China in Africa Essay

In brief the NAI Policy Dialogue questions the World Bank recommendations for large scale agriculture to solve the productivity and equity problems in African agriculture. The whole issue of property rights is intimately linked to the question about agriculture and development. The contribution by Benjaminsen and Sjaastad on aspects of property rights formalization in Africa draws on recent processes in Mali and Tanzania. A general conclusion is that the formalization of property rights in rural areas is a very complex and problematic issue. There is a high risk of the process being co-opted by officials and a wealthy elite, if necessary provisions are not made. Finally, Kjell Havnevik draws our attention to the relationship between inequality and climate change. This contribution is based on a presentation he made in Berlin in June 2007. Decoding the evolving China–Africa relations is the theme of an article written by NAI Research Director Fantu Cheru. He suggests that policies and programmes to deal with the present imbalances between China and Africa require us to revisit and redefine the NEPAD agenda. A regional approach will, in his opinion, help African countries to negotiate from a stronger and better platform. During 2008 researchers at NAI will continue to devote attention to this topic. In our interview section we present one interview with Martha Qorro, professor in English language, on the question about the language of instruction in Tanzania. She is of the opinion that the best way to teach English is not to use it as the language of instruction. She also responds to the question why the question of language of instruction has become such a sensitive political issue in Tanzania. In our second interview Jerome Verdier, chairman of the Liberia Truth and Reconciliation Commission, points to the fact that the TRC’s part of the conflict resolution is nothing new. Liberia has a history of resolving community conflicts at the round table. But in the past there were no prolonged conflicts, such as the recent 4 year period of massive human rights violation. In the research section we present the result of a conference which took place at NAI, Uppsala, in September 2007 regarding the ongoing discussions between EU and the ACP countries on Economic Partnership Agreements. The discussion at the conference highlighted the lack of connection between the poverty alleviation goal and the reality of the negotiations, despite numerous political declarations on both the EU and ACP sides. Key decisions on EPAs will soon be made by EU and ACP ministers. The Africa Europe Group of Interdisciplinary Studies, AEGIS, of which NAI is an active member, is presented through three contributions. Photo by Susanne Linderos News from the Nordic Africa Institute 3/2007First, we bring you an interview with the AEGIS Chair, Professor Patrick Chabal of King’s College, London.

Of Mice and Men Excerpt Essay

â€Å"Lennie!† he said sharply. â€Å"Lennie, for God’ sakes don’t drink so much.† Lennie continued to snort into the pool. The small man leaned over and shook him by the shoulder. â€Å"Lennie. You gonna be sick like you was last night.† Lennie dipped his whole head under, hat and all, and then he sat up on the bank and his hat dripped down on his blue coat and ran down his back. â€Å"That’s good,† he said. â€Å"You drink some, George. You take a good big drink.† He smiled happily. George unslung his bindle and dropped it gently on the bank. â€Å"I ain’t sure it’s good water,† he said. â€Å"Looks kinda scummy.† Lennie dabbled his big paw in the water and wiggled his fingers so the water arose in little splashes; rings widened across the pool to the other side and came back again. Lennie watched them go. â€Å"Look, George. Look what I done.† George knelt beside the pool and drank from his hand with quick scoops. â€Å"Tastes all right,† he admitted. â€Å"Don’t really seem to be running, though. You never oughta drink water when it ain’t running, Lennie,† he said hopelessly. â€Å"You’d drink out of a gutter if you was thirsty.† He threw a scoop of water into his face and rubbed it about with his hand, under his chin and around the back of his neck. Then he replaced his hat, pushed himself back from the river, drew up his knees and embraced them. Lennie, who had been watching, imitated George exactly. He pushed himself back, drew up his knees, embraced them, looked over to George to see whether he had it just right. He pulled his hat down a little more over his eyes, the way George’s hat was. George stared morosely at the water. The rims of his eyes were red with sun glare. He said angrily, â€Å"We could just as well of rode clear to the ranch if that bastard bus driver knew what he was talkin’ about. ‘Jes’ a little stretch down the highway,’ he says. ‘Jes’ a little stretch.’ God damn near four miles, that’s what it was! Didn’t wanta stop at the ranch gate, that’s what. Too God damn lazy to  pull up. Wonder he isn’t too damn good to stop in Soledad at all. Kicks us out and says ‘Jes’ a little stretch down the road.’ I bet it was more than four miles. Damn hot day.† Lennie looked timidly over to him. â€Å"George?† â€Å"Yeah, what ya want?† â€Å"Where we goin’, George?† The little man jerked down the brim of his hat and scowled over at Lennie. â€Å"So you forgot that awready, did you? I gotta tell you again, do I? Jesus Christ, you’re a crazy bastard!† â€Å"I forgot,† Lennie said softly. â€Å"I tr ied not to forget. Honest to God I did, George.† I picked this excerpt because introduces George and Lennie’s friendship which is the most important aspect of his book.

Nature and Victor Frankenstein

Nature plays an important role In Frankincense, although to the deader familiar with romantic poetry, it may seem that nature Is somewhat less Important or less central than the role It plays, but from the novel's opening, the importance of the reader getting a sense of physical place is established by situating the text within a particular environment, the qualities of which will both mirror and contradict the inner states of the main characters. Even from the very beginning of the novel, theme of nature is incorporated into Shelley work. The icy wilderness in which the novel begins and ends is the barren land of isolation from human warmth ND companionship, Into which Walton foolishly sails and Into which Frankincense Is Inexorably led by the monster, whose inescapable destiny is It†. Later, on the morning after Victor gives life to his creation, he says, â€Å"Morning, dismal and wet †¦ As if I sought to avoid the wretch whom I feared every turning of the street would present to my view'. When Victor is scared or upset the weather is nasty to complement the way that he is feeling in certain situations.And also Victor notes that the landscape of the Orkney and that of his native country are quite distinct. His ascription of the Orkney Is cold, barren, gray, and rough. In contrast, he recalls Switzerland as colorful and lively and the landscape as teeming with blue lakes that reflect the brilliant blue sky. It is symbolic, of course, that Victor has chosen such a barren place to create the companion for the Creature. The contrast between the two places is as stark and distinct as the differences between Frankincense's Creature and the human world.The Creature occupies a world that is bleak, that Is attacked on all sides by an unforgiving set of conditions. Victor, his family occupies a world that as beauty, even though each has had to deal with occasional harsh realities. These appropriate pairings of characters with their environments will be re-e mphasized throughout the novel, and the physical qualities of the environments will provoke contemplative thought for most of the main characters, especially Victor. By chapter five of the first volume, Shelley creates a connection between Victor and nature.Instead of describing his moods with metaphor, as In earlier images, she describes his recovery from grave Illness through his affinity with nature. Although nursed by is closest friends, It Is the breathing of the alarm that finally gives him strength: We passed a fortnight in these perambulations: my health and spirits had long been restored, and they gained additional strength from the salubrious air I breathed, the natural incidents of our progress †¦ The air is not simply necessary for life; Victor is so taken with it that he actually gains strength from it that he had not had before.Another role of nature is a deep understanding of the mysterious forces of nature by Victor Frankincense. So Victor acknowledges tense Tor tes when en says: It was ten secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things, or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquires were directed to the metaphysical, or, in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world. It is the great force of nature that drives Victor into his scientific pursuit in the first place.When lightening shreds the tree in front of Victor's eyes he is doomed for life. On the night that Victor first gives life to his creation, it is dark and dreary. Victor makes his declaration of purpose hen he says, â€Å"more, far more will I achieve: treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation†. In Victor's case, an obsession with the nature of science pushes him to cross the boundary that separates the forces of human power and nature when he decides to co nstruct his creation.Along with his own feelings of ambition, Victor also constructs his creation because of the want to bring about change in his society. And when he creates life from lifeless matter to bring change n his society, readers are forced to use their imagination to give life to this creation themselves. Later, when Victor returns home on receiving word of Williams death, he notes that â€Å"Night closed all around; and when I could hardly see the dark mountains, I felt still more gloomily.This picture appeared a vast and dim scene of evil, and I foresaw obscurely that I was destined to become the most wretched of human beings†. At the end of the novel during Victor's honeymoon, â€Å"the wind, which had fallen in the south, now rose with great violence in the west†, before Elizabeth is ordered by the creation. In conclusion, the natural settings in â€Å"Frankincense† play a vital role in enhancing the impact of the story and progression of the plo t and characters.What has been said so far, then, is that man attempts to control nature believing to be the master over all. In fact, man's effect is Just that, an unnatural one, in that it works against nature instead of with nature. The question then, is why man is unable to emulate nature, why he is unable to work with nature without harming it in some way, as we have seen above. One answer is that man is unable to see ahead, hat he refuses to see the purpose in everything that nature does.Victor Frankincense is so obsessed with his mother's death and with his desire to remove it, that he does not see the purpose that death has. So, Just because mankind has the power to do something, does not necessarily mean that he must, or should. Instead, perhaps he should respect the natural course of things. And nature surrounds us during our whole life, and it has a great influence on us, as well as on our mood and behavior. Resources: http://www. Gutenberg. Org/files/84/84-h/84-h. HTML h ttp://Ankara. English. Upend. Demesnes/nature. HTML

