Airline Mergers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Airline Mergers - Essay Example Over the years, the number of airlines have been intentionally narrowed down to just a few major airlines. Narrowing down of the airlines have been actualized by mergers that have taken place over the years. The number of mergers have been exceptionally high. This has resulted in creation of some of the world huge airlines. Mergers happen in order for the two partners to gain a certain leverage that was not there before. Universally the reasons behind most of this unions are known. The main reasons include-: 2. Cutting cost- this might be the biggest motivator if not among the best factors. The situation can be looked as previous competitors marrying. This means that we will not have price wars into the future and costs of advertising automatically drops. 3. Surviving- it is a last resort on most companies, it is usually a case of staying in the business or being driven out of business. Therefore when a company is bankrupt or does not have the capability of surviving the tough market forces, merger come through as the only remedy. 5. Competitive advantage- it is a huge factor. Companies are able to reach out to market traditionally not accessed. Therefore this creates a headache for other players since the new merger brings with it financial might. 7. The reasons behind the mergers in the USA airline industry are factored in the above explained reasons. Mergers are nice for business but they are not immune to the law. It is normally a case of trending carefully in order not to break the laws of consumerism in the name of mergers. Therefore, it was not by mistake that in 2013 the government of the USA with support from numerous consumer federations filed a law suit stopping the merger between the mighty American and the mighty US air. The previous mergers that ever occurred did not raise as much issue and outcry as the

A Comparison of Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian Societies Essay Example for Free

A Comparison of Ancient Egyptian and Mesopotamian Societies Essay Although Egypt and Mesopotamia were both early agricultural societies built upon the water provided by the major rivers which sustained them, they exhibited important differences as a consequence of the different physical environments in which they developed. In this paper I will first focus on what I consider to be the major aspects of these differences in environment and then explore the consequences of these differences in their religious beliefs, political organization and commercial practices. A major difference in physical environment between these ancient societies was the seasonal river flows on which they depended for farming. The Nile which supported early Egyptian civilization was characterized by predictable and annual flooding in the early fall. These floods occurred after crops were harvested. This pattern was a consequence of the regular late summer monsoon rains which fell at its headwaters. The Nile also possessed a large spreading delta area that gave rise to natural irrigation canals that would flood the areas between them with fertile nutrients for the next planting year. The Tigris and Euphrates rivers which supported the Mesopotamian society would typically flood in the late spring just when crops would be ripening, often with disastrous results on harvests. This pattern was a result of these waters originating from winter snow melt in the Anatolian mountains (now in present day Turkey) where these rivers originated. These floods sometimes caused the rivers to change their course abruptly cutting off fields from water. Another primary physical difference contributing to cultural differences was the relative isolation in which ancient Egypt developed compared to Mesopotamia. According to our text book ‘Egypt’s natural isolation and material self-sufficiency fostered a unique culture that for long periods of time had relatively little to do with other civilizations’. In contrast, Mesopotamia was open to migration or invasion and was dependent on imported resources. Also many different ethnic peoples contributed to the growth of Mesopotamian society. The religious beliefs of Egypt and Mesopotamia were influenced by many factors. The rivers, every day objects, and the beliefs of the people. In Egypt in contrast to Mesopotamia the Pharaoh was considered to be a god in addition to being the supreme ruler. He was the main god of their religion. In Egypt people praised their gods for the annual flooding of the Nile. However in Mesopotamia the people were frightened of their gods because ‘the gods could alter the landscape’ arbitrarily. In return they gave their gods gifts in hopes of appeasing them. In both of the civilizations religion was polytheistic, i. e. , having many gods. The political organization of Egypt was based on the central authority of the Pharaoh. Since he was the embodied form of a god, he was the law. He chose where the capitol would be located, such a Thebes, Memphis, etc. Although smaller cities existed in ancient Egypt the majority of Egyptians appeared to live in small farming villages. In contrast, Mesopotamia was built around a number of independent city states surrounded by farming villages. Many of these cities competed with each other or even warred with each other to become a dominant center of power. No uniform basis for law or justice existed in this decentralized environment until Hammurabi succeeded in becoming the first king of Babylon and established the Babylonian Empire with control over all of Mesopotamia. He created a law code of which may copies were made. These inscribed tablets were sent to the different clans of Mesopotamia and became a basis for a uniform legal system, including classification of the people living under his dominion The commercial activities in Mesopotamia were quite extensive as a result of the requirement to develop trading relationships between the different city states and other regions to obtain needed resources. This resulted in the development of a merchant class in the urban centers unlike the situation in Egypt. Trade was based on bartering rather than money. Goods traded included wood, metals, and stone in exchange for wool, cloth, barley, and vegetable oil. These practices required the development of the skills needed for acquiring, transporting, and protecting valuable commodities. According to our textbook, independent merchants and merchant guilds had gained considerable influence in Mesopotamian society by the second 2000 BC.

