Black Panther Party Research Essay Research Paper

Dark Panther Party Research Essay, Research Paper Weapons, Social Welfare, and Revolution: The Black Panther Party In late September of 1966, at a little need place in North Oakland, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale started to diagram the Ten-Point Platform and Program, in this manner making the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. From this innovative movement rose a perplexing loyalist association with sections all through the United States that looked to teach the individuals strategically, and from that guidance give the individuals the longing to incline a transformation so as to hold their requests and political agenda satisfied. The Black Panther Party was the model of the nationalist alternative all through the late sixties and 70s, and they had the interest to make change inside what they accepted to be the bigot power development of the United States. The Black Panther Party had the option to shape the individuals, and take divide in activities that would help to actualize cultural modification. The Panthers made timeserving designs for the Black youngster so as to help develop up the network. In add-on, the Panthers other than organized numerous introductions and fights that non just united the Black people group, however close to profited the reason for equivalent rights. Notwithstanding the entirety of the great aspects that the Black Panther Party brought to the Black people group and social equality movement ( or perhaps due to these features ) , the F.B.I. what's more, United States specialists accepted the Panthers to be one of the United States most prominent inside employments. Looking back, it becomes evident that the US power development was defective in their anxiety of the Black Panther Party and their finishes. However, in vindictiveness of this distortion, the Black Panther Party had the option to some degree prevent the specialists s defective way of investigating political gatherings to prevail into the great beyond by offices of the Panther s estate. The Bl ack Panther Party was made on the conviction that the United States was fundamentally bigot, and that this bigotry was attempting to massacre the Black race. The Black Panther Party accepted that to irritate this bigotry, they expected to destruct the force development, and supplant it with an only arrangement of specialists. Bigotry was non just some self-imagined impression taken up among the individuals from the Black Panther Party. Prejudice had been going on in America by organizations of the slave exchange even before the United States was known as the United States. With the terminal of servitude, it was normal that Blacks would have the option to fuse into the rest of American culture and be furnished with the warrants of all work powers populating in the United States as dictated by the Constitution. In any case, it was non expected that the white network would be rather than this change as they were. A definitive signifier of prejudice was depicted in the White supremacist bunch the Ku Klux Klan. This gathering threatened Black individuals all through the South, every piece great as any supporters of the Black fight. In 1930 Dr. Arthur Raper was appointed to deliver an investigation on lynching, at the clasp a much too much successive example in the South. He found that there were 3,724 individu als revealed lynches in the United States from 1889 through to 1930. More than four-fifths of the inhabited that were lynched were Negroes, and short of what one-6th of whom were blamed for colza. For all intents and purposes the entirety of the lynchers were Whites. Of the 10s of 1000s of lynchers and looker-ons, only 49 were prosecuted and just 4 have been condemned. In 1935 President Franklin D. Roosevelt wouldn't back up an enemy of lynching measure since he contended that the white balloters in the South would neer excuse him and decrease to decide in favor of him at the accompanying political race. The resilience that the constabulary and the specialists had for lynching indicated the negligence of the President and Congress in doing proper rule law and executing that rule law to stop the example of lynching. As the loaded fought back against the oppressors all through the Civil Rights movement, the example of lynching started to gradually diminishing, in any case, the power a gainst Blacks persevered. Thirty mature ages after Dr. Raper s concentrate on lynches, riffraff power and constabulary fierceness against Blacks despite everything happened all the time in the United States ; the specialists was still non paying special mind to Black Americans. In 1966, police savagery was a vocation in numerous nations of the state. The newly framed Black Panther Party for Self Defense sent a solid message thusly toing this activity: they needed constabularies savagery to end, and to make this they proposed the move of self-preservation. The idea of self-preservation, alongside the gathering s bullheaded positions is depicted operating at a profit Panther Party s ten-point plan. The Ten-Point Program depended on simplenesss that any resident of the United States would need. Created by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, the Ten-Point Program turned into a cardinal constituent in the association of the gathering. The arrangement stresses opportunity for the individuals who were being persecuted, and a terminal to the inhibitory specialists. The Program other than firmly upheld the utilization of weapons for self-protection and focused on the second Amendment. With 1000s of transcripts of the Ten-Point Program in manus, Newton, Seale, and Bobby Hut ton went all through the Black people group jointing the Program to the individuals, accumulating support. The three so proceeded to set up the first official focal office of the Black Panther Party in North Oakland. After the imaginative movement of this office in Northern Oakland, association operating at a profit Panther Party started to increment all through Oakland ; accordingly this inclusion spread on a national degree, with sections in 48 regions, and a couple of global parts each piece great. The Black Panther Party was in all features of the term, a patriot gathering. The Panthers felt that the specialists was unequipped for providing a simply experts for all work powers, curiously Black work powers, and that the specialists ought to be supplanted with a framework that could see justness. The Black Panther Party s Ten-Point Program precisely inside informations this end. The Ten-Point Program was an essential want for Black America to gain what White America was allowed without request, and what Black America had been denied of. The Programs requests were basic: opportunity to discover the destiny of Black people group, full business, a terminal to improvement of Black people group by Capitalists, decent housing, health consideration, a terminal to watch fierceness, a terminal to war, and tests for Blacks with a Black jury rather than an all White jury. To be allowed these requests, the Ten-Point Program areas, it is their [ the Black people group s ] right, it is their duty, to lose such specialists, and to flexibly new monitors for their future security. The Ten-Point Program and Platform strikingly required a topple of the specialists, and urged individuals to take up weaponries to ensure themselves against these fundamentalist constabulary powers. The Panther s were suggesting radical adjustment, and the individuals were tuning in. One of the grounds that the Black Panther Party had the option to collect and keep such a great amount of help all through the Black people group was on the grounds that they were really worried about breaking the network. Before the sta rt of the gathering, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale were both associated with the North Oakland Neighborhood Anti-Poverty Center. At this inside Newton was a network coordinator, while Seale was the head of a youngster work undertaking. This involvement with working with the network without a doubt assists with elucidating why a large portion of the cultural plans that the Black Panther Party created were so fruitful. The plans made by the Black Panther Party, which were worked by Party individuals, were alluded to as SPR or endurance pending upset. The principal such arrangement was the Free Breakfast for Children Program. At its stature, the arrangement was a monstrous achievement, taking care of 200,000 children every day. The arrangement began in a Catholic church in the Fillmore domain of San Francisco, so spread to each significant city in America where there was a Party section. Other cultural administrations that the Black Panther Party started to gracefully were free health fac ilities, food showcase giveaways, the manufacture and appropriation of free places, school and guidance plans, senior movement and administration plans, free transporting to jails and detainee bolster plans, and legitimate help plans, among numerous others. For the most segment, these plans were all fruitful in providing Blacks and different minorities with much required cultural administrations. A few plans were so fruitful, for example, the Free Breakfast for Children Program, that the specialists had to follow comparable plans all through the state. People groups inside Black and White Communities started to perceive that the Black Panther Party was in excess of a bunch of Black work powers with firearms ; individuals started to perceive that the Black Panther Party could flexibly a few answers to occupations inside the network. In spite of being reprimanded by the FBI as moving out a Communist agenda with SPR, the Black Panther Party had the option to set together more than 35 c ultural designs for the improvement of the network. Not only was the Black Panther Party had the option to gracefully numerous cultural advantages for the network ; the Black Panther Party was other than exceptionally dynamic operating at a profit political fight and discharge movement. The Panther s required a terminal to oppression and offered upheaval as an alternative. They had the option to politically teach and structure juvenile Blacks who were eager to battle for the gathering. In Oakland, the Black Panther Party perpetually watched the swines with firearms with an end goal to prevent constabulary fierceness. The Panthers instructed themselves on each weapon law on the books and had the option to abstain from being arreste

Development of an ER Diagram and Database Implementation Free Solution

Question: To give you handy involvement with utilizing Entity-Relationship and Relational Database displaying strategies. Venture Specification Alan Counting, Edward Quals and Peter Rofit are in organization in a bookkeeping practice, CQR. The training has practical experience in tax collection, auditng and money related guidance for little to medium estimated customers. They began the training in 2005 and it has developed to now utilize 25 individuals. These workers incorporate different bookkeepers and office staff. Alan, Edward and Peter accept the training is set out toward a time of huge development and have come to you to assist them with redeveloping their Client Billing (CB) framework so it adapts better to their work processes and supports future development openings. Answer: ER Diagram Social Data Structures Administration Customer Area Representative Charging RATE Area Capability Standardization References: Batini, C., Ceri, S., Navathe, S. (1989). Substance Relationship Approach. Elsevier Science Publishers BV (North Holland). Batmaz, F., Hinde, C. J. (2006). A chart drawing instrument for self-loader evaluation of reasonable database outlines. Chen, Y. L. (2009). Element Relationship Diagram. In Modeling and Analysis of Enterprise and Information Systems (pp. 125-139). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Coronel, C., Morris, S., Rob, P. (2009). Database frameworks: plan, usage, and the executives. Cengage Learning. Elmasri, R. (2008). Basics of database frameworks. Pearson Education India. Kifer, M., Bernstein, A. J., Lewis, P. M., Lewis, P. M. (2005). Database Systems: An Application-arranged Approach: Introductory Version. Pearson/Addison Wesley. zsu, M. T., Valduriez, P. (2011). Standards of circulated database frameworks. Springer. Tzitzikas, Y., Hainaut, J. L. (2005). The most effective method to tame an enormous ER outline (utilizing join investigation and power coordinated drawing calculations). In Conceptual ModelingER 2005 (pp. 144-159). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Yousefi'zadeh, H. (2005). U.S. Patent No. 6,950,848. Washington, DC: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