Quiz Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Quiz - Assignment Example In order to identify with the UCC contract, the product that the parties exchange must exist, in the current case the product is the jet-ski. Article 2 of UCC governs every phase of transactions and describes remedies for problems that might arise. The contract involving Andy and the local Kawaskai dealership is effective when the parties exchange goods under the Uniform Commercial Code provisions. Unfortunately, the product broke down the second day. Andy decides to return the product back to the seller. The dealer refuses to refund the money that Andy demands (LII 1). The UCC has a clear description and remedies for problems that might arise in transactions. The law has a provision for warranty stating that a buyer can return goods to the seller in case the goods prove to be faulty within a specific period. Provisions for a warranty allow for replacement in case of a faulty product acquired from the buyer. The law only entitles Andy to get a replacement for goods and not receive a refund of the money. Andy’s action is unjustified and should only get a replacement for the jet-ski since he had entered into a contract. Section 2-725, is the Statute of limitation in the contract for sale. The law clarifies that parties must clarify any action of breach of contract within four years after initiating the course of action. Otherwise, the parties can as well shorten the time limitation to a period not less a year. The statement connotes that the buyer must notify the seller of any breach of contract within a specific period. The buyer and the seller can adjust the period from four years to not less than one year. Within the period, the buyer can notify the seller for any breach of contract. In section 2-601, there are provisions on breach in installment contracts that provide the buyer some rights on improper delivery. The provisions are, however, subject to sections of contractual limitations of remedy. If the seller declines to conform to all

Elements of Products in Business and Services Context Assignment

Elements of Products in Business and Services Context - Assignment Example In some instances, the cuisines are similar but excellent cooking style by Nutter that brings out the uniqueness in each. In addition, Nutter is innovative and observes trendy and finest local produce for his classic French recipes. From local and external suppliers, Nutter’s restaurants use supplies to serve vegetarian meals, gourmet, business lunch, Sunday lunch, afternoon tea, desserts and lunchtime meals. Incorporation of different customers includes businesses, individuals, families, vegetarians, children, and persons of all ages generate a wide client base for the food products. For instance, many across all ages enjoy the food from Nutter’s Restaurant like chips and Fish in the United Kingdom, and offering the best value for customers consistently makes them return for more. Coupled to the restaurants excellent tasting menu is the brand of a renowned UK chef and the two aspects influence customer loyalty hence profitability. Like other hotels and restaurants in the United Kingdom, Nutter’s restaurant seeks to understand its customer and in the best way possible, satisfy their food needs better compared to its competitors. The restaurant then uses target marketing to identify the diverse needs of customers in the UK hotel industry and delivers unique cuisines for such needs. According to the Nutters Restaurant (2014, p. n.p), Nutter’s also offers customers with leading and innovative modern cuisine and both locally and internationally. The international market comes because of Nutter’s demonstrations of cooking expertise in New Zealand, United States of America, Australia, and New Zealand. The restaurant is also keen on psychographic segmentation that involves activities like business events, meetings, interests, and other values. Nutter’s understand that different people have different preferences when it comes to food. As a result, the company is quick to offer food products that embrace buyer perception, motivation, and beliefs and attitudes.  Ã‚  

Apple Company Recommendation Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Apple Company Recommendation Proposal - Essay Example The internal analysis of the company has made it evident that the principal reason behind their declining market share is lack of innovation. Apple is best known for innovative and breakthrough products, but since the last couple of years the company is failing to satisfy customer expectations. On the contrary, Samsung has been able to secure the elite position in the smart phone segment through innovative design and aggressive marketing strategy. Despite creating hype, the latest offering from Apple, iphone 5, failed miserably in the market. Hence, the only solution for Apple is to come up with a new strategy that supports expansion of the business operations and fosters innovation. Discussion Reports suggest that currently Samsung holds 47% of the market share in the smart phone category and Apple holds 38%. However, the scenario was completely different in the last year. Apple was the market leader with 73% share, while Samsung and other companies embraced remaining 27% share. Fig ure 1 – Smart phone market Share Comparison of 2012 and 2013. The drastic shift in the market share figures of Apple makes it obvious that â€Å"something went wrong† for the company. A number of studies shed light on the fact that lack of innovation is the major cause of their failure. Moreover, the smart phone product line of Apple has also remained unchanged since its launch in 2006. The new versions were launched only with some add-on features and applications. However, to satisfy the dynamic needs of customers as well as tap new customer segments, it is necessary to offer enhanced and trendy products. The classic example of Nokia’s failure in the market due to the lack of innovation clearly substantiates the current state of Apple. ... In the meantime, it should be also noted that the operating system of the phones bundled by Apple is also getting outdated. A recent consumer study on smart phone OS preferences, has reflected that consumers are finding iOS to be stale while the latest buzz, Android to be much more user friendly and exciting. Since the first release of iPhone, it really has not come through leaps and bounds. On the other hand, the competitors of Apple were capable in delivering high quality and pioneering products at a cheaper cost (Tapscape, 2013). Apple has positioned itself as a luxury brand and thus targets high end customers. The primary target segment of the company is customers who are willing to pay a higher price for better experience and prefers using technically upgraded and updated products. As a result of that, price reduction will seriously hamper the Apple’s positioning strategy. Therefore, the only way to make global expansion and regain the lost market, the company needs to co me up with something inventive and modern. Methodology and Analysis In order to find a solution to the problem, the study has considered collection of data from both primary and secondary sources. Secondary data were mostly collected from authentic electronic sources and journal articles. On the other hand, the primary data was collected directly from the consumers of high end mobile phones. According to Treloar (1999), product innovation involves coming up with something new or sufficiently different (p.253). Likewise, Linder (2006) and Holmquist (2012) believe that innovation plays a crucial role in driving profitable growth. The author further mentioned strong research and development is one of the key

European Research Center for Information Systems (ERICS) and its Compe Essay - 1

European Research Center for Information Systems (ERICS) and its Competitors - Essay Example In the current systems of globalization where information spread fast, the choice of institution one can join is determined by a number of factors. How an institution structures the systems determines its competitive edge in a highly dynamic market. In this case, ERICS faces competition from such institutions such as PSB Academy in Singapore. PSB is an internationally accredited institution, operating out of two campuses, the Henderson and Delta, Singapore. It was established in 1964 and has seen its name grow taking 30, 000 students annually in Degree, post-graduate and corporate levels programs. For educational programs, this is conducted through its School of Engineering, Business, Information Technology and Physical Sciences. In addition, the institution owns Center for Foundation Studies and Center for English Languages Studies that offer varying programs to cater to the needs and interests of the students. Just as like ERICS, PSB Academy centers in Information Technology with Business, Engineering, Physical Sciences and Mathematics. The infrastructure and lecturers with a vast wealth of experience have kept the institution in high regards. The graduates from the institution have recorded a high absorption rate in the market than any other institution of higher learning in Singapore. The institution is a worthy competitor to the ERICS. PSB Academy has hugely marketed itself through the world of mouth from the high intake of the graduate in the job market. The employers are well versant with the institution from the student who joins the market. The graduate is trained and skills and offer a strong marketing solution for the campus. For instance, in 2014, the institution recorded 95 % employment rate. 85 % of the graduates gained employment within the first 6 months and 3.1 on average manage to find a job (PSB, 2014). These statistics speaks volume of the quality of  education in PSB Academy.  

Texas Government Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Texas Government - Assignment Example Likewise, the partisan elections tedious, and can cause straight ticket voting together with electing judges based on the familiarity of the names. The long ballots can be challenging for the voters because it is difficult for the electorate to follow up on the comprehensive lists of the candidates. Due to the aforementioned challenges in the partisan elections, it is significant for the Texas State to adopt a system in which the governor appoints the judges. The death penalty is immoral and expensive, and thus the Texas State should abolish the capital punishment. Newell, Prindle, and Riddlesperger argue that the expense of executing a criminal exceeds $ 2 million, and the punishment achieves nothing in terms of deterring the potential criminals in engaging in crime (340). Exploring the issue of the death penalty from the moral point, it is unethical and immoral to terminate the life of a person. The capital punishment degrades humanity, and inflicting death on persons does not necessarily control crimes. Therefore, it is important for the Texas State to explore other alternatives of punishing the wrongdoers instead of pursuing the death penalty. It is less costly for the Texas State to practice life imprisonment as opposed to the expensive capital punishment. Sentencing the convicted people to the life in prison without the possibility of parole is a plausible alternative. Such a sentence will enable the Texas State to reduce the many funds that tend to maintain the costly death penalty system. The nomination of the city candidates to run for the office in Texas State is essential in facilitating the electorates to know and analyze the ideologies of the individual candidate. In this respect, the Texas State should endeavor to practice partisan elections in which a political party nominates the candidates to run for the office. Newell,

Making Decisions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Making Decisions - Essay Example These limitations can be in the form of limited information, complexity of the issue, uncertainty, time available, information available etc. Because of these restrictions, decisions are taken based on what is immediately appropriate rather than the best possible action. Hence, all possible alternatives are not evaluated before taking any decision and managers tend to adopt a satisficing solution to the problem. In the process, managers tend to use judgmental heuristics, which means the most commonly used ways are chosen as the solution to the problem. The model of decision-making styles identifies two categories namely, value orientation and tolerance for ambiguity. From these, four decision making styles emerge: directive, analytical, conceptual and behavioral. The five stages of creative process include preparation, concentration, incubation, illumination, and verification. Explain how participative management affects performance, and also discuss knowledge management and techniqu es used by companies to increase knowledge sharing. Participative management involves employees in key decision making processes. In this management style, employees are involved in goal setting, making decisions, solving problems, and making changes in the organization.

