Healthy Personality: Ability to Adapt Change and Handle Stress

The road to a healthy personality is like a road itself. It has many curves and blind corners. Ones ability to adapt to this constantly changing road is one of the most important components of a healthy personality. That is, the ability to adapt to a changing world. Another important component is the ability to handle stress. We are just beginning to find out what stress does to our bodies and minds, and most of it is not good. Some other components I will discuss are having a good self-concept and everything that encompasses self . Our world is constantly changing and putting different pressures and demands on us. We have to adapt to many new kinds of stressors resulting from evolution alone. Time is changing constantly and that brings on new situations we need to cope with. When a person can adapt well, they have less stress and in general have a healthier personality. Adapting gives us the means to survive. It provides us with shelter, food, and a competitive edge. Without these things its hard to survive. There are people like this too. Some people, whether it be circumstantial or relative, just do not have what it takes to make it these days. These people usually do not have a healthy personality. It would be hard to even think about what a healthy personality is like. The ability to adapt gives us access to the resources needed for lives essential biological needs, which in turn allows us to think deeper about our state of mind and relationships with others. The way we handle stress and how we react to it plays a big role in the development of a healthy personality. To go out into the world not prepared to handle stress would be like going into war with no ammo in the guns. You would not last very long in either situation. There is no denying the fact that all of have stress to deal with. I'm not going to tell you or anyone else what I'm going through. You don't need to hear it and I don't like hearing it from other people. What it comes down to is how one deals with their individual stressors. Psychological hardiness comes into play here. If you are a psychologically hardy person, stress may be a foreign word to you. On the other hand if you are not a psychologically hardy person you will have a very good idea of what stress is. Psychological hardiness, to me, is the act of actively knowing you have stress and using three simple guidelines to deal with that stress. Those three are commitment, control, and challenge. These three things are very important in stress management. Especially in comparison to other ways of stress management like substance use, withdrawal, or defense mechanisms. While these things temporarily relieve the effects of stress they usually are short lived or have negative consequences attached to them. If you commit yourself to do something you are actively staying involved in that activity. This helps you to set goals and achieve them. Challenge is taking a stressful situation and turning it into a challenge instead of some situation you just have to deal with. When you take on something it doesn't quite seem the same as a stressful situation. The situation may be very stressful, it's all about the attitude one takes on before going into a certain situation. Finally control can aid in stress relief. When people feel that they are in control they have an easier time dealing with whatever situation they are in. If you feel that you are in charge of your life and the decisions you make and the attitudes you take on are your own you will have an easier time dealing with stress. These are not the only ways of dealing with stress. There is Albert Ellis's concept of controlling stressful thoughts. Ellis says that what we think is directly correlated to what we feel. His theory includes concepts like catastrophizing thoughts and irrational beliefs. These things are hard to detect, but I think we all do them. Irrational beliefs and catastrophizing thoughts are negative feelings about situations you feel stress in. An example would be thinking you have to act a certain way to get the approval of others in a social setting, or thinking that there is nothing that you could possibly do in a situation. The main point in dealing with stress that Ellis is trying to make is realizing that we all have these negative thoughts and beliefs. When something happens to us, Ellis called this event the activating event, we have consequences that follow. In between those two events is when the belief or thought will take place. An example would be if you lose your job, activating event, you will have negative consequences. A lot of people would add in a catastrophizing thought like â€Å"that job was everything to me† or â€Å"I'll never find a job as good as that one†. When we do that it makes it easier to look at our failures and concentrate on them instead of trying to fix them. It also makes it easier to become depressed or anxious. People get in the habit of using these beliefs and thoughts over time and have a hard time breaking there habits. My final component to a healthy personality is a collaboration of several different theories. They all have to do with how we perceive ourselves and how we feel about ourselves. Individual theories that will be discussed are self perception, the self concept, self esteem, and ideal self. I feel that all of these things are closely related and tied together very intricately. They are reflected within each other and none could really be complete without the others. Self perception is an ongoing and constantly changing view of what we are. It can be broken down into three major components, they are: the physical self, the social self, and the personal self. The physical self is the bodies we walk around in and the unique features each of them possess. Our physical appearance has an enormous effect on a healthy personality. Some people tower over others and some, like me, wish they had a few more inches. Some people are physically more beautiful than other people, and in turn get more attention for their appearance. Other people are ridiculed for their appearance. How people deal with their physical self has a lot to do with a healthy personality. For example if a young girl really wants to be a model, but is not cut out to be one, the realization that she will not be a model will have a profound effect on her personality. Perhaps she will take on negative attitudes about her body and appearance. Maybe those attitudes will develop into false beliefs that people, including her, are somehow not as valuable unless they are beautiful. You can also look at it from the other end, perhaps a very beautiful young lady develops negative feelings about unattractive people. And those feelings develop into beliefs that she is better than everyone else and the most beautiful person on earth. How we deal with the fact that we are constantly being judged and evaluated on our physical appearance has a profound effect on personality. The social self is the many different masks and roles we play in social and home settings. You might play the role of a sophisticated gentleman at a fancy Christmas party, or the role of a brother, sister, mother, father, or child within a household. How we use these different roles and masks has an effect on our personality. What if you went to fancy Christmas parties in wholly jeans and a t-shirt? You would probably be looked down upon. And if you did that all the time, that is use the wrong social masks in the wrong situation, it would affect your personality negatively. The personal self is the part of you that nobody else knows. It is the constantly changing feeling of being yourself, with always changing emotions, attitudes, and feelings. The personal self includes our names and self concept. Our names do have a small effect on our personality. They can change others perception of us, which can lead to many different things, but for the most part peoples names do not have a profound impact on personality. A self concept is an impression or concept of yourself. It is a collaboration of personal traits you feel are important, and your own impression on how you stack up to these traits. Your self concept can have positive and negative impacts on your personality. If you have a very rigid view on what values you should have and you do not live up to them you could consider yourself not worthy. It can lower your self esteem, which is another closely related concept. Self esteem is approving of yourself. It is respecting yourself as a valuable person. Self esteem is said to form in childhood when parents either show conditional or unconditional love. This can have a profound affect on personality. People with lower self esteem tend to be depressed more and are shown to be more susceptible to suicide. Flip side of the story, people with high self esteem tend to live happier lives with overall healthier personalities. Concepts of how we ought to be is our ideal selves. This is all the traits we think we should be full of. Things like compassion, honesty, or it can be things like physical appearance, height, and hair color. The closer we actually are to what we think we should be correlates to ones self esteem. That is, the closer we are, the higher our self esteem. If we think we are not up to par with ourselves it can lower self esteem. Our concept of self is a very intricate and delicate web of emotions and outside pressures we need to keep tabs on. The concepts in this essay are a lot like car accessaries. You can add new shiny paint to show of its physical appearance and you can add snow tires to adapt to different road conditions in the future. What we do to our vehicles that we have is up to us. We have the innate ability to change our surroundings and ourselves. That is why a lot of these components are related. If we feel like we have low self esteem we can start exercising to feel better, which will in turn allow us to be physically fit. Physical fitness will allow us to feel less stress about being overweight or lazy, and that in turn will allow us to concentrate on adapting to our natural surroundings.

Should Downloading Music Be Illegal.

Response to text- Why You Should Pay For Music by John Sheldrick Dear John, I read your article and I have some comments about it I would like to acknowledge about it: Firstly when you mention that you advocate a culture in which people actually want to spend money on music, but I actually think we should advocate a culture where everybody listens to music and not just the ones who have a computer and and a bank account, I believe that music should be a right and not a privilege and everybody should want to willingly listen to music.Then you argue that people value music but they don’t value it in the sense that they will willingly fork over $1 for a song, I have more than 2 thousand songs in my library, that is equal to 2 thousand dollars and I really don't have that extra money to spend and people usually don't like to spend their money on things they can get for free. I would much rather use that money to buy something else and if we had to pay for every single song we woul d like to listen to our music library would be much smaller and we could not enjoy music as much as we enjoy it when we have a large variety of it.For the consumer, music is not a product or a service. They pay for physical copies of music such as CD's, they pay for music sheets or for subscriptions to music services, but they don't pay for a song by itself. After that you state that artists now have no money to keep recording music and have to go on tours to get the money. I do agree that some artist that are not yet discovered should get support from their fans so they could keep recording music, but aren't musicians supposed to be doing music because its their passion?They are not supposed to go into the business because they want money and fame even though I don't see the artist at the top of the charts starving to death. Music is about passion and the ones who are recording music are supposed to want to bring their music to all kinds of people so they can enjoy it and the music ian is supposed to be satisfied with that and not be crushed because they are not the cover of a magazine. I also think that tours are a great thing, why listen to a record when you can go out and the real human behind the voice live and enjoy it more closely.It's clear that everybody thinks music should be free, because it's going to sell everywhere else. Why should the music industry care whether the money comes from a tour with $100 in profits or the exact same amount is brought in from CD purchases? In the end, it doesn't matter, money is still coming in and can be used to record more music. Then you talk about how music labels are closing because the lack of money they are getting but I actually think that record labels are trying to turn music into gold, music recording labels are getting a large cut of the artists money and are overcharging.The artist who are not yet discovered cant record a good album because the labels are asking for absurd quantities of money which the art ist cant pay, so the label closes and the vicious circle starts again elsewhere. I think labels should spend more time developing the artists because they would have a stake in them that extended beyond their recorded music. There is no possible way anyone could seriously work in music and be looking for money and a the same time state that they truly care about the musicians.In conclusion I think that we do need to support our artists, but that could be done a million ways other than paying an overpriced dollar for a song. With the internet now how can we be surprised when people now expect to get their music online for free? The internet file sharing and the advantages we now have in technology I see no way to make the clock turned back and force people to start paying again. So the business has to get creative and evolve away from the sale of recorded music and start receiving money in other ways.

