Conduct a Swot Analysis Essay

These range from one star to Five star deluxe depending upon size and amenities. About 30% of the rooms fall under the 5-star deluxe categories. To find out the present status of this industry a strength, weakness opportunity and threat (SWOT) analysis is mental. This will help us in understanding this industry and also identify the weak spots. S. W. O. T ANALYSIS OF HOTEL INDUSTRY Strengths ? A very wide variety of hotels is present in the country that can fulfill the demand of the tourists. ? There are international players in the market such as Taj and Oberoi & International Chains. Thus, the needs of the international tourists travellers are met while they are on a visit to India. ? Manpower costs in the Indian hotel industry is one of the lowest in the world. This provides better margins for Indian hotel industry. ? India offers a readymade tourist destination with the resources it has. Thus the magnet to pull customers already exists and has potential grow. Weaknesses ? The cost of land in India is high at 50% of total project cost as against 15% abroad. This acts as a major deterrent to the Indian hotel industry. ? The hotel industry in India is heavily staffed. This can be gauged from he facts that while Indian hotel companies have a staff to room ratio of 3:1, this ratio is 1:1 for international hotel companies. ? High tax structure in the industry makes the industry worse off than its international equivalent. In India the expenditure tax, luxury tax and sales tax inflate the hotel bill by over 30%. Effective tax in the South East Asian countries works ou t to only 4-5%. ? Only 97,000 hotel rooms are available in India today, which is less than the Bangkok hotel capacity. ? The services currently offered by the hotels in India are only limited value added services. It is not comparable to the existing world standards. Opportunities ? Demand between the national and the inbound tourists can be easily managed due to difference in the period of holidays. For international tourists the peak season for arrival is between September to March when the climatic conditions are suitable where as the national tourist waits for school holidays, generally the summer months. ? In the long-term the hotel industry in India has latent potential for growth. This is because India is an ideal destination for tourists as it is the only country with the most diverse topography. For India, the inbound tourists are a mere 0. 49% of the global figures. This number is expected to increase at a phenomenal rate thus pushing up the demand for the hotel industry. ? Unique experience in heritage hotels. Threats ? Guest houses replace the hotels. This is a growing trend in the west and is now catching up in India also, thus diverting the hotel traffic. ? Political turbulence in the area reduces tourist traffic and thus the business of the hotels. In India examples of the same are Insurgency in Jammu Kashmir and the Kargil war. ? Changing trends in the west demand imilar changes in India, which here are difficult to implement due to high project costs. ? The economic conditions of a country have a direct impact on the earnings in hotel industry. Lack of training man power in the hotel industry. Transport Facilities A well knit and coordinated system of transport plays an important role in the sustained economic growth of the country. The present transport system of th e country comprises of several modes of transport including rail, road, air transport etc. Tourism industry is also affected by the performance of these services heavy road taxes are the great threat to the tourism industry.

Women’s Rights to Abortion

The dictionary defines abortion as :The termination of pregnancy and expulsion of an embryo or of a fetus that is incapable of survival . This simply means, inducing birth to kill the fetus or baby before it is carried to full term . The most popular procedure involved in abortions is the vacuum aspiration which is done during the first trimester (three months or less since the women has become pregnant). A tube is simply inserted through the cervix and the contents of the uterus are vacuumed out. The most commonly used type of second trimester abortion is called dilation and evacuation. Since the fetus has bones, bulk and can move, second trimester is not as simple. When as much of the fetus and placenta are vacuumed out then tweezers are used to remove larger parts. The controversy of abortion has become one of the most divisive an irrationally controversial issues of our times turned into a legal and political power struggle with no permanent resolution in sight . I am pro-choice! For years it has been said that abortion should not be legal . Today it is a big issue , many people feel aborting an unwanted child should be against the law , As I see it a woman’s body is her own to do whatever she wants . Approximately one to three million abortions are done each year. Women get abortions for many reason; such as rape , teen pregnancy and health reasons . Rape is one of the many reasons that cause woman to choose to end their pregnancies. Many of them feel guilty about ending a life, but they know deep down how badly they would treat the child , they hate their rapist, so in turn would hate the child. Pro-life activists say that abortion is murder and is in defiance of God. Would God want a Mother to hate her child or do her child harm? They would also question whether this child would be like it’s father (a rapist ). Young woman between 15 and 18 account for atleast 5 million abortions every year . One of every 5 pregnancies happen to teenage girls, in these situations some teenagers no they are not able to take care of these children for they are not mature enough for this awesome responsibility . In many cases the child would have no one to rely on but a single mother with no schooling and maybe a non-supportive family . The child would have a miserable upbringing left vulnerable also a baby born to a teenage mother is at a risk of suffering more health issues than a baby born to an older mom. Teenage mothers are more likely to get addicted to drinking, smoking and drugs due to the post pregnancy stress. †¢Teen mothers also gain very less weight during pregnancy and are also at a higher risk for premature birth, which can also affect in low birth weight of the baby. †¢Babies who are born with a low birth weight suffer from serious health problems like underdeveloped organs, infant mor tality, stomach complications, loss of vision in one or both eyes, respiratory complications and other lung problems. †¢Most babies of teenage moms are likely to die early than babies of women in their twenties and thirties. Teenage parents often face some huge economic hardships. Teen mothers are forced to give up education and drop out of school, less than 20% of teenage mothers earn a high school diploma. †¢It's very difficult for a teenage mother and father to support themselves and their baby. As their education is cut short, it's very difficult for teenage parents to find a decent job. †¢With education cut short, they are left with very little employment opportunities and they face a lot of hardship in building a secured future for themselves and their kid. †¢Over 85% of teen parents rely on welfare for financial support at some point in their lives. With the little income of both parents, it's very difficult to provide the baby with the required nutrition and care. After taking into consideration all of the hardships that will be faced abortion becomes a reality, and the teen mom realizes that pregnancy is not just about life in the womb, life comes with the responsibility of provid ing the child all the rights and comforts that they are entitle to. Another reason women seek abortion is Incest, why should a woman bring a child in the world that was conceive with a family member usually against her will. In Bioethicist Andrew Varga’s article it is argued that in this tragic case the great value of the mental health of a woman who becomes pregnant as a result of incest can best be safe-guarded by abortion. It is also said that a pregnancy caused by incest is the result of a grave injustice and that the victim should not be obliged to carry the fetus to viability. This would keep reminding her for nine months of the act committed against her and would just increase her mental anguish. It is reasoned that the value of the woman's mental health is greater than the value of the fetus. In addition, it is maintained that the fetus is an aggressor against the woman's integrity and personal life; it is only just and morally defensible to repel an aggressor even by killing him if that is the only way to defend personal and human values. It is concluded, then, that abortion is justified in this case. Another reason women seek abortions is Incest, why should a woman bring a child in the world that was conceive with a family member. It is argued that in this tragic case the great value of the mental health of a woman who becomes pregnant as a result of incest can best be safe-guarded by abortion. It is also said that a pregnancy caused by incest is the result of a grave injustice and that the victim should not be obliged to carry the fetus to viability. This would keep reminding her for nine months of the act committed against her and would just increase her mental anguish. It is reasoned that the value of the woman's mental health is greater than the value of the fetus. In addition, it is maintained that the fetus is an aggressor against the woman's integrity and personal life; it is only just and morally defensible to repel an aggressor even by killing him if that is the only way to defend personal and human values. It is concluded, then, that abortion is justified in this case. Pro- life activist have bomb abortion clinics, On January 29, 1998 a nail-studded bomb killed a guard and seriously injured a nurse at an abortion clinic in Birmingham, Alabama. October 23, 1998: Dr. Barnett Slepian was shot to death at his home in Amherst, New York. His was the last in a series of similar shootings against providers in Canada and northern New York state which were all likely committed by James Kopp. Kopp was convicted of Dr. Slepian's murder after finally being apprehended in France in 2001. May 31, 2009: Dr. George Tiller was shot and killed by Scott Roeder as Tiller served as an usher at church in Wichita, Kansas. Is taking a life of a full functioning human being worth spending life in prison for an unborn fetus. In conclusion for any pregnant woman making a decision to abort her unborn child is painful and ruthless, but under certain situations a woman should be able to terminate her pregnancy by ab ortion.

