Belize Commercial Free Zone

The Commercial Free Zone [pic] Sign to entrance to CFZ [pic] Map layout of CFZ [pic] Plazas, Company Stores & Shoppers inside ‘The Zone. ‘ CRS104-2 Group # 7/ D Research Question: Identify an industry or economic area with in your country where taxation and protection as been removed and look at the condition of it with in your country in terms of: 1. has it worsen or improve 2. variety of choice ( no specification of products made) 3. price of goods ( no indication of the prices of goods) 4. overall employment 5. quality (no indication of the quality of goods) 6. government revenue 7. ocal industry A Brief over View of the Commercial Free Zone or CFZ The Commercial Free Zone is one of Belize’s many Offshore Companies or industries used to attract foreign investors from all over the world to increase Belize’s economy and northern economy. Belize's legislation defines CFZ as â€Å"a geographic area in Belize designated outside national customs territory and duly restricted by controlled access, wherein the benefits created shall apply to a complex of industries. † The CFZ boarders Mexico’s South Eastern border and allows investors to directly access Mexico’s high end consumer market.Corozal’s Commercial Free Zone is under the management of the Commercial Free Zone Management Agency (CFZMA) and is headed by the Chief Executive Officer under a Board of Directors within the Zone. The Commercial Free Zone (CFZ) was established under the Corozal Commercial Free Zone Act of 1994 and was in place by 1997. The FZA is the most modern laws governing Free Zones in Belize. Business entrepreneurs are offered insane tax free business opportunities. Businesses there are free of foreign exchange restrictions and benefits such as duty exemptions and tax holidays.Goods imported or exported are exempt from any duties, quotas, stamp duties and revenue replacement duties. Income tax on Commercial Free Zone businesses is usually c harged between 2% and 8%. Businessmen’s rates can be reduced up to 2% through tax credits by employing Belizean workers. The Zone provides a variety of facilities for activities such as manufacturing, processing, warehousing, packaging and distribution of goods and services. This allows the businessmen today to manufacture, import, export, distribute fuel, and to offer retail or wholesales to Mexico and many other international clients.By doing so, they are also offered access to dock ships at ports in Belize and direct export by sea, air, land and entry into national customs territory. Today the Zone under gone vast improvement since then and continues to do. What started out first as a private sector with a great struggle to attract investors began to pay off due to the involvement of the few businessmen’s determination and dedication. First there were a few companies that only imported and exported their merchandise, then one or two retail stores, and then there was the addition of a SHELL gasoline station.This then offered the Mexicans an economical and better quality fuel than Mexico’s state-run fuel company PEMEX offered. Mexicans then began to invest in the Zone and brought with them numerous stores which offered investors and consumers everything from a more active store location to batteries. Benefits that Foreign Investors Receive from CFZ The following is an extended list of benefits that Investors receive: 1. no restrictions on foreign exchange out of or within a CFZ, including the sale of foreign currency or the transfer of foreign exchange; 2. noGovernment charges and taxes on foreign currency use within a CFZ; 3. all merchandise, articles and goods that enter a CFZ for commercial purposes are exempt from import duties, revenue replacement and stamp duties; 4. all fuel and goods, including buildings materials, equipment, furniture, supplies, etc. , needed for the functioning of a CFZ business are exempt from all duties and ta xes; 5. A Social fee of 1. 5% is charged on all goods and services imported into the CFZ, except for fuel (on fuel it makes 10%); 6. no quotas for imports and exports; 7. t is possible to open an account in any currency with a duly registered bank of CFZ business choice located in the CFZ; 8. no import or export license is required for imports or exports; 9. imports and exports are exempt from all custom duties, consumption and excise taxes, and export duties; 10. During the first 5-year period of business functioning in a CFZ, it is exempt from income tax, or capital gains tax, or any new corporate tax levied by the Government of Belize; any dividends paid by this business are exempt from tax for the first 20-year period of its operation; 11.The loss incurred over the 5years' tax holiday by a CFZ business may be carried forward and deducted against profits in the 3 years after the tax holiday period; 12. Any proceeds from the sale of stock or other ownership interest in a CFZ busin ess are exempt from the above-mentioned tax. Employment, Government Revenue, CFZ Current State of Being and Effects on the Belizean Economy Employment The main industry in Northern Belize that provides over six thousand families with income is the sugar industry.The other main industry which does so is CFZ. By 2003 there were over 400 businesses. Now there are about 700 which are offering employment to over 3000 Belizeans. Government Revenue 1. In 2004, CFZ brought in $274 million in economic activity annually of which the Government charged income tax as the five year mark had passed in 2002. 2. CFZ Christmas sales were approximately 50 percent lower than 2004 in 2008 CFZ Current State of Being Investors are losing confidence in the Belizean economy as: 1. There is less economic activity in the zone.This has left investors who have built million dollar shopping plazas unable to meet financial commitment. As a result, half of the facilities have now become vacant. 2. The Chetumal Ch amber of Commerce consistently pressures the Mexican Federal government to hinder Mexicans from purchasing at CFZ. 3. Before the Belize Bank and Atlantic Bank have been depositing pesos from the Free Zone in banks in Chetumal. Now Mexican banks are refusing to accept pesos deposited at CFZ due to money laundering concerns. Investors are then forced to keep large sums of pesos which posses the risk of theft.As a result the risk of excess pesos forcing the Market is eminent causing investors to sell excess pesos to local currency dealers at a loss due to Mexico’s unstable exchange rate. 4. The Central Bank has lost its account with HSBC (an international bank which used to process the millions of US dollars in cash) this is due to US anti-money-laundering banking regulations. There are periods when commercial banks in CFZ have not been freely taking the US dollars for the past three weeks. As a result, there have been several U. S. dollar freezes at CFZ in 2002, 2009, 2010.This is a very serious matter as it posses a possible treat to place CFZ activities on halt permanently if no resolution is provided. Hence anywhere up to over 17 million US dollars would be left to sits in a vault in Belize unprocessed. Effects on the Belizean Economy Consequences: 1. In 2008, Imports also fell by 38. 9 percent to a new low of $114. 5 million due to losses in the global economy . When economic activity fell to 50% in the Christmas of 2008; it caused the Belizean economy to decline. This is due to the fact that the industry is earning less; less income is being gained by the government through income tax.As a result Commercial activity continues to decline. 2. CFZ income is dependent on foreign currency, especially so US currency. Any change in the U. S economy directly affects us. Also since investors are all foreign, and not local, they can leave at any point in time, and will provided that there is persistent decline in economic activity or U. S Dollar Freezes or whe never financial responsibilities cannot be meet. 3. As a result of businesses closing their shutters permanently thousands of Belizeans are left unemployed. 4. Belizean economy then continues to decline.

Love, Love, Love- We are Surrounded by Love Essay

â€Å"Your life and my life flow into each other as wave flows into wave, and unless there is peace and joy and freedom for you, there can be no real peace or joy or freedom for me. To see reality- not as we expect it to be, but as it is- is to see that unless we live for each other and in and through each other, we do not really live very satisfactorily; that there can really be life only where there really is, in just this sense, love. â€Å"1 Most of our lives consist of socializing with others, beginning new relationships, and strengthening old ones. Love is all around us, embodied in three main categories: parental or family love, love between friends, and â€Å"chemical love,† between a male and female. Each of these is experienced in a different way; each of these is approached in a different way. However, all of them share one common quality- they are unplanned, unpredicted, and unexpected. This is what gives love its beauty. Because we do not expect it, we appreciat e it greatly, realizing how poor our lives have been (or would have been) without it. We simply learn to love love. The first kind of love we encounter is at a very early age, and that is toward our parents. This is a subconscious feeling; the child is too young to decide whether to love his or her parents or not. In the usual case, when the parents show love toward their child, the child feels it and returns the warm feeling which fills the parents’ hearts. This love can be shown in many ways. For example, usually the first word a child learns to pronounce is â€Å"mama,† or something along these lines. This shows the subconscious line of thought- the thought of his or her parents dominates the child’s mind. The child wants to be hugged and kissed; he or she rebels when taken away from his or her parents, and does not go to sleep without the security of the loved parent. This kind of love is innate and unpredicted, and seen in almost every individual. Another kind of love is the one we feel toward our friends. When we are young, these relationships are not very profound; they usually consist of getting together to play the favorite game of â€Å"duck, duck, goose,† or maybe â€Å"freeze tag .† When so young, a child’s feelings toward a friend are not as  strong as an adult’s feelings toward his or her friends. However, young children hug, hold hands, and feel the need to see each other very often, perhaps to play â€Å"hide and seek,† perhaps to tell the story of how the family dog chased its tail. As we grow, we begin to encounter more and more difficulties; Mom and Dad will not always solve the problem. This is when we look for other assistance, and this is where our friends come in. Our peers have probably encountered the same problem: a row with a parent, a broken heart, a low grade. From this stage on, we become more and more dependent on our friends, and the bond strengthens until the point (and perhaps farther) when the friends feel as though they are one: the pain felt by one is equally felt by the other. For example, when my friend, the person who has been next to me for ten years through everything, including the death of a parent, was left by her boyfriend for drugs, I felt incredible pain; she did not need to tell me how she felt- I already knew. Even now, when we are thousands of miles apart, a telepathy still exists. This kind of bond can be called love- when one is dependent on one’s friend, when the opinion of that person is what determines the actions taken. However, such love is felt only toward a limited number of people, for friends are like plants- there are many that are beauteous and colorful on the outside, but poisonous on the inside. There may be just a few unique ones, not necessarily the most beautiful ones, that complete us. â€Å"Love means to love that which is unlovable, or it is no virtue at all.† 2 This is the third kind of love,†chemical love.† When one feels this kind of love, one does not see the loved one’s flaws; one sees him or her as an angel that has come down from heaven: suddenly the large nose disappears, and is replaced by the big blue eyes. This kind of love occurs when, upon meeting a member of the opposite sex, one feels an uncontrollable desire to be with this person- a desire which cannot be subdued by mental power. This kind of love is the most unpredictable- it occurs suddenly, when it is least expected. A person might be sitting in a cafà ©, drinking coffee, when a complete stranger walks past and somehow, the coffee suddenly loses its attractiveness. The only thing occupying the person’s mind is how to catch the mysterious stranger’s attention. When one experiences this kind of love, one feels as though in a trance- the only thought occupying the brain is  that of the object of desire. Even a touch on the hand by the loved one can cause extreme felicity. When a person is â€Å"in love,† the object of desire is the meaning of that person’s life; he or she wakes up in the morning, overflowing with vivacity and energy, all fueled by the thought that he or she will be with that one particular person. When someone experiences such attraction to another person, he or she is ready to risk his or her life for the loved one or for the sake of being together, just like Romeo and Juliet preferred to die rather than be separated. â€Å"Chemical love,† therefore, is stronger than the mental power and cannot be purposely controlled. All three kinds of love share a common property- they are feelings, which are mentally uncontrollable; they completely take over the body, and the brain is helpless in stopping them. Love cannot be forced or decided upon; it controls itself and completely takes over the person experiencing it. This is why love is so potent- the human being is helpless in stopping its effects. A person usually experiences each type of love at least once during his or her lifetime. All three come together to form one of the most powerful forces in existence- love.