Risk Management in Healthcare | Case Study

Risk Management in Healthcare | Case Study MIA JESSELENE SUGUITAN Risk Management Process Regency rest home and hospital provides assistive works for the day to day living most especially for the people who cannot manage to support their everyday routine. In identifying and characterizing the risk, this is assessing possible risk invaders in the organization and distinguishing possible reasons occurring in a workplace. Vulnerability affects the residents and employee work and its environment, it also tackles about currents assets involving establishments, equipment, appliances and financial status. It is also better to determine the effect or the impact of the said risk in the presence of the likelihood. In reducing possible risk, it is a best benefit in the part of employees and for the resident for the better provision in the future. Thus, this depends on the process of what the rest home and hospital measures every performance and its management styles. Examples of management process; Risk assessment process at Regency Rest Home and Hospital which includes (a)identifying and characterizing risk in the organization, (b)assessing vulnerability and assets to specific threats as scaled from 0%-100%,(c) determining the risk and the consequences in the likelihood,(d)different ways to reduce risk in the rest home and hospital,(e)prioritizing risk based on strategy. Residential risk a.1 Risk of fall and slips from the residents during the given shift. Scattered wires and adaptors inside the establishments. Side rails improperly laid up. Poor housekeeping on the equipment’s and appliances. b. The health and safety of the employee and the residents would affect the day to day activities. This might likely arise about 20% within people vulnerability assets. c. In the impact of likelihood this would affect the resident day to day activity and cannot able to help his/herself personal recreational stuffs. d. To reduce risk there should be; Be proper housekeeping of appliances and equipment’s after used. After any activity done for a patient always remember when putting back on her bed most especially for aggressive residents, always put side rails up. And if rails are not available always put pillows on each side of the bed. Put up signage to prevent injuries. e. Avoidance the risk of possible falls or slips and do something to avoid any accidents that would affect not only on the health and safety of the residents but also on the part of each employee. a.2 Risk of improper handling and assisting care to the residents most particularly on their personal hygiene. Taking bath on residents that involves in washing their private parts. Tidying their wardrobe and room every after washed. b.10% would possibly affect the residents personal rights on to her/his own needs in caring their body. Since some of the residents can still manage to clean their selves, we still need to supervise their activity and asked if they need assistance. Another is other residents cannot able to look up their personal regimens so, a full assistance is needed for them. This would also affect the reputation of the rest home and hospital if someone would report any malicious act as every activity is ongoing, example is when bathing and washing their private parts. c. The impact of likelihood would be, since some of the residents experienced dementia (loss of ability to think properly especially on his/her daily routines) in rendering health care services unexplained procedures in residents, may feel unprotected and abuse in the site of their caregivers/health care assistance. And for other residents reputation from the care givers would probably ungreatful. d. To reduce risk; Inform consent and explain any activity to be done. Respect resident privacy in carry out cares. Encourage resident to improve level of independence like in their personal hygiene and activities. Correct use of mobility aids or with the assistance from the fellow employee member. e. Limit the risk in this situation because this is considered as a part of the daily activity wherein residents should always be seen nice and tidy every day. Making sure that every residents are respected and informed any procedures to be than on the course of any activity to prevent any faults. Employee/staff member risk a.3 Risk in Improper delegation of tasked on the course of assigned shift. Miss communication between staff and staff members in designating proper tasked. In coherent data assessment that would effect on the future needs of a residents. b. 20% would affect staff members and not doing healthy in the career would be liable by negligence in the part or rendering care to residents. c. The impact of risk in likelihood would be a negative and unhelpful outlook to each employee and colleagues. Also it affects the reputation of the institution itself to the other residents who wanted to be a part of the associate. d. To  ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­Ã‚ ­reduce risk; Willingness to complete the tasked in time, given to each employee positive and helpful outlook toward every residents and colleagues Active discussion and problem solving for the members of the staff. Completes distributed tasked. Show consideration to the other colleagues and to the residents Ensures planned works can meet the needs of every resident Participate scheduled staff meetings and discussions. e. Limit the possible result of miscommunication, if possible mingle and have knowledge on things with the members of staff and adjust with the team member and staff to minimize extent of risk. Disaster risk a.4 Risk in Fire inside the establishment especially on the assigned wing. Facilities, equipment and appliances are damage. Residents and employees of the establishment would experience injuries during any fire outbreak. b. About 5% to be roughly to happen. Critical assets like the building, the equipment’s, appliances and scarcity of money would affect the health and safety of every resident and employee as well. c. The impact of likelihood is fire would occur establishments would fall down into business, financial would affect the employee’s job and the lost properties. d. To reduce risk; Have knowledge and understanding on the emergency situation especially on fire Reports any hazard and damages in the equipment used while on shift. Attendance to one fire exits Have knowledge in fire manual Have knowledge and responsibilities in fire alarm sound. Have knowledge in hazard reporting Have knowledge on how and where to report damage e. Transfer in the risk, this would help residents from having any grievances and on the part of the employee’s health and safety of residents, their selves, is their first priority. There are ways in securing residents lives like transferring residents into a near facilities if accident may happen. Prioritizing the Risk From highest to lowest prioritization. 1. Improper delegation of tasked during the assigned shift. 2. Risk from falls and slips during the shift. 3. Risk in handling and assisting residents on their personal routine 4. Risk from fire in the premises. Risk management frameworks and The Principles In risk management framework, it overviews goals, objectives, qualitative and quantitative parts of an organization. COSO framework has been introduced and this was used by every business and management in dealing uncertain threats and risk than may encounter in a workplace. It defines as a process, where it affects the peoples entity applied in a setting to recognize possible risk to ensure achievement of a certain objectives most especially in the industry you are working for. Entity objectives with its category; Strategic Operational Reporting Compliance In event identification, it identifies risk and opportunities in a certain workplace. It may result into a negative or positive outlook of every people. Involves identifying those cases, like internally or externally, that could affect strategy and reaching the objectives that they want.it also talks how internal and external factors combine and interact to influence the management risk. For example; Events from a disaster like fire, this is identified as a part of an event that would happen anytime or in the future and it needs a proper management caution if ever this will occur. In risk assessment, allows an entity to recognize the extent to which latent events might impact objectives. Assesses risks from viewpoints or the perception in the impact of likelihood. Is used to assess risks and used to quantify the related objectives. For example; In events like fire, risk could cause burns from equipment, appliances and establishment. Also it affects the residents and the staff member as well. Abrasions, contusions and concussions would likely experienced, and unexpected events like this must have identify measures of management. Works a combination of both qualitative and quantitative risk assessment organizations. Risk response, measures the degree and cost of impact in a likelihood. And also it evaluates the possible response of an identified risk. In control activities, this is the application of general information to control possible risk or events that would occur. In information and communication this pertains the time frame of an employee on its works on how he/she carries out responsibilities. The most effective ERM component is the monitoring wherein there is a separate evaluations for each activity that has been done in a day. Internal control and integrated framework includes objective setting as an isolated component. Objectives is a part of the qualification for internal control. It also expands the financial reporting and risk assessment. The components of a risk management in a workplace is very helpful if risk occurs. Strategies in risk assessment would quantify the proportion of cause of a certain risk. The entity and division level, for as a healthcare assistance or caregivers has a big part on the residents lives more likely in assisting and rendering care for them. Part of the risk management process within an organization. And examples of each step a. Determine the objectives at Regency Rest home and hospital. To Support residents on the activities of the day to day that will reflects on the resident’s level of dependency. To actively promote and maintain environmental safety for the residents To provide a service to all residents that is considerate and professional To work effectively as a team member for the betterment of the work. To support every residents on their social need For example, in every task that we do, we involve our patients/residencies independency, like tooth brushing, changing clothes and others. We provide support for all their care especially to those who can’t able to upkeep his/her self. The establishments has a variety of facilities wherein residents can join the fan like watching concerts in the lounge with their fellow residents. b./c.Identify exposures to loss and the Measure exposures from the organization. In determining loss, â€Å"threats† are the most consequence that results in a loss of some part of category of an organization. Example of loss; Financial about 70-80% is the scale because the organization like the rest home and hospital depends on the net income. And the equipment, insurance compensation of every employee, re-furbish of the establishment and many more. Liability 20-30%this covers the defending claim of the residents to the employee on the management activities. For example; When caregivers forgets to put up side rails during or after care on bed, most especially if the residents is aggressive this will be known as Negligence to work. Personal loss 10-15% likely to happen like personal injury, real properties and personal property. Such as fire which could affect organization and the establishment as well. Checklist and surveys can be a helpful in determining exposure to loss. d.Select alternatives on the organization Brainstorming, listening or noting of alternatives, is an outstanding discovery process. Once you have listed alternatives, be open to their opportunities. For example; When having an orientation to every staff members everyone is allowed to share comment and suggestions in relative to the topic they are discussing. And also data gathering like time of washing, if they had bowel or not and also in feeding resident, we make sure they are listed because this will help employee to make resolution if some of the activities are maintain. e.Implement a solution at Regency Rest Home and Hospital Risk management is a series of action composed or made-up of well-defined steps which when taken in order, support better decision making by contributing to a greater insight into risks and their impacts. By acquiring effective risk management there are techniques that can help improved safety and quality. As healthcare settings vary greatly in their day-to-day function, it is not possible to provide a one appropriate all approach to risk management. At this stage all the information gained brought together to consider what actions should be taken. In order to make this process, consider how the level of risk will be affected by the planed alleviation strategies. EXAMPLE: Avoiding the risk: avoiding risk to get become worst. Selecting other lower risk procedure. Reducing the risk: can be reduced through preventative measures, and perform the required task and minimize the risk. Transferring the risk: getting another individual or team to assist or perform that are better equipped or have more experience in doing the task. Retaining the risk and managing: strategies include using PPE (PERSONAL PROTECTIVE EQUIPMENT). f. Monitor and review the outcomes of risk management. Monitoring is very broad, its just not mean to check on what is happening overall. Monitoring can be useful enough for setting what is wrong and making good things to a better one. Monitoring is not just merely watching or observing because it will look like it was a passive monitoring. The best way to monitor things out in an organization is the combination of watching/observing with the aid of listening, because listening was the way of at least knowing the reaction of the people lower than the management and for those people whom you are giving your care. And employees are good basis of information. For example; In giving or assisting residents in their personal regimen, residents may comment to their caregivers how appreciated they are helping them in performing their daily routine and as per observation by their fellow employee feedbacks will turn unto you and this will give a better chances either to renew a contact or not all. Strategies for Language Translation | Dissertation Strategies for Language Translation | Dissertation Introduction The present dissertation is largely based on research in the field of translation. Translation is an influential valid feature of our society, and it symbolizes one of the most important aspects in shaping the upcoming course of the planet. . The translators tasks are complex and refer to his/her abilities of dealing with every aspect of the process of translation. The power of translator lies in his/her responsibility for his/her end product. I chose this topic because I believe translation is part of everyones life and it has profound implications in our society. The translation is defined and influenced by the type of source text, the target readers understanding, the context, the translators skills and the linguistic and cultural differences between the source language and the target language. My approach is two-fold: a theoretical perspective A. Theoretical considerations and a practical one B. Application. The first part explains what the translator tasks imply and what factors influence the translational competence, analyzes the characteristics of these skills, offering guidelines and methods of approach for a better understanding. The second part deals with the problems I encountered while translating a part of Ultima noapte de dragoste, à ®ntà ¢ia noapte de război by Camil Petrescu. In the first chapter, â€Å"Who are translators†, I shall try to define the translators profession, what important tools influence the activity of translation as well as what skills a translator should possess in order to be a competent translator. The first subchapter, â€Å"Skills of reading and writing† regards the translators tasks of decoding and encoding a text to offer the correct meaning in his/her translation. The next sub-chapters, â€Å"Subject area and Contrastive knowledge† and â€Å"Source language and Target language knowledge† describe why a translator should be specialized in various fields and the differences between the two languages regarding the language systems and cultures. In the second chapter, â€Å"Factors that influence the translational competence†, I shall begin by theorizing translational competence, which refers to all those factors that lead to perfection in translation. The first subchapter, â€Å"Psychological factors†, underlines the effect of psychology on the process of translation. â€Å"Knowledge of translation theory†, the next subchapter, describes the norms of the field of translation, which help the translator to render the overall meaning of the source text and to have the same effect on the readership. The third subchapter, â€Å"The quality of translation. Efficiency of text analysis†, analyzes what a translator should avoid in order to ensure a correct translation and to establish the necessary level of quality. â€Å"Culture† and â€Å"Experience†, the next subchapters refer to how the knowledge of the source and target culture as well as the experience in the field help the translator to make the right decisions in