50 Must-Read Books about Actors, the Acting Life, Showbiz, and More

50 Must-Read Books about Actors, the Acting Life, Showbiz, and More For those of us sitting in the darkened theatre, actors can seem mysterious and fascinating. We are captivated, watching them transform into each new character, unrecognizable from film to film. We are dazzled to see our favorite stars work their magic live on stage. We wonder about their personal lives, their families, and how they work. And for those of us that pursue acting, we often search for new insights and expertise to help hone our craft and improve our performances. This list of books about actors aims to tackle every angle of the acting biz. So whether you are an avid film buff, a musical theatre nerd, or an audition-weary working actor, you are bound to find some terrific books on this list that will entertain, inspire, and reveal everything you ever wanted to know about the acting life. The following list draws from fiction, memoir, biography, and nonfiction. All descriptions in quotes are from the publishers. Fiction Books About Actors Beautiful Ruins by Jess Walter “A dazzling, yet deeply human, roller coaster of a novel, spanning fifty years and nearly as many lives. From the lavish set of Cleopatra to the shabby revelry of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Walter introduces us to the tangled lives of a dozen unforgettable characters.” Blonde by Joyce Carol Oates “Joyce Carol Oates boldly reimagines the inner, poetic, and spiritual life of Norma Jeane Bakerâ€"the child, the woman, the fated celebrity and idolized blonde the world came to know as Marilyn Monroe. In a voice startlingly intimate and rich, Norma Jeane tells her own story of an emblematic American artistâ€"intensely conflicted and drivenâ€"who had lost her way.” Everything Leads to You by Nina LaCour “A wunderkind young set designer, Emi has already started to find her way in the competitive Hollywood film world. Emi is a film buff and a true romantic, but her real-life relationships are a mess. But then a mysterious letter from a silver screen legend leads Emi to Ava. Ava is unlike anyone Emi has ever met.” Funny Girl by Nick Hornby “Set in 1960s London, Funny Girl is a lively account of the adventures of the intrepid young Sophie Straw as she navigates her transformation from provincial ingénue to television starlet amid a constellation of delightful characters.” Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett “Dayna Anderson doesn’t set out to solve a murder. All the semi-famous, mega-broke black actress wants is to help her parents keep their house. After witnessing a deadly hit-and-run, she figures pursuing the fifteen-grand reward isn’t the craziest thing a Hollywood actress has done for some cash.” The Interestings by Meg Wolitzer “The summer that Nixon resigns, six teenagers at a summer camp for the arts become inseparable. Decades later the bond remains powerful, but so much else has changed. In The Interestings, Wolitzer follows these characters from the height of youth through middle age, as their talents, fortunes, and degrees of satisfaction diverge.” The Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee “Lilliet Berne is a sensation of the Paris Opera, a legendary soprano with every accolade except an original role, every singer’s chance at immortality. When one is finally offered to her, she realizes with alarm that the libretto is based on a hidden piece of her past.” The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by by Taylor Jenkins Reid “Evelyn Hugo is finally ready to tell the truth about her glamorous and scandalous life. She chooses unknown magazine reporter Monique Grant for the job. Monique listens as Evelyn unfurls her story: from making her way to Los Angeles in the 1950s to her decision to leave show business in the late 80s, and, of course, the seven husbands along the way.” Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser “The tale of Carrie Meebers rise to stardom in the theatre and George Hurstwoods slow decline captures the twin poles of exuberance and exhaustion in modern city life as never before. The premier example of American naturalism, Dreisers remarkable first novel has deeply influenced such key writers as William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Saul Bellow, and Joyce Carol Oates.” Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel “An audacious, darkly glittering novel set in the eerie days of civilizations collapse, Station Eleven tells the spellbinding story of a Hollywood star, his would-be savior, and a nomadic group of actors roaming the scattered outposts of the Great Lakes region, risking everything for art and humanity.” Waiting in the Wings by Tara Frejas Theatre actress Erin Javier has yet to fall in love. But when two (two!) men enter from stage left and right, Erin is confused. Who deserves to take center stage in her heartâ€"Mr. Theatre Royalty whose attention and displays of affection make her pulse race, or a good friend whose steady support has helped steer her to success and fulfill her dream? Whatever Happened to Baby Jane by Henry Farrell “Once an acclaimed child star of vaudeville, Baby Jane Hudson performed for adoring crowds before a move to Hollywood thrust her sister, Blanche, into the spotlight. As Blanches film career took off, a resentful Jane watched from the shadows as her own career faded into obscurityâ€"until a tragic accident changed everything.” Wise Children by Angela Carter “Dora and Nora Chance are a famous song-and-dance team of the British music halls. Billed as The Lucky Chances, the sisters are the illegitimate and unacknowledged daughters of Sir Melchior Hazard, the greatest Shakespearean actor of his day. At once ribald and sentimental, glittery and tender, this rambunctious family saga is Angela Carter at her bewitching best.” Memoirs and Biographies About Actors Bossypants by Tina Fey “From her youthful days as a vicious nerd to her tour of duty on Saturday Night Live; from her passionately half hearted pursuit of physical beauty to her life as a mother eating things off the floor; from her one-sided college romance to her nearly fatal honeymoon. Tina Fey reveals all, and proves what weve all suspected: youre no one until someone calls you bossy.” Drama: An Actors Education by John Lithgow “Lithgow brings the theatre worlds of New York and London to life as he relives his collaborations with renowned performers and directors including Mike Nichols, Bob Fosse, Liv Ullmann, Meryl Streep, and Brian De Palma. At once hilarious and reflective, Drama pulls back the curtain on the making of one of our most beloved actors.” Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M.: Audrey Hepburn, Breakfast at Tiffanys, and the Dawn of the Modern Woman by Sam Wasson “In this meticulously researched gem of a book, Wasson delivers us from the penthouses of the Upper East Side to the pools of Beverly Hills, presenting Breakfast at Tiffanys as we have never seen it beforeâ€"through the eyes of those who made it. Written with delicious prose and considerable wit, Fifth Avenue, 5 A.M. shines new light on a beloved film and its incomparable star.” Get Happy: The Life of Judy Garland by Gerald Clarke “The brightest star of the Hollywood musical and an entertainer of almost magical power. The woman of a half-dozen comebacks, a hundred heartbreaks, and thousands of headlines. Yet much of what has been written about her is either inaccurate or incomplete, and the Garland the world thought it knew was merely a sketch for the astonishing woman Gerald Clarke portrays.” I Can’t Make This Up by Kevin Hart “His father was a drug addict who was in and out of jail. His brother was a crack dealer and petty thief. And his mother was overwhelmingly strict. The odds, in short, were stacked against our young hero. In his literary debut, he takes the reader on a journey through what his life was, what it is today, and how he’s overcome each challenge to become the man he is today.” Im Just a Person by Tig Notaro In 2012, Tig Notaro was hospitalized for a debilitating intestinal disease called C.Diff, her mother unexpectedly died, she went through a breakup, and was diagnosed with bilateral breast cancer. Now, the wildly popular star takes stock of that no good, very bad yearâ€"a difficult yet astonishing period in which tragedy turned into absurdity and despair into joy.” In the Country We Love: My Family Divided by Diane Guerrero, Michelle Burford “Diane Guerrero was just fourteen years old on the day her parents and brother were arrested and deported while she was at school. Born in the U.S., Guerrero was able to remain in the country and continue her education, depending on the kindness of family friends who took her in and helped her build a life and a successful acting career for herself, without the support system of her family.” A Life in Parts by Bryan Cranston “Discussing his life as few men do, describing his art as few actors can, Cranston has much to say about creativity, devotion, and craft, as well as innate talent and its challenges and benefits and proper maintenance. But ultimately A Life in Parts is a story about the joy, the necessity, and the transformative power of simple hard work.” Me: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn “Admired and beloved by movie audiences for over sixty years, four-time Academy Awardâ€"winner Katharine Hepburn is an American classic. Miss Hepburn breaks her long-kept silence about her private life in this absorbing and provocative memoir.” The Measure of a Man: A Spiritual Autobiography by Sidney Poitier “Here, finally, is Poitiers own introspective look at what has informed his performances and his life. Poitier explores the nature of sacrifice and commitment, pride and humility, rage and forgiveness, and paying the price for artistic integrity. What emerges is a picture of a man seeking truth, passion, and balance in the face of limits his own and the worlds.” The Mother of Black Hollywood: A Memoir by Jenifer Lewis “From her first taste of applause at five years old to landing on Broadway within eleven days of graduation and ultimately achieving success in movies, television and global concert halls, Jenifer reveals her outrageous life story with lots of humor, a few regrets and most importantly, unbridled joy.” Not My Father’s Son by Alan Cummings “With ribald humor, wit, and incredible insight, Alan seamlessly moves back and forth in time, integrating stories from his childhood in Scotland and his experiences today as the celebrated actor of film, television, and stage. At times suspenseful, at times deeply moving, but always incredibly brave and honest, Not My Fathers Son is a powerful story of embracing the best aspects of the past and triumphantly pushing the darkness aside.” Rita Moreno: A Memoir by Rita Moreno “Her remarkable journey from a young girl with simple beginnings in Puerto Rico to Hollywood legendâ€"and one of the few performers, and the only Hispanic, to win an Oscar, Grammy, Tony and two Emmys. Infused with Rita Morenos quick wit and deep insight, this memoir is the dazzling portrait of a stage and screen star who longed to become who she really isâ€"and triumphed.” Robin by Dave Itzkoff “The definitive biography of Robin Williamsâ€"a compelling portrait of one of America’s most beloved and misunderstood entertainers. Williams’s comic brilliance masked a deep well of conflicting emotions and self-doubt. Itzkoff also shows how Williams struggled mightily with addiction and depression…and with a debilitating condition at the end of his life that affected him in ways his fans never knew.” So Close to Being the Sh*t, Yall Dont Even Know by Retta by Retta “Parks and Recreation star Retta takes us on her not-so-meteoric rise from roaches to riches. Throwing her hard-working Liberian parents for a loop, Retta abandons her plan to attend med school after graduating Duke University to move to Hollywood. Retta’s unique voice and refreshing honesty will make you laugh, cry, and laugh so hard you’ll cry.” This Is Just My Face: Try Not to Stare by Gabourey Sidibe “Sidibe’s memoir hits hard with self-knowing dispatches on friendship, depression, celebrity, haters, fashion, race, and weight. Irreverent, hilarious, and untraditional, This Is Just My Face takes its place and fills a void on the shelf of writers from Mindy Kaling to David Sedaris to Lena Dunham.” Troublemaker: Surviving Hollywood and Scientology by Leah Remini “The outspoken actress, talk show host, and reality television star offers up a no-holds-barred memoir, including an eye-opening insider account of her tumultuous and heart-wrenching thirty-year-plus association with the Church of Scientology.” Were Going to Need More Wine by Gabrielle Union “Astonishingly personal and true stories about power, color, gender, feminism, and fame. Genuine and perceptive, Union bravely lays herself bare, uncovering a complex and courageous life of self-doubt and self-discovery with incredible poise and brutal honesty.” Why Not Me by Mindy Kaling “Kaling shares her ongoing journey to find contentment and excitement in her adult life, whether its falling in love at work, seeking new friendships in lonely places, attempting to be the first person in history to lose weight without any behavior modification whatsoever, or most important, believing that you have a place in Hollywood when youre constantly reminded that no one looks like you.” Wishful Drinking by Carrie Fisher “Carrie Fisher tells the true and intoxicating story of her life with inimitable wit. Aside from a demanding career and her role as a single mother, Carrie also spends her free time battling addiction, weathering the wild ride of manic depression and lounging around various mental institutions. Its an incredible tale.” Yes Please by Amy Poehler “Full of the comedic skill that makes us all love Amy, Yes Please is a rich and varied collection of stories, lists, poetry (Plastic Surgery Haiku, to be specific), photographs, mantras and advice. Honest, personal, real, and righteous, Yes Please is full of words to live by.” You Cant Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain by Phoebe Robinson “A hilarious and affecting essay collection about race, gender, and pop culture from celebrated stand-up comedian and WNYC podcaster Phoebe Robinson. As personal as it is political, You Cant Touch My Hair examines our cultural climate and skewers our biases with humor and heart, announcing Robinson as a writer on the rise.” Nonfiction Books About Actors Acting in Film: An Actors Take on Movie Making by Michael Caine “The man whos hypnotized the camera lenses for a quarter of a century reveals the most closely guarded secrets on script preparation, working with the director, forming a character, voice, sound, and movement. Pearl by pearl he lays out the Caine wisdom on everything from set politics to set decorum.” An Actor Prepares by Konstantin Stanislavski “Stanislavskis simple exercises fire the imagination, and help readers not only discover their own conception of reality but how to reproduce it as well. Stanislavskis innovative contribution to modern European and American realistic acting has remained at the core of mainstream western performance training for much of the last century.” The Actors Life: A Survival Guide by Jenna Fischer “With candor and wit, Fischer lays out what it takes to establish yourself in the profession. Fischer’s inspiring guidance will make you feel like you have a trusted friend who’s made the journey and has now returned to walk beside you, pointing out the pitfalls as you blaze your own path toward the life of a professional actor.” The Art of Acting by Stella Adler “Over her long career, both in New York and Hollywood, she offered her vast acting knowledge to generations of actors, including Marlon Brando, Warren Beatty, and Robert De Niro. Her decades of experience and teaching have been brilliantly caught and encapsulated by Howard Kissel in the twenty-two lessons in this book.” Failing Up: How to Take Risks, Aim Higher, and Never Stop Learning by Leslie Odom, Jr. “With personal stories from his life, Odom asks the questions that will help you unlock your true potential and achieve your goals even when they seem impossible. These stories will inspire you, motivate you, and empower you for the greatness that lies ahead, whether youre graduating from college, starting a new job, or just looking to live each day to the fullest.” Letters to a Young Artist by Anna Deavere Smith “She addresses the full spectrum of issues that people starting out will face: from questions of confidence, discipline, and self-esteem, to fame, failure, and fear, to staying healthy, presenting yourself effectively, building a diverse social and professional network, and using your art to promote social change. Letters to a Young Artist will challenge you, motivate you, and set you on a course to pursue your art without compromise.” Life Is Like a Musical: How to Live, Love, and Lead Like a Star by Tim Federle “Before Tim Federle became a bestselling author and a Broadway playwright, he worked as a back-up dancer at the Super Bowl, a polar bear at Radio City, and a card-carrying chorus boy on Broadway. This charming and clever guide will appeal to all ages and inspire readers to step into the lead role of their own life. Long-Form Improvisation the Art of Zen: A Manual for Advanced Performers by Jason Chin “This book merges basic improvisation techniques with Zen philosophy in order to create a new way of performing scenes and shows. Based on decades of work with the art form, Jason R. Chin strips away pretense and creates a simple, yet elegant method of improvising longer, more rich scenes and characters.” Making It on Broadway: Actors Tales of Climbing to the Top by David Wienir “Countering the misperceptions about Broadway performers leading glamorous lives, the words of more than 150 Broadway stars provide unprecedented insight into their struggle for stardom. This book shares firsthand accounts of professional actors difficult yet fulfilling journeys to Broadway.” Razzle Dazzle: The Battle for Broadway by Michael Riedel “Michael Riedel tells the stories of the Shubert Organization and the shows that re-built a city in grand style, revealing the backstage drama that often rivaled what transpired onstage, exposing bitter rivalries, unlikely alliances, andâ€"of courseâ€"scintillating gossip. This is a great story, told with wit and passion.” Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism by Nancy Wang Yuen “This book not only conveys the harsh realities of racial inequality in Hollywood, but also provides vital insights from actors who have succeeded on their own terms, whether by sidestepping the system or subverting it from within. Reel Inequality follows actors of color as they suffer, strive, and thrive in Hollywood.” Respect for Acting by Uta Hagen “This classic book has helped generations of actors hone their craft, and its advice is as useful now as it was when it was first published. Hagen draws on her own struggle with the techniques of acting as well as her decades of teaching experience to break down the areas in which actors can work and search for realities in themselves that serve the character and the play.” Sanford Meisner on Acting by Sanford Meisner and Dennis Longwell “Follows an acting class of eight men and eight women for fifteen months, beginning with the most rudimentary exercises and ending with affecting and polished scenes from contemporary American plays. Throughout these pages Meisner is delightâ€"always empathizing with his students and urging them onward, provoking emotion, laughter, and growing technical mastery from his charges.” The Tao of Show Business: How to Pursue Your Dream Without Losing Your Mind by Dallas Travers “This book generously offers a delightful, practical, and digestible approach to mastering the entertainment industry one day at a time. Readers gain out-of-the-box strategies for business mastery along with powerful exercises for personal growth.” The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual by Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Matt Walsh “While the manual is written to be understood by beginners with no previous exposure to improvisational comedy, experienced improvisors will find it to be an excellent resource for honing their skills, clarifying concepts, and generally taking their work to a higher level.” If you liked these books about actors, be sure to check out this list of 50 Must-Read Books for Musical Theatre Fans and 13 Awesome Audiobooks Read by Actors.