This is an Exam Question Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

This is an Exam Question - Assignment Example Doing such targeting is important to a firm as often they realize that they can roll out innovations without necessarily having to add value to their service. Key among most target markets would be price as they realized with the introduction of new brand, Xiameter. However, for companies to benefit from need based segmentation its important for them to be well prepared for new product line and organize it product development accordingly (Lilien and Grewal, 2012). Success in new product roll out to a given segmentation must have the right marketing mix. It is important that the new product be of the right quality, have the ability to meet a current need and be supported by a price that resonates to the target market. Doing so enhances market acceptance and adoption as well as shorten the break even period. As these products succeed in the market, a company’s market share continues to grow. It is important that a company keeps in touch with changing customer needs and preferences and respond to the appropriately. This therefore calls for an in-depth knowledge of one’s customers. To understand customers a company has to pay special attention to customer feedback as well as develop a strong customer relationship management model. A company has to invest in its employees by equipping them with the right customer skills so that they can deliver exceptional service to clients and discern any setbacks in the products. This creates a me dium through which ideas are exchanges and corrections made. These interactions helps to develop a value based business model where different market segments are satisfied. Having the right marketing mix also calls for proper distribution chain so that customers can have products and services at their convenience. In addition a company must invest in market research so that it can identify the various target clients and develop products that meet their needs and tastes. In target marketing, companies need to understand that

Database in arcGIS Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Database in arcGIS - Essay Example As we have seen throughout this course, GIS is literally the picture that’s worth a thousand (or more) words. It’s little wonder that the use of GIS technology has expanded so exponentially since its initial development. In the case of the ACHS, the requirements required by the client are in keeping with their needs—and more. The truth is, ArcGIS can provide not only a more robust system for their currently applications, but considering the potential for growth, the proposed system would be unmatched. The growth of the GIS industry has resulted in a trend from an esoterically inclined group of computer geeks working on mainframes, to the common user on desktop computers. This trend will benefit the ACHS a great deal, not only allowing them to collect, store, and visualize their own information in a better format, but will give visitors to the ACHS a portal that will allow the most inexperienced user to benefit from the data available. It is also fortunate that the tool being suggested for use is Arc GIS, which is a full complement of GIS tools in one package. The net result of using ArcGIS for this application is the ability it will give a wide variety of users to work with the available data on their level of need as well as being within their ability to use the tool. Land use change studies. Land use data layers will allow city planners and others to see changes in the use of land through time. Assuming that the data available is accurate, those responsible for creating and maintaining datasets should find their tasks considerably easier. the historical datasets. These records will make keeping track of these persons/businesses easier and of greater value. This benefit is not only good for those who want to find long-lost relatives, but queries for a more general nature that can trace period history. City visualization. GIS

Karen Lock Organic Hampers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Karen Lock Organic Hampers - Essay Example Organic food retailers and health food shops have experienced a significant growth in sales volumes of organic product over the last one decade. Much of this growth is advocated the Food Supplements Directive in the UK, which asserted that Organic food retailers and health food shops have to reduce their vitamins & food supplement ranges in order to create space for natural personal care products. The natural products also found their way to the shelves of department stores, chemists, spas, beauty shops, and hair salons. Hair care and skin care are the most popular of all the organic personal care products in the UK. In each of the two categories, there are more than 50 brands, making the market in the UK highly congested and competitive. Organic oral care products have also been observed to be highly popular in the UK, with many people starting to prefer them over those with chemical products. Despite the fact that organic cosmetics have not shared the same level of success with organic oral products, they are projected to experience the highest rate of increase in demand over the next five years. Previously, there were very few players in the organic personal care industry in the UK. However, as the popularity of these products continued to grow, the demand grew too. As a result, many investors saw the industry as a promising one, thus invested in it. At the moment it can be said that the industry is highly congested due to the fact that there are many investors who have opted to invest in this industry. This can easily mean that there are high levels of competition in the industry. As a result, there is an increase in the consumer bargaining power in the UK.

Population, Migration, Cultural and Language Geography Assignment

Population, Migration, Cultural and Language Geography - Assignment Example Islam is a term that is used to refer to that act of submitting or rather yielding to the will of God. On the other hand, a Muslim refers to an individual who submits, yields, or rather practices the will of God. A person who professes Islam must, therefore, believe in five important beliefs that guide their faith. The first pillar is that there is only one God worth worshipping and who is Allah. The second pillar requires Muslims to pray five times a day while facing the Holy city of Mecca. Thirdly, Muslims believe that they attain purification and growth each time they set out to give to charities. During the month of Ramadan, Muslims engage in fasting as a way of self-purification. Finally, this faith encourages Muslims, more so those who are physically and financially able, to make a pilgrimage journey to Mecca at least once in their lifetime. The church of Latter Day Saints is a restoration movement that falls under Protestantism. It was born from reformists who sought to break loose from religious practices which were largely viewed as discriminative and practically inapplicable. The reformers were also angered in the manner in which leadership of those churches was running its affairs. Saying that the â€Å"American English Language is an evolutionary product from British English† implies that the American English traces its origin to the British English and which has been slightly modified so as to appear unique or rather original. Ebonics is that kind of English mostly spoken by black American and which is made up of incorrectly spelt words or improper sentences. This is attributed to the blacks disinterest in understanding the basics of the correct American English language thus resulting in deteriorated English. Migration Geography is that branch of earth’s study that involves studying the movement of people from one place to the other and the various causes that trigger such movement. People normally move from one place to the other place for work or settlement for a number of reasons.

Socrates Political View Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Socrates Political View - Essay Example The Socratic philosophical approach posits that the central subject matter of philosophy is the human being and virtues are viewed as a form of knowledge. Additionally, the approach posits that people do not commit evil intentionally and that they can explain the different accounts that have transformed their lives. Socrates is considered as the most revolutionary political theorist in the history of politics. Socrates believed in the ability of a man being superego. Plato posits, â€Å"in [his] investigation of the service of the god†¦that those who had the highest reputation were nearly the most deficient, while those who were thought to be inferior were more knowledgeable†. Notable among his declarations is that the wisest man is the one that knows that he knows not. Socrates argued that human happiness is the product of the ethical knowledge on how people should live and not on the basis of material possession and wealth. His political theory argues that governments s hould not act as merely powerful organizational entities; rather they should adhere to the ethical principles that enhance the culture of moral uprightness. The government’s role, according to Socrates, should be to cater for the common benefit of all citizens rather than discriminating individuals over adherence to societal rules. His association with political change and activism is related to the fact his ideas attracted enthusiastic admiration from the youths who add participate in the political coup at Athens in the aftermath of the Peloponnesian war.

Healthy people 2020 -p r i m a r y prevention Essay

Healthy people 2020 -p r i m a r y prevention - Essay Example Therefore, vaccination is quite necessary primary prevention objective. The main aim of primary prevention is to keep people safe from disease or further injury. It is an initial level of healthcare that mainly maintains normal, healthy state of the population. Therefore, vaccination against infectious disease responds all criteria of primary prevention. (WHO, 2013) The World Health Organization (WHO) observed that the amount of deaths from chronic diseases is growing every year. Their assumption showed that percent of death caused by hypertension, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes would change to 17% from 35 million to 41 million by 2015. However, this data can be differ in the developed countries where primary prevention programs implicated. WHO developed Innovative Care for Chronic Condition Framework (ICCC) to widen information about these diseases among a population, to provide appropriate control to decrease prevalence of such chronic diseases and to promote healthy a way of life. Therefore, all primary prevention programs, mentioned before, help to prevent and control the occurrence of infectious and chronic diseases and to improve general quality of life and healthy state of the population. (Community Preventive Services Task Force,

