1.
Gross domestic product
–
Gross Domestic Product is a monetary measure of the market value of all final goods and services produced in a period. Nominal GDP estimates are used to determine the economic performance of a whole country or region. The OECD defines GDP as a measure of production equal to the sum of the gross values added of all resident and institutional units engaged in production. ”An IMF publication states that GDP measures the monetary value of final goods and services - that is. Total GDP can also be broken down into the contribution of industry or sector of the economy. The ratio of GDP to the population of the region is the per capita GDP. William Petty came up with a concept of GDP to defend landlords against unfair taxation during warfare between the Dutch and the English between 1652 and 1674. Charles Davenant developed the method further in 1695, the modern concept of GDP was first developed by Simon Kuznets for a US Congress report in 1934. In this report, Kuznets warned against its use as a measure of welfare, after the Bretton Woods conference in 1944, GDP became the main tool for measuring a countrys economy. The switch from GNP to GDP in the US was in 1991, the history of the concept of GDP should be distinguished from the history of changes in ways of estimating it. The value added by firms is relatively easy to calculate from their accounts, but the value added by the sector, by financial industries. GDP can be determined in three ways, all of which should, in principle, give the same result and they are the production approach, the income approach, or the expenditure approach. The most direct of the three is the approach, which sums the outputs of every class of enterprise to arrive at the total. The income approach works on the principle that the incomes of the factors must be equal to the value of their product. This approach mirrors the OECD definition given above, deduct intermediate consumption from gross value to obtain the gross value added. Gross value added = gross value of output – value of intermediate consumption, value of output = value of the total sales of goods and services plus value of changes in the inventories. The sum of the value added in the various economic activities is known as GDP at factor cost. GDP at factor cost plus indirect taxes less subsidies on products = GDP at producer price, for measuring output of domestic product, economic activities are classified into various sectors. Subtracting each sectors intermediate consumption from gross output gives the GDP at factor cost, adding indirect tax minus subsidies in GDP at factor cost gives the GDP at producer prices
Gross domestic product
–
Selection of GDP PPP data (top 10 countries and blocks) in no particular order
2.
United States dollar
–
The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its insular territories per the United States Constitution. It is divided into 100 smaller cent units, the circulating paper money consists of Federal Reserve Notes that are denominated in United States dollars. The U. S. dollar was originally commodity money of silver as enacted by the Coinage Act of 1792 which determined the dollar to be 371 4/16 grain pure or 416 grain standard silver, the currency most used in international transactions, it is the worlds primary reserve currency. Several countries use it as their currency, and in many others it is the de facto currency. Besides the United States, it is used as the sole currency in two British Overseas Territories in the Caribbean, the British Virgin Islands and Turks and Caicos Islands. A few countries use the Federal Reserve Notes for paper money, while the country mints its own coins, or also accepts U. S. coins that can be used as payment in U. S. dollars. After Nixon shock of 1971, USD became fiat currency, Article I, Section 8 of the U. S. Constitution provides that the Congress has the power To coin money, laws implementing this power are currently codified at 31 U. S. C. Section 5112 prescribes the forms in which the United States dollars should be issued and these coins are both designated in Section 5112 as legal tender in payment of debts. The Sacagawea dollar is one example of the copper alloy dollar, the pure silver dollar is known as the American Silver Eagle. Section 5112 also provides for the minting and issuance of other coins and these other coins are more fully described in Coins of the United States dollar. The Constitution provides that a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and that provision of the Constitution is made specific by Section 331 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The sums of money reported in the Statements are currently being expressed in U. S. dollars, the U. S. dollar may therefore be described as the unit of account of the United States. The word dollar is one of the words in the first paragraph of Section 9 of Article I of the Constitution, there, dollars is a reference to the Spanish milled dollar, a coin that had a monetary value of 8 Spanish units of currency, or reales. In 1792 the U. S. Congress passed a Coinage Act, Section 20 of the act provided, That the money of account of the United States shall be expressed in dollars, or units. And that all accounts in the offices and all proceedings in the courts of the United States shall be kept and had in conformity to this regulation. In other words, this act designated the United States dollar as the unit of currency of the United States, unlike the Spanish milled dollar the U. S. dollar is based upon a decimal system of values. Both one-dollar coins and notes are produced today, although the form is significantly more common
United States dollar
–
Series of 1917
$1 United States bill
United States dollar
–
Federal Reserve Notes
United States dollar
–
Spanish silver real or
peso of 1768
United States dollar
–
Obverse of rare 1934 $500 Federal Reserve Note, featuring a portrait of President
William McKinley.
3.
Mineral
–
A mineral is a naturally occurring chemical compound, usually of crystalline form and abiogenic in origin. A mineral has one specific chemical composition, whereas a rock can be an aggregate of different minerals or mineraloids, the study of minerals is called mineralogy. There are over 5,300 known mineral species, over 5,070 of these have been approved by the International Mineralogical Association, the silicate minerals compose over 90% of the Earths crust. The diversity and abundance of species is controlled by the Earths chemistry. Silicon and oxygen constitute approximately 75% of the Earths crust, which translates directly into the predominance of silicate minerals, minerals are distinguished by various chemical and physical properties. Differences in chemical composition and crystal structure distinguish the various species, changes in the temperature, pressure, or bulk composition of a rock mass cause changes in its minerals. Minerals can be described by their various properties, which are related to their chemical structure. Common distinguishing characteristics include crystal structure and habit, hardness, lustre, diaphaneity, colour, streak, tenacity, cleavage, fracture, parting, more specific tests for describing minerals include magnetism, taste or smell, radioactivity and reaction to acid. Minerals are classified by key chemical constituents, the two dominant systems are the Dana classification and the Strunz classification, the silicate class of minerals is subdivided into six subclasses by the degree of polymerization in the chemical structure. All silicate minerals have a unit of a 4− silica tetrahedron—that is, a silicon cation coordinated by four oxygen anions. These tetrahedra can be polymerized to give the subclasses, orthosilicates, disilicates, cyclosilicates, inosilicates, phyllosilicates, other important mineral groups include the native elements, sulfides, oxides, halides, carbonates, sulfates, and phosphates. The first criterion means that a mineral has to form by a natural process, stability at room temperature, in the simplest sense, is synonymous to the mineral being solid. More specifically, a compound has to be stable or metastable at 25 °C, modern advances have included extensive study of liquid crystals, which also extensively involve mineralogy. Minerals are chemical compounds, and as such they can be described by fixed or a variable formula, many mineral groups and species are composed of a solid solution, pure substances are not usually found because of contamination or chemical substitution. Finally, the requirement of an ordered atomic arrangement is usually synonymous with crystallinity, however, crystals are also periodic, an ordered atomic arrangement gives rise to a variety of macroscopic physical properties, such as crystal form, hardness, and cleavage. There have been recent proposals to amend the definition to consider biogenic or amorphous substances as minerals. The formal definition of an approved by the IMA in 1995, A mineral is an element or chemical compound that is normally crystalline. However, if geological processes were involved in the genesis of the compound, Mineral classification schemes and their definitions are evolving to match recent advances in mineral science
Mineral
–
Amethyst, a variety of
quartz
Mineral
–
Schist is a
metamorphic rock characterized by an abundance of platy minerals. In this example, the rock has prominent
sillimanite porphyroblasts as large as 3 cm (1.2 in).
Mineral
–
Hübnerite, the manganese-rich end-member of the
wolframite series, with minor quartz in the background
Mineral
–
When minerals react, the products will sometimes assume the shape of the reagent; the product mineral is termed to be a pseudomorph of (or after) the reagent. Illustrated here is a pseudomorph of
kaolinite after
orthoclase. Here, the pseudomorph preserved the Carlsbad
twinning common in orthoclase.
4.
Fish
–
A fish is any member of a group of animals that consist of all gill-bearing aquatic craniate animals that lack limbs with digits. They form a group to the tunicates, together forming the olfactores. Included in this definition are the living hagfish, lampreys, and cartilaginous, tetrapods emerged within lobe-finned fishes, so cladistically they are fish as well. However, traditionally fish are rendered obsolete or paraphyletic by excluding the tetrapods, because in this manner the term fish is defined negatively as a paraphyletic group, it is not considered a formal taxonomic grouping in systematic biology. The traditional term pisces is considered a typological, but not a phylogenetic classification, the earliest organisms that can be classified as fish were soft-bodied chordates that first appeared during the Cambrian period. Although they lacked a true spine, they possessed notochords which allowed them to be more agile than their invertebrate counterparts, fish would continue to evolve through the Paleozoic era, diversifying into a wide variety of forms. Many fish of the Paleozoic developed external armor that protected them from predators, the first fish with jaws appeared in the Silurian period, after which many became formidable marine predators rather than just the prey of arthropods. Fish are abundant in most bodies of water and they can be found in nearly all aquatic environments, from high mountain streams to the abyssal and even hadal depths of the deepest oceans. With 33,100 described species, fish exhibit greater species diversity than any group of vertebrates. Fish are an important resource for humans worldwide, especially as food, commercial and subsistence fishers hunt fish in wild fisheries or farm them in ponds or in cages in the ocean. They are also caught by fishers, kept as pets, raised by fishkeepers. Fish have had a role in culture through the ages, serving as deities, religious symbols, fish do not represent a monophyletic group, and therefore the evolution of fish is not studied as a single event. Early fish from the record are represented by a group of small, jawless. Jawless fish lineages are mostly extinct, an extant clade, the lampreys may approximate ancient pre-jawed fish. The first jaws are found in Placodermi fossils, the diversity of jawed vertebrates may indicate the evolutionary advantage of a jawed mouth. It is unclear if the advantage of a hinged jaw is greater biting force, improved respiration, fish may have evolved from a creature similar to a coral-like sea squirt, whose larvae resemble primitive fish in important ways. The first ancestors of fish may have kept the form into adulthood. Fish are a group, that is, any clade containing all fish also contains the tetrapods
Fish
–
Giant grouper swimming among
schools of other fish
Fish
Fish
–
Leedsichthys (left) the largest known fish.
