Unilever & Procter and Gamble

Unilever [pic] The company was formed by a merger of Dutch Margarine Union and British soap-makers Lever Brothers in 1929. Unilever was one of the world’s first genuine multinationals with operating companies in more than 40 countries. The company produces and distributes a vast number of well known brands in the areas of nutrition, hygiene and personal care that are used by consumers all over the world. The history of Unilever dates back to 1885, William Lever established a soap manufacturing company in the UK with his brothers and named the company Lever Brothers in 1885.William Hesketh Lever was born at Bolton; Lancashire in 1852 was the son of grocer. Together with James Lever, William Lever opened soap factory at Warrington, England, in 1885. Their products, Sunlight, the world’s first packaged soap, were very successful. The soup they made in ready moulded tablet. Previously laundry soap was marketed in bars and grocers cut off pieces and sold them by weight. Unti l 1919 Lever was wholly own a controlled by the founder. By 1919, as a result of ingle minded expansionist, commercial policies, his firm accounted for 60 percent of soap production in Britain.Two butter makers, Jurgen and Van den Berghs formed Margarine Union in 1927. The Dutch Margarine Union merged with Lever Brothers of United Kingdom in 1929 to form Unilever. During the 1930s, the structure and management do Unilever has been describe as a professional largely non-family managed hierarchy. Unilever has been present in the North Africa and Middle East region since 1933. For tax, purpose, two separate entities were established, one in London and another in Rotterdam. Historically, Unilever has grown to be a very multilocal company. However, while the company used to work with regional supply chains on regional brands.Unilever started to globalize their brands in the early and mid 1990s. Mergers & Acquisitions and Divestments of Unilever ? With effect from 1 January 2008, Unilever entered into an expanded international partnership with PepsiCo for the marketing and distribution of ready-to-drink tea products under the Lipton brand. ? 2nd April 2008, acquisition of Inmarko, the leading Russian ice cream company. ? 4 December 2008, a 50:50 joint venture between two Singapore-based companies, Wilmar International Limited and Olam International Limited for sale of our edible oil business. 24 February 2009, Unilever agreed to acquire the iconic Romanian ice cream brand Napoca, as part of our expansion into the country’s ice cream market. ? 4 April 2009, acquisition of the global TIGI professional hair product business and its Advanced Education Academies. ? 3 July 2009, acquisition of the sauces business of Baltimor Holding ZAO, the leading ketchup business in Russia. ? 18 January 2010, Unilever signed a definitive agreement to sell their Shedd’s Country Crock-branded chilled side-dish business in the US to Hormel Foods Corporation. 19 August 2010,à ‚  Unilever signed an asset purchase agreement with Norwegian dairy group TINE, to acquire the activities of Diplom-Is ice cream operations in Denmark. ? 24 September 2010, Unilever announced an agreement to sell Unilever’s consumer tomato products business in Brazil to foods company Cargill for approximately â‚ ¬260 million. ? 28 September 2010, Unilever and EVGA announced that they would acquire EVGA’s ice cream brands and distribution network, enriching their ice cream portfolio in Greece. 6 December 2010, Unilever completed the acquisition of the Sara Lee Personal Care and European Laundry business for â‚ ¬1. 2 billion. ? 10/05/2011, Unilever acquired the Alberto Culver Company. Proctor & Gamble [pic] Since 1837, P&G has built a rich heritage of touching consumers’ lives with brands that make life a little better every day. In 1887, P&G institutes a pioneering profit-sharing program that gives employees an ownership stake in the Company. This significa nt innovation helps employees connect their vital roles with the Company’s success.In 1924, P&G becomes the first company to conduct deliberate, data-based market research with consumers. This forward-thinking approach enables them to improve consumer understanding, anticipate consumer needs and respond with products that improve their everyday life. In 1941, P&G becomes one of the first companies to formally respond to consumer correspondence by establishing the Consumer Relations department. The addition of toll-free phone numbers in 1973 and e-mail in the 1980s further enhance consumers’ ability to contact and keep the consumer at the heart of all they do.In 1955, Crest is co-developed with Indiana University. This collaboration delivers a product that is a breakthrough in the use of fluoride to protect against tooth decay, the second-most prevalent disease at the time. In 2002, P&G develops Naturella feminine pads specifically to meet the needs of low-income women in Latin America. Based on deep consumer understanding, Naturella responds to consumers’ desire for freshness with chamomile, a unique ingredient never before used in feminine care products. In 2005, High Frequency Stores common in developing markets emerge as their largest customer channel.Consisting of nearly 20 million stores across the world, HFS represents a particular opportunity in fast-growing, low-income markets. Through HFS, we connect to consumers with affordable products and packaging specially designed for their needs. Mergers & Acquisitions and Divestments of P&G ? Procter & Gamble (P&G) agreed to sell â€Å"iconic snack brand† Pringles to Diamond Foods in a deal worth $2. 3bn (? 1. 4bn). Pringles, the world's largest potato crisp brand, will triple Diamond's existing snack business. ? Divested its Western European tissue/towel business to SCA, a global consumer goods and paper company.The deal involves the sale of manufacturing assets, P&G's Tempo brand in Europe and Hong Kong, and the licensing of Charmin & Bounty trademarks in Europe. ? Divested its slow-growing Folgers coffee business as a sacrifice to its long-term growth goals. ? In 2005, P acquired the largest acquisition in its history by purchasing Gillete brand for $57 billion. This deal not only included Gillete razors but also Duracell batteries and Braun and Oral-B brand dental products. This deal gave P even more control over  shelf-space in retailers all over the world. Current Global PositionLet us see where the two companies stand in the World’s Most Admired Companies from the data collected by Fortune: | | | | | | | | | Strategic Problems today & Recommendations

The Picture of Dorian Gray Vocabulary List

The Picture of Dorian Gray Vocabulary List 1 (Q2) Precis (noun): Make summary of. â€Å"I know she goes in for giving a rapid precis of all her guests. † (Pg. 14) Ravelled (verb): To tangle or entangle. â€Å"†How horribly unjust of you! † cried Lord Henry, tilting his hat back and looking up at the little clouds that, like ravelled skeins of glossy white silk, were drifting across the hollowed turquoise of the summer sky. † (Pg. 15) Candour (noun): The state or quality of being frank, open, and sincere in speech or expression; candidness. All the candour of youth was there, as well as all youth's passionate purity. † (Pg. 26) Sovereignty (noun): Rightful status, independence, or prerogative. â€Å"It has its divine right of sovereignty. † (Pg. 35) Hedonism (noun): Doctrine that pleasure or happiness is the highest good. â€Å"A new Hedonism–that is what our century wants. † (Pg. 36) Staccato (adjective): Shortened or detached when played or sung. â€Å"Suddenly the painter appeared at the door of the studio and made staccato signs for them to come in. † (Pg. 37) Caprice (noun): Sudden, unpredictable change, as of one's mind or the weather. The only difference between a caprice and a lifelong passion is that the caprice lasts a little longer. † (Pg. 38) Vermillion (noun): A bright red, to reddish-orange color. â€Å"†It is quite finished,† he cried at last, and stooping down he wrote his name in long vermilion letters on the left-hand corner of the canvas. † (Pg. 38) Panegyric (noun): Formal or elaborate praise. â€Å"Then had come Lord Henry Wotton with his strange panegyric on youth, his terrible warning of its brevity. † (Pg. 40) Wizen (verb): To wither; shrivel up; dry up. Yes, there would be a day when his face would be wrinkled and wizen, his eyes dim and colourless, the grace of his figure broken and deformed. † (Pg. 40) Divan (noun): A sofa or couch, with n o arms or back, often usable as a bed. â€Å"The hot tears welled into his eyes; he tore his hand away and, flinging himself on the divan, he buried his face in the cushions, as though he was praying. † (Pg. 42) Hansom (noun): A low-hung, two-wheeled, covered vehicle drawn by one horse, for two passengers, with the driver being mounted on an elevated seat behind and the reins running over the roof. â€Å"Come, Mr.Gray, my hansom is outside, and I can drop you at your own place. Good-bye, Basil. It has been a most interesting afternoon. † -Lord Henry (Pg. 48) Indolence (adjective): Disliking work or effort; lazy; idle. â€Å"His father had been our ambassador at Madrid when Isabella was young and Prim unthought of, but had retired from the diplomatic service in a capricious moment of annoyance on not being offered the Embassy at Paris, a post to which he considered that he was fully entitled by reason of his birth, his indolence, the good English of his dispatches, and his inordinate passion for pleasure. (Pg. 49) Collieries (noun): A coal mine, including all buildings and equipment. â€Å"He paid some attention to the management of his collieries in the Midland counties, excusing himself for this taint of industry on the ground that the one advantage of having coal was that it enabled a gentleman to afford the decency of burning wood on his own hearth. † (Pg. 49) Cheroot (noun): A cigar having open ends. â€Å"When Lord Henry entered the room, he found his uncle sitting in a rough shooting-coat, smoking a cheroot and grumbling over The Times. (Pg. 49) Facile (adjective): Moving, acting, working, proceeding, etc. , with ease, sometimes with superficiality. â€Å"He invented a facile excuse, and having taken the vacant seat next to her, looked round to see who was there. † (Pg. 57) Liveried (adjective): Clad in livery as servants. â€Å"At last, liveried in the costume of the age, reality entered the room in the shape of a servant to tell the duchess that her carriage was waiting. † (Pg. 65) Expound (verb): To explain; interpret. Some day, when you are tired of London, come down to Treadley and expound to me your philosophy of pleasure over some admirable Burgundy I am fortunate enough to possess. † (Pg. 67) Cosmopolitan (noun): A person who is free from local, provincial, or national bias or attachment; citizen of the world. â€Å"Makes it quite cosmopolitan, doesn't it? You have never been to any of my parties, have you, Mr. Gray? † (Pg. 71) Brocade (noun): Fabric woven with an elaborate design, esp. one having a raised overall pattern. â€Å"I went to look after a piece of old brocade in Wardour Street and had to bargain for hours for it. † (Pg. 72)

