Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Economic Globalization Essay

Just after the Second World War, the world faced yet another economic set back in the name of cold war. The lengthy cold war however came to an end with the decline of the Soviet Union and the collapse o the Berlin wall. The world market opened up with the opening of free market in the individual states that had split from the former Soviet Union plus other nations of the Eastern Europe (Staley 2008). The Eastern Europe was very critical player for increased globalization in the 1990s. Most of the nations in the region joined the world trade organization and played a significant role as a supply foundation in to the western countries. China’s role in the cold war was a swift one and by the time the cold war was culminating, it had established itself in Asia as the economic stronghold serving as a market and supplier to Japan and other developed nations in the region. China by that time exported about 15% of the total world export. The United States on the other hand increased its imports from the South America by 4% from 11% in 1960 to around 16% in 1990 (Staley 2008). These were the results of market globalization and improved policies. Emerging Economies The developing countries have improved drastically and have found a place in the world economy as critical players. These countries have actually increased the value of global economy as they are rapidly developing in terms of industrialization and are being termed s emerging market economies as well. Example of emerging economies are china an India, which have invested in information technology related industries that are a great influence on the world economy, which is also supported by worldwide economic connection (Marber 2008). Information technology has played a role in facilitating economic growth in most of the countries but it has also come with some negative features which are a threat to economic growth. The major set back in the information technology field was the inventory adjustments that were introduced in 2000. This brought about stagnation and many counties were affected including the US, Japan and most of the European nations.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Herbert Mullin Criminal Profile Essay

Mullin Herbert Mullin was born in Salina California which happens to be the anniversary of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake as well as Einstein’s death. He was the youngest between him and his sibling, Patricia. He was raised by both parents Jean and Bill Mullin. He didn’t have any problems in school he was popular and physically attractive. He had a good childhood but through his life span he made a lot of wrong decisions that includes drug abuse which aggravated schizophrenia. In high school he had a lot of friends and was quite popular. He played football and had a steady relationship and was voted most likely to succeed. At the age of eighteen he attended Cabrillo College to study engineering. In the summer of 1967 he graduated with a two year degree in road engineering and enrolled at San Jose State College change his major to philosophy and took on the hippie lifestyle. At the age of twenty-one In June 1965 people began to think that his sanity was deteriorating due to the fact that he built a shrine in his bedroom to Dean, his friend that was killed in a car accident the summer after graduation. At the age of nineteen he first experienced LSD which lead him to experimenting more with marijuana and LSD. At the age of twenty one he was arrested for possession of marijuana. At the age of 21 at a family dinner he started showing signs of schizophrenia which was aggravated by drug abuse. At the age of twenty two Herbert Mullin began treatment as a resident of the community drug abuse prevention center in Santa Cruz. Later that year Herbert Mullin was committed to the psychiatric ward of San Luis Obispo County General Hospital because with is mental disorder he was a danger to others, himself and gravely disabled. A month later he was diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic. He was not one that cared to take his medication. In the summer of 1970 he was diagnosed as a schizo-affective schizophrenia. In 1970 he began blaming his parents for his illness and in result took them out of his will. Herbert killed people believing that if he started to kill people it will lessen the chances of another hurricane happening in his area. He did this by only killing random Caucasians from the age of 4 to 72. He bought his materials to the crime scene such as a gun, knife, and baseball bat. He was a psychotic visionary. Mullin had no developmental problems according to Erikson. He went through all the stages where he experience love and finding out what personality he wants to embrace. This is the point and time when he realizes that he is a bisexual. The motivation behind it seems to be the fact that he was born the day that Albert Einstein died and the anniversary of San Francisco Earthquake. Freud would have said that he is anticathexis because he gives off the sense that his ego is blocking the socially unacceptable needs of id. Mullin for example when he found out that his target moved he went after him and killed him as planned. Afterwards he couldn’t resist the urge to go back and kill the messenger who could have been a witness in the killing incident that happened before her and her family. Bibliography * Watts, Vernetta. â€Å"Californian Guilty in 10 Murder Cases. (1973, August 20). New York Times, P. 10. † Mullin, Herbert. N. P. , n. d. Web. 09 May 2013. * Santa Cruz Serial Killer, Herbert Mullin, Denied Parole – Central Coast News KION/KCBA. † Santa Cruz Serial Killer, Herbert Mullin, Denied Parole – Central Coast News KION/KCBA. 13 May 2013 * Freudian  Theory. † About. com Psychology. N. P. , n. d. Web. 16 May 2013.

