Would you use Keynesian Policy?

1. Would you use Keynesian Policy? Explain Keynesian Economics in 10 lines or less. Keynesian Economics, broadly speaking, is a macroeconomic approach that advocates active government intervention in a country's monetary policy in order to ensure the best economic outcome. This produces a mixed economy, where both the private sector and the government control market conditions. In order to ensure economic growth and stability, governments impose policies that could stimulate the economy towards their desired ends. In a recession, stability can be achieved through tax breaks and government spending; in an economic upturn, this can be   done though tax hikes and cutbacks on government spending. Keynes, the theory's proponent, believes that trends in the macroeconomic level can influence the spending and market behavior of individuals, and that the government plays a crucial part in instigating these trends by adjusting the economy's general equilibrium. 2. Would you use Supply Side Policy? Explain this Economic Policy in 10 lines or less. The supply-side policy holds that influencing the supply of goods and services will lead to economic health. It emphasizes the supply, rather than the demand stimulus towards economic activity. Its conjecture is that if individuals have the means to buy, demand will be created. Supply-side economics thus focuses on policies that raise production capabilities for lowering the cost of products and controlling inflation. Supply side economists believe that high taxes increases the costs of production, thereby reducing the incentive to work and to invest. As such, they advocate policies that lower taxation rates in order to raise labor outputs and market capitals. 3. Would you use Monetarism? Explain this policy in 10 lines or less. The doctrine of Monetarism places emphasis on controlling the domestic money supply for promoting growth and maintaining economic stability. Monetarists believe that regulating the national income is the primary means for improving economic activity. It holds that instability and market changes such as inflation are due to fluctuations in the money supply, specifically, that these changes came as a result of the money supply being larger than the demand. By this assumption, increasing or decreasing the money supply, rather than raising taxes, will keep inflation in check. This is usually done by maintaining price stability and steadily increasing the stock of money in a moderate manner. 4. Would you use a combination of some or all of the above? Explain their main differences in 16 lines. Among the three macroeconomic policies, I believe a combination of Keynesian and Monetarist approaches will do best in achieving economic growth and stability.  According to the theory of Monetarism, inflation is an effect of the supply of money exceeding the demand. As such, regulating market prices is the best way of controlling inflation. But while Keynesian economics focus on the stability of currency, Monetarism focuses on price stability, which is achieved through maintaining money's supply-demand equilibrium. Keynesian economics supports government manipulation of market conditions by way of   monetary policies based on real aggregate demand. When there is economic recession and inflation, it advocates higher taxes in order to curb individual spending. But aside from the monetary angle, it also employs fiscal strategies, those that relate to government spending, revenues, and debt. Supply-side economics is concerned with policies that produce more incentives for work, rather than stimulate demand. The emphasis on the supply factor is the main difference between the Supply-side and Keynesian theories. Proponents of supply-side economics believe that increasing taxes will only cause revenues to fall, therefore, reducing it will do more good by generating economic activity. However, I believe that this will not increase the supply of labor and services substantially. Lower taxes does not necessarily mean that individuals will choose to be more productive. Moreover, huge tax cuts can cause enormous deficits in the federal budget. 5. Given the economic model/theory, you choose to work with, explain your economic strategy for the next four years.  In the next four years, I aim to guide the nation towards having a strong and stable financial system. This means that in economic trems, stable prices are maintaned, inflation lessened, and long-term interest rates are moderated. I also aim to keep unemployment to a minimun, or better yet, lower than the current rate of 5.10%. I propose to achieve these things though policies that follow and Monetarist and Keynesian principles. We can best promote a progressive climate by maintaining an environment of low inflation. An important reason for keeping inflation low is that businesses will be able to foresee substantial future benefits if they are to be willing to bear the long-term risks that are associated with creating new enterprises, and expected low inflation affords them a clearer view of projected benefits. The Monetarist theory holds that variations in unemployment and inflation rates are caused by changes in the supply of money, and that inflation is a purely monetary phenomenon—this means that if the money supply does not change, the price level remains the same. Therefore, regulating the money supply will ensure a stable economic preformance. The money supply can be balanced through the buying and selling government bonds and securities. By buying securities, the government increases the money supply, thus lowering interest rates. On the same note, when it sells securites, the money supply becomes tighter. Using the Keynesian perspective, rising inflation levels can be curbed by imposing higher taxes to lessen demand and stabilize economic performance. This can also reduce the money supply so that interest rates will go up, making it harder for firms and consumers to obtain money, thereby reducing aggregate demand. Since the current rate of inflation is on the rise, I propose higher interest rates in order to lessen spending. This can also be done by regulating reserve requirements of member banks, affecting interest rates. When banks reserves are lower, there is a limited amount of money to go around so interest rates go up. This usually affects the amount of money banks lend to consumers and firms. When interest rates increase, consumers are less willing to borrow money to spend on goods or services. I expect the above measures to decrease inflation and increase employment rates, which means that the total market value of all the goods and services will also increase. This translates to a higher GNP. Higher taxes would also lessen the budget deficit, and since the deficit is financed by borrowing, the country's debt will decrease as well. As for productivity, I also expect it to increase. The link between costs and   productivity is usually a positive one. Productivity helps offset costs so if inflation is low, it means that productivity is high.  If my strategy does not work and my inflation and unemployment goals were not reached, I may opt for deficit spending in order to stabilize the economy. While deficit spending can catalyze negative effects, under certain conditions (such as in a recession), it can help the economy cope. Since the money used to finance deficits usually come from foreign governments and institutions, it would be to the economy's advantage if   they can be convinced to support my proposal.. Economic indicators, dictate how the policies are implemented. However, globalization can make it harder to determine the extent of economic manipulation that is needed to promote economic growth. A global market changes the dynamics of traditional economic systems, making economic outcomes more difficult to predict. Prices of products and services are now increasingly determined by market factors aside from those within the country. Thus, intervening with the money suppy may not be an accurate response to certain economic situations. Emerging economic trends and indicators should be taken into account regarding government policies and decisions.

Brief History of the English Language

Brief History of the English Language OLD ENGLISH 5th Century —three Germanic tribes —-the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes arrived in the British Isles. The Angles were named from ENGLE, their land of origin. Their language was called ENGLISC from which the word, English is derived. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes became known as the Anglo-Saxons. The Angles, Saxons, and Jutes became known as the Anglo-Saxons. Some words such as church, bishop, baptism, monk, eucharis, and presbyter came indirectly through Latin and Greek.The VIKINGS, also known as Norsemen, invaded England by the 8th century , which in turn, gave English a Norwegian and Danish influence. MIDDLE ENGLISH When William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, invaded England, he became its king. French became the language of the court, administration, and culture. It was the language used in schools. The English language became mostly the language of the uneducated classes and was considered a vulgar tongue. Similar article: Failure in English LanguageMost of the English words rooted in French are words that have something to do with power, such as crown, castle, parliament, army, mansion, gown, banquet, art, poet, romance, duke, servant, peasant, traitor, and governor. MODERN ENGLISH Modern English developed after Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in Germany around 1450 and William Caxton established England’s first printing press at Westminster abbey in 1476.Printing also brought standardization of English. Between the 18th to 20th centuries, the English language continued to change as the British Empire moved across the world—- to the USA, Australia, New Zealand, India, Asia, and Africa. American and British variants are the INTERNATIONALLY accepted variants of the English language. Differences of AE and BE Spelling center—– centre program— programme color—— colour

