Renaissance vs. Islamic Art

Mirriam Webster defines art as â€Å"the conscious use of skill and creative imagination especially in the production of aesthetic objects†. It is a broad definition, because nothing about art is specific. Art has many different meanings, takes many different forms, and achieves many different things. Culture, including religion, greatly influences art. The artistic works of a culture may reflect a lifestyle, language, religion, or belief of said culture. Some would consider the heart of art in our modern world to be Europe, specifically, Italy.This is logical, seeing as how Italy is famous for a time period called the Renaissance which was a vital turning point in the history of art in the world. The Renaissance period of time immediately followed the middle ages. During the middle ages, people had no concept of individuality, and there was no focus on mankind. Instead, the focus narrowly on God, celestial beings, and the afterlife. All things that happened were considered a mystery that only God could understand or be involved in. Because of the reliance on religion, people did not venture into thinking about science or how things really worked.The Renaissance was named as its own time period in order to signify the end of medieval thinking of the middle ages. Important aspects of the Renaissance include secularism and humanism, which were concentrations on human capability and a furthering from the all-encompassing spiritual norms. Art during the Renaissance sought to apply humanistic methods to Christianity. As people began to concentrate less on the ideal and more on what was realistic, they began to paint in a realistic fashion which included portraits, and human figures which were proportionate.What’s more is not only that they were painted realistically, but that average humans would be depicted in art in the first place. Although the Renaissance was secular, and concentrated on humans rather than deities, there are many Italian paintings with religious subjects. Italy didn’t live in a little bubble of scientific, humanistic advancement. While the Renaissance took place, Italian culture was somewhat challenged by Islamic culture when the Ottoman Turks made an attempt to conquer Europe.Ottoman rulers such as Mehmet and Suleiman are, in my opinion, responsible for the spread of Islamic art and culture from Persia to Algeria. As the Ottoman empire grew, its art and culture flourished under the rule of a select few rulers. Although the art grew and flourished, it still had its roots in Islamic faith, meaning it still followed the â€Å"rules† of the Muslim religion. The Ottoman empire’s occupation of South-east Europe and domination of the Mediterranean were tools which unintentionally spread Islamic culture to Europe, Italy included.When a group attempts to colonize an area, they (though sometimes inadvertently) spread their culture to said area. This is usually done through propaganda and artwork. The similarities between Islamic art and art in Renaissance Italy results from the fact that many elements of Islamic art spread to Italy during the spread of the Ottoman Empire into Europe. We can see many purely Islamic elements in European art in the Renaissance time period. To begin with, the Muslims are responsible for bringing glass, ceramics, and pottery to Italy.The development of glass and ceramics began in the Middle East. Using these mediums, they developed techniques such as gazing, gliding, qualities of color, and sparkle in order to add an artistic dimension to every day necessities. When the Muslims invaded Europe and held an Italian city, Italians learned to make ceramics, and then followed the Islamic way of adding sparkle to their glass and gold to their ceramic pieces. The Italians were influenced by, not only the artistic medium itself, but also the decorations on Islamic art.A cardinal characteristic of Islamic art is an inclination towards covering surfaces wit h patterns composed of vegetal and/or geometric elements. They valued sophisticated patterns and variety such as those found in Islamic artwork. They were fascinated by the intricate patterns, so much so that they began to imitate the designs on their own glass and ceramic artwork. They copied a certain design pattern, which was a sort of scrolling foliage, which they gave the term arabesque. Both Islamic and Renaissance art are greatly influenced by general religion, and even exhibit some of the same elements.Geometric figures in Islamic art are used to make said art perfectly symmetrical in any way possible. Even the arabesque scrolling foliage is more symmetrical and perfect than actual foliage. The geometric shapes in their works, are used to create a sense of superb balance and order, which is representative of Muslim ideals. Similarly, the artwork of the Italian Renaissance used realism to create balance, order, and proportion, which were fundamental ideals of the Renaissance. Aside from the designs and depictions in the artwork, what makes them similar is the way in which the artwork came to exist.The term â€Å"patron of the arts† was widely used during the Renaissance, and described those individuals who possessed the funds needed to aid the artists in creating their art. During the Renaissance, the patrons of the arts were able to use their wealth to achieve power and respect, by creating a work of art that proclaimed their devotion to themselves, their city, and their god. The most famous of the patrons during the Renaissance were the Medici family. During the height of the Renaissance, the Medici in power was known as Lorenzo the Magnificent.He held power in Florence by his involvement in gaining commissions for artists such as Sandro Boticelli and Leonardo da Vinci, who were both famous artists of their time. The Muslim empires had a very similar system. Certain Ottoman rulers are known for their positive contributions to the art and cultur e of their empire. Their contributions were not making the actual art, but providing the resources for the â€Å"professional† artists to do so. Suleiman the Magnificent is known to be one of the best and most influential rulers of the Ottoman empire.One reason he earned this title is that art and literature flourished under his rule. His artistic nature (reflected in everything he did), paired with his access to wealth made him an important patron of the arts, helping artists express original Ottoman ideas in a Turkish format. The interest of the patrons determine what kind of artwork gets created and released to the public. Because of this, the artwork of a time period may reflect the thoughts and ideals of the upper class because they were wealthy enough to commission certain works to be done.The patrons were the people responsible for the prospering and growth of art in both time periods, though they existed in slightly different forms. Although the Renaissance art was in fluenced by Islamic art, and both were influenced by religion and earlier time periods, there are fundamental differences between the two. These differences lie in the way each culture chooses to portray their religion in their art. The axiomatic dissimilarity between the two types of art, as far as paintings and tapestries are concerned, is that there are no physical beings depicted in Islamic art, and the opposite is true for the art of the Italian Renaissance.The reason for this goes back to the individual foundation and central ideas of each perspective religion and, for the Renaissance, the practices influenced by the time period. Renaissance thinking was secular, but Renaissance art was not about excluding religion altogether, it was more about including humanism in the depiction of religious figures and events. One can see the religious elements in works such as The Birth of Venus, painted by Sandro Botticelli in 1486. The nudity of Venus in this work is a suggestion of Eve b efore â€Å"the Fall† as well as the pure love of Paradise.Once arrived on the planet or â€Å"born†, the love goddess dons earthly, mortal sin, which leads her to become the New Eve, otherwise known as Madonna. The Madonna’s purity is represented by the nude Venus, and she has become a personification of the Christian church. What makes such a work specific to the humanistic aspect of the Renaissance is the ideals captured in it. Venus as the center of the painting represents a celestial being, but is painted very realistically in form, being accurately proportioned. This alone captures the characteristics of humanism, with its focus on realism, and roots in Greek and Roman myths and culture.Muslims do not agree with the way that Christians portray religion through their artwork for their own reasons, so they choose not to do the same in their own artistic practices. Muslims saw an intrinsic flaw in the Christian way and they did not want the message of their G od to be confused with the worshipping of the medium, or for anything to be mistaken for idols or idolatry. Therefore they did, and still to this day, do not allow any physical beings in their art, because such art might allow for attention to and worshipping of Mohammed rather than attention to the word of their God.By these interpretations, the Qu’ran is Midieval in the nature of its message in that physical beings have no right to be depicted in artwork because the word of God is all-important. Because of this Muslim view, Islamic art does not possess the same elements as the Christian art from the Renaissance. There are no people at all depicted in Islamic art, but that’s not to say that it still is not religious. A calligraphic panel by one Mustafa Rakim is a perfect example. The background is red, with beautiful gold characters which are arranged so that the outline appears to be that of a man with a turban who is praying.It reads â€Å"God, there is no god but He, the Lord of His prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) and the Lord of all that has been crated. The aforementioned is exemplary of how Islamic works of art could be religious, but approached in a different fashion than in the Renaissance. There could not be a physical depiction of their god, Muhammad, or a man praying, so instead calligraphy was used in a shape in order to further convey a message. In fact, calligraphy is the highest form of visual art, and the nly spiritually meaningful form of art because of its association with the Qu’ran, which Muslims worship every word of. Christians worshipped Jesus Christ, who was a human being, and simply a messenger of God. For example, atop Carcovado Mountain in Brazil, there is a statue entitled â€Å"Christ the Redeemer†, which offers a panoramic view of Rio De Janeiro. The statue is not only a major tourist attraction, but more of a source of religious solace for all who come to visit it. There are also many Christians who choose to worship at the feet of the aforementioned statue, and others like it.The Muslims think of the Christians as wrong for doing such things as worshipping at a statue of Jesus Christ because in their religion, the prophet Mohammed shan’t be worshipped because of his position as the messenger of their God. The Islamic focus is on the teachings of their God alone, and not on the medium through which they received said teachings. Art with physical depictions of religious figures would also go against the teachings of the Qu’ran, which by some interpretations suggests that Muslims should be against idolatry, meaning they should not believe in the worshipping of a physical object or person as a god.Physical depictions in religious art have also been known to change along with the time period, which could in turn change the mindsets of the followers of the religion. For example, in Christianity, depictions of Jesus Christ contributed to the influence of the church and rulers who associated themselves with and promoted Christianity. During the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries, the image of Jesus changed from a humble shepherd to a richly robed and commanding persona—a fitting companion for the emperors whose images were also portrayed in mosaics on the walls of churches.Because the Muslims view the word of their god as all-important, they do not want interpretations of the religion to be further influenced by the time period, as what has happened with the image of Jesus. Art, in any form, has the ability to represent everything about a culture. In my opinion, it has the most impact on how we perceive certain people, religions, and cultures. He who is in control of the art is, in essence, in control of the opinions of future generations. Essentially, comparing the art of two separate cultures is comparing everything from their language and religion to trends and important societal topics.