Fish
–
Dunkleosteus was a gigantic, 10 meter (33 feet) long
prehistoric fish.
5.
Fiji
–
Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia in the South Pacific Ocean about 1,100 nautical miles northeast of New Zealands North Island. Fiji is an archipelago of more than 330 islands, of which 110 are permanently inhabited, the two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, account for 87% of the population of almost 860,000. The capital, Suva on Viti Levu, serves as Fijis principal cruise port, about three-quarters of Fijians live on Viti Levus coasts, either in Suva or in smaller urban centres like Nadi or Lautoka. Viti Levus interior is sparsely inhabited due to its terrain, Fiji has one of the most developed economies in the Pacific due to an abundance of forest, mineral, and fish resources. Today, the sources of foreign exchange are its tourist industry. The countrys currency is the Fijian dollar, Fijis local government, in the form of city and town councils, is supervised by the Ministry of Local Government and Urban Development. The majority of Fijis islands were formed through volcanic activity starting around 150 million years ago, today, some geothermal activity still occurs on the islands of Vanua Levu and Taveuni. Fiji has been inhabited since the second millennium BC, and was settled first by Austronesians and later by Melanesians, Europeans visited Fiji from the 17th century, and, after a brief period as an independent kingdom, the British established the Colony of Fiji in 1874. Fiji was a Crown colony until 1970, when it gained independence as a Commonwealth realm, a republic was declared in 1987, following a series of coups détat. In a coup in 2006, Commodore Frank Bainimarama seized power, later in 2009, Iloilo was replaced as President by Ratu Epeli Nailatikau. After years of delays, an election was held on 17 September 2014. Bainimaramas FijiFirst party won with 59. 2% of the vote, Fijis main island is known as Viti Levu and it is from this that the name Fiji is derived, though the common English pronunciation is based on that of their island neighbours in Tonga. Its emergence can be described as follows, Fijians first impressed themselves on European consciousness through the writings of the members of the expeditions of Cook who met them in Tonga. They were described as warriors and ferocious cannibals, builders of the finest vessels in the Pacific. They inspired awe amongst the Tongans, and all their Manufactures, especially bark cloth and clubs, were highly valued and much in demand. They called their home Viti, but the Tongans called it Fisi, and it was by this foreign pronunciation, Fiji, first promulgated by Captain James Cook, that these islands are now known. Feejee, the Anglicised spelling of the Tongan pronunciation, was used in accounts and other writings until the late 19th century, by missionaries and other travellers visiting Fiji. Pottery art from Fijian towns shows that Fiji was settled before or around 3500 to 1000 BC, the first settlements in Fiji were started by voyaging traders and settlers from the west about 5000 years ago
Fiji
–
Ratu
Tanoa Visawaqa
Fiji
–
Flag
Fiji
–
A Fijian mountain warrior, photograph by
Francis Herbert Dufty, 1870s.
Fiji
–
Levuka, 1842.
6.
Pacific island
–
The Pacific Islands is a term broadly referring to the islands of the Pacific Ocean. Depending on the context, it may refer to countries and islands with common Austronesian origins, islands once or currently colonized, in English, the umbrella term Pacific Islands may take on several meanings. Sometimes it refers to only those islands covered by the continent of Oceania, there are many other islands located within the boundaries of the Pacific Ocean that are not considered part of Oceania. This list includes all islands found in the geographic Pacific Ocean, with an area larger than 10,000 square kilometers
Pacific island
–
Pacific Islands leaders, all members of the
Pacific Islands Forum, at a meeting in
Samoa with US Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice (center), 26 July 2008
Pacific island
–
Three of the major groups of islands in the
Pacific Ocean.
7.
Economics
–
Economics is a social science concerned chiefly with description and analysis of the production, distribution, and consumption of goods and services according to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Economics focuses on the behaviour and interactions of economic agents and how economies work, consistent with this focus, textbooks often distinguish between microeconomics and macroeconomics. Microeconomics examines the behaviour of elements in the economy, including individual agents and markets, their interactions. Individual agents may include, for example, households, firms, buyers, macroeconomics analyzes the entire economy and issues affecting it, including unemployment of resources, inflation, economic growth, and the public policies that address these issues. Economic analysis can be applied throughout society, as in business, finance, health care, Economic analyses may also be applied to such diverse subjects as crime, education, the family, law, politics, religion, social institutions, war, science, and the environment. At the turn of the 21st century, the domain of economics in the social sciences has been described as economic imperialism. The ultimate goal of economics is to improve the conditions of people in their everyday life. There are a variety of definitions of economics. Some of the differences may reflect evolving views of the subject or different views among economists, to supply the state or commonwealth with a revenue for the publick services. Say, distinguishing the subject from its uses, defines it as the science of production, distribution. On the satirical side, Thomas Carlyle coined the dismal science as an epithet for classical economics, in this context and it enquires how he gets his income and how he uses it. Thus, it is on the one side, the study of wealth and on the other and more important side, a part of the study of man. He affirmed that previous economists have usually centred their studies on the analysis of wealth, how wealth is created, distributed, and consumed, but he said that economics can be used to study other things, such as war, that are outside its usual focus. This is because war has as the goal winning it, generates both cost and benefits, and, resources are used to attain the goal. If the war is not winnable or if the costs outweigh the benefits. Some subsequent comments criticized the definition as overly broad in failing to limit its subject matter to analysis of markets, there are other criticisms as well, such as in scarcity not accounting for the macroeconomics of high unemployment. The same source reviews a range of included in principles of economics textbooks. Among economists more generally, it argues that a particular definition presented may reflect the direction toward which the author believes economics is evolving, microeconomics examines how entities, forming a market structure, interact within a market to create a market system
Economics
–
Economists study trade, production and consumption decisions, such as those that occur in a traditional
marketplace.
Economics
–
World GDP (PPP) per capita by country (2014)
Economics
–
In
Virtual Markets, buyer and seller are not present and trade via intermediates and electronic information. Pictured:
São Paulo Stock Exchange, Brazil.
Economics
–
A map showing the main
trade routes for goods within
late medieval Europe.
8.
Developing nation
–
Also, the general term less-developed country should not be confused with the specific least developed country. The term developing describes a currently observed situation and not a dynamic or expected direction of progress, since the late 1990s developing countries tended to demonstrate higher growth rates than the developed ones. There is criticism of the use of the developing country. The term implies inferiority of a country or undeveloped country compared with a developed country. It assumes a desire to develop along the traditional Western model of development which a few countries, such as Cuba and Bhutan. An alternative measurement that has suggested is that of gross national happiness. Countries on the boundary between developed and developing are often categorized under the newly industrialized countries. In the 2016 edition of its World Development Indicators, the World Bank made a decision to no longer distinguish between “developed” and “developing” countries in the presentation of its data, nobody has ever agreed on a definition for these terms in the first place. Various terms are used for whatever is not a developed country, terms used include less developed country or less economically developed country, and for the more extreme, least developed country or least economically developed country. But according to the United Nations Statistics Division, There is no established convention for the designation of developed, the World Bank classifies countries into four income groups. These are set each year on July 1, economies were divided according to 2016 GNI per capita using the following ranges of income, Low income countries had GNI per capita of US$1,025 or less. Lower middle income countries had GNI per capita between US$1,026 and US$4,035, upper middle income countries had GNI per capita between US$4,036 and US$12,475. High income countries had GNI per capita above US$12,476 and this may be by absolute numbers or country ranking. The UN has developed the Human Development Index, an indicator of the above statistics. The UN sets Millennium Development Goals from a blueprint developed by all of the countries and leading development institutions. There is an association between low income and high population growth. The terms utilized when discussing developing countries refer to the intent, other terms sometimes used are less developed countries, least economically developed countries, underdeveloped nations or Third World nations, and non-industrialized nations. Conversely, developed countries, most economically developed countries, First World nations and that is, LEDCs are the poorest subset of LDCs
Developing nation
–
developing economies according to the IMF
9.
