performance enhancing drugs :: essays research papers

I’m pretty sure you all have engaged in some sort of athletic competition that could be classified as a sport. If you can say that you have, most of you could not keep up with some of the more naturally athletically gifted people you were competing with or against.. If you are sitting there remembering that feeling of being inadequate, thinking back when your parents told you all that mattered is that you tried your best, was a huge crock. No matter how hard you tried you failed, you felt like the scum of the earth, and everyone was laughing at you. You let everyone down, if this has ever happened to you. You are not alone you share the same feelings of many amateur and professional athletes who feel that the only way to reach their goals, to be in the limelight, to make the winning score, they need that edge. The edge that puts them ahead of the rest, to be on a level that most can only dream of achieving. The edge some athletes use is steroids. There are many types of stero ids. To many to name, so they are talked about in groups. These groups are as follows: Stimulants, Narcotic Analgesics, Cannabinoids, Anabolic Agents, Peptide Hormones, Beta-2 Agonists, Masking Agents, and Clucocorticosteroids The most commonly used is called Anabolic steroids. A anabolic steroid is a chemical similar to the male hormone testosterone. Steroids are taken by pill, or injection. They enter the bloodstream they are distributed to organs and muscle all over the body. After reaching the organs the steroids surround individual cells in the organ, and then pass through the cell membranes to enter the cytoplasm of the cells Once in the cytoplasm, the steroids bind to specific receptors and then enter the nucleus of the cells. The steroid-receptor complex is then able to alter the functioning of the genetic material and stimulate the production of new proteins. It is these proteins that carry out the effects of the steroids. The types of proteins and the effects vary dependin g on the specific organ involved. Steroids are able to alter the functioning of many organs, including the liver, kidneys, heart, and brain. They can also have a profound effect on reproductive organs and hormones. Steroids were first experimented with in the 1860 by Brown-Sequard, although he did not know what he was using.

Natural Disasters and Their Effect on the Macro Economy Essay

Natural Disasters can have both a positive and negative impact on the local, national and the global economy. However it is rare, but not out of the question, to see the positive impact it may have on an economy. For instance, when disaster struck in Haiti from the 7. 3 magnitude earthquake in 2010, between 200,000-250,000 people were killed. That is 2 percent of the total Haitian population of only 10 million. Comparatively New York City alone totals nearly as much as the entire population of Haiti with about 8. 2 million people (U. S. Census Bureau, 2010). The Inter-American Development Bank estimated that it cost 8.5 billion dollars in damage to Haiti’s economy. The earthquake caused the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) to contract 5. 1 percent that year. Considering that Haiti’s economy only produced 12 billion dollars in 2008, 8. 5 billion dollars is a huge deficit to the overall production and functionality of their economic and social growth. That is less than a tenth of a percent of U. S. GDP of 14 trillion dollars, but Haiti’s GDP per capita is only 1,300 dollars compared to over 40,000 dollars per person in the U. S. (CIA. gov). With all of this said, Haiti brought in nearly fifteen billion dollars through donations. So although there was catastrophic and disastrous losses to both the social and economic stimulus, on donations alone, Haiti was able to receive three billion dollars more than even their best year in 2008 with only twelve billion dollars. Proposing a theoretical situation, if an earthquake destroyed capital stock but left the labor force intact, the real rental price of capital would increase. The real rental price equals the marginal product of capital and having less capital stock available raises the marginal product of capital and therefore, raises its real rental price. This situation would also make the labor force larger in relation to available capital. Since this would lead to a declining marginal product of labor as workers have less equipment to use, the real wage would decrease as well. Due to rising world population, climate change, and environmental degradation, natural disasters are increasing in frequency. They are also becoming costlier and deadlier, according to Swiss Re, a reinsurance company; the U. S. suffered a cost of 145 billion dollars in 2004, which was up from 65 billion dollars in 2003. In 2009, natural disasters cost insurers about 110 billion dollars. In 2010, the cost was double that, at 218 billion dollars. So as you can see, in the past 10 years there have been jumps nearly doubling the cost that a country suffers to natural disasters from year to year. According to the World Bank, there are several factors that affect a country’s vulnerability to natural disasters: its geographic size, the type of disaster, the strength and structure of its economy, and prevailing socioeconomic conditions. In a globalized economy, all these factors, as well as others, also play into how the world’s finances will be affected. A common belief is that short-term economic hits after a disaster, even those as large as this year’s earthquake and tsunami in Japan or Hurricane Katrina in the U. S. in 2005 are more than offset by the reconstruction boom that follows. However this is only in countries that are large and rich enough to have short-term stabilization to the immediate economic hit. The nature of the disaster and the size of the victim count in an economy are key when determining whether or not natural disasters have a negative impact on macroeconomic growth. So in a country such as Haiti and their disastrous earthquake, although a lot of money was pumped into the economy in order to help in the rebuilding, that does not do much when they are still in need of the proper man power that can produce new development or ideas for rebuilding the structures that were destroyed. Incidences of natural disasters have increased by 30 percent since the 1960s, and risk-modeling companies have raised the likelihood of a Katrina-like event happening once every 20 years, rather than once every 40 years (SKOUFIAS, 2003). Because of the possibility of large natural disasters happening more often as well as more frequent smaller natural disasters occurring, how will the economy be affected? Especially if before the reconstruction both socially and economically is finished from the original disaster, another strikes in the same area. Another problem that is faced with economic downfalls due to natural disasters is how other countries may view the stability of that country. For example, 75 percent of Haiti’s national income came through the export of retail apparel to the United States. If Haiti were to have any kind of smaller disasters before they can properly rebuild their economic and working communities, then other countries will only see them as a reoccurring high-risk investment and will no longer look to invest in Haiti, only deepening their turmoil from an economic stand point. Droughts cannot be forgotten either. 