Mother Teresa Essay

Mother Teresa has dedicated her life to helping the poor, the sick, and the dying around the world. She is one of the most well known and respected people of the 20th century. The movie that viewed in class displayed it very well. It showed how much she cared about the ‘un-cared for’ and how she preached to millions of people around the world. In her speeches she spoke of ‘blessing the misfortunate’ and loving them as well. She also spoke of how easy it is to help them. All we have to do is show some love towards them that they would normally never get. Mother Teresa is one of the most kind people on the planet and goes around spreading the love and affection. She was born in Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu in 1910 in Skopje, Yugoslavia. Her parents were Albanians who settled in Skopje near the beginning of the century. He father was a owner of a major construction company so Mother Teresa grew up in a very comfortable environment. In 1928 she suddenly decided to become a nun and traveled to Dublin, Ireland, to join the Sisters of Loreto. After studying with the Sisters in the convent, she left to join another convent in northeast India. On May 24, 1931, she took the name of ‘Teresa’ in honor of St. Teresa of Avila. At first, Mother Teresa was assigned to teach a small Geography class at St. Mary’s High School in Calcutta. Mother Teresa noticed all the beggars, lepers, and homeless people on the streets of Calcutta. There lives were horrible, living on other peoples scraps and letting babies that they couldn’t support die in trash bins. She decided to ask the archbishop if she could stop her teaching and dedicate her life to helping the ‘less fortunate.’ When Mother Teresa received a written consent that it was okay, she began her work. In 1948 Pope Pius XII gave Mother Teresa permission to be a totally independant nun, so she became an Indian citizen. After studying about nursing, she founded the ‘Missionaries of Charity.’ This was a group of nuns who go around and help the sick and dying. All the nuns that agreed to work in the ‘Missionaries of Charity’ had to devote their lives to helping the poor and not to receive any money or material things. To the side is a  picture of a letter that Mother Teresa sent to a nun that wanted to join the ‘Missionaries of Charity.’ Mother Teresa welcomed her into the group with praise. Now to the movie. The movie did a very good job of showing how much Mother Teresa cared for the sick. The main part of the movie that I remember was the part when Mother Teresa and her nuns were starting a whole new center to the sick and dying. When the person that owned the building was telling the nuns and Mother Teresa about all the nice things they has in the building, the nuns almost simultaneously said, ‘I don’t think we will be needing that.’ The nuns and Mother Teresa live in such low living conditions and don’t seem to mind. Unlike most of us, she doesn’t need material things to get along. All she needs is some running water and the necessary materials to help the sick. Mother Teresa did such great work for the poor that she received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1971. Pope Paul VI honored Mother Teresa by awarding her the first Pope John XXIII Peace Prize. The following year the government of India presented her with the Jawaharial Nehru Award for International Understanding. In 1979 she received her greatest award, the Nobel Peace Prize. Mother Teresa accepted all of these awards on behalf of the poor, suing any money that accompanied them to fund her centers. By 1990 over 3,000 nuns belonged to the running centers in 25 countries. Obviously, Mother Teresa’s missions to help the poor were a tremendous success. There are also some kinds of summer groups like Habitat for Humanity. Unlike Habitat for Humanity these groups of kids go out and help the sick and dying just like Mother Teresa. The leader of these groups is a well known priest by the name of Johann Christoph. These kids love to do what Mother Teresa does best and make many dying people happy in there last days of life. The School that did this was the ‘Wake Forest University.’ Or as they prefer to be called the ‘City of Joy Scholars.’ The kids spent 18 long days in Calcutta as Mother Teresa’s first help center. The kids remember the varied cultures and races that Mother Teresa and the nuns love so very much. No matter how sick they looked. The kids were forever changed mentally and  emotionally after seeing and helping the helpless. The Missionaries of Charity and Mother Teresa are probably the most caring people on Earth. Mother Teresa is already called a Saint. She is the one and only living Saint. I enjoyed the movie and learned a lot about Mother Teresa and here mission to help the sick, lepers, and homeless. I trust she will succeed but she will need more nuns to join the famous ‘Missionaries of Charity.’

Bureaucracy and Liberalisation

After independence the newly emerged Indian State was characterized by the dominant role in all the spheres of society. It was a welfare state whose objective was to secure political, social and economic justice to all the sections of Indian population. The Westminister model of parliamentary democracy with universal adult franchise was adopted. In social field, various evils in the society were sought to be eradicated by the State.Untouchability was abolished and social reforms were undertaken. In the economic sphere, the state not only regulated the market, it also emerged as the major employer providing employment opportunities to the people. India adopted the policy of mixed economy/a powerful public sector was created. For Nehru, the public sector undertakings were the temples of modern India. Their objective was to assist in the rapid economic growth and industrialisation of the country.Over the years their number and investments have grown in size and quantity. While in 1951, there were five central public sector undertakings (PSUs) with an investment of Rs 29 crores, now there are as many as 243 enterprises with a total investment of Rs 1,78,628 crores. The private sector was also to play an important role in the mixed economy. However it was highly regulated and controlled economy as far as the private sector was concerned. Rightly it was called the licence-quota permit Raj.However the collapse of socialist political and economic system in earstwhile Soviet Union and other socialist states led to the emergence of a global economy which meant introducing competitive markets, liberalising foreign trade and opening up the economy for foreign investment. According to Marina Pinto â€Å"Liberalisation is the policy of removal of restrictions, trade barriers and protectionist measures to enable the free flow of capital, technology and services. It is generally seen in the context of globalization and privatization. † In eighties liberalisation process started taking place in India economy.But the severe foreign exchange and fiscal crisis in early 1990's compelled India to take massive loan from IMF and world Bank which as critics point out, dictated India to liberalise its economy. This was done under the leadership of Dr. Manmohan Singh, the Finance Minister in P. V. Narsimha Rao Government. The New Industrial Policy of 1991, stated that â€Å"Foreign investment and technology collaboration will be welcomed to obtain higher technology, to increase exports and to expand the production base. † The Licence-quota permit Raj has been given a good-bye and the economic system has largely become competitive.Even in the public sector the nine major public sector undertakings or Navratnas—Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited (HPCL), Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOC), Indian Petrochemicals Corporation Limited (IPCL), National Thermal P ower Corporation Limited (NTPC), Oil;National Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC), Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) and Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) have been given considerable financial and functional autonomy.The Government was also considering to include more public sector undertakings in this list. However this does not mean that the role of the State would recede and it would only concentrate on the maintenance of law and order. The state continues to be a welfare state. It will continue to ameliorate the conditions of poor and down-troddens. The economic policies are to be realistic. Jagdish Bhagwati, one of the leading economists says that the first fifty years of independence has been â€Å"half a century of foolish policies, which cost her (India) growth and hence a significant opportunity to ameliorate poverty. Now rational policies are to be drafted and implemented with due regard to monitoring of policies in stages. This also means that the generalist administ ration will either be substituted by the experts or they be given their due place in the administration. The bureaucracy will have to be responsive and transparent and infact the entire work ethos has to be changed. It also means maximum possible delegation of authority and sufficient decentralized control. Ultimately it may lead to debureaucratization of the administration.The 73rd and 74th Constitutional Amendment providing for local self government is designed to transfer the developmental functions to the local self government. We may be witness to gradual shrinking of the state and its administrative machinery. But this does not mean that state would recede in the background. It may be a scenario where we have a reoriented, purposive accountable and transparent administration as a friend, philosopher and guide. The essential condition for all this is poliucal will, integrity and honesy at higher levels of politics and de-criminalisation of politics.

EMPLOYMENT LAW Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

EMPLOYMENT LAW - Essay Example The employee should be provided with 28 paid holidays and only be working for 48 hours in a week and the extension of the hour can only be made with consent of the employee, which is mentioned in Working Time Regulations Act 1998. The Employment Rights Act 1996 states that an employee has the right to avail leave for child care and request for flexible working hours. The Act also states that if the employer dismisses the employee from work, the employer needs to provide a concrete reason for the dismissal along with the payment that needs to be settled with the employee. According to the Act the employer cannot remove the employee from the service with unfair reasoning. In case there is a taken over of the company by another company there should not be worsening of the terms of employment, which includes the dismissal as well without a proper organizational, technical or economic reason. This employment right is protected by the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Reg ulations 2006. According to section 1 of Employment Rights Act 1996 the employer needs to provide the contractual terms and conditions of the employment to employee in written. However, there are exceptions to this law. There is a provision under section 2(4) of the Act to provide the statement in installment. However, the statement should be given within two months of the employment. In the year 2010, Equality Act has been employed in the Employment Law of the UK. This act is way beyond employment, which provides access to both public and private services. According to this Act all the employees should get equal treatment irrespective of their gender, race, sexual preference or orientation, religious belief, age etc. These are some major perspectives of the Equality Directives of the Equality Act 20103. The Equality Act 2010 goes beyond the absolute discrimination and fights the discriminations that are made based on race, gender including pregnancy, belief, sexuality including

Nursing research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 46

Nursing research - Essay Example These questions determine the stage of innovation by nurses during the process of research utilization and adoption. In a clinical setting, a thermometer is one of the fundamental tools used by healthcare practitioners. In line with this, it is important for a thermometer to be reliable and valid in order to provide the correct measure of patients’ temperature and give the appropriate diagnosis and medication. Effectively, a thermometer’s validity can be determined by ensuring that the thermometer was bought from organizations that manufacture quality healthcare products since they understand the qualities required in a thermometer. Conversely, a tape measure should be another tool that requires being reliable and valid. A tape measure provides the length in a measure and it is crucial for this tool to be valid since providing the wrong measure affects the diagnosis especially when providing the BMI of an individual. In effect, the validity of this tool is determined by comparing the scale used with another tool that is standardized. In addition, the tool should be sourced from a ven dor who dealt with standardized

