Domestic Violence and the Police Essay

In this essay I have chosen to study and discuss an article about domestic violence in Britain. The aspects I have chosen to concentrate on are the police response to domestic abuse, recent government initiatives and the financial and logistical problems faced by women who are trying to escape from violent domestic situations. The statistics relating to domestic violence are very disturbing. According to the Women’s Aid website, one incident of domestic violence per minute is reported, with an alarming two deaths a week perpetrated by a current or former partner. In addition to this, they report that one in four women have suffered some kind of violence in the home. The statistics, from the British Crime Survey 2012, only represent reported violence, and associations who support women that have suffered violence, suspect that many more incidents go unreported(Walby & Allen, 2004). So what the definition of domestic violence? The government definition of domestic violence is â €Å"Any incident of threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional), between adults who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality†. Domestic violence is not a new phenomenon. Before the 1970’s it was something that happened, but was kept firmly behind closed doors and treated as a private matter. The rise of feminism in the 1970’s and the work done with battered women in refuges at that time, led to a heightened awareness of the problem. Studies completed by feminists at the time claimed to have found a link between the dominance of men in society and the way that incidences of domestic violence were ignored or denied. Conservatives at that time debated the findings and claimed that violence towards women had more to do with the fragmentation of family life and â€Å"dysfunctional families†. They also claimed that the statistics were flawed and that actually men were also victims of domestic violence. Straus and Gelles 1986(cited in Giddens), suggested in their report that men were less likely to report domestic attacks, so it was not possible to make a fair comparison. Feminists retaliated b y pointing out that attacks on women were being regularly beaten by their husbands, whereas men were usually only attacked as a â€Å"one off† incident, and that often the woman was defending herself or responding to repeated attacks. (Rawthorne 2002,cited in Gibbens). Feminists could also argue that the police force  itself is a patriarchal. The fact that the police force is still male dominated with only 36,443 female officers out of a total of 137,139, indicates that it is still a male dominated profession, which may make it difficult for the majority of officers to empathise with the plight of women in an abusive situation. So why does domestic violence occur? Dobash and Dobash (1980) found that one of the major factors that cause domestic violence was the husband’s belief that the woman was failing to keep the house properly. With an increase in the number of women working it would not be unreasonable to expect men to do their share of housework, but a study by Arlie Horschchild(1989)(cited in Giddens), found that in reality, working women still do most of the daily chores and it is considered to be their responsibility. Feminists argue that violence against women is symptomatic of a patriarchal society’s attitude to women. Mackinnon (1989) claimed that the subordination of women is the central reason for men’s violence to women and children. Functionalist theorists such as Talcott Parsons (1956) (cited in Giddens) stated that one partner in the family should stay at home to assume the â€Å"effective† emotional role. In the vast majority of households, that person is usually the woman. Feminists argue that this disadvantages women as they then do not have an income of their own to enable them leave if they need to. In recent years reported domestic violence figures have decreased but unfortunately they have started to increase again. Professor Sylvia Walby (UNESCO Chair in Gender Research at Lancaster University), published a report in February 2012 that stated a rise in the number of cases of domestic violence, and voiced concerns about funding cuts to women’s’ refuges and services. She fears that the recession, combined with local government cuts to services that keep wome n safe, may be leading to the current increase. Evidence in the past has indicated that spousal abuse is more prevalent between low-income couples (Cherlin 1999 cited in Giddens). William Goode (1971) felt that whilst men on higher incomes can control women by holding the purse strings, men who are unable to exert this financial control use violence instead. If this is the case, the recession may well lead to many more incidents of domestic violence as couples struggle financially and men face redundancy. The article I have chosen features a lady who was being abused by her husband and how she tried to get away from her situation. It is disturbing to read that that the police  completely failed to assess the situation adequately and left the women unsupported and vulnerable to further attack. Logic would suggest that as this lady had two small children, the man should have been the one made to leave. Instead the policeman involved implied that by staying, she was inviting further violence! The police also did not offer to remove the lady and children to a place of safety, or arrange any sort of support for her. In response to this kind of incident, the Association of Chief Police Officers has worked with the CPS to produce a â€Å"charging checklist† (appendix 1) to enable police officers to get a clearer picture on how to obtain a watertight conviction in cases of domestic violence, and to ensure that the officer has thought about the safety of the complainant. Importantly, the form also records previous incidents of a similar kind. This would have helped Sabina Akhtar (also mentioned in the article) who was murdered by a former partner, despite several appeals to the police to help and protect her. The British Crime Survey found that, while for the majority of women leaving the violent partner stopped the violence, 37% said it did not. 18% of those that had left their partner were further victimised by other forms of harassment. 7% who left said that the worst incident of domestic violence took place after they had stopped living with their partner. Worldwide figures show that 44% of female homicides are perpetrated by a current or former partner, compared to only 6% of men.(Human rights website). Unfortunately, the current system of allowing bail to the perpetrators, gives them the opportunity to re-offend. The current government has acknowledged that domestic violence is still a big problem in this country. The Home Secretary has allocated more than  £28 million for specialist services to tackle violence against women and girls until 2015. Problems caused by cultural beliefs such as forced marriage and female genital mutilation, have been given a higher profile with specific units being set up to help the victims of such crimes. They have chosen several key areas to focus on, the first being early intervention This is aimed at young people to ensure that they understand the importance of healthy relationships and understand that they have the right to say â€Å"no†. This campaign has been heavily advertised on the television and in schools. Professionals are being trained to spot early signs and risk factors of domestic and sexual violence, child sexual abuse, and h armful practices. The system itself disadvantages women experiencing abuse. There are problems with the way domestic violence is recorded and dealt with by the police. According to the article there are currently eleven cases that being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission. The police are accused of failing to take women’s fears seriously and of failing to provide protection for women who are being abused on a regular basis. The government and the police have acknowledged that attitudes to women and domestic violence are still in need of change. Under the new government initiative, the police have been given new powers to help domestic violence victims break the cycle of abuse including piloting Domestic Violence Protection Orders which allow police to ban alleged abusers from returning to the victim’s home for several weeks. In conclusion, it appears that the problem of domestic violence is starting to be brought out into the open. The sad fact is that even if a woman leaves her abusive partner she still is not safe. She often has to give up her home and sometimes even her family to get away. There also the question of financial support. Very often, abusive men control the finances as they use this as another way of keeping control of their partner. According to the Refuge website, men have been known to force women to give up their jobs, take out loans in their name, and generally run up debt. This makes it harder for her to leave because not only has the woman got no money to support herself and her children, but she also has debts against her name. Although the government has made dealing with domestic violence a priority, they are also cutting funding to councils and other associations. It remains to be seen how effective their new policies are and whether they continue to provide funding to enable the services to function.

