Modern Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Modern Economics - Essay Example The basic assumptions of both of these models is that even if a country can produce goods at a cheaper cost than another country, the most effective means of production will be to concentrate on the goods they produce to the greatest advantage. The understanding is that by exporting these goods and importing goods that are the key product of other countries the nation will gain its greatest productive wealth. One of the most recent remedies of this situation is New Trade Theory. This theoretical perspective shifts the focus from the comparative advantage paradigm to one more internally focused. While comparative advantage largely neglected nascent industries in favour of established industries of greatest advantage, new trade theory considers the importance of establishing networks or clusters among industries. Through this process the country is encouraged to impose tariffs as a means of allowing emerging clusters of industries to grow, as the understanding is that these clusters wi ll ultimately lead to a significant competitive advantage. The notion of free trade has long been a notion that has sounded good among individuals, but when considered both in practice and theory has a number of prominent drawbacks. Indeed, there are a number of arguments justifying exceptions to free trade. As noted above the establishment of nascent industries oftentimes necessitates tariffs be implemented. Another reason against free trade is the general support of industry in the country, as tariffs protect against foreign competition.

Affirmative action- Trials within human resource management Term Paper

Affirmative action- Trials within human resource management - Term Paper Example The term â€Å"affirmative action† was first mentioned in the United States when President John F. Kennedy signed the Executive Order 10925 on March 6, 1961; this was then used to refer to initiatives that aimed to attain equality and prevent discrimination By 1965, the Executive Order 11246 was implemented, requiring all national contractors to make use of affirmative action when hiring employees, regardless of national origin, culture, and religion; in 1968, gender was then included in the anti-discrimination list. Aside from the US, other countries have taken similar approaches to promote equality in the society, such as Canada’s employment equity or the United Kingdom’s positive discrimination. Affirmative action is known to be a set of policies that consider gender, race, culture, religion, and national origin for an underprivileged or underrepresented population to obtain equal rights and benefits, thereby contradicting the outcomes of discrimination that h ave been passed down from every generation . Such policies emphasize a wide range of aspects, from health programs and social services to education and employment opportunities. Because affirmative action aims to encourage equal opportunities, it is typically applied in government actions and educational settings to make sure that all groups in the society are involved in such programs. Affirmative action can be exemplified through different forms, such as rigid quotas or encouragement of members of minority groups to apply for employment. Similarly, each intends to increase the number of underrepresented groups in the workplace, educational settings, or in any societal context. Programs that demonstrate affirmative action vary in terms of the extent to which they consider race as an important factor in making decisions and obtaining results. In 2001, representatives from the Americas gathered together to establish policies and implement strategies to combat racial discrimination. I n order to adopt affirmative and positive actions, paramount importance was attached to the creation of conditions for every individual to become involved both in decision making and realizing civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights with regards to all aspects of life on a foundation of non-discrimination (Global Rights, 2005). Such ideas acquired considerable support in the World Conference against Racism with which the Declaration and Programme of Action points out affirmative action as fundamental factor for the global struggle against discrimination. Due to the fact that international law promotes affirmative action, national and international treaties along with regional and global institutions have attempted to integrate countless norms that support equality and non-discrimination; more states are also being required to take on active roles in guaranteeing such rights. While a number of norms state that affirmative action is permissible, this form of positive a ction can be made mandatory by others. While the form and outline of such norms may slightly vary, nonetheless, international law requires that all states be involved in promoting affirmative action. Guidelines for Affirmative Action Plans and Programs Affirmative action should be supported in all contexts, such as in educational and workplace settings; therefore, educational institutions and organizations have proposed guidelines to promote equality among all individuals (Kravitz, Bludau, and Klineberg, 2008). For instance, American universities, in their intentions of seeking employees, have established guidelines for their affirmative action programs, directed towards women, minority groups, people with disabilities, and veterans, to which academic and staff members should comply. For instance, university policies that affect staff members should be reviewed to ensure the provision of equitable treatment for every employee, compliance with the legal requirements for avoidance of discrimination and equal employment opportunity, as well

