished themselves by their professional excellence, their dominant position, and their integration in the ruling classes had for a long time conferred a privileged status on the city, the focus of investment and accumulation, before fighting each other at the regional level following decentralization (Jaglin and Dubresson, 1993). Belonging to the powers that be, achieving élite status, and becoming a member of the ruling class could then be achieved only in Abidjan, where the élite's inherited practices, style of life, knowledge, and contacts (Vidal, 1991) facilitated an "eruption of investments of distinction" (Le Pape et al., 1992, p. 8). However, the dwindling of financial resources exacerbated struggles for state funds, monopolized until then by the powerful. The opening up of a new political scene by the decentralization reforms changed the élite's renewal processes. Still, whether in Abidjan or in other urban areas, the powerful have, in the final analysis, maintained or even increased their social distance not only from the poor but also from the middle classes, who have been the main victims of social downgrading.
White-collar workers and technicians in the state sector, the parastatals, industry, and what is generally called the modern tertiary sector, as well as the upper fringe of commerce and crafts - the "middle classes" - are a non-homogeneous stratum that is difficult to quantify. In 1978, qualified wage-earners in the tertiary sector, African entrepreneurs, and "modern" businessmen accounted for 11 per cent of the total population. With all qualified wage-earners, the "middle classes" accounted for 50,600 households, or 345,000 people, i.e. 27 per cent of Abidjan's population (Manou-Savina et al., 1985). If their class characteristics (petty bourgeoisie?) may be questioned, their urban practices testify to the existence of a group that could be assimilated neither in the state bourgeoisie nor in the popular masses and whose elements endeavoured to assure, defend, or legitimize their position in the city, in particular their access to subsidized public housing. These dwellings, officially meant for economically deprived people, were taken over by the middle classes, who also benefited from the state's policy on administrative leases, land, and credit concessions.
Table 8.4 Household income distribution in Abidjan, 1963-1988 (current CFA banes except 1963)
1963 SEMA (in 1977 CFA francs)
1978 EBC pre-surveya
1985 USAID survey
1988 DCGTx household survey
Monthly income categories ('000)
% of households
Monthly income categories ('000)
% of households
Monthly income categories ('000)
% of households
Monthly income categories ('000)
% of households
|Average household income (CFA francs)
|Median household income (CFA francs)
|Minimum wage (CFA francs/ month)
|Consumer price index for African households in Abidjan (1960= 100)
Source: DCGTx, 1989.
a. African population only.
b. Since 1982 for 173.3 hours/month.
This dependent relationship, based on the transfer of capital to a minority, was destroyed by the state's financial crisis. The urban economic foundation upon which the middle classes had depended for their accumulation strategy slowly disintegrated. Social downgrading prevails as much in the subsidized public housing that is now up for sale as in the communal courtyard quarters. Obviously, not everyone has been affected in the same way. Middle or big businesses have benefited from the enlarged market created by supplying the city with food products from the whole country (Chaléard, 1994). Civil servants and technical personnel who have kept their jobs and have been able to buy state houses or gain access to urban land outside the official market keep up their building endeavours and offer for rent new types of partially or totally individualized housing (Soumahoro, 1993). Nevertheless, social decline has affected most groups at "the top of the bottom" and "the bottom of the top," as people refer to the middle class. Their conditions of life continue to be uncertain and their mutual help mechanisms, however strong they may have been (Vidal, 1992), are unable to cushion the crisis. Although some trends that existed previously have been maintained even during the recession, i.e. the increasing importance of women, a strong feeling of belonging to the city, and the maintenance of active relations between Abidjan and the rest of the world, within and outside the country (Le Pape, 1992), there is now a real crisis in the political-economic mechanism of urban integration, and pauperization affects a large number of urban dwellers (table 8.4 and Marie, 1995).
From integrated town planning to district management
The modern city project
Attempting integrated town planning (Haeringer, 1985): The "right" side of town
At the time of independence, the new government had to take up the challenge of the quantity and quality of inherited structures, which were not suited to developments that, according to its statements, were supposed to address the needs of all social strata. It then adopted a resolutely modern project with the aim of eradicating all the "slums" (illegal shanties and insalubrious courtyard houses) within 10 years and building a city for all nationals of the Côte d'Ivoire. The town planning policy thus initiated was an integral part of the development strategy, with its theme of modernization, which was systematically propagated by all government officers, the President himself advocating a bold social policy. Therefore, the liberal choice made at independence was not to be equated with laissez-faire; it was backed by voluntaristic action to control the whole city building process.
In contrast with towns ruled by local chiefs, the building of Abidjan city was driven by planning goals that had been a constant feature of all governments' urban policies since 1926, when the first town development plan was mooted. Successive plans since independence - SETAP Plan, 1960; AURA Development Plan, 1969; 1/50,000 Structural Diagram, 1967; Town Master Plan, 1972; Town Development Plans since 1976 - have permitted control over the distribution of main activities along the industrial-harbour axis; assisted the provision of infrastructure, in particular a noteworthy inter-urban road network; and defined those housing developments initiated by the state.
Indeed, government ensured total control over land (Ley, 1972) by appropriating all so-called vacant land, a process fraught with problems owing to customary land rights which had to be cancelled after violent clashes with the Ebrie people, who finally obtained compensation in cash and plots for the land they had lost (Yapi Diahou, 1981). This state land was then subdivided into plots, developed for building, and transferred either through grants or as private property, depending on the wishes and means of the recipients.
The state made property rights dependent on proper standards of development so as to control, at least in theory, where and how the city would expand and also to have an impressive means of promoting so-called "modern" housing at its disposal. Modernization could be understood only with reference to a scale of values: at the bottom were those houses surrounding a courtyard, where several households shared a plot, a bathroom, and a kitchen; at the top were spacious houses with gardens, tokens of social success. State intervention came in between. The public sector was to build suitably serviced government houses as a first step towards modernization, as well as a way to ensure social stability by redistributing, through this subsidized housing, some of the fruit of the country's growth.
Between 1960 and 1975, the government set up an impressive machine that benefited Abidjan first and foremost: a subsidized public housing building mechanism, by means of a state company (Société de gestion et de financement de l'habitat - SOGEFIHA, 1963) and a parastatal company (Société ivoirienne de construction et de gestion immobilière - SICOGI, 1959); a financing mechanism, first with the Office de soutien à l'habitat économique (OSHE, 1968), a state department under the Ministry of Finance to manage budget allocations, then with the Banque rationale d'épargne et de crédit (BNEC), a state company created in 1975 and which merged with the OSHE in 1977, responsible for the management of a Housing Fund; and an urban development mechanism - the Société d'équipement des terrains urbains (SETU), which is a state company responsible for the provision of roads and other infrastructure to land allocated for low-cost housing projects (table 8.5).
At the same time, existing districts with state housing estates built before independence or with unbuilt areas were renovated. Land was gradually divided into plots with roads and sometimes other infrastructure, or re-structured by brutally removing squatters and destroying their shacks. Basic housing estates on the outskirts of the city were built in compensation and to alleviate the conflicts that followed the bulldozing of some 20 per cent of existing houses between 1969 and 1973. The basic and supposedly provisional and temporary nature of these areas showed that in Abidjan, in contrast to other towns, they were not meant to ensure modernization, which, until 1971, was to be based on subsidized public housing.
Considerable efforts were made. In 1963, housing societies controlled some 6,000 housing units, in which 10 per cent of households lived. In 1971, government housing accounted for some 12,000 units, housing 20 per cent of the population; between 1971 and 1977, 5,000 housing units were built per year and by 1979, when the recession started, more than 22 per cent of urban dwellers lived in subsidized public housing. Budget allocations were witness to this state commitment: from 1973 to 1977, 46 per cent of investment in the building of housing went to state housing, and 60 per cent of the cost of low-cost housing was subsidized. However, the creation of SETU at the beginning of the 1970s indicated that ready-made housing was no longer seen as the only solution. By then, an intensive land policy aimed at making building land available complemented the house-building programme: from 1974 to 1981, the SETU developed 1,545 ha and 11,000 building plots.
Table 8.5 Occupancy by type of housing in Abidjan, 1963-1988
Type of housing
Population ('000)
Population ('000)
Population ('000)
Population ('000)
Population ('000)
|High-income private housing
|Subsidized public housing
|Communal courtyards
|Spontaneous shacks
Source: Ph. A. B. Zanou, Projet d'étude sur l'insertion en milieu urbain de Côte d'Ivoire, Abidjan, Centre ORSTOM de Petit-Bassam, Bulletin du GIDIS 8: 19-35.
Despite these vast programmes, which gave the city a structure and features unique in West Africa (apart from new cities such as Yamoussoukro and Abuja), by 1985 this public sector urban model could house only one-fifth of the city's inhabitants and in 1988 58.4 per cent of Abidjan residents still lived around communal courtyards, legally or otherwise. Spatial growth was indeed brought under control and illegal housing, permanent or temporary, occupied only 932 ha, compared with 6,600 ha of legal housing, in 1984, i.e. 12 per cent of the built-up residential area (23 per cent in 1963). In 1988, so-called modern housing (private houses and blocks of flats) occupied 47 per cent of residential land. However, access of the masses to modern housing was still a problem and not only because of the discrepancy between state funds for housing and the massive influx of migrants.
A city of tenants living around courtyards: The reverse of the modern model
By facilitating middle-class access to modern housing and urban land, by enabling them to get rich from rents, legally or illegally, the state redistribution practices led to a diversion of social housing. A detailed analysis of its distribution made during the first 10 years after independence shows how the ruling classes acquired a new urban political base by making the middle classes their clients, and how the adoption of sophisticated and costly building standards contributed to the exclusion of self-employed workers, craftsmen, and small traders, so that the official model could meet the demands of only a privileged few.
A city of tenants, with only 15 per cent of household heads owning their accommodation in 1985 and 19 per cent in 1988, Abidjan has remained a city of courtyards. This type of housing results from three forms of land acquisition: a legal one by the purchase of a plot from the authorities, and two illegal ones - buying a plot in an estate developed by a customary landowner or settling on insalubrious non di'Qcandi land or vacant land reserved for other uses in the urban plan. Legal courtyard dwellings were set up by the authorities prior to independence. Some are parts of reception areas created after 1960 and others belong to old unsubdivided or illegally subdivided districts that were later redeveloped. Legally or illegally, land is often rapidly occupied and dwellings are constructed with minimum investment - simple dirt tracks and basic plot demarcation without any services, giving rise to discontinuities in the urban fabric.
A courtyard is a differentiated space with a built-up part, using permanent materials or wood, comprising living quarters and outbuildings (bathroom, kitchen), and an open part, the actual courtyard, usually in the middle of the plot. Each house is composed of adjacent rooms of approximately 10 m² each living unit comprising one room (bed-sitter), two rooms (bedroom and sitting room), or, most rarely, three rooms. Kitchens are small cubbyholes, while bathrooms are used collectively by all residents. Some plots include craft workshops or small tracers' strops and the open courtyard serves as a meeting place, a playground for children, and a space for domestic chores. Built without state help, mainly for rent, most of the courtyards accommodate several families and various ethnic groups, enabling the mixing of the city's population and cultures. They are structured on the basis of a rental strategy.
Most of the courtyard buildings, whether legal or illegal, are permanent structures (40 per cent of the residential area in 1988). Most are built of cement breeze-blocks with corrugated iron roofs, though scarcely ever by the occupier and his family. The owner is not the builder either; building is usually entrusted to pieceworkers, artisans who negotiate their conditions of work and their payment with the plot owner. Big businessmen, many civil servants, and other private landlords are able to ensure a fast and continuous building process, with highly variable completion periods. In the illegal areas that have not yet been divided into plots, and where some isolated permanent or "banco" (clay) structures can be spotted, most of the dwellings are built of wood, with roofs of salvaged corrugated iron, plant material, plastic sheeting, or cardboard. During the 1980s, craftsmen started producing prefabricated panels ("cut and nail") for rapid assembly. These so-called "spontaneous" dwellings, inherently temporary and illegal, housed 14 per cent of the total population in 1963, 21 per cent in 1973, and 14 per cent in 1988. They were restricted and even partly destroyed, but their area increased between 1984 and 1987, from 750 to 1,053 ha (+41 per cent), and in 1990 the AUA counted 68 such areas in all the city's districts, except the Plateau (Yapi Diahou, 1994; see fig. 8.3).
The concept of building, of permanent or wooden structures, goes hand in hand with letting, so that owners try to build as much as possible to increase their rental income. Buildings therefore progress horizontally, plots becoming ever more densely occupied and some courtyards reduced to a corridor, then vertically, an additional floor being added on one side, while the courtyard is maintained. High-density housing and high-density population are interlinked and gross density in some central districts reaches as much as 500 inh/ha, with maximums of 700 in non-subdivided areas. Overcrowding and lack of privacy are the main features of the courtyard dwellings, as well as a general lack of services. Some old central areas have a few streets, some of them surfaced, a partial drainage system with open gutters, as well as water and electricity in most streets. The plot may be connected to services without the dwellings being directly connected: often a tap in the courtyard is used by all the tenants. Alternatively, in the absence of a distribution network, water has to be bought from official or unofficial sources. Areas subdivided into plots during the 1960s have no sewerage system and suffer from severely deficient infrastructure: 1 shower for 20 residents in Abobo-gare, 1 toilet for 20 residents in Attécoubé in 1985 (Antoine et al., 1987). In most cases, sewerage is individual: cesspools or septic tanks, which are emptied more or less regularly. This increases the risk of epidemics in these temporary dwellings, which are ignored by public services and where infant and child mortality rates are sometimes higher than in the rural areas.
Whether legal or illegal, courtyard dwellings do not satisfy modern standards as defined by the authorities, even if permanent concrete block buildings provide a measure of modernization and actual slums house only 14 per cent of the population. But the replacement of courtyard housing with well-serviced individual houses, which should have been the second step on the way to modernization, never happened, though some new forms of courtyard dwellings have appeared, with adjacent individualized dwellings (Soumahoro, 1993).
The problem of maintaining the courtyards is all the more crucial because changes in urban policies, with the state abandoning house-building in favour of improving services and management, have placed courtyards at the heart of recent projects supported by the World Bank since 1981.
Changes in the 1980s: Time for "urban management"