translation. The second part of the dissertation contains five chapters, which rely on the translation The last night of love, the first night of war. The first chapter, â€Å"The process of translation† presents the steps taken in the process of translation. â€Å"Source text and Target text analysis† deals with analyzing the extratextual and intratextual factors for each of the two languages. The last chapters â€Å"Identification of translation problems† and â€Å"Comments on translation† regard what translation problems were found during the translation process and I will discuss as well the translation difficulties and the way they were solved. The last chapter contains the translation of the first part of the novel by Camil Petrescu. Being a proficient translator may be a quality that comes by nature or by continuous practice. I strongly believe that although theory helps, it is practice that actually leads to perfection in translation. A. Theoretical considerations 1. Who are translators? Translation is one of the various means of communication existing and, from this point of view, it is very important because it establishes a connection between at least two languages, two cultures, two nations; at verbal level it helps transferring their characteristic elements from one into the other as well as understanding them. Not giving it importance equates with a total isolation from the rest of the world. A translation involves three parties, of which the third one, represented by the translator, is the most important. His responsibility is enormous because the burden of transferring the message presses over his shoulders. Knowing a foreign language and the subject is not as important as being sensitive to language and being competent to speak his own language clearly and resourcefully. For a good speaker avoids not only errors of usage but also mistakes of fact and language simply by applying his good sense. A translator has also to have flair and a so-called â€Å"sixth sense†, which is compounded of intelligence, sensibility, intuition and knowledge. S/he perhaps more than any other practitioner of a profession, is continually faced with choices and has to be very careful and extremely fast in making them. If I were to draw a line between translation and the translator and to state which ones importance is greater, I would say that a translation cannot be achieved without the appropriate person to do it, i.e. the translator. The same applies to the translator, who fades away without the core of his profession. They depend on each other and are vital for the welfare of this world. An element of great importance for a translator is the professional pride, a consideration higher than money, because s/he can fell her/his work is appreciated. I believe this is the case not only for in-house people, but also for freelancers. Even a high salary would not motivate as much a translator as the pride in the work. The professional integrity comes with the idea of being reliable, involving in the profession and respecting the ethics. Reliability means doing the job as to meet the users needs. The translator is in a position of translating the texts that the user needs, in the style the client wants them to be translated, and by a deadline requested by the user. The attempt to become a reliable translator may sometimes bring about assignments that are impossible to achieve for many reasons: the texts are morally inappropriate, the necessary work is consumptive or the experience is not enough to deal with such a text. The translator involves in his profession in many ways. If s/he participates to courses and conferences in the field, this will consolidate the professional self-esteem that will definitely encourage and motivate them to accept different challenges: Reading about translation, talking about translation with other translators, discussing problems and solutions related to linguistic transfer, user demands, nonpayment, and the like, taking classes on translation, attending translator conferences, keeping up with technological developments in the field, buying and learning to use new software and hardware − all this gives us the strong sense that we are not isolated underpaid flunkies but professionals surrounded by other professionals who share our concerns. Involvement in the translation profession may even give us the intellectual tools and professional courage to stand up to unreasonable demands, to educate clients and employers rather that submit meekly and seethe inwardly. Being a translator does not mean only being involved in a work that s/he loves but also earning a living. Professional translators know the quality of their work and they will charge their clients according to this criterion. Of course, the amount of money is proportional with the volume of their assignments and the speed they work with. Probably translators are expected to translate fast; usually in-house translators translate fast, but the work in an agency is different from that of a freelancer. Freelancers have a different rhythm of their work and, if they do translations faster, this will bring more money for them. Of course, if one translates for pleasure and amusement, there is no need for being fast. They savor every step in the process and tend to deal with one paragraph for hours. Many factors influence the translation speed. One of them is typing speed. It helps the translator to write rapidly his/her ideas on the computer. Another factor of importance is the degree of text difficulty. A difficult text will slow down the process of translation and will take much more time do it. The continuous practice and experience makes the translator to process easily the difficult words and structures. The same situation is for how the familiar the text will be for the translator. Other factors that interfere in the process of translation are the personal style and the general mental state of the translator. The use of translation memory software is very helpful for a translator and increases the translation speed. Besides these advantages, many things should be taken into account: if the volume of translation is reduced, this will not warrant the cost of the software. Usually, in-house translators use this software. Large corporations usually need a great volume of translations and address to them and not to freelancers. This software is helpful only with texts in digital form; it is not helpful in the case of literal translation. However, freelancers who work for different agencies and who have a high-volume of assignments say that the use of translation memory software is very helpful though it is not very creative. 1.1. Skills of reading and writing The translators knowledge of translation theory and the skills of reading and writing a text are definitely of paramount importance for the quality of the translation. The ethics of translation speak about the way in which a translator should understand the text that needs to be translated, how to recognize the authors intention in order to render the appropriate message into the target language. The translator has to analyze the text linguistically, culturally, philosophically, even politically, if necessary. The first step is to get a general reading and then a closer one to establish the characteristics of that text. The translator has to know how to identify the authors attitude to the subject matter. S/he also must pay special attention to the type of language that is used, grammatical structures, register, rhetorical function, genre, the use of modals and especially to the needs and expectations of the target audience. It is known that all these ethical rules are taught because they do not come instinctively. Usually, if they come naturally, they surely come by experience. A professional translation often arises at the subliminal level due to the fact that the translator has an analytical feeling which helps him/her finding the solutions to those problems that are somehow similar to precedent situations. The novice translators are taught analytical guidelines to help them becoming familiar with the rules and, at the same time to become proficient, without being aware of it. The wheel of experience shows how this analysis of the brain becomes a sort of second nature for the translator during the process of translation. Another reading guideline for the translator is to decide the emotional tone and the degree of formality of the source text. Determining the audience of the target text shows how the target language should be structured, deciding to whom it is addressed, to the educated, the average literate audience or others. Children are a special audienc e and the message is different according to the age, the degree of familiarity with the stories, the amusement that the translation provokes and many others. Eugene Nida explains how the ability of decoding a text should work: Decoding ability in any language involves at least four principal levels: (I) the capacity of children, whose vocabulary and cultural experience are limited; (2) the double-standard of new literates, who can decode oral messages with facility but whose ability to decode written messages is limited; (3) the capacity of the average literate adult, who can handle both oral and written messages with relative ease; and (4) the unusually high capacity of specialists (doctors, theologians, philosophers, scientists, etc.), when they are decoding messages within their own area of specialization. Obviously, a translation designed for children cannot be the same as one prepared for specialists, nor can a translation for children be the same as one for a newly literate adult. The translation has to be the same with the translators intention and point of view and the translator always has to keep in mind the target language readership. The translation of colloquial and intimate phrases are always problematic for the translator and they should be translated carefully. The grammatical analysis helps the translator to understand the relationships between the words and at the same time to help him/her to get the message of the author. It becomes crucial to find the correct meaning of the grammatical constructions given the fact that one construction may have many interpretations or meanings. The problem becomes acute in the case of idioms because they need a special approach when they need to be translated. Eugene Nida and Charles Taber mention the difficulties that arise when translating these expressions: Idioms are typically constructed on quite normal grammatical patterns of phrase structure, but the meaning of the whole idiom is not simply the sum of the meanings of the parts, nor can one segment the meaning (in the many cases where it is complex) and assign a definable portion of the meaning to each grammatical piece (e.g., a morpheme). [] one must treat the entire expression as a semantic unit, even though in the surface structure of the grammar it obeys all of the rules applicable to the individual pieces. Writing skills are as important as reading skills and refer to the ability of writing in a clear and proper form. Translators have to be familiar with different styles of writing according to each domain, as well as with those conventions regarding editing. The skills of reading a source language text are significant qualities for a translator and help him understanding the original text and delivering a translation in an appropriate and correct style. Reading the source text is the first step in the process of translation and the better the translator understands the meaning of the authors intention, the clearest he will render the message into the target language. The understanding of the source text represents a primary ability necessary in the process of translation, followed by a combination between other skills, which will be presented in this chapter. 1.2. Subject area and contrastive knowledge Translators must be aware of the importance of being specialized in various subject fields, such as: medical translation, legal translation, financial translation, technical IT translation, scientific translation, marketing and PR translation, website translation and others. The knowledge of a certain subject area helps the translator to deal with words and constructions that are specific to that domain. Many translators have the courage to say that their knowledge of translation theory allows them to accept texts that need to be translated from different fields. It is somehow premature to say that, especially by a beginner in the field of translation. Of course, an experienced translator may deal easily with this type of texts, but ideally, one should have in mind the necessary training in a particular field. Contrastive knowledge refers to how a translator should be able to find the contrastive elements between the source and target language so as to deliver an accurate message through his/her translation. An analysis should be made at the linguistic level, namely the syntactic, semantic and pragmatic levels, and the literary one. The syntactic level deals with the analysis at the sentence, clause, phrase and word level. The semantic analysis refers to how the translator examines the relationships between the elements found through syntactic analysis. At the pragmatic level, the translator tries to identify the register features of the text which express the intention of the source language author. After these three steps of analysis, follows the stage of synthesis, a stage that starts on the contrary way, with the pragmatic level. 1.3. Source language and Target language knowledge It is well-known the fact that a translator should possess a good knowledge of both source and target language, in other words, s/he should be a master of the two languages. They have to be fluent in the two languages in order to be able to transmit the proper message and to sound as natural as possible in the target language, using a correct style and terminology. What is also important is to know and apply all the rules concerning editing conventions of the two languages which will help the readability of the target language text. The booklet entitled †Bilingual Skills Certificate and Certificate in Community Interpreting† published by the Institute of Linguists gives an interesting definition on bilingualism: Bilingual service providers are people who possess two sets of skills language and professional skills, so that they can give the same standard of service in the context of two languages and cultures. In order to provide an equal standard of service to all clients, the people providing the service should have adequate standards of training and qualification in both sets of skills. For example, allowing people to give medical advice or gather information upon which medical decisions are made when they are not qualified and solely on the grounds that they happen to speak French or Urdu is as bad as giving good medical advice which cannot be understood. One of the risks that translators are dealing with is that of fooling the brain into thinking that the structures used in the target language are correct merely only because they are correct in the source language. This is especially the case of translators who work in their adopted country as a result of the fact that they begin to think like a native. Keeping up with cultural change is the way in which the translator can understand a language properly and s/he can translate it successfully. For this reason it is said that the best translations are done by native speakers, residents in the country where the target language is spoken. If the translator has the possibility to travel to the source language country to work on different tasks, he will be able to date with the source language and culture and at the same time s/he will maintain the knowledge of the mother tongue at the proper level. The translation always needs to be localized for the intended reader. This is a factor of great importance because it governs choice of language, presentation, the level of the language. The language needs to be elementary but not extremely simple. A competent translator will always know how to adapt his ear to the target language and will use his intuition when it comes to adjust to target language rules. 2. Factors that influence the translational competence The language and the process of thinking are not identical phenomena but they are closely linked and interrelated. If we take into account the language as a communicative process, we need to specify that what it is transmitted or communicated is a message, so it is a semantic content. The verbal expression is dependent on choosing the words and the way of phrasing. For example, the verb to say can be expressed by other verbs with an equivalent or words with an approximate meaning: to communicate, to dispose, to inform, to report, to discuss, to talk, to enlighten, to explain, to remember, to advise, to persuade and many others. Communication becomes concrete exactly by using the perfect word, appropriate for a situation. By using the verb to say instead of all the other verbs, we would express ourselves in a generic, graded way, and practically we would not manage to suggest a rich content. In such a situation, a translator will always have to select carefully the words to express th e intention and the attitude of the source language writer. A good knowledge of a foreign language is not sufficient for being a proficient translator. A translator needs to be a translator by his/her nature. There are many skills that I consider to be the most important, for example the knowledge of translation theory, the ability to analyze, compare and convert texts from one cultural domain into another, the experience in the field, the level of implication in the process of translation and many others. Trying to reach an absolute equivalent is impossible even if the translator detains great resources at the linguistic, stylistic and literary level. Psychological factors also affect the process of translation and speak about the level of translators implication when rendering the message into the target language. The translators way of expression comes and forms itself at the mental level and, based on a specific developed background affects the quality of the translation. 