2010 set records as the hottest year in one of the hottest decades in history. Climate change, exacerbated by the effects of El Nino, sparked off a series of global heat waves. In Pakistan, temperatures rose to 128. 3 degrees Fahrenheit on May 26, the highest temperature seen in Asia. Russia was plagued by a series of wildfires, destroying crops and woodland, and blanketing cities in smog. People across Europe had to be hospitalized for heat strokes and dehydration as air-conditioning failed to bring relief. Asia had one of the most severe droughts across the globe. The drought caused an estimated 3. 5 million dollars in immediate damage, both to agriculture and to the country’s hydroelectric sector. There are also other uncounted losses, but still very real costs from the drought: a drought can lower the overall productivity of land due to erosion and topsoil loss. It can reduce the numbers in livestock herds, which most of Asia relies on for everyday living needs as well as economic income. Before the end of the summer, the death toll would rise into the thousands. 15 million people were evacuated, and over a million homes destroyed. Nearly 34 million acres of crops were affected by floodwaters, with at least two million completely destroyed. By August, direct damage from the floods was estimated at $41 billion. This is something that affected the worldwide agricultural need and demand (PreventionWeb, 2010). Proving the destructive power of natural disasters, even in highly developed nations, Hurricane Katrina crushed the gulf coast. Just east of the Bahamas on August 24, 2005 a small, unlikely tropical depression intensified into a tropical storm which was given the name Katrina. This storm slowly made its way to Florida’s southern coast on the 25th where most experts believed the storm would dissipate. Unfortunately, Katrina’s path took it over the everglades allowing it to maintain its category 1 standing that it had acquired before it first made landfall, then entered the Gulf of Mexico. The warm waters of the Gulf fostered the rapid development of Katrina (Kempler 2010). The above image shows Hurricane Katrina at the height of her power. Estimates had Katrina making landfall as a category 4, but thankfully it weakened a bit and before it rolled in as a strong category 3. Katrina became been responsible for an estimated 1,800 deaths, as well as 100 billion dollars total in damages, of which about 60percent were uninsured losses. Some economists would put the total economic loss at around 250 Billion dollars (Amadeo 2011). That made Katrina the most destructive natural disaster ever to hit the United States. With all of Katrina’s destruction, the short term effects on the economy were very evident. Only one year after the disaster the United States, the economy was back to normal. In the first three quarters of 2006 the United States had GDP growth of 5. 6 percent, some of the most rapid growth in recent years (Herman 2006). Even though the nation as a whole made a quick economic recovery after Katrina, locations that were struck directly, like New Orleans, did not make the turnaround quite as rapidly as hoped. The first few months after Katrina the United States economy went into a downward trend. The GDP growth rate dropped from the 4. 2 percent that it had experienced in the first three quarters to 1. 8 percent in the last quarter of 2005. The reason for this impact goes beyond the destruction of property and the primary economic concern; the loss of goods and production capabilities (Herman 2006). Perhaps the most important resource that the gulf region produces is oil. The gulf makes up about 30 percent of America’s oil production and distribution. The effects of Katrina resulted in the destruction of 113 offshore platforms, and nearly 500 oil and gas pipelines (Amadeo 2011). The loss of this production led to a drastic increase in gas prices soaring to over 4 dollars per gallon. This drastic rise in prices created a panic, and people rushed to the gas stations to fill up before prices rose again, creating massive lines and much talk about the gloomy forecast of economic woes come. The only positive result from the increasing gas prices was when the Federal government opened the strategic petrollium reserves. This increase in gasoline prices surprisingly did not have as much of an impact as speculators feared, other than people’s outlook on the situation. There were some effects.mthough mostly food price centered. The three main goods that saw a notable impact were the prices of bananas, rice and sugar (Leibtag 2006). The primary reason for the increase in the rice and sugar prices is because the Louisiana Mississippi area is responsible for 85 percent of the sugar cane production, and 14 percent of the rice production in the United States (Leibtag 2006). The drastic loss in production from that area was softened by short-run increases in the other producers of those crops. This ability to increase short-run production is a factor that contributes to the resiliancy of free-market economies. Though the nationwide effects were not all that staggering, the effects in New Orleans the months following Katrina were devastating. With 80 percent of the city flooded, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to flee the city of New Orleans, many never to return again (Blackburn 2010). This drastic loss in population coupled with the destruction of approximately 200,000 homes and businesses led New Orleans and the surrounding areas into a dire economic situation. In the first few months after Katrina, Louisiana lost 12 percent of the state’s 214,000 jobs (Herman 2006). One result of the loss of jobs was a drastic raise in mortgage delinquancy rates (Herman 2006). This inability to pay is more than likely a contributing factor to the very low rate of return from people who were forced to evacuate their homes by Katrina. Those that did find the resolve to return to stay were in a desperate situation. New Orleans, whose primary industry is tourism, suffered great losses after the storm. They desperately needed to be able to find a way to bring back the American and foreign tourist in order to fuel the creation for more jobs. The drop in tourism is best reflected by the attendance rates in New Orleans famous Mardi-Gras and Jazz Festivals. Both events had roughly a 30 percent drop in attendance from previous years (A year after Katrina, New Orleans desperately seeking tourists 2006). Part of the reason for the delay in the return of the tourism industry is the mass clean-up that had to take place first. Before anyone could return and maintain normal operations, there was still 118 million cubic yards of debris to be cleaned up.