#[incoming low activity and queue this week!]

[grimowled]

;ooc

psa. activity will be spotty this week until next tuesday 9th because I’m hosting a guest!! :3

in the meantime if we haven’t interacted yet (and you haven’t liked / missed my ‘break the ice’ post) feel free to like this for a smol starter from this creepy owl on my return!!

I am still working on sending out those break the ice asks and my drafts, so bear with me and my slow ass🦉

[ohtea3]

Curriculum vs. Community

‘’I feel like I know so much but so little at the same time.’’

Welcome Back to Blog 2, Week 2…  

As you know, I have been working at the Kenville Community for the last 2 weeks, and I think I'm finally getting the hang of things. So, let me walk you through my mornings: At the new clinic, we start the day with Health Promotion sessions, where we stand before the queue, sharing insights about Occupational Therapy (OT) and its role in promoting health. But our work goes beyond just talking. Through individual screenings, we assess various health needs, spanning from prevention to rehabilitation. Whether it's advising mothers on child development, assisting the elderly with pain management, or treating injuries, each interaction contributes to our overarching goal of providing comprehensive primary healthcare (PHC). But what exactly is PHC?

The WHO defines Primary Health Care as ‘’ a whole-of-society approach to effectively organize and strengthen national health systems to bring services for health and wellbeing closer to communities.’’ It is made up of 3 components: Providing integrated health services to meet people's needs throughout their lifespan, tackling underlying factors affecting health through multisectoral action and policy, and encouraging individuals and communities to actively manage their health and well-being.

You can read more about it here:

Kenville Community Clinic, with our OT role, falls under PHC, as it is the first level of contact for individuals and communities to access comprehensive healthcare services for promoting health and well-being, preventing disabilities, and facilitating rehabilitation within the community. We also look at the client's context and try to address determinants of health such as the social (low educational or employment level), economic (low income), and environmental (lack of infrastructure) factors - but more on this next week… Moreover, through education, skill building, and advocacy, we try to promote self-management strategies so the client can manage their own health. These components within the PHC aims for universal health care.

Now you might be thinking, this all sounds great on digital paper, but does my education and training prepare me to work at a community or PHC level?  It's important to note that when talking about my education or the curriculum, we are not only talking about the content of the courses but also the learning opportunities and the execution of this teaching (Oxford Dictionary).

In terms of modules, we only have one community module, in our fourth year, in which we gain practical, hands on experience working at the community level. However, throughout the last 3 years, we have done several lectures related to community-based practice. I -vaguely- remember lectures about the PHC, SDOH, SDGs, cultural sensitivity, and so on, and not only from OT modules but even community-based modules way back in the first year. But to be honest, community, unlike the physical, paediatric, or psychosocial modules, does not only focus on one component of OT. It deals with all 3 aspects in one go; this is due to the diversity of clients and the multiple factors of each case. Thus, an integration of all these modules is required to work at a PHC level; the question then is, was this adequate?

An article by our very own Professor Naidoo highlighted that overall, UZKN final-year students only felt partially prepared to practice OT, that means there is room for improvement within our curriculum. Lets highlight some of the pros and cons here, so we can compare how good or poorly run aspects of our curriculum are, which could possibly be changed to better prepare students to practice at a community or PHC level.

The students preparedness was linked to their perceived ability to adequately apply the OT process and their confidence in applying their newly developed professional skills. Students felt that they had the ability to implement basic therapy; however, their increased confidence and skill were linked to having exposure to previous fieldwork and which experiences they preferred or were positive. Positive and constructive feedback as well as autonomy, promoted a positive experience, while negative feedback had the opposite effect (pro/con). Furthermore, the students were able to adequately assess clients and write down a problem list but struggled with more complex cases. At UKZN, in 2nd year is when OT students learn and practice assessments only; this gives students sufficient time and focus to grasp the first part and most crucial part of the intervention process, which is why students were good at this (pro). However, since physical and psych blocks were taught separately, students typically view them in isolation. This is not good as clients; especially at a community level where clients aren't separated by wards; experiences both physical and psychological problems and need a holistic treatment approach (con).

Due to limited time being observed by supervisors, due to their own caseloads, students found that they did not get adequate supervision and feedback, which is why we sometimes see 4th-year students unable to do basic assessments properly such as using a goniometer, as they were not corrected initially (con). Moreover, students struggle to use theory to guide intervention planning and subsequently to grade sessions/activities. This can be due to many reasons, such as a lack of information or gaps in the teaching curriculum of theoretical work OR students are not taking enough initiative in their learning by either missing lectures, not paying attention in class, not asking questions, or not doing readings (con). UZKN had a culture of racial segregation, which impairs information sharing and peer learning (con)

UZKN uses an interactive educational teaching method that makes use of demonstration, peer learning and discussion, which assist students to integrate theory with practical work (pro). The screening of clients and health promotion projects teaches students to have good handling skills and interpersonal relationships with others (pro). (Naidoo, 2014). This article highlighted that students are able to manage OT practice using the current curriculum, however, improvements can be made such as better training for supervisors to support students effectively, the use of diverse teaching methods to enhance learning, and the promotion of intercultural and interracial interaction among students to foster tolerance and mutual learning, ultimately benefiting their clinical practice.

Another article by Professor Naidoo, highlighted more cons of our curriculum at UKZN related to PHC: The curriculum has a remedial and hospital-based approach, rather than PHC. It also has a medical model focus, as it does not prioritize health promotion, disease prevention and there has also been limited emphasis on MDT collaboration, which deviates from a comprehensive PHC approach (Naidoo, 2016). Additionally, the curriculum does not have adequate training on inter-professional education, and students struggle to find their place in the workplace amongst the other MDTs (such as working with physiotherapists). The curriculum does not prepare you for the administrative tasks required of you, nor does it teach you the procedures of other government departments, new health care policies, or how the DOH operates to secure resources.  Lastly, communication barriers were seen to be a major issue in service delivery; this goes back to first-year Zulu not adequately equipping health science students with the right vocabulary required in practice. The pros within the curriculum included good ethical grounding for practice, which can be used at the community/PHC level (Naidoo, 2017). Furthermore, the article highlighted again that the community block was most beneficial in learning about PHC and increased skills in research, as you had to find solutions to problems seen within the community, which was valued by students.

These findings emphasize the importance of enhancing curriculum content and teaching to better equip occupational therapy graduates for effective practice at PHC and community levels, addressing the identified gaps in preparation and skills needed for diverse practice settings. Whilst the UKZN curriculum has taught us so much about the PHC and community, it can never be enough. I believe that you can never be too prepared, and that you only learn through experience and continuous up-to-date reading, especially in our ever-changing society. 6 weeks in Kenville, is good experience but every community is different. In 2 weeks alone, I feel like alot has changed for me- mainly good things-. Its important to remind ourselves, that although the last few years we have learnt so much, to the point it has changed how we see everyday activities as being more- or is that just me, no?- Being a student comes with that uncertainty, lack of experience and lack of confidence, which is why its okay to feel like you don't know enough sometimes, as long as your open to learning. As my lecturers -loosely- say, ''its impossible to teach you everything within 4 years, being a health science student is being a lifelong learner, there are always more articles, courses, research to do and things to learn!''

Until the next blog

Peace ✌️

[walkamongyou]

Workie #1

So today I decided to spend a day in a city where I don’t have any contacts at all, Northampton as a workie on his lunch break.

 My workie’s name is Jaymes “Jimbo” Hogg. I wanted him to have a conventional name with a none-conventional, slightly illiterate spelling, and a common, unattractive surname; (I’m toying with the idea that his nickname on the site is ‘Pigshit’; a Hogg pun and because he’s not the smartest). Jimbo is a simple, stereotypical lad; he loves football, the pub and fried food. He’s employed as an unskilled labourer; so spends his days moving heavy things around, fetching tea for the other lads, basically doing a job any idiot could do.

I put together an outfit to wear as him that I found really hot. The trainers and trousers I nicked from someone who was throwing them out. The shoes are fllthy and battered and smell strongly of sweat; the trousers are from Cherokee at Tesco, a cheap supermarket brand, have had Velcro attached and are absolutely unfashionable, totally practical. The polo is a Royal Mail one, and the hi viz vest was bought on eBay. It’s covered in motor oil and smells strongly of that. The underpants and socks I wore were scavenged; some really well worn Superman y-fronts and Poundland sports socks. What’s important for my kink was to make decisions as ‘Jimbo’ no matter my instincts told me to do. Jimbo naturally loves a lot of things I hate, but I had to commit to those to really inhabit him and with that behaviour came a lot of feelings of humiliation and disgust.

I took my workie clothes in a backpack, and did my prep by going to the gym to make sure I was really sweaty. For breakfast I had a cheese and onion crisp sandwich with ketchup (two things I hate; so naturally, I wanted these to be Jimbo’s favourites) and drank a can of Special Brew. I was already belching and my mouth felt really foul. I sprayed on Lynx Africa (a cheap body spray I associate with chavvy teenagers) instead of showering, then headed out to a shopping centre on the rougher side of town and got changed in the public toilet.

I waited in the cubicle for a little while, checking myself in the mirror, then decided to bite the bullet. I went over to the sinks and was seen by a fashionable Indian guy; he didn’t even give me a second glance, which relaxed me a lot. I began by just walking around. A lot of people in the shopping centre appeared to be of low social class, and I found it exciting to feel like I was indistinguishable from them. I let myself get into more unconfident posture, head leading, eyes low. I made sure I only visited shops that I thought would interest Jimbo. I went to Poundland and bought some chewing gum, popped four in my mouth, then had a look in Sports Direct and a Protein shop, building my confidence.

I felt like I was being watched a lot more by security than I would be usually; but mainly noticed that ironically less people seemed to look at me now I was in my hi-vis; maybe they felt I wasn’t worth their time. On the streets I found a couple of Big Issue sellers actively didn’t ask me for money when I passed; they assumed I was on minimum wage, maybe, and this made me hard. The idea of people seeing me in my vest and straight away assuming I was of a low level of income and education was really hot.

The first thing I wanted to get was a hi-vis jacket as the weather was bad. I walked around for a bit and stumbled across a motor repair shop that had a good selection. I walked in out of the rain and said ‘alright’ to the shop worker, who barely even clocked me. With the unconfident posture I found myself speaking in a lower, gruffer voice, and going back to my natural Northern accent. I went over and looked at the Dickies jackets, settling on an orange one to clash with the yellow vest I had on. I had to go over to the shop assistant as he did some work to ask if they had a small. He was definitely younger than me and was actually quite rude, saying a medium would be fine and that ordering in a small would take weeks. But as Jimbo isn’t assertive or smart, he agreed with the young man in a shirt and tie, bought the medium with cash, then put it straight on and left. I even shook his hand on the way out.

By then I was pretty hungry, so I decided to get some grub. I went to a Wimpy upstairs in the cheap shopping centre, a really greasy British burger chain, and decided to order something unhealthy and basically the opposite of what I fancied, what Jimbo needed for a hard day’s graft. When I arrived at the restaurant, I felt much more passive than I usually would, and waited til the guy working there told me to sit down in a seat right in front of the window that I didn’t want. I sat there and waited, looking at the menu. When the waiter eventually came over to me I ordered a double Wimpy cheese burger, twelve onion rings, a side of baked beans and a pint of coke.  

When it arrived, the first thing I did was remove the lettuce and tomato from the burger (usually my favourite part of a meal is the salad, but Jimbo doesn’t like poncey vegetables). I drenched it in salt and pepper, put a huge blob of ketchup on the side, put my gum on the other side of the plate and tucked in.

I really concentrated on going against any table manners I had engrained in me; leaning elbows on the table, slurping my drink, chewing with my mouth open and smacking my lips. I also made sure everything I ate was absolutely covered in ketchup, licked my fingers instead of using a tissue and didn’t wipe my mouth til the very end of the meal with the corner of my hi-viz vest. It felt really messy and it was actually an effort as my body isn’t used to lots of greasy food; I felt extremely unpleasant and found myself burping a lot.

 As I ate I read the sport section of the Daily Sport, a cheap tabloid, and played a video of Barce-Madrid on my phone. I have zero football knowledge, but I want my workie persona to be as clichéd and unimaginative as possible; he’s probably going to be a Man United fan. When I finished, I forced myself to wipe the plate clean of any ketchup using my fingers. I had to concentrate at points so as not to gag and found myself inadvertently belching really loudly. I paid in cash, put the gum back in my mouth off the plate, then decided I still had time for a quick pint. I’d spotted a pub earlier that I’d never normally dream of going near, covered in Union Jack flags on the outside, really rough, with lots of unwelcoming guys in leather jackets outside smoking. Nobody batted an eyelid as I went in, and I went up to the bar and ordered a Guinness and two bags of cheese and onion crisps. The clientele in the bar were mainly old, smelly men; daytime alcoholics, and a few workies, some in groups and some alone like me.

I was already feeling pretty bloated, but I went and sat down, went back to reading the sports news, and forced down the pint and the two full bags of crisps (Jimbo’s favourite). By now from all the onion my breath was feeling pretty heavy and disgusting, I forced myself to stay for an extra half an hour until my lunch break would be over, again watching footie videos.

After that, I (Jimbo) headed back up to the main shopping centre to be more exposed. By now it was really busy but again nobody seemed to pay any undue attention to me. I really liked walking past guys in suits and imagining what they might think of me, an uneducated minimum wager totally unworthy of their attention.  When I got up to the toilet it was heavily attended and there was a queue, so I didn’t feel comfortable changing back in there; but at this point I was so horny I had to crack one out in the cubicle that still stank of the load from the guy before me. It was intense, I wiped myself off and headed back through town to the original toilet I’d changed in and got back into my normal civilian clothes.

I still stink of Lynx Body Spray, my stomach feels bloated and my breath is definitely terrible, but I had an intense, exciting day out. I’ve already spotted a Wetherspoons outside of town that I’d like to go to as Jimbo on my second outing, lots of men drinking in the window and I might have the opportunity to make some mates.

Future plans include:

1)    Messing with my hair (it’s naturally curly) to get a working class perm that a lot of guys up here seem to have

2)    Buying some cigarettes. I’m not going to smoke any, because I’ve never had one and don’t want to start, but I’d like to have them on me, buy them in my hi-vis and use them to get that smoker’s smell on all my work clothes.