Since the beginning of the 1980s, the dramatic drying up of state funds has generated a change in urban planning. As early as 19751979, warning signs of today's problems led to the gradual end of social housing programmes. The principle of free housing for some civil servants was reconsidered, while the closing down of state companies, the review of higher civil servants' salaries, and the higher cost of credit aggravated the impact of recession. Many more social categories are therefore affected by problems of housing (including land tenure, housing proper, and services) and modernization, with the lower middle class relegated to the level of the excluded masses. The state, while addressing the exclusion of the most downtrodden, must also consider the problems faced by its clients, former beneficiaries of modernist policies. The changes in its urbanization policy therefore also derive from internal pressures, which may endanger in the long term the stability of a regime anxious to preserve its alliance with the urban middle classes who have been affected by the crisis.
However, it would be wrong to attribute policy changes to recession only. Some actions were taken before state funds started dwindling, in particular the administrative reform that gave new power to local authorities as the main managers of the cities. The law on district (commune) administration, passed in 1980, was first conceived at the end of the 1970s, when coffee and cocoa revenues were still high. Contrary to most decentralization processes in Africa, which appear to have followed the economic crisis, Côte d'Ivoire's reforms came earlier. As a local reaction to internal tensions, decentralization created opportunities for popular politics (Labazée, 1993), and offered positions to senior civil servants who could no longer be accommodated in the overstaffed central administration. In the same way as other democratization measures, decentralization seems to have proceeded from a renewal of the apparatus for socio-political regulation.
Changes also resulted from external pressure, such as World Bank recommendations in the field of urban development, within the general framework of structural adjustment policies that were adopted by the bankrupt state to solicit financial assistance. The World Bank, which appeared on the Côte d'Ivoire scene in 1974, has repeatedly criticized the government housing and subdivision policies, in particular the high standards for services and their impact on costs, as well as the terms and conditions of allocating and financing plots and houses, which had already been argued against by the French aid agency in order to justify withdrawing funds for low-cost housing. The various city development plans, which have increased functional and social segregation, are considered to have worsened transport problems and deepened the inequalities between central and peripheral areas, while grandiose prestige projects are also denounced. The World Bank's "recommendations" are based on the following principles: enabling low-income population groups to gain access to ownership; easing building standards and improving the land tenure system; co-opting private enterprises by entrusting them with house-building ending the demolition of existing private dwellings; engaging non-citizens in housing projects; obtaining payment from the beneficiaries through proper pricing policies and using the resources available from local taxes; and, finally, prioritizing needs, starting by providing sanitation and a clean water supply in the most deprived districts.
Following protracted and difficult negotiations, the World Bank finally managed to impose its views. The mainstays of state intervention - BNEC, BCET, SOGEFIHA, and SETU - have disappeared; state housing has been sold and the government is putting pressure on the SICOGI for it to adopt a similar privatization policy. Great efforts are being made to facilitate the access of tenants to ownership. Flats and houses belonging to the SOGEFIHA, which was wound up in 1986, were sold either by SOGEFIHA-liquidation (in the case of houses bought on instalments) or by the Direction des ventes immobilières (DVI) of the DCGTx (for individual rented dwellings) at prices discounted by 48 per cent compared with market prices. Those who were renting or buying on instalments and who could pay cash when the sale offer was made got an additional 25 per cent discount; those who undertook to pay within two years obtained a 10-15 per cent rebate. The SICOGI offered its tenants an average reduction of 44 per cent on market prices and set up a case-by-case system of instalment purchase, sometimes over more than 10 years, based on amounts negotiated so that buyers would not need bank loans, on which interest rates are very high.
This process benefited higher-income tenants who had been clients of the former system and lived in, or more often sublet, rented houses: by increasing their real property they have consolidated their social status. In contrast, low wage-earners found it more difficult to respond and most of them today are among the 25 or 30 per cent of people who have "reserved" housing but who cannot pay, or have difficulty in paying, their instalments. The situation is even worse for those tenants whose salaries have been cut or who have lost their jobs because of the crisis. The former cannot purchase their dwellings and often offer them for sale, before expulsion orders arrive, to wealthier people who may have been former absentee tenants building up their real estate property thanks to privatization. This kind of parallel so-called "amicable" settlement goes against the official social nature of the sales operations, but it benefits all concerned, as was indicated in the country's main daily newspaper:
the real estate agency which gets the real sales price of the dwelling, the former tenant who obtains money from a buyer for a house he did not build himself and the latter who now owns a house which was not meant for him and which he will never occupy. (Fraternité-matin, 22 November 1992, p.11)
The unemployed are in a very difficult position and, although some have formed associations that enjoy special treatment (easy long-term payment conditions based on their unemployment benefits), most of them did not manage to keep their accommodation after unemployment benefits were cut from 75,000 to 50,000 CFA francs in 1992. Generally, only those whose payments were not up to date at the time of the sales offer have been officially evicted, while the SOGEFIHA-liquidation as well as the DVI have been rather flexible, in particular with subtenants and illegal tenants, to whom they sometimes offered accommodation. However, a measure of social discrimination actually favoured the best-off categories.
Development of building land has been entrusted to the DCGTx, a strong agency created in 1978 and attached to the President's Office in 1981, and the main instrument for the implementation of government policies. The Atelier d'urbanisme d'Abidjan (AUA) was integrated with it in 1985 and since 1987 the DVI has functioned as an implementing agency, distributing plots in accordance with the Third Urban Development Project (UDP3). Finally, the World Bank has become the state's main partner. It financed 41.4 per cent of UDP3 (1987-1992), while USAID financed 2.8 per cent, the state 20.5 per cent, the beneficiaries 34.8 per cent, and private international players 0.5 per cent. Urban management has replaced house construction and even public investment in the dominant discourse as well as in practice.
What does "governance" mean?
Stratification of powers: How the city was thrown out of the game
Abidjan comes under the jurisdiction of three types of actor: the state and its public service agencies; the "city of Abidjan," an intermediate body above the districts; and the 10 district (commune) authorities created in 1978 (fig. 8.3). Good governance, the international donors' latest creed for improving urban productivity and thus ensuring the city's efficiency (Venard, 1993), entails a search for complementarities between actors, their scope for action, and their fields of jurisdiction. However, the state and its centralized public service agencies have retained their main powers, while the city's power has been reduced to what the district authorities are willing to tolerate (Attahi, 1989, 1991). The City Council comprises the mayor, elected from amongst the mayors of the 10 districts, these 10 mayors, and SO councillors (5 per district) elected by the district councils from amongst their members. Understandably, local representatives are fiercely protective of the powers of their districts, which they want to shield from possible interference by the city, whose jurisdiction is indeed not very important in terms of existing regulations. Actually, apart from refuse collection and street lighting, practically no basic services (water, power, sanitation, transport) are the city's responsibility and it is unable to coordinate sectoral actions by government ministries and concessionary agencies. Thus, most important services are still managed by central agencies, while districts try to promote local development by levying taxes as authorized by the legislation on decentralization.
New approaches to land management to recover costs
As a first component of the UDP3 on housing, 750 ha were to be developed with 18,500 plots for a unit cost of 640,000 CFA francs (1986), i.e. 16 per cent of the estimated demand for 1987-1992. Four types of plots were to be developed: those with basic sanitation (250 m² clean water from a supply point, no electricity) for households with incomes of less than 70,000 CFA francs; plots for households with incomes of 70,000-100,000 CFA francs (as above, plus electricity); plots for households with incomes of 100,000-180,000 CFA francs (300 m² lined stormwater drains, underground links to the water and electricity network); and plots for households with incomes of more than 180,()00 CFA francs (450 and 600 m² plots, surfaced streets, sewage disposal). The two districts where these developments were to take place were Abobo and Cocody, thus confirming the long-planned social stratification of Abidjan. Applicants were selected according to their means, while an internal balancing mechanism was intended to ensure that those who bought high-quality plots partly financed the poorly serviced plots for the low-income groups. As far as building is concerned, the better-off buyers were to obtain credit from formal sector housing finance institutions (CAA/CDMH), while the others were permitted to build their own dwellings. By 1992, low-income plots had not yet been developed and, in the final analysis, these "ready to occupy" plot operations have once more benefited the middle classes (Yapi Diahou, 1994), the Norwegian-Ivoirian privately owned joint venture company, semi-private companies (SICOGI, GFCI), as well as the savings associations and small owners who control more than 10,000 new dwellings. Private players have indeed replaced the state, but the clients are the same - low-income population groups are still excluded from the modernization process.
The renovation of courtyard districts: Profiting the owners
Renovation - advocated by the World Bank but argued against by the country's rulers, who refused the proposed lowering of standards for a long time, and resisted by many small private owners worried about their rental income - started only in 1981, although the idea had already been included in the first UDP adopted in 1976. Full servicing of existing districts (with clean water, electricity, sanitation), new road networks, collective services, and land regularization affected only the legally recognized districts, whereas temporary settlements were left out. In Abobo, Adjamé-Fraternité, Bromakoté, and Port-Bouët II, the first developments financed with World Bank assistance (60 per cent of primary networks) and USAID help (30 per cent of secondary networks) have clearly improved the level of services but the networks thus set up are often underutilized, because many owners are discouraged by the technical option (individual connections) and its cost. Further, most of the residents were tenants, who had to suffer rent increases as owners passed on the cost of connections and operations once the plots were linked to the networks. Thus many tenants were forced to leave, but absentee landlords came to settle, taking advantage of land regularization which gave them permanent tenure. At the end of the day, the main beneficiaries of this renovation were the owners, a minority who mostly collect rents (Manou-Savina, 1986).
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Financial Troubles Spread Among Mortgage Lenders
Financial Troubles Spread Among Mortgage Lenders
With the failure of IndyMac Bank, the second largest financial institution to close in U.S. history, on Friday, investors are increasingly focused on how mortgage lenders are responding to an uncertain housing market and slumping economy.
LIANE HANSEN, host:
This is Weekend Edition from NPR News. I'm Liane Hansen. Uncertainty in the housing market and the slump in the economy took its toll on the stock market this past week. At one point Friday, the Dow Jones industrial average fell below 11,000 for the first time in two years. Wall Street investors were dumping their shares amidst fears that the nation's biggest mortgage lenders are in major trouble. Late Friday, there was more bad news, the failure of IndyMac Bank, the second largest financial institution to close in U.S. history. NPR's Curt Nickisch joins us from the studios of WBUR in Boston. And Curt, it's been quite a worrisome week.
CURT NICKISCH: Boy, Liane, you know it's been a doozy of a week when you start the next one off with a brand new bank. Tomorrow, IndyMac is going to open as IndyMac Federal Bank. U.S. regulators have taken it over after so many of the home loans it gave out were in default. People got nervous, they made a run on their deposits, and the bank went under. Right now IndyMac is the only bank of that size to fail lately. But it's troubling because many banks are losing money on foreclosed properties.
HANSEN: Of course, IndyMac is a private lender, not related to Freddie Mac or Fannie Mae. Those are two government-sponsored mortgage giants. But you know what? Those two could be in trouble, too. Their stocks went in - it was a depressing ride this past week. Why is everyone so afraid?
NICKISCH: Well, Fannie and Freddie, of course, face the same problem from rising foreclosure, except many more times. So, they write about half the country's mortgages. They've lost about eight billion dollars in as many months. And the more they lose, the less other financial institutions want to lend to them. And they need money to underwrite new home loans.
Now, Federal officials this past week took a bunch of opportunities to try to reassure people that these companies are doing reasonably well. But how bad it gets for them really depends on when and where the housing market hits bottom. No one knows that, and that's making many investors pretty sick to their stomachs.
HANSEN: So, what does this mean then for consumers?
NICKISCH: Well, for one, if the federal government has to give Freddie and Fannie a hand, that's a burden on tax payers. But the immediate danger is that these two companies are such big players in home loans, if they can't raise money cheaply, that means the home loans they back won't be cheap either. You want to buy a house, you might get higher rates and fees. That only discourages people from buying which only makes the housing downturn worse. And Liane, in the end, housing, whether its construction or bank loans or just buying a new couch when you move into a new place, it all adds up to such a big part of the economy.
HANSEN: Give us a preview of what is going to happen this week.
NICKISCH: Tomorrow, there's some new Truth in Lending rules coming out. They're designed to sort of build up more confidence in the mortgage industry. There's also a slew of corporate earnings results coming up on Wall Street. Investors aren't only going to be looking at how companies have been doing, but how they think they are going to do in the months ahead. And Fed chief Ben Bernanke talks to Congress this week. That'll be a good chance to see how willing the Federal Reserve is to help out Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae if they get stuck in quicksand and really start sinking.
HANSEN: But investors will be - will really be watching Fannie and Freddie Mac to see what happens?
NICKISCH: Yeah, they're just such key, you know, indicators. If they go one direction, and that means the housing market goes in one direction, that just brings so much of the economy with it.
HANSEN: NPR's Curt Nickisch. Thank you very much, Curt.
NICKISCH: Sure thing.
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Hear the untold stories of enslaved people and learn about historical and contemporary slavery.
Historical and contemporary slavery.
A beautiful building housing one of the UK's finest collections of fine and decorative art.
Paintings, Wedgwood and Chinese ceramics.
Uncover objects from the Titanic, find out about life at sea and learn about the port of Liverpool.
The Titanic, life at sea and Liverpool's port.
This museum tells the story of Liverpool with diverse exhibits housed in a stunning building.
Liverpool's history and popular culture.
Explore a Victorian merchant's house with its period furniture and beautiful paintings.
Paintings, vintage fashion and furniture.
Beautiful paintings, sculpture and decorative art from the 13th century to the present day.
Paintings, sculpture and decorative art.
Discover treasures from around the world, explore outer space and meet live creatures!
World cultures, space and live creatures.
© Pete Carr
We've got lots of fun activities to keep boredom at bay this half-term!
From storytelling to hands-on craft sessions, there's something for all ages, across our museums and galleries.
Here are some of the highlights, or see the links below for full details of what's on at each venue.
On now
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Great Ocean Views, This is a spacious, very comfortable 2 bedroom, 2 bath and it sleeps 6. King in master and a Queen and Bunk beds in the large guestbedroom. This condo is located on one of the most popular condos on the island Heated pool, party room, very short walk over to beach and located in themiddle of the island. Free WiFi
Property Type: CondoSleeps: 6Bedrooms: 2Bathrooms: 2Minimum Stay: 7 days
Experience matters, our experience as St Augustine realtors with real estate and development sets us apart from the competition. Our belief is that each customer is important, no matter what your budget is, we will find you what you are looking for.
Waterfront homes in St. Augustine
St. Augustine Beach homes
St. Augustine home sales
St. Augustine condo sales
5961 A1A Suite 101St Augustine, FL 32080United States


