Hydraulic Fracking A Boon or Bane to the US - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 8 Words: 2436 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2019/08/16 Category Technology Essay Level High school Tags: Fracking Essay Did you like this example? Hydraulic Fracking: A Boon or Bane to the US The first question when hearing hydraulic fracking, it pops the question for what exactly is it? Hydraulic fracking (fracturing) is a controversial oil and gas extraction technique developed in the late 1940s to gain access to fossil energy deposits previously inaccessible to drilling operations. In the early 2000s, energy companies began combining horizontal (or directional) drilling with hydraulic fracturing to tap these reserves. The process involves drilling horizontally through a rock layer and injecting a pressurized mixture of water, sand, and other chemicals that fractures the rock and facilitates the flow of oil and gas. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Hydraulic Fracking: A Boon or Bane to the US" essay for you Create order These combined methods have allowed for expanded oil/gas development in shale and other formations in the U.S., Europe, Asia, Australia, and elsewhere. The rapid expansion of fracking is projected to make the U.S. a net exporter of natural gas in the coming years and potentially the worlds largest oil producer by 2018-20. Shale gas, which currently accounts for one-fourth of the nations natural gas production, is projected to increase to half by 2035. Tracing back its history in the United States of America can be seen since 1862. It was during the battle of Fredericksburg VA., where civil war veteran Col. Edward A.L. Roberts saw what could be accomplished when firing explosive artillery into a narrow canal that obstructed the battlefield. This was described as superincumbent fluid tamping. On April 26th, 1865, Edward Roberts received his first patent, for an Improvement in exploding torpedoes in artesian wells. In November of 1866, Edward Roberts was awarded patient number 59,936, known as the Exploding Torpedo. This extraction method was implemented by packing a torpedo in an iron case that contained 15-20 pounds of powder. The case was then lowered into the oil well, at a spot closest to the oil. From there, they would explode the torpedo by connecting the top of the shell with wire to the surface, and then filling the borehole with water This invention increased oil production by 1200 percent from certain wells within a week of being implemented. This also led to the founding of Roberts Petroleum Torpedo Company, which charged $100-$200 dollars per rocket, plus a royalty of 1/15 of the profits generated from the product. Even though the birth of fracking began in the 1860s, the birth of modern day hydraulic fracturing began in the 1940s. In 1947, Floyd Farris of Stanolind Oil and Gas began a study on the relationship between oil and gas production output, and the amount of pressurized treatment being used on each well. This study lead to the first experiment of hydraulic fracturing, which occurred at the Hugoton gas field, located in Grant county, Kansas in 1947. In this experiment, 1,000 gallons of gelled gasoline and sand were injected into a gas producing limestone formation with a depth of 2,400 feet. This was then followed by an injection of a gel breaker. While this experiment failed to produce a significant production increase, it did mark the beginning of hydraulic fracturing.   After the massive rise of hydraulic fracking by American petroleum companies all around the nation, the President Gerald Ford in 1982 state of the union address, promoted the development of shale oil resources, as part of his overall energy plan, as a means of reducing foreign oil imports. Coming back to todays politics for the help needed by the government officials or representatives of various states, it can be seen a total of about 40 senators hail from states that now have significant shale oil and gas prospects. Some represent what might fairly be called Americas petrostateslike North Dakota, which now gets more than half of its state government revenue from taxes on oil and gas extraction, second only to Alaska (82 percent) and edging out Wyoming (38 percent). It doesnt require a political genius to see that these states government representatives will increasingly be defined by their support for that oil and gas: The oil and gas industry made some $73 million in total pol itical contributions in the 2012 election cycle, nearly seven times what it spent in 1990. What do these folks want for their money? If the past is any indication, well see attacks on the Environmental Protection Agency, hostility to climate science and a tendency to subvert other important issues to defend the industry. The modern day fracking started in the 1990s when it was combined with horizontal drilling, which increased the production exponentially. Along with this entire successive profitable process for the Oil and Natural Resources Corporative Industry came a lot of environmental troubles. Some of them can be seen with the current major spill happening since 2014, The Taylor Energy Spill off the coast of Louisiana which is actually totally ironically discovered when watchdog groups stumbled on oil slicks while monitoring the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster a few miles north of the Taylor site in 2010. Other troubles are noted as follows: Water Use: In order to hydraulically fracture shale and extract the hydrocarbons, large quantities of water and chemicals must be injected underground. Because of the cost to truck water in from further away, companies prefer to use water from sources as close to the well as possible, which can result in significant impacts on local waterways and overburden local water treatment facilities. In Texas, which is suffering dangerous drought conditions, fracking continues even as water use by citizens is restricted, the landscape wilts and the animal life dies. In 2011 the Wall Street Journal reported that the diversion of water for fracking oil and gas wells is also a serious threat to ranchers and other businesses in Texas. (Russell Gold and Ana Campoy, Oils Growing Thirst for Water, Wall Street Journal, 12/6/2011) Fracking Fluids: During the hydraulic fracturing of a well, water is mixed with various chemicals to make a toxic brew called frack fluid. Until recently, neither the federal nor state governments required drilling companies to disclose the ingredients used in frack fluids. Some states have begun to require that companies disclose the chemicals they use, but even in such cases, companies can withhold some chemical names under trade secret exemptions. As a result, a comprehensive list of chemicals used in the fracking process does not exist. Some states have begun to require that companies disclose the chemicals they use, but even in such cases, confidential business information claims result in only partial disclosures. Corporations involved in fracking, like ExxonMobil, have inserted loopholes in drilling legislation that allow them to keep various chemicals used in the fracking process secret. Contamination of Water Wells and Gas Migration: Groundwater becomes contaminated by hydraulic fracturing in a number of ways, including leakage from liquid storage areas, leakage from injection wells, leakage during hydrofracking along faults or up abandoned wells, seepage into the ground when wastewater and residuals are applied to land (i.e. used for irrigation or on roads for dust suppression or de-icing), and other means. The cement casing which rings the well bore and goes through underground aquifers is meant to act as a barrier between underground water and the shaft through which frack fluid and gas flow. But the casing can fail or break during the fracturing process, allowing the frack fluid or naturally-occurring contaminants to contaminate groundwater.   When that happens, frack fluid and methane can leak from the well bore directly into the water supply, causing dangerous gas buildups, and making water unfit to drink. (US EPA, Science Advisory Board, Hydraulic Fracturin g Review Panel, report to Lisa P. Jackson, August 4, 2011). Some recent examples can be seen as In New York, claims have already been filed against the Anschutz Exploration Corporation and its subcontractors on behalf of nine families for the contamination of their drinking water due to natural gas exploration and drilling. A Duke study examining 60 sites in New York and Pennsylvania found systematic evidence for methane contamination in household drinking water. Water wells half a mile from drilling operations were contaminated by methane at 17 times the rate of those farther from gas developments. Although methane in water has not been studied closely as a health hazard, it can seep into houses and build up to explosive levels. Methane leaks in the Permian Basin, Texas has been totally going unnoticed during the recent past which is having a lot of public health hazards for the such as skin irritation and headaches. Approximately 2.3 million Texans live within a half mile of potentially hazardous oil and gas operations. That encompasses almost a fifth of the nations second-largest state. At least 900 schools and 75 medical facilities are also compromised, according to the Texas Observer. Much of that concentration is found in the Permian Basin, where emissions are a fact of life. Talking about the The Trump Administration recently stoked the debate even further, as the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) took the final steps to halt an Obama-era fracking regulation. The BLM, an agency within the U.S. Department of the Interior, recently rescinded a rule aimed at protecting the environment from the ill effects of fracking. The agency claimed that repealing the rule would save millions of dollars per year and eliminate redundancy with existing state-level fracking regulations. The rule being rescinded had been established under the Obama Administration to create a framework of oversight, disclosure, and operating standards to ensure the environmentally responsible development of oil and gas resources on Federal and Indian lands. It had sought to remedy the potential risk of fracking to underground water sources and to manage the disposal of pollutants resulting from fracking operations. Fracking raises these concerns because the technique extracts natural gas from rock formations deep underground by pumping water, sand, and chemicals into the ground at high pressure to fracture the rock, which subsequently releases gas trapped within. The gas can then be recaptured on the surface and stored, but leaves the water and other material injected into the ground in need of disposal. This, in turn, can cause potential contamination of water supplies, as well as seismic activity. To this end, the rule included several requirements for oil and gas operators, such as the submission of fracking applications to the BLM for agency approval and verification about the fracking wells structural integrity. Under President Trump, the BLM reasoned that removing these requirements would likely not increase the environmental and health risks associated with fracking. The agency stated that, as an initial matter, the BLM already has an extensive process in place to ensure that operators conduct oil and gas operations in an environmentally sound manner that protects resources. Moreover, according to the BLM, many of the Obama-era rules fracking-specific requirements were already consistent with industry practice, which appreciably reduces potential harms. Perhaps more importantly, the BLM found that all 32 states with federal oil and gas operations already have laws or regulations that address fracking. With steadily improving industry practices and comprehensive state regulatory programs, the BLM argued that the requirements in the Obama-era rule amounted to an unnecessarily burdensome and redundant regulationone that could potentially save the industry between $14 million to $32 million in regulatory compliance costs. Additionally, the BLM noted in its repeal that implementation of the Obama-era fracking rule had already been complicated by litigation. Industry groups had previously challenged the authority of the BLM to enact the fracking regulation, prompting a suspension of the rule by the U.S. District Court for the District of Wyoming. Since then, the rule faced further litigation, which resulted in the fracking rules never going into effect. The BLM stated that by rescinding the rule, the agency would circumvent the need for any additional litigation over the authority of the BLM to issue such a rule. Oil and gas industry groups applauded the decision to repeal the Obama-era rule. Moreover, a lot of US oil pipelines with current administration have been seeking from the steel tariffs as well as even asking the government to help build a wall in the Gulf of Mexico for protecting their oils fields from disturbances of the waves and possible flooding of the structures used in the oil field. The current society fo Americans are actually in favor of preserving the environment. Americans are generally less positive about the quality of the environment than they have been in years, and are convinced that it is getting worse rather than better. The Trump administration has over the course of its tenure in office announced that the U.S. will not participate in the Paris climate accord; rolled back government efforts to protect the environment; and advanced efforts to support traditional, fossil fuel energy sources. These policy actions appear to be contrary to the general trends in U.S. public opinion, which support more, rather than less, government action to protect the environment and favor efforts to develop solar, wind and other alternative fuel sources. The president and his appointees may argue that their main focus is on the base of voters who put Trump in office, and clearly his environmental approach receives more support from Republicans than from the general population. Most tellingly, Republicans agree with the general Trump position that economic growth should be prioritized, even if it risks harming the environment. Even with that, however, less than half of Trumps Republican base supports giving government money to support the coal industry, and slim or larger majorities say they favor a number of proposals to reduce emissions and develop alternative energy sources. This suggests that the president and Republican lawmakers and candidates could well find a nuanced position that coincides with the overall environmentalist sentiment of the American population without alienating their voting base. Works Cited Manfreda, John. The Real History Of Fracking. OilPrice.com, 24 Feb. 2017, oilprice.com/Energy/Crude-Oil/The-Real-History-Of-Fracking.html. Harvey, Hal, et al. 5 Ways the Fracking Boom Changes Politics. POLITICO, POLITICO, www.politico.com/magazine/story/2013/11/5-ways-the-fracking-boom-changes-politics-098984. Boudet, Hilary, et al. Fracking Controversy and Communication: Using National Survey Data to Understand Public Perceptions of Hydraulic Fracturing. Energy Policy, vol. 65, 2014, pp. 57-67., doi:10.1016/j.enpol.2013.10.017. Fears, Darryl. A 14-Year-Long Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico Verges on Becoming One of the Worst in U.S. History. The Washington Post, WP Company, 21 Oct. 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/a-14-year-long-oil-spill-in-the-gulf-of-mexico-verges-on-becoming-one-of-the-worst-in-us-history/2018/10/20/f9a66fd0-9045-11e8-bcd5-9d911c784c38_story.html?noredirect=on. Frackings Environmental Impacts: Water. Greenpeace International, www.greenpeace.org/usa/global-warming/issues/fracking/environmental-impacts-water/. Texas Oil Boom Has Environmental Advocates Choosing between 2 Unwelcome Scenarios. ThinkProgress, ThinkProgress, thinkprogress.org/pipelines-texas-exxon-permian-0db9ddeef1e6/. S. oil pipeline companies, producers seek relief from steel tariffs. Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trade-tariffs/u-s-oil-pipeline-companies-producers-seek-relief-from-steel-tariffs-idUSKBN1JF0DZ Gallup, Inc. Americans Want Government to Do More on Environment. Gallup.com, 29 Mar. 2018, news.gallup.com/poll/232007/americans-want-government-more-environment.aspx.