Censorship, The First Amendment, and Free Speech Essay - 2

Censorship, The First Amendment, and Free Speech - Essay Example Regulation of the general speech is censorship but regulation of evil and illegal speech is not censorship. The government should control some internet content such as hate sites, excessive violence, pornography and misuse of chat rooms (Kagan 12-46). The first step of controlling and regulating internet content is by proper enforcement of National laws. Laws are important since they are effective in controlling the harmful content in the internet. For example, the Communications Decency Act (CDA) and the Child Online Protection Act (COPA) efficiently help in regulating harmful internet content to children. The government should also pass a bill which restricts contents such as pornography, misuse of chat rooms, information stimulating excessive violence and hate sites (Akdeniz 2-12). Pornography is the major evil element in the internet. According to the annual review of Online Computer Library Centre (2001), there were about 74000 websites containing â€Å"adult content† which were generating more than $1 billion as a profit. Despite the wide-spread of pornographic material in the internet, most of them are legal except the child pornography, bestiality, sadomasochism and necrophilia. Therefore, the government should establish laws that restrict adults from holding or viewing pornographic materials (Akdeniz 2-12). The law should also ensure that internet users do not misuse chat rooms. The government law should restrict the hate sites and ban their creation in the internet. R v Graham case of 1999 is an example of how government can regulate internet content through the enforcement of the law. Secondly, the government can regulate and control the harmful and illegal internet content by developing active hotlines for reporting various cases involving illegal internet content. Hotlines are important in regulation since they enable the government to identify users who are

Personal Learning Managemet Essay Example for Free

Personal Learning Managemet Essay Abstract Kindler, E.; Krivy, I. (2011). Object-Oriented Simulation of systems with sophisticated control. International Journal of General Systems. pp. 313–343 Haas, J. (n.d.). Modular programming. Retrieved from http://www.about.com Personal Learning Management As course assignments, assigned reading, assigned and interest-based research, and other learning activities are completed, the learner may recognize the economic value of what has been learned. Knowledge gained through learning can be forgotten if concepts are not reviewed on a regular basis. It is possible to design an application to record high economic value learning tasks and insights that will allow for periodic review. This application will help solve the issue of knowledge being forgotten by allowing the information and concepts to be kept in front of the individual for regular review. The application that must be programmed will be a simple user friendly app that will allow the user to see and record progress over a given class which will give the user the ability to not only see what has been done but to have it brought back to the forefront of what they already went over in course assignments, reading and researches for a particular class. So in essence the program will help each student record each task and can, ever so many days allow the student to review what they covered and done to keep the information fresh. The information that we will be recording is assignments for the course, any assigned reading for the course, research both assigned and interest-based, and other learning activities. By getting this information from the user the program will store this information and recall it to the user on a time and scheduled output as well as show what still needs to be done in the course. The first step in creating such a program is that we need to identify the desired results we are looking for in this program which is to help the user retain course information by helping them review the material often. Next we will design the program and this will start by having the program gather the information required from the user and how often the user wants this information brought back up either every week or every 3 days. This step will be more complex as the developing of the application continues. Once we have step-by-step for designing the program to solve the problem stated in the beginning we will began to code the program. This is when we decide which programming language we will use such as C#, C ++ and more to deliver the best solution. After we program the application we will test the program to ensure that it is free of errors and that it does indeed solve the given problem. This is known as the programming development cycle which means at any given point in this cycle we may have revisit a particular step to ensure that we get the results that we need. This program will be developed as an object-oriented approach which is according to Kindler, E.; Krivy, I. (2011) â€Å"a programming paradigm that represents concepts as â€Å"objects† that have data fields (attributes that describe the object) and associated procedures known as methods. Objects, which are usually instances of classes, are used to interact with one another to design applications and computer programs.† We are taking this approach with a modular approach due to the complexity of the program and want to make many objects that will have methods and classes with in the object. We fill this is the best way to approach the problem with various strings and arrays so that our coding will not be confusing and easy to troubleshoot should we run into any issues. Modular programming emphasizes separating the functionality of a program into independent, interchangeable modules, such that each contains everything necessary to execute only one aspect of the desired functionality. (Haas, n.d.) This will improve maintainability by enforcing logical boundaries between components. The modular design will allow us to build into one executable file per module which also allows us to reduce the size of future patches for only the module that needs it. In conclusion we have discussed the problem of users forgetting knowledge gained through learning and will be creating a program that will keep the information fresh and allow periodic review of course assignments, assigned reading, assigned and interest-based research, and other learning activities. Our approach and the necessary steps outlined until the final test has been done and the application is functional.

Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald Essay Example for Free

Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald Essay Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald is one of the best American novels owing to its thematic strength. There are many social themes in the story including Dream, vision, honesty, time, wealth, superficiality and shallowness, societal expectation, disloyalty, immorality and selfishness. The surface study shows that its about love relation between Gatsby and Daisy. But the story has much broader theme rather than big romantic scope. The most dominating theme of the story is that of American Dream or rather Perverted American Dream†. It is very symbolic story of Roaring Age of 1920s America, particularly the story of shattering of American Dream in that era of economic prosperity and material abundance. The Great Gatsby is the biggest example of skilled narrative art as it is based on the principle of double vision. Everything in the novel is seen in two ways: on the one hand it looks a romantic  love story of Gatsby and Daisy, and on the other hand it is about   perverted form of American   Dream. Scott Fitzgerald  is successful in writing a fiction which carries two parallel stories at the same time. The writer himself once stated,† The test of   a first rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in mind at the same time , and still retain the ability to function. The story offers the reader to form quality of double vision to see everything in two ways.The surface study of the novel shows that its about love relation between Daisy and Gatsby, but if we probe into the theme, its about corruption of American dream and a failure to achieve ideals.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The writer attempted to make readers see through his eyes. The reader is made to believe in the possibilities of variety of opposed ideas. Thats why it is also called â€Å"an allegorical novel†. The reader forms different opinion about the novel when he starts reading, but he finds everything quite different when he reaches the end. The story shows that anyone in America can and can not achieve success to the best despite his level best efforts and hard work. The reader is trapped in enigma by thinking whether Gatsby would get Daisy or not. This is proved when Daisy rejects Gatsby and later accepts him and the reader is able to believe in both alternates.   Gatsby himself is the most real and the most unreal elite described in the story. The writer presents this principle of double vision more artistically by introducing character of Nick who tells us what he sees and gathers information about what he does not see himself. Everything in this novel is seen in two ways: on the one hand as glamorous , romantic   and exciting ,and on the other hand as crude, corrupt and even disgusting. This double vision applies to people, places and incidents of the novel. Gatsby, the protagonist of the story, struggles hard to achieve the desired American dream, but is also obsessed with  love of Daisy, his beloved. The most relevant scene to this double vision is the reunion between Gatsby and Daisy after long period of five years. Gatsby spends most of his time in earning wealth so that he would impress Daisy and get her love. Daisy, on the other hand, is highly indifferent to Gatsby and her marriage with Tom shows it clearly. Even their reunion has different effects on both of them. It seems as if Gatsby were having only one thing in mind: achieving American dream. But later we assess that he is only obsessed with Daisys love. The characters mind changes every minute and this change also affect the reader and help them expect any possibility. Some critic writes about Great Gatsby: Fitzgerald called The Great Gatsby a novel of selected incident, modeled after Flauberts Madame Bovary.†What I cut out of it both physically and emotionally would make another novel, he said. Fitzgeralds stylistic method is to let a part stand for the whole. In Chapters I to III, for example, he lets three parties stand for the whole summer and for the contrasting values of three different worlds. He also lets small snatches of dialog represent what is happening at each party. The technique is cinematic. The camera zooms in, gives us a snatch of conversation, and then cuts to another group of people. Nick serves almost as a recording device, jotting down what he hears. Fitzgeralds ear for dialog, especially for the colloquial phrases of the period, is excellent.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The reunion scene is the peak of dramatic point of the novel. The readers have been prepared to reach this point. The image of Daisys willingness is followed by an image of Gatsby seeing the greenish bay across from Daisy dock. colorful parties are followed by isolation in private life. The reader can’t realize at once what the characters already know. The reader reaching this scene takes interest to see whether Gatsby and Daisy renew their lost love. The reader is also interested in the response of Nick on whose intellectual prowess they depend on a lot. The clock scene also offers confrontation of ideas for the readers. The clock is the symbol of past which Gatsby ever yearns to  repeat so that he could again get love of Daisy. The breaking of clock indicates how awkward past moment looks when brought into the present. The facts that the clock does not work indicates flawed dream of Gatsby to win over Daisy. It is true that Gatsby can’t repeat his past and he cant get best out of American dream and is rather disillusioned. The novel shows abstract philosophy that an idealist  reluctant to compromise can and cant survive in this material oriented world. The principle of double vision is made more effective by using Nick as a narrator. The surface level study of the novel shows Gatsby’s thorough indulgence in love of Daisy. Nick is an ideal narrator in the story and is mouth piece of Fitzgerald. His physical proximity to the main characters proves that he is ideal narrator as he knows details of the story from many angels and observes everything quite clearly. It was rather impossible to keep two parallel stories in a single novel which had irreconcilable contradictions. The story of love has nothing to do with American Dream but the writer artistically puts them on right place. From the very beginning we find Gatsby prepared to get what Best America has to offer and he has staunch belief in the face that he will win over Daisys love, the  most loving woman he has ever seen. He can only win her if he measure up to the standards of old wealthy class. Nick holds the view that Gatsbys dream was futile from the very start as he wont be accepted by prejudiced old wealthy class and Daisy belonging to latter can never leave it resulting disillusionment for Gatsby. Here novel shows the fact that American dream of equality for all was a false promise. The story can be interpreted as juxtaposition of two opposed ideas. The ideals are shattered when they are confronted with reality. The ideals of American dream are shattered when  Gatsby gets love of Daisy, when he kisses her, and when he holds her in his arms. The ideal world, in Gatsbys case, shatters in the face of the real one. The intricate weaving of the various stories within The Great Gatsby is accomplished through a complex symbolic substructure of the narrative. The green light, godly eye of Eckleburg,brood on over the solemn dumping ground which shows America as wasteland due to materialistic society and many other symbols make it easier for the writer to intricate stories containing opposing ideas. He also uses metaphors through which he hints at the standards of morality and immorality through out the novel. Daisy cant change her luxurious living style and cant accept the new wealthy class. Jordan Baker boasts of her careless driving. The proper utilization of dual symbolism and ambivalent expressions is truly profound and subtle art that Fitzgerald has mastered in this novel. There is no denying the fact that this beautiful novel offers the readers to form in them the habit to see things from more than one angle. The writer holds the opinion that seeing thing from one way may be faulty and it can be entirely different in reality. Thus it will be right to say that everything in the novel has got double meaning and the writer is successful in using principle of double vision in it.