2.1. Psychological factors Due to our way of thinking, a man can decide upon the meaning of an object, phenomena or action connected to his environment. This is possible taking into account the new information by reference to the assimilated and systematized background knowledge. This is a part of the mental process involved in the process of translation. The understanding of a translator can be guided by several intentions or points of view. For example, a complex situation, such as translation, which implies natural, economic, geographic and cultural factors, can be understood under different angles. If a translator doesnt have the necessary knowledge s/he cannot decode the meaning of the original text. The translation has to sound as natural as possible, let alone the fact that it shouldnt contain confusing words so as to make harder the reading and understanding of the audience: †[]it should studiously avoid the translationese formal fidelity, with resulting unfaithfulness to the content and the imp act of the message.† The impossibility of making a perfect translation should not become a frustration for the translator. Of course, there will always be persons who will translate better, but maybe in a different style. Showing empathy for a certain author will positively influence his/her work and style of writing. It is unethical for a translator not to be objective inside the translation process. Nevertheless, it is obvious that s/he will think about translation as the experience in the field tells him/her how to do it. Sometimes the experience guides a translator in choosing the words or expressions. Another psychological factor, altering the meaning of the source language text and imposing, consciously or not, a personal viewpoint on the audience is not a good decision for a translator to take. The translator must try to preserve the uniqueness of a culture, its characteristics and norms. In translation, cultural psychology shows how a concept from a certain historic, social-economic or cultural background of a country or region can be found in another one but does not reflect the same thing as in the first one: Phoenix is a legend in Chinas miraculous animals, on behalf of luck, happiness and elegance, it is believed to ride Phoenix a bike can bring good luck, while in Western culture, the legendary phoenix is a phoenix, a regeneration, Resurrection and other means, so that the goods in the West is not surprising that no one is interested. Consumer psychology has implications in the way in which the consumers interests are motivated. Through a good translation, the promotional character of this type of psychology can attract clients or, on the contrary, not even stimulate them at all to buy a product. For example, Happy Cakesgiving!, a collocation taken from an advertisement about a special and tasteful cake, remembers about Thanksgiving Day, a holiday usually celebrated in the United States and Canada. The construction is very interesting and is in fact an adaptation of the holiday, underlying the importance of it for so many people. It is very hard, if not almost impossible to find an equivalent into Romanian, but a translator may always find a solution to satisfy the audience, adapting somehow the term to the local culture. Ziua deliciului may be a variant with relevance for the Romanian culture, resembling with the structure of Ziua mamei (Mothers Day), Ziua Nationala (National Day), Ziua Unirii (Unification Day) a nd so on. The aesthetic psychology works in translation at the pragmatic level. The artistic words and phrases, the combination of structures that reflect the beautiful, the elegant and graceful utterances are to be translated in the same way into the target language. This is a very hard to achieve due to many reasons. One of them is the specific syntax which makes the difference between the languages. Preserving the rhyme of a Romanian text when translating it into English is very difficult. The thematic structure of a text in Romanian is very hard to render into English. If we take the example of a section from Zamolxis, by Lucian Blaga, we will find that is impossible to preserve the elements of rhythm and rhyme. e.g. MÇÅ ½-mpÇÅ ½rtÇÅ ½Ãƒâ€¦Ã… ¸esc cu cà ¢te-un strop din tot ce creÃ…Å ¸te Ã…Å ¸i se pierde. Nimic nu mi-e strein, Ã…Å ¸i numai marea à ®mi lipseÃ…Å ¸te. I share a drop of all that waxes and wanes. Nothing is alien to me, and the sea alone is absent. Another reason for which it is very difficult to preserve the style of a specific text is the word order, which does not permit the translator to deal easily with the style of the original. In order to realize the message of the source language text, a translator will have to take decisions regarding what it should reproduce, either the forms or the ideas of the original. My belief is that a good translator will always be able to maintain the stylistic characteristics of a text and to construct structures that will transfer the propositional content and communicate the purpose intended by the source language writer. 2.2. Knowledge of translation theory In order to gain recognition in the field of translation, a bilingual speaker has to respect the norms that give him the responsibility over a text. Gideon Toury distinguishes between two groups of norms relevant for the process of translation: preliminary and operational. Preliminary norms deal with two major sets of concerns, which are usually interrelated: those regarding the existence of a definite translation strategy, and those related to the truthfulness of translation. Operational norms refer to the decisions made during the act of translation itself. A faithful translation depends on the correct selection of the appropriate method of translation. There are many people who wrongly believe that literary translation is more important than the technical one saying that the latter contains specific terms that are easy to translate whereas the first one is far more complex. Any translation is a very complex task and requires the same knowledge and responsibility from the part of the translator. One of the roles of the translator is to assist and fulfill the target readers expectations. The principle that governs this idea is that a translator should not transmit only the words to the readers, but the ideas of the source language text. The translators task becomes very difficult to achieve if s/he does not understand properly the referential meaning of a text so as to transfer it correctly to the target language. Another important role of the translator is to produce the same impression on the target readers as the author of the source language produces on his/her own readers. Another guideline stipulated by translation theory is that a translator should correct the misrepresentations, which belong to the extralinguistic reality. S/he has to find if a text has a correct syntax, if it contains stereotype phrases, fashionable general words. If the text is not well written, s/he can interfere in the original text and perform intra- and interlingual translation so as to transmit an appropriate message. A close attention must be paid to word order, false friends, common structures which become unnatural by one-to-one translation, the use of elevated usage of words and idioms or the use of infinitives, gerunds and verb-phrase. The translator should write in his own style and should not use words and expressions that produce an artificial effect on the target text. 2.2.1 Translation methods Paraphrasing Another principle related to the knowledge of translation theory is the use of paraphrase as a solution to those words which do not have an equivalent in the target language, whether they are technical, scientific, literary or institutional terms. In translation theory, to paraphrase means trying to express the signification of a word by amplifying or explaining its meaning: [†¦] is a technical term from linguistics and related disciplines, and is characterized by three specific features: (I) it is intralingual rather than interlingual, i.e., it is â€Å"another way of sayng the same thing† in the same language; (2) it is rigorous, in that there are no changes in the semantic components: no additions, no deletions, no skewing of relationships, only a different marking of the same relations between the same elements; (3) specifically as it relates to back-transformation, it is aimed at restatement at a particular level, that of the kernels. This often happens in the case of poorly written texts or it is also a method used in translating the Bible. The latter case implies many debates because paraphrasing the Bible means an interpretation that tends to be subjective due to the translators point of view regarding religion. Eugene A. Nida points out this idea in his work â€Å"Toward a science of translation†: The dangers of subjectivity in translating are directly proportionate to the potential emotional involvement of the translator in the message. For scientific prose such involvement is usually at a minimum, but in religious texts it may be rather great, since religion is concerned with the deepest and most universal value systems. In some instances it is a translators own sense of insecurity which makes it difficult for him to let the document speak for itself, and in other instances a lack of humility may prompt him to translate without consulting the opinions of those who have studied such texts more fully than himself. So, this method includes not only advantages, for the ability to transmit the message, but also disadvantages because it alters the original meaning. By using a paraphrase, the translator can render the meaning of the source language text. Since this is a way to carry in the target text the intention of the author, the paraphrase shows how s/he can remain faithful to the original. Problems about paraphrasing arise when we try to detect its level of fidelity in the process of translation. Every translator will have his/her own way of interpreting the original text and, thus, an original method of paraphrasing. Sometimes trying to eliminate the use of a paraphrase may result in weakening the text. A special attention should be paid to the substantial sense of a translated work after using the paraphrase. Functional Equivalence Functional Equivalence, also called dynamic equivalence is a method in which the translator tries to reflect the intention of the author in the source language at the expense of the original grammatical structure. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China: Case Study Industrial and Commercial Bank of China: Case Study Abstract International fund raising used to be the domain of multinational companies. MNCs not only source raw material across the world or sell products at many geographical regions, they also scouting for capital all over the world and raise capital where it is cheaper. Investors’ appetite for foreign company shares have also increased manifold and internationalization of equity market across globe is happening at a faster speed. However, internationalization of equity markets has a broader connotation covering entire gamut of FDI, portfolio investment by big ticket players like pension funds, hedge funds and private equity funds and their ilk, this module focuses on equity capital to have been raised by Industrial and Commercial Bank of China from the international market. Why ICBC felt the need to issue equity in markets outside of China ICBC mainly issued equities to foreign markets to strengthen their corporate governance practices, risk management and internal controls, and enhance their treasury operations, asset management, corporate banking and investment banking operations as well as their non-performing loan disposal capabilities. For instance ICBC collaborated with Allianz to develop and provide bank assurance products and services to their customers; and as for American Express, ICBC began and continue to expand their cooperation on bankcard business, risk management and customer service to enhance its financial performance and efficiency. Advantages and disadvantages of issuing equity in foreign markets Through the move of issuing equity in markets outside china, ICBC is able to raise capital denominated in USD and that to huge amount of capital, which may be difficult to raise from the issuer’s home country. By issuing securities in a new market, it is able to expand the investor base. When ICBC’s share listed in a domestic market, analysts in the domestic market start analysing the company, its product; its market share etc. thus indirectly helps in advertising the company. When a foreign ICBC’s shares are listed in a domestic exchange and the foreign company wants to acquire another domestic company, then share swap can be an option for the foreign company. Despite the prime advantages of issuing equity to foreign markets, several obstacles may be present for instance companies have to pay for the, depository fee, listing fee, audit fee and also companies have to recast their annual report as per the GAAP of the foreign country. Attraction of the ICBC in Regards To Providing Exchange Listings to Foreign Investors As host countries are getting advantages of FDI and, the investors are also not far behind in terms of their benefits. Numerous factors attracted ICBC to provide exchange listings to foreign investors in a number of ways. ICBC was mainly attracted to exchange listings as it enhances the domestic competitiveness, provides the opportunity of taking significant advantages of international trade technology, contributes towards increasing of sales and profit, extends sales potentials of the existing products, and maintains cost competitiveness in the domestic market set-up. It also enhances possibilities of business expansion, helps in the process of obtaining global market share, reduce the dependency on existing markets, and also stabilize seasonal market fluctuations (Oman, 2000; Rajan, 2005; Rao et al.,1999). The advantages of FDI have been successfully utilized by ICBC in almost every sector. Why investors should be interested in exchange listings There are many benefits to why investors should be interested in exchange listings for instance income returns and price change. The income return represents periodic cash flows generated by the investment. These include dividends paid for ordinary shares and periodic interest paid for bonds. Stocks that pay dividends typically distribute them quarterly. Government bonds pay interest on a semi-annual basis, and debentures pay interest monthly, quarterly, semi-annually, or annually. Investors whose primary objective is to generate periodic income from their investments focus on the income return. Price change is the increase or decrease in price of the asset in relation to the purchase price or the market price in the previous time. An appreciation in the price of the asset is called a capital gain while a price decline is called a capital loss. The prices of assets such as stocks, bonds, and real estate fluctuate over time in response to a variety of factors such as economic news, in dustry conditions, company`s performance, political conditions, as well as speculation. While the investor expects a capital gain, there is no guarantee that the price will always increase in value. Those investors whose primary investment objective is capital appreciation focus on the price change component of return. Risks for a foreigner associated with investing in ICBC Stocks are volatile investments. The price of a single stock can vary quite widely from day to day, and the factors that cause these price fluctuations are beyond the control of the investor. Buying a widely diversified basket of stocks can be difficult for all but the wealthiest investor. Small investors are better off buying a quality stock mutual fund. Mutual funds pool the investments of many different people in order to buy a diversified set of stocks. This diversified approach helps to reduce the risk inherent in the stock market. As investors near retirement, the amount of stocks in the portfolio should be reduced. Investors who are close to retirement age can no longer afford to take chances with their  money, and that means moving a significant portion of their retirement funds to safer and  more stable investments. Buying and selling stocks costs money in the form of brokerage commissions, and many brokerage firms charge account maintenance fees as well. It is important to look for low cost alternatives when buying and selling stocks. References Allen, F., J. Qian, M. Qian, and M. Zhao (2009). â€Å"A Review of China’s Financial System and Initiatives for the Future,† Chapter 1 of China’s Emerging Financial Markets: Challenges and Opportunities, edited by J. Barth, J. Tatom, and G. Yago, The Milken Institute Series on Financial Innovation and Economic Growth, New York: Springer, 3-72. Bekaert, G., C. Harvey, and C. Lundblad (2005). â€Å"Does Financial Liberalization Spur Economic Growth,† Journal of Financial Economics 77, 3-55. Quinn, D. and A. Toyoda (2008). â€Å"Does Capital Account Liberalization Lead to EconomicGrowth?† Review of Financial Studies 2, 1403-1449.

