Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice Essay -- Jane Austen Sen

Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen's characters always undergo an event that morally changes their being. In Sense and Sensibility this moral change is obvious in Elinor and Marianne. The development of these adolescents into mature, reasonable adults is a gradual transformation seen in Sense and Sensibility. Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy begin Pride and Prejudice as arrogant and biased adults and end the story as liberal minded individuals.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      In Sense and Sensibility the family has been forced to move from the plush lap of luxury into a more modest setting. Mr. Dashwood has just passed away. Since this was a patrilineal society, the eldest son, John Dashwood, inherits all of Mr. Dashwood's estate. John planned to live at Norland with his wife, Fanny Dashwood. Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters needed to relocate. This is a significant adjustment for everyone involved. In addition to the move to Barton Cottage, the family is also experiencing a decline in their income and thus must live a more middle class existence.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Marianne was Mrs. Dashwood's middle daughter. She was sensible and clever, but eager in everything; her sorrows, her joys, could have no moderation. She was generous, amiable, interesting: she was everything but prudent.'; (Austen, pg5). Marianne was only seventeen and behaved as such. She was unable to hold back her feelings even in a social setting with friends. Mrs. Dashwood's disposition was similar to Marianne's. They were similar in the expression of emotions. After Henry Dashwood died Marianne and Mrs. Dashwood, 'encouraged each other now in the violence of their affliction.'; (Austen, pg 5). The phrase misery loves company comes to mind to explain how they would commiserate with each other.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Marianne was full of emotions and thoughts that she would not conceal. Her personality was the extreme opposite of Elinor's The moral development in Marianne has its roots in Willoughby, a young gentleman that rescues her from a fall on a mountainside near their new home. It was a very romantic scene when Willoughby, 'took her up in his arms without further delay, and carried her down the hill'; (Austen, p21). Marianne was excited at the whole situation especially since ;his manly beauty and more than common gracefulness were instantly the theme of general admiration'; (Austen, p21). Willoughby wa... ... the highest kind'; (Austen, p296). Mr. Darcy has completely forgiven Elizabeth and is attempting to prove her opinion wrong. Elizabeth has broken her prejudice and realizes her fault. Darcy comes to Longbourn and Elizabeth's mother comments on him, 'but else I must say that I hate the very sight of him'; (Austen, 333). Elizabeth has overcome her bad opinion of Darcy, but the rest of the family has not. After Elizabeth tells her mother of Darcy's proposal she says, 'We all know him to be a proud, unpleasant sort of man; but this would be nothing, if you really like him'; (Austen, p354). Her family is willing to allow the marriage to proceed, mostly for financial reasons. These books show a maturation of character through the trials and tribulations that life grants. In each of these stories there are parallel worlds, one of upper class and one of the middle to lower class. They show that even though two people come from different worlds and have different financial positions, love will conquer all. Works Cited: Austen, Jane. Pride and Prejudice. London: Penguin Books, 1996. Austen, Jane. Sense and Sensibility. Ed. Margaret Anne Doody. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1990.

On Being Told I Don’t Speak Like a Black Person Essay

† On Being Told I Don’t Speak Like a Black Person† tells a story of the importance in identifying your own speech and how there is nothing more personal than your own speech. Many people change their attitude, personality and in some cases the way they speak based on their environment and surroundings. The meaning of what the author wants to get across to the reader is exemplified in lines 52-70. In those lines she says how we shouldn’t care how any one speaks no matter what race, color, or where the individual is from. She realizes this in her own experience because her mother, father, and her all speak differently and she asks one of her friends â€Å"does everyone in your family speak alike† they responded â€Å"don’t take this the wrong way, nothing personal†. I believe it is then that the author realizes how personal ones language is and that no person should have to defend the way they speak or what language he/she speaks. I also, found it interesting how Allison, a black woman questioned why black people just drop syllables, and sound lazy, instead of just speaking clear, clean English. She brings this up because her college acquaintances noticed how she spoke like a â€Å"white† person instead of like a black American. The speaker also mentions that her acquaintances seemed sure they knew what a black person is supposed to sound like. The speaker is talking about how her acquaintances have a preconceived notion and stereotype on how black people should sound. There are a lot of cultural assumptions in this belief. There is a stereotype that black people are not as educated as white people. In my opinion, this is simply not true. Also, they may expect her to speak in Ebonics or improper English. The matter of the fact is that you should not be ashamed of where you come from and the way you speak, that is all part of your identity. Finally, people will one day perceive who you really are and respect your heritage.

