Common Reading Reaction Paper

It’s common knowledge that there will be many people to be encountered in life that you can relate to in one way or another. I find myself relating to Mishna Wolff from â€Å"I’m Down† in many ways. From sharing very similar experiences to having almost identical personality traits, I can without a doubt identify with Mishna. It's inevitable while you're growing up and learning new things in school, you attach yourself to other individuals with similar interests or just share some sort of chemistry. In other words, your â€Å"best friend† or â€Å"BFF† as others would like to call them.I've always had a best friend, even from an early age (3 years-old to be exact). It just so happens that my first best friend was African-American. I never saw myself different from her, where being white or black had no importance in my mind. There were many times where I'd spend the night at her house, and her family would be over. I'd never felt more out of place. The loud and rowdy conversations, the slang I'd never heard, and just the atmosphere was totally different. This is where I feel I can relate to Mishna, when she began â€Å"capping† with the neighborhood kids to fit in.I had always felt the need to change how I spoke and behaved around her family. I had never felt more out of place. In addition to fitting in, Mishna had also joined many different sports to please her father and win back (or an equal amount) of favoritism. I can also identify with this experience as well. All throughout my childhood I had hopped from one sport to another, from taking agonizing ballet classes, swimming, soccer, and finally cheer-leading. At first I started involved myself in them because I wanted to try something new; but it ended up being because I was competing for attention from my younger brother.My brother had been playing baseball since he was six years old. My mother and father, and even some of my extended family would never fail to wa tch every single one of his games. My father would emerge himself in my brother's baseball practice, spending hours after-school coaching him and some of his teammates. With all this attention spent on my brother and his baseball, I had always felt left out. My parents would drop me off at my own practice and neither one of them involved themselves in any sport I was in. Mishna is pictured in the book to be, for the most part, fairly easy-going and doesn't let too many things bother her.When her father says something outrageous or just plain unfair, she resorts to keeping everything to herself. I can also relate to her in this way. There are many times when someone says something I disagree with and I'm able to just shrug it off and not let it affect me. However, there are many things Mishna did that I don't see eye-to-eye with. When Mishna's father told a group of people right in front of her that Anora was â€Å"his girl† and just let it slide like that, see, I wouldn't let that go as easily. To me, that's something extremely disturbing to hear, seeing as your father is supposed to love you unconditionally.Had it been my next to the stairs eavesdropping on that conversation, I wouldn't have thought it over twice to call my mother and go live with her. Moreover, if I was Mishna, I wouldn't have let Anora get away with everything. The unfairness is just incomprehensible and I would never allow it to go as far as it did. If my younger sibling did things that were inappropriate or was doing something wrong and one of my parents just shrugged it off like Mishna's father did, I would have said something or acted in the same manner as Anora until everything was justified.Had Mishna done something about it, I don't think things wouldn't have gotten as bad as they did regarding her sister. Ultimately, Mishna and I are very alike in the things we think and do. I have been able to relate to almost every experience she shared with us in â€Å"I'm Down†, fr om the problems of fitting in to the problems with her father. I feel that all these things make us the person we are today, and for that, we shouldn't be ashamed of any of it. Mishna writing this book just shouts to be proud of who you are and where you come from.

