Madame du Barry: Louis XV’s Favorite Mistress

It has often been said that it is the mistress who truly wields the power on the throne. According to the BBC article The King's Mistress – A Royal Tradition (2005), â€Å"†¦ for centuries, kings across Europe have turned to mistresses for sex, advice and conversation† (BBC News, n. pag. ). In exchange for the sex and companionship that they provided to their respective paramours, these women were able to obtain â€Å"great personal wealth, security and a rare chance of political power† (BBC News, n. pag.). But in the case of Madame du Barry (1743-1793), a king's mistress can also bring about the end of his regime (BBC News, n. pag. ).Madame Jeanne Becu Comtesse du Barry was born as Marie-Jeanne Becu at Vaucouleurs, Lorraine on August 19, 1743 (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). She was the illigitimate daughter of Anne Becu, who was said to have worked either as a seamstress or a cook in Paris (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Marie-Jeanne's biological father was believed to be Je an Baptiste Gormand de Vaubernier, a friar who went by the name of â€Å"Brother Angel† (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). However, it was Anne's lover, Monsieur Billard-Dumonceaux, who paid for her education at the convent of St. Aure (Wikipedia, n. pag. ).Marie-Jeanne left the convent at age 15 and moved to Paris, where she assumed the name Jeanne Rancon (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). She held various jobs during her stay in Paris, which included being an assistant to a young hairdresser named Lametz (with whom she was rumored to have a daughter), a companion to Madame de la Garde (known to be a lonely aristocrat) and a miliner's assistant in A La Toilette, an enterprise of a certain Monsieur Labille (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). In 1763, her beauty caught the eye of well-heeled pimp and casino owner Jean du Barry (Wikipedia, n. pag. ).He then proceeded to turn her into his mistress and groomed her career as a courtesan that catered only to the Parisian elite (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Marie-Jeanne becam e a courtesan for four years (Marie Antoinette, n. pag. ), working under the alias of Mademoiselle Lange (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Although several of her wealthy customers eventually became her benefactors, Du Barry wanted to use her to control King Louis XV (1715-1774) (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Du Barry's ambition was realized when Marie-Jeanne and his brother, Comte Guillaume du Barry, were married in 1769 (Wikipedia, n. pag. ).Marie-Jeanne's marriage to a nobleman qualified her to become Louis XV's official royal mistress (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). On April 2, 1769, Madame du Barry was formally intoroduced to the family of the king and the French royal court (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). In sharp contrast to Madame de Pompadour (1721-1764), another of Louis XV's mistresses, Du Barry had minimal political clout over the king (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Her only participation in politcs was her membership in the faction that deposed Etienne Francois de Choiseul from his position as Minister of Foreign Affairs in 1770 (Wikipedia, n. pag. ).Du Barry instead spent her time â€Å"having new gowns made and ordering jewelry of every shape, size and colour† (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). She also took the place of De Pompadour as Louis XV's favorite mistress (Marie Antoinette, n. pag. ). However, Du Barry's genteel life in Versailles Palace was not without problems. She had a bitter feud with French Dauphine Marie Antoinette (1755-1793) primarily because of the latter's support of De Choiseul (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Marie Antoinette also refused to have anything to do with Du Barry due to her disgust with the latter's personal background (Marie Antoinette, n. pag. ).Furthermore, Louis XV requested prior to his demise in May 1774 that Du Barry be banished to the Abbey of Pont aux-Dames, where her letters and visits were strictly monitored (Marie Antoinette, n. pag. ). Historians believed that the king's relationship with Du Barry might have hindered him from receiving an absolution before his death; hence, his decision to send her away (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Du Barry lived in the convent for two years, before moving to the Chateau de Louveciennes (Wikipedia, n. pag. ) in 1776 (Marie Antoinette, n. pag. ).Although Du Barry was noted for her â€Å"her good nature and support of artists† (Wikipedia, n. pag. ), the French people despised her due to the lavish lifestyle that the king subjected her to (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). By the late 1780s, France was in the midst of a severe fiscal crisis (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ). Its economy suffered due to the monarchy's tedious and archaic bookkeeping system (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ). Furthermore, the country also did not have a national bank (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ). Even if the majority of France's nobility and clergy were extremely well-off, they were taxed considerably less than the poor peasants (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ).The royalty likewise had to take on crippling debts just to finance the very expensive wars it got itself in to – the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-1748), the Seven Years' War (1756-1763) and the American Revolution (1775-1783) (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ). While the country's upper classes wallowed in wealth and the monarchy engaged in one expensive hostility after another, ordinary French citizens starved due to skyrocketing prices of bread (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ).The increasing animosity between France's nobility and bourgeoisie resulted in the French Revolution (1789-1799) (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ). Under the Revolution, â€Å"France was temporarily transformed from an absolute monarchy, where the king monopolized power, to a republic of theoretically free and equal citizens† (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ). Simply put, the French Revolution served as the retribution for all the injustices that the French royalty inflicted upon its people. At the height of the Revolution, revolutionaries guillotined nobles, their allies and anyone who opposed the uprising (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ). Du Barry went to England several times in 1792 to supposedly recover stolen jewelry (MSN Encarta, n. pag. ).As a result, she was accused of secretly providing financial assistance to the England-based opponents of the new French republic (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). The Revolutionary Tribunal of Paris apprehended Du Barry on treason charges in 1793 (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Following a premeditated trial, she was finally guillotined at the Place de la Concorde on December 8, 1793 (Wikipedia, n. pag. ). Mistresses like Madame du Barry lived lives of wealth, comfort and power. But their affluence and prominence did not come without a tragic price, as they attained these at the expense of so many impoverished citizens.The hedonistic existence of these women sickened their countrymen to the point that they finally rose up and demanded change for their resepctive countries and governments. It would be fair to say that mistresses can serve as the ultimate warning to any leader who will use his po sition to enrich himself and his associates. The people may tolerate corruption for a remarkably long time. But once they take power into their own hands, there is no government on earth that they cannot overthrow. Works Cited â€Å"French Revolution. † 2007. MSN Encarta.22 April 2008 . â€Å"Madame du Barry. † 2008. Marie Antoinette. 22 April 2008 . â€Å"Madame du Barry. † 9 April 2008. Wikipedia. 22 April 2008 . â€Å"Marie Jeanne Becu du Barry. † 2007. MSN Encarta. 22 April 2008 . â€Å"The King's Mistress – A Royal Tradition. † 27 April 2005. BBC News. 22 April 2008 .

