PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLANNING Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT PLANNING - Essay Example Global financial managers discuss and evaluate the financial parameters of business planning and performance. The course of Global Financial Management provides the students with a deep in-sight into the strategies used by the financial institutions and intermediaries to operate successfully in a highly dynamic and challenging environment. Students are taught the structure of financial markets, the factors that play a role in the development and breakdown of financial markets, and the way financial markets operate. The pathway of Global Financial Management provides a clear and coherent framework and educates and trains the students so that they can fully understand the challenges and deliver in the field of accounting and finance. The pathway of Global Financial Management enables the students to develop their employability skills by teaching them the mathematical techniques and operations involved in accounting and finance. Students are taught financial report writing which is a very important skill in the field of accounting and finance. Innovative financial management and strategic financial planning are some of the most required and relevant skills in the contemporary market driven by creativity and innovation. Students understand the financial capital markets in detail and develop the knowledge of annual company accounts. The pathway polishes the students’ ability to determine cashflows for the organization they work for and creates an understanding of latest developments in business thinking in the students. As a result of taking this course, students become deep thinkers and their ability to make informed decisions is improved. The pathway of Global Financial Management prepares the students to work in a variety of areas that include but are not limited to corporate finance, trading, banking, real estate,

Enhanced Reading Instructions Essay Example for Free

Enhanced Reading Instructions Essay Differentiated Instructional need of students makes it imperative for a teacher to plan out her instruction in small groups and separate reading centres to give students ample practice. Teachers form small flexible groups of students ,meeting twice or thrice a week for a specific time. The teacher draws up similar structure† to generate ideas, stimulate thinking, make plans and create a desire†. (Cited in Guiding writing and Observing Reading, p. 385). Teachers† find more opportunity to use their knowledge and skills more fully and effectively†. (cited in Making Instructional Decisions, p. 461). â€Å"Many use alternative strategies in   order to meet the special need of the students† (Modifying Lessons, p. 461) Alternative lesson structures recommends the use of at least two types of lesson structures. One Guided Reading and the other Skill Focused Lessons. It follows a pattern where the text is selected, introduced, read and discussed. In a Teacher- led- centre, â€Å"the option most favored today, centre on integrated curriculum, an effort to connect the language arts with other subject areas, often through themes. Integration is encouraged across all subject areas, including math â€Å". (Basal Readers and Instructional Materials, Chp13, p. 0) â€Å"Skill development and practice activities are often interspersed with creative enrichment ideas in the teacher’s guide. †(Chp13, p. 460) Students who need focused learning to become fluent and accurate in their usage, Skill Focused Lessons are planned out by a teacher, like †writing, talking,.. brainstorming role playing, doodling, drawing, cartooning, jotting own ideas, taking notes, interviewing and even forming mental images through visualization and graphic organizers. †(Guiding Writing and Observing Reading p. 385). Thus guidelines are set , which help enhance effective reading writing in a classroom. Reference http://www.fcrr.org/assessment/pdf/smallgroupalternativelessonstructures.pdf