The Development of Housing Finance in the Changing Business Scenario

THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOUSING FINANCE IN THE CHANGING BUSINESS SCENARIO Mr. P. S. Ravindra** ABSTRACT Traditionally in India, most people used to depend on their provident fund and gratuity amounts received after retirement while considering buying a home. However, with the emergence of housing finance as a major business in the country, an increasingly large number of people are going for housing loans. The housing sector in India is facing an estimated shortage of 4. 1 crore houses and according to the Ninth Plan, the demand-supply gap in urban housing is 3. 3 crore houses. The industry comprises of nearly 383 housing finance companies although disbursements from only the leading 26 institutions are eligible for re-finance from National Housing Bank, which is the regulatory body for these companies. These Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) constitute nearly 95 % of the total disbursement by the industry . The tax exemption on the interest paid on housing loans has also been extended up to the year 2003. This move will benefit the salaried employees, especially the middle-class populace. A dream of providing 25 lakh rural houses has been envisaged in the budget. Out of these, 12 lakh houses will be built under the ‘India Awas Yojana’ and another one-lakh houses would be provided under the ‘Credit-cum-Subsidy’ scheme for families with an annual income below Rs. 32,000. Moreover, around 1. 5 lakh houses to be constructed under the ‘Golden Jubilee Rural Housing Finance Scheme’ will be eligible for refinance from the NHB. The industry is witnessing a boom at present boosted by the generous budget sops and rock bottom real estate prices. The demand is a result of genuine individual needs for housing. The prospects of the industry would be further strengthened on the amendments to the Rent Control Act and repealing of the controversial Urban Land Ceiling Act. This research paper focuses on the Demand for Housing sector, Market Profile, Market Trends, Price Sensitivity factors and outlook of Development of Housing Finance in the changing Business scenario. ____________________________________________________________ ____________ _________________nd Ceiling Act. _________________________________________________________ THE DEVELOPMENT OF HOUSING FINANCE IN THE CHANGING BUSINESS SCENARIO Mr. P. S. Ravindra** Introduction Roti, Kapada aur Makaan are the three basic necessities of human beings. Traditionally in India, most people used to depend on their provident fund and gratuity amounts received after retirement while considering buying a home. However, with the emergence of housing finance as a major business in the country, an increasingly large number of people are going for housing loans. Incomes of families are rising and their purchasing capacity as well as loan repaying capacities is going up. Property prices are more or less on a stabilizing trend. A large number of home loan options are available. HFCs are becoming increasingly liberal. Interest rates have been progressively falling. The Government of India has been giving substantial encouragement to the housing sector. The social structure of the Indian families is going through a sea change as the joint family is fast giving way to the nuclear family concept. The pressure to have one’s own home is high among these families. Highlights †¢ Significantly, there has been no dearth of demand for housing and consequently for finances for the same have been abundant. †¢ Market dynamics play a pivotal role in determining the lending rates. Considering the same, the housing finance industry has been in a slump in recent times. †¢ The entry of banks into the housing finance sector has posed a serious threat to already existent players in the field. †¢ The housing sector is witnessing a clash between major players. Foremost amongst this is the ICICI and HDFC imbroglio. The later is giving sleepless nights to HDFC. †¢ Tax sops provided by the Government of India is a significant step towards upholding the future prospects of this industry. Sector Comments Nearly 25 lakh houses are built every year in India. However, the nation’s requirement is around 65 lakh houses per annum. The housing sector in India is facing an estimated shortage of 4. 1 crore houses and according to the Ninth Plan, the demand-supply gap in urban housing is 3. 3 crore houses. In case, all these urban housing dwellings were to be built, it would require an investment of Rs. 150,370 crore. Traditionally, the housing finance business has been yielding a margin of around 2 per cent. The skill of the players is in converting their advances that have a maturity period of 15-30 years with the deposits that mature within three years. Though, the National Housing Bank (NHB) refinances housing loan up to Rs. lakh disbursed to the lower income group, this is just a negligible proportion of advances to the major players. The primary sources of funds are fixed deposits, debentures, private placement of bonds and borrowings from banks and financial institutions. Thus, efficient financial management has a key role to play in this industry. Lending rates are predominantly market-driven and in view o f the same, the housing finance industry has been in a slump in recent times with there being low demand from builders and investors alike. Furthermore, the entry of banks into the housing finance sector has also not augured well for the industry. Most housing finance companies cater mainly to the higher income group having reasonably assured creditworthiness. In a scenario marked with the absence of speedy foreclosure regulations, most companies prefer to stay away from rural and the Low-Income Group   (LIG). However, it must be noted that demand for housing in the Middle-Income Group and High Income Group segments has also recorded a steady rise lately. Market profile The Indian housing finance sector is crowded with players of all sizes and nature: government organisations, insurance companies, banks, housing finance companies and co-operative organisations like HUDCO and NHB. Major players in the Industry are HDFC, LIC Housing Finance, Dewan Housing, Can Fin Homes, SBI Home Finance and Gujarat Rural Housing. The youngest entrant into the Industry, which is penetrating rapidly, is ICICI. Interestingly, both Can Fin Homes Limited and its parent Canara Bank are into housing finance. It is the same with quite a few banks, for example, SBI and SBI Home Finance Limited, Bank of Baroda and BOB Finance, Vysa Bank and Vysyabank Housing. Though HDFC and ICICI also have their banking arms, they compete with each other in personal loans, but not housing loans. The industry comprises of nearly 383 housing finance companies although disbursements from only the leading 26 institutions are eligible for re-finance from National Housing Bank, which is the regulatory body for these companies. These Housing Finance Companies (HFCs) constitute nearly 95 % of the total disbursement by the industry. However, owing to the slump in real estate market over the last few years, the industry posted a fairly low disbursement growth. Market trends The housing sector is witnessing a clash between major players. HDFC had ruled this sector with a lion’s stranglehold. It was smooth sailing for HDFC all these years and it seemed that its monopoly was there to stay forever. However, out of the blue emerged ICICI Home Loans, when this financial institution decided to clash arms with HDFC on its home front. Within a year of its launch, ICICI Home Loans is giving the industry leader, HDFC, sleepless nights. Undercutting in the interest rates is all in the game and so is every other trick in the book. HDFC is gathering its wits to beat its competitor at its own game. It launched an aggressive hoarding campaign designed in the style of ‘follow the leader’. HDFC has launched its website propertymartindia. com as a joint venture with the Mahindras. Following suit, ICICI too, launched its home portal indiahomeseek. com. So the war rages on both at the retail level and also in the form of a cyber war. ICICI has lowered its prime lending rates on short and medium term loans from 13 per cent to 12. 5 per cent. Thus, bringing the interest on housing loans at par with the foreign exchange loans. HDFC also reduced the interest rates on its housing loans from 13. 25 per cent to 13 per cent. It went an extra mile to woo the borrowers of loans up to Rs. crore by allowing them the facility to either opt for a fixed interest rate of 13 per cent or a floating interest rate of 12. 5 per cent. As the name indicates, a borrower opting for the first choice will have to repay the loan at an interest rate of 13 per cent irrespective of any future hike or cut in the rates. Those choosing the second option would be subject to the vagaries of the interest mar ket and may gain or lose in the bargain. The company has also reduced the interest on loans borrowed by non-resident Indians. These loans repayable within five years will attract an interest rate of 11. 5 per cent per annum while loans ith a term of 6-10 years will be charged interest at 12. 5 per cent. The above rates are under the fixed interest rate option. Similar floating rate loans would be charged at 5 per cent less interest. Originally, only the commercial banks offered housing loans on floating interest rates, now that HDFC is offering loans at a 12 per cent floating rate, ICICI also has a floating rate home loan in the pipeline. Price sensitivity factors †¢ Noteworthy fact here is that NHB refinance to the HFCs comprises a mere 7% of the loans disbursed. In other words, most HFCs have to arrange for a major part of the disbursals from their own resources. Thus, low spreads, mismatched asset and liability, competition posed by banks with recent regulations requiring commercial banks to invest 40 per cent of their advances towards the priority sector, etc. pose problems for the lending division. †¢ The first housing finance company to cut down its interest rate after RBI slashed the PPF interest rate by 1 per cent on January 14, 2000 was HUDCO. When the National Housing Bank, the refinancing agency of all housing finance companies, slashed its rates by up to 50 basis points, it triggered off a virtual interest war in the industry. HDFC, ICICI, LIC Housing Finance, PNB Housing Finance Limited and a host of others followed suit. In a game of one-upmanship, the companies have been vying with one another to offer the best deal in a rapidly growing market. †¢ CRISIL has forecast an increase in the interest rates in the second half of this year. This will be due to the demand of funds by the Centre and also the corporates exceeding the supply. The Central Government has projected a Rs. 31,000 crore higher borrowing this year than last year’s figure of Rs. 86,000 crore. The State Government borrowings would add up to a further Rs. 7,500 crore and the corporate demand would be higher by Rs. 11,000 crore. As compared with the supply, CRISIL expects the short fall to be around Rs. 15,800 crore. To make up this short fall, even if there is a 1 per cent cut in CRR, interest rates are still bound to increase. †¢ The Union Budget 2000-01 has given a shot in the arm to the industry by raising the exemption a pplicable to individual borrowers on the interest paid on housing loans to Rs. 1 lakh. The existing tax rebate of 20 per cent under section 88 of the Income tax Act of 1961, covered repayment of housing loans, subject to a maximum of Rs. 0,000. The same has now been doubled to Rs. 20,000. This, coupled with the lowering of the interest rate would enable a borrower to enjoy tax exemption upto a loan of Rs. 7. 5 lakh for a 15-year term. He can now have access to better tax planning options on account of the exemption and a lower Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) due to longer term of repayment. Furthermore, individuals who already own a house can now invest in a new house and yet claim exemption from capital gains on the sale of the asset. The tax exemption on the interest paid on housing loans has also been extended up to the year 2003. This move will benefit the salaried employees, especially the middle-class populace. A dream of providing 25 lakh rural houses has been envisaged in the budget. Out of these, 12 lakh houses will be built under the ‘India Awas Yojana’ and another one-lakh houses would be provided under the ‘Credit-cum-Subsidy’ scheme for families with an annual income below Rs. 32,000. Moreover, around 1. 5 lakh houses to be constructed under the ‘Golden Jubilee Rural Housing Finance Scheme’ will be eligible for refinance from the NHB. The industry has found new avenues such as securitisation, which are expected to be launched in the market very soon. This mechanism would require a pool of assets (mortgages), which would be sold by the HFCs to NHB. These assets in turn would act as a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) and would be sold as pass through certificates to investors, which initially would be from groups earning pension funds, mutual funds, financial institu tions, commercial banks and other trusts or institution which require monthly fixed income. The mortgages would be for loans up to a period of 10 years, on which HFCs would earn 16 % from borrowers. The spread is to be passed back to the concerned HFCs in the form of premium at purchase of mortgages or service charge over a period of time. It is expected that with the success of securitisation the circulation of funds would increase coupled with cash flows generated by these funds. Furthermore, a secondary market for mortgages would become feasible for HFCs. Outlook The industry is witnessing a boom at present boosted by the generous budget sops and rock bottom real estate prices. The demand is a result of genuine individual needs for housing. The prospects of the industry would be further strengthened on the amendments to the Rent Control Act and repealing of the controversial Urban Land Ceiling Act. Thus, the housing finance industry is on solid ground and has interesting prospects ahead. As for the small players, they will have to take the harsh decision to either exit the industry or merge with bigger entities. It is also amply clear that in the future, industry leader HDFC will have to share the spoils with the aggressive young turk – ICICI. Notwithstanding the competition, the customer has nothing to lose as he can choose the best loan scheme from the ICICI and HDFC fold, with minimum interest and a nil processing fee. Conclusion Despite the abovementioned factors, several bottlenecks still exist in the industry, which have to be taken care of before any of the above can bring about an improvement in the prospects of the industry. From an overall viewpoint demand for housing is ever rising and the same would be reflected on the demand for funds. Hence, the profitability of the industry should commence on the positive track in the future. Now housing finance products are at par with other consumer goods, where use of all marketing mix has become necessary for the banks to attract and retain customers. References 1. Basu D. N and Mehta V. K. , 1993. Housing Finance System India, Urban India, XIII, (1) January-June: 36-50. 2. Manoj P. K. 2004. Dynamics of housing finance in India, 3. Vora P. P 2002. The Indian housing finance system, Housing Finance Investment. 15(Jan): 18-25. 4. Nambirajan, R, 2001. Home Loans and Tax benefits, Indian Infrastructure, May, pp. 42-43. http://www. indianloans. com http://www. indiainvest. com http://www. lichousing. com * * * * *

