Theology in the Chronicles of Narnia the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

RELAMPAGOS, Nicola Liane C. POSADAS, Klarizze FINAL PROJECT: The Chronicles of Narnia The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is the first book in the Chronicles of Narnia series written by CS Lewis. The book series was such a great success that in 2008, the first book was turned into a film. What many people may not realize is that CS Lewis wrote the book series with a specific goal in mind: to showcase the word of God to different parts of the world through an artistic lens. This paper will focus on the theological nature of CS Lewis’ book based film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.This will include a number of noticeable parallelisms, allusions and symbolisms found in said work. Although The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe was originally a published book, this paper will focus on the film adaptation of the book. One of the noticeable symbolisms in the movie would be found in the main character s of the film: Aslan, the Witch and the children. Aslan was portrayed as the original king of Narnia and when Narnia was held deep in the clutches of the White Witch, Narnias looked to Aslan as their redeemer.Aslan was also the one who died so that Edmund may live. He was the only one who was capable of defeating the White Witch. Aslan in the film was an artistic representation of Jesus Christ. The parallelism found in the resurrection of Christ, his absorbing of our sins and overcoming death is seen in the depiction The Witch, on the other hand, represents Satan. It was the White Witch who covered Narnia in snow: no sign of life, simply cold and dead. The Witch is consumed in her own vanity and the longing to fully overcome Aslan and rule over Narnia forever.It isn’t clearly stated, but it is seen in certain parts of the movie that The Witch feared Aslan: when the Witch spoke out of turn after their agreement and Aslan roared at her and she quickly sat down in fear of him. M uch like the Witch, Satan will always be inferior to God but will always try to put himself about Christ but will never achieve such. Lastly, the four children (Lucy, Edmund, Peter and Suzan) are human beings. They represent four different kinds of people who have different encounters with God.For Peter, he is the skeptical type of Christian. One who is doubtful by how God can use him to help build God’s kingdom, yet at times he forgets that it is only Christ who can defeat evil and not by his strength alone. Edmund is the type of Christian who has sinned and fallen short many times along the road before choosing to love and follow Christ. While Suzan is the type of Christian who has consistently doubted whether or not Christ, even really exists before fully trusting God with the things that don’t seem to make sense.Lastly, Lucy represents the Christians who just love, follow and dedicate their lives to Christ without hesitation and without doubt. Lucy’s childli keness showcases how Christians should love and trust Christ with our lives. Since the four children can be seen as symbolisms of human beings, their relationship with Aslan shows a lot about the grace, mercy and overall character of God. One of the main examples where this is seen is the grace that Aslan showed to Edmund who was a traitor.Despite Edmunds’ choice to prioritize Turkish delight over his family and his right as one of the king of Narnia, Aslan still accepted Edmund into his army and not only that Edmund still inherited the kingdom of Narnia not by his own works but by Aslan’s choice. Much like the plot of the movie, Christ will continue to accept sinners into his family despite what they have done in the past. As Aslan said, â€Å"What’s done is done, we need not speak to Edmund about what has happened anymore† this has a similar message in Philippians â€Å"I focus on all my energy on one thing: Forgetting what lies behind and focusing on what’s ahead†.Also, Edmund’s choice to pursue Turkish delight over his unmerited right to be a king of Narnia, is similar to the story in the Bible of how Esau gave up his birthright to Jacob for a bowl of stew. Both Edmund and Esau’s common mentality was the seeing the situation only at the present and forgetting the eternal value and purpose of their lives. But despite Edmund’s decision, Aslan accepted his presence with open arms, which is a similar characteristic to the story of the Prodigal Son.True sacrifice is an act that any human being can never really fathom, due to the only considered true sacrifice that was only made by God Himself by offering his own son to the world that is bound to perish in eternal debt of sin. In the movie, true sacrifice was first depicted through the following event, which was the acceptance of Edmund despite of his treason towards Aslan and his own brothers and sisters. Without the mistake that Edmund committed ea rlier in the movie, true sacrifice would have not been clearly depicted.The scene where Edmund was enticed by the Witch’s offer of Turkish delight and then the throne shows a great parallel of how the world committed the very first sin, the original sin. Adam and Eve were tempted by the devil, who took the form a snake and they were blinded by the temptation of knowledge that was offered by the apple. Same goes to Edmund, he succumbs to the lavish offers of the Witch that led to his treason towards his siblings. In the end, Aslan accepts Edmund despite his betrayal and also became the emancipator from the Witch.This selfless act then led to the suffering and supposed death of Aslan. The altruism that Aslan performed is an exact parallel to the suffering of Christ, which was the crucifixion. With such altruistic acts of both Aslan and Jesus Christ, it is believed that their sacrifices are yet to be unvarnished. No one in this world is capable of such because only the savior ca n absorb the sins of the world. In the movie, Aslan was put to death and was humiliated in front of the presence of many followers of the Witch by cutting off his mane, which is parallel to Christ’s crown of thorns.The Witch wanted to show her iron fist by showing the execution of Aslan in public, which only goes to show that she fears Aslan. She needs the approval of many, for her to feel superior over him. Although she thought she had succeed with the humiliation and execution, little did the Witch know that Aslan was to come back to life and save his followers despite their treason. The representation of Christ’s suffering and resurrection was fairly accurate; the breaking of the stone table which Aslan’s body was left behind is aligned to the opening of Christ’s tomb.In addition, Aslan was first seen back to life by the girls, which in the film were Susan and Lucy, and just like Christ who appeared to the women first (Mary and Mary Magdalene; found in Matthew 28:9). The movie then proceeds to the war between good and evil, which illustrates the consistent internal battle inside every human mind. When Aslan came back to life, he did not eradicate the battle between the Narnians and the forces of the Witch. But instead, the battle continued on even to the point that the Narnians began to face defeat.This shows that although the Jesus Christ overcame death, there will still be an internal battle between good and evil within us. In the film, Peter and Edmund try to lead the battle against the forces of The Witch and even tried to kill her but their attempts only would lead to death. It is only when Aslan comes into the picture, that he is not only able to breathe life back into the dead but also defeat the Witch. This is an artistic depiction of how human beings cannot overcome death by their strength alone. It is only Christ’s power that Satan is fully defeated.Therefore during spiritual battles within humans, one was surren der and acknowledges that he cannot do it by themselves and it is only by God’s help that we can overcome evil. Lastly, Aslan’s words after he defeated the Witch were a direct parallelism to the words that Jesus Christ utters when he defeated death on the cross: â€Å"It is finished†. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe film holds a great number of theoretical references but the major and more obvious events would be the characterization of Asaln, the Witch and the three children, Aslan’s sacrifice and battle between the two forces.

Cypw Level 2 Shc 21

CYPW Level 2 Unit SHC22 Introduction to communication in health social care or childen's and young peoples setting. Task 1 – Links to learning outcome 1, assessment criteria 1. 1, 1. 2 and 1. 3 1. 1- Describe the duties and responsibilities of your role: To assist and support the Early Years Leader. Work as a member of the staff team, under the supervision of the Early Years Leader, to provide safe, high quality care and education for all attending pre-school. To support each child's transition from home and recognise the importance of creating positive links with parents in accordance with the policies of pre-school.To respond to the individual needs of the children. Listen effectively and appropriately to the needs of the parents. To have skills and knowledge in matter’s concerning children's health and safety and to provide a safe environment at all times. To be aware of, and maintain at all times, Christ Church pre-school's confidentiality policy. To maintain the ac cident book, register's and other record's as the need arises. To maintain apparatus to high standard. Attend regular staff meetings and be familiar with the organisation of preschool. Assist with fundraising activities. 1. – Identify standards that influence the way your role is carried out: EYFS Children's Act 1989 Children's Act 2004 Data Protection Act 1998 Admissions Policy Settling In & Transition Policy Equality & Diversity Policy Special Educational Needs/Disability Policy Health & Safety Policy Fire Procedure Risk Assessment Forms Continence & Personal Development Policy Medication Policy Medication Forms Safeguarding Children Policy & Procedures Behaviour Management Policy & Practice Confidentiality Policy Data Handling Policy Record Keeping Guidance Emergency Closure PolicyParental Involvement Policy Visitors Policy Complaints Procedure Procedure in the event of an allegation being made against a member of staff Staffing & Employment Policy Code of Conduct – Promoting Safe Practice Social Networking Policy Internet Policy Mobile Telephone Policy Drugs and Alcohol Policy Harassment & Bullying Policy & Procedure Whistle Blowing Policy Student Placement Policy Volunteer Policy Procedure for Uncollected Children Procedure for when a child leaves the group unaccompanied Equipment & Resources Policy Environmental Policy Food & Drink Policy Healthy Eating PolicyProcedure for Outings Consent Form for Outings 1. 3– Describe ways to ensure that personal attitudes and beliefs do not obstruct the quality of work: listen, be patient and don't be judgmental and stay impartial this could also include being supportive and empathetic in certain situations. Making sure a variety of toys, snacks and activities are tailored and available for different children's and children's parents beliefs and background this is a lovely way to teach children about the differences there are in each other and showing them its nice and exciting to have individual experiences and beliefs.I particularly like the celebrations of different festivals and special occasions from around the world and how the children love to get involved either by dressing up in costume's, trying new and different foods or listening to the different types of music from other countries. Making sure all the children and children’s parents/carers are made to feel important and that you can be approached by them at anytime and they feel you can be open-minded but professional about any concerns or worries they may have. Cypw Level 2 Shc 21 CYPW Level 2 Unit SHC22 Introduction to communication in health social care or childen's and young peoples setting. Task 1 – Links to learning outcome 1, assessment criteria 1. 1, 1. 2 and 1. 3 1. 1- Describe the duties and responsibilities of your role: To assist and support the Early Years Leader. Work as a member of the staff team, under the supervision of the Early Years Leader, to provide safe, high quality care and education for all attending pre-school. To support each child's transition from home and recognise the importance of creating positive links with parents in accordance with the policies of pre-school.To respond to the individual needs of the children. Listen effectively and appropriately to the needs of the parents. To have skills and knowledge in matter’s concerning children's health and safety and to provide a safe environment at all times. To be aware of, and maintain at all times, Christ Church pre-school's confidentiality policy. To maintain the ac cident book, register's and other record's as the need arises. To maintain apparatus to high standard. Attend regular staff meetings and be familiar with the organisation of preschool. Assist with fundraising activities. 1. – Identify standards that influence the way your role is carried out: EYFS Children's Act 1989 Children's Act 2004 Data Protection Act 1998 Admissions Policy Settling In & Transition Policy Equality & Diversity Policy Special Educational Needs/Disability Policy Health & Safety Policy Fire Procedure Risk Assessment Forms Continence & Personal Development Policy Medication Policy Medication Forms Safeguarding Children Policy & Procedures Behaviour Management Policy & Practice Confidentiality Policy Data Handling Policy Record Keeping Guidance Emergency Closure PolicyParental Involvement Policy Visitors Policy Complaints Procedure Procedure in the event of an allegation being made against a member of staff Staffing & Employment Policy Code of Conduct – Promoting Safe Practice Social Networking Policy Internet Policy Mobile Telephone Policy Drugs and Alcohol Policy Harassment & Bullying Policy & Procedure Whistle Blowing Policy Student Placement Policy Volunteer Policy Procedure for Uncollected Children Procedure for when a child leaves the group unaccompanied Equipment & Resources Policy Environmental Policy Food & Drink Policy Healthy Eating PolicyProcedure for Outings Consent Form for Outings 1. 3– Describe ways to ensure that personal attitudes and beliefs do not obstruct the quality of work: listen, be patient and don't be judgmental and stay impartial this could also include being supportive and empathetic in certain situations. Making sure a variety of toys, snacks and activities are tailored and available for different children's and children's parents beliefs and background this is a lovely way to teach children about the differences there are in each other and showing them its nice and exciting to have individual experiences and beliefs.I particularly like the celebrations of different festivals and special occasions from around the world and how the children love to get involved either by dressing up in costume's, trying new and different foods or listening to the different types of music from other countries. Making sure all the children and children’s parents/carers are made to feel important and that you can be approached by them at anytime and they feel you can be open-minded but professional about any concerns or worries they may have.