In creation of annales school Essay

underwent a crisis. During the Third Republic, historians had established a strong presence within French universities by teaching political history of the French nation. After World War I, however, historians faced a challenge to their powerful position. In the late twenties and early thirties the government reduced the number of teaching posts made available to historians in secondary and higher education. Moreover, some French intellectuals questioned the value of professional history, accusing historians of contributing to the rise of jingoistic nationalism. In the context of these challenges to the status of history, some historians elected to alter the way they wrote political history. In the interests of â€Å"intellectual disarmament,† the Comite francais des sciences historiques and the Comite francais de la cooperation intellectuelle participated in an international effort to rewrite history textbooks. In 1929 the historians Marc Bloch and Lucien Febvre launched a new journal Annales d’histoire economique et sociale. They did so in hope of transforming the historical discipline by providing a venue for the publication of research focused on social and economic history. Throughout much of the journal’s history, editors of Annales encouraged a style of history that rose above the accumulation of fact, that mobilized historians to tackle shared problems, and that sought to build alliances among different fields in the social sciences. Historians in Europe and the United States have seen the creation of Annales as a crucial turning point in the history of the historical profession and the French social sciences. After World War II the journal, then renamed Annales: economies, societes, civilisations, served as a rallying point for young French historians interested in exploring new approaches to writing history. Taking up the intellectual program first defined by Bloch and Febvre, Annales’s post-WWII editors advocated a style of history that borrowed problems and methods from demography, economics, and geography. This paper show how Bloch and Febvre drew on the concern about intellectual over-specialization and the trend to collectivize research in order to shape research on economic history and rural society. Although Bloch proposed numerous collaborative projects, the mainstay of the journal’s success was its attention to rural history. The political import of research on rural societies and the cultural politics of intellectual cooperation thus proved to be valuable resources in the development of Annales’s intellectual program. HISTORIOGRAPHY Over the past two decades historians have been taking stock of the journal’s legacy to history and social science. A major theme in evaluations of Annales is the journal’s interdisciplinary ambition. Some historians of history depict the alliances negotiated between history and the social sciences as problematic. For example, Georg Iggers and Lawrence Stone contend that in emulating the social sciences the New History lost sight of the ways in which human beings make history. Purporting to examine society at its most profound levels, Annales historians tended to make history not a study of change but a science of static societies. Some historians are rethinking the merits of social science history. In a collection of essays on historiography Immanuel Wallerstein, once a proponent of Annales history, proclaims that the time has come to move beyond Annales and the emphasis on interdisciplinarity. Proponents of the New Cultural History have turned away from the blending of geography, economics, demography, sociology, and history that had been the hallmark of Annales history from the fifties to the early seventies. Some of them, including the Annales historian Herman Lebovics, draw on literary theory to criticize the assumptions and categories used by many social and economic historians in their analyses. The reevaluation of history’s alliances with the social sciences is fueled partly by a reaction to the scientization of the discipline and partly by philosophers of historical writing, who have drawn attention to the rhetorical and literary aspects of history. Taking a different approach to analyzing the relationship between history and social science, Terry Clark and Francois Dosse look at the function of competition in intellectual life. Clark depicts the leadership of historians over the establishment of the Sixth Section as the result of a struggle between historians and sociologists for control of institutional resources. More polemical than Clark, Dosse overtly attacks Annales historians’ tendency to raid other social sciences in their relentless pursuit of new topics and methods. Dosse suggests that interdisciplinarity was merely a form of intellectual acquisitiveness that led historians to absorb (or attempt to absorb) other intellectual fields. The result is a patchwork history that had lost coherence as a discipline. Two sources help greatly in examination of Marc Bloch’s life and work, his influence and role in establishing the Annales School. The Susan Friedman book Marc Bloch, Sociology, and Geography: Encountering Changing Disciplines, provides excellent coverage of Bloch’s life and career: some fundamental and significant standpoints and events are described and discussed thoroughly therein. In addition, Carole Fink’s book Marc Bloch: A Life in History provides intellectual and political bibliography of Annales co-founder. THE ANNALES PROGRAM From the journal’s inception through the end of the thirties, Bloch and Febvre worked to create a collective spirit among Annales’s readers and contributors. In the letter that accompanied the first issue of the journal, they proclaimed that the young periodical was born of â€Å"in effort to rapprochement of contributors,† whose ambition was to work collaboratively â€Å"constant community. † By the end of the thirties Bloch and Febvre referred to a common identity that was shared by those who rallied to the journal. In 1939, when they terminated their relationship with Armand Colin and began to publish the journal independently, they again appealed to the collective spirit of their subscribers. The reference to the solidarity of the journal’s â€Å"disciples† was the most explicit evocation of solidarity to appear during the thirties. In addition to making an explicit appeal to teamwork and collaboration, Bloch and Febvre marketed Annales to both academic and non-academic readers. In the planning phase of the journal in 1928, they informed their publisher that they anticipated selling subscriptions to university libraries in France and abroad as well as to municipal libraries. In addition professional historians in higher education, they decided to make an appeal to history teachers in French high schools as well as local savants, whose good will and research efforts had been wasted, they felt, in the activities of provincial learned societies. In their efforts to market the journal, they distributed two prospects — one for professional historians and another for the local savant. As Febvre wrote, he and Bloch intended to add, as an expression of good will, personal notes to the copies of the prospectus destined for provincial researchers. Professional sociologists and experts on society and economics comprised the last major group of potential readers and contributors that Bloch and Febvre had in mind in 1928. With the publication of Annales starting in 1929, Bloch tried to use the journal to advance his career. Early in the early thirties, he actively campaigned for a position in Paris, and he had his eye Camille Jullian’s Chair at the College de France. In 1930, Bloch penned a flattering retrospective article on Jullian’s career, and late in 1932, he praised Jullian’s preface to Guy de Tournadre’s L’histoire du comte de Forealquier, while subjecting Tournadre to excoriating criticism. Bloch also attacked the medievalist Louis Halphen in a review of Halphen’s contribution to Cambridge University Press’s multi-volume series on medieval history. During the twenties Halphen and Bloch had entertained a rivalry. Both occupied the field of medieval history and therefore vied with each other for a position in Paris. In the midst of that rivalry each historian struggled to establish his intellectual niche and institutional foothold by defining himself in opposition to the other. Although Bloch’s efforts to join the College de France failed, he won a position at the Sorbonne in 1935. Bloch, who was Halphen’s junior by six years, received a Parisian appointment only one year after Halphen assumed his Chair at the Sorbonne in 1934. Between 1932 and 1934, Bloch and Febvre actively solicited contributions from non-academic researchers by introducing another style of inquiry — the â€Å"enquete contemporaine. † The contemporary studies were not designed to be collectively executed research projects, and Bloch and Febvre offered no specific research guidance. Instead, the journal published on-going or recent work on the economy of contemporary Europe, and most contributors wrote articles on such topics as banking and finance. By designing projects that called on the contribution of such an ilk, they hoped to rally different groups — amateur, professional, and expert — around the journal. By choosing such a variety of scholars to participate in the journal, Bloch and Febvre thus defined the intellectual mission of the journal broadly. Moreover, they deliberately left such terms as â€Å"social† and â€Å"economic† loosely defined. Bloch’s correspondence with the historian of Japan Kanichi Asakawa revealed a conscious decision to leave open the journal’s definition of social history. Bloch and Febvre adopted a similarly broad view of the journal’s intellectual mission when they opened Annales up to contributions from other social scientists. With the exception of favoring empirical research over theoretical studies, they defined no intellectual orthodoxy for the journal. In Annales, cross-disciplinarity was often little more than an ensemble of articles by different social scientists on related topics. In 1935 and 1936, for example, Bloch and Febvre published a series of essays on tools and technology, which included an article by Andre Haudricourt, an agronomist who later specialized in ethno-botany and the ethno-history of technology. In his correspondence with the historian Charles Parain, Haudricourt wrote that he was astounded by the intellectual differences between historians and ethnographers despite their common interest in tools and technology. True to Haudricourt’s observation, his article on the harness and Bloch’s article on the same subject had no meaningful similarities or differences — they simply bypassed each other. Haudricourt’s essay in Annales followed the harness’s geographical diffusion. When they defined Annales’a intellectual mission, Febvre and Bloch shared a desire to avoid intellectual orthodoxy . Their goals were twofold. They wanted to encourage historians to think about specific research problems, and they also wanted to lay the groundwork for doing empirical research on economic and social history by gathering information about archives. One of the strategies they used to accomplish those goals was the organization of collective projects. Responding to the inter-war emphasis on international cooperation, Bloch and Febvre saw collective research as a way to inspire their readers to organize their work around common problems. In the first issue of Annales Bloch and Febvre announced several structured inquiries into the history rural society, of prices, and of nobility. But in spite of their agreement on the basic research program for the journal and in spite of their confidence in the utility of collective research, they eventually developed very different conceptions of what intellectual teamwork might bring to history and social science. Febvre’s conception of teamwork and its usefulness for historians and social scientists centered on the collection of information. In contrast with Febvre’s fascination with the division of labor and the creation of a research network, Bloch showed less interest in culling data from a pool of untrained research workers. Early in his career, he had expressed an interest in using research questionnaires, although he had not thought of them as useful for establishing large-scale projects in data collection. Bloch’s earliest writings on methodology drew parallels between the use of questionnaires and the scientist’s practice of reporting on research objectives and procedures. Bloch saw questionnaires as instrumental for structuring communication among fields in the social and human sciences. For example, he advocated emulating the multi-disciplinary approach of the Oslo Institute for the Comparative Study of Culture. BLOCH’S WORK AND ROLE In the journal’s first year Bloch implemented a collective project on rural history. The project on â€Å"Les plans parcellaires† was journal’s longest and most successful team project. In his introduction, Bloch called on historians and geographers to create an inventory of archival sources on rural history. According to him, valuable data on the rural economy had been preserved in rarely consulted property registers and land plats held in local archives and libraries. The â€Å"plans parcellaires† and the property registers created by European states provided visual and textual sources on the evolution of the French countryside. Scattered in archives throughout France and Europe, they provided snapshots of rural societies at different points in history. In France, they offered a way to study rural history from seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Bloch argued that the study of the â€Å"traits matiriels† of the rural countryside would help researchers understand the basic structure of rural society as a precursor to further research. Using cadastral maps, geographers and historians could study changes in land usage, systems of crop rotation, the persistence of common land or its enclosure, settlement patterns, the distribution and size of villages, and the evolution of seigniorial authority. Because of the cadasters’ potential value to geographers and historians, Bloch used Annales to create a basic inventory of their availability. He did not, however, use his team projects to generate raw data on rural history. Bloch asked readers to submit articles on the availability of four types of sources in their local archives or libraries: land maps (terriers) created prior to the Revolution, property records generated during the Revolution, the Napoleonic cadaster, and any revisions made to it during the nineteenth