Leadership qualities of harry s. truman

Harry S. Truman became President of the United States with the death of Franklin D. Roosevelt on April 12, 1945. During his nearly eight years in office, Truman confronted enormous challenges in both foreign and domestic affairs. The leadership paradigm of the Truman years represented a blend of 19th century principles and postwar austerity. He was admired for his ability to maintain his Midwestern demure while being one of the world’s most prominent leaders as President of the United States. Truman was a compromise candidate for vice president, almost an accidental president after Roosevelt’s death 12 weeks into his second term. Truman’s stunning come-from-behind victory in the 1948 election showed how ordinary Americans, perhaps, appreciated his personal qualities of integrity and straightforwardness as McCullough notes, because he was one himself. Most Americans in the 1950s did not expect that Harry Truman would become one of their most highly regarded presidents. Truman's assets were his firm personal principles, his honesty, humility, intellectual integrity, and homespun character, and his ability to speak plain truths. Regardless of his lack of preparation, these qualities enabled him to face the challenges of the cold war, make portentous decisions, and retain the respect of the electorate, who accepted him as one of them. He could be magnanimous, as in his gesture of consulting with former President Herbert Hoover, long barred from the Roosevelt White House. He could be intrepid, as in his determination to remove General Douglas MacArthur from command in Korea, in order to preserve the superiority of the civilian government over the military. In 1948 Truman won the most unexpected election upset of the century. He ultimately prevailed. Truman succeeded Franklin D. Roosevelt as president before the end of World War II. He responded quickly to new challenges. Impulsive, he proved willing to make quick decisions when necessary. Additionally, he took responsibility for his decisions. His slogan, â€Å"The Buck Stops Here†, is famous in American politics. Intellectual integrity is another area in which Truman’s values are evident. A chief strength of his was the ability to admit the need for help.   By incorporating the strengths of his staff, Truman was able to make educated and well thought out decisions. He attempted to galvanize himself as a knowledgeable and effective leader. Acheson never ceased to be impressed that Truman had no trace of imperiousness about him and never let his ego to come between him and his job. Truman’s handling of Palestine is another example of his effective leadership. The issue of whether or not to create a unified Jewish state was divisive and risky. Although he left the presidency in 1953 at low ebb in his popularity, his standing rose again over the years. After his death on December 26, 1972, he achieved the status of folk hero. Songs proclaimed: â€Å"America Needs You Harry Truman.† A Broadway play, â€Å"Give ‘Em Hell, Harry† was based on his life story, and biographies of him became best sellers. Truman’s legacy has become clearer and more impressive in the years since he left office. Most scholars admit that the President faced enormous challenges domestically, internationally, and politically. While he occasionally failed to measure accurately the nation’s political tenor and committed some significant policy blunders, Truman achieved notable successes. Domestically, he took important first steps in civil rights, protected many of the New Deal’s gains, and presided over an economy that would enjoy nearly two decades of unprecedented growth. In foreign affairs, the President and his advisers established many of the basic foundations of America foreign policy, especially in American-Soviet relations, that would guide the nation in the decades ahead. On the whole, Truman is currently celebrated by the public, politicians, and scholars alike. REFERENCE McCullough, D. (1992). Truman. New York: Simon & Schuster.            

Cypop 5 Essay

It helps children to deal with difficult circumstances such as emotional stress or medical treatments. Play gives children chance to let off steam and have fun. Children learn when they are in a safe and caring environment. They are stimulated through play. Babies and young children develop best when they are in a caring relationship with an adult. A baby will learn to walk faster when they have a safe pair of arms to walk towards and learn to talk when they have an adult who listens to them and responds accordingly. I aim to provide children with an environment that is caring, fun and stimulating. I aim to expand each childs individual, intellectual, physical and emotional capacities within a secure environment where each child, will be confident and settled. I will implement ideas from the EYFS and I will provide activities/opportunities that support the six main learning areas which are : * Knowledge Understanding Of the World * Personal social and emotional development * Communication language and literacy * Creative Development * Physical Development * Problem solving, Reasoning and Numeracy. Each child will be able to choose their own activities and access continuous provision throughout these six areas. Activities will be both planned and spontaneous according to your child’s preference. My weekly plan will be dependent on the children in my care and their ages and stages of development although I will be attending various groups and clubs within the local area that I live. Sample weekly plan: Morning afternoon Monday – outdoor playchildren’s centre childminders group Tuesday -soft indoor play (wacky)creative play/ arts and crafts Wednesday-country park/ play areachildren’s centre playgroup Thursday – baking/cookingoutdoor play Friday – children’s centre groupindoor play at home Play can be constructed to fulfil areas of the EYFS, especially any areas where a child may be struggling, such as Playing with sand – Texture, Weight, Pouring through containers, colours, measuring, shapes, make sand castles etc this can link to the following areas of the EYFS– personal development – personal, social and emotional development – creative development – communication language and literacy All of the above would be flexible dependant on the children and any new sessions that can be accessed. Before any weekly plan can be made you would need to observe the children in your care to produce a plan that is appropriate to their development this will also help identify when to add/remove new toys/resources. I will use Natural resources and household items to provide stimulating play for the children to look after such as Sawdust and Bark for dinosaur play, jugs, funnels, guttering for water play, blankets pillows and throws and pegs for den building and communication friendly spaces etc. All children are individuals first, each with a unique profile of abilities. All planning starts with observing children in order to understand and consider their interests, development and learning. I will make systematic observations and assessments of each child’s achievements ,interests and learning styles. I will use these observations and assessments to identify learning priorities and plan relevant and motivating learning experiences for each child that I care for. I will match their observations to the expectations of the development matters principles. I will need to make regular observations on each child, using different techniques. These may include photographs, tick lists written observations and photographs. Where a child is not achieving their development goals I may then decide to speak to the parents regarding accessing other services for the child. All children need to feel valued and given the same options. I will ensure that children, parents/carers and visitors have equal rights and choices. Everyone will be given the respect that we all deserve as individuals. No person will be discriminated against and any remarks or comments of this kind will be challenged and discussed to ensure that it does not happen again. I welcome and include all children, their families and members of the community into my setting and I will ensure my setting is accessible to everyone. If a child in my care had specific requirements, certain changes would be made to the interior and exterior of my premises, dependent on the individuals circumstances. Certain activities are also adapted. All the children who come to my setting will have the same opportunities available to them. I am aware of the following legislation, The Children’s Act, The disability Act, UN convention on the Right of the Child, The children’s Bill 2004 and the Special Educational Needs Discrimination Act 2001. I will talk to different specialist groups, health visitors and read appropriate books to learn more about the condition and needs of the child, thus enabling me to provide the best possible care. If a child required assistance from a speech therapist or occupational therapist, then this could be arranged at my setting if it was more convenient for parents. I will do displays and have equipment in my setting that promotes a positive multi cultural attitude. I welcome parents/carers and visitors to talk about cultures, religions, food, clothes etc. I will never refuse or exclude a child. I will build on each child’s previous experience when accessing play opportunities. I will enable children to gain confidence and independence in play and identify individual requirements and provide appropriate support as/when required. I will also borrow and gain resources to enhance the inclusion of children with mobility or sensory difficulties. During snack time I will encourage children to help where appropriate eg. Older children could help butter crackers, or younger children could help divide fruit onto plates, I will encourage the children to help prepare our shopping list for the week for snacks and mealtimes and also encourage them to help with the meal plan for the week. During our week I will plan our activites a sample week could include : Monday : AM – Childrens centre drop in PM – Park – weather dependant Tuesday AM – Wacky Warehouse PM – play at home LEGO, PUZZLES and nap time Wednesday AM –

Automatic Flight Control Systems Engineering Essay

Automatic Flight Control Systems Engineering Essay We live in a world where technology is, if not being improved, developed by the second. Everyday new improvements, inventions and discoveries are made. One industry that is always on the lead when it comes to new inventions and innovations is the Aviation Industry. Over the years, aircrafts have been facing major improvements on the structure, fuel efficiency, life-span, range of flight. But one of the best improvements that have been done on every aircraft (commercial) that had the biggest impact in the Aviation Industry and most probably the main reason why the industry has been booming up is the improvements done in the Avionics section, specifically the Automatic Flight Controls. In the beginning, Pilots were trained to fly the aircrafts alone. But after several years, it is now the pilots programming the computer, telling it where to fly, at what altitude, etc. This computer is the AFCS (Automatic Flight Control System). In today’s modern world of flying, it is the AFCS who is technically flying the aircraft, from cruising to landing, and for some until parking. The AFCS has a lot of advantages when compared to human pilots when it comes to flying. Here are some of them: The AFCS has the ability to overcome deficiencies when it comes to stability and control. The AFCS improved the handling qualities. Such as, when the airspeed or the altitude of the aircraft needs to be constant. The AFCS is more accurate and hence is able to carry out several tasks that the pilot is not able to do. * Source: Emirates Aviation College’s Automatic Flight Control Systems Book (Chapter 3.1.3) To get a better understanding of the AFCS, the different parts of it will be discussed, such as the Autopilot System, Flight Director System, Auto Throttle System and etc. The information about the AFCS will be based on one of Boeing’s classic aircrafts, the 737-500. FLIGHT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (FMS) The Flight Management System is navigation, combined flight control, a Built-In Test Equipment (BITE) and a guidance system. The FMS provides control and operation of five independent subsystems to provide lateral navigation (LNAV) and vertical navigation (VNAV) for performance management and optimum flight profiles. The Flight Management System is not labeled to any control panel or any single component as it is an integration of five independent subsystems. These subsystems are: Digital Flight Control System (DFCS) Inertial Reference System (IRS) Autothrottle Electronic Flight Instrument System (EFIS) Flight Management Computer System (FMCS) * Source: United Airlines’ Boeing 737-322/522 (page 6, Chapter 22-2, Oct ’99) from Emirates Aviation College Library This system was designed to increase fuel efficiency, safety and decrease workload. For both pilots, this means that they can select full FMS operation or Autopilot Flight Director System (AFDS) for a complete automatic flight. They can even use the Control Display Units (CDU) to pr ovide, for manual flight, reference information. Management and operation is totally under the control of the flight crew. There are only certain operations that can only be implemented by the flight crew. They are: landing rollout steering, thrust reversal, speed brake operation, altitude selection, landing gear and flap operation, instrument landing system (ILS) tuning, thrust initiation, brake release, airplane rotation and steering during takeoff roll.