Development of English Sonnet Essay

It is the Italian sonnet (or Petrarchan) which is the legitimate form, for it alone recognizes that peculiar unbalance of parts which is its salient characteristic. The English sonnet does something rather different with the form which is not quite as interesting or as subtle. English took Petrarchan sonnet, modified and elevated it to most celebrated and well-known form of poetry. Petrarchan sonnet was restricted to the idealization of women and illustration of the agonies of amorous affairs but English poets transformed it into a form capable of convey the subtle feelings, intricacies of mental processes, socio-economic concerns and the individual pathos and miseries. English sonneteers not only re-invented the form of sonnet but also revolutionized and rationalized its subject matter enabling it to include and articulate the subtle ideas and thoughts. The Italian sonnet has two parts – the Octave, a stanza of eight lines and the Sestet, a stanza of six lines, The Octave is composed of two rhymes that has the following scheme ; a b b a, a b b a. The, sestet has sometimes two rhymes, sometimes three, different from the rhymes of the Octave c d e, c d e, c d c, d c d, c d e, d c e. , The Octave may be divided into two quatrains, the sestet into two tercets. At the end of the Octave, i. e. , after the eighth lines, there is a conspicuous pause or Caesura (it is often manifested by a space) followed by a Volta or a turn in the thought. But it may be noted that in Italian sonnets this break of thought is not found as a rule. (Spiller, 1992, p. 3) Sonnet in England was pioneered by Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard in the first half of the 16th century, but they did not follow the Italian pattern of the sonnet and thought about a change in its form. It was Sir Thomas Wyatt who first initiated the Petrarchan sonnets and reinvented the art of sonnet (Spiller, 1992, p. 3) He founded the beauty of the form of a sonnet excellently suited as a vehicle for the expression of personal feeling, without taking recourse to allegory or fiction. And through sonnet, translated or imitated, lyricism with its music of feeling and passion flowed through poetry in England. Wyatt’s sonnets `The Long Love . . . and `Whoso List to Hunt` justifies the opinion. But this change was related to subject matter only. Thomas P. Roche says in this regard; â€Å"Petrarch poems of fourteen line and that the earliest examples in English by Wyatt and Surrey established the norm. Almost equally surely there can be no question that the word sonnet in the renaissance did not refer merely to fourteen-line norm. † (p. XI) With Wyatt discovered the rhythm and music of English sonnets-born out of a Petrarchan convention. Surrey particularly introduced a rhyme-scheme, different from the Italian model, for instance `The Soote Season`. Surrey substituted the less elaborate and easier form, eschewing the Italian form, which Wyatt had introduced-three quatrains with different rhymes followed by a couplet. His sonnets are divided into three quatrains (of four lines each followed by a rhyming couplet of two lines). Additionally, he totally changed the purpose of sonnets as he wrote elegiac sonnets as well. Surrey’s elegiac soonets on the death of Wyatt and of Thomas Clere are presumably the first elegiac sonnet in England. (John, 1938, p. 10) Shakespeare has followed the pattern of Surrey in his sonnets. Since he has made a splendid use of this form, it is known after him and not surrey, its real originator. The end of octave in English sonnet does not have any hiatus or twist of thought. It carries the though up to the concluding couplet, where poets wrap up pitching the subject matter of the sonnet at the highest level of his thought. Its rhyme scheme is a b a b, c d c d, e f e f, g g. In Shakespearean sonnet, the quatrains stand apart so far as the rhyming scheme is concerned, though in their subject matter they are linked together. Spenser evolved a new variety in that each of his quatrains was linked to the other by an intermixture of the rhymes in the following manner a b a b, b c b c, c d c d, e e. (Spiller, 1992) In addition to the form, the major development was the subject matter of the sonnet. Petrarchan sonnet was entirely based on the idealization of women but unlike it, English sonnet showed a consistent resistance to the glorification of women. â€Å"There was never ffile half so well field† by Wyatt and â€Å"When my love swears that she is made of truth† are example of this. Dasenbrock labels this as the â€Å"blame-style† of Wyatt and his subsequent sonneteers. As it has already been noted, the sonnet found its way to the Tudor court of England through Wyatt and Surrey. Although mid-Tudor miscellanies were very popular in those days but were unable to left its imprint on the form and/or subject matter of the poem. So there was no remarkable development in English sonnet from Wyatt and Surrey in 1830s and 1840s to the time of Spenser and Sidney in 1580 and 1590. This was due to the fact that there was no critical interest of the contemporary poet in the poetry of the time. This phenomenon is mourned by C. S Lewis as â€Å"the late medieval swamp†. (p. 25) Additionally, as far as the metre is concerned, Elizabethan poetic mindset was unable to accept anything else than pentameter. Other metric forms were considered insubstantial but C. S. Lewis considered this metric form in insufficient to comprehend â€Å"something fully human and adult†. (p. 139) Even then the point of the Italian form was not entirely grasped, for Wyatt’s sonnets all ended with a couplet, and Surrey, after some experimentation, used a pattern of alternately rhymed quatrains, which encouraged logical exposition right up to this final couplet and postponed the turn. However, Wyatt’s sonnets are rigid and awkward, whereas Surrey’s have great artistic merits. Sir Philip Sidney set the vogue of writing sonnet-sequences, In fact, after Wyatt and Surrey, the sonnet was neglected for a number of years. It was for Sidney to revitalize this form by composing one hundred and eight sonnets, all put in Astrophel and Stella, commemorating his fruitless love for Penelope Deveneux, the daughter of his patron, the Earl of Essex. Sidney wrote the sonnet not to satisfy the call of the age, but to express his heart-felt love-experience. Sidney’s sonnets reveal a true lyric emotion. On the one hand, there is in these sonnets much of the conventional material of the Italian sonneteers; but on the other hand there are touches so apt to the situation of a man who loves too late that one hesitates to ascribe them to mere dramatic skill. Sidney’s sonnets are not rich in Words in words only; in vague and unlocalised feelings they are full, material, and circumstantiated. They are struck full of amorous, fancies, far-fetched conceits, befitting his occupation. As a sonneteer Sidney is placed next only to Shakespeare and Spenser. Sidney’s sonnet-sequence known as Astrophel and Stella created a taste for the sonnet form. Many poets tried their hand at the form, mostly to express love for some imagined mistress. This accounts for the artificiality of most of the Elizabethan sonnets. No true passion was the motivation. Sonnets were written merely for the sake of literary fashion. However, Spenser’s Amoretti, a collection of about 88 sonnets, is marked with sincerity. In these sonnets Spenser ran be seen to express his genuine feelings without recourse to allegory. In the first ranks of the works of the English Renaissance, Spenser’s sonnets come between those of Sidney and Shakespeare from which they are different in forms as in sentiment. Spenser wrote Amoretti, a sequence of eighty-eight sonnets, addressed to Elizabeth Boyle whom he married in 1594. Spenser’s sonnets are unique for their purity. They tell a story of love without sin or remorse. There is the purity of tone in them and they show better than anything else the quality in Spenser which Coleridge named ‘Maidenliness†. The love embodied in these sonnets is not of the body, but it for the lady’s divine qualities. In this respect Spenser’s sonnets are distinguished from the sonnets of other Elizabethan sonneteers. They are also unique in form, though written in English style. They are written in three interlinked quatrains in alternative rhyme with the couplet standing alone, i. e. , a b a b, b c b c, c d c d, e e. His best sonnets include: ‘Like as a ship that through the ocean wide’; ‘Most glorious Lord of fife that on this day: ‘Fresh spring the herald of love’s mighty king’; ‘One day I write her name upon the strand’; and ‘Men call you fair, and you do credit it’. Shakespearean sonnets are periodically narrative unlike Sidney and Spenser due to its variety of thematic expressions. He takes into account the socio-economic disquiet about the poet’s abode to frequent worries for the posthumous standing of the poet. Shakespeare’s sonnets, 154 in number, form â€Å"the casket which encloses the most precious pearls of Elizabethan lyricism, some of them unsurpassed by any lyricist. † It is in these sonnets that Shakespeare unlocks his heart. Besides their sincerity of tone, they possess literary qualities of high order, for instance `When I consider every thing that grows` , `Not marble, nor the gilded . . . ` , `My mistress eyes . . . ` and `Whoever hath her wish . . . `. They touch perfection in their phraseology, in their perfect blending of sense and sound, in their versification. He is truly a marvelous sonneteer. However, the still sonnet had to wait till Milton in the post. Elizabethan period, for the English passion for sonneteering died out in the early 17th century. It was Milton who widened the scope of the sonnet which had hitherto been a vehicle to express only love and friendship. Milton uses the form to express his deeply felt emotions on contemporary politics, religion, public, figures, womanhood, and such personal subjects as his blindness. In the words of Henford, â€Å"These later English sonnets are the most immediately personal of all Milton’s utterances, representing emotional moments in his later life, experience which find no adequate expression in his prose-writing in the publication of which he was during these years primarily engaged. We may believe also that they were, like the Psalms, prompted in part by a conscious desire in Milton to exercise himself in verse in preparation for the epic poem which he still intended. † (p. 56) While following Petrarchan pattern, Milton made many stylistic changes in the form. His sentence structure is more complex and the rhythm is slowed down, the syntax tends to overflow the two main and two subsidiary divisions of the poem. Milton’s use of the new style in the Sonnets foreshadows the methods of his later blank verse, where we also find ‘the sense variously drawn out from one verse into another’. The technical changes he takes over from the Renaissance Italians make what is necessarily a short poem into one that seems weighty and sustained; pauses within the lines are added to those suggested by the rhymes, which are partly submerged by the flow of the sense. The sonnet thus becomes a single verse-paragraph flowing through a sound pattern made up of four divisions marked by the rhymes. Milton wrote in all, eighteen sonnets in English and two in Italian. These were composed over a period of twenty years when Milton was busy with political problems and affairs of the common wealth. They are in the nature of occasional outbursts of poetical enthusiasm and do not form a continuous series. Unlike some of the Elizabethan sonnet sequences Milton was never tempted by the idea of writing a sonnet series, nor was he attracted by the subject of love. In fact, he saved it from Cupid and Venus. The sonnets of Milton are simple but majestic records of the feelings of the poet himself. He enlarged the scope of the sonnet by expressing through it sentiments stirred by historical events. Some of his sonnets are personal and domestic. After Milton, the form sonnet fell on evil days for no writer tried his hand on this form seriously. Hardly any sonnet worth the name and recognition was written during the period of one hundred years. It was for Wordsworth to revitalize the form. He adopted the sonnet and used this form with great artistic skill and care. The sonnet was suited to Wordsworth’s poetic genius, because he could handle one thought at a time effectively and the sonnet was best suited to it. The sonnet with its freedom, of choice in theme and emotion, united to its exacting discipline, and to its need of a clear intellectual basis, was a predestined form for Wordsworth. Now Wordsworth adopted the Italian form and introduced some changes in its form and structure best suited to his moods. Sometimes he avoided the break, sometimes, he varied its position. He practiced many varieties of rhyming schemes. In fact, Wordsworth’s sonnets are marked with a greater variety than that in Milton’s. So above-mentioned discussion and supported evidence clearly suggest that English poets not only re-invented the Petrarchan sonnet but developed it to an elevated form of poetry. It remains no more a love-poem reflecting the diversity of thought and creativity of the English poets that made it substantial and sustained form to express and to contain the subtle and delicate thought. Works Cited Dasenbrock, Reed W.Wyatt’s transformation of Petrarch. Comparative Literature. 1988. 40. 122-123. Hanford. James H. John Milton Poet and Humanist: Essays. The Press of Western Reserve University. 1966. John , Lisle Cecil. The Elizabethan Sonnet Sequences: Studies in Conventional Conceits. Columbia University Press. 1938. Lewis. C. S. English Literature in the Sixteenth Century, Except Drama. Oxford: Clarendin Press. 1954. Roche, Thomas P. Petrarch and the English Sonnet Sequences. AMS Press. 1988 Spiller, Michael. The Development of the Sonnet: An Introduction. New York: Routledge. 1992

Cloud Computing Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Cloud Computing - Assignment Example Cloud computing might be the frontier in business computing and service delivery, but it does not actually differ from the traditional file hosting and network given that they both use the same technology. The significant difference that makes cloud computing more striking exists in the execution of the technology; virtualization. Virtualization avails clients with unlimited resources given that it allows for large scalability. Cloud computing allows businesses to enter new markets and to get closer to customers thus easy delivery of new services. Cloud technologies are commonly used by businesses, as a catalyst, to implement new processes and systems that free organizations to maximize not only business results but also the functional metrics. The paper examines the difference that exists between cloud services and then traditional networks and hosting. (Ivanov, 2012). Cloud services offer a number of business and economic benefits to an organization such as the access to a highly scalable infrastructure while reducing the cost of operation and maintenance. Servers in traditional networking and hosting set ups are fixed in hardware meaning that an organization has to spend more money in upgrades in case it wants to scale up in order to cater for more users than the current hardware can support. This proves to be costly with minimal benefits given that the upgraded hardware is still limited to a number of users. (Rittinghouse & Ransome, 2010). Cloud services, on the other hand, has its servers and other infrastructures virtually installed in place enabling for scalability from small needs of users to massive corporate needs. The ability for cloud computing to easily scale resources with minimal cost makes it more affordable than the traditional hosting system since users only pay for what they use. Server and infrastructure upgrades are done by the cloud service providers rather than the business organization thus ensuring