Deaf as an Aspect of Serious Illness Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Deaf as an Aspect of Serious Illness - Essay Example Here illness will be referring to physical illness that eventually leads to failure of body functioning system that results to death. Death due to accident can be as a result of injuries that have been inflicted on the body and that eventually makes the body to succumb to death. But it is the aspect of illness that we are interested in. how can we define or explain death as an aspect of serious illness Looking at death as an aspect of serious illness, we would definitely be looking at two components of this aspect which are fear and anger. With death there come so many things. But the irony is that, it is the bereaved that bear the blunt of it. After all death can be said to be a form of deep sleep, a slumber in which we don't come back to this world again. No one knows if there are dreams in the sleep or there no dreams. But one thing is evident that the one who dies does not feel any effect of the death. Then how does fear and anger manifest in death As we have said it is bereaved who bears it all. The loss of a loved one becomes the point of anger on the issue. Many of us fail to comprehend why the dead had to leave us when we needed them most. The paradox of it all is that we are angered by forces beyond our control. The loss of a loved one can be painful and stressing which causes a lot of pain and anger to us. This anger may lead to many other effects on our body which may affect us and cause some serious illnesses physically. It has been evidenced that anger and stress resulting from loss of loved one has in many instances led to subsequent death of a bereaved person. Many people have been witnessed to have collapsed and died instantly on receiving the news of loss of loved ones. But it is the lasting illness that can express the whole idea of serious illness arising from death. (Gurtman, 1990) The bereaved will spend long hours contemplating about the loss. This will come along with anger and frustrations. It takes time for them to recover from the loss. The anger and frustrations affects their daily performance and some may fail to recover at all. Most people may turn to be permanently disabled for the time they take to recover. This turns out to be a serious issue that may turn to an illness. Although we clearly understand that we are not vesting our anger on any person, we direct to the act of death. We understand that we cannot fight death. It is superior to us. The reason that we cannot fight death despite the anger that we may be having brings about an aspect of fear of death. Death brings fear with it. Imagine the loss of somebody who has been very close to you. This is somebody who you have lived with and interacted with for along time. Lets us take an example of a spouse. The loss of one spouse may bring so much fear to the other such that this person looks like he or she has suffered a serious illness for along time. Once we learn about the death of a very close person, we tend to think that this may follow the same pattern that has dictated our life. Death of one couple in a marriage has been witnessed to bring a lot of fear to the other. Some even finds it difficult to live under the same roof that they had been sharing. Many a time it comes out that we tend to look at death as something that we cannot escape once it has befallen on our loved ones. No wonder death has been attributed to evil spirits for along time. Along the

Personal assessment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Personal assessment - Essay Example Though he sometimes fails to identify a problem, he has always more than 1 solution for it. He goes step by step when faced with a problem. When faced with a complex or a difficult problem that does not have an easy solution When trying to foster more creativity and innovation among those with whom he works, he is very supportive and appreciates ideas coming out of people. He knows how to motivate people to get the best out of them. Therefore I agree with his abilities in this respect. In a situation where it is important to obtain more power , my colleague keeps himself involved in events and activities. He tries to improve himself and tries to think out of the box in order in order to generate creative ideas. He refuses to come under anyone’s influence and does not agree to other people’s terms. When someone needs to be motivated, he does not believe in rewarding people, though he is always there to help them out. He takes charge of the situation when productivity is insufficient. He does compliment those who deserve it. When he sees someone doing something that needs correcting, he is not one of those who sit back after giving their views. He is always encouraging people to challenge his perspective and ask him questions. I slightly disagree with the fact that he cannot take the criticism into account in situations when someone complains about something he has done. In fact, he asks the other person to adjust his behavior. With respect to situation in which he desires to make my team perform well, regardless of whether he is a leader or member, I disagree slightly with his competence in doing so. He does not encourage his team enough to make some serious innovation and achieve the best possible results. With regard to his ability to lead change, I disagree with his abilities, because when he is leading change he does not keep any track of things that go wrong. It would be a lot better if he was more