EasyJet Airline Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

EasyJet Airline Company - Essay Example The timeline of EasyJet Airline reportedly started in March of 1995 as founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou was noted to have offered flights at significantly low fares in Europe. Currently,it boasts of being â€Å"Europe's leading airline,operating on over 600 routes across 30 countries with our fleet of over 200 aircraft, employing over 8,000 people In its almost 18 years of organizational existence, EasyJet was noted to have been governed by a code of conduct to guide the behavior and decision-making processes of its personnel. The paper hereby presents a critical evaluation of the code of EasyJet Airline through a description of the code and by thoroughly assessing the code’s effectiveness in demonstrating the company’s values and conformity to business ethics. Critical Analysis of the Code The organization’s code was found under the title Governance on their official website: http://corporate.EasyJet.com/about-EasyJet/governance.aspx?sc_lang=en. Upon initial gl ance, the governance page contains information that indicates that the organization’s board of directors commissioned setting principles and ethical policies, of which, it was explicitly emphasized that the â€Å"key to these principles is working in an open and honest manner† (EasyJet Airline, Governance, n.d., par. 2). Likewise, the code was apparently patterned from the UK Corporate Governance Code which allegedly requires the following information to be disclosed:†¢ Terms of reference for the Finance Committee†¢Terms of reference for the Remuneration Committee... ance Committee   Terms of reference for the Remuneration Committee Terms of reference for the Audit Committee Terms of reference for the Nominations Committee   Terms and conditions of appointment / reappointment of the non- executive directors Matters reserved for the Board Non-Audit Services Policy (EasyJet Airline, Governance, n.d., par. 3). Finally, two (2) other documents were disclosed to be incorporated and accessible: (1) Corporate Governance Pages of the Annual Report; and (2) division of responsibilities of the Chairman and CEO (EasyJet Airline, Governance, n.d., par. 4). The Corporate Governance Pages of the 2012 Annual Report are found on pages 44 to 48 and contain the following major portions, to wit: principles statement, statement of compliance, leadership, directors’ conflicts of interest, board engagement with investors, board committees, relations with investors, internal control, risk management and internal audit (EasyJet, Corporate governance, 2012). T he Ethics Resource Center has recommended a code outline that should apparently contain the following format: I.  Ã‚  Ã‚   MEMORABLE TITLE   II.  Ã‚   LEADERSHIP LETTER   III.   TABLE OF CONTENTS   IV.   INTRODUCTION-PROLOGUE   V.  Ã‚   CORE VALUES OF ORGANIZATION   VI.   CODE PROVISIONS-SUBSTANTIVE MATTERS   VII.   INFORMATION AND RESOURCES (Ethics Resource Center, 2009, p. 1). From the course modules, it was explicitly defined that the contents of ethical codes are as follows: â€Å"standard of conduct, obeying the law, employees,consumers, shareholders, business partners, community involvement, public activities, environment, innovation, competition, business integrity, and compliance/monitoring† (University of Salford Manchester, What is the content of ethical codes?, 2012, p. 6; Crane and Matten, 2007).

Implementation reflection paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Implementation reflection paper - Essay Example The most usual troubles include cutting trees, blocking rivers, extreme animal grazing, storms, overflows, and fires, notably, not all the ecologically disturbances can be attributed to man since others like flooding are nurture. These are some of the key issues examined under the study of ecological restoration which is a scientific discipline that studies the repairing of disturbed ecologies. To deal with these disturbances, restoration activities have been designed to restore the environment to its initial state before the disturbance occurred or to create a new and appropriate eco system where there had been none previously. Restoration projects are different in terms of objectives and methodology applied, majority of the restoration systems are however focused in re-establishing native species of animals or plants and/or repair of pre-existing ecological systems (Higgs, 2010). Restoration developments vary in their purposes and their ways and means of accomplishing those objecti ves, examples of the common restorative activities include; revegetation, which is the reestablishment of flora in places it had existed previously, this is often done with intention to control erosion by creating plant cover (Vaughn, 2010). Habitat enhancement by which a site’s suitability is enhanced to make it more conducive as a habitat for a given species, remediation involves the improvement of an existing ecosystem or replacing a deteriorated or destroyed ecosystem. Historically, the idea or restoration has been known for centuries but it is not until recently that notable action has been taken. Some of the most wide scale restoration projects in the world include the Florida wetland restoration in the United States and the Mau forest in Kenya where trees were replanted after years of deforestation. The wetlands in Florida had been drained and the indigenous plants cleared in and used as farms and pastures crops in the 60s as the land was reclaimed for crop cultivation , as a result many animal and plant species native to the everglades vanished since the environment had become hostile for them (Nellemann, 2010). However in 2001, efforts to restore the land were put in place, the water level was returned to normal through reduction of water canals in the region and as soon as the required hydrology was achieved the native species were introduced (Hogan, et al, 2011). A total of 143 acres of wetland were restored and 20 listed animal species reintroduced in to the wetlands and currently placed under the protection by the state to prevent future attempts to encroach the nurture habitat. In Kenya high deforestation in the Mau forest which is a critical catchment area that supplied water to the Africa’s largest freshwater Lake (Lake Victoria) this called for mitigate action which included a cessation of tree felling activities and planting of thousands of trees. After the BP oil spillage, the American coastal wetlands are also in need for exten sive restoration efforts as a result of extreme destruction of the ecosystem and consequent ill effects on marine plants and animals (Barbier, 2011). One of the concepts on which restoration draws is the concept of landscape ecology, this is because restored areas are often small and this puts them at risks similar to those that happen in situations of environmental

Super Keyword Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Super Keyword - Research Paper Example However, other languages have a liberal approach, which allows redefinition of keywords for purposes. Keywords refer to identifiers or symbols which stand for functions or variables. This means that keywords have a characteristic of self evaluating and self quoting interned in the KEYWORD package. They have their application in labeling named opinions to functions, and they represent symbolic values (Savinov, 2008). Programming languages vary on the provision of keywords and library routine. For instance, some languages have provisions for keyword output or input operations, while other languages offer library routine. Languages such as Python and Basic dialect use, print, as a keyword, while Lisp and C use, format and printf, in their standard library. When a programmer applies keywords to functions or variables name, this triggers a compilation error. Most of the current editors have keywords automatically set in different text color for the purposes of indicating that they are key words. Super keywords have their definition and application in Java, where they play a crucial role during inheritance. Programmers use super keywords when accessing members of the super class. Super keywords have their application when a subclass needs to define or refer to an immediate super class. The super keyword can be invoked when a method overrides one of the super class’s methods. The super keyword in this case can be invoked to override the method. As a result, the super keyword in java indicates the super class of the classes in which the super keyword has recently been used (Leahy, 2011). Super keywords are also standalone statements used in calling the constructor of super classes in the base class. The super keyword has two forms. The first form calls the super class constructor, while the second form accesses members of the super class that have been hidden by members of a subclass. A super keyword can be illustrated as; Public class Super class { Public void p rintMethod () { System.out.println (â€Å"printed in Superclass.†); } } Purpose of the Super Keyword The super keyword can be used when referring to a hidden field. This will enable the access of hidden variable data of the original class. For instance, class A has two instance variables; float b and int a. Class B, expands to class A, and it has its own data members with similar names, (a) and (b). In this instance, class B will be hiding the variables in class A. The super keyword is used in accessing the hidden variables. This can be done by using the super.member; syntax. This gives the super keyword a function of identifying the super class of its identifiable subclass. In this case, members can take the form of an instance variable or a method (Leahy, 2012). The program will display (a) in super class 1 and (a) subclass 2. The instance variable (a) in B conceals the (a) in A, hence; super keyword allows access to (a) defined in the super class. Therefore, the super keyw ord can be used in calling methods hidden by a subclass. Another purpose of the super keyword is in calling class constructors. Super keywords are used when calling super constructors in a subclass. This is done using the super(parameter-list); syntax. The parameter list includes parameters that the constructor needs in the super class. For instance, the super keyword can be used to cite a super class constructor. The mountain bike can be considered as a subclass of a

Compare and analyze two different core reading Thesis

Compare and analyze two different core reading - Thesis Example â€Å"But a growing body of scientific evidence suggests that the Net, with its constant distractions and interruptions, is also turning us into scattered and superficial thinkers.† (par.1.Carr (a)).The author claims that the internet has shaped the modern thinking abilities and is constantly changing it in a manner that is highly making us more surface level thinkers rather than focused ones. The writer also argues on the point that the use of internet in teaching techniques is making weak holes in the thinking process of the human mind."But that has been accompanied by "new weaknesses in higher-order cognitive processes," including "abstract vocabulary, mindfulness, reflection, inductive problem solving, critical thinking, and imagination." Were becoming, in a word, shallower.† (par.7.Carr (a)). Another point that was highlighted in the article by Carr targets the multi-tasking individuals and how the juggling of various tasks at a single time overall impacts the mind making individuals have a short attention span, not to mention distracting thoughts that made it hard but almost not possible to focus on a single task.â€Å"The heavy multitaskers performed poorly on all the tests. They were more easily distracted, had less control over their attention† (par.8.Carr (a)). The three main highlighted points showed authors concern over how the internet not only affected the individuals thinking capabilities but rather destroyed the focus and control over the mind once possessed. Suggesting to return to the previous times, â€Å"We have to forge or strengthen the neural links needed to counter our instinctive distractedness, thereby gaining greater control over our attention and our mind.† (par.15.Carr (a)), where reading books enhanced the mental attention span but also gave the focus to develop the individuals own thinking. Clay Shirky holds

CROWN CORK & SEAL IN 1989 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

CROWN CORK & SEAL IN 1989 - Essay Example When Avery assumed control of Crown in 1989 after over three decades of stewardship by Connelly, he was confronted with reviewing/changing the company strategy in view of the on-going industry challenges as mentioned above, the sluggish sales growth and declining operating margins (Bradley, 2005, HBS Case # 9-793-035). Five force analysis Porter’s Five Force Analysis tool best fits the analysis of this case. According to this tool, an industry (and by inference a unit within that industry) is under the influence of five forces that determine its competitiveness and hence, its profitability: customers, suppliers, existing competitors, substitute products and potential new entrants (Porter, 2004, p.5). Customers and suppliers can bargain over prices, spreading their options over rivals; rivals can leverage strategies to cut into market share; substitute products can compete on prices; demand-supply mismatch and/or good profitability can attract new entrants.

BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT STRATEGIES Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT STRATEGIES - Essay Example Technology has already achieved its place in the modern business. Unlike the earlier days when technology was seen as just a requirement of the big businesses, in a modern world, smaller businesses have to also use technology to solve most of the challenges they have in order to avoid losing market competitiveness. As Proctor (2009) says, every business has a problem or a challenge which makes it harder to serve its customers in a good way and this means that these businesses have to know how to address these issues. In regard to this, the business should be able to seek to see how it can use technology to be able to overcome these challenges. Carnivore Urban is a city restaurant which offers customers interesting cuisine most of them based on beef. Barbeque is a major part of Carnivore Urban hence the name of the restaurant. Carnivore Urban also offers drinks of all kinds, and it considers itself an entertainment hub, targeted to the common working class people who like to go to the restaurant every day after work to relax. Customers come to the restaurant and order their favourite drink and their food. Each day in the week is a special entertainment treat day where music of different tastes is played, but always to take of the customers. The main advantage is that customers can come in and order a dish of their own unique recipe and have it prepared within a reasonable time. This not only helps the customers to have customized meals which are tuned to their specific taste, it also helps them to eat fresh meals. There is however one problem with this kind of arrangement. Stock management is hard, and some time Carnivore Urban buys too much food material of a certain type which them goes to waste if that day customers don’t order meals requiring that kind of food materials. As Webne (2008) says, managing logistics is a major and vital part of successful business management. For instance, it is possible

Philosophical Argument Essay Example for Free

Philosophical Argument Essay â€Å"Something must first be said briefly about the moral subjectivism inherent in this analysis. Based on the above, it follows that some things could be immoral for some people and moral (or amoral) for others, since people vary in their values. For example, some people may possess a fundamental value for all animal life of any kind, which would entail not eating meat, not allowing suicide, nor even allowing the removal of life support for a brain-dead patient. But this value system would only exist for them, not for others. However, my analysis does not entail moral relativism in the usual sense, since it is also possible (and I believe it is the case) that some fundamental values are shared by all people, or very nearly all people (I allow some rare exceptions for the sociopath, who is generally regarded as having a mind alien to the vast majority of humankind, devoid of all ordinary moral sentiment). (Carrier)†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The above argument contains two premises: 1) Some people value all forms of life; and 2) All people share some fundamental values. The conclusion is that: Morality is relative. The quoted passage is an example of argument because it expresses a claim which is being supported by the given premises. It can be said that morality is relative because people have different perspective about the value of life – (that while others do not admit any sort of action that would not promote life as morally permissible, others welcome the fact that every person has a right to make a decision about how he would like to treat his life or whatsoever). â€Å"From a point of view outside of this affair, the killing of a neurologically inactive fetus is no greater a harm than the killing of a mouse, and in fact decidedly lessa mouse is neurologically active, and though it lacks a complex cerebral cortex, it has a brain of suitable complexity to perceive pain (and I would argue that the mouse deserves some moral consideration, though less than humans). A fetus cannot perceive pain (and perception is not quite the same thing as sensation: sensation can exist without a brain, but perception cannot). The neural structures necessary to register and record sensations of pain transmitted by the appropriate nerves either do not exist or are not functioning before the fifth month of gestation. A fetus can no more feel pain than a surgical patient under general anasthesia, or a paraplegic whose lower-body nerves continue reacting to stimuli, but cease sending signals to the brain. And we have already established that a fetus does not contain an individual human personality of any kind, any more than a brain-dead adult does. With no perception of pain, and no loss of an individual personality, the act of abortion causes no immediate harm. (Carrier†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The second passage is another example of an argument. It has three premises; 1) Fetus is neurologically inactive; 2) Fetus does not feel pain; 3) Fetus does not possess individual personality. The conclusion suggests that: Abortion causes no harm. Obviously, the established premises attempt to prove the conclusion. Since fetus cannot react to any form of stimuli as how a surgical patient or even a mouse does, hence the act of abortion does not inflict harm to the fetus. Work Cited Carrier, Richard C. Abortion is not Immoral and Should not be Illegal . 30 November 2005.  Ã‚   Internet Infidels. 31 February 2008  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   http://www.infidels.org/library/modern/debates/secularist/abortion/carrier1.html.