Saving Private Ryan by Steven Spielberg Essay Example for Free

Saving Private Ryan by Steven Spielberg Essay Write a newspaper film review analysing how Steven Spielberg makes the cinema audience regard the pain of others. In the Omaha Beach sequence at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan. Saving Private Ryan Cast Tom Hanks, Tom Sizemore, Matt Damon, Edward Burns, Jeremy Davies, Vin Diesel, Adam Golberg, Barry Pepper and Giovanni Rabisi. Director Steven Spielberg. Producers Ian Bryce , Mark Gordon, Gary Levinsohn. Screenplay Robert Rodat. Cinematography Janusz Kaminski. Music John Williams. U.S Distributor DreamWorks SKG/Paramount Pictures. Viewer Rating 15. Internationally acclaimed 1940s war epic Saving Private Ryan directed by Steven Spielberg, this outstanding box office hit picked up five academy awards for:- Best Director. Cinematography. Film Editing. Sound and Sound Effects editing. Best Picture This award top grossing American Motion Picture of 1998. Saving Private Ryan opens with a cinematic battle that is, without a doubt, one of the finest, most graphic and realistic half-hours committed to film. This sequence, a soldiers eye view of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, is brilliant, not only in the terms of technique but in the depth of viewer reactions it generates, such films as Platoon, and the Apocalypse dont come close to the immense scenery Spielberg has portrayed. It is certainly the most violent, gory and realistic depiction of war that I have ever witnessed, the levels of pain put across with splitting sounds and visuals on screen. Spielberg spares the viewer nothing of the horrors of battle, using unbelievable images to display the utter chaos and senselessness that any soldier will encounter in an engagement with the enemy. Spielberg presents us with graphic scenes of Omaha Beach, the sequence is random, unstructured and subject to sheer chaos made all the more effective to the emotion on screen. Spielbergs portrayal of war on camera is outstanding, Spielberg also uses other methods to capture his sense of war, hand held cameras, a slight speeding up of images and also slowing up of images to show complete bewilderment the soldiers have to go through in the heat of battle. Also muted sound is used as to show when a shell or grenade has exploded close by and a soldier has lost their hearing. The soundtrack at the start of the sequence when soldiers are exiting the landing craft is like you are falling underwater and with a blurred sense of vision and hearing. Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) goes through a sequence of shell shock where he is witnessing his fellow countrymen die around him, not only death in a clean and typical country and western fashion, but horrific, Spielberg shows the sheer randomness and shocking way that someone can die in the heat of battle The hand held effect used by Spielberg is used to give you the perspective of what a solider is looking at in the bedlam of battle, bullets piercing everywhere, decapitation and death surrounding everything, truly shocking images being displayed, it doesnt bare thinking about to actually experience being picked off like sitting ducks on a pond, no where to go, no where to hide, knowing that the only way you can survive is to advance towards the enemy! In the opening sequence we see an American Amphibious landing vehicle approach Omaha Beach, as soon as the door drops on the front of the vessel facing the enemy the scene explodes into intense rapid machine gun fire. Nine out of ten instantly get pierced-feared dead. This shot has been used wit the German gunner out of view, showing a dark figure with no emotion and no care in the world, which is what the worlds prospective was of the Nazis at this time of sorrow. The camera effect fades right as the gun in the view aims in the direction of a vessel, giving the effect that it is in fact the aim of a Nazi soldiers eyes. The camera quickly switches to a shot down in the water at the beach where a soldier has been set foot into the water at waist height. As the soldier struggles through the water he sinks under, the soundtrack changes at this point to men shouting and the sound of gunfire, as the soldier is oblivious and concentrating on making it out of the water alive, he is shot through the chest and falls motionless into the water, the camera is shaking at the shells smashing into the beach whilst the camera is on a soldiers eye view, like the solider is witnessing his comrades die. It just makes you think an awful lot about the daunting task that the army had to embark upon that day. The first really graphic moving image Spielberg introduces to us in is near the start of the sequence, he doesnt hold back the gory images at all, the audience witnesss the pain of others but showing for example a soldier walking up the beach with a determined look on his face, when he suddenly shelled and is left leg is decapitated to the hip, he hits the floor feared dead with bright red blood spurting out onto the grey beach. Spielberg also shows the power of a shell by re-enacting a blast and following it up with the soldier rather overreact to some peoples point of view, do a cart wheel in mid air, there is also a fellow dead solider lying beside him in this shot. The next shot is where Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) is first introduced into the film and this is done by him crawling up the shell battered beach, clenching his helmet, making his way to shelter behind an ALD (Anti Landing Device) used by the Germans to prevent the amphibious vehicles getting up the beach. In my opinion, I think the introduction of Tom Hanks distracts the viewer from what really is going on., there is a war going on, but this shot is when a plot begins to emerge. Carrying on the sequence it shows through Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) eyes, view pointing on a squirming solider who is very young trying to save himself from enemy fire. This is showing human emotions and reality of war and what effect it can have on a person. This young soldier has given up on his objective, he is crying and trying to push another solider out of the way so he can get more cover from enemy fire, which gives the impression of every man for himself. Again Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) is shown in close up, his emotion is dazed. The soundtrack suddenly fades and sounds like he is underwater, gurgling sounds and sounds in the distance. This shot has been used to show how much of what you are looking upon can effect you. Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) looks upon his fellow men dying around him, his face really shows how much he cares but also looking very unaware of where he is and what he is doing. The following scene (shot) is seen through Captain John Millers (Tom Hanks) eyes, he looks at a soldier approaching the higher tier of the beach, with one solider with a flame thrower on his back being followed by two other infantrymen. The flame pack gets pierced by a bullet and explodes, engulfing him and the other soldiers, this is where colour is properly introduced with the flames and Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) still dazed, the sound is like a brush of wind through trees. This shot gives the sense of how war can backfire on you, its ironic how this American soldier was going to use his unique weapon to kill the enemy but as a result it killed him in an horrific manor, showing countless ways that people can die in wartime. Moving back to Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) looking through his eyes, he sees a man who has had his arm decapitated and is searching for his lost limb in confusion, after being re united with his mangled arm, he simply walks off down the beach. The scenery behind this injured soldier has been framed behind the Anti Landing Devices to keep the mood of battle and with soldiers crawling around underneath this soldier to show more authenticity and amazement at what the soldier is doing. Once again showing randomness in war, with the man who simply has given up his objective. Still with no dialogue introduced yet. The following shot in this sequence brings you back to Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) after just seeing three men being engulfed in flames, a wash of blood sprays onto Captain John Millers (Tom Hanks) face and dribbles down, but he just closes his eyes, still dazed and a doesnt seem fazed by this, although looking surprised he is still without proper hearing. This is used to still represent confusion in war. Spielberg shows the machinery in wartime used in the D-Day landings, he represents them by a landing craft is on fire and American soldiers pouring out on fire. Landing craft called PA30-31 designed to drive up the beach, but unsuccessful and engulfed in flames. The soldiers arent bothered about getting shot, they are just worried about getting the flames off them by diving into the freezing cold water, running around like headless chickens, showing that not everything goes to plan in war, and again the randomness of it all. Also showing that you cant always die by the bullet. This shot is still looking through the captains eyes, the first scene with a crowd sense. The soundtrack at this moment is still with Captain John Millers (Toms Hanks) hearing disabled slightly and you hear the sound of flames and shouting. Showing the sense of uncertainty and danger the soldiers are in. The camera is used in a way that helps us to understand Millers confusion. One shot has the camera panning away from Millers eyes as his hearing slowly returns, to the sound of explosions and endless gunfire, illustrating that Captain John Miller (Tom Hanks) has suddenly become aware of what is around him and what he has to do to survive. Miller is seen putting his helmet on which is filled with sea water stained red with blood, the camera follows this action closely as the blood runs down his face, again illustrating the stark reality of his situation. This is further emphasised by the introduction of the first real dialogue, What do we do now sir? Miller is slow to respond and the soldier shouts, I said what the hell do we do now sir!? To say that the film starts with a BANG! Is an understatement, Spielberg uses grotesque images of blood, gore, drowning, dismemberment and death to create impact and then shows us by his clever use of camera angles and close ups shots, the mental and physical pain that these men experienced. This ultimately leaves the viewer shell shocked and in complete empathy with those who experienced the D-Day landings on June 6th 1944.

Managing In Hospitality Essay Example for Free

Managing In Hospitality Essay To convince the management, the owner must be able to communicate his ideas and perceptions clearly. The owner might face a bit of difficulty doing this, since the managers have been around for long, and they probably know their trade well. It is still possible, however. One of the things that the owner can do is gain the trust of his managers. However, it cannot be the calculus-based trust or identification-based trust—it has to be through organizational citizenship behavior. Specifically, he has to make sure that each member of the management is treated fairly. For instance, with this issue, he must give each and every one a chance to voice out their opinion regarding the upgrading of the hotel, and explain why they are against it. This will let them know that even though the owner’s ideas may be in conflict with those of the management’s, the owner still values their knowledge and respects their position as managers. Once they all get their chance to share their thoughts, the owner should then explain his side, but trying not to compete with his managers as to which is the better plan, as this will only create friction, in the form of substantive conflict, and it will be even more difficult to convince the management to upgrade the hotel. Instead, the party should negotiate, or bargain, and try to find a common ground. Since everyone has had his side heard by this point, they can address the questions surrounding the issue of why upgrading to a 5-star hotel might be a bad idea, and what can be done to turn this around or to compensate for it. Lastly, the owner should try to control his emotions when explaining his side. No matter how harsh or how blunt the management may be, regarding his decisions as â€Å"unnecessary†, the owner must remain emotionally stable. The same goes for the management—if one of them suddenly starts raising his voice, he should be calmed down before proceeding with the meeting. They should also be reminded of their positions—they are managers, not owners—and should respect the owner’s authority over them. The owner himself should not push his weight around. Works Cited Hunt, Courtney. â€Å"Interpersonal Behavior in the Workplace.†