Health Issues in the Philippines Essay

DOH alarm: HIV cases in first-half 2012 exceed full year of 2010 The number of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) cases during the first half of the year has already surpassed the record for the whole 2010, the Department of Health (DOH) said Friday, underscoring the alarming rise in incidence of the virus that causes the dread disease AIDS. The bulk of the spike was traced to a rise in male-to-male transmission and the sharing of needles among injecting drug users in Cebu province. DOH Assistant Secretary Eric Tayag said for the month of June alone, 295 HIV cases were reported to the department, bringing to 1,600 the total number of cases in the first half of 2012. â€Å"We are halfway now for the year and that’s already more than the 1,591 for the whole year of 2010,† Tayag told reporters. In 2011, HIV cases were 2,349. This brings the total number of HIV cases in the country to 9,964 since 1984 when the DOH started reporting HIV/AIDS cases. Men having sex with men make up 87 percent of HIV transmissions recorded in the first six months of the year, with men aged 20-29 making up most of the cases. While MSM transmission has been the main mode of HIV transmission for a couple of years now, the DOH is particularly alarmed by a dramatic spike of cases involving injecting drug users (IDU) in Cebu City. â€Å"What we’re alarmed about is that for June there were additional cases of injecting drug use or person who inject drugs,† Tayag said. HIV among drug users reached 120 during the first half of the year alone, he added. From 1984 to 2008, there were only 8 HIV cases among drug users. â€Å"You will recall that in 2008 we only had 8 cases, now we have a total of 385 since 1984 when we started reporting HIV,† said Tayag, adding that all 120 HIV cases among IDUs this year were reported in Cebu City. Tayag admitted that HIV monitoring among drug users in Cebu had stopped for awhile, discouraging people who were injecting drugs from submitting themselves for AIDS testing. â€Å"In this period we stopped monitoring HIV among persons who inject drugs in that part of Cebu. For some time there was no fund so when we did a survey we saw that the number of HIV among drug users has increased,† he said. Tayag said unlike other drug users in some parts of the country, injecting drug users in Cebu City use regulated medicines. The virus is spread as they share unclean and contaminated needles. Tayag revealed that the government has started an HIV mapping, where parts of the country are labeled in terms of AIDS risk. Metro Manila, Cebu and Davao are tagged high risk. Read more:  Social Issues in the Philippines

Diplomatic Immunity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Diplomatic Immunity - Essay Example (Curtis, pp 345-500, 1999) After this whole research, there is one basic phenomenon which is the major reason in setting the country apart from the Central Europe. In Bucharest legal some of the popular brand names are Romania while on the other hand mostly from the USA and UK none of them have any local branch of office. Few popular names among the top 100 global firms includes (Curtis, pp 345-500, 1999) Joerg Menzer once said "There are many strong local based law firms which are most reputable as compare to other firms". (Curtis, pp 345-500, 1999) Due to the improper work of some leading global companies some smaller companies are setting and building up shops and getting and gaining name and fame side by side. This situation is due to the absence of the large markets and due to their improper work. When they are not properly working they will slowly loose their name and with the help of this situation on the other hand many other small companies build up their standard. (Curtis, pp 345-500, 1999) Apart from this situation there are many giant companies which are now working with small global market in order to make their position in the market. They always work with other smaller companies when they are not getting anything from the bigger one. Many companies without having any offices intervene on the market of Romania. Companies like Norton Rose Freshfields and Allen Clifford Chance After working since seven years, the most reputable company linklaters has gained up on the good quality of the personnel. (Bardo, pp74-78, 1998) There are such type of companies which while working with smaller companies for a limited time period gain a lot of praise and reputation which they can't gain when they are working with a good and huge companies. This is the reason that why and how diplomats are now working and gaining money. The most important discussion now a days is the break-Out with the help of international firms. Most of the lawyer wants to solve it by themselves while some wants to carry it with the help of a group work. And this was the reason that by the end of 2006 the lawyers decided to plan a group of 15 members in order to solve this major problem. (Bardo, pp74-78, 1998) Here arises a critical and one of the important question that if the market develops, in return clients will always need more complex and critical services while at present most of the law firms are focusing on the volume. (Bardo, pp74-78, 1998) Diplomats are now working as they are working in any law market. They have now no danger and they are working freely. (Bardo, pp74-78, 1998) The law market is not purely saturated and this is the reason that why most of the lawyers were surprised when they observed the situation

Lisa Benton Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Lisa Benton - Essay Example In this regard, the main reason that lead Benton to her problems was that her immediate colleagues, Scoville and Linton, actually made it impossible for her to simultaneously express herself in both respects. Benton, on the other hand, inevitably was comparing her situation at Houseworld with that at Right-Away during her summer internship, and it was hard for her to accept that the harmony between professional progress and relations with people at workplace, which she experienced at Right-Away, may not always exist. It is interesting to ponder if there was something Benton could do differently in order to had changed her situation. I think that the main negative factor that existed from the very beginning and was inevitable for Lisa, was her assignment to a minor department, the fact that she herself realized and regretted. In this case, ambitions of Linton, seemingly aimed at promoting the significance of Pure & Fresh brand, could be ambivalent - on one hand she aimed for successful performance of her brand, on the other hand she probably was anxious about the recognition of her personal role in this success, moreover that she did not have an MBA.

Medical Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Medical Law - Essay Example s are legally considered to be negligent in their work, if their actions are not in accordance with what is expected of a medical professional with analogous skill and competence. The general opinion is that negligence claims originate due to inadequate communication by medical professionals, in situations involving medical complications. Physicians who do not caution their patients, in cases where the results prove to be serious, are deemed to guilty of negligence1. The duties of doctors are set out in medical ethics or deontology. Doctors are under a duty to protect the best interests of their patients, protect third parties and maintain confidentiality. The Mental Health Act and the Children’s Act of the United Kingdom specify the professional ethics to be followed by medical practitioners2. However, all the duties of doctors are not enshrined in a single Act, and there are several applicable acts. The General Medical Council maintains the list of duties that doctors are required to follow in an ethical manner3. Doctors have to provide medical care that corresponds to the medical status established by general medical opinion. Medical practitioners have to take the utmost care while discharging their duties. Doctors have to ensure that their medical treatment does not infringe the patient’s freedom. This was established in Mallette v. Shulman. In that case, the plaintiff was a Jehovah’s Witness. The doctor at the clinic had given her a blood transfusion in order to save her life4. The plaintiff sued the defendants on charges of battery, and the trial court accepted her plaint. The appellate court also upheld this decision; and it became very clear that patients were at liberty to choose any particular medical treatment. It was also established, that patients could refuse to accept treatment; even though such treatment would save their life5. Doctors are under a legal obligation to provide patients with sufficient information about their disease.

Importance of Ethical Behavior Among Employees. Why Do Good People Do Research Paper

Importance of Ethical Behavior Among Employees. Why Do Good People Do Bad Things at Work - Research Paper Example It is the responsibility of the decision makers to take proper moral perspective of the ethical manner in which they should be behaving that will be favorable for the company at large. To choose the right kind of ethical approach in conducting business activities, it may sometimes be necessary to shift from the path of short term profits. The idea is to maintain balance between what is right and what is profitable which may apparently seem difficult. In order to ensure a sustainable business in the long run, the need is to integrate the ethical principles with the company’s strategy. Lack of ethical behavior and social responsibilities can reduce motivation among employees resulting in poor performance and lower profit. Business ethics and social responsibility can have significant positive impacts on the company. A business conducted in an ethical manner can gain the trust of customers which can result in increased sales and profit. Employees will enjoy favorable working cond itions thus encouraging them to remain an integral part of the company which will reduce employee turnover. Aspiring employees will want to work with the company and this can reduce recruitment cost, and also the company will be able to attract the most talented people to join the company. More investors will want to buy shares of the company leading to increase in the price of shares, and this can protect the company from takeover. This paper explores the importance of ethics in employees’ behavior and what motivates them to behave in an ethical manner. Over the last few decades, the growing importance of ethical behavior in business organizations is becoming evident with more and more companies implementing ethics systems in their management. The subject is increasingly being emphasized in course studies of business management. However, there are still organizations that do not recognize the need of ethical behavior, and are still treading the traditional belief that busine ss activities should be focused only on profit maximization. However, general analysis on this subject has concluded that a business organization shoulders the responsibility of ethical behavior, and it does not only entail satisfying the shareholders, but also others who are associated with the business like employees and customers. Implementation of proper ethical management system can lead to an ethical culture among employees thereby improving the overall moral quality of the company. Nevertheless, many organizations still do not consider ethics as important enough to be considered in management systems. These organizations regard ethics as an external factor that has nothing to do with the activities of a business. The fact that business is conducted by human beings and so ethics need to be considered in decision making processes is largely ignored by many organizations (Palomino et al., 2010, pp.16-17). Since business is essentially conducted for making profits, therefore its activities will most naturally focus on profit maximization. Moreover, since business is conducted by human beings, and they are a part of larger society, it is necessary that behaviors of employees have both social and ethical values. In modern times, business is not solely considered as exclusive property of shareholders, but is also considered as a part of society at large. Therefore, the need to project an organization as having ethical values has become very important (Palomino et al., 2010, pp.19). Arguments concerned with business ethics should not be concentrated only on its requirement for competitive advantages, but also should be based on the fact that business is conducted by human beings. If ethics is ignored, then that will inevitably create a de-motivating ambiance

