Nov/070
Looming foreclosure? Here are possible ways out
Foreclosures cost Lenders big. A single foreclosure costs a lender an average of $50,000, according to one study from Congress’ Joint Economic Committee. So, rather than just go down defeated, try make a deal with your Lender. Here are some of the things you and/or your Lender can do.
A. Lender bailout programs
Some lenders, e.g .Countrywide Financial are offering to assist home owners:
- pledged to refinance, restructure or reduce rates ARM clients
- restructure loans based on what borrowers could afford
B. Community “save a home” efforts
Your community or city may be having efforts to try save homes. Find out from your city what such programs exists.
Nov/070
New category: Canadian Experience Class
In 2008, a new stream of Canadian immigration will be available to certain temporary foreign workers and international students with Canadian degrees and Canadian work experience. The Canadian Experience Class will help address the country’s labor force needs by better focusing on these candidates for Canadian Permanent Residency. Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s goal for 2008 is to admit between 10,000 and 12,000 under the new Canadian Experience category of immigration.
Nov/070
Employers face new fines for illegal working
Source: UK Home Office
Businesses must source migrant labour through legal means or face severe penalties, the Home Office announced today as part of its comprehensive programme to reform Britain’s immigration controls.
The Government is setting out new measures to prevent illegal working following a consultation with UK businesses. Under a new system of civil penalties, employers who negligently hire illegal workers could face a maximum fine of £10,000 for each illegal worker found at a business. If employers are found to have knowingly hired illegal workers they could incur an unlimited fine and be sent to prison.
Oct/070
Good to know: PBDEs increasing, risks include obesity, early puberty, infertility
CNN reports that more and more kids are accumulating PBDEs and other industrial chemicals, and are developing newer problems with no non solutions.
Danger Chemicals:
- PBDEs:-polybrominated diphenyl ethers
- phthalates and
- other industrial chemicals
How they get into the body:
- PBDEs: Deca format via electrical equipment, construction material, mattresses and textiles
- phthalates : plastic bottles, kitchenware, toys, medical devices, personal care products and cosmetics
Problems:
- Children: asthma, childhood cancers, birth defects, obesity and developmental disorders
- Adults: infertility in men, obesity, etc.
Who has banned them?:
Sweden banned PBDEs in 1998. The European Union banned most PBDEs in 2004. In the United States ( the sole manufacturer of two kinds of PBDEs ) voluntarily stopped making them in 2004, except for Deca.
Source: http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/10/22/body.burden/index.html
Sep/072
Got a green card, now what?
Have you just arrived with your gleaming new green card and are wondering what next?
First, congratulations on your green card. As you will soon realize, the possession of this vital document makes you the envy of many immigrants in stato. But do remember that the Green Card is revocable. So, as a general advice, keep it in mind that if you do something illegal or “kichini-chini” your Green card may be canceled, so you really want to be careful what you engage in, more so now that Kenyans are in the limelight over such things as non-payment of Tax, etc.
Second, what you will soon learn is that even with good professional qualifications or mighty degrees from Kenya, you may still have to upgrade your skills. Three reasons why this will be necessary:
May/070
WHO plans: make it difficult for health workers to migrate from poor to rich countries
The brain drain of medical personnel to countries that offer better pay, working conditions and better facilities has been going on for some time.
It is in the rural areas that the effects are felt most. Medecins sans Frontieres says drugs are available in some clinics, but there is no staff to administer them. A spokesman criticised donors who fund health clinics but not nurses’ wages.
In Zambia, the Aids death rate is 3.5 per cent for nurses and 2.8 per cent for medical assistants. In the capital Lusaka and Kasema districts , it is double the number who applied to work as medical staff in the United Kingdom.
In southern Africa, doctors and nurses are underpaid, over-worked and disillusioned, and are leaving in large numbers. In Malawi, for example, 44 nurses graduated in 2005, but 86 left the country.
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), the minimum standard is 20 doctors for every 100,000 patients. This is the minimum. In developed countries, it is higher. Yet, in Lesotho it is five doctors for 100,000 patients, 2.6 in Mozambique and two in Malawi. What is happening down south is just as much the case here.
Many Kenyan and Ugandan doctors are working in South Africa. Tanzania has nearly 200 doctors working outside the country and 100 skilled medical workers leave the public service every year. Nurses, too, have been leaving to man wards in countries such as the UK where nursing has ceased to be the attractive profession it was for local women.
A WHO move is welcome. The UN agency is planning to enforce a new initiative that aims at making it difficult for health workers to migrate from poor to rich countries by imposing restrictive work conditions.
New employment policy guidelines are being developed to stem the brain drain. They are expected to be completed next year. This is not to say that medical students and personnel should not travel abroad for further studies or practical experience. But one thing is clear: They are needed more at home. Charity, it is often said, begins at home.
However, this is easier said than done. They cannot be expected to survive on meagre wages and carry out a service that is often unpleasant, tiring and sometimes thankless. As the MSF spokesman pointed out: Donor money needs to be better invested. Clinics and dispensaries are needed, but without contented and efficient staff, and a sufficient number of them, medicines and basic equipment, they are little more than white elephants.
The brain drain is not the same as emigration. The United States and Australia are examples of countries that have developed due to large-scale immigration. The average emigrant left his homeland because he could not make a living or for fear of persecution. He started on the lowest rung of the social and economic ladder.
The brain drain is a drain of the intellectual and skilled elites. Brains go wherever they are paid best, and not just to survive. Many European and Asian ‘brains’ have settled in the US, not because they cannot live well at home, but because they were made offers they could not refuse.
Some people leave to earn money and come back. Others are offered a university course which no local university can match. They take it, but later discover that they are too qualified to come back. They never forever. Others go to study and would like to come back, but find themselves trapped. Things do not work out as they had hoped and cannot afford to come home.
We have little choice but to entice our skilled and intellectual elite to remain and those outside to return as soon as they can – and make it worth their while to do so.
Source: Martyn Drakard on the EA standard
Apr/070
India now seeking skilled immigrants
Indians, just like Kenyans, have historically emigrate to other nations seeking higher-paying work. Many Indian students in the USA, UK either stayed on and sought permanent residency. India has been the largest exporter of IT workers to the USA and UK. The continuing trend of offshore outsourcing by many companies in the US and UK, has resulted in an increasing shortage of very talented people, especially middle level management.
Increasingly, recruiters in India are having difficulty filling jobs demands and a small number of Indians in the US and UK are beginning to look towards home for employment. But this trend should continue for several reasons. More firms in the west feel outsourcing has matured and is no longer a very risky undertaking. Outsourcing firms in India are also reporting increased hourly wage for skilled workers. India has also sustained a impressive 7% annual growth rate in the last 4 years, and with its over 1 billion population, is soon becoming a $1 trillion per year economy.