US Bank Corp. Analysis

The two Institutions chosen or comparison are Wells Fargo (WFM) and Bank of America (BACK). To evaluate the overall strength the major assets, liabilities, capital, risk, liquidity and operating decisions of the three chosen institutions will be discussed. Balance Sheet Analysis Out of the three banks US bank is the smallest in regards to assets with Bank of America being the largest followed by Wells Fargo. When comparing total assets to total liabilities USB finds itself in the weakest position having a total debt to total assets ratio of 0. 11 . Commercial banks are known to leverage themselves highly and leverage Is normal in the Industry.However In comparison to BACH'S ratio of 1 . 124 and Wife's ratio of 0. 89 this relatively high leverage Is a cause for concern. Federal Deposit Insurance Corp†¦ Chairman Sheila Fair has advocated for the US Bank to reduce their leverage to half believing that their financial position poses too great a risk. The industry averages for long t erm debt to equity and total debt to equity ratios are 64. 36 and 177. 19 respectively. In respect to this, US Bank finds itself taking the middle ground between Wells Fargo and Bank of America. Wells Fargo seems to be In equity ratio of 84. 6, well below the industry average. The most indebted institution would be Bank of America who's ratios of 120. 09 and 249. 67 are well above the industry average. US Bank in comparison has a long term debt to equity ratio of 67. 93 which is right around the industry average while their total debt to equity is far below it at 139. 98. Despite being in good position relative to the industry and the two chosen similar financial institutions in these metrics, this indicator should be held with skepticism as many believe that all commercial banking institutions are unreasonably leveraged.One of the reasons for US Banks highly leveraged position ay lay in the management's decision to acquire more banks through IBID-assisted deals. It is stated that, â€Å"In total, the firm has acquired $35 billion of banking assets through these deals at minimal costs. † Though these deals have been stated to be not significant enough to pose such a threat. They are still campaigning to acquire even more assets. Assets All three companies have real estate loans as their largest asset category. This includes residential loans, commercial real estate, and other loans secured by farmland.These loans can be considered safe as they are secured with liens on the reporter however they are illiquid and would be considered a long term asset. Wells Fargo has the largest amount of real estate loans as a percentage of their assets at 35. 81%, followed by US Banks 32. 18% and finally Bank of America's far smaller 20. 97%. All the banks second largest assets are debt securities over one year and they all have similar sizes as percentage of total assets. Commercial and industrials are the third largest asset for Wells Fargo and US Bank and they hold s imilar sizes as percentage of assets.Bank of America's third largest asset however is trading assets which should be more marketable. Much of the securities held by US Bank are not held for sale which makes them susceptible to interest rate risk. It is unclear how much of the banks loans use a floating interest rate but we can assume which would better help determine the risks involved. With US Banks fairly high percentage of real estate loans and commercial and industrial loans which are usually long term these risks to the bank are significant. The largest liability for the three financial institutions are interest bearing deposits.Wells Fargo holds the largest proportion at 50. 14% followed by US Bank at 47. 70% and then Bank of America at 32. 0%. US Bank holds and Wells Fargo have similar proportions of this liability. While these liabilities accrue interest the banks do have to expect frequent cash outflows from this. The three banks third largest liabilities are interested-bea ring deposits with US Bank having the largest proportion of 23. 36%, followed by Wells Fargo at 21. 93% and Bank of America at 18. 97%. These proportions seems relatively similar to each other but with US Banks higher proportion they should be weary.These interested bearing accounts are likely to be checking outs and while they do not accrue interest you can expect frequent editorials from customers which should keep them weary of loaning out too much money. Finally all three banks have listed other borrowed money as their third capitalized leases. Bank of America has the largest proportion of 14. 24%. Next is US Bank with 13. 66% and then Wells Fargo with 9. 62%. These proportions also seem quite similar too each other. Interest Revenue, last Quarter US Bank largest source of revenue is on fully taxable income on loans and leases at 44%.This proportion is comparable to Bank of America that accounts for 41% of their revenues. What is surprising is the large mount of revenue Wells Fa rgo receives from interest and fees on which accounts for 76% of their revenues. While US Bank only receives 42% of its income in the same category. Interested Revenue, Last Quarter The largest sources of interested income for the chosen financial institutions vary greatly which makes it difficult to compare US Banks position in comparison to the other financial institutions.The largest category listed in sources of interested income for US Bank was stated as unspecified at 18% and 19% for Wells Fargo. The largest source for Bank of America is investment banking fees and commissions. Expenses Last Quarter Largest Expenses US Bank amount % of expenses Interest on other borrowings & trade Lab 987,000 2 Interest on time deposits Cash from operating activities has been steadily increasing which is a good sign but so is cash from financing activities which is much larger. As commercial bank it can be expected that they finance their operation with a significantly large portion of debt. H owever in combination with their highly averaged position with their competitors this could be a cause for concern in their financial viability. Corporate Risk Profile: As a company that operates in the financial services, U. S. Banks largest exposure of risk comes from credit risk, operational, residual value, interest rate, market, liquidity and reputation risk.U. S. Bank has spent many years working to perfect managing these risks. For credit risk, U. S. Bank has incorporated â€Å"well-defined, centralized credit policies, uniform underwriting criteria, and ongoing risk monitoring and review processes for all commercial and consumer credit exposures† (SEC. Gob). US Bank has developed a very strenuous and extensive procedure in order to evaluate the credit risk that it handles on a day to day basis. Another way US Bank manages its credit risk is â€Å"through diversification of its loan portfolio and limit setting by product type criteria and concentrations† (SEC.Go b). US Bank divides its overall loan portfolio into three separate segments to, following the â€Å"don't put all your eggs in the same basket† theory. The three portions of the portfolio consist of commercial lending, consumer lending and covered loans. The risks associated with commercial lending include a rarity of factors including many risks associated with the borrower's business such as industry, geography, the loan's purpose, how the borrower will repay, debt capacity among others.In order to prioritize these risks and keep them all organized, US Bank assigns risk ratings to these characteristics in attempt to create the ability to focus on specific risks depending on importance. As far as the consumer lending sector goes, this encompasses â€Å"residential mortgages, credit card loans, and other retail loans such as revolving consumer lines, auto loans and leases, student loans, and home equity loans and lines† (SEC. Gob). The risk characteristic of this secti on of the portfolio is focused on the borrower and their keenness to pay off the loan as well as prior repayment history.The 3rd portion of the loan portfolio is the covered loan segment. Before touching on the risk of this venture, it must first be noted that there are loss sharing agreements between US Bank and the IBID that ultimately â€Å"reduce the risk of future credit losses to the company' (SEC. Gob). The risks that are associated with covered loans are â€Å"consistent with the segment they would otherwise be included in had the loss share coverage not been in place† (SEC. Gob). Another important aspect of US Bank to take into account is the sub-prime lending side of the banking industry.