(Amadeo 2011) Thanks to efforts by FEMA, the Red Cross and many church ministries across the country, there was much help to be found. However, despite the efforts of all these groups, New Orleans a year after the incident was still working its way very slowly towards full recovery. With the aid that had come into the city, organizations were able to rebuild infrastructure and make great improvements to both education and government. In fact, post Katrina New Orleans has experienced steady growth in almost every way, including education levels, over the last 6 years as shown by the chart below Though it took about a year for it the effects to show and recovery to really make a strong step forward, the relief money that came into New Orleans and the other areas affected by Hurricane Katrina did what the nation was hoping it would; help restore one of Americas cultural and industrial centers. The economic turnaround in New Orleans shows how an initial investment in the form of government aid, insurance claims, and private donations can improve the economy of an area affected by a natural disaster. If this idea can hold to be true with the most costly natural disaster in American history, it should work with other costly natural disasters as well. Though maybe part of New Orleans success lay in the restructuring of their government and school systems in addition to the monetary support. Though the economy of the areas affected improve without bringing down the rest of the nation’s economy, suffering this type of event might not prove to be true in countries with weaker economies. Also, if a disaster like this was to hit a city like Los Angelas or New York, like Irene almost did, it is still speculator to say if there would be similar results. One thing can be said for certain, America’s ability to maintain long term economic growth despite short term impacts, like Katrina shows the resiliency of America as an economic super-power. Other economic super powers, like Japan, are trying to find this same formula for economic recovery. In the case of Japan’s 9.0 magnitude earthquake on March 11, 2011, the loss of clean water, electricity, infrastructure, production lines, financial institutions, and more than 15,000 lives caused what the Prime Minister of Japan called the â€Å"The most difficult crisis for Japan† since World War II. However difficult it has been, people have been recovering from the loss of loved ones, injury, and the general trauma of the disaster. Perhaps the greatest and most uncertain long term effects brewing are the econ omic impacts on the world market. Many large industries and economic functions have been hurt, causing price inflation in those industries throughout the world. Since March 11, 2011, nations around the world have had to adjust their consumption in accordance with the loss of production in Japan. Several car companies, such as Toyota and Honda, had their production of car parts slowed, and electronics producers experienced the same effects (Syed, 2011). This has been felt worldwide. For example, Toshiba, who produces roughly 30 percent of the world’s computer chips that store data in smart phones, cameras, and laptops, closed down several factories due to economic losses and physical damages. Events like this are what caused the average price of a chip with eight gigabytes of memory to rise from 7. 30 dollars to around 10 dollars just three days after the earthquake and tsunami struck (Helft, 2011). Obviously, the price of computer chips is not the only price that has risen. Because computer chips are more expensive, new phones, laptops, televisions, cars, cameras, electronic billboards, and complex machinery will have a rise in price to cover the cost of parts and production. This effect will be felt for months, and maybe even years in an already instable world economy. Many of these products are produced in Japan; the world export market has been greatly affected because of that. Japan’s exports have decreased, causing increased economic uncertainty. The macroeconomic result of this is that investors tend to pull away from the increasing risk of pumping money into Japan and look for safer and smarter industries and nations to try to grow their profits (Kihara, 2011). One of the most fascinating things about today’s economy is that everything is so globally connected. Because of this and the slow in Japanese exports, the United States level of consumption of Japanese goods dove 3.4 percent following the earthquake (Guardian. uk, 2011). If this trend continued throughout the year, then the Japanese economy would have lost 4. 2 billion dollars from 2010 levels of United States consumption alone (State. gov, 2011). The disaster and surrounding effects not only caused a decrease of funds going into Japan, but the economic instability caused by the earthquake was devastating in its timing. Japanese and other Asian stock markets plunged as the news of the disaster spread, and this is coming on the heels of the U. S.stock market falling nearly 2 percent the date before. Not only that, but the earthquake caused struggling European stocks to fall to three month lows (CBSnews. com 2011). This goes to show that natural disasters can cause a myriad of negative factors in an economy, and that a spike in uncertainty can be one of the most demoralizing. That uncertainty does not just surface in the stock markets, but also in global financing. The Japanese currency, the Yen, had a significant surge the day after the massive earthq uake struck (Bloomberg. com, 2011). This is said to be credited to the immediate cleanup, repair, and reconstruction needs that Japan incurred following the damages. The long-term effects of the boost in the value of the Yen are still unknown, but it has made the Yen rise in demand in recent months, despite fluctuations since the initial rise in trading worth (Bernard, 2011). The Yen is currently becoming stable once again, eight months after its spike in March then fall in April. Japan has done well in its recovery considering that the Yen hit recent year record lows in April. This graph shows the trading value of the Yen in the past year (Forexblog.org, 2011). The value of the Yen is not the only financial issue at stake. Japan is one of the major foreign holders of U. S. government and corporation debt. With Japan’s Debt-to-GDP ratio at 200 percent, and massive amounts of government spending looming in the rebuilding of the thousands of buildings and roadways lost, Japan is in great need of more money (CIA. g ov, 2010). Because of this, the current interest rates that U. S. corporations are paying on their international loans could increase in an effort to generate more revenue in Japan (Nanto, 2011). In turn, corporations would not be able to borrow as much money for new capital investment, thus hurting the consumption and job creation in the United States at a time when jobs are greatly needed with unemployment rates near nine percent (BLS. gov, 2011). Jobs are a big issue in Japan too. With many of the more than 15,000 killed and nearly 6,000 injured people being a part of the Japanese work force, and tons of cleanup and construction to be done, companies and the government have had to hire thousands of new workers to satisfy the demand for work (Japanese National Police Agency, 2011). After a brief climb in unemployment because of the direct aftermath of the earthquake, numbers dropped to a recent history record low of 4. 