The Simple Life and the Corruption of Technology :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

The Simple Life and the Corruption of Technology "Let's take it home boys!" Not really paying attention to our altitude, we headed towards base after a flawless mission against an enemy tank. As we reached the jungles edge, anti-aircraft shells began exploding all around us. I ordered the formation to climb as fast as possible. Almost as quickly as I had given the order, my plane was hit. Luckily, the round didn't explode, but had traveled through the center of the fuselage. I realized my plane was fatally crippled, including my ejection seat. As my plane fell into the jungle, I woke up. Though I did not know what had drawn me from the dream, I had an idea it was the splitting pain in my leg. As the pain slowly crept up my leg, I became aware of my surroundings. I could now feel the perspiration on my face and faintly hear mumbled voices; I was not in my bed. As I opened my eyes to blurry vision, I made out dark moving objects among a background of fire. Listening closely, I realized it was people speaking a foreign tongue. Moving my eyes from the dark skinned, scantly clad humans to my leg, I found the source of my pain. Driven through my left leg was a sharp piece of metal from the wreckage that surrounded me. With a swift jerk from one of my assumed rescuers, my leg was free of metal, and I was passed out from the pain. I awoke in a hut made of large leaves, mud, and grasses. The light crackle of the fire outside could be heard over the voices of the people surrounding it. I asked my self, "Where am I? How did I get here?" With my questions I made an astonishing discovery: I could not remember who I was! Feeling myself panic, I did the best to calm down and analyzed the situation. I had been pulled from some type of wreckage, but of what? The people who had saved me were very primitive. They wore little more than a loin cloth of a cheap textile, and they had dressed me the same. They were eating some yellow muck from wooden bowls and again my ears greeted the new language. Trying to sit up, I flexed my leg and a crippling pain powered a scream from the bottom of my lungs. My scream had caught the attention of those who had been talking outside.

Managing a Holistic Marketing Organization for Long Run

CHAPTER 22 Managing a Holistic Marketing organization for Long Run Trends in Marketing Practices Reengineering: Appointing teams to manage customer-value-building processes and break down walls between departments. Outsourcing: Greater willingness to buy more goods and services from outside domestic or foreign vendors. Benchmarking: Studying â€Å"best practice companies† to improve performance. Supplier partnering: Increased partnering with fewer but better value-adding suppliers. Customer partnering: Working more closely with customers to add value to their operations.Merging: Acquiring or merging with firms in the same or complementary industries to gain economies of scale and scope. Globalizing: Increased effort to â€Å"think global† and â€Å"act local. † Flattening: Reducing the number of organizational levels to get closer to the customer. Focusing: Determining the most profitable businesses and customers and focusing on them. Accelerating: Designing the organization and setting up processes to respond more quickly to changes in the environment. Empowering: Encouraging and empowering personnel to produce more ideas and take more initiative. Internal MarketingOrganizing the Marketing Department Functional Organization Geographic Organization Product or Brand management organization Some of the tasks that product or brand managers may perform include: ? Developing a long-range and competitive strategy for the product. ? Preparing an annual marketing plan and sales forecast. ? Working with advertising and merchandising agencies to develop copy, programs, and campaigns. ? Increasing support of the product among the sales force and distributors. ? Gathering continuous intelligence on the product's performance, customer and dealer attitudes, and new problems and opportunities. Initiating product improvements to meet changing market needs. This organization has some disadvantages too: ? Product managers and specifically brand managers are not given enough authority to carry out their responsibilities. They have to rely on persuasion to get the cooperation of other departments. ? Product and brand managers become experts in their product area but rarely achieve functional expertise. They vacillate between acting as experts and having to defer to real experts. ? The product management system often turns out to be costly.One person is appointed to manage each major product or brand and soon managers are appointed to manage even minor products and brands. ? Brand managers normally manage a brand for only a short time. Short-term involvement leads to short-term planning and plays havoc with building long-term strengths. ? The fragmentation of markets makes it harder to develop a national strategy from headquarters. ? Brand managers must increasingly please regional and local sales groups, resulting in a transfer of power from marketing to sales. Product and brand managers