Explain and summarise the main reasons why such a large firms fail to Essay

Explain and summarise the main reasons why such a large firms fail to grow - Essay Example The point of concern is that in the today’s world, most of the entrepreneurs do not possess these characteristics and that is the reason why they are not able to grow their businesses successfully. An entrepreneur should be able to understand all business practices and cross-cultural issues in order to make a permanent place in the market. Understanding of the cultural, political, and economic environments of the country is also very important for an entrepreneur to be successful. There exist many reasons, which stop the firms from making a rapid growth. Some of the most significant reasons include poor execution of strategies, improper management structure, unfriendly economic environment, unskilled staff, lack of capital, lack of quality services, improper use of profits, overhead costs, unavailability of the technology, overexpansion, and ineffective marketing planning. These factors make it very difficult for most of the firms to grow rapidly and successfully in the market . Let us discuss all of these factors in some detail in order to get a better understanding of the issue. Improper Management Structure Improper management structure is one of the reasons behind the failure of most of the firms. A firm needs appropriate management structure not only to grow but also to survive in a market. ... Management of a business cannot be done by one or two individuals rather a business requires the efforts of all of the employees working for the firm in order to be successful. A proper management structure is very critical for the growth of a business. A single person cannot control a firm employing a large number of people. The managers of the businesses need to transfer controls to the employees in order to motivate them and also to make them feel valued. In this way, the employees begin to work hard for the firm, which results in increasing the productivity and profitability of the business. A single person does not have all required skills and abilities to run a business. For the proper management of a new business, different areas of a business such as finance, purchasing, selling, production, and hiring and managing employees require the efforts of different people having relevant educational and professional backgrounds. Therefore, the managers should not only empower the emp loyees but also should make them take appropriate decisions for the proper growth and development of the firms. Poor Execution of Strategies One of the main reasons why most of the firms fail to grow in the market is poor execution of business strategies. Most of the managers do not possess the ability to develop and implement appropriate business strategies. A well-developed strategy is a key towards success of a business. A business cannot stand among its competitors without having a well-structured business plan. It is because a business plan includes appropriates set of actions which make a business grow in a market. So without having clear goals and objectives and without looking at different aspects of the business, it becomes very difficult for an entrepreneur to make the

Willy Loman Essay Example for Free

Willy Loman Essay Task: Willy Loman is in many ways foolish and objectionable, and yet he still commands our sympathy and even our respect. How far do you share this view of Willy Loman? In your response, you should consider how an actor might interpret the role of Willy.  Willy Loman is the main character of Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller. The play focuses on the last twenty four hours of his life. The main events of his life of his life are revealed using various techniques. Willy Loman always believed in the American Dream, but his character is now old and tired. We can see both sides of Willys character. The first is how he is foolish and objectionable. The second is how he can command our sympathy and respect. This can make him a figure of pathos. I will be addressing these points in this essay. In addition, I will be exploring how an actor would be able to interpret Willys character. Willy Loman can in many ways appear foolish and objectionable. Willy Loman contradicts himself in many ways. He has a very aggressive attitude towards his family, especially towards his wife Linda. It is as if they are a soundboard for Willys problems and frustrations. Although he displays this behaviour towards the other characters, he shows deep compassion towards his family. We see other examples of this aspect of his character. He sees himself living the American Dream, by exaggerating to everyone of how well he can sell his products. The irony of his job is that we never find out what he actually sells. This then makes us have more questions than answers after we have finished reading the play. He likes to contradict himself, by one minute saying how Biff is lazy; however, he then says Biff is not lazy. This then makes us wonder what the relationship is between Willy and Biff, and if anything has happened to sabotage this. We get introduced to two characters, Willys two sons Biff and Happy. Willy has tried to shape both of their lives, but this has not gone well. We see the first mobile concurrency in the play. This was when both of his children were young. When Biff was young, Willy paid complete attention to Biff, helping him with his football career. Happy however, was trying to be notice[d] by Willy. This can make Willy seems foolish, he even encourages and congratulates him when Biff steals a new football to help his passing. It is as if Willy would encourage Biff, but for all of the wrong reasons. This and other events then makes Biff known as a kleptomaniac, that we see glimpses of throughout the play. Happy is trying to get Willy to notice him, through various ways. However, Willy literally ignores him, what can be signs of neglect. Willy feels deluded, by making himself bigger than most people, even if they try to help him physically and financially. Biff then gets a visit from his friend Bernard. Bernard is not as strong or tall as Biff, but Willy likes to use him to help Biff with his studies. He likes to call Bernard anaemic and a pest. Although at this point, Bernard looks as if he is going nowhere, he turns out to be somewhere in his life unlike Biff and Happy. He then gets back to reality, although he stills has a deluded mind. He tries to tell Linda how he made a large amount of wealth when he was working in Providence. However, he has to come closer to the truth when he lowers the value of how much he earned. He finally tells the truth, when he talks about business not picking up. This shows us how objectionable he can be, even though he knows what the truth is. Linda then gets some stockings to darn. We get taken back into another flashback. We discover how Willy had an affair with a colleague when he went on a business trip. He then feels guilty, because he gave Lindas present of stockings to The Women. We see how the two time switches collide together, when he says how he will make [it] up to Linda, and he can hear the women laughing in the background. Although we know that all of the acts that he has done are all out of foolishness, we can feel some sympathy towards Willy, for he is not finding it easy to cope with this pressure. We then find out that this is the reason why Biff and Willy have not had a good relationship. Biff then de-railed off his education, and then found no point in life. He did not look up to Willy as a role-model anymore. If you had to look at this aspect from an actors point of view, you can imagine him being played by someone who likes to over-exaggerate all of his lines. However, we can also imagine him being very tired in his speech in some parts, and always holding his head, like he is on the verge of a mental breakdown. Willy Loman can have another aspect to his character, which is how he can command our sympathy and even our respect. Willy has tried several times to try and commit suicide, always saying how he works himself to death and emphasises the word kill. This then makes us want to make him a figure of pathos and does he have the power to command our sympathy. We are then able to answer this question, by how he is acting throughout just the first act. This is shown when we see how he is trying to make a living for him and his family, yet he can not make the cut. Linda, his wife has got a naà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ve aspect towards her, and this is shown when she makes a compassionate speech about Willy. She talks about him not being the finest character ever lived. This shows us that she knows he has got impurities in his character. She even imitates Willys earlier speech, by how attention must be finally paid to him. This shows that she still will support him, no matter what he has done in the past. These events happen throughout the play, until unfortunately he finally commits suicide. If an actor had to interpret this role, we can say how Willy would be very quick with some parts of his speech, but when he does monologues, he would be very slow and express his speech very well.  In conclusion, Willy is able to do be foolish and objectionable in some aspects, but can become a figure of pathos by making us feel sympathy towards him, and show him respect towards him. These events are very unfortunate, and we hope that this does not happen to us the audience in reality.

Fight Club :: Fight Club Tyler Durdens

Fight Club Before the Narrator actually "meets" Tyler, he sees him in brief, one-frame flashes, representing Tyler's development in his mind. Below is a list of these appearances. - Tyler is standing in front of the copier at the Narrator's company, as the Narrator says, "Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy." - When the Narrator goes to the doctor for his insomnia, Tyler appears as the doctor tells him to go to the testicular cancer support group. As the doctor says, "That's pain," Tyler is standing just over his shoulder, laughing. - At the support group, when the leader says "really open ourselves up," Tyler is smirking and leaning against him with his arm around him. - After the Narrator confronts Marla and is watching her walk away, Tyler appears in his line of vision, smoking. - In the Pressman Hotel welcome video, Tyler is the waiter on the far right. (Thanks to Caite!) This appearance isn't actually subliminal. The Narrator, as Tyler, really did work at the Pressman Hotel, so he would have appeared in the video. - Tyler is riding down an escalator as the Narrator is riding up in an airport. Nick writes, "In the beginning there are quick flashes of Tyler in the back ground. I counted 3 of them in different times. Later in the movie they explained the projectionist job that Tyler had and how he put pornographic clips in family movies. Do you think those two things have anything in common?" I hadn't really thought about this before, but it's a good point. The characters are aware that they are in the movie (Tyler's references to "flashback humor," etc.), and Tyler DID splice a porn clip in at the end, so it's very likely that he put himself in as well. Kevin asks, "...what are your thoughts on why the bullet killed Tyler but not the Narrator? My own theory is that Tyler was destroyed because the Narrator hit bottom when he was so unafraid of death that he was able to put a gun in his mouth and pull the trigger. The Narrator no longer needed Tyler because he had hit bottom, and he had become Tyler." Cramer replies, "I disagree on this point. Tyler's presence isn't completely gone. While the main internal conflict of the Narrator may have been how to mesh Tyler's and his own personalities together into a single individual, I believe that the reoccuring thesis of "It's only after you've lost everything that you're free to do anything," can explain that Tyler (the rebel, the nonconformist) is not "dead.

