Role of Port Authorities Essay Example for Free

Role of Port Authorities Essay Ports usually have a governing body referred to as the port authority, port management, or port administration. Port authority is used widely to indicate any of these three terms. The definition of port authority has been defined in various ways. In 1977, a commission of the European Union (EU) defined a port authority as a State, Municipal, public, or private body, which is largely responsible for the tasks of construction, administration and sometimes the operation of port facilities and, in certain circumstances, for security. This definition is sufficiently broad to accommodate the various port management models existing within the EU and elsewhere. (http://www.ppiaf.org/sites/ppiaf.org/files/documents/toolkits/Portoolkit/Toolkit/module3/port_functions.html#2) Ports authorities may be established at all levels of government: national, regional, provincial, or local. The most common form is a local port authority, an authority administering only one port area. However, national port authorities still exist in various countries such as Tanzania, Sri Lanka, Nigeria, and Aruba. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Handbook for Port Planners in Developing Countries lists the statutory powers of a national port authority as follows (on the assumption that operational decisions will be taken locally): (http://www.uctc.net/research/diss131.pdf) * Investment: Power to approve proposals for port investments in amounts above a certain figure. The criterion for approval would be that the proposal was broadly in accordance with a national plan, which the authority would maintain. * Financial policy: Power to set common financial objectives for ports (for example, required return on investment defined on a common basis), with a common policy on what infrastructure will be funded centrally versus locally, and advising the government on loan applications. * Tariff policy: Power to regulate rates and charges as required protecting the public interest. * Labour policy: Power to set common recruitment standards, a common wage structure, and common qualifications for promotion; and the power to approve common labour union procedures. * Licensing: When appropriate, power to establish principles for licensing of port employees or agents. * Information and research: Power to collect, collates, analyze, and disseminate statistical information on port activity for general use, and to sponsor research into port matters as required. * Legal: Power to act as legal advisor to local port authorities. Increasingly, central governments implement seaport policies through the allocation of resources rather than through the exercise of wide-ranging regulatory powers. While central governments should pursue macroeconomic objectives through an active seaport policy, port authority objectives should be more narrowly focused on port finances and operations. It is a widely accepted opinion among port specialists that a port authority should have as a principal objective the full recovery of all port-related costs, including capital costs, plus an adequate return on capital. The full recovery of costs will help a port authority to: (http://www.businessnz.co.nz/file/1947/100813%20Port%20Performance%20and%20Ownership.pdf) * Maintain internal cost discipline. * Attract outside investment and establish secure long-term cash flows. * Stimulate innovation in the various functional areas to guarantee a long-term balance between costs and revenues, especially when faced with innovations by terminal operators, port users, rival ports, and hinterland operators. * Generate internal cash flows needed to replace and expand port infrastructure and superstructure. * Compete according to the rules of the market system, without excessive distortions of competition. * Put limits on cross-subsidization, which may be rational from a marketing point of view (market penetration, traffic attraction), but which can undermine financial performance. * Avoid dissipation of the port authorities asset base to satisfy objectives of third parties (for example, port users demanding the use of land in the port area without regard to the lands most economic use or port and city administrations using port authority assets to pursue general city goals). Ownership of the Port of Koper The port of Koper is the largest and the only public cargo port in the Republic of Slovenia. The ownership transformation of the port of Koper was finalized in 1995. Before the ownership transformation, the government of the Republic of Slovenie brought a decree that the shores, land and water territory around the port are also a public asset in the sense of state ownership. The value of the port infrastructure was set at the amount of USD 180 million. A part of the port infrastructure was defined as infrastructural bases, and they included: * Haulage roads, * Railroad tracks, * Entryways, * Partitions, * Sewage * Water supply systems, * Electric power facilities, * Lighting and telecommunication facilities The mentioned part of the port infrastructure, the port superstructure, machinery and other assets were evaluated in 1995 in the amount of USD 220 million. The total capital was divided into 14,000,000 shares at a nominal value of Sit. 1000. The Republic of Slovenia is the owner of 6,860,000 shares, which is a 49% ownership in priority shares and 2% in ordinary shares. The ownership structure of the Port of Koper; 51% the state, 17.33% government funds, 7.65% municipality of Koper, 7.48% internal distribution to employees and pensioners, 10.20% internal buyout from employees and pensioners, 6.34% public sale. In addition to shares in ownership of the state, the Port of Koper deals with shares on the Ljubljana stock market, hence its ownership structure is subject to daily changes The state has decided to sell its share in the ownership of the Luka Koper d. d. in 2003. During the transitional period the state, with its 49% ownership has decreased its ownership share down to 25% + 1% but in the form of ordinary shares, which enables it to gain control of functions connected to certain more important business decisions that are in close association with status changes of the enterprise. Luka Koper d. d. is the manager of the port. On Nov. 21,2002 a Decree was issued according to which the Government Administration allocated concessions, and the decision was reached that the first concession be given to enterprise Luka Koper d. d. for a period of 35 years. Luka Koper d. d. does not have Port Authority in the classical sense of the term. According to the Statute of the Luka Koper d. d., the enterprise has a single-member management supervised by a supervisory board of 9 members in the structure of which there are three representatives of the state, a representative of the local administration of the municipality of Koper that is itself a 7% owner of ordinary shares, a member representing small shareholders, a representative of the funds that the Luka Koper d. d. holds in its portfolio and three representatives of the employees of LukaKoper d. d. Such a structure of the supervisory board that chooses the president of the management of the joint stock company does not allow the predominance of state power over the management of the port. The state has minimal rights in bringing decisions on occasion of shareholder assemblies of the enterprise Luka Koper d. d, with merely 2% of votes. From this we may assess that the autonomy of port management in the Luka Koper d. d. is very high. Managerial responsibility of the port ofKoperLuka Koper d. d., as the sole port operator manages the entire port. The Management of the enterprise Luka Koper d. d. has complete freedom in conducting its economic policies, policy of superstructure development, and the right of bringing forth a medium- term plan of development of the port infrastructure that is previously acknowledged by the Government of the RS. The port management is also responsible for maintenance of the port infrastructure. The Port of Koper can be evaluated as a Full service port.