Medea as Woman, Hero and God in Euripides Play Essay

Medea as Woman, Hero and God In Euripides play the title role and focus of the play is the foreign witch Medea. Treated differently through the play by different people and at different times, she adapts and changes her character, finally triumphing over her hated husband Jason. She can feasibly be seen as a mortal woman, Aristotles tragic hero figure and even as an exulted goddess. Medeas identity as a weak woman is emphasised at the very start of the play. It is made very clear that she has come to misfortune through no fault of her own and is powerless in her problem (her world has turned to enmity). Being unable to change her situation is an example of her portrayal as a weak woman figure. We are told that she has been†¦show more content†¦However, once again though, we see this sharpness behind her veil of weakness (no bloodier spirit). With this said though, it is not a murderous, maniacal rage. She makes clear reference to the fact that she is part of the group of wretched women and that she is simply striking back as a woman scorned. When Creon comes on the stage, she continues with the pitiable appearance, begging (I kneel to you, I beseech you). She tries to persuade Creon that he has no threat from her, using the fact that she is a woman to make him disregard her power (Im in no position - a woman - to wrong a king). However, after this scene is where the image of Medea as a feeble woman ends. The Chorus indicate their pity and that Medeas plight touches our hearts. But at this point, Medea becomes the murderous and dangerous woman that will kill her children and cackle with glee at the thought of Glauces death. She declares that she manipulated Creon, fawning on him to gain my purpose. She still holds our pity but not in the same intensity (until eventually she finally loses pity almost completely in her double-infanticide). As a mother, Medea on the surface is not the best, as she eventually kills her children, ignoring their pleas for mercy (Mother, dont kill us). However, we must not ignore the heartache and pain that Medea endures in killing them. It takes incredible conviction to carry it out (parted from you, my life will be all pain andShow MoreRelatedThe Concept of the Tragic Hero: an Analysis of Jason and Medea in Euripides Medea1442 Words   |  6 PagesIn ‘Medea’, Euripides shows Medea in a new light, as a scorned woman that the audience sympathises with to a certain extent, but also views as a monster due to her act of killing her own children. The protagonist of a tragedy, known as the Tragic Hero is supposed to have certain characteristics which cause the audience to sympathise with them and get emotionally involved with the plot. 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Benefit Of Training And Development Of Employees †Free Samples

Question: Discuss about the Benefit Of Training And Development Of Employees. Answer: Introduction The training increases the efficiency and effectiveness of employees and is important in achieving goals of an organisation. It redefines the workplace learning. The companies are giving importance to workplace learning as it makes programmes more relevant and effective and creates a culture which encourages continuous learning and advances innovative leaders. The training has a great role in achieving goals of an organisation as it adds value in the performance of an organisation. There are various factors which are responsible for the performance of employees but training is a key factor. Now a days organisations spend a lot of money on the training and development of employees as it increases the performance of employees and it ultimately impacts the return of investment. [1] The impact of employee training and development on organizational profits The employee training and development programmes should be effectively managed to achieve optimum returns on their investment. The employees are also required to adapt continuous learning and update skills for the profits of an organisation. The appropriate training and development can evaluate performance of employees. Training creates a culture for continuous learning and develops innovative leaders. The training and development of employees affects organisation by increased productivity. The training and development improves the productivity of employees[2]. The employees remain up to date with new technology and use the existing technology in a better way. The well trained employees contribute both quantity and quality performance which results in profits to an organisation. The well trained employees lead to less wastage of time and resources. The training leads to less supervision because it improves the necessary skills and empowers employees to handle task independently. It i s seen that a well-trained employee is more aware to the organisation and requires less supervision. The training and development reduces error and accident on the behalf of employees. The errors occur due to lack of knowledge and specific skills required for performing a particular job. The constant training and development ensures that employees learn the right skills at right time. A well trained person prevents committing errors in a job[3]. The training and development pays an organisation by creating talent pool. The well trained employees can easily bridge the gap when someone unexpectedly leaves the job or take transfer. The employees are learnt multiple skills like sales, administration work, customer service and operations. The cross training enhances team spirit and the employees appreciate the challenges faced by the colleagues[4]. Many companies cannot discover the hidden talent of its employees. The training and development provides platform to employees to show their skills and express ideas with management. It is seen that employees desire for leadership role but because of the no leadership programme, the employees do not get chance to show their skills and prove ability. The training and development programme can be successful in spotting the leaders of tomorrow within the company[5]. The training and development plays important role in job satisfaction to employees for the role played by them in organisation[6]. The organisation is profited as the employees started to execute duties with great ability. The employees feel themselves as they belong to the organisation and the only way they can reward is by providing the best service. The training and development reduces turnover and absenteeism. Training provides confidence to employees by providing security at workplace. Training can also be helpful in evaluating weakness of employees. The weakness hinders performance of employees and hampers them by giving best outputs. The training eliminat es weakness by strengthening skill and talent of workers. It also dissolves inner barriers. A proper training and development provides employees continuous knowledge and experience. The regular training ensures that employees have reliable experience and knowledge for performing tasks and procedures[7]. It also ensures that the employees have consistent knowledge to perform tasks within the stimulated time period and without any barriers and there are no queries on the procedure of completing tasks. Security, discrimination and administration are the factors which are the tasks which are considered crucial and require special training. The organisation can be benefitted by training and development as it reduces the learning time. The systematic training by the experts is necessary to reduce the training period. It will take long time and more efforts if the employees learn through trial and error. It is also not sure that they learn the right method by practicing trial and error. Training not only takes care of all things but reduces the time period used in self-learning process considerably[8]. The training and development encourages team spirit, team work and collaborations. It instructs zeal to learn things for employees. It also benefits an organisation by increasing job opportunities and skills required at each level. It expands the prospects of human understanding and overall personality of employees. The training enhances profits of an organisation by providing opportunity for the development of human resources. The development of behaviour skills ultimately results in utilisation of resources and can be helpful to employees in achieving their personal growth. The training and development not only improves profitability but changes attitude of employees towards organisation. Budgetary considerations in human resources The budgeting in human resources includes systematic collection of information and data. Usually the organisations follow two types of process, incremental budgeting and zero-based budgeting. The incremental budgeting prepares a new budget by making use of the current budget. Some upward and downward adjustments are used to each item. In the zero based budgeting each item is justified before included. The budget considers reviewing prior budgets, knowing budget calendar, establish goals and identifying capital expenditures. The data needed in creating a new budget includes: The increase or forecasts in benefits cost. The number of employees anticipated for the next year. The actual cost earned in current year. Estimated turnover rate New programs planned. The changes which can impact cost are policy, strategy, law or business regulations. Once the employees are hired, it is required to train them. The training can only prepare employees for the positions in a better way[9]. The investment in training helps in recognising global reality. The success and failure depends on the skilled workforce of an organisation. The hiring manager of companies considers that training of employees is a key retention tool. The employee training and development requires money. The average cost of training is assumed as $1,888 per employee in a business of less than 500 workers. A training budget enables an organisation to forecast short and long term skill and plan best resource allocation. The training of employees includes forecasting knowledge, abilities and skills required to execute the strategic plan of an organisation[10]. The training budget includes many areas such as professional, customer service, policymaking development and software applications. It provides means to an organisation to control learning activity and investmen ts. It provides a standard to measure expectations against reality. The budget identifies various components such as increased productivity, improved precision, improved attitude and more work independence. The effectiveness of training can be tracked through observation, customer surveys, and employee questionnaires[11]. It allows adjustments and modifications. The training program also includes the development costs. It can be pay off after several months and cash flow can be accommodated. The allocation of funds for training with budget provides the flexibility to organisation all over the year. The cost included in employee training: Trainers salary Internal training programs Registration fees Travel expenses Consultation fees Education and program materials External programs Reflect on organization and propose changes for the future Woolworth is the largest retail group of Australia and New Zealand. We have over 3,000 stores, support offices and 180,000 employees. Our company serves millions of customers everyday with multiple choice, lower prices and excellent quality. Woolworth is publically listed on the Australian Securities Exchange. We have approximately 350,000 shareholders out of them 40,000 is staff of our own company. We focus on training investment. According to the report of 2006/2007 the total training of company increased to $ 50 million. It is anticipated that the training will keep on growing by approximately 20%. We treat our employees on the basis of equality. Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander employment are supported by providing equal growth opportunities to employees. We have cultivated a culture of learning. Various training and development programmes are designed to recognise talent of employees. We have equipped our employees with skills to use their full potential. A regular assessme nt process is followed to identify higher performance employees to reach next generation of leaders. We have registered under a private further education and training college with the higher education department[12]. The employees are supposed to complete their training before joining. We also do provide tertiary funding for employees and their children. We also provide NQF training programmes for both internal and external learners. We have done partnership with SETAs and leading tertiary institutions for the training programmes. The learners from disadvantaged background are transformed and get opportunities by company. The international and local conferences, internal and external coaching and mentoring keep on taking place. To fight with skill shortage we have launched a career development programme for the current employees, unemployed and underemployed. The duration of this programme is 12-18 month. Most of these persons will be employed by the company[13]. The candidates of W oolworth growth academy are paid salary and are employed by the company itself after the completion of programme. We have invested in the local talent by learning interventions for employees. We have talent development teams that work closely with learning specialists to make sure candidates have deep understanding of industry[14]. Our growth academy prepares the future leaders of our company and opens door for the disadvantaged talent. Woolworth can search for the best training solutions to implement annual skills development programmes for the staff. A training schedule or workplace skill plan (WSP) can be developed to implement skills development[15]. It also helps to identify skills required for the professional development of employees. The WSP provides a planned approach required for the amount and type of training required for the company. It can help company to discover talent of employees that is not necessarily known by the company earlier. The ultimate aim of WSP is to support skill development. The company can make use of continuing professional development (CPD) for achieving the right abilities to do job and enhance expertise. The efforts are done to improve job performance and employability. The professional development plan (PDP) can be useful in developing plan and manage employability in the challenging times[16]. It creates opportunity for the development and advancement of employees. The online t raining programmes can also be used by the company to provide training to staff. It is not a one-time affair. So, the company should realise the need of training time to time[17]. Conclusion The training and development upgrades not only the productivity of employees but also the profitability of an organisation. The development of employees ensures profitability of an organisation. The employees of an organisation can adapt an ever changing world market which is possible only if they are properly trained. The companies are required to make investment in on-going employee training and development for the success of employees and profit of an organisation. Training fosters ability to learn faster and adapt changes. It enhances quality of work and initiative of employees. It also assists to achieve organisational goals and objectives which in turn enhances the effectiveness of employees References Ana-Maria, Bercu, Impact of employees training programmes on job satisfaction. (2017) Current Science (00113891) 112.7 Angus, Mcllwraith, Information security and employee behaviour: how to reduce risk through employee education, training and awareness (2016). Routedge. Cyril, Kirwan, Improving learning transfer: A guide to getting more out of what you put into your training (2016). Routledge. Rob F, Poell, Time to flip the training transfer tradition: employees create learning paths strategically, (2017) Human Resource Development Quarterly 28.1: 9-15. Katerina, Kashi, Employees Training and Development: What Competencies Should be Developed the Most? (2014) European Conference on Management, Leadership Governance. Academic Conferences International Limited. Farhad, Analoui ed. The changing patterns of human resource management (2017). Routledge. Davis, Farnham, Human Resource Management in Context: Insights, Strategy and Solutions (2015). Kogan Page Publishers. Georgia T, Chao, Unstructured training and development: The role of organizational socialization. (2014) Improving training effectiveness inn work organizations. Psychology Press. 141-164. Chris, Brewster, The integration of human resource management and corporate strategy (2017). InPolicy and practice in European human resource management. Routledge, 22-35. John, Storey,New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals) (2014). Routledge, John,Purce, "The impact of corporate strategy on human resource management." (2014)New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals)67. Maura, Sheehan, "Human resource management and performance: Evidence from small and medium-sized firms."(2014) International Small Business Journal32.5: 545-570. Peter J, Dean, Tom Gilbert: Engineering performance with or without training. (2016) Performance Improvement 55.2: 30-38. Robin, Kramar, "Beyond strategic human resource management: is sustainable human resource management the next approach?."(2014)The International Journal of Human Resource Management25.8: 1069-1089. Saeid, Abbasian, "Attitudes towards competence development among employees in Tourism Industry: A Swedish pilot study." (2016) 25th Nordic Symposium on Tourism and Hospitality Research 2830 September 2016 Turku, Finland. Wayne, Cascio,Managing human resources (2018). McGraw-Hill Education