Style: Strunk & White vs. Williams :: Comapre Contrast Comparison Essays

Style: Strunk & White vs. Williams Writing correctly is something that many people find hard to do! I know this, because I use to feel the same way. I have had many English classes in my time, where teachers would sit next to me, and correct my errors sentence by sentence as I went along. All the while asking me if I understood what why what I did was wrong. I remember saying that I understood, but I really didn't. That was something that I didn't like at the time, but I am now very appreciative of the fact that someone was there. With today's kids, most teachers don't take that needed time and help them to get on track with their writing. Because of this, I find that both Strunk and White, The Elements of Style, and Williams, Style: Toward Clarity and Grace to be very helpful. After reading them, I know that they can both be used as "handy" reference tools for today's writers. The one thing that stuck out in my mind about both of these books is that they both agree that there are rules. The difference between them is that Williams explains in his version of the rules in a much more through manner; he provides detailed examples. Whereas Strunk and White, their book is much shorter. The examples that they use are pretty straight forward, and the book in general is easy to follow. After I was done reading both of these books, I was immediately ready to argue that the better of the two was The Elements of Style by Strunk and white. My feeling now is that Williams is the better of the two. A factor that I took into consideration was the tone and layout of both books. Strunk and white has a better layout, but the tone is directed to a certain type of reader. The profile of the reader that would fit The Elements of Style is an upper class, educated, Caucasian man. In Williams, the layout is something that can be tweaked, but the tone is for everyone. At first, I was not looking forward to reading either of these books; in the end I am glad that I did. I know that I have problems, when it comes to my own writing and I liked that both of these books wrote about things that I was able to relate to.

Cessna Headquarters, Wichita, Kansas Essay

The words â€Å"Cessna Skyhawk† have special meaning for anyone who has ever wanted to learn to fly. At 27 feet long and 8 feet tall, with a 36-foot wingspan, a 140 mph cruising speed, and room for two adults and their luggage, more people have learned to fly with a Cessna Skyhawk than with any other plane in aviation history. In fact, the Cessna Skyhawk is the best-selling plane of all time. Clyde Cessna built his first plane in 1911, and Cessna became a storied name in aviation. Cessna built 750 gliders for the army in World War II, introduced the Skyhawk in 1956, produced the first turbo-charged and cabin-pressurized single-engine planes in the 1960s, delivered its first business jet in the 1970s, topped $1 billion in sales in the 1980s, and then, in one of the worst downturns in the history of aviation business, nearly went out of business over the next decade and a half. Sales of general aviation aircraft, which had topped out at 17,000 planes per year, dropped to 12,000 planes within a year, and over the next decade finally hit rock bottom at 928 planes for the entire industry. During the same time, Cessna’s sales of piston-engine planes, like the Skyhawk, dropped from 8,000 per year to just 600. Cessna was forced to lay off 75 percent of the employees at its piston-engine plane factories (Cessna also makes business jets and larger planes) and eventually stopped making piston-engine planes altogether. However, after the economy improved and the U.S. government approved the General Aviation Revitalization Act (barring product liability lawsuits on any plane over 18 years old), Cessna decided to start building its legendary Skyhawks again.

Jeffersons Party Essays - Politics Of The United States

Jefferson's Party Essays - Politics Of The United States Jefferson's Party The view that many believe while studying our countrys political history is the Federalist Party was a dedicated supporter of a strong central government. They believed that the Constitution was a document that needed to be molded and amended in order to meet the needs of the country. The traditional view of the Democratic- Republican party is that they support states rights and feel that most of the governing of the country should be done on the state level. The Democratic- Republicans, or Jeffersonian Republicans, also believed in reading the Constitution fundamentally and grant the government powers that were addressed in the document. These views are the basic principals that each of parties are based upon. It can be seen in Jeffersons statement to Gideon Granger that it, is surely best that the states are independent and to everything within themselves, and united as to everything respecting foreign nations. Contrary to traditional characterization of both the Federalist and Democratic Republican parties, politicians would break away from the conventional party platforms and support issues that they felt strongly about. For instance, Daniel Webster, a Federalist from New Hampshire spoke out against an overly aggressive government with the issues regarding drafting citizens into the military. The typical Federalist would feel that a draft was necessary in order to defend the country, and although the Constitution did not specifically address the situation, amendments should be made for our national interest. Jefferson himself was a prime example of an idealistic politician who put the good of the country over his Republican values. The Louisiana Purchase was performed in a manner with which many conventional Democratic Republicans would argue against. Jefferson bent and shaped the Constitution into a document that allowed him to double the size of the country. He was willing to compromise with his original values in order to improve and fortify America. Jefferson told Samuel Kercheval, Some men look a constitutions with sanctimonious reverence..to sacred to be touched. But I know also, that laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. The powerful statements made by Jefferson, Webster and many other politicians prove that it is often necessary to compromise individual ideas for the good of an entire country. This basis of compromise is the true foundation of our government and our history.

Language Arts Warm-Ups for Classroom Engagement

Language Arts Warm-Ups for Classroom Engagement Just as a physical workout needs a solid warm-up for peak performance, warm-up exercises at the start of any class prime students to begin learning. Language arts warm-ups focus on grammar and composition with quick activities to encourage the creative flow. Grab your students attention by engaging them with a stimulating task related to the days lesson. You can introduce it on the whiteboard or with a hard copy placed on everyones desk, but make sure they can get started immediately upon their arrival. Language arts warm-ups can review previously covered material or provide a preview of information to come. They should be quick, fun and designed for student success, such as the examples here. Identifying Adverb Clauses Adverbs modify other words, often verbs but also adjectives and other adverbs, by answering when, where and how. Adverbs may come in dependent clauses, or groups of words, making them a bit harder to identify. Welcome your language arts students to class by asking them to identify the adverb clauses in some recognizable proverbial sayings.   Finding Indirect Objects Indirect objects receive or benefit from the action of a verb, but they dont always jump out of a sentence the way direct objects do. Exercises in finding indirect objects get students thinking beyond the easy answers, so warming up with an activity based on indirect objects should make their brains more limber and ready to receive new information. Uncovering Verbals Verbs sometimes stand in as other parts of speech. Collectively called verbals, verbs in use as participles, gerunds, and infinitives may be part of a  phrase that includes related modifiers, objects, and complements. Task students with identifying these undercover verbs and revealing their actual identities for a fun way to engage your grammar sleuths. Practicing With Participles and Participial Phrases Building on the identification of verbals, an activity designed to further highlight the role of participles and participial phrases - when verbs become adjectives - sparks recognition that things may not always be as they seem. This useful concept for many language arts topics also translates to most other academic subjects as well. Differentiating Independent and Dependent Clauses A first glance, independent and dependent clauses appear the same. Both contain subjects and verbs, but only independent clauses can stand alone as a sentence. Start class with this exercise to remind students that rote answers rarely work in language arts and encourage them to use their critical thinking skills. Distinguishing Complete Sentences From Sentence Fragments Complete sentences can contain only one word, while sentence fragments may run on for several lines of text. Get students in the mood for grammar with a fun exercise challenging them to turn fragments into full sentences with the addition of a predicate. This activity promotes the development of complete thoughts. Remedying Run-On Sentences Run-on sentences result from missing conjunctions or punctuation. Starting class with an exercise in correcting run-on sentences prompts students to pay attention to the details. This makes a good opener for lessons on composition and creative writing.