text:
Welcome to SAFS!
At the start of the 1700s, Saint Petersburg was an uninhabited land and for good reason; it was a swamp! No one could have looked at that territory and imagined what it would look like today. No one but Peter, the only one who didn't see a swamp but a magnificent city upon which to build an empire.
To say he was an ambitious man is an understatement. With his efforts, reforms and dedication to progress, he pulled Russia out of the Medieval Ages and into the Age of Discovery. He built ships that sailed out of the harbor and into the unknown on adventures and excursions exploring and bringing Russia and the West closer than ever before.
Ships Are For Sailing (SAFS) is continuing his legacy and bringing the two cultures together, providing cultural and historical insight as well as updates on life as a Peterpat. For more on SAFS, check out the About Me section!
Discover Russia
Life in Russia beyond the textbooks
Navigating life in Russia as an expat
About SAFS
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Hahahahahaha, this is the best product review ever of the Rotato Express.
Great Product Photos from Etsy Inc. on Vimeo.
This video was made specifically for Etsy sellers, but the tips given here can apply to anybody trying to sell anything online — whether it's eBay, Craigslist, or Etsy. Great, clear, and big photos are going to help a lot!
Over at GOOD there's a post filled with examples of conceptual and prototype product packaging that disappears/dissolves with use. In the example shown here, OXO got rid of the plastic wrap-around label and printed icons directly onto the glass. Small steps, but one that can lead to big differences for these big companies.
In 2 separate posts (here & here) Antrepo explores the idea of taking away as much as possible from various brands' logos and product packaging while still maintaining the brand's iconic aesthetic. In most cases, color is stripped almost entirely and the product is left to fend for itself simply on the now-monotone (or minimal) […]
Take a look at this work from Anderson Design Group for Willa's Shortbread. Great type work and color scheme that makes it really feel like this came off of a home shelf rather than a grocery store. ᔥ The Dieline (photos by Edward Patton)