International Business- Airbus versus Boeing - When is Intervention Essay

International Business- Airbus versus Boeing - When is Intervention Not Intervention - Essay Example or any public body are prohibited. Again according to Article III: 4 of GATT 1994, certain favourable taxation policies are prohibited. (PÃ ©rez A. F., January 2008). Despite SCM agreements under WTO, there have been innumerable cases of dispute of violation of these agreements (DISPUTE SETTLEMENT, January2009). All major trading & industrial countries and regions, namely US, EU, Brazil, China, India, etc have got into these imbroglios. Protectionist tendencies are evident in actions of various governments of the world, though sometimes it is done in the garb of ‘saving jobs’ or promoting ‘home grown companies’. A recent report by the World Bank specifies rising protectionist tendencies in 17 out of the 20 ‘G20’ nations. In the era of ‘Open trade’, the report mentions: These do not bode well for ‘Open Trade’, liberalization or the WTO. Economists predict that due to prevailing recession in the world economy, these tendencies would rise all across the globe & many governments might find it hard to follow the liberalized trade policies. ‘Trade without discrimination’ the general philosophy underlying WTO, is being distorted by these nations. During the 2nd world war, Boeing had received many lucrative contracts from the US Department of Defense. By the 1960s Boeing was a leading aircraft manufacturer of the world. By 1970 some European countries in order to challenge Boeing’s dominance put in ‘massive Govt. subsidies’ to form Airbus. After a period Spain & Britain joined with the founding member countries (of Airbus) France & Germany. Airbus received billions of dollars as soft loans and subsidies from these countries and also from EU. Ultimately for the first time in early 2000s, Airbus was able to surpass Boeing to become the world’s leading commercial Jet manufacturer, with greater annual sales revenue.

Responses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Responses - Essay Example Especially, I liked the line in these debates, initiated by Prof. Meilaender. The participants have been discussing the contrasts between scientist Aylmer and his "earthly" assistant Aminadab, and the conclusion was: even "animal nature" has better intuition and can understand danger and worthlessness of human involving into "God's business". Besides, I totally agree with the experts, that Aylmer's perfectionism in the story is extremely aggressive, and his attempt to remove the birthmark is a very repulsive act. It is really unbelievable, how can a birthmark of his loving and caring young wife, who is loyal and devoted to her husband, become such an annoying element There are thousands of people among us, who live with much more ugly defects of skin or body, but it does not change attitude and care of their loving relatives and true friends. Only I do not quite share the position of Prof. Mary Ann Glendon and some other experts, who hesitated in Aylmer's being "a man of science". They called him "magician" or "narcissist". I suppose, he was a good and very experienced scientist and alchemist, because there were few opportunities for studying "real science" in those times. To my mind, Aylmer got into a psychological trap and started hating his wife for her birthmark not because only of his scientific aspirations for perfection, but becau

Carbon Emissions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Carbon Emissions - Essay Example It has plans of using the latest science to be able to reduce the percentages of the gas that is daily being emitted. By the year 2030, it hopes that it would have been able to reduce the percentage by 60%. (Grubb, 1989) However, the consumers' lifestyle in the U.K. has also contributed to the increase of carbon emissions. Being the director of communications for carbon trust, I would want to see that these levels go down and that the problems caused by carbon emissions are managed. The problems associated with carbon emissions are many. This is why I want to look for a Public Relations consultancy firm that will be able to educate U.K. citizens about the dangers of emitting a lot of carbon in the atmosphere. Carbon emission is the major cause of global warming. This results due to greenhouse effect and it is a detrimental and the worst thing that can ever occur. The accumulation of carbon in the atmosphere causes temperatures to rise by approximately 3.6 F. Consumers' lifestyles in the U.K. have really played a major role in the increase of carbon that is emitted daily to the atmosphere. There are some things that they need to be warned about if the level is to go down. 40% of the carbon is produced by vehicles. The citizens have not been using environment friendly forms of transport. To start with, vehicles are owned by almost everybody. Journeys by public vehicles would reduce 90% of the emissions that is caused when everyone uses their personal vehicles. (Fraser, 1994). Then, the exhaust emissions of the vehicles are not made in such a way that it can limit the amount of exhaust fumes released. The more the exhaust fumes being released, the more the level of the emission of carbon dioxide to the air. The fuels they use produce a lot of carbon. It has been noted that the use of petrol as fuel contributes to large amounts of carbon emission. If alternative fuels are sought and the citizens encouraged using these, then there would be u p to 75% reduction in the amount of carbon that would be emitted to the atmosphere. Fuels such as ethanol have been proven to produce low levels of emissions. Therefore, it would be prudent enough for the citizens to adopt this type of fuel. The government wants to come up with a program that will enable filling stations to be able to lease out electric car batteries to car owners. Citizens of the U.K also use the heating system, which has been known to emit some levels of carbon. (Rose, A. et al, 1998). This fact has been discussed in meetings organised by the government. It was decided that the heating system was mainly used because of the poor standards of the houses that the people lived in. Therefore, the government set up a policy that required all landlords to build houses up to standards that do not require any heating system. This was in the faith that it will help towards reducing the levels of carbon emission. The use of garden floodlights and incandescent light bulbs have been on the increase in the U.K. These are also responsible for the carbon emission. These causes of carbon emission are not known by most of the people in the U.K. A lot of people contribute to the levels of carbon emission without knowing. Therefore, this calls for an introduction of some channels through which the relevant information can reach them. This is why I thought of consulting a Public Relations

Assignments Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Assignments - Assignment Example The first article is about the various health effects of genetically engineered foods and crops. Relevant medical research has been cited as well to strengthen the presented arguments. (Cummins) The second article deals with various loop holes in genetic technology as well as its side effects for human health and its impact on the environment. Every line of argument in this article is heavily referenced from technical publications and research. (Mothers for Natural Law) The third article exposes fundamental weaknesses in the benefits related with genetically modified crops such as greater yield, lower input need, safety of genetically modified foods etc. This article has been created by the renowned Jeffery M. Smith, author of Seeds of Deception, an eye opening book on genetically engineered crops and foods. (Smith) Results from ABI/INFORM In addition to search engines, I also searched on the ABI/INFORM platform for dangers posed by genetically modified crops and food. This search tu rned out quite a few helpful articles. An article on whether genetically modified foods are harmful or helpful is highly relevant to our work because of its upfront approach to the issue. Furthermore, the author has presented detailed statistical data to support her arguments.(Whitman) Another article relates the concerns of Dr. Arpad Pustazi, a leading plant biotechnologist who was fired from the Rowlett Institute after he divulged concerns on British digital media. This article is in an interview format and provides clear definitions and concepts related to the dangers posed by genetically modified crops and foods for mammals. (Mitchell) Another article I found is a Congressional Research Service Report on agricultural issues. This article appreciates the need for genetically modified crops but accepts that there are risks posed as well. (Jones) I am attaching the bibliography of these articles for your reference and consideration. Bibliography Cummins, Ronnie. Hazards of Genetica lly Engineered Foods and Crops: Why We Need A Global Moratorium. 29 August 1999. 16 July 2011 . Jones, Jean Yavis. RS20452: Agriculture and the 106th Congress: A Summary of Major Issues. 15 December 2000. 16 July 2011 . Mitchell, Paul. Safety of genetically modified food questioned, Interview with gene scientist, Dr Arpad Pusztai. 3 June 1999. 16 July 2011 . Mothers for Natural Law. Fundamental Weaknesses of the Concept. 2001. 16 July 2011 . Smith, Jeffery M. Everything You HAVE TO KNOW about Dangerous Genetically Modified Foods . 2011. 16 July 2011 . Whitman, Deborah B. Genetically Modified Foods: Harmful or Helpful? April 2000. 16 July 2011 . 12.11 The FLA was founded in 1999 after which it has expanded to promote fair labor practices around the world. A Workplace Code of Conduct was created that was based on ILO (International Labor Organization) standards. This effectively created internal standards through which workplace conditions could be monitored and maintained. The FLA ke eps a healthy check and balance by conducting unannounced and independent visits of factories

Genetically Modified Food Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words - 1

Genetically Modified Food - Research Paper Example This essay stresses that American networks have promoted a notion construction method beneficial to extra permissive regulatory preferences than the Canadian environmental and evaluation networks. The distribution of capability and the interconnections between state and civil society actors have nourished extra this trend. USA capability has overwhelmed EPA, a state actor with an inclination extra beneficial to legislation than advertising. The Canadian environmental chance evaluation network has fewer linkages that exist in regard to civil society than USA networks, Canadian officers preferring global discussions to assemble their possess theory of sound scientific regulatory techniques. This paper makes a conclusion that various countries have different views in regards to genetically modified organism since it contributes to agricultural inventions in regards to globalization. GMO is significant for the development of countries’ development in relation to new technologies and globalization. Besides, GMO is a positive tie between the country and the farmers since it has increased economic realization of various countries all over the world such as US and Canada. Even though GMO has negative impact on agriculture, many scholars have contributed to positive research in regards to making it an excellent mode of agricultural laboratory practises. In the present world, people are used to genetically modified food even though people do not know the effects it has on human beings as far as health is concerned.