cause the company to focus on building market shar e rather than building the customer relationship. Yet the customer relationship, not the brand, may be the primary lever for value creation. MARKET-MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION ? When customers fall into different user groups with distinct buying preferences and practices, a market-management organization is desirable. ? A market manager supervises several market managers (also called market-development managers, market specialists, or industry specialists). ? The market managers draw on functional services as needed.MATRIX-MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION ? A matrix organization would seem desirable in a multiproduct, multimarket company. ? This system is costly and often creates conflicts. ? There is the cost of supporting all the managers. ? There are also questions about where authority and responsibility should reside. Relation with other departments Building a Creative Marketing Organization ? Developing a company-wide passion for customers. ? Organizing around customer segments instead of around products. ? Developing a deep understanding of customers through qualitative and quantitative research.Socially Responsible Marketing Corporate Social Responsibility Legal behavior ? Society must use the law to define, as clearly as possible, those practices that are illegal, antisocial, or anticompetitive. ? Organizations must ensure that every employee knows and observes any relevant laws. ? For example, sales managers can check that sales representatives know and observe the law, such as the fact that it is illegal for salespeople to lie to consumers or mislead them about the advantages of buying a product. Ethical behaviorCompanies must adopt and disseminate a written code of ethics, build a company tradition of ethical behavior, and hold its people fully responsible for observing ethical and legal guidelines. Social Responsibility Behavior Sustainability The importance of meeting humanity’s needs without harming future generations. Socially Responsible Business Mo dels ? The future holds a wealth of opportunities for companies. ? Technological advances in solar energy, online networks, cable and satellite television, biotechnology, and telecommunications promise to change the world as we know it. At the same time, forces in the socioeconomic, cultural, and natural environments will impose new limits on marketing and business practices. ? Companies that are able to innovate new solutions and values in a socially responsible way are the most likely to succeed. Cause-Related Marketing ? Cause-related marketing is marketing that links the firm's contributions to a designated cause to customers' engaging directly or indirectly in revenue producing transactions with the firm. ? Cause marketing has also been called a part of corporate societal marketing (CSM) which Drumwright and Murphy define as marketing efforts â€Å"that have at least one on-economic objective related to social welfare and use the resources of the company and/or of its partners . † ? They also include other activities such as traditional and strategic philanthropy and volunteerism as part of CSM. CAUSE MARKETING BENEFITS AND COSTS A successful cause marketing program can produce a number of benefits: ? Improving social welfare ? Creating differentiated brand positioning ? Building strong consumer bonds ? Enhancing the company's public image with government officials and other decision makers; ? Creating a reservoir of goodwill Boosting internal morale and galvanizing employees; and driving sales Choosing a cause Many companies choose to focus on one or a few main causes to simplify execution and maximize impact. One of the more focused cause marketers is McDonald's. Ronald McDonald Houses in more than 20 countries offer more than 5,000 rooms each night to families needing support while their child is in the hospital. Ronald McDonald House program has provided a â€Å"home away from home† for nearly 4 million family members since its beginning in 1974. Social MarketingCognitive campaigns ? Explain the nutritional value of different foods ? Explain the importance of conservation. Action campaigns ? Attract people for mass immunization. ? Motivate people to vote â€Å"yes† on a certain issue. ? Motivate people to donate blood. ? Motivate women to take a pap test. Behavioral campaigns ? Demotivate cigarette smoking. ? Demotivate hard-drug usage. ? Demotivate excessive consumption of alcohol. Value campaigns ? Alter ideas about abortion. ? Change attitudes of bigoted people. Evaluation and Control Annual plan control Sales AnalysisMarket Share Analysis Needs to track its market share in one of three ways Overall market share/Served market share/Relative market share A useful way to analyze market share movements is in terms of four components: Overall market share=Customer penetration (% of all the customers who buy from the company)XCustomer loyalty X Customer selectivity (average customer purchase from the company co mpared to average company)X Price selectivity(Average price of the company with others) Marketing expense to sales analysis Financial analysis Profitability ControlMarketing Profitability Analysis