Category: Marketing

Global Study from WIEGO Network Reveals How People Living Off Waste Improve Cities

New research released today – ahead of International Waste Pickers’ Day on March 1 – highlights the role and impact of those who make a living from what others throw away. The study challenges the common view that waste pickers have no place in modern solid waste management systems.

WIEGO logo 300dpi (RGB).jpgWaste pickers are among the most invisible workers in the informal economy and often work in deplorable conditions. The study shows how waste pickers in five developing countries play a role in keeping cities clean and highlights the challenges they face in recovering recyclable materials.

In cities where local governments have provided better access to recyclables, integrated waste pickers into formal solid waste management systems and provided protected spaces for sorting and baling waste, waste pickers have report higher earnings, improved door-to-door waste removal services, savings to municipal coffers and reduction in on-the-job health issues.

However, waste pickers in all five study cities – Belo Horizonte, Brazil; Bogota, Colombia; Pune, India; Nakuru, Kenya; and Durban, South Africa – reported significant challenges. Study respondents experienced increased competition from other waste pickers, a reduction in prices for recyclables, and stigmatization and harassment.

These challenges impact family well-being in countries where waste picking is the only work option for many poor people. In Pune, India, for example, waste picking is the main source of household income for 85 per cent of waste pickers’ households. Only 25 per cent of respondents reported having another work activity, indicating the relevance of waste picking as a main source of income.

With the exception of Durban, none of the cities reported formal wage employment as their primary household earnings. Households in some cities received additional income from government grants, illustrating the need for a cushion to fall back on in times of instability.

“Waste pickers are closely linked to local governments and to the urban economy,” says Sonia Dias, Waste Picker Sector Specialist of Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), who co-authored the study with Melanie Samson, WIEGO’s Africa Waste Sector Specialist. “Formally integrating waste pickers into the solid waste management system makes sense because, in many cities, these workers are the ones who are already providing the only collection of household refuse.”

The study findings imply that policymakers should devise better programmes to reduce vulnerability in workers’ lives, create opportunities to integrate waste pickers into formal systems, and effectively protect basic rights to pursue waste as a livelihood. It also recommends that cities address the vulnerabilities of waste pickers and the households that depend on their earnings by:

  • Considering the technical capacities and capabilities of waste pickers in solid waste services to support productivity in the informal economy;
  • Developing a system whereby waste pickers are allowed access to recyclables;
  • Providing infrastructure to conduct recycling activities;
  • Carrying out educational campaigns to change stigmas against informal workers; and
  • Working with waste picker organizations to identify a holistic approach to formalization, including offering capacity training and management courses to improve waste pickers’ skills.

About the Study: The Informal Economy Monitoring Study (IEMS) examines working conditions in the informal economy for home-based workers, street vendors, and waste pickers in 10 cities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. For the waste-related segment of the IEMS, WIEGO, which led the study, collaborated with local partner organizations of informal workers in five cities: Asociación de Recicladores de Bogotá (ARB); Instituto Nenuca de Desenvolvimento Sustentável – INSEA and the waste pickers’ networks Redesol and Cataunidos in Belo Horizonte; Asiye eTafuleni in Durban; the Kenya National Alliance of Street Vendors and Informal Traders (KENASVIT) in Nakuru; and the waste pickers’ union Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP) in Pune. The Waste Picker Sector Report, an executive summary, and additional information can be found at www.wiego.org.

About WIEGO

About WIEGO: Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) is a global action research-policy network that seeks to improve the status of the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy. It does so by highlighting the informal economy through improved statistics and research; by helping to strengthen member-based organizations of informal workers; and by promoting policy dialogues and processes that include informal workers. Visit www.wiego.org for more information.

Global Study from WIEGO Network Reveals How People Living Off Waste Improve Cities – Press Release – Digital Journal.

Source: Global Study from WIEGO Network Reveals How People Living Off Waste Improve Cities – Press Release – Digital Journal

Mike Prettyman,
Chief Information Officer at Green Fire Engineered Reclamation
For more information come to the website
Children of the Landfill Project

Green Fire Engineered Reclamation

Join our active groups on Markethive

Children of the Landfill
Green Fire Engineered Reclamation

David

Living In An Oligarchy

Living In An Oligarchy

The United State of Corporations

USC

We do not live in a democracy; we live in an oligarchy in every way but name.