Is it important for managers in youth work to have an understanding of Essay

Is it important for managers in youth work to have an understanding of the concept of organisation culture Why, and what are the strengths and weaknesses of th - Essay Example Taking all of the criteria into consideration, I feel that the answer to the question is yes for the reasons presented in this paper. Anderson writes about this concept and other in "Imagined Communities". He takes the premise and considers it in the context of nationalism. Anderson contends, "Nationality, nation-ness, and nationalism are cultural artifacts whose creation toward the end of the 18th C was the spontaneous distillation of a complex ''crossing'' of discrete historical forces; but that, once created, they became ''modular,'' capable of being transplanted to a great variety of social terrains, to merge and be merged with a variety of political and ideological constellations. Theorists of nationalism have encountered three paradoxes: (1)The objective modernity of nations in the eye of the historian vs. their subjective antiquity in the eye of nationalists. (2) The formal universality of nationality as a socio-cultural concepts vs. the particularity of its concrete manifestations. (3) The political power of nationalism vs. its philosophical poverty. (Anderson URL http://ssr1.uchicago.edu/PRELIMS/Culture/cumisc1.html 2005) What Anderson says that applies to management and youth work is that there are clearly defined boundaries and common interests that have been derived from common circumstances. Through a managers understanding of this and implementation of this philosophy to their youth work an organisational culture can be formed and maintained. In order to understand an organisational culture beyond the premise of nationalism takes some understanding of society and the ways that people identify themselves within a given society. The consideration we are concerned with for this discussion is managements understanding of organization culture for youth work. Youth work is the process of creating an environment where young people can engage in informal educational activities. The concept of organizational culture is an important concept in youth work and a clear understanding of it by management will provide strength to the youth organizations implemented by management. The premise of organizational culture can only enhance any management position including youth work. Organizational culture can be thought of as the values, beliefs and customs of an organization. However many managers, especially youth managers, do not understand what the actual values and beliefs of their organization is. By gaining, an understanding of the factors that encompass organizational culture an organization can only benefit from a clear understanding of it. However, if the factors that make up organizational culture are not clearly defined or understood weakness within the organization can and most likely will result. Pollitt (1993) points out that organizational culture and its tenets are especially important in public services. There are several reasons for this and the main one is that public services encompass all of a society not just one sector of it. Although the specific interest of this discussion involves youth work that type of work ultimately effects and influences society. Polit explains, a single definition of organizational culture has proven to be very elusive. No one definition of organizational culture has emerged in the literature. One of the issues involving culture is that is defined in terms of its both causes and effect. Pollitt 1993 URL

Social Networking Crisis Communication Assignment - 1

Social Networking Crisis Communication - Assignment Example In order to determine the most efficient medium of communication researchers conducted several case studies across the world. The first instance was carried out on a gun shooting incident in Virginia Tech. During this case study, the researchers conducted online monitoring of the newsfeeds from the affected institution. The online monitoring began one hour after the shooting. The participants of this research study lacked knowledge that their activities and posts were under study. In addition, the researchers went back and conducted interviews five days after the shooting incident. In Colorado’s case, the researchers created an informative and detailed timeline of the communication. The timeline was divided into two sections that are the official communication and unofficial communication. Under the formal communication part, the researchers had columns for university website and emails. On the other hand, under the informal communication sector, the researchers had two column s for Facebook and Flickr photos. In another case, study Southern California. The researchers monitored the posts and relevant messages from the fire crisis that rocked two counties that are Santa Barbara and San Diego. The researchers followed the local news websites and the online social media such as Facebook, Craigslist, and Flickr Photos. In addition, researchers conducted surveys and interviews in the affected areas ten days after the incidence. Furthermore, in the case of the earthquake in China, researchers monitored the social media news a minute after the incident. They keenly followed the posts on China most famous social site that is Tianya forum- a site with over 20 million users in China.

THE GLOBALIZATION OF PRODUCTION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 7000 words

THE GLOBALIZATION OF PRODUCTION - Essay Example In fact globalization, in the sense of participation of the world communities in exchange of culture, thoughts, theory, and trade has been there for several centuries. Yet the concept of globalization has undergone radical changes in the past century. Now it stands for something more than just the diffusion and osmosis of the economic, social, and political theories, practices, and technologies. Now every country is as much part of globalization as globalization has become a part of every country. Globalization is as much a universal phenomenon as it is an internal phenomenon. It is not only the exchange of knowledge or adoption of better technologies. The meaning of globalization is not only limited to the idea of modernization or imitating a certain culture or practice. Globalization in itself has become a culture in its own rights and it has managed to bring the world closer. Now events happening at a distant geography are part of the local affair of the people. The development of technology has paved the way for this massive spread of cultural and economic activity. The amount and nature of interaction has changed fundamentally in the past century due to the rapid technological advancement that the world has seen. There has been an immense development in the world of technologies. Transport and logistics have developed substantially. The modes of communication have become extremely complex yet the diversity and speed that has been achieved was beyond imagination for the past generations. The entire world has come under a single network, which has facilitated social and cultural exchange, political interaction, and economic participation to a large extent (Globalization, n.d.). Free trade as a mode of development has gained wide popularity in the context of globalization and the volume of trade in the world is huge. The global market has become a very important force for the economic development of any country and all the countries is in the world are expose d to a certain extent or the other to the climate of the global market. The global markets have a tremendous influence on the financial status and the economic policies of a country. Therefore the sovereign states have to consider the global scenario during the construction of their economic plans. The emergence of advanced transport and communication system has revolutionized the factor markets. The factors of production are now able to transcend the geographical and political borders of a country at ease. This has made the nations follow the terms of the global markets and the supremacy of the nation states has given way to the domination of a handful of enterprises called the transnational corporations. Globalization has also led to the transformation of the multinational corporations to transnational corporations. These transnational corporations have become one of the major players of the global economy. They control a large chunk of the global markets. However their management and capital are not tied to any country. They are managed internationally, from various parts of the world wherever they have a location advantage. Similarly they can also shift their capital and other factors to places where they can have a factor market advantage. Therefore their production and marketing strategies adopt a global perspective. The transnational corporations therefore cater to the global market by operating globally.

Marketing Journal Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Marketing Journal - Personal Statement Example It enables me to appreciate the well-crafted marketing strategy of Starbucks instead of just branding it as a specialty coffee retailer focused on bringing cups of coffee in the market. I now see that the success of Starbucks is due to its well orchestrated and comprehensive marketing strategy. It provides that "Starbucks experience" by having good ambiance, good coffee, and good baristas. I would have to say that I appreciate its quest in using green coffee allowing it to help small farmers whose main livelihood is producing organically grown coffee which are consumed by Starbucks clients. I like the company's effort in ensuring that beans are "green" and "ethical" as this add value to their products. As a discriminating customer, I would gladly pay a premium for a product which is manufactured by a socially responsible business organization thinking that I am not just having a good product but is also given the opportunity and reach out to other people through my purchases. I believe that marketing has a good impact in us. ... Marketing is not bad in itself. Marketing just responds to our emerging needs noting that the success of a campaign is dependent on our responsiveness. Thus, I believe the harm that it can inflict on individuals and society is dependent on our acceptance of it. The prevalence of corporate social responsibility as a good way of marketing a business organization is good for the society. As we customers continue to prefer products which are made by socially responsible manufacturers and service providers, we also continue to urge companies to give back to the society that they operate in. The greater participation of companies in livelihood, educational, and financial development of less privileged societies just shows how marketing helps the economy and society as a whole. Through marketing, we get informed of what companies do and how they contribute to sustainable development. For me, the most important issue that companies should focus on in this time is the current economic slowdown. Recognizing that it is affecting all nations both developed and developing, companies should seek to minimize the blow of economic recession by helping in their own ways. This can be done by directly intervening in nations where help is needed. Another is through keeping their workers and focusing on other cost-cutting initiatives. I think it will be illogical to focus on environmental concerns at this present time when our problem is in economic sustenance. I will be very much pleased to see business organizations coordinating with government and other institutions in making the economic recession more bearable for everyone in the globe. This is an urgent matter and a business organization which calls