Politics and Stem Cell Research Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Argu

Politics and Stem Cell Research The President’s Council on Bioethics published â€Å"Monitoring Stem Cell Research† in 2004. This report was written in response to President Bush’s comments regarding research of human stem cells on August 9, 2001. President Bush announced that he was going to make federal funding available for research that involved existing lines of stem cells that came from embryos. He is the first president to provide any type of financial support for the research of human stem cells. A Council was created with people who are educated in the field of stem cells to help monitor the research and to recommend guidelines and consider the ethical consequences that this research could create. This report is an â€Å"update† given by the President’s Council in January of 2004 to make the public aware of the significant developments in the science and medical aspects of stem cell research. It also describes the ethical, legal and political implications that stem cell research may create. However, since the research is still in its beginning stages, this â€Å"update† does not describe a complete or definitive study of stem cells nor does it provide specific guidelines or regulations. This is a report that is suppose to help the President, Congress and general public make better-informed decisions as to the direction that we should go with stem cells. This report does a fairly comprehensive job on educating the public to the definition of stem cells, describing them as â€Å"a diverse group of remarkable multipotent cells that are relatively undifferentiated and unspecialized cells of the body.† Stem cells have the capacity for unlimited self-renewal and the possibility to produce differentiated descendant cell types. The main in... ...rstanding exactly how they function and what their potential may be. The Council neglects to discuss what the boundaries should be in regards to research and whether not it is ethically or morally right to use and destroy embryos for the sake of medical advancement. They also do not clearly state who should pay for the research on stem cells. Since President Bush appoints the Council, there has been criticism that the committee is bias towards his views. In general, the report is ambiguous and does not specifically come to any concrete conclusions, nor does it provide any new information. Sources: The President's Council on Bioethics, Washington, D.C. January 2004. www.bioethics.gov News Briefings. U.S. News Libraray http://www.usnews.com/usnews/briefings/stemcell0701.htm Russo, Eugene. The Scientist: No decision on stem cells. Daily News. January 16, 2004

