Protection of Mail-Order Brides Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Protection of Mail-Order Brides - Essay Example From this study it is clear that there has been an increase in the establishment of mechanisms through which mail-order brides can be protected from husbands who are abusive and fro other dehumanizing arrangements such as human trafficking. Nevertheless, after the mail-order brides enter into their new homes, most of the legal protections lose their impact as a result of the marriage’s private nature as a domestic realm and the inability of the brides to navigate the landscape of their new homes, which are mostly in foreign an unfamiliar countries. This study discusses that it is important to note that due to the increasing demand of the mail-order wife as a replacement for the local women who have developed a career culture and are deemed as less â€Å"family oriented†, mail-order bride websites have developed advertisement terms that meet the expectations of the subscribers (Kusel, 2014). Nevertheless, upon interaction with the foreign culture, after marriage, such women get oriented to the foreign culture and thus tend to develop contrasting views with those of their husband concerning gender roles. This is an aspect that leads to increased disagreements and subjects the women to the increased risk of domestic violence. In addition, most of the websites that advertise such women tend to use attractive pictures that portray them as sex commodities. This exposes such women to men who pose as husbands yet they end up enslaving them sexually and abusing them upon marriage. As such, it is clear that most of the women who p ursue a better life through seeking husbands via the mail-order bride sites are commoditized as sex toys and subjected to abuse amidst legislations that are aimed at protecting them. Various countries have developed legislation to protect mail-order brides and other immigrants who are at risk of exploitation.  

Accounting Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Accounting Report - Essay Example diversity, because of the fact that it is one of the few sectors which have remained resilient during financial downturns and because it plays a vital role in the communities for the provision of employment opportunities and as a result acts as a driving force necessary for social cohesion. Three companies are selected for the analyses which are J D Sport Fashion Plc., Sports Direct International Plc. and Next Plc. These companies are selected because they are three renowned players in this specific segment. J D Sports Fashion Plc. is a leading retail company based in England in the segment of sport retail. Next Plc. is a British clothing, home products and footwear retail company. It is the largest retailer of clothes in the United Kingdom as measured by sales. The company has more than 700 stores across the UK and 200 across other geographical locations in Asia. The stocks of the company are listed in the London Stock Exchange. Sports Direct International Plc. is also a giant sports retail company in the United Kingdom. It is a multinational retailer with over 500 stores across the globe. All the three companies also have their respective electronic commerce stores. The general information of the three companies is summarized in Table 1. This research is aimed at answering the question as to what is the situation of the external and internal retail industry of the United Kingdom. The research question is to be answered by considering three main retail companies operating in the country which are J D Sport Fashion PLC, Sports Direct International PLC and Next Plc. The aim of the research is to provide an analysis of the retail industry through the consideration of the various influential factors that are affecting the industry. This is done by using different management and analysis tools like the Porters five forces model, PEST analysis, Critical Success Factor (CSF) evaluation and financial analysis including financial and non financial ration

Money Management Midterm-1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Money Management Midterm-1 - Essay Example It is imperative to note that, the insurance companies are obliged to make regular and lifelong payments until the holder dies (Brealey & Myers, 1997). Consider the formula of calculating life annuity returns Payout= P*R*(1+R) exponent N/ (1+R) Whereby P is the principal, R interest rate and payout refers to the periodic payment. Take a percentage interest of 6% and use the annuity calculator for easy calculation. For a single life annuity, fixed amount to be paid is 3,333 per month. This adds up to EUR 39,996 annually. Therefore, annual periodic payment would be: A = EUR 39,996 Now I believe that I would need more money than EUR 39,996 annually. There would be different factors that would reduce the value of EUR 39,996 at that time like inflation. Therefore, when I retire and I think EUR 45,000 should be a valuable amount that I would need every year to spend my life happily. In order to have this amount every year, the interest rate should be 7% as calculated using Goal Seek option in Microsoft Excel. The life expectancy and retirement age considered in this context is 70 and 55 years respectively. PART II- SHARE ANALYSIS This part intends to examine and analyze two companies from the investment analysis. Various financial ratios will be applied to analyze the performances of the company. The implication created by the ratios will be used to recommend a suitable company for investors to invest. The two companies intended for analysis for this report are Lockheed Martin Corporation and Altera Corporation. Lockheed Martin Corporation Background information about the company Lockheed Martin is a global leader in providing aeronautics and defense security services. The company is the world’s largest federal contractor of the agency with unique product portfolio. Headquarter of the company is situated in Bethesda, Maryland in Washington Metropolitan Area. The company is present in more than 75 countries. The company has partnership with more than 300 indust ry players across the globe. It employs around 120,000 employees worldwide who include 80,000 scientists, engineers and IT professionals. This research establishes that, Lockheed reported $46.5 billion revenue in 2011 through its portfolio that includes aeronautics, electronics system, IT and global services, and space system. Net Income of the company is $2.65 billion in 2011. Presently, its share price is $93. Financial Ratios of Lockheed Martin Earnings per Share The Earnings per share shows how much return a shareholder is earning for each share (Friedlob and Plewa, 1996). The earnings per share of the Lockheed Martin were 7.81 in 2011. However, the average 3-year EPS growth rate of the stock is zero. Price Earnings Ratio Price Earnings ratio is the calculated by the following formula. Price earnings ratio = the market price per share/ annual earnings per share. A higher P/E of the stock implies that, investors are paying more for earning every dollar consequently; the share bec omes more expensive compared to the

