Sulphur 2020 (IMO Regulation) - What is and how it would affect International Trade

The regulations for the Prevention of Air Pollution of Ships seek to control the air emissions of ships and their contribution to local and global air pollution.

The current global limit for the sulphur content of the fuel oil of ships is 3.50% m/m (mass per mass). The regulations to reduce sulphur oxide emissions have introduced a new global limit for the sulphur content of ships, and from January  1st 2020, the new global sulphur content limit will be 0.50% m/m.

Ships can also meet SOx emission requirements using approved equivalent methods, such as exhaust gas cleaning systems or "scrubbers," which "clean up" emissions before they are released into the atmosphere.

Naturally, such compliance requirements entail additional costs and uncertainty in terms of fuel costs for shipments and shipping lines.

Although the BAF surcharge is designed to recover the increases in costs related to the bunker, these compliance costs have not been covered by any of the shipping companies.

Important container lines have already commented that these compliance costs will have to be transferred to customers and/or trade through the implementation of new fuel surcharges or an adjustment to existing ones, which may vary depending on the commercial routes.

Obviously, the first reaction of the international trade has not been favorable.

But do the shipping lines have any other option, since these regulations are aimed at improving the environment and reducing its impact for all?

New International Maritime Organization Regulation

IMO has set a global limit of sulphur content in the fuel oil used on board ships of 0.50% mass / mass as of January 1st, 2020. The implementation of this limit will significantly reduce the amount of sulphur oxide coming from the ships, which will imply important health and environmental benefits for the world, particularly for the populations near the ports.

When did the IMO adopt the rules to control air pollution caused by ships ?

IMO has worked to reduce the harmful effects of maritime transport on the environment since the 1960s. Annex VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL Convention) was adopted in 1997 to address atmospheric pollution caused by maritime transport.

What are the limits of sulphur content provided in the rules ?

The global limit of the sulphur content of the current fuel oil of ships is 3.50% m/m. The new global limit will be 0.50% mass / mass and will be applied from January 1st, 2020.

Can this date change ?

The date appears in the MARPOL treaty. So it can only be modified by an amendment to Annex VI of the MARPOL Convention. This would require an amendment proposal to be submitted by a Member State that is a Party to Annex VI. The amendment proposal would then be circulated and finally adopted by the MEPC. An amendment to the MARPOL Convention is required to be circulated for at least six months prior to adoption and to enter into force after at least 16 months after adoption. Given that Parties in Annex VI of the MARPOL Convention decided in October 2016 to implement in the 2020 term, a proposal of this type is not expected to be presented.

So, can implantation be delayed ?

No, there can be no change in the implementation date of January 1st, 2020 as it is too late to modify the date and for a new date to take effect before January 1st, 2020.

However, IMO Member States will work in relevant IMO technical bodies to address all issues that may arise with respect to ensuring consistent implementation.

When was the date of January 1st, 2020 decided ?

The date of January 1st 2020 was established in the rules adopted in 2008. However, a provision was adopted requiring IMO to conduct a review on the availability of low sulphur fuel to use by ships, with the aim to assist Member States in determining whether the new lower limit to the global limit of sulphur emissions from international maritime transport could effectively enter into force on January 1st 2020 or be deferred until January 1st 2025.

The IMO Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 70), in October 2016, decided the limit of 0.50% will apply as of January 1st, 2020.

What will this new maximum limit mean for ships ?

With the new maximum limit, vessels must use on board fuel oil with a sulphur content not exceeding 0.50% mass / mass, compared to the current limit of 3.50%, which has been in force since January 1st 2012.

The interpretation of "fuel oil used on board" includes that used in main and auxiliary engines and in boilers.

How can ships comply with low sulphur emission standards ?

Vessels can comply with the prescription using fuel oil with a low sulphur content.

In addition, an increasing number of ships also use gas as fuel, since the emissions of sulphur oxides they produce are of negligible nature, which has been recognized in the elaboration of the International Code for ships that use gas or other low-flash point fuels (IGF Code), which was adopted in 2015.

Another alternative fuel is methanol, which is used in some short sea shipping services.