Stevie Smith

Marissa Puzino ENGL 011: 33 Dr. Kayorie April 3, 12 The Journey of Death, War and Neglect â€Å"All poetry has to do is make a strong communication† (Stevie Smith) Florence Margaret Smith also known as Stevie Smith was a famous English poet and novelist that lived form 1902 to her tragic death in 1971. Throughout her life Smith went through a lot of heartache with her family and especially within herself. When Stevie Smith became acquainted with the face of death, she was fascinated by the melancholy emotions of depression she began to feel.As a result, Smith utilized her emotions relating to neglect, death, and war in much of her writing. Stevie Smith was best known for her poem â€Å"Not Waving But Drowning,† which is about neglect. In this poem she portrays the speaker as saying â€Å"goodbye† to his so called friends, and welcoming death. She praises grief and sorrow in her poem â€Å"Happiness. † Here she states that all happiness has been inexistent in her life. War was another prominent theme in her writing. Much of her writing was drawn from her own life experiences but various work of literature was influenced by war, the middle class British life, and religion.Her poem, â€Å"I Remember,† was a war themed poem about an elderly man having flashbacks on the Second World War on his bridal night. Stevie Smith eloquently channeled her emotions from her troubling life experiences of death, neglect, and war, into moving works of literature. Florence Margaret â€Å"Stevie† Smith was born in 1902 in Hull, England (Biography of Stevie Smith, Poem Hunter). At the age of three, after her father left the family to join the North Sea Patrol, she moved to Palmers Green with her Mother and her sister Molly (Spalding 3).During her teenage years her mother passed away, leaving her and her sister to live with their Aunt also referred to as â€Å"The Lion† (Stevie Smith, The Academy of American Poets). After attending high school she went to North London Collegiate School for Girls where she began as a secretary with the magazine publisher George Newnes. She continued to become the private secretary to Sir Nevill Pearson and Sir Frank Newnes. Her first book, Novel On Yellow Paper, was published in 1936, which was about the uneasy feelings of World War I. Stevie Smith passed away in 1971, resulting from a brain tumor.Stevie Smith’s life was filled with death and grief beginning at age five and lasting until her death in 1971. At the age of five Stevie Smith was diagnosed with Tuberculous peritonitis (Barbara, and Mcbrien 23). After developing this disease she was sent to a sanatorium near Broadstairs. Smith had a very close relationship with her mother. Being away from home and her mother for such a long period of time caused her to experience much stress and anxiety. Smith’s mother died of heart disease when she was sixteen years old, which was a very traumatic experience for Stevie Smi th.Even fifty years later during an interview Smith burst into tears when asked a question about her mothers passing (Huk 39). Unfortunately, she became preoccupied with the idea of death. Smith thought that if she forced death upon herself, her misery would end. Realizing that she hadn’t died and life would continue another day only sustained her thoughts of death, eventually leading her into depression (Barbara, and Mcbrien 25). Being compelled by thoughts of death and grief, Smith frequently incorporated those themes in her poems.In one of Stevie Smith’s interviews she states, â€Å"They are written from the experiences, of my own life, its pressures and fancies, and they are written to give ease and relief to me† (Spalding 197). Smith implies that she writes her poems not only for the enjoyment of her readers, but as a way of coping with her own emotions and feelings. Writing about her sorrows gave her inspiration to continue on and face her troubles. She wr ites more often about her struggles than her happiness, which is shown in her poem â€Å"Happiness. In the poem â€Å"Happiness,† Stevie Smith describes happiness as quiet and nonexistent when she writes, â€Å"Happiness is silent, or speaks equivocally for friends† (ln 1). All of Smith’s life was filled with misery. This poem is about how she never knew the feeling of happiness. She was unaware of how to find happiness because of all the negative experiences in her life that led to such despairing thoughts and emotions. â€Å"Grief is explicit and her song never ends† (ln 3). Smith indicates that she has known this feeling since she was a young girl, which, continued throughout her life.Undergoing these difficult times throughout her life led Stevie Smith to develop a negative view of the world, which she exemplified in her poetry. Stevie Smith’s father owned his own business as a shipping agent. When she was three years old his business, as well as her parents’ marriage, was unsuccessful (Huk 23). As a result, Smith’s father left home and ran away to sea becoming a ship’s purser. She rarely saw her father and when he visited she would often ignore him. She resented the fact that he left and deserted their family.Stevie Smith and her sister never forgave him and even refused to attend his funeral in 1949. Additionally, Smith’s Aunt directed negativity in her life. After Smith’s mother passed away, Smith and her sister lived with their Aunt. When Stevie Smith started to write her Aunt dismissed her works, calling them as unnecessary. Stevie portrays her feelings of neglect in her famous poem, â€Å"Not Waving But Drowning. † This poem is about a man who is stranded out at sea. As he is thrashing in the seas, he is distressed trying to get the attention from the bystanders on shore.They think he is waving â€Å"Hello†, when he is actually attempting to get their attention. â₠¬Å"Nobody heard him, the dead man† (ln 1). The people on shore can be seen as Smith’s Father and Aunt, while Stevie Smith is the man stranded at sea. They both neglected and ignored Stevie, either by abandoning her family or insulting her work. â€Å"Oh, no no no, it was too cold always† (ln 9). This line indicates the loneliness of Smith’s life due to the constant feeling of rejection, from the fleeing of her father and her Aunt doubting her writing capabilities. Stevie Smith grew up during both World War I and World War II (Severin 49).After World War II Smith believed that women suffered in traditional marriages because they often experienced loss of their independence and energy. In her poem â€Å"I Remember† the speaker is an elderly man. He is with his bride on their wedding night while having flashbacks of the World War II. â€Å"Harry, do they ever collide? I do not think it has ever happened† (ln 7 and 8). Smith is pointing out the d isappointment of women returning to their traditional gender roles during the post war periods. When the woman asks about the planes colliding, Stevie Smith is referring to the gender roles of men and woman.She is asking if the roles of women and men overlap? She also indicates that these women will inevitably return to their pre-war traditional role as a submissive woman and essentially return to being unhappy. Stevie Smith has faced various negative experiences and emotions from a very early age. Stevie Smith often wrote about death, neglect and war as shown in three of her poems, â€Å"Happiness,† â€Å"Not Waving But Drowning,† and â€Å"I Remember. † Being presented with a chronic disease, abandonment, death, and feelings of neglect, contributed to Stevie Smith’s negative view of the world.However, Smith found hope and relief from her depressive mind through the means of writing poetry. Smith wrote not only for the enjoyment of her readers, but more importantly to cope with her adverse life experiences. She used writing as a way to ease of the pain of these events. Stevie Smith blended real life experiences with events that happened around the world to create her moving works of literature. Works Cited Barbera, Jack, and William McBrien. Stevie: A Biography of Stevie Smith. London: Heinemann, 1985. Print. â€Å"Biography of Stevie Smith. † Poem Hunter. Web. 8 Apr. 2012. lt;http://www. poemhunter. com/stevie-smith/biography/>. â€Å"Happiness. † Best Poems. Web. 05 Apr. 2012. . This poem by Stevie Smith compares happiness and grief. This is a short poem, completed in one stanza. Smith expresses happiness as a quiet, illusionary emotion instead of loud and exciting. She explains that happiness is silent, misleading and deceptive. She describes grief as precise, straightforward and unlike happiness, swift without delay. â€Å"I Remember. † Best Poems. Web. 05 Apr. 2012. . This poem written by the famous Englis h poet and novelist, Stevie Smith is about a war veteran who is having flashbacks of World War ll. An elderly man is the speaker talking about his experiences in the war on the night of his wedding. His bride was a young woman who had tuberculosis and was asking him questions about the war. It seemed that she was asking the questions because she was slipping away and will soon pass. Abcarian, Richard, Marvin Klotz, and Samuel Cohen, eds. Literature: The Human Experience. 10th ed.New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2010. Print. The poem â€Å"Not Waving But Drowning† by Stevie Smith told in the third person. It is about a man who is distressed and neglected by his friends. He is trying to gain their attention by waving his hands but the people at shore think he is just waving hello. This poem can be interpreted both metaphorically and literally. In the literal sense he was waving his hands trying to get attention and form the people on shore it looks like he’s saying hi. In the metaphorical sense, the man suffered from being ignored and neglected by his friends.Huk, Romana. Stevie Smith: Between the Lines. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Print. In this book Romana Huk expresses the different contributions that Stevie Smith has made to feminist literary modernism. Huk describes how Smith encouraged women’s studies by examining the past and rewriting them in modern times. This book offers a new approach to go about analyzing Smith’s works by analyzing certain poems and novels that were either forgotten about or written long ago. Severin, Laura. Stevie Smith's Resistant Antics.Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 1997. Print. This book analyzes the relationship between Stevie Smith’s writing and illustrations and twentieth century historical events. She uses all the works of Stevie Smith to join the idea of femininity and the conservative period f World War ll. Severin gives reasons for cultural historians and feminists to appreciate the works of Smith in a sense where all of her poems, novels and illustrations are taken from events that happened around the world. Spalding, Frances. Stevie Smith A Biography. New York: W. W. Norton ;, 1989. Print.This book examines the relationship between Steve Smith’s life and her writing, including both her novels and poems. Frances Spalding focuses on Smith’s narrative and distinct style. She looks at the connections between Smith’s devastating life and her works. Spalding adds new and original interpretations based on new information. â€Å"Stevie Smith. † Poetry Archive. Penguin. Web. ;http://www. poetryarchive. org/poetryarchive/singlePoet. do? poetId=7088. â€Å"Stevie Smith. † The Academy of American Poets. The Academy of American Poets. Web. ;http://www. poets. org/poet. php/prmPID/283;.

British Airways Performance Analysis Assignment - 1

British Airways Performance Analysis - Assignment Example The above ratios reveal the comparative performance of BA for the two years under consideration. Profitability- wise operating profit ratio has registered a commendable performance in 2008 as compared to 2007. In fact ‘the operating profit margin measures the percentage of each sales dollar remaining after all cost other than interest, taxes, and preferred stock dividend are deducted. It represents pure profits earned on each dollar.†(Lawrence J Gitman, page 67) The performance of BA has been excellent raising its operating profit ratio from 7.09% in 2007 to 10% in 2008 despite the fact that the rise in revenue is merely 3%. In the year 2007 total revenue was  £ 8492m and that has risen only to  £ 8753m. The extremely good profitability performance is again corroborated by the fact that return on equity has gone up from a mere 8.39% to 21.74%. Such a large increase in return on equity is remarkable when the total equity has risen from  £ 2411m in 2007 to  £ 3233m. Overall BA has performed extremely well on profitability front. Liquidity has been a problem for BA in both years. Liquidity reflects the short term solvency situation of a company. Liquidity position provides an idea about whether the company is in a position to meet its short term obligations when those become due. Liquidity of a company is aptly reflected by its current ratio. The current ratio of 2:1 is considered optimum for any industry, but this standard again differs from industry to industry. BA has a current ratio of 0.95: 1 in 2007 and 0.97:1 in 2008. By any standard, the current ratio is much lower than the required standard. BA is facing a liquidity crunch and if it continues like this BA might face difficulties in meeting its short term obligations. Current ratio change in 2008 when compared to 2007 is not even noticeable. The contributing major factors to the deteriorating the liquid position of BA are current interest-bearing deposits that have depleted from  £ 1642m in 2007 to  £ 1181m in 2008. Liquidity is certainly a cause of concern for BA.  

Analytical tools in making decisions concerning increasing commodity Essay

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Report on EGG bank Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Report on EGG bank - Essay Example According to this reform, banks are required increase their amount of capital in order to support their activities. Banks are still unsure how strong the reforms will be and what will be its affects. The credit crunch has also had its affect on the UK banking sector. Bank of England is slightly changing its monetary policy as a means of quantitative easing hoping that the economic conditions would become better. UK is also working in close collaborations with China in order to develop the financial and capital markets. Many jobs have been lost due to economic slowdown that has had a huge impact on the thinking and the demand of the population. People are now looking away from the banks as they have no means of re-payments of loans from the banks. Also many people are indifferent to the products that are offered by the banks and are looking for some better options in which they could invest. Technological breakthroughs are occurring all over the world and not just in UK. The banks that were operating offline are now establishing themselves over the internet offering more products for different segments than they were doing in their offices. The rapid progression of banks on the internet has introduced a new banking industry called e-banking. Banks are now fighting to capture more target markets than their competition by means of heavy online and offline marketing. The legal issues concerning the banking industry is where they would invest people’s money as the customers demand details and guarantee on their returns. The paper work and documents on the customers’ information as well as the banks’ information is now of vital importance before entering into any type of transaction due to increased fraudulent activities. Banks are deriving their campaigns toward green and friendly environment as a means of attracting new potential

INTERNATIONAL CONTRACTS ( INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW) Essay

INTERNATIONAL CONTRACTS ( INTERNATIONAL TRADE LAW) - Essay Example is put at 6% works out to a staggering figure of the US$ 420 million per year3 A bulk of this amount represents cost of using the documentary letter of credit. About 30 % of the import trade of the U.S. is paid through this letter of credit mode.4 The percentage of six as the transaction cost is not a small amount. Major portion of this cost is attributed to the return or refusal of the bankers involved at various stages of the routing of the documents from the importing end to the exporting end for reasons of accompanying documents not complying with the descriptions stipulated in the governing letters of credit. Although the ICC 5 sponsored UCP 5006 of 1993 governing the handling of the letter of credit during the course of transactions between the importers and exporters has recently been simplified by the UCP 600 7 in 2007 for hassle free transactions, it is still inadequate to keep pace with the fast paced transactions in the wake of electronic commerce that has emerged during t he last few decades. This paper seeks to highlight the various legal barriers that parties involved have to face in the documentation of the international trade, different modes of payments in practice including the documentary letter of credit and justify the need for a more favourable climate for documentation which can be more aptly called as negotiation of documents for collection of payments for goods and services supplied in the course of international trade. This is the predominant type of mode of payment for international transactions for goods and services which the UCP 600 (formerly UCP 500) is entirely devoted to. The payment is collected through the party usually a bank or two corresponding banks trusted by the buyer and seller. The buyer’s bank is the issuing bank and the seller’s bank is the confirming bank. Since the buyer and seller come from different legal jurisdictions banks are invariably different enjoying the confidence of the respective sides i.e the buyer

