Iceland Crisis and Causes Led to the Crisis

Iceland and the rest of the world reeling. In retrospect Iceland was essentially operatinglike a firm with a highly unviable growth model. However, the political relationship between Iceland and Britain also greatly added to the economic downturn and financialcrisis. Britain’s use of anti-terrorism laws, in an attempt to protect their economicinvestments in Iceland, essentially labeled Iceland as a terrorist state which onlycontinued to stagnate the inflow of foreign capital.Although without a doubt the primarycause of the Icelandic financial crisis was economic, political factors such as therelationship and interdependence between Iceland and Britain exacerbated the alreadydire situation. Iceland began as an isolated, fairly impoverished country whose survival was based largely on its fishing trade. 1 However, in recent years Iceland had been successfulat establishing itself as a premier offshore banking hub. At one point Icelanders wereecstatic and celebrated the fact that t heir tiny country of about 300,000 people had 3 banks in the worlds largest 300 banks. 2The Icelandic government was able to enticeforeign investors by setting interest rates very high, which encouraged foreigners toinvest largely in financial assets. The large inflow of foreign capital associated with suchmass foreign investment caused the krona to greatly appreciate. Since the krona wasgreatly overvalued it made all imports in both goods and services very inexpensive for Icelanders; the overvalued krona also made it a lot easier for Icelanders to borrow moneyfrom abroad. 3 The high interest rates, gargantuan capital inflow, and an appreciatedcurrency all aided in creating the economic boom that Iceland enjoyed for many years ?This economic boom encouraged Icelanders to borrow from abroad and many failed toforesee that such economic prosperity was limited and that a bust is inevitably going tofollow a boom. The lack of government oversight on the banking system also was an economic factor that led to the financial crisis. One large problem with the Icelandic banking sector is that the banks became so large that the Icelandic government was unable to operate asa lender-of-last-resort simply because Iceland with its mere 300,000 people has a verysmall tax base. 4 At the end of 2006 the total assets of its banks grew to be nine times aslarge as the countries GDP. It would have been less of a problem for the banks to be solarge if they had not remained domiciled in Iceland. It was perhaps too large and ideal of a goal for such a small country like Iceland to become an international financial center. Iceland was essentially acting like a firm when indeed they should have been lookingafter the economic stability of their whole country. The Icelandic government simplylacked the ability to financially sustain their banks in times of economic crisis. If some of the banks in Iceland had foreign lenders-of-last-resort they might have been able toweather out the economic storm.Iceland’s economic growth model was mainly built upon foreigninvestors being able and willing to keep on giving. However, due to the global economiccrisis foreign capital ceased coming in and when it did the myriad of public and privatedebt became quite evident. ? 6 Some analysts argue that problems with the krona have prevented Iceland from being able to control the financial crisis. Since Iceland does not have an effectual currency to manipulate they are largely unable to support the banks andhave no practical ways to bring down the inflation and interest rates, which have beenstaying in the double digits. This is just one of the many economic situations currentlyaffecting Iceland. Without a doubt the prime cause for Iceland’s financial crisis is largely theeconomic circumstances previously discussed. However, political factors such asIceland’s relationship with Britain also played a role in exacerbating the crisis and preventing Iceland from any chance it might have had of financial viability. Iceland andBritain once had a very mutually beneficial friendship, which could be seen in that theywere NATO allies and frequent trading partners.However, as the global economic crisis began to take hold this friendship became tenuous at best. The problems between Icelandand Britain began in late 2008 when Britain, in an attempt to protect its financial assets inIceland, invoke its 2008 anti-terrorism laws to freeze the British assets of a failingIcelandic bank. 8 Specifically Britain froze the assets of Landsbanki and seized the assetsof Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander. 9 The British seizure of Kaupthing Singer &Friedlander was followed shortly by the collapse of its parent bank, Kaupthing, which theIcelandic government had desperately been trying to keep viable.In many Icelanderseyes and certainly in the eyes of the Icelandic government Kaupthing was the last of theMohicans and its demise signaled the end of the Icelandic banking system ? T he political decision to invoke anti-terrorism legislation against Iceland essentially branded it as a terrorist state, which in the eyes of every Icelander was athorough abuse of a small neighbor. Due to this one political action Iceland was listed onthe British Treasury Department’s page with terrorist groups and states such as Al Qaeda,Sudan, and North Korea. 11At this point in the crisis the foreign capital inflows intoIceland were already dismal but this British action triggered an immediate freeze on anyremaining banking transactions between Iceland and abroad. Essentially no one wants todo business with a terrorist state. President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson stated that, â€Å"It(Britain) was absolutely being a bully against a small country because I am absolutelycertain that if it was the case of France and Germany, the British government would nothave acted in the same way- absolutely not†. The Icelandic Prime Minister at the time,Geir H.Haarde, believed that Gord on Brown had â€Å"sacrificed Iceland for his own short-term political gain thereby turning a grave situation into a national disaster†. 12 From the perspective of the Icelandic government their once cordial, neighborly relationship withBritain had been thoroughly abused to the point that a British foreign policy decision played an integral factor in the meltdown of the Icelandic financial sector Undoubtedly Britain’s political decisions affected the financial crisis in Iceland,yet, the Crisis in Iceland also greatly impacted Britain’s economic conditions.Like therest of the world, thanks to the downturn of the global economy Britain has beensuffering its own financial woes. When foreign capital inflows ceased in Iceland thiscaused the krona’s value to fall, which led Icelandic banks to be unable to finance their debts most of which are in foreign currency. This realization by all of the foreigninvestors who were once so eager to invest created a mad rush to get their money out of the failing Icelandic banks.Unfortunately, Icelandic banks did not have proper reservesto cover the massive withdrawals leading all three of Iceland’s banks to be nationalized. 13 Regrettably many British universities, municipal governments, charities and hospitals had been lured in by the high interest rates to invest in Icelandic accounts. CambridgeUniversity had $20 million invested in Icelandic accounts while 15 British police forceshave approximately $170 million frozen in Iceland. 14Many groups that had invested inthe Icelandic banking sector had done so in the convenience of their own home statesthrough the use of online investing sites such as Icesave. co. uk. On their website Icesavenow displays the message that â€Å"We are not currently processing any deposits or withdrawal requests through out Icesave Internet accounts. We apologize for anyinconvenience this may cause our customers†. 15 Certainly for large investors such asCambrid ge University this is much more than a small inconvenienceAt the center of Iceland’s financial troubles is that their banking sector was highlydependent upon a continued inflow of foreign capital. In turn, Iceland’s foreign investorswere also very dependent upon Iceland’s banks to maintain their viability. However,when the inflow of capital stopped the interdependence of Iceland and its investors became very clear. This is exemplified by the Icelandic-British relationship. Britishcitizens and companies alike had been ensorcelled by the call the of high interest rates inIceland.The viability of the banks was based largely on the ability to keep foreign capitalcoming into the country, which allowed the krona to appreciate. When the foreign creditmarket froze and investment decreased drastically the financial interdependence of Iceland and Britain manifested itself Iceland’s main pitfall and cause of its financial crisis is that they essentiallytreated their country as a firm and allowed the banking sector to get far too hugeconsidering, as we have seen, that it had no financial stronghold to back it up.Althoughthe blown-up banking sector and other economic factors created the financial crisis it wascertainly exacerbated by the failed diplomatic relationship between Iceland and Britain. Britain’s use of its antiterrorism legislation only made the economic woes of Icelandworse by essentially making it a pariah that should be avoided by the rest of theinternational community. In the end, Iceland’s financial practices had sown the seeds of their own destruction but the political actions of Britain ensured that it would be a longtime before Iceland’s financial sector will germinate once more.