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Imagine yourself as the owner of a small company, or the CEO of a large corporation. The company is not doing well, but you are convinced the distress can be overcome. While sales are down, competition is fierce and your latest expansion – made with borrowed money – did not go well, the business is fundamentally sound. Indeed, you are convinced the business would be profitable if only the debt service wasn't so high. For many, a conversation with counsel to discuss restructuring options – specifically, how to get the creditors to accept less than they are owed or to receive their money over a longer time – is the first order of business. The law encourages these conversations and, critically, keeps them confidential from third parties, especially those creditors.
Attorney-client communications are not a one-way street, both sides have obligations to the other. "A client who consults a lawyer needs to disclose all of the facts to the lawyer and must be able to receive in return communications from the lawyer reflecting those facts."ii The lawyer's advice, based on the facts disclosed by the client, is required to be kept confidential. This protection allows for "open communication between attorneys and their clients so that fully informed legal advice may be given."iii
In the hypothetical that opened this article, the client needs fully informed legal advice about available options to restructure the business' obligations, how to deal with creditors, employees and other matters. For example, can the business restructure the debt? Can employees be fired? Can unencumbered assets be moved to a new company and borrowed against to inject new capital into the business? These conversations, and more, are generally protected by the attorney-client privilege from disclosure to the impacted creditors and other third parties.
Despite the importance of the attorney-client privilege and the wide protections given to attorney-client communications, the privilege is not absolute. For example, the law will not protect communications that are made in furtherance of a fraud. Fraud in this context does not require a criminal act; instead, civil fraud, and even a fraudulent transfer, will suffice and will permit the court to breach the attorney client privilege and require the disclosure of otherwise protected materials.
This is what happened in Fragin v. First Funds Holdings LLC f/k/a First Funds LLC. In Fragin, the New York court compelled the defendants' lawyers to reveal to the plaintiff their communications with the defendant relating to the defendant's transfer of assets to a newly formed company owned by defendant's principals.
Defendant First Funds operated a merchant advance business, financing small businesses through a purchase of their future credit card receivables. First Funds owed large sums to its lenders and its owners sought to satisfy some of those debts, and to protect the company's valuable assets, by sellingiv them to a newly-formed business they controlled. The sale was discussed and executed pursuant to documents prepared by First Funds' attorneys.
A few months after the sale and in an unrelated transaction, First Funds gave the plaintiff Fragin a promissory note for $1.4 million but never made any payments on the note. In his lawsuit against First Funds and the other defendants to collect on the note and for other damages, Fragin alleged that First Funds' asset sale was a fraudulent conveyance pursuant to New York Debtor Creditor Law 276. This section provides, as relevant here, that "every conveyance made and every obligation incurred with actual intent . . . to hinder, delay or defraud either present or future creditors is fraudulent as to both present and future creditors." Thus, even though Fragin was not a creditor of First Funds at the time of the transfer (such that First Funds' asset transfer was not designed to secret the company's assets away from him), he was still, as a future creditor of First Funds at the relevant time, able to assert that he had been damaged by the transfer.
Fragin asked the defendants to produce to him documents relating to the transfer; specifically, he asked for drafts of the transfer documents and correspondence between the lawyers and their clients concerning the transfer. Defendants refused to produce the documents, or to provide deposition testimony concerning the transfer, because the information was protected from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege. Fragin agreed that the privilege applied to the requested information but argued the documents should be produced anyway under the crime-fraud exception to the privilege.
On Fragin's motion to compel production, the court ruled that the evidence Fragin introduced relating to the sale of First Funds' assets was sufficient to establish probable cause that a fraud (the fraudulent conveyance of the assets) may have been committed, and that the subject communications with counsel were in furtherance of the fraud as they indisputably related to the asset transfer.v The court did not find, nor was it required to, that the law firm knowingly participated in the client's fraudulent conduct. Instead, the law is clear that communications are properly "excluded from the scope of the privilege even if the attorney is unaware that his advice is sought in furtherance of such an improper purpose."vi As a result, the disputed documents were ordered to be produced and that ruling was affirmed on appeal.
The Fragin case has valuable lessons to share for both lawyers and clients the most important of which is the same for both – make sure that legal advice given and received is based on knowledge of all the relevant facts. With a full and frank conversation, and thoughtful legal advice, the issues addressed by the Fragin court could have been avoided entirely. And, the conversations between lawyer and client would have remained protected by the attorney-client privilege.
ii: Restatement (Third) of the Law Governing Lawyers §68 cmt. c (2000).
iii: In re John Doe, Inc., 13 F.3d 633, 635-36 (2d Cir. 1994).
iv: No cash was exchanged as part of this sale. Instead, the newco assumed a portion of First Funds' debt.
v: The court's ruling was based on the 'crime-fraud' exception to the attorney-client privilege which permits the disclosure of otherwise privileged communications where there is a factual basis for a showing of probable cause to believe: (1) that a fraud or crime had been committed; and (2) that the communications in question were in furtherance of the fraud or crime. In re N.Y. City Asbestos Litig., 109 A.D.3d 7, 10 (1st Dep't 2013).
vi: In re Grand Jury Subpoena Duces Tecum Dated Sept. 15, 1983, 731 F.2d 1032, 1038 (2d Cir. 1984).
Patrick Fitzmaurice is a partner at Troutman Sanders. Patrick's practice focuses on representing lenders and other creditors in workouts, restructurings, litigation and bankruptcy matters. He has particular experience working with investment banks and other financial institutions to resolve matters involving derivative contracts and other complex assets. Patrick also represents clients in connection with fraudulent transfer…
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Win Tix: Todd Barry Stand-Up Comedy (HBO, Comedy Central): Friday 10:15 pm | Cobb's
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He played band member Todd on HBO's Flight of the Conchords, and has had memorable roles on Louie, Bored to Death, Sex and the City, The Larry Sanders Show and Chappelle's Show.
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All Heroic Content Down
After the success of last week's four boss haul we came into Emerald Nightmare this week with high hopes of finishing the job. With Fun away on personal business and our backup tank, Regaal, having a PC crisis we were down to a single tank and therefore Theogwain had to step up from the DPS ranks to keep Artherion company as our 2nd tank.
We started well but soon hit a wall as we couldn't kill Il'gynoth however with a cheesy strat from Clearly we managed to kill Il'gynoth in a single phase and then went on to rekill all previous bosses and half way through our second night we were stood in front of Xavius. A few 'practice' pulls and the slayer of Ysera was laid to rest.
With the announcement, yesterday that 7.1 would be out on October 25th with the Trial of Valor opening on November 8th means that we're well placed to get a few more clears of gear before we head into the new content post BlizzCon and can have some Karazhan fun without the pressure of worrying about clearing the Nightmare.
Grats to all who were there but especially to Theo for stepping into a tank role at short notice and doing a stonking job.


