Business to Nation Building Essay Example for Free

Business to Nation Building Essay There are three particular foundations sustaining any process that concerns nation building: government representing political leadership; civil society or the citizens of the country; and business or the economic sector. These three concepts must work together and as much as possible, work together harmoniously to drive the said nation-building process forward because they serve as the hands and feet of the nation. Business is the cornerstone of prosperity in society: companies create the resources that permit social development and welfare. Companies, through their commercial operations, actively contribute to progress in society. Obviously, the government alone cannot accomplish things especially its projects and programs on its own. Had it been capable, it would already have done it. Without the businesses around, the government wouldn’t work out the plans it opt to undertake because it needs funds coming from taxes and taxes comes from these establishments. The ability to produce an added value for firms – profit – is the basic prerequisite for business, but it is also a foundation for prosperity in society. Only profitable companies are sustainable in the long term and capable of creating goods, services, processes, return on capital, work opportunities and a tax base. This is what business does better than any other sector. Hence, companies’ basic commercial operations are the primary benefit they bring to society. Companies benefit society by: Supplying goods and services that customer cannot, or do not want to, produce themselves * Creating jobs for customers, suppliers, distributors and co-workers; these people make money to support themselves and their families, pay taxes and use their wages to buy goods and services * Continually developing new goods, services and processes * Investing in new technologies and in the skills of employees * Building up and spreading international standards, e. g. or environmenta l practices * Spreading â€Å"good practice† in different areas, such as the environment and workplace safety The role of business in the development of society can be described in many ways. In another point of view, they are sometimes referred to as the company’s corporate social responsibility. Corporate Social Responsibility is a less broad concept than civic involvement. Even though there is no set, internationally accepted definition, this is often described as a voluntary responsibility that transcends the demands of national legislation and includes the human rights and environmental and social issues. Another definition of CSR uses sustainable development as a starting point. In practice, CSR means that businesses meet the demands of national legislation and, where this is inadequate, look in addition to a collection of established, fundamental freedoms and rights that are globally recognized. CSR demands that businesses manage the economic, social and environmental impacts of their operations to maximize the benefits and minimize the downsides. Business is the ‘game-changer’ of today’s world. We are significantly dependent on them. Majority of our day-to-day activities are involved with an interaction with various kinds of businesses (whether you felt hungry and decided to buy food or you just went to a parlor to have a haircut). But what’s good to know is that they do not benefit from us alone whenever we pay their goods or services but they give mutual advantage for the welfare of the greater society by having their own share in nation-building, too.

Current situation of the coffee industry

Current situation of the coffee industry 1Coffee is one of the worlds most valuable assets and at least 25 million people around the world base their livelihood on their production. Most of these producers are small-scale farmers in the developing world, despite the extent of coffee consumption takes place in the United States and Europe Over the last twenty five years of the last century, developing countries have been incited to follow export-oriented economy models as a way to increase living standards of their citizens. With this model, countries have opened their economies globally, boosting international trade and investments, and expanding their exports with the objective of earning foreign exchange. These strategies try to substitute older models based on import-replacement, which proposed that developing countries should impose protectionism measures in order to protect their domestic economies by controlling investments and external trade. At face value, specializing in exporting coffee seems to be a good strategy for developing countries, knowing that they have the perfect conditions to grow coffee crops and taking the advantage that richer countries are not competitive in this field, but they are very interested in purchasing the product as they earn considerable profits of its distribution and consumption. However, the global coffee industry has become a nightmare as the world prices have dampened, which have an important impact on livelihoods of those countries. Why has this happened, and how is affecting developing countries? CURRENT SITUATION 2The current crisis is the latest and most dramatic in a long history of industry ups and downs. Coffee prices have plummeted to 30-years lows. (See appendix 2) Coffee, which is produced in over 50 developing countries, is one of the s worlds most important commodities exports. It makes an important contribution to development socioeconomic and poverty