A Piece Of My Heart (book) :: essays research papers

The "other" Vietnam Vets Everybody knows about the men who served in Vietnam. They have at least heard of the mentally trying conditions during the war and the resulting "post traumatic stress syndrome" (PTSD) so many veterans suffered from, or heard of the issues concerning negative public opinion of veterans for their role in a hated war. However, few are aware of the female role in the Vietnam War; women, the "other" veterans, shared in all of these problems and issues along with the gun-toting men. They were the nurses, and in A Piece of My Heart by Keith Walker the stories of many women are presented to better understand just how the Vietnam War affected women. Working in places like evacuation hospitals exposed women to the endless flow of casualties from the battlefield, and these experiences took major mental tolls upon the minds of the women who had to assist them, especially in their considerations for the value of human life. Women experienced other problems upon returning home such as the same PTSD and outlashes by anti-war protesters. Women were veterans of Vietnam just like the men, and they experienced many of the same problems as a result of their role there. Women were exposed to an enormous amount of pain while in Vietnam. As veteran Rose Sandecki said, "[The Vietnam] War really did a number on all of us, the women as well as the men" (20). Nurses in Vietnam were exposed to a nonstop flow of casualties from the field. The landing of a Chinook with mass casualties on board had become a standard to Christine Schneider, a nurse in Da Nang. Practically every nurse’s story described the hospital scenes in Vietnam as "busy." Jill Mishkel explained that she experienced a minimum of at least one death per day. As Ms. Schneider described, "There was just too much death" (46). Ms. Schneider also mentioned, "Everybody was bad" (45); nurses only saw the bad because they were surrounded by it, day in and day out. Charlotte Miller described everything as "on a very negative basis" (324), and that she had to deal with these problems from twelve to fifteen hours per day, twelve to fifteen days in a row, a very rigorous schedule. Further emotional damage was incurred by the severity of the injuries that the nurses had to deal with. Nurses described situations such as little boys with their intestines hanging out, men with half their faces blown off, men missing their legs from a grenade explosion, paraplegics, quadriplegics, and in one case pulling someone’s shoe off and having the foot come with it.