The Importance Of Being Earnest Religion Essay

The Importance Of Being Earnest Religion Essay These are the folks that always know what new natural disaster has just struck, what local businesses are about to go bankrupt, whose marriages are on the rocks. How could we survive life without these wrong-side-of-the-bedders? How could we get around without the black clouds and gloomy forecasts. Without wrong-side-of-the-bedders, we would never fully appreciate how miserable life really is. The book of Revelation is often perceived as sharing that same sort of bleak perspective a wrong-side-of-the-bed vision foretelling pestilence, punishment, famine, death, destruction. But the Revelation of Jesus to John is not a narrowed down version of despair, a nerve-racking vision of wrath. Here in todays text we are given celestial glimpses of glory. What might it be like to enlist in Gods reign and exist in Gods peace? The divisiveness of nationality, the prejudices of particularity, are forgotten as all peoples forge forward to praise God. There is one congregation, one church, and it joins all its separate voices together in a sonorous harmony of glorifying God. John saw this as the church of the future. John also saw this as our template for bringing the church to life in our own time. Instead of being just another organization lobbying for what it deems important, the church is challenged by this vision in Revelation to itself become an earnest of paradise. Now theres a word for you: earnest. Its not a word used much in church nowadays, although it is a familiar one in Scripture (Psalm 86:17; Romans 8:23; Ephesians 1:14, etc). But it may be a word that the church needs to proclaim. For our text calls the church to be what in biblical language is an earnest of the eschaton. In the Hebrew the concept is conveyed by the word Shamayim, which literally means a foretaste of heaven. If you have ever had an encounter with the Spirit, if you are alive and aglow with life, you know the meaning of Shamayim, or earnest. In Greek the word for earnest is arrabon, a legal term denoting a deposit made that renders the contract binding. An earnest is a promise, a pledge, a foretaste, an embodied symbol of something which is to come in its fullness later. When a young couple plants a spindly little oak sapling smack in the middle of their new backyard, it is an earnest of the future they envision in that space. Someday the tree will grow to shade their yard with an enormous umbrella of green. Its sturdy branches will hold the tire swings and treehouse platforms of the children yet to be born. It will carpet the ground with its brilliant fall foliage and feed a legion of squirrels with its annual crop of acorns. It might not look like much when planted, but the few spindly limbs of that sapling oak bear the weight of a tremendous earnest. Although the ultimate earnest is the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthinans1:22; 5:5; Ephesians 1:14), as Spirit-empowered people we are each called to act as earnests of the ultimate triumph we know Christs salvation has in store for all creation. On the day of salvation, todays Revelation text proclaims, all believers will loudly praise Gods blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might (7:12). Are you an earnest, a leaven of heaven? Does your life attest to the presence of these divine gifts to the world? When others listen to you speak, watch you work, see your home, do they experience that encounter as an earnest of Christs victory, of Gods redeeming love for the world. We are all earnests, we who are part of the body of Christ. Is our church an earnest of the future human conduits of the divine light offering others little glimpses of the brilliance, the glory, that awaits redeemed creation? Is our role in this community a leaven of heaven? Missionary/physician/musician/historical theologian Dr. Albert Schweitzer gave his life to serve the needs of those who lived in the African jungle. He was to the first half of the 20th century what Mother Teresa was to the second half. He gave one of the best definitions of ethics Ive ever seen, and lived what he defined: Let me give you a definition of ethics: It is good to maintain life and further life; it is bad to damage and destroy life Ethics is the maintaining of life at the highest point of development my own life and other life by devoting myself to it in help and love, and both these things are connected. (Reverence for Life [New York: Philosophical Library, 1965], 34-35.) Schweitzer allegedly hung a lamp in front of his hospital that shone brilliantly throughout the jungle darkness for a wide area. The light became a beacon of hope and healing for the areas sick and dying. He is said to have hung under the lamp this sign: At whatever hour you come, you will find light, and hope and human kindness. * Both the sign and the lamp were earnests of Schweitzers ministry. Is there a lamp for your church that says to the world, Come by Here. For Here is a Leaven of Heaven? Schweitzer practiced his earnestness with full knowledge of the worlds cruel ways, and a clear vision of human frailty and sin. Nonetheless, Schweitzer maintained his focus on eternity, and leavened heaven with every fiber of his being. To the question of whether I am a pessimist or an optimist, I answer that my knowledge is pessimistic, but my willing and hoping are optimistic. I am pessimistic in that I experience in its full weight what we conceive to be the absence of purpose in the course of world happenings. Only at quite rare moments have I felt really glad to be alive. I could not but feel with a sympathy full of regret all the pain that I saw around me, not only that of men but that of the whole creation. From this community of suffering I have never tried to withdraw myself. It seemed to me a matter of course that we should all take our share of the burden of pain which lies upon the world (Albert Schweitzer, Out of My Life and Thought [New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1933], 279). Albert Schweitzers remarkable life and witness touched me as a child growing up until he became in my life an earnest of the person I wanted to become. Schweitzer was able to offer me and others a leaven of heaven in each of the three types of needs outlined in todays text. Though portraying an eternal future, this mornings text focuses on the three most basic human needs of our frail and mortal present. Physical Needs The vision from Revelation promises that when believers are gathered around God enthroned they will hunger no more, and thirst no more (v.16). In other words, we will be delivered from physical needs. As a physician, caring for the bodies of those who caught sight of the jungle clinics light came naturally. But each of us is capable of providing some measure of sheer physical comfort to those whose physical needs are consuming all their energy and hope. Welfare reforms have made the churchs role as a social service agency even more vital. Its hard to work on an empty stomach; its hard to learn when youre cold and tired; its hard to play when youre weak and malnourished. Spiritual Needs Jesus vision to John revealed that divine deliverance involves more than just filling up stomachs and banishing body aches. There are other aches that have no neurological cause. There are pains suffered by a parched soul. Without addressing the spiritual needs of the human condition, one finds there is no true earnest of salvation present. Saving the body is not enough, for it will fail to thrive unless the spirit is nourished and nurtured by a community of faith. In our Revelation text the enthroned Lamb offers believers springs of the water of life as . . . sustenance for an eternal soul. Earnest upwellings of this same spring are already available from our own faith community. Emotional Needs As frail and failing human beings, however, we find our emotional needs are perhaps the most difficult to satisfy, and are even more demanding when denied. Without emotional strength and suppleness, even the strongest body will fail, even the surest spirit will falter. When our body labors, it needs a quiet center, a sense of emotional ease, in order to bear the physical hardship. Our spirit can soar only if it knows there is a safe and secure emotional scaffolding resting under its flight path. One of the most tragic figures in biblical history is Israels first chosen king, Saul. Although he was a great and strong warrior and commanded the 12 tribes of the new nation, although he experienced the exalted presence of Gods Spirit, Sauls body and soul had a fatal weakness. Although he enjoyed physical and spiritual triumphs, Sauls own emotional melancholia destroyed his faith, his vision, his purpose, his will. In todays Revelation text God meets our emotional needs in two ways. The text promises God will wipe away every tear suggesting that the emotionally honest and cleansing tears will first be allowed to flow, but that these tears will then be dried by Gods own tender hand. As an earnest of this quality of emotional care, we, too, must not be afraid to show the same depth of feeling and to let others do the same. In response to a genuine outpouring of emotion, an earnest of the coming age does not judge, but offers what is needed to dry a cheek, to hold a hand, to show empathy. In a creative writing class, a young teenage girl wrote this short poem: Dont criticize. Dont analyze. Dont even try to sympathize. Dont say you understand because you dont. Just hold me in your arms for once. And love me as I am. Like my mommy used to do before the world grew up on me. (John Fischer, In Praise of the Unrenowned, CCM Magazine, October 1997, 84.) Will this church hold the world in its arms and love it, as an earnest of Gods holding the whole world in the arms of the Almighty and loving it? Will you be a leaven of heaven in your family, your community, your world? Tracking the Sheep John 10:22-30 | 4/29/2007 We live in a changing new world of computer-raised sheep, but theres still just one Shepherd to follow. In Psalm 23, the shepherd leads the sheep beside cool waters. In century 21, the shepherd weighs the sheep beside cool waters à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ while he sits behind a laptop miles away. We are used to the rogue image of the Bedouin shepherd crook in hand, flowing robes, Middle Eastern head-covering. We remember a young David, tending his fathers flocks alone in the cold, battling lions and bears, engaging the God of creation in songs and poems that he would later pen into psalms. Now consider todays e-shepherd Bluetooth headset in ear, Blackberry PDA attached to belt, Venti Mocha perched desktop alongside GPS receiver. He sits remote from his flock in a warm ranch house, a crook exchanged for a mouse, perhaps playing a game of Internet Spades while still on the clock. That may be the appropriate picture in New South Wales, Australia, where cutting-edge technologies are being applied to an age-old industry. Ranchers attach tiny GPS transponders to the ears of baby lambs, and as these sheep grow up, they can be watched from a computer monitor. Throughout the day, sheep move freely from grazing areas to drinking areas to sleeping areas. Each channel between areas is wide enough for only one sheep to pass at a time, and as they pass between fenced-in zones, their transponders alert the shepherd where they are going and when. We can keep tabs on a single sheep from the time it is a little lamb to the time that it becomes lamb chops, says Bill Murray, spokesperson for the Australian Sheep Industry. However, the main advantage is in sheep handling, because the transponders allow the sheep to make their own decisions, without being hassled by people or dogs. In such a hyper-individualized world, why not extend the power of choice to flocks as well? With these e-sheep, its all up to ewe. But allowing free-range grazing isnt about having self-actualized herds. Its about having unhassled, unhurried, tenderized ones. Apparently, sheep autonomy equals appetite appeal. Beyond tastier flocks, e-shepherds also have well-organized flocks. Remotely controlled gates determine which grazing and drinking areas sheep are channeled into and for how long they remain there. Electronic scales are placed within each passageway so that every time a flock is shepherded from one area to another, each sheep can be weighed as it passes by. As a fully grown sheep passes through, a side gate opens sending it into a yard for those animals headed to market. As a pregnant ewe near birth weight passes through, a gate opens to send her to a prenatal area. In the future, animals due for vaccination will be given remote shots as they pass by and diseased animals can be detected and quarantined for medical treatment. All from a distance. All without human contact. All electronically. If David had controlled his flocks in e-shepherd fashion, he might have blogged the Psalms, text messaged Jonathon, and sent a fatal hard-drive virus to Goliath. So the lesson from e-sheep is this: 21st-century techno-culture metaphors are light years away from biblical, agrarian culture metaphors. Noting this, consider John 10:22-30. Jesus, the Good Shepherd, is so not like the impersonal techno-shepherd. Here, as elsewhere in the gospels, Jesus uses a metaphor his audience will understand: Hes the shepherd, and his followers are the sheep. So to understand what Jesus wants our contemporary audiences to understand, we must culturally unpack and translate what this sheep imagery means. Begin with our non-agrarian understandings of sheep. They arent bright animals. Theres no parlor game question that ever asks: Which is the smartest animal? The horse, the pig, the sheep, the dog, the cat? Wont happen. Sheep sleep and eat in the same fields in which they defecate and urinate. They blindly follow each other around with an unimaginative herd mentality. They need to be constantly provided for and protected so they dont starve to death or become wolf-lunch. So is this the way that Jesus wants us to see ourselves? Maybe yes, maybe no. What is clear is that sheep are needy. They not only need a shepherd, they need a good shepherd. Good ones take their job seriously. Good ones take care of the sheep. They protect and defend the sheep. They lead the sheep to still waters and green pastures. They lay down their lives for the sheep. They look for lost sheep. In Jesus day, shepherds didnt have the fiscal means to own sheep, thus many were mercenary care givers hired to live and sleep with the herds. Many were 8-12-year-old boys in the family business, out in a field because few opportunities existed for them. In our Western career caste system, shepherds wouldnt be white-collar or blue-collar theyd be no-collar. Is Jesus this kind of shepherd? Obviously not. Scholar Mary Schertz notes that in this text its not like every ovine analogy carries meaning for us or that sheep are commended as models for imitation. Sheep in the fullness of their animal existence are neither a good model for Christian life nor any other kind of human life. Instead, what does this short passage ask our e-shepherd culture to understand about the Good Shepherd and his relationship with the sheep who follow him? The Shepherd. John emphasizes two elements of setting. The time is the festival of Dedication, or Hanukkah (v. 22) the Jewish celebration of the rededication of the Temple after Antiochus desecrated it while trying to force Greek religion and philosophy upon them. The place is the portico of Solomon (v. 23) the only remaining relic of Solomons sacred temple which still stood, and the place where the Jewish king would make judgments and exercise justice. So a controversial rabbi is teaching radical ideas and taking controversial theological positions at a time when Jewish culture in the presence of the Roman occupation, and the traditions and history of Jewish religious milieu are being honored and glorified. And Jesus is doing this in the very place where Gods kings had always spoken to Gods people. The Jews question and request (v. 24) are therefore painfully rhetorical. How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly. Theres no suspense. They know exactly what he is saying because of when and where he is saying it. Who does this Shepherd claim to be? à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Someone who works in the Fathers name. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Someone whose sheep hear his voice. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Someone who knows the sheep. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Someone whose sheep follow him. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Someone who gives to his followers eternal life. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Someone who defends his sheep, because no one will snatch them out of my hand. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Someone who is one with the Father. In Simply Christian, scholar N.T. Wright notes that human yearning for things like justice, relationships and beauty are echoes of a voice. On the deeper spiritual level, these universal desires are pointing both to their Author and to their Fulfiller. While these hopes can be met incompletely through what the world offers, they are only met perfectly and completely through Jesus as Savior, the Good Shepherd of the sheep. Jesus is no e-shepherd who engages his sheep remotely. The Shepherd maintains intimacy and proximity in order to meet the needs of his sheep. He is at least within voice-distance (v. 27). Jesus is a hands-on, high-touch Shepherd. The Sheep. Jesus speaks of his sheep in front of an audience who does not fit that category: You do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep (v. 26). Not everyone is a sheep of this Shepherd a difficult and sobering reality. The Shepherd does not crook-beat people into following him. He allows for some goats instead of all sheep. But those who are Christ followers are described this way: My sheep hear my voice (v. 27). For intrigued sheep then or now, a natural question emerges from this text. How do we hear our Shepherds voice? Is it like Moses who heard from God audibly at Sinai? Is it like Elijah who heard the sound of sheer silence as God spoke? Or is it like pastor and author Rob Bell describing his call to preaching: I heard a voice not an audible, loud, human kind of voice but inner words spoken somewhere in my soul that were very clear and very concise. What I heard was Teach this book, and I will take care of everything else.' Dont we all long for a voice like those three experienced? Notice, though, that Jesus describes voice-hearing in two different ways: I know them, and they follow me (v. 27). When Jesus knows his sheep he does so eternally (v. 28), and they are offered the Shepherds protection and security. But this security is not earthly. Sheep may lose their life, their financial comfort and their social acceptance because of their faith. Yet those who have heard the saving call of God and responded can never lose their souls and relationship with the Shepherd. Some of you pastor-theologians might want to amend that sentence so it reads like this: Yet those who have heard and are hearing the saving call of God and who have responded and are responding can never lose their souls and relationship with the Shepherd. In any event, hearing his voice includes being known by the Shepherd. [NOTE: The question that needs to be addressed is, How does one know, or hear, the voice of the Shepherd, so that we can be obedient and follow? See another Homiletics installment (based on this text), available online at www.HomileticsOnline.com, Jesus IS Ovine-Lingual. There the following observation is made: Yet, sometimes the problem is not that we, the sheep of his pasture, do not recognize the voice of the Shepherd. Rather, we recognize it and refuse to listen. Or we listen selectively.] In biblical times, shepherds had shrill yells that would resound through the wadis and across the hills where their sheep grazed. The Shepherds voice was firm, clear, loud and there was no mistaking it. It told the sheep, I am your shepherd. I know the best path. Follow me. When is the last time we have sensed God leading us to still waters and green pastures? When have we been asked to follow Jesus even when it is costly? Sheep regularly hear from their shepherd, they trust his voice and they follow. Jesus doesnt fit the shepherd stereotype and its probably fair to say that we arent the brainless herd animals that we assume sheep to be. But the biblical metaphor is still timeless and rich, ultimately giving us a picture of relationship, protection and provision, allowing us to hear a clear voice that bids us follow toward soul-satisfaction.