challenge Faced BY Modern accommodation Manager

Modern accommodation agents and companies in the contemporary global world are facing various challenges. The issues related to contemporary accommodation problems can be linked to market demands, increased competition, technological advancements and customer needs (Aurecongroup.com, 2017). Another global challenge that seems to be a major problem for accommodation agencies is the lack of sufficient availability of resources and utilization of the same resources.   For instance, agencies may require adequate resources to build on the best satisfaction of their clients' needs. Accommodations department may also lack adequate support for management of their resources thus leading to mismanagement of the company available resources when resources are mismanaged especially in an entrepreneurial accommodation industry, other areas or departments within the organization are also likely to be affected since accommodation often entails several packages that are interrelated to each other. The aim of this assignment is to address factors related to accommodation challenges. The paper shall also discuss remedies for proper customer service in the accommodation industry. Outsourcing is a business strategy that entails duty or role sharing among companies or organizations.   Outsourcing process occurs when an organization or an individual company takes the role of performing or providing products and services on behalf of other businesses (Wuyts, 2015).The most organization often applies the outsourcing strategy in the verge of saving costs.   Outsourcing can be both beneficial and non-beneficial. Outsourcing may prove to be cost saving when properly utilized. Outsourcing is the most appropriate measure that hotel managers can take into consideration in ensuring that their customer needs are met. Outsourcing in hotel management is viable as it is aimed towards ensuring that clients get access to quality services from experts (Johnson et al. 2014). Outsourcing makes hotel management easier as it attracts more customers to the business chain because outsourcing is more often than not based on professional rather than just poor practices (Langer, Mani, and Srikanth, 2014). Large accommodation industries should consider adopting an outsourcing practice in the management of their business. This is because outsourcing will help the hotel cooperative to develop effective customer relations, maintain stability and increase the hotel income earnings. Departments That Can Utilize Outsourcing Departments that can use outsourcing in the hotel management industry are as follows; Outsourcing is an important approach to hotel industries; hotel managers should adopt outsourcing practices due to the following reasons. First, outsourcing enables managers to focus on primary business in the given department. Managers adopting the outsourcing practice perceive it as a more appropriate practice as services can be partially shared among specific qualified individuals or company thus ensuring quality (Gunasekaran, 2015). Secondly, outsourcing is an open approach as hotel managers can choose to delegate an entire or partial duty to an individual or other organizations. Nevertheless, partial outsourcing is often more encouraged in hotel industries so as to avoid disappointments in the delivery of services (Lacity and Willcocks, 2014). For instance, a hotel that conducts or connect to their customers via online platforms should consider outsourcing more than one IT system company; this will enable the hotel managers to maintain customer communication balance in case of failures of one of the departments. Thirdly, outsourcing helps hotel managers in establishing proper on-site assistance for employees thus leading to better performance. for example outsourcing of outside professionals to enhance employees professional skills promotes better and improved performance among the trained employees. Fourthly, outsourcing help bridge employees gap within the organization while at the same time saving on the capital costs. For example, partial outsourcing of services to other agencies helps reduce the work load of employees within the hotel. Outsourcing also helps in covering up for organizations that have few employees and ensures that employee’s workload is not overstretched (People matters. in, 2017) Fifthly, outsourcing in the hotel industry is a sure way of fulfilling customer demands satisfaction (Research, 2017). This is because outsourcing often involves engagement of qualified personnel in given areas thus promoting quality delivery of services to clients.   Finally, outsourcing ensures efficient operational services as it exposes the organization to different specialized vendor systems this allowing the hotel managers an opportunity to choose from the most preferred provider service. Drawbacks Of Moving To An Outsourced Organization The first drawback of outsourcing in hotel management is the quality alteration. Sometimes outsourcing may not prove to be the best approach for managers who wish to maintain service quality to customers. This is because partial outsourcing to different organizations may differ regarding quality thus creating a different version of a given product and service rather than creating consistency. The second drawback for outsourcing is that it may lead to employees’ layoff due to its cheaper costs (Dolgui and Proth, 2013).   Some employees may end up losing their jobs in an instance where an organization decides to employ an outsourcing approach. For example, the hotel management online payment approach may lead to losing of jobs for cashiers and accountants. Outsourcing is also associated with labor issues in instances whereby employees from different organization lack sufficient knowledge of what is expected of them. The third drawback of outsourcing is the ignorance to legal compliance and security. Some managers often assume acquiring formal legal documentation of the outsourcing process thus leading to conflicts in cases of breach of contracts or agreement. It is important for investors to ensure that the outsourcing process is legal and that both concerned parties retain a copy of the agreement. Another outsourcing problem is that it may not solve all the customer needs especially in a situation whereby outsourcing is granted to a different nation with dissimilar interest to the organization in place (Carruth et al., 2013).   For instance, giving a call center to a country that speaks the different language to that of several customers may lead to customer demand dissatisfaction. Accommodation management planning sector is influenced by three main factors which are; priority, company resource and forecasting   (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2017). Most accommodation industries often aim at generating revenues thus altering the planning process of other projects within the industry. For instance, an accommodation agency may give more priority to customer satisfaction and ignore investing in active planning processes that will enhance customer satisfaction. Lack of sufficient company resources may prevent accommodation managers from achieving their planned goals. For example, an organization may have an intention of expanding its customer capacity and capital butt lack enough financial resources to do so. Inappropriate forecasting in accommodation management makes it difficult to plan for the success achievement of the accommodation services (Pereira, 2016). For instance, a forecast in the change of the accommodation material prices may interfere with the accommodation agency planned budget. Some of the issues contributing to controlling influence in accommodation management are; culture, financial administration, and customer service   Culture influence on accommodation management is prevalent in global accommodation services whereby people from the diverse community would prefer other accommodation services to others due to various cultural services offered (Ali & Amin, 2014). Customer service provision is a major controlling influence in accommodation management as it determines the incomes earning of an agency. Proper handling of customers enhances better accommodation agency growth while poor customer service limits an agency controlling influence for growth. Financial management determines the controlling influence in accommodation management.   Proper financial management enhances the strategic development of the set goals while poor fiscal management makes it difficult for an organization to control their expenditure. The first importance of handling customer and their needs is to ensure that client's grievances are heard and appropriately addressed thus ensuring customer satisfaction with the service offered to them. The other relevance of handling customer needs id to enhance the better relationship between customers and an enterprise. A well-developed customer relation promotes a company brand as it creates trust a feeling of allegiance among customers to the enterprise. Addressing customer needs and handling customers contributes to organization stability as happy customers often have a trend of coming back for better services. Therefore, addressing customer needs and managing customers in a friendly manner will contribute to the increase of organization net incomes. Handling customers with respect is also a method that an organization can use in popularizing their brand as customers are more likely to give positive feedback on the services they have received. Positive feedback, especially in business scenario, has the capacity of growing organization segmentation as positive feedback attracts more clients (Cambra-Fierro, Melero and Sese, 2015) Accommodation is one of the most delicate departments in the service industry, overcoming accommodation challenges needs the manager to address issues dealing with planning and proper customer management as these are the two largest contributors to accommodation challenges (Berman, 2015). An alteration of resource within one part or department of the accommodation industry may thus cause interference of the entire unit. Ali, F. and Amin, M., 2014. The influence of physical environment on culture, customer satisfaction and behavioral intentions in the Chinese resort hotel industry. Journal of   International Business Advancement, 7(3), pp.249-266. Aurecongroup.com. (2017). The hotel industry: our experts discuss the mega trends. [online] Available at: https://www.aurecongroup.com/en/thinking/insights/aurecons-successful-hotels/the-hotel-industry-our-experts-discuss-the-mega-trends.aspx [Accessed 4 Apr. 2017]. Berman, E., 2015. Performance and productivity in public and nonprofitable organizations. Routledge. Cambra-Fierro, J., Melero, I., and Sese, F.J., 2015. Managing Complaints to improve customer profitability. Journal of Retailing, 91(1), pp.109-124. Caruth, D., Haden, S.S. and Caruth, G.D, 2013. Critical factors in human resource outsourcing. Journal of Management Research, 13(3), p.1. Dolgui, A. and Perth, J.M., 2013. Outsourcing: definitions and analysis. International Journal of Production Research, 51(23-24), pp.6769-6777. Gunasekaran, A., Irani, Z., Choy, K.L., Filippi, L., and Papadopoulos, T., 2015. Performance measures and outsourcing decisions metrics: A review of research and applications. International Journal of Production Economics, 161, pp.153-166. Johnson, G., Wilding, P., and Robson, A., 2014. Can outsourcing recruitment deliver satisfaction? A hiring manager perspective. Personnel review, 43(2), pp.303-326. Lacity, M. and Willcocks, L., 2014. Business process outsourcing and dynamic innovation. Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal, 7(1), pp.66-92. Langer, N., Mani, D. and Srikanth, K., 2014. Client satisfaction and profitability: An empirical analysis of the impact of precise controls in strategic outsourcing contracts. In Information Systems Outsourcing (pp. 67-88). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Peoplematters.in. (2017). People Matters - Interstitial Site. [online] Available at: https://www.peoplematters.in/article/training-development/bridge-skills-gap-know-and-grow-your-employees-12507?utm_source=peoplematters&utm_medium=interstitial&utm_campaign=learnings-of-the-day [Accessed 4 Apr. 2017]. Pereira, L.N., 2016. An introduction to helpful forecasting methods in revenue management of hotels. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 58, pp.13-23. Research, H. (2017).   Marketing BPO Will Significance on the CMOs of Tomorrow. [online] Outsource magazine: thought-leadership and outsourcing strategy. Available at: https://outsourcemag.com/how-marketing-bpo-will-help-the-cmos-of-tomorrow/ [Accessed 4 Apr. 2017]. Smallbusiness.chron.com. (2017). Factors That Affect Planning in an Organization. [online] Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/factors-affect-planning-organization-72.html [Accessed 4 Apr. 2017]. Sparrow, P., Brewster, C. and Chung, C., 2016. Globalizing human resource management. Routledge Tandfonline.com. (2017). The associations between training outsourcing and employee commitment in an organization content: Human Resource Development International: Vol 17, No 2. [online] Accessed from; https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13678868.2014.886444 [Accessed 4 Apr. 2017]. Wuyts, S., Rindfleisch, A. and Citrin, A., 2015. Outsourcing customer support: The role of provider customer focus. Journal of Operations Management, 35, pp.40-55