Maternal instincts vs. social instincts Essay Example for Free

Maternal instincts vs. social instincts Essay Sethes most severe behavior as a mother, that distinguishes her as socially constructed by both her mothers actions and the abuse of slavery, because she alters the rules, determines for herself what is acceptable and unacceptable, what is right and what is wrong, suggests that she is simultaneously the best mother and the worst, and without question, revolutionary. Trudier Harris notes that Morrison succeeds in making Sethe so simply human and American (the God-given right to motherhood, love of ones children, desire of a better life for them, love of freedom, nonconformity) that we cannot easily condemn her act even when we clearly do not condone it (Fiction and Folklore 171). This is the case when social and moral norms are being neglected before the maternal instincts, which are proven to be more powerful than social ones. Yet Sethe was a pretty little slavegirl that had recognized a hat, and split to the woodshed to kill her children (Beloved 158). The rapidity with which she acts certainly shows it’s innate and essentialist behavior. Sethe is a mother both under the confines of slavery and then in freedom. But she is a different mother in each situation, thereby confirming the socially constructed nature of her mothering. She proudly explains to Paul D the essence of motherhood; and Paul D knew exactly what she meant: to get to a place where you could love anything you chose—not to need permission for desire—well now, that was freedom (Beloved 162). Sethe is proud of herself, her accomplishments, and appreciates her freedom. OReilly suggests that Sethes flight to freedom is structured specifically as a heroic quest (133). (Please explain a little) In reality, The very meaning of a hero and heroism is redefined, making it possible for Sethe to inscribe herself as subject and celebrate the reproductive feats of nursing and birth as heroic labor (OReilly 134). Heroism here is referred here to boldness to become a mother in such a life-denying circumstances. This is true also for Sethes rebellious and atypical rescue of herself and children as well. Interestingly, when Sethe is no longer someone elses property, she suddenly sees her children as her own her own property, so to speak. After being owned, she wants ownership too, of herself and her children. Sethe has never had anything to call her own in her life and suddenly everything is her own. She acts and reacts based upon everything she has seen, heard, and felt in her lifetime, a lifetime of slavery. She knows the notion of ownership. Sethe reacts as a result of her newfound possessiveness and ownership of her children. Again, she is creating her own language and law for motherhood. Paul D understands part of this: the possessiveness, the love, and the freedom. But he does not understand the killing. To her, death and the potential of heaven is better than slavery and hell on earth. Thus, this murder may prove her more animalistic, as schoolteacher would argue she already is, or perhaps, less so, because her decision was a conscious one, thought out and made of her own free will (Beloved 193). She takes responsibility for herself and her actions by refusing to accept patriarchal societys laws regarding slavery, laws regarding murder, and traditions regarding a womans place, especially a black womans place. So, instead of returning to slavery under schoolteacher and his two physically and emotionally abusive nephews, she assumes society, institutes an instant matriarchal ruling system, the social instincts, empowered by her own mothers actions and perhaps toying with Gods power: what Sethe giveth, Sethe taketh away. She does not regard the murder of her daughter as taking life away from her daughter, but as keeping her daughters life away from schoolteacher, away from slavery, and putting it in a better place. Sethe believes that once Beloved is dead and moves on to eternal life, neither schoolteacher nor slavery can touch. She is safe. She will be where Sethes own mother is. Sethe believes she is preserving Beloved by killing her. She is preserving the purity of her body and mind. Beloved will not be ripped apart by the men or the institution that governs slavery. She will not be raped physically or emotionally. Thus, to Sethe, she has succeeded in preserving her daughter. In Beloved, Sethe is both subject and object, rigid and excessive, mother and daughter. She is exerting influence as well as receiving it and she exerts it because of the way she has received it from her own mother. This becomes relevant to her handling of Paul D, as well. Paul D does not understand what he must accept in order to make a life with Sethe. He cannot accept his place in the household as something other than the head and he does not understand Sethes love, protectiveness, or murder of her daughter. Paul D s reaction to the knowledge of Sethes actions, according to Jan Furman, forces her to rebuff all attempts to minimize her victories as a woman, as a mother. And so she takes back from Paul D the responsibility for her breasts that she had given (75-6). She takes all responsibility back. This tells the reader again that Sethes strength surpasses all. Morrison flat out tells the reader that she is tougher, because she could do and survive things they believed she should neither do nor survive (Beloved 47). She cannot be the weak slave woman when her actions, her love, and her strength of character make her larger than, more powerful than schoolteacher, Halle, Paul D, maybe all of patriarchal society itself. Her actions certainly disrupt the societal norms. However, the inherent issue remains regarding essentialism and social constructionism. Is birth civilized or is it animalistic? Mothers are trained, from the onset of motherhood, to virtually be more natural, more like animals. Then, later in life, when those tendencies take a different form, in protectiveness of their young, mothers are maligned for the same behavior and actions that were instilled upon them during pregnancy, labor and childbirth, and this is Sethes plight. She attempts to take the proper measures, which is her defined, unstereotypical manner. Therefore, as in Sethes case, the concept of mothering may have essentialist qualities, but the individual mother is socially constructed. Why, then, does Sethe kill Beloved? Why, after her milk was taken from her by one of the nephews, taking practically all of her motherhood with it, does she begin to take motherhood away from herself when she fought so hard to get it under freedom? Why wouldnt her sons, Howard and Buglar, let go each others hands (Beloved 183)? They fear the one person who should be their haven in this world. Is motherhood that powerful? Why does it take Sethe twenty years to figure out that she should have killed schoolteacher, not her own child, as is evidenced by the fact that when Mr. Bodwin comes to take Denver to work, Sethe goes after him and not Denver (Beloved 262)? Is it because the institution of slavery was so strong that it would have claimed her and her children even if schoolteacher were dead? And if the structure of slavery were so powerful, and one sees the negativity, the hatred, the racism in its structure, then one must claim matriarchy for the solution. One must see Sethe as a powerful and revolutionary woman who, although she commits murder, although she kills her own best thing, her crawling already? girl who impresses her with her advanced physical capabilities, makes her own decisions under her own set of rules, given to her because she is a mother. She can no longer conform to an authority that prevents her from protecting her young in undoubtedly excessive ways once the hummingbirds of motherhood point their beaks into her heart. Paul D and schoolteacher reference Sethe in terms of animal characteristics with a negative connotation. But if one can co-opt the male masters language one can offer that it is not always bad for a mother to have animalistic tendencies, though she should not be measured by them. Interestingly, the non-biological mothers will offer even further examination of social constructionism, because they are created out of necessity. The question arises, then, as to whether their mothering behavior becomes essentialized once they assume the role of mother. A biological mother certainly could reject her children, reject motherhood, and remain only selfishly self-aware. Yet, for the most part, the mothers do not make that choice. Are the attributes of motherhood universal, essential, regardless of the societal constructs playing on their decisions? Or do these stereotypes for motherhood break down under severe circumstances? Let us answer these questions in the next section.

