Atlantic Slave Trade Essay

The origins of the Atlantic Slave Trade were products of Western Europe’s expansion of power that began at the beginning of the 1500’s through the 1900‘s. The main contributing European countries to the Atlantic Slave Trade were Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, France, and England. Portugal lead the movement during the 1400’s and arrived in Western Africa in hopes to find Christian allies to spread Christianity against the Muslims of Northern Africa. But they soon became more interested in trade (Hine, Hine & Harrold, 2011). Slavery, however, has existed in all cultures for thousands of years. For example, Arab merchants and West African Kings imported white European slaves. At first, the slave trade focused on women and children who would serve as domestic servants. But later the trade switched to focusing on young men for agricultural labor in the Americas. The Portuguese traded primarily for gold, ivory, pepper, as well as slaves. After a few decades, the had captured hundreds of slaves (Hine, Hine & Harrold, 2011). It’s misleading to say all slaves were captured by raiders, because in many cases they were bought from African traders. Columbus’s voyages completely changed the slave trade. Once colonies in the Americas were established, many of the Native Americans who were enslaved died of disease and overwork causing a need for more African slaves. During the 1600’s, sugar plantations, gold and silver mines produced an enormous demand for labor. Soon after, markets for coffee, tobacco and rice cultivation yet again increased the demand for African slaves (Hine, Hine & Harrold, 2011). By the early 1700’s, the English dominated the Slave Trade, carrying about 20,000 slaves per year from Africa to the Americas. By the end of the century, over 50,000 slaves were being transported per year. After 1700, the importation of firearms heightened the intensity of many of the wars and resulted in a great increase in the numbers of enslaved peoples. European forces 2 ?intervened in some of the localized fighting and in warfare all along the Atlantic coast. They sought to obtain captives directly in battle or as political rewards for having backed the winning side (â€Å"The transatlantic slave,† ). The enormous amount of slave labor and its incredibly low cost highly contributed to the advancements of the Industrial Revolution. Also during this time, many civil wars throughout Africa produced captives which were sold as slaves in Western Africa. Raiders often tied the captives together with ropes and secured them with wooden yokes around their necks. Many captives died of hunger and exhaustion before even being put on ships. Other slave captives decided to kill themselves rather than be forced into slavery (Hine, Hine & Harrold, 2011). Once the captives reached the coast of Western Africa, the captives were kept in â€Å"factories†, which were headquarters of the slave traders. These factories contained warehouses with supplies and dungeons to keep the captives in. In these factories, the slavers would divide families up to decrease the possibility of a rebellion happening. After a few weeks in these factories, the slave holders would brand the â€Å"fit† slaves bearing the symbol of that particular trading company (Hine, Hine & Harrold, 2011). European brutalization of the captives was an attempt to destroy the African’s sense of self-identity. The voyage from Africa to the first stop in the Caribbean generally lasted between two and three months. As the demand for slaves increased, so did piracy. Many opposing nations would fight and attempt to steal each other’s slave ships seeing how valuable slaves were at the time (Hine, Hine & Harrold, 2011). Other natural causes that contributed to the destruction of slave ships were hurricanes as well as doldrums, which are long periods of time with no wind gusts to propel the ships. ?The ships themselves were designed to maximize the amount of slaves to be carried. The cargo space where the slaves kept were only about five feet tall. And slaves were chained together in pairs to minimize the chance of a rebellion. Many times, especially during storms, the slavers neglected to feed the slaves or change the tubs and buckets used for toilets, as well removing dead bodies (Hine, Hine & Harrold, 2011). Sanitation was also a major contributor to death and disease. Only about three or four toilet tubs were provided for all of the slaves. Mortality rates were exceptionally high on the ships, averaging around 15%. Overall, about one third of all slaves died during the whole process of moving them from Africa to the Americas. The main causes of mortality on the ships were diseases such as small pox, malaria, dysentery, yellow fever and measles (Hine, Hine & Harrold, 2011). There was however still rebellions from the captive slaves aboard the ships. Rebellions usually occurred when the ship was getting ready to set sail or when they ships were still within sight of the Africa land mass, when there as still hope for the slaves to return home. Often times slaves would actually starve themselves intentionally or try to jump off the ship to drown. But to combat this, the slavers would sometimes put nets on the side of the ship to stop jumpers and to deal with those who would refuse to eat, the slavers would use hot coals to force individual’s mouths open to eat (Hine, Hine & Harrold, 2011). The women aboard the slave ships were treated very badly as well. They were often raped and sexually abused. Many times, all of the women were kept in separate rooms to make it easier for the slavers to take advantage of them. The slave ships would generally arrive at islands in the Caribbean for rest to make them more healthy and appealing for buyers. The english preferred the island of Barbados for this 4 ?resting period. Barbados experienced a jump in its slave population from 1,000 to 20,000 in the first decade after sugar cultivation was introduced around 1640 (Smallwood, 2007). This resting period in the Caribbean came to be termed seasoning and on these islands the slavers divided into a few different categories of slaves depending on how acculturated the slaves were to the New World’s culture and lifestyle. These categories were those who were born in the Americas, those who had lived in the Americas for a long period of time, and the new slaves from Africa (Hine, Hine & Harrold, 2011). During seasoning, the slavers would attempt to modify the behavior of the slaves to make them effective laborers. The new slaves were also given new names and were attempted to be taught English so they could obey commands (Hine, Hine & Harrold, 2011). The planters in the Caribbean would often rely on the already acculturated slaves to train the new slaves because it was easier that way. The physical condition of the arriving slaves to buyers would many times be a disappointment to the buyers. Although the slavers would shave and wash them, the illusion of health would not always conceal the truth to the buyers. Also, many times the cargoes included too many women, children, or older people. This was also a disappointment to the buyers and the regularity of these outcomes were soon considered â€Å"normal† (Smallwood, 2007). The planters then assessed the successful seasoning of slaves by three criteria: firstly if they survived the journey, secondly if the could adapt to the new climate and new foods, and lastly if they were able to learn a new language to obey commands. However, as many as half of the slaves ended up dying within the first three years after arriving at the Americas (Smallwood, 2007). Of the estimated ten million men, women, and children who survived the Middle Passage, approximately 450,000 Africans disembarked on North America’s shores. They thus 5 ?represented only a fraction – 5 percent– of those transported during the 350-year history of the international slave trade. Brazil and the Caribbean each received about nine times as many Africans (â€Å"The transatlantic slave,† ). The Atlantic Slave trade began to diminish in the late 1700’s by both humanitarian efforts as well as declining need for slaves in the modernized industrial economy. The lasting effects of the diminishing of the slave trade proved to be negative for Africa. Many of the Western African societies had become dependent on the slave trade (Hine, Hine & Harrold, 2011). Looking at the statistics of the slave trade, from 1501-1525 it is estimated that around 13,000 slaves were transported to the Americas (â€Å"The trans-atlantic slave,† 2008). By 1601-1625, over 350,000 slaves were estimated to have been brought to the Americas. At the turn of the 18th century, from 1701-1725, over 1,000,000 slaves were transported from Africa to the Americas. The Atlantic slave trade peaked from 1776-1800 with over 2,000,000 slaves being transported during that time period. The Slave Trade holistically contributed to the enslavement and migration of over 12,500,000 slaves from 1500-1866 (â€Å"The trans-atlantic slave,† 2008). The Atlantic Slave Trade was a horrible series of events that should have never happened. At least we can be optimistic about mankind’s ability to learn from our mistakes and improve our actions.