Essay --

Before 1951, the capability of growing cells resulting from animal tissue remained indefinable. The cells would die before they could reproduce for research. This changed in 1951 when a woman by the name of Henrietta Lacks was biopsied because of a tumor. She later passed away due to her cancer. The cells were taken from her cervical cancer cells and now thrive on their own. While the cells of Henrietta Lacks became commercialized, the Lacks family was forced to live without healthcare. They lived their lives in poverty. Henrietta Lacks' story is about her involvement to medical research. The problem with all of this is she never gave the doctor permission to take her cells. Doctor George Otto Gey took them from her cervix. She then died from her cancer. I believe this was wrong; you should have the right to know if a doctor took a part of your body. Henrietta’s family didn’t find out about what Gey had done for a while after it happened. I think they deserve some compensation for the HeLa cells; they lived in poverty, even though Henrietta’s cells were making so many advances in science. They shouldn’t be given all of the profit because they were not doing any of the work to make the advances, but a little something should be given in honor of the doctor taking the cells. There has also been a theory for racial minorities. Henrietta Lacks was black and some people believed that what had happened to her may have happened to many other people. If doctors took samples of her body, they would probably do it to anyone else. In the '50s I don’t think they were necessarily doing it because she was black, they did it to everyone, black or white. In the 70s, when scientists went back to her children to do research on them. That's the ... ...ical cancer caused by this virus. Studying her cells allowed them to see how this virus led to cancer and found that the virus inserts DNA into the host. Through this knowledge they were able to create a vaccine that blocks the HPV DNA. This is a prevention method. Polio is a viral disease that affects the nerves, it leads to possible paralysis. HeLa cells led to a vaccine that is about 90% effective. Henrietta went to johns Hopkins and today polio is a rare disease. It is all thanks to the cells of Henrietta. Due to a tragic mistake made while mixing HeLa cells in research, scientists were able to finally get a count of how many chromosomes human cells were supposed to contain. This mistake allowed chromosomes to swell and be clearly visible compared to the clumped appearance they normally have. Using this scientists were able to start diagnosing genetic disorders.

The French Revolution :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The year 1789 brought France the biggest period of change she had or would ever experience. During the next ten year period, now known as the French Revolution, saw the overturn of and murder of Louis XVI, a time of chaos and much bloodshed, and the establishment of a new government that would change France forever. Many aristocrats were murdered during the Reign of Terror, and many leaders of the revolution themselves were murdered as the people continued to revolt. A new constitution was written and then another immediately followed as the Declaration of the Rights Man was proclaimed throughout the land. This time period ended when Napoleon Bonaparte became the first consul of France. France Before the Revolution   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Before the revolution, France was divided into three classes, or estates as they were called. The first two, the nobility and the clergy, received many privileges that the other classes did not. The third class was made up of merchants, professional people, the workers, and the peasants. This caused a major division between the classes and the third class was becoming very upset with the way they were being treated.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At this point in French history, the kings of France had believed that they were only responsible to God for the way they chose to rule. However, if they wanted to receive advice, they could ask a legislative body called the Estates General that contained representatives from all three classes. The problem was that the kings were not required to do this and had not done so since 1614.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The royal taxes were very heavy which drained all the money from the third class and was then used by the king to live luxuriously. The nobles also drained all of the money from their estates so that they could continue to live a rich lifestyle. Causes of the Revolution The Philosophers. The philosophers were brilliant men who wanted to reorganize the government and society on a basis of reason. They’re were some who thought that the English system of government was better while one man’s writings, Jean Jacques Rousseau, even influenced the writers of the United States Constitution. Louis XVI Becomes King. Louis XVI became king when he was after his grandfather Louis XV died. The young king meant well for his country, but was inexperienced, immature, and not very intelligent in his dealings with government.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  When Louis XVI came to the throne, there were some big problems in France, the main problem being money.

The Person I Dislike

The Person I dislike Hate is a very strong word. So it feels a little awkward to say that I hate a particular person. But there are certain types of people who are easy to be disliked. There are lots of people I met in my life, it is not necessary that I like all of them. I categorize the people in three types. One that I like most, second one I don’t like and the third one who has no impression at all in my life. It is a natural phenomenon that we can’t be friendly or alien to all people to whom we met.Of course here are always some good reasons behind as why we like or dislike someone. For me, such people include hypocrites, people who abuse women and children, people who gossip and backbite, and people who are greedy. In my personal opinion, it is very awkward to hate person solely on the basis of their physical appearance or on such things at which they have no control for example their face, color, height, race or religion etc. However, there are many other good re asons that you can hate a person or group of person that is their character or deeds.I dislike Mr. Tindu more than anything in the world. He is related to my father and is forty years old. Tindu is a mean, contemptible fellow. Tindu is an educated person but behaves like an illiterate person. He is dead to all sense of shame and very talkative. I saw Tindu arguing with Majid it looks that some fight is going on. Tindu often talks tall and freely indulges in self-praise. He talks ill of others behind their back and very selfish. Tindu told me uncle Baber likes to gamble and drink whisky and then he met uncle in front of me saying uncle never drinks.Tindu enjoys nobody's confidence. To feel superior to others is in his nature. Tindu does not give respect his parents. Tindu has a habit of cursing and yelling. I saw him to cursing them out for no reason and openly defy them. Tindu has no respect for woman and never think that a woman gave him birth. He is a man of loose morals and have no ethics. Tindu has no love for his motherland. He is not an American by birth but act like that. He is migrated from Pakistan and belongs to a middle class family. Tindu lacks of civic sense.He is very quarrelsome and fought with my brother in law in a marriage ceremony. Tindu does not extend a helping hand even to his relatives and friends in trouble. He laughs at the miseries and troubles of others. Tindu have bad credit. Two years ago he borrowed money from my father never give back. He makes fun of everybody, even the beggars on the street. Tindu loves to smoke marijuana and drink whisky. He cannot be calm always speak loudly to enforce his ideas. Thus he brought a slur to his family.He never does anything worthy of a gentleman. He is seldom fair and square in his dealings with others. Because of his greediness, Tindu makes money by foul means. He is working as inspector in hosiery. He deliberately rejects the stuff and sales that stuff in open market. Hypocrite can easily be disliked. Because of uncle Baber I knew that Tindu talks ill of others behind their back. Although hate is difficult to express in words, to dislike someone is natural. One must avoid that rogue. I dislike Tindu because he is a jerk!

