Thursday, November 28, 2019

The Bribery Scandal at Siemens Ag Essay Example Essay Example

The Bribery Scandal at Siemens Ag Essay Example Paper The Bribery Scandal at Siemens Ag Essay Introduction The Siemens bribery scandal brought to light a strategic dilemma facing multi-national firms attempting to gain a competitive edge by operating abroad; specifically, how can they balance adherence to their own ethical and legal standards with the customs required to do business efficiently, or perhaps at all, in foreign marketsGermany’s Co-Determination law has since drawn intense criticism as hampering competitiveness and creating untenable situations for management, rife with conflict-of-interest issues, not only because of Siemens, but also because of the number of other German-based companies accused of bribing labor union representatives.?The forced resignation of CEO, Klaus Kleinfeld, despite the resulting success during his tenure, illustrates the predicament international managers face with regard to conflicting operational methods, and leads us to larger questions about accountability within an organization.? As the case study author states, the Siemens scandal is rep resentative of what many firms believe is the inevitable â€Å"ethical cost of intense competition in global markets†, particularly emerging markets, where payments for contracts are described as common place and perhaps even required.?Perhaps the most glaringly problematic observation remains that the Siemens AG top management claims that they failed to notice rampant, and arguably conspicuous embezzlement leading to lucrative foreign contracts. The Bribery Scandal at Siemens Ag Essay Body Paragraphs Are there flaws in the German System of Corporate Governance? The 2007 scandal resulting in charges against Siemens’ Chief of Information Technology, Johannes Feldmayer, and Chief of Finance, Karl-Hermann Baumann, was rooted in illegal payments designed to work around German corporate governance laws. In this instance, IG Metall complained that Siemens was illegally funding smaller, rival union, AUB, in an attempt to grow and cultivate it as an ally against IG Metall in the bargaining process. This scandal marked the beginning of the unearthing of unethical behaviors in other German-based firms that have since lead to criticism that the Co-Determination law is antiquated and hampers competitiveness. The Co-Determination law was designed to provide a mechanism for worker participation in management decision-making via a two-tiered system with a supervisory board having oversight of the management board. Critics, however, argue that the law, in fact, limits the management boardà ¢â‚¬â„¢s ability to make strategic decisions due to the control exerted by labor holding 50% of the seats on the supervisory board. I agree with the author’s statement that this creates, â€Å"a suspicious alliance between the management and the labor representatives†. The end result was often agreements made prior to the official meetings to facilitate outcomes favorable to management. Although the law was meant to bring balance to the corporate governance structure, I would argue that the potential for corruption of the labor representatives, or on the other end of the spectrum, obstruction of the management board, has a destabilizing effect likely to manifest in questionable and dysfunctional partnerships, such as was the case with Siemens. Another component of the Co-Determination law prevents selection of supervisory board members who are non-German, regardless of the expertise or perspective they could bring to the table. Naturally, the result is a limited, often recurring, and potentially like-minded pool of candidates, which the author points out, may have contributed to the ousting of Kleinfeld. The facts presented indicate that the lion’s share of the bribery scandal took place under Heinrich von Pierer, who was the CEO from 1992 until 2005, and the supervisory board chairman from 2005 to 2007. Kleinfeld took over in 2005 and, within a period of only two years, had accomplished a remarkable and profitable restructuring, as evidenced by a 26% increase in the stock price. This was not without growing pains, however, as it is speculated that Kleinfeld’s aggressive management style, often described as â€Å"American†, did not meet with the approval of the more conservative supervisory board. As such, analysts opined that the bribery scandal was used as an opportunity to remove Kleinfeld, citing the need for a â€Å"new beginning†. I agree that this is likely the case. The growth under Kleinfeld was impressive, pa rticularly given the timeframe. Furthermore, the timing of the actual instances of bribery put them squarely during von Pierer’s tenure as CEO; and he had already stepped down from the supervisory board. Nevertheless, under the power granted by the Co-Determination law, the supervisory board opted to bring in a new CEO, Peter Loescher, indicating, in my opinion, that its issue with Kleinfeld was not performance based. Why Such Risky Business? The history of Siemens AG paints a picture of a successful and arguably dominant multi-national firm, with a reputation for a war chest of competencies and innovative products. The obvious question, then, is why would a firm with this resume and list of global achievements become involved with corruption and criminal behavior? The author recounts the opinions of analysts who believe the answer is simple; many firms view the types of payments at the heart of the Siemens scandal to be the necessary cost of doing business in the current glo bal environment. At first glance, the facts of this case may seem to support this theory. There were â‚ ¬420 million of questionable payments made over a seven year period from 1999 to 2006. Official Siemens records showed the payments as having gone to external consultants. It was determined, however, that they were actually paid to foreign purchasing officials and that the expenditures coincided with the procurement of â€Å"fixed line telecommunications business in various international markets†, including Italy, Puerto Rico, Greece, and the United States. By March of 2007, two former Siemens managers were convicted of embezzlement of company funds for the purpose of bribing foreign officials. The employees argued that their actions did not violate any laws, resulted in no personal gain, and were taken solely for the purpose of improving Siemens’ positioning. They argued that they worked, only to secure a lucrative deal in which the payments were required by Enel management as part of the standard bid process. In fact, Siemens AG argued that the court order requiring forfeiture of earnings from the contract, prior to 2002 when the German government instituted a law prohibiting bribes to private officials abroad, specifically, had no basis in law. As previously stated, these events may appear to support the case in favor of questionable payments and loose ethical boundaries as a necessary cost of business. It is my opinion, however, that these events illustrate a flawed management culture and strategy. They are evidence of a system where a focus on true technological innovation has given way to a focus on unfettered expansion, and the unnatural duplication of the monopolistic type control over infrastructure in developing countries that was enjoyed during previous decades in other parts of the now industrialized world. If Siemens had bolstered their technologically competitive strength, they would not need to rely so heavily on their financi al strength to gain entry into markets. Is this the New Cost of Doing Business? The fact that Siemens top management continue to take the official position that, despite the scope, depth, and intricacies of the bribery scandal, they had no knowledge of it remains difficult to explain. Further, they take no responsibility, save acknowledgement that they lacked adequate internal compliance systems. I find the truthfulness of this position to be of remote possibility due to the conspicuousness and magnitude of the payments, as well as their direct correlation with the securing of highly lucrative contracts. Moreover, the idea that entire sections of Siemens’ managers were of the character that they would be comfortable blatantly committing criminal acts for the sole benefit of their employer, but not themselves, I find to be quite counter-intuitive. The debate over whether events such as those unearthed at Siemens are part of the usual and customary cost of doing business abroad must be framed in terms of the complete denial of culpability by the top management. A legitimate, above-board expense is accounted for, tracked, and justified; this is the case even when it is outside the norms of the firm’s home country. It is not hidden from shareholders. A buffer of scapegoat-able employees need not lie between it and top management. If a light cannot be readily shown upon it, I believe it is without question, unethical. Whether or not it is illegal, however, depends upon the laws in the countries the firm is operating in. I could conceive of a situation where a firm could distribute cash â€Å"incentive† payments openly, on the books, as well as legally. In addition, firms have other options. They could improve their offerings to increase the competitiveness of the bid, and/or structure them with above-board incentives. They could operate with a clear and unwavering zero-tolerance policy for bribery; recognizing that it will be necessary to educa te those conducting bid processes in markets where it is believed to be common to expect questionable payments. A firm could also exercise patience, and restraint, and be willing to walk away from markets requiring participation in corrupt processes. The Kleinfeld Conclusion. The Siemens AG supervisory board did provide adequate justification for the decision not to renew Kleinfeld’s contract, due to the scandals breaking during his time as CEO; yet, I believe that they were wrong in doing so in light of his track record of impressive and expedient accomplishments. Though his termination clearly pleased the board, unless Mr.Loescher is able to maintain the growth trajectory set by Kleinfeld, I believe his departure will not inspire confidence from management or shareholders. This is of concern because confidence has a direct impact on value, which could make it harder to move beyond the bribery scandal. Was it Worth It? One question still remains: was Siemens really at fault, given the apparent prevalence of these sorts of issues among other German companies; or was their only sin getting caught? It is my opinion that the magnitude of the â€Å"bribing† which took place at Siemens made it highly unlikely that knowledge of it would stay buried. I believe Siemens had to have anticipated this, hence the buffer between top management and the â€Å"bribers†. I believe they made a calculated business decision that whatever the consequence may ultimately be, it was a greater benefit to get a foot hold in the infrastructure of those markets. In short, yes, Siemens is to blame, and yes, they are okay with it. Bibliography Deresky, H. (2011). International Management: Managing Across Borders and Cultures (7th Edition ed. ). Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall. 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Monday, November 25, 2019