Subsistence agriculture
–
Subsistence agriculture is self-sufficiency farming in which the farmers focus on growing enough food to feed themselves and their families. The output is mostly for local requirements with little or no surplus trade, the typical subsistence farm has a range of crops and animals needed by the family to feed and clothe themselves during the year. Planting decisions are made principally with an eye toward what the family will need during the coming year, tony Waters writes, Subsistence peasants are people who grow what they eat, build their own houses, and live without regularly making purchases in the marketplace. Subsistence agriculture also emerged independently in Mexico where it was based on cultivation. Subsistence agriculture was the dominant mode of production in the world until recently, Subsistence horticulture may have developed independently in South East Asia and Papua New Guinea. Subsistence farming continues today in parts of rural Africa, and parts of Asia. Many of the items, as well as occasional services from physicians, veterinarians, blacksmiths. In Central and Eastern Europe subsistence and semi-subsistence agriculture reappeared within the economy since about 1990. In this type of agriculture, a patch of forest land is cleared by a combination of felling and burning, and crops are grown. After 2-3 years the fertility of the soil begins to decline, the land is abandoned, while the land is left fallow the forest regrows in the cleared area and soil fertility and biomass is restored. After a decade or more, the farmer may return to the first piece of land, shifting cultivation is called Dredd in India, Ladang in Indonesia and Milpa in Central America and Mexico. However, such farmers often recognize the value of such compost and they also may irrigate part of such fields if they are near a source of water. In some areas of tropical Africa, at least, such smaller fields may be ones in which crops are grown on raised beds, thus farmers practicing slash and burn agriculture are often much more sophisticated agriculturalists than the term slash and burn subsistence farmers suggest. In this type of farming people migrate along with their animals from one place to another in search of fodder for their animals, generally they rear cattle, sheep, goats, camels and/or yaks for milk, skin, meat and wool. This way of life is common in parts of central and western Asia, India, east and south-west Africa, examples are the nomadic Bhotiyas and Gujjars of the Himalayas. In Intensive subsistence agriculture, the farmer cultivates a small plot of land using simple tools, climate, with large number of days with sunshine and fertile soils permits growing of more than one crop annually on the same plot. Farmers use their land holdings to produce enough, for their local consumption. It results in more food being produced per acre compared to other subsistence patterns
Subsistence agriculture
–
Like most farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa, this Cameroonian man cultivates at the subsistence level.
10.
Sugar
–
Sugar is the generic name for sweet, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. There are various types of derived from different sources. Simple sugars are called monosaccharides and include glucose, fructose, the table sugar or granulated sugar most customarily used as food is sucrose, a disaccharide of glucose and fructose. Sugar is used in prepared foods and it is added to some foods, in the body, sucrose is hydrolysed into the simple sugars fructose and glucose. Other disaccharides include maltose from malted grain, and lactose from milk, longer chains of sugars are called oligosaccharides or polysaccharides. Some other chemical substances, such as glycerol may also have a sweet taste, low-calorie food substitutes for sugar, described as artificial sweeteners, include aspartame and sucralose, a chlorinated derivative of sucrose. Sugars are found in the tissues of most plants and are present in sufficient concentrations for efficient commercial extraction in sugarcane, the world production of sugar in 2011 was about 168 million tonnes. The average person consumes about 24 kilograms of sugar each year, equivalent to over 260 food calories per person, since the latter part of the twentieth century, it has been questioned whether a diet high in sugars, especially refined sugars, is good for human health. Sugar has been linked to obesity, and suspected of, or fully implicated as a cause in the occurrence of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, macular degeneration, the etymology reflects the spread of the commodity. The English word sugar ultimately originates from the Sanskrit शर्करा, via Arabic سكر as granular or candied sugar, the contemporary Italian word is zucchero, whereas the Spanish and Portuguese words, azúcar and açúcar, respectively, have kept a trace of the Arabic definite article. The Old French word is zuchre and the contemporary French, sucre, the earliest Greek word attested is σάκχαρις. The English word jaggery, a brown sugar made from date palm sap or sugarcane juice, has a similar etymological origin – Portuguese jagara from the Sanskrit शर्करा. Sugar has been produced in the Indian subcontinent since ancient times and it was not plentiful or cheap in early times and honey was more often used for sweetening in most parts of the world. Originally, people chewed raw sugarcane to extract its sweetness, sugarcane was a native of tropical South Asia and Southeast Asia. Different species seem to have originated from different locations with Saccharum barberi originating in India and S. edule, one of the earliest historical references to sugarcane is in Chinese manuscripts dating back to 8th century BC that state that the use of sugarcane originated in India. Sugar was found in Europe by the 1st century AD, but only as an imported medicine and it is a kind of honey found in cane, white as gum, and it crunches between the teeth. It comes in lumps the size of a hazelnut, sugar is used only for medical purposes. Sugar remained relatively unimportant until the Indians discovered methods of turning sugarcane juice into granulated crystals that were easier to store, crystallized sugar was discovered by the time of the Imperial Guptas, around the 5th century AD
Sugar
–
Closeup of raw (unrefined, unbleached) sugar
Sugar
–
Ant feeding on sugar crystals.
Sugar
–
Sugar cane plantation
Sugar
–
Still-Life with Bread and Confectionary, by
George Flegel, first half of 17th century
11.
Coconut
–
The coconut tree is a member of the family Arecaceae and the only species of the genus Cocos. The term coconut can refer to the coconut palm or the seed, or the fruit. The spelling cocoanut is a form of the word. The term is derived from the 16th-century Portuguese and Spanish word coco meaning head or skull, coconuts are known for their great versatility, as evidenced by many traditional uses, ranging from food to cosmetics. They form a part of the diets of many people in the tropics and subtropics. Coconuts are distinct from other fruits for their quantity of water. When mature, they can be used as seed nuts or processed to give oil from the kernel, charcoal from the hard shell, the endosperm is initially in its nuclear phase suspended within the coconut water. As development continues, cellular layers of endosperm deposit along the walls of the coconut, when dried, the coconut flesh is called copra. The oil and milk derived from it are used in cooking and frying, as well as in soaps. The husks and leaves can be used as material to make a variety of products for furnishing and decorating, the coconut also has cultural and religious significance in certain societies, particularly in India, where it is used in Hindu rituals. Cocos nucifera is a palm, growing up to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaves 4–6 m long. Coconuts are generally classified into two types, tall and dwarf. On fertile soil, a coconut palm tree can yield up to 75 fruits per year. Given proper care and growing conditions, coconut palms produce their first fruit in six to ten years, botanically, the coconut fruit is a drupe, not a true nut. Like other fruits, it has three layers, the exocarp, mesocarp, and endocarp, the exocarp and mesocarp make up the husk of the coconuts. Coconuts sold in the shops of nontropical countries often have had the exocarp removed, the mesocarp is composed of a fiber, called coir, which has many traditional and commercial uses. The shell has three germination pores or eyes that are visible on its outside surface once the husk is removed. A full-sized coconut weighs about 1.44 kg and it takes around 6,000 full-grown coconuts to produce a tonne of copra
Coconut
Coconut
–
Coconut flowers
Coconut
–
A cut coconut shell
Coconut
–
Manual harvesting of coconuts
12.
Ginger
–
Ginger is a flowering plant whose rhizome, ginger root or simply ginger, is widely used as a spice or a folk medicine. It is a perennial which grows annual stems about a meter tall bearing narrow green leaves. Ginger is in the family Zingiberaceae, to also belong turmeric, cardamom. Ginger originated in the tropical rainforest in Southern Asia, although ginger no longer grows wild, it is thought to have originated on the Indian subcontinent because the ginger plants grown in India show the largest amount of genetic variation. Ginger was exported to Europe via India in the first century AD as a result of the spice trade and was used extensively by the Romans. The distantly related dicots in the genus Asarum are commonly called wild ginger because of their similar taste. But this may be Sanskrit folk etymology, and the word may be from an ancient Dravidian name that produced the Tamil and Malayalam name for the spice, inchi-ver. The word probably was readopted in Middle English from Old French gingibre, ginger produces clusters of white and pink flower buds that bloom into yellow flowers. Because of its appeal and the adaptation of the plant to warm climates. It is a perennial plant with annual leafy stems, about a meter tall. Traditionally, the rhizome is gathered when the stalk withers, it is scalded, or washed and scraped, to kill it. The fragrant perisperm of the Zingiberaceae is used as sweetmeats by Bantu, ginger produces a hot, fragrant kitchen spice. Young ginger rhizomes are juicy and fleshy with a mild taste. They are often pickled in vinegar or sherry as a snack or cooked as an ingredient in many dishes and they can be steeped in boiling water to make ginger tisane, to which honey is often added, sliced orange or lemon fruit may be added. Ginger can be made into candy, or ginger wine, which has been made commercially since 1740, mature ginger rhizomes are fibrous and nearly dry. Fresh ginger can be substituted for ground ginger at a ratio of six to one, although the flavors of fresh, powdered dry ginger root is typically used as a flavoring for recipes such as gingerbread, cookies, crackers and cakes, ginger ale, and ginger beer. Candied ginger, or crystallized ginger, is the root cooked in sugar until soft, fresh ginger may be peeled before eating. For longer-term storage, the ginger can be placed in a plastic bag, in Indian cuisine, ginger is a key ingredient, especially in thicker gravies, as well as in many other dishes, both vegetarian and meat-based
Ginger
–
Ginger
Ginger
–
Ginger plant with flower - South India
Ginger
–
Ornamental Ginger near
Cooktown, Queensland, Australia
Ginger
–
Gari, a type of pickled ginger
13.