3)     Go shopping for more work wear

4)     Go for a proper greasy spoon workie breakfast

5)    Get a litter picker and a bin bag and do some low status cleaning work between meals

[cutsliceddiced]

New top story from Time: ‘It’s a Bucket Brigade on a Five-Alarm Fire.’ Food Banks Struggle to Keep Up With Skyrocketing Demand

In a matter of five months, 47-year-old Aquanna Quarles saw her personal finances implode. In December, she totaled her car. In February, the car she replaced the totaled one with was stolen. And in early March, her kitchen flooded, destroying the food in her cabinets and the small appliances on top of them. Quarles remembers thinking, “Oh my God, like what else could go wrong?”

Then the novel coronavirus began spreading across the United States. In mid-March, the state of Ohio, where Quarles lives, began issuing stay-at-home orders, shuttering shops and businesses, and by the end of the month, the rest of the country had followed suit, pushing millions of Americans out of work. Quarles, who works for a home health care company doing both office work and caring for elderly and disabled individuals, saw her hours��and weekly earnings—cut in half.

In April, for the first time in her life, Quarles felt she had no choice but to lean on a food bank to make ends meet. “This was really my first time ever doing it,” Quarles says of her decision to seek assistance from a food charity. “Because if I don’t need it, I’m not gonna go. You know what I mean? But I needed it.”

On April 21, Quarles lined up in her car with thousands of other Ohioans in the parking lot of Wright State University’s football stadium where Dayton’s Foodbank, Inc. had set up an emergency drive-thru food distribution site. On that day alone, the food bank served 1,381 households and more than 4,500 individuals, according to its chief development officer Lee Lauren Truesdale. After four hours, Quarles returned home with about a couple week’s worth of chicken cutlets, chickpeas, cucumbers, eggs, peach-flavored protein shakes, potatoes, rice and watermelons.

Quarles’s recent hardship has become all too common in recent weeks, as tens of millions of working- and middle-class Americans like her—bartenders and servers, childcare providers and hairdressers and hotel staff—have found themselves suddenly with decreased or eliminated incomes for the foreseeable future. On April 23, new unemployment numbers showed another 4.4 million people filed unemployment claims last week, bringing the total since March 14 to more than 26 million. Though Quarles did not lose her job completely, her reduced hours may make her eligible for partial unemployment insurance. Like millions of Americans, Quarles has faced difficulties accessing that benefit. Though she says she applied for the assistance at the end of March, she hasn’t yet seen the payment hit her bank account.

Stories like Quarles’ underscore the fragility of the American economic landscape. Until recently, the U.S. economy was sailing through the longest expansion on record—trumpeting record-low jobless rates and a bull stock market. But after just five weeks of recession, tens of millions of Americans are suddenly without the most basic necessities, including food and medical care. While incomes have vanished, the trappings of middle class life—car notes, mortgages, rent obligations and utility bills—have continued to pile up, forcing Americans who until very recently had full-time jobs to the brink of true poverty. With nearly 40% of U.S. adults unable to afford an emergency expense of $400, according to a 2019 report by the Federal Reserve, many have turned to food charities for help.

Tech Sgt. Shane Hughes—U.S. Air National Guard. Soldiers unload food at the Dayton Foodbank in Dayton, Ohio, on April 21, 2020.

When Three Square Food Bank of Las Vegas was modeling its new drive-thru food distribution systems several weeks ago, it anticipated between 200 and 250 cars per donation site each day. Instead, its chief operating officer Larry Scott says the organization is seeing up to 1,200 cars each day at some of its sites—in queues that stretch to five miles and longer. At the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank, executive director Joe Arthur estimates his nonprofit went from serving 135,000 individuals a month to approximately 175,000. Central Texas Food Bank president and CEO Derrick Chubbs says its Travis County partners saw a 207% spike in clients.

But as new patrons line up for food assistance in record numbers, and old clients become even more reliant on donations, half a dozen major food insecurity nonprofits tell TIME they are experiencing financial and procedural challenges of their own. “All hell broke loose at the first of March,” says Lisa Hamler-Fugitt, the executive director of the Ohio Association of Foodbanks, which doles out resources to the state’s individual food organizations, like Truesdale’s.

Since then, she adds, it’s been “a bucket brigade on a five-alarm fire.”

‘That spigot just shut off’

In fatter times, food banks receive donations of shelf-stable items, like peanut butter, pasta, tuna fish, and soup, from wholesalers, manufacturers, restaurants, and grocery chains that over-ordered. But since COVID-19 hit, those businesses have seen their own stores dry up. Manufacturers are prioritizing shipping their products to grocery stores, which can barely keep shelves stocked, as people have begun to eat all of their meals at home.

In Illinois, a spokesperson for the Greater Chicago Food Depository says it received only 1.83 million pounds of donated food from non-government sources last month—a 30% decrease from what it received a year ago, in March 2019. The spokesperson says the figure is lower in part because restaurants and grocers are less able to give, but also because the nonprofit had to focus on accepting “non-perishable foods in this ongoing crisis,” as shelf-stable items last longer, require less handling, and can more easily be transported to the organization’s partner charities.

“When the pandemic hit the supply chain, that spigot just shut off,” says Hamler-Fugitt. She added, “We don’t have enough food in the system to keep up with this demand. We just don’t.”

As the stream of donations have declined, some food charities have been forced to buy pantry items at or near retail prices, which puts many food banks operating on small budgets in a nearly impossible situation. Under normal circumstances, the cost of supplying a food-insecure client with 28 to 30 pounds of groceries would cost Central Texas Food Bank $5 per box, says Chubbs, its CEO. These days, the cost is closer to $30 per box, at a time when the organization anticipates needing demand for about 25,000 boxes a week.

Tech Sgt. Shane Hughes—U.S. Air National Guard. Hundreds of members of the Ohio National Guard were activated March 18, 2020 to support food distribution efforts across Ohio.

But the food banks that have so far managed to avoid paying retail prices are finding that securing shelf-stable items can be challenging too, says Kate Maehr, the executive director of the Greater Chicago Food Depository. That’s partly because manufacturers are not yet keeping up with new demand for pantry staples, and partly because the products they do produce first go to the retail stores. Food banks, she says, are “last in line.”

“If you’re a manufacturer, you’re going to make sure that you are honoring the relationships that you have with retailers and your core business,” Maehr says. “We are getting told by suppliers that we are three weeks, six weeks, and in some instances, 12 weeks out before we can get truckloads of food.”

Some states have increased funding to food charities to help offset these new barriers, but food bank directors say it’s unlikely to cover the difference. Earlier this month, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed an executive order to provide the Ohio Association of Foodbanks a one-time $5 million appropriation on top of the $25 million the charity receives annually. The group estimates it will need $54 million per month if demand continues to grow apace.

In the past, when food banks in one state have been overrun as a result of regional disasters, like flooding or a hurricane, food banks in other parts of the country have been able to supplement staff and food supply, says Elaine Waxman, a food insecurity expert at the Urban Institute. But in this pandemic, the whole country is affected.

“Right now,” she says, “literally it’s like a disaster in all 50 states.”

More need, but fewer volunteers to accommodate it

It’s not just food donations that non-profits are having to do without. It’s staff, too. Under normal circumstances, food pantries rely on volunteers, many of whom are retired or elderly. But since people over 65 have disproportionately severe symptoms from COVID-19, those staffing resources have dried up. As a result, charitable organizations have had to reduce the number of places where food is distributed.

For example, Three Square, the Las Vegas food bank, has had to suspend food distribution at 170 of its 180 partner organizations, while setting up 21 additional drive-thru distribution sites, according to Larry Scott, its chief operating officer. In a month’s time, the number of sites from which locals in the region can collect food decreased by 83%.

Central Texas Food Bank chief Chubbs says his organization has seen a 70% reduction in volunteers. “One of the biggest challenges that I’ve seen here is how do we balance minimizing the risk of the human resources—our staff and our volunteers—and at the same time, meet that growing demand,” he says.

The Dayton, Ohio food bank where Quarles picked up her rations has also tried to limit people of “advanced age” from volunteering, in an effort to protect their health. At the Ohio drive-thru event on Tuesday, a 73-year-old volunteer confided that he was breaking the age rule, but said he felt like he needed to be helping. “I live alone, I self-isolate at home,” he says. “People need help, and that’s when you want to be out here.”

Tech Sgt. Shane Hughes—U.S. Air National Guard. U.S. Army Spc. Rose Minton unpacks pallets of food at Wright State University’s Nutter Center in Fairborn, Ohio, on April 21, 2020.

Some states, including Ohio, Washington state, Michigan, and Kentucky, have deployed the National Guard to fill the void left by these older volunteers. Andrew Lynch, a 33-year-old Sergeant who was present at Dayton’s Foodbank, Inc. on April 21, compared his service this week to his 2011 deployment to Afghanistan. “Being able to give back to the community and provide a service or a product at a time of need is very similar to when we were in Afghanistan or Iraq,” he says. Though the setting is different, he explains, the purpose is still to keep people safe.

‘This is not going to be a crisis that is measured in weeks’

Even as mayors and state governors prepare to reopen their cities and states, food bank executives expect the uptick in demand for their services will continue for many months, if not years. The aftermath of the Great Recession offers a bleak guide. In 2008, 15% of U.S. householders were “food insecure,” meaning they lacked consistent access to enough food for an active life, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. It wasn’t until 2018—a decade after the bottom dropped out of the market—that the proportion of food insecure households rebounded to pre-recession levels. There’s reason to think that this recession will have a similarly long tail for those with no financial buffer.

“There are so many people in this community who are one paycheck away from poverty. And they’re going to lose eight paychecks or 10 paychecks. It will take them a long time to come back to a level of financial security and stability that will equate with food security,” says Maehr of the Greater Chicago Food Depository. “This is not going to be a crisis that’s measured in weeks. I fear that this is a crisis that will be measured in months, and possibly years.”

Once stay-at-home orders are lifted and people begin to return to their pre-quarantine lives, Maehr worries that the general public will forget that more than 37 million Americans struggled with hunger before this pandemic even hit U.S. soil. “I am worried about compassion fatigue,” she says. “I am very worried about what happens when the news camera crews leave.”

SNAP doesn’t fill the gap

Food banks are supposed to be a stop gap measure for other safety net programs, like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), colloquially known as food stamps. For every meal provided by Feeding America—a national consortium of 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs—SNAP provides 12.

But experts say SNAP is facing shortfalls of its own. Though the program is available to most households with gross monthly incomes at or below 130% of the federal poverty line, the average cost of a meal in 99% of U.S. counties is higher than food stamp benefits allow, according to a 2018 report by the Urban Institute. Monthly, the average recipient is allocated just $127.

The benefits program, which President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into law in 1964, is supposed to cover the cost of meals that provide adequate nutrition. But welfare reform in the mid-1990s placed new limits on eligibility, froze the minimum benefit threshold, and reduced the maximum allotments. Since then, the costs of meals that meet the government’s nutritional guidelines have largely outpaced the amount of funding provided.

Tech Sgt. Shane Hughes—U.S. Air National Guard. A soldier directs traffic during a drive-thru food distribution event at Wright State University’s Nutter Center in Fairborn, Ohio, on April 21, 2020.

Household purchases that may be vital during a viral pandemic—including soap, hand sanitizer, and toilet paper—also can’t be purchased using SNAP, nor can pre-made, protein-rich foods like rotisserie chickens and store-prepared meatloaves.

Still, people are seeking out the assistance in droves. Nearly 12,000 Ohioans signed up for SNAP during the first week of March, a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Jobs and Family Services tells TIME. During the second week of April, 29,334 more signed up. The number of Washington state residents who applied for SNAP benefits during the first full week of April 2020 was also more than double what it was the corresponding week last year, a state employee says. And while Nevada received 19,266 new requests for SNAP benefits in March 2019, the volume increased by 43% to 27,465 applications in March 2020, according to a spokesperson for the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.

But many are running into bureaucratic hurdles getting assistance at all. Generally, recipients have to re-certify they still qualify for SNAP every six to 12 months with corroborating documents such as paystubs and proof of child support. That can be challenging for low-income recipients whose incomes are constantly changing: Gig workers can’t predict how many customers will request meal delivery or rides, bartenders can never be sure their customers will tip fairly, and many low-income workers piece together one-off jobs to get by.

“SNAP is built as if people’s incomes are always stable, but people’s incomes are going up and down all the time,” says Mariana Chilton, director of Drexel University’s Center for Hunger Free Communities, and former co-chair of the Bipartisan National Commission on Hunger. “You have to go through this terrible type of surveillance machine in order to prove that you’re worthy.”

Aquanna Quarles, the 47-year-old Ohio home health care aide who saw her hours halved a few weeks ago, says she made too much money over the last six months to qualify for full SNAP benefits at this point. About a week ago, she received a letter from the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services about her food stamp benefits, she says. “I thought they were gonna be jacking them up a little bit,” she says. “But they lowered them from $194 to $99.”

She’s since received notice that the benefit will go back up. On Wednesday, the USDA announced a 40% increase in food stamp benefits “to ensure that low-income individuals have enough food to feed themselves and their families during this national emergency.” The increase, paired with partial unemployment insurance, should help Quarles get through the crisis, if and when the assistance actually comes through.

Still, Quarles says, she has faith that her luck will soon turn. It just has to. “What I got out of all of this that happened,” she says, “was God is making better for new.”

via https://cutslicedanddiced.wordpress.com/2018/01/24/how-to-prevent-food-from-going-to-waste

[newstfionline]

Gaza ‘Unliveable’ 10 Years After Hamas Seized Power—UN

Reuters, July 11, 2017

JERUSALEM--A decade after the Islamist group Hamas seized Gaza, the Palestinian enclave is effectively unliveable for its 2 million people, with declining incomes, healthcare, education, electricity and fresh water, the United Nations said.

In a report examining humanitarian conditions in the territory, which Hamas took over in June 2007 after a brief conflict with forces loyal to the Palestinian Authority, the United Nations concludes the situation in Gaza is deteriorating “further and faster” than was forecast only a few years ago.

“Across the board we’re watching de-development in slow motion,” Robert Piper, the UN Coordinator for Humanitarian Aid and Development Activities in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday.

“Every indicator, from energy to water to healthcare to employment to poverty to food insecurity, every indicator is declining. Gazans have been going through this slow motion de-development now for a decade.”

Immediately after Hamas took power, Israel moved to isolate the militant group by restricting the flow of goods and people in and out of Gaza, limiting access to the sea and working with Egypt to enforce a blockade.

At the same time, Hamas has been in near-constant dispute with the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, prompting the PA to limit financial transfers to Gaza and, in recent weeks, asking Israel to cut back electricity supplies.