“government by the few, especially despotic power exercised by a small and privileged group for corrupt or selfish purposes” (Encyclopaedia Britannica).

I’ve been waiting for people in high places to say it. They haven't, not even in the politics of today.

An oligarchy is a form of government in which most of the political power effectively rests with a small segment of society, typically the people who have the most wealth, military strength, ruthlessness or political influence.

The faces and voices of corporate owners today demonstrate the intransigent arrogance of the private institutional concentration of wealth and power of deregulated capitalism.

The word "oligarchy" from the Greek words olígos, which means "few," and archo, which means "to rule".

How Oligarchies Form

Oligarchies are often controlled by a few powerful families whose children are raised and mentored to become inheritors of power, often at some sort of expense to those governed.

In the case of the US the mechanism for the transformation to an oligarchy was the gradual accumulation of otherwise unchecked economic power.

The latest mechanism to assist in this transformation was Citizens United.

Oligarchy is a government by the rich for the rich.

This power of the oligarchs may not always be exhibited openly. They generally prefer to remain a " power behind the throne", exerting control through economic means.

Aristotle pioneered the use of the term as a synonym for “rule by the rich”, for which the exact term is plutocracy,

A plutocracy is a government system where wealth is the principal basis of power (from the Greek ploutos meaning wealth).

The term plutocracy is generally used to describe two unrelated phenomena.

In writings about history, plutocracy is the political control of the state by an oligarchy of the wealthy.

The second usage is a derogatory reference to the allegedly great and undue influence, the wealthy have on the political process in contemporary society. Again“Citizens United”, allowing for the best Government that money can buy.

This influence is exerted positively (by financial "contributions", lobbying or in some cases, bribes) or negatively by refusing to financially support the government (refusing to pay taxes, threatening to move profitable industries elsewhere, etc), or both simultaneously.

It can also be exerted that the owners and ad buyers of media properties can shape public perception of political issues in America, the UK and the United States), (e.g. Rupert Murdoch's News Corp's publications alleged political agendas).

The Successful Oligarchy

The most successful oligarchy in history was Venice. It was governed by a group of about 500 billionaires (there are about that many Billionaires in the US now). These billionaires were called "noblemen", which in those days meant "billionaire". The more money you had, the more noble you were. The ideas of nobility and money were inextricably linked.

The Oligarchy in Venice lasted 1100 years. As it turned out, however, throughout its entire 1100 year history, Venice was the best place in the world for ordinary people to live. If you could send a message backwards in time to your ancestors, that message would be, "Move to Venice!" (America)

In 2016 we may elect America's first Oligarch.

Introducing the CEO of the United Sate of Corporations – the USC.

If Donald Trump gets elected

  • The Government will be run by a Cabinet, consisting of the several Secretaries all billionaires.

  • The Cabinet will be accountable to the Senate consisting of all billionaires.

  • The House of Representative will all be at least millionaires.

  • The many secretaries of the government departments will be billionaires.

  • The Justice division of the government will consist of billionaires who hold the various judicial courts and offices.

A class society.

The US society will be divided into basically three classes.

The wealthy elite class, made up of billionaires, who make the laws and command the armies.

Then there will be a “middle class”, made up of millionaires, who have the privilege of serving in the many government offices.

Finally there will continue to be the poor class of citizens who don't have enough wealth to be classed otherwise.

Under this system of government, all of the classes have influence, but the wealthier classes have more influence than the poorer classes.

This will continue to appear natural to people. The influence of the poor class will be limited to vetoing the actions of the other classes. The middle class elects congressional representatives, who have the power of veto. For example, they could veto a law, or stop a prosecution, or stop the actions of an official.

The government will be in the hands of the billionaires, but “nothing important” can be done without the “approval” of the ordinary citizens. Eventually it will be found that the ordinary citizens always agree with the wishes of the billionaires, and that their approval will be a mere formality, so it will be abolished, and the billionaires will officially be in control of the government from then on.