The Birthday Party, a comedy of menace

â€Å"Comedy of menace† was a term first used to describe Harold Pinter's plays by the drama critic Irving Wardle. He borrowed the term from the subtitle of one of David Campton's plays, The Lunatic View: A Comedy of Menace. A comedy is a humorous play which contains variations on the elements of surprise, incongruity, conflict, repetitiveness, and the effect of opposite expectations and so on in order to amuse and make the audience laugh. A menace is something which threatens to cause harm, evil or injury which seems quite incompatible with the idea of a comedy. However, as The Birthday Party shows, it is quite possible for a playwright to create both humour and menace in the same play, and even at the same time, in order to produce certain effects and to transmit ideas to the audience. Comedy is present in The Birthday Party from the very first scene; it is a way of gently introducing the audience to the world which Pinter is trying to create. The humour is quite subtle at first, for example the exchange between Petey and Meg about whether Stanley is up or not plays on the words up and down: â€Å"Meg: â€Å"Is Stanley up yet? Petey: I don't know. Is he? Meg: I don't know. I haven't seen him down. Petey: Well then, he can't be up. Meg: Haven't you seen him down? â€Å". Although the repetitions in this short exchange will not make the audience burst out with laughter they can make them smile and the humour also lulls them into a sense of comfort. A joke with a similar effect is made through another short dialogue between Meg and Petey in which Meg continually asks who is having a baby with Petey insisting that she won't know her until finally saying it's â€Å"Lady Mary Splatt†, to which Meg replies anticlimactically â€Å"I don't know her†. This anticlimax as well as the incongruous name of the woman (we do not imagine a â€Å"Lady† having the surname â€Å"Splatt†) creates humour and again lulls the audience into a sense of peace and normality. As well as this we get a sense of Meg's stupidity, Petey's resignation to it and their relationship being unfruitful and routine from their humorous yet uninteresting dialogue. Indeed, half the reason what they say seems funny is because of how pointless it is. Thus, Pinter highlights the uselessness of Meg and Petey's conversation and in extension the uselessness of everyday small talk. The worrying thing for the audience about this comedy is that it evidences a kind of futility: Meg does notseem to have much of a life beyond these pointless conversations. Thus, while the humour of the dialogue lightens the tone of the scene it also poses a question on the passivity and futility of the lives of the characters and the lives of many people in general. Humour also serves to draw attention to the strangeness of Meg and Stanley's relationship. Indeed, Meg treats him like a child despite his being a man of thirty. We are made aware of the fact that Stanley is not a child when he comes on stage for the first time. Before this Meg's calling him â€Å"that boy† and trying to get him out of bed by calling â€Å"Stan! Stanny! Stan! I'm coming up to fetch you if you don't come down! I'm coming up! I'm going to count to three! One! Two! Three! † makes the audience think he must be a child. Thus when we see him for the first time the incompatibility between the reality and what we have been lead to believe creates humour. The inappropriateness of Meg's treatment of Stanley and his being a fully grown man also creates humour at other moments of the play, for example when she asks him if he â€Å"pa[id] a visit this morning† (went to the toilet). While Meg and Stanley's conversation has some comedic value it could also make the audience feel slightly uneasy, perhaps they will ask themselves why this woman of sixty treats a man of thirty like a boy and why he plays along with her at times. Their exchanges, for example, the dialogue revolving around Stanley calling Meg a â€Å"succulent old washing bag† and Meg's reaction to it, seeming to believe that it's a rude word is quite funny for the audience as again it highlights her silliness but makes their relationship even stranger as she speaks â€Å"coyly†: she does not only play a maternal role but is also somewhat flirtatious. Thus humour, while seeming quite light can have a deeper meaning and cover up something a lot more serious about a character and problems they may have. Likewise, Stanley's attempts at humour when talking to Lulu are a kind of proof of his social inadequacy. When she says that it's stuffy he replies â€Å"Stuffy? I disinfected the place this morning. † And when she talks about his getting under Meg's feet he says he â€Å"always stand[s] on the table when she sweeps the floor†. These two lines are both untrue and when saying them Stanley's aim seems to be to make a joke. However, they both fall flat with Lulu and we could also imagine with the audience. Consequently, comedy, or rather attempts at it, evidence Stanley's lack of social skills. Therefore humour can be a way to introduce the audience to characters and their relationships with each other, and also make the audience think about these characters and perhaps their problems while keeping them interested in the play itself. The parody of small talk also allows Pinter to pose questions to the audience about the futility of many of our lives. Comedy does not just appear alone in this play, humour often appears during a somewhat frightening scene in which characters menace another. Some of these scenes are power struggles between characters or scenes where one character asserts themselves over another. For example, in the scene where Stanley tells Meg about the wheelbarrow he is obviously trying to menace her with his repeated questions (â€Å"Do you know what? â€Å", â€Å"Have you heard the latest? â€Å", â€Å"And do you know what they've got in that van? † etc), the anonymous â€Å"they†, the imminence of â€Å"today† and his actions as he â€Å"advance[s] upon her†. Despite the menacing aspect of this scene the fact that what he is threatening her with is a wheelbarrow adds a slightly bizarre and humorous tone. Indeed, the audience could laugh at Meg, thinking only she could be afraid of a wheelbarrow. However, her reaction to the threats is quite strong as she becomes â€Å"breathless† and cries out â€Å"hoarsely†. She seems to be afraid of it because it's new and different, an example of human fear of the unknown, and also perhaps of being â€Å"taken away† as Stanley repeats twice â€Å"They're looking for someone†. Either way the humorous aspect of someone being afraid of a wheelbarrow heightens the menacing atmosphere for the audience as we don't understand her fear; if she was afraid of something more normal we would not feel so ill at ease. Thus in this scene, Pinter makes use of a comedic aspect with a menacing atmosphere in order to make the audience aware of our own fears of what we do not understand. Comedy and menace also appear together in both the first music hall scene and just before it. In the â€Å"sitting down scene†, a certain amount of humour can be derived from the fact that three grown men are playing a childish game about who will sit down first, but what this game represents is a power struggle. As with the wheelbarrow, this silly game is symbolic of something much more serious; here, the person who sits will lose power. This menacing part of the scene is shown by the insistence of Goldberg and McCann that Stanley sit down and McCann's yelling â€Å"That's a dirty trick! I'll kick the shite out of him†. Interestingly, Stanley seems to try to lighten the atmosphere with the joke (â€Å"Now you've both had a rest you can get out! ) which causes McCann to say this, but he only succeeds in heightening the tense and menacing atmosphere of the scene. Again, humour does not take away from the threat but adds to it, making it worse. The fact that Stanley's joke doesn't lighten the scene as he hoped can also show the inadequacies of language. Indeed, o ne would not expect a joke to create more threats and menace. Thus, through the pairing of humour with menace Pinter shows the audience how words do not always achieve the desired effects and therefore is evidence of our own shortfalls as we do not always accomplish what we would like to through our speech. However, Goldberg does achieve what he wants to with his use of comedy and threats. This is because he wants to create a more menacing scene in order to completely destroy Stanley. His humour comes from the common expressions that he sometimes modifies, such as â€Å"You're beginning to get on my breasts†, and the different registers of these expressions, for example he says â€Å"Why are you driving that old lady off her conk? † which seems very colloquial compared to his normal speech. He also makes an ironic joke when he says that McCann is â€Å"the life and soul of any party†, which is evidently false as the audience can tell that he isn't from how little he speaks. Goldberg's jokes contrast with the serious and controlling man who makes Stanley sit down simply by saying quietly â€Å"Webber. SIT DOWN†. Indeed, we feel more menaced by Goldberg than by McCann because as McCann has already yelled at Stanley we feel as though we know what he is capable of but we don't really know how much Goldberg can do with his power of speech. The power which comes from the paradoxical pairing of humour with menace can be seen in the first music hall scene and in the scene with Lulu. In the music hall scene, the fast pace of the short, nonsensical questions creates a sense of urgency and fear as we do not know what the point of all these questions is. While some of the questions and accusations seem serious, such as â€Å"Why did you leave the organisation? â€Å", others create humour such as, â€Å"When did you last have a bath† or â€Å"McCann: You throttled her. Goldberg: With arsenic†. At the end of the scene the question they are asking him is the well known joke: â€Å"Why did the chicken cross the road? â€Å". It is this question, one of the most unanswerable of all the ones they ask him that finally makes him break down; he can no longer answer. The fact that a joke question is one of the causes of Stanley's destruction shows the strength of humour. Indeed, Freud theorised that â€Å"[in] addition to the one who makes the joke, there must be a second [person] who is taken as the object of the hostile aggressiveness, and a third in whom the joke's aim of producing pleasure is fulfilled†. In this scene, Goldberg and McCann make the jokes to amuse the audience while Stanley is the victim. However, the audience does not really laugh at these jokes, in fact they serve more to make us uneasy, but we still recognise the humour in them and perhaps even appreciate it. The same three person structure is found in the scene where McCann menaces Lulu. In that scene, Lulu is the victim while McCann tells her â€Å"savagely† to confess while Goldberg creates humour by picking up everything she says and turning it against her. For example she says â€Å"You taught me things a girl shouldn't know before she's been married at least three times! , to which Goldberg replies â€Å"Now you're a jump ahead! What are you complaining about? â€Å". The audience will appreciate Goldberg's humour while also finding what Lulu herself says funny despite the fact that she is evidently upset and angry, as it says in the stage directions. This humour followed so quickly by McCann's threats will again make the audience uneasy. This uneasiness of the audience is partly caused by our finding Goldberg, and perhaps even McCann, funny when we feel perhaps that we shouldn't. By being amused by them we ally ourselves with them, the two characters who we know to be manipulative and controlling. Indeed, through their (Goldberg's especially) humour we are manipulated by them to laugh at the other characters. Thus, Pinter shows by placing comedic elements with menacing ones that humour can be powerful and creates relationships between us: relationships which have a strong element of control to them, as our feelings and reactions are manipulated by Goldberg, just like the other relationships which we see in the play. Therefore, we can say that Pinter's â€Å"comedy of menace† is a way to show us how he believes that all relationships revolve around one person asserting their power over another. The atmosphere of menace which is present in this play does not only appear in conjunction with humour. Instead it often relies on the unknown or things not being fully explained. For example, when Goldberg and McCann first arrive, they come through the back door without knocking, which is in itself quite odd, then Goldberg says he wasn't looking for a number when McCann asks him how he knows it's the right house. This is quite an eerie thing to say as the audience can ask themselves what he was looking for as normally you recognise a house by the number. Indeed, it is this abnormality and not knowing how Goldberg knew which house he wanted which creates a sense of a threat or that something bad will happen. This can show the audience how we feel a need for things to be â€Å"normal†, we fear things that we don't understand or that are new. Likewise, McCann's refusal to join Stanley in conversation at the beginning of the second act, giving short answers and asking little in return is really a refusal to make normal conversation. These short responses seem quite menacing because they contrast against Stanley's seemingly open discussion. The audience could believe that Stanley's trying to tempt McCann into conversing with him properly is not only to get information about why he is there but to also make McCann seem more normal and thus less menacing. Like the opening scene with its pointless dialogue this scene shows the human need for speech in order to keep the fear of a threat, in this case represented by McCann, at bay. Language is not the only menacing thing, there are also several small actions or events which add to the menacing atmosphere of the play: the synchronised whistling, McCann's tearing the newspaper into strips and the lights during the birthday party. None of these things should seem that menacing by themselves but the context in which they are placed makes them seem so. Two â€Å"strangers† whistling the same tune together while talking, a grown man sitting at a table tearing paper, a light being shone on a man at his own birthday party as though he is a police suspect and finally a blackout which makes Stanley become violent all seem abnormal and strange for the audience: we do not understand why they happen (except for the blackout, and then we only find out later). It is this not understanding and abnormality of the events which adds to the menacing atmosphere of the play. Therefore we can say that the threatening ambiance of the play is created through language, in particular humour and the unknown, but also through certain eerie and strange events or deeds. The reason Pinter uses these things to make the audience afraid is to show us our fear of what we do not know and the abnormal. However, Pinter makes sure that some of the menacing atmosphere is elevated at times, which actually emphasises how strong this atmosphere is. The threatening ambiance is lessened by the use of humour. This humour can be found in the first dialogue between Goldberg and McCann, for example, when McCann says that Goldberg, who is obviously a Jew, is a â€Å"true Christian†. There is also humour with the dialogue between Goldberg and Meg, after the first music hall scene, when he is admiring her dress and slaps her bottom, as well as before when he calls her a tulip and she asks â€Å"What colour? â€Å". Pinter uses comedy at these moments in the play in order to reassure the audience and to keep some suspense: if the whole length of the play was filled with a menacing atmosphere we would know that Stanley will lose the power struggle from the beginning. The humour also brings a certain level of normality back to the proceedings of the play so that the menacing atmosphere can increase slowly, again creating more suspense. Thus, I agree completely with the description of The Birthday Party as a â€Å"comedy of menace†. While comedy and menace both appear separately in the play it is together that they affect the audience most. The association of two seemingly opposing themes in one play allows the audience to realise some of Pinter's preoccupations concerning the inadequacy of language but also its power, how we have some irrational fears concerning the unknown and the abnormal, how relationships work through manipulation and power struggles and the passivity of so many people throughout their lives. As well as this, the fact that we can associate these two terms, finding something menacing yet humorous at the same time, could also be a way for Pinter to show the paradoxical nature of human beings.