alleviation as well as its economic importance is based on exportation, some of represent more than the half of their export earnings. Moreover, a cup of coffee in any neighborhood in New York or Paris can reach the $ 3.60 price. That same cup of coffee, a coffee farmer in the Andes of South America or Southeast Asia receives only 24 cents, a paltry 7% which, of course, does not even cover the cost of production or the basic needs of collectors. This are the most direct consequences of a crisis in the last two years which has sunk into poverty over 25 million people, while the coffee trade of the four big multinationals (Nestle, Kraft Foods, Procter Gamble and Sara Lee) has curbed their economic growth. Therefore, it is not a trivial matter; it is actually the major source of foreign exchange for several countries. The current crisis is directly affecting some 20 million families living in the area where the center of all growing and production, between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn, and depend on grain as their main source of income. Moreover, the United Nations World Food Program launched an emergency operation to assist 155,000 people in Guatemala, where a severe drought that killed subsistence crops coincided with low coffee prices. CAUSES Coffee prices are at the alarming and the specialty coffee industry is in a crisis. In addition, most industry experts predict that will not improve in the near future. At the root of the current crisis is an oversupply of coffee on world markets. Since 1990, coffee production worldwide has increased by 15 percent, exceeding consumption by two folds. This increase was precipitated by new producers entering the market, most notably Vietnam (see appendix 3). Keep in mind that coffee production in Vietnam is not really traditional, in 1987. The Vietnamese were at the beginning just consumers. But the access to the position of largest producer of robusta type of coffee is actually the result of a political will, encouraged by the World Bank. As one of the most disadvantage countries in Asia, Vietnam saw in the business the chance to expand its economy and as a way to gain valuable foreign exchange. Furthermore, it provided an opportunity to encourage economic expansion in relatively disa dvantage areas. However, coffee production has surged in other countries as well. The reason for this relate to some complex technical, economic and political factors. In addition, during the last decade productivity of coffee trees increased because of enhanced agricultural practice. Moreover, many countries increased their lands in order to specialize in coffee production. 2The reasons for this is different from country to country, liberalization of trade in coffee, improving better transportation and communication on production data, prices and inventories increase security of supply World; domestic food markets were deregulated, which encouraged a general shift to export production; and land previously reserved for non-agricultural production, for example forest areas, was brought into agricultural use through privatization and non regulation. Going a little bit further, the beginning of the crisis dates back to 1989 when the International Coffee Agreement collapsed, contributing greatly to the problem of oversupply. The agreement had been responsible for the restrictions on exports of coffee, without it, many producing countries sought to increase export earnings through increased production. Unfortunately, its success in increasing it led to a surplus that, actually, decreased revenues. Moreover, severe frosts in Brazil during the middle 1990s showed a temporary rise in coffee prices, before the basic trend kept on increasing until the present days (appendix 3). But all of these effects are not just based simply one of supply and demand. The connections between the links of the supply chains that connect producers with consumers have also changed. Nowadays, coffee farmers receive less than 7% of the retail price of coffee in developed world markets; the rest of the percentage until 100%, 93% is paid to importers, packaging firms, roaster and retailers. In part this reflects a structural disparity of commercial power in the global coffee system, whereby six international trading companies control over half of the world coffee exports. In these contexts, developing country coffee growers are in a very weak bargaining position. CONSEQUENCES This downward pricing spiral is affecting infrastructures in coffee-producing countries where they are collapsing. There is no money to fix or repair roads, the cost of trucks is out of reach and distributing the merchandise is definitely a hard task. When small agricultural producers are dependent on some buyer to sale their crops for a large amount of money, slumping prices have dramatic repercussions for those poorest countries who everyday fight against hunger and social vulnerability. In recent years aid agencies have struggled to bring awareness about these human repercussions trying to call the attention of policy-makers. These human-scale dimensions of the crisis should flow into national and regional economies. For a significant number of tropical countries, coffee is the major source of export-earning. The collapse of coffee prices, then, has destabilized the systems of whole national economies. Many of these countries are also seriously in debt to international organizatio ns, and have had to renegotiate or even suspend the repayments of loans. In turn, the resultant debt crisis of developing countries is a