The upshot is that Gaza’s population, which is projected to grow by another 10 percent in the next three years, is being squeezed on all sides, even as resources become more scarce.

“I see this extraordinarily inhuman and unjust process of strangling gradually two million civilians in Gaza that really pose a threat to nobody,” said Piper.

Asked who was doing the strangling, he replied:

“Everyone’s having a go,” mentioning internal Palestinian political strife, Israeli security policies that leave Gazans caught in the middle, and regional dynamics including pressure on Qatar, a major donor to Hamas, from Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

“That’s the message in this report, the fundamental message: Someone has got to step back and put the interests of civilians at the top of the queue for a change,” Piper said.

“We talk about the unliveability of Gaza. When you’re down to two hours of power a day and you have 60 percent youth unemployment rates... that unliveability threshold has been passed quite a long time ago.”

Gaza is a narrow wedge of land on the eastern Mediterranean, barely 40 km long and around 10 km wide, with most people living in densely packed, low concrete tower blocks, and many areas damaged in past bouts of fighting between Hamas and Israel.

One of the most pressing challenges is power. Gaza needs at least 450 megawatts of electricity a day, but is now receiving 120 MW, partly because of the dispute between Hamas and the PA and a lack of internal power-generating capacity.

By 2020, if growth picks up, Gaza will require up to 850 MW a day, but supplies are unlikely to top 360 MW.

Piper says improving Gaza’s health, education, sanitation and growth is critical for Israel as well.

“In the media, in the NGO community, and even in the Defence Ministry, you’ll find plenty of thoughtful Israelis that will recognise that, firstly, the current trajectory is threatening for Israel’s security and that a stable and prosperous Gaza... is also good for Israeli security,” he said.

[fitfuturesacad]

How you doing Gym… you feeling a little better?

So, gyms and exercise facilities are back open in New Zealand! Covid-19 did its best to challenge all businesses through some dark times earlier in the year, and the health and fitness industry wasn’t excluded. But we are now seeing a little more normality in the industry, though it also should be said that we cannot become complacent. We only have to look at our neighbours across the ditch in Melbourne to see how quickly things can change.

That said, things are looking good here. New Zealand gyms and exercise facilities have reached about 85-90% of pre-Covid-19 levels, according to a recent survey by Exercise Association NZ. While this is good, we should also be cautious as we are in the first stages of post-Covid-19, and we can’t be sure how long this stage will last for. It’s fair to say that it will not be going away soon, particularly when we compare ourselves to other parts of the world where Covid-19 cases are still going up.

So how will New Zealand’s gyms and exercise facilities consolidate now we are at alert level 1? It is rather ironic that an industry that makes people stronger, fitter, and healthier could be crippled and brought to its knees by Covid-19. In a business article during the lockdown, Brett Sutton, Les Mills Head of Club Operations highlighted that he was worried what Covid-19 could do; not just to Les Mills but to the industry as a whole. Phillip Mills, International Executive Director of Les Mills, expected approximately 70% of members to return back to the gym. Which on the whole is great… but he also added that the remaining 20-30% of missing members is where the profits lay for the business.

So, what changes have to occur for Les Mills and other gyms and exercise facilities if members do not return immediately? The lockdown earlier in the year was disastrous for business owners and employees. As we know, during the lockdown many businesses folded, and people lost their jobs. And though New Zealand has got itself up off the floor after the lockdown, we must remain cautiously optimistic going forward. We are yet to see the full effects of the economic downturn, as more redundancies are forecasted in the final quarters of 2020. If this is correct, there may be another wave of gym membership cancellations as users look at managing their disposable income more tightly.

Further afield, gyms have reopened in more than half of the states across the USA. Fitness is a $34 billion industry and an estimated 20% of Americans have a fitness or health membership. A recent Fortune article suggested that high-end boutique fitness studios were doing very well since they had reopened – but low-priced gyms like Planet Fitness were struggling with occupancy. TIME magazine earlier this month pointed out that only 20% of Americans said they would not feel comfortable going back into the gym after lockdown. A further 25% highlighted that they would not plan to go back to the gym. Indeed, the franchise gym, Chains 24 Hour Fitness & Gold’s Gym, a recognisable name in the industry, have filed for bankruptcy due to Covid-19.

In the United Kingdom (UK), gyms were due to reopen on Saturday 25th July. At the time of writing this article in early July, the gyms in the UK were one of the last public-facing businesses to reopen. Phillip Mills from Les Mills pointed out that during the lockdown in the UK, it was predicted that 2800 gyms WOULD be gone by June. This is a startling and bold statement, and only time will tell if this is correct or even anywhere near the mark. During lockdown, the Telegraph newspaper in the UK identified that there was a 400% rise in home gym equipment being purchased online, suggesting more gym users now have options to keep fit at home. Will this keep them from returning to the gym? In New Zealand during the lockdown, home exercise equipment was in huge demand and online workouts too. Les Mills even provided live fitness classes broadcast on TVNZ! These classes were watched on TV by about 1.2 million viewers, with another 210,000 streaming them online. So, it is fair to say that the gym membership landscape is changing quickly, and gym owners are having to embrace change whether they like it or not. Things are not going to get back to ‘normal’ next week or in the next few months or even maybe years, but what gym owner’s and members have to do and acknowledge swiftly, is that change is needed if gyms are to survive.

So, what can be done for our beloved gyms and exercise facilities to remain open in New Zealand during these difficult and challenging times? Both users and owners have options:

Will we see an increase in membership prices? This may happen to cover the costs of falling membership numbers. It may not happen immediately, but owners would be naive to think that their businesses can continue to function as if there was nothing wrong.

The big boys in the industry may be the first casualties. Les Mills, City Fitness, Snap Fitness, Anytime Fitness and Jett’s Fitness are the leading industry providers. Smaller outfits or privately owned gyms with fixed costs and smaller overheads may find it easier to survive. Will we see a gradual movement of gym users going to smaller facilities?

To reassure uncertain or potential new members coming to join a gym, owners need to show that social distancing and member safety is enforced as much as is practically possible and that hygiene measures are taken seriously, with wiping down of equipment a primary objective of each gym user.

Gyms and exercise facilities need to have a flexible and ever-revolving business plan. Do the big boys in the industry gamble by leasing or buying new state-of-the-art technology to keep their remaining members happy and to entice new members into the gym? Or do they take stock, build on what they have, and place a greater emphasis on the personal trainers and fitness instructors to go above and beyond to provide a high-level professional experience where each member feels welcome and important?

Will we see landlords increase rental charges for gym owners? Some gyms were struggling financially before the lockdown. It may be prudent for gym owners to speak to their landlord and discuss how both parties can keep going forward successfully. A gym closing because of high rent fees does not necessarily mean that the landlord will be able to replace them immediately – Covid-19 has seen to that. There is no queue of businesses lining up at the landlord’s door to rent space. As a result, landlords may well be open to discussions about reduced rent for a short period of time.

So how are New Zealand gyms doing, early post-lockdown? I think it is fair to say that 7/10 would be an objective score right now as we come to the end of July. We know the industry has approached the post lockdown period well, and Exercise Association New Zealand chief executive Richard Beddie has highlighted that new membership sales show that New Zealanders are wanting to stay physically active, possibly as a result of the increase in physical activity seen during the 3 month lockdown. But the bottom line could be that gym users are also craving to get back into a facility with other people, where there’s a sense of community amongst the users; a bit like a social club, where users like to be seen, it’s a vital part of their lifestyle. They do not necessarily turn up to the gym to workout. There will always be a number of hardcore gym users who will keep coming back to the gyms. But the key for gyms going forward is to offer an excellent experience at an affordable and competitive price while New Zealanders sail through unpredictable waters.

                                                              Reference

https://fortune.com/2020/06/11/coronavirus-gyms-workouts-fitness-apps-reopening/

https://www.lesmills.com/clubs-and-facilities/research-insights/research/post-lockdown-research-reveals-the-new-member-mindset/

https://www.newsroom.co.nz/news/2020/04/23/1141015/survival-of-the-fittest

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/on-air/mike-hosking-breakfast/audio/richard-beddie-fitness-centres-struggling-to-remain-open/

https://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/BU2006/S00097/nz-fitness-centres-back-to-70-percent-activity-levels.htm

https://time.com/5867166/covid-19-gyms-exercise/

      The post How you doing Gym… you feeling a little better? appeared first on Fit Futures.

from https://fitfutures.co.nz/how-you-doing-gym-you-feeling-a-little-better/

[herokita]

Written by Jen-Li Lim New to personal finance? Maybe you’ve already started cutting down on spending, or even taken steps to increase your disposable income. Here’s something else – did you know that you can change the way you spend money you already have to “buy happiness”? Here are four ways you can do so: 1. Buy experiences “Buy experiences, not things” is the kind of caption you would expect to find on social media, alongside a photo of some twenty-something looking out pensively into the ocean. But there’s some science behind it – according to research, purchasing experiences instead of material items leads to higher satisfaction in the long term. While having new possessions can lead to temporary happiness, their novelty tends to fade – we soon become accustomed to new stuff, and they deteriorate or become obsolete. On the other hand, experiences become part of our memories or influence our identities. We also tend to look back upon them with more fondness than we do material items. Even a negative experience – for instance, getting lost in a city in which you don’t speak the language – could be turned into a funny anecdote once you return. In comparison, it’s a bit harder to entertain friends at a party with say, a story about how your new TV stopped working over the weekend. So the key is to buy more experiences, but we’d also like to expand on it: Don’t buy experiences for the sake of having a story to tell. “Buy experiences” is a good guideline to minimise wasteful consumption of goods, but make sure you buy experiences you actually enjoy. For instance, if you have to make a decision between a trip to somewhere that sounds fun to your friends but you don’t really want to visit and a gadget you’ll find useful, the latter may be the better purchase. Buy things that enable experiences. The line that separates experience and thing is not always well-defined. Yes, one is tangible and be can touched, while the other cannot. Yet, some things can lead to having experiences. Buying local street food while in a foreign country, for example, can add to your experience of travelling. Other things, like board games, create experiences by facilitating fun social activities. What are examples of experiences or experience-enabling things? Travel, concerts, a good meal, a good book, a bicycle, a skill-building item (like a paint set), etc. 2. Buy now, enjoy later Experiences also tend to lead to higher satisfaction because they provide more anticipatory pleasure. That is, anticipating an experience can be almost as fun as actually experiencing it. Think of the last time you booked a vacation months in advance – as the date approached, looking forward to it was likely pleasurable, especially if you were stuck at work. If you’re worried that this will lead to disappointment when reality falls short of expectations, research suggests that the mind conveniently fills in the gaps bridging the two. In a 2017 study, people reported greater enjoyment levels for both high-quality and low-quality experiences when they had high expectations for them, but not when they had low expectations. Here’s another psychological trick our mind plays on us when we choose to pay now for future consumption: when we pay up front, by the time the anticipated moment comes around, the pain of having to pay for it is too far in the past to put a damper on our present enjoyment. It’s like receiving a gift from our past selves. Here’s what you can do to increase anticipatory pleasure. Book your vacation months in advance, and not the week before. Blocking out the dates on your calendar for small events periodically (like a nice meal at a restaurant or front-row seats to a play) can give you something to constantly look forward to. Pay up front for purchases so you can enjoy them guilt-free later. 3. Buy time If you want to be happier, spend money on things and services that save you time, especially for tasks that you dislike. This isn’t just for the wealthy – people across different income levels and careers who do so report greater life satisfaction. Many people have it the other way round, choosing to save money by spending time instead. This isn’t bad by itself – if you have limited income, or if you stand to save a lot of money, then trading time in return for potential savings might be a good idea. But if your instincts for frugality are kicking in on overdrive, and you find yourself driving to another supermarket twenty minutes away to shave a ringgit off an item, then you should re-evaluate how much you value your time. How much is your time worth? The tricky bit is deciding when a trade-off between time and money is worth it. Should you queue up for an hour to get an RM20 discount on an item, or should you buy it at full price to save yourself the hassle? Is the time saved by a dishwasher worth its RM2,000 price tag? Should you pay a part-time cleaner RM50 an hour to clean your home so you could have a few extra hours this weekend? One way of answering these questions is to attach a monetary value to an hour of your time by using your income as a baseline. Take your net monthly income (after taxes and EPF contributions) and divide that by the number of hours you work in a month (including lunch breaks) to get your net hourly wage: Net monthly income ÷ number of hours worked in a month = net hourly wage Let’s say your net monthly income is RM5,000. If you divide that by the number of hours worked in a month (let’s go with 160 hours), your net hourly wage would be around RM31.25. Knowing this number is useful for making time vs money decisions. Since you now know that you need to work an hour to earn RM31.25, deciding if you should queue up for an hour to save RM20 on an item becomes easier. For a more in-depth analysis on how much your time is worth, check out this questionnaire by Clearer Thinking. It can also help you make other money decisions, such as how much you should accept for part-time work. What purchases can help you save time? Skip the long queues by shopping for groceries online and having them delivered to you. Use a service like to Kaodim engage in home cleaning services. Get better broadband to reduce loading times and increase overall productivity (assuming of course, you’re using your speedy internet connection to get stuff done). Use a time-saving device in the kitchen, such as a dishwasher or a crock pot – just make sure that the time these devices will save are worth their price tags. If you are a freelancer or self-employed, consider outsourcing administrative tasks to virtual assistants. 4. Spend on others Spending on others (gifts, or donations to charity, etc.) can provide more happiness than spending on one’s self – this research paper suggests that this is true even if you predict otherwise. The same paper outlines a few factors that influence how much (and if) you derive happiness from giving. First, we tend to be happier about giving when it helps to facilitate a social connection. For instance, you might feel happier about treating a friend to lunch if you were having lunch together. We also feel better when we can see the impact of our charitable spending. A donation to a charity with a clear promise (e.g. every RM5 you donate buys a meal for someone in need) can make you feel better than if you couldn’t see where your money is going. Finally, it must be a voluntary choice – you should have control over whether or how much you give. If a charity organisation volunteer has cornered you on the street and strong-armed you into making a donation, you may not experience the same fuzzy feelings. How can you spend on others? Treat a co-worker during your morning coffee run. Donate to an organisation whose values you identify with and discloses how your donations will be used. Take a friend to the movies. What we get wrong about money and happiness Even though we’ve just shown you a few ways money can buy happiness, we’d also like to point out: having more money won’t necessarily make you happier. According to research in the US, emotional well-being rises according to level of income – until the income reaches US$75,000 a year (roughly the salary of a software engineer). There is no increase in emotional well-being beyond this level of income. This suggests that having little money causes or amplifies emotional pain – it’s certainly harder to be happy if you’re struggling with your mortgage, paying for your next meal or dealing with the financial implications of a divorce. But beyond a certain level of stable income, where you can meet all your basic needs and spend a little extra on leisure activities, your emotional well-being will be constrained by other factors – not money. 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[itsfinancethings]

It’s early morning on Shanghai’s West Bund, and the lawns of the waterfront area are filled with picnickers savoring the annual cherry-blossom bloom. Parents push strollers through carpets of flowers while students sprawled on the grass share bottles of chilled cava. After three months of strict stay-at-home orders because of the COVID-19 pandemic, residents of China’s biggest city have re-emerged blinking into the light. “It’s crazy; I’ve never seen it so busy here,” says Sally Zhou, as she queues for coffee with her French bulldog. “People are desperate to get outside and enjoy themselves.”

