The future of unions in the United States Research Paper

The future of unions in the United States - Research Paper Example The Future of Labor Unions in United States Labor unions are legal and recognized representatives of the workers in different industries. Throughout the history of United States, there are different labor unions formed for the workers of different industries and sectors however, the labor unions found among the public sector employees like the police and the teachers are most prominent among all the labor unions.Historically the labor unions have played important role for the protection of the employee rights and right from the beginning people used to favor as well as oppose the labor unions in the companies. However, recently they have been experiencing major decline in their membership due to which there is high level of uncertainty in the country regarding the future of the labor unions in United States. The labor Unions in America have seen many difficulties in terms of the membership however despite all difficulties the labor union never faced such a fall in the membership afte r the year 1932 that these are facing in the recent years especially in the private service sector. According to the estimates the membership of the US labor Unions in the private sector has dropped almost 9 percent in the recent years that shows that the workers are now less interested in joining the labor unions or taking any active part in the strike activities organized by the labor unions. Currently only 11.9% of the wages and salary workers are member of the labor union that shows massive decline in the membership of these unions. ... Hence, the actual people for whom the organizations are meant for are not interested in the labor unions that how the existence of these organizations could be justified. The twenty first century has brought new challenges for the people and organizations all over the world and just like all other sectors, the corporate sector is also in the phase of restructuring. There are some inevitable changes that must be adopted by the people associated with the corporate sector. The advancement in the technology paves many new ways for the companies. In order to conduct their operation the business owners now have many more options ad compared with the past. In the emerging situation the companies are able to perform a variety of their business activities with the help of the technological devices and as a result they don’t need that much human work force as they required in past. The introduction of advanced machinery and other advanced tool not only saves them time but also cost of p roduction. In this context, the work force availability has become easy for the employers because more people look for jobs and the employers can pick from the interested candidates on their own terms and conditions (Goldfield, 92). The advancement in the technology has significantly contributed towards the diversion of the attention of the employees towards the other issues. At present, the employees of USA are more concerned towards getting high education and technology based knowledge and skills. The workers focus on these things so that they can keep them update with the advancements occurring around them and can acquire better working conditions through their performance and skills. This thought reflect

Traumatic Experiences Faced by Tina Essay Example for Free

Traumatic Experiences Faced by Tina Essay 1.1 Traumatic experiences As a result of her mother’s commitment to her marriage, Tina may experience a wide range of traumatic experiences. As a teenage girl she is predisposed to being violated by the ‘step’ male relatives that she’s living with. In this sense, she faces emotional, physical and psychological abuse at the hands of extended family (Finkerlhor Browne; 1985). The type of foreseen traumatic experiences is mostly aggravated by Tina’s profile and situation in the family. Being a step daughter, whose mother constantly wants to make an effort to embrace the union places her in a disadvantaged angle where either one of her step family members may find her either as a threat or an accessory that can be utilised to his advantage. Looking at this scenario, one cannot rule out the huge possibility being of a sexual nature, this is due to the contemporary social behaviour within family units, where children have become ‘accessories’ to utilise for adults pleasure. Tina’s mother and her new union could be the beginning of Tina’s worst nightmare. A chain of traumatic events could arise from just one form of abuse, for arguments sake let’s take sexual abuse and unpack it to its worst possible chain of events. After being sexually abused by either one of her step family members, Tina’s could contract a sexually transmitted disease; she could fall pregnant and maybe be forced to go through an abortion because of fear of stigma and lack of support from her mother and extended family. Alternatively, Tina could end up deciding to commit suicide due to feeling trapped, alone and depressed. 1.2 1.2.1 Effects of Child Abuse Child abuse has been conceptualised by a lot of scholars in various ways, this has either distorted or diminished the intensity of its effects in children. I feel that how one conceptualises child abuse should capture the exact effects and aggravated meaning it holds for its sufferers. This is a broad concept that when narrowed gives birth to various other concepts that encompass children’s victimization. Hence, for the purpose of Tina’s case, I have adopted the meaning that was captured in a study conducted within the Nigerian region. This not only gives Tina’s story relevance but it also engages with the same factors that affect an African teenager within the boundaries of a family unit is subjected to. Hence Akhilomen sees child abuse as ‘an intentional or neglectful physical or emotional injury imposed on a child’ (2006). As mentioned above, Tina could be perceived as a threat or an outsider by either one of her ‘step’ family members and that could lead to emotional and physical abuse such as neglect, she could be rejected and side-lined by her family members. As culture dictates, women are expected to leave their ‘a bustard† child with their families when they start new families, Tina is then automatically subjected to such unspoken discrimination within the family. She may be at a disadvantage of favourism of the brother because he is the husband’s son; this making it an emotional injury and also the possibility of verbal and physical abuse arises. Children who suffer abuse within families are said to show certain behavioural traits in society or any other groups they were initially involved in before the abuse. Suffering from the above-mentioned forms of abuse could raise feelings of sadness, anger, betrayal, unworthiness and children will soon be withdrawn from social scene (Finkerlhor Browne; 1985). 1.2.2 Effects of Sexual abuse â€Å"The National Centre on Child Abuse and Neglect (NCCAN) describes sexual abuse as contacts or interactions between a child and an adult when the child is being used for the sexual stimulation of the adult† (Kempe Kempe; 1987 in Schoeman; 2013: 63). This conceptualisation finds relevance in Tina’s case as she is used for her step brother’s stimulation and benefit for sexual pleasure. Sexual abuse has four traumatic impacts in a child’s life; these are discussed from a clinical and socio-cultural view. Finkelhor and Browne (1985) came up with a conceptualization that could be used in research and treatment of sexual abuse victims. This is targeting people in pastoral roles away from the family unit where children are exposed to these stressors; in this case Tina confiding in her teacher is the first step to acknowledging teachers as social activists. These are labelled as the four traumagenic dynamics and they are impacts that alter children’s cognitive and emotional orientation to the world and create trauma by distorting children’s self-concept, world view and effective capacities (1985). †¢ Traumatic sexualisation Refers to a process in which a child’s sexuality is shaped in a developmentally inappropriate and interpersonally dysfunctional fashion as a result of sexual abuse. This stage consists of feelings towards the offender; it affects the ‘trust’ aspect of the relationship as this case is an intra-familial encounter. This is where more behavioural signs are seen, Tina will feel a disruption in her normal mental functioning. She will seem sad, confused and eventually she will withdraw from her ‘normal’ self. This is the first sign that people close to her will be able to notice a disruption in her life. †¢ Powerlessness Powerlessness impairs a child sense of efficacy, a reaction to this stage will be fear and anxiety and total loss of control in situations that resemble the abuse (Finkerlhor Browne; 1985) (Schoeman; 2012-2014). As noted in the scenario, Tina already feels like going back home is like being in a trapped hole where she has no control over what happens to her. She fears for her life, she feels more like an object to her brother than a family member †¢ Betrayal This refers to a stage in a victim’s life where a number of reactions are noted, during this stage, they suffer feelings of grief and depression. This is coupled with feelings of hostility and anger in young girls of Tina’s age. Distrust may manifest itself in isolation and fear and resentment of males which at a later stage affects their ability to engage in healthy heterosexual relationships (Finkerlhor Browne; 1985). Tina’s feelings towards her mother; as the person that subjected her to this; she feels †¢ Stigmatization Lastly, given the feelings her mother has towards Tina and their previous experience with her father, Tina will most definitely be stigmatised by the family and initially her mother as she has dismissed her attempts to report the case. This will affect Tina’s ability to trust and depend on her mother as she has deliberately failed to protect her (Schoeman; 2012-2014). She will have feelings of resentment towards her mother as she will feel she subjected her to this; by constantly forcing her to make effort to accept her new family. This is validated by my initial statement about cultural expectations with bustard children; Tina will not get support from anyone in her circle of family as her mother will be accused of bringing this misfortune to herself. These negative connotations will not only affect the mother but Tina as well as these feelings are associated with suicide attempts and other self-destruction behaviours. 1.3 Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs Fig 1.3.1 [pic] †¢ Safety Needs Tina’s sexual abuse has distorted her normal view and perception of the world and the people in it. This has ‘burst her safety bubble’ she no longer feels safe in anyone’s company because her mother, being the one person to protect her has failed to do so. This has crashed her emotional and psychological link to the mother and world she looks up to. †¢ Love/Belonging Feelings of powerlessness and betrayal have left her feeling that she does not belong anywhere in the world. People whose love needs have been destroyed lose their sense of being worthy and belonging to society and hence the sky rocketing statistics of suicide amongst teenagers of Tina’s age (McLeod; 2007). Tina may feel that her mother’s pressure to make an effort to the family has caused her all this pain and trauma and she may conclude that she does not love her or she chooses her new family instead of her. This eventually leads to rejection and feelings of worthlessness. This will affect her ability to engage in healthy heterosexual intimate relationships as she grows older, her ability to establish and maintain friendships will also be affected as she loses trust in people. †¢ Esteem Needs A child whose esteem needs have been destroyed will find difficulty perceiving herself as a normal worthy and valued individual. It affects person from obtaining a higher level of self-esteem or self-respect (McLeod; 2007).Children who are sexually abused usually turn to worse measures to deal with the inadequacy they feel inside. SECTION 2 2.1 Counselling versus Support for Learning Problems †¢ Counselling Defined as a facilitative process where the counsellor uses specific skills to help young people help themselves more effectively (Gillis; 1997). This facilitative process entails giving ‘common sense’ advice and it extends the teacher-learner, parent-child relationship. Counselling is a more emotional than logical process of problem solving, in this sense, the counsellor has to be more aware of the children’s’ perspective of things and be able to come up with an interactive plan to help that child cope and solve the problem at hand. Counselling provides the child with a chance for growth and change. In this instance, Tina needs her teachers, peer educators and mostly her mother to help her find a way to address and deal with the abuse in her life. †¢ Counselling versus Learning Problem âž ¢ Conceptualization: Learning problems refer to the difficulty faced by children in partaking to academic/educational activities. These may be unpacked as limitations to comprehension of study content as well as reading and writing (Schoeman; 2012-14). This is characterised by the inability to engage in class activities or carry out academic tasks like other children, these are then regarded as learning problems which; given the availability of professional help, the teachers may have to intervene and help. Counselling is a facilitative process where the counsellor uses specific skills to help young people help themselves more effectively (Gillis; 1997). This facilitative process entails giving ‘common sense’ advice and it extends the teacher-learner, parent-child relationship. Counselling is a more emotional than logical process of problem solving, in this sense, the counsellor has to be more aware of the children’s’ perspective of things and be able to come up with an interactive plan to help that child cope and solve the problem at hand. âž ¢ Order/Method of Practice The approach or method of addressing these two roles differs regarding the needs of the child as well expectation of performance from the person in the pastoral role. Counselling entails the use of emotional relations into facilitation to helping the children become better problem solvers. There are certain skills that are required from the person who takes on the counselling role. This then dictates the order or manner in which the counsellor can create a condusive environment for the children. In these one may include the categories for counselling responses. These are namely; evaluating, interpreting, supporting/reassuring, questioning/probing, advice, communication, verbal and non-verbal responses and silence. These are all broken down to give a scope of the ‘know how’ of counselling. Learning support is a different ball game when it comes to going about it. Here the teacher has to take into consideration the state of being of the child, have full understanding of the problem and its dynamics. Schoeman (2012-2014) provides a list of guidelines that teachers are to follow in order to effectively assist children with learning problems. These guidelines are as follows: keep sessions short, meet regularly with the learner, sessions should be highly structured, keep anxiety levels at minimum, focus on specific issues being addressed and keep morale high. 2.2 Trauma and its Effects on Tina’s life Trauma implies intense emotional wounding that may comprise of bodily wounds, it entails the wounding of a person’s emotion, spirit, will to live, beliefs about themselves and the world, dignity and sense of security (Matsakis; 1996 in Schoeman; 2012-2014). It refers to â€Å"any negative event that causes an individual to re-experience an earlier traumatic event so that the current event somehow becomes as traumatic as, or at least strongly reminiscent of, the earlier event must itself be regarded as traumatic† (Urman, Funk Elliot; 2001:403-4). The trauma suffered by Tina is unpacked to various stages of response and feelings, amongst these, one has noticed recurring processes as to those described for the purposes of sexual abuse, and as a result, this section will only address the retaliation feelings from Tina. In this sense, Tina’s story will be addressed according to Lewis’ three traumatic phases of response (1995:15-16). These are namely the impact phase, the recoil phase and the re-integration phase. †¢ Impact Phase This stage can last from a few seconds to days immediately after the trauma, Matsakis continues to state that the victim may appear emotionally disorientated, confused irrational and disorganised (1996:34-5). At this point Tina will need comfort and reassurance from her adult figures and pastoral actors such as her teachers. At this stage assurance, comfort and love are the key things she needs from people around her. †¢ Recoil Phase According to Lewis, this is the reality phase (1995:15). Tina will experience feelings of sadness, guilt and anger. At this point in her life, Tina will have developed feelings of post-traumatic stress resulting from a constant reminder or reality and flashbacks from her sexual incident. †¢ Re-integration This phase holds Tina captivated in her own mental and psychological body as she eventually assimilates this horrible experience as part of her life. She however slowly learns to reintegrate herself with people, this is her body’s way of trying to heal and overcome the traumatic experience. Here she will show enthusiasm to reconnect with people the way she did before the trauma (Lewis; 1999:16). 2.3 Parental Involvement versus Parental Counselling It has been established that children who suffer any form of abuse need the support of their elderly people to overcome the effects of the traumatic experiences. Amongst the people who can provide this form of support are parents and teachers. As a result it is important to note the angle in which parents can be included in the programs for assisting children. âž ¢ Parental Counselling This form of support is addressed to the parents as primary caregivers to the children with learning difficulties. In this support programme parents are taught how to handle and give support to their children as a form of partnership with the teachers in managing the problem a child may be facing. The focal point lies in this form of problem being intrinsic and more emotional for both the parent and child. In some cases parents suffer from ignorance and fail to understand or even identify the problem (Schoeman; 2012-2014). It is in this sense that parental counselling becomes useful. âž ¢ Parental Involvement Parental involvement need not only to be for the formal meetings with the school authorities but Schoeman (2012-2014) notes that parents should be involved in all that involves their children within the school. Amongst these activities; school learning and intervention programmes, they should be involved in teaching their children in particular skills that can be useful to their development. Their involvement in cultural and sport activities not only benefits the child but the entire school benefits from an involved parent. 2.4 Tina’s Intervention It is important for school teachers to be familiar with the mandated reporting laws and know to what agency they should report suspected sexual abuse (most often, Child Protective Services). To prevent Tina from feeling betrayed after she has confided sexual abuse, teachers must first get approval from the child to get the authorities and other institutions involved to resolve the matter. Remedial intervention comprises of six principles of practice (Schoeman; 2012-2014). In these the teacher will have to design a detailed and proper planned learning strategy for Tina. Tina needs patience as a result; I find it relevant to employ attention to basic skill, motivation and evaluation principles into practice. In this I feel helping Tina will require more time in between school breaks and maybe after classes to establish a proper workable strategy for individual treatment. The first step to reporting this incident will be to alert the school support system and the governing body of this situation. This will happen with Tina’s consent. The school governing body and committee will then summon Tina’s mother to school to make her aware of the problem as well as of Tina’s attempts to report the abuse. After this meeting, a decision to further report the police will be tabled and a decision will be reached to act in the benefit of the victim. After the formalities have been dealt with, Tina and her mother will be taken to a community wellness centre for children and get counselling as they have to get help with living beyond this abuse. Tina will continue to get remedial treatment in class until she shows signs of reintegration. Reference list Akhilomen, D.O (2006) Addressing Child Abuse in Southern Nigeria: The role of the Church. Studies in World Christianity, Vol 12(3) pp235-248. Available at http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0type=summaryurl=journals/studies_in_world_ch.. [Date Accessed 10th August 2013] Finkelhor, D Browne, A ( 1985) The Traumatic Impact of Child Sexual Abuse: A conceptualisation. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, Vol 55(4). Available at http://univerityofnewhemisphere.ac.za. [Date Accessed 10th August 2013] Harley, K., Barasa, F., Bertram, C., Mattson, E. Pillay, S (2000) â€Å"The real and the ideal†: Teacher roles and competencies in South African policy and practice. International Journal of Education Development Vol 20(2000) pp 287-304. Available at http://ukzn.ac.za.[Date Accessed 10th August 2013] McLeod, S. A. (2007). Maslows Hierarchy of Needs Simply Psychology. Retrieved from http://www.simplypsychology.org/maslow.html Schoeman, S (ed) (2012-2014) The educator in a pastoral role. University of South Africa

