Persian Poetry

A Brief History of Persian poetry: One of the most noble forms of literature is poetry. Over the centuries Persian and non-Persian poets have written their poems in the Persian language, Farsi, and it's variations. Even though the Farsi language has changed over time the ancient poems are still readable. Iranians highly value their poets who kept their culture and language alive even during numerous invasions. Persian poetry is as ancient as Avesta (the holy book of Zoroastrians) where first form of poetry is documented.Persian and non-Persian poets express their creativity in different forms and styles. The earliest poetry was of two types. One was the ballad and the other was the epic. The ballad later developed into different forms such as lyric, hymn, satire and panegyric. The epic poem is an enlarged ballad. Therefore, the origin of all poetry is in the ballad although no records have remained from these primitive ballads. Persian songs goes back to 3000 BC to the time of king J amshid. Xenophon wrote about songs that were sung when Cyrus the Great was still a boy.The halls of the Achaemenian palace at Persepolis echoed with the poetic singing of the tale of the romantic love of Zariadres and Odatis. The Arab conquest influenced the Persian vocabulary causing an even smoother poetic verse. Poetry, nursed for 200 years by the care of three dynasties (Tahirid, Saffarid, Samanid). Therefore, it was during ninth century when the new form of Persian poetry began which is found today. One of the early forms of poetry was qasida in royal courts. Qasida are poems of more than 100 couplets that do not rhyme. Anvari was one of the poets who used qasida.Ghazal from about 12th century is another form of lyric. Ghazal poems were a much shorter form, 10 couplets that do not rhyme and mainly used to express love, both human or mystic. Hafez and Saadi mastered this form of poetry. Rubai and dobaty are both four lines poems which are distinguished from each other by their r hythm. They may express mystical, romantic or philosophical themes. Omar Khayam is one of the pioneers in writing Rubai and his books are translated into many languages. A Review Of Persian Poetry: Classical Persian poetry is always rhymed. The principal verse forms are the Qasideh, Masnavi, Qazal and Ruba'i.The qasida or ode is a long poem in monorhyme, usually of a panegyric, didactic or religious nature; the masnavi, written in rhyming couplets, is employed for heroic, romantic, or narrative verse; the ghazal (ode or lyric) is a comparatively short poem, usually amorous or mystical and varying from four to sixteen couplets, all on one rhyme. A convention of the ghazal is the introduction, in the last couplet, of the poet's pen name (takhallus). The ruba'i is a quatrain with a particular metre, and a collection of quatrains is called â€Å"Ruba'iyyat† (the plural of ruba'i).Finally, a collection of a poet's ghazals and other verse, arranged alphabetically according to the r hymes, is known as a divan. A word may not be out of place here on the peculiar difficulties of interpreting Persian poetry to the western reader. To the pitfalls common to all translations from verse must be added, in the case of Persian poetry, such special difficulties as the very free use of Sufi imagery, the frequent literary, Koranic and other references and allusions, and the general employment of monorhyme, a form highly effective in Persian but unsuited to most other languages.But most important of all is the fact that the poetry of Persia depends to a greater degree than that of most other nations on beauty of language for its effects. This is why much of the great volume of â€Å"qasidas in praise of princes† can still be read with pleasure in the original, though It is largely unsuited to translation. In short, the greatest charm of Persian poetry lies, as Sir E. Denison Ross remarked, in its language and its music, and consequently the reader of a translation â⠂¬Å"has perforce to forego the essence of the matter†.

Is it suitable to use censorship in media

Is it suitable to use censorship in media? Media is the mean to deliver the message to audiences. People are constantly exposed to many kinds of media each day including television, radio, and ever- growing popularity of the internet. Humans at every age and gender are unavoidably consuming information. For example, they would see a whitening lotion advertisement on the small screen in the sky train or unintentionally watch a fight scene in a soap opera on television at street side restaurant. However, some information may not be at all appropriate without a proper guidance.Therefore, censorship is suitable to be used in media. The first reason is that people might be misled by inappropriate information in media if censorship is not used as not every people have the same education background and experience. Children are a great example for this case. For instance, when they see the main character in the television series smokes, they would smoke too because their innocence's make bel ieve that what the main character does is fancy. Lastly, it is more realistic not to eliminate all unsuitable contents and use censorship as a teaching tool for audiences.In reality, It Is unavoidable not to see indecent behavior. Therefore, censorship could be useful to be a teaching material for every audience. The media, however, must mention about the consequences of these inappropriate actions. To conclude, censorship In media Is beneficial to society as a whole. It can be used to avoid misleading the Information and as a teaching technique for everyone. Medal Is a powerful source of Information that could Influence the thoughts of Its message receivers.Guiding people by pointing out what not to do and learning by a wrong example would be effective If It Is done with the support from every Institution including media and the audiences themselves. By shopworn censorship as a teaching tool for audiences. In reality, it is unavoidable not to see To conclude, censorship in media is beneficial to society as a whole. It can be used to avoid misleading the information and as a teaching technique for everyone. Media is a powerful source of information that could influence the thoughts of its message example would be effective if it is done with the support from every institution

ECBs decision and alternative policies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words - 1

ECBs decision and alternative policies - Essay Example Mario Draghi who is the president of the European Central Bank made the announcement that the bank’s governing council had plans of launching an initiative of asset backed securities which will but financial assets from banks and other investing institutions. This scheme will assist banks to sell bundles of assets including loans to companies and mortgages to the ECB, and even though the full details were not disclosed immediately, there is likelihood that the bank will commit a lot of Euros to this. The main idea is that the banks will develop a will to make loans to the real economy if they are able to package the debt into newer securities and consequently sell them to the ECB. This essay seeks to explain the decision that was taken by ECB concerning interest rates while at the same time analyzing the alternative policies that the bank could have considered. The ECB has two main objectives with the key objective of the two being to use monetary policy to maintain stability of prices (Kaltenthaler, 2006, p. 127). The bank has a set goal for an inflation rate that is acceptable, which is below zero every year and this is among the ways that the ECB is different when compared to the US Federal Reserve that has more flexibility in the establishment of permissible inflation rates. Another dissimilarity between the two banks is the fact that the ECB emphasizes more on transparency and making the investors aware of its intentions. The inflation target being the main goal for the bank has created a key source of criticism for the bank and numerous people believe that this main objective is too narrow and should encompass other equally important goals like the achievement of full employment. Further, the lesser objective if the ECB involves supporting the general economic policies that affect the Eurozone. This means that the bank attempts to make sure that the stated goals of the European

Note Cards Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Note Cards - Essay Example Paraphase: According to Hammond (2002) it will take until 2024 before Britain can attain the same staffing levels as Europe, thus existing staff are ridiculously overburdened. (as cited in Fleming, 2006) Paraphrase: that this shortage has resulted in almost twenty percent of Canadians having trouble locating a doctor, together with a lack of other health professionals such as radiologists, psychiatrists and obstetricians. He further stated that almost two thirds of family doctors are refusing or limiting new patients. (Fleming, 2006) Paraphrase: The lack of doctors and nurses in Canada is quickly reaching crisis point; in 2004, one hospital in Vancouver was forced to farm out almost a thousand patients because of a shortage of nurses and in 2006 another hospital had to cease all surgery for over a week because of a lack of nurses (Fleming, 2006). Paraphrase and quote: The lack of equipment in Britain has â€Å"reduced availability and eroded quality† and in Canada over fifty percent of equipment is outdated and only when it no longer functions, is it replaced (Fleming, 2006). Paraphrase: In Canada, doctors are not able to work properly because of inadequate availability time of operating rooms, and the limitations placed on the number of patients they can operate on means that those deemed not crucial often have to wait years before receiving surgery. (Fleming, 2006) Paraphrase: a study conducted by Alter, Naylor, Austin, Chan and Tu in 2003, wherein thirty percent more people living in Alberta were able to receive heart surgery than those living in Prince Edward Island. Another study undertaken by Pilote et al. in 2004, found that in Nova Scotia patients have to wait three weeks longer for heart surgery after a heart attack, than those living in Alberta. People living in the north of England are more liable to die of cancer then those living in the south of England; those living in the north are

How has exposure to the study of marketing and society helped me to Essay

How has exposure to the study of marketing and society helped me to understand how I consume and what influences my decisio - Essay Example The extensive research made into studying marketing and its strategies has helped us; consumers tend to develop more informed decisions. If the marketing department is successful in identifying customer requirements and predicting future customer needs, it should enable the business to not only increase its sales revenue, profitability and market share but also to maintain and improve the image of its products and bring variety and innovations to existing ones to facilitate the consumer at the end of the day. The product itself is probably the most important element in the marketing mix. The product must fulfill a want. Consumers buy products for pleasure, satisfaction or benefits they provide. If it does provide the satisfaction, the good will not be purchased. The level of satisfaction achieved may differ. For example, some products are bought because they satisfy a basic need, like food which stops hunger. Other products like a refrigerator, in addition to keeping food cool, would be expected to be reliable and last a long time. An expensive perfume would give a certain image to the consumer when they used it and it would be expected to be of high quality. Informed and aware customers will pay a price that is worthy of the quality of the product. The design that is the performance, reliability and quality should all be consistent with the product’s brand image. The marketing should be capable of stimulating new wants from the consumers. It must give something very distinctive that makes it appear different to encourage brand loyalty. Competition amongst businesses in an economy in terms of the prices of goods and services being set has also helped consumers make the right buying decisions. Demand is not just what people want to buy but they must also have the money to be able to purchase the product. The market price is determined by the demand and supply of that particular good and various factors affect these such as, change in income, taste and fas hion, advertising and prices of other products. The pricing strategy should be such that it should provide good value for money to consumers. They will not unnecessarily pay a high price for a good of low quality or which serves no purpose. Consumers are in search of best deal for money for example, economy packs, bulk-buying and discounted products. (Titley, 2008) Packaging is another part of marketing mix that influences consumer decisions. Consumers consider suitable packaging because it has to give protection to the product and not allow it to spoil. It also has to allow product to be used easily. It is no good having hair shampoo in a tin that would not allow the liquid to pour out easily. Packaging is also used for promoting the product. It must appeal to the consumer because it is usually the packaging that catches the eye and the product inside! Consumers will prefer to buy products with packaging carrying vital information about its use, storage and its ingredients. Recycla ble packaging is most preferred by the society. Getting the best value for money is what any rational consumer would want. Advertising as part of marketing and promotion will influence consumers to quite an extent. Advertisements which give information to the public are known as informative advertising. It increases consumer choice by making consumers aware of the range of