Specificity of Japanese Verbs to Wear and to Play

Specificity of Japanese Verbs 'to Wear' and 'to Play' Some Japanese verbs are more specific when describing actions than English verbs. While there is only one verb used for a certain action in English, there might be several different verbs in Japanese. One of the examples is the verb to wear. In English, it can be used as, I wear a hat, I wear gloves, I wear glasses and so on. However, Japanese has different verbs depending on which part of the body it will be worn on. Lets take a look at how the Japanese describe to wear and to play. Boushi o kaburu. Ã¥ ¸ ½Ã¥ ­ Ã£â€šâ€™Ã£ â€¹Ã£  ¶Ã£â€šâ€¹ - I wear a hat. (Kaburu is used for putting on the head.)Megane o kakeru. ã‚ Ã£ Å'㠁 ­Ã£â€šâ€™Ã£ â€¹Ã£ â€˜Ã£â€šâ€¹ - I wear glasses. (Kakeru also means, to hang.)Iyaringu o tsukeru. ã‚ ¤Ã£Æ' ¤Ã£Æ' ªÃ£Æ' ³Ã£â€š °Ã£â€šâ€™Ã£  ¤Ã£ â€˜Ã£â€šâ€¹ - I wear earrings. (Tsukeru also means, to attach.)Nekutai o shimeru. ãÆ' Ã£â€š ¯Ã£â€š ¿Ã£â€š ¤Ã£â€šâ€™Ã§ ·  Ã£â€š Ã£â€šâ€¹ - I wear a tie. (Shimeru also means, to tie.)Sukaafu o maku. ã‚ ¹Ã£â€š «Ã£Æ' ¼Ã£Æ'•ã‚’å · »Ã£   - I wear a scarf. (Maku also means, to wrap around.)Tebukuro o hameru. 手è ¢â€¹Ã£â€šâ€™Ã£  ¯Ã£â€š Ã£â€šâ€¹ - I wear gloves. (Hameru also means, to insert.)Yubiwa o hameru. æÅ'‡è ¼ ªÃ£â€šâ€™Ã£  ¯Ã£â€š Ã£â€šâ€¹ - I wear rings.Tokei o suru. 時è ¨Ë†Ã£â€šâ€™Ã£ â„¢Ã£â€šâ€¹ - I wear a watch.Shatsu o kiru. ã‚ ·Ã£Æ' £Ã£Æ'„ã‚’ç â‚¬Ã£â€šâ€¹ - I wear shirts. (Kiru is used for putting on the body.)Zubon o haku. ã‚ ºÃ£Æ'Å" ãÆ' ³Ã£â€šâ€™Ã£  ¯Ã£   - I wear pants. (Haku is used for putting on the legs.)Kutsu o haku. é  ´Ã£â€šâ€™Ã¥ ± ¥Ã£   - I wear shoes. (Haku is also used for putting on footwear.)Omocha de asobu. 㠁Šã‚‚㠁 ¡Ã£â€šÆ'㠁 §Ã© Å Ã£  ¶ - I play with toys. (Asobu originally means, to amuse oneself.)Piano o hiku. ãÆ'”ã‚ ¢Ã£Æ'Žã‚’å ¼ ¾Ã£   - I play the piano. (Hiku is used to play the musical instrument that requires the manipulation of fingers.) Fue o fuku. ç ¬â€ºÃ£â€šâ€™Ã¥  ¹Ã£   - I play the flute. (Fuku is used to play the musical instrument that requires blowing.)Taiko o tataku. Ã¥ ¤ ªÃ© ¼â€œÃ£â€šâ€™Ã£ Å¸Ã£ Å¸Ã£   - I play the drum. (Tataku is used to play the musical instrument that requires beating.)Rekoodo o kakeru. ãÆ' ¬Ã£â€š ³Ã£Æ' ¼Ã£Æ'‰ã‚’㠁‹ã â€˜Ã£â€šâ€¹ - I am playing a record.Toranpu o suru. ãÆ'ˆãÆ' ©Ã£Æ' ³Ã£Æ'â€"を㠁™ã‚‹ - I play cards.Yakyuu o suru. 野ç Æ'を㠁™ã‚‹ - I play baseball. (Suru can be used for most sports.)Romio o enjiru. ãÆ' ­Ã£Æ'Ÿã‚ ªÃ£â€šâ€™Ã¦ ¼â€Ã£ ËœÃ£â€šâ€¹ - I play the role of Romeo.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Web Communications Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Web Communications - Essay Example The major objective to this paper is to examine and evaluate the how communication, and interaction of people is changed through the advancement of the web platform. The paper focuses on YouTube web 2.0 platform. The paper shows how the communication has changed ever since the advancement of the platform. The essay begins with giving a brief background information on YouTube. Secondly, the paper will discuss the relationship between YouTube and other web 2.0 platform. And finally, the paper will look to analyze and evaluate the how YouTube has influenced as well as caused a change to the collaboration and the communication. In the year 2005, three IT entrepreneurs came up with the YouTube1. Google Company purchased the company later in the year 2006. The company has been under the organization of Google team. The function of YouTube is simple since it only involves uploading as well as downloading the videos through YouTube. The users connect through the use of YouTube where the videos are shared through uploads and downloads. However, many videos in YouTube are not only uploaded by individuals but also large organizations and corporations use the site to pass information such as advertisements and market their products. Research shows that four billion videos are streamed form YouTube on a daily basis. In 2010, a new designed of interacting with other web 2.0 platforms was launched to ease the interaction of the YouTube with other technologies. The connection between YouTube and other platforms is quite clear in that videos are shared form YouTube to the other social networks. For instance, videos are shared form you through the use of twitter, blogs and Facebook among others. YouTube if plugged directly into the browsers making it easy to users as they try to search and find the link of YouTube in their browsers.