Determinants of Dividend Policy of Cement Industy of Pakistan

RESEARCH PROPOSAL DETERMINANTS OF DIVIDEND POLICY OF CEMENT INDUSTY OF PAKISTAN Submitted To: Dr. Ahmed Faisal Imtiaz Siddiqi Submitted By: Muhammad Waqar Akram ID # 12002096-010 Programme: MS-Finance Batch-02 INTRODUCTION Dividend Policy refers to the explicit or implicit decision of the Board of Directors regarding the amount of residual earnings (past or present) that should be distributed to the shareholders of the corporation This decision is considered a financing decision because the profits of the corporation are an important source of financing available to the firm.Dividend policy is a one of the most debated topics and a core theory of corporate finance which still keeps its prominent place. Many researchers presented various theories and uncountable empirical evidences, but the issue is still unresolved and open for further discussion. It is among top ten unresolved problems in the finance literature and we have not an adequate explanation for the observed dividend behavi or of the firms There are several reasons whether firms should pay dividends or not. The â€Å"dividend puzzle† why firms pay dividends and stock holders pay attention to dividends and still unresolved.Many hypotheses have been drawn to shed some light on this puzzle but the problem still exists. Normally a firm faces the problem of allocation of earnings, whether to distribute among shareholders or retaining for reinvestment and promote the firm growth. Retained earnings are a main internal source of financing, but higher retained earning mean fewer dividends and vice versa. The cement sector is a prominent sector of Pakistan and works as an engine of economic growth in the economy. It provides employment to a large number of people (directly & indirectly).Cement production capacity in Pakistan is 44 million tons annually while local demand is only 24 million tons, leaving a surplus of 20 million tons. Cement manufactured in Pakistan is being exported to Afghanistan and Cent ral Asian States below cost. During FY-11 cement industry exported over 4 million tons to these markets and the industry is optimistic that exports to Afghanistan and Central Asian States shall increase further since these countries are landlocked and Pakistan is the only country which is able to supply cement at competitive rates.So, it is important to find the factors that determine and affecting the dividend payout policy of this sector. LITERTURE REVIEW Over the past 50 years a great attention was given to determine the factors influencing dividend payout policy. A vast literature is available in this regard, however, the puzzle is still unresolved and open for further discussion. â€Å"Why do firms pay dividends? † further he raises a second question, â€Å"Why do investors pay attention to dividends? † although, the answers may appear clear, (Black 1998)but Black concludes that they are not.As we try to explain the fact, the more it seems like a puzzle, with piec es that just do not fit together. Various factors can be considered as the determinants of dividend payout policy and a number of logics for dividend payout policy have been declared in the literature, however, the researchers are not agreed on a single point. In developed economies, the decision whether paying dividends or keep as retained earnings has been taken very carefully by both investors and the management of the firm. (Adaoglu 2000) By paying a sufficient amount of dividend firms can prevent from the agency problem.The dividend payouts are helpful to keep firms in the market, where monitoring of managers is available at low cost. The managers make financial policy trade-offs to control agency cost in an effective way(Amidu and Abor 2006) A free cash flow is helpful for a firm to share it with stockholders as dividends and pay the debt in order to reduce the possibility of these funds being wasted on unprofitable projects(Pettit 1972) Firms’ investment policies have a significant impact on its dividend payout policy; the firms with less investment plans has greater amount to distribute as dividends.Due to the higher investment opportunities firms deprive from higher dividends to lower. So the investment opportunities has a negative relationship to the dividend payouts(Farinha 2003) Another factor affecting the dividend policy is the ownership of firm; state owned firms follow a smooth dividend pattern as compare to family owned firms. The family owned firms are uneager to pay dividends, whereas the state owned firms are more reluctant to diminish the dividend amount.The insider ownership also play a significant role in dividend policy(Imran 1997; Okpara 2010) The dividend policy is quite different in emerging markets as compare to developed economies, and seems to be affected by a number of factors(Al-Kuwari 2009) Due to several reasons like taxes pay procedure, stock market volatility and certain asymmetryinformation the dividend payout patter n is different in emerging markets as compare to developed nations.Another reason is that in emerging markets the firms focus on dividend payout ratios as compare to the level of dividends paid(Al-Kuwari 2009; Terra 2011) Higher the earnings of a firm, greater the size and firms with foreign ownership prefer to distribute a higher and constant amount in dividend payouts according to their earnings and size(Eriotis 2011) The liquidity of the firm leaves a negative impact on the firms dividend payout decision.The stock market liquidity and dividend are substitutes in the sight of investors, so the firm’s dividend policy is associated to the liquidity of its common stock. As a result firms with more liquid common stock, distribute less cash dividend(Amidu 2007) The more profitable firms are willing to distribute a higher amount of dividend payouts. The greater profitability not only positively affects the firms’ current dividend but dividend yield also. Whereas, the riski er firms distribute lower dividends and hence lower dividend yields.The firms which can easily fulfill their short term needs and want to improve their current payouts than last year are more willing to pay dividend(Fama and French 2002) OBJECTIVE †¢Companies pays dividend smoothly on regular basis †¢Dividend payout policy depend on size of firm †¢Profitability(Net Profit) of company effect dividend policy †¢Growing companies (Growth in sale) pays dividend on regular basis †¢Investment opportunity (Retained earnings) effect the dividend policy †¢Impact of liquidity (cash flows) on dividend policy †¢Impact of leverage (Debt to Equity ratio) on dividend policyTHEORITICAL FRAM WORK DATA COLLECTION & PROPOSED METHODOLOGY Investigates the factors determine the dividend payout policy of Pakistani cement companies listed on KSE. The data employed is derived from Balance Sheet Analysis of KSE listed companies published by companies, covered the ten year pe riod 2001 to 2010 of 26 companies. (companies depends upon availability of data) The nature of the data allows us the use regression analysis to build relationship between dividend payout policy and factors which influence dividend policy HYPOTHESISH1: Cement companies pays smooth or stable in paying dividend H2: Positive relationship of dividend payout and size(Total Assets) of company H3: Positive relationship between Profitability(Net Profit) of company & dividend payout H4: Positive relationship between growth(Growth in sale) and dividend payout H5: There is positive relationship between liquidity (Quick Ratio) & dividend payout. H6: There is negative relationship of leverage (Debt to Equity ratio) & dividend payments H7: There is negative relationship between Investment opportunity (retained earnings/total asset) and dividend payout Limitation Due to unavailability of all companies data listed on KSE to construct a balance panel and for selected time period, the study used data for twenty companies which represent more than 80 % of total cement industry. ?This study includes both types of firms (e. g. dividend paying and non paying firms). ?There are many determinants of dividend policy but only six determinates have been taken. References Adaoglu, C. (2000). â€Å"Instability in the dividend policy of the Istanbul Stock Exchange (ISE) corporations: evidence from an emerging market. Emerging Markets Review 1(3): 252-270. Al-Kuwari, D. (2009). â€Å"Determinants of the dividend policy in emerging stock exchanges: The case of GCC countries. † Global Economy & Finance Journal 2(2): 38-63. Amidu, M. (2007). â€Å"How does dividend policy affect performance of the firm on Ghana Tock exchange? † Investment Management and Financial Innovations 4(2): 103-112. Amidu, M. and J. Abor (2006). â€Å"Determinants of dividend payout ratios in Ghana. † Journal of Risk Finance, The 7(2): 136-145. Black, F. (1998). â€Å"The dividend puzzle. Streetwi se: the best of the Journal of portfolio management: 10. Eriotis, N. (2011). â€Å"The Effect Of Distributed Earnings And Size Of The Firm To Its Dividend Policy: Some Greek Data. † International Business & Economics Research Journal (IBER) 4(1). Fama, E. F. and K. R. French (2002). â€Å"Testing trade? off and pecking order predictions about dividends and debt. † Review of financial studies 15(1): 1-33. Farinha, J. (2003). â€Å"Dividend policy, corporate governance and the managerial entrenchment hypothesis: an empirical analysis. † Journal of Business Finance & Accounting 30(9? 0): 1173-1209. Imran, K. (1997). â€Å"Determinants of Dividend Payout Policy: A Case of Pakistan Engineering Sector. † Romanian Economic Journal 14(41): 47-60. Okpara, G. C. (2010). â€Å"Investigation of the critical sources of investment finance in Nigeria: a factor analytical approach. † Pettit, R. R. (1972). â€Å"Dividend announcements, security performance, and ca pital market efficiency. † The Journal of Finance 27(5): 993-1007. Terra, P. R. S. (2011). â€Å"Determinants of corporate debt maturity in Latin America. † European Business Review 23(1): 45-70.

The Secret of Ella and Micha Chapter 21

Micha The hospital lights are bright and the air is a little cold, but Ella's warm hand in mine is comforting. The doctor doped me up with a sedative to ease the pain and then I lay down on the bed, waiting for them to come clean the fragments of the branch out of my wound. I was scared shitless when I crashed into that tree, worried I was going to die and leave Ella behind with no one. But now, I'm feeling pretty good. Ethan peers over me and scrunches his nose at the wound. â€Å"It's gnarly looking.† I shove him out of the way and pull Ella down beside me. â€Å"Hey there, pretty girl, come sit with me.† She giggles, then glances at someone and laughs harder. â€Å"I think you might be better off trying to shut your eyes,† she tells me. I shake my head from side to side. â€Å"No way, all I want to do is stare at you all day.† She snorts a laugh and then smoothes my hair back from my head. â€Å"Quit talking, before you say something embarrassing.† I search my brain, not finding anything embarrassing stashed away inside. â€Å"I'll be fine.† I reach over with my good hand and find her leg. Grabbing hold of it, I pull her over toward me so she falls onto the bed. â€Å"Micha,† she says, her green eyes so wide I can see my reflection in them. â€Å"There are people everywhere.† I glance from left to right, not seeing anything but blurry shapes. â€Å"I think we're good.† I move into kiss her and she gives me a quick peck on the lips, before leaning away. â€Å"How about you rest your head in my lap,† she says. â€Å"And I'll rub your back until you go to sleep.† â€Å"But what if I wake up and you're not here?† I ask, sounding like a little baby, but not giving a shit. She presses her lips together and sighs. â€Å"I'm not going anywhere.† â€Å"You promise?† â€Å"I promise.† She sits up and I rest my head on her lap. She rubs her fingers up my back and through my hair. I hold onto her as I drift into unconsciousness. Ella Micha is lying on my bed without a shirt on, fiddling with the bandage covering the hole where the branch stabbed into him. The doctors couldn't stitch it up because it was too wide of an injury, so he has to keep it covered and is not allowed to take showers, something he had jokingly griped about at the hospital as he winked at me. It's been a few days since the accident and the Chevelle is parked out in his garage in ruins. When I saw it in the light, I practically passed out because it doesn't look like an accident anyone would walk away from; the driver's door is caved in and the front fender fell completely off. â€Å"This is going to leave an awesome battle scar.† He pushes the bandages back down over the wound. â€Å"I'm glad you think so.† I read the email that showed up in my inbox the day after the accident. Turns out, I got the internship at the museum and now I have no idea what to do. I want to do it – it's a great opportunity, but I also don't want to leave him. â€Å"What are you reading?† he asks, sliding his legs off the bed, starting to get to his feet. â€Å"Nothing. I was just looking through my emails.† I shut the computer screen off, climb onto the bed with him, and lean back against the headboard, stretching my legs out. He points at the drawing of the broken mirror on my wall. â€Å"I like that one. Especially the guitar part.† It turned out to be my best piece, full of memories, and a future I wasn't able to see until I finally let go. A freedom given to me by Micha because he refused to let me go. â€Å"Me too,† I agree. â€Å"I think I'll probably turn it in as one of my art projects one day.† â€Å"It's got a lot of meaning in it,† he comments. I smile and slide down, putting my head next to his. â€Å"I know.† He rolls to his side carefully, so he doesn't hurt his shoulder and we're lying face to face. â€Å"Where's your head, Ella May? Ever since the accident, you've been really quiet.† I'm so close to him I can see the dark specks of blue in his aqua eyes. I've been quiet because that night made me realize something important. For a split second, I thought I'd lost him and it opened up my heart and freed what I'd buried deep inside me that night on the bridge. I look into his eyes, no longer afraid of what's in them, but afraid I'll lose what they carry. â€Å"I just don't ever want to lose you.† His eyebrows dip together as he props up onto his elbow. â€Å"Is that what it's been about? The accident? Because I'm fine.† He points to the bandages. â€Å"It's just a tiny scrape.† â€Å"I know you're okay,† I say, sounding choked. â€Å"But for a second I didn't think you were.† â€Å"Hey.† He cups my cheek and kisses me tenderly. â€Å"I'm okay. You're okay. Everything's okay.† I take a deep breath and let it out before I can suck it back in. â€Å"Micha, I love you.†

Harmonious Family Relationships Between Parent and Child Essay - 1

Harmonious Family Relationships Between Parent and Child - Essay Example To recover damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress, a plaintiff must prove that: (1) the defendant acted intentionally or recklessly; (2) the conduct was extreme and outrageous; (3) the actions of the defendant caused the plaintiff emotional distress; and (4) the resulting emotional distress was severe. A Claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress cannot be maintained when the risk that emotional distress will result is merely incidental to the commission of some other tort; accordingly, claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress will not lie if emotional distress is not the intended or primary consequence of the defendant's conduct. Id. The tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress simply has no application when the actor intends to invade some other legally protected interest, even if emotional distress results. Restatement (Second) of Torts,  § 46. Actionable nuisance is divided into three classifications: negligent invasion of another's interests, intentional invasion of another's interests, and other conduct, culpable because abnormal and out of place in its surroundings, that invades another's interests. Personal integrity and includes not only physical invasion of a person's property but also eavesdropping upon private conversations by wiretapping, microphones or spying into windows of a home. Section 822, Restatement, Torts (1939), reads: â€Å"The actor is liable in an action for damages for a non-trespassory invasion of another's interest in the private use and enjoyment of land if, (a) the other has property rights and privileges in respect to the use or enjoyment interfered with.