Step: 1: Identifying functional expense Step: 2: Assessing functional expenses to marketing entities Step: 3: Preparing a profit and loss statement for each marketing entity Determining corrective actions Direct versus full costing Efficiency control Strategic control The Marketing audit Comprehensive The marketing audit covers all the major marketing activities of a business, not just a few trouble spots. It would be called a functional audit if it covered only the sales force, pricing, or some other marketing activity.Systematic The marketing audit is an orderly examination of the organization's macro-and micromarketing environments, marketing objectives and strategies, marketing systems, and specific activities. The audit indicates the most-needed improvements, which are then incorporat ed into a corrective action plan involving both short-run and long-run steps to improve overall effectiveness. Independent A marketing audit can be conducted in six ways: self-audit, audit from across, audit from above, company auditing office, company task force audit, and outsider audit.Self-audits, in which managers use a checklist to rate their own operations, lack objectivity and independence Periodic Typically, marketing audits are initiated only after sales have turned down, sales force morale has fallen, and other problems have occurred. Companies are thrown into a crisis partly because they failed to review their marketing operations during good times. A periodic marketing audit can benefit companies in good health as well as those in trouble. THE MARKETING EXCELLENCE REVIEWCompanies can use another instrument to rate their performance in relation to the best practices of high-performing businesses. The Future of Marketing In these ways, modern marketing will continue to ev olve and confront new challenges and opportunities. As a result, the coming years will see: ? The demise of the marketing department and the rise of holistic marketing. ? The demise of free-spending marketing and the rise of ROI marketing. ? The demise of marketing intuition and the rise of marketing science, ? The demise of manual marketing and the rise of automated marketing. The demise of mass marketing and the rise of precision marketing. Proficiency will be demanded in areas such as: ? Customer relationship management (CRM). ? Partner relationship management (PRM). ? Database marketing and data-mining. ? Contact center management and telemarketing. ? Public relations marketing (including event and sponsorship marketing), ? Brand-building and brand-asset management. ? Experiential marketing ? Integrated marketing communications ? Profitability analysis by segment, customer, channel.

A Study of the Impact of Health Care Management and Health Care Delivery on the Health Status of Gabonese

This research paper is aimed to show the impact of the health care management and health care delivery on the health status of the Gabonese.The study, impact assessment of health care management and health care delivery profile will builds up from previous work and is expected to serve as a future building block that advances the conceptualization and practical understanding of how to evaluate the competence of health care management and delivery in Gabon.Throughout Gabon, there is a growing consensus about the nature and importance of health care management and delivery competence a necessary component to accessible, responsive and high quality health care (Gerardi, 2004).Nevertheless, the pursuit of competence in health care management and delivery institutions is somehow constrained partly by the health industries’ deficiency of a systematic procedures and instruments for assessing competence in relation to health care status.The health care management and delivery will be gauged on its presence, quality level as well as its contribution to good health and health care of the entire population of Gabon.The particular aims of the research are to develop an analytic framework for accessing the impact of health care management and health care delivery in the health care delivery organizations, point out specific indicators that can be used in connection to the framework as well as assessing the importance, feasibility and practical implication of the framework and its indicators.The health status indicators in Gabon will mainly be focused on quality of provision of primary health care, general mortality rates for both adults and children and the effects of health care management and delivery on average life expectancy of the people of Gabon (MSH, 1991).Problem of the StatementTo study the impact of health care management and health care delivery in Gabon, the research team will apply various methods to reach these objectives.   The research team will so licit inputs from individuals with wide expertise on issues related to health care management and delivery.These individuals will share information, insights as well as opinions throughout the research period on ongoing basis through meetings and written commentaries.   The research team will also receive inputs from a wide range of key informants in private and public sector who have knowledge on health care management and health care delivery in Gabon.Further, the research will also include inputs from workshops with the public in different zones.   