Review of the movie full metal jacket and relate it to the book The Essay

Review of the movie full metal jacket and relate it to the book The Vietnam war 1945 - 1990 by marilyn young - Essay Example The film is set in the 1967 Vietnamese war. It is structured in two parts. The first part of the movie is in a boot camp at Parris Island. A group of new US marine corps arrive at the boot camp for basic training. When they arrive at the camp, they are first made to shave their heads before they proceed to meeting Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, who is their senior drill instructor. The main agenda of sending the new recruits to the boot camp is to prepare them for the war. Hartman therefore uses extremely harsh tactics to train the marine corps. The draconian, or harsh tactics are aimed at turning the marines in to hardened soldiers that are ready and fit for combat. The three main marines from the new recruits group are privates â€Å"Cowboy†, â€Å"Joker†, and â€Å"Gomer Pyle†. Private ‘Gomer Pyle† earns the nickname after the wrath of sergeant Hartman befalls on him. Hartman’s continued efforts to discipline Pyle are not fruitful. He therefore o pts for pairing the private with Joker. After the two are paired, Pyle’s performance at the boot camp begins to improve. However, Hartman finds a contraband jelly doughnut in Pyle’s foot locker. It is against the rules of the camp to have such paraphernalia. What happens next is that Hartman advances his punishment towards Pyle because he believes that his peers are not helping him reform as much as the Sergeant would want. From that particular moment, the whole platoon is punished for the mistakes that Pyle does. The drill master makes it worse by passing that Pyle himself will not be punished for his mistakes. The platoon realizes that they will be constantly punished if they do not help in reforming their fellow marine. They throw a blanket party for the lad; they restrain him to his bunk,and give him a beating using bars of soap that have been wrapped up with towels. The torture is their way of retaliating to the suggestion of Hartman. This torture tactic works and Pyle reforms to a model marine. However, he exemplifies withdrawal symptoms as a result of the beating that he receives because he begins to make conversation with his riffle. The marine corps finally graduate and are given their Military Occupational Specialty. During their last night at the camp, Joker finds Pyle in the bathroom loading his riffle and reciting the Rifleman’s creed. Joker tries to calm him down but the commotion wakes up the whole platoon together with Hartman. Unfortunately, Pyle kills Hartman after he tries to confront him to surrender and then commits suicide. In the first part of the movie, Kubrick puts the viewer in the place where they feel like they are part of the whole training process. He highlights how the naive marines are slowly transformed through the rigorous training process. Kubrick also maintains a certain athleticism in the film through the obstacle courses and the chants the sergeant makes the marines to repeat. It also highlights the ps ychological effects that the whole training process can have on a marine, as exemplified by the eventualities of Pyle’s discipline from both Hartman and the other marines. The second part of the movie is in the rubble that was Hue. The Marine Corps kids-turned-killers are now in the battle ground. It is in January of 1968; Joker is now a sergeant and is a marine war correspondent for stars and stripes. At the base where Joker is a correspondent, there is a Private first class marine, Rafterman, who is a combat

Competitor analysis of wedding companies in London Essay

Competitor analysis of wedding companies in London - Essay Example After people are becoming more and more interested in having destination weddings, several companies have been introduced to offer services such as planning a destination wedding which can really be hectic for an individual. Destination Weddings.com is among the most popular in London (DestinationWeddings.Com 2015). Lindy Dowling Wedding & Event Planners is another upcoming wedding planning company in London that is quickly gaining a fan base. Those who do not prefer traditional weddings and are willing to put in as much money as possible in making a wedding their most memorable moments go for the luxury weddings. The best thing about the weddings is that they are top notch in everything that a package offers. The food, drinks, reception, and every part of the wedding is characterized by glamor. There are increasingly large number of luxury wedding planners entering the market today. One of them is orchid Inspirational event planning (OrchideEvents 2015). The company is a new entrant and it is not established very well though it still attracts good number of clients. Sarah Haywood Luxury Wedding Planners & Event Designers have been in the market longer and the company is hailed as the best luxury wedding in London. There are several advantages that come with choosing a company to arrange a wedding event. Naturally, there are too many things involved in planning a wedding (Brown 2013). The choosing of a suitable location for a wedding could be tricky itself. A wedding planner offers so much help as they ask for the type of place one would prefer, sometimes bringing with them several pictures that the clients can choose from and providing insights on the best places to go (Brown 2013). The whole planning involved getting a wedding attire, choosing its colour, dressing people up, and what is required in the reception and the food (Brown 2013). These companies, at a fee, simplify all these so that the clients only worry about showing up for the

Research primer(hip hop) Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Research primer(hip hop) - Assignment Example As mentioned in K. Blow’s composition of â€Å"If I Ruled the World† which initiates with ‘If I ruled the world, was king on the throne I’d make peace in every culture, build the homeless home / I’m not runnin’, for Congress or the President / I’m just here, to tell the world, how my story went’, already the rapper’s aim or how he would manage to proceed from this stage becomes clear. A message of peace or unification upon a diverse culture and race is conveyed, being quite a necessity to express hope of ceasing discrimination and rigid social structure in a society where poor continue to get by a rather low quality of living. Similarly, the song points out well how a huge change or reform must be taken by the government officials for any intended progress to create impact especially upon the social security and impoverished state of economy among mass communities. During this period, the global economic condition occurred to be heading towards an increased level of decline while most public officials kept their corrupt deeds as exclaimed in ‘To fight crime and hunger and poverty / ‘Cause the African baby is dyin’ overseas / While you sucker mission politicians bustin’ out Zs .. ... It is obvious that there were those poor individuals who had liberation sought by personal means, regardless whether such influence would uphold their welfare or not, just so they could overcome poverty, identity crisis, or any other related associated conflicts that seemed beyond imaginable remedy. No significant departure from this idea can be detected in the other piece of â€Å"If I Ruled the World† according to joint performances of Nas and Lauryn Hill. Apart from coincidence, one may find striking semblance between choruses as when Nas sang ‘If I ruled the world / Imagine that / I’d free all my sons, I love ‘em love ‘em baby / Black diamonds and pearls / Could it be, if you could / be mine, we’d both shine / If I ruled the world / Still livin’ for today, in / these last days and times’ in concrete detail which Kurtis shortened to ‘If I ruled the world.. Huh-huh, huh-huh / I’d love all the girls.. I love ‘em love ‘em baby!! Black diamonds and pearls.. ooh yeah / If I ruled the world’. Here, the noticeable intersection with phrases ‘black diamonds and pearls’ and ‘love ‘em’ sounds emphatic in an intention to signify unity between the Blacks and the Whites. While Kurtis Blow did not obtain much success with his musical career after the release of â€Å"The Breaks† and his biggest UK hit single due largely to being independent or labelled as an underground rapper, Nas took on his passion onto a degree that combines his rapping talent with acting. As a son of jazz musician Olu Dara, he was born and raised in the Queensbridge housing projects in New York City. He managed to attain a higher order of literacy which is very much recognizable in most of his lyrics though he actually

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

Journal 2 - Essay Example Because of the debates, patient’s rights that included consent to treatment, access to information, and the ability to complain came to application under the law1. However, it took the continued effort of the Patient organizations to advocate for these rights, their realization, in popularizing their discourse in the National Health Service in Britain. The article recognizes that there were various challenges towards the realization and implementation of these patients’ rights. As such, the idea of patients having rights in relation to health care is debatable. Indeed, both supporters and detractors of the National Health Service in Britain use the patient’s rights to argue their positions. The entailed patient’s rights involves the right to access to health services, confidentiality, consent, involvement in their own health care, quality of care and the environment. They also involve right to air complaints and get feedbacks. Moreover, the introduction of the NHS Constitution significantly developed the British health care and promoted the patients’ rights. In addition, organizations like the Patients Association, the Community Health Councils, and the Consumers Association among others advocated for patient’s rights from as early as the 1960s2. The article stipulates that the language of rights has since evolved and attracted diverse applications in the 1970s and 1980s. Furthermore, in the 20th Century, there have been distinct, but overlapping, visions of health rights. These rights include health as a human right, as a citizens’ right, and as a consumers right. However, in Britain, these rights attracted no contradictions between the state and citizen. Indeed, in 1948, the United Nations made a universal declaration of human rights contemplating the right to health on a global level. In fact, health forms part of the development goals in many nations since the 1980s with an aim of tackling epidemics. However, in Britain,

