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Ruby Tower

At around 4 am on August 2, 1968, a magnitude 7.3 earthquake hit the city of Casiguran in
Aurora province.
Though Manila is located relatively far from the epicenter, it was the national capital that
suffered the brunt of the tremor.
Fall of the buildings
Ruby Tower, a 6-storey building in Binondo, Manila, was among the buildings that were severely
damaged. In it were 38 commercial units and 76 residential units.
According to the post-disaster study conducted by the United Nations Education, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO), much of the building collapsed. The upper floors fell
southwards while the southern end of the roof moved about 30 feet south and 10 feet east. The
lower floors appeared to fall close to their plan position.
Among the 270 people who died, 268 of them were buried alive in this building. Of the 261
injured, 260 were from the Ruby Tower as well, some of whom died later on.
While buildings collapsed in Manila, several landslides occurred and a number of ground ruptures
were seen in Casiguran.
What went wrong
While the epicenter was in Casiguran, Aurora, most of the collapsed buildings were in Manila.
Director Renato Solidum of the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS)
said in a text message to Rappler that this could be attributed to the quality of buildings at the
time.
The shaking felt in Manila was relatively strong but the main reason why some buildings
collapsed was poor design and construction. There was no National Building Code approved
before 1972, Solidum said.
There was also no national disaster agency in 1968. The National Committee on Disaster
Operation (NCDO) was established only after the Ruby Tower disaster.
Republic Act 6541, An Act to Ordain and Institute a National Building Code of the Philippines was
enacted in 1972, 4 years after the disaster happened.
Basically, the law provides guidelines and minimum standards for the construction of buildings. It
includes the proper location and materials to be used, among others.
In 1977, President Ferdinand Marcos revised the provisions of the law and called it the National
Building Code of the Philippines.
Today, we have the institutions and measures that were sorely missing in 1968 a disaster
agency, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC); and the
Building Code. Earthquake drills are regularly conducted in schools and offices in Metro Manila
and other parts of the country.

Hyatt Hotel
July 1990, that a killer earthquake unexpectedly hit and extensively devastated the City of Baguio. As
reported, the powerful temblor measured 7.7 in the openended Richter scale and lasted for 45
seconds. It was said to be the most destructive earthquake on record within the Cordillera Region.

The five-star Hyatt Terraces Plaza sustained the worst damage when its terraced front collapsed onto

the lobby area, killing about 50 people

At around 4 pm on July 16, 1990, a magnitude-7.8 earthquake hit Northern and Central Luzon. Its
epicenter was recorded in Nueva Ecija, and the shaking lasted for about a minute.

A geologically hazardous city


In the 1980s, a study by DENR-CAR declared the city geologically hazardous because of its
sensitivity to seismic shaking. Rain easily penetrates the ground because the soil is generally porous
and permeable, making Baguio highly susceptible to landslides and earthquakes, the study further
said.

No disaster management plan

2013 Savar Building Collapse

Killing 1,127 people in the deadliest disaster in the history of the garment industry, was
constructed with substandard materials and in blatant disregard for building codes, a high-
level government report issued Wednesday concluded.
It blamed the mayor for wrongly granting construction approvals and recommended charges
against the buildings owner, Sohel Rana, and the owners of the five garment factories in the
building that could result in life sentences if they are convicted.
The factory owners urged workers to return to their jobs despite evidence that the building
was unsafe, the report said.
The Rana Plaza disaster has focused global attention on unsafe conditions in the garment
industry in Bangladesh, which is the worlds second-leading exporter of clothing, trailing only
China. It has become an export powerhouse largely by delivering lower costs, in part by
having the lowest wages in the world for garment workers.
Rana Plaza was a disaster waiting to happen, the government report suggested. Mr. Rana
illegally constructed upper floors to house garment factories employing several thousand
workers, it said. Large power generators placed on these upper floors, necessary because of
regular power failures, would shake the poorly constructed building whenever they were
switched on, according to the report.
On April 23, cracks appeared in the building, shaking the structure enough that many workers fled. An
engineer who had been called to inspect the structure warned that it was unsafe. Yet Mr. Rana and
the factory bosses discounted any concerns and ordered their workers into the building the next
morning, the report concluded. But after a cursory inspection, supervisors dismissed their concerns
and threatened wage cuts if the staff did not return to work the next day. A generator soon switched
on, and the building buckled and collapsed.