Even as COVID-19 spreads across the world, nowhere has replicated the scale and intensity of China’s unprecedented lockdown. The epicenter of the outbreak, Wuhan, was sealed off and other cities placed under quarantine. The world’s No. 2 economy froze completely. Those sacrifices have now enabled China to slow new cases to a trickle. Wuhan discharged the last of its hospitalized coronavirus patients on April 27, and although many are skeptical of the government’s reported case numbers, authorities clearly feel confident enough to allow certain schools and businesses across China to reopen. Sales at major online retailers grew around 10% year-on-year in March, according to China’s Commerce Ministry, partly in response to a flurry of cut-price deals designed to rekindle demand. On April 22, President Xi Jinping emphasized the imperative to restart China’s stalled economy. “Great advances in history have come after great catastrophes,” he said.

For much of the world, the catastrophe is still ongoing–at least 3 million cases and more than 200,000 deaths in more than 200 countries and territories as of late April. In February, the world marveled as China threw up temporary hospitals in Wuhan; now, similar facilities sit in London’s largest convention center and in New York City’s Central Park. Medical masks, long de rigueur in Asia to guard against infection, are now worn by most venturing outside in much of the Western world. The new hot spots of the virus have armed themselves with defenses pioneered in Asia: the potent trident of social distancing, widespread testing and protecting frontline medical workers.

The coronavirus is far from defeated, but in many places, the initial surge in cases has abated and focus has turned to the fate of the global economy. The IMF estimates global GDP will shrink 3% this year and that contraction may continue into 2021, which could lead to the deepest dive since the Great Depression. The U.S. economy shrank 4.8% in the first quarter, and J.P. Morgan predicts a 40% contraction in the second. The number of Americans claiming unemployment is now 22 million.

With statistics like these, some feel as if the cure may hurt more than the disease. Protests have broken out in the U.S. against lockdown measures, which are already being rolled back in states including Georgia, Montana and Tennessee. But health officials warn that easing measures too quickly risks a W-shaped recovery, where a resurgence of cases causes a second economic decline soon after the first.

There’s no playbook for successfully lifting lockdown. But several East Asian countries are further ahead in the game. How they are faring offers invaluable lessons in the effort to balance public health and economic recovery.

It was about 4 P.M. on March 7 when Park Hong-cheol, 42, received a call from his local health authority in South Korea informing him that a colleague in his office had tested positive for COVID-19. He quickly donned a surgical mask and drove to Sejong City’s Public Health Center. After he filled out registration forms, hazmat-suited staff performed a COVID-19 test through a crack in his car window. Afterward, officials sprayed disinfectant on his car’s exterior and Park drove straight home, obeying strict instructions to stay indoors and avoid human contact. “By the time I awoke the next morning, I had a text message saying that I’d tested negative,” he tells TIME.

At the start of the coronavirus outbreak, South Korea had been caught off guard; a slow initial rate of infection quickly metastasized in mid-February. But unlike in the U.S., which confirmed its first COVID-19 case one day after South Korea, a robust public health response kept reported cases under 11,000. Compared with the U.S., South Korea on a per capita basis tested three times as many citizens.

The ability to test and trace every infection and their contacts is one of six conditions the WHO says should be met before any society can reopen, and South Korea shows you don’t have to be an autocratic system like China’s to introduce these kinds of expansive measures. By April 24, more than 589,000 Koreans had been tested in the same way as Park Hong-cheol, in large part at drive-through and walk-through facilities that delivered quick results. The government provided free smartphone apps that relayed emergency SMS alerts about spikes in infections in neighborhoods, and updated national and local government websites that tracked cases. Infections with only mild symptoms were treated at temporary facilities to allow hospitals to concentrate on the most acute cases. As a result, South Korea successfully flattened the curve in 20 days without extreme draconian restrictions on freedom or movement. “The faster we find the contacts, the better we are able to stem further spread of the virus,” South Korean Health and Welfare Minister Park Neung-hoo tells TIME. Still, he adds, “finding a midpoint between economic activities and containing an epidemic outbreak is a delicate balancing act.”

Swift, decisive action has no doubt lessened the economic hit South Korea will have to bear (although its economy still shrank 1.4% in the first quarter of the year). Park, the Health Minister, says test results that arrive in minutes, not days, are “critical” to effective contact tracing. Then anonymized GPS data from an infected person’s cell phone can be used to automatically alert via SMS those people who had recently been in the same vicinity to get tested themselves. Other methods use interviews, security cameras and credit-card data to trace infected people. Hong Kong and Taiwan have enjoyed similar success.

The U.S. is poorly positioned to follow. For one, problems in the supply and capacity of testing kits mean it typically takes several days for results–and that delay exponentially increases the potential for infected people to expose others. For another, there are only around 2,200 professional contact tracers in the U.S., and health experts say 100,000 more are desperately needed. In China, around 9,000 contact tracers were employed in Wuhan alone.

There are also privacy issues; Americans generally don’t want their telecom companies to share their GPS data with government agencies, even if rendered anonymous and used to fight an extraordinary health crisis. Apple and Google are currently collaborating on an app that will use geodata to facilitate contact tracing–but, they insist, on a voluntarily opt-in, self-reporting basis.

And the app may not be ready for weeks, “It is very, very difficult to get people to opt into anything,” says Kai-Fu Lee, a venture capitalist; former Google, Microsoft and Apple executive; and author of AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order. “It begs the question of which is more important: personal privacy or, during national pandemic emergencies, to use data in a restricted, anonymized way for public health.”

The government of Taiwan made its choice early. The island of 23 million realized it was extremely vulnerable given its position just 80 miles off mainland China, where 850,000 of its citizens reside and another 400,000 work. But in addition to early screening and detection, emergency powers also enabled smartphone location tracking to form “electronic fences” around people under quarantine, imposing steep fines if they leave home. Thanks to these precautionary measures, Taiwan has had fewer than 500 cases to date.

Yet even the most efficiently staged recoveries can prove fragile. Singapore, an affluent city-state of 5.6 million, was initially commended by the WHO for its widespread testing and comprehensive tracing of close contacts. Singapore requisitioned 7,500 hotel rooms to quarantine new arrivals, including some at the storied colonial-era Raffles Hotel. Sure, room-service menus were off-limits–simple meals on trays were provided instead–but the state still picked up the tab. On March 23, the island permitted schools to reopen, confident the virus was under control.

It turned out, however, that authorities had paid little attention to Singapore’s million or so low-paid migrant workers, and all the while COVID-19 was flourishing in their cramped dormitories–the largest of which house up to 25,000 workers. Over a week in April, case numbers rocketed by more than 250% to over 10,000–the highest tally in Southeast Asia. Ripon Chowdhury, 31, a shipyard worker from Bangladesh who has lived in Singapore for 10 years, was sharing a room with 15 others when the virus tore through his community. “It’s just too crowded,” he says. “If one person gets it, then all of us will, because we’re sharing a toilet, shower and kitchen.”

Singapore shows that any response to this indiscriminate virus must be inclusive. Americans on low incomes who cannot work from home and lack comprehensive health insurance have proven particularly vulnerable, as have elderly people trapped in care homes. But the virus cannot be banished from society by prioritizing the young and affluent. In Singapore, like the U.S., rich and poor take the same public transportation, use the same ride-sharing apps, prowl the same malls. “The virus doesn’t respect community barriers,” says Christine Pelly, an executive committee member of Singapore’s Transient Workers Count Too, a nongovernmental organization. “We benefit a lot from [low-wage workers]. We should look after their well-being more closely.”

Singapore is not the only Asian nation to have suffered a “second wave.” Japan was one of the first nations affected, not least because of the stricken Diamond Princess cruise liner docked south of Tokyo. But early on, it was actually Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido that was worst hit. Home to 4% of the population, the province roughly the size of Maine had a third of Japan’s 206 cases at the end of February, mainly owing to Chinese visitors to the Sapporo Snow Festival. A state of emergency was declared Feb. 28, with schools shut and residents ordered to stay at home.

But as cases mushroomed in urban areas like Tokyo and dropped in Hokkaido, the island’s authorities grew concerned by the economic toll. Kazushi Monji, the mayor of the town of Kutchan, some 50 miles from Sapporo, tells TIME the shutdown had a “serious impact” upon the local economy with restaurants empty, hotel reservations canceled and practically no new bookings. On March 19, Hokkaido lifted its state of emergency after just three weeks.

“People in Hokkaido became so happy, relaxed and relieved–walking around, going for drinks, attending business meetings,” says Dr. Kiyoshi Nagase, president of the Hokkaido Medical Association who helped coordinate the local COVID-19 response. Quickly, the situation spiraled with a flurry of new infections. On April 12, a second state of emergency was imposed. “Now I regret it,” says Nagase. “We should not have lifted the first [order].”

For chef Koji Yorozuya, whose parents started the Wafuchubo Mikami Izakaya in Otaru, northern Hokkaido, 20 years ago, the lockdown has become the “most severe crisis in the history of our restaurant.” Normally, all 40 seats would be occupied with customers enjoying warm sake alongside dishes of sashimi, tempura and grilled seafood skewers. But health regulations have forced him to shut up shop, and he now serves only taxi deliveries. “Honestly, I want the restrictions lifted as soon as possible because I am afraid of losing my restaurant,” he says. “But in terms of public health, I am also scared. I don’t know what the right answer is.”

As Hokkaido demonstrates, a town or province that has conquered its infection rate can relapse with alarming ease. Kazuto Suzuki, vice dean of international politics at Hokkaido University, says his province’s experience shows that the piecemeal opening up of U.S. states is “very dangerous … even if you control the first wave, you can’t relax.” In Texas, state parks have already reopened and nonessential surgeries resumed. On April 24, Oklahoma’s nail salons, spas, barbershops and pet groomers were allowed to resume work. Georgia’s gyms, bowling alleys and tattoo parlors flung open their doors the same day. “I’d love everything open,” Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman recently told CNN. But individual states’ actions pose a serious risk to the rest of the U.S. “The whole world is on fire with coronavirus,” says Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and co-author of Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs. “So all 50 states are going to contribute to each other. We’re only as strong as our weakest link.”

The question every country has to answer is what recovery looks like in a post-coronavirus world. New Zealand has had extraordinary success in conquering the virus, partly as a consequence of its isolation and low population density but also because it introduced strict lockdown measures and all but closed its borders. Now, daily new infections are down to single digits and it’s poised to banish the virus completely.

Still, the banning of all foreign nationals is having a catastrophic effect on the country’s tourism-reliant economy. Over 2019, international tourists to New Zealand spent just over $10 billion: the sector employs 8.4% of the workforce. All this has now evaporated. “The economy can survive without international tourism, but not as we know it,” says Brad Olsen, senior economist at New Zealand’s Infometrics consultancy firm.

Economic superpowers are no less at risk. China’s economy contracted 6.8% in the first quarter of 2020. Although domestic demand is now picking up again, China’s exposure to the global marketplace will mean the pain lasts for some time–and will have unpredictable repercussions. The dearth of demand for goods by Americans sequestered in their homes, for example, means Chinese factories run at reduced capacity, slashing the demand for energy, which helped crude-oil prices plummet below $0.

After the 2008 financial crisis, China invested in its recovery through infrastructure. It plowed $586 billion into government projects like highways, metro systems and airports, and poured more cement between 2011 and 2013 than the U.S. used in the entire 20th century. One result of that spending binge was soaring national debt, but it also resulted in millions of jobs in the short term and an enhanced foundation for every Chinese business to operate.

Beijing now appears reluctant to repeat that feat, but it might work for the U.S., which has so far focused on injecting liquidity into bond markets, making grants to small business and sending $1,200 checks to individuals. Analysts say the U.S. needs to spend some $4.5 trillion by 2025 to fix its creaking roads, railways and airports, plus upgrade to next-generation technology like 5G. Economists say infrastructure is an equalizer that empowers all businesses–big and small–and should be prioritized over bailing out lenders once again.

It’s early, but already clear that one legacy of the coronavirus will be a changed economic landscape. Almost half a million companies in China declared bankruptcy during the first quarter of the year. How many American firms fold depends on choices made today–by officials, and by people anxious for answers. The only thing worse than closed doors is a public too terrified to walk through open ones.

–With reporting by STEPHEN KIM/SEOUL; ABIGAIL LEONARD/TOKYO; AMY GUNIA and HILLARY LEUNG/HONG KONG

[cryptodictation]

Find out what needs to be done to protect your pocket in the pandemic

(photo: Maurenilson Freire / CB / D.A Press)

The new coronavirus pandemic had an impact considered by many to be unprecedented in the Brazilian economy. The effects of Covid-19 are still ongoing and will last for many months; they demanded emergency actions from mayors, governors and the Union, in addition to completely transforming the routine of companies in all sectors. In the past few weeks, the federal government has announced a set of measures to simultaneously help the low-income population, regulate negotiations between employers and employees and adapt public services to the citizen.

Among the millions of Brazilians affected by the coronavirus pandemic, the poor and the elderly are the most vulnerable and, at the same time, the most difficult to follow the main recommendation of the competent authorities: to stay as much as possible at home. To ensure that they are able to support themselves and that companies do not need to close their doors, the Ministry of Economy has announced, until now, the release of R $ 1.2 trillion.

The government also counts on the help of the private sector, represented by the banks, which increased credit supply and facilitated debt payments. The R $ 600 emergency aid to informal workers, to be paid to 54 million people, is one of the focuses of the Union's task force. But there are other actions, such as anticipating benefits, making it easier to obtain credit and exemption from paying the electricity bill. The Courier gathered the most important measures that affect the pocket of the Brazilian in times of coronavirus. The changes include suspension of the payment of installments of the own house, extension of the deadline for the delivery of the income tax return, reduction of the interest rate of the credit card. See the main booklet for the main changes.

