18 kids were right all along Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

18 kids were right all along - Essay Example While he has a point that high school can be boring and repetitive in the final two years, Melcher fails to adequately take into account the possibilities available to students in high school to keep them interested, the problem of maturity level of students and misses perhaps the strongest argument in favor of his position, the school system established in England. Students who have planned their education well are capable of graduating from high school as many as two years earlier than normal now thanks to specialized advanced level classes and limited electives. However, many of these students opt to remain in school longer as a means of further exploring other interests, beginning the difficult process of selecting an appropriate career by discovering interests and ruling out others. Other programs, such as dual credit courses and vocational courses, serve to continue high school students’ interest even further. For those who are bored with school, just a little application enables them to leave earlier as Melcher suggests. Teenagers aged 15 or 16 are notoriously confident of their own maturity level and abilities to their own delusion. In addition, they are provided with a driver’s license and often a vehicle at this age, giving them unprecedented freedom and range. Should they be turned loose on the streets at this point, without even a class to attend, it is difficult to say what they might do. Some very few would undoubtedly continue their education with a view toward their future, but too many, without further guidance or other guidelines put in place, would simply go wild. This is, indeed, a problem among the poorer segments of the urban population in England and elsewhere where school is optional after age 16. Finally, Melcher neglects to mention the strongest argument in favor of his position. England, for example, has a school

Parking slot system Essay Example for Free

Parking slot system Essay INTRODUCTION A parking space is a location that is designated for parking, either paved or unpaved. Parking spaces can be in a parking garage, in a parking lot or on a city street. It is usually designated by a white-paint-on-tar rectangle indicated by three lines at the top, left and right of the designated area. The automobile fits inside the space, either by parallel parking, perpendicular parking or angled parking. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parking_space) In most countries where cars are the dominant mode of transportation, parking lots are a feature of every city and suburban area. Shopping malls, sports stadiums, mega churches and similar venues often feature car parks of immense area. Wikipedia(2007) There are lots of parking space here in the Philippines who are traditionally operated by the security guards. We don’t have a choice but to follow that traditional operation. Every day that we are traveling in the mall or in any place, we need to find a parking slot. Sometimes there is traffic inside the parking area because most of the drivers can’t find a parking slot for their vehicles. The traditional process of any parking areas are like a cycle, you will enter on the entrance and didn’t know if there is a space for you to able to park your car and you will be driving cyclical on the parking lot and suddenly you will be irritated because you can’t find any space for your car, and you have no choice but to head the exit. This is the cycle that every people experienced every minute, every hour or every day in every parking lot area. The problem of the parking areas is it can’t manage only by the security guard’s, they can’t search the whole area in every minute to know if there is a space for the new incoming drivers on the parking lot unless there is a security guard in every designated area. And most of the parking areas are too small for the customers who have private vehicles. The reasons why we are proposing this research is to reduce the problem of the vehicle drivers who are suffering to find an available space or slot in the parking areas. This research aim to help all the drivers to find a parking space faster and easier than the traditional system. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM How may the manual system be described in terms of: 1.1Time Time consuming of finding a space in parking lot. 1.2AccuracyandConsistency. Increase of problem in parking lot. 1.3Speed Slow in finding a slot for vehicles. 1.4Security No security guard will monitor your vehicles. How may the proposed system be described in terms of: 1.1Time Saving your time to find a parking space. 1.2AccuracyandConsistency Use automated car parking system to reduce wasting of time finding a parking slot. 1.3Speed It’s more quickly to find parking slot. 1.4Security The automated car parking system is more secured than the traditional system.

Psychologists Essay -- essays research papers

Psychology is the study of human behavior, how we think, feel and act. Psychologists study both normal and abnormal behavior to understand it. Psychologists also try to use what we learn from that study to help people change aspects of their behavior that they want to change. Areas of psychology are clinical, industrial, and developmental. Careers in Psychology offer varied opportunities. Employment opportunities for capable psychologists are expected to be slightly better than average over the next several years. However, if you're interested in a career in Psychology, you should know that the training program to become a psychologist is a long one. There is also stiff competition for places in graduate training programs in Psychology. So why major in Psychology if it is going to take so long? First of all, it is an interesting profession that offers the opportunity to increase the well-being of one's life. It requires critical thinking skills, statistical reasoning skills, and research design skills. Also a major part of being a successful psychologist is having practical knowledge about people and a charismatic self. People who want to major in psychology usual get a 4-year degree at a university. During the first four years, the student obtains scientific and clinical knowledge in Psychology. It is also possible to get an internship during the third year of schooling. As well, students will get some opportunity to see what applied practice in Psychology will actually look like by taking courses and seminars in areas of special interest. Following the undergraduate degree, a two year program of graduate studies in Psychology in a university will lead the student to a Master's degree. Part of that two-year program will usually involve completing a research project in Psychology. Some areas allow persons with a Master's degree in Psychology to be registered as a psychologist. However, many people, particularly those who want to practice in a specialty area of Psychology, will go on to complete their doctoral degree in Psychology before becoming registered or licensed to practice. This will take another three to four years of study on average. As part of the doctoral program, students will complete a more complex research project in Psychology that will serve as their doctoral thesis. They will also complete an intensiv... ...uch as visual perception and the behaviour of single cells in the brain to complex studies of the behavior of large groups of people.Psychologists may choose to work in a firm, dealing one on one with people who have enlisted for the psychologist's help. In this area, a psychologist may work with abuse victims, abusers, drug abusers, children, marriage problems, and people with an array of disorders, problems, and some who just need help with a problem. Ted Bosack, the director of the Psychology department of Providence University, was kind enough to answer a few questions I sent to him about psychology. He stressed that the best psychologist isn't necessarily the one with the highest I.Q. It takes dedication and an extreme connection with people.Mr. Bosack said, "When you've got a high I.Q., you can write a book on marriage. When you've got a high E.Q., you have a great marriage." He thinks the best psychologist needs, not only high intelligence, but high emotional understanding to better understand people. I think his outlook sums up what a psychologist should be; someone open to those in need of one's understanding, one that will be a confident, as well as a friend.

Conextualizing Homebody/Kabul Essay -- Essays Papers

Conextualizing Homebody/Kabul In the aftermath of the bombing of the Twin Towers on September 11 th, Tony Kushner’s Homebody/Kabul has received remarkable acclaim from its opening in New York City in December of 2001. Written â€Å"before September 11th, before we began bombing,† Kushner’s play is a startling look into Kabul, Afghanistan, a world once ruled by sharia hudud and strangled by poverty, violence and the world’s apathy (Homebody/Kabul 144). It chronicles the story of one middle-aged British woman, the ‘Homebody,’ and her life-changing encounter with an Afghan refugee in an import shop in London, her subsequent flight to and disputed death in Kabul, and the stories of her daughter and husband who travel to Kabul to recover her. Brushed with dark humor and realism, this play offers a haunting glimmer of the ignorance the West to war-torn countries of this world. The Homebody only appears for the opening monologue, an excerpt of which I have selected to perform, yet her character sets the plot for this entire award winning drama. Throughout her monologue, her speech is lyrical, loquacious to the point of being ridiculous, and in moments, magnificently contrived to illumine connections between her life and the sorrow of others. As the play opens, she is seated in an armchair on stage, a guidebook to Afghanistan in her lap, which she proceeds to read aloud, interrupting herself with tangent thoughts that spiral and twist away from any tangible organization of ideas, save that of relying the story of the man in the hat shop and the imaginary world she creates from this encounter. The excerpt I have selected is remarkable for the gravity of feeling the Homebody relates, and the sensitivity she exhibits, empathizing with ... ...bombs rendered them. In preparing the delivery this monologue, I have learned much about Islamic extremism and my own ignorance of the suffering of the Afghan people, women in particular. As an avid advocate of reading and writing for every person, I found the restrictions placed on Muslim women in particular to be hideous. Through this drama, I have learned that extremists of a faith to not constitute the spirit of a faith, and that Islam is a religion as equally misinterpreted by the public as Christianity is today. Wherever people are permitted to let their own political and cultural philosophies override the truth and tradition of sacred scripture, there is a crookedness of reality; Afghanistan was one such nation, and its pain depicted in this play is real and running with living blood today. I hope to do justice to this depiction in the delivery of my monologue.

