Madonna Essays (1454 words) - Madonna, Pop Ballads,

Madonna Madonna Born August 16, 1958 in Bay City, Michigan to a lower-middle class Italian-Catholic household, Madonna Louise Ciccone was the third eldest daughter born. Her father Chrysler engineer Sylvio (Tony) Ciccone and French-Canadienne Madonna Fortin, for whom the future superstar was named ?Veronica? was added to her name for confirmation. While at a young age of five, Madonna's world fell apart as her mother struggled to a long process of breast cancer on December 1, 1963. Gathering strength from the tragedious loss of her mother, Madonna took a role of the head female of the house. She constantly competed with her other siblings for attention and eventually became her father's loved one. Madonna turned her perfect self into a bitter one when Sylvio married Joan Gustafson, the family's housekeeper, three years after his wife's death. The child resented her father's betrayal and wouldn't accept her step-mother authority. While going through tough times, Ms Ciccone developed a passion for the arts. Madonna acted in high school productions, but ultimately dance became her interest in her childhood life. In addition to being a cheerleader, Madonna took up ballet classes while attending Rochester Adams High School. She found a mentor in dance instructor Christopher Flynn, who introduced her to the world of spunkiness and sophistication at Detroit gay clubs. Madonna's wild sexuality made her fly sky high! She went on dates with guys, had her first rape encounter at 14 and toyed with the idea of lesbianism and practiced mutual things with her female classmate. Having excellent academic performance in addition to her dancing skills, Madonna graduated early in 1976 with a dance scholarship to the University of Michigan, where she studied poetry and dance. There, she had her first acquaintance with Steven Bray. Bray was a black drummer in an R&b band , and she began to attend his gigs. Finally, after spending just five semesters at U of M and the encouragement of Flynn, the nineteen-year-old set off to realize her dream. Despite her fathers dreams, Madonna began her world wide adventure, looking for roles where she could not only dance but sing also. Later on back in Queens, the Gilroys started The Breakfast Club in the fall of 1979 with Madonna on drums. That failed when the lead guitarist stopped the band. Madonna went to write and record dance/disco-oriented tracks with Bray and performed them at downtown clubs. She was quickly spotted by DJ Mark Kamins at the latter club. Madonna presented a four-track demo to him, he immediately made a deal and signed contracts. Madonna's self titled debut album was a mixture of sexy attitude, and streetwise sass. Her bare midriff, weird costume jewelry, and her I-don't-care attitude helped to make her unique personality that the world would get to know her as. Her first version of Everybody, released as Madonna's first single at the end of 1982. Her second single camde from the debut album, Physical Attraction also proved to be a club favorite. In June 1983, Madonna had her 3rd club hit with the outstanding, Holiday, which was produced by her new boyfriend, dance pop mix-master John Benitez. The following month, Holiday became her first billboard Top 40 hit. After that happened, Madonna had been certified quadruple-platinum with sales 4.4 million units in the US and 3.3 million units internationally. By the end of 1884, Madonnas second studio album, Like A Virgin was ready to be released. This album featured her songs Material Girl and Dress You Up. The album scored her first #1 hit and gold single in Dec of ?84. To date, Like A Virgin has achieved 10 platinum certifications for sales exceeding 10 million units in the US. Late in 1984, Madonna began working on her first starring role in a film, Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan, where she played a naive housewife. It was success in 1985 and brought out her musical talent to the world. In February of of 1985, Madonna made a brief appearance in Vision Quest as a nightclub singer, which scored her the second #1 hit and gold single for her career for the song Crazy For You, which also topped the charts in May. One of Madonna's highlights was meeting Sean Penn in 1985 shooting the video for

The Next Big Thing essays

The Next Big Thing essays All through time scholars and fortune tellers have tried to predict the next big thing to hit, whether it is general or a specific, they have tried. No one knows when it will hit until it does, like Flemings serendipitous discovery of the antibiotic penicillin. At this, the dawning of a new millennium, we should recall that little more than a hundred years ago it was a popular opinion that nothing of any great importance was left to be done, and then radioactivity, quantum mechanics, antimatter, and various vaccinations came along. Todays science is an open forum for all. Serendipity contains a collage of significant scientific discoveries in the fields of physics, biology, chemistry, astronomy, medicine, and even archaeology. My hope is that the next big thing is the advancement of immunology. According to National Geographic Magazine, the health of the body is dependent on the immune systems ability to recognize and then repel or destroy foreign invaders that may cause disease. Ev ery minute of every day wars rage within our bodies. Usually we never even notice the battles in the incessant wars within us. We have evolved legions of defenders, specialized cells that silently rout the unseen enemy. Sometimes these warriors mistake harmless invaders, such as pollen, for deadly foes, and they mount an allergic reaction. Sometimes our defenders are caught unprepared, and we develop a cold, the flu, or worse. Occasionally some of our own cells begin the mutinous proliferation of cancer and manage to evade the surveillance of our body's defense forces. But for every successful penetration of our defenses, thousands of attempts are repelled. We sleep securely, trusting the invisible vigilantes of our immune system. For decades immunology-the study of the immune system-was a backwater of medicine. In reality we did not have the instruments to explore the battlefields within us. In the past 20 years, however, powerful micros...

Establish a multistate specialty medical clinic Essay

Establish a multistate specialty medical clinic - Essay Example First and foremost, physicians and other trained personnel for instance doctors need to have a degree in their related field and approved by the medical practitioners association. Apparently, this is mandated to ensure the highest level of efficiency in healthcare provision. On the contrary, the licensing protocol may vary form one state to another depending on the laws of the particular state regarding healthcare. Actually, in our state, in in order to obtain a medicine practicing license one has to undergo an additional vetting board. Apparently, this is to ensure high quality of medical service provision. Notably, this is in contradiction with other states. Evidently, in order to be a medical doctor or doctor of osteopathy in this clinic, one must have a degree in medicine and surgery and a working experience of about two years. Moreover, for an advanced registered nurse practitioner, a degree in nursing and a working experience of one year is mandatory. Furthermore, for a physica l and occupational therapist, a degree in physical therapy and psychology is

Human Resources Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human Resources - Research Paper Example The function that oversees the employees concerns is called Human resource management at the workplace. In the organization, all employees are viewed as vital enterprise assets and their value is enhances by gradual development. Therefore, enterprises always engage themselves in a barrage of practicing human resources to capitalize on human assets. Organizations apply technics in governing human resources as suggested by (Renkly, 2004). The first technic is to classify employees in into demographic groups. In this trend, workforce or populations characteristic are categorized using age, social class and even gender. The trend unquestionably has effects in relations to offering of pension, packages of insurance and annual leaves. Another technic in managing human resources is to understand its diverse characteristics especially their culture. Strategic workforce planning Strategic human planning should address alignment of organizations human capital program with their current mission , emerging mission and programmatic objectives. Human resource management should develop long-term strategies for acquiring, training and developing workers to attain programmed goals. Approaches of managing human resources may vary from one manager to another or from one enterprise to another. However, there are some principals that guide managers in coming up with strategic workforce plan (Seijts, 2006). The principals address key issues to be considered irrespective of the context in which the planning is done. First, the top managers, workers and the stakeholders must involve themselves in communicating, developing and implementation of the strategic workforce plan. This will help supervisors, and employees’ agency managers understand the need to work as a team. It ensures entire agency understands benefits of changes as defined in the strategic workforce plan. Clear communications create transparent procedures and policies that help in utilization of human capital (Pinkl eton& Austin, 2006). Role of human resources in an organization The human resource management team in the organization has a mandate to manage employees in the organization. There are limitations and the advantages in of this function. The departments ensure all staff follows the general direction, rule and regulations of the work place. The departments constant remind and clarify the means set towards attainment of organizations goals. The department also is responsible for creating compensations or incentives to be awarded to employees in order to act as a motivation (Heneman& Judge, 2006). Human resource manager act as employees sponsor and advocate (Williams& Gilmore, 2009). The managers play an important role towards organizational success. The knowledge about advocacy of people is an essential skill that managers need to have. The managers foster effective methods in setting of goals and empowering workers through assigning them with responsibilities. This helps in creating or der in the organization. Professionals in human resources help establish culture and climate of the organization. The environment creates the commitment and efficiency in serving the customers. In this role, human resources manager provide the overall talent management strategies. The manager also develops opportunity and create workers assistance program (Jackson, 1992). The frequent evaluation of the organizatio