century. Through Annales, Bloch built a team comprised of local savants, students, and specialists on rural society and economy from France and abroad. In 1931 the friendly society of provincial archivists adopted a proposal to establish an inventory of the Napoleonic cadaster as well as any maps that provided information on the type of crops grown in the different regions of France. The Director of French Archives endorsed the proposal in a circular distributed to archivists throughout France. As the project unfolded, Bloch not only recommended that historians analyze visual historical sources on the French countryside (i. e. , cadastral atlases and terriers), but he also advocated studying the contemporary landscape. In instructions and articles for the study of the â€Å"plans parcellaires,† he recommended using aerial photography and archaeology in order to identify the trace of past in the present configuration of the countryside. Bloch’s work on rural history has helped to define the nation myth of French diversity and rootedness in a rural past. One of the themes that emerges from Bloch’s book on French rural history, Les caracteres originaux de 1’histoire rurale francaise, was indeed the diversity of France and the deep continuities between past and present that defined French rural history. Surveying the French countryside from the hamlets of Brittany to the villages of Provence, Bloch identified dramatic contrasts in the physical, economic, and social configuration of French rural life. Examining the rural economy, he identified a variety of agrarian regimes. Open fields, enclosures, agricultural tools as well as biennial and triennial systems of crop rotation all combined and overlapped in divergent ways throughout France. In place of any form of national ethnic unity or homogeneity, he identified three distinct types of agrarian civilization. As Meillet and Demangeon had done in the late twenties, Bloch also indulged a patriotic claim that French scholars might lead their European colleagues in orchestrating research on rural civilization. Unlike Febvre, whose work with the Commission des recherches collectives eventually led him to undertake a national inventory of France’s rural civilization, Bloch remained committed to implementing projects at the international level, planning collective studies that built on his work in rural history. In a 1933 proposal published in the Bulletin of the International Committee of the Historical Sciences, he outlined a project on the transformation of seigniorial institutions throughout Europe. Bloch proposed to create a common questionnaire in order to establish a basic starting point. With France clearly in mind, he focused on studying the erosion of large seigniorial demesnes and the rise of the small landholder, who paid a form of rent usually in crops but sometimes in obligatory labor. As he had stated in Les caracteres originaux, the emergence of the small landholder was one of the defining characteristics of French rural history. Although France was his starting point for defining research projects on rural history, he intended his project to generate comparative and cross-disciplinary research on European agrarian history. Yet in his work on rural history Bloch transformed France into a microcosm of Europe. He used France to illuminate research problems that he considered pertinent to Europe as a whole, and he claimed that rural France was in fact an ideal laboratory for the study of European agricultural civilization as a whole. The diversity of France and the multiple agrarian civilizations that Bloch found there made it a universal theater of research. In 1934 Bloch repeated his call for collective research on rural civilization to an audience of French scholars. In a proposal to the College de France, written for his campaign for a chair in the comparative history of European civilization, he outlined plans for an international investigation of European rural history. He proposed to pursue research on agrarian regimes as well as on evolving notions of personal liberty and servitude. Bloch again called for the use of a unified research questionnaire in order to solicit contributions from those outside of the University’s upper echelons. The standardized questionnaires allowed for more effective coordination in the scale and scope of research, and the coordination of comparative research would establish France’s intellectual leadership in an area and research method that had thus far been neglected beyond France’s borders. Bloch argued that his project would guide experts, scholars, local savants, and students in a vast collaborative project that would cross national frontiers as well as the intellectual and social boundaries created by university hierarchies. Between 1928 and 1930, Bloch had elaborated his approach to comparative history. From the outset Bloch eschewed the modern nation-state as his research terrain. To accept modern boundaries and national divisions within the formulation of a research project was to impose anachronistic categories on historically situated societies, groups, institutions, and economies. For Bloch effective comparison required researchers to recognize the fluidity of geographical frontiers. Bloch’s approach to comparative history drew heavily on Antoine Meillet’s work in comparative and historical linguistics, which had sought to redefine the study of European civilization through international study of dialects and language families. As much as Bloch admired the tools that Meillet had brought to the history of civilizations, he also saw historical linguistics as only one tool among others. Bloch contended that the cultural frontiers identified by historical and geographic linguistics did not necessarily correspond to the frontiers that could be identified by historians or human geographers. Bloch trusted the detection of multiplicity and the complex connections among linguistic, institutional, social, economic facts that made explaining change such a difficult undertaking. Above all he feared intellectual laziness, which tempted scholars to rely on categories or abstract concepts that too easily substituted for criticism, reflection, and intellectual flexibility. In interwar Europe, ethnicity was one of the abstractions that informed research on rural civilization, and many of Bloch’s commentaries on rural civilization contained sharp criticism of it. In a 1928 article on comparative history, he had criticized the effort by Friedrich Meitzen, the German specialist of agrarian civilization, to establish an ethnic map of Europe. In a 1934 review of German research on toponymy and ancient history, Bloch criticized scholars who attempted to write the history of race and ethnicity. In 1932 Bloch returned to the rural habitat in a review of the latest round of work that had emerged from the 1931 International Conference of Geographers. In a tangent on Slavic scholarship on the rural history of Eastern Europe, Bloch objected to the intrusion of nationalism into scholarship on European settlement patterns. The bulk of his article, though, dealt with the conceptual problems of writing on the rural habitat. Bloch developed Lefevre’s earlier recommendation that such terms as habitat, village, and hamlet be more clearly defined. Between its first meeting in 1925 and its final report in 1931, the International Committee on the Rural Habitat had elected to use a numerical formula to define the terms village and hamlet: X number of houses within a given area equaled a village, whereas fewer than X made up a hamlet. Emphasizing the importance of examining social groups in addition to habitat and landscape, Bloch sought to make the analysis of rural life intellectually subtle and less vulnerable to serving nationalist agenda. To the arbitrary numerical definition of the village that was offered by geographers, Bloch added a social definition the rural village. Arguing that geographers had overlooked the social nature of the village community, he contended that family or kinship groups often define villages and hamlets. He held that historians and social scientists in fact understood very little about the history of the family. During the late thirties he began to sharpen his criticisms of what he saw as the increasingly romantic nationalist strain in research on rural civilization. At the 1937 Congres international de folklore, Bloch overtly attacked Demangeon’s work on the rural habitat. According to Bloch, Demangeon had simplified the complexity of rural society by glorifying peasant civilization. In a paper for the 1939 International Conference of Sociologists, he proposed another research project in which he gave the guidelines for a study of village communities. Bloch’s 1939 proposal was not the first time that he had dealt with the social structures of rural civilization. Even in Lea caracteres originaux, he had taken care to differentiate among the social groups working the land, discussing the emergence of the small landholder and agricultural day laborers. Bloch’s plans for a study of the village community built on his interest in extending the analysis of rural civilization to include the structures of social life in addition to his earlier projects on cadastral records and the physical features of the rural habitat. 9S Bloch’s recommendations came with what he saw as the urgent need to arrest the intrusion of nationalism into the social sciences, and he attacked any effort to use research on rural life and the peasantry to indulge romantic and ethnic definitions of the nation. That concern about the nationalist overtones of research on rural society emerged in his articles on rural history. In an article for the catalog of the 1939 exhibition on the French agronomist Olivier de Serres, Bloch redoubled his attacks on the mythologization of peasant France. In his paper he scrutinized the writings of nineteenth century French historians, pointing out their simplification of French history in using such abstractions as the Gallic or Frankish races. Bloch had clearly wearied of the ways in which discussions of European settlement patterns and rural civilization served as a blank screen for the projection of politically motivated descriptions of national unity, colonization, conquest, or invented antagonisms among races or ethnic groups. CONCLUSION Historians of Annales have often focused on the resistance among most historians to Bloch and Febvre’s efforts to reform the historical profession. Their studies have neglected the strategies that Bloch and Febvre used to recruit participants for journal and for their efforts to negotiate alliances with other fields in the social sciences. More often than not, Febvre’s and Bloch’s attempt to bring the fields of sociology, geography, linguistics, folklore, and history together around such topics as work, prices, or rural history revealed significant differences of method. Thus, the journal’s cross-disciplinary alliances yielded limited success in structuring genuinely cross-disciplinary collaboration. In order to direct historians away from the writing of political history, Bloch and Febvre adopted collective research as a strategy for rallying historians to the journal and to define research problems. For Febvre collaborative research furnished researchers who generate raw data which can then be used by expert researchers. Through his involvement with the Commission des recherches collectives, he negotiated an alliance with folklorists to organize amateur researchers for the purposes of gathering data on traditional ways of life, village communities, and peasant customs. In Bloch’s work team research functioned as a form of pedagogy through which he instructed his colleagues in the provinces and the students on techniques and sources that were critical to writing the history of rural civilization. Through Annales Bloch worked to alter the intellectual terrain of history. However, the historian remained the guardian of the nation’s symbols and heritage, just as it had been earlier in the Third Republic. Rather than focus on political history, Bloch defined France through the diversity of its rural civilization. At the end of the thirties, Bloch became increasingly cognizant of the political implications of research on rural France. In his reviews and through their leadership of research projects both Bloch helped to position the discipline of history as the critic of fields that contributed to the study of rural France. During the forties the study of rural France became increasingly politicized by the Vichy government. Works Cited Besnard, Philippe, ed. The Sociological Domain: The Durkheiminas and the Founding of French Sociology. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1983. Burke, Peter. The French Historical Revolution: The Annales School, 1929-1989. Cambridge: Polity, 1990. Clark, Terry Nichols. Prophets and Patrons: The French University and the Emergence of the Social Sciences. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1973. Dosse, Francois. The New History in France: The Triumph of Annales. Translated by Peter V. Conroy. Chicago: University Illinois Press, 1994. Fink, Carole. Marc Bloch: A Life in History. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1989. Friedman, Susan W. Marc Bloch, Sociology, and Geography: Encountering Changing Disciplines. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996. Iggers, Georg. New Directions in European Historiography. Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 1975. Hunt, Lynn. â€Å"French History in the Last Twenty Years: The Rise and Fall of the Annales Paradigm,† Journal of Contemporary History 21 (1986): 209-24. Kain, Roger J. P. and Elizabeth Baigent. The Cadastral Map in the Service of the State: A History of Property Mapping. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1992. Keylor, William. Academy and Community: The Foundation of the French Historical Profession. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1975. Lebovics, Herman. True France: The Wars over Cultural Identity, 1900-1945. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1992. Stoianovich, Traian. French Historical Method: The Annales Paradigm. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1976. Stone, Lawrence. The Past and the Present Revisited, 2nd ed. New York: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1987. Weber, Eugen. The Hollow Years: France in the 1930s. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1994. Wallerstein, Immanuel. Unthinking Social Science: The Limits of Nineteenth-Century Paradigms. New York: Polity Press, 1991. Wallerstein, Immanuel. â€Å"Annales as Resistance,† Review 1 (1978): 5-7.