Development a strategy for InteCom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Development a strategy for InteCom - Essay Example The firm was established recently in 1978 and as of 1982, it has a 1% US market share. The US market is dominated by firms such as AT&T, Northern Western and Rolm and InteCom is ranked at the 13th position, among the lowest. The market is expected to grow by 7 % till 1988 and the demand would be for large digital systems. InteCom has a robust product called the IBX S/ 40 digital systems. This product is based on digital technology and does not have problems of ‘Blocking’ that other product suffer from. It also has an open architecture and allows easy integration with foreign language systems, other than English, something other products do not have. Among different segments in the PBX market, there is a growth forecast for large customers line segment. While the US market has a lot of competition, the overseas market has double the demand. InteCom is very well positioned to enter the domestic and international markets with its IBX S/40 systems. The company suffers from low branding and it needs to improve its wage structure and the HR policies. The strategy report has performed a detailed SWOT analysis to understand the current market situation and has framed some strategic objectives along with vision and goals. Details of the strategy implementation are also given The strategic plan provides a blueprint for the objectives for the future. The plan analyses the current business environment and frames the strategic goals that are to be achieved. Risk and opportunity areas are analysed to form an understanding of the market and then a vision is framed. The strategic plan has to be iterative and would have to be updated as and when fresh market inputs become available. A broad based framework for strategic planning is illustrated in the following figure (Moorman, 1998). A strategic plan would have clearly defined sections such as Executive Summary; Strategic Planning Methodology; Current Situation; Target End-State;

Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 18

Research Paper Example Despite such determinations by the report, numerous other conspiracies arose to the fore following the shooting incidence thus portraying the primary effects of widespread speculations and alleged conspiracies about the incidence as portrayed in the discussion below. Doorley Helio, 241 explain that conspiracy theorists will always provide evidence in order to validate their claims. The conspiracy theorists in Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting used numerous evidences availed by preliminary media reports to back their rumors. The official reports as released by both the media and the official government reports released close to a year later revealed that the shooter identified as Adam Lanza acted alone and killed his mother before driving to the school where he killed six teachers and twenty pupils. Among the evidences the numerous conspirators use to support their theories included wrong photos, wrong identity of the shooter, weapons used and incorrect locations of the shoot out among other basic evidences peddled by the preliminary media reports. Apparently, after arriving at the scene of crime numerous local and internal media began delivering different reports. Each media institution strived to deliver its objective sand authoritative cov erage of the incident thus developing and fostering some of the conspiracies that surrounded the shooting incident. Just as was the case with the September 11 terrorist attack, conspiracy theorists gave varied viewpoints on the incidence. People began giving varied accounts and explanations of the incident. Among the conspiracies was the American involvement in the shooting. Such theories alleged that the government carried out the shooting with the view of heightening the discussion on gun control in the country (Stuart 1). Gun control policies are some of the most contentious issues in the United States. The high crime

The text the color purple Essay Example for Free

The text the color purple Essay The text ‘The Color Purple’, in both the novel by Alice Walker and the film adaptation directed by Steven Spielberg, show Celies, a broken, mistreated girl, developing into an independent, strong woman, despite the physical, emotion and sexual abuse that she faces throughout her life. Each representation of the text take on a different approach as to how it portrays Celie’s search for self through her relationships with other characters-particularly Nettie and Shug-, her belief in God, her struggle for independence and fight against the oppression Albert forces on her. The novel tends to be more confronting while the harshness of the mistreatment is softened in the film by the placid music, comical elements and the fact that physical violence is hardly seen. Though the film and novel vary significantly and utilize different techniques to express the general ideas, both explore the major themes of racism, male dominance and family relationships. The novel tells the story through Celies letters, and therefore the reader knows nothing more than what Celie writes. This strong, single point of view makes the story much more personal and the effect of her innocent, frank language make the injustices she is put through even more stirring. The book uses Celies short, blunt sentences to convey her fear and turmoil, opening with a simple confronting sentence: â€Å"you better never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy†. Celie starts as a scared, confused girl with nothing in the world but her faith in God and her love for her younger sister, Nettie. The film, however, begins with direct contrasts to this, with the two sisters laughing and playing clapping games in a beautiful field of purple, Celie’s pregnancy not revealed until she steps out to meet ‘Pa’ in which the light music stops abruptly. The film used this lighter opening to soften the impact of the rape and to show her innocence and youth, as well as immediately show the closeness she shares with Nettie. Celie grew up with no self-formed opinion of herself, believing the negative comments that others spoke of her: â€Å"Celie you got the ugliest smile this side of creation†. The years of abuse made her submissive and silent, never speaking up for herself in order to survive. Shots of Celie watching events from behind props, windows or with her face turned down demonstrate the invisible nature that she has developed in the film. As the film had to keep running time down, Celie’s life is skipped through. This is done with a clever camera position showing young Celies shadow reading, her voice gradually getting deeper and her reading more fluent, the shadow changing to the figure of a woman. Recurring snapshots of the letterbox in various conditions as well as the use of dates aid the films quicker progression through the plot. Gaps left in the story by these skips in time are filled in with a voiceover. The novel illustrates Celies fear of males through word choice and blunt statements, as well as Celies husband being referred to as simply Mr. _____ for a significant part of the book , whereas the film used visual techniques such as lighting and camera angles. Many low angle camera shots of Albert or ‘Pa’ enclosed by shadows or looking down upon the females give the impression of dominance. Close-ups highlighting the expression of fear on Celie’s face or at sinister intentions of the male characters at the start of the film compared to the close ups of Celie as a confident woman after she found her identity show the change that she has undergone. This change in Celie occurs with the introduction of Shug and Sofia into her life. The two contrasting women are both strong and free and teach Celie that women do not have to be ruled by men. Celies main influence is Shug, who is loved by Albert as well as Celie, whose attachment to Shug is depicted through her primary role in the story of Celies life. Shug plays an extremely imperative part in Celies search for self by being the affectionate, encouraging person that Celie always needed. Most importantly, she teaches Celie to love herself and be happy with whom she is as a person. Shug opens Celies mind by removing other peoples influence on her belief in God, explaining that â€Å"not being tied to what God looks like frees us†. The turning point in both the book and the novel is when Celie discovers that Albert has hidden Nettie’s letters from her for all these years. Her love of Nettie, who she believes to be â€Å"the only one to ever love me† had helped her to stay strong through the years and endure Albert’s abuse. When she finds that he had been keeping Nettie from her, her rage breaks her fear of him and gives her the courage to leave the house and move to Memphis with Shug. Albert summarizes what he believes to be her weaknesses when he says â€Å"You black, you poor, you ugly, you a woman. Goddamn you nothing at all†. Celies retaliation by cursing him with â€Å"everything you even think about is going to fail until you do right by me† shows just how far she has come already. Albert’s insult poses a challenge for Celie. She goes out to find happiness and become self-sufficient, despite Albert’s condemnation. The novel looks at the progress that Celie makes with her sewing of pants. This is symbolic of the protest against discrimination against women and is a major part of Celie’s search for self. The film however skips through this, instead focusing on the symbolism of the purple field in Celie’s happiest moments-her childhood with Nettie, her walk with Shug after she returns home a successful woman and her reuniting with Nettie at the very end. The conclusion of the novel seemed to be much more rounded, with all the strings of the past woven neatly into a final letter in which she addresses â€Å"Dear God. Dear stars, dear trees, dear sky, dear peoples. Dear everything. Dear God†. In this letter we find out that Nettie and her husband, Olivia, Adam and Adams wife have returned home from Africa. Celie and Nettie now have their own house, after finding out the truth about their ‘Pa’, Shug as come back to Celie, Sofia and Harpo are once again happy together and Celie has forgiven Albert for the past, now valuing him as a friend. It is this connection that eventually brings them together as friends. Though the film and novel vary significantly and utilize different techniques to express the general ideas, both explore the major themes of abuse, oppression, male dominance and family relationships. The central character, Celie, finds her identity through the help of those she loves and her personal strength to accept the past and move on with the future.

Program assessment Essay Example for Free

Program assessment Essay Assessment is not only about measuring and finding faults, instead it should be based on the mainly ways of program improvement in order to achieve desired results. Learning should be adjusted to cater for the different needs of students, therefore assessment should assist in identifying which programs should be wiped out, which should be improved and which should be introduced. The CAS Standards has introduced several programs which can be used to improve students learning. Some of these include group or team theory and step learning. Group theory advocates for students to learn as a group, this is because students can be able to discuss together their weaknesses and also ensure all students participate in learning activities better. Step learning is also an essay program that can be implemented in leaning. The program involves designing learning in stages where students must follow as a learning process. NACADA is another body which has advocated for several core values to assist students; good examples include motivation, confidence and self discipline. These cores ensure a student is able to learn with little guidance. In addition it assists the students to be able to work smart in all their learning activities. The assessment procedure will therefore be expected to improve the learning process to be able to cater for all the students. The assessment will also ensure students abilities are maximized.