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Twin windows that are framed within a few inches of each other and that are covered by 4 panels can be configured with either open center panels or as double bi-fold. Both options look very similar when panels are closed.
Open Center
In the open center configuration, the 2 panels in the center are hinged to a vertical t-post in the center of the frame.
Pro: Most common and strongest means of mounting shutter panels to the shutter's frame.
Con: The 2 center panels cannot be swung open flat against the wall as with double bi-fold .
Double Bi-fold
Shutters that are double bi-folded are built with 4 panels, with the 2 center panels hinged to the left and right-most panels.
Pro: Allows panels to be folded back against the wall for an unobstructed view through the twin windows.
Con: Panels may sag slightly (approximately 1/8 inch to 1/4 inch) when swung out of the frame and will have to be lifted back into place. This is because the panels are hinged to one another, rather than a t-post.


text:
GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- Vickie Runyon doesn't believe that Royale Runyon, the young man she raised, could ever kill his brother.
But that's exactly what police and prosecutors allege happened on Dec. 20, when Mahdi Hayes, Royale Runyon's older brother, was shot to death on Grand Rapids' Southeast Side.
"I don't believe he did it," Vickie Runyon said. "He loved his brother."
Vickie Runyon, who is Royale Runyon's great aunt and says she essentially raised him after his mother died, found it hard to digest the news that the 18-year-old is now charged with open murder in the slaying of Madhi, 20. He is expected to be arraigned Friday.
She described the brothers' relationship as being "very close."
"I believe Royale is scared to tell (police) who did it," Vickie Runyon said. "I don't think he thought it was going to take this turn."
Related: Police: Grand Rapids murder victim shot by brother in apparent street robbery
Grand Rapids Police Chief Kevin Belk on Thursday, May 9 announced the break in the December shooting death of Hayes, a Wyoming Lee High School graduate and Army reservist found dead in an alley south of Worden St. SE and east of Henry Avenue.
Detectives, in cooperation with Kent County prosecutors, used investigative subpoenas to identify Royale Runyon as the person who allegedly killed Hayes.
They also say Runyon is a key suspect in the shooting death of Evevana Monique-Marie Galloway, 20, who was found dead in her unit at Walnut Grove Apartments on Dorchester Avenue SW on Saturday, Dec. 15.
The murder charge against Runyon came after prosecutors in February charged him with lying to police during an investigative subpoena about a handgun.
Police said a gun found in Runyon's possession turned out to be the weapon used in Hayes' homicide.
Belk said police were looking at robbery as a possible motive in the deaths of both Hayes and Galloway.
Galloway was the ex-girlfriend of Hayes, but Belk said he did not believe romantic issues played a role in the shootings.
Related: Victims of separate Grand Rapids homicides were friends; police have not publicly linked deaths
Royale Runyon has been in the Kent County Jail since Dec. 21 - a day after Hayes was shot - because he was picked up for a Dec. 14 armed street robbery in the 200 block of College Avenue SE.
He was arrested at an evening vigil being held for Hayes, Grand Rapids police Capt. Jeff Hertel said.
The victim of the street robbery picked Runyon out of a lineup.
Vickie Runyon said she has talked to the teen and he admitted to being around the area where Hayes was found dead. But he denied shooting his brother.
"They were supposed to meet that night, but when he walked up to the spot, he saw his brother lying there dead," she said.
She thinks police are on the wrong track with the arrest and thinks Royale Runyon was misidentified in the robbery lineup. The victim reported that the robber had cornrows in his hair, but she said he never wore such braids.
"They have to find somebody to blame or the murder," she said. "Nobody saw what happened."
Vickie Runyon said that Royale Runyon had no reason to kill Galloway.
E-mail John Tunison: email@example.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/johntunison