Finally, the research team will make visits to best practice settings in the health care delivery institutions that have been recognized by the public for their creative and innovation in the health care delivery.Visits will be made to both public and private health care facilities.   The sites to be visited should be varied in size, population served, auspices as well as history and scope of health care management and delivery c ompetence activities.   These visits will offer opportunities to get experience-based practical views about the impact of health care management and health care delivery in Gabon.The research intends to use an interactive process in developing the research findings.   Initially, there will be preliminary assessment of guidelines and initial set of indicators’ needs to be developed in literature review.This will be followed closely by refining the preliminary framework, set of indicators and related assumptions.   This will be done by considering the feedback from the key informants, input from the professionals in the health care industry as well as findings from site visits.Finally, the framework and indicators resulting from this refinement will further be revised based on the wide range of inputs from the experts as well as various persons contacted during the site visits.   The final report of the findings of the research will be compiled and presented for analysi s and evaluation.   For this research purposes, the health care management and delivery will be referred to as behaviors, policies and attitudes that combine in a system among professionals and/or agency in agency in facilitating the above to work effectively in improving the health status of the Gabonese. To develop tools to access the impact in the context of health care, the research team is to concentrate on organizational level only.The organizational structure in health management and delivery is an integral part of systematic patient-centred and has the momentum to improve the access to care, quality of care as well as health outcomes (MSH, 1991).The organization normally serves as the driving force in the development and maintenance of individual health care provider competence by providing the managers, policies and systems that support the experiences they encounter.   Moreover organizational culture affects the service delivery and also serves as a mechanism for maint aining quality health care delivery.Historical Perspective of Health Care Management and DeliveryResearch and other studies have indicated that late neo-natal deaths are attributed to perinatally related experiences.   The survival of infants at 24-27 weeks gestation depends on the effectiveness of maternal and/or prenatal care (Weir, et al, 1993).   Although Gabon’s expenditure on health care provision is higher, infant survival rates are low relative to other developing countries.Lower child maternal rates in Gabon can be avoided by improving the policy of health care delivery mainly by focusing on process issues. Recent studies show that prenatal maternal rates in Gabon are approximately 82 per every 1,000 total births and there is gradual increase in rate over time (Weir, et al, 1993).Prenatal deaths are mostly caused by asphyxia, immaturity and macerated stillbirth.   The prevalence of low birth weight babies, multiple pregnancies and admitted patients are some of the major reasons for high mortality rates, particularly in Gabon.To reduce the current high prenatal maternal rates in Gabon, public education on danger signs of prolonged labour and regular training of health professionals as well as improving neo-dental facilities are very important.   Recent studies on global prenatal mortality figures show that between 6 and 7 million prenatal deaths occur for every 132 million births per year (MSH, 1991).It also shows that the dominant causes of those prenatal deaths were mainly caused by poor maternal health, early child bearing and most importantly, lack of appropriate and quality health delivery.   Although technology has provided medical service providers with life-saving practices, almost â…“ of mothers have no access to services during pregnancy and also do not have access to service for childbirth.Infectious diseases such as pneumonia, influenza, malaria as well as tuberculosis are the main causes of mortality in the 20th centu ry in Gabon (Gerardi, 2004).   In the same vein recently measles, cholera as well as intestinal infections are continually and regularly causing mortality in Gabon and many other parts of the world.There has been substantial reduction of prevalence and impact of the above-mentioned diseases due to current improved control of environment, personal hygiene, medical facilities, proper management of human waste as well as dispensation including proper vaccination.Due to the laissez-faires attitude of the populace and government in Gabon maternal health and infant mortality has been a very hot issue.   These problems are considered to occur as a result of ignorance, lack of commitment, corruption, illiteracy and apathy among medical health care delivery institutions.For the health of mothers and their new born in Gabon, racial differences play an integral part towards immunity to medical situations.   