The Paradoxes Entailed in America's Self-Evident Truths Essay

The Paradoxes Entailed in America's Self-Evident Truths - Essay Example Is American democracy a representative of a true democracy? Does it cater the smaller factions of society? Has the democratic system fostered the rights of liberty, justice, life and pursuit of happiness to good effect for masses once challenged by terrorism, racism, poverty and recession? What good it has brought to its people? Why does America deserve to lead world community? Finally, conclusion is inquired about by addressing the question that How American dream can be pursued in its true democratic meaning? Isn’t it strange that few render democracy as the bludgeoning of the people, by the people, for the people? On the other hand, for some, it is a government of all the people, by all the people, for all the people; a government after the principles of eternal justice, the unchanging law of God; the idea of freedom. Idea of democracy as rule of people traces its expression from Athens in ancient Greek. From a philosophical stand point doctrines of natural law evolved into the idea of natural rights, i.e., all people have certain rights, such as self-preservation, that cannot be taken from them. Then, why should majority rule minority? Tocqueville (1945) argues that the doctrine of the sovereignty of the people and the power of public opinion are corollaries to the idea of equality. If all are equal, then no one person has any basis to claim the right to rule other. The only just way to run a society, therefore, is to base decisions on the will of the majority. But does the fact accord moral justification to it? This question has triggered a debate between two main schools of thought in philosophy, naturalists and positivists, for centuries. Naturalists believe that a system of governance should primarily be moral in nature whereas positivists believe that question does not necessarily have be answered in a moral dictate as any law or system of governance posited by man should be taken as such and can be debated for its pros and cons independent of m oral enquiry. Many positivists justified Nazism using the argument. John Finnis (1983) argues that it was only the end of Nazism which marked revival of moral justifications of laws/system of government. Ironically, question of whim of a majority more moral than the whim of a dictator struggles to provide a definite answer.Yet the problem with democracy is that it can quite easily lead to despotism. Tocqueville (1945) believes that if there are no checks on the power of the majority to influence the government, then it will have absolute power and those in the minority will be helpless to resist. If all are equal then no opinion has greater weight than another. It is logical to conclude that the opinion held by the majority must be the best one. As a result, there is a tendency to abandon freedom of thought in democratic societies. Going against the opinion of the majority is seen as an indirect claim to the superiority of one's own opinion, which is directly contradictory to the pr inciple of equality. Kimon Lycos (1987) points out that Plato described democracy as a charming form of government, full of variety and disorder, and dispensing a sort of equality to equals and unequaled alike. Likewise, Tocqueville (1945) argues, "Formerly tyranny used the clumsy weapons of chains and hangmen; nowadays even despotism, though it seemed to have nothing to learn, has been perfected by civilization. . . Under the absolute government of a single man, despotism, to reach the soul,

Business Planning- ECO chair Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Business Planning- ECO chair - Assignment Example The group members plan to form a private limited company in making this echo chair in order to commercialize the idea in real market in the UK. The business is going to be funded 67% by the group members 33% by investors who are interested in our business. The mission of the business is to produce furniture that are environmentally friendly and use naturally available products that are cheaply available. The report presented the key elements of a conventional business plan such as production, marketing, profitability, and competitive advantages (Rumelt, 2011, p.66). The business concept of the group is based on environmental trends of concern to people’s daily life and the social importance of outdoor activates and events. The large printable surface of the chair can be a major strength in the commercialization process since it provides a special channel for advertising the product to the market. The process from market analysis to company financials guides the walk through the essential components of the plan. This includes how to come up with funding request or obtaining additional funds for the project (Vesper, 1996). These key elements of a business plan include product description, people involved in the project, marketing, and finance. The echo chair is a new and the unique product from the conventional innovative products. The concept is inspired by the need for environmental protection and use of natural renewable resources. The product developed by the group will use cheaply available renewable resources making it a viable idea. Initial production process of the product is to be outsourced to external manufacturers who will help with the design. This will help in reducing initial cost of establishing a manufacturing unit, human resource management, and equipments. In order to ensure quality control, the original materials for manufacturing the

Health Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Health Report - Essay Example I had an opportunity to interview one of the directors. He narrated their foremost great achievement of implementing the healthy, hunger-free kids Act. The Act remains imperative in improving and reauthorizing child nutrition programs. They were to get rid of unhealthy food and beverage in school, and other social amenities. This legislation provides more than 31 million American children who need greater access to healthy amenities. Despite some challenges, about 90% of schools have reported to meet the set food and beverages standards. NANA has improved nutrition and physical resources at CDC. Funding amplified between $2 in 1998 to $45 million in 2010. This has helped improve their services to the targeted population in the USA. NANA has made great achievements and improved the lives of many, thereby reducing deaths and health related diseases amongst children. I would recommend the government to be part of the greater contribution to create room for better services. The merging organization have helped in ensuring that the preferred healthy living is met in local areas and gives back report to NANA for better servicing. Science-based nutrition guidelines for school foods have also reinforced parents’ efforts to help their children eat healthy, making NANA’s work much easier at times. Story, M., Nanney, M. S., & Schwartz, M. B. (2009). Schools and obesity prevention: creating school environments and policies to promote healthy eating and physical activity. Milbank Quarterly. 87(1): 71–100. doi:

Rhetorical Analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 13

Rhetorical Analysis - Essay Example Firstly, the exigence, or problem presented is the issue of an abundance of poor children of beggar women present on the streets of Ireland, and the burdens that these children bear upon the countries economy and poverty stricken parents. This is an exigence, as such a problem can certainly be modified or improved via human interference. Swift uses persuasive language to describe this problem in a way which exemplifies and presents it in a very particular light which suits his argument. The second part of the rhetorical situation here, is the audience, being those citizens of Ireland which are capable of contributing and making a difference to the problem as Swift suggests. Lastly, the constraints of the situation are presented as being related to time and money. However, the author conveys them as being possible to overcome by explaining specific ways in which the constraints and problem can be solved and/or improved. One of the principal ways in which Swift attempts to move the audience is by the use of pathos. Pathos is identified as being the use of language, words, style and tone with a view to appealing to the emotions of the reader in some way. Swift achieves this quite effectively in several ways throughout the article. For example, he uses very specific words and phrases which directly appeal to emotional sensibilities such as ‘melancholy’, ‘poor innocent babes’, and ‘inhuman’. Such specific terms and phrasing are quite shocking and very fervently appeal to emotions. The author also uses whole sentences in this context, which can be seen throughout the article, for example, ‘that horrid practise of women murdering their bastard children, alas!’ By describing the action as ‘horrid’ and using personal exclamations such as ‘alas!’ with an exclamation mark, Swift is making very strong and direct attempts to convey t he unfortunate events to the audience in ways which appeal to their