Accountability and Open Government Cheung, Chor-yung Essays

Accountability and Open Government Cheung, Chor-yung Essays Accountability and Open Government Cheung, Chor-yung Essay Accountability and Open Government Cheung, Chor-yung Essay In a civilized society, the use of political power is a profound responsibility. Holders of public offices can only exercise their authority legitimately if they do so in accordance with principles, rules, and procedures agreed by or acceptable to the society at large, and it is incumbent upon the public officials to justify their decisions with good reasons if challenged. Failure to do so will likely render their exercise of political power unacceptable. Legitimate power, in other words, must be subject to public scrutiny. Power holders who fail the test of public scrutiny will be held responsible, and they will have to step down from their offices if those failures are regarded as sufficiently serious. In the parlance of modern political studies, we call such a system an accountability system. Since accountability in this context comprises both the meaning of giving an account to explain and justify a government decision and of being responsible for its consequences, accountability also implies open government to facilitate public scrutiny of acts of government. Accountability and the Basic Law Accountability is a central but complicated concept in the Basic Law, the mini-constitution of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR). A careful reading of the chapter on the political structure of the Basic Law shows that at least four different kinds of accountability can be identified in this constitutional document; they are legal, administrative, deliberative, and political accountability respectively. a) Legal Accountability Paragraph two of Article 43 of the Basic Law stipulates that the Chief Executive of the HKSAR is accountable to the Central Peoples Government (CPG) and the HKSAR in accordance with the provisions of the Basic Law. More specifically, Article 64 provides that the HKSAR government (HKSARG) must abide by the law and be accountable to the HKSAR Legislative Council (Legco) and shall implement laws passed by the Legco and already in force. In other words, the Chief Executive must abide by the Basic Law to discharge his duties to implement the CPGs one country, two systems policy over the HKSAR and to act for the best interest of it. The Chief Executive (as the head of the HKSARG) and the executive authorities also have the legal obligation to observe the laws and to implement them as and when required in accordance with the due process. Failure to do so will make the Chief Executive and his officials legally accountable, and Article 73(9) also empowers the Legco to initiate impeachment pro ceedings against the Chief Executive if no less than one-fourth of all Legco members charge him with serious breach of law or dereliction of duties. b) Administrative Accountability As the Chief Executive is appointed by (Article 45) and accountable to the CPG, he is administratively a subordinate of the Premier of the State Council, who represents the CPG to make the appointment. The Chief Executive therefore should be held accountable to the Premier for the good administration of the HKSAR. Articles 57 and 58 of the Basic Law also prescribe that the Commission Against Corruption and the Commission of Audit, the heads of which are both principal officials nominated by the Chief Executive, shall work independently and be solely accountable to the Chief Executive in discharging their administrative duties to fight corruption and to audit public expenditure within the HKSAR respectively. Article 99 of the Basic Law provides that all civil servants shall be responsible to the government, which effectively means that they are all, via their respective line managers, accountable to the Chief Executive for the good administration and implementation of government policy. Since the introduction of the Principal Officials Accountability System (POAS) in July 2002, all principal officials with policy portfolios are all made directly accountable to the Chief Executive for the outcome of their respective policy portfolio (more on this in the next section). However, for principal officials from the disciplinary forces other than the Commissioner of the Commission Against Corruption (i.e. Commissioner of Police, Director of Immigration, and Commissioner of Customs and Excise) who are not responsible for policy making, administratively they are directly accountable to the Secretary for Security (herself also a principal official) as their departments fall within the ambit of the latters policy portfolio. c) Deliberative Accountability Article 64 of the Basic Law specifically prescribes that the HKSARs executive authorities shall be accountable to the Legco, in which two of the requirements (i.e., presenting regular policy addresses and answering Legco questions) are clearly related to providing information to and explaining and justifying government decisions in the legislature. I think it is reasonable to call this kind of requirements deliberative accountability, as they are meant to make the government accountable in providing regular information to the Legco to promote public debate and scrutiny of government action. d) Political Accountability It can be argued that the Basic Law also prescribes some form of political accountability between the executive and the legislature, in which the Chief Executive is required to resign in the event that his major policy fails to inspire confidence and support. However, the arrangements in the Basic Law in this respect are both unique and complicated. Similar to the parliamentary system in western democracies, Article 64 of the Basic Law stipulates that the HKSARG is accountable to the legislature for matters relating to taxation and public expenditure. It also requires that if the executive ultimately (cf Article 52) losses the confidence of the legislature in these matters or matters relating to major government legislation, the Chief Executive has to resign. However, Legcos initial refusal to approve a budget or a major government bill will not lead to the dismissal of the government of the day; instead, in Hong Kongs so-called executive-led system, the Chief Executive is given the advantage at this stage to dissolve the Legco (Article 50). Only when the new Legco again shows its lack of confidence in the government at a subsequent stage by refusing to pass the same bill that the Chief Executive is held politically accountable and is required to resign.1 It is also important to note that, unlike the common practice in a parliam entary democracy, the passage of a vote of no confidence against the executive in the Legco will not automatically lead to the fall of the government or any ministerial dismissal. While the arrangements in the Basic Law in this regard are rather uncommon, it is still reasonable to think that when it comes to political accountability, the executive is responsible for getting the support of the legislature in matters relating to taxation, public spending, and important government legislation, though it requires two consecutive legislatures no confidence in these matters to trigger the removal of a Chief Executive, which gives considerable leverage to the executive in manipulating the first legislature to succumb to its wishes. The Principal Officials Accountability System and Its Problems In July 2002, the second Tung Chee-hwa administration of the HKSAR introduced the POAS to the government, in which all policy making principal officials, comprising the Chief Secretary for Administration, the Financial Secretary, the Secretary for Justice, and 11 other policy secretaries, are no longer manned by civil servants. Instead, they have all become political appointees with direct policy responsibility to the Chief Executive. The Chief Executive admits that since 1997, government policy and operation have been subject to increasing critical scrutiny by the public, the media, and the Legco. The government acknowledges that in a sense, the introduction of the POAS was a response to calls for resignations of senior officials to take responsibility for serious policy failures since the changeover of sovereignty. For example, in March 1999, after having heavily lobbied the pro-government legislators, the government managed to just overcome a no confidence motion in the Legco against the Secretary for Justice for her alleged failure to defend the rule of law by disallowing the prosecution to proceed against a newspaper proprietor Sally Aw who was well connected to the Chief Executive on corruption charges. In June 2000, a motion of no confidence against the Chairperson of the Housing Authority and the Director of Housing was carried in Legco, for legislators had lost confidence in the two officials in their ability to reform the public housing sector and found them politically responsible for the short-piling scandal, in which corrupt officials allowed substandard piles to be built in government housing estates. Although the non-civil servant Chairperson, Ms Rosanna Wong, resigned voluntarily just before the passage of the vote, the Director of Housing, being a civil servant with security of t enure for his job, did not step down to take policy responsibility. In essence, properly understood, the POAS is a form of individual ministerial responsibility in which individual policy maker, unlike in the past, is required to shoulder the consequences of policy failures. There are, however, two fundamental problems with the POAS. First, as the Chief Executive is not popularly elected and the politically appointed principal officials are not responsible to the public or to the elected Legco, the POAS will only enhance the Chief Executives power to fire and hire principal officials if he finds their performance not to his liking instead of promoting democratic accountability. Second, since Hong Kong has yet to develop constitutional conventions governing the operation of individual ministerial responsibility, it is far from certain that the introduction of the POAS will enhance principal officials accountability. A case in hand to illustrate this is the penny stocks fiasco. The fiasco erupted less than one month after the introduction of the POAS, in which the local stock market lost HK$10 billion in stock value in one day caused by the ill-conceived proposal of the Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing (HKEx) to de-list stocks trading in the local market below 50 Hong Kong cents for 30 consecutive days without consolidating their shares. While both the Financial Secretary and the Secretary for the Financial Services and Treasury (SFST) are responsible for this policy area, they both refused to take responsibility, arguing that the HKEx was not a government department and the proposal was not initiated by the government, though the SFST subsequently admitted in Legco that he was sent a copy of the summary of the HKEx proposals in advance but failed to have read them before their public release. Although the Financial Secretary appointed an inquiry to look into the fiasco, there still have no signs of seeing the development and acceptance of constitutional conventions determining when and under what conditions a minister should be held responsible for indirect departmental faults (or the so-called vicarious responsibility of a minister). Likewise, before there are well established conventions governing the resignation and censure of responsible officials and regulating the relationship between politically appointed min isters and politically neutral civil servants, it remains to be seen if the POAS can really promote accountability and nurture a culture of responsible governance in the HKSAR. Accountability and Democracy Hong Kong is no democracy at the moment, with the Chief Executive being selected only by 800 privileged people and at least half of the seats in the legislature not returned by universal suffrage before 2007. Without democracy, no accountability system is secured, for not being responsible to the people, power holders will have no incentives to make the decision making process transparent, will explain and justify their decisions only at their discretions, and will not be held accountable even if their policies have already lost the confidence of the people. The POAS, as mentioned in the previous section, is flawed because principal officials are not even held responsible to the semi-democratic Legco, not to say to the people for policy failures. There is no institutional guarantee that the non-popularly elected Chief Executive will respect the judgment of the Legco and the people in issues related to the accountability of the principal officials. While it is true that the Basic Law has provisions providing for a system of accountability covering the legal, administrative, deliberative, and the political aspects, given the undemocratic nature of the present political system in the HKSAR, each and every one of this aspect needs to be reformed or strengthened if we take accountability seriously. In the case of legal accountability, while the Chief Executive is required to be accountable to the HKSAR, meaning that he shall discharge his constitutional and legal duties in the best public interest, it is far from secure that his perception of public interest will not be more in line with the 800 people whom have the power to select him than with the general public. We must also remember that Legcos power to impeach the Chief Executive in case of serious breach of law or dereliction of duties is not final, for even if the impeachment motion is carried with the support of two-third of the members, it is still up to the CPG to make the final decision to remove the Chief Executive. As regards administrative accountability, since the Commission Against Corruption and the Commission of Audit are there to check the executive authorities against corruption and inappropriate use of public expenditure, accountability will be enhanced if both Commissions are made accountable to the Legco instead of to the Chief Executive, as the latter, being the head of the HKSARG, is still part of the executive authorities whose performance and behaviour are required to be scrutinised by the Commissions concerned. Likewise, some other offices for the enhancement of administrative accountability not provided for in the Basic Law, such as the Office of the Ombudsman, should be made accountable to the Legco than to the Chief Executive. Deliberative accountability is one area in which the lack of democracy will make it highly ineffective. While the Basic Law requires the Chief Executive to present policy addresses to the Legco, the current Chief Executive Mr Tung Chee-hwa is, to say the least, most reluctant to appear before the Legco to answer questions, and his refusal to meet the public after the delivery of his Policy Address 2003 demonstrated that public deliberation of government policy will not be taken seriously without democratic accountability. Further, we must also remember that quality deliberation requires free access to relevant information. In this respect, the lack of legislation for free access to public information is a major handicap for the promotion of deliberative accountability, and a right balance must be struck in the protection of legitimate state secrets and the right of the media and the public to know about important and even sensitive official information. In addition, to further enhanc e the quality of deliberation in the Legco, Legco members and their political parties should be given more public funding to enhance their policy research capacity so that quality alternative policy proposals could be produced to compete with the governments proposals. Political accountability, in its full sense, cannot exit without full democracy, for policy makers can only legitimately exercise their political powers so long as they still have the confidence of the people. In this strict sense, the HKSAR will only have genuine political accountability the day when full democracy is introduced. This applies both to the election of the Chief Executive and of the Legco. If either one losses the mandate of the people, they have to step down from office. Under the present arrangements of a semi-democratic Legco and a Chief Executive returned by only 800 people, political accountability, at most, only applies to those Legco members who are elected by universal suffrage. This is a highly unsatisfactory situation and shows that the exercise of political power in the HKSAR falls far short of the civilised requirements of responsible government. The Basic Law nevertheless stipulates that the Executive Authorities and the Chief Executive are accountable to the Legco. They also need to get the support of the latter in matters relating to taxation and important government legislation. However, the Basic Law also gives the advantage to the Chief Executive to dissolve the Legco in case such a support is lacking in the first instance. Under the present circumstances, this executive-led feature of the political system will further undermine the ethos of accountability, for the hurdle for an elected Legco to climb in order to remove a non-popularly elected Chief Executive who has lost the confidence of the legislature is unreasonably high. Also, owing to the mixed composition of the Legco, with members returning both from indirect elections in small-sized functional/electoral constituencies and from direct elections under the proportional representative system, together with the requirement of split voting among Legco members in Leg co initiated proposals, the legislature is fragmented, making it almost impossible to form a coherent and effective alternative to the executive. The political accountability of the government to the legislature is therefore at best ineffective, at worst non-existent.