 

Welcome to the OLIGARCHY, The United State of Corporations (USC)

END

 

Mike Prettyman,
Chief Information Officer at Green Fire Engineered Reclamation
For more information come to the website
Children of the Landfill Project

Green Fire Engineered Reclamation

 

David

Cryptocurrency Wallets

CryptoCurrency Wallets

I am continuing my education regarding MyCryptoWorld.

Today I am looking at wallets. Previously I have learn't that Cryptocurrency transactions are protected by military level encryption and physical coins do not exist. So where is the best place to store our Bitcoins or other cryptocurrencies.

There are three types of wallets

  • User controlled wallets
  • Hosted wallets
  • Hardware wallets

Your options. probably  depends on your age and familiarity with using computers and mobile devices and how often or how many coins you have, the choice is very much up to you.

My first choice is a user controlled wallet such as Blockchain, which is web based and also can be used on mobile devices. You have full control over your money, but that comes with its own dangers: you could lose your private keys, your computer could be hacked and the keys could be stolen, or your computer could break, and if you did not keep another record of your keys, you’d be out of luck.

One reason I like Blockchain is because the wallet is built on an HD (or hierarchical deterministic) framework, which has a different method for address generation and management. Each public address your wallet generates stems from your wallet's xPub (or Extended Public Key). Once your public address receives an incoming payment, a new address will automatically be generated and display when you click on receive.

There is a danger If you use the same address every time you receive funds, it becomes easy for anyone to track your entire payment history. This method of address generation improves privacy by automatically presenting you with a new address when you’re expecting payment.

I have also looked at Circle which is a hosted wallet which is more mobile based and very user friendly wallet,which can hold currencies or Bitcoin and you can send and receive either to other people by using email or Bitcoin addresses. However, there are limits which are placed on you initial transactions (0.3329 BTC weekly limit) No need to worry about anything except the limits, Great for day to day use. No need to use Bitcoin exchanges as this is all built in, Conversions are made when you add or remove funds from your wallet. Bitcoin balances in your Circle account, are fully insured against any breach of digital or physical data storage at Circle.

Initially I thought that its security was not up to scratch as I was not required to supply ID information to purchase Bitcoin. When I wanted to send Bitcoin however, I had to supply additional information which delayed the ability to send for 3-5 working days.
 

Hardware wallet is a special type of Bitcoin wallet which stores the user's private keys in a secure hardware device, which might be a usb or other storage device such as a mini computer

They have major advantages over standard software wallets:

  • private keys are often stored in a protected area of a microcontroller, and cannot be transferred out of the device in plain text

  • immune to computer viruses that steal from software wallets

  • can be used securely and interactively, as opposed to a paper wallet which must be imported to software at some point

  • much of the time, the software is open source, allowing a user to validate the entire operation of the device

 

If you want further security you could consider using a Brain Wallet

You might ask why I am providing this information and researching Cryptocurrency, It is because I am involved with the ICO of a new Cryptocoin.

David Ogden
MyCryptoWorld

David

Are We Entering The Age of The Cryptocurrency

my cryptocurrencyAre We Entering The Age of The Cryptocurrency

 

I have started taking an interest in Cryptocurrency and the fact that it offers a number of advantages over paper based currencies. Unlike paper currencies, which Governments can print at will, Cryptocurrency is restricted which means that the value of these coins increases.

 

Take Bitcoin, the best known coin, launched in 2008 with a value in 2009 1 BTC = 0.0001 USD and is now currently at $725. Over the years there have been quite large fluctuations :-

  • June 2010 1 BTC = 0.07 USD

  • June 2011 1 BTC = 15 USD

  • June 2012 1 BTC = 7 USD

  • June 2013 1 BTC = 100 USD

  • June 2014 1 BTC = 600 USD

  • June 2015 1 BTC = 220 USD

  • June 2015 1 BTC = 750 USD

It is interesting to note anyone who has held Bitcoin since the early days has seen a great increase in his asset.. I first came across Bitcoin when I moved to Cyprus in 2013. the Banks shut for days and then restricted both withdrawals and deposit and many people started to use Bitcoin because the banks stole peoples savings. The security with Cryptocurrency protects your holdings and to some extent provides anonymity.