Food Stamp Living in Low Budget Free Essay Example, 750 words

ï » ¿Food Stamp: Living in Low Budget Food is a basic necessity for all living organisms. Where animals have to hunt for food, humans get the liberty to go to a convenient store and just buy what they want. Food and eating have evolved a lot since the prehistoric times. From eating raw to what is now called fast food, people have come a long way in changing their eating styles. All types of food are available in most places across the world. But the problem arises when people cannot afford to buy food and have to sleep on empty stomachs. The richer section of the society enjoys food like there is no tomorrow and end up wasting a huge amount of food, whereas the poor have to go hungry without proper meals for days. Such a miserable lifestyle leads to malnutrition, which in turn leads to several diseases and ultimately death. This assignment focuses on giving us a first hand experience of the more unfortunate group of people. By engaging in such a project we are sure to understand the pain of living in low budget. We will write a custom essay sample on Food Stamp: Living in Low Budget or any topic specifically for you Only $17.96 $11.86/pageorder now The assignment requires for us to spend only $5 a day for four consecutive days. That amounts to a total expenditure of only $20 during the course of the project. As is expected as a commitment to this assignment, I did not accept any food offered by my family members, friends or relatives. I made all the purchases from stores nearby my residence or college. I have not traveled very far. Following is what food I consumed during the course of the assignment. However, I have not included water among these items. It has been quite a hard experience actually and I missed out on many of my favorite foods due to this. However, on the flipside, the exercise has definitely been a rewarding experience, as I have learned how to make the best use of my money on food, eating what is tasty but at the same time keeping nutritional values in mind. Day 1: Breakfast: One cheese burger - $1, biscuits – 50 cents Lunch: One Sandwich- $1 Supper: Starbucks coffee - $1, One muffin – 50 cents Dinner: Plain yoghurt- 50 cents, two bananas- 50 cents Day 2: Breakfast: Bowl of Kellogg’s Cornflakes– 50 cents, one egg- 50 cents Lunch: One Hamburger- $1.50 Supper: One glass of milk- 50 cents Dinner: Vegetable pasta - $2 Day 3: Breakfast: One glass of milk – 50 cents, one apple - $1 Lunch: Bread and bacon- $2 Supper: One cupcake – 50 cents Dinner: Instant noodles- $1 Day 4: Breakfast: One cheese burger - $1 Lunch: One Sandwich- $1 Supper: Starbucks coffee - $1 Dinner: Chappati and curry - $ 2 My source of protein and fiber were from bread, fruits etc and proteins from milk, egg and bacon. The fast food I have consumed has contained fats and carbohydrates. I have not taken any vitamin supplements. Usually, I take two capsules of Omega-3 daily. I do not think that I have been able to completely meet the nutritional needs of my body as major part of my diet consisted of fast food, within the constraint of a limited budget. I think I could have kept the provision for some fruits and more vegetables, if I have had the leeway of spending some more instead of relying merely on fast food. I have found that my routine has totally changed due to this challenge. I have felt hunger some of the times. I also have felt like my food needs have not been fulfilled. The times when my stomach did feel full, I did not feel good mentally. I have come to notice that my diet included mostly fast food. This is different from my usual diet as I am always keen on eating more fruits and vegetable s of my choice rather than a limited array a restaurant provides. The limited budget in this challenge has also resulted in reduced intake of meat. My consumption of fast food has increased during the course of the assignment and the level of fruits and vegetables has decreased. As mentioned earlier, I have really come to understand the situation and lifestyle of the lesser fortunate groups. I always felt tired and under nourished during the course of these four days. However, I have noticed that I drank more water than I usually take, which helped my stomach feel fuller and, hence, I have been able to hydrate my body amply. This experience has also made me understand the difficult life the poor people have to lead. I have really come to appreciate this assignment as it has made me realize how lucky I actually am to have a family that can provide me enough food of my choice. I have grown to understand more about the seriousness of the assignment as at first I did not really find any need for this kind of a challenge. As far as I am concerned I think this experience would benefit all the participants in such a way as to encourage them to appreciate what they have and be grateful for the life they currently lead. I felt the urge to be more compassionate and donate more for the needy. So, I think, my fellow participants may have felt the same. Another fact is that this assignment must have definitely made them realize the need to have a balanced diet daily. I am sure after this assignment the participants will be more careful about the food they consume and be more charitable as well.

Inventory System Thesis - 1692 Words

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Background of the Study Networking is an essential skill for most business people, but especially for entrepreneurs. The strong association between the entrepreneur as a person and his or her business demands that entrepreneurs should get out into the world and create and maintain business relationships. AIM Global INC. is a marketing company conceptualized to provide unmatched quality distribution of exceptional products and services to local, regional and global markets. A harmony of advanced technology, distinct marketing strategies and excellent product lines, together with the guidance of exemplary leadership secures the success of AIM Global. Knowing for its success Mr. Richard Cabautan joined the team of†¦show more content†¦Our proposed system (Advance Sales and Supplies System) has the capability to track, monitor and gives an alert if a specific product reaches the minimum allowance stock amount. A search index is also added for the users to easily track items from the warehouse that needs to be replenish which include the product location, availability, description and price of the item. Login account for different users will be created for database security purpose. The users that can access the system are Store Manager and the Owner itself. The system will have a database that includes adding of new product and modifying and deleting existing product. The system will compute for mark-up prices. The system can also provide a hard copy of daily, monthly and yearly reports. The Advance Sales and Supplies System can be integrated with other add-on products like bar code scanners, receipt printers, and can also be integrated into the main accounting software. This helps to keep all financial records up to date and available for analysis by management. The benefits to this type of system are obvious. First it is easier to maintain and utilize than a manual system. Entry of sales information is often as simple as scanning in the bar coded merchandise when it is delivered, and scanning the item at the check out counter when it is sold. This scanned information updates inventory records and also records cost and sale price. ProfitsShow MoreRelatedBilling and Inventory System Thesis Proposal5411 Words   |  22 PagesOverview The computerized system has a big contribution in our society such as they can do very detailed work and follow precise instructions without error. In order to know the problem encountered by the staff, the researcher conducted an interview in the Rehabilitation Center located at Sto Nià ±o, Magalang Pampanga. These are some problems in our chosen local like no proper record of the staffs, patients, billing, and retrieval  of data is time consuming and more chances of human error. The basicRead MoreSales and Inventory System Thesis Sample1488 Words   |  6 Pagespeople—smart, timesaving tools that help them be more productive to increase quality and contain costs. That’s where Microsoft ® Office 2010 comes in. It’s not intended to replace your EMR or hospital information system; rather it bridges the gap between these and your other core systems to play a vital role in helping all your staff connect with information, people, and processes—when, where, and how needed. Microsoft Office 2010 Today everyone inside the healthcare provider organization is responsibleRead MoreSales and Inventory System of a Pharmacy6546 Words   |  27 Pagespaper materials and pens to process the sales and inventory. In this new era, there are establishments using automated transaction such as sales and inventory systems while other still depend on the manual procedures like Maureen Edisel Pharmacy. It is owned by Ms. Maureen Edisel C. Igmen, it was established on April 28, 2007. And it is located at Avenida Veteranos St. Tacloban City. The researchers observed that the current aforementioned system allocates a lot of time and effort in generating receiptsRead MoreForeign and Local Studies3842 Words   |  16 Pages[1]According to the Right Pharmacy Management System, the key benefits of the pharmacy management system-automating processes, streamlining workflow and thereby enhancing the customer base-are attracting enough to draw retail pharmacy chains competing in a world of growing challenges. However, the choices are tough with a handful of products and the high cost of customized solutions. This Infosys paper outlines some ideas on selecting the right option. [2] Inventory, to many small business owners isRead MoreSales and Inventory Thesis1775 Words   |  8 PagesCHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Sales and Inventory Control is an inventory tracking system that gives you up-to-the-minute detailed information on each item in your inventory. Youll know exactly how much inventory comes in, how much is on-hand now, and where it goes. While manual methods may have their place, most entrepreneurs these days find that computerizing gives them a far wider range of information with far less effort. Sales and inventory programs now on the market let you track usage, monitorRead MoreInventory Management System of a Printing Press in Dagupan City13913 Words   |  56 Pagesproduction. Focusing in the production process, one aspect to consider is its proper inventory management. The need for proper inventory management system is indispensable nowadays especially in coping up with global competition. As firms deal with their inventory systems, problems still arises and most of which are experienced worldwide. For instance, Bhattacharjee (2012) attributed the pickup in sales to inventory flow getting back on track, as they did not flow product appropriately.† This wasRead MoreThe Effect Of The Bullwhip Effect On Your Model1403 Words   |  6 Pagescharacterized†¦.†. What is your evidence that fast production increases the generation of defective items (scrap)? (2) Your demand is deterministic and the bullwhip effect has no place in your thesis. The bullwhip effect has no effect on your model, why it was mentioned twice? What is its relevance in the thesis? (3) You assumed a single raw material to produce a single product. This makes Table 2.1 not representative of the literature review. For example, Jaber and Goyal (2009) assumed a single productRead MoreRfid And Its Impact On The Supply Chain Management System1707 Words   |  7 PagesRFID has had the largest impact on the supply chain management system. RFID that stands for Radio Frequency Identification provides a real time tracking information of parts and products and is capable of maintaining it throughout the supply chain. This technology has proved itself as an efficient method to track the inventory and has a great potential in improving the supply chain management system as a whole. The information system of any supply chain should be effective and fluent; any communicationRead MoreCompany Analysis : Pb And The Erp Re Engineering Project1365 Words   |  6 Pages1 Introduction This chapter aims to provide an overview of the thesis topic including: an introduction to the problem Pitney Bowes (PB) want to solve and the related business topic; the company summary of PB and the ERP re-engineering project which they are undergoing; the objectives and scope as well as the structure of this thesis project. The problem definition will show its importance and rationale to this topic as well as PB. The company summary will provide contextual and valuable backgroundRead MoreEmissioning Model Case Study1297 Words   |  6 Pagescomprehensive modal emission models (CMEM and MOVES) to estimate the environmental measures in real time. The estimation methodology based on OpMode bin provided far more dynamic and accurate environmental information compared to static emission inventory estimation models. The OpMode bin emission rates for each vehicle technology in the MOVES default database represent a base scenario of conditions for temperature, humidity, air conditioning load, fuel properties, and other factors. In this case