Why Did Pizza Hut in China Quit Franchise

Why did Pizza Hut Quit Franchise Team 9 1. Introduction: In 1993, Pizza Hut made a 10-year agency contract with Hong Kong’s famous agent, Jardine Matheson. It gave power of agency and its market expansion business in southern part of China to Jardine, which became the only agent of Pizza Hut in China. And from then on, Pizza Hut went on a hard way of expansion.However, in late May, 2004, Yum Brands declared that they had taken back the management and administrative powers of all 130 branch canteens of Pizza Hut in China, and from then on, Pizza Hut would be managed and operated by Yum Brands directly instead of taking the pattern of franchise . 1. 1 Research question: Why did Pizza Hut quit franchising in China? 1. 2 Sub-questions: (1) What is the explanation given by Yum Brands and what are other guesses of why Pizza Hut quit franchise? (2) What are the changes of Pizza Hut after it quit franchise? (3) Why did Pizza Hut quit franchise in China but still continues franchise ab road? 4) Are there similarities between Pizza Hut and other firms quitting franchise? 1. 3 Motivate: Since the franchisor can use franchise to expand the scale of his firm with lower cost than using directly management, franchise becomes the most popular business model among catering services. And thus, it’s such a strange and rare adverse action that Pizza Hut quit franchise. What caused it to do so? Is it problem of franchisee, Jardine Matheson or the problem of the franchise pattern itself? And what does it want to do? We want to find out the answer. 2. Theoretical framework: 2. Explanation of Porter’s 5 Force Model. Porter’s five-force framework is an important tool for ensuring systematically using these principles to assess the current status and likely evolution of an industry. The five-force model contains internal rivalry, entry, substitutes, supplier power and buyer power, which is presented as following: Also, the model has some shortcomings. It doesn ’t take the environment into consideration, which means that it lacks the role of demand and government. And the emphasis of the model is on the competition between firms while recent trend is towards cooperation between firms.What’s more, the model is primarily an analysis of industry rather than analysis for a particular firm. 2. 2 The Forces will be used in our Case Analysis of the model must begin with market definition. When defining the market, we must be sure to include all firms that constrain each other’s strategic decision marking and pay attention to both the product market and geographic market definitions. Some of the five forces we use include: (1) Internal rivalry For most industries, the intensity of internal rivalry is the major determinant of the competitiveness of the industry.Internal rivalry refers to the jockeying for share by firms within a market. (2) Entry Entry is the beginning of production and sales by a new firm in a market. Entry er odes incumbents’ profits in two ways. First, entrants divide marker demand among more sellers. Second, entrants decrease market concentration and heat up internal rivalry. (3)Supplier Power Supplier power takes the point of view of a downstream industry and examines the ability of that industry’s upstream input suppliers to command prices that extract industry profits.Also, we will analyze our case by explaining the influence of the government, which is a shortcoming of the model. 2. 3 Application of the Model to our research question: We will choose to apply the principles of internal rival, entry, and supplier power to our answers of the research question. We think that after Pizza Hut quit franchise, it can choose price competition and benefit leadership, which will affect its rivals and entrants. Also, it has more power when purchasing inputs, which links with supplier power. And the government plays a significant role in our case, too. We will analyze them in deta il later. 3. Data and Methodology: 3. Data: We searched the data from (1) the official website of Pizza Hut China to get the number of canteens it reported; (2) the menus of Pizza Hut in different years to get the price of a pizza; (3) some questionnaires made by others to find customers’ degree of satisfaction; (4) Suning’s annual statements in 2006 and 2008; (5) Some essays 3. 2 Methodology We made broken line graphs and pie charts to make the data we collected easier to analyze. We also list other data in form of tables to make it more clearly. 4. Results & Analysis: 4. 1 The number of canteens is an important index reflecting the expanding speed of Pizza Hut.So we show the following figure. (Pizza Hut has recently declared that it will invest 0. 7 billion RMB to open another 150 canteens only in the year 2012. ) Figure3. 2. 1 shows that the curve of Pizza Hut’s growth rose slowly in the first 13 years, just about the time before Pizza Hut quit franchise. How ever, the curve jumped sharply almost after Pizza Hut quit franchise As we know, by franchise a firm can expand quickly with lower cost, we have thought that the expanding speed would decline after Pizza Hut quit franchise and expand it by itself, because of larger cost. However, what the Figure3. 2. shows to us is opposite. There is a fact that Jardine Matheson only opened 15 canteens in southern China after it gained the agency right, which of course, would disappoint Pizza Hut. So it must be that Jardine lacked the ability of expanding canteens, so Pizza Hut didn’t let it agent any longer. And since Jardine is the best agent in China,(It ranked 319th in the world 500 strong enterprises by †Fortune†. ), Pizza Hut can’t think of a better agent, so it quit franchise and just to expand by itself. . 4. 2 The price of a product shows whether a firm can have competitive advantages in price competition.So we collect the data. Figure3. 2. 2 (2) Annual Inflation r ate of China Figure3. 2. 2 shows that the price went down after quitting franchise in 2004, and came to the minimum in 2005 and 2006, then it rises later. So we can see that before Pizza Hut quit franchise, the average cost of a pizza in southern China in 2003, which is still managed by Jardine, is 60 RMB. It’s reported by manager Luo of Pizza Hut China that its price is 15% higher than any other part of China. That was because Jardine positioned the canteen as the high grade canteen, while Pizza Hut positions its canteen as middle-high grade canteen.So after Pizza Hut quit franchise in2004, as manager Luo said, its price would go down by 15%. We can check it in the figure3. 2. 2 that in 2005, the average price of a pizza decrease to 50, approximately by 15%. However, after the year 2006, the average price of a pizza grows up again, which we will ignore because by calculation (Figure3. 2. 2 (2) shows the annual inflation rate of China from 2003 to 2009), we can make a conclus ion that it happened mainly due to inflation.. 4. 3 Then we think of the brand image, here is the information we found. Figure3. 2. 3 shows overall satisfaction of Pizza Hut’s consumers in 2006.Only 20% of consumers were very satisfied with Pizza Hut and only 30% of consumers were satisfied with Pizza Hut. However, another 30% of consumers thought Pizza Hut is just so-so. Figure3. 2. 4 shows overall satisfaction of Pizza Hut’s consumers in 2010. Consumers who were satisfied with Pizza Hut grew to 50%, the those felt very satisfied with Pizza Hut grew too, although only a little, 1. 43%. The consumers thinking that Pizza Hut was just so-so fell to 21. 43%. Since Pizza Hut said that they quit franchise in order to promote its brand image, we want to see whether or not it would really do so and whether or not it has had an effect.We can see from the results the customers are more satisfied with Pizza Hut in 2010 compared to 2006. So Pizza Hut must have done a lot of work to improve its brand image. And after 4 years efforts, it really has improved its image in people’s minds. It’s comprehensive that it’s easy for Pizza Hut to improve its brand image by itself than by its agent, Jardine Matheson, because the principal and the agent may have some different views. And it’s a bit difficult for Pizza Hut to manage what his agent does 4. 4 Figure3. 2. 6 mainly shows profits in 2006 and 2008 of Suning, which quit franchise in 2007.We can see that its gross profit, year growth, net profit and total assets all grow up. According to Yantai daily newspaper’s report, the Quality Inspection Department found many unqualified products of Supor, a firm owned Suning. The unqualified products were produced by the franchisee of Suning. However, certainly it would do harm to the brand image of Suning. The customers were very upset about the incident. Franchisors depend on franchise to enlarge themselves since the expanding cost is low , but many of them didn’t take care of the quality of the franchisee, they just expand the scale without destination, just as Suning in those years.So the franchisee may take different actions against the principle in order to improve their own profits. Some products franchisees make are not eligible, but the principle can’t notice them. It’s the errors of the franchisee, but franchisors will suffer most because their brand image will be damaged. So quitting franchise must be wise strategy for Suning. As we can see in the figure, it really contributed to higher profits. 5. Discussion: Before applying the theoretical framework to our case, we will discuss the market definition first: Production market:Pizza Hut sells not only pizza and Italian noodles, but rice as well since it’s in Chinese market. So any canteen sells no matter eastern or western food around Pizza Hut must be its rivals. So we define the market as the western-style food market. Geographic market: It’s obviously that most consumers strongly prefer to choose the nearby canteen to have a meal. So we consider the geographic market is a certain area around Pizza Hut’s canteens, which is within the consideration of consumers when they choose a canteen to eat.Then we will answer each sub-question by the tool of theoretical framework: Sub-question 1: What is the explanation given by Yum Brands and what are other guesses of why Pizza Hut quit franchise? Only by knowing the explanation and guesses can we find the possible reasons. Then we can select the right ones. The explanation given by Pizza Hut: Some media reported that Yum Brands wasn’t satisfied with the expanding speed of the franchisee, Jardine Matheson, for it lagged the speed of development of those chain canteens.Also Jardine didn’t obey the ideas and strategies of the Yum Brands thoroughly. Direct at this statement, Shao Xiaowei, the member of public affairs section of Yum Brands, deni ed completely and told Economy Times News that since Pizza Hut chain canteens entered in Chinese market in 1990, all of them had been run by themselves until 1993 when they signed a 10-year contract with HK agent Jardine Matheson to pass franchise authority and the task of marketing extension in South China to it. And Jardine Methoson also became the only franchisee of Pizza Hut in China inland market.Pizza Hut wasn’t unsatisfied with the speed of expansion, instead, they thought Jardine did pretty well and Pizza Hut absorbed lots of experience from it. all in all, compared with other districts in China, South China market has its own specific features. Meanwhile, according to Wanqun, director of public affair of Yum Brand. , Pizza Hut hadn't reached economics of scale and it would impose great risks in franchise. He added that Pizza Hut wasn't mature enough in China, but it didn't mean that franchise door would be closed forever.With support and experience from Yum Brands, P izza Hut would open its franchise door again after the brand name becoming mature enough. In conclusion, Yum Brands arose three reasons for quitting franchise as followings (1) The routes and positions in the market of Yum Brands and Jardine Matheson to develop Pizza Hut are quite different (2) Since Pizza Hut hasn’t reached the economics of scale, it had to quit franchise to avoid risk (3) Since the market of Pizza Hut isn’t mature enough, the risk of having a large scale of franchise is really high.The above-mentioned parts are the reason given by Yum Brands. We don’t know whether it’s exactly the true ones. We also collect other people’s guess as following: (1) Yum Brands wasn’t satisfied with the expanding speed of the franchisee, Jardine Matheson, for it lagged the speed of development of those chain canteens. (2) Pizza hut wants to enhance its brand image so that it will be easy to expand later. Sub-question 2: What are the changes of Pizza Hut after it quit franchise? We want to find out whether quitting franchise is good for Pizza Hut, which can be reflected by the changes. 1)Its open canteens measure the expanding speed of Pizza Hut. From Figure 3. 2. 