Business Environment

Purposes: mission; vision; aims; objectives; goals; values; profits; market share; growth; return on capital employed (ROCE); sales; service level; customer satisfaction; corporate responsibility; ethical issues Stakeholders: owners; customers; suppliers; employees; debtors; creditors; financial institutions (banks, mortgage lenders, credit factors); environmental groups; government agencies (central government, local authorities); trade unions Responsibilities of organizations: stakeholder interests; conflict of expectations; power- influence matrix; satisfying stakeholder objectives; legal responsibilities e. g. consumer legislation, employee legislation, equal opportunities and anti-discriminatory legislation, environmental legislation, health and safety legislation; ethical issues egg environment, fair trade, global warming, charter compliance e. g. Banking Code 2 Understand the nature of the national environment in which businesses operate Economic systems: the allocation of scarce resources; effective use of resources; type of economic system eg command, free enterprise, mixed, transitional The UK economy: size (gross domestic product, gross national product); structure; population; labour force; growth; inflation; balance of payments; balance of trade; exchange rates; trading partners; public finances (revenues, expenditure); taxation; government borrowing; business behaviour eg investment, objectives, risk awareness; cost of capital; consumer behaviour; propensity to save; propensity to spend; tastes and preferences Government policy: economic goals; fiscal policy: control of aggregate demand; central and local government spending; Public Sector Net Borrowing (PSNB) and Public Sector Net Cash Requirement (PSNCR); euro convergence criteria, monetary policy; interest rates; quantitative easing; private finance initiative (PFI); competition policy (up-to-date legislation including Competition Act 1998, Enterprise Act 2002); Competition Commission, Office of Fair Trading; Directorate General for Competition); European Commission); sector regulators eg Ofgem, Ofwat, Civil Aviation Authority; Companies Acts; regional policy; industrial policy; enterprise strategy; training and skills policy 3 Understand the behaviour of organisations in their market environment Market types: perfect competition, monopoly, monopolistic competition, oligopoly, duopoly; competitive advantage, strategies adopted by firms; regulation of competition Market forces and organisational responses: supply and demand, elasticity of demand; elasticity of supply; customer perceptions and actions, pricing decisions; cost and output decisions; economies of scale, the short run; the long run, multi-national and transnational corporations; joint ventures, outsourcing; core markets; labour market trends; employee skills, technology; innovation; research and development; core competencies; business environment (political, economic, social, technical, legal, environmental); cultural environment 4 Be able to assess the significance of the global factors that shape national business activities Global factors: international trade and the UK economy; market opportunities; global growth; protectionism; World Trade Organisation (WTO); emerging markets (BRIC economies – Brazil, Russia, India, China); EU membership; EU business regulations and their incorporation in to UK law; EU policies eg agriculture (CAP), business, competition, growth, employment, education, economics and finance, employment, environment, science and technology, regional); labour movement; workforce skills; exchange rates; trading blocs (eg monetary unions, common markets; customs unions, free trade areas); labour costs; trade duties; levies; tariffs; customs dues; taxation regimes; international competitiveness; international business environment (political, economic, social, technical, legal, environmental); investment incentives; cost of capital; commodity prices; intellectual property; climate change eg Kyoto Protocol, Rio Earth Summit; third world poverty; the group of 20 (G-20); global financia l stability Learning outcomes and assessment criteria Learning outcomesOn successful completion of this unit a learner will:| Assessment criteria for passThe learner can:| LO1 Understand the organizational purposes of businesses| 1. 1 identify the purposes of different types of organisation1. 2 describe the extent to which an organisation meets the objectives of different stakeholders1. explain the responsibilities of an organisation and strategies employed to meet them| LO2 Understand the nature of the national environment in which businesses operate| 2. 1 explain how economic systems attempt to allocate resources effectively2. 2 assess the impact of fiscal and monetary policy on business organizations and their activities2. 3 evaluate the impact of competition policy and other regulatory mechanisms on the activities of a selected organisation| LO3 Understand the behaviour of organizations in their market environment| 3. 1 explain how market structures determine the pricing and output decisions of businesses3. 2 illustrate the way in which market forces shape organizational responses using a range of examples3. judge how the business and cultural environments shape the behaviour of a selected organisation| LO4 Be able to assess the significance of the global factors that shape national business activities| 4. 1 discuss the significance of international trade to UK Business organisation4. 2 analyse the impact of global factors on UK business organizations4. 3 evaluate the impact of policies of the European Union on UK business organizations. | GRADE DESCRIPTORS Learners would be graded as ‘PASS, MERIT or DISTINCTION. The indicative characteristics for each grade are mentioned below: Pass grade:A pass grade is achieved by meeting all the requirements defined in the assessment criteria for pass for each unit. Merit grade: Merit descriptors| Indicative characteristics| In order to achieve a merit the learner must:| The learner’s evidence shows for example:| IdentifyandapplyStrategiestofind appropriate solutions| ? Effective judgments have been made? Complex problems with more than one variable have been explored? An effective approach to study and research has been applied| Select/design and apply appropriateMethods/techniques| ? Relevant theories and techniques have been applied? A range of methods and techniques have been applied? A range of sources of information has been used? The selection of methods and techniques/sources has been justified? The design of methods/techniques has been justified? Complex information/data has been synthesized and processed? Appropriate learning methods/techniques have been applied| Present and communicateappropriate findings| ? The appropriate structure and approach has been used? Coherent, logical development of principles/concepts for the intended audience? A range of methods of presentation have been used and technical language has been accurately used? Communication has taken place in familiar and unfamiliar contexts? The communication is appropriate for familiar and unfamiliar audiences and appropriate media have been used| Distinction grade: Distinction descriptors| Indicative characteristics| Inordertoachieveadistinctionthelearner must:| The learner’s evidence shows for example:| Use critical reflection to evaluate own work and justify valid conclusions| ? Conclusions have been arrived at through synthesis of ideas and have been justified? The validity of results has been evaluated using defined criteria? Self-criticism of approach has taken place? Realistic improvements have been proposed against defined characteristics for success| Take responsibility for managing and organizing activities| ? Autonomy/independence has been demonstrated? Substantial activities, projects or investigations have been planned, anaged and organized? Activities have been managed? The unforeseen has been accommodated? Theimportanceofinterdependencehasbeen recognized and achieved| DemonstrateConvergent/lateral/creative thinking| ? Ideas have been generated and decisions taken? Self-evaluation has taken place? Convergent and lateral thin king have been applied? Problems have been solved? Innovation and creative thought have been applied? Receptiveness to new ideas is evident? Effective thinking has taken place in unfamiliar contexts| Assignment Unit 1 McCain McCain is the worlds largest producer of chips. Its range includes other potato products like hash browns and waffles. It buys 12% of the UK potato crop. It is also one of the biggest suppliers of frozen light meals. External factors Businesses set themselves aims. These help them to be efficient. For instance, they may aim to increase sales or make more profit. It then plans to reach these aims. To do this it must look at its own strengths. These are called internal factors. It must also look at outside influences. These are called external factors. McCain looks at changes in these. This helps it to plan how to respond. SLEPT SLEPT is one tool that can be used to look at external factors. It can be used to measure their effect. The letters in SLEPT stand for five factors. These are * Social Legal * Environmental * Technological and * Political. McCain dealt with these factors as follows: Social and Legal factors Social A number of campaigns have told people to eat in a more healthy way. This led to falling sales for some McCain products. McCain responded by reducing the salt and oil in its potato pr oducts. It also sent out the message that its chips were not unhealthy. Legal Governments pass laws, and set standards. McCain has to obey the law or set its own, higher, standards. The Food Standards Agency has developed a system of traffic light labels. These are designed to help consumers see which products may be less healthy. The food industry uses a system based on Guideline Daily Amounts. These GDAs are what an average person should eat to stay healthy. McCain uses both of these. All of its potato products can display the green traffic light (low levels) for saturated fat. None of its products displays a red traffic light (for high levels) in any category. Economic, Political and Technological Factors Economics 100 Edition 12 This refers to changes in buying habits. Income is rising, but people have less time to spend it. This is called being cash-rich but time-poor. This leads to more demand for convenience foods. To meet this challenge McCain provides a range of products to suit different tastes. Political There is government pressure for suppliers to come up with healthier foods. McCain supports the government. It believes that the foods it provides are healthy when prepared properly. Technological The technology used to prepare food is fast moving. McCains food technologists have made its potato products more healthy. They have reduced levels of fat and salt but still maintained flavour. This was achieved through a switch to sunflower oils. This reduced saturated fats by 70%. Conclusion Businesses must take account of changes in external factors. Change comes from a number of sources. Each presents a challenge. McCain is a business focused on the market. It knows that it is vital to keep customers happy. It has listened to what customers want and made changes in response. It aims to give them the best value chips and other healthy food products. Task 1 1. 1 Using working example or the case the study indentify the purposes of different types of organisation. (Outcome 1. 1) 1. 2 Using an example of your choice illustrate how an organisation meets the objectives of different stakeholders. (Outcome 1. 2) 1. 3 Using the case study, explain the responsibilities of an organisation and the strategies employed to meet them. (Outcome 1. 3) Task 2 2. 1 Illustrate how economic systems attempt to allocate resources effectively. Use the case study to illustrate your answer. (Outcome 2. 1) 2. Fiscal and monetary policy affects business organisations and their activities, disucuss this with a working example of your choice. (Outcome 2. 2) 2. 3 Evaluate the impact of competition policy and other regulatory mechanisms on the activities of an organisation of your choice or that or the case study. (Out come 2. 3) Task 3 3. 1 Pricing and output decisions of an organisation are determined by market structures. In your opinion is this true. (Outcome 3. 1) 3. 2 Using a working example of your choice show how market forces shape organisational responses. (Outcome 3. 2) 3. 3 Using an example of your choice discuss how the business and cultural environment shape the organisations behaviour. (Outcome 3. 3) Task 4 4. What is the significance of international trade to the UK business organisation? (Outcome 4. 1) 4. 2 The impact of global factors on UK business organisations is quite variable, discuss. (Outcome 4. 2) 4. 3 Discuss the impact of policies of the European Union on the UK business organisations. (Outcome 4. 3) To achieve a Pass/Distinction or Merit student must address all the above criteria by producing a word processed report of 2500- 3500 words. Reports must be supported by appropriate referencing. The report must be submitted by the required formal submission date by 5pm at r eception where a receipt will be given. The Times 100 Edition 12

The Initial Business in Black Jacks Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

The Initial Business in Black Jacks - Assignment Example If the initial business plan is successful then the club facility will be extended based upon its success rate.Black Jacks targeted audience will be the population in Savannah above 18 who have the relatively refined taste of music. The targeted customers are not in any way limited in terms of gender. The Club is expected to provide music records of all genres making it easier for the customers to find their chosen records at one place. The services to be provided by Blac Jacks will also include customized music recordings. Location may be one of the most important aspects of our proposed business. This will decide which market we are going to serve as well as the future prosperity chances depends upon this. So, we have got the opportunity to buy an appropriate place in 7939 Abercorn st. Savannah. This club will be basically located in a shopping plaza where the surrounding businesses will also be helpful to boost our business. So this location will allow us to gain customers more easily. There will be no parking issue because of large car parking of the shopping plaza and also the closing time of the shopping plaza is 10:30 pm which will also be beneficial for our club. As Savannah is the largest city in the U.S. state of Georgia. The population has grown by 16.6 percent in the last ten years. Now its total population is 425,528. It is considered as the largest trading area as well as it attracts millions of visitors that may be beneficial for my business. 1. College Students: We have created an environment that will appeal the high school college students and we are expecting an increase of 5 percent from this segment annually because of positive word of mouth. 2. Childless Young Professionals: Due to our presence in the premises of shopping center, we must appeal to single students and young adults. We are expecting an annual growth of 15 % from this part of the population with the growth rate of the city.