1 percent (Tradingeconomics. com, 2011). Once organization was restored, Japan began to utilize its workforce to combat the challenge of rebuilding cities. It is perhaps a gruesome yet effective means of increasing job demand in a nation when its economy was unsettlingly devastated. Since the record drop in unemployment, Japan has had what could be considered a â€Å"Recovery boom. On November 14, 2011, a news article stated: Gross domestic product grew at an annualized 6 percent in the three months ending Sept. 30, the fastest pace in 1 1/2- years, the Cabinet Office said today in Tokyo. At 543 trillion yen ($7 trillion), economic output was back to levels seen before the March 11 earthquake, the report showed. Japan’s return to growth after three quarters of contraction was driven by companies including Toyota Motor Corp. making up for lost output from the disaster. A sustained rebound will depend on how much reconstruction demand can offset a slowdown in global growth as Europe’s debt crisis damps global confidence and an appreciating yen erodes profits (Sharp, 2011). The fact the Japan is now back to its pre-earthquake GDP level is remarkable. It initiates again the idea of what is known to economists as â€Å"The Broken Window Fallacy. † The theory is that an economy can create jobs and achieve higher employment levels though the destruction of the current goods that exist. However, the destruction comes at a cost of replacement that, in the end, is not going to create a net gain, but will instead create a loss or â€Å"quick-fix† break even because businesses will be stimulated, but run less efficiently in the long run. Only time will tell if Japan’s growth over the last few months is simply a rebound or if the disaster caused a rethinking of how things should be done and built, therefore creating a more efficient, productive Japanese economy. Economists will be watching closely to spot trends. Another disaster that could have the same categories of effects on a much smaller scale is Hurricane Irene. The northeastern U. S. experienced the worst flooding since the existence of many towns and buildings of the region. Since only three months have passed since Irene made landfall on the New England area on August 28, 2011, the long term impact of the estimated 45 billion dollars in losses are still speculative (Morici, 2011). Given the current status of the American economy, any damages of the storm are probably being felt most nationwide right now, if compared to the time table of Japan’s economic fall and rise with respect to the earthquake in March. The U. S. may see a slight drop in unemployment and a rise in capital investment as part of the restoration of Irene’s damages, but most likely, no real growth will come out of it. However, the increase in consumption in order to rebuild the damaged parts of the northeast may spark a rise in consumer confidence, and that is what America desperately needs. A natural disaster in a third world country might bring in more money in aid than that country’s economy could have ever produced on its own, making a very positive economic impact. But, as far as the number go, in a developed nation like the United States or Japan, natural disasters cause little more than a large scale broken window fallacy case study. A hurricane, earthquake, or other disaster can bring forth events that build intangible benefits such as consumer confidence, improved organization of infrastructure, or more efficient ideas, but most real development and confidence comes from ingenuity, not devastation. However, it is hard to argue against the fact that necessity is the mother of invention, or in this case, restructured success. Works Cited

Dont Actually Use This Crap Essay

I have decided to research and discuss how we can use heritage to build a nation in order to promote our understanding of a common humanity. In order to discuss and debate the abovementioned question we need to understand some key phrases in the question. In my opinion, that would include the following key concepts, namely; * heritage, * nation and * a common humanity. South Africa has come from a turbulent past where terms such as heritage, nation building and a common humanity meant different things to various population groups and realistically these concepts were worlds apart for the majority of South Africans. In order to achieve a common humanity, we need to respect all the cultures and religions within our country. People learn and are influenced by the place and the people around them. In a country like South Africa many people have learned from stories told to them. These stories carry information and ideas about life and living and shared customs, traditions and memories from parents to children. A person’s heritage is made up of the practices, and traditions that are passed on from parents to children. Heritage is also about what has been passed on from the family, community and place where people have been raised. For example a person may have grown up in a family of medical professionals or in a proudly Zulu family where the old customs are still followed. This is part of their heritage. People also have a national heritage. A person who was born in South Africa has a South African heritage. This also means they have an African heritage because they were born on this continent. There are many South Africans who do not know what our Coat of Arms represents or the meaning of our flag and anthem. In order to be a truly successful nation we need to become more aware of these national symbols. If we achieve this it will contribute to a more powerful form of nation-building. In countries with a huge variety of cultural, ethnic, racial, religious and other social identities, nation-building is a big challenge. This challenge has led governments to take numerous steps to create a peaceful and workable country. In Africa the situation is made more difficult by the fact that there are many identities and cultures. Mandaza describes such states as ‘nation-states-in-the-making’, which are characterised by a lack of essence, weakness and dependency. I think that the role of the curriculum in schools plays an essential role in promoting an understanding of a common humanity in all young people. Researchers often make reference to the neglected role of the history curriculum in the debate on nation-building and the process of forging general citizenship in Africa. In this context, the concept ‘curriculum’ is understood from many people to be the point of view of the political party in power. The curriculum emerges directly from society and is an ideological tool as well as a vehicle of social change driven by the dominant social group. As such, it plays a central role in the development and reproduction of society over time and geographical area. Seen from this perspective, it is no wonder that the curriculum is driven by political regimes in an endeavour to promote common values and form a particular type of citizen. We most certainly can, but it takes a lot of hard work. Each of our many cultures must get a little space in the sun. What we must also realise though is that some cultures are very different from others and that some people might find the things we may want to defend offensive. The question we should ask is whether our practices are more likely to cause division and friction, or whether it is going to bring people of different cultures together. What we should perhaps work on is getting our country to a point where there is