1, we can see that it opened approximately more and more canteens in one year, which means that its expanding speed became faster and faster. We can apply entrants to the above. According to the principles of entry of theoretical framework, locations can be barriers to entrants. As we know, most consumers have specific geographic preferences when choosing a canteen to have a meal. Then Pizza Hut would lose geographic market if it continued franchise, because the expanding of canteens by Jardine is too slow.So Pizza Hut quit franchise to expand by itself, carrying on a faster expanding speed to get more geographic market. By doing so, it can build barriers to new entrants. (2)Its price first went down immediately after quit franchise. We can apply supplier power, internal rivalry, and entry to explain this condition. According to theoretical framework, the suppliers in a competitive market will have indirect power on downstream firms because they can sell their goods to the highest bidder.We know that Pizza Hut have many rivals when buying inputs, Papa John, KFC and any firms sell similar food because they need similar raw materials. So if Pizza Hut wants to purchase good raw materials, the transaction cost will be high to the franchised canteens. However, when it quit franchise to become vertical integrated firm, it can depend on its parent company, Yum. Because Yum has a network of 1000 firms to provide raw materials, it can reduce the threat of supplier power so that the cost fell and so did the price.And through vertical integration, Pizza Hut has superior access to inputs with the help of Yum as mentioned before, which is also a type of impediments to imitation, a group of isolating mechanism. That will help Pizza Hut to protect its com petitive advantage by preventing other firms from replicating its success. When Pizza Hut reduced the price, it can also have an advantage in price competition with its internal rivals. According to the theoretical framework, price erodes profits by driving down price-cost. And it’s more efficient than nonprice competition though more difficult.There is high price elasticity of demand in food industry because most kinds of food have many substitutes, so when Pizza Hut reduce its price, its rivals’ profits will suffer. And Pizza Hut can also deter entry by limit pricing to build strategic barriers to entry. Limit pricing is that the incumbent sets the price sufficiently low to discourage entrants before entry occurs. When Pizza Hut quit franchise and it lowered the price, it can also lower the expectation of potential entrants. If entrant infers that post-entry price will be low, entry may not be likely.When Pizza Hut quit franchise and become vertically integration, al l of its daily issues are decided by Yum rather than the franchisees. As we know, Yum is a strong company full of management experience and network advantages, so Pizza Hut has new advantages. The established relationships with Yum and its suppliers and customers is not easy to replicate. And because of learning curve effects, Yum has competitive advantages in the market. These can also be entry barriers. (3)From Figure3. 2. 3-3. 2. 4, is brand image was improved, which links with internal rivalry.According to Porter’s Five Forces Model, internal rivals may compete on a number of price and nonprice dimensions. Nonprice competition erodes profits by driving up fixed costs and marginal costs. To the extent that firms can pass cost increases along to consumers in the form of higher prices, non price competition is less likely to erode profits that price competition. So in fact, many firms choose nonprice competition to enjoy solid profits over an extended period of time. And the y are often engaged in vigorous by improving the quality of their products. We can apply this proposal to Pizza Hut.And by franchise, Pizza Hut can also have benefit leadership to keep its competitive advantage. Benefit leadership creates a large value by achieving a higher maximum willingness to pay than its rivals. Since Pizza Hut’s products, pizza and rice, etc, are experience goods, (i. e. quality of the good is only known after purchase and when it’s used for a while) it’s suitable for Pizza Hut to choose benefit leadership to outperform its rivals, because a benefit advantage could be based on image, reputation or credibility, which are more difficult to imitate or neutralize.And for experience goods, a firm’s reputation for quality provides a significant advantage also because consumers who have had a positive experience with a firm’s brand will be reluctant to switch to competing brands if there is a chance that the competing products will not work. It’s known as reputation and buyer uncertainty, a type of early mover advantages, which will help Pizza Hut to sustain its competitive advantages. So it’s very important for Pizza Hut to quit franchise and concentrate on brand improving.Pizza Hut thought its brand image was not so good in South China before 2004 since Jardine had different views in managing the canteen. So it quit franchise and started to operate the canteen by itself and has been focusing on its brand value. It has improved its products’ quality, its service, its environment of canteens and so on, in order to make the overall satisfaction of canteens go up. By doing so, it has advantages in the competition. And improving brand image also links with entry.According to theoretical framework, there are some entry barriers, one of which is that consumers highly value reputation, which means that consumers are brand loyal. Entrants must invest heavily to establish a strong reputation and b rand awareness. Diversifying entrants using a brand umbrella may be more successful than entirely new entrants. It’s reported that in 2003, Saizeriya, a canteen also sells pizzas entered Chinese market because its manager found that the price of Pizza Hut’s pizzas was so high while the quality of that didn’t catch up with the price, which made people not so satisfied with Pizza Hut.And with the same reason Barbera was opened in China, too. So that’s another reason why Pizza Hut quit franchise to establish a strong reputation and brand awareness. By using a brand umbrella it will be successful from protecting itself from stealing its market share by new entrants. Sub-question 3: Why did Pizza Hut quit franchise home but still continues franchise abroad? It’s often the case a kind of business pattern isn’t always useful in every situation, so we want to find whether or not Chinese market is suitable for franchise.There is a prominent phenomeno n that foreign firms would not like to adopt franchise in China. Besides Pizza Hut, its brother firm, KFC is also slow in franchise. Only 40 of 1000 canteens are franchised, and most of them are in small cities. Pizza Hut and KFC developed quickly by franchise, why they become cautious when they enter Chinese market? We think the following reasons can explain it. (1)The government in the firm environment can be an important cause. Porter’s Five Forces Model doesn’t have explicit role for the government.But according to Porter Diamond, the government plays an important role in influencing the firm’s strategy. Franchise took place in China in early 1990’s. And China government cancelled all limitation on franchise into Chinese market in 2002 when China entered into WTO. So by 2004, the time when Pizza Hut quit franchise, some related departments, professional service institutions, and policies and regulations still needed improving. At that time, adopt fran chise would take the firm into trouble. (2)The market for franchise is not mature enough.Since the success of a firm’s organization and strategy depends on the characteristics of the firm, the market, and the environment. So we must take the market into consideration when analyzing the firm’s strategy. Since it’s too short for franchise to improve in Chinese market, related departments, professional service institutions, franchisors and franchisees, potential investors and professional employees have large differences in understanding franchise. They also have few preparations and lack the abilities of franchise.However, the two reasons above don’t happen abroad because franchise happened early in foreign countries. It originates from the United States in 1851. The time is long enough for the market of franchise to become mature. (3) Franchisors lack confidence in franchisees. Pizza Hut has tried hard to seek out franchisee. One of the strategies the firm has chosen to make its franchise more attractive to franchisees is to make all canteens uniform. Pizza Hut became a part of the Yum’s franchise group. Other restaurants such as Taco Bell, KFC and Long John Silvers are lso part of this network. This grouping together of franchises has allowed franchisees to increase their potential for income by having both Pizza Hut and Taco Bell items for sale in a canteen. Yum is one of the world’s largest franchisors, and around 76% of the 325,000 Pizza Hut’s canteens around the world are franchised. It believes in focusing on its competition advantages in market and product development, and complementing these advantages with the expertise of its franchise partners in the areas of customer service and restaurant operations.This combined expertise of Yum and franchisee ownership is the key driver in achieving global growth. An analyst explained that by franchise, franchisor might lose control of some resources and become too dependent on franchisees, and the quality of products and services couldn't reach a uniform standard, while uniformity was crucial to enterprises such as KFC. A KFC staff told the journalist in private that in fact, KFC didn't have the courage to open its franchised canteens to a large scale since it didn't have sufficient confidence in most of the franchisees.Also the cost to run well a franchised outlet is really high, the minimum financial requirement to open a Pizza Hut franchise in the United States is $700,000 Net Worth and $350,000 in liquid assets [Figure 3. 2. 5], and to make the business profitable will make much pressure. Sub-question4: Are there similarities between Pizza Hut and other firms quitting franchise? Now we will compare pizza hut with other firms also quitting franchise to analyze the case. First, since Pizza Hut is in middle high level in catering service. So we choose some other firms in the same level as Pizza Hut in their own industry to do the comparison .Although they have some differences, it will be convictive to put them in their market and analyze the reason to give support to pizza hut, because we think the level will affect the strategy of choosing franchise or not. We choose Suning and Masha to do the analysis. Suning is a famous brand in China, mainly concentrating in electric appliance. In the beginning of the foundation, it expanded its scale fast and got many profits by franchise. It defeated Gome and became one of the leading electric appliance enterprises in China. But in 2007, it quit franchise because it wasn’t satisfied with its franchisee because the price hey produced didn’t meet the standard of quality as mentioned before. Another example is Masha department store, the biggest transnational retail group in England, who adopts directly management in China. The firm thought it is easier to control the management and keep their company’s future distinguishing. There are only 6 branches in China. Related to pizza hut’s direct management mentioned above, we can see franchise is not always favorable to the firm. Besides the quality and brand image problems, we have other reasons, the higher agent cost and the leak of private knowledge.Now we apply the framework to analyze these two reasons as followings. First, franchise can lead to high agency cost. Agency problems arise when the objectives of the principal and the agent are different and the actions taken and the information possessed by the agent is not observable by the principal, just as Suning and its agent, and maybe Pizza Hut and Jardine. The principle can’t have a very comprehensive control over the franchisees. As the firm becomes larger, it is harder for the principal to coordinate the work of different franchisees, thus the agency cost will be higher.And the principle should give more power to the franchisees so that they can have enough flexibility to react to the changes of the market. But if the p ower is too much, it may lead to decentralized organizations. The decision making authority will be dispersed. Agency problems may lead to coordination opportunities to be missed in decentralized organizations, which results in agency costs. As the organization becomes large, the coordination problems become more severe. Second, franchise will lead to the leak of the private information.As the franchisees work with the principal, they can learn more business management of the firm, learn the corporation culture, even the core technology, e. g. the special know-how. So the private information may be leaked. And once the franchisees quit cooperation, there will be a great threat to the principle and maybe its market share will get down. So we can see that if a firm is in middle high level or high level, or in other words, if a firm requires a lot in the quality of its product, they will possibly choose the pattern of vertical integration instead of franchise. Conclusion:We think the r easons why Pizza Hut quit franchise are as followings: (1) Yum Brands wasn’t satisfied with its franchisee, Jardine Matheson in expanding speed though Yum denied it. And so far it can’t find a better franchisee. (2) Pizza Hut wants to enhance its brand image so that it will be easy to expand later. (3) Since the market for franchise isn’t mature enough as in other developed foreign countries, the risk of having a large scale of franchise is really high. Our suggestions: (1) Since Chinese market for franchise isn’t mature enough, Pizza Hut can still be vertically integrated and concentrate on brand improving. 2) When Chinese market for franchise is mature and Pizza Hut’s brand is deeply loved by customers, Pizza Hut can reconsider franchise strategy to expand quickly with lower cost. (3) If Pizza Hut reconsiders franchise strategy, it must choose an experienced and high-quality franchisee. (4) It’s also good for Pizza Hut to adopt directly ma nagement as the main while franchise as the supplementary. (words:4435) Chen Yingying 2011123868 [email  protected] com Sherry 2011123870 [email  protected] com Kally 2011123826 [email  protected] com References & Bibiography:Economics of Strategy (David Besanko, David Dranove, Mark Shanley) http://www. pizzahut. com. cn/phdi/index. aspx#! handler/home. ashx? &tagid=&proid= http://bbs. gxsky. com/thread-595855-1-1. html http://zhidao. baidu. com/q? ct=17&pn=0&tn=ikaslist&rn=10&word http://www. sojump. com/publicsurveys. aspx? keyword=%E5%BF%85%E8%83%9C%E5%AE%A2 http://www. cfi. net. cn/newspage. aspx? id=20060830001759 http://www. cnstock. com/paper_new/html/2009-04/29/content_69247463. htm http://pizzahutfranchise. com/the-investment-pizza-franchise-opportunities. php http://www. gmw. cn/03pindao/2004-04/30/content_20233. htm