Law - Tort of Negligence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Law - Tort of Negligence - Essay Example Before then, the courts studied the circumstances of the case and so if there was precedent and decided, based on all these, if the plaintiff was entitled to redress. Tort of negligence There was no set rule defining what negligence was. It was in the case of Donoghue vs. Stevenson where negligence as a rule first arose (Oliphant,2005. P. 325). In this case the plaintiff’s friend offered her a ginger beer that was manufactured by the defendants. The drink was contained in an opaque bottle. She poured some of the beer and drank it. When she poured some more, she discovered that the drink had contained a decomposed snail. She then became sick because of the disgust from the thought that she had been drinking the remains of the decomposed snail. She sued the manufacturers. The defendants argued that if they had a contract, it was between them and the plaintiff’s friend, who was in fact the one who bought the drink. They therefore didn’t have a contract with the plai ntiff and didn’t even know her. So they had no liability. From the courts arguments in this case, three major points came out- Contract fallacy: The court agreed that one doesn’t need to have contractual relations with someone else in order to be liable to that person. This point shot down the defendants’ argument. ... who are in my contemplation when I am directing my mind to the acts or omissions in question.† This point showed that the defendant did indeed owe the plaintiff a duty of care. The principle of product liability: This principle states that the manufacturer of a defective product is liable to the ultimate consumer who receives that product. This principle has since then evolved and gone on to serve new purposes. This case went up to the House of Lords and they agreed that the defendant owed the plaintiff a duty of care. The factors of whether there was a breach of that duty and whether damage occurred were not brought up in this case because the defendants feared the bad publicity that the case had brought and decided to settle it with the plaintiff outside the court. The court decided that there were three main ingredients to the tort of negligence: The defendant must owe a duty of care to the plaintiff there must be a breach of that duty, and the breach must result in damage. Breach of duty to take care Thus the first thing that the cricket club ought to ask itself was whether the Brunel owed it a duty of care. From there the cricket club must establish whether Brunel breached the duty of care. This comes about where the defendant failed to take reasonable care. Reasonableness may vary with circumstances e.g. if someone is handling a box of sweets, the reasonable care required may be much less than that which is required while handling a box of explosives. The case of Blyth vs. Birmingham Waterworks Co. further expounded on this Alderson B. in this case described negligence as â€Å"omission to do something which a reasonable man, guided upon those considerations which generally or ordinarily regulate human affairs will do, or doing something which a reasonable man

Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 22

Case Study Example The issues are therefore into the matters of both principle and divisible, there is a complex number of them as presented in the case. The essential problem might be due to poor management system or the common issue of personal dispute within the human resource. In this case, the first agenda should be about the issue of settlement, allowing the two parties to have active involvement for the gathering of data and information. The interests involve both personal. It is personal in a sense that there are prevailing internal disputes within the human resource, and inclusion of personal future objective. It is corporate in a sense that the entire firm or company is involved in the entire case. Due to determined individual goal of Sai de Leon, something beyond the firm’s, there might be absence of opportunity for agreement to satisfy both parties. The common ground may be the willingness to be compensated for whatever possible loss incurred. However, the areas of conflict between teams might as well be rooted in here. For instance, de Leon would want to be get paid as his/her final intention, but the company might as well would not want to give in knowing that the entire issue could just be solely about personal ambitions and not that beneficial for the entire firm. It is first important to go for legal issues concerning disputes, or complaints as like the kind stated in the case. There are also important cases necessary to back or support the legal issues. Agreements, precedent and history are necessary too, because this will provide opportunity to determine the right possible courses of actions to be taken to satisfy personal goal. This information should be used in the negotiation by citing them and when there is a need to clarify points in order for the two parties to meet half-way or will have full understanding of the entire case, from varying

Decisions in Paradise Paper part 1,2, and 3 Essay

Decisions in Paradise Paper part 1,2, and 3 - Essay Example It is often seen that fast urbanization and the technological advancements have been responsible for global climate change which may have contributed to the increased frequency of natural calamities, throughout the world. Kava too is prone to natural disasters and at the same time external factors like terrorism and internal strife, has produced many securities among the local population. Hence, we need to apply the technique of decision making that would help us to decide on the projects that are best suited to benefit both Kava people and us. ‘Decision matrices are most effective where you have a number of good alternatives and many factors to take into account’ (internet). Decision Matrix Analysis would facilitate us to reach to the right decision because it incorporates a huge range of factors for the various projects that can be started here. The various business options may include tourism, petroleum, natural gas and agricultural produce. The few of the salient fac tors that may influence the decision include existing interests of the company, preliminary cost, scope, local resource, local development etc. ‘Using such a distributed assessment framework, the features of a range of evidence can be catered for whilst the assessor is not forced to pre-aggregate various types of evidence into a single numerical value. Both complete and incomplete assessments can be accommodated in a unified manner within the framework’ (Yang, 2001). Kava is bestowed with rich local raw materials which include products like petroleum, natural gas, cocoa, spices, sugar etc. Another area that has vast potential is the tourism industry that can be developed into a roaring business. Initially we must identify two areas which can be developed into concrete business solution. Later the company can diversify to introduce new areas for fresh ventures. Therefore, looking at

Elie Saab, Fashion brand strategy analysis Essay

Elie Saab, Fashion brand strategy analysis - Essay Example The paper "Elie Saab, Fashion brand strategy analysis" discovers the Fashion brand of Elie Saab and its strategy. During 1982, after he attained 18 decades, the generally self-instructed fashioner stared his individual design shop inside Beirut locale with a representative minimum of ten. Before long his notoriety quickly rose above Beirut's outskirts, drawing in ladies from developed community who fancied chic Elie Saab apparel. During 1990 he extended his vicinity into Europe via introducing his 2nd lead shop inside Paris. During 1998 Saab Elie became the earliest non-Italian fashioner to end up an individual of the ICNM, and that similar decade he exhibited his foremost assortment away from Lebanon, in Roman Empire. During 1999, youthful fashioner started his ready-made dress inside Milan. Be that as it may, Elie Saab got his glory, during 2002 when he clothed Berry Halle in favor of Oscar festival winning this award that decade. The following day, he got to be world celebrated fa shioner. The brand’s outward look comprises of the exceptional outline of the outfit, which underscores the lovely bends of lady body. The mark style is stunning shining weaving quality utilization of bands as well as sheer materials, exceptional manually-beaded fixing and valuable stones. Everything that creates Saab apparels a showstopper amongst other night dresses. Identity of the brand concerns making each lady feels akin to a queen. Elie Saab succeeded to create well-known extravagance and traditional tailoring.

How does advertising treat convenience as necessity Research Paper

How does advertising treat convenience as necessity - Research Paper Example The major part of the revenue put aside for marketing is spent on popularizing the product through mass media ads. Print media ads and TV channel ads have emerged into internet and mobile ads in the past decade. Most of these commercials are created by extremely creative people, who are capable of creating non existing desires. Men have lived on this earth for millions of years. But, only after the advent of advertisements did he realize he cannot live without credit cards. Purpose of the study The purpose of this study is to analyze the subliminal messages some of the famous commercials give out. Our aim is to create awareness among the users about the dangers of uncontrolled consumerism. What seems like a simple pleasure might be a poisonous inject into the strong economic root of a country. And the most disturbing part is the governments, citizens and the entrepreneurs extend their full fledged support to this making convenience a necessity advertising policy, without any idea of the future consequences. Companies spend millions of dollars every year on such ads instead of improving the quality of their products and the lifestyle of their workmen. Even great companies which followed this strategy like Nokia have come to a standstill point where they don’t have any more to spend. They are trying hard to come out of debt now, wondering why they wasted so many millions on commercials instead of paying their debt interests on time. With problems galore, can Middle East survive another â€Å"catch bee with vinegar† type attack on its culture and economy? Literature Review Consumerism is a single word. When we analyze the roots of this practice, it reaches back to colonialism and the post world war period. Whether we like to agree or... This essay "How does advertising treat convenience as necessity?" outlines in detail how such a trance is created through visual media in an exceptional way, taking the Middle East Media as background. People who grew up in the Middle East will never forget the NIDO commercial with the tagline â€Å"NIDO - For The Golden Growing Years†. The divine mother-son sentiment was captured wonderfully in that half a minute commercial. However, the subliminal message it portrays is questionable. A luxurious milk supplement is shown as an important object of necessity which accompanies the child throughout its growth. What do such ads do? They inspire a mother to feed the baby with this product instead of the normal cow’s milk, a much cheaper and healthier product. Similarly there is the famous Close up ad featuring lemon and mint as two characters. The beauty and comical nature of the advertisement is mind blowing. The humorous romance ends with the note â€Å"love is sweet but Close up is sweeter†. This advertisement is every person’s heartthrob. The way it is portrayed lightens our mind, no matter how tensed we are. Again the subliminal message the ad portrays is the best example of how the advertising field transforms a simple paste into something as necessary as love. One Zain telecoms recent ad, features people from different countries of the Middle East like Egypt, Lebanon, Arabia and Dubai. The visuals are stunning, captured in HD camera showing the actions of various people in slow motion.