Monday, July 29, 2019

Population Growth and Company

Introduction The main purpose of the research done in the report is to discover and analyze the strategic intent and various other strategies to evaluate the internal and external influences that the company could go through owing to the dynamic market it operates in. Moreover, the evaluation of these strategies would involve examining the company's performance in United States, the chosen host country. The performance would be looked upon with the use of the company's annual reports since financial position of an organization is an important indicator of performance in the market.The research conducted is based on the secondary research approach considering the fact that the data pertaining to the company's strategies and performance is available at various sources on internet. From the financial evaluation of the company, key findings extracted indicate that the company is running with fruitful profits and is expected to continue its good financial performance in the coming years. The sales growth rates are high and are expected to remain high.Moreover, its worldwide presence makes its inevitable for the company to yield high profits. This is cause if the company suffers a loss in one of the host countries, it offsets by the profit earned in other host countries, a benefit of global presence. Limitations of the study being conducted are numerous. Firstly, the research is a secondary research which may not be as useful in evaluating the internal and external strategies that the company adopts.Moreover, evaluation of the strategic environment may be accurate since the data on their website is authentic, but it may lack the truth which could have been obtained from the company through a qualitative research using the tool f In-Depth interviews with company officials or by gauging consumer perception of their brands, which could have helped in Judging their consumer demand and thus rightful profitability and expectation of future sales. The report would mainly be structured according to the priority of the findings that need to be extracted from the study.The first thing that would be evaluated is the company's and the host country's strategic environment analysis which would first involve the evaluation of various internal and external strategic environmental analytical tools. This would be followed y the analysis of the company's internal environment. The external strategy would be evaluated of the host country, as it serves as an external source. The next section would be dedicated to discussing the participation strategy of the company, which meaner identifying the initial market entry modes that the company used to enter the US market.Moreover, the reason for entry modes used in this country will be discussed as well, with the help of identifying the advantages and disadvantages of the entry modes used, internal and external environment the company had at the mime of its entrance in USA and the key influences that persisted in the coun try and that persuaded the company to expand in this host country. The next section would involve a review of performance of the company. This will be evaluated using financial reports of the company, helping us see the sales growth, profitability, market share and the effort put in for corporate social responsibility activities.Final section would be a forecast based on the secondary research conducted and the findings future prospects in the host country, by forecasting its sales growth levels it could expect in the US market. The forecast will be of the next five to ten years based on the financial performance, market share, sales growth and Corporate Social Responsibility in the host country. This would also help in identifying the key influencing factors that could have an impact on the company's future development in the host country and their impact on the company as a whole.The last section of the report would include certain recommendations based on the findings of the rese arch conducted for this report, thus helping us analytically and practically see whether the suggestions put forth could be implemented and have practicability enough to be used in reality (meaning they are not out of context though they can be hypothetical but must be realistic and implantable). 2. About the Company Deanne, the original company was found in Barcelona, USA in 1919 by Isaac Caracas as a small factory that produced yogurt. He named the organization Deanne which meant â€Å"Little Daniel† after his son Daniel Caracas.The first yogurt began selling in the year 1923 to the pharmacies due to it being recommended by doctors for its therapeutic qualities. Ten years later the company moved to France from USA and the first French factory was built. The company moved to New York later after the World War II and Daniel Caracas employed a Swiss-born Spaniard partner named Joe Metzger. The company name was changed in the USA to Daemon to give it a more American touch. In 1 968, Deanne aired its first campaign on TV. In the years, it launched its first diet (low fat) yogurt named Deanne Designated.In 1992 the company became an official sponsor of the national sports event of Olympics which was held then in Barcelona. Since 1998, the Group of Deanne has been categorized into three business divisions around the globe; Fresh Dairy Products (including courts, desserts and infant foods), Beverages (including mainly packaged water) and Biscuit and Cereal products. Geographically the company is now spread along countries in almost all the continents of the world (Empress, 1998). 3. Company and Host Country Strategic Environment Analysis 3. 1.Internal Environment Analysis The company aims towards resolving 6 issues as objectives of providing quality products to their customers; Innovation and rethink its achievements, embody approach positive power where the company aims to provide health food so as to embody it as a source of pleasure, connect, contact, conve rsation (this statement presents the fact that Deanne makes of use of every available meaner of contacting their customers), securing access to its raw materials, adapting the models and build its future (Deanne adopts the strategy of expanding in new markets (different countries) by adapting its models and products and lastly, growing reconciling economic and social ( this statement represents the fact that a company draws on its environment as measured by economic development. The mission of the company is to grow as a leader while working for the health of the consumers. Another part of its session is that it wishes to become a consultative organ for professionals through the various research activities it conducts and the company's culture.The reason for the company to be a market leader in the food industry is the fact that the company products, varieties in flavors and healthy pleasures. Considering the organizations situation, the company mainly employs the internal strategy of maintaining a sustainable growth levels based on its corporate philosophy or ideally high growth levels of its shares by taking into account the following criteria; supporting profitable Roth in the business account that is an elementary component for the type of industry the company operates in, privileging the operating margin for enjoying the profitability on investments and accomplishing human and social policies (a particular element helping the firm gain huge success).For the firm, to achieve these objective mentioned above, it has to develop a global vision which incorporates the core values that the firm operates on, thus displaying the internal environmental attributes of loyalty, customer relationship and customer satisfaction. Namely, the arioso attributes that the company values and is included in the set of its core values are following; Openness: The company quotes and defines this value in the following words â€Å"Diversity is a source of wealth and change a cons tant opportunity'. Curiosity: This refers to an approach towards awareness and forecasting accurately, being in sync with other people, not accepting rigid ideas and models and imagination. Agility: Energy, suppleness, adaptability, vivacity, speed Simplicity: The term simply refers to the attributes of informality and practicality in a management style.Enthusiasm: Zeal, determination to do something, willingness to achieve goals. Boldness: Willingness to explore new, unconventional ways and take risk. Passion: Conviction, enthusiasm to lead, pleasure of work and the ability to rise above expectations and achieve excellence. Appetite for challenge: Optimistic, zealous and physical desire to grow and take the lead. Humanism: Showing concern for individuals (in this case consumers, employees or citizens). Sharing and Responsibility: Approach emphasizing on dialogue, transparency and teamwork. Responsibility is mainly focused on safety of people and products, thus acting pop- socially and environmentally friendly.Respect of others: Is sensitive to cultural differences, and aims to treat social and commercial partners with respect. Proximity: Mainly this term represent the idea of staying close to everyone like colleagues, consumers and clients, suppliers, stockholders and society. The company earns about 31 percent of sales from emerging markets, which is close to the target that the company has set for business that is 40 percent of the business on emerging markets and 60 percent in developing nations. About 60 percent of the sales of the brand fall under the following brands, Deanne, Avian, LIZ and WAHOO. These brands thus enable the company to optimize its advertising outlays.The advertising outlay serves as a key source that provides the company with fruitful rewards in terms of profitable growth based on the core value innovation and closer customer relationships. Moreover this key strategy has merged with the extension and promotion of brands called tag bra nds like Vitamin for low fat products and Prince for brands pertaining to children. Being a global brand, Deanne consists of various business lines and in each of these branches or lines Deanne is the world market leader. The market leader session that it holds is owing to the factors like marketing expertise, industrial efficiency, the breadth of the product range, and Research and Development (R;D).The company gained its world position by building upon strong position both the closer customer relationships and balanced long term relationships with major retailers, unrivaled acquaintance with local consumers and a recognized capacity for effective communication. Another value that the company caters to and that defines the company's internal environment is the steady thirst for innovation to gain optimum consumer satisfaction. His process of developing a new innovative product begins with the identification of the customers' needs. Since the company attaches great importance to thi s matter, the brand is built upon recognized marketing expertise, efficient R;D, strong brands and unrivalled experience in the categories of nutrition and health. N order to maintain a sustainable growth, the company has gone all the way to build a dual philosophy unique program that has made the business' success inseparable from the respect of people and environment. The company's compassion for excellence has demonstrated its ability o the dynamic market and thus the changing environment it operates in. This the company does so with high potential commitment of their teams and simple structures that promote initiative and past experience they gained (Deanne. Com, 2012). 3. 1. 1 . Value-added Chain analysis Being the largest firm in the food industry, the company has designed its product in such a way so as to differentiate it from its competitors. He strategy to do this is to create the good's perceived value such as it is indicated as being a premium product, create loyalty of the brand in hearts of the consumers and thus achieve low price insensitivity (lesser magnitude fluctuations in demand owing to the changes in price). This the brand does through its focus on the quality, the health and the real taste of their product. Additional elements that add up to the loyalty are creativity, innovation and customers' service. The company spends a huge amount of money on R;D to adapt to the dynamic market. So to achieve this differentiation, the company employs an evaluation approach called Value-added Chain analysis. This method thus helps in understanding the part of operations of the company that create value.It specifies how a product moves from a raw material to its final form which is sold in the market (Annual Report, 2011). For this company, the value chain has been divided into two segments which are namely Primary activities and Secondary activities. 3. 1. 1 . 1. Primary activities The company aims for superior handling of the raw material of its prod ucts so as to reduce the damage to the minimum and thus improve the quality of yogurt. As part of this superior handling thus, the company makes yogurts using the best of ferments and fresh products to provide their customers with high quality food. This remarry activity is known as Inbound logistics.The operations of production along the same lines are aimed to be performed most efficiently. The operational efficiency is achieved by consistent manufacturing of products which they may call attractive and by responding promptly to customers' specifications thus producing products according to their specifications or preferences. For instance, the quality of yogurt is protected and sustained by its packaging. Furthermore, the label on the packaging has the main purpose of attracting customers and providing them with maximum necessary information about the product. The quality is further maintained by owing to its daily production. This is known as outbound logistics.Considering the ma rketing and sale of the function of the company, the company has a strong coordination among its R&D department, marketing department and product development department. According to the corporation, the key to success is product innovation. In the services, the company has the service of client telephone service which responds to the consumers' queries, doubts and takes into account their opinions regarding various things. The secondary activities that take place in the organization are pertaining to infrastructure where the company has highly efficient and developed information systems helping them better comprehend the customers' preferences in purchasing. For understanding the customer, the company implements various tools like phone interviews, focused groups and other types of market research.The company's human resource department has a compensation program that major aims to compensate employees in order to motivate them to work creatively and productively. Deanne further ma kes an immense amount of investment in Research and Development by investing in technologies which thus low them to produce products at a consistently high quality. Moreover, the company has certain systems and procedures installed helping them find highest quality raw materials for production (Deanne Sustainability Report, 2011) 4. External Environment analysis There are various external factors or environmental factors that impact the organization on the whole.One of the major factors that have an impact on the company and can be considered as an external factor is the Demographics of the country in which it is operating. The USA population accounts for approximately 313 million. The median age of the country is 36. Years with the median age of males being 35. 6 years and the median age of females being 38. 2 years. Population growth rate is 0. 899 percent as per 2011, thus indicating a low growth, though the company's popularity in the country is immense. Highest age demographic is on average 65 years. 82 percent of the country's population resides in the Urban cities and towns. Annual rate of change of arbitration in the country as of 2010 is 1. 2 percent. The net migration rate in the country is 3. 62 migrants per 1000 population in July 2011.According to the US law, the articles 4 and 12 state that all yogurts must contain the yogurt† consideration in case they have alive bacterium at high levels. By high levels of alive bacterium the law meaner Yogurt bacterium must not be less than 10 million per gram. The company fulfills this requirement to the highest level and thus faces no breach against law, thus operating efficiently. The country is a Mediterranean country, with people following a Mediterranean diet where yogurt is an essential component of people's diet and thus displays a huge market for the company's product. Not only US families, but families in other countries like Greece and Italy also consume yogurt as an essential part of their die t.The country's specific segments like children, parent's and grandparent's consume the product as a dessert, breakfast and snack or Just for pleasure, thus making the company's product a success in this host country. Moreover, company's products like Vitamin are targeted towards people who are self conscious and wish to look good so as to become acceptable in the society. These societal trends and the country's cultural trend are country's economy has grown substantially regardless of it being a developed nation beforehand as well and thus the willingness to pay higher for food has increased due o the country's economic development. The family consumption levels have increased leading to increased demand of the company's products in the US market.The US economy being the largest and most technologically powerful country has a per capita GAP of $48,100. GAP according to the Purchasing Power Parity (APP) is $15. 04 trillion in 2011. Real GAP growth of the economy is 1. 5 percent. Pop ulation below poverty line amounted to about 15. 1 percent which is very low, thus displaying the company's high demand in the economy. The composition of the industrial sector in the economy on the other hand is 19. percent as of 2011. Highest household income of the country is 30 percent as of 2007, with the distribution of family income, according to the Gin index amounting to 45 in 2007. Inflation rate is 3 percent, which is quite low compared to other host countries. He country comes under the top ten markets in which Deanne operates with a 7 percent share contributed to the total sales growth. These statistics thus display the ideal situation for the company and has thus shown a significant increase in the Group's profits owing to its profitable operations in USA (Index mind, 2012). Being a constitution based federal republic, strong democratic traditions are followed kin the country, thus indicating the country's openness to international participants into the economy. The US government thus divides the country's food products under three differentiations. First category of food products being taxed is those used by humans or animals for their diet, on which the tax levied is 7 percent.The second category is that including bread, flour, milk and milky products, fruits, vegetables and other food products related to this category. The tax levied on these products is 4 percent. The third group includes all products that are not included in the two categories above. The tax levied on these products is 16 percent. Deanne being a food producing company thus has to pay almost all three taxes mentioned, owing to its wide portfolio of food products (Mind, 2012). Being a highly technologically advanced nation, the country helped Deanne make use of its various efficient technical tools, thus making it easier for the company to evaluate and perform market research to find the sales potentials among the various food categories it offers.Looking at the census data, t he R&D expenditure allocated by the government to the manufacturing industries as a percentage of net sales has reduced from 0. 7 percent to 0. 4 percent. This has been due to the government's greater allocation of funds towards the ecological development representing that US nation is an CEO friendly nation working upon sustaining the health of its ecological system (United States Census Bureau, 2012). Considering the geographical location fact Or's that impact the company in the host country, Deanne is highly affected by the US agricultural market as food industry has a major chunk dedicated to agricultural products in the country.Generally the climate of the country is temperate. However in the states of Hawaii and Florida, the climate is tropical, in Alaska it is arctic, in the Great Plains which is situated on the west of the Mississippi River, and the climate is semi-arid. Considering these weather conditions, the company has launched food products taking into account these we ather conditions so as to attract customers to enjoy summers with chilly yogurt products which account for 58 percent, Baby nutrition accounting for 19 percent, Water accounting for 17 percent and Medical nutrition accounting for 6 percent. Deanne US market is an emerging market for the product Missouri†.The operations of the firm are running efficiently owing to its developed economy and high living standards, making the population willing to purchase their product higher compared to even the originating nation Spain. However, despite these fruitful rewards there are certain challenges which the company had to face owing to the existence of various international food manufacturing firms and small competitors in the form of restaurants, food stalls on streets and small scale food manufacturing companies. The introduction of the product Yogurt in the US market has brought about a huge boom in the company's sales. This Greek yogurt had gone through the benefits in the US economy , due to the fact that the economy had highly technologically advanced tools that the company could use for yogurt production.The one major benefit that helped the company flourish in the US economy due to this particular product is the adoption of a new technology which the company adopted so as to assist them in catering to the consumer demand. This technology helped the organization improve to only the quality of the yogurt being produced, but also enhance the quality of other products in the portfolio. However, like any other business, the company faces certain threats in the economy. 4. 1 . Porter's Five Forces Model Analysis 4. 1. 1. Threats of entrants The company when entered the US economy faced the threat of new competitors who might enter the economy. These included competitors like frozen yogurt producers like Tutu Fruit.Apart from that, being the initiator of and identifying the market for yogurt in US, it is probable that the company will face even more new entrants as the time goes by. 4. 1. 2. Power of Suppliers: It might be difficult for the company to operate in the host country owing to its unfamiliarity with the suppliers available and may thus give an opportunity to the suppliers to exploit their power and overcharge for the supplies being provided, thus increasing the company's cost. 4. 1. 3. Threat of Product substitutes: The company also faced the threat of substitute products of yogurts like the frozen yogurt of Tutu Fruit. However, being the initiator, the company is the market leader in yogurt production in the country. 4. 1. 4. Power of buyers:Being a market leader and a multinational, the company has the power to bargain its way from suppliers and gain the benefit of lower cost supplies, despite their unfamiliarity with the product since the suppliers in US would want to be a supplier of such a huge organization. 4. 1. 5. Intensity of rivalry among competitors: Despite being a market leader, the company still faces an intense compe tition in the product yogurt as well as in other product categories launched in the industry (Deanne Sustainability Report, 2011). 5. Participation Strategy After conducting a market research, Deanne identified some of the key success reduce to product and thus elaborate on the success of these products due to these factors. Vitamin, a product category of Deanne, is known for its good taste and low fat.Other factors were the numerous kinds of products that came under this product line. Vitiating includes products like drinks, mousse and a regular yogurt. This was a star product for the company since the company yielded huge amounts of profits from the sale of this product. The other factors that led the company's products to yield high profits are the high quality of products, taste and the health factor associated with these products. The company entered the US economy after conducting a comprehensive research to evaluate the potential of the products it offers. The results showed that US is an emerging market for the product Yogurt, and thus have a huge potential to grow in the US industry.Moreover, the decision of entering the US economy was taken mainly due to its strong economic situation and the availability of advanced infrastructure in terms of the technological tools available their that could help the organization produce its products in high quality. The strategy that it implemented while entering the country is a global strategy the many used while expanding in various countries around all the continents available. The strategy that the company adopted at the time was to achieve high growth rates or maintain a steady growth by establishing itself in the emerging markets of the products in the product portfolio of the company by conducting market research and evaluating the lifestyle trends of the country they target to enter. This is what was done when entering US market.The emerging markets were evaluated on two parameters by the company, the econ omic dimensions of product affordability by looking at the country's income trends and standard of living and alee-addition by evaluating the willingness of buying the product and how much consumers want the product. This the company did in order to stay in closer proximity to the foreign markets they wish to operate in, disperse around the globe to attain higher growth levels and stay more attuned to its market. The major strategy which the company implemented aimed for boosting the company's market share by achieving global presence in the products it offers. This it attempted to do so by focusing on three fundamental priorities.The first priority was to reweighs the reduce portfolios in order to ensure that the prices offered in each country are appropriate considering the country's economic scale of pricing. The second priority was to increasingly focus on the promotion and point of sale events of the company's products to ensure that the promotional and advertising activities a re reaching the right customers and are effective enough to attract their attention. The last priority is to initiate a shift in the advertising of the company's products to bring into limelight and focus upon the product's quality so as to ensure the customers get highest value for the money they pay.Thus the company participation strategy in the host country is mainly to identify the emerging markets in the products they offer and establish in them to attain its broader vision of global presence (Deanne 1 1, 2012). 6. Performance overview The company has been enjoying high profitability and high growth rates since its expansion globally. The company has experienced a solid growth of 7. 7 percent in HI in the first half of 2012 and a 5. 9 percent growth the like-for-like category of the divisions experienced a rising trend in the sales levels in the first half, particularly in the second quarter of the year. In United States, Deanne made 7 percent of its sales in 2011, which amount ed to 19. 3 billion Euro ($billion).