Design of Wind Turbine Control

Design of Wind Turbine Control ABSTRACT The main objective of this report is the design and analysis of the control of the wind turbine. In order to ensure an efficient energy capture from the wind and at the same time the mitigation of loads at natural frequencies, it will be designed the operating strategy of the machine. Furthermore, the control of the wind turbine will be also designed in order to ensure a stable performance of the system given the stochastic nature of the wind. As a last task, it will be analysed the differences and importance of having a system with a good or reduced crossover frequency. Introduction The exploitation of wind energy is undoubtedly the most popular tool for the tackling of climate change all over the world. The development of wind turbines has led to a variable speed pitch regulated configuration that aims to extract energy from the wind as efficiently as possible. As the penetration of wind energy becomes more and more significant in modern power systems, there is a need to meet certain criteria and quality of generation in order to maintain the reliability and security of supply above certain levels. In order to achieve an optimize energy capture and prevent the machine from excessive loads, the design of both operating strategy and controller of the plant need to be carried out. The difficulty of the design relies on the stochastic nature of the wind, so a carefully and detailed approach is needed. Also, as the controller of the turbine is the heart of its operation, the design of this will become more and more difficult with the size of the turbine [1]. The larger the turbine, the more structurally flexible the mechanical parts will become and it is at this point where the fatigue loads become a major concern, as they are closely related to the operating life of the machine and also to the operational and maintenance costs. The purpose of this report is to highlight the importance of the controller and the contribution to the energy capture, as well as the design of a suitable operating strategy that maximized the reduction of loads while ensuring an efficient performance. 2.1 Baseline and procedure The main objective of the control design of any wind turbine is to obtain a good trade-off between energy and loads. In variable speed pitch regulated turbines it is controlled both pitch and torque. The former is controlled to limit the aerodynamic power in above-rated power (hence, the loads), while the latter is primarily used to control the transmission torque in above rated wind speeds and to maximize energy capture below the rated power region. The operating strategy must be carefully design in order to achieve maximum power capture while limiting the aerodynamic loads in the mechanical parts of the wind turbine, as they are critical aspects of the lifetime of the machine. Therefore, the design of the operating strategy must include load reduction as an explicit objective. In this report, the design of the operating strategy has been carried out with a special focus on the control of the tower and drive train resonances, as well as the mitigation of the blade loads. In order to design the operating strategy, it has been provided a model of a 1.5 MW variable speed, pitch regulated turbine. In the model, it was obtained the mechanical characteristics of the machine (Blade length, Gearbox ratio and so on), along with the power coefficient values for below rated operation, where the pitch of the blades was -2 degrees and is fixed for below rated operation. With the above data, it was possible to set the Cp-ÃŽÂ » curve of the machine. This type of curves are used in wind turbine design to obtain rotor power for any combination of rotor and wind speed. By building this curve it is possible to obtain the maximum power capture. This is given by the power coefficient Cp, that it is a relationship between the power in the wind stream and the power generated by the turbine [2]. The desired operating strategy must try to achieve the maximum power capture, and hence the maximum value of Cp, and such operating point determines the optimum tip speed ratio ( ÃŽÂ »), which is the ratio between the rotor speed and the wind speed. Once the optimum point of power extraction is set, it is possible to build the model of the machine. For this machine, the generator will operate in a range between 1 rad/s and 170 rad/s. Therefore, having the gearbox ratio, it is possible to obtain the rotor speed given the following equation: By obtaining the range of rotor speeds of the machine, it can now be calculated the necessary wind speed for each rotor speed with the following equation: Where ÃŽÂ » represents the optimum tip speed ratio of the machine, which corresponds to a value of 8.4 in this design (for a Cpmax of 0.47). This range of wind speeds is used to obtain the aerodynamic torque, which is a function of the rotor speed and wind speed (when the pitch angle is fixed). Therefore, it is possible to derive the aero torque by the following equation: Where the values of and correspond to the optimum operating point. That is, for a given wind speed and rotor speed, the objective is to produce a torque such that the power extraction from the wind is maximum. Thus, the above equation will provide the torque values for the maximum energy tracking region. On the other hand, it is necessary to obtain the generator torque, as this will be used in order to determine the end of the first and second constant speed (To and T1). As it can be seen in the equation below, the damping losses have been considered. For this design, a damping of 5 has been assumed. The generator toque can be obtained by the following equation. Now it is possible to obtain the power generated in the machine by having an efficiency of 95% in this machine: And the torque at rated power of the machine is given by: The point where the rated power curve crosses with the second constant speed line, will determine the torque which will be generating at above rated operation. Finally, it has been calculated the values for the constant speed curves of the operating strategy. It has been applied equation 2.3, setting the wind speed constant (from 4 m/s to 12m/s) and calculated the torque for the different values of Cp and ÃŽÂ ». The resulting operating strategy will be such that will cross every constant wind speed by the point at which is the optimum power extraction point (Cpmax). 2.2 Operating strategy process Several factors must be considered in an operating strategy design. Having obtained the values in the previous section, it is possible to plot the maximum power extraction curve. The design must have special focus on the natural frequencies of the tower and blades. For this design, it has been provided the natural frequencies of both components. For the tower, the side-side and fore-aft frequencies. For the blades, the edge and flap frequencies were provided. Based on this, it must be analysed and compare those frequencies with the rotor speed (P), the 3P and the 6P component. It is desirable to design an operating strategy that avoids operating at multiples of the structural frequencies, as they are critical points of operation where the mechanical loads increase and the lifetime of the turbine can be reduced due to fatigue loads. Besides, the strategy must ensure a smooth switching at the first and second constant speeds with the operating curve. This has been achieved by setting both constant speed lines with a minimum length, in such way that the controller of the turbine is switching the to different operation modes excessively, as this could reduce the efficiency of the machine. Another important aspect to look at when designing the operating strategy, is to ensure that the wind turbine operation is not close to the stall front. The stall front curve is the curve that connects the maximum point of the constant wind speed curves. It determines the beginning of the stall region where the blades will be exposed to high loads and the power extraction will not operate efficiently. Based on the above, the design of the operating strategy was carried out. The first constant wind speed was set at 1.2 rad/s, avoiding a 6P frequency in the blades (flap natural frequency) that would appear at approximately 1 rad/s. As the design of the operating strategy must be a trade-off between energy capture and reduction of loads, it was decided the above as the best option for this machine. Rotor speed (rad/s) Generator torque (Nm) Aerodynamic Torque (Nm) Fist constant speed region (end) T0 1.2 1432.923 163076 Second constant speed region (beginning) T1 2.02 4640.24 462004 Rated torque 2.02 10137 853106 Table 2.0 generator torque at constant speed switching point The beginning of the second constant speed region is determined by the maximum generator speed which has been set at 170 rad/s (2.02 rad/s at the rotor side). It can be seen in Figure 2.0 the operating strategy curve of the machine, where it can be appraised that the operating strategy has avoided the 6P natural frequency stated above. The stall region is far enough from the operating region of the machine, ensuring a good performance and better efficiency. Figure 2.0 Aerodynamic torque-rotor speed diagram. Operating strategy curve of the wind turbine 2.3 Discussion of results In general terms, the design of the machine has been successfully carried out, as it can be seen in Figure 2.0, covering the following critical aspects of any operating strategy of a wind turbine: After carefully analysed the natural frequencies and compared with the 3P and 6P resonance frequencies, it has been set the cut-in speed of the machine at 1.2 rad/s. Also, this strategy will ensure that the damping losses in the machine do not have excessive effect on the power generated, as at very low rotor speeds the losses can overcome the power generated. The operating strategy ensures that the turbine will operate between the desired wind speed range. In this report, it has been set the wind speed range between 4m/s and 25m/s. It has been secured a smooth switching transient between the two constant speed regions and the maximum power tracking curve by establishing a reasonable size of the constant speed regions. It could be arguable whether this operating strategy is the most efficient or there are better options that would adapt to this wind turbine. The truth is that there are multiple options and different strategy plans depending on the preferences of the design. In this report, the aim has been to find a trade-off between load reduction and efficient power capture. 3.1 Baseline and procedure In order to achieve an efficient operation of the wind turbine, the control must play an important role in the operating strategy. An appropriate wind controller design will allow for a better wind energy capture as well as the mitigation of fatigue loads, as they considerably reduce the lifetime of the machine. Hence, the control task of a wind turbine is to maintain the appropriate operational state as the wind speed condition change, as well as enhancing its dynamic properties. In this report, the main goal is to design the operational controller, which is divided in two different regions, below rated and above rated power. At below rate conditions, the aim is to extract as much power from the wind as possible. This will be achieved by varying the reaction torque by measure the rotor speed or the output power. The second task of the controller is to ensure a smooth transition between the 1st constant speed region and the maximum power tracking curve. At above rated operation, the performance of the turbine will be carried out by pitching the blades. By doing so, it will allow the turbine to maintain the generation at the rated power value, take action to alleviate the increased loads at different parts of the wind turbine and to keep the desired stability margins of operation. For the above rated controller, it will be used a PI pitch controller along with an extra pole and zero and the set gain of the transfer function, resulting the transfer function as following: The nonlinearity nature of the wind turbine operation leads to a nonlinear control design. The gain scheduling is the most used control technique to accommodate the nonlinearities [3]. The performance of this technique is to continuously change the structure of the controller according to the local set points, such as aerodynamic torque, rotor speed and pitch angle. For instance, as the torque sensitivity varies nearly linear with pitch angle, it can be compensated by varying the overall gain of the controller linearly with pitch angle. As the design of the above rated controller is normally more tedious, it will be first designed the above rated controller and then, by varying the gain, redesign the below rated controller. Besides, when designing the controller of variable speed pitch regulated wind turbine, it must be paid special attention to the damage caused by the vibrations on the drive train, as it produces serious risks of failure. It has been noted that for the case of the wind turbine in this that the first drive train mode need to be actively damped, in order to alleviate the large torque transients at 13 rad/s. To obtain the transfer function of the drive train filter, it will be the general form of a band pass filter: The block diagram with the filter integrated can be seen in Figure 3.0. The design of the filter will be designed such that the filter feeds back only the oscillations at the resonant frequency. Figure 3.0 Plant with the drive train filter implemented As the drive train filter is located at the feedback loop, the equivalent transfer function of the plant and the filter will be given by the following equation: 3.2 Drive-Train Filter and Controller Design Drive Train Filter Design In order to damp to suppress the peak at the first drive train mode, it has been designed the transfer function of the filter. To do so, three parameters have been set in the transfer function. The gain (k), the frequency at which it is aimed to amplify in the feedback loop () and a scaling factor (n), which is used to set the frequency of the poles in the transfer function. After a trial and error procedure in MATLAB, the transfer function designed is the following: In Figure 3.1 is shown the Bode diagram of the system with and without drive train filter. It can be appraised that the peak in the drive train mode has been successfully damped, reducing the mechanical loads in the machine and hence, improving the lifetime of the turbine. Figure 3.1 Bode plot with the effect of the drive train filter in the system Controller Design for Above and Below Rated operation To control rotor speed and torque it is necessary to use pitch of the blades at above rated wind speeds. It has been designed a complete controller for the turbine for smooth switching between different operating modes. Apart from the pitch-PI controller, the gain scheduling technique has been applied to the design for the non-linear design section. The controller must assure a gain and phase margins above certain levels (4 dB and 30 degrees respectively) when checking the stability using the open loop functions, providing stability for the closed loop system. The aim is to provide good disturbance rejection at low frequencies, the required bandwidth at 1 rad/s, and good high frequency roll-off. With these main objectives, the transfer function designed for the given wind turbine is the following: It is shown in Figure 3.2 the Bode diagram of the controller, where it can be appraised the effects that the poles, zero and gain have on the systems. The proportional gain of the transfer function sets the initial gain value (20 log10 (|k|) and remains constant with the frequency. The proportional gain does not contribute to the phase of the transfer function.   Ãƒâ€šÃ‚   Figure 3.2 Bode diagram Above Rated Controller The pure integrator , produces constant gain contribution of -20 dB/dec from an infinite frequency. It also produces a constant phase of -90 degrees. The pole in the transfer function contributes to the gain with a negative 20dB/dec slope at its frequency of operation (1.95 rad/s). With respect to the phase, it contributes with a -45 deg/dec between a decade after and a decade before its frequency. That is, for a frequency of 1.95 rad/s, it starts to contribute at 0.195 rad/s and will end at 19.5 rad/s. The zero in the transfer function contributes to the gain with a positive 20 dB/dec slope and with a positive 45 deg/dec slope for the phase. Analogous to the pole, the phase contribution starts and ends one decade before and after the frequency of the zero. Knowing the above concepts and after a trial and error procedure, the gain scheduling technique was implemented and the design of the controller has been successfully completed. It can be seen in Figure 3.3 and 3.4 the differences between the effect of gain scheduling. It has been designed the controller for the plant dynamics at speeds of 12m/s,15m/s and 25m/s and applies for the same system with and without gain scheduling. Figure 3.3 Bode diagram of the plant without gain scheduling Figure 3.4 Bode diagram of the plant with gain scheduling It can be appraised that the system with the effect of the gain scheduling becomes stable, while without the gain scheduling system the gain and phase margins do not meet the requirements stated above for a feasible strategy. The design of the controller gives a positive gain and phase margin to the system at 1rad/s, ensuring the rejection of disturbances above these frequencies [4]. Once the above rated controller is designed, it has been carried out the design for the above rated operation. It has been tested for below rated wind speeds of 4m/s and 10m/s (resulting roughly the same response) and as it can be seen in Figure 3.5, the system has been successfully integrated as the phase and gain margin meet the specified requirements. As part of the gain scheduling implementation, the transfer function of the controller for below rated condition will just adjust the gain of the transfer function. After a trial and error procedure the transfer function obtained is given by the following equation. Figure 3.5 Bode diagram of below rated operation (with drive train filter) Note that for the below rated system analysis, there must be included the drive train filter at the feedback loop. 3.3 Discussion of results Based on the results, the design of the controller by applying gain scheduling technique has been successfully completed. As in any controller design, it must be aimed for good stability margin, both phase and margin, otherwise the system could destabilize and therefore cause high load fluctuations. Both below and above rated controller have been designed accordingly to these requirements and the phase and gain margin meet the minimum stablished (4dB for gain margin and 30 degrees for phase margin). 3.4 Effect of wind turbine size in the controller design. An important aspect of the controller design of a wind turbine is the size of the aforementioned. The wind turbine industry is going towards an increasingly bigger size of the turbines, which brings out new challenges when it comes to the design of the controller of the machine. As the rotor is continuously interacting with a very complex wind field, the prediction of the behaviour of the machine will become more difficult with an increase in size. In other words, as the size of the machine increases, it might be extremely difficult (when not impossible) to achieve the desired margins of stability, as the structural elements will become more flexible and dynamically more active. This does not necessarily mean that the system will become unstable with a bigger turbine, but proposes that controller need to be designed and tuned more carefully as the gain and phase margins will reduce. 4.1 Baseline and procedure As stated in section 3, the importance of the controller remains at the stability of the system. A system with low crossover frequency will present more fluctuations and a poor stability in terms of power generation, rotational speed or generator torque. The aim of this section is to give a better understanding of the design of a system with acceptable crossover frequency and also the importance of the drive train filter design, which as it was shown in the previous section, will help to damp the first drive train mode and therefore considerably reduce the mechanical loads. The will be compared for variables of the wind turbine for both above and below rated operation. The first tasks have been the comparison between the system with good crossover frequency and the system with no drive train filter. In order to do so, it has been compared the power output of the machine, the generator speed, generator torque and the pitch angle. For simplicity on the interpretation of the results, it will be compared the simulations at 15m/s of wind speed (above rated operation), and 9m/s of wind speed (below rated operation). For each wind speed, different turbulence of the wind field has been analysed. The second tasks have consisted on the comparison between a system with a good cross over frequency and a reduced cross over frequency. Again, to give the reader an easier understanding of the simulations, it will be compared the different systems at a wind speed of 15m/s. 4.2 Investigation of the controller performance Comparison between the good cross over frequency and no drive train filter systems It can be appraised in Figure 4.0, the power output of the turbine for wind speeds of 15 m/s and 9m/s. It is immediately apparent that for each speed, the higher the fluctuation, the higher the disturbance and therefore the less efficient energy production of the turbine. The mean production for 15m/s and higher disturbance accounts for 4.83MW and for 9 m/s is 2.8 MW. Compared with the wind field with small disturbance, the differences are not very noticeable, as the production accounts for approximately 4.7MW and 2.4 MW respectively. With respect to the comparison between the different systems, the figures show negligible differences between the system response at different disturbances. This is because both systems have a crossover frequency of 1 rad/s. Besides the reason why the system with no drive train filter seems to have no effect on the system is because as stated in section 3, the aim of the filter is to damp the drive train mode at a certain frequency. As it is being plotted the response over time, the slightly differences at the frequency of damping cannot be appraised in these figures. Figure 4.0 Power output of the turbine for 15m/s and 9m/s In terms of the generator speed (Figure 4.1), the same pattern than in the power output has been acknowledge. The higher the turbulence intensity in the wind, the more difficult the control of the generator speed, and therefore the higher the fluctuations. In terms of mean values, the 15 m/s wind speed produces a mean generator speed of approximately 120 rad/s for a high turbulence intensity, and 111 rad/s at 9m/s of wind speed. Figure 4.1 Generator speed of the turbine for 15m/s and 9m/s Talking about the generator torque, it presents the same patterns than the previous simulation, as it can be seen in Figure 4.2, where there are no apparent differences between the two systems, and the turbulence intensity influence the variation of generator torque. The mean values for the higher turbulence intensity are 26.2KNm and 42.4KNm for 9m/s and 15m/s respectively. For the lower fluctuation of wind, the mean values of torque account for 22.7KNm and 42.7KNm. Figure 4.2 Generator torque of the turbine for 15m/s and 9m/s As a final analysis, it has been plotted the pitch angle for the different system at different speeds. It can be appraised in Figure 4.3 that the pitching of the blades does not perform at 9m/s, except when the turbulence intensity is significantly high, in which case it might overpass the above rated wind speed and therefore the pitching start to act. By contrast, for the 15m/s simulation speed, the pitching angle varies constantly trying to absorb energy from the wind more efficiently. Figure 4.3 Pitch angle of the turbine for 15m/s and 9m/s Comparison between reduced and good crossover frequency It has been simulated the response of the two system with good and reduced crossover frequency. The good crossover system has a crossover frequency of 1 rad/s while the reduced crossover system is 0.5 rad/s. The results are shown in Figure 4.4 and 4.5, where some differences can be noticed. The reduced crossover frequency system has a more unstable generation of power for both turbulence intensity scenarios. As stated in Section 3, the system with a reduced crossover frequency will have a poorer performance under disturbances and will reject those more inefficiently than the one with a good cross over frequency. Figure 4.4 Power output and generator speed of the turbine for 15m/s and 9m/s Figure 4.5 Generator torque and pitch angle of the turbine for 15m/s and 9m/s Having designed and analysed the different aspect of a wind turbine controller, it can be concluded that the design has been carried out successfully, ensuring a stable performance of the system with an efficient mitigation of loads. It can be argued whether the design of both operating strategy and controller are the best option in terms of performance, but the main objective of this report is to give an understanding of the performance of the machine and the control system operation, as well as to understand the new challenges that the increasingly size of the wind turbines might bring to the design of the control strategy. [1] E. A. Bossanyi, The Design of Closed Loop Controllers for Wind Turbines, Wind Energy, vol. 3, pp. 149-163, 2000. [2] T. Burton, Cp-lamda performance, Chichester, Willey, 2011, pp. 173-174. [3] A. P. Chatzopoulos, Full Envelope Wind Turbine Controller Design for Power Regulation and Tower Load Reduction, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, 2014. [4] H. D. B. A. R. J. M. Fernando D. Bianchi, Control of Variable-Speed Variable-pitch Wind turbines Using Gain Scheduling Techniques, in Wind turbine control systems, London, Springer, 2007.