Language Background and the Speech Community Free Essays

Being born in Russia, Russian is my native language. According to the Refugee Council, Russian is extensively used as a language for communication of all the Slavic languages. Statistically speaking, most people in the Russian Foundation and other independent federations are speakers of the Russian Language. We will write a custom essay sample on Language Background and the Speech Community or any similar topic only for you Order Now (Refugee Council, 2008) Moreover, the Russian language is distinguished by the United Nations as one that belongs to the list of six official languages all over the world. (Today Translations, 2008) To illustrate the far-reaching influence of the Russian language, let us enumerate the countries with major Russian speaking populations, such as Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Moldova, not to mention Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Russian is not considered as the official language in Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, however it is popularly used in, most especially in business and government communications. Other countries, like Finland for example, also have a Russian speaking population composed of the minority inhabitants. (Infoplease, 2008) The Russian language does not follow a formal system or rules. It concentrates on the reproduction of sounds and stress that is stated in variation with the attached denotative or connotative meaning of the words in a statement. Russian language, together with the Ukrainian and Belarusian languages have emerged from the Slavonic language that originated from the East. (Today Translations, 2008) Since the Russian language is more focused on the phonetic aspect of speaking, the language is primarily based on the Russian alphabet or what historians call the Cyrillic Alphabet. Apparently, the alphabet originated not from Russia, but from Greece. The onset of Greek missions who happened to arrive at Istanbul proliferated the use of the Cyrillic alphabet that is primarily based on the Greek alphabet. Needless to say, the Russian language traces back its influences from Greece. (Orbislingua, 2008) I belong to a community that upholds discipline within the self and as a citizen of Russian and the maintenance of the good of all the citizens, not just oneself. Just like our political system, everything is organized and judged in our every day life according to what is good for all. Close relationships between others is evident in how we deal with others and our way of welcoming them with affectionate actions and gestures. In addition to this, most of us are cynical and distrustful. The uniqueness of the Russian language may be traced to the distinct sentence patterns and sounds and stress produced in speaking Russian. The structure of the sentences does not follow a particular rule or pattern, but is dependent on how the speaker wants to say it. For instance, to emphasize an adjective, it goes first in the sentence. On the other hand, if the noun is emphasized in the sentence, then it goes first. (Orbislingua, 2008) In addition, the use of articles, transitional or connecting phrases and words (such as is, are, a, an, the, etc.), does not really apply in speaking the Russian language. Therefore, if a native Russian speaker attempts to speak in English, then it would be difficult for native Russian speakers to create a complete and a grammatically sound and correct English statement due to certain deficiencies.   Furthermore, most consonants in the Russian language produce sounds that are almost similar to the â€Å"s† sound and utilizes the movement of the tongue in speaking. This greatly contributes to the unique nature and phonetic aspect of the use of the Russian Language. (Orbislingua, 2008) The similarities of the Russian language to the English language, for instance, is evident in the three tenses of English verbs that also applies to the verbs of the Russian language. At times, it also follows the order and structure of the sentences in the English language, however the Russian sentence order and structure is more accommodating to the situation in which two Russian speakers are talking. (Orbislingua, 2008) References Infoplease. (2008). Languages by Countries. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from HighBeam Orbislingua. (2008). Russian language. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from Orbislingua.com. Website: http://www.orbislingua.com/eaha.htm Refugee Council. (2008). Language background of major refugee groups to UK. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from Refugee Council. Website: http://languages.refugeecouncil.org.uk/top_navigation/Language_profiles.htm Today Translations. (2008). Russian Language History. Retrieved March 14, 2008, from Today How to cite Language Background and the Speech Community, Essay examples

Critically Examine the Trend and Size of Poverty in Hong Kong Society free essay sample

This city has not only the 6th highest per capita GDP, but also the highest Gini coefficient in the world (World Bank, 2011). Fortunately, the Hong Kong government isn’t turning a blind eye towards this dilemma but are instead actively looking for a trade-off between economic performance and social welfare. One notable example is the re-establishment of the Commission on Poverty, it is hoped that a clearly-defined poverty line will shed a new light into the poverty situation in Hong Kong. Another important policy in recent years is the implementation of minimum wage law, which has been in effect for two years aiming to guarantee a basic wage for low-income workers, however its effect on overall employment level in Hong Kong is still to be determined. In this essay, I will first examine the overall trend and size of poverty in Hong Kong, then move on to assess the effectiveness of the present social security system, as well as the minimum wage in eradicating poverty in Hong Kong. Poverty, is an ambiguous term especially in Hong Kong. The United Nations places the benchmark for poverty as living under a monthly income less than or equal to half of the median household income of equal size households. This is the definition that the Commission on Poverty is likely to adopt. But before the launch of official poverty line people are considered poor only if they apply for Comprehensive Social Security Assistance (CSSA), which eligibility is largely determined by nominal income. As a result, the number of people applying for CSSA decreased after minimum wage law has been imposed. In this essay therefore, I will adopt the UN definition of poverty in examining its trend and size in Hong Kong. Poverty rate up to the year 2011 was the lowest since that of 2001. Before 2011, there had been an overall increasing trend in both the number of households living in poverty as well as the poverty rate. In this sense, 2011 can be seen as a watershed year; the poverty rate plummeted to 17. 1% when compared to 17. 9% in the previous year, which meant a reduction of 55000 people suffering from poverty. Additionally, the total number of poor households had been rising from 2001 to 2007, but this trend started to decline from then on. The total number of poor households in 2011 was 444,000, when compared with that of the years 2007 and 2010; there had been a reduction of 11,000 and 7000 households respectively. In spite of the declining poverty trend and size, income disparity in Hong Kong has been worsening. In the year 2001, the median monthly income of high-income group was $31,000 while that of low-income group was $10,000, which meant that the former was 3. 1 times that of the latter. However, this disparity continued to grow and in the year 2011, the median monthly income of the high-income group increased to $35,000, while that of the low-income group plunged to $9000, which meant that the high-income group had a monthly income 3. 5 times more than that of the low-income group. In brief, it is undeniable that the declining trend and size of poverty has been promising, but that was largely due to the thriving economy instead of governmental efforts, at the same time, the income gap has been widening despite the implementation of minimum wage law. These statistics all indicate that the current social policies are inadequate in eliminating the imminent threat of poverty. The social security system in Hong Kong is a three-tier system consisting of social assistance and social allowance in the form of Comprehensive Social Security Assistance and Old Age Allowance, mandated occupational pension in the form of Mandatory Provident Fund as well as private saving. In the remaining part of the essay, the effectiveness of the above social security policies in lifting poverty will be assessed one by one. The Comprehensive Social Security Assistance was renamed after the Public Assistance Scheme in 1993 has the sole purpose to provide â€Å"a safety net for those who cannot support themselves financially. It is designed to bring their income up to a prescribed level to meet their basic needs. † (Social Welfare Department, 2012) It is a non-contributory and means-tested scheme financed wholly by the government. CSSA payments can be broadly classified into three categories: standard rate, supplements and special grants. Standard Rates from 2012 is divided into 5 types: elderly person aged over 60 or above, ill health adult under 60, disabled child, able-bodied adult aged under 60 and able-bodied child. The amount of standard rates payable to each type differs, but they are under the same guiding principles; the standard rates for children and seniors are higher than those of the adults, rates for single individuals living alone are greater than those of family members, and rates will increase with levels of severity of disability. Tsoi, 2002) Additionally, there are five types of supplements. Long-term supplement is an annual payment to recipients who have been receiving assistance for at least 12 months for the replacement of household and durable goods. Single parent supplement is a monthly payment to single parent families with special difficulties in bringing up their families. Community living supplement is a monthly payment to old, disabled and certified ill-health CSSA recipients living in th e community instead of any institutions. Transport supplement aims to promote social integration and geographical mobility by providing monthly assistance to certified 100% disabled as well as population between 12 to 64 years of age. Last but not least, the intention of the residential care supplement is to relieve the accommodation burdens of old, disabled and certified ill-health CSSA applicants who are not living in subsidised housing estates. Besides, a range of special grants are also set up to meet applicants’ special needs including school fees, school-related expenses, essential traveling expenses and so on. Famous English philosopher Midgley once commented that redistributing wealth in the form of social assistance has the â€Å"most direct potential impact on the poverty problem. † She identified three necessary conditions in order to fully realize this potential, first, social assistance must be financial by progressive taxation, second, the level of benefit provided must be sufficient to raise recipients out of poverty and third, needy people must have easy access to social assistance schemes and that these schemes would not deter them from applying for help. Tsoi, 2002). With applies the above mentioned three principles to Hong Kong, it is worthy to highlight that Hong Kong only fulfilled the first condition out of the three. In the following paragraphs, the low effectiveness of the CSSA will be discussed with respect to its level of benefits, process of application as well as incentives for its recipients to reintegrate into the job market. The level of benefits by the standard rates of the CSSA cannot reflect the actual needs of its recipients, but are in fact set arbitrarily. At the oment, the standard rates of CSSA recipients are reviewed and adjusted annually by the Legislative Council to reflect the changes in Price Level by the Census and Statistics Department. The Consumption Price Index however, is a reference to the household expenditure of the 25% of the population with the lowest income. It is highly dubious as to whether the household expenditures of the poor households would be an authentic indicator and correspond to what they actually need to support their daily living. In addition, some CSSA recipients described the process of application as humiliating and intimidating. According to a joint project by the Department of Applied Social Sciences in Polytechnic University and Oxfam Hong Kong on Perception and Utilization of the CSSA in 2007, it was found that some recipients felt that their applications were always delayed and mishandled. Some applicants even accused the social security officers as having bad manners and lack empathy. These findings were found out after in-depth interviews and group discussion, although it is questionable as to the representativeness of the sample size, the critique to the â€Å"humiliating† application procedures must point to some bearing of truth that the CSSA recipients feel. Besides, some social workers in the study also complained that â€Å"some officers tend to insult and threaten the applicants by making unreasonable requests†. Going back to Midgley’s third condition in order to eradicate poverty which concerns the access to social security must not deter the needy from applying; the Social Services Department could clearly do a better job. Furthermore, there is always an unspoken concern that receiving CSSA would encourage a â€Å"dependency culture†, especially when the CSSA mechanisms do not encourage able-bodied recipients to attain economic independence. Contrary to common misconception that only able-bodied lazy people and new immigrants would apply for CSSA, most CSSA applicants, amounting to 60% (Oxfam, 2007) treat social security as the last resort to alleviate their dire financial circumstances. However, due to a lack of support services, only 8%-10% of able-bodied CSSA recipients are able to re-enter the competitive job market (Ming Pao Daily News, 2000) through the Special Job Attachment Programme. In addition, the additional cost for attempting to re-enter the job market may ut an extra toll on the families receiving CSSA, let alone some single parent’s families with insufficient child-care facilities may choose to keep on receiving welfare instead of working. In short, CSSA do not provide sufficient incentive for its recipients to re-join the work force, which is the only way to escape poverty. Another aspect of the social security system in Hong Kong is mandated occupational pension, which is in the form of Mandatory Provident Fund in Hong Kong. It is a compulsory, occupation-related scheme with defined monthly contribution by both employers and employees. The Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Ordinance was passed in 2000 with the hope of strengthening the safety net and retirement protection. Contribution to the MPF is mandated to be 10% of the employee’s income with which 5% is contributed by his/her employer. Besides, the mandatory contribution is adjusted with relevance to employees’ income. After the implementation of minimum wage, the monthly relevant income is readjusted, for employees with monthly income less than $6500, only their employers are mandated to contribute 5% of relevant income, this becomes the minimum contribution. On the other hand, for employees with income higher than $25000, both employers and employees are required to contribute $1250, this becomes the maximum contribution. All MPF contributions will be injected into registered MPF trustee in the market chosen by the employers, but now, employees will be able to choose new MPF scheme annually based on their performance. In the following paragraphs, the limitations of the MPF scheme will be discussed including its limited coverage as well as inadequate retirement protection which undoubtedly hamper its effectiveness. As aforementioned, MPF is an employment-related protection scheme, which means that only people with long-term employment contract will receive retirement protection. The MPF only have limited coverage and do not have universal protection as people excluded from the workforce including the sick, the disabled, housewives, hawkers, domestic employees and so on are unprotected, this amount to quite a sizable portion in the population. Besides, the employers might try to evade from the mandated contributions by altering the terms of employment contract. Employers are legally bound to contribute to MPF for their employees if they are employed for more than 60 days, therefore, some employers may deliberately change the employment contract to 59 days or terminate the contract and re-employ the employees. In brief, the MPF scheme does not provided for universal protection in the sense that a significant portion of the population is left unprotected, let alone some canny employers attempt to alter the employment contract in order to avoid contributing to their employees’ retirement protection scheme. Furthermore, the predicament of the MPF Scheme is that despite its objective is to provide retirement protection and reinforce the safety net, the protection is in fact far from sufficient. MPF is a define-contribution scheme but it is not a defined-benefits scheme, which meant that employees’ contribution is contingent upon many factors including the duration of contribution, returns from investments by the trustees after deducing the high administrative and transaction costs incurred, as well as the amount of contribution. This led to the inevitable unpredictability of benefits which is neither guaranteed by the trustees nor protected by the government. Besides, the scheme was introduced only in 2000, which meant that people around retirement age at that time would receive either little or no protection at all due to the short contribution period. At the moment, elderly poverty was one of the severest forms of poverty in Hong Kong. In short, contrary to its initial intention, the MPF does not guarantee retirement protection, instead only added more uncertainties and unpredictability to lives after retirement. The statutory minimum wage was passed in 2010 and fully implemented Labour Day of 2011. It aims at â€Å"striking an appropriate balance between forestalling excessively low wages and minimising the loss of low-paid jobs while sustaining Hong Kong’s economic growth and competitiveness (Labour Department, 2011). The initial minimum wage rate was set at $28, but the commission set up by the government to review the minimum wage rate biannually has agreed to increase to $30 an hour. From a theoretical standpoint, setting up a wage floor would upset the balance of the labour market by forcing some low skill workers to be laid off. Nevertheless, the government estimated that 273800 grassroot workers would benefit from the law and could sustain a basic level of living by avoiding from being underpaid. After about two years since the law has passed, however, it seems that reports about employers trying to cut the fringe benefits of employees were not uncommon and the actual effect and repercussion of minimum wage on the labour market is yet to be unravelled. In the following essay, I will examine the implementation of minimum wage law with regard to its effectiveness in eradicating poverty in Hong Kong. In order to assess the effectiveness of minimum wage, the first indicator is changes in monthly income of the lower income groups when compared with higher income groups in the lower half year of 2011. If we divide the whole population equally into ten decile groups with the first decile group being the poorest 10% of the people and the tenth decile group being the wealthiest 10%, it was found that in the first three decile groups all experience increase in monthly income ranging from 6. 9% to 9. 3%, while the last three decile groups experience either no change or negative growth in their monthly income (HKCSS, 2011). However, looking at income alone would not be a comprehensive assessment of the effect of minimum wage law given that the economic began to boom around the time minimum wage was implemented. Therefore, a much more reliable assessment would be to compare the living standards of low income households before and after the minimum wage came into force. A study commissioned by Oxfam Hong Kong adopted a two-stage stratified surveys that interview impoverished households with at least one family member receiving minimum wage and compare their livelihood from March 2011 to January 2012. In the following paragraphs, findings from this study will be further analysed. In terms of monthly income, the minimum wage law has indeed increase the nominal household income. About 70% of interviewees, representing 131125 families reported an increase in household income after the introduction of minimum wage. Moreover, 72. 6% of them also reported a rise in individual workers’ income. In spite of an increase in monthly income and in fact, hourly income as well, working hours of workers decreased. The average hourly wage of respondents who stayed in the same job before and after implementation of minimum wage increased, 56. 8% of them even receive an hourly wage that exceeded $28. However, the same group of people who remain in the same job also experience an average cut of about 13. 9 working hours. This reduction of working hour is more often than not, at the expense of the workers’ benefit such as cancelling paid lunch hour or meal break and no overtime payment and so on. 46. % of respondents complained that the previously paid rest days were cancelled since the enforcement of minimum wage law. Taking into account of the loss of paid rest days as well as other fringe benefits, coupled with the reduction in working hours, over half of the respondents, 55. 8% of them experienced a drop in individual income despite the apparent increase in nominal monthly income. In the paragraph above concerning CSSA recipients, it was briefly mentioned that they treat social assistanc e as their last resort to mitigate their financial situation. In fact, most of them felt â€Å"perceivable prejudice† against them. The introduction of minimum wage has a wide application, but it affects most significantly low-income jobs that CSSA recipients crave. About half of the respondents receiving CSSA in the Oxfam study affirm the effectiveness of wage floor as an impetus to quit receiving social assistance. This in brief, could address the need of CSSA recipients to self-reliance and eliminate the stigmatization or label that they feel attached to them by re-entering the job market. Nonetheless, increase in income to a certain extent does not mean or signify poverty alleviation. The most pivotal finding in the Oxfam study is that it reveals 40. 5% of households still live in deprivation despite the minimum wage law. This is because they define â€Å"deprivation† as the inabilities to afford at least three items that are dubbed essential by most Hong Kong residents including dental check-ups, leisure activities, afford to go to private clinics when sick and tea house and so on. According to Townsend (1979), â€Å"a person is considered to be in poverty if he or she does not have enough resources to enable him or her to participate in normal activities commonly engaged by ordinary members in the community and therefore cannot become fully integrated into the mainstream of society. † Therefore, when 40. 5% of respondents, representing 531354 households are still deprived of a chance to engage in social activities simply due to the fact that they still could not afford the items they need highlighted just how ineffective minimum wage legislation has been in eradicating poverty. In conclusion, lifting people out of poverty is a difficult problem that could not be solved by any social policy alone, let alone the many flaws and limitations that are embedded in social policies. However, it is only through identifying the imperfection in social welfare policies could we make improvement on them and hopefully attain the final goal of eradicating poverty at the end.