Essay Comparing Brave New World and The Giver -- comparison compare co

Comparing Brave New World and The Giver    When one examines the similarities between Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, and The Giver by Lois Lowry, they may be baffled. They may think that Lowry just did a run off of Huxley's highly successful masterpiece. The similarities are extraordinary, but so are their differences. Many aspects of these novels are almost identical while others are completely foreign to each other. Both of these novels feature structured societies, but the societies are not the same. In Brave New World, there are no families or definite partners, but neither society believes in love or true family. The Giver has no specific caste system, but the members of their community do not have control of their own future; that is left to the elders of the community. Lastly are Jonas and John. They are basically the main characters and both endure severe inner troubles, but are they similar enough to make the novels similar?    In Brave New World, there is definitely a caste system of community members. Each level of society keeps to themselves. They work and live according to how they were conditioned. They do not have a certain ordinance on manners or behavior; they are promiscuous and, for the most part, outgoing. The characters in Brave New World do not know the meaning of the word love. They do not have the slightest inkling of what it is like to have a family; the ideas of parents and childbirth repulse them. The Giver has a society that believes in having families for stability, but they do not believe in love. The word is broad and meaningless. When Jonas asked his parents if they loved him, they laughed and told him to be more specific because language is everything. Do they enjoy him? Yes.... ...ves, and to my interpretation, dies. Both John and Jonas were not mentally equipped to handle the situations they were confronted with.    While many may not observe the similarities or differences in Brave New World and The Giver, they are quite obvious. While one society is repulsed at the past, the other simply erases it from memory and it is never spoken of. Neither society believes in love or family, but there are subtle differences in their beliefs. While The Giver has no definite caste system, they have certain procedures for levels of society. John and Jonas are similar characters who are confronted with inner turmoil and find their own way out. Brave New World and The Giver are wonderful works of art that are extremely close in storylines. Whether one believes that they are similar or different, it must be said that the resemblances are almost scary.