Surpassing the Passive Hero in Waverly by Sir Walter Scott Essay

Surpassing the Passive Hero in Waverly by Sir Walter Scott - Essay Example Essentially Welsh seems to attempt to debunk the idea that Scott was even a good novelist, let alone a great romantic novelist, within his books. Welsh admits that Waverly is the prototype for the modern novel, but then goes on to argue the various weaknesses within Scott's technique. He suggests that Scott is not a realist, as he seems incapable of drawing a realistic portrayal of life. Neither is he capable of any type of analysis according to Welsh; he argues succinctly that "Scott never criticizes his own society" (Welsh, 1963). Also, Scott is not a very good romantic writer either as he has no full knowledge of the human heart and his characters are "notoriously unemotional" (Welsh, 1963). By way of proving this, Welsh suggests that Waverly's only emotional moment in his very brief attachment to Flora. . . . . the hero is obviously much more at home as a peacemaker than as a warrior, and it is amusing to watch Waverly racing ahead over the battlefield in order to rescue Hanoverian officers, and then being commended for his distinguished service by the chevalier. According to Welsh, the hero of Waverly is irredeemably passive and thus incapable of realistically portraying action and an active role within society. The hoer is caught within an intensely moralistic society which essentially stifles him. A true hero, according to Welsh, at least within the modern period, is a man for whom "masculinity meant self-control under the most trying circumstances" (Welsh, 1963). These characteristics he sees more within the insular, inward-looking Talbot rather than in the antics of Fergus rushing around Scotland performing traditionally "heroic" deeds. Part of this passivity, according to Welsh, stems from the fact that Scott's novels often revolve around the relationship between the individual and the state. In Waverly the hero adopts a positively Twentieth Century stance as he paradoxically invites and then resists his own arrest. He is contradictory if incredibly passive, at least in a traditionally "heroic" sense. But does this need to be an "either/or" question or can it be "both/and" Can the hero of Waverly exhibit passivity at one point and action at another and still be believable It would seem that the answer to this is a categorical "yes". Real human beings do not act according to a formulaic design for their character. He is not either a "passive character" or a "hero". He can be passive and active according to the moment. A simple glance at what actually occurs in Waverly belies the simple dichotomies that Welsh sets up in his attempted criticism of the novel. The opening of the novel starts with Waverly taking very real action, both in terms of his physical movements and in his decision making. Waverly is brought up in the family home of his Uncle, near London, but is soon given a commission in the Hanoverian army and is posted to Dundee, in Scotland. If he were purely passive he would not have taken up this commission in the first place. As soon as he arrives in Dundee, Waverly decides to take leave in order to meet the Jacobite friend of his Uncle, Baron