Financial Accounting

Veronica Bradley Financial Accounting August 12, 2012 Internal Controls Case Study 2 Internal Controls LJB Company, a local distributor, has asked your accounting firm to evaluate their system of internal controls because they are planning to go public in the future. The Company has to check the internal controls of a system of checks and balances designed to detect and prevent fraud and errors. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires U. S. companies to enhance their systems of internal control. The company hired has to detect the internal control system and meet the companies requirements.The internal control standards applicable to Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) apply only to large public companies listed on U. S. exchanges. There is a continuing debate as to whether non-U. S. companies should have to comply with this extra layer of regulation. Debate about international companies (non-U. S. ) adopting SOX-type standards centers on whether the benefits exceed the costs. The concern is that the highe r costs of SOX compliance are making the U. S. securities markets less competitive. These activities are the backbone of the company’s efforts to address the risks it faces, such as fraud.The specific control activities used by a company will vary, depending on management’s assessment of the risks faced. This assessment is heavily influenced by the size and nature of the company. The principles of internal control activities are (1) establishment of responsibility, (2) segregation of duties, (3) documentation procedures, (4) physical controls, (5) independent internal verification, and (6) human resource controls. Advise the President of what the company is doing right (they are doing some things well) and also recommend to the President whether or not they should buy the indelible ink machine.When you advise the President, please be sure to reference the applicable internal control principle that applies. The things that the company is doing well are that using the pr e- numbered invoices. When the company was not using pre-numbering they violated the documentation procedures. If pre-numbered documents are not used, then it is virtually impossible to account for the documents. This will keep good documentation on some things for future reference to have on hand and things aren’t done more than one time by different people.Pre-numbering helps to prevent a transaction from being recorded more than once, or conversely, from not being recorded at all. Second, the control system should require that employees promptly forward source documents for accounting entries to the accounting department. This control measure helps to ensure timely recording of the transaction and contributes directly to the accuracy and reliability of the accounting records. With the information provided the company should invest in an indelible ink machine. This will put the company in more control of accounting procedures.And with this in hand will help reduce the chanc e of any fraud going on in the company with the checks being more manageable. Use of physical controls are essential. The accountant’s act of keeping the checks in a safe in his office is in accordance with the physical controls principle. This reflects the safeguarding of assets and enhances the accuracy and reliability of the accounting records. The President should also know what they are doing wrong like the petty cash situation. All employees have access to the petty cash in a desk drawer and are asked to only place a note if they use any of the cash.The company had a hard time getting the employee to admit it was him because the company does not assign individual passwords. The company is violating the establishment of responsibility, and segregation of duties, documentation procedures, independent internal verification and human resource controls. With the petty cash Internal control over a petty cash fund is strengthened by: (1) having a supervisor make surprise count s of the fund to confirm whether the paid petty cash receipts and fund cash equal the fund amount, and (2) canceling or mutilating the paid petty cash receipts so they cannot be resubmitted for reimbursement.With the establishment of responsibility the company is violating that responsibility by not assigning responsibility to specific employees. Control is most effective when only one person is responsible for a given task. Without doing this leave the door open for fraud and other possibilities to of things to occur. With the company hiring convicted felons and sex offenders with them having a human resources department this all would have been avoided.They wouldn’t have to worry about employees using the internet to view porn sites. When the company hires employees they should have an independent verification for each individual employee. This will track all the employees with their computer and signing in and out of the system and all things that require a verification to proceed. An accountant is not certifiable to interview everyone for certain positions unless it is involved with their position.The President of the company needs to do a big evaluation of the system of internal controls to make sure all the standards are being met for planning the future of the company. As discussed earlier in the requirements of the company in order for them to go public in the future. They are going to have to follow all the guidelines for the principles of internal control are: establishment of responsibility; segregation of duties; documentation procedures; physical controls; independent internal verification; and human resource controls. Financial Accounting Financial statements produced using FIRS were used to obtain startup fund. Current quarterly statements are produced using this format to maintain consistency and clarity for investors' sake. SUBS lists balance sheet items, revenue, liabilities, and share measurements. GIBBS follows FIRS rules when reporting their financial data in every month financial statements fairly and accurately. It is good to use FIRS in the accounting process for any business so that all financial are being reported fairly and accurately.SUBS records assets at their cost using cost principle. International revenue from customers that belong to various countries is tracked and reported using FIRS. SUBS combines GAP along with the FIRS so that largely impacts stock markets, investors, corporate management, accounting standards and accounting professionals' setters. Cubit's financial statement includes GAP and FAST principals to accommodate US based customers and accountants.FIRS is dynamic and it helps the com pany produce financial statements dynamically in a constant changing environment. The convergence of both these standards helped SUBS in producing financial statements with professionalism, uniformity, optimism and transparency. The major difference between GAP and FIRS comes down to being rules- based vs†¦ Reminisces-based; this poses a challenge in areas such as the income statement, consolidation, the earnings-per-share calculation, the inventory, and the costs. In consolidation, U.S. GAP prefers a risks-and-reward model where as the FIRS favors a control model. U. S. GAP shows extraordinary items as net income where as FIRS segregates. U. S. GAP provides the option of LIFO, average cost or FIFO where as FIRS does not allow LIFO for inventory valuation. Under the FIRS the PEPS calculation does not average the individual interim period calculations, but the U. S. GAP does. Regarding developmental costs, GAP considers them as expenses while FIRS capitalizes them based on speci fic criteria.Both FAST and FIRS have identified short- and long-term convergence projects, including 20 reporting areas where differences have been resolved and completed. 3. Pro Formal 4. Internal Controls SUBS needs internal controls to provide assurance in order to achieve forecasted financial reporting, compliance and operating objectives. These internal controls help SUBS to achieve its mission by ensuring that the policies, directions, practices and reoccurred approved and designed by management and board of directors are implemented properly and functions accordingly.It also ensures effectiveness is sustained in an ever changing dynamic environment. All of the five control components in the COCO integrated framework, Control Activities, Control Environment, Risk Assessment, Monitoring, and Information & Communication are very important. SUBS implements all the five controls as an essential internal control and doesn't compromise on any one of them. Of the five, the most impor tant two implemented as critical are control activities and control environment. Financial Accounting Veronica Bradley Financial Accounting August 12, 2012 Internal Controls Case Study 2 Internal Controls LJB Company, a local distributor, has asked your accounting firm to evaluate their system of internal controls because they are planning to go public in the future. The Company has to check the internal controls of a system of checks and balances designed to detect and prevent fraud and errors. The Sarbanes-Oxley Act requires U. S. companies to enhance their systems of internal control. The company hired has to detect the internal control system and meet the companies requirements.The internal control standards applicable to Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX) apply only to large public companies listed on U. S. exchanges. There is a continuing debate as to whether non-U. S. companies should have to comply with this extra layer of regulation. Debate about international companies (non-U. S. ) adopting SOX-type standards centers on whether the benefits exceed the costs. The concern is that the highe r costs of SOX compliance are making the U. S. securities markets less competitive. These activities are the backbone of the company’s efforts to address the risks it faces, such as fraud.The specific control activities used by a company will vary, depending on management’s assessment of the risks faced. This assessment is heavily influenced by the size and nature of the company. The principles of internal control activities are (1) establishment of responsibility, (2) segregation of duties, (3) documentation procedures, (4) physical controls, (5) independent internal verification, and (6) human resource controls. Advise the President of what the company is doing right (they are doing some things well) and also recommend to the President whether or not they should buy the indelible ink machine.When you advise the President, please be sure to reference the applicable internal control principle that applies. The things that the company is doing well are that using the pr e- numbered invoices. When the company was not using pre-numbering they violated the documentation procedures. If pre-numbered documents are not used, then it is virtually impossible to account for the documents. This will keep good documentation on some things for future reference to have on hand and things aren’t done more than one time by different people.Pre-numbering helps to prevent a transaction from being recorded more than once, or conversely, from not being recorded at all. Second, the control system should require that employees promptly forward source documents for accounting entries to the accounting department. This control measure helps to ensure timely recording of the transaction and contributes directly to the accuracy and reliability of the accounting records. With the information provided the company should invest in an indelible ink machine. This will put the company in more control of accounting procedures.And with this in hand will help reduce the chanc e of any fraud going on in the company with the checks being more manageable. Use of physical controls are essential. The accountant’s act of keeping the checks in a safe in his office is in accordance with the physical controls principle. This reflects the safeguarding of assets and enhances the accuracy and reliability of the accounting records. The President should also know what they are doing wrong like the petty cash situation. All employees have access to the petty cash in a desk drawer and are asked to only place a note if they use any of the cash.The company had a hard time getting the employee to admit it was him because the company does not assign individual passwords. The company is violating the establishment of responsibility, and segregation of duties, documentation procedures, independent internal verification and human resource controls. With the petty cash Internal control over a petty cash fund is strengthened by: (1) having a supervisor make surprise count s of the fund to confirm whether the paid petty cash receipts and fund cash equal the fund amount, and (2) canceling or mutilating the paid petty cash receipts so they cannot be resubmitted for reimbursement.With the establishment of responsibility the company is violating that responsibility by not assigning responsibility to specific employees. Control is most effective when only one person is responsible for a given task. Without doing this leave the door open for fraud and other possibilities to of things to occur. With the company hiring convicted felons and sex offenders with them having a human resources department this all would have been avoided.They wouldn’t have to worry about employees using the internet to view porn sites. When the company hires employees they should have an independent verification for each individual employee. This will track all the employees with their computer and signing in and out of the system and all things that require a verification to proceed. An accountant is not certifiable to interview everyone for certain positions unless it is involved with their position.The President of the company needs to do a big evaluation of the system of internal controls to make sure all the standards are being met for planning the future of the company. As discussed earlier in the requirements of the company in order for them to go public in the future. They are going to have to follow all the guidelines for the principles of internal control are: establishment of responsibility; segregation of duties; documentation procedures; physical controls; independent internal verification; and human resource controls.

Censorship: Friend or Foe?

While some will make the argument that it depends on the authority of a child, some children mature less quickly than others. There's no way of telling who can handle the material until it's too late. Censoring in the beginning is like a safety net to make sure nothing offensive is being said. On the other hand, a high school student should be mature enough to handle anything that is thrown their way. By the time they get to that age, they already know a good handful of the stuff that administrators are trying to censor.Offensive topics eke racism, sexual contact, rape, and homosexuality may be contained in the book being read, but In all reality, there is nothing more real to the book than there Is to a scary movie. President Obama said â€Å"censorship Includes teaching our children the truth about history and this country, which Is not currently done, since the education department Is a tool of the Liberal and their revolutions history to convert our country into communist societ y. Meaning censorship could be depriving children of the ability to learn about not only their country and government, as it seemingly being said here, but about the world and how it functions. As anyone could say, censorship is as easy a topic as politics or religion, there are so many different ways to look at it. In one hand there is the fact that some people are not mature enough to handle some of the points being made, and some of the things being said. While in the other hand, there is the fact that censoring a book of things that a child already knows is shielding them from something they have en before.In response to both opinions, children are all maturing at different rates, the way of knowing who can handle such harsh topics and Ideas is only In the minds of the children. Censorship Is not helping, nor depriving the children of today. It's Just a movement to try to protect the feelings of different beliefs. Censorship should be decided by the parents. As at C. J. H. , the children were given an option to read The Kite Runner: by Exhaled Houses, or Lord of the Flies: by William Gilding, leaving the anal option to the parents of the children by sending a permission slip home.

Outlining on hove smartphones improved Americans live Essay

Outlining on hove smartphones improved Americans live - Essay Example The use of smartphone applications has helped healthcare professionals and laypersons in the following ways, which include; The work environment has been made more palatable through the increased acceptance of smartphones. Most companies have integrated the smartphones as integral tools for assessment, information gathering, communication and training, and transacting with clients (Pitichat 5). The specific tasks performed by the smartphones to make the functions of organizations seamless include; c. Smartphones have made it easier for employees to get in contact with clients and complete transactions offsite. This has been enhanced by the use of video conferencing capabilities of the smartphones. This platform can also be used by the management to contact their employees and amongst the employees themselves. Socialization and the entertainment of Americans have also benefited from the increased use of smartphones. The ability of phones to get Wi-Fi and the increased ability to get 4G network capabilities has enabled people to access the internet Sarwar and Soomro (223). The increased access to the internet has brought increased use of social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook and online entertainment such as the Apple Store. Entertainment has also benefited through the increased ease in accessing information and facilities such as concerts and ticketing. Pitichat, T. Smartphones in the workplace: Changing organizational behavior, transforming the future. LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research fromClaremont Graduate University, 3 (1). P. 1-10, 2013.

Challenges in Teaching Culture Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Challenges in Teaching Culture - Research Paper Example That said, any study that forms a conduit by which interdisciplinary coherence may be built has potential, but in the end, it is only in its failing that component hypotheses coalesce into bigger and better ways of looking at things. As such, when a system of knowledge emerges that allows for a more elegant explanation of a wider range of data, the obsolete understanding has reached its maximum value. 2- The historical moment in which we are now living is widely taken to be the start of a new era. How this attaches to millennial fantasies and to old-fashioned fin de sicle patterns of cultural production remains to be seen. Make no mistake; nearly every generation sees itself at one time or another as the generation especial. Doomsday prophets have forever propagated their beliefs attenuated to this confirmatory bias. Just because our year 2000 has passed, does not mean it's not over yet. After all, the Mayan calendar implies an end in 2012, and if that does not work, I'm sure we'll think of some other way to scare ourselves about our impending extinction. The gestalt of any period is built upon the gestalt of their predecessors just as that of their successors are built upon theirs. Time does not appear to be cyclical, and history is the study of human psychology over time. Since people die and are not known to reincarnate en masse with the same mind, history cannot repeat itself.

