Saturday, August 25, 2018

Congratulations Dr. Morris Koffa. Publication: The Ebola Epidemic in Liberia.


It is an honor and pleasure to announce the publication of our member, Dr. Morris Koffa (Lifetime) new book ‘The Ebola Epidemic in Liberia’.

Morris is a valued advisor on Liberia and cultural knowledge and understanding to me, and in focusing members of BEMA International in local community issues, capacity building, diaspora expertise for not only Liberia, but other African Descent communities globally.  Addressing environmental inequity issues in Liberia, the continent of Africa, and other communities.  Pertinent to communities from Flint, Michigan (water contamination), to Bay View community of San Francisco (radiological contamination), Nigeria Delta Region (oil contamination), and other communities not brought into the light.

There is no ‘brain drain’ from our communities, just an under-utilized, non-interactive, or non-inclusive addition of experts from the diaspora sitting and invited to the table,  Experts that not only have the problem-solving power, but as a collective the financial means to address the most pressing issues from financial inequity, homelessness, education, water & food security issues, and other social disaster\crisis\emergency management concerns.

Looking forward to weekend read.

Sincerely,

Charles D. Sharp


The Ebola Epidemic in Liberia
By Dr. Morris Koffa

Paperback, 84 Pages 


Price: $8.00
Prints in 3-5 business days
In this maiden scholastic work, Dr. Morris T. Koffa explores the link that runs through taking care of the environment, addressing issues of emergency/disaster management, and creating public health awareness.

He explains how Liberia's failure to put appropriate infrastructures in place intensified the adverse impact of the Ebola virus epidemic that decimated a huge number of Liberians.

This is a book whose time has really arrived.

Read it and be inspired.








Charles D. Sharp
Chief Executive Officer
Black Emergency Managers Association 
          International
1231  Good Hope Road  S.E.
Washington, D.C.  20020
Office:   202-618-9097 
bEMA International 
     