Limiting Reagents Lab Essay

Problem: What mass of precipitate will form when 1.69g of CuCl2.2H20 reacts with 1.31g of aluminium? Aspect 3: Materials: > 150 mL beaker > Erlenmeyer Flask > 100ml Graduated Cylinder > Funnel; > Scoopula > Electronic Balance > Stir Rod > Aluminum Foil > CuCl2.2H20 > Distilled Water Procedure: Day 1 > Rinse beakerwith distilled water. > Mass 1.69g of CuCl2.2H2O. > Add to beaker and add 50mL of distilled water. > Mass aluminum. Fold in 1/2 & coil loosely. > Place in beaker and let sit overnight. Day 2 > Pull out Aluminum and rinse into beaker > Mass filter paper, put name on it > Put paper in funnel and funnel into the Erlenmeyer flas. > Pour in mixture. Rinse beaker three times. > Rinse funnel and paper twice. > Remove Paper and let dry overnight. Day 3 > Mass filter paper Data Collection and Processing (DCP) Aspect 1: Recording Raw Data: Mass of CuCl2.2H2O – 1.93g Mass of Al – ? (The massing of the aluminum was forgotten) Experimental mass of precipitate = .69g Aspect 2: Processing Data 2Al(s) + 3CuCl2.2H2O –> 3Cu(s) + 6H2O(l) + 2AlCl3(aq) m Al=1.93g M Al= 26.98 g/mol m 3CuCl2.2H2o = 1.69 g M 3CuCl2.2H2o = 152.47 g/mol (Chem 20 Data Booklet) m Cu = ? n CuCl2.2H2O = 1.93g / 170.49 g/mol n CuCl2.2H2O = .011320312 mol 3 mol CuCl2.2H2O = 3 mols Cu n Cu = .011320312 mol m Cu = .011320312 mol x 63.55 g/mol m Cu = .719g % yield = .69 / .719 = 96% Aspect 3: Experimental mass of Cu(s) precipitate = .69g Theoretical mass of Cu (s) precipitate = .719g % yield = 96% Conclusion and Evaluation (CE) Aspect 1: Conclusion: The mass of precipitate that forms when 1.93g of CuCl2.2H20 reacts with 1.31g of aluminum is .69 g. The % yield was 96%. The massing of aluminum was forgotten but when another piece was massed and the numbers were worked out, it was shown that there was an excess of aluminum and that the CuCl2.2H2O was the limiting reagent. Aspect 2: Evaluate: There were .029g of Cu precipitate less than expected. It is likely that some of the copper went into the Erlenmeyer or was stuck on the funnel. Despite thorough rinsing of the filter paper, some of the precipitate got through the filter paper and into the Erlenmeyer. Aspect 3 Improving Experimental Design: Instead of one piece of filter paper, two pieces should be used. This would lead to less precipitate going into the Erlenmeyer. Also, the water in the Erlenmeyer could be re-filtered.

Ethical Case - Related to Accounting Principles & Adjusting Entries Essay

Ethical Case - Related to Accounting Principles & Adjusting Entries - Essay Example In order to report a higher current ratio than the actual value, the company’s chief financial officer omitted some items such the accrued salary payable and supplies for the period. Based on the short case, two discussions will be prepared. The first discussion concerns whether failure to make adjustment entries would lead to an improvement in the current ratio. The second analysis shows whether it is ethical for such omissions to be made, and the relevant accounting principle involved. The current ratio is used to measure the ability of the company to meet all the current obligations using the current assets, and without exhausting the available current assets. The current ratio is obtained using the following formula = (current assets/current liabilities). J’s Wedding Production required current ratio of 1.5 means that the company’s current assets should cover the current liabilities 1.5 times before they are exhausted. Similarly, the actual current ratio of the business, 1.4 means that the current assets could cover the current liabilities 1.4 times before they are exhausted. The accrued salary payable and the supplies used during the year are categorized under liabilities and current assets respectively (Kapil, 2011). Their omission reduces the reported total current responsibility and also increases the stated amount of inventories (current assets) for the company. The total current liabilities are a factor of the current ratio. That is, current ratio = (current assets/current liabilities). Therefore, if the current liabilities are reduced by eliminating some liability items (the accrued salary payable) and the current assets increased by included the amount of inventories used during the period, the numerator element is increased while the denominator part is reduced, thus, leading to high current ratio (Kapil, 2011). Various users use the accounting information for different purposes. The user is the investors, the employees,

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 - Essay Example Public companies are demanded to set internal control structures to guarantee the quality and accuracy of financial reports in order to enable investors make informed decisions on which investments decisions they should undertake. Public companies are therefore needed to have independent board of directors to provide oversight and develop and assess internal controls systems. Secondly, the act has stipulated the standards and manner in which auditors should carry their mandate by ensuring that their independence is not impaired and that members of the audit engagements do not have conflict of interests (Pain & Karmakar, 2007). It further restricted audit firms from providing non audit services that are likely to interfere with their objectivity. In addition, the act has placed the responsibility of ensuring accurate and complete financial reports on senior management. The act specifies the responsibility of senior management on the validity and accuracy of the financial reports and outlines the interaction between board audit committees and the external auditors. Moreover, Sarbanes Oxley highlights the enhanced financial disclosure requirements for the financial results (Pain & Karmakar, 2007). Public companies are required to disclose off balance sheet transactions and beef their reporting. Significant changes in the assumptions and conditions should further be disclosed. Likewise, the act mandates security analysts, directors and auditors to declare their conflict of interest before accepting to provide financial services to public companies. Equally stipulated in the act are the penalties preferred for destruction, manipulation and alteration of financial records with an objective of misleading the public in order to make financial gains. It recommends sentencing and incorporates failure to certify financial reports as an

Benefit Plan Design Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

Benefit Plan Design Analysis - Essay Example However, it has been identified that despite several competitive employee benefit programs, American Airlines Incorporation has certain lacuna in its benefit plan. The issue associated in the benefit plan is that the company does not allow its employees to travel free of cost until and unless they have completed a period of ten years with the American Airline Association. The company also seems to be lacking in providing the other benefit plans in comparison to its competitors such as SouthWest Airways, Delta (AACareers, 2010). There are many cases filed against the company’s benefit plan such as ‘Robert T.Miller Appellant V. American Airlines, Inc,; American Airlines, Inc., Pilot Retirement Benefit Program Fixed Income Plan (A Plan); American Airlines, Inc Pension Benefits Administration Committee under case number 10-1784 on 1/25/2011’ (Third Judicial Circuit, 2011). The other case filed against the company has been ‘George W. BONIN, Plaintiff-Appellant, v . AMERICAN AIRLINES, INC. and the American Airlines, Inc. ... Part Three: Literature Review Role of Benefit Plan in an Organization The reliability and the accuracy of the benefit program depend upon the two factors. The first factor relies upon the fact that the benefit program needs to be capable of identifying the needs of the employees during the upliftment of the organizational objectives. The soundness of the benefit program also stems from the fact that the program is capable of effective management of such kind of programs (Bohlander & Snell, 2009). It can be worthy of mentioning that the biggest issue for the HR managers is to attract as well as retain the excellent talents in the organization. Therefore, it becomes important for the companies to implement numerous strategies along with the techniques so that they can cope up with this kind of human resource related issues. It is identified that the high performance organizations tend to surpass in relation to their competitors by implementing numerous human resource related strategies that include openness among the members, opportunity to learn and provide training to the employees. When a company tends to realize the fact that it is the human resource’s effective management that determines the competitiveness of the firm, the companies develop the above mentioned strategies (Hiltrop, 1999). In a next few decades most of the workforces in the organizations will be women and this tends to have an impact on the corporate employers. There will be two kinds of workforce, one of them will be career-primary and the other might be career and family. If the organization wants to retain their best talents in the organization they are supposed to identify the importance of both kinds of women and thus provide them a flexible working

Lakshmi Mittal and the Growth of Mittal Steel Assignment

Lakshmi Mittal and the Growth of Mittal Steel - Assignment Example This paper discusses the consistent growth of Lakshmi Mittal and all the issues it met, including in the final stages before merging with Arcelor. The strategy it undertook concerning foreign direct investment (merging and acquisition) undoubtedly enabled it reach greater heights. Arcelor Mittal Steel Company is a company that was started as a result of a merger between two steel companies namely Mittal Steel and Arcelor. The origin of the company was in India with Mittal being started in the early 1970s. The company, just like any other investment, faced some key issues and challenges as it developed. However, all these challenges have to be overcome by identifying available opportunities and making use of them. Competition in India was very stiff leading to limited growth opportunities. The main competition came from state and the privately owned companies. This led to the decision of Mittal to expand its borders to other countries, beginning with Indonesia. It is evident that Mittal in its foreign direct investment chose to use the method of merger and acquisition, rather than Greenfield investment. This is so because the merger method offers a lot of advantages. The local companies to be merged to or acquired are already conversant with the local customs and the institutions associated to the acquired firms. Furthermore, there is an advantage of easy access and relations with distribution systems. Mittal company only had to make improvements on what the merged firms had done, so as to establish itself in a competitive position and eliminate the potential competitors. Marinescu and Constantin (2008) say that â€Å"from financial point of view, the acquisition necessitates a smaller initi al investment. Capital is injected step by step, leading to lower market risk as opposed to a Greenfield† (n.p.). In as many countries that Mittal developed, there are a lot of advantages that are achieved by the host nations. Apart