Despite the emergency actions, there is great concern about the health of the Brazilian economy, still recovering from a deep recession. Much is said about the situation of workers, but there is also fear in relation to the insured persons of the National Institute of Social Security (INSS), part of the population of which many Brazilians belong to the group at risk of the disease. For retirees and pensioners, the government anticipated the payment of the 13th salary. But there are still problems to solve. Many depend, for example, on the Continuous Prison Benefit (BPC), a minimum wage (R $ 1,045) that the government pays to low-income elderly and disabled people. The waiting list in these cases reaches 11 months. The government announced that it will pay R $ 600 per month to those in line for the BPC, for three months.

The government's effort is important. The lack of perspectives regarding the economic scenario and the short duration of the measures, however, concern companies. “Even if (the crisis) ends quickly, banks already foresee increased risk up front, with families without jobs and companies without credit, because many will close their doors,” says the chief economist at INVX Global, Eduardo Velho. Employment tends to fall, and the most affected, according to him, will be trade, service and industry.

Damage containment

Since the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic in the country, the government has announced a series of measures to reduce the impact on the lives of Brazilians. See the main ones:

INSS

What changes for retirees, pensioners and other Social Security beneficiaries:

> Suspended life proof

The INSS extended the renewal of the registration of policyholders in the system by 120 days

The procedure done every year by those who receive benefits by checking account, savings account or magnetic card

During the period, there is no need to go to the bank branch where the amount is deposited or make a proxy

> Anticipation of the payment of the 13th salary

First installment: between April 28 and May 8

Second installment: between May 25 and June 5

> Facilitation of payroll loans

The interest rate fell from 2.08% to 1.80% per month

The maximum term of the contracts increased from 72 months to 84 months

This type of loan is granted at lower interest rates and is deducted directly from the benefit amount, when deposited in the insured's account.

> Changes in branches

Face-to-face service suspended until April 30, term that can be extended

Services are provided by the website or by the My INSS application

Questions by the call center, at phone number 135. Calls are free

> Release of medical expertise per certificate

Benefits that depend on medical expertise, such as sick pay, can be claimed without face-to-face evaluation, while the agencies are closed

The applicant must send the medical report through the website or the My INSS application

The certificate must be legible, without erasures, with the doctor's signature and identification stamp

The document must have information about the disease and the necessary rest period

> Advance Benefit

Advance of R $ 1,045 for those who are in line for sickness allowance

The amount can be paid for three months or until the expert's appointment, whichever comes first

You must have fulfilled the grace period required for granting the sickness benefit, of 12 contributions

It is also necessary to present a medical certificate

> Flexibility of BPC

Whoever requested the Continuous Service Benefit (BPC) is entitled to R $ 600 monthly for three months, even before proving the requirements to receive it

For 120 days, the benefit will not be suspended or blocked due to lack of registration in the unique Registry.

The BPC paid to the elderly aged 65 and over and the disabled with low income, in the amount of R $ 1,045

BENEFITS

See what's available for the most vulnerable groups:

> Minimum income

Informal workers will be entitled to three installments of R $ 600, paid as emergency aid by the government.

Criteria:

Being over 18

Having no active formal employment

Do not receive social security or assistance benefits. Who has retirement, pension or unemployment insurance, for example, is out

It will not be a beneficiary of a cash transfer program, except Bolsa Família

Have not had an income above half a minimum salary (R $ 522.50) per family member or, if all the family income is added, up to three minimum wages (R $ 3,135)

In 2018, not having received taxable income above R $ 28,559.70

Notes:

Up to two members of the same family can receive

The woman who supports the home alone is entitled to double: R $ 1,200

How to order:

Who is not part of the unique registry of government social programs:

By computer, on the website www.caixa.gov.br

Through the Emergency Aid application, from Caixa Econmica Federal

Results available on the internet

There is no need to go to agencies

For questions, consult the call center, at phone number 111. The toll-free number

Bolsa Família beneficiaries do not need to register

> Expansion of Bolsa Família

The program received an investment of R $ 3 billion from the government

The goal is to clear the queue of 1.7 million people waiting to receive the amounts

In total, 14.2 million families will be served

To enter the program, I need to register with Cadnico

The basic benefit remains R $ 89, with an additional R $ 41 per child up to 15 years old or pregnant, and R $ 48 per child between 16 and 17 years old

RELIEF IN ACCOUNTS

The government has allowed postponement of payments and some discounts:

> More deadline for declaring income tax

The IRS has extended the deadline for delivering the Personal Income Tax return (IRPF) by 60 days. As a result, the deadline for submitting the 2020 declaration goes from April 30 to June 30. See more details.

> Discount on the electricity bill

Low-income families do not need to pay the electricity bill for 90 days

The determination is valid for payments up to the limit of 220 kwh / ms, between April 1st and June 30th

> Smaller bank charges

Caixa announced a cut in the overdraft interest rate, from 4.95% to 2.9% per month

It will also cut the fee charged on the credit card bill, from 7.7% per month (on average) to from 2.9% per month

> More payment deadline

Private and public banks are extending the term of loans and real estate financing

The benefit is valid for individuals and companies

To request an extension and to know details, customers must contact the bank

COMPANIES

See some proposed actions to maintain the cash flow of the projects:

> Suspension of contracts and reduction of wages

The government issued a provisional measure that allows companies to suspend employment contracts for up to two months

The MP also authorizes the reduction of the hourly wage and salary proportionally by 25%, 50% or up to 70%, for up to three months

The government will supplement part of the income of affected workers, based on the amount of unemployment insurance

> More deadlines

Small and medium-sized companies opting for Simples Nacional and individual microentrepreneurs (MEIs) will be able to declare their income until July 30

> Installment payment by FGTS

Companies can suspend the collection of the Severance Indemnity Fund (FGTS) from employees in March, April and May

The amount must be paid in installments within six months after

> Flexibility of rules

Telecommuting (home office) without the need to change the individual employment contract

Anticipation of individual vacations, notifying the worker at least 48 hours in advance

Concession of collective vacations, without the need to communicate to the unions of the category

Anticipation and use of holidays to offset the balance in the hour bank

Compensation of hours, through hour bank, in case of interruption of activities

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[cutsliceddiced]

New top story from Time: What Asian and Pacific Countries Can Teach the World About How to—and How Not to—Reopen Our Economies

It’s early morning on Shanghai’s West Bund, and the lawns of the waterfront area are filled with picnickers savoring the annual cherry-blossom bloom. Parents push strollers through carpets of flowers while students sprawled on the grass share bottles of chilled cava. After three months of strict stay-at-home orders because of the COVID-19 pandemic, residents of China’s biggest city have re-emerged blinking into the light. “It’s crazy; I’ve never seen it so busy here,” says Sally Zhou, as she queues for coffee with her French bulldog. “People are desperate to get outside and enjoy themselves.”

Even as COVID-19 spreads across the world, nowhere has replicated the scale and intensity of China’s unprecedented lockdown. The epicenter of the outbreak, Wuhan, was sealed off and other cities placed under quarantine. The world’s No. 2 economy froze completely. Those sacrifices have now enabled China to slow new cases to a trickle. Wuhan discharged the last of its hospitalized coronavirus patients on April 27, and although many are skeptical of the government’s reported case numbers, authorities clearly feel confident enough to allow certain schools and businesses across China to reopen. Sales at major online retailers grew around 10% year-on-year in March, according to China’s Commerce Ministry, partly in response to a flurry of cut-price deals designed to rekindle demand. On April 22, President Xi Jinping emphasized the imperative to restart China’s stalled economy. “Great advances in history have come after great catastrophes,” he said.

For much of the world, the catastrophe is still ongoing–at least 3 million cases and more than 200,000 deaths in more than 200 countries and territories as of late April. In February, the world marveled as China threw up temporary hospitals in Wuhan; now, similar facilities sit in London’s largest convention center and in New York City’s Central Park. Medical masks, long de rigueur in Asia to guard against infection, are now worn by most venturing outside in much of the Western world. The new hot spots of the virus have armed themselves with defenses pioneered in Asia: the potent trident of social distancing, widespread testing and protecting frontline medical workers.

The coronavirus is far from defeated, but in many places, the initial surge in cases has abated and focus has turned to the fate of the global economy. The IMF estimates global GDP will shrink 3% this year and that contraction may continue into 2021, which could lead to the deepest dive since the Great Depression. The U.S. economy shrank 4.8% in the first quarter, and J.P. Morgan predicts a 40% contraction in the second. The number of Americans claiming unemployment is now 22 million.

With statistics like these, some feel as if the cure may hurt more than the disease. Protests have broken out in the U.S. against lockdown measures, which are already being rolled back in states including Georgia, Montana and Tennessee. But health officials warn that easing measures too quickly risks a W-shaped recovery, where a resurgence of cases causes a second economic decline soon after the first.

There’s no playbook for successfully lifting lockdown. But several East Asian countries are further ahead in the game. How they are faring offers invaluable lessons in the effort to balance public health and economic recovery.

It was about 4 P.M. on March 7 when Park Hong-cheol, 42, received a call from his local health authority in South Korea informing him that a colleague in his office had tested positive for COVID-19. He quickly donned a surgical mask and drove to Sejong City’s Public Health Center. After he filled out registration forms, hazmat-suited staff performed a COVID-19 test through a crack in his car window. Afterward, officials sprayed disinfectant on his car’s exterior and Park drove straight home, obeying strict instructions to stay indoors and avoid human contact. “By the time I awoke the next morning, I had a text message saying that I’d tested negative,” he tells TIME.

At the start of the coronavirus outbreak, South Korea had been caught off guard; a slow initial rate of infection quickly metastasized in mid-February. But unlike in the U.S., which confirmed its first COVID-19 case one day after South Korea, a robust public health response kept reported cases under 11,000. Compared with the U.S., South Korea on a per capita basis tested three times as many citizens.

The ability to test and trace every infection and their contacts is one of six conditions the WHO says should be met before any society can reopen, and South Korea shows you don’t have to be an autocratic system like China’s to introduce these kinds of expansive measures. By April 24, more than 589,000 Koreans had been tested in the same way as Park Hong-cheol, in large part at drive-through and walk-through facilities that delivered quick results. The government provided free smartphone apps that relayed emergency SMS alerts about spikes in infections in neighborhoods, and updated national and local government websites that tracked cases. Infections with only mild symptoms were treated at temporary facilities to allow hospitals to concentrate on the most acute cases. As a result, South Korea successfully flattened the curve in 20 days without extreme draconian restrictions on freedom or movement. “The faster we find the contacts, the better we are able to stem further spread of the virus,” South Korean Health and Welfare Minister Park Neung-hoo tells TIME. Still, he adds, “finding a midpoint between economic activities and containing an epidemic outbreak is a delicate balancing act.”

Swift, decisive action has no doubt lessened the economic hit South Korea will have to bear (although its economy still shrank 1.4% in the first quarter of the year). Park, the Health Minister, says test results that arrive in minutes, not days, are “critical” to effective contact tracing. Then anonymized GPS data from an infected person’s cell phone can be used to automatically alert via SMS those people who had recently been in the same vicinity to get tested themselves. Other methods use interviews, security cameras and credit-card data to trace infected people. Hong Kong and Taiwan have enjoyed similar success.

The U.S. is poorly positioned to follow. For one, problems in the supply and capacity of testing kits mean it typically takes several days for results–and that delay exponentially increases the potential for infected people to expose others. For another, there are only around 2,200 professional contact tracers in the U.S., and health experts say 100,000 more are desperately needed. In China, around 9,000 contact tracers were employed in Wuhan alone.

There are also privacy issues; Americans generally don’t want their telecom companies to share their GPS data with government agencies, even if rendered anonymous and used to fight an extraordinary health crisis. Apple and Google are currently collaborating on an app that will use geodata to facilitate contact tracing–but, they insist, on a voluntarily opt-in, self-reporting basis.

And the app may not be ready for weeks, “It is very, very difficult to get people to opt into anything,” says Kai-Fu Lee, a venture capitalist; former Google, Microsoft and Apple executive; and author of AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order. “It begs the question of which is more important: personal privacy or, during national pandemic emergencies, to use data in a restricted, anonymized way for public health.”

The government of Taiwan made its choice early. The island of 23 million realized it was extremely vulnerable given its position just 80 miles off mainland China, where 850,000 of its citizens reside and another 400,000 work. But in addition to early screening and detection, emergency powers also enabled smartphone location tracking to form “electronic fences” around people under quarantine, imposing steep fines if they leave home. Thanks to these precautionary measures, Taiwan has had fewer than 500 cases to date.

Yet even the most efficiently staged recoveries can prove fragile. Singapore, an affluent city-state of 5.6 million, was initially commended by the WHO for its widespread testing and comprehensive tracing of close contacts. Singapore requisitioned 7,500 hotel rooms to quarantine new arrivals, including some at the storied colonial-era Raffles Hotel. Sure, room-service menus were off-limits–simple meals on trays were provided instead–but the state still picked up the tab. On March 23, the island permitted schools to reopen, confident the virus was under control.

It turned out, however, that authorities had paid little attention to Singapore’s million or so low-paid migrant workers, and all the while COVID-19 was flourishing in their cramped dormitories–the largest of which house up to 25,000 workers. Over a week in April, case numbers rocketed by more than 250% to over 10,000–the highest tally in Southeast Asia. Ripon Chowdhury, 31, a shipyard worker from Bangladesh who has lived in Singapore for 10 years, was sharing a room with 15 others when the virus tore through his community. “It’s just too crowded,” he says. “If one person gets it, then all of us will, because we’re sharing a toilet, shower and kitchen.”

Singapore shows that any response to this indiscriminate virus must be inclusive. Americans on low incomes who cannot work from home and lack comprehensive health insurance have proven particularly vulnerable, as have elderly people trapped in care homes. But the virus cannot be banished from society by prioritizing the young and affluent. In Singapore, like the U.S., rich and poor take the same public transportation, use the same ride-sharing apps, prowl the same malls. “The virus doesn’t respect community barriers,” says Christine Pelly, an executive committee member of Singapore’s Transient Workers Count Too, a nongovernmental organization. “We benefit a lot from [low-wage workers]. We should look after their well-being more closely.”