G I R L by Pharrell Williams free essay sample

Pharrell Williams has been dominating genres from rap, rock, and pop ever since the early 2000s. Leading in his band N.E.R.D with Neptune Chad Hugo and Shay Haley, music was forever changed. Pharrell decided to go solo with his first album, In My Mind, in 2006. Here we are in 2014 with exciting news of Pharrell’s second solo album, Girl. Different opinions were heard everywhere with his new production, but my personal opinion placed Pharrell in the category of musically genius. Eight years later with soaring expectations, Pharrell does nothing but rise above. Ever wonder what a good album consists of exactly? Listen to the ten songs on Girl to find that answer. Pharrell puts the topic of women in a sophisticated manner, with lyrical matter that would flatter any girl. The mood in this album is uplifting, which cannot be denied when the Number One hit â€Å"Happy† blares through the radio. We will write a custom essay sample on G I R L by Pharrell Williams or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The music and production behind a song often goes unnoticed. What makes Gwen Stefani’s â€Å"Hollaback Girl† or Nelly’s â€Å"Get Like Me† the sing along for most 90’s kids? That would be Pharrell and his prodigious ability to produce music. In Girl, we see Pharrell use his skill with tempos and beats with each song. The track list is full of hand claps assisted with a jazz essence, contributing to that light, happy mood. All of the songs are truly a joy to listen to, which comes as no surprise to any Pharrell fan. My personal favorite on Girl would indubitably have to be â€Å"I Know Who You Are† featuring Alicia Keys. The harmonization between the two is just what the doctor ordered. If you are looking for a good album, look no further. Pharrell Williams has done it again and I strongly suggest everyone take a moment to listen and appreciate that.

What role did private investment and initivative play in the development of european imperalism Essays

What role did private investment and initivative play in the development of european imperalism Essays What role did private investment and initivative play in the development of european imperalism Essay What role did private investment and initivative play in the development of european imperalism Essay At the beginning of European imperialism, the countrys kings and rulers were not too keen on the idea of explorations. They felt that most merchants were chasing a lost cause, or just looking to use up the nations coffers and come back with nothing. The kings traditionally only undertook ventures that would bring them riches for sure. There was nothing sure about the trips that explorers wanted to take to Asia and other regions. There was a very, very good chance that they would fail, and royal rulers had more important and closer to home issues to spend their money on. So they did not support imperialism until they all began to see the riches that could come there way. Till then it was the private individuals that kick started imperialism. This attitude of the royals would have severely dented the European ambitions to become an imperial power. Luckily for them, ambitious merchants and other individuals all pooled their money together and sent these explorers on expeditions. They paid the expenses, and did not ask for any guarantees about returns as they knew only too well the risk they were taking. Going on an expedition was not an easy task, as the trip would probably take around nine months, with six months being spent on sea. This would require supplies, money, and a large crew (and wages for them). Also, the ships themselves would have to be built, which would require further funds. These funds could also be lost completely, as most ships that went on voyages did not come back. For example, Vasco da Gama took six ships on one of his voyages, and only came back with one. This was the risk that was being taken by merchants, because there was the very real possibility that none of the ships would survive the journey to and back, and they would only incur heavy losses. However, the reason for the continued private investment was the fact that once they did succeed, the profits were enormous. The silks or spices that were brought from Asia, sold for massive amounts in Europe, making the merchants risks well worth it. They would fill their pockets a lot more than they would before, and would realize that their investment had been very wise indeed. Initiative played a very important role in imperialism as well, because it was impossible to do something without the ideas or the eagerness to expand. The money might always be there, but money can be spent in a plethora of different ways. The ideas and the desire to expand, and the initiative to see the opportunities for profit must be there to start of their imperialism. The Europeans had something that maybe other civilizations in the past simply didnt. They had the desire and the inspiration to see that imperialism was an excellent idea, and the massive amounts of profits and land and glory that it would bring them. Private investment is what got the French such as John Cabot towards North America, and the eventual French colony of Quebec. They had no support from their rulers. The same occurred in India, where the French did compete with the British and the Dutch for supremacy. Of course they did lose out, because of no support from the government, but private efforts got them there, and helped them maintain the colony of Pondicherry for a long time. In a sense, the Europeans would never have succeeded in their imperialistic ways if it had not been for private investors. Of course, it was royal backing that got the Portuguese, English, and Spanish the colonies around the world and helped them maintain them. However, it was individuals that started it all of. Had the private investors not taken the risk, then the later colonizations would never have happened, because Europeans would never have sailed to such regions. We can all thank the monarchs for their help in later European imperialism, yet the foundations were all due to private individuals taking a gamble, and hoping it would pay of. And boy did it pay of!