Whats your religion belief Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Whats your religion belief - Essay Example ne others the plan of our salvation, than from those from whom the Gospel has come down to us, which they did at one time proclaim in public, and, at a later period, by the will of God, handed down to us in Scriptures, to be the ground and pillar of our faith†. In a fairly categorical sense, the above quote seems to indicate that the existence of further understanding, revelation, or identification of how salvation takes place is not existentially possible. Instead, the quote embodies the belief that the final revelation of salvation and its relation to humanity have been uttered and no possible further explanation could be offered. Yet, this particular view misses one fundamental precept; namely the fact that both before and after Christ’s earthly ministry, the power and importance of the Holy Spirit and its ability to convict the hearts of men and lead them in the path of righteous understanding played a central, if not pivotal, role in the way in which theological int erpretation and understanding took place. The underlying theological relevance of the above quote is of course central to understanding how a further knowledge and appreciation for Christian doctrine should develop. If it is in fact true that the development has taken place already, then the possibility for future scholars and theologians to continue to approach these topics from new perspectives and gain further insights is all but wasted effort. However, if the statement and untrue and somewhat misguided, then it is still required for individuals to engage with the Gospel and consider the unique ways in which theology and theological inquiry regarding the Holy Spirit, salvation and other fundamental Christian precepts can be understood and engaged within the life of the believer. Those that would disregard this approach as heretical would likely point to the danger of revisionism of key Biblical doctrines. However, such a fear is not necessarily grounded in reality or in fact; as the

The History of Religion in the US Essay Example for Free

The History of Religion in the US Essay When you think of religion in the United States and how it started you may think of the first settlers. These were not the first being to worship a higher power in the United States. The Indians believed in and worshiped The Great Spirit. Despite the many tribes like the Sioux and Iroquois they all had the same belief in The Great Spirit. The Great Spirit could be present in animals as well as inanimate objects. They all developed great ceremonies to on it. Then came the colonists, the first settlers, who were predominantly protestant these settlers left their home countries because of religion. They did not want to be told how to worship their God. These colonists were Christians but as they began to settle, those with different beliefs separated themselves and developed new segments of religion. The puritans left their country to escape religious prosecution. They later developed the religions of Baptist and Congressionalist’s. Their religion was based on the teachings of John Calvin, and was thought to purify the religion of the Church of England. Their religions eventually lead to self isolation and witch hunts of people who did not follow their religion. The Methodists were a group of Oxford University Students. They were not fleeing religious prosecution when they arrived. The Methodist Church as become the second largest Protestant Church in the United States today. The History of Religion in the United States Christa Hart Lutherans were like no other American Christian denomination; their national origin did play an important role in their history. Members came from Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Norway. The Lutherans settled on the East Coast and American Midwest, and celebrated worship services in their native tongues. Presbyterians who bore little resemblance to the liturgy, structure, and tradition associated with the Roman Catholic Church, the Presbyterian and Reformed churches share a common origin in the teachings of John Calvin. Their belief structure and practices are centered on the Bible and â€Å"the sovereignty of God.† Presbyterians make up one of the largest branches of Protestant Christianity today. The next religion, the Quakers, were founded in 1647 by English preacher George Fox, the Society of Friends emphasized a direct relationship with God. One’s conscience, not the Bible, was the ultimate authority on morals and actions. The state I live in Pennsylvania was founded by the Quakers, specifically William Penn, as a religious sanctuary. Quakers did not have a clergy or dedicated church buildings, and therefore held their meetings in which participants deliberated silently on issues and spoke up when â€Å"the Spirit moved them.† Dressed in plain clothes, Quakers preferred a simple life over one enjoyed by the aristocracy of England and the burgeoning merchant class in the colonies. They also shared an abhorrence of violence. I find my beliefs, even though I The History of Religion in the United States Christa Hart follow or believe in no God, similar, that if you were to need the faith in religion, you should not need to have a specific building, life style or presence in society to practice that religion. That doing so just creates a difference among people creating more separation in a race that should be united. And violence should never be tolerated, growing up in a house hold where violence and abuse was common place, this is a rule that people in my life need to abide by. The oldest Christian churches: Roman Catholicism, Anglicanism, and Eastern Orthodoxy, have left their unique stamp on the history of religion in America. Called liturgical for their adherence to an elaborate, set form of ritualistic worship practices, most of those churches observe seven sacraments throughout their members’ lives, whereas later Christian denominations usually celebrated only two. Anglicanism, The Church of England (later the Episcopal Church in the U.S.) was first planted on American soil at the ill-fated Roanoke Colony in Virginia, when their first services were held on August 13, 1687. Since that landing, they grew and experienced numerous schisms. Their worship services are similar in some ways to those of Roman Catholicism, and their clergy orders are the same: bishops, priests, and deacons. The History of Religion in the United States Christa Hart Eastern Orthodoxy in America consists of more than a dozen church bodies whose national origin is reflected by their names, such as the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese, Romanian Orthodox Episcopate of America, and the Russian Orthodox Church outside Russia. Eastern Orthodox beliefs are based on holy tradition, or doctrines from early Christianity, and the Bible. Utopian communities were established in America as places where followers would not waiver could achieve a perfect religious, political and social system. The first community was established by a group of Dutch Mennonites in 1663 near what is now Lewes, Delaware. When the constitution was written it stated in the first amendment which is called the â€Å"Establishment Clause†, â€Å"Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.† Also, the relationship between religion and politics was established in the Article VI of the First Amendment that states, â€Å"No religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.† The definition of the separation of church and state found in the U.S. Constitution has caused more disagreement than any other in the nation’s history. The History of Religion in the United States Christa Hart This is a continuously tried amendment, to be challenged by people of religion who try to push their religion or a religion on anyone and everyone who would listen. Just like prayers in schools are constantly pushed by religious politicians. It should not be anyone’s choice on what to believe, it is for a person to decide solely on their own through age and experiences. Religion has continued to change over the decades as more and more immigrants of different religions come to the United States such as Muslim, Buddhists, Jewish, they have been joined by more modern religions like Scientology and Mysticism. More and more people have also chosen, like myself, to have no religion but to base their lives on scientific beliefs in the way the earth and its creatures were created. However religious people also have this similar belief just stating their God would have to have their hand in this somehow. This would contradict most Christian religions.