Lowering Drinking Age from 21 to 18 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Lowering Drinking Age from 21 to 18 - Essay Example This proposal essay takes a look at the legal age of drinking and why it should be rolled back to 18 years of age. It also pinpoints the essential changes that need to be made within the legislation as well as tackles problems in a head on fashion. There are chances which will crop up every now and then which will make the above-mentioned proposal sound illogical and insane yet the outcome is for the betterment of one and all, and especially the youth of present times. After all, they know what is good for them and how they can amend their lives in essence with the time and spirit of the present epoch. In the times much like today, people look at their lives in the form of an open canvas – waiting to throw paints on their personalities. Same is the case which holds true for drinking where they suggest and indeed I am of the view that it should be allowed at the age of 18 years because at this age, a person gets mature enough to distinguish the good and the bad for his own self . Tamura (1992) asks the question regarding lowering the drinking age since there have been amendments in the legislative processes of different countries from time to time. What this highlights is the fact that legislation under such domains is a significant impediment in the wake of lowering drinking prohibitions. The legal age is just a yardstick of measuring one’s age at the end of the day. It does not give any idea about a teenager’s mental and physical maturity. What it presents to one and all is a mere age dynamic.

Heritage Tourism UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Heritage Tourism UK - Essay Example The heritage tourism’s main product issues include knowledge management and transfer, The danger of over-supply, Geographical concentration, Product standardization, competition, Dead, Changes in education, Forgotten and ignored themes, Soft heritage and hard heritage, The medium in relation to the message, Quality and customer satisfaction, Commercialization or conservation, Changing nature of the market, competition. The need for partnerships, popular culture and heritage, and Making the past relevant to the present and future (Sethi, P. 1999:213).The small tourism enterprises highly depend on knowledge manipulation (Nagle, G. 2002:128). A good number of willing clients will not visit the various heritage tourism sites unless they have information of its existence. The product role of marketing in tourism is to make the potential clients aware of the services that the company is offering. The product for tourism may include a bus tour, a hotel stay, a cruise and many others. The management, therefore, has a huge responsibility of making sure that the information gets to their clients. They attain this by creating awareness campaigns to lure the potential clients. They create awareness either through mass media or internet. However, the as the small-scale tourism enterprises venture into creating awareness, there is an alarm on oversupply which might lead to congestion of the sites (Timothy, 2011:214). The UK is rich in heritage, and the wide variety of its heritage attractions proves it. As time goes on, the mode in which heritage is presented to the visitors is becoming ever more predictable. A tourist could for example, walk into a museum and correctly predict what to expect. This has highly affected the small tourism enterprises as it reduces the number of potential clients. Quality and customer satisfaction are important in management in all industries. The quality of the services that the enterprises render to their clients plays a very big role in improving the industry (Graham,

Fallow's viva bilingualism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fallow's viva bilingualism - Essay Example He notes that the initiatives are based on American fears. One of the fears is that the human brain cannot be able to accommodate different languages. The other fear is noted that America’s fear that English language is likely to be edged by other languages. In his argument, Fallows notes that it is possible for the brain to accommodate different languages. He notes competence gained by those who speak various languages such as in Indonesia and Malaysia. Fallows further notes that countries such as Japan have been encouraging study of English as a way of boosting communication. This is seen as a way of boosting prominence of English language rather than a threat to the existence of language. Analysis of the author essay will help in highlighting the intention of the author. The author makes several claims in the essay. The first major claim is that the reason Americans are against bilingualism is that they view it as polygamy. The perception of bilingualism as polygamy makes Americans shy away from embracing other languages. In America society, polygamy is seen as failing to work as it leads to skewed commitment to the spouse. Commitment of man to one wife is seen as depleting what is available for the other wife. The same analogy is used in the English language. The author notes that the perception is that there is less room in individual’s brain. Hence, commitment to one language such as Spanish would mean lack of room to learn and understand another language such as English. The author uses statistics to highlight the reason for such behavior. He notes â€Å"Ninety –nine percent of all Americans can happily live their lives speaking and thinking about no other language but English† (Fallows, n.d, p 260). The other major claim by the author is that fear of bilingualism is based on perceived threat to English language. He notes that

Asda-the company's capital structure starting from 2008 Essay

Asda-the company's capital structure starting from 2008 - Essay Example The cost of debt to a company is therefore relatively less than equity financing. Besides this, debt is considered cheaper by the providers of finance and it attracts tax relief on interest payments. The greater the level of debt, the more will be the financial risk to the shareholder of the company. Hence the return required would be higher. This also helps in establishing the gearing mix of a company. The higher a company is geared, the higher would be the risk involved. There are many factors that contribute towards the availability of different sources of funds {(Goyal et al (2005); Darren (2006)}. Equity financing is raised by issuing equity shares or rights issue, preference shares issued are not considered as equity issue as they carry a fixed percentage that is to be paid to the preference shareholders and hence in substance preference shares have a debt nature attached to them so they are categorized under debt issue. Equity finance is considered a comparatively more risky approach of raising finance than debt financing, it is also considered more costly to raise equity finance than to raise debt finance (Burton et al, 2003). Asda is a UK based supermarket chain which deals in clothing, grocery, children toys and other general products used during normal routine. It is a subsidiary of the American Wal-Mart. Asda initiated its business involving Dairy products and later went on to diversify its business. It has been always renowned for its great marketing strategies. It was taken over by Wal-Mart as a subsidiary in 1999. Asda is considered as the second largest retail chain business after TESCO in the United Kingdom. Later in 2009, Wal-Mart made a deal to sell Asda to Corinth Services Limited for an amount of  £6.9 million. Since that deal Asda is a subsidiary of Corinth Services Limited (Telegraph.co.uk, 2010). Gearing is one major issue which has a critical effect onto the capital structure of a