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Chapter 305: The Fifth Trial, the Valley of Destruction
Jiang Chen's spirit ocean had just endured the baptism of tumultuous waves and became as beautiful and impressive as a rainbow after the rain.
"Is… is this the allure of the earth spirit realm?" Jiang Chen could feel the spirituality and strength of his spirit ocean and how it embodied endless life force.
Compared to the previous small spirit realm, there was a noticeable increase in quality.
Wham, wham, wham.
Jiang Chen briefly deployed his spirit ocean and could feel the subtle accents of both thunder and wind in his spirit ocean.
It seemed that the level of one's spirit ocean in the earth spirit realm was indeed quite extraordinarily different!
Jiang Chen could feel that the level of his spirit ocean was twofold, or even threefold what it'd been before.
He could feel vigorous vitality suffuse his entire body and boundless life force surging and flowing within his body, as if a slowly awakening beast wanting to burst out of the bonds of its imprisonment.
"Good, good! To make a breakthrough in the midst of battle, this ought to sweep away all the dejection of the past couple of days!" Jiang Chen felt a wave of heroism rise when he felt his strength increase.
He deployed the Seal and threw out a seal.
Wham wham wham!
This seal actually carried with it the breath of a dragon and roar of a tiger, vibrating with spirit energy, giving others a suffocating feeling as it broke through the air.
The earth spirit realm had indeed brought Jiang Chen a noticeable leap forward in the quality of his spirit ocean.
The golem took a few steps backwards when it was struck by that seal.
Jiang Chen was in his element, akin to a duck taking to water. Enormous inspiration suddenly surged in his mind as his comprehension of the "Obscure Seal of Life and Death" was suddenly elevated. He delivered blows that were as powerful and unconstrained as a heavenly steed soaring across the skies. Each seal was as if executing a freehand brush stroke, fluid and natural.
Jiang Chen handled all movements dexterously, like an immortal from another realm, ethereal and intangible, but as impressive as the myriad scenes of nature beneath the heavens.
The "Obscure Seal of Life and Death" encompassed all beneath the heavens, and all its hand seals were formed from the heart through comprehending all scenes upon the world.
The seal suddenly seemed like the ancient mountain ranges of old, repressing monsters and evil.
The seal then seemed as if the boundless, raging oceans devouring the earth.
It abruptly became the dragons soaring through the nine heavens, and then a tiger howling through the mountains.
One moment like the crack of thunder, another the arrival of the aurora borealis.
Such a seal of life and death brimming with an immense aura suddenly gave rise to all various phenomena in the universe, indicating that Jiang Chen had deployed the Seal to a realm that he never had before.
The power behind this attack had also risen by two to threefolds since Jiang Chen had broken through to the earth spirit realm.
Add to that the restraining force from the magnetic force field, the golem sank into the role of passively suffering a beating in the span of a second.
This scenario was like the golem was Jiang Chen's training tool, and solely existed to be pummeled by Jiang Chen.
Countless numbers of seals blasted into the golem. Even though the materials making it up were heaven defying and its defensive capabilities utterly astonishing, it still wasn't enough to bear up beneath this destructive assault.
The final seal crashed into the golem like a blow of thunder and wind, completely destroying the golem.
Jiang Chen slowly wound himself down and looked down at the remains of the golem on the ground, also thinking that he'd been lucky.
Based on his own calculations, it'd been almost ten days. If he hadn't been decisive in the last moment and achieved a tangible breakthrough, he wouldn't have had a single hope of destroying this golem.
The joy of breaking through to the earth spirit realm and passing the test in the last second brought about the result of two joys descending upon Jiang Chen at the same time, resulting in great gains.
When he opened the door, countless pairs of eyes focused on him in the same instant.
"What? He… he's emerged?"
"This… this means he's defeated the golem?"
"Isn't the time not up yet? The golem will naturally stop when time is up. The golem hasn't stopped, so what is he doing out here?"
"Can it be that he really defeated the golem?!"
According to the rules, the door to the secret chamber wouldn't open before the golem was defeated. The golem would only stop and the doors open when time was up.
However, there was still half an hour until the final deadline. According to the rules, the golem shouldn't have stopped yet.
The doors naturally wouldn't open if the golem hadn't halted.
After all of the organizers' brains had hiccuped with shock, they suddenly recalled something.
"The golem won't stop before the time runs out. This means that this candidate actually passed the tenth level of difficulty? How, how can this be?"
"Tsk tsk, he's the freak with the boulder's heart alright. A true genius! And we were saying that three people had passed the eighth level of difficulty. It seems that they are destined to be the backdrop for this genius. The most preeminent of geniuses must trample over the bodies of others to become the most brilliant star in the sky!"
"This was the tenth level of difficulty! This freak of the boulder's heart not only has a strong strength of heart, exceptional talent, but his ability in practical combat is at such a frightening level! This was the equivalent of the peak of the fifth level spirit realm. Can this young man's level of training already be at this level?"
"I had thought all the remarks saying that he had the right to challenge the the most preeminent geniuses of the four great sects were hyperbole, but now it looks that he truly does have the right to do so."
"Indeed, don't forget that there are three years for the second selection. If this time is utilized well, then this genius will surely soar to the heavens."
"I have no doubt that this genius isn't the slightest bit less than any of the sect geniuses. It was a pity that he hadn't been discovered by the sects before. If he had been on the same starting line as the sect geniuses, he may be the first amongst the younger generation now!"
The compliments cascaded down upon each other with increasing degree.
Of course, they didn't think that their praise was too high. For a secular genius to reach this level, they were well aware of what this meant.
If such a genius had received the sect's full resources from the very beginning, then he truly would be on par with all the sect geniuses.
The main organizer didn't dare put on any airs now when he accepted Jiang Chen's token.
No matter what the future was, the organizers all knew that this young man was destined to soar to the skies, unstoppable in his momentum.
Therefore, even though he was an organizer, he didn't dare treat this genius lightly.
The three who had passed the eighth level of difficulty were all privately depressed to see Jiang Chen walk out from the secret chamber.
However, they all had to admire him as well. This kind of ability did indeed give them the feeling of gazing upon a high mountain.
After recording these results, the organizer returned the token wreathed in smiles. "Congratulations, passing the tenth level of difficulty has truly opened our eyes. You are the first amongst the secular disciples, and your placement cannot be challenged by any."
This wasn't mere praise, but purposeful flattery already.
Jiang Chen smiled as he accepted the token, "This one is unworthy of the organizer's regard."
After Jiang Chen had emerged from the secret chamber, the fourth trial was officially announced to have come to a close.
What followed then was a tense period of ranking. Of course, there was no doubt about who was at the top.
The top eight thousand candidates were quickly ranked.
Those below the top eight thousand were all sent out of the legacy territory of ancient times. The victors triumphed and losers were discarded. Such was the cruel reality of this selection, with no room for the slightest bit of personal relationships.
The ones who remained, particularly those who ranked further to the back, all breathed silent sighs of relief.
However, they knew that competition would only become greater in the remaining challenges.
The sects would only select three thousand in the end, this meant that five thousand out of their group were destined to pass by the doors of the great sects.
However, if any of those rejected had given a stunning performance in the second trial, they would still receive particular attentions going forward and still had a ray of hope.
"Alright, four of the five trials have now passed. You eight thousand are quite lucky to make it into the fifth trial. I will tell you now that no one will be disqualified in the fifth trial."
"What? No one will be disqualified?"
"No one is eliminated in the fifth trial? That means all of us are qualified to enter the four sects and receive the boundless glory of being a sect disciple?"
The candidates were all beyond themselves when they heard that no one would be eliminated in the fifth trial.
"Don't be too excited too early, there are only three thousand slots to enter the sects. The fact that no one is being eliminated in the fifth trial doesn't mean that all of you have entered the four sects. The fifth trial tests fortune. Fortune and luck are intangible and mysteriousness. Whether or not you believe it, fortune and luck are present in the path of martial dao. The stronger one is and higher the comprehension, the more one will sense their existence."
"In this trial you will enter a place called the 'Valley of Destruction' for ten days. In this trial, all of you will encounter various fortuitous encounters, challenges, and even danger. How your life will be will materialize in this trial. If your luck is strong and fortune steady, then the lucky star may shine upon you and you may pick up a treasure even by bending over. If you lack good fortune, then you may run into disaster every three steps and a calamity every five steps. You make sprain your ankle when you walk and choke when you drink water…"
Of luck and fortune, Jiang Chen was a devout believer.
In his understanding of everything in his past life, he naturally had a deep understanding of fate and the heavenly law. He also knew that whether it was ordinary folk or the Celestial Emperor, none could escape the being affected by fortune.
"I was the son of the Celestial Emperor from the moment I was born, so it has to be said that my luck was quite good. However, my meridiens were crippled from birth and I couldn't train, this meant that I was lucky but with no fortune. With this reincarnation, setting aside the matter of luck and fortune, at least I can train. At least I grasp my destiny in my hands. If I happen to be blessed with luck and fortune as well, then it would make perfection even more perfect. If I lack this in this life, then I will use my strength and abilities to triumph over this destiny. The ancient adage goes that man's will, not heaven, decides, and that the world is determined by man. Fate exists, but it is not incontrovertible. Within the operation of the heavenly law, the most inferior fortune will have a silver lining, and the best destiny will always have some flaws. I have obtained the Bewitching Lotus of Fire and Ice in this life and the magnetic golden mountain. Who says I have no fortune? This is obviously not that case. But if this had landed on anyone else, then they may not have been able to make it their own. Thus, it can be seen that opportunities are only given to those who are prepared."
Jiang Chen's thoughts became even clearer when his thoughts traveled here. "I believe in fate and fortune, but cannot lose myself in this. In the end, destiny is held in one's own hands."
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Cosmetics Manufacturer Success Story
Leveraging RRD's global platform and extensive knowledge of the industry and the company's product range allowed for the implementation of broad and unique solutions.
Increasing Speed-to-Market and Supply Chain Efficiency at a Global Consumer Electronics Company
The RRD solutions team analyzed the a leading consumer electronics company's supply network and developed an in-region postponement solution to drive efficiencies across the entire supply chain.
Blood Glucose Monitor Success Story
RRD's comprehensive solution resulted in lower component and finished goods inventories, improved product availability, and greater production flexibility.
Medical Product Repurposing
RRD's core competencies, strategic direction and vertically integrated services helps create a unique competitive advantage and achieve key strategic objectives.
Comprehensive Assessment Optimizes Communications Supply Chain
After conducting a comprehensive assessment, RRD provided a detailed solution roadmap to help the client implement a full suite of technologies to optimize their communications supply chain.
Private Label Supply Chain Solutions Success Story
RRD's private label solution allowed the retailer to become more customer-centric by designing, differentiating and controlling the products look and feel based on the company's market.
Computer Accessory Kits Success Story
By consolidating the accessory kit supply chain, the computer manufacturer was able to offer its customers customized computer accessory kits and faster delivery times.
Hard Disk Drive Supply Chain Success Story
RRD successfully helped the client replace a prteviously fragmented supplay chain process with a comprehensive and integrated global solution.
Mobile Accessories Success Story
RRD implemented an integrated solution that provides their customer with demand-driven production and distribution that helps to create a unique competitive advantage.
Samples Fulfillment Program Success Story
RRD's world class solution enabled the customer to gain greater control of product marketing programs while improving flexibility and reducing cost.
Telecom Success Story
RRD delivered a new model that provides a platform for growth that enables the client to be more adaptable and flexible to the market.
Webstore Success Story
RRD implemented marketing support solution that enabled on-demand availability of collateral and product samples to help sales representatives meet the unique selling challenges of a major global prod
Wearable Technology Solutions
RRD's global, vertically integrated supply chain platform provides packaging and postponement solutions for wearable technology devices from concept design to final delivery.
Vascular Access Device Solutions
RRD's solutions create efficiencies across the vascular device supply chain, helping to streamline processes while remaining responsive to budget realities.
Supporting Smart Home Devices
RRD's global, vertically integrated supply chain platform provides packaging and postponement solutions for smart home devices from concept design to final delivery.
Secondary Packaging Solutions


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Genre : Drama, History, Romance, War
Cast : Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Henry Cavill, Anthony Brophy, James Frain
IMDB Rating : 8.1/10 from 47,026 users
IMDB : Link
The Tudors presents the rarely dramatized, tumultuous early years of King Henry VIII's nearly 40-year omnipotent reign (1509-1547) of England. In addition to his famous female consorts, a 20+ year marriage to Catherine of Aragon and the infamous dalliance with Anne Boleyn, the series delves into Henry's most notable political relationship and the deconstruction of the Roman Catholic Church in England.
Download : Links Page


text: Flex Academy is a new charter school organizing in Richfield in a newly remodeled building formerly occupied by Bally's Fitness. Flex Academy describes itself as "a groundbreaking independent charter school offering an excellent option for a world-class education by blending the best digital curriculum and face-to-face instruction with licensed Minnesota teachers"; the deliver a redesign of existing secondary schools through this Blended Learning Model. The Academy is currently enrolling students and hosted parent information sessions in April; sessions are also scheduled for May 14, and May 28 from 6:30-8:00 PM at the Wood Lake Nature Center in Richfield; click here to register to attend one of the sessions.