A Study On Media And Audiences Media Essay

A Study On Media And Audiences Media Essay With the coming of year 2010, the definition of â€Å"media† itself has changed the term of media now applies to many new communication technologies and many traditional media format has applied new technology to meet the needs of audiences. Thus technology and innovation have expanded media options for the public and audience, while the audience itself has changed in this new media age. The calling into question their role in democracy since many of these new media are essentially not â€Å"mass† any more (Sunstein, 2001). In light of this, â€Å"media use† should be re-conceptualized to include active and interactive, and not only passive, behavior on the part of the audience. The aim of this essay is to answer the question â€Å"In what ways do changing media formats and technologies present challenges to how audiences have been traditionally conceptualized?† author will answer the question by investigate the recent literatures and find out what resear chers recently consider the new audience and new media environment. The essay will go through the issues include the new media environment which focus on internet/online media; the notion of new audience whether the notion of audience has been changed, a comparison between historical audience and new audience will be conduct in the article; some audience theories will also be addressed in the essay such as reception theory and audience active theory, to take a look into these theory may be useful to analyse whether this theory still match the todays situation; challenge of new audience research will be the last part of the article, in this part, author will take an analysis based on the research work done by Livingstone (2004). It shows the challenges facing by audience and media research before and in the new age. By analyse those issues related with new media and new audience, there may be an answer to meet the question which be raised in the aim of the essay. Changing media environment We are in the midst of a digital revolution that is giving way to a â€Å"new information environment† (Bimber, 2003). We are facing the world with a moving target as once-new media become familiar and eve-never media emerge. The common feature of those new media is internet based. The internet made everything possible and changed peoples behavior after it emerged. Manuel Castells has argued that the flows dominate contemporary life in his book The Information Age, ‘our society is constructed around flows, flows of capital, flows of information, flows of technology, flows of organizational interaction, flows of images, sounds, and symbols (Castells, 2000: 442) the emerging of new media or the new format of media accelerate the liquidity of the world. For media user, you can whether read news on newspaper on the way to work or open the mobile phone and connect to the internet and read the news you are most interested in and check your email box anytime you want. You can also whether check the program schedule on newspaper and waiting for the program broadcast on television or just open your laptop and go to BBC website and watch the favorite drama anytime and any episode. When your tutor suggest s you to purchase a text book, you can whether go the high street book store or just go to Amazon.co.uk to buy a book in relevant cheap price. Those available choices indicate that the media environment has been changed, Producer like government, business, broadcast institution or press industry are taking advantage of internet and new technologies as it can be more globalised and fast disseminate to audiences in every corner of the world. Its different from traditional mass media but a more interactive media, most importantly, converging with new media to create a complex media-rich and liquid environment. Online media environment With no doubt, we are in the internet age now. Even in the media industry, almost every traditional mass media format has a new internet based version, online broadcast, online journal, online TV, online newspaper, online news, online games, online advertising etc. it shows both producer and audience are highly demand on the new technology based media because of the common features of those newly medium have such as convenient, easy to access and of course interactivity. â€Å"Web 2.0† is one of most important technology in newly internet space or cyberspace. Pew gave a definition of Web 2.0 the ability of people to use a range of information and communication technology as a platform to express themselves online and participate in the commons of cyberspace is often heralded as the next phase of the information society. (Pew, 2007: 2) Web 2.0 enhanced the interactivity of audience when they use online media and made them more active when they consumption news or other information. The example of famous media website which takes advantage of web 2.0 is www.youtube.com. People can not only watch video clip on it but also they can rating and leave comments on it. The hot video clips on home page usually depend on the rate of click. Moreover, people can upload their own video to the website and share the video with friends or people all over the world. At this time, audiences convert to producers. The chart below presents the result of a survey conducted in 2004 for investigate whether people prefer online or offline media to obtain information. From the chart we may find out the advantages of online media. Sources: Frank Magid Association, Online Publisher Association, â€Å"Multichannel Media Brands,† 2004. www.online-publisher.org Although the data are gathered in 5 years ago, it dose shows the advantages of online media, people can find what they want easy and quick on internet rather than search on a news paper or television. However people in 2004 feels that use offline media are more enjoyable and satisfying. It indicates that traditional media cannot be replaced by the online media. One thing need to be mentioned is people consider both online and offline media are the same when they consider which is more reliable and trustworthy. It is different in my country, in China; most people prefer trust online media rather than offline media controlled by government. News media Take news consumption as an example. People traditionally obtain news and information from newspaper and TV News broadcast channel. But nowadays, the internet version of newspaper becomes more and more adoptable for audience. JOEY KA-CHING CHAN and LOUIS LEUNG (2005:7) suggested ‘online news media distinguish themselves from traditional media in a number of ways: they are interactive; they offer convenience, which embodies easy access, searchable features and the ability to cross-reference through hyperlinking; and they provide multimedia features. Being interactive is a important feature for new media, audience are not only passive receive messages but engage with the news event and trying to explore what happening behind news by search related news on the internet. Matt Carlson (2007) mentioned the rise of online news search engines allows users to set their own parameters governing the section of news according to personal preference. Matt took Google News as an example in h is article and states that Google news always reports a story from different side of view which may force the authority to be more democracy. ‘I want this to be a force for a democracy. One of the things that makes us objective is we show all points of view. Even if you disagree with one, we give you both the majority and the minority point of view. The ones you dont agree with are education. Its nice to know what the other side is thinking. Youll see left-leaning ones as much as much as you see right-leaning ones. Frankly, the software doesnt know the difference between left and right, which is good. (quoted in Kramer, 2003: n.p.) it just like King (1998: 26) argued that interactivity not only describe the high level of control and interactive with content but also present the increasing interactive with news producer such as feedback availability. Audience nowadays becomes more and more powerful in this new media environment. Audiences in historical perspective Before discuss the challenge of conceptualize new audience, it is necessary to take a look into audiences in history. Marie Gilespie (2005: 14) gives us a brief introduction of this perspective. He suggests in most research about media and communication in twentieth century, the researcher usually focus on todays media and todays audiences with the popular medium like television. However, the idea of the audience can be traced back to ancient times. And Marie think it is important to learn the lesson from history when something can be similar or entirely new ‘In history, audience means a face-to-face audience in the presence of a communicator or entertainer, whether at a political meeting, the theatre or a concert (Marie 2005: 14) Denis McQuail (1997: 3) use classical Graeco-Roman audience definition to identify the audiences feature today: Planning and organization of viewing and listening, as well as of the performances themselves Events with a public and popular character Secular content of performance-for entertainment, education and vicarious emotional experiences Voluntary, individual acts of choice and attention Specialization of roles of authors, performers and spectators Physical locatedness of performances and spectator experience We can find that some of the features of Graeco-Roman audience are similar with todays audience in mass media environment. The only obviously difference is mass media eliminated the limitation of co-location. Even in todays internet media background, some of the features above still match the todays audience, that is, no matter media environment changes, there are some characteristics will not change. This not means there will be no challenge to conceptualized new audience in new environment based on new technology. The aim of discussing the historical media audience is to find the link between history and nowadays society. Although the environment and technology has changed a lot, there are still many common features maintained from ancient time to mass media age and from mass media age to new media age. Changing audiences ‘From a coach potato to cybernauts is the title of Eugenia Siapera(2004)s article. The author analyse the change of television audiences to online audience. The article focuses on the broadcasters website such as BBC Channel to investigate the relationship of audience online and offline (TV broadcast). It is the fact that people gradually adopt into the new media environment. And it begins to change the notion of audience. Siapera (2004: 15) suggested the notion of audience has been expanded by the inter-media. The audience has been hitherto most interactive in the digital media age. (Rob cover 2006: 16) ‘Coach potato usually describe people who always sitting behind television and watch TV program. This image usually presents more passive way of people receive message from producer. However audience becomes more and more active. The new technology offers different platform for audience to interact with other audiences or the producer. Take fandom as example, Audiences no wadays can easily form or find a fan club on website such as blogging and forum, more over the broadcasts website usually design and develop the certain function to allow audience track their favorite star or program (Siapera 2004: 09) For example, ‘EastEnders (the BBCs soap opera and one of the most developed programme sites: http://www.bbc.co.uk/eastenders/) has regular updates on what is happening in the soap, a chat room, newsletter, message board, and voting on what should happen to characters/storylines. The producer may be influenced by the audience opinions to adjust the storyline or what happened next to gain more audiences support. It is what I mentioned before that audience can interact and influence the producer in the new media age. The channel established by producer on internet made audiences more easily to send their feedback to the producer. The reason why producer take audiences opinions serious is because in todays world, the audience can be seen as consumer , ‘I suggested, is adopted by those who conceptualize the audience as a market (Livingstone 1998a) and the profitability of program is only standard to justify whether it should be continue or stop. Some American drama can continue make and broadcast for many seasons such as ‘Friends but some are not. ‘The ultimate power of internet fandom is in controlling the actual life and death of a series. For fans of a show, that power is usually in the hands of a network executive or, for a syndicated series, a production company. (Victor Costello and Barbara Moore 2007: 16) It depends on whether there are many audiences like it or not. It again, indicates that audience being more and more powerful which can influence both producer and context. Reception under new media environment The phenomena stressed above may challenge the traditional reception theory in mass media age. Reception theory points out that ‘Audience interpretations or decoding have been found to diverge depending on viewers socio-economic position, gender, ethnicity, and so forth, while the possibilities for critical or oppositional reading are anticipated, enabled or restricted by the degree of closure encoded into the text or genre.'