Identifying Local Opportunities
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Synopsis: This article discusses the
potential technology has of wiping out over five million jobs over the next five
years. Data examined at last week’s World Economic Forum showed that many of
jobs (like sales persons, cashiers, assembly workers) will be phasing out with
the new advances in artificial intelligence, robotics, and biotechnology.
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Issue: With many countries continuing to
develop and utilize technology more daily, many people who do not have the
technical skills cannot keep up with the job market demands. It is estimated
that 65% of children entering primary school today will be working in jobs that
do not exist yet. The root of the issues is how each country’s education system
is going to redevelop itself in order to produce more mathematicians,
engineers, computer scientists, and architects for the future job markets.
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Whose problem: Every country around the
world will face this problem. The sector that is most involved with the issue
is each countries’ education system, both public and private.
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Synopsis: A human interest story that
discusses the misconceptions of what defines homelessness. The focus of the
article is centered around a man who holds a job, seeks financial advice from
his local bank, and yet is homeless. Looking past his story and into the bigger
picture you find that there are many misconceptions of who and what homelessness
is. Also, homelessness could comprise of those who are incapable of holding a
job due to mental illness, single parents that cannot afford child care or have
access to child care services, and people with substance abuse afflictions.
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Issue: Many rural areas do not have
accurate counts or statistics to provide federal agencies on their homeless
population to receive adequate funding to support charities or assistance programs.
Without proper funds communities cannot provide the support or service needed
to assist their homeless population.
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Whose problem: In this article the city
of Dothan and the Alabama Rural Coalition for the Homeless are the entities
citing the problem; however, this is an issue for many rural cites and areas that
have a misunderstanding of the new look of homelessness.
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Synopsis: The state of Florida has a back
log of over 13,000 rape kits that have not been tested. With so many rape kits
untested, 1,300 alone in the Jacksonville area, rapists and serial rapist can
continue to commit these crimes.
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Issue: Florida has no statutes or laws on
record stating a specific time frame for when a rape kit should be processed.
Also, there are no procedures on record on how to prevent future back logs of
untested kits. One point the article does not bring up is what are the
resources the state has available to test these kits, or is there the
opportunity for the state to source an independent lab to do the testing of the
kits? Another problem not mentioned in the article is funding of the testing of
these kits and would tax payers pay for the processing…if so, how can the state
keep costs down.
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Whose problem: The problem lies within
the state of Florida and its laws that do not require for testing.
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“FreeParking—In 2014, Sarasota’s parking manager was prepared for a seriousconversation about the need for paid parking — so why have officials continuedto delay that discussion?”—The Sarasota Observer, Sarasota, FL
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Synopsis: The city of Sarasota is having
issues creating revenues for its parking fund, which is running a deficit. City
officials are now addressing the issue once again, however not able to come up
with any alternatives that make sense.
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Issue: Since the city is having issues
creating parking policies for funding, the city’s parking fund is creating a
deficit. Also, the recommendations that have been made do not make logical
sense according to city officials appointed to resolve the issue. For example,
a suggestion to only have people pay who use the street for parking, while
people who use parking garages remain unchanged.
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Whose problem: The citizens and city
official of Sarasota.
·
” PanamaCity Beach urges court not to delay new Spring Break rules”—The News
Herald, Panama City, FL
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Synopsis: The city of Panama City Beach
has provisional ordinances that would prevent drinking alcoholic beverages on
the beaches during the month of March, the primary month of Spring Break. With
its history of having a strong insurgence of college students ready to party
off their semester blues, the city is tired of the overstretching of resources,
increase in criminal activity, and increase in first responders calls Spring
Break has created.
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Issue: Locals are fed up with the
excessive partying college students have during spring break and all the
problems it creates. The city has created protocol to address the citizens’
concerns, but not without its objection. A number of business have entered a
class suit against the city saying it is infringing on their rights and pursuit
of commerce.
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Whose problem: The city of Panama City
Beach, surrounding communities, citizens, visitors, and business owners of the
City of Panama City Beach
*Article titles are hyperlinks to news articles.
Nicolas,
ReplyDeleteI thought you created a great list as it was very diverse in ideas as well as very in depth. One of the articles I was very interested by was your first article about the future of our jobs. Although I've thought about the role of technology in our lives, the data and statistics behind the revolution of jobs was alarming! It's crazy to think that jobs are going to start to decrease because then that's going to start a whole new set of problems. Another article I found interesting was the one about Panama City Beach's spring break rules because it relates to most college students. Although I see how college students have a tendency to cause trouble, I don't think the government should be able to implement this as it will destroy many businesses who peak during this time period. Here's a link to my article if you want to check it out!
http://jamesdonigan.blogspot.com/2016/01/identifying-local-opportunities.html
Nicolas,
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you covered a wide variety of issues that are very relevant today. I thought the article about technology phasing out other jobs was very interesting. Especially considering the presidential elections going on. One of the most popular candidates is a huge advocate for raising the minimum wage which could be an incentive for corporations to shell out even more money for robots or machines to take those minimum wage jobs.