TUI Group Environmental Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

TUI Group Environmental - Essay Example Established in 1997 the company has expanded its operations in tourism to emerge as the market leader globally (TUI AG, 2015). The company has invested in three business portfolio; TUI Hotels and Resorts, TUI travel and the cruise ship venture. TUI has strong portfolio comprising of over 1,800 travel agencies, 300 Hotels, 13 cruise liners, 130 aircrafts, six airlines, etc. The company recorded turnover of â‚ ¬18.7 billion in 2013/1014 financial year (TUI AG, 2015). TUI operates in more than 180 regions with over 30 million clients. The company’s shares trade on London Stock Exchange (FTSE) and in Frankfurt Stock Market. TUI experience strong competition from Thomas Cook, First Choice Holidays, Rewe Touristik and My Travel Group. TUI’s growth strategy is to increase the number of hotels by opening more 60 hotels and purchase four new ships.Porter’s five forces analysis promotes the understanding of sources of sources of external challenges facing the industry.T he threat of new entrants: The tourism industry requires high capital and is controlled by a few market leaders. However, the possibility of entrants of low-cost airlines offers price threat to TUI. Developing of efficient rails and customers preferences for personal vehicles can have adverse effects on the company. Substitutes: The social media, TV and other social activities pose some threats of substitutes though not a perfect replacement of tourism. Also, tourism is highly undifferentiated thus there is low threat of substitute.

Racal Inequalities n the US Justice System Research Paper

Racal Inequalities n the US Justice System - Research Paper Example The current rate of total incarceration in the United States is by a significant degree the highest of any economically-developed Western nation state – around 1% of the adult population is in detention. The prison population of around 2.3 million individuals exceeds the population of some 15 American States, and prompts an Economist lead article to state, justifiably, that ‘No other rich country is nearly as punitive as the Land of the Free’. While the rate at which America incarcerates its citizens has more than quadrupled since 1970, there is little evidence that this approach is having the intended effect on crime rates, which are higher now than in 1970. For young black men, this figure rises to an astonishing 1 in 9 (Economist, 2010). Many of these individuals were given prison sentences or relatively minor drug offences, and so the unnecessary and apparently ineffective harshness of much American legislation has its part to play, as will be detailed below. The proportion of prison inmates from different racial groups demonstrates the blatantly racist bias in the justice system. 38% of those incarcerated in the United States are African-Americans, but the latter make up only 13% of the total population, while 19% of those in prison are Latinos, but the latter account for only 15% of the total population. This has led to the dangerous situation where a black male born in 2001 has a 32% chance of incarceration at some point, a Hispanic male has a 17% chance of being imprisoned, while a while male has only a 6% chance of incarceration (The Sentencing Project, 2008, p.2). Furthermore, while the above figures represent national averages, Human Rights Watch found that in seven States, blacks are incarcerated at more than thirteen times the rate of whites. The United States has found itself in a situation where, in every State, the proportion of blacks in prison is greater than that of whites, and in Minnesota and Iowa it is 12 times greater (Human

Analysis of Juicy Couture and a Review of Their Strategic Decision Essay

Analysis of Juicy Couture and a Review of Their Strategic Decision Process in the Changing Market Environment - Essay Example Understand and evaluate the reasons for changes in strategic decisions of Juicy Couture Company Compare the strategies of Juicy Couture Company with other companies Evaluate future strategic directions for the company. Initial Review of Relevant Literature Literature review is an important element of a research study. It is often considered as the foundation of a study. The literature review for this study will be carried out with the help of data from different sources. It will involve in-depth review of the theories on the importance of strategic decisions, which is portrayed by the scholars, in a competitive market environment. The literature review will discuss the origin of strategic decision making and its evolution with changing business environment. The study will also discuss why strategic decision making is important for the success of product innovation. Actions and decisions make the core of the strategic decision-making as well as implementation process. Strategic decisi ons can be considered as rational knowledge application to a problem. It includes finding answers to critical business questions such as different alternatives and consequences of the same. It also analyses the desirability of these consequences and applied criteria for the evaluation of various alternatives. In case of structured problems, a rational solution may be sufficient. But highly unstructured problems require specific solutions brought in only by strategic decisions. Porter (1996) has rightly emphasized that operational effectiveness cannot be considered as strategy. In other words, strategic priority is important for every organisation. According to Prahalad and Hamel (1990), realisation of core competencies can be one of the strategic priorities. According to... As the report declares literature review is an important element of a research study. It is often considered as the foundation of a study. The literature review for this study will be carried out with the help of data from different sources. It will involve in-depth review of the theories on the importance of strategic decisions, which is portrayed by the scholars, in a competitive market environment. The literature review will discuss the origin of strategic decision making and its evolution with changing business environment. The study will also discuss why strategic decision making is important for the success of product innovation. This paper stresses that actions and decisions make the core of the strategic decision-making as well as implementation process. Strategic decisions can be considered as rational knowledge application to a problem. It includes finding answers to critical business questions such as different alternatives and consequences of the same. It also analyses the desirability of these consequences and applied criteria for the evaluation of various alternatives. In case of structured problems, a rational solution may be sufficient. But highly unstructured problems require specific solutions brought in only by strategic decisions. Several studies have confirmed that innovation is the forward step for the companies in order to survive in the market place for a longer period of time. The review on literature will also help in analysing the future scope for the company their effective use of strategies for making their innovations successful.

Classical argument Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Classical argument - Essay Example These regulations are adopted in most airlines although they are in constant conflict between the newly introduced smoking law introduced in 1989 in The United States and the human rights laws. Among the pros is that nonsmokers travel in a conducive environment. The passive-smoker is exposed to more harm than the direct smoker himself in terms of effects such as lung cancer, colds, and sore eyes as a result of dwindling air circulation. Therefore, in-flight smoking law has achieved its purpose to offer comfort and enhancing safety in flights. There are those who argue that flights are also like work places and similar to allowing smoking there, so should smoking be done in flights to observe the right of free will provided flight attendants utilize all air channels in the plane. Some talk of introduction of smoking zones in the planes. I do not agree that this should justify allowing in-flight smoking compared to the disadvantages that include even possible fires on the plane and health challenges. In-flight smoking ought to be emphasized in or airlines and banned for

In-school Suspension and Off-school Suspension Essay

In-school Suspension and Off-school Suspension - Essay Example On the other hand, out-of-school suspension (OSS) is an act to keep away the student from school for short-term periods (Saint Helens , 1998). This temporary keeping away of the student is in lieu of investigation that can lead to removal of the student from the school itself, or pending the implementation of some definite measures such as internment through the action of the court, or mental or physical assessment. When the student is suspended, he or she is informed of the acts that constitute the charges, and also the fact of suspension on account of these charges (Saint Helens , 1998). In-school suspension (ISS) has several benefits over out of school suspension. An obvious important benefit is that the student does not have to break off his or her learning by being suspended from the school. The benefits of ISS include (District of Columbia , n.d.): The students who face suspension continue to be taught though in an atmosphere that is restrictive. Everyday they are also provided counseling individually and in a group. They are provided with the opportunities at identifying remedies for their problems (Collins, 1985). The objectives are to pro-actively lead the students to come back to the normal group of students as fast as possible and lastingly too, raise self-worth, heighten the consciousness of oneself, and lessen the troublesome and disorderly conduct. A change in outlook of these students to those who are in authority, increasing their capacity to identify their own strong and positive abilities, enhancing their confidence to own up and be responsible for their actions and improving those areas that they lack or are deficit in (Collins, 1985). They are also encouraged to seek ways to resolve any problems that they may have at home. Attendance is not improved by ISS and it shows a high recidivism rate. However, ISS does not seem to show a decline in disruptive behaviors especially in those students who have behavioral disorders (Yancey, 2001). According to Stage (1997, p.72), "There were no apparent effects of the in-school suspension interventions on classroom disruptive behavior, since there were no systematic differences in disruptive classroom behavior by in-school suspension phase. In fact, the rate of student disruptive behavior remained rather constant across the four in-school suspension interventions, indicating that no type of in-school suspension generalized to classroom behavior any more efficaciously than another" (cited in Yancey, 2001). Pros and Cons of OSS OSS is resorted to mostly in offences that are both trivial and avertable like breaking of the rules of the school which actually does not in any way pose a threat or lead to any violence; at best this is a device to retain a safe school environment (Bruns, Moore, Stephan, Pruitt & Weist, 2005). On the contrary, there are clear indications that OSS, in

Importance Of The Task Management In Activity Of Company Case Study

Importance Of The Task Management In Activity Of Company - Case Study Example The E-60s was set up to conduct business via the post, therefore there was no need for expensive high street offices. This is the reason why a modern business unit outside the city was selected. The unit is large, housing twelve spacious offices, with only eight infrequent use. A total of 25 full time and 5 part-time staff are employed ate-60s. The company has local-networked PCs available for all the full-time staff. The finance department uses a standard accounting software package to produce reports. All the other staff has access to word-processing and spreadsheet package software. In the 1980s and 1990s, the company saw its sales and profits rise significantly. However, in the last three years, the company has seen new competitors entering the market and offering online services - a move resisted by E-60s. In order to compete with these new competitors, E-60s conducted a customer service survey. The following are the key points identified in this survey: The company has proposed developing a new IS system to resolve many of the operational problems. In order to gauge the staff reaction to these changes, a number of focus group meetings were held. The company will develop a project plan for the development of information systems. A system life cycle for this plan is adopted. Assessments of possible problems and solutions associated with the plan will also be discussed. The Company has 5 management team, 25 full-time staff, and 5 part-time staff. At present, there is no IT staff. The administrator will take the orders thru phone and post. Upon receiving the order the admin will forward the order to finance staff. The finance staff will make necessary invoices. The packaging of products and cash flow reporting will be provided. Upon completion of this step, the product is dispatch to the customer by post.