Myself Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Myself - Essay Example I equally develop an optimistic approach towards problems because they allow one to be confident when addressing life experiences. Moreover, I am a well-organized person because I focus on aspects to accomplish before acting. I equally keep lists on each planned event. I have the capacity to prioritize my jobs to relieve any form of work related stress. In addition, I keep a calendar and mark the crucial dates for me to consider important appointments and meetings. This tendency has made my life simple because I can get rid of all unnecessary experiences that challenge my livelihood. Lastly, I am an interpersonal person who wants to attain some knowledge and ideas from other individuals. This is because I like interacting with other people effectively. This has helped me to understand the nature of people around me so that I can relate with them better. Moreover, I get involved in interpersonal communication to establish an identity with my counterparts and express my interpersonal need such as affection. This is because groups serve as resourceful approaches for making friends and creating

Analysis of Dubais Economy

Analysis of Dubais Economy Dubais Financial Crisis: Dubai is usually characterized by sky piercing towers, rotating buildings, spectacular architectural designs, flow of petro-dollars which refers to the income coming from exporting oil and its products to other countries, broad and clean road networks, etc. It represents a face of modernization and advancement and has earned a place amongst one of the most technically advanced countries in the world. This rapid development of the country was a result of the focus of the government on tourism thus promoting the real estate sector with the help of revenues coming from export of oil and natural gas. With the largest real estate company of Dubai Emaar properties becoming bankrupt in the United States and vaDubai proposal to delay the repayment of all its debts for a period of 6 months on November 26, 2009 the financial crisis in Dubai was exposed in front of the world which had bad effects on countries around the world. The debts were as large as $59 billion causing a stop to the investm ent cycle of Dubai for 6 months. The Dubais real estate industry was based on huge loans which they expected to pay through the revenues they earn from them but with recession hitting the industry badly their plans failed. Thus the Dubais financial crisis to a large extent can be said to be a consequence of real estate bubble burst in Dubai. Dubais Economy: Before getting to the financial crisis it is important to know the structure of the Dubais economy which is one of the most unique and unusual in the world. It is divided into free zones setup by the government of Dubai. The zones are industry specific with Jebel Ali free zone being the fastest growing in the world. The Jebel Ali free zone offers a set of products and services such as: ready to use offices, Business centers, factories, Warehouses, infrastructure ready plots etc. Jebel Ali free zone commonly referred to as Jafza is a part of Dubai based; a state owned Economic Zones World. It is one of the worlds biggest developers of Economic Zones, Logistics and Research and development driven Industrial Parks. The main free zones of Dubai are Jebel Ali free zone, Dubai Internet City, Dubai Media City, and Dubai Maritime City which are based on the industries they are related with. People have false misconception about Dubais economy they believe that its mainly driven by oil and gas although the oil sector comprises of less than 6% economy of Dubai that was primarily dependent on oil as a main source of revenue in the past. Dubai being a part of the United Arab Emirates is expected to be great producer of oil, petroleum and natural gas although it is a good producer but compared to other countries of the United Arab Emirates it produces relatively lesser quantities of oil. Dubai produces 240,000 barrels of oil per day and its revenues from natural gas constitute only 2% of the total revenue that United Arab Emirates gets from natural gas. Although it is true that Dubais economy was initially build on the revenues generated by its reserves of oil and natural gas but with time its oil reserves have reduced significantly as a result of a large increase in the demand for oil and oil products around the world and over the years and Dubai exporting a great amount of oil to other countries it is expected that Dubais reserves of oil will get exhausted in the next 20 years and so it has concentrated on the tourism industry to generate good revenues at that time. (Dubai hit hard) Another large contributing sector of Dubais economy is the real estate which forms 22.6% of the economy of Dubai. The great success of this industry is owed to the focus on tourism. Over the years the government of Dubai has concentrated largely on tourism they have invested large capitals in order to promote their tourism in the process they have built sky scrapers, clean and well knit network of roads. The government has focused on providing world class facilities in Dubai in the process creating architectural designs and buildings which attracts tourists from all around the world. As the real estate industry is closely related to the tourism industry it has developed as a major industry in Dubai and contributes greatly to its economy. According to a survey in 2007 the largest contributing sectors for the Dubais economy other than oil were real estate and construction, trade and financial services which contribute 22.6%, 16% and 11% respectively to the Dubais economy. From the facts mentioned above it can be ascertained that there has been a shift in Dubais economy from being solely dependent on oil to development of other sectors by using the large amounts of money coming from the oil to development of other sectors like tourism but it has been stuck badly due to fall in prices of buildings and as most of them were based on loans vaDubai formally announced that the biggest of its real estate companies would not be able to repay their debts for a period of at least six months leading to the financial crisis. The Policy of diversifying to Real Estate: The funds had always been flowing into Dubai due to its large reserves of oil that it posses and initially the whole economy of Dubai was dependent mainly on income coming from oil and natural gas but there has been a shift as the Dubai government now aims at making the tourism industry the biggest industry of Dubai and has invested a huge capital in developing this industry. In the year 2000 the establishment of Dubai Financial Market (DFM) as a secondary market for trading of trading securities and bonds both locally and globally was major step in diversifying Dubais economy. The establishment of Dubai Financial market was a part of the governments plan to diversify Dubais economy from a trade based economy to the one which is tourism and service oriented made real estate more valuable in Dubai. The inclination of the government towards tourism did turn out to be a promoter for the real estate and construction industry and the real estate industry grew at a rapid pace in Dubai becoming one of the largest industries in Dubai. As a result of the governments promotion to tourism Dubai witnessed a real estate boom which resulted in appreciation of property prices in Dubai from 2004-2006. These policies transformed Dubai into a center for large scale real estate development projects and made it a home for many large projects and tallest skyscrapers of the world which are now amongst famous buildings of the world. The results of these policies are visible through buildings like the Burj Dubai, the Palm Islands, the Emirates Towers, and the worlds most expensive hotel, the Burj Al Arab which reflect the rapid development and the great advancement of the real estate and construction industry in Dubai making it a world class tourist destination. All the results of these policies led to a great change in Dubais landscape which also led to a great amount of foreign investments in Dubai as Dubai became a great destination for investors around the world. For many years Dubai has given great returns to investors around the world with an aggregate of approximately more than 40% per annum which has attracted clients from around the world trying to get the investment ladder ready but during the last few months being hit badly by recession these profits have turned into losses with a depreciation in property prices creating a situation of financial crisis in Dubai. Although Dubai has given great returns in the past but the ugly face of the Dubai model that it was based on speculation and debt that was somewhere in the breakneck boom in Dubai and with the prices of buildings falling in the recent past this face was exposed as the largest real estate companies were not able to repay their debts that were due till December 2009 and the government asked the investment companies delay the collection of all their funds for at least a period of 6 months which hit badly the finance industry of Dubai which is one of the major industries of Dubai. The Dubai World: The Dubai world which is an investment company acts as a regulatory company in Dubai. It manages a portfolio of businesses projects for the Dubai government. It functions across a wide range of industries and projects which promote Dubai as a hub for trading and commerce. Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem is the chairman of the company. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Prime Minister and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates is the major stake holder of the company. The company was established by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum under a decree ratified on March 2nd 2006 with an aim to regulate and promote trade in Dubai. The stature of Dubai world is quite large in the global market and it has large investments not only within Dubai but also in countries around the world. Some of its major investments range from MGM Mirage Las Vegas Casino Company to Standard Chartered Plc a London-traded bank and luxury retailer Barneys New York through asset management firm named Istithmar PJSC. The Initial success of Dubai in the Period of global financial Crisis In the early period of global financial system Dubais financial structure, dynamic construction and tourism industries and relished tax free incentives seemed to be a great advantage for it and many people even expected it to remain free from any sort of recession. A major factor that created this illusion in the minds of people was the continuance of investment activities and construction at a feverish pace even when there was a lack of capital in all other parts of the world and no other country was even thinking of such investments Dubai announced to construct a new tallest building of the world just after Lehman Brothers collapsed in the United States. All these steps along with the booming infrastructure of Dubai attracted many investors from around the world who thought of Dubai as a good prospect for investment and expected good returns from it. Dubai has built one of the finest infrastructures of the world and it is quite natural for investors to be attracted towards such a p lace which lead to the initial success of Dubai in a period when the world was facing recession and lacking investments but its overdependence on debts caused the financial crisis. Seeds of trouble The global financial crisis during 2008-09 resulted in major downfall of Dubais real estate market. It led to slow down of the economy of Dubai. The economic revenue generated was not coming as efficient as before which greatly hindered Dubais growth and as most of its plans were based on money borrowed by investment companies and there were no plans to face any downturns in the economy it became difficult for them to repay that loan. As the main aim of Dubais economy was the tourism industry a slump in the global markets was always bound to affect the economy of Dubai. At the international press council conducted by Mohammed al Abbar, senior enough to abide Dubais Ruler and UAEs Vice President or Prime Minister. He was placed at the designation of the Director General of Dubais Department for Economic Development and also as a chairman for Emaar properties the largest real estate company in December 2008 declared the credits that Emaar enterprise had which had an adverse effect on the economy as a whole. Emaar Enterprise had credits for over 70 billion US Dollars. In addition to it they also had additional 10 billion US Dollars in Dubai with holdings estimated above 350 billion as a real estate asset. Earlier in 2009, situation was worse due to the global economic crisis, heavy tolls on employment, property values, constructions, etc. also added into it and resulted in the decrease in costs of these prices due to slow down in the world markets also hit the real estate sector of Dubai which was expecting a rapid development in order to repay all its debts in stipulated time. This not only hit the real estate industry of Dubai but also the finance industries which financed most of the projects of construction. In Feb 2009, the estimated foreign debt for Dubai was approximated at 100 billion US Dollars. It leads 250,000 United Arab Emirates national to be responsible for more than 400,000 US Dollars of foreign debts which is a very large amount although Dubai had been hit by a financial crisis in the past also. In the year 1999 Dubai was hit by a similar crisis but at that time the debts were much less than the amounts this time and at that time Abu Dhabi supported it but the amounts are very high this time as the main focus of Dubai government in the recent past has been tourism industry and the real estate is closely related to it. The assessment of Dubai market of property has shown a lot of depreciation or decrement. The property loss was more than 65% of their values since 2001 till November 2008 which has been one of the main causes of the financial crisis as the property market was expecting an increase in prices but the decrease proved to be fatal for it. The construction companies were expecting a rapid increase in the property prices and were expecting to repay their debts using the incomes created from it but that did not happen and lead to the financial crisis In addition to all these failures in key businesses, consumer satisfaction, wealth etc. is estimated to be in trillions of US Dollars. The financial commitments incurred by governments proved a fatal loss in economic activity. The Burst of Bubble Dubai which is governed by Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum borrowed approx 80 billion US Dollars in a period of 4 years of construction for booming the construction market of economy of regional tourism as their main focus was on tourism as they expect that it would lead to a concrete source of income for them even when their oil reserves get exhausted. Emirates suffered a huge loss in the worlds steepest property slump as a result of global recession. The home prices dropped by 50 percent from their value in 2008 leaving Dubai in a situation where they were not able to generate adequate money in order to repay the debts that they had taken in order to promote the real estate industry. Dubai had 59 billion US Dollars of liabilities in agreement to the standstill of creditors. The debt included more than 3.5 billion dollars of bonds dated December 14. This property unit is from Nakheel PJSC a firm from Dubai. Analyst said that the prime reason for the financial crisis in Dubai was the mismanagement or the wrong decision of Sheikh Mohammed. He invested all his as well as the Dubai government wealth in the real estate market in United State and had no plans to deal with any kinds of shocks faced in their road to success such as recession. He thought that Dubai would never be stuck with any sort of recession which was a result of lack of adequate planning for bad phases during their journey. The foreign investment of Emaar claimed to be the second largest builders in United States. They ultimately went bankrupt because of the recession and/or filed for chapter 11, which allows reorganization of a company under the laws of bankruptcy for United States. United States bankruptcy code permits the reorganization of any of the company under the bankruptcy laws of United States of America. Dubai shifted to their crisis mode with their large and dangerous building boom. Their lending bonanza soon vanished due to the crisis. Government and banks took huge steps to provide some backup to the organization and to rescue the falling organization. The bankruptcy of Emaar properties was a big shock for people around the world and even bigger for the people in Dubai as it acted as a hint of the financial crisis that had begun in Dubai which was considered to be one of the flourishing economies of the world. Announcement and the impact of official moratorium: Dated: 25 November, 2009, the final announcement came in by the government of Dubai. They announced that the company intends to ask all its providers for financing to Dubai World, its subsidiary Nakheel to remain standstill and extend the maturities until at least the date 30 May 2010. This announcement meant a great decrease in the inflow of money for all the financial companies who had invested in various projects in Dubai and also sent a bad message to the world which had come to know that Dubai was in a financial crisis. Several months before the announcement Dubai world accounted for $59-billion debt which accounted for nearly three fourth of the emirates total debt of US$80-billion. These debts also included a $3.5-billion debt which the company was unable to pay by its December deadline. This announcement not only led to a degradation of Dubais goodwill among investment companies but also had a bad impact on the global markets which were recovering from the impacts of recessio n, the announcement in a way pushed the recovering markets back when they had started growing. The impact was very severe as it degraded the investment status of Dubai amongst various investment companies. The governments announcement led both Standard Poors Investors Services and Moodys who were the key investors of Dubai heavily downgraded the debt of various Dubai government-related entities with interests in commercial operations, utilities, property, and commodities trading which meant that it became harder for companies to get money for their projects. For Moody, the downgrade meant that the affected agencies would lose their investment grade status which would help Moody to make it very difficult for them to get the money required for their businesses. The effect was not only internal its impact was felt by all major markets of the world who experienced a drop in their stock indices. The main European markets shattered on November 26 followed by huge drops in Asian stocks on November 27 creating a bad impact on these markets that were recovering from the shocks of recession. Possibilities of Recovery: Although Dubai is presently suffering with a financial crisis there are still possibilities that it will recover from this crisis. Abu Dhabi the capital of the United Arab Emirates which is also the richest country of the United Arab Emirates is the brightest ray of hope for Dubai. Dubai has already asked Abu Dhabi to bail it out of the crisis. The hope even increases as Abu Dhabi has helped Dubai in the past when Dubai was in Crisis although the demand is much higher than the past. Abu Dhabi has helped Dubai with an amount of $10 billion in order to bail out the Dubai world. A recent report by HSBC which says that Abu Dhabi has the cash liquidity to support its own companies and banks is even more positive response as Dubais point of view. Thus Abu Dhabi may use some of this liquidity to bail out Dubai from this phase of crisis. With the U.A.E central bank showing positive signs by confirming that its board has discussed plans for supporting real estate business by lending Dubai as well as remaining United Arab Emirates has increased the probabilities of recovery for Dubai to a great extent. Impact on Indian Economy: Indian banks have communicated to the Reserve Bank of India that their sheets show insignificant investments in Dubai as compared to their revenues generated. The main investments are those of State Bank of India, Bank of Baroda and ICICI combined together denote investments of around Rs 7000 crores with SBI having Rs 1500 crore in the combined charts. However Bank of Barodas spreadsheet has Rs 4000 crore invested in UAE with only Rs 600 crores in real estate markets and has no negative impact on the health of the bank. However the professional front may face losses as Indians constitute 40% of the population of Dubai and are all in the business or service sector and so it may affect the remittances to India could decline provided the company is able to work out a bailout from this scenario. UAE has not been a significant source of investment in the Indian portfolio however the crises as already stated will affect the remittances or permanent transference of money to the relatives of Indians settled in Dubai was an important component of Indian Economy as in the first quarter of fiscal year 2010 as it formed 45% of the invisibles. But the crises have created intense pressure on employment thereby reducing the invisibles coming to the country. Dubai Worlds subsidiary DP World has investments in the Indian sea ports and planned investments of $ 500 million can hamper Indias water strength. Dubai crises and Indian exports are closely linked and reached a massive 13% in the fiscal of 2010 as is shown in the graph below. These figures give an estimate of how the exports could falter the critical situation and hamper the export market. Indian real estate developers who had ventured into Dubai like Nagarjuna Constructions, BSEL Infra, Larsen and Toubro etc References Dubai Crisis 2009. (n.d.), Retrieved on March 15, 2010 from http://www.gktoday.in/2009/11/what-is-dubai-crisis-2009.html Dubai Economic Crisis. (n.d.), Retrieved on March 15, 2010 from http://www.docstoc.com/docs/23974903/Dubai-Economic-Crisis-And-Its-Impacts-On-India Dubai hit hard. (n.d.), Retrieved on March 15, 2010 from http://www.globalcrisisnews.com/real-estate/dubai-hit-hard-by-financial-crisis/id=625/