Thatcherism vs New Labour Party

Thatcherism vs New Labour Party The British political system went through various and complex changes over time, starting from the post-war consensus, going through Thatcherism and other parties policies activities and ending with the current government led by David Cameron. This research paper will mainly focus on the policies and the ideologies of both Margret Thatcher and the New Labor party and how they affected the British political life so far that is by its role definitely affected in the formation of the economic shape and clarified the peaks and troughs that represented a wide variety of aspects of life in the United Kingdom. Thatcherism is the political policies and way of government of Margaret Thatcher, which include privatisation, monetarism and lack of support for trade unions. Margret Thatcher was the prime minister of the United Kingdom during the period (1979-1990) and her nickname was the Iron Lady Her policies marked a special era for Britain at that time. The New Labour party is the alternative new branding name for the Labour party. This name was introduced by Tony Blair in a conference about a new life for Britain in 1994 and was put into action after the Labour party won the 1997 elections and stayed still till 2010. So whose policies were better? How were they perceived by the public? How did they manage to practice dominance over the British politics? The answers to these questions will be listed when we go through Thatcherism and New Labour policies, ideologies, activities and effects over the political and economic aspects in the United Kingdom and figure out their similarities and differences. Literature Review There is a book that described Margret Thatcher as the most exceptional woman in the history of politics in the United Kingdom. It talked about her achievements, early career and how she acquired power. It also focused on explaining how the Conservative party at that time, led my Thatcher, was able to defeat the Labour party in 4 consecutive general elections.  [1]   Another paper presented the challenges that shaped the policies of both Margret Thatcher and Tony Blair. It elaborated on the main issues that Margret Thatcher focused on like privatization and lack of support for trade unions. On the other hand, it mentioned the Manifesto on which the New Labour party fought on the 1997 elections pledged not to increase rates of income tax, and to hold public spending totals for the first two years in office to those planned by its predecessor  [2]   In another book, there was a clear explanation of how the New Labour party attempted to gain back power and confidence in voters relying on and adhering to some Thatcherism policies.  [3]   Another book elaborated mainly on how the Labour party recovered from the 4 major defeats on the hands of the Conservative one and what changes they introduced in their policies to help them achieve the new outcomes of regaining power to the Labour party.  [4]   One more book described the era of Margret Thatcher and illustrated what were the successes and failures during her period in office and how she was able to confront the uprising economic and social challenges at that time.  [5]   Now we should go deep into the main ideas, policies, ideologies and features of both Thatcherism and New Labour. The Ideological Orientation of Thatcherism New Labour Thatcherism was built upon: Classical Liberalism, which is concerned about the importance of individual freedom, and Conservatism, which is an advocate for the notions of national sovereignty, the traditional morals and the laissez-faire principles Thatcher developed her policies over time with her first government focusing on the reform of trade unions and monetary control (monetarism), the second focusing on privatisation and housing and the third focusing on the restoration of the welfare state in the UK.  [6]  . Considering the New Labour ideology, Blair made a decisive break away from Old Labours traditional political stance and he called it as the party of New Labour after becoming leader of the party in 1994. In policy terms, New Labour acted like the mediator between Old Labour, who was statist socialism (they believe to be too radical), and Thatcherism, which was strongly concerned by the principle of laissez-faire and individualism as stated above. So Blair accepted many of his predecessors ideas about: free trade, the retrieval of a successful and elastic labour market through capitalism and more individual self-help, etc.  [7]   There were some obvious similarities between Thatcherism and New Labour, which were even more important than the differences between both of them. The New Labour party adopted many key elements of the Conservative policies in order to overcome its harsh defeat and decline that was very sharp especially and directly after the winter of discontent. The Labour party in the 20th century didnt lose because of Thatcherism strength or popularity but because There was no great endorsement of Thatcherism in 1979. As late as October 1978, Labour was still ahead in some opinion polls, but the Winter of Discontent turned the public against Labour and the unions. The election was more of a rejection of Labour than an endorsement of Thatcherism  [8]   Similarities in The Policies Thatcher focused greatly on the economic reforming issue. She went through 4 main aspects and issues which are: the privatisation of the British Industrial methods, the narrowing of the union power and lack of support for it, the reduction of public spending in order to allow cuts in taxation and controlling the prices inflations. The New Labour was able to move away from the past when it declared the refusal and denial of the Clause IV from its constitution, which had become a keystone in the philosophy of the left. Commitment to public ownership was replaced by the view that the enterprise of the market and the rigour of competition are joined with the forces of partnership and co-operation to produce the wealth the nation needs and the opportunity for all to work and prosper. This marked the clear refusal by the New Labour for Socialism and marked its clear movement towards Thatcherism.  [9]   Considering the issue of taxation for instance, Gordon Brown made a clear and public commitment to remain within the Conservatives spending plans for the first two years of a new Parliament and not to increase the basic rate of income tax, showing again the adoption by New Labour of a key element of Conservative policy and also that was the Manifesto on which the New Labour party fought the 1997 elections.  [10]   It seems that New Labours economic policy is built upon a similar or a close one to that of Thatcher economic policy, where there is close-working relationship between the government and employers and trade union power was reduced and lacked significantly. It is also built upon the explicit endorsement of the importance of market competition and the desirability of private enterprise which is very close to the privatization policy by Thatcher. This policy shift is thought by many to represent a considerable acceptance of the broad legacy of the Thatcher years by Blair. Therefore it is evident that on these key issues, New Labour seemed to want to stay with the Thatcherism policies already put in place.  [11]   Differences in The Policies Government Intervention in the Market There were also clear differences in the economic policies of both Thatcherism and New Labour. For instance, New Labour refused Thatchers principle of Laissez-faire principle where the role of government and its intervention hardly featured. In accordance with this principle, Gordon Brown claimed that the government intervention is a must to provide more public services which will be more beneficial than cutting taxes for few people only. The New Labour party believed that its the duty of the government to interfere to prevent the under-investment of education and training that may take place in case of they relied only on the market forces alone. So they sustained investment in skills, science, research and development, and public infrastructure encouraged strong performance in high-value manufacturing sectors far removed from financial markets in the UK  [12]   Taxation Policy The difference between Thatcherism and New Labour can also be seen when we look at the taxation policy. Thatcher believed in the motivation for low rates of direct taxation and she regarded this as a key part of her strategy of increasing competitiveness. Thatcherism also believed that direct cuts in taxations will help set the values of equality and the individual freedom in order to reach the welfare state. However, the New Labour was obliged to work according to 1997 elections manifesto where the government should not increase its public spending for the first two years of its formation. This manifesto briefly stated that the officials in Blairs government should be Wise spenders, not big spenders Blair always believed that its not wise or rational to increase taxations because it will dangerously harm the economic situation and because the New Labour was more concerned with the likely vote-losing consequences of high taxation. However there were two contradicting opinions about t he tax increase issue, one suggest by Blair and the other by Brown. Brown believed that Labour should retain the power to raise the top rate however, Blair and his advocates argued that increasing taxation rates is not the best guaranteed method to gain revenues: to put up rates would not automatically achieve the desired result as evasion will increase  [13]   The Social Welfare Equality Social welfare policy marked an obvious difference point between Thatcherism and the New Labour. New Labour believed in communitarianism which is the existence of society with networks of social relations. New Labour used the term Positivity of Freedom where people can get their chance to do things they need to do which are available for them through various resources, and the government intervention to provide these resources. New Labour didnt ignore the socially excluded persons, it helped them empower and fill the lack of positive freedom and it made sure that everybody came out beneficial from economic growths.  [14]   The New Labour also marked unemployment as the biggest brick that forms inequality between people and according to Blair, the best guarantee to earn a decent wage was employability The New Labour believed in the importance of coping with the world changing process towards information age and in order to develop more and more, they sought a society full of employed, skilled and trained workers so they tended to provide resources for people in order to achieve that development and progress goal.  [15]   On the other side, Thatcherism advocated for individualism and individual responsibility in place of collective provision and availability as stated in the ideologies part above ( The individual is the one who is responsible for welfare, not the society) resulting in limiting the role of the welfare state and New Labour refused this vision because they believed it would increase the internal divisions of the society and weaken the bonds between people although Blair was adhered to Thatcherism one of whose aims was to shift responsibility for welfare from state to individual at the beginning considering the issue of equality.  [16]   Dealing with the Electorate and the Voting Class Another obvious and big difference between Thatcherism and New Labour is about how both of them dealt with the electorate. Margaret Thatcher preferred to convince the electorate to support her ideas and far sighting (to persuade them to accept her vision as it is) while New Labour tended to adapt their policies and regulations according to the voters visions and ideas, not the party itself and that is because the continuous processes of social change were tending to reduce the numbers of voters who favoured the government interventionist policies where the working labour class was gradually shrinking and getting oppressed while the middle classes who get paid for their work were expanding.  [17]   So its clear that the New Labour party introduced vast modifications to their policies considering the electorate issue and they adopted Thatchers method in order to win back the votes of people who lost confidence in them after the winter of discontent and to appeal to their new electoral target of middle income, middle Britain. So its pretty obvious that, although similarities of ideas and policies towards many political issues are crystal-clear between New Labour and the Thatcherism, these similarities acted as the outcome of New Labour belief in the importance of getting confidence and trust back towards the voting class. Then it could be said that the differences are actually more important than the similarities as they reflect the true nature of the ideologies of the parties and how they acted to achieve their main purposes and goals. Conclusion Its visibly noticeable about what we have been through along this study that The New Labour party has rose up at the ruins of Thatcherism, or in other terms, The New Labour has picked up where Thatcherism fell off. No one can deny that the New Labour did really benefit from Thatcherism dominance from 1979 to 1997. Margret Thatcher was able to lead its party to three decisive consecutive victories in general elections followed by the fourth success led by Major. The reasons of Thatcherism dominance over the British political life didnt rise up from nothing. They rose up thanks to Thatchers policies and regulations. The people admired what Thatcher did considering the hindering of government intervention in the stock market, privatizing British factories and companies, direct cuts in taxations and much more. Also, Thatchers economic policies played a leading role in getting favour and support from the electorate and the voters, some statistics about the effects of these economic policies, like a 32% increase in the number of workers in manufacturing, a 40% increase in household incomes, could prove that clear.  [18]   Nothing is perfect. Although Britain was a richer country under the Conservative government rule by Thatcher and there was surely an increase in the productivity (that was negative because more goods were produced by fewer workers rather than increased capital investment), inequality also spread into Britain. Unemployment for example had hit more than 4.5 million Britons and 1 million out of those 4.5 was never involved in any paid employment. One in six Britons were on social assistance, the highest proportion in the EU and three times the rate found in Germany  [19]   In overall, the majority of British people benefited from Thatcherism than suffered. Thatcher was able to create a country that was never formed under any Labour government rule before and this was successful mainly because of, as we mentioned before, Thatcherism policies especially the ones regarding economic issues. Thats what pushed the Labour party autonomously to follow the same footsteps left clearly by the Conservative one and they did that in order to win peoples confidence back into their party, attract the voters and to gain power again over the British political arena and that reason was like the green light to the birth of the New Labour party which had SIMILIARITIES along with Thatcherism (which prove that New Labour really picked up where Thatcherism fell off) and had DIFFERENCES (Which prove that the New Labour party is ideologically different from Thatcherism and it didnt copy or remake the latter steps, it did only follow the Conservatives in some specific points abo ut which they were pretty sure that it will get their glory and shine back again into Britain political field).