Globalization A Boon Or A Curse Developing Countries Economics Essay

Globalization A Boon Or A Curse Developing Countries Economics Essay What is Globalization? At an economic level Globalization is the process denationalization of markets. In much simpler words it integration of an economy to the world economy. Globalization theoretically is an economic phenomenon, but it has its impact can be felt on all fields of human life. Also Globalisation has helped developed countries by bringing in opportunities for economic development. Globalization also has helped developing countries in gaining greater access to developed countrys technology and their markets. But globalisation has its own negative impacts and challenges. Growing inequality in within and across nations, environmental problems and volatility in financial market are some of the negative impacts of globalisation. What is it that differentiates between a developed country and a developing country? Terms like rich and poor, high income and low income, industrial and agricultural etc. are also being used. The attributes that differentiate a developed country from a developing country are infrastructural development, national income, quality of life, education and health. Many of the developing nations have a very huge national income but when it comes to Per capita income they are among the lowest. Because per capita income not only depends upon the national income but also the total population of the country. Unfortunately the main characteristic of any developing nation is that they have massive population. So countries are differentiated on the basis of their per capita income because it is more feasible and easy. At the top most level are the high income countries, with per capita incomes ranging from $10,000 to $30,000. These countries have well developed infrastructure, a large urban popul ation, an educated labour force. These countries are mature and are growing at a very slow pace. Included in this category are: United States, Canada, France, Germany, United Kingdom and other members of European Union and others in the Pacific, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. These advanced countries work together in the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). In the middle there is a wide range of developing countries in terms of the World Banks Terminology, Lower middle and Upper middle income countries. Countries having per capita income ranging from $10,000 to $1000 per year. Some of these countries are making huge development and slowly approaching maturity. Most of the Asian countries fall under this category including Korea, India, Indonesia and also some Latin American countries like Brazil, Argentina, Mexico etc. Most of the countries which fall under this category lack enough infrastructural facilities and education. Many of these countries are on the path of industrialization and most of them are labour intensive industries. On the other hand many of them still have large number of population living the rural areas where it is underdeveloped. Finally, there are the very poor countries, with per capita incomes of less than $755. Countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union that have been in the process of transition from Soviet-style command economies to the free market. These countries have substantial industries and had attained a middle income living standard. STANDPOINT PROPOSITION I feel that Globalization is without doubt a boon for the developing nation. It is considered to be one of the most successful prosperity and anti-poverty movement in modern era. With the help of Globalization developing countries are able to reap the benefits of current technology; which will result in production of better quality products. This doesnt mean that globalization does not have any negative effects. Globalization can also cause some serious problems like brain-drain, outsourcing, environmental issues etc. It also has an adverse effect on the local industries as they cannot compete against foreign multinational companies. But even if globalization has these negative impacts, it was a great opportunity for the developing nations to rise through increased foreign trade and Investments. Openness to trade, factor flows, ideas and information have powerfully stimulated progress, economic and political. Because of globalization the earth has become more flatter, faster and more fashionable. But there are people who believe that globalization can bring only harm to developing nations. They argue that globalization has been implemented in order to exploit the developing countries resources and labour force. But when we consider the gains or benefits of globalization we can find out that globalization has brought in more good than bad of the developing countries. ANNOTATION 1 Kotilainen, M., Kaitila, V. (2003).Economic Globalization in Developed Countries. Paper prepared for the Ministry Of Foreign Affairs, Finland. This paper analyses Economic Globalization from the point of view of the Developing countries. Also an analysis of Globalization in its different forms, with an focus on the economic impact on developing countries. The paper clearly defines Globalization and also elaborates on development and history of Globalization i.e. the Different Waves of Globalization. The Paper deals with economic impact of globalization on developing countries. The paper also discusses the development and history of Globalization. The World Bank classifies the development of Globalization as follows: The First wave of globalization: 1870 1914. The retreat into nationalism: 1914 1945, The second wave of globalization: 1945 1980, and The new wave of globalization: 1980 present. The paper has also explained in detail how Globalization affects the developing countries. Almost all the areas that can be affected by globalization have been included, they are as follows: Foreign Trade: Ultimate aim of every developing nation is to increase their exports. Developing countries specialise in the production of some goods and import others which help to lower cost. And import liberalisation facilitates this. Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) has forced developed countries to give preferential transaction with the developing nations. The concept of Everything but Arms is an example of further steps taken in liberalisation of import/export policy by the developed countries. In order for the developing countries to increase their foreign trade the developed countries should open up their economy. But there is one problem that the developing countries face that is the price of their products are typically very volatile in the world market. Developing countries have made significant growth in foreign within the past three decades. Foreign Direct Investment: Foreign Direct Investment is welcomed everywhere especially in developing countries, as it provides external resources in the form of capital that support the economic development of the developing country. Problem arises only if the government does not have any control over the its flow. The liberalisation policy taken up by countries has a direct impact on the FDI inflows. When we compare the countries in South Asia and East Africa, South African countries have more economic freedom, because its being liberalised than the other. So these countries attract more FDI inflows than their counterpart South Asia. From this we can understand Structural Reforms is an important factor in advancing economic growth. International Migration: The paper explains that the way developed countries view international migration is completely different from that of developing nation. In developing countries where population growth is fast and unemployment is high, where people cannot find job easily in their home country. This leads to more liberal migration policy in these countries. The ageing of the population in the developed countries will, however make the migration policy of the developed countries slightly more liberal in the future. Foreign Borrowing and Lending: The problem with developing countries is that they borrow too much from other countries and institutions. They prefer more debt relief than what has been agreed up on. According to the developed countries and financial institutions, there are mainly three problems that hinder lending: The immediate economic loss, the risk of moral hazard in borrowing over the longer term and the internal problem existing within the nation. In the future foreign borrowing will only take place if the developing countries have sufficient repayment capacity. Foreign Aid: The paper identifies foreign aid as an area which can be affected by globalization. Foreign aid consumes a major portion of a countrys development expenditure. The future of economic growth depends on the funds allocated and on the priorities of the developed countries. Macroeconomic Integration: International institutions like the IMF and the World Bank, are often criticised for limiting the sovereignty of policy makers in the developing countries. The lack of interdependence in macroeconomic policies is, a major characteristic of a globalised world. In order avoid macroeconomic instability the developing nations must liberalise their short-term capital movements. The Paper also discusses the other areas where globalization has some impact, they are: General politics, the Social structure, the labour market, social policy, education, culture, religion and the environment. In these fields, however, globalization does not necessarily determine a certain outcome. The paper clearly states that globalization is indeed a boon for developing countries. Globalization helps in foreign trade, attract foreign investment, international migration etc. The countries need to open up their economy in order to use the opportunity for the development of the economy. ANNOTATION 2 Stallings, B. (2000). Globalization and Liberalization: A View from the Developing. Prepared for U.N. Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean. The paper mainly deals with the Macroeconomics of Globalization i.e. Trade and Finance. It also draws a distinction between Globalization and Liberalisation. The paper clearly identifies the quantitative importance and the qualitative characteristics of developing countries in the expanding trade and financial flows of the 1980s and 1990s. The author takes the example of Latin American countries to depict the effects of globalization on Developing countries. The paper summarizes both the advantages and disadvantages of being part of a globalized world and suggesting some ideas about how to emphasize the former while minimizing the latter. The paper explains how Globalization has influenced the imports and exports made by developing countries. In terms of world imports, developing countries share fell slightly during the 1980s and then started increasing steadily by the late 1990s. A similar situation was found with exports from developing countries to the world although the trend is more pronounced. It is also important to note that trade flows in general rose rapidly in this period, nearly tripling in nominal terms. Another way of thinking about the rising importance of trade is to look at trade as a share of countries own output, i.e., the change in export and import coefficients. The paper also discusses the effects of Globalization on Latin American countries. The main message that comes across is that globalization and liberalization have increased heterogeneity across countries, sectors, and types of firms. Some have been able to take advantage of new opportunities, while others have only encountered more obstacles. Especially large differences were found with respect to productivity, which may imply continued differentiation in the future. For countries that improved their performance, foreign capital played a major role. FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) in particular contributed to increased investment, both in tradeable and in the services sector. Trade Liberalisation and Privatisation also played a vital role in this drastic change. The paper also stresses that not all of these changes can be attributed to globalization. Liberalization, as reflected in domestic policy changes, was at least as important. The key point to emphasize is the close interrelationship between globalization and liberalization in determining performance outcomes, both faster growth and increased heterogeneity. Finally the paper discusses the Advantages and Disadvantages of Globalization on the developing countries. One of the positive aspects is that there has been an additional amount of external finance available to developing countries. In addition, an increasing share of the new funds has consisted of foreign direct investment that is currently highly valued by the governments of most developing countries. Moreover, such investment tends to embody new technologies that increase the productivity and, thus, the competitiveness of developing countries. The argument is that capital markets may actually contribute to democracy by dismantling oligopolistic corporate structures in developing countries, and that the demand for additional information on the part of foreign investors (and the IMF) may increase private and public-sector transparency. The paper also identifies some serious problems that are being caused. One such problem is the increase in heterogeneity or polarization across regions and countries and also within countries (firms, regions, and groups of workers). Some who are much more able than others to take advantage of the new opportunities that globalization offer, which can lead to increased social and political conflicts and rejection of liberalization and globalization. Also the new capital flows have also brought some problems to Government in trying to manage their economies. Individual countries or regional groupings need to devise policies to protect themselves from the vagaries of international capital flows. The paper also suggests that policies are necessary to offset the polarization that is being exacerbated by global financial flows. These involve both social policies (especially education) and policies to assist firms that are being left behind in the increasingly competitive world. Controls on the entry of short-term capital flows during periods of strong international liquidity have proved useful in some cases. Also there is need for higher domestic savings in most developing countries to lower the need for external savings. Finally, policies are necessary to offset the polarization that is being exacerbated by global financial flows. ANNOTATION 3 Goyal, K. (2006).Impact of Globalization on Developing Countries (With Special Reference To India).   This paper explores the process of Globalization and Liberalization in developing countries. The paper explains in detail the effects of globalization on developing countries by taking the example of India, which is considered to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Most part of the paper discusses on how or what lead India to open up her economy and also the different impacts of globalization. India opened up the economy as an attempt to climb out of a major financial crisis which led to a foreign exchange crunch that nearly took India to situation where it could not pay off its debt. India responded to this by initiating number of Domestic and foreign policies which was formulated to tackle the short-term as well as long-term problems. Major Reform measures that were taken as a step towards Globalization are as follows: In July 1991 India was under a major financial crisis, the foreign currency reserves had plummeted to almost $1 Billion; Inflation rose to an annual rate of 17 percent; fiscal deficit was very high; foreign investors and NRIs had lost confidence in Indian Economy. India was not the only country that initiated these policies, many countries underwent the same changes at the very same time; most of them where countries of South East Asia, Latin America, Western and Eastern Europe. These economic changes initiated by these countries were inevitable as it was their last resort. Major policies brought in as part of liberalisation and globalisation was: Devaluation of currency, Disinvestment, Allowing Foreign Direct Investment (FDI), Removal of quantitative restriction on imports, Reduction in import/export tariffs and wide range of financial sector reforms. The paper also discusses on Impacts of Globalization on Developing countries especially India. Globalization has intensified interdependence and competition between economies in the world market. These economic reforms have yielded the following significant benefits: Indian economy greatly benefited from the process of globalization. Indias annual growth rate was just 3% in the 1970s which was far less than that of Brazil, Korea and Mexico. Also Indias average growth rate doubled in eighties to around 5.9% which was still lower than many of the developing countries. Globalization helped in increasing the growth rate substantially and also improves Indias position globally. These are some notable changes due to globalization: Foreign Direct Investment: FDI soared from around US$100 million in 1991 to USD around 5536 million in 2004-5. Foreign Trade (Export Import): There was increase was substantial increase in the amount of imports made by India; i.e. from USD $79 in 2003 to USD$107. Not only imports exports also increased by around 24% as compared to previous years. Oil imports rose by 19 percent with the import bill being US $ 29.08 billion against USD 20.59 billion in the corresponding period last year. Non-oil imports during 2004-05 are estimated at USD 77.036 billion, which is 33.62 percent higher than previous years imports of US $ 57.651 billion in 2003-04. Thus we can find out that the economic reforms in the Indian economy initiated since July 1991 has brought about significant changes in Indian economy like greater investment, higher growth rate, increase in foreign exchange reserve and technological development. This has helped the Indian economy to grow at a much faster pace. A Comparison with Other Developing Countries When it comes to global trade There has been increase in merchandise export made by India; i.e. from .05% to .07% over the past 20 years. At the same period Chinas share has tripled to almost 4%. Indias share of global trade is similar to that of the Philippines an economy that is 6 times smaller IMF Over the past decade FDI flows into India have averaged around 0.5% of GDP against 5% for China and 5.5% for Brazil. FDI inflows to China now exceed US $ 50 billion annually. It is only US $ 4billion in the case of India. Even though the paper concentrates mainly on the impact of globalisation on India, the story is somewhat same for other developing countries as well. Countries like Brazil, China, and Philippines have all gone through the same situation what India has experienced. According to various studies made by economic experts India and China will rule the 21st Century. And also India is the fourth largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity, and may even overtake Japan within 10 years. ANNOTATION 4 Mostert, J. (2003). The Impact of Globalisation on Developing Countries.  Prepared forESSA conference The paper deals with some of the main issue of globalization with respect to developing countries like impact of globalization on unemployment, distribution of income and also the sovereignty of the nation. The high integration of the world economy provides ample opportunities for developing nation to grow and prosper, increase their standard of living but there are some risks associated with the process of globalization. The paper also gives an insight on difference between Globalization and Regionalisation. Regionalisation is integration of different countries of a similar region. Regionalisation is somewhat similar to Economic integration. Globalisation is indeed an extension of regionalisation as it integrates not only countries of a particular region but also the different regional blocks. Impact of Globalization on World Trade According to the paper globalization process not only increased the wealth of developed country but also decreased the poverty level of developing nations. The improvement in economic growth in the Asian countries led to a reduction in the skewed distribution of income between developed and developing countries. Despite all this positive impact many countries who are not a part of international trade are still in poverty, so it is a major challenge to incorporate these countries into the international trade system. According to the paper mainly 3 regional blocks dominate the global economy; they are responsible for more than 43% of the total global transactions and around 57% of portfolio transactions. A conclusion can be drawn that the developing countries neednt get the expected advantage from the process of globalization. The impact of globalisation on the international distribution of income The paper argues that the worldwide distribution in income is still very skewed. The income gap between the countries has increased substantially since 1960 . The article states that the average GDP growth made by developed countries is much higher than that of developing nations. According to IMF when the income of richest part of the worlds population increased 6 times from 1900 to 2000; the increase in income of poorest part of the worlds population was just 3%, during the same period. According to the paper thirty developed nations that actively took part in the process of globalisation grew by 3.5% in the eighties and 5 % in the nineties. And those countries which did not actively take part in the international trading system did not realize any significant gains. Their growth was only marginal compared to those countries which actively took part in Globalization. There was in increase in level of world production and also global trade even if globalisation resulted in more skewed distribution of income between nations. The shift to integrated economy and world market provided ample opportunities for developing countries for economic growth and got chance to improve their standard of living. The impact of globalisation on unemployment The main argument that is raised by people who oppose globalization is that; globalization will lead to increased unemployment in the developing countries. Because of low wages in the developing countries they started exporting jobs to the developed countries. And when there is technological development the demand for low skilled employees will decrease. According to the IMF there has been increased unemployment because of the fact that developing nations are becoming more service oriented where there is very less demand for low skilled workers. The paper also discusses about impact of globalization on wages and labour standards. According to the author the process of globalization will lead to race to the bottom, which is resulted because countries will try and improve their competiveness by lowering wages, taxes and regulations. The author also suggest that the developing countries should improve their competitive wages as this will lead to debate on labour standards that can lead the way to the reduction of the participation of developing countries in the world economy. ANNOTATION 5 Pinelopi, K. G., Pavcnik, N. (2006).Distributional Effects of Globalization in Developing Countries. Prepared for National Science Foundation This paper mainly concentrates on Globalization and Challenges for developing countries. The paper argues that there are several key and interrelated elements to globalization and that the future gains will derive from the degree to which countries are willing to embrace them together rather than in a sequenced fashion. The rising flow of trade and capital has heightened the sense of vulnerability. Now production and trade is hugely dominated by transnational which use globalization to their advantage. The developing countries need to use trade to promote development. Trade enlarges the market for domestic producers, allows them to reap scale economies and force them to develop new technologies for production. Export earnings also loosen foreign exchange constraints on the economy thereby helping in expansion of other sectors. Developing countries needs to take initiative in launching new trade negotiations which could draw them into the mainstream of globalization. The danger is that if there is no initiative, the benefits of globalization will continued to be monopolized by few countries. Another major facet of globalization is the vast increase in capital flows. These flows have become a major source of investment, a route for technology transfer and an accelerator to financial deepening. The government need to formulate policies in order to control the cash flows. The paper also discusses the role of migration during the process of globalization. During the first phase of globalization, in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, long distance migration paralleled trade and capital flows. In some countries, the desire on the part of young people to emigrate is the principal incentive to acquire useful skills and serves to maintain standards in segments of the educational system. In order to benefit the long-term benefits from migration countries must not only participate in the making of international institutions to manage and facilitate labour mobility but they also need to see migration as part of a larger process of opening and integrating their economies. The paper also suggests that globalization has facilitated technology transfer. Technological change has proceeded slowly in developing countries for a variety reasons. This is a major reason for slow growth and the widening gap in incomes between rich and poor countries. The blame is placed on the weaknesses of skills, the educational system, incentives, research facilities, the business culture and traditions influencing the quest for new knowledge. Adopting new technologies and pushing outward the technology frontier requires a capable research and extension infrastructure and the active involvement of the business sector. Few of the low income countries have made much headway in utilizing or extending agricultural technology by creating high quality, competitive and commercially oriented research entities. The author believes that even if globalization has the following advantages it can never be seen as the ultimate solution for development. Everything requires discipline and checks limit the negative impacts of globalization. Developing countries need to engage in active negotiations so as to integrate with the international economy on terms which will give them the best possible trading opportunities in commodities in which the enjoy comparative advantages and promise the desired level of food security ESSAY Different people have different views about Globalization, some say that globalization is a beneficial process and some who are against globalisation believe that it will only be beneficial to a specific group of countries. The essay tries to explain how globalization can affect the developing countries. Developing countries are also known as emerging economies or countries on the path to development. This essay mainly discusses about the impacts Globalization on developing nations. Globalization is an opportunity and not a threat to developing countries. The impacts of globalization can have direct or indirect effect; it is so far- reaching that nothing is being left out. Globalization has resulted in an explosive expansion in world trade. The economic integration of countries such as India, joined by China, other South-East countries, also Latin American countries has resulted in the widespread expansion of international trade. It just took 10 years for China to double its per capita income. Countries like France, Germany, and Britain took around 50 years to achieve just. The rapid expansion of foreign trade made by developing countries generated a demand for resources and energy. The so called emerging countries consume about 50% of global energy production. Emerging manufacturers have also specialised in building highly technical products that compete effectively in world markets. Around 50% of computers produced come from China. The developed countries are now in enormous pressure to compete by developing new product and methods of production to sustain them in the International market. This doesnt mean that globalisation do not have any negative impacts on developing countries. Globalization can have adverse effect on domestic industries. Domestic industries will be under mounting pressure in order to comply with international completion; their rates of unemployment may even rise. The government can play a vital role in minimising the impact on domestic industries by formulating policies and laws. The labour market is under a great deal of pressure due to globalization and requires constant adjustments and changes. Due to the abundance of low cost labour there is rising difference in personal incomes. Eve though there is unfavourable employment conditions in many developing countries; it is not because of the fact that there is a great deal of pressure on the unskilled work force due to globalization. And also advancement in the area of technology is another cause for lower demand for unskilled workers. Globalization has forced different nations to lift the migration barriers. In Europe, the European Union has opened the gates to millions of workers from formerly communist countries where labour productivity was low. Their migration usually improves working conditions in the countries. Workers should consider globalization as an opportunity to acquire knowledge in order to compete in the global economy where they have to meet global standards. Countries are now trying to concentrate on developing education and health in order to improve the quality of work force. One of the major challenges of globalization would be to integrate all sectors and countries that do not participate in the globalization process. But not all countries, sectors, or firms have access to global financial markets and services or can take advantage of the benefits induced by globalization. Conclusively, may it be developed or a developing country, Globalization can work for all. But it is not an easy task. The negative impact of globalization can be minimized by constant adjustment and control measures. Globalization is considered to be a great opportunity to prosper and develop in the internationalised world economy. Problems like inequality in income, uneven development, and outsourcing can all be controlled by proper policy actions.