Atlantic Aquaculture

Atlantic Aquaculture, Inc. Capital Budgeting with Staged Entry Question 1 A – Even though Atlantic Aquaculture already bought the land needed for 300,000 USD, its value today is 900,000 USD. We can therefore conclude the 900,000 USD is an opportunity cost as the land can be sold at this value. B – In this case it is best for the company to use the option to the land acquisition. By calculating the NPV the option is worth $-852,093. 66. Buying the land without the option would bring the company back to $-900,000. 00. We used a discount rate of 6%, as this is linked with the appreciation of the land annually.The calculation of the NPV can be found in Appendix A. Question 2 A – The R&D cash flows are $48,000 annually for the years 1998, 1999 and 2000. In 1996 we are able to shield taxes with the appreciation. At a tax rate of 40% this result in a tax shield worth $144,000. B – From the case is known that the salvage value will only be taxed when the buildings are actually sold, as long as the asset’s value is half of the book value the sale will go through with. Take note that a 40% tax rate is used to calculate the tax shield. C – The cash flows are shown in the Appendix B.Question 3 As can be seen in the Appendix C the large project, while taking into account a rwacc of 9% and the expectation that there will be high demand and high growth opportunities for the firm’s products; the Net Present Value of the firm will be $17,140,000. 00. An Internal Rate of Return will be realized of 25. 83%. Furthermore the MIRR is calculated as 21. 54% and the payback period of the project is 7. 05 years. Taking all other factors the same, when the firm is building a small facility, the NPV would be $11,723,000. 00, the IRR 23. 39%, the MIRR 18. 5% and the period in which the costs will be paid back 7. 18 years. Question 4 A – In the Appendix the decision trees are shown and the following elements deserve attention. The node s start with having high/low demand being 10,000 or 5,000 respectively. There is a 75% chance demand will be high, while 25% probability that demand will be low. The following pair of nodes, given differing probabilities (as can be seen in the Appendix) leads to the yearly cash flows. In de first years it is obvious that the cash flows are negative as the start-up investments have some weight on the cash flows.From 1998 onwards, as sales start to increase and costs decrease the flows of cash are positive. In row three and four the cash flows, given a low demand of 5,000 units sold with their corresponding probabilities. It is clear that the costs definitely outweigh the revenues for the first few years, more than in the ‘best-case’ term in rows one and two. Interesting to see that in the final row, there is only a positive cash flow recorded in the final year of the project. In this case we can explain the NPV values of all probabilities very straightforward.With the gi ven information the cash flows will be negative in case the demand will be low. However we need to make a remark on this simplification of the results. By calculating the expected NPV (which is the sum of the probabilities of each high/low demand occurring times their corresponding NPVs). This gives in the end a positive NPV so investors can assume this project will be successful. B – The abandonment lines basically represent a situation in which the project is stopped for continuation. What is interesting to notice is that the NPV of the project that continued are lower than the projects where the project was dismantled.Note too that this only applies to the situation in where a low demand is expected. The NPV in those cases when the projects are abandoned is equal to the salvage value of the equipment and buildings. C – As the flexibility of the project gets smaller, the NPV will get smaller and due to higher volatility the standard deviation will increase. Question 5 A – Due to the fact that there is an extra decision node the tree looks bigger. This extra decision is namely the decision to expand the plant or leave it in its current state. B – As this is not possible to trace back from the information we can retrieve from the case.As the decision to expand or not to expand lies at the responsibility of the managers at the firm, probabilities are not able to be calculated here. However, the manager will always choose the option with the higher NPV. Question 6 As can be seen from the given data, in terms of expected Net Present Values, the large plant seems to have a big advantage over the smaller project with NPVs of $9,028,000 and $8,062,000 respectively. On the risk side however the standard deviation of the small project is almost half of the large project. It is important to mention at this point that building a new plant appears riskier.In accordance to that one should use a risk adjustment incorporated in the cost of capita l which should be higher that the discount rate of the small project. Question 7 As the risk coefficient of the large project is 1. 15 and it is known that most projects of Atlantic lie between 0. 5 and 0. 7 the large project is considered to be a lot more risky compared to the small project which has a risk coefficient of just 0. 65. Question 8 The reassessment of possibilities has the consequence that standard deviation, covariance and NPV change as well.Lrge Plant| D=60% G=50%| D=75% G= 80%| D=90% G=90%| Small Plant| D=60% G= 50%| D=75% G=80%| D=90% G=90%| E(NPV)| 3327,95| 9028,20| 13459,36| E(NPV)| 6314,35| 8008,17| 10049,99| Std. Dev| 9827,17| 10341,43| 7869,12| Std. Dev| 4871,06| 5375,57| 4017,85| Coeff. Of Var. | 2,95| 1,15| 0,58| Coeff. Of Var. | 0,77| 0,67| 0,40| The results show that an increase in demand and growth probabilities for both of the plants (small and large) results in a higher expected NPV, lower standard deviation and lower correlation, leading to a higher ri sk- return payoff.Decreasing initial demand to 60% and high growth possibilities to 50% simultaneously, leads to a decrease in expected NPV, while increasing standard deviation and the covariance leading to a lower risk- return payoff. Furthermore, one can observe that in absolute and in relative terms, the impact on the small plant of increasing/decreasing initial demand and growth opportunities does not have as a great influence as on the large plant. Question 9 A sensitivity analysis can help to underline the most important factors affecting the success of a firm or a project.In this case we have articulated success in terms of NPV and have used input factors such as variable costs, units sold, sales price and WACC). With respect to the two different plants one can observe that NPV is relatively more sensitive to the mentioned factors in the case of the small plant. Furthermore, regarding the line of sales prices one can see that this is by far the line with the highest positive slope (coefficient), while fixed costs has the shallowest slope. The interpretation therefore is that sales prices have the biggest impact on expected NPV.Furthermore it is worth mentioning that the slope (and the impact) of WACC is quite high (negative) for the large plant. Since the variable costs for the large plant are lower at a rate of 60% compared to 65% of the small plant, one can observe that the sensitivity of the small plant’s NPV is also relatively high. Question 10 In the Case of scenario analysis it is important to mention that in contrast to the analysis mentioned above, probabilities are appointed to each of the different scenarios. Atlantic Aquaculture Inc. uses best and worst case scenarios (high initial demand/ low initial demand).In addition to that, a scenario analysis appoints a base case as well. This should be done utilizing a probability of 50% for the base scenario and probabilities for the best and worst should lie at 25% respectively. Independent f actors should again be inputs such as variable costs, units sold, sales price and the weighted average of the cost of capital. These inputs should be appointed to a realistic assessment of range they could approach to. The dependent variable logically should be the net present values of the different scenarios.In terms of the ranges of independent variables it should be noted, that these could be obtained by examining historical data of the company in addition to an examination and assessment of company and market environment. Question 11 A Monte Carlo simulation typically provides one with an overwhelmingly high amount of simulations, whereas a change of all the variables occurs on a random basis. However, only the average of these is of importance. The input incorporates the correlations of all the variables included. The output is then expressed in the form of samples of NPVs.It is perceived as a more sophisticated way of conducting a scenario analysis. However, it is also percei ved as very delicate in terms of the conduction itself. Question 12 Indeed the abandonment opportunity represents a real put option. This is due to the fact that the company can abandon the project and receive a terminal value. However, this is only reasonable if Atlantic Aquaculture Inc. sells the plant when the salvage value is higher than the value of the discounted future cash flows otherwise received from the project. In this case the real put option would be in the money and vice versa.Regarding the decision tree, with respect to the low demand and low growth opportunity for plan L one can see that the decision of abandonment or not changes the NPV of the project from $-9. 316. 000 to $-6. 711. 000. Regarding the scenario of low initial demand and high growth opportunities the choice to abandon changes the NPV from $-6. 940. 000 to $-6. 439. 000. In both cases it appears to be feasible to abandon the project, thus the value of the put option is positive. Plan S on the other si de represents a call option since one can decide to buy the facilities or not.Furthermore, the put option for the large plant can be calculated as follows: This leads us to a value of $546. 050, which indeed is positive. Question 13 In general, it can be said that both plans have a positive expected NPV overall. However, the smaller plant is the favorable option, since it provides Atlantic Aquaculture with the best risk- return payoff.. Furthermore, if opting for the large plant it is important to mention that the value of the put- option is positive, so in the worst case Atlantic Aquaculture should opt out when facing low initial demand and either low or high growth potential.However, it is also worth mentioning that a risk adjusted cost of capital should be incorporated when calculating for the NPV. Appendices Appendix A Appendix B Cash flows large firm| | | | | | | | | Year| 1996| 1997| 1998| 1999| 2000| 2001| 2002| 2003| 2004| Net income| 0| 0| 436| 438| 1122| 1806| 2521| 3202| 3990| Depreciation| 0| 0| 954| 1566| 1146| 846| 630| 630| 630| Op cash flow| 0| 0| 1390| 2004| 2268| 2652| 3151| 3832| 4620| Cap cash flow| -1044| -12300| -427| -496| -574| -711| -814| -931| 7397| Net cash flow| -1044| -12300| 962| 1509| 1694| 1940| 2337| 2900| 43940| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Cash flows small firm| | | | | | | | | Year| 1996| 1997| 1998| 1999| 2000| 2001| 2002| 2003| 2004| Net income| 0| 0| 1083| 919| 1129| 1298| 1440| 1506| 1575| Depreciation| 0| 0| 553| 920| 668| 488| 359| 359| 359| Op cash flow| 0| 0| 1636| 1840| 1798| 1787| 1799| 1865| 1934| Cap cash flow| -1044| -8364| -95| -100| -106| -160| -167| -173| 4510| Net cash flow| -1044| -8364| 1542| 1739| 1691| 1626| 1632| 1691| 19042| Appendix C | LARGE FIRM| SMALL FIRM| WACC| 9. 00%| 9. 00%| NPV| $17. 140| $7. 633| IRR| 25. 83%| 22. 78%| MIRR| 21. 54%| 17. 92%| PAYBACK | 7. 05 years| 6. 97 years|

