Author Archives: GovWorldMag

Draft Local Outcome Improvement Plan – Consultation

From the Dundee Partnership Team :

Our plans to improve Dundee

The Dundee Partnership is determined to make Dundee a more successful and fairer city and we’ve been preparing our ideas and plans about how we will do this over the next ten years. 

We’ve prepared a draft Local Outcome Improvement Plan for 2017-26 that builds on the ongoing extensive community engagement undertaken by partners and agencies across the city.     It also incorporates the results of the Engage Dundee process.    So we’ve been listening carefully to your views and we hope that this plan shows that we know what your priorities are.   Read the draft here.

But this is still a consultation draft so at this stage we are describing our city, the economic and social outcomes we are determined to achieve, and setting out our priorities for action.

Over the next few months we will be collecting the most accurate and informative performance indicators to help us map out our progress and setting targets to stretch us to do better. Our final version will be published by October 2017.

We are already thinking about some of the ways we can improve it by doing things like –

–      making it shorter and clearer 
–      summarising our strengths and achievements as a city as well as the challenges we face
–      pulling out lots of information that is in other plans and providing links to them instead
–      saying more about how the third and private sectors do and will contribute to improving Dundee
–      spelling out our ideas around green spaces and biodiversity

Please let us know what you think by 18 August. To gather your views, we’ve prepared a feedback form that can be found on the Dundee Partnership website here, it can be completed online or downloaded for completion and emailed to us at dundee.partnership@dundeecity.gov.uk or hard copies posted to Dundee Partnership Team, Floor 4, 5 City Square, Dundee, DD1 3BG. 
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Fraser Macpherson

Breeders defend rough handling of panda cubs

A two-minute online video that shows three breeders dragging, dropping and throwing cubs on the ground to prevent them escaping. [Printscreen] 

Responding to recent netizen questions on the crude treatment of cubs by breeders, a director with Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding said caretakers bare the animals no ill will.

A two-minute online video that shows three breeders dragging, dropping and throwing cubs on the ground to prevent them escaping had more than 440,000 views and received over 3,200 comments. Most online viewers were angry with breeders and questioned if they loved animals.

The director said the short video was just part of the story. It did not show that the cubs were extremely excited that day, biting and scratching breeders on their legs and arms, but he noted “breeders should treat cubs gently.”

“We feel sorry for the rude behavior and have reprimanded breeders, teaching them how to manage such situations properly,” he said.

The three breeders, Guo Jingpeng, Xie Huhai and Guo Yunxia, told Chinese media the original video was more than 50 minutes long, but the clip only focused on their aggressive actions. “It looks like we treated the pandas badly all the time,” said Guo.

Before pulling down a cub, Guo was bitten on his left arm and hand that day, which happened so fast people could not see it in the video. “Pandas are cute but sometimes they are also fierce. People may be infected by rabies after a bite or scratch from them.”

Xie said the breeders felt sorry for their actions that day, but the online comments, which questioned their love for the cubs, were too much.

“We have taken care of the cubs for about two years,” Guo said. “When they were sick, we were nervous. We always feel close to them.”

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East Asia