Price Ceiling free essay sample

A price ceiling is a government-imposed limit on the price charged for a product. Governments intend price ceilings to protect consumers from conditions that could make necessary commodities unattainable. However, a price ceiling can cause problems if imposed for a long period without controlled rationing. Price ceilings can produce negative results when the correct solution would have been to increase supply. Misuse occurs when a government misdiagnoses a price as too high when the real problem is that the supply is too low. In an unregulated market economy price ceilings do not exist. Students may incorrectly perceive a price ceiling as being on top of a supply and demand curve when in fact; an effective price ceiling is positioned below the equilibrium position on the graph. Effects of Price Ceilings Binding Versus Non-Binding price ceilings A price ceiling can be set above or below the free-market equilibrium price. For a price ceiling to be effective, it must differ from the free market price. We will write a custom essay sample on Price Ceiling or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page In the graph at right, the supply and demand curves intersect to determine the free-market quantity and price. The dashed line represents a price ceiling set above the free-market price, called a non-binding price ceiling. In this case, the ceiling has no practical effect. The government has mandated a maximum price, but the market price is established well below that. In contrast, the solid green line is a price ceiling set below the free market price, called a binding price ceiling. In this case, the price ceiling has a measurable impact on the market. Consequences of Binding Price Ceilings A price ceiling set below the free-market price has several effects. Suppliers find they cant charge what they had been. As a result, some suppliers drop out of the market. This reduces supply. Meanwhile, consumers find they can now buy the product for less, so quantity demanded increases. These two actions cause quantity demanded to exceed quantity supplied, which causes a shortage—unless rationing or other consumption controls are enforced. It can also lead to various forms of non-price competition so supply can meet demand. Reduction in quality To supply demand at the legal price, the most obvious approach is to lower costs. However, in most cases, lower costs mean lower quality. During World War II, for example, food sellers operating under ceilings reduced portion size and used less expensive ingredients (e. g. , more fat, flour, etc. ). It can also be seen in decreased maintenance of rent controlled apartments. Some scholars, however, doubt that price ceilings necessarily drive quality down in the case of an oligopoly. They argued that with few competing firms selling under a price ceiling, a company at the lower end of the market must find ways to achieve better quality without raising price. Black markets If somebody cannot obtain needed goods because a price ceiling reduces the quantity, they may turn to the black market. Those who—by luck or good management—obtain goods in short supply can profit by illegally selling at a higher price than the free market allows. The black market price is higher than the free market price because the quantity is less than in a free market transaction, where more sellers could afford to sell the product. People are sometimes forced to buy at these higher prices when a shortage happens and there is no other place to obtain these.

Free Essays on Malvolio

Twelfth Night - Character study: Malvolio Character study: Malvolio: Did he deserve the punishment that he received? The character Malvolio (meaning literally â€Å"I mean ill will) is immediately affected by the implications of his name. His personage is implied directly to be one of negative and somewhat disagreeable nature, which is continued and supported throughout the play, leading to his downfall and mockery which both initially seem to be thoroughly deserved, due to his numerous defects of personality. The first evidence of Malvolio’s undesirable disposition comes with his own first appearance in the play during which he makes a point of insulting the wit and intelligence of Feste â€Å"I marvel your ladyship takes delight in such a barren rascal†. Through doing this he shows himself to be man who condescends to those that he believes to be lower than him in any way, by acting on his own personal belief of superiority, and this later becomes a major player in his downfall. Initial impressions are supported by further vices in Malvolio’s general character and these lead to further aversion to him. He shows himself to be a strict puritan and this is also suggested by the opinion of Maria â€Å"The devil a puritan that he is†. He denies himself indulgences and pleasure whilst at the same time begrudging these things of others. He makes a point of taking the moral high ground over Maria, Feste and more importantly, his social superior Sir Toby, when he scorns them for their revelries and â€Å"disorders†. This in turn adds to their desire to avenge him and bring him from his level of false authority, back to his true social class of a mere steward at which he is unable to give out orders, but only to receive them. Although he is a man of supposed purity and self-denial in practice, his aspirations are such that he becomes hypocritical. In turn he makes his character one of further malevolence. He secretly longs for t... Free Essays on Malvolio Free Essays on Malvolio Twelfth Night - Character study: Malvolio Character study: Malvolio: Did he deserve the punishment that he received? The character Malvolio (meaning literally â€Å"I mean ill will) is immediately affected by the implications of his name. His personage is implied directly to be one of negative and somewhat disagreeable nature, which is continued and supported throughout the play, leading to his downfall and mockery which both initially seem to be thoroughly deserved, due to his numerous defects of personality. The first evidence of Malvolio’s undesirable disposition comes with his own first appearance in the play during which he makes a point of insulting the wit and intelligence of Feste â€Å"I marvel your ladyship takes delight in such a barren rascal†. Through doing this he shows himself to be man who condescends to those that he believes to be lower than him in any way, by acting on his own personal belief of superiority, and this later becomes a major player in his downfall. Initial impressions are supported by further vices in Malvolio’s general character and these lead to further aversion to him. He shows himself to be a strict puritan and this is also suggested by the opinion of Maria â€Å"The devil a puritan that he is†. He denies himself indulgences and pleasure whilst at the same time begrudging these things of others. He makes a point of taking the moral high ground over Maria, Feste and more importantly, his social superior Sir Toby, when he scorns them for their revelries and â€Å"disorders†. This in turn adds to their desire to avenge him and bring him from his level of false authority, back to his true social class of a mere steward at which he is unable to give out orders, but only to receive them. Although he is a man of supposed purity and self-denial in practice, his aspirations are such that he becomes hypocritical. In turn he makes his character one of further malevolence. He secretly longs for t...