(Marie Gillespie 2005: 40) Audience reception research towards television study revealed parallel connections between the conventions of television and viewers decoding strategies like the soap opera viewer builds up an understanding of the characters, puzzles over the secrets, eagerly anticipates the cliff-hanger, guesses the outcome of a subplot, recalls when appropriate the significant events from past episodes, etc., all in accordance with the conventions of the genre (Livingstone, 1998). It just like Cultural theorist Stuart Hall suggested in his theor y of encoding and decoding. He argued that audiences not just passive accept text but people can create their own mean of the text and the communication process should not be linear model such sender-message-receiver model rose by Shannon. The following chart is Halls Encoding and Decoding model, in the model, hall stressed the meaning of a text is not inherent within the text itself, but is created within the relationship between the text and the reader. We may find that even the halls model neglected the relationship between sender and receiver. As I mentioned before, the audience nowadays can influence the producer. So I suggest that todays communication process is a loop which every element in the process can be influenced by other elements. And nowadays, with the internet developed, the relationship between the text and the reader may convert to between the text and reader and other readers. Take times online as example, reader may write comments towards specific news and share the comment with other reader. The interactions within those readers which may influence the result by interpret the meaning of text. The two step flow theory also has been challenged by new media age as the process of decentralized the authority. The internet enhanced the availability of information flow. If people may express their opinion on the public space on the internet, Twitter can be a good example; audiences are more and more interested in tracking what other peoples point of views. At the same time the power of opinion leader becomes more and more declined. It is one of the reason why Twitter and youtube.com being successful. Audience Selectivity and Involvement in the New Media Environment With no doubt, the newer media environment enables audience to be more active, it not only means that audiences have muti-channels on the new cable television but also suggests that audiences nowadays have a wide range of medium choice. Perse (1990: 3) argues there are two dimensions of audience activity. The first one is a qualitative component and describes type of activity. It includes selectivity, evolvement, and utility. Audiences can easily target what they want to receive from the new media such as internet. Take online news as example, www.bbc.co.uk allows audience to customize their own home page. People can choose the type of news or information they may interest in and put them together on the home page of BBC website like the picture below: It has been changed a lot from traditional ‘one to many model to ‘one to one model which means highly customized and personalized design based on the cookie technology and web 2.0. The new media technology can help you to filter what you may not like and try to enhanced personal relevance with their audiences. And audiences become more selective and evolve with the context they received. Livingstone (2004: 6) suggested that the new media environment expended the range of issue and arguments in ‘active audience theory. Audiences or the media user become more active which means they are more selective, self-directed. Can new media environment blurry the boundary of being a producer and receiver. Changing relationship between audiences and producers A growing number of ordinary citizens are actively producing media content, challenging these traditional notions. We have seen an unprecedented level of citizen participation in media content-making, with the prevalence and use of blogs, chat rooms, forums, and citizen journalism (Bowman Willis, 2005). The â€Å"former audience,† a term coined by Dan Gillmor (2006), is now actively participating in content generation for a greater variety of media on a scale we have never seen before. Those large numbers of people are able to be more involved in the news and content making process itself. Typical media use is more active and interactive than it has been in the days when a handful of companies controlled content and dissemination. Consequently, the once distinct roles of â€Å"the elite producers of content and the mass consumers of content† are shifting, and the â€Å"distinction between producers and consumers of content† is blurring (Howard, 2004, p.11). A Pew study found 57% of teens who use the Internet create content online (Pew, 2005). People use digital media to share their favorite news and information with others, by emailing or posting on other sites. Until May of 2008, youtube.com and facebook.com ranked 3rd and 4th most visited website on internet. This information indicates audience keen on produce their own video or context on internet and express themselves which also means there has been a shift in power from large media institution to ordinary people. Challenging of audience study in new media age Livingstone (2004: pointed out three main challenges which audience research facing for recent age. Those challenges include the gap between what people say and what people do in real life and the unclearly relationship between text and reader, for example the reception theory and the debate on the process of encoding and decoding and also the question of media effects which may influence audiences. Furthermore, the demographic factor should be considered in audience research just like other social science diversified audience from different demographic background may interpret the same message differently. Those challenges have been existed in mass media age. The question is dose the challenge will be modified in new media or their will be some new challenge towards internet/online media age? Livingstone (2004) gives us the answer in his article called the ‘challenge of changing audience he suggests that all the old challenges towards mass media research still exist, and in s ome extent the challenges has been magnified in todays internet media background. It is more and more difficult to find out what online audience practices in their private space such as their bedroom. What they said on online chatting room may totally different with their own behavior in real life. This type of real practices or experiences is hard to record compare with to investigate the audience in a public space such as Movie Theater. Even to research family television experiences in audiences living room is more achievable than to investigate the online audience as Livingstone argues that online audience and online experience is more personal and private. It leads to the difficulties when conduct observation and interview research. Despite the issue of privacy, the cookie may be a good tool to track online audiences behavior when they surfing on the internet. It may track what part or type of website are most frequently being click by online user, this technology now being widely used in website design, such as www.amazon.com, the most famous online book ret ailer, customized the home page when people login to the website. There will be some book on the suggestion list which based on you pervious practice like keyword scan or the book you being purchase. The second challenge raised by Livingstone is about the relationship between text and reader. He suggested when this challenge met the online media environment, it brings both practical and theoretical problem. Not like data collected from traditional mass media, new media researcher need to process uncountable data gathered from internet to analyse the relationship between the text and the audiences. In addition, large portion of data are temporary and mean less. More over the notion of text itself has been modified in some extent in online environment. For most of online user (include online media researcher), they have no idea with the hypertext. It is the source of the online content, producer or website designer develop the online world by this hypertext rather than the text we familiar with in real life. Again, the blurring of producer and audience also can be seen as a challenge to research in to the relationship between the text and receiver as the notion of receiver itself has been changed. The last point draw by Livingstone is about moral panic related with online media such as the question about whether internet will result harm to young people or children. This challenge has been inherited from television age. Researchers tried to identify the harm towards young audience caused by the violent movie, TV program, comics or other threatens factors. ‘At present, these moral panic centre on the internet, with anxiety expressed about violent, stereotyped, commercially exploitative or pornographic content and about the reinforcement of individualistic, lazy, prejudice, uncritical or aggressive actions. (Gillespie 2005: 12-13) Compare with traditional media, internet is more accessible for any resource on the virtual world. It is the reason why some researchers prefer to ban the online media rather than to take an in-depth research towards it. Take online game in China as an example. The famous MMORPG World of Warcraft is quite popular within Chinese player. 5 million accounts have been created in this online game in Chinese mainland. Many young people spent much time on playing online game in the virtual world. This phenomena draws socialist attention, they worries about those young people may be affected by the violence game like World of Warcraft, however most of them just want ban this online game in China without doing any research on other related area to investigate why young people addicted to this game. Some so called ‘psychologist even use electric shock to ‘help those young online game addicts. Doubtless, challenges faced by new media research can be trace back to history, however some new problems gradually out and beginning to be addressed (Hine 2000) Conclusions We are now in the liquid world. The new information environment, enabled by digital technology (internet), has changed the relationship between audience and media. Although the new audience still maintain some features from traditional audience, some new features of audience has been addressed by new media researcher. Audiences are becoming less passive and more in control of the use of media platform. They can be more selective and evolved with new media they can decide when, where and what type of the information they need to engages with. Audience now my decoding context better while they share their comments with other audience, also if they want, audience can convert to producer and create their own content on cyberspace. The classical audience theory need to be modified to suit the new environment such as the encoding and decoding process, as the audience becomes more powerful than ever before, they can influence the producer and messages producer created that is the communica tion process in new media age should pay more attention the interactive between producer and audiences. In addition, the two-step flow model has been challenged in online environment as audience nowadays are less influenced by opinion leader but peer review on internet offered by other audience. In the new media environment, the challenges, both old and new problems, which media researcher facing still exist. It is difficult for researcher to record online audiences practice and their experiences since the privacy of online behavior. In addition the new model of text hypertext becomes a challenge for explore the relationship between text and receive in new media environment. Moreover some researchers consider the online media can harm for young people and been a threat to society. It leads them to be more reluctant to do more complex research into this area. The analysis of the issue in this article suggests that even if most features of audience and media which addressed in past r esearch still suit todays situation, the changes in media technology and format do cause the challenges about how we conceptualize audiences. Reference Marie Gillespie (2004) Media Audiences, Open University Press, Chapter 1 pp40 Livingstone, S. (2003) ‘The Changing Nature of Audiences: From the Mass Audience to the Interactive Media User, pp. 337-59 The Blackwell Companion to Media Research. Oxford: Blackwell. Livingstone, S. (1998) Making Sense of Television: The Psychology of Audience Interpretation, 2nd edn. London: Routledge Hine, C. (2000) Virtual Ethnography. London: Sage. Hall,S.(1980) ‘Encoding/Decoding in Hall, S., Hobson, D., Lowe, A. and Willis, P. Culture, Media, Language, London, Hutchinson Bimber, B. (2000). The study of information technology and civic engagement. Political Communication. 17:329-333 Livingstone S. (2004). The Challenge of Changing Audiences: Or, What is the Audience Researcher to Do in the Age of the Internet? European Journal of Communication, Mar 2004; 19: 75 86. Livingstone, S, (1998a) ‘Audience Research at the Crossroads, European Journal of Cultural Studies 1(2): 193-217. Sonia Livingstone (2006) The Influence of Personal Influence on the Study of Audiences. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 2006; 608; 233 ROB COVER (2006) Audience inter/active: Interactive media, narrative control and reconceiving audience history.New Media Society 2006; 8; 139 Joey Ka-Ching Chan, Louis Leung (2005). Lifestyles, reliance on traditional news media and online news adoption. New Media Society, Vol. 7, No. 3, 357-382. Frank Magid Association (2004). Online Publisher Association, â€Å"Multichannel Media Brands,† www.online-publisher.org Sunstein, C. (2001). Republic.com. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. Pew Internet American Life Project (2007, May 7). A Typology of Information and Communication Technology Users Bowman, S. C. Willis (2005). The future is here, but do news media companies see it? Nieman Reports, 59(4):5-9 Howard, P.N. (2004). Deep democracy, thin citizenship: The impact of digital media in political campaign strategy. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences, 597:1-17. Matt Carlson (2007). BLOGS AND JOURNALISTIC AUTHORITY: The role of blogs in US Election. Journalism Studies, Volume 8, Issue 2 April 2007, pages 264 279 Kramer, S. (2003) ‘Google News Creator Watches Portal Quiet Critics With â€Å"Best News† Webby, Online Journalism Review 25 September, King, E. (1998) ‘Redefining Relationships: Interactivity Between News Producers and Consumers, Convergence 4(4): 26-32. Victor Costello and Barbara Moore (2007) Cultural Outlaws: An Examination of Audience Activity and Online Television Fandom. Television New Media 2007; 8; 124 ELIZABETH M. PERSE. (1990). Audience Selectivity and Involvement in the Newer Media Environment. Communication Research 1990; 17; 675 Eugenia Siapera. (2004). From couch potatoes to cybernauts? The expanding notion of the audience on TV channels websites. New Media Society 2004; 6; 155 Fernando Bermejo (2009) Audience manufacture in historical erspective: from broadcasting to Google.New Media Society 2009; 11; 133 Alexa Traffic Rank for YouTube (three month average). Alexa Internet. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/youtube.com. Retrieved 2009-08-26. Accessed @ 15th Dec 2009 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/guest_contributors/article6900001.ece#comment-have-your-say Accessed @ 1st Nov 2009 http://media-ucn.co.uk/Lecture%20notes/EncodingDecoding%20Lecture.htm Accessed @ 6th Jan 2010