Great Expectations, Little Dorrit Essay -- Great Expectations Essays

Charles Dickens used his own personal experiences and views to create the setting in his novels, as it is seen in Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, and Bleak House. The role of the setting in each book is to create the mood and support the characters. (Davis 350) In Dickens’ novels the setting helps the reader better understand the time period and the problems the people of London faced with the political and social structure in place at the time. It also gives insight into the lives of the people through the intricate detail. Many times in Dickens novels, the setting becomes a character itself and without it the story would be incomplete. Dickens attention to detail is part of what makes his novels so unique and original. In order to see the influence Dickens’ experiences had in his books, first one must know a little of his history. Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 to John and Elizabeth Dickens. (Kaplan 18) During most of his childhood they lived in London and this is where most of his settings come from. John Dickens had a hard time living within his means and when Charles was 12 his father was sent to the debtors’ prison, known as the Marshalsea. (Kaplan 39) While John was in prison Elizabeth and their other children lived at the Marshalsea with him, but Charles was sent to work in a factory to help support the family and pay off his father’s debt. (Kaplan 41) This time in Charles’ life would always be a haunting memory for him and it influenced many of his stories. After a year John’s mother died, leaving him enough money to pay off his debts and he was released from the Marshalsea. Even after his father’s release from prison, Dickens mother made him continue to work at the factory. This time caused him to be b... ...d distinct. Many of the settings in Great Expectations and Little Dorrit come from Dickens’ childhood experiences, such as the dock yard, the Marshalsea and working in the factory. He paints vivid pictures with words to show the reader exactly how he saw things. Bleak House shows his strong beliefs and views about the political system of England during this time. He uses the story to show exactly how unorganized and corrupt the political system was at the time. These novels are great examples of how the setting plays a role in the story, by creating the mood and helping the reader better see into the lives of the people living during that time. The major role the setting plays in these stories is the insight into the beliefs of the author and the experiences he had growing up in and around London in the nineteenth century, as it is portrayed by him in his works. Great Expectations, Little Dorrit Essay -- Great Expectations Essays Charles Dickens used his own personal experiences and views to create the setting in his novels, as it is seen in Great Expectations, Little Dorrit, and Bleak House. The role of the setting in each book is to create the mood and support the characters. (Davis 350) In Dickens’ novels the setting helps the reader better understand the time period and the problems the people of London faced with the political and social structure in place at the time. It also gives insight into the lives of the people through the intricate detail. Many times in Dickens novels, the setting becomes a character itself and without it the story would be incomplete. Dickens attention to detail is part of what makes his novels so unique and original. In order to see the influence Dickens’ experiences had in his books, first one must know a little of his history. Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 to John and Elizabeth Dickens. (Kaplan 18) During most of his childhood they lived in London and this is where most of his settings come from. John Dickens had a hard time living within his means and when Charles was 12 his father was sent to the debtors’ prison, known as the Marshalsea. (Kaplan 39) While John was in prison Elizabeth and their other children lived at the Marshalsea with him, but Charles was sent to work in a factory to help support the family and pay off his father’s debt. (Kaplan 41) This time in Charles’ life would always be a haunting memory for him and it influenced many of his stories. After a year John’s mother died, leaving him enough money to pay off his debts and he was released from the Marshalsea. Even after his father’s release from prison, Dickens mother made him continue to work at the factory. This time caused him to be b... ...d distinct. Many of the settings in Great Expectations and Little Dorrit come from Dickens’ childhood experiences, such as the dock yard, the Marshalsea and working in the factory. He paints vivid pictures with words to show the reader exactly how he saw things. Bleak House shows his strong beliefs and views about the political system of England during this time. He uses the story to show exactly how unorganized and corrupt the political system was at the time. These novels are great examples of how the setting plays a role in the story, by creating the mood and helping the reader better see into the lives of the people living during that time. The major role the setting plays in these stories is the insight into the beliefs of the author and the experiences he had growing up in and around London in the nineteenth century, as it is portrayed by him in his works.

The Real Country Way of Doing Things

The short story how I learnt to be a Real Countrywoman is written by Deborah Mocha in England 1995. It is told by a first person narrator, and it is told In flashback. The short story deals with a modern housewife, who is moved from London to a little town long away from London. They moved on the country because her husband Edwin got fired, when the school he taught on was dissolved. Another quite Important reason for moving was that the government was brutish and philistine, and London was full of fumes and pollution, so Edwin said they should move.But the point In the story starts after they were moved In to the country. They are slating In the kitchen and were opening Christmas cards. Edwin opened the last one, It was a brown envelope, and It contains a letter from their local council. They wrote that they were going to build a two-lane dual carriageway through their local wood. The local Inhabitant were going to campaign against the ring road, but the only alternative was through their member of parliaments daughters rolling school, so It was not a possibility.But the narrator will not let all this spoil her loving wood. So she starts to plant preserved and rarely plants to the wood. She doesn't tell anybody about this, even not Edwin. In the end the wood got designated as a site of Outstanding Scientific Interest. So the ring road is built through the riding school instead of through the wood. The narrator has a quite complicated relationship whit her husband, Edwin. In the start of the text the nearly even speak to each other, and they heaven had sex for the last two years.They are very different; the narrator is a modern housewife, who likes being in the city, shopping and being at cocktail parties. And Edwin is more a country man; he likes the nature, the peace and fresh air. In the first time since they have moved to the country the narrator misses her busy life in London very much. The narrator thinks it is boring living in the country, and she has a very debilitate attitude of the new lifestyle, she speaks also bad about it. They have total different values. The narrator likes the stores right around the corner, her friends and shopping.Edwin is more shut in, and he emphasizes a calm family life and nature. In the beginning of this short story they were opposites and their preferences made them divided, but in the end they get interested in one other and reunite and started speaking with each other. The narrator feels very alone In the country in, but when she starts saving the wood, she has something to do, and spent her time on. The gets very interested In plants, and she gets happy to have a little secret; â€Å"l hadn't felt so happy since I was pregnant†.All through this short story the narrator Is quite ironic and sarcastic; this makes the story a bit funny In spite of the fact that It Is a sad story for her In the beginning. The narrator entrust her to the reader, and makes the reader feel Like a friend or somethi ng Like that, because she tells her deepest feelings to us. It can make us feel quite accessory, because we know about her plans. We are also told a lot of details about the narrator and Dawdles love life, which also Is quite personal. The mall themes In this short story are marriage, family life, countryside of doing things vs.. City side and personal values.In the end the narrator starts liking nature, and get interested in the plants and trees in the local w en also Tina It quilt stimulating Tanat seen could set a goal, Ana rater all she could finally reach it and see that what she have done has made a difference. She feels finally important on the country when she saves the wood. She also enjoys all the people who come to see the new wood, and she likes that people all over comes and knock on their door and ask the way and admire their cottage. Another thing that tells us that she likes their new lifestyle is, that she is started to sell eggs.She is absorbed in this egg-sale, an d we gets to know that their eggs is guaranteed almoner-free because she feeds them with her organic bread. Sometimes people even leave their children to play with the narrators children, while they walk through the field to look at the orchids. And after all this wonderful experience with the wood and all the nice people, she doesn't miss Camden Town at all. Finally she decides to do teas. She is going to buy Old-style spiced buns, and throw away the packets. She has learnt a lot these past years, and she found â€Å"the real country way of doing things. †