The Early Years Curriculum Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Early Years Curriculum - Research Paper Example Such childhood is viewed as necessary to provide the foundation for realizing children's abilities and talents as they grow up. The EYFS assures parents that their children achieve this goal. The EYFS undertakes several tasks in ensuring that the outcomes of Every Child Matters are achieved by setting the standards, providing for quality of opportunity, creating the framework for partnership working, improving quality and consistency, and laying a secure foundation for future learning (Statutory Framework 2008). Learning through EYFS is done through a principled approach which the following are embedded: a unique child, positive relationships, enabling environments, and learning and development. The observation on curriculum took place on Nov. 7, 2008 at Odessa Primary School while the other one was at Montessori Day Nursery which opened in 1998. It was noticed that both settings recognized the areas of learning and early learning goals of the EYFS which include personal, social, and emotional development, communication, language, and literacy, mathematics development, knowledge and understanding of the world, physical development, and creative development. However the delivery of these goals differed in the two observed settings, which will be mentioned in this paper. One of the underpinning policies of EYFS is "every child matters," which seemed to have been overlooked or neglected by the Montessori Day Nursery in t... y Nursery in that staff ignored other children who bullied others and threw objects on them, such as the incident in which one boy threw a metal car and hit another boy, to which a staff treated it as we don't hit our friends, which was contrary to her appeasement of the other child as it was an accident. Based on the observation, the Montessori Day Nursery did not seem to follow in practice the overarching aim of EYFS, which is to help young children achieve the five outcomes of Every Child Matters which include, staying safe. The bullied children seemed to experience lack of safety by the bullies, in which the staff tended to treat the situation lightly. Enjoying and achieving seems a lacking element in the setting, since there were plenty of distractions while the class teacher was reading a story, affecting the quality of the experience as well as other's desire on the activity. Most staff members ignored the children's bad behavior as if nothing happened, resulting in non-absorp tion and disturbance on the part of other children who were willing to listen and learn from the story. In fact, when the boy who hit another with a metal toy car was told we don't hit our friends, the teacher started to read the book again, in which the boy started to punch and push other children to which she did not pay attention and just carried on with the reading. When asked if she planned the activities in advance, the activity sheet shown did not match the actual activities conducted since according to the teacher, the activity sheet only served to guide her. The Montessori Day Nursery however heeded to the provision set by the EYFS in relation to housing young children of varying ages, from birth to the end of the academic years in which the child has his/her fifth birthday. The

Sunday, July 28, 2019

How Spirituality Effects Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

How Spirituality Effects Economics - Essay Example Not until recently, not much attention was paid to how the spirituality of people can affect their economics. Spirituality has been thought to be associated with our inner self and has much to do with our non-physical self but our spiritual self, having an encounter with God (Russell, 2006). Most commonly therefore, spirituality is said to have a close relation to religion since religion centers on man’s realization for a supreme creator. This paper shall discuss the relationship between religion and economics with emphasis on how Christianity, Jewish and Buddhism affect economics. The first factor of consideration with reference to religion and economics is consumer behavior. Perner (2008) explains that consumer behavior involves the â€Å"psychological processes that consumers go through in recognizing needs, finding ways to solve these needs, making purchase decisions, interpret information, make plans, and implement these plans.† If consumer behavior is a psychologi cal process, then it is very right to say that all three religions greatly affect the consumer behavior of its members. This is because in all three religions, followers are made to understand that God communicates to them through the mind. In Christianity for instance, Jesus is quoted as saying that a person would be judged based on the person’s thoughts and that â€Å"For out of the heart [mind] come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander† (Matthew 15:19). Psychology also deals with the mind. This way, people in the three religion are obliged not to make purchases merely by what they feel like buying but waiting for the voice of God in deciding what to buy and what not to buy. Another example with Christianity in Exodus 20:17 documents that "you shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.† Economically, this can be related to the consumer behavior of impulse buying resulting from enviousness to own an item. Spirituality therefore restricts worshipers in their purchases and consumer behavior, thereby affecting their personal economy. The second factor on spirituality that affects economy has to do with organizational ethics. According to Change Factory (2010), â€Å"ethics is a system or code of moral standards of a particular person, group or profession.† Ethics can be given a religious interpretation to represent righteousness because righteousness sets a moral standard by which religious followers are to tread. All three religions expect followers to be of the highest level of righteousness at the workplace thereby eschewing acts like bribery, corruption, laziness, cheating and pilfering, which are all considered as acts of unrighteousness. In Jewish worship for instance, the rabbinical law on theft and robbery speaks against stealing, stating in Sh. Ar., ?M 348:1 that an object which is in the possession of a person without the consent of its owner or any other person having a right thereto constitutes stealing (Jewish Virtual Library, 2008). In economics also, when workers in a given organization work devoid of the negative ethics mentioned, there is sure to be increased productivity and in effect, increased revenue. Once there is increased productivity, there is sure to be economic growth and development. The final factor to be discussed on how spirituality affects economics has to do with the spiritual adherence to faith. Faith may be generally said to be the spiritual hope to receive something that is unseen. In all three religions, faith is very central to their worship. In Christianity, it is said that without faith, it is impossible to