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Tips For After a Car Accident: 10 Things to NoteJuly 19, 2013
There are some important things to note at the scene of an accident that can make a difference in fault determination as well as the possibility of a traffic ticket or other charges. These are the top ten things to note after an accident.
1. Injuries to drivers and passengers.
Not all injuries appear at the scene, and it is possible to have an injury manifest later, but taking note of how people are behaving and whether or not they appear injured can help prevent fraudulent claims. Of course, anyone who is injured needs medical attention; call for help immediately.
2. Signs and signals controlling the intersection.
Look for stop signs, yield signs, and traffic lights and note how they may have impacted how the accident occurred, especially if the other drive may have violated one.
3. Damage to the cars.
While no one can make an estimate at the scene with total accuracy, damage over $1000 requires a police report. Eye the damage and call the police if you aren't sure and take pictures if you can."
4. Any potential witnesses.
Witnesses can help determine fault in an accident. This includes surveillance cameras that might have caught what happened. Get names and contact information of anyone who saw the accident.
5. The other driver's behaviour.
Be alert for any sign of intoxication; if any signs of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol exist, call the police immediately – don't confront the driver.
6. The other driver's basic information.
Write down the license plate number, driver's license number and name and policy number for the insurance company. Be sure to write it down as memory is fallible, and share the same information with that driver as well.
7. Whether the cars are drivable.
If the cars can be moved, they should be taken to safety and out of the way of other traffic. Don't ever move cars if anyone is injured or if it is dangerous to do so, instead move people to safe distance and wait for the police.
8. The time, date, and exact location.
Again, memory is fallible, so make a written note of what time the accident happened, where exactly it happened including cross streets and nearby businesses, and the date. These things will be asked by insurance companies.
9. Anything that contributed to the accident.
That includes pedestrians, other cars, animals and more. Anything that was a part of the reason the accident happened should be noted and may help with fault determination.
10. Potential previous damage on the other car.
Look for any damage that appears to be pre-existing and could not have been caused by the accident, such as damage on the wrong side of the car. Pre-existing damage can't be repaired on an accident claim, and trying to do so is fraud. Be aware of any signs of possible fraud in the other driver's actions or behavior.
While taking note of all these things, remember to remain calm and not to get involved in fault discussions with the other driver. If at any time it seems necessary, call for police assistance even if it's not required. Remember that at-fault car accidents impact insurance quotes. Be sure to report all information and be co-operative with the insurance company to ensure all details are accurate.


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Today's freebies are part two of a set of decorations for a banner. Print the illustrations as many times as you need, cut them following the pink line and you can attach them to a line to make a banner or you can attach them vertically to create a curtain. You can also use blue tack to paste them to walls.
To download the Cookie PDF, click HERE. To download the Caramel PDF, click HERE.


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"The Problem in Knossos": The synopsis for this issue has not yet been written.
- Where does humanity stop and technology begin? We no longer know, Lila.
Appearing in "The Problem in Knossos"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- King Minos
- Queen Pasiphae
- Ariadne
Other Characters:
Synopsis for "The Problem in Knossos"
- Synopsis not yet written.
Appearing in "Are You Ready for the World That's Coming?"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Global Peace Agency
- Myron Forest
- Lila (Earth-AD)
- Pseudo-People, Inc.
Other Characters:
- Earth-AD
- Pseudo-People, Inc. (Destroyed)
- Section D
- Pseudo-People, Inc. (Destroyed)
Synopsis for "Are You Ready for the World That's Coming?"
Members of the Global Peace Agency select an employee of Pseudo-People, Inc. named Buddy Blank to serve as a candidate for Project OMAC. Scientist Doctor Myron Forest develops a process that interfaces Buddy Blank with the orbiting satellite network known as Brother Eye. Brother Eye has the ability to remotely transmit energy and raw data into Buddy Blank's body, transforming him into the One-Man-Army-Corps known as OMAC.
At Pseudo-People, Inc., Buddy Blank continues with his day to day labors, unaware of the part he now plays as an instrument of the Global Peace Agency. After suffering abuse from his coworkers due to his clumsiness, Buddy is sent to the Psychology Section to get over his frustrations. There he meets Lila, whom he believes is a fellow employee. Buddy becomes enamored with Lila and is grateful to call her his friend. Buddy and Lila part company and two uniformed men intercept Lila and bring her down to Section D. Buddy arrives moments later looking for her, but doesn't yet realize what he has stumbled into.
The men of Section D are creating artificial women and using them to lure citizens into traps. Once a selected individual gets too close to one of their Pseudo-People, the automaton explodes, killing the intended target. Buddy is horrified when he discovers that the company he works for, is actually trying to start an Atomic War. He is even more stricken when he discovers that his new friend Lila is actually one of Pseudo-People, Inc.'s weapons. He tries to get away, but the men running the operation feel that he's seen too much and push him down into a chair. Buddy suddenly feels himself overcharged with power as Brother Eye transforms him into OMAC for the very first time. The men open fire on OMAC, but this proves to be a fruitless endeavor. They try to flee, but OMAC comes after them. With lightning reflexes, he barrels through them until he gets to the assembly line. He sees a packaging cube containing the factory parts of his artificial friend Lila. Though not entirely sentient, Lila still wants to be OMAC's friend. Viewing these Pseudo-People as a mockery of life, OMAC emits a burst of explosive energy that starts a chain reaction destroying all of Section D.
Appearing in "Life-Sized Monster Ghost"
Featured Characters:
- Boy
Supporting Characters:
- Mr. Novelties & Co.
Other Characters:
- Polyethylene Ghost
- X-ray Specs
Synopsis for "Life-Sized Monster Ghost"
- Synopsis not yet written.
Appearing in "En Esta Esquina (On This Corner)"
Featured Characters:
- Double-L
Supporting Characters:
- Novia
- Joao
Other Characters:
- New York
- El Cid Comida
Synopsis for "En Esta Esquina (On This Corner)"
- Synopsis not yet written.
Appearing in "Teenage Sidekick"
Featured Characters:
Supporting Characters:
- Joker
- Two Henchmen
Other Characters:
Synopsis for "Teenage Sidekick"
- Synopsis not yet written.
- This book was first published on February 23, 2005.
- The OMAC story is "A loving tribute to the master, Jack 'King' Kirby!" It is adapted (rewritten and redrawn, but with many of the scenes and dialog) from OMAC #1
- No trivia.
See Also
- Write your own review of this comic!
- Discuss Solo Vol 1 3 on the forums
- Cover gallery for the Solo series
- Images from Solo Vol 1 3
Recommended Reading
Links and References
Summary Needed


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This month has been Skype month.
No, not an officially designated celebration, it just happened that way in my world.
I love talking to kids about writing, reading, history, genres, characters, the truth or not the truth. So many great questions. Skyping has given me the chance to spread book love to places I've never been.
(In my flipflops.)
But I got a question yesterday that truly stumped me.
Sixth Grade Boy in Wisconsin, to me:
"Who would you recommend your book to?"
Now see, the librarian in me should be all over that.
But I stammered and hemmed and hawed.
Finally I mentioned a few authors I love, as in "If you liked THIS book, you'll like THAT book."
I think I mentioned kids who like books that take place in the past.
But that's so not true.
(True confession: My first draft of THE WAY TO STAY IN DESTINY wasn't even set in the past!)
Maybe I mumbled something about Books With Heart.
Because really and truly, one of my favorite tweets in the whole world had recently taken my breath away:
And just like that, my book had become
Be still my heart.
But the librarian in me still wasn't happy with my answer to that boy in Wisconsin.
And the writer in me didn't want to leave it at that.
There's been a lot of discussion recently about Boy Books v. Girl Books.
And judging a book by its cover.
What does the cover say to a reader about to choose a book?
Is that old adage about boys not reading books about girls while girls will always be okay with reading boy main characters hold?
I doubt it. I've had tons of boys who love GLORY BE.
At a recent Book Fair, a student told me he'd read DESTINY five times already. He wasn't a baseball fan and he can't play the piano.
Had some wise librarian or teacher had handed him that book because she knew his reading taste?
Do we need to stop pigeonholing books and kids' book choices?
Will all young readers eventually find those HeartPrint books for their own hearts?
Are kids' books just for kids anymore?
Based on this guy who has discovered and loved a few middle-grade novels, I'd say no.
I'm still thinking of a good answer to the question that sparked this blogpost. Who WOULD I recommend my own books to?
Writers- Have you been asked that question?
Do you have a perfect answer?
I used to think I was pretty good at Readers Advisory.
But when it's your own book, something feels different.
You might also like these posts about Skype:
Fun Skype in Georgia
Skype 101: the View from Here
And these about some of my own Heartprint books:
Kwame Alexander's Crossover
An Abundance of BOOKS
Hound Dog True
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Who's Reading Your Book?
2 comments:
- Carol Baldwin said...
Thanks for this post, AUgusta. I was in the middle of composing a blog about "who is your audience" and started reading this. Will cross post to it on Monday. Hope you weigh in on the questions I ask! (although you sort of already have in this post.)
- May 16, 2015 at 1:15 PM
- Augusta Scattergood said...
I also had some lovely thoughts/ shares on twitter about this idea. I'll definitely check your post tomorrow, Carol.
- May 17, 2015 at 4:33 PM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