History 20th century america Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

History 20th century america - Movie Review Example All this helps better understand why film is such a valuable source which, if properly analyzed, can uncover a lot of information about the historical period when it was created. Within the majority of modern western cultures there are films that are traditionally perceived as defining national cinematographies. In the United States there can be found many such exemplary films as well. But few other movies can rival such acknowledged masterpieces as "The Birth of a Nation", filmed by D. W. Griffith and premiered in 1915, and "Gone With the Wind", produced by 1939 by cooperative effort of David O. Selznick and Victor Fleming. Being separated by almost a quarter of century, an immensely long period for the explosively advancing genre of cinematography, both of those films in their respective period of time boldly set new standards for film making that would define the future cinematographic approaches. But aside from their purely artistic and professional merits, it is not less important to mention that "The Birth of a Nation" and "Gone With the Wind" fully comply with our observation of the preservative function of film. Indeed, what makes these films invalua ble is their record of controversial views on the acute racial problems that emerged during the post-Civil War emancipation of former black American slaves, and which were also urgent in the days of the films production. With these observations in mind, let us investigate how black Americans are portrayed in the film "The Birth of a Nation", how does the film represent the Ku Klux Klan and its role in the Southern life, and what do "The Birth of a Nation" and its reception reveal about white Americans attitudes toward blacks in the early twentieth century. Also, let us contrast such observations with "Gone with the Wind" with its own interpretation of the post-Civil War emancipation. Since the dawn of cinema, the American Civil War has been the main theme for numerous directors, but one of the most prominent figures in the history of cinematography in its preoccupation with the topic of the Civil War was D. W. Griffith. Films of Griffith, whose father was a former Confederate Colonel, were definitely influenced by the late nineteenth-century Southern Romance novelists with their stories of aristocratic owners of plantations, Southern beauties, and faithful slaves (Wagenknecht 1975, pp. 28-29). During his celebrated career, Griffith produced thirteen silent films that touched the topic of the Civil War. Among these, "The Birth of a Nation", premiered in 1915, is most well-known, largely due to its debatable and openly racist stance. The film is based on the play "The Clansman" of Thomas Dixon, which extols the Ku Klux Klan as the redeemer of Aryan race endangered after the period of the Reconstruction. However, despite its problematic representation of racial issu es, this film is nevertheless the landmark American masterpiece not only among the Civil War films, but in the whole field of cinematography, so that everyone who studies the history of film must study "The Birth of a N

Innovation in the public sector - The extent to which innovation in Literature review

Innovation in the public sector - The extent to which innovation in the public sector affects public service quality - Literature review Example This definition seems straightforward and lucid in its meaning, but it conceals the actual intricacy of this subject, as with majority of the definitions of innovation. It was observed that the innovation process is social, interactive, and extensive; numerous individuals with various resources, competencies, and capabilities have to come together in order to successfully innovate (Leadbeater, 2003). Forty years of studying innovation within the private sector and nearly twenty years of curiosity for the innovation within the public sector has demonstrated that innovation is a complex trend that comes out in the context of many interceding factors, and there exists no universal formula that can be implemented to guarantee its success (Borins, 2001). Why Innovate Within the Public Sector? At least potentially, common to all companies are political motives for innovation (Mintzberg, 1989). However, these political motives are, by nature, less acquiescent to analysis and rational planni ng. When taking into account the more strategic, economic motives, these are ostensibly more pertinent in the private sector than the public. Public companies are not likely to survive within markets where the level of competition is high. Compared to business, public companies generally exist within a more complicated social system, with values and objectives that are more vague and hard to put a figure on (March & Olsen, 1989; Lewis & Hartley, 2001, Denis, Hebert, Langley, Lozeau, & Trottier, 2002). There are also other restraints, including the desire or need to avoid â€Å"rocking the boat† for susceptible service users. On the whole, the risks are usually greater and the motivations to innovate are lower in the public sector than in the private sector. Innovation in the public sector may thus come to be regarded, at least in some situations, as an â€Å"additional burden or optional extra† (Mulgan & Albury, 2003). Then again, there are essential drivers and conten tions in favor of innovating within the public sector. The image and reputation of local and national governments can be enhanced by exploiting innovation in three key approaches. First, currently and in the UK and USA (Moore, 2005) in particular, public companies are attacked on a regular basis for their efficiency levels and service quality. They may be critically compared to private institution working in the same subject areas. Second, administrations are eager to send off a public image that will attract private investments and increase global appeal. One example can be derived from the field of academic research. This impetus is also intensely apparent in the embracing of â€Å"e-government† strategies and/or ICTs by the government and other public companies (McLoughlin et al, 2004). Third, the government must call for votes, and/or be interested in the fulfillment of manifesto obligations or austerely, in marking their identity on the public sector as an outcome of ele ctions or observed changes in public opinion. In a dynamic society, innovation is critical factor in the effectiveness of public service management (Hartley, 2005; Walker, 2004; Mulgan & Albury, 2

Therapy in Counselling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Therapy in Counselling - Essay Example He states that from knowledge, evolves curriculum and this is as a result of society's cultural, social and political forces. He goes on to say that living systems are interconnected and open to the flow of molecules thus their behaviour is what happens in the interaction between the organism and a medium. The language system has been proposed by Rorschach. Rorschach advances several ways in which the counsellor can employ so that the counsellor can get the best results during the counselling session. The arguments or methods laid down by Rorschach include the use of social construction, Rorschach and the preferred view, use of self information method, the use of Rorschach laddering procedure, the use of Rorschach pyramid procedure and finally the use of personal constructivism. Rorschach believes that employment of two or more of the methods mentioned above during a counselling session will have extensive and conclusive results rather than the use of one (Raskin, 2001). The first similarity between the articles presented by the two theorists comes in when they talk about solving problems. Both of them agree that there should be a collaboration of people in solving a problem, be it between a teacher and a student, a client and a counsellor or between a wife and a husband Both theorists believe in r... 3. First point of difference Apart from the similarities above, the theorists differ also in a number of concepts. One of the concepts is the issue dealing with knowledge. While Maturana says that knowledge is all about interpersonal relationships, Rorschach sees knowledge in terms of living organisms trying to fit to constrains of their environment. 4. Second point of difference The second point of difference comes in terms of the viewpoints that each support in the counselling process. Rorschach supports the use of multiple viewpoints while dealing with clients. Maturana on the other hand is not for the idea but rather says a single viewpoint is enough to diagnose and solve a problem (Joy, 1994). Implication The theorists advanced above can serve well in a counselling session. Depending on the kind of problem to be tackled, then both theorists have a case to bring forward. The paper observes that Rorschach ways or methods of handling a counselling session would best serve in a complicated problem. Such a problem includes that which has no instant cure or solution and one that requires proper scrutiny of the factors that brought out the problem. Maturana's solution is not that complicated and thus it can be applied to a majority of problems that are not complicated or it involves only a number of minor issues. The minor issues must be minimal in number. References Joy, M. (1994). Maturana's Biology and Some Possible Implication for Education. Retrieved August 31, 2009, from http://www.univie.ac.at/constructivism/pub/seized/educat.html Raskin, J. D. (2001). Constructivism and Projective Assessment of Meaning in Rorschach Administration. Journal of