Race Stereotyping Leads to the False Accusation of Kabuo Miyamoto Essay

Race Stereotyping Leads to the False Accusation of Kabuo Miyamoto David Guterson based his novel, Snow Falling On Cedars, during a racially charged time of history. This book takes place during the time period of 1940 to 1955. The setting of this novel is a small town, Amity Harbor, on the island of San Piedro. This is a small island, and Amity is the largest town on the entire island. This island is home to Japanese strawberry farmers and one-man gillnetting boats. This novel is based around the murder trial of Carl Heine Jr. The accused man is Kabuo Miyamoto, a Japanese gill-netter as well as a World War II veteran. By non-fiction facts, from historical documents, and fiction facts from the novel itself, Kabuo Miyamoto was accused solely because of his race. On December 7, 1941, aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. About half the United States fleet was at Pearl Harbor at the time. More than 2,400 American servicemen and civilians were killed. Another 1,200 were wounded. Eight battleships of the Pacific Fleet were damaged or sunk, though the fleet's aircraft carriers were at sea. Hundreds of aircraft were destroyed. The same day, or shortly thereafter, the Japanese launched attacks against Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Guam and Wake Island. Because of the swift advances of the Japanese military, many Americans concluded that an invasion, either of Hawaii or the West Coast, was inevitable. (Leitich 1) In February 1942, Lieutenant General John DeWitt, the commanding general of the Western Defense Command, which included California, Oregon and Washington, urged the evacuation of all Japanese American citi... ...anese decent then they are the ones that fought against and killed American soldiers during World War II. Many of the American’s of Japanese decent fought and died for the same country, the same cause, and the same humanity that the American soldiers did, but this was never looked at, never taken into consideration, and never respected. Works Cited Guterson, David. Snow Falling On Cedars. New York: Vintage Books, 1995. Internment Camps. Ed. 04/15/2001. . Japanese Internment. Ed. Lamb, Judith. St. Francis Xavier School. 04/5/2001. . Leitich, Greg H. Japanese American Legal History: Internment/Relocation. 04/17/2001. 04/5/2001 .

My Hike in Yosemite :: Autobiography, Personal Experience

The trip began when I took a small green pencil and signed by name on the release forms needed to hike in Yosemite National Park. I and nine of my friends left the ranger station that night with a neatly folded map and a felling of excitement to what lay ahead. The long drive to the park left us tired and in need of a good night’s sleep. We decided to stay in tent city like most hikers do before they set out for their trek. Tent city was a large subdivision of tents that resembled a community of houses. Each tent was perfectly uniformed in its appearance and made up a total of fifty tents. Before we went to bead, we studied our maps and made an itinerary to the amount of hiking we would do. The next day began with an alarm clock echoing in my ears at 6 a.m. Our first days hike started early and began with one of the most impressive features of the park. El Capitan is a giant slab of granite rock that towers thousands of feet above the valley floor. Like a skyscraper, the rock has a presence of amazement surrounding its every crevice and crack. After a few minutes of starring at the rock had passed, Eric the leader for that days hike shouted that it was time to go. Because the leader was in charge of the navigation and speed we traveled, he knew that we would not make our campsite if we did not continue. Time drugged along as the weight of a forty-pound pack full of food and water dug into to my bony shoulders. My pack seemed to be getting heaver as the day went on. My shoulders pulsed with pain from the thinly padded straps that connected to my pack. Four hours of this pain was all I could handle. I decided that this was enough I needed to stop. I shouted to Eric that I needed to take a break. He quickly turned around and said it was okay if we stopped. Because it was close to lunch everyone agreed and we all set down to eat lunch. Each one of us was caring five days worth of food for our trek. Every meal was neatly packed in a clear plastic bag and labeled for when it should be eaten. I opened up a package of peanut butter crackers from my lunch package and stared into the open field we had stopped in.

film institute research :: essays research papers

From camera to television a film must pass many stages, capital must be raised to finance all areas, this includes actors fees. Which range from over line costs where only a percentage of final takings are handed over. This is popular with actors such as Ewan McGregor who likes to work on low budget films. Whereas other actors may demand underline costs which is a fixed fee, not variable with the success of the film. This can be very expensive, e.g. a world-class star such as Bruce Willis may gain $20 million from a film. These costs may be lowered with using â€Å"lower class† actors. After Actors there are many other negative costs, which a filmmaker must tackle, this includes production expenses, which make up 60% of costs. Other costs also include promotion where â€Å" an average movie goes into 20,25,30 million dollars†- as quoted by Bernard Weinraub from the New York Times. Some films such as Titanic can run up costs of over $200 million depending on the extent o f sets etc. Yet it is not the filmmaker who had to â€Å"cough† up this money, actually it was two separate film companies, Paramount and 20th Century Fox, who paid for all production costs, in the film â€Å"Titanic†. Smaller filmmakers may find help from the lottery, who have set up 3 â€Å"mini-studios†, which part finance films such as â€Å"Four Weddings and a funeral† set up by â€Å"DNA Films Ltd†. Other film financers include, banks, wealthy individuals or investment companies, yet to gain funding ideas must be original and almost secured success, all ideas are presented in the form of a treatment. Once the investor agrees it will then demand a return from profits of sales. Commissioning which is explained above fits into one of three categories when producing a film, this is pre-production, and involves other components such as casting and designing, yet before this can be achieved the film writer has to plan every element. Planning is ver y important in securing a films success, it includes planning where shoots are to take place the finances which will be spent etc. Once an idea is produced in he form of a book, script etc, it then goes on a journey of evolving. When planning a film the writer comes up with locations for shoots and the actors who will play in the shoots, apart from these are the other staff, which will be needed, such as makeup artists.