Torsional Pendulum Preliminary Experiment Essay Example for Free

Torsional Pendulum Preliminary Experiment Essay Research and equations: As we are working in circular motion, rather than linear motion, the equations that will help me investigate the Torsional pendulum will have to be derived. Here is how it is derived. Using Force= Mass x Acceleration which is what you use for linear motion, this becomes Torque=Moment of Inertia x Angular acceleration. Using Force= -kx from a simple pendulum, this becomes Force=- Torsional Constant x Angular displacement Therefore This can definitely be compared to a=-?2x and becomes However therefore I then found out the exact expression which allowed me to directly work out I and K. The moment of inertia was simply mL2 However for the Torsional constant I first found the formula for the polar moment of inertia which was Ip=?d4/32 and the angle of twist ?=TL/GIp this was rearranged to T= GIp/L where T is the Torsional constant, then substituting in Ip I got Torsional constant= Using the equation I can now substitute in expressions for I and K to get an overall equation which came out to be: T=2? T=Time Period I=Moment of Inertia of the bar L=Length of wire G= Shear Modulus of material d= diameter of wire The following web pages were used to help me derive these equations: http://www.engin.umich.edu/students/ELRC/me211/me211/flash/tors_derivation15.swf http://farside.ph.utexas.edu/teaching/301/lectures/node139.html Preliminary Experiment: Aim: To investigate the relationship between Time period and the length of the wire on a Torsional pendulum. Factors to vary and control To ensure a fair test I must make sure that only factors that want to vary will change, therefore as I am investigating the effect of changing the length of wire on the time period I will only vary the length of wire. This means that the following must stay the same: * Mass of the metal bar, including same diameter and length each time, these are all related to the moment of inertia. * Type of wire (material) and its diameter, these are related to the Torsional constant. Diagram: Equipment: * Retort Stand with clamp to hold the wire and bar when oscillating. * Bung cut into two halves so I can change length of string easily. * Metal Bar. * Approximately a meter long wire. * Stopwatch to record the Time periods. * Micrometer to measure diameter of the wire and the metal bar * Meter long ruler to measure out correct lengths of wire and measure length of the bar. Method: * Set up the apparatus as shown in the diagram above. * Ensure the wire is fixed firmly around the centre of the bar, so that when left freely it rests in its equilibrium position. * Using 0.1 meters as the starting point, make the length 0.1m using a meter rule, measuring from the base of the bung to the top of the bar at the knot. * Turn the bar 90 degrees anticlockwise and release it, start the stopwatch at the same time of release. * The time period for one complete oscillation is; for the end of the bar to go around clockwise once and changes direction then anticlockwise until it changes again, the moment it stops just before changing direction for a second time is one oscillation. Allow 5 complete oscillations for once length and divide the end time by five. * Record the time period on a suitable table. * Loosen the clamp and increase the length by 0.1m and repeat above steps until approximately 8 results are complete. * Now measure the length of the bar using a meter ruler, and the diameter of the bar using a micrometer. Also measure the length of the wire using a meter ruler and its diameter using a micrometer. Record all these results. To ensure that the experiment is carried out in safe environment I will make sure that I have plenty of space around me, with any obstacles removed to ensure the experiment can run smoothly. Theory: If simple harmonic motion applies, which I am assuming it does as shown in the equations above, also there is a clear similarity between the time period for a Torsional pendulum and for a mass spring system which is simple harmonic motion, as shown in these 2 equations. and Simple harmonic motion is defined as; an oscillation in which the acceleration of an object is directly proportional to its displacement from equilibrium and has a restoring force directed back towards equilibrium. I am investigating for the preliminary experiment the effect on time period when the length of wire is changed. From the equation derived T=2? I can see that theoretically the relationship between time period and length should be T?L0.5. Therefore an increase in length will increase the time period. Results: Length (mm) Time Period (s) Log l log T 100 6.16 -1.00 0.79 200 8.18 -0.70 0.91 300 9.59 -0.52 0.98 400 11.00 -0.40 1.04 500 12.18 -0.30 1.09 600 13.45 -0.22 1.13 700 14.22 -0.16 1.15 800 15.32 -0.10 1.19 Extra Results: Measurement Diameter of wire 0.42mm mass of bar 201.1grams length of bar 204mm Conclusion: From the graph I can come to a simple conclusion that as the length increases the time period increases. However it is obvious that this is not a linear relationship, therefore I need to use log log graphs to help me get the relationship. As I originally worked out that there is a relationship between time period and length for the Torsional pendulum, I can therefore say that T is proportional to l (T? l). However I can change this to T=alb where a and b are constants to be determined. I can determine these using a log log graph where logT=blogl+logA which is in the form y=mx+c Using the values of logT and logl in the results table above, I produced the log log graph below. From the graph you can see that the gradient which is b = 0.4375 And that logA=1.225, therefore to get A I would unlog it, 101.225= 16.788 (3.d.p) So if A= 16.788 and b=0.4283 then the relationship becomes T=16.788 x l0.4375 Evaluation: There are clearly difficulties and problems with this method which will cause inaccuracies in the results. I will now outline the problems and estimate a percentage error for each one. * Measurement of the length of the wire. The meter ruler is accurate to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 0.5mm, as the smallest division is 1cm. The measurements I made were 10cm to 80cm, therefore maximum error is (0.5mm/100mm) x100= 0.5%, and the minimum error is (0.5mm/800mm) x100= 0.0625% error. Therefore average error is approximately (0.5+0.0625)/2=0.28125%. * There is also error in the time periods as its difficult to know exactly when to stop the stopwatch. You must stop it when it stops and is just about to change direction. However I may stop to early or too late, this causes random error, and therefore time period will be higher or lower than the true value. I predict that this will cause a maximum error of à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ 0.5 seconds, this includes the error for a human reaction time, which can only react as fast as 0.1 seconds. Max error for the results I obtained would be (0.5/6.162)x100=8.114% and minimum error (0.5/15.318)x100=3.264%. These errors are very significant and will definitely cause inaccuracies in my results. The time I recorded was accurate to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½0.05seconds, therefore maximum reading error was (0.005/6.162)x100=0.081%, this is however a lot less significant than experimental error. * The scale is accurate to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½0.05 grams. Therefore maximum error is (0.05/201.1) x 100 = 0.0249%, therefore this error was not so significant. * The micrometer is accurate to à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½0.005mm, as smallest division is 0.01mm, therefore error for my reading was (0.005/0.41) x 100 = 1.219%, this error was quite significant and a lot larger than I expected. The value for the gradient I obtained was 0.4375, however I was expecting 0.5, therefore there is clearly errors in the time period and length, which is what determined the gradient, with reasons for these errors stated above. The error for the gradient will be the total error of the time and length, therefore approximately 6% error, when adding average most significant error of the time period and length. Using the Equation T=2? I can work out the overall error of my experiment. As 2? x =T and as I found out that T=16.788 x l0.4375 Therefore 2? should be equal to 16.788 if my experiment had no errors. I will now work out how close to this value I actually got. =2? = 14.12 Therefore the total error from what the true value should be is [(16.788-14.12)/16.788] x 100= 15.89% From all the percentage errors above I can see that there are clearly issues with this preliminary experiment and that changes will have to be made for the final experiment to increase accuracy and reduce errors.