Singapore is not the only Asian nation to have suffered a “second wave.” Japan was one of the first nations affected, not least because of the stricken Diamond Princess cruise liner docked south of Tokyo. But early on, it was actually Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido that was worst hit. Home to 4% of the population, the province roughly the size of Maine had a third of Japan’s 206 cases at the end of February, mainly owing to Chinese visitors to the Sapporo Snow Festival. A state of emergency was declared Feb. 28, with schools shut and residents ordered to stay at home.

But as cases mushroomed in urban areas like Tokyo and dropped in Hokkaido, the island’s authorities grew concerned by the economic toll. Kazushi Monji, the mayor of the town of Kutchan, some 50 miles from Sapporo, tells TIME the shutdown had a “serious impact” upon the local economy with restaurants empty, hotel reservations canceled and practically no new bookings. On March 19, Hokkaido lifted its state of emergency after just three weeks.

“People in Hokkaido became so happy, relaxed and relieved–walking around, going for drinks, attending business meetings,” says Dr. Kiyoshi Nagase, president of the Hokkaido Medical Association who helped coordinate the local COVID-19 response. Quickly, the situation spiraled with a flurry of new infections. On April 12, a second state of emergency was imposed. “Now I regret it,” says Nagase. “We should not have lifted the first [order].”

For chef Koji Yorozuya, whose parents started the Wafuchubo Mikami Izakaya in Otaru, northern Hokkaido, 20 years ago, the lockdown has become the “most severe crisis in the history of our restaurant.” Normally, all 40 seats would be occupied with customers enjoying warm sake alongside dishes of sashimi, tempura and grilled seafood skewers. But health regulations have forced him to shut up shop, and he now serves only taxi deliveries. “Honestly, I want the restrictions lifted as soon as possible because I am afraid of losing my restaurant,” he says. “But in terms of public health, I am also scared. I don’t know what the right answer is.”

As Hokkaido demonstrates, a town or province that has conquered its infection rate can relapse with alarming ease. Kazuto Suzuki, vice dean of international politics at Hokkaido University, says his province’s experience shows that the piecemeal opening up of U.S. states is “very dangerous … even if you control the first wave, you can’t relax.” In Texas, state parks have already reopened and nonessential surgeries resumed. On April 24, Oklahoma’s nail salons, spas, barbershops and pet groomers were allowed to resume work. Georgia’s gyms, bowling alleys and tattoo parlors flung open their doors the same day. “I’d love everything open,” Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman recently told CNN. But individual states’ actions pose a serious risk to the rest of the U.S. “The whole world is on fire with coronavirus,” says Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and co-author of Deadliest Enemy: Our War Against Killer Germs. “So all 50 states are going to contribute to each other. We’re only as strong as our weakest link.”

The question every country has to answer is what recovery looks like in a post-coronavirus world. New Zealand has had extraordinary success in conquering the virus, partly as a consequence of its isolation and low population density but also because it introduced strict lockdown measures and all but closed its borders. Now, daily new infections are down to single digits and it’s poised to banish the virus completely.

Still, the banning of all foreign nationals is having a catastrophic effect on the country’s tourism-reliant economy. Over 2019, international tourists to New Zealand spent just over $10 billion: the sector employs 8.4% of the workforce. All this has now evaporated. “The economy can survive without international tourism, but not as we know it,” says Brad Olsen, senior economist at New Zealand’s Infometrics consultancy firm.

Economic superpowers are no less at risk. China’s economy contracted 6.8% in the first quarter of 2020. Although domestic demand is now picking up again, China’s exposure to the global marketplace will mean the pain lasts for some time–and will have unpredictable repercussions. The dearth of demand for goods by Americans sequestered in their homes, for example, means Chinese factories run at reduced capacity, slashing the demand for energy, which helped crude-oil prices plummet below $0.

After the 2008 financial crisis, China invested in its recovery through infrastructure. It plowed $586 billion into government projects like highways, metro systems and airports, and poured more cement between 2011 and 2013 than the U.S. used in the entire 20th century. One result of that spending binge was soaring national debt, but it also resulted in millions of jobs in the short term and an enhanced foundation for every Chinese business to operate.

Beijing now appears reluctant to repeat that feat, but it might work for the U.S., which has so far focused on injecting liquidity into bond markets, making grants to small business and sending $1,200 checks to individuals. Analysts say the U.S. needs to spend some $4.5 trillion by 2025 to fix its creaking roads, railways and airports, plus upgrade to next-generation technology like 5G. Economists say infrastructure is an equalizer that empowers all businesses–big and small–and should be prioritized over bailing out lenders once again.

It’s early, but already clear that one legacy of the coronavirus will be a changed economic landscape. Almost half a million companies in China declared bankruptcy during the first quarter of the year. How many American firms fold depends on choices made today–by officials, and by people anxious for answers. The only thing worse than closed doors is a public too terrified to walk through open ones.

–With reporting by STEPHEN KIM/SEOUL; ABIGAIL LEONARD/TOKYO; AMY GUNIA and HILLARY LEUNG/HONG KONG

via https://cutslicedanddiced.wordpress.com/2018/01/24/how-to-prevent-food-from-going-to-waste

[clareandthecity]

Shade Your Dream With On line Home Development Loan

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As all of us know, budgeting and home improvement does not at all times get together but this article will provide you with data that may help improve your property and however save a little money.

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Before beginning the task of improving your home, you will need to system of resources and a schedule to get started. You will need to consider different notions when it comes to and preparing home improvement. For instance, do you want to paint your house? Do you intend to tile your home? Are you wanting carpet in your house?

Going right through the last part of this article, you might find precisely how crucial budgeting and do-it-yourself can be done which can help save you money and improve your home.

Wondering questions is part of studying and finding your way through house improvement. One of the best methods to own when contemplating home improvement is calculating what you prefer and calculating that which you want. When I increase my house the very first thing I do is discover my mind trying to find favorites and what excites and interests me. Ergo, when I head to your home development warehouses, I already have in my head what I'm ready to get, thus that relaxes my journey to increasing my home.

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I'd like to offer you a basic view of what one place could run you for repairs. Claim you want to color a particular room in your home. You will need plaster, sealers, primer, offers, paint thinners, scrapers, screwdriver, paint starting (often come with paint purchases), patches, paintbrushes, dish, and therefore forth. Now you may think this may run you a bundle to improve your house, but to the opposite, you're wrong.

The color and resources will set you back the most, while one other things is likely to be listed less; therefore, primer, sealers and plaster cost about fifteen pounds if you go to the proper https://acheterlemeilleur.ca.

[angelic-sterling]

House Development Loan -Neighbor's Jealousy and Owner's Pride

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Old-fashioned lenders applied to rule the money industry in the past. Large amount of inconvenience was active in the whole loan process. A borrower had to venture out and match each lender privately, complete the long application kind and stand in loan queues to send their loan application form. And then wait for the lender's choice, that used to get a number of days and some time actually weeks.

Entry of the online lenders has given a development to all or any the hurdles that endured in the old financing process. In the current scenario, the loan request process has been simplified for the convenience of the borrowers. A borrower only needs to complete a tiny on the web loan software form that rarely takes 2 to 5 minutes. Fast loan agreement, in-principle loan choice and low charge of interest are some of the top features of on line loans.

By the full time you're through with the loan request method, you'll start getting large amount of loan offers that you could find to be the best. Do not run in making your choice, a little bit of study may assist you to save your self excellent sum of money that you can use in the future. Acquire the loan quotes which can be offered by the majority of the online lenders and assess them, try to find the home improvement loan that's offered with the following characteristics low rate of fascination, larger loan total, lengthier loan expression and variable repayment terms.

Produce the mandatory improvements in your home to convert it in to your desire home with a do-it-yourself loan. A little bit of hardship on your own portion while exploring to find the best do-it-yourself loan can assist you to keep your difficult earned pounds.

As we all know, budgeting and home improvement does not always move together but this short article will give you data that can help increase your house and however save only a little money.

Do it yourself tasks frequently scare persons down, because several choose that they will spend tens of thousands of pounds to improve one room, since they do not have the skills to perform the job them self. They could also believe that the work is costly because products and methods are needed.

To the opposite, do-it-yourself does not need to be costly at all. Of course, in the event that you hire a subcontractor or contractor to perform the job, you will pay a king's ransom, but if you have patience and the ability to study and stay glued to the guidelines, then you can certainly renovate an whole space at home for less than the usual hundred dollars. Needless to say, you should modify and correlate materials.

Before starting the task of improving your property, you will have to process of resources and a schedule to obtain started. You should consider numerous notions when contemplating and organizing house improvement. For instance, do you plan to paint your home? Do you intend to hardwood your property? Do you want rug in your home?

Going right on through the final part of this article, you might find exactly how essential budgeting and do-it-yourself can be carried out which will help save you income and improve your home.

Asking questions is part of analyzing and preparing for home improvement. One of the greatest methods to own when it comes to do it yourself is calculating what you like and calculating what you want. When I improve my house the very first thing I really do is examine my brain looking for favorites and what excites and appeals to me. Hence, when I head to the home improvement warehouses, I curently have in my brain what I am prepared to get, thus this relaxes my quest to increasing my home.

If you should be lacking funds to improve your house, then creating an economic approach will allow you to get what you need along with put away some cash for a rainy day. You could actually think of purchasing gear and resources for home improvement at the businesses that propose decrease prices and/or purchases without payments until a specific date. That concept provides you with time to truly get your home better while adding away the currency to buy the improvement gear and tools.

Unfortuitously, lots of people choose another home loan to boost their home. Receiving loans from lenders regularly cause debt, and home loans for improvement only results in spending down your property twice. Hence, elude high interest costs and loan funds and figure out how to plan your finances to improve your home.

Allow me to offer you a normal view of what one place can run you for repairs. Claim you wish to paint a particular room in your home. You will require plaster, sealers, primer, paints, color thinners, scrapers, screwdriver, paint starting (often have paint purchases), spots, paintbrushes, tray, and so forth. Now you might think this may run you a lot of money to boost your property, but to the opposite, you are wrong.

[theresawelchy]

Amazon Aurora: design considerations for high throughput cloud-native relational databases

Amazon Aurora: design considerations for high throughput cloud-native relational databases Verbitski et al., SIGMOD’17

Werner Vogels recently published a blog post describing Amazon Aurora as their fastest growing service ever. That post provides a high level overview of Aurora and then links to two SIGMOD papers for further details. Also of note is the recent announcement of Aurora serverless. So the plan for this week on The Morning Paper is to cover both of these Aurora papers and then look at Calvin, which underpins FaunaDB.

Say you’re AWS, and the task in hand is to take an existing relational database (MySQL) and retrofit it to work well in a cloud-native environment. Where do you start? What are the key design considerations and how can you accommodate them? These are the questions our first paper digs into. (Note that Aurora supports PostgreSQL as well these days).

Here’s the starting point:

In modern distributed cloud services, resilience and scalability are increasingly achieved by decoupling compute from storage and by replicating storage across multiple nodes. Doing so lets us handle operations such as replacing misbehaving or unreachable hosts, adding replicas, failing over from a writer to a replica, scaling the size of a database instance up or down, etc.

So we’re somehow going to take the backend of MySQL (InnoDB) and introduce a variant that sits on top of a distributed storage subsystem. Once we’ve done that, network I/O becomes the bottleneck, so we also need to rethink how chatty network communications are.

Then there are a few additional requirements for cloud databases:

SaaS vendors using cloud databases may have numerous customers of their own. Many of these vendors use a schema/database as the unit of tenancy (vs a single schema with tenancy defined on a per-row basis). “As a result, we see many customers with consolidated databases containing a large number of tables. Production instances of over 150,000 tables for small databases are quite common. This puts pressure on components that manage metadata like the dictionary cache.”

Customer traffic spikes can cause sudden demand, so the database must be able to handle many concurrent connections. “We have several customers that run at over 8000 connections per second.”

Frequent schema migrations for applications need to be supported (e.g. Rails DB migrations), so Aurora has an efficient online DDL implementation.

Updates to the database need to be made with zero downtime

The big picture for Aurora looks like this:

The database engine as a fork of “community” MySQL/InnoDB and diverges primarily in how InnoDB reads and writes data to disk.

There’s a new storage substrate (we’ll look at that next), which you can see in the bottom of the figure, isolated in its own storage VPC network. This is deployed on a cluster of EC2 VMs provisioned across at least 3 AZs in each region. The storage control plane uses Amazon DynamoDB for persistent storage of cluster and storage volume configuration, volume metadata, and S3 backup metadata. S3 itslef is used to store backups.

Amazon RDS is used for the control plane, including the RDS Host Manager (HM) for monitoring cluster health and determining when failover is required.

It’s nice to see Aurora built on many of the same foundational components that are available to us as end users of AWS too.

Durability at scale

The new durable, scalable storage layer is at the heart of Aurora.

If a database system does nothing else, it must satisfy the contract that data, once written, can be read. Not all systems do.

Storage nodes and disks can fail, and at large scale there’s a continuous low level background noise of node, disk, and network path failures. Quorum-based voting protocols can help with fault tolerance. With copies of a replicated data item, a read must obtain votes, and a write must obtain votes. Each write must be aware of the most recent write, which can be achieved by configuring . Reads must also be aware of the most recent write, which can be achieved by ensuring . A common approach is to set and .

We believe 2/3 quorums are inadequate [even when the three replicas are each in a different AZ]… in a large storage fleet, the background noise of failures implies that, at any given moment in time, some subset of disks or nodes may have failed and are being repaired. These failures may be spread independently across nodes in each of AZ A, B, and C. However, the failure of AZ C, due to a fire, roof failure, flood, etc., will break quorum for any of the replicas that concurrently have failures in AZ A or AZ B.

Aurora is designed to tolerate the loss of an entire AZ plus one additional node without losing data, and an entire AZ without losing the ability to write data. To achieve this data is replicated six ways across 3 AZs, with 2 copies in each AZ. Thus ; is set to 4, and is set to 3.

Given this foundation, we want to ensure that the probability of double faults is low. Past a certain point, reducing MTTF is hard. But if we can reduce MTTR then we can narrow the ‘unlucky’ window in which an additional fault will trigger a double fault scenario. To reduce MTTR, the database volume is partitioned into small (10GB) fixed size segments. Each segment is replicated 6-ways, and the replica set is called a Protection Group (PG).

A storage volume is a concatenated set of PGs, physically implemented using a large fleet of storage nodes that are provisioned as virtual hosts with attached SSDs using Amazon EC2… Segments are now our unit of independent background noise failure and repair.