The magic of the Arabian Nights Essay Example for Free

The magic of the Arabian Nights Essay The original, authentic, real Ur-text of the Arabian Nights (aka Alf Layla wa-Layla, or the Tales of a Thousand and One Nights, or just the Nights) is a mythical beast. There are far more than a thousand and one nights, for the thirty-four-and-a-half stories in the fourteenth or fifteenth century â€Å"core† body of the Nights were soon supplemented by other tales in Arabic and Persian, from the culture of medieval Baghdad and Cairo, and then in Hindi and Urdu and Turkish, tales carried by pilgrims and crusaders, merchants and raiders, back and forth by land and sea. And then came the narratives added by European translators, as well as the adaptations (in paintings and films) and retellings by modern novelists and poets. There is no agreed-upon table of contents. As Marina Warner points out, at the start of this enchanting book, â€Å"the stories themselves are shape-shifters†, and the Arabian Nights, like â€Å"one of the genies who stream out of a jar in a pillar of smoke†, took on new forms under new masters. The corpus lacks not only parents but a birthplace; Persia, Iraq, India, Syria and Egypt all claim to have spawned it. So the Thousand and One Arabian Nights are not only not a thousand and one but not (just) Arabian. The chronological and cultural strata of the Nights are like the layers of a nested Russian doll: you pull off the twentieth century (Salman Rushdie in Haroun and the Sea of Stories, Walt Disney, Errol Flynn) and then the nineteenth and eighteenth century (Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy, Jean Antoine Galland, Richard Francis Burton, Edward W. Lane); and finally you get to the Arabic sources, and you think you’ve hit pay dirt. But then you sense, behind the Arabic, Homer and the Mahabharata, and the Bible, and you see that there is no there there. It’s not an artichoke – peel away the leaves of the later, accreted, interpolated layers until you find the original centre – but an onion: peel away the leaves and at the centre you find – nothing. Or, perhaps, everything; lacking a birthplace, the Nights also lack a grave: â€Å"The book cannot ever be read to its conclusion†, says Warner: â€Å"it is still being written†. Scholars who could not cure themselves of the nineteenth-century obsession  of searching for the source (of the Nights, of the Nile, of the human race . . .) were soon disappointed to discover that many of the most popular tales – including â€Å"Sinbad†, â€Å"Aladdin and his lamp†, and â€Å"Ali Baba and the forty thieves† – were arrivistes, with no legitimate Arab parents. Jorge Luis Borges, in his essay on â€Å"The Translators of the Thousand and One Nights†, credits Hanna Diab, the Christian Arab colleague of Galland, with the invention of several of these â€Å"orphan tales†. Aditya Behl (in Love’s Subtle Magic, 2012) traces Sinbad back to Sanskrit tales of Sanudasa the merchant. Like the beast fables and mirrors for princes that travelled from India to Europe, so too these sailors’ yarns about the marvels of the Indies circulated in the Islamic and pre-Islamic world of the Indian Ocean. (There is also a thirteenth-century Hebrew text of the Sinbad story). But for many people, the Arabian Nights without â€Å"Sinbad† or â€Å"Aladdin† is like Hamlet without Hamlet, and purists who produced â€Å"authentic† editions without these tales met with such backlash from the reading public that they quickly published supplementary volumes including the beloved bastards. Warner’s subtle unravelling of the rich history of this tradition, from the earliest Arabic traces to present-day interpretations, demonstrates that each of the many versions has a claim to its own authenticity. Yet, within the Arabic tradition, the tales of the Nights were discounted as popular trash, pulp fiction; despite numerous allusions to the Prophet, and quotations and echoes of the Qur’an, they were â€Å"too much fun, often transgressive or amoral fun, to be orthodox or respectable . . .†. Galland cleaned out the homosexual episodes, but Burton (whom Warner calls â€Å"the Frank Harris of the desert and the bazaar†) footnoted them and generally made the tales more salacious, stealing most of them from Richard Payne and adding many of his own, thumbing his nose at the prevailing prudery of Victorian Britain, â€Å"with glee and a fair deal of invention, projection, and transference†. One reviewer epitomized the European translators as â€Å"Galland for the nursery, Lane for the library, Payne for the study, and Burton for the sewers.† Stranger Magic: Charmed states and the â€Å"Arabian Nights† explodes two myths about the Nights: that only the Arabic stories are the â€Å"real ones† and that  you need to know Arabic to understand the Arabian Nights. The two ideas are mutually reinforcing: if there were a single ancient Arabic text, one might well want to read it in the original language; but since there is no such text, the stories in all languages and translations are fair game for all of us to respond to (a creative process in which, as Borges put it, â€Å"the translator is being translated†). The full spectrum of stories certainly yields spectacular insights in the hands of Warner, Professor of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies at the University of Essex, who knows more than anyone alive about the uses of myth and folklore in literature, fine arts, and film. She has written eye-opening books about fairy tales about women (From the Beast to the Blonde: On fairy tales and their tellers, 1996) and men (No Go the Bogeyman: On scaring, lulling, and making mock, 2000) and spirits (Phantasmagoria, 2006) and much else. She is fluent in a number of European and classical languages. But she does not know Arabic. Though she grew up in Cairo and spoke Arabic as a child, â€Å"unfortunately nobody encouraged me to keep it up, and besides, I never could read it†. I must confess that, as a card-carrying Sanskrit snob myself, I first regarded Warner’s lack of Arabic as a potential barrier to her understanding of the stories; after all, as she herself remarks, of William Beckford (1760–1844), â€Å"Beckford paid attention to these inconsistencies and weaknesses in the fabric of the narrative, possibly because he was working from an Arabic manuscript, and the discipline of translation sharpens one’s wits†. Of course, Warner makes good use of the work of scholars of Arabic, pointing out, for instance, contrasts between the Arabic texts in which a huge female jinn (or genie) takes a trophy ring from 570 men, and the translations, in which she gets only ninety-eight. Moreover, the linguistic subtleties that can be achieved only by â€Å"working from an Arabic manuscript† are not essential to the hunt for the larger game that Warner is after, which is a literary archaeology and analysis of what the Nights have meant to people in diverse cultures and epochs, not merely as amusing Oriental artefacts but as profound sources of human understanding. And even linguistic purists will pardon Warner, as W. H. Auden once pardoned  Paul Claudel, for writing well. A fine novelist, Warner works her legerdemain, hiding behind the velvet curtain at the end of the book the endnotes that betray the extraordinary erudition under the elegant prose. She appreciates good writing and laces her book with bons mots from other writers as well as with her own memorable lines, such as â€Å"Homo narrans observes no ethnic divisions, and has more than one god before him† and â€Å"At a level beneath the surface of the narratives, a meaning gathers definition, the watermark in their fabric†. Good writing, good storytelling, is the heroine of this book, embodied in the heroine of the frame story within which all the other stories are gathered: Shahrazad (Scheherazade). The cuckolded and embittered Sultan Shahriyar every night marries a virgin whom he beheads in the morning; Shahrazad volunteers, but after they have slept together she tells him a story that is still unfinished at dawn; the Sultan postpones her execution to the next day, and the next, on and on; in the course of the stories, she cures the Sultan of his misogyny. This is a story about storytelling, feminist protest, dreams, sex and violence. For Warner, it is the springboard for a meditation, threaded throughout the book, on writing as an amulet, a talisman; for writing as magic; and for the story within a story. Putting your own frame around your story makes you the author instead of just a character in someone else’s story – though of course you may be that too, whether you know it or not. The frame mechanism also underlies the themes of the dreamer dreamt, dreams within dreams, and shared dreams, which abound in the Nights, where â€Å"the storytelling scene itself in the Sultan’s bedroom wraps the stories in the night†. Moreover, as Warner points out, â€Å"the anti-realism of the stories matches dream experiences: suddenness and vividness, fragmentation, episodic and often entangling structures, displacements in time and space, the instability of bodies, and a recurrence of certain motifs, are all features of dreams†. Some dreamers move about on flying beds, apropos of which Warner notes that the English words sofa (from suffiah in Arabic), divan (from diwan in Persian), and ottoman (Turkish) are all words for a day bed; the oriental sofa became â€Å"the epitome of oriental hedonism, . . . a low-lying  couch for reclining and abandoning oneself, alone or with others – to love-making, autoeroticism, smoking, gossiping, daydreaming, to storytelling, reading and studying, and to quietness and reflection†. It is the place where daydreaming readers lie fantasizing about the stories they’ve read. The dream stories, too, fly all over. The tale of â€Å"A Fortune Regained† is about a man who learns, from another man’s dream, where his own fortune is hidden. Borges retold it as â€Å"The Story of Two Dreamers† and attributes it to the Arab historian al-Ishaqi, but it also entered Jewish Hassidic tradition (as the tale of Rabbi Eisik from Cracow) and was retold by Martin Buber. Sanskritists can trace some of the dream tales in the Nights back to the Sanskrit text of the Yogavasistha, which was composed alongside the Ocean of Stories, the Indian version of the Arabian Nights (frames within frames, and all), in Kashmir in the eleventh or twelfth century. But Warner’s goal is different; she traces the dream stories forward to our present world, where the idea that the individual mind creates its own reality, which other consciousnesses may enter and control, â€Å"has become a central modern myth, paranoid, solipsistic, and deeply deterministic. It has gained purchase because it matches the way many experience their lives†. Warner chooses just fifteen stories to retell briefly, from both the oldest and later layers (though she does not include â€Å"Sinbad† or â€Å"Aladdin and his lamp†: there is an Aladdin, but instead of a lamp he has a flying bed). Each story inspires an essay on several themes central to that story: jinns, carpets, witches, magicians, dervishes, dream knowledge, Orientalism, King Solomon, talismans, Voltaire and his crowd, Goethe, flying, toys, money, shadows, films, machines, couches, and much, much more. The essays form a coherent chain. This is not, however, a book to read straight through but one to wander in, forward and back, night after night. Most of the stories involve magic. Warner’s argument about the importance of magical thinking in modernity is not particularly surprising, but she documents it in highly original ways. Her analysis of the exoticization of magic through the use of Oriental material, since the eighteenth century,  enhances her discussion of the way that early films of stories from the Nights superimpose Arabic magic on the magic of filmmaking, so that the magic flying horse becomes an objective correlative of the projector, with the peg between the ears of the magic steed, and the brake on the tail, echoing the mechanism that controls the passage of the film through the projector. There is also the magic of speech acts, not just, â€Å"With this ring I thee wed† but â€Å"Hoc est corpus meum†, which inspired the phrase â€Å"hocus pocus† in mockery of the â€Å"trick of transubstantiation†. Warner discusses the magic of things (such as rings and carpets) as fetishes, and cites Lorraine Daston’s insight (in Things That Talk, 2004) into idols (from the Greek eidolon), illusions that are misleading and fraudulent. Daston contrasts idols with evidence, but notes that the two often blend together; forensic exhibits may be fabricated or, on the other hand, become powerful fetishes and take on the idol’s ability to haunt. Warner compares these â€Å"objects with uncanny life† to Winnicott’s transitional objects and to the quasi-magical functioning of her BlackBerry, Satnav, and iPod. And then there is the magic of Freud. Warner suggests that when Freud called his couch an ottoman and covered it with a Persian carpet, he may have been, â€Å"consciously or unconsciously†, creating an Oriental setting for the first psychoanalytical talking cures, â€Å"a form of storytelling, with the roles reversed (it is the narrator who needs to be healed, not the listener-Sultan)†. Freud, who kept a statue of the Hindu god Vishnu on his desk, was very much an Orientalist. Orientalism looms large in Stranger Magic. â€Å"The Orient in the Arabian Nights has its own Orient†, says Warner, also quoting Amit Chaudhuri: â€Å"The Orient, in modernity, is not only a European invention but also an Oriental one†. Fairy tales had always had what Warner calls â€Å"a structural impulse† to imagine that dangerous magic came from far away, but the â€Å"gradual orientalisation of magicians† exacerbated the tendency to have the dirty work done by strangers, â€Å"so that the home team keeps its hands clean and its smile all innocence†. Warner writes in the shadow of Edward Said’s Orientalism (1978), but she is also sympathetic to Said’s later, more balanced, more generous self (in Culture and Imperialism, 1993), and she  acknowledges some of the positive uses of Orientalism. Through the dynamics of â€Å"reverse colonization†, eighteenth-century Europeans used images of Orientalist despotism and sexual and religious depravity to parody their own culture; Voltaire’s satirical Oriental contes were â€Å"an obvious instance of the West putting on Eastern dress in order to examine itself more clearly†. Western feminists could write of â€Å"emancipation in the Oriental mode†, calling up the image of Eastern men, castigated for tyranny and sexual abuses; while the effeminate East reflected Western women’s condition back to them. Performances of plays about Aladdin, in Britain, were used to address, covertly, arguments about the slave trade in America. The film The Thief of Bagdad (1924, directed by Raoul Walsh, and starring Douglas Fairbanks) is, as Warner points out, â€Å"flagrantly Orientalist†. It ends with the Thief â€Å"acclaimed by the adoring grateful multitude as he enters the city at the head of an army bent on rescuing Baghdad from the tyrant emperor†. For us, the city is no longer Hollywood’s â€Å"Bagdad†, but CNN’s Baghdad. As I read Stranger Magic, the city of Bagdad/Baghdad shimmered before my eyes in a double image: the magical place of flying carpets and the scene of a devastating war. I was stunned by the relevance of phrases from the old stories, such as, â€Å"He falls into such a rage he declares war on Iraq: he will lay the country to waste†. Eventually we learn that Baghdad and Iraq had those double meanings for Warner as well. How could they not? As she viewed the film, The Thief of Bagdad, during the war in Iraq in 2003, it became â€Å"an unconscious parable of Western expansionism at the level of nations†. She began the research for this book during the first Gulf War, and wrote it â€Å"during the many, appalling and unresolved conflicts in the regions where the Nights originated. I wanted to present another side of the culture cast as the enemy and an alternative history to vengeance and war†. Not that the Nights themselves come off scot-free; the â€Å"later layers† of narratives include a lot of violence against Christians and conversion to Islam, while the European translations are often anti-Semitic. But in earlier layers there is more interfaith marriage and the observance of Islamic precepts of  tolerance. Warner hopes that her reading of the Nights might offer â€Å"a path towards cha nging preconceptions about Arabs, Islam, and the history and civilization of the Middle and Near East†. The impulse to write a book reminding readers of the beauty and wisdom of that civilization makes Warner an Orientalist in the pre-Saidian, positive sense of the word, which once meant â€Å"people who love the Orient† – never mind how or why they loved it. Many of the early European historians of religions, in the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries, were trying, within their Orientalist limits, to make the civilization of the Orient comprehensible, and hence acceptable, to people in the West who would otherwise regard all Orientals as ignorant savages. The founding mantra of the science of comparative religion was the hope that if you know peoples’ stories you are less likely to slaughter them, the lesson that Shahrazad taught to the Sultan. This is the comparatist’s version, avant la lettre, of Emmanuel Levinas’s famous dictum that the face of the other says, â€Å"Don’t kill me†. The guiding impulse of Stranger Magic tur ns out to be that noble, if perhaps naive, Orientalists’ goal. But Warner has another personal investment in this book. She asks, at the start, â€Å"How do we live with the intrinsic, problematic irrationality of our consciousness? How do we make a helpful distinction between religious adherence and an acknowledgement that myth and magic have their own logic and potential, independent of belief in higher powers?† Noting that eighteenth-century writers used the Orient as a place where â€Å"their own reasoning imagination could take wing†, and granting that â€Å"reasoned imagination† (Borges’s phrase) is an oxymoron, she nevertheless hopes that the dream-like stories of the Nights might be the â€Å"fable of modernity† that she has longed for, â€Å"a fable that would meet anthropological needs†. Warner confesses that her particular attraction to â€Å"the implausible, impossible, and fantastic stories† puzzles her, for, she remarks, â€Å"I was once a fervent Catholic and know what it is like to yield fully to verbal transformative magic, miracles, and other demands on faith beyond reason, and I struggled free (lost my faith) a long time ago. So why do I still like to think and read about jinn and animal metamorphoses, conjured palaces and vanishing  treasures, deadly automata and flying sofas, ghastly torments and ineluctable destinies?† Ah, Marina, walk over to that ottoman that Freud covered with the carpet, lie down, and reread that paragraph; it is not your question, but your answer. And, abracadabra, it is our answer too.