Change without Sacrifice is an Illusion.  Lisa Ellis



Friday, August 24, 2018

Rice U., University of Pittsburgh study also finds FEMA aid increased inequality

http://news.rice.edu/2018/08/20/natural-disasters-widen-racial-wealth-gap/

Natural disasters widen racial wealth gap

Rice U., University of Pittsburgh study also finds FEMA aid increased inequality

Damage caused by natural disasters and recovery efforts launched in their aftermaths have increased wealth inequality between races in the United States, according to new research from Rice University and the University of Pittsburgh.
“Damages Done: The Longitudinal Impacts of Natural Hazards on Wealth Inequality in the United States” will   appear in an upcoming edition of Social Problems. A supplement to the paper highlights the wealth gap between whites and blacks attributable to natural disaster damage from 1999 through 2013 in 20 U.S. counties.
Researchers Junia Howell, a scholar at Rice’s Kinder Institute for Urban Research and an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Pittsburgh and Jim Elliott, a professor of sociology at Rice and fellow at Rice’s Kinder Institute combined longitudinal data from nearly 3,500 families across the U.S. with governmental data on local natural disaster damages, Federal Emergency Management Aid (FEMA) and demographics. They followed these people from 1999 through 2013 as disaster damage of varying scale struck counties where they lived, and examined how their personal wealth was impacted.
Supplement highlighting wealth gap between whites and blacks attributable to natural disaster damage from 1999 through 2013 in 20 U.S. counties.
“Last year the United States suffered more than $260 billion in direct damages from natural disasters –mainly from hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria,” said Howell, who was the study’s lead author. “And there were also numerous wildfires, floods and tornadoes. Data show that since 2000, approximately 99 percent of counties in the U.S. have experienced significant damage from some type of natural disaster, with costs expected to increase significantly over coming years. We wanted to investigate how these damages impact wealth inequality and accumulation.”
Whites who lived in counties with only $100,000 in damage from 1999 to 2013 gained an average of approximately $26,000 in wealth. However, those who lived in counties with at least $10 billion in damage during the same time period gained nearly $126,000, the paper said.
In other words, whites living in counties with considerable damage from natural disasters accumulate more wealth than their white counterparts living in counties without major natural disaster damage,” Howell said.
However, among blacks, Latinos and Asians, the results went the other direction. Blacks who lived in counties with just $100,000 in damage gained an estimated $19,000 in wealth on average, while those living in counties with at least $10 billion in damage lost an estimated $27,000. Latinos in counties with $100,000 in damage gained $72,000 on average, and those in areas with at least $10 billion in damage lost an estimated $29,000. And Asians gained $21,000 on average and lost $10,000, respectively. These differences occurred even after the researchers controlled for a wide range of factors including age, education, homeownership, family status, residential mobility, neighborhood status and county population.
“Put another way, whites accumulate more wealth after natural disasters while residents of color accumulate less,” Elliott said. “What this means is wealth inequality is increasing in counties that are hit by more disasters.”
The researchers were able to estimate by county how much of the inequality is attributed to natural disasters. In Harris County, Texas, the disaster-related increase in the black-white wealth gap, on average, was $87,000.
The story does not stop there, Howell and Elliott said. Counties that received more aid from the FEMA saw additional increases in wealth inequality beyond that attributed to the natural disasters themselves. For example, whites living in counties that received at least $900 million in FEMA aid from 1999 to 2013 accumulated $55,000 more wealth on average than otherwise similar whites living in counties that received only $1,000 in aid. Conversely, blacks living in counties that received at least $900 million in FEMA aid accumulated $82,000 less wealth on average than otherwise similar blacks living in counties that received only $1,000 in FEMA aid. Similarly, Latinos accumulated $65,000 less on average, and other races (majority Asians) accumulated $51,000 less.
“It’s unclear why more FEMA aid is exacerbating inequality,” Howell said. “More research is clearly needed. However, based on previous work on disasters such as hurricanes Katrina and Harvey, we know FEMA aid is not equitably distributed across communities. This is particularly true when it comes to infrastructural redevelopment, which often has profound effects on residents’ property appreciation and business vitality. When certain areas receive more redevelopment aid and those neighborhoods also are primarily white, racial inequality is going to be amplified.”
In addition to exacerbating racial wealth gaps, the researchers found that after natural disasters wealth inequality also increases based on home ownership. Individuals who owned homes in counties that experienced high levels of natural disaster damage accumulated $72,000 more wealth on average than their counterparts in counties with few disasters. Renters, on the other hand, lost $61,000 in wealth on average relative to renters in counties with few natural disasters.
“Put another way, natural disasters were responsible for a $133,000 increase in inequality between homeowners and renters in the hardest hit counties,” Elliott said.
Similarly, college-educated residents accumulated $111,000 more on average if they lived in a county that experienced extreme disasters compared to their counterparts who did not live through disasters. Conversely, those with only a 10th-grade education who lived in counties that experienced extreme disasters lost $48,000 from natural disaster damages on average when compared to counterparts who did not live through disasters.
“In other words, in the counties with the most damage, natural disasters are responsible for a $159,000 increase in the educational wealth gap,” Howell said.
Howell and Elliott said the results indicate that two major social challenges of our age – wealth inequality and rising costs of natural disasters – are increasingly and dynamically connected. They hope the research will encourage further examination of wealth inequality in the U.S. and development of solutions to address the problem.
“The good news is that if we develop more equitable approaches to disaster recovery, we can not only better tackle that problem but also help build a more just and resilient society,” Howell and Elliott concluded.
The researchers are now building on this work by examining how local for-profit and nonprofit organizations influence social inequality after natural disaster

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

PAID Internship Opportunities. Nothing in major URBAN AREAS.


PAID internships below that are currently open at National Wildlife Refuges across the country.  In addition to getting paid, you will gain awareness, knowledge, and experience working with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the largest conservation system in the world.  For more information, click on the links.  Interested individuals should apply through the Student Conservation Association.