Top Down Approach To Water Resource Managment

Top Down Approach To Water Resource Managment Ever since the period of Enlightenment, scientists and academics have adopted a top-down approach to managing the environment and its associated resources. The downfall of this persistent ideology is that it solely values or prioritizes professional expert scientific knowledge as a basis for formulating environmental policies and guiding decisions concerning the environment (Smith et al, 2008). The consequences of prioritizing expert knowledge was that the local knowledge and experiences of the surroundings of people at the grass roots level, were not taken into consideration during decision making and was normally regarded as irrelevant (Smith et al, 2008). In the context of water resource management, this approach meant that the policies, plans and programs formulated were technical and exclusively scientific in nature, lacking the dynamics of the social realm and use of social theory (Smith et al, 2008). The technical nature of policies formulated proved to be locally unsustainable and unacceptable because water resource management is an area that deals with a resource that integrates basic human rights and is central to all life (Smith et al, 2008).Some examples of the consequences of this non-participatory approach to water resource management is the construction of large dams for water supply and irrigation which results in the displacement of thousands of intended beneficiaries or how some government have even intentionally used the water policies formulated under this approach, to harm the disenfranchised (Jansky et al, 2005) Along with being purely technical in nature and non-participatory, conventional water resource management approaches focused primarily on the supply of water resources particularly for development and other economically inclined purposes. 2.2 Supply-driven approach It has been recognized that the evolution of water resource management is greatly interconnected with the growth of the worlds population (Al Radif, 1999). Until the end of the 19th century, water resource management was primarily focused on the supply of water to users for agricultural, domestic and industrial uses which proved to be successful throughout the 19th century due to the low population growth during this period. This approach to water resource management known as the supply-driven approach proved successful because the available water resources during this time period were adequate to meet the needs of the population (Al Radif, 1999). As shown in the Figure 1 above, when the worlds population was approximately 2 billion in the 19th century the fresh water ecosystems basically functioned undisturbed as a user, provider of goods and services and a regulator of both water quality and quantity which assumed a sustainable approach was being implemented however, when the population grew to 3 billion over 60 years, the approach was quickly undermined (Al Radif, 1999). This was mainly due to the governments focus on the supply of water resources by diverting water resources from the original stores to new store pathways. The approach to water resource management resulted in the deterioration of water quality, stresses on water supplies and the degradation of water resources (Al Radif, 1999). 3. INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 3.1 Definitions, principles and objectives According to the Global Water Partnership (GWP) 2000, Integrated Water Resource Management (IWRM) is viewed simultaneously as a philosophy, process and approach which promotes the coordinated development and management of water and related natural resources, in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems (GWP, 2000 as cited by Funke et al, 2007). IWRM is also described as a guiding principle that necessitates the interdisciplinary, participative and strategic approach to managing water resources, stressing the co ordinate interaction between and within both human and natural systems with the aim of achieving sustainable development (Guipponi et al, 2000). Since there is no unambiguous and universally accepted definition the examination of the Dublin principles which form the core of IWRM, allows a clearer understanding of the key issues that define IWRM (Funke et al, 2007). The Dublin principles state that: The worlds fresh water is finite and a vulnerable water resource vital for human survival, development and the correct functioning of the environment. Water resource management should be a participative process involving all users planners and policy makers at all levels. Women play a key role in the management of water resources and therefore should be involved in decision making. Water should be recognized as an economic good. IWRM emerged in response to the sector by sector technical conventional water resource management approaches and is more holistic in that it recognizes the various dimensions of water and accepts that water comprises an ecological system formed by a number of interdependent components, where each component influences the other (Matondo, 2002). This recognition results in management directed to joint consideration of aspects for example water supply, water treatment and disposal and water quality (Mitchell, 1944). While water is a system it is also recognized as a component and therefore its interactions with other systems need to be taken into consideration as changes in one system may have consequences in the other, therefore IWRM is a much broader perspective or approach to managing water resources (Matondo, 2002). IWRM does not only take into consideration the complex interconnections of the human and natural systems, it has even broader interpretations as it considers the interrelationships between water and socio-economic development where the main concern is the extent to which the available water supplies is both an opportunity for barrier against economic development and how to manage the resource to ensure sustainable development (Mitchell, 1944). IWRM compared to conventional water management approaches, recognizes and accepts that water resource planning and management can have physical, social and economical impacts and is therefore multi and interdisciplinary involving a wide range of disciplines such as engineering, economics and social science (Matondo, 2002). The aim of formulating multidisciplinary teams in IWRM is communication to view the various perspectives on water resources to ensure the maintenance of ecological functioning and the conservation of water resources (Al Radif, 1999). 3.2 Bottom- up approach By the end of the 1980s the conventional supply-driven management approach proved problematic and incapable of delivering portable water and proper sanitation especially in developing countries. By the mid 1980s early 1990s, the realization and acceptance of the fact that actions at the grass root level is what makes or breaks policies, resulted in the popularization of a more participatory approach to environmental management termed the bottom-up approach (Smith, 2008). In context of water management, conferences held in New Delhi in 1990, Dublin in 1992 and Rio de Jeneiro in 1992 endorsed community participation which was officially adopted universally as a key guiding principle in sustainable water resource management (Smith, 2008).The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Jeneiro specifically proposed that local communities should be involved in all stages of decision making with regard to the management of water resources to ensure that decisions made are locally appropriate, accepted and sustainable (Smith, 2008). The concept of involving communities in all stages of decision making such as policy and plan formulation and project and program implementation, were based on the fact that local people themselves are considered experts of their own local environment and therefore their knowledge should be highly appreciated (Smith, 2008). Unlike the conventional top-down approach, the bottom-up approach encourages local people to work together on environmental issues within their surrounding environment which consequently provides capacity building and empowerment opportunity to communities that are able to define their specific needs, wants and aims in relation to local water access and management (Smith, 2008). IWRM encompasses all aspects of the environment namely economic, environmental and social aspects however, the approach pays little attention to the ecosystems role as a provider of goods and services which resulted in the suggestion of an ecosystem-based approach (Jewitt, 2002). 3.3 Ecosystem-based approach Conventional water resource management approaches were typically a command control type of approach in the sense that it aimed to control the hydrological cycle through the construction of hydrological structures to harvest goods and services and produce predictable outcomes (Jewit, 2002). The reduction of ecosystem variation and functioning, decline in the goods and services provided by ecosystems and resilience of the systems were some of the consequences of adopting this approach (Jewit, 2002). The key components of the ecosystem based approach as shown in figure 3 include capacity building, partnership, policy and planning and the assessment of water resources (Al Radif, 1999).The correct functioning of ecosystems such as headwaters, wetlands and floodplains is vital for human survival since society derives a wide variety of important life sustaining benefits and biodiversity from these systems (Al Radif, 1999). In the context of water resources ecosystems regulate water quality and quantity, habitat resources and provide vital information to society (Al Radif, 1999).Additionally, ecosystems are highly complex systems and the exclusion of vital aspects of the system regarding the environment such as ecological functioning during decision making due to the poor understanding of the systems dynamics results in undermined and unsustainable decisions (Jewit, 2002).This lack of understanding and lack of political willingness to accommodate non-quantitative aspects of ecosystem dynamics results in an incapable management system (Jewit, 2002). An ecosystem-based approach to managing water resources is a realization that management systems need to be flexible anticipatory and adaptive to deal with the complexity of ecosystems. The approach is similar to IWRM however the approach prioritizes ecosystem functioning and its related goods and services (Jewitt, 2002). 4. IWRM IN DEVELOPED AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Despite the universal acceptance of the Dublin principles which form the core of IWRM, The effective implementation of IWRM in each individual country is dependent on the nature and intensity of the water problems that reside in the country (Funke et al, 2007). The argument put forward by the European Union regarding the five fundamental principles of good governance for the effective implementation of IWRM in each country, is not entirely relevant in developing countries as it is in developed countries (Funke et al, 2007). This is mainly because the situations that occur in developing countries differ on many levels compared to those that reside in developed countries (Funke et al, 2007). The openness, participation and transparency of governance in developing countries are hampered by more factors compared to developed countries such as illiteracy and widespread poverty and mistrust of government leaders (Funke et al, 2007). Lack of budgets and human resource capacities in developing countries create a gap between water resource management and the application of new legislations, strategies and institutions in practice and it is therefore clear that with the uniquely characterized problems that reside in developing countries, the solutions to managing water resources in developed countries will prove inapplicable (Funke et al, 2007). IWRM principles and practices therefore need to take into consideration the local conditions which reside in developing countries such as Africa, if the management approach is to prove sustainable in a long run (Funke et al, 2007). 4.1 IWRM in South Africa South Africa is recognized universally as being at the forefront of adopting IWRM as a water resource management regime (Jonker, 2000). The need for IWRM in the countries stems from climatic, historical and political perspectives all of which differ from developed countries and make the successful and effective implementation of IWRM a challenge (Jonker, 2000).From climatic perspective large parts of the country is water limited due to the low average and highly variable rainfall received in the country. The inequitable patterns of both industrial and agricultural development from a historical perspective and the apartheid social engineering and planning legacy from a political perspective, resulted in the unequal access to and use of water resources and more concentrated water demands in particular areas of the country (Jonker, 2000). An additional challenge to IWRM in South Africa aroused when the citizens of the country took part in a national democratization process and now have the growing need to participate in decision making processes at all levels (Jonker, 2000). This has its benefits challenge although the problems come in when decision makers have to decide the extent to which citizens are able to have an influence on decisions made and the challenge of trade offs (Jonker, 2000). The management approach embraces a multitude of stakeholders in South Africa which include environmentalists, government at all levels, NGOs and local organizations such as subsistence farmers, traditional leaders and women groups (Shculze et al, 2004). The political transformation in South Africa the mid nineties was used as an opportunity by the water sector for formulating new water law policies and a new water act in 1998. IWRM formed the basis of this transformation and both the constitution and National Water Act (NWA) of 1998 make fundamental facilitations for the effective and successful implementation in South Africa (Jonker, 2000). 4.2 The Constitution and National Water Act of 1998 Despite the peaceful political transition to democracy in South Africa, in the context of water resource management, the allocation and management of water resources was still regulated by the 1956 Water Act which is primarily based on the riparian system water rights making no provision for the integration, equity or facilitation for transparent and open decision making, ecological sustainability or the reduction of poverty (Dollar et al, 2010). The inclusion of the concept of sustainable development into the South African Constitution due to the initiation of a water reform process in 1995 resulted in a major shift towards IWRM because the Constitution forms the basis of all policies laws and practices for water management ( Dollar et al, 2010). The values entrenched in the Constitution include equity, the right of access to sufficient water and a healthy environment and thus provides the enabling environment for the formulation and implementation of a new democratic water act ( Dollar et al, 2010). It took over three years for the NWA of 1998 to come into law in South Africa and the NWA recognizes that water is a powerful tool for restructuring society (Dollar et al, 2010). The act encompasses values such as human rights, social justice principles and provides policies and legal frameworks required to ensure the equal, efficient and sustainable supply of water resources (Asmal, 1998). Despite the fact that the NWA does not contain the term IWRM, it encompasses the principles and objectives of the water management approach as set out on the White paper policy document of the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (Jonker et al, 2000). The act also makes noteworthy provisions and fundamental provisions for the effective implementation of IWRM (Asmal, 1998). Some of the provisions include the recognition by the act that water for basic human needs and proper ecological functioning must be taken as first priority before commercial and other water uses, the change from water rights to water-use rights and makes provision for levies to be charged for all major water users for their consumption (Asmal, 1998). This provision was made to ensure equity and efficiency but was met great resistance from the agricultural sector (Asmal, 1998) mainly because the agricultural sector is highly dependent on water resources for irrigation purposes (Schulze et al, 2004). The NWA also facilitates public participation which is one of the core principles of IWRM and stresses that government should involve local communities and all affected and involved stakeholders during legislation and policy formulation, and take their comments seriously however, even though the their catchment is their responsibility government remains the overseer (Schulze et al,2004).Another important provision of the NWA is the focus on the arrangements and establishment of institutions which resulted in a significant shift to more integrated and co operative approaches to water governance and stakeholder participation to ensure IWRM (Asmal, 1998). The act acknowledges that political boundaries prove inappropriate for water management and watersheds are more relevant. Part of IWRM is to ensure that there is equitable use of shared rivers and development cannot occur in isolation, another highlight of the NWA (Asmal, 1998). These provisions in the NWA of 1998 set the foundation for the implementation of IWRM in South Africa however; despite the top quality of the act implantation fatigue occurs due to capacity constraints and other challenges to the effective implementation of IWRM (Asmal, 1998). 5. CHALLENGES TO INTEGRATED WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT 5.1 Conceptual shortcomings The views of authors regarding universally accepted definition of IWRM provided by the Global Water partnership 2000 as being a hamper to the effective implementation of IWRM (Sherwill et al,2007). One of the arguments put forward is that the definition is narrow, incomplete and unchallenging and that this conceptual shortcoming tempts the water resource manager continue implementing the conventional water management practices and labeling it as IWRM (funke et al, 2007). Some authors argue that for effective implementation, the definition should include allocation to compensate for the inevitable political processes that reshape IWRM. While other authors argue that poverty should be included into the restricted definition the European Union suggests a complete name change of IWRM to Constructively Engaged IWRM Allocation and management which will emphasize the importance of practically implementing IWRM with prime focus on stakeholder involvement (funke et al, 2007). In the context of South Africa, the Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF) defines IWRM as a management strategy aimed to achieve the sustainable use of water resources by all affected stakeholders at catchment, regional, national and international levels while maintaining the integrity of water resources at catchment levels. (Schulze et al, 2004). Universally, apart from the conceptual shortcomings of IWRM which hamper its effective implementation, IWRM is first and foremost an institutional challenge that demands institutional capacities for integration which is in short supply (Van de Zaag, 2005). 5.2 Institutional challenges The management of resources and formulations of projects and plans have been fragmented, uncoordinated and implemented in a top-down approach however, according to the Global Water Partnership 2000 one of the most fundamental pillars of IWRM is integrated and coordinated institutional frameworks through which policies, strategies and legislations can be implemented (Funke, et al 2007). The integrative capacity of many countries lie at district level were various government departments such as health, environmental and education participate in implementing multi sector rural development programs ( Van De Zaag, 2005). South Africa on the other hand overrides existing management structures creating a structure alongside but separate from existing structures that are defined by hydrological boundaries and is regarded a waste of institutional resources (Van de Zaag, 2005). The South African NWA of 1998 mandates the establishment of water management institutions resulting in the neglecting of focus on the practical implementation of IWRM (Van de Zaag, 2005). Institutional fragmentation still persists in South Africa because the countries environmental, water and land-use legislations and administrations are administered by separate lines of functions in government ministries (Van de Zaag, 2005). 5.3 Governance and politics Effective implementation of IWRM is regarded as a product of good governance as it enables tradeoffs to be made between competing users for a resource with the aim of mitigating any conflict, enhancing equity, ensuring sustainability and holding officials liable for their actions (Funke et al, 2007). Participative, open and transparent governance plays an important part in forming the framework required for the successful implementation of IWRM. The issue however is that inefficient capacity and inefficient government processes and structures reside in countries with relatively ground democracies such as South Africa (Funke et al, 2007). Governance in developing countries lack the economic technical and human resources to implement IWRM and the challenge of politics and tradeoffs when making decisions regarding the allocation of water resources are unavoidable as they form part of the problem and solution (Funke et al, 2007). With reference to South Africa, after the modification of the countries water law to address post inequities, makes it more challenging for the successful implementation of IWRM in the country (Funke et al, 2007). 5.4 Public Participation Although public participation has been highly valued and recognized as being a fundamental component for the effective implementation of IWRM, there are inevitable problems and complexities that are associated with the process that needs to be taken into consideration (Smith, 2008). The four main problems associated with the process and highlighted by Smith 2008 is tokenism in terms of the degree to which local communities are involved in decision making, myths of regarding the community as a homogeneous coherent and cohesive body, local-level capacity constraints and critical lack of facilitator knowledge (Smith, 2008). The problem of tokenism is that communities are only considered important for the provision of local knowledge regarding their environment and are not involved in important and effectual positions in the different levels of decision making processes (Smith, 2008). This may be due to the unwillingness of government to devolve their power to local level communities. This results in plans and legislations that are locally inappropriate (Smith, 2008). With regard to the community myth, most communities are simplified as cohesive homogenous and harmonious entities with similar interests and goals instead of recognizing it as the complex heterogeneous organizations that they are (Smith, 2008). This fact must be included in management planning. This will then ensure locally appropriate outcomes. Other most problematic elements are the financial capacity constraints mainly experienced by bottom-up projects. Even though the community may be committed towards initiating a project, the essential element is economic material which local communities often lack (Smith, 2008). Therefore where there is community engagement the economic and social capacities needs to be considered (Smith, 2008). The final problematic element is the lack of knowledge regarding the process of public participation held by facilitators resulting in an influential process being facilitated by people without the necessary skills and capacities to initiate community participation initiatives (Smith, 2008). Despite the problems associated with public participation it is essential that the process be appreciated as an empowering, enlightening and sustainable approach to water resource management (Smith, 2008).