Criminal Justice Career Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Criminal Justice Career - Essay Example Ensuring that I attain high marks in my final year at UCF remains one of the most important things to me to achieve my objective of becoming a Special Agent in future. The courses I pursue at UCF will leverage my selection as an FBI Special Agent because FBI recruits on the grounds of certain critical skills, which I have so far covered in my university coursework. FBI requires all Special Agent position applicants to first qualify for one of their entry program, which include accounting, language, law, diversified and computer science or information technology. A Special Agent, often referred to as a criminal investigator or detective, gathers facts and assemble evidence pertaining to the intent of ascertaining whether violations of local, or federal laws has occurred in connection to a case in question. No archetypal day exists for an FBI Special Agent because each day has its unique course. Today, an Agent may be testifying against a criminal in a federal court and the following m orning he may be engaged in collecting evidence from the field, making arrests, contacting an informant or doing some paperwork among other activities. There are numerous types of crimes such as Intelligence, Criminal, Counterintelligence, and Counterterrorism among others. As such, an individual aspiring to be an FBI Special Agent may choose which one to specialize in. Special Agents are usually employed full-time and it is very rare to find part-time employment opportunities in this field. Those who have been in the field with vast experience usually get favorable working hours than new recruits who are usually assigned night duties and even weekends as well as holidays. The profession is highly risky, especially because Special Agents deal with criminals who may attack them in one way or another causing bodily harm and even death in extreme cases. Therefore, it is usually imperative to follow recommended procedures when working in order to reduce risk exposure. Special Agent job is a physical and stressful. You are always oblivious of what dangers you might encounter in the line of duty. Nevertheless, Special Agents are trained on how to handle such occurrences, which makes them fit to creatively deal with any situation. In order to become a Special Agent, many people usually serve as police officers before joining the Criminal Investigation Division (CID) as Special Agents. The minimum education requirement for the job is a high school diploma with some law enforcement agencies requiring college or degree certificates, for example, an FBI Special Agent must possess a degree coupled with at least three years work experience. An applicant for the position of a Special Agent must be 23 years old, but less than 37 years. Passing physical test as well as background assessment, including polygraph, is mandatory for one to qualify for the job of a Special Agent. After recruitment process, the selected individuals are taken to a training academy, which could be re gional or agency-owned. One then commences his or her on-the-job training after graduation from the academy. Besides educational requirements, one must have good problem-solving skills, good judgment as well as excellent communication skills. Good communication skill is essential in interacting with peers as well as suspects (U.S. Department of Justice, n.d). One

The Causes and Impact of the Aryan Migration to India Research Paper

The Causes and Impact of the Aryan Migration to India - Research Paper Example A number of them have gone to Greece and some others to Iran and Afghanistan. From the eastern parts, the Aryans moved to India. The complete process of the Aryan migration has happened between BC 2000 to 1500. â€Å"In the later 20th century, ideas were refined, and migration and acculturation were seen as the methods whereby Indo-Aryans spread into northwest India around 1500 BC. These changes were thought to be in line with changes in thinking about language transfer in general, such as the migration of the Greeks into Greece (between 2100 and 1600 BC), or the Indo-Europeanization of Western Europe (between 2200 and 1300 BC)† (Indo-Aryan Migration para. 2). Aryans are arrived India from the North West side and firstly settled in the territories among the branches of the River Indus. So that there we can see in excess of 1200 such kind of migrant Aryans. One of the highest Civilizations that we can see in the period of 3000 to 1500 BC is the Indus Valley civilizations. Aryan s launched a social caste scheme and that is called as the Varna Vyastha which separated the citizens into 4 groups, that are, Brahmin, Vaishya, Kshatriya and   Shudra.    Causes of Aryan migration to India: There are many causes to migrate Aryains to India. Main causes of Aryan migration to India included the fall in temperature, the stress applied by the yellow-skinned ethnic groups in the north areas and scarcity of food. â€Å"The main thrust of Aryan migration was probably south of the terai region where the tributaries of the river Ganga must have dwindled to the point that they could be easily crossed and where the dry forest could be burned down† (Kulke & Rothermund). The Agni, Aryan fire god was credited with the achievement of colonizing this earth for the Aryans. They closed at the river Gandakk which goes in the plains north of current Gorakhpur and links the Ganga. Unlike the extra tributaries additional to the west, this river looks to have been still comple te of good water for the reason that the Aryans named it sadanira and their blessed texts statement that the land beyond was swampy. Only some audacious pioneers crossed the gandak in due course with no the support of Agni. With the development of royal power in the Aryan kingdoms to the west of the river gandak, escape to the unrestrained east may have been attractive to those Aryans who favored the more democratic tribal organization of previous times to the double tutelage of kings and their Brahmin priests. In the end, Brahmins also crosses the waterway gandak and were greeting there if they did not maintain on subverting the tribal organization by consecrating kings everywhere. â€Å"Aryan culture is a development of the Indus valley culture whose language belongs to the indo European family, possibly spoken in the region as far back as the Neolithic period, in interaction with Dravidian culture† (Flood 31). Impact of Aryan Migration to India:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Ar yan migration to India created lot of impact to the Indian culture. Many of the scholars made so many arguments regarding the migration of Aryans to India. â€Å"There are several possible arguments against the idea of Aryan invasions. According to the invasion theory, the Aryans were a group of primitive nomads who came out of Central Asia with chariots, iron weapons, and superior battle tactics; and thus overthrew the Indus

The Greeks and The Romans civilizations Research Paper

The Greeks and The Romans civilizations - Research Paper Example Having its origin in the Etruscan ethnicity, socio-cultural traits of the city-state of Rome had been greatly influenced by the north. Also, in the south, it was exposed to the influence of Greece. The Greek influence had already spread along the Mediterranean Sea centuries before the Romans established their city-state. Due to the geographical nature, Greek cities were highly isolated from each other. As a result, Greek influence surrounding the Mediterranean Basin was merely the extension of their isolated city states. Indeed, the geographical features also contributed to the â€Å"fierce exclusiveness of the Greek city-states from one another, stemming from their geographical isolation† (Comparisons, pars. 2). Moreover the Greek Polis maintained a strict prohibition on the extension of citizenship, since the citizenship of any of the city-states was determined by the socio-cultural uniqueness of the people of a particular land. Patterns of Greek and Roman History Whereas th e Greek polis began around 750 BCE, the Rome as the Republic started around 400 BCE. The Greek civilization reached its peak point around the 15th century, when the Roman Empire was at its twilight. Meanwhile, the Romans were expanding both westward and eastward under the leadership of Alexander the Great in the late 300s BCE. After Philip II, Alexander’s father conquered Macedonia, Greek philosopher Aristotle was appointed the tutor of Alexander the Great. The influence of the Greek culture on Alexander was overwhelming; as a result, Hellenism as the conglomeration of the Roman and the Greek civilizations began to emerge. Unlike the Greeks, the Romans were more liberal to absorb the people under their control. Though the Roman civilization began to expand in response to their effort to mitigating the threats from neighboring countries, the foundation of the Roman Empire was further boosted up by the Romans’ inclination to grant citizenship to the people of the conquer ed states. On the contrary, the Romans brought â€Å"other communities on the Italian peninsula under their control, first by conquest, and then by extending Roman citizenship to elements of the conquered peoples† (Comparisons pars. 3). This success on the Roman part to pull the conquered people into a Roman identity helped the Roman to survive even during the fierce Punic war. But in comparison with the Romans, the Greeks failed to lately build their empire due to their reluctance to give the conquered people an imperial identity. Though they endeavored to establish their own empire by dominating the Delian League, it was marred during the Peloponnesian Wars. By the time of the Punic War, the Roman had been able to unite all the city-states on the Italian Peninsula under the Roman identity. It is commented on this success as following: There are, therefore, two key components in the success of the Romans in building an empire. One surely was their military prowess, and the o ther was their organizational/political/legal skill in extending their governance over the conquered peoples into the empire. (Comparisons pars. 3) Greek and Roman Political Institutions Both the Greek and the Roman civilizations included a variety of political institutions, systems and forms. Though these two civilizations

Analyzing an organization Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Analyzing an organization - Essay Example The general public expects exceptional services of care and attention from these institutions and it is important for the organization design to be flawless and dependable. There are internal and external factors involved in shaping and organizational size, strategy and effectiveness are very important. There are many internal and external factors on which the organizational design depends on. These various dimensions of the organizational design are presented with their influences. When it comes to the size of an organization, it is greatly affected by the life-cycle of an organization. Since hospitals have complicated procedures to be amalgamated with streamlined operations to ensure maximum success, there are formal structures with employees having definite organizations duties and responsibilities. In a health care system, the tasks are highly specialized with detailed rules and instructions to direct the easiest as well as the most complicated procedures. ... The most important aspect of a health care institution is to provide quality service to its customers which in this case are the patients. The services of a health care organization are highly specialized with almost zero margin of error. Therefore, efficiency and accuracy is the need of such an organization and defines the core belief of such an organization. Therefore, generally hospital and health care organizations have a tall structure with hierarchical relationships take put high responsibilities on the people of the organizational chain. It has been researched and proved that big organizations are mechanical in their operational conductivity and therefore try and achieve maximum efficiency. This works in perfect unison with the needs and requirements of a health care institution (Pfeffer, 1978). Organization life cycle is another important internal factor that dictates the size of an organization. Just like a human being, organizations also have different stages of their life and therefore have different needs. In terms of a hospital, as the hospital becomes bigger, it adds more functions and research departments in itself and therefore becomes bigger and bigger. They amalgamated processes and increase in size. The number of levels within an organization increase as the level of complexity increases of the service or the product that is being provided by the organization. Environment is another important factor dictating the organizational design. There are many external factors that influence a hospital’s development of strategy, its size and processes. The need of its biggest stakeholder, the customer, streamlines the basic work ethic of the organization. The organization strives to provide quality life saving service