West Africans and their descendants normally have resistance from malaria and hoo kworms and to be specific, in the case of malaria, West Africans’ red cells do not have the Duffy antigen (Weir, et al, 1993). This antigen normally acts as a receptor where parasites attain entrance to the same.  Moreover, a relative resistance to more acute types of P. falcipanum such as cerebral malaria is normally displayed by haemoglobin carriers such as Sickle-cell traits and glucose 6-phosphate dehydrogenate deficiency.   Maternal antibodies protect the child from malaria in utero and initially after birth.   Research and other studies emanating from Gabon shows that malaria is the highest cause of mortality all over the country.On the other hand, measles infections which show symptoms such as rash and fever normally cannot be differentiated from malaria.   A lot of disability to children in Gabon in the recent past can be attributed to measles.   Polio is also a major disease condition in Gabon.   This is due to the many disabilities and deaths it has caus ed.   Survivors of polio always tend to turn out to be beggars, crippled and handicapped as well as devastated by the impact of poliomyelitis.In Gabon, another cause of high death rates is Diptheria.   In mothers and infants tetanus is also a major cause of mortality (Gerardi, 2004).   This is because they are exposed to bacterial infection at childbirth as well as wound injury.   Since this normally caused lock jaw and seizures in patients it results to high death rates.These diseases can be prevented by the introduction of health vaccination in Gabon.   Further, septic abortion, puerperal fever as well as threatened abortion which normally lead to streptococci entering the uterus at childbirth hence causing endomteritis is also a major cause of maternal morbidity and mortality in Gabon.   Ã‚  In short, HIV/AIDS, malaria, syphilis, gonorrhea, tuberculosis, measles among others are presenting a very challenging issue in general health status of the populace in Gabon.Main concern affecting the Health CareLack of education among women is one of the major factors concerning effective delivery of health care.   This is because it leads to individuals not to sufficiently understand the danger signs of adverse medical conditions as well as not being capable of following the prescription.Further, there has been discrimination in the provision of health care in terms of how wealthy one, is poverty status, race as well as nationality.   Also in the rapid increase in population, the health care costs are also increasing and this raises concern about the quality of health care delivery and financing, that is, in the case of public hospitals in Gabon.Changing facilities, participation of women labour force and increased divorce cases leads to little care to individuals with disabilities by relatives and thus increasing demand for the government design public and social program to take care of the affected (Weir, et al, 1993).   Also, diseases such as HIV /AIDS among other incurable diseases are of major concern to the health care fraternity.The impact of inadequacyPoor governance and in particular in health care management and health care delivery can lead to poor health status among the Gabonese people.   This is because it would lead to corruption where the medical facilities and drugs will be embezzled by some individuals for their own beneficial gains.   Also, inadequate governance can lead to discrimination in the provision of health care in terms of various individual orientation (Gerardi, 2004).These orientations can include economic status, level of literacy, ethnicity among many others.   This can in turn affect the general socio-economical development of the people of Gabon.ConclusionPoor health management and health care delivery impacts negatively on health status of any given populace.   In this modern era in Gabon rapid population increase as well as increased environmental disease conditions exposures the pros pects of population health in Gabon could be an acute national health public issue.   Serious and targeted health care management and health care delivery planning should be put into play to prevent medical situations catastrophe.This can be done well with first of all evaluating the current health status situation in Gabon.   Secondly it can also be done by designing best strategies towards effective prevention and management of the outcomes. It is critical that a concrete and realistic health care management and health care delivery policies should be put in place.   This can result to a remarkable improvement of health status of the Gabonese.ReferenceGerardi, D., (2004).   Using Medication Techniques to Manage Conflicts and Create Healthy Work Environments.   American Association of Critical Care Nurses Clinical Issues. 15.Management Sciences for Health (MSH). (1991). International drug price indicator guide.Weir, M. J., and Ogundiran, A. (1993). A Syndrome based STD su rveillance system for Nigeria. [Abstract]. In: 9th International Conference on AIDS/4th STD World Congress, Volume 1, Berlin, Germany.