Discrimination Against The Elderly

Discrimination Against The Elderly This report will highlight the issue on discrimination against elderly people in countries such as Singapore, America and United Kingdom (UK). Similarly, all three countries face employment discrimination but there were slight improvements in UK. Situation of discrimination against elderly is considered to be the worse in America because they are also denied of opportunities to seek health care. The importance, impact of social discrimination and measures taken at the company and national level to combat this discrimination are also discussed. Section 2- The issues and who are involved Singapore is rapidly facing ageing population where the proportion of residents aged 65 and above contributes to 14% of the resident population in 1998 and this will increase to 27% in 2015. An increase in life expectancy has led to the increase in proportion of elderly people. Other reasons were due to the ageing of the baby boomers, decrease in infant and early childhood mortality rate and low birth rates. In todays society, our perception of elderly people is often that of dependency, slow and disregarded. Misconceptions arise about ageing, leading to stereotyping and social discrimination. A common stereotype states that most elderly people are ill. When elderly people are unsure of themselves, they are considered to be senile and they are also accused of being old when they forgot a sentence. The older generation have worked hard and they deserve to be respected by the society. With more and more people becoming old, it is important to pay attention to these legal issues surrounding the older generation. It is necessary to confront such concerns now so that we can look forward in enjoying our old age in the future. Addressing the problem of discrimination in Singapore is therefore vital in further developing and building up our nation. By undertaking these suggestions, we can then hope towards a better future for Singapore, one free from discrimination. Therefore, it is necessary that companies and individuals change their mindset and be more supportive towards the older generation. Discrimination of elderly people is prevalent in the workplace in Singapore. Age discrimination occurs when older worker is discriminated against by an employer because of their age. A recent survey by Kelly Services discovered that majority of the 1,500 respondents polled in Singapore, experienced some type of prejudice when applying for a job in the last five years and the main reason for discrimination, which contributed to 29 percent, was age. Older adults are often viewed negatively such as having high wage expectations because of their experiences, lacking new skills and unable to meet the physical demands of the job. Majority of the older workers did not complete their secondary education due to limited educational opportunities. Hence, they have a lower skilled job. As firms seek higher productivity, with current jobs being automated and improvised, it results in multiple and higher skills requirements. This eventually leads to older workers, with low education and holding unskilled jobs, being retrenched. Even if low skilled jobs are available, older workers still face competition from younger and cheaper foreign workers. Many companies are biased against older workers and still prefer to hire younger employees. Such discrimination fails to tap fully the older workers contributions. In addition, high cost of hiring older workers and perception among employers that they are less productive and open to new ideas are some of the common reasons why many firms are less likely to hire them. As such, employers may encourage early retirement or layoff disproportionately older workers. This is usually seen in computer and entertainment industries. As a result, we often see older workers picking up empty cans or selling tissue papers. Other stereotypical old-age occupations that come into mind will be cleaners and servers at fast food restaurants. Based on Singapores laws (with some exceptions), the government cannot take any legal action against employers who choose to discriminate. Individuals also cannot sue employers. Employment discrimination is also similar in America where there are a large number of aging employees in the workplace (due to the baby boomer generation). Employers engage in age discrimination when they sack or refuse to hire older workers because of ageist stereotypes. However, they have the United States Federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) which prohibits age discrimination. Employers are not allowed to discriminate when hiring and firing employees who are aged 40 or older. United Kingdom (UK) also faces similar discrimination against the elderly in the workplace as Singapore and America. However, there were improvements these recent years. Employers are positive about retaining older workers as they are seen as a valuable resource. Older workers want to work beyond state pension age and various surveys also show that there is a keen attitude among them for flexible working and flexible pensions. The government also encourages older workers to continue working. UK employment equality law is effective as it helps to combat prejudice in the workplace as it prohibits discrimination against people based on gender, race, religion and age etc. It is illegal to discriminate against an employee under the age of 65 due to age. In addition, employers who sack workers or deny them training opportunities as their colleagues will break the law. Based on UKs Office for National Statistics, the number of older workers in UK employment rose by 8.8% from March 2007 to March 2008. In Singapore, there is not much issue on discrimination against the elderly in terms of health care because we have a universal health care system where both government and private sectors will provide treatment to patients regardless of age. Unlike Singapore, the elderly in both America and UK are discriminated against when seeking health care because health professionals refuse to meet the elderly needs. When a person reaches the age of 60, health services are based on a persons age and some have been denied care as a result. Age discrimination is still practiced in all levels of health care but nothing has been done to curb this prejudice against older people. Older people feel like outcasts of society because care is offered to young people regularly. Another example of discrimination against the elderly people was the incapability of making independent decisions such as living independently. People see this as a negative attitude which is often translated into their ageist actions. However, research has shown that older people value their independence. They want to make their own decisions and have access to information in order to make the best choices in life. There seems to be a trend for the elderly to live on their own, away from their children. According to Brunk (1998) it is a decision that is usually forced by a sudden decline in their health or mental abilities, or the realization that they can no longer get the kind of care they need at home or from family caregivers. This results in family member putting the elderly in the care of caregivers in the elderly homes, thinking that they have provided them the best in terms of basic needs. By doing so, they have unnoticeably discriminated against them by having a perception that they are dependent and a burden. Section 3- Why is it important for us to talk about it? Age discrimination has a negative impact on both the economy and society. Discriminating age is harmful to companies because older people are usually full of experiences. By not hiring them, it will result in a big loss of expertise; deprive them of securing a job and not tapping fully on their contributions to the society. The effect on the economy is also evident in older workers depleting life savings which were needed for retirement. Borrowing money from financial institutions and maxing out credit cards may be the only few solutions for some unemployed people to survive. Medical needs can go unmet and they have to seek help via subsidies to pay for their medication. Depression also rises when people are not being employed as they faced difficulties to make the ends meet. However, In Singapore, the government has implemented Central Provident Fund (CPF) which gives many working Singaporeans a sense of security and confidence in their old age. CPF also provides them with a retirement income to meet their basic needs when they are old. In countries such as UK and America, ageism will have an effect on health care providers professional training and service delivery. This, in turn, affects older patients treatment and health outcomes negatively. Therefore, it is important to understand the importance of older people to society because the quality of life can be improved when they are engaged in the society. Age discrimination serves as a barrier to their participation in the community. Awareness of age discrimination is therefore necessary to overcoming it. As we are living longer and healthier lives, it is essential that we recognise the talents of older workers and giving opportunities to them if they want to carry on working. Older workers are valuable and they perform well in a learning environment which involves hands-on practices, usually those which require customer-sales relationships e.g. sales promoter. The growing importance of services industry in Singapore will recruit more older workers as the nature of work will be more dependent on soft skills e.g. in service delivery. As a result, we should appreciate old age and understand that there is nothing wrong about growing old instead of identifying old age with imagery of despondency. There is a need to think on how we can care for the elderly and combat this social discrimination. Section 4-Where can we start to fix the problem? Discrimination against the elderly creates inequality in Singapores society because older workers are often associated with lower skilled jobs and lower income due to their low education background. Nevertheless, many firms still prefer