New Century Financial Essay

1. Describe and evaluate New Century’s business model? New Century Financial Corporation, headed by founders Brad Morrice, Edward Gotschall, andRobert, was a firm which specialized in subprime mortgages. The company originated, sold, andserviced subprime home mortgage loans. New Century was structured as a real estate investment  trust (REIT) and was composed of two operating divisions. The Wholesale Loan Division,  known as New Century Mortgage Corporation, comprised 85% of the firm’s loan originations,  while the Retail Mortgage Loan Division operated under Home123 Corporation.  New Century Mortgage Corporation operated in 33 locations throughout 19 different states  and relied heavily on independent mortgage brokers to identify potential borrowers and assist  them through the loan process until the loans were closed by New Century. This division also  purchased funded loans from other lenders and expedited the loan underwriting process through  its web-based system known as FastQual. The Retail division was comp osed of 235 sales offices  throughout 35 states, a call center, and a web site. This division was aggressive in its approach to  seek out potential borrowers and close loans earning it the nickname â€Å"CloseMore University.†Ã‚  The company typically originated loans and used short-term loans to fund new mortgages  until they were sold within 30 to 90 days of origination. New Century’s income was generated  from the difference between the lending rate and rate at which the loans could be sold or  financed and from servicing loans. Loans were sold either as whole loan sales where mortgages  were pooled together and sold to investors or as securitizations structured as sales. The company  also carried securitizations structured as financing as assets on their books and used the bonds  to finance the securitized loans as liabilities, thereby generating income based on the difference  between interest received from borrowers and interest paid to bondhold ers. 2. What were the primary risks faced by New Century? New Century’s business model enabled the firm to grow rapidly from 2001 through 2006  as access to capital markets expanded and regulations were relaxed. Loan securitization  allowed lenders to spread credit risk over a larger number of investors creating an  environment where companies like New Century could lend to subprime borrowers at  higher rates while financing their operations with the lower interest rates provided by  the highly liquid mortgage-backed securities (MBS) markets. These factors fueled the  company’s growth, but caused the firm to be highly sensitive to risks of increasing interest  rates, declining home sales, and default by less creditworthy borrowers. New Century’s  aggressive strategies in pursuing subprime borrowers resulted in increased risk of asset  Additionally, the short-term credit the company obtained in order to finance loan  origination was contingent on New Century meeting certain debt covenants and financia l  ratios. Increases in interest rates or regulations or the inability to move new loans off its  balance sheet could cause the company to be unable to obtain financing to continue funding  loans. Likewise, a decrease in the difference between the interest rate at which it could  borrow and the interest rate at which new loans could be closed, would affect income and  may result in noncompliance with net income requirements or debt-ratios imposed by New  Finally, the loans which New Century sold were pooled together. The investment banks  which purchased the loans would perform a due diligence review on only 25 percent of  the pool before negotiating the composition and price of the mortgage pool. A â€Å"kick-out†Ã‚  clause was included to allow for buyers to reject part of the loan pool for defects such as  faulty documentation, appraisals, or underwriting issues. The buyers could also require New  Century to repurchase loans which experienced early payment default (EPD). As such, the  company was exposed to risks related to internal controls in monitoring loan processing,  underwriting, and closing which could cause a substantial loss in income due to increased  kick-outs and repurchased loans. Further aggravating these risks were the company’s  aggressive tactics in pursuing and closing subprime borrowers such as offering loans  requiring only stated income and assets as opposed to full documentation loans. 3. What were New Century’s critical performance variables? How well was New  Century performing with respect to these critical performance variables?  New Century Financial had performance variables that critically affected its business  and led to it’s eventual bankruptcy filing. These included liquidity, default rate, and forms of  The overall rate of default is critical because of its compounding increase in liabilities with  a decrease in assets. A default rate higher than the historic rate would adversely affect the  valuation of many assets in the firm’s financial statements. It is also tied to the demand for  mortgage backed securities, increased default reduces the demand for subprime securitization,  thus reducing New Century Financial’s source of income at a time of increasing obligations. 4. What were the reporting errors identified by the bankruptcy examiner? The bankruptcy examiner noted several inconsistencies with US GAAP. These included  errors in calculating the loan repurchase reserve, the lower-of-cost-or-market (LCM) valuation  of loans held for sale, and the residual interest valuation. Additionally, the methodology used  for the allowance for loan losses (ALL) was known by management to be defective as the  company’s models used poor predictors of future performance to determine the level of reserve  needed. In calculating the repurchase reserve, New Century obtained historic averages and  applied those percentages to loans sold in the last three months as EPD was defined as payment  default occurring in the first three payments. However, since the repurchases were being  processed by several different departments within the company depending on the cause of the  repurchase, there was a backlog in obtaining the data in a timely manner. As loan repurchases  became more frequent, the company continued us ing stale data causing the reserve calculation to  In addition, the company was not properly applying LCM valuation as stated in its own  company policy. Instead of pooling similar loans to determine to conduct LCM analysis, the firm  was performing the analysis on the disaggregated loans and then grouping the loans together  to conduct valuation on the group as a whole. This method resulted in gains from one loan  group offsetting the losses in another causing the LCM valuation to be significantly flawed.  The residual interest valuation methods used were also flawed as the company was using  discount rates which were lower than those used by others in the industry to compute residual  interest. New Century disregarded numerous warnings from their auditors, KPMG, regarding  the low discount rates and failed to provide documentation to justify or support the valuation  methodology used. Furthermore, prepayment rates and loss rates were estimated using historical  data related to activity occurring years prior without adjusting for changing market conditions  which resulted in an overvaluation of residual interest.  While the examiner did not consider the issues in the ALL calculation to be material, this  issue merits attention because the company had been very aggressive in closing loans, many  of which were risky stated income and assets loans to subprime borrowers. New Century  management was aware that their ALL was flawed, although they believed that they were  over-reserved and not under-reserved. As with their other accounting estimates, the company  failed to provide adequate documentation to support assumptions and knowingly relied on poor  predictors, stale data, and defective models. 5. Why did New Century fail? New Century grew rapidly through the late 1990s and early 2000s, however its business  model was not sustainable for the long term. The company relied heavily on subprime borrowers  and offered them a range of risky loan options. Those subprime loans were pooled together and  securitized in effort to reduce the riskiness of the loan pools. However, as high risk borrowers  found themselves unable to make payments on their loans, a cooling real estate market and  increase in interest rates left subprime mortgagors without little options to get out their loans  Aside from those challenges which were shared by all competitors in the industry at the  time, New Century also had several internal weaknesses. The company was strongly focused  on sales and loan production, but failed to adequately monitor and control loan quality. Internal  controls were poor and the audit committee did not sufficiently perform its duties to oversee  the internal audit department and addres s operational risks. Internal auditors identified several  issues regarding loans quality, closings, and servicing, however internal controls over financial  reporting were overlooked. Adding to the company’s gross lack of controls, was the absence  of a stated company accounting policy. The examiner pointed out that merely having a policy  in place to address the accounting methodology and estimates would have greatly affected the  company’s ability to apply appropriate accounting treatment consistent US GAAP.