See upload Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

See upload - Assignment Example Tax returns, copies thereof, or other records may be sufficient to establish the use of the method of accounting used in the preparation of the taxpayers income tax returns (i)  Cash receipts and disbursements method.  Generally, under the cash receipts and disbursements method in the computation of taxable income, all items which constitute gross income (whether in the form of cash, property, or services) are to be included for the taxable year in which actually or constructively received. Expenditures are to be deducted for the taxable year in which actually made. For rules relating to constructive receipt, see  §1.451-2. For treatment of an expenditure attributable to more than one taxable year, see section 461(a) and paragraph (a)(1) of  §1.461-1. (ii)  Accrual method.  (A) Generally, under an accrual method, income is to be included for the taxable year when all the events have occurred that fix the right to receive the income and the amount of the income can be determined with reasonable accuracy. Except as provided in section 5.02(2) of this revenue procedure for certain short taxable years, this revenue procedure does not permit deferral to a taxable year later than the next succeeding taxable year The court, distinguishing from the holding in Schlude v. Commissioner, held that accrual method taxpayers are not required to include prepayments in gross income when there is certainty as to when performance would occur. Verdict: the Court held that, under the accrual method, taxpayers must include as income in a particular year advance payments by way of cash, negotiable notes, and contract installments falling due but remaining unpaid during that year. Verdict: It was held that the Commissioner of Internal Revenue did not abuse his discretion in determining that the prepaid dues were taxable as income in the year in which they were actually received and in rejecting

Critical review for academic article Literature

Critical for academic article - Literature review Example The article explains that the term â€Å"affective† is utilized in order to refer to emotions, feelings that are provoked among students towards science in general or specifically. This report is presented from several studies conducted in twenty-five different case studies, which utilized a condensed fieldwork strategy in which collection of data was through discussions recorded on audio tapes, interviews as well as notes on field observations. Moreover, there were samples of practical lessons, which were conducted in English comprehensive schools. In fact, this study was conducted in phases, whereby during stage three and four, the research focused on students between the age of 11-14 and 15-16.This report presents findings from the research based on practical work. The findings indicate that practical work for students offers short-term engagements, which is comparatively unproductive in the process of motivating students to study science post compulsory education or for in dividual interest, which is long-term. This academic article presents ideas, which indicates that people directly involved in science education are expected to establish a realistic understanding of shortcomings of practical work in the affective domain especially in post compulsory stages of education. Therefore, in my perspective, this article provides necessary ideas, which are gathered to suggest that practical work is a motivator in primary level school science as against in secondary and post secondary stages of education. This research article presents substantial illustrations focused on lack of precision on the use of crucial terms, while discussing affective value of practical work in relation to the attitude towards science. On the other hand, the research focuses on avoidance of overlap of terminologies, whereby there is ample clarification of terms such as motivation and personal interest. Besides, the report aims at finding out whether pupils are motivated by practical work in learning science. Moreover, the researchers focused on presenting their meaning on psychological sense, while considering the chance of these terms being operational. Methodology: The research presented in this academic article applied a methodology approach that focused on collection of data through observation and tape-recorded interviews, which were undertaken through collaboration with teachers prior to and after lessons. On the other hand, the researchers utilized pre-lesson interviews focused at accounting for practical work, which was observed and its relation to teachers’ perceptions towards achievement of learning objectives. There were collections of teachers’ reflections based on the moment after the lesson interview, which focused on identifying achievement of learning objectives. This focused on their perception towards a teacher’s affective value of practical work in learning. The researchers utilized conversations among groups of pupils d uring and after lessons and they were recorded. Besides, these conversations offered a chance for gathering ideas regarding students’

Unnatural Causes Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Unnatural Causes - Movie Review Example Social class and racism are not natural causes for sickness and hence the title of the film ‘unnatural causes’. The film is similar with other media that I have seen, read, and heard on the issues of health disparities and how it relates to one’s social class in that people in the lower social class are prone to disempowerment. Their economic status is low due to lack of the necessary resources and opportunities and hence they tend to get sick more often and their life expectancy is low. The people in this class are subject to chronic stress and cannot have access to better medical care services. They tend to get sick more often and hence live shorter lives. Exposure to chronic stress of race in a lifetime often leads to delivery of premature babies thus affecting health and life expectancy (California Newsreel, 2008). The film confirmed biases I had in regards to being poor rich, that wealthy people lead better, longer and healthy lives as compared to the poor (Haitkin, 2008). The question that surfaced for me during the film that I would like to know more about is how the health status of the low social class can improve. With America having the highest gross national product in the world, how can the poor have access to medical care and training on health issues? The statement that best describes what I learnt from the film is that health inequalities are not natural. This is because, health disparities that are because of racial and class inequities arise from the decisions the society makes (California Newsreel, 2008). As a future nurse, I propose that the society or the government should try to ensure that everyone gains access to health care regardless of their wealth in order to live longer and healthier

Tax on Tobacco in the UK Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Tax on Tobacco in the UK - Coursework Example Tobacco tax in the UK has increased over the years, data collected from the tobacco manufacturers association (2009) shows that in 1990 the amount of tax per 20 cigarettes amounted to 1.2 pounds while in 2009 the tax had increased to 4.34, the following chart summarises taxes over the years: The above chart shows an increase in the level of tax per 20 cigarettes for the period 1990 to 2009. However according to the ACT on tobacco and health state that despite this increase in taxes, tobacco taxes are only adjusted in line with the rate of inflation and therefore have no major effect on tobacco consumption. Tobacco taxes are imposed for various reasons, these taxes are imposed in order to reduce tobacco use in the economy and therefore improve public health. However, the price elasticity of tobacco is an important factor to consider when imposing the tax in order to determine whether the price increase will reduce consumption to the desired level. Price elasticity of demand refers to the decline in demand when the prices are increased, the price elasticity value identifies the sensitivity of demand to a price change, price elasticity value of negative one means that a 4% increase in price will increase reduce demand by 4%, a value greater than negative one example -0.05 means that the demand is price inelastic while a value less than negative one example -4 means that we have relative elasticity, the following diagram demonstrates the nature of these demand curves that are inelastic, unitary and elastic. (Gregory Mankiw, 2002) From the above diagrams, it is evident that in diagram one a price increase by one from price 1 to price 2 will reduce demand by one unit from quantity 2 to quantity 1, the price elasticity value here will be -1 and, therefore we have unitary elasticity.

Accounting System Paper Essay Example for Free

Accounting System Paper Essay Kudler Fine Foods has done a wonderful job with its current accounting system by manually tracking data and not having a uniform system for providing information about that data. Data is the raw and unorganized version of information while information is categorized and decipherable data that correlates to the business. Kudler Fine Foods is making a transition from the less efficient and more labor intensive accounting methods to a technology based accounting system which saves money being that it is more efficient and more robust. The core features, benefits, and cost will be discussed as you continue to read this paper. As mentioned earlier, Kudler Fine Foods is making a transition to a computerized accounting system which will have the ability to communicate with all branches of the business. Kudler Fine foods will utilize an accounting system which is integral part of the Enterprise resource planning software that is being deployed in the Kudler Fine Foods environment. The ERP software will be able to capture real time data directly from the point of sale (cash registers) and automatically adjust inventory and profit data. See more:Â  Social Satire in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay The accounting software will also use a compliance management feature will provide complete transaction audit trails and rules-based controls and advanced reporting capabilities which are compliant with laws and regulations. More benefits are advanced financial forecasting the can accurately predict and estimate potential profits and pending losses, revenue and cash flow. This gives Kudler Fine Foods the ability to analyze past trends to help make better business decisions in the future. In addition, the accounting software will give Kudler Fine Foods the ability to deep dive into the cash management aspect of their business by more accurately assessing current and future cash needs and track all transactions that directly impact available cash levels. In an ERP environment, Kudler Fine Foods will adopt a client/server system. The Client/Server technology model is the model in which today’s softwares are developed. A Client/Server model is one in which the client computer is identified separately from the server computer. This will require servers with Windows serve 2008 and networking equipment which will allow all workstations to communicate to application servers, shared data drives and communicate with the outside world. With the added benefits of an ERP system in the Kudler Fine Food environment, comes an added expense of support of the system. Currently, Kudler Fine Foods can anticipate an expense of twenty-five thousand dollars with a potential ceiling of two hundred fifty thousand dollars. References Top 10 ERP. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.top10erp.org/sap-erp-software-comparison-technology-140 Technology required for Erp. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.vkinfotek.com/erp/erp-technologies.html