The promotion of intangible products with event marketing Research Paper - 1

The promotion of intangible products with event marketing - Research Paper Example Consumers are seeking for more intangible value, while the banking sector is looking for greater, more productive means to market their intangible products/services to customers. This pursuit leads the banking sector to the path of event marketing, which is a very valuable, needs-based method to satisfy customers’ intangible needs and demands. Event marketing is derived from the observation of the behavior of customers through thorough data examination. These customer patterns may embody a time of need of a customer, which, once identified in a prompt way, tenders a vast prospect to provide intangible products/services to that customer (Harrison, 2000). An increasing number of banking organizations are already generating substantial returns from investing on event marketing activities. Numerous other financial organizations perform analytic oriented targeting or also referred to as ‘triggered marketing’ and could even apply the same terms (Mayar & Uffenheimer, 200 7). The capability to keep in touch or communicate with each customer promptly or relevantly entails a basis of significant information that is novel and is connected directly and routinely to service and sales channels (Mayar & Uffenheimer, 2007). This is the setting that motivates the biggest profits. The banking sector understands that their most valuable advantage is their customers. It is much profitable or gainful to strengthen the bond with present customers and prevent deficiency, in contrast to attracting new customers (Ennew & Waite, 2006). This essay will discuss the promotion of intangible products/services, such as those of the banking sector, through event marketing. Promoting Intangible Products through Event Marketing Intangible products, such as information, are a very extensive concept. Situated in the current terminology, a primary point of similarity in the marketing of tangibles and intangibles gravitate around the extent of intangibility innate in both forms (G ummesson, 2002). Marketing is focused on drawing the attention and sustaining customers. The intangibility level of product has its biggest impact in the goal of attracting customers. When it concerns keeping customers, intangible products come across quite specific setbacks (Kitchen & De Pelsmacker, 2004). However, these setbacks are minimized through event marketing. Event marketing is rooted in regularly and methodically monitoring full customer behavior and patters to determine those times where there is a chance to improve a rapport or when a customer is most prepared to reach a choice of intangible product/service purchase (Gummesson, 2002). The objective of event marketing is to facilitate communication in an appropriate and prompt way with customers and to develop services, marketing, and sales around their particular requirements. Event marketing normally makes use of the database and capably rakes through the customer folders to choose the customers with the recognized tri ggers (Mayar & Uffenheimer, 2007). Triggers, in marketing, are employed to routinely communicate suggestions, offers, relevant messages, or other

Critical Issues in Abandoned Information Systems Development Projects Essay

Critical Issues in Abandoned Information Systems Development Projects - Essay Example   Delegating these projects to lower-level managers or generic staff members would likely allow for IS projects to be mismanaged or certain issues to be overlooked. If the senior manager is unaware of what the project team is doing at all critical stages in the information systems project, there is likely to be poor communication between project team members and lack of focus on meeting specific deadlines for project stage completion. Lack of technical understanding about complex projects, also, can involve creating a project team with members who really are not capable of performing the necessary tasks to achieve the project goal. In many ways, this would seem to go hand-in-hand with lack of senior management oversight as when developing a project team there should be a well-coordinated effort to ensure that all members have the expertise necessary to understand project goals and also ensure they are implemented successfully. Again, as pointed out by Ewusi-Mensah, often failures in these projects are not recognized until they come to the crisis stage and the project costs have already escalated out of control. The conceptual nature of IS projects, additionally, poses problems for companies such as those described in the case study. For an organization such as Intrico Consortium, which was looking to create a rather unparalleled reservation system IS project, failure to create a solid outline of project stage expectations prior to selecting project team members and role responsibilities is likely what led to years of cost overruns and the other disputes involving senior-level management.

The Past And Present Of Immigration

The Past And Present Of Immigration Everyday news outlets report on topics and trends that correlate to our history. Following these news outlets gives a better understanding of these trends in todays America. This paper will look at these trends from our past and compare is to the present condition. It will analyze differing viewpoints on the topic, and it will explain the change over time. The world hears of America as the land of opportunity. Because of this, millions of people flock to the US each year. Some come through our borders legally, eventually becoming neutralized citizens. Some come here as tourists or students and decide to stay when their visas expire. Others are so desperate to better their lives they paddle onto our shores in bathtubs and homemade rafts. People want to get here in any way they can. This paper will specifically analyze two major migrations of people: the Irish from the 19th century and the current Mexican migration. In 1845 Ireland experienced the greatest potato famine up to that date. The source of food wiped away from the population, this event catalyzed a mass migration. Five weary years of undependable crops plighted the country, throwing the lowly peasant class into starvation. All hope gone, survivors only wished to flee. The only way out was emigration. Starving families could not pay landlords and had nowhere else to turn except for America. America, the land of opportunity. Irish immigration into America was already a rising trend. However, in the 1940s the number of immigrants skyrocketed. Nearly 2 million Irish came into the country in that decade. The flow increased for five years. Slowly, the first immigrants saved the money to bring family over the Atlantic, increasing the number of immigrants exponentially. There began a slight decline for ten years after 1855 until 1865. Nonetheless, small groups of families still continued to arrive after the Civil War. Between 1820 and 1880 nearly 3.5 Irish men immigrated to the United States. Emigrating to the United States was not an easy feet, and it was not the easy life some had expected. However, it did offer a better environment than the barren old country. Poor refugees arrived with nothing. They had little to no resources to start a farm or business and had a grueling time providing for the family at all. Very few immigrants were put into a position that allowed them to make their own decisions on their way of living at all. Fortunately for them, the expansion of the American economy created heavy demands for muscle grunt. The great canals, which were the first links in the national transportation system were still being dug in the 1820s and 1830s, and in the time between 1830 and 1880, thousands of miles of rail were being laid. With no bulldozers existing at the time, the pick and the shovel were the only earth-moving equipment at the time. And the Irish laborers were the mainstay of the construction gangs that did this grueling work. In towns along the sites of work, groups of Irish formed their small communities to live in. By the middle of the nineteenth century, American cities began to rapidly expand and began to develop an infrastructure and needed personnel to run these cities. This is the Irishs first break in America. Irish men filled the ranks of citys police force and firemen. The Irish all almost monopolized these jobs as soon as they were created. Irish workmen not only began laying the horse car and streetcar tracks, but were some of the first drivers and conductors. The first generations worked largely at unskilled and semiskilled occupations, but their children found themselves working at increasingly skilled trades. By the turn of the century, Irish made up nearly a third of plumbers, steamfitters, and boilermakers. Irishmen soon found themselves being given positions as managers as unskilled laborers began coming from other areas of Europe. While immigrants can change the shape of a culture, as seen with the Irish migration, those same immigrants are benificial to industrial growth. That same idea also holds true for Mexican immigrants. Now this research paper will take a look into the Mexican migration that this country is witnessing now. It will begin with a historical background. Fifty-five thousand Mexican workers immigrated to the United States between the years 1850 and 1880 to become field hands in newly won regions of the US that had been Mexico a few years previous. This is the time period in which commercial agriculture, the mining industry, light industry and the railroad all became dependant on the Mexican laborer. Needless to say, working conditions and salaries of the Mexicans were poor. After the Mexican Revolution of 1910, the new Mexican government was not able to improve the lives of its citizens. Soon after this event became a crisis, the fields of Mexico harvested increasingly smaller bounties and employment soon became hard to come by. Much like his Irish counterpart, Mexicans had to move to survive. World War I also stoked the fire of Mexican immigration. Mexican workers worked well in industry and service professions, working as machinists, mechanics, painters and plumbers. These years fostered employment opportunities for Mexicans because much of the existing U.S. labor force was across the Atlantic fighting in France for the Allies. Entrepreneurs came to Mexico searching for workers who could fill jobs in the railway and agriculture industries of the United States. Mexican workers complaints about the abuse of their labor rights eventually led the Mexican government to action. Led by Venustiano Carranza in 1920, the Mexican government composed a model contract that guaranteed Mexican workers certain rights named in the Mexican Political Constitution. The contract demanded that U.S. ranchers allow workers to bring their families along during the period of the contract. No worker was allowed to leave for the United States without a contract, signed by an immigration official, which stated the rate of pay, work schedule, place of employment and other similar conditions. Thus, this became the first de facto Bracero Program between the two countries. In 1924, the U.S. Border Patrol was created, an event which would have a significant impact on the lives of Mexican workers. Though the public did not immediately view Mexicans as illegal aliens, the law now stated that undocumented workers were fugitives. With the advent of the Border Patrol, the definition illegal alien is born, and many Mexican citizens north of the border were subject to much suspicion. The Mexican work force was critical in developing the economy and prosperity of the United States. The Mexican workers in numerous accounts were regarded as strong and efficient. As well, they were willing to work for low wages, in working conditions that were questionably humane. Another measure of control was imposed on the Mexican immigrant workers during the depression: visas were denied to all Mexicans who failed to prove they had secure employment in the United States. The Mexicans who were deported under this act were warned that if they came back to the United States, they would be considered outlaws. It seemed whenever the United States found a reason to close the door on Mexican immigration, a historic event would force them to reopen that door. Such was the case when the United States entered World War II. In 1942, the United States was heading to war with the fascist powers of Europe. Labor was siphoned from all areas of United States industry and poured into those which supported the war efforts. Also in that year, the United States signed the Bracero Treaty which reopened the floodgates for legal immigration of Mexican laborers. Between the period of 1942 and 1964, millions of Mexicans were imported into the U.S. as braceros under the Bracero Program to work temporarily on contract to United States growers and ranchers. Under the Bracero Program, more than 4 million Mexican farm workers came to work the fields of the United States. Impoverished Mexicans fled their rural communities and traveled north to work as braceros. It was mainly by the Mexican hand that America became the most lush agricultural center in the world. The braceros were principally experienced farm workers who hailed from regions such as Coahuila, la Comarca Lagunera, and other crucial agricultural regions in Mexico. They left their own lands and families chasing a rumor of economic boom in the United States. The Bracero Program contracts were controlled by independent farmer associations and the Farm Bureau, and were written in English, and many braceros would sign them without understanding the rights they were giving away nor the terms of the employment. The braceros were allowed to return to their native lands only in case of emergency, and required written permission from their employer. When the contracts expired, the braceros were mandated to hand over their permits and return to Mexico. The braceros in the United States were busy thinning sugar beets, picking cucumbers and tomatoes and weeding and picking cotton. At the end of World War II, Mexican workers were ousted from their jobs by workers coming out of wartime industries and by returning servicemen. By 1947, the Emergency Farm Labor Service was working on decreasing the amount of Mexican labor imported. By the 1960s, an overflow of illegal agricultural workers along with the invention of the mechanical cotton harvester, diminished the practicality and appeal of the bracero program. These events, added to the gross humanitarian violations of bracero employers, brought the program to an end in 1964. Once we step back from our emotional opinions, we should see that the Mexican migration is much like the Irish migration. We can choose to embrace that, or we can choose to fight it. Either way it will be very hard to stop if it can be stopped at all. But we must ask ourselves a simple question. Why stop it? America was founded on people like these, struggling to survive. They came and made America what it is. The Irish came and transformed America. Why shouldnt we allow these immigrants to do the same (if they enter legally of course)? Is our pride getting in the way of progress?

Appreciating Loved Ones Essay

I never used to think that one day I would lose my grandfather. I had always thought he would always be there when I needed him. When I lost my grandpa, I lost my best friend the one I would call for anything I needed. Such as when I needed someone to talk to someone or just to call him to see what he was doing. It had never occurred to me a lot of bad things happen in this world, such as losing someone. Losing a loved one can cause you to learn so many things positive and negative. I for myself can say I learned a few things such as encouraging words can change a person’s mind set and you should treasure your loved ones. Although I learned some of life’s lessons, it still is a terrible way to learn them. When my grandfather was alive we did a lot of activities together. He would sometimes get me and my sister from school, and we would get ice cream or go to the park. He took me and my sister fishing a few times. He also showed us how to make a kite. During the summer h e would take me and my sister swimming at a pool near his house. He took us to the beach and once took us scuba diving. Four years ago on my birthday he came to my house and he took me, my sister, brother, and mom out to eat. Then he took me to the mall to buy clothing of my choice. The next day around 1:30 my mom received a phone call from my grandfather saying he wasn’t feeling well. We rushed to his house and he wasn’t able to get up, so we called an ambulance. He was hospitalized for liver failure. For the next two weeks we had gone to visit him at Chippenham Hospital. In the first week he wasn’t really able to talk, because they put an air tube down his throat. In the second week he was talking to me and my other family members. He apologized to my grandmother for all the wrong he did when they were married. My family members included my seven aunts, three uncles, and eight cousins, my mom and dad, and my grandmother. The last three days of his life were going rather well. He had previously purchased a house for himself five minutes away from my house. He was prepared to move in on November 23rd. He had purchased a house with five bedrooms for each of his grandchildren to sleep in when they visited. My mom told me that he was getting better and was planning to throw him a welcome home dinner. The last of day of his life he told everyone good bye and he loved them, as if he knew he was going to die. The next morning my mom was supposed to go to work. Instead I found her teary eyed looking through our photo album. I asked her what’s wrong she replied â€Å"he died late last night. Before he died, he told me â€Å"Ayanna Ciara Bonner, I believe you can do anything and I love you forever.† I will remember those words forever. After my grandfather passed I kept having reruns of all the memories we had shared together. For instance when were at a family reunion at a lake, and it was time for karaoke.me and my grandfather decided to sing. We sang â€Å"You are my sunshine† for the family and we had so much fun doing it. Another time is when he came to one of my soccer games and drilled with me before my game, and we had a lot of fun doing it, but he ended up with a sprained ankle. My best memory of my grandfather was when the first time he took us fishing. He had rented a boat and got my sister and I pink fishing rods. He was trying to teach me how to cast the reel, and I ended up falling into the water. My grandpa jumped in the water to save me. He told me that I gave him a heart attack and to be more careful. I realized people should appreciate loved ones before it is too late and no regrets. I wish I could say I love you to my grandpa one more time and I could spend one last day with him. A loved one is someone that cannot be replaced. There has not been a day I haven’t thought about him. I wish I would have realized that you should not take your family for granted. One day they could be here, then boom, they’re gone. I know it’s hard to think about life this way, but its life. Try to make many memories with family and make them last.