Discuss whether 'dress' (clothes and style) can be Essay

Discuss whether 'dress' (clothes and style) can be considered a form of communication. Does it make sense to speak of the language of clothes - Essay Example Again, the phrase appears to give an entire cultures implicit understanding of clothing and styles as communicative function. Normally, both clothing and the communicative function of style are perceived as a kind of being problematic and well understood in some culture. Majorly, an investigation into whether clothing behavior is, in general, a communicative adjustment to a particular culture will carefully be discussed herein. Basically, the paper examines the correlation in the communicative adaptability and the clothing tendency(Barnard, 1996). Clothing has a communicative function. In accordance to the understanding of the social psychology of dress, it is important that one understands that the total arrangement of outwardly detectable body modification inclusive of all material objects added onto it brings out the body supplement (May, 2013). In this case, the body modifications directly change the body, which includes making changes of the color appearance, supplements addition such as jewelry, clothing and hearing aids and a wide range of accessories. Some of the modifications in an individual may end up permanent like teeth straightening or even temporary such as deodorant. Thus, dress can alter how the body looks, feels, smells or even sounds. Clothing is taken to be a universal human behavior in that there are no societies where people do not engage in dressing behaviourism (Gott and Loughran, 2010). In defining clothing, it was noted that clothes provide to outright functions for humans, that is a modifier in the body process and as a medium of communication. When thinking about clothing in the dimension of modifier of the body process the focus is on the supplements and modifications that usually serve as interfaces between the general body and the large physical and the social environments in which human beings are found to live. When clothing protects the human body from

Relationship Between Strategy and Structure Essay

Relationship Between Strategy and Structure - Essay Example of Excellence’ to better serve their mission of â€Å"Strengthen America’s Force of Decisive Action and provides the Nation an adaptable Army for an uncertain future†. These centers provide specialized training in certain areas of expertise that convey current war fighting requirements. TADOC is organized in a hierarchical fashion, with different factions dealing with their specified functions and goals and reporting directly to one higher up and the whole organization is headed by a Commanding General. The organization structure distributes resources and roles along strictly defined lines and the higher authority have the final say in formal policy determination, conflict resolution and reward and recognition. This is reflective of a structural framework approach to management with clear goals and information available for the organization strategy. The approach is a successful fit for an organization which has to train future soldiers for stressful and turbulen t conditions; though adaptability and quick thinking are traits which are to be induced in their students the organization is best served through rigid rules, policy and training regimes. With the most advance technology and data available to them for analysis and decision making, the structural framework lets the managers or leaders of the organization form future strategies which are to be followed by the whole work force. The strict management leads to an environment where commands are quickly followed and security and precautions related to their activity are highly emphasized. The centralized control is possible through the hierarchical structure which helps in implementing the development plans in the different sectors (human resource and technological) of TARDOC. While it culture and practices of the... The researcher states that strong leader ship is an essential part of any organizations success today. A structural framework point of view allows managers to set a strategy which can be utilized in environments of low uncertainty and be of the greatest fit with the structure or the external factors in which the organization has to work. The leader clearly defines roles, authority and responsibility along the lines of organizational goals and the focus is on facts, task and logic not on emotional aspects. The approach works best when cause and effect analysis are clearly understood with regards to the impact of the external environment and the organizations internal structure. Traditionally, it has been defined that a ‘company’s strategic options are bounded by the environment’. The approach is a successful fit for an organization which has to train future soldiers for stressful and turbulent conditions; though adaptability and quick thinking are traits which are to be induced in their students the organization is best served through rigid rules, policy and training regimes. The centralized control is possible through the hierarchical structure which helps in implementing the development plans in the different sectors. The paper written by Thompson, 1991, discusses the organization ‘Department of defense’ at pentagon with the same research analysis as was attempted in this essay. It is concluded that a proper restructuring of the department as consistent with their strategy could eradicate these problems.

See below Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 10000 words

See below - Essay Example According to Feldman, individual rights must be balanced against social goals3 and he views human rights as being linked to the conditions necessary for a democracy; human rights â€Å"help to establish the conditions of free speech, tolerance, equality and mutual respect for people’s dignity†¦Ã¢â‚¬ 4 Locke lays the foundation of a civil society upon the premise that people surrender their natural freedoms to a system of common laws in order that they receive the protection of the Government and it is this system of laws that restrains them from harming others to enforce their natural laws.5 In the aftermath of World War II and the Nazi atrocities, it was Winston Churchill who first pressed for â€Å"the environment of human rights† which led to the drafting and implementation of the Universal Convention of Human Rights.6 The Preamble to the Convention establishes â€Å"recognition of the inherent dignity and of the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family† as the basis upon which its Articles are founded.7 There are 30 separate articles, all of which spell out the basic rights that are meant to be accessible to every individual, irrespective of the country to which he or she belongs8. The aim and objective of this dissertation is to examine the execution of human rights law and its application through the various regional instruments that have been spelt out in different parts of the world. This dissertation will also examine violations in human rights that have been taking place and how best such violations may be prevented. It will attempt to assess whether human rights are best protected on a universal, regional or national basis, from the point of view of the framework of the law and its execution. The Methodology that is proposed in this study is primarily a library based research effort that will examine existing international law and the developments in execution of human rights over the globe.

Discussion Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 15

Discussion - Assignment Example Their recreational activities are also hindered. She says that she had to squeeze her work time, which served as her recreation to be with the kids at home, as her husband could not manage the kids alone. â€Å"...so I asked if I could just come to the store during the week...† (Ladies Home Journal, pg 2). Another challenge that women experienced was when the children fell ill. They felt they would be blamed for the illnesses. â€Å"...so I had exposed fifteen children to measles, and I was not the most unpopular mother in the neighbourhood...† (Pg 3) On the other hand, the richer women boasted of easier work handling of the house chores as they were introduced to machines like the hoover and the â€Å"full kitchen† accessories (Primary source pictorial, page 2 and page 5).In general, women found themselves caught between house chores and their leisure, which they often chose to fore go. In as much as the parents and social scientists of the day experienced anxiety over the emergence of a separate teenage culture, the business community took this to their advantage and produced more goods that would fit in the teenagers lifestyles. The increasing â€Å"teen market† was directly proportional to production and sales by the companies (The Teenage Consumer, Life 1959. Pg 2). Teenagers no longer fancied bikes and dresses; instead they surrounded themselves with millions of photographs, television sets and cameras, much to the disbelief of the parents who thought such as luxuries at their time (The teenage consumer, Life Magazine. Pg 1). As illustrated in "Life Magazine", (August 31st, 1959, Pg 1), previously the businessmen mainly ignored the teenage market. However, they later began to pump more resources in line with the teenage demand. A case example of a 17-year-old Suzzie is given; a route that apparently teenagers would

The Product Life Cycle of BMW Brands Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Product Life Cycle of BMW Brands - Essay Example In this case, new features that would characterize the development of existing products would be introduced in between the stages that would keep on revitalizing the product. As explained in detail below, this strategy is highly recommended as it has a lot of benefits and advantages over other competitors. models over time such that the whole model range is not changed but only changing another model range. Basically, it strives to keep its products in the introduction and growth stages by introducing new models in each of its product lines as well as continually improving its existing products. This strategy is advantageous in that the organization is able to realize its profits every time as a business would be growing every time by way of introducing a range of other models. It can be noted that the product lifecycle shown of other automobile manufactures contrasts drastically with that of BMW. These manufacturers would introduce a model then leave it unchanged over a long period of time until the sales begin to show a decline after reaching the maturity stage which is the peak occasion of sales of a product it can reach before they begin to decline. The product life cycles of other manufactures differ from BMW in that there are mainly characterized by four stages which are introduction, growth, maturity and decline. Indeed, BMW’s product lifecycle is constantly growing by virtue of introducing new models in its product lines. However, the main similarity between these product life cycles is that both of them have a similar introduction and growth stages. The introductory phases are concerned with brand establishment with the main aim of encouraging the use of the product by emphasizing its unique attributes. Both stages show an upward trend in sales of their products. Basically, a marketing strategy is defined as the means by which marketing objectives will be achieved. It encompasses the instruments used in marketing which involve planning, organizing, leading and controlling. The most important part of the marketing strategy is the implementation part. Â  