Kurdish Conflict Regulation

Kurdish Conflict Regulation 1.4. Definitions As Milton- Edwards says, before examining the specific manifestations of the main subject, it is important to outline some of other important related definitions (2008). To analyze and discuss Kurdish conflict regulation in the Republic of Turkey, one needs to define Turkey’s system in relation to the Kurds as an ethnic minority in that country. Ethnicity and its related issues are important enough for scholars to consider it as one of main forces to shape the world. Brass claims â€Å"ethnicity and nationalism, interethnic conflicts, and secessionist movements have been major forces shaping the modern world and the structure and stability of contemporary states† (1991). Zuelow in ‘Nationalism Journals’ like Brass about national identity and its potency says national identity has been one of the principals force shaping the course of history, certainly since the French Revolution† (1999). In addition, he believes that national identity has played a key role in revolutions, wars and state-formation (Ibid). When people of different ethnicity are living in one territory and one group generally has the majority rule on other groups in non-democratic ways, it is the starting point of conflict. Bruce Gilley defined â€Å"ethnic conflict as sustained and violent conflict by ethnically distinct actors in which the issue is integral to one ethnicity† (2004, 1160). In the same source, he uses other terms such as ‘ethnic violence’ or ‘ethnic war’ for ethnic conflict (Ibid, 1155). ‘Ethnic conflict regulation’ is the other term should be defined here. There are many definitions for ethnic conflict regulation in different references. Wolff believes â€Å"conflict regulation comprises three elements: prevention, management, and settlement: Conflict prevention aims at channeling conflict into non-violent behavior by providing incentives for peaceful accommodation. Conflict management is the attempt to contain, limit or direct the effects of an ongoing ethnic conflict. Conflict settlement aims at establishing an institutional framework in which the conflicting interests of different ethnic groups can be accommodated to extent the incentives to non-violent and cooperation condition† (2009, 1). Ilievski Wolff define ethnic conflict regulation through institutional design that conflicts can be resolved via an institutional bargain that establishes macro-level structures through which disputes among the conflict parties can be addressed politically and without recourse to violence† (2010, 5-6). McGarry and OLeary claim, â€Å"The term of ‘regulation’ is inclusive and it covers both conflict termination and conflict management. Eight distinct macro-methods of ethnic conflict regulation can be distinguished into two methods for eliminating differences and methods for managing differences† (1993, 4). The Republic of Turkey was founded on the main principles, or ‘six arrows’, of Kemalism. These principles are republicanism, nationalism, secularism, populism, statism and revolutionism (Los Angeles Times 2014). Kemal Ataturk and his followers have defined Turkey as a pro-Western, modern and democratic country. The two subjects of ethnic minority rights and Islamism, based on two principles of Turkish nationalism and secularism, were taboo for many decades. The Welfare Party in the general election for the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) in 1995 captured the majority of seats. Necmettin Erbakan came to power as the first Islamist Prime Minister in the Republic of Turkey in 1996. Although the age of his Cabinet was just one year, it was enough to break the taboo of the secularism principle as a ban for Islamist political parties. Nonetheless, the years of 1990s and Ãâ€"zal’s speeches about Kurdish people as an ethnic minority in Turkey, can be looked as a s tarting point, at least one decade was needed to start to break the one-nation-one- state idea in Turkey. In respect of Kurdish ethnic regulation in Turkey, the definition of ‘Double Standard’ seems to fit with institutions and constitutional laws in Turkey. â€Å"Double standard is a situation in which two people or groups are treated very differently from each other in a way that is unfair to one of them† (merriam-webster dictionary 2014) or â€Å"a set of principles that applies differently and usually more rigorously to one group of people or circumstances than to another† (QA.com) and (Ibid). Park, referring to Guney (2006-2007) and Uslu (2008a) says, â€Å"a major explanatory factor behind Turkey’s resistance to the adoption of more contrition to the Armenian fate, or a more inclusive embracing of its Kurdish citizens, is the intensity of Turkish nationalism (2012, 23). The ‘Turkish history thesis’ insist that the Turks of central Asia constituted the world’s first civilized people, who had provided the root of all other world civilizations (Park 2012,23). Associated with the history thesis was the ‘Sun language theory’ which claims that â€Å"Turks were the originators of language itself and that all other languages were thus derived from or linked to it (Cagaptay 2002; Arkman 2006)† (Park 2012,24). Security systems, militaristic approaches, economic and human rights conditions in West and Center of the country, or overall for Turks, has been different from non-Turk minorities in Turkey. Kurds, as approximately 20% of Turkeys population, have been forbidden from the basic rights for about one century. In the meantime, supporting the rights of the Turkish language population as citizens of other countries has been one of the main principles of Turkeys Foreign Policies. These types of different approaches can be described as forms of a double standard policy. Sometimes these dual policies have caused conflict for Turkey and have pushed the country from a zero-problem to a zero-friend situation. Park, when defining the Republic of Turkey, refers to Yavuz and Eposito (2003:xx1) in that they claim â€Å"when Ataturk died in 1938, Kemalism was ‘neither democratic nor liberal but Authoritarian, elitist, and ideological† (2012, 13). However, Urrutia and Villellas look at Turkey as a ‘consolidating democracy’ (2012, 2) in their description of Turkey’s system. Gulcan Saglam (2012) looks at Turkey under the rule of AKP as a ‘semi-democratic state’ that may be more compatible with the current conditions in Turkey and useful for this study. A semi-democratic state is defined as a state that has democratic principles and an authoritarian rule in practice at the same time, but they are neither entirely authoritarian nor fully democratic. The semi-democratic state, by Akinola (2013) definition, is â€Å"a state that supports democracy as an idea, but fails to reach the application of its principles.The principles of freedom speech and association, free and fair election as well as transparency in government constitute essential characters of the democratic state†. Saglam says â€Å"in semi-democratic political settings with strong authoritarian actors, political parties that build broad coalitions consisting of various power centers in the society via group specific policy promises will be more likely to shift the balance of power in favor of themselves than actors that lack such connections† (2012, 37-8). He believes â€Å"The AKP is the first Islamist political party in Turkey that pursued this strategy, and it was these group-specific policy promises that eventually helped the Party to repel the Kemalist state structure and shift the balance of power in favor of itself† (Ibid). 1.5. The Problem and Rationale Ethnic identity and ethnic conflict have been the most complicated issues among societies and have remained as double bind ties in domestic, regional and international levels, especially in developing countries. Ethnic conflict has a connection and interrelation with other themes such as gender, political economy and democratization in different aspects (Milton-Edwards 2008, 1). Beavis asserts that â€Å"ethnic conflict studies can be seen as a source for understanding international relations but single book; concept or theory is not able to explain such a complex phenomenon in its entirety† (1999-2012). Ethnic conflict is often considered as a local or intra-state issue, but indeed, it has had effect on both intra-state and inter-state relations. The Uppsala Conflict Data Program (UCDP) answers the question ‘How many conflicts were there in the world in 2011?’ (UCDP 2011) and clarifies the number and rank of ‘intrastate conflicts’ in comparison to other kinds of conflict in that year, claiming that â€Å"in 2011, UCDP recorded 37 active armed conflicts†(Ibid). Based on the same source, from thirty-seven armed conflicts in 2011 that took place in 30 different parts of the world, 27 of them were intrastate, nine intrastate with foreign involvement. Cambodia-Thailand (common border) was the only case among them registered as interstate conflict. Turkey was among five Middle Eastern countries having intrastate Kurdish conflict; that it did not introduce to a level of war until 2011. The above chart from UCDP (2013) shows the type and number of armed conflicts from 1946-2012. It shows the extra state conflict just until 1974, interstate conflicts have decreased and internationalized conflicts have had slow increase since 2004. However, the numbers of intrastate conflicts have had significant increase especially from the 1960’s. In comparison with international wars from 1950s, Civil Wars have been more frequent and more durable. Ethnic wars have been main part of civil wars. For instance, 55% in 1970 and 72% in 1991 of civil wars have been ethnic wars. During the 1990s, more than 200 ethnic minorities or subordinate majorities in the world have struggled to achieve their political rights ( Johnson 2008). Caselli and Coleman refer to Fearon and Laitin (2003) in that from 1945 to 1999, the numbers of ethnic civil wars have been 58, equal to 51% of all civil wars in that period; and they believe that more silent and worth noting are the non-violent conflicts (2011). In some countries, ethnic groups compete through overtly ethnic parties, and compete for power, but in others, a dominant group discriminates against and exploits the others (Ibid). â€Å"Esman (1994, 229) believes when an ethnic group gains control of the state, important economic assets are soon transferred to the members of that community† (Ibid 2011, 2). Gilley disagrees with some definitions of the concept of ethnic conflict and looks at it as a critic, but, he accepts the importance and widespread of this conflict in reality. He looks the rise amount of researches and academic studies in this field as a ‘major growth industry’ and he has made reference to the number of published books and online articles in specific periods in comparison with previous periods. He claims that the ethnic conflict issue is a more attractive subject to be studied by new journals and research centers. He announces that the numbers of published books and online articles in the English language under the title of ‘ethnic conflict’ have been 43 books since 1990 in comparison to 17 before that and 249 online academic English-language articles with the title of ‘ethnic conflict’, but just 23 articles under the ‘class conflict’ title for the same years (2004). McGarry and O’Leary refer to deep geo-political changes in different parts of the world, especially in Africa; for instance in Angola, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Namibia and Zimbabwe and finally in South Africa by extinction of Apartheid regime in the last decades of 20th century. All of them show the power of ethnicity to mobilize populations and create mass movements to redefine the borders. They say, â€Å"The renewed instability of state frontiers is merely one symptom of the global political power of ethnic consciousness and conflict† (1993, 2), and they say, â€Å"a reason why ethnic questions are potentially explosive, and raise the possibility that some people(s) will be tempted to exercise self-determination through secession is simple. Ethnic questions raise relatively non-tradable issues. It is obvious nationality, language; territorial homelands and culture are not bargain-able products (Ibid 1993). Previous explanations and definitions show the importance and role of ethnicity, nationalism and ethnic conflicts and its rank in academic research. Kurdish ethnic conflict is one of the most complex issues in the Middle East. Kurds have struggled for more than one century for freedom and to achieve self-determination in Kurdish regions. The states that have controlled parts of Kurdistan have denied, suppressed and assimilated Kurds. It has brought unfavorable consequences for all sides. Turkey as having approximately 20% of its population as Kurdish minority, basing its state on Kemalism ideology and Turkish nationalism, has been one of the most atrocious regimes against Kurdish political movements. The bloody violence from 1984 between PKK and Turkey’s military has taken place. The consequences of that war have been more than 40,000 deaths, more disabled people, imprisonment and millions forced to be immigrants and refugees. In the past few years, Turkey with PKK and its in jailed leader, Abdulla Ó ¦calan, has entered into peace negotiations. This subject is a new opening in Turkish nationalism. The first sign of change was in the speeches of statesmen about the Kurdish ethnic conflict regulation, back in the 1990’s and Ó ¦zal; who believed in a multicultural society for Turkey. The most behavioral and practical changes have been attributable to Erdogan and the AKP administration from 2002 to 2014. This current issue and its effect on the Kurdish political condition in Turkey and other countries and the democratization process in local and regional realms, has become worthy enough for academic research study.