Cold War Essay Example for Free

Cold War Essay How important was the Sovietisation of Eastern Europe as a cause of the Cold War? The Sovietisation of Eastern Europe, though a significant factor for the cause of the Cold War, was still not the most important impetus of all. Even though the imperialist intent of the Sovietisation of Eastern Europe prompted the USA to come up with the Containment Policy that led to the conflicts, it was still the misunderstanding and mistrust from both superpowers which aggravated the progress and tensions of the Cold War. The Sovietisation of Eastern Europe was viewed by USA as expansionistic and hence, is one of the causes of the Cold War. The Soviet Union used the strategy what we have, we hold, creating satellite states while occupying previously held German areas, intimidating other parties away and allowing communist parties into power, creating the phenomenon Slicing of the Salami. One example was Poland, where Polish Stalinist leader Boleslaw Bierut who removed much opposition by ordering the arrest of Poles who opposed the new Communist government. The Sovietisation of Eastern Europe is a notable factor as it increased USSRs political, economic and military power by uniting other Eastern European states into a political and economic bloc against USA, mainly to spread Communism to Europe. The USA assumed it as purely Communist Imperialism, and that USSR was highly sensitive to the logic of force and perceived itself to be perpetually at war with democracy. The USA had failed to note that another reason of the Sovietisation of Eastern Europe was a form of security buffer against USA for Russia. This led to mistrust, suspicion and hostility. Hence this resulted in mounting tensions between both superpowers, and is a factor to the Cold War. The Marshall Plan was also one of the main reasons to the cause of the Cold War. It was an economic plan by the USA to provide Europe, including Russia, with the means to overcome economic adversities after the war, with the intent to prevent poor, devastated countries from turning to Communism and hence, keeping Communist influence in check. For example, up till 1953, US$12,721 million was sent to Europe in cash and kind, and France and Britain received the most. The Marshall Plan, though USA insisted that was directed purely on post war hunger, poverty and chaos, was interpreted by the USSR as a form of exploitation and an attempt to buy allies with money. Thus this worsened relations between USA and USSR, contributing to the development of the Cold War as it triggered a response from the USSR, which was the COMECON. The COMECON was the Soviets response to USAs Marshall Plan and also a contributor to the Cold War. By COMECON, the Soviet Union formed a political and economic bloc in which member states ignored the market economy and exchange rates in favour of barter trade, creating some measure of trade stability within the region. For example, oil and natural gas were traded among member states at below-market equivalent prices, partially to support the fragile economies of satellite states and also as a reward for compliance with Moscow. The COMECON was seen by the USA as an backward-looking attempt to spread Communism influence in Eastern Europe and garner support to counter the USAs market economy. Therefore this increased hostility between USA and USSR as economic and ideological rivals, and thus leading to the progress of the Cold War. The Berlin Blockade was a direct aggression of USSR against USA due to the conflict of currency reform in Germany, which heightened tensions between both superpowers and was the climax of the Cold War. The Soviets cut off key freight links to West Berlin, and later all traffic and essential supplies, to show that they would not tolerate USAs attempt to create economic stability using a new currency, the Deutsche Mark. The Berlin Blockade was an important cause of the Cold War as the goal of the Soviets was to starve West Berlin, an Allied country, into submission to Communism, and was seen by the USA as a direct threat to their own survival. Hence the aggressive nature of the blockade prompted a response from the USA, the Berlin Airlift, which was also USAs way of directly challenging USSRs limits of tolerance, which nearly escalated the Cold War into a breakout of a hot war. The Berlin Airlift was an equally agressive response of the USA to USSRs Berlin Blockade. With West Berlin having only one months worth of supplies and the USSR adamant in the blockade of land traffic, the Allies resorted to delivering the supplies using planes. This brought about an advantage of bypassing land traffic. Furthermore the USA was confident that Stalin was not prepared for an open military conflict by shooting down the planes, which was true. The Berlin Airlift had a significant impact on the progress of the Cold War as it was deeply humiliating for the Soviets and was a political and social victory for the USA. Such an outcome made the USSR ever more determined to keep its sector of Germany Communist, which made the initial plan of both superpowers on a unified Germany impossible. On the other hand, the USA became very wary of the USSRs actions and motives, given that the USSR had broken their own agreements on allowing traffic in and out of West Berlin. Hence this deepened both sides mistrust and hostility towards each other and increased each powers determination to hold on to and promote their own ideologies and curb the influence of the other, which helped the progress of the Cold War. In conclusion, even though the Sovietisation of Eastern Europe added to the rising tensions that led to the development of Cold War, it was still the misunderstanding, misperception and the mistrust of both superpowers that led to a spate of events that encouraged further progress into the Cold War. The USA saw USSR expansionism as totally impervious to the logic of reason and in a state of perpetual war against capitalism and democracy. To the USA, the Soviet Union could not understand the possibility for peaceful or non volatile co-existence, and would take advantage of any reduction in conflict to expand forcibly. Hence the USA conducted itself in the belief that they would never be able to cooperate harmoniously with the USSR and thus came up with the Containment Policy. However the Sovietisation of Eastern Europe was actually not purely Imperialist, it was also partly as a security buffer against USA. In reality, having different experiences and ideologies, both superpowers had different visions for the post war world. While Stalin was suffering from the Babarossa Syndrome and became paranoid in relations with USA, the USA held a strong belief in the Long Telegram, thus leading to the progress of the Containment Policy and later the rolling back of Communism, and USSRs counter attacks. This polarised superpower relations and precluded any sort of friendly relations for years. Therefore it was more of the misunderstanding and mistrust of both superpowers than simply the Sovietisation of Eastern Europe that is the most important factor of the Cold War.

History of Video Games

History of Video Games The History of Video Games One of the youngest forms of entertainment to date, the path that led the video game industry to be the giant multibillion dollar industry that it is today is about as humble as World War II. Mounted in mystery and finding its roots in gambling dens and the minds of defense contractors, the history of video games is obtuse and then some. This essay will present a summary of the history of videogames, as it started in the mind of Ralph Baer, the ‘Father of video games, to its place in present and future society as the place holder for billions of dollars in the entertainment industry. Although he is barely spoken of today, except by those the behind scenes, the idea of interacting with televisions further than changing the volume and channel sprang out of the mind of Ralph Baer. After escaping Germany with his parents at the age of 16, Ralph came to America and began working in a television and repair factory. In 1943 he was drafted in the United States Army and served in World War II in Army Intelligence. (Game Informer, 2009) Baer learned much of his knowledge in electronic technology while working for Loral, a military contractor that specialized in airborne technology. Loral approaches Baer with a mission: He is to make the best television technology and money can create. It was at this time that Baer had an idea to make a television that people can be actively engaged with. Loral wasnt nearly as enthusiastic as Baer was and shot his idea down, an action that may have been hastily made. (gamespot.com, 2009) In the year of 1966, Baer approaches his associates with a full page paper on his idea, which is now in the Smithsonian. â€Å"That Document was basically the Magna Carta of the home game industry. Within a year and a half, we were playing video ping-pong, hand ball, and shooting the screen with light guns,† Ralph Baer told Game Informer Magazine. (Game Informer Magazine, Gamespot.com) Sanders and Associates gave Baer the thumbs up. They provided Baer with the backing he needed to start development on his beloved idea. Baer successfully created interactive games such as a chase game, a video tennis game, and a game involving a toy gun that could distinguish between different of types light emitted from a television screen. Baer and other engineers on his team begin creating a prototype. In 1968, the Brown Box was created, named for its faux wood-grain housing. All that was left for Ralph Baer was to put his brainchild in the hands of the populous. This was much more difficult than expected. Sanders asked Baer to find a production partner for his invention. Many of the television and entertainment companies that he approached enjoyed the idea but did not want to enter into contractual obligations. Then he found Magnavox. In 1972, the Brown Box was released as the Magnavox Odyssey. One of its first games was the forever famous, Pong. (Game informer Magazine) Before the first home console hit the stage, in 1958 the very first invention to resemble a video game was a table tennis like game played on an oscilloscope. Willy Higinbotham sought to keep visitors to the Brookhaven National Laboratory interested. A year later, he added a fifteen inch monitor to his unique device. He never placed a patent on his machine. (gamespot.com) An MIT graduate by the name of Steve Russel created the first computer game, called SpaceWar. SpaceWar was played on a rigged up Digital PDP-1. This machine spurred the mind of many imaginative thinkers, one such being was Nolan Bushnell. (gamespot.com) During his academic career, Bushnell sees SpaceWar and is left an everlasting impression. While working a summer job at a carnival, he sees the local coin-operated arcade filled with dozens of computer machines. Realizing it is only a dream, he sees that the cost of computers in that day makes this feat impossible. (gamespot.com) In the early 1970s, Nolan, with the help of Ted Dabney, wanted to make an arcade booth with a SpaceWar based game. The result was Computer Space, the first video arcade game. Placed in a futuristic housing cabinet and crowned with a whopping (for those days) thirteen inch television, Bushnell and Dabney immediately gained support from Nutting Associates, an arcade game manufacturer. 1972 heralded the publics mass exposure to video arcades. Computer Spaces success was short lived, as the public found the gameplay too challenging. (gamespot.com) 1972 was a busy year for video games. The dynamic duo Bushnell and Dabney, left Nutting to start Atari, naming it after a word equivalent to ‘check in the Japanese game Go, which is similar to chess. The two enlisted the help of Al Alcom to program the games. Alcom was given a preliminary assignment, and programmed the first ever Pong. A Pong machine was thrown together and placed in a bar, Andy Capps. Less than two weeks later, the machine broke down. The culprit was the coin storage bin, which was flooded with quarters. Pong was a hit, and paved the way for modern day arcade games. (gamespot.com, Game Informer) Years later, Baer took Bushnell, along with several other video game companies, to court for Bushnells version of Pong. A settlement was reached out of court, where Bushnell finally agreed to pay the licensing fees. (Game Informer) Nintendo, a Japanese word meaning, â€Å"leave luck to the heavens,† is one of the oldest gaming companies today. Its roots began in the year 1889, as a Japanese playing card company. Nintendo quickly gained a following, as the Japanese mafia, the Yakuza, began using Nintendos cards in their illegal gaming and gambling dens. This provided a steady income allowing the company to flourish. Nintendo first appeared in the United States in 1907, creating American styled cards. Impressed with Nintendo, Disney approached the company in 1959, commissioning Disney character cards. This brought Nintendo into the home of more upstanding families. In the late 1970s to the early 1980s Nintendo put its foot in the door for electronic gaming, creating sundry unsuccessful arcade games, that is, until Donkey Kong. 1981 saw the flight of Donkey Kong, a game which took the nation by storm. It success was only bested by games with the likes of Pac-man. This movement caused Nintendo to switch gears, and give serious thought to the video game industry. In 1985, it put the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in homes worldwide, giving itself the concrete foothold into the home console market that became the mainstream concept of most gaming companies of the day. (Wii for Dummies, nintendo.com) The other large scale production companies of the day were Sony and Sega, both starting out as electronic repair and development companies. Those companies, along with Atari, Activision, Coleco, Magnavox, Mattel, and Nintendo, produce more than 15 home-based consoles in the span of six years, while gaming was only out of the womb for less than five years. (Game Informer) Original games such as Pong were played on a very limited plane comprised of dots and squares. The first games were also immovable programs that came with the consoles, which usually only had a few games. Optional peripherals could be purchased to slightly increase gameplay. In 1976, cartridges debuted, allowing games and consoles to be purchased separately, and for more games to be created and implemented well after a consoles release. Cartridges, along with VHS tapes, held strong until 1992 when the compact disk killed cartridges for most consoles. Other than computers, the Sega Genesis was one the first consoles to use this form of the medium . Today, handhelds are the only platforms to see their usage, and we are actively watching them disappear and go the way of the VHS. Most games today float through airspace, are on CDs, or flow through cables. (gamespot.com, Game Informer) Games also have under gone massive prosthetic changes. In the days of Odyssey, games were pixilated and simple to look at. In 1981, one of the first three dimensional games was created: Battlezone. It was also one of the first first-person games. One player played as a tank and faced enemies in a battle like simulation. It was met with much success and gratification. It even fell into the lap of the US Army, and an enhanced version was commissioned and used as a battle simulator to train troops. (gamespot.com, Know the Score) Today, games continue to push the envelope. In 2000, Sony placed the Playstation 2 in the market, dazzling gamers with its almost lifelike games. It was met with Nintendos Gamecube and Microsofts Xbox. Four years later, the Xbox 360 hit the scene, with graphics that looked like works of art. A year later the Wii and Playstation 3 burst into the market, after much speculation about both. The Wii falls short of the other two consoles at first because of its graphics, but quickly gains fame do to its new wireless motion sensed controller. By November 16, 2006, it had sold more than fifty million units worldwide; more than that of Sony and Microsoft Combined. However, the undisputed champion of sales, is that of Nintendos first handheld, the Gameboy. The Gameboy sold over one hundred-sixty million units worldwide. (nintendo.com, Game Informer) The gaming phenomenon has reached heights that were never expected, especially given its complicated history. Its memorabilia have gained collective value faster than any franchise before it, with games less than 20 years old being bought and sold for more than three-hundred-fifty-thousand dollars. They are even moving in the direction of removing controllers from gameplay by having cameras capture and process movement and simple or complex gestures to advance the player in the game, such as Project Natal. (Game Informer) This essay has captured the rocky surface of the video game movement. It began with its speculated beginnings, and ended with its present and future outlook. Video games have stretched the relative views of space and time, pointed out infinite possibilities, have been emulated on the ‘Big Screen and allowed expressive outlets for the mind and bodies of my generation, and will continue to dazzle and amaze us for the remainder of our lives. References Corporate history (n.d.). Retrieved November 13, 2009, from http://www.nintendo.com/corp/history.jsp Game Informer. (2009, May). Ralph Baer. Game Informer Magazine, 193, 30-31. Game Informer. (2009, June). The Fate of a Generation. Game Informer magazine, 194, 16-17. Herman, L., Horwitz, J., Kent, S., Miller, S. The history of video games. Retrieved November 13, 2009, from http://www.gamespot.com/gamespot/features/video/hov/ Orland, K. (2008). Wii for dummies. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing. Skurzynski, G. (1994). Know the score. New York: Macmillian.