Discussion Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 15

Discussion - Assignment Example Their recreational activities are also hindered. She says that she had to squeeze her work time, which served as her recreation to be with the kids at home, as her husband could not manage the kids alone. â€Å"...so I asked if I could just come to the store during the week...† (Ladies Home Journal, pg 2). Another challenge that women experienced was when the children fell ill. They felt they would be blamed for the illnesses. â€Å"...so I had exposed fifteen children to measles, and I was not the most unpopular mother in the neighbourhood...† (Pg 3) On the other hand, the richer women boasted of easier work handling of the house chores as they were introduced to machines like the hoover and the â€Å"full kitchen† accessories (Primary source pictorial, page 2 and page 5).In general, women found themselves caught between house chores and their leisure, which they often chose to fore go. In as much as the parents and social scientists of the day experienced anxiety over the emergence of a separate teenage culture, the business community took this to their advantage and produced more goods that would fit in the teenagers lifestyles. The increasing â€Å"teen market† was directly proportional to production and sales by the companies (The Teenage Consumer, Life 1959. Pg 2). Teenagers no longer fancied bikes and dresses; instead they surrounded themselves with millions of photographs, television sets and cameras, much to the disbelief of the parents who thought such as luxuries at their time (The teenage consumer, Life Magazine. Pg 1). As illustrated in "Life Magazine", (August 31st, 1959, Pg 1), previously the businessmen mainly ignored the teenage market. However, they later began to pump more resources in line with the teenage demand. A case example of a 17-year-old Suzzie is given; a route that apparently teenagers would

The Moons of Mars Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Moons of Mars - Term Paper Example They are not only being speculated as the next best targets for space colonization, but also as gateways for further cost-effective investigations on Mars. This is largely because lifting off and landing of spaceships on Phobos and Deimos would take up lesser fuel than similar missions on Mars or the Moon, owing to their lesser gravity (about 1/1000th that of the Earth), and low atmospheric resistance. Since manned missions to the Martian moons are much more feasible, it would be possible for humans to investigate and explore the Red Planet further, from remote observatories located on its moons. This would be more productive than using robots and probes for scientific investigation. As Siegfried Fred Singer describes it, in The Scientific American: The basic advantage of astronauts is that they can explore Mars in real time, free of communications delays and capable of following up interesting results with new experiments. Robots, even after decades of research to make them complete ly autonomous, cannot manage without people in the loop. But the question arises: Where should the astronauts be? The obvious answer--on the surface of Mars--is not necessarily the most efficient. At the first "Case for Mars" conference in 1981, one of the more provocative conclusions was that the Martian moons, Phobos and Deimos, could serve as comparatively inexpensive beachheads. (1) This brings out the practicality and possibility of colonizing the Martian moons, and how it will be helpful for development of novel strategies for cheaper, fuel efficient and realistic research on Mars. The two Moons of Mars Phobos and Deimos were both discovered by Asaph Hall, using the 206-inch refractor of U.S. Naval Observatory, Washington D. C. Phobos (Greek for 'fear'), the larger of the two, is 27 kilometers long. Its distance from Mars is just 5700 kilometers and it completes an orbit in about 8 hours. The large Stickney crater on its left is perhaps its most prominent feature. Deimos (Gree k for 'Panic') is 14.5 kilometers long and completes an orbit in 30 hours. Its distance from Mars is 23,460 kilometers. Studies carried out by scientists in 1997 revealed that both the moons are about 2 billion years old and their composition is similar to meteorites, Type 1 or 2 carbonaceous chondrites, found in the Asteroid Ceres as well as in the asteroid belt. This led to conclusions that the two moons are actually captured asteroids, and didn't actually originate from the planet itself. Two probes, Phobos 1 and Phobos 2, launched by the Soviet Union to study the two moons failed, ending the mission in 1989. The Mars Global Surveyor and the European Mars Express have carried out further observations on the Martian moons. The Mars Reconnaissance Mission is also carrying out studies on the spectral properties of the moons as part of the Mars exploration mission. The moons look like tiny dots from the surface of Mars, according to information obtained from Mars Exploration Rovers- Spirit and Opportunity. Other missions solely for the study of the moons are currently under plans. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/Texas Practicality of using the Martian moons as a base for Mars exploration By using Phobos and Deimos as research bases, scientists will be able to "observe the Red Planet and launch robots to its surface, while shielded by miles of rock from cosmic rays and

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger Essay Example for Free

Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger Essay In The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, the author takes us on a journey with Holden Caulfield, a sixteen-year-old boy, going in and out of many boarding schools. When he gets kicked out of Pencey the story begins. In fear of coming home to his parents, Holden takes a trip to New York; which leaves him at the point of mental, physical, and emotional insanity. As the novel goes on his obsession with keeping children from losing their purity grows. The adult world seems fake, and Holden does not respect people who made the transition. In Gerald Rosen’s â€Å"A Retrospective Look At The Catcher In The Rye† he explores Holden’s connection to other characters in the book. He also analyzes the difficulties in crossing over to the adult world. Holden qualms the crossing over due to the fact that losing one’s innocence will force one to face reality, and will at times cause adults to â€Å"fall† into a deeper hole. Holden’s mania of keeping children from transitioning to adult hood shows all throughout The Catcher in the Rye. Rosen explains that during the period of time Holden was in the museum he made it known that everything always stayed the same. The purpose of the â€Å"glass cases† acts as a defense against touching, or tainting. â€Å"Like the children in the museum, to protect the innocent, the catcher must strictly refrain from touching; he must ‘just leave them alone’’’ (Rosen). This moment in the book compares the protected artifacts to the innocence of a child. He feels that if the children had someone to protect them from getting affected (â€Å"touched†) by the hard and cruel times in life they could hold onto their purity for as long as possible. Holden expresses the fact that he wants ensure security and stability during these times in life. This point seems to be the first point in the novel where Holden shows a desire to keep children from corruption. â€Å"Anyway, I keep picturing all these kids playing some game in the big field of rye and allWhat I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start going over the cliff† (Salinger 173). Holden wants to â€Å"catch† the kids from their transition into an adult. He does not want them having to deal with losses they will have to overcome in life. He believes that going into adulthood marks the point where society shows its true face. Since Allie, Holden brother’s, death he sees how reality twists and warps in sick ways. While walking around the museum he sees profanity. â€Å"I went down by a different staircase, and I saw another ‘Fuck You’ on the wall. I tried to rub it off with my hand again, but this one was scratched on, with a knife or something. It wouldn’t come off. It’s hopeless, anyway. If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn’t rub out even half of the ‘Fuck You’ signs in the world. It’s impossible† (Salinger 173).When Holden see those words written on the wall he realizes that the youth has already gone through exposure to corruption and cannot go backwards. Holden now understands his inability to save the children from â€Å"falling†, growing up. Since Holden has spent most of his time refraining other from going into adulthood, he did not see how much he himself has fallen. Holden has many similar qualities to a former classmate, James Castle. â€Å"Holden is identified with Castle by Castle’s having killed himself while wearing Holden’s sweater and by Castle’s appearing just before Holden on the roll call and school. This carries the implication that Holden maybe next in line for Castle’s death† (Rosen). James Castle’s way of and to death influenced Holden’s view of life. He suddenly became ostracized in society surrounded by a bunch of â€Å"phonies†. Death was the start and end of Holden’s loss of innocence. Holden never truly had an adult figure in life. His parents detached themselves from him, in times of his need. Feeling like he needed to communicate with someone he called his former teacher, Mr. Antolini. Holden wants to catch children from falling, where as Mr. Antolini wants to save Holden from a rough way down. â€Å"I have a feeling that you’re falling, a terrible,terrible fall† (Salinger 186).Mr. Antolini says this because ever since Allie’s death Holden has had a series of falls. Even though Allie was younger than Holden, he idolized him and thinks very highly of him. Mr. Antolini symbolizes Holden’s loss of Allie, loneliness, and inability to posess self-esteem. Holden wants to provide insurance for children so they do not experience the reality of society and from â€Å"falling† into a deeper hole. Making sure he succeeds, he does everything to keep them from going over the edge. Holden grows up through the novel, and realized that losing one’s innocence in is an unavoidable part of life. In this stage of life one makes the most mistakes and learns from them. If one never went through experience necessary to grow into an adult, they would seem very naà ¯ve and easily taken advantage of. People that have gone through the difficult crossing over want to protect children from the hard-ships. Works Cited Rosen, Gerald. â€Å"A Retrospective Look At The Catcher In The Rye.† American Quarterly 457-462 Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951.