How is Chinas economy growing so crazy, and how it affects the world as well as China Essay Example for Free

How is Chinas economy growing so crazy, and how it affects the world as well as China Essay Abstract: In this case study, I will be doing research on how is China’s economy growing so crazy, and how it affects the world as well as China. You will also see cause their economy is growing so fast and what are the challenges they are facing right now and the future. Introduction: The Republic of China’ has overtaken Japan as world’s second largest economy, after United States, Japan had held the 2nd position since 1968. In 2016 or earlier, International Monetary Fund (IMF) claims China’s economy surpassing US, the era of America economy leadership will be over. It’s average grow rate is about 10% for pass 30 years, making them as the world’s fastest growing economy. China has also climbed to the world’s largest exporter and second largest importer in the world. China has considerable economic weaknesses like low income levels, resource depletion and high unemployment, whereas the U.S. has comparable strengths and is poised to remain a global leader: Why is their economy growing so fast? The reason why their economy is growing dramatically, we will have to start from 1978, when the government executed a bunch of strategies for economy reform. These programs are including, encouraged rural enterprises, private businesses, liberalized foreign trade, investment, less control over prices, invested in industrial production, educate their workforce. Their economy had an annual growth of 6% initially, and peak of 17 percent, plus every capital income was quadruple in last 15 years. In 1997, some experts had already predicted that the China economy would sure be bigger than the US in less than 20 years. Here is IMF research team conclusion: New factories, manufacturing machines, communication systems and the amount of Chinese workers, increase in productivity were the factors that putting them as one of the strongest economy country. image02.jpg Automobile Industry China was rank third in the automobile industry by 2006 after Japan and US. During the reform, their automotive productions were less than 14000 yearly. Guess what? By 2002 their production jumped all the way up to 3.25 million! And 2009, it reached to 14 million. In 2009, China passed the States to become number 1 car maker worldwide. Domestic sales stayed with production, in 2006 8 million of cars were sold, which includes 5 million passenger cars and 2 million of commercial cars which shows how low price they sold their cars. The vehicles industry has been so successful in China so they begin to target exporting body parts worldwide in 1999.China has made a big step planning to get involved into image03.pngautomobile export business in 2005. In 2004, 15 major oversees automotive manufacturer plants in China. By 2003 China exports cost of 5 billion with unit of 80000 vehicles and parts, 174000 units in 2005 and 350000 units in 2006. Their goal is to reach at least of 80 billion US dollars by 2010. image04.png Natural Resources Coal: Coal is one of the most important natural resources for China, the most conserves mineral resources are considered to be coal and iron ore. Although they can be found in nearly most of the provinces, almost all of them are located in the northern part of China. A lot of good quality coals like bituminous coal are mostly reserved in China, Anthracite coals also present in some areas but its quite rare overall, that’s mostly found in Rocky Mountain. Coal helps the bulk of China’s energy consumption (75% in 2006), which led them again the world’s largest producer/consumer of coal. China usage of coal will be increasing dramatically as their economy continues to rise in absolute terms. If China keep increasingly rely on coal as a power consumption, it is going to put them becoming largest acid- rain causing sulfur dioxide and greenhouse gases. Oil and gas: China oil resources are also majorly located in north area provinces; types of oil include Oil shale and light oil. They uses up most of their oil output but doesn’t export any crude oil products, they are starting to develop oil deposits in China Seas and other oceans. Amount of natural gas reserves is unknown because they have only done a little exploration job on natural gases, Szechuan province accounts the most known natural gas reserves and production. Hydroelectric resources China has a great hydroelectric production due to their great river network and the mountainous terrain. A lot of the hydroelectric stations are located in the southwest of the country where low amount of coals are found but demand for energy is high. The potential of energy in north is small but the first hydroelectricity power station was built there by the Japanese during the occupation. In the winter, they have lower amount of rainfall, therefore, the stations are usually run less than the normal capacity, on other hand, flood always occur in the summer. What are the challenges that China is facing? High Inflation: Inflation is definitely one of the most challenges globally, but it is definitely the worse disaster for China that other countries. For clothes, the costs jumped 1.5% in April, it is the biggest up since 1997. For non-food, it didn’t have that much of different but it was still about 3%. For food, the price has inflated 11% on April

The Marine Corps Information Assurance Program Essay Example for Free

The Marine Corps Information Assurance Program Essay Program seeks to enhance the capabilities of the Marines in their knowledge of the use of Information Technology in order to facilitate the transfer of information from one point to another and assuring that the data gathered or transmitted is received in good hands, safe from intrusion of other people that may intercept the data. The reliability of the data and its source is also put into question with this program as it seeks to bolster the covertness of the information passed that has something to do with the National Security. (SHEA, 2001) In trying to achieve this, the Marines would have to upgrade the technology they have and at the same time, attain the knowledge needed in order for the Marines to operate the system properly. The Marines realizes the threat of having information advancement as a form of communication and it seeks to avoid the possible attack on its information gateways. Furthermore, the Marines would want the technology for data and information interchange to be secured at all times to hasten the spread of information. Another reason is that the Marines think that it would be a lot easier and faster for them to spread data and information on recent attacks rather than the persisting methods. In addition to that, the marines also feel the need to secure buildings that have the information so that when the need for the information arises, they would have the capability to get the information needed at a faster rate. Other threats that the Marines foresee is the possible crippling of the information dissemination by which the Unit may experience if they are not practicing the advance technology in which they can be capable of. The information circle would be easily crippled with the destruction of buildings that are related to the intelligence gathering that the Marines are going through. Furthermore, the threat of other people’s prying eyes with the Marines use of the Internet should be prevented in order for the Marines to operate peacefully and out of the surprising intelligence and powers of deduction that are employed by people nowadays. In order for them to achieve just that, the Marines would have to practice the arts of operating a system of the Internet that would be capable of the transmission of the information in a covert manner, helping them operate under the surveillance of people. Other than that, the Marines would also want the upgrading of the system and use of advanced operating systems in which they can freely pass information in the Information Superhighway. Getting back to the regulation, the directive aims to support the Marines in their endeavor to pass information in a covert way possible, in order for them to feel secure of the information that they pass to one another; Strengthen the lines of information exchange in which the Marines would be able to spread directives like this in a way that is secure for passing parties; establish a possible set of guidelines in which the Marines would be able to measure the strength of their Information Assurance Capabilities; Establish a good and secure structure of the security measures on the method of communication employed, in order for them to fully be aware when someone or something is leaking out; review and update the existing policies of security employed in the information dissemination in order to rate the system and change it for the improvement of the security and speed; use of the technology of the Internet and the Information Exchange in which the Marines would be given first-hand experiences so that they may be able to understand the capabilities of using such means; develop the users in such a way that each knows the responsibilities assigned to them and be aware of the existence of the program; undergo training for leaders in which they may know the extent of their powers and the heart of the processes involved; detect unauthorized activities and detection of possible flaws in the system that needs to be improved upon; and finally to establish the readiness of the Marines to the form of communication that they employ through trainings. These objectives comprise the goals at which the system would have to be based upon. Without one, the Marines would have to be clueless in their charges in which they have to understand the full value of what they are doing and why there tasked to do this. II. Corporate Impact The regulation of the Unit to comply with the company’s directive would have to be monitored regularly in order for it to succeed. The Marines would have to check regularly in order for them to understand the value of the program. The leaders should also be able to check the possible lapses in the security that needed to be changed in order for the whole unit to be under the control of the directive. Doing so would not only help the program to attain its goal, but also to train the Marines in different lapses of plans that may go out of hand in case. In addition to that, the leaders would have to monitor the troops regularly in order for them to realize the progress that their team is making. This program has no room for slacking off in order for them to understand the gravity of the directive. The lower level Marines would have to understand the true value of the filtered information in which they would have use of someday. Regular trainings and recollections are also needed in order for the higher level officials to get the feedback at which the Marines experience the changes. Information Assurance is a big deal that they should worry for the least of the lapses that would happen while they are in command. The informational structure of the Marines would not have to change as long as the leaders of each member know what they are doing. Constant Vigilance should be firm on the mind of everyone as this can be the least of their assurance that they are indeed taking the matter seriously. From the understanding of this, the leaders would have to be aware of the progress made by their subordinates in which they understand the program. Failure to do so would mean that the leader is not doing his job properly and it would reflect greatly on their superiors. If a Marine lieutenant has any problems with the program, he should need the advice of a superior regarding the issue.