Causes & Effects of Academic Cheating

Dusan Micovic EN105 Prof. Rutt 13/10/2012 The Causes and Effects of Academic Cheating Cheating has been an issue for years in academic settings, whether in the primary grades, high school or college. However, definition of cheating remains unclear. It is so widespread and it overlaps with so many academic activities that it does not have a specific, clear, uniform policy on what constitutes academic dishonesty. Parental pressure can also lead to cheating.According to Professor Daniel J. Bauer, parents sometimes coerce their children into attending college by relating horror stories to them about people who never attended college. Parents will tell their teenagers that they will never succeed in life without a college education. These well-meaning parents may even expect nothing but A's on their child's transcript. This parental notion overlooks the possibility that a vocational program may indeed be a better fit for a student.It also increases the pressure these individuals feel to s ucceed, whether in high school or college, or risk losing the love of their parents. Failing a test, for example, is not an option, so they feel they must pass at any cost, even if it means cheating. In a survey by Rutgers University, students felt that cheating is a necessary method to ensure success through high school, college and later in life. Education News has conducted a survey and found that students who are poorly prepared are more likely to cheat than those who studied or completed assignments.Poor preparation is usually a result of laziness, which is indeed one of the biggest obstacles towards academic success. Seeing as overcoming laziness and developing effective study habits might be long and tough road, students prefer taking a shortcut. According to Orment, attitude of the teacher or professor is another possible factor that could drive students to cheating. If the mentor is not prone to offering help outside of class, or is too harsh on grading, this could lead stu dents to cheat.Another practice that can lead to cheating, that researchers mentioned, was weighting a final examination so heavily that failing the test automatically fails a student. The ultimate goal of education is to teach students some crucial concepts and techniques. However, many students don’t have those academic foundations because of the excessive cheating. When cheating is successfully repeated, it easily becomes a habit. Their creativity and sense of responsibility will drop over time, and dependency of cheating will grow.They will leave the education system, with a belief that things in life will always come easy, handed to them on a silver platter. Soon after they step into the work environment they will notice that they were wrong. Accumulated lack of knowledge and skill will make them realize that they are simply not ready. Although cheating can be just a harmless tool of support for years in school and college, it could also produce some serious consequences in the long run, due to its overuse and abuse.

Women Rights in Islam

Women rights in Islam Outline Introduction Background Equal rights of men and women in Islam Social rights .right to get education .right to accept or reject marriage proposal .right to get divers .right to secrecy .right to just treatment in case of polygamy .right to entertain and dine out .right to demand separate house .right to deny doing all the chores of home .right to dress Economic rights .right to Inheritance .right to ownership .right to dowry .right to maintenance (Iddah, child upbringing) .right to seek employment .right to do business Legal and political rights right to be equal before law .right to witness .right to vote .right to work on legal and political positions Conclusion Women rights in Islam Holy prophet (S. A. W) said, â€Å"Among you the most respectable is the one who respects women and the most disrespectable is the one who disrespect the women. † The above instruction of holy prophet (S. A. W) declared the ground of honor and respect for a person i n Deen-e-Islam . Islam gave women an honorable life and ignite the light of rights in her life. Before Islam women were extremely deteriorated by the society.Arabs used to bury their daughters alive, wives were harshly beaten, step mother became legacy of eldest son and the sisters were given as a compensation for any sin of her family. Islam abolished all these dark practices and made the paradise under the feet of mother, guaranteed paradise to a father who brought up her daughters with love, assured paradise to the husband who care her wife and made sisters partners in the inheritance. Today Muslim woman is facing problems not because of lack of her rights in Islam but due to the male driven and illiterate society.Islam promised women respect, honor and safety before and more than any other religion, civilization and moderation. Islam gave women all rights to women before 15 centuries which any one can expect in today’s highly modern world. The sad pages of history only pr esent crying voices and tears of women that break the heart the reader. All the big civilization of their time including Hubsha, Byzantine, Room, Greece, Egypt, China, Hindustan and Arabian Penusiuala ruined the women under the feet of brutality.Those who are claiming themselves the leaders and providers of women rights in today’s world were in fact the real usurper of women rights from centuries. Women In these civilizations struggled so hard and fight for her rights centuries and centuries even than their male dominant leadership never gave them rights until they need them. After the two world wars when men strength became insufficient in forces and in the other fields of life then they brought women out of house and used her for their different purposes on the name of women rights.Let’s have a look on the dates of rights givers as a prove US in 1920,British in 1918,France in 1944,Norway in 1907,Sweden in 1921,Belgium in 1919,Japan in 1945,Netherland in 1919 and so o n. Whereas Islam gave all social, economical, political and legal rights to the women long before fifteen (15) centuries. Everyone knows Islam claim that it is a complete code of life. Therefore Islam is not only complete code of life for men it is also complete code of life for women. It gives equal rights to men and women. It is very important for everyone that there is big difference of meaning between the words â€Å"equal† and â€Å"same†.As women and man cannot same physically so there rights can also not same due to their duties but they have equal rights on or the other way. This equal terminology can also be explain by taking a very simple example. There are two students in class one called Saeed scored 4 in economics,3 in political studies and 3 in social studies and another called Sadia scored 2 in economics, 4 in political studies and 4 in social studies. Saeed got (4+3+3)=10 and Sadia got (2+4+4)=10,that shows both Saeed and Sadia scored equal marks that i s total 10 but they score different marks in different areas.It illustrates the real meanings of equal and its similar to the meaning of equal rights of men and women in Islam. If father has more rights and responsibilities economically than women then mother has more rights and responsibilities that balance their rights in all circumstances. For further classifications of women rights in Islam, let’s discuss them under different heads such as social, economic, legal and political. Starting from the social, holy prophet (S A W) said â€Å"Education is mandatory for men and women. † The above hadith does not discriminating gender that means it is not only mandatory for men but also for women.Therefore no body restricts her from getting education. Its her right to get same education as her brother gets. Holy prophet (S A W) said â€Å"You have to get education even its available in China. † Again there is no discrimination of gender in above hadith. If a boy can g et education by traveling long distance then girl can also. She has right to go to school and mosque. If women had right to go to mosque for getting education and offer prayers during the period of holy prophet (S A W) and Caliphate than why not she has this right in today’s modern world. Hazat Ayasha(R.A) was the teacher of 8000 companions and she was expert of history, medicine, hadith, literature and law. Once a lady came to Holy prophet (S A W) and said that she was forcefully married   by her father and she is not happy with her husband, the Holy prophet (S A W)   dissolved her marriage then and there and emphasizes for marrying couples by their consent. Above hadith validating the consent of females before marriage and made it compulsory for all Muslim parents. She can also demand to see the person before her marriage and she can also talk to him in the presence of her legal blood relative.Once hazrat Aysha (R. A) showed desire to see the ongoing circus in the stree t. Holy prophet (S A W) happily replied to her that she can hide herself at the back of holy prophet (S. A. W) and then watch the circus. Aysha(R. A) did this and enjoyed the circus as long as she can stand there when became tired she went back to home. The Holy prophets (S A W) stand there more than an hour for her entertainment. This hadith is highlighting very kind treatment of Holy prophet (S A W) to his wife. It also emphasizes the right of entertainment to women.Some people having wrong perception that Islam binds women in the walls of house and she has no right to come out for any purpose. In fact this is opposite of Islamic teachings. It is also her right that she should be treated with love by her husband. Al-Quran â€Å"You and your wives are dresses of each other. † Therefore it is women right that she should be entertained by her husband. Once Holy prophet (S A W) said to one of his companion â€Å"Why not you get marry so that you can play with your wife and she can play with you. †It is making clear that it’s not matter of disrespect or against the sobriety of men or matter of hummer if he entertains his wife. Dinning out or going out for outing with wife is also encouraged in Islam. It is also women right that she should be taken out by her husband for outing or for dinning. Once an Iranian companion of Holy prophet (S A W) who was a very good cook cooked some food and came to Holy prophet (S A W) house for inviting him. Holy prophet (S A W) asked â€Å"can Aysha (R. A) also come with me. † Because of any reason companion replied† no she can’t. † Holy prophet (S A W) also replied â€Å"then I also cannot†.Companion invited Holy prophet (S A W) three times and got same answer from the Holy prophet (S A W) . At last companion said â€Å"yes she can also come with you† then Holy prophet (S A W) accepted invitation and brought her for dinner along him. Therefore bringing wife to dine out i s not only encouraged but also SUNNA of Holy prophet (S A W). In addition, to demand separate house for living is also right of wife from his husband. If she does not like to live with the family of her husband then she has complete right to live with her husband in a separate place. Many cruel of our male driven society are considering this right against their ago.So often instead of fulfilling this true right of wife they give diverse or beat their wives for forcefully living with their family like a servant which is completely against Islamic teachings. Furthermore, Islam is not binding women to cook food to do crockery or to wash clothes of her husband. If she refuses to do all this then its not making her guilty in the eyes of almighty ALLAH. But yes, she might be very guilty in the eyes of her husband who brings her for doing all these services for him. Many of Muslim women love to do all these services for their husbands, so their husbands must be thankful for their wives.Sub sequently, human being is used to make mistakes. So if there is any conflict arises between husband and wife then husband needs to resolve it first only by consulting her wife. In case matter could not solved by both of them then they need to bring any other family member for consultation. Secrecy is also immensely important for the matrimonial relation of couple. It is duty of husband to keep all secrets of bed relation with her wife. Holy prophet (S A W) said, â€Å"The person who shared his wife bed relations with anybody, he is the worst man and he cannot get even the smell of paradise. Similarly, when conflict between husband and wife became bone of contentions and seems unsolvable. In this case if wife no more wants to live with her husband then she has right to get diverse. In case husband is not willing to give diverse she can consult court for getting diverse. Further, in case of polygamy Islam teaches full justice, equal and fair treatment to all waives. Practically this is very hard for a men to keep completely fair balance between all wives therefore it is highly recommended if he is not strong enough financially, physically and morally then he should not gets married even with a single woman.If anyone has more than on wife and he could not maintained just and fair treatment among all wives then he is severely treated by almighty Allah at the Day of Judgment. Adding to it, growing age of fashion makes many minds ultra modern. Now husband wants to look his wife as a model and he forced her to wear dresses according to fashion. In this case Muslim women has right to wear all these dresses which are according to Islamic dress code while going out of house. If her husband forced her to do so she can refuse to her husband to wear any vulgar dress which is against the teachings of Islam.Allah almighty knows all strength and weaknesses of his creatures. He made women physically very sensitive and weak than man. Therefore he shifted all the financial burd en of women on men’s shoulder. When she is daughter she is duty of her father. If father died she becomes duty of her brother. When she is wife she is duty of her husband and when she is mother she is duty of her son. In this way she can live her life very comfortably and can take care of house easily. God assigned all the financial requirements of women as a duty of men but even then he does not make women empty hand in economical rights.Before Islam there was no concept of inheritance for women. Islam gave right to women in the inheritance. Women have half of the part as men have in parent’s properties. This does not mean she has half right than man. But as it is mentioned above she does not have any financial responsibility to fulfill as the men have. Therefore she can save or invest her part of the property for her future and making profit. It is also very clear in Islam that her husband can demand a single penny from her wife and she not bound to give anything to anybody. In addition to she can buy property on her own name as a legal person.She can possess property without anybody’s interference. She has complete right on her property as she can sale it, rent out it and can give it to anyone as a gift. Furthermore, wife has right to get dowry from her husband before establishing matrimonial relations. Husband is bound to give her wife dowry at the time of marriage. When Allah almighty created Eve (R. A) for Adam (R. A) . Adam (R. A) was attracted towards Eve (R. A) and wanted to touch her. At that time Allah almighty said to Adam (R. A) that He should not touch her without paying her dowry. One more thing needs attention here that Islam did not fix any maximum limit of dowry.Husband can give whatever maximum he can give to his wife. In region of Hazrat Ummer(R. A) he forward a bill in the parliament for fixing the maximum limit of dowry. That bill was challenged by a female parliamentarian and she said nobody can fix the maximum limit of dowry if Allah himself did fix it. Hazrat ummer(R. A) asked her that why it couldn’t be fixed. She quoted the holy Quran â€Å"If husband gave her wife bundles and bundles of wealth as dowry even then he cannot demand anything after diverse. † Hazrat ummer (R. A) said that she is right and today men made a mistake and women corrected him.Subsequently, maintenance is also on the shoulder of men at her stages of life. Father, brother, husband and son has to give her food clothes and other needs of life respectively. Holy prophet (S A W) said, â€Å"Anyone who brought her daughters with full care and then merry them. He is as close to me as my two fingers. † Maintenance of x-wife is also husband responsibility during the period of Iddah. Some of Islamic scholars agreed that husband has to fulfill his x-wife’s maintenance until her second marriage. In case if any childe from her x-husband then it is also responsibility of child’s father.Moreover, s he has right to seek employment. If she wants to do a job and if society needs her then Islam give her full right to seek employment. But if she doesn’t want to do the job then nobody can force her to seek employment. Similarly she has the right to do business and to trade things in order to earn finance. Hazrat Khadija(R. A), Wife of Holy prophet (S A W) said, was the famous business lady at that time. Apart from social and economic securities in Islam, women have also legal and political securities. In the eyes of law she is as legal person as a man. she can be witness but her witness is half of man.It is not because she has half right as an human but due to her sensitive and shy nature. In fact God made her half responsible than man in all legal witnesses. Similarly she has right to vote from first election of Islam. After the election result of hazrat usman(R. A). Hazrat usman(R. A) and hazrat Ali (R. A) got equal votes. Therefore Hazrat abur Rahman bin Auf was appointed as a chief polling agent and assigned the task to get votes of men and women. He did this work three days and ultimately hazrat usman (R. A) elected. Above event proved that women were having the right to vote from the beginning of Islam.Adding to it, women used to work at different legal positions from the start of Islam. During the period of Holy prophet (S A W) women worked in different sectors such as in wars and in hospital. Hazrat Ummer (R. A) appointed hazrat Shifa(R. A)as an administrator and account officer for the market. Hazrat Usman(R. A) made hazrat umm-e-kulsoom an ambassador and sent her to Room. Women has right to be consulted as other family members have right to be consulted. Many people believe that it is folly to act or listen women advise in fact they themselves are disbelievers and unaware to the sunna of Holy prophet (S A W).At the event of Hudabiya Holy prophet (S A W) have consulted hazrat umm-e-Salma and acted on her advice to move on. By summing up the who le discussing it can be said that Islam is the first sun that embrace women with light of all social, economical, legal and political rights before 15 centuries. It is very unjust if anybody is blaming Islam for the present state of suppresses women. In fact it is not Islam to be blamed it is because of forgetting the teachings of Islam. In khutaba hijtul Weda, the Holy prophet (S A W) said, â€Å"O, people fear from Allah in the matter of women, treats them carefully and fairly as Islam teaches you. †

Concepts of Operations Project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Concepts of Operations Project - Essay Example Incident Response team (IRT) is the operational team of specialists responsible for performing an UC Davis Misuse Committee and Incident Response Team that is determined by the nature of the incident. A high level oversight of Incident Response Team (IRT) is offered by Misuse Committee. (Kovacich, 2003) Misuse Committee will be composed of Director of Resource Planning and Budget, Human Resources Director, Director of Internal Audit Services, UCDMC Compliance Officer and Chief of Police. The Chairperson of the Misuse Committee determines the company's designated Information Resource Security Guidelines Coordinator that will participate in the misuse Committee. This will be so during a discussion any suspected abuse or misuse of computing resources. In regards to IT incidents, the key responsibility of the Misuse Committee is to provide operational guidelines to the Incident Response Team (IRT). The guidelines include; general investigative protocol, information custody issues, data/evidence preservation, report content and quality assurance. The external law enforcement assistance may be sought by the Misuse Committee to investigate an incident. ... The Misuse Committee in turn approves the de-escalation of an incident from the highest severity rating to a lower severity rating. The Director of Information Technology will be notified of any high level severity incident or incident containment action in the judgment of the committee that disrupt the broad availability of UC Davis electronic circumstances by the Misuse Committee. He will also inform the Director of Information of any other incident that requires initiation of investigation communication or company-wide coordination with the external law enforcement agencies or collateral organizations. The operational capability of the Computer Incident Response Team (CIRT) is to determine the best strategy to put the structure in place. They compare which strategy has worked well for others within their industry in order for them to establish guidelines on an effective incident response capability. Week One Goal Mission Statement B Concept Company's mission statement toward the development of an Information Systems Security Incident is to protect communications and promote standards that give them a unique advantage. The main aim of this policy is to ensure that B concept members are aware of their responsibilities toward safeguarding information assets of the company and also ensure that: The company meets it commitment of protecting information like the one mentioned in the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Guidelines; That there is continued operations within the company facilitated by dependent on electronic access to information; The members and company's partners protects their personal information,

Cost-Benefit Analysis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Cost-Benefit Analysis - Research Paper Example with the government departments that commits prisoners and then pay the company a monthly rate per every prisoner confined in the detention center (Logan, 1997). This essay will provide a cost-effective analysis of prison privatization, whereby all its benefits will be identified and added, together with the negatives and the costs. The differences between the two will then be figured out to determine whether the idea is advisable. According to William (1996), the arguments both in favor of the privatization of prisons and against it are based on the issue of money. While some opponents are of the idea that privatizing prison facilities will reduce the costs of running them at the federal and state levels, its opponents feel that it will lead to a lack of qualified staff or security, poor ground and building maintenance, and the possibility of delays in notifying the community in case of a prison break. One of the most visible benefits of the privatization of prisons is that it solves the problem of overcrowding and space. Should a state transfer some prisoners to a private detention center, it will create room for more prisoners in the state prisons, or the correct amount of space for the prisoners already in the private prison. This can save funds on supplies bought to support the current prisoner population, and can also reduce potential violence since it eases the living tensions experienced in most prison s. However, should the private company running the private facility go bankrupt, to could lead to its closure, potentially releasing violent prisoners prematurely (William, 1996). Another benefit of prison privatization is that it assists in budget predictions. When a state works with a private facility, it can set the limit on the number of inmates in their own facilities, thus enabling a more accurate prediction of the total cost of supporting an inmate daily. This can be beneficial during budget analysis and predictions, or when asking for grants from the

Cognitive therapy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Cognitive therapy - Essay Example For instance, a depressed client hearing "please stop talking in class" might think "everything I do is wrong; there is no point in even trying". The same client might hear "you've received top marks on your essay" and think "that was a fluke; I won't ever get a mark like that again", or he might hear "you've really improved over the last term" and think "I was really abysmal at the start of term". Any of these thoughts could lead to feelings of hopelessness or reduced self esteem, maintaining or worsening the individual's depression. Usually cognitive therapeutic work is informed by an awareness of the role of the client's behaviour as well (thus the term 'cognitive behavioural therapy', or CBT). The task of cognitive therapy or CBT is partly to understand how the three components of emotions, behaviours and thoughts interrelate, and how they may be influenced by external stimuli -- including events which may have occurred early in the client's life. (http://counsellingresource.com/types/cognitive-therapy) Therefore, in order for me (as a behavioural therapist) to help the child, I should, first of all, know what experience/s or specific event has caused the child to develop this reaction to mealtimes and eating. It would take a lot of effort on the therapist's side, but it is still the client's prerogative to share his/her reason. In some cases, the client is not comfortable talking about their phobia, so it will also be helpful to have someone (especially an immediate relative) with them during the initial interview or interrogation. It is important to know whether the client is comfortable with the whole process of the therapy, since he/she will play a major part in order for the therapy to be successful. Besides, it is the client's behaviour that really matters; all we can do as therapists is to help them overcome the anxiety, depression, indifference, etc. or sometimes, help them to distinguish whether their beliefs are in tune with reality. In addition, still according from Dr. Mulhauser, clients who are comfortable with introspection, who readily adopt the scientific method for exploring their own psychology, and who place credence in the basic theoretical approach of cognitive therapy, may find this approach a good match. Clients who are less comfortable with any of these, or whose distress is of a more general interpersonal nature -- such that it cannot easily be framed in terms of interplay between thoughts, emotions and behaviours within a given environment -- may be less well served by cognitive therapy. Cognitive and cognitive-behavioural therapies have often proved especially helpful to clients suffering from depression, anxiety, panic and obsessive-compulsive disorder. CBT works by addressing the way the client thinks and behaves in response to similar situations and by developing more flexible ways to think and respond, including reducing the avoidance of activities. If, as a result, the client escapes the negative thought patterns and dysfunctio nal behaviors, the feelings of depression may, over time, be relieved. The client may then become more active, succeed and respond more adaptively more often, and further reduce or cope with his negative feelings. It is also important to establish the "we-will-work-on-this" relationship between the therapist and the child. Assuring the client that this therapy is not a one-way thing and that

Hobbies Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Hobbies - Article Example I love McDonalds, and Starbucks is my home away from home. Some people like to collect to stamps, some like to paint'..I like to eat. Simple! I have yet another hobby that most people aren't aware off. I'm a serial killer!! Yes I'm the same person who some people and even animals are afraid off. Yes...and that's because I kill mosquitoes. I have a record hunting spree of killing 103 mosquitoes in a single hour. I kill by the dozen and that too with my bare hands. And I enjoy it. Weird right' Well that's me! Oh I left the favorite hobby of mine for the last. This is the most normal hobby that I have and it's a kind of hobby that most people have. Yes I'm talking about reading books. Bookworm sounds too nerdy, yet if it had been something cool, I would be a a proud bookworm. But obviously I read E-books. Harry Potters, Lord of the Rings, Stephan Kings, Dan Browns'.you name it and I most probably would have read it. I suppose you weren't expecting such a normal hobby from me, right' Wel l, I have to say it again'that's me '

Foregoing curative medical treatment due to religious beliefs Research Paper

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Museum 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Museum 2 - Essay Example At a glance, one is not able to make out what the painting represents (â€Å"Clyfford Still Museum†). The PH-61 is a representation of several conservative issues and interpretation challenges (â€Å"Clyfford Still Museum†). The issues include the reflection found on the surface, the painting’s chemical change and its cracking. When the â€Å"conserve a painting† interaction is used, it changes the various treatment choices made. The painting challenges people to look beyond a glance. It catches an individual’s attention and makes one spend quality time looking at the painting. I think that the blue part looks like a creature raising its head and hands up. The red part may be blood. I liked the painting because it catches one’s attention. It makes one spend time there just trying to figure out what it is. The most amazing thing is that different people interpret it differently. To me it looks like an animal but to other people it looks like a mountain or something else and it makes a good topic for debate among peers on a boring

Country Factbook Between Seden and Denmark on Organic Food Industry Essay Example for Free

Country Factbook Between Seden and Denmark on Organic Food Industry Essay 1. Executive summary The organic food industry is suitable for business investments in both Sweden and Denmark due to several factors. First of all, efficient local intermediary firms and certain broader macro-level institutions facilitate business and provide location advantages. Moreover, studying the business/industry culture can be used to gain insights in the business environment of Sweden/Denmark in the field of organic food. However, the complex natures of harvesting organic goods make it impossible to indicate the best location for production, as this depends on the particular product being produced. As a result, demand and supply across Sweden and Denmark are met by means of a widespread retail sector, intra-industry trade and export. Only by making an estimation of sectorial breakdown and its counterparts an (somewhat) informed investment decision can be made. Either way, it is evident that organic food industry as a whole has gained popularity due to several reasons. One example is that CSR profiles of firms have become an customary element in the product purchasing decision in recent times. It can be said that recent developments in technological- (information technology revolution) and political nature (subsidies) have contributed to this trend, documents playing an important role in particular. Since culture consists of documents and culture is more available to document analysis today it has been our choice in our data collection method. In turn, for data analysis we have made use of coding, series of events and semiotics. It is these that have allowed us to assess macroeconomic performance of Sweden and Denmark as well as its historical developments, socio-cultural conditions and the nature of competitiveness in the organic industry field. Despite the fact that Sweden and Denmark share many similarities in each one of these areas there are some differences. However, these are considered to be subtle and highly context-dependent. Therefore, we would also not like to answer our research question, ‘’How and why do the organic industry conditions differ between Sweden and Denmark? ’’ in this section, but hope that you will find an answer what is best for you in the pages of the remainder of this report. Ultimately, we will provide major findings of comparisons and recommendations, based on our views and experience gained during our research. It might be possible to ‘’tweak’’ this information in such a way in making it applicable for your particular business scenario or business plan. 2. Introduction This section is meant to state the goal, relevance and purpose of our Factbook. Furthermore, it will give rise to our lead question, being ‘’How and why do the organic industry conditions differ between Sweden and Denmark? ’’ To boot, we hope to achieve appraisal and recognition for our deliverables from whom ultimately might use and/or buy our Factbook. Like the CIA Factbook, our focus is on the industry. However, it is important to note that we have tried to achieve more than the already existing Factbooks, as they are often too comprehensive or lacking in value. We have tried to overcome the first problem by linking theory to application and writing about it. In this, our main challenge has been to take into account all aspects that somehow matter for the bottom line, the profitability of an investment project. Yet, since profitability is a relative term it might be better to speak of opportunity costs. This terminology is crucial to understand for correct business decision making to take place and also forms the backbone for our final recommendations in our Factbook. Moreover, Pugel (2009) has showed that many industries incur rising, rather than constant, marginal opportunity costs. For instance, efforts to expand Denmark/Sweden organic wheat production would fairly quickly run into rising costs caused by limits on (1) how much more land could be drawn into wheat production and how suitable this additional land would be for wheat production, (2) the availability of additional workers willing and suitable to work on the farms, and/or (3) the availability of seeds, fertilizers, and other material inputs. As for the second problem, we focus mostly on institutionalism and culture as they are lacking in other country Factbooks. Examples of institutions that can facilitate business in Sweden and Denmark are efficient local intermediary firms and certain broader macro-level institutions, both being considered to be generally available location advantages (Verbeke 2010). Concerning culture, we are particularly interested in business/industry culture. This is based on logic that our analysis is mainly on the industry level. Furthermore, Hollensen (2008) has showed that business/industry culture of business behavior and ethics is similar across borders, i. e. expected to be the same for Sweden and Denmark. By learning about the industry culture the decision maker will be aware of important ‘rules of the game’ (Hollensen 2008). Concerning the purpose, this Factbook is meant to facilitate a document that will be considered important for decision makers, i. e. policy makers but especially business investors. From an investment perspective, several hierarchical modes (domestic-based sales representatives, mergers and acquisition, alliances, greenfield) are possible. However, retailer alliances and mergers and acquisition are most popular. To illustrate, in the case of Sweden retailer alliances control 90% of the food retail stores (http://www. snee. org/filer/papers/193. pdf). Furthermore, because the organic food market in Denmark and Sweden and Europe in general is rather fragmented, mergers provide benefits and interest to investors through economies of scale (http://www. nytimes. com/2011/05/24/business/global/24organic. html). Lastly, market growth, political support and complimentary resources in both Denmark and Sweden stimulate and attract business investors. These and other issues will be elaborated in the remainder of this report. All in all, we will provide the examiner with information of which we believe to be relevant for decision makers and can be used for deciding which company, or which industries of this company, to invest in. Hereby, we have tried to identify the major dimensions relevant to comparative country studies. These have been chosen carefully and matter for the organic food industry and a wide spectrum of business within this industry. In turn, these dimensions can be used to compare the countries Sweden and Denmark. Ultimately, the contents of this Factbook are meant to stay closely connected to the country set Sweden/Denmark and it’s organic food industry, yet still is general to the extent that it allows applying the information to a concrete business case. With the final product of our Factbook we hope to have provided the reader with a clear understanding of the conditional differences between Sweden and Denmark and as such an answer to our research question. Concerning the structure of the remainder of this paper, we will subsequently discuss: methods and frameworks, introduction to organic food sector, methods and frameworks, country comparison, major findings of comparison and recommendations and the bibliography. 3. Methods and frameworks 3. 1 Method for Factbook compilation As method for our Factbook compilation we have opted to first focus on the country and then on the region. It can be described as a region-based compilation (RBC) technique. For example, if you look at technology, technology is taking place in Eindhoven in The Netherlands and not in Delfzijl. If you are going to do something with energy then you end up in Delfzijl rather than in Eindhoven. However, making such a comparison for Sweden or Denmark in terms of organic food proves difficult. To explain, people that argue that organic food is simply being harvested on the most fertile agricultural land are likely to mix up terms. That is, fertility should be clearly set aside from productivity or even best land. Indeed, you can have a highly fertile area but deficient in its use do its limited crop sizes. Moreover, a certain area of agricultural land might be appropriate to harvest a particular organic product, but is less appropriate or least suitable for other organic products. Lastly, in general organic material levels go up as you go north. But productivity does not necessarily follow the same trend because the same shorter season and lower temperatures that helped build and maintain that organic material, limits growing seasons and crops growth. In order to prevent complexity we have decided to focus more on the retail sector of Sweden and Denmark than the production sector. The retail sector will include exports as over 70 percent of the exports of industrialized countries are shipped to other industrialized countries, and nearly half of total world trade is industrialized countries trading with each other (Pugel 2009). Sweden and Denmark are no exception, as they are known to have an established intra-industry trade relationship. Besides physical locations we also like to discuss official statistics as another compilation issue. The main issue is that official statistics often rely on incomplete information and therefore involve estimation. In our report we have made use of two types of estimation, sectorial breakdown and its counterparts. We have chosen to select these two types in order to facilitate the decision maker with a reflection opportunity of a wide variety of activities he/she might be interested in. Furthermore, in an attempt to ‘standardize’ statistics we will use figures of the Central Statistics Office (or a comparable source) as much as possible for both Denmark and Sweden. We believe it is advisable to use comparable or equal sources between the two countries as it strengthens the reliability of our research. Based on previous experience and narratives we believe the Central Statistics Office (also known as Central Statistics Bureau) is one of the most easily accessible and reliable sources to be found on the Internet. Furthermore, in order to prevent possible ambiguity we will use equal terminology for both countries as much as possible, including definitions of sectors and instrument categories. Moreover, we would like to briefly discuss the overall structure of the Factbook. First of all, the executive summary is meant to provide background information on the topic of organic food as an industry and can act as a quick-review guide of what the examiner is likely to expect in the report. In this, the executive summary contains several main ideas reflected in the report itself. Furthermore, the introduction discusses more distinct the Factbook and the underlying principles. Then, data collection and data analysis show arguments for the choices we have made in conducting our empirical research. As to the chapters that follow, these are simply a representation and a more in-depth analysis of what has been announced in the previous chapters and act as to share our findings in terms of describing legal, political, environmental, institutional and cultural dimensions. Lastly, we finalise our report by concluding with major findings of comparisons and recommendations. 3. 2 Prime theories and approaches There are different theories to be utilized for compiling this Factbook. One of the main drivers for organic farming is environmental reason, which are often associated with care for the environment. Moreover, it can be argued that the choice for buying ‘’organic’’ is also driven by social cultural reasoning, having this care for the environment being embedded as part of the culture. Indeed, this is mainly the case in the Western market where awareness towards environmental issues has risen in recent times. It is terms like corporate responsibility and sustainability that have become a part of the decision making process of Western consumers as to what to buy and to whom to buy it from. In this, environmental and socio-cultural values have become an important facet in the decision making process of the consumer in general, the organic food industry being no exemption. In an attempt to verify and examine these trends we will make use of theory of Schwartz (1999) combined with the theory of planned behaviour to determine if organic food consumption offers potential for business investment to take place. As we shall see later on, Schwartz his cultural values can be used to assess the main characteristics of the average Swedish and Danish inhabitant and how these assist in making inferences about core values, behaviour and its relation to the organic food industry. In order to find more specific similarities and differences we have made use of the framework as proposed by S. Ruiz de Maya et al. (2011), who offer us a theoretical approach to the organic food industry from the consumer side. It is this that provides us with socio-cultural factors and helping the investor to decide whether Sweden or Denmark is more ‘suitable’ to invest in, depending on a particular context. In addition, the PESTLE analysis will also be utilized in this report. It is important to note that we will not be focusing on the whole framework but on the political, social and legal factors provided. By examining the political factors we can determine how these influence the organic food industry. For instance, some administrations can be beneficial for the organic food industry. For instance, by stimulating farmers to dedicate more land for organic farming and usage of organic food in government institutions. However, in another term a different administration might not be so favourable to organic farming and food, which could lead to a different situation. For example, abolishing organic farming grants. As mentioned before, the social side of organic food consumption is important. Health and environmental issues have become more important for the general public. Furthermore, the investor should keep in mind that views concerning organic food can change. These factors can have an influence on the demand. Last aspect is the legal aspects. For example, determine the definition of organic food and who or how they uphold this standard. This factor is related to the political part of the PESTLE analysis. Legislation concerning organic food is important for the Factbook. There can be differences between Denmark and Sweden concerning organic food industry. 3. 3 Method for data collection and analysis. This section will discuss our chosen method for data collection and analysis. We will start by addressing the data collection technique, after which the data collection analysis approach will follow. First of all, it can be said that our study involves both qualitative research (a focus on text) and quantitative research (a focus on numbers). However, since institutionalism and culture are clearly more qualitative we have opted to focus on qualitative data collection techniques. In the end, we have made use of solely documents as a qualitative data collection technique. Although we would have liked to include interviews and fieldwork in our research, we experienced that it is difficult, if not impossible, for us to carry out these activities successfully. First, we could not find any suitable individuals or focus groups being knowledgeable about our subject. Second, we do not believe ourselves to be proficient enough in fieldwork as to ensure reliable and valid results. Moreover, the duration of the necessary fieldwork was also expected not to fit within the given timeframe set to create the Factbook. In either case, there are some advantages of using documents as opposed to interviews and fieldwork. For example, documents are relatively cheap and quick to access (Payne Payne, 2004). It is usually much easier to obtain data from documents than from interviews or fieldwork. Also, if there are many documents on a subject, which we believe to hold true for our case, triangulation is possible to study developments over time. In terms of sources of data, our research is limited to secondary data only. Indeed, we did not make use of any unpublished data being gathered directly from people or organizations. Instead, we have made use of published books, webpages, newspaper articles and journal articles. Somewhat surprisingly, we found that these sources were able to provide us with sufficient empirical data for our research, especially with regard to culture related aspects. Concerning the latter, we would also like to refer to Altheide (1996), who said that documents are studied to understand culture. He has pointed out that a large part of culture consists of documents. Furthermore, he has showed that culture is more available to document analysis today because of the information technology revolution. (Altheide, 1996). Finally, in order to assess the quality of the documents used, we have made use of four criteria as proposed by Scott (1990): (1) authenticity, (2) credibility, (3) representativeness (4) meaning. Concerning the method for data analysis, we have chosen to make use of several approaches for analyzing qualitative data. Probably the one being used the most is coding. We have chosen this approach primarily because it is one of the easiest ways to analyse qualitative data. In addition, it offers many advantages. For instance, it allows reducing the size of the data and is useful for retrieving, organizing, and speeding up the analysis (Miles Humberman, 1994). Although this method has been used throughout the entire report, it has been particular helpful in our literature review on the organic food industry, as making use of buzzwords has helped in defining the scope of our research. Moreover, it was found helpful for the executive summary and the introduction, as these are more restricted in terms of length. Here coding has acted as an instrument to make distinctions between either ‘too detailed’ or ‘too general’ more easily. Another data analysis approach we have made use of is series of events. We have made use of this approach as we considered it to be helpful to compare relevant historical developments for our industry. Listing a series of events by chronological time periods and subsequently assigning events to categories has helped to identify similarities and differences over time. As such, it allows us to pinpoint more precisely when historical developments have been most evident and how it has changed the view of the industry. Due to its very nature this approach was utilized in the historical developments section of our report. Lastly, we have made use of semiotics, which is concerned with the meaning of signs and symbols. For business and management research, semiotics is most useful in marketing, management, consumer research and information systems. This is because in these segments, signs are very important. For example, form of brand names and logos are considered to be highly important. In our view semiotics also play an influential role in the organic food industry. Currently, there is some debate about the future growth of the organic food industry; it either being with brands or retailer private labels. It has been argued that large food retailers are taking advantage of the ‘organic’ brand without making any of the associated investment. While the industry has been built by certification agencies and pioneering brands, their presence in terms of logos and brands is diminishing in supermarkets and mainstream retailers (http://www. organicmonitor. com/r0811. htm). As such, investment scenario’s in the organic food industry are less clear-cut than in the past and require careful examination of conventions governing the use of signs and sign systems. In our report, semiotics has been found crucial to explain the socio-cultural and market/industry conditions more fully. 4. Introduction sector/industry In order to provide the examiner with an introduction of the organic food industry, general trends, definitions and boundaries will be discussed. To boot, the European organic food market has a total revenue of $24. 7 billion in 2010, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8. 9% between 2006 and 2010 based on research of DATAMONITOR (2010). The European organic food market grew by 6% in 2010 to reach a value of 24. 7 billion and it is predicted that in 2015 the European organic food market will be worth $36. 8 billion, an increase of 48. 8% since 2010. According to UNCTAD, organic agriculture is defined as a holistic production management whose primarily goal is to optimize the health and productivity of interdependent communities of soil, life, plants, animals and people. Moreover, According to Chen (2009) organic products are goods that respect the environment and that are manufactured without the use of synthetic pesticides, herbicides, chemical fertilizers, growth hormones, antibiotics or gene manipulation. By viewing the production side, organic producers should combines best environmental practices, a high level of biodiversity, the preservation of natural resources and application of high-animal welfare standards, providing higher quality products to respond to a certain consumers’ demand. Nowadays, the concern of Western society on how products may be profoundly harmful to the environment has led to a higher demand for organic products, sustainable business activities and stricter regulations from national governments (Gurau and Ranchod, 2005). Due to this increasing concern and higher demand in European countries, it can be argued that the organic food industry is becoming a more interesting and challenging sector for investors to invest in. Furthermore, organic food industry generates revenue as the second largest market within Europe and is continuously growing. However, some boundaries as to this sector do exist. Three main boundaries we found to be of importance are price premiums, quality and availability and time factor. Of these three, price premium is expected to be the most important. This is due to the fact that organic food more often than not requires another form of processing and is more difficult to conserve. Moreover, the costs of quality control are also expected to be higher as no pesticides are used as to protect large crops. As such, it is rational that the price is more expensive than conventional food products. In effect, consumers with lack of knowledge will reconsider buying organic products because of this simple fact. Considering quality of the organic products, consumers believe that by charging a higher price this is equivalent to a higher quality. This view is based on the rationale of human beings, sometimes depicted in phrases such as ‘pay more, get more’. Whilst this ‘rule’ not always holds true, our (inner) convictions and background study has verified that this is in fact the case in the organic food industry. An example of the organic food retail sector is that high priced restaurants tend to favour organic (natural) ingredients. Based on the above, the organic products will meet consumers’ expectation by providing the products above the conventional product’s standards, with a price tag to match its difference in quality. The last constraint we would like to discuss is availability and time factor. The availability of organic products do not vary as much as that of conventional products. As organic products are often less well exposed, they are more difficult to find in stores. This is an important consideration and largely influences issues such as sales expectations, storage costs and risk of decay. Furthermore, in the following part we will discuss and analyse how the conditions of organic food provide the investor with a broader view of the organic food industry. In this, we will consider four conditions as factors being relevant for organic food: political-, cultural-, legal- and labor systems. 5. Country comparison 5. 1 Macro-economic indicators A country comparison on macro-economic indicators can be considered to be beneficial for decision makers as it gives them food for thought on the expected macroeconomic performance of that country, i. e. the behavior of a country’s output, jobs, and prices in the organic food industry in the face of changing world conditions. This judgment call about performance is basically what drives most macro-economic analysis. It can be used to assess issues such as how well a country’s economy is performing and how close it is to achieving broad desirable objectives, such as stability in average product prices (no inflation) and low unemployment (Pugel 2009). The most relevant macro-economic indicators for the organic food industry are considered to be economic indicators and financial indicators. Demographic indicators do not seem important to us as research has shown that gender or age does not have any significant effect on whether people decide to buy organic food or not (http://newhope360. com/organic-consumers-share-values-not-demographics). In order to ensure reliability we have chosen to attain all figures of these indicators from one source, namely De Grote Bosatlas (2002). Fig. 1 STATISTIEK EUROPA (part 1) Fig 2. STASTIEK EUROPA (PART 2) From figure 1 we can infer that Denmark had a higher agricultural contribution in terms of percentage towards the GDP. Moreover, Denmark has a substantial higher percentage of agricultural grounds (62. 4% versus 7. 9%) Furthermore, Denmark has a higher contribution to GDP per capita. Besides, inhabitants from Denmark are slightly wealthier than those in Sweden, when looking at GDP. Lastly, Denmarks development of the GDP in 1990-1999 has risen more than was the case for Sweden. Then, from figure 2, we can infer that Denmark has a stronger economy than Sweden, but only by a small margin. Furthermore, inflation rate for Denmark is lower, yet also again only by a small margin. Moreover, Denmark has more government spending in terms of percentage of GDP. Concerning education, Denmark spends more in terms of percentage of GDP. Besides, Denmark inhabitants generally enjoy a higher purchasing power than is the case for Swedish inhabitants. It also shows that more Danish people are working in both the agricultural and industrial sector than Sweden, these tend to work more in the service sector. Lastly, Denmark has a lower percentage of the work force being unemployed. From this preliminary analysis we can infer that in terms of economic indicators investments in Denmark are likely to require a higher yield on an investment than were the case of Sweden. This assumption is made based on the simple fact that as for many elements Denmark performs better than Sweden on compared elements. The same holds true in terms of financial indicators. Although the data may be easily said to be ‘outdated’, we believe this is not quite the case. That is, our analysis on historical development has not provide any conclusive evidence as to not believe that the relationship of these economical and financial figures to be that much different as they are today. Yet, since we do not know when the actual investment is to take place it is always advisable to check the results of a more recent research. Although we would have loved to use a more recent version of De Grote Bosatlas ourselves, we could not find ourselves in the position to get access to one during the course of this research. Luckily, we were able to find a recent figure for gross domestic expenditure on RD as a percentage of GDP that verified our assumption. [pic] From the figure above it can be concluded that Denmark spends between 1. 01% and 2. 00% of its GDP on RD activities. Sweden on the other hand spends a little more with 2. 01% and above. This corresponds with our financial records of the Grote Bosatlas, where government spending in Sweden was higher than that of Denmark in general. Furthermore, since the RD expenditures on RD as a percentage of GDP are larger than that of most other parts of the world, we expect no real problems for investors in this area. Background information as to why Sweden and Denmark support expenditures on the organic food industry is discussed extensively in both the chapters about socio-cultural conditions and market/industry conditions. 5. 2 Historical developments relevant for the industry. The issues with the environment have many different facets. These range; from deforestation, loss of biodiversity, pollution and many others (EBS 295, 2008). The attitude concerning these issues by the general public can change over time. Values change over time and this applies for the public perception of organic food as well. Likewise, one could say that the organic food industry is driven in a sense of improving and protecting the environment. In addition, consumers also attitude towards the environment also contribute in how they value organic food. Furthermore, not only concern for the environment but also growing awareness by the general public concerning their food and the production involved. These issues related to food production range from; health, food safety and animal welfare. (Sippo manual, 2011) The origins for organic farming in both countries are similar. In the same manner consumers started become more aware of the environment. Farmers also become more aware and began with organic farming. Both countries have had organic farming since early eighties in the general concept of the term organic farming. If we take into account the establishment of organizations concerning organic food then Denmark was a few years earlier with the founding of Danish Association of Organic Farmers in 1981. The Swedish counter part is called the Ecological Farmers Association, which was founded in 1985. Both organizations are private initiatives of organic farmers organizing themselves. (http://www. fao. org) Since the 1990s the governments of both Denmark and Sweden have introduced various regulations concerning the organic food industry. These regulations include assigning certificates that label products as organic. In addition, the European Union also implemented regulations concerning the organic food industry. Likewise, the organizations that control and label organic foods also found their origins in late eighties early nineties. In Denmark the first organic food legislation was implemented in 1987. The government assigns the O logo to organic food. (www. fvm. dk). This state approved logo is only given to products that are conforming to the standards of â€Å"organic† as stated by Danish regulations. In addition, in Denmark only state approved farms may carry the â€Å"organic† label. In Sweden the organization that is tasked with the certification of organic food is called KRAV. Founded in 1985, this organization was formed from the Ecological Farmers Organization in order to standardize the various interpretations of the term â€Å"organic farming† and bring both farmers and food producers together. (Gunnar Rundgren, 2002) However, it should be noted that the KRAV organization is a non-governmental organization. While, it’s Danish counterpart is part of the Ministry of Agriculture. 5. 3 Socio-cultural conditions Cultural systems From the point of view of the investor, it is important to know the differences and similarities between the two countries Denmark and Sweden. In this section, we will focus on this in terms of cultural assessment. In order to describe the cultural systems of both Denmark and Sweden we have made use of five cultural dimensions as proposed by Schwartz (1999): harmony, egalitarianism, effective autonomy, mastery, and conservatism. It is these cultural dimensions that will help to describe each countries culture and detect any important similarities and differences. The cultural values focus in the article of Schwartz is on the national culture. The national culture being introduced for heterogeneous nations refers primarily to the value culture of the dominant, majority group. In this case, Schwartz tries to interpret the value priorities that characterize a society by aggregating the value priorities of individuals (e. g. Hofstede’s framework). It is depicted that individual value priorities are a product of both shared culture and unique personal experience. Moreover, Schwartz has placed his list of researched countries into different segments (clusters). Denmark and Sweden put in the first group (cluster), Finland and Italy in another, Spain as a third group and Germany, Greece and the United Kingdom in a fourth group.

Loneliness in Of Mice and Men

Loneliness in Of Mice and Men Loneliness is an inevitable part of life, which many individuals struggle with. It is an emotional response to a lack of companionship and communication with others, which has a huge impact in ones overall behavior. Some impacted individuals may try to end their loneliness; others become hopeless and bitter. The theme of loneliness is presented in John Steinbecks Of Mice and Men. The novel Of Mice and Men portrays loneliness as a complex emotion that often drives individuals to behavioral extremes. Steinbeck uses characters, some of the most important ones including Curleys wife, Candy and Crooks, to reflect on the discriminative time period that ultimately lead to the characters loneliness and particular behaviors. Curleys wife is a major female character in Of Mice and Men and is married to Curley, a very aggressive ranch worker that proves his masculinity by fighting other workers and marrying a physically attractive woman; moreover, he was the boss son. Curley had a huge control over his wife which was very common during the Great Depression, and the other workers. He had forbidden all of the workers from talking to his wife. Desperate for friends, attention and respect, Curleys wife uses her beauty and status with Curley to her advantage. In chapter 4, she intimidated the workers in Crooks room as of means for getting attention and threatened Crooks when he told her to leave his room, saying that he could get sprung up on a tree so easy, it aint even funny (Steinbeck 81). Her new behavior resulted in further discrimination and harassment. She was labelled as a tramp (Steinbeck 32), and other derogatory names. She felt powerless and lonely. The only person that Curleys wife could talk to was Lennie, because he was not conscious of her current situation. In her last moments with Lennie in the barn scene, she finally felt like she was being acknowledged and listened to. For the first time, she confessed that I don like Curley. He aint a nice fella (Steinbeck 89). She became vulnerable to her humanity and this ironically lead to her death. Curleys wife is a brilliant example of the oppression against women in the 1930s, sexism, and some of the behavioral changes that came along with being stripped of ones identity in society. There are other reasons why people were discriminated and isolated, some of which includes ageism and ableism. Candy was the oldest ranch worker in the book, that lost his right arm in an accident. He was discriminated because of his age and disability, and was an outcast. He had no family, except for the dog he raised. His dog used to be of great usefulness, but as the dog became older, he became less useful and helpless. This resulted in him being shot by Carlson which intensified Candys loneliness. Candys dog is a prime example of the social issue of ageism and ableism in society at that time. Workers were expected to be productive on the ranch, and if one no longer met that demand, due to age or ability to perform certain tasks, they would be dismissed and left to suffer (Steinbeck 1937).ÂÂ   Candy recognizes that the same thing will happen to him, and he tells George that Jus as soon as I cant swamp out no bunkhouses theyll put me on the county (Steinbeck 60). To escape his loneliness and eventual fate of getting kicked, Candy becames quickly invested in George and Lennies dream, offering a total of $350 towards the dream farm. Spose I went in with you guys. Thas three hundred an fifty bucks Id put in. I aint much good, but I could cook and tend the chickens and hoe the garden some. Howd that be? (Steinbeck 59). He was very attached and hooked onto the dream of the farm, and persisted to have the farm in spite of what happened with Lennie later in the novel. The farm would have eliminated his fear of being alone, and develop another relationship worth cherishing. His current position in society forced him to develop a specific mindset to escape his destination. One of the biggest issues that was prevalent in the Great Depression was racism, which Crooks was a victim of. He was physically separated from the other men, and had limited contact with others. As a replacement for friendship, he kept himself occupied with books. Still, he admitted that Books aint no good, and that A guy needs somebody to be near him. A guy goes nuts when if he aint got nobody (Steinbeck 72). In the Great Depression, black people faced racial discrimination and segregation from the dominant, white culture (Pinckney, 2002). However, this was greatly exaggerated in the story as Crooks was the only black man on the ranch. Unlike Curleys wife and Candy, Crooks accepted his role in society because he knew that he was powerless against the oppressive forces of racism. He was aware that he was treated as if he was less important than the other men and did not have a voice in society. This is just a nigger talkin, an a busted-back nigger. So it dont mean nothing, see? (St einbeck 71). The sad reality of the Great Depression deprived Crooks from his right to be treated like an equal human being with self-worth and connection with others. His acceptance of the situation became the strongest antidote to his experience; however, it intensified his loneliness. The Great Depression was a time of prejudice present in Steinbecks Of Mice and Men. Curleys Wife, Candy, and Crooks were some of the characters who represented the loneliness and isolation brought on by their time period. These characters faced social issues like racism, sexism, and ageism, resembling the oppression of minority groups by the discriminatory nature of their society. Each character recognized their loneliness, and depending on what their current situation and role in society was, they took specific actions to fight against, or cope with it. Steinbeck has made it clear that the loneliness brought on by discrimination does significantly impact ones behavior, actions and mindsets. Todays generation better understands the societal implications of loneliness and discrimination. It should be societys goal to diminish all forms of discrimination and be supportive of what others go through in their lifetimes in order to lead a better, healthier, and more connected life for all. Works Cited Steinbeck, John. Of Mice and Men. New York, Penguin, 1993. Pinckney, Shelley. Chapter 6: Race and Civil Rights: The 30s and 40s. Communism in Washington State, depts.washington.edu/labhist/cpproject/pinckney.shtml.