major source of financial instability in the world. As always, the poorest countries are most affected, the business profit is becoming some of the poorest and most vulnerable of the world into extreme poverty, livelihoods of small farmers are being destroyed by international markets beyond their control. But not everyone is losing in the current scenario. While the cost of the raw material comes in a slump, some companies, particularly multinational companies along with several large coffee retailers, continue earning and being profitable. Their market powers allow them essentially to dictate to their suppliers and take advantage of the lower prices. As always, poorest countries are the most affected, corporate gain is turning over some of the worlds poorest and most weak people to extreme poverty: the livelihoods of smaller producers are being destroyed by international markets that are beyond their control. SOLUTIONS It seems clear that one of the solutions to the coffee crisis passes to limit grain production to raise prices in international trade. This would be the theory in the context of the market economy. In practice, it has been tried it last year and received the denial of the Asian countries and Brazil. in oil. Experts agree that the coffee industry is undergoing major changes in order to recover the price-crisis prices. The entry of Vietnam into the coffee trade had important consequences: the way to produce cheaper. Alternatives to the coffee crisis are in what some NGOs have called fair trade. If producing countries such as Vietnam has grown 400% in the last decade is because their culture has focused on the logical contribution of new technologies. It is a commitment to diversified organic coffee, coffee quality associated with sustainable development and fair trade outside intermediaries, to improve the price paid to farmers and reducing the supply with further restructuring of the field. An idea that is far from being realized because of the illiquidity of the farmer . 4The costs of producing differ from country to country, perhaps from 60 to 90 cents for The worst hits are Latin American countries with relatively high production costs. These countries may try to find ways to cut costs or find niche markets that command premium prices, such as organic or shade-grown coffee that provides ecological habitats. But those options do not help everyone. Many farmers ultimately have to move to other more lucrative products. In the fall of the current prices, farmers enough eventually be driven out of business, which will produce increased coffee prices again. That means another potential shortage threat in the future, especially for higher quality coffees are more expensive to produce. And this shortage can lead high enough to encourage overproduction, once again. It is not clear when this damaging cycle will repeat again, or even if it is going to finish. What is clear is that new and better solutions are needed to help the poorest countries that are affected by it. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS In conclusion, the existing circumstances of the world coffee industry represent a crisis of huge human cost. The low prices being received by coffee farmers not only put in danger the livelihoods of people and communities, but add significantly to global inequality and its correlated to financial and political implications. For another point of view, the crisis also unveils the failures of export-oriented models which curiously most developing countries follow. What it can be learned at this point: what is true for some countries may not be true for anothers. When one country increments its coffee exports, it benefits. But if all countries do the same, then the effects are to produce an over-supply of commodities and to cause prices to fall. The lives of smallholder farmers become vulnerable by depending on the conditions imposed those who dominate commodity markets, which in any case are structured in ways that concentrated power in a small number of transnational companies. And at least, some recommendations can be given: Correcting the imbalance between supply and demand by increasing consumer in particular by: improving quality in the world market and promoting diversification to reduce dependency. It is recognized that to ensure market access for products alternative, there must be a substantial reduction of tariffs and subsidies to those who are now protected agriculture in industrialized countries. In addition, support a broad-based rural development to enhance the capacity of local processing and producer associations, and also measures to improve access to credit and risk management. Beyond these suggestions, the coffee industry should participate in programs designed to help reducing the effects of price shocks at the farm level. These efforts should include locking roasters in contracts with farmers for the coming years, as a way to motivate farmers to keep on producing coffee, for example, paying more for certain quality coffees. Simultaneously with the efforts of importers, roasters and retailers to create mutually beneficial relationships with farmers, producers have taken steps toward understanding what the market demand for its coffee. APPENDIX 1 APPENDIX 2 Prices of the coffee market (2003) APPENDIX 3

Case for Investment: Space in USA

