...Review of consumer protection measures in the travel and travel related services market in Australia including the role of the Travel Compensation Fund Submission by Australian Federation of Travel Agents April 2010 Contact Mr Jayson Westbury Chief Executive Officer, AFTA 309 Pitt Street Sydney NSW 2000 T: 02 9287 9900 E: afta@afta.com.au Without a travel agent, you are on your own AFTA submission to Ministerial Council on Consumer Affairs Review of consumer protection measures in the travel and travel-related services market including the role of the Travel Compensation Fund Page 2 AFTA submission to Ministerial Council on Consumer Affairs Review of consumer protection measures in the travel and travel-related services market including the role of the Travel Compensation Fund Who is AFTA? The Australian Federation of Travel Agents Ltd (AFTA) was founded in 1957 to: establish professional standards for travel agents; stimulate, encourage and promote travel; bring together those acting as intermediaries in the distribution of travel services; and build strong working relationships with suppliers and consumers of travel related services. AFTA represents approximately 70% of Australia’s travel intermediaries that control more than 90% of travel intermediary turnover. It also has a substantial base of associate members, representing non-intermediary sectors of the travel related services industry. Members are bound by AFTA’s Code of Ethics. AFTA represents...
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...The Iran-Contra Affair was a historical event that occurred as early as 1926 and lasted up to 1986. The majority of the affair occurred primarily during the administrations of United States Presidents James Earl “Jimmy” Carter (1977-1981) and Ronald Wilson Reagan (1981-1989). The participants of the affair range from National Security Advisors Robert McFarlane and John Poindexter, to Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger. Another prominent member of the affair was National Security Council member Oliver North. Together with Iraq and the Contras the affair changed the history of the nation and its foreign policy. SECTION HEA The Contras are the right-wing, anti-communist group of rebels from Nicaragua.The rebels are opposed to the current government of Nicaragua, the Sandinista Junta of the National Reconstruction government, that is left-winged and socialist. The term “contra” is an abbreviation...
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...THE MAN OF STEEL AND THE DRAGON: AUSTRALIA’S RELATIONSHIP WITH CHINA DURING THE HOWARD ERA PROPOSAL INTRODUCTION On consecutive days in October 2003, President George W Bush of the United States of America and President Hu Jintao of People’s Republic of China addressed joint sittings of both houses of the Australian Parliament. This historic occasion symbolises how Australia conducted its foreign relations with ‘East’ and ‘West’ during the Howard Era. The pragmatic decision to allow Hu Jintao to become the first non-American foreigner to address both houses demonstrates how Howard viewed Sino-Australian relations. It showed the world that it was possible to have warm relations with both the United States and China. By the end of the Howard Era in 2007, China had become Australia’s major trading partner. This was a far cry from 1996, when in the first months of the newly elected Howard Government a series of events caused severe tensions in Sino-Australian relations, as described below. This culminated in the Chinese response of banning visits to China by Australian ministers, a serious manoeuvre in the nuanced world of diplomacy. From these frosty beginnings, the relationship between the two nations strengthened considerably, for a variety of reasons, some of them outside Australia’s control. Paul Keating may have sown the seeds to Australia’s ‘pivot’ to Asia, but it was the Howard Government that undertook the most significant shift in orientation, cumulating in...
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...this ebook provides you tips to get an edge in your civil services preparation over your competition. This e-book is not about the civil services syllabus or examination plan but goes much beyond this. For the syllabus and details of the IAS examination you can refer the UPSC website itself. So I have covered these only in passing. Which begs the question, what can you get from this e-book? You will Begin your preparation without any false starts and thus save valuable time and effort Know exactly which books to refer for IAS Select the right optionals within a short time Save time and money by reading the right books and notes Decide whether you require coaching and if you do then which one Learn how to read newspapers for current affairs and GK Gain inspiration from success stories of previous IAS toppers Page 1 Get Set Go IAS iaskracker.com How to read this e-Book? While the chapters are arranged logically and in sequence, articles that are relevant from this e-Book’s point of view but which have been published on IAS Kracker or some other site are not included here to avoid repetition. Instead I have included them as links or under the tag of ‘Additional Reading’ at the bottom of each page. I suggest you go through these articles included under Additional Reading and even the other links as they are there to provide you additional insight into your IAS preparation. No doubt you will benefit tremendously if you read this way. Also at the end of this e-Book...