buy custom The Tempe PD Network Implementation essay

buy custom The Tempe PD Network Implementation essay Community policing has always been a core operational fabric of the Temple Police Department. The focus was to ensure that the police and the community work together to define and develop solutions to crime and quality-of-life problems. Social order in the community is primarily the outcome of informal social processes rather than the result of formal social control mechanisms such as police activity. It is thus important to stimulate citizen participation in crime participation and problem-solving activities in the community. As Tempe is situated in a strong technological environment, the use of Information System by the police department to enhance community policing is of prevalence. Since the implementation of the philosophy in 1988, residents of Tempe have expected an innovative action from the police department. Officers who are working at a specified beats need to develop an inherent problem-solving goals with their immediate supervisors. To effectively achieve this phenomenon , the officers are to be deployed in their respective beats for a minimum period of one year. As such, some of the lessons that have been learned from Tempe Police Departments Network implementation include problem solving process, centralization of IT systems, implementation of crime analysis Unit, and effective operation analysis. Centralization At one time, technology was decentralized but ever since the cost and complexity of technology increased, the city centralized all IT systems including that of the police department into one city Information Technology Division (ITD) (Webb et al., 1999). It was a positive move in the police force structure, however, some of the communications staff and patrol commanders were unwilling to hand over the control of IT to the centralized IT systems management. Financially, the city was able to coordinate IT effectively, as they could be able to better integrate the systems and, through the economies of scale, buy in bulk some of the IT components. In order to prompt the activities of the police department, the city assigned ITD business analyst to the department to advocate and liaison for activities in the sector. Centralization of the IT systems has enhanced the police department to successfully plan information technology acquisitions in order to support community policing in Tempe re gion. The decision of absorbing the four police positions and the accompanying responsibilities in order to pave way for the condensed or centralized organization is linked to the view that police officers will fare well in most of the decision making processes and procedures. The integration of IT across the city departments ensured that standardized Oracle database is achieved for all mid-to large size databases which are then managed by ITD (Buren, 2007). Centralization of IT system is not seen as self-serving but rather communal serving. The reorganization ensured that Criminal Justice Operations Committee an Criminal Justice Automation Committee were merged. Indeed, centralization enhanced knowledgeable service administrators to handle the IT decisions rather than the less-qualified police employees. Effective Operations analysis The Workload Committee has been established by Tempe Police Department to oversee and analyze the administrative and operational data so as to enhance resource allocation planning. The Staff Wizard software program is used by the department to enhance data analysis for easy development of schedules for beta officer staffing. It uses a variety of data including calls for service, average response for calls having wide priorities, and miles patrolled to provide an approximate best schedule for officers (Webb et al., 1999). The software ensures that officers deployment decision is well shaped. In some instances, the software uses Calls-for-service (CFS) data and other operations and administrative data to generate draft schedules that can be coherently reviewed by the supervisors, and make informed decisions and recommendations where there is need for schedule adjustment to the command staff. Tempe articulated to this Staff Wizard and Corona systems worked effectively with the departmen t in order to test, modify, and refine the software. The established Staff Wizard has ensured that the crime trends that are prepared by the crime analysis unit represent a form of scanning, albeit somewhat informal. As the crime analysis develops a very large quantity of useful information, systematic scanning is not use by the management in developing a decisive implementation. The departments coordinated efforts with the city agencies, such as the planning and development and traffic engineering, also involve it in the limited scanning processes. Implementation of Crime analysis unit The Tempe Police Department Crime Analysis Unit is a good example of how crime analysis can use CFS data and make it useful to beat officers. As such, much of the responsibility for using police information systems in supporting Community policing rests with Crime Analysis Unit. The unit undertakes analyses that aim at identifying crime trends, which are relative to small geographic areas. Trends are always considered the beginning of crime hot spots. Contrary to this, trend also provides information on suspects and crime characteristics (Kappeler, 2009). Ideally, the staff performs three types of analysisstrategic, administrative, and tactical. The unit provides police information to citizens of Tempe either through individual request or the Tempe Police website. The projects that were initiated successfully by Crime Analysis Unit are the monthly reports on police activity and crime, an ongoing series of tactical crime trend reports, and monthly and annual reports on crime and calls -for-service by specified land uses. Under the information systems that are imminent in the Crime Analysis Unit, the use of Computer-aided dispatch (CAD) has been implemented positively. The system uses the Publlic Safety Systems Incorporated (PSSI) designed and supported software. Indeed, the unit also produces a number of maps that can be accessed by citizens on the Tempe Police Department website. These include monthly Part I crime hot spot maps and the beat maps. Maps are aimed at determining the reporting district location of their own address based on the information available in the system. In conducting an annual survey on citizen and preparing a report that summarizes the survey findings, the crime analysis unit is quite effective. The site is elaborates and contains various categories of information ranging from sex offender to crime prevention database. As such, the Tempe Crime Analysis Unit is most importantly a key component in forging a community interface with residents. Development of CAD-based system for the documentation of officer time spent on solving a problem is clearly inclined and permits automated level-of-effort data aggregation and summarization. Indeed, the vital objective is to quantify such activities so as to incorporate it into performance reviews and strategic management decisions that are related to department resource allocation (Webb et al., 1999). The department is able to evaluate the performance of each officer on both traditional and Community-Oriented policing activities. As such, under the Additional Work Group section of Performance Evaluation where the officers are evaluated on proactive problem solving, team project participation, and beat ownership. In addition, solicitation of citizens input is done through variety of methods with the help of community policing. Tempe is organized into various beats that enhances dissemination of information from the central core unit. Beat officers seem to be well aware of the require ments for beat problem-solving projects, and officers and line supervisors appear to develop intimate understanding of the neighborhood encompassed in their beat. Conclusion Fighting crime needs an effective way of disseminating information this is achieved through community policing strategy and networking. Tempe Police department have spearheaded in undertaking this implementation in the police department and it has achieved immensely from the operations. Centralization of IT systems has been done under one unit and this has enhanced the control and management of the police activities. It has ensured that decision making process does not conflict among the police departments. In addition, Effective Operations analyses have been undertaken prior to the establishment of Tempe Police Department that oversee and analyze the administrative and operational data so as to enhance resource allocation planning. Implementation of Crime analysis unit that uses CFS data and making it useful to beat officers has been achieved in the city. As such, much of the responsibility for using police information systems in supporting Community policing rests with Crime Analys is Unit. It is clear that articulation to the Tempe Police Departments Network implementation will enhance community-oriented policing. 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The Greek Gods essays

The Greek Gods essays Zeus was the god of the sky and his weapon was the thunderbolt. His sisters where Hera, Demeter, and Hestia his brothers where Hades, and Poseidon. His symbols are the eagle and the oak tree. He married Hera but had many affairs. Hera was goddess of gods. She rebelled against Zeus. Hera tied up Zeus and had his thunderbolt stolen. Zeus hung Hera from the sky with golden chains. Her brothers and sisters are the same as Zeus are. Athene was goddess of wisdom and strategy. Athenes mother was a Titaness by the name of metis, and Zeus was her father. In his fear of being overthrown by a boy Zeus swallowed metis. Athene was born from Zeus head making her the goddess of wisdom and military strategy. Athene was a kalous goddess. Poseidon was god of the sea and his weapon was a trident. Zeus, Hades, and Poseidon rolled dice to see how gets which area. Zeus won so he chose the sky Poseidon chose the sea and Hades was always unlucky so he got the under world. Poseidon thought the sea was full of adventures and things. Hades was the god of the under world and his layer was graded by a giant three headed dog. He married Demeters daughter for a while. Hades was always unlucky and he got the under world when he rolled dice. Demeter was goddess of growing things and harvestings. Zeus gave her a daughter and son. Her daughter was in charge of naming plants. One day she was in the woods farther than she as ever gone be for. She saw bush she didnt like so she poled it up and Hades come out and toke her down to the under world. Demeter complained to Zeus and told him nothing would grow if their daughter didnt come back. Nothing grow in tell her daughter came back. Artemis was the goddess of the moon her weapon a silver bow with silver arrows. She had a twin brother named Apollo their mom was Leto. She wanted so many gifts that Zeu ...