Role of Finance Companies

Role of Finance Companies Traditional role of Finance Companies The finance companies are much smaller in scale compared with commercial banks, and they are also saddled with more restrictions which will be discussed later in the report. Traditionally, they relied on their personalized and flexible services to attract clients. This is because there are always consumers who are rejected by the commercial banks because adding these consumers to their portfolios would be uneconomical for these commercial banks as their economies of scale cannot offset the transactional costs these clients would bring because of the small margins these smaller consumers bring. These mainly include people or companies who do not have the capital to meet the relatively higher capital requirements of the commercial banks compared to finance companies. One example would be the current business account for companies. The major banks such as DBS and OCBC also offer low startup requirements, but charge a monthly management fee if their balances fall below $10,000 , not a big amount for businesses but possibly a stretch on new and small scale businesses. Hence, finance companies plug that gap with much lower balance requirements that would be more attractive to these business owners. Another example would be home loans by which finance companies offer a wider range of interest rates for a different range of financing needs compared to commercial banks who offer more generic rates on a whole. Emerging opportunities for Finance Companies Financial companies are however, now exploring new opportunities that they have not been able to capitalize on before. For example, Hong Leong has recently been awarding underwriting rights by the MAS, a traditional stronghold of commercial banks. This has redefined the boundaries that a traditional finance company in Singapore held due to regulations under the finance companies’ act. Wealth management, a relatively fast growing new segment in Singapore, has seen Hong Leong also wrestling in with a slice of the pie that many expected the commercial and investment banks monopolize. Industry Performance Finance companies form a small and unique portion of the financial services sector here in Singapore. A large part of their income comes in the form of interest income from loans and also commission fees for services that they offer. By focusing on domestic opportunities, they have managed to avoid exposure to the credit crisis that many others in the sector have been affected by. This has thus helped all 3 firms in the sector to post stellar results over the past year. As shown below, Singapore’s GDP growth YoY was 7. 7%, a slight moderation from the 8. % in 2006. This represents opportunities as the need for financial services increase as people in Singapore gain affluence. Growth of profit for Finance Companies Growth on EBIT ranged from a low of 38. 7% to a high of 65. 2% riding on increased receivables for all 3 finance companies. This is exceptional considering the cloud that has shrouded the financial sector in recent times. In dollar terms, their p rofits grew by SGD$43million to a total of over SGD$150million. Also, operational efficiency was a strong driver of the profit growth. Revenues remained rather stable and it was the decreased operating costs that led to higher profits according to the financial reports released. This could be due to reasons such as improved technical systems or improved employee proficiencies. Growth of property & construction revenue segment There is a strong focus on the â€Å"heartland† consumers and increased demand for housing, particularly in HDB flats, has led to opportunities that finance companies have leveraged on to cement their stake in this niche market. Although commercial banks also offer housing loans, finance companies are able to adapt each individual loan to consumer’s requirements because they enjoy greater flexibility especially for smaller loans that larger financial institutions do not want to accommodate to enjoy the relatively small returns. Looking at the breakdown of loans and advances of Finance Companies, we can see a large part is driven by the building and construction sector in Singapore, which was booming last yea. The building sector was driven by the construction of the 2 integrated resorts and a booming property market last year. A key driver of the industry, construction growth, which represents a large portion of finance companies’ interest income, grew at a rate of 20. 3% in 2007, compared to 3. 6% in 2006. The bull run in the property market, as mentioned, has also contributed to the sector’s good performance. Property agents have described in particular, the HDB resale market as the kingpin of the real estate sector. Projected unit sales are estimated to be at 30,000 by industry players. Average prices rose 17% for 2007. This, coinciding with a new government initiative to encourage singles to live with their parents by providing a grant of up to $9000, has led to a boom for the property market domestically in recent times. The government’s policy to target an eventually population size of 6million citizens would lead to an increased demand for housing as more and more immigrants look to plant their roots here. Thus, we can expect housing loans to continue to be a strong driver of performance for finance companies into the foreseeable future. Increase in SME initiatives The government’s initiative to increase SME competitiveness and promote entrepreneurship has also facilitated the expansion of this revenue segment for financial companies. The founding of organizations such as SPRING help to spur and stimulate the growth of target sectors for these financial companies. Initiatives such as the Micro Loan Programme under SPRING create direct market share for these finance companies for those who are rejected by the commercial banks for loans. A look through the Hong Leong Finance website shows at least 11 initiatives directed at SMEs alone. This shows the importance of this particular revenue segment to finance companies. Therefore, the future of this key driver of finance companies’ success looks to be rosy given the support that SMEs receive domestically from the government. It is also important to note that finance companies give incentives by positioning themselves as service providers for smaller enterprises who require greater flexibility in terms of financing requirements. As mentioned earlier in the report, this is due to the fact that it is uneconomical for commercial banks to process some enquiries and loans because they are uneconomical given the scale of operations. Summing up, the performances of finance companies have been exceptional with impressive growth figures. However, as the recession worries and full effects of the sub-prime issues slowly uncover, finance companies may yet be exposed to underlying issues that may influence performances in the near future. Next, we shall examine some of the trends in the finance company sector and try to identify key issues that may offer insights into what we can expect from these finance companies in the future given what we have already discussed. We would also examine a key player to try and gain insights into how these finance companies operate. TRENDS AND ISSUES IN THE FINANCE COMPANIES SECTOR: SINGAPORE 1. Consolidation within industry One of the most pervasive trends identified in the last decade in the finance companies sector is the consolidation of the industry. This is evident from the number of finance companies that have ceased operations. Some of these companies were forced out of the industry due to regulatory changes, while others, like OCBC Finance, simply merged with their principal companies. Since 1996, 19 finance companies have surrendered their finance companies’ license, with only 3 main finance companies remaining by the end of 2007. Accordingly, the assets and liabilities of finance companies as a whole have declined dramatically over the past decade, before stabilizing and increasing steadily over the past 3 years to around 10 billion dollars. Finance companies’ assets decreasing before stabilizing and recovering, and consolidation. 1. 1 Regulatory changes One of the catalysts for this consolidation is no doubt the regulatory changes that MAS has put into effect. Since December 1994, the Finance Companies Act was revised to raise the minimum capital requirement for finance companies from $0. to $50 million, and existing finance companies were given until 2003 to gather the required amount. This effectively meant that finance companies which did not have the required capital had to either merge with other players in the industry including banks, or raise the required capital. Hong Leong Singapore Finance, the finance company in Singapore today, is the result of such a merger between Hong Leong and Singapo re Finance. Examples of mergers with their parent banks include Maybank Finance, and Overseas Union Trust, which of course was subsequently absorbed into UOB. It could be argued that even without regulatory changes, mergers and acquisitions are inevitable for the smaller companies to survive. Regardless, the changes put into place by MAS has forced the industry to evolve into one with lesser, but stronger players. 1. 2 Increasing competition In 1998, then DPM Lee Hsien Loong remarked in a parliamentary session that the rationale behind these regulatory changes was to â€Å"enable finance companies to have the resources to compete more effectively and increase public confidence in them. Hence, another major reason for the consolidation in the industry can be attributed to the increasingly intense competition from commercial banks and other financial institutions which provide similar services. Loans and other services catered to SMEs, which the full banks typically deemed unprofitable, were traditionally the strong suit of finance companies. From data gathered on the 3 existing finance companies, loans and services to SMEs forms over 40% o f their portfolios. However, in the past decade, many commercial banks have started divisions to tap into the SME market made popular by finance companies. Finance companies thus now have to contend not only with each other, but commercial banks as well. This means that badly run finance companies simply could not contend with the competition and were targets for other finance companies’ acquisitions to boost their own ability to compete. 1. 3Niche markets Finance companies are usually able to compete with commercial banks because they offer services to niche markets (usually SMEs) which then form a large part of their portfolio. In today’s financial markets, Hong Leong Singapore Finance is known to target clients within the SME, consumer housing and the silver industry. Sing Investments and Finance has loans in the construction and property development sectors amounting to 68% of their loans portfolio. However, the population of such niche markets are usually much smaller than mainstream financial markets, and companies need to be able to capture a larger market share within the niches to be able to offer products with a competitive edge over commercial banks. Under the basic tenets of economics, this means that a only a small number of firms are needed to satisfy demand in such niche markets. Hence, there is necessarily a trend towards consolidation of similar firms within the separate niche markets in a ‘survival of the fittest’-style competition, which is the situation being faced with today. 1. 