Wednesday, November 20, 2019

HRM Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 2

HRM - Assignment Example Similar to its UK hotels, service provision to guests in France must be excellent. Further, guests at the hotels in France must enjoy a clean and comfortable environment. Staff recruited and retained in France must be of exceptional competence levels. As a strategy to help the staff realize their full potential, the management plans to support and develop them. Similar to the operations in the UK hotels, the staff should ensure a proper maintenance of fittings and fixtures at the hotels in France. Training and development at the organization should focus on three vital aspects of expansion from local to international scope of operations. First, it should feature concerns of cross-cultural differences. Second, training and development at Melrose Hotels should address the processes of centralization and decentralization of human resource that may emanate from expanded operations. Third, it is fundamental to address initiatives for workplace diversity and equality at Melrose Hotels. Because some of the employees have been serving in the UK, relocation to France shall necessitate training on cross-cultural differences. Training should inform employees of the basic differences between cultures in the UK and France that may influence their service delivery or customer care. It should prepare them through enhancing knowledge of the realities of working under the new cultures in France. The training should initiate, among employees formerly serving in the UK, the urge to learn and adopt the host country’s (France) cultures that define customer satisfaction. Further, the training should exceed mere dos and don’ts as defined by the host country’s cultures but expand the staff’s understanding of the justification of the cultural differences. It should promote interaction and communication among staff from diverse cultures in multicultural organizations (Rozkwitalska 2013,

Monday, November 18, 2019

Sexual Response and Arousal Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Sexual Response and Arousal - Research Paper Example As disclosed, the breakdown of the gender of these participants was 101 male students and 111 female students and should be at least 18 years old to qualify as valid participants due to the explicit sexual content of the research. The methodology required a specifically designed erotic story composed of 1,600 words that allegedly started from precoital to postcoital detailed narrative scenes. A questionnaire was designed to measure pre-test levels of â€Å"sexual self-esteem, sexual desire, and pre- and posttest measures of arousal† (Scott & Cortez, 2011, p. 165). The results of the study revealed that there were no apparent significant levels of disparities between both genders in evaluating the appeal of erotic stories (using both explicit and suggestive narrative discourses) (Scott & Cortez, 2011). The authors, however, found that there were some disparities in terms of manifesting arousal levels between male and female under suggestive conditions. As disclosed, males who read suggestive narrative discourse exhibited limited increases in arousal levels as compared to males who read explicit narrative discourse, especially describing the coital scenario. As such, the authors concluded that â€Å"although women have reported physiological arousal in response to male-dominant explicit materials, women were more psychologically aroused by erotica designed for women† (Scott & Cortez, 2011, p. 174). The online published article from PsychCentral written by Nauert (2010) entitled â€Å"Men and Women Differ on Sexual Arousal† indicated that there are disparities between the way males and females respond physiologically to mental sexual arousal. As contended, â€Å"men’s reports of feeling sexually aroused tend to match their physiological responses, while women’s mind and body responses are less aligned† (Nauert, 2010, par. 2). These findings were reported to be the result of a study