Theft and fraud risks can be quite high when holding Cryptocurrency in online wallets or exchanges and it is recommended that is is best to use mobile wallets or even record you account details on paper. I still have to come to terms with using mobile data and until I learn how to use scan and use QR codes. Individuals cryptocurrencies are digital and cannot be counterfeited or reversed arbitrarily by the sender, as with credit card charge-backs.

One of my pet hates is transaction fees from bank and this is where cryptocurrency comes into its own There aren’t usually transaction fees for cryptocurrency exchanges . Even though there’s no bitcoin/cryptocurrency transaction fee, many expect that most users will engage a third-party service, such as Coinbase, creating and maintaining their bitcoin wallets. These services act like Paypal does for cash or credit card users, providing the online exchange system for bitcoin, and as such, they’re likely to charge fees

Identity theft isa growing concern for example. If you give your credit card to a merchant, you give him or her access to your full credit line, even if the transaction is for a small amount. Credit cards operate on a “pull” basis, where the store initiates the payment and pulls the designated amount from your account. Cryptocurrency uses a “push” mechanism that allows the cryptocurrency holder to send exactly what you wants to the merchant or recipient with no other information.

Decentralization means the network operates on a user-to-user (or peer-to-peer) basis. The forms of mass collaboration this makes possible are just beginning to be investigated.

Since cryptocurrency is not bound by the exchange rates, interest rates, transactions charges or other charges of any country; therefore it can be used at an international level without experiencing any problems. This, in turn, saves lots of time as well as money on the part of any business which is otherwise spent in transferring money from one country to the other. Cryptocurrency operates at the universal level and hence makes transactions quite easy. There is no other electronic cash system in which your account isn’t owned by someone else.

David Ogden

http://information.cryptocoin20.com

David

Money Saving Tips

Money Saving Tips

Since my seasonal job is coming to an end I am taking stock of my financial situation and looking for way to reduce my spending. During the past year I have been teaching my wife how to control how she spends the income from her own part time job.

I used to use Quicken but when I changed my operating system to Linux, I was forced to change to Moneydance, both system are fairly similar and provide ways to control budgets and track expenditure by categories. I am generally responsible for all general bills including my car costs, with my wife responsible for her sons expenditure plus supporting her family in the Philippines and her car costs. We both are responsible for saving.

We have a mixture of Joint accounts, a business account and our own savings accounts. This year I opened a number of additional accounts to cover house insurance, car insurance, road tax and property tax in the Philippines. The additional saving accounts provide a way of saving money , rather than paying the services on a monthly basis with includes interest ,we renew on a yearly basis which saves us money for those accounts which do not allow interest free monthly payment.

I have even set up a number of automated bank transfers which distribute our income a couple of days after it is received into our various saving account, they only earn a few pence in interest but the bigger saving is being in a position in future years to pay upfront and not pay interest. With interest rates expected to rise next year, this will save you money.

I have been analysing my business costs which involve purchasing products in $’s and selling in £’s with exchange rates fluctuating due to Brexit and Trump. If I use my UK debit card to purchase products I am faced with an additional charge of £11-12 and an exchange rate that favours the bank.

However if I use the services of Transferwise who I have used for many years to send money to the Philippines the exchange rate cost are more reasonable . For example they would charge £2.28 and a competitive exchange rate saving me about £10 in every transaction.

Now I do operate an account in the USA, which also has a $ debit card, if I do not charge $250 a month to my card the bank will charge me $16 per month as account charges. Now you can perhaps see that with a combination of using my US debit card to purchase products and transferring funds to my USA account I can save £10 + $16 (12.9) or around £22-32 per month.

One other way to earn money we earn money is with a Tesco Club card, collecting points when buying petrol, food, household items and other items online with Tesco direct. We earn £15-20 per month in cash back as well as additional points and offers.

Saving rates are at an all time low at the moment and to be honest its hardly worth leaving it in the bank, which is why I am using some of my savings and pumping it through my business to provide a better return, with the changes I am putting in place from above, my profits are set to grow faster.

David Ogden is an Entrepreneur at MarketHive

 

David

Building A business

There is a link between building a business and losing weight.. I wrote a blog yesterday about how effective is your plan, and realised that people starting a business and those attempting to lose weight faced some similar challenges. Namely discipline, action and goal setting.