Forward the Foundation Chapter 9

3 Yet, even so, Hari Seldon could not repress the surge of satisfaction that he felt as he entered his laboratory. How things had changed. It had begun twenty years earlier with his own doodlings on his second-rate Heliconian computer. It was then that the first hint of what was to become parachaotic math came to him in a cloudy fashion. Then there were the years at Streeling University, when he and Yugo Amaryl, working together, attempted to renormalize the equations, get rid of the inconvenient infinities, and find a way around the worst of the chaotic effects. They made very little progress, indeed. But now, after ten years as First Minister, he had a whole floor of the latest computers and a whole staff of people working on a large variety of problems. Of necessity, none of his staff-except for Yugo and himself, of course-could really know much more than the immediate problem they were dealing with. Each of them worked with only a small ravine or outcropping on the gigantic mountain range of psychohistory that only Seldon and Amaryl could see as a mountain range-and even they could see it only dimly, its peaks hidden in clouds, its slopes veiled by mist. Dors Venabili was right, of course. He would have to begin initiating his people into the entire mystery. The technique was getting well beyond what only two men could handle. And Seldon was aging. Even if he could look forward to some additional decades, the years of his most fruitful breakthroughs were surely behind him. Even Amaryl would be thirty-nine within a month and, though that was still young, it was perhaps not overly young for a mathematician-and he had been working on the problem almost as long as Seldon himself. His capacity for new and tangential thinking might be dwindling, too. Amaryl had seen him enter and was now approaching. Seldon watched him fondly. Amaryl was as much a Dahlite as Seldon's foster son, Raych, was, and yet Amaryl, despite his muscular physique and short stature, did not seem Dahlite at all. He lacked the mustache, he lacked the accent, he lacked, it would seem, Dahlite consciousness of any kind. He had even been impervious to the lure of Jo-Jo Joranum, who had appealed so thoroughly to the people of Dahl. It was as though Amaryl recognized no sectoral patriotism, no planetary patriotism, not even Imperial patriotism. He belonged-completely and entirely-to psychohistory. Seldon felt a twinge of insufficiency. He himself remained conscious of his first two decades on Helicon and there was no way he could keep from thinking of himself as a Heliconian. He wondered if that consciousness was not sure to betray him by causing him to skew his thinking about psychohistory. Ideally, to use psychohistory properly, one should be above worlds and sectors and deal only with humanity in the faceless abstract-and this was what Amaryl did. And Seldon didn't, he admitted to himself, sighing silently. Amaryl said, â€Å"We are making progress, Hari, I suppose.† â€Å"You suppose, Yugo? Merely suppose?† â€Å"I don't want to jump into outer space without a suit.† He said this quite seriously (he did not have much of a sense of humor, Seldon knew) and they moved into their private office. It was small, but it was also well shielded. Amaryl sat down and crossed his legs. He said, â€Å"Your latest scheme for getting around chaos may be working in part-at the cost of sharpness, of course.† â€Å"Of course. What we gain in the straightaway, we lose in the roundabouts. That's the way the Universe works. We've just got to fool it somehow.† â€Å"We've fooled it a little bit. It's like looking through frosted glass.† â€Å"Better than the years we spent trying to look through lead.† Amaryl muttered something to himself, then said, â€Å"We can catch glimmers of light and dark.† â€Å"Explain!† â€Å"I can't, but I have the Prime Radiant, which I've been working on like a-a-â€Å" â€Å"Try lamec. That's an animal-a beast of burden-we have on Helicon. It doesn't exist on Trantor.† â€Å"If the lamec works hard, then that is what my work on the Prime Radiant has been like.† He pressed the security keypad on his desk and a drawer unsealed and slid open noiselessly. He took out a dark opaque cube that Seldon scrutinized with interest. Seldon himself had worked out the Prime Radiant's circuitry, but Amaryl had put it together-a clever man with his hands was Amaryl. The room darkened and equations and relationships shimmered in the air. Numbers spread out beneath them, hovering just above the desk surface, as if suspended by invisible marionette strings. Seldon said, â€Å"Wonderful. Someday, if we live long enough, we'll have the Prime Radiant produce a river of mathematical symbolism that will chart past and future history. In it we can find currents and rivulets and work out ways of changing them in order to make them follow other currents and rivulets that we would prefer.† â€Å"Yes,† said Amaryl dryly, â€Å"if we can manage to live with the knowledge that the actions we take, which we will mean for the best, may turn out to be for the worst.† â€Å"Believe me, Yugo, I never go to bed at night without that particular thought gnawing at me. Still, we haven't come to it yet. All we have is this-which, as you say, is no more than seeing light and dark fuzzily through frosted glass.† â€Å"True enough.† â€Å"And what is it you think you see, Yugo?† Seldon watched Amaryl closely, a little grimly. He was gaining weight, getting just a bit pudgy. He spent too much time bent over the computers (and now over the Prime Radiant)-and not enough in physical activity. And, though he saw a woman now and then, Seldon knew, he had never married. A mistake! Even a workaholic is forced to take time off to satisfy a mate, to take care of the needs of children. Seldon thought of his own still-trim figure and of the manner in which Dors strove to make him keep it that way. Amaryl said, â€Å"What do I see? The Empire is in trouble.† â€Å"The Empire is always in trouble.† â€Å"Yes, but it's more specific. There's a possibility that we may have trouble at the center.† â€Å"At Trantor?† â€Å"I presume. Or at the Periphery. Either there will be a bad situation here-perhaps civil war-or the outlying Outer Worlds will begin to break away.† â€Å"Surely it doesn't take psychohistory to point out these possibilities.† â€Å"The interesting thing is that there seems a mutual exclusivity. One or the other. The likelihood of both together is very small. Here! Look! It's your own mathematics. Observe!† They bent over the Prime Radiant display for a long time. Seldon said finally, â€Å"I fail to see why the two should be mutually exclusive.† â€Å"So do I, Hari, but where's the value of psychohistory if it shows us only what we would see anyway? This is showing us something we wouldn't see. What it doesn't show us is, first, which alternative is better, and second, what to do to make the better come to pass and depress the possibility of the worse.† Seldon pursed his lips, then said slowly, â€Å"I can tell you which alternative is preferable. Let the Periphery go and keep Trantor.† â€Å"Really?† â€Å"No question. We must keep Trantor stable, if for no other reason than that we're here.† â€Å"Surely our own comfort isn't the decisive point.† â€Å"No, but psychohistory is. What good will it do us to keep the Periphery intact if conditions on Trantor force us to stop work on psychohistory? I don't say that we'll be killed, but we may be unable to work. The development of psychohistory is on what our fate will depend. As for the Empire, if the Periphery secedes it will only begin a disintegration that may take a long time to reach the core.† â€Å"Even if you're right, Hari, what do we do to keep Trantor stable?† â€Å"To begin with, we have to think about it.† A silence fell between them and then Seldon said, â€Å"Thinking doesn't make me happy. What if the Empire is altogether on the wrong track and has been for all its history? I think of that every time I talk to Gruber.† â€Å"Who's Gruber?† â€Å"Mandell Gruber. A gardener.† â€Å"Oh. The one who came running up with the rake to rescue you at the time of the assassination attempt?† â€Å"Yes. I've always been grateful to him for that. He had only a rake against possibly other conspirators with blasters. That's loyalty. Anyhow, talking to him is like a breath of fresh air. I can't spend all my time talking to court officials and to psychohistorians.† â€Å"Thank you.† â€Å"Come! You know what I mean. Gruber likes the open. He wants the wind and the rain and the biting cold and everything else that raw weather can bring to him. I miss it myself sometimes.† â€Å"I don't. I wouldn't care if I never go out there.† â€Å"You were brought up under the dome-but suppose the Empire consisted of simple unindustrialized worlds, living by herding and farming, with thin populations and empty spaces. Wouldn't we all be better off?† â€Å"It sounds horrible to me.† â€Å"I found some spare time to check it as best I could. It seems to me it's a case of unstable equilibrium. A thinly populated world of the type I describe either grows moribund and impoverished, falling off into an uncultured near-animal level-or it industrializes. It is standing on a narrow point and topples over in either direction and, as it just so happens, almost every world in the Galaxy has fallen over into industrialization.† â€Å"Because that's better.† â€Å"Maybe. But it can't continue forever. We're watching the results of the overtoppling now. The Empire cannot exist for much longer because it has-it has overheated. I can't think of any other expression. What will follow we don't know. If, through psychohistory, we manage to prevent the Fall or, more likely, force a recovery after the Fall, is that merely to ensure another period of overheating? Is that the only future humanity has, to push the boulder, like Sisyphus, up to the top of a hill, only to see it roll to the bottom again?† â€Å"Who's Sisyphus?† â€Å"A character in a primitive myth. Yugo, you must do more reading.† Amaryl shrugged. â€Å"So I can learn about Sisyphus? Not important. Perhaps psychohistory will show us a path to an entirely new society, one altogether different from anything we have seen, one that would be stable and desirable.† â€Å"I hope so,† sighed Seldon. â€Å"I hope so, but there's no sign of it yet. For the near future, we will just have to labor to let the Periphery go. That will mark the beginning of the Fall of the Galactic Empire.† 4 â€Å"And so I said,† said Hari Seldon. † ‘That will mark the beginning of the Fall of the Galactic Empire.' And so it will, Dors.† Dors listened, tight-lipped. She accepted Seldon's First Ministership as she accepted everything-calmly. Her only mission was to protect him and his psychohistory, but that task, she well knew, was made harder by his position. The best security was to go unnoticed and, as long as the Spaceship-and-Sun, the symbol of the Empire, shone down upon Seldon, all of the physical barriers in existence would be unsatisfactory. The luxury in which they now lived-the careful shielding from spy beams, as well as from physical interference; the advantages to her own historical research of being able to make use of nearly unlimited funds-did not satisfy her. She would gladly have exchanged it all for their old quarters at Streeling University. Or, better yet, for a nameless apartment in a nameless sector where no one knew them. â€Å"That's all very well, Hari dear,† she said, â€Å"but it's not enough.† â€Å"What's not enough?† â€Å"The information you're giving me. You say we might lose the Periphery. How? Why?† Seldon smiled briefly. â€Å"How nice it would be to know, Dors, but psychohistory is not yet at the stage where it could tell us.† â€Å"In your opinion, then. Is it the ambition of local faraway governors to declare themselves independent?† â€Å"That's a factor, certainly. It's happened in past history-as you know far better than I-but never for long. Maybe this time it will be permanent.† â€Å"Because the Empire is weaker?† â€Å"Yes, because trade flows less freely than it once did, because communications are stiffer than they once were, because the governors in the Periphery are, in actual fact, closer to independence than they have ever been. If one of them arises with particular ambitions-â€Å" â€Å"Can you tell which one it might be?† â€Å"Not in the least. All we can force out of psychohistory at this stage is the definite knowledge that if a governor of unusual ability and ambition arises, he would find conditions more suitable for his purposes than he would have in the past. It could be other things, too-some great natural disaster or some sudden civil war between two distant Outer World coalitions. None of that can be precisely predicted as of now, but we can tell that anything of the sort that happens will have more serious consequences than it would have had a century ago.† â€Å"But if you don't know a little more precisely what will happen in the Periphery, how can you so guide actions as to make sure the Periphery goes, rather than Trantor?† â€Å"By keeping a close eye on both and trying to stabilize Trantor and not trying to stabilize the Periphery. We can't expect psychohistory to order events automatically without much greater knowledge of its workings, so we have to make use of constant manual controls, so to speak. In days to come, the technique will be refined and the need for manual control will decrease.† â€Å"But that,† said Dors, â€Å"is in days to come. Right?† â€Å"Right. And even that is only a hope.† â€Å"And just what kind of instabilities threaten Trantor-if we hang on to the Periphery?† â€Å"The same possibilities-economic and social factors, natural disasters, ambitious rivalries among high officials. And something more. I have described the Empire to Yugo as being overheated-and Trantor is the most overheated portion of all. It seems to be breaking down. The infrastructure-water supply, heating, waste disposal, fuel lines, everything-seems to be having unusual problems and that's something I've been turning my attention to more and more lately.† â€Å"What about the death of the Emperor?† Seldon spread his hands. â€Å"That happens inevitably, but Cleon is in good health. He's only my age, which I wish was younger, but he isn't too old. His son is totally inadequate for the succession, but there will be enough claimants. More than enough to cause trouble and make his death distressing, but it might not prove a total catastrophe-in the historic sense.† â€Å"Let's say his assassination, then.† Seldon looked up nervously. â€Å"Don't say that. Even if we're shielded, don't use the word.† â€Å"Hari, don't be foolish. It's an eventuality that must be reckoned with. There was a time when the Joranumites might have taken power and, if they had, the Emperor, one way or another-â€Å" â€Å"Probably not. He would have been more useful as a figurehead. And in any case, forget it. Joranum died last year on Nishaya, a rather pathetic figure.† â€Å"He had followers.† â€Å"Of course. Everyone has followers. Did you ever come across the Globalist party on my native world of Helicon in your studies of the early history of the Kingdom of Trantor and of the Galactic Empire?† â€Å"No, I haven't. I don't want to hurt your feelings, Hari, but I don't recall coming across any piece of history in which Helicon played a role.† â€Å"I'm not hurt, Dors. Happy the world without a history, I always say. In any case, about twenty-four hundred years ago, there arose a group of people on Helicon who were quite convinced that Helicon was the only inhabited globe in the Universe. Helicon was the Universe and beyond it there was only a solid sphere of sky speckled with tiny stars.† â€Å"How could they believe that?† said Dors. â€Å"They were part of the Empire, I presume.† â€Å"Yes, but Globalists insisted that all evidence to the effect that the Empire existed was either illusion or deliberate deceit, that Imperial emissaries and officials were Heliconians playing a part for some reason. They were absolutely immune to reason.† â€Å"And what happened?† â€Å"I suppose it's always pleasant to think that your particular world is the world. At their peak, the Globalists may have persuaded 10 percent of the population of the planet to be part of the movement. Only 10 percent, but they were a vehement minority that drowned out the indifferent majority and threatened to take over.† â€Å"But they didn't, did they?† â€Å"No, they didn't. What happened was that Globalism caused a diminishing of Imperial trade and the Heliconian economy slid into the doldrums. When the belief began to affect the pocketbooks of the population, it lost popularity rapidly. The rise and fall puzzled many at the time, but psychohistory, I'm sure, would have shown it to be inevitable and would have made it unnecessary to give it any thought.† â€Å"I see. But, Hari, what is the point of this story? I presume there's some connection with what we were discussing.† â€Å"The connection is that such movements never completely die, no matter how ridiculous their tenets may seem to sane people. Right now, on Helicon, right now there are still Globalists. Not many, but every once in a while seventy or eighty of them get together in what they call a Global Congress and take enormous pleasure in talking to each other about Globalism. Well, it is only ten years since the Joranumite movement seemed such a terrible threat on this world and it would not be at all surprising if there weren't still some remnants left. There may still be some remnants a thousand years from now.† â€Å"Isn't it possible that a remnant may be dangerous?† â€Å"I doubt it. It was Jo-Jo's charisma that made the movement dangerous-and he's dead. He didn't even die a heroic death or one that was in any way remarkable; he just withered away and died in exile, a broken man.† Dors stood up and walked the length of the room quickly, swinging her arms at her sides and clenching her fists. She returned and stood before the seated Seldon. â€Å"Hari,† she said, â€Å"let me speak my mind. If psychohistory points to the possibility of serious disturbances on Trantor, then if there are Joranumites still left, they may still be plotting the Emperor's death.† Seldon laughed nervously. â€Å"You jump at shadows, Dors. Relax.† But he found that he could not dismiss what she had said quite that easily. 5 The Wye Sector had a tradition of opposition to the Entun Dynasty of Cleon I that had been ruling the Empire for over two centuries. The opposition dated back to a time when the line of Mayors of Wye had contributed members who had served as Emperor. The Wyan Dynasty had neither lasted long nor had it been conspicuously successful, but the people and rulers of Wye found it difficult to forget that they had once been-however imperfectly and temporarily-supreme. The brief period when Rashelle, as the self-appointed Mayor of Wye, had challenged the Empire, eighteen years earlier, had added both to Wye's pride and to its frustration. All this made it reasonable that the small band of leading conspirators should feel as safe in Wye as they would feel anywhere on Trantor. Five of them sat around a table in a room in a run-down portion of the sector. The room was poorly furnished but well shielded. In a chair which, by its marginal superiority in quality to the others, sat the man who might well be judged to be the leader. He had a thin face, a sallow complexion, and a wide mouth with lips so pale as to be nearly invisible. There was a touch of gray in his hair, but his eyes burned with an inextinguishable anger. He was staring at the man seated exactly opposite him-distinctly older and softer, his hair almost white, his plump cheeks tending to quiver when he spoke. The leader said sharply, â€Å"Well? It is quite apparent that you have done nothing. Explain that!† The older man said, â€Å"I am an old Joranumite, Namarti. Why do I have to explain my actions?† Gambol Deen Namarti, once the right-hand man of Laskin â€Å"Jo-Jo† Joranum, said, â€Å"There are many old Joranumites. Some are incompetent, some are soft, some have forgotten. Being an old Joranumite may mean no more than that one is an old fool.† The older man sat back in his chair. â€Å"Are you calling me an old fool? Me? Kaspal Kaspalov? I was with Jo-Jo when you had not yet joined the party, when you were a ragged nothing in search of a cause.† â€Å"I am not calling you a fool,† said Namarti sharply. â€Å"I say simply that some old Joranumites are fools. You have a chance now to show me that you are not one of them.† â€Å"My association with Jo-Jo-â€Å" â€Å"Forget that. He's dead!† â€Å"I should think his spirit lives on.† â€Å"If that thought will help us in our fight, then his spirit lives on. But to others-not to us. We know he made mistakes.† â€Å"I deny that.† â€Å"Don't insist on making a hero out of a mere man who made mistakes. He thought he could move the Empire by the strength of oratory alone, by words-â€Å" â€Å"History shows that words have moved mountains in the past.† â€Å"Not Joranum's words, obviously, because he made mistakes. He hid his Mycogenian origins far too clumsily. Worse, he let himself be tricked into accusing First Minister Eto Demerzel of being a robot. I warned him against that accusation, but he wouldn't listen-and it destroyed him. Now let's start fresh, shall we? Whatever use we make of Joranum's memory for outsiders, let us not ourselves be transfixed by it.† Kaspalov sat silent. The other three transferred their gaze from Namarti to Kaspalov and back, content to let Namarti carry the weight of the discussion. â€Å"With Joranum's exile to Nishaya, the Joranumite movement fell apart and seemed to vanish,† said Namarti harshly. â€Å"It would, indeed, have vanished-but for me. Bit by bit and rubble by rubble, I rebuilt it into a network that extends over all of Trantor. You know this, I take it.† â€Å"I know it, Chief,† mumbled Kaspalov. The use of the title made it plain that Kaspalov was seeking reconciliation. Namarti smiled tightly. He did not insist on the title, but he always enjoyed hearing it used. He said, â€Å"You're part of this network and you have your duties.† Kaspalov stirred. He was clearly debating with himself internally and finally he said slowly, â€Å"You tell me, Chief, that you warned Joranum against accusing the old First Minister of being a robot. You say he didn't listen, but at least you had your say. May I have the same privilege of pointing out what I think is a mistake and have you listen to me as Joranum listened to you, even if, like him, you don't take the advice given you?† â€Å"Of course you can speak your piece, Kaspalov. You are here in order that you might do so. What is your point?† â€Å"These new tactics of ours, Chief, are a mistake. They create disruption and do damage.† â€Å"Of course! They are designed to do that.† Namarti stirred in his seat, controlling his anger with an effort. â€Å"Joranum tried persuasion. It didn't work. We will bring Trantor down by action.† â€Å"For how long? And at what cost?† â€Å"For as long as it takes-and at very little cost, actually. A power stoppage here, a water break there, a sewage backup, an air-conditioning halt. Inconvenience and discomfort-that's all it means.† Kaspalov shook his head. â€Å"These things are cumulative.† â€Å"Of course, Kaspalov, and we want public dismay and resentment to be cumulative, too. Listen, Kaspalov. The Empire is decaying. Everyone knows that. Everyone capable of intelligent thought knows that. The technology will fail here and there, even if we do nothing. We're just helping it along a little.† â€Å"It's dangerous, Chief. Trantor's infrastructure is incredibly complicated. A careless push may bring it down in ruins. Pull the wrong string and Trantor may topple like a house of cards.† â€Å"It hasn't so far.† â€Å"It may in the future. And what if the people find out that we are behind it? They would tear us apart. There would be no need to call in the security establishment or the armed forces. Mobs would destroy us.† â€Å"How would they ever learn enough to blame us? The natural target for the people's resentment will be the government-the Emperor's advisers. They will never look beyond that.† â€Å"And how do we live with ourselves, knowing what we have done?† This last was asked in a whisper, the old man clearly moved by strong emotion. Kaspalov looked pleadingly across the table at his leader, the man to whom he had sworn allegiance. He had done so in the belief that Namarti would truly continue to bear the standard of freedom passed on by Jo-Jo Joranum; now Kaspalov wondered if this is how Jo-Jo would have wanted his dream to come to pass. Namarti clucked his tongue, much as a reproving parent does when confronting an errant child. â€Å"Kaspalov, you can't seriously be turning sentimental on us, are you? Once we are in power, we will pick up the pieces and rebuild. We will gather in the people with all of Joranum's old talk of popular participation in government, with greater representation, and when we are firmly in power we will establish a more efficient and forceful government. We will then have a better Trantor and a stronger Empire. We will set up some sort of discussion system whereby representatives of other worlds can talk themselves into a daze-but we will do the governing.† Kaspalov sat there, irresolute. Namarti smiled joylessly. â€Å"You are not certain? We can't lose. It's been working perfectly and it will continue working perfectly. The Emperor doesn't know what's going on. He hasn't the faintest notion. And his First Minister is a mathematician. He ruined Joranum, true, but since then he has done nothing.† â€Å"He has something called-called-â€Å" â€Å"Forget it. Joranum attached a great deal of importance to it, but it was a part of his being Mycogenian, like his robot mania. This mathematician has nothing-â€Å" â€Å"Historical psychoanalysis or something like that. I heard Joranum once say-â€Å" â€Å"Forget it. Just do your part. You handle the ventilation in the Anemoria Sector, don't you? Very well, then. Have it misfunction in a manner of your choosing. It either shuts down so that the humidity rises or it produces a peculiar odor or something else. None of this will kill anyone, so don't get yourself into a fever of virtuous guilt. You will simply make people uncomfortable and raise the general level of discomfort and annoyance. Can we depend on you?† â€Å"But what would only be discomfort and annoyance to the young and healthy may be more than that to infants, the aged, and the sick†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Are you going to insist that no one at all must be hurt?† Kaspalov mumbled something. Namarti said, â€Å"It's impossible to do anything with a guarantee that no one at all will be hurt. You just do your job. Do it in such a way that you hurt as few as possible-if your conscience insists upon it-but do it!† Kaspalov said, â€Å"Look! I have one thing more to say, Chief.† â€Å"Then say it,† said Namarti wearily. â€Å"We can spend years poking at the infrastructure. The time must come when you take advantage of gathering dissatisfaction to seize the government. How do you intend to do that?† â€Å"You want to know exactly how we'll do it?† â€Å"Yes. The faster we strike, the more limited the damage, the more efficiently the surgery is performed.† Namarti said slowly, â€Å"I have not yet decided on the nature of this ‘surgical strike.' But it will come. Until then, will you do your part?† Kaspalov nodded his head in resignation. â€Å"Yes, Chief.† â€Å"Well then, go,† said Namarti with a sharp gesture of dismissal. Kaspalov rose, turned, and left. Namarti watched him go. He said to the man at his right, â€Å"Kaspalov is not to be trusted. He has sold out and it's only so that he can betray us that he wants to know my plans for the future. Take care of him.† The other nodded and all three left, leaving Namarti alone in the room. He switched off the glowing wall panels, leaving only a lonely square in the ceiling to provide the light that would keep him from being entirely in the darkness. He thought: Every chain has weak links that must be eliminated. We have had to do this in the past and the result is that we have an organization that is untouchable. And in the dimness, he smiled, twisting his face into a kind of feral joy. After all, the network extended even into the Palace itself-not quite firmly, not quite reliably, but it was there. And it would be strengthened.