Effect of Free Trade on a Countrys Economy

Effect of Free Trade on a Countrys Economy Table of contents 1.0 Introduction 2.0 Free trade does add wealth to the economy 2.1 Analysis 2.1.1 Advantages 2.1.2 Disadvantages 2.2 Evaluation 3.0 Conclusion 4.0 Recommendation 4.1 Greater Competitiveness 4.1.1 Cannot ignore trade protection policy 4.1.2 Adverse Working Conditions 5.0 Appendix 6.0 Reference 1.0 Introduction This report aimed to discuss the effect of free trade for the country’s economy, so free trade is a system in which goods, capital, and work flow freely between nations, without barriers which could delay the trade process. Actually, many nations have free trade agreements, and some international organization promotes free trade between their members. Because of free trade provide lower prices for goods and services by promoting. However, there are a number of quarrels both for and against this practice, from a variety of economists, politicians, industries, and social scientists. According to Tom Chmielewski (2014), a lot of economists approve NAFTA has caused some general enhancement in US jobs, but with bad effects. Free trade can cause disorder in parts of a national economy, for instance long-established industrial slices already in a weak position to global competition. Besides that according to Edward Alden, a researcher at CFR, wages have not kept pace with output of w ork, and income unfairness, and these phenomena indicate that trends speeded to some range of free trade. Due to this information, this report will research the relationship between free trade and economy, and find out the economic impact of the free trade. 2.0 Free trade does add wealth to the economy Free trade promotes innovation and competition. Free trade is a kind of really fair trade because it offers customers the most choices and the best chances to improve the standard of living. Free trade fosters competition, spurring companies to introduce and develop better products and to take more of their goods and services to market, keeping costs low and quality high in order to retain or increase their market share. By fostering opportunities for the country businesses, free trade rewards risk taking by increasing gross revenue, profit margins, and market share. The companies can opt to build on those profits by spreading out their operations, putting down new market sectors, and creating better paying occupations. Free trade, reinforced by the dominion of law, removes such incentives for corruption by spurring economic growth, increasing the number of better paying jobs, and finally increasing the level of prosperity. Free trade policies can also attract Higher Foreign Investme nts, free markets encourage more investment in the land. Foreign directed investment goes to where capital is needed, improving productivity and driving increase in many nations. However, for the economic, nowadays the most important feature is economic globalization. Economic globalization can be determined as the procedure by which markets and output in different nations are becoming increasingly interdependent due to the Dynamics of trade in goods and services and flows of capital and technology. The acceleration of free trade can bring down the tariffs and eliminate discriminatory treatment in international trade. Developing countries open up many types of free economic zones in ports and traffic areas in order to build up the economy and promote its exports. For example Shanghai free trade zone, NAFTA. 2.1 Analysis From a worldwide perspective, free trade certainly increases the overall amount of wealth in the economy. By getting rid of barriers to trade, governments encourage members of the economy system to specify in performing whatever they perform best and then trading to fulfill their desires and demands. When trade is efficient, a firm can concentrate its production ability completely on the country in which it holds a relative advantage. Free trade can put manufacturing nations such as the United States at a disadvantage relative to less developed countries. Businesses in the United States are heavily limited by health, confinement, and environmental rules. This often makes production in less developed nations less expensive than production in the US. There is no doubt that everything has two positions. For these problems, I have done some research to obtain a figure of advantages and disadvantages: 2.1.1 Advantages 1. Internal influences: a. Customer Satisfaction Because free trade leads to a global marketplaces, customers benefit from the competition and diversity brought to the marketplaces. When other countries produce some goods cheaper, the customers will want to choose the others products. Another advantages to customers is increased improvements. For a free trade expands, at the same time, the competition also expands. In order to keep competitive, companies must find a lot of ways to create the relative benefit. So this contributes to increased improvement that improves products. b. Regional economic growth and employment Due to free trade may cause employees in any special area that make them feel strangeness, but works in the exporting and importing sides will be improved by them. When productivity increases in importing and exporting, salaries also incline to rise. c. Foreign Exchange Gains and Decreased Poverty When a country purchases some products from another country use money, they basically send the exporting country non-interest-bearing IOUs in exchange for real items. So the exporting country must utilize the money within the state that imported the products. For instance, the United States purchases steel from China use US dollar at the current market value. In addition, after they purchase items that China will also utilize the US dollar to purchase computer systems from the United States at the future market value. In a word, States that open their trade environment to permit free trade have the chance to enter the worldwide securities industry, which will increase income for the country. In the 1990s, developing countries that lifted trade restrictions tended to raise three times faster than countries that restricted trade. 2. External influences: During the international direction of value principle, free trade can excite international competition and boost the development. Free trade also has promoted the international division of labor and the development of trade. And increasing the international market is one of the advantages. Besides that it makes some countries which have the advantage of investment environments easy to grip foreign capital. For example, In 2004 China began to reduce tariffs for more than 500 kinds of products. An agriculture company harvested trade reached $ 1,020,000, increasing 38%. Its growth is higher than 2003. Vegetable exported $ 450,000, an increase of 31.8%, fruits $ 230,000, an increase of 25.4%, aquatic $ 180,000, an increase of 59.1%. Since the adoption of free trade, corporate profits and employee income growth. 2.1.2 Disadvantages 1. Economic Dependence Free trade increases the economic dependence on other countries for some necessary products such as food, clothes, raw materials, etc. So dependence shows harmful, mostly during wartime. 2. International Monopolies: Free trade may lead to international monopolies. It promotes the formation of transnational corporations. These corporations tend to gain a monopoly situation and therefore harm the interest of the citizenry. 3. Harmful to Less Developed Countries: a. Competition under free trade sometimes is unfair. Because the fewer developed countries are very difficult to get advances on the developing countries. b. Under free trade, gains of trade are unfair distributed relying on the level of development of different nations. The relationship of trade are friendly for the developed countries, and unfavorable for the poor countries. For example: Free trade policy accepted by the British government in India led to the end of Indian cottage and small scale manufactures. 2.2 Evaluation From the above, it can be seen that free trade is a kind of â€Å"more good than harm† economic ways. Free trade is intended to cancel unfair barriers to global business and promote the economy system in developed and developing countries the same and significantly alters the business relationship between nations, many of the changes are beneficial. These advantages can positively stimulate economies. 3.0 Conclusion Free trade is all important to a developing economy. It opens up huge markets. Resources flow to where they are the most rich. Productivity is enlarged, and more competition equally to lower prices. In addition, higher savings are a consequence, and the poor and all others have larger income, and thus the economy turns. Investment can be blown up with growing revenues and competition. However, for low income economies such as Vietnam have a huge bonus, higher needs for works equally to higher salaries and employment. In total, it improves the salaries of employees, improves employment and economy, and creates peace. 4.0 Recommendation Developing countries should pay attention to the impact of free trade: 4.1 Greater Competitiveness Free trade means that national economies are exposed to higher market competition, which local firms must learn to adjust to. 4.1.1 Cannot ignore trade protection policy Developing countries cannot give up economic intervention due to trade liberalization. Moderate free protection policy can let developing countries obtain better effects in some infant industry 4.1.2 Adverse Working Conditions For weak countries try to cut costs to get a price advantage, many workers in these countries have low wages, deficient working conditions and even forced labor and use child labor and insulting them. 5.0 Appendix Appendix 1: The major world trading powers Source: http://europa.eu/pol/pdf/flipbook/en/trade_en.pdf. Appendix 2: The EU’s biggest trade partners: goods Trade and investment flow spread new ideas and innovation, Benefits for the trade include lower prices and greater choice for consumers, as imported food, consumer goods and components for products manufactured in Europe become cheaper 6.0 Reference http://www.investopedia.com/terms/f/free-trade.asp http://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-effects-trade-5221.html http://economyincrisis.org/content/managing-foreign-trade-does-trade-create-wealth-nation http://www.forbes.com/sites/realspin/2012/11/15/in-an-increasingly-globalized-economy-free-trade-is-more-important-than-ever/ http://smallbusiness.chron.com/explanation-trade-advantages-3843.html http://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-effects-trade-5221.html http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/free-trade-in-ideas-will-generate-wealth-for-all/story-e6frgcjx-1226062159428 http://www.ehow.com/list_6733682_effects-trade-developing-nations.html Level 1 Asia Pacific University 1