History of Modern Middle East Essay

This paper aims to provide a detailed understanding of the concept of Arab nationalism and the impact it had on the Arab-Israeli conflict. Arab nationalism is a nationalist ideology that grew during the time when the Great ottoman empire which had been ruling most of the eastern territory for the almost 500 years was facing its demise. So in order to properly understand the concept of the Arab nationalism we need to have background knowledge of the fall of the Ottoman Empire. After ruling the eastern area which included the Middle Eastern territory for more than 500 years the Turks within the ranks of the empire started to ignore other ethnicities which mostly included the Arabs and the Christians and scores of people from these backgrounds started to accept the Turk dominance. This was precisely the time period during which a sense of separate identity started to develop among the local Arab population. The political and religious thinkers among the Arabs who were well aware of the Arabs glorious past became concerned that if the wind continues to blow in the same direction the Arabs would lose their identity and would eventually become foreigners in the land that had historically been theirs. So they began looking for the ways to restore the sense of national pride among the Arabs and at the same time plot the fall of the Ottoman Empire. Their efforts paid off when the Ottoman Empire allowed the Jews scattered all over Europe to heavily invest in the deserted areas of its territory. This decision which was a plan to earn tax revenues turned out to be a disaster for the empire because it provided the Arabs a wealthy ally against the Empire. So the Jews started to migrate into their purchased lands in Arab lands and new cities like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem started to form, scores of Arab people also decided to move into these areas impressed by the Jews’ living standard and education. Later on more and more influx of Jews from different parts of Europe along with the local Arab support proved fatal for the Ottoman Empire who found itself losing control over their territory as the Arabs became more vocal against them and managed to capture a lot of land from the empire. But the ground reality was that the Jews were quietly gaining control of major parts which had been previously controlled by the empire. A new battle for the control of major strategic position started between the Arabs and the Jews. The Balfour declaration issued by the British government in 1917 made the Arabs more indignant, which supported the establishment of a Jew state in the midst of the Arab land. By the end of First World War almost all of the territory previously controlled by the Ottoman Empire came under the control of western power. The British mandate included what is today Jordan, Israel and Gaza. Other major areas which included Egypt, Syria, morocco and Lebanon were also being governed by what the Arab intellectuals considered the agents of western imperialism. At this stage the Arab nationalism had taken root in the Arab minds and the Arab leaders which included Christians along with the Muslims in region decided to form an alliance against the western imperialism. The point that should be emphasized here is that the idea of Arab nationalism had been based on the fact that the Arabs considered the Ottoman Empire guilty of giving away the power to the west by adopting their ways of life and the allowing the influence of western power in their region. The issue of Jews dominance in what is today Israel surfaced later. Amongst the prominent proponents of this ideology was a Christian Syrian philosopher Al Yazigi who took a view that the rise of modern Europe was based on Islamic values while the Ottoman empire and the Arabs had abandoned those values, that’s why if the Arabs want to keep their land and progress in the political sphere, they need to revive the principles of Islam and rediscover their fading sense of self-identity. Al-Yazigi later on organized several movements in Syria to raise awareness of his ideology. Another important contributor to this idea was Egyptian scholar Mohammed Abduh. He shared the view of Al-Yazigi that the Ottoman Empire was wrong in adopting the apparently modern ideas while abolishing the true Islamic principles which were the foundation of Arab nations’ success in the past. He also felt the need to restore the Arabs’ self-esteem as a nation and made attempts at making this view reach every Arab’s mind living in his native Egypt. Later on 1911 Al-fatat was formed in Paris whose aim was also the revival of Arab nationalism. The European powers were strongly behind this ideology as they wanted to break the rule of the Ottoman Empire in the region. Arab nationalist leaders shared this objective with the European power but wanted to take over the regime themselves rather than watch the European powers taking direct control of the area. So the Arab nationalist movement started out against the Ottoman Empire and when the Empire collapsed it took a different turn and was then directed towards removing the western powers from directly controlling the Arab area. That’s is why the idea of Arab nationalism played a crucial role in the Arab-Israel conflict that surfaced after the first world war and became intense after the second world war when a UN committee allowed the Jews to form a separate state in 1948 named Israel. Leaders from Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and morocco then became convinced that they need to get rid of the Western influence in their countries and also drive the Jews out of power who were now in total control of the land which the Arabs call the Palestine. The 1948 war of independence was the result of this coalition among the Arab nations i. e. (Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Yemen) in which Israel came out the winner and occupied most of the Palestinian territory. After this war on several occasions the Arab nationalism played a crucial role in this conflict till 1972. Major leaders involved include Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt, Muammar al-Gaddafi of Libya, Shukri al-Quwatli of Syria and Ahmed bin Bella of Algeria. Following the 1948 war of independence all the Arab countries began to target Jews living on their lands and consequently large population of Jews migrated to from these areas into Israel. Almost 1 million Jews migrated from Arab countries to Israel from 1949 to 1954. In 1956 Gamal Abdul Nasser closed the passage between Sinai and Arabian Peninsula and took the Suez Canal under government control in order to block the Israeli ships from passing through. Israel tried to attack the seas with the British backing and get the route open once again. It eventually happened due to the UN intervention which Egypt didn’t follow for long and blocked the passage again. Situation became really intense in 1967 when the Egyptian leader gathered the political and military support of the Soviet Union and organized other Arab nations under the Pan-Arab movement to attack Israel and capture the Arab land from the Jews. Situation was quite different from the 1948 war because the proper organization of military resources and unity of the Arab leadership as Jordan and Syria joined hands with the Egyptian leader. The result was the six day war which much to the disappointment of the Arab world was won by Israel due to its superiority in Air force technology and captured major strategic positions of Gaza strip, east Jerusalem and most importantly the Sinai passage. After that defeat the Arab nationalist powers by mutual consent boycotted Israel and concluded that Israel be not recognized by any of them. Gamal Abdul Nasser lost his life in 1970 when Egypt tried again to recapture the Sinai Peninsula. Since that time several wars have been fought between the Arab world and Israel and a lot of blood has been spilled on both sides, and it seems that neither party is ready to give up on their principles as this discontent between Arab nations with Jews transfers from one generation to the next. This essays aims to discuss the Iranian revolution and its roots and analyze the impact it had on the Islamic political movements across the Middle East. Iranian revolution which is now widely known as the Islamic revolution was the event which started in the 1970 and was eventually completed in 1979. This revolution resulted in the downfall of monarchy and establishment of federation based on Islamic Shria in Iran. The major reasons why this revolution is deemed to be one of the most important turn around in the history are the sheer amount of people involved in this revolution, its short time period and its impact on the rest of the world especially the Middle Eastern region. The Major force behind this revolution was the Islamic clerical leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. Before this revolution Iran had been a monarchy for several dynasties. Ayatollah Khomeini who was considered a prominent figure in the religious circles of Iran took a view that the monarchy of Iran was increasingly becoming a follower of the western powers and polluting the minds of the people in Iran. Mohammed Reza shah Pahlavi who took over the monarch from his father in 1919 proved to be the last emperor of his dynasty. The reason behind his demise are not agreed upon by the historians but it can be concluded that his ambition of making Iran a modern westernized state with the backing of western world was the major reason of his fall from the authority. After taking over the thrown he tried to run the state in an authoritarian fashion and adopted policies which in his view would take make Iran a modernized state. He established closed relationship with the United States and other powerful Western forces. He abolished the rules of Shria and instead adopted the ones that the Shiite Muslim population of Iran considered to be unacceptable, additionally his autocratic style of governance and the lack of functional discipline were also the factors that convinced the population of Iran that it was time for a change. Ayatollah Khomeini who had been exiled from the country by the shah due to his anti-monarch and anti-west stance picked on this weakness of the Shah and started to gather support of the population who believed in Islamic values. Khomeini’s idea of the government was based on the Islam. He demanded that monarchy be immediately abolished and an Islamic state be formed instead. Khomeini first came to surface in 1963 as a vocal opponent of what he called white revolution in which shah decided to allow minorities to hold government office and granted women the rights to vote. And from then on his support began to pick up as the shah became unpopular by the day. The movement picked up the pace only after 1976 and later on speedily removed shah from his seat. Khomeini who was living exile continued to raise awareness among the Muslim population about shah’s policies, which were heavily influenced by the American government and at the same time reiterated the need to bring a change. First mass gathering took place after the death of Khomeini’s son in 1977 and thousand of people gathered to protest against the shah. Then early in the year 1978 another mass protest was held by the Islamist students’ foundation in the city of Qom. Several casualties were reported as the shah ordered the military to control the crowd which proved to be an overwhelming task because of the large number of people involved. In the same year another supreme cleric Ayatollah kazem shariatmadari joined broke his silence and joined Khomeini in his movement when one of his followers was shot dead at his place. Shariatmadari didn’t share the theocratic view with Khomeinie but the supported the idea of abolishment of monarchy. Meanwhile the Shah continued his struggle for westernization and kept holding the meetings with the then American president jimmy carter who assured him of his support during that period of turmoil. The shah tried to bring some economic stability by cutting back on the government spending but it also turned out to be a bad decision as it resulted in mass layoffs and the joining of the newly unemployed with the rebels. Things turned nasty when 400 people were reported dead in the Rex Cinema killings in august. The anti-Shah element then took their movement to a whole new level by calling on a mass strike which ceased virtually the whole economy and the success of this strike virtually guaranteed the completion of the revolution in people’s minds while the shah scrambled to make amends and tried to control the situation fast deteriorating. Finally in the start of the New Year 1979 the Shah to the joy of Khomeini and his followers fled his Iran and Khomeini later returned to his native state to establish a government based on Shria. The impact of this revolution was widespread in the Muslim world as well as well as internationally. No other country has witnessed a revolution such as this before, its basis on the theological ideal and large support the Islamic leaders managed to get from the seemingly westernized crowd provided an example to follow for other the leaders of similar motives in other Middle Eastern states. It gave the religious clerics a new belief that they can get rid off the western influence and perhaps converts their own state based purely on theocratic principles. It had most influence on the neighboring countries of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq where the population of Shiites is substantial. After only a few days of revolution some 400 Iranian militants tried to attack and capture the holy city f Mecca in Saudi Arabia and later on Saudi authorities got a major shock when the an Ashura procession transformed into political one in which people chanted slogans in support of Khomeini. Shiite clerics in Lebanon managed to transform their state into an Islamic one while other countries in the Arab region also adopted an approach to government based on religious principles. Since the turn around in Iran the political Islam has been the main theme of almost all the countries in the region and the clerics now have a deep-seated awareness of the fact that the people in the region are moved by the their religion and they can use the religion as a means of creating political movement. The governments in these countries are also well aware of this fact and until now have been trying keeping policies in line with the Shria. The strong anti-west stance taken by Iran provided by Iran has been an emblem of this revolution and that continued to this day. Israel has also been a major target after episode cleared as the religious elements hold a strong feeling for the Palestinians believing that the Jews are unjust holders of the land that actually belongs to the Muslims. Verbal attacks between these two sides are now a common site while a war between Hezbollah controlled Lebanon and Israel was one of the major events of the decade in which Hezbollah managed to successfully defend their territory.