What Motivates Employees To Work Effectively Business Essay

What Motivates Employees To Work Effectively Business Essay In the era of economic development, many people are employed in variety jobs in society; therefore, employers should find way to motivate their employees. In addition, with the improvement of living standards, there is a growing emphasis on good working conditions. According to the Douglas McGregors Theory X and Theory Y (1957), on the one hand, Theory X said people are very lazy and dont want to work. If the people of Theory X can do not have work, they will avoid to work. On the other hand, Theory Y said people work very seriously because the environment will motive the workers work. If employers give the comfortable environment to employees, employees will do their best in their job. Consequently, employers need to develop motivational states to meet their different staff needs and work output. This reserved focuses on motivating in the food service industry, different restaurants motivate their employees in different way so their employees how treat the customers will. This essay will analysis the Theory X employee in Norwich restaurants, second analyses the Theory Y of employees in Norwich restaurants, and finally analysis which motivational method leads to have effective workers. Literature Review (by Li Yu Xuan) F.W. Taylor think that the maximize income is the most important thing to motivate them. It means money is the only thing can motivate them. This led to Taylors belief in a differential piece-rate system of payment. This meant staff can get the wage by each unit of output at a standard piece rate. (p.14, F.W.Taylor) And another famous person who named Frederick Herzberg said that: split workers needs into two categories hygiene and motivators. Hygiene factors are concerned with the environment in which the job takes place working conditions, relations with the boss and co-workers pay. Motivators are factors that relate to the job itself-sense of achievement.(p.15, F.Herzherg) in this persons view, we can see the working conditions and working environment are very important for the workers. When the workers satisfied with these two factors, they will work more hand. Some people have anther view, From a staff effectiveness point of view, there are times when you want to be Theory X: f or instance, in health safety issues the rules will be rigid; there will be serious penalties for not following them. But if the issue is how best to handle a piece of new business, then results are likely to be far better if all involved have been consulted, their issues taken into account and an agreed best process determined. Collaborative working will favor Theory Y approaches. These people think workers in different situations prefer the different theory. The theory X and theory Y are all have advantages to the staffs. From these, we can see different people have different opinions to the two theories. Researches these two theories are important to the managers, understand them and know how to use them can help managers make the right decisions and motivate their workers in right way. Main body: Theory X (by Zhang Cheng Cheng) In theory X, people are assumed only working for money and security. Workers do not like to work and would try to work as little as possible if they can. Workers in the company or organization are lack of ambitions and hope to avoid responsibility. According to McGregor theory X is really based on the assumption that a) laziness is the human nature; and b) people only work for money. The perception of human laziness has long been recorded in religion history. In religion, Catholic declares humans seven SINS, one which is the lazy. Human beings are divided into two groups, most people are afore-mentioned lazy, only a few people can restrain themselves. To most people, working is a kind of burden to human rather than enjoyment. As far as they are concerned, they only need to do minimum work to survive. Theory X therefore has argued that as a result of this human nature most employees in the organization do not have ambition. Their personal goals and objectives are self-centered and not associated with the companys goals. They lack confidence and consider the personal safety is important. They do not want to be a leader and content to be just a follower who prefers to be led by others. Under the theory X management approaches range from hard to soft. With hard approach to deal with humans laziness the model of theory X management must rely on outside force strict control in order to achieve organizational goals which is so called hard approach. The management believes that workers need to be closely supervised and comprehensive systems of controls developed. A hierarchical structure is needed with narrow span of control at each and every level. By exerting the external force, command, control and punishment the theory X management will ensure their employees to feel threats so that their employees can make proper efforts to achieve the objectives of the organization. With soft approach theory X management appears to be lack of disciplines and to be permissive and only seek harmony with hope that in return people will cooperate when asked to do so. McGregor has argued neither hard nor soft approaches are optimal management approach because assumptions in theory X are incorrect. At one extreme, management is strict, peoples behavior methods include forced and intimidation, strict supervision. At the other extreme, management personnel is mild, peoples behavior, peaceful methods include tolerance. Severe may result in employees to against pressure and hostile while The gentle way may often lead to abandon management. The optimal management will be between hard and soft approach. We agree with McGregor that the management model should be the carrot and stick. On one hand, they stimulate employees effort to meet the organization objectives by offering money. On the one hand, they enforce the tight control and supervision and punishment for the organization work force. In conclusion, the carrot and stick incentive theory in certain circumstances can be reasonably functional. This management model above is an example which on the one hand offered money in order to buy and stimulate employees working enthusiasm, on the one hand, used the strict control, supervision and punishment for the organization work force. Main body: Theory Y (by Shih Chia Chi) In contrast, McGregors theory Y mentions that managers tend to be democratic as they conduct their workers. This is because employees enjoy work actively and accept responsibility. In this theory, employees are motivated efficiently by many different factors. Unless workers have proper conditions in many ways such as working environment, welfare or salary, workers do not argue about their job. They are satisfaction and committed. This is because Managers of Theory Y believe both employees have ability to control themselves in accomplishing targets and they are enjoyment of doing a job. Therefore, managers will provide more authority and power to their employees so that they have an opportunity to incentive their aggressive of the work. It is believe that they are full of ambition to pursue their aims. Thus, this type of workers not only has an excellent creativity but also contributes at work which helps them to figure out whole problems. These people always have clearly life achieve ment, so they always work hard and most of them interested in their jobs and try doing their best. All of the reasons are to improve productivity in order to increase more profit in every company. This is why McGregor create this theory, and many managers use it to organize their employees. As a result, workers who are belong to theory Y have a higher achieved then theory X. Theory Y which is a more people-centric management style applies to the human relations and human needs approaches(Bruce Jewell,2006). Findings (by Shih Chia Chi) We conducted a survey in Norwich by random sampling of people in the city centre restaurants. This survey search the reasons for what motivate employees efficiently in the service industry, and fit into McGregors theory X and Y. This purpose is to find an optimization method for managers to administer workers. According to the table (figure 1, page 11), most male are satisfied with the salary nearly 13 percent and working environment around 8 percent; otherwise, female are satisfied with holidays less than 15 percent and personal reason more than 12 percent. Therefore, the amount of men and women do not want to promote to a higher position by 25-28 ages in Norwich. (Figure 2, page12) Even though most people belong to theory X, a few workers are part of theory Y. Approximately 5 percent of whole data in working environment is more essential than other reasons as well as women. (Figure 3, page 13) A few people about 8 percent want to have a higher position from 25 ages to 28 ages. This sort of people is self-motivation, so they suit for using soft management style and power-sharing in McGregors theory Y that they are easy manage. Moreover, in the theory Y, most workers have high level job, e.g. professional servicers, knowledge worker- managers and the high educated workers. Those results can apply McGregors theory X to prove this finding, so managers of service industry must use strict management or give them reward. This finding will help companies to find the best way of classification people in order to enhance the efficiency of effort and output. Conclusion (by Huang Tan Yun) It has emerged that the large amount of employees were belong the Theory X, who avoided to work in their job and the small amount of employees, who belong the Theory Ys persons, can work seriously by the work environment. According to our survey, manager should give the Theory Xs staffs more money and seriously management way to work effectively and also the manager should make the great work environment to let the Theory Ys staffs bring into the talent in their job. In order to solve the problem which is the Theory X or Theory Y in the Norwich restaurants, renewable management policy has changeable. Although, this essay just only has examined the motivations in the Norwich restaurant, other areas have the different motivations to affect their employees. There are a number of factors which contributed to the different effective motivations are happened in different people, therefore, the policies in employers are created. In addition, the employees in work areas have the Theory X of people or the Theory Y of people so they have the different motivated effectible causes. That was why the policies have the serious management and soft management for employees. Generally, the good way of aim in the working areas will accord to the Theory Xs staffs to improve their factors for their work effectively. Bibliography (by Zhang Cheng Cheng) Douglas MÂ · Mc Gregor (1957) The Human Sideof Enterprise in Management Review, US http://baike.baidu.com/view/499453.htm Viewed: 11/03/2010 Smallbizguru (29/01/2010)Leadership in recession for small business- John Adairs Action- Centred Leadership in Business Ideas http:// smallbizguru. WordPress.com/ Viewed 11/03/2010 Jewell, B(2006) McGregors Theory X and Theory Y in Tricky topics:6-7 Taylor, F.W(2006) High-street motivation in BUSINESS Review: 14-15 Herzberg, F(2006) High-street motivation in BUSINESS Review: 15