Constant Pressure Calorimeter for Heat Capacity

Constant Pressure Calorimeter for Heat Capacity Kanwarpal Brar Purpose: To calibrate a constant pressure calorimeter and use it to determine the heats of the reaction and dissolution of different reactants and to use these heats of the reactions to find the enthalpy of a reaction by hess’s law. Analysis/ calculations: Determine the heat capacity of the coffee cup, Ccal in j*degC for all three trials and calculate the average value. Provide all these values in your report: provide full calculations only for trial . From table 1 Mass of 1.0 M NaOH solution used = 51.67g Mass of 1.0 M HCl solution used = 50.85g Total mass of final solution = 102.52g Initial temperature of reagents = 21.3 deg C Final temperature after neutralization = 27.8 deg C Heat absorbed by calorimeter q1 = C (heat capacity)*deltaT Heat abrorbed by soluction Q2 = heat capacity (C) *mass of the solution (m)*deltaT Heat released by neutralization reaction, Q3 = heat of reaction (delta H)*moles(n)/1mole In this reaction, Delta T=T2-T1 =27.8degC-21.3degC =6.5degC heat capacity of the solution, C=4.02J/g degC (given) mass of the solution, m = 102.52g heat of the reaction, ΔH = -57.3 KJ (given) = -57300 J HCl(aq) + NaOH(aq) > H2O(l) + NaCl(aq) Because HCl and NaCl react 1:1, any one can be used as limiting reagent Molarity of HCl = 1.0 M Volume of HCl = 50.0 ml = 0.0500 L Therefore moles of HCl, n = molarity * volume = 1.0 mol/L * 0.0500 L = 0.0500 mol It is assumed that not heat is lost to surrounding ΔE system = 0 J ΔE system = q1 + q2 + q3 = 0J Q1 = -q2 – q3 C1 * ΔT = -(4.02 J/g degC * 102.52g * 6.5 deg C) – (-57300 J * 0.0500 mol/1 mol) C1 * ΔT = -2678.85 J + 2865 J C1 = 186.15 J/ ΔT C1 = 186.15 J/ 6.5 deg C C1 = 28.64 J/ deg C Trial 1 = 28.64 J/ deg C Trial 2 = 31.09 J/deg C Trial 3 = 29.48 J/deg C Average = 29.73 J/deg C Determine the overall heat of reaction per mole od calcium meatl for the addition of calcium metal. to 1.0 M HCl folloed by the addition of water and b) to water folloed by addition of 1.0 M HCl. In each case, treat the overall reaction as a single process, i.e. instead of determining a delta H value for each step, determine . mass of ca = 0.404 g molar mass of ca = 40.08 g/mol moles of ca, n = mass/molar mass = 0.404 g/ 40.08 g/mol = 0.0100 mol Mass of water used, m = 50.0 g (1ml = 1g) ΔT = Tfinal – Tinitial ΔT = 30.5 – 21.4 deg C = 9.1 deg C ( table 2) Heat of the reaction per mole = -(q of reaction – (Ccal * ΔT))/moles of meatal -(Cwater*m*water*detaT(0*ΔT) /n = -(4.184 J/ degC * 50 * 9.1 degC) /0.0100 mol = -1903.72 J/ 0.0100 mol = -190372 J/mole = -190.372 KJ/mole ΔH = -190.372 KJ/mole b) mass of ca = 0.403g molar mass of ca = 40.08 g/mole moles of ca = mass/ molar mass = 0.400 g/ 40.08 g/mole = 0.00998 mol Mass of water used = 50 g (1ml = 1 g) Temperature difference ΔT = Tfinal – Tinitial ΔT = 30.5 – 20.3 degC = 10.2 degC (table3) Heat of reaction per mole = -q of reaction – (Ccal*ΔT)/mole of metal = -(Cwater*mwater*ΔT-(0*ΔT)/n = -(4.184 J/g degC*50g*10.2 deg)/ 0.00998mole = -2133.84 J/ 0.00998mole = -213811.62 J/mole = -213.81 KJ/mole ΔH = -213.81 KJ/mole Determine deltaEdissolution in J (g salt) for the unknown salt for all three trials and calculate the average value. Provide all of these values in your report, provide full calculation only for trial 1. Unknown salt = C Mass of salt = 4.013g Mass of water = 100g Mass of solution after reaction = 100g + 4.013g = 104.013g ΔT = Tfinal – Tinitial = 27-19.9 degC = 7.1 degC ΔEdissolution = -q of reation = -m*C*ΔT = -4.184 J/g degC*104.013g*7.1 = -3089.85 J ΔEdissolution/g salt = -3089.85 J/4.013g = -769.96 J/g salt Trial 1 = -769.96 J/g salt Trial 2 = -769.87 J/g salt Trial 3 = -754.18 J/g salt Average = -764.67 J/g salt Determine deltaEdissolution in J (g salt) for six salts in table 1. Provide all of these values in your report, provide full calculation only for LiCl. ΔEdissolution = ΔElattice + ΔEcation hydration + ΔEanion hydration ΔEdissolution = 846 KJ/mol + (-506 KJ/mol) + (-377 KJ/mol) from table ΔEdissolution = -37 KJ/mol ΔEdissolution = -37000 J/mol Molar mass of LiCl = 42.39 J/mol ΔEdissolution/ g of salt = ΔEdissolution/ molar mass = -37000 J/mol/ 42.39 g/mol = -873 J/g salt ΔEdissolution for LiCl = -873 J/g salt ΔEdissolution of LiBr = -472 J/g salt ΔEdissolution of NaCl = 51.3 J/g salt ΔEdissolution of NaBr = 0 J/g salt ΔEdissolution of KCl = 228 J/g salt Discussion : In the experiment, a simple constant-pressure, coffee cup calorimeter was calibrated using an acid-base neutralization reaction. the calculated specific heat of calorimeter was then used to determine the heats of reactions and dissolutions of other chemical compounds. A simple constant pressure calorimeter was produced out of two styroform cups. The cups were covered with a plastic lid with a hole in centre. While erformiing the acid-base neutralization reaction, the temperature of both acid and base were measure using PH metre temperature probe. The temperature were about each other. When HCl was added to NaOH no visible change was observed while adding the acid. But the temperature of the soluction was rise after the acid was added. This showed that the reaction between HCl and NaOH was exothermic reaction. after that mass of the final solution was measured. The second objective was to find the heat of the reaction per mole of calcium metal, while following the hess’s law provided in the lab manual. This was done in two different trials. First the calcium metal was added to 50.0 ml of 1.0M HCl and then 50ml of water. When calcium was added to HCl it reacted vigorously creating bubbles. The highest temperature recorded was almost double the initial temperature. When water was added to this solution, no visible change was observed, but temperature was dropped by 10 degC. The overall process was still an exothermic reaction the heat of the reaction was calculated to be -190.372 KJ/mole In the second trial, the calcium was first added to water. This reaction was similar to the first one. Calcium reacted with the water vigorously. The temperature of the solution was increased showing that is was exothermic reaction. when HCl was added to this solution the temperature was dropped by 3.6 degC. Which was less than the first case. The heat of the raction waw calculated to be -213.81 KJ/mole. The closeness o fthe both results can be explained by the fact that heat of the reaction is a state function, and does not depend on the path of the reaction. this also increases the confidence in the result. The final objective of the reaction was to determine the heat of dissociation of the unknown salt, and thus find the unknown salt by comparing the heat of dissotiation to the heat dissolution of possible salts. This unknown salt code C was white powder form. When unknown salt was added to water, temperature raise by 7.1 degC. This reaction showed that this was a exothermic reaction. the average enthalpy of dissolution of the unknown salt C was calculated to be -764.67 J/g. This value of enthalpy of dissolution corresponded to the calculated value of Lithium chloride, LiCl. A number of experiment errors could have affected the data collected, which includes the accuracy and precission of the instruments used environment conditions. The graduated cylinder was used to measure liquids was accurate to only one decimal place, or could only round the value to .0 or to .5. the measuring balance used to weigh had had high accuracy up to three decimal place, dispite that there was difference in the total weigh of the soluction in all three trials. This shows that may be weighing machine was not accurate. it is also possible that when solution was shaked to mix the reactant some of the solution lost or may be was left over on the cover lid. Or into the walls of cups and glass container. While doing the experiment some liquid was spilled that could be that reason for the difference in the weight. The volume of the solution could be measured by burettes or pipetts for higher accuracy. Overall the results of the experiment calculations were really promising and confident based on the fact that they folled the theory of the experiment. Conclusion: A calorimeter was prepared. The heat capacity of calorimeter was calculated to be 29.73 J/deg C. The heat reaction calcium was found to be -190.372 KJ/mole and -213.81 KJ/mole, in the two trials. the unknown salt had -764.67 J/g salt. The unknown salt C was found to be Lithium chloride. Results of this experiment is promissign and confident. References: Olmsted, john 3; Williams, greg; burk Robert c. Chemistry, 1st Canadian ed; john Wiley and sons ltd: Mississauga, Canada, 2012, pp 511-550