The Dramatic Endings in The Playboy of Seville and Don Juan Tenorio Essay

The Dramatic Endings in The Playboy of Seville and Don Juan Tenorio - Essay Example Despite that fact that both plays are constructed on a similar foundation of themes, there are still many major differences between them which can be due to the fact that both were written in very different times. Social conventions and cultural norms became quite different in the 19th century than how they were in the 17th century. Years of difference not only transformed societal structures around the world, but they also significantly influenced the shape of literature. Following discussion will explore how the ending scenes in both plays are different from each other and how those differences at the end of the plays reflect different attitudes of the two societies towards the character of DJ. In the early 17th century at the time when the Playboy of Seville by Tirso de Molina came into existence in the world of literature, the way DJ is explored in the story is intended to reflect on the Spanish Golden Age which was the early modern Spanish society. The play is set in this time period and abides by the popular social, religious, and cultural conventions of that time. This is why in contrast to the 19th century version of Zorrilla, Tirso de Molina’s play is staunchly Catholic. It is the staggering difference between the nature of these two eras that there is such difference to be seen in the plays also particularly in context of their ending scenes. The early 17th century version focuses on the relationship between actions and their consequences, while the modern version appears to question the Christian philosophy related to actions and their effects. The later version has a different ending from that in the original play because writers of that time stopped feeli ng the need to remain strictly loyal to the Catholic philosophy. Religion was beginning to become abstract at that point as more and more people began to question its validity in certain matters in life. In old times like in the early 17th century strictly

Positive Effects Of The Industrial Revolution On The Lives Of People Case Study

Positive Effects Of The Industrial Revolution On The Lives Of People - Case Study Example The standard of living for some had improved and the society was progressing. The industrial revolution is said to have brought many positive effects in the lives of people. Inventions such as the steam locomotives helped transportation and the increase in agricultural yield helped the farmers. There were many more significant inventions which changed the face of the earth and improved the lives of the masses. However, as it is commonly said that a coin has two sides and so this is also visible here. With the many pros which the industrial revolution brought with itself, it also brought some flaws. It is these flaws which are often highlighted when the industrial revolution is discussed. To begin with, it is claimed that the industrial revolution created a huge gap between the other countries and Britain. Also, this did not only lead to a huge technological gap between the countries but this also created a financial gap between them and Britain. The incomes of the average family were increasing and the people were becoming richer. At this point, sociologists like Marxists claim that the businessmen or the ruling class are exploiting the masses by paying them lesser wages. This causes the standard of living of the workers to actually fall rather than improving. However, as statistics show that people were actually well of in the long run. As soon as the technological change set in the conditions started improving and soon the families were spending more on food, clothing and household goods than ever before 1 Overall, the Industrial Revolution had many good effects. It increased the number of goods and services a nation could produce and supplemented to its wealth. It created jobs for workers and overtime assisted they live better lives. It produced better diets, better accommodation, and cheaper, better clothing.

Principle Of Economics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Principle Of Economics - Essay Example As stated in Sloman & et. al. (2012), various policymakers and economists use GDP as the measure of economic well-being. Countries are also often graded according to their GDP values in order to decode their economic development in comparison to other economies in the global network (Sloman & et. al., 2012). However, an in-depth understanding to the concept reveals that economists cannot or most justifiably should not focus only on measuring GDP when quantifying the progress of an economy. In other words, there are certain limitations possessed by the concept of evaluating national progress or development depending exclusively on GDP. For instance, GDP has often been criticised to lack in measuring the outputs of all services as well as goods. As a result, the values of few goods as well as services go unrecorded; thus, understating the nation’s economic growth. There are mainly two reasons for GDP to lack in recording goods as well as services. For example, when people tend t o perform their own labour work without involving a third party, the manpower invested or otherwise marketed is not recorded in GDP statics. Illustratively, if parents hire a babysitter for their baby, the service cost is counted as the part of GDP; but, if the parents decide to stay back at home and deliver their services to take care of their baby, the countable opportunity cost of hiring a professional is not considered as the part of the GDP. At the national level, hen similar attributes remain uncounted or ignored to be measured appropriately, the national activities remain understated and the true value of economic production becomes erroneous (Sloman & et. al, 2012). Similarly, GDP calculation procedure also does not take into account the currency flow generated through illegal trading that is commonly attributed as ‘underground economy’. Underground economy specifically comprises of illegal and undeclared transactions. The transaction could be illegal in the for ms of drugs trading, prostitution and smuggling among others. Again, the transaction can be stated as undeclared only in the sense that they are not exposed for the tax purpose and hence, remain unidentified in the GDP calculation procedure (Sloman & et. al., 2012). It is in this context that GDP lacks accounting for intangible variables sourced within the nation to ensure the well-being such as health, happiness, and woes. It also does not include environmental impacts of production functions practiced within the economy, additionally ignoring the unequal distribution of health (Sloman & et. al., 2012). Notably, one major problem faced by economists when measuring well-being or similar intangible variables by using GDP is that it does not include population of a nation into an account. If these variables are taken into account, countries like India and China, those have greater volume of population, shall be better off in comparison to Australia, which is much advanced than the men tioned nations in terms of technology, infrastructure and other production function variables. Again, as per the common principles of GDP, when the production increases it may be attributed to the technological advancement. On the contrary,

The Evolution of Linux Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Evolution of Linux - Research Paper Example This document focuses on the evolution of Linux since its establishment to the present version. The main reason for discussing the development of Linux is to understand various changes that have occurred in Linux. In addition, studying the evolution of Linux is of importance to planning for future development of the computer system. The origin of Linux can be traced back to the establishment of UNIX in 1969. UNIX was developed and created at Bell Labs in the process of developing a simple system with recyclable code. However, the primary development of Linux occurred in 1991. Linux was initially developed as a self-contained kernel by Linus Toverlds with a goal of enhancing UNIX compatibility. Development and evaluation of Linux have extensively relied on user collaboration and experience with the operating system from many parts of the world. The system is designed to operate reliably and efficiently on common personal computer hardware although it can also run on other platforms (Silberschatz, 2002). Linux has undergone evolution from one version to the other since it was developed. The first version of the Linux Kernel is Linux version 0.01. The version was developed in May 1991 by the Linux developer Linus Toverlds. Linux version 0.01 had limited features and was limited to specific processors and hardware. The version was only operating on PC hardware and 80386-compatible Intel processors. In addition, Linux version 0.01 was only supported by the Minx file system. It was also difficult to network with the Linux version 0.01 because it had no networking capability (Silberschatz, 2002). On October 5th, 1991, Torvalds released a better version of Linux known as Linux version 0.02 that required Minix to run. However, it received more attention than Linux version 0.01. The kernel improved rapidly within the year, and large number of users and volunteers communicated through social media on the internet. In December 1991, an operational,

In what ways does a consideration of interdependence challenge the Essay

In what ways does a consideration of interdependence challenge the realist analysis of the prospects for international co-operation in pursuit of absolute gains - Essay Example The very fact that a new world order has emerged following the collapse of Soviet Union in particular and the Communist Bloc in general demands a shift in our focus of attention while analysing the interactions of the states. The very nature of nation-states itself has profoundly changed. The mutations on sovereignty of nation-states, which are caused by neoliberal globalisation, are unprecedented and apparently irreversible. New institutions have emerged at the international level and they exert greater influence over the policy formulations even by the nation-states that are marginally integrated to the world market. Tradionally, the international system has been indeed seen as a world of sovereign states. States have the monopoly of power within a given territory and claim to represent the interests of the subjects of its rule. A state is primary unit at the international level. Constitutional independence is a defining character of a legitimate state. All states are considered equal in front of the international law. As opposed to the theoretical situation, we can see that the interactions between and among the states at the international level do involves relations of power. Many theorists of international politics have observed that powerful states are able to incorporate their desired ends to the international laws and mobilise what they want from the other states that have lesser resources. The very conception of political is different for realism and liberalism. The political is conceived as the means to certain ideals in liberal theory such as democracy and liberty. Antagonistically, realism sees politics as characterised by conflict. Realism is also known as political realism. Classical realism, neorealism and neoclassical realism are the major varieties of realist thinking. On the other hand, liberal

The Political Theory of Alexander Hamilton and Its Reflection in American Political System Essay Example for Free

