₦airaland Forum

The Titanic.
British luxury passenger liner that sank on April 14–15, 1912, en route to New York City from Southampton, England, during its maiden voyage, killing about 1,500 passengers and ship personnel. One of the most famous tragedies in modern history, it has inspired numerous stories, several films, and a musical and has been the subject of much scholarship and scientific speculation.
The Titanic was one of the largest and most luxurious ships in the world. It had a gross registered tonnage (i.e., carrying capacity) of 46,329 tons, and when fully laden the ship displaced (weighed) 66,000 tons. The Titanic was 882.5 feet (269 metres) long and 92.5 feet (28.2 metres) wide at its widest point. It was designed and built by William Pirrie's Belfast firm Harland and Wolff to service the highly competitive Atlantic Ferry route. It had a double-bottomed hull divided into 16 compartments that were presumed to be watertight. Because four of these could be flooded without endangering the liner's buoyancy, it was considered unsinkable.
Shortly before midnight on April 14, the ship collided with an iceberg about 400 miles (640 km) south of Newfoundland, and at least five of its watertight compartments toward the bow were ruptured. The first four of these five compartments filled with water, which pulled down the bow of the ship. The Titanic's compartments were not capped at the top, so water from the ruptured forward compartments filled each succeeding compartment aft as the ship's incline brought the bow below the waterline. The ship sank at 2:20 AM April 15. The Titanic had only 1,178 lifeboat spaces for the 2,224 persons aboard, and many of the lifeboats were lowered into the water only partly filled with passengers, thus leaving many people stranded on the sinking ship. As a result, about 1,500 people died. (Although the facilities proved to be inadequate, the Titanic had actually exceeded the lifeboat requirements of the British Board of Trade's regulations, which had been formulated for much smaller ships.)
Inquiries held in the United States and Great Britain alleged that the Leyland liner Californian, which was less than 20 miles (32 km) away all night, could have aided the stricken vessel had its radio operator been on duty and thereby received the Titanic's distress signals. Only the arrival of the Cunard liner Carpathia 1 hour and 20 minutes after the Titanic went down prevented further loss of life in the icy waters.
Many of those who perished on the ship came from prominent American, British, and European families. Among the dead were the noted British journalist William Thomas Stead and heirs to the Straus and Astor fortunes. The glamour associated with the ship, its maiden voyage, and its notable passengers magnified the tragedy of its sinking in the popular mind. Legends arose almost immediately around the night's events, those who had died, and those who had survived. Heroes and heroines, such as American Molly Brown, were identified and celebrated by the press. The disaster and the mythology that has surrounded it have continued to fascinate millions.
As a result of the disaster, the first International Convention for Safety of Life at Sea was called in London in 1913. The convention drew up rules requiring that every ship have lifeboat space for each person embarked; that lifeboat drills be held during each voyage; and, because the Californian had not heard the distress signals of the Titanic, that ships maintain a 24-hour radio watch. The International Ice Patrol also was established to warn ships of icebergs in the North Atlantic shipping lanes.
Bow of the Titanic, some 400 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada.
On September 1, 1985, the wreck of the Titanic was found lying upright in two pieces on the ocean floor at a depth of about 13,000 feet (4,000 metres). The ship, located at about 41°46′ N 50°14′ W, was subsequently explored several times by manned and unmanned submersibles under the direction of American and French scientists. The expeditions found no sign of the long gash previously thought to have been ripped in the ship's hull by the iceberg. The scientists posited instead that the collision's impact had produced a series of thin gashes as well as brittle fracturing and separation of seams in the adjacent hull plates, thus allowing water to flood in and sink the ship. In subsequent years marine salvagers raised small artifacts from the wreckage and even attempted to lift a large piece of the hull.

ENVIRONMENTAL ANALYSIS 2010
From the standpoint of a rapidly evolving global stage, the new millennium has brought to fore significant shifts and trends in the political, economic, social and technological dynamics of development in different countries, regional blocks, and sub-continental groups and in whole continents.
However, the sub-prime problems in the US mortgage industry led to a global financial crisis whose rippling effect includes; weak global demand, reduced crude oil demand/production, and depleted external reserves continue to bite harder on the global economy through 2009 into q1 2010, not leaving out the Nigerian economy.
World growth was projected to contract by about 1% in 2009 and to expand by about 3% in 2010, which is well below previous performance before the crisis. The global economic crisis led to decline in global trade flows. This has caused reduction in economic out put with adverse consequences on living standard and jobs creation, throwing most leading economies into recession.
For Nigeria, 2010 was a year that confidence started to grow in Nigeria’s ability to recover from the global recession. The various reform programs initiated by the government especially in the financial sector started to yield positive result. This trend is expected to be sustained in 2011
Also, government’s debt position remains sustainable, with an external debt stock of US$32.36 billion as at December 2010. Besides, Nigeria’s external reserve position remains quite comfortable in view of the external liabilities of the private and public sector, as well as, import coverage. The official and parallel market exchange rates have converged considerably as a result of further liberation of the inter-bank market by the Central Bank of Nigeria. This trend is expected to be sustained in the coming years, especially in 2011 when substantial recovery of oil production is expected with improved performance in critical sectors and overall real GDP growth.
Stable outlook for Nigeria’s financial, economic and political risks on the one hand and its strong external and fiscal balance sheet on the other will pressurize good economic ratings as progress is being made in key areas like:
• Niger Delta militancy reduction
• Improving non-oil business environment and
• Improving sector governance.