There is no room for individual identity in South African literature Essays

There is no room for individual identity in South African literature Essays There is no room for individual identity in South African literature Essay There is no room for individual identity in South African literature Essay Essay Topic: Rudyard Kipling Poems Literature has often been used as tool to capture a sense of the self in society. The issue has clearly had pertinence in South Africa since the introduction of apartheid policies. Apartheid was the system of legal racial segregation imposed by the National Party government of South Africa between 1948 and 19931. Under apartheid whites were given a political-racial identity which was synonymous with superiority. The coloured characters in Athol Fugards play Boesman and Lena were left helpless by the racism, as Lenas song illustrates when she sings about how Boesman is not merely a name, it is also a label and an identification of ones culture. The sense of individuality appears to have been superseded by the need to conform in a malicious, segregated society. The thought of being exposed to such a hostile land is discussed in poems such as Landscape of Violence, where Currey uses a simile to liken the politics of South Africa at the time to hailstorms, showing just how crippling the results of prejudice can be. Indeed, those caught outside the comfortable life of the elite are depicted as having only a horse to shelter them from the hail. Racial prejudices are by far the most obvious restriction on personal identity; the characters I have studied are defined first and foremost by the colour of their skin. Though Afrikanerdom saw itself as culturally distinct from the English-speaking South Africans, both groups exercised apartheid policies to persecute black or coloured Africans, forcing them into subservience. The fact that Fugards Boesman and Lena begins with A coloured man uggests that everything from that moment forward has been as result of his skin colour. Fugard goes further to show that Lena is highly disadvantaged as a result of being coloured; her dreams of reinventing herself are met by Boesmans What do you think you are? A white madam? highlighting that there are distinct limits to her possibilities. Outa is ever only referred to by Boesman as a kaffir, disregarding any personality the character might have and basing his prejudice purely on his social status. In Landscapes of Violence, Currey endorses Fugards view that apartheid catalyses the loss of identity when he writes that racial attitudes, [are] like snakes And every brown and white child wakes/Beside a sloughed-off love one day, the simile here suggests danger; racial attitudes will creep up, and just like the bite of a snake infiltrates your blood bit by bit, they will infiltrate ideology. The metaphor of the shed snake skin suggests the racial hatred in South Africa is a manufactured phenomenon which has stolen innocence from the previously integrated society. The dehumanising and depersonalising effects of apartheid are shown yet even more clearly in Unto Dust, where Oom Schalk Lourens likens black people to animals. He states his horror that white people may be laid to rest just anyhow, along with a dead wild cat, maybe, or a Bushman. Even the seemingly accepting Lena, in a fit of frustration tells Outa to stop that baboon language, implying that she sees him as a being incapable of human speech, and therefore perhaps incapable of feeling human emotion. However, writers such as (Mbuyiseni Mtshali) in An Abandoned Bundle have chosen not to explicitly describe people in terms of their race, and it could be argued this is due to the lack of need; the reader will be able to assume race from the conditions described. Yet, providing a more likely alternative, explanation also is found in the Suppression of Communism Act (1950) which is was in effect the legal gagging of opposition to the apartheid government2. Others such as Herman Bosman, who, in the words of Christopher Heywood possesses a light touch even when dealing with heavy issues3, address the injustices of racial attitudes in a more subtle way. In Makapans Caves Lourens appears to have genocidal racism4 when collating black people with a cattle-destroying plague (I could never understand why [the Almighty] made the kaffir and the rinderpest). It should perhaps be noted here that the use of the word kaffir, although totally unacceptable in todays society, would not necessarily have raised even the most liberal eyebrows in 1930. Nevertheless, Lourens is considered racist because despite defying expectation placed on him by caring for Hendrik, Nongaas is fatally wounded because Lourens automatically assumes him to be the enemy due to his race. Though these images of racism have made Bosmans stories unpopular to a modern readership, I feel that to take this view is to fundamentally misunderstand the narrative distance between Bosman and Lourens. In the vast majority of Bosmans stories, explicit authorial intervention is limited exclusively to the Oom Schalk Lourens said which punctuates each storys prefatory statement. This authorial marker is a vital tool because it immediately establishes a separation between author and storyteller. Apartheid has caused divisions further than a simple black/white divide though, seeping into groups of similar ethnicity. Marico Scandal presents a white man chased from his home by the villagers scandalous story. The sibilance of the narration emphasises the malicious nature of the remarks made by the Marico farmers. The drastic action taken by Koos Deventer to stop Gawie getting involved with Francina causes Gawie to leave Drogevlei and the Groot Marico for ever. This shows the gravity of the accusation of being mixed race and the social stigma attached to such a label. Tragically, his paramour Francina is left alone and pregnant something considered shocking due to the highly Christian outlook in South Africa explaining Francinas stern, purposefully monosyllabic assertions that Gawie is white He is as white as I am. Similarly, in Fugards play, despite Lenas compassionate attempts to sympathise with Outa, Boesman reinforces the distinction between the coloured status and the old mans inferior social standing; hes not brown people, hes black people. To Boesman Outa is worthless and should have been a burden to his own class, Go die in your own world! It is often forgotten, however, that the Whitemans identity is also predefined, and he too is unable to change it. Whilst Fugard was watching a black woman walk like a somnambulist beside the Swartkops river just north of the city one bitterly cold July in 1968, he realised that to her, he and his companions were merely white men5. Fugard, who was a poor white man himself, manages to get his own identity across by writing in a uniquely South African idiom, which reflects both the uncertainty and the potential of his culture by mingling English, Afrikaans and sometimes African speech. An ear for dialect is one of Fugards strengths, and we are reminded of class markers in his own speech that locate him in the underprivileged communities6. While whites do not appear to suffer to the extent of coloured and black people in Fugards depiction, with the exception of baas Robbie, they are prohibited the luxury of identity. This may reflect the lack of interaction whites had with Boesman or Lena (who as coloured people were not even allowed to possess land in a white area), however I feel it is more likely to be intentional irony, twisting the employment of stereotypes used by whites onto them. The absence of names was a feature of the literature which struck me as poignant. The poem To a Small Boy who Died at Diepkloof Reformatory describes a small child, with the alliteration oh lost and lonely one emphasising the childs helplessness and isolation. Yet despite the poem being written as a direct elegy to him, the boy is never given a name. This appears to be a reflection by Alan Paton on the distant, cold-hearted nature of the South African justice system. The description of judges, magistrates lice, and sociologists, / Kept moving and alive by your delinquency suggests self-serving, corrupt officials fail the mistreated young boy. Undoubtedly the use of the indefinite a in the title was intended, and could imply that this tragedy is by no means isolated (likewise with the title of the poem An Abandoned Bundle). The identical here is the preceding both the document of birth and certificate of Death demonstrate the brevity and insignificance of the boys life in the eyes of the impersonal clerks. Paton appears to lament the lack of emotion conveyed in the document of birth while for the needs of society the simple where and when may suffice, the poet realises that these facts ignore the unique aspects of the childs life and identity, viewing it as more important whether he felt joy or sorrow. Gender is another issue which has weight with regards to identity. All racial and ethnic groups in South Africa have long-standing beliefs concerning gender roles, and most are based on the premise that women are less important and subordinate men. As Albert Wetheim remarks, Lena is doubly marginalised for she is as a coloured, victimized by whites as a woman, victimized by a male and the assault of his fists7 furthermore Lena has been unable to fulfil her role as a woman, that of the child bearer. A life of hardship and dissipation has arguably stripped Lena of genuinely positive emotion and when later talking to Outa she laments once youve put your life on your head and walked you never get light again. There are a number of parallels between Lena and the mother depicted in the final stanza of An Abandoned Bundle. Both are forced to continue living in a world which does not recognise the terrible tragedies of their past; the image of the abandoned bundles mother melting into the rays of the rising sun seemed to be presented through the eyes of the child, who would have been looking up at its mothers face as she drew away. However, melt may also suggest her fading away again into a crowd, an innocent face concealing her terrible secret. Comparably, Lena is not allowed to remember her lost child properly, due to Boesmans inability to discuss it with her on a personal level. Parallels may also be drawn against Sally (from Casey Motsisis The Efficacy of Prayer) who, like Lena, dreams of breaking free from the restrictions placed on her by society. Her dream to be just like Dan the Drunk comes true with the irony that the best Sally could become was something Dan the Drunk already was and whilst he was underachieving for a white man, this was the best a black girl may hope for. Athol Fugard is quoted as saying of Boesman and Lena, Its an examination of a relationship between a man and a woman in which the man is a bully. . . . I think my wife has been on the receiving end of a lot of that sort of greed and selfishness. 8 Yet despite the guilt the author carries abuse is almost commonplace in South Africa. One in every three women in South Africa is in an abusive relationship, a woman is killed by her partner every six days and there is a rape every 35 seconds9. Lenas arrival on stage immediately sets up their relationship and their identities. As she follows Boesman onto the stage and asks Here? both the action and the question are a deferral of power to him. In questioning Boesman she gives him the authority to decide her history and identity, and he is happy to occupy the seat of power in this relationship because he does not have to reflect on his oppressed life. Instead, he has become the oppressor, white man reincarnated. Lena is both bitter and ironic when she says He walks in front. It used to be side by side. Yet, although she is conscious of Boesmans faults, Lena remains inextricably tied to him, for she believes he holds the key to her past, and so her identity, for if she can be hit and bruised, then she exists. Lena in particular evokes sympathy in a modern western audience as Boesmans cruelty becomes clear this is despite Fugards intention to avoid the basic issue that it is not as simple as Lena being the victim and Boesman the oppressor10. Roy Campbells The Zulu Girl describes a place when in the sun the hot red acres smoulder, / Down where the sweating gang its labour plies. These depictions of a life ruled by labour are common, and Campbell hints that many women simply accept the sullen dignity of their defeat; although this certainly could not be said of Lena (I want my life. Wheres it? ). In an interview in 1992, Fugard acknowledged that his life has been sustained by women, the first of whom was his mother, a woman of such moral probity11. Fugards respect for women is reflected in Lenas strong character and desire that her life be witnessed, to go beyond resignation and despair in the secular world to which they are condemned. Her escape through memory contrasts Boesmans deep-rooted shame the power in their relationship begins to shift as Boesman discredits himself through violence and cruelty towards Lena and Outa. Though Bosmans stories rarely feature a central female character, possibly because whilst his stories tended to centre around the representation of society, women were considered to have little to no say on the African culture and were considerably marginalised. However, when he does cast a lead female role they tend to be tough, assertive girls. For instance, Minnie from Ox-Wagons on Trek manages to dream beyond her role as a farmers daughter and gained enough authority to refuse to marry Frans du Toit. The satisfaction Minnie gains from such liberation is shown through the use of light-hearted language such as romped and splashed. South Africas turbulent past has seen many a war, particularly between competing colonial powers trying to control it. Bosmans Mafeking Road is set during this the Second Boer War (1899-1902), concerning a son killed for wanting to defect from the Boer to the British army. Though Bosmans likely intention is to suggest the value of life is worth more than the shame Floris van Barnevelt would have felt, you cannot deny the sense of pride from being a Boer which comes through. Similarly, in his The Affair at Ysterpruit (also set during this time, without a narrator) he says he does not care whether a Boer commander is cunning or competent, for it was enough for [him] that [they] had fought. Stellenbosh by Rudyard Kipling indicates this is true for British colonies too the emphasis and repetition of the word might signifies the disappointment felt by the soldier that his General would not allow them to answer Brother Boers attack. Kiplings own son died in battle during the First World War after being continually encouraged by his father to fight for his country. South Africa has been home to various tribes since its birth, and the idea that you can take a sense of identity from your ethnic background is one which runs through all three texts. Despite being ashamed of who and what he is, even Fugards Boesman can attribute some of his identity to his ethnic background his use of sun to identify his bearings is something his forefathers would have done for centuries. However more imperative, as Stanley Kauffman astutely observed of the 1970 New York production of Boesman and Lena, is that this is a play in which the ground is important, On this mud, out of which we all come, Boesman and Lena make their camp12. All they have ever known is to use the earth, and whilst this is certainly more significant in Fugards plays, Bosman also gives credit to the African soil. Bosman unapologetically uses terms like krantz, withaak and the like without translation. We may speculate that it is this attempt to render the veld as foreign as possible, in contrast to the tameness of English country meadows which filled popular literature at the time, yet there also appears to be a certain love for the land ingrained the in African soul. Bosman wanted something more primitive to write about than the too civilised Marico, with its tractors and roads. Similarly, Mrs. A. C. Dube seeks to demonstrate patriotism at its utmost in her poem Africa: My Native Land by denying it will ever cause despair. Africa is, to her, the dearest Land ever known, and worth fighting for Till every drop of blood within my veins / Shall dry upon my troubled bones. The lack of rhyme scheme gives the poem a sense of roughness, imitating the land it is describing. This physical description demonstrates how embedded Dubes patriotism is, and this level of devotion to ones country becomes even more moving in the context of struggle. Lenas struggle always brings her back to the land, Boesman and Lena with the sky for a roof again, as in her first monologue, delivered with urgent passion, she seeks to bring meaning to her life through location. Her hard mother is something shared with every character, story or poem referring to South Africa; a binding point, a basis for a collective South African identity. Athol Fugard was labelled a political playwright against his will, stifling his own sense of identity. It is thus interesting that his text provides the least hope for those whom society stereotypes. Whilst it could be considered that the use of coloured people an artistically exacting touch as people of mixed blood Boesman and Lena are of indeterminate race, neither black nor white enabling the characters to represent all races Lena does not manage to break from the oppression and impoverishment, suggesting a cyclic existence. Nevertheless, the 2000 film version of Boesman and Lena contains flashback scenes where the couple are happy, and in one transcendent moment Lena starts singing, shuffling out a few dance steps at the same time before she laughs triumphantly. However, Elegiac poem For Richard Turner is to me the clearest example of the power of the individual, proving it is possible to make your voice heard within South Africa. Whilst its style is extremely personal, the presence of a name gives an extra poignancy. The way Turner is banned; neither to be published/ nor quoted in any form and forbidden to teach, represents a persistent attempt by the state to prevent his influence on others. While the line a gunman called you to the door shows the juxtaposition of politics and a domestic setting, the state imposing its views on the lives of others, even in the face of death, Turner is the more powerful figure. Even if, in reality, Turner did not choose the circumstances of his death, he did choose to resist oppression, in spite of knowing the risks. Similarly Dhlomos belligerent harangue Because Im Black aggressively explains that diversity means not disunion, and speaks out against those who harbour childish [delusions]. As individuals we find ourselves caught up in greater events, and must choose whether to look on passively, and thrust (our cold hands) into/ our ultimately private pockets, or to stand up for what we believe in. As a country it is important to rely upon each other, rather than the state, for validation. Yet in a country with as rich and polarised a political history as South Africa, its literature find will it difficult to survive without ever really avoid focussing on the social contexts which have played such an integral part in the shaping of the country it is today.