Micro Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Micro - Term Paper Example Yet, in the economic cycle consumer is inevitable to business’s working and survival. As any produced good or service basically relies on consumer’s demand, who consumes it eventually. Thus, consumer’s demand, choice, preferences and decision making are significant aspects of micro economic system as they shed light on how any consumer chooses to exert his influence on any economic activity. Similarly, consumer is faced with the option of choosing from among the diverse products to meet his needs in most efficient way and likewise, utilizing his asset/cash in a prudent manner. Now how a consumer chooses and spends his earning to invest in the capital of the company is a comprehensive and diligent process, which mainly focuses on how two parties (business owner and consumer) involved take business and spending decisions. The main factors which impact the purchase inclination and decision of a consumer are price of the good or services, quality, reliability, durability and feasibility. However, there are many other factors as well, which influence the preferences of the consumer as well like fashion, marketing, government policies, and social or religious preferences. Yet, the core idea to learn about marketing strategy relies in the understanding of consumer decision making (when and how he decides to pay for goods or services). The term which describes how a consumer makes his decision t earn maximum advantage from the purchase any god or services is known as utility. This utility enables the consumer to spend more than usual on the goods/services, which benefit him in more than usual manner. However, not all the consumers can benefit any product/services in a similar way. Thus, diverse level of utility are associated with different types of consumers and this diverse nature of utility creates distinctiveness in the demand of goods/services too. However, this consumer inclination or decision making is received in the form of raw

Can you Light Your Water on Fire Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Can you Light Your Water on Fire - Movie Review Example Fox set out across America looking for information about the methods of drilling natural gas and their effects on the environment and people’s health and areas within the drilling locations. Locally, he paid a visit to Dimock, Susquehanna County, where the drilling of natural gas had already been happening. A family that he profiled had had worries about their supply of water being contaminated. He established similar worries in inhabitants of other states that were host to drilling, such as Texas, Wyoming, Utah, and Colorado (Www.theoildrum.com). One of the most significant concerns presented by the movie is the ruining of watersheds. The waters are being contaminated, and fishes die. The movie also shows inhabitants of a region drilled in Pennsylvania who reveal their ability to set ablaze the water oozing from their kitchen sinks. Another serious concern is that the inhabitants, including their pets, developed severe health problems, as a result of contaminated water after the drilling started. Therefore, health concern is another crucial issue. The movie reveals that hydraulic fracturing poses an intolerable risk to public health, and thus should be brought to a stop. Chevron argues that developing this resource of Shale’s natural gas can facilitate enhanced fuel job growth, strengthened economies and energy security. He says that natural gas from shale rock is providing the U.S. with cleaner, affordable, reliable and reliably produced energy. Chevron says that natural gas is the cleanest-burning conservative fuel that produces lower greenhouse gas’ levels discharges than heavier hydrocarbon fuels such as oil and coal. Natural gas resources that have been developed from shale rock have brought about cheaper natural gas for consumers in the U.S., making it cheaper for Americans to generate electricity and heat their homes from natural gas (Www.chevron.com). " Shale Gas | Energy Sources | Chevron." Chevron

Rebuttal of an Evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Rebuttal of an Evaluation - Essay Example He has said that this pain is expressed through â€Å"The Silent Scream† (Rice) that cannot be heard but can be seen. God is the creator of life and Satan is the destroyer, hence he has opined that abortion in way worship of Satan himself. Rice strongly announces his vote for right to life for the foetus and also told not to impose a decision of someone else’s on a coming child through deciding on his life and death. Rice’s argument against abortion lacks rationality and an emotional appeal rather than a reasoned one. The Silent Scream claim of Rice classifies the foetus as living and thus has a right to life. Biologically it is alive, but being alive neither provides it full human rights nor a right to live through the gestation period. Question might be asked why so? There are a bunch of reasons first of all a foetus carries human chromosome and left to grow it will be a human one day. It is a potential person, but our hair follicle also contains the same numbe r of DNA that it has. A zygote and a hair follicle contain the same attributes in terms of chromosomes and thus a zygote is as much a human as a hair follicle.

Argument speech Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Argument speech - Essay Example Lets commence with the strongest argument which supports the claim that technology is detrimental to a child’s creativity as outlined above. 1. It is very easy and simple now days to write about an idea unlike in the past where the idea had to be thoughtful. Today, a student or child undertaking a creative writing task will look for an idea, search it online and then read the relevant articles before writing his own. This reduces the thoughtful process (Noddings, 2013). 2. Batten & Russell (1995) stated that the use of technology elements such as spell checkers and grammar checkers has made students to be scared of performing handwritten tasks since these tools are absent to correct or check their mistakes. Thus, students or children who have developed this dependency will be reluctant to use a pen since they will are scared or afraid of failing. Transition: The use of technology should be minimized since it leads to poor development of critical thinking skills and low confidence in handwritten tasks among students and children. Further, there is another significant reason as to how technology reduces creativity among children and students. 2. Playing enables children’s braid brains to develop properly. Lack of play and the use of technology reduce brain development. This limits the ability of a child since poorly developed brains are less efficient when it comes to creativity (Ginsburg, 2007) c. (impact statement) Although technology is vital for enhancing learning and creativity in children or students, its draw backs outweigh its benefits. Children and students need to get first hand engagement through play and interactions with real people or things. First hand interactions stimulate brain development and learning leading to an improvement in creativity. Transition: Children should minimize the use of technology since it tend s to reduce their creativity. Rather, they should interact more with people in addition to playing. Below

Human Immunodeficiency Virus Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Human Immunodeficiency Virus - Essay Example Heterosexual infection remains the primary route of transmission for the virus in the country. HIV is rapidly transforming itself into a different disease which means that innovative and creative strategies need to be formulated for achieving optimum results. Information exchange and accessibility is another strategy that can lead to superior outcomes. A preventive strategy needs to be modified so that poor and marginalized communities have access to resources. The NHS should strive to develop a coordinated database that can be shared by private health organizations and voluntary organizations. This can be used to ensure that superior treatments are available for patients belonging to vulnerable and susceptible risk groups. The United Kingdom has an advanced and well-developed health system. Public health indicators have been improving due to the advent of technology and rapid interventions. However considerable problems continue to exert a strain on the health system. HIV is considered to be a major problem in the United Kingdom due to a number of reasons. It can inflict a heavy toll on individuals in terms of financial, emotional, and psychological problems (Hough, 2003: Pg 644). It can lead to high levels of anxiety, stress, depression, and frustration among individuals. Further many individuals hesitate to disclose HIV due to the social stigmas associated with it. Empirical studies have documented that heterosexuals and homosexuals comprise the leading risk group for HIV. Minorities are vulnerable to the disease due to the lack of effective and efficient procedures (Flowers & Duncan, 2003: Pg 179). The lack of information means that many individuals forego preventive treatment in order to reduce co sts. This can be deleterious for the NHS that seeks to maintain an integrated and coordinated program for HIV management and prevention. The NHS needs to formulate an efficient and effective system that can be used to attain excellence. A comprehensive strategy should focus on HIV prevention and patient empowerment. Further there is the need to deploy efficient and effective strategies that can be used to attain excellence in combating the disease. This research paper will seek to analyze the issue of HIV as a major public issue in the United Kingdom. It will formulate a smart strategy that can be used to enhance the process of HIV detection, prevention, and management. Background HIV is a condition that can be debilitating and incapacitating for many individuals. It leads the weakening of the immunological system. It can lead to fatal outcomes if not properly treated. HIV can be transmitted through various means. Sexual intercourse is the main cause of the transfer of the disease (Lee, 2003: Pg 2201). Contaminated blood and needles can also lead to infection of individuals with HIV. Finally children who are born from HIV infected mothers are likely to be diagnosed with the disease. HIV has become a major public issue in the United Kingdom. This is due to the fact that it can cause significant health problems in the population (UNAIDS, 2000: pg 23). It can lead to negative outcomes that must be tackled in a systematic and logical manner. The United Kingdom has a comprehensive system for tackling HIV. It has developed a robust program for surveillance and management of