Challenges of Living in a Mega City

Describe the challenges of living in mega cities and evaluate the responses to these challenges A Mega City is defined as a city home to more than 8 million people, the urban sprawl of these cities is continuing to dominate the landscapes of these major cities. These cities have been unable to cope with the rapid increase of people moving to these urban areas, in some mega cities this is up to 1 million people per day, leading to a lack of supplies and services, becoming a major characteristic of these cities. The challenges that they face include the lack of water, power supply, sanitation, transport and employment.The responses to these problems from the governments vary in the successfulness and based on the sustainability of social, economical, political and environmental; we can see the downfall and the accomplishment of some solutions the governments have implemented. Transport is one of the main challenges of mega cities where traffic jams take up as much as 4 working hours si tting in traffic causing major problems for businesses and these cities economies. Lack of water within these mega cities is another problem which affects a vast amount of people.The third challenge is housing within these mega cities. Transport is a major challenge for people who live in these mega cities. The lack of efficient public transport and the growing number of personal cars on the roads cause major traffic jams which hold people up for hours trying to get to and from work. There are many issues associated with the problem of transport, including growing health concerns for people dwelling in the cities. Loss of working hours has become a consequence because of the overwhelming time spent sitting in traffic jams.Bangkok sees traffic jams which cause a loss of 2 working hours every day leading to financial loss. This issue of transport continues to grow due to the lack of maintenance on the roads, lack of space allocated to roads, poor modes of public transport and the lack of financial resources that the government has to provide infrastructure for improvement of these roads. There have been many different attempts in mega cities to improve their infrastructure and transport modes, some have been more successful than others, depending on their sustainability.The Metrobus, created in Mexico City by a non government organisation called CEIBA, partnered with the Mexico City government, this system was developed to provide a more efficient and safer public transport. The development of the MetroBus allows the bus to run from North to South Mexico City in a separate lane to other traffic, with its own stations for people to get on and off at various stops this method of public transport has been seen as a great success, now moving 450 000 passengers per day, replacing 300 micro busses which were highly polluting.The use of the MetroBus has resulted in $306,000 for reduction in carbon emissions by the Spanish carbon fund, boosting the economy for Mexico Ci ty, having taken 144 tonnes of hydrocarbons associated with cancer and other health problems out of the atmosphere, and 2. 8 tonnes of bio-particulate matter know to cause asthmas, chronic bronchitis and lung disease. The environmental factors of the Metro bus prove the success of this infrastructure.The new employment opportunities that the MetroBus has created and the shift of 6% from private to public use of transport, providing a clean, safe and comfortable way to use public transport, proving a social benefit to this project. The increase in international recongnition due to the increasing sustainability and the increase in political stability due to the boost in trust and investment in infrastructure has proven the political success of the MetroBus. Mexico City has implemented a successful and sustainable method of transport which has proven to be a good response to the challenge of transport that mega cities all face.The second challenge that mega cities face with their growi ng population is housing within these cities. With the rapid increase of people coming into these cities everyday, it is impossible to keep track of the housing and provide people with land ownership. This problem extenuates the gap being made between the people who have and the people who don’t. The continued expanse of the slums being built around these cities creates the informal economy and account for mass amounts of the population. For example, 50% of the population in Mexico City lives in these conditions.This form of housing leads to lack of tenure and a lack of utilities available for these people to use, including basic needs such as food and water, rubbish collection, provision of sewerage and the lack of services and utilities. These houses have unsafe infrastructure as the building materials used are all makeshift and unstable, making their living environments hazardous. This challenge exists in mega cities because of the rapidly increasing population, the govern ment cannot provide for these people and cannot maintain housing standards.A response to this housing challenge in mega cities was the Dharavi redevelopment. Dharavi is India’s largest slum, located in the middle of India’s financial capital Mumbai. This slum covers an area of only 2 km2 yet is home to up to a million people with 86, 000 slum structures. The housing in this slum is cheap and affordable and it is estimated that it generates $650 million a year. The