Unethical Practices And Conflicts Of Interest In The Pharmaceutical Industry

Unethical Practices And Conflicts Of Interest In The Pharmaceutical Industry As Healthcare Reform develops and shape regulations within the healthcare industry, unethical practices and conflicts of interest in the pharmaceutical industry affirm the need for transparency and improved traditions. Conflict of interest from a legal standpoint is a conflict between the private interests and the official or professional responsibilities of a person in a position of trust. (Merriam-Websters Dictionary of Law, 2010) From a business perspective, conflict of interest is defined as a situation that has the potential to undermine the impartiality of a person because of the possibility of a clash between the persons self-interest and professional-interest or personal-interest. (BusinessDictionary.com) With the number of physicians operating private practices in the United States, the clinical drug trial kickbacks have become common practice and the ravenous patterns have been explicitly revealed. The frequency of such behaviors and exposure of financial gain are enough to further strengthen the necessity for health care reform. Each unscrupulous circumstance that is exposed brings about further insight to the widespread unethical conduct of the pharmaceutical industry. There is an abundance of scenarios and examples depicting behaviors as well as emergent methods to circumvent such conflicts of interest. Additionally, laws and processes are in place to further develop and establish parameters around acceptable and unacceptable practices for both pharmaceutical manufacturers and physicians alike. With the objective to deter, eliminate and expose conflicts of interest, various projects, acts and charitable trusts have been developed and comprised of committees of citizens, organizat ions, and donors who vigorously advocate patient safety through improved changes in the manufacturing and marketing of prescription drugs. So how does conflict of interest play a role in clinical drug trials? When discussing conflict of interest as it relates to clinical drug trials the scenario is usually one in which a researcher has a monetary rapport and research money, with the company that manufacturers the drug being studied. There is nothing fundamentally erroneous with these types of conflicts of interest, they are practically everywhere within drug trials because most of the trials are financed by the drug companies that produce the drugs being studied. In an article written by John H. Montgomery related to the examination of conflicts of interest, research was done by Dr. Roy H. Perlis on the outcome of drug trials and the relationship that the author or industry has to that outcome. Research shows that 397 trials were reviewed and of those, 162 random trials yielded positive results that were funded by the manufacturer of the drug being studied. These results give indication that conflict of interest is common and associated to the outcome of the trials. This is just one of many examples of how common conflicts of interest arise in the healthcare industry. Another study conducted looked at randomized controlled trials of NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) between 1987 and 1990 (Bodenheimer). This study found that relatively all of the trials in the three-year span were sponsored by the drug producer. The research also discovered that the drug being compared to the manufactured drug was equivalent in efficiency and in s ome cases was even better than the manufactured drug in every trial. The study also reported that the manufacturer-associated drug was safer than the comparison drug in 86% of the trials (Bodenheimer). Remember, these trials were funded by the drug companies sponsoring the trials. How can conflicts of interest be avoided? First, when a patient is registered in a drug trial, full disclosure of any financial relationships with the drug manufacturer should be given. This builds trust with the patient and also fulfills the patients right to know this information so they can make the decision as to whether or not they want to participate in the study. Second, disclosure statements should be offered to the participant and ought to be clear and simple; this will often entice the patient to ask questions. Finally, research planners should be sufficiently familiar with any conflicts of interest with the investigator or the institution so that patients questions can be answered appropriately and correctly. Disclosure may not always be what most patients are looking for but the aforementioned suggestions could help satisfy the patient and trust the research process. The investigator cannot be the only responsible party though patients must also do their homework before t hey participate in a clinical trial. The issue of whether or not conflict of interest is unacceptable when drug companies perform their own clinical drug trials is becoming an increasingly hot topic in the industry today. In an article written in BMJ magazine by Goldacre this topic is discussed. Goldacre talks about the NSAIDs study mentioned above and how impossible the results of that trial were. He notes that an organized evaluation found 30 studies that investigated whether or not industry support is connected with results that are beneficial for the sponsor. The result: studies sponsored by drug companies were more than four times as likely to have outcomes favoring the funder, compared with studies with other sponsors (Goldacre). How can this partiality be allowed to take place? Perhaps it is the way the trials are planned. For instance, in some studies the opponent drug is given at an insufficient amount which raises the side effects of the drug. This in turn makes the supporters drug look more appealing. Another known issue is that there is no standard for communicating results of drug trials. The industry has the ability to print whatever they would like to report. More often than not, the negative results from clinical drug trials remain unavailable. The most alarming concern about the clinical drug trial process is that data is not only used once, in some cases data was published within the results of 14 other trials. It is inevitable that issues like this will exist in the industry when there is no formal standard by which clinical drug trials must adhere to. Though there is no standard set the FDA has published guidelines that the industry must follow regarding financial disclosure in drug trials. The FDA Guidance for Industry on Financial Disclosure by Clinical Investigators requires that anyone submitting an application to market a drug, product or device disclose any financial relationship or compensation received by all investigators involved in the trial being set up. The FDA specifies requirements about what information is required to be reported and lists actions that the agency will take if these requirements are not followed. The FDA should not be the only one addressing conflicts of interest in clinical drug trials though. Physicians should be attentive when participating in the trials or when treating a patient that is currently or is eligible to participate in one. Physicians participating in drug trials or enlisting patients for trials should be aware of the following guidelines: Physicians should only consent to participate in trials that are within their range of capability and practice and they should be appropriately trained in performing research. Physicians should be knowledgeable of ethics and should only participate in trials that they are convinced have been evaluated by a review board, the participants in the study are not at risk of being harmed, and that government policies are followed during the course of the study. If a physician is treating patients that are enrolled in a study or are eligible to participate in a study, they will need to make sure the patient understands that they treat them under both pretenses but as both physician and investigator. Physicians should make certain that procedure include stipulations that will support the participants health care should difficulty arise as a result of the trial. The nature and source of funding and financial incentives offered to the investigators must be disclosed to a potential participant as part of the informed consent process (Managing Conflicts of Interest in the Conduct of Clinical Trials). The physician should make certain that there is no impediment in the publication of the results of the study by the sponsor of the trial. Conflict of interest is a growing concern in the health care industry today. The issues are reported on the news and in publications more and more frequently. Bringing attention to the matter and raising awareness will aid in the development and improvement of ethics in clinical drug trials. An example of one of the reformation objectives would be eliminating the behavior of a physician who treats a patient suffering from dementia and later bills Medicare; however, this same physician does not report the adverse impact on the patient, because the physician has been promised adequate compensation for evading details and touting benefits of the drug. The patient filed a malpractice suit against the physician. The attorney during discovery learned that the plaintiff was enrolled in a study and did not meet the criteria to be included in the study. It was also discovered that the medical assistant did not have any experience or training in coordinating studies and were paid a fee for each person enrolled. The study was not in compliance or conducted in conjunction with the FDA statutes and regulations. The IRB which once approved the Protocol and Informed Consent halted the study eight months earlier. An additional $5,000 per month was paid to the physician for consulting se rvices. These same payments were paid to the physician under the Clinical Trial Agreement creating a duplication of services. Medicare was billed by the physician as well for the same items and services which including the drug that for formally paid out by the sponsor in which the physician has previously been reimbursed. The Plaintiff signed the informed consent alone without any counseling even though the sponsor knew the subject was diagnosed as suffering from dementia. Dr. Joseph L. Biederman, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the chief of pediatric psychopharmacology at Harvards Massachusetts General Hospital poses a prime situation of drug payments going to physicians. Children as young as two years old are now being diagnosed with having bipolar disorder thanks largely to Dr. Biederman. Many of the children were treated with combinations of powerful drugs known as cocktails that were never approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA must approve any children below the age of ten for any purpose in a drug study trial. Physicians may legally use only drugs that have been previously approved for a particular purpose or diagnosis, for any other purpose there must be upheld published scientific evidence before administering drugs. That was not the case for Biederman. His studies advocated the drugs that treated childhood bipolar disorder and was summarized by an article in The New York Times. Biederman was paid $1. 6 million in consulting and speaking fees from 2000 and 2007 including drugs that he advocated for childhood bipolar disorder. Similar amounts were paid two of his colleagues. The president of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the chairman of its physician organization apologized and express sympathy to its beneficiaries after the conflicts of interest were revealed. Chair of Stanfords psychiatry department and president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association Dr. Alan F. Schatzberg is another example of drug payments to physicians. Schatzberg controlled and co-founded Corcept Therapeutics in which he owned more than $6 million worth of stock. The company tested the drug Mifepristone, otherwise known as RU-486 the abortion drug as well as the drug used for the treatment of psychotic depression. Schatzberg, principal investigator on a National Institute of Mental Health grant that included research coauthored three papers on the subject of mifepriston. Schatzberg was later replaced as principal investigator to avoid a conflict of interest of misunderstanding. The most shocking case of drug payments to physician is that of Dr. Charles B. Nemeroff. Nemeroff, chair of Emory Universitys department of psychiatry along with Schatzberg, both served as coeditors of the influential Textbook of Psychopharmacology. Nemeroff served as principal investigator of the National Institute of Mental Health grant that was worth $3.95 million over five years. Emory University received $1.35 million which was used as overhead to study several drugs administered by GlaxoSmithKline. Emory University had to comply with government regulators along with the university to disclose income received from GlaxoSmithKline. Emory had to report any payments over $10,000 per year per the National Institutes of Health. This was done to ensure and eliminate the conflict of interest. Emory University compared records with GlaxoSmithKline and Nemeroff failed to disclose approximately $500,000 of speaking and consulting fees promoting the companys drugs. Emory conducted its own investigation in June 2004 and multiple violations of policies were founded on behalf Nemeroff. Nemeroff responded by issuing a memorandum at Emory stating he has been in compliance however GlaxoSmithKline reported paying Nemeroff a salary of $171,031. Nemeroff reported only $9,999 to Emory. He under reported by one dollar in which $10,000 is the threshold for reporting per the National Institutes of  Health. As a result of Health Care Reform which was passed in 2010 and initiated by President Barack Obamas administration, the Pew Prescription Project is an initiative of the Pew Charitable Trust promoting consumer safety through health care reform in the approval of manufacturing and marketing of prescription drugs. These initiatives will encourage or force evidence-based prescribing. The Pew Prescription Project conducts nonpartisan research through rigorous federal oversight in relation to drug safety. The purpose is to better illuminate problems and potential solutions in the area of prescription drugs. The Pew Prescription Act current goal includes the passage of the Physicians Payments Sunshine Act and the Independence Drug Education and Outreach Act. This includes improvements to current federal laws and regulations while improving FDA oversights and drug manufacturing. The advancement of evidence-based prescribing practices and ensuring clinical safety of drugs for children is another goal. The Physician Payments Sunshine Act has been passed within the current health care reform legislation. The provisions require drug and device companies to publicly report any gifts and payments that are made to doctors. The information must be posted on their web sites and reported to the US Department of Human Services. Companies can be fined starting at $10,000 up to $100,000. Many of the provisions must be fully operational starting in 2013. The government believes patients deserve and have the right to know if their doctors are receiving money from drug companies. Congress has added much needed transparency to the financial relationships between the pharmaceutical industry and physicians.   