to hire younger workers as money spent on them in terms on health care and training problems is minimal compared to older workers. However, Singapore empathises on meritocracy where jobs should be given to employees who have the necessary skills and experiences. An article Age bias: Firms mindset change is key also states that the focus should be on the actual job-related criteria. This way, older candidates are given the opportunity to work and contribute to the organisation. Research led by Prof Albert Hermalin, University of Michigan, also revealed that older people in Singapore actually want to work but it will only be possible if there are positive perceptions about productivity of older workers. Therefore, Singapore government has come up with various measures to help the older workers to remain employed. These measures include the extension of the retirement age to 62, reduction in the costs of employing older workers and various programmes to encourage the older workers to work and upgrade their skills. To reduce the cost of employing older workers, the employers CPF contribution rate for older workers aged 55 and above has decreased and employers can cut wages of workers aged above 60 by up to 10%. This is to encourage employers to hire older workers. Employers have also moved away from the seniority wage system and turned to a performance-based wage system. An SHRI (2007) survey revealed that only 14% of Singapore employers use a seniority wage system, while 61% are offering a performance-based wage system. By using a seniority wage system, wages will increase with age, resulting in many firms not willing to hire the older workers because of high costs. The change from the seniority wage system to a performance-based wage system will enable older workers to be hired. In the workplace, employers are encouraged to employ older workers and to job redesign. An example will be NTUC FairPrice where they hired older workers and assisted them in job upgrading and career transitions. Older workers can also enrol themselves in training programs to upgrade their skills and this ensures their employability. This is especially so in an increasingly knowledge based Economy. For older workers, learning should not only be seen as an advantage for employment but also for self enrichment and fulfilment. Furthermore, the raising of the retirement age to 62 also enables older workers to secure jobs. Employers have to be positive towards employing older workers and perhaps make some adjustments e.g. modification of work processes to accommodate older workers. For example, in McDonalds, icons of hamburgers and fries are printed on the cash registers to help older workers key in the right orders. However, their success still depends heavily on employers because it is important that they change their attitudes so that they do not employ employees on the grounds on age. Recently, a tripartite committee, which consists of Singapore National Employers Federation, National Trades Union Congress and the Ministry of Manpower, was set up. They have implemented a set of guidelines on non- discriminatory job advertisements to discourage employers from adopting discriminatory criteria i.e. age, race or religion when recruiting employees. One of the guidelines is that age should not be a requirement for employment. Public and private sector employers have to pledge to comply with the non-discriminatory practices. The implementation of the guidelines was successful as there was a significant drop in the percentage of newspaper advertisements stipulating discriminatory criteria from 30% in February to less than 1% in April this year. In countries like America and UK, there should be improvements in the health system so that older people can have proper care and health care equality. Health care professionals should provide treatment for every patients including older people as they have a duty to treat the patients regardless of age. Organisations like Age Concern and Help the Aged were also established to give advice on this issue. The government is currently reviewing ageism within the health care sector and in the progress of introducing new laws. In conclusion, government policies and laws which were implemented can have an impact in combating discrimination against the elderly people. Most importantly, it is still the perception of ones mind that leads to positive/negative stereotypes about the elderly people. As quoted by Ralph B. Perry, Age should not have its face lifted, but it should rather teach the world to admire wrinkles as the etchings of experience and the firm line of character.

Theories of Justice in Medieval Philosophy :: German Philosophy Papers

Theories of Justice in Medieval Philosophy ABSTRACT: I discuss the reception of the classical definitions of "the just" in the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero and Ulpian by the authors of Latin Medieval philosophy. In the twelfth century we can see an emerging differentiation between philosophical and theological discourse, for example in the work of Peter Abelard. In the thirteenth century, in the philosophical writing of Thomas Aquinas, we find the most important philosophical definition of "the just." Aquinas avoids some of the aporias in which the Aristotelian theory on justice was involved. 1.) Ich gehe im Anschluß an die Thesen von Charles Haskins von der Beobachtung aus, daß sich im Zuge der Herausbildung der scholastischen Methode als einer Tendenz zur "Verwissenschaftlichung aller Theorie" entscheidende Umbrà ¼che in der geistigen Welt des Mittelalters vollziehen, die die Zeitgenossen veranlassen, die à ¼berlieferten Konzepte der Weltinterpretation einer Revision zu unterziehen; in deren Verlauf bilden sich die tragenden Begriffe und die sozialen Organisationsmuster heraus, die wir rà ¼ckblickend als die Bestandteile des Prozesses der okzidentalen Rationalisierung und Aufklà ¤rung identifizieren kà ¶nnen. Diese Zusammenhà ¤nge sollen hier nur illustrativ verdeutlicht werden durch den Hinweis auf die Entstehung der Kathedralschulen und die Neugrà ¼ndung der Università ¤ten, auf die Ablà ¶sung der Methodik der "artes liberales" durch die Wiederentdeckung des Konzepts der "scientia" sowie auf die eindeutige Tendenz zur Entsakralisierung der Sicht der pol itischen Herrschaft. Das sich in den Bahnen der Scholastik artikulierende Interesse an Rationalità ¤t verà ¤ndert von Grund auf das Selbstverstà ¤ndnis des Bildungssystems; ein Prozeß, der sich im 12. und 13. Jhdt. deutlich bemerkbar macht. Dieses betrifft alle à ¼berlieferten Wissensformen: Von der neuen Gestalt der Medizin in der Schule von Salerno bis zur "Entdeckung der Natur" in der Schule von Chartre (Thierry von Chartre, Wilhelm von Conches), von der methodisch neue Wege gehenden Bearbeitung der "Digesten" in der Schule von Bologna (Gratian) bis zur Entfaltung der rationalen Theologie eines Anselm von Canterbury oder Peter Abaelard). Dies schließt auch im 13. Jhdt. inmitten der Artistenfakultà ¤t in Paris das Erwachen eines neuen Konzepts von Philosophie als Wissenschaft eigenen Rechts ein. Nicht eigentlich ausgelà ¶st, aber begleitet und verstà ¤rkt wird dieser Wandlungsprozeß durch die Wiederentdeckung bzw. Neulektà ¼re von Texten der griechischen und latei nischen Antike, allen voran Aristoteles materiale Schriften, die nicht unerheblich zur Entfaltung einer akademischen Kultur der Disputation und der intellektuellen Suche nach Auflà ¶sung von Widersprà ¼chen beitragen. Im Zuge dieser Verà ¤nderungen kà ¶nnen wir unschwer auch eine neue Weise der Behandlung des Begriffs des

J.L. Cabell’s A Testimony of Modern Science to the Unity of Mankind and

J.L. Cabell’s A Testimony of Modern Science to the Unity of Mankind and the Human Unity Debate If there is any one ideal that we can say each individual in the world desires, it could very likely be equality. Over the ages, humans have been particularly interested in the equality between their fellow man. More specifically, man has been more curious about the concept of race and in finding a scientific validation for the noticeable difference between the races. As the field of science gained authority, the search for a scientific explanation for variations in mankind came to a head in the middle of the nineteenth century. While it was very easy to classify the other forms of life on the planet by species, it was more difficult for humans. There were those who believed that all of humans came from the same, original creation and were, therefore, of the exact same species. On the other hand, there were many who advocated a multiple-creation theory that involved a separate origin for different types, or races, of man. A great debate raged between scientists from all around the world on this topic for much of the eighteen-forties and fifties. The human unity debate saw some of the most intriguing scientific dialogue the world had seen up to that day, and includes a great deal of discussion on the role, or non-role, of religion in scientific theory. Of the many biologists, zoologists, physiologists, and many others to take part in this debate was professor of comparative biology and physiology at University of Virginia, James Lawrence Cabell. Born in 1813 to a large family of prominent doctors, Cabell attended the University of Virginia and attended classes in each of the Universit... ...eliefs and truly question themselves. A nation should be proud to look back at its history, no matter how unfortunate, and be satisfied with the changes it has made for the better. While we have come far since the nineteenth century, no one can deny that many injustices still exist in the U.S. today. We should remember our past and how bravely and fiercely many have fought for equality for all, and maybe someday we could truly realize that ideal. Works Cited 1. Dain, Bruce. A Hideous Monster of the Mind: American Race theory in the Early Republic. Harvard University Press, Cambridge. 2002 2. Lurie, Edward. â€Å"Louis Agassiz and the Races of Man†. Isis, Vol. 45, No. 3 (Sep., 1954), 227-242 3. Stanton, William. The Leopard’s Spots: Scientific Attitudes Toward Race in America 1815-59. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 1960