Accounting Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Accounting Report - Essay Example diversity, because of the fact that it is one of the few sectors which have remained resilient during financial downturns and because it plays a vital role in the communities for the provision of employment opportunities and as a result acts as a driving force necessary for social cohesion. Three companies are selected for the analyses which are J D Sport Fashion Plc., Sports Direct International Plc. and Next Plc. These companies are selected because they are three renowned players in this specific segment. J D Sports Fashion Plc. is a leading retail company based in England in the segment of sport retail. Next Plc. is a British clothing, home products and footwear retail company. It is the largest retailer of clothes in the United Kingdom as measured by sales. The company has more than 700 stores across the UK and 200 across other geographical locations in Asia. The stocks of the company are listed in the London Stock Exchange. Sports Direct International Plc. is also a giant sports retail company in the United Kingdom. It is a multinational retailer with over 500 stores across the globe. All the three companies also have their respective electronic commerce stores. The general information of the three companies is summarized in Table 1. This research is aimed at answering the question as to what is the situation of the external and internal retail industry of the United Kingdom. The research question is to be answered by considering three main retail companies operating in the country which are J D Sport Fashion PLC, Sports Direct International PLC and Next Plc. The aim of the research is to provide an analysis of the retail industry through the consideration of the various influential factors that are affecting the industry. This is done by using different management and analysis tools like the Porters five forces model, PEST analysis, Critical Success Factor (CSF) evaluation and financial analysis including financial and non financial ration

Modernization of NTUC Income Essay Example for Free

Modernization of NTUC Income Essay 1.)  WHAT WERE THE PROBLEMS FACED BY INCOME IN THIS CASE? HOW WERE THE PROBLEMS SOLVED BY THENEW DIGITAL SYSTEM? Income ·s insurance processes were very tedious and paper-based. This resulted to humongousIncome also experienced frequent breakdown of the HP 3000 mainframe which hosted the coreinsurance applications and the accounting and management information systems. In addition tothis, HP 3000 back-up system only allowed restoration to the previous day ·s back-up data.Hardware failures caused six days of complete downtime. COBOL programs also encounteredfrequent breakdowns that halted the systems and caused temporary interruptions. At the sametime, development of new products using the COBOL is quite cumbersome and took weeks, evenmonths, to accomplish. They also lost opportunities to cross-sell because transaction processingfor policy underwriting was still a batch process and information is not available to agents andadvisors in real-time. Through the new digital systems, these problems were addressed. The paper-based insurance processes were replaced by a paperless platform. Under the new system, alldocuments are scanned and stored on  ´trusted µ storage devices. Frequent breakdowns wereaddressed by the high-availability platform. Multiple servers are hosted and connected to morecommunication lines that are  ´load balanced µ. The new system also addressed downtimes dueto breakdowns by its hot back-up disaster-recovery centers. The new digital system alsoaddressed the slow development of new products by COBOL through the straight throughprocessing workflow capabilities of the new system. 2.) WHAT TYPES OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND BUSINESS PROCESSES WERE USED BY INCOME BEFORE MIGRATINGTO THE FULLY DIGITAL SYSTEM? The insurance process of Income was very manual and paper/file intensive. Filled-up applicationforms of clients were sent by agents through courier. Their collection schedule causes delays oftwo to three days. The Office Services log, sort, and send documents to underwriting. Proposalswere allocated to staff randomly. No system was in place for proper assignment of tasks per staff.Voluminous documents are manually sorted and stored by a number of staff at their warehouse.Since there was no clear document management system, retrieval of documents take days toaccomplish. Income also made use of HP 3000 mainframes which were very unreliable due tofrequent breakdowns that resulted to downtime, decreased productivity and wasted manpower hours. COBOL programs were also used which also encountered technical failures. At the sametime, COBOL programs were very slow in developing new products for the company resulting tolost sale opportunities. 3.) DESCRIBE THE INFORMATION SYSTEMS AND IT INFRASTRUCTURE AT INCOME AFTER MIGRATING TO THE FULLY DIGITALSYSTEM. According to James Kang, CIO of Income, the Java based eBao LifeSystem from eBaoTechnology is very customer-centric. It provided seamless integration with imaging and bar codetechnology. It also contains a product definition module that supports new products, newchannels and changes in business process. Data migration of Income ·s individual and groupbusinesses was successfully implemented and customized. The new system was operational onhigh-quality platform with multiple servers and communication lines. The new system alsorevamped business continuity and the company ·s disaster recovery plan. A real-time hot back-updisaster recovery center was implemented. Business processes went from paper intensive to  paperless through digital storage and records. Many users can access the system at one time,any time, and anywhere. 4.) WHAT BENEFITS DID INCOME REAP FROM THE NEW SYSTEM? The robust architecture of the servers minimized downtime occurrence. This is made possible withthe use of two or more servers connected by two or more communication lines. Income alsoreduced and eventually eliminated the use of paper. Under the new system, all documents werescanned and stored on  ´trusted µ storage devices  ² secured, reliable digital vaults that enabledstrict compliance with stringent statutory requirements. Staff members also enjoyed faster accessto information. With the use of the straight through processing workflow capabilities of the newsystem, Income saved as much as 50 percent on time and costs in processing policies. Time indesigning and launching new products were also reduced from weeks to days using the table-driven-rule-based product-definition module. 5.) HOW WELL IS INCOME PREPARED FOR THE FUTURE? ARE THE PROBLEMS DESCRIBED IN THE CASE LIKELY TO BEREPEATED? In the insurance industry, information systems are very important in ensuring product and services ·competitiveness. Customer queries should be addressed accurately and promptly. Productsshould be constantly improved and new designs should always be made available. With the newinformation system, Income is now equipped to face the challenges of the industry. To ensure thesuccess of the new system, proper implementation and control should be done. Continuoustraining should be given to the staff to ensure proper use of the system and to maximize thepotential of the system. The system should also be continuously improved through the proper management of feedback from  users. Upgrades should also be done periodically to cope withthe changes in the demand of the industry and the market.