Friday, November 15, 2019

The wembley national stadium

The wembley national stadium   Introduction It was built to be the new ‘home of football; to be one of the largest and magnificent stadiums in the world and designed to be state-of-the-art with a seating capacity of 90,000. Designed by the World Stadium Team led by Mott MacDonald, the Wembley Stadium now stands as the most expensive stadium ever built, the longest single-span roof structure in the world (315m), second largest stadium in Europe and the tallest in the world (133m) with every seat under roof cover.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The concept was to build a state-of-the-art stadium, with none that can compare anywhere else in the world. The new stadium has a partly retractable roof which can be adjusted to allow sunlight to reach all parts of the pitch. During bad weather, the roof can be retracted in about 15 minutes to cover every seat (http://www.designbuild-network.com/projects/wembley/).  £120 million from the Lottery Fund was invested into the stadium with an additional loan of  £426 million through West Deutsche Landesbank. A fixed price contract was reached between the client and contractors. This made provision for a building cost of  £352 million and total project costs of  £757 million (Public Accounts Committee, 2004). However, like most iconic construction projects of national interest, the Wembley project was not spared its own share of controversies, accusations, rumours, anxieties and fascination. The Football Association (FA) must have imagined a spectacular 2006 FA Cup grand finale, the biggest UK soccer championship at Wembley National Stadium. Unfortunately, this important event had to be moved all the way to Wales! What was wrong? Wembley Stadiums extraordinarily ambitious re-development was utterly behind schedule.The project later opened in March 2007, almost a year behind schedule and  £70million over budget and has since then kept some of the finest construction lawyers in constant employment. The Wembley Stadium concept was definitely ambitious and the product stands now impressively. Even more breathe taking is the 133m arch which when lit up at night shinning gloriously, and can even be seen across London. Wembley has indeed become Englands new icon of football. The client for the project was the Football Association (FA) working through its subsidiary the Wembley National Stadium Ltd (WNSL). The main contractor was Multiplex Constructions with Mott MacDonald being the Lead Designers. The project used two project advisors; Tropus at the initial stages (1997-2001) and Capita Symonds (2001-2006). The initial steel contractor was Cleveland Bridge Problems During The Project A litany of problems can be identified that bedevilled the construction of the Wembley Stadium mainly adversarial contracts, unreasonable risk allocation, cash-flow problems, design changes, poor performance, poor site management and litigations. These are presented in details below: Delays and indecisiveness even before the project begun: Plans for a new stadium were beset with delays, management problems and increasing costs since December 1996. The designs were revealed   in 1999 and the stadium should have been completed in 2003 but the work itself started only in September 2002 due to many political and financial problems. The project was finally rescheduled to complete in May 2006 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/2119413.stm).   Design Problems: Multiplex argued that ‘Mott MacDonald`s design for the Wembley steel work was not fit for purpose and that the initial designs were not correct, constructible, co-ordinated and consistent. It further stated that Mott MacDonalds deficient design, failure to warn and/or take action is shown in many thousands of individual acts or omissions (Technology and Construction Court (TCC), 2006).   Scope Creep: The initial scope was to accommodate athletics, rugby and football in the same stadium. This later became very controversial and resulted in the removal of athletics from the scheme in 1999, because of the technical and commercial challenges of accommodating the three sports within the same stadium. In December 2001, the scope was further changed with the removal of a hotel from the project, the expansion of hospitality suites and considerable changes to the north side of the stadium bowl. This took the Mott Consortium 7-8 months to redesign. These changes increased the cost of the project especially in steel works (TCC, 2006). Procurement Issues: In the conclusions of Public Accounts Committee (Eighth Report of Session 2003-04), it stated that â€Å"Best procurement practice has not been followed on what is a high profile project Organisations responsible for managing projects should be expected to set out a formal procurement process, which treats all bidders equally to avoid giving any one a potential advantage over the others.† It further criticised Wembley National Stadium Limited for failing to follow a detailed and overt formal procurement process and having dialogue with Multiplex prior to starting the procurement process. A report by former Wembley project manager Tropus, said ‘the appointment was made with undue speed. The James Report also concluded that there had ‘been serious flaws in the procurement policies.'(James Report, 2002) Poor Communication: Apart from the major changes in the scope of the works, Multiplexlamented not given access to vital design information which made them underprice the steelwork. Mott on the other hand thought â€Å"Multiplex was aware of the state of design, having managed the design process and having been intimately involved in the design work.†Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   (Wembley Stadium into Injury Time, 2002) Poor Planning and organisation: A lot of decisions seem to have been made hastily. No wonder several changes had to be made at later stages. When it became a prime objective to finish the project in time for the FA Cup finale in May 2006, efficiency and cost effectiveness became secondary issues. In my opinion, a lot of problems could have been avoided if Multiplex did not have to rush the job to meet unrealistic deadlines. Multiplex claims that it has sustained significant losses as a result of a multitude of breaches of contract and/or acts of negligence by the consultant, which had far-reaching effects for Wembley (TCC, 2006; Baloch, 2008). Disputes and disagreements: Cleveland Bridge (CB), the steel contractor terminated their   contract   in 2004 because they did not believe they would be paid for materials and that there were seemingly insurmountable difficulties between them and Multiplex. A sustained input from a steelwork subcontractor could have greatly influenced the timely completion of the project but eventually CB had to be replaced with all attending problems of a new project team member. Health and Safety problems: In March 2006, a temporary roof support fell by over half resulting in the evacuation of all construction workers and delay of work. Another accident occurred January 2004 resulting in the death of one construction worker and the injury of another when a platform collapsed without warning, trapping the men underneath (http://www.designbuild-network.com/projects/wembley/) Poor Performance by Cleveland Bridge: Delays were caused by CB as not all the steel sent to China could be fabricated in time to comply with the programme. So the steel sent to China was often shipped back to England with   most not fabricated. Furthermore the steel sent to site was often missing crucial pieces (meaning it could not be erected) or else was untagged with the consequence that site staff could not identify the relevant pieces of steel (TCC, 2006). Poor Supervision by Sports England: The Government was less than happy with the level of supervision offered by Sport England. It stated that â€Å"Sport   Englands performance in monitoring the progress of the project has been lack, slovenly and supine.† This ultimately resulted in supply team missing the focal point of the project right from the beginning and before long, a lot was out of hand (Wembley Stadium into Injury Time, 2002). Poor Stakeholder management: In a statement by The House of Commons Culture, Media and Sports Committee, it blamed some of the problems encountered on the project on poor stakeholder management. It said, â€Å"the project had been undermined by the ‘fundamental failure to include all representatives at the outset in planning the redevelopment† (www.publications.parliament.uk). The resignation of Ken Bates in 2001 as chairman of WNSL gives a further hint. He cited a lack of support from the board and that he had been undermined by senior figures within both the government and the FA. He remarkably said, Even Jesus Christ only had one Pontius Pilate I had a whole team of them. (www.forbes.com). The Problems Encountered: The Role Of Project Management Project Management (PM) is the â€Å". . . application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to achieve project requirements.† (PMBoK, 2004). This same theme runs through other standards for PM including BS6079 and ISO 10006. Suffice it for now to say that PM is the managerial responsibility and actions involved in completing a project on time, in budget and to the specified quality standards, in accordance with the traditional performance criteria. The role of PM in the Wembley project will now be appraised under some of the key knowledge areas identified in the PMBoK. Project Scope Management This involves developing a scope statement that will define the boundaries of the project and verify the amount of work to be done. PM uses such tools as brainstorming, fast diagrams, Value Management workshops to define the project. This is because if you have the wrong definition, you may come up with the right solution—to the wrong problem!(Lewis, 2007). If scope definition is not holistically carried out, major changes such as those experienced on Wembley may occur later and cause delays, cost variations leading to claims and litigations. This, I believe, was the ‘akiles heel of this iconic project. Where change becomes inevitable, PM should manage them to protect the project from the effects of scope creep. Wembley failed in this area resulting in the considerable cost and time overruns. Lewis (2007) rightly said, â€Å"I have become convinced that projects seldom fail at the end. Rather, they fail at the definition stage.† Project Time Management PM adorns itself with yet another accolade of being able to effectively estimate time frame for projects realistically and defining work packages and milestone to achieve this target. It employs one of its popular tools of Critical Path Method and scheduling in this respect. Many softwares including Primavera and MS Project have also been developed to helped in the management of time. Kaming (1997), Elinwa (2001) and Aibini (2006) however reveal that the occurrence of time overruns is high and that overruns can occur of projects irrespective of its size. Wembley was no exception. Some of the disputes, changes, cash flow problems, design problems etc. that caused resulted in the project being delivered in 10 months late and the subsequent changing of the FA Cup finals to Wales could have been avoided through effective project time management. PM should have helped to come out with a realistic duration for the project. Project Cost Management This involves estimating the cost of all resources and such things as travel and other support details. After this is done, costs are budgeted and tracked to keep the project within that budget (Rad, 2002). This is very important in PM as the first question most clients ask is ‘how much will it cost? It is the duty of the PM to realistically determine what it will cost to achieve a particular scope. The tough question then arises. Was Wembleys initial cost of  £445million realistic? Why did cost rise astronomically to  £757million at completion? The project even had to be stalled ‘into injury time just to seek additional funding. Why couldnt PM prevent this? Much of the blame lies squarely on PMs failure to realistically estimate cost at conception. Project Communications Management â€Å"This is the processes required to ensure timely and appropriate generation, collection, dissemination, storage, and disposition of project information.† (PMBoK, 2004). Multiplexclaims it was not given access to vital design information and that this led to increased steelwork costs. Mott MacDonald on the other hand dismisses this saying, â€Å"Multiplex was aware of the state of design, having managed the design process and having been intimately involved in the design work† (TCC, 2006). PM is supposed to create a smooth communication interface between all parties to forestall these misunderstandings. Project Procurement Management This helps in selecting the most appropriate contractors and suppliers, administers the contract as well as form the best working relationships between all parties to achieve project goals. The Public Accounts Committee (2003-04), stated that â€Å"Best procurement practice has not been followed on what is a high profile project† PM should have also salvaged the problem between Mott, Cleveland and Multiplex before it got out of hand, resulting in Cleveland walking away from the project with its attending problems. More also, it is known that competitive tendering and cost as a selection criteria has produced poor results in construction over the years and PM should have helped in designing the best procurement approach to prevent the problems (Egan, 1998). The contract used for the project was fixed cost method in which the client cleverly shirks risk to the contractor. This form of contract invariably results in creating an adversarial environment with where each party   involved focuses their attentions on the needs and risks of their businesses as opposed to those of the project (Morriss, P. and Hollis, A., 2005).This may well be another area that grossly affected the results on Wembley and effective PM should have prevented this. Stakeholder Management: Freeman and McVea (2001) describe this function as â€Å"looking out from the firm or project and identifying, and investing in all the relationships that will ensure long-term success.