Mr. Khandakers report recommended that Mr. Rana and the factory owners be charged with culpable
homicide. He also suggested that Mr. Rana had bribed local officials for construction approvals.

Apart from ignoring the warnings, these were the factors which led to the structural failure of the
building: construction in unstable location without authorization, unauthorized addition of three floors
beyond the permit, conversion of buildings permitted commercial use to industrial use and use of
poor construction material. These factors highlighted the business practices by the construction
company, factory owners and government, and served as a tell-tale sign of how business was done in
Bangladesh in general.
For Bangladeshis, the tragedy at the garment factory in Savar is a symbol of our failure as a nation. The crack
that caused the collapse of the building has shown us that if we don't face up to the cracks in our own systems,
we as a nation will get lost in the debris.

MCDONLDS

Most of us are familiar with the Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC), the branded, franchised charity
with the unquestionably noble cause of providing housing to families traveling to get treatment for sick children.

McDonalds CEO Jim Skinner as the heart and soul of McDonalds. But theres one little problem with this
description: McDonalds does relatively little to support its heart and soul.

In 2011, the Golden Arches reported giving $34 million in cash and in-kind contributions to charity, which may
sound like a lot, but in reality means that McDonalds donates only 0.32% of its pre-tax profits. Thats 33%
lower than leading corporations like Coca-Cola and Yum! Brands hardly model corporate citizens themselves
which on average give 1.01%. Even the average American household donates 4.7% 14 times more, in
terms of percentage of income, than what McDonalds gives.

The company really adds insult to injury when it takes credit for donations that arent even from its own bank
account. McDonalds restaurants often keep RMHC Donation Boxes out, calling them our systems largest
ongoing fundraisers and boasting the more than $50 million they collected worldwide in 2012. In other words,
the report states, in 2012, McDonalds customers gave about 1.5 times more to the charity than the
corporation donated overall in 2011.

Consumer watchdog ConsumerWorld.org found that even though McDonalds claimed it would donate
proceeds from all daily Happy Meal and Mighty Kids Meal sales to RHMC, the fine print explained that it was
only giving one penny for each meal sold. Wheres all the rest of the money going?

But nothing highlights this perversion more than the corporations inching its way into public schools,
masking advertising as fundraising and education, and turning schools into marketing vehicles.
McDonalds uses several methods of infiltration. For example, the chain will sponsor events called
McTeachers Night where volunteer teachers serve paying parents McDonalds food to raise money.
But it then donates only about 15-20% of the proceeds to the school, less than $1 per student, while
enjoying the benefits of the free labor and advertising. McDonalds also distributes free educational
materials and even dispatches Ronald himself to perform educational shows at schools and
libraries. What a surprise that according to McEducation, the key to health is often balance, like
leading a balanced, active lifestyle or attaining a proper food-energy balance. In others words: No
need to cut out the fries from your diet, just balance them.

Markwardt: 'If McDonald's wanted to help children they'd stop selling Happy Meals'

Anne Markwardt of Germany-based foodwatch, which researches food industry practices, said it's
respectable for companies to donate for a charitable cause, but she questions the motive.

"One has to remember that a large amount of the funding does not come from McDonald's itself but
from private, corporate or other donors," Markwardt said, adding that if McDonald's cared about
children, it would simply fund homes without requiring them to bear the McDonald's name, and
"stop selling Happy Meals with soft drinks and targeting children with fast-food marketing."

Of course the homes serve a great need for families with sick children - that's not the issue,
Markwardt said, adding that the more emotionally bound people are, the less often they might
consider the health aspects of McDonald's foods.

Of course we save money by operating more efficiently which is a direct benefit of our CSR
efforts, however the true value we receive from our ongoing initiatives is that of social good
will - we believe that setting a good example is the greatest benefit in that we inspire other
organizations, companies and individuals to 'up their game' when it comes to social and
environmental responsibility, which in turn encourages further inspiration in the community
leading to a more enlightened perspective on how to run ones business or lead ones life.

While each company I interviewed had varying responses for the benefits of CSR and cause
marketing for the company, 51 of 59 believe that they have happier employees and 45 of the 59
believe they end up with better employees, either as a result of being able to attract better
talent or that the CSR programs help to develop better employees.

He sums up the benefits to the company this way, Employees and customers want to work
with a company that they respect.

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