Generic strategies Essays

Generic strategies Essays Generic strategies Paper Generic strategies Paper Operations managements main aim is to identify a common set of objectives such that the organisation can deploy its resources and capabilities to produce goods and services for internal and external customers. Operational management not only supports operational efficiency, but it also provides a potential source of strategic competitive advantage and it explains how operations strategy influences the activities of operations managers. Porters three generic strategies broadly define a process through which these common set of objectives can be found. However, these strategies are mutually exclusive as Porter emphasises the need to only adopt one strategy and failure to do so will result in a stuck in the middle (Porter , 1980) scenario. He discusses the idea that practising more than one strategy will lose the entire focus of the organisation hence a clear direction for a future path cannot be established. Operations Strategy  The changing business environment over the last century has prompted operations management to change the pattern of decisions and actions that were intended to achieve its long-term goals. Increased cost-based competition, demands for better service, choice and variety, increased ethical awareness and more legal regulations (Slack et al., 2004, p.8) have led to the globalisation of operations networking, technologies replacing manual jobs, computer-based integration of operations activities, mass customisation, fast time-to-market methods and lean process design. From the volume of output, variety of output, variation in demand for output and the degree of visibility of production that customers have, four trade-offs and two linkages have become apparent. The evolution of these trade-offs and linkages are a major part of the progression of world class manufacturing from the Industrial Revolution to where it stands today. : Though Hayes and Wheelwright had coined the term world class, Womack et al. (1990) more accurately described the status of becoming world class as the ability cut the usage of all factor inputs and still maintain a high level of output. With the development of world class manufacturing two views of operations strategy emerged. One which highlighted the planned corporate strategy and unitary managerial power concepts as decisions were made from the top levels of management and were enforced on all the employees, and the other, which saw corporate strategy transpire from empowering individuals and drawing ideas from day-to-day operational experiences. As the perception of manufacturing changed due to the introduction of new processes such as the lean design model and new innovative technologies that helped supply chains, the four trade-offs became more distinct. Prior to Henry Fords introduction of the automated assembly line, American manufacturers had already extended the basic economic principles of Adam Smith and used jigs to make standardised products, from which the notion of using interchangeable parts to facilitate assembling complex products arose. This led to a substitution from non-skilled labour basic-skilled labour capable of operating the new contraptions. The second trade-off between volume and variety came to light after firms were able increase output and cut long run average costs by investing in capital and firing workers. However, firms had to make an executive decision at this point as to whether they were going to stick to producing low volume, high variety products or use the emergent manufacturing techniques to produce low variety products en masse. The third trade-off between quality and cost has a similar optimisation problem to the setup and inventory costs. The optimal quality level of output is when total costs are minimised and the cost of failures is relatively low. Japanese car company Toyota is a prime example of the last trade-off between setup costs and inventory costs. Using the kanban card controlling system, parts of the manufacturing process are only allowed to produce goods when they have received notification on the kanbans stating that orders have been placed. Even though this method significantly reduces inventory costs, it would only be successful if the manufacturing processes were quick enough to deal with demand responses and able to assemble goods to sell within a short time after the kanban had been written. The just-in-time method of manufacturing employed by Toyota is that of the bottom-up operations strategy defined earlier. The demand for the product is pulled through the system rather than basing product stock on estimated sales projections that have been calculated on previous sales and trends. It is an approach which differs from traditional operations practices insomuch as is stresses waste elimination and fast throughput, both of which contribute to low inventories. A comparison of the just-in-time and materials requirement planning system will show the influence of Porters generic strategies on operations strategy in general. Porters generic strategies  In the economic analysis of the theory of the firm, the key feature of a monopoly is that it faces an imperfectly elastic, downward sloping demand curve whereas in perfect competition, the elasticity of demand was infinite. A good way to escape an infinite elasticity problem is to differentiate a product such that there arent any close substitutes. Hayes and Pisano (1994) mirrored this by stating that long term success requires that a company continually seeks new ways to differentiate itself from competitors by finding sources of competitive advantage and focusing on core competencies that were unique to the firm. Product differentiation is the first of Porters three generic strategies and it fulfils a distinctive customer need by specifically tailoring the service or product to consumer to demand, thus allowing organisations to charge a premium price to capture market share. Hoover Limited effectively implemented this strategy by providing a product of superior value to the customer through product quality, features and branding. They were able to charge a higher price as the quality was perceived on a brand name and image, to the extent that Hoover became a household nameknown worldwide as a maker of quality appliances (About Hoover) and consumers now use the word Hoover and vacuum cleaner interchangeably. With product differentiation, firms choose quality and variety, whereas Porters alternative strategy of cost leadership focuses on low cost and volume. By producing high volumes of standardised products the firm emphasises efficiency, benefits from economies of scale and learning from the experience curve effects. In terms of mass manufacturing using the materials requirements planning strategy, cost leadership was a definitive means of keeping a considerable market share advantage over the other incumbents in the industry. Low-cost airlines are a prime example of providing a service solely based on giving consumers the lowest fares to travel from one location to another. Cost leadership became a means of product differentiation as firms such as Ryanair and EasyJets main selling point was the fact that they provide low quality, low service, and budget air travel for a fraction of the price.  When just-in-time technique was established, cost leadership was still a harbinger for corporate strategy in the manufacturing industry as Toyota were adamant to reduce inventory costs because they did not have the capital to store cars and compete with General Motors and Ford. This method is very popular in other industries such as retail, where the sudden growth of Primark is due to the fact that it can supply high-street clothing on demand in a limited time period. Product differentiation and cost leadership remained in the broad manufacturing market scope as two of the best strategies to follow when making decisions about operational strategy. The resource based view and use of core competencies that were valuable, rare, inimitable and non-substitutable suggests that operations strategy evolved from the ideas that firms either concentrated on cost or quality. Conclusions Research on profits accrued due to the implementation of various market strategies showed that firms with higher market shares were as profitable as those with low market share. Porterian analysis indicates that firms that pursued a cost leadership strategy as an initial strategy for operations strategy were successful as they captured large market shares due to their low priced products. Firms with low market share were successful as they used market segmentation to focus on a small but profitable market niche. Those stuck in the middle however were less profitable as they did not have an initial viable generic strategy to guide the operations management of the firm to implement specific operations strategies. Bibliography and references About Hoover, The Hoover Generation Future, hoover.co.uk/about-us/ Hayes, R.H. and Pisano, G.P. (Jan-Feb 1994) Beyond world-class: the new manufacturing strategy, Harvard Business Review, 72 (1) Porter, M. (1980) Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors, Free Press