† At concept stage, this is used to collect views of all interested parties, especially those of end users who usually hold vital information that may be critical to the design, function and success of a project. If this was effectively done, it would have prevented the acrimony that grew between some of the contractors and would have saved the project from unnecessary delays and increased cost of replacing Cleveland Bridge. It would have helped to produce the best fitting design as well as sort out the fact that athletics, football and rugby in the same venue would present a lot of technical and functional difficulties at the design stage saving the project from about 8 months of redesign. Site Management: Chan (1997) showed that out of 8 group factors that caused delays in construction projects, poor site management and supervision was amongst the top five. The accusations and counter-accusations during the hearing at the Technology and Construction Court between Multiplex and Cleveland Bridge gives us yet another glimpse into an area of failure of PM on Wembley. The site was poorly managed as it was littered with random pieces of steel that had been delivered in the wrong order and a significant quantity of steel was sitting on trailers adjacent to the site or around the perimeter. This had the potential of disrupting flow of activities and even causing accidents (TCC, 2006). The Actions And Measures That Should Have Been Taken The influential Latham (1994) and Egan (1998) reports called for new approaches to construction- one in which client leadership is key and where there is greater collaborative working between firms within the construction supply chain. Egan summarised five key drivers of change namely committed leadership; a focus on the customer; integrated processes and teams; a quality driven agenda; and a commitment to people. Some of the necessary actions and measures that should have been taken is now presented below: Key Client Leadership: The new Terminal Five at Heathrow is a widely acclaimed example of current construction best practice. The approach was unique and tailored to the very needs of the project i.e. the client took a level of ownership of project thus creating a clear vision for how it wanted the project delivered and also staying close enough to the project from inception to completion (Brady, 2008). Latham (1994) recommended that â€Å"the client should be at the core of the construction process† because â€Å"clients [essentially] drive best practice.† Egan (1998). The Client in the Wembley Stadium project was the Football Association and thus should have: 1. stayed close enough to the project, monitoring it and to make sure things dont go out of hand; 2. ensured that major changes to the scope of works was frozen at a particular point on the project or avoided altogether. These changes often result in dispute, delays and extra expense; 3. made sure that adequate funding was secured for the project before it even begun and that the estimation of both time and cost were realistically carried out; 4. come out with clear, concise, realistic and unambiguous objectives at the conception of the project involving all necessary stakeholders so that major changes, such as those that were experienced, could be avoided; 5. shared in risk of development/construction rather than cleverly shoving it to contractors. The â€Å"Heathrow Method†: Terminal 5 was an audacious development project that involved more than 60 contractors and 16 major projects. British Airways Authority (BAA) adopted a unique approach to the project to make sure it is completed both on time and within budget. It used â€Å"an innovative form of cost-reimbursable contract the ‘T5 Agreement under which BAA holds all the risks associated with the project rather than transferring the risks to external suppliers and guarantees a level of proï ¬ t for suppliers.† (Brady, 2008). The Agreement included an incentive payment for contractors that achieved a certain level of performance. It decided to reimburse the costs of delivery and to reward exceptional performance and punish mediocre and poor performance only in terms of proï ¬ tability. This created some sort of win-win environment for all parties and motivated the contractors to focus their attention   on the needs of the project and collectively so lve problems rather than concentrate on their own business risks and interests. These are the fundamental reasons why T5 achieved the laudable success of staying within budget and cost at completion. Cleveland would not have walked out of the job if it was given firm assurance of re-imbursement of cost incurred. The contracts should have been designed with an approach that offered incentives to all, for improvement in cost, time or quality and not in an adversarial environment associated with fixed cost contracts. Integrating the Supply chain: Both Latham (1994) and Egan (1998) underscored the importance of using integrated teams to realise project goals. The T5 approach used by BAA combined two main principles: the client always bears the risk; and partners are worth more than suppliers. ‘It provides an appropriate environment for integrated team working [†¦] to enable suppliers to work effectively and focus on meeting the projects objectives not only in relation to the traditional time, budget, and quality measures but also in relation to safety and environmental targets (Brady, 2008). ‘By doing that you take away negativity, allow space for innovation and create any opportunity for people to perform at levels they havent been allowed to before (Mylius, 2005). Involvement of end users: End users often hold vital information as they are usually in a better position to comment on the detailed requirements for a building than senior management who may not even be the occupants of the building when it is completed. After all, the users have first hand experience of what makes a building successful or otherwise (Menches, 2008). By the use of such methods as   focus groups, value management workshops and major surveys, the issue of athletics, rugby and football in the same venue could have been resolved even before any detailed design and thus eliminating the extensive delays and cost implications it had on the project (Barrett, P., and Stanley, C., 1999). Use of a Project bank: In an attempt to integrate project teams in an atmosphere of trust, collaboration and openness, the National Audit Office (NAO) of the UK suggested the   use of a project bank account. To ensure better construction, it said, ‘suppliers [require] greater certainty that they will be paid on time to re-enforce the trust that should exist between all parties for collaborative working to operate effectively. This was endorsed by the Specialist Contractors who indicated that ‘payments for the project delivery team should be protected and secure, which would, in turn, significantly reduce disputes and, more importantly, will encourage closer working relationships between all parties. (Parliamentary Newsletter, Issue 3, Spring/Summer 2006). Best Project Management Practice: At the execution level, much of the problems that occurred on the project could have been avoided or its impact attenuated if best project management practice was adopted by all especially Multiplex and Cleveland Bridge. Problems of poor site management practice, poor or incorrect fabrication of steel, design change management and communication could have been arrested with proper planning, organisation and control. Careful Monitoring: Projects rarely stay on track in terms of time and cost. the more likely occurrence is that projects will be behind schedule yet over budget at any point in time. Good project management carefully and critically appraises all factors that a likely to push a project off schedule (Office of Government Commerce, 2005). Monitoring progress carefully and instigating timely corrective actions by both WNSL, Multiplex as well as the FA, would have helped identify the likely impact of any problems so that action can be taken to get the project back on track. Conclusion Experience is a great asset to professionals practicing in any discipline, whether that experience comes from success or failure and whoever fails to learn from his mistakes is doomed to repeat them. Some of the key lessons on Wembley Stadium is thus now summarised below:   Adequate time and effort needs to be invested in the strategic planning phase of every project to come out with clear, realistic, and unambiguous project objectives;   Project team must engage effectively with users and other external stakeholders especially at the concept stage of any scheme to save the project from major changes with its attending problems;   Construction procurement must move away from competitive tendering and cost as the selection criteria and develop procedures that use performance and team partnering and capability;   Contracts must be designed to provide incentive to all for cost and time improvement and also forge a ‘win-win environment between clients and supply chain members;   Enough resources have to be made available for the project based on realistic estimates;   Clients must assume central roles in projects for they essentially drive best practice;   Continual change in project requirements and scope can be very detrimental for the project;   Dysfunctional relationships and fragmentation can turn a perfect project scheme into a complete chaos and thus project teams must operate as a cohesive unit, with clear allocation of roles and responsibilities. Finally, it is evident, at least from the Wembley Stadium project that a poor knowledge and a lack awareness of the fundamental project management skills by the client can lead to failure as clients essentially drive best practice. An effective and successful outcome of project management on any project in most cases will only be achieved if both the client and the contractor or project management organisations are effective in the skills of project management. A poor client organisation, in terms of project management, may well drive a good project manager and his team into poor performance. Agreeably, it may not be a panacea due to many circumstances and occurrences that may well be out of its control. However, Project Management stands the chance of producing laudable results if the construction industry stopped treating it casually and unprofessionally but rigorously apply the great worth of knowledge and experience its gathered over the past years, through both its success and failure stories. References 1. Aibinu, A.A et al (2006), Journal of Construction Engineering and Management, volume 132, Issue 7, pp. 667-677 (July 2006) 2. Barrett, P., Stanley, C., (1999), Better Construction Briefing, Blackwell Science Ltd 3. Brady, Tim(2008)Learning to Deliver a Mega-project: The case of Heathrow Terminal 5. New Challenges to Managing Organisations in Project Business. St Petersberg State University,St Petersburg, Russia,pp.137-158. 4. Briefing Team, Published by Construction Excellence, 2004. 5. Carter, P., (2002) EnglishNationalStadiumReview, FinalReport, A report submitted to the HouseofCommons. 6. Chan, D.W.M., and Kumaraswamy, M.M, (1997) A comparative study of causes of time overruns in Hong Kong construction projects, International Journal of Project Management Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 55-63, 1997. 7. Design and Build Projects, www.designbuild-network.com/projects/wembley 8. Egan, J. (1998) Rethinking Construction, Construction Task Force Report for Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, HMSO, London. 9. Elinwa A.U.,et al (2001), Time-Overrun Factors in Nigerian Construction Industry, Journal of Construction Engineering Management, Vol 127, Issue 5, pp. 419-425 (Sept/Oct 2001) 10. Evan, M., (2005), Overdue and over budget, over and over again, The Economist. 11. GovernmentResponse totheSixthReportfromthe Culture,MediaandSportSelectCommittee Session2001-2002, Wembley National Stadium Into Injury time. 12. House of Commons Committee of Public Accounts, Eighth Report of Session 2003-04, The English national stadium project at Wembley 13. James Report, Cited in Wembley Stadium Into Injury Time(2002), Department for Culture, Media and Sport. 14. Kaming, P.F., et al (1997) Factors influencing construction time and cost overruns on high-rise projects in Indonesia, Construction Management and Economics, 15: 1, 83 — 94 15. Latham, M. (1994) Constructing the Team, Final Report of the Government/Industry Review of Procurement and Contractual Arrangements in the UK Construction Industry, HMSO, London. 16. Lewis J.P., (2007) Fundamentals of project management (3rd Edition), AMAKOM Books 17. Menches, C.L., et al (2008) Impact of preconstruction planning and project characteristics on performance in the US electrical construction industry, Construction Management and Economics, 26: 8, 855-869. 18. Morriss, P. and Hollis, A., (2005), Matching Contract Style to your business, Contract Conference Paper, Snowden Consulting Group. 19. Mylius, A. (2005) ‘A game of two halves Supply Management, 6 October 2005. 20. Office of Government Commerce, (2005), Common Causes of Construction Failure, Best Practice Guide. 21. Project Management Institute, (2004)A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK),(2004 Edition). 22. Rad, P.F., (2002), Project Estimation and Cost Management, Management Concept Inc. 23. The Heathrow Terminal 5 Project, www.airport-technology.com/projects/heathrow5 24. The Judgement, (2006) Technology and Construction Court, EWHC 1341TCC 25. The Wembley Blame Game, www.forbes.com 26. UK Government, Parliamentary Newsletter, Issue 3, Spring/Summer 2006.