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Rockbox mail archiveSubject: RE: Recording settings, etc.
From: Abdul-Khaliq Nathekar (abdul.nathekar_at_blueyonder.co.uk)
Date: 2004-01-26
Hi there...
I'd welcome a page describing your mic designs!!!
-----Original Message-----
really like the rockbox and have been using it for almost a year. Most
here goes:
my setup is a battery box with 9v and two electret capsules. All this
1) can I set it so that it starts at the lowest recording level instead
2) can the absolute lowest level of the line in be lowered? On very
3) is there an easy way to adjust these things that I have overlooked?
Any ideas on the quality of this mpeg3 encoder chip vs a portable
Hope that all makes sense. I was thinking of making a page on the mics
thanks for reading
Page was last modified "Jan 10 2012" The Rockbox Crew


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by Michelle Joy Lander
"Income tax returns are the most imaginative fiction being written today." -Herman Wouk
Writers and artists are notoriously right brained. While this allows for creativity, flights of imagination and pure magic, it can be a hindrance when it comes to more practical matters. Such as income taxes.
It wasn't until I attended a workshop on finances and taxes offered by the Writers Guild of America, West that I learned the scope of deductions available to writers. The average tax preparer is not well versed in these and there are misconceptions as to what constitutes a "business" versus a "hobby." If your objective is to make your living as a writer, you are a professional writer. Even if you also work slinging hash, teaching or performing brain surgery.
View original post 765 more words


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Our 100% all natural Poultry First Aid Kit is made from plant-based ingredients. Take care of your feathered friends naturally without harsh chemicals! Poultry Wash gently cleanses. Poultry Bugs Be Gone safely repels bugs and sanitizes. Respiratory Care aids in the treatment of respiratory problems. Animal First Aid is your ˜go to™ first aid in a tin that helps with wounds, cuts, scrapes, prolapse vent, and protects combs from frostbite.
Poultry Wash: Organic Cocos Nucifera (Coconut) Oil, Organic Olea Europaea (Olive) Fruit Oil, Organic Helianthus Annuus (Sunflower) Seed Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Organic Aloe Barbadensis Leaf Juice, Proprietary Essential Oil Blend, Citric Acid, Butyrospermum Parkii (Shea Butter), and Organic Rosmarinus Officinalis (Rosemary) Flower Extract.
Does Not contain: Petroleum, Mineral Oil, Parabens, Deet, or Citronella.
Gluten Free
Poultry Bugs Be Gone: Witch Hazel Extract, Alcohol, Distilled Water, Organic Yarrow, Organic Sage, Organic Catnip, Citric Acid. Essential Oils: Geranium, Lemon Eucalyptus, Lemongrass, Cedar Wood, Peppermint, and Lavender.
Respiratory Care: Organic Olea Europaea (Olive) Oil, Organic Castor Oil, Eucalyptus Essential Oil, Peppermint Essential Oil, Rosemary Essential Oil, Lavender Essential Oil, Ravensara Essential Oil, Vitamin E Oil, and Organic Beeswax.
Animal First Aid: Organic Olive Oil, Organic Sunflower Oil, Organic Plantain, Organic Chickweed, Organic Yarrow, Organic Sage, Organic Calendula, Organic St. John's Wort, Organic Comfrey Leaf, Gum Benzoin, Myrrh, Organic Chaparral, Vitamin E Oil, Organic Beeswax, and Essential Oils of Lavender and Rosemary.


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The men's 2012-13 team might not be eligible for the NCAA Tournament because of substandard Academic Progress Rates (APR), but the NCAA has recognized UConn as part of its March Madness celebration of 75 years of, well, March Madness.
Details via UConnHuskies.com:
UConn's 2003-04 NCAA champions, led by Emeka Okafor and Ben Gordon, was named among the All-Time March Madness Teams, while Richard Hamilton, the Most Outstanding Player in the 1999 NCAA Tournament, Okafor, the MOP in 2004, and Kemba Walker, the MOP in 2011 as UConn won its third national title, were named among the All-Time March Madness Players.
UConn was a part of four of the All-Time Madness Moments: Tate's George's last-second shot that beat Clemson in the 1990 East Regional semifinals; the last-second shot by Duke's Christian Laettner that nipped UConn in the 1990 East Regional championship game; Hamilton's buzzer-beater that upended Washington in the 1998 East Regional semifinals; and George Mason's upset of UConn to advance to the 2006 Final Four.
"Over the 75 years, the basketball championship has grown from a small eight-team tournament to one of the world's most popular sporting events," said Dan Gavitt, NCAA vice president of men's basketball championships. "To honor the growth of our sport, we are celebrating past players, teams and moments that have helped turn March Madness into one of the year's most anticipated sporting events. We invite all NCAA basketball fans --- both new and loyal --- to take a stroll down memory lane. And of course, we encourage friendly debate among fans around all their favorites."
The great irony, of course, is that the Huskies won't be participating this time around, although university president Susan Herbst is hoping UConn will be able to take part in the Big East Tournament.


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At NAAP it is our aim for our members to be as well trained, if not better trained, than the 'professionals' we are often told we can trust and rely upon. We think that our members are entitled to know just how inadequate and deficient the training is that schools recieve on PA and emotional harm. Remember that schools are in the front-line of child protection. Furthermore, they are regularly asked by social workers, including CAFCASS to provide comments and observations for inclusion in their reports. These reports are afforded a great deal of weight and the 'expertise' of teachers is respected and highly valued by our family courts. The input of schools and teachers to court determinations is often key to their outcomes and rulings. School input can tip the balance or heavily influence courts when they make life altering decisions about our children.
Therefore we are entitled to expect the training they receive to be beyond reproach, comprehensive and of the highest order…RIGHT??
Below is a specimen of the training actually given in one of the English counties. The information was provided to us by someone that was attempting to tell us 'how well trained' our teaching professions are when it comes to recognising signs of parental alienation and emotional harm. PA is not even mentioned. Emotional harm gets a few superfi. Unless other authorities are doing MUCH better there will never be a better illustration to show how poorly equipped our schools are to spot signs of PA and emotional abuse in order to provide even a barely acceptable level of safeguarding for our children. PA demands better treatment and more detailed coverage because of its counter intuitive nature.
Here is the first extract:
Emotional Abuse
- Is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe and persistent adverse effects on the child's emotional development.
- It may involve conveying to children that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person.
- It may include not giving the child opportunities to express their views, deliberately silencing them or 'making fun' of what they say or how they communicate.
- It may feature age or developmentally inappropriate expectations being imposed on the child. These may include interactions that are beyond the child's developmental capability as well as overprotection and limitation of exploration and learning, or preventing the child from participating in normal social interaction.
- It may involve seeing or hearing the ill-treatment of another.
- It may involve serious bullying (including cyber-bullying), causing children to frequently feel frightened or in danger, or the exploitation or corruption of children.
- Some level of emotional abuse is involved in all types of maltreatment of a child, though it may occur alone.
Working Together to Safeguard Children 2015
Here is the second extract:
Signs and indicators
Emotional Abuse
- Failure to thrive
- Attention seeking
- Over ready to relate to others
- Low self esteem
- Apathy
- Depression/self harm
- Drink/drug/solvent abuse
- Persistently being over protective
- Constantly shouting at, threatening or demeaning a child
- Withholding love and affection
- Regularly humiliating a child
So there you go. That is the sum total coverage of emotional harm in the training. Once you have finished reading this short list of bullet points, reward yourself with a Mars bar. In at least one UK county you will have the same amount of expertise in emotional abuse as most teachers. Learn a little about PA and you will have a far superior knowledge. Enjoy your studies: they'll be over in the blink of an eye!