Saturday, July 27, 2019

The Books Reading Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Books Reading - Essay Example It enabled me to think beyond the mundane pursuits of life and made me believe that I can be happy in this world by pursuing my wishes and desires and by searching for my â€Å"treasure.† This book changed my view about how to live my life; it has taught me to be happy and to believe in the power of love, whether it is the love that God has bestowed on me or the love that I have for my fellow human beings. Books that are beautiful and touch people greatly automatically do good business. However, lately, there is a trend to treat the publishing industry as a business and not as a way to touch and/or improve the conscience of the reader. Publishing houses do not accept manuscripts which they feel will not fetch them enough money; on the same note, they are attracted to manuscripts that in their opinion would be â€Å"bestsellers† and fetch them business. This leads to the problem of various publishing houses churning out formula books; in other words, books written in a similar genre and pattern. The nineties obsession with thrillers is an example of this when almost every publishing house turned out similarly patterned books that seemed like renditions of Hollywood flicks; albeit some writers were actually writing great books in the genre, most of these books just seemed like cheap versions of the real thing. Lately, there is a trend of publishing religiously oriented books; acc ording to the Book Industry Survey Group, in 2004; there was an 11 percent increase in the gains of such books, reaching almost 2 billion in sales. With such large amounts of money involved, the publishers, of course, follow the trend and do not publish books that are not â€Å"trendy† so to speak.

Friday, July 26, 2019

Discuss and explain how printing affected the authority held by the Essay

Discuss and explain how printing affected the authority held by the church and the aristocracy in the Europe and how this led to profound social and political changes - Essay Example The practical value of literacy would at all times be essential. The ultimate practical use was apparently in the purposes of the Church, since merely a knowledgeable clergy may be the authorities of religious life. In other words, literacy was the Church’s protection, which had supreme control over education. The invention of printing, entailing more efficient and more economical means of book production, transformed the dilemma of illiteracy. Francis Bacon, living in the period directly after the introduction of Gutenberg’s printing press, illustrated as one of the remarkable inventions of the century which had revolutionized the form and condition of the entire world (Hill 2001). The objective of this paper is to explore the impact of the printing press on the authority of the Church and aristocracy in Europe as well as its contribution in the profound social and political changes that the continent experienced in the iron century. The absolute goal of making the population literate was to persuade them of the rightness of their own points of view. The period of the Counter Reformation can hence be viewed as an extended practice in the development of methods of persuasion. It was the printed ideas, circulated through manuscripts, newspapers and pamphlets that eventually surfaced as the most persuasive technique of propaganda. In the Middle Ages, the pulpit had been the primary arbiter of public judgment, and this important role persisted all over the seventeenth century. Unparalleled victory was attained by the clerics of the Counter Reformation, who, through this method originated the remarkable progresses initiated by Lutherans through the effective exploitation of the pulpit. Sermons realized a twofold victory, further. They were transmitted by word of mouth; then, they were printed and circulated in order to get to an even wider audience (Kamen 1971). So

Thursday, July 25, 2019

Reflective write-up Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Reflective write-up - Essay Example retention is a process â€Å"in which the employees are encouraged to remain with the organization for the maximum period of time or until the completion of the project.† This was the exact weakness of the organization because measures were not put in place by previous managers to ensure that employees stayed at post till as long as their services were needed. The absence of employee retention, a situation known as employee turnover occurs. In the view of Clint (2011), â€Å"Employee turnover occurs when employees voluntarily leave their jobs and must be replaced.† To this effect, my services was employed to take charge of the recruitment of the organization for the year 2010 to ensure through my duty that employees were retained. The need to have someone playing the role of a recruitment manager as an attempt to ensure employee retention was in the right direction because one of the factors that has been identified to be the cause of employee turnover is poor recruitment. Explaining what recruitment is, Stevens (2010) assert that â€Å"Recruitment is the process of having the right person, in the right place, at the right time.† It is therefore logical to assume that if the right people are not put at the right place, they would surely leave. In this direction, The Missouri Business Journal (2011) advice that in recruitment, it is always important to hire â€Å"the people that are a good "fit" with the culture of the organization — meaning that their values, principles, and goals clearly match those of the company†. Most often than not, managers loss site of their role in using recruitment to ensure the long term. I was therefore called upon to play this all important role of a manager i n charge of recruitment. The task that was assigned to me was more of an opportunity than a merit because I was still a subordinate worker of the organization. For this reason, I became extremely excited about the appointment. In relation to leadership or managerial style, I felt

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Business Law Case Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 2

Business Law Case Analysis - Essay Example She refuses to take the check since she is against bribes. In this episode, Alicia is given several interesting options. One of the options is to run for State’s attorney. Secondly, she is supposed to lure Diane to her firm to fight cases in ruthless world of Chicago law. The main legal law on this case is drug trafficking. Carry is arrested and jailed for her attempts to help in the trafficking of heroin worth $1.3 million. The drug trafficking case against Cary makes Alicia to be compelled to run for the State’s Attorney post. Being compelled to take the post helps in bringing out her denial for the $1.3 million bribe. Throughout the episode, there are complicated moral issues. For instance, it is interesting to see Alicia use her husband’s status in a bid to compromise her moral code. She scoffs when others refer to her as St. Alicia, but she thinks of herself that way. She thinks of being a Saint when her biggest client is a drug

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

Pros and Cons of Synchronous Collaboration Essay

Pros and Cons of Synchronous Collaboration - Essay Example It is manifested through online chat, virtual meetings, pep talks, or even in a team huddle. Because of the advancement of science and technology, synchronous collaboration has also improved the way it is being performed. As stated above, online chat and virtual meetings are just some of the newest forms of synchronous collaboration. Albeit, information technology has helped elevate our communicative lifestyle, there are still pros and cons or advantages and disadvantages of synchronous collaboration, especially, with the inclusion of information technology. Some of the key advantages are it hastens the communication process especially on situations when an immediate response is direly needed. Another key advantage is that it would promote a more spontaneous interaction between individuals. On the other hand, its key advantages are, first, it is not ubiquitous or is not present everywhere. The access on online chat and virtual meetings are available only to those who are located on highly developed societies and not all of us use it. Another key disadvantage is that it is not pliable. Seen this way, it is sometimes best to not communicate synchronously because it precludes us from thinking over a certain thing before we give out our

Gun related crime in the U.S Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Gun related crime in the U.S - Essay Example One of the main reasons for failure of regulation is the attitude of federal government towards guns distribution; it pays virtually no attention to the design, manufacture, or marketing of guns. The two agencies with potential jurisdiction over these matters, the BATF and the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) currently lack the authority to address them. This lack of federal supervision of the gun industry allows several dangerous conditions to persist since 1983. (Jacobs, 2002, p. 19) Now, the question arises whether or not gun regulation can control violence in the U.S History (1970 and 1980) reveals that gun control regulation has never been helpful in crime reduction. This is evident from regression analysis, state data, and experimenting social and economic variables, which Murray (1975) concludes, "gun control laws have no significant effect on rates of violence beyond what can be attributed to background social conditions". In addition, he observes that "controlling for basic social factors, the data show that gun laws have no significant effect on access to firearms and differing rates of access to handguns had no significant effect on violent acts" (Murray 1975). According to Gorman & Kopel (2000) the gun control regulation has reduced the number of legal firearms in the ... If we analyze UK historical significance of gun regulation, it is evident that England and Wales had lower rates of robbery and burglary than the United States (in 1981)". (Gorman & Kopel, 2000) "Unfortunately, the British government's single-minded devotion to eliminating defensive arms has made life more dangerous for British citizens. In the United States, youth is more afraid of running into an armed homeowner than the police. As a result, the hot burglary rate today and the rate of crimes that occur when the householder is home is 13 percent in the United States and about 50 percent in England and Wales". (Gorman & Kopel, 2000) That means crime in UK is more vulnerable towards violence than in U.S. According to a review of firearm statistics in Canada, Australia has by far adopted the best policy in combating gun violence and control and has a solution to this problem. "Even though an estimated one in five Australian households contained a gun before the 1996 legislation, Australia has always had relatively few problems with firearms when compared with other industrialized nations. According to a 1995 report done for the Canadian Department of Justice, Australian homicide rates were very low by worldwide standards, and only 18 Australians died in accidents with firearms in 1993". (Aus, 2006a) This might be the result of the "Australian Government's approach to firearm regulation which seeks to achieve a balance between allowing those with a genuine need to possess and use firearms and providing a safe and secure environment for the broader community. In particular, the Australian Government is supportive of the legitimate use of firearms by