Essay --

Human dealing with different mission, depending on the job environment and the problem space is called as the processor of information. This concept describes how does the man processes job oriented representational information. Information processing concept mainly describes the processes of human problem solving, features of information system that carries out the processes and the nature of job environment in which the processes function. Definite differences in the behavior by individuals and by responsibilities, and also the general expectedness of intelligent behavior from the requirements of the job are the general features of human behavior. This challenges all attempts to develop human thinking. In human problem solving memory, handling, programs, retrieval time, etc are the main constitutes of information processing system. Each person is a member of inhabitants. Every person differs methodically, unique inherent grant and historical treasure. This study has been studied in detail in this book by developing a discussion on Chess, symbolic logic and algebra like puzzles. Th...

Corporate Responsibility and Marketing Strategies Essay

I believe Apple Inc. [mostly referred as â€Å"Apple† in this document] has met the ethical and social responsibility towards general public, employees, customers and shareholders/investors. Apple positions itself to be very environment conscious and continuously working to reduce the foot print of the company and its products on the planet (Apple Inc.). Apple has a recycling program for its used products; it sends gift cards to customers in return for the used products, if the products do not have any monetary value they recycle them responsibly. Apple reports the environmental foot-print of each of its product on their website to show how much energy efficient they are and how Apple is choosing more biodegradable elements in its products, packaging and facilities. Apple has multiple offices and datacenters in United States and as of March 2013 seventy five percent of them are fully powered through renewable energy sources (Kastrenakes, 2013). Apple is continuously trying to improve the situation and aiming to rely entirely on renewable energy sources in future. To improve ethical awareness within its employees, Apple has a business code of conduct published and easily available via intranet website within the company and to its investors via shareholder website (Business code, 2012) which explains in detail on various topics including its well known secretive way of releasing its products. Apple also has a Business conduct helpline available for its employees to resolve ethical dilemmas, report conflicts of interest and seek direction in making ethical decision. Recently Tim Cook, Apple CEO has reminded all employees to review Apple’s business conduct policy via corporate email (Marie, 2013) which shows the  importance Apple gives to Ethics within the company. Apple treats its employees very well; pays pretty good salaries to employees and rates to contractors, Apple’s has a very good benefit program for its employees, even the part-time employees are entitled to benefits at apple (Fiegerman, 2012), it provides shuttle servi ce to many locations from many places in Bay area to campus. Apple products are very safe compared to many other competitor products, Apple pays attention to details, e.g.: To avoid tripping over a charging cable, Mac book charger has a magnet instead of a hard stick in plug as we observe in many Windows PCs. All of its products are well thought and provide lot of convenience and consider customer health and safety, as we see in the case of latest ear phones from Apple, they have the speakers going sideways instead of directly in to ears as most of the conventional ear plugs do, this restricts music directly hitting the ear drum and long term exposure may have adverse impact on the ears. Apple products are well sealed and static resistant, the materials used in production are not cheap and low quality parts, which improves the durability of its products. Apple provides lot of variations in products to choose, to a customer which attracts customers at all levels. There are about ten to twelve flavors of latest iPhone based on color, size of memory and external material. Apple has a very good refund policy, items can be returned online or returned in store, there is about 14-30 days to return items, Apple provides full refund instead of charging for re-stocking fee. If there is a part malfunction, apple product can be exchanged for a new one within one year of purchase for nominal or zero price. Apple considers customer’s complaints and response rapidly by multiple means and aims to delight the customers (Denning, 2011). Apple listens to customers at the stores, online and also via telephone and improvises on its services, customer support and also their products. It is very obvious that Apple takes good care of its shareholders; we can clearly observe that from Apple’s revenues and profits from past several quarters, Apple’s share has gone up five times within past five years. Apple provides all of its quarterly, annual reports along with financial statements and exhibits with SEC and complies with SEC policies. Question 2: Publications of ethics and social responsibility violations of its suppliers, mainly at Hon Hoi Precision, also known as FoxConn had impact on Apple’s reputation and mainly no impact on sales and share value. In 2011 there were fourteen suicides at FoxConn and later on there were many riots, suicide protests by workers against the very long working hours, lack of insurance, workplace safety, horrible facility maintenance , incidents of using Child labor, lack of injured workers compensation, army camp style management and others (McGrath, 2012). Apple has handled things very carefully and assigned right people and started remediation methods, published supplier code of conduct, increased audits in its supplier firms, provided training, to improve situation and reputation; Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple talked about Foxconn and how his company is trying to improve the working conditions for employees and workers in its suppliers’ factories and how seriously Apple is taking t he allegations (Knibbs). Apple’s reputation had an impact during the time of events, created a buzz in media world; Apple got a bad name within its investors and stake holders. Later on, Apple was able to manage out of the situation very well. Overall there is no impact to sales or revenue or Apple’s share value. Apple shares might have taken a small hit for few days when there were publications by media, but overall share value was growing in 2010 and 2011 when all of reports were being published. Apple is still considered the most admired company in the whole world as per Fortunes World’s most Admired companies for 2008-2013; six years in row (Shaughnessy, 2013). Apple products are very well received in the market; there are no aversions or hatred towards Apple’s products based on the allegations. We usually see the drop in sales when there are negative allegations on companies, we have seen this in case of Paula Deen based on her racial comments and also with Duck Dynasty and i ts products when Phil Robertson has made anti-gay comments and cause big dent in their reputation, we have not seen this with Apple. When iPhone 5s was released in September of 2013, stores reported people standing in long lines at Apple and its partner stores to get the first piece. Today there are hardcore fans to Apple products than for any other company. Apple products are growing popularity even in China where the allegations of horrible working conditions have been  reported. Based on my personal observation, Apple stores are among the most crowded stores at local malls. Even with heavy competition for Samsung, LG, Nokia (now Microsoft) and Motorola, Apple iPhones are still most commonly used smart phones in United States. Apple’s App store has more than a Billion applications available to end users. By observing the Apple’s growth pattern, it is safe to say that the impact of supplier violations is minor. Question 3: To improve the working conditions and abide to Fair Law Association (FLA) policies Apple has come up with and published â€Å"supplier code of conduct† (â€Å"Apple supplier,† 2012) for all its suppliers to adhere who provide parts to its products. To ensure that its suppliers adhere to wage and benefits standards going forward, Apple has to strictly enforce the â€Å"supplier code of conduct† and also increase the supervision and auditing of the supplier factories, HR and pay roll systems up to allowed by the local and international laws. Many of the rules and regulations which are illegal in US are acceptable in other countries. As Apple’s suppliers are mainly in other countries than US, Apple can set up strict rules and guidelines more close to US laws in addition to local government policies and Fair Law Association (FLA) laws, as most of its products are used by consumers in US. Apple can also open up complaint/suggestion boxes (online, in factory and via phone) from workers in supplier factories to understand and closely monitor the working conditions and get feedback on wages and benefits. Apple can restrict the number of hours a worker can work in its supplier factories. Apple can create guidelines in its code to have onsite help to talk with workers and understand their problems and work with supplier factories to solve them. Apple can guide its suppliers to setup onsite and close to campus medical facilities for workers working in its supplier factories. Apple can work with local media and government to do surveys from general public about their supplier practices at factory facilities. Apple should request the ethics code of conduct as one of the primary pre-requisite from their suppliers as part of the initial RFP – Request for proposal. Apple should get feedback suppliers’ employees to understand how well the code is  followed by its upper management in the company and should enforce supplier to improve it before renewal of contracts. Apple should stop buying parts from suppliers with tainted reputation, or suppliers with weak or no ethical code of conduct. Apple should compare the working conditions and wages of workers in its supplier factories to competitor factories in the area and pass regulations to improve the wages to meet market standards. Question 4: Apple customers would be willing to pay more for its products to provider better wages and benefits to suppliers’ workers. Apple can make this happen by showing the reasons behind increase in prices, and how additional money will be utilized for worker compensation and benefits. Apple should advertize in TV, publish articles on its website and provide information to Media on how the additional money will be utilized. This is much similar to Ms. Lee Rhodes and her Glassybaby in the case study, Glassybaby gives 10% of its revenues for cancer treatment. Another suggestion that I can make is that, some percentage of increase in salaries for workers should also come from Apple’s profits to show consumers that Apple is not only charging more for products but also taking a cut in their profits to provide better working conditions for workers. Apple and its main founder Steve Jobs do not have very good name as Philanthropist, there is no public record that Steve Jobs has donate d any money (Sorkin, 2011). After Tim Cook took over Apple’s CEO position, he has made some donations but compared with other companies with high revenues and profits; the donations made by Apple are very negligible compared to its revenues and profits (Emerson, 2012). Apple can improve its image and reputation in the world by giving some percentage of profits to suppliers’ workers through multiple programs and incentives. Today Apple’s products are most popular in the market; iPhone is the best selling smart phone out there in market. Apple and its products have huge fan base and many of the competitor smart phones from Samsung or Microsoft are not comparable to iPhone. With such a popularity, increasing a minor percentage E.g.: 3-5% of price will not have any impact on product sales. Most of the Apple products are sold with network connection also known as data plan, the minimum data plan is very expensive and costs up to $40 per month for many carriers. Some of Apple’s iPhone customers take data plan because they are intrigued with iPhone and Apple products. When customers  are willing to pay additional money for seldom used data plan as they stay home mostly where there is Wi-Fi connection as an alternative to data plan. Customers should be willing to spend a bit more money to improve working conditions and salaries for suppliers’ workers. Question 5: Apple has excellent market strategy for its products; Everyone remembers those PC and Mac comparison commercials, which used to portray Apple’ Mac computers as cool and trendy for Generations X and Y and for everyone at home where as Microsoft PC was shown as business computer with bugs. In reality, Microsoft operating system is more flexible and customers can customize and make modifications and create applications relatively easy, where as you need to go to App Store for installing/upgrading any iOS applications. Microsoft or Samsung devices allow users to copy MP3 files, and play them without any intermediary software such as iTunes, a mandatory application for Apple to copy songs in to iOS applications. Even with less flexibility Apple’s products are highly sold in market today due to its design and performance of its products and mainly it’s Marketing strategy. Apple does not really advertize new versions of iPhone releases, rather it keeps it secret, there are no beta releases, and there are no pictures or commercials in the market before a new version iPhone is released. It creates buzz in the market which generates mystery about its product. In addition to its own marketing, Apple’s iPhones are also advertized by other companies such as network providers such as AT&T, Verizon and other companies which make protective cases and other accessories for iPhones. Apple maintains such secrecy before releasing its iPhone products; it has worked greatly for them. Another way Apple products are advertized is by word of mouth. Today many of smart phones in the market from Samsung, LG and Microsoft have similar functions as iPhone, but in my view the secrecy/mystery and word of mouth advertizing for iPhone has helped to maintain its leadership in the market. To improve competitive advantage over global market place, Apple should sell its products more in other countries; expand its base out of US. The usage  of smart phones is at verge of getting saturation in United States, consumers in US are tied to data and voice plans from network providers in US. Until latest generations of iPhones, iphones were sold at a later release dates in Europe, India and China than in United States. There is a lot of fan base for Apple in China and India, Apple should en cash that by making products affordable in those countries. Customers in US do not replace their phones until their contract ends with he network provider, which is usually two years from the contract start date. Most of the countries outside of US are not bound to network/data plans for the phones as they use GSM technology; this provides flexibility to consumers to buy more than one phone in two years. Smart phones are getting more popular in India and china where the population is very high. Population of India and China combined is more than six times the population of United States (CIA World Factbook); if Apple can capture a small percentage of the market in those countries it will have more customer base than it does in whole US which bring higher revenues. Apple should start customizing their products and make them consumer friendly in other countries, such as make menus in native languages, create local custom applications etc. As word of mouth advertizing has proven working for Apple, they should start giving some samples of their products to celebrities in India where the common public trend is to follow the celebrities and mimic their product usage. It has worked for other companies and products; it should also work for Apple. Apple should start thinking about making their products more flexible and easy to customize, Apple is very popular among brand, but more savvy users with computer background started to lean more towards Google Android based phones from Samsung and LG as they have more flexibility and customization options. With computer skills and techniques being very common to kids in Generation Y and Z, Apple should think about concentrating on them and their tastes and Apple products more flexible. Apple should innovate more, there have been some improvements and modifications to its products in past 3 years but there has not been a â€Å"WOW†Ã‚  product release. They should enter new markets, start coming up with new products such as long awaited Apple TV or they should get in to wearable gadgets such as wrist watches, glasses, motion controlled devices, devices with flexible screens and devices which look cool but monitor human body’s current health such as temperature, sugar levels, blood pressure etc. Last but not least, Apple should improve its philanthropist image; they should start donating more to needy and charitable foundations. That usually helps in both ways; it improves the reputation and also works as advertisement. References Apple Inc. (n.d.). Apple and the environment. Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/environment/ Apple supplier code of conduct. (2012, JANUARY). Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/supplierresponsibility/pdf/Apple_Supplier_Code_of_Conduct.pdf Business code. (2012, DECEMBER). Business conduct the way we do business worldwide . Retrieved from http://files.shareholder.com/downloads/AAPL/2916593555x0x443008/5f38b1e6-2f9c-4518-b691-13a29ac90501/business_conduct_policy.pdf CIA World Factbook. (n.d.). Country comparison :: Population. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2119rank.html Denning, S. (2011, AUGUST 26). Another myth bites the dust: How apple listens to its customers. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/08/26/another-myth-bites-the-dust-how-apple-listens-to-its-customers/ Emerson, R. (2012, FEBRUARY 3). Apple’s donations to charity surpassed $50 million: Report. Retrieved from http://www.huffingtonpost .com/2012/02/03/apple-charity-donation_n_1253185.html Fiegerman, S. (2012, JUNE 18). Why working at apple is a dream job. BusinessInsider. Retrieved from http://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-employees-really-love-about-working-for-apple-2012-6?op=1 Kastrenakes, J. (2013, MARCH 21). Renewable energy now powers 75 percent of apple’s facilities. Retrieved from http://www.theverge.com/2013/3/21/4132402/apple-now-using-75-percent-renewabl e-energy-across-operations Knibbs, K. (n.d.). Apple ceo talks foxconn, tries to mend reputation. Retrieved from http://www.mobiledia.com/news/128273.html Marie. (2013, NOVEMBER 21). Tim cook reminds apple employees to review apple’s business conduct policy. Retrieved from http://mobileorchard.com/tim-cook-reminds-apple-employees-to-review-apples-business-conduct-policy/ McGrath, B. (2012, FEBRUARY 7). Apple’s sweatshop supply chain. Retrieved from https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2012/02/appl-f07.html Sorkin, A. (2011, AUGUST 29). The mystery of steve jobs’s public giving. Retrieved from http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/08/29/the-mystery-of-steve-jobss-public-giving/?_php=true&_type=blogs&_r=0 Shaughnessy, H. (2013, FEBRUARY 28). Apple remains world’s most admired company, followed by google and amazon. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/haydnshaughnessy/2013/02/28/apple-remains-worlds-most-admired-followed-by-google-and-amazon/