The reporting requirements in the health care legislation will better protect patients and will help restore trust in our health care system. This new legislation will enhance the safety of consumers by increasing transparency while in no way restricting business or limiting innovation. (Jewett) Though pharmaceutical marketing strategies has taken a new enlightened turn in the world of advertising, previous tactics of physicians actually promoting through accompanying pharmaceutical sales representatives has resulted in essential stimulated scrutiny. Less face-to-face interaction between pharmaceutical sales representatives and physicians is underway to aid in eliminating the engagement as well as the hint of unethical proposals and initiatives. Rewarding physicians with branded-name gifts, meals, apparel, etc., did in fact strengthen the marketing concept and played a significant impact on the positive profitability of many pharmaceutical companies. However, the proof is in the patient. Other marketing techniques have included persuasive testimonials from respected physicians claiming to have realized improvements in their patients prognoses. Further marketing techniques consist of published promotional reporting from trusted colleagues where the tracking of physicians like s and dislikes are captured and substantiate biographical purchasing data. Prescribing under the influence is a term used as a result of the drug reps intoxicating the physicians, residents and interns with breakfast, lunch, pens, and other pharmaceutical logo branded apparel, etc. The general idea is for the pharmaceutical sales representatives to be granted another opportunity to educate physicians about the targeted drugs, which is part of substantiating marketing strategies. The pharmaceutical reps take advantage of the physicians empty stomachs with an offer of free lunch or breakfast and prey on their wandering eyes with the fancy pens, notebooks, calendars and other items that coerce physicians to agree to their objectives in increasing sales. However, when a physician is questioned about the effectiveness of this type of marketing they often respond, It doesnt influence me at all. Theyre not going to buy my soul with a laser pointer. (Morreim) Many studies support that this kind of advertising has proven vital to the steady increase in pharmaceutical sales. So, perhaps physicians need to reexamine just how much they are persuaded by the irresistible allure of free fresh baked cookies or the tiny thin tubes that hold inks that we all know as a pen. Often a doctor is not going to prescribe medication that they barely know anything about; its the responsibility of the drug representative to educate the physicians on the name of the drug and drug facts so that they can then feel comfortable prescribing it to their patients. Drug representatives have basically been buying physicians time with whatever little inexpensive knick knack and kick-back it may take to get the name of the drug into the physicians brain and onto his prescription pad. Whats even worse is that most physicians will not give the drug representatives the time of day without some type of bribe or induction that is surprisingly not considered a kickback (in ter ms of legalities). A letter in the Journal of American Medical Association attests to just how intoxicating the advertising of the drug reps can be. The story describes a patient who came into the emergency room for an insect bite. The patient was originally seen by an intern who wanted to prescribe an inexpensive antibiotic, however the decision to prescribe the inexpensive antibiotic was overruled due to the fact that another resident recommended prescribing an new antibiotic that cost $183 per day. This incident was investigated by the attending physician who supervised the house officers and found out that this particular intern had recently wined and dined the day before by a drug rep from the manufacturer of the new expensive antibiotic prescribed. This type of behavior validates the enormous impact that marketing has on gifts of persuasion. In a story posted in the New York Times magazine, titled Dr. Drug Rep. a well respected physician Dr. Joseph Carlat shares his experience in being solicited by Wyeth Pharmaceutical Company to be a spokesperson for their drug Effexor XR, which is used for treating depression. They made him an enticing offer, and told him that all he would have to do is speak with his fellow colleagues about the features and benefits of the drug. Wyeth would provide all the information and materials that he needed to educate the other physicians about the drug and in return Dr. Carlat would be paid $500 for a one-hour training session or $750 if he had to drive for an hour. Dr. Carlat thought this would be easy enough. He was reputable; he had a busy private psychiatry practice specializing in psychopharmacology. He was quite familiar with drug Effexor and had read different studies pertaining to its effectiveness. The drug Effexor was being promoted by Wyeth as a dual reuptake inhibitor meaning that it increased both serotonin and norepinephrine, another neurotransmitter. The theory promoted by Wyeth was that two neurotransmitters were better than one, and that Effexor was more powerful and effective than S.S.R.I.s. (Carlat) Because he had already prescribed Effexor to several patients and it seemed to work, Dr. Carlat did not feel like there was anything unethical about him talking to other doctors about the drug. Dr. Carlat subsequently attended a full, expense paid physicians conference in Boston. When he began socializing at the conference there were other physicians functioning as spokespersons for other drugs and pharmaceutical companies. One physician that stood out was Dr. Michael Thase, the researcher who single-handedly put Effexor on the map. Thase presented evidence from clinical trials of Effexor being more effective than any other antidepressant. He rebutted criticisms of him being a paid consultant of Wyeth quite convincingly which was important. He explained to the attendees that he had requested and received complete information, both advantagess and disadvantages of the research data and not just the advantages. This was a significant point, because companies sometimes withhold negative data from publication in medical journals. For example, in 2004, GlaxoSmithKline was sued by Eliot Spitzer, who was then the New York attorney general, for suppressing relevant data that hinted Paxil caused suicidal thoughts in children. The company settled the case and agreed to make clinical-trial results public. (Carlat) Was I swallowing the message whole? Certainly not. I knew that this was hardly impartial medical education, and that we were being fed a marketing line. But when you are treated like the anointed, wined and dined in Manhattan and placed among the leaders of the field, you inevitably put some of your critical faculties on hold. I was truly impressed with Effexors remission numbers, and like any physician, I was hopeful that something new and different had been introduced to my quiver of therapeutic options. At the end of the last lecture, we were all handed envelopes as we left the conference room. Inside were checks for $750. It was time to enjoy ourselves in the city. (Carlat) However, after a year of pharmaceutical detailing Dr. Carlat became disturbed concerning feedback that Effexor caused hypertensions in a small but significant percentage of patients. For that reason, amongst other ethical reasons, Carlat decided to sever ties with Wyeth. Looking back on the year he spent speaking for Wyeth, he asked himself, Did I contribute to faulty medical decision making? Did my advice lead doctors to make inappropriate drug choices, and did their patients suffer needlessly? He admitted that there was a huge financial incentive for physicians to partner with pharmaceutical companies. (Carlat) Although he still allows drug reps to visit his office because it helps him stay abreast of the growing trends, he keeps the visits short and does not accept their offers and invitations. Who says this type of marketing isnt effective? Do other physicians really think they are invincible from the powers of persuasion? How many doctors actually engage in this type of marketing for drug companies? What role do ethics play in the decision to speak or not to speak on behalf of the insurance company? The truth is that previously many physicians engaged in this type of pharmaceutical detailing. While the median physician salary of 140,000 annually may be representative of a good salary, the additional $30,000 in supplemental income is quite alluring. In addition, to the monetary earnings earning respect based on reputation is important among colleagues. At least 25% of U.S. doctors are still receiving drug money for lecturing to physicians or assisting drug companies in other ways. Many physicians engage in this type of career appendage and perhaps go in with the purest of intentions; nonetheless, ethics are being violated when the physicians are not relaying accurate and appropriate information about the new medications that they are pushing, and much of the information that they are giving is provided to them from the pharmaceutical companies. PhRMA, Pharmaceutical Research and Medical Practices of America are part of an ongoing effort to ensure that pharmaceutical marketing organizations practice with the highest ethical standards. In January 2009, the voluntary PhRMA Code on Interactions with Healthcare Professionals took effect and its focus was developed to keep representatives from drug companies and healthcare professionals centered on patient care. It is committed to making sure that drug representatives are provided with the most current, accurate, and reliable information to assist in their decision making on drug selection. Amongst its changes, prohibits distribution of no-educational items (Such as pens, mugs and other reminder objects typically adorned with a company or product logo). It prohibits company sales representatives from providing restaurant meals to healthcare professionals, but allows them to provide occasional meals in healthcare professionals offices in conjunction with informational presentation s. The Code also reaffirms and strengthens previous statements that companies should not provide any entertainment or recreational benefits to healthcare professionals. It includes new provisions that require companies to ensure that their representatives are sufficiently trained about applicable laws, regulations, and industry codes and practice. Companies are also asked to periodically access whether or not the representatives are abiding by the codes. (PhRMA) CEOs and Compliance Officers will have a process in place patterned after the Sarbanes Oxley compliance, other changes to the code reflects PhRMas support of transparency in relation to healthcare professionals. There is necessary education offered to interested parties regarding marketing techniques and physicians outlooks on pharmaceutical products, diagnoses and expected and proven outcomes. Since Pharmaceutical products must be marketed differently than other healtcare industry products for sale and there are distinct diversions for implementing successful marketing. The potential user or patient, must be granted a prescription from the prescribing physician. Proper use of the pharmaceutical is key which provides favorable or unfavorable outcomes. Within the public health sector, determinations on accessible drugs may very well be taken based on politics, which undoubtedly broadens the scope of advertising and marketing strategies in this field, replacing advertising by appealing via petitions through lobbyism. Various marketing schemes play into different levels of interests such as financial, scientific gain or even personal. Academic conferences and medical journals provide varying me diums for exposure. Ethical pharmaceutical trials developed arguments depends on knowledge, outcomes and concrete unbiased facts. This type of knowledge requires transparency, a level of transparency being sought after throughout the healthcare industry as a whole. The pharmaceutical industry requires skilled marketing experts to ensure that all aspects of reaching targeted audiences effectively are exceeded, not just met. Those regulations developed by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and nofreelunch.org, which are not law, were developed to promote transparency. A doctor as a pharmaceutical representative shares his personal story about lecturing on a particular drug. There are ethical guidelines developed specifically for the healthcare industry that includes the pharmaceutical industry. AdvaMeds Code of Ethics, in particular, is a model for appropriate ethical behaviors within the healthcare industry that outlines specific recommendations for the drug industry. AdvaMed addres ses parameters covering educational grants, modest meals and hospitality, faculty expenses, and advertisements. In presenting the issues of unethical behaviors, it is imperative to understand the prevalence based on historical and current behaviors in society and the ever-evolving methods developed to discourage physician kickbacks in the pharmaceutical industry. Though AdvaMeds Code of Ethics regulations do not mandate their guidelines be adhered to, health care organizations are strongly urged to utilize and enforce their codes can assist in eliminating and curtailing unethical behaviors that lead to lawsuits that actually develop in to Case Studies. As long as viable codes of ethics are followed, fear of transparency can be removed. Acceptably ethical behaviors will indeed help aid in the inevitable reformation efforts that this nation continues to experience.