The Great Trade Collapse: What Caused It and What Does It Mean

The great trade collapse: What caused it and what does it mean? Richard Baldwin 27 November 2009 World trade experienced a sudden, severe, and synchronised collapse in late 2008 – the sharpest in recorded history and deepest since WWII. This ebook – written for the world's trade ministers gathering for the WTO's Trade Ministerial in Geneva – presents the economics profession's received wisdom on the collapse. Two dozen chapters, written by leading economists from across the globe, summarise the latest research on the causes of the collapse as well as its consequences and the prospects for recovery.According to the emerging consensus, the collapse was caused by the sudden, severe and globally synchronised postponement of purchases, especially of durable consumer and investment goods (and their parts and components). The impact was amplified by â€Å"compositional† and â€Å"synchronicity† effects in which international supply chains played a central role. The â€Å"great trade collapse† occurred between the third quarter of 2008 and the second quarter of 2009. Signs are that it has ended and recovery has begun, but it was huge – the steepest fall of world trade in recorded history and the deepest fall since the Great Depression.The drop was sudden, severe, and synchronised. A few facts justify the label: The Great Trade Collapse. It was severe and sudden Global trade has dropped before – three times since WWII – but this is by far the largest. As Figure 1 shows, global trade fell for at least three quarters during three of the worldwide recessions that have occurred since 1965 – the oil-shock recession of 1974-75, the inflation-defeating recession of 1982-83, and the Tech-Wreck recession of 2001-02.Specifically: †¢The 1982 and 2001 drops were comparatively mild, with growth from the previous year’s quarter reaching -5% at the most. †¢The 1970s event was twice that size, with g rowth stumbling to -11%. †¢Today collapse is much worse; for two quarters in a row, world trade flows have been 15% below their previous year levels. The OECD has monthly data on its members’ real trade for the past 533 months; the 7 biggest month-on-month drops among the 533 all occurred since November 2008 (see the chapter by Sonia Araujo and Joaquim Oliveira).Figure 1 The great trade collapses in historical perspective, 1965 – 2009 Source: OECD Quarterly real trade data. The great trade collapse is not as large as that of the Great Depression, but it is much steeper. It took 24 months in the Great Depression for world trade to fall as far as it fell in the 9 months from November 2008 (Figure 2). The latest data in the figure (still somewhat preliminary) suggests a recovery is underway. Figure 2 The great trade collapses vs. the Great Depression Source: Eichengreen and O’Rourke (2009), based on CPB online data for latest.It was synchronised †¢All 104 nations on which the WTO reports data experienced a drop in both imports and exports during the second half of 2008 and the first half of 2009. †¢Figure 3 shows how imports and exports collapsed for the EU27 and 10 other nations that together account for three-quarters of world trade; each of these trade flows dropped by more than 20% from 2008Q2 to 2009Q2; many fell 30% or more. Figure 3 The great trade collapse, 2008 Q2 to 2009 Q2 Sources: WTO online database.Figure 4 shows that world trade in almost all product categories were positive in 2008Q2, almost all were negative in 2008Q4, and all where negative in 2009Q1. The categories most marked by international supply chains (Mechanical and electrical machinery, Precision instruments, and Vehicles) saw some of the biggest drops, and detailed empirics in the chapter by Bems, Johnson and Yi finds that supply chains were hit harder controlling for other factors. The chart, however, shows that the falls were by no means extraordin ary large in these sectors.Figure 4 All types of goods trade collapsed simultaneously Source: Comtrade database. Manufactures and commodities Trade collapsed across the board, but it is important to distinguish between commodities and manufactures. The collapse in minerals and oil trade started from a boom time and fell faster than total trade (Figure 5). The reason was prices. Food, materials and especially oil experienced a steep run up in price in early 2008; the boom ended in mid 2008 – well before the September 2008 Lehman’s debacle. The price of manufactures, by contrast, was rather steady in this period (Figure 6).Figure 5 The great trade collapse and values: Food, oil, and manufactures Source: ITC online database. Since food, fuels, and raw materials make up about a quarter of global trade, these price movements had a big impact on aggregate trade figures. Countries dependent on commodity exports, in particular oil exporters, were among those that experienced t he greatest drop in exports (see the chapters Africa by Peter Draper and Gilberto Biacuana, and by Leonce Ndikumana and Tonia Kandiero, and on India by Rajiv Kumar and Dony Alex).The drop in manufactures trade was also massive, but it involved mostly quantity reductions. Exporters specialising in durable goods manufactures saw a particularly sharp decline in their exports (see chapters on Japan by Ruyhei Wakasugi and by Kiyoyasu Tanaka). Mexico, which is both an oil exporter and a participant in the US’s manufacturing supply chain, experienced one of the world’s most severe trade slumps (see chapter by Ray Robertson). Figure 6 The great trade collapse and prices: Commodity vs. manufactures Source: CPB online database. CausesThe great trade collapse was triggered by – and helped spread – the global economic slump that has come to be called â€Å"The Great Recession. 1 As the left panel of Figure 7 shows, the OECD nations slipped into recession in this per iod, with the largest importing markets – the US, EU and Japan (the G3) – seeing their GDP growth plummet more or less in synch. The US and Europe saw negative GDP growth rates of 3 to 4%; Japan was hit far worse. Figure 7 The current recession, OECD nations and G3, 2007Q1 – 2009Q2 Note: G3 is US, EU and Japan. Source: OECD online data base.Why did trade fall so much more than GDP? Given the global recession, a drop in global trade is unsurprising. The question is: Why was it so big? The chapter by Caroline Freund shows that during the four large, postwar recessions (1975, 1982, 1991, and 2001) world trade dropped 4. 8 times more than GDP (also see Freund 2009). This time the drop was far, far larger. From a historical perspective (Figure 8), the drop is astonishing. The figure shows the trade-to-GDP ratio rising steeply in the late 1990s, before stagnating in the new century right up to the great trade collapse in 2008.The rise in the 1990s is explained by a nu mber of factors including trade liberalisation. A key driver, however, was the establishment of international supply chains (manufacturing was geographically unbundled with various slices of the value-added process being placed in nearby nations). This unbundling meant that the same value-added crossed borders several times. In a simple international supply chain, imported parts would be transformed into exported components which were in turn assembled into final goods and exported again, so the trade figures counted the final value added several times.As we shall see, the presences of these highly integrated and tightly synchronised production networks plays an important role in the nature of the great trade collapse (see chapters by Rudolfs Bems, Robert Johnson, and Kei-Mu Yi, and by Andrei Levchenko, Logan Lewis, and Linda Tesar). Figure 8 World trade to world GDP ratio, 1980Q1 to 2009Q2 Source: World imports from OECD online data base; World GDP based on IMF data. Emerging conse nsus on the causes Economists around the world have been working hard to understand the causes of this unusually large and abrupt shut down of international trade.The dozen chapters in Part II of this book summarise all the key research – most of it done by the authors themselves. They do not all agree on all points, but a consensus is emerging. When sales drop sharply – and the great trade collapse was a gigantic drop in international sales – economists look for demand shocks and/or supply shocks. The emerging consensus is that the great trade collapse was mostly a demand shock – although supply side factors played some role. The demand shock operated through two distinct but mutually reinforcing channels: †¢Commodity prices – which tumbled when the rice bubble burst in mid 2008 – continued to follow world demand in its downward spiral. The price movements and diminished demand sent the value and volume of commodities trade diving. â⠂¬ ¢The production and exports of manufacturing collapsed as the Lehman’s-induced shock-and-awe caused consumers and firms to wait and see; private demand for all manner of ‘postpone-able’ consumption crashed. This second point was greatly amplified by the very particular nature of the demand shock that hit the world’s economy in September 2008. Why so big? This consensus view, however, is incomplete.It raises the question: If the trade drop was demand driven, why was the trade drop so much larger than the GDP drop? The answer provided by the emerging consensus is that the nature of the demand shock interacted with â€Å"compositional† and â€Å"synchronicity† effects to greatly exaggerate the movement of the trade-to-GDP ratio. Compositional effect The compositional effect turns on the peculiar nature of the demand shock. The demand shock was very large, but also focused on a narrow range of domestic value-added activities – the produ ction of â€Å"postponeable† goods, consumer durables and investment goods.This demand drop immediately, reducing demand for all related intermediate inputs (parts and components, chemicals, steel, etc). The compositional-effect argument is founded on the fact that postponeables make up a narrow slice of world GDP, but a very large slice of the world trade (Figure 9). In a nutshell, the common cause of the GDP and trade collapse – a sudden drop in the demand for postponeables – operated with full force on trade but diminished force on GDP due to the compositional difference.The large demand shock applied to the near-totality of trade while only applying to a thin portion of GDP. Here is a simple example. 2 Suppose exports consisted of 90% â€Å"postponeable† (consumer and investment electronics, transport equipment, machinery and their parts and components). GDP, however, consists most of non-tradeables (services, etc). Taking postponeables’ share in US GDP to be 20%, the pre-crisis situation is: When the sales of postponeables slumps by, say, half, the numerator falls much more than the denominator.Assuming that †other† continues growth in trade and GDP by 2%, the post-crisis trade to GDP ratio is Exports have fallen 44. 8% in this example, while GDP has fallen only 8. 4%. In short, the different composition of trade and GDP, taken together with the specific nature of the demand shock, has resulted in trade falling more than 5 times as fast as GDP. See the chapter by Andrei Levchenko, Logan Lewis, and Linda Tesar for a careful investigation of this logic using detailed US production and trade data; they find that the compositional effect accounts for most of the US trade drop.The chapter by Joseph Francois and Julia Woerz uses US and Chinese data to argue that the compositional effect is key to understanding the trade collapse. 3 Figure 9 Composition of world goods trade Source: WTO online database for 2007. Sync hronicity effect The synchronicity effect helps explain why the great trade collapse was so great in an even more direct manner; almost every nation’s imports and exports fell at the same time. There was none of the averaging out that occurred in the three other postwar trade drops. But why was it so synchronised?There are two leading explanations for the remarkable synchronicity. The first concerns international supply chains, the second concerns the ultimate cause of the Great Recession. The profound internationalisation of the supply chain that has occurred since the 1980s – specifically, the just-in-time nature of these vertically integrated production networks – served to coordinate, i. e. rapidly transmit, demand shocks. Even a decade ago, a drop in consumer sales in the US or Europe took months to be transmitted back to the factories and even longer to reach the suppliers of those factories.Today, Factory Asia is online. Hesitation by US and European cons umers is transmitted almost instantly to the entire supply chain, which reacts almost instantly by producing and buying less; trade drops in synch, both imports and exports. For example, during the 2001 trade collapse, monthly data for 52 nations shows that 39% of the month-nation pairs had negative growth for both imports and exports. In the 2008 crisis the figure is 83%. For details on this point, see Di Giovanni, Julian and Andrei Levchenko (2009), Yi (2009), and the chapters by Rudolfs Bems, Robert Johnson, and Kei-Mu Yi, and by Kiyoyasu Tanaka.The second explanation requires a bit of background and a bit of conjecture (macroeconomists have not arrived at a consensus on the causes of the Great Recession). To understand the global shock to the demand for traded goods, we need a thumbnail sketch of the global crisis. How the subprime crisis became the global crisis The â€Å"Subprime Crisis† broke out in August 2007. For 13 months, the world viewed this as a financial crisi s that was mainly restricted to the G7 nations who had mismanaged their monetary and regulatory policy – especially the US and the UK.Figure 3 shows that world trade continued growing apace in 2007 and early 2008. The crisis metastasised from the â€Å"Subprime Crisis† to the global crisis in September 2008. The defining moment came when the US Treasury allowed the investment bank Lehman Brothers to go bankrupt. This shocked the global financial community since they had assumed no major financial