Expected Dates:  September 3, 2018 to August 31, 2019
Site:  National Conservation Training Center, Shepherdstown, West Virginia

Expected Dates:  September 4, 2018 to November 26, 2018
Site:  Waccamaw National Wildlife Refuge, Conway, South Carolina

Expected Dates:  September 4, 2018 to November 26, 2018
Site:  Santee National Wildlife Refuge, Summerton, South Carolina

Expected Dates:  September 4, 2018 to November 26, 2018
Site:  Long Island National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Shirley, New York

Expected Dates:  September 17, 2018 to December 8, 2018
Site:  Southeast Louisiana National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Lacombe, Louisiana

Expected Dates:  September 17, 2018 to December 8, 2018
Site:  Southeast Louisiana National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Lacombe, Louisiana

Expected Dates:  September 17, 2018 to January 13, 2019
Site:  FWS Southwest Region (R2), Houston, Texas

Expected Dates:  September 17, 2018 to July 27, 2019
Site:  Lower Rio Grande National Wildlife Refuge, Santa Rosa, Texas

Expected Dates:  September 23, 2018 to April 26, 2019
Site:  Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, Kodiak, Alaska

Expected Dates:  September 24, 2018 to February 23, 2019
Site:  Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, Commerce City, Colorado

Expected Dates:  September 24, 2018 to September 22, 2019
Site:  Eastern Virginia Rivers National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Warsaw, Virginia

Expected Dates:  September 30, 2018 to September 29, 2019
Site:  Ennis National Fish Hatchery, Ennis, Montana

Expected Dates:  October 15, 2018 to February 23, 2019
Site:  Eufaula National Wildlife Refuge, Eufaula, Alabama

Expected Dates:  October 22, 2018 to May 4, 2019
Site:  Crocodile Lake National Wildlife Refuge, Key Largo, Florida


Why you shouldn’t share your goals. Address your fear, and just 'DO IT".


Founder atwww.JotForm.com ||
(contact: AytekinTank@JotForm.com) May 16

Why you shouldn’t share your goals

Originally published on JOTFORM.COM


The race to get the world’s first plane in the sky was a hard fought battle between The Wright Brothers and a lesser-known gentleman by the name of Samuel Pierpont Langley.

You will discover why you’ve never heard of the latter here shortly.

As you probably read somewhere inside that history textbook you were forced to lug around through elementaryThe Wright Brothers were responsible for creating the first successful airplane. 


“… it was a cold windy day on December 17th, 1903 in the Kill Devil Hills of North Carolina… Orville watched nervously as his brother Wilbur climbed inside the plane they had spent years perfecting… miraculously it flew for 59 seconds for a distance of 852 feet…”

While today “The Wright Brothers” is the first name that comes to anyone’s mind when they hear the word fly, once upon a time the pair were major underdogs.
In fact, during the race to the sky, most of America had its money on the man I mentioned earlier, Langley.

He was an extremely outspoken astronomer, physicist and aviation pioneer who was on a mission to make history. Langley’s high stature as the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution gave him both the credibility and hype he needed to get America on his side.

Not to mention, he was extremely well-backed by the War Department who contributed $50,000 to help him be the first to get a bird in the sky.

Long story short, despite all the hype, Langley’s flying machine ended up crashing and burning while The Wright Brother’s plane ended up soaring.

One party had the entire world, vast resources and plenty of moolah on his side, while the other just had a small bike shop and a passion to fly.

So, let me ask you this… 

can you guess why The Wright Brothers achieved their goal to take flight while Langley failed?

Early praise feels like you’ve already won.

The Wright Brothers victory over Langley came down to passion, intrinsic motivation (Langley was very status driven) and perhaps praise.



While Langley was sharing his ambitions with the world and being heavily praised for feats he had not yet achieved, The Wright Brothers were receiving little to no attention whatsoever.