Global Positioning Systems Essay -- Term Papers Research Essays

Global Positioning Systems The possibilities for the future afforded to the human race by the technology created today is endless. However, one technology has already and will continue to change the way people travel around the planet: Global Positioning Systems (GPS). For travelers throughout history, figuring out where they were and where they were going was one of the oldest problems. Even in recent years, navigation and positioning was crucial to many activities but extremely cumbersome. However, in its need for a precise form of global positioning, the Department of Defense (DoD) created the most useful navigation system in history. The creation and production of the GPS system by Rockwell Collins changed the way people travel today and will continue to change the way people travel in the future. Imagine driving to the grocery store while sitting in the back seat reading a book or landing a plane in zero visibility conditions and not worrying about where the runway is. The scenarios listed are possible du e to the creation of the GPS system, which consists of a series of 24 satellites, numerous ground stations, individual receivers, and radio signals to locate the exact position of an object. The process by which all these components interact to provide location information is simple in theory but complex in reality. The basis of the GPS system in locating a receiver is a technique called triangulation. In triangulation, a receiver measures the distance from itself anywhere on earth to each of three satellites in the GPS system. In order to triangulate, it first measures the distance to the first satellite and recognizes that it must be located on the surface of a sphere. The sphere’s center must therefore be located a... ...roaming receivers use the transmitted time differentials for the satellites they are measuring to perform the calculations and therefore have the ability to determine positions more accurately. As the accuracy of GPS systems continues to increase, the possible uses for GPS units will continue to increase. The possibilities for GPS uses are endless and GPS units in the future will aid in determining locations, help people navigate the seas and skies, help track people and vehicles, aid in mapping roads and seas, and provide atomic accuracy timing to the entire world. Once the accuracy of GPS systems reach to such small distances as centimeters, automatic construction equipment will build roads without needing time consuming manual measurements, cars will drive themselves to predetermined destinations, and planes will be able to land in zero visibility conditions.

Essay --

The Effects of Revenue Management in the Hospitality Industry Up until recent years Revenue Management was something that has never been heard of. Now days, it is something that hotel managers cannot go without. They spend numerous amounts of time checking their computers for the nightly rates of the hotel. But what exactly is Revenue Management? â€Å"Revenue Management (RM) is a scientific technique that combines Operations Research, Statistics and Customer Relationship Management and categorizes customers into price bands, based on various services† (Revenue Management, 2010). In other words someone might reserve a room that is at a going rate of $245 per night while their cousin who reserved a room at the same hotel months in advance only has to pay $105 per night. Now you may ask yourself how hotels can get away with doing this? But what it all boils down to is that someone who reserves a room last minute will end up paying the higher amount because his or her demand for the room is higher. This technique of raising or lowering prices based on the demand of the guest is something that airlines have been using for some time now. The first two airlines to use Revenue Management in 1985 were United and American Airlines. They used a series of algorithms to determine the best price to sell their seats (Desiraju & Shugan, 2000). The reason Revenue Management came about in the airline industry had to do with the airplanes only having a select amount of seats. Trying to sell all of the seats at the same price is very difficult to do especially when the airlines needed to at least be able to cover fixed operating expenses. A lot of times the planes would be left with empty seats, which, doesn’t help the airlines make any money. So by a... ...hould not be. Alan Campbell who has been working in the hotel industry for over thirty years believes that there should be more that goes into Revenue Management than just what the computer tells us. Campbell states, â€Å"Revenue managers need to have a feel for the system, not how it works, but what it does, and how it does it.† In other words a Revenue Manager must know all of the events happening in the area as well as all of the other venues in the area. They must have an instinct for knowing if the numbers are right and will bring the hotel the best property rates. Campbell’s views and ideas are something that is spreading within the Hospitality Industry, because when you are aware of the â€Å"human factor† as he calls it, properties are able to increase their Revenue per available room (Revpar), and occupancy percentages, above what the software will predict.

Friends and Family

Friends are biggest value in people’s lives. I have many friends. Most of them are my neighbors, but also I have schoolmates. I can go out somewhere with them and feel comfortable. I know that friends of mine will help me anytime and anywhere. I can trust them. I have one best friend. I may pin his faith. Friendship between a friend of mine and me is firm and intense. He always helps me solve problems and treats me with respect. A friend of mine has never lied to me. It is better to say home truth that sweet lie. If I am upset, my best friend will jolly up me. He is caring, cheerful, trustworthy, outgoing and good-tempered. He is younger than I am. I think that age is not important for a friendship if you can come to an understanding and respect each other. I have friends among people of a different generation. I like younger mates because I can be child . Older people are serious and calm. They care about their studies or jobs. They have less free time. However, I like them because they can teach me something and share their experience. Older friends may help me to do my homework and explain me what I cannot understand. Friends are one of life treasures so that we have to treasure our friendships. It is not easy to make friends nowadays. The true friend should be honest and trustworthy. Without these characteristics, you cannot have a friendship with anyone. Person must be sociable, tolerant, conscientious, and good-tempered if he wants make friends. Furthermore, he must understand other person’s feelings and moods and always help him. If person wants not to lose old friends, he should care about them. He should call them and ask how they are. We should safe our relationships. If we break friendship, it will be hard to recover it. I suppose that friendship is a state when you feel important and you know that you can do something helpful or needful to your friend. Sometimes you see somebody for the first time and that is strange when you feel you are friends for ages. My ideal friend has to be himself. I don’t think, I should name any of his/her (later on: he) character features. It’s even doesn’t matter when he has something, what doesn’t exist in rules of ideal man – e. g. unpolitness. It’s better when the social mask is not worn and you can talk to your friend and be absolutely ensured that he is not lying and he will help not every time, but only those times, when he could. I believe that’s very important. I don’t agree also to the idea that friends, having in common only external personalities are bad ones. I don’t think that it’s good to have a friend for a life. After some years you feel kind of exhausted and the light of the friendship begins to go out. People with external similarities can also be very good friends and the ones only with internal sometimes even can’t talk – e. . when he thinks right the same way, i think, it’s not interesting for me to talk with him, because i know how he thinks and i want to know more different people and to hear different oppinions. So, I must disappoint you, but I needless to say, having some internal common points. You don’t have to have a friend (like the po em, we read, says) but having one makes your life, your steps through the life much more easier and funnier. Nowadays often debated theme is the choice between a family and friends. For me a family is more important than friends. There are some thoughts about this lemma. Firstly, I think that a family is more important than friends, because when you are born you fall into a family not into your friends’ circle. First people with whom you get acquainted after your birth are your faSecondly, when we are teenagers for us it looks like that our family members are our enemies. We try to run from our family to our friends, but if it happens a really big problem, we come back to our family, because family is our most immediate and precious people. In our hearts we know that if nobody helps us, we can always rely on our family. But if we look at the another side of the coin, we can see that sometimes there are such problems in a family that parents can’t take care of their own children. In such situation we can trust just for our friends help, because family can’t help us. Finally, I think that not just family members have to help us. Sometimes we must help our family. Maybe then we will be able to say that our choice is family. In conclusion, I can say that we should never forget our nearest realatives. We should never forget and abandon our family. mily members. With no-one else, but just with your family help, you get known the world. Friends and family are important in our lifes, but the question is – which, friends or family, are more important for us? I believe that family is more significant then friends. In the first place, we can always trust our family’s members. When we have a trouble and we need some help, who will help us first? Of course, our family’s members. In addition, family supports you materrialy. Everything what you are wering, all notebooks, pens and other things you need at school and not just here are bought by your parents ( If you are still child ). Who else if not they buy you all these thinkgs abd help you tu survive? On the other hand, some people think, that friends are more important for their lifes. However, most of them forgot that friends are with you just while everything is good. Unfrotunately, when something bad occurs to you and you need their help, most of them turn their backs. Finally, I believe that family is the biggest support in our lifes, that’s why they are more imposrtant.