Monday, July 22, 2019

The Difficuly Finding the Meaning of Life Essay Example for Free

The Difficuly Finding the Meaning of Life Essay A sense of meaning is needed in humans or else we become discouraged and lost and can even end up looking for meaning in harmful ways. People who cannot find in meaning in their life are susceptible to cults and manipulation from others as well as depression. In J. D. Salinger’s novel the catcher in the Rye, The main character (Holden) is having difficulty finding the meaning of life. Everyone is bound to spend some time in their life searching for meaning. Holden does not make an effort to do well in school nor does he make an effort to fit in with others. He looks at others as phonies merely trying to imitate each other and questions all social norms that are pressured upon him. Today is no different from Holden’s time when it comes to finding the meaning of life; the media often suggests that the meaning of life is seeking pleasures such as sex, drugs and money, Parents drive the children to focus on their education and their worth in society. Holden does not pursue sexual conquests as a youth and resents most girls around him because of their large need to conform. This is uncommon for someone Holden’s age and causes him to stand out from those around him. He does not appear to be content with his life and does not have a strong peer group to support him. Holden disappoints his parents, teachers, and many other mentor figures throughout his youth. I also have questioned the value of education and whether or not spending a third of my life preparing for work, a third of my life working and a third of my life retired is really the most fulfilling plan in life. One reason I believe Holden is having a hard time finding meaning in life is that he starts off without any role models. He does not idolize his brother and resents his parents. I also have found choosing role models in life to be a difficult decision. Because Holden focuses so strongly on people’s negative qualities he misses the more beautiful and sought after qualities of their personalities and therefore has a hard time relating to them. This causes Holden to become more or less isolated from those around him. I have often questioned the meaning of life and realized that my idea of a meaningful life is quite different from some of my peers. This moral difference between me and many often stops a more personal relationship from forming. This effect is present throughout Holden’s journey as he feels isolated in the same way from many of his â€Å"Phony† acquaintances.

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Land Art Movement and Artists

Land Art Movement and Artists Land Art was mainly developed during the late 1960s. It is also known as Earthworks. Land art was the revolutionary side of the artists, which were trying to escape from the traditional painting and sculpture, as well as their ecological concerns. According to Robert Smithson, this revolutionary approach, was also an attempt to escape from galleries and museums; this led to environmental consciousness and objection. †¦The ecologist tends to see the landscape in terms of the past, while most industrialists dont see anything at all. The artist must come out of the isolation of galleries and museums and provide a concrete consciousness for the present as it really exists, and not simply present abstractions or utopias†¦[1] This had as a result, for artists to create their art directly into the landscape. The work was made mostly with huge scale ‘sculptures directly in nature, using natural materials. Land art is about ‘real life and embodies the direct and instinctive relations with the landscape, the nature and the environment. It covers the approach of the location and the experience of the observer attaching special importance to the landscape. Land art works were mainly exhibited with written or photographic documentations. [2] Land art also provides the social and cultural conditions of that time. During 1968 there was a fundamental change of revolution in both continents, United States and Europe. In United States there was a pacifist and human rights expression, mainly caused by the Cold War and the American attachment in Vietnam. In Europe, one factor for that revolutionary change was the rebellious activities of the ‘Situationist Internanionale (Guy Debord) in France. Also the warning of danger caused by the nuclear war (global extinction), had a result to emphasize the importance of ecological issues. The first images from space, published the same year, changed the way we perceive our world. Land art reveals the clash positions of that period, in the direction of land and the environment. It desires a radical change and the recovery of the ecological disaster on land caused by the industrialisation. Through Land art we can reconsider our relationship with the landscape and with nature. The massive unexploited land of America played a major role in the development of Land art in the United States during that period. Many American artists performed their works, using those unexplored deserts of the American landscape. Those deserts embodied a mainly American approach towards landscape. They also proposed the success of American culture and technology over nature. They rejected the historic fine art traditions of Europe and they started to reference towards the significant national American idioms.[3] One main American artist is Robert Smithson, which he considers being the most important theoretical artist among all land artists. Many of his activities were located in the geological and culturally rich of Western America in desert locations. Smithson was interested in natural history from an early age. The year 1964 was a crucial year for his career as he began to develop his themes and interests. Blood, decay, geological strata and theories about time and history, were some of the artists interests that were developed through the paintings that he made on that period. In the same year he created a series of ‘crystalline sculptures, like The Eliminator 1964. He also developed a friendly relationship with a number of artists, which were associated with Minimalism. One of them was Donald Judd. When he exhibited those sculptures, they were perceived as Minimalist. This was mainly because he was known for his connection with those artists and due to the fact that for this work he used industrial materials. But Smithsons work deals and represents the multipart conceptual ideas. This multipart conceptual ideas include crystalline growth, decompose and the dilemma of perspective. He rejects clarity, unlike Minimalism, in which objects are standing themselves and are symbolising the external. [4] Smithson, as well as other artists, played their part in transforming the perception of nature. He has seen landscape as a place in continuous transformation, revealing entropy. He is associated with a natural landscape and he emphasizes the relationship between man and natural powers. Smithson also provides a powerful image for the contemporary position. In Smithosns writings the concept that emphasizes much on his work is the principle of energy loss-entropy. In 1968 he started to think about the scale and how artworks can be positioned and viewed in the landscape. He explored these ideas in a series of works called Site and Nonsite. Smithson described this work as ‘an indoor earthwork. In 1969 he started to produce his work directly into landscape, as he was interested in making art outdoors, away from galleries. He produced photographic work using mirrors. [5] In 1970 he made his major work on the landscape called Spiral Jetty, (1) which was made at Rozel Point on Great Salt Lake, in Utah. Spiral Jetty was made from rocks, mud and precipitated salt crystals. Smithson documented the creation of the sculpture. He learned that Great Salt Lake in Utah carried micro bacteria that coloured the water red and he developed an interest in the symbolic possibility of a red saline lake. He created the spiral form, as he was inspired with the location, the natural characteristics and the historical contexts. Smithson linked the red salt water with blood. Through Smithsons own writings, Spiral Jetty is presented as a particular clear example of his association between artwork and location and he is emphasizing its entropic qualities.[6] Michael Heizer was an American artist who was considered being very important to the development of land art. He felt that a sculpture needed to express the character and the scale of the great Western American landscape. He believed that artworks were valued as products and he provided the differences between those works of the urban marketplace and the works in the landscape. He stated that: ‘†¦the position of art as malleable barter-exchange items falters as the cumulative economic structure gluts. The museums and collections are stuffed, the floors are sagging but the real space exists†¦'[7] Heizer used the desert spaces as a laboratory. His first landscape work began in 1967, and it was called North and South. Through out this work we can perceive his interest in void and negative spaces. He rejected European traditions, as he wanted to make art that was ‘American. Heizer most famous and most debatable work is Double Negative (2), built in 1969. It is located at the Mormon Mesa, near Overton, Nevada. This work was made at the edge of the sandstone cliff and it is composed of two deep cuts creating a huge channel. Double Negative is composed of space itself. Heizer said that: In Double Negative, there is the implication of an object or form that is actually not there†¦ [8] Heizer believes that the work is not about the landscape but it is about the sculpture. He also believes that the importance of his work in not in what ‘it rejected but in what ‘it offered instead. Heizer through his work kept his primary purposes for his art in the landscape. In England the Land art started to develop as well in the late 1960s. England presented fewer opportunities for impressive gestures than United States. One main British artist was Richard Long. Long mostly gave emphasis to the simplicity on his work, giving the attention to his common skills and the materials he used. Walking was the principal form of Long. [9] But beneath this simplicity we can perceive the conceptual and the imaginative aspects that highlight Longs art. He explored ideas about time, space and experience. From an early age he started also to explore the traditional subject of landscape. In 1969 he aimed to ‘create an open and exploratory environment during his studies on the ‘Advanced Sculpture Course at St Martins School of Art in London. Other artists shared the same interest with Long about landscape as a subject for contemporary art. During his studies he developed a very different way of reaching the landscape, as through his work, he involved space and scale. His achievement on that period was the work titled with: A Line Made by Walking, 1967. (3) He simply walked along a line, across a field, in order to create a visible path in the grass. The path was photographed. We can split the work into two parts. Part one is the making of the work and part two is the documentation. After this work he continued to explore this conceptual aspect by creating two more works, Bicycle Sculpture 1967 and A Ten Mile Walk, England 1968. Because this kind of works couldnt exhibit into a gallery, Long started to use documentary materials such as texts, maps and photographs. We can separate Longs sculptures into two categories. Sculptures that were made by walking in the landscape, and the documentation of it, and sculptures which were made in the gallery as a reaction to space and locality. This separation on Longs works (the work made in the landscape and the work made for the gallery space), can be compared with Robert Smithsons works Site and Nonesite . We can find many similarities and differences between artists in the two continents. Longs work is considered being practical opposing to the work of Smithson, which is considered being theorised. Both artists used natural materials in order to accomplish their motivations. Long was using in his work, forms such as lines and circles expanding the modernist development. On the other hand, Smithson, had the obsession with ‘ destruction, decay, decomposition and dissolution. Both artists shared the same interest in order to find the place (landscape) to construct their works. Mapping was also a significant concern for Long, as well as for Smithson, not only for the documentation of their work but also to find a specific location. Equally through their works, they demonstrated cultural and artistic concerns. [10] Land art emphasizes the importance between nature and culture. Through Land Art, artists provided that the landscape is one of the original places of cultural expression, like social and environmental are clearly marked. Bibliography: Land Art: A Cultural Ecology handbook, ed. by Max Andrews, London: RSA, 2006. Beardsley, J. Earthworks and beyond: contemporary art in the landscape, 3rd edn. New York: Abbeville, 1998. Malpas, W. Land art, earthworks, installations, environments, sculptures, Kidderminster: Crescent Moon, 1998. Tufnell, B. Land Art, London: Tate Gallery Publications, 2006. [1] Land Art: A Cultural Ecology handbook, ed. by Max Andrews.p.22 [2] Tufnell, B. Land Art, London: Tate Gallery Publications, 2006, pp.12-19 [3] Tufnell, B. Land Art, pp.12-19 [4] Tufnell, B. Land Art, pp 35-42 [5] Beardsley, J. Earthworks and beyond: contemporary art in the landscape, 3rd edn. New York: Abbeville, 1998, pp. 19-23 [6] Tufnell, B. Land Art, pp 43-45 [7] Beardsley, J. Earthworks and beyond: contemporary art in the landscape, p.13 [8] Tufnell, B. Land Art p.51 [9] Beardsley, J. Earthworks and beyond: contemporary art in the landscape, pp.41-46 [10] Tufnell, B. Land Art, pp 32-35