Some experts argue that early praise can leave the individual receiving the praise feeling like he or she has already won… in turn causing them to be less likely to follow through with their goals.

For example, in Peter Gollwitzer’s research article, When Intentions Go Publiche raises this very question:

Are scientists more likely to write papers if they tell colleagues about their intentions or if they keep their intentions to themselves?

Gollwitzer and his team of researchers carried out a handful of studies, here is a brief excerpt from their findings:

“Other people’s taking notice of one’s identity-relevant intentions apparently engenders a premature sense of completeness regarding the identity goal.”

In English, what Gollwitzer found was that when individuals set a goal that is closely tied to their identity and then share their intentions with others, they are less likely to achieve the goal.

For example, if your goal is to start drinking more water and you tell your friends and family that you’re going to start drinking more water, this would probably have little to no impact on whether or not you actually drink more water.

Why?

Because drinking more water isn’t something you hold close to your identity.

On the other hand, if your goal is to lose 40 lbs and drop 2–3 waist sizes, it might not be the best idea to post about it all over Facebook.  Your appearance is something you very much so identify with. So, if you tell people you plan to lose weight and everyone tells you how awesome you are and how great you’re going to look, you might be less likely to lose the weight.

This finding is a bit counterintuitive, considering we were told by our teachers and coaches growing up to set our goals, share our goals, hold ourselves accountable.

But, the theory certainly holds some weight (pun very much intended), and is one that has been adopted by highly successful serial entrepreneurs like Derek Siversfounder of CD Baby.

Sivers gave a TED Talk on this very topic nearly a decade back. To prove his point, he asked the audience to imagine how they felt when they shared their goals with others:

“Imagine their congratulations and their high image of you. Doesn’t it feel good to say it out loud? Don’t you feel one step closer already? Like, it’s already becoming part of your identity?

Well, bad news. You should have kept your mouth shut. That good feeling makes you less likely to do it.”

Sivers goes on to explain that it’s this “warm feeling” that keeps us from battling on to actually achieve our goals.


The result?
We don’t ever actually pursue the goal.

Alternatives to sharing your goals.


But now, let’s talk about what can actually work when it comes to successfully reaching your goals.



For two counterintuitive yet effective approaches to this, we look to a philosophy called “fear-setting” and making an effort to surround yourself with competition.

Embrace fear-setting over goal-sharing.

Entrepreneur, angel investor and writer, Tim Ferriss, gave an incredible TED Talk where he discussed how fear-setting is instrumental in achieving one’s goals.

He recommends that instead of obsessively sharing your goals, you should come to terms with all the fears that are preventing you from achieving them.

For example, let’s say your goal is to start your own business.  

Ferriss recommends that you write down all of your fears that are associated with starting a business.

These might include… “Losing all my money”… “Getting fired from my day job”… “Getting laughed at or judged if I fail”.

Once you write down these fears, you should then write down how you would go about preventing these fears (or mitigating the likelihood) of them actually happening.

For example, for the first fear “losing all my money”, your prevention might be… “I’m only going to invest $2,500 that way I can’t lose it all.”

Finally, after you have written down your preventions, you should then write down how you will repair what you fear from happening… if it actually ends up happening.

So, to repair losing the $2,500, you might write down, “Get a part time job as a bartender in addition to my day job until I make the $2,500 back.”

By concentrating on fear-setting over goal-sharing, it allows you to remove the fear that is keeping you from actually achieving your goals.

Surround yourself with competition.

In addition to fear-setting, it might also be a good idea to surround yourself with competition.

A healthy dose of competition can be good for your business, too. At JotForm, we love to use competition to our advantage with events like hackweeks to achieve our product release goals.

study published two years ago in the journal Preventive Medicine Reports, sheds some light on the impact that competition has on our goals.

The study put 800 undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Pennsylvania through an 11-week exercise program where each person was assigned to work out alone or in a team.