Credit card debt in the Uk today Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Credit card debt in the Uk today - Essay Example The building society branch network was expanded at high pace in the 1980's in the United Kingdom. But facing the recessions in the 1990's the trend declined. Most of the societies rationalized their network in order to cut the cost. The new trend was to give importance to the quality rather than quantity. This in turn gave rise to the trend of targeting high profit customers in order to gain high profits by cross- selling products to these customers. (Birkin & Clarke, 1998) The main customers of the building societies are the common men. Most of the products of building societies as discussed above are designed while keeping in view the needs of household customers. These products are attractive for them because the way to use them is simple. Like all the commercial banks the building societies also offer the Credit card services which have easy terms and conditions and provide the customer with the facility of loan. These credit cards are also different according to the packages they provide such as The strength of U.K financial system largely depends upon the external shocks the banks have to suffer. In the year 2005 the U.K banks financial strength ratings were comparatively high as compare to rest of other international banking institutions. The composition of the earnings of the banks kept reshaping. The income indicated a declining trend of retail borrowing, although offset by revenues from corporate banking than that from retail lending. Some banks in wholesale markets also gained dealing profits. It is future forecast, that the banks will earn nominal profits in coming year. Due to the unsecured lending exposure some of the banks would have slower income growth. The competition in the banking industry and the declining trend of retail rending can result in a slow income growth capitalisation. The capital ratios in major UK banks remained unchanged i.e. above regulatory minimum balance required. Passing the stress tests the banks had sufficient profits and reserves capital despite facing various economic and external, shocks. The IMF (FSAP) report stated that despite all the worst case scenario combined together the total cost for the banking sector is just 0.35 % total assets. (Bumn et al, 2005) The level of bad debts in UK is triggering at high speed as debt provision has been made easier to consumers in shape of credit cards and other financial instruments. The issue has become an important concern for the economists in the banking industry of UK. In the UK, bad debts are on average about 3 per cent in the credit card market, compared with the present level in the US of about 5 per cent. If the UK follows the US trend, credit standards may decline as competition increases. These societies also provide consultation services to the customers since most of them are busy with their business or family lives to dedicate sufficient time to plan for their financial futures. Without adequate planning financial goals may be unrealistic, which can result in significant financial under-achievement. They often get teamed up with other legal companies in order to provide the customers with a comprehensive range of value for money insurance products to protect home, contents, and mortgage

Internal weaknesses that impacted the Islamic Societies during the Essay

Internal weaknesses that impacted the Islamic Societies during the Crudades and Mongol Wars - Essay Example Even though the early crusades were named and were quite successful in realizing the desired objectives, majority of the crusades that took place in the later years were ineffective and thus they were defeated by their counterparts, the Muslims. The Mongols on the other hand invaded Muslim land in the thirteenth century. They moved from one Islamic region to another slaughtering all the Muslims they came across. In just a single city, they slaughtered almost 2 million people. Such had immense effect on the locals in terms of their political power, economy, social life, culture, religion and population as explored in this paper. Soldiers in hundreds of thousands became crusaders through taking of vows, with the Pope granting these soldiers Plenary Indulgence. The emblem of the soldiers in the war was a cross, as the term crusade was derived from a French phrase, â€Å"taking the cross†. Most of the crusaders were from France, calling themselves ‘Franks’ that eventually became a common term among the Muslims. By this time, Christianity was yet to divide into large numbers of intermingled geographical regions which later formed the eastern churches of Byzantine Orthodox and the Western Roman Catholic. The Crusaders just considered themselves as Christians but not as Muslims. They had immense impact on Middle East, and particularly to Islamic religion. Crusades Background Among the powers that medieval popes had was the ability of requesting the kings and monarchs to be provided with troops as well as money to facilitate what they deemed as holy wars, such as the Crusades. The Crusades were fought because of geopolitical, economic and religious conflicts between the Muslims and the Christians.3 The spark for the initial Crusade came in year 1095, at the time when the Byzantines within the European Christians for military assistance against Turks, and Seljuk who had recently captured the city of Jerusalem. In order to increase their chances of receiving more aid, Byzantines exaggerated the rumors of Holy Land atrocities from the Turkish people. Pope Urban II immediately responded by summoning of the Council of Clermont, calling upon the European Catholics knights to recapture the city of Jerusalem because of the religious value that they placed to the Holy Land. In 1096, an army of Crusaders traveled headed to the Middle East through Constantinople, fighting the Muslim forces that they encountered along the way. The army reached Jerusalem two years later, 1099. They placed the city under siege, and they butchered almost every single Jew and Muslim within the walls of th e City. In the process, the Crusaders massacred a significant number of Christians whom were mistaken for Muslims. Because of lack of unity among the Jews, Turks and Muslims, they suffered immense loss and defeat from the Crusaders.4 Crusades in Islamic Society Much of the most important works of histories of crusades are being published and the settlements that have been established within their wake are concerned with the 13th and the 14th Centuries, while the great vistas are providing an opening in the sixteenth centuries.5 The Crusades, which were launched upon the holy land of Middle East from Urban II Speech that took place in 1095 at the Council of Cl