loyalty to the flag no matter what. We must be able to really be proud of our achievements as a nation, and not vote people into office that will embarrass us. If we can all stand behind the flag, I think it will be one thing that can unite us. Look what the Rugby World Cups and the recent 2010 Soccer World Cup did for our nation. The whole nation standing for a common cause and goal. There was a real sense of nation-building. Culture is not something you are born with. It is learned from family, school, religious teachings, television and media and the government of a country. Advertisements, magazines and movies are also powerful guides. For example American music videos promote a certain style of dress, values, expression and attitude for young people. Many young people like the cool speak of American pop music rather than talking in their home language. Schools and religious organisations also play a big role. Religion has many rituals that symbolise belonging to a particular culture. South Africa has been called the rainbow nation because it has so many cultural practices. Cultural practices are how we talk and behave, the ways in which we pray, the special things we do when we have festivals, births and deaths. We have groups with different languages, religions, race, customs and traditions e. . Zulu, Ndebele, Khoisan, Hindu, Muslim and Afrikaner people. All of these people are united by being South African and all of their ways of life form part of our country’s identity and culture. It is important to promote and be proud of our South African culture and identity. This helps South Africans to understand and respect each other and to learn from each other’s cultural practices. This is part of the healing that demo cracy has brought after culture was used to divide South Africans in the past. For this reason the government has a project called â€Å"Proudly South African† that encourages South Africans to value each other and the country. The past is all around us. We live our lives against a rich backdrop of historic buildings, landscapes and other physical survivals of our past. But the historic environment is more than just a matter of material remains. It is central to how we see ourselves and to our identity as individuals, communities and as a nation. It is a physical record of what our country is and how it came to be. Building materials and styles can define region’s localities and communities. Historic landscapes or iconic buildings can become a focus of community identity and pride. At a more local level a historic church or park can help define a neighbourhood and create a sense of identity and belonging. The importance that we attach to our ‘heritage’ is growing each year, and that is why events such as Heritage Day are important in enabling people to value and appreciate their local, regional and national heritage. I encourage people of all ages to take this opportunity to visit, tour and experience the buildings and streets on your doorstep and learn a little about the rich heritage of the region in which you live. Port Elizabeth and the Eastern Cape is full of heritage. Nation building enables history to be rewritten, and the apartheid legacy of devaluing and erasing the heritage of black South Africans from the consciousness of the nation to be reversed, facilitating healing and further weakening the feelings of â€Å"better† citizenship of one population group over the other. Attempts to reverse this and give back pride to the African, Indian and Coloured South Africans receive support from many people. This includes government efforts to teach children about African heroes and Africa’s contributions to world history and culture. Nation building is necessary to build trust, which is directly linked with stronger economic performance. If all South Africans were passionate and believed in each other and were not divided on many issues as we are, our country would perform better financially and this would improve international investments and job opportunities. We (South Africans) need to develop the same patriotism and passion that the Americans show to their flag and anthem. We can continue to rebuild our nation with our heritage by raising awareness. There are a lot of South Africans who do not know anything about the Heritage of our country, therefore, by having exhibitions, distributing leaflets, organising work groups (community and schools), quarterly newsletters distributed within the community, media exposure or maybe even raising awareness by means of radio shows , talks and shows, we can continue to build our nation. Only when all Africans own and cherish their cultural heritage, when they identify and embrace the majesty of Mapungubwe, when they speak and learn through their languages and can therefore dream, sing and dance in their own languages, shall we see rapid social economic development of the people of Africa. A nation needs a history. History buys you time to get rid of emotional responses and see things rationally. The English civil war, for example, has taught people of Royalist descent that a ruler who leeches the country for his/her personal benefits shouldn’t be tolerated. On the other hand, descendants of Parliamentarians can see that it’s not enough just to chop off a bad king’s head. You need something good to replace him with. England had eleven years of misery after beheading Charles 1, and couldn’t wait to get another king. Nobody could understand that at the time because they were emotionally involved with one side or the other. It took time for both sides to overcome the hurts and prejudices, and to understand what happened, but eventually, they grew as a nation from the lessons learned. Heroes fall into two categories. They can either be people of great achievement (like Newton or Darwin) or they can reflect some aspect of national character (like Robin Hood or Scotland’s William Wallace). Heroes are people that kids can look up to, people who inspire kids to achieve something, and that all helps to form a single national identity. A common identity – the need to preserve it, promote it and keep it alive is a struggle of both individuals and many nations. Your identity is not only a current thing. It is originates from and is dependent upon the sum-total of your cultural heritage. All the things that your ancestors have done on the cultural front, i. e. their language, dances, rituals, dress, food and all that, contribute towards your present identity. As a young South African I feel that the youth of today need to learn and understand the events of the past so we can understand how to move forward in the best interests of all South Africans. I consider it essential for our future that we all stand behind a common identity namely our flag and anthem. Nation building is important and imperative to create a feeling of belonging and with it accountability and responsible behaviour. Efforts must be made to ensure that all cultures are respected and equal citizenship for all guaranteed. This is important because for centuries the dominant people in power aimed to diminish all culture and history of certain cultures and religions. This â€Å"past† obviously did not use heritage to build a nation in order to promote our understanding of a common humanity.

