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US Customs Seize Four Tons Of Marijuana Worth $2.3m Hidden Among Peppers

Mega Icon — Mon, 19 Aug 2019 19:07:59 +0000

US Customs officers have seized nearly four tons of marijuana worth $2.3 million hidden in a consignment of jalapeno peppers.

Customs and Border Protection disclosed that a sniffer dog alerted officers to a trailer with a shipment of peppers in San Diego on the border with Mexico on Thursday.

The CBP statement explained “a 37-year-old male Mexican citizen entered the port of entry driving a tractor pulling a trailer with cargo manifested as jalapeno peppers.”

Officers at Otay Mesa cargo facility found 314 packages of marijuana weighing 7,560 pounds (3.4 tonnes) mixed among the jalapeno peppers.

“I am proud of the officers for seizing this significant marijuana load,” said Otay Mesa Port director Rosa Hernandez.

The acting Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Mark Morgan also shared image of the seized marijuana on his verified Twitter handle.

He hailed the officers for a job well done.

It was the second large haul of marijuana at the facility in days.

Officers seized 10,642 pounds of the drug in a shipment of plastic auto parts at Otay Mesa on Tuesday.

CBP has seized 113 tons (103 tonnes) of marijuana so far this year, along with 41 tons of cocaine and 27 tons of methamphetamine.

In July authorities seized nearly 20 tons of cocaine with an estimated street value of more than $1 billion from a ship at the port of Philadelphia in one of the largest drug busts in US history.

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Ekweremadu drums support for six-year single tenure for elective officers

Mega Icon — Mon, 18 Dec 2017 19:36:56 +0000

THE Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, has called for the adoption of a six-year single tenure for President, governors, National Assembly and state assembly members so as to stop the problems that arise from the quest for second term by politicians.

Ekweremadu made the call in Nsukka on Friday at the 3rd Adada Lecture, organised by the Association of Nsukka Professors. The lecture was themed ‘Restructuring and the Nigerian Youth.’

Ekweremadu noted that countries in South America used single tenure to stabilise their democracy, adding that one of such countries, Mexico, was still practising single term for the office of the President.

In his words, “single presidency tenure of six years that rotates among the six geopolitical regions would promote unity and loyalty to the nation.”

The lawmaker further emphasized the need to restructure the county to enable regions to harness their resources outside oil.

“The market for crude oil is reducing by the day as countries like Britain and France now have laws that will ban the use of diesel and petrol cars by 2040. Also, many countries have started using electric cars.”

While urging youths in the country to close ranks and support restructuring as it would create employment and guarantee a better future for them, Ekweremadu explained that restructuring would not divide the country as being feared by some people, but would rather strengthen the nation.

He identified ethnic and religious sentiments, ignorance and fear of the unknown as some of the factors preventing some people from accepting restructuring.

The post Ekweremadu drums support for six-year single tenure for elective officers first appeared on MegaIcon Magazine.

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Can cryptocurrencies reduce global poverty?

Mega Icon — Sun, 10 Dec 2017 05:20:47 +0000

Behavioral economics guru, Richard Thaler — this year’s Nobel Prize laureate in economics— has showcased that people are economically imperfect. Since humans are irrational we don’t fit neatly into economic models; we have cognitive limitations, social preferences, or, dare it be said, big problems with self-control.

When it comes to decisions about saving our money or investing wisely in order to ensure predictable returns and a safer future, forget it. We tend to procrastinate, and most often, worse, we opt for instant gratification. The easy fix, even when we know better. It’s in the numbers. The sad truth is that we are hot-wired to make bad economic choices.

Unless — and here is the brilliant twist …. unless we get paid to act counter-intuitively. If rewarded most people will do almost anything. Now let’s make that sound good: meet financial incentives (FIs). With FIs it is possible to influence the human decision-making process. Crudely, you have to pay people to take money. In the development world though, this is a golden fleece.

A study in rural India found that rewarding mothers with lentils once their child completed a stage of immunization, increased full immunization from 5% to 38% .

In Mexico, the federal government issued micro cash transfers to low-income families on a monthly basis as a reward for school enrollment, which increased by nearly 15%. And in Northern Uganda where I conducted research on Unconditional Cash Transfers (UCTs), we found that 85.7% of participants reported turning a profit with their businesses after they received UCTs.

Fast-forward to the rage of ICOs and the shower of crypto tokens raining fresh funds onto the world of social impact start-ups and blockchain solutions to global problems. Can the reasons why people put off getting regular health checkups be remedied by FIs? And can the newly discovered token-system of nourishing solution providers become FIs and applied as the miracle tool against poverty?

The United Nations’ number one sustainable development goal is to eradicate poverty. A huge part of the challenge is that sheer number of people without access to any financial services, an estimated 3.5 billion under- and unbanked people globally. If crypto coins were part of a behavioral approach to financial services, the results just might be a redefinition of the term tokenism. A significant portion of the world’s poor could be on boarded, a first step to increasing economic well-being.

The challenge is admittedly tough. Inflation and currency depreciation regularly wreak havoc across emerging markets, the very markets that are experiencing rapid growth and are the ripest for financial revolution. With low banking engagement, young populations, and high mobile penetration, an economical solution to financial services clearly requires something new and low-cost, like cryptocurrencies.

Consumers living in poverty require low-cost, instantaneous transactions. Currently, the flavor of the month is still mobile money, which has processed over $269 billion over the last 12 months in transactions. Two-thirds of these transactions had a total value of under $0.80.

Mobile money has been a step in the direction of greater inclusiveness but it continues to fall short as a viable option for impoverished consumers as they simply cannot afford to pay the 2% or more of their earnings just to receive it.

Welcome the cross-border cryptocurrencies, or crypto-tokens built on the blockchain. Some are calling them the next iteration of incentives, Crypto FIs not only represent cheaper transaction costs and offer smaller divisibility — but the potential to incentivize behavior will enable global inclusive finance.

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