What Is AP Research Should You Take It

What Is AP Research Should You Take It SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips AP Research is a class introduced by the College Board as a part of its new AP Capstone program. But what does it really involve? How can you do well? In this article, I'll provide an overview of AP Research and give you some more information about whether you should take it and how you can be successful in the class. What Is AP Research? AP Research is the second course that students take in the AP Capstone program. It comes after AP Seminar.If you take AP Seminar and AP Research, you will earn an AP Research and Seminar Certificate, and if you take both classes in addition to four other AP courses and exams, you will earn an AP Capstone Diploma. This program is very new (the College Board rolled out the full version in the fall of 2014), but you will most likely benefit from it in the college application process when schools see the types of advanced assignments you've completed in these research-focusedclasses. In AP Research, students are encouraged to explore a topic or problem that interests them and design, plan, and conduct a year-long research project centered around it.The classrepresents the culmination of skills that students learn in AP Seminar, which include effectively analyzing sources, formulating coherent arguments backed up by evidence, and examining issues from differing points of view.Smaller research projects in AP Seminar will prepare you for the large-scale research project you will undertake in AP Research. Doing a long-term research project is a lot like scaling the craggy peak of a snowy mountain if you substitute physical discomfort for mental discomfort, but it's also just as rewarding in the end! What Exactly Will You Do in AP Research? AP Research consists entirely of a year-long research project.The end product is a 4000-5000 word academic paper and a 15-20 minute presentation with an oral defense.You will also be expected to compile the materials you used in your research into a portfolio.This piece of workis similar to a thesis project, so it’s good preparation for college academics. Topics for the research project are usually relatively open, but arguments for and against solutions to major problems in society tend to be the main focus. For example, you might investigate whether the government should invest more resources in finding and supporting sustainable energy sources. In your academic paper, you will be expected to: Introduce and contextualize your research question and your initial thoughts and hypotheses about it.In the case of my example, the research question might be "Should the government devote more resources to sustainable energy projects?" You would reflect on the question briefly here and share your initial uninformed opinions before diving into any research. Review previous ideas and works on the subject and their arguments and perspectives.This is where you would address arguments for and against the adoption of policies to promote the use of sustainable energy. This section lays the groundwork for your arguments in later sections of the paper. Explain your research method and why you approached the question this way.Here, you would discuss how you went about compiling sources for your research and how you collected the information. This lends credibility to your argument in the next section. Present your findings and interpret their significance in connection to your research question.In this section, you would lay out your argument based on the evidence you discovered through your research. In the example, your argument might be that we should devote more resources to sustainable energy projects because the long term consequences of continuing to use non-renewable energy sources will be extremely dire. You could support this argument with research that you touched on in previous sections. Discuss the implications and limitations of your findings and reflect on the process. This is where you would talk about any qualifiers related to your argument in the previous section. If you can't be absolutely sure of a conclusion that you drew or there is some speculation involved, you would go over those potential limitations. You would also talk about what your findings mean in a larger context. Talk about potential next steps on the issue in view of these findings.Basically, this is the "so what?" section. This is where you would present your ideas for what practical steps the world might take based on your research. In the example, this could be something like providing better tax incentives for businesses that use renewable energy sources or rearranging money in the government's budget in a specific way so that more of it goes towards clean energy projects. Provide a complete bibliography.This is pretty self-explanatory. You'll need to cite all your sources correctly and make sure that they're trustworthy. After you turn in your paper, you will also deliver a 15-20 minute presentation to a panel of teachers in whatever format works best for your research. You'll be asked to give a defense of your findings after your presentation. Your AP Research teacher and two panel members chosen by your teacher will ask you three or four questions about your work, and you'll have to answer them based on your research. You'll be judged on the quality of your defense. If you make a weak argument, your teacher will bang a gavel on her desk and scream "OVER-RULED!" again and again until you come up with something better. Should You Take AP Research? First of all, you can only take AP Research if you take AP Seminar beforehand.Make sure you plan out your classes carefullyif you want to end up in this class! If you are looking to earn the AP Research and Seminar Certificate or the AP Capstone Diploma, you will need to take this class.Keep in mind that for the Capstone Diploma you’ll also need to take four more AP classes and exams. Some colleges will offer you credit for taking these classesor will allow you to place out of introductory courses that are required for other students.This can make things a little easier on you during your freshman year. You’ll also be better prepared for college academics if you take AP Research.You will already be familiar with the process of collecting research and using it to formulate an opinion on a topic. When you're assigned your first research paper, you’ll know exactly where to start. Aside from those benefits, AP Research can be a fun way to explore a topic that genuinely interests you. You'll have a ton of freedom when it comes to choosing your topic, so you can explore almost any idea that you find compelling. AP Research is a good choice for students who are looking for a way to enrich their high school experience with independent research and enroll in competitive college programs. Go, be free. Soar through the wide open sky of source material on your wings of intellectual inquiry. How Can You Do Well in AP Research? In AP Research, the most important rule for doing well is to avoid falling behind!Since your entire grade rests on one long-term project, you will need to make sure that you are diligent about staying on task throughout the year.It’s tempting to procrastinate when it seems like you have such a long time to complete the project, but you won’t get the most out of your research if you don’t spread out your work.You want to avoid turning in a sub-par project that you don’t believe in because you ran out of time. I would also suggest that you finish doing all of your research before you start writing any part of your paper. It's hard to write a cohesive argument when you're adding to it piece by piece as you go along. It's best to compile all the information you need first, figure out your argument based on the evidence, and then start structuring your paper around it. This might seem obvious, but sometimes with these types of projects it's tempting to start working on the part that you actually have to turn in before you've fully explored all the background information. In a related point, you should be flexible and accept that you may need to reframe your research question.You never know what dead ends you might hit or how you might need to change your project as you learn more about your topic.The best way to plan for these scenarios is to start your research early.The highest-quality projects will be those that adapt to new findings over time. You will have to defend your work, so you should be sure that you believe in the point of view that you’re selling and that it's backed up by solid evidence. Finally, you shouldchoose a research question that fascinates you. Working on a research project for a whole year can get tedious, and you don't want to be completely sick of your topic after a couple of months. Talk to your teacher about your interests so that you can work together to find a viable research question that will hold your focus. Choose a topic with a lot of depth, just like this insanely creepy stairwell. Conclusion AP Research is the second class in the AP Capstone program after AP Seminar. It's similar to an independent study class andconsists entirely of one year-long research project on a topic of your choice. You will write a research paper summarizing your findings and then give an oral presentation followed by a defense of your argument. AP Research can be a useful class for students who want to be well-prepared for college-level assignments. It's a great way to hone your skills in effectively conducting research and formulating arguments based on evidence. It also might be a nice break from your other classes because of the level of freedom it provides to students. It's an opportunity to learn more about nearly any topic or question that intrigues you! What's Next? Not sure if you can take AP Research at your school? Consult this article for a list of all the high schools that offer the AP Capstone program. You should also take at this article for a detailed guide to which AP classes you should take in general. If you're on the fence about AP classes in general, check out this article for more information on how AP classes and exams might benefit you. Want to improve your SAT score by 160 points or your ACT score by 4 points?We've written a guide for each test about the top 5 strategies you must be using to have a shot at improving your score. Download it for free now:

Better Acquisition Planning and Contracts Term Paper

Better Acquisition Planning and Contracts - Term Paper Example DHS, HHS and NASA preferred proper implementation of policies to ease their work. Moreover, the three departments adopted the need to establish a proper time frame. The three agencies: HHS, DHS and NASA, as well as, USAID developed policies, which formulated various different necessities and levels of supervision for the acquisition planning that was aimed at providing a balance between oversight and time and organizational load. Together, HHS, DHS and NASA opted for a written acquisition plans that were closely related to the fundamentals contained and defined in the federal acquisition regulation. All the departments and agencies were required to have all their cost approximation and obligations ready during acquisition planning; its aim was to ensure that time consumption and operational costs were minimized. However, NASA and DHS guidance considered the inclusion of essential lessons learned and new skills acquired from the past contracts they have been involved in the acquisitio n planning. In contrast, the three agencies have established differing conditions on the acquisition planning, for example, the individuals to carry out reviews of the documents (Compton, 2010). Implementation of the policies established under the acquisition planning took varying approaches. ... DHS, on the other hand, stated that the acquisition plans did not provide for acquisitions, for example, urgent situations, acts that had been integrated in an earlier plan already approved or procurements carried out within the mandate of Small Business Research Program (SBRP). NASA, just like HHS stated that acquisition plans did not provide room for un-sourced for proposals. NASA also confirmed their wish that architect-engineering services and research from nongovernmental organizations should not be included in the acquisition plans. Basing on the dollar awards, DHS, HHS and NASA had different requirements for different levels of grant. DHS viewed that it was essential to have vital information stored in an advanced Acquisition database for all rewards valued below $10 million. DHS proposed that failure to include the information in a database, a written acquisition plan had to be prepared. NASA opted for meetings on procurement strategy, which was aimed at establishing the way forward for awards below $10 million. The main agenda of the meeting was to look for approval of their proposal (Compton, 2010). HHS and NASA required that written acquisitions be provided for contracts that were way higher than the expectation of the agency; HHS demanded written documents for contracts above $500,000, while NASA opted for documents for any value of $10 million and above. Several elements are essential in an acquisition planning that includes cost, time, need and lessons learned from past contracts. It is very crucial to ensure that proper cost estimations are made so that the awards can cover the proposed use. The organization requesting for grants should work in collaboration with other stakeholders so that they can coordinate the process. The

Is Total Quality Management Enough For Competitive Advantage Essay

Is Total Quality Management Enough For Competitive Advantage - Essay Example ers are becoming more and more aware, empowered, enlightened, and exposed to more products than anytime on the history of this planet (Tenner, & DeToro, pp. 123-159, 1992). They have substitutes for everything, businesses are being done at global levels and no part of the world is now isolated from the other parts (Ross, & Perry, pp. 78-96, 1999). This situation led the experts to come up with new ways to survive and magnify revenues. The concepts of total Quality Management and competitive advantage are a couple of them. This paper is devoted to the discussion that is total quality management enough for competitive advantage. Before the paper moves any further, it is important at this stage to understand and reflect on the basic concepts of Total Quality management and competitive advantage. Experts view total Quality management as a â€Å"Management or corporate philosophy that asks firms to strive for making the best use of all the available resources and integrating all organisational functions such as Research and development, Planning, Manufacturing, Customer Service, etc so that organisational goals of maximum profit and customer satisfaction could be attained in the best possible way† (Hakes, pp. 12-38, 1991) (Gummer, & McCallion, pp. 45-92, 2007). There are many other elements attached with it. Authorities in Management studies regard total quality management as process through which, companies can successfully move on to the road of continuous enhancement and expansion, enchanted customers, empowered workforce that lead to lowest possible costs and highest possible returns (Ross, & Perry, pp. 78-96, 1999). It is imperative to understand here that there is a huge amount of debate going on the scope and dimensions of Total Quality management and different scholars have different approaches towards it (Gummer, & McCallion, pp. 45-92, 2007). There are a number of ideas regarding total quality management; however, all diverge on the single point of

Successful Athlete Essay Example for Free

Successful Athlete Essay Vince Lombardi says â€Å"the price of success is hard work, dedication to the job at hand and the determination that whether we win or lost we have applied the best of ourselves to the task at hand.† A dedicated athlete puts forth their all by fully devoting themselves to their sport. They always try to give one hundred and ten percent before during and after practice. Athlete achieves their success knowing they worked hard to attain it and can truly say they accomplished something that makes them a better person. For instance basketball sensation LeBron James keeps striving to improve. Branded the next Michael Jordan when he was in high school and drafted by the Cleveland cavaliers LeBron James kept his cool and kept working hard. He emerged an all-star and leader the cavaliers to the NBA playoffs three years in a row and made it to the NBA finals in 2007 against the San Antonio spurs. However the cavaliers lost their championship bid in four consecutive games. James continued to help the cavaliers improve in 2008 the team made it to the semifinals where they defeated by the Boston Celtics in seven games. Struggling for an NBA championship, shortly after becoming a free agent, however James announced that he would be joining the Miami heat. Many of his fans consider hid departure a betrayal to his hometown. James finishes second in the league during his first season with the heat. The 2011-2012 seasons also saw major success for James and the Miami heat. Winning his first NBA championship defeating the Oklahoma City thunder. Throughout his NBA career, LeBron James has been considered one of the best player in the league, and has been compared to basketball great Michael Jordan.