challenges within this slum are the extreme overcrowding and uncontrolled construction of makeshift housing.As well as the lack of basic amenities, there is no clean water supply, no waste collection, spread of disease is very high and with the constant threat of eviction by authorities, this slum has become a major challenge in this mega city. The slum redevelopment project has divided Dharavi into 5 sectors and requested proposals from real estate investors around the world to provide a 300 sqf flat to each family that can prove they have been settled in Dharavi before the year 2000, in exchange for their re housing, the builders get construction rights in Dharavi.The Dharavi project has not yet been completed although there are social, economical and environmental factors that can be seen in an evaluation of its sustainability and success. The Dharavi project creates social problems for the families who will be displaced, having failed to prove their residence before 2000, this deadline will make many people homeless, and with no place to go, sending thousands of people out of the city.Although this development will make Dharavi a safer place to be, building stable structures and developing better access to water and food supplies as well as developing a sewerage system and rubbish disposal. This will stop the vast spreading of disease through the slum, creating a healthier and safer living environment. The economy would suffer from their redevelopment of the Dharavi slum as they bri ng in millions of dollars to the economy, the loss of this would be detrimental to the cities economy.There would be few political benefits to this development as there would be a loss in trust of the government, after displacing so many people. The response to this housing challenge in Dharavi can be seen as both successful and unsuccessful, due to the many positives and negatives of this project. In conclusion, we can see that mega cities face many challenges which affect their economy, politics, culture and environment. The governments are implementing many strategies and projects which they hope will solve the challenges that their cities face.The challenge of housing and transport are both big challenges which impact enormously on the mega cities. As 3 million person working hours are lost per day, due to the constant transport battle and the extreme over crowing of the slum housing, we can see that there are major challenges that these cities face, although some strategies imp lemented for these challenges have been dubbed unsuccessful, there are a few which have proved to be doing well for example, the MetroBus in Mexico City. There are many challenges being faced in Megacities.

Assignment The Impact of Contaminated Land on the Valuation of Essay

Assignment The Impact of Contaminated Land on the Valuation of Property - Essay Example The solid as well as the liquid waste were disposed off in the land through which the soil was being damaged. Even though the waste are well regulated in order to prevent such contamination but still there are certain unintentional spills and leaks which might damage the land at the sites. Contaminants may range from oil, petrol, heavy metals and solvents to radioactive substances. The various sources of contaminant are not just industries, there are certain other sources like agriculture activities, dry cleaning, petrol distribution, deposition from the atmosphere, inadequate waste disposal, etc. These contaminants cause severe harm to human health and adversely affect the normal living condition of a human being. There are various contaminant elements that occur as a range of compounds among which some are highly soluble, accessible for biological uptake and toxic, whereas others are not much hazardous. For instance, arsenic is a common chemical addition to soils for older industri al sites and exists in various inorganic and organic forms. Toxicity depends on actual compound oxidation state, yet chemical analyses of suspect soils seldom reveals any such details and it usually indicates the metal concentration present (SEPA, n.d.). Interaction takes place between the various contaminants in the soil environment. These increases the potential toxicities of different contaminants involved where as in many cases competition between individual contaminant reduces the overall toxic potentials (SEPA, n.d.). The effects of contamination don’t last long once the contaminant reaches the soil. It breaks down or becomes neutralized, might be washed away by the rain, or remain in the soil building up to a high concentrations. When contaminants are made up, they may not be enduring. However soil can sometimes remain polluted for an indefinite period (SEPA, n.d.). It doesn’t mean that there is a problem if the ground is contaminated. It