A Report to Determine the Benefits of a Good Staff Welfare System

A REPORT TO DETERMINE THE BENEFITS OF A GOOD STAFF WELFARE SYSTEM BY MARK ROSS 21ST October 2012 CONTENTS Introduction1 Executive Summary1 Staff welfare and organisational objectives1 Process for assessing staff welfare2 Actions to be taken2 Communicating responsibilities for staff welfare3 Recording and maintaining staff welfare systems4 Conclusion4 Bibliography4 i 1. INTRODUCTION 1. 1 This report has been asked for by my manager to determine the benefits to the company of good and well integrated staff welfare system.Recent statistics produced by the companies Human Resources department show that the levels of sickness and absenteeism are unacceptably high. 2. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2. 1 This Report considers 5 main objectives: Discuss the relationship between staff welfare and organisational objectives. Explain the process for assessing staff welfare. Identify the actions to be taken by the manager in dealing with a staff welfare Issue. Describe how to communicate responsibilities for staff welfare to then team. Discuss records that may be maintained to demonstrate that staff welfare is supported. . Discuss the relationship between staff welfare and organisational objectives. The relationship between staff welfare and organisational objectives can be can be a bit of a balancing act but there are many basic requirements we all expect when we go to work: Safe working conditions / work environment (risk assessments carried out) Safety from any kind of harassment e. g. bullying, sexual, racial. Good employee relations with people being treated with dignity and respect. Equal opportunities. Adequate induction into the company and ongoing training.Some of these process's come at a cost and given the current economic downturn many companies may want try and make cutbacks in certain areas namely ongoing training which can be expensive. If we are able to show our staff that we really care about there interests and personnel development it has been shown in studies to incr ease the overall feeling of well-being in the work place, this is proven to increase productivity and reduce rates of sickness and absenteeism which in-turn leads to a positive effect on bottom line profits. A study by Dr Kerstin Alfes of Kingston University Business School found that:Keeping staff happy might not be a high priority for employers in the economic downturn. But a report from Kingston University argues that a contented workforce can help an organisation to succeed and can even make the difference between whether or not a struggling company survives the recession. 1 4. Explain the process for assessing staff welfare. The process for assessing staff welfare can be achieved in several ways, all are based on an open and honest flow of communication from front-line staff up the chain of command using well defined process's.Making the chain of command clear is also very important so staff know the correct approach to take and who to contact with any given issue/grievance. He re are some of the methods we currently have in place to assess staff welfare: Surveys / Questionnaires. Suggestion Box's (Anonymous). Regular performance reviews / appraisals. Near-miss and accident reporting. Back to work interviews. All these process's are based on getting an understanding of how the workforce feel at work and improvements that may be needed to make things run smoother. One process our company hasn't yet developed fully is a workplace counselling scheme.This concept originated in the USA and looks at staff welfare not only in the work place but outside it too, it recognises that many problems affecting productivity and welfare are not only work related. This counselling must be confidential and empathetic to the personal needs on the individual employee. 5. Identify the actions to be taken by the manager in dealing with a staff welfare issue. A manager may deal with staff welfare issues in the following ways, closely assessing the information gathered during the processing of a staff welfare issue and also looking into other relevant information is one of the most important step.We need to get to the bottom of the issue and take a balanced view on all the concerns raised. Actions to be taken: Following of policies and procedures that are in place. Meetings with those concerned with the specific staff welfare issue. Close assessment of information gathered. These actions should lead to a good overall picture of the staff welfare issue and allow use to take the correct approach in rectifying or putting controlling measures in place to minimize the issue. Often policies and procedures may need to be updated to incorporate things we have learnt from individual issues.This can be seen to be good management tool also as it shows our employees that as a company we are always open to continual improvement. 2 6. Describe how to communicate responsibilities for staff welfare to the team. Staff welfare responsibilities can be communicated to staff via newsletters regular meeting appraisals Notice boards eg last accident/near miss currently our company collects data on accident reports/nears misses but it only used as a tool to pass onto higher management and isn't made freely available to staff, In previous jobs this information has been made public knowledge and published on notice board.I feel this can be used as a good tool to show that we're striving to reduce these figures, the same approach could also be taken with sickness and absenteeism. Publishing information such as days lost due to sickness and cost to the company in having to pay for overtime to cover time could show how important we take this issue. 7. Discuss records that may be maintained to demonstrate that staff welfare is supported. There are several ways in which records can be maintained to support staff welfare such as 8. Conclusion 9. Bibliography http://www. kingston. ac. uk/pressoffice/news/59/26-01-2010-a-happy-workforce-is-good-for-business. html