Tv Viewing :: essays research papers

Television viewing is a very important part of our student's lives. There is a big issue on whether it should be allowed in our public schools. It should be allowed to some extent, all depending on the age group. I think age is very important when it comes to viewing TV in school. The students should be divided into three age groups: young, teen and adults. These age groups can help us distinguish what kind of viewing will be allowed, if any.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  TV Viewing can be a very good learning experience for young students depending on the viewing material. Young children tend to copy most of what they see on TV because of that fact we must be very careful with the viewing material. The young kids should be limited to educational films only. Any other type of TV viewing should be done at home at explained by the parent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Teens are more mature, therefore their TV viewing should be decreased because of the fact that at that age they need to learn more about life and what goes on around them. The best way to do that is through life experience not through TV. For example if a student saw drug use on TV he/she would have no idea about drugs until they experiment with the drug, or see the effects of drugs on someone in real life. Teenagers are at a point where they can distinguish reality from fiction. Schools should focus on giving teenagers more projects about life. For example marriage projects that are not real. This way they can experience life more realistically.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Adults can watch whatever they want. At this point they know right from wrong, what's real and what's fiction. They should know what's appropiate for them to watch. They know the difference between entertaining TV viewing and educational viewing.

Female Genital Mutilation Essay

Female genital mutilation includes â€Å"all procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia, or other injury to the female genital organs for non-medical reasons† (WHO). The World Health Organization states that 140,000,000 girls and women worldwide are currently living with the consequences of female genital mutilation. The procedure can be carried out on babies as young as two weeks old and on woman in their twenties. The age at which girls are cut can vary widely from country to country, and even within countries. Most often, female genital mutilation happens before girls reach puberty (Women’s Health). In Africa, there is an estimated 101,000,000 girls 10 years old and above that have undergone female genital mutilation. The procedure is generally performed without anesthesia by an older woman who acts as the local midwife and it is often conducted in the girl’s home. However, there are a few villages that have all the girls lay next to each other and the circumciser cuts all of them in a row. The World Health Organization recognizes four types of female genital mutilation. Type 1 and Type 2 are closely related. Type I is the removal of the clitoral hood, which is rarely, if ever, performed alone. Type 2 is called a clitoridectomy. This procedure is the partial or total removal of the clitoris and inner labia, with or without the removal of the outer labia. In a 1998 report from the World Health Organization, they wrote â€Å"the clitoris is held between the thumb and index finger, pulled out and amputated with one stroke of a sharp object†. The sharp object can be a knife, pair of scissors, cut glass, sharpened rocks or fingernails. Medical personnel are usually not involved. However, in Egypt, Sudan and Kenya, these procedures are carried out by health professionals (Pruthi). Type 3  is called infibulation. This is the process of removing all external genitalia and the fusing of the wound, leaving a small hole for passage of urine and menstrual blood. A pinhole is created by inserting something (usually a twig or rock salt) into the wound before it closes. The wound may be sewed with surgical thread, and in some cases agave or acacia thorns are used to hold the sides together. Then, the girl’s legs are tied together from hips down to her ankles and left to heal for 2-6 weeks. The infibulated woman’s vulva is opened for sexual intercourse by her husband’s penis or a knife. This creates a tear which they gradually rip more and more until the opening is sufficient enough to admit the penis. In some women, â€Å"the scar tissue is so hardened and overgrown with keloidal formations that it can only be cut with very sharp surgical scissors† (Lightfoot-Klein). If the woman gets pregnant, they will cut her open with a knife in time to give birth. After they give birth, many women ask to have the infibulation restored. Skoll World Forum Type IV is unclassified and it includes â€Å"pricking, piercing or incising of the clitoris and/or labia; stretching of the clitoris and/or labia; cauterization of the clitoris and surrounding tissue; scraping of tissue surrounding the vaginal opening or cutting of the vagina; introduction of corrosive substances or herbs into the vagina to cause bleeding or for the purposes of tightening or narrowing it; and any other procedure that falls under the definition of female genital mutilation above† (Reyners). The origins of the practice are relatively unknown. â€Å"There’s no way of knowing the origins of FGM (female genital mutilation), it appears in many different cultures, from Australian aboriginal tribes to different African societies,† states medical historian David Gollaher, president and CEO of the California Healthcare Institute. There is a reference to it on the sarcophagus of Sit-hedjhotep, dating back to the Egypt’s Middle Kingdom. The inscription says â€Å"But if a man wants to know how to live, he should recite (a magical spell) every day, after his flesh has been rubbed with the b3d (an unknown substance) of an uncircumcised girl and the flakes of skin of an  uncircumcised bald man† (Knight, pp317). The English explorer William Browne reported in 1799 that infibulation was carried out on the slaves, coming from Egypt, to prevent pregnancy. Traders simply paid a higher price for women who were infibulated. Slave patterns across Africa account for the patterns of female genital mutilation found there. Egypt and Africa are not the only continents that have a history of female genital mutilation. Gynecologists in 19th century Europe and the United States would remove the clitoris for various reasons, including treating masturbation, because they believed that masturbation caused physical and mental disorders (Rodriguez, p323) Isacc Baker Brown was an English gynecologist who believed that the â€Å"unnatural irritation of the clitoris caused epilepsy, hysteria and mania†. A paper that was written in 1985 and published in the Obstetrical and Gynecological Survey says that â€Å"the last clitoridectomy was performed in the United States in the 1960s to treat hysteria, erotomania and lesbianism† (Cutner, p135) The practice of female genital mutilation is most common in the western, eastern, and north-eastern region of Africa, in some countries in Asia and the Middle East (WHO). There are currently 27 countries in sub-Saharan and Northeast Africa, and immigrant communities, which still perform female genital mutilation. Countries such as Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia and Sudan are predominantly Type 3. The list of health complications that arise from female genital mutilation is very extensive. There are no health benefits and it rooted in gender inequality, ideas about purity, and is an attempt to control a woman’s sexuality. Immediate complications can include sever pain, shock, bleeding, tetanus or sepsis, urine retention, open sores in the genital region and injury to nearby genital tissue. African Women.Org state that the long term consequences from the procedure are: Repeated urinary infection because of the narrowing of the urinary outlet which prevents the complete emptying of urine from the bladder. Extremely painful menstruation due to the buildup of urine and blood in the uterus leading to inflammation of the bladder and internal sexual organs. Formation of scars and keloid on the vulva wound. The growth of dermoid cysts which may result in abscesses. Formation of fistula – the rupture of the vagina and/or uterus. Vulval abscesses. Severe pain during intercourse which may consist of physical discomfort and  psychological traumatization. Difficult child birth which in case of long and obstructed labour may lead to foetal death and brain damage of the infant. In the case of infibulation acute and chronic pelvic infection leading to infertility and/or tubal pregnancy. Accumulation of blood and blood clots in the uterus and/or vagina. Physical short term and long term complications are not the only result from female genital mutilation. Mental anguish can result from this brutal procedure. When Waris Dirie was about five years old, she was left in a makeshift shelter under a tree for several days to recover from her â€Å"operation†. She was told that God wanted her to do this and she wondered why God hated her so much. When she was thirteen, her father wanted her to marry a man in his 60s. Waris ran across the dessert to Mogadishu where she lived with relatives until she made it London and lived with her aunt. Whilst in London, a photographer spotted her and she became a supermodel, appearing in Chanel campaigns and was in the James Bond film The Living Daylights (Saner). Waris’s popularity and status helped to give her a voice and she went public in 1997 in a magazine interview, to tell the world about what happened to her and her aspiration to stop female genital mutilation. Waris means Desert Flower, a flower that can endure even the roughest of climates. She started a foundation named Desert Flower that seeks to end the crime of female genital mutilation by raising public awareness, creating networks, organizing events and educational programs. Her foundation Desert Flower also supports victims of female genital mutilation. Last month, in Berlin, she opened the first of what will be several medical centers to offer help to women who have suffered from female genital mutilation. Waris Dirie isn’t the only one that is opposed to female genital mutilation. Others, such as the World Health Organization, have been working to educate woman on their rights to their own bodies. Many laws have been enacted to protect these women, but few abide by these laws. Eighteen countries—Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Cà ´te d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, and Togo—have enacted laws criminalizing female genital mutilation. The penalties range from a minimum of three months to a maximum of life in prison. Several countries also impose monetary fines. The Prohibition of Female Circumcision Act of 1985 made female genital mutilation unlawful in  England and in Wales. However, there is evidence that people used a loophole to take young girls abroad temporarily to carry out the procedure. In the United States, Cornell University Law School teaches that â€Å"Except as provided in subsection, whoever knowingly circumcises, excises, or infibulates the whole or any part of the labia majora or labia minora or clitoris of another person who has not attained the age of 18 years shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 5 years, or both†. There are those out there that are for female genital mutilation. Many people from communities that practice it say that it is rooted in local culture and that the tradition has been passed from one generation to another. Culture and the preservation of cultural identity serve as the underlying impetus for continuing the practice. Many women will be social pariahs if they don’t go through the ritual. They cannot attend any public outing or funeral. If they children, they too will be outcast. Some of those who support female genital mutilation also justify it on grounds of hygiene and aesthetics, with notions that female genitalia are dirty and that a girl who has not undergone the procedure is unclean. The women that oppose the end of female genital mutilation compare it breast enlargements or rhinoplasty. They ask â€Å"why is okay for these women to change and shape their bodies to look the way that they want them to?† The answer, simply, is that these procedures are a women’s choice. They are eighteen years old and chose to have these procedures done to them. Female genital mutilation is child abuse and a violation of the basic human rights of women. The more we know about this procedure, the more we can do to put an end to it. References â€Å"Consequences of FGM.† African Women Organisation. N.p., 2009. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. . Cornell University Law School â€Å"18 USC  § 116 – Female Genital Mutilation.† LII. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. . Cutner, L.P. â€Å"Female genital mutilation† Pg 135. July 1985. Web. 18 Oct. 2013 http:/ww.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov â€Å"Female Circumcision.† Skoll World Forum. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Oct. 2013. . â€Å"Female Genital Cutting Fact Sheet.† Womenshealth.gov. N.p., 15 Dec. 2009. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. . â€Å"Female Genital Mutilation.† WHO. World Health Organization, Feb. 2013. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. . Gollaher, David Discovery News.† DNews. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Oct. 2013. . Knight, Mary. â€Å"Curing Cut or Ritual Mutliation.† Chicago Journal 92.2 (2001): n. pag. JSTOR. June 2001. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. . Lightfoot-Klein, Hanny â€Å"Erroneous Belief Systems Underlying Female Genital Mutilation in Sub-Saharan Africa.† Template. University of Maryland, 22 May 1994. Web. 16 Oct. 2013. . Pruthi, Priyanka. â€Å"Child Protection from Violence, Exploitation and Abuse.† UNICEF. N.p., 22 July 2013. Web. 14 Oct. 2013. . Reyners, Marcel. â€Å"Health Consequences of Female Genital Mutilation.† Health Consequences of Female Genital Mutilation 4.4 (2004): 243. Health Consequences of Female Genital Mutilation. Dec. 2004. Web. 18 Oct. 2013. . Rodriguez, Sarah W. â€Å"Project MUSE – Rethinking the History of Female Circumcision and Clitoridectomy: American Medicine and Female Sexuality in the Late Nineteenth Century.† Rethinking the History of Femle Circumcision and Clitoridectomy 63.3 (2008): 323-47. Project MUSE – Rethi nking the History of Female Circumcision and Clitoridectomy: American Medicine and Female Sexuality in the Late Nineteenth Century. July 2008. Web. 18 Oct. 2013. . Saner, Emine. â€Å"Waris Dirie: ‘Female Genital Mutilation Is Pure Violence against Girls'† The Guardian. N.p., 14 Oct. 2013. Web. 21 Oct. 2013. .