Protecting Interest Of The Minority Shareholders

In Asian countries including Bangladesh, the controlling ownership of public listed companies are dominated by some families. The problem of minority exploitation may arise when the ownership is highly concentrated in any specific group, especially family ownership. One of the consequences of this is the expropriation of minority shareholder rights. Apart from family control another limitation of principles of corporate law is the principle of majority rule, sometimes called the â€Å"supremacy of majority† rule.Those who invested more in the company bear a greater risk in the event of a business failure, but simultaneously they have a greater degree of control over the company. There is certainly a risk that the majority will take advantage of the minority and that a company will be run at the expense of the minority shareholders. Any decision of Annual general meeting (AGM) adapted by majority vote and directors are appointed and may be removed from the office at any time by a simple majority at the general meeting.Thus, the directors are motivated to act in the best interests of the majority who appointed them and who may remove them. Minority shareholder rights expropriation occurred when family ownership directed cash to their own benefit, inefficient projects and connected lending to relatives and friends rather than return it in dividends to minority shareholders. Other expropriation can take the form of profit reallocation, assets misuse, transfer pricing, sell below the market price departments or parts of the firm to other firms that major shareholders own, or acquisition of other firms that major shareholders own at a premium.The majority shareholders treats the company as his own, and acts accordingly, to the detriment of the other shareholders, or where there is a breakdown in the relationship of the shareholders or any of their number, which gives rise to questions about the future ownership and control of the Company. On the other hand, wh ere a single or small number of shareholders hold a substantial block of shares in the company, say, in excess of 25% of the voting rights, securing managerial accountability to the shareholders or at least to the controlling shareholders through the traditional governance mechanisms of company law can dominate the company.In some situation, the ‘non-controlling’ shareholders may collectively hold more voting shares than the ‘controlling’ shareholders. However, if the non-controlling shares are widely dispersed, effective control of the company will lie in the hands of the block-holder, even if that block consists of less than 50% of the voting shares. The shareholder providing the majority of the capital may sometimes not control the company.In such a case the majority shareholder is effectively in a minority position with regard to the exercising of controlling rights. The emergence of such a situations are the principal/agent problem between the controll ing shareholders and the non-controlling ‘minority’ shareholders. The corporate management law and policy must have protection of interest of the minority shareholders. The general purpose of minority protection instruments is to prevent the abuse of power by the major shareholders.There is not an easy solution, to the problem, since the principle of majority rule, in company law and other rules of regulators. It is a long established principle of corporate law that the regulators and courts should not intervene in business decisions due to the nonintervention policy or internal management principle. There is no statutory law of anywhere contains a definition of the minority or majority shareholder. The distinguishing factor between the two is the degree of control over the corporation.The number of shares owned is not  decisive, even a shareholder owning a majority of shares may be a minority shareholder, if other shareholders are well organized and, thus, control th e company. The company must follow the principles ‘partnership’ and consultation aims at balancing the interest between major and minor shareholders, and usually do not infringe minorities rights through guaranteeing at least the following minority rights such as respect of opinion of major shareholders toward minorities, the right of minorities to be heard on regard of business matters and exit rights.The limited Liability Companies, which are, in practical terms, run, as if they were a partnership, between the persons who are shareholders of same, might be regarded by the law, as â€Å"quasi partnership†. The OECD principles on Corporate Governance (2004) provide that: Shareholders, including institutional shareholders, should be allowed to consult with each other on issues concerning their basic shareholder rights as defined in the Principles, subject to exceptions to prevent abuse.The protection comes from better legal protection, stronger structure of the in ternal control mechanisms and more efficient capital markets and market for corporate control. One of the methods to ensure the minority rights is to follow good Corporate Governance principles because there exists a relation between the level of protection of minority shareholders and incorporation of good practices of Corporate Governance. The separation of ownership and control in corporations with dispersed ownership structure highlights the agency issue due to conflict between agents (directors) and principals (shareholders).Due to a different agency problem that arises on account of the conflict between dominant and minority shareholders. The minority shareholders can be empowered by ensuring control over the management and board of directors. The board of directors are accountable to the shareholders as a class is to make it easy for the shareholders to convene meetings to consider the removal of directors, evaluate the board’s performance and remove directors of whom they disapprove.The minority shareholders are afforded the remedies if the majority shareholders, violate a personal right of a minority shareholder, then he can file a personal action against the wrongdoers to rectify such a violation of the articles of association of the Company or of the terms of any shareholder agreement etc. With increasing instances of corporate fraud around the world, another remedy is provisions for class action suits. Class action is a law suit brought by one or more individuals on behalf of a large group of people who have the same complaint.In certain circumstances, minority shareholders may bring a common law derivative action, on behalf of the company, against the wrongdoers, who committed a wrong to the company. Wrongdoers can be shareholders and directors of the company, as well as third parties. In order to be able to proceed with a derivative action at common law, the minority shareholders must have legal options to persuade the courts, that the com pany’s decisions by majority shareholders are not to pursue a remedy for the wrong done to the company which amounts to a â€Å"fraud on the minority† .Another Statutory remedy is of petition to winding up of the company on a just and equitable ground. There is hearsay that few sponsors / families are responsible for share scams causing huge loss of small investors. Security exchange commission (SEC) has such views with perceived experiences of two share market debacles and issued a notification on November 22, 2011 imposing conditions that all sponsors / promoters and directors of a listed company shall jointly hold minimum 30% share of paid up capital of the company. Moreover, each director shall hold minimum 2% of the paid up capital.In case of vacancy of anyone holding 5% share shall be entitled to be directors. The publicly listed companies have usually 15 directors and they will hold 75% of the share and voting rights of the company. This means the companies will gradually go under control of few limited persons who have capacity of investment of sufficient amount. SEC has in mind that, mandatory provision of higher shares will prevent such future stock market debacle. But as per investigation report of Mr Khondaker Ibrahim Khaled, accepted by all, there are many organizations including SEC are jointly responsible for disaster in stock market.The public companies are controlled by few families and the directors are ‘elected’ from same family by rotation and under full control of families. They retire due to compulsion of retirements as per law. Small shareholders are awarded a gift pack and nominal dividends in AGM and have no say against the decision of these controlling families. Companies go for public share to generate fund for investments but shall fail to generate fund with higher investments of sponsors and directors.The over investment of sponsors / directors will not bring sufficient share in the market and the market will remain at the present status of low investment. India has totally different legal framework to safeguard interest of small investors. Indian Companies Act 2013 under section -151. A listed company may have one director elected by such small shareholders in such manner and with such terms and conditions as may be prescribed. For the purposes of this section â€Å"small shareholders† means a shareholder holding shares of nominal value of not more than twenty thousand rupees or such other sum as may be prescribed.There is no policy of a designated directorship of choice of minority shareholder nor there do any provision to control, appoint or remove any director. The global law and policy is to protect the rights of minority shareholders but in contrary Bangladesh SEC make legal provision of make the minority shareholder marginalized and have no option to exercise their rights due to majority rule and lose their voice. The decision of higher investment of directors is not g ood for stock market and should be amended to find way out to safeguard interest of minor shareholders from the proven experience of other markets. Protecting interest of the minority Shareholders In Asian countries including Bangladesh, the controlling ownership of public listed companies are dominated by some families. The problem of minority exploitation may arise when the ownership is highly concentrated in any specific group, especially family ownership. One of the consequences of this is the expropriation of minority shareholder rights.Apart from family control another limitation of principles of corporate law is the principle of majority rule, sometimes called the â€Å"supremacy of majority† rule. Those who invested more in the company bear a greater risk in the event of a business failure, but simultaneously they have a greater degree of control over the company. There is certainly a risk that the majority will take advantage of the minority and that a company will be run at the expense of the minority shareholders.Any decision of Annual general meeting (AGM) adapted by majority vote and directors are appointed and may be removed from the office at any time by a simple majority at the general meeting. Thus, the directors are motivated to act in the best interests of the majority who appointed them and who may remove them.Minority shareholder rights expropriation occurred when family ownership directed cash to their own benefit, inefficient projects and connected lending to relatives and friends rather than return it in dividends to minority shareholders. Other expropriation can take the form of profit  reallocation, assets misuse, transfer pricing, sell below the market price departments or parts of the firm to other firms that major shareholders own, or acquisition of other firms that major shareholders own at a premium. The majority shareholders treats the company as his own, and acts accordingly, to the detriment of the other shareholders, or where there is a breakdown in the relationship of the shareholders or any of their number, which gives rise to questions about the future ownership and control of the Company.On the other hand, where a single or small number of shareholders hold a substantial block of shares in the company, say, in excess of 25% of the voting rights, securing managerial accountability to the shareholders or at least to the controlling shareholders through the traditional governance mechanisms of company law can dominate the company. In some situation, the ‘non-controlling’ shareholders may collectively hold more voting shares than the ‘controlling’ shareholders. However, if the non-controlling shares are widely dispersed, effective control of the company will lie in the hands of the block-holder, even if that block consists of less than 50% of the voting shares.The shareholder providing the majority of the capital may sometimes not control the company. In such a case the majority shareholder is effectively in a minority position with regard to the exercising of controlling rights. The emergence of such a situations are the principal/agent problem between the contr olling shareholders and the non-controlling ‘minority’ shareholders.The corporate management law and policy must have protection of interest of the minority shareholders. The general purpose of minority protection instruments is to prevent the abuse of power by the major shareholders. There is not an easy solution, to the problem, since the principle of majority rule, in company law and other rules of regulators. It is a long established principle of corporate law that the regulators and courts should not intervene in business decisions due to the nonintervention policy or internal management principle.There is no statutory law of anywhere contains a definition of the minority or majority shareholder. The distinguishing factor between the two is the degree of control over the corporation. The number of shares owned is not  decisive, even a shareholder owning a majority of shares may be a minority shareholder, if other shareholders are well organized and, thus, control the company.The company must follow the principles ‘partnership’ and consultation aims at balancing the interest between major and minor shareholders, and usually do not infringe minorities rights through guaranteeing at least the following minority rights such as respect of opinion of major shareholders toward minorities, the right of minorities to be heard on regard of business matters and exit rights. The limited Liability Companies, which are, in practical terms, run, as if they were a partnership, between the persons who are shareholders of same, might be regarded by the law, as â€Å"quasi partnership†.The OECD principles on Corporate Governance (2004) provide that: Shareholders, including institutional shareholders, should be allowed to consult with each other on issues concerning their basic shareholder rights as defined in the Principles, subject to exceptions to prevent abuse.The protection comes from better legal protection, stronger structure of the internal control mechanisms and more efficient capital markets and market for corporate control. One of the methods to ensure the minority rights is to follow good Corporate Governance principles because there exists a relation between the level of protection of minority shareholders and incorporation of good practices of Corporate Governance.The separation of ownership and control in corporations with dispersed ownership structure highlights the agency issue due to conflict between agents (directors) and principals (shareholders). Due to a different agency problem that arises on account of the conflict between dominant and minority shareholders. The minority shareholders can be empowered by ensuring control over the management and board of directors. The board of directors are accountable to the shareholders as a class is to make it easy for the shareholders to convene meetings to consider the removal of directors, evaluate the board’s performance and remove directors of who m they  disapprove.The minority shareholders are afforded the remedies if the majority shareholders, violate a personal right of a minority shareholder, then he can file a personal action against the wrongdoers to rectify such a violation of the articles of association of the Company or of the terms of any shareholder agreement etc. With increasing instances of corporate fraud around the world, another remedy is provisions for class action suits. Class action is a law suit brought by one or more individuals on behalf of a large group of people who have the same complaint. In certain circumstances, minority shareholders may bring a common law derivative action, on behalf of the company, against the wrongdoers, who committed a wrong to the company.Wrongdoers can be shareholders and directors of the company, as well as third parties. In order to be able to proceed with a derivative action at common law, the minority shareholders must have legal options to persuade the courts, that th e company’s decisions by majority shareholders are not to pursue a remedy for the wrong done to the company which amounts to a â€Å"fraud on the minority† . Another Statutory remedy is of petition to winding up of the company on a just and equitable ground. There is hearsay that few sponsors / families are responsible for share scams causing huge loss of small investors.Security exchange commission (SEC) has such views with perceived experiences of two share market debacles and issued a notification on November 22, 2011 imposing conditions that all sponsors / promoters and directors of a listed company shall jointly hold minimum 30% share of paid up capital of the company. Moreover, each director shall hold minimum 2% of the paid up capital. In case of vacancy of anyone holding 5% share shall be entitled to be directors. The publicly listed companies have usually 15 directors and they will hold 75% of the share and voting rights of the company.This means the companies will gradually go under control of few limited persons who have capacity of investment of sufficient amount. SEC has in mind that, mandatory provision of higher shares will prevent such future stock market debacle. But as per investigation report of Mr Khondaker Ibrahim Khaled, accepted by all, there are many organizations including SEC are jointly responsible for disaster in stock market.The public companies are controlled by few families and the directors are ‘elected’ from same family by rotation and under full control of families. They retire due to compulsion of retirements as per law. Small shareholders are awarded a gift pack and nominal dividends in AGM and have no say against the decision of these controlling families. Companies go for public share to generate fund for investments but shall fail to generate fund with higher investments of sponsors and directors. The over investment of sponsors / directors will not bring sufficient share in the market and the m arket will remain at the present status of low investment.India has totally different legal framework to safeguard interest of small investors. Indian Companies Act 2013 under section -151. A listed company may have one director elected by such small shareholders in such manner and with such terms and conditions as may be prescribed. For the purposes of this section â€Å"small shareholders† means a shareholder holding shares of nominal value of not more than twenty thousand rupees or such other sum as may be prescribed.There is no policy of a designated directorship of choice of minority shareholder nor there do any provision to control, appoint or remove any director. The global law and policy is to protect the rights of minority shareholders but in contrary Bangladesh SEC make legal provision of make the minority shareholder marginalized and have no option to exercise their rights due to majority rule and lose their voice.The decision of higher investment of directors is n ot good for stock market and should be amended to find way out to safeguard interest of minor shareholders from the proven experience of other markets.