CORE Analysis of WHSmith the University of glasgow The WritePass Journal

CORE Analysis of WHSmith the University of glasgow CORE Analysis of WHSmith the University of glasgow Introduction  Part 1Related Introduction   Part 1 Context, overview, ratios and evaluation are regarded as four elements of CORE framework. Indeed, they are crucial for appraisal process. In order to judge the entire performance of enterprise fairly and objectively, it is necessary to focus not only on financial data embodied in annual report but also on other significant sources like company’s strategy. This report aims to employ CORE analysis approach to analyze two companies comprehensively. In the first part, CORE analysis of WHSmith which financed by sources other than taxpayers will be represented. Additionally, University of Glasgow which financed by public funds will be analyzed by applying CORE analysis method. Private sector: WHSmith External context: WHSmith PLC, which mainly sells stationery, books, newspaper, magazine and impulse products, is one of the UK’s famous leading retailers. Its business primarily in the UK, but it has been expanding their business to international locations such as Copenhagen, Oman and Delhi. WHSmith is the biggest book retailer in UK. Compared with sales of WHSmith ( £1,312,000), Waterstone’s Booksellers Limited and Amazon.Co.Uk Ltd. generate  £488,901 and  £147,303 operating revenue respectively in 2010. Consequently, WHSmith has absolute advantage in this market. WHSmith named Bookselling Company of the Year and General Retailer of the Year in the Bookseller Retail Awards 2009, and then it named Children’s Bookseller of the Year in 2010. These awards witnessed its outstanding competitive force in the market. However, along with internet developing rapidly, shopping online and eBooks are becoming increasingly prevailing in modern society. Although WHSmith has its own website to serve customers online shopping 24 hours a day and started to launch eBooks, internet selling seems not operate as well as stores. Hence, WHSmith is forced to face the transformation of sales model and lack of internet marketing strategy. Whilst, Amazon.Co.Uk Ltd. successful doubled their market share by selling books on their website from 2004 to 2007. That threats WHSmith seriously to some extent. Moreover, some competitors such as dedicated stationery stores and specialist card shops are threatening a part of WHSmith’s  business. Internal context: Due to travel business and high street business are considered as core business of WHSmith PLC, WHSmith’s reporting segments are structured by that classification accordingly. Compared with 565 high street stores in 2009, WHSmith owns 573 stores in 2010. Whilst, travel opens 26 units (2009:490 units, 2010:516 units) in airports, railway stations, motorway service areas, hospitals, workplaces and bus stations in 2010, and 17units are opened overseas such as India, Oman and Australia. In short, WHSmith has a steady tendency to expand their business in recent years. WHSmith aims to be Britain’s most popular stationer, bookseller and newsagent by growing travel business, strengthening high street business and delivering sustainable returns to shareholders. To be more specific, the travel business pays attention on distributing value to shareholders by maintaining organic growth in outlets, acquiring new contracts, conducting new formats tests, rising average sales volume and improving the trading efficiency. On the other hand, the high street plan concentrates on building authority in core categories, optimizing margins, controlling costs and ensuring it delivers the retail basics (page 6, Annual report 2010). There are 10 corporation shareholders, who occupy more than 3 percent of the issued share capital individually, owning approximately 60 percent of total shares. But the biggest proportion which is 9.86% does not exceed the UK disclosure level. Consequently, WHSmith has responsibility to meet shareholders’ expectations. There are numerous changes occurring on the board in 2010. Firstly, Walker Boyd is assigned non-executive chairman of WHSmith PLC when Robert Walker retired on 31 August 2010. Secondly, Luke Mayhew who is a non-executive director resigned from board and Henry Staunton joined the board with extensive finance and retail expertise. That might have impacts on subsequent operating process. Some activities changes also happened in 2010. Initially, eBookstore with 30,000 eBooks which have competitive prices and easily accessibility is launched by WHSmith. Additionally, owing to the brands Funky Pigeon and The Gadgetshop are new required, WHSmith will offer a wide choice like some gadgets and gizmos through stores and website. Lastly, WHSmith found exclusive Richard and Judy Book Club in 2010. Like seemingly all UK enterprises, WHSmith performs well on employee and community issues. It employs approximately 17,000 staff, and it provides learning and development programme to all employees. It also maintains the importance of health and safety in workplace. In addition, their community programme commits the responsibility to make positive effects which donated  £1.1m into local communities. Moreover, WHSmith trust which is a registered charity also contributes to local communities. Owing to the group concentrates on profitability and cash generation in two core businesses, WHSmith is highly cash generative with a strong balance sheet. Although revenue of WHSmith declined  £28 million from 2009 to 2010 which is approximately 2 percent, like-for-like sales decreased 4 percent at that time. Indeed, that decrease of total sales is caused by  £32 million decline of high street sales in 2010, whilst travel sales have a slight growth from  £448m to  £452m between 2009 and 2010. Additionally, there is nine percent increase of profit before tax and exceptional items from 2009 to 2010. That is worth  £7m from  £82m in 2009 to  £89m in 2010. Moreover, the rise of net funds which is  £11m (2009:  £45m, 2010:  £56m) also proves highly cash generative of WHSmith. Furthermore, a slight rise of total asset, same figure of total liabilities and increase of total equity seems make WHSmith’s capital structure much better in 2010. Also, the underlying di luted earnings per share increased from 41.3p in 2009 to 45.7p in 2010. Lastly, WHSmith focuses on efficient cost control and did successful in 2010. It delivered  £12m savings from all areas of the business. To coincide with data mentioned before, the increase of ROCE and profit margin also indicate a better efficiency and profitability in 2010. Whilst, low current ratio under 1 might indicate that the shortage of the liquid resources tend to fail to achieve the short-term payments. In addition, slight changes of other ratios prove that WHSmith has ability of sustained growth. Generally, the group has delivered a good profit performance in 2010.It is noticeable that using distinct strategies on high street and travel business is an efficient way to maximize value creation for shareholders. Hence, based on the performance in decades, WHSmith has enough capacity to operate business sustainably and successfully. Public sector: University of Glasgow The University of Glasgow, which was established in 1451, is considered as the fourth oldest university in the English-speaking world. It also is a member of the Russell Group of 20 major research universities. It is ranked amongst the top 1% of universities in the world. Moreover, it has outstanding performance in cultivating talents which fostered seven Nobel laureates, one Prime Minister and Scotland’s inaugural First Minister. University’s mission which set in â€Å"Glasgow 2020 – A Global Vision† is to undertake world leading research and to provide an intellectually stimulating learning environment thus delivering benefits to culture, society and the economy (page 3, Annual Report 2010). Additionally, focus, global reach and multi-disciplinarity are main strategy of that. There is a crucial change structuring its operations from 2009 to 2010. The university applies a College structure instead of previous Faculty structure from the date of 1 August 2010. The new four colleges are: College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, College of Science and Engineering, College of Social Sciences and College of Arts. In the world rankings of universities 2010 by Times Higher Education, University of Glasgow placed at 19th in the UK and 128th in the world. To be more specific, it is worth to notice that the value of student satisfaction, research quality, student staff ratio, service and facilities spend, entry standards, completion, good honors and graduate prospects are 79%, 2.2, 13.2, 1377, 412, 86.6, 71.3, 75.4 respectively. These data can indicate its good competitive forces. From teaching aspect, University of Glasgow has an excellent reputation on the teaching and learning environment from both angles of student and academic. Firstly, 90% of final year students are satisfied with their teaching and learning in 2010 National Student Survey. Secondly, student staff ratio is regarded as a proxy for teaching quality. Compared with University of Nottingham (2010:13.7), students of Glasgow might get more personal attention from the institution’s faculty. Thirdly, 16,588 undergraduate students, 5,366 postgraduate students and more than 5,000 adult learners are educated by University of Glasgow in 2010. Moreover, these students are from more than 100 countries around the globe. Indeed, the University has achieved its goal of home undergraduate recruitment, whilst the number of enrolled postgraduate students has increased 10%. Lastly, University has 6,334 staff, and there are approximately 2,000 researchers included. Form research perspective, University of Glasgow has an outstanding performance. More than  £116m is annual research contract income, which makes University become UK’s top 10 earners for research. Additionally, according to the latest national Research Assessment Exercise 2008, University which involved 48 subject areas was one of the broadest submissions in the UK, and some of them were ranked in UK’s top 10 or were