The Political Theory of Alexander Hamilton and Its Reflection in American Political System Essay Alexander Hamilton was one of those political thinkers whose theory shaped the political profile of the young American nation. A theoretician of republicanism, author of about a half of the Federalist papers, signatory of the Constitution, friend of Washington and somehow an aristocratic idealist, Hamilton left a legacy, which continues to influence America until now. This legacy can be found in Hamilton’s works on political philosophy and state building. In turn, these works were written not only by a Founding Father, but by a man, thus every piece of Hamilton’s political writing is deeply personal, reflecting not only abstract mediations, but practical experience. In this paper, I will attempt to analyze certain Hamilton’s ideas to prove that his theory had a strong relation to drafting, adoption, application and interpretation of the basic American constitutional instruments. In this theory, Hamilton managed to reconcile such controversial matters as liberalism, aristocratism, democratic values and political centralism. This complex theory became a practice of American government and American people. Accordingly, America is still affected by Hamilton’s individual reflections, insights and mistakes. Review of Literature on the Subject Hamilton’s personality and Hamilton’s political views have attracted scholars ever since 1800-s, this, for the purposes of this paper I will review only certain landmark works presenting various approaches to the subject. An example of Hamilton’s comprehensive biography is â€Å"Alexander Hamilton† (2004) by Ron Chernow. This book presents a classical view of Hamilton as a national hero and a founding father. Another classical approach is demonstrated in â€Å"Alexander Hamilton and the Idea of Republican Government† (1970) by Gerald Stourzh. The book offers an image of Hamilton as a patriot of the Republic and influential theoretic of centralized government. Another approach to research on Hamilton’s heritage is presented in classical â€Å"Alexander Hamilton† by Henry Jones Ford first published in 1900. The book presents Hamilton as occasional figure torn by inner controversies, admirer of Britain and a latent monarchist. A contemporary view of a famous conflict inside the federalist movement, including conflict between Hamilton and Jefferson is available in â€Å"Burr, Hamilton, and Jefferson: A Study in Character† (2000) by Roger G. Kennedy. Hamilton’s view of human nature Even the most perfect political system would not work in case it contradicts human nature. A government and a people consists of individuals sharing all virtues and weaknesses peculiar to human species. Thus, Hamilton’s starting point was understanding of human nature, including nature of those men who are vested with authority. As put by Hamilton himself, principles of human nature â€Å"are as infallible as any mathematical calculations† (Stourzh 76). Rosano argues that Hamilton’s â€Å"predominately and radically liberal conception of human nature is based on Locke’s concept of liberty, Hobbes’s concept of power, and Machiavelli’s concept of the â€Å"effectual truth. † (Rosano 61). This rather tricky combination was a result of Hamilton’s controversial views formed by demonstrative superficial idealism and deep inner skepticism. This controversy, probably, has never been resolved by Hamilton himself. His nature was profoundly aristocratic, what he proved by his duel with Burr. Hamilton chose to die as a nobleman in spite of submitting a dispute for judicial consideration as a profound democrat would do. On the other hand, Hamilton admired the ideas of European Enlightenment with their call to democracy and self-government. Perhaps, Hamilton would be happy to see a free community of noble individuals without vices; however, he realized that such vision is practically impossible. This antilogy made Hamilton skeptical about human nature itself. He pessimistically noted that, â€Å"A vast majority of mankind is entirely biased by motives of self-interest† (Stourzh 78). Later Hamilton claimed such views openly when he wrote of â€Å"deductions for the ordinary depravity of human nature† (Federalist No 78). These Hamilton’s position corresponds to Hobbes’s concept of corrupted human nature which has to be oppressed by the government in order to preserve peace and stability (Stourzh 73). Surprisingly, Hamilton simultaneously managed to admire the theory of Hobbes’s eternal opponent Locke, who worshiped the natural state of man as a supreme value. To what extent has Hobbes advocated power, to the same extent had Locke strived for recognition of human rights. Hamilton shared the ideas of the latter when he wrote: â€Å"The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power† (Stourzh 14). According to Hamilton, implications like love, liberty, desire of happiness, and public good are deeply rooted in every heart (Rosano, 63). This makes a contrast to his early writings of human corruption. It appears that Hamilton suffered from mismatch between that what he wanted to see and that what he actually saw. This should be taken into account when analyzing Hamilton’s political heritage. For him the government was an instrument for bettering human nature and prevention of its corrupted manifestations. Deep understanding of Hamilton’s political theory is impossible without consideration of this peculiarity. Hamilton’s Political Theory Theoretical views on politics shared by Hamilton are best reflected in the Federalist papers, about a half of which were authored by Hamilton personally. Seemingly, there is no crucial issue which Hamilton would not touch, yet his primary concerns were necessity of Consitution, separation of authority between the federal government and the states, powers of the central government, as well as issues concerning national bank, national debt, national armed forces and navy. Hamilton venerates the people as a source of national will, yet this will has to be presented by someone, and this â€Å"someone† is likely to be corrupted. Hamilton’s response was a system of direct ties between the people and the central government, which would not be interrupted by intermediaries in the person of local authorities. In his letter to governor Morris Hamilton wrote: â€Å"it has ever appeared to me as sound principle to let the federal government rest, as much as possible, on the shoulders of the people, and as little as possible on those of the State Legislatures† (Chernow 774). This view caused Kapstein to assert that â€Å"No other American statesman has personified national power and the rule of the favored few so well as Hamilton† (Kapstein 36). And indeed, in his most influential theoretical work reflected in the Federalist papers Hamilton speaks as an advocate of a stronger union between states which is likely to secure rights of the people inside this state. According to his idea, a slimsy confederation of half-independent states is likely to sink in inner conflicts, thus making the rights of the people insecure and the entire union vulnerable to foreign invasions. To justify this view Hamilton once more referred to the corrupted human nature by observing that â€Å"to presume a want of motives for such contests as an argument against their existence, would be to forget that men are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious† (Federalist No 6). Envy, national conflicts, territorial disputes, apportionment of national debt, senseless scholastic debates, disputes upon private contracts: all this, According to Hamilton, is likely to ruin a Union (Federalist No 7). Thus, the Confederation appeared to be insufficient to preserve the union. Powers of states had to be strongly limited for the common good. Central government could impose such limitations only. Hamilton’s idea of the central government is quite authoritarian, causing allegations of monarchism and betrayal of ideals of freedom. Hamilton’s views on this subject were strongly affected by his personal experience during the Revolutionary war. The work of a procurement officer performed by Hamilton during the war was not heroic but very necessary. During this period Hamilton desperately fought against Congress’s foot dragging in every matter of supplying the army (Kennedy 36). This pretty logical idea has been reflected in the Constitution and the American Bill of Rights, although there are at least two basic problems with it. Firstly, elimination of state authorities with aim to reduce the influence of human corrupted nature is a two-edged sword. The problem is simply raised from the state level to the federal level. A federal government controlled by unworthy people was probably Hamilton’s nightmare, especially in a situation when the states have no considerable opportunities to oppose the corrupted central government. The second problem is in delegation of powers. Mutual consent may be a good theory; however, it is never practically achievable. Thus, there exists a notable problem of defining those powers which have to be delegated to the central government and which should not. One more criticism of Hamilton’s theory came from his opponents like Jefferson. A strong central power will have a strong army and police to enforce its decisions and protect the union. These institutions are likely to be used by the central government to expand its powers against defenseless states (Stourzh 198). As regards matters of finance and taxation Hamilton, surely, advocated centralized taxation and centralized banking system based on national debt. According to Hamilton, this would enable to centralize and effectively apply the resources of a nation (Federalist No 30). Yet this idea, as understood by Hamilton himself, would bring about the issue of inequality, since those who borrow assets to the central government would tower over the rest of the people (Kapstein 37). Some response was provided by Hamilton when he wrote that â€Å"The loans it might be able to procure would be as limited in their extent as burdensome in their conditions. They would be made upon the same principles that usurers commonly lend to bankrupt and fraudulent debtors, with a sparing hand and at enormous premiums† (Federalist No 30), however, it appears that Hamilton simply tried to escape the problem. As a Secretary of the Treasury, he obviously realized the need for centralization of assets through banking and taxations system, however, as a freedom idealist, he could not have avoided the view of national indebtedness as a burden imposed on every free person. Current situation with national debt demonstrates that Hamilton simply chose the bad from between bad and worse. Centralized financial and taxation system did enable to preserve the Union in hard times, however, currently America faces the negative consequences of such preservation. This is Hamilton’s theory where the roots of the present situation are found. In his conclusive remarks to the Federalist Papers Hamilton notes that â€Å"there would appear still to remain for discussion two points: the analogy of the proposed government to your own State constitution, and the additional security which its adoption will afford to republican government, to liberty, and to property. But these heads have been so fully anticipated†¦that it would now scarcely be possible to do anything more than repeat† (Federalist No 85). However, American national history proves that these crucial issues were far from explained both in the time of Hamilton and in the following decades. Hamilton has not offered a universal solution; he simply suggested one of the possible models which, as any models, had its strong and weak points. Perhaps the USA survived thanks to these strong points. However, this does not mean that the weak points never revealed themselves. Practical Application of Hamilton’s Theory The most notable practical application of Hamilton’s political teaching is the Constitution of the United States of America, whose most furious advocate Hamilton was. The Constitution follows a model for division of powers proposed by Hamilton, including a single legislative body consisting of representatives of the people, a unified executive system, unified judiciary. Exclusive right of the central power to solve the issues of taxation and public debt. In accordance with Hamilton’s idea, the Congress has a militia under its command. Thus, Hamilton’s political model was eventually reflected in the organic law of America. Application of this organic law appeared to be more complicated. Not less important than the adoption of the Constitution were sharp debates about its application in the late 18th and early 19th century. Perhaps the most controversial issue around these debates was Hamilton’s doctrine of implied powers, contrasting Jefferson’s idea of strict interpretation of the Constitution (Kapstein 37). The doctrine of implied powers began to flourish already after Hamilton’s death in the judgments of John Marshall, Hamilton’s confederate, who served as Chief Justice. Centralization of American government was completed after several rulings rendered by Marshall in such landmark cases as Marbury vs. Madison (1804) and McCulloch v. Maryland (1819) and Cohens v. Virginia (1821). At that, the Constitution shaped by Hamilton was used as a mighty tool for centralization. In Marbury vs. Madison Marshall determined that the judicial power of the United States is extended to all cases arising under the Constitution. To support this Marshall created a pretty logical construction pointing out that as long as the Constitution is a supreme law, the Supreme Court is empowered to review all cases where the Constitution is concerned. This was the first application of Hamiltons implied powers doctrine, but far not the last. Another direct reference to the doctrine was the Supreme Court judgment in McCulloch v. Maryland, where Chief Justice Marshall put a period to application of Hamilton’s idea of centralized power and centralized banking. By determining that the Constitution grants to Congress implied powers for implementing the Constitutions express powers, in order to create a functional national government and that the State action may not impede valid constitutional exercises of power by the Federal government (Smith, 89) the Supreme Court made the states entirely dependent on the central government in every matter related to the Constitution. Deserves noting that by referring to implied powers Marshall laid grounds not only for application of Hamilton’s political heritage, but for subsequent violations of Constitutional rights. Thus, just few years after Marshall’s death, his theory proved to be a double-edged sword. Conclusions Rosano fatefully observes that Americans are happy and â€Å"the founders are celebrated because they had the chance to prove their virtue; they were virtuous because they loved liberty and the public good as well as fame† (Rosano 72). This passage is very much applicable to Hamilton. A revolutionary hero and a prominent author, he presents a perfect set of virtues admired in America. It is hard to find another figure which would be so momentous for America as Hamilton was, perhaps with exception only for Washington. However, being a momentous figure, Hamilton gave America not only liberty and virtues, but a sense of helplessness against central government, as well as long-lasting problems such as national debt. The controversies of Hamilton’s theory made American political system controversial. Numerous attempts to fix this by subsequent amendments and court decisions prove that Hamilton’s model is viable, but far from ideal.