fifth business :: essays research papers

There is one human emotion that can paralyse us, lead us to lie both to ourselves and others, to take action that we don't like, and to cripple any rational thought processes. It is self perpetuating if allowed to get out of control. Its side effects are either anger, aggressiveness or fear and reclusiveness. Its symptoms are irrational behaviour, lying, anguish, lack of self-esteem, and in extreme cases, thoughts of suicide. It is guilt. In The Fifth Business, by Robertson Davies, guilt is a reoccurring theme throughout the novel and is a major force in one’s life. Davies demonstrates this by having one character feeling guilt while another who does not. Davies introduces the reader with Dunstable Ramsay and Percy Boyd Staunton. They are depicted as friends yet rivals at the same time. This is shown when Dunstable had a sleigh that was faster than Percy’s. Of course Percy who is the spoiled rich boy becomes jealous, and starts calling Dunstable names. Knowing that Percy hates it when he is being ignored, Dunstable provokes Percy and ends up with him being chased with snowballs. Eventually someone gets hit and it’s not Dunstable, rather it was Mrs. Dempster whom he had ran around of cover. This is where the whole chain of guilt starts right after this incident. Dunstable feels guilty for this because the snowball who was supposed to hit him, ended up hitting Mrs.Dempster who was pregnant at that time.He feels even guiltier when he hears about the premature birth and infancy of Paul Dempster, which gives him a sickening feeling. As well Dunstable was raised in a strict family and has been encouraged to feel guilt even in the smallest of matters. From that day onward Dunstable was a changed individual who became a responsible person to Mrs. Dempster and was a loyal one. Throughout his life he becomes a better person because of the guilt which he accepts and tries to resolve. When Paul Dempster grows up and learns about his mother’s demise, he himself feels guilty. When he grows older and understands things clearer, he blamed himself for causing his mother’s illness, because he was told that his birth had caused it. His guilt is amplified when the residents in the town keep their distances from him. After his mother was caught with the tramp performing sexual acts and being discovered by the townsfolk, Paul gets taunted and teased by his schoolmates who make rude comments towards his mother.