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...Watergate Paper Paul Salabarria HIS/145 June 26, 2012 Jeff Wilson Watergate Paper Watergate was a scandal that involved a break-in into the offices of the Democratic National Committee during the Nixon administration. Watergate was one of the most famous political scandals in American history. Decades after Watergate historians and others continue to argue about its causes and significance (Brinkley, 2007). It marked a period that both weakened our relationships with other countries as well as weakened the public’s belief in the President. A majority of Americans believe that newspapers, radio and television are devoting too much space and time to covering the Watergate scandals (“53%,” 1974). Both Time and Newsweek reported that John Dean, counsel to the president, was ready to say that the President knew of the Watergate cover-up. Newsweek put out an advance press release of this story first, and this became the basis of stories elsewhere. The Washington Post, however, reported the story carefully framed to put the charges in a proper context. Their articles carefully “pointed out the key fact that the statements by Mr. Dean were made while negotiating for immunity” (“Watergate,” 1973). The whole Watergate case is surely an example of why the press is important to a free society. With due respect for Judge Sirica’s persistence in breaking down those convicted in the break-in, it’s doubtful that the story of the scandal would ever have come out as completely if there had...
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...wrongfully convicted him of treason and espionage. The campaign for his release, organized by his family and supporters, along with revelations of an army cover-up, saw the so-called “Dreyfus Affair” become the major focal point of French public discourse at the turn of the century. Partisan camps of “Dreyfusards” and “anti-Dreyfusards” waged a war of words against each other as they debated Dreyfus' innocence and, implicitly, what it meant to be French in the Third Republic. Marked by an effusion of antisemitic vitriol, this debate has been characterized by Frederick Brown as a polarizing battle between two rival visions of France.[1] This battle at times extended to the streets, as it did in response to the publication of Émile Zola's 1898 “J'accuse.” Zola's open letter indicted the Army General Staff for antisemitism and cover-up, and prompted reactionary riots across France, the most violent of which occurred in French colonial Algiers. There, the burning of Zola in effigy sparked a riot in which 158 shops were destroyed, six Jews were assaulted (two fatally), and 9 rioters, 47 police, and a large but unknown number of Jews were seriously injured.[2] As the site of some of the only murderous violence during the Affair, colonial Algeria deserves particular attention. Examining the Dreyfus Affair from the perspective of French colonial Algeria illuminates the place of antisemitism in Algerian political culture, the development of modern French antisemitism, and the relationship...
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...The Department of Veterans Affairs Information Management System: Serving those that Served Punefuolemotu E.L. Aiumu Everest University MBA Degree Program Information Management System Abstract I selected this title because I served in the United States Army from 2003 to 2010. I was deployed to Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and several other operations. However, when I left the Service it became clear to me years later that Veterans Affairs weren’t ready to treat our Men and Women coming back from War. So I did some extensive research on how the system may have failed the people it was supposed to serve. And a good example of the system’s failure was the second Fort Hood incident in 2014. Keywords: Veterans Affairs, Fort Hood, Service The Department of Veterans Affairs Information Management System: Serving those that Served The reason why I chose this subject is because it is close to home and it also affects me. After two weeks of this class I wanted to dive deep into information management. I want to know why our system at the Department of Veterans Affairs do not stand ready to serve the Veteran population of our Nation properly. So many Veterans complain about loss or insufficient pensions because the VA hasn’t track them sufficiently. Sitting at Veterans Hospital in Orlando, FL I hear two Vietnam era Veterans talk about not having VA ID Cards. And they have been waiting for it since 2009. I asked them why it took this long, and they said, “The...