Rulers That Followed the Prince by Machiavelli Essay Example for Free

Rulers That Followed the Prince by Machiavelli Essay Niccolà ² Machiavelli suggested in The Prince that a ruler should behave as both a fox and a lion, being both loved and feared. There are clever rulers who were strategic, courageous rulers who were effective, and successful rulers who possessed both qualities. Elizabeth I of England and Henery IV of France were two great rulers from Europe that were able to personify Machiavellis advice. Elizabeth I of England was able to act as a fox by preventing England from being torn apart over matters of religion. By repealing The Catholic Legislation of Mary Tudors reign, she was able to make the New Act of Supremacy which dsignated her as the supreme govenor of spritual and temporal affairs. Also she restored the church service of the Book of Common Prayer, but was clever enough to make some revisions to make it more acceptable for Catholics. With keeping her subjects out conflict, she also made sure that her power within England remained preserved. She didnt marry anyone, because if she did, the real power would then belong to the king. Maintaining her power outside England ment keeping Spain under control. The Sea Beggars were an international group of anti-Spain pirates. Elizabeth made a secret alliance with the Sea Beggars, and sent them to the Netherlands to fight the Spainish. To make sure she was exempt from international problems because of her tie with the Sea Beggars, she immediately diassociated England from the doings of the Sea Begggars. With doing clever and sniky things to maintain Englands power, she added courageous things to her list of accomplishements. One of her greatest challenges was her cousin, Queen Mary of Scots. Being that she was next in line to the English throne, Mary was a huge threath to Elizabeths power. After fleeing from Scotland to England, she was put under house arrest by Elizabeth. In 1587, Mary was finally excuted after being caught in a plot to over throw Elizabeth. This direct action kept Elizabeth out of threat within England. But the execution of Mary, sparked a Spanish Armada invasion in England. Under the guidances of Elizabeth, the swift English ships were able to batter out Spanish and be victorious. Elizabeth showed much leadership and strength in defeating the Spanish. She heeded Machiavellis advice and was able to drive England towards a prosporous Golden Age of wealth and power. Henry IV of France was able to act as a fox by evaluating what mattered more to him. When Henry converted to Catholosism out of being a Hugenot during the Saint Bartholomews Day Massacre, it was clear that he valued his own life over religion. Even when he coverted back to Calvinism afterwards, he soon relized his valued of being in power over religion would cause him to convert, once again, back into Catholism. â€Å"Paris is worth a Mass, he said as he gave into the Roman Catholic Church for the leadership of France. This value of state over religion made him a politique, believing that no religious truth was worth the ravages of cicil war. He kept France from futher civil war by issuing the Edict of Nantes which acknowledged Catholicism as th official religion of France but guaranteed the Hugenots the rights to worship. He was wise to recognize that tolerance can help establish peace in his nation and also to convert to Cathalosism because of their bigger population in France. Along with being able to weigh out which decisions would help maintain a peaceful France, he was also able to roll in more power for himself. Appionting The Duke of Sully as his finance minister was a major step in gaining power and wealth. Sully reformed the tax collection system to make it more equitable and efficient, improved transportation, stimulated trade and industry, and fostered prosperity. These economic improvment gave Henry power. With his power under stable condition, Henry looked to forgien affairs. Henry saw the Religious Wars as an opportunity to divide up the Holy Roman Empire so he attacked, but since he was a politique he battled over politics and not religion. Though he instilled fear in his subject, he was able to gain the popularity of people because of his informal dress and a strong wit and charm. He had many things to take care of in and out of France, however, he took this bold move because knew his power would remain if people liked him. By Elizabeths creation of the Act of Supremacy and Act of Uniformity, her refusal of marriage, her secret alliance with the Sea Beggars, her execution of Mary, and her victory over the Spanish Armada, she was able to bring England to a Golden Age. By Henrys adoption of the Edict of Nantes, appointing of The Duke of Sully, munipilzing the Religious Wars to his needs, and being friendly with his subjects, Henry was able to secure France as a power in Europe. By following the advice of Machiavelli, Elizabeth I of England and Henry IV of France were able to strengthen their countries, with Elizabeth being a little better at it than Henry.

Muffin Break Marketing plan and Financial considerations

Muffin Break Marketing plan and Financial considerations Muffin Break will begin its operations as on January 2010 under the corporation named Tea-stores Inc. This would be a start-up bakery and coffee retail establishment which would be located on MM Alam road. Muffin Break would be offering coffee from various countries and there would be array of pastry products available, these would attract a strong customer base and offer the residents of Lahore a variety in tastes. Muffin Break aim to be a strong player in the restaurant industry of Lahore, this would be due to the experience of the owners and due to the low competition in the market. Muffin Break would be offering its products at a competitive price to meet the demands of the middle-to-higher income residents of Lahore, especially students who seem to be a large target market for restaurants. The Company Tea Stores Incorporated has its headquarters in Karachi. Its equally owned and managed by four partners. Ms Saniya Malik has extensive in sales and marketing, Ms Hajra brings experience in finance, Ms Benish has been the HR manager in several well established multinationals and would be using her experience for the management of the company and Ms Saba has been a culinary expert and has all the know-how of how food items should be presented. Products and Services offered Muffin Break offers a broad range of snacks and drinks for its target market. There would be a wide array of coffee and espresso products, using coffee beans from various countries such as Brazil and Columbia. There would be fresh bakery and pastry products that would be made at all times of the day. Since were aiming for youngsters there would also be various salads available for the youngsters and diet conscious people to select. Some of the primary products would be hotdogs that will be regular, foot-long hot-dogs and barbeque sauce served on specialty home made buns. Muffin Break would also be offering side dishes and deserts such as coleslaw, French fries, Onion Rings, potato chips and cookies. MARKET ANALYSIS The cafà © and restaurant industry in Pakistan has been experiencing a rapid growth. The increased awareness amongst the urban population for a cuisine that has various cultures blended in it, it has made it compulsory for any cafà © to offer the best taste from various countries. Muffin Break wants to establish a large regular customer base, and will therefore concentrate its business and marketing on local residents which for now would be the Lahori population, which will be the dominant target market. This will establish a healthy, consistent revenue base to ensure stability of the business that has just started its operations. In addition, the student traffic is expected to comprise approximately 35% of the revenues. High visibility and competitive products that have a variety of tastes, ingredients, side orders etc and service are critical to capture this segment of the market. Marketing Plan Muffin Break would be using a variety of methods to advertise this includes direct mailings, flyers, mailer coupons, and door hanger menus. Initially, their planning to offer students a discount card this would increase the sales their generating from students. Muffin Break plans to use an innovative customer survey card/ visitor log this would help it in maintaining a database of its customers and this would eventually help in generating a mailing list. Keeping its student target market in mind, Muffin Break is also planning to sponsor events organized in universities such as Lums, LSE, BNU and UCL. This would also give the cafà © a medium to distribute its door hang menus so that there is increased awareness about the new cafà © thats opened in Lahore. V. Financial Considerations Muffin Break plans to open its business with a Rs. 5,000,000/- capital. A capital of Rs4,000,000/- would be raised by the partners, and the remaining Rs 1,000,000/- would be raised by borrowing a loan from the Bank of Punjab. All the four partners would be investing an equal sum of capital which in this case would be Rs1,000,000 per partner. The loan being taken from Bank of Punjab would be under its Karobar Barhaou loan products available, an interest rate of 10% annual would be charged on the loan that would be paid in 3 years. Payments for this loan are set by the bank at Rs110,000 that has to be paid quarterly [4 payments in 1 year]. This would provide Muffin Break with its initial start up capital, which is highly crucial. One of the partners uncles restaurants had just closed down in MM Alam and now Muffin Break would be using this premise for its cafà ©, although it does need immediate renovation which would be included in the start-up expenditure. Muffin Break anticipates in its first year an annual sales of Rs 4,910,000, followed by sales of Rs 5,670,000 and the third year sales would be Rs 6,550,000. As far as breakeven is concerned there are high chances that Muffin Break breaks even in the fourth month of its operations as its sales would be rising steadily. Profits would be approximately Rs 130,000 at the end of year 1, Rs 360,000 at the end of the year 2 and Rs 460,000 for the year ended 3. Assumption: The initial start up revenue expenditure has been accounted in the balance sheet under the heading of current assets. The long term asset that Muffin Break has to immediately purchase is a generator, so that its high quality customer service does not get hindered by any electicity shortages. This has been accounted for the 3 years since Muffin Breaks inception in its fixed assets. Sales Forecast Muffin Break is in its initial few years hoping to generate most of its sales from its different from the rest hotdogs that would have the student market craving for more. The next area it seeks to penetrate is the coffee segment, and the cafà © wants its own people to make the coffee which is why no coffee machine would be bought. Assumption: The prices herein have been set using market analysis the cafà © that have been used for this forecast are: CTC, Jammin Java, Hotspot, Espresso and Gloria Jeans. Cost of sales have been assumed 15.63% which is again as per the market analysis. HR Expenditure Since Muffin Break wants to stand out from the rest of the cafà ©s its ensuring that it has the best and educated servers, chefs that have great expertise and credibility would be hired, thus a great amount of investment would be made in hiring the right type of people for Muffin Break. Assumption: Here we have specifically used only the estimates of Gloria Jeans, that works a lot on its customer service. These are the annual HR expenditure. An interest rate of 10% has been charged by the Bank of Punjab. The tax rate prevailing on restaurants in Pakistan are 12%. It can be seen that over the years Muffin Breaks sales are steadily growing, although this is couples with the increase in Total operating Expenses. Muffin Break has received a loan of Rs 1,000,000 from the Bank of Punjab. The interest rate charged is 10% although a payment of Rs 110,000 has to be made in every quarterly payment, this includes both the principal repayment as well as the interest payment. This loan would be according to Muffin Breaks estimations be paid by 2.75 years even though the bank has offered a 3 years period. Pro-forma Cash Flow Statement The cash receipts are mainly generated from the sales of the restaurant. The cash flow expenditure is based on the cost of goods sold. The only fixed asset for which there has been an investing activity is the purchase of a generator. The cash flow principal payment on a loan is the summation of four quarterly principal payments. The cash figure has been calculated in the cash flow statement The owners capital would be the same throughout the years, unless theres an investment made. The retained earnings: these include the profits that have been invested by the Parent Company Tea-stores Incorporated The other current assets estimate has been assumed using the market analysis. NPV ANALYSIS The NPV analysis has been used to show the feasibility of this cafà ©, whether the bank or other prospective investors should invest in it. It shows the present vales of the future cash flows, for this NPV estimation has been done using the WACC. The Wacc has been found using the Capm Model. Since the NPV has turned out positive this project should be taken, as it promises high profitability. An IRR calculation also suggested the internal rate of return of this project was highly positive that makes it a highly lucrative investment.

The Passion Of Saints Perpetua And Felicity Essay -- essays research p

The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity The document, â€Å"The Passion of Saints Perpetua and Felicity,† shows just how mighty and fearless the faith of the martyrs were in Rome around 203 A.D. in which our story takes place. During the rule of Diocletian, Christianity was not the religion of popular belief. Many of Romans practiced polytheism. As a result, numerous Christian believers were persecuted for their divine faith in God. Surprisingly, the Christian martyrs did not care that they were sentenced to death. They believed that by dying for what they believe, it would only bring them closer to God and the Gates of Heaven. The document states, â€Å"For this cause have we devoted our lives, that we might do no such thing as this; this we agreed with you† (para. 18). To the martyrs, nothing was more important than fulfilling God’s duties.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The martyrs in the document take on the role of mediator between God and man, spreading the Word of God to the masses of people and the relaying to them his holy message, in a sense taking on the role of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Perpetua, one of the martyrs when confronted about her faith by her father retorts, â€Å"I am Christian† (para.6). Another martyr, Felicity, confidently defends her faith and proclaims it openly by stating, â€Å"Stand fast in the faith, and love you all one another; and be not offended because of our passion† (para.20). This statement portrays to the reader the ...