juan peron Essay examples -- essays research papers

Juan Domingo Perà ³n is known as the greatest Argentinean politician of all time. However, he is also one of he most controversial. His tactics and alliances are often criticized as are the changes and developments he brought about in Argentina. The one thing that can be concluded by all is that this man led a very complex and important life.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Perà ³n was born on October 8, 1895, in a province of Buenos Aires. He was the second son of Mario and Juana Perà ³n. His father was an employee of the local court. When Juan was five years old his father abandoned the family. To make ends meet, Juana married a man whom was a farm hand. When he was ten he went to live with his uncle in Buenos Aires so that he could begin his formal education. Perà ³n was not an outstanding student but he always managed to pass. Juan’s military career started at age 16. Juan went on to study at the National Military Academy. He graduated in 1915 as a second lieutenant. His military career was now off and running. It is not really known why he decided to join the military. Some think it was because he needed discipline in his life, while others think it was to help him in gaining power. The early parts of his military career were ordinary. After the revolution of 1943 Juan Perà ³n shared control of the Argentinean government. Under Pedro Ramirez, Perà ³n held three cabinet positions. With that he saw an opportunity. He did many reform programs and won a lot of the support of labor unio...

Ben Franklin Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  A Universal Man When one takes a look at the world in which he currently lives, he sees it as being normal since it is so slow in changing. When an historian looks at the present, he sees the effects of many events and many profound people. Benjamin Franklin is one of these people. His participation in so many different fields changed the world immensely. He was a noted politician as well as respected scholar. He was an important inventor and scientist. Particularly interesting is his impact on the scientific world. Benjamin Franklin was a modest man who had had many jobs in his lifetime. This may help explain his large array of inventions and new methods of working various jobs. He did everything from making cabbage-growing more efficient to making political decisions to being the first person to study and chart the Gulf Stream movement in the Atlantic Ocean. This can explain why many people, including myself, saw him as a universal man.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The definition of a universal man is one who knows a little on ...

The Development of Management Information Systems :: Business Management Studies

The Development of Management Information Systems The role of business information systems has changed and expanded over the last four decades. In the incipient decade (1950s and '60s), â€Å"electronic data processing systems† could be afforded by only the largest organizations. They were used to record and store bookkeeping data such as journal entries, specialized journals, and ledger accounts. This was strictly an operations support role. By the 1960s â€Å"management information systems† were used to generate a limited range of predefined reports, including income statements (they were called P & L’s back then), balance sheets and sales reports. They were trying to perform a decision making support role, but they were not up to the task. By the 1970s â€Å"decision support systems† were introduced. They were interactive in the sense that they allowed the user to choose between numerous options and configurations. Not only was the user allowed customizing outputs, they also could configure the programs to their specific needs. There was a cost though. As part of your mainframe leasing agreement, you typically had to pay to have an IBM system developer permanently on site. The main development in the 1980s was the introduction of decentralized computing. Instead of having one large mainframe computer for the entire enterprise, numerous PC’s were spread around the organization. This meant that instead of submitting a job to the computer department for batch processing and waiting for the experts to perform the procedure, each user had their own computer that they could customize for their own purposes. Many poor souls fought with the vagaries of DOS protocols, BIOS functions, and DOS batch programming. As people became comfortable with their new skills, they discovered all the things their system was capable of. Computers, instead of creating a paperless society, as was expected, produced mountains of paper, most of it valueless. Mounds of reports were generated just because it was possible to do so. This information overload was mitigated somewhat in the 1980s with the introduction of â€Å"executive information systems†. They streamlined the process, giving the executive exactly what they wanted, and only what they wanted. The 1980s also saw the first commercial application of artificial intelligence techniques in the form of â€Å"expert systems†. These programs could give advice within a very limited subject area. The promise of decision making support, first attempted in management information systems back in the 1960s, had step-by-step, come to