Wednesday, November 13, 2019

A Comparison of Bless Me Ultima and The House on Mango Street Essay

Exploring Syncretism in Bless Me Ultima and The House on Mango Street      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Syncretism is the fine line between Christianity and Native American Religions because it is the ambivalent, simultaneous attraction of choice and identification to the influences of two or more religious belief systems. Syncretism is most common among minority groups such as Hispanics. The definition applied to their unique position of culture is brought about by the Native American and Spanish ancestry. Ambivalence is shown even by the word Hispanic, which is an "umbrella" term. The novels, Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me Ultima(1972) and Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street(1984) explore syncretism and how it enhances and exemplifies the issue of ambivalent behavior in regards to the combined use of Native and Christian religions. In Bless Me Ultima and The House on Mango Street, syncretism is displayed through the actions of both novels to show that syncretism is the "bridge" of ambivalence. Syncretism in context of Anaya and Cisneros' novels, merge Christianity and Native American pagan religions to form the syncretic nature of ambivalent Hispanic Americans. There are several main points in each text that exhibit the issue of syncretism. These points or issues include the "Christ-like" comparison, the witchcraft comparison, and the comparison of pagan religions of superstition and sorcery. The concept of good and evil revealed in the two Hispanic novels through the mixture of Christianity and Native religions is a type of syncretism created by folk Catholicism. According to Ellwin Stoddard's Mexican Americans, the concept of folk Catholicism, "is driven on the idea that the formal sphere of the Catholic church is blended with the Native ... ...on, folk Catholicism. In consequence, Hispanics have in a sense walked a fine line of ambivalence in relation to syncretic religious practices. Works Cited Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me Ultima. New York: Warner Books, 2002. Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Random House, 2006. Dictionary of Hispanic Biography. "Rudolfo Anaya" Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Penguin Dictionary of Religions, ed. John R. Hiumells. 2004. Stoddard, Ellwin R. Mexican Americans. New York: Random House, 1973. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 3rd.ed., v.1. "The History of the Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531.Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Wiget, Andrew O., "Native American Oral Narrative" in The Heath Anthology of American Literature 3rd ed., v.1. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. 24-27.    A Comparison of Bless Me Ultima and The House on Mango Street Essay Exploring Syncretism in Bless Me Ultima and The House on Mango Street      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Syncretism is the fine line between Christianity and Native American Religions because it is the ambivalent, simultaneous attraction of choice and identification to the influences of two or more religious belief systems. Syncretism is most common among minority groups such as Hispanics. The definition applied to their unique position of culture is brought about by the Native American and Spanish ancestry. Ambivalence is shown even by the word Hispanic, which is an "umbrella" term. The novels, Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me Ultima(1972) and Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street(1984) explore syncretism and how it enhances and exemplifies the issue of ambivalent behavior in regards to the combined use of Native and Christian religions. In Bless Me Ultima and The House on Mango Street, syncretism is displayed through the actions of both novels to show that syncretism is the "bridge" of ambivalence. Syncretism in context of Anaya and Cisneros' novels, merge Christianity and Native American pagan religions to form the syncretic nature of ambivalent Hispanic Americans. There are several main points in each text that exhibit the issue of syncretism. These points or issues include the "Christ-like" comparison, the witchcraft comparison, and the comparison of pagan religions of superstition and sorcery. The concept of good and evil revealed in the two Hispanic novels through the mixture of Christianity and Native religions is a type of syncretism created by folk Catholicism. According to Ellwin Stoddard's Mexican Americans, the concept of folk Catholicism, "is driven on the idea that the formal sphere of the Catholic church is blended with the Native ... ...on, folk Catholicism. In consequence, Hispanics have in a sense walked a fine line of ambivalence in relation to syncretic religious practices. Works Cited Anaya, Rudolfo. Bless Me Ultima. New York: Warner Books, 2002. Cisneros, Sandra. The House on Mango Street. New York: Random House, 2006. Dictionary of Hispanic Biography. "Rudolfo Anaya" Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1990. Penguin Dictionary of Religions, ed. John R. Hiumells. 2004. Stoddard, Ellwin R. Mexican Americans. New York: Random House, 1973. The Heath Anthology of American Literature. 3rd.ed., v.1. "The History of the Miraculous Apparition of the Virgin of Guadalupe in 1531.Ed. Paul Lauter. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. Wiget, Andrew O., "Native American Oral Narrative" in The Heath Anthology of American Literature 3rd ed., v.1. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998. 24-27.   

Monday, November 11, 2019

Is Fame Good Or Bad?

Most people think that being famous is heaven, but it's more like hell. What do you think? Phenomenom of fame is widespread around the world. Being famous today is not the same as it was 50-100 years ago. Andy Warhol once said : In the future everyone will have their 15 minutes of fame. Well, in my opinion, that time has come. People from all around the world are trying to get their way out there on the stage. It has become easy to acquire fame, but difficult to keep it. People get famous for doing nothing and the ones who want to become famous don't have many obstacles on their way.They can just apply on a reality show and soon their names will be on the tops of „the most searchedâ€Å" lists on Google and Yahoo, and not to mention the yellow press. Little girls and boys from all around the world are, when asked what do they want to be when they grow up, usually answering that they want to be famous. Fame has lost its value. Celebrities with or without justified reasons to be famous are followed by a bunch of paparazzi each day. They are getting interviewed and photographed for worthless magazines intended for masses.Their private lives become a matter of abstraction and are endangered. As for those whose fame is a result of hard work, talent, high IQ or great achievements, their fame is well-earned. Such are, for example, great writers, mathematicians and artists. They are usually the ones who are, no matter how good they are at what they do, less famous than the ones who deserve it less. That is good because they don't need to sacrifice their private lives, they have their freedom of expression + they make a lot of money. As for me, I'm not a fan of fame and I think it's lame.People are sometimes desperate, don't receive enough of attention in their private lives and they search for a way out by becoming an object of admiration in other peoples life by being famous. On the other hand, there are people whose fame is a result of their great work and the y have to take that difficult burden of fame on their backs. Either way, I wouldn't like to be famous. Sometimes I don't like being alone, but there are people whose solitude is not even a matter of choice and represents an impossible mission. Threathing my private life, I do the same thing to my familys' and friends' life and that I cannot cope with.I don't need other peoples admiration to accept myself the way I am. Money, fame, fortune, and everything that goes with it- yes, sure it can be helpful, but having everything is sometimes just the same as having nothing, because it usually means not wanting anything. Any by not wanting anything, we don't have real goals in our life or anything that can bring us joy. That's why I prefer solitude over fame and fortune. It's hard enough to prove to myself everyday, proving myself to whole world everyday would really be a hell.

Friday, November 8, 2019

Review on Lawrence of arabia essays

Review on Lawrence of arabia essays For a brief background of this film, Lawrence of Arabia is based on the retelling of T.E. Lawrences adventures during WWI. This film is thought to have had the best cinematography of any film of that era, shot with a Super Panavision 70-mm scope. The film tells of the life of a British officer who aided the Arabian Bedouins against the Turks during WWI. The Arabian Desert serves as a back drop for the making of this film. This film focuses on four main events in Lawrences life; the defeating of Aqaba, Lawrences capture and torture in Deraa, the massacre at Tafas, and the fall of Damascus. This film is rated two stars, during this film I tended to lose interest due to the dull graphics of that time period. I also began to fall asleep during some of the uneventful scenes. This film could have easily been broken down to about 45 minutes to an hour. I must however take into consideration what time period this movie was shot in. Maybe I am spoiled with the new technology we have in todays society and that is why I cant get into this movie or it could just be an outdated movie, past its prime of giving us continuous viewing pleasure. Maybe this is not the kind of movie I enjoy or maybe its just a bad movie. Whatever the case, I had to give the movie two stars for mediocre acting by the leading actor and lack of guts and gore that I have come so accustomed to seeing in my day. I do have to say that the movie had a surprising crispness to it that I dont usually see with films from that time period, but that is the only thing that kept it from the dreaded zero stars th at it deserves. So in closing, do yourself a favor and watch Titanic for the 5,000th time and save your money, dont rent this movie. ...