Graduation Speech -- Graduation Speech, Commencement Address

(Love you mom and dad in Romanian) A lot of people here today probably didn't understand what I just said because I am Romanian, but if you take a look at my parents face they know I love them. I am Romanian and my parents came to the U.S. and could have chosen any state but they chose Washington. For all the people who don't appreciate Washington as much as me let me lay down some vibes. After I went to Arizona and California and some other states I came to realize that everything here is so much greener. Washington has the best-tasting tap water and yes, there is a difference in taste of water. Did you know Washington has an awesome kelp forest? People from all around the world come here to dive in our ocean to see our kelp forest. If you want some investment tips invest in kelp cause there is going to be a big boom in that industry. The city of Seattle is one of the greatest. It is so artsy and everyone here is so nice. I just felt I should point out that we have one of the greate st states in the United States. The beauty of doing a graduation speech is you get to say what ever you want. I thought that was going to be easy but, as I look back through the four years of high school the only time I wrote something was when I was assigned it. So you would think such a young thriving mind would take advantage of this and spill his guts out. So I typed and typed and well, I kept getting nowhere. I watched other commencement speakers from the HBN archive talk about our future and realized that they had some pretty fancy words of advice. Now I know I cannot give you advice on the future because I don't have the experience. What I will give you people here today is some grade "A" knowledge about a place that you guys might not of ev... ...iday album. That's the beauty of The Simpsons, it doesn't matter how dumb you are everyone has their place in the city. They keep true to them selves and eventually there moment of fame will come. Everyone, know your Simpsons! Now I want to get out of here as much as all you people, it just seems as though the last day will never end. So I just want to say respect each other and never give up on any of your dreams because you get one life and you might as well make it a fun one. So as we leave I want you all to know that I have the best wishes for all of you and if any of you see my comic book, Stickmen Revolution, for sale go ahead and help me out a bit. I leave you with a joke, (Romanian Joke) I know some of you might have had a hard time understanding that but if you take a look at my parents' faces that was, that was a really funny joke. For The Revolution!

Comparing Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Essay -- essays research pa

Comparing Malcolm X and Martin Luther King During the twentieth century Black people faced a huge amount of discrimination from the whites and found it very difficult to achieve civil rights. They were at one stage deprived of voting, being entitled the same things as blacks and going to a white school. In order for blacks to achieve civil rights they really needed someone to follow, they needed a leader. Many black leaders did emerge for the fight for civil rights, such as, Malcolm X, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King, Marcus Garvey, some had some ways of thinking some had others. Two of the most powerful and influential leaders of the twentieth century were Malcolm X and Martin Luther King. These two leaders had different approaches, and different views towards white people, perhaps their different approaches of violence and non-violence stem from their original opinions of how capable the whites are of being "good", but fought for the same thing. Freedom. These great leaders came from vastly different backgrounds which is shown in their thinking on life, especially early on. Martin was a Christian from the rural south, whilst Malcolm had become a Muslim from the urban north. King called for love of your neighbor, integration and nonviolence, which was part of his American Dream. Malcolm X called for self-love, separation, and "by any means necessary", which was part of his Black Nationalism. Throughout their lives their views were constantly changing, largely affected by each other, but also by the many events in their lives. Malcolm X forced King to become more radical and to look into the problems of the urban north. King made X become more politically active and work much more with the Civil Rights Movement. Although many have often said that they were "like oil and water", these two men, however different they may have seemed to be, had the same goal. They wanted to end exploitation, discrimination and racism. Also, for both, reli gion was primary in defining their lives and ideals. There are two distinct phases in their political lives. For King, the change in his outlook came when he looked at the social problems of the urban slums, and the extent of racism of his previous allies. This turning point came with the riots in Watts, Los Angeles. For Malcolm X, the major change came when he broke from the Nation of Islam and went on his trip to Mec... ...ithin the white communities. This is important because it shows that it is possible for whites and blacks to work together for a single cause. It leaves hope that maybe one day, all traces of racism can disappear and leave behind a united society in which everyone can work together for the good of the country. So overall Martin Luther King was much more educated then Malcolm X. He had seen life the easy way compared to Malcolm. Martin Luther King hadn’t been through what Malcolm had been through, while Malcolm x was busy being a criminal, Martin Luther King was busy doing his Ph.D. Malcolm X spent about ten years of his life in jail, which in that time he learned to hate the white man, his belief towards whites was they were ‘blue-eyed devils’. I think towards the end King became more radical because he became more critical of the government, mainly because King had seen laws being passed and civil rights being achieved politically but still socially he felt that black people hadn’t achieved civil rights. The case for Malcolm X is not however the same, while his journey to Mecca Malcolm finds out there are white Muslims, therefor discover that not all white people are devils.