Statistics for managers individual work wk9 Coursework

Statistics for managers individual work wk9 - Coursework Example The high prices houses are said to be determined by the number of bedrooms, the age of the house, and the number of the bathrooms and their quality. The closeness to the cosmopolitan cities and the shabby (Byers et al 1997). The average selling prices of the houses in USA is also determined by other factor like the prestige associated by the locality of the house. A survey conducted on the Public opinion polls measure not only acceptance of the selling prices of the houses in USA by the citizens, but also public opinion on a wide range of social and economic issues that attribute to the prices of the houses. Public opinion is a critical force in shaping and transforming society most on the matter that influence and affect the public in general. Through opinion research, the public, the media and other interested groups have access to accurate measures of public attitudes and intentions on the issue of the selling prices of the houses. Sociologists can follow shifts of opinion on the major social problems and chart the evolution of the values. And citizens can now make themselves be heard at all times and compare their own view with those of others (Byers et al 1997). There seems to be two groups of academic researchers, in which one continues to support the high selling prices of the houses in USA and its positive impact to the economy, they believe that the main purposes of investment in real estate business is to improve real economic value. It is also agreed that housing leads to improvement in productivity, innovation, and job creation in every field of economy (Kraemer and Dedrick 1996; Agarwal, 1997; Shin 1999; Gray et al, 2000; Lee & Bose 2002; Laudon and Laudon, 2011; and Gecti and Dastan, 2013). The other group criticizes the bad impact of high selling prices of the houses on ecomony and the fact that high selling prices lead to development of low house quality leading to

Give a critical assessment of the realist critique of liberalism int Essay

Give a critical assessment of the realist critique of liberalism int the study of international Relations - Essay Example For instance, realism is international politics view that emphasize on its antagonistic and competitiveness (Whelan 2004, p.2). Liberalism, on the other hand, stresses on corporation between countries (Whelan 2004, p.2). Realists in most cases have in been seen criticizing the views held by liberalists with regard to international relations. This paper explores the realist critique of liberalism in the study of international relations Realism is arguable the most dominant international relation theory that has existed since the introduction of the discipline. The theory originated from the traditional thoughts held by scholars such as Hobbs, Machivialli and Thucydides. It is noted that the theory came in to being as a reaction against the interwar liberalists’ philosophy. In this regard, the realists have often used the events of the war to criticize the liberalists’ theory, which they argue, is a fallacy (Donnelly 2000, p.2). Realists strongly believe that the international system has no central authority to govern its affairs. In this regard, they believe that the international relation is at a state of anarchy where each state is struggling to wield power so as to satisfy its own interest. Realists maintain that international politics is all about the struggle for power, which enables every state, achieve its objectives (Whelan 2004, p.12). Realists believe that independent states are the main players in the international politics and that more attention is given to nations to powerful nations in the world with since they have a lot of influence as far as the international relations is concerned. Currently, this believe can be related to the U.S. as one of the most powerful nation in the world with a lot of influence in the international arena. Consequently, realists see other organizations such as non-governmental organizations, international institutions, multinational organizations, and citizens as having very little

Should the State Try to Make You a Better Person Essay Example for Free

Should the State Try to Make You a Better Person Essay The importance of becoming a better individual relies on a personal desire of satisfying the necessity of being accepted in a society. Most individuals want to be better people in order to be happier and be able to enjoy life, but is it government responsible to make better people? The answer to this question is not easy, â€Å"being better† is a biased topic in which each person has a different perception about â€Å"being better. â€Å"Better people† is not easy to delineate, people live under different standards founded on their own values or morals that are often compare with others views. However, government should not be responsible to make people better. Government must support individuality and autonomy, equally protecting all citizens human and civil rights; respecting individual decisions about personal matters taken according to own values. Government must support individuality and autonomy as an effort to make people responsible for their own actions. Personal autonomy refers to the ability to objectively self-enforce regulations. This concept is grounded on different perceptions involving moral obligation and responsibility. Citizens have a moral and ethical obligation when making personal decisions related to the type of people they want to be. The personal desire of becoming a better individual is a personal choice based on personal beliefs related to the integrity, honesty, kindness and morals; these standards are not created or regulated by the government. These philosophies are based on factors involving economic, social and emotional aspects that influence individual perception of the reality. It is government’s obligation to protect individuals but not to dictate them; as said it by former president Thomas Jefferson, â€Å"Man is not made for the State, but the State for man, and it derives its powers from the consent of the governed. † Government’s responsibility is not to make better people but to protect people’s human and civil rights letting them to decide what kind of people want to be. The equally protection of human and civil rights should be a priority for the government. Defending people’s rights implies the creation and enforcement of laws and regulation that should be followed by the citizens in order to keep the balance and peace of the society. These regulations should guarantee all citizens an equal opportunity to make ethical and responsible decisions regarding their personal objectives without affecting others rights. The government was reated by people to the people to work as a mediator reconciling and providing to the population with conventional solutions to the possible disagreements among the citizens of the society avoiding injustices and ruling with fairness; taking under consideration free will, the right to make personal decisions based on reason rather than instinct. Making a government responsible for personal choices promotes dependence; mutilating individuality and autonomy. It must be people’s responsibility to make the decision of being a better person and it is government obligation to respect personal desires and individual goals of the citizens. It is the people’s right to take the necessary actions to achieve a higher level in life. The right to be a better person is not a guarantee, it is a right and it must be protected by the law. The founding fathers considered the right to become a better individual to be important, living life as people choose, having the liberty to become the person that each individual wants to be based on their own values and morals. People must be free to choose their values and their means as well the actions needed to become the person they want. Although prohibitions and regulations can constrain people to please their desires if those wishes lack or moral obligation; government can interfere with individual goals if those goals somehow affect others people’s rights. Every human being has certain standards that are often compared with others in order to give a personal meaning to the word â€Å"better. The meaning of being a better person is predisposed; it can be based on different factors such as economic, emotional or social among others. In order to know if people is becoming better it is necessary to compare two different situations related to a specific matter. This comparison is influenced by personal preferences, conditions and desires clouded by assumptions created on experiences or previous knowledge. Therefore, government should not be responsible for making better people. The State is obligated to guarantee the individuality, autonomy and the safe to all citizens of its society as a whole; providing infrastructure and a nonviolent place that promotes an environment dedicated to maximize independence and autonomy; making its citizens to grow as human beings while equally protecting their individuals’ human and civil rights. It is people’s responsibility to become better individuals by making responsible choices based on own morals and principles without affecting others’ lives and understanding that personal beliefs ends where other individuals beliefs begins.

Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal Essay Example for Free

Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal Essay In solving the problems of the Great Depression, the New Deal had clear successes but also major failures. Although there were clear failures in relief and reform, the success of unemployment relief and the reform of banking, labor laws, and the standard of living partially solved problems of the Great Depression. The failures that occurred within the New Deal were early policies that attempted to relieve unemployment and reform labor laws. One of the policies enacted by the Emergency Congress in order to relieve unemployment and foreclosures of farms was the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA). This agency was to establish parity prices for basic commodities. The AAA planned to eliminate price-depressing surpluses of farm goods by paying farmers to reduce what they grew. These payments would come from raised taxes. However, this agency got off to a terrible start and never really recovered. Farmers, food processors, consumers, and tax-payers were all extremely unhappy. The AAA actually increased unemployment while other agencies of the New Deal were striving to decrease it. The failed agency of the AAA was finally killed by the Supreme Court in 1936 by declaring its taxation provisions unconstitutional. In addition to the failure of the AAA, the National Recovery Administration also failed. This agency was extremely complex and strived to assist industry, labor, and the unemployed. It attempted to both relieve and reform the problems of the Great Depression. Individual industries were to reduce hours of labor in order to allow employment to be spread to more people. A limit was put on the maximum hours of labor and a minimum was placed on wages. Workers were guaranteed the right to organize, the yellow-dog contracts were forbidden, and restrictions were placed on child labor. Although this agency had early success, it quickly collapsed in 1935. The agency gained many critics and business people publicly displayed the blue bird, which symbolized the NRA, but secretly violated the codes. The Supreme Court then unanimously held that Congress could not delegate legislative powers to the executive and declared that congressional control of interstate commerce could not apply to a local business. This finally  shot down the dying eagle. Although the intentions were to solve the problems of the Great Depression, the AAA made unemployment worse and the NRA flat out f ailed. In contrast to the failures of early New Deal policies, there was some success in unemployment relief. The same action of Congress that created the NRA also created the Public Works Administration which was also intended for industrial recovery and unemployment relief. Under this agency, $4 billion was spent on thirty-four thousand projects in infrastructure. It resulted in the spectacular achievement of the Grand Coulee Dam which provided irrigation for millions of acres of new farmland. It also created a surplus of electrical power, something that would be beneficial during World War II. The thousands of projects created by this agency and the creation of the Grand Coulee Dam show the success of this agency to employ numerous workers for the benefit of the country. The New Deal also had success in unemployment insurance through enactment of the Social Security Act in 1935. The measure provided for federal-state unemployment insurance and specified categories of retired workers were to receive regular payments from Washington. Provisions were also created for the blind, handicapped, delinquent children, and other dependents. Although many were excluded from Social Security, it showed the governments’ recognition that it has a responsibility for the welfare and relief of its citizens. The New Deal additionally had success in reform, specifically banking reform. President Roosevelt’s first action to attack the problems of the Great Depression was to restore confidence in the nation’s banks. The creation of the Emergency Banking Relief Bill placed poorly managed banks under the control of the Treasury Department and granted government licenses to those who were successful. The following week, millions of Americans re-deposited their savings, allowing banks to contribute to the country’s economic recovery. The government then later passed the Banking Act of 1933 which created the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation to guarantee bank deposits. Roosevelt also instituted a number of inflationary measures in order to raise prices. Roosevelt’s immediate actions to reform the banking system of the United States were extremely successful and restored American  confidence in the banks. Confidence in the banks was the first step that allowed ev en more problems of the Great Depression to be solved. Not only was there successful reform in banking, but there was eventually successful labor reform. After the failure of the NRA to reform labor laws, Congress created the Wagner Act in 1935. This act reasserted the right of labor to organize and bargain through representatives of its own choice. In response to this act, a number of unskilled workers began to organize themselves into unions, such as the Committee for Industrial Organization. After a successful sit-in strike, the CIO was recognized by General Motors as the bargaining agency for its employees. The ability for unions to organize and successfully strike showed the success of this labor reform. Another successful reform under the New Deal was the reform of housing. To create a quick recovery and to increase the standard of living, Roosevelt set up the Federal Housing Administration in 1934. The building industry that was in charge of housing construction was to be stimulated by small loans to householders. The goal was to improve homes and to complete new ones. This New Deal reform was so successful that Congress bolstered the program in 1937 by creating the United States Housing Authority. Although there were some conflicts in completely reaching the goals of the USHA, slums in America shrank for the first time in a century, showing the success of this program. It is true that not every problem of the Great Depression was solved through the New Deal. There were definitely setbacks in the process of reforming and relieving the country, but many of the successful agencies New Deal were able to at least ease many of the problems of the Great Depression. The New Deal, although not completely, provided a step in the right direction for healing the United States.