Vessels can also meet the requirements for SOx emissions by using some of the approved equivalent methods, such as exhaust gas cleaning systems, or "scrubbers" that "clean up" emissions before they are released into the atmosphere. 

What controls will be put in place once the global limit comes into force ?

Ships that have fuel oil for use on board ships must obtain a fuel delivery note, which will establish the sulphur content of the fuel oil supplied. Samples may be taken for verification.

Each Flag State will have to issue to ships an International Air Pollution Prevention Certificate (IAPP Certificate).

This certificate includes a section indicating that the vessel uses fuel oil with a sulphur content that does not exceed the applicable limit value as recorded in the fuel delivery notes, or that uses an equivalent provision.

Port States and riverbanks may use supervision by the Port State to verify that the ship complies with the rules. They could also use surveillance - for example, aerial surveillance - to evaluate smoke columns and other techniques to identify possible infractions.

What sanctions will be applied in case of non-compliance ?

Sanctions will be established individually by the Parties to the MARPOL Convention as flag States and port States. The IMO does not establish sanctions or fines: it is up to each Party.

What additional measures will be put in place to encourage a consistent  implementation ?

The implementation belongs to the field of competence and responsibility of the Administrations of flag States (States governing ports / coastal States). Ensuring uniform and effective implementation of the sulphur content limit of 0.50% mass / mass by 2020 is a high priority.

What is currently the average sulphur content in the fuel oil used on board the ships ?

IMO monitors the sulphur content of the fuel oil used on board ships worldwide. Samples are taken of residual fuel oil (the "heavy" fuel normally used in ships), as well as of the distillate fuel ("light" fuel, with low sulphur content, which is normally used in emission control areas that have limits stricter for sulphur emissions).

The latest figures showed that the average sulphur content of the residual fuels analyzed in 2016 was 2.58%. The average sulphur content worldwide of the distillate fuels was 0.08%.

Where can I find more information related to the sulphur rules ?

Find more information here: 

IMO - Pollution prevention

Source: International Maritime Organization (IMO)

Vikings - Norse Gods and War (2013-)

Blog Rating: 9.25 out of 10

Vikings is a very well filmed series that manages to reflect in a very real way the brutality and beliefs of those times. The story of Ragnar Lothbrok, a Norse farmer who succeeds in becoming the King of the Vikings. Together with his family and his men he achieves many victories in the historic lands of Great Britain and France.

Katheryn Winnick as Lagertha

Blood and looting are constant in the battles to conquer new territories, but Ragnar tasks his friend Floki with building a ship capable of sailing long distances to the mysterious West.

Ragnar recruits his brother Rollo with whom he will secretly gather a crew for a journey into the unknown.

Gustaf Skarsgard as Floki

The shots of the Viking ship at sea and the natural landscapes are impressive.

The Vikings are pagan believers in the gods Thor, Odin, and others, so their assault on a monastery on the outskirts of England leaves them baffled.

Clive Standen as Rollo

The participation of a monk named Athelstan whom he took as a slave, will keep Ragnar in continuous religious debate between the beliefs of his people and this new religious thought.

Despite all its warfare and bloodshed, Vikings is also a story of family and sisterhood, managing to capture the love and affection between Ragnar and his wife, Lagertha, a respected warrior in her own right.

Trailer Vikings

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Feminism - From its beginnings to the 60s

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The purest definition of feminism says that it is an ideology that defends that women should have the same rights as men.

On another level, which is a social and political movement that began formally at the end of the 18th century, in which women as a human group struggle against the oppression, domination, and exploitation of which they have been and are being targeted by the collective males.

In France and England, at the end of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century, the idea began to take shape that women were not recognized as deserving in many aspects and that the inferiority condition of women was not a natural matter but that it was the product of poor and limited access to education.

During the French Revolution (1789) the women fought hand in hand with the revolutionary men for the maxims that were intoned those days: «Freedom, equality, fraternity». They participated in political speeches, in republican clubs, in the march to Versailles to capture the monarchy and in the taking of the Bastille.