3 Ways to Avoid Confusing Your Readers

3 Ways to Avoid Confusing Your Readers 3 Ways to Avoid Confusing Your Readers 3 Ways to Avoid Confusing Your Readers By Mark Nichol Word choice, insertion or omission of punctuation, and syntax (arrangement of words and phrases) all affect comprehension. In each of the following sentences, one of these components of sentence construction is the source of ambiguity or confusion. Discussion of each example follows, along with a revision. 1. Our organization has sponsored AIDS/HIV walks across the country. Across is often used as a synonym for throughout, but here, it prompts the unfortunate misapprehension that the walks are transcontinental in scope. In this case, throughout is a better choice: â€Å"Our organization has sponsored AIDS/HIV walks throughout the country.† Take-away: Remain vigilant about ambiguous wording. 2. These results are not surprising because cyber risks have evolved into a moving target. This sentence, as written, suggests that the reader, after learning from the second half of the sentence what is not the reason the results are surprising, will read in a subsequent sentence the reason they are. But â€Å"cyber risks have evolved into a moving target† is the reason the results are not surprising, which is made clear simply by applying a brief pause to the sentence in the form of a comma preceding the explanation, which renders the explanation a subordinate clause set off from the premise of the sentence (â€Å"The results are not surprising†): â€Å"These results are not surprising, because cyber risks have evolved into a moving target.† Better yet, begin the sentence with the explanation, still in the form of a subordinate clause: â€Å"Because cyber risks have evolved into a moving target, these results are not surprising.† Take-away: When a negative statement is followed by an explanation, separate the explanation, a subordinate clause, from the main clause. (A positive statement generally needs no such punctuation, though exceptions exist.) 3. By taking a risk-based approach, such changes can be tailored to fit the company’s specific risk posture. All too often, writers mistakenly craft sentences in which subordinate clauses placed as introductory phrases are assumed to pertain to the subject of the main clauses when the two elements are only tangentially related. Here, changes are mistakenly said to take a risk-based approach, but an unnamed actor must be persuaded to do so. In most cases, simply revise the subject so that it logically follows the subordinate clause: â€Å"By taking a risk-based approach, one can tailor such changes to fit the company’s specific risk posture.† Take-away: Be alert to dangling participles. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Writing Basics category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:Fly, Flew, (has) FlownFlied?50 Latin Phrases You Should Know20 Classic Novels You Can Read in One Sitting

Nonverbal Communication and Ray Birdwhistell in Ethnographic Films Essay

Nonverbal Communication and Ray Birdwhistell in Ethnographic Films - Essay Example According to ethnographic films, presentation of nonverbal communication may have different meaning to the students. There are student having the difficult while hearing while others are not in a position of interpreting the signs. There teachers should be in a position of distinguishing the nature and type of the signs depending with the environment. Some schools are specialized with the sign teaching to student while others major with the verbal for normal students. During the mixture of the students, the lecturer should also employ the use of the signs and facial expression more than the talking. The ethnographic films addresses some of the issues covering the ethnographic tools that are applied in nonverbal communication. These includes body signs such as facial expression and sign languages. The most important issues are connected to the relationship of the lecturer and their students in school context and how they impact on the education. Therefore, ethnographic films aims in p resentation of the appropriate approach that are essential in the development of the body language especially through nonverbal communication approach. There are student whom have challenges in speaking and were normal previously and other students whom have no challenges in speaking, leads the lecturer to have a good understanding of appropriate expressions that would accommodate the two groups. The issues that are supposed to be considered while lecturing are directly to the understanding of the students and expression of the feelings.

Ace Electricals Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Ace Electricals - Essay Example nt is the cause of general decline in employee moral, decline in employees’ productivity which ultimately has affected the profit margin of Ace Electricals over the past six years. The workers were doing something else like reading in the rest rooms when they were suppose to work because the incentives to motivate them is either low or non-existent. This unproductive attitude of employees is very contagious. It will not only affect productivity but affects the moral of the whole work place. And this is exactly what is happening at Ace Electricals. To solve this problem, the management of the company needs to sit down and take a look again at their compensation system. They need to address the issue of low moral and low productivity collectively and on individual basis. This is to find out what each employee’s problem is and what can be done collectively to rectify the situation. This will also make the employees feel that the organization cares about them as persons and not just as workers. This will also help develop the loyalty of the employees to the organization and give them a sense of belonging. A system must be created where an employee can develop himself in pursuance of company growth and development.When people or in our case here workers feel they are been watched closely, i.e. "bird dogging" or "slave driving", it tends to create a lot of tension at the work place, it breeds distrust between management and workers and tends to reinforce the "I am the boss, so you should be subservient attitude". It does not give the employee the opportunity to think on his own and to bring out the potential in him. The employee tends to think that management does not trust him any way so why should he/she bother. It creates a system where employees can't share ideas with management so they can make things work better. Because people work under a much tensed atmosphere, productivity will be low and as an act of protest or rebellion won't try to achieve production target as is the case of Ace Electricals.The management needs to create and nurture a kind of relationship between workers and supervisors that will and ensure cooperation and compliance. And to effect this, the key is communication. Effective communication between employees and management will bridge the gap between the two sides, address grievances and promote Idea sharing which can totally revolutionarize the organization. But then again, it's all about creating a reward system where the organization can take the worker to task if he is not performing to expectation. Al Abrams needs to take a total look of his organizations management system ie from administrative through to production and delivery and make complete but relevant management changes. I think the problem here is that the technique he uses in the assembly line is obsolete. He needs to look at modern systems where the assembling could be done with fewer hands if possible. And then if it can be done, what will be the delivery rate per specified time How will it reduce costs How will workers be rewarded Is it by the number of sets you assemble within a specific timeSupervision is a key problem at Ace Electricals. If there are supervisors at the assembling department, who supervises top management staff and how is it

Child Development and Parental Disorders Research Paper

Child Development and Parental Disorders - Research Paper Example There were three such respondents two of whom admitted to demonstration of pathological symptoms similar to that of their mentally estranged parents. There is a major implication derived from this for the study. Both the respondents who admitted to symptoms of mental disorders had high scores for psychosocial items included in the second part of the questionnaire. This proved that high degree of psychosocial trauma from childhood can trigger off psychiatric pathologies in later life while lesser degrees of it may be more benign. Conversely too, the study has proved ground for more development and research in this important field. It has revealed that a wider range of variables distributed across a broader spectrum of population can disclose more relevant correlations than is presently available. These correlations, once revealed, can lead to better understanding of how to cope with mental disorders in parents and how their children can be better shielded from their psychiatric pathology so that their development is not hampered and they do not fall victim to a vicious circle of psychologically inhibited adulthood. Genetic implication have been touched upon but not elucidated on since data available presently is not extensive enough. The4 statistical analysis conducted by the study was aband... Introduction The 'American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry' (AACAP) advocates that parental psychiatric illnesses can affect children (AACAP, 2004). Studies have proved that children with affected parents are at higher risk than those of mentally sound parents. The risk increases with both parents being mentally unsound. Studies have also proved that parents with the following disorders - bipolar disorder, anxiety disorder, ADHD, schizophrenia, alcoholism, drug abuse or depression are more likely to adversely affect their children's behavioral and emotional positions (AACAP, 2004). The 'Center for Mental Health Services and Research' (CMHSR) Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical School, find in a 2001 study that, statistically, one-third of American women and one-fifth of American men are likely to be mentally affected. Of these, there is likelihood of 65% of the women and 52% of the men of becoming parents. Nevertheless, there have been very little corresponding studies on how incidence of parental mental illnesses and cultural and economic factors correlate to produce children's mental conditions. Thus, most of the studies conducted to this study's date - 2001 - are incidental purely on stressors such as poverty and ethnic minority status. Incidence in the Caucasoid and middle class sections of the American population has not been mapped so thoroughly. The net result is a gap in the understanding of how mental illnesses are distributed across the entire

Exam Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Exam - Speech or Presentation Example This leads to mistakes while driving and accidents follow. Similarly, driving at extremely high speed increases the number of accidents because any slight driving mistake at such high speeds are fatal. Reckless driving also increases rates of accidents through collision with other vehicles, pedestrians or objects along the road (Hour, 2007). The coefficient of determination can be directly obtained from excel’s summary of output. It is given by the value for R2 in the summary output. According to the data, the coefficient of determination is given by, Coefficient of determination represents the proportion of the dependent variable that can be explained by the explanatory variables. The value from the output statistics therefore indicates that the regression formula explains about 64.32 % of the data. The correlation coefficient indicates the degree and direction of correlation between variables. It shows how strong the variables are related with high absolute values (closer to one) indicating strong correlation while low absolute values (closer to zero) indicates weak correlations. Positive values of the coefficient of correlation indicate a direct relationship between the variables while a negative value indicates an inverse relationship between the variables. The value of coefficient of correlation, 0.802, indicates that the age and number of concerts visited are directly correlated. The correlation is further identified to be strong as the coefficient is closer to one. The model represents a multiple regression. This is because simple regression is characterized by existence of a single explanatory variable while multiple regressions have more than one independent variables. The model under consideration has three independent variables, which qualifies it for a multiple regression. Where y is the age at death and x1, x2 and x3 are

Time Warner and Comcast Merger Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Time Warner and Comcast Merger - Essay Example This paper highlights that the main impediment of this merger according to the U.S regulators is the fear that the company would create a business that is well aware that clients have no other choices than to the poor provision of customer service as well as increased rates knowing there are no options out there. In any case, this is one of the fundamental concerns with any establishment of a monopoly where the US regulators will carry the ultimate decision.   This research study outlines that the strategy taken is a well conceived strategy which creates a moat or what is known as barriers to entry. The reason for their opinion are based   on barriers to entry which entail competitive advantages such as economies to scale and the net network effects, captivity of customers, proprietary technology as well as government advocacy. This situation is not an accident as some people may explain but a strategic step created to achieve economies of scale and achieve customer captivity. Si nce the merger has the objective of saving on costs for the customers of both firms, this will make the barriers to entry very high.  The situation cannot be termed as being created to destroy value through acquisitions. The value of the companies or competition cannot be destroyed.   If the internet providers were to be left on their own, they would charge high prices given that they experience no oversight or face competition. The merger has the intentions of providing the customers with more efficient services.