Economic Problems Solved By Various Societies Economics Essay

Economic Problems Solved By Various Societies Economics Essay The recent turbulence in financial markets in most developed economies has shown that market forces are no better at solving societys economics than any other mechanism This question relates to how economic problems are solved by various societies. An economics system is a countrys plan to answer the economic problems of what should be produced, how and for whom; it is an Organized  way in which a state or  nation  allocates  it resources  and apportions  goods  and  services  in the society. There are three major types of economy, a free market economy, a planned economy and a mixed economy. A free market economy  is a system for  allocating goods within a society which is mainly driven by  supply and demand; purchasing power within the market determines who gets what is produced, rather than the state. Examples of these economies are US, France. In this type of economic system, speculation, assumptions, and market forces are significant in determining economic growth. The aim of a market economy is to reduce or be completely devoid of all pre-determined prices for some products, and the level of regulation is minimal. 2The role of the  government in a market economy is to ensure that the market is stable enough to carry out its economic activities properly. Free-market economics is closely associated with laissez fair economic philosophy, which limits government involvement in economic matters to regulating This system has the biggest advantage of rewarding hard work and consumers getting what they can afford rather than giving everyone the same thing. It leads to growth through individual prosperity but monopolies arise and distort the market The next economic system is the planned economy, in this kind of economy the major decisions such as the goods, production method, distribution and the prices of the goods, all these important decisions are made by the government. Countries such as the old USSR and North Korea have a totalitarian government with socialist economies, where the government fix prices from the procurement of raw materials to the price its sold to the consumer. It is usually stable; it aims to meet a collective objective rather than individual needs, under such a system, rewards, whether wages or perquisites, are to be distributed according to the value that the state ascribes to the service performance. And finally a Mixed Economy, it is an Economic system in which resources are more equally divided between private and government ownership. This system integrates both elements of the market and planned economies in one organized system seeking to reach a balance between them. The business sector and the government play an important role in decision making as regards to the economy but a mixed economy results in neither business entities nor the government controlling the  economic  activities of that country. In a mixed economy, there is a lot of flexibility in certain sectors and in other sectors government control exists. Free market economy compared to a planned economy or a mixed economy has it its various advantages and disadvantages; A planned economy in theory appears more stable than the other two because it is not subject to various economic crises that the market economy and a mixed economy face, i.e. the business cycles such as the housing market bubble and the recession with high rate of unemployment There is also a question of efficiency, free markets and mixed economies contrast sharply with  controlled markets  , in which governments directly or indirectly regulate prices or supplies, which according to free-market theory causes markets to be less efficient. ; It  also lacks innovation that the other two systems possess, free market and mixed economies encourage specialization of labour, eliminate costly and complex bureaucracy. However, a planned economy has some advantages over the free market system in regard to efficiency; a planned economy  aims to use all existing resources for manufacturing public goods rather than directing some of those resources to advertising or marketing. It appears that a free market system could lead to more inequality due to the uneven distribution of power and wealth; property owner, big business shareholders will have access or gain more power compared to the less well off. A disadvantage of a market economic system is that, though competing firms try to be efficient to keep costs and prices low, it sometimes creates a monopoly, a few large firms may hike prices, sometimes pricing a certain part of the society out of various products. A planned economy on the other hand , national income could be distributed more equally in accordance with needs; public goods that would be described as necessities such as health care, In a planned economy, state planners would allocate state resources toward public goods and state projects, this might not necessarily be available in a market economy, or might require precise government provision (which then makes it a mixed economy), in a mixed economy, the government would have to achieve this goal through taxation or inflation. Mixed and free market economies are flexible, production reacts almost immediately to the movement of demand; a planned economy lacks the kind of flexibility and because of this, it reacts slower to changes in consumer needs and variable patterns of demand and supply. A planned economy eliminates the individual profit motives as the driving force of production and places it in the hands of the state planners to determine what is the appropriate production of different sets of goods; on the other hand because a market economy is profit oriented, it leads to innovation and creativity which a planned economy lacks. In a mixed or market economy, there is a plethora of choices, it lets the consumer choose according to their preferences which is evident through the interaction between supply and demand but a planned economy more often than not cannot detect consumer preferences. A free market system might not be better than a planned economy or a mixed one, it all lies in the balance, and no one system can guarantee absolute success. The market economy is clearly the system of choice in todays global marketplace but mixed economies should be encouraged which is largely what countries like France, U.K and the US practice, there is a considerable amount of government interventions to ensure stability although they could be classified as practicing a free market system because they allow market forces drive their economic activities. What the financial meltdown of 2007-2010 showed was that a totally free market doesnt necessarily make the best system. With some of the developed countries manufacturing less and relying more on financial services as the basis for their economic growth, for examples the UK, leaving the various financial institutions with little or no regulations has left the consumers exposed and the world economy in tatters. In conclusion, having a system where the government step in with regulations is imperative to prevent this sort of melt down in the near future. There ought to be directives and regulatory bodies to police the activities of private business enough to protect the end user and the economy but not too much, so as not to stifle growth. Free market system has shown it is not fail proof just as much as a command economy is not. A market economy combined with some degree of regulation, and special directives to stabilize prices by the government to protect people with low income can provide idyllic circumstances for developing countries like India, Brazil, China and other South East Asian countries to attain growth and prosperity.