4 Global mergers and acquisition trends Mergers and acquisitions have been widespread and plentiful in recent times, and although this directly impacts the trend of mergers within the finance companies sector, there are also indirect effects to be discussed. One must consider that the increasing prevalence of large, merger companies necessarily means that the pool of smaller companies, of which finance companies cater to, is steadily decreasing. Such large merger companies usually go to commercial banks for the more sophisticated and diverse range of credit options which finance companies are simply unable to provide, either because of regulatory restrictions from the Finance Companies Act, or because they do not have the resources to do so. Again, this results in a net effect of finance companies having to merge themselves to operate effectively and efficiently to capture this diminishing pool of available business. TRENDS AND ISSUES IN THE FINANCE COMPANIES SECTOR: INTERNATIONAL International finance companies Unlike in Singapore, a legal definition of ‘finance company’ exists, there is no clear definition on what constitutes a finance company in the overseas financial markets. However, there is a general consensus that finance companies provide mainly lending services to consumers and small businesses. As with finance companies in Singapore, international finance companies typically target these clients that the major banks overlook, or have specializations in specific industries that make them more attractive to customers seeking credit services within these industries. Unlike Singapore, where only 3 such companies now operate, there are literally thousands of such companies overseas catering to different industries and customer bases, and it will be definitely be out of the scope of this report to discuss each one in detail. Also, the nature of the finance companies sector is such that they are more influenced by regulations and performances of industries within the countries in which they operate, and less affected by global financial trends. A simple example of this is in Singapore, where finance companies have been fairly shielded from the turmoil in overseas financial markets led by the subprime crisis in the US. Instead, they have been doing well, largely owing to the boom in the local property, auto and SME markets. It is thus more appropriate to examine the issues and trends of nternational finance companies in the context of the local markets which they serve, rather than to identify and global trends that affect all financial markets. Hence, we have decided to focus our attention on finance companies operating within 3 countries where financial markets are relatively mature and established, and whose activities are more transparent and in the limelight. These are Australia, Japan and USA. 2. Fin ance companies in Australia The finance companies scene in Australia is thriving, and has witness continued growth in the last 3 years. Another good year was recorded in 2006/2007 with both business and personal lending continuing to grow. Finance companies in Australia have long been a significant sector in the Australian financial services market, offering a wide range of products including business leasing, fleet leasing and personal lending. Such companies provide an alternative source of borrowing to the banks, building societies and credit unions. The two largest finance companies operating in Australia are Esanda and Capital Finance, which collectively represents almost 40% of the sector’s operating profits after tax. Some of the key issues which have impacted profits in the last 2 years include: ? asset growth of 7. 1% leading to an increase in interest income ? increased competition leading to reduced margins and fee income ? increased bad debts expenses ?reduced profits on motor vehicle lending 2. 1 Australia – Reliance on Auto Industry and Industry Trends The auto industry is a major driver of performance of the finance companies sector in Australia, no doubt because the majority of the finance companies are exposed to the sector. This may be in the form of lending to consumers and businesses to purchase their motor vehicles, financing auto dealers’ purchase inventories, or providing fleet management businesses. The growth of finance companies coincides with the auto industry’s boom in the past 5 years, with 4 consecutive years of record sales up to 2005. Provision of loans to purchase large cars dropped 18 percent largely due to the change in consumer purchasing habits from the price hikes in oil. Instead, smaller car sales were up 21 percent, contributing to increased revenues for finance companies. However, the increased affordability of new cars in the last 5 years has created difficulties for finance companies which provide fleet management services, such as BMW Finance and ORIX, since such companies suffer reduced profits on the sale of cars at the end of their lease. In recent times, the focus of many of the larger finance companies have shifted to diversification of services. This is similar to Hong Leong Singapore Finance’s strategy in Singapore, which is to take on the major banks at their own game, such as providing property and construction facilities. GE Money’s expansion into credit cards, mortgages and on-line savings provide another example of Australian finance companies’ diversification. Just as the finance companies are expanding their services to include services provided by major finance players such as banks, so are the majors entering into sectors traditionally dominated by finance companies. This includes areas such as lending secured on receivables, consumer and low-doc lending. This has increased competition among Australian finance companies, which is further crowded by new entrants such as Aussie Home Loans’ plans to target car and personal lending markets. . 2 Australia – Growth in Assets, Personal and Business lending Total assets of the finance companies surveyed increased 7. 1 percent to $37. 5 billion, slightly down from 8. 1 percent growth in the previous year, but this still represents a strong rate of growth. This trend has been observed for the past 4 years, and can largely be at tributed to lending growth in the business and personal sectors. Even though finance companies in Australia only accounts for 5 percent of total Australian loans and advances, their market share is considerably higher in traditionally key markets of business lending and personal lending. This is estimated to be around 10 and 15 percent approximately. Since finance companies in Australia are typically not exposed to the housing mortgage market, they are not affected much by the decline in the housing market that is being experienced in global markets. However, the quality of the assets seem to be an issue for finance companies. Total bad and doubtful debt expense increased 32 percent from 2006. Even when viewed in context in the growth of receivables, the ratio of bad debts to average receivables increased. Hence, unlike in Singapore, it does seem that Australian finance companies suffers somewhat from increase in credit losses. However, this is to be expected since finance companies typically engage in less secure lending to less credit worthy customers in exchange for a higher margin. It must also be said that the amount of credit losses increases pales in comparison with the subprime losses that major international banks have faced even with supposed tighter credit checks. 3. Finance companies in Japan In early 2007, the consumer finance industry of Japan was valued at a total of ? 0 trillion with annual growth of 4%. The key factor influencing this previous growth in the industry might be traced to the equity and real estate bubble burst in the early 1990’s which lowered the collateral of several consumers. This provided a large market segment seeking uncollaterized loans, which were only provided by the consumer finance companies. At the same time, consumer finance companies had an advantage over the banks as they had a wider network of loan offices and had a reputation for quicker loan approval. 3. Japan – Regulatory elimination of ‘grey zone’ lending Significant change is expected in the consumer finance sector of Japan, as new regulations affecting consumer finance companies were passed in December 2006, and are to be withheld by the year 2009. The main crux of the new regulation would be that it lowers that maximum allowed interest rate chargeable on uncollaterized consumers. While the interest rate cap on consumer loans were capped at 20% by the Interest Rate Restriction law, the Capital Subscription law stated that a rate of 29. 9% could be charged, in the event that a written consent to the charges was provided by the consumer. Due to this law, several consumer finance companies in Japan have been providing loans to poor credit clients, at interest rates charged within the ‘grey zone’ (20%-29. 9%). What this new legislation entails would be that these consumer finance companies will need to adapt and reinvent themselves, as they can no longer depend on the ‘grey zone for survival’. What can be expected would be shakeout of the smaller consumer finance companies, consolidation as well as diversification of products. 3. 2 Japan – Regulatory Changes The Japanese Diet revised legislation regarding the Money Lending Business (MLB) law. A previous ceiling of 29. % for consumer loan interest rates set by the Capital Subscription law was repealed and reduced to 20%. This coincides with the ceiling set by the Interest Rates Restriction law, which has an interest rate cap of 20% per annum for such loans. Even then, this cap is only applicable for loans of up to ? 100,000 and below. Fo r loans with principal amounts ranging between ? 100,000 and ? 1,000,000, the cap is only 18% per annum. Loans with principal amounts over ? 1,000,000 are charged a maximum interest rate of 15% per annum. At the same time, the Bank of Japan has in recent years opted to abandon their zero-interest rate policy. At the moment, their interest rates have been set at 0. 5%. It is yet to be seen if there will be any increase in this rate, as it will probably depend on the performance of the Japanese economy as it adapts to this change, as well as the USA downturn. But essentially, with the bottom line raised and the top lines lowered, consumer finance companies are seeing their margins diminishing. The amendment also includes tighter entry restrictions for consumer finance companies, return of excess interest payments made to consumers, as well as restricts the maximum debt a consumer may hold to only one-third of his annual income. At the same time, the lid has been left open for more restrictions to be implemented between now and 2009, during which enforcement for the new regulation is going to be implemented. 3. 3 Japan – Effects on Performance In response to the new legislation, the industry has been suffering since. An estimated loss for the combined consumer loan sector for the fiscal year of 2006 has been made at ? 3 trillion. This can be directly attributed to the diminished market segment as well as several requests for refunds of excess loans from existing consumers. With stock prices of the 4 major players in the industry tumbling even before the announcement of the December 2006 ruling, mostly as a pre-emptive reaction, the situation is dire. This has left the consumer finance companies with the option of either leaving the market, or restructuring themselves to suit the new environment. The two main strategies for remaining in the sector would be expansion and diversification. 3. 4 Japan – Expansion At moment, there is estimated total of 10,000 registered money-lenders in Japan. Of these, there are only 4 major players (Aiful Corp. , Acom Co. , Promise Co. Takefuji Corp. ) that are currently listed on the Japanese stock exchange, whilst the rest are all individually casting small shadows. However, considering the increased requirements for operations as well as the diminished margins, it is now harder to maintain operations as a small player. More sophisticated risk management and cost-cutting are all necessary aspects that need impleme ntation for survival. It is expected that a large proportion of these smaller companies will eventually consolidate to be able to mount a substantial fight for survival or be forced to cease operations. Current estimates are that the eventually, Japan will only be left with 3,000 consumer finance companies. Already, that trend is starting to take shape. The current estimate of 10,000 registered money lenders have already dwindled from a previous figure of 14,000 as of February 2007. Two of the larger players, Acom and Promise have also taken a step further than anyone else in the industry, by negotiating partnerships with major banks, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group respectively. This strengthens their competitiveness, as these consumer finance companies will be able to provide the bank with their expertise in handling smaller and riskier consumer loans, whilst the banks will be able to support these companies as they transcend into a more developed state. 3. 5 Japan – Diversification of Products Traditionally, the Japanese consumer finance companies could be classified into two main group; those dealing in consumer loans; and those providing credit card services. While the former group has been hit hard directly by the new regulation, the latter has been relatively unscathed. The main reason would be that interest rates for credit cards were already below the 20% limitation. Consumer finance companies are now finding that there is an unexplored market that they can now explore, to make up for their losses in the consumer loan segment. To compound incentives for this strategy, the credit market has yet to truly blossom in Japan yet, due to a prior preference for cash instead. For example, credit card shopping only accounts for 10% of consumption in Japan, and this is relative to the 25% figure for the United States. 