How does Willy Russell us the separation of the twins in Blood Brothers to good dramatic effect? :: essays research papers

Blood Brothers is about two twins separated at birth, into an Upper class family and a lower class family. The Twins eventually find out they are twins when it is too late. Their separation is used to good dramatic effect to keep the audience in suspense for what’s to come. When you are of a lower class you tend to be superstitious. For example, because of the little opportunities and low fortune a person of a lower class has they tend to believe in fate and bad luck. This is a dominant theme which is introduced at the beginning of the play and runs throughout it. Mrs Lyons says to Mrs. Johnson, â€Å"They say that if either twin learns he was one of a pair they shall both die immediately!† She threatens Mrs. Johnson and plays on her superstitious beliefs by making her believe that if Eddie and Mickey or anyone ever found out the truth, the twins shall both die. This creates good dramatic effect because the audience are shocked that their friendship has now changed and frightening for Mrs Johnson. Class difference is displayed very clearly in Blood Brothers, in particular the difference in wealth between the two families. Eddie’s parents ensure that he has a comfortable upbringing and is able to study at university and receive a qualification, resulting in a highly paid job. This is completely dissimilar to Mickey. He comes from a poor family which meant that he was stuck in a dead end job in a factory. â€Å"I bleeding hated it, standing there all day never doing anything apart from putting cardboard boxes together.† This reflects Mickey’s frustration and highlights the lack of opportunities open to him, which adds to the dramatic effect of the play because it prepares us for trouble in the future. A good example of dramatic irony in the play is when Eddie and Mickey decide that as they are such good friends they will become blood brothers. â€Å"Hey, we were born on the same day. That means we can be blood brothers.† The audience knows that they were actually brothers, whereas the children were unaware of their relationship. As the blood brothers go through life Mickey starts to realize that he will never be as good as Eddie or receive the opportunities Eddie is given; this is the message of the play. Our futures are determined by circumstances beyond our control; in Mickey’s case his upbringing and culture determine his lifestyle.

Cry the Beloved Country :: Cry the Beloved Country Essays

Cry the Beloved Country Cry the beloved country, by Alan Paton, is a book which tells the story of how James Jarvis, a wealthy estate owner who, because of his own busy life, had to learn of the social degradation in south Africa through the death of his only son. If Arthur Jarvis had never been killed, James Jarvis would never have been educated by his sons writings, and Stephen Kumalo. When we first meet james jarvis, he knows little of his sons life. He doesn't know his son "was on a kind of a mission"(p. 140), And this is why when harrison says,"...we're scared stiff at the moment in johannesburg."( p. 140) James is sort of surprised and says,"of crime?"(p. 140). Talking to harrison taught stephen about the crime in the city, and the next morning he learns about his son. One of the first things that james learns of his son, and his views, he learns in arthurs' room. In reading his writings, james finds that arthur would have risked anything to help other people, and ended up doing just that. James finds that his son was well researched on the problems of their society, and was interested in helping the development of the social structure in south africa. From the pictures of jesus and lincoln on his wall, james discovered the admiration arthur had for these two men. These were men of action, who showed love for their friends, and at the same time, their enemies. These two men suffered and died for their beliefs, as did arthur in a way, this is showing arthurs' father what a great man his son was by comparison, and similarity to others. This revelation shows arthurs concern for humanity. After the discovery of his sons views through all of his writings, james begins to realize the problem, and starts to think of the problems of others before his own. In this aspect, james begins to remind the reader of oscar shindler. This is so because shindler was one who at one time hated jews, but as he began to understand them, he thuoght of their troubles and how his wealth could save them. Much like shindler, jarvis helps the minority. Following his sons death and the acquaintance of stephen, james donates 1000 pounds to the african boys club. Jarvis is not just giving gifts in memory of his son, or just to give, but giving those who need help ways to help themselves.

Report of Quantitative Research Essay -- Research Analysis

EL (English Learners) students are given an added challenge of succeeding in the education system do to their lack of strong English understanding and abilities. Authors Townsend, D. and Collins, P. published the findings of their research on EL students and the advantages of a specialized learning program. Over a period of several months, the researchers studied and worked with students from a middle school in southern California. At the end of the study, it was hoped that their efforts would lead to an improvement in the students who participated in the programs understanding of English vocabulary words. Research Questions/Hypotheses No specific hypothesis is noted, but the researchers do address the issues that drive the study. They state that the current study is concerned with, â€Å"applying evidence-based strategies in a new context: adolescent EL students learning general academic vocabulary words† (Townsend and Collins, 2009, p.997). The study also addresses, â€Å"the extent to which there is a threshold of English proficiency necessary for students to learn general academic vocabulary words† (Townsend and Collins, 2009, p. 997). These issues are addressed by the following research question: 1. Can an after-school, evidence-based academic vocabulary development intervention increase the academic vocabulary knowledge of middle school EL? 2. To what extent does English learners’ proficiency in English mediate their response to a vocabulary development intervention? It was hoped by studying a group of middle school students over a period that they would see growth in those student who participated in a program designed to add English vocabulary comprehension to their academic development would help them as EL students. T... ...s a great need to continue and accelerate the research and instructional efforts to support the academic literacy development of adolescent EL students† (p. 1015). A study that incorporates greater elements of vocabulary, reading comprehension, and time, is perceived to be needed in order to improve EL learner’s education. Townsend and Collins believe that there research can lead to much needed further research and that this can in turn help EL students achieve in a greater educational level. Works Cited Gay, L. R., Mills, G. E., & Airasian, P. (2009). Educational research: Competencies for analysis and application (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Merrill (Pearson). Townsend, D. & Collins, P. (2009). Academic vocabulary and middle school English learners: An intervention study. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 22, 993-1019.