rated best in Scotland. In short, the University is 14th in Research Fortnight’s Research Power Table in the UK. Furthermore, according to the pan-UK Postgraduate Research Experience Survey, levels of research student satisfaction with university experience rose 5.6% in University of Glasgow. From international mix angle, the number of international students has a significant 11 percent rise between 2009 and 2010. Also, international applications for entry increase 35% in 2010-11. Those growths indicate that the oversea promotion of the University is successful. In addition, it is obvious that international student community satisfies with the quality of education and support available at Glasgow through International Student Barometer 2010. Moving to consolidated income and expenditure account, it is worth to focus some values. Tuition fees and education contracts have 10.3% growth which might be caused by the increase income from oversea students. Moreover, owing to a sharply decline of short-term investments and growth of endowment funds, endowment and investment income decrease slightly from 6,612 to 5,526 in 2009-10. In addition, both rise of staff costs and other operating expenses lead total expenditure have a 3.9% increase. Hence, the historical cost surplus for 2010 is 10,949. Overall, based on all analyses above, University of Glasgow has delivered a good performance in 2010. It performs well not only on its financial aspect, but also on its strategic ambitions which includes academic targets and students recruitment goal. Part 2 â€Å"The accounting profit figure is the only simple and comparable measure of the performance of an organization† In recent decades, along with economy developing rapidly, some issues about corporations’ performance seems to be discussed frequently. Although a number of indicators can be applied for assessing the performance of an organization, it is misty that how to measure a company’s performance accurately and comprehensively. Accounting profit figure is considered as a simple and comparable indicator for assessment. Employing profit figure might be right and easy for financial report users to some degree. However, it is not accurate and whilst it is necessary to analyze other possible indicators. This article aims to present some factors which might be one of measurement methods of a company’s performance. Firstly, different sectors, such as nonprofit organizations and for-profit organizations, assess their performance in various ways. As Epstein McFarlan (2011) point out, owing to nonprofit organizations and for-profit organizations have different missions, it is apparent that they have dissimilar financial metrics. To be more specific, the main objective and mission of nonprofit groups is to achieve their social or service targets. Contrarily, for-profit organizations concentrate on whether they obtain an appropriate return on invested capital for their shareholders or not. However, ancillary services are also offered by them. Consequently, most non-profit organizations insist that assessing whether they accomplish their overall long-term targets or not is more crucial than only measuring their fundraising and budget achievement in short-term. On the contrary, performance assessment of for-profit groups heavily relies on the income statement, earnings per share, profit, growth in ma rket capitalization and other financial data. Epstein McFarlan (2011) give an illustration of Dana Hall School. It is a girls’ school which has history of 129 years. Its goal is â€Å"committed to fostering excellence in academics, the arts and athletics within a vibrant caring community†¦[It] provides its students with a unique opportunity to prepare themselves for challenges and choices as women†. Indeed, from financial aspect, it met continuous operating losses for ten years in 1995. Additionally, in order to build a world-class science center, Dana Hall School still borrowed $8 million to achieve its original target in 1995. Several years later, it took on more debt for the sake of building a world-class athletic center. Although the school has financial stress in 2010, it is still flourishing in the academic field. It is evident that the provided social services of one non-profit group have significant impact on its investment. Simultaneously, it also exerts vital effect on judgment of performance. In sh ort, from nonprofit organizations perspective, assessing financial data such as profit is not essential measure of performance. Secondly, CORE framework which is presented by Moon and Bates (1993) seems like a comprehensive framework to better assess the performance of an organization. CORE framework has four stages: context (C), overview (O), ratios (R) and evaluation (E). This framework is based on numerous previous case studies (see e.g., Simmonds, 1986; Rickwood et al., 1990; Shank and Govindarajan, 1992) which concern about ratio analysis and have significant contribution to the development of strategic management accounting. Through a case study of appraising the performance of Tesco which illustrated by Moon and Bates (1993), it is obvious that CORE is a good and comprehensive measure of a company’s performance by assessing the performance not only from its internal aspect but also from its external angle. Thirdly, although profit figure is a simple and comparable measure of the performance of an organization, it can be altered by accounting techniques and then mislead the users of financial report. Sharma (1992:1) cited by Weston Brigham (1991) describes profit as â€Å"to the financial management profit is a measure of control and the test of efficiency in the organization; to the investors the profit is the measure of weather worth to invest; to the government the profit is a basis of legislative action†. That is to say, profit figure is essential measure of enterprise’s performance to a large degree. However, the case of Enron exposes the limitation of accounting figures such as profit figure. As Solomon (2007) points out, negative angles of accounting and auditing profession are represented in the collapse of Enron. In addition, Pierce-Brown (2002) claims that each accounting policies are legal and Enron has being obeyed the GAAP. She complements that Enron employs the policies of revenue recognition, off-balance-sheet financing and mark-to-market accounting to hide the growing losses. It declines $600 million profits when the accounts are restated in 2002 (Solomon, 2007). To be more specific, during the period of 1997-2000, the decrease of cumulative profit and increase of debt are $591 million and $628 million respectively. Although Enron’s financial statement seems have a good performance, the figures are unreliable for the sake of removing liabilities and rising earnings per share actually. Hence, under this circumstance, profit figure cannot reflect a company’s performance factually to some extent. Fourth, although for-profit groups focus on financial data to assess their performance, accounting profit figure is not the only assessment approach to a large extent. As Elliott and Elliott (2008) demonstrate, interpreting a company’s financial statement can apply financial ratios analysis. It is useful to judge the economic performance of an enterprise. They implement that six ratios are considered as key ratios whilst there are lots of subsidiary ratios. The six ratios are operating return on equity, financial leverage multiplier, return on capital employed (ROCE), asset turnover, net profit margin and current ratio. Specifically, the ratios of ROCE, asset turnover and net profit margin tend to reflect the profitability of companies and current ratio intends to indicate the liquidity. Hence, combining these figures might measure the performance of an organization more accurate than just using profit to judge. In addition, cash flow is another crucial account to measure the performance. To sum up, this essay standing upon the point of view of comprehensive analysis to analyze possible factors for assessing an organization’s performance. In the first section, it represented different sectors have dissimilar judgment standards of performance. Secondly, it was trying to connect CORE with performance measurement. Additionally, it detailed researched whether or not accounting profit figure is reliable to assess an enterprise’s performance. Finally, ratio analysis and focusing on cash flow might help the analysis of performance. Hence, based on above discussion it can be concluded that there is no one specific standard measure of the performance of an organization. As a consequence, it seems that different industries and sectors might choose various methods or indicators to assess their performance. However, due to it considers not only the internal aspect but also the external perspective, CORE framework tends to be the better approach to apply than employi ng accounting figures solely. References Elliott, B. Elliott, J. (2008) financial accounting and reporting 12th edition, Harlow: Pearson Education Limited Epstein, M. J. McFarlan, F. W. (2011) ‘Nonprofit vs. For-Profit Boards: Critical Differences’ Strategic Finance, 92(9), pp. 28-35 Moon, P. and Bates, K. (1993) ‘Core analysis in strategic performance appraisal’ Management Accounting Research, 4, pp. 139-152 Pierce-Brown, R. (2002) ‘Another nightmare on Wall Street’, Asian Chemical News, September, pp. 30-34. Rickwood, C.P., Coates, J.B. and Stacey, R.J. (1990) ‘Stapylton: strategic management accounting to gain competitive advantage’ Management Accounting Research. 1 (1): 37–49 Shank, J.K. Govindarajan, V. (1992) ‘Strategic cost management: the value chain perspective’ Journal of Management Accounting Research. Fall, pp. 179–197 Simmonds, K. (1986) ‘the accounting assessment of competitive position’ European Journal of Marketing, 20 (1): 16-31 Solomon, J. (2007) Corporate Governance and Accountability 2nd Edition. Portland: John Wiley and Sons. Weston J.F. Brigham E.F (1991) cited in Sharma akhileshwar ‘profitability analysis of Drugs and pharmaceutical companies in India’ A thesis submitted for the degree of PH.D, in the faculty of commerce, saurashtra university Rajkot