3Finance companies in USA There are many companies in the USA which provide consumer and business finance services in all sectors of the financial markets. Being the world’s largest financial market, USA has a very diverse group of finance companies that cater to auto, personal, small enterprise, insurance, and mortgage lending, among others. Citi Financial, HSBC Finance, GE Money, Prudential Finance, Zurich Financial, and Capital One are just a few examples of such finance companies. Just as in Singapore and other nations, these finance companies typically serve clients who are either too small or have poor credit ratings to obtain loans from the larger banks. The consumer finance industry in the USA is too large to be discussed in full detail in this report. Hence we will only be discussing a particular type of finance company which in the past year has come under scrutiny from all corners of the financial markets – subprime mortgage lenders. While major commercial and investment banks have all taken in losses amounting to USD 170b from writing down Colleteralized Debt Obligations and Mortgage Backed Securities, mortgage finance companies in the USA have mostly been responsible for the origination of such losses. 3. 1 USA – Subprime mortgage lending by finance companies Subprime mortgage lending by finance companies enabled consumers in the USA with poor credit histories to obtain loans to purchase homes with higher interest rates than that charged by banks. These consumers were previously unable to obtain such loans from the major banks and lenders due to their poor credit histories. To entice consumers to accept such higher interest rates, these finance companies typically include ‘teaser rates’ during the initial periods of the loan where the interest rates were lower, and the rates were then subsequently increased significantly after the introductory period. Because many consumers could no longer afford the high interest payments after the introductory period, many were forced to refinance their subprime loans with another subprime loan. This was acceptable pre-2005 since housing prices were on the rise, and this meant that home owners were building equity which enabled them to refinance loans easily. However, after 2005, home prices started to decline and fell below the value of the loan, and thus could not be used as collateral for refinancing. A steep rise in defaults and foreclosures caused more than 100 finance companies in the US to file for bankruptcy beginning late 2006. Even New Century Financial Corporation, then the nation’s second largest mortgage lender, was not spared. Excessive risk taking and making loans to subprime customers meant that such finance companies were exposing themselves to moral hazard excessively. 3. 2 USA – Securitization of subprime loans Many a subprime finance company did not actually hold on to the subprime loans as assets after making them. Instead they securitized, or sold off the loans to issuers and special purpose vehicles. These financial vehicles bought these loans and other investment grade instruments and repackaged them into the CDOs and MBSes that were to blame for the credit problems in financial markets today. These instruments were subsequently bought up by investment and commercial banks, and hedge funds, due to the impression that the risk from the subprime loans have been adequately spread out. However, this was not the case, since once defaults and foreclosures started to hit the issuers, the values of the CDOs were compromised, resulting in huge write downs by banks. What followed was a large credit crunch in financial markets, the effects of which are still unresolved today. Hence, what was supposed to be a mortgage finance sector problem has been spread to all areas of the financial markets through loans securitization, which was started by finance companies in the US. Regulatory Issues The Finance Companies Act (Cap. 108) was established in 1967 to regulate the growing finance companies sector. Listed in the Act are several restrictions that limit the activities of the finance companies. The purpose of these limitations is to protect investors, by controlling the exposure of the company to riskier asset classes and transactions, since finance companies are less able to diversify such risks away than the major banks. These limitations may include capital structure requirements, restrictions on dealings, necessary approval for expansion and others as well. In essence, the provisions within the Finance Companies Act require that finance companies seek MAS for approval to engage in activities other than the most basic lending and depositing services. Since the major banks have a similar set of banking rules and regulations to adhere to, we will be focusing our discussion on a few key regulatory provisions which are specific to the Finance Companies Act. One regulation of particular interest has already been briefly mentioned in the previous sections of this report. In s7 of the Finance Company Act, there are strict capital requirements in place for finance companies. S7 provides that a registered finance company will need a minimum of $50 million in issued and paid up capital. What this requirement does is to limit the industry to only the stronger players. This requirement, as put in place since January 1995, might be responsible for the running out of the several smaller finance companies, and serves as well as a substantially high barrier to entry. S23 of the Finance Companies Act lists out some of the prohibitions of dealings by finance companies. In particular, s23(1)(e) and (f) aims to limit the amount of risk which the finance companies are able to take. This is done by restricting the issuance of substantial loans which exceed 50% of their total credit facilities, and also by prohibiting unsecured loans and advances exceeding S$5,000. It can be seen from these regulations that MAS understands the higher risk nature of the customers served by finance companies, and tries to protect both the customers and the companies from over-exposure to such risks. While s23(1)(b) prevents investments in foreign currency, gold and other precious metals, and s23(1)(c) prevents any acquisition of shares, stock, debt and other convertible securities in foreign denominations, exemption from these restrictions might be granted as stated under s23(2)(a)&(b). S23(2)(a)&(b) states would be that concessions in these aspects might be granted depending on the ruling of MAS. Furthermore, s53 gives room for the authorities to exempt a finance company for some or all of the provisions in the Act. We feel that this shows that MAS recognizes that not all finance companies are ready to take on such dealings yet, but that they are not shutting the door on such transactions in the future. Prospects & Future developments of Finance Companies Effects of the credit crunch In the short run, we would expect that finance companies would experience a udden growth in their revenue segments due to commercial banks tightening credit. The sub-prime meltdown in the United States has severe implications for all industries. However, rather than affecting the finance companies negatively, we foresee that there is a possibility that they might profit from it instead. With several banks being hit severely, we are currently observing the beginnings of a credit crunch as banks start to tighten their credit and adopting a more conservative stance in negotiating loans. This would even be true in Singapore, as we uncover the extent of Asian banks exposure to collateralized debt obligations. DBS Bank has already booked S$200 million worth of write-downs while UOB has S$45 million worth of write-down. These commercial banks have reportedly tightened credit measures with more reluctance to take on risky debts. What this might imply would be that more consumers will have their loan applications rejected from banks, and will therefore look to finance companies for their capital needs instead. At the same time, the market for loans is expected to grow by 13% in 2008. While this is lower than the 20% growth recorded in 2007, it represents that the market is still expanding despite the tightening of credit by major lenders. At the moment, the total loans made by finance companies are sitting at S$8,389 million. The total loans made by commercial banks, however, stands at S$201,424 million. The above figures indicate that if banks were to lose even a small percentage of their market share in loans to finance companies, this would translate to a potentially significant percentage of loans growth for these finance companies. Hence, if finance companies are able to take advantage of the loss in confidence of the banks, and the tightening of credit by said banks to capture the market left behind by the banks in the wake of the sub-prime crisis, there will be room for growth. Consolidation of the segment In the long run however, we adopt a more pessimistic stance towards the development of finance companies. One of the trends that we mentioned was that of consolidation of the finance companies in the past decade. Three such finance companies remain and have performed relatively well over the past few years or so. However, commercial banks are encroaching into traditional strongholds of these finance companies, such as SMEs and smaller personal loans which were once considered unprofitable to service. This is as commercial banks now want to profit from the higher yielding consumer base that these finance companies rely on as they continue to look into other profitable segments that they have neglected in the past. DBS, OCBC and UOB have in the past decade started moving towards these opportunities that they had forgone in the past. There is also increased competition from new entrants such as GE Money and SingPost who now offer consumers more consumer finance choices instead of the remaining 3 finance companies. This increased competition may reduce revenues in the future, especially for Singapura Finance and Sing Investments, since Hong Leong is far and away the major player in this sector and may be able to better cope with these changes. These 2 smaller firms might find it more difficult to continue to perform as well when banks use their financial muscle and influence to try and break into this market. Thus, we foresee a real possibility of further consolidation and perhaps a change in the structure of the future finance company here in Singapore. Hong Leong Finance is special, in the sense that it is much bigger than the other finance companies in the scene. To brand it as a finance company in the same breath as the other 2 does not do Hong Leong’s reputation justice. However, when compared to the commercial banks, they still do not measure up as significant competition. The other 2 finance companies seem to stand little chance should the commercial banks and corporations start infringing on this niche segment that they have survived on. The implications of these is the sign that the finance companies are in a sunset industry and with the exception of Hong Leong, finance companies might struggle to eke out an existence once competition gets more intense. It may revert to a situation where the smaller firms have to merge or be acquired by a larger finance company, in this case, Hong Leong, or risk not being able to survive in the segment. Hong Leong, as mentioned, is unique in the sense that it is such a dominant force in the finance company sector, but yet unable to make the step up to be on the same level as even the smaller commercial banks. In the near future, we could see Hong Leong forming an entire classification on its own, as the alternative to the commercial banks. Following the entry of commercial banks and other competitors into its traditional revenue segments, Hong Leong has been actively looking for other opportunities to diversify its revenue generating segments. We have mentioned some of these earlier in the report. Recently, Hong Leong was commissioned to take up underwriting duties which provides it with a new area of development where they could vary their income sources. It has also established a wealth management arm in light of the growing sector in Asia as a whole.