Sunday, January 24, 2016

Open your eyes - Identifying Local Opportunities

1.     Robert Knight: Law preserves status quo for polluters
In the article, the author talks about one of the main issues that the state of Florida has been facing over the last years, which is the pollution and contamination of many waterways across the entire state. Florida’s waters have being unprotected by any law since there has been a very limited and inadequate application of law by the main regulators. This month, Florida's Legislature passed the 2016 Florida Springs and Aquifer Protection Act, which is intended to basically leave the issue of the contaminated waters as it is. In other words, the law is intended on keeping the pace with the ongoing water pollution and contamination in Florida.
The main problem stated in the article are two; the regulators and how they manage to actually regulate the contamination and pollution waters and the new passed law that basically preserves the status quo of the constant contamination in Florida’s most treasured waters.
The ones who are facing this problem are neither the regulators who are in charge of the misapplication of laws nor the companies that work hard for keeping the rivers and lakes of Florida unpolluted. I believe that this issue is affecting the citizens of the entire state and moreover the people that base their economy on lakes and rivers across the state.

2.     More than 300 march to say: Hands off our parks
The story of this article is about one major concern that is the mind of hundreds of people that are against the hunting and cattle grazing that could harm local parks. The privatization of parks has led to the discontent of many citizens that believe that the pars are “not for sale”. Almost 300 people marched in Tallahassee in opposition of the privatization and what they believe is the misuse of parks all across the state of Florida
The main problem stated in this article is how parks all around the state have been treated and preserved. It is clear that many people are concerned with how natural parks are being treated nowadays and they seek for help and solutions that could protect the natural parks from being privatized and finally destroyed for what they believe are “business purposes”.
The people facing the problem are once again the citizens who live in Florida. They have their right to share their protests and opinions and I believe that this is an opportunity where both parts can reach to an agreement that could benefit (the privatizers and the citizens) in the long run.

3.     Blaze destroys Monteocha family's home
The story of this article talks about some of the worst accidents that can happen to anyone in the world. A family arrived to their house and saw their house on flames. There was basically nothing they could do, but just call the firemen and see how the flames consummated their belongings in front of their eyes.

The main problem on this article is the reason why the fire happened. I believe we are all vulnerable to this type of circumstances and we must be aware of this in order to be able to either prevent the fire to happen or just be ready for when it happens.
The people that were damaged the most by this circumstance was the family that basically lost everything during the fire. Families like them seek for help and solutions that could help them prevent and/or act when any situation like this happens.

4.     Editorial: Alternatives to marijuana arrests
The story of this article talks about new approaches that the police could use when facing someone carrying marijuana. The alternatives proposed by The County commission are based on citations instead of fines or arrests. This would help the County to focus more on criminal cases or more “significant cases” instead of spending more time and money on an arrest due to the possession of marijuana.

The main problem in this case is how the ones that infringe the law are going to be sanctioned. In other words, I believe that even though the County’s law enforcement has other more relevant criminal cases to care about, they should notice that drugs and marijuana are a big issue for young citizens not only in this county, but in the entire country. Drugs destroy lives and families.
The people that are suffering this problem are the people who are not involved with drugs because as the sanctions for possessing marijuana become “lighter”, the consumption and demand for it might increase in the future, which can finally increase the rate of substance abuse within the county citizens.

5.     How to avoid boredom, monotony in retirement
The article talks about one major concern that the retirees who the majority of the United States population, are facing nowadays. The article describes different ways in which a retired person can avoid monotony and boredom in their retired years. Monotony and boredom is a cause for depression which is a major concern for baby boomers and there are different ways to avoid a daily and dullness life as a retiree. The article also talks about coaches and organizations (such as My Next step) that help these people to feel good after years of work and commitment.

The problem presented in the story is the reality that hits thousands of retirees year after year. The baby boomers are coming to their reflection periods after a long period of hard work and some of them feel bored in the monotony life as a retiree. They seek for activities and things to do after such a long period of a constant competitive life.
The ones who are facing the feeling of monotony and dullness are the retirees. I believe that this is a great opportunity to develop ideas and activities that can help the older population to feel that they are not done with their lives yet, and help them think that in fact, it is a new beginning of an amazing stage in their lives. 


3 comments:

  1. Alejandro, Your blog looks very professional and it was fun reading your local opportunities. In my blog I also put how the 300 people marched in favor for paynes prairie so thats pretty cool seeing other students interested in similar opportunities. Heres a link to my blog if you are interested in reading it. http://alejandroentrepreneurship.blogspot.com/2016/01/open-your-eyes-identifying-local.html

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  2. Hi Alejandro,
    I agree with Mike, your blog does look very nice and professional! I agree that protecting the state of Florida's waters is very important. We rely so much on our waters for transportation, beauty, property values, and tourism. We also have a ton of groundwater and aquifers that we have to keep clean because we use it as drinking water. If our aquifers were polluted we would have a huge freshwater problem, and have to bring it in from other states, wasting more energy. For the same reasons, we have to make sure to protect our parks. Florida is home to some of the most diverse wildlife in the state, as we have so many different climates. Check out my post!
    http://cassiespinner.blogspot.com/2016/01/identifying-local-opportunities.html

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  3. Hi Alejandro, very cool post! I appreciated that you took the time to thoroughly describe your chosen articles and explain the situation clearly. I found some to be very interesting, particularly the ones about florida water pollution, alternatives to marijuana arrest, and boredom after retirement. I did not think about the issue of retirement boredom and the loneliness that must be felt by these elderly (sometimes not so old) people. I like that there are solutions in place to try and alleviate depression caused by it. Also, it is good to know that our florida waters are not being protected like they should in terms of pollution and I will keep that in mind when I talk to my uncle who is a florida wildlife officer. I did not complete this exercise but head over to my blog to check out some other cool posts! Cheers.

    http://shamelesslylearning.blogspot.com/

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