Global Financial Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Global Financial Management - Essay Example With reasons. We have an equation with only one unknown, so we can solve it to find PMT.The easy way is with a financial calculator. Input N=3, I/YR = 10, PV = 1000, FV = 0, and then press the PMT button to get PMT = 402.1148036, 10) Suppose that on January 1 you deposit $100 in an account that pays a nominal (quoted) interest rate of 11.33463%, with interest added (compounded) daily. How much will you have in your account on October 1, or 9 months later? (4) An important rule is that you should never show a nominal rate on a time line or use it in calculations unless what condition holds? (Hint: Think on annual compounding, when INom = EFF% = I per.). What would be wrong with your answers to part (1) and (20) if you used the nominal rate of 10% rather than the periodic rate Nom/2 = 10% /2 = 5%? INom can be used in the calculations only when annual compounding occurs. If the nominal rate of 10% were used to discount the payment stream, the present value would be overstated by $272.32- $247.59 = $24.73. 12) Suppose someone offered to sell you a note calling for the payment of $1000 in 15 months. They offer to sell it to you for $850 .You have $850 in a bank time deposit that pays a 6.76649% nominal rate with daily compounding, which is a 7% effective annual interest rate, and you plan to leave the money in the bank unless you buy the note. The note is not risky you are sure it will be paid on schedule. Should you buy the note? Check the decision in three ways (1) by comparing your future value if you buy the note verses leaving your money in the bank; (2) by comparing the PV of the note with your current bank account and (3) by comparing the EFF $ on the note with that of the bank

Minix 2 operating system Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Minix 2 operating system - Essay Example so after line no. 21021, declare these counters. Now add hit_counter as I have said in the previous doc. And the time should be incremented each time any function in cache.c is called. So you must add variable time at 21070 & 21035 after having written the code ++hit_counter & Time_requiredtofree_block++. Remember, you have to add printf statements wherever you make an increment to these counters. Initialize hit_counter & time to zero (this is important). Well, I had written two 'C' files named fil1.c and fil2.c, which added and subtracted two numbers. When I ran this statement on bochs, I got the output of the printf statements. The tests of performance was a two step process. In the first part, don't make any changes to the Block_size and the Hash table, but include the variables hit_counter and time. Run the command and see the results. Then increase the BLOCK_SIZE & the Hash table size and then run the same command again. You will definitely find a change in the results. The answer to this lies in question 3. The first set of values was obtained for the variables hit_counter and Time_requiredtofree_block, when the value of BLOCK_SIZE and size of the hash table was 1024. The second values were obtained when the size of BLOCK_SIZE & hashTable was increased. I have found out a few more points which you can use... The second values were obtained when the size of BLOCK_SIZE & hashTable was increased. 5) fifth it says initialize the variables how and where Initialize hit_counter & time to zero at line no. 21021, where you declare them. FEW MORE FINDINGS I have found out a few more points which you can use for your presentation. This is regarding the Lru chain, which can be completely discarded. Instead we can use a circularly linked double linked list. FRONT PIVOT REAR The figure is a bit crude, but I think it can deliver the idea. Frst, the pivot is connected to the hash table entry. The FRONT is the end which contains those blocks that are least needed and the REAR contains those blocks that are expected in the near future (same as LRU). Now, this linked list has the added advantage at the time of reading the next block from this chain unlike reading from the disk thru I/o. in this, the code can be written such that the REAR is used as fast as the FRONT will be accessed. This will ensure that the performance of the cache is enhanced further over the LRU scheme. The reason being that under LRU, for accessing a REAR, it has to traverse to the end, while here, we could use sioimple logic (like a flag where if flag=1 go along front i.e. clockwise from pivot or if flag=0, go along rear from pivot i.e. anti-clockwise). Believe me, this will speed up the cache. It is extremely useful, when under our modified code, contiguous blocks will be accessed fro m the disk. So the OS will perceive that the next necessary block will be the contiguous one and it will place it at the REAR. Then accessing under theis scheme will be much faster than the one under the LRU.Pls feel

SAMSUNG 3D T.V Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

SAMSUNG 3D T.V - Research Paper Example The edge-lit LED backlighting combines the benefits of local dimming with the thinness of edge-lighting. The 240 Hz processing exhibits motion resolution performance like its UNB8000 series. The interactive features like other Samsung models of 2010 include Internet @ TV (i.e. Yahoo widgets) and Samsung Apps, from Samsung’s new proprietary content portal, connecting to one’s favorite digital content like videos, sports, games, social networking and much more. With web-connected apps on the Samsung Smart TV, you can stream movies from Netflix or Blockbuster, TV shows from Hulu, videos from YouTube, Next Level sports information from ESPN, music from Pandora and view updates on Facebook or Twitter accounts. The UNC7000 series of 3D TV is the most economical. It is available in 40-inch ($1999), 46-inch ($$2599) and 55-inch ($3299) sizes. The 3D compatibility has been added to three LCD lines and one plasma line (CNET editors take). Samsung 3D TV was launched in April 2010 in Ireland. It has been a huge hit like Avatar, putting Samsung in leading position in the emerging market. The launch of Samsung 3D in the Irish market besides many other countries was the first in the retail 3D TV segment. â€Å"We are the first manufacturer to mass-produce 3D TV and you will physically see that in the Irish market in April so we will be first to market on this," said Kevin Maguire, country manager for Samsung Ireland. â€Å"Getting to market first is critical to us from a brand point of view and for brand positioning.† The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) at Las Vegas, a show-window of technology trends, found 3D everywhere (B & F). The technology used in the Samsung 3D TV is differentiating with the selection of â€Å"Active† and â€Å"passive† panels and lenses depending and deciding its total cost and picture quality. The active 3D screen syncs electronically with battery-powered and

BJB Manufacturing Company Quality Management Initiative Proposal Research Paper

BJB Manufacturing Company Quality Management Initiative Proposal - Research Paper Example ..3 The Total Quality Management†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.4 Process Management†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦...4 Managing the quality of the products†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..4 Employees†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦4 Shareholders†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.5 The Executive Management†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦5 Consumers†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦5 Partners†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦5 Advantages of the Total Quality Management to BJB†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦6 The role of leadership†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..6 Leadership and control†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦6 Approving budgets†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..7 Introduction BJB is a manufacturing firm that produces car radios to be used in many types of cars. The firm needs to monitor and improve its quality management by putting in place a total quality management process. Current situation The following are some of the areas that are of concern to the BJB’s TQM. BJB does not involve employees in its total quality management. BJB does not have a way to involve consumers to improve its product quality. There are no repetitive processes to make sure that the production system is continually improved to increase quality and reduce costs For the BJB to be able to access the new market and increase its market segment, it needs to be able to produce high quality produc ts across its product range. The products are a range of car radios for different kinds of cars. Accessing the new market will need a solid Total Quality Management System that will improve the production and increase quality of the products produced by the firm. Proposed total quality management The proposed TQM for BJB will consider the following factors: New Market BJB is trying to access new markets, and to do this it has to have products that are competitive in terms of their quality. The fact that BJB is trying to access new markets also means that the firm has to know not only how to increase the quality but also how to minimize costs so as to use cost advantage to sell at lower prices. The products produced by BJB are not used directly by the consumers, but have to be used along with other products (i.e. vehicles), and BJB needs to consider this in planning its TQM. In this regard, BJB’s Total Quality Management has to ensure that it is will be synchronized with the m anufacturers of motor vehicles. This will be useful in making sure that the products of BJB are compatible with the products of all the car manufacturers, and this will be important because without this compatibility, there can be no market for the BJB’s products. The TQM Process management The process will be monitored to make sure that there are no bottlenecks that may make the system less efficient. BJB should be professionally responsible in making sure that the manufacturing process is incrementally improved every month, to make sure that all inefficiencies are