Exam Speech or Presentation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Exam - Speech or Presentation Example This leads to mistakes while driving and accidents follow. Similarly, driving at extremely high speed increases the number of accidents because any slight driving mistake at such high speeds are fatal. Reckless driving also increases rates of accidents through collision with other vehicles, pedestrians or objects along the road (Hour, 2007). The coefficient of determination can be directly obtained from excel’s summary of output. It is given by the value for R2 in the summary output. According to the data, the coefficient of determination is given by, Coefficient of determination represents the proportion of the dependent variable that can be explained by the explanatory variables. The value from the output statistics therefore indicates that the regression formula explains about 64.32 % of the data. The correlation coefficient indicates the degree and direction of correlation between variables. It shows how strong the variables are related with high absolute values (closer to one) indicating strong correlation while low absolute values (closer to zero) indicates weak correlations. Positive values of the coefficient of correlation indicate a direct relationship between the variables while a negative value indicates an inverse relationship between the variables. The value of coefficient of correlation, 0.802, indicates that the age and number of concerts visited are directly correlated. The correlation is further identified to be strong as the coefficient is closer to one. The model represents a multiple regression. This is because simple regression is characterized by existence of a single explanatory variable while multiple regressions have more than one independent variables. The model under consideration has three independent variables, which qualifies it for a multiple regression. Where y is the age at death and x1, x2 and x3 are

Counseling male rape victims Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Counseling male rape victims - Research Paper Example The victims are also required to process the rape and the possible experiences they may face after the ordeal with their formal and informal providers of support. Second, observations made from evaluating therapeutic techniques show that cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT) can work quite well in the reduction of the short term post rape anxiety and fear symptoms. Though, feminist therapies focus on the long term issues in dealing with self blame and guilt, they are known to work at times for the short term issues. Finally It is common for the mental health practitioners who deal with the male rape victims to also experience disturbing feelings that are similar to those experienced by the rape victim. These symptoms are referred to as Secondary Traumatic stress usually experienced by practitioners who deal with a high number of sexually assaulted victims, thus, the need for the application of self-care strategies for these therapists. Introduction The term rape/sexual assault are usu ally defined in many different ways, but, it is explained that rape is the unwanted sexual acts that range from touching to penetration. Usually it is assumed that phrase ‘victims of sexual abuse’ or ‘rape victims’ usually refer to women, but contrary to that, men and boys are also victims of the vice and research shows that in America 10% of the rape victims are men and boys. According to the mental health practitioners who dealt with them, men and boys suffer post-traumatic stress similar to those experienced by women, but are not willing to accept that they are rape victims and need assistance. For some time now practitioners, researchers have tried to find out how sexual assault on males impacts the individuals health psychologically and to create therapies that efficient in enhancing the recovery of these male victims. This essay seeks to explain the research results on three major issues for the practitioners who deal with the male rape victims. These issues are: one, the experiences of the male rape victims and the issues they may put forward in therapy, two, the therapeutic techniques and methods that have yielded success in enhancing recovery of the victims, lastly, the effects of dealing with the male rape victims on the health practitioner dealing with them. The experiences of the male rape victims and the issues they may put forward in therapy Currently, research focuses mainly on putting down and explaining the post traumatic impacts ion the male rape victim’s way of life. The research findings show that the victims struggle with the effects of the assault directly and the effects of the assault on the people who are close to them, that is family and friends. Thus, these results shows that the male rape survivors may share a variety of concerns in therapy and the therapists must be informed of the various negative impacts of sexual assault (Odem & Warner, 1998). Sexual assault/ rape are devastating and normally it wrecks the survivor’s ability to maintain a consistent illusion of safety at the personal level, their invulnerability, and threatens some of the beliefs and assumptions the victims identify with and the larger community that surrounds them. The victims are likely to display extreme levels of psychological distress, guilt, fear, shame, tension, anxiety, anger among others. These different psychological symptoms are usually viewed as an exhibition of the

Short Case Essay Example for Free

Short Case Essay At your company, a bottler of natural spring water, the advertising department has recently launched a campaign that emphasizes the purity of your product. The industry is highly competitive, and your organization has been badly hurt by a lengthy strike of unionized employees. The strike seriously disrupted production and distribution, and it caused your company to lose significant revenues and market share. Now that the strike is over, your company will have to struggle to recoup lost customers and will have to pay for the increased wages and benefits called for in the new union contract. The company’s financial situation is precarious to say the least. You and the entire senior management team have high hopes for the new ad campaign, and initial consumer response has been positive. You are shocked, then, when your head of operations reports to you that an angry worker has sabotaged one of your bottling plants. The worker introduced a chemical into one of the machines, which in turn contaminated 120,000 bottles of the spring water. Fortunately, the chemical is present in extremely minute amounts—no consumer could possibly suffer harm unless he or she drank in excess of 10 gallons of the water per day over a long period of time. Since the machine has already been sterilized, any risk of long term exposure has been virtually eliminated. But, of course, the claims made by your new ad campaign could not be more false. List all of the stakeholders involved in this situation. Do any stakeholder groups have more to gain or lose than others? Develop a strategy for dealing with the contamination. How much does a company’s financial situation determine how ethical dilemmas are handled? In this situation the list of stakeholders would be everyone in the company. If the company is not able to make money then the company is at stake and this stakeholders are everyone that is employed, this includes myself as the owner of the company to the labor employees that have a newly negotiated labor contract. I do not believe that anyone group has more or less to loose; instinctively, I would think the lower wage workers would have more to loose, but is actually not true, because its all relative. The strategy I would use to deal with this situation is to stay honest an true to the product the company sells and to the employees. First, I would write a detailed letter to everyone explaining the situation. I would explain the position of the company before this incident and the potential implications of this situation. The company’s financial situation has a lot to deal with how this situation. Which is why I feel it is important to be transparent. My plan would be to dispose of the contaminated supply along with any equipment that would contaminate future products. I would work the manager or director of infection control to make sure the contaminated product is appropriately disposed of and to come up with a plan that would insure this does not happen again. One all is said and done, I would relay all relevant information to all the employees of the organization. Further, I would l relay a newly created policy of what how employees will how act in this manner will be dealt with.