Society at Home

Bonnie Fellhoelter Paola Brown English 102 17 March 2008 Argument Paper â€Å"Are you hot? Are you cold? Are you wearing that? Where’s your books and your lunch and your homework at? Grab your coat and your gloves and your scarf and hat. Don’t forget; you got to feed the cat! † (1) Anita Renfroe wrote these catchy words for the song â€Å"Momisms†, sung to the familiar tune of the William Tell Overture. Her words best describe a typical day of mayhem through the eyes of a mother. Mothers who stay at home know that at times, their lives can be discombobulating. Despite the chaos, stay-at-home mothers get the tremendous responsibility of only having one chance of raising their children in such a way that makes a difference in their children’s lives and in society. Throughout history, society has looked upon the male as the breadwinner: the one expected to work and support the family. The mother has been viewed as the nurturer: the one to stay home and raise the children. During the 1960’s, women wanted more rights, power, and the ability to get higher paying jobs. Women were given this right so they expressed this new found freedom by going to work outside of the home. As women sought employment, their children were left to the care of babysitters and day care workers. Because society has redefined the role of a mother to be one who is an important element in the workforce, the loss of the mother in the home has led to the Fellhoelter 2 decline of the family unit, and thus, to society. This forfeiture has created a generation for whom social morals and values are not as important as they once were. Perhaps this is due to a working mother being absent from the home where she is unable to personally instill these ethical standards in her children, thus leaving her children to receive their value system from strangers. â€Å"Society truly does begin at home†, asserts Sibyl Niemann, so, in order to return to a culture with better morals and values, the importance of the role of the stay at home mother should be restored. (2) In this way, stay at home mothers can improve society. It is disappointing when mothers are devalued for staying at home to raise their children. Richard Lowry states, â€Å"There is something valuable in a mother’s caring for her own child. † (4) In general, no one can take care of your child in the same way his or her mother would. A mother’s care is usually superior to daycare since she naturally wants what is best for her child. â€Å"According to a non-partisan Public Agenda survey in 2000, roughly 80 percent of parents with children five and younger say a stay-at-home parent is best able to give children the â€Å"affection and attention they need. †Ã¢â‚¬  (qtd. n Lowry 4) A mother’s individual care can also curb the aggression that is evident in day care centers. â€Å"A study done by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), reports that, kids in non-maternal care tend to be associated with qualities such as â€Å"gets in lots of fights,† â€Å"cruelty,† â€Å"explosive behavior,† â€Å"talking too much,† â€Å"argues a lot,à ¢â‚¬  and â€Å"demands a lot of attention. †Ã¢â‚¬  (qtd. in Lowry 1) Teachers who work in a preschool environment, like my daughter, are frustrated with how badly the children usually behave. Workers in day care are governed by strict rules which prevent Fellhoelter 3 disciplining children the way one can do at home. This causes a disregard and loss of respect for others because many children grow up thinking they can do what they want. Today, many of the younger generation act like they are owed something. In the workplace, it is shocking to see the way they treat others with their degrading manners and think there is nothing wrong with their behavior. They also tend to have lazy work ethics and â€Å"cop an attitude† when asked to do anything extra. This makes it difficult for many employers to find hard working and respectful employees. It is important to note that not all children in daycare grow up to be aggressive and unproductive adults. Even though many women in the work force find raising children to be a very difficult task which leaves them feeling lonely and bored, they do a fine job of balancing their jobs with raising successful children. These women enjoy being able to show their children the advantages of working outside of the home. They are able to â€Å"teach their children how to be independent, inquisitive, and ambitious†, as well as â€Å"learn the value of personal fulfillment and goal setting. † (Karaim 1) Reed Karaim also proclaims that, â€Å"successful working mothers give their children one of the best gifts any parent can: the example of a life lived to its potential. † (3) I think that all of these examples are helpful in raising successful children, however, I believe a stay at home mom can also teach these same qualities in the home. I know this to be true because I was fortunate to remain at home and raise my children. I was the one who was the nurturer and demonstrated love and compassion to my children by hugging, cuddling, and kissing them. I was personally involved in teaching them throughout all the stages of development and shared in the joy of my children’s accomplishments. There is something special about hearing your child’s first word and watching them take their first Fellhoelter 4 step as they giggle with glee. I was able to mold my children’s character by instilling good values and morals that taught them to be independent and set goals for themselves, such as being on time for work and appointments. These attributes have helped to contribute to society in a positive way and leave me feeling as if I have done a good job. Despite the seemingly successful results of a stay at home mom’s efforts, â€Å"our culture no longer values the household supported by a sole breadwinner. † (Niemann 3) This is demonstrated by the many women who currently do work outside of the home because they feel the need to contribute to their families’ well being. According to Niemann, â€Å"everything—from buying a house to applying for a college loan for one’s son or daughter—seems structured around the two income family. (3) A household that has a dual income helps â€Å"boost many families into middle class. †, says Karaim. (2) This allows their children to experience the comforts, options for education and opportunities that they might otherwise not have had. As tempting as this extra income may be, couples should be careful that this does not impact t heir relationship as husband and wife. When spouses compete for power in the workforce and then return home too tired to deal with the many needs of their children, the harmony of the family unit can suffer. This is because husbands often feel threatened by the success of their wives. Steven Rhoads claims that â€Å"men are more likely to divorce women who are ambitious. † (5) Lowry explains that â€Å"just the specter of divorce creates a kind of intra-marital arms race. The wife works to hedge against getting abandoned, but her very act of working, research shows, makes it more likely that the marriage will fail—a dismaying downward spiral. † (3) Since divorces negatively impact society, we should refocus on preserving marriage and on strengthening the family unit. Fellhoelter 5 When men and women are happy and comfortable in their roles as the fatherbreadwinner, and mother-caregiver, marriages can thrive. Women who do remain at home should not hide behind their children or husbands but instead should be proud of their role. They should be vocal about how productive they are with their children and family. This allows working women and men to see and appreciate the importance of the role of a stay at home mom. Perhaps they will see for themselves the advantages of remaining at home and raising their children. According to Lowry, â€Å"most women would like to stay home and care for their children, but society pressures them into believing that a career is more important than family. † (1) Unless some changes are made, the family unit will continue to decline. Less time spent with children building character increases the risk for disregarding and disrespecting others. The current attitudes of â€Å"you owe me†, â€Å"I deserve it†, as well as â€Å"it is all about me† will probably continue to get worse. Even though being a stay-at-home mom may have periods of loneliness, boredom, frustration, and feelings of futility, the rewards of being personally involved with raising one’s own children greatly outweigh the negatives. One of the greatest accomplishments in life is being a stay-at-home mom where one can teach and model good behavior and moral fortitude. By emulating these morals and values, children enter into adulthood with the necessary tools needed to produce a successful society. As tough as this unpaid task may be, this self-sacrifice of staying at home to raise ones’ children can be the most society enhancing job a woman can do.

Government-Business Relations in Greater China and Challenges for Public Administration Essays