Bahram Ahmadi

A programme of work for the implementation of a strategy is a large set of coherent guidelines that include several activities in the program so as to achieve certain objectives. It involves several processes including organising, coordination, developing, designing, training, building, developing, growing, closing, etc. In any program strategy for a project, the objectives of the organisation play a very important role.The project program strategy gives importance to the manager that would be responsible for carrying out the operations of the project, the timing and the nature of the activities, and the dealing with specific tastes of the customers. Project program strategy is highly specific to a project. However, there may be more than one strategy to be employed to meet the objectives of the project. During the planning stages, the managers would sit down to develop a strategy.These strategies are developed so as to be appropriate with the characteristics of the organisation, hum an resources, geographical location, social features, politics, etc (Walter, 1999). For each project in an organisation, the program of work (workflow as such) is managed independently. The project manager would be looking at several limitations in the resources, including time, money and the scope.A project may fail due to several reasons (including deficiency of resources, lack of goals, conflict issues, problems with the customers, etc), and the manager would have to anticipate these problems right during the initiation of the project and ensure that a problem-solving process is enabled. Each project manager would be determining the ongoing processes in the project through monitoring and evaluation of the performances.The project manager would have to adopt different strategies so that the organisation could achieve certain objectives and hence reach a desired goal (Brentani, 2003, Walter, 1999, University of Texas, 2007 & Rad, 2006). The process of developing a strategy for the project is very simple. The managers would have to sit down and decide the various objectives that need to be achieved by the project. The means of achieving such objectives need to be discussed. The manager should involve other parties including the administration, the portfolio manager and the stakeholders.It may be very difficult to come to a consensus if too many people are involved in the process. This is because several people may have different values, outlines and approaches. The process of setting up the objectives, determining the goals and the ways of achieving them is very tedious and could take a long time. The manager should associate the strategy needed to achieve the objectives. During the final stages, the manager would have to also ensure that the strategy/ies adopted help to meet the objectives (Walter, 1999)On the other hand, portfolio of the project management is an approach in which various projects in an organisation are treated as smaller portions of a much l arger venture (with respect to investment and resource allocations). The project portfolio management would be functional right from the initiation of the project to the very completion. Certain instruments are utilised in the portfolio project management to help the managers (including planning, allocation of resources, evaluation, monitoring, analysing, standardization, etc).This can be considered as a centralised instrument required to effectively handle several projects in an organisation and to study the performance of several projects that may run in an organisation. It can be utilised to compare and contrast various projects. One very important feature of project portfolio management is to determine the costs, expenditure, benefits, investments and other features of the project. In recent years portfolio management has turned out to be a very important aspect of planning, especially in IT firms.IT companies would be managing several projects and programs running in various pa rts of the world through an effective portfolio management system. Studies conducted in the past have demonstrated a little less than half of the IT companies are unable to meet their targets due to inefficient portfolio management (Oracle, 2007, Stanford University, 2007 & UMT Consulting Services, 2007). The portfolio manager mix of projects should be such that the resources of the organisation are utilised effectively.They should be selected in such a way that the risks are significantly reduced. The portfolio manager is in a good position to priortize the projects and accordingly allocates the resources. He should be able to select the project based on their ability to fulfil certain criteria (Crow, 2004 & Oracle, 2007). A portfolio management system would be much broader and would include several other processes such as defining the opportunities, bringing