In addition, the teams were designed to be either supportive or competitive.

By the end of the study, researchers found that students involved in the competitive team programs were 90% more likely to attend their scheduled exercise sessions than any other group.

Not only is this number staggering, but it also proves that competition can create a higher level of commitment among people chasing down goals.

When you surround yourself with competition, it doesn’t mean that you have to share your goals with the competition.

You don’t have to tell the other folks in the spin class, cross-fit training or pick-up basketball leagues that your goal is to lose 50 lbs.

But, by simply showing up and placing yourself in a competitive environment, you will be more likely to push harder and show up more often — two factors that can help your reach your goals.

The science behind achieving goals has always been an interesting topic.

While some entrepreneurs advocate the idea that you should never have a goal, I’ve recently explained why setting big goals can make you miserable.

Whether you decide to share your goals or not, what I’ve found out across 12 years of entrepreneurship is that you should craft your own path.


What works for others won’t always work for you. And what works for you today won’t always work tomorrow.

Originally published at www.jotform.com.



Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Business Continuity and Emergency Planning. Connected but Uniquely Different



Why Business Continuity is Important?




Companies today face an unprecedented number of exposures. The frequency and severity of weather-related events seem to be increasing and reliance on a complex network of technology and supply chains is expanding. Both trends leave businesses susceptible to a variety of existing and emerging risks. Managing these risks by developing a business continuity strategy is key to the survival of any organization.




Why Business Continuity?

Business continuity planning is one of the most critical components of any recovery strategy. Unfortunately, not every company develops a continuity plan. Here are a few misconceptions and realities about business continuity planning.













Misconception #1: "Our people will know what to do in an emergency."
Even the best employees cannot be expected to know what to do when disaster strikes. Leaving each to respond in his or her own way only adds to the confusion of an event. Having a well-documented business continuity plan in advance, and training your employees to follow it, gets everyone on the same page — helping to ensure an organized, safe and timely recovery.

Misconception #2: "We have insurance to cover our losses."
Insurance alone is NOT a business continuity strategy. Proper coverage is a significant and important part of the plan. But it may not fully cover some of the peripheral damages from an event, like loss of customers, loss of market share, or setbacks in development or release of a new product. Consult with your insurance agent to understand what is and is not covered under your policy.

Misconception #3: "We do not have the time to develop a business continuity plan."
Time spent developing and maintaining a business continuity plan is an investment in your company. Your fixed costs will continue after an event, whether or not you are open for business. The faster you can return your operations to normal, the more likely you will recover from the event successfully. With so much at stake, your company cannot afford to NOT have a plan.

Misconception #4: "Business continuity and disaster recovery planning are the same."
Business continuity is a proactive plan to avoid and mitigate risks associated with a disruption of operations. It details steps to be taken before, during and after an event to maintain the financial viability of an organization.

Disaster recovery and emergency planning is a reactive plan for responding after an event. It deals with the safety and restoration of critical personnel, locations, and operational procedures after a disaster, and is a part of business continuity planning.
Think Your Business Can Withstand a Disaster? Think Again

Twenty-five percent of businesses do not reopen following a major event. It does not take a major catastrophe to shut down a business. In fact, seemingly minor disruptions compared to widespread natural disasters can often cause significant damage — power failures, broken water pipes, or loss of computer data.




A Good Investment

From Hurricane Irma and the to the tornadoes in Oklahoma, companies that proactively consider how to respond to events are the first to get back to business, often at the expense of competitors.




A predefined business continuity plan combined with the proper insurance coverage, maximizes the chance of a successful recovery by eliminating hasty decision-making under stressful conditions. It details how to get businesses back on track after a disruption – in the most thoughtful way possible.




Start Your Plan Today!

Planning for a disruption or catastrophic event should happen when business is going well, not when disaster strikes. Having a pre-defined, well-documented business continuity plan that clearly communicates how your business will respond during an event can help mitigate risk — and is one of the best investments your company can make.

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