Copra
–
Copra is the dried meat, or dried kernel, of the coconut used to extract coconut oil. The earliest evidence of the extracting and use of oil from copra is in early Tamil literature from the 1st century AD. The word originated from the Malayalam word koppra, Coconut oil is extracted from it and this has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake, which is used as feed for livestock. Copra has traditionally been grated and ground then boiled in water to extract coconut oil and it was used by Pacific island cultures and became a valuable commercial product for merchants in the South Seas and South Asia in the 1860s. This 19th-century copra trading inspired Robert Louis Stevensons 1893 novella The Beach of Falesá, nowadays, the process of coconut oil extraction is performed by crushing copra to produce coconut oil, the by-product is known as copra cake or copra meal. Once the oil is extracted, the remaining cake is 18–25% protein. Instead it is fed to ruminants. The production of copra – removing the shell, breaking it up, Copra can be made by smoke drying, sun drying, or kiln drying. Sun drying requires little more than racks and sufficient sunlight, halved nuts are drained of water, and left with the meat facing the sky, they can be washed to remove mold-creating contaminants. After two days the meat can be removed from the shell with ease, and the process is complete after three to five more days. This process can also be reversed, partially drying the copra in the kiln, in India, small but whole coconuts can be dried over the course of eight months to a year, and the meat inside removed and sold as a whole ball. Meat prepared in this fashion is sweet, soft, oily and is cream-coloured instead of being white, Coconut meat can be dried using direct heat and smoke from a fire, using simple racks to suspend the coconut over the fire. The smoke residue can help preserve the meat but the process overall suffers from unpredictable results. While there are large plantations with integrated operations, copra remains primarily a smallholder crop. The major producing country is the Philippines and it is also a major exporter. Copra production begins on coconut plantations, Coconut trees are generally spaced 9 m apart, allowing a density of 100–160 coconut trees per hectare. A standard tree bears around 50–80 nuts a year, and average earnings in Vanuatu were US$0.20 per kg —so a farmer could earn approximately US$120 to US$320 yearly for each planted hectare
Copra
–
Whole dry coconuts, kept for sale in Ulsoor Market,
Bangalore, India
Copra
–
Coconuts sun-dried in
Kozhikode,
Kerala for making copra
14.
Petroleum
–
Petroleum is a naturally occurring, yellow-to-black liquid found in geological formations beneath the Earths surface, which is commonly refined into various types of fuels. Components of petroleum are separated using a technique called fractional distillation and it consists of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other organic compounds. The name petroleum covers both naturally occurring unprocessed crude oil and petroleum products that are made up of refined crude oil. A fossil fuel, petroleum is formed when large quantities of dead organisms, usually zooplankton and algae, are buried underneath sedimentary rock, Petroleum has mostly been recovered by oil drilling. Drilling is carried out studies of structural geology, sedimentary basin analysis. Petroleum is used in manufacturing a variety of materials. Concern over the depletion of the earths finite reserves of oil, the burning of fossil fuels plays the major role in the current episode of global warming. The word petroleum comes from Greek, πέτρα for rocks and Greek, the term was found in 10th-century Old English sources. It was used in the treatise De Natura Fossilium, published in 1546 by the German mineralogist Georg Bauer, Petroleum, in one form or another, has been used since ancient times, and is now important across society, including in economy, politics and technology. Great quantities of it were found on the banks of the river Issus, ancient Persian tablets indicate the medicinal and lighting uses of petroleum in the upper levels of their society. By 347 AD, oil was produced from bamboo-drilled wells in China, early British explorers to Myanmar documented a flourishing oil extraction industry based in Yenangyaung that, in 1795, had hundreds of hand-dug wells under production. The mythological origins of the oil fields at Yenangyaung, and its hereditary monopoly control by 24 families, Pechelbronn is said to be the first European site where petroleum has been explored and used. The still active Erdpechquelle, a spring where petroleum appears mixed with water has been used since 1498, Oil sands have been mined since the 18th century. In Wietze in lower Saxony, natural asphalt/bitumen has been explored since the 18th century, both in Pechelbronn as in Wietze, the coal industry dominated the petroleum technologies. In 1848 Young set up a small business refining the crude oil, Young eventually succeeded, by distilling cannel coal at a low heat, in creating a fluid resembling petroleum, which when treated in the same way as the seep oil gave similar products. The production of oils and solid paraffin wax from coal formed the subject of his patent dated 17 October 1850. In 1850 Young & Meldrum and Edward William Binney entered into partnership under the title of E. W. Binney & Co. at Bathgate in West Lothian, the worlds first oil refinery was built in 1856 by Ignacy Łukasiewicz. The demand for petroleum as a fuel for lighting in North America, edwin Drakes 1859 well near Titusville, Pennsylvania, is popularly considered the first modern well
Petroleum
–
Pumpjack pumping an oil well near
Lubbock, Texas
Petroleum
–
An oil refinery in Mina-Al-Ahmadi, Kuwait
Petroleum
–
Natural petroleum spring in
Korňa, Slovakia
Petroleum
–
Oil derrick in
Okemah, Oklahoma, 1922
15.
Suva
–
Suva is the capital and second largest municipality and largest municipality with city status in Fiji. It is located on the southeast coast of the island of Viti Levu, in the Rewa Province, Suva is Fijis political and administrative capital. It is the largest and most cosmopolitan city in the southern Pacific Ocean and has become an important regional centre, students from the Pacific region and a growing expatriate community make up a significant portion of the citys population. According to the Authority of Local Government Act, Suva is governed, in 1877, it was decided to make Suva the capital of Fiji, as the geography of former main European settlement at Levuka on the island of Ovalau, Lomaiviti province proved too restrictive. The administration of the colony was moved from Levuka to Suva in 1882, at the 2007 census, the city of Suva had a population of 85,691. Including independent suburbs, the population of the Greater Suva urban area was 172,399 at the 2007 census. Suva, along with the towns of Lami, Nasinu. This urban complex is also as the Suva–Nausori corridor. The original intention was to develop a cotton farming industry, but the land, the transfer was made official in 1882. Colonel F. E. Pratt of the Royal Engineers was appointed Surveyor-General in 1875 and designed the new capital, assisted by W. Stephens, following the promulgation of the Municipal Constitution Ordinance of 1909, Suva acquired municipal status in 1910. The town initially comprised one square mile, these boundaries remained intact until 1952 when the Muanikau and Samabula wards were annexed, in October that year, Suva was proclaimed a city – Fijis first. Tamavua was subsequently annexed, the most recent extension of the city boundaries has been to incorporate the Cunningham area to the north of the city. Urban sprawl has resulted in a number of suburbs that remain outside of the city limits, together with the city itself, the city hosted the 2003 South Pacific Games, being the third time in the events 40-year history that they had been held in Suva. Suva is the capital of Fiji and is a city built on a peninsula reaching out into the sea. It has a mix of buildings and traditional colonial architecture. The city is perched on a peninsula between Laucala Bay and Suva Harbour in the southeast corner of Viti Levu. The mountains north and west catch the southeast trade winds, producing moist conditions year round, Suva is the commercial and political centre of Fiji, though not necessarily the cultural centre, and the largest urban area in the South Pacific outside of Australia and New Zealand. It is Fijis main port city, although Suva is on a peninsula, and almost surrounded by sea, the nearest beach is 40 kilometres away at Pacific Harbour and the nearby coast is lined by mangroves
Suva
–
Suva CBD
Suva
–
Suva within Fiji
Suva
–
Coat of arms
Suva
–
Suva Central Business District in the 1950s
16.
WTO
–
The World Trade Organization is an intergovernmental organization which regulates international trade. The WTO officially commenced on 1 January 1995 under the Marrakesh Agreement, signed by 123 nations on 15 April 1994, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, most of the issues that the WTO focuses on derive from previous trade negotiations, especially from the Uruguay Round. The WTO is attempting to complete negotiations on the Doha Development Round, as of June 2012, the future of the Doha Round remained uncertain, the work programme lists 21 subjects in which the original deadline of 1 January 2005 was missed, and the round is still incomplete. This impasse has made it impossible to launch new WTO negotiations beyond the Doha Development Round, as a result, there have been an increasing number of bilateral free trade agreements between governments. As of July 2012, there were various groups in the WTO system for the current agricultural trade negotiation which is in the condition of stalemate. The WTOs current Director-General is Roberto Azevêdo, who leads a staff of over 600 people in Geneva, a trade facilitation agreement, part of the Bali Package of decisions, was agreed by all members on 7 December 2013, the first comprehensive agreement in the organizations history. Seven rounds of negotiations occurred under GATT, the first real GATT trade rounds concentrated on further reducing tariffs. Then, the Kennedy Round in the mid-sixties brought about a GATT anti-dumping Agreement, because these plurilateral agreements were not accepted by the full GATT membership, they were often informally called codes. Several of these codes were amended in the Uruguay Round, only four remained plurilateral, but in 1997 WTO members agreed to terminate the bovine meat and dairy agreements, leaving only two. Well before GATTs 40th anniversary, its members concluded that the GATT system was straining to adapt to a new globalizing world economy. In response to the problems identified in the 1982 Ministerial Declaration, the GATT still exists as the WTOs umbrella treaty for trade in goods, updated as a result of the Uruguay Round negotiations. GATT1994 is not however the only legally binding agreement included via the Final Act at Marrakesh, the highest decision-making body of the WTO is the Ministerial Conference, which usually meets every two years. It brings together all members of the WTO, all of which are countries or customs unions, the Ministerial Conference can take decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements. When agricultural export subsidies were agreed to be phased out and adoption of the European Unions Everything, the WTO launched the current round of negotiations, the Doha Development Round, at the fourth ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar in November 2001. This was to be an effort to make globalization more inclusive and help the worlds poor, particularly by slashing barriers. The initial agenda comprised both further trade liberalization and new rule-making, underpinned by commitments to strengthen substantial assistance to developing countries. Among the various functions of the WTO, these are regarded by analysts as the most important and it provides a forum for negotiations and for settling disputes. Another priority of the WTO is the assistance of developing, least-developed and low-income countries in transition to adjust to WTO rules and disciplines through technical cooperation and training
WTO
–
The economists
Harry White (left) and
John Maynard Keynes at the
Bretton Woods Conference. Both had been strong advocates of a central-controlled international trade environment and recommended the establishment of three institutions: the
IMF (for fiscal and monetary issues); the
World Bank (for financial and structural issues); and the
ITO (for international economic cooperation).