those projects into the focus that would be able to achieve some objectives, monitoring of the projects, etc.Portfolio manag ement should be considered to be an art rather than a science. Frequently, portfolio managers would have to work with the fund managers of the organisation, so that there is effective use of the money. Portfolio management is frequently utilised in several developed, and slowly developing nations are moving towards effective portfolio management (Crow, 2004, Brentani, 2003 & Rad, 2006). A portfolio management system is often utilised by an organisation to bring about success in the project (as many projects could be effectively be handled simultaneously).A portfolio may be funds or resources and can be utilised by the organisation to increase returns over a very short period of time. An organisation would observe that the resources available at any point of time would be less than the amount of resources required by a particular project. Hence, one of the main objectives of the portfolio managers would be to effectively manage the resources of several ongoing projects. The managemen t of the organisation needs to sit and figure out what the commitment of the organisation would actually be.As management of an organisation is a dynamic process, this exercise has to be done from time to time. Besides, actually managing several resources including human resources, logistics, IT, support systems, etc, time also needs to be handled. The management should be very much interested in ensuring that the portfolio management processes are enabled properly. The organisation should ensure that the interests of each and every protject are enabled. If a project is not performing properly, the ideal plan would be to discontinue it, if the organisation does not have the resources to handle it.A proper flow of information of the project should exist so that the process of monitoring is effective. It is very important that the projects be managed in a formal and official manner. The data that would be flowing would be much more accurate and effective in ensuring the objectives of the organisation are met. There should be a clear flow of data between the programs, projects and the portfolios (Brentani, 2003, Walter, 1999, & Rad, 2006). In the portfolio management, all the projects that are ongoing in the organisation are chosen and a standardised fashion of evaluating them is utilised.Portfolio management is very much required for the production, development and the utilisation of ideas and intellectual property in various projects in an organisation. The portfolio manager would be performing various tasks such as reallocating and promoting the staff members (as per their characteristics) in various projects. Thus it can be seen that if an organisation has a very good portfolio manager, he would be using the human resources very efficiently (UMT Consulting Group, 2007). The entire framework of portfolio management involves three steps, namely creating, selecting and managing.The goals and the strategies to be adopted in the portfolio management are made keepi ng in mind the characteristics of the organisation. Accordingly, new opportunities that are present should be identified and resources allocated. The objectives have to be prioritised and the tasks and activities that are to be done are selected. Finally, it is also important that the project be managed in the most efficient and organised manner (UMT Consulting Group, 2007). Many organisations do not have any portfolio management process running.Only the companies that feel that research frequently perform it and development is vital for the well being of the company. Only about 10 % of all organisations in the industry do have a strong portfolio management system in place. If a portfolio management system were not in place, then all the projects in the organisation would be given equal amount of importance or authorisation. This would result in all the projects that are going on in the organisation are given equal amount of resources (Rad, 2006).In an organisation, the project or t he program manager would ensure that the project could achieve its objectives. On the other hand, the portfolio manager would ensure that the operational activities and the maintenance programs in the organisation are smooth and functional. The team leader and the middle scale managers usually do the project management. On the other hand, the higher staff members including the administration do the portfolio management.The higher management of the organisation would be concentrating on the portfolio, rather than the functioning of each individual project (Brentani, 2003 & Rad, 2006). In a project or a program management, the team leaders and the manager would ensure that the staff members meet the specific goals of the project. The organisations main aim would be to deliver quality products or services. The portfolio manager would instead be ensuring that the goals of each and every project are in tune with that of the organisation.In the project management, a lot of importance is g iven to completing the tasks on time and ensuring that costs are limited. On the other hand, the portfolio management would be concentrating to a very less extent on fulfilling completion tasks on time and using the minimal amount of resources. The members of the portfolio management team would include the leader, the stakeholder, advocates, project managers