Since a 10GB segment can be repaired in 10 seconds on a 10Gbps network link, it takes two such failures in the same 10 second window, plus a failure of an entire AZ not containing either of those two independent failures to lose a quorum. “At our observed failure rates, that’s sufficiently unlikely…”

This ability to tolerate failures leads to operational simplicity:

hotspot management can be addressed by marking one or more segments on a hot disk or node as bad, and the quorum will quickly be repaired by migrating it to some other (colder) node

OS and security patching can be handled like a brief unavailability event

Software upgrades to the storage fleet can be managed in a rolling fashion in the same way.

Combating write amplification

A six-way replicating storage subsystem is great for reliability, availability, and durability, but not so great for performance with MySQL as-is:

Unfortunately, this model results in untenable performance for a traditional database like MySQL that generates many different actual I/Os for each application write. The high I/O volume is amplified by replication.

With regular MySQL, there are lots of writes going on as shown in the figure below (see §3.1 in the paper for a description of all the individual parts).

Aurora takes a different approach:

In Aurora, the only writes that cross the network are redo log records. No pages are ever written from the database tier, not for background writes, not for checkpointing, and not for cache eviction. Instead, the log applicator is pushed to the storage tier where it can be used to generate database pages in background or on demand.

Using this approach, a benchmark with a 100GB data set showed that Aurora could complete 35x more transactions than a mirrored vanilla MySQL in a 30 minute test.

Using redo logs as the unit of replication means that crash recovery comes almost for free!

In Aurora, durable redo record application happens at the storage tier, continuously, asynchronously, and distributed across the fleet. Any read request for a data page may require some redo records to be applied if the page is not current. As a result, the process of crash recovery is spread across all normal foreground processing. Nothing is required at database startup.

Furthermore, whereas in a regular database more foreground requests also mean more background writes of pages and checkpointing, Aurora can reduce these activities under burst conditions. If a backlog does build up at the storage system then foreground activity can be throttled to prevent a long queue forming.

The complete IO picture looks like this:

Only steps 1 and 2 above are in the foreground path.

The distributed log

Each log record has an associated Log Sequence Number (LSN) – a monotonically increasing value generated by the database. Storage nodes gossip with other members of their protection group to fill holes in their logs. The storage service maintains a watermark called the VCL (Volume Complete LSN), which is the highest LSN for which it can guarantee availablity of all prior records. The database can also define consistency points through consistency point LSNs (CPLs). A consistency point is always less than the VCL, and defines a durable consistency checkpoint. The most recent consistency point is called the VDL (Volume Durable LSN). This is what we’ll roll back to on recovery.

The database and storage subsystem interact as follows:

Each database-level transaction is broken up into multiple mini-transactions (MTRs) that are ordered and must be performed atomically

Each mini-transaction is composed of multiple contiguous log records

The final log record in a mini-transaction is a CPL

When writing, there is a constraint that no LSN be issued which is more than a configurable limit— the LSN allocation limit— ahead of the current VDL. The limit is currently set to 10 million. It creates a natural form of back-pressure to throttle incoming writes if the storage or network cannot keep up.

Reads are served from pages in a buffer cache and only result in storage I/O requests on a cache miss. The database establishes a read point: the VDL at the time the request was issued. Any storage node that is complete with respect to the read point can be used to serve the request. Pages are reconstructed using the same log application code.

A single writer and up to 15 read replicas can all mount a single shared storage volume. As a result, read replicas add no additional costs in terms of consumed storage or disk write operations.

Aurora in action

The evaluation in section 6 of the paper demonstrates the following:

Aurora can scale linearly with instance sizes, and on the highest instance size can sustain 5x the writes per second of vanilla MySQL.

Throughput in Aurora significantly exceeds MySQL, even with larger data sizes and out-of-cache working sets:

Throughput in Aurora scales with the number of client connections:

The lag in an Aurora read replica is significantly lower than that of a MySQL replica, even with more intense workloads:

Aurora outperforms MySQL on workloads with hot row contention:

Customers migrating to Aurora see lower latency and practical elimination of replica lag (e.g, from 12 minutes to 20ms).

the morning paper published first on the morning paper

[larryageee-blog]

Payday Loan Help - An Introduction

Dealing with a fiscal crisis is easy with a payday loan. Such a loan makes it possible to deal with an urgent situation, such as an health care emergency or even the payment of overdue bills. You're able to pay back the loan together with your next test. So, you'll have this weight for no greater than a couple weeks. Given below are some great things about a pay day loan. When provided the required advice, most lenders will give you the loan nearly instantly. The procedure is quick and simple. Unlike the conventional loan procedures, you wont need to fill in a package of discussion. The process will have a few hours along with the capital will be deposited on your bank accounts on the same evening or another day sometimes. To put it differently, you may not need to wait patiently at the queue for the application get approved and also the loan awarded. If you are seeking for additional info on claim back interest on payday loans, click on the mentioned above website.

The paperwork is going to have a couple of hours and the money will likely be in your hands. As the procedure is completed online, you wont need to see the loan in time. The application form will be routed on line and you will get the credit in the kind of cash. It's possible to use the cash on anything you want. On the flip side, with the creditcard, you may just pay for a service or product. In the instance of a pay day loan, you can use the bucks to purchase goods or cover your invoices. On the opposing side, other traditional loans have been granted for a particular purpose, such as for buying an automobile or home. As a payday advance loan requires you to match a few fundamental requirements, the access to this service is likely to soon be a lot easier. 1 key requirement is that you have to get a stable supply of income. If your revenue is stable and verifiable, you're good to go.

Actually, the lender needs a guarantee that you earn enough to repay the loan. On the other hand, traditional loans require collateral. Yet another essential you will need to meet is you must have an active checking account and also you also must become a registered resident of a state. Besides this, you have to be over 18 years of age to apply for the loan. Some payday lenders put limits on the sum that they could lend. To put it differently, you may apply for any number as long as it's at the sum of salary you get monthly. Usually, the amount of loan that could be granted is fixed by the state. During the application, you will know how much you can borrow. In case you pay the loan in time, you can develop a fantastic relationship with your loan provider and get a higher volume of loan the next time, which is a great plus point. Failing to pay off your loan means that you will negatively impact your credit history.

Besides, you'll be able to incur penalties and penalties, which will add to the total cost of the loan. On the other hand, a payday advance loan makes it possible to manage your financial emergencies in a fast and effortless way. Even for those who get a low credit rating, you'll be able to find a loan within a few hours. Since you pay back those loans over a month or so, your credit score won't get affected and you won't need to deal with legal impacts. So, these will be some great advantages of a pay day loan. When you've got an emergency to deal with, you are able to make an application for this type of loan.

[leadsourcing]

10 Strategies for Finding the Right Balance in Your 2018 Marketing Plan

After hitting an industry event such as VRM Intel Live or taking a VRMA webinar, it’s easy for marketing professionals to leave crackling with energy about all the possibilities for their 2018 marketing plans. Who wouldn’t?! But then you sit down at your desk, look at your calendar and your budget, and the electricity begins to dwindle. How on earth can you do social media marketing well and send the right number of emails and optimize your website and manage your SEO and SEM and analyze your data and so on? It’s exhausting, and if you’ve got a small marketing department as most of us do–kudos to those of you one-person marketing teams!–it seems nearly impossible to do everything you need to do and do it well.

Instead of designing your marketing plan around all the things you “should” do, or worse, focusing too much on every new OTA change that drives a wedge further between distribution and marketing functions, tailor your marketing plan to you, your team, your company, and your market. By making your tactics meet you where you are strongest, you’ll find a balance that allows you to be more effective and more efficient. The following ten strategies are certainly not the only ones at your disposal, but they are tried and true in this industry and many others; they include some personal favorites that have produced demonstrated results time and again.

1.Track (and take a dive deep into) your data.

Data go much deeper than the surface KPIs of reservations, social media engagement, and email opens. Before redesigning your marketing plan, make sure you have the data infrastructure in place to look closely at every step of a guest’s booking journey, including the following:

How guests interact with your website

Calls to your office(s)

Once you have all of these metric systems in place, check in with them regularly, and make this process easier by having certain reports automatically generated and sent to you on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

Also take some time separately to dive deeper into your data that doesn’t necessarily change on a daily basis but can offer big insights for your campaigns. For example, this month, take a close look at your 2017 guest demographics, feeder markets, booking patterns by property size and amenities, reservation sources, and other trends, and compare this info to 2016 and 2015. This exercise not only creates a larger picture of the guest environment in which your company operates, it identifies areas where you can segment guest groups, homes, or geographical areas for targeted campaigns.

2. Analyze your ROI, both of your budget and your time.

When we talk ROI, we often leave out the time investment various activities require, but in many cases the time factor is just as important—especially when we don’t have enough of it. (Does anyone?!) For example, posting daily lunch-break social media videos may not cost anything in dollars, but maybe it takes your marketing specialist ten hours every week, which may or may not be worth the time investment, depending on your needs and goals. As you examine the ROI of all your activities, also consider the aptitudes you and your team have available. Rather than simply eliminating or scaling back activities, think too about shifting responsibilities between teammates when different talents lend themselves to better project efficiency.

“We are always looking for efficiencies as far as allocation of our time budget,” said Stacy Carlson, a twenty-year VR veteran and marketing director at Taylor-Made Deep Creek Vacations and Sales. As an example, “Quality visual content is in increasingly greater demand, so we recently brought on someone to focus on producing videos who can also fill in as a photographer. Just like our monetary budget, we hone in on what is driving reservations—vivid imagery of our area, appealing photos of our homes, well-timed email campaigns with relevant content.”

3. Weed out the activities that don’t speak to your market.

Just because certain channels work for other markets doesn’t mean they will work for yours, and it’s important to identify these so you don’t eat up resources. For example, if your target market is women from fifty-five to sixty years of age who are booking a home for a family vacation, it may not make sense to pour a lot of resources into the newest social platform popular with Gen Z. A word of caution, however: just because something isn’t working for you now doesn’t mean it won’t in the future, so use your insights from strategy one to reevaluate this issue over time.

4. Lean on what generates the most reservations and your own specialties.

Now that you know what’s working for you and what isn’t, you can allocate your talent resources accordingly. Don’t get locked into job titles, forcing square pegs into round holes, and “the way things have always been done” (the enemy of progress—and my sanity). Instead, focus your team’s time on your individual strengths to yield the best and quickest results, and make sure that you reevaluate responsibilities periodically.

Stacy Carlson echoes this advice. “In-house, we focus on the areas where we have expertise,” she said. “For example, I have a certification in email marketing, so we brought that in-house shortly after I joined the team, and we have two professional videographers/photographers on staff to produce high-quality imagery to use everywhere from our website to social media.”

5. Outsource to teams who specialize in the things you don’t.

For those remaining activities that you need but don’t have the talent or time for, outsource them to an expert. There are, of course, many familiar faces and great industry vendors featured throughout VRM Intel, but don’t overlook other sources of help who may be a better fit for your market and budget, such as freelancers and small agencies. Need more content for your blog? Consider partnering with your Convention and Visitors Bureau (or other destination marketing organization) to host a group of travel writers to provide content to your site and publications your guests read in exchange for a visit to one of your properties, or hire a local writer. Want to leverage drone photography but don’t have a drone pilot on staff? Hire a local specialist for a one-time project to create a library of beautiful images and videos you can use in all of your marketing materials.

Caleb Hofheins, marketing director and the only full-time marketing staff member at GreyBeard Realty in Asheville, NC, demonstrates this approach. “I think it’s really a matter of knowing what your marketing team is proficient in,” he said, “and then bringing in a third-party team to support the overall marketing effort as well as pinpointing specific areas of opportunity where the company would be best benefited by having a specialist focus on it.”

6. Automate everything you can.

Automation is a busy marketer’s best friend, and there’s more you can automate than you might think. You can–and should!–set up automated marketing campaigns such as emails based on lead or reservation triggers, drip campaigns to distribute blog posts, and social media posts with tools such as Edgar that will recycle your evergreen posts when your queue runs low. Going even deeper, you can automate your routine internal tasks (like your data reports from strategy 1!) with tools such as Zapier or Microsoft Office 365 Flows.

These tools provide nearly endless ways to make apps do your work for you by connecting everything from Outlook to Dropbox to Google apps to Basecamp and many more to automate workflows. For example, you can set up an automation to add new MailChimp subscribers to Google Sheets or have a Basecamp task for a new property trigger in addition to your social media schedule in your Google Calendar. The more work you can make apps and software do for you, the better. Just don’t forget to check in regularly to make sure everything is working the way you need it to.

7. Repurpose everything.

Following the same principle as automation, make your work do double and triple duty. Give every new piece of content you make at least three jobs. For example, download your latest Facebook Live video, upload it to YouTube, and embed it on your website. Create every social post to be shared on any network. (Twitter’s new 280-character limit makes this seamless!) Turn your owner newsletter into marketing pieces for your recruiter. Create travel guides from your area directory and post them on your site, email them to incoming guests, and share them with your local CVB. The opportunities here are nearly endless.

8. Capitalize on free information.

There’s another important source of valuable data that can be overlooked: your colleagues, FAQs, and guest feedback. Google Analytics and Facebook Insights won’t tell you what your guests’ nonnegotiables are, but your reservationists will. Ask them! Consult with them regularly about what guests are looking for at different points in the year and what they ask about most often. You can use this info to create content and campaigns regarding sought-after amenities and better time promotions regarding booking trends as well as help address pain points to reduce friction between browsing and booking. Also ask your reservationists about marketing campaigns, both to generate ideas for new campaigns and evaluate past ones. Not only will doing this generate ideas and insight you might not have otherwise gained, it will foster interconnection, buy-in, and excitement for your shared activities. The same practices can be applied to owner recruitment and retention, too.

Similarly, internal guest surveys and reviews on sites such as Facebook and Yelp aren’t just for your housekeeping and maintenance departments. Dig into your surveys and reviews to find areas where you can communicate programs, features, or even specific lease policies better to guests to uncover positive testimonials; you can share across all your channels to identify PR opportunities to turn unhappy guests into happy ones or to spot problem properties that could generate more reservations and returning guests with a few easy upgrades.

This sort of data analysis doesn’t necessarily need to take significant time or sophisticated reporting. One of our company’s favorite visual reports? A word cloud generated by dumping all of our Facebook, Yelp, and Google reviews into a free word cloud generator to show that what guests loved most are our homes and our staff.