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...Please cite this paper as: Severinson, C. (2010), “The New IAS 19 Exposure Draft”, OECD Working Papers on Finance, Insurance and Private Pensions, No. 5, OECD Publishing. doi: 10.1787/5km7rq4hlw5g-en OECD Working Papers on Finance, Insurance and Private Pensions No. 5 The New IAS 19 Exposure Draft Clara Severinson * JEL Classification: G23, G32, M41, M52 * OECD, France THE NEW IAS 19 EXPOSURE DRAFT Clara Severinson September 2010 OECD WORKING PAPER ON FINANCE, INSURANCE AND PRIVATE PENSIONS No. 5 ——————————————————————————————————————— Financial Affairs Division, Directorate for Financial and Enterprise Affairs Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development 2 Rue André Pascal, Paris 75116, France www.oecd.org/daf/fin/wp ABSTRACT/RÉSUMÉ The New IAS 19 Exposure Draft At the end of April 2010, the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) published an exposure draft with proposed changes to International Accounting Standard No. 19 (IAS 19). IAS 19 is the current standard for the financial reporting of company pension obligations that stem from defined benefit (DB) and similar plans. It is required for exchange-listed companies in many parts of the world. If enacted, the changes to IAS 19 proposed by the IASB are expected to have a significant impact on company financials on a global basis. The following paper summarizes the proposed changes as presented in the April 2010 exposure draft and explores some of their implications...
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...Abstract Throughout history, people have recognized that exposure to combat situations can negatively impact the mental health of those involved in these situations. In fact, the diagnosis of PTSD historically originates from observations of the effect of combat on soldiers. Since the 1800’s grouping of symptoms that we now refer to as PTSD has been described in the past as "combat fatigue," "shell shock," or "war neurosis." Combat veterans often return from deployment having experienced a wide range of exposures, symptoms and medical conditions. The Department of Veterans Affairs established war related illness and injury study centers to serve combat veterans with unexplained illnesses. History Although many coexisting disorders have been reported with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), little reference has been made to the presence of psychotic symptoms. Post-traumatic stress disorder is commonly described among victims of severe trauma outside of normal human experience, in this case the combat veterans returning from deployment. Traumatic events can lead to reevaluation of life and its meaning; a reconsideration of what is truly important which often changes one’s set of priorities. Trauma often causes abrupt cessation of continuity in coherence in sense of one’s self (Barlow, 2002). In the early 1800’s military doctors began diagnosing soldiers with "exhaustion" following the stress of battle. This "exhaustion" was characterized by mental shutdown...
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...Mercedes; As per your request I am writing you a synopsis of my initial pages to my book and possibility political paper. Understand the tone, audience and meaning of the paper is to a specific group of people who are tired of the past 20 years of dialogue by bureaucrats to fix broken government, broken promises, and refusal to follow rules of governing. The paper is support by the ideals as set by our founding fathers the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution. It provides an list of well thought out Grievances, Enemies, Terms of Agreement, Officers and Ranks, Rules of Conduct and Engagement, Treaties and Policies, Resolve and initiates with for peaceful actions. The paper explains and supports all claims made and then asks the reader to decide what type of country they wish to live in by answering for selves three questions, demands an answer and explains the resolve of the people. 1. Do you wish to live in a country where there are established rules of governing and laws for all the people or no rules of governing and only laws for the chosen people? 2. Do you wish to live in a country where there is freedom, choice, and free speech or as slaves to a government and tax payers for world affairs and quiet comical remarks of support for our constitution and bill of rights? 3. Are “We the People” of the “United States of America” a “Constitutional Republic” as stated by the US Constitution, the rules of governing or are we a represented democracy of which we...
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...Policy Research Institute, Ministry of Finance, Japan, Public Policy Review, Vol.8, No.1, June 2012 45 Public Sector Accounting - An Interdisciplinary Field Involving Accounting, Economics, and Jurisprudence 1 Ryosuke Tao Research Fellow, Institute of Administrative Management Abstract Public sector accounting has recently been improved. Currently, there are requirements to disclose stock information in addition to the flow information presented in budget statements or accounts statements. Public sectors have prepared and disclosed their financial statements (including balance sheets and income statements) based on business accounting approaches. Moreover, as a matter of policy, the government tends to prepare and disclose cost information along with the financial statements for the individual ministries and governmental agencies. The objectives of clarifying the fiscal conditions in a state through the preparation and disclosure of financial statements are to fulfill the state’s accountability to its citizenry and market participants and to optimize and enhance the efficiency of its fiscal activities. Most importantly, the improved information should contribute to democratic decisions on public finance. A perspective different from the business accounting is that public sector accounting places more emphasis on inter-generational fairness. With respect to the inter-generational benefits and burdens, however, various factors must be considered, and the differences between...