The Prince essays

The Prince essays The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli provides an analysis on how to govern and maintain power in a principality. In the first five chapters, he defines the three ways a monarch can acquire his dominion: either he inherits it, whether he creates a new one, or annexes territories, and further discusses how to govern them. Machiavelli states that hereditary principalities are less problematic than the mixed ones since newly acquired dominion tend to be more rebellious. The ruler must therefore colonize them and allow citizen to keep their laws or annihilate the governmental structure. In order to illustrate his point, he analyses the success of Alexander the Great conquest in Iran. He then considers five possible ways to acquire power and become a prince (Ch. VI-XI). First, a private citizen can become a ruler due to his own qualities or virtues, like Cyrus or Romulus. A second way to become a ruler is through others power or favor. Hence a man like Cesare Borgia gained power due to his f ather support, but lost it when the latter died. For Machiavelli, getting power so quickly can be dangerous since the new monarch might lack knowledge on how to govern. In the third case, he uses the example of Agathocles of Sicily to illustrate power gained through murders. In his opinion, the conqueror must decide if his crimes will help him establish power and then commit them all at once so that he can later reestablish the confidence of his subjects. The fourth method is called civil principality, people basically choose the ruler, and this enables him to maintain power. The last possibility is to be elected pope and Machiavelli provides a brief overview of the religious order. Next, he explores (Ch. XII- XIV) which arms are best to defend a principality and states that a ruler can chose to use his own, or mercenaries, or auxiliaries or a mixture of all three. From Chapter XV throughout Chapter XIX, Machiavelli proposes to describe ho...

Applied Business Research Report

Several academicians have established the implication of faithfulness in the service industries and at the same time, it has probable impact on the overall expansion of the suitable competitive border too for the service firms. However, it can be stated that this might be accredited to the exceptional character of services, augmented enslavement on the technologies and superior consumer participation in the entire delivery of services. A base of the trustworthy consumers can perform marvel in terms of the financial rewards and the original commerce projections as captivating a new customer can charge as much as 6 times more than the charge of keeping an old one. Therefore, it can be stated that the customer loyalty clearly brings several momentous benefits to the existing business and calls for a deeper exploration into the features that act as its inventor and make a payment in its augmentation. Baumann, Elliott and Burton (2012) have stated that customer loyalty is convoluted and d ynamic as well as changing with the course of time. Benoit and Van den Poel (2012) have mentioned in his research work that why customer satisfaction as well as customer loyalty is so important and the answer of this question in one word is revenue. It can be seen that the satisfied customers spend huge amount of money, refer more number of the new consumers and support the trade longer than the discontented consumers. Therefore, it can be stated that this all leads to more profits for the trades that can maintain their customers well contented. However, it can b e easily stated that the companies striving to maximize the amount of returns must critically believe investing in a consumer contentment and the faithfulness research curriculum. It can be stated that the rationale of this particular research document is to talk about the importance of consumer faithfulness and its consequence in the contemporary commerce ground throughout a wide-ranging examination literature. Furthermore, it seeks to discover a variety of things that serve as previous circumstances towards consumer loyalty development procedure. In order to understand the importance of customer loyalty on the business performance, Muthoot finance has been selected and the entire research work would try to shed light on these aspects from several perspectives. Therefore, it can be stated this specific research work has tried to represent the importance of customer relationship management as well as customer loyalty for Muthoot finance that wishes to be successful enough and gain enough competitive market in the existing market (Chen, 2012). It can be stated that a new emphasis has been shed on customer relationship management, as this concept has been gradually wide spreading with time in several operating market. Muthoot finance is the principal gold backing corporation in India in provisos of loan selection and the corporation is a â€Å"Systematically significant Non-Deposit captivating NBFC† (muthootfinance.com, 2016). From the company profile it can be seen that Muthoot finance give India’s best gold loans and thus the organization believes that focusing on customer loyalty is one of the major parts to take care of. However, besides gold loan, they provide the facilities of money transfer, foreign exchange, housing finance, insurance as well as travel jango (muthootfinance.com, 2016). Therefore, this specific research work would try to analyze the importance of customer loyalty in Muthoot finance from some different perspectives through an information-rich literature review.   As mentioned by Coelho and Henseler (2012), customer faithfulness is the enthusiasm of the consumers to acquire the manufactured goods from the specific organization and maintain buying the alike from the same brand name for a longer time epoch. However, customer trustworthiness can be also termed as the unremitting buying for a particular brand and at the same time signifying other people to do the similar. Associations are at the present concentrating more on preserving soaring amount of trustworthy consumers that more clients can be recommended through them to patch up a long run business with the product name. Evanschitzky et al. (2012) have mentioned that organisations must follow some exceptional characteristics that can be competent enough in keeping the consumers trading commodities from the brand name devoid of favouring any contestant brand. Preceding studies on consumer allegiance have stated the consumer allegiance into two noteworthy fractions, customer performance and customer approach where both the parts are interrelated to each other. Customer loyalty may be rational or touching factor depending on the node of transaction and base of customer retention. The characteristics of commodities and services are the rational factor whereas the emotional factors are unswervingly connected to the discernment of purchaser towards the association (Jahanshani et al., 2014). Some of the preceding research works have experienced the constraints that influence the purchaser faithfulness and preservation counting the services. These issues