Impact of Capitalism on Global Development

Impact of Capitalism on Global Development Is geographically uneven development an inevitable outcome of capitalism? Harris (2006, p. 2) claims that in ‘examining the general character of the process of capitalist development as it has appeared historically across many different countries over a long period of time, one of its most striking characteristics is the phenomenon of uneven development.’ However we choose to define the terms ‘development’ and ‘capitalism’, it is undeniable that in recent centuries capitalism – of one kind or another – has been the dominant economic and social system throughout the world and the development has been geographically uneven – whether considered at the local, national, regional or global level. Whether the former is the cause of the latter is open to debate. Further, whether the former must necessarily cause the other, as suggested by the title question, is even less clear. This essay will first provide definitions and explanations of development and capitalism. Next it will consider the argument â₠¬â€œ most famously put forward by David Harvey, but also expounded by many others – that capitalism inevitably leads to geographically uneven development. Development can and has been defined in many different ways. Until the 1970s it was generally accepted that increasing GNP per capita was the primary – even the exclusive – objective of development. Thus development was measured exclusively in terms of GNP per capita. Since 1970, however, many criticisms have been levelled against the use of GNP as a measure of societal well-being, and various other objectives of development have been suggested to replace it. The criticisms encompass both the theoretical and the empirical, but broadly speaking they arise from the fact that use of GNP per capita as a measure of development treats economic growth as synonymous with development whereas in fact development must incorporate the enabling of individuals to achieve basic aims such as to live long, to be well-nourished, to be healthy and to be literate (Sen, 1999). Furthermore, since development was viewed in terms with GNP per capita, it was concerned with the average or aggreg ate income, rather than with the incomes of the poorest. As Arndt (1983, p. 1) explains, ‘ disappointment was increasingly widely expressed that, after two decades of unprecedentedly high rates of economic growth in most of the Third World, hundreds of millions remained in abject poverty and in many countries income distribution appeared to have worsened.’ Arndt goes on to argue that at this time, a myth emerged that something called ‘trickle-down theory’ had existed in the 1950s and 1960s, but that no development economist ever actually subscribed to any such theory. This alleged theory posits that the benefits of the accumulation of capital by the elites would ‘trickle-down’ to the masses through the creation of jobs and other economic opportunities. Whether trickle-down theory was originally part and parcel of the view of development as increasing GNP per capita, or whether it was appended to such a notion of development ex-post, it is certa inly clear that the benefits of economic growth did not trickle down to the masses. On the contrary, in fact, the world has witnessed increasing inequality. It is this inequality – or unevenness of development – with which we are most concerned in this essay. As Harvey (2005, p. 55) describes it, a ‘convergence in well-being has not occurred and geographical as well as social inequalities within the capitalist world appear to have increased in recent decades. The promised outcome of poverty reduction from freer trade, open markets and â€Å"neo-liberal† strategies of globalization has not materialized. Environmental degradations and social dislocations have also been unevenly distributed.’ Capitalism refers to an economic and social system in which the means of production are mainly privately-owned and operated for profit. It is defined by Bernstein (2002, p. 242) as ‘(a) Production of goods and services for market exchange (commodities), to make profits; (b) founded on a definitive social (class) relation between owners of capital and owners of labour power; (c) to which other social relations and divisions are linked, e.g. those of gender, urban/rural differences, nationality.’ The private owners of capital determine investment, distribution, income, production and pricing according to their own self-interest. Within these parameters, however, there are various forms of capitalism. Historically, it can be said that capitalism has gone through various stages: from merchant capitalism, through industrial capitalism; finance capitalism and monopoly capitalism to state capitalism. Further, in any stage of capitalism, any given economy can be more or less pur ely capitalist. In the world today, for example, every economy is in reality a mixed economy with elements of capitalism and elements of regulation and planning – it is the balance between free market policies and private ownership vs. regulation and public ownership that determines the extent to which an economy can be said to be capitalist or otherwise. According to Marxist accounts of capitalism, capital is created through buying commodities in order to create new commodities with an exchange value – as distinct from the use value – higher than the cost of the original commodities. Most importantly, under capitalism, labour had become a commodity itself and surplus labour is extracted by the capitalist who gains greater value from the labour (through the sale-value of the produced commodities) than the exchange value of the labour (i.e. the wage that the capitalist pays). For Marx, it was this cycle of extracting surplus labour that forms the basis of the cla ss-struggle. Harvey (see, for example, 1982, 1985, 2005, 2006) has provided what is arguably the most significant contribution to the discourse on capitalism as inevitably resulting in geographically uneven development. Harvey points to the geographic contradiction between the fixity and mobility of capital as central to understanding geographically uneven development. In order to produce value, capitalists invest in infrastructure – a form of capital with a long life and fixed location. Over its long life, this capital facilitates the production of commodities which are sold to recoup the original cost of the infrastructure and to make a profit. Meanwhile, social infrastructures are built up as the local labour force develops skills specific to the production of these commodities, relations develop between the capitalist and local suppliers, clients, politicians and banks, and knowledge is gained of local industrial processes. However, the value – or profit – produced is not spatially restricted in this way and can circulate to be invested in labour power and means of production elsewhere. Thus it may be invested in competing businesses or in different sectors of the economy. Cheaper labour and other means of production are sought and tapped in other locations within the country, in other countries in the same region, or beyond. As a result firms in a particular locality may close or reduce their level of output thus reducing employment and/or wages in the area. In turn, state agencies will receive less income through taxation, and local businesses such as those in the retail sector will suffer as the local population has less income. Home-owners may default on their mortgage payments and lenders will be forced to sell the properties at lower prices as the economy declines. Yet these state agencies, shops and shopping centres, and houses are spatially fixed – they cannot be moved elsewhere to where they could produce more value. Also, while firm s have the option to move to locations where profitability would be higher, they are also likely to have become somewhat embedded in the local area (as a result of relationships built up with customers, suppliers, employees, state officials and banks) and they have to assess the benefits of moving against the cost of building all of these relationships from scratch in a new location. The end result is the attempt (by the different stakeholders – individually or collectively) to defend exchange values in any given place to guarantee future streams of profits, wages, rents and tax revenues. Since local capitalists and local labour classes both have a vested interest in the continued existence of local industry, territorial cross-class allegiances are formed, and geographically uneven development ensues. While it is important not to conflate globalisation with capitalism since globalisation refers to a much broader process of increasing interdependence that goes far beyond the economic, Coe Yeung (2001, pp. 370-371) provide interesting input to the debate on uneven development with a consideration of globalisation, arguing that ‘one needs not be a Marxist to appreciate the uneven outcomes of the globalisation processes First, globalisation impacts differently in different sectors and industries even in the same country and/or region. While global restructuring tends to favour high tech industries, it has serious repercussions for such labour-intensive industries as textiles and clothing†¦ Second, global restructuring can produce geographically uneven impact on producers and/or countries specialising in different stages of the same production chain.’ This ties in with the explanation of how the expansion of capitalism produces new forms of unevenness, and the stagna tion of certain localities. According to Walker (1978, p. 34), for example, as capitalism expands it develops new distinctions of space thus creating a spatial mosaic of development in which none of the parts are truly independent or particularly susceptible to regional development programmes. Additionally, the expansion of capitalism intensifies its penetration of space thus increasing its mobility giving capital a strategic advantage over labour. As a result, local development becomes increasingly reliant on external capital. ‘Thus, although there is a certain evening up of development as the capitalist core expands, uneven development of a new kind necessarily emerges within what can be considered a fully developed capitalist space. This kind of unevenness is implicit in the use-value nature of capital’s relation to space, in fragmenting tendencies of the capitalist division of labor and its class hierarchy, and in the tendency of capital constantly to reduce the tim e of circulation.’ Agnew’s (2001, p. 6) perspective also demonstrates how globalization has accentuated the uneven development that results from capitalism, arguing that in this context, for example, the ‘need for rapid access to information has privileged those ‘world cities’ that have good connectivity to other places. The local availability of entrepreneurship, venture capital, technical know-how, and design capabilities differentiate ‘attractive’ from ‘unattractive’ sites for investment. At the same time, [niche] markets associated with different social groups increasingly cross national boundaries, giving rise to cross-national markets that can be served by factories located in any one of them or, for labor-intensive goods, produced wherever labor costs are lower.’ What, then, of the role of the state in today’s mixed economies? As Brenner (1998, p. 11) has pointed out, in the past century, it has been the state – and not private capital – that has planned, produced and regulated large-scale infrastructure projects (including transport infrastructure, public transport systems, utilities, energy, subsidised public housing and education systems, communications systems) to direct the ways in which labour power and capital reproduce. This highlights the fact that a purely capitalist system does not exist in any country in the world. As Harvey (1982, p. 404) explains, the state control of large-scale infrastructure enables it to direct infrastructural development differentially as the ‘territorial organisation of the state becomes the geographical configuration within which the dynamics of [infrastructural] investment is worked out.’ Thus the territorial organization of the state could in theory at least be used to channel infrastructure development in such a way as to produce geographically even – or at least more even – development. Yet Brenner (1998, p. 12) argues that in fact the state direction in practice leads to ‘new forms of uneven geographic development’ and that in so doing it produces an equilibrium. Walker (1978, p. 30) claims that geographically uneven development is indeed inevitable in advanced capitalist economies, claiming that no ‘critical observer would imagine that there is something less than systematic in the nature of capitalism producing the inevitable juxtapositions of poverty and wealth, growth and stagnation, and diverse functions in the capitalist city.’ Like Harvey, Walker claims that uneven development occurs as a result of spatial differentiation and capital mobility, two components of any capitalist system. According to Walker, (1978, p. 30), uneven development is the corollary of uneven spatial location of use-values, a nd the spatial organization of use-values is not random but is ‘a systematic product of capitalist development, varying only in form and in degree among advanced capitalist nations.’ Both Harvey and Walker provide a convincing argument for the inevitability of geographically uneven development in a capitalist system thus painting a bleak picture for development and effectively invalidating any claims of regional development programmes or any other policies aimed an evening out development. However, this last point by Walker does offer some scope for optimism. If uneven development in advanced capitalist nations varies in form and, more importantly, degree then the intuitive conclusion would be that it could vary so far that the degree of unevenness reaches zero and thus development is even. Even if in practice development can never be perfectly even, the variance in degree suggests that policies can be implemented to make development more even, if not totally even. In order to devise such policies, it is necessary to understand what aspects of certain capitalists systems have enabled them to produce more even development than others. According to Perrons (2000, p . 24), it is possible to direct policies against uneven development and to do so requires a holistic approach to social theory that explores the differences of experience in different national contexts and at different spatial scales: ‘the nature and pace of change differs between nation states and between different organizations depending on the legislative framework and social and cultural norms leading to different regional and local outcomes. Recognising and understanding these different experiences within capitalism provides a foundation for mapping alternative futures.’ If geographically uneven development is an inevitable outcome of capitalism, then we cannot hope to even out development within a capitalist world system. Short of radical calls for an overthrow of the existing system of economic and social organisation, then, policies directed at evening out development could only ever meet with partial success. However, given the importance of the state in defining and directing spaces of development, and given that every economy in the world today is a mixed economy, it must be conceivable (in theory at least) that the state could provide definition and direction in such a way as to promote even development. In order to do so, however, it is necessary to understand just what it is that causes uneven development. From the analysis above it is clear that uneven development is indeed a characteristic of capitalism; indeed it seems to be one that is inevitable. However the form and extent of that unevenness vary from place to place. Thus a better unde rstanding of exactly what determines the form and extent is necessary to reduce the extent and produced the most desirable (in other words, the least bad) form of uneven development. Bibliography Agnew, J. (2001). The New Global Economy: Time-Space Compression, Geopolitics and Global Uneven Development. Los Angeles: Center for Globalization and Policy Research, UCLA. Arndt, H. W. (1983). The Trickle-Down Myth. Economic Development and Cultural Change , 32 (1), 1-10. Bernstein, H. (2002). Colonialism, Capitalism, Development. In T. Allen, A. Thomas, Poverty and Development in the 21st Century (pp. 241-270). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Brenner, N. (1998, January 7). Between fixity and motion: accumulation, territorial organization and the historical geography of spatial scales. Chicago. Coe, N. M., Yeung, H. W.-c. (2001). Geographical perspectives on mapping globalisation. Journal of Economic Geography , 367-380. Harris, D. J. (2006). Uneven Development. Stanford University, Economics. Harvey D. (1982) The Limits to Capital, Chicago: University of Chicago Press Harvey D. (1985) The geopolitics of capitalism, in D Gregory, J Urry (eds.) Social Relations and Spatial Structures, London: Macmillan, pp 128- 163 Harvey, D. (2005). Spaces of Neoliberalization: Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development . Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag. Harvey, D. (2006). Spaces of Global Capitalism: Towards a Theory of Uneven Geographical Development . London: Verso Books. Perrons, D. (2000). The New Economy and Uneven Geographical Development: Towards a More Holistic Framework for Economic Geography. Economic Geography Research Group. Sen, A. (1999). Development as Freedom. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Walker, R. (1978). Two Sources of Uneven Development Under Advanced Capitalism: Spatial Differentiation and Capital Mobility. Review of Radical Political Economics , 28-38.