Now goal setting is pretty obvious and was covered in yesterdays blog. Once you have set up goals then you need to take action and follow a plan, without action, you cannot expect success and your plan will failures

Taking the first step is probably the hardest, but once that is behind you, you need to be disciplined enough to set up a routine. Getting into a regular routine makes things much easier, be it writing a blog, contacting people or remembering to follow your diet plan.

I am a morning person so like to get up around 0500 and in fact my body clock wakes me up at this time, no matter what time I go to bed. For me this is a good time, before the rest of the family get up I have time to check email accounts, my calendar and financial accounts and carry out tasks such as drafting blogs. I am at the moment in a state of change as my summer job is coming to an end and I will be concentrating on building my online business.

Change can be difficult and I know I face challenges until I can settle into a new routine and there is always the temptation to step back into your old ways, which will result in failure. I find that using Google Calendar as a tool, it will send me reminders about when I need to publish blogs or contact people and this has become a vital tool to help me get back on track.

When I was last working online full time I set aside half my day for business from 0500 to midday, during this time I worked in my own office space upstairs and the family knew not to interrupt me. This worked well for me and I was able to publish blogs on a daily basis and keep in regular contact with potential customers. Now my circumstances are slightly different, I live in a smaller house and my office consists of a desk in a corner of a dining room in the centre of our house which is a thoroughfare for my family, which makes it harder to concentrate with the job in hand. The only saving grace is my wife works part time shifts and my son is at school , so I can still work weekday mornings between 0730 to midday.

The secret of building a business or losing weight is to take action on a daily basis, which takes you towards your goal

David Ogden
Healthy Weight Loss
Free Marketing Tools

David

Are your Savings Gathering Dust

Make Money GrowThis is the age of the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs are people who have a dream and are prepared calculated risks to achieve their goals. Interest rates are at an all time low, which makes it a great time to borrow money, however spare a thought for savers, some of whom rely on their saving and try to live on the interest.

I have been looking around on the internet for the best savings rates and the best I can find is 10% per annum, with others around 3-7%, but saver rates are continuing to fall

 

The average UK adult has about £5,500 – 6,000 in saving to meet rainy day, so you can see that even with the best savings rate their saving will only produce an income of £500- 600 per year

If you borrow money you will see offers of interest rates of between 3.1-3.5% APR which on paper could mean that you could borrow money at 3.1% and place it in a saving account at 10% and earn just under 7%. However when you apply for one of these low APR loans the APR Jumps to around 22% if for example you wanted to borrow £1000 for a year. It is only larger sums over longer periods that offer low APR rates and the lender may need more security.

I have been tracking one of my own savings account and seeing interest payments of £1 per month coming in which is not very impressive and wondered if there way another way to use my saving and improve my rate of return.

Entrepreneurs are known for Buying low and selling high and then a friend of mine introduced me to Valentus an MLM company which sells Weight Loss Coffee. MLM’s have a bad reputation for selling over priced products and encouraging you to sell them on to friends and family.

I have lost money with MLM in the past, leaving me with product that I had to sell at a loss. The weight loss coffee is different and you can sell it online and earn a profit. I decided to test the market and used money from my savings and brought 16 boxes of coffee and was some what amazed when they sold online in the first month.

MLM companies offer a number of ways of earning money apart from selling products, although I believe customers are more important. There are additional rewards for introducing like minded people and that is the stage I have now come to. I am reaching out to duplicate my success with other people who want to see their money working for them and producing a return.

No matter your past experience, I am willing to work with you and help you build your future,

just go to Http://seriouswealth.net

I will be in touch with you

David Ogden
Helping People Help Themselves 

 

 

David

Wasting Away Waste And Landfill

Wasting Away Waste And Landfill

Landfills are the old form of waste treatment and are still commonly used in most places around the world. Since the advent of agriculture, humans have had to deal with garbage disposal. Yesterday’s dump was a pit or hill on the outskirts of town that played host to disease-carrying rodents, insects, and dangerous objects.

Today, the number of “open landfills” in the world directly effect half of the world’s population, 3.5 billion people. 1

My study of waste and garbage has given me an insight into how civilizations handled waste through history.

