Maritime Policy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Maritime Policy - Essay Example According to the International Transport Workers Federation (ITF), flags of convenience can be defined as: ‘where beneficial ownership and control of a vessel is found to lay elsewhere than in the country of the flag the vessel is flying’ (ITF, 2007, Pg.1). There are two main modes of registering shipping vessels: closed and open registers. Closed registers are the conventional form whereby the ship owners and the majority of crew emanate from the registering country. Open registers or ‘flags of convenience’ are however those registrations, which are open to any nationality subject to the registering country’s regulations that are often very relaxed to attract as many ship-owners as possible. Open registers are further subdivided into two more categories: Open National Registers and Open International Registers. Under Open National Registers, the ships are obliged to follow the trading regulations of the flag-state encompassing employment and tax guidelines. In Open International Registers, the ships are less stringently regulated enjoying tax exemptions on their profits, easy employment terms for their international crews, lax company regulations and relaxed safety standard enforcement (O’Keefe, 2002, p. 4). Although flag states are required to ensure that ships registered in their domain follow the requisite international laws in addition to administrative control, technical and social issues, however most of those licensing the flag of convenience (FOC) rarely bother to monitor the operations of the vessels. The United Nations has blamed these states for exacerbating marine accidents and compromising maritime security and safety (Gianni, 2008). According to the United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea (UNICPOLOS) in Gianni (2008), ‘many shipping accidents and resulting loss of life and marine pollution are not the result of

The Bedrock of our Lives Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Bedrock of our Lives - Essay Example Indeed, in the fast-paced movement of the modern world, we need family to keep us grounded and give us a place to call home. First of all, our family has been with us from the start and has seen us through our development in life. Before we could get started in our careers, before we become successful people in whatever fields of endeavour we explore, before we meet all our friends, our family was there to guide us through the early stages of our life. That means that they accept us no matter what, despite our shortcomings. We all have heard stories of young people who left their homes to rebel against their parents, blaming them for some imagine grievance, and believing that they can make it in the world. Some of them fare well, earning money and establishing themselves in a good career. Some, however, find themselves involved in all sorts of vices and moving in the wrong crowd. Either way, at some point in their lives, they will find themselves drawn back home – a place of f amiliarity and safety, a place that has accepted them for who they are. The truth is that family reminds us of a more innocent time in our lives, it takes us back to our childhood when things were so much simpler and safer. The second point that I make when I say that family is most important is that a large part of a person’s emotional state is determined by whether or not he or she has a happy family. It is easy to take our families for granted when we are successful, when we are surrounded by friends, when we immerse ourselves in other preoccupations. The truth of the matter is, however, when we lose our families or when family relationships break up, it is one of the biggest causes of depression and even suicide. In an important study conducted by Jerry Jacobs and Joseph Teicher entitled â€Å"Broken Homes and Social Isolation in Attempted Suicides of Adolescents† (1967) it was found that that after looking at the life-histories of patients who had attempted to com mit suicide and comparing it to the life-histories of those who had not committed suicide, a great proportion of those in the former group come from broken homes or had unhappy family relationships. So you see, this means that while it is easy to take family relationships for granted when our family is stable and whole, when the links that bind are broken, it causes a great sense of personal devastation – indeed, to the point that it can drive one to commit suicide. It is clear therefore, that more than any other thing, family is the most important thing in life. Thirdly, our families have our back, no matter what. That is the power of relationships within the family. One may have plenty of friends to spend good times with, but how many people will stick by your side during the bad times? If, in the middle of the night, you find yourself in the unfortunate situation of being arrested and thrown to prison, chances are, the first person you would call is a family member. That i s because of the absolute certainty we have that our family is going to be there not only in the good times but also in the bad. They cheer for us when we are at our best, and give us steady and unconditional comfort when we are at our worst. They say that life is a competition: we are constantly competing with other people for a variety of things, be it a job promotion, academic honors, winning affection from the opposite sex. Some people, therefore, will want to bring you down in order to get ahead. Our families, however, are our safe haven from the mini-olympiads playing out in the