Hul: -Strategies

Due to the continuous efforts of the top shampoo brands in India penetration of shampoos in urban areas is almost 100%. As far as penetration of shampoo in the rural areas is concerned it has risen by almost 18% in the current scenario. the shampoo market in India is valued at Rs 4. 5 bn with the penetration level at 13% only. The market is expected to increase due to lower duties and aggressive marketing by players Shampoo is also available in a sachet, which is affordable and makes upto 40% of the total shampoo sale. The Indian shampoo market is characterised by a twin-benefit platform: cosmetic and anti-dandruff. It is basically an upper middle class product, as more than 50% of the consumers use ordinary toilet soap for washing hair. While the awareness level is high, the penetration level is very low even in the metros which is only 30%. Urban markets account for 80% of the total shampoo market, The penetration level is rapidly increasing due to decline in excise duty, which was 120% in 1993 to 30% currently. Hindustan Unilever Ltd led hair care sales in 2010, with a 19% value share, followed by Dabur India Ltd India, Marico Ltd and Procter & Gamble Home Products Ltd India. These four companies accounted for almost 49% of value, by virtue of their strong brands in shampoos and conditioners. Consumer goods giant Hindustan Unilever today said it is looking at cornering over 13% of the shampoo market next fiscal with its leading hair care brand Dove in the next fiscal. â€Å"We have already launched these products globally. Today we have launched it in this market. With this we expect to gain 13-15% market share in FY13,† HUL General Manager, Hair Care Business, Piyush Jain, told PTI here. He further said, â€Å"the company entered the hair care segment in 2007 and since then we have achieved a market share of 10%. † The shampoo market is estimated to be around Rs 3,500 crore. To achieve the target, the company today launched its Dove nourishing oil care range of products — oil care shampoo, daily treatment conditioner, oil care weekly vita-oils repair mask and oil care vita-oil serum — in the premium category which contains a blend of vita oils ncluding coconut, almond and sunflower oils. Dove, which initially started as soap brand, has diversified into the hair care and antiperspirant segments recently. we have achieved a market share of 10 percent. † The shampoo market is estimated to be around Rs 3,500 crore. (IBN Live oct 2011) But if HUL, the leader in shampoos with a market share of around 44% through its Sunsilk, Clinic Plus, Clinic All Clear and Dove brands, was to respond to P&G’s move with share of 24%. apr2011

Free Essays on No More On Route 54

No More on Route 54 Route 54 has been referred to by various agencies as â€Å"The deadliest highway in San Diego County†. This stretch of freeway, which follows the Sweetwater River from I-5 to Spring Valley, has claimed the lives of nine adolescent drivers and passengers in the past year alone, especially in a small area near Sweetwater Road. Despite the tragic loss of life in these accidents, the public is largely unaware of the dangers of this road, and I myself was personally unaware of it until an accident on Route 54 took the life of someone close to me. On the evening of March 5th, 18-year old Damien LaFrancis of Chula Vista was driving three friends in a 1989 Dodge Colt when a road rage incident with another driver caused him to swerve into the path of a Ford F250. Damien and two of his passengers were killed in the collision and the sole survivor, 16-year old Harmony Kielty of Chula Vista, is lucky to be alive. The pain that Harmony has endured since then is something that no person should have to suffer through, and that is why I call for â€Å"No More on Route 54.† In order to prevent any more people from losing their lives on this road, the community must work together with the media and police forces to spread awareness of the dangers of Route 54 and alleviate their effects. In order to lessen the dangers caused by speeding and reckless driving on Route 54, local police and Highway Patrol forces must crack down on these actions. Driver’s speeds should be monitored both by ground-based checkpoints and by airplane, and cameras installed to capture the license plate numbers of offenders. Signs should be posted at on-ramps to warn drivers of the new precautions and to inform them of the fines for speeding or reckless driving. The media should be made aware of the new program too ensure that everyone who lives in the area and uses Route 54 is aware of the dangers involved and the steps being taken. The local media must a... Free Essays on No More On Route 54 Free Essays on No More On Route 54 No More on Route 54 Route 54 has been referred to by various agencies as â€Å"The deadliest highway in San Diego County†. This stretch of freeway, which follows the Sweetwater River from I-5 to Spring Valley, has claimed the lives of nine adolescent drivers and passengers in the past year alone, especially in a small area near Sweetwater Road. Despite the tragic loss of life in these accidents, the public is largely unaware of the dangers of this road, and I myself was personally unaware of it until an accident on Route 54 took the life of someone close to me. On the evening of March 5th, 18-year old Damien LaFrancis of Chula Vista was driving three friends in a 1989 Dodge Colt when a road rage incident with another driver caused him to swerve into the path of a Ford F250. Damien and two of his passengers were killed in the collision and the sole survivor, 16-year old Harmony Kielty of Chula Vista, is lucky to be alive. The pain that Harmony has endured since then is something that no person should have to suffer through, and that is why I call for â€Å"No More on Route 54.† In order to prevent any more people from losing their lives on this road, the community must work together with the media and police forces to spread awareness of the dangers of Route 54 and alleviate their effects. In order to lessen the dangers caused by speeding and reckless driving on Route 54, local police and Highway Patrol forces must crack down on these actions. Driver’s speeds should be monitored both by ground-based checkpoints and by airplane, and cameras installed to capture the license plate numbers of offenders. Signs should be posted at on-ramps to warn drivers of the new precautions and to inform them of the fines for speeding or reckless driving. The media should be made aware of the new program too ensure that everyone who lives in the area and uses Route 54 is aware of the dangers involved and the steps being taken. The local media must a...

How to Write and Format an MBA Essay

How to Write and Format an MBA Essay What Is an MBA Essay? The term MBA essay is often used interchangeably with MBA application essay or MBA admissions essay. This type of essay is submitted as part of the MBA admissions process and is usually used to provide support for other application components like transcripts, recommendation letters, standardized test scores, and resumes. Why You Need to Write an Essay Admissions committees sort through a lot of applications in each round of the admissions process. Unfortunately, there are only so many places that can be filled in a single MBA class so a vast majority of the candidates who apply will be turned away. This is especially true of top MBA programs that receive thousands of applicants each school year. Many of the applicants who apply to business school are qualified MBA candidates- they have the grades, the test scores, and the work experience needed to contribute to and succeed in an MBA program. Admissions committees need something beyond a GPA or test scores to differentiate applicants and determine who is a good fit for the program and who is not. This is where the MBA essay comes into play. Your MBA essay tells the admissions committee who you are and helps to set you apart from other applicants. Why You Dont Need to Write an Essay Not every business school requires an MBA essay as part of the admissions process. For some schools, the essay is optional or not required at all. If the business school does not request an essay, then you don’t need to write one. If the business school says the essay is optional, then you should DEFINITELY write one. Dont let the opportunity to differentiate yourself from other applicants pass you by. MBA Essay Length Some business schools put strict requirements on the length of MBA application essays. For example, they may ask applicants to write a one-page essay, a two-page essay, or a 1,000-word essay. If there is a desired word count for your essay, it is very important to adhere to it. If you are supposed to write a one-page essay, dont turn in a two-page essay or an essay that is only a half-page long. Follow instructions. If there is not a stated word count or page count requirement, you have a little more flexibility when it comes to length, but you should still limit the length of your essay. Short essays are typically better than a long essay. Aim for a short, five-paragraph essay. If you cant say everything you want to say in a short essay, you should at least stay below three pages. Remember, admissions committees read thousands of essays - they dont have time to read memoirs. A short essay demonstrates that you can express yourself clearly and concisely. Basic Formatting Tips There are some basic formatting tips that you should follow for every MBA essay. For example, it is important to set the margins so that you have some white space around the text. A one-inch margin on each side and on the top and bottom is typically good practice. Using a font that is easy to read is also important. Obviously, a silly font like Comic Sans should be avoided. Fonts like Times New Roman or Georgia are typically easy to read, but some of the letters so have funny tails and embellishments that are unnecessary. A no-frills font like Arial or Calibri is usually your best option. Formatting a Five Paragraph Essay Many essays - whether they are application essays or not - utilize a five-paragraph format. This means that the content of the essay is split into five separate paragraphs: One introductory paragraphThree body paragraphsOne concluding paragraph   Each paragraph should be about three to seven sentences long. If possible try to create a uniform size for the paragraphs. For example, you dont want to start with a three-sentence introductory paragraph and then follow up with an eight-sentence paragraph, a two sentence paragraph and then a four-sentence paragraph. It is also important to use strong transition words that help the reader move from sentence to sentence and paragraph to paragraph. Cohesion is key if you want to write a strong, clear essay. The introductory paragraph should start with a hook - something that captures the readers interest. Think about the books you like to read. How do they start? What grabbed you on the first page? Your essay isnt fiction, but the same principle applies here. Your introductory paragraph should also feature some sort of thesis statement, so the topic of your essay is clear. The body paragraphs should contain details, facts, and evidence that support the theme or thesis statement introduced in the first paragraph. These paragraphs are important because they make up the meat of your essay. Dont skimp on information but be judicious - make every sentence, and even every word, count. If you write something that doesnt support that main theme or point of your essay, take it out.   The concluding paragraph of your MBA essay should be just that - a conclusion. Wrap up what you are saying and reiterate your main points. Do not present new evidence or points in this section.   Printing and Emailing Your Essay If you are printing out your essay and submitting it as part of a paper-based application, you should print the essay out on plain white paper. Do not use colored paper, patterned paper, etc. You should also avoid colored ink, glitter, or any other embellishments designed to make your essay stand out.   If you are emailing your essay, follow all of the instructions. If the business school requested it to be emailed with other application components, you should do that. Do not email the essay separately unless you are instructed to do so - it could get in someones inbox. Finally, be sure to use the correct file format. For example, if the business school requested a DOC, that is what you should send.