Wednesday, November 6, 2019

Socio-Economic Status of Slum Dwellers

Socio-Economic Status of Slum Dwellers Free Online Research Papers The study region is municipal area situated in dist. Pratapgarh, which sites in Gangetic plain in UP. It spreads over 12 km2 with total population of 71999 persons. In the age of urbanization in developing countries like India, the slums are like white spot on the body which is caused by uneven development. To sort out the urban problems, socio-economic study of the city is necessary and if we want to have clean cities in near future, the studies of slums are not only important but demand of time also. Therefore a sample area has been randomly taken for the socio-economic study. The parameters for demarcation slums are water supply condition, sanitation and road, employment, housing condition, sufficient living area. To sum up, the study reveals that a particular caste resides in a particular slum and these castes are related to either Pal or Harijan and Muslims. The slums lack with water, sanitation, road facility and it also denotes that the slum dwellers are unaware of programs launched by the Government. Pratapgarh District, one of the oldest Districts of UP, which came into existence in the year 1858, is situated in eastern part of UP. According to JNU’s development list based on socio-economic-agricultural, Pratapgarh stands in last category. So it is an undeveloped district. Pratapgarh district famous for its Aonla and people gives alias â€Å"AONLA NAGRI†. The district, which forms from a part of Faizabad division, is named after it headquarter town Bela Pratapgarh commonly known as Pratapgarh. When district was constituted in 1858 it’s headquarter established at Bela which come to know as Bela Pratapgarh. The name Bela presumably being derived from the temple of â€Å"Bela Bhawani†, sites on the bank of river SAI. The study region districts headquarter; Bela Pratapgarh is situated at Allahabad-Faizabad national highway no. 96, at a distance of 39 km from Sultanpur and 60 km from Allahabad. Bela Pratapgarh city is a secondary town and spreads over 12 km2 with total population of 71999 persons (as per 2001 census). It is municipal area, which is divided in 25 wards so far. In total population of Bela Pratapgarh, percentage of OBC population is 31.58% and SC is 7.97%. The percentage of male and female population is 52.67% and 47.32%. The SEX ratio of Bela Pratapgarh is 898 which are quite lower than the district ratio (1004) and literacy rate is 71.039% which is higher than the district literacy ratio (58.67 percent). In Bela Pratapgarh, male literacy rate 77.03 percent followed by female 64.36 percent and district male literacy rate 74.61 percent followed by female literacy rate 42.63 percent. The Study Area: Study area of slums spread in all over the city in small patches. In 1997 District Urban Development Agency (DUDA) was stabilized and DUDA has declared 3 slum areas, these registered slums are Patkohli, Padawa and Karanpur. But there are some unregistered slum areas like Azadnagar, Khuskhuswapur, Pitai-ka-purwa, Bholiapur etc. Among these slum areas Patkoli ward is largest slum area with the 160 households. In Patkoli ward slum area is found in 3 patches- Ziriyamau, Patkoli and Bela Ghat; Pitai-ka-purwa with 2 patches- pitai-ka-purwa and nai-basti. Other slum areas have 30 to 60 households. Ward-name Basti name No of households Patkoli ziriyamau, patkoli, bela gaht 160 Aspatal ward Azadnagar 60 Bali Pur Khuskhuswapur 35 Pitai ka Purwa Nai basit, pure pitai 60 Padawa harizen basti 30 Karanpur Karanpur 35 Bholiapur Bholiapur 25 Objective of the Study: Every citizen has the right to live in a good living condition with employment, safety and other facilities. If any area left undeveloped, creates crisis in the mode of crime, unsocial activities, uneducated and unaware persons, low-level living condition, inadequate housing condition, unmoral citizens and unhealthy children with the unhealthy future of city and country. Now governments aware of the slum Basties of cities and launched many programmes to improve the condition of slum dwellers and his proficiency. But the game does not over, commonly seen that unregistered slums site over Urban Fringe area or at inner border of city, because of special spatial condition policies never imposed its effect in full fledged from. In city area, which is defined by the municipality area, plans take its own time to produce its impacts. Since, slums are present before the executions of development plans; therefore many problems stand in front of city and the citizens in form of crime, violence, poverty etc. These causes also exist in the study area. The objective behind the study aimed at to evaluate the socio-economic condition and to access the impact of government programmes upon slum dwellers of Pratapgarh City (Bela). Methodology: Every city has two types of slum areas i.e. registered and unregistered. The parameters for demarcating the slum are water supply condition, sanitation and road, housing condition. After that, to study the socio-economic status, a random sampling method has been adopted. For the survey and sample collection, a questionnaire has been prepared and door to door survey has been done. Because, Patakoli ward has large number of households, so, in this area 20 households were randomly selected for the study and in other areas 8 households have randomly taken. To evaluate the condition of dwellers, center tendency method is used. Social Status: In Bela Pratapgarh, slum dwellers are Hindus (64.44 percent) and Muslims (35.64 percent). In the total population of slum dwellers OBC with 57.14 percent, are in majority followed by SC with 33.65 percent and General with 9.2 percent. Religion CATEGORY PERCENTAGE HINDU GENERAL 2.955 OBC 47.783 SC 49.261 MUSLIM GENERAL 20.595 OBC 74.107 SC 5.357 Among Hindus, SC population is 49.261 percent and followed by OBC with 47.783 percent and General with 2.955 percent. In Muslims, OBC population is in majority with 74.107 percent followed by General 20.595 percent and SC with 5.357 percent. In slum areas sex ratio is 944 is greater than the Bela Pratapgarh sex ratio (898) and State sex ratio (898) but lower than district sex ratio (1004). In slum areas Hindus sex ratio (1071) is higher than Muslim sex ratio (778). Literacy: The overall literacy rate in slum areas is 56 percent with male and female literacy 65 percent and 46 percent against 71.039 percent in Bela Pratapgarh with male and female literacy 77.03 percent and 64.36 percent. Literacy rate of slum areas, near to district rate (58.67 percent) and UP state rate (57.36 percent) but it lower than the National rate (64.8 percent). The male literacy rate of slum areas 65 percent is quite lower to district rate (74.61 percent), national rate (75.8 percent) and state rate (70.23 percent) but female literacy rate 46 percent is near to district rate (42.63 percent), state rate (42.98 percent) and lowers than the national ratio (53.7 percent). In slum areas Primary educated persons are in majority with 60.71 percent followed by Madhyamic (28.27 percent), Inter (5.089 percent), Graduate (2.68 percent) and Post-Graduate (1.071 percent). The vocational trained persons are 1.09 percent. Income: Total working people percentage of slum dwellers is near about 24.14 percent. Among these persons, 60 percent people do not know the nature of day’s work. The average of working day in a month stands between 16 to 20 days. Over all average income of slum dwellers is quite lower with 13.03 Rs a day/person against the urban poverty line, which is near about 17 Rs. Average income of a working people 55.98 Rs for doing work 7 hour and 36 min in a day, which is quite lower than the UP Government regulation. Housing condition: In slum areas housing conditions are found in a very poor position. In sample area 46.34 percent of Kchcha houses made by mud, plastic and bamboo, 21.95 percent of Pakkaa houses made by bricks and 31.71 percent houses made by mud and bricks which have greater part Kachcha and smaller part Pakka. So, 78 percent of households face problem of housing. Sanitation, Water, Road and Health: In slum area sanitation and road facility are totally unavailable, for example except karanpur, ziriyamau, ptakholi, bela ghat, padava have Kaccha road and azad nagar, khuskuswapur, nai basati and pitai ka purwa have Kharanja road. In these areas drinking water facilities totally unavailable, except Azadnagar, in other ward water source is well or government hand pump, at per 25 households. Also in Azadnagar drinking water facilities totally unavailable and dwellers get drinking water from hand-pumps of rich neighbors. In other areas, if there is water supply, its condition is very poor. Generally water supply pipes are sunk in drain water. Hence, the water can not be used being coal black. In slum area latrine facilities are in poor condition, only 20% households have own latrines and other 80% uses the open lands. The wastages of households dump by householder near the open land or the path. As far as, the total environment of slums does not good, in all these areas children are suffering from viral infections, boils, fever etc for ever. Social Activities: -In crime, violence and immorality slum areas are leading portion of the city. In study area violence seems as quarrel, fight or abuse in home with wife, children, parents etc. or with the neighbors. The day life of the dwellers start and end with the quarrel and it happens because of drinking liquor. Immorality can be seen in the form of gambling. A sentence told by an old man to me in zriyamau about the gambling, pinched me a lot. He told, â€Å"He bhaiya agar in nanha-nanha larikan ka juaa chudawai detya tau enkar kalyan hoi jaatai.†(If you can escape younger Boys from gambling, then they would lead a good life). In these areas some families are vagabonds. Police keeps an eye over them, arrest and warn. Because most of them many times involved in unsocial and immoral activities like snatching, thieving, gambling etc. Government Plans and Awareness: District Urban Development Agency is the coordinating agency at district level for formulating different developmental schemes in urban areas. The following schemes/programmes are being implemented under the supervision of DUDA. Swarna Jayanti Sahari Rojgar Yojana, which is currently in operation with effect from 1.12.97, is a substitution of the earlier programmes like Urban Basic Services for the Poor (UBSP), Prime Minister Integrated Urban Poverty Eradication Yojana (NRY), Environmental Improvement of Urban Slums (EIUs). Under the scheme SJSRY, the following programmes are being implemented in all the ULBs of this district. Community structure (Information Education and Communication (IEC) Component. Urban Self Employment Programme (USEP) (subsidy) Development of Women and Children in Urban Areas (DWCUA) Thrift and Credit Society Urban Wage Employment Programme (UWEP) U.S.E.P (Skill up gradation Training) Administration and Office expenses (A O.E.) About these programmes and DUDA slum dwellers unaware and in sample area only one person know about DUDA and its U.S.E.P. programme. It shows the lack of publicity of programmes and unawareness of slum dwellers. Some advantages they gain from common programmes like Antyodaya yojana, Mid-day-Meal programme and Scholar-Ship programmes. Conclusion: To conclude; we can say that a big number of people, known as slum dweller, are forced to live below poverty line. The main reason of their poverty is illiteracy and lack of will power to improve his condition. They always look for the government helps; debt, relief etc. and wait for them, this type of mentality and government plans make them paralyzed instead of self reliance. They lack behind good education, health, sanitation and economy. There are Governments plans to improve their poor condition. But these programmes are executed half heartedly. There is need to focus their problems and a strong heart and mind to execute these programmes. If it happens so, the day will come with hope for them and for the people who are affected by these slum dwellers. Research Papers on Socio-Economic Status of Slum DwellersInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesThe Effects of Illegal Immigration19 Century Society: A Deeply Divided EraResearch Process Part OneThe Relationship Between Delinquency and Drug UseMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductAppeasement Policy Towards the Outbreak of World War 2Relationship between Media Coverage and Social andAssess the importance of Nationalism 1815-1850 EuropeWhere Wild and West Meet