Children's Rights and Participation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Children's Rights and Participation - Essay Example The rights which are based on this include a question of how many rights children should have and whether this is applicable within society. While there are questions of children’s rights, others are also questioning the social structure of given areas which currently protects children who don’t have the rights. The dichotomy of children’s rights then becomes the main question between those who are looking at the place of children in society and the flexibility which should be included with the rights of children. This paper will explore the association between children’s rights within society as well as how this is related to the amount of children’s rights that should be distributed. The focus of protection and security, as well as the association with the development of children both has to be considered in regards to the needs of children in school, society and in the household. While equal participation can provide children with a stronger voic e for security, there is also the need to change this according to the specific levels of development among children. Sociology of Childhood The sociology of children is one which is known as a unique phenomena in society. Children are divided into a sub – group within society, specifically because of biological differences and age. ... From this perspective, the sociological components are based only on the understanding and definitions of society, as opposed to the capabilities and rights which children should have as citizens within society (Archard, 2004: 25). This creates the main difference between children and their rights, which shows a level of injustice over children and the abilities that they don’t have in terms of acting as responsible citizens within society because of social labels. The concept of childhood is one which has altered through sociological associations throughout time. Historical records note that the ideal of childhood has changed in different cultures and in various time frames. The idea of childhood is then implied throughout time and distinguishes rights based on the social needs of a given time frame. When a child is developed in a specific way, such as through education or work, then it becomes a reflection on what is needed within society as well as how this relates to the s pecific conditions of a given region. The idea of childhood then becomes related to a social construction which is based on age, gender, biological differences and the amount of knowledge which an individual has about the world. The social makeup of a child and the demographic differences then remain the only division in society, some which changes the roles which children play within society (Archard, 2004: 25). The differences associated with children and the social role which is taken is further implied with the expected participation in which children have within society. It is known that there are multidimensional participation processes that construct the role of a child in society and the expectations that are associated with this. The

The Bank of Enlgand's M.P.C. Has Allowed the C.P.I. Inflation Rate to Coursework

The Bank of Enlgand's M.P.C. Has Allowed the C.P.I. Inflation Rate to Stay above its 2% Target for More than Two Years - Coursework Example Aggregate demand is said to be the total demand of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of an economy and its components are the consumption (C), investment (I), government expenditure (G), and net exports (X-M) which is the imports subtracted from exports (Investopedia, n.d.). Along with aggregate demand, there is the aggregate supply which is the total supply of the Gross Domestic Product and it is the total of the goods and services produced in the economy. The diagram on the right shows the aggregate demand and aggregate supply curve which help to signify the inflation rates and the GDP in the economy. Inflation rates are calculated by different measures which are namely the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Retail Price Index (RPI), and RPIX. Consumer Price Index (CPI) is used to measure the price level of the consumer goods and services in the economy. Retail Price Index (RPI) is the measure of inflation by measuring the change in the prices of retail goods and services. RPIX is a measur e which is dominantly used in the United Kingdom and it is the RPI excluding mortgage interest payments. The Bank of England has set a target of an inflation rate of 2% which is considered to be ideal given the circumstances of the UK economy. The inflation rate of 2% is low and very much constant which means that there is stability in the economy. The UK also has set the golden rule which is that the government will only borrow the money in order to invest and not to fulfill the current spending in the economy. This means that the economy will not be leveraged to a greater level to cover the expenses, and money will be borrowed to generate future revenues. The Bank of England works to keep the economy stable and head towards progress, with the help of its fiscal and monetary policies. The Bank of England aims to keep the inflation rates at low and constant level which generates investor and consumers’ confidence and it will help to develop the economy in the present as well as in the future. The figure on the right shows a business cycle which represents the points which can be experienced by an economy, both good and bad. The peak is the point when the economy is doing its best and economic growth rates are high. At this point, the unemployment rates are on a low but the inflation rates may be high. During the recessionary period, the economy is experiencing lower economic growth and unemployment starts to rise but inflation may or may not be decreasing. The time of trough or slump is when the economy is at its worst in that time and such economy usually faces high unemployment rates and low inflation rates. However once again, the inflation rates may or may not be decreasing as it depends on several other factors too. Inflation can be of two types according to their predictability, which are the anticipated and unanticipated inflation. Anticipated Inflation: Inflation is said to be anticipated when it can be accurately predicted and that it is forese en to be at a specific level in a financial period. Since this inflation is calculated and known, people can protect themselves from its impact. An example of anticipated inflation is when a labor union collectively bargains for a rise in their wages because they have anticipated the inflation rat

Strategic Environmental Assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Strategic Environmental Assessment - Essay Example Strategic environment assessment in general is defined as a, systematic and proactive process which helps in evaluating the policies and programs and comes out with the possible consequences on the environment. While assessing the impacts a considerate view is also taken of its economic and social considerations as well. It is worthwhile here to mention that strategic environment assessment (SEA) takes precedence over the EIA i.e. project environmental impact assessment (UNECE, 2003). A number of water tributaries merging into a main stream with the help of an area of land called watershed holds key to the availability of water for the that region. Watershed management calls for maintaining an eye on the quality and quantity of water resources and initiating proactive efforts for preserving these resources for longer durations. It essentially involves planning the efforts, collecting the data from different sources, assessing and evaluating the data, development of requisite strategies and then implementation of the strategies. Watershed management strategies differ from region to region depending upon the topography of the terrain and availability of the resources. If due attention is not accorded to the watershed region, situation may go out of hand in due course. For example, inflows into the Saguling reservoir in Indonesia have been decreasing over a period of time. Due to watershed degradation the dry season flow into the reservoir was found to be around 38 percent of the average annual flow between 1986 and 1991. This percentage went further down to 36 percent between 1992 and 1997 and to 34 percent in 1998 (ADB, 2006). Therefore SEA helps in preparing an early warning system for taking care of the environmental concerns. With an effective environmental policy and legislative framework in place, Thailand has been paying due attention towards its environmental requirements and focusing on environmental and energy concerns at the national and provincial levels. But, the environment management faces a stiff challenge in view of the rapid industrialization in the country. The country is mainly divided into 7 river basins with further sub-division into 25 drainage areas1. In order to manage the watershed region, the river basins and drainage areas have to be kept in good shape so that the charging system of earth is not blocked. Thailand has forestland stretching over 2000 kilometers from north to south with varied climatic conditions and a coastline. The clear and muddy waters too lap productive mudflats (Datamonitor, 2009). The Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA) is therefore meant to serve as a promotional tool for expanding the adoption of policies towards preserving the watershed areas. Thailand shares three rivers with its neighbors Myanmar, Malaysia and the Lao People's Democratic Republic. The strategic environment assessment calls not only for assessing the status of watershed areas, but it also requires the experts to consider the management of all the relevant stakeholders. Some of the key stakeholders in this venture include landowners, local businesses, Farmers, industries, city officials, environmental activists etc. The diversity of these groups and their interests often creates a situation where it becomes very difficult to carry out the maintenance of the land, vegetation and water resources of the drainage basin. If the strategic policies are

Carpet Recovery Recycling-Six Sigma Methodolgy Essay

Carpet Recovery Recycling-Six Sigma Methodolgy - Essay Example and more recently attentions have shifted to service environments. 31 Six Sigma is not just another management catch phrase. Rather, it is a highly disciplined process that helps a business develop and deliver near perfect products and services. By accurately measuring the number of defects in a process, you can systematically eliminate them. Achieving Six Sigma indicates you have less than four defects per million transactions. Needless to say how important it is. Just imagine at three sigma you have at least 54,000 defective drug prescriptions a year, more than 40,500 newborn babies accidentally dropped in the hospital each year and unsafe drinking water almost two hours each month. Comparing with above mentioned at Six Sigma quality level we would get only one wrong drug prescription, in 25 years, three newborn babies dropped in 100 years and unsafe drinking water only one second every 16 years 31 Six Sigma goes beyond small point improvements in product quality to the very fabric of the organization as a whole. It is a process for both improving performance and ensuring consistency in the delivery of a product or service. Most importantly, Six Sigma focuses on the customer. It continuously and rigorously measures those elements the customer identifies as "critical-to-quality." In other words, importance of Six Sigma is in its ability to transform abstract business scenarios into tangible and fact based situations thus minimizing guessing in solving business issues. 32 Bob Galvin former CEO of Motorola stated that the lack of initial investment in the non manufacturing areas of the business over four years was a blunder that cost the business over 5 million dollars (Basu & Write, 2003, p43). However, organisations have implemented six sigma initiatives in transactional frameworks with success- testimonial for six sigma triumphs in services range from American Express and PriceWaterHouseCoopers to local NHS