Project: South African Aluminum Essay

At the beginning of 1994, Alusaf was considering building the world’s largest greenfield primary aluminum smelter, a 466,000-ton-per-year smelter at Richard’s Bay, a deepwater port on the east coast of South Africa’s province of Kwa-Zulu Natal. Alusaf was the sole primary aluminum producer in South Africa, operating 170,000 tpy of capacity at the existing â€Å"Bayside† facility at Richard’s Bay. Alusaf’s 1993 revenues were $220. 2 million, up 1% from 1992. Income was $8. 6 million, up 122% from 1992. A feasibility study for the proposed â€Å"Hillside† smelter had been completed over the past two years. During this time, South Africa’s political regime had undergone a dramatic transformation with the 1993 passing of the Transitional Executive Council (TEC) Bill. This bill removed absolute power from the hands of whites and created a multi-racial body that would share responsibility for organizing and overseeing the general elections to be held in April 1994. Within days, Nelson Mandela, leader of the African National Congress party, addressed the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid in New York, calling on the international community to lift sanctions against South Africa. The European Union, the Organization of African Unity, Canada, China, Sweden, Singapore, India, and the United States all responded quickly with announcements that they would begin the process of restoring normal economic relations with South Africa. Aluminum prices had fallen dramatically since the feasibility study was begun, as Russian aluminum continued to flood the market. Now, with aluminum prices near their all-time low in real terms in early 1994, Alusaf had to decide whether to embark on this massive project. The South African Aluminum Industry The South African aluminum industry’s origins could be traced to investments made by Alcan in the 1940s. As part of its efforts to create demand for its ingot, Alcan built semifabrication capacity in South Africa to serve the local market. A government-coordinated development effort at the port of Richard’s Bay, together with a desire to reduce dependence on imported ingot, led to construction of South Africa’s first primary production facility nearly 25 years later. The original Bayside plant came onstream in 1972 with ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Professor Kenneth S. Corts prepared this case as the basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright  © 2002 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www. hbsp. harvard. edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School. This document is authorized for use only in PGDM 1st Year – 1007 by Rakhi Singh at IILM Institute for Business and Management, Gurgaon (IILM-IBM, Gurgaon) from October 2013 to April 2014. 799-130 Aluminum Smelting in South Africa: Alusaf’s Hillside Project capacity of approximately 85,000 tpy. Less than a quarter of Bayside’s production was exported. Ten years later, the Bayside plant was expanded through the relocation to Richard’s Bay of a similarly sized plant in Niigata, Japan, that had been shut down due to escalating energy costs. Over three quarters of the new plant’s production was exported as ingot. In 1989, South African mining and metals giant Gencor acquired a controlling interest in Alusaf. The other primary shareholders were Swiss aluminum producer Alusuisse and South Africa’s quasigovernmental Industrial Development Corporation (IDC). Gencor was founded in 1980 by the merger of two major mining companies, each founded in the late nineteenth century. Since that merger, Gencor had been a diversified financial, mining and industrial conglomerate. In May 1993, Gencor announced it was spinning off its financial and industrial interests in order to refocus on its mining, metals, and minerals businesses. In addition to Alusaf, the companies retained in the â€Å"unbundled† Gencor included the world’s third-largest gold producer, the world’s second-largest platinum producer, the world’s largest producer of ferroalloys, and the world’s largest supplier of titanium dioxide feedstock. Basic financial results for Gencor are given in Table A. Table Aduction of secondary aluminum had held relatively steady at about 30,000 tpy since 1980. Together with primary production, this brought total domestic production to about 200,000 tpy (see Exhibit 1). In 1994, semifabrication in South Africa remained primarily focused on domestic demand. South African aluminum exports totaled approximately 100,000 tpy, of which 20,000 tpy were semifabricated products and 80,000 tpy were ingot. Domestic consumption totaled about 130,000 tpy, of which about 30,000 was imported products (see Exhibit 2). The Hillside Project Escom, South Africa’s electrical power utility, initiated discussion of the Hillside project with Alusaf in mid-1991. With aluminum prices around $1,300 per ton, Alusaf had suggested to Escom that the Bayside smelter was not economically viable given market conditions and might be shut down. Escom responded with an offer to reduce power rates dramatically if Bayside were kept open and an additional facility at Richard’s Bay constructed. Escom offered to supply the smelter’s approximately 680 Mw electricity requirements under an unusual long-term contract. About half the world’s smelters operated under contracts guaranteeing discounted electricity for multiple years; often these contracts tied the price of electricity to the price 2 This document is authorized for use only in PGDM 1st Year – 1007 by Rakhi Singh at IILM Institute for Business and Management, Gurgaon (IILM-IBM, Gurgaon) from October 2013 to April 2014. Aluminum Smelting in South Africa: Alusaf’s Hillside Project 799-130 of aluminum and employed complicated formulas that imposed caps and floors on prices. The 25year Escom/Alusaf contract was unique in its simplicity: Alusaf would pay Escom 16% of the per-ton price of aluminum for every ton of aluminum produced, assuming the plant produced at its designed efficiency. While the contract did contain provisions protecting Escom from inefficient production, it did not protect Escom against fluctuations in the price of aluminum. Escom and Alusaf were also discussing whether Escom might take an equity stake in the facility. As a result of high growth projections in the 1970s, Escom had built enormous generating capacity of 38,000 Mw, of which 8,000 Mw now stood idle. Rob Barbour, managing director of Alusaf, claimed that the high energy requirements of aluminum production made aluminum essentially â€Å"frozen energy† and that therefore Alusaf â€Å"will become an exporter of South African energy with i high value-added. † For provision of all the basic engineering and technology for the plant, Alusaf planned to contract with Pechiney, the French firm whose technology had been used in over three quarters of all recent smelter projects. Lacking bauxite and alumina operations, Alusaf intended to import the full 900,000 tpy alumina requirement of the new smelter and had negotiated a tentative alumina supply agreement with Alcoa of Australia and Billiton (a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell). This contract tied the price of alumina to the price of aluminum, a common contracting practice employed by about half the world’s smelters. For the Hillside plant, this contract ensured that per-ton alumina and power costs would always amount to 41% of the price of aluminum. Estimates for other operating costs at Hillside are given in Table B. Capital costs were estimated to total $2 billion. Table B Hillside’s Projected Operating Costs ($ per ton) Other raw materials $143 Plant power and fuel 17 Consumables 32 Maintenance Labor Freight 38 68 40 General and administrative 32 Before the feasibility study was complete, Barbour announced that he believed there was a â€Å"high probability† the smelter would be approved. â€Å"In the meantime we hope to deter others from thinking about aluminum smelter projects,† he added. â€Å"We want to frighten them off by convincing ii them that this one is unstoppable. † The Decision In early 1994, tentative contracts for power, alumina, and the smelting technology were all in place, and willing investors had been lined up. The financing plan called for $1. 9 billion of new capital to be raised, about $830 million of it in equity. Gencor was to contribute $340 million in 3 This document is authorized for use only in PGDM 1st Year – 1007 by Rakhi Singh at IILM Institute for Business and Management, Gurgaon (IILM-IBM, Gurgaon) from October 2013 to April 2014. 799-130 Aluminum Smelting in South Africa: Alusaf’s Hillside Project equity, the IDC $270 million in equity, other local institutions $140 million in equity, and Escom $80 million in convertible debt. Three new smelters using the Pechiney technology had been completed in recent months. Now, Hillside was the only planned smelter project, and a number of other proposed projects had been cancelled. Equipment suppliers were quoting Alusaf prices 20% to 30% below those supplied for the feasibility study, and the capital cost of the new plant was now projected to total only $1. 6 billion. At the beginning of 1994, aluminum prices stood at $1,110. Aluminum-producing countries had scheduled meetings in the coming months to address the world glut of aluminum, but it was unclear whether prices would recover anytime soon. Barbour wondered whether he should commit to this enormous and ambitious project in the face of these uncertain industry conditions. 4 This document is authorized for use only in PGDM 1st Year – 1007 by Rakhi Singh at IILM Institute for Business and Management, Gurgaon (IILM-IBM, Gurgaon) from October 2013 to April 2014.

Private Life on Social Networking Sites Essay

Social networking sites can be defined as an online platform where people create their own profiles, share them with the public, and communicate with other users on the Internet. The increasing popularity of these sites affects our lives in many aspects and the most important one is the privacy issue. It can easily be observed that social networking sites are a real threat for the user’s personal privacy. First of all, there are some threats arising from security vulnerability on social networking sites. Generally, users give a lot of personal information to become a member of these sites and it is easy to access this information for hackers and identity thieves. For example identity thieves who could gain very private information such as birth name and date, addresses, phone numbers and relationship status on social networking sites can verify themselves as being the profile owner. Therefore, they can access the users’ credit card number and steal their money easily. Moreover, identity thieves cause not only loss of money but also loss of personal respect and good name. They can use the information to communicate with users’ other friends in order to obtain their information too. Rebecca Sweeny (2011) summarizes that users’ lack of awareness of sharing information helps hackers and identity thieves to steal their money and damage good names. (as cited in Acquisti& Gross, 2006) The second threat arising from security vulnerabilities is marketing companies’ accessibility to users’ information without permission. For instance, spamming the users with unsolicited advertising contents can be annoying in most cases. Furthermore, the companies sometimes obtain personal information and spread them with other companies and individuals in order to make advertisements more effective. Secondly, people share very private information on social networking sites, as Nico Reiher(2009) mentions, â€Å" If the receiver of the information is not trustworthy, the user does not have a chance to track or remove this information back into trustworthy hands.† causes some serious troubles. Firstly, people tend to announce where they are at that moment and what they are doing, therefore, they share real-time location based information on social networking sites. To illustrate, people who share their locations and especially notify others that they are not at home on social networking sites such as Foursquare, provide an opportunity to thieves to rob their houses. In addition, Facebook which is the most popular and preferred social networking sites, also enables people to share that much private information with the â€Å"check-in† application. Secondly, sharing awkward and embarrassing information or political views on social networking sites lead to trouble in people’s social and professional lives. For example, some companies prefer to look to social networking sites in order to get information about prospective employees. According to SNAPR project team, â€Å"Even future employers,†¦, may be able to view your posted information and draw specific conclusion about you as an individual, which could have the negative effects. â€Å" Moreover, disgraceful posts on users’ profile which can be seen also by instructors or bosses will cause loss of reputation in educational or business lives. Those who are not in favor of this opinion seem to believe that social networking sites are safe and information is inaccessible for the public. They think that there are some restrictive privacy settings which allow users to specify who can see their information and profiles. Moreover, there are firewalls which help to prevent users’ information from hackers and identity thieves. Although it may be true to a certain extent, this claim is not strong enough, because these settings are not default without users’ knowledge. Generally, users are not fully informed about privacy issues and share all information without any restriction. In addition, they are unaware of how much information they share to the public. There is not any explanation about the amount of the disseminative information. To sum up, the users’ unawareness of the privacy settings on social networking sites and their insensibility on this issue cause a lot of troubles. In addition, digital information’s easy accessibility and fast spreading also pose a danger for users’ privacy. In order to prevent people from these threats, improving the privacy settings and informing them completely should be the major precautions. References Reiher, N.(2009). Privacy on social networking sites and its impact on computer-mediated communication. Retrieved April 9,2012, from http://www.grin.com/en/e-book/154916/privacy- on-social-network-sites-and-its-impact-on-computer-mediated-communication SNAPR Methodology project team. Dear social networking user: Are you at risk? Retrieved April 9,2012, from socialrisk.weebly.com/index.html Sweeny,R.(2011). Social networking sites; More harm than good? Retrieved April 9,2012, from http://networkconference.netstudies.org/2011/04/social-networking-sites-more-harm-than- good/