Equine Exercise Physiology, Fitness and Training Assignment

Equine Exercise Physiology, Fitness and Training - Assignment Example The pulse rates are highly depended on the level of stress experienced at a particular time. In this case, the heart pumps more than 1.5 litres of blood per beat. When responding to a race the horse increases its red blood cell count up to 65 per cent with more than half of it being stored in the spleen. These red blood cells lack nucleus and contains a component of haemoglobin protein that is responsible for transporting oxygen. The combination of the respiratory and cardiovascular system encourage a sustainable oxygen consumption potential .Thus, the horse’s heart has the ability to control the thickness of the blood that is redirected from internal organs to muscles that keep it in motion. The supply of oxygen to muscles facilitates the production of energy in the muscles. When running two or more furlongs, a horse derives more than half of its energy percentage anaerobically as it involves the heart rate of above 150 beats per minute. This involves volatile amounts of power characterized by very fast galloping, short sprints and acceleration. Anaerobic respiration in this case involves the breaking down of glycogen at the absence of oxygen (Hodgson, McKeever and McGowan 2013, p.20). The muscle cells of an over worked horse would contain a variety of fast-twitch muscle fibre types depending on its speed, pace and duration of exercise. These muscles will include the Type II A or B fibres. Type II A allows the muscles to contract fast and contain glycolytic fibres that propel the horse to more speed and endurance. The second type B contains low fast contracting oxidative fibres. The biopsy of endurance horses would reveal slow-twitch fibres (Type I fibres) that have the ability to contract slowly as they maintain posture and exercise at low levels of fatigue resistant (Hodgson et al. 2013, p.12). During endurance training, the heart rate of horses is maintained at 150 bpm, thus reducing the production of

Buddhism in East Asia Essay Example for Free

Buddhism in East Asia Essay Many people will choose Confucianism as the most important factor in understating East Asian culture. Confucianism, indeed, is crucial in understanding the culture. However, one should not overlook the influence of Buddhism on Confucianism and many areas of East Asian culture. Buddhism, one of the world’s oldest religions and a philosophy, is shared by East Asian countries, thus in order to fully appreciate the East Asian culture, one should learn about Buddhism and its significant influence on the culture. This paper will discuss Buddhism shared by East Asian culture and how the religion played an enormous role in shaping the mindset of people affecting their culture. Buddhism started approximately in the 6th century BCE, starting with the birth of the Buddha in India. The religion then spread through Central Asia, East Asia, and Southeast Asia (Keown). Among many branches of Buddhism, Mahayana has been diffused from first west, north, and east throughout East Asia (Skilton). The fundamental principles of Mahayana are liberation from suffering and the belief in the existence of Bodhisattva. Bodhisattva is someone who achieved Nirvana, the state of being free from both suffering and the cycle of rebirth (Keown). One can find a carved wood elongated figure of Bodhisattva Guanyin (1999. 13. 0003) from Spurlok Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, IL . In this wooden figure, Guanyin is barefoot with hair wrapped in knot, wears ornate robes and holds a basket with flowers (Spurlock Museum). One can also find a photo of Bronze Seated Buddha in National Museum at Kyongbok-Kung, Seoul, South Korea (1986. 27. 0017) in Spurlock Museum . These are an important artifact and a photo because one can easily find very similar artifacts of Guanyin or Buddha in China, Korea, and Japan. It shows one how Buddhism was shared by East Asian countries (Yu). Upon first encountering Buddhism, many Chinese scholars regarded it as merely a foreign religion. This caused Buddhism to transform itself into a system that could co-exist within the Chinese way of life. Thus, filial devotion, one of the most valued by Confucianists, in Buddhist teachings became the core texts in China. It further strengthened the Confucian value by claiming that the salvation of an individual was a benefit to the society and family. Therefore, Buddhism could spread well in the Chinese population (Chen). From this point, Buddhism spread to Korea and Japan, and Buddhist ideology began to merge with Confucianism. This caused many Confucian scholars to redefine Confucianism as Neo-Confucianism (Chen). While Neo-Confucianism adapted Buddhist ideas, many Neo-Confucianists strongly opposed Buddhism. Nonetheless, Buddhism offered Confucianism important ideas such as the nature of the soul and the relation of the individual to the cosmos, ideas not explored by Confucianism (Chen). Again, Neo-Confucianism was spread through Korea and Japan, and they were all deeply influenced for more than half a millennium (Chen). Moreover, many other indigenous religions and philosophical systems in East Asia integrated the ideas and teachings of Buddhism, so it came to be a natural part of living. In conclusion, the teachings of Buddhism not only influenced in shaping the mindset of East Asian people, but also affected their philosophy of life.