Wildlife and Wind Energy. Leah Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Wildlife and Wind Energy. Leah - Essay Example The researcher did cover the topic well and broad enough. She discussed how wind energy is a great potential of cleaner and renewable source of energy but it will be more successful if further measures of conserving the habitat are embraced. The researcher concentrated mostly on the negatives of the energy production method and provided measures which if implemented could reduce fatality rate of wildlife. The methods discussed include radar technology, GPS tracking, Ultrasonic acoustics and design of the wind turbines. Studies have been conducted to determine the effect of industrial wind turbines on the environment. There are both positive and negative effects which provide clear evidence. Modern turbines are developed in a way that birds can’t rest on them. This still is not a proper solution because the birds still rest on the generators which have rotating blades that can slaughter them. Many nations are contemplating on methods of generating more sustainable, domestically available energy. Wind energy is seen as the most convenient method because it has economic benefits of development, lack of water consumption and emissions during operation and has low impact on humans. This can be the best method of energy production if it will cater for the wildlife

Statistics Assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Statistics Assignment - Essay Example According to Gore and Altman (1992), Chi-square test is used in situations where the data table has two or more rows and columns and where there is no cell with less than 5 as a value. In this case, Chi-square tests can be performed since the table obeys the two conditions. If otherwise, the Chi-square exact goodness of fit test is used since it takes care of cells with less than value 2. In case of less than two rows, then independent t-test will be used. The ANOVA test compares the variations due to regression (SSR) and un-explained variation (SSE). Further, the analysis computes the F statistics (F computed) using the formula; F = MSE/MSR and compares it with the F tabulated value; qf(.95,1,198) = 3.89 and then compares the two values. According to Gore and Altman (1992), the regression model is significant if F (computed) > F (tabulated). The analyzed data further assures that there is no significant difference between the two groups with F =1.929 (p=.166; p>.05). This is so because, F (computed) = 1.926 .05 we reject the null hypothesis that the impact of the two groups is statistically significant at 95% level of significance. The two groups explain about 4.805 (sum of squares due to regression) of the variations in back pain improvements. The difference between participating in group discussions and group exercises is about 4.805 regression sum of square with. The un-explained variation (residual sums of squares) is about 493.995. Statistically, the interaction between certain factors may have a negative impact on the data being modelled. Considering each factor alone is encouraged to avoid the negative effects of interactions. Adjusting for extra factors changes the outcome results. For example, in this analysis, fully adjusting the explanatory variables results into a different p-value although statistically significant. The interaction between age, race and sex adjusted and

Your task is to write a mid-length research paper Essay

Your task is to write a mid-length research paper - Essay Example This essay will analyze fossil fuels from an ethical perspective. In addition, the essay explores how different ethical approaches would handle the topic. The impacts of fossils fuels on the environment are well known. Fossil fuels have been identified as the leading cause of fossil fuels. Despite the availability of alternative sources of energy such as solar, wind, geothermal, and nuclear energy, the question of fossil fuels persist. In addition, the cost of different oil based products and fuels such as gasoline, diesels, and lubricants have increased dramatically. This has resulted from increased cost of production and increasing demand. Despite these drawbacks, more and more wells are being sunk as pipelines to transport the commodity are being built. Moreover, car manufactures have been in full operation in their attempt to meet the demand. Global warming remains the main threat in the modern world. If the predictions on global warming are true, then the world would became inhabitable in the near future. It is our moral obligation to protect the globe as the home for humankind. The responsibilities of governments and policy makers remain as the main ethical issues into the matter. Indeed governments and policy makers are responsible for the well fare of the society. Moreover, government and policy makers should make policies that ensure long-term sustainability of the planet and humanity. This indicates the need to separate politics from environmental issues. In this case, governments and other policy makers are expected to make laws or policies that will ensure the long-term sustainability of the planet. The future of fossil fuels is a controversial issue and, hence the need for a detailed analyses. Ethical concerns on the topic should place the way forward concerning the continued use of fossil fuels. Firstly, the role of fossil fossils in global warming is an issue of concern in the modern