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Impact of Dumping and Agricultural Subsidies on Developing Countries

Impact of Dumping and Agricultural Subsidies on Developing Countries The term subsidy is often used in the economic context, but the concept behind it fails to have been defined appropriately for all practical purposes. The term is most often used synonymously with governmental transfer of money to an entity in the private sector, or it may refer to the provision of a good or service at a price below what a private entity would otherwise have had to pay for it. Moreover, it may also refer to various government policies that may favorably affect the competitive position of private entities, in the form of procurement policies or programs to educate workers. Ambiguity continues to prevail with respect to the aforementioned measures as subsidies in the meaningful sense of the term.  [1]   Governments engage in a wide range of tax and expenditure policies that impose costs and confer benefits on entities belonging to the private sector. To an economist, perhaps a natural phenomenon for identifying subsidization is a hypothetical market equilibrium without governmental activity. The classic economic models of general competitive equilibrium, for example, are entirely decentralized and embody no government sector.  [2]  The government makes an entry by way of taxation and expenditure policies, this alters equilibrium prices and output. Activities for which the net returns are reduced are discouraged to some degree, and those activities are then subject to be taxed. Activities for which the net returns are enhanced will be encouraged to a degree, and they may be said to be subsidized. The difficulty with this concept of subsidization is that it is exceedingly difficult to apply as a practical matter. The hypothetical market equilibrium without government cannot be observed, and indeed is not clear that the concept is coherent. Implicit in the classic general equilibrium models is a capacity for actors to engage in transactions, yet it is difficult to see how such a capacity can arise in a large economy without a government to create property rights. Further, the deviations from any benchmark equilibrium that result from government activity are exceedingly complex. Governments engage in a wide variety of taxation practice, not only are the number of tax instruments large in number, but the incidence of the various taxes is often quite uncertain. Governments also engage in innumerable regulatory programs that impose costs on private entities of various sorts; in the form of occupational health and safety programs, environmental quality programs, programs to transfer resources to certain disadvantaged groups, and untold others. Finally, government expenditure programs provide vast benefits to private sector entities in direct and indirect ways, including public education, highways, research and development funding, low cost insurance, fire and security services, a legal system, and on and on. Against this backdrop, it is surely impossible in practice to ascertain the precise impact of governmental activity on any entity according to the sort of benchmark put forth above. The simplest alternative is to look at each government program in isolation, and to ignore the question of whether any benefits conferred may be offset by costs in another form. If a particular program confers benefits on a private entity, a subsidy is declared to exist without further inquiry. Further it is plausible to assume that generally applicable tax, expenditure and regulatory policies affect most enterprises almost in equal standards and thus do not confer any form of subsidy. Programs of narrow applicability that target benefits at particular industries, by contrast, might be assumed to confer benefits that encourage production in that industry. To illustrate, a government might make an investment tax credit available to all industries that use durable goods, on the premise that all industries benefit about equally and that any affects on international competitiveness wash out through exchange rates, such a program might be ignored for purposes of identifying subsidies. By contrast, if the automobile industry is the beneficiary of a special tax credit program for investment in automobile manufacturing, a subsidy might be found as to that industry. Yet another alternative is to focus on the impact of government on private activities relative to the impact of other governments on similarly situated entities elsewhere. In the international context, one might look for programs that seem to confer particularly large benefits on particular entities relative to the benefits that governments confer on similar entities in other countries. The presumption would be that most governments tax and regulate in somewhat similar fashion, resulting in similar effects on the competitive position of most private entities only when a program for a particular group of private entities stands out as especially generous relative to such other programs would a subsidy be present. Thus, for example, if most governments provide a certain range of benefits to their farmers, those programs might be presumed to have a cancelation affect in international trade more or less, and no subsidy would be found. Each of these alternatives have obvious deficiencies. The first has the virtue of simplicity, but its essential failing has been noted above by ignoring the offsetting costs imposed by government on private actors it raises a great danger that subsidization will be found where a private entity has not been meaningfully advantaged by government programs. Indeed, because so many government programs are funded out of general revenues, a narrow focus on particular government expenditure programs without any offset for various forms of taxation would lead to the conclusion that there is rampant subsidization. The second alternative deals with the insuperable complexities of calculating the net impact of national governments on domestic industries which are avoided by assuming that generally applicable programs have a neutral impact while targeted programs do not. But there is no reason to believe that this assumption is correct. Many broadly applicable programs have widely disparate effects on different industries. The third alternative brings out another dimension, and treats subsidization as an alteration in the competitive position of private entities relative to similar entities elsewhere. This shift in emphasis perhaps captures the notion that subsidization involves tilting the playing field, and might be defended on that basis. This assumption has inherent practical problems the presumption that most governments tax and regulate similarly with respect to background factors that affect the competitive position of private entities is highly suspect, and the mere fact that a particular type of program exists in one country and not another, or is more generous in one country than in another, is at best a weak marker for a program that shifts the competitive balance overall. In sum, it is far easier to conceptualize a subsidy in simple economic models that it is to identify a subsidy in practice. Any administrative rule for determining whether a particular government program is in relation to subsidy or not will result in serious errors of over-inclusion and under-inclusion. The OECD, which estimates agricultural subsidies, uses a broad definition that includes any government policy that distorts the market such that prices do not reflect marginal costs. So a tariff on imports, which taxes consumers by raising the price of imported agricultural products to benefit producers, is a subsidy, just like a direct payment to a farmer. That however is not the common understanding of a subsidy. Their definition is narrower, referring only to government payments that allow prices to remain below marginal costs. Some are direct, such as payments to farmers; others are indirect, such as government support for irrigation infrastructure, which allows producers to exclude that cost from their prices. The OECDs Producer Support Estimate (herein after PSE) is the most widely used estimate of the agricultural subsidies provided to the farmers on the developed countries. The PSE has been challenged by the developed nations on the grounds that the two-thirds of the estimate is comprised of not the direct support provided to the farmers but rather what is referred to as the non-subsidy support. This component of the PSE includes the market price support which is essentially the tariffs, price support and quotas. Despite the fact that none of these are subsidies per se yet he OECD figure tries to calculate the dollar estimate of this figure and incorporate it in the PSE.  [3]   Dumping An Overview In economics, dumping can refer to any form of predatory pricing, and is by most definitions a form of price discrimination. However, the word is now generally used only in the context of international trade law, where dumping is defined as the act of a manufacturer in one country exporting a product to another country at what may be perceived as an unreasonably low price, usually meaning below the costs of production. The term has a negative connotation, but advocates that free markets see dumping as beneficial for consumers. When these subsidized goods are exported to foreign markets it can be referred to as dumping.  [4]   More than 40 members of the World Trade Organization (herein after WTO) are now active users of antidumping policy, and developing countries are the newest and most frequent users. However many developing countries have started using antidumping to limit imports, thereby having given up other forms of flexibility in trade policy by adopting WTO disciplines and agreeing to bind their tariffs. Despite antidumping policys escalating use by developing countries, relatively little is known about which industries within developing countries are using antidumping and how they are using it. Under the WTO Antidumping Agreement, any member that uses the policy must create an administrative procedure to investigate demands for antidumping protection. Firms in an industry that seek this form of import protection must overcome the organizational challenges of free riding in order to initiate and successfully pursue an antidumping legal proceeding. Before a government can impose a definitive antidumping import restriction, the Agreement also requires that its administrating authority solicit and collect substantial economic evidence to confirm that market conditions and behavior of foreign exporters satisfy technical, WTO mandated legal criteria. Nevertheless, given that antidumping has become many WTO member governments protectionist instrument, the resulting pattern of antidumping import protection across industries may be an increasingly important indicator of these countries overall patterns of import protection. While the four historical developed-country users of antidumping the US, EU, Canada and Australia have continued to be active users under the WTO, they are no longer the dominant users as they were during the prior decade (1985-1994) under the GATT regime. A sizable share of the global use of antidumping, at least as measured by the frequency of initiated cases and imposed measures, is now made up of new user developing countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Peru, Turkey and Venezuela, the nine developing countries forming the sample of our formal empirical investigation.  [5]   WTO and the Agreement on Agriculture An attempt to regulate the protection afforded to the farmers in the developed countries and the tariff rates in the developing countries through the Agreement on Agriculture which is an international treaty of the World Trade Organization. It was negotiated during the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (herein after GATT), and entered into force with the establishment of the WTO on January 1, 1995. This AoA is based on three concepts or pillars which are domestic support, market access and export subsidies. However not much has changed since the AoA was implemented. The document hinged precariously on eliminating agriculture subsidies as a basic step in getting the fiscal house in order. Knowing well that any reduction in subsidies would be politically suicidal, the developed countries managed to not only maintain the level of subsidies but in fact succeeded in increasing it manifold. At the same time, they continue to arm-twist the developing countries to reduce tariffs and open up markets for farm goods from the industrialized countries. As already stated, the developed nations often believe that the PSE is not an accurate indicator of the amount of the protection afforded by them and have repeatedly challenged this statistic. In this paper the researcher will analyze the subsidies granted to the agricultural sector in the developed nations, its impact on the developing nations and the role played by the WTO in negotiations between these two blocs. C h a p t e r 1 : A g r i c u l t u r a l S u b s i d i e s a n d D u m p i ng in t h e D e v e l o p e d N a t i o n s Widespread dumping by the Developed Nations: The WTO Antidumping Agreement and the Theory of Endogenous Trade Policy January 1, 2005 marked the 10-year anniversary of the World Trade Organizations Agreement on Agriculture (AoA). When governments launched the agreement, they hailed it as a victory for farmers around the world: farmers were to benefit from more trade, greater access to markets and higher prices. A decade later, there is unquestionably more trade in agricultural products. However, higher and fair prices for farmers seem further away than ever. It is hard to make the case that the Agreement on Agriculture has done anything to benefit farmers anywhere in the world. Since the WTOs inception, widespread agricultural dumping, the selling of products at below their cost of production, by global agribusiness companies based in the United States and European Union has wreaked havoc on global agricultural markets. Hit hardest are the farmers in the developing and the least devel oped nations who have been forced to go out of business because of these policies. The Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) has documented export dumping from U.S.-based multinational corporations onto world agricultural markets for the last 14 years. The U.S. is one of the worlds largest sources of dumped agricultural commodities. The latest update shows that the US still undertakes large scale dumping the five most commonly exported products namely; wheat, soybean, corn, cotton and rice. Though the statistic shows that the amount of dumping has gone down as compared to the previous statistic but this is perceived to be largely as a result of the reduced supply because of bad weather and pest infestation than as a change in policy.  [6]   The proliferation of WTO-authorized antidumping laws and the global increase in use of this form of administered import protection has been widely recognized (Miranda, Torres and Ruiz 1998; Prusa, 2001; Zanardi, 2004). While antidumping was once a policy instrument used primarily by the US, Canada, EU and Australia, it is now used actively by over 40 WTO member countries. To develop a theoretical motivation for our empirical analysis of the determinants of antidumping use by industries in developing countries, we proceed in two steps. In the next section we describe the WTO Antidumping Agreement, which sets out the general rules for national administration of antidumping law as well as the technical evidence necessary for a government to justify imposition of any new antidumping measure. Given the political-economic environment created by the WTO Antidumping Agreement, in section we use the theory of endogenous trade policy to generate additional testable predictions for the economet ric analysis. The WTOs evidentiary requirements for national use of antidumping Since the 1947 GATT, the rules of the international trading system have authorized countries to establish national antidumping statutes and to implement antidumping trade restrictions.  [7]  During the Kennedy and Tokyo Rounds in the 1960s and 1970s, negotiators attempted to put more structure on the GATT antidumping rules, but countries adopted the resulting Antidumping Codes only on a plurilateral basis. The 1995 inception of the WTO and its Antidumping Agreement (WTO, 1995) provided more detailed guidance for countries to implement and administer antidumping laws.  [8]  First, because the Antidumping Agreement was part of the Single Undertaking, it established a common set of basic rules that would apply to all WTO members and be subject to the enforcement provisions of the WTO Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU).  [9]  Second, relative to the GATT, the WTO Antidumping Agreement did impose more structure on the evidentiary requirements for a government to implement a new antidumping measure, although those requirements still allow for substantial government discretion and are at best questionable from the perspective of economic welfare. Under the Antidumping Agreement, a national government must undertake an investigation and consider substantial economic evidence before it can impose a definitive antidumping measure that restricts imports. The investigating authority is instructed to consider a number of factors when making its decision, but most critical among them are whether two important legal criteria have been met: that a domestic industry suffers material injury and that this injury is the result of dumped imports. The domestic industry provides evidence of dumping to the national governments antidumping authority by showing that prices of competing products sold by foreign exporters in the domestic market were lower than the normal value of the product (WTO, 1995; Article 2.1). The national government authority has substantial discretion in calculating the normal value benchmark with which to compare the export price. The benchmark can be determined by any of three methods: i) the price for sales of the same good in the exporters home market, ii) the price for export sales of the same good in a third market, or iii) a constructed measure of the exporters average cost.  [10]   Dumping in the United states: Dumping by U.S.-based corporations is possible because commodity production is badly managed. The 1996 and 2002 U.S. Farm Bills have produced a vast structural, price-depressing oversupply of most major agricultural commodities. This oversupply has driven prices down. Both the 1996 and 2002 Farm Bills were driven by efforts to make them compliant with WTO rules. The result has been the institutionalization of agricultural dumping by U.S. farm policy. U.S. farm subsidies are frequently blamed for agricultural dumping, yet they are only a symptom of a much deeper market failure. The sharp increases in agricultural dumping in the U.S. can be traced to the 1996 U.S. Farm Bill, which stripped away already weakened programs that were designed to manage supply. These supply management programs helped to balance supply with demand, ensuring a fair return to farmers from the marketplace. The pre-1996 commodity programs in effect set a floor price that commodity b uyers had to pay farmers. Given the structural imbalance in market power between farmers and agribusiness corporations, the government traditionally intervened to ensure competitive markets and prevent anticompetitive business practices.  [11]   In 1996, the U.S. government abandoned intervention mechanisms at the behest of agribusiness lobbyists, supported by free trade economists. The result: U.S. agricultural prices went into freefall. Without the supply control programs and other interventions, commodity buyers were able to drive prices below the costs of production and leave them there. To prevent the collapse of U.S. agriculture, Congress then set up counter-cyclical payments to make up part of the losses resulting from the Farm Bill reforms. The U.S. now has very expensive farm programs that distort market signals while doing nothing to correct the deeper distortion inherent in the unbalanced market power between farmers and commodity buyers and processors.  [12]   The event of dumping in itself does not pose a major problem for the international community but what has been a constant source of concern is the widespread damage that has caused to the developing countries.  [13]  The researcher shall devote the next two chapters of this project to discuss the damage that have been caused all around the world because of dumping by the developed countries and the mechanism employed by the WTO to counter this problem and how far that has been successful. C h a p t e r 2 : T h e I m p a c t o f D u m p i n g a n d A g r i c u l t u r a l S u b s i d i e s o n D e v e l o p i n g C o u n t r i e s. Ten years after the World Trade Organization (WTO) came into existence, and some 20 years after the holy grail of economic liberalization for more open markets and less government intervention in the developing world based on the idea that economies must grow if poor people are to reap the benefits of globalization, the tragedy is that the process of economic liberalization may already have set poor communities back a generation.  [14]  No where has the impact been more severely felt than in the agricultural sector. Conventional wisdom has it that the agricultural sector is heavily subsidized in most developed nations. Whatever difficulties may arise in determining the net impact of government on industries in general, most observers seem to agree that agriculture is a net beneficiary of government largesse. It is ironic that the one sector considered to be the most subsidized is subject to the least degree of discipline on subsidies (among goods markets). As noted, both export and domestic subsidies are generally permissible under the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, though subject to negotiated ceilings and some reduction over time. The absence of tight discipline on export subsidies is unfortunate for the reasons discussed at length earlier. Export subsidies are almost certainly a source of economic distortion, and indeed the agricultural sector affords a case study of how pressures for competitive subsidization have led trading nations down the road of mutually wasteful expenditures. The resistance to the elimination of domestic farm programs is likely a source of economic waste as well, for much the same reason that any form of protectionism is a source of waste. But as indicated in the discussion of protective subsidies, it is hardly clear that protection through subsidization is any worse from an economic standpoint than other forms of protection. Thus, if the political equilibrium is such that agriculture must be protected, domestic farm programs may be no more troublesome that border measures. One objection that might be tabled to the continued coexistence of domestic farm programs and protective border measures for the same commodities (assuming that protection is inevitable) is that multiple protective measures complicate trade negotiations. If country A wishes to bargain for access to the agricultural markets of country B, it is harder to evaluate the benefits of a tariff concession from country B in the face of a subsidy program that also protects farmers in country B. The added transaction costs of negotiation in the face of multiple instruments of protection can be avoided by channeling all protection into a single, transparent policy instrument-this is the essential rationale for efforts in the WTO/GATT system toward tariffication of all trade barriers. Yet, the prevalence of domestic farm programs suggests that border measures alone are inadequate to the task of achieving the anticompetitive purposes compelled by current politics. One need only look at the United States, which is a net exporter of many agricultural commodities, to realize that import restrictions may do little to ensure politically acceptable prices or rates of return to the producers of certain commodities. Thus, perhaps the best that can be done is to schedule all the protective policies, both subsidies and tariffs, and bargain over both simultaneously to achieve limits on their magnitude. This is the approach of the Agriculture Agreement, and one might reasonably hope that sequential rounds of negotiations over these protective instruments in the agricultural area will produce gradual liberalization, much as the sequence of negotiating rounds under GATT brought great reductions in the tariffs applicable elsewhere. There is also something to be said for the effort in Annex 2 of the Agriculture Agreement to favor subsidies that do not encourage output. To the degree that subsidies are being granted for reasons that do not relate to the correction of an externality, programs that confer financial benefits on the intended recipients without inducing an expansion of their output may create fewer distortions. The caveat, of course, relates to the fundamental problem of identifying subsidies in the first instance-an output-expanding subsidy might counteract some distortion associated with other tax and regulatory policies. But in the agriculture sector, where most observers believe that net subsidies are present at the outset, efforts to channel farm aid into programs that do not stimulate agricultural production may make good sense. Subsidies to the producers of goods and services lower the producers costs of production, other things being equal. This reduction in their costs of production can lead to an expansion of their output in two ways, depending on the nature of the subsidy. First, some subsidies depend directly on output-the subsidy program may provide a producer with $1 for each widget that it produces, for example (or $1 for each widget that it exports, the classic export subsidy discussed below). Subsidies that increase with output in this fashion are economically equivalent to a reduction in the short-run marginal costs of production for the producer that receives them. In general, producers will respond to a reduction in short-run marginal costs by lowering price. Of course, when price falls, the quantity demanded by buyers will rise and output will expand to meet the increased demand. Second, even where the amount of the subsidy is not contingent on output and does not affect short-run marginal costs of production, subsidies can affect long-run marginal costs in a way that causes additional productive capacity to come on line or to remain on line. For example, imagine an unprofitable company that is unable to cover its variable costs of production at any level of output, and would thus shut down its operations under ordinary circumstances. A subsidy to that company that is contingent on it remaining in business can avert a shut-down in operations-it must simply be enough to allow the company to cover its variable costs at some level of output. Likewise, a subsidy can induce a company to build new capacity to enter a market when the expected returns to entry absent the subsidy would not be high enough to induce entry. It is also possible, to be sure, that a subsidy will have no impact on the output of recipients. Imagine, for example, that a government simply sends a company an unexpected check for $1 million. The money is in no way contingent on the companys output, or on it remaining in business. The owners of the company will be pleased to receive this subsidy, of course, but there is no reason for them to change their operations in any way-whatever level of output was most profitable without the subsidy will also be most profitable with the subsidy. These observations suggest another important issue that must be confronted in conceptualizing subsidies. For a government program to confer a subsidy, must it encourage an increase in output by the recipient? If it does not, then it cannot tilt the playing field in a way that causes detriment to competing producers. But if this question is answered affirmatively, it becomes necessary to inquire whether the government program in question affects marginal costs in the short run, or has an effect on long-run marginal cost that is sufficient to cause capacity to remain in production when it would exit otherwise, or to enter when it would not otherwise. Such issues are not always easily resolved.  [15]   The adverse effect of Dumping: Dumping in amongst the most harmful of all price distortions; developing country agriculture, vital for food security, rural livelihoods, poverty reduction and generating foreign exchange, is crippled by the competition from major commodities sold at well below cost of production prices in world markets. The structural price depression associated with agricultural dumping and a dual effect on the agricultural structure of the developing countries. Firstly, as a result of the below cost imports the farmers are driven out of their domestic markets. If the farmers do not have access to a safety net of subsidies and credit, they have to abandon their land. When this happens, the farm economy shrinks, in turn shrinking the rural economy as a whole and sending rural people into trade-related migration. Second, developing country farmers who sell their products to exporters find their global market share undermined by the policy of a depressed global price. Th e cascading effects of dumping are felt around the world in places as far apart as Jamaica, Burkina Faso and the Philippines.  [16]   The effect of Dumping on Indian Agriculture: The liberalization of the Indian economy initiated during the early 1990s was launched with a view to accelerating agricultural growth by ending discrimination against agriculture. The idea was to turn the terms of trade in favor of agriculture through a large, real devaluation of the currency and increase in output prices of agriculture. An exponential growth was expected which was to have a significant impact on poverty reduction and thereby have a positive impact on livelihood security of hundreds