Isyu Sa Wikang Filipino Essay

In this current situation of portentous upheaval in the Philippines, any discussion of the â€Å"language question,† like the â€Å"woman question,† is bound to be imcendiary and contentious. The issue of language is always explosive, a crux of symptoms afflicting the body politic. It is like a fuse or trigger that ignites a whole bundle of inflammable issues, scandalously questioning the existence of God in front of an audience of believers. Or the immortality of souls among the faithful. Perhaps my saying outright that I am a partisan for a national language, Filipino, may outrage the postmodernists and cosmopolites among you—how can you say such a thing when you are speaking in English? Or, as Senator Diokno once said, â€Å"English of a sort. † How dare I infuriate the loyal speakers of Cebuano, Ilocano, Pampagueno, Ilonggo, Taglish, Filipino English, and a hundred or more languages used in these seven thousand islands. One gives up: it can’t be helped. Or we can help lift the ideological smog and draw more lucidly the lines of demarcation in the battleground of ideas and social practices. One suspects that this is almost unavoidable, in a society where to raise the need for one national language, say â€Å"Filipino† (as mandated by the Constitution) is certain to arouse immediate opposition. Or, if not immediately, it is deferred and sublimated into other pretexts for debate and argumentation. Fortunately, we have not reached the point of armed skirmishes and violent confrontations for the sake of our mother/father tongue, as in India and other countries. My partisanship for Filipino (not Tagalog) is bound to inflame Cebuanos, Bicolanos, Ilocanos, and so on, including Filipino speakers-writers of English, or Filipino English. We probably try to defuse any brewing conflict quickly by using the colonizer’s tongue, or compromise babel-wise. My view is that only a continuing historical analysis can help explain the present contradictory conjuncture, and disclose the options it offers us. Only engagement in the current political struggles can resolve the linguistic aporia/antinomy and clarify the import and consequence of the controversy over the national language, over the fate of Filipino and English in our society. _______________ Sa kasalukuyang matinding sigalot sa bansa, anumang talakayan hinggil sa wika ay tiyak na magbubunsod sa isang away o maingay na pagtatalo. Kahawig nito ang usapin ng kababaihan. Laging matinik ang isyu ng pambansang wika, isang sintomas ng pinaglikom na mga sakit ng body politic. Tila ito isang mitsang magpapasabog sa pinakabuod na mga kontradiksiyong bumubuo sa istruktura ng lipunang siyang nakatanghal na larangan ng digmaan ng mga uri at iba’t ibang sektor. Lalong masahol siguro kung sabihin kong nasa panig ako ng mga nagsususog sa isang pambansang wikang tinaguriang â€Å"Filipino. † Tiyak na tututol ang mga Sebuano, Ilokano, Ilonggo, mga alagad ng Taglish, o Ingles, o Filipino-Ingles. Ngunit hindi ito maiiwasan, kaya tuloy na tayong makipagbuno sa usaping ito upang mailinaw ang linya ng paghahati’t pamumukod, at sa gayo’y makarating sa antas ng pagtutuos at pagpapasiya. _______________ One would expect that this issue would have been resolved a long time ago. But, given the dire condition of the Philippine political economy in this epoch of globalized terrorism of the U. S. hegemon, a plight that is the product of more than a century of colonial/neocolonial domination, all the controversies surrounding this proposal of a national language since the time of the Philippine Commonwealth when Quezon convened the Institute of National Language under Jaime de Veyra, have risen again like ravenous ghouls. I believe this specter can never be properly laid to rest until we have acquired genuine sovereignty, until national self-determination has been fully exercised, and the Filipino people—three thousand everyday, more than a million every year–will no longer be leaving in droves as Overseas Contract Workers, the whole nation becoming a global subaltern to the transnational corporations, to the World Bank-World Trade Organization, the International Monetary Fund, and the predatory finance capital of the global North. If we cannot help but be interpellated by the sirens of the global market and transformed into exchangeable warm bodies, we can at least interrogate the conditions of our subordination—if only as a gesture of resistance by a nascent, irrepressible agency. _________________ Saan mang lugar, ang usapin ng pambansang wika ay kumakatawan sa pagtatalo tungkol sa mga mahalagang usapin sa pulitika at ekonomya. Buti naman, hindi pa tayo nagpapatayan sa ngalan ng wika, tulad ng nangyayari sa India at iba pang bansa. Marahil, napapahinahon ang bawat isa kung Ingles, ang wika ng dating kolonisador, ang wika ng globalisasyon ngayon, ang ating gagamitin. Di ko lang tiyak kung maiging magkakaunawaan ang lahat sapagkat ang pagsasalin o translation, kalimitan, ang siyang nagbubunga ng karagdagang basag-gulo. Ngunit ang pagbaling sa Ingles ay pagsuko lamang sa dominasyon ng kapangyarihang global sa ilalim ng kasalukuyang hegemon, ang Estados Unidos. Ang makalulutas ng krisis, sa tingin ko, ay isang pakikisangkot sa nangyayaring labanang pampulitika at pang-ideolohya, laluna ang pakikibaka tungo sa tunay na kasarinlan at demokrasyang popular, sa gitna ng dominasyon ng mga mayayama’t makapangyarihang bansa sa Europa, Norte Amerika, Hapon, at iba pa. Bagamat mula pa noong panahon ni Quezon hanggang sa ngayon, ang isyu ng â€Å"pambansang wika† ay naipaloob na sa Konstitusyon, bumangon ito muli na tila mga kaluluwang uhaw sa dugo. Maireresolba lang ang isyung ito kung may tunay na soberanya na tayo, at namamayani ang kapangyarihan ng nakararami, mga pesante’t manggagawa, at nabuwag na ang poder ng mga may-aring kakutsaba ng imperyalismo. Sa ngayon, walang kalutasan ito, sintomas ng bayang naghihirap, hanggang ang relasyong sosyal ay kontrolado ng naghaharing uri, laluna ng mga komprador at maylupang pabor sa Ingles, wikang may prestihiyo at kinagawiang wika sa pakikipag-ugnay sa kanilang mga patrong Amerikano, Hapon, Intsik at iba pa. _____________________ In the hope of avoiding such a situation, which is almost ineluctable, I would like to offer the following seven theses that may initiate a new approach to the question, if not offer heuristic points of departure for reflection. In contrast to the dominant neoliberal philosophically idealist-metaphysical approach, I apply a historical materialist one whose method is not only historicizing and dialectical—not merely deploying the â€Å"Aufhebung† of Hegel within an eclectic, neoWeberian framework (as Fernando Zialcita does in his provocative book–Authentic Though Not Exotic: Essays on Filipino Identity (2005)—but also, as Marx said, standing it on its head in the complex and changing social relations of production within concrete historical settings. The materialist dialectic offers a method of analysis and elucidation of the context in which questions about a national language can be clarified and the nuances of its practical implications elaborated. Thesis 1: Language is not a self-sufficient entity or phenomenon in itself but a component of the social forms of consciousness of any given social formation. Marx considered language a productive force, conceived as â€Å"practical consciousness,† as he elaborates in the Grundrisse: â€Å"Language itself is just as much the product of a community, as in another aspect it is the existence of the community–it is, as it were, the communal being speaking for itself† (quoted in Rossi-Landi 1983, 170). As such, it can only be properly addressed within the historical specificity of a given mode of production and attendant social-political formation. It has no history of its own but is a constituent part and constitutive of the ideological terrain on which the struggle of classes and historic blocs are fought, always in an uneven and combined mode of development. It forms part of the conflicted evolution of the integral state, as Gramsci conceived it as the combination of political society and civil society. The issue of language is located right at the heart of the construction of this integral state. Hence not only its synchronic but also diachronic dimensions should be dialectically comprehended in grasping its worth and contribution to the liberation and fulfillment of the human potential. Thesis 2: The function and nature of language then cannot be adequately discussed in a neutral and positivistic-empiricist way, given its insertion into conflicted relations of production, at least since the emergence of class-divided societies in history. Ferruccio Rossi-Landi explains the imbrication of language in social-historical praxis: â€Å"The typically social operation of speaking can only be performed by a historically determined individual or group; it must be performed in a given language, that is, within a determined structure which is always itself, to some extent, both an ideological product and an ideological instrument already; lastly, the audience is determined as well† by the historical-social situation (1983, 169). Language use, in short, the process of communication, cannot escape the necessity of sociopolitical overdetermination. In the Philippines, the status and function of various languages—Spanish, English, and the numerous vernaculars or regional languages—cannot be assayed without inscribing them in the history of colonial and neocolonial domination of the peoples in these islands. In this regard, the terms â€Å"national-popular† and â€Å"nation-people†Ã¢â‚¬â€as Gramsci (1971) employed them in a historical-materialist discourse–should be used in referring to Filipinos in the process of expressing themselves (albeit in a contradiction-filled way) as diverse communities, interpellating other nationalities, and conducting dialogue with themselves and other conversers. It is necessary to assert the fundamental premise of the â€Å"national-popular,† the nation as constituted by the working masses (in our country, workers and peasants), not the patricians. Otherwise, the nation (in the archive of Western-oriented or Eurocentric history) is usually identified with the elite, the propertied classes, the national bourgeoisie, or the comprador bourgeoisie and its allies, the bureaucrats and feudal landlords and their retinue of gangsters, private armies, paramilitary thugs, etc. Actually, today, we inhabit a neocolony dominated by a comprador-bureaucratic bloc of the propertied classes allied with and supported in manifold ways by the U. S. hegemon and its regional accomplices. The recent unilateral policy pronouncement of the de facto Philippine president Arroyo that English should be re-instated as the official medium of instruction in all schools can only be read as a total subservience to the ideology of English as a global language free from all imperialist intent. Obviously this is propagated by free-market ideologues inside and outside government, even though a bill has recently been proposed in the Congress to institute the mother tongue as the medium of instruction up to grade six of the elementary school. (One needs to interject here that this idea of using the mother tongue in the first years of education is not new; it was first planned and tested in the Sta. Barbara, Panay, experiment conducted by Dr. Jose V. Aguilar in the late forties and fifties. But this finding has been buried and forgotten by the neocolonialist policies of all administrations since 1946. ) As Peter Ives pointed out in his Language and Hegemony in Gramsci, issues of language policy in organizing schools and testing curriculum need to be connected to â€Å"political questions of democracy, growing inequalities in wealth and neo-imperialism† (2004, 164), since the daily acts of speaking and writing–in effect, the dynamic field of social communication– involves the struggle for hegemony in the realm of civil society, state institutions, and practices of everyday life. ____________________ Sa halip na sipatin ang isyung ito sa kinagawiang empirical na lapit, tulad ng ginagamit ng mga postmodernistang iskolar, dapat ipataw ang isang materyalismo- istorikal na pananaw at ang diyalektikong paraan upang makalikha ng praktikang agenda na tutugon sa tanong kung ano ba ang wikang pambansang magsisilbing mabisang sandata sa mapagpalayang pakikipagsapalaran ng sambayanan. Ang wika ay hindi isang bagay na may sariling halaga kundi bahagi ito ng kategorya ng kamalayang sosyal, isang kamalayang praktika—â€Å"practical consciousness,† ayon kay Marx—na gumaganap sa buhay bilang lakas ng produksiyon. Matutukoy lamang ito sa gitna ng isang partikular na mode of production sa isang determinadong pormasyonag sosyal. Hindi ito bukod sa pagtatagisang pang-ideolohiya. Kalahok ito sa pagbubuo ng integral state (konseptong galing kay Gramsci), tambalan ng lipunang sibil at lipunang pampulitika. Ang usapin ng wika ay di maihihiwalay sa yugto ng kasaysayan ng bayan, na laging komplikado at di-pantay ang pagsulong ng iba’t ibang bahagi—uneven and combined development. Samakatwid, sa ating sitwasyon, ang suliraning pang-wika ay di maihihiwalay sa programa tungo sa tunay na kasarinlan at kasaganaan, mula sa kasalukuyang neocolonial at naghihikahos na bayan. ____________________ Thesis 3: The Filipino nation is an unfinished and continuing project, an unfinished work, constantly being re-invented but not under conditions of its own making. Becoming Filipinos is a process of decolonization and radical democratization of the social formation, a sequence of collective choices. This is almost a cliche among the progressive forces with a nationalist orientation. It bears repeating that Filipino sovereignty is a dynamic totality whose premises are political independence and economic self-sufficiency. We have not yet achieved those premises. Given the current alignment of nation-states in the world-system under U. S. hegemony, whose hegemony is unstable, precarious, sustained by manifold antagonisms, and perpetually challenged by other regional blocs, becoming Filipino is an ever-renewing trajectory of creation and re-creation, a process overdetermined by legacies of the past and unpredictable incidences of the present and the future. Within this configuration, an evolving, emergent Filipino language may be conceived as both a medium and substantive element in fashioning this sequence of becoming-Filipino, a sequence grasped not as a cultural essence but a network of dynamic political affiliations and commitments. It is also an aesthetic modality of counterhegemonic, anti-imperialist expression. Thesis 4: Only within the project of achieving genuine, substantive national independence and egalitarian democracy can we argue for the need for one national language as an effective means of unifying the masses of peasants, workers and middle strata and allowing them integral participation in a hegemonic process. Note that this is not just a question of cultural identity within the larger agenda of a reformist-individualist politics of identity/recognition. Without changing the unequal and unjust property/power relations, a distinctive Filipino culture incorporating all the diverse elements that have entered everyday lives of the masses can not be defined and allowed to flourish. Without