A Brief History of the Beginning

The first recorded find of a “landfill” was in North America.

Archaeological studies shows a clan of Native Americans in what is now Colorado produced an average of 5.3 pounds of waste a day. That was in 6500BC. Americans today produce about 5.4 pounds of waste per day. 2

Then in 500 BC, Athens Greece organized the first municipal dump in western world. Regulations required waste to be dumped at least a mile from the city limits.

The New Testament of Bible refers to waste

Jerusalem Palestine, in the Valley of Gehenna also called Sheoal in the New Testament of the Bible "Though I descent into Sheol, thou art there." Sheoal was apparently a dump outside of the city of that periodically burned. It became synonymous with "hell."

The Threat of Waste

Throughout history trash has played a continuous but invisible role. The diseases spawned during the middle ages devastated the world’s population but our history books talk about it and the rats but never do they talk about the garbage and the waste as having any responsibility for the diseases. 3

How Much Waste is too Much

Current global Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generation levels are approximately 1.3 billion tonnes per year, and are expected to increase to approximately 2.2 billion tonnes per year by 2025. This represents a significant increase in per capita waste generation rates, from 1.2 kg (2.64 lb) to 1.42 kg (3.12 lb) per person per day in the next fifteen years. However, global averages are broad estimates only as rates vary considerably by region, country, city, and even within cities. 4

MSW generation rates are influenced by economic development, the degree of industrialization, public habits, and local climate. Generally, the higher the economic development and rate of urbanization, the greater the amount of solid waste produced.

A Population of Wasters

Trash is becoming a larger and larger problem for us and for the environment. As the global population grows and the people continue to concentrate in metropolitan areas, we continue to waste more and more, and, we use more of our natural resources. Our global resources are running short.

Green Fire Engineered Reclamation is designed and dedicated to Landfill Mining and the sciences associated with it. We can’t stop the waste or the flow of waste but we can arrest some of the environmental influences of the open landfills. Open landfills contribute about 20% to the global pollution, water, air and disease.

Join with us to effect change.

I appreciate your attention

Mike Prettyman,
Chief Information Officer at Green Fire Engineered Reclamation
For more information come to the website
Children of the Landfill Project

Green Fire Engineered Reclamation

Join our active groups on Markethive

Children of the Landfill
Green Fire Engineered Reclamation

 

Citations

1. ISWA calls open dumps a ‘global health emergency’

“open dumpsites receive roughly 40 per cent of the world’s waste and serve about 3.5 to 4 billion people;”

http://resource.co/article/iswa-calls-open-dumps-%E2%80%98global-health-emergency%E2%80%99-10463

2. In the earlier report, they warned that global solid waste generation was on pace to increase 70 percent by 2025, rising from more than 3.5 million tonnes per day in 2010 to more than 6 million tonnes per day by 2025. The waste from cities alone is already enough to fill a line of trash trucks 5,000 kilometers long every day. The global cost of dealing with all that trash is rising too: from $205 billion a year in 2010 to $375 billion by 2025, with the sharpest cost increases in developing countries.

http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/10/30/global-waste-on-pace-to-triple

3. “Trash has played a tremendous role in history. The Bubonic Plague, cholera and typhoid fever, to mention a few, were diseases that altered the populations of Europe and influenced monarchies. They were perpetuated by filth that harbored rats, and contaminated water supply. It was not uncommon for Europeans to throw their garbage and even human wastes out of the window. They figured that stray dogs would eat whatever they threw out. “

Kenneth Barbalace. The History of Waste. EnvironmentalChemistry.com. Aug. 2003. Accessed on-line: 11/12/2016 http://EnvironmentalChemistry.com/yogi/environmental/wastehistory.html

4. "The planet is already straining from the impacts of today’s waste and we are on a path to more than triple quantities," the authors write. "Through a move towards stable or declining populations, denser and better-managed cities consuming fewer resources, and greater equity and use of technology, we can bring peak waste forward and down. The environmental, economic and social benefits would be enormous."

The article, Waste Production Must Peak This Century, is the cover story in the Oct. 31, 2013, issue of Nature.