The Influence on the Beatles on American Culture Essay -- The British

The Beatles were more than their music. They influenced the lives of millions of people unlike any musicians before them. They were the first and most popular band in one of the most important music movements in American history, the British Invasion. The year 1964 was the year both the British Invasion and â€Å"Beatlemania† came to America and forever changed the landscape of music in the United States by introducing the genre of pop, as it is today. The Beatles changed the rules of music. Many things that are considered normal now were pioneered by the Beatles such as: creating compilation albums, expressing their views on world happenings through the media, musicians in movies, and even mass media advertising. The beatles influenced American culture more than any other musical artist in history (Holmes, 2012). Prior to the Beatles’ arrival to the United States in 1964, American society was in a valley of negativity. The following were some of the big headlines the American people had to endure: President John F. Kennedy, one of the most popular presidents ever, was assassinated in November of 1963. President Lyndon B. Johnson was increasing U.S. involvement in Vietnam, which was also creating tax increases, all despite the protests of millions of Americans. Policemen on national television were beating Martin Luther King Jr.’s followers. All of this negative publicity surrounding the American public had the people, especially the youth, needing something to take their mind off of the depression going on all around them. â€Å"The Beatles – with their cheeky wit and catchy, upbeat pop songs – proved to be the perfect anecdote for America’s collective depression† (Harry, 2004). Luckily for the American public and... .... "The Beatles." City Portal Liverpool. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 May 2015. . A Brief History "The Beatles: It Was 40 Years Ago That They Began to Play." News Center. Richard Aquila, n.d. Web. 17 May 2015. . "The Beatles: Most Influential Band of All Time." Hub Pages. N.p., 4 May 2012. Web. 15 May 2015. "The British Invasion." Survey of American Popular Music. Mus273, n.d. Web. 17 May 2015. . "History of The Beatles." Beatle Tribute Bands. @lphaENTERTAINMENT, 2007. Web. 17 May 2015. .

Friday, July 19, 2019

The three stories I have chosen to study are: Flight by Doris Lessing,

The three stories I have chosen to study are: Flight by Doris Lessing, Superman and Paula Browns New Snowsuit by Sylvia Plath and Chemistry by Graham Swift. In these three stories the writers explores complex family relationships. Choose three stories, where the writers present difficult relationships between family members, compare and contrast these relationships. The three stories I have chosen to study are: ‘Flight’ by Doris Lessing, ‘Superman and Paula Browns New Snowsuit’ by Sylvia Plath and ‘Chemistry’ by Graham Swift. In these three stories the writers explores complex family relationships, through a variety of techniques: imagery, mood and atmosphere, symbolism and structuring the stories to built up to a climax, when there is a point of realisation for both character and reader. All three stories begin by presenting idyllic family relationships but as the stories progress things change. The story Flight by Doris Lessing is about an unnamed old man who keeps pigeons, he worries about his granddaughter, Alice. He has seen his other granddaughters leave home, and he is possessive of Alice and jealous of Steven, her boyfriend. The old man argues with Alice about her behaviour, and complains to his daughter, Alice's mother Lucy. At the start of the story the old man shuts up his favourite pigeon, rather than let it fly. When Steven, the boyfriend, makes him a present of a new pigeon, he is more able to accept what is going to happen, and he lets his favourite go. The ending of the story is has more than one possible meaning: Alice has tears on her face, as she stares at her grandfather. But I do not know if they are for him, for Steven, for herself, or for some other cause. And we do not kn... ...d that she is to blame for the damage to the snowsuit. In this story, Plath explores the themes of: corruption and betrayal, material possessions and human values, man and superman, fantasy and reality. One way the writer uses to explore these themes is the use of symbolism; in the story flying is a symbol of possibility and imagination. At the start, the narrator dreams of flying, and seems able to believe in her dreams. At the end, flight is no longer a possibility and the airplanes vanish with Superman's cape. The story contrasts two costumes – one is Superman's famous blue suit, with the red cape trailing behind; the other is Paula's powder-blue snowsuit. They seem to represent opposing ideas. Superman's costume is a symbol of justice and miraculous deliverance from evil. Paula's snowsuit comes to represent self-indulgence and petty materialism.