Guests of the Sheik

Ethnocentrism: The Cultural Differences between Western and Middle Eastern Cultures Through its ethnocentric tales and family based beliefs, Elizabeth Warnock Fernea’s Guests of the Sheik suggests that to find the true representation of Islamic culture, one must leave ethnocentrism behind. Not only will we discuss ethnocentrism and the cultural differences between Western and Middle Eastern societies, we will also take a look at the women of El Nahra and family within the differing societies. Fernea entered El Nahra naive to the culture.However, was an innocent bystander, she became indignant because of the reference of wearing the abayah, â€Å" because she viewed the â€Å"abayah† as not being a part of her culture and did not have to wear it, â€Å"Why should I have to wear that ugly thing–it’s not my custom† (1965: 5). However, through her stay in the small Iraqi village, she gained cultural insight to be passed on about not only El Nahra, but to all foreign culture. As Elizabeth entered the Sheik’s village, she was viewed with a critical eye, â€Å"It seemed to me that many times the women were talking about me, and not in a particularly friendly manner† (1965: 70).The women of El Nahra could not understand why Elizabeth was not with her entire family, and why it was just her and her husband Bob: â€Å"Where is your mother? Kulthma asked. I told her she was in America far away, and when Selma repeated this in a better accent, the women clucked in sympathy. Poor girl, they said. Poor child. To be alone without any of one’s womenfolk was clearly the greatest disaster which could befall any girl† (1965:36). The women did not recognize her American lifestyle as accurate.This is not only ethnocentrism on the part of the El Nahran women because of their belief system that you are suppose to have your parents living with you or near you but American’s do not see this as a bad thing to live far from ones parents. Conversely, Elizabeth–BJ or Beeja, as named by the village and Bob did not view the El Nahra lifestyle as particularly proper either. They were viewing each other through their own cultural lenses. However, through their constant interaction, both sides began to recognize some benefits each culture possessed.It takes time when you are immersed in a particular community to understand the cultural ethos and eventually the community as a whole. Through Elizabeth Fernea’s ethnography on Iraq’s El Nahra village, we learn that all cultures have unique and equally important aspects. In El Nahra, for example, the cultural ethos is family honor. The actions of the community are based on the solid family bonds that exist throughout. However, individualism drives the majority of America. Our actions seem to be a direct result of the cultural ethos.In this, lied much of the uncertainty between Bob, BJ and the El Nahran people. In America, we spend a grea t deal of the time away from home and our families and completing tasks that will further the success of the individual. Generally, Americans are willing to sacrifice a lot of their family solidity for individual success. A sacrifice of this magnitude would be unheard of in a community such as El Nahra. Their relationships, both marriage and friendship are based on their family, and no one seems to know any other lifestyle. Marriages in El Nahra were, for the large majority, predetermined.This tradition in America would be strongly questioned and completely disregarded, based on the cultural ethos of individualism. Americans put a large emphasis on courting their own spouse. However, based on El Nahra’s cultural ethos of family honor, the people trusted their family unit to make quality choices for them. Obviously, from an American perspective, a women’s freedom of choice in this facet of El Nahran culture is lacking. However, viewing marriage cross-culturally, their p riorities as a tribe and culture are different and we cannot view them through American eyes.We should understand that family is the most important feature of each of their lives, and the preservation of the family line is of the utmost priority to them. In El Nahra, it may have seemed to Beeja that women have no power in their society. However, power may have multiple meanings as one travels from culture to culture. In America, a woman may view power in terms being able to obtain and maintain a stable, high-paying job on her own. We may also view a woman of no power as one without a job, simply satisfied being a common housewife. However, in El Nahra, as Beeja finds out, the women have more power as housewives.Their power comes from their ability to please their husband, and it is known, who were the preferred wives. As a favored wife, bearing children gives the woman power in her community amongst both women and men. â€Å"A typical well-respected wife would have served and respe cted her husband, worked hard, kept herself beautiful for him, made him laugh, and of course borne him sons (1965:169). They also obtain their power and respect from their capability to do what American women may consider to be menial chores. Preparation of meals and the cleanliness of ones home are essential to how a woman is viewed in El Nahra.When the sheik visited BJ and Bob’s home, BJ experienced this concept of power first hand. To make a good impression and understand the customs better, she had her servant Mohammed helped with Sheik Hamid’s feast. â€Å"Then Mohammed and I dished up the food, the chicken, the kebab, the meat dishes, the vegetables and salad and yogurt†, (1965:96). â€Å"We piled the platters, twelve of them, onto the tray. Mohammed mopped his brow, readjusted his headdress, then lifted the heavy, steaming tray to his shoulder and set out for the other room†, (1965:97).These feasts are very imperative to the reputation of a woman i n El Nahra. There are benefits to being a woman in El Nahra. Many women in American communities do not have the opportunity to experience the support and close bond between other women in their community. In America, it is hard for women to find enough time to spend with other women in the same manner as the women of El Nahra. The lifestyle is slower paced, and the importance is more on relationships instead of money and individualism, as in America. These close groups of women are a result of purdah, the veiling and seclusion of women. They say an uncovered woman is an immoral woman,† Bob explained, â€Å"and the tribesmen ask why a woman should want to show herself to anyone but her husband†, (1965:6). Predictably, Americans would perceive this behavior as degrading, while El Nahran women identify with it as a part of life. El Nahran women do not view it as degrading; rather, from BJ’s many interactions with the women of the community, they recognize it makes t hem stronger. The time they spend together is precious. They all gather together in a seemingly jovial atmosphere.Most American women never get to experience that kind of bonding with such a large group of women. Granted, American women some times gather for tea parties to catch up with each others lives, but the women of El Nahra are in constant daily contact, and already know each others lives inside and out. The bonds that the women make are unique outlooks of El Nahran culture that make it equally as important as any other culture in the world. El Nahran women have many unique and important aspects of culture, which contribute to a healthy lifestyle.These aspects are unique to their village and create a positive environment for them to live. However, members of foreign cultures may disagree. At that point, people must understand that cultures can be equally as productive and beneficial no matter the means they use to achieve their particular goals. Elizabeth Fernea conducted her self as a respectful and somewhat open individual within the Iraqi community, she accepted the change of culture in which she was not accustomed and experienced the concept of Iraqi culture.I believe Elizabeth started out with strong ethnocentric views: â€Å"Thus, although I balked at wearing an all-enveloping black abayah, I had elected to live like the women of El Nahra-in relative seclusion behind walls, not meeting or mixing with me† (1965:5), but left with a more opened mind and respect for different cultures, especially the Middle East culture: â€Å"when I came to Selma, heavy and clumsy with the child she was carrying, she smiled politely in a set way and then as I smiled back, her face changed and she threw her arms around me and cried aloud.At this my own reserve broke and I found myself weeping, passing from one abayah-clad figure to another in a welter of embraces and tears†, â€Å"they were bidding me goodbye† (1965:331). This shows how Elizabeth s tarted ethnocentric coming to El Nahra, but her interactions with the women of El Nahra mad her more culturally relative to the Iraqi culture of El Nahra. Guests of the Sheik Ethnocentrism: The Cultural Differences between Western and Middle Eastern Cultures Through its ethnocentric tales and family based beliefs, Elizabeth Warnock Fernea’s Guests of the Sheik suggests that to find the true representation of Islamic culture, one must leave ethnocentrism behind. Not only will we discuss ethnocentrism and the cultural differences between Western and Middle Eastern societies, we will also take a look at the women of El Nahra and family within the differing societies. Fernea entered El Nahra naive to the culture.However, was an innocent bystander, she became indignant because of the reference of wearing the abayah, â€Å" because she viewed the â€Å"abayah† as not being a part of her culture and did not have to wear it, â€Å"Why should I have to wear that ugly thing–it’s not my custom† (1965: 5). However, through her stay in the small Iraqi village, she gained cultural insight to be passed on about not only El Nahra, but to all foreign culture. As Elizabeth entered the Sheik’s village, she was viewed with a critical eye, â€Å"It seemed to me that many times the women were talking about me, and not in a particularly friendly manner† (1965: 70).The women of El Nahra could not understand why Elizabeth was not with her entire family, and why it was just her and her husband Bob: â€Å"Where is your mother? Kulthma asked. I told her she was in America far away, and when Selma repeated this in a better accent, the women clucked in sympathy. Poor girl, they said. Poor child. To be alone without any of one’s womenfolk was clearly the greatest disaster which could befall any girl† (1965:36). The women did not recognize her American lifestyle as accurate.This is not only ethnocentrism on the part of the El Nahran women because of their belief system that you are suppose to have your parents living with you or near you but American’s do not see this as a bad thing to live far from ones parents. Conversely, Elizabeth–BJ or Beeja, as named by the village and Bob did not view the El Nahra lifestyle as particularly proper either. They were viewing each other through their own cultural lenses. However, through their constant interaction, both sides began to recognize some benefits each culture possessed.It takes time when you are immersed in a particular community to understand the cultural ethos and eventually the community as a whole. Through Elizabeth Fernea’s ethnography on Iraq’s El Nahra village, we learn that all cultures have unique and equally important aspects. In El Nahra, for example, the cultural ethos is family honor. The actions of the community are based on the solid family bonds that exist throughout. However, individualism drives the majority of America. Our actions seem to be a direct result of the cultural ethos.In this, lied much of the uncertainty between Bob, BJ and the El Nahran people. In America, we spend a grea t deal of the time away from home and our families and completing tasks that will further the success of the individual. Generally, Americans are willing to sacrifice a lot of their family solidity for individual success. A sacrifice of this magnitude would be unheard of in a community such as El Nahra. Their relationships, both marriage and friendship are based on their family, and no one seems to know any other lifestyle. Marriages in El Nahra were, for the large majority, predetermined.This tradition in America would be strongly questioned and completely disregarded, based on the cultural ethos of individualism. Americans put a large emphasis on courting their own spouse. However, based on El Nahra’s cultural ethos of family honor, the people trusted their family unit to make quality choices for them. Obviously, from an American perspective, a women’s freedom of choice in this facet of El Nahran culture is lacking. However, viewing marriage cross-culturally, their p riorities as a tribe and culture are different and we cannot view them through American eyes.We should understand that family is the most important feature of each of their lives, and the preservation of the family line is of the utmost priority to them. In El Nahra, it may have seemed to Beeja that women have no power in their society. However, power may have multiple meanings as one travels from culture to culture. In America, a woman may view power in terms being able to obtain and maintain a stable, high-paying job on her own. We may also view a woman of no power as one without a job, simply satisfied being a common housewife. However, in El Nahra, as Beeja finds out, the women have more power as housewives.Their power comes from their ability to please their husband, and it is known, who were the preferred wives. As a favored wife, bearing children gives the woman power in her community amongst both women and men. â€Å"A typical well-respected wife would have served and respe cted her husband, worked hard, kept herself beautiful for him, made him laugh, and of course borne him sons (1965:169). They also obtain their power and respect from their capability to do what American women may consider to be menial chores. Preparation of meals and the cleanliness of ones home are essential to how a woman is viewed in El Nahra.When the sheik visited BJ and Bob’s home, BJ experienced this concept of power first hand. To make a good impression and understand the customs better, she had her servant Mohammed helped with Sheik Hamid’s feast. â€Å"Then Mohammed and I dished up the food, the chicken, the kebab, the meat dishes, the vegetables and salad and yogurt†, (1965:96). â€Å"We piled the platters, twelve of them, onto the tray. Mohammed mopped his brow, readjusted his headdress, then lifted the heavy, steaming tray to his shoulder and set out for the other room†, (1965:97).These feasts are very imperative to the reputation of a woman i n El Nahra. There are benefits to being a woman in El Nahra. Many women in American communities do not have the opportunity to experience the support and close bond between other women in their community. In America, it is hard for women to find enough time to spend with other women in the same manner as the women of El Nahra. The lifestyle is slower paced, and the importance is more on relationships instead of money and individualism, as in America. These close groups of women are a result of purdah, the veiling and seclusion of women. They say an uncovered woman is an immoral woman,† Bob explained, â€Å"and the tribesmen ask why a woman should want to show herself to anyone but her husband†, (1965:6). Predictably, Americans would perceive this behavior as degrading, while El Nahran women identify with it as a part of life. El Nahran women do not view it as degrading; rather, from BJ’s many interactions with the women of the community, they recognize it makes t hem stronger. The time they spend together is precious. They all gather together in a seemingly jovial atmosphere.Most American women never get to experience that kind of bonding with such a large group of women. Granted, American women some times gather for tea parties to catch up with each others lives, but the women of El Nahra are in constant daily contact, and already know each others lives inside and out. The bonds that the women make are unique outlooks of El Nahran culture that make it equally as important as any other culture in the world. El Nahran women have many unique and important aspects of culture, which contribute to a healthy lifestyle.These aspects are unique to their village and create a positive environment for them to live. However, members of foreign cultures may disagree. At that point, people must understand that cultures can be equally as productive and beneficial no matter the means they use to achieve their particular goals. Elizabeth Fernea conducted her self as a respectful and somewhat open individual within the Iraqi community, she accepted the change of culture in which she was not accustomed and experienced the concept of Iraqi culture.I believe Elizabeth started out with strong ethnocentric views: â€Å"Thus, although I balked at wearing an all-enveloping black abayah, I had elected to live like the women of El Nahra-in relative seclusion behind walls, not meeting or mixing with me† (1965:5), but left with a more opened mind and respect for different cultures, especially the Middle East culture: â€Å"when I came to Selma, heavy and clumsy with the child she was carrying, she smiled politely in a set way and then as I smiled back, her face changed and she threw her arms around me and cried aloud.At this my own reserve broke and I found myself weeping, passing from one abayah-clad figure to another in a welter of embraces and tears†, â€Å"they were bidding me goodbye† (1965:331). This shows how Elizabeth s tarted ethnocentric coming to El Nahra, but her interactions with the women of El Nahra mad her more culturally relative to the Iraqi culture of El Nahra.