9. Continue to learn, and apply new strategies as you go.

Once you have your newly refined plan and schedule in place, don’t stop there. Be sure to build in time for continuing education. You can do this any number of ways, but one of my personal favorites is to read one book or take a class or webinar every month, mixing up the subjects among marketing tactics, creative outlets, and general skills. Lynda.com, HubSpot, and Skillshare are some of my go-tos, but there are plenty of other continuing ed resources out there, such as YouTube, Udemy, Coursera, TED, and edX. Think creatively here, too! Don’t overlook resources provided by the tools and apps you already use, certifications from non-VRM-specific organizations or other areas, such as Google Analytics Academy, MailChimp’s resource center, LinkedIn professional groups, or LearnAirBNB.

As you learn new skills, use your marketing plan as a case study and apply new tactics one at a time. If you follow the one-new-thing-every-month schedule, by the end of the year you’ll have at least twelve new tools in your toolbox.

10. Leave room to experiment.

“VR marketing is all about reaching the guest in the right places at the right time,” said Caleb Hofheins. “That is accomplished through experimenting, tracking and observing performance, and then learning from those results.”

Take a page from the growth hacking mentality and embrace an environment of continuous experimentation. You don’t know what works if you don’t try it, right? Dip your toes into VR with a trial of virtual walkthroughs on a select group of properties, such as underperformers who could use a boost. Need to fight back against Facebook’s ever-changing algorithms? Try using a 360o camera for dynamic photos and videos. Having a hard time keeping up with your chat support? Venture into the world of artificial intelligence and try a simple chatbot.

If these ideas seem too out-there for you right now, experiment with what you’re already doing. For example, if you want to try a new advertising platform, negotiate a trial period before making a full commitment. This year, I negotiated six-month ad trials with a certain well-known review site and a smaller OTA during our busiest booking season. If they didn’t perform during that period, we wouldn’t renew. In both cases, they didn’t perform or actually performed worse than before we gave them money, so starting with a trial saved us six months or more of wasted expenses.

Whether you try one of these strategies, all of them, or some of your own, remember: there is no one-size-fits-all marketing plan. Each marketing professional, company, owner group, and market is unique and should be treated as such; use smart data to uncover your strengths and efficiencies and make constant improvement. How will you capitalize on your ingenuity in 2018?

Source

http://www.vrmintel.com/10-strategies-for-finding-the-right-balance-in-your-2018-marketing-plan/

[opticien2-0]

IRUK Top 500 12 approaches to customer experience, logistics and delivery

We’ve rounded up some effective approaches to the customer experience and to logistics, looking at Top500 retailers for examples of best practice.

1. Get to know your customers

Retailers that want to meet their shoppers’ needs are going to great lengths to learn more about how they can do that. Sainsbury’s [IRDX RSBR] aims to gain a better understanding of its customers through its recently-launched Living Well Index. It questioned 8,000 people for the index, which covers ground from health and the home to finances and work. Its findings explored further in the strategic overview, are set to influence the supermarket’s strategy in its mission to serve customers wherever, whenever and however they want to shop. “The results of this,” said Sainsbury’s, “combined with our customer data, will influence some of the choices we make around how we best serve our colleagues, customers and communities in the future.”

Halfords [IRDX RHAL] too is setting out to learn about its shoppers. It questions 10,000 customers a week in its Give us a steer survey. The aim, said Halfords in half-year results to 29 September 2017, is to give “a more complete view of our customers, so we can become more relevant in their lives”.

2. Encourage loyalty

Loyal customers are more likely to buy, and never more so than when they’ve already paid for unlimited delivery. Amazon Prime introduced the concept of a subscription membership scheme whose benefits include free next-day delivery. Now retailers from groceries to fashion, from Ocado and Tesco through to Next and Asos [IRDX RASO], offer paid-for subscriptions. Benefits of these clubs typically include early access to sales and special discounts as well.

Game Digital [IRDX RGME], however, has taken its own gamified approach to the loyalty card. Its long-standing Game Reward loyalty scheme has been operating for 20 years and in its latest financial year, 4.5m Game Reward members shopped with the retailer, with 65% of transactions linked to the loyalty scheme in the UK and 78% in Spain. In May, Game added an upgrade with the launch of Game Elite, a subscription-based membership scheme for UK customers, which offers higher numbers of points on purchases. So far more than 60,000 memberships have been bought and the retailer says it has“helped recruit new customers and increase the frequency and spend of previous loyalty scheme members”.

Pets at Home [IRDX RPAT] said in full-year results, to 30 March 1917, that building a VIP App had increased the swipe rate of the card to 68% of store revenues, from 64% the previous year.

3. Offer the options your customers want

Delivery choices used to be limited to ‘standard’ – up to a week – or ‘express’ – within a day or so. Today, delivery information pages on many websites require significant scrolling, with the options from top retailers extending to evening, nominated day, nominated time, next-day, same-day, Saturday or Sunday. Prices vary, with premium delivery options understandably proving quite expensive. Currys [IRDX RCUR], for example, goes from free for standard delivery (within five working days) up to £29.99 for a four-hour timed slot next day for large items. At Argos [IRDX RARG], which stands out for its speed of service, timed next-day delivery for large items is £24.99, while at Halfords [IRDX RHAL], ‘bulky items’ are £39.99. Accessorize [IRDX RMNS] has fewer options, with a standard at £3.95 (free on orders over £40) or £5.95 for next day or weekend deliveries.

Customers are often satisfied with more basic services, as highlighted in the recent eDelivery white paper, Are you delivering what your customers want? While 31% of consumers surveyed cited next-day delivery as their most popular option, 26% were happy with delivery within three days and 22% content with delivery between three and five days. Take-up for Sunday or evening delivery may be low but if carriers are happy to provide such services, then there’s no reason not to offer them to customers – at a price.

4. Use new technology to improve the customer experience

Chatbots came into their own during the course of 2017, as more retailers used them to talk to customers. The machine learning-based technology enables traders to serve their customers out of staff hours – when many shoppers are looking to buy – and to handle routine enquiries, leaving staff free to handle more complicated issues.

Very [IRDX RVER], part of the Shop Direct Group [IRDX RSDG], claimed first mover position when it unveiled the Very Assistant a year ago. This chatbot, developed in-house at Shop Direct, sits within the Very app to respond to customers’ enquiries about orders, delivery and payment. More recently The Entertainer [IRDX RENT], a Top150 retailer in IRUK Top500 research, teamed up with the Hong Kong office of Red Ant [IRDX VRAN] to add Santa Chat to its website for Christmas 2017. Shoppers of all ages can have a live chat with The Entertainer mascot Jack, decked out as Santa, about the toys and games they might give this Christmas. They can also share a Christmas joke, ask Santa a question or even get some tips for Christmas dinner.

Santa Chat starts by asking two profiling questions about age and price range, then uses natural language processing to answer incoming questions using the most relevant response from a fixed database of questions. Human helpers also help train the response. Rob Wood, head of online and digital at The Entertainer, said: “We wanted something that was fun, relevant and genuinely useful, and Santa Chat is all three. It also paves the way for future connected retail initiatives.”

5. How quickly do your customers really need their stuff?

There has been much talk of ‘one-hour’ deliveries in recent years, with the likes of Shutl [IRDX VSHT] offering a 90-minute service in urban areas. Sometimes, this kind of service adds value. River Island [IRDX RIVR], for example, offers Shutl as an option for customers using click-and-collect, which is a good tactic since unexpected last minute problems can occasionally prevent a shopper from collecting a vital item.

A study by McKinsey & Company, Parcel delivery: the future of the last mile, found last year that while around 23% of global consumers questioned would pay a premium for same-day delivery (€3 or US$3), only 2% were willing to pay much more than this, while around 70% would still opt for the cheapest delivery option. As McKinsey says: “This is somewhat surprising, as many startups and some large e-commerce players target precisely this small niche with their offering.”

If instant delivery is seen as a key differentiator, then it is likely that those offering such services will have to bear the bulk of the cost – rather like Schuh with its free Shutl option. ‘Losing’ the cost of delivery within your cost structure may be viable for small numbers of deliveries but McKinsey predicts that same-day and instant delivery will probably reach a combined share of 15% of online sales by 2020 and “significantly grow further beyond this date”. Is instant delivery really such a vital key differentiator? Or is it just an option that’s nice to have?

6. Enable shoppers to speak their orders

Shoppers are now getting used to the idea of ordering by voice, using assistant devices such as Amazon’s Alexa [IRDX RAMZ] and Google Home [IRDX VGOO]. Amazon has pioneered the use of voice ordering and is fast-expanding Alexa’s capabilities. When Amazon unveiled 2017 third-quarter results in October, founder and chief executive Jeff Bezos outlined new functionalities, including integration with BMW. That shoppers are enthusiastic about this approach is clear. Bezos said: “Customers have purchased tens of millions of Alexa-enabled devices, given Echo devices over 100,000 five-star reviews, and active customers are up more than five times since the same time last year.” Other retailers have also enabled voice ordering.

Tesco [IRDX RTSC] has teamed up with Google Home to enable users to add things to their Tesco basket using voice, while Ocado [IRDX ROCA] has its own app for Amazon Alexa. Lawrence Hene, marketing and commercial director at Ocado, said at the time of the app’s launch: “Grocery shopping should be quick, easy and convenient. Using voice technology, we’ve made it even easier by developing our new app that will enable our customers to add to their Ocado baskets without lifting a finger. Consumer demand for increasingly convenient ways to shop is growing rapidly and we’re excited to be the first UK supermarket to offer this, making customers’ lives ever easier.”

7. Streamline click-and-collect

Four out of 10 (43%) shoppers experience problems with their click-and-collect orders, according to a recent report, JDA & Centiro Customer Pulse 2017. Long waiting times due to a lack of staff is the biggest pain point, followed by staff unable to locate items in a store and the lack of any dedicated area for collecting goods, which leaves shoppers queueing at checkouts or trying to find an assistant. The study also suggests that 26% of click-and-collect customers made an additional purchase – either planned or an impulse buy – while in the store.

Click and collect is popular but it can also be an expensive option for retailers to manage since it is one of the fastest-growing areas for carriers, who must collect individual items from distribution depots and deliver them overnight to the relevant store for next-day collection. It would all be a great deal easier if store fulfilment were possible but that requires real-time stock data, by store, to be available on the website so that a shopper knows exactly where and when an item is available for collection. This is possible though and a few retailers – around 16% of the Top 500 – do this. At Halfords, for example, you can check availability in your local store online and be told that collection will be available within the hour. You can pay in-store as well: a quick, easy and attractive option for shoppers.

8. Customer-centric logistics

A single view of stock powers logistics that are fast becoming more convenient for the customer. Shoe retailer Schuh [IRDX RSCH] uses its single view of stock to show shoppers whether the item they’re looking at is available at their local store in their size, can be picked up through fast click and collect, or how quickly it will arrive by post or at a local pick-up point. It also offers long return periods, with shoppers having up to a year to return their unworn, unwanted shoes in a move that must inspire trust in shoppers when they are considering where to buy.

Luxury retailer Burberry [IRDX RBUR] set out in its 2016-17 annual report how it expanded its single pool of inventory programme during the year. This, it said, “allows us to fulfil customer orders from stock in both hubs and stores and underpins improvements such as quicker delivery times, improved delivery information for shoppers buying online, as well as a new returns process.”

9. Make returns easy

Returns are the bane of any e-tailer’s business model. They’re expensive to process, often result in damaged goods and tie up stock in transit which might otherwise be sold to new customers. According to a JDA study, CEO Viewpoint 2017: The Transformation of Retail, 74% of retail CEOs believe that the cost of customer returns is eroding profits to at least some extent.

InternetRetailing researchers found that almost 75% of the Top500 will accept returns by post, although only 25% offer drop-off at a third-party location (such as Doddle or Collect+) as an option and just 40% allow returns to store. Even fewer (15%) provide some means of prepaid return and 23% will arrange to pick up unwanted goods from a home address.

For clothing retailers, good sizing charts or tools such as Fits Me and Virtusize can help, yet many shoppers will still order three of each item and return two once they’ve tried them all on. Debenhams [IRDX RDEB] has a neat idea as it moves to integrate mobile and store operations. In future, shoppers may be encouraged to use their smartphones to reserve a fitting room when they collect their ordered garments from a store. In this way, they can quickly try all items on there and then and choose which they want to keep. This saves shoppers the hassle of returning them later and ensures that unwanted items are quickly returned to stock.

10. Make it trackable

Customers like to know where their parcels are in the delivery cycle and, even better, roughly when they will arrive. It’s information that can also help reduce all those WIsMO – where is my order – calls to contact centres. Research by NetDespatch published last year found that when asked to identify key aspects of their delivery experiences, 33% of those surveyed put the ability to track their order online first, while 32% gave it as their second key factor; 25% put being notified of the steps in the delivery journey in pole position while for 27%, being given an exact time window for the delivery was the most important factor.

Many delivery companies have already taken such views on board and customers are regularly now emailed on the morning of the delivery day with a time window. Not that it always goes according to plan though. An hour after the previously emailed time window of a recent UK Mail delivery, all this shopper could find on the tracking information was “sorry we appear to be running late.” The parcel eventually arrived the following day. If you are going to provide tracking data, it really does need to be accurate and up to date.

11. Think global

A recent study from ReBound looking at the returns policies for some 200 fashion retailers, The Great Returns Race, found that only 18 of them tailored their policies to more than five geographic markets. Asos and Matchesfashion.com had policies appropriate to every market while Paul Smith covered 71 countries, but 86% of the 118 others who provided only one version of their returns model, tailored this message to the UK alone. Since, according to ReBound, almost two-thirds of fashion shoppers check the returns policy before buying, this lack of country-specific information could clearly be impacting cross-border sales. A significant number of these retailers also only accepted returns within the mandatory 14 day period – another deterrent to overseas shoppers who may need rather longer to return their goods.

12. Offer customers choice over how to get in touch

Every customer has their preferred channel for contacting a retailer with a question or complaint or simply engaging with them and today, leading retailers offer a wide variety of channels for them to use. InternetRetailing research shows that Top500 retailers offer a median eight channels, while Top100 traders offer nine. Facebook [IRDX VFAC], Twitter and the telephone are the most commonly offered channels but, the research suggests, retailers can stand out by offering a channel where few of their competitors do. Only 22% of Top100 retailers offer their customers the chance to engage via Snapchat, while 16% of the Top500 do. Retailers that offer the channels their shoppers want to use should see the benefit.

This feature first appeared in the IRUK Top500 The Customer Report and IRUK Top500 Operations & Logistics Report. To explore the reports further, and to find out more about Top500 series of reports, click here.

Photo credit: photon_photo (Fotolia)

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