Good And A Bad Oil And Petrol Service Economics Essay

Good And A Bad Oil And Petrol Service Economics Essay With reference to the case study, distinguish clearly between a good and a bad service. Answer A good service is customer oriented. In the case study companies such as Tesco, that offer blended petrol offer a good service. Blended petrol has a uniform price, is a renewable energy source, and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. On the other hand, companies offering petrol offer a bad service since the prices of fuel vary between regions and increases pollution. Question 2. With reference to the production of either oil or bio-ethanol, explain the concepts of scarcity and opportunity cost. Answer The production of bio-ethanol requires resources such as corn, wheat, and maize. However, these resources are scarce, i.e. there are not enough of the resources to feed the US population and to produce bio-ethanol. Thus, the production or the non-production of bio-ethanol raises the issue of opportunity cost. The opportunity cost of production is the lack of corn, maize, and wheat to feed the population. The opportunity cost of non-production includes the lack of a clean atmosphere due to the consumption of oil, which is a pollutant. Question 3. Explain why the price of petrol is generally higher in rural areas, such as North West Scotland, than in urban areas. Answer There is a higher demand for petrol in rural areas compared to the urban areas. The rural area people travel longer by car and are more reliant on the car compared to the urban populations. Additionally, the rural population is not dependent on the public means of transport as is the case in the urban areas. These factors increase the demand for petrol and thus its prices. An increase in demand drives up prices. Question 4. Explain why the demand for petrol is price inelastic, whilst the cross-elasticity of demand for a brand of petrol is high. Answer Despite the price of petrol, people will use their cars. Thus, even doubling the price of petrol does not significantly affect the demand for petrol (Pindyck and Rubinfeld, 2008). This makes the demand for petrol price inelastic. Additionally, reducing the consumption of petrol requires significant changes such as driving less, purchasing a more fuel-efficient car, and using the public means of transport. However, the cross-elasticity of demand for a brand of petrol is high since the availability of petrol brands that are priced lower than petrol results to a shift in demand from petrol to the cheaper substitute. For instance, a reduction in the price of diesel would lead to a shift to diesel cars. Question 5. a] Draw a fully labeled diagram to show the impact on the demand for petrol of an increase in the price of diesel fuel. b] Clearly explain the impact on the demand for petrol of an increase in the price of diesel fuel. Answer The increase in price of diesel from P1 to P2 will result to an increase in the quantity demanded of petrol from Q1 to Q2. The increase in the price leads to a rise in the quantity demanded of the substitute good. Petrol and diesel are close substitutes and an increase in the price of diesel will lead to an increase in the quantity demanded of petrol. The price and quantity demanded of substitute goods have a direct relationship. Question 6 a] Draw a fully labeled diagram to show the impact on the demand for diesel powered cars of an increase in the price of diesel fuel. b] Clearly explain the impact on the demand for diesel powered cars of an increase in the price of diesel fuel. Answer Diesel and diesel powered cars are complimentary goods. For complimentary products, if the price of one commodity is increased, it results to the consumers demanding less of the complimentary good. Thus, an increase in the price of diesel fuel from P1 to P2 will result in a decline in the demand for diesel-powered cars from Q1 to Q2. The price and quantity demanded of complimentary goods are inversely correlated. Question 7 a] Do you consider petrol to be a normal good or an inferior good? Answer Normal good b] Explain your answer to question 7a]. Answer The quantity demanded for normal goods increase with an increase in income (Mankiw, 2008). The quantity demanded for petrol is likely to increase once income increases and vise versa. An increase in income will lead to more people purchasing automobiles. This will lead to a higher demand for petrol. The income elasticity of demand for petrol is positive. Otherwise, if the quantity demanded for petrol declines with an increase in income, petrol would be an inferior good. Question 8 a] Explain how an oil company might increase the supply of oil in the short-run. Answer The supply of oil is inelastic in the short-run because of the significant costs of production. Once an oil field has been constructed, the costs of running the field remain significantly the same irrespective of the capacity of operation. However, if the prices of oil increase in the short-run, the oil companies may increase the supply of oil since the marginal costs of production become insignificant. b] Explain the impact on short-run costs of increasing supply in the short-run. Answer An increase in the supply of oil in the short-run leads to an increase in the marginal costs of production. The quantity of oil supplied in the short-run depends on the ability of the price increase to cover the marginal costs. Question 9 Explain the profit maximizing output of a firm in the oil supply industry. The firm maximizes its profit at the point where MC=MR. This implies that the firm will continue to increase its production of oil until the point where no more profits can be generated (Mankiw, 2008). Question 10 a] Which market structure do you believe best describes petrol retailing in the UK. Answer Non-collusive oligopoly b] Explain your answer to question 10a]. Answer A small number of oil retailers characterize the market. The market is a high-volume, low profit margin implying that a variation in price by one firm affects the profitability of the other firms. c] Identify one strategy that a petrol-retailing firm might choose when competing with other petrol retailing firms. Answer A reduction in prices d] Explain the advantages and disadvantages of that strategy. A small discount on the price that is offered by the other firms in the oligopolistic market will lead to an increase in the sales of the firm offering the discount. The disadvantage of the strategy is that the other firms in the market are likely to follow suit and reduce their prices. This leads to Bertrand-Nash equilibrium where the long-run outcome is that the entire market will suffer a reduction in prices (Krugman and Wells, 2004). The firms can also compete on quantities. If a firm increases its quota of production, it will able to capture a larger market than the competing firms. However, it will lead to Cournot-Nash equilibrium when other firms adopt the same strategy (Krugman and Wells, 2004). An increase in prices reduces the prices in the market and firms suffer a reduction of prices. The use of petrol as a fuel for cars generates market failure in the form of externalities. Question 11a] Explain why ignoring the externalities can result in the over-consumption of petrol. Answer The consumption of petrol produces externalities such as pollution and traffic congestion. If these externalities are not included in the prices of petrol, the price of petrol will not reflect the total cost of production. Thus, in a competitive market, the existence of un-priced externalities in the market will result in under pricing of oil and its subsequent overconsumption. b] Explain how ONE policy instrument can reduce this market failure. Market-based instruments are among the policy measures used for reducing market failures. The strategy employs pricing and other economic variables to offer incentives for the reduction of negative externalities. The method seeks to eliminate market failure caused by negative externalities by incorporating external costs of consumption and production. This is done through various means such as taxation, charges on products, establishing property rights, and establishing alternative markets for the consumption of environmental services.

History of Turkish Occupation of Northern Kurdistan Essay -- Turkey Ku

History of Turkish Occupation of Northern Kurdistan Since 1984, and especially the last few months, the domestic problems of a major N.A.T.O, Middle Eastern, and American ally state have come to the forefront of the international news scene. That state is the Republic of Turkey and it's primary troubles stem from the past seven decades of acrimonious policies directed at the indigenous ethnic Kurds. The main problem, now, is the Kurdish popular insurgency on it's hands, in Turkish occupied Northern Kurdistan. The Kurdish question has long been covered up and denied by the state of Turkey, but recent events has forced Turkey to concede that it has a serious Kurdish insurgency on its hands. Turkey's inability to deal with this situation is the result of the past seventy years of cultural, political, and human rights abuses directed against the Kurdish population. In fact, this "separatism" is so out of hand that the Turkish government has incessantly appealed to it's allies and advisories alike to help counter the escalating Kurdish asperation to succeed from the Turkish republic. Turkey's sputtering and deteriorating economy is directly related to the long Kurdish struggle for independence. Turkey has spent over eight billion dollars or twenty percent of her GDP to combat the ever deteriorating predicament in northern Kurdistan, and should spend more in the future(Laber). Because of the violence, the once prosperous tourist business of Turkey, has now lost about $1.5 billion dollars annually since 1990. Many people now talk openly of another possible military coup, there were three major military coups during the last thirty years (Alister) These circumstances in the state of Turkey have also hurt her chances of ever joining the ever wealthy European Union and battering its ailing economic situation. The depth of Turkey's domestic and ethnic dilemma is one of the many that have arisen after the end of the cold war, yet the cold war is a simple answer to a much more complex one. The factors that have arisen to contribute to this civil war were created far before Capitalism versus Communism, East versus West, or U.S versus the Soviet Union. In order to really comprehend the holistic situation in Turkey one must first be familiar with the complete history of the Turks and Kurds. The Kurds of Turkey constitutes, by far, t... ...even years (Marcus), the army has massacred more then 1,500,000 in the span of sixty years , more the 1,500 villages destroyed, every form of Kurdish identity denied, and their politicians and journalists killed by secret police. After all it is the US constitution that has written: " When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.....whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter it, or to abolish it, and to institute a new government.." It is the very example the United States has set, that the Kurdish people wants to declare their independence. For, the only thing different between the Kurdish revolution and the U.S one, is only two hundred and nine years. All oppressions are bad, all occupations are wrong, every nation has the right to decide their own fate. History of Turkish Occupation of Northern Kurdistan Essay -- Turkey Ku History of Turkish Occupation of Northern Kurdistan Since 1984, and especially the last few months, the domestic problems of a major N.A.T.O, Middle Eastern, and American ally state have come to the forefront of the international news scene. That state is the Republic of Turkey and it's primary troubles stem from the past seven decades of acrimonious policies directed at the indigenous ethnic Kurds. The main problem, now, is the Kurdish popular insurgency on it's hands, in Turkish occupied Northern Kurdistan. The Kurdish question has long been covered up and denied by the state of Turkey, but recent events has forced Turkey to concede that it has a serious Kurdish insurgency on its hands. Turkey's inability to deal with this situation is the result of the past seventy years of cultural, political, and human rights abuses directed against the Kurdish population. In fact, this "separatism" is so out of hand that the Turkish government has incessantly appealed to it's allies and advisories alike to help counter the escalating Kurdish asperation to succeed from the Turkish republic. Turkey's sputtering and deteriorating economy is directly related to the long Kurdish struggle for independence. Turkey has spent over eight billion dollars or twenty percent of her GDP to combat the ever deteriorating predicament in northern Kurdistan, and should spend more in the future(Laber). Because of the violence, the once prosperous tourist business of Turkey, has now lost about $1.5 billion dollars annually since 1990. Many people now talk openly of another possible military coup, there were three major military coups during the last thirty years (Alister) These circumstances in the state of Turkey have also hurt her chances of ever joining the ever wealthy European Union and battering its ailing economic situation. The depth of Turkey's domestic and ethnic dilemma is one of the many that have arisen after the end of the cold war, yet the cold war is a simple answer to a much more complex one. The factors that have arisen to contribute to this civil war were created far before Capitalism versus Communism, East versus West, or U.S versus the Soviet Union. In order to really comprehend the holistic situation in Turkey one must first be familiar with the complete history of the Turks and Kurds. The Kurds of Turkey constitutes, by far, t... ...even years (Marcus), the army has massacred more then 1,500,000 in the span of sixty years , more the 1,500 villages destroyed, every form of Kurdish identity denied, and their politicians and journalists killed by secret police. After all it is the US constitution that has written: " When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.....whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter it, or to abolish it, and to institute a new government.." It is the very example the United States has set, that the Kurdish people wants to declare their independence. For, the only thing different between the Kurdish revolution and the U.S one, is only two hundred and nine years. All oppressions are bad, all occupations are wrong, every nation has the right to decide their own fate.