Scm in Petroleum Industry

International Journal of Global Logistics & Supply Chain Management. Vol. 1, No. 2, 1 November 2006, 90 – 97. Supply Chain Management in the Petroleum Industry: Challenges and Opportunities RAED HUSSAIN Department of Quantitative Methods & Information Systems, Kuwait University, Kuwait TIRAVAT ASSAVAPOKEE Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Houston, Texas, U. S. A. BASHEER KHUMAWALA Department of Decision and Information Sciences, University of Houston, Texas, U.S. A. Supply chain management in the petroleum industry contains various challenges, specifically in the logistics area, that are not present in most other industries. These logistical challenges are a major influence on the cost of oil and its derivatives. However, opportunities for cost savings in logistics still do exist. Giant oil and petrochemical companies are undertaking a â€Å"swap† practice that saves companies millions of dollars.The objective of this paper is to shed some light on the supply chain challenges and opportunities in the petroleum industry and on swap practices that have long been employed by petroleum industry’s giants around the world, such as BP, BASF, Honeywell, Nova, and much more, yet have long been ignored in the operations management literature. Keywords: Supply Chain Management, Logistics, Petroleum Industry, The Swap Practice 1.Introduction The steadily increasing global demand for oil and its derivatives such as petrochemicals has enabled companies providing these products to reach more customers and increase their market share and profitability. This boom in global demand along with the ease of international trade and the inflexibility1 involved in the petroleum industry’s supply chain has made its management more complex and more challenging (Coia, 1999; Morton, 2003). Despite the importance of supply chain management and its growing complexity, the petroleum industry is still in the development stage of efficiently managin g their supply chains.In fact, according to Steve Welsh, a managing director of the College of Petroleum and Energy Studies at the University of Oxford, the oil and petrochemical industry’s insight into the supply chain is still in its infancy (Schwartz, 2000). However, even with the inflexibility and complexity involved in the industry’s supply chain, there is a lot of room for improvement and cost reduction, specifically in its logistics area. Werner Paratorius, president of BASF’s petrochemicals division said â€Å"Supply chain management is the backbone of a business where logistics costs can be greater than manufacturing costs† (Whitfield, 2004, p. R12).By the end of 2004, world-wide demand for oil reached 75 million barrels per day and has been projected to increase at a rate of 2 percent per year over the next ten years. For example, China’s demand for energy alone is expected to grow at a rate of 4. 5 percent per year for the next five year s and reach four million barrels by 2010. However, due to recent political unrest in the Middle East, which is the largest oil producing region, sustainable oil supply has become highly unpredictable. Oil and petrochemicals companies are forced to maintain higher safety stocks and search for alternative sources of supplies (Ikram, 2004).Inflexibility in the supply chain is the constraints involved along the chain, such as long lead-times, manufacturing capacity, and limited means of transportation, that are hard to change. 1 Commodities such as oil, gas, and petrochemicals require specific modes of transportation such as pipelines, vessels or tankers, and railroads. These commodities are produced in specific and limited regions of the world, yet they are demanded all over the globe since they represent an essential source of energy and raw material for a large number of other industries.Several weeks lead-time from the shipping point to the final customers’ location is very c ommon in this type of industry. For example, it takes five weeks for the Persian Gulf’s oil to make its way to the United States and up to another three weeks for it to be processed and delivered (Schwartz, 2000). Opening new production sites or distribution centers closer to dispersed customers is one way to reduce the lead time and transportation costs. However, the acquisition of such facilities in the oil and petrochemical industries, if feasible, is typically very costly and often results in higher inventory and operating costs (Hebert, 2004).Red Cavaney, president of the American Petroleum Institute, said â€Å"Most companies are unlikely to undertake the significant investment needed to even begin the process† (Hebert, 2004) These factors are pushing oil and petrochemicals companies to either absorb the increase in costs or pass the costs on to customers who are already facing increasing prices. Companies therefore have recognized that improved supply chain effi ciencies represent a huge area for cost savings, specifically in the logistics area; they are estimated to be an average between 10 and 20 percent of revenues (Hamilton, 2003).Also, companies believe that the supply chain in which they participate as customers and suppliers is what creates competition rather than individual companies (Whitfield, 2004; Lange, 2004; Morton, 2003; Bianchi, 2003; Collins, 1999; Coia, 1999). Despite the importance of the petroleum industry in our daily life and the operational challenges it involves, unfortunately the topic has received very little attention in operations and supply chain management literature. The objective of this paper, therefore, is to shed some light on challenges and opportunities in the petroleum industry’s supply chain management.Our discussion will focus on a practice that has been saving companies millions of dollars but has long escaped the attention it deserves from academia. The practice is referred to as systematic c ooperative reciprocal barter (also called â€Å"swaps†) (Haberman, 2002). 2. Supply Chain Management in the Petroleum Industry Before getting into any further discussion of supply chain management in the petroleum industry, it is important to first clarify the industry background and its production process. A brief explanation is available in the appendix. The supply chain of the petroleum industry is extremely complex compared to other industries.It is divided into two different, yet closely related, major segments: the upstream and downstream supply chains. The upstream supply chain involves the acquisition of crude oil, which is the specialty of the oil companies. The upstream process includes the exploration, forecasting, production, and logistics management of delivering crude oil from remotely located oil wells to refineries. The downstream supply chain starts at the refinery, where the crude oil is manufactured into the consumable products that are the specialty of ref ineries and petrochemical companies.The downstream supply chain involves the process of forecasting, production, and the logistics management of delivering the crude oil derivatives to customers around the globe. Challenges and opportunities exist now in both the upstream and downstream supply chains. 3. Challenges in the Supply Chain 3. 1. Logistical Challenges The logistics network in the petroleum industry is highly inflexible, which arises from the production capabilities of crude oil suppliers, long transportation lead times, and the limitations of modes of transportation.Every point in the network, therefore, represents a major challenge (Jenkins and Wright. 1998). The oil and petrochemical industries are global in nature. As a result, these commodities and products are transferred between locations that are—in many cases—continents apart. The long distance between supply chain partners and slow modes of transportation induce not only high transportation costs an d in-transit inventory, but also high inventory carrying costs in terms of safety stocks at the final customer location.The great distances between supply chain partners present a high variability of transportation times that can hurt suppliers in terms of service levels and final customers in terms of safety stock costs. Moreover, the transportation process is carried out either by ships, trucks, pipelines, or railroads. In many instances, a shipment has to exploit multiple transportation modes before reaching the final customer’s location. â€Å"Very few industries 91 deal with that kind of complexity in shipping,† said Doug Houseman, a senior manager at the consulting firm Accenture (Morton, 2003, p. 1). Such constraints on transportation modes in this type of industry induce long lead times from the shipping point to the final customers’ location compared to other industries. Hence, considering the amount of inflexibility involved, meeting the broadening pro spect of oil demand and its derivates while maintaining high service-levels and efficiency is a major challenge in the petroleum industry. 3. 2. Other Challenges The logistics function is only one of many areas that affect supply chain performance in the petroleum industry.Integrated process management, information systems and information sharing, organizational restructuring, and cultural reorientation are as equally important (Ikram, 2004). The need for integrated processes all the way from procurement of raw materials to the delivery of the final product is crucial for a company’s success. â€Å"Manufacturing efficiency alone does not ensure a competitive advantage anymore,† said Paratorius, president of BASF’s petrochemicals division (Whitfield, 2004, p. R12). The industry lags behind in using integrated planning across the supply chain.This type of disintegration in the supply chain can increase the cost of acquiring crude oil, which will eventually affect gas prices for consumers (Coia, 1999). Also, due to the globalization of the petroleum industry supply chain, sophisticated information technology is essential for smooth information flow considering the complexity of the logistics network in such an industry. Companies’ relationships in supply chain networks are directly related to the effective use of information technology (Guimaraes, Cook, and Natarajan, 2002).A data flow diagram (DFD) was developed by Hull in 2001 to improve supply chain information flow reliability of the Alaskan North Slope Oil supply chain. The study showed that using the DFD helped to realize the importance of the relationship between scheduling and dispatching (synchronization). By using the DFD to examine the information flow, overall supply chain efficiency was improved and distortion,2 which is greatly related to supply chain structure, was greatly reduced.Moreover, the generic DFD developed offers a template for modeling any supply chain or logi stics activity, whether it is a push, pull, or a hybrid push/pull system (Hull, 2001). Sophisticated information technology is also essential for petroleum industries due to security needs. Petroleum companies ship a great deal of hazardous products, and supply chain partners (suppliers and customers) must be aware of the locations of each shipment at any point in time. According to Houseman at Accenture, chemical companies are considering wireless technology to track their shipments (Morton, 2003).Another challenge in the petroleum industry supply chain is the attitude and anxiety regarding collaboration and information sharing between supply chain partners. While collaboration and information sharing represent a crucial factor for supply chain efficiency, â€Å"companies in the petroleum industry are sometimes cautious when it comes to sharing their demand/costs information,† said Salah Al-Kharraz, a supply chain director at Equate Petrochemicals (Personal Communication, 23 December 2004). This type of parsimony regarding collaboration and sharing demand/costs information can waste opportunities for costs saving.Improved supply chain efficiency in the petroleum industry, therefore, needs a new philosophy in collaboration, even if this means working with competitors. â€Å"Collaboration, information sharing, and asset optimization require the greatest mind change because chemical producers and LSPs would have to work with their competitors, as well as with other operators in the supply chain,† said Phil Browitt, CEO of AGILITY, a logistics firm (Young, 2005, p. 10). The acquisition of sophisticated information technology, although necessary, can only do so much if it is not supported by a cultural change.The next section will discuss an opportunity, specifically a practice that has been saving companies millions of dollars in the petroleum industry’s supply chain, yet has not received the attention it deserves in academia. 4. Opportunitie s in the Supply Chain and Swap Practices In an effort to manage their supply chain and reduce costs, oil and petrochemical companies are outsourcing3 their logistics4 functions. As the trend in outsourcing has grown, these companies have become increasinglyDistortion in Hull’s paper is the â€Å"bullwhip effect† established by the well-known beer game developed by Sterman (1989) and Senge (1990). 3 Outsourcing takes place when an organization transfers the ownership of a business process to a supplier. 92 2 reliant on the services of third-party5 logistics companies for managing their supply chains (Collins, 1999). Companies in the petroleum industry, however, took the outsourcing idea one step further and found that one way of outsourcing their logistics functions is to ally and collaborate with competitors.This form of collaboration is referred to as a systematic cooperative reciprocal barter (also called â€Å"swaps† or â€Å"exchanges†) of supplies, a ssets, market share, or even the entire business among competitors (O’Dwyer, 1988; Robert, 1995; Gain, 1997; Alperowicz, 2001; Sim, 2002). However, despite the significant advantages this practice has generated for companies, a defined model for making such decisions does not exist. The subject has barely received any attention in the operations management literature.Currently, no specific method has been adopted to determine when companies should attempt to make swap decisions. An interview with supply chain directors in two international petrochemical companies that have been involved in swapping with their competitors for the past few years revealed that the only methods used are judgmental6 methods and spreadsheets. Although judgmental approaches may improve accuracy in many decision-making problems, they should not be the only methods employed. The use of only such approaches cannot guarantee an optimal solution. 4. 1.The Swap Practice In a commodity-type industry such a s oil and petrochemicals, the source of the commodity is often of no interest to the final customer as long as the commodity adheres to its required specifications and the delivery of that commodity is made by the promised due date. Therefore, competing oil and petrochemical companies form supply chain alliances when delivering commodities to customers in order to reduce transportation and inventory costs and improve customer service. In return, cost savings for transportation in the overall supply chain are shared among participating companies.This form of collaboration is referred to as shipment swapping. This kind of collaboration with competitors creates a shared solution to common supply chain obstacles and is predicted to be the â€Å"Next Big Thing† (Morton, 2003). The swapping technique is currently applied by oil and petrochemical companies around the world in all of its different forms: asset swapping, business swapping, and shipment swapping. However, because of th e absence of any general analytical discussion of swap practices in the literature, we first provide examples from the oil and petrochemicals industry for each form of swap practice being used.This is done to illustrate the advantages of collaboration among competitors. Due to brevity, only the more recent examples of such practices are discussed here. 4. 