Bribery In International Marketing Marketing Essay

Bribery In International Marketing Marketing Essay Bribery and corruption is a way of life in many countries and these practices affect the way international business is regularly conducted. However, in most of these countries, it is illegal to offer or receive bribes or engage in corrupt practices. Yet these corrupt practices are a part of the culture or normal way of doing businesses. Unless companies conform to such practices, in many cases, international business cannot be transacted. This essay will try to provide discussion about bribery and corruption in international trade, with examples from very different point of view in according to the principal ethical system, despite whatever religious, realistic and nature. Analyses of the case of Siemens bribery scandal related to ethical issues will be investigated. Bribery is an important issue of concern for many companies. Confrontation of bribery vary across many countries, but everyone has a different concept about it, such as in Hong Kong and Greece, here, managers are less critical of bribery in certain situations than that of the Americas. Paying bribery carries with it a great risk to damaging the companys standing with the country which the briberies are paid, and at home too. Moreover, there is also the risk that the commercial culture of the company will become more open-minded of several of other practices at the legal issues. There is also evidence to suggest that those countries with the reputation for bribery and corruption damage themselves, as it reflects in their economic growth, has a low rates for high level of corruption, like that of Nigeria. It is true to say that bribery in international markets can lead to astonishment, bewilderment and misunderstanding for expatriates, at both organisational and personal levels. This essay examines bribery from two viewpoints and tries to develop procedures to bridge them. The first viewpoint is relativist, accepting that different cultures have different ethical values and not imposing an expatriates values onto another culture. The second viewpoint is universalist, averring that ethics apply anywhere in the world, and is based on psychological and economic grounds. To resolve these two approaches, it is suggested that trying to understand the cultural forces that determine home and overseas attitudes to the many forms of bribery, this is a first step to adjustment. The next step is the development of a global or regional code of conduct that allows flexibility within a gray zone. The result could be an evolving code that adapts to the many dimensions of bribery for each countrys situation, in a manner that is a negotiation between the cultural, psychological and economic values of an expatriates organisation and of local officials. Introduction International marketing is complex as foreign environments are different from home environments, as they differ on physical, cultural, legalpolitical, economic, competitive and distributive dimensions (Ball and McCulloch 1996). Due to these environments, marketers can adapt parts of the marketing mix for each overseas country or region (Hoang 1997), for example, a company might alter its packaging, distribution channels and advertisements in each of its international markets. These marketing mix issues are not the only ones facing international marketers. Cultural management issues are important too, and bribery is the most important of these, at least for Australian and US marketing managers (Armstrong et al. 1990). For example, should a firm pay a customs official to process a shipment through normal channels? Should a firm pay education expenses in its home country for the child of a prince in an overseas country that the firm wants to enter? Should payments to distributors be paid into two separate accounts when one is apparently illegal? Should funds in the public relations budget be paid to someone who appears to do nothing for public relations other than being related to someone in power? Issues like these are important to someone from a culture where these activities are unusual. 1937 Nevertheless, little research has been done on the ethics of international marketing (Armstrong and Sweeney 1994), and interest in ethical issues in general has been mainly empirical (Donaldson 1989). Moreover, levels of corruption vary widely around the world, as seen in a survey of 52 countries by Transparency International (1997). Furthermore, the issue of bribery in particular is often considered within only one of the six different environments above, and bribery is sometimes discussed in the legal environment chapter of a textbook for example, Keegan and Green 1997), where the effect of the United States Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) on that countrys ability to compete with Europe in international markets is covered (Graham 1984). Alternatively, bribery is sometimes in the public relations part of a textbook (Phillips Doole and Lowe 1994), where it is discussed along with concern about corporate citizenship and employee safety. In addition to this, bribery can be treated as a separate, ethical issue, usually based on cultural issues (Donaldson 1996). However, the aim of this essay is to consider bribery from across several environments such as legal, cultural, economic and competitive, in order to develop a managerial approach to the issue. Contribution is an integrated and up-to-date review of these several viewpoints in a form that international marketing managers might find useful. As well as, the review is from a non-US view, while several other papers have a US view that is different from other developed countries (Donaldson 1996; Mayo 1992; Across the Board 1993). It is concluded that managers can develop a code of conduct for the several dimensions of bribery that bridges the relativist and universalist views. This essay has four main sections. Firstly, bribery in developing countries is looked at from a Western view point that aims toshow the roots of bribery may be common to both. This leads into a cultural, relativist view of bribery, which suggests that bribery is appropriate if it is normal in the culture of an overseas country. However, counter arguments to this relativist view are then presented, including psychological and economic arguments. Finally, facing these two contrasting positions, the essay considers how management could handle bribery. In this essay, bribery is defined broadly: bribery is offering, or promising to pay, anything of value to influence an act or decision by officials in a foreign government, including politicians, a political party or a bureaucrat to assist in obtaining, retaining, or directing business to any person (based on the FCPAs definition). This definition does not cover issues such as human rights or child labor use, sexual harassment or industrial espionage. Our definition of dealing with officials about business matters is the one of major concern to marketing managers in particular. 1938 Four Roots of Bribery From a Western point of view, bribery sometimes appears to be caused merely by the greed of locals, especially poor locals. however bribery has four, more complex roots which appear to exist in both Western and developing countries. Firstly, a bribe can be simply linked to a tip to insure promptness at a restaurant, just as a restaurant kitchen can sometimes have inefficient processes that require human involvement to overcome, so can the bureaucracy of a developing country. Bribes may be seen to be a way of purchasing government services when a government cannot afford to provide salaries that are adequate for the service to be provided free to every person (Tullock 1996). Thus, bribery may be a form of privatisation that makes the wealthy who can afford it, pay for a service. Indeed, the relatively high-principled FCPA that tries to limit the involvement of US firms in bribery, actually permits payments to officials to do their normal duties while disallowing payments to high-level officials for special favors. A prime example is a US business person can bribe a customs officer to expedite an inspection but not to skip it altogether. However, the next three roots of bribery may not be allowed by the FCPA. Secondly, a bribe can be considered to be a normal promotion activity. Such as that of BMW cars are provided free to family members of politicians in Western countries for the spillover effect on the prestige of the car. If the wife of the Premier of Victoria, Australia has free use of a BMW, why cannot officials in overseas countries who are close to real power also be given gifts to help promotion. Similarly, many Western companies provide corporate hospitality at sporting venues such as at the Ascot, Henley and Wimbledon in the name of promotion (Ramsay 1990). Therefore, how is this kind of promotion different from some bribery in developing countries? This leads to the third root of bribery, which is related to the general idea of gifts to show respect and gratitude to a person in a relationship, at certain times. Gift giving is common at Christmas time in Western countries, and gift giving at birthday and holidays may serve the same purpose in overseas countries (Onkvist and Shaw 1997). As interactions between buyers and sellers proceed, a social relationship is developed that can be enriched by gift giving. Social relationships are often characterised by the exchange of gifts and hospitality as trust develops between the parties. In seeking to build relationships of trust, the exchange of gifts may be seen as an entirely appropriate act of social bonding. (Wood 1995, p. 11). This reciprocal gift and favor giving is more important in some Asian countries than in the West, simply because of their cultural values (Hofstede 1991, p. 169). Finally, in food and other markets in developing markets, the occasional expatriate customers are usually asked to pay more than locals because the stallholder knows that his or her usual price is usually a far smaller proportion of the discretionary spending of an expatriate than that of a local. A dual price system 1939 reflects the dual economies that exist in many developing countries and do not exist to the same extent in western countries. That is, a poorly paid overseas official with an extended family living in his small house may consider it reasonable to ask a wealthy foreign business person staying at a five star hotel to pay more than the usual low prices for labor and other services in his or her country. Thus a bribe may be seen to improve equity just as a progressive taxation system aims to do in developed countries. The inequity without bribes in a developing country may be even greater than in a market or a taxation system of a developed country, because the official will have high local power from their immediate and extended family, friends and political party despite having low monetary wealth. In contrast to this , the foreign business person has lower power despite having higher monetary wealth. That is, bribery may not violate the Christian but sometimes be considered to be a universal doctrine of love you neighbor like yourself, but actually affirm it (contra Coady in Way 1996, p. 19). Overall in brief then, bribery is seen to exist and has roots that exist in both a Western and an overseas countries. Cultural View of Bribery Implicit in the discussion above is a relativist, cultural understanding of bribery that what is right or wrong, good or bad, depends on ones culture. However, this argument implies that there are no golden rules underlying most human behavior (Way 1996, p. 19), that is, ones own culture is the major influence on views about bribery. This concept of culture therefore deserves to be explored further. Culture has five dimensions: the relationship between the individual and the collective group, power differentials within society, masculinity and femininity, dealing with uncertainty and Confucian dynamism (Hofstede 1991). Several of these dimensions strongly influence views about bribery. The first dimension of individualism/collectivism would appear to be the most related to bribery (Tanzi 1995; in Onkvist and Shaw 1997, p. 175). Developing countries are more collective than developed countries, that is, officials place greater emphasis on their responsibilities to their own extended families and friends, than do Western business people. However individualism/collectivism is not the only cultural dimension affecting bribery. Developing countries are often high on the second culture dimension of power distance, that is, individual officials with which marketing managers deal have major obligations to their supervisors. Thus, the officials will support a bribery culture if it is related to power as some of the four roots of culture above were shown to be, and especially so if their own superiors accept and foster bribery. In addition to this, some Asian countries are more concerned with 1940 virtuous behavior than the abstract truth (which is related to the dimension of Confucian dynamism). An officials actual behavior toward his or her immediate and extended family, and toward friends and superiors is more important than abstract universal values applying to all humans, to which some Westerners cling (Hofstede 1991). Onkvist and Shaw (1997, p. 175) appropriately sum up this relativist, cultural view of bribery: the concept of arms-length relationships would seem strange and alien. It would even seem immoral. The idea that, economically speaking, one should treat relatives and friends in the same way as strangers would appear bizarre. In brief, a cultural view of bribery initially suggests that expatriate marketing managers should simply fit in with local bribery practices wherever he or she goes. However, the cultural relativism approach to bribery developed above cannot be the basis for a marketing managers approach to bribery, because awareness of cultural differences is only the starting point for international cooperation. That is, a marketing manager cannot completely adapt to a different culture and deal in bribes with no regard for his or her own cultural values, for an appreciation of anothers culture does not mean forgoing ones own culture. Successful intercultural encounters presuppose that the partners believe in their own values. If not, they have become alienated persons, lacking a sense of identity (Hofstede 1991, p. 237). To handle the issue of bribery comprehensively for a real world individuals involved in business, managers need to consider issues other than cultural differences per se, and we turn to these relatively universalist issues next. Economic and Managerial Issues of Bribery Economic advantages of bribery for the receiving official and for the company that receives preferential treatment ahead of its competitors, are obvious. However, there are economic disadvantages for both the taking and the giving country. First, bribery can send incorrect signals about demand price and supply cost in a market economy. More directly, bribery adds to the cost of contracts and goods roughly by five percent in Asia (Kraar 1995), this could perhaps be even more in some instances. Secondly, it distorts the decision-making processes too. When contractors are selected on the basis of what the decision-maker will receive personally rather than the contractors ability to do the best, lowest cost job, then the whole economy suffers misallocation of resources. This form of bribery was perhaps a major influence in the recent meltdown of some Asian currencies. Thirdly, bribery can lead to industrial standards being dropped with social and economic repercussions upon the firm. For example, workers may work in substandard conditions that may impair productivity, people may die in buildings that collapse due to building standards inappropriate, and the environment and firms future may be hurt by over-zealous timber-felling. 1941 Moreover, there are other disadvantages of bribery that are particularly important for the giving country. Firstly, home and foreign customers help pay for uneconomic spending in bribes, often for the enrichment of a few overseas individuals who become more wealthy than ordinary citizens of the giving country. In 1995, bribery cost businesses almost $45 billion worldwide (Kaltnhauser 1996). Secondly, bribery could be used against the giving organisation, in the case of managers returning to the home country and rejoining the salesforce at home could accept bribes for practices that the giving organisation does not want done at home. That is, a relativist position that allows a match between expatriate individuals and the corrupt organisations overseas, may also foster at home the separation of personal and organisational moral standards, with consequences at home that the organisation does not want. In brief then, bribery has economic and social disadvantages that a purely cultural understanding leading to a relativist attitude to it, may hide. How Can Managers Handle Bribery in a Competitive Market? Given the two contrasting views about bribery above, what can managers in a non-US company do to bridge the gap between a relativist and a universalist approach to ethics. The practices and what managers in a US firm do is clear, they obey the FCPA or get around it by channeling funds through an agent who then handles the bribery behind a screen. Some managers might try to offset a competitors bribe with a better, total product You might offer a lower price, a better product, better distribution or better advertising to offset the benefit of the bribe to the decision influencer (Keegan 1989, p. 201). This US position is an idealist position that many non-US managers may not adopt, for it assumes that the better, total product will win the contract, when in fact, bribery occurs to oftentimes successfully ensure that it does not. Moreover, competing firms from European countries and Australia are allowed to treat bribes as a tax-deductible business expense, reducing the after-tax effect of the bribe. In April 1996, the OECD passed a resolution saying bribes should not be taxdeductible and in 1993, Transparency International, a not-for-profit organisation with chapters in 40 countries, tried to increase awareness of briberys existence, but anti-foreign bribery legislation outside the United States does not yet exist. Moreover, one is never sure of the level of bribes that competitors are offering for a project, and so deciding on how much to improve the total product to fight bribery is difficult. In addition, bribery is sometimes paid for day-to-day operations as well as a project, and so discussion of a better, total product may be of limited usefulness. For instance, if bribes are not paid by an individual firm, it may experience bureaucratic delays on wharves and in warehouses and its goods may 1942 be stolen, while its bribe-paying competitors do not experience these costly problems. In brief, curbing bribery from an idealistic position may be quixotic until the United Nations or a similar organisation arranges for a multinational, legal approach to it. Given the present, imperfect world within which companies operate, some more options to handle bribery are available. One option is to choose to internationalise into the less-corrupt countries. Clear examples of corrupt countries are China, Indonesia and India, which are rated among the most corrupt countries to do business in the world after Russia; indeed, corruption in Indonesiaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦is almost a way of life. Only Singapore is more squeaky-clean than most Western countries (Hard graft in Asia 1995, p. 61). Organisation code of ethics. There is another option to approaching the ethical gaps in international marketing. Firstly, within the home firm, managers could develop an organisation code of ethics for any non-home country within which it operates, or maybe for a particular region of many countries. For all these countries, this code would outline the degree of standardisation and adaptation in each of eight or so dimensions of bribery, such as expediting bureaucratic processes, promotion, corporate hospitality, gifts, dual prices, wage rates, occupational health and safety standards, and lobbying to influence government policies. The code would take into consideration the cultural, legal-political, economic, competitive and distributive environments of each foreign market and the home organisation. For instance, it might specify when bribes appear on an invoice and when they may not (adapted Cadbury 1987). Moreover, acknowledging the greatest differences between an expatriates and his or her home organizations ethical systems, and the local environments ethical standards, this code might specify when some purchases or tenders are outsourced away from the organisation to a local agent. familiarisation tour of the home organisation would help home country managers appreciate overseas operations, and helping with scholarships to home country universities would foster long-term links when the students return. Of course, managers need to know relevant national and international laws or hire reputable lawyers who know local laws and customs. Although local legal and judicial systems can be underdeveloped, flawed and flouted (for example, with bribes), a firm may have in its global code that local laws will always be observed, even if the risks involved in flouting them, even though competitors may be prepared to take the risks. Finally, to help implementation of the code, the organisation could institute and code of ethics sensitisation training before managers enter an overseas country and when they return, based on cross-cultural sensitisation sessions like those discussed in Hofstede (1991, p. 232). Ethics audits could also be carried out, emphasising improvement and learning about the processes used, such as TQM continual improvement programs do. Furthermore, these audits would foster an evolving awareness of ethical considerations for each of the eight dimensions in a particular organisation, and in a particular country. Conclusion Evidence suggests that bribery is a fact of life in international marketing that can lead to astonishment, bewilderment and misunderstanding for expatriates at both organisational and personal levels. Two viewpoints about bribery were examined. The first viewpoint was relativist, accepting that bribery has the same roots in Western and other countries and so different ethical systems may be simply the result of different cultural values. In contrast, the second, universalist viewpoint is that a set of ethical values applies anywhere in the world, based on psychological and economic grounds. To bridge these two views, it is strongly suggested to try to understand the cultural forces that determine home and overseas attitudes to the many forms of bribery, which will indeed be a first step to adjustment. The next step is to develop a global or regional code of conduct that allows flexibility within a gray zone for some situations in particular countries, based on win-win adjustments. The result could be an evolving code of conduct that adapts to the many dimensions of bribery for each countrys situation, in a manner that is a negotiation between the cultural, psychological and economic values of an expatriates organisation and of local officials. 1945