Democracy Essay Example for Free

Democracy Essay In its simplest term, democracy literally means the rule of the people. It came from the Greek word â€Å"demos† which means people and â€Å"kratos† which means rule. (â€Å"Democracy†) The term democracy was first coined in Ancient Greece. Democracy in Greece was understood to mean the selection of ordinary citizens to government office and courts and the assembly of all the citizens. Through the years, however, democracy as a form of government has evolved into a complex form of government. Despite the changes the concept has undergone, it still espouses the principles of popular sovereignty, political equality, popular consultation and the majority rule. (Austin Ranney, 1995) This essay is concerned with presidential democracy as a form of government. I aim to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the presidential system. In the concluding part, I will take a stand on this issue. The Advantages of Presidential System It is the essence of every presidential democracy that the three main powers of government are constitutionally divided into thee different departments. Read more: How does big states vs small states guard against tyranny essay The three departments are: a) the legislative branch; b) executive branch; and c) judicial branch. The legislative branch has the power to propose, enact, amend and repeal the law. The executive branch has the power to execute the law. The judiciary has the power to interpret the law. The doctrine of concentration of powers is intended to prevent a concentration of authority in one person or group of persons that might lead to an error or abuse to the prejudice of the whole state. It is believed that any concentration of powers in a single branch is tyrannical and only true separation of powers will protect the liberties of the people against the aggressions of government. (Austin Ranney, p. 240) Moreover, the essence of presidential democracy does not only lie in the constitutional separation of powers but it also lies in the system of checks and balances. The separation of powers in the three branches of government is not synonymous to isolation. In the words of Justice Frankfurter in the case of Connally v. Scudder (160 N.  E. 655), he states that while it is desirable that thee be a certain degree of independence among the several constitutional agencies, it is not in the public interest for them to deal with each other at arm’s length or with a hostile jealousy of their respective rights as this might result in frustration of the common objectives of the government. This means that in reality, these three departments actually share their powers for the purpose of establishing a system by which one department could resist encroachment made by another department. Although there is a separation of powers in a democracy, one department is given the prerogative to check whether another department is exceeding its power and prerogative. For example: the Executive department has the constitutional prerogative to check the power of the Legislative branch to make laws by exercising its veto power. This means that the president of a country has the power not to sign into law or veto a particular bill passed by the legislative branch if the president, thinks that the law is not proper e. g. f the law is not timely. The same is true for the legislative branch of government which has the constitutional prerogative to check on the powers of the president by means of the procedure known as impeachment. The same is true with the President who has the constitutional prerogative to check on the functions of the Judiciary. For example, the president has the power to grant amnesty and pardon to those already convicted and have undergone the process in the judiciary. Another essence of democracy lies in the Rule of Majority. This is best manifested in the process known as election by which the people, in accordance with the principle of popular sovereignty, have the power to choose which among the candidates will govern them for a limited period of time. Disadvantage of Presidential System Though the presidential system may have its advantages, one main objection to this system is the delays caused by too much political conflict and gridlock between the President, Senate and the House of Representatives. Several times in the past that needed legislations have been delayed and blocked because of the political bickering that is always inherent in a Presidential system. It must be stressed that laws are passed to address the concerns of the people. If the passage of laws will be delayed because of the disagreements between the executive and the legislative then the people are the ones who will suffer. Conclusion The democracy is adopted by many countries including the United States. I think presidential democracy is better than the other forms of government. Though it has also its weakness, it is only in a democracy where there is a better balance between the powers of the government and the right of the people. It is this balance that ensures that those in the government will not abuse their powers that the constitution has granted to them. It is also this balance that ensures that the people will not abuse their sovereignty. The fusion of the two essential powers of government such as the power to execute laws and to make and amend laws in the hands of a single person will expose the whole state and the citizenry to the possibility that those in power will abuse their position.

