Presentation RULES

1.     You're presenting an ARTICLE: who wrote it? What is the author's point? What are the author's arguments? Do you agree or disagree? What is your analysis of the article? How would you open that topic to a further discussion?

2.     You must send me the article in WORD format. Your file should be presented as follows:

·      Title & Author. Ex: "Biotech Sector Seeks Funding" by Harrison Tucker

·      Source & Date: The Economist, Sept 21^st, 2012

·      TEXT of the article

·      Link to the online version.

PLEASE follow these guidelines.

3.     In the TOPIC of your email, please write L1 PLUS, L2 PLUS, L2 PACES. For the regular TDs, please write "L1, Tuesday 1:30pm" if you're attending the Tuesday 1:30 pm class.

4.     You MUST send it to me BEFORE class, because if you chose an article that is inappropriate I won't be able to tell you before class and you will get an "out of topic" grade, which is never going to be over 8/20. 

Clean plates Too much food gets thrown away

INTERNATIONAL shindigs are noted for fine dining. But delegates at the recent World Water Week Conference in Stockholm, which discussed the looming global food crisis, practised what they preached: lunches were meatless, and any leftover quorn or quinoa was sent to make bio-gas.

Would that others were so thrifty. Torgny Holmgren of the Stockholm International Water Institute, which organised the event, reckons up to half of the food the world produces goes uneaten. In India up to 40% rots on the way to market. Americans bin 40% of what they buy, wasting $165 billion.

But America does have the thrifty “doggy bag” in which restaurants pack surplus food, nominally for canines, but often for humans. Most countries shun them: perhaps for fear of seeming stingy, or because of worries about hygiene. Travel blogs even warn Americans not to risk disdain by asking for doggy bags when eating out in France or Spain.

In Britain, where restaurants throw away 600,000 tonnes of food a year, the Sustainable Restaurant Association has launched a “Too Good to Waste” campaign to promote its doggy boxes. It has signed up eateries including the Foyer Bar at Claridge’s, one of London’s best-known hotels.

Thrift with food can help poor people too. Urban Gleaners, a charity in Portland, Oregon, collects unused food from hotels, shops and eateries. FareShare, a British one, collects it mainly from manufacturers. It estimates that 1% of the country’s 3m tonnes of annual food waste could provide 70m meals.

link:http://www.economist.com/node/21561884

FIFA World Cup Forecast To Add $70 Billion To Brazil's Economy

According to Brazil’s Ministry of Sports calculations, the FIFA World Cup in 2014 is going to be a cash cow for the country.

The nation’s economy is forecast to grow by at least $70 billion as a result of its hosting the World Cup, the Brazilian Ministry of Sports said July 6 in a statement.  The figure is based on the country’s investments in private and public investment in infrastructure, heightened consumption, increased activity in the services sector and, of course, tax collection.

The World Cup is expected to generate over $30 billion in direct taxes, $10 billion in additional indirect taxes, and an increase in consumption of Brazilian goods and services by an estimated $3 billion for the period leading up to and during the Cup. Approximately 600,000 tourists are expected to come to Brazil for the games, which could bring in an additional $2.5 billion for the Brazilian travel industry.

Around three million Brazilian tourists are expected to travel throughout the country as well, potentially generating an additional $3.5 billion for travel and tourism. The figures were announced on July 5 by Ricardo Gomyde, special advisor to Brazil’s Ministry of Sports, during the 2nd Legislative Forum of the Host Cities of the 2014 World Cup. 

Gomyde said he expects 332,000 permanent jobs and 381,000 temporary jobs to be created through 2014 as a result of World Cup build-out, mainly new hotels, airport and reforms at 18 football stadiums from north to south Brazil.  Total expenditures are seen coming in at $14.6 billion for total infrastructure (at least $1.8 billion for arena reform), and $6.3 billion for the travel and tourism services sector.

FIFA estimates that Brazil will have to spend at least $5 billion to get ready for the World Cup, though infrastructure build-out is expected to cost much more than that.  During Pan American Games of Rio de Janeiro in 2007, the government estimated costs associated with the games to come in at R$500 million, or $322 million.  Final estimates before the games were R$4 billion, according to Veja magazine in Brazil, one of Brazil’s biggest weekly news magazines.

Veja calculated that World Cup gains have been hyped up no matter what country is hosting. Yet, growth was registered at all host countries except for Japan. The US hosted the World Cup in 1994 and calculated GDP gains of an additional 1.4%.  Four years later, France played host to the Cup and saw its GDP rise by an additional 1.3%. Germany saw a 1.7% increase to its economy when it hosted in 2006, but was far off on its prediction of 100,000 new jobs. FIFA did lead to new jobs, but around 50% less than originally forecast.  South Korea’s government said a half a million people from around the world would flock to the country for the 2002 World Cup. Around 300,000 showed up, according to Veja.