Sea-Cucumbers :: Personal Narrative Writing

Sea-Cucumbers I have always found sea-cucumbers to be strange. If you have ever been snorkeling, you may or may not have noticed these elongated vegetables on the sea floor. I suppose I shouldn’t call them vegetables though, because they are slightly more ‘cognizant’ than garden-variety greenery. Instead I have dubbed them ocean-turds, because honestly, they do look the great defecation of a marine mammoth. They are also well-shaped, perfectly cylindrical turds at that! I am rambling again. Forgive me. In eighth grade, my parents and I took a trip to Japan. My dad is a baseball scout, and instead of flying over solo to give the Kyoto Carps the once-over, he decided to make the scout into a family vacation. I was skeptical. I don’t like seafood, and here we are, going to a country that eats raw fish and that names its baseball teams after blunt-nosed marine life. The city itself seemed a bouleversement of day and night. Humanity’s great invention, the lightbulb, mocked with overwhelming voltage, density, and quantity nature’s celestial fireballs. Bulbs, the imitators, the pupils of fusion, now ridiculed night with flashes from across the spectrum. As we drove into Tokyo, I couldn’t believe that its citizens were able to sleep at night, what with such lambent pollution. But I was eager to walk the streets, to run into the shops that beckoned to me with signs for Sony and with gadgetry that inhabited the display windows. The hotel room had paper walls! As an American used to a room’s noiseless seclusion, I liked the idea that here, rooms were not meant to be space with a relentless fixation on privacy. I promptly made my mark. Restless after the long plane flight, I was bouncing off the walls when I literally poked an extremity through one. You can image my surprise at discovering such fragility. I am in the holy land of ninjas and samurai, and I have just punched my way through a wall. Awesome! I felt like ‘the kid’ from â€Å"Karate Kid.† All that was missing was the exotic, ruminative twang and non-western modality of Asian music. Of course, my ninjas-and-gadgets glorification of the place was, alas, not meant to be. My fun and games had to be extinguished; a foot had to be put down and that foot was Japan’s ooey-gooey cuisine. My dad was interested in one of the Carp’s players, and as was customary, the team’s owner felt a strong sense of duty to take us out for a traditional Japanese dinner, so that the two of them could discuss arrangements for the trade.