Plutarch Describes the Assassination of Caesar

Plutarch Describes the Assassination of Caesar The Ides of March was the day on which Julius Caesar was assassinated in the year 44 B.C. It was one of the major epoch-changing moments in the history of the world.  The scene of the assassination of Caesar was pretty bloody, with each of the conspirators adding his own knife wound to the fallen body of their leader. Plutarchs Caesar Here are the words of Plutarch on the assassination of Caesar, from the John Dryden translation, revised by Arthur Hugh Clough in 1864, of Plutarchs Caesar, so you can see the gory details for yourself: When Caesar entered, the senate stood up to show their respect to him, and of Brutuss confederates, some came about his chair and stood behind it, others met him, pretending to add their petitions to those of Tillius Cimber, in behalf of his brother, who was in exile; and they followed him with their joint supplications till he came to his seat. When he was sat down, he refused to comply with their requests, and upon their urging him further, began to reproach them severally for their importunities, when Tillius, laying hold of his robe with both his hands, pulled it down from his neck, which was the signal for the assault. Casca gave him the first cut, in the neck, which was not mortal nor dangerous, as coming from one who at the beginning of such a bold action was probably very much disturbed. Caesar immediately turned about, and laid his hand upon the dagger and kept hold of it. And both of them at the same time cried out, he that received the blow, in Latin, Vile Casca, what does this mean? and he that gave it, in Greek, to his brother, Brother, help! Upon this first onset, those who were not privy to the design were astonished and their horror and amazement at what they saw were so great, that they durst not fly nor assist Caesar, nor so much as speak a word. But those who came prepared for the business enclosed him on every side, with their naked daggers in their hands. Which way soever he turned, he met with blows, and saw their swords leveled at his face and eyes, and was encompassed, like a wild beast in the toils, on every side. For it had been agreed they should each of them make a thrust at him, and flesh themselves with his blood; for which reason Brutus also gave him one stab in the groin. Some say that he fought and resisted all the rest, shifting his body to avoid the blows, and calling out for help, but that when he saw Brutuss sword drawn, he covered his face with his robe and submitted, letting himself fall, whether it were by chance, or that he was pushed in that direction by his murderers, at the foot of the pedestal on which Pompeys statue stood, and which was thus wetted with his blood. So that Pompey himself seemed to have presided, as it were, over the revenge done upon his adversary, who lay here at his feet, and breathed out his soul through his multitude of wounds, for they say he received three and twenty.