The citizens also presented in 1789, before the French Assembly, the notebooks of reforms, in which they asked for the right to vote, the reform of the institution of marriage and the custody of children, as well as access to education.

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)

In England the most relevant figure of this moment was Mary Wollstonecraft, considered as the woman who started the feminist movement in 1792. This vindication focused mainly on economic and political rights: it also claimed the independence of women against men, in particular, in front of the husbands to whom women were totally submitted physically and legally, and went further: it demanded the equal access of women to education.

A period of change and progress was followed by a period of regression: not only were they not granted the rights they claimed, but they were oppressed even more. In 1793 the women's clubs were closed, the free association of women was forbidden by not allowing meetings of more than five of them, they were denied access to political assemblies and, in 1795, the Napoleonic Code established the obedience of women to husband within the marriage contracts. This code, as well as its copies in other countries, was valid for more than one hundred years.

From the mid-nineteenth century until the end of the Second World War, although many aspects were claimed, the main claim of women in this period was the right to vote and political participation.

On the other hand, liberal feminism sought political reforms that would allow women to choose and be elected: they did not question the political system, what they asked was to participate in it. Their demands focused on obtaining equality in issues such as the right to property, the disposition of their property and wages (which, although they earned, they were managed by their parents or husbands), equality of rights and treatment within marriage and, from the second half of the 19th century, the right to vote. Women's suffrage gave birth to what was probably the greatest feminist movement in history: suffragism.

Suffragists Parade down 5th Avenue (1917)

In England the suffragettes emerged; women of upper middle class, civil rights activists, who sought the bulk of their affiliates among the female working class exploited in the factories. The most outstanding names of this period are that of Emmeline Pankhurst and her daughters, Sylvia and Christabel.

The suffragists took the movement to the terrain of activism and demonstrated an enormous power of association and struggle: their actions ranged from non-violence, through demonstrations, pamphlets, rallies and chaining in public places to more radical actions such as breaking street furniture, commercial shop windows, detonations to cut communications, etc. that not only led to the split of the movement, but to the detention of thousands of them.

By the beginning of the twentieth century the two movements, the radical and the moderate, joined forces and progress was made in the race for the female vote. English women won the vote in 1918, for those over 30 years. Men could vote at 25, but women between 25 and 30 were considered too 'frivolous' to exercise the vote. In 1925 they obtained the rights over their children, until then totally in the hands of the husband, and in 1928, the vote on equal terms with men.

Emmeline Pankhurst (1858-1928)

By its own ideology, feminism found part of its path alongside socialism. The women of this movement asked, in addition to equality between the sexes, equality between social classes.

Socialist feminists criticized liberal feminism as a 'bourgeois' feminism, although they also participated in suffrage movements calling for women's votes.

Once the equality in the vote was achieved, between the beginning of the First World War and the beginning of the 60s the feminist movements lost strength and were relegated to the background.

At the outbreak of World War I, most women abandoned their own claims and joined the national cause in which they collaborated, ironically, as labour especially in factories; in those positions that men had left empty when they marched to war.

During the Second World War, women ended up forgetting and abandoning all struggle and vindication as a collective, and many of them turned back into labour. 

Once the war was over, they were stripped of the work they had done. Men returned and women were removed from work outside home; the governments considered that these positions had to return to men to recover the existing balance before the war.

The fifties created a prototype of femininity that spread through television, films and the media. And that was exported abroad as something wonderful. Women could not ask for more, because they had everything: state-of-the-art appliances, houses with gardens in residential neighborhoods, modern cars, magazines that cared for them and taught them how to take care of their children in a scientific way and how to run the domestic economy practically professional. They were the queens of their houses.

In the decade of the 60s, the anti-system, pacifist and anti-racist movements arose due to the dissatisfaction with the Vietnam War. New feminist currents appeared that now fought for social and cultural equality.

For all this, the idea of women as a sexual stereotype in the media, in art and in advertising should end. The abolition of patriarchy was requested, since it was concluded that beyond the right to vote, education and other achievements of the first feminists, patriarchy was the social structure that caused inequalities and that continued to establish hierarchies that benefited men.

The debate on female sexuality, violence against women, abortion and contraception began.