Nutritional Assessment Project

Nutrition is an essential part in everyone’s life. It helps us stay healthy and energetic, look nice and be in a good mood. It plays a great role for the overall condition. And there is a great difference what you eat and how many vitamins and useful elements every food item includes. The analysis of the daily nutrition record helps realize whether a person consumes the right food in the right quantity. A woman aged 40 years has the following characteristic: 5 ft 4 in and165 lb. These characteristic features are essential in the course of analyzing the nutritional data as they allow forming certain set of recommendations and diagnosing the errors and inconsistencies in the food choice. The activity level is sedentary. This means that a woman should reconsider her way of life and start go in for some kind of sport or at least take some walks in the evening. It is not only useful for health but also helps with digestion and metabolism. BMI is the next crucial point. It slightly exceeds the normal ratio. Besides, the woman gains usually 1 lb per week. This is a positive figure as the normal ratio amount not more than two lb per week. It is important first of all to analyze the correlation between the nutrient elements that were consumed by the woman in comparison with the dietary graph recommendations. It is obviously that she consumes too much fat, especially saturated one. It affects negatively not only her weight, but also her health in general. Besides, she consumes too little dietary fiber – it constitutes only 53%. It is desirable for her to increase the amount of consumed water as it comprises only 70% of the daily need of a person and to decrease the amount of protein consummation. The woman should start consuming more vitamins, especially vitamins D, E and A. Still such vitamins as B1 and B3 seem to be excessive to be consumed as an average daily amount. The best balance is achieved in consumption of vitamin B12 – it amounts to 99% and is very important as it regulates growth, maintenance, and reproduction of all of the cells, including nervous ones, and results in increased energy and improved overall condition (CyberRecovery, 2006). It is highly recommended for a woman to increase the amount of consumed calcium as it is only 34% of the daily norm while the use of sodium should be necessarily reduced at least in three times. It is necessary to analyze the products this woman usually eats. There are two days’ descriptions. She has for breakfast coffee and creamer, for lunch – cheeseburger, French fries and frozen dessert, then for dinner – fish and fried shrimps, and finally for supper – pop-corn and water. The other day she has the same breakfast while the lunch is larger and includes mashed potato with pork chops and sauerkraut, soda and water. Her dinner consists of mushroom turnovers, sandwich, steak and Tater Tots. She has a vanilla ice cream as a snack later and no supper. It is important to analyze the options the woman should increase in her daily diet. It is necessary to increase the consumption of dietary fiber that is included in the following products from the list: sauerkraut, mushroom turnovers, and in little quantity it may be found in Tater Tots and ice cream. So she should eat more vegetables to supply the organism with necessary amount of dietary fiber. To increase the amount of vitamin A, that one day is completely absent from her diet, the woman should eat more potato, carrot, greens, and especially liver as it is number one among the products that contain this vitamin (HealthAliciousNess). Apricots are also a good source of vitamin A. In order to increase the amount of calcium the woman should eat more meat – but not fast food. The best variant is steamed meat dishes. The fast food items should be excluded from the diet at all as they lack indeed useful and healthy elements though are abundant in harmful ones. One more essential aspect comprises obligatory use of fruit and vegetables. Regular grain consumption is also important. The woman does not follow these recommendations in her daily diet: there are at least some vegetables present, but there is complete absence of fruit. Protein consumption is enough, though the diary products are still needed. Green and orange vegetables are the best choice. Moreover, it is strongly recommended to reduce fats and sugar consumption as it interferes with the healthy diet approach. The presence of beans and peas is also essential. The question of consumed calories presents the following data: one day the calorie level amounted to 1993 calories while the other day presented the figure of 2773. The average figure is 2383 calories per day. The most caloric food item was cheeseburger (790 calories). The least caloric product except water and coffee with creamer was sauerkraut and then mashed potato (100 and 125 calories respectively). Thus, the woman’s average daily intake of calories is 2383 calories. The average daily intake of calories is supposed to be 2000 calories for a woman while for a man the figure is 2500 (NHSchoices). Though, this figure greatly depends upon the peculiarities of lifestyle and age. The conclusion is as follows: the average intake is not excessive, but the choice of food items should be carefully reconsidered taking into account the recommendations according to the reduction and increase rates in product list. References Cyber Recovery (2006). What does vitamin B12 do in your body? Retrieved from http://www.cyberrecovery.net/forums/showthread.php?t=317 HealthAliciousNess. Top 10 foods highest in vitamin A. Retrieved from http://www.healthaliciousness.com/articles/food-sources-of-vitamin-A.php NHSchoices (2012). What should my daily intake of calories be? Retrieved from http://www.nhs.uk/chq/pages/1126.aspx?categoryid=51

The Communist System of Government

Communism is an ideal society that is unrealistic for humans to maintain. In this system major resources and means of production are owned by the community rather than by individuals. The society is without money, without a state, without property and without social classes. All people would contribute to the society according to their ability and take from the society according to their needs. Fredrick Engel's believed that a proletarian could only be liberated by abolishing competition, private property, and all class differences, and replacing it with association. The concept was derived from ancient sources, such as Plato's Republic and the earliest Christian communes. In the early 19th century, the idea of a communist society was a response to the poor social classes that developed during the beginning of modern capitalism. Communal societies have existed for centuries, yet they eventually failed. Throughout history, religious groups have had the most success in maintaining communes. The Roman Catholic Church established monasteries all over Europe in the middle Ages. Most of these small-scale private xperiments involved voluntary cooperation, with everyone participating in the governing process. Philosophers Karl Marx and Fredric Engel influenced the movement of communism greatly. In the late 1800's the two discovered that they had individually come to ideal opinions on the perfect society. They collaborated their ideas in their most famous â€Å"Communist Manifesto†, as well as many other informative pamphlets. Third World countries striving for national independence and social change experimented with their philosophies on economics. Fredrick Engel wrote, â€Å"The general co-operation of all members f society for the purpose of planned exploitation of the forces of production, the expansion of production to the point where it will satisfy the needs of all, the abolition of a situation in which the needs of some are satisfied at the expense of the needs of others, the complete liquidation of classes and their conflicts, the rounded development of the capacities of all members of society through the elimination of the present division of labor, through industrial education, through engaging in varying activities, through the participation by all n the enjoyments produced by all, through the combination of city and country — these are the main consequences of the abolition of private property. The philosopher's ideals were kindled by the mistreatment of the working class throughout history. Every social system of the past, Marx argued, had been a device by which the rich and powerful few could live by the toil and misery of the powerless many, therefore causing class differences and conflict. Engel and Marx believed that the capitalist system was flawed and was bound to destroy itself. They tried to show that the more productive the system became, the more difficult it would be to make it function: The more goods it accumulated, the less use it would have for these goods; the more people it trained, the less it could utilize their talents. Capitalism, in short, would eventually choke on its own wealth. Poverty rapidly spread through civilized countries during the industrial revolution in the late 18th century. It was precipitated by the discovery of the steam engine, mechanical loom, and other various mechanical devices. Only â€Å"big capitalists† could afford the expensive achines, which transformed the entire mode of production. Former workers were replaced by machines, which were more productive, along with cheaper labor. Industrial product (brought about by machine labor) prices decreased, completely destroying the old system of hand labor. Within no time the bourgeoisie (big capitalists) increased profits and the former workers remained with nothing. The former workers, proletarians were then forced to work minimum wage for the bourgeoisie. They only provided the lower class enough money to survive, so they would not be able to rise above their class. So as the old saying goes, â€Å"the rich got richer and the poor only got poorer†. Many countries were revolutionized by Europe's mechanical industry production. Countries such as India and China were complete strangers to historical development, until they were violently forced out of their isolation. They bought cheaper commodities from the English and allowed their own manufacturing workers to wither away. Due to the one world market, civilized countries have repercussions in third world countries. By abolishing private property, competition would become obsolete. Karl Marx did not think that competition and individual management of industry could be separated, so his solution was to destroy both of the problems with one stone. He wanted to limit private property through progressively increasing property taxes (basically taxing the bourgeoisie). By removing competition, greediness would be eliminated. â€Å"Greediness is a consequence of capitalism and is merely a learned quality†, explains Kominf. If all humans were treated equally, there would be no need to compete with one another. In the ideal society, the state would provide ducation for all children. The children would be trained for a variety of occupations. Thus entering the work force, they would be prepared for a variety of jobs. Workers would rotate occupations in response to the needs of society. No longer would they be bound or exploited to their occupation. This would remove class differences, such as the one-sided character that is transfixed upon our current society. The variety of classes would soon disappear because there would no longer be a division of labor. Within a communistic society commodities are traded, opposed to using money. Commodities value is based upon the amount of labor time that was necessary to produce the product. However, this could result in a situation in which a lazy worker taking their time about making a commodity makes a commodity worth much more than the commodity made by a hard working efficient worker. If this were the case then employers would be sacking their diligent workers while telling the rest to go as slow as they can. Instead of Right-Wing politicians lambasting the poor for being lazy they would be lambasting them for being too hard working. This is not, however, what determines the value of a commodity. What determines the value of a commodity is the labor time socially necessary for its production. Shortages, inequalities, and coercive government have persisted in countries that call themselves ‘communist'. The followers of Marx that have come into power in nations have lacked some preconditions that Marx and Engel considered essential. Russia was one of the first countries to experiment with their own revised version of communism. In the early years its enemies within the country challenged the government's very existence repeatedly. The country strived to transform their backward country into a leading industrial nation and first rate military power. However this task required harsh discipline imposed only by an unrelenting dictatorship. Which controlled all of citizens activities. The resulting system of total control has been labeled totalitarianism. Totalitarianism by no means carried out Marx and Engel visions of utopia. The country's cultural and intellectual life remained under the control of the ruling party. Eventually in the early 1980's, the USSR had become the world's second-ranking industrial power. Its armed might and industrial potential were backed by important scientific advances and by a generally high level of technical education. However, their living conditions were low in comparison to that of the Western countries. The success was not maintained for more than a decade. In 1991 the political struggle led to the collapse of the Soviet Communist Party. In order for communism to succeed, it must be world wide. This is because of our one world market that exists in modern day. Countries in the world depend on one another for economical growth. Although with this dependency, the countries rise and fall with one another's economy. The internet is spreading the word of communism. Groups represented throughout the world are preparing for a future revolution. Unfortunately they are not afraid of brutally taking lives to get what they want. It is expected that one day the large number of the working class will join together and revolt against their higher class. If communism were to be world wide, they would be able to completely abolish competition. Within removing competition, people's trait of greediness would soon wither.