The Importance of Open and Honest Communication Essays

The Importance of Open and Honest Communication Essays The Importance of Open and Honest Communication Paper The Importance of Open and Honest Communication Paper Name: Instructor: Course: Date: The Importance of Open and Honest Communication Introduction Open and honest communication is vital while interacting with other people, and especially with those people who have special meaning such as families and close friends. It is important that the truth be upheld as much as possible in order to avoid difficult situations that are brought about by telling direct lies or simply altering the truth. The incidences described in these two stories present two men who had earlier opportunities to reveal the truth to those close to them but did not do so, leading to difficult situations later on because of their silence. My Kid’s Dog In this story, the aspect of open and honest communication reveals itself. In this case, the persona should have informed his family about his problem with the dog. It would be better to inform someone about an issue that makes you uncomfortable rather than hurting silently. We can establish that the persona realizes the importance of open and honest communication rather partially than fully. The issue of burying the dog without his family’s knowledge disturbs his conscience and he finally decides to open up. However, he still harbors his problem of being uncomfortable around dogs. The situation could now repeat itself if the family decide to replace Scruffy with another dog. Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot The man in this story remembers how, while still alive, he suspected his wife of being unfaithful but could not confront her because he did not have enough evidence against her. However, now back to life in form of a parrot, he understands that his wife is now a widow looking for another partner and that he has to accept his wife’s decisions. The man now realizes the importance of having an open and honest relationship in marriage. Judging by how he feels, we can tell that he is in regret. It dawns on him that he should have spoken his mind when he had the chance in the previous life. He realizes that it would have been better if he had opened his heart and let his wife know of his problem. However, it is now too late and he cannot change reality. In regret, he looks across from within his cage, sees the blue skies with other birds enjoying the air, and wishes that he too could break out of the cage and fly. Conclusion In conclusion, both the men in these two stories were not honest in their communication with their loved ones but unlike the man in the first story who had several chances to tell the truth, the man in the second story needed evidence to justify his claims. Both of these men also chose to be dishonest in order to maintain a good relationship with their loved ones. Indeed, the two stories have a similar message over open and honest communication. It is important that we always express our honest opinion and decision about the things that face us daily in life to avoid difficult situations in the future.

Prom Date Monologue - Comedic Monologue for Male Actors

Prom Date Monologue - Comedic Monologue for Male Actors This comedic monologue is taken from Promedy, a teen-age comedy about Senior Prom, written by Wade Bradford. Dante is a rather goofy, overly dramatic vice-president of the Student Body. During an ASB meeting, in front of his fellow classmates, he decides to ask Kay, the text-messaging obsessed cheerleader, to be his prom date. Dante:Kay, I know that youre one of the most popular girls in school, and that you scarcely know how to pronounce my name, or use proper grammar. But Ive had a crush on you since the days when you would ignore me in kindergarten all the way to this afternoon when you ignored me in the cafeteria lunch line. Some might say ours is a misunderstood romance. I remember in second grade, I wrote you a note in Mrs. Souplangers class. It said, Do you like me? circle yes or no. My friends said you tore up the note in disgust. But I knew you were ripping up confetti to celebrate our newfound love. I know that you have been pretending to ignore me all these years because secretly, deep down, you know that you like me as much as I like you, probably even more. Well, you dont have to be scared and shy any more. Im going to make both of our wishes come true. Will you go to the prom with me?(Dante reacts to her rejection.)Should I take the rolling of your eyes as a yes? Learn more about the play and its availability.

Railroad Network after the Civil War Assignment

Railroad Network after the Civil War - Assignment Example This essay stresses that the major cause of the Great Migration was the Emancipation Proclamation. It freed the African American society from slavery and allowed for their social rights and freedom as outlined in the U.S constitution. Secondly some of the population moved as a result of pressure from Anti-abolitionist who refused to end the slave trade such as South Carolina, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida. There witnessed increased cases of segregation in these states and widespread violence against the blacks. This paper makes a conclusion that the Korean War was directly responsible for speeding up the militarization of the Cold war. It gave the conflict a massive military dimension and emphasis. Major countries embraced the militarization process with a distinct possibility of a major attack from either side of the two blocks. The U.S entered into a significant rearmament and moved five divisions to Western Europe and urged the rest of the NATO alliance to follow suit. Sara Palin an Alaskan Governor chosen to be nominated for the running mate by the then presidential hopeful John Mc Cain of the Republican Party. During the end of the campaigns, many women changed their perception towards Palin and her ratings dropped significantly. Palin was a fascinating and bold choice for the republicans. However, it is undeniably that she had an unusually minimal success in fulfilling her obligation to assist clinched the presidency for the republican ticket.

ASSIGNMENT 1 CRIMINOLOGY REPORT Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

ASSIGNMENT 1 CRIMINOLOGY REPORT - Essay Example Their seminal work "Relative Deprivation" (1984) had gained considerable attention in the debate between left and right realism approach to crime alleviation. In their work Lea and Young (1984) address the concept of relative deprivation, and explain that it is not a new phenomenon but an old left realist concept. They explain that crime is the by product of material deprivation and poverty. However, they are of the view that relative deprivation occurs where individuals and groups feel they are deprived of social amenities when compared to fellow group members of similar settings and outlook. Relative deprivation is the term they use to categorize criminal behaviour of individuals in groups who may be considered relatively economically sound but due to other causes and factors, motivate them to engage in criminal or deviant behaviour. This explains the behaviour of religious uprising, social movements, disputes, and similar radical movements. Relative deprivation is unlike absolute deprivation which is a biological deprivation phenomenon. Moreover, they explain that relative deprivation helps explain the criminal behaviour of individuals within an otherwise economically sound environment. Riots, uprising and social movements etc. are the collective responses of relative deprivation. This is different than individual crime and, collective criminal activities. Relative deprivation helps one to understand social, religious and political disorders; but more importantly it helps sociologists and policy makers to understand and respond to crime and deviance from a multi-causal perspective. Lea and Young are of the view that there is no single factor which accounts for criminal behaviour. Instead, criminal behaviour comprises of subculture behaviour, relative deprivation and marginalization. When these are linked with other factors such as economic, social or religious etc., then the significance of the crime is explanatory under relative deprivation theory. The

Business organization (law) Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4250 words

Business organization (law) - Essay Example This is the very reason why the reformation of the law on limited partnership in the United Kingdom has earned many controversial comments that has brought together a chance for each particular element and parties involved in the process a hard way of completing the said task successfully. In the paper that follows, the completion of the reformation of the laws on Limited Partnership shall be examined in relation to its pros and cons and how much this particular matter affects the relationships and organizations established within the area of scope of the said law. Among the issues to be tackled herein includes the utilization of the Laws on Limited Partnership as the basis of the establishment of different organizations and agreements on the field of business and other associated connections that links people and/or groups of people sharing a particular vision towards a certain goal. It has been observed that the original released law on the said matter in the year 1890 had been rather accustomed to the past systems of application as per suggested to the guideline pursued by the said set of rules. This is practically the reason why the administration of UK realizes the need to reform the old system to be able to meet the needs of parties forming agreeable partnerships in the present system of organizations. These issues would rather be clarified in the paragraphs that follow through. The Basic Understanding of the Laws on Limited Partnership The laws on limited partnership have been released as an approved law in the UK in 1907 and 1908. It was basically presented to allow the connection of people between each other to form organizations and groups that are based on certain focus that allows the chance for every individual or any particular entity to form agreement with others become a possibility. These agreements are rather formed to establish understanding between the parties involved in the situation being considered. The understanding between the parties is the basic foundation of the creation of group that is well focused on a central goal that is noted as the main motivational force behind the existence of the said agreement form1. Through the years though, the demands of people from the systems of partnerships that they get involved with change. Understandably, the developments in the situation suggest the need for the adjustment of the primary sets of control of the operations of several partnerships in the society. How are these practical operations created and observed carefully to give better protection to the values of the parties involved The following elements of lawful recognition of the different aspects making up the major creations of rules and regulations formed as laws to protect the basic values of the parties involved in the agreement have been practically used as basis of the adjustments that needed to be assessed in connection with the creation of new

Federalism and Separation of Powers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Federalism and Separation of Powers - Essay Example This structural change in the government is embedded in the articles 1-3 of the US constitution and its main agenda is to reduce the tyranny within the country and to control government powers. This essay seeks to analyze the difference between federalism and separation of powers and hence their influence on the current state of governance. In a federal system, the national government grants power to the states government to apply own strategies in their own state and to induce innovation according to the laws of the state. In other words, each state is a free entity and is free to exercise own policies and to engage in diverse government cultures as they deem fit for the people of the particular state (Gerston, 2007). The advocates of this system support it on the ground that it is the best practice that is only effective in managing a diversified population such as one that exists in the United States, and that it allows the local people to have a better access to their leaders (Topher, 2007). In addition, each state is allowed to be creative and to learn from other states that are successful. In this system, the country government reserves most of the powers and acts by controlling power in the United States. However, the federal government has the disadvantage that it allows a non-unified policy implementation which often brings out confusion among the people, and that power control is minimal. The effect of the separation of powers is that the three branches of the government would act as a check and balance mechanism to protect the people over power abuse. Any policy would have to be analyzed by each branch of the government before its implementation. There is quite a difference in the two systems of power sharing with regard to the current system of power sharing in the US government. For instance, in the federal system, the citizens in overlapping states may be faced with confusion and they may

Global marketing ethic and culture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Global marketing ethic and culture - Essay Example hese two giants turned into a contentious issue that included business rivalry, questions over ethics, loss of jobs and nationalistic feelings, to boot. This paper examines the issue from the above mentioned angles and applies management theory to the case where relevant to establish linkages between theory and practice. The first and foremost issue that was raised by the proposed takeover is the fact of monopolistic tendencies arising out of a conglomeration of two business giants. The next issue is that of undervaluation and the correct pricing structure to be applied in such a case. Further, the interests of stakeholders have to be considered as well. Finally, the issue of job losses and nationalistic sentiment playing upon the emotions of the parties involved in the debate has to be considered as well. The proposed takeover and the aftermath of the proposal turned into a business saga replete with all the action and drama one would normally associate with a business thriller. When Kraft first approached Cadbury with an intention to purchase it at a valuation of $16.2 Billion in late 2009, the offer was rejected outright by Cadbury which claimed that at this price Cadbury was undervalued. Subsequently, the offer bid was revised and Kraft even went to the extent of mounting a hostile takeover bid. After a corporate battle that lasted well over two months, both parties announced in January this year that they have agreed to a merger between the two at a valuation for Cadbury at $18.9 Billion. As one of the trade journals put it, â€Å"The historic acquisition of Cadbury International by Kraft Foods Inc. of US has just been concluded. After a five-month siege, Kraft Foods on the 19th of January, 2009 won the highly-publicised battle for Cadbury, turning its hostile approach friendly and securing the support of the UK confectioner’s board in its takeover bid. As the dust settles, industry watchers are asking what this remarkable development holds for the global