Disgrace Is an Applicable Title for Jm Coetzee’s Novel Essay

In order to argue whether â€Å"Disgrace† is an applicable title for JM Coetzee’s novel, the keyword â€Å"Disgrace† has to be defined. According to the Apple electronic dictionary disgrace is defined as a â€Å"Loss of reputation as the result of a dishonorable action†. In jm coetzees’s novel there are many characters and factors in their own right that are affected by some kind of misfortune or ignominy. However there are four characters / factors that play an important role in expressing ignominy from their actions and decisions. These characters and their actions decides if the title is appropriate for coetzee’s novel. The characters and factors are : David Lurie, The new born democratic south africa, lucy lurie and her dogs. The protagonist of this novel is a professor who was constructively dismissed by a committee of lecturers from the university of cape town. David lurie was involved in many sexual relationships with many different women. However the affair that stood out the most was with one of his students named Melanie and this lead to him losing his job at the university and also shaming melanie. This should have been an embarrassing moment at this point in his degrading life but still as edacious as he was he never got to learn his lesson, as its been said in the novel by david ,†No, I have not sought counseling nor do I intend to seek it. I am a grown man. I am not receptive to being counseled. I am beyond the reach of counseling. † When life got too embarrassing for him in cape town because of his loss of reputation he moved to the eastern cape to live with his daughter. It is there in george that he found the true meaning of what his life is worth. The situation with his daughter’s rape, the daily dealings with animals and dogs, his small sexual encounter with bev shaw, the visit to melanie’s parents, conversations with the shady petrus and the life of living in a new south Africa exhibited to him that his actions were disgraceful, his choices not thought out carefully and that whoever he came in contact with were either ashamed or disgraced. Lucy Lurie, the daughter of David lurie lived on a farm in the eastern cape. She is the total opposite of David instead of being cunning and stylish, she is rather an earthly woman who works the soil for a living and who doesn’t care about her beauty and self image. The way in which she confronts david isn’t in a fatherly and daughterly manner but rather as two adults speaking to each other. This shows that lucy is disgusted at the way david is living his life and that david isn’t a fatherly figure in lucy’s life. Lucy does not disgrace herself like david but instead she lives in disgrace after she was involved in a situation where she was a victim of rape. he doesn’t overcome the shame of being victimized, because in the novel its been said by david : â€Å"She would rather hide her face, and he knows why. Because of the disgrace. Because of the shame. That is what their visitors have achieved; that is what they have done to this confident, modern young woman. † (14. 22). Thus this quote shows she is living in ignomi ny. Lucy’s dogs also play an important role as it shows the physical suffering that plays out in the novel. The dogs change the way in which david approaches life when he has to put them down at the clinic. In the novel David is attached to the dog with the crippled leg. Its here that he sees disgrace in not his actions but rather in death and he experiences shamefulness in not lucy’s situation but rather in the way the dog is forced to live. at the end of the novel instead of letting the crippled canine suffer he saves it for living a more disgraceful life than death. â€Å"There is a heavy report; blood and brains splatter the cage. For a moment the barking ceases. The man fires twice more. One dog, shot through the chest, dies at once; another, with a gaping throat-wound, sits down heavily, flattens its ears, following with its gaze the movements of this being who does not even bother to administer a coup de grace. A hush falls. The remaining three dogs, with nowhere to hide, retreat to the back of the pen, milling about, whining softly. Taking his time between shots, the man picks them off. â€Å"(11. 91-92). The imagery of using dogs shows that everyone in the book is subjected to some kind of pain, suffering and a bit of disgrace whether its a human or an animal. In this quote it is here that the dogs are subjected to the harshness of the attackers and david has to bare with the pain of hearing the dogs die, david also feels a bit of ignominy as he can’t do anything to save the dogs. In the novel south africa had just come out apartheid and was now a democratic government, however during apartheid south africa was a disgrace to the international community and apartheid was considered a shameful act. There was still racial tension in the new south africa and this plays an important role in the novel. When david moved to he country side he was not aware of the tension, and he and many other whites couldn’t speak the native language which was a fact as it can be seen from this quote from the novel: â€Å"He is sitting in the front room, watching soccer on television. The score is nil-all; neither team seems interested in winning. The commentary alternates between Sotho and Xhosa, languages of which he understands not a word. (9. 1 -2)† His encounters with the blacks shows that the two races were not use to each other. Thus this shows that when theres segregation in a country it always leads to violence and disgraceful actions. All four of these factors reflect that disgrace is definitely an appropriate title for JM coetzee’s novel. From david’s actions to lucy’s rape and from the physical suffering of dogs to the affects of apartheid expresses the loss of reputation and the dishonorable actions which has contributed to the novel. Disgrace is the ideal word for the title because disgrace touches every character of the novel in some way, both through the ways they have affected others and also through the ways that others have affected them.