WTO
–
Official logo of WTO
WTO
–
During the
Doha Round, the
US government blamed
Brazil and
India for being inflexible and the EU for impeding agricultural imports. The then-
President of Brazil,
Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (above right), responded to the criticisms by arguing that progress would only be achieved if the richest countries (especially the US and countries in the EU) made deeper cuts in
agricultural subsidies and further opened their markets for agricultural goods.
WTO
–
The
World Trade Organization Ministerial Conference of 1998, in the
Palace of Nations (
Geneva,
Switzerland).
17.
Fijians
–
Fijians, officially known since 2010 as iTaukei, are the major indigenous people of the Fiji Islands, and live in an area informally called Melanesia. Indigenous Fijians are believed to have arrived in Fiji from western Melanesia approximately 3,500 years ago, later they would move onward to other surrounding islands, including Rotuma, as well as blending with other settlers on Tonga and Samoa. They are indigenous to all parts of Fiji except the island of Rotuma, the original settlers are now called Lapita people after a distinctive pottery produced locally. Lapita pottery was found in the area from 800 BCE onward, as of 2005, indigenous Fijians constituted slightly more than half of the total Fijian population. Indigenous Fijians are predominantly of Melanesian extraction, with some Polynesian admixture, the estimated Pacific Islander population size is 231,800 in 2001 Fijians comprising about 7,000 of that. Outside of the Oceania, substantial Fijian diaspora is found in anglophone countries namely Canada, United States. The Bose Levu Vakaturaga once passed laws and regulations governing the indigenous Fijian people, until its disbanding by the Military of Fiji following the 2006 coup, the Great Council of Chiefs met yearly to discuss native Fijian concerns. The council, which was responsible for appointing Fijis president, was composed of 55 Fijian chiefs selected from the 14 provinces. Included in the council were three appointees from the island of Rotuma and six appointed by the Minister of Fijian Affairs, the Minister of Fijian Affairs consulted with the President as part of the selection process. Former Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka was given an appointment on the council. The Tabua is a much revered whales tooth which is used in public and private occasions or ceremonies. Yaqona, otherwise known as kava – another important traditional custom – is an infusion prepared from the root of Piper methysticum, the plant itself is also often referred to as yaqona or the kava plant. Yaqona is extremely important in indigenous Fijian culture – in the time of the old religion it was used ceremonially by chiefs, today, yaqona is part of daily life, both in villages and in urban areas and across all classes and walks of life. Having a grog or drinking grog, as drinking kava is sometimes known, is used for welcoming and bonding with visitors, the native Fijian language belongs to the Central Pacific – Fijian – Polynesian branch of the Austronesian family. About 86 percent of the land in Fiji is owned by indigenous Fijian people, in 1876, Sir Arthur Hamilton-Gordon, the British colonial Governor, prohibited the sale of Fijian land to non-ethnic Fijians. This controversial policy continues to this day, the Governor also banned the employment of native Fijians as labourers, and in 1878, began importing indentured labourers from India to work in the sugarcane fields. The effects of this created an ethnic polarisation, which has proven to be politically challenging to Fijian race relations. Indigenous Fijians overwhelmingly report as being Christian, with the Methodist Church of Fiji, other significant denominations include the Roman Catholic Church, the Assemblies of God and the Seventh-day Adventists
Fijians
–
Ratu Sir Kamisese Mara
Fijians
–
19th century Fijian couple in traditional dress.
Fijians
–
Native Fijians in Raviravi
Fijians
–
Fijian policemen in
Suva, 1967
18.
Tax
–
A tax is a financial charge or other levy imposed upon a taxpayer by a state or the functional equivalent of a state to fund various public expenditures. A failure to pay, or evasion of or resistance to taxation, is punishable by law. Taxes consist of direct or indirect taxes and may be paid in money or as its labour equivalent, the legal definition and the economic definition of taxes differ in that economists do not regard many transfers to governments as taxes. For example, some transfers to the sector are comparable to prices. Examples include tuition at public universities and fees for utilities provided by local governments, governments also obtain resources by creating money and coins, through voluntary gifts, by imposing penalties, by borrowing, and by confiscating wealth. In modern taxation systems, governments levy taxes in money, but in-kind and corvée taxation are characteristic of traditional or pre-capitalist states, the method of taxation and the government expenditure of taxes raised is often highly debated in politics and economics. Tax collection is performed by a government agency such as the Canada Revenue Agency, when taxes are not fully paid, the state may impose civil penalties or criminal penalties on the non-paying entity or individual. The levying of taxes aims to raise revenue to fund governing and/or to alter prices in order to affect demand, States and their functional equivalents throughout history have used money provided by taxation to carry out many functions. A governments ability to raise taxes is called its fiscal capacity, when expenditures exceed tax revenue, a government accumulates debt. A portion of taxes may be used to service past debts, governments also use taxes to fund welfare and public services. These services can include education systems, pensions for the elderly, unemployment benefits, energy, water and waste management systems are also common public utilities. A tax effectively changes relative prices of products and they have therefore sought to identify the kind of tax system that would minimize this distortion. Governments use different kinds of taxes and vary the tax rates, historically, taxes on the poor supported the nobility, modern social-security systems aim to support the poor, the disabled, or the retired by taxes on those who are still working. A states tax system often reflects its communal values and the values of those in current political power. To create a system of taxation, a state must make choices regarding the distribution of the tax burden—who will pay taxes and how much they will pay—and how the taxes collected will be spent. In democratic nations where the public elects those in charge of establishing or administering the tax system, in countries where the public does not have a significant amount of influence over the system of taxation, that system may reflect more closely the values of those in power. All large businesses incur administrative costs in the process of delivering revenue collected from customers to the suppliers of the goods or services being purchased. Taxation is no different, the resource collected from the public through taxation is always greater than the amount which can be used by the government, the difference is called the compliance cost and includes the labour cost and other expenses incurred in complying with tax laws and rules
Tax
–
Pieter Brueghel the Younger, The tax collector's office, 1640
Tax
–
Egyptian
peasants seized for
non-payment of taxes. (
Pyramid Age)
19.
Rice
–
Rice is the seed of the grass species Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima. As a cereal grain, it is the most widely consumed staple food for a part of the worlds human population. It is the agricultural commodity with the third-highest worldwide production, after sugarcane and maize, wild rice, from which the crop was developed, may have its native range in Australia. Chinese legends attribute the domestication of rice to Shennong, the emperor of China. Genetic evidence has shown that rice originates from a single domestication 8, previously, archaeological evidence had suggested that rice was domesticated in the Yangtze River valley region in China. From East Asia, rice was spread to Southeast and South Asia, Rice was introduced to Europe through Western Asia, and to the Americas through European colonization. There are many varieties of rice and culinary preferences tend to vary regionally, in some areas such as the Far East or Spain, there is a preference for softer and stickier varieties. Rice, a monocot, is grown as an annual plant, although in tropical areas it can survive as a perennial. The rice plant can grow to 1–1.8 m tall, occasionally more depending on the variety and it has long, slender leaves 50–100 cm long and 2–2.5 cm broad. The small wind-pollinated flowers are produced in a branched arching to pendulous inflorescence 30–50 cm long, the edible seed is a grain 5–12 mm long and 2–3 mm thick. Rice cultivation is well-suited to countries and regions with low costs and high rainfall, as it is labor-intensive to cultivate. However, rice can be grown practically anywhere, even on a hill or mountain area with the use of water-controlling terrace systems. Although its parent species are native to Asia and certain parts of Africa, centuries of trade, the traditional method for cultivating rice is flooding the fields while, or after, setting the young seedlings. The name wild rice is used for species of the genera Zizania and Porteresia. The Greek word is the source of all European words, the origin of the Greek word is unclear. It is sometimes held to be from the Tamil word அரிசி, however, Krishnamurti disagrees with the notion that Old Tamil arici is the source of the Greek term, and proposes that it was borrowed from descendants of Proto-Dravidian *wariñci instead. The varieties of rice are typically classified as long-, medium-, the grains of long-grain rice tend to remain intact after cooking, medium-grain rice becomes more sticky. Medium-grain rice is used for dishes, for risotto in Italy
Rice
–
A mixture of brown, white, and red indica rice, also containing
wild rice, Zizania species
Rice
–
Oryza sativa with small
wind-pollinated flowers
Rice
–
Cooked brown rice from Bhutan
Rice
–
Rice can come in many shapes, colours and sizes. Photo by the
IRRI.