House of Cards - Intriga política en su máxima expresión

* To read the version in another language, select language in translator (right side of the page)

House of Cards es una historia llena de intrigas que nos hace ver la política de una forma distinta, quizás como es en el mundo real.

Francis Underwood es un congresista estadounidense astuto y despiadado que trabaja con su esposa Claire -igualmente manipuladora- para vengarse de las personas que lo traicionaron. Para cumplir su objetivo Underwood comienza un plan elaborado a espaldas del presidente, con el objetivo final de ganar poder para sí mismo.

Su esposa Claire, dirige una ONG, donde parece usar su caridad para cultivar su propio poder e influencia.

Underwood entabla una relación de conveniencia con Zoe Barnes, una joven y ambiciosa reportera política, con quien hace un trato para que publique historias dañinas que filtra sobre sus rivales políticos. 

Al mismo tiempo, manipula a Peter Russo, un congresista con problemas de alcohol, para que lo ayude a socavar la elección del Secretario de Estado.

Luego de varias manipulaciones, Frank mata a Russo dejándolo desmayado en un garaje cerrado con el auto en marcha. Underwood convence al vicepresidente de que renuncie y se postule para su antiguo cargo de gobernador, dejando abierta la vicepresidencia a Underwood, como fue su plan desde el principio.

House of Cards Theme - Spotify

Netflix cancela el contrato de su protagonista

A fines del 2017, Netflix dejó de trabajar con Kevin Spacey en su programa House of Cards y también se negó a estrenar una película protagonizada por el actor, quien fue acusado de comportamiento sexual inapropiado.

Spacey se disculpó ante el actor Anthony Rapp, quien lo había acusado de intentar seducirlo en 1986 cuando Rapp tenía 14 años. Spacey se reconoció públicamente como gay al mismo tiempo que se disculpaba.

En el año 2000, Spacey ganó el Oscar al mejor actor por su papel en American Beauty, donde interpretó a Lester Burnham, un ejecutivo de publicidad que se enamoró de la mejor amiga de su hija adolescente.

House of Cards - Trailer

Merlí - A very special way of teaching philosophy

Blog Rating: 9.35 out of 10

Merlí is a Catalan series that deals with the arrival of a philosophy professor at a public school. The series revolves around the revolution produced by this passionate and unorthodox teacher, mainly in a group of teenagers.

David Solans (Bruno Bergeron)

In the first chapter, Merlí invites his students to form a group called the "peripatetics," referring to the group of followers of Aristotle. This name has its origin in a Greek word that means "walk", as the teacher taught while walking with his disciples.

Elisabet Casanovas (Tania)

It is a series that moves and guides us through several everyday issues that relate to philosophical thinking, which enhances the value of thinking and reflecting. The different adolescent characters are shown in continuous search for answers something very typical of their age, which defines them as people.

This teacher who breaks schemes and does not show a moral norm, manages to enchant his students and involves them in the world of the different philosophers who are studying chapter by chapter.

Carlos Cuevas (Pol Rubio)

In this varied group we can find young people with different realities as in everyday life, children of separated parents, a gay boy, a single mother, etc. all very well linked to the theme that is developed in each chapter.

In short, a good story to review the different philosophical currents and their connection to the real world.

Merli official site

Who is Jair Bolsonaro ?

Bolsonaro is a candidate for the presidency of the Republic of Brazil and always appears first in the intentions of votes in all Brazilian states, after former President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was declared ineligible.

Born on March 21st, 1955 in the city of Campinas in São Paulo, Jair Mesias Bolsonaro is captain of the Brazilian Army Reserve and Federal deputy for Rio de Janeiro in his seventh term.

The controversial Federal Deputy is known for his nationalist discourse, conservative right, defender of family values and more severe punishment of the criminals.

Descendant of Italians Bolsonaro is the son of Perci Geraldo Bolsonaro and Olinda Bonturi.

Politics

The political career of Jair Mesias Bolsonaro began in 1988 when he was elected councilor for the city of Rio de Janeiro, at the time by the Christian Democratic Party (PDC).