The Issue Of Gun Violence - 1249 Words

Imagine living in a carefree world, it’s impossible but with the criminal justice system enacting laws to forbid illegal activity, crime has lessened nationwide. Several categories of crime such as guns, drugs, and organized crimes spark major concern. Crime has existed since human conscience was active. Gun violence is the illegal use of a firearm. Drug crimes are executed by one whom obtains, produces, and allots illegal substances. Organized crimes have several components, one that involves firearms, drugs, and the exchange of human beings for self-gain. This professional crime threatens the tranquility within our society, defies our rights as a human, and weakens all social and economic classes nationwide. Thanks to state-established programs, an extensive amount of crimes, globally, are eliminated, resulting in fewer criminals among the community. Numerous policies were formed to prevent the distribution of firearms and criminal gun crimes such as homicide. The Organized Crime Convention provides states a certain plan to battle organized crime. Crime has marked our history, and unfortunately, it will continue in the future. The criminal justice system is society’s response towards any violation of cultural norms. Advanced forensic procedures, together with the amount of news given by the public allows an offender to be tracked down. New and improved forensic technology aids scientists and investigators to conclude their ongoing criminal investigation. The criminalShow MoreRelatedThe Issue Of Gun Violence953 Words   |  4 Pages Gun Violence Guns have been is society for centuries. They have been used for hunting, war, and even safety. However, in the past several years they have begun to take the lives of many innocent victims, often young children. In response to the killings in Newtown, Conn., it has been noted, â€Å"If this were a country, the number of children killed by gun violence would violate international law.† (Browne-Marshall) F.B.I. data shows in 2011,Read MoreThe Issue Of Gun Violence911 Words   |  4 Pages Gun violence is the sign of a far greater universal problem in America today. Violence and gun violence specifically, is surrounded within, and spread all through every part of our society. All the reasons remain intimately related to the actual solution, which can only be a general solution one by treating it as one issue. The region that I live in is considered a peaceful part of Harvest, which I am particularly grateful about. I do not have to worry about gunfights in the roads of my communityRead MoreThe Issue Of Gun Violence947 Words   |  4 Pagesmuch safer, the officers should have guns in case there is a threat towards the students. 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The law assumes that restricting the physical guns will solve the issue of gun violence; however, the real issue is mental health, or rather the lack of sufficientRead MoreThe Issue Of Gun Violence1688 Words   |  7 Pagesnews we see news about senseless acts of violence and acts of terrorism. Countless families mourning the death of their loved ones because of violence that spreads like wildfire. All of the tragic incidents that have occurred recently have been due to the senseless act of gun violence. The events such as the Sandy Hook Massacre and the Orlando shooting have been centered on one object; a gun. Not only are these acts of terrorism a problem but the presence of guns in our everyday lives. The things weRead MoreThe Issue Of Gun Violence Essay1802 Words   |  8 Pagesconversations of gun violence are increasing dramatically because of some homicide cases. Truly, the gun violence has been the one of biggest elements which threat both personal safety and national security in the United States. Website named Smartgunlaws.org stated that â€Å"Since 2015, the total number of incidents is 42,847; Number of deaths are 11,021; It is a really shocked statistics.† (Smartgunlaws.org,2012) It is a really shocked statistic that there are so many people died because of gun violence, but unfortunatelyRead MoreThe Issue Of Gun Violence1984 Words   |  8 PagesProfessor Cassel English 1201- 27 October 2015 Gun Violence The United States is one of the few countries were the right to bear arms is protected by the constitution. Unfortunately, it is also one of the most violent with incidents involving guns this year reaching an estimated 36,212 and an approximate 9,050 deaths (â€Å"Gun Violence Archive†). There are an estimated 310 million firearms in households across American, these are only estimates because current gun laws do not require them to be registered