The Advantages Of Renewable Energy Resources Environmental Sciences Essay

The Advantages Of Renewable Energy Resources Environmental Sciences Essay The rapid growth of the world population leads to energy demand on a rise especially in developing countries. In addition, due to the limited ability to supply of non-renewable there are a number of huge challenges that are posed to the population of the world. This situation leads to the risk of depletion of cheap fossil energy and environmental pollution as well as climate change. According to Loir, there will probably be sufficient oil and gas for this century, and coal for 2 or more (Loir .N 2007, p.843). Or Edwin Cartlidge reports the annual total consumption of energy sources by the world population is about 1.41017 kWh, of which the proportion of the fossil energy has accounted for 90% of the energy sources used (Physics World 7/2007). Therefore, researchers around the world have been constantly trying to find solutions to diversify energy sources and reduce harmful emissions and greenhouse emissions into the environment and renewable energy sources have taken the spotlight. T hus, what is the renewable energy? The Oxford Dictionary () defines renewable energy as natural energy that can be used again and again and will never run out. There are four major types of renewable energy: solar, hydro, wind and geothermal energy. This paper will discuss advantages and disadvantages that renewable energy resource (RES) brings, as well as analysis the importance of RES to the worlds future. 2. Discussion of findings 2.1 Advantages of renewable energy resources (RES) The use of renewable energy has many potential benefits, including human beings and environment. Firstly, one of the most important  advantages of renewable energy  is that it is renewable. Essence of RES is derivation from natural processes so the energy is sustainable and never run out. Truly, renewable energy is really important and necessary to human beings when fossil fuels are more and more exhausted. With the never-ending supply of renewables, we would feel secure when having abundant supply of energy to last our planet, our human race and our economies, for generations and ever. Khemani (2011) says: As long as human life is there, there will be earth, sun, wind and water, and the energy from these sources will also be available as long as they are there. With the abundance from many renewable resources and development of science and technology, he strongly believes that renewable energy can meet the worlds energy needs today and tomorrow. Secondly, another benefit of renewable energy technologies is that ability of providing a measure of assurance of continued electricity supply at times when it otherwise might be threatened. In some circumstances, renewable energy technologies can be more reliable than other forms of electricity. For example, solar electricity systems can be used after storms for response and recovery. Renewable energy technologies such as generators powered by photovoltaics (PV) can supply electricity if the grid fails. Often the sun comes out in the immediate aftermath of a devastating storm. It can take weeks to repair the electricity grid and restore power to all customers. If battery storage is added to the system, it can supply electricity even after the sun goes down or through several cloudy or stormy days. Energy is needed to provide lighting, heating, air conditioning, cooking, transport and to  power  all the technologies in the family home or business premises (Parker 2010) Moreover, renewable energy not only is regarded as an unlimited resource but also plays an important role to regional development. Renewable energy and energy efficiency can help revitalize rural communities. For example, Wind turbines and solar panel systems can provide energy and provide rural communities with new tax revenue. Farmers on windy lands can lease space to wind developers, earning thousands of dollars for each turbine every year. One of the greatest alternative energy benefits is that it is so much better for environment than the use of  fossil fuels that contribute heavily to issues such as acid rain, smog and global warming. On the contrary, renewable energy has little or no waste products such as carbon dioxide or other chemical pollutants. Renewable energy systems produce much lower carbon dioxide emissions as opposed to carbon-intensive fossil fuels such as oil, coal and natural gas while they are being used only a small amount of fuel during the manufacturing of equipment (Walser 2012). With renewable energies, energy is usually converted from one form to another without the creation of pollutants. Chandler (2006) takes solar energy as example, light energy from the sun can be converted directly to electricity using photovoltaic without the production of any pollutants like carbon dioxide or other greenhouse gasses. Similarly, wind power energy relies on moving air and converts it into electricity wit hout polluting the environment. Therefore, it is obvious that the non-pollution or minimal impacts on environment are the positive advantages of renewable energy. 2.2 Disadvantages of renewable energy resources (RES) Although it is obvious to recognize the human as well as environmental advantages of utilizing renewable forms of energy, we must also consider some limiting sides from the energy. The biggest disadvantage of renewable energy is that the cost of the energy is relatively higher than non-renewable energy. The initial costs of renewable energy still make many people ignore it completely when comparing it with fossil fuel on two aspects: total cost and over the same time period. For example, installation of solar energy water heater costs many times in comparison with a heater, so they decided to buy heaters for hot water solution. According Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) (2008) reported that turbine installation costs $ 47.5 billion; by contrast, we only have to spend a much smaller amount of money to build thermal power station about $ 2,25 billion (Shah 2011). He also pointed that other incidental costs such as maintenance costs and production costs cause price increasing. Generally, it is price that the reason has prevented approaching and using clean energy as compared to the fossil fuel sources of energy. Another distinct disadvantage is relying too much on weather conditions and geographic locations to create energy (Sinclair 2011). Each types of renewable sources is just better suited to some places. This means that you cannot use each of these renewable sources in all locations. For instance, when using geo-thermal energy, you must be in a location that provides the environment for geo-thermal energy to be produced. Likewise, we cannot generate hydro-electric power without having a fast-flowing water source, such as a river or waterfall. In addition, the energy also brings some inconvenient problems. Take solar energy water heater as an example, it is inefficient because in summer ambient temperature are high and the use of hot water is not needed; however, in the winter we could not have hot water due to low light of the sun. Shah (2011) claimed that despite the fact that most renewable energy sources are more environmentally friendly they may still have a negative impact on the environment. He stated that hydroelectricity projects can cause a dramatic change in the development of wildlife and ecosystem along the river and flood risks. 2.3 Can renewable energy supply the Worlds energy needs? With the significant benefits from renewable energy, we cant deny that roles of it are more and more important. Nowadays, by advances and achievements of science and technology scientists are having every confidence in bright future of renewable energy. According to the report of The  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2011, renewable sources occupied about 13 percent of the worlds energy in 2008 and the proportion likely to have risen. The report also point out that within four decades renewable energy  could account for almost 80% of the worlds  energy supply. The statistics are completely appeared in the near future if we combine four main alternative resources and use hydroelectric to fill in gaps, which makes easier to match demand. The most important thing is to combine renewable energy sources into a bundle (cited in BERGERON 2011). Particularly, in research (Edenhofer et al. 2011) shows that by 2050, geothermal energy could meet more than 3 percent of global electricity demand and about 5 percent of the global heat demand, hydropower will contribute about 30 percent of worldwide electricity supply, wind power will grow to more than 20 percent and solar energy becomes one of the major sources of energy supply with about 15 percent.