20.
Cabinet of Fiji
–
Fiji has the Westminster system — executive authority is vested nominally in a President, but exercised in practice by a Cabinet of ministers, presided over by the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister is formally appointed, but not chosen, by the President, in practice, this is normally the leader of the largest political party or coalition in the house. In the event of that failing to place, the President must dissolve the House of Representatives. Cabinet ministers are appointed by the President, but he is constitutionally required to do so only on the advice of the Prime Minister. An unusual feature of the 1997 Constitution is its provision for a coalition cabinet — even if one party has a parliamentary majority in its own right. Every political party with more than 8 seats in the 71‑member parliament must be offered a number of cabinet posts. If the Prime Minister wishes to give cabinet posts to members of a party with fewer than 8 representatives, he must do so at the expense of his own party, not of other parties in the coalition. In adopting this novel feature, Fijians noted that a system has been operating successfully in Switzerland for decades. More recently, it has tried in Northern Ireland. Until May 2006, the multi-party cabinet model was never successfully maintained in Fiji, the Chaudhry government refused to include the Soqosoqo ni Vakavulewa ni Taukei in the 1999-2000 cabinet, despite the partys holding the required 8 parliamentary seats. On 18 July 2003, Fijis Supreme Court ruled that the exclusion of the Labour Party was in breach of the Constitution, Qarase announced that he would abide by the ruling and would enlarge the cabinet to include the requisite number of Labour Party ministers, but not Chaudhry himself. This continued to stall negotiations, until late November 2004, when Chaudhry announced that the Labour Party had decided to remain in opposition for the remainder of the present parliamentary term. Following the parliamentary election held on 6–13 May 2006, prime minister Qarase named a multi-party cabinet consisting of 24 ministers and 12 ministers of State, further controversy continued since, with FLP leader Mahendra Chaudhry insisting that FLP members of the cabinet owed their first loyalty to party. Prime minister Qarase, on the hand, maintained that all ministers were bound by collective cabinet decision-making. This would require a change to Qarases own cabinet, which at present contains only one Indo-Fijian, Qarase reiterated his calls for a change to the constitution on 5 October 2005, and indicated that he would contest the 2006 election on such a platform. Speaking on VitiFm Radio, Qarase said that the multi-party cabinet provisions of the constitution were unworkable, the result will be an unworkable cabinet”, Qarase said. The provision had been added to the Constitution as an afterthought, he said. Only three other countries had ever tried the model, none of them successfully, he claimed, “We want a stable government that can govern well and is not shaky”, he concluded
Cabinet of Fiji
–
Prime Minister Minister for iTaukei Affairs Minister for Sugar
Cabinet of Fiji
–
Fiji
Cabinet of Fiji
–
Attorney-General Minister for Justice,Finance, Public Enterprises, Public Service
Cabinet of Fiji
–
Minister for Public Enterprises, Industry, Trade and Tourism
21.
Prime Minister of Fiji
–
The Prime Minister of the Republic of Fiji is the head of government of Fiji. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President under the terms of the 2013 Constitution of Fiji, the Prime Minister is appointed by the President, but must be supported, or at least accepted, by a majority in the House of Representatives. If at any time the Prime Minister loses the confidence of the House, he must resign, in practice, this usually reduces the Prime Ministers appointment to a formality, as the parliamentary leader of the majority political party or coalition is invariably appointed. If, however, no majority party or coalition exists, whether due to electoral fragmentation or to party realignments after an election. The President must endeavour to find a candidate acceptable to a majority in the House, if no candidate can be found. The Prime Minister of Fiji is technically the first among equals, in practice, the Prime Minister dominates the government. Other Ministers are appointed by the President, but on the Prime Ministers advice, ratu Sir Kamisese Mara was appointed Fijis first Prime Minister on 10 October 1970, when Fiji attained its independence from Britain. Mara previously served as Fijis first an only Chief Minister, from 20 September 1967, maras first term as Prime Minister lasted until 13 April 1987. He returned to the office for the term on 5 December 1987. As of 2014, Mara is the longest-serving Prime Minister of Fiji, list of heads of state of Fiji President of Fiji Notes Footnotes
Prime Minister of Fiji
–
Incumbent
Frank Bainimarama since 11 April 2009
Prime Minister of Fiji
Prime Minister of Fiji
Prime Minister of Fiji
22.
Biofuel
–
Biofuels can be derived directly from plants, or indirectly from agricultural, commercial, domestic, and/or industrial wastes. Renewable biofuels generally involve contemporary carbon fixation, such as those that occur in plants or microalgae through the process of photosynthesis, other renewable biofuels are made through the use or conversion of biomass. This biomass can be converted to convenient energy-containing substances in three different ways, thermal conversion, chemical conversion, and biochemical conversion and this biomass conversion can result in fuel in solid, liquid, or gas form. This new biomass can also be used directly for biofuels, bioethanol is an alcohol made by fermentation, mostly from carbohydrates produced in sugar or starch crops such as corn, sugarcane, or sweet sorghum. Cellulosic biomass, derived from sources, such as trees and grasses, is also being developed as a feedstock for ethanol production. Ethanol can be used as a fuel for vehicles in its pure form, bioethanol is widely used in the USA and in Brazil. Current plant design does not provide for converting the portion of plant raw materials to fuel components by fermentation. Biodiesel is produced from oils or fats using transesterification and is the most common biofuel in Europe, in 2010, worldwide biofuel production reached 105 billion liters, up 17% from 2009, and biofuels provided 2. 7% of the worlds fuels for road transport. Global ethanol fuel production reached 86 billion liters in 2010, with the United States and Brazil as the top producers. The worlds largest biodiesel producer is the European Union, accounting for 53% of all production in 2010. As of 2011, mandates for blending biofuels exist in 31 countries at the national level, the International Energy Agency has a goal for biofuels to meet more than a quarter of world demand for transportation fuels by 2050 to reduce dependence on petroleum and coal. The production of biofuels also led into an automotive industry. There are various social, economic, environmental and technical issues relating to production and use. Most transportation fuels are liquids, because vehicles usually require high energy density and this occurs naturally in liquids and solids. High energy density can also be provided by a combustion engine. The fuels that are easiest to burn cleanly are typically liquids, thus, liquids meet the requirements of being both energy-dense and clean-burning. In addition, liquids can be pumped, which means handling is easily mechanized, first-generation or conventional biofuels are made from sugar, starch, or vegetable oil. Biobutanol is often claimed to provide a replacement for gasoline
Biofuel
–
A bus fueled by
biodiesel
Biofuel
–
Information on pump regarding
ethanol fuel blend up to 10%,
California
Biofuel
–
Neat ethanol on the left (A),
gasoline on the right (G) at a
filling station in
Brazil
Biofuel
–
Walmart 's truck fleet logs millions of miles each year, and the company planned to double the fleet's efficiency between 2005 and 2015. This truck is one of 15 based at Walmart's
Buckeye, Arizona distribution center that was converted to run on a biofuel made from reclaimed cooking grease produced during food preparation at Walmart stores.
23.
Ethanol
–
Ethanol, also called alcohol, ethyl alcohol, and drinking alcohol, is the principal type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages. It is a volatile, flammable, colorless liquid with a characteristic odor. Its chemical formula is C 2H 6O, which can be written also as CH 3-CH 2-OH or C 2H 5-OH, ethanol is mostly produced by the fermentation of sugars by yeasts, or by petrochemical processes. It is a psychoactive drug, causing a characteristic intoxication. It is widely used as a solvent, as fuel, and as a feedstock for synthesis of other chemicals, the eth- prefix and the qualifier ethyl in ethyl alcohol originally come from the name ethyl assigned in 1834 to the group C 2H 5- by Justus Liebig. He coined the word from the German name Aether of the compound C 2H 5-O-C 2H5, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, Ethyl is a contraction of the Ancient Greek αἰθήρ and the Greek word ύλη. The name ethanol was coined as a result of a resolution that was adopted at the International Conference on Chemical Nomenclature that was held in April 1892 in Geneva, Switzerland. The term alcohol now refers to a class of substances in chemistry nomenclature. The Oxford English Dictionary claims that it is a loan from Arabic al-kuḥl, a powdered ore of antimony used since aniquity as a cosmetic. The use of alcohol for ethanol is modern, first recorded 1753, the systematic use in chemistry dates to 1850. Ethanol is used in medical wipes and most common antibacterial hand sanitizer gels as an antiseptic, ethanol kills organisms by denaturing their proteins and dissolving their lipids and is effective against most bacteria and fungi, and many viruses. However, ethanol is ineffective against bacterial spores, ethanol may be administered as an antidote to methanol and ethylene glycol poisoning. Ethanol, often in high concentrations, is used to dissolve many water-insoluble medications, as a central nervous system depressant, ethanol is one of the most commonly consumed psychoactive drugs. The amount of ethanol in the body is typically quantified by blood alcohol content, small doses of ethanol, in general, produce euphoria and relaxation, people experiencing these symptoms tend to become talkative and less inhibited, and may exhibit poor judgment. Ethanol is commonly consumed as a drug, especially while socializing. The largest single use of ethanol is as a fuel and fuel additive. Brazil in particular relies heavily upon the use of ethanol as an engine fuel, gasoline sold in Brazil contains at least 25% anhydrous ethanol. Hydrous ethanol can be used as fuel in more than 90% of new gasoline fueled cars sold in the country, Brazilian ethanol is produced from sugar cane and noted for high carbon sequestration
Ethanol
–
USP grade ethanol for laboratory use.