2. Asset Swapping In 2001, BP became the largest olefins producer in Germany after an asset swap with E. ON, a German utility company. Following the deal, BP took over Veba Oel, E. ON’s oil, refining, and petrochemicals business, and E. ON bought BP’s 25 percent stake in Ruhrgas, Germany’s largest gas distributor. The deal gave BP 2. 1 million tons of ethylene7 capacity in Germany, which is about 40 percent of the country’s total, and ave E. ON control of one of the largest gas distribution networks in Germany (Milmo, 2001). In 2003, BASF, a leading German chemical company, and Honeywell signed a long-te rm deal under which BASF will supply Honeywell with nylon chips and Honeywell will supply BASF with specialty nylon and nylon co-polymers8. Since Honeywell has a strong presence in electrical and tooling applications and BASF is strong in the automotive sector, the deal has benefited both companies in their business specialties. For example, in 2003 the deal raised BASF’s market share in nylon from 9 percent to 35 percent and gaveLogistics is the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, cost-effective flow and storage of raw material, in-process inventory, finished goods, and related information from point of origin to point of consumption to conform to customer requirements (Council of Logistics Management, 1998, p. 2). 5 Third-party logistics is the use of an outside company to perform all or part of the firm’s materials management and product distribution function. 6 A judgmental method is the use of people’s opinions when making deci sions. 7 Ethylene is a colorless gas at room temperature.At very low temperatures, it is a liquid. It is used as a refrigerant and in welding and cutting metals. It is also used to manufacture ethylene oxide, mustard gas, and other organics and to accelerate the ripening of fruits. 8 When a polymer chain-like molecule is made by linking only one type of small molecule together, it is called a homopolymer. When two different types of molecules are joined in the same polymer chain, it is called a co-polymer. 93 4 Honeywell the chance to concentrate on carpet, apparel, and fabrics for automotive upholstery. Honeywell plans to eventually sell the nylon business (Sim, 2003).More recently, the Kuwait Petroleum Company (KPC) and the Iraqi Oil Institute (SOMO) signed a comprehensive memorandum of understanding related to exchanges of shipments of Kuwaiti benzene and diesel with Iraqi natural gas. The swap will be implemented in two phases. Thirty-five million cubic feet of Iraqi natural gas will be supplied daily to Kuwait for about one year at an estimated cost of U. S. $24 million during the first phase. Then, 165 million cubic feet of natural gas will be supplied daily to Kuwait for about two years at an estimated cost of U. S. 700 million dollars during the second phase. Meanwhile, Kuwait will supply Iraq with oil derivatives, benzene, and diesel, ranging from two to three million liters of benzene and 1. 3 to 1. 5 million liters of diesel daily (Alshalan, 2004). The outcome of this agreement is expected to significantly benefit both countries. Kuwait produces a relatively modest volume of natural gas (around 293 billion cubic feet––Bcf––in 2002), the vast majority of which is â€Å"associated gas. †9 Prior to the 1990-1991 Gulf War, Kuwait received significant volumes of natural gas from Iraq.The gas came from Iraq’s southern Rumaila field through a 40-inch, 100-mile, 300 Mmcf/d pipeline to Kuwait’s central manifol d at Ahmadi. The gas was used for the production of petrochemicals, electricity, and water through desalination processes. With such uses of natural gas, the Kuwaiti-Iraqi swapping deal could free up a substantial amount of oil to Kuwait, possibly 100,000 barrels per day (bbl/d) for export by 2006, which is presently used for similar purposes. For example, 65,000 bbl/d of fuel oil is currently used to generate electric power in Kuwait.Throughout most of the 1990s, Iraq generally did not have access to the latest state-of-the-art oil industry technology. Saybolt International reported that Iraq oil companies, NOC and SOC, were able to increase their oil production through the use of short-term techniques not generally considered acceptable in the oil industry (i. e. , â€Å"water flooding,† the injection of refined oil products into crude reservoirs). In addition, a U. N. report in June 2001 stated that Iraqi oil production capacity would fall sharply unless technical and infr astructure problems were addressed.Moreover, Iraq’s southern oil industry was decimated in the 1990-1991 Gulf War, with production capacity falling to 75,000 bbl/d in mid-1991. The Gulf War resulted in the destruction of (a) gathering centers and compression/degassing stations at Rumaila; (b) storage facilities, including the 1. 6 million bbl/d (nameplate capacity) Mina al-Bakr/Basra export terminal; and (c) pumping stations along the 1. 4 million bbl/d (pre-war capacity) Iraqi Strategic (North-South) Pipeline. Seven other sizable fields remain damaged or partially mothballed.These include Zubair, Luhais, Suba, Buzurgan, Abu Ghirab, and Fauqi. Generally speaking, oil field development plans were put on hold following Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, with Iraqi efforts focused on maintaining production at existing fields. At the present time, problems with Iraq’s refineries––stemming largely from post-war looting and sabotage in addition to power outagesà ¢â‚¬â€œÃ¢â‚¬â€œcontinue to force the country to import gasoline, diesel, liquid petroleum gas (LPG), and other refined products from neighboring countries (Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Syria, and Turkey).As of October 2004, Oil Minister Ghadban said that Iraqi gasoline imports were running around 40,000 bbl/d (mainly by truck), costing the country U. S. $60 million per month in direct costs. This does not include the additional cost of steep government subsidies on the consumer price of gasoline, which runs around 10 cents per gallon. It is estimated that overall direct and indirect oil subsidies cost Iraq U. S. $8 billion per year, with no indication as to when this problem might be resolved (Country Analysis Brief, March 2004).As a result, both countries are expected to benefit from the swapping agreement; Iraq will secure current and future needs of oil, benzene, and diesel and Kuwait will use the natural gas for the production of petrochemicals, electricity, and water while freeing up a substantial amount of oil for exportation. 4. 3. Swapping Businesses In 1997, PPG Industries, a specialty chemical company, exchanged its surfactants10 business for BASF’s packaging coatings business. This swap resulted in the growth of PPG’s portfolio and led to the expansion of geographic opportunities for the coating business.Moreover, this swap enabled PPG to become one of the world’s largest suppliers of package coating for food, aerosols, and other container and packaging applications. On the other hand, this business swap made it possible for BASF to expand its surfactants offerings for the food, personal care, and coatings industries (Gain, 1997). 9 10 Associated gas is found and produced in conjunction with oil. Surfactants are also known as wetting agents and may be liquids or powders. Surfactants are used in aqueous cleaners to provide detergency, emulsification, and wetting action. 4 Similarly, BP swapped its polyethylene glycol11 (PEG) ether brake fluid business for the butyl glycol ether12 (BGE) solvents operation belonging to Clariant, a Swiss specialty chemical company. However, this swapping deal was restricted only to the exchange of customer lists and contracts. No manufacturing units, staff, or cash transfer between the two companies took place. Clariant discontinued production of BGE at Gendorf, Germany, and BP discontinued manufacturing brake fluids at Lavera.The deal broadened the range of products that Clariant supplied to the automotive industry and enabled BP to better utilize the Lavera BGE plant (Alperowicz, 2001). 4. 4. Swapping Shipments During 2000, a swapping arrangement of liquid natural gas took place among Spain, Algeria, and Trinidad. Spain’s Gas Natural became the first European LNG buyer to resell LNG to the U. S. market. This gas had been sold to Gas Natural by Atlantic LNG of Trinidad. At the same time, Algerian LNG dedicated to the United States was delivered to Spain, reducing shipping cha rges for all parties.In 2001, these swaps developed into a more permanent arrangement with the signing of a contract between Sonatrach of Algeria, Gas Natural of Spain, Tractebel LNG North America in the United States, and Distrigas of Belgium. Companies with interests on both sides of the Atlantic gained an advantage over others, enabling them to react faster to any market opportunity (Gandolphe, 2002). Moreover, Nova Chemicals, a Canadian chemical company, and BASF entered a swap deal for styrene13 in which Nova supplied BASF in North America and BASF supplied Nova in Europe.This agreement provided each company with a stable supply of styrene without committing either one to significant investments. The deal also gave each company a low-cost styrene position for their PS (Sim, 2002). Another swap example is between world-class Indian polymer manufacturers Haldia Petrochemicals Ltd. (HPL) and GAIL Ltd. , India’s principal gas transmission and marketing company. The two compa nies entered into a product swapping and sharing arrangement that forced other polymer sellers in eastern and northern India to retreat from the market.Under this swapping agreement, both companies gained substantial savings on freight costs. Gail supplied HPL’s customers in northern India from its plant in Uttar Pradesh, and HPL served Gail’s customers in eastern and southeastern Asia by supplying them from the Haldia plant (Saha, 2003). 5. Conclusion More efficient and cost effective supply chain practices in the petroleum industry represent important factors for maintaining continuous supplies of crude oil, the reduction of lead times, and lowering of production and distribution costs.Due to the inflexibility involved in the petroleum industry’s supply chain network, logistics represent a great challenge. However, it is only one of several challenging factors. Integrated process management, information systems and information sharing, organizational restructu ring, and cultural reorientation are equally important. Despite the great challenges in the petroleum industry’s supply chain, opportunities for improvements and cost savings do exist along the supply chain. One major area for improvement and cost savings lies in the logistics function.Companies in the petroleum industry have become increasingly reliant on the services of third-party logistics companies to manage their supply chains. Companies in the petroleum industry took the outsourcing idea a step further to collaborate with competitors and found shared solutions to their supply chain challenges. This form of collaboration is referred to as a systematic cooperative reciprocal barter, or swaps. Collaboration among competing companies in the form of swaps is a practice that can offer companies huge savings and introduce new opportunities.However, despite its wide use and benefits, especially in the oil and petrochemical industries, the subject has not received the attention it deserves in the operations management literature. Currently, judgmental methods and the aid of spreadsheets are the only approaches utilized when attempting swap decisions. Although great savings are realized by companies using swap practices, the 11 Polyethylene glycol is a non-toxic chemical used in a variety of products such as skin creams, toothpaste, shampoos, etc. 12 Butyl glycol ether is a widely-used solvent for many applications. 3 Styrene is a chemical molecule used in polystyrene manufacturing, the rubber industry, and the reinforced plastic industry. 95 approaches used for making such decisions cannot guarantee an optimal solution, and hence, opportunities to utilize the full capability of swap practices are not fully exploited. Therefore, the next step would be the utilization of management science techniques, presumably mathematical/simulations models. These methods will significantly enhance the capability of such forms of collaboration and will represent valuable tools for practitioners to use. . Appendix: Production Process and Industry Background Crude oil and natural gas are the raw materials of the petroleum industry. They are used for the production of petrochemicals and other oil derivatives. After the production of crude oil is complete from oil reserves located deep underground or in sea beds, the crude oil undergoes a distillation14 process. As a result of the distillation process, various fractions of the crude oil are produced, such as fuel gas, liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), kerosene, and naphtha. 5 The output of the distillation process is then provided to refineries as feedstocks. These feedstocks are first processed through cracking16 operations before they are supplied to petrochemical plants. Once the cracking process is complete, companies are able to obtain new products that serve as the building blocks of the petrochemical industry, such as olefins (i. e. , mainly ethylene, propylene, and the so-called Carbon (C) derivat ives, including butadiene) and aromatics, which include benzene, toluene, and the xylenes.After the cracking process, petrochemical products such as ethylene, propylene, butadiene, benzene, toluene, and the xylenes are then used at petrochemical plants to produce even more specialized products, such as plastics, soaps and detergents, healthcare products (such as aspirin), synthetic fibers for clothes and furniture, rubbers, paints, and insulating materials. References Alperowicz, N. (2001, August 29 – September 5). BP swap business with Clariant. Chemical Week, 163, 33. Alshalan, M. (2004, December 15). Iraqi gas to Kuwait and Kuwaiti benzene to Iraq. Alwatan, 10368/4814 – Year 43.Bianchi, M. (2003). Getting to the route. ACN: Asian Chemical News, September, 19. BP, Conoco swap Gulf of Mexico, Alaskan assets. (1993, November 15). Oil & Gas Journal, 91, 46. Coia, A. (1999, July 12). Integrating oil’s supply chain. Traffic World, 259, 2. Collins, T. (1999, Septemb er 9). Striking it big together. Supply Management, 4, 18. Gain, B. (1997, August 27 – September 3). PPG, BASF swap businesses. Chemical Week, 159, 33. Gandolphe, S. (2002). Flexibility in natural gas supply and demand. International Energy Agency. Guimaraes, T. , Cook, D. , & Natarajan, N. (2002).Exploring the importance of business clockspeed as a moderator for determinants of supplier network performance. Decision Sciences. 33, 4, Fall, 629. Haberman, D. I. , (2002, April 19). Petroleum swapping between oil giants â€Å"exchanges†: An elephant in our living room, Statement submitted to the Federal Trade Commission Second Conference re: Factors that Affect Price of Refined Petroleum Products. Hamilton, S. (2003, August). 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