Semantic Deviation In Pride And Prejudice English Language Essay

Semantic Deviation In Pride And Prejudice English Language Essay Jane Austin was an English novelist. Her books are notable for the wit, social observation and insights into the lives of early 19th century women. She was born in 1775 in Hampshire. She began to write when she was a teenager. Her first novel was Sense and Sensibility which was published in 1811.The second novel she wrote was Pride and Prejudice. This novel became very famous and was appreciated. Her next novel Mansfield Park was published in 1814, and then Emma in 1816.In 1816 Jane became ill due to Addisons disease. She died in Winchester on 18 July 1817. The two novels Persuasion and Northanger Abbey were published after her death. And a final novel was left incomplete. Pride and Prejudice was the most popular novel of Jane Austin. The story of the novel takes place in early nineteenth century. Critics praised Jane Austens characterization and portrayal of everyday life. Human weakness is a prominent element in this novel. Austin made use of irony to expose foolishness and hypocrisy. Dialogue plays an important role in Pride and Prejudice. Each characters speech is appropriate. From the speech it is revealed that what they are like. Elizabeths talk is direct and outspoken, Mr. Bennetts speech is sarcastic, Mr. Collins speeches are very long and boring, Lydias speeches are carefree and not serious. The incidences in Pride and Prejudice can be related to every day life i.e. embarrassments, foolishness, falling in love, realizing own mistakes, etc. Austens works possess a timeless quality, which makes her stories and themes as relevant today as they were two hundred years ago. Deviation means depart from an established course or normal standards. There are many types of deviation like syntactic or grammatical deviation, lexical deviation, graphological deviation, phonological deviation, and semantic deviation. In this research the main focus is on Semantic deviation. Semantic deviation shows that a word or phrase can have many different meanings. A word can be taken in different contexts. The real meaning can be different from apparent meaning. Semantic deviation includes irony, paradox, metaphor, simile, pun, style. CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW Dr.Sarala Krishnamurthy examined the lexis of Selman Rushdies Midnight Childrens.The method she applied was both qualitative and quantitative. In this research she worked on the use of neologism, compound words, and borrowing in the novel. According to her examination the most important feature in Rushdies work is the use of neologism. The neologism is identified in two ways : morphological and borrowing. In the novel the Indian words are given affixation, such as Pajamas, phirangis. With these words affixation s is used to convert them into plural form. The second type of neologism used is the Indian suffix are attached to English words, such as cousin ji and sister ji. The suffix ji in Urdu and Hindi is attached to any noun. The third type is when with English root morpheme, Hindi root morpheme is attached, such as: Paan shop, hot channa, Indian fauj. In these words Paan, channa and fauj are Hindi morphemes which are attached to English morphemes. Compound words are also formed by taking words from both the languages. The example of compound words is: dia lamp, where dia is the equivalent of the word lamp. The suffix y is also used with words, such as: shivery, glass cloudy, house wifery. The affixation ed is also used to create neologisms. Rushdie creates many adjectival forms by adding affix ed. The examples are: One eye browed, many headed, etc. The affixation ing is also used, which leads to the formation of compound words, such as: lip jutting, crazy sounding. The notable point is that all the examples given are used for the first time in Midnights Children and this extend the resources of English language. In this novel the compound words are formed in different ways. The ways are unusual collocation, co-joined words, word clusters, and noun phrases. The example of the each way is given below: Unusual collocation: 1. Biriyanis of determination 2. Carrot and stick affair Co-joined words: 1. whatsitsname what is its name 2. Godknowswhat God knows what 3. Talldarkhandsome tall dark handsome Word clusters: 1. they we should 2. patience wait Noun Phrases: 1. two day long procession 2. losing national dice game 3. Going to pot The last thing to be noted in the novel is borrowing. The words are borrowed from Urdu, such as: khansamaa, maulvi saab. The names of Hindu gods are also used, such as: ganesh, hanuman. The names of Hindi dishes, such as: lassi, khichri, ladoo are used in the novel. The names of Indian clothing: dupatta, kurtaa, pajama, are also made part of the novel. Indian expressions and the words of other languages that are spoken in India are also used in the novel. In the end Sarala concludes that these lexis are important because it is lexical deviation and the other reason she gives is that the usage of these words tell the world about the Indian word expressions. Agemo, Oluwatosin Stella examined The stylistic analysis of some selected poems of Wole Soyinka. He mentioned that the writer makes use of unusual word order in the form of Anastrophe and parenthesis. Examples are: In vain your bangles cast charmed circles at my feet (Abiku). Caught I was, foully (Telephone Conversation). This word order interrupts the normal syntactical flow of the sentence, to create emphasis and to capture the attention of the reader. The writer has also made use of word omission, i.e. ellipsis and asyndeton. Examples are: Must I weep for goats and cowries. For palm oil and sprinkled ask? (Abiku) I saw your jealous eye quench the Seas Flourescence, dance on the pulie incessant (Night) This creates shortness of time, emphasis or ambiguity. The scheme of repetition is also used in the poems. Repetition is used deliberately for the sake of emphasis. It helps to grasp the attention of the reader. The lexico-syntactic choices i.e. similie and metaphor are also used in abundance in the poem. These are used to give clearness and liveliness to words. Examples are: Similie: I bear no bear no heart mercuric like the clouds (Night). As lightning shrink to ants antenna (To my first white hairs). Metaphor: Ill be the suppliant snake coiled on the doorstep (Abiku). The comparison is made between two words that are different from each other and they are bond together to create similarity between them. Instances of hyperbole, hypernyms, onomatopoeia, synecdoche, pun, assonance, consonance are also present in the poem. The usage of these schemes and tropes provide musical effect and color to the poems. Graphological deviation is also present in the poem like capitalization, bold print, and spacing. All of these things found out together give effective meaning. To convey the meaning to the reader and to grasp their attention the language used should be meaningful. Soyinka use of language conveys the meaning to the reader that what the poet wants to convey. The stylistical devices help the poet to beautify and give rhythm to the text. By this analysis it is shown that there is a difference between poetic and non-poetic language. Bahaa-Eddin M. Mazid examined A stylistic analysis of Larkins Talking in Bed. According to his analysis the lexical items, with different connotations and denotations, grammatical structures, categories all combine together to produce three main isotopies of the poem i.e. language, love and nature. These items also establish the cohesive chains and the three sub-worlds of the poem- the tenseless, present and past. In the poem an emotional linguistic predicament of a couple is encountered, who cannot communicate and who used to be honest. Now they are unable to speak the truth and to be nice. The thing which is more problematic is that there is no one to help and conjure them. This is the context of the poem, it tells about the interpersonal relation ships. The poem consists of twelve lines. The first stanza consists of two clauses. And the second stanza starts with adverbial clause Lying together. The qualities and attributes associated with human beings are lasting only for a short time than those associated with natural objects and other phenomenon.Talking in bed is a metalinguitic poem. The poem is about the use, misuse and abuse of language. One isotopy that cross cuts the nature and the love isotopies is that of night. Thus, in bed, lying together, dark towns and isolation finds their ideal environment in the night. Night, sex and love are closely related with each other. The intimate style is filled with ellipsis, nonverbal communication and private code characteristics. Human involvement is more obvious in the last two clauses in the poem. In the whole poem the theme is dark, tone is bleak with disappointment. Irony is also the dominant feature of the poem. There is a mismatch between imagination and reality.Talking in bed is as modern as The Wasteland. It is about the agony of alienation, the irony of senseless sex-pillow-talk that cannot be easy and bed partnership that can no longer be honest the loss of faith in communion and the death of true or kind language. The poem is true to its own genre and author. In this the writer does The brief stylistic analysis of The Great Gatsby. The play describes the hollowness of the upper class. It also tells us about that what happened to the American dream. In the play Fitgerald made use of imagination and symbolism to present the moral history of his time.The use of symbolism made his work to connect the objective with the subjective. He starts the novel in the present, narrates the important events of the story. In chapter 4,6 and 7 the writer gradually reveals the story of Gatsbys past. In chapter 9 the past and the present come together. The key to the structure of the novel is the combination of the first person narrative and the revelation of the past gradually. The two devices worked together perfectly. If anyone of these was not used than the meaning will not be delivered clearly. In section 1 of the play abstract nouns and many multi-syllable adjectives are used, such as: riotous (adj.)  ¼Ã…’ excursion (n.) ¼Ã…’privileged (adj.) g limpse (n).The formal words are also used,such as exempt, register. The psychology of Nick is revealed by the use of multi-syllable adjectives. The sentence structure is complex. The internal complex and feelings of Nick are described in three sentences only in the first section of the play. Long but simple sentences are used in the section 2.there is one subjective clause and several coordinate sentences. For example, Miss Baker had mentioned him at dinner and thatà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.The simile is also used in the Great Gatsby. The sentence Her voice is full of money is a metaphor. The purpose of using metaphor is to give readers aesthetic sense. In the end the analyst concludes that the language used in the play is formal. And it appeals to the reader. Dan McIntyre examined The stylistic analysis of E.E.Cummings poem.The title of the poem is listen. The poem is basically about the arrival of the spring and the happiness and joys it brings. On the other hand the poem also seems to be an address to the lover; the poet wants his lover to enjoy with him, the arrival of spring. The themes of spring, nature, sex and man are interred related with each other. The subject matter of the poem is not complex. There are many stylistic features present in the poem. The lexical features of the poem are examined. The poem mostly consists of nouns and verbs. Most of the nouns are concrete and only two are abstract .i.e. dream and miracle. The verbs used create a sense of immediacy. All the verbs which are marked for tense are in the present tense. We have present simple verbs .i.e. barks, present progressive forms .i.e. are [eagerly], tumb/ling, and o-p-e-n-i-n-g/are. The poet also made use of adverb of manner, which conveys a sense of speed. The adverbs used are: (quickly), excitement (crazily, eagerly) and inevitability (irrevocably).Directive verbs are used to address to the other person .i.e. (listen, look, come  (x2),  run  (x2),  jump, shout, laugh, dance, cry, sing). These are used to request the addressee to enjoy the coming of the spring with the poet. For example, in the lines run run/with me now and sing)for its Spring. There is no neologism in the poem but some words are arranged in the poem in strange way. For example the word wonderful is divided in two lines, dividing it into two morphemes .i.e. wonder  and  ful. First the word gives the expression of noun wonder and if it is read again it seems to be the adjective wonderful. The most striking effect in {listen} is the use of deviations. Throughout the poem graphological deviation is present. The poet has deliberately capitalized the words in the middle of the sentence. The last line of the poem is highly fore grounded because all the letters are capitalized. Grammatical deviation is also used in the poem. Punctuations are applied where they are not required. An example would be in lines 12 and 13 o-p-e-n-i-n-g/are(leaves;flowers)dreams. Cummings has break grammatical conventions to convey the simultaneously coming thoughts. Due to which the groups of nouns run together without any punctuation. (E.g. lines 3 to 6 and line 22).the definite and indefinite references are within the same clause. i.e. this a  dog barks. The possible explanation could be that the poet uses this to refer that he is talking about the particular dog and on the other hand he uses a to refer that he is not familiar with the dog. Graphological parallelism is also used by the poet. All the first lines of the next stanza are separated by the above lines by double space. The poem has no rhyme scheme of regularity. There is no strict pattern adopted by the poet. In conclusion Cummings deliberately chooses to use such seemingly odd stylistic techniques in (listen). Stylistic helps the reader to understand the things in the text which are otherwise not understandable easily. Dominique Costa examined A stylistical analysis of Thomas Hardys: The Ruined maid. In the poem the lexical items used belong to variety of languages. The geographical, temporal, social dialects clearly appear in the poem. Terms such as thee, thou used belong to regional dialect. There occurrence is purposeful. Hardy used this device to draw the attention of the reader towards the characteristics of the country people. Expressions like digging potatoes, spudding up docks and barton belong to rural lexis. This enhances the young women social origin. The words like bracelets, dress, gloves which are associated with women are used frequently. Hardy uses expression related to feminity such as my dear, delicate cheek, delicate face. From this it is shown that the theme of woman hood is prevalent in the poem. Conjunctions are also used frequently. The conjunctions such as and, but are significant. The poem is built in parallel structures; two types of parallelism within the sentences are also used. The examples of parallelism are: In The Ruined Maid lexis, cohesion, syntax, sound plays a dominant role. References to the past and present are also constant ion the poem. The setting of the play is temporal. Metin TÄ °MUÇÄ °N examined A stylistic study to explore the language of poems. The goal was to perceive the meaning and understanding the language of the text. The text which is taken into consideration is the poem of Siegfried Sassoon`s The Rear-Guard and Wilfred Owenss Anthem for Doomed Youth. The paper not only focuses on analyzing the text but also argues in favor of exploiting language based approaches in literature. In Sassoons The Rear-Guard the poet uses the poetic language of violence. The poet has himself experienced the violence as a soldier in world war 2.the themes of the poem are violence, and the trenches of the war. On the other hand in the poem of Wilfred Owenss Anthem for Doomed Youth the relations with family, army, poetry and Church are depicted. Sassoon and Owen both deal with the atrocities of the war. In Anthem for Doomed Youth in order to reveal the agonies, violence, silence of a family in mourning, sorrows of the people, Owen makes use of bot h the terms of army and church. In both the poems the words related with war are present i.e. guns, rapid rattle, stuttering rifles. Owen also uses the discourse of the church like: bells, prayers, mourning, choirs, candles, holly glimmers. In Owens poem we have lexical groupings of war and church. The main focus of the analysis was that how the words used convey the meaning to the reader. In The Rear Guard the feelings of a person are described who has himself faced the atrocities of war and he thinks that war is evil and unjust. It destroys the lives of people. In Owens poem Anthem for Doomed Youth the poet by using linguistic devices gives the message and lesson to the world that war should be prohibited. The war is not an enjoyable thing; it destroys the lives of people, homes and countries. Masanori Miyata examined Types of linguistic devices in Oliver Twist. The six types of deviation present in Oliver twist are taken under consideration. The phonological deviation is present in the dialogue of Gamfield, which shows typically substandard or vulgar language. The words of his speech are: acause(because),afore(before),nothink(nothing),etc. Graphological deviation is also part of the novel. The author uses parenthesis within the dialogue to reveal the inner thoughts of the character. For example: Have the goodness to look at me, said Mr.bumble, fixing his eyes upon her. (If she stands such an eye as that, said Mr. Bumble to himself. She can stand anythingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. (Mr. Bumble, XXXVII, 268) Capital letters and dashes are also used within the dialogue. In the dialogue by Fagin, Fagin retorted Nancy with rage in capital letters. WILL. Neologisms are also invented in the play. i.e. Greenland, merry-go-rounder. Dicken invented special terms like: beadlehood, henpeckery, half-baptized. New compound words are formed by combining two lexical items with hyphens; like: psalm-singers, concept-making, surgeons-friend, and orange-peel. Mr. Bumble add suffixes -er and -est. with adjectives in his dialogues, which normally proceed more and most in Standard English. Examples are: obstinater, ungratefullest, He also uses double superlatives i.e. most bare-facedest. Dickens also uses vague phrase; like: certain soft nothings. Oxymorons are also evident. For example: good unhealthy port, logically contradict but contextually consistent. Paradox like: night so long, and yet so short, are also applied by Dickens. Synecdoche, metaphor, simile all are the part of the play. Dickens ion his novel has used approximately all types of deviations, schemes, tropes and lexical features. Irony is prevalent throughout the novel. In conclusion Dickens creates new words and skillfully manipulates it in his novel. . .. CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1. Research Question: To analyze the semantic deviation in Jane Austins novel Pride and Prejudice 3.2. Delimitation: The text which is to be analyzed is Pride and Prejudice. It consists of 61 chapters, but the focus will be on first 25 chapters of the novel. The text will be analyzed semantically. The focus will be on semantic deviations used by the writer. The real meaning inherent in the apparent meaning will be focused. 3.3. Theoretical Framework: Stylistics is the study of style of language. It describes the usage of language in speech, written works and public affairs. Deviations are a part of stylistic analysis. Deviation means depart from an established course or normal standards. There are many types of deviation, like semantic, syntactic, graphological, register and grammatical deviation. But the focus in this research is only on semantic deviation. The main points which would be under consideration during semantic analysis of the novel will be irony, metaphor, paradox, pun, style.