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...ARRICALS FOR OVERSEAS MARKETS COMPARED TO AFRICA 13 6.2 THE NATIONAL RESPONSIBLE TOURISM STRATEGY IN RELATION TO THE NTSS (2011) 13 6.3 THE VALUE CHAIN OF SOUTH AFRICAN TOURISM SECTOR 14 6.4 ATTRACTIONS OF LANDMARKS VISITED BY TOURIST IN SOUTH AFRICA 15 6.5 KEY ELEMENTS OF THE TOURISM PRODUCTS IN SUPPLIER SIDE 15 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report indicates and evaluates the tourism planning, strategies and challenges of South Arica in national and township tourism in the case of Cape Town. Tourism industry is one of the economic pillars for South Africa. The tourism framework in these two decades were moderated according to the White Paper on Tourism published in 1996. The most important principal, responsible tourism, to sustain the long-term strategy and development planning until current was suggested in the White Paper. Township tourism was considered as a popular and authentic cultural and heritage attraction for tourists who visited to Cape Town and a part of responsible tourism. The others stakeholders, including private sector and the NGOs took a large responsibility of the improvement of community through tourism development. However, it is found out that the support and planning from the government, particularly directly...
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...become increasingly accessible to everyone but financial products are becoming more complex and difficult to grasp for an average individual. Therefore it is of paramount importance to equip the Youth with Financial Literacy so that they can manage their own finances and securing their financial future. The present study is carried out with the objective to find out the determinants of financial literacy of the youth. The major determinants that influence the financial literacy are required to be sought in order to deal with the complexities of current financial markets and products. Data has been collected through primary sources by framing questionnaire answered by 100 respondents in Amritsar. Factor Analysis has been used to analyse the data. The analysis revealed five underlying dimensions namely Interest in Financial Issues, Financial Behaviour, Saving habits, Financial Attitude and Financial Awareness. The results of this paper will be helpful for making people more financially literate. Keywords : Financial Literacy, Youth, Factor Analysis INTRODUCTION Financial Literacy is the ability of individual to understand and analyze the required information necessary for making decisions with the awareness of likely financial consequences. It is basically a process in which skills, resources and...
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...Capital Budgeting The main principle of the capital budget is to channel the total distribution of state expenditures for public services. To present the greatest possible outline of current and planned capital investments and assure state governments’ ability to borrow will not increase nor decrease. This paper will discuss how the debt capacity of state is established and then discuss and assess the effect of repaying or reorganizing current debt commitment. This paper will also discuss different funding substitutes that can be used to support debt commitment. This paper will utilized the City of Toledo, whose capital budget is a 4 year plan, which focuses on roads, modernization and police hiring (City of Toledo, 2014). Capital budgeting is the development process used to regulate which of an organization’s extended term assets are worth following according to Devoy & Wise (1979). City of Toledo has one of the most comprehensive capital budgets, encompassing all new construction, including roads and public safety. The City of Toledo policy and process identifies the fiscal year for the City beginning on the first day of January and requires that on or before the fifteenth day of November of each year, the Mayor must prepare a balanced budget estimate of the expenses of conducting the affairs of the City for the following fiscal year (City of Toledo, 2014). While the capital budget is comprised mostly of large projects, it is not uncommon to include smaller projects packaged...
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...Smoking, And Drinking On Medical Problems And Costs Obesity outranks both smoking and drinking in its deleterious effects on health and health costs. by Roland Sturm ABSTRACT: This paper compares the effects of obesity, overweight, smoking, and problem drinking on health care use and health status based on national survey data. Obesity has roughly the same association with chronic health conditions as does twenty years’ aging; this greatly exceeds the associations of smoking or problem drinking. Utilization effects mirrors the health effects. Obesity is associated with a 36 percent increase in inpatient and outpatient spending and a 77 percent increase in medications, compared with a 21 percent increase in inpatient and outpatient spending and a 28 percent increase in medications for current smokers and smaller effects for problem drinkers. Nevertheless, the latter two groups have received more consistent attention in recent decades in clinical practice and public health policy. M a n y b e h a v i o r a l r i s k f a c t o r s , chief among them smoking, heavy drinking, and obesity, are known causes of chronic health conditions. Chronic health conditions, like cancer, diabetes, or heart disease, in turn are primary drivers of health care spending, disability, and death. This paper compares the associations of smoking, problem drinking, and obesity with health care use and chronic conditions. All three risk factors are prevalent, although only obesity has...
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