institution would be allowed to go under. Many of the remaining financial institutions were essentially bankrupt in an accounting sense, so no one knew who might be next. Bankers stopped lending to each other and credit markets froze.The Lehman bankruptcy, however, was just one of a half dozen â€Å"impossible events† that occurred at this time. Here is a short list of others:4 †¢All big investment banks disappeared. †¢The US Fed lent $85 billion to an insuran ce company (AIG), borrowing money from the US Treasury to cover the loan. †¢A US money market fund lost so much that it could not repay its depositors capital. †¢US Treasury Secretary Paulson asked the US Congress for three-quarters of a trillion dollars based on a 3-page proposal; he had difficulties in answering direct questions about how the money would fix the problem. The hereto laissez-faire US Securities and Exchange Commission banned short selling of bank stocks to slow the drop in financial institutions stock prices. It didn’t work. †¢Daniel Gros and Stephano Micossi (2009) pointed out that European banks were too big to fail and too big to save (their assets were often multiples of the their home nations’ GDPs); †¢Congress said â€Å"no† to Paulson’s ill-explained plan, promising its own version. As people around the world watched this unsteady and ill-explained behaviour of the US government, a massive feeling of insecurity formed.Extensive research in behavioural economics shows that people tend to act in extremely risk averse ways when gripped by fears of the unknown (as opposed to when they are faced with risk, as in a game of cards, where all outcomes can be enumerated and assigned a probability). Fall 2008 was a time when people really had no idea what might happen. This is Ricardo Caballero’s hypothesis of â€Å"Knightian Uncertainty† (i. e. the fear of the unknown) which has been endorsed by the IMF’s chief economist Olivier Blanchard. Consumers, firms, and investors around the world decided to â€Å"wait and see† – to hold off on postponeable purchases and investments until they could determine how bad things would get. The delaying of purchases and investments, the redressing of balance sheets and the switching of wealth to the safest assets caused what Caballero has called â€Å"sudden financial arrest† (a conscious reference to the usually fatal medi cal condition â€Å"sudden cardiac arrest†). The â€Å"fear factor† spread across the globe at internet speed. Consumers, firms and investors all feared that they’d find out what capitalism without the capital would be like.They independently, but simultaneously decided to shelf plans for buying durable consumer and investment goods and indeed anything that could be postponed, including expensive holidays and leisure travel. In previous episodes of declining world trade, there was no Lehman-like event to synchronise the wait-and-see stance on a global scale. The key points as concerns the trade and GDP collapse: †¢As the fear factor was propagating via the electronic press; the transmission was global and instantaneous. †¢The demand shock to GDP and the demand shock to trade occurred simultaneously. â€Å"Postponeable† sector production and trade were hit first and hardest. There are a number of indications that this is the right story. First, g lobal trade in services did not, in general, collapse (see the chapter by Aditya Mattoo and Ingo Borchert). Interestingly, one of the few categories of services trade that did collapse was tourism – the ultimate postponeable. Second, macroeconomists’ investigations into the transmission mechanisms operating in this crisis show that none of the usual transmission vectors – trade in goods, international capital flows, and financial crisis contagion – were esponsible for the synchronisation of the global income drop (Rose and Spiegel 2009). Supply-side effects The Lehman-link â€Å"sudden financial arrest† froze global credit markets and spilled over on the specialized financial instruments that help grease the gears of international trade – letters of credit and the like. From the earliest days of the great trade collapse, analysts suspected that a lack of trade-credit financing was a contributing factor (Auboin 2009). As the chapter by Jesse Mora and William Powers argues, such supply-side shocks have been important in the past.Careful research on the 1997 Asian crisis (Amiti and Weinstein 2009) and historical bank crises (see the chapter by Leonardo Iacovone and Veronika Zavacka) provide convincing evidence that credit conditions can affect trade flows. The Mora and Powers chapter, however, finds that declines in global trade finance have not had a major impact on trade flows. While global credit markets in general did freeze up, trade finance declined only moderately in most cases. If anything, US cross-border bank financing bounced back earlier than bank financing from other sources.In short, trade financing had at most a moderate role in reducing global trade. Internationalised supply chains are a second potential source of supply shocks. One could imagine that a big drop in demand combined with deteriorating credit conditions might produce widespread bankruptcies among trading firms. Since the supply chain is a cha in, bankruptcy of even a few links could suppress trade along the whole chain. The chapters by Peter Schott (on US data), by Lionel Fontagne and Guillaume Gaulier (on French data), and by Ruyhei Wakasugi (on Japanese data) present evidence that such disruptions did not occur this time.They do this by looking at very disaggregated data (firm-level data in the Fontagne-Gaulier chapter) and distinguishing between the so-called â€Å"intensive† and â€Å"extensive† margins of trade. These margins decompose changes in trade flows into changes in sales across existing trade relations (intensive) and changes in the number of such relations (extensive). If the supply-chain-disruption story were an important part of the great trade collapse, these authors should have found that the extensive margin was important.The authors, however, find that the great trade collapse has been primarily driven by the intensive margin – by changes in pre-existing trade relationships. Trad e fell because firms sold less of products that they were already selling; there was very little destruction of trade relationships as would be the case if the extensive margin had been found to be important. This findings may be due to the notion of †hysteresis in trade† (Baldwin 1988), namely, that large and sunk market-entry costs imply that firms are reluctant to exit markets in the face of temporary shocks.Instead of exiting, they merely scale back their operations, waiting for better times. Protectionism is the final supply shock commonly broached as a cause of the great trade collapse. The chapter by Simon Evenett documents the rise in crisis-linked protectionist measures. While many measures have been put in place – on average, one G20 government has broken its no-protection pledge every other day since November 2008 – they do not yet cover a substantial fraction of world trade. Protection, in short, has not been a major cause of the trade collapse so far.Prospects The suddenness of the 2008 trade drop holds out the hope of an equally sudden recovery. If the fear-factor-demand-drop was the driver of the great trade collapse, a confidence-factor-demand-revival could equally drive a rapid restoration of trade to robust growth. If it was all a demand problem, after all, little long-lasting damage will have been done. See the chapter by Ruyhei Wakasugi on this. There are clear signs that trade is recovering, and it is absolutely clear that the drop has halted. Will the trade revival continue?No one can know the future path of global economic recovery – and this is the key to the trade recovery. It is useful nonetheless to think of the global economic crisis as consisting of two very different crises: a banking-and-balance-sheet crisis in the over-indebted advanced nations (especially the US and UK), on one hand, and an expectations-crisis in most of the rest of the world on the other hand. In the US, UK and some other G7 na tions, the damage done by the bursting subprime bubble is still being felt.Their financial systems are still under severe strain. Bank lending is sluggish and corporate-debt issuances are problematic. Extraordinary direct interventions by central banks in the capital markets are underpinning the economic recovery. For these nations, the crisis – specifically the Subprime Crisis – has caused lasting damage. Banks, firms and individuals who over-leveraged during what they thought was the †great moderation† are now holding back on consumption and investment in an attempt to redress their balance sheets (Bean 2009).This could play itself out like the lost decade Japan experienced in the 1990s (Leijonhufvud 2009, Kobayashi 2008); also see the chapter by Michael Ferrantino and Aimee Larsen. For most nations in the world, however, this is not a financial crisis – it is a trade crisis. Many have reacted by instituting fiscal stimuli of historic proportions, but their banks and consumers are in relatively good shape, having avoided the overleveraging in the post tech-wreck period (2001-2007) that afflicted many of the G7 economies.The critical question is whether the damage to the G7’s financial systems will prevent a rapid recovery of demand and a restoration of confidence that will re-start the investment engine. In absence of a crystal ball, the chapter by Baldwin and Taglioni undertakes simple simulations that assume trade this time recovers at the pace it did in the past three global trade contractions (1974, 1982 and 2001). In those episodes, trade recovered to its pre-crisis path 2 to 4 quarters after the nadir.Assuming that 2009Q2 was the bottom of the great trade collapse – again an assumption that would require a crystal ball to confirm – this means trade would be back on track by mid 2010. Forecasts are never better than the assumptions on which they are built, so such calculations must be viewed as what- if scenarios rather than serious forecasts. Implications What does the great trade collapse mean for the world economy? The authors of this Ebook present a remarkable consensus on this.Three points are repeatedly stressed: †¢Global trade imbalances are a problem that needs to be tackled. One group of authors (see the chapters by Fred Bergsten, by Anne Krueger, and by Jeff Frieden) sees them as one the root causes of the Subprime Crisis. They worry that allowing them to continue is setting up the world for another global economic crisis. Fred Bergsten in particular argues that the US must get its federal budget deficit in order to avoid laying the carpet for the next crisis.Another group points to the combination of Asian trade surpluses and persistent high unemployment in the US and Europe as a source of protectionist pressures (see the chapters by Caroline Freund, by Simon Evenett, and by Richard Baldwin and Daria Taglioni). The chapter by O’Rourke notes that avoiding a protectionist backlash will require that the slump ends soon, and that severe exchange rate misalignments at a time of rising unemployment are avoided. †¢Governments should guard against compliancy in their vigil against protectionism.Most authors mention the point that while new protectionism to date has had a modest trade effect, things need not stay that way. The chapter by Simon Evenett is particularly clear on this point. There is much work to be done before economists fully understand the great trade collapse, but the chapters in this Ebook constitute a first draft of the consensus that will undoubtedly emerge from the pages of scientific journals in two or three years’ time. Footnotes 1 See Di Giovanni and Levchenko (2009) for evidence on how the shock was transmitted via international production networks. This is drawn from Baldwin and Taglioni (2009). 3 Jon Eaton, Sam Kortum, Brent Neiman and John Romalis make similar arguments with data from many nations in an unpublished manuscript dated October 2009. 4 See the excellent timeline of the crisis by the New York Fed. 5 Caballero (2009a, b) and Blanchard (2009). References Auboin, Marc (2009). â€Å"The challenges of trade financing†, VoxEU. org, 28 January 2009. Baldwin, Richard (1988). â€Å"Hysteresis in Import Prices: The Beachhead Effect†, American Economic Review, 78, 4, pp 773-785, 1988.Baldwin, Richard and Daria Taglioni (2009). â€Å"The illusion of improving global imbalances†, VoxEU. org, 14 November 2009. Bean, Charles (2009). â€Å"The Great Moderation, the Great Panic and the Great Contraction†, Schumpeter Lecture, European Economic Association, Barcelona, 25 August 2009. Blanchard, Olivier (2009). â€Å"(Nearly) nothing to fear but fear itself†, Economics Focus column, The Economist print edition, 29 January 2009. Caballero, Ricardo (2009a). â€Å"A global perspective on the great financial insurance run: Causes, consequences, and solutions (Part 2)†, VoxEU. rg, 23 January 2009. Caballero, Ricardo (2009b). â€Å"Sudden financial arrest†, VoxEU. org, 17 November 2009. Di Giovanni, Julian and Andrei Levchenko (2009). †International trade, vertical production linkages, and the transmission of shocks†, VoxEU. org, 11 November 2009.Freund, Caroline (2009a). â€Å"The Trade Response to Global Crises: Historical Evidence†, World Bank working paper. Gros, Daniel and Stefano Micossi (2009). â€Å"The beginning of the end game†¦Ã¢â‚¬ , VoxEU. org, 20 September 2008. Kobayashi, Keiichiro (2008). Financial crisis management: Lessons from Japan’s failure†, VoxEU. org, 27 October 2008. Leijonhufvud, Axel (2009). â€Å"No ordinary recession†, VoxEU. org, 13 February 2009. Rose, Andrew and Mark Spiegel (2009). â€Å"Searching for international contagion in the 2008 financial crisis†, VoxEU. org, 3 October 2009. Yi, Kei-Mu (2009), â€Å"The collapse of global trade: Th e role of vertical specialisation†, in Baldwin and Evenett (eds), The collapse of global trade, murky protectionism, and the crisis: Recommendations for the G20, a VoxEU publication.