America Is in the Heart: A Personal History :: Carlos Bulosan

America Is in the Heart: A Personal History (Journal) Part One:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Allos was a young boy from a little province of Binalonan located on the central part of the island of Luzon in the Philippines. He lived with his dad, who farms on their own land, which is the primary source of their living. His mom, living in the town, selling goods in the market. They were among the peasants who worked very hard for the rich landlords just to feed their family. When his brother Leon came back form a war in Europe, he met a girl from another town who he liked. They got engaged and married. There was a tradition during those days that if the girl wasn’t a virgin, the man would have to return her to their village. And when the people found out that the girl deceived Leon, they tied them on a tree and started beating them. Allos’ dad stopped them and when it was over, Leon left the town with his bride and started a new life. Amado, the youngest of his four brothers, who was attending grade school in town living with his mother and the ir baby sister. His father brought him to the village to help them on their farming. His other brother, Luciano was on camp serving the United States. They all worked so hard for his brother Macario, who was attending high school at the province capital. They needed money for Macario’s education so his father sold a hectare of their four-hectare land. When they needed more, they sold more land. They gave up almost everything they owned just to make their son Macario go to school. One day when his father and his brother Amado were farming, Amado started beating up the carabao. His father stopped him and Amado told his father that he couldn’t live like this anymore. So he ran away from home, leaving Allos as his father’s only helper on the farm. When his brother Macario went home to visit, Allos was speechless. He’s not used to see an educated man. He dressed formal, talked and acted like a real gentleman. When they all gathered on house, Macario said that he needed more money to finish three more months of school. But the money wasn’t enough for three months. So their father decided that they will sell the remaining hectare of their land telling his son not to worry at all.

Defining Blackness in How it Feels to Be Colored Me by Zora Neale Hurston :: How it Feels to Be Colored Me

Defining "Blackness" in Terms of "Whiteness" in How it Feels to Be Colored Me  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Wald argues that any social critique must work to divest the rhetoric of the dominant discourse of its co-optive power. American rhetoric readily co-opts stories of Black selves through an incorporating language of difference that obscures the actual nature of that difference. Writers of slave narratives and, later, Black autobiographers, countered charges of racial inferiority with testimonies to their industry, ingenuity, and Christian virtues, adopting precisely those terms of the Protestant work ethic through which the culture justified its domination and thereby mitigated their differences(Andrews, 95 ). Defining "blackness" in terms of "whiteness" (reference to the concept of binary opposition in which one term negates the other) submits to the authorization of the dominant discourse and enters into the cultural subjectivity implicit in language. The altemative is equally problematic, however, since the American democratic idealism ensured that any assertion of difference that could not be incorporated into the pervasive national rhetoric was systematically excluded (Wald, 80). Perhaps because of her anthropological training and her doubly marginal status as an African-American woman, Hurston invented a strategy that enabled her to speak from the margins. She employed an African-American language, a symbolic system that reconstituted representation itself and disrupted the dualism of the dorninant discourse. "The Negroes...very words are action words... the suggestiveness of African-American art transforms the spectator into an actor who participat[es] in the performance himself carrying out the suggestions of the performer" (Hurston, 49). Blackness becomes experiential rather than essential, a "quality that permeates and suffuses rather than defines"(Wald, 87). The vitality of the language blurs oppositional boundaries and whatever the meaning of 'blackness' is, the performer and spectator are mutually involved in a relationship that undermines the representation of blackness as sin against a moral white background (Wald, 87). Hurston draws us into the dynamics of"coloration" by redesignating "color" as performance. She inverts her experience of feeling different in a white environment by setting "a white person ...down in our mist," and, again, her "color comes"(Anthology, 1985). Hurston represents the difference in the context of a jazz performance, in which the orchestra "plunges into a number ...constricts the thorax and splits the heart... grows rambunctious, rears on its hind legs and attacks the tonal veil with primitive fury, rendering it, clawing it until it breaks through to a jungle beyond"(Anthology, 1985).

Alarming Side Effects of Artificial Sweeteners Essay -- Exploratory Es

Alarming Side Effects of Artificial Sweeteners NutraSweet, Equal, Spoonful, and Equal-Measure are all brand names for aspartame, a low calorie sugar substitute used in more than 90 countries to sweeten foods and beverages. Aspartame is a synthetic chemical that is created through the combination of the amino acids phenylalanine and aspartic acid, and a small amount of methanol. Aspartame can be found in several products, such as soft drinks, over-the counter drugs, vitamin and herb supplements, instant breakfasts, candy, breath mints, cereals, sugar-free chewing gum, coffee, juice, and tea beverages, tabletop sweeteners, and gelatin desserts. This product may have seemed like a dream come true when it was first invented in 1981 because its use can substantially lower the number of calories in food and beverage products by substituting the place of sugar. Despite its desirable qualities, the use of aspartame has been controversial since its creation due to its negative side effects that have been linked to the use of the chemica lly produced sugar. Due to the ever increasing use of aspartame, researchers have discovered that aspartame has been closely associated with the function of the brain. In the human brain, there is a blood-brain barrier that acts as a system of specialized capillary structures that are designed to prevent toxic substances from entering the brain. Prior to birth and during the first 12 months of life, the blood-brain barrier is incomplete. The protective enzymes in a baby’s brain are still immature, and therefore are unable to effectively detoxify the excitotoxins, toxins that bind to certain receptors and may cause neuronal cell death when they enter the brain. This would mean that in the case o... ...t pain, headaches, equilibrium problems and manic depression. The Desert Storm incident proved that aspartame is indeed harmful when consumed in excess or when consumed in general. Overall, the consumption of aspartame is not so beneficial. The chemical component of aspartame may be broken down to chemical substances that are potentially harmful and may lead to symptoms such as headaches, vision impairment, hearing loss, memory loss, fatigue, dizziness, and eventually brain tumors. The sweetener may have been developed to lower the amount of calories and be a sugar substitute, but its creation has only produced medical attention. The consumption of aspartame should be limited or not be consumed at all in order to prevent symptoms from occurring. The creation of aspartame may not be so sweet after all. References: www.dorway.com www.webMd.com