Monday, November 4, 2019

Experience with Paramahansa Yogananda's Self Realization Fellowship Essay

Experience with Paramahansa Yogananda's Self Realization Fellowship The Lake Shrine - Essay Example On the other side were plaques with inspirational and moving scriptures on them. Statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Jesus, and Lord Buddha were some of the statues in the beautiful garden. The writings on them were uplifting and people gathered around in meditation and repentance. On joining them, I could see love among the people around courtesy of the passed on legends and what came to my mind is the philosophical saying that if you care about others you are doing good to yourself. There was a temple in the garden where individuals were taught about religion and way of living. Looking at the portraits, I came to understand that Yogananda believed that one comes to know God through intuition. All religions were in the temple who called their Gods in different names which made me meditate on the philosophical saying that there exist different Gods in different situations. The site does not only give spiritual teachings and comfort but also gives the opportunity to learn about other

Friday, November 1, 2019

The Korean War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Korean War - Essay Example That policy was reiterated in 1945 at the Yalta Summit. It was further agreed that until Korea became independent, it would be under the joint trusteeship of the United States, China, and the Soviet Union. 1 The world's first atomic bomb was dropped on Japan on 6 August 1945; Russia entered the war on 8 August; and the Japanese surrendered on 14 August. With the sudden and unexpected Japanese surrender, there was great haste to cobble together plans to accept the surrender of Japanese field forces and to disarm them. The opportunistic Soviet declaration of war on Japan, coming two days after the first atomic bomb was dropped, made it necessary to agree on a line of demarcation between the zones within which the United States and the Soviets would accept the Japanese surrender. The U.S. State Department wanted the American zone to be as far north on the mainland of China as possible, including key points in Manchuria. The Army did not want to go into an area where few other forces were close at hand. In the planning for the surrender, two young American colonels, Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel, from the War Department's Operations and Plans Division (OPD), were assigned the task of findi ng a line. Neither was particularly knowledgeable about Korea or the Far East, although Rusk had served briefly with Gen. Joseph W. Stilwell in China during the war. They retired to an office and pondered over a National Geographic map. The Army wanted to have two ports, Inchon in the north and Pusan in the south. North of Inchon, there did not seem to be any natural geographic division. They settled on the thirty-eighth parallel. The Soviets agreed. Later Rusk learned that in the early 1900s, the Russians and japanese had, initially, proposed the thirty-eighth parallel as the dividing line between their respective spheres of influence. There has since been suspicion that the Soviets took agreement on the thirty-eighth parallel to be an acknowledgment of their historic sphere of influence.2 The U.S. XXIV Corps came ashore at Inchon to carry out the U.S. occupation mission. The Soviet Army moved down from the north, closed on the thirty-eighth parallel, and sealed the border. All subsequent attempts to proceed with a coordinated policy toward Korea failed. The occupation was not a happy task. Lieutenant General John R. Hodges, the XXIV Corps commander, called it the worst job he ever had. The troops disliked it intensely. In Japan, one commander addressed his incoming troops, warning them to behave and saying that they had only three things to fear -- diarrhea, gonorrhea, and Korea. In the south, the Koreans were not willing to wait for "due course" to achieve freedom and independence. They wanted it right away. And there were competing groups of all political stripes ready to take on the job. 3 The wisdom of maintaining American troops in Korea was questioned almost from the very start. To the Joint Chiefs, the troops were needed elsewhere. In the years that followed, with the Cold War becoming more frosty, force levels dropping, and other needs increasing, the question became more urgent. It was not a decision easily made. An ongoing discussion of the subject continued from 1947 to 1949. It revolved around the strategic value of Korea, its political importance, and its importance in contributing to U.S. prestige. In April 1947, the joint Strategic Survey Committee noted, "This is one country within which we alone have for almost two years carried on ideological warfare in direct contact with our ideological opponents so that to lose this battle would be gravely detrimental to the United States prestige and therefore security." 4The State-War-Navy Coordinating Committee (prior to the formation of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) concluded: ". . . the U.S. cannot