Case for Investment: Space in USA Sun Yudong Ever since the dawn of man, mankind has been gazing at the sky in wonder. Space, has always been a mysterious place, a place where the frontier of science and innovation are put to the test, a place where 99% of what we have yet to discover exists. In the present era, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (better known as NASA) and the NSF[1] are the forefronts of space exploration and scientific research in the USA and they have no doubt played a key role in many of Man’s greatest achievements. NASA could even take credit for mundane items such as quartz timing crystals and bar-code scanners. The Sad Situation Space is a difficult, dangerous but exciting $300 billion industry worldwide. However, despite space being the final frontier, with many against space exploration, NASA has only received 0.48% of the US Federal budget, only half a cent for every tax dollar. NASA is getting a pathetic amount of funding. In 2008, $700 billion[2] was spent by the US government to revive the economy, which was way more than the 50-year running budget of NASA. In 2013, US spent more than $3.45 trillion, with more than $600 billion going to defence, but with only $17.7 billion going to NASA, a tiny portion of worldwide spending on space. The allocation of funds is warped and there is just simply not enough funding going towards space exploration and scientific innovation, the seedling of hope, the future of the US economy. Over the past four decades, instead of NASA, we could have had at least six additional MIT’s. Consider all of the research that our single MIT has produced during that period, all of the students taught and leadership provided. For all the gains that NASA has made, its opportunity costs are far greater. Keith Yost, The Tech (MIT) Staff Columnist argument against NASA funding What is even more infuriating is that, even though the budget for NASA has been decreasing, the money saved were not put to good use. For example, US plans on spending more than $200 billion in the next decade to maintain nuclear weapons when they are almost useless. The one thing I convinced myself of after all these years of exposure to the use of nuclear weapons is that they were useless. They could not be used. Colin Powell, Former Secretary of State Figure 2 NASA Budget over the years. Retrieved August 31, 2014, from: http://www.penny4nasa.org/ However, NASA did get a substantial amount of funding and this increased steadily in its infancy and peaked in 1966 at slightly more than 4.4% of the Federal Budget, before plummeting to the current meagre 0.48%. Because of this, the campaign â€Å"penny4nasa† was launched in 2012 to fight for an increase in the budget for NASA, through advocating the economic, scientific and cultural value of NASA. With this as a trigger, the paper will look at the different factors that led to the establishment of NASA, the decline in the budget, and ultimately explore why we should invest in space, and space exploration. Why NASA was set up The roots of NASA could be traced back to October 4, 1957. On that day, the world’s first artificial satellite, Sputnik 1, was launched. This surprise success of the Soviets in the midst of the Cold War horrified the US and triggered the Sputnik Crisis that became part of the bigger Space Race. US was afraid, afraid that the Soviets would become more technologically advanced, that the Soviets would fire a missile at US, that US will lose its place on the global arena. Out of the fear factor of Sputnik, many policies were put in place. The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) was passed by congress to increase educational standards to allow more people to become scientists and engineers. And on July 29 1958, the National Aeronautics and Space Act was signed, establishing NASA. It took over the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (NACA) and currently is the United States government agency that is responsible for civilian space program and for aeronautics and aerospace research. With motivation from Sputnik 1, and large funding, many space programs were quickly developed and put into action. The Decline in Budget Throughout the Apollo Missions that ultimately aim to go to the Moon, NASA was very well funded, and all developments were extremely rapid. US was still in fierce competition with the Soviets. In 1969, the historic Apollo 11 mission put the first man on the Moon, and puts US in the lead ahead of the Soviets significantly. However, when US realised that the Soviets were not ready to go to the moon, the rate of progress in Space Exploration slowed. This was because, with the Soviets unable to catch up with US technological abilities and the Cold War becoming increasingly less intense, people were no longer as fearful of the Soviets as before, nobody was really interested in the STEM[3] fields anymore and those congressmen without NASA facilities in their state felt absolutely no reason why NASA should get so much funding as an increasing proportion of people want more welfare instead. As discussions went on the Congress, NASA naturally got increasingly less budget, resulting in the current situation. After all, congressmen work for the people, or they will lose their position in the next elections. However, I believe that they have failed to realise and consider the significance of NASA and space exploration on the culture and economics of the society. Significance of NASA and Space Exploration Social and Cultural Space is not a special interest, unlike what many people may think. Space exploration inspired a whole generation to dream about tomorrow, a tomorrow made possible by scientific innovations, in a time of turmoil. It provided a different kind of hope, a hope that our lives will change for