Illusion Verses Reality in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller Essay

Illusion Verses Reality in Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   "Death of A Salesman," by Arthur Miller, is a play that tells the story of a traveling salesman, Willy Loman, who encounters frustration and failure as he reflects on and experiences his own life. Willy's quest for the American Dream leads to his failure because throughout his life, he pursues the illusion of the American Dream and not the reality of it. His mindset on perfection, his obsession with success, and his constant reminiscence of the past and foretelling of the future, all contribute to his defeat in the end. The reality of the American Dream is that people are capable of succeeding. Success, though, requires one to work hard and be dedicated to both his/her professional life and family life. Yet, the illusion of the Dream is that attaining material prosperity defines success. Failing to acknowledge the importance of hard work in achieving the American Dream is another aspect of the illusion. By ignoring the present, Willy fails to deal with reality. He has a tendency of living in the past and thinking of the future. He always thinks that if he had done something differently then this could have happened, or things will get better as time passes. His habit of distorting the past, never allows Willy to realize what is going on right then and there in the present. At one time, when Willy goes off down memory lane, he "says" to Biff and Happy, "America is full of beautiful towns and fine, upstanding people. And they know me, boys?the finest people?there?ll be open sesame for all of us, ?cause one thing boys: I have friends. I can park my car in any street?and the cops protect it like their own" (31). Willy makes this distortion of the pa... ...ind. Willy Loman portrays a "common man", who lives a life that is purely an illusion. Although Willy has good intentions, his tragic flaw is that he focuses only on the appearance of the American Dream and never on the reality, the work ethic, or how to achieve it. Willy brings about his own downfall, his defeat, because he tries to pursue this "superficial" idea. Miller includes this theme of the American Dream in his social criticism in an attempt to portray the deviation in the values of society. For instance, materialism and technological advances, causes the American Dream to change as times changes. The salesman is a position that has declining importance at the time. He shows that an individual?s values are based on what society has established. Yet, as society changes, the values one has may not, causing conflict between the society and the individual.

The Most Tragic Othello :: Othello essays

The Most Tragic Othello    William Shakespeare has written many plays.   His most tragic play is Othello. Othello is also the name of the main character in the play, he is quite hard to understand. In order to have a better understanding of Othello's character, examining his changes throughout the play, flaws and why he is considered a tragic hero will give the reader an insight of his overall personality.   Othello changes many times throughout the course of the play.   At the beginning of the play Othello trusts Desdemona with everything, but throughout the play he loses confident in her because he listens to Iago's suggestions about her.   "'Cassio, my lord? No, sure, I cannot think it That he would sneak away so guilty like, Seeing you come.'" (Shakespeare 105).  Ã‚   He shows disrespect to Desdemona in front of other people.   "'Devil' he strikes her 'I have not deserved this.'"   (141).  Ã‚   Othello changes even more dramatically because of the poison suggestions that Iago has given him.  Ã‚   He goes out of control and eventually kills Desdemona thinking that she has did something wrong.      Othello has many tragic flaws.   He is a really gullible person, for example he was tricked by Iago; thinking that Desdemona was really having an affair with Cassio.   " ` Did he confess it?'" (134).   He trusts Iago too much and totally relies on Iago therefore making him really vulnerable to Iago's evilish schemes.   Othello's gullibility causes him to be jealous.   He let's his jealousy take over, he looses control of himself and acts on his jealous emotions, he let's his jealousy clutter his mind and good judgment.   "`Damn her, lewd minx! O, damn her, damn her! Come go with me part.   I will withdraw To furnish me with some swift means of death.   For the fair devil.   Now are the my lieutenant'" (122). Othello's other flaw is his anger.   Othello acts upon his anger and therefore ends up doing the things he regrets afterwards. "`It is too late.' `O Lord, O Lord, Lord!' he smothers her"(168).   Therefore by examining those points Othello has many tragic flaws in him.      Othello is considered a tragic hero because he fights for the people in Venice in Cyprus.   "'The Turk with a most mighty preparation makes for Cyprus.

The Theme of Justice in The Crucible Essay -- The Crucible Arthur Mill

The Theme of Justice in The Crucible The crucible was set in 1692 in Salem, Massachusetts. The play is based on true facts about events that actually took place. It is about a small secluded town that relies strongly on their religion to keep them feeling safe. Their enemy is the devil and they are always scared of the devil and constantly looking for signs that the devil is there. â€Å"We cannot leap to witchcraft. They will howl me out of Salem for such corruption in my house.† The fear of the devil gets so strong the town’s justice system take strong actions to keep everyone safe. The paradox between justice and freedom is very unbalanced. The justice and courts are so strict none of the Salem people have their own personal freedom. Miller is questioning the fairness of the justice in Salem and that of the justice system in the US in the 50’s at the time he wrote the play. This is called an allegory. In the 50’s McCarthyism was the suppression of communism. Anyone accused of being a communist would be put into prison. Anyone who criticized the government was brought before the court and asked to name people they had seen at communist meetings. Arthur Miller did not agree with the system and wanted to get his views across. If he wrote a play about Senator McCarthy and his justice systems faults then he would have been arrested and the play would not have been shown. He made the play about the witchcraft in Salem to cover up his true meaning whilst being a polemic teaching people of the corruption in the justice system. The characters in Salem all represent people from the US in the 50’s. The Judges represent the Senators. Miller makes them disliked by the audience by showing the unfairness of thei... ...itute in Boston† To make people feel there is justice as Abby got what she deserved and people finally saw through her and she revealed the truth to what she really was. Miller states that Paris was voted out of office. This was also what happened to Senator McCarthy they both were causing injustice and in the end were both expelled. This means that they have got their justice. The audience is most concerned if John gets his justice. He does because the audience can all see that he is a good man and he becomes a hero to anyone watching the play. The characters in the play don’t celebrate him as a hero but from everyone watching he is praised. This means his message of following your own sense of right and wrong is received my hundreds of people. This is how John gets his justice and how miller restores people’s faith in the goodness of humanity.