Architecture Essays -- Careers Jobs Architect

The career I have chosen for this project is an Architect. A building architect to be more specific. The career has many characteristics of work that I wish to pursue as I grow up. The main idea is thinking of new, and visually nice designs to grab your clients attention for them to buy your design. It also is a job were mathematics and now computer training is needed. The nature of work of an Architect is basically the design of building and other structures. The design of the building must not only be creative and what the client wants, but there are many different regulations and rules to follow to make the building affordable, safe, and proper size for it to fit in its specifically picked out plantation. First the Architect and the client must discuss the basic idea of the project, giving him basic ideas like size, shape, number of rooms and budget. The Architect will then make blue prints or drawing of his ideas, then present them to the client or clients who he is working for, to see if they like his idea and if they have any comments or suggestions that they would like to get met. If the clients like that idea of the building, the Architect must then draw final construction plans which show the building’s general appearance and details for it’s construction. Such details as the air-conditioning , ventilation and electrical systems to name a few. Architects now sometimes turn to computer-aided design and drafting or (CADD) only a few Architects will plan all their wo...

Analyse the Opening Chapter of Great Expectations :: Great Expectations Essays

Analyse the opening chapter of Great Expectations The author Charles Dickens wrote ‘Great Expectations’ as a series of instalments, which then put together and turned into a novel. It has been written in first person narrative, which is good because you get to know pip very well. My expectations of the opening chapter of ‘Great Expectations’ Where far from what I experienced when we actually read the book. It was also set in the olden days. By the end of the story I found it quite entertaining. In the first paragraph we expect to be introduced to the plot, characters and the setting. In this first chapter Pip meets the convict up on the graveyard, which is the highlight of the chapter. The convict scars pip into bringing him ‘whittles’ which means necessary like food and drinks. The convict also gets pip to bring him a file because pip mentions that his brother in law is a blacksmith. Pip is scared of the convict because of the language he uses ‘keep still you little devil or ill cut you’re throat. When a ‘fearful man, all in course grey, with an iron on his leg. A man with no hat, and with broken shoes and with an old rag tied round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered and he glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he seized me by the chin’ says that to a young child we believe to be about 11 – 14 years old Pip is going to do everything he is asked to do and exactly when he says it. The first character to be introduced was Pip. In the first paragraph he introduces himself and tells us that his fathers name was ‘Pirrip’ and his Christian name is ‘Philip’ so he mixed the two names together and came up with ‘Pip’. His mother and father died before he can remember them and there was no such thing as photos in those days so they do not know what they look like or what they are like to talk to and get on with. Pip got introduced first because he is the main character. The other character we meet in this chapter is the convict. The author gives the convict an animal imagery when he 'ate the bread ravenously'. Pips character is polite and he speaks to the convict who is threatening his life using words like 'kindly please to let me keep