Capitec Strategy to success Essay

Introduction History shows that the South African banking sector has predominately focused on middle to upper class income groups in the market, whilst neglecting the needs and demands of low income groups (Manson, 2012). Capitec Bank on the other hand, focused on the needs of these low income groups, creating a business model that was specifically tailored to their needs. Capitec was introduced in the banking industry during a time of crisis, Saambou Bank, which focused in micro lending had collapsed (McNulty, 2009). However Capitec has managed to endure this predicament and since its inception, has emerged as a force to be reckoned with, in a relatively short period of time. The bank has managed to penetrate the South African banking sector with progression in a matter of a few years due to its implementation of the inventive Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) strategy aimed at targeting the lower end consumers (van Themaat et al, 2013). It is therefore essential to evaluate the BoP strategy, along wi th all of its aspects. For this reason, this essay will examine the history of Capitec Bank and in particular outline the successful adaption of the BoP strategy as well as its growth and current position in the banking sector. However, the main objective that will be discussed in detail will be on the aspects of Capitec’s strategy crucial for leverage in its position in the South African banking sector. History Capitec Bank was founded on the 1st of March 2001 and built back on its micro credit business, keeping in mind its intention to establish a proper bank in the microfinancing platform (Manson, 2012). Microfinance is a term used to describe the provision of financial services in addition to microcredit to small businesses and the bottom of the pyramid (BoP) population (van Themaat et al, 2013). Initially, Capitec started as a 300-branch micro-loan business with the sole product being 30 day loans with a 30% monthly interest. Imperatively, this business of micro-loans supported the strategic aim and complementary cost of building out an underlying foundation  necessary for a transactional bank (Ashton, 2012). Based on statistics it is found that BoP is more than two thirds of the population that survive on bare minimum income (van Themaat et al, 2013). Furthermore Finscope 2003 estimated that 35 percent of the total population in SA have never banked or used any financial service to m anage their finances. With relation to the above, it is recognized that other financial institutions overlook serving the BoP as they are perceived as non-profitable (Coetzee, 2003). However on the other hand, Capitec recognised this market as a window of opportunity as the majority of this population remained unbanked due to the many constraints that prevented them from obtaining financial services (van Themaat et al, 2013, Robin et al, 2005). The bank implemented its profit-driven strategy by customising its services and products to the needs of the BoP to achieve the following: Acceptability, Availability, Affordability and Awareness, thereby overcoming the constraints that existed. (Coetzee, 2003, van Themaat et al, 2013, Robin et al, 2005) This approach deemed successful which has resulted in an increase of market share with 51.23 percent compound interest over the last five years which is in line with its goal of being a profit-driven microfinancing institution (van Themaat et al, 2013). These aspects used by Capitec Bank to penetrate the banking sector will be discussed in this paper. Acceptability As mentioned previously in the history, Capitec overcame many constraints that had previously left the BoP sector unbanked. The founders of Capitec critically evaluated the BoP and found that many are embarrassed by their lack of education, skills, literacy, are unable to afford basic financial services and that their perceptions of banking is that it is complicated, expensive, difficult and time consuming (van Themaat et al, 2013). Capitec offers a simplistic and acceptable approach to banking which has changed these perceptions taking into consideration that the Bop are first time users. Capitec Bank (2014) displays Capitec’s product offering which is a Global One account that incorporates a savings, deposits and a credit facility which makes for simpler banking offering exceptional utility and value. Capitec’s interaction with clients are face-to-face, paper-less, cash-less and card-based (Haladjian, 2006). Overcoming the lack of confidence and literacy skills in first time BoP clients was achieved by the paperless IT and management information system (van Themaat et al, 2013). This also incorporated biometric identification using fingerprint technology and cameras to identify their clients which creates ease of use and quicker response time (van Themaat et al, 2013). Overcoming the language barrier was achieved by employing staff from the local communities. (Robin et al, 2005). Capitec’s investment into human resource training has made for efficient interaction with clients strengthening customer-to-bank relations and by eliminating a bulletproof glass barricade, clients receive a personal service and are treated importantly, which makes transacting a more approachable service. (Coetzee, 2003) By treating their customers with respect, this increases the emotional a ppeal to the BoP population. As compared to service in a big four branch, the Bop customer is treated as inferior and unvalued, therefore Capitec defines it focus by customer and not by income (van Themaat et al, 2013). The customer interface systems at ATM’s have been adjusted to the needs and preferences of the BoP catering for illiterate clients. (Coetzee, 2003) The management IT system is centrally controlled, increases simplicity and customer value by reducing administration costs, paper work, prevents fraud and keeps track of transactions using fingerprint biometrics. (Coetzee, 2003, van Themaat et al, 2013) It also creates a safer environment as cash is not kept at branches and withdrawals are available at ATM’s and selected retail stores considering that many unbanked sectors exist in areas experiencing high crime and this positively contributes to driving down financial service costs (Coetzee, 2003, Haladjian, 2006). Opening an account takes ten minutes. After credit evaluation and approval, the loan application process is as follows: scan ID document and verify using barcode, scan payslip, take a photo of the client, capture other data, open account, print loan agreement, all ow client to sign, then scan and return the original, create an ATM card and give card to the client (Coetzee, 2003). Coetzee 2003 highlights that this previously unbanked population deemed as  undesirable and unprofitable are being served by Capitec Bank in large volumes since its inception. This further proves that the strategy of simplifying its service implemented by Capitec appeals to the Bop population allowing Capitec to penetrate the banking sector. Availability Capitec makes their services more available to customers by having longer business hours, increasing the number of branches, allowing withdrawals at retail outlets, using ATM’s, internet banking and applying for credit online. According to Planting (2006) Capitec Bank has extended their business banking hours. On weekdays branches are open from 8am to 5pm (Manson, 2012). Most of the branches of the big four banks: Absa, Nedbank, FNB and Standard bank close at about 3:30pm or 4pm. Capitec considers that most customers are working and can only access branches after working hours which is around 4pm. In some cases branches are open till later where it suits customers and branches are also capable of going to the workplace of customers to offer their services (Coetzee, 2003). On Saturdays branches are open between 8am to 1pm and on Sundays branches in large shopping centres are open between 10am to 2pm (Manson, 2012). Most of the big four banks branches close on Saturday at about 11am and on Sunday most branches are not open. These times considers that customers may not be able to do their banking during the week because of long and tiring working hours. They understand the needs of customers by offering longer business banking hours. Capitec knows that their customers need to reach their branches easily. This is done by reducing the size of branches and increasing the quantity of branches (Manson, 2012). They would rather have more branches in one area than have one big branch. Many people do not save because they do not have access to banking services (Finscope, 2003). Increasing the number of branches increases accessibility and savings will be encouraged. Using this approach makes their services accessible and convenient for customers. Initially Capitec’s main target focus was the BoP. Branches are located at taxi ranks, train stations and townships where their services are easily available to the low income group. They have expanded over the years, making their services available to the other income groups by locating branches near rural areas and in shopping malls. Capitec uses existing  infrastructure to improve banking service accessibility. They have partnered with retail outlets such as Checkers, Pick ‘n Pay, Shoprite and Pep. Customers can withdraw cash at these retail outlets. Most of the retailers allow cash to be withdrawn when purchasing items at the stor es except at Pick ‘n Pay no purchase is required to make a withdrawal. They have increased their network location by allowing withdrawals at retailers without having to invest in any large infrastructure (Kim & Mauborgne, 2005). This allows easy access to money and convenience for customers. Capitec ATM’s are located across SA making them easily accessible. If customers cannot access an ATM to withdraw cash, they can always go to retail outlets making their services more accessible and unique compared to the major banks. The ATM’s can be used to check balances, withdraw cash and multi-loan, transfer money to savings plans and change a pin. The availability of services offered by Capitec is improved by partnering with MasterCard. Cards are developed to allow customers usage even in remote places (Lee, 2010). Mobile banking is also used by Capitec; customers can use their cell phone to access multi-loan, savings plans and savings account. It can be used to purchase airtime and electricity, check account balances and previous electricity tokens purchased, withdraw multi-loan and make payments to clients who bank with Capitec, transfer money between your accounts and register for SMS update for security purposes. Capitec offers internet banking that is simple, safe and saves the customer money. Money can be managed whenever it suits the customer. Internet banking allows customers to transfer money between their accounts, create stop orders, check their statements, tax interest certificate, payment history and register for SMS update system. Customers first need to access their nearest branch to register for mobile or internet banking and to find out how it works. After registration customers can easily access their services when it suits them. They also allow customers to apply for credit online which increases availability of their services. A credit application must be completed online and they will contact the customer to discuss it with them, making credit application easily accessible. The use of EMP technology and cards linked to maestro allows customers use of their cards offline, offering services in areas of limited access such as rural communities (Haladjian, 2006). Using these strategies  Capitec has made their services more available and convenient for custome rs, thus improving the banking sector. These strategies used have increased their client base and resulted in the growth of bank. Businesstech (2014) reveals that Capitec has overtaken Nedbank and is now the fourth largest bank with approximately 10.8 per cent market share. Affordability A substantial component behind Capitec Bank’s successful business model was its development of a strategy aimed at understanding the needs of its customers which were the â€Å"bottom of the pyramid† population (van Themaat et al, 2013). This prompted the bank to offer affordable banking products and services that were specifically designed in accordance to its customers’ needs. Capitec centred on having simple banking products and services and sought out to have the lowest fees, hence arguably making it the most affordable bank to bank with amongst many of its competitors in the banking sector (Manson, 2012). In order to understand this strategy, it is imperative to highlight the banking products and services Capitec offered which allowed it to penetrate the banking sector in South Africa as well as making a comparative analysis with the products and services of some of the major banks in South Africa. The fundamental factor of Capitec’s success is its Capitec’s Global One account which comprises of three distinct features: it allows an individual to have the ability to transact, save and access credit, all with one account (Capitec Bank, 2014). The efficiency of this account ensures that customers do not have to open three separate accounts which cuts down on administrative costs. The monthly administration cost for the Global One account inclusive of all its aspects as of 01 March 2014 amounts to R5.00 (Capitec Bank, 2014). Furthermore there is free access to card, mobile as well as internet banking and in so doing makes it more appealing to Capitec’s target market (Manson, 2012). Comparing Capitec’s Global One account with that of its counterparts from the big four banks in the table below, it can be seen that this account is more superior in terms of its features and much more cost efficient than the rival accounts of other banks. Bank Transactional Account Savings Account Access Credit Capitec- â€Å"Global One Account† YES YES YES FNB- â€Å"Easy Account† YES YES NO Absa- â€Å"Flexi Account† YES YES NO Nedbank- â€Å"Ke Yona Account† YES NO NO Standard Bank- â€Å"PlusPlan Account† YES YES NO The Global One transaction feature allows you to transfer, deposit or withdraw money as well as to make purchases and payments (Capitec Bank, 2014). The fees that Capitec charges relating to the transaction aspect on this account is by far the cheapest in comparison to the transaction accounts of the big four banks. Fees relating to all card purchases are free whether you purchase at card machines, shop online, order by telephone or through mail. Money transfers to own accounts are also free and to other accounts is charged at a fee of R1.05. Balance enquiries through all channels are also free. (Capitec Bank, 2014) The savings component on the Global One account allows an individual to have four different savings plan which has the ability to earn interest ranging from 4.40 to 9% depending on  their plans. These plans can also be flexible or fixed according to one’s preference. With flexible savings, people can earn from 4.40% interest on their daily balances as well as cho ose the amount they want to deposit and the frequency of their deposits (Capitec, 2014). Another advantage to these plans is that there is no monthly admin fee that has to be paid to each account as well as no minimum balance required in order to start saving. Fixed-term savings gives one the ability to choose from two deposit options. The first is a â€Å"single deposit† which can run from a period of 6 to 60 months with a minimum balance of R10 000 and a maximum investment of R5 million (Capitec Bank, 2014). The second option is â€Å"multiple deposits† which can run from a period of 6 to 24 months with a maximum investment amount of R1 million. The interest rate is fixed for the full term and interest gained from this option can either be reinvested or transferred to back to one’s transaction or savings account (Capitec Bank, 2014). Having a look at the competing accounts of the other major banks which can be seen in the table below, most offer interest rates that are less than 1%. Capitec on the other hand offers highly competitive interest rates which make it more lucrative for people to bank with them as they are able to earn more on their savings. Bank Capitec- â€Å"Global One Account FNB- â€Å"Easy Account Absa- â€Å"Flexi Account Nedbank- â€Å"Ke Yona Account Standard Bank- â€Å"PlusPlan Account† Interest Rates 4.40 to 9% 0%