can be connected with the consumer faithfulness and withholding as follows: Johnson et al. (2012) have stated that service quality has been gradually becoming one of the major issues of the business that focus on the services as well as the communication procedures. This presently enables the electronic media for communicating with the components outside the business. It can be stated that this sheds importance on gathering of necessary information. Processing several online as well as offline transactions along with the data interchanges procedure among the buyers and the sellers in regards to address space and time consumption. Service excellence from the standpoint of online method can be classified as the degree to which online subsistence of the organization offers competent buying, acquiring and conveying facilities of goods and services in such a method that consumers might be extremely contented with administration (Jyh-Fu Jeng et al., 2012). The professed cost of the consumers refers to the dissimilarity between the settlements of the products that the consumers gain and the price of the products and the services. In that scenario, price and the profit examination plays one of the vital roles in rewarding the needs of the consumers, as the customers are highly concerned in taking happiness in superior reimbursement from the services bearing fewer prices in trading the products and the services. The profits are categorised into four fractions named, manufactured goods advantage, service advantage, individual assistance and image advantage where equivalent four costs are monetary cost, psyche cost, time cost and energy cost. Conveying improved worth to the consumers is an indispensable division of the business approach that facilitates the organization attainment competitive improvement, in order to deal with long term sustainability of the commerce, evaluated to its contestants (Khan, 2012).   As demonstrated by Komunda and Osarenkhoe (2012) in their research work, it can be seen that trust is a clear set of believes that drive the customers towards purchasing a product pr consuming the service from a particular organization. Trust can be defined as the as the self-confidence of the consumers that they experience for the organization making sure the benefits required. However, it can be stated that belief is one of the main significant expression in commerce, especially in online trade operations. Here, truthfulness and generosity works essential position in keeping approval stage at the stage the consumers are enthusiastic to believe (Kwon & Kim, 2012). Martà ­nez and del Bosque (2013) have stated reputation as the inference of uniformity in case of presentation for the long time epoch. Therefore, it can be stated that standing is created from the consisted superiority administration as well innovation amalgamation depending on the time era and the modification in the socio-economic stage. Therefore, it can be stated that the standing of the organizations required to be understood by the consumers not only based on the online survival, but also the complete organization along with its bodily attendance (Pan et al., 2012). As per Prentice (2013), widespread literature proposes that both the marketplace share and the consumer approval leads towards productivity, however, this is not certain that the market share and the customer satisfaction have an affirmative association. Therefore, in this part, some of the significant strategies have been introduced here in details to gain in-depth knowledge of the research topic. It can be stated that company’s association to their consumers is alienated into two separate commerce approaches namely offensive and defensive. Offensive policy deals with magnetizing the new consumers and the defensive strategy try to keep the previously existing consumers. Therefore, it can be stated that in order to focus on customer loyalty, Muthoot Finance is required to attract both the new customers along with the existing customers (Scherer, Wà ¼nderlich & von Wangenheim, 2015). Figure 1: Offensive and Defensive Business Strategies (Source: Scherer, Wà ¼nderlich & von Wangenheim, 2015) Siu et al. (2013) have stated that there exist three phases within customer decision making procedure. In this case, the first phase is defining the brand alternatives, the second phase is reviewing the existing relevant information and the final stage is applying a decision rule. It is regardless to mention that the choices as well as preferences of the customers vary from one product to another product, from one organization to another organization and so on. Therefore, the entire decision making process depends on the preferences of the consumers and the companies are required to provide the customers the best buying experience, so that they become loyal to one particular organization (Tanford, Raab & Kim, 2012). Figure 2: The sequential Multistage Process Model (Source: Toufaily, Ricard & Perrien, 2013) As per Wang and Wu (2012), the major purpose of each organization is productivity and one significant technique for achieving this for an organization is to increase as well as uphold trustworthy consumers. It can be stated that if a corporation spends resources for building consumer trustworthiness without concentrating on productivity, it might lead towards failure in the long run. Therefore, to gain customer loyalty, the organizations are required to focus on both behavioral and attitudinal loyalty of the consumers. However, it can be stated that customer loyalty becomes highly significant to the business of the corporation at times it results in the purchasing behaviour. This following replica can be clarified through major three fundamental objectives like building behavioral loyalty, cultivating attitudinal loyalty and linking loyalty to profitability (Toufaily, Ricard & Perrien, 2013). Figure 3: Structuring and sustaining consumer trustworthiness (Source: Toufaily, Ricard & Perrien, 2013) The adoption of the customer faithfulness programs in the middle of several companies has significantly augmented over the last couple of years and automatically the consumers have turn out to be the focal point of concentration. It has been seen that the customer loyalty programs offer financial as well as relationship rewards to the consumers with the sole principle of making the customers’ brand trustworthy (Kwon & Kim, 2012). There exist five specified group of the customers like non-customers, price switchers, the passive loyal, fence sitters and the committed customers. Therefore, most of the organizations target to grab the attention of all these customers through proper delivery of their services. Muthoot Finance try their best to retain their existing customers and at the same time they tend to design their loyalty programs in such a way, so that the customers get attracted enough towards the company. There exist several economic benefits of retaining the customers like it saves on the acquisition of the customers or the replacement costs. Moreover, it promises of base earnings as obtainable consumers are likely to have a minimum spend per period. Apart from that, retaining the existing customers focus on price premiums, as the existing customers generally do not wait for promotion or the reduction of price before making a decision to buy. Muthoot finance believes that customer loyalty benefits the o rganization from several perspectives like this is comparatively less expensive to keep hold of the consumers that to attract the new customers. It generates huge amount of profits, decreases the making costs and helps in spreading positive word of mouth promotion. Therefore, it can be stated that customer loyalty is one of the strongest assets to the organization, as the success and sustainability of the business largely depends on the number of loyal customers.  Ã‚   Baumann, C., Elliott, G., & Burton, S. (2012). Modeling customer satisfaction and loyalty: survey data versus data mining.  Journal of Services Marketing,  26(3), 148-157. Benoit, D. F., & Van den Poel, D. (2012). Improving customer retention in financial services using kinship network information.  Expert Systems with Applications,  39(13), 11435-11442. Chen, S. C. (2012). The customer satisfaction–loyalty relation in an interactive e-service setting: The mediators.  Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services,  19(2), 202-210. Chu, P. Y., Lee, G. Y., & Chao, Y. (2012). Service quality, customer satisfaction, customer trust, and loyalty in an e-banking context.  Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal,  40(8), 1271-1283. Coelho, P. S., & Henseler, J. (2012). Creating customer loyalty through service customization.  European Journal of Marketing,  46(3/4), 331-356. Evanschitzky, H., Ramaseshan, B., Woisetschlà ¤ger, D. M., Richelsen, V., Blut, M., & Backhaus, C. (2012). Consequences of customer loyalty to the loyalty program and to the company.  Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science,  40(5), 625-638. Jahanshani, A. A., Hajizadeh, G. M. A., Mirdhamadi, S. A., Nawaser, K., & Khaksar, S. M. S. (2014). Study the effects of customer service and product quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Johnson, M. D., Herrmann, A., Huber, F., & Gustafsson, A. (Eds.). (2012).Customer retention in the automotive industry: quality, satisfaction and loyalty. Springer Science & Business Media. Jyh-Fu Jeng, D., & Bailey, T. (2012). Assessing customer retention strategies in mobile telecommunications: Hybrid MCDM approach.Management Decision,  50(9), 1570-1595. Khan, I. (2012). Impact of customer satisfaction and retention on customer loyalty.  International Journal of Technology Enhancements and Emerging Engineering Research,  1(2), 106-110. Komunda, M., & Osarenkhoe, A. (2012). Remedy or cure for service failure? Effects of service recovery on customer satisfaction and loyalty.  Business Process Management Journal,  18(1), 82-103. Kwon, K., & Kim, C. (2012). How to design personalization in a context of customer retention: Who personalizes what and to what extent?.  Electronic Commerce Research and Applications,  11(2), 101-116. Martà ­nez, P., & del Bosque, I. R. (2013). CSR and customer loyalty: The roles of trust, customer identification with the company and satisfaction.International Journal of Hospitality Management,  35, 89-99. Pan, Y., Sheng, S., & Xie, F. T. (2012). Antecedents of customer loyalty: An empirical synthesis and reexamination.  Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services,  19(1), 150-158. Prentice, C. (2013). Service quality perceptions and customer loyalty in casinos.  International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,25(1), 49-64. Scherer, A., Wà ¼nderlich, N., & von Wangenheim, F. (2015). The Value of Self-Service: Long-Term Effects of Technology-Based Self-Service Usage on Customer Retention.  Mis Quarterly,  39(1), 177-200. Siu, N. Y. M., Zhang, T. J. F., & Yau, C. Y. J. (2013). 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Environmental Analysis of Louis Vuitton Assignment

Environmental Analysis of Louis Vuitton - Assignment Example Environmental analysis of an organization is necessary to realize the impacts that several factors might have on an organization. Such analysis enables business organizations to identify the threats and opportunities and thus a company is capable of considering the effective measures accordingly (Jain, Trehan & Trehan, n.d., p.21). Macro environment of an organization refers to the environment external to an organization and includes factors like the political-legal environment, the technological state, and the socio-cultural environment. Micro environment on the other hand refers to the internal environment that includes factors like the organizational employees, the board, the consumers, the contractors, the competitions, the financial organizations associated with a business as well as the governmental impacts (Management: The Business Environment of Organizations, 2012). The present study has considered Louis Vuitton as the business to make a detailed learning on the organization ’s macro and micro environment thereby trying to reflect on its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Louis Vuitton: An Overview: The Louis Vuitton fashion house has its name from the founder of the company, Louis Vuitton who was a fashion designer by profession. Initially he had been involved in manufacture of trunks in Paris and his company became famous for luxury goods. The luggage company along with its designer logo has made its presence successful and leading through its availability of luxury goods for its consumers, and products like books, perfumes, distilled spirits as well as designer clothing (Louis Vuitton, 2012). Purses, wallets and women bags as offered by the company are highly popular. Louis Vuitton Company merged with Moet et Chandon and Hennessy in the year 1987 that led to the creation of luxury powerhouse anagram LVMH. Ten years after this merger, the business started offering ready to wear products and other clothing (Label Overview, 2012). In the present times, the company is known to have its presence in several countries across the world that includes Japan, China and Asia among others . There are around 130 retail stores of the company in total across the world. With the passing years, newer ranges of handbags and accessories are being designed and presented by Louis Vuitton. The company focuses on creation of new, graceful, and sensible up to date luxuries with value. These primarily cater to those consumers who believe in style, and are aware of the latest designs being offered, thus following the up to date trends of fashion (Louis Vuitton (1821-1892), 2012, pp.16-28). Macro Environment Analysis of the Company: The macro environment analysis of Louis Vuitton would involve the relevant environmental trends in the external factors that might affect the company and its operations to achieve its desired goals and objectives. Economic Factors: The economic factors that may affect Louis Vuitton include the rates of interest, the changes in the systems of taxation, the rates of economic growths, the inflation rates and rates of exchange that are generally varied depe nding on different countries