Lehman Brothers Essay

In year 2008, financial crisis had led to the collapse of many banks in United States. Lehman Brothers was one of the banks that had filed its bankruptcy on 15 September 2008. It was the biggest bankruptcy in the history and it still is for now. Being the fourth largest investment bank in United States that had been established for 158 years, its failure had brought a big impact to the world financial markets. The failure of this large investment bank had triggered people around the world. After the failure of Lehman Brothers in 2008, there are a number of analysts and researchers that had tried to figure out the root of such event, the causes of the collapse, the effects of the failure and some lessons that could be learned from the failure of Lehman Brothers. All these papers and analysis have their own point of view. Therefore, there are a few objectives that I would like to focus on. In this paper, we will first focus on â€Å"What caused its failure?† Everything that happened will have its own reasons and causes. Next we are going to focus on â€Å"what is the effect of its failure?† Another objective that we are focusing on is the lessons that we gained from this failure. It is very important to study the story of Lehman Brothers who was a legend because it was established in 1850 until 2008 and they had survived through the world financial crisis. 1.0 History of Lehman Brothers Lehman Brothers was first founded by a new German immigrant Henry Lehman in Montgomery, Alabama in year 1844. He started up a shop named ‘H. Lehman’, which sells groceries and dry goods to some local cotton farmers. In 1847, his brother Emanuel Lehman arrived, and they change the name again to ‘H. Lehman and Bro’. In 1850, their youngest brother Mayer Lehman arrived in Montgomery and once again they changed its name and ‘Lehman Brothers’ founded by then. During that time, cotton was one of the important crops thus they have a high market value. The three Lehman brothers started to accept raw cotton from their customers as a source of payment for merchandise. Within a few years, the trading of cotton had become their most important part of their operation. In 1855, Henry Lehman passed away at the age of 33 from yellow fever. After Henry’s death, Mayer and Emanuel continued their business on commodities trading. They have their own policy, only their family members-sons, brothers, and cousins-that were permitted to be their partners. This policy carries on until 1920s. Their business grow and they formed a partnership with a cotton merchant John Wesley Durr to build their own storage warehouse. They used this warehouse to store their mass amount of cotton to enable them to support larger sales and trades. Their business continued to expand and they set up an office in New York in year 1858. However, Lehman Brothers faced hardship during the period of Civil War but they managed to rebuild their business after the war, and focusing their operations based in the New York office. Lehman Brothers expand to include sales and trading of other goods. Besides forming the New York Cotton Exchange, they were involved in establishing the Coffee Exchange and Petroleum Exchange. In 1867, Lehman Brothers became the agent of the Alabama government in selling the state’s bonds. In 1906, under the leadership of Philip Lehman, son of Emanuel, he partnered with Goldman Sachs, together they brought the General Cigar Co. to market followed by Sears, Roebuck and Company. There were around one hundred new issues that were underwritten by Lehman Brothers in conjunction with Goldman. Philip Lehman retired in 1925, and the company was taken over by his son, Robert Lehman. Under Robert’s leading, the company survived through the Great Depression, and they carry on their operation focusing on venture capital. In 1930s, they underwrote the Initial Public Offering (IPO) of the first television manufacturer, DuMont. They also helped to finance companies like Halliburton and Kerr-McKee. In 1969, Robert Lehman passed away and he was the last member of Lehman family to lead the company. Robert’s death had led to problems that brought hard times to the firm. In 1973, an important person, Pete Peterson was brought in to save the firm from its difficulties. He as the Chairman and CEO had led the firm from operating losses to record profits in five consecutive years. Lehman Brothers merged with Kuhn, Loeb Inc., and formed the country’s fourth largest investment bank preceded by Salomon Brothers, Goldman and First Boston. In 1984, American Express acquired Lehman Brothers to merge with retail brokerage Shearson to form Shearson Lehman Brothers. However, a few years later in 1993, the firm spun off and became known solely as Lehman Brothers. In 2001, the World Trade Center offices were destroyed by terrorist attack therefore their headquarters was moved to Manhattan in 2002. The firm continue to shine until 2008, it had recorded a high profit in 2007 but in less than a year’s time they was entangled in the subprime mortgage lending crisis. On September 15 2008, they filed a Chapter 11 bankruptcy in federal court. 2.0 Causes of its Failure The collapse of Lehman Brothers was a huge impact because everyone was thinking that it is impossible for such a large bank to collapse. Lehman Brothers had just reported a large profit in 2007, in less than a year time they filed for their bankruptcy. After the failure of Lehman Brothers, there were many people discussing about the causes that led to the failure of this large investment bank. Although they managed to pass through the past economic downturn with their business strategies but they could not survive the collapse of the housing market of United States of America. Until today, the causes of its failure were still being discussed among people around the world. Some would say that the poor management of the firm itself was the key to the collapse of the bank. The top management of Lehman Brothers failed to detect the problem that might occur with their balance sheet and their Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Richard J. Fuld had miscalculated the severity of the market upheaval. Lehman began to emerge into home mortgages in 2005 without bothering the early warning that the housing market in United States is being overheated and it will burst anytime. In 2007, two hedge funds sponsored by Bear Sterns collapsed and the market’s attention had focused on the value of subprime mortgages. The firm has confidence with itself because they consider itself as an expert in the financing real estate. Lehman Brothers did not manage to detect the alarm yet because their balance sheet was heavily weighted in commercial real estate which had nothing to do with the residential housing sector. Although the lower management might have detected the danger earlier but the news could not reach until the top management. The firm failed to realize that it was actually a ticking time bomb that might explode anytime. It is a norm that the top management was the last one to know whenever there is a danger because the employees would try to cover up. That is why the top management could not react to save the firm at an earlier stage. Some would argue that the CEO, Fuld was to blame because of his overconfidence and failure to recognize that Lehman faced a crucial crisis. Besides, Lehman paid an extremely high salaries and bonuses for their employees which total up more than half of the company earned in pre-tax profit. In addition, the accounting system of Lehman itself was a big flop. They used â€Å"Repo 105 transactions† that was described by their own accounting personnel as an â€Å"accounting gimmick†. First of all, some would question what does â€Å"repo† means. â€Å"Repo† means repurchase agreements, transaction which banks use it to borrow cash for short term. It involves raising cash by lending out high-quality assets for a short period of time. The banks will agree to repurchase their collateral in a few days or weeks. This way of recording their accounts created a false portrayal of their true financial status. Even the external auditor, Ernst & Young did not take further action to investigate the â€Å"repo†. According to Stern Stewart (2002), he said that accounting is no longer counting what counts and those in charge have not been wise enough or strong enough to resist their ploys to make the auditors’ definition of earning into a reliable measure of value. Accounting fraud and accounting manipulation are the major reasons to companies’ failure and financial crises. They intend to keep this matter and hide it from the shareholders and the public. In this case, the external auditors did not do what they a re supposed to do. They failed to give any warning to the shareholders about the non-disclosure of their financial statements. According to the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, â€Å"an external auditor has a responsibility to plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement, whether caused by error or fraud† Lehman Brothers’ reckless way of lending made the firm into more liabilities. The subprime mortgages were to meet the needs of Americans who could not be qualified for long-term mortgages. Subprime mortgages were targeted on credit unworthy person but also had low interest rates on long term basis. Therefore, subprime mortgages were loans that are high in risk but low in return compared to the property to be purchased. Meanwhile, Lehman also encourages the â€Å"ninja (no income, no job, and no assets) or better known as liar loans†. These loans were banned in United Kingdom because â⠂¬Å"ninja loans† are loans offered to public without any form of collateral. Anyone could loan from the bank even he is without a job, without stable income and without any assets in hand. These loans are another key for the failure of Lehman. Such loans are the breeding ground of unethical behaviour in the financial market. These loans encourage the moral hazard to happen because the borrowers had nothing to lose as they have no assets to be held as collateral. Following the incident of the failure of Lehman, there are people questioning the decision of the Fed for not bailing out Lehman. Federal Reserve does not bail out Lehman because Lehman could not prove that they have the ability to repay the loan from Fed. There is a theory in the economics called the â€Å"Big Bank Theory† which means that governments will not allow a large bank like Lehman to collapse because it will bring a huge impact to the economic. This theory does works when American International Group (AIG) and Bear Sterns were being helped by Fed to prevent it from falling. Everyone thought the same fate will happen to Lehman as well because of the theory â€Å"too big to fail†. However, Lehman Brothers could not escape from the bankruptcy fate. Fed had conducted assessments and it showed that the failure of Lehman would not bring such a big impact to the whole world compared to AIG or Bear Sterns. Federal Reserve chose to bailout Bear Sterns but not Lehman Brothers because when the Fed bailed out Bear Stern in March 2008, it claimed that the bailout was an â€Å"extraordinary event†, thus it is impossible for Fed to save another troubled financial firm because it is not possible for â€Å"extraordinary events† to occur that often. Competitions are very common in each and every sector including banking and finance sector. Banks will compete among themselves on both assets and liabilities. According to Bolt and Tieman (2004), to survive the competition for loans and remain profitable, banks undertake measures that will drive the loan volumes and enhance profitability but ultimately compromise their asset quality and increase the probability of collapsing. Bank therefore started to increase the risk in their portfolio by lowering the criteria or terms and condition for a loan. Wilmarth (2009) agreed that competition impacts negatively on lending standards, based on events leading to the global financial crisis in 2007. Banks compete blindly with each other neglecting the possible danger that might arise and harmful towards the banks. They keep on offering subprime mortgages with low payments in order to attract more customers. When the housing prices collapsed in 2007, the borrowers could not refinance their mortgages and defaults happen eventually lead to the subprime financial crisis. 3.0 Effects of Its Failure In March 2010, it emerged that the bankruptcy was not just the largest ever to be experienced in the American financial system, but it was also one of the largest accounting scandals ever (Connerty, 2010). The failure of Lehman Brothers is similar to that Enron experienced earlier in 2001. Such failure and the present case of Lehman show how an investment bank had successfully fool all the investors and financial analysts. The investors of Lehman Brothers were badly affected because they could not escape from the financial crisis impact. In many countries, the investors were badly affected because most of them are holding the bonds issued by Lehman before it collapses. In Hong Kong, there are 43,000 individuals who had bought the so-called mini bonds up to a total of $ 1.8 billion. Pension funds, such as the New York State Teachers’ retirement plan had also incurred losses due to the collapse of Lehman (Bryan-Low, 2009, cited in Swedberg, 2010). Once Lehman declared its bankruptcy on September 2008, investors lose their money and some investors are even senior citizens. Although some investors do suffer a huge loss, but most of the world’s leading investment banks made big profits again in 2009. Investment banks have always been a very volatile business and it will still continue on to have its ups and downs. The failure of investment banks does not affect the long run of the business because it is a very profitable business. The consequences of the collapse of Lehman are not that long because some banks started to record profit within a year. However, United States of America’s economy was seriously affected and the US government needs to prop up the markets in order to avoid any further catastrophe and to avoid the history of the Great Depression 1930s to happen once again. 4.0 Lessons Learned after the Collapse Caplan et al., (2010) mention that in 2006, Lehman made a deliberate decision in pursuing a higher-growth business strategy. To achieve their goal they switched from a low-risk brokerage model to capital-intensive banking model that required them to buy assets and store them as opposed to acquiring assets to primarily moving them to a third party. This strategy at the time also brought a higher risk because most of the assets were long term and they were highly illiquid. As the subprime crisis happened, Lehman had to act quickly to liquidate its illiquid assets in housing mortgages. The crisis caused the assets to be bought at lower price due to the negative perception in the public. Lehman should have forgone its high-growth strategy because its cost had outweighed the benefits. Holding on with the strategy kept dragging Lehman into deeper danger because they should have sacrifice part of the profits to protect themselves from massive loss. Besides that, the top managers should have eliminated dubious accounting practices by holding to a high ethical standard. Lehman used Repo 105 was only one of the way of many wrongful action used by Lehman to show that their financial statements are still stable and at a healthy state. Lehman practiced the Repo 105 in an unethical way in order to acquire new loans by displaying a healthier situation compared to the actual situation. A standard accounting system open the way for unethical managers to take advantage of it. They practice the standard according to their own unethical behaviour in order to achieve or to display a healthy situation to the public. Therefore, the accounting standards must be modified to avoid any of the unethical behaviour that could affect the benefits of the public. The financial statements must meet the necessary accounting standard and the external auditors should point out the mismatch of the balance sheet and investigate for any problem occurred. In this way, it is easier to trace the problem earlier and the management could not have the chance to hide the true condition of their firm. Caplan et al., (2010) suggest that substance must be taken into consideration over form, in which the fairness and the health of the organization must be judged based on the substance of the statements and not simply the ratios inferred from them. Basically, expanding safety nets involves providing all-embracing guarantees to both creditors and depositors of both commercial and investment banks (Rochet, 2010). Expanding the safety nets is to maintain funding especially during the economic downturn times and to rebuild the investor confidence after such a major economic crisis. The strategy to stabilize the economic is very important and it needs to be carrying on a long term basis in order to prevent future failures. All these strategies should be carried out by investment banks themselves as they were one of the factors that caused the Lehman Brothers to collapse. In addition, we should have come out with strategies that were directed at dealing with the problem assets and implement the strategies in advance before the financial system failure occurs. It is better to prepare earlier rather than waiting for the failure to occur by its own. These strategies are basically of two types; they can either be in terms of government guarantees on specific high value loans but still keeping the loans on the failing firm’s balance sheet or acquisition of some or all structures securities and loan assortments (Stephanou, 2009). Although dealing with those problematic assets does not really reduce the firm’s vulnerability to such exposures but at least these strategies could tackle the liquidity problems and improve their creditworthiness. Government plays an important role to motivate the private investors to acquire the problematic assets or government can co-finance the acquisition of these assets. There is need for the industry regulators to enforce more stringent measures to ensure that investment banks do not bite more than they can chew. The regulators should have regular monitoring done on all the investment banks to ensure that they are on the right path and did not take up too much risky investment. From the collapse of Lehman Brothers, we could see that most of the investment banks faced financial crisis with insufficient capital bases and inadequate liquidities. The regulatory measure must be able to ensure that banks have the ability and quantity capital bases that could buffer the financial institutions from massive losses and to be strong enough to withstand any failures in the future. Banks need to have a good number of liquid assets all the time so that the assets could easily be transformed into cash to face any panics. To conclude, it is very important to enforce standards on the capital, leverage and liquidity of every investment banks to prevent financial cris is in the future. 5.0 Conclusions The recent competition in the banking industry has led to most of this banks engaging in risky exposures (Raghavan, 2003). This is very clear in the collapse of Lehman Brothers. We should learn up from the mistakes and ensure that we do not repeat it in the future. In the collapse of Lehman we could see that corporate governance plays an important role in every firm. The management must be clear with the firm’s condition and to make the right decision for the firm and to be alert towards any kind of possible danger. The Board and regulator could have intervened if Lehman practiced sound corporate practices and had not withheld information regarding the risk levels of the firm. Besides, the external auditors are also a part in this failure because they failed to detect the malpractices in their financial statements. According to Greenfield (2010), the main indicators of fraud could be detected in the financial statement apparently; the external auditors could not discover this activity. Looking forward, there is no crystal ball. However what is known is that the international financial system is a complex web of dealings, relationships and dependencies. It must however be noted that the demise of Lehman had not impacted on the US economy alone but the world as a whole. Lastly, never assumes too big to fail. Even the most sophisticated financial tools, cannot predict or time the market properly. No one and nothing guarantees you that having past successes, you can be granted the same in the future.