Introduction to the Development of Travel + Tourism

1. Changing Socio-Economic Circumstances:- The first changes in socio-economic circumstances were when the industrial revolution took place. People were moving from the rural countryside into the bigger towns and cities to find regular employment in the factories, mills and mines. All over England work places were shutting down for a week (wakes week this was called). They were taking a paid holiday which was the first big break for most of the working population. People suddenly had an increase in leisure time to do more things with their family and friends; this is because the working hours in a week were dramatically cut from around 45+ to sometimes below 40. The raise in wages meant that more people could do things and go places further a field. They took weekend breaks and short holidays more often as well and also they had budgeting for a week's holiday which they could plan ahead for and get the time off through their employers. By the 1960's there was a huge rise in teen holidays, these holidays were very popular with people between the ages of 18-30. It became part of culture for young people to go off abroad on new package deal holidays. They would go out drinking and after a night in a pub or bar they would go back to their hotel rooms with a young girl and have ‘no-strings attached' sex. They would usually go on holiday for the sole reason of drinking and having sex all week. 2. Technological Developments Public transport was vital part in how and where people took their holidays. Mainly in the 1940's and early 50's, people used the railway to get to holiday resorts like Blackpool, they would travel mainly from places of work like Manchester, Liverpool, Blackburn etc. By the mid 1950's the car was becoming more of a major role in public transport and many people took to driving further away than the original holiday resorts of Blackpool, Scarborough, Brighton etc. They travelled to places like Cornwall and Dorset. Some people even braved going abroad to places like Belgium, Holland and France which was unheard of in those days. They drove to big ports like Dover or Ramsgate and caught a ferry across to Europe. The invention of the jet engine then came along and people discovered holidays in the Mediterranean where the weather was always guaranteed to be hot and sunny. People took to going abroad a lot more because of the jet engine and its power to travel further than anything before that. Lastly and most recently became the use of electronic booking and air traffic control so more planes can come and go from an airport more frequently than ever before. The internet is now the easiest, fastest and sometimes cheapest place to book holidays from. It can be done in a matter of minutes. 3. Product Development and Innovation People in Britain only started going on holiday in the 1860's. The only place they could go to was holiday resorts by the sea like Blackpool, Scarborough etc. If it rained they had to try and entertain their children outside somewhere because they weren't allowed back to there holiday flats until the evening. A great innovation was brought into light in the 1950's by a man called Billy Butlin. It was a holiday camp where there was entertainment all week whether indoors because of the rain or outdoors in the sun. Everyone went there year in year out and thousands of people enjoyed a great time every week it was open. Package holidays were the next big thing to come along. Holidays abroad were all fully paid for including flights. When you got there you didn't have to do anything but relax and enjoy the weather. The hotel cooked food and laid on meals for you and did everything. This was why it's called a ‘package holiday'. 4. Changing Needs, Expectation and Fashions Annual holidays became fashion throughout Briton. Everyone had to take a holiday as the holiday pay act came into use it was far more acceptable for people to go away. It became a culture and it still is a culture for most people in Britain. People often go on more than one holiday a year now, to places further abroad than the Mediterranean. Some people enjoy actually taking a year out of work or education to go and explore the traditions of places in Europe. Whereas most people like just relaxing, enjoying the sunshine and having a good time.

Mono Lake Committee

The atmosphere here makes you feel at peace with yourself. Not only do people FRR mom all over the world come here; photographers, journalists, ornithologists, but even locals come to connect with nature. As I am meditating on the shore line of Mono Lake, I begin to take in my sours endings. The scenery is unique and brings me peace. It unifies me with who I am and who I will become.I feel the UN baking down on me as a breeze lifts the smell of salt water towards me. When that settles, pick up a thick earthy smell that reminds me of wet grass. It's easy to notice different types of birds flying around, for example, lake birds and shore birds, Canadian geese, California g lulls, an osprey flying off the towering tuffs. It's amazing how the tuffs are composed of the same subs dances and yet they each have their own complexity. Was fascinated by the seagulls' nests tucked into the tuffs. If this lake wasn't here, there would be no place for the birds to rest and eat.Mono Lake isn't just a lake, it's a special lake. This lake is ever changing, there's always something new. Every hind around me is peaceful and yet buzzing with life. Places like Mono Lake matter because it gives people the chance to connect w tit nature and in today's overstretched world it's important to rest and reflect on life. In the cit y, there's no woods for people especially kids, to explore and discover places like these. No matter how many times people drive past this magical place, it never gets old.