Federalism and Separation of Powers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Federalism and Separation of Powers - Essay Example This structural change in the government is embedded in the articles 1-3 of the US constitution and its main agenda is to reduce the tyranny within the country and to control government powers. This essay seeks to analyze the difference between federalism and separation of powers and hence their influence on the current state of governance. In a federal system, the national government grants power to the states government to apply own strategies in their own state and to induce innovation according to the laws of the state. In other words, each state is a free entity and is free to exercise own policies and to engage in diverse government cultures as they deem fit for the people of the particular state (Gerston, 2007). The advocates of this system support it on the ground that it is the best practice that is only effective in managing a diversified population such as one that exists in the United States, and that it allows the local people to have a better access to their leaders (Topher, 2007). In addition, each state is allowed to be creative and to learn from other states that are successful. In this system, the country government reserves most of the powers and acts by controlling power in the United States. However, the federal government has the disadvantage that it allows a non-unified policy implementation which often brings out confusion among the people, and that power control is minimal. The effect of the separation of powers is that the three branches of the government would act as a check and balance mechanism to protect the people over power abuse. Any policy would have to be analyzed by each branch of the government before its implementation. There is quite a difference in the two systems of power sharing with regard to the current system of power sharing in the US government. For instance, in the federal system, the citizens in overlapping states may be faced with confusion and they may

Trade and the Multinational Enterprise Coursework - 4

Trade and the Multinational Enterprise - Coursework Example Market size and economic stability are found to be main motivations for investment. The findings provide an opportunity for justification of the study hypotheses as well as future recommendations. The case study given is the German FDI in China. China is the third leading country beneficiary of the Foreign Direct Investment. In 2003-2004, the country realized the highest investment with Germany been one the countries that invested greatly in China. Since then, the trade ties between the two countries have steadily been increasing. Currently, there are more than 1500 Germany firms that have invested in China. In point of fact, Germany is the leading European country trading partner with China. Research conducted by scholars Bernard and Jensen in 2002 showed that there were approximately $ 51.7 billion of FDI in China. In 2003, foreign investment increased up to $ 53 billion (China Statistics, 2007). The country attracted $ 61 billion in 2004. From the statistics, it can be seen that the FDI index has been increasingly drastically. Furthermore, the FDI index was ranked the top position. A study conducted by the Financial Times noted that in developing states, the Republic of Ch ina is the largest foreign direct investment beneficiary country. The research explores the OLI paradigm in the context of German FDI in China. OLI is an abbreviation for Ownership, Location, and Internalization (Agarwal, Gubitz & Nunnenkamp, 2006). The three are prime bases that underlie an enterprise’s decision to grow in a multinational company. In the context of this paper, ownership advantages help addresses the subject of why some companies go abroad and not others. Location advantages answers the question of which is the most appropriate location to establish a firm in a foreign country. Lastly, internalization focuses on the influences of a firm’s operation in

Mongol Empire and Silk Road Essay Example for Free

Mongol Empire and Silk Road Essay The Silk Road is a touchstone for world history. It was a rich trans-regional vehicle for the transmission of art, religion, science and disease that also affords a glimpse into the politics and economic systems of the pre-modern world. . The Silk Road in World History (Suggested writing time – 40 minutes) You should spend at least 10 minutes reading, analyzing, and grouping the sources. Directions: The following question is based on the accompanying Sources 1 6. (The sources have been edited for the purpose of this exercise). The question is designed to test your ability to work with and understand historical sources. Write an essay that: Â · Has a relevant thesis and supports that thesis with evidence from the sources. Â · Uses all of the sources. Â · Analyzes the sources by grouping them in as many appropriate ways as possible and does not simply summarize the sources individually. Â · Takes into account both the sources of the documents and the authors points of view. You may refer to relevant historical information not mentioned in the sources. Prompt: To what extent did the Silk Road create an interconnected network? What kinds of additional documentation would help assess the role of the Silk Road in creating interconnected network from the 2nd century C.E. to the 13th century? Source 1 Source: Roman historian, Cassius Dio, 164 224 C.E., commented on a celebration the Roman emperor, Julius Caesar, staged in his own honor around 50 B.C.E. If I mention one feature of his [Caesars] extravagance at that time, I shall thereby give an idea of all the rest. In order that the sun might not annoy any of the spectators, he had curtains stretched over them made of silk, according to some accounts. Now this fabric is a device of barbarian luxury, and has come down from them even to us to gratify the fastidious taste of fine ladies. Source 2 Source: Sima Qian, The Records of the Grand Historian, about Zhang Qian, a diplomat who traveled to the court of the Yuezhi for the Han Emperor Wudi, 1st century B.C.E. Zhang Qian was the first person to bring back a clear account of the Dayuan [present day Krygystan and Uzbekistan]. Anzi [Parthian Persia] is situated several thousand li [a little more than a third of a mile] west of the region of the Great Yuezhi. The people are settled on the land, cultivating the fields and growing rice and wheat. They also make wine out of grapes. . Source 3 Source: Faxian, A Chinese Buddhist Monks Travels in India and Ceylon, 399 411 C.E. From this place [Central Asia], we traveled southeast, passing by a succession of very many monasteries, with a multitude of monks . When stranger monks arrive at any monastery, the old residents meet and receive them . Source 4 Source: Anonymous assistant to a Chinese merchant, A Record of Musings On the Eastern Capital, about Hangzhou, capital of the Southern Sung Dynasty, 1235. During the morning hours, markets extend from Tranquility Gate of the palace all the way to the north and south sides of the New Boulevard. Here we find pearl, jade, talismans, exotic plants and fruits, seasonal catches from the sea, wild game all the rarities of the world seem to be gathered here. Some of the hustlers are students who failed to achieve any literary distinction. Though able to read and write, and play musical instruments and chess, they are not highly skilled in any art. They end up being a kind of guide for young men from wealthy families, accompanying them in their pleasure-seeking activities. Source 5 Source: Friar John of Monte Corvino, Letter to the West, one of two letters written to his fellow Franciscans around 1295. John was sent by Pope Nicolas IV to try to make an alliance with the Mongols against the Mamluk rulers of Egypt. I, Friar John of Monte Corvino, of the Order of Friars Minor, departed from Tauris, a city of the Persians, in the year of the Lord 1291, and proceeded to India. And I remained in the country of India, wherein stands the church of St. Thomas the Apostle, for thirteen months, . I proceeded on my further journey and made my way to Cathay, the realm of the emperor of the Mongols who is called the Great Khan. To him I presented the letter of our lord the pope, and invited him to adopt the Catholic faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, but he had grown too old in idolatry. However he bestows kindnesses upon the Christians, and these two years past I am abiding with him. Source 6 Source: Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, a Venetian merchant who may have worked for the Yuan dynasty, the Mongol rulers of China, late 13th century. This excerpt is a description of Hangzhou, a southern city that was part of the Yuan empire. There are within the city ten principal squares or market places, besides innumerable shops along the streets. . On the nearer bank stand large stone warehouses provided for merchants who arrive from India and other parts with their goods and effects. They are thus situated conveniently close to the market squares. In each of these, three days in every week, from forty to fifty thousand persons come to these markets and supply them with every article that could be desired.