the prosperous development of the material resources and political instrumentalities, a Filipino cultural identity can only be an artificial, hybrid fabrication of the elite—an excrescence of global consumerism, a symptom of the power of transnationalized commodity-fetishism that, right now, dominates the popular consciousness via the mass media, in particular television, films, music, food and fashion styles, packaged life-styles that permeate the everyday practices of ordinary Filipinos across class, ethnicities, age and localities. The consumerist habitus (to use Pierre Bourdieu’s [1998] concept) acquired  from decades of colonial education and indoctrination has almost entirely conquered and occupied the psyche of every Filipino, except for those consciously aware of it and collectively resisting it. With the rise of globalization, it has been a fashionable if tendentious practice among the floating litterateurs, mostly resident in colleges and universities, to advocate the maintenance of the status quo; that is, English as the prestigious language, Taglish as the media lingua franca, and Filipino and the other languages as utilitarian devices for specific tasks. But soon we find that this imitated pluralistic/multiculturalist stand only functions as the effective ploy of neoliberal finance capital. This seemingly pragmatist, accomodationist stance ultimately serves neocolonial goals: the Filipino as presumptive world-citizen functioning as compensation for the lack of effective national sovereignty. Its obverse is regional/ethnic separatism. The culturalist or civilizationalist program, often linked to NGOs and deceptive philanthropic schemes, skips the required dialectical mediation and posits an abstract universality, though disguised in a self-satisfied particularism now in vogue among postcolonial deconstructionists eulogizing the importance of place, locality, indigeneity, organic roots, etc. We discover in time that this trend serves as a useful adjunct for enhancing the festishistic magic, aura and seductive lure of commodities—from brand-name luxury goods to the whole world of images, sounds, theoretical discourses, and multimedia confections manufactured by the transnational culture industry and marketed as symbolic capital for the pettybourgeoisie of the periphery and other subalternized sectors within the metropole. __________________ Sa Pilipinas, ang lagay at papel na ginagampanan ng wika ay maipapaliwanag lamang sa pagsingit nito sa ugnayang panlipunan, sa kontradiksyon ng sumusulong na puwersa ng produksyon at namamayaning balangkas na pumipigil sa pagsulong ng buong lipunan. Ang katayuan ng wika ay nakabatay sa kasaysayan ng bansa, sa kolonyal at neokolonyal na dominasyon ng Kastila, Amerika at Hapon, at sa himagsik ng sambayanan laban sa pang-aapi. Ang mga katagang â€Å"nasyonal-popular† o pambansa-makamasa—na iminungkahi ni Gramsci—ang dapat ilapat sa nakararami na nag-aadhikang makapagpahayag ng kanilang pagkatao sa iba’t ibang paraan, tigib ng kontradiksiyon na bunga ng di-pantay at pinagtambal na pagsulong ng iba’t ibang sangkap ng kabuuang istruktura ng lipunan. Ang wika ay nakalubog sa daloy ng mga kontradiksiyon sa lipunan. Kailangang idiin ang prinsipyo ng nasyonal-popular, pambansa-makamasa, ang bansa na binubuo’t pinapatnubayan ng masang walang pag-aari—mga manggagawa, magsasaka, at gitnang sangay (mga propesyonal, petiburgesyang uri, mga minorya). Kung hindi, ang bansa ay mabibigyan-kahulugan ng mga naghaharing uri, ang iilan na nag-mamay-ari, ang oligarkong tuta ng imperyalismo, mga ahente ng global finance-capital. Thesis 5: Spanish and English are global languages needed for communication and participation in world affairs. They are recognized as richly developed languages of aesthetic and intellectual power useful for certain purposes—English particularly in the scientific and technical fields. But they have a political history and resonance for â€Å"third world peoples† who have suffered from their uses. Its sedimented patterns of thought and action cannot so easily be ignored or elided. The discursive genres of law, business, liturgy, pedagogy, and so on, in English and their institutionalized instrumentalities cannot be judged on their own terms without understanding the political role they played, and continue to play, as effective instruments in the colonial domination of the various peoples in the Philippines and their total subordination to the political-cultural hegemony of the Spanish empire, and then of the American empire from 1899 to 1946, and of U. S. neocolonial control after formal independence in 1946. Everyone knows that while Rizal used Spanish to reach an enlightened Spanish public and an ilustrado-influenced audience, the masses who participated in the Malolos Republic and the war against the Americans used Tagalog, and other vernaculars, in fighting for cultural autonomy and national independence. Historically the national and democratic project of the Philippine revolution—still unfinished and continuing—provides the only viable perspective within which we can explore the need for a national language as a means of uniting and mobilizing the people for this project. Thesis 6: The use and promotion of a national language does not imply the neglect, elimination, or inferiorization of other regional languages spoken and used by diverse communities involved in the national-democratic struggle. In fact, it implies their preservation and cultivation. But that is contingent on the attainment of genuine national sovereignty and the emancipation of the masses, their integration into active participation in governance. Their inferiorization is tied to the oppression of their users/speakers by virtue of class, nationality, religion, ethinicity, locality, and so on. (My friends in Panay who use Kinaray-a, Ilonggo or Akenaon should not fear being dominated by a Manila-centric hegemony as long as they address crucial political questions of social justice and sovereignty in a manner that commands directive force, displacing the question of form with the substantive totality of communication across ethnic and local differences to forge a flexible but principled united front for national democracy and socialist liberation. ) Meanwhile, in the course of the national-liberation struggle, all languages should and are being used for mobilization, political education, and cultural self-affirmation. Simultaneously, the dissemination and development of one national language becomes a political and economic-cultural necessity for unifying the diverse communities under a common political program—which does not imply a monolithic ideological unity– in front of the monstrous power of finance-capital using English as an instrument of subordination and neocolonial aggression. In this regard, I would argue that the unity and collective pride attendant on the use of one national language provides the groundwork and fundamental requisite for the promotion and development of other ethnic/regional languages within the national polity. This is a psychological-ideological imperative that cannot be deferred. A dialectical approach should be applied to the historically contentious relations between a dominant vernaculat (Tagalog) and its subalternized counterparts (Cebuano, Ilocano, Hiligaynon, etc. ) in order to transcend historically sedimented prejudices and promote creative dialogue and intertextuality among all the languages spoken in the Philippines. ____________________ Ang bansang Pilipinas na may kasarinlan at matipunong industriya ay isang proyektong di pa tapos, nagpapatuloy, laging iniimbento ngunit hindi sa anumang kondisyon. Ang pagiging Filipino ay isang proseso ng dekolonisasyon at demokratisasyong radikal, isang kaganapan na likha ng kolektibong pagpapasya, hindi indibidwal na kagustuhan. Ang proyektong ito ay hinuhubog at niyayari ng maraming lakas, ng minanang ugali at sari-saring idea at institusyon katutubo o hiram. Hindi ito nakatutok sa pagtatamo ng isang esensiya, kundi makikilatis ito bilang isang masalimuot na pagbubuklod ng dinamikong pakikisamang pampulitika at mga komitment. Ito’y isa ring estetikong kalakaran sa kontra-gahum na paglikhang makasining. Sa loob lamang ng pangitaing ito, sa proyekto ng pagsisikap makamit ang tunay na pambansang kasarinlan at demokrasyang radikal makatuturang mahihimay ang problema ng pangangailangan ng wikang pambansa, isang wikang mabisang makapag-iisa sa masa at mga komunidad sa teritoryo ng Pilipinas, at makapagdudulot ng mabisang partisipasyon sa pagbuo ng isang gahum o lideratong moral-intelektwal ng masang manggagawa. Paano mayayari ang mapagpalayang gahum kung walang pagkakaisang kinakatawan ng/kumakatawan sa sariling wika ng komunikasyon at pag-iisip? ______________________ Thesis 7: Hegemony, the moral and intellectual leadership of the Filipino working masses, the scaffold within which an authentic Filipino identity can grow, assumes the rise of organic Filipino intellectuals who will use and develop Filipino as the evolving national language. Again, this does not mean suppressing other regional languages. Nor does it mean prohibiting the use and teaching of English or other international languages (Spanish, French, Chinese, etc. ). It simply means the establishment of a required platform, basis or foundation, without which the productive forces of the people within this particular geopolitical boundary can be harnessed, refined, and released in order to, first, benefit the physical and spritual health of Filipinos, repair and recover the damage inflicted by centuries of colonial oppression and exploitation, and thus be able to contribute to the cultural heritage of humankind. That is why mandating the continued teaching of English equally with Filipino, with the mother language as auxiliary, at the secondary level, betokens a schizophrenic if not treacherous and treasonous policy of the ruling class beholden to U. S. and transnational corporate interests. Without an independent national physiognomy, Filipinos have nothing distinctive to share with other nations and peoples. Without national self-determination and a historically defined identity, there is no way Filipinos can contribute their distinctive share in global culture. In fact, it is impossible to be a global citizen unless you have fully grown and matured as an effective democratic participant in the making of a prosperous, egalitarian nation-people in a historically specific territory defined by a concretely differentiated sequence of events not replicated elsewhere. _________________ Ang layon natin ay hindi lamang kultural na identidad, o kasiyaang pang-kalinangan. Sa gitna ng komodipikasyon ng lahat, sa gitna ng laganap na konsumerismo at paghahari ng halagang-pamalit (exchange-value), ang reipikasyon at alyenasyon ng ugnayan ng mga tao ay siyang nagpapalabo sa usapin ng wika. Hindi malulutas ang mga tanong tungkol sa wika hanggang hindi nahaharap ang mistipikasyon ng pakikipagkapwa, na ngayo’y natatabingan at nalalambungan ng mga komoditi, bilihin, salapi, na tila siyang umuugit, nagpapagalaw, namamahala’t gumagabay sa lahat ng bagay. Ang mistipikasyong ito ay mawawala lamang kung mapapanaw ang paghahari ng global na kapital, ang patakaran na tubo/yaman muna bago kapakanan ng tao—na, sa ngayon, ay nagsasalita sa Ingles, ang wika ng kongkistador na pumalit sa mga Kastila. Ang pagbuo’t pagpapayaman ng isang pambansang wika, Filipino, ay hindi nangangahulugan ng pagsasaisantabi o pagbabalewala sa ibang mga wikang ginagamit ng maraming komunidad. Ang pagpapalawig at pagsuporta sa mga wikang ito ay matutupad kung may basehan lamang: ang kasarinlan ng bansa batay sa pagpapalaya sa masa. Sa harap ng higanteng lakas ng kapitalismong global, maisusulong lamang ang proyektong nabanggit ko kung makikibaka tayo sa programa ng pagbabago tungo sa pamamayani, gahum, ng masang gumagawa. Ang wika ay maaaring maging mapagpalayang sandata kung ito’y binubuhay ng masa sa pang-araw-araw na kilos at gawa. __________________ Historical examples are often misleading, but sometimes elucidatory. It may be irrelevant and even Eurocentric to invoke the examples of Italy and Germany as nations that experienced unified mobilization through the affirmation of national-popular languages, Italy vis-a-vis the Papal ascendancy, and Germany vis-a-vis Latin/Roman Catholic hegemony. In any case, again, the social and historical function and character of language cannot be adequately grasped without situating them in the complex dynamics of the conflict of social classes in history since the break-up of the communal tribes in the hunting-gathering stage, since the rise of private property in the means of production, and the intricate dialectics of culture and collective psyche in the political economy of any social formation. In short, language is not just a permanently undecidable chain of signifiers, always deconstructing itself and falling into abysmal meaninglessness, a vertigo of nonsense and silly absurdities quite appropriate, of course, for pettybourgeois careerists, dilettantes, and hirelings of the oligarchs. Rather, language is a social convention and a site of struggle, the signifier conceived as â€Å"an arena of class struggle† (1986, 23) to use Mikhail Bakhtin’s synthesizing phrase. To conclude these reflections with an open-ended marker: I believe that only from this historical materialist perspective, and within the parameters of the political project of attaining genuine autonomy as a nation-people, can the discussion of a Filipino national language be intelligible and productive. But, again, such a discussion finds its value and validity as part of the total engagement of the people for justice, authentic national independence, and all-sided emancipation from the nightmares of the past and the terrorist fascism of the present. _____________________ Ang wika ay isang larangan o arena ng tunggalian ng mga uri, ayon kay Mikhail Bakhtin. Naniniwala ako na ang usaping ito, kung ano talaga ang wikang pambansa, ay masasagot lamang sa loob ng proyektong pampulitika, tinimbang at sinipat sa isang materyalistiko-istorikal na pananaw. Ang wika ay praktipang panlipunan, isang produktibong lakas ng sambayanan. Nakapanahon ngang maintindihan natin ito ngayon kung matagumpay na madalumat at mapahalagahann ang kolektibong saloobin ng sambayanan, na ngayon ay naisasatinig sa anagramatikong islogan: ZOBRA NA, TAMA NA, EXIT NA! Samantala, panahon na ngayon at pagkakataong mapakinggan ang iba pang tinig ng madla rito sa makasaysayang hapong ito, una muna ang kasamang Bien Lumbera. – REFERENCES Bakhtin, Mikhail/V/ N. Voloshinov. 1986. Marxism and the Philosophy of Language, translated by Ladislav Matejka and I. R. Titunik. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press. Bourdieu, Pierre. 1998. Practical Reason. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. Gramsci, Antonio. 1971. Selections from the Prison Notebooks, edited by Quintin Hoare and Geoffrey Nowell Smith. New York: International Publishers. Ives, Peter. 2004. Language and Hegemony in Gramsci. London: Pluto Press. Rossi-Landi, Ferruccio. 1983. Language as Work and Trade. South Hadley, Mass: Bergin & Garvey Publishers, Inc. Zialcita, Fernando. 2005. Authentic Though Not Exotic: Essays on Filipino Identity. Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press.