British Punk Movement Causes

British Punk Movement Causes Was the Punk movement in Britain merely a working class response to the advent of Thatcherism and free-market ideas? Im in love with Margaret Thatcher; that is what the Notsensibles ironically sang, or let us say yelled, in 1979 (Im in love with Margaret Thatcher). Maggie, Maggie you cunt! added violently the Exploited in 1985 (Maggie, Horror Epics). The corpus of songs written on, or rather against, Margaret Thatcher is quite extensive, not only during the Punk years, which is not surprising since she was the only British Prime Minister in the 20th century to win three consecutive terms-May 1979, June 1983 and June 1987. At the time of her resignation in November 1990, she was Britains longest continuously serving Prime Minister since 1827. During the eleven years she spent at number 10, the change of style she imposed on British politics and economy was tremendous to the extent that to some commentators there was no turning back (Jones et al. 666) and it would be a euphemism to say that nobody remained unconcerned about Mrs Thatchers revolution. No wonder then, that between the Punks wearing their leather jackets, smoking sixty cigarettes a day and staying up all night on speed (Savage 133), and the dressed up to the nine woman from Grantham, who was an Oxford educated Conservative and a Methodist, the clash was inevitable. That is the reason why it is chiefly interesting to ask the following question: Was the Punk movement in Britain merely a working class response to the advent of Thatcherism and free-market ideas? In other words, is it possible to relate to a major shift in politics one of the most famous, aggressive, contradictory, and yet ephemeral phenomenon of British popular culture? If such a question might appear quite obvious given the contemporaneousness between the emergence of the Punk culture-or subculture-and Thatchers rise to power, it will nevertheless require a balanced answer. Indeed, one of the key elements of our analysis will be, first, to take a closer look at the sociopolitical context in order to break the stereotypes. We will then be led to wonder whether the message conveyed by the Punks was rather concerned with a certain type of society at large. Finally, we will observe that the artificiality of Punk music and its merchandising definitely challenges the so-called proletarian revolt against a new political and economic order. There is nothing easier but to systematically oppose Thatcherism and the British Punk movement since they approximately emerged at the same time. Margaret Thatcher had become leader of the Conservative Party in 1975 and had begun formulating her own brand of Tory policy while the following single from the Sex Pistols-probably the most famous and influential Punk band in Britain-was released in November 1976: Anarchy in the UK (Savage 563). Nevertheless, that would be forgetting that most of the social strain had been accumulated under the Callaghan-Labour-government: By July 1975, England was in recession. The unemployment figures for that month were the worst since the Second  World  War . . . . Not only had output shrunk, but public spending had risen to 45 per cent of the national income, and was threatening to unbalance the whole economy. (Savage  108) Dave Laing, in One Chord Wonders, analysed the subject-matter of the lyrics on the debut albums of the first five punk groups to achieve prominence in 1976-7 (27) and very interestingly concluded that the overwhelming number . . . of social and political comment lyrics came from the first Clash album [The Clash] (29). That proves that social (economic, political, etc.) preoccupations were already there before Margaret Thatchers first premiership, before a truly Thatcherite government was ever established. Therefore, the idea according to which the Punk movement would be a mere response to Thatcherism is being challenged quite importantly here. We have used the word Thatcherism several times already, but what does it really mean? An attempt to define what that could be might prove very useful to our analysis. According to Overbeck: Thatcherism is a reasonably coherent and comprehensive concept of control for the restoration of bourgeois rule and bourgeois hegemony in the new circumstances of the 1980s . . . The central elements in the Thatcherite concept are the reorientation of Britains foreign policy and the redefinition of its place in the world; its attack on the position of the trade unions and the Labour Party (Thatcher aims to eliminate socialism as a serious political force); the restructuration of the role of the state in the economy; and finally a reordering of the balance of power between different fractions of capital in Britain. (in  Jessop  et  al. 3) That long definition seems to establish Thatcherism as a political theory, an ideology, such as Marxism for instance. Nevertheless, most modern commentators share the . . . view that Thatcherism does not represent a coherent ideology (Evans 2). Indeed, as Peter Riddell reminds us: the [first] Thatcher administration has not followed a pure free-market or monetarist programme, though strands of both have clearly been important (6). He suggests another definition: Thatcherism is essentially an instinct, a series of moral values and an approach to leadership rather than an ideology (7). We have to leave there the definitional considerations for it would be too long to go through all of them-full books have been written on the matter-but it was interesting to point those out because since some specialists argue that there is no such thing as Thatcherism, we could have a hard time trying to prove that the Punk movement in Britain merely was (or was not) a working class response to it. As far as the working class is concerned, when one reads the lyrics of Maggie, a song by the Exploited we have already alluded to in our introduction, it is true that it clearly refers to its financial difficulties: Twenty five quid to live on, seven days a week to survive! Five and twenty pictures of the queen! You wont see the starvation in her eyes! Twenty five quid to dish out and youre already ten in debt, so with fifteen singles left over the landlord gets the rest! Maggie, Maggie you cunt! Maggie, Maggie you cunt! Maggie, Maggie you cunt! Maggie, Maggie, Maggie, Maggie you fucking cunt! Twenty five reasons for trouble! Three million mouths to feed! Theyre destroying your mind and body while they increase their own needs. Twenty five quid of insult! Two meals soon kills your health! They want to see you suffer! They want to see you dead! (Horror Epics) Indeed, despite the end of the recession in 1982, unemployment continued to rise [and] reached a peak of 3.2 millions in 1985 and the cost of unemployment benefit . . . on those in work continued to increase (Evans 29). One of the government counter-measures was to ma[ke] it less easy to qualify for unemployment benefits (op. cit.). But, nevertheless, if we take a look at the structure of the popular vote in the 1979 and 1983 general elections we observe that the working class-a shrinking category-vote swung from the left to the right. This is a phenomenon called dealignment, which Peter Dorey defines as such: the changing allegiance and electoral behaviour, particularly with regard to identification with, and regular support for, a political party (154). The reasons for dealignment are numerous and we cannot go through all of them here but let us just say that, among other things, the crisis had brought on a great uncertainty about the future and that Labour was not trusted anymore to solve social issues. Furthermore, Mrs Thatchers law and order policy was appealing to people living in poor and unsecure areas. As a result, Labour . . . witnessed its working-class support fall to 50 per cent in 1979 (and to 42 percent in 1983) (Dorey 155). Finally, British punk bands political orientation was ambiguous: La semaine oà ¹  «Ã‚  God Save the Queen  Ã‚ » sortit, les Sex Pistols furent simultanà ©ment accusà ©s dà ªtre communistes, anarchistes et mà ªme dappartenir au National Front (Chastagner 80). Thus, it was hard to see who they were fighting for-but themselves. Moreover, as Laing points out: Right to work by Chelsea was one of the best known of the early punk songs. Its title echoed the slogan of a left-wing campaign against the rising jobless totals of the mid-1970s. But though the song is a protest about standing around just waiting for a career, its diagnosis of the cause of unemployment was impeccably right-wing: the lyric blames the power of the trade unions. (31) Bearing in mind all those considerations, we should now wonder whether the Punk movement in Britain was a reaction against a certain type of society as a whole rather than just a working class response to Thatcherism and free-market ideas-for that view proved being too restricted and often even wrong. The Punks were born in a society which had left them very little hope for the future-in God Save the Queen (Never Mind the Bollocks, Heres the Sex Pistols) the terms Theres no future for you and No Future are repeated many times and were even taken as a leitmotif to describe the punk generation later on-and they reacted violently against a social system which had deprived them of their very essence. To exist, their only chance was then to incorporate the conventional symbols of that society and to throw them back at people in the most absurd and incomprehensible manner-thus foreshadowing post-modernism: quelle que soit la rà ©ussite [des] diffà ©rentes sous-cultures à   exprimer le d à ©sarroi de groupes sociaux, gà ©nà ©rationnels ou ethniques et leur identità © collective, cest bien leur fonction de rà ©sistance symbolique qui est soulignà ©e (Le Guern 46). Otherwise, who could understand the significance of a safety-pin used as a jaw piercing for instance, or the blurred political messages conveyed by the successive punk bands-from Stalinism to Nazism? Of course, what we called a kind of society as a whole also includes music and we should not forget that the Punk movement was also a response to the rock establishment: Rocks neo-elite no longer spoke to this new generation . . . and rock superstars were overindulged rich men who lived in foreign countries to avoid paying taxes that helped to service the working class. As a form of protest against the rock establishment, punkers adopted the attitude of rebellion and dressed themselves in the leathers of the original teen rebels of the American fifties, a sharp commentary on the twisted values of establishment rock. (Eliot 188) As Chastagner pointed out: Le mouvement punk redonnait la musique aux sans-grade, aux malhabiles, aux frustes. Pas besoin dapprentissage, dinitiation, nimporte qui pouvait monter sur scà ¨ne et jouer (81). The One Chord generation was born and their music was vilified by many. Analysing how punk rock was described in the daily and weekly newspapers, Dave Laing noticed a great variety of words pertaining to the following semantic fields: mental illness, physical illness, unpleasant effects, and violence (100). One could think of such an opposition as being the main cause of the short-lived punk experience but it actually was reinvigorating; according to Philip H. Ennis: punk concentrates all the passion once carried by mature rock into an explicit repudiation of adult life (366). Therefore, punk rock could both be seen as a political, social, and artistic movement (independent and nurtured on new trends, such as International Situationism), and as the renaissance of rocknroll in its true form, i.e. before the latter became a product of the consumer society. Rock Roll was once loathed-Franck Sinatra declared: Rock n Roll is the most brutal, ugly, desperate, vicious form of expression it has been my misfortune to hear (in Burnett 29)-and produced by independent labels; it is this existence on the fringe of society that also gave to punk music its apparent authenticity: If BBC radio 1 had been willing to give immediate heavy rotation treatment to, say, the Sex Pistols God Save the Queen the day it was released, then the disc would probably never have been conceived. Popular culture, if it is to be progressive, must embody an element of opposition to the establishment, provocatively questioning the status quo. (Bennet 167) It is definitely not surprising then, that in the case of the Sex Pistols it was their arrival at commercial stardom [that] marked the end of their social relevance (Eliot 188). But we will look into that more extensively later on. For now, we would like to shed light on some of the Punk movements intrinsic contradictions. We have just alluded to independent labels in the previous paragraph. It is relevant to observe here, that many of the anti-Thatcher records were released on independent labels-arguably themselves models of Thatcherite entrepreneurial flair (Heard  BBC News). Moreover, we must remember that Mrs Thatcher asserted the primacy of the individual (Savage 110) and that she valued very much self-reliance, obviously derived from Samuel Smiles notion of self-help described in the late 19th century (Self-Help). We cannot help thinking that those values were not totally incompatible with the kind of selfish attitudes that had emerged during the events of 1968 and which extensively developed in the 1970s along with the Punk movement-one of the Sex Pistols first singles, released in 1976 along with Anarchy in the UK, was titled I Wanna Be Me (Savage 563). To Muggleton: subcultures are manifestations of self-expression, individual autonomy and cultural diversity (167). After those reflections on punk musics relationship with society and culture, we are now obviously led to question the credibility of the Punk movement. We have gathered some obvious clues so far, but what will put another nail in the coffin of Punk music is its artificiality. Indeed, it developed mainly under the influence of Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood, whose preoccupations were very often far from the working class: La naissance du mouvement punk doit beaucoup à   Malcolm McLaren,  «Ã‚  crà ©ateur  Ã‚ » des Sex Pistols. Il ny a rien de spontanà ©, rien de la rà ©volte brute des opprimà ©s, aucune rà ©bellion des damnà ©s de la terre dans le travail de McLaren. Cest un intellectuel, ancien à ©tudiant des Beaux-Arts et nourri des à ©crits situationnistes. Fascinà © par mai 68, il essaya, avec sa compagne de là ©poque, Vivienne Westwood, de faire violence au corps social britannique en se servant de la mode. Ils ouvrirent une boutique de và ªtements sur Kings Road, à   Londres. . . . Le succà ¨s narrivant pas assez vite, McLaren eut lidà ©e de se servir dun groupe de rock comme vitrine pour ses và ªtements et porte-parole de ses thà ©ories. . . . On se rend bien vite compte que la naissance des Sex Pistols et le mouvement punk qui en a dà ©coulà © nest pas une rà ©action spontanà ©e aux conditions sociales de là ©poque. Il y a au dà ©part . . . une stratà ©gie bien à ©l oignà ©e de la rà ©volution prolà ©tarienne. . . . La rhà ©torique  «Ã‚  classe ouvrià ¨re  Ã‚ » est surtout un argument publicitaire. (Chastagner 77-78) The first Sex Pistols concerts took place in Art Schools, it was not a music born in the streets-unlike what is very often said-and it could then be seen as a form of art which message was primarily dedicated to an enlightened university educated elite, and delivered with a fake working class accent. Dave Laing stresses that Lydons pronunciation was very artificial, notably in the song Anarchy in the UK in which the unnatural rhyming of the last syllable of Anti-Christ with Anarchist shifts the attention away from the message to the rhyme-scheme and could momentarily set up an ambivalent signal about the sincerity of the whole enterprise (58). The artificiality was also found in the names. Johnny Lydon was rechristened Johnny Rotten-the legend says that it was because of his very bad dental hygiene-and John Simon Ritchies stage name was Sid Vicious. Moreover, McLarens will to sign his group with a major company is another proof of punk musics ambiguity: it seemingly struggled to fit in the very system it was claiming to reject, to destroy. We witnessed to a love-hate relationship with the music industry, particularly with the very famous EMI episode: The Pistols received a $100,000 advance upon signing, only to be released two days later after a wave of protests from shareholders.  .  .  . (Eliot 188). The band changed record companies several times before finally becoming one of Virgins best selling artists-even though the relationship with Virgin was very tense too. It is also interesting to point out that God Save the Queen was originally titled No Future but that the name was changed into a more commercially effective one to coincide with Elizabeth IIs jubilee and, according to Eliot, [the song] shot to number two, and the group disbanded. Success killed the message; a familiar rock scenario (189). As early as the summer of 1977, cracks started to appear within the punk movement; it looked like things were being made safe again, opposition was being channelled and recuperated, rebellion commodified (McKay 73). A new vanguard known as the post-punks denounced the business punk music had become, even giving a new lease of life to the formerly declining record companies while the punk message had always been-at least, politically speaking-to clearly dismantle the establishment. But as Laing observes: Whether or not punk rock was dead after 1978 [i.e. after the Pistols fragmentation], the punks themselves were not. . . . By 1981 the performances of bands such as The Exploited had all [the characteristics of punk music] (109). He continues, referring to Crass who attacked punk bands who had sold out' (113). Crass is very interesting to look into since they were seen by anarchist thinkers to be the only band carrying the political-musical line forward.  .  .  . (McKay 77) and b ecause one of their bà ªtes noires was, of course, Margaret Thatcher. Their opposition to the Iron Ladys Falklands war was very strong and gave birth to no less than two songs: Sheep Farming in the Falklands, which was one of the best-selling punk records of 1983. . . . (Laing 113), and How Does It Feel (To Be the Mother of a Thousand Dead)? (McKay 81). Crass found themselves largely alone on the punk scene in . . . criticizing the actions of the British government. . . . [Nevertheless, they still managed] to avoid recuperation [and] to maintain political and artistic autonomy in the music industry of all places. That is such an achievement. If punk was a discourse of authenticity, . . . Crass must be placed at the centre of [it]. (McKay 81-82) However, we do think that their do it yourself, DIY attitude-described by McKay as a strategy of bricolage (78)-seems to echo Thatchers thought in an uncanny fashion: recovery can only come through the work of individuals. . . . And the worst thing a Government can do is to try to smother it completely with a sort collective alternative (Speech to Conservative Rally in Cardiff). Some individualistic values were shared-we already observed that before with the Sex Pistols-both by the Punks and Margaret Thatcher, therefore it remains impossible to clearly oppose them. To conclude, we shall remember that we attempted to demonstrate that, for various reasons, the British Punk movement was not a mere working class response to Thatcherism and free-market ideas. Firstly, punk social protests started before the emergence of Thatcherism-if such a political doctrine can even be considered to exist at all. Plus, both the lack of clarity in the punk political message and the working class disillusionment for left-wing ideals led us to think that the issue was far more complex. That is the reason why we then tried to briefly analyse the implications of the Punks criticism of society, notably as a strong symbolic force, and as a vehement opposition to the establishment in general. However, we finally realized that the artificiality of the Punk movement, along with its intrinsic ambiguities pervading our analysis, prevented us to define it as being truly anti-Thatcherite, proletarian, or opposed to free-market economy.