and the office managers (Brentani, 2003, Stanford University, 2007 & Rad, 2006). The project or the program management should work in coordination with the portfolio management.Several processes in the project such as selection of the resources, prioritisation of the targets of the project, and the resource allocation should be performed in the most appropriate manner. The decision-making of the project needs to be very active and dynamic in nature. Informed decision-making and resource allocation is very important for the project to function properly. The project or program manager has to ensure that certain structures or a fra mework in the organisation is in place before the functional activities can be carried out.The project environment should be such that the objectives kept in mind can be achieved. The program manager and the portfolio manager should ensure that an environment is created that would be conducive to achieving the objectives of the organisation. The project members should function as a team so that the objectives are met. The team working on the project should have the skill, experience, knowledge and the competence to carry out the tasks of the project.One of the main reasons why projects do not succeed is because they may take long time to produce the results or may consume a lot of the resources. To ensure the project is effective (to ensure completion of the tasks) and efficient (completion of the tasks with appropriate use of the resources) in its objectives, it is very much needed that both the project management and the portfolio management work in close coordination with each ot her (Brentani, 2003 & Rad, 2006). The management activities of the portfolio management would be repetitive in nature.On the other hand, the management activities of the project management would be cyclic in nature. If the portfolio manager can take care of the functioning of all the projects, then the organisation can be considered to be very competitive. If a project does well, it would have an impact on the functioning of the organisation, but also on other projects (Brentani, 2003 & Rad, 2006). Portfolio management would definitely help the organisation to grow, expand and develop. The wealth of the organisation would increase with an effective portfolio management strategy.The portfolio manager would be bringing in various assets (including infrastructure, support systems, financial resources, human resources, logistics, etc) and securities into the organisation. He would be considering investing in various ways including growth stock investing and value stock investing. From t ime to time, the objectives of the organisation would vary and hence, it is the duty of the portfolio managers to vary the investment pattern in the organisation. A greater amount of flexibility would be required.The management style of the portfolio managers should also vary depending on the needs (Brentani, 2003). A portfolio manager and the program/project manager would be concentrating on different characteristics of the project. The portfolio manager would be using the PPM (project portfolio management) tools, whereas the project manager would be using the single-project management tools. The PPM tools would ensure that the functioning becomes more and more efficient, the costs are effectively distributed and the profits of the organisation are increased.It also ensures that the organisation is following a particular framework whilst managing the projects (Brentani, 2003 & UMT, 2007). Each project has to be carefully planned and implemented in the organisation. The entire proje ct management should be done in phases. The project management tools would ensure that the staff members make effective use of the resources in the organisation and ensure completion of the targets that are required within the project. The project manager would have to motivate the staff so that the work is improved in quality and the project is able to achieve its targets.Only if the management practises of the project are appropriate, could it be able to achieve its objectives (Free Management Library, 2007, Brentani, 2003 & Rad, 2006). The program strategy would be concerning a greater amount of internal issues with relation to the project, whereas the project portfolio management would be concerning the external issues. It is necessary that the portfolio mangers align their objectives as per the strategic objectives of each program.The portfolio processes should be customised to suit other management processes that would be functional in the organisation, simultaneously. Both pr ogram strategy management and portfolio management involve interacting with the clients, and hence demonstrate the importance of clients with respect to management and its processes (Stanford University, 2007). References: Brentani, C. (2003), Portfolio Management, Elsevier, Philadelphia http://books. google. com/books? id=8LJrilH_eEEC&pg=PT14&dq=portfolio+management&sig=x-IYrHl67RaZTocKedqv_fTBX3w#PPT16,M1Crow, K. (2004), A Practical Approach To Portfolio Management, [Online], Available: http://www. npd-solutions. com/portfolio. html, [Accessed: 2007, August 18]. Free Management Library (2007), Project Management, [Online], Available: http://www. managementhelp. org/plan_dec/project/project. htm, [Accessed: 2007, August 18]. Oracle (2007), Peoplesoft Enterprise Project Portfolio Management, [Online], Available: http://www. oracle. com/media/peoplesoft/en/pdf/datasheets/e_epm_ds_projportmgmt_41005. pdf, [Accessed: 2007, August 18]. Rad, P.F. & Levin, G. (2006), Project Portfolio Man agement, IIL, New York. http://books. google. com/books? id=PUavbSMdP7QC&pg=PA7&dq=project+portfolio+management&sig=Nwscmbzr4s8B_X2cHG26-1hiW9Y#PPA10,M1 Stanford Advanced Project Management (2007), Mastering the Project Portfolio, [Online], Available: http://apm. stanford. edu/courses/MPP. html, [Accessed: 2007, August 18]. Stanford University (2007), Portfolio Management Team, [Online], Available: http://www. stanford. edu/dept/its/projects/PMO/files/pmt. html, [Accessed: 2007, August 18].Walter, S. L. (1999), Defining and developing program strategies, [Online], Available: http://www. sil. org/lingualinks/literacy/PlanALiteracyProgram/DefiningAndDevelopingProgramSt. htm, [Accessed: 2007, August 18]. Walter, S. L. (1999), Defining program objectives, [Online], Available: http://www. sil. org/lingualinks/literacy/PlanALiteracyProgram/DefiningProgramObjectives. htm, [Accessed: 2007, August 18]. UMT Consulting Services (2007), PPM – Project Portfolio Management Consulting, [Onl ine], Available: http://www.umt. com/site/PPM-Consulting_60. html? PHPSESSID=9917b5631be27d19dbb1d077885e2866, [Accessed: 2007, August 18]. UMT Consulting Group (2007), What's Really Driving the Importance of Portfolio Management? (DM Review, February 27, 2004), [Online], Available: http://www. umt. com/site/Why-Portfolio-Management_4. html, [Accessed: 2007, August 18]. University of Texas –DIIA (2007), Project management tutorial, [Online], Available: http://www. utexas. edu/academic/cit/howto/tutorials/project/index. html, [Accessed: 2007, August.

D2 Review course assignments Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

D2 Review course assignments - Essay Example Unit 2 assignment requires the learner to create a memo that describes the strategic decision-making process in an organization, particularly the criteria used in making and testing of the assumptions held by decision makers. The information needed will be obtained through secondary data analysis, particularly browsing the web and reading textbooks. This assignment will improve the skills of the learner in making critical decisions in an organization as a manager or executive. Unit 3 assignment requires one to develop a job grading schedule for appraising the performance of Frontline supervisors (Beck, 2013). To obtain the information on grades and weights for each item, a survey will be conducted in personnel management firms. This assignment information will boost the learner’s personnel management skills, concerning performance management and job evaluation. Unit 4 assignment requires the learner to complete an assessment measuring program-level learning outcomes. The evaluation information will be answered based on the opinion of the student about expectations and experiences in the program. This will facilitate the improvement of the program to reflect current market experiences and skills needed for management students. Unit 5 assignments involve a comparison of the two organizations on various business aspects, mainly organizational strategic management processes, design, culture and management styles (Charles Hill, 2012). The data required for this assignment will be obtained through a survey of the two organizations. The analysis will enhance the learners strategic planning and implementation skills in different companies in a dynamic

Impact of Technology on Society (Telephone ) Essay

Impact of Technology on Society (Telephone ) - Essay Example Advancement of technology has fueled the use of telephone across the world. This is because telephone devices allow users to send instant messages, offer voice calls, and access to websites. However, the conveniences and pervasiveness have not brought benefits but also some numerous negative impacts (Murphy, 2009). The content of this paper will examine the telephone technology as a form of communication and the impacts it causes to the society. 2. Background 2.1What is telephone technology. A telephone is a telecommunication device that enables two or more parties to conduct a real time conversation when they are not close enough to hear each other talking directly. The device converts sound, efficient and most typically the human being's voice, into electronic signals appropriate for its transmission via data cables or other transmission channel over a wide distance, and replays such signals in an audible form to the users (Murphy, 2009). 2.2 When was the telephone invented and by whom? The telephone technology has resulted in an integral part in today’s life since its invention by Alexander Graham Bell in the 1876 (Murphy, 2009). The nineteenth century was the communication revolution era whereby there was invention of many communication devices. Researches argue that the nineteenth century’s greatest invention was the initiative of invention itself. The invention of telephone technology has had many impacts on the world. Telephone has also brought the current generation into the secondary oral age. The first telephone technology invention in the year 1876 by Alexander Graham Bell and additional development by other inventors, the telephone was the initial communication device in world history that enabled human beings to communicate directly with one another over large distances (Murphy, 2009). Rapidly, telephones became indispensable in government, business, households, and is currently the most used small communication device. 