The Culture of Laos Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Culture of Laos - Essay Example Culture First of all, religious belief plays a decisive role within the scenario of Lao culture. To be specific, one can easily identify the influence of Buddhism in the culture of Laos. John Holt opines that, â€Å"When writing about Lao culture, however, one also has to take into account that most of the â€Å"ethnic Lao† population, and therefore Lao Buddhism and religious culture, actually resides outside of the current political boundaries of Laos† (9). At the same time, the different elements of culture, like art and literature, are deeply influenced by Theravada Buddhism. Besides, South East Asian conventional way of life still prevails in Laos and the same influence their cultural aspects. The influence of traditional way of life is evident in their food habits. For instance, rice is generally considered as an important food grain in Laos. The people of Laos connect their food habits with their culture because the same is related to their daily life. Physical location One can see that this nation is located within the South Eastern side of Asia. Lydia Laube states that, â€Å"Laos is a landlocked country of 236,800 square kilometres† (1). Some of the important nations in this region share their borders with this nation. To be specific, Laos shares its border with China, an important nation in this area. At the same time, Laos shares her boundary with Burma, a less dominant nation in this area. ... This nation is well known for its conservative measures that protect its natural vegetation. Still, opium production in the border areas is an important problem to be dealt with utmost importance. Population The present population of this nation is above 6 million. One must not misunderstand that most of the people live in big cities. Instead, most of the people live in the valley areas, especially within the banks of the most important river system in Laos, i.e. the River Mekong. Even the capital city (say, named as Vientiane prefecture) of this nation does not face population explosion because its population is below 800000. So one can see that population explosion is not an imminent threat for the people of Laos. Still, this low population is an advantage to the nation because this nation possesses the youngest population in the Asian continent. Religious beliefs The most important religious belief in this nation is Buddhism, especially Theravada Buddhism. To be specific, around 7 0% of the people believe in Theravada Buddhism. Besides, Christianity is less influential among the people in this nation. Still, the core aspects of Hinduism indirectly influence their beliefs because Buddhism originated from this religion. Besides, some people in this nation practice Animism, i.e., the belief that provides importance to the natural phenomena. On the other side, the constitution ensures religious freedom to the citizens. But the Communist/Socialist government provides less importance to religious practices in public. Ethnic groups One among the important ethnic groups in this nation is Lao Loum, who lives in the lowland region. To be specific, this ethnic group gained political and intellectual importance in the society. The origin of this ethnic group is

Legal Environment Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Legal Environment - Case Study Example One of these three horses reached to the place where accident took place. The exact reason for this sudden behavior of horses was not established but this kind of behavior is generally found when the animal is frightened due to some reasons. Mr. Cleese, the plaintiff, brought the case against Andrew and Susan Findlay, in the Exeter County Court, claiming that the accident occurred due to their negligence and under section 2 of the Civil Liability for Animals Act 1971; the defendants were totally liable for the accident. The judge, sitting in the Exeter County Court, rejected his both the claims. The Court of Appeal accepted the claim that though it was not defendant's fault, under section 2 of the Civil Liability for Animals Act 1971, they were liable for damage. The appeal of defendants highlighted the complexity and opacity of the Civil Liability for Animals Act 1971, which fixes the liability for damage caused by an animal. Section 2(2) of the act fixes the liability for damage caused when the animal's behaviour in the circumstances was in no way abnormal for an animal of the species in those circumstances. (b) the likelihood of the damage or of its being severe was due to characteristics of the animal which are not normally found in animals of the same species or are not normally so found except at particular times or in particular circumstances; and (c) those characteristics were known to that keeper ..." The non-clear tone of this section, especially subsection (b) has led to different interpretation at different courts of law. Subsection (a) and (c) are clearly understood but subsection (b) present two cases, first one is that the owner of animal is totally liable if "the likelihood of the damage or of its being severe was due to characteristics of the animal which are not normally found in animals of the same species" and the other one is the owner of animal is totally liable if "the likelihood of the damage or of its being severe was due to characteristics of the animal which are not normally so found except at particular times or in particular circumstances". The first case considers the animal where the species of the animal is, in general, docile but the particular animal that caused the damaged was abnormal and the second case considers the animals that are generally docile but the action that caused damage is outcome of their abnormal behaviour found at a particular time or in particular circumstances. 3. Which technique(s) of statutory interpretation do you consider that Lord Nicholls employed in the case Give reasons for your answer. LORD NICHOLLS based his interpretation of act on conventional interpretive techniques and used literal approach to