Impact Of Globalization On Fashion And Pharmaceutical Industries Economics Essay

Impact Of Globalization On Fashion And Pharmaceutical Industries Economics Essay Globalization is a broad concept and it has been defined in many ways by different authors. According to Freedman(1999 ,p 156) and Woods(2000,p78), globalization means various quantitative and qualitative developments ranging from a dramatic increase in international transactions, especially in finance, to the international and spatial reorganization of production, the global harmonization of tastes and standards, liberalization, deregulation, privatization, the arrival of new information technologies, the global diffusion of information, values, and ideas, massive population transfers, trends towards a universal world culture, the spread of a worldwide preference for democracy, and the erosion of the nation state. Globalization has different dimensions like economic, cultural, political and environmental. It has different impacts on different industries with varying intensities based on these different dimensions. In this essay, the impact of globalization on fashion and pharmaceuti cal industries are examined and compared. This is to examine the differing intensities with which globalization affects these two industries. In the next two sections, the different impacts of globalization on fashion and pharmaceutical industries are discussed separately. In the last section, the impact of globalization on both these industries is compared and conclusions are made. 2. Impact of Globalization on Fashion Industry The most important elements of fashion industry are textile, clothing or apparel and footwear industries. It also includes food, housing, music, automobiles, perfumery and beauty products. According to Davis (1992), one main distinguishing feature of fashion industry is its ability to differentiate between different social classes or otherwise called social differentiation. For example, the most fashionable items are always very expensive and can be purchased by the upper class while the middle class goes for cheaper items. This made it necessary to produce the fashionable items in cheaper price in the fashion industry to achieve the selling target (Graham et al, 2006). Globalization affects fashion industry through the production, distribution and marketing channels. One main impact of globalization is to keep the people informed and updated on each and every new trend in the fashion industry through old and new media like radio, television, newspapers, internet, mobile phones etc. Consequently, now there is a tendency for imitating Western fashion all over the world replacing the traditional clothing in each nation. For example to highlight secularism, a ban has been imposed on women wearing headscarfs in France by considering wearing headscarf as a traditional religious symbol. The government considered wearing headscarf adversely affecting the immigrants to assimilate into the Western culture, which is called cultural assimilation (Huntington, 1997). This cultural assimilation is an important impact of globalization in fashion industry. The updating of new trends in the fashion industry was based on the economies of scale approach. This is intended to obtain new trends in fashion to all markets at appropriate times and at the correct prices for reducing the total production costs. The need for reducing production costs has resulted in the tendency among the developed nations to outsource production to developing nations like China where the production will be cheaper. This has adversely affected the local business in developed nations and violates the economies of scale principle. The local industries got affected badly because of this outsourcing of production and many of them were not able to continue operating consequently. Eg: producing a brand, t-shirt in Western China where no minimum wage regulations are there instead of producing it in Australia for reducing the production cost. In this case, achieving high profit margin in Australia is very difficult compared to that in China (Purdy, 2000). Globalization has changed this phenomenon however by reducing the transportation and communication costs and thereby increasing the accessibility of people to new fashions all over the world. This has also increased the speed of production in fashion compared to the olden days. The modern communication tools like internet forums have enabled the development and spreading of new technological innovations, which has increased the effectiveness of production in all nations. Globalization has thus resulted in more exchange of ideas and information regarding the availability of textile fabrics and production, which has also resulted in a rise in the demand for products. The consequence of all these was the brand names monopolizing the fashion industry and the spread of individualistic attitude instead of post materialistic especially among the middle classes. Base on these global conditions, the trends in fashion industry were to tempt the individuals for self-improvement instead of accepting them as they are. The most visible example of this can be seen from the growing trend of becoming thin models as the ideals of female beauty. This has proved to be anatomically more correct and has several psychological and physiological impacts. However, the negative side is that this has created by the pressure among female models for becoming thin models (Collins, 1997). The merits of globalization in fashion industry can be considered as the shift in the trends among the middle class from buying outsourced products under the influence of post materialistic ideologies to buy more locally produced ones. However, the problem is that the population of middle class is seen to be decreasing compared to the other groups. In addition to these, another impact of globalization was the shift in the production from developing to developed nations to go with the principle of economies of scale mostly under the influence of new and old media all over the world. However, this cannot be considered as a favourable trend especially under the scenario of the present economic crisis (Graham et al, 2006). According to Abarnathy et al (2003), the globalization of textile and clothing industry is not a new one and its history can be traced back to even the twelfth century. According to this study, in the earlier days the globalization was concerned with movement of labour and capital across nations based on comparative factor costs and productivities for labour, capital and other inputs between nations and their impact on product costs, changes in international exchange rates, quotas and tariffs. In the present scenario, the movement of labour and capital is based on some other aspects of distribution in addition to these like lean retailing, product proliferation, onshore and offshore outsourcing. The Multi Fibre Arrangement that has been existing in the textile industry for many years ended in 2005 with the decision of all WTO members to eliminate all quotas on textiles. China after accessing WTO in 2002 became a quota free nation in the WTO in the same year. The overall picture in the fashion industry thus shows that globalization has resulted in falling transportation and communication costs .This has significantly affected the growth of the markets in the industry .The concept of lean retailing has developed combining reduced transportation and communication costs as well as new technical innovations. The main problem however with the lean retailing is that it has enhanced the pricing pressures (Abarnathy et al, 2003). As a part of globalization process, the quotas on textiles also were removed with effect from 2005. 3. Impact of Globalization on Pharmaceutical Industry In the case of pharmaceutical industry, globalization has its effect through the combination of technological and economic dimensions (SickBlog, 2009). The focus of this industry is to research, develop and distribute drugs. Globalization process affects the industry through three major segments namely production, research and development and marketing. In the present era of globalization, it is reported in many studies that big companies in the industry, which were once in their better times, are now in difficult stages mainly due to inefficient Research and Development (RD)(Dufala,2007;Pouw,2008 etc). The established companies are reported to have failed in producing new items into the market mainly due to the rising RD costs. For example, Pfizer, which was the fourth largest multinational pharmaceutical corporation in the world, is now facing very bad time with a 10-year market exclusivity granted to new drugs. Globalization has resulted in enhanced availability of information, which has changed the role of doctors (Dufala, 2007). For example, in the case of patients who have information from internet, the decisions made by doctors are found to be questionable. Thus, the enhanced availability of information has affected the value chain in pharmaceuticals. It has also made the regulatory agencies to be more cautious. Thus, globalization process has affected the marketing by shifting towards patients. As a consequence of globalization, the generic markets are reported to be growing by taking advantage of the market exclusivity of original drugs and producing in low cost places for eg: Ranbaxi and Teva. In addition to these two developments, may small biotechnology companies face problems due to the difficulty in financing the projects in these companies (Dufala, 2007). All the developments as a part of globalization process have resulted in enhancing competition in the industry while it has not increased pressures for restructuring unlike other industries. Contract Research Organizations (CROs) have prominent role because of globalization process (Shuchman, 2007). The globalization has resulted in increased mergers and acquisitions of the CROs. Examples of CRO s are Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD), Quintiles, Parexel, Kendle and Covance. The CROs are technologically very innovative and makes se of new business concepts. Thus, it can be seen that CROs were the main actors who were able to utilize the benefits of globalization .At the same time big pharmaceutical companies were not able to do so. It is argued that globalization has improved the conditions of developing nations by improving access to medication by joining organizations like World Trade Organization (WTO). This has been enabled through compulsory licensing or by importing cheaper versions of drugs before the expiry of patents (Slick Blog, 2009). On the other hand, it is argued that the Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which increases the scope, duration and coverage of the industrial patents of the WTO members, has marginalized the traditional knowledge of local people. Moreover, it has been argued that the growth and development of the domestic pharmaceutical companies are adversely affected by TRIPS (Pouw, 2008). However, exceptional cases are the Indian pharmaceutical companies like Ranbaxi and When Cipla, which have obtained significant growth and expanded their operations. It is also argued that globalization has adversely affected the developing nations through some other ways. In spite of the TRIPS having clause that exempts nations suffering from diseases like AIDS from patent observation, nations like America opposed this through international law suits .Thus many developing nations like South Africa were left in a difficult situation (Slick Blog, 2009). Hence, it is argued that TRIPS has supported in establishing the dominance of some big pharmaceutical companies and rising their presence worldwide (Pouw, 2008). The pharmaceutical industry has fond out the solution for this by outsourcing the production and research and development process as a part of the globalization process. These were intended to make them more cost effective in response to their rising costs. However studies have shown that these costs have been overestimated(Sampath,2005) .For example, the average cost of developing a pharmaceutical drug includes the costs of borrowing mone y to finance the RD process and the marketing costs of the product in addition to the costs of RD. This has overestimated the total RD costs. In addition to these, as a part of the globalization process, the big pharmaceutical companies are forced to perform many human trials with their new drugs before releasing them to the market. However, the main problem with this is that most consumers are reported not to be willing to participate in this process. For example, the consumers were not willing to participate in the phase three trial of Macugen, the eye disease drug by Pfizer (Shah, 2006). It is argued that the reforms as a part of the globalization process has resulted in a national ruin by the developing nations through opening of markets and through the loans provided by IMF and World Bank attached with stringent conditions (Harvey, 2005). Globalization has also affected the marketing process in pharmaceutical industry through preventing the direct to consumer marketing in most countries and promoting advertisement through global media. This type of advertisement through global media is reported to have created distorted images of health and diseases (Petryna and Kleinman, 2006).For example, the diseases like AIDS , are picturized as incurable by these advertisements which has resulted in the marginalization of many developing nations. Moreover, most of the advertisements have been related to allergic diseases rather than the real health crises. This has resulted in creating distorted images of many diseases and medicines. Overall, it is reported that the globalization process has increased the profits in pharmaceutical industry through reducing RD and production costs. This has necessitated the need for sustainable capital, which has resulted in the mergers of big pharmaceutical companies. Thus, the big pharmaceutical companies have started monopolizing the industry leaving the developing nations to be exploited for cheap labour and drug testing (Pouw, 2008,). The outsourcing process, which is supposed to offset the rising costs in the industry, is reported to have negative implications as discussed here. The public private partnerships, where the governments and big companies work together for resolving health crises, however are expected to bring many advantages for the developing nations (Bull and McNeill, 2007). 4. Conclusion In this essay, the impact of globalization on two industries the fashion industry and pharmaceutical industry are discussed. In the case of fashion industry, the globalization impacts are through the combination of cultural, technological and economic dimensions. In the case of pharmaceutical industries, the impact is through a combination of cultural and economic dimensions. In the case of both the industries, globalization has resulted in decreasing the transportation and communication costs. Moreover, it enhances the availability of information through the world media. In the case of fashion industry, these have resulted in a shift from using the outsourced products by the middle class to more locally produced items based on the economies of scale principle. This has resulted in shifting labour from developing to developed nations .Though this is intended to make the production in a more cost effective manner, it is not obtained to be favourable in the present economic condition. The impact of globalization has affected the production, distribution and marketing sides of this industry. The increased availability of information had its impact through the cultural dimension of globalization in the case of fashion industry. The positive impacts of globalization in this industry include aspects like enhancing the speed of production, reducing time lag between production and delivery and creating an individualistic approach necessitating the need for self-improvement. At the same time, negative impacts include the shifting of labour from developed to developing nations. In the case of pharmaceutical industry, the focus is on the research and development of drugs in addition to its production. Hence, globalization affects this industry through three channels production, research and development as well as marketing unlike the fashion industry. The reduction in transportation and communication costs had its economic and technological impacts. Though this has helped in reducing the production and RD costs, this had created dominance for the big pharmaceutical corporations. The enhanced availability of information made the public more aware of the adverse effects of drugs and hence made the decisions of doctors in some cases questionable .This can be considered as a positive aspect of globalization in the industry. At the same time, the enhanced communication through worldwide media has created distorted images in the minds of public regarding many diseases and the concept of health itself. Thigh the globalization process has increased the profitability of the industry; this has resulted in the monopoly of multinational giants in the industry. This has adversely affected the domestic pharmaceutical companies with only a very few exceptions. In the case of pharmaceutical industry, globalization process ahs resulted in creating prominent role for third party players like the CROs unlike the fashion industry. Many big companies who were earlier profitable got adversely affected due to the rising production and RD costs. Outsourcing which was fond as a solution to this had many negative cultural and economic effects. However, compared to the fashion industry the effects of outsourcing were not so intense in the pharmaceutical industry, which can be understood from the discussion. In the case of fashion industry, Quotas and tariffs were eliminated on textiles as a part of the decision of WTO members. In the case of pharmaceutical industries, TRIPS agreement was aimed to assist the developing nations by increasing the access to medication for developing nations. At the same time, TRIPS was obtained to leave the developing nations in difficult situation by marginalizing them in many cases. In the case of fashion industry, the globalization process has resulted in increasing competition and restructuring of the industry with a shift of labour from developing to developed nations. However, in the case of pharmaceutical industry, though globalization ahs resulted in enhanced competition, it has not resulted in the restructuring of the entire industry. Rather, it has created the emergence of the third party players, the CROs that made use of new business concepts and technological innovations. The above discussion thus shows that globalization process has affected both the fashion and pharmaceutical industries but through different intensities. The dimensions of globalization through which it affects both the industries are also little bit different. In the case of similar dimensions of globalization also, the intensities of impacts are different for both the industries depending on the nature and structure of both the industries. Globalization affects both the industries through different channels in spite of the similarities. Hence, it can be concluded that industry specific factors play important role in determining the intensity of the impact of globalization on each industry. The discussion above thus shows that industry specific studies are more relevant in examining the impact of globalization. Though globalization has both positive and negative impacts on industry performance, a generalized picture cannot be obtained in this regard. Macro studies may conceal many f actors regarding the impact of globalization as is clear from the discussion above.