Ethanol
–
Ethanol pump station in
São Paulo, Brazil
Ethanol
–
A
Ford Taurus fueled by ethanol in
New York City
Ethanol
–
USPS truck running on
E85 in
Minnesota
24.
Fossil fuel
–
Fossil fuels are fuels formed by natural processes such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms, containing energy originating in ancient photosynthesis. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, Fossil fuels contain high percentages of carbon and include petroleum, coal, and natural gas. Other commonly used derivatives include kerosene and propane, Fossil fuels range from volatile materials with low carbon, hydrogen ratios like methane, to liquids like petroleum, to nonvolatile materials composed of almost pure carbon, like anthracite coal. Methane can be found in hydrocarbon fields either alone, associated with oil, non-fossil sources in 2006 included nuclear 8. 5%, hydroelectric 6. 3%, and others amounting to 0. 9%. World energy consumption was growing about 2. 3% per year, the use of fossil fuels raises serious environmental concerns. The burning of fossil fuels produces around 21.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide per year and it is estimated that natural processes can only absorb about half of that amount, so there is a net increase of 10.65 billion tonnes of atmospheric carbon dioxide per year. Carbon dioxide is a gas that increases radiative forcing and contributes to global warming. A global movement towards the generation of energy is underway to help reduce global greenhouse gas emissions. Over geological time, this matter, mixed with mud. Despite these heat driven transformations, the energy is still photosynthetic in origin. There is a range of organic, or hydrocarbon, compounds in any given fuel mixture. The specific mixture of hydrocarbons gives a fuel its characteristic properties, such as boiling point, melting point, density, viscosity, some fuels like natural gas, for instance, contain only very low boiling, gaseous components. Others such as gasoline or diesel contain much higher boiling components, terrestrial plants, on the other hand, tend to form coal and methane. Many of the coal fields date to the Carboniferous period of Earths history, terrestrial plants also form type III kerogen, a source of natural gas. Fossil fuels are of importance because they can be burned. The use of coal as a fuel predates recorded history, coal was used to run furnaces for the melting of metal ore. Semi-solid hydrocarbons from seeps were also burned in ancient times, commercial exploitation of petroleum, largely as a replacement for oils from animal sources, for use in oil lamps began in the 19th century. Natural gas, once flared-off as an byproduct of petroleum production, is now considered a very valuable resource
Fossil fuel
–
Coal, one of the fossil fuels.
Fossil fuel
–
A petrochemical refinery in
Grangemouth,
Scotland,
UK
Fossil fuel
–
An oil well in the
Gulf of Mexico
Fossil fuel
–
Air
25.
Petrol
–
Gasoline or petrol, is a transparent, petroleum-derived liquid that is used primarily as a fuel in internal combustion engines. It consists mostly of organic compounds obtained by the distillation of petroleum. On average, a 42-gallon barrel of oil yields about 19 US gallons of gasoline when processed in an oil refinery. The characteristic of a gasoline blend to resist igniting too early is measured by its octane rating. Gasoline is produced in several grades of octane rating, sometimes, gasoline also contains ethanol as an alternative fuel, for economic or environmental reasons. Gasoline, as used worldwide in the vast number of combustion engines used in transport and industry, has a significant impact on the environment. Gasoline may also enter the environment uncombusted, as liquid and as vapors, from leakage and handling during production, transport and delivery, from tanks, from spills. As an example of efforts to control leakage, many storage tanks are required to have extensive measures in place to detect. Gasoline contains benzene and other known carcinogens, Gasoline inhalation can produce an intense high, however the practice is thought to cause severe organ damage, including mental retardation. The first automotive combustion engines, so-called Otto engines, were developed in the last quarter of the 19th century in Germany, the fuel was a relatively volatile hydrocarbon obtained from coal gas. With a boiling point near 85 °C, it was suited for early carburetors. The development of a spray nozzle carburetor enabled the use of less volatile fuels, further improvements in engine efficiency were attempted at higher compression ratios, but early attempts were blocked by knocking. In the 1920s, antiknock compounds were introduced by Thomas Midgley Jr. and Boyd and this innovation started a cycle of improvements in fuel efficiency that coincided with the large-scale development of oil refining to provide more products in the boiling range of gasoline. In the 1950s oil refineries started to focus on high octane fuels, the 1970s witnessed greater attention to the environmental consequences of burning gasoline. These considerations led to the out of TEL and its replacement by other antiknock compounds. Subsequently, low-sulfur gasoline was introduced, in part to preserve the catalysts in modern exhaust systems, Gasoline is the term that is used in North America to refer to the most popular automobile fuel. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the first use to 1863, when it was spelled gasolene and it was never a trademark, although it may have been derived from older trademarks such as Cazeline and Gazeline. Variant spellings of gasoline had been used to refer to raw petroleum since the 16th century, Petrol is the preferred term in most Commonwealth countries
Petrol
–
A
Shell gasoline station in
Hiroshima,
Japan
Petrol
–
A
pumpjack in the United States
Petrol
–
An oil rig in the
Gulf of Mexico
Petrol
–
A plastic container for storing gasoline used in Germany
26.
United Nations Development Programme
–
The United Nations Development Programme is the United Nations global development network. Headquartered in New York City, UNDP advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and it provides expert advice, training and grants support to developing countries, with increasing emphasis on assistance to the least developed countries. The status of UNDP is that of an executive board within the United Nations General Assembly, the UNDP Administrator is the third highest-ranking official of the United Nations after the United Nations Secretary-General and Deputy Secretary-General. UNDP also encourages the protection of rights and the empowerment of women in all of its programmes. The UNDP Human Development Report Office also publishes an annual Human Development Report to measure, in addition to a global Report, UNDP publishes regional, national, and local Human Development Reports. UNDP is funded entirely by contributions from member nations. The organization operates in 177 countries, where it works with governments to meet development challenges. Additionally, the UNDP works internationally to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Currently, the UNDP is one of the main UN agencies involved in the development of the Post-2015 Development Agenda, UNDP works with nations on their own solutions to global and national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they draw on the people of UNDP, the UNDP was founded on 22 November 1965 with the merger of the Expanded Programme of Technical Assistance and the Special Fund. The rationale was to avoid duplication of activities, the EPTA was set up in 1949 to help the economic and political aspects of underdeveloped countries while the Special Fund was to enlarge the scope of UN technical assistance. The Special Fund arose from the idea of a Special United Nations Fund for Economic Development, while countries such as the Nordic countries were proponents of such a United Nations controlled fund. The concept of SUNFED was dropped to form the Special Fund and this Special Fund was some compromise over the SUNFED concept, it did not provide investment capital, but only helped to bring pre-conditions for private investment. With the US proposing and creating the International Development Association within the World Banks umbrella, the EPTA, in 2013, UNDP’s entire budget was approximately US$5 billion. The following table lists the top 15 DAC5 Digit Sectors to which UNDP has committed funding, the UNDP claims on the IATI Registry website that the data covers 100% of development flows. UNDP’s offices and staff are on the ground in 177 countries, working with governments, UNDP links and coordinates global and national efforts to achieve the goals and national development priorities laid out by host countries. UNDP also supports existing democratic institutions by increasing dialogue, enhancing national debate, UNDP also works at the macro level to reform trade, encourage debt relief and foreign investment, and ensure the poorest of the poor benefit from globalisation. On the ground, UNDP sponsors developmental pilot projects, promotes the role of women in development, in this way, UNDP works with local leaders and governments to provide opportunities for impoverished people to create businesses and improve their economic condition
United Nations Development Programme
–
United Nations Development Programme
27.