Incineration Is Not A Solution To Garbage Environmental Sciences Essay

Incineration Is Not A Solution To Garbage Environmental Sciences Essay With rapid population growth, garbage treatment becomes a global challenge since clean and safe disposal of garbage is technically difficult. In 2007, garbage crisis occurred in an Italian city called Naples which was plagued by garbage lying along the streets (Alessio V, 2008). Italian suffered mainly due to overfilled landfills. The crisis draws worldwide concern over waste management. Incinerator offers counter-measure to overflowing landfills. Incineration is one of waste treatment techniques involving thermal combustion of garbage to transform the waste intoÂÂ  heat, particulates, bottom ash and flue gases (Andrew K, 2005). Air pollution experts claim that technological breakthrough and strict regulation have resulted in no prominent threats posed by incineration. (Health protection Agency, 2009) However, hazards brought by incinerators remain significant and lingering. The aim of this paper is to assess deleterious consequences caused by incineration. Although modern incin eration has improved tremendously, its drawbacks are still overwhelming because of unsolved pollution problems, high cost relative to other viable alternatives and conflict between recycling and incineration. To begin with, three main types of pollutants are inevitably emitted during combustion of hazardous waste, which are heavy metals, unburned toxic chemicals and new pollutants formed during incineration. Firstly, toxic heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, mercury and chromium are reported to be widely distributed in industrial refuse and household waste (Ole H et al, 2002). Metals cannot be destroyed by incineration. Even worse is that they are discharged in more concentrated and hazardous form after combustion (Greenpeace international, 2004). In addition, they are exhausted in form of microscopic gas particles, which increases the vulnerability of our respiratory systems. Obviously, incineration does not eliminate the threats posed by heavy but intensifies them. Secondly, highly poisonous dioxin and furan are produced in reaction among partially decomposed waste components (Greenpeace international, 2004). Particularly, they are more dangerous than original waste. Upon disch arge into atmosphere, dioxin can be carried by air and ocean to an area remote from the sources. Thirdly, incomplete combustion of waste results in escape of unburned toxic substances. Incinerator ash carries these unburned toxic substances to environment through chimney (Greenpeace international, 2004). Indeed, air pollution problem is deteriorated because numerous venomous products are generated during garbage combustion. Proponents argue that modern and well regulated incinerators only account for a small percentage of local pollution although the detrimental health effects of emissions on human are not certainly ruled out. According to Health Protection Agency, operators of modern incinerators are obligated to prevent violation of environmental regulations by pressing emission below the strict limits (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, U.K., 2009). Incinerators are equipped with latest devices such as scrubber, electrostatic precipitators and cyclone to capture harmful pollutants (Water Environment Federation, 2009). Only a small amount of air pollutants is then released from incinerators in comparison with obsolete counterparts. Consequently, the additional cost born by residents living near incinerators is almost negligible. For instance, over 90 percent of human exposure to dioxin is animal foodstuff such as dairy produce, meat, seafood and eggs, which contrasts with limited inta ke of dioxin through inhalation. Calculation demonstrates that incineration contributed less than 1 percent to UK total emission of dioxin (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, U.K., 2009). Seemingly, incinerator is only a minor source of exposure. Undeniably, air pollution control devices make flue gas cleaner but pollutants are neither destroyed nor vanished forever by technologists because the devices are designed to transfer toxic substances from exhaust to ash. On the other hand, substantial amount of captured exhaust refuse have to be buried in special landfills (Greenpeace international, 2000). Referring to the report from Greenpeace International, the highest concentration of pollutants has been found in residues accumulating inside control devices. They can leach out from the burial sites and immediately threaten neighboring water bodies (Greenpeace international, 2000). In short, this illustrates that advanced control equipment merely postpone the environmental impact by shifting the pollution problem from air to land. Quite the opposite, incineration is not a cost-effective option of waste management because of high operation cost per ton. Costs of any waste treatment systems have several determinants including level of technology, features of disposed materials, energy costs, land, labor, and financing costs. Despite the diversified factors, incineration is always more costly than alternatives. First of all, the operation cost per ton is at least twice as high as that required for landfills which are competent substitute of incineration (Rand T et al, 2000). Table 1 shows the figures for capital cost per ton per day of waste handled by recycling/composting in industrial nations and less industrialized nations or incineration in 2004. There is an enormous difference between the cost of recycling/composting and incineration. Table 1 Capital costs of incineration versus recycling and composting tpd = tons per day (Rand T et al, 2000) The cost required for recycling/composting varied from US$4000 to US$90000 for industrial nations and US$450 to US$5300 for industrializing nations. In general, the average cost required for recycling/composting was still considerably lower than incineration cost which amounted to at least US$136000. Incinerator advocates allege that the operation cost of incineration tends to reduce gradually because of technological advances. The drop in operation cost is primarily attributable to improvement in dewatering technology. Total solid concentration ranging from 27% to 30 % is produced by dewatering, which allows spontaneous combustion upon ignition (Water Environment Federation, 2009). Spontaneous combustion suggests that no auxiliary fuel is required so fuel cost saving is significant especially when fuel price is soaring during economic recovery. Moreover, if heat energy produced during combustion is recovered and converted into electricity, the costs may drop further by $30 to $50 per ton (Water Environment Federation, 2009). It can be predicted that ongoing development of incineration technology is likely to formulate more cost-reducing strategies for the future. On the contrary, technology tends to raise cost instead because latest air pollution control devices or facilities are expensive. Air pollution control devices add heavy cost to incineration. For instance, flue gas clean-up equipment is responsible for approximately 30% of the capital costs of a conventional incinerator in United Kingdoms (Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions of U.K. , 2000). Next, public awareness of health hazard caused by incinerators and increased emission limits in the United States forces incinerator owners to invest on updating obsolete and more polluting facilities. Apart from this, if special landfills were established to collect the toxic ash from residues in air pollution control devices, it would drastically increase operation cost (Brenda P, 2004). Besides, incineration hinders the development of recycling which is less expensive since they are incompatible. Incinerators require a minimum amount of trash to sustain daily operation and produce electricity (Confederation of Paper Industry, 2009). The need of garbage for fuel encourages product consumption and waste disposal and leads to keen competition for waste between recycling and incineration sectors. Furthermore, incineration projects divert funding from recycling programs to an extent that little money is left for them. For example, the Polish National Fund for Environmental Protection offered a loan to construct a waste incinerator in Warsaw, provided that the Warsaw authorities continued to fund waste separation and recycling (Brenda P, 2004). However, shortly after they received the loan, the Warsaw City Council cut budget for its recycling program. Apart from waste and funds, they also compete for government support as their development is subject to government regulat ions concerning pollution control as well as garbage disposal (Jeffrey M, 2006). Incineration upholders may refute the argument by claiming that garbage contents are diversified enough to satisfy both recycling and incinerators. They admit that both recycling and incinerators demand paper which has high energy value. Nevertheless, only paper which has been recycled so many times that its fiber-making ability was lost will be incinerated (Confederation of Paper Industry, 2009). Otherwise, it can be recycled. Similarly, paper unsuitable for recycling, including hospital wipes, will also be incinerated for energy (Confederation of Paper Industry, 2009). This suggests that despite the demand for the same waste materials, incineration and recycling rely on distinct sources of the same materials. Anyway, the problem lies on the adverse effect on social value toward waste but not what deserves incineration. Heavy dependence on incineration promotes the throw-away lifestyle, escalating waste problem. Unregulated manufacture of products and goods dismiss recyclability and reusability (Brenda P, 2004). According to Friends of the Earth, in Shrewsbury, Shropshire in England, incineration target decreased from 57% to 27% after the onset of incinerator operation (Shrewsbury Friends of the Earth, 2009). This finding shows that with waste figures decrease due to incineration, the absence of incentive and pressure discourages recycling. The above discussion summarizes the detrimental effects caused by incineration in term of pollution, financial cost and incompatibility with recycling. Undoubtedly, our world continuously and ubiquitously generates garbage which must be properly handled. However, we should not be obsessed with technological advances in incineration. Improved incinerators are not flawless, which solve old problems inefficiently and sometimes create new ones. Incinerators remain polluting, cost public and government heavily and threaten the survival of recycling activities. Incineration is, thus, not a solution to overflowing garbage. (Total words:1467 Words per sentence: 22.3)

Public Subsidies for Sports Facilities Essay -- Sports Athletics Ameri

Public Subsidies for Sports Facilities America is in the midst of a sports construction boom. New sports facilities costing at least $200 million each have been completed or are under way in Baltimore, Charlotte, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Nashville, San Francisco, St. Louis, Seattle, Tampa, and Washington, D.C., and are in the planning stages in Boston, Dallas, Minneapolis, New York, and Pittsburgh. Major stadium renovations have been undertaken in Jacksonville and Oakland. Industry experts estimate that more than $7 billion will be spent on new facilities for professional sports teams before 2006. Most of this $7 billion will come from public sources. The subsidy starts with the federal government, which allows state and local governments to issue tax-exempt bonds to help finance sports facilities. Tax exemption lowers interest on debt and so reduces the amount that cities and teams must pay for a stadium. Since 1975, the interest rate reduction has varied between 2.4 and 4.5 percentage points. Assuming a differential of 3 percentage points, the discounted present value loss in federal taxes for a $225 million stadium is about $70 million, or more than $2 million a year over a useful life of 30 years. Ten facilities built in the 1970s and 1980s, including the Superdome in New Orleans, the Silverdome in Pontiac, the now-obsolete Kingdome in Seattle, and Giants Stadium in the New Jersey Meadowlands, each cause an annual federal tax loss exceeding $1 million. State and local governments pay even larger subsidies than Washington. Sports facilities now typically cost the host city more than $10 million a year. Perhaps the most successful new baseball stadium, Oriole Park at Camden Yards, costs Maryland residents $14 million a year. Renovations aren't cheap either: the net cost to local government for refurbishing the Oakland Coliseum for the Raiders was about $70 million. Most large cities are willing to spend big to attract or keep a major league franchise. But a city need not be among the nation's biggest to win a national competition for a team, as shown by the NBA's Utah Jazz's Delta Center in Salt Lake City and the NFL's Houston Oilers' new football stadium in Nashville. Why Cities Subsidize Sports The economic rationale for cities' willingness to subsidize sports facilities is revealed in the campaign s... ...vernments still pay for investments in supporting infrastructure, and Washington still pays an interest subsidy for the local government share. And the Charlotte case is unique. No other stadium project has raised as much private revenue. At the other extreme is the disaster in Oakland, where a supposedly break-even financial plan left the community $70 million in the hole because of cost overruns and disappointing PSL sales. Third, despite greater citizen awareness, voters still must cope with a scarcity of teams. Fans may realize that subsidized stadiums regressively redistribute income and do not promote growth, but they want local teams. Alas, it is usually better to pay a monopoly an exorbitant price than to give up its product. Prospects for cutting sports subsidies are not good. While citizen opposition has had some success, without more effective intercity organizing or more active federal antitrust policy, cities will continue to compete against each other to attract or keep artificially scarce sports franchises. Given the profound penetration and popularity of sports in American culture, it is hard to see an end to rising public subsidies of sports facilities.

Gender Issues in Sophocles Antigone :: Antigone essays

Gender Issues in Antigone One of the most devastating problems for the Classical Greeks was the women's issue.   Women in Classical Greece were not citizens, held no property, and indeed were not even allowed out of the house except under guard.   Their status differed from that of the slaves of Greece only in name.   This alone, however was not a problem -- the problem was that the Greeks knew, in their hearts, that this was wrong.   Indeed, their playwrights harangued them about it from the stage of Athens continually.   All of the great Grecian playwrights -- Sophocles, Euripedes, Aristophenes -- dealt with the women's issue. All of them argued, in their various ways, that the women of Greece were not nearly as incapable and weak as the culture believed them to be.   All of them created female characters of strength and intelligence.   But in "Antigone," the discussion reached its peak.   Antigone herself, as she stands upon the Grecian stage, represents the highest ideals of human life -- courage and resp!   ect for the gods.   A woman, she is nevertheless the exemplum for her society.   But how are we to know this?   Does the author let the audience know that it is Antigone herself, not Creon, the "noble-eyed imperator" (453), who is to be believed?   It is almost inconceivable that the audience would be meant to ignore Creon's apparently skillful arguments, for he appears to represent all that the Athenian should strive for.   He stands for obedience to the State. Surely it is his voice we should obey. Sophocles does let us know where the truth lies, and he does this, amazingly, partly   through his characterization of Creon.   Though Creon seemingly says intelligent things, there are clues that he is not to be trusted.   One would be his discussion of incest with Ismene. Torn between her duty to God and her duty to the State, Ismene, in the third act, has run to Creon, planning to tell him of Antigone's actions in the graveyard: "O, not for me the dusty hair of youth, / But let us now unto the palace go" (465), she cries.   But Creon, ignoring the supposedly important information she has to tell -- he has, after all, emptied the Theban coffers, spending money on his advanced spy network in search of the miscreant -- asks her, instead, to come home with him.   "How long, O Princess, O!   How long!" he states, suggesting a time for their next meeting: "Upon the hour of noon, or / Not upon the hour of six."   To such a pass has the doomed line of Oedipus come.

John Donne Essay

A text is essentially a product of its context, as its prevailing values are inherently derived by the author from society. However, the emergence of post-modern theories allows for audience interpretation, thus it must be recognised that meaning in texts can be shaped and reshaped. Significantly, this may occur as connections between texts are explored. These notions are reflected in the compostion of Edson’s W;t and Donne’s poetry as their relationship is established through intertextual references, corresponding values and ideas and the use of language features. Edson particularly portrays key values surrounding the notions of the importance of loved based relationships, and death and resurrection: central themes of Donne’s Holy Sonnets and Divine Poems. The purpose of these authors distinctly correlate as each has attempted to provide fresh insight into the human condition by challenging prevalent ideals. Thus, Edson incorporates Donne’s work to illuminate both explicit and implicit themes, creating an undeniable condition. Prior to John Donne’s Judeo Christian conversion he believed that life was only fulfilling if shared with another individual. He conveyed in his pre-conversion poems and stressed the power and importance of love to a person’s well being and existence. Donne contrives the idea that love must not be a â€Å"Dull Sublunary lover’s love†, rather a relationship where â€Å"two souls†¦ are one,† a love, he explores his conceit, so strong it can stretch â€Å"like gold to aery thinness†. His geometrical conceit explains that relationships â€Å"Shine here to us, and thou art everywhere; This bed thy centre is, these walls, thy sphere. † During the 17th century everything revolved around the sun, saying that lovers went against it was seen as going against the, thus showing how vital relationships are to human existence. The medium of a play allows us to a different view on how important love is one life’s, and what is to be lost with its absence Donne’s values according to life’s meaning and relationships are reworked by Margaret Edson within W;t. Vivian Bearing is constructed to reflect the secular view point, â€Å"preferring research to humanity†, the motif Edson creates in Bearing as she misses the point Donne makes about relationships, seeking instead to be making a â€Å"significant contribution to†¦ knowledge. † Bearing does not mind the lack of relationship she has, correcting Susie she has â€Å"none, to be precise,† distinctively juxtaposing Donne’s views on relationships and their importance. Bearing reflect the individualism of the estern culture when she is â€Å"distinguishing the [herself] in illness facing the world alone. However Bearing reflects how after many years with being uncomfortable with kindness she wishes her doctor â€Å"would take more interest in personal contact. † The implicit connections Edison portrays between â€Å"an orange two stick Popsicle† shared between Bearing and Susie, and Donne’s twin compass displays Bearings recognition of th e importance relationships should play in life. Edison challenges secular humanists through her textual construction of dialogue and motifs to question the importance relationships play in order for a meaningful life to be attained. The existential question of what lies after death is one that writes have pondered for years. Donne explicitly demonstrates his battle with this concept and his beliefs about theology, death and afterlife after he is converted to his Judeo Christian faith. Death was not easy to ignore in the 17th century as executions and daily mortuary carts attributed to the fear and awareness of death. His compliant tone throughout his poetry clearly indicates that he feels that he feels some degree of confidence that God will accept his soul into heaven, evident when he apostrophises death to â€Å"be not proud, though some have called thee mighty and dreadful†, that death should not be feared as it is a â€Å"rest and sleep† till the forgiven â€Å"wake eternally†. A possible passage through the American continent to the indies was earnestly being explored just as the poet’s body was probably being probed and prodded to seek enlightenment or a successful path. This analogy is made clear by the clever extended pun on ‘straits’ as both a trade route and a personal dilemma. They are itemised so that the link is not missed for the Western Sea, to which all the straits led, also represents death and entry into the next life: â€Å"So death doth touch the Resurrection Likewise to John Donne, Edison engages with the concept of death and what, if anything comes after it. While Bearing does not openly ponder what comes after death in the play, she is tangibly struggling with the fear of death. Her own feelings are mirrored by Donne’s â€Å"If poisnous minerals† is shown through her analysis. In her analysis she says, Donne â€Å"finds God’s forgiveness hard to believe, so he crawls under a rock to hide. † Rather than trust God’s mercy â€Å"I want to hide. I just want to curl up into a little ball. † Donne’s poem If Poisonous Minerals has a direction relationship to the The Runaway Bunny read by Bearing in her childhood. It provides for her an allegory for God’s mercy allowing her to find solace, â€Å"No matter where it hides, God will find it. Where Donne presents this same allegory in a complex manner, the book is simple. Bearing is redeemed and able to die peacefully with this understanding of compassion. It is in the final scene that Edson reshapes Donne’s ideas on eternity and resurrection of the play with bearing’s humanistic post-modern sight. Donne, in his Judeo Christian context, prepares hims elf for God to take his soul into heaven, whereas the humanistic post-modern understanding of the resurrection that Bearing obtains brings an end to her suffering an pain when the â€Å"lights out. â€Å"

Freemasonry and United States Essay

Freemasonry, teachings and practices of the secret fraternal order officially known as the Free and Accepted Masons, or Ancient Free and Accepted Masons. Organizational Structure There are approximately 5 million members worldwide, mostly in the United States and other English-speaking countries. With adherents in almost every nation where Freemasonry is not officially banned, it forms the largest secret society in the world. There is no central Masonic authority; jurisdiction is divided among autonomous national authorities, called grand lodges, and many concordant organizations of higher-degree Masons. In the United States and Canada the highest authority rests with state and provincial grand lodges. Custom is the supreme authority of the order, and there are elaborate symbolic rites and ceremonies, most of which utilize the instruments of the stonemason–the plumb, the square, the level, and compasses–and apocryphal events concerning the building of King Solomon’s Temple for allegorical purposes. The principles of Freemasonry have traditionally been liberal and democratic. Anderson’s Constitutions (1723), the bylaws of the Grand Lodge of England, which is Freemasonry’s oldest extant lodge, cites religious toleration, loyalty to local government, and political compromise as basic to the Masonic ideal. Masons are expected to believe in a Supreme Being, use a holy book appropriate to the religion of the lodge’s members, and maintain a vow of secrecy concerning the order’s ceremonies. The basic unit of Freemasonry is the local Blue lodge, generally housed in a Masonic temple. The lodge consists of three Craft, Symbolic, or Blue Degrees: Entered Apprentice (First Degree), Fellow Craft (Second Degree), and Master Mason (Third Degree). These gradations are meant to correspond to the three levels–apprentice, journeyman, and master–of the medieval stonemasons’ guilds. The average Mason does not rise above Master Mason. If he does, however, he has the choice of advancing through about 100 different rites, encompassing some 1,000 higher degrees, throughout the world. In the United States, the two most popular rites are the Scottish and the York. The Scottish Rite awards 30 higher degrees, from Secret Master (Fourth Degree) to Sovereign Grand Inspector General (Thirty-third Degree). The York Rite awards ten degrees, from Mark Master to Order of Knights Templar, the latter being similar to a Thirty-third Degree Scottish Rite Mason. Other important Masonic groups are the Prince Hall Grand Lodge, to which many African-American Masons belong; the Veiled Prophets of the Enchanted Realm (the â€Å"fraternal fun order for Blue Lodge Masons†); and the Ancient Arabic Order of the Nobles of the Mystic Shrine (Thirty-second degree Masons who, as the Shriners, are noted for their colorful parades and support of children’s hospitals). There are also many subsidiary Masonic groups, including the Order of the Eastern Star, limited to Master Masons and their female relatives; De Molay, an organization for boys; and Job’s Daughters and Rainbow, two organizations for girls. Many of the orders maintain homes for aged members. Development of the Order The order is thought to have arisen from the English and Scottish fraternities of practicing stonemasons and cathedral builders in the early Middle Ages; traces of the society have been found as early as the 14th cent. Because, however, some documents of the order trace the sciences of masonry and geometry from Egypt, Babylon, and Palestine to England and France, some historians of Masonry claim that the order has roots in antiquity. The formation of the English Grand Lodge in London (1717) was the beginning of the widespread dissemination of speculative Freemasonry, the present-day fraternal order, whose membership is not limited to working stonemasons. The six lodges in England in 1700 grew to about 30 by 1723. There was a parallel development in Scotland and Ireland, although some lodges remained unaffiliated and open only to practicing masons. By the end of the 18th cent. here were Masonic lodges in all European countries and in many other parts of the world as well. The first lodge in the United States was founded in Philadelphia (1730); Benjamin Franklin was a member. Many of the leaders of the American Revolution, including John Hancock and Paul Revere, were members of St. Andrew’s Lodge in Boston. George Washington became a Mason in 1752. At the time of the Revolution most of the American lodges broke away from their English and Scottish antecedents. Freemasonry has continued to be important in politics; 13 Presidents have been Masons, and at any given time quite a large number of the members of Congress have belonged to Masonic lodges. Notable European Masons included Voltaire, Giuseppe Mazzini, Giuseppe Garibaldi, Franz Joseph Haydn, Johann von Goethe, Johann von Schiller, and many leaders of Russia’s Decembrist revolt (1825). Opposition to Freemasonry Because of its identification with 19th-century bourgeois liberalism, there has been much opposition to Freemasonry. The most violent in the United States was that of the Anti-Masonic party. Freemasonry’s anticlerical attitude has also led to strong opposition from the Roman Catholic Church, which first expressed its anti-Masonic attitude in a bull of Pope Clement XII (1738). The Catholic Church still discourages its members from joining the order. Totalitarian states have always suppressed Freemasonry; the lodges in Italy, Austria, and Germany were forcibly eradicated under fascism and Nazism, and there are now no lodges in China.

Football Factory Blog

Not Just A Sport In the novel â€Å"Football Factory† written by John King, we follow a group of Chelsea hooligans in the present England. I think of this novel as an extremely realistic and kind of frightening novel. Together, we follow the main character’s life as a football hooligan. The life of the main character is filled with violence, alcohol and sex, in which his lovely friends accompany him. Through the novel we are bound to listen to his friends’ nasty thoughts and actions. At some point in the novel the main character and the boys watches the film Clockwork Orange, as they have done so many times before.The Clockwork Orange is basically just a couple of guys giving beatings and rapes women for the fun of it. This makes me think of Football Factory of an updated version of Clockwork orange, just not to the same extent. In the novel we don’t have the â€Å"normal† narrative-style. We don’t see a real plot in the novel as such. Itâ₠¬â„¢s more like a story going on and on about his life without a greater meaning. One thing in particular I liked about this novel was the fight scenes. At these points in the novel, I would enjoy reading it.I would suddenly become interested and I would read at a fast pace due to the great and realistic writing. When there were no fighting I would keep losing track and get distracted. Our main character starts questioning himself and his own actions while he is being formed into a somewhat reasonable man. He starts believing he isn’t on the right path. Personally I wouldn’t recommend this novel to any of my friends, as I don’t think they would be interested, since the narrative style is far from usual. Otherwise, an interesting novel.

Ethical Dilemmas in Interpreting Essay

Ethical dilemmas in interpreting: case study 2 In the scenario, I am interpreting at a medical practice. The Service Provider (SP) is the GP practice and Service User (SU) is a patient. I arrive at the reception on time, the receptionist waves me in direction of the patient and then she answers a phone call. Then the patient is called into the consultation room. At the consultation room, I try to introduce myself and give my Code of Practice (CoP) to the doctor but he ignores me and asks what the problem with the patient is. I reply to him that he can ask the patient himself and I will interpret for him. Then the doctor ask me to take the patient back to the waiting room so I can interview her, while he sees another patient, then he will call us back. The following things went wrong during my job assignment: * The receptionist behaves unprofessionally because she shouldn’t leave me alone with the patient because this could cause me being partial and unsuitable to do this assignment. * The doctor ignores my introduction. The Code of Practice (section 5.24) says that Service Provider should â€Å"allow to interpreter to introduce him or herself†. Introduction is important because it allows me explain the rules and terms which I am going to follow during assignment. * The doctor should â€Å"address member of the public directly† (Code of Practice section 5.26). It is important that a service provider speaks directly to a service user, because it allows better communication and connection between, in this situation, patient and doctor, and SU doesn’t feel left out. * The doctor doesn’t want to interview the patient and ask me to leave the consultation room. The Code of Practice defines this problem as follows: â€Å"Conduct all of the interview yourself. It may be tempting to ask the interpreter to go off and have chat with your client, and then come back and tell you the relevant points, but the interpreter is not qualified to know what information to look for or how to process the information received.† (Code of Practice, section 5.29) I wasn’t sure what I should do as an interpreter to be in line with my Code of Practice. If I did what doctor asks, I wouldn’t be assertive and impartial (Code of Practice, section 2.4). If I refused to do what doctor insists, I would leave the patient without  any help. I decide to explain to the doctor what my job description is and ask him one more time to interview the patient. If doctor still refuses to do interview I ask him if would be possible to assign the patient to diffe rent doctor or nurse. After I finished assignment, I would report the incident with the doctor to the agency if I work for one or report it to practice’s manager if I am be freelance interpreter.

King of Canada

Stat 332 Sampling and Experimental Design: (Due: 12:29pm before class, Friday, Oct 19, 2012) Assignment 2 1. In the upcoming US presidential election this November, Florida is a key swing state that is very important in determining the outcome. Currently the Democratic candidate Barack Obama and the Republican candidate Mitt Romney are virtually tied in recent polls. For this question, you can use 9 million as our population size; this is approximately the total number votes in the 2008 presidential election in Florida. a) The latest poll asked 890 likely voters and found that the proportion of Florida residents likely to vote for the Democratic candidate is 47%, construct a 95% con? dence interval for this estimate under the SRSWOR. By the way, the support for Republican is 46%, and the rest are undecided. (b) If a news organization wants to conduct a SRSWOR survey to ? nd out the percentage of Florida residents supporting the Democratic candidate, what is the sample size needed to achieve a result which is accurate within 0. percentage point, 19 out 20 times? 2. We have 120 students in Stat332. (a) What is the total number of possible samples of size 10 under SRSWOR? (b) Suppose that among the 120 students of Stat332, 60 are male students and 60 are female students. We want to perform a STSRS (strati? ed simple random sampling) with male students and female students being two strata, and we want to survey 5 students from each stratum, what is the total number of possible samples? What is the ratio of the two numbers (STSRS/SRSWOR)? 3. Lohr (2010) Ch3, Q10 part a.Hard shell clams may be sampled by using a dredge. Clams do not tend to be uniformly distributed in a body of water, however, as some areas provide better habitat than others. Thus, taking a simple random sample is likely to result in a large estimated variance for the number of clams in an area. Russell (1972) used strati? ed random sampling to estimate the total number of bushels of hard shell clams (Mercenaria mercenaria) in Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island. The area of interest was divided into four strata based on preliminary surveys that identi? d areas in which clams were abundant. Then nh dredge tows were made in stratum h, for h = 1, 2, 3, 4. The acreage for each stratum was known, and Russell calculated that the area ? shed during a standard dredge tow was 0. 039 acres, so that we may use Nh = 25. 6 ? Areah . Here are the results from the survey taken before the commercial season. Estimate the total number of bushels of clams in the area, and give the standard error of your estimate. Stratum 1 2 3 4 Area Number of (Acres) Tows Made 222. 81 4 49. 61 6 50. 25 3 197. 1 5 Average Number of Sample Variance Bushels per Tow for Stratum 0. 44 0. 068 1. 17 0. 042 3. 92 2. 146 1. 80 0. 794 4. Assume the sample variance in Q3 is a good estimate for the strata variance, and we want a strati? ed sample size of n = 21. (a) Calculate the stratum sample sizes under proportional allocati on. (b) Calculate the stratum sample sizes under optimal (Neyman) allocation. (c) What are the values (approximately) of V (? st ) with sample size allocations of (a) and y (b), respectively? Compare these two variances and comment. . Foresters want to estimate the average age of trees in a stand. Determining age is cumbersome, because one needs to count the tree rings on a core taken from the tree. In general, though, the older the tree, the larger the diameter, and diameter is easy to measure. The foresters measure the diameter of all 1132 trees and ? nd that the population mean equals 10. 3. They then randomly select 20 trees for age measurement. The data can be downloaded as hw2q5. txt from course website on Waterloo Learn and read into R using d

Deaf History and Culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Deaf History and Culture - Essay Example At the age of nineteen months, Helen Keller was diagnosed as a case of â€Å"acute congestion of the stomach and the brain†. This short term attack of illness left her deaf and blind. Helen proved to be a quite an intelligent child. By the age of seven, she had invented sixty different signs to communicate with her family. Helen’s education career began when her mother took her to a specialist doctor for advice. Actually she was inspired by hearing about another child who was deaf but completed her education successfully. The doctor referred her to the local expert, Alexander Graham Bell. Bell was working for the deaf children at that time. Alexander Graham Bell told Helen’s parents about the institute where that child had got education. It was called the Perkins Institute for the Blind, located in South Boston. Helen was brought there. One of the former students of the school, named Anne Sullivan was designated as Helen’s teacher. She was blind herself an d had got education from the same institute. Anne proved to be a very hard working teacher. After a good effort of about three years, Helen learnt the names of many familiar things. The next step was to speak. Anne taught her to speak using the Tadoma method (touching the lips and throat of others as they speak). Helen continued her education starting from Perkins Institute, then Wright-Humason School for the Deaf, Horace Mann School for the Deaf, The Cambridge School for Young Ladies and finally, the Rad Cliffe College in 1900 becoming the first deaf and blind person to graduate from the college.

The Kings Rhetorical Prowess Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Kings Rhetorical Prowess - Essay Example In accordance with the issues discussed in the paper although both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X were eager to fight for the rights and freedom of African Americans, it was only the former who believed that this dream could be achieved through nonviolent means or by not troubling, disrupting, or angering the White people. Apparently, both speeches were powerful and persuasive. However, King’s speech was more persuasive because of the manner he presented his arguments; his was more charismatic than the speech of Malcolm X. King was diplomatic, whereas Malcolm X was exceptionally radical. King called for unity between the Black and White people, whereas Malcolm X strongly advocated complete independence from White supremacy, and a land for African Americans. King’s diplomatic tone is more suitable to the political and social environment of the 1960’s, which is a period marred by bitter racial conflicts. The 1960’s is the ultimate spin-off of the clas h between the Emancipation Proclamation and Jim Crow laws. However, despite the oppression and maltreatment experienced by the Black people in America, they chose to continue their struggle for freedom and dignity in a peaceful, compromising way. They detested bloodshed. In the tumultuous period of the 1960’s, civil rights advocates chose to exercise nonviolent means, such as lobbying, civil disobedience, rallies, and so on, to bring about their desired reforms. Opportunely, the federal government responded to these pressures by ratifying several major reforms such as the 1968 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act. This event alone attested to the fact that the fight for the freedom and rights of the Black people can be won through diplomacy; no bloodshed, no revolution, is needed. The strength of King’s speech rests in his stylistic techniques and rhetorical devices. In his speech, he effectively used metaphors, personifications, and euphemism. He used metap hors to highlight the African Americans’ historical plight and struggles, and the possibility of uniting two very different races. Some of the stirring metaphors he used were as follows: â€Å"This is not time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism† (King para 8); â€Å"Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice† (King para 10); â€Å"With this faith we [Black and White people] will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood†

Why managers may face difficulties when managing employees in a Essay

Why managers may face difficulties when managing employees in a cross-cultural context - Essay Example factory manager who moved to Mexico in order to raise the productivity of his firm factory in the State of Mexico. He apparently was not able to understand main cultural points and his management was a complete failure which led to a 500.000 $ loss for his company. The culture in which each of us lives influences and shapes our feelings, attitudes, and responses to our experiences and interactions with others. Because of our culture, each of us has knowledge, beliefs, values, views, and behaviors that we share with others who have the same cultural heritage. These past experiences, handed down from generation to generation, influence our values of what is attractive and what is ugly, what is acceptable behavior and what is not, and what is right and what is wrong. Our culture also teaches us how to interpret the world. From our culture we learn such things as how close to stand to strangers, when to speak and when to be silent, how to greet friends and strangers, and how to display anger appropriately. Because each culture has a unique way of approaching these situations, we find great diversity in cultural behaviors throughout the world. According to this definition, culture is made of all that defines our background and this is exactly why, as it is stated, we find great diversity in cultural behaviors throughout the world and this is the exact reason why managers may face cross-cultural p... As they have different cultural i.e. different knowledge, beliefs, values, views and behaviors, they will not have the same approach regarding a work, a problem, a situation. According to DuPraw and Axner3 (1997) there are six fundamental patterns of Cultural Difference: Communication Styles, Attitude towards conflict, Approaches to completing tasks, Attitudes towards disclosure, Approaches to knowing. From a culture to another, even if they share the same language, the meaning of words change and doesn't convey the same ideas and the importance of non-verbal communication is not the same. Conflict, depending on the culture, can be seen as a bad or good thing. Western countries often consider conflicts as being undesirable and often do all that is possible to tackle the issues immediately, whereas some other cultures don't have the same considerations on conflicts and believe that it is profitable for both parts. Another aspect of the conflict is the way to tackle it. Some cultures are accustomed to settle a conflict by a written exchange, contrary to the western face-to-face confrontation which can be embarrassing for them. How to complete task also differs from a culture to another because they will consider the same approach to complete it and also the way to work in teams are not the same. The process to make a decision in the working process is also submitted to variation depe nding on the cultural background. In some countries there is only one decision maker for the entire working process whereas in others the there must be a common agreement on what to do. Expressing feelings can also be an issue because it may be considered rude in some

Theoretical Perspective on Secure Attachment Essay

Theoretical Perspective on Secure Attachment - Essay Example He claims that the infant's primary or original bond is with its mother, which then become the basis for all the forthcoming loves he will be feeling. He also claims that infants only have the desire in his mother's arms simply because the infant has already established that his mother will satisfy and provide for his needs without delay. However, Freud's more significant theory to the development of infant attachment is his drive reduction theory. He used the basic biological drives that are innate in human as the basis for this theory. He explains this by stating that when an infant is driven, an example of which is when he cries, he will then experience pleasure by receiving food resulting to the restoration of balance. (Freud, 1964) Another theory was introduced by Erik Erikson, called the Psycho-Social Theory also known as the Pschodynamic Theory. He was the first to propose that there are different stages of human development that lasts throughout the entire life span. His idea s were a huge influence that led to the study of personality development His theory also accounts for the term "identity crisis." He introduced eight stages to human development and later on added a ninth stage in his book entitled â€Å"Life Cycle Completed.† The first two stages pertain to the infant attachment theory, which he called the stage of hope and the stage of will. He claims that on the hope stage, between 0 to 12 months, an infant is trying to make a choice between trust versus mistrust as he tries to weigh whether his primary caregiver is reliable or not. The will stage on the other hand, is the stage of autonomy versus shame and doubt. He claims the will stage as the stage wherein the infant's need to explore the world, which may or may not be hindered by a caregiver's utter neglectfulness or over-protectiveness. (Cole, 2009) Though Freud instigated the infant attachment concept, John Bowlby was known as the father of the attachment theory after making the firs t and commonly known view on attachment theory. Bowlby believes that there are a number of innate control systems pertaining to behavior are a necessity for surviving as well as procreation. He also believes that attachment begins at infancy, continuing on throughout life. According to Blowby, an infant initially establishes a strong attachment with its primary caregiver and will become the infant's base of exploration. It is innate behavior for an infant to want to explore new things, however, when a child reaches away to explore and then faced with danger or feels scared, its secure protection base will be with the primary caregiver. Bowlby dedicated an extensive research to the concept of infant attachment, which he described as a "lasting psychological connectedness between human beings" (Bowlby, 1988). He also shared the psychoanalytic view that early experiences in childhood are important influences affecting development and behavior which may be seen later in life. Based on h is theory, our early attachment styles are established in childhood through the relationships between infants and primary caregivers. In addition to this, Bowlby was also of the belief that attachment had an evolutionary factor wherein it aids in survival stating that "the propensity to make strong emotional bonds to particular individuals is a basic component of human nature" (Bowlby, 1988). Bowlby also categorized different characteristics of attachments and are as follows: Safe Haven: When the child feels