Financial Ratio and Costco

Acct Info for Decision Making Project on Costco Wholesale Corp. Costco Group 2012 History & Background Founded by  James (Jim) Sinegl  and  Jeffrey H. Brotman,  Costco opened its first warehouse in  Seattle, Washington, on September 15, 1983. Sinegal had started in wholesale distribution by working forSol Price  at both  FedMart  and  Price Club. Brotman, an  attorney  from an old Seattle retailing family, had also been involved in retail distribution from an early age. Wal-Mart  founder  Sam Walton  had plans to merge  Sam's Club  with Price Club.In 1993, however, Costco merged with Price Club (called  Club Price  in the Canadian province of  Quebec). Costco's business model and size were similar to those of Price Club, which was founded by Sol and Robert Price in 1976 in San Diego, California. Thus, the combined company, PriceCostco, was effectively double the size of each of its parents. Just after the merger, PriceCostco had 206 locations gen erating $16  billion in annual sales. PriceCostco was initially led by executives from both companies, but then Sol and his son Robert Price founded Price Enterprises and left Costco in December 1994.In 1993, when growing competition threatened both Price Club and Costco Wholesale, they entered into a partial merger just after Price’s earnings dropped to 40%. The new company, named PriceCostco, Inc. , focused heavily on international expansion, opening stores in Mexico, South Korea, and England. Despite best efforts to recover losses, sales continued to drop. Disagreement between the two leaders, Robert Price and Jim Sinegal, regarding company direction and recovery policies soon left the merger in tatters.In 1994, the breakup was formally announced. Sinegal continued to manage PriceCostco while Price’s breakaway company was named as Price Enterprises. The first Price Club location was opened in 1976 in an old airplane hangar,  previously owned by  Howard Hughes, and is still in operation today (Warehouse No. 401, located on Morena Boulevard in San Diego). In 1997, the company changed its name to Costco Wholesale and all Price Club locations were rebranded Costco. As of December 011, the Company operated a chain of 598 warehouses in 40 states and Puerto Rico (433 locations), nine Canadian provinces (82 locations), the United Kingdom (22 locations), Korea (seven locations), Taiwan (eight locations, through a 55%-owned subsidiary), Japan (eleven locations), Australia (three locations), and 32 warehouses in Mexico through a 50%-owned joint venture. Financial Highlights Net Revenue Year| 2012| 2011| 2010| Costco Net Revenue| 12,314,000| 11,176,000| 9,951,000| (Currency in USD) The net revenue of COST increase every year, it was a good sign.Year| 2012| 2011| 2010| Costco Net Income| 1,709,000  | 1,462,000| 1,303,000| (Currency in USD) COST did better in the following two years. And COST had most 40. 6 thousand dollars increase from 2011 to 201 2. Total Assets Year| 2012| 2011| 2010| Costco Total Assets| 27,140,000  | 26,761,000  | 23,815,000  | Costco Total Liabilities| 14,779,000  Ã‚  | 14,759,000| 12,986,000  | (Currency in USD) The total assets and liability of COST shows that the company purchased a lot of assets on its credit during these three years. That might be not a good sign, because COST might not have enough cash.Earnings per Share Year| 2012| 2011| 2010| Costco EPS| 3. 89| 3. 3| 2. 92| It’s increasing in every years. It means COST are profiting during every years so that they can paying the EPS. Financial Ratios Analysis Profitability Ratios 1. Return on Assets (ROA) Year| 2011| 2010| 2009| Costco| 5. 78%| 5. 69%| 5. 09%| Return on assets ratio is calculated by dividing net income by average total assets. Return on assets represents the cents in profits for every dollar of assets. This measures how efficiently and effectively the company uses its assets to generate profits.These numbers tell the ability of Costco to make profit. Costco has a positive net income so that its ROA is increasing past 3 years. 2. Return on Equity (ROE) Year| 2011| 2010| 2009| Costco| 12. 81%| 12. 50%| 11. 31%| The Return of Equity is calculated by dividing net profit by total shareholders’ equity. Return on equity measures a corporation's profitability by revealing how much profit a company generates with the money shareholders. The number above shows that Costco is with stable growth in past 3 years, however, ROE ;15% that will attract more investors to invest.Effectiveness Ratios 3. Asset Turnover Year| 2011| 2010| 2009| Costco| 3. 52| 3. 40| 3. 35| Asset turnover  is calculated as sales divided by average total assets. It measures  a firm's efficiency on using its assets to generate sale. The higher assets turnover is, tells the better the company does. Costco’s assets turnover tells us that it did a better job in 2011 because the ratio increased 0. 12 compared with 2010 which only grew about 0. 05. 4. Inventory Turnover Year| 2011| 2010| 2009| Costco| 12. 67| 12. 31| 11. 94| Inventory turnover is calculated as COGS divided by average inventory.It measures how many times per year the company sells its inventory. Firms with a low cost strategy want a high inventory turnover, while firms with a differentiation strategy will experience a lower inventory turnover. The ratios for Costco are increasing during the three years, and Costco seems to have done a better job in selling their inventory because it sells its inventory faster and faster. Liquidity Ratios 5. Current Ratio Year| Aug. , 2011| Aug. , 2010| Aug. , 2009| Costco| 1. 14| 1. 16| 1. 11| The current ratio is calculated by dividing current assets by current liabilities.This ratio measure if a firm has enough in current assets to cover his current liabilities. The current ratios for Costco have gone up during 2009-2010, and decreased during 2010-2011. However, the ratio is greater than 1 which means Costco has enough assets to cover his current liabilities. 6. Quick Ratio Year| Aug. , 2011| Aug. , 2010| Aug. , 2009| Costco| 0. 55| 0. 56| 0. 49| The quick ration is calculated by dividing the sum of cash, account receivable and short-term investment by current liabilities. As with the current ration, an analyst would want to see a minimum of one for the quick ratio.However, the number above shows that Costco’s quick ratio is under 1, which means that Costco is not doing well on its job. It might because Costco has a too big liability to its business or Costco has a less current asset to cover its liabilities. Solvency ratios 7. Long-Term Debt to Assets Year| Aug. , 2011| Aug. , 2010| Aug. , 2009| Costco| 0. 05| 0. 09| 0. 10| The long-term debt to assets is calculated by dividing long-term debt by total assets. This tells us that if a firm can pay its long-term debt. If a firm does not a ability to pay off its long-term debt, shareholder might be left with nothing.The lower long-term debt is the better ability a firm has to pay its debt. Costco is doing well by keeping the long-term debt ratio (average) around 0. 08, which means its assets will be enough to pay the long-term debt. 8. Debt to Equity Year| Aug. , 2011| Aug. , 2010| Aug. , 2009| Costco| 0. 10| 0. 20| 0. 22| The debt to equity is calculated as dividing total liabilities by total shareholder equity. It tests the ability of the firm to cover its interest payment. The higher the ratio is, the lower the likelihood of default.Costco’s debt to equity ratio is quite stable around 0. 10-0. 22 during 2009-2011. Summary According to Costco's 2011 annual report, the Costco Wholesale has a growing rate in making profits. It is one of the largest retailer stores in the global market. Unlike most retail operations, it has built its model around providing only what people want to buy quickly or in volumes that make up for its discounting practices. As the economy has slowed, the warehouse d iscount strategy has come into focus as the go-to source for both consumers and small business supply needs.Costco and its subsidiary companies are mostly like engaged in the operation of membership warehouses in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan, Australia, through majority owned subsidiaries in Taiwan and Korea, and a 50 percent-owned joint venture in Mexico. Costco operates membership warehouses based on the concept that offering member’s low prices on a limited selection of nationally branded and private-label products in a wide range of merchandise categories will produce high sales volumes and rapid inventory turnover, management said in a recent filing.Here are the competitive advantages and disadvantages for Toyota based on our research data and analysis: Competitive Advantages: * Know their customer: Costco goes after a certain type of customer: small business owners who are status conscious and who have money to spend on bargain-priced premium ite ms like Dom Perpignan champagne, luxury watches and tech gadgets. * Deliver bigger value, not just lower prices: Costco doesn’t just offer low prices, it offers exceptional bargains on elegant, Treat customer service as an investment, not a cost to be shed: Costco has been criticized by some Wall Street analysts for their high labor costs –and Costco does pay their employees quite well Costco Wholesale SWOT Analysis Strengths: Costco Wholesale offers its customers and consumers lowest prices on a wide range of national and international branded products and goods, in a wide arrange of merchandise categories. The products and services of the Costco Wholesale are reliable as the company deals in best available quality products at competitive prices.The company pays attention to details and has various strengths that add to its success. These factors include rapid turnover of the inventory, running an efficient operating structure, reduced cost of handling of merchandise and generation of high sales volume at each of its store. Costco Wholesale gives preferences to it customers and provides them best value for the money. Weaknesses: Costco’s business conditions constantly change because external and internal forces make other business participants to alter their actions.The driving forces in this sector are the major underlying causes changing business and competitive conditions. Operating on a large scale means difficulty in bringing changes to grass root levels Opportunities Costco Wholesale is one of the first companies to have a growing acceptance of internet shopping. Costco created a website in the United States as well as website in Canada to be more effective and competitive in the internet market. The company is constantly working to make its distribution channels stronger and enter new potential markets.By offering value and working more towards developing a strong loyal customer base the company can gain more market share. Threats Warehouse clubs not only compete in one sector or market but it competes with a wide range of other types of retailers which include Wal-Mart Dollar General, supermarkets, general merchandise chains, specialty chains, fuel stations and internet retailers. Their competitiveness changes because the different types of products they deal in. Due to its tremors growth and growing market share, the company has caught the attention of many of the market leaders and its competitors.The industry of wholesale has a number of individual companies that are highly competitive and have very effective strategies. They have developed loyal customer bases and everyone is relentlessly fighting for the greatest market share. Costco’s major competitors include Wal-Mart. Recommendation 1. Develop more types of the products. The Costco involved every kind of products in the store, but we can see there are just few types of each product, so the optional become less and less.Every customer wants to the lower price at Costco, but they still want to have more choices on each product. And every single product just has the biggest packet so that it may cause to the waste. So the member of the Costco doesn’t have any choices to select the same product, such as the size, color and so on. 2. Improve the quality of the products. The strategy of Costco is the right products in the right place for the right price, but the right price should be with the good quality, but some customers said the quality of the clothes is not good.We cannot deny that most of the products have the good quality, but the company should check on every product, or just a little customers' unsatisfaction will influence all the customer's choice. 3. Increase the amount of the stores. The company has 600 locations wide world. In US, there are 433 locations. As an international global company, Costco should develop more location out of the United States so that it can open a new market in the world. For othe r countries, the customers are still inconvenient to purchase in the Costco. It will decrease the confidence of Costco's members.The Costco's strategy is the right products in the right place for the right price. If the members of other countries doubt the right place, the strategy will be broken. 4. Reduce the prices of some products. The company guarantees the low price and most of the products are, but we still can see a lot of products are more expensive compare to other stores, especially Jewelry. For most customers can understand that the high quality with the high price, but the huge amount of numbers, such as 12,234. 99 will make the members confuse to the strategy of the company