Fijian dollar
–
The Fijian dollar has been the currency of Fiji since 1969 and was also the currency between 1867 and 1873. It is normally abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or alternatively FJ$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies and it is divided into 100 cents. Fiji followed the pattern of South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand in that when it adopted the decimal system, it decided to use the half pound unit as opposed to the pound unit of account. The choice of the dollar was motivated by the fact that the reduced value of the new unit corresponded more closely to the value of the US dollar than it did to the pound sterling. The dollar was reintroduced on 15 January 1969, replacing the Fijian pound at a rate of 1 pound =2 dollars, or 10 shillings = FJ$1. Despite Fiji having been a republic since 1987, coins and banknotes continued to feature Queen Elizabeth II until 2013, in 1969, coins were introduced in denominations of 1¢, 2¢, 5¢, 10¢ & 20¢, with a 50¢ coin issued in 1975. The coins had the same sizes and compositions as the corresponding Australian coins, in 1990, new compositions were introduced, with copper-plated zinc used for the 1¢ and 2¢ coins, and nickel-plated steel for the 5¢, 10¢, 20¢ & 50¢. An aluminium-bronze $1 coin was introduced in 1995, replacing the $1 note,2009 saw the introduction of a new smaller coinage from 5 to 50 cents. These were struck by the Royal Canadian Mint and are made with the three ply electroplate method, the 1 and 2 cents were also discontinued and withdrawn the same year. A thinner brass plated steel $1 dollar coin was introduced in 2010. In 2013 Fiji released a family of new coins, with fauna themes. This new series saw the introduction of a $2 coin, replacing the corresponding note just as the $1 coin had done before and this coin faced controversy due to being too easily mistaken as a $1, as it was only slightly larger of the same color. It was replaced by a larger and thicker Spanish flower shaped $2 coin in 2014, the metallic content of both the $1 and $2 was also changed in 2014 for better durability and resistance to wear after widespread complaints of the coins corroding and turning black. In 1867, the government treasury issued 1 dollar notes and these were followed by notes for $1, $5, $10, $25 and $50 issued between 1871 and 1873. Also between 1871 and 1873, King Seru Epenisa Cakobau issued notes in denominations of 12½¢, 25¢, 50¢, 100¢, levuka issued $1 and $5 notes during the 1870s. On 15 January 1969, the government introduced notes in denominations of 50 cents, $1, $2, $10, and $20, the $5 note was not issued until 1970. The Central Monetary Authority took over the issuance of money in 1974, issuing the same denominations. In 1986, the Reserve Bank of Fiji began issuing notes, the $1 note was replaced by a coin in 1995
Fijian dollar
–
Series 1872 Treasury Note for 10 Dollars payable at
Levuka.
Fijian dollar
–
A current $5 note
Fijian dollar
–
Commemorative two-dollar banknote for 2000
28.
India
–
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and it is bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast. It shares land borders with Pakistan to the west, China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast, in the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives. Indias Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a border with Thailand. The Indian subcontinent was home to the urban Indus Valley Civilisation of the 3rd millennium BCE, in the following millennium, the oldest scriptures associated with Hinduism began to be composed. Social stratification, based on caste, emerged in the first millennium BCE, early political consolidations took place under the Maurya and Gupta empires, the later peninsular Middle Kingdoms influenced cultures as far as southeast Asia. In the medieval era, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Christianity, and Islam arrived, much of the north fell to the Delhi sultanate, the south was united under the Vijayanagara Empire. The economy expanded in the 17th century in the Mughal empire, in the mid-18th century, the subcontinent came under British East India Company rule, and in the mid-19th under British crown rule. A nationalist movement emerged in the late 19th century, which later, under Mahatma Gandhi, was noted for nonviolent resistance, in 2015, the Indian economy was the worlds seventh largest by nominal GDP and third largest by purchasing power parity. Following market-based economic reforms in 1991, India became one of the major economies and is considered a newly industrialised country. However, it continues to face the challenges of poverty, corruption, malnutrition, a nuclear weapons state and regional power, it has the third largest standing army in the world and ranks sixth in military expenditure among nations. India is a constitutional republic governed under a parliamentary system. It is a pluralistic, multilingual and multi-ethnic society and is home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The name India is derived from Indus, which originates from the Old Persian word Hindu, the latter term stems from the Sanskrit word Sindhu, which was the historical local appellation for the Indus River. The ancient Greeks referred to the Indians as Indoi, which translates as The people of the Indus, the geographical term Bharat, which is recognised by the Constitution of India as an official name for the country, is used by many Indian languages in its variations. Scholars believe it to be named after the Vedic tribe of Bharatas in the second millennium B. C. E and it is also traditionally associated with the rule of the legendary emperor Bharata. Gaṇarājya is the Sanskrit/Hindi term for republic dating back to the ancient times, hindustan is a Persian name for India dating back to the 3rd century B. C. E. It was introduced into India by the Mughals and widely used since then and its meaning varied, referring to a region that encompassed northern India and Pakistan or India in its entirety
India
–
Flag
India
–
The granite
tower of
Brihadeeswarar Temple in
Thanjavur was completed in 1010 CE by
Raja Raja Chola I.
India
–
Writing the will and testament of the Mughal king court in Persian, 1590–1595
29.
Virgin coconut oil
–
Coconut oil, or copra oil, is an edible oil extracted from the kernel or meat of mature coconuts harvested from the coconut palm. Because of its high saturated fat content, it is slow to oxidize and, thus, resistant to rancidification, Coconut oil can be extracted through dry or wet processing. Dry processing requires that the meat be extracted from the shell and dried using fire, sunlight, the copra is pressed or dissolved with solvents, producing the coconut oil and a high-protein, high-fiber mash. The mash is of quality for human consumption and is instead fed to ruminants. The all-wet process uses raw coconut rather than dried copra, the more problematic step is breaking up the emulsion to recover the oil. This used to be done by prolonged boiling, but this produces an oil and is not economical. Modern techniques use centrifuges and pre-treatments including cold, heat, acids, salts, enzymes, electrolysis, shock waves, steam distillation, wet processes also require investment of equipment and energy, incurring high capital and operating costs. Proper harvesting of the coconut makes a significant difference in the efficacy of the oil-making process, copra made from immature nuts is more difficult to work with and produces an inferior product with lower yields. Conventional coconut oil processors use hexane as a solvent to extract up to 10% more oil than produced with just rotary mills and they then refine the oil to remove certain free fatty acids to reduce susceptibility to rancidification. Virgin coconut oil can be produced from coconut milk, meat. Producing it from the fresh meat involves either wet-milling or drying the residue, VCO can also be extracted from fresh meat by grating and drying it to a moisture content of 10–12%, then using a manual press to extract the oil. Producing it from coconut milk involves grating the coconut and mixing it with water, the milk can also be fermented for 36–48 hours, the oil removed, and the cream heated to remove any remaining oil. A third option involves using a centrifuge to separate the oil from the other liquids, Coconut oil can also be extracted from the dry residue left over from the production of coconut milk. A thousand mature coconuts weighing approximately 1,440 kilograms yield around 170 kilograms of copra from which around 70 litres of oil can be extracted. Refined, bleached, and deodorized oil is made from copra, dried coconut kernel. This yields practically all the oil present, amounting to more than 60% of the dry weight of the coconut and this crude coconut oil is not suitable for consumption because it contains contaminants and must be refined with further heating and filtering. Another method for extraction of coconut oil involves the action of alpha-amylase, polygalacturonases. Unlike virgin coconut oil, refined coconut oil has no taste or aroma
Virgin coconut oil
–
Solidified "coconut butter" sold by a
Norwegian company
Virgin coconut oil
–
Traditional way of making coconut oil using an
ox -powered mill in
Seychelles
Virgin coconut oil
–
Coconuts drying outdoors in
Kozhikode,
Kerala for making
copra, which is used for making coconut oil
Virgin coconut oil
–
Coconut tree
30.
Coconut oil
–
Coconut oil, or copra oil, is an edible oil extracted from the kernel or meat of mature coconuts harvested from the coconut palm. Because of its high saturated fat content, it is slow to oxidize and, thus, resistant to rancidification, Coconut oil can be extracted through dry or wet processing. Dry processing requires that the meat be extracted from the shell and dried using fire, sunlight, the copra is pressed or dissolved with solvents, producing the coconut oil and a high-protein, high-fiber mash. The mash is of quality for human consumption and is instead fed to ruminants. The all-wet process uses raw coconut rather than dried copra, the more problematic step is breaking up the emulsion to recover the oil. This used to be done by prolonged boiling, but this produces an oil and is not economical. Modern techniques use centrifuges and pre-treatments including cold, heat, acids, salts, enzymes, electrolysis, shock waves, steam distillation, wet processes also require investment of equipment and energy, incurring high capital and operating costs. Proper harvesting of the coconut makes a significant difference in the efficacy of the oil-making process, copra made from immature nuts is more difficult to work with and produces an inferior product with lower yields. Conventional coconut oil processors use hexane as a solvent to extract up to 10% more oil than produced with just rotary mills and they then refine the oil to remove certain free fatty acids to reduce susceptibility to rancidification. Virgin coconut oil can be produced from coconut milk, meat. Producing it from the fresh meat involves either wet-milling or drying the residue, VCO can also be extracted from fresh meat by grating and drying it to a moisture content of 10–12%, then using a manual press to extract the oil. Producing it from coconut milk involves grating the coconut and mixing it with water, the milk can also be fermented for 36–48 hours, the oil removed, and the cream heated to remove any remaining oil. A third option involves using a centrifuge to separate the oil from the other liquids, Coconut oil can also be extracted from the dry residue left over from the production of coconut milk. A thousand mature coconuts weighing approximately 1,440 kilograms yield around 170 kilograms of copra from which around 70 litres of oil can be extracted. Refined, bleached, and deodorized oil is made from copra, dried coconut kernel. This yields practically all the oil present, amounting to more than 60% of the dry weight of the coconut and this crude coconut oil is not suitable for consumption because it contains contaminants and must be refined with further heating and filtering. Another method for extraction of coconut oil involves the action of alpha-amylase, polygalacturonases. Unlike virgin coconut oil, refined coconut oil has no taste or aroma
Coconut oil
–
Solidified "coconut butter" sold by a
Norwegian company
Coconut oil
–
Traditional way of making coconut oil using an
ox -powered mill in
Seychelles
Coconut oil
–
Coconuts drying outdoors in
Kozhikode,
Kerala for making
copra, which is used for making coconut oil
Coconut oil
–
Coconut tree
..jpg)