Free Essays on Poetry Review Essay

of an extroverted and captivating poet by the name of Thomas Sayers Ellis. His style, an odd, yet interesting one, fascinated me, and made me realize poetry was more of an art form then I had previously thought. Actually going to a reading, and hear the poet speak with such a passionate tone to correctly convey the meanings of his poems. His style of reading definitely upped the quality of his poems. He said it himself, that when he was reading a poem aloud before, it sounded bad. With readings, I now realize it is pertinent to accent your poem the way you think it should to get the full meaning across. But don’t stop there. Mr. Ellis showed this through not only impeccable accenting, but also quite a musical tune for most of his irregular yet intriguing poems. The poem â€Å"All Their Stanzas Look Alike† was a great one, in my opinion. It took simple sentence structure and amazed me with such intricateness. The lines â€Å"All their third worlds / All their world series / All their serial killers / All their killing fields / All their stanzas look alike†. The way he continues the last word with the next line is incredible. From third world, to world series, to serial killers, to killing fields, it was just really nice to see the continuation like that. His poems as a body of work showed the unrelenting will to be unique, a trait I would like to adapt to my own style. One of my favorite poems from Mr. Ellis was â€Å"Atomic Bride†. The story comes from his friend Andre getting married, and then breaking up. It saddened Ellis. Thus the poem. A few of my favorite lines from the poem were a recurring type of line. The first line is an amazing association of war and how it influences music. The second line, an interesting way to portray about our government in relation to drugs. â€Å"A good war starts In the courtroom And works its way To the album cover.† â€Å"A good drug s... Free Essays on Poetry Review Essay Free Essays on Poetry Review Essay â€Å"If it ain’t nasty, it ain’t funky†: the words of an extroverted and captivating poet by the name of Thomas Sayers Ellis. His style, an odd, yet interesting one, fascinated me, and made me realize poetry was more of an art form then I had previously thought. Actually going to a reading, and hear the poet speak with such a passionate tone to correctly convey the meanings of his poems. His style of reading definitely upped the quality of his poems. He said it himself, that when he was reading a poem aloud before, it sounded bad. With readings, I now realize it is pertinent to accent your poem the way you think it should to get the full meaning across. But don’t stop there. Mr. Ellis showed this through not only impeccable accenting, but also quite a musical tune for most of his irregular yet intriguing poems. The poem â€Å"All Their Stanzas Look Alike† was a great one, in my opinion. It took simple sentence structure and amazed me with such intricateness. The lines â€Å"All their third worlds / All their world series / All their serial killers / All their killing fields / All their stanzas look alike†. The way he continues the last word with the next line is incredible. From third world, to world series, to serial killers, to killing fields, it was just really nice to see the continuation like that. His poems as a body of work showed the unrelenting will to be unique, a trait I would like to adapt to my own style. One of my favorite poems from Mr. Ellis was â€Å"Atomic Bride†. The story comes from his friend Andre getting married, and then breaking up. It saddened Ellis. Thus the poem. A few of my favorite lines from the poem were a recurring type of line. The first line is an amazing association of war and how it influences music. The second line, an interesting way to portray about our government in relation to drugs. â€Å"A good war starts In the courtroom And works its way To the album cover.† â€Å"A good drug s...

Mercantalism essays

Mercantalism essays The Spanish, the Dutch, the French, and the English all practiced mercantilism. A term meaning that the worlds wealth was finite and that only one nation could grow rich if another one failed. A nation had to extract more gold from a foreign land and export as little as possible to other nations. But there were significant differences that existed in the colonies established in the New World by the Spanish, the Dutch, the French, and the English. In 1580, Spain came under control of Brazil. This colony was substantially different from the English colonies that were to be established later in the 17th century. The monarchy extended its authority power the entire way to the local communities in the colonies. The colonists didnt have much opportunity to establish political institutions separate from the mother country. Also, the Spanish were much more successful in extracting the silver and gold compared to the British. However, while the extraction of the riches was taking place, agriculture and trade was not being tended to. Another significant dissimilarity is that while the English, Dutch and French yearned to established fixed colonies for family life, the Spanish did the opposite by ruling the colony but not providing or encourage people from Spain to move and live there. The British believed in the principals of mercantilism as much as the French, the Dutch and the Spanish did and Englands mercantilistic program was its successful wool trade which lasted until around 1550 where the its market failed. The forming of new colonies was their solution to that problem. The colonies that were established by the British were a place to create markets for goods and also to settle disputes with the growing poverty and unemployment rate because of the population boom. Besides the economic motives that existed in the colonies, there was also religion in the colonies. The colonies that the British formed w...

Bib 6 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Bib 6 - Essay Example According to the Acts, the Holy Spirit directed the Antioch Church to send out a missionary team, comprising of Barnabas and Paul (Act 13: 1-3) for the purpose of preaching the Gospel to the Jewish community and the Gentiles. It was around the 48AD that Paul and Barnabas led a commission from Antioch, Seleucia and travelled to the island of Cypress (Calmet 1832, p731). The group made various stops along the way in villages and settlements to preach the Gospel. As indicated in the map (Fig 1), the team made the way through Salomis and travelled through the area of Paphos. It was here that they met the Jewish sorcerer and false prophet with the name of Bar-Jesus. He was actually an attendant to the Governor Sergius Paulus. Paulus was an intelligent logical man and was interested in seeking the truth. When he summoned for Barnabas and Saul, Elymas the sorcerer intercepted and tried to steer Paulus away from them. Paul, with the power of the Holy Spirit, unveiled the truth about Elymas’s deceit and lies and stated that he would turn blind because of them. Paulus, hence, converted to Christianity. From Paphos and Cypress, the mission continued onwards to Perga in Pamphylia. This is where John left them to head for Jerusalem. Preaching and spreading the message of God, the mission travelled to the city of Antioch of Pisidia, and covered the towns of Iconium, Lystra, and Derbe, further East (Acts 13:13-14:20). In Iconium, Paul went to the Jewish synagogue to an assembly of Jews and Gentiles and was so articulate in speech that a great many of the listeners converted; however, the Jews were specifically hostile and the evangelical strategy to preach in synagogues proved to be more cumbersome. Along the way, Paul and Barnabas faced life threats and stoning, were confused as the human form of God and had to persistently explain

Religions Influencing the Policy Research Paper

Religions Influencing the Policy - Research Paper Example Though it has been assumed to play major roles in peace making around the world, divisions and battles have taken place in the name of religion. Over decades, religion has diversified and developed to include major religions like Christianity, Islam and Judaism. Christianity and Islam are the two major religions that have contributed to economic, social, political and cultural development in world societies. Christianity has over two billion followers throughout the world; God being the Supreme Being then there is Jesus the son of god believed to have died to save Christians from their sins and the Holy Spirit. Christians read the bible and believe in its teachings taught by pastors and priests across the world. Christianity describes the way of life, the reason for existence and the plans for the future nourished by the Holy Spirit. Christians believe that they should not have anything to do with politics instead they should simply preach the gospel. They insist that Christ died for our sins and rose on the third day but that does not make it a geographical or a social entity for violence or political gains (Livingston page 8). But this does not mean that Gods kingdom has nothing to do with the world or that politics are not important, it simply means that the gospel should not be reference for political violations. What Christians should strive for is how the politics will have impacts in their lives and how it can affect their belief in Jesus Christ and the church. It is believed that every Christian is a soldier of the Lord and there are Christians who entangle themselves with politics in the belief that God will not object. There is nothing wrong with fighting injustice or wanting things to be done differently because that’s part of expressing opinion but politics is not an easy way to take for Christians. There will always be question of why a Christians joins politics; their motives are they for fame, money, power or truly taking the seat to serve the people. Politics offers are promising and at times purity motives may be hard to sustain as one will be devoting more money, energy and time on politics than Christianity which encourages one to take on humble ways. Christians believe that you cannot eliminate wickedness by laws or legislation instead the easiest way which is also approved by God is through salvation and forgiveness of sins through his son Jesus. In the bible we see that God established government, but not political sciences that come up with new laws, better laws meant to make the world a better place or try to take advantage of the less elite. Government was meant to give people a leader who ensured that everyone lived according to God’s will and teachings (Livingston page 7). Politics cannot make a better world for humans to live in it or save souls but God can do both. The bible encourages people to follow and even obey the laws put across but it never gives a go ahead for Christians to be involved w ith politics. This is because Christianity is a big role the same goes for politics and keeping the balance between the two can be overwhelming. Keeping up with the two lives is nearly impossible that’s why Christians are encouraged to stick to their faith and practice the will of God which is spreading the gospel. Islam Islam has more than a billion followers who worship Allah, have Muhammad as their latest prophet and believe in angels. Muslims are the followers of Islam who are devoted to Koran and its teachings. Muslims unlike the Christians are required to know all the teachings of the Koran by the time they are a certain age. Though Islam religion is strict and disciplined in its customs and rules, its