 

David

The Rise Of the Entrepeneur

 

 

 

The Age of the Entrepreneur Is truly Here

 

America has spoken and elected a non political businessman to lead their country, this could have great repercussions around the world. As Donald Trump said in his victory speech, “No dream is too big”

Running a country is a big business so it will be interesting to see just how things work out. I am sure we will see many changes, now that Republicans rule the roost at all level of Government, which will allow changes to be made with little opposition.

The UK is also facing changes and it will be interesting to see what changes might occur in the so called special relationship, as both countries set out to build new relationship with countries around the world.

Entrepreneurs are known for their tenacity and this has been proved over the past 18 months when Donald Trump has come from nowhere to become President elect of the USA.

 

Any dreams can be accomplished, if you are prepared to put in the effort and work every day towards achieving your goal. Donald Trump admitted it had been a long hard and sometimes tiring campaign but he kept his faith and concentration when others had doubt.

As this year is coming towards and end and a new dawn is coming it time for everyone to review their hopes and dreams. Do you have a dream to to improve your financial situation, then now is the time to act.

Watch the Video Below

 

David

A Busy Day with My Son

A busy day with my Son.

Yesterday was expected to be decision day for my son, regarding impending Surgery, to deal with his brain tumour. Having a consultant based in London when you live in Manchester adds to the challenge. So I arranged to pick him up and travel with him by car to London.

I set off home in Bolsover just before 0700, with an estimated journey time to Manchester of two hours. I had allowed extra time due to possible ice conditions passing over the Pennines. Weather was not however a problem but Monday morning traffic heading to Manchester was with Long queue, so the journey extended to two and half hours.

I picked up Stephane and after a couple of false starts getting orientated with the GPS on my phone we were heading South. My plan was to travel down the M6 and then turn off onto the A50 and join the M1, however, however when Stephane was checking his phone is showed two blockages on the route. Then Traffic news confirmed the Junction off the M6 was closed, so we reverted to plan B and took the M6 Toll road. We needed to catch the 1407 train at Milton Keynes to travel into London. News then came in to say that trains between Milton Keynes and London were being delayed for 30 minutes due to an Accident in the morning.

We started to panic as we had a tight schedule and did not expect delays. By this time we knew we would arrive at Milton Keynes park and ride, early so decided to get top the rail station as fast as possible, so that if trains were still be delayed we could catch an Earlier one, but we would need to buy new tickets.

As things turned out our planned train was due to arrive on time. So panic over. Once again we got a little lost orientating our selves but finally arrived in good time at the Neurological hospital. We had to wait some 30 minutes for Stephan’s consultant to see us. The Consultant showed us Stephane’s previous MRI scans and explained that the tumour was touching his brain stem and there is a high risk of further damaging the optic nerve. I would seem that Proton therapy is not an option at the moment wlist the tumour is so close to brain stem as it would damage the brain stem.

The consultant asked Stephane if he was ready to commit to surgery Stephane replied by saying that his sight was very important and he would only risk damaging his sight if it was necessary. The Consultant examined his eyes and made notes about his existing restricted fields of vision. We had some discussions and it became apparent that another MRI scan would be needed to see if there had been any change with the tumour, If the tumour is not growing it may be possible to delay operating and instead try radio therapy as an option. If the tumour is growing them probably an operation would be required earlier.

Unlike Stephane’s previous consultant, his new one is prepared to operate, but warned that he needs to see what kind of tissue the tumour is made up from and this can only be discovered by an exploratory procedure which may result it in one of two outcomes, backing out of the procedure to avoid further damage or completion which might open the door for future proton therapy..

Whilst we we there, he arranged a blood test and we tried to see is the MRI machine was available later in the evening, as it was not, we turned to plan B and are arranging an MRI Scan in the coming weeks to be completed in the morning with a consultation later in the day to plan the way ahead,

The slow progress is a little disappointing and will mean another trip to London before matters can be resolved. We left London during the rush hour by train and were concerned about the amount of traffic leaving Milton Keynes, however as it turns out little was going North so it took some one and half hours to drive home to Bolsover.

We had been on the move all day apart from grabbing a Subway sandwich at the station and so we went out for an evening meal and a pint at 2100 hour.

Stephane stayed overnight and I drove him home this morning and we are now awaiting an update from the Hospital

 

 

David