Already in 1990, due to his performance as a municipal parliamentarian, he was elected a Federal Deputy by the PDC.

In 1993 Jair Bolsonaro was one of the founders of the Progressive Party (PPR) that merged two parties the PDC and PDS.

Bolsonaro was reelected in 1994 and already in 1995 he joined the Brazilian Progressive Party (PPB).

In the year 2002 for the fourth time a federal deputy, the deputy left his former PPB party and joined the Brazilian Labor Party (PTB). Shortly after the deputy leaves the PTB and migrates to the late Liberal Front Party (PFL).

In his parliamentary mandates, he stood out in the fight against child erotization in schools and for a greater disciplinary rigor in these establishments, for the reduction of the criminal age, for citizen's armament and the right to self-defense, for legal security in policing and for Christian values.

Political Proposals

Among all the proposals of Jair Mesias Bolsonaro, we can find the following:

Privatizations

One of the main intentions of Jair Bolsonaro is to make a program of privatizations in Brazil.

Labour Reform

He voted in favor of the proposal in the Chamber of Deputies. He already informed in interviews that it would be better for the worker to have more employment than more benefits.

Public Security

This is one of the strengths of Bolsonaro's candidacy, that is, it aims to fight crime, aims to make the hardening of criminal laws and give more strength to the police.

Attack to Bolsonaro

On September 6th, 2018, Jair Bolsonaro was stabbed in the abdomen at the time he was in the middle of a crowd campaigning in the mining town of Juiz de Fora. Bolsonaro was taken to the Casa de Misericordia, where he underwent surgery. The blade reached the small intestine and the large intestine. After the surgery, Bolsonaro was transferred to the Albert Einstein Hospital in São Paulo. On Sep 13th, after being diagnosed with adherence in the intestine, Bolsonaro underwent emergency surgery and is in recovery. The aggressor was arrested and taken to the Federal Police to give clarifications.

The Candidates with the Highest Possibilities

Fernando Haddad will obtain the votes of who, opposed with a male chauvinist, racist and homophobic Bolsonaro finds in the candidate of the left the only way that Bolsonaro does not come to power.

Jair Bolsonaro will get the votes of who, fearing that Brazil approaches the Venezuelan model and the Workers' Party retakes the power that allowed him to empty the State, find in the "Donald Trump without money", the option to avoid including the former President Lula da Silva is not only pardoned as he could end up as Chief of Staff in a possible presidency of Haddad.

Results of the Presidential Elections - First Round (Oct 7th 2018)

The candidate of the right has capitalized on the dissatisfaction of the Brazilians with a radical discourse that his detractors claim to be racist, homophobic and misogynist. Today is the favorite to win the second round.

Some extracts from :
- Biografia Resumida
- Ebiografia
- Infobae

Stranger Things - Reliving the 80s (update)

* To read the version in another language, select language in translator (right side of the page)

Stranger Things is an entertaining story that takes place in Hawkins, Indiana, in 1983 where a child, Will Byers, disappears near a high security government laboratory. The same night, a strange young woman - nicknamed Eleven - appears in a restaurant in the city fleeing from a laboratory that investigates supernatural phenomena.

Later, many people will go out to look for Will, including his mother, Joyce; his brother Jonathan; his friends - Mike, Dustin, Lucas and the police chief, Jim Hopper.

As the search for Will goes by, the inhabitants of the small town begin to discover the secrets of the laboratory, portals to another world and sinister monsters. 


The child's mother tries desperately to find him and she is convinced that he is in serious danger, while the police chief seeks answers.

At the Hawkins National Laboratory, Dr. Martin Brenner of the Department of Energy, secretly conducts a CIA experiment on humans. One of the patients is pregnant, giving birth to a girl named Jane, later known as Eleven. 


As a result of the experiments, Eleven was born with psychic abilities. His lack of control over her powers led to a space-time continuum that allows a terrifying monster -nicknamed Demogorgon by Mike and his friends- to enter Earth and cause troubles on Hawkins.


This critically acclaimed supernatural drama and winner of several awards has already premiered 2 seasons and its third version is recently available on Netflix.

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