Experience of China Silence Essay

â€Å"Should the experience of China silence those who think that democracy is good for growth?† A democracy is ‘a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.’ In this case it can be said that China does not qualify as a democratic country, however it is the world’s fastest growing economy in the world and has been described as the second industrial revolution. This therefore suggests that the argument for democracy being the only solution to economic growth isn’t correct yet perhaps it was other factors other than political state of China which led to its boom economy. For the purpose of this argument, it can be assumed that China is a planned economy yet in reality, although limited, regional governments have limited democracy e.g. Hong Kong. China is the world’s leading exporter which would indicate to China’s prosperity as it refers to their industrial revolution, this is due to China having an enormous pool of cheap labour, large scopes of land in which manufacturing can be fully accommodated and too, on large scales it also has a long sea border which facilitates exporting. Factors such as these, give testimony to the idea of in fact China having mass economic growth which doesn’t involve political reasoning and economic growth was almost naturally occurring to China. However, it could be argued that it is due to the political system of the country, the government is able to direct people into areas of work where economic growth is most pronounced and therefore, labour is used to maximum efficiency. If economic growth is to continue in the way it has done especially in the last 20 years, it cannot continue to rely solely on trade exports; this is because other countries can’t continue to im port more goods from China as they will eventually be faced with financial struggles. A problem that perhaps needs to be remedied is the domestic demand within China, if the people of China continue to save money on the whole and don’t spend as much typical to a developed country such as Britain, predictably they will stop having economic growth. Another significant drawback is to mention the GDP per capita, this measures the real economic power of the average citizen in China. This is very low in China which indicates a very low standard of living, so to measure the level of economic growth in China is not necessarily the right measure to address the recent economic successes. In recent years, the currency of China has increased but still not to the extent that America believes it should have. An increase of 2.1% does not seem to totally honour or reflect the extent of economic growth China has actually experienced. It is by speculation that perhaps due to financial strategies such as by having low value Renminbi cheaper exports are therefore made possible, America has repeatedly brought this up at the WTO as it leads to unemployment in America. The currency leaves in China leaves other countries with the cheaper option to import goods rather than manufacture them their selves and so is in a sense very tactical government control, potentially. It is only in a planned economy such as China’s is that such control over currency would be made possible to allow efficient trade. Due to China not having a democratic government which in turn entails stop-start policies they are able to plan for the long term which allows structure and not just short term political fixes such as in a democratic politics. However the down side to this is the corruption, governments which remains in power for years allows corruption which Is currently big problem in China, so as much as it can be said that economic growth has been a notion coupled with a change in government away from Mao’s communist society, problems such as corruption have also arisen.

Ocean city and Clearwater beach Essay

One of the great things about summer is going to the beaches. Over the past ten years my family and I have had the pleasure of heading up to Ocean City Maryland on the eastern shore. The beach there is an excellent place for the family to get together and have fun. The sand at Ocean City is an off white color and warm to the touch and the water with its bluish green color feels cool on your skin. Ocean City has one of the largest boardwalks on the east coast with its many shops, stores, and restaurants it attracts families from all around the world. Ocean city also has a great amusement park for all the kids at heart and for all the true little people. However, At times it does tend to get a bit crowed but that’s half the fun of going to the beach the sights, sounds, the smells, and the many different types of people all enjoying themselves. A few years ago we did happen to change up a bit and headed down to Clearwater Florida for a short vacation the beach in Clearwater is also a very nice beach the sand there is a pure white color and feels so cool on your feet as you walk upon it, and the water is a very clean clear light blue, and very warm as you wad though it. You can even see your feet as small fish move around you Clearwater beach doesn’t have a boardwalk, but it does have the many restaurants and shops to visit. I did notice that Clearwater beach seems to be more geared to the young professional type people. There isn’t an amusement park for the kids and it didn’t seem like many families were there. The time that I spent there it never seemed to get crowded at all, but that was fine because it was relaxing and a nice change of pace. I would recommend both beaches to anyone that wants to get away for a good time, good people and a change of the norm.

Sibling Rivalry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Sibling Rivalry - Essay Example Parents should properly take care of their children and should be careful in providing equal attention to all of them so that none of the children feels left out or deprived in any way. Sibling rivalry starts from very early ages when children start fighting. This competition goes on between children and it can continue throughout their lifetime that is they keep on competing with their siblings. It can result from undue attention being provided to one of the children and the other one feels discriminated or it can also be due to the fact that one child is more intellectual than the other and he receives more praise and attention. The other child hence starts dealing with it in his own way which leads to fights. This competition can start from a very early age and it can mostly be seen in children who have a very small age difference and hence are together most of the time. This problem can have a psychological impact and it can lead to isolating one of the siblings. Hence this problem should be understood and dealt with. Parents can play a leading role in solving this problem. They should understand the fact that all children should be taken care of equally. They should work towards bringing together the siblings and reducing their differences. If they praise one of the children for his intelligence, the other child should also be supported in a manner and told that he can also work hard and achieve similar results. Hence all the children should be given attention and they should all be praised considering the fact that every child is gifted in his own way. This is the most effective method for dealing with this condition because it is the parents themselves who can know best about their children and their demands. It needs to be understood that most of the siblings in their childhood spend more time with each other than they do with their parents. Hence it is

Demonstrations in Middle East Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Demonstrations in Middle East - Essay Example Bearing in mind that many countries in the Middle East have been suffering from bad governance, it is pertinent to find out how these countries that experience these demonstrations in the Middle East are affected and impacted. My interest in the topic was spurred by the dominant news and reports of these protests and demonstrations in the Middle East. Being a very recent issue, it is important for me to carry out investigations in this area and come up with new and substantial findings that can factually explain the motivation behind the uprising in the Middle East and their impacts. To this day, various countries in the Middle East such as Yemen, Libya, Egypt and Tunisia have seen their rulers forcibly evicted from power. Other countries such as Syria and Bahrain have been experiencing serious civil uprisings that have brought about numerous impacts to them. Major and minor protests have erupted in some Middle East countries, with the major ones being experienced in regions such as Kuwait, Jordan and Iraq and minor ones in Saudi Arabia and Oman. These wars, riots, protests and demonstrations have been christened the Arab Spring (Phares 34). This topic is fairly new because it is involves new and recent o ccurrences. I plan on moving from this broad interest to formulate a narrow topic and thesis by focusing on a single aspect of the Middle East demonstrations that interests me the most. In this particular instance, I intend on focusing on the role of these protests and demonstrations in attaining democracy in the Middle East. These demonstrations in the Middle East are landmark revolutions that have shown the rest of the world that citizens can unite and oppose bad governance and poor leadership. My thesis and primary focus will be on the impact and roles of these demonstrations in bringing about democracy in the Middle East. Countries in the Middle East

Management Accounting 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Management Accounting 2 - Essay Example Budgeting is a continuous process in large organizations. Operation department create plans to help the company achieve its corporate goals. Overhead costs, capital expenditures, operating expenses and sales are forecasted for the upcoming fiscal year by the unit managers. The forecasted figures are then sent to the upper management for its approval. The upper management reviews all the projected costs, expenditures and revenues and then approves it. The approved formal budget forms the guideline for operations in the coming year. Monthly and quarterly budget are also prepared by organizations to keep a track of performance against projected figures and takes corrective action if there is any deviation. Upper management has a bottom up approach in respect of budgeting. Corporate managers take the top down approach in meeting business goals. Managers who have a good understanding of profits and sales and have the capacity to overestimate costs typically create successful budgets (Singla, 2009, p. 147). There are various benefits of budgeting such as managers can compare the company’s performance against the projected figures which also forms the basis of their functioning within an organization. They compare the current performance of the company against projected figures and takes corrective action if there is any deviation. In this way, the managers are also able to keep their employees focused and guide them to performa nce (Lucey, 2003, p. 187). Formal budgeting provides the company with a detailed and comprehensive picture of the immediate future and also informs the company about the possible opportunities and threats. Time is an important factor in the budgeting process. Managers sometimes find themselves completely lost in their effort to meet the rules and regulations that are there in the formal budget. But to have a sound system to exercise