the better. The homes of tomorrow, the transportation of tomorrow, all these ingrained in the many issues of magazines. Space frontiers, engineering frontiers were being breached almost weekly. Space influenced our culture, our zeitgeist. It galvanized the whole nation to want to work towards Tomorrow, influencing our creative minds, our culture. For example, almost every science fiction cartoon made in and after the 1960s had rockets with fins, fins of the V2 Rocket used in NASA missions. (Figure 3[4]) We saw space influences everywhere, even in Hollywood. Space exploration also inspired a whole generation of Scientists and Engineers as Innovation made the headlines. No special programmes were needed to attract them. There is a cultural presence of these activities. From 1968 to 1972, there has been a sharp significant increase in the number of students pursuing education and career in these fields. (Figure 4[5]) With the Space program, heroes were made. Space exploration is a force acting on the education pipeline and inspired a whole generation to join the scientific community. Space exploration also had a direct impact on the cultural asset of the human race. When we looked back from the moon, we rediscovered Earth with a whole new perspective, without borders, without conflicts. We saw earth as nature intended it, we saw earth as a whole. It is possible to see that Earthrise (Figure 5[6]) marked the tipping point, the moment when the sense of the space age flipped from what it meant for space to what it means for Earth Robert Poole, Earthrise: How Man First Saw the Earth It inspired us to take time off amidst the war to start thinking about Earth and nature. This is what sparked off a series of events: Figure 6 Timeline of Space Missions with happening events All these would not have happened so quickly without space exploration, without us looking back at earth to realise that earth is a home that is worth protecting. Economic Beyond culture, space exploration has also brought about economic benefits. Satellites, GPS, intercontinental communication, the Internet. All of these has been directly or indirectly influenced by space exploration, and has had a huge impact on our lives as man. By breaching space and engineering frontiers, there were innovations, spin-offs. Space exploration and engineering drives innovation, the fuel for our capitalist economies. In fact, the satellites that we use to transmit TV signals, to transmit Internet packets, to communicate globally, could only have been brought about by government-initiated space exploration. This is because space is expensive and has incalculable risks, and it is a venture only a government could have successfully led. In fact, innovation drives the economy so much so that one of the main messages of Robert Solow’s[7] work has been that a large proportion of the economy is driven by technological advancement. Conclusion As goes the health of space faring ambition, so too goes the emotional, spiritual intellectual, creative, economic ambitions of a nation Neil deGrasse Tyson, 2012 In conclusion, space exploration is not a special interest group, and its significance is far and outreaching. With NASA being the frontier of space exploration, more funding should to be given to the agency, not as a handout, but as an investment that is able to penetrate our culture and transcend generations to reach greater heights. References Belleflamme, P. (2012, September 25). How to make innovation drive economic growth? Retrieved September 6, 2014, from http://www.ipdigit.eu/2012/09/how-to-make-innovation-drive-economic-growth/ Bilstein, R. E. (1996). From NACA to NASA. In NASA SP-4206, Stages to Saturn: A Technological History of the Apollo/Saturn Launch Vehicles (pp. 32–33). NASA. Retrieved from http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4206/ch2.htm#32 Burrows, W. E. (1998). This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age. New York: Random House. Retrieved from http://www.amazon.ca/This-New-Ocean-Story-First/dp/0679445218/ref=sr_1_1?s=booksie=UTF8qid=1280690435sr=1-1#reader_0679445218 Demographic Trends: Undergraduate and Graduate Education. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.princeton.edu/~ota/disk2/1985/8507/850705.PDF Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson: Launch Keynote: 28th National Space Symposium. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VLzKjxglNyEfeature=youtube_gdata_player Hunt, T. C. (2013, December 16). National Defense Education Act (NDEA). In Encyclopà ¦dia Britannica. Retrieved from http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/404717/National-Defense-Education-Act-NDEA Last Week Tonight with John Oliver: Nuclear Weapons (HBO). (2014). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Y1ya-yF35gfeature=youtube_gdata_player NASA. (2005). The National Aeronautics and Space Act. Retrieved September 3, 2014, from http://www.nasa.gov/offices/ogc/about/space_act1.html National Science Foundation. (n.d.). Retrieved September 5, 2014, from http://www.allgov.com/departments/independent-agencies/national-science-foundation?agencyid=7341 Neil deGrasse Tyson We Stopped Dreaming (Episode 1). (2012). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbIZU8cQWXcfeature=youtube_gdata_player Office of Management and Budget. (n.d.-a). Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2013. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington 2010. Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2013/assets/budget.pdf Office of Management and Budget. (n.d.