US homeland security related critical infrastructure matters

US homeland security related critical infrastructure matters The statement: The Department of Homeland Security has complete responsibility for all U.S. homeland security related critical infrastructure (CI) matters is not entirely accurate; originally, matters of national security were the sole responsibility of the federal government (Homeland Security, 2003, p. 7). Today, national critical infrastructure protection is a joint effort among the federal government, public and private sectors. The Department of Homeland Security was established to protect and secure the homeland from both domestic and foreign threats. According to the Homeland Security Act of 2002, the development of a plan which will ensure the security of critical infrastructure is the responsibility of the DHS (Homeland Security, 2009). Likewise, the DHS is also responsible for recommending the measures necessary to protect the key resources and critical infrastructure of the United States (Homeland Security, 2009, p. 2). The mission of DHS is one that involves the protection of infrastructure and critical facilities and networks (Homeland Security, 2010, p. 33). The DHS is responsible for the identification and assessment of all components which make up critical infrastructure. In addition to mitigating potential vulnerabilities; improving the resilience of critical infrastructure, is also a top priority of the DHS. This includes but is not limited to: stand-alone facilities and interdependent systems and networks within and across critical infrastructure sectors (Homeland Security, 2010, p. 34). The DHS serves as the leader and facilitator for those agencies who share responsibility for protecting the nations critical infrastructures (Homeland Security, 2010, p. 31). Those agencies include territorial, tribal, local and state governments, as well as the private sector and other agencies not associated with the government (Homeland Security, 2003). Conversely, when a disaster occurs these agencies are the first line of defense for national critical infrastructures. Even though the DHS is responsible for leading critical infrastructure efforts, coordination of security measures within local and state governments and critical sector industry leaders are the responsibility of federal lead departments and agencies (Homeland Security, 2003). Similarly, it is the responsibility of state and local governments to provide protection to critical infrastructures that are located within their jurisdictions (Homeland Security, 2003, p. 10). If and when a catastrophic event should occur which exhaust the capabilities of local and state governments, it is up to the federal government to coordinate a response (Homeland Security, 2003). A majority of our nations critical infrastructures are privately owned or operated, which means that the private sector are initially responsible for providing protection against threats to their facilities (Homeland Security, 2003). When the threat becomes more than the private sector can handle then the government will step in to assist and ensure that our nations critical infrastructures and assets are protected (Homeland Security, 2003, p. 11). Likewise, the federal government will be there to provide support for an environment in which the private sector can better carry out its specific responsibilities (Homeland Security, 2003, p. 11). The chemical sector is one of the most vulnerable critical infrastructures to natural disaster and terrorist attacks, that being said the DHS is working with the EPA to enhance security at chemical facilities (Homeland Security, 2003). In addition, special attention is being paid to those facilities which house large quantities of hazardous chemicals (Homeland Security, 2003, p. 78). Studies conducted by the DHS and private sector are currently underway to identify and understand physical vulnerabilities within the telecommunications infrastructure and their associated risks (Homeland Security, 2003, p. 61). Even though the private sector must occasionally seek assistance from the DHS, there are times when the federal government must rely on the private sector to lend a hand in emergency response and recovery. An example of the federal government calling on the private sector for assistance was the anthrax scare of 2001. A large Washington D.C. construction corporation was contracted to oversee the abatement and restoration of the Brentwood Post office in Washington D.C. and the Trenton Post office facility in New Jersey. One must also understand that quite a few of our nations critical infrastructures cross international borders (Homeland Security, 2003, p. 35). Therefore the federal government has partnered with the neighboring countries to provide security for our interconnected infrastructures (Homeland Security, 2003, p. 35). The United States partnership with Canada is is a vital asset to national critical infrastructure, efforts are being made to provide protection for international interconnected infrastructures. An example of this partnership is the Alaskan Canadian hightway. In order to transport goods and supplies to Alaska we must travel cross Canadian territory. It is evident that matters of critical infrastrucutre involves not only the DHS but the public and private sectors as well. The DHS would not be able to carry out their responsibilites without the assistance of local and state agencies, the private sector and vice versa. The U.S. government has made great strides in developing techniques and strategies to harden U.S. critical infrastructures which will make them more resistant to terrorist attack and natural disasters. One of the U.S. governments goals is to establish a strong partnership that spans across all levels of government, in addition to the private sector and the American people (Homeland Security, 2009). The Protected Critical Infrastructure Information Program is just one of many steps taken by the U.S. government to harden critical infrastructure. This program provides protection to security-related critical infrastructure information (Homeland Security, 2009, p. 5). By breaking down each critical infrastructure sector it is easier to understand how the U.S. government has been successful in hardening each critical infrastructure. The agriculture and food sector is one of the most vulnerable critical infrastructures, that being said, efforts to harden this sector are an ongoing challenge (Mark Sauter James Carafano, 2005). The U.S. government has revised its measures by providing more protection through the hiring of more health inspectors, and adding more reporting requirements (Sauter Carafano, 2005, p. 291). Contamination of our nations water supply is often a topic of concern; efforts are being made by the Environmental Protection Agency as well as the Department of Homeland Security to conduct a vulnerability and threat assessment (Sauter Carafano, 2005). These assessments will improve not only site security at high threat locations it will also enhance monitoring and sharing of information (Sauter Carafano, 2005, p. 292). With regards to the critical infrastructure of public health the U.S. government has implemented measures to harden biomedical surveillance (Sauter Carafano, 2005). This is extremely important because of the risks of a biological attack. There have also been improvements in hardening security of emergency stockpiles of medical supplies (Sauter Carafano, 2005, p. 294). In order to improve the physical security of medical structures the U.S. government has provided incentives to the private sector (Sauter Carafano, 2005, p. 294). In response to hardening the critical infrastructure of emergency services the U.S. government has established measures to harden interoperable and redundant communication networks (Sauter Carafano, 2005, p. 295). The U.S. government has instituted a tougher national emergency preparedness exercise program which teaches better security and promotes consistent protection planning and response protocols (Sauter Carafano, 2005, p. 295). Since the defense industrial base critical infrastructure sector is owned by a majority of the private sector the U.S. government has implemented new measures to include critical infrastructure protection requirements in contract processes (Sauter Carafano, 2005, p. 296). Likewise, security is being strengthened in the defense related commercial production and distribution processes (Sauter Carafano, 2005, p. 296). The telecommunications critical infrastructure has been assessed by the U.S. government, and in return a program has been designed to identify where the most vulnerable areas are in the communication architecture and then address the security issue (Sauter Carafano, 2005). Conversely, there have also been efforts made in the energy critical infrastructure sector to enhance resilience of the energy facilities (Sauter Carafano, 2005, p. 298). Facility equipment is being repaired and replaced and there have also been improvements in restoration and recovery of services (Sauter Carafano, 2005, p. 298). Significant improvements have been made to harden the transportation critical infrastructure sector; for example, security initiatives have been established to provide commercial airliners with protection from shoulder fired missiles (Sauter Carafano, 2005, p. 299). There have also been new developments in screening technology which help identify potential threats to transportation as well as aiding the postal service sector in identifying suspicious mail (Sauter Carafano, 2005, pp. 301-302). Despite the many efforts being made to harden critical infrastructure, there are still several weaknesses in the U.S. governments strategy. Lets face it, the only other thing that is more costly than hardening critical infrastructure is the disruption or potential loss of operations in those critical infrastructures. It is clear that trying to harden all critical infrastructures is too daunting of a task and is not cost effective. The U.S. government needs to focus on those areas of the United States where our critical infrastructures are most vulnerable (e.g. New York City, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. etc.). The federal government also needs to look at the protection of our nations water ways. Information security systems need to be deployed to guard the locks on the Mississippi and St. Lawrence seaways (Bruce Don David Mussington). By employing an information security system it will enable the monitoring of vessels and ships while in locks or approaching locks (Don Mussington). To provide another level of security, river marshals could be deployed to accompany dangerous shipments through the locks (Don Mussington). Many people dont realize that a large majority of our nations goods are transported through inland waterways, which is why it is important that more attention be paid to the transportation sector.

The Cause of the Devastation of Hurricane Katrina Essay -- Natural Dis

The historical event of Hurricane Katrina, a category three hurricane with winds ranging from 111-130 mph, in August 2005 revealed major structural failures in the levee systems of New Orleans. Though not all structural failures are as catastrophic, the breeched levees led to loss of life, homes, businesses, highways, and left a trail of destruction that is still being repaired today. The result of this failure led to lawsuits, conspiracy theories, and court cases. Hurricane Katrina had a major effect upon our country and those results are still rippling on today. Though a city once devastated, major improvements to the failed system have been made and leave the city feeling safe once again. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans with its fierce intensity, the lives of its inhabitants was forever changed. The winds rose and the waves crashed upon the only security system this, below sea level, city had against the many water systems surrounding it. Most people think that the waves simply rose up over the banks and levees of the city; however, evidence proves this thought wrong. The actual reason New Orleans was flooded was due to poor engineering. According to experts, two thirds of the tragic flooding could have been prevented. Thousands of homes could have been saved if the engineers responsible for building New Orleans’s levees had followed regulatory guidelines. After the shock of Hurricane Katrina slightly diminished, the Congress ordered a congressional inspection of the federally build levee system. As they dug deeper into the cause of the levee’s failure, they began to discover flaws in the actual engineering of the levees. Three of the levees that had the most prominently negative effect on the city, and ... ...cane to protect the rich and middle class, and some blame President Bush. In conclusion, Hurricane Katrina had devastating effects on the city of New Orleans. I believe the blame was portioned correctly onto the heads of the engineers responsible for building the levees. Not enough care or attention to detail was put into the construction of the levees, and resulted in death and devastation. When it comes to the safety of people, all measures must be taken and no cost spared. This historical event learned from that, and great improvements were made to the protection system in New Orleans. Works Cited Hurricane Katrina. [online] 14 October 2010. http://en.www.wikipedia.org/wiki/effects_of_HurricaneKatrina_in_New_Orleans Parker Waichman Alonso LLP. Levee Failure. [online] 17 October 2010. http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/levee_failure The Cause of the Devastation of Hurricane Katrina Essay -- Natural Dis The historical event of Hurricane Katrina, a category three hurricane with winds ranging from 111-130 mph, in August 2005 revealed major structural failures in the levee systems of New Orleans. Though not all structural failures are as catastrophic, the breeched levees led to loss of life, homes, businesses, highways, and left a trail of destruction that is still being repaired today. The result of this failure led to lawsuits, conspiracy theories, and court cases. Hurricane Katrina had a major effect upon our country and those results are still rippling on today. Though a city once devastated, major improvements to the failed system have been made and leave the city feeling safe once again. When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans with its fierce intensity, the lives of its inhabitants was forever changed. The winds rose and the waves crashed upon the only security system this, below sea level, city had against the many water systems surrounding it. Most people think that the waves simply rose up over the banks and levees of the city; however, evidence proves this thought wrong. The actual reason New Orleans was flooded was due to poor engineering. According to experts, two thirds of the tragic flooding could have been prevented. Thousands of homes could have been saved if the engineers responsible for building New Orleans’s levees had followed regulatory guidelines. After the shock of Hurricane Katrina slightly diminished, the Congress ordered a congressional inspection of the federally build levee system. As they dug deeper into the cause of the levee’s failure, they began to discover flaws in the actual engineering of the levees. Three of the levees that had the most prominently negative effect on the city, and ... ...cane to protect the rich and middle class, and some blame President Bush. In conclusion, Hurricane Katrina had devastating effects on the city of New Orleans. I believe the blame was portioned correctly onto the heads of the engineers responsible for building the levees. Not enough care or attention to detail was put into the construction of the levees, and resulted in death and devastation. When it comes to the safety of people, all measures must be taken and no cost spared. This historical event learned from that, and great improvements were made to the protection system in New Orleans. Works Cited Hurricane Katrina. [online] 14 October 2010. http://en.www.wikipedia.org/wiki/effects_of_HurricaneKatrina_in_New_Orleans Parker Waichman Alonso LLP. Levee Failure. [online] 17 October 2010. http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/levee_failure