The Ten Commandments Essay Example for Free

The Ten Commandments Essay The Ten Commandments, sometimes known as the Decalogue, a literal translation of the Greek ‘Ten Words’, are found in the book of Exodus chapter 20 v 2 v17 and this is one of the most well known passages in the scriptures. In describing the events of that day the writer of Deuteronomy ( Deuteronomy 4 v 13) refers to them in Hebrew as ‘The Ten Words’ and in Exodus 19 v 5 they are named by God as ‘My Covenant’. Although part of the Jewish scriptures these verses are considered to be important by Christians too and they are often to be found inscribed in both synagogues and churches. The rabbis identified 600 different laws based upon these precepts, yet they can be summarised as in a story of Rabbi Hillel the Elder. A student declared that he would become a disciple of the rabbi if he could recite the whole of the Jewish Law while standing on one leg. Hillel while doing as he asked and standing on only one leg stated ‘What is hateful to you, do not do to your friend. This is the entire Torah; the rest is interpretation’. To this can be added the Shema, Deuteronomy 6 v 4, Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One Two short passages, yet they really do summarize both the Decalogue and indeed the whole law. The context is Mount Sinai three months into the journey of the Hebrews who have left Egypt and are on their way to the Promised Land. Although the scriptures, in particular the book of Leviticus, contain many more rules, some in minute detail, these ten laws are to form the basis of the new society in the Promised Land. The chapter begins ‘And God spoke all these words,’ ( Exodus 20 v 1). This is what gives them their power They are set out in a way that is relatively easy to remember and are in the form of a covenant God’s part and their part in a voluntary agreement. Yahweh announces to them , through Moses, his chosen agent that, having freed them from slavery by His power, as explained in chapter 19 ‘You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt’ Chapter 19 v 4. In verse 5 and 6 He says that He will now make them will now a holy people and a nation of priests. The people agree to this , 19 v 8 ‘We will do everyhting the Lord has said’, and in v 14 we are told tha t they sanctified themselves in preparation. The Jewish Encyclopedia, in a passage designated as Israel’s Call, then describes how God, through Moses and with the accompanyment of thunder, lightning, smoke and the noise of trumpets, reveals himself by his voice and there pronounces ‘the ten fundamental commands of religion and morals’. The decalogue can be easily broken into two sections. The first part, numbers 1-4, is concerned with the relationship between God and his people ‘You shall have no other gods but me’. The second part is concerned society and with the relationships of individuals with each other, first within the family’ honour your father and mother’ and also with the wider world. ’ ( numbers 5 -10 ) and are famously summed up by Jesus in the New Testament, in Luke 10 v 27 ‘ Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and love your neighbour as yourself. ’although he was not the only one to make such summaries and in Leviticus they are also, in part , summarized,’Do not seek revenge, nor bear any grudge against one of your people, but you love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord. ’ Leviticus 19 v 18. The first commandment, verse 3, is against mental idolatry, while the second, verses 4 and 5 are against the practice of idolatry. The thing these have in common is that they forbid a great attachment to the things of earth, but an attachment to the one true God. The words are designed to show man the way to true contentment in a relationship with God rather than being over concerned with possessions, whether obvious false gods or not. It must be remembered that the group had only recently left Egypt , a country where there were gods of all kinds, many in the shape of animals, but reigned over by human images in the shape of Osiris and his consort Isis. They would have been used to seeing worship of these false gods and may even have been involved in some cases. The words in heaven , on earth and under the earth and in the waters could refer to bird gods, mammals, snakes and crocodiles or fish, all these being included in the complex Egyptian pantheon. In verse 5 God refers to himself as ‘jealous’. Clarke comments that He is thus expressing His immense love for his creation and the image is of a husband who wants to be sure of the fidelity of his partner. The third command is against taking the name of God in vain. In verse 8 and 9 there are two aspects – the keeping of the Sabbath and an injunction to work on the other 6 days and are accompanied by the example of God himself in creation. So these first commands are to do with reverence and man’s religious duty in response to who God is and what he has done, and the second group with his moral obligations towards his fellow men for the next command is one concerned with family relationships and the rest with an ordered society – do not murder, commit adultery, steal, lie or be covetous or greedy. Committing these sins is also a sin against God, because to do so would imply that what God has provided already is not good enough. Hebrew has a relatively small vocabulary and words often stand for more than one thing depending upon the context. The Hebrew word translated steal is of interest because not only does it also include the idea of being deceitful, it is also the word used for kidnapping. The following chapters of Exodus go into detail as to how these laws will work in practice as in the rules about the making of an altar in Exodus 20 v 23 onwards and the care of servants in chapter 21. Despite all these injunctions and their ready accession to what God wanted and promised however it is only a short time afterwards that the Israelites are appealing to Aaron ‘Up, and make us gods, which shall go before us. ’ And then of course ( Exodus 32) he made the golden calf despite the recent injunction in Exodus 20 v 4 ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. ’ Some words and phrases are repeated or almost so ‘You shall’ and ‘You shall not’, but this is not consistent throughout and there seems to be an over emphasis on the negative, rather than the positive, whereas the New Testament summaries are in a positive attitude. Some commentators such as Adam Clarke have noted that the language used means that each person is addressed as an individual with individual responsibilities to obey, rather than the group being addressed as a whole with corporate responsibility. The Decalogue needs to be read, and obeyed, in the context of the whole scriptural revelation of God’s desire for a relationship with his people as is made plain by a wider reading as is seen for instance in Genesis 17 where God appears to Abraham and makes a covenant with him and in passages such as Jeremiah 30 v 10 where Jacob is described as the servant of God whom he will save and in Malachi 1 v 1 where God tells of his love for man. References Bible, New International Version, Hodder and Stoughton, Toronto, 1984 Clarke, A. , Commentary, Exodus 20, available from http://www. godrules. net/library/clarke/clarkeexo20. htm accessed 23rd October 2008 Introduction to Exodus, Jewish Encyclopaedia, available from http://bible. tmtm. com/wiki/Intoduction_to_Exodus_%28Jewish_Encyclopedia%29 accessed 22nd October 2008 Hillel the Elder, available from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Rabbi_Hillel accessed 23rd October 2008