Acquisition is a High Risky Strategy

In the literature, several motives for takeovers have been identified. One is the desire for synergy. That is, similarities or complementarities between the acquiring and target firms are expected to result in the combined value of the enterprises exceeding their worth as separate firms (Collis and Montgomery, 1998). A second motive involves the expectation that acquirers can extract value because target companies have been managed inefficiently (Varaiya, 1987). A third motive is attributed to managerial hubris the notion that senior executives, in overestimating their own abilities, acquire companies they believe could be managed more profitably under their control. Agency theory motive is the anticipation that firm expansion will positively impact the compensation of top managers since there tends to be a direct relation between firm size and executive pay. Contemporary specialists contend that managerial ownership incentives may be expected to have divergent impacts on corporate strategy and firm value. This premise has been recognized in previous studies. For instance, Stulz (1988) has examined the ownership of managers of target companies and has proposed that the relationship between that ownership and the value of target firms may initially be positive and then subsequently become negative with rising insider ownership. Moreover, Shivdasani (1993) empirically shows that the relationship of the ownership structure of target companies with the value of hostile bids is not uniformly positive. McConnell and Servaes (1990) have likewise analyzed the relationship of equity ownership among corporate insiders and Tobins q. Their results demonstrate a non-monotonic relation between Tobins q and insider equity stakes. Wright et al. (1996: 451) have shown a non-linear relationship between insider ownership and corporate strategy related to firm risk taking. Ownership Incentives and Changes in Company Risk Motivating Acquisitions An agency-theoretic motive for acquisitions has been used to explain managerial preferences for risk-reducing corporate strategies (Wright et al., 1996). The implication is that both principals and agents prefer acquiring target companies with higher rather than lower returns. In that, shareholders and managers have congruent interests. The interests, however, diverge in terms of risk considerations associated with acquisitions. Because shareholders possess diversified portfolios, they may only be concerned with systematic risk and be indifferent to the total variance of returns associated with a takeover. Senior managers may alternatively prefer risk-reducing corporate strategies, unless they are granted ownership incentives. That is because they can not diversify their human capital invested in the firm. In the literature, it has been argued that agency costs may be reduced as managerial ownership incentives rise. The reason is that, as ownership incentives rise, the financial interests of insiders and shareholders will begin to converge. Analysts conjecture, however, that such incentives may not consistently provide senior executives the motivation to lessen the agency costs associated with an acquisition strategy. Inherent is the presumption that the nature of executive wealth portfolios will differently influence their attitudes toward corporate strategy. The personal wealth portfolios of top managers are comprised of their ownership of shares/options in the firm, the income produced from their employment, and assets unrelated to the firm. Presumably, as senior executives increase their equity stakes in the enterprise, their personal wealth portfolios become correspondingly less diversified. Although stockholders can diversify their wealth portfolios, top executives have less flexibility if they own substantial shares in the firms they manage. Hence, if a significant portion of managers wealth is concentrated in one investment, then they may find it prudent to diversify their firms via risk-reducing acquisitions. In the related literature, however, takeovers and risk taking have been approached differently from the described approach. Amihud and Lev (1999) have contended that insiders employment income is significantly related to the firms performance. Thus, managers are confronted with risks associated with their income if the maintenance of that income is dependent on achieving predetermined performance targets. Reasonably, in the event of either corporate underperformance or firm failure, CEOs not only may lose their current employment income but also may seriously suffer in the managerial labor market, since their future earnings potential with other enterprises may be lowered. Hence, the risk of executives employment income is impacted by the firms risk. The ramification of Amihud and Levs (1999) contentions is that top managers will tend to lower firm risk, and therefore their own employment risk, by acquiring companies that contribute to stabilizing of the firms income, even if shareho lder wealth is adversely affected. Consistent with the implications of Amihud and Levs arguments, Agrawal and Mandelker (1987) have similarly suggested that managers with negligible ownership stakes may adopt risk-reducing corporate strategies because such strategies may well serve their own personal interests. With ownership incentives, however, managers may be more likely to acquire risk-enhancing target companies, in line with the requirement of wealth maximization for shareholders. The notion that at negligible managerial ownership levels, detrimental risk-reducing acquisition strategies may be emphasized, but with increasing ownership incentive levels, beneficial risk-enhancing acquisitions may be more prevalent is also suggested in other works (Grossman and Hoskisson, 1998). The conclusion of these investigations is that the relationship between insider ownership and risk enhancing, worthy corporate acquisitions is linear and positive. Some experts assert that CEOs personal wealth concentration will induce senior managers to undertake risk-reducing firm strategies. Portfolio theorys expectation suggests that investors or owner-managers may desire to diversify their personal wealth portfolios. For instance, Markowitz (1952: 89) has asserted that investors may wish to diversify across industries because firms in different industries. . . have lower covariances than firms within an industry. Moreover, as argued by Sharpe (1964: 441), diversification enables the investor to escape all but the risk resulting from swings in economic activity. Consequently, managers with substantial equity investments in the firm may diversify the firm via risk-reducing acquisitions in order to diversify their own personal wealth portfolios. Because they may be especially concerned with risk-reducing acquisitions, however, their corporate strategies may not enhance firm value through takeovers, although managerial intention may be to boos t corporate value. The above discussion is compatible with complementary arguments that suggest that insiders may acquire non-value-maximizing target companies although their intentions may be to enhance returns to shareholders. For instance, according to the synergy view, while takeovers may be motivated by an ex-ante concern for increasing corporate value, many such acquisitions are not associated with an increase in firm value. Alternatively, according to the hubris hypothesis, even though insiders may intend to acquire targets that they believe could be managed more profitably under their control, such acquisitions are not ordinarily related to higher profitability. If acquisitions which are undertaken primarily with insider expectations that they will financially benefit owners do not realize higher performance, then those acquisitions which are primarily motivated by a risk-reducing desire may likewise not be associated with beneficial outcomes for owners. Additionally, it can be argued that shareholders can more efficiently diversify their own portfolios, making it unnecessary for managers to diversify the firm in order to achieve portfolio diversification for shareholders. Risk Associated with HRM practices in International Acquisitions There are a number of reasons why the HRM policies and practices of multinational corporations (MNCs) and cross-border acquisitions are likely to be different from those found in domestic firms (Dowling, Schuler and Welch, 1993). For one, the difference in geographical spread means that acquisitions must normally engage in a number of HR activities that are not needed in domestic firms such as providing relocation and orientation assistance to expatriates, administering international job rotation programmes, and dealing with international union activity. Second, as Dowling (1988) points out, the personnel policies and practices of MNCs are likely to be more complex and diverse. For instance, complex salary and income taxation issues are likely to arise in acquisitions because their pay policies and practices have to be administered to many different groups of subsidiaries and employees, located in different countries. Managing this diversity may generate a number of co-ordination and communication problems that do not arise in domestic firms. In recognition of these difficulties, most large international companies retain the services of a major accounting firm to ensure there is no tax incentive or disincentive associated with a particular international assignment. Finally, there are more stakeholders that influence the HRM policies and practices of international firms than those of domestic firms. The major stakeholders in private organizations are the shareholders and the employees. But one could also think of unions, consumer organizations and other pressure groups. These pressure groups also exist in domestic firms, but they often put more pressure on foreign than on local companies. This probably means that international companies need to be more risk averse and concerned with the social and political environment than domestic firms. Acquisitions and HRM Practices: Evidence from Japan, the US, and Europe In contemporary context, international human resource management faces important challenges, and this trend characterizes many Japanese, US and European acquisitions.   From the critical point of view, Japanese companies experience more problems associated with international human resource management than companies from the US and Europe (Shibuya, 2000). Lack of home-country personnel sufficient international manage ­ment skills has been widely recognized in literature as the most difficult problem facing Japanese compa ­nies and simultaneously one of the most significant of US and European acquisitions as well. The statement implies that cultivating such skills is difficult and that they are relatively rare among businessmen in any country. Japanese companies may be particularly prone to this problem due to their heavy use of home-country nationals in overseas management positions. European and Japanese acquisitions also experience the lack of home country personnel who want to work abroad, while it is less of an impediment for the US companies. In the US acquisitions expatriates often experience reentry difficulties (e.g., career disruption) when re ­turning to the home country: This problem was the one most often cited by US firms.   Today Japanese corporations report the relatively lower incidence of expatriate reentry diffi ­culties, and it is surprising given the vivid accounts of such problems at Japanese firms by White (1988) and Umezawa (1990). However, the more active role of the Japanese person ­nel department in coordinating career paths, the tradition of semi ­annual musical-chair-like personnel shuffles (jinji idoh), and the continu ­ing efforts of Japanese stationed overseas to maintain close contact with headquarters might underlie the lower level of difficulties in this area for Japanese firms (Inohara, 2001). In contrast, the decentralized structures of many US and European firms may serve to isolate expatriates from their home-country headquarters, making reentry more problematic. Also, recent downsiz ­ing at US and European firms may reduce the number of appropriate management positions for expatriates to return to, or may sever expatri ­ates relationships with colleagues and mentors at headquarters. Furthermore, within the context of the lifetime employment system, individ ­ual Japanese employees have little to gain by voicing reentry concerns to personnel managers. In turn, personnel managers need not pay a great deal of attention to reentry problems because they will usually not result in a resignation. In western firms, reentry problems need to be taken more seriously by personnel managers because they frequently result in the loss of a valued employee. A further possible explanation for the higher incidence of expatriate reentry problems in western multinationals is the greater tendency of those companies to implement a policy of transferring local nationals to headquarters or other international operations. Under such a policy, the definition of expatriate expands beyond home-country nationals to en ­compass local nationals who transfer outside their home countries. It may even be that local nationals who return to a local operation after working at headquarters or other international operations may have their own special varieties of reentry problems. Literature on international human resource practices in Japan, the US and Europe suggest that the major strategic difficulty for the MNCs is to attract high-caliber local nationals to work for the company. In general, acquisitions may face greater challenges in hiring high-caliber local employees than do domestic firms due to lack of name recognition and fewer relationships with educators or others who might recommend candidates. However, researchers suggest that this issue is significantly more difficult for Japanese than for US and European multinationals. When asked to describe problems encoun ­tered in establishing their US affiliates, 39.5% of the respondents to a Japan Society survey cited finding qualified American managers to work in the affiliate and 30.8% cited hiring a qualified workforce (Bob SRI, 2001). Similarly, a survey of Japanese companies operating in the US conducted by a human resource consulting firm found that 35% felt recruiting personnel to be very difficult or extremely difficult, and 56% felt it to be difficult (The Wyatt Company, 1999). In addition to mentioned problem, Japanese acquisition encounter high local employee turnover, which is significantly more prob ­lematic for them due to the near-total absence of turnover to which they are accustomed in Japan. The US, European and Japanese companies admit very rarely that they encounter local legal challenges to their personnel policies. However, in regard to Japanese acquisitions large   amount of press coverage has been given to lawsuits against Japanese companies in the United States and a Japanese Ministry of Labor Survey in which 57% of the 331 respondents indicated that they were facing potential equal employ ­ment opportunity-related lawsuits in the United States (Shibuya, 2000). Conclusion This research investigates whether corporate acquisitions with shared technological resources or participation in similar product markets realize superior economic returns in comparison with unrelated acquisitions. The rationale for superior economic performance in related acquisitions derives from the synergies that are expected through a combination of supplementary or complementary resources. It is clear from the results of this research that acquired firms in related acquisitions have higher returns than acquired firms in unrelated acqui ­sitions. This implies that the related acquired firm benefits more from the acquirer than the unrelated acquired firm. The higher returns for the related acquired firms suggest that the combination with the acquirer’s resources has higher value implications than the combination of two unrelated firms. This is supported by the higher total wealth gains which were observed in related acquisitions. I did however, in the case of acquiring firms, find that the abnormal returns directly attributable to the acquisition transaction are not significant. There are reasons to believe that the announcement effects of the transaction on the returns to acquirers are less easily detected than for target firms. First, an acquisition by a firm affects only part of its businesses, while affecting all the assets (in control-oriented acqui ­sitions) of the target firm. Thus the measurability of effects on acquirers is attenuated. Second, if an acquisition is one event in a series of implicit moves constituting a diversification program, its individual effect as a market signal would be mitigated. It is also likely that the theoretical argument which postulates that related acquisitions create wealth for acquirers may be underspecified. Relatedness is often multifaceted, suggesting that the resources of the target firm may be of value to many firms, thus increasing the relative bargaining power of the target vis-a-vis the potential buyers. Even in the absence of explicit competition for the target (multiple bidding), the premiums paid for control are a substantial fraction of the total gains available from the transaction. For managers, some implications from the research can be offered. First, it seems quite clear from the data that a firm seeking to be acquired will realize higher returns if it is sold to a related than an unrelated firm. This counsel is consistent with the view that the market recognizes synergistic combinations and values them accordingly. Second, managers in acquiring firms may be advised to scrutinize carefully the expected gains in related and unrelated acquisitions. For managers the issue of concern is not whether or not a given kind of acquisition creates a significant total amount of wealth, but what percentage of that wealth they can expect to accrue to their firms. 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