Undoubtedly, Nigeria’s macroeconomic environment is bright and the outlook is promising with reasonable macroeconomic stability.
As part of efforts to transform the economy on a sustained basis, the Federal Government is currently undertaking far-reaching economics reforms by refocusing the 7- Point Agenda to 3- Point Agenda

The long-term economic development strategy of government is anchored on the vision 2020. The key element of the vision is to triple the present size of the GDP of below USD$300 billion to not less than USD $900 billion, and a per capita income of not less than US$4000 per annum, with a view to placing Nigeria among the top twenty economies by the year 2020.

As part of efforts to achieve this, massive investments are currently being undertaken to revamp infrastructure, agriculture, transport and railway rehabilitation, as well as sustain initiatives for peace and security of lives and properties in the country, in spite of some obvious global and national challenges.

The 2010 real GDP growth rate was 7.85% and inflation rate of 12.8% as the government increased investment in critical infrastructure, implemented sectoral reforms, maintained macroeconomic stability and put in process training/rehabilitation of the militants to ensure lasting peace, security and development in the Niger Delta.

The monetary policy stance of the present Administration reflects the tendencies to curb inflation reduce undue liquidity injection and limit wide fluctuation on the inter-bank rate. Nigeria now has a more strengthened banking system and a more unified foreign exchange rate market. Indeed, external position is robust, characterized by low external debt and reasonable external reserves position.

The outlook for the fiscal year 2011 is predicted on some basic assumptions which include oil production of 2.3mb/d, Benchmark oil price of over US$75/barrel, average exchange rate of 150 to the US dollar; target GDP growth rate of 7.98%, target inflation rate of 11.2 %.

The 2011 budget proposal is based on the above realistic assumptions. The budgeted expenditure is N4.97trillion. There was a deliberate expansion in budgeted expenditure over that of previous fiscal years to counter the effect of the credit crunch on the economy as well as to reduce the infrastructure gap.

In recognition of the imperatives of a strong and robust banking sector to accelerate economic recovery, measures have been put in place to restore the viability of the sector, especially with the Asset Management Company initiatives to assist in restructuring and further improving the balance sheet of banks, and enhance the flow of credit to the real sector to boost growth and development of the economy.

In 2011, there will be extensive focus on monitoring and tracking the impact of resources utilised as part of the ongoing reforms to introduce a comprehensive performance-based budgeting system. Therefore, a monitoring and evaluation system that uses special electronic templates to systematically track and report on the actual output and outcomes (capital vote in particular) achieved by MDAs has been put in place.

This system will ensure that the focus will shift from resources commitments to MDAs to what was actually delivered by the various MDAs. Also, quarterly budget monitoring and evaluation reports will be published in line with the provisions of Fiscal Responsibilities Act 2007.

CONCLUSION
As the signs relating to the above scenarios continue to manifest, it is believed that though there remains room for improvement and the future may appear hazy, with the recent killings in Jos and bomb scare/blast in Edo and Delta states and Abuja and other parts of the country, now is the time to place bets and take stakes in the economic fortunes of Nigeria.

A father passing by his teenage daughter's bedroom was astonished to
see the bed was nicely made and everything was neat and tidy.
Then he saw an envelope propped up prominently on the centre of the
pillow. It was addressed "Dad". With the worst premonition, he opened
the envelope and read the letter with trembling hands:-


Dear Dad,

It is with great regret and sorrow that I'm writing you, but I'm
leaving home. I had to elope with my new boyfriend Randy because I
wanted to avoid a scene with Mom and you.
I've been finding real passion with Randy and he is so nice to me. I
know when you meet him you'll like him too - even with all his
piercing, tattoos, and motorcycle clothes. But it's not only the
passion Dad, I'm pregnant and Randy said that he wants me to have the
kid and that we can be very happy together.
Even though Randy is much older than me (anyway, 42 isn't so old these
days is it? ), and has no money, really these things shouldn't stand
in the way of our relationship, don't you agree?


Randy has a great CD collection; he already owns a trailer in the
woods and has a stack of firewood for the whole winter. It's true he
has other girlfriends as well but I know he'll be faithful to me in
his own way. He wants to have many more children with me and that's
now one of my dreams too.


Randy taught me that marijuana doesn't really hurt anyone and he'll be
growing it for us and we'll trade it with our friends for all the
cocaine and ecstasy we want. In the meantime, we'll pray that science
will find a cure for AIDS so Randy can get better; he sure deserves
it!!


Don't worry Dad, I'm 15 years old now and I know how to take care of
myself. Someday I'm sure we'll be back to visit so you can get to know
your grandchildren.


Your loving daughter,
Rosie.



At the bottom of the page were the letters " PTO".

Hands still trembling, her father turned the sheet, and read:


PS:

Dad, none of the above is true. I'm over at the neighbor's house. I
just wanted to remind you that there are worse things in life than my
report card that's in my desk center drawer. Please sign it and call
when it is safe for me to come home.


I love you!

Your loving daughter,
Rosie