Differences Between Terrorism And Organized Crime Criminology Essay

Differences Between Terrorism And Organized Crime Criminology Essay In this assignment, we will be analysing both security issues of terrorism and organized crime as national and international security threats. Terrorism and organised crime, both two different forms of criminal activity and an equal threat to human security. It is important that establish the precise definition of both these activities, so we can categorically differentiate each act committed. The definition of organized crime is widely debated term. Organized crime is generally focused mainly on economic profit, acquiring material benefits and obtaining as much of an illegal market share as possible, by the use of serious crimes such as Drug trafficking, fraud, violence etc. (Baylis J and Smith S (2001) p480-481) Whilst terrorism motivated chiefly by ideological aims and by a desire for political change, by the use of violence, in the form of hijacking, bombing and other indistrimintory acts. We can already see the difference, by looking at the definition. However as we do develop details of the differences between these criminal activities, it is also important to analyse the similarities. (Collins, A (2007) p352-353) Both Organized crime and Terrorism differ in motivation and objective. In Shelley, L and Picarelli, JT (2002), states Yet, while the crimes committed by these two groups dont differ in substance, they differ in motive. Terrorists are in essentially political groups; even if they are inspired by religious fundamentalism, their behaviour is designed to bring about political change. While organized crime groups conduct profit-driven criminal activities, through the use illicit and illegal means. Another interesting point, in which they both differ, mentioned by Schmid, A (2005) is Terrorist groups usually seek media attention; organized crime groups do not, Criminal organisation, do not directly attack infastrurer or indiscriminately attack normal citizens, like terrorism does, however there doings bring harm to those involved and create fear amongst people surrounded by there illegal activities. Therefore the magnitude of attack will be confined to small, domestic and under the radar attacks, whilst with terrorism when it blows ups, it is instant and devastating in its impact. Williams, P(2005) I believe that a criminal is not concerned with influencing or affecting public opinion; he simply wants to earn money in the quickest, easiest and most efficient way possible. Whilst, the essential aim of the terrorists violence is eventually to change the political system , about which the organised criminals, couldnt care less. However in some cases this is not true, Shelley, L and Picarelli, JT(2002) go on to discuss about organised criminals that direct contact with the political system and politicians who they seek to influence for their own goals. Phil Williams and Ernesto Savona (1995) gives us a excellent example that Colombian drug cartels and the Italian Mafia were both using terrorist attacks against the state and its representatives for four different reasons, disrupt investigations; to deter the introduction or continuation of vigorous government policies; to eliminate effective law enforcement officials, to coerce judges into more lenient sentencing policies. I believe fundamental is to create an environment more appealing to criminal activity. But this only can occur in weak countries, where the government is weak, which we will discuss later in the essay. Bjà ¶rnehed, E(2004) concludes that based on their objectives they Constitute quite different types of security threats with regard to magnitude of attack, choice of target and weapons. In summary they both have a common enemy, and that is the state in general and in particular its law enforcement agencies. Both types of criminals function in secrecy, in the underworld, and they use the same or similar infrastructures for their activities and the same networks of corruption. Both use the same type of tactics: they engage in cross-border smuggling, money laundering, counterfeiting, kidnapping, extortion and various kinds of violence. Narco-Terrorism, was the first identification of the link between Terrorism and organized crime. This discovery began in the 1980s when it was found that drug trafficking was also used to advance the political objectives of certain governments and terrorist organizations, the attempts of narcotics traffickers to influence the policies of government by the systematic threat or use of violence Bjà ¶rnehed, E(2004) Since then, much stronger and broader statements have been made, especially in Security Council resolution 1373 (2001) wherein the Council Notes with concern the close connection between international terrorism and transnational organized crime, illicit drugs, money-laundering, illegal arms-trafficking, and illegal movement of nuclear, chemical, biological and other potentially deadly materials.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Bjà ¶rnehed, E(2004) Emma Bjornehead has written a whole chapter on this topic because it is a relatively new phenomena and I believe it is relevant to this composition because it shows that Terrorism and Criminal activity have found a common ground. Various authors keep referring to more or less the same examples, where this new phenomena is occurring. For example Hezbollah engaged in criminal schemes, such as cigarette smuggling, counterfeiting. Al-Qaeda cells in Europe conducting credit card fraud. We see it domestically happening in countries such as Colombia and Afghanistan where opium produces are funding Taliban, to carry out there war against US forces. Williams, P(2005) describes terrorist, using criminal organisation methods to raise funds for their activities as very dangerous. This reliance between each other makes it difficult and a bigger domestic and international security threat because they can share their tangible and intangible resources, to achieve their objectives. Giraldo, J and Trinkunas (2005) puts simple. They try to uncover whether it is a strategic alliance formed by these group, or is it simple marriages of convenience. For example, the language school that provided some visas for the 9/11 hijackers are also reported to have provided visas for prostitutes of a human trafficking ring. This indicates sharing networks, each could complement each other therefore making it easier to carry out objectives. An intelligence analyst even describes it as criminal service providers. This means that both in criminal organisations, due to their established networks, act as service provider for terrorists, so they can carry out their terror activities. Another good point made is that this increased self-reliance of terrorist networks makes criminal organisations difficult to detect, especially as they are both bound by secrecy. The Madrid bombing are a great example, Future-occurred in Spain where members of a small but well-established Moroccan drug trafficking organization led by Jamal Ahmidan, became radicalized and were subsequently integrated into the cell that carried out the Madrid bombings. The contribution of the radicalized drug traffickers is difficult to overestimate: they provided the finance, the logistics, the safe houses, and the connections that enabled the cell to acquire the explosives. Indeed, without their resources and expertise, it is unlikely that the attacks on the trains would have taken place, and certainly not on such a destructive scale. Williams, p(2009) This example so shows that both organisations are sharing its man power and those criminals are venerable to being radicalized, like shown above. It can also be seen as method of attracting people with two personality types: one with strong political views, coupled with a desire to become wealthy. In summary that they cross paths; give in to one another which make them reliant on each other. Organized crime can use the power tool of political crime to create the social and economic context that makes its profitable activities viable. Terrorists, on the other hand, need funding to push their own agendas. . Due to the coordination between the two, an integrated counter-terrorism and organised crime should be implemented, to dissolve the creation of a strengthen connection. Law enforcement agencies have to approach this in a different angle because the traditional separate policing of organised crime and terrorism, do not apply. After 9/11, steps have been taken to increased cooperation between law enforcement and intelligence agencies that police domestic and international matters. I can see the huge benefits that increasing the cooperation can bring. The sharing of information on both sources of threats enables governments to penetrate these secret groups and prevent crimes from being perpetrated. Also breaking down one criminal organisation, can lead to discovering other terrorist organisations at the same time, therefore increasing their leads. However according to Bjornehead, E(2010) states that at times war on organised crime, in particular drugs, can sometimes undermine the war on terror. She one of many examples, that of Taliban and how a reduction is poppy field in Europe, increased the price of opium, which Taliban made huge gains, which is helped fund their terror organisations. Questions need to be raised on which one is a bigger domestic threat, politicians may believe terrorism is a threat as they want direct change in governance and how that government acts, for example USA I believe has a stronger stance and policy on terrorism, rather than organised crimes. Whilst organised crimes havent got a direct objective against the political system, it might be the case that for individuals in society that due to its hidden, secretive nature that criminal organizations themselves, pose a threat to society that goes far beyond the harm posed by the profit-driven crimes they commit. Collins, A (2007) We can also see this in a poll in an 11 countries that was conducted showing that what people feared, and the highest was Criminal activities with 27%, whilst terrorism was third with 15%. Human security centre (2005) There a continuous argument in US about what poses a bigger threat US security. Recent Barack Obama states that The single biggest threat to US security, both short-term, medium-term and long-term, would be the possibility of a terrorist organisation obtaining a nuclear weapon. However In a many recently, Antonio Maria Costa, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), recent stated that Drug-related crime biggest threat to public safety in the Americas. This is also backed up by Retiring CIA chief Michael Hayden Mexico could rank alongside Iran as a challenge for Obama perhaps a greater problem than Iraq. UN news centre(2008) I believe this could be due to drug cartels domince in Mexico, and due it the geography and globalization; it has been spilled in the street of US. Williams, P, (2008) Another difference is Terrorism is a bigger point of discussion in the wider world due to the fact that they seek media attention and not shy to hide its terror activities, Whilst Organized crime is very secretive and behind closed doors. Hence why it is people may perceive it to be a bigger threat. After the post cold war era, there was a huge shift from in national security threats, from communism, to terrorism and organised crime. What the fall of communism did, was not only did it leave eastern countries, lawless and poor, it left it venerable to radical ideologies and organised crime, including what we call globalization. I also believe that ideological terrorism has severely since the cold war, and a new breed of ethnic and religious inspired terrorism. Collins, A (2007) p356 I a published paper by Stephens, M (1996) on globalized crime, and describes why organised crime was on the rise after the Cold war era and in summary; Post-Cold War opportunities such as the lowering of economic and political barriers; the end of communist regimes and the founding of fragile new democracies. Stephens, M(1996) A Report Prepared by the Federal Research Division,Library of Congress(2003) discusses areas on the world that are venerable to organised crime and terrorism, and states that in reference the In the former Soviet states, progress toward the rule of law has been hindered by the sudden disappearance of national authority (the Soviet state) in areas having no individual tradition of state authority or civil society but having very well developed traditions of underground criminal activity. Federal Research Division(2003) Both types of organizations lean to enlist the majority of their members from the same pool of an insignificant sector of the population, which are subject to social, cultural or political frustration. This is backed up by Rosenau(1990), Galleotti (2001), Cusimano-Love (2003), and Castells (2000) who have compared transnational crime and terrorism as malicious non-state actors that take advantage of failures in the state-centric global system, such as the limitations of sovereignty, legal jurisdictional boundaries and the opportunities that failed or weak states create for safe havens. As much as globalization ha s been beneficial for many nation states, it has also been disastrous in reference to Organised crime and terrorism, which Williams, p(2002) describes as a motivator and facilitator., opening a way for transnational activity. In this era of accelerated global interaction, transnational organized crime and international terrorism are flourishing. In Baylis, J and smith, s(2005), James D kiras writes has a whole chapter dedicated towards to Terrorism and globalisation, he writes the technology and processes linked with globalization have enabled terrorism to grow from regional phenomenon, into a global one. He also means that the use of Globalization has also lead to changes in the means of conducting terrorism and organised crime. For example in Freedman (2002) Prior to 11 September 2001 most acts of terrorism had depended on the conventional explosives. And then compares it to current situation where the ability to mount simultaneous attacks, commitment and choice targets, using aircraft as guided missiles. I believe that globalisation has a part to play in this change because it has opened up the world. The borders have faded or are no longer as well guarded, the market is globalized, financial and commercial mergers and the deregulation of state intervention provide new opportunities, and communication technology is presenting unexpected innovative technological possibilities. I also believe globalization has spread national crime to international organised crime because large-scale migration across the globe has created new emigrant refugee communities that can serve as recruitment bases and as hiding places, especially as they live a poor lifestyle, they have no alternatives, apart from turning to crime. Organised crime actors share the same objective as legal corporations in a sense that In a increasingly global marketplace, illicit actors, like licit counterparts, take advantage of business opportunities wherever they occur. For organised crime, going across borders, increases their wealth and profit just as it does for legal businesses, as they have new customers and can take advantage of infrastructure to cover their illegal activities. An example used in Collins, A (2007) was after the creation of North American free trade area, trade grew in the billions, and however it was this area, thrived in reference to aid smuggling of illegal goods and drugs. There have been political and economic developments have brought terrorism and organized crime together. There are also clear structural similarities that would appear to make alliance beneficial for both of them and I believe that it is case of marriage of convenience, rather than long term strategic alliance. Collins, A (2007p 361) It is becoming a huge aspect of security, that both organised crime and terrorism are flourishing over one another, and in particular terrorist groups are rely on crime to fund their operation, and criminal expertise is become available to terrorist groups. I believe that in this day of age, where the world become evermore globalized, any security threat that is national, ends up spilling over the borders, and becoming a international problem. Schmid, A(2005) Links between Terrorism and Drug Trafficking: A Case of Narco-terrorism? Galleotti, M. (2001) Underworld and Upperworld: Transnational Organized Crime and Global Society, In Josselin, D. and Wallace W. (Eds.). Non-State Actors in World Politics, Palgrave: New York, pp. 203-17. Ciment, JD and Shanty FG(2008) Organized Crime: From Trafficking to Terrorism, Volume 1, ABC-Clio, Califonia Berry, V. et al(2003) Nations hospitable to organized crime and terrorism[online] Available from: http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/pdf-files/Nats_Hospitable.pdf [Accessed May 2010]. Shelley, L and Picarelli (2001) Methods Not motives: Implications of the convergence of international organized crime and terrorism [online] Available from: http://www.law.syr.edu/Pdfs/0methods_motives.pdf.[Accessed May 2010] Stephens, Mora(1996) Global organized crime as the threat to national security [online] Available from: http://www.fas.org/irp/eprint/snyder/globalcrime.htm. .[Accessed May 2010] Williams, P(2009) Strategy for a New World: Combating Terrorism and Transnational Organized Crime. In Balyis, J(eds.) Chapter 9 Bibes, P(2001) Transnational Organized Crime and Terrorism.Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Vol. 17, Sage Publications Bjà ¶rnehed, Emma(2004) Narco-Terrorism: The Merger of the War on Drugs and the War on Terror, Global Crime, 6: 3, 305 324, Routledge, London Kiras, JD(2001) Terrorism and Globalization. In Baylis, J and Smith, S(eds.) The Globalization of work politics: An introduction to IR, Chapter 21, Oxford, Oxford university press. Lutz, B and Lutz, J(2007) Terrorism. In Collins, A (eds.) Contemporary security studies, 2nd edtion, chapter 20, Oxford, Oxford University press. Lutz, B and Lutz, J(2007) Transnational crime. In Collins, A (eds.) Contemporary security studies, 2nd edtion, chapter 25, Oxford, Oxford University press.