Literature reveiw for my dissertation. (how relationship marketing can Essay

Literature reveiw for my dissertation. (how relationship marketing can boost company images in the car industry with specific emphasis on the issue of trust.) - Essay Example The findings of this research will provide insight of the car industry that started as early as 1769. At that time having a car was something that was left for the rich thus the marketing strategies were not taken very seriously by those who were producing cars. This is because the industry was not ventured into by so many people thus competition was very low. The automobile industry started with steam cars, coal gas cars to recently where cars are using unleaded fuel. The car industry has continued to expand as very many companies have ventured in this business to meet the demand of cars world wide. Today, cars are not considered as a luxury but as a necessity. For this reason, car industries have seen the need of employing marketing strategies to ensure that their cars sell. In trying to attract customers, car industries keep coming up with new models of cars every time. There has been a consideration of all kinds of people in coming up with better and easy to handle cars. For inst ance, the automatic cars are made for the disabled people. Moreover, they can be used by any one who does not know how to drive because they are easy to understand and handle. Car industries have seen the importance of having strategic marketing plans thus the knowledge of what is going around in this industry. That is, what are the needs of their customers and what are their competitors doing to win very many clients. With such knowledge, this industry has seen the need of carrying out the SWOT analysis that helps the different car firms to know how they are going to differentiate their products and services from their competitors. This enables them to find out ways in which they are going to build customer trust as they carry out research, analyses it and then come up with new and better strategies of keeping their customers. Such research focuses mostly on what the customer needs and not the company (Ledgerwood, 2006, pp. 95-100). It is the quality of the car that matters and not the quantity and how cheap it is. Car industries are now bound to making cars that can last longer and are safe. Customers need to be assured that their vehicles will not breakdown after ten days of buying them. Once a customer buys a vehicle, they always want to know how long it can last on the road. Trust will be built if the car industry tells the truth. Customers become very disappointed when they are assured that a car will last for five to eight years then it only serves them for two years. If such a thing happens, then that brand is surely going to lose market (Ennew, 2006, pp. 94-100). Safety is another issue; customers need to be assured that the vehicles they are buying have the best safety products like safety belts and air bags. With the number of car accidents increasing world wide, safety has become a first priority when purchasing cars.

Spiritual Assessment Tools Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Spiritual Assessment Tools - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that spirituality is an aspect of life that is related to holistic nursing in terms of beliefs and behaviors. Dossey gave an understanding of spirituality as that broad concept which takes into account values, rationale and meaning; one’s turns towards the human traits of personal sincerity, devotion, caring, understanding, empathy, and imagination; a graceful, dynamic poise allowing and creating body-mind-spirit restoration to health; and the existence of a quality of a higher authority, that guides mystical transcendence and personal spirit. On spirituality still, Pamela Reed adds to the definition that spirituality is entirely about expressions of developmental capacity for self-transcendence. Spirituality can be perceived as that very close affiliation that exists between an individual and a supreme being who is believed to be directing anyone’s beliefs and practices during the life time. Spiritual Assessment carried out b y medical practitioners is the fundamental process of gathering, analyzing and synthesizing salient data to be used for appropriately planning nursing care into multidimensional formulations that are capable of providing the basis for action decisions on medical administration. From the perspective of a holistic approach, it is well established that spiritual assessment is an action taken with the assumption that spiritual wishes have dedicated influences on all other factors of an individual’s life.... Below are discussions of two of these Spiritual Assessments Tools, and their effectiveness in terms of timing and use effectiveness (LaRocca-Pitts M., 2008). a) FICA FICA is a spiritual historical tool that was created by Dr. Christine Puchalski together with Daniel Sulmasy, Joan Teno and Dale Mathews in 1996 with the view of providing means through which clinicians could efficiently integrate the open-ended investigative questions checking into a standardized medical history and that which could be applied by health care professionals. This technique identifies key elements that a physician or clinician may be in need of to determine any patients’ spiritual belief in the medical settings. FICA, as a spiritual assessment tool, is based on four fundamental domains which are: the presence and recognitions of faith, belief, and their meaning to an individual; the importance of spirituality on one’s life and the immense influence that the belief system or values have on the individual’s spiritual community; and the timeless interventions to address such spiritual needs. FICA is mostly used because of its effectiveness and comprehensiveness in assessing varied spiritual dimensions as may be based on existing correlations with spiritual indicators; especially in the view of spiritual activities, alterations in spirituality, positive life changes, purpose, and hopefulness. It is able to offer provisional frameworks for clinicians to initiate discussions about those aspects deemed meaningful to patients, i.e. families, work, and faith. FICA provides information things that are supportive to patients, i.e. spiritual communities; and also gives information concerning spiritual beliefs that most likely affects health care decision

Homework 4 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Homework 4 - Essay Example was not liable under product liability law for the injury to Clark. There were several key factors in this case including: (1) the individual who shot the paintball gun (Rico) testified that the product did not malfunction when he fired it. (2) Clark was aware that protective eyewear was available to use, but he decided not to wear any; (3) Clark knew beforehand that there was danger involved in what he was doing since he said it was â€Å"common sense† for people not to shoot anyone in the face with a paintball gun and; (4) the product did what is was expected to do under the circumstances. Product liability can be based on the theories of negligence, misrepresentation, and strict liability. In regards negligence, the manufacturer would have to fail to exercise ‘due care’ to ensure the product is safe. This would include the design, manufacturing, and inspection. This did not happen or could be proved as shown primarily by Rico’s testimony that the gun did not malfunction. Misrepresentation can happen if intentional mislabeling of packages happens or if product defects are concealed. Neither of these things happened with Brass Eagle and the Supreme Court case details mentioned how a warning label showing the dangers was in the package itself. The requirements for Strict product liability under Section 402A of the Restatement (Second) of Torts is federal law that can be summarized as: (1) the product must have been in defective condition when sold; (2) the defendant must have been in the business of selling the product; (3) the product must be unreasonably dangerous to the user or consumer because of it’s defective condition; (4) the plaintiff must incur physical harm; (5) the defective condition must by the proximate cause of the injury; and (6) the goods must not have been substantially changed from the time the product was sold to when the damage occurred. Clark could not prove that the product itself was

Pollution as an Environmental Concern for All Essay

Pollution as an Environmental Concern for All - Essay Example This essay discusses that there is no denying that pollution is a major problem in our world today. This problem poses a threat to the world’s population at the present time and to future generations, in terms of human health and development. There are several forms in which pollution can be observed. Each type of pollution has its own characteristics that make it unique from the other forms. Some forms of pollution are able to have a residual effect on the earth and inhabitants even a long while after it first originates. Some of these forms of pollution include heavy metal contamination and organic pollutants which persist over a long time period. A wide variety of different forms of pollution are affecting the quality of the soil, water and air that composes our environment. There are ways to cope with these problems, but it some cases the damage caused by pollution is irreversible. These pollutants originate from sources such as mining, improper waste management, smelting and processing plants, industrial mining activities, urban activities and improper recycling of materials such as lead acid batteries. Some of the worst pollution problems are in many forms a product of poverty. Urbanization at high levels and lack of infrastructure, overextended governments who are ill equipped to deal with crisis, present a dangerous situation for human health as people are exposed to pollution or are forced resort to dangerous forms of income generation that expose them to pollutants. Contaminated Water Sources Mercury contamination of groundwater and the environment is a major problem as a result of artisanal gold mining. Toxic materials are used quite commonly used in order to recover metals and gems from the earth. As a result of this practice, large amounts of mercury are released into the environment. The mercury is combined with gold carrying silt to form a compound that contains most of the gold that was in the silt. The mercury is later evaporated with th e use of blow torches or open flame to heat the compound and release the gold pieces. Mercury is released into the air and surrounding environment, which includes faraway places as it is deposited far from its place of origin. A variety or organisms are also affected as they absorb this substance from their environment. The mercury is then transformed through this process into methyl mercury, which is one of the most dangerous toxins that can find its way into the food chain. This substance acts as a neurotoxin. The fish and seafood we eat, and the air we breathe, may be contaminated by this mercury. However, the people and miners who are working in this industry are even more at risk for experiencing health problems due to exposure. It is estimated that for every gram of gold produced, two grams of mercury are emitted into the atmosphere. To deal with this problem, certain technologies can be used to reduce mercury vapours and recapture the mercury from the amalgamated compound so that it can be reused. There are programs initiating these techniques such as the UNIDO’s Global Mercury Project. The programs are effective when implemented at a community level but they do require much work and are challenging to deploy especially in low income areas. Surficial water contamination is threatening the health of each person on the planet. If water treatment plants are not able to keep up with high water consumption demands, we will all suffer the consequences. Currently one third of the world is experiencing some sort of water pollution issues and must face the challenges of only having contaminated water available. In the developing world, almost 5 million deaths are related to water