The Criminal law system Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

The Criminal law system - Essay Example This means that even those who enact laws or promulgate policies are not exempt from the objective purpose of the law-that anyone who commits any crime or aggression must be brought before the courts of justice and be given fair and impartial trial according to non-arbitrary legal procedures. Justice, in the strictest essence of the word, means that all men are equal under the aegis of the law and have the opportunity to develop and to achieve free from state compulsion and threats and intimidation of others. If a person's right is violated and that the law penalizes such violation committed by another, the state may step in to protect the rights of the aggrieved and penalize the aggressor. This, in effect, is the role of criminal justice system There are main major components of criminal justice system. These are the following-1) the existence of law enforcement; 2) the establishment of courts of justice; 3) and the existence of clear objective penalties. These components must be in accordance with the rule of law so that government agencies and institutions tasked with the protection of criminal justice system must act in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, that the courts' duty is to secure the accessibility of justice to all individuals, and that penalties must be fair, non-arbitrary, never excessive, and be meted out only to the guilty. In free and democratic countries like the United States, criminal justice system is defined by laws and policies promulgated by the state through the legislative branch. One of the mechanisms to strengthen criminal justice system is the President's Commission on Law enforcement and Administration of Justice issued in 1967 whose purpose is to prevent and combat crime (McCord, 1997). Every country in the world has its own criminal justice system. This is because sound and efficient criminal justice system will guarantee peace and orderly society, as well as the economic progress and political maturity of a nation. There is an undeniable connection between effective criminal justice policy and good governance, the same way that there is symbiotic relationship between the first and economic development of a nation. Corruption One of the aspects that largely undermine criminal justice system is the practice of corruption, which is a criminal offense since it is perpetrated to defraud the government and the taxpayers. Though generally committed by government officials, private individuals, particularly those who enter into contracts with the government, may also perpetrate corruption. There are manifold forms or facets of corruption, a dim reality that makes it hard to detect and deter. This is the reason why the government must establish effective mechanisms, as well as institutions and agencies, designed to detect graft and corrupt practices and to punish perpetrators. The clever schemes of corrupt individuals, both public and private, including their illegal activities and practices, must be detected and deterred by anti-corruption government agencies in order to discourage impunity and deter future crimes. Based on the report of Transparency International (2007), corrupt practices constitute of the "abuse of entrusted power for private gain." The intent of the

Issues in Global Business Burberry 2012 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Issues in Global Business Burberry 2012 - Essay Example Small portion of the study discusses the impact of Profit before Tax on strategic buyback decision of Burberry. The company needs to expand their global franchise operation in order to decrease value chain cost. The study will focus on globalization strategy of Burberry Group plc in terms of retail distribution network. Report shows that direct control strategy of the company will help them to push total market capitalization in near future. Hybrid matrix structure of Procter and Gamble has been recommended for future growth Burberry Group. Hybrid matrix diagram will help the company to set up strategic business units in Asia and Latin America. Table of Contents Table of Contents 3 Case Statement 4 Strategy Analysis 5 Financial Perspective 5 Leverage Control 6 International Growth Strategy 8 SWOT Analysis 8 Porter’s Five Forces Analysis 9 Strategic Theme 11 Conclusion 11 Recommendation 12 Reference 14 Burberry Burberry Group plc is a renowned global luxury brand. The company i s headquartered at London, England. Burberry Group plc was established by Thomas Burberry in the year 1856. The brand specializes in offering apparel and leather goods. Burberry Group plc offers products through diversified distribution network complemented by retail channel, wholesale, licensing channel and digital platform. The company has achieved a total revenue growth of 7% in the year 2011. Burberry has created a digital platform named as â€Å"Burberry World Live† in order to enhance their web visibility. Intraday market capitalization of the London based company is $5.3 billion while they maintain a profit margin of 12.1 % on category sales (Yahoo Finance, 2012). Case Statement Burberry Group plc has recently announced that they will directly operate in beauty and fragrance category. The company has no plan to continue license relationship with their partner Interparfums SA. Fragrance and beauty has been categorized as fifth product division for Burberry Group. The ot her four categories are accessories, women apparel, men apparel and children apparel. Angela Ahrendts (Chief Executive Officer of Burberry Group plc) has stated that they took the decision of direct control in order to achieve greater control over product portfolio of fragrance and beauty category. The CEO believes that the company has significant opportunities to drive growth from fragrance and beauty products and the move will also leverage infrastructure & upward integration of value chain. Direct operation of the company for fragrance and beauty categories will start from 1 April 2013. Burberry Group took the decision for following strategic objectives. Achieving greater brand control Increase penetration in opening price point categories The company will pay all total Euro 181 million for ending license relationship and ?71m of total amount will be used for recognising exceptional items The London based company will earn a adjusted profit before tax or PBT in financial year 201 3/14 and from FY 2014/15 the PBT will accelerate Retail and wholesale contribute 90% of total business for the company hence they will design diversified retail channels for their fifth product category (Burberry Group plc, 2012) Strategy Analysis Burberry has purchased the perfumes selling license from Interparfums SA by paying ?142m. Stock analysts believe that the company is pushing harder in the perfume and cosmetic segment in order to