Kretchmars Five Types Of Dualism

Kretchmars Five Types Of Dualism The classical emphasis emerged from one of the most famous Greek philosophers dialogue, Platos Phaedo. Plato believed that the most important things are not the material or physical entities but the eternal Forms. He also stated that the bodies and physical matters are just imperfect replicas of such Forms. Aristotle, one of Platos students did not believe in the Platonic Forms. Aristotle argued that the body is far more important than the mind and the soul (the mind) do not exist. His forms are the property of things and the things existing in those things. This made it easier for Aristotle to explain the body and soul union by saying that the soul is nothing more than form of the body. Due to this reasoning, by Aristotle arguments the soul is something material because it is a property of the body. Aristotle argument and theory led to many interpreters, ancient and modern, to interpret Aristotle theory as materialistic. The more modern version of dualism has their origin and is associated Rene Descartes Meditations. Descartes was known to be a substance dualist. He states that there are two types of substance, the matter which the essential property is spatially extended and the mind which is the essential property that do the thinking. In very recent history, Scott Kretchmar divided Descartes dualism into five kinds. These five kinds are: Substance Value Knowledge Language Behaviour Substance Dualism: Substance is at the heart of the dualistic thinking and practise. Dualists argue that the mind (soul) and the body are two radically different things. The body is seen just like another object, it is like on the same level of a football, water and rocks. When we see the body from this perspective, the body can be used, manipulated, dissected and treated like any other object. Since the body is seen as an object, then the body is just a machine made of joints which move using the levers and force. Like any other physical object the body obey and use the laws of physics. The substance dualists also acknowledge thinking. Thought is not like the matter. Matter has shape, colour and obey laws. Thinking or the mind or the soul does not have colour, size, form or shape and do not observe physics laws. The mind obeys the logic rules and coherence. Substance dualism does acknowledge that the body and mind interact. These dualists also acknowledge that the body affect the mind and vice versa. While the connection between the mind and the body is very difficult to explain, but through scientific experiments and personal experience the body and the mind do affect each other. Value Dualism: Value dualism grounded deep in substance dualism. Value dualists see the human as being the mind and the body. Plato placed the thoughts, perfection and ideas over the body, above the mediocrity and emotions. Plato continued his theoretical argument that the body at its best serve as a compliment to the mind and helping the mind to acquire more intellect and knowledge. At the same time, he stated that at worst the body will hinder the mind from gather more knowledge due to our carnal nature and desire. If this happens, it will be the source of our animal instinct, emotion disturbance and perceptual errors and then peak result will be pain and death. Plato stated that our physical senses may perceive things in a wrong way and therefore our senses will transmit to the mind wrong messages and the knowledge transmitted can be negatively influencing the mind. Value dualists; value the mind over the body, with the body being the source of all evil. But this raise some questions, such as, does all the evil come from the body? Impure thoughts, such as, excessive anger and greed does not disturb the acquisition of knowledge? Is this evil which originated and circulated in the mind without any help from the body? Knowledge Dualism: Knowledge dualism is divided into two categories, the knowing and the knowing how. The knowing is pure knowledge, pure understanding of things. The knowledge of why some things work better than others, why things occur in such a way and order. Knowledge of why we feel better after a good session of training, why our cardiovascular system improves in functionality with regular training. The knowledge of knowing how is purely procedural. This kind of knowledge help people and athletes perform better skills. A great football player can kick the ball with so meticulousness that if he is ask how he did it he wont be able to explain what he did. The player will be at a level of knowledge of kicking the ball that for him it will be hard to explain the complexity of the angle of the foot, the power in the kick and the position of the supporting leg. This happens because it so natural for him to do that and cannot explain why and how. People with this kind of dualism do not really understand what they are doing and this will compromise the value of accomplishments. Behaviour Dualism: Gilbert Ryle in his book The Concept of Mind describes behaviour dualism is a type of value dualism because it climaxes the requirement of the body as a machine and the mind as an operator. This kind of dualism suggests that all actions has a dual process. The process of thinking followed by the process of doing. These dualists beliefs are similar to the valuelists because they believe that since the body is only a machine it cant function on its own. Therefore; since the body is only a machine, it must awaits for commands from the mind. The behavioural dualism point of view is that the mind and the body are in an unbalanced relationship where the body depends totally on the mind. Language Dualism: Language dualism is similar to the behaviour dualism and is considered as a value type dualism. This kind of dualism focuses on symbolism focuses on an image or an action and such action or images stand for something else. According to Ernst Cassirer in his book Philosophy of Symbolic Form (1944), the achievement of using symbols is what makes us human beings. This is also considered as a trademark for human beings and this hallmark distinguishes us from all the other lower life forms. This kind of dualism is divided into two major groups, intellectual and non-intellectual. The intellectual group consists of poems, prose and other writing and spoken form. This group also include any mathematical symbols used in physics and other sciences. Since these are considered intellectual, these factors are at the heart of most of IQ tests, SRT and other intelligence and academic testing. These are used because they are considered as they are thought to show the mind workings at its best. The other group is the non-intellectual. Paintings, music and sports are found under this category. Because these form part of the non-intellectual group, these are given a lesser academic rating and importance.

to build a fire :: Papers

To Build a Fire To Build a Fire A Paper Jack London?s short story, ?To Build a Fire?, incorporates the struggle for a man and his dog to survive the forces of nature. The story also demonstrates how man is a creature of intellect and dog is a creature of instinct. Ignoring advice about traveling alone in the brutal Alaskan winter, the man begins his journey with his dog. Never realizing the ramifications of exposure to such brutal weather when temperatures are fifty degrees below freezing, he pushes forward, thinking he can beat nature and reach the camp before dark. As he continues his excursion, chances for survival diminish when many mistakes are made attempting to build a fire. Also, the ignorance and conceit of this man would not allow him to follow the dog?s instincts in the freezing weather. Therefore, he succumbs to mother nature and dies. Consequently, the forces of nature are greater and can outsmart a foolish man. In the story called ?The Necklace?, Guy de Maupassant wrote about an unhapp y woman, Mathilde Loisel, who desired the riches of life. However, she was married to a man with minimal wealth. One day Loisel, her husband, surprised her with an invitation to an exclusive social gathering. Instead of responding with glee, she only could worry about how she would look for the event. She took the little bit of money they had and purchased a gown. Then Mathilde borrowed a beautiful necklace from a friend of hers. At the end of this special evening she realized that the necklace had been lost. Her and her husband took out many loans to pay for the replacement. All of their earnings went to pay these loans. After ten years of hardship the loans are paid and she meets the friend who lent her the necklace. Mathilde finally finds out that the original necklace was not even made of real gems.

Analyzing Search Engines :: essays research papers

<div style="sub-title">1. Formulate five criteria for the evaluation of search engines To effectively evaluate three different search engines from the perspective of an advanced web user, the following criteria were established: 1. Relevance and accuracy of search results 2. Search speed 3. Advanced search options 4. Other services 5. Site design and layout More information about these criteria and how they were used is available below. 2. Test three search engines against your criteria For this evaluation, the following three search engines were tested: 1. AltaVista - http://www.altavista.com/ 2. Google - http://www.google.com/ 3. DirectHit - http://www.directhit.com/ <div style="sub-title">3. Explain your methodology The criteria outlined in Part 1 were reached by considering the things that would be important to an advanced user. Of course, factors like Relevance and Speed are critical to such a user (particularly in a work environment). The search options criteria is particularly important to advanced users who are after a specific page and do not want to waste time 'wading' through results from a 'standard' search. The other criteria are important to most users and mean that the search engines are more usable and useful. The search results from the three test search engines (Part 2) were evaluate according the criteria, explained it more detail below. Criteria 1 - Relevance and Accuracy of Results This criterion was to evaluate the usefulness of a particular search engine according to the accuracy of its results. I defined the relevance, according to personal standards, after browsing the pages in the results, for three separate search terms. The Relevance Percentage is calculated by counting the number of relevant pages that appear in the first 20 search 'hits' and then multiplying by 20 (for a percentage). Criteria 2 - Search Speed This criterion was to evaluate which of the test search engines returns results quicker. However, it is important to note that the speed test is both a test of the Internet connection to the remote machine, as well as the time taken by the search engine to perform the search. Furthermore, tests of Internet speeds are very variable based on time of day, other internet traffic etc and are therefore of only limited accuracy. For this reason, no 'hard numbers' were calculated (ie timed searches). Instead, I rated each search engine based on 5 searches per engine at the same time, same day. The possible Speed Ratings are as follows: Excellent, Good, Poor Criteria 3 - Search Options This criteria was to evaluate the search engines advanced search options.