2.3 How does t elephone work Telephones operate in a simple way. It captures the user’s voice vibrations through plates and coils and then translates the vibrations into electrical signals. The telephone amplifies these signals and then transmits them to another telephone device where the receiving device changes them to voice signals in the reverse form (Farndon, Manning & Walt Disney Company, 2003). When the receiver picks up the call, the telephone connects him or her to the network. When one dials a phone number, this number goes to the telephone provider requesting for connection with that number’s subscriber. The provider then times this conversation duration and bills it. In many countries, the telephone network is digital, therefore, the telephones behaves in a similar way like a computer, transmitting and receiving audio signals in binary codes (ones and zeroes) as an alternative of a continuous signal. When you convert tens to binary codes, you get an approximate whole numb er, which defines the telephone’s audio sample. This system can be used anywhere not only with telephones and its called PCM. That is how the telephone operates (Farndon, Manning & Walt Disney Company, 2003). 3. Impacts on society 3.1 What was the society like before development of telephone tech

Food Prices in Agricultural Markets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Food Prices in Agricultural Markets - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that Ð µhe ever-rising food prices have brought a lot of challenges to the contemporary society. Most affected by these food price increases are the poor in the society. The main effect of the rising food prices on poor consumers is the reduction in their purchasing power. A number of economic theories and models have been put forward to explain the relationship between rising food prices and their impacts on poor consumers. Engle’s law and the standard demand theory are just some of these theories explaining the effects of rising food prices on poor consumers. According to Engel’s law consumers rely on non-food expenditures if food prices go up. Because the rich spend more money on non-food items, whenever food prices rise, they have excess non-food expenditures to cut and transfer to food expenditures. The standard demand theory on the other hand focuses on the effects of income and price increase on substitute food. The ne gative impacts of food price increase on poor consumers make it imperative that governments and the international community step in to provide for the welfare of the poor. To increase the purchasing power lost due to food price increase, safety net programmes such as food-for-work and cash transfers have been implemented in many countries. Due to certain barriers to the success of safety net programmes, other strategies such as local and international financial assistance and improved accessibility to land, seeds, farm animals, loans, and technical services have been applied in some countries. Introduction World over, people are often guarded against rising food prices, a trend considered as having a number of negative influences on people’s welfare, more so the poorest in society. In fact, rising food prices has been cited as one of the main factors that push the poor into starvation. Besides, rising food prices exert a lot of downward financial pressure on the poor while th e wealthiest in the society are never affected by these food price increases (Westhoff, P. 212). Since majority of the world’s population could be described as poor, rising food prices have thus further dampened the already crisis-prone global economy. However, recent times have realized the emergence of a school of thought, which raises the question of whether food price increases are inherently negative. For instance, increased food costs have been found to be beneficial to farmers, who are the sole providers of one of the most basic human needs, food (Westhoff, P. 212). The argument according to this school of thought is that if farmers do well because of increased food prices, then others will also benefit from the increased food prices in one way or another. The second argument put forward by the school of thought that rising food prices have positive implications is that, high food prices have pushed the agricultural industry to develop genetically modified foods that n ot only resist draught and other natural calamities but also pests and diseases. Additionally, foods have been developed and grown that can survive and do well is marginally fertile areas. In other words, these foods have been quite useful to developing countries in which larger percentages of population live in abject poverty. The increasing food prices have thus made the agricultural industry rather alert in the creation of sustainable food productions, more so in developing and the under-developed countries. This paper thus explores the effects of the rising food prices on poor consumers, focusing on the welfare of this category of consumers and the possible interventions to address these effects. Theories and Models of the Effects of Rising Food Prices Because of the positive and negative effects of rising food prices on poor consumers, heated debates on the exact effects of rising food prices have ensued. Several theories and models seeking to explain the impacts of