-b). Retrieved September 4, 2014, from http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb OMB-President Obama’s 2013 Budget-Summary Table. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2013/assets/tables.pdf Penny4NASA | Penny4NASA is a nonprofit striving to increase NASA’s funding to 1% by encouraging popular support for NASA through education and outreach. (n.d.). Retrieved September 8, 2014, from http://www.penny4nasa.org/ Photo 17 of 58, Apollo 11. (2009, June 4). Retrieved September 3, 2014, from http://imageevent.com/afap/spaceandscience/apollo11;jsessionid=hmk1oipnb3.camel_s?p=16c=4n=1m=-1w=2s=0z=1y=2 Rosenberg, J. (n.d.). President John F. Kennedy Gives Man on the Moon Speech. Retrieved September 19, 2014, from http://history1900s.about.com/od/1960s/a/jfkmoon.htm Space Race. (2014, September 17). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Space_Raceoldid=625983337 Special Message to Congress on Urgent National Needs. (1961). Washington, D.C. Retrieved from http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/xzw1gaeeTES6khED14P1Iw.aspx Sputnik crisis. (2014, September 14). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sputnik_crisisoldid=622755710 Temple-Raston, D. (2008, October 3). Bush Signs $700 Billion Financial Bailout Bill. National Public Radio. Retrieved from http://www-cdn.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95336601 V-2 rocket. (2014, September 19). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=V-2_rocketoldid=626151508 We Stopped Dreaming (Episode 2) A New Perspective. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFO2usVjfQcfeature=youtube_gdata_player Wilford, J. N. (2009, July 14). On Hand for Space History, as Superpowers Spar. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/science/space/14mission.html Yost, K. (2010, April 9). Should we cut NASA funding? The Tech, p. 6. 1 [1] The National Science Foundation (NSF) is a United States government agency set up to support fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. The National Institutes of Health is the medical counterpart of NSP. [2] Amount of money spent on Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, to bailout the U.S. financial system [3] Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics [4] (Clockwise) MundodelPene, Start einer V2 [Photograph] (1943), Retrieved September 3, 2014, from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Bundesarchiv_Bild_141-1880,_Peenemà ¼nde,_Start_einer_V2.jpg, [Rocket Cartoon Image], Retrieved September 3, 2014, from: http://www.clipartbest.com/clipart-aiqenRx6T, 1956 GM Firebird II [Photograph] (n.d.), Retrieved September 3, 2014, from: http://www.carbodydesign.com/archive/2010/06/top-ten-concept-cars-of-the-fifties/ [5] Doctorate Degrees in Science and Engineering by Field and by Year, 1958-83. Retrieved September 15, 2014, from https://www.princeton.edu/~ota/disk2/1985/8507/850705.PDF [6] Figure 5 NASA / Bill Anders (1968) Earthrise over the moon [Photograph], Retrieved September 03, 2014, from: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/alsj/a410/AS8-14-2383HR.jpg [7] Nobel Prize Laureate in Economics in 1987

The Pent-up Guilt in Macbeth :: Macbeth essays

The Pent-up Guilt in Macbeth      Ã‚   There is hardly any emotion in William Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth that outweighs that of guilt. Both Lady Macbeth and Macbeth are seriously compromised by the impact of this emotion.    Clark and Wright in their Introduction to The Complete Works of William Shakespeare explain how guilt impacts Lady Macbeth:    Lady Macbeth is of a finer and more delicate nature. Having fixed her eye upon the end - the attainment for her husband of Duncan's crown - she accepts the inevitable means; she nerves herself for the terrible night's work by artificial stimulants; yet she cannot strike the sleeping king who resembles her father. Having sustained her weaker husband, her own strength gives way; and in sleep, when her will cannot control her thoughts, she is piteously afflicted by the memory of one stain of blood upon her little hand.   (792)    In Fools of Time: Studies in Shakespearean Tragedy, Northrop Frye sees a relationship between Macbeth's guilt and his hallucinations:    The future moment is the moment of guilt, and it imposes on one, until it is reached, the intolerable strain of remaining innocent. [. . .] We notice that anyone who is forced to brood on the past and expect the future lives in a world where that which is not present is present, in other words in a world of hallucination. Macbeth's capacity for seeing things that may or may not be there is almost limitless, and the appearance of the mousetrap play to Claudius, though more easily explained, has the same dramatic point as the appearance of Banquo's ghost. (90)    Fanny Kemble in "Lady Macbeth" asserts that Lady Macbeth was unconscious of her guilt, which nevertheless killed her:    Lady Macbeth, even in her sleep, has no qualms of conscience; her remorse takes none of the tenderer forms akin to repentance, nor the weaker ones allied to fear, from the pursuit of which the tortured soul, seeking where to hide itself, not seldom escapes into the boundless wilderness of madness. A very able article, published some years ago in the National Review, on the character of Lady Macbeth, insists much upon an opinion that she died of remorse, as some palliation of her crimes, and mitigation of our detestation of them. That she died of wickedness would be, I think, a juster verdict. Remorse is consciousness of guilt .