Green Practices and Their Benefits on the Environment Essay

Every country is endowed with rich natural resources which can greatly affect the country’s competence within the international economic arena. Each country is highly dependent upon the natural resources that it owns. These natural resources are being utilized to aid the country’s needs in order to strengthen their economy. Thus in order to make full use of natural resources, one must be keen in protecting the environment. The environment shelters all the resources that people need in order to sustain life. Thus damaging the environment can create strong adverse effect on the humans’ needs and well-being. However, the seemingly rapid development within the field of industry and technology diverted the society’s awareness on the importance of environment protection. The discovery of new technological innovations attracted people towards adapting new ways and processes unmindful of the possible threats that these new inventions may bring to the environment. And over time, scientific discoveries have caused the deterioration and depletion of important natural resources. Alongside these innovations and the discovery of the harmful effects that these developments have inflicted on the environment, comes the need for increased awareness and concern in protecting the environment. If people will not learn how to control their utilization of the environment and the proper way of extracting uses from it, the nature’s gift endowed for the humans to make use of shall soon become scarce and will eventually die out completely. From this truth and realizations, certain organizations have emerged to save the environment from further abuse. Environmentalist groups have surfaced in order to prevent the environment from continuous depletion. These environmentalists were formed under the bond of concern for the environment, primarily towards ensuring the â€Å"preservation, restoration, or the improvement of the natural environment† (Rozeff, 2007). These groups of people hold advocacies in order to create a strong stand in promoting their cause and ideals. In addition to this, â€Å"green† companies have also been set up in order to fight for this cause. These companies are those who have responded to the need of protecting the environment, and those who have believed that doing such shall become favorable to them in the future. And as such, these environmentalist organizations and green companies have devised of ways to protect the environment while still reaping the benefits from rich natural resources. In this light, site management programs are being done in order to provide protection to land, water and air resources. These programs are geared towards effectively monitoring the status of natural environment with respect to its utilization, acts ensuring replenishment and maintenance and improvement of such resources (â€Å"Green Remediation,† 2008). Ecological and Soil Preservation The importance of preserving land formations translates into the preservation of the ecology in general. Land resources serve as the widest form of habitats for most of living organisms within the ecosystem. Thus, ensuring that the natural habitats are being well taken cared of will help maintain biodiversity which will benefit humans and other forms of living organisms. One way of ecological and soil preservation is through the use of grassfarming. Grassfarming, when done in a proper way will result to a net benefit in the environment. Animals raised through this process shall help in lessening the use of fossil fuels. Furthermore, development of pasture of this kind helps to reduce the occurrences of soil erosion. With the United States losing a significant mass of soil every year, diversion from the conventional ways of cropping and instead resorting towards row cropping will eventually lessen the rate of soil loss by up to 93 percent (â€Å"Grassfarming Benefits the Environment,† 2008). In addition to this, grazed pasture will also help in removing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Furthermore, grassfarming helps in reducing greenhouse gases thus eventually slowing down the rate of global warming (â€Å"Grassfarming Benefits the Environment,† 2008). Another way of preventing soil erosion is through tree trimming, tree planting and landscaping. While these processes keep soil erosion at a lesser rate and percentage, these also serve the purpose of beautifying the surrounding. While these work to create a more beautiful environment, these also increase the reliability of environment by strengthening and further enrichment of the resources available to humans (â€Å"Tree Trimming and Landscaping: Balancing Beauty and Reliability,† 2008). In general, the protection of ecology and soil preservation will eventually lead to the following: increase in wildlife habitat, reduce wind, water and soil erosion, decrease in carbon emission, protection of water resources and the establishment and development of â€Å"greenspaces† corridors (â€Å"Green Remediation,† 2008). The most important amongst these positive effects in the environment is that while the environment beautifies and becomes more useful for the people, the people will have a greater sense of property values. And as such, the community will have a better perception of the advantages that a â€Å"green† environment will serve for them. Water Preservation and Conservation Preservation of aqua life is also equally as important in maintaining a healthy environment. Developments in the society have pushed people towards over consumption of water resources. In addition, the commercialization rampant in every country has turned every water resource into either an industrial or commercial site. Thus, actions are needed towards recovering and conserving what is left of the planet’s water resources. In United States, the campaign in passing a National Healthy Oceans Act is being pushed. It is believed that upon the approval of the act, a cohesive national policy will be pushed to revitalize and revive the oceans. If this materializes, the protection of what is left in the country’s marine life shall be restored and protected (â€Å"Ocean Solutions,† n. d). In addition to this act, the development of underwater parks is also being suggested. The establishment of protected marine areas shall help preserve the rich marine life by allowing marine species to reproduce, thus providing a more balanced and diverse marine ecosystem (â€Å"Ocean Solutions,† n. d). In line with this, certain policies are also pushed which shall ensure that destructive fishing shall be stopped and violators will be properly reprimanded. It is necessary to know that use of destructive fishing will deliberately decrease marine diversity. Such policies will also promote for the prevention of occurrences of water pollution. Water pollution further hastens the development of water damage to natural systems. Thus, the government has provided ways to ensure that sewage systems are being monitored in order to prevent leakages that can further contribute to marine death. In addition to these, several conservation designs have been suggested in order to strengthen the campaign of water resources protection. These conservation designs include the formation of clusters and landscapes which shall enable the prevention of excessive water runoffs. Examples of these landscapes include trenches, basins, rain gardens and vegetated treatment systems among the others (â€Å"Green Remediation,† 2008). Moreover, military sonars are being put under restrictions. Military activities over time were proven to have induced harmful effects upon water resources, and as such, activities of this kind must be minimized. If these steps shall be taken, people can help curb the probable adverse effects of global warming. At the rate that global warming is currently occurring in the planet, the planet’s aquamarine resources are predicted to suffer from grave effects it may bring. Thus, being keen in preventing the further intoxication of the marine resources through excessive emission of carbon dioxide in bodies of water, people can help in sustaining and protecting the growth of diverse biofuels (â€Å"Ocean Solutions,† n. d). Air Quality Protection Every individual needs clean air in order to attain a healthy life. Maintaining the natural ecology by giving priority in the protection of trees also helps in cleaning the planet’s air resources. However, there are direct plans which can be done in order to strengthen the society’s position in keeping the atmosphere free from toxic gases. Green remediation activities that come in forms of certain policies can enormously aid in building standards necessary for protecting the atmosphere. Provisions made under Clean Air Act, Energy Policy Act and Energy Independence and Security Act are few of the policy programs which if followed can assist in maintaining clean air within the country (â€Å"Green Remediation,† 2008). Through these acts, it will be made clear that equipments needed in the manufacturing industry will be checked to make sure that companies comply in the reduced emission of harmful gases. These efforts will ensure that heavy equipments and vehicles are functioning properly in such a way that air protection opportunities are being guaranteed to work. Waste Management Given the three important aspects of environment which greatly need attention and protection, a proper and efficient waste management system also contributes to the prevention of environmental degradation. Aside from direct plans involving the environmental maintenance and revival, there are also activities which are seeking to prevent further degradation of the surroundings. In this light, an activity such as â€Å"Reduce, Reuse and Recycle† program is being initiated which is expected to increase the environment’s sustenance against pollution. In the event that this will be strictly observed, this will be of great help in pursuing waste reduction by recycling materials that can still used (â€Å"Reduce, Reuse and Recycle,† 2008). Thus, such activity will help save environment and at the same time, it will also help alleviate poverty by making use of trash materials as a source of livelihood. In general, a feasible waste management practice must take into consideration the opportunity of giving a worthy cause for livelihood while eliminating the threats to the environment. Ideally, an effective waste management system is geared towards (1) conserving landfill space; (2) reducing the environmental impacts coming from wastes while reducing the cost of producing new materials from old and used materials; and (3) reducing the overall project expenses by avoiding new and more expensive purchases and unnecessary disposal costs (â€Å"Green Remediation,† 2008). A Sustainable Development A greater understanding of the environment’s delicateness and vulnerability will lead the people towards the developing a greater sense of concern with how one makes positive use of the rich natural resources provided by the environment. However, even if the people will make use of environmental resources with outmost caution, there are resources that are cannot be renewed and replenished, or resources that take too long before they can be replenished. This then brings into light the importance of how to use our resources in a sustainable way. Though resources may be renewed and replenished, it is still necessary to know how to use them properly while allotting time for these resources to be replenished according to the pace that suits them. Trees and forest reserves are examples of renewable resources. While trees and forest can always be replenished, humans who make use of it should be careful in consuming the richness and wealth that these resources provide us. As such, people must be keen on knowing when it is time to start making actions towards ensuring that such resources will be given an ample time to replenish that resources that have already been utilized by humans. Consequently, nonrenewable resources are also present in the environment. These include the nature’s fossil reserves. Fossil fuels though are still currently rampant within the environment are nonrenewable resources, which if used inappropriately will soon become scarce. Thus, it is the obligation of human beings to know how to carefully and prudently use these resources in such a way that future generations will still have enough to make use of for their own development. In this light, renewable energy resources must be integrated properly to ensure future abundance and proliferation. And on the other hand, alternatives must be provided as replacements to nonrenewable resources. The utilization of solar and wind alternatives can be useful instead of continuously relying to nonrenewable fossil reserves as energy sources (â€Å"Green Remediation,† 2008). Thus, if these are given proper attention, while prolonging the life of the nature’s nonrenewable resources and protecting the environment, this can also help the economy in reducing country costs and liabilities. Ideally, an effective system in managing renewable and nonrenewable energy sources may result in the: (1) decrease in fossil fuel prices while ensuring long-term benefits and cost savings; (2) lowering the demand and reliability on traditional energy resources; (3) reducing the emissions from fossil fuel consumption; and (4) widening the opportunities for new market and job creation (â€Å"Green Remediation,† 2008). Environment Protection: Translation Towards Human and Economic Development As previously mentioned, the planet’s rich natural resources serve as the people’s basic source of livelihood. Without these resources, people will be left with nothing to feed on, no shelter and no means to survive. Thus, it is widely believed that poverty and environment are two interrelated concepts that humans must be able to grasp in order to attain the fullest potential that humans can attain. A report following the researches conducted by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) concluded that to be able to battle poverty, people must turn towards environmental protection. The relationship between the two is linked in a â€Å"downward spiral† wherein the poorest among the nation are those who have extracted their environmental resources towards the limits without being keen on replenishing them. Thus, environmental degradation has further impoverished people due to lack of education and knowledge to keep the resources alive (â€Å"UNDP-EC Poverty and Environment Initiative,† 2004). Thus, the goal set up by the UNDP Environment Initiative is to provide practitioners and policy makers in identifying solutions towards equipping the people with proper knowledge on how to take care of natural resources while allowing them the privilege of making use of the environment’s richness. Given the immense importance of environmental resources to the lives of every people living in the planet, it is of great necessity that people must learn how to utilize these resources in such a way that the environment retains its healthy form and condition. The processes, policies and projects stated beforehand are bright solutions towards maintaining a sustainable development. The environment is one of the best gifts bestowed upon human beings. Observing â€Å"green† practices and making sure that environmental protection is put at first priority on top of human selfishness and recklessness will benefit not only the environment itself, but more specially human beings who are largely dependent on the gifts that environment provides. References Grassfarming Benefits the Environment. (2008). Eatwild. Retrieved July 29, 2008, from http://www. eatwild. com/environment. html Green Remediation: Incorporating Sustainable Environmental Practices Into Remediation of Contaminated Sites. (2008). United States Environmental Protection Agency. Ocean Solutions. (n. d) NRDC. Retrieved July 29, 2008, from http://oceans. nrdc. org/solutions Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. (2008) The Green Flag Program. Retrieved July 29, 2008, from http://www. greenflagschools. org/mshs/project_areas/ Rozeff, M. S. (2007) What is Environmentalism? LewRockwell. com. Retrieved July 29, 2008, from http://www. lewrockwell. com/rozeff/rozeff151. html Tree Trimming and Landscaping: Balancing Beauty and Reliability. (2008) Knoxville Utilities Board. Retrieved July 29, 2008, from http://www. kub. org/wps/portal/! ut/p/c1/04_SB8K8xLLM9MSSzPy8xBz9CP0os3gPC1OnYE8TIwMDlwAnAyMfl1BLU1c3D1cPA_1wkA68KvDKG-GXDzQzhMgb4ACOBvp-Hvm5qfoF2dlBHuWOigCUwDZj/dl2/d1/L3dJMjJZZyEhL0lCakFBQVFnQUlUQ0FBaUNJQUNBb2dBSUJ1d0FDR0EhL1lCcDNwSnchLzZfSDg1QlNJNDIwMERQQjAyTERVOTVFRkhFNjA! / UNDP-EC Poverty and Environment Initiative. (2004) United Nations Development Programme. Retrieved July 30, 2008, from http://www. undp. org/seed/pei/