Working Capital Versus Capital Expenditure Management Finance Essay

Working Capital Versus Capital Expenditure Management Finance Essay The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of firms capital expenditure on their working capital management. Net Liquidity Balance and Working Capital Requirement for determination of working capital requirement and developed multiple regression models. The empirical research found that organisations capital expenditure has a significant impact on working capital management. The study also found that the firms operating cash flow, which was recognized as a control variable, has a significant relationship with working capital management. Capital forecasting in a downturn environment where change is rapid. Incorporating dynamic forecasting to measure the impact of key uncertainties and risks on the portfolio of projects is crucial. The findings increase the knowledge base of working capital management and will help companies manage working capital efficiently in growing conditions associated with capital expenditure. 1.1 Working capital for accountants, investors and managers is the short-term health of a company. Working capital equals current assets minus current liabilities. Current accounts are accounts that the company collects or are due in the next year. Making a capital expenditure will have several effects on the companys working capital, depending on the transaction. However, in certain cases, there may be no impact; it is important to understand why. Corporate finance basically deals with three decisions: A) capital structure decisions, B) capital budgeting decisions, and C) working capital management decisions. Working capital management is a very important component of corporate finance since it affects the profitability and liquidity of a company. It deals with current assets and current liabilities. The decision-making process on the level of different working capital components has become frequent, repetitive, and time-consuming. Working capital management is recognized as an important concern of the financial manager due to many reasons. For one thing, a typical manufacturing firms current assets account for over half of its total assets. For a distribution company, they account for even more. The maintenance of excessive levels of current assets can easily result in a substandard return on a firms investment. However, firms with inadequate levels of current assets may incur shortages and have difficulties in smoothly maintaining day-to-day operations. Efficient working capital management involves planning and controlling current assets and current liabilities in a manner that eliminates the risk of inability to meet due short term obligations on one hand and avoids excessive investment in these assets on the other hand. Capital forecasting in a downturn environment where change is rapid. Incorporating dynamic forecasting to measure the impact of key uncertainties and risks on the portfolio of projects is crucial. Analyzing and quantifying the impact of risks and delays at project and portfolio level. Governance and control over capital expenditures, Portfolio prioritization. Determining the optimal decision making level for capital allocation decision (corporate level vs business unit level vs hybrid model). 1.2 Working Capital Estimates The analysis includes estimates of all investments required for a project. The project may require increases (or decreases) in cash, accounts receivable, accounts payable, or inventory. 2.1 Capital expenditure Whenever we make an expenditure that generates a cash flow benefit for more than one year, this is a capital expenditure. Examples include the purchase of new equipment, expansion of production facilities, buying another company, acquiring new technologies, launching a research development program, etc., etc., etc. Capital expenditures often involve large cash outlays with major implications on the future values of the company. Additionally, once we commit to making a capital expenditure it is sometimes difficult to back-out. It has been found that managers spend a considerable time on day-today working of capital decisions since current assets are short-lived investments that are continually being converted into other asset types (Rao, 1989). In the case of current liabilities, the firm is responsible for paying obligations mentioned under current liabilities on a timely basis. Liquidity for the on-going firm is reliant, rather, on the operating cash flows generated by the firms assets. Corporations are looking for new ways to stimulate growth, improve financial performance, and reduce risk in todays challenging economic climate. Funds tied up in working capital can be seen as hidden reserves that can be used to fund growth strategies, such as capital expansion. Cash flows locked in stock and receivables can be freed up by understanding the determinants of working capital. Many organizations that have earned profits over the years have shown the efficient management of working capital (WCM). Broadly, industry characteristics, firm-specific characteristics, and the financial environment are recognized as determining factors of both capital expenditure and working capital. In addition to the growth, leverage, and the size of a company, type, and size of expenditures, such as finance and operating and capital expenditures, have different impacts on capital expenditure and working capital. 2.2 Portfolio Approach in Capital Budgeting Portfolio approach to achieve capital efficiency and organisational alignment can yield immediate positive cash-flow results for companies. Typically companies view capital expenditures through a cost and benefits filter that focuses largely on ROI and IRR type measures. Whilst these measures are relevant, companies that do so often do not necessarily link these to the strategy of the company. They also do not prioritise capital expenditures in terms of their effect on strategy and shareholder value. We believe that by using a portfolio approach companies could: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Increase returns on invested capital by understanding which projects contribute most to shareholder value and lie on the project efficiency frontier à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Have a holistic portfolio view of the return of the capital of the entire company à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Improve the strategic and organizational alignment of projects à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Make informed decisions on where to invest scarce cash resources. 2.3 Capital Budgeting Decisions: Stage 1: Decision Analysis Decision-making is increasingly more complex today because of uncertainty. Additionally, most capital projects will involve numerous variables and possible outcomes. For example, estimating cash flows associated with a project involves working capital requirements, project risk, tax considerations, expected rates of inflation, and disposal values. We have to understand existing markets to forecast project revenues, assess competitive impacts of the project, and determine the life cycle of the project. If our capital project involves production, we have to understand operating costs, additional overheads, capacity utilization, and start-up costs. Consequently, we can not manage capital projects by simply looking at the numbers; i.e. discounted cash flows. We must look at the entire decision and assess all relevant variables and outcomes within an analytical hierarchy. This analytical hierarchy is known as the Multiple Attribute Decision Model (MADM). Multiple attributes are involved in capital projects and each determinant in the decision needs to be weighed differently and their relationship with each other determined. Several techniques are available to arrive at a financial decision regarding a capital expenditure project. These include: the net present value method. This method discounts all cash flows to the present using a predetermined minimum acceptable rate of return as the discount rate. If the net present value is positive, the financial return on the project is greater than this minimum acceptable rate and indicates the project is economically acceptable. If the net present value is negative, the project is not acceptable on economic grounds. the internal rate of return method. The internal rate of return is defined as the discount rate that makes the net present value of a project equal to zero. It is the highest rate of interest that a company could incur to obtain funds without losing money on the project. the equivalent annual cost method. When considering alternative proposals, it may be that only costs are involved. In such situations, a choice of alternatives can be made by determining which has the lowest equivalent annual cost. Under this method, capital expenditures are converted to their equivalent annual cost and added to the annual operating costs. Equivalent annual cost is the annual amount that would repay the capital over the life of the project at a specified discount rate. It is similar to an annual, level repayment schedule for a mortgage. The alternative with the lowest total cost would be the most attractive (ignoring intangibles). the payback method. This method estimates the time taken to recover the original investment outlay. The estimated net cash flows from a proposal for each year are added until they total the original investment. The time required to recoup the investment is called the payback period. Projects with a shorter payback period are preferred to those with longer periods. the discounted payback method. The discounted payback period is the number of years for which cash inflows are required to (a) recover the amount of the investment and also (b) earn the required rate of return on the investment during that period. In this method, each years cash inflow is discounted at the required rate of return, and these present values are cumulated by year until, their sum equals, the amount invested. Projects with a shorter discounted payback period are preferable to those with longer periods. the accounting rate of return method. The accounting rate of return is a measure of the average annual income after tax over the life of a project divided by the initial investment or the average investment required to generate the income. It is important to note that this method assesses net income and not cash flows which are used in the other methods. Stage 2: Option pricing In financial management, consideration of options within capital budgeting is called contingent claims analysis or option pricing. For example, suppose you have a choice between two boiler units for your factory. Boiler A uses oil and Boiler B can use either oil or natural gas. Based on traditional approaches to capital budgeting, the least costs boiler was selected for purchase, namely Boiler A. However, if we consider option pricing Boiler B may be the best choice because we have a choice or option on what fuel we can use. Suppose we expect rising oil prices in the next five years. This will result in higher operating costs for Boiler A, but Boiler B can switch to a second fuel to better control operating costs. Consequently, we want to assess the options of capital projects. Stage3: Discounted Cash Flow (DCF) Discounting refers to taking a future amount and finding its value today. Future values differ from present values because of the time value of money. Financial management recognizes the time value of money because: Inflation reduces values over time; i.e. Rs.1, 000 today will have less value five years from now due to rising prices (inflation). Uncertainty in the future; i.e. we think we will receive Rs. 1,000 five years from now, but a lot can happen over the next five years. Opportunity Costs of money; Rs. 1,000 today is worth more to us than five years from now because we can invest Rs 1,000 today and earn a return. 3.1 Quantitative Analysis and Estimates : The foundations for good capital planning are reliable forecasts of the following parameters like competitive technology, marketing opportunities, likely actions by competitors and governments, sales volumes, selling prices, operating costs, changes in working capital, taxes payable and capital costs of equipment. Effective management of capital expenditure decisions, therefore, requires that controls be designed and operated to ensure that projections are realistic at the time decisions are made. Reliable estimates and forecasts are vital to the capital investment decision. The degree of precision necessary for the estimates related to the capital expenditure decision depends on: the stage of evaluation of the project (i.e., in early stages less precision is needed), the sensitivity of the projects economics to the level of accuracy and timing of each of the elements within the estimates, and the similarity of the project to others already undertaken. 3.2 Planning Horizon of a project: It is often difficult to estimate the life of a project (i.e., its planning horizon). The criterion is the continued ability to generate satisfactory cash flows or other intangible benefits. The economic life of a project is the lesser of its physical life, technological life or product-market life. Physical Life of Project Technical life of the Project Market life of the product to be manufactured depends upon: Detailed Market Research/Study Competitive Factors Price Estimation and Determination Organisation Market Position Maintenance Property related costs Depreciation Plant Administration, Service Department Costs 4.1 Research Objectives Overall objective. The overall objective of this research study is to investigate capital expenditure on a project and consequently working capital requirement and there relationship. Working capital measured in terms of net liquidity balance and working capital requirement (WCR). Specific objectives. are to à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Investigate whether there is a relationship and type of relationship between capital expenditure and the firms working capital (W.C.). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Describe the relationship between the nature of expenditure and the working capital. To investigate the impact of different factors affecting the working capital on net liquidity balance and working capital requirement. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Investigate the existing literature on working capital management to highlight the recent trends. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Understand the applicability of NLB and WCR as a measure of working capital management. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Investigate the relationship between corporate performance and working capital management. 4.2 Literature Review The chief financial officers of most companies spend most of their time and effort on day-today working capital management. Still, due to the inability of financial managers to properly plan and control the current assets and current liabilities of their companies, the failure of a large number of businesses can be attributed to the inefficient working capital management. Working capital is the most crucial input and the success or failure of an organization can be rightly attributed to the quality and efficiency in the management of working capital (WC) or net current assets (NCA). Account receivable management models and inventory management models were used in approximately 65 % of companies. The management of the working capital, stresses the need for the development of a viable system with the dual finance goals of profitability and liquidity, only such models will assist practicing financial managers in their day-to-day decision-making. Over the years, many researchers have focused on determining the optimal level of each component of working capital. It was found that the working capital literature is rather limited and that the management of short term resources is not understood too well. Thus, the consensus in academia seems to recognize the paucity of theory concerning the management of financial resources due to the inherent difficulties in the development of a working capital decision model, while accepting the normative needs for a more critical examination. The tendency of firms with low levels of current ratios to have low levels of current liabilities. 5.1 Methodology The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a very important aspect of financial management known as working capital management. The study will show the relationship of capital expenditure on firms working capital management and its impact. This chapter of the research deals with the analytical framework of data analysis, which describes the firms and variables included in the study, the distribution patterns of data, and applied statistical techniques in investigating the relationship between working capital management and capital expenditure. 6.1 Data Collection Since the study is based on financial data, the main source of data was financial statements, such as income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements of listed companies for the period from 2000 to 2005. The reason for restricting the time period to six years was that the latest data for the study was available for these years. In addition, annual reports of companies have been used in order to understand the company back ground and industry. 6.2 Sample Selection The study uses secondary data of listed companies in the stock exchange. Companies with missing data are excluded from the study. The study also excludes the financial and securities sector companies, as their financial characteristics and use of leverage are substantially different from other manufacturing companies. The working capital requirements and capital expenditure of a manufacturing organization is widely different from trading, financial and securities sector companies. 6.3 Variables In addition to identifying capital expenditure, the study undertakes the issue of identifying all factors that affect the working capital management. Most of the determinants identified in the investigation have been taken from the existing literature on working capital management. The study takes into account of all the variables discussed below. Variables, which include dependent, independent, and control variables, have been used to investigate the test hypothesis. 6.4 Independent Variables Capital expenditure (CAPEX) is identified as one of the independent variables and includes expenditures incurred by firms for acquisition and upgrading/renovating physical assets, such as land, buildings, machinery, vehicles, and equipments. Capital expenditures are added to assets account and depreciated against profits over their economic life as Deferred Revenue expenditure( DEFEREX). Capital expenditure is incurred by a company when buying new, fixed assets or in adding value to existing assets to increase their economic lives. Capital expenditure includes buying the value of assets, carriage inwards, insurance, legal costs, and all costs needed for acquiring assets ready for use. Managers pay careful attention to capital expenditure decisions, since they are very costly and irreversible. Operating expenditure (OPEX) is the cost of ongoing operations, product or system. Unlike CAPEX, firms meet OPEX continuously. Operating expenditures are written off against profit for the period. They are Revenue expenditure (REVEX) which includes salaries, wages and facilities expenses, such as rent, rates, electricity, etc. Finance expenditure (FIEX) is cost incurred on debt capital. Interest incurred on debentures, bank loan and other long term liabilities are recognized as finance expenditures. 6.5 Dependent Variables NLB = (cash and cash equivalents + short-term investment) (short-term debt + commercial paper payable + long-term debt a year term). These are considerations of the financial decisions of a company, regardless of the operation cycle. Thus, it is called as net liquid balance. WCR = (accounts receivable + inventories) (accounts payable + accrued expenses +other payable), which relate to the working cycle and are called working capital requirements. 6.6 Control Variables In addition, firms operating cash flow (OPCASH), extracted cash flow statement, growth (GRO) of the firm measured by sales, leverage measured by total long-term debt capital and divided by equity (D/E). All the above variables have relationships that affect working capital management. These relationships might vary over variables, companies and industries based on business strategy, economic environment, and financial environment. 7.1 Hypotheses Development Working capital management is traditionally rated by current ratio, quick ratio, and net working capital. According to Shulman and Cox (1985), these traditional ratios dont consider the going concern of the company and net working capital does not measure the correct value of liquidity. They classify net working capital into working capital requirement (WCR) and net liquidity balance (NLB) in order to predict the financial crisis of a company. WCR is measured in order to evaluate the management of working capital, and NLB is considered with the capability of raising and allocating capital respectively. NLB is better than traditional indicators in terms of predicting crisis and liquidity of a company. The basic purpose of this study on working capital management to evaluate the impact of capital expenditure on working capital. Thus, this study will categorize expenditure of a firm into three types: a) Operating expenditure, b) Capital (investment) expenditure, and c) Finance expenditure. However, except capital expenditure, operating and finance expenditures will be considered on accrual basis, not on the cash basis, because incurred expenditure will determine working capital management of the company. When a company has growth opportunities, it needs to acquire fixed assts (pay capital expenditure) relevant to future growth plans. Thus, incurred or expected capital expenditure is positively correlated with NLB. With growth opportunity, a company can increase the holding cash, since it manages working capital efficiently. Under such circumstances, terms to pay operation-related liabilities are lengthened and operation-related receivables can be accelerated in collection, causing less demand on working capital. Expected capital expenditure is negatively related to WCR, and firms with a higher growth rate pay more attention on the management of capital expenditure. Hypotheses A- Capital expenditure is positively related to NLB Hypotheses B- Capital expenditure is negatively related to WCR 8.1 Model Specification This study uses panel data regression analysis of cross-sectional in order to test the hypothesis. A use the pooled regression type of panel data analysis. The pooled regression, which is also called the constant coefficients model, is one in which both intercepts and slopes are constant, where the cross section from a data and time series data are pooled together in a single column, assuming that there are no significant cross section or temporal effects. The general forms of our models are:t NLB Decrease in WCR H1a= NLBit = ÃŽÂ ²0 + ÃŽÂ £ ÃŽÂ ² X + ÃŽÂ µ (1) H1b= WCRit = ÃŽÂ ²0 + ÃŽÂ £ ÃŽÂ ² X + ÃŽÂ µ (2) WCR: working capital requirement of firm I at time t; i = 1, 2,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..no. of firms NLB it: net liquidity balance of firm i at time t; i = 1, 2,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.no. of firms ÃŽÂ ²0: the intercept of equation ÃŽÂ ²i: coefficients of X it variables X it: the different independent variables for working capital management of firm i at time t t: time = 1, 2,à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦,6 years. ÃŽÂ µ: the error term Specifically, when I convert the above general least squares model into my specified NLBi = ÃŽÂ ² OPEXi + ÃŽÂ ² FIEXi + ÃŽÂ ² CAEXi + ÃŽÂ ² M/Bi+ ÃŽÂ ² Gti + ÃŽÂ ² D/Ei + ÃŽÂ ² OCASH + ÃŽÂ µ (3) WCRi = ÃŽÂ ² OPEXi + ÃŽÂ ² FIEXi+ ÃŽÂ ² CAEXi + ÃŽÂ ² M/Bi+ ÃŽÂ ² Gti + ÃŽÂ ² D/Ei + ÃŽÂ ² OCASH + ÃŽÂ µ (4) Where: NLB = (cash cash equivalents + short term investments) (short term debt + commercial paper payable + Long term debt year term) WCR = (accounts receivable + inventories) (accounts payable + other payable). WCR equals net working capital NLB. ÃŽÂ ² = coefficient of regression, OPEX = operating expenditure FIEX = financial expenditure CAEX= capital expenditure M/B = market to book value ratio D/E = total debt to total assets Gt = sales growth OCASH = operating cash flow in firm ÃŽÂ µ = the error term These findings are consistent with hypothesis H1b. Operating expenditure and interest expenditure also have a positive significant relationship with working capital requirement. 9.1 Conclusions and Recommendations Working capital management attracts less attention of the management than capital budget and expenditure, capital structure in financial management in the ordinary course of business. Working capital management relates to the findings of sources of short term finance and investments in short term assets. Working capital management deals with profitability and the risk of the company. Inefficient working capital management results in over investment in working capital and reduces the profitability of the firm. On the other hand, inefficient management of working capital leads to an insufficient amount of working capital and results in financial difficulty, putting the company at risk. The optimal level of working capital, which is a trade off between risk and profitability, can be affected by both internal organizational characteristics and various outside factors. Existing literature has paid little attention to many factors that determine the working capital. This research investigated some of the factors such as capital expenditure, operating expenditure, finance expenditure, leverage, performance and operating cash flow. This research paper uses NLB and WCR as proxies for working capital in order to assess working capital management with capital expenditure and other influencing factors. Empirical results show that capital expenditure has a significant effect on working capital management. This finding will help a companys management manage working capital efficiently. The findings can be used as a benchmark for managing working capital and evaluating performance. Through this paper it was able to find out that operating cash flow has a significant impact on a companys working capital management, consistent with conclusions in previous research/literature. By conducting the same study on each business sector separately, managers can understand specific behavior of a companys working capital in relationship with capital expenditure. Since the model is a general model, it might not be able to be applied or might not give the same findings in specific business sectors. Moreover, further research can be conducted on the same topic in different countries. Working capital management policies can be compared between developing and developed countries in order to determine the correct management policies. 14) Capital expenditure decisions are very crucial and not easily reversible. Substantial amount of money is blocked in capital expenditure decisions. Hence such decisions have to be taken very carefully with a lot of deliberations.