History About Car Rental Companies Marketing Essay

History About Car Rental Companies Marketing Essay The topic is about car rental companies, and it will be discussing on the reasons why do people rent cars, the economics of renting cars, and pinking up and returning processes of a car. Background In todays world hiring cars is not limited for daily activities, such as wedding, parties, tours, and even business e.g. Also people can rent car for short and long term period and there are many companies that offer opportunities for people who can not afford to buy a car as well as for those who need car for some period of time. There are many reasons why people hire cars; for example, people are looking to save money, and a lot of people rent cars because they dont want to put the same wear and tear on their own cars, which may or may not be able to endure the asperity for a long distance trip, for example, they dont want stains, rips, burn on the their car seats or even scratch on body of the car also they dont want damage they wheels. In addition, for some car renters size is an issue, people want to promote to something better or bigger because they are travelling with some group of people or looking to economize to something smaller that will be more petroleum efficient, also some times company meeting goes hand in hand with something people do as a company, for example, if member of staff or a business person wants to take a client out to lunch to a good restaurants and the last thing to sit in the car was a dog or it was messed up by kids, so in this situation you may be looking around for a car renta l companies to rent a car. Further more, people travel all the time flying from somewhere to their destinations or other places, but it doesnt mean that they take their personal cars to where ever they go, most of people when they travel to someplace if they plan to stay longer than a week the first thing they do when they get to their destination is to rent a car to go on with their occasions or tour. Some people rent cars for social occasions such as parties or special dates, also some people like to impress their dates with new sport cars or enjoy driving fancy luxury cars to an occasion. Moving is also one the reason people hire car, we all do it at some stage but may be we dont have enough things to move and people often want move their stuffs by them selves. Well, the good thing is that van and trucks hire is always available also vans have back lift to make easier for people move their stuffs. People rent cars to have fun and companies have provided a high performance vehicle for those people. Accident is reason for people to rent cars, some car insurance companies give customers an option to collect a free rental car if their cars have been sent to the shop after an accident or maintenance, so being without their main cars for days or weeks, they can continue with activities or trips with a rental car. We rent cars for purpose of our business travelling, people are very mobile work force these days no matter where customers are they have no problem to get there and meet with them, Car Rental is available from the airport on arrival. This is to ensure that the compilation time is quick; you get to your client, do the sale, and return to the airport and back home. Some times family and friends visit where we stay for long period of time and there is a need for a bigger vehicle to take them around the city, so you have to be looking around for car rental to get the car you want to use at that time such as bus, vans e.g. However, the increase in gas prices is high and affecting the economics at the car rental companies, prices of fancy and big luxury cars are dropping because people demand for compact models cars. Rental companies have been able to command important premiums SUVs, often up to twice the daily charges for sedan. Gas prices have now reached $3 a gallon, so people are increasingly ignoring the gas-guzzler. Also the demand has been high for smaller fuel-efficient cars, which is leading some rental agencies to raise prices. According to Edith MANCILLA he is the area manager Anaheim and Orange, Calif., branches of Dollar Rent A Car, says shes rented 40% fewer SUVs during the spring season than she did previously. Its caused her to drop the price of her standard SUVs $49, from an average of $64 last year, and raise the price of her compact cars, from $25.99 last year to about $34 now. Further more, sometimes companies offer people what they dont book or reserve for, for example, if person wa nts car that is fuel efficient for a trip and he or she gets there to pick up the car they booked for you often find out that what you booked for is not want the company gives you, a key of another car will be handed over to you for the same price which is unacceptable to people. Renting a car during the summer holidays can now cost more than the package deal. A Sunday mirror investigation shows. The Rental charges have surged, with prices in Spain almost 200 per cent more than they were two years ago. Industries expert expect price to rise high again this summer because of the shortage of cars. On the other hand rental companies cut fleet because of the world recession and price will be forced to go up. Additionally, the car rental and leasing firms around the world, which includes 5,000 companies with combined the annual revenue of about $40 billion. Such companies like Avis budget group, Enterprise Rent-A-Car, Hertz hertz  (hà »rts)  [for Heinrich R. Hertz], abbr. Hz, unit of frequency, equal to 1 cycle per second. The term is combined with metric prefixes to denote multiple units such as the kilohertz (1,000 Hz), megahertz (1,000,000 Hz), and gigahertz .. Click the link for more information., Ryder, these companies generated more than 80 percent of the revenue. Also these firms or companies rely extremely on the general state of the US economy because most customers are business or holiday travelers, whose numbers can quickly fall during an economic slowdown, while the Big industries have economies of scale in obtaining vehicles and customers. Also Small firms can compete effectively by offering greater services, alternative products, or lesser prices During my research I come across this issue that car rental industries have come up with a new creative way of taking more money or additional fees from innocent car rental customers. Lots of consumers are taking advantage of through a number of non-conventional surcharges in the form of fees they have already paid for, such as extra drivers fee, these extra hidden fees can make renting expensive to customers, and renters should take note of this new method of car rental companies. There are some few things that need to be considered when renting a car in a car rental company or industry, before renting or booking for a car, one should make sure that what the company is offering is comprehensive package. Renter may be tempted to go online car renting websites, which usually offer cheap price for car hire. Customer should keep in mind that the lowest rate might be exclusive for stealing protection, collision with damage and other local taxes, also customer should call the company in order to get detailed information on the car rental package. In addition, people should understand the fuel policies because fuel surcharges are the common additional fees that renters need to contend with. Some company rent out cars without fuel in it, and they require customers to fill it and use it for his or her trip and return the car empty fuel. The fuel usually cost higher than out side fuel station and price are available at customers care desk. However, when picking up a car let a member staff of the company checks if there is fuel in the car or not before taking the car; also the attainder gives you a copy of receipt in order to avoid more charge when the car is returned. Also booking early helps customers to get good and right size car, this will also allow the company to send reservation confirmation early to customers through email and it helps renters read the documentation carefully before going to pick up their rented cars. When picking up a car one should check for any damage on car and fuel level before leaving the rental place so as avoid any argument or problem when returning. There some things that often go wrong when people try to rent a car and unpleasant surprised at the outcome, some are common, for instance, when a person rent for a car and he or she shows up a little late you usually find out that the car has been given to some one else. In addition, people should be careful of the type of car they choose before hiring a car, also the car renters choose should work for them in terms of performance and cost. For example, when people want hire a car they should get a fuel sufficient model that is if they want to save money, which means a compact car will be great for people. On the other hand, in as much as renters want to spend less on fuel, they shouldnt agree on the performance of the car. For instance, there some people who may be going for hiking terrains, in this case a bigger car will be more effective than a compact fuel-efficient car. When it comes to transmission issues customer should find out if the car has a manual or automatic transmission, but most cars have both transmission. Automatic cars are more fuel-efficient than manual cars transmission, and today people demand for automatic cars more than manuals, some times you find out at car rental companies that all the automatic cars are booked. Customers look for amount of legroom available in a car, for example if you traveling with your friends or family, you will require for a spacious car, also if you renting to travel far away people in the car might need to stretch their legs often during the journey. In this case a spacious car will be great for you. People also look for a car with bigger trunk, for example, some cars have smaller trunk and drivers may want to travel with some luggage and is not possible for them because there is no enough space in the trunk to put the luggage. An executive car hiring is a booming business today, people hire executive cars for special purpose but not for traveling from point A to B. they hire these types of cars for pleasure to be the passengers of an executive car. Also it is a pleasure to drive the car and amaze the onlookers on the street. The rental agencies invest in their precious time and care to in creating an attractive rental fleet with greater cars, also their services marked by professionalism and care so that the people who are restoring to executive car hiring services are assured that their exact needs will be always attended and also at affordable price. Executive cars available on hire can be any possible model and company; car hire industries have high-end models of executive cars such as Mercedes, Bentley, Volkswagen, Jaguar, Land Rover Range Rover, Fiat, Toyota, Nissan, Aston Martin, Audi and BMW e.g. all the brands are always available at several companies. These executive cars tell about their exclusiv ity and status on their own and allow the renters traveling in it to get a feel of comfort and richness. There some tips of car hire that people need to consider and also to know about, but that is if you intend to rent a car. Whenever you want rent a car if your concern is fuel consumption, then you go for smallest available car, but if you have extra request such as GPS, kids seat, then you get ready to pay more, also to avoid more charges and pay for some services that you dont need, enquire before taking the car. Additionally, people may like to compare the prices of car hire; some companies offer renters a great deal. But people shouldnt forget to check online website so that they dont miss any online exclusive deal. On the other hand, customers need to understand the fine print agreement, which includes insurance coverage, terms and circumstance for liabilities. The agreement is always safeguards the interest of a company. In conclusion, people hire cars to go on with their daily activities such as businesses, vacation or holidays, tour, e.g. while gas price is high so customer are finding it difficult and expensive to rent luxury cars because of the gas problem. Also renters need to take note and keep update about what is happens during the booking and returning processes so as not to be charged more than you expected.

Romanticism Essays -- Romantic Period Essays

Romanticism "In spite of its representation of potentially diabolical and satanic powers, its historical and geographic location and its satire on extreme Calvinism, James Hogg's Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner proves to be a novel that a dramatises a crisis of identity, a theme which is very much a Romantic concern." Discuss. Examination of Romantic texts provides us with only a limited and much debated degree of commonality. However despite the disparity of Romanticism (or Romanticisms) as a movement it would be true to say that a prevalent aspect of Romantic literature that unites many different forms of the movement, is a concern with the divided self. As the empirical Rationalism of the eighteenth century was partially subverted by the subjective metaphysical reflection in the nineteenth artists tended to examine wider issues from an introspective starting point. The idea of the divided self became a motif from Blake's "Albion" to Byron's Manfred to Keat's musings on the disassociated nature of the Poetic Self. Some writers personified this division in distinct physical manifestations, usually a hero and his inverse doppelganger. Most famously in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the various "selves" in De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater and in the complex mirroring of major characters in James Hogg's ambiguous masterpiece Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. Although critics (as Andrea Henderson in Romantic Identities) have debated the extent that Romanticism dramatises divisive crises with the psychological self , the vast majority of writing on the subject agrees that "crisis of identity" is certainly a "Romantic concern". Hugo Donelley draws attention to the "Modernis... ... Doubleness of Hogg's Confessions and the Tradition", Studies in Scottish Literature, Vol. 18, pp. 59-74. Punter, D. "The dialectic of persecution" in The Literature of Terror Volume I, 1996, Longman Group (David Punter), London and New York. Simpson, L. James Hogg, a Critical Study, 1962, Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh. Wittig, Kurt. The Scottish Tradition in Literature, 1958, Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh. Wu, Duncan. "Introduction" in Romanticism: An Anthology WEBSITES. http://prometheus.cc.emory.edu/panels/4C/R.Incorvati.html Incorvati, R. "Dialogue and Marginality in James Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner." Prometheus Unplugged Website. --------------------------------------------------------------------- [1] Although Hogg was writing in a pre-Freudian era the essentials of his psychodynamic theory were as pertinent in 1834 as they were in 1934.

Asian Crisis Essay -- essays research papers

The financial crisis that erupted in Asia in mid-1997 has led to sharp declines in the currencies, stock markets, and other asset prices of a number of Asian countries. It is hard to understand what these declines will actually do to the world market. This decline is expected to halve the rate of world growth in 1998 from the four percent that was projected pre-crisis to an estimated outcome of about 2 percent. The countries that are included in the East Asian crisis, known as "Tiger" economies, are Hong Kong, Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan and Thailand. For these countries to participate effectively in the exchange of goods, services, and assets, an international monetary system is needed to facilitate economic transactions. To be effective in facilitating movement in goods, services, and assets, a monetary system most importantly requires an efficient balance of payments adjustment mechanism so that deficits and surpluses are not prolonged but are eliminated with relative ease in a reasonably short time period. The Asian crisis of recent falls into this category of inefficient balance of payments facilitated by depreciation of its currency. By competitively depreciating its currencies, Asia is exporting its deflation, its overcapacity and its lack of growth to the West, particularly to the US. History The past ten or fifteen years have seen an unprecedented expansion in the extent to which the countries of the world are tied ...

Massage Therapy :: Essays Papers

Massage Therapy What’s the easiest and quickest way to take a mini-vacation, and feel totally rejuvenated, renewed and rewarded? Do you want a well paying job that can give this feeling to you and your clients? If so I have the perfect job for you. But before I start to tell you about it you have to have an open mind and realize this job does take some work. I’m going to tell you some of the things you might have to do, the reasons its a growing industry, places you can get this job, the wages, the amount of education you need and where to get it, the curriculum of the schools, some of the skills you need, and how to start preparing for this job now. Of course, you want to know the career I’m talking about! It’s massage therapy! I know, I know, your probably thinking so I rub someone’s back big whoop! But there’s more to massage therapy than that. There are many different things that a massage therapist must do. First off they have to find somewhere to work and get clients, but that’s the obvious. There are also things they have to do after this, other than just massage. In an interview with Stephanie Melroy, who owns and runs The Massage Studio in Holdrege, she said to me, â€Å"A lot of high school girls are really interested in massage therapy but most of them don’t realize all the work and education that it requires. The classes that you take aren’t the easiest either. You have to take a lot of anatomy and physiology, know every bone, muscle, and nerve and they work.† You’ll to prepare the client before the massage, which might include: applying heat, alcohol, lubricants, salt, or other rubbing compounds. Of course the massage therapist will massage the client using kneading, rubbing, and/or stroking movements. You also need to know different types of diseases and skin irritation s because if they have a certain kind of disease you can’t treat them. But there are also many types of massage or therapy that they might do. This includes Hydrotherapy, Swedish massage, Sports massage, Shiatsu, Trager, Hellerwork, Polarity, Reflexology, Acupressure, Rolfing, and many more. Other than a manual massage they might also use mechanical or electrical machines as well. Massage Therapy :: Essays Papers Massage Therapy What’s the easiest and quickest way to take a mini-vacation, and feel totally rejuvenated, renewed and rewarded? Do you want a well paying job that can give this feeling to you and your clients? If so I have the perfect job for you. But before I start to tell you about it you have to have an open mind and realize this job does take some work. I’m going to tell you some of the things you might have to do, the reasons its a growing industry, places you can get this job, the wages, the amount of education you need and where to get it, the curriculum of the schools, some of the skills you need, and how to start preparing for this job now. Of course, you want to know the career I’m talking about! It’s massage therapy! I know, I know, your probably thinking so I rub someone’s back big whoop! But there’s more to massage therapy than that. There are many different things that a massage therapist must do. First off they have to find somewhere to work and get clients, but that’s the obvious. There are also things they have to do after this, other than just massage. In an interview with Stephanie Melroy, who owns and runs The Massage Studio in Holdrege, she said to me, â€Å"A lot of high school girls are really interested in massage therapy but most of them don’t realize all the work and education that it requires. The classes that you take aren’t the easiest either. You have to take a lot of anatomy and physiology, know every bone, muscle, and nerve and they work.† You’ll to prepare the client before the massage, which might include: applying heat, alcohol, lubricants, salt, or other rubbing compounds. Of course the massage therapist will massage the client using kneading, rubbing, and/or stroking movements. You also need to know different types of diseases and skin irritation s because if they have a certain kind of disease you can’t treat them. But there are also many types of massage or therapy that they might do. This includes Hydrotherapy, Swedish massage, Sports massage, Shiatsu, Trager, Hellerwork, Polarity, Reflexology, Acupressure, Rolfing, and many more. Other than a manual massage they might also use mechanical or electrical machines as well.

More Work for Mother

It was in the nineteenth century when a new adulation of women came to be developed.   More popularly known as the Victorian Age, it was during this era when the sacredness of the hearth and home has been born.   It is a philosophy that has been endorsed with intricacies and complications from the year 1830 until 1860 (Payne NP). Technology has caused an improvement in our standard of living.   While it claims to make our lives easier, it doesn’t always appear to be a time saving device.   â€Å"The creation of electric appliances has reduced the amount of work children and husbands do around the house.†Ã‚   Wives, on their end consume the same amount of time doing the household chores because the help they use to receive has been included in the elimination that gave way to the advent of technological advances (Cowan 102 – 217). The functionalist interpretation of the recent history of the family has been discussed.  Ã‚  Ã‚   â€Å"Industrialization was a participant in the ‘backward search for femininity' because some of women's roles in the household were being replaced by technology; women were searching for new ways of being a woman within the home.†Ã‚   Some theories would have it that the advent of home appliances has caused wives to leave their homes and find their niche in the outside world.   Technology has been the causal agent to the entrance of women into the workforce outside the portals of their own homes (Ibid, par. 2). Running a family means learning new things every single day.   It’s like learning earth science and geography.   It doesn’t end when you tie the knot.   Instead, it just reminds you that you have just advanced to graduate – level studies.   Just when you think you’ve mastered it, it changes itself a bit and as a result, you have re- learn it.   After all, family life is a lifestyle.   Old habit dies hard indeed that though there has been a transition from the hearth to the microwave, wives remained domesticated just the same.   Times have passed and things have changed but you still find yourself doing the same things with just a little twist or two.   For there will always be days when it feels like you’re struggling through remedial math. Works Cited Cowan, R. More Work for Mother: The Ironies of Household Technology from the Open   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Hearth to the Microwave. New York: Basic Books, 1983. Payne, Jennifer. â€Å"The Nineteenth Century â€Å"Cult of the Lady.† 24 August 2008. Jennifer Payne’s History. Retrieved January 28, 2008 from http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/7032/cultoflady.html. â€Å"Why Labor Saving Devices Don't Save Labor: The History of Household Technology.† 23   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   February 2005. Pamela E. Mack History 323. Retrieved January 25, 2008 from   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.clemson.edu/caah/history/FacultyPages/PamMack/lec323/household.htm.      

Impact of Cuban Trade Embargo

The Impact of the Cuban Trade Embargo By: Natalie Bell 2/25/09 [pic] International Business Law BLAW 4320 [pic] Cuba, the largest island nation in the Caribbean just ninety miles off the coast of Florida, experienced many difficult struggles through its extensive history. It was the last major Spanish colony to gain independence, following a lengthy struggle that was begun in 1868. It was in 1898 when the U. S. intervened during the Spanish-American War that it finally overthrew Spanish rule. The Treaty of Paris established Cuban independence, which was granted in 1902 after a three-year transition period. The United States and Cuba concluded a Treaty of Relations in 1934, which, among other things, continued the 1903 agreements that leased the Guantanamo Bay naval base to the United States (CIA World Factbook). In the time before 1959, the United States had maintained strong ties with Cuba. Many Americans had many various business investments there, and the country was a special place for tourists from around the world. Since the fall of the U. S. -supported dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959, it was Fidel Castro who has mainly led Cuba throughout the years. It was in Febuary 19, 2008 when Fidel Castro finally ceded power to his brother Raul Castro. Since the majority of Cubans were born after the 1959 revolution, most of the Cuban people have known no other leader. President Fidel Castro outlasted no fewer than nine American presidents since he took power in 1959 (Castro:Profile). Relations between the United States and Cuba deteriorated rapidly as Fidel Castro and the Cuban regime moved toward the acceptance of the one-party communist system. Cuba seized the assets of American citizens and U. S. irms including farms, factories, hotels, bank accounts, and real estate without compensation. It was finally on April 16, 1961 when Fidel Castro declared Cuba a socialist state. Cuba's Communist revolution, with Soviet support, was brought to other countries throughout Latin America and Africa during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Castro maintained close relations with the Soviet Union and worked jointly with the goals of Soviet communism by fund ing and provoking violent rebellious activities, as well as using military intervention in other countries, until the fall of the U. S. S. R. in 1991 (Castro: Profile). In response, the United States imposed an embargo on Cuba in October 1960, and, broke diplomatic relations on January 3, 1961. This began the over forty-year period of tension between the U. S. and Cuba, beginning with President Kennedy’s failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1963 and the Cuban Missile Crises (CIA World Factbook). Since 1961, Cuba portrayed many difficulties as the result of the U. S. embargo and the embargo had a great effect on both nations. It was in 1963 that the United States passed the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, under the authority of the Trading with the Enemy Act. The Act was enacted in 1917 to restrict trade with countries that are hostile to the United States. The law gives the President the power to oversee or restrict any or all trade between the U. S. and its enemies in times of war. The purpose of the law was to isolate Cuba economically and politically. It banned all trade and financial transactions between Cuba and the U. S. , and froze all U. S. held assets of the Cuban government and of private Cuban citizens. It also prohibited almost all travel to Cuba by researchers, student groups, journalists, athletes, and those traveling to see immediate family members (Schaffer 268). After the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990’s, the U. S. Congress wanted to pressure Cuba for democratic change. First in 1992, the U. S. Congress approved the Cuban Democracy Act, restricting Americans from vis iting the island, banning family remittances, and prohibiting foreign subsidiaries of U. S. ompanies from doing business with Cuba. Following a few years later, on March 12, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, also called the Helms-Burton Act. After this law was signed, it further toughened the Cuban sanctions. It imposed penalties on foreign companies doing business in Cuba, it permitted U. S. citizens to file lawsuits against foreign investors who made use of the American-owned property that was seized after 1959 by the Cuban government, and it denied an entry visa into the U. S. to such foreign investors. It was a very controversial because this included many Mexican, Canadian, and European businessmen who did business in Cuba (268). The passage of the Helm-Burton Act caused a worldwide protest, primarily in Mexico, Canada, and the European Union, who argued that the Helm-Burton Act violated international law. A protest was filed with the World Trade Organization by the European Union, but was suspended when the Clinton Administration reassured that the law for visa restrictions under Title III of the Helm-Burton Act would not be enforced against citizens in third world countries. The Act calls for the trade sanctions between the U. S. and Cuba to end as soon as Cuba agrees to have a democratically elected government, abide by human rights conventions, opens its prisons to international inspection, returns Cuban citizenship to Cuban exiles living in the U. S. , and makes progress in returning expropriated property to its rightful owners (268). Today, there are many laws, rules, and regulations that derived from the U. S. sanctions against Cuba. Presently, most commercial imports from Cuba are illegal by law but remain listed under the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (TSRA). Under the Act, the sale of certain items, including medicine and medical supplies, and agricultural commodities have been approved for export by specific regulations. According to the Act, â€Å"The Department of the Treasury is responsible in issuing licenses that are used to export these goods on a case-by-case scenario and authorizing Cuban travel-related transactions that are only relating to marketing, sales negotiation, accompanied delivery, and servicing of exports and re-exports that also must appear in line with the licensing policy of the Department of Commerce† (U. S. Treasury Department). The only sectors in which U. S. citizens may sell and service products to Cuba include agricultural commodities, medicine, and medical devices. The Treasury Department will is also be able to consider requests for specific licenses for humanitarian travel, educational exchanges (that are at least 10 weeks in length), and religious activities by individuals or groups that are associated with a religious organization. However, any U. S. citizen or corporation that is subject to U. S. law and engages in any travel-related transaction in Cuba violates the regulations. The Act specifically states that, â€Å"The Cuban Assets Control Regulations affects all U. S. citizens and permanent residents wherever they are located, all people and organizations physically in the United States, and all branches and subsidiaries of U. S. organizations throughout the world† (U. S. Treasury Department). If the regulations are not followed, then it may result in both civil penalties and criminal prosecution upon return to the United States (U. S. Treasury Department). Today, traveling to Cuba also has many rules and laws that make traveling to the Cuba very complex. In 2004, President Bush’s Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba placed a further reduction on the restrictions on family visits to Cuba. Visits by Cuban Americans to family in Cuba are permitted only once every 3 years instead of once every year. No humanitarian exceptions are given if there is any of a family illness or crisis going on in Cuba. Visits are restricted to two weeks and strictly limited to immediate family as defined by the U. S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which eliminates the right to visit cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, or more distant relatives (LAWG). Only if a traveler receives a license, then a valid passport will be required for entry into Cuba. The Cuban government requires that travelers obtain their visas before they arrive to the country. If there are attempts to enter or exit Cuba illegally, or there is in any kind of aid in helping Cuban nationals or others escape Cuba then punishment is served by stiff jail terms. Entering Cuban territory, territorial waters or airspace, which include being within 12 miles of the Cuban coast, without any prior permission from the Cuban government may result in arrest or other enforcement actions by Cuban authorities. According to the U. S. Department of State, most immigration violators are subject to prison terms that range from four years for illegal entry or exit to as many as 30 years for certain cases of assisting Cuban migrants to attempt to leave Cuba illegally (U. S. Department of State). Family remittances or money sent to Cuba also have specific rules and regulations that must be followed by the people residing under U. S. law. According to the U. S. Department of State, â€Å"U. S. ersons aged 18 or older may send money to members of the remitter’s immediate family in Cuba of up to $300 per household in any consecutive three-month period, regardless of the number of members of the remitter’s immediate family residing in that household. † The law also states that no member of the household can be a prohibited official of the Government of Cuba or a prohibited member of the Cuban Communist Party (U. S. Department of State). Other laws that are also a part of the on g oing U. S. embargo with the Cuban government involves the use of money in Cuba that U. S. travelers are limited to spend during their stay in Cuba. U. S. people traveling to Cuba to visit their family or traveling for other purposes can spend no more than $50 per day on non-transportation-related expense in Cuba, and up to an additional $50 per trip to pay for transportation-related expenses in Cuba. However, professionals such as journalists, photographers, or any other kind of licensed travelers may spend additional money for their professions that are directly related to what they need in order to fulfill their work (U. S. Department of State). It is also interesting to know that U. S. citizens and permanent resident aliens are not allowed from using their credit cards, personal checks, or travelers’ checks that are drawn from U. S. banks in Cuba. U. S. credit card companies do not accept any kind of vouchers from Cuba, and, at the same time, Cuban shops, hotels and other places of business do not accept any types of U. S. credit cards (U. S. Department of State). Today, the U. S. Cuban embargo has become one of the most controversial issues upon many countries throughout the world. There have been many advocating for a change of the current policies towards Cuba for some time now. The sanction has continuously been condemned and voted against by almost all nations throughout the world. For the 16th consecutive year, the U. N. General Assembly recommended that the U. S. ended the embargo. In 2006, a total of 183 member nations of the U. N called on the U. S. to end the sanctions with Cuba (Sierra). In 2007, the 192-member General Assembly passed the measure by 184 votes to four, with one abstention (U. S. Urged). According to Remy Herrera, â€Å"The normative content of this embargo and its rules, which the U. S. intends to inflict on the international community with its unilateral sanctions is a violation of the spirit and letter of the United Nations Charter and of the Organization of American States, and of the very fundamentals of international law† (Herrera). This excessive extension of the territorial jurisdiction of the U. S. , Herrera adds, â€Å"Is contrary to the principle of national sovereignty and to that of non-intervention in the internal choices of a foreign state, s recognized in the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice† (Herrera). According to Richard Schaffer, even the Vatican protested Helms-Burton, claiming that it increased economic suffering of the Cuban People. Many trade groups have also argued against the law because they believed that economic engagement actually would promote freedom in totalitarian countries. The U. S. firms that are h oping to engage in the business activities in Cuba also seek an ending to the U. S. trade sanctions (Schaffer 269). According to U. S. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, many feel that the lifting of the travel restrictions to Cuba, family remittances, and trade exchange are necessary and are some of the most important issues in the policy changing process that the U. S. needs to undergo in order to have better relations with Cuba (Pelosi). Ironically, surveys of the American public opinion show that the vast majority of Americans favor ending sanctions as well, and recognizing the government of Cuba (Schaffer 269). According to a recent poll from USA Today that took place between February 21- 24, 2008, 61% of 2,021 adults nationwide favored re-establishing U. S. diplomatic relations with Cuba, 29% opposed, and 10% of the people were unsure (PollingReport). Over Forty-five years of communism have left the island nation an economic ruin and the U. S. embargo had many diverse effects on Cuba. According to a BusinessWeek article by Geri Smith, â€Å"The Cuban government has always referred to the embargo as a ‘blockade,’ a word that has a more sinister tone than ‘embargo’† (Smith). Cuba went through many difficulties as the result of the U. S. embargo since 1961 and suffered much more since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The country faced a severe economic downturn, which really caused the Cubans' living standards to significantly fall. The disappearance of Soviet aid following the collapse of the USSR forced the government to introduce tight rationing of energy, food, and consumer goods, as well as the withdrawal of the former Soviet annual subsidies that were worth $4 billion to $6 billion (Country Profile: Cuba). Since then, it has taken action with limited reforms in order to increase enterprise efficiency and improve some of their economic problems which included their serious shortages of food and goods. Due to the economic problems and domestic inefficiencies that Cuba faced during the 1990’s, President Castro allowed a few steps towards a more market-oriented system. In 1993, the U. S. dollar was accepted by Cuba and allowed to circulate throughout the nation. Because of their lack of basic necessities and few consumer goods, Cuba’s economy persisted with the help of Canadian, European and Latin American investments. Essentially for Cuba, the nation also developed closer relations with China and Venezuela. China invested in Cuba’s nickel industry and provided Cuba support in the form of trade credit, technology, and investment capital while Venezuela provided supply to cheap fuel (Smith). Since late 2000, Venezuela has been supplying about 100,000 barrels per day of petroleum products. Cuba has been paying for this oil with the services of Cuban personnel in Venezuela, including 20,000 medical professionals (CIA WorldFactbook). After market factors improved, in 2004 the U. S. dollar transactions in Cuba were banned and a 10% tax was imposed on the dollar-peso conversions. According to the CIA World Factbook, Cuban exports total $3. 31 billion and their major exports include Sugar, nickel, tobacco, fish, medical products, citrus, and coffee partners. The countries that Cuba mainly exports to include the Netherlands (21. 8%), Canada (21. 6%), China (18. 7%), Spain (5. 9%) (CIA WorldFactbook). On the other hand, Cuban imports have totaled $10. 86 billion and consist mainly of petro leum, food, machinery and equipment, and chemicals. The countries that Cuba mainly imports from include Venezuela (26. 6%), China (15. 6%), Spain (9. 8%), Germany (6. 4%), Canada (5. 6%), Italy (4. 4%,) the U. S. (4. 3%), and Brazil (4. %) (CIA WorldFactobook) Today, Cuba has two currencies in circulation, which include the Cuban peso (CUP) and the convertible peso (CUC). The Cuban peso (CUP) is specifically for the Cubans, while the convertible peso (CUC) is strictly for tourists and foreign businessmen. According to a BBC News article by Michael Voss, â€Å"The average Cuban salary of 400 pesos a month is worth about $16, yet almost everything available in the shops has to be paid for in the convertible pesos (CUC's)† (Voss). â€Å"Why has the economy moved to convertible pesos when workers are paid in the national currency? † declared one of the students in the article. You need to work for two days just to buy a toothbrush† (Voss). The problem with the dual c urrency is one of the biggest challenges that negatively influences the Cuban economy. Cuba faces many hardships because of the economic problems throughout the country. Many of the effects have caused an increase in prostitution, corruption, black marketeering and desperate efforts to escape in search of a better life (Country Profile: Cuba). Many Cubans had enough with the hardships and risk their lives to escape from the country. Thousands have tried to escape through the sea in a waterborne exodus to Florida, but many have drowned. Castro: Profile) According to the BBC News article, Castro: Profile of the Great Survivor, â€Å"Even his own daughter Alina Fernandez prefers a life of exile as a dissident in Miami to rule under her ‘despotic’ father† (Castro: Profile). According to the CIA World Fact Book, illicit migration to the U. S. , using homemade rafts, alien smugglers, or air flights, is still a continuing problem. The U. S. Coast Guard seized 2,864 peop le trying to cross the Straits of Florida in the year 2006 (CIA WorldFactbook). Cuba has also been fraudulent with the UN's top human rights forum, over specific rights abuses. The UN has insisted that Cuba allows for freedom of expression and to release imprisoned protesters who have protested against the government (Country Profile: Cuba). The U. S. has caused Cuba many economic damages because of the U. S. embargo. According to U. S. congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, â€Å"The over-45-year US economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba has translated into over 89 billion dollar losses for the U. S. † (Pelosi). According to the article, The Effects of the U. S. Embargo Against Cuba, the direct economic losses for Cuba by the U. S. embargo would exceed 70 billion dollars. The damages were estimated by calculating amounts of Cuba’s potential earnings and unnecessary losses since the institution of the U. S. embargo in 1961. The embargo negatively affected all of the sectors in Cuba, which also directly imposed on the major driving forces of the Cuban economy, which included tourism, foreign direct investments (FDI) and currency transfers (Herrera). Cuba became very limited in having access to technologies and various resources because of the obstacles that were forced by the Unites States. According to a Business Week article, â€Å"Trade and investment open up economies to new ideas. Cell phones, the Internet, and other high-tech communication technologies are detrimental to closed-minded bureaucracies† (Farrel). Since December, 2001, when food and agricultural products were allowed to be exported to Cuba, over $2 billion dollars worth of goods were earned by U. S. firms and shippers (LAWG). According to the article, The Travel Industry’s Push to Unlock Cuba, loosening the restrictions could boost the U. S. economy in the long term by as much as $1. 6 billion annually and create as many as 23,000 new jobs (Unlock Cuba). In this way, Cuba has the potential for economic growth if the U. S. nds or even loosens their trade sanctions. This can also further ease the hardships and economic issues of poverty in Cuba. Relations between the United States and Cuba are hoping to improve in the future, especially because Fidel Castro retired his control over Cuba. Many hope that Cuba will be open for business and that there may be signs of new beginnings of chang e on the economic front under Raul Castro (Smith). Some, however, are more skeptical of the idea. According to a recent poll from USA Today that took place between February 21- 24 of 2008, only 37% of 2,021 people felt that the situation for people in Cuba would get better. A majority of 51% felt that the situation for people in Cuba would stay the same, 6% felt that it would get worse, and 6% felt they were unsure (PollingReport). Fortunately, Raul Castro has introduced a series of reforms since taking over as president from his brother Fidel in February and has already taken steps on improving certain services for the Cuban public. The new leader started focusing on some of the most-mentioned problems, such as spotty public transportation and the low wages paid by the government to private farmers (Smith). According to the article, Cuban Leaders Plan More Reforms, these reforms have also included the removal of some restrictions on the purchase of electrical goods such as mobile phones, microwave ovens and DVD players. According to the article, Cubans have been reported to take out 7,400 new mobile phone contracts in the 10 days since the restrictions were eased. The country has also lifted a ban on its people staying in hotels previously reserved for foreigners (Cuban Leaders). It will be interesting to see if more market-oriented steps will take place with the Raul Castro’s new regime. Another major issue that will be crucial for many U. S. businesses as soon as the embargo ends in the future is the growing interest in the tourism sector of Cuba. According to an article by Sucharita Mulpuru, Americans represent only a small part of the nearly 1. 2 million visitors who come to Cuba every year, mainly from Canada, Spain, France, Germany, and Britain (Mulpuru). Tourism continues to inspire high hopes among many investors. In the article, Enzo Alberto, the Canadian-Italian CEO of ICC, a major investor in the island's Internet infrastructure states, â€Å"I believe that Cuba could be to America like Hong Kong is to Asia,† (Mulpuru). Many countries pour nearly $2 billion into the economy, outstripping revenues from sugar and other core crops such as tobacco (Mulpuru). According to the article, A Warmer Climate for Trade with Cuba, the industry argues that the island nation is a potential source of needed revenues that would be able to boost both the travel business and the U. S. economy while opening to tourism and foreign investment in Cuba. As a result, this will also boost the economy as well as the currency reserves of Cuba. Unfortunately, all of this potential to help both economies and many people in both nations will not end until the U. S. rade embargo ends and the Cuban government loosens its stranglehold on the economy. It will be interesting to see how the U. S. embargo will be affected by the policies of the future elected president of the U. S. Of the three leading Presidential candidates, only Democratic contender Senator Barack Obama has stated that he would be willing to sit down and talk with Rau l Castro's government, as long as human rights are on the agenda. On the other hand, Senator Hillary Clinton stated said she would not do so until Cuba started to implement economic and political reforms, while Senator John McCain has kept President George W. Bush’s policy and states that â€Å"talks are off† until Cuba begins a â€Å"transition to a free and open society† and releases all political prisoners (Smith). According to the Associated Press, the presidential candidates are expected to lightly discuss the question of lifting the embargo during their campaign. According to their article, Five-decade U. S. Trade Embargo with Cuba Expected to Outlast Fidel Castro, there is a great deal of sensitivity on the issue, especially in states with high populations of Cuban immigrants such as Florida (Associated Press). The entrepreneurs of the U. S. ave seen their foreign competitors take advantage of opportunities in Cuba. U. S. businesspersons can only hope that the trade and travel restrictions will be lifted eventually, so that they can tap the potential markets in Cuba especially in the tourism and agricultural sectors. This is very unlikely to happen soon because of the ongoing disputes between many in regards to the Cuban embargo. The impact of the Cuban embargo caused many diverse effects for both nations, but with new policies and politicians that are developing for the future, this story can be the end of an old era. Works Cited ACN Cuban News Agency. 2007, May 2). â€Å"Nancy Pelosi Says U. S. Blockade of Cuba Should be Lifted. † Retrieved April 24, 2008, from http://www. cubanews. ain. cu/2008/0425nancypelosi. htm Alomso, Cynthia C. â€Å"The Travel Industry's Push to Unlock Cuba. † BusinessWeek. 27 August 2003 Associated Press. Five-decade U. S. Trade Embargo with Cuba Expected to Outlast Fidel Castro. 20 February 2008. Retrieved on April 24, 2008 from http://www1. whdh. com/news/articles/national/BO73631 BBC News. (2008, February 19). â€Å"Castro: Profile of the Great Survivor†. Retrieved April 24, 2008 from http://news. bbc. co. k/2/hi/americas/244974. stm BBC News. (2008, April 12). â€Å"Cuban Leaders Plan More Reforms†. Retrieved April 24, 2008, from http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/americas/7343883. stm BBC News. (2008, February 26). â€Å"Country Profile: Cuba†. Retrieved April 24, 2008 from http://news. bbc. co. uk/2/hi/americas/country_profiles/1203299. stm BBC News. (2008, April 24). â€Å"Cubans Snapping Up Mobile Phones†. 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