Communication is Structure :: Business Communication Essays

In collapsible corporations, communication is the dynamic structure between the individual members that shapes and guides the progress and actions of the people. It is the communication that coordinates and not formal written procedures. The success of dynamic organizational forms such as collapsible corporations is inversely related to the quantity and quality of communication between members around the world. Problems arise when communication slows or stops and progress is taken for granted- requiring hypercommunication to achieve subsequent residual recovery of right direction. Problems are just uncommunicated differences- in actions and expectations. (used 10/22/00 This intense deliberate communication is itself a transaction cost- it needs working hard at and may not always be business- you provide deliberate opportunities to other people in the collapsible corporation to explain and notify about problems- but naturally they do not actually arise every time members communicate. But the benefits from avoidance of misunderstanding achieved from effective and honest ongoing inter-personal communication- facilitated by technology tools such as the Net- make such dynamic organizations possible and also prevent greater, later costs incurred from error correction. Of course the communication needs to be timely and truthful for it to be valuable- it needs to be proactively stated, discussed, openly, honestly and fully disclosed. For remote communications, the use of Internet email, fixed and in particular mobile telephones is often prolific. There should be regular broadcast news and information in the form of say email messages updating members around the world on how the business is doing and latest developments. Informal discussion of this news, plus the formal emails kept different people in different places up to date with these moves. This kept people in different time zones in touch with the same information distributing at low charge around the world. Periodic face-to-face meetings are also necessary to supplement and balance this electronic communication- just as with teleworking, the balance between electronic and physical and the overriding dominance of neither is very important to the success of the venture. Respect and trust and so on is important in relations between colleagues, with some people easier to talk and relate to than others, but primarily, as long as activities and approaches were agreed to by other managers, you are okay.

The European Union Essay -- EU Europe European Union Politics Essays

Introduction In the course of fifty years, the European Union has expanded from six countries united under economic treaties to a large collective of twenty-five sovereign nations. Maintaining the union within such a large group has grown more difficult as numerous treaties have been drafted to control the governance of the European Union. To reduce the number of treaties in the union, the convention decided to draft a Constitution, which now moves through the process of ratification in each of the sovereign nations. The Constitution works to set up a basis for the expansion of the Union and the requirements that need to be met when a country seeks entry into the Union. But with the greater controls the EU seeks to place on the legal arena, many countries question whether their individual sovereignty will survive in the system. The evolving legal system will be shaped by the Constitution, but the influence of the document could reach much farther than what it allows for in the text. In this paper, I intend to explore how the Constitution will affect the culture within the European Union through the legal changes imposed on nations and the further expansion of the Union. History of the European Union In 1950, after the economic depression caused by the first and second world wars, Europe sought a way to ensure lasting peace among the nations. The French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman, following the ideas of other world leaders, proposed to integrate the European coal and steel industries in the hopes that political and economic unity would ensure peace among the involved nations. This brought forth the European Coal and Steel Community in 1951, constructed between Belgium, West Germany, Luxembourg, France, Ital... ...e than the United States of America. Works Cited A Constitution for Europe. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2004. Craig, Paul and Grà  inne de Bà ¹rca. EU Law: Text, Cases, and Materials. Pg 9, 11. New York: Oxford University Press. 2003. d’Estree, Claude. Personal Interview. 9 March 2005. â€Å"E pluribus unum?†. The Economist. 25 September 2004. â€Å"EU Czech Klaus Reaction†. CTK National News Wire. Brussels. 4 March 2005. General News. â€Å"The History of the European Union†. 2005. Europa. 7 February 2005 . Wolf, Martin. â€Å"No way to create a more dynamic and flexible Europe†. The Financial Times: London England. Pg 17. 7 April 2004. Smith, Don. â€Å"RE: EU†. Email to Katie Mulligan. 9 March 2005. Smith, Don. Personal Interview. 2 March 2005.

Marketing in a New Venture

Today is a very different day as far as communication goes. We live in the age of NOW! Over are the days when one has to wait for a letter from a friend, go to the grocery store before it closes or run to the bank before it closes to pay a bill.   These advances come with set backs, such as scams. I have had some emails sent to me about winning a lottery that I have never played.   Such people pray on the destitute and ignorant.   They lurk anywhere from emails to job postings.   I must say, I respect Craigslist for having warnings and allowing a posting to be flagged if it seems at all suspicious.   The craigslist team has put forth much effort to minimize such attempts. I have not seen this on many other sites. Craigslist has a reputation of being the ‘go to’ spot for employment, gigs and events.   If they were not careful about such things, they would probably lose a lot of business. This forces businesses to work hard to at least appear legitimate.   It also puts a new twist on ‘let the buyer beware.’   With so many scams on the internet, it is quite difficult to call a spade a spade.   The warnings from Craigslist enable the consumer to   make an informed decision and probably be less likely to deal with companies unheard of by most. It also empowers the average joe by perhaps prompting him to take that extra step to contact   the   Better Business Bureau or consumer affairs to verify the legitimacy of these companies.   As an avid user of craigslist, I am leary of ambiguous terms used in ads.   Such ads I shy away from.   I have come across ads that have been flagged and it helps me to feel that other users are looking out for each other.   Craigslist creates a sense of comraderie and the safety in the big brother is watching theory. It has a commune feel and if that is not what they were going for, it is definitely not a bad side effect. I had never heard of craigslist until a friend of mine mentioned it to me. Once I went on it, I was hooked. I wasted less time on spam in disguise because the community was looking out for me.   I learned of it by word of mouth, which is perhaps the way some other services would benefit.   For example, a service for home replenishment would benefit from word of mouth.   It is purely the nature of the medium that suggests this.   Let us say that we know of a birth.   The new mom may not be able to get around and may want her groceries delivered. I may tell her about it. Perhaps a friend broke his leg on a ski trip and cannot get around so well, I may speak of it then.   Maybe many students are studying for a final and are so enthralled in the studies that we cannot take a break. I may suggest it at that point.   It is the type of entity that requires a situation to entertain the thought of utilizing the service.   Another situation, such as a graduation (event) lends itself easily to viral marketing.   Requiring those that I have emailed to respond RSVP will give the hosting site information a marketing list and some of them will partake in such an event.   A service to allow incoming college students to create personal pages, organized by their institutions, may benefit from word of mouth marketing with limited viral marketing. Since it is organized by the institution, it limits access to those that are not privy to the institutional privileges. A service using a device to look up barcodes can definitely benefit from bootstrapping.   The items that are being looked up will probably link to the company or manufacturer of such products.   They in turn will send similar product emails to the person looking up the products.   This may result in traditional marketing, such as coupons and mailings with an instant direct marketing list.

Levels Of Achievement Need

Conceptual FrameworkStudy habits and academic performance of the working students have attracted increased attention among the university teachers and students with the aim of knowing and understanding the reasons, problems and other factors affecting them. This may empower them for lifelong learning to their journey to success hindered by their busy schedules and always no time to their study and academic performance. In Surigao State College of Technology the study habits and academic performance of working students give any positive and or negative impact on their grades depending on how they cope with it.Figure 1.The Research ParadigmThe research paradigm illustrates the conceptual framework of the study that shows the relationship of the input, process and output of the topic. This framework embodies the specific direction by which the research will have to be undertaken by describing the relationship between specific variables identified in the study. The input consists of the research method applied in conducting the research regarding the study habits and academic performance of the working students. Qualitative research undertaken to gain insights concerning attitudes, beliefs, motivations and behaviours of individuals to explore a social or human problem and include methods such as focus groups, in-depth interviews, observation research and case studies.The process on the other hand shows how the research being conducted through defining the problem/s of the research first and gather the required data relevant to the research from the respondents through answering the questionnaires. The output as a result, will indicate the general view of the situation on how the behavior and performance of a student relates on their study habit and academic performance. Conclusions are to be made to know and define the outcome of this study and give justification to the research.Statement of the ProblemThis study aims to determine the levels of achievement needed a nd the academic performance of self-supporting student in Surigao State College of Technology particularly the students of Bachelor of SecondaryEducationmajor in English, from first year to third year college students. Specifically, this study seeks to answer the following questions, 1. What is the profile of the respondents in terms of their: a. Gender;b. Age; c. Monthly Income of their Parents; 2. What is the academic performance of working students from first year to third year in all of their major subjects in English? 3. Is there significant relationship between academic performance of the respondents and the profile of the students with regardsto: a. Gender;b. Age; c. Monthly Income of their Parents; 4. What are the study habits of the first year to third Year Collegeworking students? 5. Is there significant relationship between the study habits and the academic performance of the respondents?