Government-Business Relations in Greater China and Challenges for Public Administration Essays Government-Business Relations in Greater China and Challenges for Public Administration Essay Government-Business Relations in Greater China and Challenges for Public Administration Essay 1 Government-Business Relations in Greater China and Challenges for Public Administration Abstract This paper examines the development of government-business relations in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan and identifies important managerial issues from the Chinese experience. The paper first introduces theoretical concepts about the role of government in economic development and arguments about business promotion and government regulation policies. It then reviews economic development in the three societies and changes in their government-business relations. Three critical managerial issues related to the government-business relations are accountability of incentive policies, effectiveness of government regulation, and anti-corruption of administrative reform. Implications of the Chinese experiences are provided in the conclusion section for future studies of government-business relations. 2 Introduction The topic of government and business relations (G-B relations) has recently become one of the major public policy issues for many developed, developing and economic transition countries. For developed countries, the interest in G-B relations is related to the impact of global financial crisis and the need for government intervention in the financial system (e. g. , government relieve funds and proposed new regulations). In addition to the problem of financial crisis, developing and economic transition countries emphasize the issue of G-B relations because of their special concerns about economic development. For these countries, it is important for them to reform their governments to establish a sound modern market system and implement good development policies to attract the needed foreign capitals and investment. The study of G-B relations in Greater China is valuable for researchers because of the success of China’s economic reform and the changes of economic environment in Taiwan and Hong Kong. 1 Since 1978, China has successfully implemented various reform policies to increase economic growth and to improve the quality of public life. These policies have promoted rivate business development in China and have gradually changed the Chinese system from a totally government-controlled planning system to a market-oriented capitalist system. The G-B relations in China have changed dramatically since the implementation of development and reform policies. Chinese leaders today have to develop new policies to address many negative problems that are associated with the development chan ges. For Taiwan and Hong Kong, the G-B relations have also changed after the success of their economic development and miracles since the 1990s. : The G-B relations in Taiwan have been influenced by the development of Taiwan’s democratization movement and the changes in Taiwan’s political environment. Unlike the past dominant control of the government over the 3 business through the ruling party of Kuomintang (KMT), business communities and enterprises are now influencing the formulation and implementation of public policies through the contribution of campaign financing to political parties and politicians, especially after the administration of Democratic Progressive Party (DDP) in 2000. The G-B relations in Hong Kong have been affected by recent events, such as the 1997 handover to China, the Asian Financial Crisis, and the 2003 SARS outbreak. Unlike the traditional development policy of positive non-interventionism, the government of Hong Kong Special Administration Region (HKSAR) has played an active role and implemented important public policies to protect public safety and to promote business development. This paper examines the G-B relations in China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan by focusing on their development experience. The paper consists of three major sections. The theoretical background section introduces important concepts about the role of government in economic development and arguments about business promotion and government regulation policies. The development background section reviews key development policies in the three societies and changes about their G-B relations. The managerial issue section analyzes major challenges that are related to business promotion, government regulation, and administrative reform. Theoretical Concepts of Government-Business Relations To study G-B relations in Greater China, we need to understand theoretical concepts and arguments about the role of government in economic development, the essentials of business promotion policies, and the development of government regulation. A. The Role of Government in Economic Development The important role of government in the modern economic system has been well recognized in the literature of public finance, public policy and developed economics. From the 4 ublic finance perspective, for example, Musgrave and Musgrave (1980) explain the issue of market failure and promote three functions of government, which include the allocation of social and other goods that the market will not of itself provide, the equitable distribution of income and wealth; and the stabilization of unemployment and control of inflation. From the public policy consideration, Nicholas Stern (1991) emphasizes five arguments for governmental interventio n in the economy. The arguments consist of concerns for market failure (i. e. relating to externalities, public goods, and imperfect information), concerns to prevent or reduce poverty and improve income distribution, the assertion of a right to certain facilities or goods (e. g. , education, health, and housing), the importance of paternalism (e. g. , relating to education, pensions, and drugs); and the rights of future generations (e. g. , relating to the environmental). The issue of state or government involvement in economic growth has been further emphasized and debated in the literature of development economics. The issue of debate is not whether a state or government should be involved in economic development, but what the appropriate role of government might be in promoting growth and development. The neoclassical arguments of development emphasize the role of foreign trade and investment and the importance of a free market in stimulating competition during the development process (Galenson, 1985; Wade, 1990, 1992). They recognize the role of state in the process of development but emphasize a passive and limited role of government in such activities as maintaining stability and providing physical infrastructure. Statist arguments of development offer a different approach on this issue. They point out that the successful experience of many newly industrialized countries (NICs) is related not only to the operation of the free market but 5 also to the active role of government in directing public and private resources to change the structure of their economy (Johnson, 1982; Ho, 1981; Lin, 1989). Considering these different arguments, Liou (1998a) introduces five major roles of government in the process of economic development. The five roles are protector, controller, distributor, promoter, and regulator. As the protector role, government needs to formulate and implement public policies (i. e. , national defense policy and public safety policy) to protect citizens and businesses from foreign attacks, criminal and illegal activities. These policies should promote a safe and stable environment without political interruption and social unrest. Next, to assure a safe and stable economic environment, government needs to play a control role to adjust public policies (i. e. monetary policy and fiscal policy) that are related to the management of nation’s macroeconomic environment. These policies are important to the macroeconomic problems of inflation and unemployment. Third, to assure social equity, government also needs to play a role of distributor to develop public policies (e. g. , social welfare policy and rural development policy) to prevent unfair distribution of public resources among various clas ses, regions, and disadvantaged groups. Fourth, government plays a role of promoter of economic growth and social development and needs to use public policies (e. . , business incentive policies and international trade policies) to invest in public infrastructure and to promote the development and advancement of business sectors in both domestic and international markets. Finally, as a regulator, government also focuses on the regulation of industry and business operations for public interests. Regulation policies (e. g. , environmental regulation, finance and insurance regulation) are developed to maintain the balance between the development of business and industry competition and the protection of natural environment and individual rights. While the 6 first three roles apply to public issues in general, the last two roles (promoter and regulator) are specifically related to our study of G-B relations and will be further examined next. B. Business Promotion Policies To promote economic development, governments at all levels have designed various public policies to support the establishment of business companies and plants, to attract the relocation of new and expansion business, and to foster further development of existing business. As mentioned previously, many of the NICs have implemented various incentive policies to promote business development in their countries. These business promotion policies include, for example, general incentive policies to encourage the accumulation of production factors (e. g. , tax measures, Research Development funds) and specific industrial targeting policies to promote the growth of particular industries (e. g. , subsidizing credit or import protection for technology industries) (World Bank 1993). Business promotion policies have also been emphasized in developed countries to promote state and local economic development (e. g. , Eisinger, 1988). For example, in the United States, Clark and Montjoy (1998: 169-170) summarize economic development programs in terms of four types: (1) subsidizing traditional inputs such as capital (e. g. , direct loans and loan guarantees, tax-exempt bond financing, development corporations), land (e. g. , land banking, site development provision), and labor (e. g. low-cost/mass production, and high quality/lean production); (2) lowering political costs of doing business, including tax abatements and incentives, and limitations on the regulatory environment; (3) promoting entrepreneurial activities of market development (e. g. , export promotion, research and dissemination) and business services (e. g. , policy planning, RD support and consortia); and (4) developing 7 attractive social amenities (e. g. , arts, environment) and improving distressed areas (e. g. , enterprise zones). The widespread use of incentive policies have resulted in some critiques about their efficiency and equity. On the efficiency (or effectiveness) side, researchers of local incentive programs in the United States have argued that these programs have little influence on either the level or the distribution of economic growth, especially when compared them with the impact of market factors (e. g. , Bartik 1991; 1992). From the equity perspective, researchers indicated that many of the traditional incentives simply transfer money from the public sector to successful firms (moving these firms from place to place) and do litter to help those in need (Rubin 1998). Researchers further pointed out that the use of financial incentives is based on political considerations because tax and incentives are easy to control and manipulate when comparing them with other determinative factors such as the quality of the local labor force (Wolman and Spitzley 1996). They also noticed that policymakers enact tax incentives not on the basis of rational economic analysis, but as a defensive measure against regional competition (Grady 1987). C. Government Regulation and Reform While business promotion policies attempt to support the development of industries and firms, government regulation policies are designed to address side effects or negative issues that are related to business development. The term regulation has been referred to as â€Å"any attempt by the government to control the behavior of citizens, corporations, or subgovernments† (Meier, 1985:1) or â€Å"the diverse set of instruments by which governments set requirements on enterprises and citizens† (OECD, 1999: 16). Researchers (Buchholz, 1992; OECD, 1999) identified three types of economic, social, and administrative regulations. Economic regulation focuses on the 8 direct government intervention in corporations and market decisions such as pricing, competition, market entry or exit. Social regulation is related to government protection of citizen and social values such as health, safety, the environment and social cohesion. Administrative regulation has to do with government formalities and paperwork. Researches further explain some rationales for government regulation, which include problems of monopolies and natural monopolies (e. g. , utilities), externalities (e. . , pollution of river by factory), information inadequacies (e. g. , food, drug and beverage labeling), public goods and moral hazards (e. g. , defense, security, and health services), unequal bargaining powers (e. g. , health and safety at work), and distributive justice and social policy (e. g. , victim protection and prevent discrimination) (Baldwin and Cave, 1999). Since the late 1970s, the pervasive use of regulation, along with the growth of regulatory cost, has resulted in many suggestions for regulatory reforms. The purpose of regulatory reform is to improve the quality of regulations in terms of enhancing performance, reducing costs, or finding alternative policy tools (OECD, 1999: 16). Specifically, for economic regulations, reform aims to increase economic efficiency by reducing barriers to competition and innovation, through deregulation and use of efficiency-promoting regulations. For social regulations, reform aims to verify that regulation is needed and to design regulatory or other flexible and low cost instruments (e. . , market incentives and goal-based approaches). Finally, for administrative regulations, reform aims at eliminating aspects of red tape that is no longer needed, streamlining and simplifying those that are needed, and improving the transparency of application. While trying to reduce government intervention and inefficiency problems, many regulatory reforms (i. e. , deregulation or privatization) have resulted in new problems to industries and consumers. For example, deregulation is very popular among the public and 9 usiness, but deregulation alone is insufficient in resolving the problems of regulation because it is considered as a reactive approach to addresses problems developed in the past and it focused not on the system or new challenge, but on instruments and techniques (OECD, 1999; Liou, 2007a). In practice, the implementation of deregulation in many sectors and industries has produced problems, which require additional governmental action. For example, the electricity meltdown in California is related to deregulation efforts in the electric utilities industry. Policymakers in other states have delayed the implementation of deregulation and have considered other supporting mechanisms (e. g. , multi-state trading zones) to avoid the same problem in the future (Swope, 2001). In the commercial banking industry, researchers (e. g. , Krause, 1994) reported that the deregulation policy and other changes (i. e. , the Depository Institutions Deregulation and Monetary Control Act, the ideological changes of relevant congressional banking subcommittee members) serve as the most important explanation of the instability facing the banking industry. The financial crisis of 2008 provided additional evidences to show the failure of government regulation and deregulation reform in the US banking and insurance industries. The explanations of theoretical concepts and arguments are important for the study of G- B relations in Greater China because of the important role of government in the Chinese societies, the contribution of business promotion policies to their economic development, and the need for effective regulation policies to address new challenges. Economic Development in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan A. Economic Development in China Before the reform years, we can categorize the Chinese state-society relations as a state- dominated society, including the state control over business and commercial activities (Liberthal, 10 1995; Liou, 2000a). The Communist Party-state controlled almost all aspects of social life through a huge and complex administrative structure, various monitoring policies and systems, and continued political and ideological struggles. The result of total state control over society was a highly homogeneous society: people receiving low salaries from government or state- owned agencies, spending and consuming foods and other goods according to ration coupons or quotas controlled by the government. There were no major business operations and commercial activities in most of the cities. The government controlled the ownership, production, distribution and consumption of all business operations. Since the late 1970s, Chinese government has emphasized the â€Å"reform and opening-up† policy to promote the country’s modernization and economic development. For the past thirty years, the government has implemented many policies to adjust the role and operation of government and to promote business investment and production. In the area of business promotion, policy changes implemented include, for example, the contract responsibility system (CRS) in both the rural-agricultural and the urban-industrial areas to encourage business activities and market operation (e. g. , Gao, 1996; Lu and Tang, 1997), and the special economic zones (SEZs) to provide preferential policies (e. g. , lower tax rates) in coastal regions to attract oreign investors for the needed capital and human resources (Bell et al. , 1993; Stoltenberg, 1984). One recent example of preferential policies in SEZs is the project of Tianjin Harbor Port Development District to provide tax benefits, export promotion and logistic services to promote business development. In the area of government reform, Chinese leaders have introduced various policy changes to its huge administra tive system to remove bureaucratic inefficiency problems (Burns, 1993). 