It is healthy to desire Essay

In order to get almost any earthly thing on your own, you must first deserve it before it is healthy to desire it. You deserve something – in the only sense that ultimately satisfies – only when you work for it. At that point it is healthier to desire it. Better to be unattached to the things of this world until they are manifest, lest they confuse the ultimate objective: to act and behave in such a way that we are worthy of our heartfelt desires. This quotation is particularly applicable with regard to the apparent secret to happiness: love. Most earthly love is conditional, we must deserve it in some way before receiving it. If you put yourself in a position to deserve it, you are more likely to receive it, so desiring it becomes rational, rather than wishful thinking. The most common saying is â€Å"First deserve then desire†. This is best for the people who have clear goals in life. So, they define their goals, work hard yo achieve it and finally get it. It gives real feeling of accomplishment, feeling of really owning your life i.e. you are what you wanted to be. Then there is other category of people also who are not so sure of their goals. They are bit confused, so they try to get what seems best at the present moment (do not try that hard to get it and do not know about its contribution to their final goal). Sometimes they also get the reward with their little efforts. But their isn’t any free lunch, so then they have to prove themselves to be worthy of it. It is tougher now then proving before getting reward. Since now they have to compete with the people belong to first category, who have already proven them and habitual of hard work. So there are two main hurdles – 1) Overcoming starting inertia. 2) Extra pressure due to increased expectations (including our own expectations). Sometimes these may lead to extreme depression also which is less likely in first category. But if you can prove now, you would get the feeling of being worthy, get inspiration†¦

Capabilities in the Workplace Bangles Pvt. Ltd.?

Abstract: A business is likely to flourish when it makes best use of its core competencies, organization capabilities, and increases its capacity. This paper describes a firm, Bangles Pvt. Ltd, which is headquartered in UK and is looking to expand into the Asian market via its online store. The paper discusses the core competencies the firm has along with its organizational capabilities which will help the firm in making this expansion successful. Introduction: Bangles Pvt. Ltd is an online business based in the United Kingdom and run through social media sites, the company’s own personal website, and through other buying/selling websites such as eBay and other portals. The business originated in 2006 after the owner finished her Arts degree from a local college and decided to use her expertise in her own small enterprise. Initially she took the responsibility of production herself and began to produce highly colourful, intricately designed, handmade bangles on order. However, as business began to boom she hired two other designers to help her with the production in 2007 and currently employs 10 people to produce bangles in the ranges of collections titled casual/everyday bangles, semi-formal bangles, bridal bangles, and exclusive designs. The company basically operates upon an order service in which customers either send their orders in the inbox on sites such as Facebook or fill out order forms on the company’s own personal website. The sites are full of colourful albums full of designs of various bangle creations which are updated regularly and articles targeted towards different target audiences regarding how to use the bangles and other fashion tips (Bangles Pvt Ltd, 2014). While the company instantly began to gain steady business and maintained a commendable reputation, the company is currently facing a number of issues as it plans to expand further into other markets and has also recently begun to supply bangles in Asia via the owner’s relatives and friends who live there. The Asian market shows high potential for the company as the use of bangles is highly widespread in many Asian countries and the designs of the bangles support Asian cultural traditions while adding a contemporary touch to what is traditionally worn by Asian women. However, this will add an additional burden upon the employees at Bangles who are already over-absorbed in producing bangles for current customers. The owner i s slightly worried that if the brand is not managed properly by the distributors she appoints (friends and relatives), which may cause a detrimental impact upon the company’s name and future prospects (Bangles Pvt. Ltd, 2014). Thus, it is essential for her to ensure that the operations and delivery processes in Asia are properly conducted and reliable. There is also danger that her products will end up in the retail market in Asia if no controls are implemented and may be sold to customers in bulk. The owner of Bangles also needs to ensure that her employees in Asia conform to company policy and are highly cooperative with her and her UK-based employees. She needs to maintain decorum with her employees and coordination with respect to meeting customer demand and responding to customer preferences. This paper will outline the company’s main core competencies, organizational capabilities, and capacity-building tools which can help Bangles solve its current expansion prob lems in the Asian market. The paper will then conclude by providing recommendations as to what the organization needs to further develop and commenting upon its managerial practices while summarizing the main points made in the paper. Core Competencies, Organizational Capabilities, and Capacity-Building: Core competencies are the unique qualities or strengths that a firm has which differentiate them from their competitors and are difficult to replicate. They are a source of competitive advantage for a firm and enable the firm to perform efficiently and effectively in a particular area relative to their competitors (Gupta, 2013). Bangles Pvt. Ltd has several core competencies which strengthen the firm and result in increased business. One of the core competencies of Bangles Pvt. Ltd is the diversified workforce, which consists of close friends and students of the owner who originate from different countries and are able to provide Bangles with unique and original ideas for bangle designs. Thus, the aesthetic appeal of Bangles’ products suits the modern tastes of consumers in the UK, India, Pakistan, Turkey, China, and Nigeria as the designers of Bangles originate from the countries mentioned. Another core competency of the firm is the owner’s personal involvement in the business and the fact that the owner provides customers with a personalized service and is highly interactive with the customers. Additionally, the owner also provides a customized service to customers who wish to get their own bangles designed at an affordable price. Also, the owner’s large social circle and connections with people in Asia who can help in expanding and managing the business is also a core competence as the owner will not have to associate with unknown parties in order to achieve expansion into Asia. The organizational capabilities of the firm are the manner in which people are managed in a firm in order to gain a competitive advantage (Grafton, Lillis, & Widener, 2010). The organizational capabilities of Bangles include the owner’s excellence in human resource management as she has been successful in motivating employees since the business’s inception. The owner’s charismatic leadership style and the informal organizational culture of th e firm help the employees remain comfortable and united with one another. The owner also attempts to organize the employees in the organization through the use of various communication tools including a personal group on WhatsApp, an intranet which enables the employees to interact with one another, and through the use of video conferencing when applicable (Bangles Pvt Ltd, 2014).The business’s strong internal associations and the fact that all of the designers in the firm are educated, trained, and experienced in the field of arts and crafts enables the firm to perform faster and more efficiently in order to quickly meet customer demand. The lack of misunderstandings between employees and the close connection between employees and the owner also serves as a source of competitive advantage and enables the work to be done quicker. The organization is currently working on capacity-building as it has previously increased its capacity by purchasing three small machines, which hel p cut the thread and sew on the beads for intricately and delicately designed bangles. Using these machines has sufficiently increased the capacity of the firm and Bangles has been able to complete more orders than it previously had. The company has recently tried division of labour and instead of asking one designer to complete a full pair of bangles, they have tried to break down the tasks and let one worker complete a portion of an order while the others complete other portions. This has shown commendable results recently as capacity has slightly increased. In order to solve the problems arising from an expansion into the Asian market, Bangles must use its core competencies, organizational capabilities, and capacity-building tools to its advantage. The owner can use the core competency of having a diversified workforce to be able to accurately meet the aesthetic demands of customers in Asian countries. Moreover, the owner needs to use her social connections in order to appoint a reliable manager in Asia who will help in the distribution of Bangles’ products and also manage the brand image of the firm. The owner can make use of the firm’s strong communication network to set up a system in which she communicates with customers in Asia herself or responds to their messages as soon as possible if there is a difference in timings in order to provide them with a personalized and customized service where applicable. Thus, to efficiently manage business in Asia, the owner must make use of her charismatic leadership style to constantly remain in touch with employees and the manger in Asia and ensure she is updated upon changing trends. The owner must also have a rigid plan towards crisis management in order to ensure that she is able to solve such problems without increasing hassle and confusion and risk in damaging the brand’s reputation. The owner can also extend the intranet to include employees in Asia and to ensure that she communicates wit h them personally in order to ensure that they are familiar with the organizational culture and are absorbed into the enthusiasm of being a part of the organization. These are the strategies that the firm can use by making use of its existing core competencies and capabilities. However, the firm may also need to enhance other departments in order to efficiently compete in the Asian market. Conclusion and Recommendations: It is evident that the firm has numerous core competencies and organizational capabilities which enable the firm to efficiently compete in the market and which can be used to its advantage in expanding into the Asian market. However, the firm may consider increasing its efficiency and capacity by hiring additional designers in Asia who can produce the bangles there and ship them to customers easily and without additional cost. Moreover, the firm may also hire additional staff in the UK to ensure that there is always someone available online to cater to customer queries and demands. In order to appropriately achieve this, Bangles may also consider giving its staff training in customer service and managing across cultures. Hence, the firm’s core competencies of a diversified workforce, strong social connections, and the owner’s personal involvement in the business serve to be highly beneficial while organizational capabilities of a strong communication network and informa l organizational culture are redeem high benefits. References Bangles Pvt. Ltd. (2014) Facebook Page [online] Accessed on: February 20, 2014 Available at: https://www.facebook.com/bangles Grafton, J., Lillis, A. M., & Widener, S. K. (2010). â€Å"The role of performance measurement and evaluation in building organizational capabilities and performance.† Accounting, Organizations and Society. Vol. 35(7) pp. 689-706. Gupta, R. K. (2013). â€Å"Core Competencies for Business Excellence.† Advances in Management. Vol. 6 (10). pp. 712-723

Art And Architecture Of The Crusades History Essay

Art And Architecture Of The Crusades History Essay A man of eighty, wrote Lord Byron, has outlived probably three new schools of painting, two of architecture and poetry and a hundred in dress. Byrons sentiment would certainly ring true for most periods of those facets of human history, but the medieval time of the crusades was an exception to that rule to a large extent. Western Europe was nearly a century into the High Middle Age period when Pope Urban II called the first crusade at the Council of Clermont in 1095. This was the time of the medieval renaissance with an explosion of invention and advancement in invention, technology, culture and commercial pursuits. Painting, dress, and literature developed and were influenced on a local and regional basis. The primary influence the crusaders took with them to the Levant was architectural. Two architectural styles emerged in Western Europe during the time of the crusades – Romanesque from approximately the 11th to late 12th century, and Gothic from the 12th century to well pa st the end of the last crusade. These two styles were used in church design and construction. William the Conqueror, ultimately seizing England in 1066, helped to usher in another form (not style) of architecture that would change the landscape of medieval Europe – castles. With Romanesque architecture being in place by 1095 and Gothic soon to follow, the influence of Western European structural design and castles was set to follow them to the Holy Land, and they would bring back certain architectural influences as well as manuscript elements that would contribute to an already-growing renaissance. Church building in the Holy Land must be addressed both before and after the arrival of the Crusaders. Though Muslims had been tolerant of non-Muslims for some time, namely Christians and Jews as â€Å"People of the Book,† that tolerance and the amicable relations between them were beginning to show signs of stress. Persecution of non-Muslims began to increase after the year 1000. Muslims began destroying Christian and Jewish architecture, culminating in the ordered destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on October 18, 1009, by Fatimid Caliph al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah. Denys Pringle, a specialist on church art and architecture in the Holy Land during the crusades, writes, â€Å"à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦by 1014, only a handful of church buildings, including the Nativity in Bethlehem and the monastery of St. Catherine on Mount Sinai, were left standing within the caliph’s lands.†Ã‚   [ 1 ]   The architectural history of the Holy Land is one that is fraught with the destruction of churches and monuments and their reconstruction when conditions improved. An example of this is the Anastasis, which was a rotunda in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. PRESENTATION IMAGE Photo – Christian religious icons, Istanbul, Turkey: Anastasis – Resurrection Fresco in Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem This is a fresco, or wall painting, depic ting the resurrection. The church was constructed by Constantine about 325 CE. It was later damaged during the Persian invasion of Jerusalem in 630 under Khosrau II, and finally ordered destroyed by Hakim. Pringle references this cycle of damage and destruction as creating a â€Å"tabula rasa,† or blank slate, upon which architecture Crusaders could later build. This was significant to the Crusade architecture that developed. The original buildings under Constantine were of course heavily influenced by Byzantine canons coupled with indigenous styles as was common to the familiarity of local people to provide easier acceptance for the sake of conversion. Had those structures remained intact, there would have been little if any room and certainly limited ability under even the most talented builder’s hand for Western influence to be added.

Interpersonal effectiveness - Negotiation theme Research Paper

Interpersonal effectiveness - Negotiation theme - Research Paper Example Informal negotiations are dialogue processes that take unstructured formula. It can be execute by the parties themselves under common agreement. It is crucial in finding solutions to internal or low profile conflicts that affect individuals. As noted by scholars for negotiations to yield best results the parties involved must exhibit realistic ideals, they must set reasonable, specific and attainable demands. This is to facilitate the development of amicable resolution with the capacity to satisfy the parties. Indeed, negotiation skills are fundamental in managing conflicts of the diverse nature and restoring mutual relationship. This is crucial especially with the increased challenges that affect individuals at a personal level or in organizational settings. It is imperative to note that negotiation is an effective and diplomatic way of finding viable solutions to various issues of contention between constrained parties (Harvard Business School, 278). It has been used in finding solutions in diverse settings of different nature that include political, social, economic and working relationship issues, for example, in Wal-Mart company. Companies are encouraged to initiate effective dialogue with their stakeholders when issues of dispute of arise. This is to facilitate the development of sustainable resolutions that are acceptable to all parties and that restores confidence. This paper discusses negotiation as an aspect of interpersonal effectiveness with Wal-Mart Company being under study. As noted, negotiation is a dialogue process that occurs between two or more parties with an intention of resolving or managing evident conflict that may compromise performance. Negotiations take place in business, non-profit making institutions and government bodies. The main aim of negotiation is engage the conflicting parties purposely to understand their positions or needs

Television is the most important source of news for young people Essay

Television is the most important source of news for young people today.to what extent do you agree - Essay Example By the year 2011, Dahlgren (2013) reports that internet was the number one source of news among young people in the world. For many years, television held this position. However, technological growth and development has shifted young people towards computers, mobile phones, and other digital platforms. The importance of television as the source of news, therefore, exhibits a declining trend. Young people have increasingly become socially interactive. On internet platforms, these young generations can engage with persons from around the world. The possibility and ease of interacting with global communities makes internet a better choice for the young people. Most importantly, internet news does not require access to televisions. Many different devices that support internet make it easier to access news and information without necessarily being at home. This provision makes internet news way easier, effective, and convenience to people moving from one place to another. Differences between television and internet functionalities are critical to account for as far as news is concerned. For many years, changes and developments in the television industry have not been as rapid as the emergence and growth of internet use. A significant magnitude of television broadcasting practices remains traditional, while internet and computer-based practices keep changing from tine to time. These changes consequently create alternatives that young people are swift to exploit. High television consumption among young people is still common across the globe. Critical to note, however, is that television use among young people encompasses more than just watching news. Creativity and innovation among the young people has diversified television use to encompass business and entertainment. The downside of this move is that television viewing is increasingly becoming a practice that takes place after a busy day’s work. Amid such observations, young people still

London transport in decline Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

London transport in decline - Essay Example nd provides travel tips, downloadable maps for all modes of transport and information about where and how to get various kinds of travel tickets/passes. First time visitors better study all the possible modes of transport and plan the itinerary carefully before starting to explore the enchanting beauty of the city† (The London Transport System, 2010). During the peak hours, that is between 9.00 and 10.30 a.m. and 4.00 and 5.30 pm, the traffic could be daunting as these are the rush hours and people travel to and from during these hours. Other than these timings, traveling is relatively peaceful and enjoyable during rest of the day. Traveling in London can get to the nerves when it slows down in certain places because of traffic congestion. But traffic congestion allows one to enjoy the sights even more. London has its share of stately buildings and parks. There is also the mighty river, Thames, flowing through the city. It is not for nothing that over 14 percent of the population in the United Kingdom lives in London. However, the high population and business life in London has frayed the traveling system in London. Almost around the year, there is some repair or modification work at an Underground site that slows down travel by Underground rails. â€Å"Travel experts feel that the underground is showing its age, resulting in frequent delays, escalators going out of action and some stations being closed for repairs, especially during weekends. Though crime is not rampant, tourists are advised to avoid empty carriages, especially in the late hours. Smoking is prohibited both at the station and on the carriage. Tickets can be purchased at the station before entering the tube† (The London Transport System, 2010). â€Å"The London Underground is Europes largest metro subway system and is the worlds oldest underground system. It was inaugurated in 1863. It covers 253 miles of track and transports 976 million people yearly. The Underground is also connected to a

The concept of Indigenismo (Indianism) Term Paper

The concept of Indigenismo (Indianism) - Term Paper Example In this paper, Chicano also refers to Chicano. As the 1960s approached, the Chicano movement embraced an â€Å"inclusive approach,† by including undocumented and legal Mexican immigrants in their definition of â€Å"Chicano†. Whereas before, the Chicano was only the Mexican American, the Chicano has become more plural by integrating all people from the same Mexican race. This new meaning of the Chicano influenced new ideologies (ideology refers to a system of beliefs and behaviors of a people) and cultural concepts. The Chicano movement then developed a significantly politicized aesthetic that supported the Chicano working class and challenged the white power. During the 1960s and 1970s, Indigenismo or Indianism became one of the primary themes of Chicano art. Indigenismo refers to the integration of indigenous practices and symbols into Chicano art, and which played a large role in the Chicano movement of the 1960s and 1970s. This concept is related to the Chicano expe rience because it recognizes the Chicano’s pre-colonial, or pre-Columbian, roots and supported the â€Å"universality† of Chicano movement’s Indian culture.... deologies in Latin America and the United States, where the political, social, and economic forces that historically exploited and marginalized Indian peoples were exposed and opposed (Gonzalez 27). Indian civilization, in the view of the indianistas, provides a different version of the future that is dissimilar to â€Å"the civilizing project of the west,† and which struggles for Indian liberation (Solano 568). In order to attain this mission, a strategy was required, which re-valorized and re-Indianized ethnic groups and political units (Solano 568). This process was considered to be part of the struggle for recognition in the broader Mexican context of diverse cultures, languages and institutions (Solano 568). The Centro Cultural de la Raza of San Diego became the center of indigenismo (Gonzalez 27). The Centro became the meeting place of all Chicano and Mexican artists: a place where Native Americans exchanged works and ideas with other Mexicans, and where groups in Mexico , such as Mascarones and Concheros, as well as Mexican and Mexican American Ballet Folklorico, performed (Gonzalez 27). These collaborations improved the appreciation of the Chicano heritage in the United States and other nations (Gonzalez 27).Victor Ochoa, co-founder of the Centro, also significantly contributed to the making of the Toltecas en Aztlan artists’ group (Gonzalez 27). He also supported the large mural campaign at Chicano Park in Barrio Logan, one of the poorest Chicano communities in San Diego (Gonzalez 27). Chicano park is one of the most extensive showcases of different murals that integrated different indigenous Mexican images and exhibited the diverse interpretations of Chicano artists of their Chicano history and identities (Gonzalez 27). Other art works emphasized the Chicano

The CFO & the Performance and Budget Review Assignment

The CFO & the Performance and Budget Review - Assignment Example If budget is over or underutilized then VP Marketing can give its justification and on the basis of whichperformance of entire marketing department can be evaluated. CFO has no role either in budget utilization of Marketing Department or achieving performance objectives of marketing except in analyzing ROI, Revenue & Profits. CFO approves finances against proposals or case presented by Marketing Department. So CFO also has good idea about the marketing campaigns launched by the company. CFO can only be involved in order to analyze actual financial impact of marketing budget and its performance (Miller, 200). Main objective of Marketing budget is to increase salesby attracting new customers and retaining existing ones through marketing activities. Increase in customer base will eventually lead to increase in revenue. President will call the CFO if marketing expenses and performance is not justifiable as per financial outlook. Marketing expenditure is considered as an investment for the Company. These expenditures have both short term goals (get new leads, retention of existing customers) and long term impacts such as relationship building, brand awareness etc. CFO role in this scenario would be to analyze facts such as why budgets are over or underutilized, what is actual ROI as per existing and new customers on the basis of yearly marketing expenditure, whether campaigns launched by the Marketing Department during the year generated any revenue or not, financial impact of the proposals presented by the Marketing Department VS their actual output, variance analysis of Marketing budget, and other financial factors which lead to the particular result. CFO in the meeting can also suggestto decrease or increase the Marketing budget after reviewing the performance, which marketing ventures feasibility will be effective and how company can improve the revenue

Human resource career field Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Human resource career field - Research Paper Example Hence, a HR generalist has to perform daily tasks such as keeping track of the various activities in the HR department as well as monthly reporting and annual or semi-annual participation in the appraisals and other tasks. The dimensions of the HR generalist job that interest me are to do with the sense of being in charge of the HR function and the ringside view that the job offers in terms of participating in the recruitment, training and performance evaluation of the employees. The most exciting thing about the HR generalist job is that one can get involved with the various activities of the HR function and get a chance to apply some of the theoretical knowledge gained during the education and also get a chance to hone one’s skills by practising the art of HR management. The dimension of the HR generalist’s job that does not interest me is the rather generic nature of the job when compared to the specialist role that has a more direct and deep involvement. The nature of the HR generalist job is such that it requires the person to be knowledgeable about the various activities that are typically performed during the conduct of the job. Hence, I would be interested in playing the role of an observer cum evaluator that is part of the HR generalist’s job. Further, what interests me about the HR generalist’s role is that the job entails hands on involvement for certain aspects and an indirect involvement for other aspects. The functions of recruitment and performance evaluation are some of the functions that I perform well. The functions that I need additional training are the training and development function. The recruitment and training functions interest me a lot and I am confident that I can perform well in these functions. I have a natural affinity towards recruitment and performance evaluation activities since I have devoted considerable time towards learning the appropriate theory in

Should cigarette smoking be banned Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Should cigarette smoking be banned - Essay Example He gives six reasons for the statement. One of the reasons is that cigarette smoking is harmful and it kills 6million people annually. The inhalable smoke that comes from the tobacco goes into the lungs and it is more dangerous than normal smoking. Cigarette smoking also brings financial burden to the consumers and the treasury. Other hidden costs are the costs of treating people with illnesses that stem from smoking. The tobacco industry has disrupted science. It has eroded human civilization and popular media. Most media houses do not publish a lot of articles about the harmful effects of cigarettes, but they get revenue from advertisements. Cigarette smoking causes air pollution. The last reason is that smoking is not a drug that people should take for fun because it is addictive and it affects people’s decisions. Although the doctor has outlined these reasons in his research, he also points out that prohibition is not effective. The issue of whether to ban cigarette smoking is an enigma. There is still an issue of how effective the ban will be. Some people claim that smoking has some positive aspects like relaxing people and making them feel better. However, the negative effects outweigh the positive

Athenian audience Essay Example for Free

Athenian audience Essay Athenian audience with the references made to Athenian hypocrisy and the challenges and questions he raised on some of the moral issues of the time and the questions that he asked in his plays were sometimes ill received such as the role of women etc. Despite this, Euripides did win the tragedy prize with Hippolytus and is revered as a great playwright in present day drama. From some of the female characters that Euripides develops in his plays, one could assume that Euripides was a misogynist. However, it is wrong to say that all of his female characters are wicked and evil; Euripides has created some wonderful and interesting female characters as well as the wicked ones. Perhaps The Assembly Women actually had wrong motive for their revolt! In Alcestis, the title character, the wife of Admetus (the King of Pherae) sacrifices herself for her husbands life. A most noble act and Euripides portrays her character, as the model of what a Greek wife should be: completely and utterly devoted to their husband to the extent of dieing for the man that supports them. The Greek audience and modern alike will like Alcestis, as she is a sweet natured and noble woman. She most certainly would have won the hearts of the Greek audience. As she is such a noble character and the measure of her kindness toward her husband is so great, Euripides had to bring her back. So the heroic Heracles wends his way to Hades kingdom and brings her back. In Electra, again the title role, at the beginning of the play, comes across as a very sorrowful young woman. She has cut her hair out of mourning for her murdered father, Agamemnon. He was murdered by her mother, Clytemnestra, as he had to sacrifice their daughter and then brought home a concubine (Cassandra). When Agamemnon did get home, Clytemnestra had fallen in love with Aegisthus. Therefore, so far in the play, Electra comes across as a woman very much devoted to her father and hates her mother for murdering him. So far so justified. However, when she happens to meet her brother, Orestes, she convinces him to kill their mother. At this point she comes across as a very wicked conniving young lady. It seems as though she had been waiting for Orestes return to make him do this. When Orestes has doubts over killing Clytemnestra, she bullies him into doing it. She knew the result she wanted to get and she got it. Clytemnestra, if you havent read or seen Aeschylus Agamemnon, comes across as a less conniving woman than her daughter. She comes across as a very powerful and domineering woman. She arrives in the play in a chariot and commands the slaves to help her down. She is very aware of her class and position and will not back down from her decision to murder Agamemnon and regards it as the right thing to do. In this sense we must respect her for sticking by her decision and understand that Agamemnon did kill their daughter and come back with a concubine. In a very slight way, she is justified. Therefore, Euripides has created in Electra a very complicated character. We as the audience or readers assume that she had been planning her revenge on her mother for some time and was just waiting for Orestes return to enact it. Before this point however, we can sympathise with her loss of a father and the pain that she must be going thorough to have the knowledge that it was her mother who murdered him. Clytemnestra, from this play, comes across a woman who sticks by her decision and who in speech ha the capacity to justify and handle herself well. Euripides has created two complicated female characters and in his portrayal of them has shown no signs of his rumoured misogyny. Euripides creates one of the greatest roles for any actress to play in Hecabe. The title role is not the aforementioned feet of extraordinary characterisation. However, Hecabe as a character is very interesting. The audience comes away not knowing what to think of her. She begins the play as a woman who has endured such a lot of pain as the former Queen of the now sacked citadel of Troy. She has reached the limit of endurance and collapses in sorrow. She has lost her entire family to a war over one woman, the infamous Helen. At the end of the play, however, she literally snaps from a grief stricken widow to a raving savage. She has Polymestor blinded and enjoys the gruesome description of the event and the sounds. According to legend, Hecabe turns into a dog due to her extreme torment that results into madness. This is what Polymestor tells her at the end of the play when his blind by her decision. The character this section opened with by praising is Polyxena. She is Hecabes daughter and Euripides develops her character beautifully. Odysseus informs Hecabe that her daughter must be sacrificed to the deceased Achilles. Without shedding a tear, Polyxena, heroically goes with Odysseus to accept her fate. As she is taken to the tomb of Peleus (Achilles father), Greek soldiers hold her and Achilles son gets ready with his sword to kill or to sacrifice her. She asks not to be held and the soldiers are taken away. She then tears her clothes off to the wait and bravely speaks and awaits the sword to be thrust into her chest. Euripides in this play has created two memorable female characters. The brave and heroic Polyxena and the complicated Hecabe. Again, no sign of any misogyny on Euripides part here, in fact the opposite in Polyxenas case. Creating a heroic woman is no mean feet in Ancient Greece and her character must have been received well as she is incredibly strong of character and of heart. Another great female character in Euripidean literature is Heracles wife Megara in the play Heracles. The play tells of how Hera (Queen of the gods, married to Zeus, whos father to Heracles) turned Heracles mad and in his madness killed his three sons and his wife Megara. This then lead him to go to the Delphic Oracle that told him to be a slave to Eurytheus thus leading to his infamous twelve labours. Anyhow, Megara, at the beginning of the play, thinks that she is a widow and is a vulnerable woman who has to be strong for her three young sons. However, Heracles actually is not dead and comes home to them in Thebes. He is then turned mad by Hera and shoots two of his sons with arrows in his madness. Megara takes the last son and locks herself in room but Heracles breaks in and shoots them both with one arrow.

Jennifer Lopez Essay Example for Free

Jennifer Lopez Essay Jennifer Lopez is a successful Hispanic women that has been influential. She has done many positive acts throughout her life. From all the accomplishments she has achieved much success. Jennifer Lopez was born July 24th, 1969 in Bronx New York. She was a daughter of Puerto Rican parents Guadalupe Rodrà ­guez and David Lopez. She has two sisters Lynda and Leslie that she grew up with. Lopez was into singing and dancing starting at the age of five. She spent her whole entire career in catholic schools. She grew up with the religion of being a Roman Catholic. During her adult years she had financed in singing and dancing lessons for herself at the age of nineteen. Lopez divided her time between working as a notary public in a legal office, dance classes, and dance performances in Manhattan night clubs. Jennifer Lopez started to get into the music and the acting career. After months of auditioning dance roles she was selected as a dancer for various music videos. Jennifer’s first album was released June 1, 1999 and reached the top ten Billboard 200. Her acting career started in 1995. Lopez became the first actress singer to have a film at number one the same week. She has still continued her music career throughout the years. She has also had an acting career. She received wide-spread praise for her performance in the movie ‘Selena’ including a Gallah Globe Award for best actress. She also acted in many other movies. Even though there was many good things happening in Jennifer’s life she also had problems. For example in her marriage which later led to divorce. There were both personal and professional jealousies. Mark and Jennifer didn’t get along anymore and they decided to go their separate ways. On July 15, 2011, following seven years of marriage to Mark Anthony, the couples representative told Us Weekly that their marriage was over and as painful as it would be for all those involved, the couple were separating. Jennifer Lopez accomplished many acts throughout her life. She was the first Latina getting paid over a million for a project of music . In 2003, she was the highest paying Latina in Hollywood. Her second album was five times platinum. She was the first women to have a number one movie and album at the same time. Jennifer Lopez perfume â€Å"Glow† was the number one perfume in more than nine countries in more than 4 months. She was number one in the FHM’s list of the sexiest females in the world. She owned a clothing line â€Å"J.Lo† By Jennifer Lopez† 25 million copies were sold worldwide. She is a supporter of Children’s Hospital in Los Angeles. She was presented with the Children’s Humanitarian Award. She worked with the sounds of Pertusis March and Dimes. For all her great work and accomplishments Jennifer Lopez has been one of the most influential Hispanic women. For all the great things that she has done women of all ages admire her as well as men who arfe her fans.

Models Regarding the Emergence of Bipedalism

Models Regarding the Emergence of Bipedalism There are over ten hypotheses as to how and why bipedalism evolved in humans and when. Bipedalism evolved well before the large human brain or the development of stone tools. Bipedal specializations are found in australopithecus fossils from 4.2-3.9 million years ago. The different hypotheses are not necessarily mutually exclusive and a number of selective forces may have acted together to lead to human bipedalism. Possible reasons for the evolution of human bipedalism include freeing the hands for tool use and carrying, sexual dimorphism in food gathering, changes in climate and habitat (from jungle to savanna) and to reduce the amount of skin exposed to the tropical sun. Another explanation is the mixture of savanna and scattered forests forced the first humans to travel between clusters of trees and bipedalism offered greater efficiency for long-distance travel between these clusters than knuckle-walking quadrupedism. Step One: Tool Use Evidence for use of stone tools first came from Olduvai Gorge in Tanzania. These tools were found in the lowest levels dating to nearly 2.0 million years ago. In southern Ethiopia, stone tools dating to as early as 2.3 to 2.4 million years ago have been discovered. Someone or something has modified the. There are different kinds of tools as well. The overall evidence suggests that between 2.3 and 2.5 million years ago hominids began to use stone materials as tools. The first stone tools were probably made for two purposes: cutting something and pounding on something. Obviously you can cut and pound plant materials or use stone tools to dig for roots and such things. However, it is far more likely that some hominids began to cut hides and meat and chop on bones to extract protein rich marrow. Of all of the tools made, the most important was probably the sharp flake that provided the edge by which one could cut even the toughest hides. It is probably unfortunate that the first stone to ol tradition, the Oldowan Tool Tradition, is defined as a core-chopper tradition. Cores are the means to detach flakes and it is these that were so vital to early hominid stone tool users. Step Two: Bigger Brains About one million years ago, hominoid mammals started to exhibit rational thought, a mental process that represented an important advance over simple natural and emotional reactions. Rational thought or is the conscious ability to add sensory input with memory by the use of logical thought processes. Also, morality emerged, which was reliant on the emergence of intelligence.Modern humans (homo sapiens) appeared approximately 160,000 years ago. And until about 12,000 years ago, when agriculture developed, they lived in small groups as hunters and gatherers. They had large brains that had evolved like everything else because it gave the individual and the group, as well as the individual within the group, a competitive advantage: Language allowed better communication within the group and higher forms of thinking. The passing on of knowledge from generation to generation, culture, evolved simultaneously or sometime later. The transfer of more complex information, ideas and concepts from one individual to another, or to a group, was probably the single most advantageous evolutionary adaptation for species preservation. The advantage of learning from passed on knowledge is it allowed foresight and planning. This gave them the ability to adapt to various environments and move to the top of the food chain. With these developments, social survival skills within the group became more important, for the socially fittest produced more offspring. Hence, the larger-brain-yielding genes were more successfully passed on. Step Three: Thermoregulatory Advantages Wheelers thermoregulatory model proposes, as the selective pressure, bipedalism conferring reduction in heat gain and facilitation of heat dissipation. Bipedalism raises the mean body surface higher above the ground, where more favorable wind speeds and temperatures prevail. Greater wind flow translates to higher convective heat loss. Bipedalism reduces evaporative cooling requirements and conserves body water. Vertical orientation also minimizes direct solar exposure during the time of day when the solar radiation is most intense. This basically says that by being upright, hominids were exposed less to harmful elements yet gained the benefits of others. Step Four: Travel For Food More specific causes for the adoption of upright posture could be things such as carrying, display or warning, new feeding adaptations, tools, or a combination of these. A conservative view is that the hominid ancestor maintained the typical hominoid foraging regime in a Miocene habitat in which food was becoming more and more widely dispersed and required greater terrestrial travel to harvest. Bipedalism could easily have been the mode of terrestrial travel for this tree adapted hominoid, as it is in all of the modern species of lesser apes, since modern hominoids are equally efficient as bipeds or as quadrupeds at normal speeds. Given the added advantage of free forelimbs, bipedalism for a small hominoid seems likely. The adoption of bipedalism by a Miocene hominoid need not be taken as such an unlikely occurrence, especially given the fact that all lesser apes today are habitual bipeds and bipedalism can easily be adopted by modern chimpanzees in the wild. Step Five: Avoid Predators During the terminal phase of the Miocene era, or around five million years ago, the climate began to shift from wet subtropical to much more arid, grassland conditions. Over the next three million years, the heavy forest cover gradually died out and tree based hominid ancestors were forced down onto ground. There, they faced the most brutal lineup of predators in the world, including lions, leopards, hyenas, and possibly wild dogs in large packs. Survival in such environments is limited to either predator avoidance or running and hominids such as A.afarensis would have been vulnerable due to lack of swift movements necessary to escape predators. Bipedalism also exposed early hominids to predators by making them upright. They were forced to rely on binocular vision for predatory avoidance, but in cases where a predator was not seen, they were easy prey for ambush hunters. Also, their plant food diet increased their exposure to predators. The combination of other factors such as smalle r body size, and lack of sharp teeth or claws also increased vulnerability of hominids to this fate. Only a few fossilised examples are available; according to the taphonomic studies of Hart and Sussman(2005), 5% of A. afarensis fossils show evidence of having been eaten. Conclusion The emergence of hominids become bipedal has without question was one of the biggest factors in the development of civilization. If our early ancestors had never left the trees, we would not be where we are today, or they wouldnt have developed the way they did. By becoming bipedal it allowed them to travel greater distances and use their bodies in different ways. The bigger brain and the use of tools really allowed hominids to further the range of their existence and become more well rounded. There really cannot be enough said about the emergence of bipedalism. Civilization is directly a result of everything this ability allowed hominids to do.

The Great Gatsby :: essays research papers

The Great Gatsby Essay   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In all human life relationships are very important, and this is shown in many different aspects of human life . Relationships are so significant that Authors often use them as the revolving point of their stories. Such as in The Great Gatsby the author F. Scott Fitzgerald uses the different relationships as the revolving point in his story. Fitzgerald shows how the relationships between the couples in The Great Gatsby are similar in many different ways. The couples in The Great Gatsby are Gatsby and Daisy, Tom and Myrtle, and Myrtle and her husband. Each couple in this play has a dishonest relationship in which one or both are Unfaithful to their significant other. The relationship between Gatsby and Daisy is one of constant lies, and deceit. Gatsby falls in love with Daisy before he goes to the Army as a young man, and Daisy fell in love with him too. Yet Daisy is very materialistic and Tom, a very rich man came into place and Daisy married him instead of waiting for Gatsby like she had promised. Gatsby waited for Daisy but she did not wait for him, and instead married Tom just for his money. This shows how there relationship has been riddled with lies since the very beginning of the story.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The relationship between Myrtle and her husband is insincere, loveless, and dead. Myrtles husband George, who is lifeless, poor, and often dirty, owns a garage in the valley of ashes. While George is completely devoted to his wife Myrtle, on the other hand myrtle has lost love for her husband, and desires for a more elegant fast pace life. Myrtle tries to find a way to fix the situation between her and her husband, but instead she takes the easy way out and cheats on her husband with Tom a very rich, prominent, and handsome man who gives her everything that she desires, but he is also a married man.

Hawthorne :: essays research papers

Breaking out of Prison   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hawthorne’s view on life is wrong. He says that in the depths of human nature there is an inner world in which every human being is alone. Hawthorne’s background and they way he lived his life gave him this dark view on life. His father and grandfather did things that he did not like and Hawthorne tried to redeem the bad things they did and when he couldn’t he went into seclusion and explored his own heart. Every person is not the same as Hawthorne; I believe that with certain people their heart could be their prison but not the average person.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  People are not caged by their heart, their heart shows what kind of person they are. It is similar to Emerson’s â€Å"golden possibility,† Hawthorne did not meet his golden possibility and this is why he looks on things so darkly. He doesn’t try to look at the good things in life, he tries to see what is wrong with people and explain why. He only looked at himself though and he did not have much to be happy for and this is why he felt like he was in a prison. Most people if they look inside themselves they are happy and do not dwell on such things like Hawthorne does. A person’s cage is not their heart, their heart is something that lets them be free and go on about a normal day with a happy countenance on their face.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Your own heart could be your worst prison but every human being is not in that prison like Hawthorne was. Hawthorne is right that your heart is the worst prison a person could be in but everyone is that same situation. Hawthorne shouldn’t generalize so much, he was only looking at himself and not the world around him. He was too self-centered in his writings and quotes, he should have looked at other people and saw how they lived. Then he would see a world of bright colors and fun filled life, he could have lived life to the maximum but he chose to look at the dark side of things and keep living inside his prison instead of changing his life. Hawthorne :: essays research papers Breaking out of Prison   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hawthorne’s view on life is wrong. He says that in the depths of human nature there is an inner world in which every human being is alone. Hawthorne’s background and they way he lived his life gave him this dark view on life. His father and grandfather did things that he did not like and Hawthorne tried to redeem the bad things they did and when he couldn’t he went into seclusion and explored his own heart. Every person is not the same as Hawthorne; I believe that with certain people their heart could be their prison but not the average person.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  People are not caged by their heart, their heart shows what kind of person they are. It is similar to Emerson’s â€Å"golden possibility,† Hawthorne did not meet his golden possibility and this is why he looks on things so darkly. He doesn’t try to look at the good things in life, he tries to see what is wrong with people and explain why. He only looked at himself though and he did not have much to be happy for and this is why he felt like he was in a prison. Most people if they look inside themselves they are happy and do not dwell on such things like Hawthorne does. A person’s cage is not their heart, their heart is something that lets them be free and go on about a normal day with a happy countenance on their face.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Your own heart could be your worst prison but every human being is not in that prison like Hawthorne was. Hawthorne is right that your heart is the worst prison a person could be in but everyone is that same situation. Hawthorne shouldn’t generalize so much, he was only looking at himself and not the world around him. He was too self-centered in his writings and quotes, he should have looked at other people and saw how they lived. Then he would see a world of bright colors and fun filled life, he could have lived life to the maximum but he chose to look at the dark side of things and keep living inside his prison instead of changing his life.

The Humanities in Education Essay -- Educating Culture Humanities Essa

The Humanities in Education Education is the opportunity to learn and grow in your community, society, workplace, and even inside you. Education, quoted from Jon Spayde, a well-known interviewer and editor in his article titled Learning in the Key of Life, is about power: the power to know about the world around you and the people near and far from you. Education is culture, passed down from one group of people to another. We learn about these people through the humanities. Earl Shorris, a teacher for lower-class students quoted in the article Spayde wrote, said to his students on the first day of class, "You've been cheated. Rich people learn the humanities; you didn't. The humanities are a foundation for getting along in the world, for thinking, for learning to reflect on the world instead of just reacting to whatever force is turned against you" (60). What a powerful statement Shorris shared with his students. But why are the humanities a foundation? What foundation is Shorris talking about? And what constit utes the humanities? This foundation is the basic understanding of other cultures, and the ability to relate to many different types of people. This can be difficult to achieve, but education has the humanities to help. The humanities can be defined many different ways. The Readers Digest Dictionary defines the humanities as: the branches of learning (as philosophy, arts, or languages) that investigate human constructs and concerns as opposed to natural processes (as in physics or chemistry) and social relations (as in anthropology or economics) (652). This was the third definition of the word. The definition defines the humanities the best, as we know them today. But Spayde has another very interesting way to define t... ...e people from all races and countries. Keeping an open mind while traveling through your educational journey will help you enjoy and love the lessons you learn. Just remember to learn to embrace other people and cultures, and love the subtle subjects that are offered in the humanities. They truly will open doors of ideas that you didnt think you had in you. Works Cited Mission Statements. The Presence of Others. Ed. Marilyn Moller. Boston:Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. 51- 57. The Readers Digest Encyclopedia Dictionary. Ed. