Nursing shortage, a major healthcare issue Research Paper

Nursing shortage, a major healthcare issue - Research Paper Example The seriousness of the matter can be gauged from the following reports. In July 2007, American Hospital Association released a report that U.S hospitals needed approximately 116,000 RNs to fill vacant positions. Percentage wise this translated into 8.1 percent of occupied positions. Dr. Peter Buerhaus and his team estimated that shortages of registered nurses in the U.S. would reach as high as 500,000 as per their report released in 2008. They stated in their report that demand for RNs is likely to grow by 2-3 percent each year. (Nursing Shortage†¦) The 2008 survey of registered nurses indicate that as of March 2008, there were 3063,162 licensed registered nurses staying in the U.S. This survey indicated that only 153,806 RNs were found to be working more over the last survey of 2004. However, it was found that 444,668 RNs obtained their license between 2004 and 2008. This indicates that 291,000 RNs surely went out of nursing services either due to retirements or due to other re asons. (The Registered Nurse (a)†¦) This trend surely indicates that matter could become grave in few years time. U.S. Bureau of Health Professions report supply demand projections of Registered Nurses up to the year 2020 that is depicted in the following graph. National Supply and Demand Projections for RNs, 2000 to 2015 Source: Bureau of Health Professions, RN Supply and Demand Projections URL: http://bhpr.hrsa.gov/healthworkforce/nursingshortage/default.htm History and Evolution of Shortages of Nurses in Healthcare Though nursing shortages are observed from the days of World War II, it has impacted now significantly. The four factors that have contributed heavily in creating the shortages of nurses can be described as per the following. 1. Rise in population of U.S 2. A fewer people opting for the career in nursing 3. A generation called baby boomer is now retiring to create pressure on health care services. 4. Ageing workforce gets out of nursing services In 1950, U.S popul ation was 152,271,000 that have now almost doubled at 307,212,123 in 2009. Population has gone up at the rate of 1.8 percent per year. In view of the increasing standards of health, nursing population need to rise at much higher rate than the general population rise but that is not happening. The reasons for shortages in nursing are not sudden. The results obtained from the National Sample Survey of Registered Nurses carried out in 2000 indicated that too few people are choosing careers in nursing. The statistical data as available for the employment of young between 1980 and 2000 are worth noting to indicate the trend. In 1980, 52.9 percent of RNs were the age below 40 and 26 percent were the age below 30. In 2000, 31.7 percent of RNs were the age below 40 and 10 percent were the age below 30. (The Registered Nurse (b)†¦) Shortages of nurses are also being felt because baby booming generation (born between 1946 and 1964) is now getting retired causing increasing pressure on he althcare services and so on the services of nurses. Ageing and trained workforce gets out of nursing services due to retirement or other social reasons causing more pressure on services. Currently, the nursing profession is the largest segment of the U.S healthcare system. Nurse to Patient Ratios are under pressure affecting healthcare services severely. Unfortunate part is that there is a continuous decline in the

The Life and Poetry of Edwin Arlington Robinson Essay Example for Free

The Life and Poetry of Edwin Arlington Robinson Essay Poetry is the rhythm of every writers soul. It varies in distinction from one artist or poet to the next. Poems dont generally appeal to the greatest number of individuals, and they could hardly be regarded as a popular or esoteric form of entertainment. But the writer Edwin Arlington Robinson; and the proficient body of work hes accomplished in his poetry over the extent of his writing career, and perhaps essentially, his life, appears to negate or depart from the aforementioned sentiment. The three-time Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, evokes in his poetry, aspects of humanity which most every individual are able to identify with. Robinsons capacity to encompass and evoke the aforementioned sentiments in his poetry has led him to be regarded and aptly dubbed as a â€Å"people poet,† and by the time of his death on 1935, the writer whose poetry was admired by president Theodore Roosevelt himself, was widely regarded and recognized as a leading American poet of his era and generations to come, establishing him along the likes and ranks of fellow American poet, Robert Frost. Edwin Arlington Robinson was born the oldest son of Edward Robinson and Mary Palmer on December 22, 1869 in Gardner, Maine to a particularly well-to-do family. He had two brothers siblings who didnt share or enjoy his particular successes. One of them was a doctor who eventually became a drug addict, and the other was an alcoholic who fueled his addiction by squandering the family fortune. Robinson did not marry like his brothers did, but he claimed to have fallen in love more than once, and despite shyness, the poet had a significant number of close friends (Donaldson). Robinson learned to acknowledge early on that poetry was his calling. Although his initial works were not as well received as his later writings, the poet nonetheless pursued and consummated this particular interest which he claimed was the only thing he knew how to do. He took classes in French, English and Shakespeare in Harvard for a brief period of two years until he was forced to leave at the instance of his fathers death. He wrote copiously and exhaustively after his fathers funeral, and much to his initial reluctance, he obligingly took the role of becoming man of the house (Porter). Like many writers, artists and poets, and despite being born into a rich family, Robinson suffered through a period of poverty which lasted several years, mainly because his brother had already depleted the fortune they were born into, and because as a writer, or poet, he wasnt exactly afforded the highest of compensations, let alone was regularly paid or published at all. Writing was Robinsons way of coping with circumstances which were presented to him, and his poetry served as a vivid and artistic reflection, documentation, or perhaps, personal translation of reality as it occurred and unfolded in his private sphere, and elsewhere surrounding him. Robinson was among the first poets to write of ordinary people, of the seeming mundane, trite and hackneyed instances which occurred to individuals in the course of existence on a day-to-day basis. He wrote of butchers, misers, store clerks, and similar seemingly insignificant individuals with a creative eloquence which rendered the ordinary people he was referring to as exquisitely and achingly beautiful pieces and embodiments of humanity in a world that would otherwise be viewed as insufferable and humdrum. He captured the plight of every working man, although he was not necessarily one of them. And the particular theme afforded by his poetry differed from what other writers and poets in 19th century America were expressing and indulging in, this separated Robinson from the pack and established him as a distinct and unique voice of his era (Donaldson). Robinsons close attention and sensitivity to rhythm, harmony and sound is largely evident in every word, line and stanza which constitute his poetry. This sentiment is most evident in his perhaps most widely recognized poem entitled â€Å"Richard Cory,† a lyrical verse neatly written and composed of traditional rhyming verses which simply begged to be read aloud. Its content, however, is in no way traditional for its time, and as what has been already mentioned, the verses, when read aloud, are delightfully and enormously pleasant to listen to. In it, Robinson relates an intriguing narration of a man named – as the title already connotes – Richard Cory, who appeared to be graced with all the fine, fortunate, and maybe even enviable characteristics a gentleman of Robinsons era could possess. This much is recounted throughout the extent of the relatively short, four-stanza poem, which culminates in an exquisitely tragic irony which evinces the talent and creative genius of Edwin Arlington Robinson, the poem begins by relating: Whenever Richard Cory went down town, / We people on the pavement looked at him: / He was a gentleman fromsole to crown, / Clean-favoured and imperially slim † (Robinson). Although the poem doesnt necessarily center on the previously mentioned theme which runs rife in Robinsons work – that is to say, the plight of the common working man – it nonetheless incorporates a sentiment of the said themed ordinariness in the verse when Robinson, or the narrating voice in the poem pronounces â€Å"we people on the pavement looked at him The tone of the poem then appears to be told from the perspective of the proletariat, the working class, the common people, or to put it crudely, the poor. The poet remains faithful to the individuals which exist as the central concern or topic of most of his other poems. And while Robinson may be speaking from the point of view of the common man in â€Å"Richard Cory,† he affords no prejudiced or ill view towards his rich protagonist; but instead paints a good natured, pleasantly mannered, sympathetic human being who just happened to be wealthy. Painting the person that is Richard Cory as admirable, instead of enviable. Of his protagonist he writes: â€Å"And he was rich, yes, richer than a king, / And admirably schooled in every grace: / In fine – we thought that he was everything / To make us wish that we were in his place. † (Robinson). The poet plays out every line with a neat and simple lyrical recounting, meant to be read for what it is, not camouflaging behind complex play of words and metaphors, or needing to impress under a facade of flamboyant and pretentious words and lyric. The beauty of Robinsons poetry, as evident in Richard Cory exists as such, neat and simple in form and structure, but lyrical, engaging, and addresses a fundamental aspect of humanity significant in any and every era. The concluding verse of â€Å"Richard Cory† affirms this assumption by divulging: â€Å"So on we worked and waited for the light, / And went without meat and cursed the bread, / And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, Went home and put a bullet in his head. † (Robinson). Much like every great work of art, Robinsons poetry – as evident in the poem that is Richard Cory – provokes reflection. It asks individuals to consider the irony which exists and abounds in every persons reality, however fictional its context may be. It also drips of intrigue and tragedy, which are perhaps central elements of piquing human interest, but this is done with a certain preciousness, and even elegance which makes for a reflective and affecting, as opposed to â€Å"entertaining† piece. The culmination of Richard Corys life in suicide exists as both a mystery and an obvious or telling episode in a persons life, both in fiction and the waking reality. It presents a view of humanity which may not appear particularly novel or surprising for most of us today, but is something which should nonetheless be paid close attention to. â€Å"Richard Cory† embodies the precious simplicity as well as affecting irony and genuine heart which exists in Robinsons poetry. The poem affords readers an excerpt of a seeming rudimentary, but infinitely affecting piece of humanity which exists in the confines of rhyme, lyric, harmony that is essentially Edwin Arlington Robinsons poetry. Another fitting example of the poets genius which exists perhaps not as famously and to a different degree, but in a nonetheless exquisite and affecting manner, is Robinsons ode to a fellow poet, eponymously entitled, â€Å"Walt Whitman. † In it, Robinson relates, in tones akin to that of a great admirer of Whitmans, his sentiments on the instance of the esteemed humanist poets death. He begins the poem by pronouncing, â€Å"The master songs are ended, and the man / A name; and so is love, and life, and death Last night it was the song that was the man / But now it is the the man that is the song. † (Robinson). His admiration for Whitman as a fellow poet, a writer of songs and ballads of humanity is evinced in the beauty of the said verse, and in lines in which he speaks of Whitmans poetry and voice as â€Å"too pure for us – too powerfully pure, too lovingly triumphant, and too large (Robinson). These verses serve as a fitting poetic eulogy and remembrance of an equally remarkable poet. The poem culminates in a telling and powerful verse which exists in the following lines, â€Å"No songs are ended that are ever sung, / Mens letters on proud marble or on sand, We write them there forever. † (Robinson). The aforementioned lines hold a significant amount of truth, not only to Whitmans poetry, but to Robinsons and to every individual who commits to making concrete their passions as well. Edwin Arlington Robinson is regarded as a major American poet for this very reason, because the poetry he creates is able to reflect and evoke a great deal of humanity, and at the same time, impact on the realities which occur to every human being as well. The subtle and simple manner by which he approaches poetry, and the visceral and affecting characteristic which is evoked therein, establishes Robinsons prominence, and affords his words an enduring and affecting timeless significance to individuals and the better part of humanity.

Cult Brands :: Business Marketing

Cult Brands Maslow's postulated that we humans have an ascending order of needs and used a hierarchal pyramid to prioritize them. At the bottom levels of the pyramid are our physiological needs, which include basic things like food, shelter, and clothing that we all need to survive. At progressively higher levels in Maslow's Hierarchy are the needs for safety and security, social interaction, and self-esteem. At the very top is self-actualization, a term Maslow coined to describe the ultimate human need to learn, grow, and reach one's full potential as a person. We all desire on some level to self-actualize, both to be at peace with ourselves and to try to be the best we can be. As humans, we are drawn to people, places, groups, causes, companies, and, ultimately, brands that we believe can help us towards our ultimate goal of self-actualization and total fulfillment. Higher level needs influence future human behavior much greater than lower level needs. It is the brands that can fulfill human needs on the higher levels of the hierarchy that become irreplaceable in the mind of the consumer. Brands sometimes like to think of themselves as religions. These are called cult brands (Holt) and organize their community of clients as a congregation, with a holy land or place, churches, rituals, etc. It has to be said that few of these brands actually evoke religious fervor in their subscribers. That's what customer loyalty is really all about. Being irreplaceable. True customer loyalty is not only about getting a customer to consistently choose your brand over another. It's for that same customer to always believe (and then go tell the world) that your company's brand has no equal! This is when the customers form a cult. You need not look much farther than a Harley-Davidson rally, a Star Trek convention, or a Jimmy Buffett concert to see the cult branding phenomenon at work: thousands of passionate, faithful fans spreading the good word and spending lots of money. Not all brands have the dash of edginess, the devoted fan base, or the niche positioning to be cult brands. But those that do tend to share similar characteristics that make them successful. Douglas Atkins' definition of "cult brand": "A brand for which a group of customers exhibit a great devotion or dedication. Its ideology is distinctive and it has a well-defined and committed community. It enjoys exclusive devotion (that is, not shared with another brand in the same category) and its members often become voluntary advocates. Cult Brands :: Business Marketing Cult Brands Maslow's postulated that we humans have an ascending order of needs and used a hierarchal pyramid to prioritize them. At the bottom levels of the pyramid are our physiological needs, which include basic things like food, shelter, and clothing that we all need to survive. At progressively higher levels in Maslow's Hierarchy are the needs for safety and security, social interaction, and self-esteem. At the very top is self-actualization, a term Maslow coined to describe the ultimate human need to learn, grow, and reach one's full potential as a person. We all desire on some level to self-actualize, both to be at peace with ourselves and to try to be the best we can be. As humans, we are drawn to people, places, groups, causes, companies, and, ultimately, brands that we believe can help us towards our ultimate goal of self-actualization and total fulfillment. Higher level needs influence future human behavior much greater than lower level needs. It is the brands that can fulfill human needs on the higher levels of the hierarchy that become irreplaceable in the mind of the consumer. Brands sometimes like to think of themselves as religions. These are called cult brands (Holt) and organize their community of clients as a congregation, with a holy land or place, churches, rituals, etc. It has to be said that few of these brands actually evoke religious fervor in their subscribers. That's what customer loyalty is really all about. Being irreplaceable. True customer loyalty is not only about getting a customer to consistently choose your brand over another. It's for that same customer to always believe (and then go tell the world) that your company's brand has no equal! This is when the customers form a cult. You need not look much farther than a Harley-Davidson rally, a Star Trek convention, or a Jimmy Buffett concert to see the cult branding phenomenon at work: thousands of passionate, faithful fans spreading the good word and spending lots of money. Not all brands have the dash of edginess, the devoted fan base, or the niche positioning to be cult brands. But those that do tend to share similar characteristics that make them successful. Douglas Atkins' definition of "cult brand": "A brand for which a group of customers exhibit a great devotion or dedication. Its ideology is distinctive and it has a well-defined and committed community. It enjoys exclusive devotion (that is, not shared with another brand in the same category) and its members often become voluntary advocates.

Preparing and Writing Essay

A basic key to producing good essays is to start early and work steadily over an extended period. Build in time for distractions and problems (e.g. illness or disk failure), and allow for deadline bunching. Plan to complete well before the deadline to allow yourself some leeway. As a rough guide, you might allow three weeks for work on a course essay. The deadline is intended to help you with time management – make sure you adhere to it. Reflect on the feedback obtained on your previous essays. What strengths and weaknesses were identified? Think about how best to overcome the weaknesses. For example, if your essays have been criticised for limited knowledge of the literature or lack of depth, this may indicate that you need to devote more preparation time and increase or change the breadth and depth of your reading; if criticised for poor structure or limited relevance, you are likely to benefit from spending more time on careful planning and editing/reorganising the final draft. Using course essays to work on your weaknesses can help you produce a better essay as well as help to improve your general writing skills. Look more:  how to write a process paper Do some preliminary reading to help you choose an essay topic. The reading lists for the essays provide guidance on sources of preliminary reading. Generally it is useful to choose reading that is relatively recent, this is likely to include a summary of earlier work, some of which you may explore in more detail later. It can also be helpful at an early stage to make use of EconLit and the Library catalogue to check on the availability and nature of supplementary reading on a topic. As should be obvious, you should try to choose a topic that you find interesting. This will help motivate you to work on the essay and is also likely to make the end product more interesting for the reader/marker. Note that interest tends to increase as you work on a topic, providing you don’t leave it all to the last minute. Once you have chosen a topic (or even to help you choose from a short-list of topics), use your initial reading to produce a draft outline plan of your essay. The general advice on what makes a good essay, set out below, should help you to produce an effective plan. A basic plan would typically divide the essay/dissertation into a series of logically ordered sections. This skeleton structure can then be filled out by fitting ideas, relevant references, work and information required, into the planned sections (making use of references from preliminary reading, EconLit etc.) Taking time to construct an effective annotated outline plan should help you to: †¢ Produce a well-structured and coherent essay. †¢ Organise the subsequent work on your essay/dissertation and plan your study time more effectively. †¢ Read actively and more effectively – making you think about how further reading fits into your plan and, possibly, adapting your plan in response to new information or ideas. Although the ingredients of a good essay can vary between courses and topics, the following broad guidelines are generally applicable. Structure: †¢ Ensure that your essay/dissertation has a clear logical structure. †¢ Use the introduction to motivate the topic, set it in perspective and outline the structure of the body of your essay to help the reader follow the argument. †¢ Use the conclusions to draw together the argument, provide an overall assessment and, possibly, indicate areas that might be developed further if space allowed. General content: †¢ The primary focus should be on analysis, not description or presentation of information. †¢ Make it clear that you have a good understanding of the relevant basic literature. But avoid devoting too much space to repeating standard textbook material. Generally you can make clear that you understand the basics in the context of presenting a more advanced or deeper analysis. †¢ Be innovative – think of an interesting and different angle on the topic; draw on ideas from other courses (including non-economics courses) or general reading; go beyond the standard literature by making good use of EconLit or other reference sources; be prepared to challenge standard approaches. This is likely to make the essay more interesting for you and the reader/marker. †¢ Remember it is your essay, it should reflect your informed thought and judgements on the topic, not simply reiterate or paraphrase the views of others. Analysis and models: †¢ The appropriate mode of analysis can vary between courses and topics. In the vast majority of cases economics essays will involve the use of an explicit model or models. Formal models help to provide a clear logical structure, which is a major reason for their use in economics. †¢ When presenting a model, you need to make clear that you understand the model. This involves more than simply copying a set of equations from an article or book. To signal your understanding you might for example: provide an intuitive explanation of the overall model or key steps in solving the model; work out some steps in a model’s solution explicitly, when (as is often the case) this is not done explicitly in the original source; develop and work through a variation of the model not developed explicitly in the reading; compare and contrast the model with other related models; assess the assumptions used and the limitations they pose; apply the model judiciously to a particular situation. Presentation and style: †¢ Grammar and spelling matter. Leave plenty of time for editing the final draft to improve grammar. Use a spellchecker, but remember that spell checkers do not pick up all mistakes. Incorrect spelling of names and jargon can be particularly irritating. †¢ Be precise and concise. Conciseness allows you to include more within the word limit. †¢ Think about how to present data or information effectively. Tables or figures can be useful presentational tools. †¢ References should be presented accurately and consistently. See the lists of preliminary readings for a suggested standard style. Citations and plagiarism: †¢ Quotations should be used judiciously, if at all, to support or illustrate an argument. The source of any quotation should be clearly stated, including the page reference. †¢ Data sources should be clearly cited. †¢ When summarising or describing someone’s work the source or sources should be clearly stated. †¢ The University of Edinburgh’s Undergraduate Assessment Regulations state: â€Å"Plagiarism is the act of copying or including in one’s own work, without adequate acknowledgement, intentionally or unintentionally, the work of another. It is academically fraudulent and an offence against University discipline.† (http://www.docs.sasg.ed.ac.uk/AcademicServices/Regulations/UG_AssessmentRegulations.PDF, para. 14.2) †¢ The University of Edinburgh’s Guidance on the Avoidance of Plagiarism for Undergraduate and Taught Postgraduate Students states: â€Å"Plagiarism is the act of including in one’s own work the work of another person, without adequate acknowledgement of having done so, either deliberately or unintentionally.† (http://www.docs.sasg.ed.ac.uk/AcademicServices/Discipline/StudentGuidanceUGPGT.pdf ) †¢ The Undergraduate Assessment Regulations add â€Å"The innocent misuse or citation of material without formal and proper acknowledgement can constitute plagiarism, even when there is no deliberate intent to cheat. Work may be plagiarised if it consists of close paraphrasing or unacknowledged summary of a source, as well as word-for-word transcription. Any failure adequately to acknowledge or properly reference other sources in submitted work could lead to lower marks and to disciplinary action being taken.† (http://www.docs.sasg.ed.ac.uk/AcademicServices/Regulations/UG_AssessmentRegulations.PDF , para. 14.2) †¢ The three preceding bullet points avoid plagiarism, by properly acknowledging sources (but would not, on their own, constitute a good essay or dissertation). Most study skills books contain further advice on essay writing. The Main Library Reading Room has an extensive collection of study skills books, which contain advice on essay writing. Several books are devoted specifically to writing skills, for example:

Living Alone at an Old Age Essay

Living alone has many advantages as well as disadvantages especially when at the old age. Being 80 years old is no easy task staying alone, according to the Administration on Aging, approximately 11 million aged-adults lived alone in the US in the year 2010 and the numbers are soaring up at a swift pace (Stevenson). However, many argue that age is just but a number and the older one becomes the wiser he or she gets thus can be able to take good care of self. The next paragraph will focus on the various cons and pros of living alone at an old age. Unlike living in a nursing home or with the children, living alone grants one the opportunity to make rules in the house reducing accountability responsibility to others. One is able to decorate the house as he or she pleases without receiving judgments or criticisms from others. In nursing homes one lacks the privacy he or she needs, there are people all over and the noise is too much, when alone one does not need to compromise with such situations. However, there are cons of living alone such as when one has poor eyesight it is risky to live alone. Additionally, when on medication or sick living alone is not an option. One may experience some social isolation when alone and at times forget important appointments as well as keeping up with the daily chores. Though it may sound promising to live alone when in good health at an old age, when ailments start kicking in, it is advisable to live in a Nursing home or with the children in order to live safely(Stratford). References Stevenson, Sarah. ‘Dangers Of Seniors Living Alone’.  Senior Living News and Trends | A Place for Mom. N. p., 2013. Web. 26 May. 2014. Stratford, Kathryn. ‘Many Of The Benefits Of Living Alone’.HubPages. N. p., 2013. Web. 26 May. 2014. Source document

New challenges in taking GCSEs

New challenges in taking GCSEs UK educational system I’d like to share with you some latest news about UK educational system and specifically challenges in taking GCSEs UK examination system for secondary school undergoes serious changes. According to the recently adopted rules, children will have to spend three years, instead of two, to get ready for math and English - two main GCSE subjects. The main goal of these reforms is to make exams more complicated and thus more productive. They are mainly focused on branches of mathematics, such as algebra and geometry. According to these changes, school children are expected to make in-depth investigation of the subjects and learn the material more profoundly. Undoubtedly, the time spent for learning the subject will be increased as well. Teenagers are likely to have more math classes during the week alongside with the extended curriculum. The new GCSE project is to be launched in 2018. Despite such cushion of time, designers of the examination system recommend that schoolchildren get down to work as soon as possible, since the renovated program includes all the additional math exams. Teenagers are not the only ones, who will be crammed with the material. A heavy burden of mixed responsibilities will be laid on teachers’ shoulders. The range of their duties is going to be enriched with the following tasks: to keep up with the updates in fundamentals of the subjects, to monitor pupils’ progress, to work out new syllabus. In addition, the changes will concern not only the quality of the exams but also their quantity.   The number of subjects is reported to be reduced from 12 to 8. Therefore, academic progress of the schools will be ranked in eight key subjects. They are as follows: English and Baccalaureate subjects of English, mathematics, science, language and humanities subjects. The grade system is also said to be renewed. The well-known grade letters A, B, C, D, E are expected to be substituted with numbers. Thus, there are going to be two test papers at pupils’ disposal. The first one, in higher mathematics, is graded from 4 to 9, for the second, less complicated test one can get from 1 to 5 points. Experts assure that new GCSE project is worth all the efforts and time. It is expected that those pupils, who usually leg behind the rest of the class will have an opportunity to boost their success in studies, as they will have more time to get ready for GCSEs.

About Me Essays - Big Five Personality Traits, Free Essays

About Me Essays - Big Five Personality Traits, Free Essays About Me There are many different places in the world that have their own features. Besides that, different people also have different personalities. People like places that make them feel comfortable and relaxed, and that place can express the personality of that person effectively. I chose the airport as the best place to define who I truly am as a person and how I relate to others. It best describes my personality because I am a very complex individual. When you are in the airport, you would get mixed feelings about every aspect that's happening around the area. I feel like it best sums up the mixed emotions that I usually feel every single day. In my opinion, the broad spaces and various people from all around the world in the airport are bright symbols of my outgoing, curious, friendly and organized personality. The airport is a wide area of opportunities. It opens its door to people coming from any place in the world. They come from all sorts of entrances. Those that arrive to come home, those that are in for business trips, and those who are just enjoying the free time of spending some vacation time in the place. I can relate the different gates of entrance in the airport with my very adaptive attitude; because of this attitude, I have met certain people from different walks of life. I am not shy or afraid to talk with them; instead, I am an outgoing person and feel happy to communicate with them. As an International Student, this relates very closely to me. Every person I meet, no matter how different they are culturally, I am comfortable with in every single day. I know how to relate to people like me who are not locals in community, those who are staying here for the benefit of a good school. It best shines on my complex personality wherein I can accommodate people even when they are no t locals. Because I am an outgoing person and meet many people in my life, I am very curious about them and their lives. Other times, when I go out or talk with people in my circle, I also get to know people who are just traveling by, enjoying what this place can bring to them. Although they are different in their own ways, I would tend to get too curious and be sucked up to what these people could tell. You would get an impression that I am a curious person. I want to learn about other aspects in people's life. I hunger for more information and more things to learn about. Furthermore, like the airport, it never run out of portals to get sources of information as different people come to pass by here. I learn more and more each day and do not get tired of absorbing every bit of information about different types of people. Not only do these people vary from each other in different ways, they bring me interesting tales and let me realize some important things that help me overcome the challenges of day-to-day life from these tales. That's another side of me that I tremendously acknowledge: I love to learn how to plan. With this personality, the stories that people share to me contribute to my being complex and to my being absorptive of my own developmental personality. Like the airport as well, the place being open and welcoming also talks about another personality of mine: I am a very friendly person. The airport accepts people all around the world. I have this similarity with the airport. I love to meet new people. I do not choose who to associate with or to be reluctant to people who feel that they are outsiders; I am an open book ready to accept friendship from any person willing to come by and add to the pages of my life. This personality has helped me gain not only good connections in society, but it also made me even more flexible on how to socialize with people. This personality keeps me from being a part of the modern and classical world. This personality has absolutely opened several doors for me as well. Once you open

Mystery Writing Contest for Unpublished Novelists

Mystery Writing Contest for Unpublished Novelists Mystery Writing Contest for Unpublished Novelists Mystery Writing Contest for Unpublished Novelists By Maeve Maddox The Debut Dagger is a crime writing competition sponsored by the Crime Writers Association. According to Liz Evans, contest chair, 18 Dagger entrants have landed publishing contracts since the annual competition began in 1998. The bad news: If youve already had a novel published commerciallyin any genreyou cant enter. The good news: If your entry makes the short list, youll receive a professional assessment of your entry, even if you dont win. First prize is  £500, tickets to the CWA Daggers Awards and a nights stay in a top London hotel. The entry fee of  £25 is payable by credit card or PayPal. The deadline is February 6, 2010. Even if you are not eligible to enter, you may want to check out the CWA site. It offers a lot of useful writing tips. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Fiction Writing category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:100 Exquisite Adjectives55 Boxing Idioms10 Tips for Clean, Clear Writing

AIG Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

AIG - Case Study Example The risk management division at AIG knew very well of the risks they were taking but still they carried on with this unstable, fraudulent yet lucrative opportunity. In the end, the company almost got to the brink of bankruptcy. Greed and negligence led AIG to be a part of the derivative business. The derivatives are risky investments and many wise investors avoid these instruments because of their highly unpredictable nature as well as the loopholes for exploiting them through scams and frauds. This payment comes in the form of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs). Before the crisis began these instruments were in huge demand because they were offering higher returns than other bonds that had the same credit ratings. Therefore, speculators as well as investors heavily purchase these instruments from insurers such as AIG. Before the crisis the US financial market was going through bullish trends and it appeared improbable for bond issuers to go through bankruptcy (Xinzi, 2013). Hence, CDS seemed the most lucrative selling financial tools for collecting premiums. By the end of 2007 the CDS contract grew to about $60 trillion and there was no doubt that when the times were good CDS were generating huge reve nues for AIG (Xinzi, 2013). In addition, many banks and underwriters of CDS covered their short positions in one instrument while staying long in other CDS (Xinzi, 2013). AIG did not play on both sides of the trade (Xinzi, 2013). The unethical side of AIGs derivative business was not to fully cover the insurance it was providing. When the risk management is underwriting the risks they should keep track of the companys resources in case they have to pay the claim. The company was not oblivion about the risky nature of the securities it was insuring. The management only considered the quarterly premium that kept coming in. In other words AIG failed

Diversity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Diversity - Essay Example Companies now realize that in order to create a productive environment such differences need to be harnessed in such a manner that everybody feels valued with their talents fully utilized for meeting the organizational goals. This study is an effort to look into such diversities in general. With the female gender rubbing shoulders with their male counterparts in almost all professions, the diversity on account of gender in particular is the one most talked about now a days. An effort would also be made in this study to analyze some cases in which women have been leading an organization. In order to manage an organization, there are a number of key stakeholders like customers, government, environment, human resources etc. Managing other operations and activities become far more convenient if a company is able to manage its human resources effectively. Having a pool of talented and motivated workforce certainly helps the matters. Terry & Franklin (1994) defines management as 'a distinct process consisting of activities of planning, organizing, actuating and controlling performed to determine and accomplish stated objectives with the use of human beings and other resources'. The older schools of thought considered the male workforce fit enough for all types of functions involving varying degrees of stress and strain, the female counterparts was considered delicate to the extent that they were not considered fit enough for such jobs. But times are changing and there are examples which prove beyond doubt that women employees are equally competent to handle any kind of s ituation. The society too has in general accepted this fact, which becomes all the more clear when we find out that there a number of companies where women have been assigned or designated on top posts. Indra Nooyi Indra K. Nooyi, the Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, world's largest convenient food and beverage companies, is a leading example of how the women power has made its mark in managing the corporate affairs. Coming from a humble background in India, Mrs. Nooyi has traveled a long distance prior to becoming the top decision maker in Pepsi in 2006. She has served on the board of Pepsi since 2001, when she was named as the President and Chief Financial Officer1. Prior to her career with Pepsi, Ms. Nooyi has also served in Motorola as Vice President and Director of Corporate Strategy and Planning besides serving is some other renowned companies. This goes on to show that she has worked really hard to make it to the top post and she did not get the job out of sympathy or partial considerations. Acknowledging her business acumen leading bodies like Federal Reserve Bank of New York, the International Rescue Committee and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City have nominated her o n their board of directors. A recent study by Forbes, places her on the top of the 13 highest paid female CEOs in America (Kirdahy, 2008). Though, her total compensation is stated to be just about one-fourteenth of the highest-paid male counterpart, yet the process can be stated to have become in right earnest. It is worthwhile here to mention that she comes from a conservative family in India, and yet she has been able to to lead a company without the conservatism coming in the way goes on to prove

Do the questions below. ( every questions should be more than 200 Term Paper

Do the questions below. ( every questions should be more than 200 words) - Term Paper Example However, it does not mean that labor is the most valuable practice though some historical perspectives give labor such prominence. This occurs in social structures where development of productive forces is minimal so the labor activity completely occupies the individual’s life. This highlights the need to recognize labor as the centre of the ontology of culture (Stanley and Wise 1). This is because additional aspects of human activity entirely depend on the capability of individuals to provide labor within a stipulated time. Additionally, advancement of productive forces determines the capacity of individuals coupled with the extent of complication of social needs that require labor satisfaction. Marx’s expression â€Å"changes his own nature† draws mistranslation, particularly because the word â€Å"nature† can have two interpretations. The first meaning relates to human beings as the subjects of the action; a subject performing an activity needs to alter his or her own nature in a definite way to achieve the stipulated targets. The other meaning of â€Å"nature† relates to environment and emphasizes the alterations of the world because of intentional activity (Stanley and Wise 1). Additionally, humans alter the world to launch their own social objects to change the course of the society. Q: 66. â€Å"Give everyday examples illustrating the contradiction that in everyday practical activity exchange-value is sometimes considered immanent and sometimes considered relative†. Presently, in each practical activity, exchange value may be either immanent or relative. Products attain value because they are expressed in monetary terms. The value form of a product exists after different products have been compared with each other. The value of products is dynamic because it continuously develops based on trading processes (Lendvai 1). Presently, individuals objectify the worth of produced goods to enhance trade. By doing this, t he individuals are evaluating and contrasting the value of their efforts. Additionally, while individuals are comparing and justifying the products’ value before exchange, they are also comparing the intensity of their efforts. Therefore, the worth of a product largely depends on the worth of other products regardless of product evaluation (Lendvai). This depicts that exchange value is at times relative. It is imperative to say that immanence is a notion of relationship. Therefore, exchange value is at times transcendental and exceeds the physical features of objects, implying that values exist above the individual senses (Lendvai 1). An example to illustrate this is that the aesthetic worth of a painting is not similar with the textile of the canvas and the oils within it, though the painting cannot exist without these substances. Additionally, the exchange value of an object like diamond cannot subsist without its physical and chemical reality. Similarly, two portions of wo od fixed with the figure of a cross may enjoy sacramental value. Therefore, these examples clearly show that exchange value can be immanent or relative. Q: 98. â€Å"Take two very different kinds of labor, such as teaching and construction work, and discuss in what respect they are equal†. There exists a relationship between teaching and construction work. Teachers serve as architects of a better future of students because they nurture and monitor their progress, thereby ensuring that these

Power is more important than culture in determining I whether human Essay

Power is more important than culture in determining I whether human rights norms should are upheld or not - Essay Example Social status, morals, merits, religion cast, creed, race are immaterial in this case. Such rights are not static and keep on changing depending upon changing human needs. The interest shown by the United Nations, to protect the human rights reflects the rising alarm of the entire world to deliver freedom to each and every human being. Treaty like the United Nations Charter serves two main objectives i.e. it serves as an international standard which can be referred to by any nation to examine its own journey, its achievements, lacunae, standards and values; next, it gives inspiration to the countries to frame and implement policies protecting human rights in order to match the standard of the universal effort. However, it is to be noted that since the concept of protection of human rights is made with individualistic mindset a thorough investigation is needed as to where the treaty is leading us to. (Shimray, 2013, p. 72-73) Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) has come a long way in the last 60 years. Despite its history of failures and the relative incremental successes the work of the UDHR in sync with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, suggests a bright future for the human rights system. Now after 60 years, the main challenge is effective implementation and scrutiny of such laws in as many areas as possible. However, the major gain has been the manifestation of the idea that human rights cannot be done away with to upheld State sovereignty. However major lacunae still exist in the regime and one of which is the lack of a successful system to guarantee the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples. (Castellino, 2010, p.393-394) If one delves into the past, it will found that in the 1600s, the concept of state sovereignty was so rigid that it even gave a nation to kill its own people or to displace large groups of people by force and that no other nation was supposed to interfere with that. However, after the second world war

Tissot Watch Company Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Tissot Watch Company Analysis - Essay Example The first and foremost is brand recognition. Tissot relies heavily on different strategies that require lots of investment in advertising to create product value. As Tissot involved well known personalities to promote their products, this acted in their favour create brand recognition in the industry. The consumer base of the company has been strong enough which enabled the organisation to take steps into new products which in turn will attract new customers and cement the consumer base. Marketing and communication sets Tissot stand differently from its competitors. The design of the watches is built in such a way so that it attracts every level of consumers if not income wise but choice wise. Tissot took the step in distributing their products in different markets which not only raised their sells but penetrate other markets and drive out their competitors. The Swiss watch manufacturer has large and highly skilled pool of labor. They are trained for the specific purposes and latest innovations and techniques are injected into the products which affects the sales of the company. The price of the products is set at such a level which attracts targeted customers. The prices are competitive with other competitors in the industry and technological advancement is the factor which differentiates its products from other competitors. A huge product base is also offered for the customers with different price ranges. Luxury watches are defined as those watches which have a factory gate price of over CHF 500, and corresponds to more or less to sale price of over CHF 1500. A Harvard Business School Professor stated a ‘five forces model’ to make an analysis of the watch industry. There is the threat of new entrants which may be able to attract the consumer bases of the already existing players. There is rivalry among the players in terms of pricing, branding and advertisements. The only difference the watch industry has from all other industries is that it is n ot possible to deliver substitutable products. That is why the other aspects of business are foremost in this industry [Gautschi, 2005, pp. 7-8]. (Gold, Godsey, Cernusca, 2003, p. 9) The key to sustain in the Swiss watch industry is in fulfilling the strategic and operational goals of an organisation. Tissot has been able to capture a consumer base but in order to sustain in the industry the need of the time is inject new technologies and pricing strategies. Injection of new technologies will involve investments and the current needs of the market need to be identified. Once the needs are identified, new products are injected into the market using appropriate process strategies. Tissot should also have adequate back up plans for sudden entry of new competitors into the market. These unexpected moves are required to be handled efficiently. Research and development is one of the key areas which cannot be eliminated from any company in order to sustain in an industry (Adler and Shenhar , 1989, p. 10). Time should be spent on new product innovation and marketing of the products around the globe. Elasticity: One of the important concepts that can influence the pricing strategy is price elasticity of demand which shows the change in the quantity demanded of a certain product due to change in the price of the same product. Tissot will have to

Joint research and development analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Joint research and development analysis - Essay Example The study has following domains of bio-technology research which have emerged as lucrative domain for strategic alliance between research partners. Research on DNA/RNA In many cases, it has been observed that biotechnology players form strategic alliances in order to conduct research on DNA/RNA amplification, synthesis, sequencing or gene expression profiling in order to develop a new medicine which can cure critical diseases or fillip the scientific development for a particular domain. According to Sherpa Group (2011), almost 64% of bio-tech and Enzyme companies are directly or indirectly related to DNA/RNA research. Research on Proteins Bio-tech companies are also focusing on conducting research on proteomics, engineering or synthesis of proteins and peptides, fabrication of cell receptors etc in order to develop enzymes or medicines for both research and commercial purpose (Sherpa Group, 2011). ... However, Andersson et al (2004) and Vassolo et al (2004) have argued that, strategic alliances between biotechnology companies help them to develop new processes, access to patents and access to knowledge resources but also mutually help both the companies to achieve competitive advantage. This is the reason why research collaboration activities by bio technology companies are growing at constant pace for last few years. To take the discussion forward the study will cite strategic alliances between US company Metabolix and Spanish company Antibioticos S.A which is a renowned Pharmaceutical Active Ingredients manufacture (Seiffert, 2012). Joint Venture between Metabolix and Antibioticos S.A In the year 2012, Metabolix Inc has announced that it has signed a collaboration agreement with Madrid based Antibioticos S.A for developing biopolymer resin. Both of the company have signed a letter of intent in order to in order to conduct research on biodegradable Mirel which is plant based alte rnatives for non-biodegradable plastics. According to bio technology specialists, bio polymer can act as suitable alternatives of plastics and it has minimum environmental impact due to its recyclable and bio degradable nature. Apart from the environmental benefits, commercial value of bio polymer has also attracted bio-tech companies to invest money on developing it. For example, demand for bio-polymer is growing at double digit growth rate for last consecutive years in both Europe and USA, which is another reason why bio-tech companies are banking on bio polymers as the next big thing (Seiffert, 2012). Metabolix Although strategic partnership with Antibioticos S.A will

Tissot Watch Company Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Tissot Watch Company Analysis - Essay Example The first and foremost is brand recognition. Tissot relies heavily on different strategies that require lots of investment in advertising to create product value. As Tissot involved well known personalities to promote their products, this acted in their favour create brand recognition in the industry. The consumer base of the company has been strong enough which enabled the organisation to take steps into new products which in turn will attract new customers and cement the consumer base. Marketing and communication sets Tissot stand differently from its competitors. The design of the watches is built in such a way so that it attracts every level of consumers if not income wise but choice wise. Tissot took the step in distributing their products in different markets which not only raised their sells but penetrate other markets and drive out their competitors. The Swiss watch manufacturer has large and highly skilled pool of labor. They are trained for the specific purposes and latest innovations and techniques are injected into the products which affects the sales of the company. The price of the products is set at such a level which attracts targeted customers. The prices are competitive with other competitors in the industry and technological advancement is the factor which differentiates its products from other competitors. A huge product base is also offered for the customers with different price ranges. Luxury watches are defined as those watches which have a factory gate price of over CHF 500, and corresponds to more or less to sale price of over CHF 1500. A Harvard Business School Professor stated a ‘five forces model’ to make an analysis of the watch industry. There is the threat of new entrants which may be able to attract the consumer bases of the already existing players. There is rivalry among the players in terms of pricing, branding and advertisements. The only difference the watch industry has from all other industries is that it is n ot possible to deliver substitutable products. That is why the other aspects of business are foremost in this industry [Gautschi, 2005, pp. 7-8]. (Gold, Godsey, Cernusca, 2003, p. 9) The key to sustain in the Swiss watch industry is in fulfilling the strategic and operational goals of an organisation. Tissot has been able to capture a consumer base but in order to sustain in the industry the need of the time is inject new technologies and pricing strategies. Injection of new technologies will involve investments and the current needs of the market need to be identified. Once the needs are identified, new products are injected into the market using appropriate process strategies. Tissot should also have adequate back up plans for sudden entry of new competitors into the market. These unexpected moves are required to be handled efficiently. Research and development is one of the key areas which cannot be eliminated from any company in order to sustain in an industry (Adler and Shenhar , 1989, p. 10). Time should be spent on new product innovation and marketing of the products around the globe. Elasticity: One of the important concepts that can influence the pricing strategy is price elasticity of demand which shows the change in the quantity demanded of a certain product due to change in the price of the same product. Tissot will have to

Case Study Deloitte Case 09-8 Classified information

Deloitte 09-8 Classified information - Case Study Example In the year 2006, the gross profit increased by 8.6%, with the total net sales increasing to a figure of $ 86.5 million, the sassy Spa division yielding a net profit of $ 11.2 million. Contribution from the ‘Sassy Spa Division,’ therefore, increased by a whopping 287.18 %. This shows that the other divisions did not contribute much to increase in sales revenue in 2006. Contribution to the total profit in the year 2006 was therefore from sale of a fixed asset i.e. the sale of corporate HQ ($ 1.7 million), and winning a lawsuit against a supplier yielding further revenue of $ 2.7 million. This contributed to a non-operating income of $ 4.4 million in the financial year 2006. ‘420-10-S99’ codification standard defines such income as restructuring charges and may not be presented in an income statement as extraordinary items. Paragraph ‘225-20-45-16’ states that items which do not meet the classification criteria of an extraordinary item should be reported as component of income. Therefore, this figure can be added to the gross profit in 2006, yielding net revenue of $ 34.8

Tragedy and Revenge in Aristotle and Shakespeare’s Masterpiece Essay Example for Free

Tragedy and Revenge in Aristotle and Shakespeare’s Masterpiece Essay I. Introduction Tragedy is a play dealing with serious events, in which the leading character suffers because of his actions. It ends unhappily, usually with the hero’s death. Although no exact, detailed definition of tragedy has been agreed upon by critics, the term is commonly used to describe nonmusical dramatic works, not operas. The issues in tragedy are significant, and the characters and action are basically realistic. Tragedy thus differs from melodrama, which may be sad or horrible but is unrealistic and superficial. It is also to be distinguished from tragicomedy, in which elements of both tragedy and comedy are combined, and which ends happily. (See â€Å"Aristotle and Tragedy†).   Thesis Statement: This paper scrutinizes the two plays which are Hamlet and Oedipus the King. II. Discussion A. Hamlet and the Aspect of Revenge and How It Transcends Every Genre Hamlet best exemplifies the genre of Elizabethan revenge. A center of many arguments is the apparent delay of Hamlet’s revenge. Critical discussion of this supposed procrastination has a long history. Goethe thought Hamlet too sensitive, Coleridge and A.W. von Schlegel too intelligent to be capable of action. The early 20th century English critic A.C. Bradley saw him as restrained by melancholia, the 19th century German scholar Herman Ulrici by moral scruples; the Freudians viewed him as too complex-ridden to kill his uncle (See â€Å"Hamlet†). This aspect of Hamlet’s behavior is seen either as a flaw or a virtue. The story contains four sons of murdered fathers (Hamlet, Laertes, Fortinbras, and Pyrrhus), but Hamlet differs from the three’s pursuit for revenge. He even goes as far as feigning insanity in order to conceal his real agitation and divert attention from his task of revenge. The subject of revenge, which is one of the focal themes of the play, transcends every genre, for there is a Hamlet in every one of us. As Hamlet in the story suffers pain and grief as a result of the circumstances surrounding his father’s death, the usurping of the throne and by the betrayal he felt from his mother’s remarriage to his father’s brother, Hamlet is then filled with the dilemma of whether to take revenge against the wrongdoer. Suffering and grief as a consequence of injustice and oppression is as old as man’s history (Rowse, 1984).Even during the course of the play, Hamlet’s torment alienates him from all those around him, even though he has a close friend to confide with. Such inner turmoil is only expressed in his soliloquies but unknown to those around him. Certainly, the depth of suffering is known only the most by the one who suffers. How people variously react to such agonies is showcased in the play’s story. Most often, it is the common desire to act as the three other young men (Laertes, Fortinbras, and Pyrrhus) did pursue their task of vengeance with ruthless single-mindedness. However, Hamlet’s situation is far more complicated. This shows that indeed, vengeance is far from simple. While it seeks to retaliate by inflicting pain for pain, Shakespeare’s Hamlet shows the peril of vengeance. All those who sought revenge died. Hamlet’s loved ones (such as Ophelia), those whom he could have sought solace and comfort, and himself also died. They became victims of Hamlet’s reckless rage as a result of his deflected and unfulfilled desire for retaliation. Revenge therefore, sinks both the offender and the avenger, pulling down along with it the innocent. It is a bearer of destruction. While most revenge plays justifies the avenger by emphasizing him or her as a victim, Hamlet’s character hangs a question above it. At the very core of revenge is bitterness, and is like a ‘rotten apple that spoils the whole bunch’. It has destroyed everything that’s good in Hamlet and made him much more evil than his stepfather. The danger of retaliation is to do greater harm than what was received. No one overcomes evil, with evil (See â€Å"Hamlet†). Before bitterness could do its harm, it is best thrown out. Truly, Shakespeare’s Hamlet speaks to every individual in every genre, since ALL of us must pass through a time of making that choice: â€Å"TO BE (bitter) OR NOT TO BE (bitter)? That indeed is a question we all must face (Rowse, 1984). B. Oedipus, the struggles and revenge The play Oedipus the King, also known as Oedipus Rex is a play written by Sophocles with Oedipus as the main character.   Oedipus is considered a tragic hero since despite his noble birth; he is unable to overcome the obstacles he has encountered in his life and about his past. There are certain characteristics in a story which leads a character to be identified as a ‘tragic hero’. A tragic hero must be of high social stature who commits a fatal mistake and in Oedipus’ case of poor judgment. Oedipus fits the description, being born of nobility with King Laius and Queen Jacosta as his biological parents, ruler of Thebes. His poor judgment is made obvious when in searching for Laius’ murderer, Oedipus stubbornly paid no attention to blind prophet Tiresias’ forewarnings not to continue in the investigation. And although Tiresias was blind and old, king Oedipus accused the prophet instead, of being the murderer. A tragic hero is set as an example for the viewers of the tragic consequences when a man of lofty position falls because of his own misdeeds, although the tragic hero realizes his mistakes and learn from it. Typically, a person of great stature is regarded with admiration and respect by the people and those around him. If, in the course of time, such person is eaten by a desire to continuously receive such admiration, he or she suffers the malady of grandiosity (See â€Å"Oedipus the King†). In this situation, the person is narcissistic, which means the person thinks highly of his or her own personal qualities as being superior than that of others such as physical looks, intelligence, talents or abilities, and achievements. Depression plagues the person if such a need is not met. Oedipus’ position of loftiness crumbles upon the Herdsman’s revelation of the king’s parenthood. Oedipus words upon knowing the truth expresses a pessimistic perspective of his life and future. Secondly, a tragic hero’s fate is undeserved. In Oedipus case, certain circumstances in his life are outside his control. It began when it was known through a prophecy that it was destined that king Laius will be killed by his own son. Queen Jacosta tried to prevent such a tragic fate from occurring by trying to end Oedipus life, who was still a child at this time. However, unknown to them, the child was given to a shepherd and still ended up raised in kingly stature as a child of king Polybus, ruler of Corinth. But even in Corinth, a prophecy was spoken to him of the tragic fate that awaits him. Seeking to escape the prophecy, Oedipus travels to the land of his birth, Thebes wherein he unknowingly fulfills what has been predicted of his destiny. Oedipus, as a tragic hero, does not fully deserve his fate since he partly bore the consequences of his parent’s mistakes and actions. Right before his birth, when the king and queen sought the advice of the Delphi Oracle, they were already forewarned not to bear children. Obviously, the advice was not heeded and the oracle was only remembered by king Laius when the child was born. A mistake was followed by another mistake, when the parents rejected the child and Oedipus was denied of his parent’s love and care (See â€Å"Oedipus the King†). Although he was of nobility, such circumstances somehow had set the wheels that led to his tragic end. Initially robbed of his kingly stature by birth, ‘fate’ restored it to him. Upon ascending the throne, his stature began to blind Oedipus of the real state of his inner self. Instead of the pain within himself and his tragic past, Oedipus is self-deceived; he covers the pain and inner suffering brought by the past by focusing only on external beauty. Since he was already blinded by his own self, he did not heed wise counsel. This time, Oedipus’ own foolishness led to his own downfall.   His own narcissistic characteristic caused his poor judgment: if he did not see himself as having superior opinion than others, he would not have killed king Laius nor have accused Tiresias a liar. His own pride has already blinded him that prevented him of acknowledging the truth. However, Oedipus later saw the folly of his own actions and gained knowledge that life is more than just a result of fate (See â€Å"Oedipus the King†). III. Conclusion Each character of the Oedipus the King and the Hamlet show outstanding representation of different individuals on how they may react in times of difficulties. These play give us better understanding that half of this world struggles a lot in order to live and may do anything in order survive. As the saying goes â€Å"survival of the fittest.† During the great depression, many people are crying out because of starvation. During this time, the economy was shaky and the prices were all going up. Many individuals, especially the commoners, have the hardship in how to cope up this circumstance In conclusion, the play tells us the reality of life. That life is full of struggle and everyone should do his part to overcome it. Oedipus the King and Hamlet are two different plays however showed reality about life. If we scrutinize the Oedipus, we can say that it is somewhat fictional however it sometimes happens in the rarest occasions unlike with Hamlet, this scenario is happening in day to day life and serves as an evidence that life is full of struggle and others do not know how to play it skillfully that is why they go insane and unfulfilled.

Pay and Rewards in Human Resource Strategies

Pay and Rewards in Human Resource Strategies Introduction Socometal is joint ventures were 52% owned by French company and 48% by Senegalese it deals with metal container and can. 150-800 are working in the company for the past 20 years with the profit of $144 million. Analysis In this case study we can find three important people they are Diop is a Senegalese engineer (Asst Production Manager), Mr Olveir Bernard is a production Manager from France and NDiaye is a factory worker. African Management systems are followed in running the company. Majority of the managers are from Africa with only 8-10 Managers are from France. There was a meeting, where NDiaye requested Diop to sign an agreement regarding the overtime of two hour benefits to increase the production by 30%. NDiaye is solely responsible for the entire production process. Accepting the offer he positively replied that â€Å"We could even produce more†. 12000 units are manufactured per day and requests for 30% increase in the production level. Mr Bernard did not have good quality of manager as he was arrogant, uncommunicative and negative because of his character growth was limited. Socometal agrees with the contract to meet the short time increase in the volume of production. After doing so me calculation this was not agreed by Mr Bernard as he said â€Å"We will never get from our workers† after saying this he went to his home town due to illness. After the agreement proposal by Diop, he went to different department to discuss the proposal. Some French and Italian expatriates expressed that the workers will not do overtime but â€Å"most agreed it was worth a try†. Diop gave his agreement on condition to NDiaye by ensuring 30% increase in production by end of the day. Wages will be fixed only after assessing the increase of production by the management. One old French logistics manager said â€Å"Africans arent lazy but they work to live, and once they have enough they refuse to do more†. Action came into play after four days negotiation between Diop and NDiaye. Work was allocated to two of his subordinates to save enough time and energy to mobilise the workers. One of the Senegalese foreman declared that this agreement is an one of the best pract ice were workers can earn an extra money and also show French management that they are more capable workers than they think. Worker started one extra hour per day to increase the production to 8% more than expectation. Production levels been increased to 18000-22000 units per day between 38%-43% in two month time they created history and all the workers were so proud of their results. Mr Bernard returned from his illness he was shocked to see changes in the company there was dispute between Diop and Mr Bernard regarding the two hours pay to the worker, where work was achieved in one hour. Diops agreement with worker was not accepted by his manager and he stated that you have put the management in trouble and acted against company policies. He was unable to express his views about the process change to his manager as he was not interested. Thinking in employees prospective he plans to meet the Managing Director. To respect the words of Diop and NDiaye workers decided to maintain the new production level. The worker expressed if Mr Bernard deals the same as he did before the production reduces to normal. Background of HRM in India In todays world there is intense cut throat competition and everyone wants to reach great heights in order to stay in the top level for a longer period of time. India is land of opportunities and it is becoming one of the hot spots in the world. Human resource management is not same all over the world, its entirely differs from the societies within individual countries. Culture is defined as a group which moulds a person values, ethics and identity with the following differences like ethnicity, race, gender, class, religion, country so on and so forth. Cross culture in management terms- It means people working in the different cultural environment with different sets of people with different culture, caste and etc. However it is said that culture is concerned with the behaviour of our job, its all about adopting to the working environment, cultural differences, styles, participate in meetings, what we speak and finally dealing with the differences. Every company has an organisation s tructure and differs with each company; it literally means the companys structure of an organization according to their designation and ranks, 3 types of hierarchy system which is maintained in our country namely hierarchical, matrix and flat. These structures are prepared keeping just one home culture which indirectly hits back as diversity of culture is involved. It deals with the vision of the company and also defines responsibility to each staffs or individuals. It is also called as a management tool where division of labour is cultivated and it gives detailed structure of role from upper level management to lower level of management. Most companies in India are quality centric organizations which are ISO 9001:2000 certified which generally means quality is maintained. Managing people in India requires micro management strategy only with this strategy best outcome is resulted as when we compare to our western countries is different. Companies tends to run business on one talente d individual who will have the main control to direct the employees in order to get the assigned work done without any further questions. Meaning of pay in management terms Pay means its an amount which is paid to the staff in the organisation for the services rendered. There are 2 types of pay i.e. fixed and variable pay. Pay scales vary as per the role and designation in the company. Now let me take you to the subject matter of pay satisfaction in India. We all know that salary is an outcome of an employees work and it plays a vital role in the tenure of stay in an organization. Two types of organisation are operated in India they are Private and Public organisation. Private organisation pays more to employees compare to public organisation. Job security is less in private organisation when compared to public organisation. Some employees are paid more than the fixed salary due to personal attributes there are 2 types of variable are fixed and variable pay. All the companies in India are performance driven organization and they will undertake various improvements on research and development techniques by encouraging SMART objectives in order to drive and reward performances. In order to encourage performance, the company institutes a variable pay plan, for staff members in Work Level 1 and Work Level 2, Variable Pay is based completely on individual performance outcomes and for staff members in Work Level 3 and above the plan is based on documented annual corporate milestones translated into annual departmental and individual goals and performances. The performance contributions in the individual and corporate goals are rewarded every quarter. Below table is one of the examples of variable pay scheme. Managers in India Managers are one of the core head of a company with a significant impact in terms of their implementation in international companies. A manager should build a good rapport with his employees and moreover he should be kind and if any problem arises he should handle it carefully as many of the employees future hangs with him. There is a saying like, â€Å"Good managers gives good business†. Managers are exceedingly excellent and they have their own strengths in companys point of view. Strengths as follows like communication skills, managing a team, convincing employees, motivation and etc. Employees work harder and their work will not be notified as more of internal politics takes place. Let me give u an example to support my statement. Eg- Mr A works in, â€Å"MT† company for 5 years and he does not have good skills to support his tenure in the company, he was staying only because he had good rapport in the higher level management and Mr B joins Mr A as a colleague in the same department 3 years earlier, after 2 years there was an requirement for senior position where Mr B had all the requirements to support his 2 years stay in the company, management took a bad decision by recruiting Mr A stating that he had better work experiences when compared with Mr B. This is how mangers in the company hire an existing employee to a next level even though employee has good skills and all the qualifications to match the job profile, they would rather go to an employee who has only experience and not anything else. The final area of consideration in human resource management is pay and reward in perception relating to cross culture Cross culture issues come in the organisation level, the simple reason is that companies operates in different countries organizes their daily activities or business differently. Cross culture takes place when company goes for globalisation. One of the major competitions that the companies in India encounter is that in the domestic market, for instance, that international firms now faces a stiff competition from goods produced in India by imports and MNCs. Cross culture differences causes a great challenge to HRM Factors affecting industrial relations, loyalty, productivity etc are the attitude of the employers, values, outlooks, beliefs and the social factors. Its a never ending process and there is no stoppage to pick the cross cultural differences as they are many. We can differences in the labour mobility and inter personal factors. Let me give a best example. In UK we can find that head of the company or boss will be called as MR or by name but in our country addressing a boss by name would not be received Attitude towards employment Attitude varies from one individual to another individual, in the same way attitude of employers and employees in different country changes. We have heard about, â€Å"Fire and Hire policy†, as it is common in many countries but in some countries they follow lifetime employment. Earlier we (India) were following lifetime employment and employees will have right to change job as they preferred without giving any opportunities to newcomers by creating a surplus manpower and in these situations it is great difficult in dislodging inefficient employees. However the good news is that we are changing to the foreign culture by implementing Fire and Hire Policy. Salary Salary is nothing but a sizeable amount which is paid to employees of the company which may be fixed or variable. Money plays a major part in everyones life and it has become an essential resource just like water and air where we cant live without it. In India salary is not fixed for all the employees even though staffs in the same team work together, there lot of differences which really hurts in a big time. This is because of internal politics among employees and management, in this case not only management has to be blamed but also employees who uses personal force like emotions, love or attachments. Recommendations or influence Recommendations play an important role in India. For instance an employee, who does not have any management skills and ability to work in a company, still will be recruited to work due to the influence of higher authorities like politician, senior workers in the organisation and etc. When compared to other parts of the world, the entire management system is purely based on the individual working skill and attitude. Performance Appraisal Performance appraisal is nothing but the assessment of employees performance and meeting the set targets. In India appraisal is done on yearly basis and employees will be intimidated by the pay increase from the management. We have skilled labours and pay is not compensated with that skills. By evaluating employees performance management takes all the necessary aspects into consideration like metrics which should always be green and not even amber is entertained. Before performance appraisal, managers would speak in such a way that better appraisals are given to the workers and get the job done even on weekends where salary is not counted for that day. They would also tell that they will look after the future growth in the company but fail to do so even though they employees have brilliant track records. Once appraisals are done managers does not even listen to employees feedback on appraisals. The following chart demonstrates increase in HRA, Current Allowance and Medical Allowance and there is no difference in Basic Salary even though performance appraisal in increased by 4% Compensation and rewards Compensation entails salary and other benefits, salary refers to the wage or salary the employees earn, the reason for compensation is that employees work harder which will influence the attitudes and behaviours. In other words its just like a motivation or energising employees to perform at the highest well. Compensations are just said but its not given. Managements Decision Management takes decision only in companys point of view and not in employees perspective. Before taking decision even suggestions from the employees are not welcomed. Even employees do understand its not necessary to consult in the entire cases but to some extent it has to be discussed where employees are involved in the work. An individual opinion does not count even though we (employees) are called as company assets. Employee Relations Good employee relations will be recognised with the good rapport and team building environment but in India employee relations are not as very good as it was earlier. Employees are not valued as they are underrated even though they perform well. Recommendations Each and every employee should be treated equally with no variances All the employees must be treated equally with respect and there should not be any variances. It means that management sets up company policies stating that there should be no discrimination, harassment of any employee either directly or indirectly with respect to race, culture, nationality, marital status and age etc. However employees do not follow and creates hassle in the organisation by not following the ethics and principles. Manager should build good rapport with the employees There are several factors which contribute to build rapport with the employees. Managers earn their respect by respecting the employees. If an employee does not perform well or fail to meet the target, discus the problems that they face in an informal way and support them when they are down and out. Have an informal talks when needed than formal talks, they should not neglect their work as priority should be given to employees work than anything else. A manager should entertain to have open discussions Manager is not the only person who works in the organisation but there are many of the employees, staffs and workers work above or under him. Good decision yields good business to the company so when managers take decision he should take decisions in management point of view and with the employees perspective in a better way. Minimum wage act as per Government of India Revised wage is Rs 100 per day and it is not properly designed to lower categories of people working in the organisation such as security, housekeeping department, etc. Some people do not know what our minimum wages is and company utilizes the resources very well, as majority of the employees are illiterate. Government of India should ban consultancies or agencies who operates illegally Consultancy is a recruitment centre where people are trained and recruited on behalf of the company. There are number of consultancies in India and its rapidly growing, People who lack skills can even join the company by paying huge amount of money and consultancies are misusing it in the name of recruitment. Where as in other countries the role is to forward the resume to the company and their work stops. Employees should be compensated with better pay Awards and reward is not given to the individuals who works in the company and their work is not recognized by the top level management. Skilled labours are not paid properly for their work. Most of the MNC companies have their employees to sign a contract or just like a bonded labour which is illegal in India but management follows the same and interestingly employees signs the contract because of stiff competition in the market and risk of not getting the desired job. Compensations are not paid fully and correctly in time during emergencies. During training period and internship programmes trainee should be given atleast minimum wages to satisfy the basic needs Salary structure should be well organised by the management Management should implement good performance appraisals as in India we can find that whenever appraisals are done only with respect to HRA, medical and travelling allowances, no changes are made in the basic salary. Management plays a hidden role in fixing the basic salary to the employees, as it should fix different levels of basic pay as per the role and designation in the company. So whenever an employee moves forward to the next level, he should be accompanied with respect to the salary structures as per the requirements of the specified designation demands. References Armstrong, M. (1997) People and Organisation. London Henderson, I. (2008) Human Resource Management. London: CIPD Johnson, R. (2004) The Practice of Cultural Studies. London: SAGE Perkins,Stephen J. Shortland, Susan M. (2006) Strategic International Human Resource Management. London: CIPD Sharma, a. Khandekar, A. (2006) Strategic Human Resource Management. London: SAGE Thomas J Bergmann Vida G Searpello (2000) 4th edn. Compensation Decision Making. London: Willy McCourt Derek Eldridge (2003) Global Human Resource Management. London: (n. d.) [online] available from [04.04.10] (n. d.) [online] available from [08.04.10] (n. d.) [online] available from [15.0410] (n. d.) [online] available from [16.04.10] (n. d.) [online] available from [17.04.10] (n. d.) [online] available from [14/04/2010]

In Love With Shakespeare :: Poetry Literature Papers

In Love With Shakespeare "About any one so great as Shakespeare, it is probable that we can never be right; and if we can never be right, it is better that we should from time to time change our way of being wrong." --T. S. Eliot (Eliot 107) Like all great artists, William Shakespeare is thoroughly conscious of his medium. His plays consistently call attention to the theatrical. "With Shakespeare the actable and the theatrical are always what come first" (Frye 5). In fact, the metaphor of performance is central to the Shakespearean canon. "When we are born we cry that we are come To this great stage of fools," Lear declares to Gloucester (IV.vi. 178-179). "All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players; They have their exits and their entrances, And one man in his time plays many parts" (As You Like It, II.vii. 139-142). This self-referentiality reflects a concern that the audience not be passive in its participation, and that the boundaries of the theatrical experience not be restricted to the stage. Shakespeare layers connotations and meanings into his plays that reward the self-conscious auditor. Though much of our modern entertainment seeks to make the auditor oblivious of the medium, Shakespeare’s plays demand a sophisticated self-consciousness on the audience’s part. Part of the pleasure of viewing a Shakespearean play such as A Midsummer Night’s Dream is in recognizing the irony of its self-contained mini-dramas. In the "Pyramus and Thisbe" scene, Shakespeare satirizes theatrical convention. At the same time, however, he satirizes the naivetà © of the audience that doubts the transforming power of the imagination. As Shakespeare continually points out, the acts of performing and viewing are not confined to the theatre. Life reflects the theatre just as the theatre reflects life. Furthermore, when taken seriously, great theatre can change its audience. For this reason, Shakespeare seeks to make viewing a conscious act. The full benefit of the theatrical experience is felt only when the auditor recognizes his role. Clearly, in Shakespeare’s view, life is very much like a play. For one thing, all human beings are actors, or as Hegel says, "free artists of themselves" (Bloom 6). As "real" as we perceive ourselves to be, Shakespeare’s great characters demonstrate that personal identity is an assumed role, a fabrication. We are all playing characters. When the mad and weather-beaten King Lear declares himself "every inch a king," his exclamation is a melancholy reminder that power and authority are based upon image and ceremony.

Economic development Essay

Economic development and economic growth are both indicators of the economic position of the country. Economic growth is the growth in gross domestic product and economic development is related to growth in the standard of living and poverty. As you can see economic growth and economic development are not the same thing, economic development is far more than just growth in GDP as it involves indicators that are not purely economically related. However economic growth is an indicator of economic development but there are also several other factors that represent economic development. These indicators are; life expectancy at birth, infant mortality rate, daily calorie supply per capita, adult literacy rate, number of doctors per 1000 people, average years of schooling, availability of clean water, freedom of press, immunisation rates and levels of discrimination. As you can see these are generally not economic indicators but when they are combined they form the economic development figure. There are fifteen barriers to economic development, the first of these being a lack of physical capital. Lack physical capital is a significant barrier to the development of a country for several reasons. There is already a shortage of capital that further leads to less capital being produced; this creates significant problems for developing countries. In these countries the income levels are low leading to low savings and therefore little money for investment in capital. This lack of capital furthers the low productivity therefore the employment remains low. This also leads to a lack of demand for goods and services the low demand means that less needs to be produced therefore less capital needs to be produced. This then forces the country into a cycle of underdevelopment. This consequently creates a barrier for the country to develop. An example of this is in most less developed countries where they are in constant times of war and civil unrest. Their capital is destroyed through war making it difficult for the country to produce more capital. Also, Sierra Leone, the worlds least developed country, as shown by the human development index, has a GDP per capita of US$159 this creates significant problems for the economy and its development. A lack of human capital is the next barrier to development. This barrier is created through a lack of education and training of the population. It also relates to the general heath and wellbeing of the population. If the labour-force are getting sick then they are unable to work and therefore decreasing the labour capital. A current example of this situation is in South Africa. In South Africa the micro-economic impact of AIDS is very serious and is getting worse. Among skilled workers HIV prevalence is expected to peak between a fifth and a quarter percent by the year 2000, which is consequently depleting the number of skilled workers creating the lack of capital development barrier. These problems are also leading to a rise in insurance bills and the costs of health benefits rise. This therefore diverts government savings to pay for health care and as a result the availability of funds for investment will fall. AIDS is predicted to knock 0.3 to 0.4 percent off the annual growth rate. As you can see this is a severe barrier to development in these less developed countries. A strategy to this barrier is human resource development. The next barrier to development is a lack of savings. This also causes low levels of investment due to the low income leading to low savings. This low level of savings is also caused by several other reasons such as; poorly developed financial markets, holding of savings in traditional non-money forms, the purchase of unnecessary luxury items, cheap family labour reducing the incentive to save for investment and the general indebtedness of the population. The low incentive to reinvest profits by businesses also reduces the savings. Budget deficits by the government to make up for the low taxation revenue are also decreasing the amount being saved. When there is a lack of savings caused by any of these causes it forces the need to borrow form overseas that consequently leads to problems with the balance of payments. An example of lack of savings exists in Nigeria. In Nigeria there are severe problems with their currency. These begin with significant fraud problems also the majority of trading is done with cash in which until recently the currency did not exceed the equivalent of 50 cents. The next problem is that they don’t believe in banks, the only use of banks is to exchange foreign currencies for tourists, which leads to a lack of funds for investments. Also, Local traders keep all working capital stuffed in coca jars, as they believe business opportunities will disappear in the time it takes to make a withdrawal. Banks do not allow credit due to the fear of not being repaid. All of these factors contribute to a large barrier to development simply due to a lack of savings. This could be solved through improving the financial system. Another barrier to development is a lack of taxation revenue. A lack of taxation creates barriers as it means the government has little finances to use on economic development. The high unemployment, very low-income levels and difficulties in tax collection cause this lack of tax revenue. The government is then forced to collect tax mainly from customs duties, sales taxes and excises. These taxes can prove to be very inflationary and are also regressive. Another problem with these taxes is that they discourage investment and the creation of employment. Nigeria also has a problem with the collection of taxation. Most Nigerians that can afford to avoid paying taxes, as they believe that their money will be flinched by the corrupt government. This creates severe problems for the country, as there is no money for the government to use in investment to promote economic development. Improving the financial system will also help solve this barrier. The next barrier to entry is a lack of infrastructure. Less developed countries rarely have a sufficient supply of necessities such as roads, ports, sewerage, power schools or water- facilities etc. The main reason that this infrastructure is not being made is that the government simply cannot raise the funds to finance them due to their lack of taxation revenue. Another reason maybe that the government has chosen to finance defence spending or if they are in time of war, in which most LCD’s are. A lack of infrastructure restricts the free flow of goods and services and reduces the productivity of the labour force that further restricts the economic development of the country. In Africa infrastructure is very underdeveloped compared to the other less developed regions. They have 6 phone lines for every 1000 people compared to the average of 54 for other developing regions. Also their power supply is far less than the average of 300kw per 1000 peoples with 80kw this significant ly stops their development. In Nigeria there are serious problems with infrastructure causing business uncertainty. Telephones rarely work and the electric comes in periodic vengeful surges. Nigerian firms, particularly the state-owned ones due to the lack of taxation, devote little effort into maintaining their infrastructure and it therefore ends up breaking down. Reliable firms are so hard to come by that firms barter contacts: we’ll let you share the electricity from our generator if you can help us find spare parts for it. Firms wanting to set up in Nigeria face the problem known locally as BYOI (bring your own infrastructure) this shows how much of a problem infrastructure is in Nigeria. A lack of infrastructure could be solved in many ways such as encouraging enterprise, human resource development or improving the financial system. A lack of entrepreneurs is another barrier to economic development. Enterprise is essential in order for development to occur, as it is one of the key factors to production. In the less developed countries there tens to be a lack of entrepreneurs for several reasons. The first of these is the fact that there is a limited opportunity to make a profit, due to the lack of demand. The next reason is that the businesses not easily financed due to the low level of savings. The lack of infrastructure available also distracts these entrepreneurs. Another reason to the lack of entrepreneurs is that cultural beliefs often place little importance on monetary gain and entrepreneurs are thus given little status. The number of entrepreneurs is also reduced by the lack of education in these countries. The final reason is that it is risky for an entrepreneur due to the political and economic instability. An example of a lack of entrepreneurs is also in Nigeria as it closely relates to the lack of the infrastructure. The lack of infrastructure adds at least 25 percent onto a firms operating costs if it choses to set up in Nigeria, this is a significant deterrent for firms to set up and should be solved if the county wants to achieve economic development. A strategy that could be adopted to help this situation is encouraging enterprise. The next barrier to economic development is a lack of technology. There are several reasons why these less developed countries are not more technologically advanced. The first reason being that most new technology will involve some investment in capital that is lacking in these less developed countries. Also another problem is that the new technology will need skilled labour to operate it but skilled labour is also of shortage in a LCD. The next reason is that companies don’t really want to adopt labour saving technology when they already have cheap labour and there are high unemployment rates. The final reason that there is a lack of technology is that new technology is used to facilitate the achievement of economies of scale and the small markets in LCD’s reduce the incentive to mass-produce. The governments however, have managed to encourage technology into these LCD’s and most currently use modern technology that compliments the labour so workers maintain their jobs. A lot of the modern technology used in these counties is generally used in the foreign owned industries where they mass-produce in order to export to advanced markets. Over population and rapid population growth is another factor that causes a barrier to development. In these less developed countries the birth rates are often five times higher than in the more developed countries. The advances of medicine have also caused a fall in the deaths, which leads to a higher population growth. The growth of these countries is generally around 2 percent and their growth is usually below this figure, which therefore worsens the situation, and the real GNP per capita often falls. In the more advanced countries they generally have population growth of around 0.5 percent and their economic growth will usually be higher than that. This is where the widening gap occurs pushing less developed countries further away from more advanced countries. This high growth of the population also has the effect of increasing the labour force, but as there is little demand for labour the unemployment rate will tend to rise. Also, most of this population is below 15 or above 65 meaning they are unable to contribute o production but still need things such as food, water, clothing and shelter. This creates a problem known as dependency burden making development even harder. Governments in these LDC’s fight a tough battle with a rapid growing population and are always trying to slow this rate but they face several problems such as poor education, communication, lack of contraception and cultural attitudes. Africa is currently the fastest growing of all the developing regions with a growth rate of 3 percent over the past decade but with this high growth rate comes several associated problems. Africa has one doctor for every 20,000 people compared to an average 5000 people in developing countries and its infant mortality rate is the highest at 96 per thousand births almost double the developing countries average. Africans also have a life expectancy of 52 years where the average for developing countries is 64. As you can see that the effects of a high population are not beneficial to a developing country. This barrier to development can be solved with the population control strategy. The next barrier to development is inflation. Inflation in these countries is caused by the scare amounts of goods and services relative to the high population consequently causing demand pull inflation. The domestic supply is unable to match the domestic demand. The inflation rates in many of these countries gets above 200 percent compared to that of around 5 percent in most advanced countries. This high inflation has many unwanted effects such as decreased living standards and a reduction in real income, it also tends to redistribute the income from the poor to the wealthy therefore increasing the income inequality that already exists. A high inflation rate also causes the investment of non-productive assets such as antiques or gold, this money is therefore taken out of the economy reducing the funds available for investment. These high inflation rates also cause a reduction in the competitiveness of exporters and import competing firms that therefore leads to an increase in the countries current account deficit. Another effect that inflation will lead to is a falling exchange rate, which if the country has a large foreign debt will make it even harder to pay. Inflation is very high in most of the African countries and causes severe problems to their economy and development progress. Balance of payments problems is also another barrier to development of these less developed countries. The majority of LCD’s have problems with their external balance as the little income they do earn is used on imports and used to pay off interest on their foreign debts. As these countries are in deficit they are continually forced to borrow from overseas to finance their payments worsening their current account deficit even more. Many of these countries are also suffering from worsening terms of trade that also decreases their export revenue and thus further worsening their balance of payments. The WTO worldwide reduction of tariffs will help to assist this but government policies need to be implemented to seriously boost export revenue and turn the consumers away from imports. The strategy to help the balance of payments is import replacement. The next barrier to development that LCD’s face is a depletion of their natural resources. Many of these countries are highly dependent on one major export to create export revenue, create growth, employment and income and the reduction in the current account deficit. This creates problems as they may deplete natural resources without considering future production. This reduces the potential for further future development and growth. In Mauritius, they have cleared 25 percent of their forests in the last 19 years purely for export. This causes massive environmental effects and also is a serious concern, as when the resources run out the country’s economy will fail to stay afloat. This is the same in many less developed countries including many African counties and their dependency on oil. It can be helped with export development to have a wider range of exports and less dependency on one major export. Another significant barrier to economic development in these less developed countries is corruption and poor administration by the government. Corruption is a very common problem in LDC’s. The problem associated with this is that aid and government revenue is not all used in promoting growth, corrupt leaders and government officials take most of it. When a government is corrupt it causes most of their aid to be withdrawn forcing them to reform their political structures. This withdrawal of overseas assistance causes depletions in general living standards of the country. Another problem with these governments is that they know little or nothing about economics. These leads to several problems including poor administration and efficiency these lead to a poor ability to promote development. An example of this is in Nigeria where it has been estimated that in the last twenty years over two billion dollars of oil revenue from the country has been embezzled. This is mainly due to their last dictator who ordered the Nigerian Central Bank to deposit 15 million dollars a day into his own Swiss bank account. This works out to twenty percent of GDP and when you take into consideration that their NFD is over 40 percent of GDP, the country is not left with much money. A strategy that has been put into place for this specific barrier is the refusal to lend money to Nigeria from IMF. Natural disasters are another barrier to development in less developed countries. The effects of natural disasters such as floods or droughts have a much greater impact on less developed countries compared to that of advanced countries. Most LCD’s are prone to these natural disasters, which is a significant factor to their underdevelopment. In India they have times of severe droughts and flooding where 80 million people were affected. This has severely decreased their agriculture production and is consequently creating a barrier to their development. There is not much that can be done about natural disasters but do adjust to them and to adopt new ways to cope with them. Another significant factor preventing the development of less developed countries is war and civil unrest. Many LCD’s are in constant war and civil unrest, this causes several problems with development. The first of these problems is that entrepreneurs are discouraged by the countries instability also important infrastructure is destroyed and governments spend their little taxation revenue on maintaining order or producing weapons. Economies in war torn countries are unlikely to be operating at full capacity making it hard for development to occur. In Rwanda civil wars in the nineties have claimed the lives of almost 1,000,000 Rwandans. Most of the aid to the country was invested in weaponry and therefore not used in promoting economic development, as it should have been. This is how civil wars can create barriers to development. The only solution to this is to end the wars and focus the spending into promoting economic development. The final barrier to development is a lack of press freedom. Press freedom involves the exchange of ideas, criticism of government and increased awareness of world events and developments. This is something that most LCD’s do not have and therefore their economic development is limited. In Mexico the government allowed Televisa to have a monopoly in the television market if they didn’t play any anti-government shows and supported the government. In the eighties journalists were killed by the police in Mexico City if they published any anti-government articles. This is serious problem in these less developed countries and is usually the result of government corruption. The first strategy to promote economic development in these less developed countries is export development. This strategy involves assisting those producers who export to overseas markets. An increase in export development will earn foreign exchange and create unemployment and income and also help to solve problems with the balance of payments. The next strategy to promoting development is import replacement. Import replacement involves the shifting of demand away from imports and towards the domestically produced products. This can be done in several ways including the induction of tariffs on imports making them more expensive relative to the domestic product. This also encourages foreign investment as the foreign firms wish to have the same protection. Assisting domestic producers financially is another way of promoting this economic development, by subsidising and offering tax incentives to local producers it will increase their competitiveness with imports by the lower costs of production. However, replacing imports is only a short-term solution and therefore policies promoting long-term development must be applied. Human resource development is the next strategy to development. This development involves improving the size of the labour force and also the skills of the labour force. The labour force can be increased through improved health care and skills can be attained through things such as training and education. In Nigeria the World Bank is currently funding an $80 million project into their education as well as building a better and more consistent water supply. Also In Malaysia education investment has been amongst their highest priorities for decades, they have spent $731 million on improving their education levels to the level they are currently at Another way to promote economic development in these less developed countries is through encouraging enterprise. In most LDC’s there is a lack of entrepreneurs, in order to increase the quantity there are several solutions such as improving management and leadership training and tax incentives, subsidies and free loans. Cuba has introduced a group of people called the cuentapropistas, 170,000 entrepreneurs marking the arrival of a new business sector in the islands socialist economy. They account for 8% of the labour force and manage to put food on the table for one in ten Cuban’s. These new small businesses have been a result of reduced subsidies to state enterprises, increased foreign investment, and introduction of incentives in the agricultural sector and the legalisation of dealings in foreign currency. This has already had positive signs on the Cuban economy with growth in 1998 at 8 percent some 31percent higher than two years previous. Population control is another strategy to economic development. Rapid population growth is unwanted as it creates problems such as inflation and scarcity and therefore more poverty. There are plenty of methods that can be put into place to slow population growth. Some of these methods include maximum children policy such as China’s one child policy and free supplies of contraception. The Grameen bank is another contributor to helping population control in Bangladesh. The bank issue loans to woman and as part of the conditions to borrowing the money they must agree to have small families. This has proved to be a successful program all across the world and has helped to promote the small-scale development of many less developed countries. The next strategy to promote economic development is increasing the agricultural productivity. Agriculture is usually a major sector in the less developed countries and thus improving its productivity will significantly promote development. Improving the agriculture productivity can be done in many ways. Some of these include merging small farms to create larger more efficient ones and encouraging owner operators to increase the incentive to improve productivity there also several other ways in which these countries can improve their agricultural productivity. With 75 percent of the population living in rural areas, improving the efficiency of India’s agriculture is the key to attaining high growth and reducing poverty. Accelerating rural development and poverty reduction requires cutting spending on input subsidies; investing in rural infrastructure; providing more effective rural services, especially to the poor and socially excluded; improving management of water, forests, and other natural resources; liberalizing the rural economy, including the rural financial system. In the heart of India’s poorest region, the Bihar Plateau Development Project is increasing access to much-needed irrigation and safe drinking water by tribal communities and raising their incomes through the diversification of rural livelihoods. The project aims to reach 4.5 million people through a variety of institutional mechanisms, including water and sanitation committees, water user associations, and income generation schemes, all aiming to transfer skills and enhance people’s capabilities so that the benefits may be sustained once the project ends. This is one way in which India is proving to increase its agr icultural productivity. Another strategy to promoting economic development is by adopting intermediate technology. If a less developed country invested in new technology it may be forgiving employment possibilities, as most new technology is very labour intensive, this will consequently lead to a fall in employment. As these countries have an abundance of labour it is much easier, cost effective and better for the economy if they use intermediate technology that still requires high levels of labour. An example of this is Fred Hollows, Hollows uses local resources to create employment income and economic growth through the training of people to perform the medical tasks and also employment in the factories where the lens are created. The final strategy to promote economic development is to improve the financial system. In these economies there is a lack of savings and an insufficient financial system, this creates major barriers to development. Thus policies need to be adopted to improve this situation that promote growth and employment without generating high levels of inflation. The World Bank’s Executive Board approved a $506 million loan to support financial sector adjustment and reform in Colombia. The loan is part of a revised World Bank strategy for Colombia that includes intensified lending to help the country promote peace, ease the impact of the recession on the poor, and rebuild after their earthquake. It is also part of a $1.4 billion package to help bolster Colombia’s economy. â€Å"This financial sector adjustment loan reflects the World Bank’s confidence in Colombia’s wide-ranging reform strategy, which is critical to its effort to overcome the recession,† said An dres Solimano, director of the Bank’s program in Colombia. The financing of many of these strategies is usually funded through institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund institutions. The World Bank is a major force behind the development of less developed countries as it gives issues discounted loans to most of these countries. Another way that these countries can fund their development is through overseas aid. The are large amounts of money flowing out of the developed countries from governments and other aid organizations as aid into the less developed countries hoping to achieve economic development. For all of these less developed countries to achieve economic development, an effort from all developed countries with aid and advice must be contributed, but until then the world will not have any chance of abolishing poverty. References: – IFC – Building the private sector in Africa – The Economist January 15th 2000 – survey Nigeria – World bank – Rwanda development project – The Economist May 27th – Aids impact in South Africa – World Bank – Cuba’s Cuentapropistas – World Bank – India’s development – The Grameen Bank – Economic Development in Bangladesh – The Economist May 27th – Growth is good – The Economist Feb 22nd – Televista – World Bank press release, 11th June 1998