2 Among these reforms, the strategies of administrative decentralization and deregulation 11 re directly related to the topic of G-B relations. The decentralization strategy refers to the effort of the central government to decentralize decision-making powers (especially in economic related activities) to local administrative units to improve the quality of government decisions. After the decentralization strategy, local governments have become very active in economic activities and local officials’ pro-business attitudes are critical to the implementation of development policies (Chen, Jefferson, Singh, 1992; Waste, 1986). The deregulation strategy consists of both process and structure changes. On good example of the process change has been the reform of China’s administrative examination and approval system to support business development. The administrative examination and approval was based on the old planned economic system and tended to be irrational and inefficient in its operation (e. g. , overlapping functions, black-box operations). The reform calls for the development of an open and transparent system and emphasizes the application of scientific principles in making related decisions (e. . , items to be examined, standards and conditions for the approval). A high level â€Å"Leading Group for Administrative and Examination Approval System Reform† was established in 2001 to comprehensive review projects that are subject to administrative examination and approval. From 2002 to 2004, the State Council eliminated or moderated 1,806 such projects. By the end of 2004, the number of p rojects that needed review and approval by State Council departments had been cut by half (OECD, 2005). The structural change refers to the separation of economic enterprises from administrative agencies because the old administrative system not only included many industrial organizations but also controlled the operation of these organizations. One good example of the structure change has been the reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). 3 The SOEs reforms consist of such stages as the expansion of SOEs’ autonomy rights in production related decisions (from 1978 to 1992), the transformation of SOEs 12 nto the modern enterprise system (between 1992 and 1997) and related laws (e. g. , a Competition Law and a Company law of 1993), and the establishment of an effective corporate governance to address related financial and social security issues (e. g. , Yang, 2008). These development policies have successfully improved China’s macroeconomic performance and business development. On the overall economic performance, for example, China’s gross domestic product (GDP) has grown an average 9. percent a year since the reform and its GDP has risen from Rmb 362. 4 billion in 1978 to Rmb 31,404. 5 billion in 2008. Chinese people have become richer, with annual GDP per capita rising from Rmb 379 in 1978 to Rmb 16,084 in 2006. The success of China’s economic reform has resulted in some challenging issues that affect its G-B relations. The first issue is the serious safety problems in the areas of consumer protection. Several food safety incidents have been reported at the national or international levels. At the national level, for example, in 2004, one incident of counterfeit baby formula was noticed by the public because at least 13 babies in Fuyang, Anhui and 50-60 more in the rural areas of Anhui province died of malnourishment from ingesting fake milk power (China Daily, 2004). At the international level, for example, in 2007, Mattel Inc. recalled 18. 2 million Chinese made toys produced with lead painting because of the violation of require rules by its supplier Early Light Industrial Co. (McDonald, 2007). The issue of consumer protection emerged again in 2008 when over 12,000 children have been made ill by milk power contaminated with industrial chemical melamine (China Daily, 2008). The second challenging issue has to do with environmental problems, in terms of soil contamination, river cessation, water pollution and air pollution. A World Bank study (2007) estimated that up to 760,000 people die prematurely each year in China because of air and water pollution. High levels of air pollution in China’s cities lead to 350,000 to 400,000 premature deaths and another 300,000 die 13 because of poor-quality air indoors. There were additional 60,000 premature deaths each year due to poor-quality water. The final issue is related to labor safety and protection. One of the major factors contributing to China’s economic development is the abundance of low-cost labor that enabled both domestic and foreign companies to produce cheap products. Along with the development, these labors have encountered many problems in their working places, such as no labor contract with employers, long working hours, below minimum wages, no medical insurance and social welfare services, workplace injuries, and physical assault and personal humiliation from supervisors. The problem of labor protection is evidenced in the report of rising labor disputes and workplace accidents. One study has noted that labor dispute cases in 2005 are 314,000, which is more than double the number of cases in 2000 and nearly 10 times that of 1995 and that the number of workers involved in disputes grew from 467,000 in 2001 to 740,000 in 2005 (Wu, 2006). One recent example about workplace accident is the explosion of the Xinxing Coal Mine in Hegang City, Heilongjiang Province on November 21st, 2009, claiming 108 lives in this incident (Xinhua News Agency, 2009). B. Economic Development in Hong Kong Unlike the past Chinese development experience, Hong Kong has be very successful in its economic development for many years and has been considered as one of the Asian economic miracles. Before the handover in 1997, the colonial government had implemented various economic development policies to adjust the role or intervention of governmental in creating a free and open market system (Cheung, 2000; Wade, 1990; Yu, 1997). For example, before the 1970s, the government was criticized as a laissez-fair role with low expenditure service and low participation. Between the 1970s and the 1990s, the colonial government adopted a policy of positive non-interventionism to seek collaborations between the government and big business 14 corporations and to invest in public infrastructures and services to support economic development. 4 After the 1990s, with the emergence of electoral and legislative politics, the government moved to a model of consensus capitalism to include wider social interests by forming an alliance among the administrative bureaucrats, business entrepreneurs, and professional elites. These economic development policies have successfully changed Hong Kong’s economic structures from the past manufacturing industries (e. g. , textile, electronics) to the new financial and service industries (e. g. , real estate, insurance, brokering and banking). After the handover in 1997, the government of HKSAR has encountered several challenging events that affect its economic development and social stability. These events include Asian financial crisis in 1997, the dot-com bubbles in 2000, the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US and subsequent recession in 2001-02, the SARS outbreak in 2003, and the recent financial crisis in 2008. Unlike the past approach of positive non-intervention, the government emphasized the principle of â€Å"Big Market, Small Government† to encourage entrepreneurship and fair competition on the one hand, and a proactive approach (but also pro-market) on the other hand to deal with these challenges and other rapid changes in the world (Tsang, 2006). The government has been successful in adjusting its labor and financial policies to reduce unemployment rates and stabilize the stock and currency markets and in implementing strict regulations to protect public safety and health. These policies were supported by external stimulus activities from the Mainland China. After the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) in 2004, Hong Kong has deepened its economic integration with the Mainland China. More Mainland visitors and enterprises come to Hong Kong for leisure, business and investment. Local Hong Kong companies have easier access to the vast Mainland market. The results have been strong recovery with consistent high GDP growth rates since 2004 (i. e. , 8. 46 in 2004, 7. 12 15 in 2005, 6. 75 in 2006, and 6. 83 in 2007). At the end of 2007, the GDP reached to HK$1,627. 5 billion (US$208. 7 billion) and GDP per capita was HK$235,134 (US$30,157). The G-B relations in Hong Kong have changed since the 1990s (Loh, 2004; Lui, 2008; Ngo, 2000; Tang, 1999). On the business side, the decline of traditional British company, the rise of local Chinese business groups, and the increase of mainland connection have changed the traditional institutional framework between the colonial administration and business elites. After the deregulation and decentralization policies in the 1990s, he new family-based local business groups have consolidated their interests and expanded their markets in deregulated areas of telecommunications, energy, and public transportation. While the dominance of business interests in Hong Kong politics has continued, the economic structures and competition rules have become more fragmented and complicated after the handover in 1997. On the government side, the SAR government has to follow the framework of Basic Law to deal with conflicting demands from business groups, community leaders and the general public in their fight for social welfare programs and political participation rights. This was not an easy task for the first SAR government (under the leadership of the Chief Executive Tung Chee-hwa) as it was been criticized for supporting big business over other sectors. The Tung administration was challenged later in July 1, 2003 by over 500,000 people demonstration against the proposed Article 23 national security legislation. The new SAR government (under the leadership of the Chief Executive Donald Tsang) has learned to seek more broad-based support for its development policies and has gradually resumed control after successfully dealing with a series of legitimacy crisis. Future challenges for the government will include political, economic, social and cultural changes that are related to the close tie between Hong Kong and the mainland, including, for example, political right and participation of Hong Kong residents (i. e. , related to 16 the general direct election), disappearing of the middle class (i. e. , related to the gap between the rich and the poor and the relocation of mid-management positions to the mainland), and conflict of self-identification crisis (i. e. , related to the defining of Hong Kong’s relationship with China) (e. . , Loh, 2004; Lui, 2008; Martin, 2007) C. Economic Development in Taiwan Taiwan’s post-WWII economic development can be understood from the studies of various developmental plans and policies (e. g. , Kuo, Ranis and Fei, 1981; Li, 1995; Liou, 2002a). For example, between 1952 and 1989, the government implemented eight four-year plans and one six-year plan, which gradually transformed Taiwan’s e conomic systems in different stages and periods, including the colonial agricultural development (before 1950s), the mport-substitution development (1950-62), the export promotion development (1962-80), and the accelerated liberalization development (after 1980). Within these plans, the government had established several economic institutions (e. g. , Economic Planning Council and Council for Economic Planning and Development in the1970s) to emphasize such policy measures as land reforms, fiscal policy reforms (e. g. , tax collection system, investment encouragement programs), monetary policy adjustments (e. g. , interest rate policy, foreign exchange management, regulation of banking, insurance, and securities), and population and manpower initiatives (e. . , family planning, vocational training). These development plans and polices have been supported by the effectiveness of Taiwan’s administrative system and the entrepreneurship of medium and small businesses. In recent ye ars, two major policy issues have affected Taiwan’s economic development. The first issue has been the emphasis on economic liberalization policy since the 1980s, which include the reduction of government control and regulation in economic spheres and the gradual 17 elimination of state subsidies to manufactures. The goal is to transform Taiwan’s economic system to replace its labor-intensive industries with technology-intensive or capital-intensive industries. One example of the liberalization policy is the privatization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), which includes the merge or shut down enterprises in the face of continuing losses (e. g. , Taiwan Alkali Co. ) and the privatization of all government controlled commercial banks to establish private banks and financial institutions for the promotion of capital industry (Liou, 1992; 1994). The second issue has to do with the democratization movement in Taiwan’s political system, which consists of the lifting of martial law in 1987, the election of Lee, Teng-hui (a native Taiwanese in the Kuomingtang, KMT) as President in 1992, the emergence of several opposition parties (especially the Democratic Progressive Party, DPP), and the election of Chen, Shui-bian (the leader of the DPP) in 2000. Taiwan’s G-B relations have changed along with the new challenges in economic and political environment. Taiwan has gradually lost its comparative advantage of inexpensive labor and cannot compete with those offered from neighboring countries. The relocations of many manufacturing and labor intensive industries to the Mainland China and Southeastern countries (e. g. , Vietnam) have resulted in the rise of unemployment population in Taiwan. Taiwan’s investment has deteriorated because of the influence of special interest groups on government policy since the 1990s under the Lee, Teng-hui’s administration. Regarding the investment issue in the Mainland China, Lee’s â€Å"patience over haste† policy has been ineffective in limiting the increase of Taiwanese businesses investment in China and has brought internal conflicting arguments in Taiwan’s society. The past sound development environment has been further deteriorated because of the inexperience of Chen Shui-bia’s administration, the inconsistence of government’s policies (e. g. , policy on the nuclear power development), the connection between politicians and business 18 conglomerates, and the increasing political confrontation between the Pan-Blue Coalition and Pan- Green Coalition parties. The election of Ma, Ying-jeou in 2008 has not immediately resolved Taiwan’s economic challenges. Unlike the past high growth records, Taiwan’s GDP growths have been relatively low after 2000, from 4. 06 in 2000, -1. 69 in 2001, 4. 7 in 2002, 2. 20 in 2003, 5. 19 in 2004, 3. 52 in 2005, 4. 04 in 2006, and 6. 03 in 2007. Both the amount of GPD and GDP per capita only increased small percentages between 2000 and 2007, with GDP increased from NT$10,032 billion (US$ 321,230 million) to NT$ 12,635. 8 billion (US$ 384,768 million) and GDP per capita increased from NT$453 ,422 (US$ 14,519) to NT$ 553,507 (US$ 16,855). 5 Managerial Issues in Government-Business Relations The previous review of developmental experience in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan has showed that G-B relations in these societies have become complicated along with the economic development and changes. It is clear that all three governments have emphasized the government-guided strategy to promote their economic development. Despite differences in the intervention level and scope (e. g. , less intervention in Hong Kong), all three governments have made institutions arrangements and policy changes to create a free market system and a safe social environment to attract foreign investment and to assist local business development. These governmental policies and changes are critical to support the entrepreneurship development in these societies, which has been considered as one of the major characteristics of their development experience (e. . , Liou, 1998b; Yu, 2007; 1997). To understand the interaction of government and business, we further analyze key managerial issues that are related to business promotion, government regulation, and administrative reform. A. Business Promotion and Accountability Concern 19 The first managerial issue in the study of G-B relations is the accountabil ity concern of business promotion policy. As explained previously, all three governments have implemented various incentive policies to promote business development in their societies. While they are successful in attracting foreign investment to provide the needed financial capitals, technical skills, and managerial knowledge, these incentives have also resulted in some negative consequences such as unfair treatments between domestic firms and foreign companies, special favors to big businesses over small firms, unequal developments between regions with and without such incentives, resource waste and low return of investment rates, and no consideration of side costs associated with economic growth (e. . , air pollutions, increase of public debts). These negative consequences about incentive policies indicate the need for developing a well-organized evaluation system to assure the accountability of these policies. In recent years, public administration researchers have emphasized the value of accountability for results to promote the outcome and performance based management (e. g. , Rainey, 2003; Romzek and Dubnice, 1987). To address accountability concerns, development evaluation becomes an important task for the management of incentive policies. Public managers need to conduct various performance evaluation methods to monitor the costs and benefits of each tax incentive for the purpose of protecting public interests (Liou, 2007b). The challenges for managers are in the process of making incentive decisions and the criteria used to make such decisions. In many cases, incentive decisions have been challenged with different considerations, such s short term interests vs. long term interests, and economic benefits vs. social or environmental welfares. While no easy and clear answers for these questions, public managers have to pay attention to these controversial issues and to promote accountability in every aspect of the development process. 20 B. Government Regulation and Effectiveness Challenge The second managerial issue in the G-B relations is the controversial role of government regulation in the p rocess of economic developmen

HOW TO BUILD A WEB-PAGE essays

HOW TO BUILD A WEB-PAGE essays Building a Web-page is fairly easy, it takes time and patients.The main purpose of a Web-page is to tell people about yourself or to tell someone about the News or gossip about your favorite Soap Opera,to send out information basically. The first thing you need to do is to make sure you have the right software,if you do not have the software we are about to discuss you can always use tools off the internet;the two programs i like using are Maromedia's"Dreamweaver 4" and Frontpage Express. Both are tools used in building the Web-page that are excellent to have. Next you make a simple page that is like a cover page on an essay,you are describing the name of the page,showing a sample of what you will see, and then add a link to the next page. Now you are ready to add a background so from here you will go up with your pointer,click on format and go down to "Background" or you can add sound to the page. While you are building your site here is a "Need to know" bit of information, make sure you put images and everything you add to the page into the same folder if you do not the page will not work right so save everything together including the page itself. Another important factor is when saving your page to your hardrive save it as "Index.htm or Index.html" the reason why you do this is because Index is set as the default page and when your browser starts up it looks for it first. Now you are ready to upload your images and your site to the internet this is pretty easy to do in the sever you will find the file manager and from the file manager you can choose the option to upload your site to the internet when you do this you will upload images everything you have put on that site including the htm or html files and then your site should be up and running. I hope this Essay helps someone out so good luck. ...

Protestant Reformation Essay Essay Example

Protestant Reformation Essay Essay Example Protestant Reformation Essay Essay Protestant Reformation Essay Essay In the 16th century the Catholic Church experienced one of the major challenges that changed the face of this church everlastingly. This development has been described as alone and of import since it brought transparence in the church and made it possible for the ordinary individual to entree the Gods land merely like Jesus Christ intended through the lacrimation of the drape into two pieces. This transmutation was called The Protestant Reformation ; it was ab initio aimed at reforming the establishment which is the church by offering the true redemption of God. The reformists wanted to convey alterations in the church utilizing the true word of God. They clearly understood that the Holy Bible was the lone authorization that was supposed to steer the church. Through this reform the Protestants were fundamentally rejecting the authorization of the Pope whom they described as holding misled the sheep through presenting some patterns which went contrary to the instructions in the Holy Book and philosophies of the early church. To the Protestants saneness had to be returned to the church and acquire rid of all the immoralities which had been introduced in the name of worship. Protestant Reformation was one of the most extremist spiritual transmutations to happen in the history of the church. The struggle that ensued led to a major division in the church where on one side there was the Catholic and on the other the Protestants. These reforms were as a consequence of the economical. spiritual societal and political alterations that were taking topographic point during this period. The impacts were so extended such that they have been described as great turning point for the universe and the church. There are assorted factors that have been pointed to hold played great function every bit far as Protestant Reformation is concerned. Cunningham and Reich ( 2005 ) argue that it is difficult to nail the exact factors or conditions which led to the Protestants Reformation but they continue to state that any account brought frontward has to take into the history the many elements which were coming up during this century. Rise in patriotism and bitterness in pontificate commanding attitude are some of the conditions which gave rise to this spiritual revolution. Other factors include the corruptness in the church. power and wealth battles. misdirection in the church. and find of authorship among other causes. The Roman Catholic Church had dominated the faith order in Europe for along period such that it controlled most facets of life in this part. The church was so powerful such that it controlled most of the political power in Western Europe. During this period the church was turning at a great velocity. There was a batch of enlargement traveling on where churches were being built. One of the worshipping centres that came up during this epoch was the saint Peter Basilica which was situated in Rome. All these developments were taking topographic point during the pontificate of Pope Leo. the ten percent. To finance the enlargement of the church he had to increase the gross. He used assorted methods to accomplish this. Some of these methods did non auger good with the instructions in the Gospel. They were corrupt and exploitatory in nature. This is the period when the church was riddled by immoralities beyond no step. Cunningham and Reich observe that the church was profoundly rooted with corruptness and misdirection â€Å"it was like a house cards waiting to be toppled† ( p 80 ) The reforms in the church had been turning over clip where people were responding from the surpluss of the church which made the lives of many people so difficulty. Martin Luther one of the designers of this revolution yearned for alteration that will do the church serve the intent of Christ. He advocated for personal transition something that appealed to many people who further demanded for the rejection of the bad patterns of the Catholic Church. Invention of composing brought with itself some of the best things that helped in transmutation of faith. For so long faith has been a affair of following without oppugning. Followings believed everything that clergy said. they could non hold questioned since they did non hold anything to endorse their expostulations. with innovation of printing. people could read for themselves what the word contained. Martin Luther helped interpret the Bible in German. it subsequently spread to the other part. This gave many followings of the church a opportunity to acquire fast manus information written in the Bible. Peoples started to oppugn some of the things the clergy were affecting themselves in. They started inquiring for accounts. They could non understand why people would pay for their wickednesss to a priest who would forgive them. This became an oculus opener every bit far as religion is concerned. Martin Luther being one of the title-holders of the Protestant reforms brought much inspiration to the Protestants. There is a batch that was accomplished in this revolution. One there was interlingual rendition of the Bible into different linguistic communications. This served as a accelerator of the reforms and people came to cognize what is expected of them. Second Martin Luther helped in the publicity of the impression that it is merely the sanctum word that should be the usher every bit far as Christian life is concerned. The word remains the same and does non alter to accommodate the times. Changing the Holy word for selfish addition or to function one’s intent should be discouraged as it is equivalent to disobeying God. There was publicity of the construct where faithful were supposed to warrant themselves by the religion. Martin Luther helped on this terminal where Christian came to understand that it is merely through religion that one should warrant he or she is a truster. It is non through the part one makes to the church but by the religion in 1s bosom. Luther besides helped in the publicity of the construct of acquiring saved through the Grace. This was different from what believed in the yesteryear where indulgencies were adequate to do one sanctum. Reformation brought a new construct where faithful came to believe in the redemption through Christ. The church one time more became a lively topographic point to be where people worshipped God through singing. This was a major displacement from the patterns of the Catholic Church where everything revolved through recitation of philosophies which many of the followings could non even understand. Christian came to appreciate that they can near God straight without holding to travel through the reverends. by direct attack it meant that they could pray direct to God without necessary inquiring the Clergy to make it for them. By and large there was a renewed spirit among the Protestants where they approached issues otherwise and in an nonsubjective mode. Counter Reformation was fundamentally a reaction to the Protestants Reformation. Roman Catholic attempted to turn to some of the issues of concern. They tried to extinguish the church excesses that had been pinpointed by the reformists. When Pope Paul 3 took over the church was able to acquire the much needed leading. His purpose was to run into the challenges brought approximately by the Protestants. He approved some new orders which helped in some of the issues raised by the Protestants. This motion has been described as an activism which was keenly marked with evangelization of the new lands that had been discovered. particularly in America. Protestant Reformation wholly changed the affairs of religion. It awakened the sleeping giant which came to recognize that people can non be held in ransom for so long. It brought a new morning where people came to recognize that one does non necessitate to go through through any other individual to be able to speak to God. This revolution will ever be one of the sorts where humanity was redeemed from its ain ignorance.

Yanomami Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Yanomami - Essay Example These groups of tribes are divided into more than 400 villages. The weather of the Amazon rainforest can be different by extremes of rain and scorching heat of the sun. This expects a lot of adaptability of the people of the tribe. The foods in the summer season can ripe fruits which enable the tribe to gain good diet. The plants as observed for food and herbs use are gathered by Yanomamis from the rainforests (Schwartz). Almost 3000 types of fruits have been noticed to consume by the Yanomamis. It is the main reason of behind well-being of the Yanomamis. When the rain season is noted to be on its peak, the plants start to grow with a slow pace which deprives the villagers to consume more food. The genetic or physical adaptation as noted in the Yanomamis is their combat qualities. The tribes’ men are better in combating with their enemies. Yanomamis show strength of the able men and real humans who are very strong and can adapt environmental change to the fullest. The cultural adaption of the Yanomamis is their ability to fish and hunt during the rainy weather. They also hunt the wildlife during summer. This is important because they can use the wild life for created decayed basis of their huts and keep themselves warm with the animal skins (Milliken, Albert and Gomez). The language of the Yanomami culture is housed into one family which is referred to Yanomaman. These languages have had their region in the Brazilian region to Southern Venezuela. The Yanomaman language groups include a number of languages but the most widely spoken language by the Yanomamis is Xirianian. There are several dialects which had made difficult for the tribes to follow one language. It is for this reason that there are different languages being spoken. But these tribes can easily understand the each other with the Xirianian language even if they cannot speak identically (Schwartz). The gender roles as per the definition of Yanomami culture include boys and girls. The

Answer the five following questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Answer the five following questions - Assignment Example In the same way, a sense of likability arises as one is forced to view the advert till it ends. The advert therefore scores very well in terms of the best qualities of conventional adverts. 2) The company using alternative advertising is the clothing giant Barbour which is using quality as a way of advertising its products. The organization has realized that quality products will always sell and has therefore reduced the conventional forms of advertising. The focus in this regard is to ensure that each product is uniquely made and scores very high from the consumers. In essence, this strategy has over the years worked effectively for the organization and has enabled it to lead its industry. 3) One ethical dilemma in marketing was realized by Toyota in its decision to recall some of its brand that had defective components. Indeed, this was a hard choice to make for the organization but it had to be done. It was indeed a great ethical dilemma for the management due to the great costs that were involved and the need to uphold quality which has always guided the

Assess the extent that the UN has been successful since its creation Essay

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September 11 as A Turning Point In International Law Essay

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None Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 5

None - Essay Example This paper will briefly describe the characteristic features of the Great Depression, compare the approaches of Hoover and Roosevelt to the economic and social turmoil, and explain Roosevelt's New Deal responses to the crisis. As a preliminary matter, the Great Depression was characterized by unprecedented levels of consumer debt, a decrease in international trade in the wake of the first World War, price deflation which compelled both individual and business debtors to cut spending while attempting to service higher than anticipated debt payments, a liquidity crisis which saw the money supply contract rather than expand, and a stock market crash as equity failed to yield anticipated returns (Bernstein, 1989: 33-35). In effect, stating the matter rather simply, money was disappearing on the income or loan side at the same time that debts and expenses were increasing. The consequences were disastrous. Unemployment increased, bankruptcies became commonplace, and huge migrations occurred as people sought new opportunities. There were too few resources for too many people; and where there were adequate resources; they were not allocated equally. President Hoover failed to grasp the pervasive nature of the economic failings; on the contrary, rather than approaching the crisis from a structural point of view, he chose to deal only with the more superficial symptoms of the crisis. More specifically, espousing a philosophical role of government which remained detached and aloof, Hoover refused to involve the government more directly into the market economy or social welfare. He was, in this way, a regulatory minimalist and he trusted that the business cycle and the American work ethic would sort out the crisis without substantial governmental intervention (Kennedy, 199: 56). These views became manifest as a policy of "avowed cooperation"; more particularly, Hoover encouraged certain reforms, such as bank deposit insurance, without supporting any more specific or comprehensive reforms. He was, in the final analysis, extraordinarily passive and ineffective in dealing with the scale of the disaster. President Roosevelt, on the other hand, was much more active and advocated a direct and deep intervention by the federal government. To this end, Roosevelt pursued structural reform, a broader notion of social welfare, and a governmental role in the economy which would increase demand and create jobs by entering into infrastructure contracts and becoming an active economic actor alongside individuals and businesses (Bremer, 1975: 642). Roosevelt distrusted both the free market and businesses in the forms espoused by theoretical purists; as a result, he approached the crisis from the point of view of the federal government helping to manage the business cycle and keeping the excesses of greed and capitalism at bay. Roosevelt was thus a reaction to the passivity and detachment of Hoover; his programs, incorporated as a part of the New Deal and the Second New Deal, remain important parts of our governmental structure and philosophy even today. The New Deal dealt first and foremost with restoring the integrity and the health of America's financial system; Roosevelt was thus forced to reform the powerful banks on Wall Street and elsewhere. This