Kines Final Review

What are the 3 functions of the Menisci? 10. Which menisci Is shaped Like an â€Å"O† and which one Is shaped Like a â€Å"C†? 11. What are the 3 different zones of the menisci and what is the difference between each of these zones? 12. What are the two Excruciate ligaments? 13. Where does the PC attach on the femur? Where does the PC attach on the Tibia? 14. Where does the CAL attach on the femur? Where does the CAL attach on the tibia? 15. During non-weight bearing, what does the CAL prevent? During weight bearing, what does the CAL prevent? 16. During non-wealth bearing, what does the PC revert?During weight bearing. What does the PC prevent? 17. What force does the MAC prevent? What force does the LLC prevent? 18. Which muscles are our main hip fellers? 19. What does it mean for a muscle to be a 2-Joint muscle? 20. What are the names of our four quad muscles? Which ones affect both the hip and the knee? 21 . What are the names of the 3 hamstring muscles? 22. How do we manage or treat a quadriceps contusion? 23. For a hip dislocation, the leg will be In a position. 24. How do we manage a femur fracture? 25. Why are females more prone to CAL tears? 6.What is another name for a PC sprain? And 27. What are the common signs and symptoms of a maniacal lesion? 28. What is the difference between Osgood-Clatterers and Larsen-Johansson Disease? 29. What Is Patella Altar? What Is Patella Baja? 30. What are other names for Gene Vulgar and Gene Vary? Chapter 19- The Ankle and Lower Leg 1 . What are the four bones that make up the ankle? Ligaments are on the medial side of the ankle? 4. What are the names of the tarsal bones? 5. What are the four compartments of the lower leg and what muscles are in each compartment? 6.What two motions make up the actions probation and suppuration of the ankle? 7. Describe what pees caves and pees planks are. 8. What are the two phases of the gait cycle and what motions make up these two phases? 9. What is a more common nam e for hall values? 10. How do we manage hall values? 11. What Joints are involved in a Hammer Toe? 12. What Joints are involved in Mallet toe? 13. What Joints are involved in claw toe? 14. What is the etiology for turf toe? 15. How do we manage or treat an ingrown toenail? 16. What are the three different types of compartment syndrome? 7. What type of ankle sprain is the most common? 18. What are the signs and symptoms of an Achilles Tendon Rupture? 19. What is a more common name for Medial Tibia Stress Syndrome? 20. Define a Jones Fracture. Chapters 20-24 and 26-27- General Medical Conditions 1 . What is another name for syncope? 2. What are some signs and symptoms of syncope? 3. What is another name for Sudden Cardiac Death? 4. What are some red flags for Sudden Cardiac Death? 5. What is Commotion Cord's and how does it occur? 6. Compare and Contrast a Generalized Seizure and a Partial or Focal Seizure. 7.How do we manage or treat seizures? . What are some things that can trigger an Asthma Attack? 9. What are signs and symptoms of Asthma? 10. Compare and Contrast Type I and Type II Diabetes Mellitus. 11. What are some signs and symptoms of Diabetes? 12. What is Hyperglycemia? What are some signs and symptoms? 13. What is Hypoglycemia? What are some signs and symptoms? 14. What is the difference between food poisoning and the Flu? 15. What is normal body temperature? What is a low-grade fever? What is a high-grade fever? 16. What is the difference between a bacterial infection and a viral infection? 7. What is mononucleosis? How do we get it? 18. What are the signs and symptoms of Mononucleosis? 19. What is Seer's Sign? 20. What does OSHA stand for? 21 . What are some of our personal precautions for bloodstone pathogens? 22. What are two different types of Menstrual Irregularities? 23. What is the female athlete triad? 1 . What is triangulation? 2. What gland controls triangulation? 3. What are the five different types of heat exchange or production? 4. When should we begin hydrating for activities? 5. How do we check hydration levels? 6. What are the recommendations for hydration? 7.What are common signs and symptoms of dehydration? 8. How do we manage dehydration? 9. Why do we need to replace our fluid and electrolytes? 10. What is acclimatization? 1 1 . Who are more susceptible to heat illnesses? 12. What is hyperthermia? What is hypothermia? 13. What is heat rash? 14. What is heat syncope? 15. What causes exertion heat cramps? 16. What are common signs and symptoms of heat exhaustion? How do we treat it? 17. What are common signs and symptoms of heat stroke? How do we treat it? 18. What is exertion hypothermia? 19. What is frost nip? 20. What are signs and symptoms of frostbite? . How do we treat cold injuries? 22. What do we do if there is lightning? 23. What is the flash to bang theory? Chapter 29- Dermatology 1 . What three things can cause skin infections? 2. What four things does the skin do for us? 3. What are signs and sympto ms of bacterial infections? 4. What is follicles? 5. What is MRS.? What are the dangers of not treating MRS.? 6. How do we manage bacterial infections? 7. How do we prevent fungal infections? 8. What is tinge piped? 9. What is tinge capitals? 10. What causes fungal infections and how do we treat fungal infections?

Financial Literacy in the Philippines Essay

Money. That word enough is enough to turn the heads of almost any one in this world today. It’s not a hidden fact or a myth, or an exaggeration that money indeed makes the world go round today. In legal matters, money is the only reasonable way to amend some matters. In a cynical point of view, you could say that money is the law. In these times of corporate international booming, there’s no exaggeration that money holds your life today. Financial literacy is the knowledge that is the answer to these times of finance emphasized earth. But what is financial literacy? Financial literacy is, according to Wikipedia, â€Å"the ability of a person to understand how money works†. It is basically how one is skilled at handling financial matters, and how one is informed of insurances, investing and over-all money management. Knowing this term, then I am asked, Am I financially literate? As a young adult, it is necessary that one knows how to manage money. Especially that I go to school everyday, riding public transportation, eating out; One can say that isn’t everyone financially literate because they know how to budget their money after all? If it’s that easy, then I could say I am, but it isn’t. I’m not financially literate. As far as my money goes, I only know a little about saving. In fact, I don’t even own a real bank account in this age of 20. I know very little about insurances, investments, let alone the stock market. I only save money so I can spend it on going out with my friends, not for, as they say, the rainy days. Bank accounts are the only thing I know about and as far as I’m concerned it’s just about them keeping my money secured. I’m supposed to be a little embarrassed, but then I look around my community and see I’m not the only one. No, in this country, I’m one of the majority that is not. Why am I not? Why are most of us not financially literate in this world where money is a crucial necessity? I’ve read one article in the internet by Randell Tiongson entitled â€Å"Pinoys and Financial Literacy†. The article tackled how us Filipinos are not as financially literate as we think and the fact that most Filipinos give very little attention to actually be more knowledgeable in handling finances. In contrast though, it states that little by little, we are getting better; but still we have a long way to go to being called a financially stable country. I learned that most Filipinos have the same mind set as I have. We think having a bank account is already financial security. I think I am one of the population that is generally very clueless. Looking at other countries, they have these programs where they actually give seminars and lectures on being financially literate; to them the booming money world can only be survived through education. All I see in our country today are seminars about bank accounts and piggy banks. Where is the education that us Filipinos need in this world of financial dependence? We may turn our eyes from it, but money is a concrete fact of living. All my life I’ve been taught that saving money is the best thing you can do to your money; budget and management. But those are all kids stuff. I’m actually now worried that I am not well informed. One of the reasons I am not financially literate is definitely because of poor education on these matters. No one really taught me the words ‘investing’, or ‘insurance’ or ‘the stock market’ in school. Well maybe in definition, but I never came across how-to’s and guide to how to use these terms in the practical world. I think I would be scolded that I’m asking to be spoon-fed but, to be frank, this country never really made me grow up with concerns about financial literacy. And I am even one of those people with a good education†¦ how about our co-citizens with even less? Another reason is probably how our traditions and culture never really had a chance to understand these legal matters formally. Unlike other countries, we are generally the most traditional ones. We held our religions close, believing that everything happens in God’s time, if it’s safe to say, I think we are relying in Him too much. They didn’t talk about life insurances in the bible. We tend to believe that whatever happens, it happens on God’s will. Religion has been our security for ages. And I think that is why my own parents doesn’t have too much of a clue in investments issues. And as their child, how am I supposed to have a grasp in this area. No matter how I am accused of having enough resources because of the internet, it’s still not enough to carry a curiosity on finance matters. Because as tradition was, in this country, if you have a bank account, you’re saved. My family isn’t really one of those homes where everyone’s so money-savvy. I think it’s also because we’re a young family, with me as the eldest child. So I think I should be the one starting, learning about financial literacy. And this goes, with my last reason: Families with low financial status tend to not to be exposed in these opportunities. We’re not exactly in the higher middle class which many people may think because I’m studying in Mapua. We’re extremely in the middle middle class and as I have observed in television and the internet, those who already have the money are the ones only given the chance to be literate financially. It isn’t a theory that you need money for education, though there are other ways to stay informed but this is the truth. Most people in this country are lower middle class and could you even imagine the opportunities given to their level? It’s just concerning. Money-education for only those who already have money, or the promise of it. And I think that should be the one of the main concerns of this country. In conclusion, the main reason is our own country’s lack of financial literacy education. Resources: https://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Financial_literacy , http://www. investopedia. com/terms/f/financial-literacy. asp ,http://www. randelltiongson. com/? s=financial+literacy+in+the+philippines , http://www. getsmarteraboutmoney. ca/en/managing-your-money/planning/investing-basics/Pages/what-is-financial-literacy. aspx.