The Effectiveness of Selection Interviews Essay -- Business Interviews

The Effectiveness of Selection Interviews Evaluate the relative effectiveness of selection interviews as an indicator of likely candidate suitability in the case of a selected business, making recommendations for improvements in procedure. D1 The interview is the final stage of the Recruitment and Selection process. Candidates can be classified as the applicants for a vacancy that they have seen advertised. The chosen business for this question is M&S. It is here at this stage, the M&S employee (who is the candidate) and the employer are generally in the meeting situation. An interview is a form of test or assessment. However, it is also clarified as a formal discussion, especially one in which an employee assess, n applicant for a job. Interviews are always conducted and arranged for all sorts of other jobs, particularly retailing jobs such as M&S.At times the employer has the process of going through letters, CVs, application forms, and examination of references, which will mean that only a few number of applicants are more unlikely to be interviewed for the job. This is because interviews take up time of senior managers who have to carry them out, and this will be also costly for the business. Apart firm this, there are however good and bad statements to be made on selection interviews. Depending on the attitudes and relationships between the interviewee and the interviewer, there can be good and bad turnouts that could effect M&S. The process of selection interviewing Almost every employer includes a face-to-face interview as part of the selection process. The initial selection interview might be delegated to a recruitment agency or a local job center, but most employers would be more reluctant to take on new employees without having met them in person. The interview, however, continues to be the most popular and frequently used method of selection, even though it is thought that research studies have found interviews to be poor predictors of future performance in a job. This is referred to as low validity. The poor validity of interviews means that they don not test what they intend to test. For example inside at M&S, it would mean the ability to do well. The reasons for this mainly lie with interviewer concerns number of interviewer errors contribute to the low validity of interviews, and awareness of th... ...le when assessing intelligence, interest in the job applied for, motivation and personality. The producers of such tests have stated that they are accurate and completely unbiased. They are supposed to be particularly good at assessment of personality. For example, they can show if a candidate would work well in a team or would be more effective working alone. The following of theses tests are of the following:  · performance tests  · knowledge tests  · aptitude tests  · intelligence tests  · personality tests Assessment centers tests Job applications are subjected to a wide range of assessments over a whole day or two. They are required to participate in group exercises, psychometric tests, aptitude tests and traditional interviews. By using a mixture of assessment this process is claimed to produce more accurate result. the applicants are given longer to prove themselves and there fore become more relaxed and more nataul.however recent development now mean that these assessment centre exercises can be videoed and then sent to a team of independent experts to be properly analysed.this insures that the candidates have their performance assessed objectively.

Psychoanalyzing Jokes

Jokes are a part of culture that tries to bring about laughter in words that appears to be humorous. As the saying goes â€Å"jokes are half meant â€Å", there are implications of jokes to the human person. Simply put, jokes that are often said in a casual conversation are means for a repressed expression or feeling of a person to come out in the open. Kind of like a â€Å"slip of the tongue† situation. To establish the link of jokes in relation to the subconscious, let us take a look at this hypothetical example.A guy who jokes his friends about how his friends are being too childlike because of their parents’ 24/7 cared which according to Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory could mean that he has a pathological need for the care of his own parents or at least someone to take care of him. The key concept in this example is that the ability of the guy to ask for love from his parents is repressed because probably he cannot say it blatantly then that desire f or that care was voiced out through other means such as a joke. Driving the point of the connection between the jokes and the subconscious level, let us take a look at jokes in a community.Basing from the degree of the laughter that it had brought assuming that the delivery was good and other factors was alright, if we take a look at it, we see that some jokes are funny to others and to others not funny. It could be said that the jokes are funny because they are true to life (in most cases) leading to the point that some people laugh at jokes and others don’t is because the joke is funny up to how other people could relate to the joke. So we could actually say that the culture of joke is rooted on the similarities of the people when it comes to experiences and if not experiences then feelings or sentiments.Freud argued that jokes is in relation with dreams is that jokes are the manifestation of desires that are contained inside the persons behavior. So jokes in the individual entities aspect is rooted on the history of the person mainly on his or her childhood. What is good about jokes is that not only that it gives off humor at the right place and time but also jokes in society acts as an outlet of desires or needs that people cannot actually ask for it directly maybe because of the fear of being subjected or compared to the rigid structure of what most people call as the social norm.Since jokes serves as an outlet to personal needs and desires that is concealed it actually helps the person from being sane and not accumulating these desires and let them burst in one blow and easily releases the tension from the persons consciousness. So addressing the question of psychoanalysis. â€Å"What are the underlying cause of culture that is rooted in the biological entity or instinct? † The culture of jokes may it be knock – knock to lawyer jokes and to any other types of jokes it is rooted on the need to bring about a feeling or desire that peop le cannot blatantly say or ask for.

Anti-Competitive Behavior: The Case Of Allcare Ipa

Free Trade Commission (FTC). The main role of FTC, created in 1914, is outlined in its website â€Å"Federal Trade Commission† (http://www. ftc. gov/ftc/about. shtm) which states that â€Å"It is the only federal agency with both consumer protection and competition jurisdiction in broad sectors of the economy†. As such, it â€Å"pursues vigorous and effective law enforcement, advances consumers’ interests†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . The FTC was originally created to prevent unfair methods of competition in commerce, but through the years, its role has widened to cover consumer protection in broad terms.It must be noted that FTC’s Bureau of Competition promotes and protects vigorous competition by seeking out and challenging â€Å"anticompetitive conduct in the marketplace†¦Ã¢â‚¬  and â€Å"†¦promotes competition in industries where consumer impact is high, such as health care†¦Ã¢â‚¬  ((http://www. ftc. gov/ftc/about. shtm). The very nature of health care, a very basic need, explains why practices in this field is a major concern for FTC.AllCare IPA is comprised of independent physicians that have joined together to provide a comprehensive network of multiple specialties, developed specifically for the patient’s health plan. (http://www. allcareipa. com/faqs/default. aspx). Its main office is found in Modesto, California. â€Å"Since its formation, AllCare and its physicians have contracted with Preferred Provider Organizations (PPOs) to provide fee-for service care. In PPO arrangements, the payer compensates the physicians for services provided under agreed-upon fee schedules.Such arrangements may or may not entail financial risk-sharing or clinical integration. † ((â€Å"FTC Settles Price-Fixing Charges Against Two Separate Doctors' Groups†). In February 2009, FTC found AllCare IPA guilty of price-fixing and violated anticompetitive laws by â€Å"orchestrating and carrying out agreements among their memb ers to refuse, and threaten to refuse, to deal with insurance providers, unless they raised the fees paid to the groups’ doctors†.FTC ruled that AllCare’s conduct in setting fees for payers and refusing to deal with payers constitutes illegal price-fixing, and violates federal law. In addition, the FTC contends AllCare engaged in any activity that might justify collective agreements on the prices its members would accept for their services. The groups’ physicians did not share financial risk in providing medical services, did not collaborate in any program to monitor and modify clinical practice patterns or otherwise integrate the delivery of their services.According to the FTC, between 2005 and 2006, AllCare acted to restrain competition on fee-for-service contracts by facilitating, entering into, and implementing agreements to fix the prices and other contract terms with PPO payers; to engage in collective negotiations over the terms and conditions of de aling with such payers; and to have members refrain from negotiating with such payers on terms other than those approved by the group. †. (â€Å"FTC Settles Price-Fixing Charges Against Two Separate Doctors' Groups†). Penalties against AllCare.AllCare has been barred to enter into similar agreements because according to FTC’s Acting Director of the Bureau of Competition David Wales, â€Å"when health care providers decide to purse personal gain through unlawful price-fixing, consumers are often forces to either pay higher prices or forgo vital treatments they can no longer afford†. (â€Å"FTC Settles Price-Fixing Charges Against Two Separate Doctors' Groups†). The Commission’s proposed consent orders are designed to eliminate the illegal anticompetitive conduct alleged in the complaints.They would prohibit AllCare from entering into or facilitating agreements between or among physicians: 1) to negotiate on behalf of any physician with any pay er; 2) to refuse to deal, or threaten to refuse to deal, with any payer; 3) to designate the terms, conditions, or requirements upon which any physician deals, or is willing to deal, with any payer, including, but not limited to price terms; 4) not to deal individually with any payer, or not to deal with any payer through any arrangement other than one involving AllCare, respectively.The order prohibits AllCare from exchanging information among physicians concerning whether, or on what terms, to contract with a payer and from encouraging, suggesting, advising, pressuring, inducing, or attempting to induce anyone into any actions otherwise prohibited by the order. I believe that there must always be balance in any decision that affects two opposing parties, in this case the doctors and their patients.While FTC must protect the welfare of the consumers and must do so vigorously and vigilantly, it must also take into account the needs of the doctors to protect themselves and their live lihoods against threats from the same persons who come to them for treatment. Already, many doctors are discouraged to practice their profession for fear of lawsuits, such as medical malpractice, and the tremendous cost implications these lawsuits bring. I agree that physicians practice must be subject to regulation as it is prone to abuse.However, while medical care is a very basic commodity and patients, as consumers, have every right to be protected against unjust and unlawful practices in the health care industry, so do Doctors have rights to protect themselves and their livelihoods. I personally believe that that FTC ruling was too biased in favor of the consumers/patients. But of course, this is America, and the customer is always king. Works Cited â€Å"AllCare IPA: Frequently Asked Questions†. 2005.6 August 2009. (http://www. allcareipa. com/faqs/default. aspx) Copy of the FTC Decision on AllCare. February 2009. August 6, 2009. (http://www. crowell. com/pdf/ManagedCar e/Independent-Practice-Associates-Medical-Group. pdf) â€Å"Free Trade Commission†. Free Trade Commission. 6 August 2009. (http://www. ftc. gov/ftc/about. shtm) â€Å"FTC Settles Price-Fixing Charges Against Two Separate Doctors' Groups†. 24 December 2008. 6 August 2009. (http://www. ftc. gov/ftc/about. shtm)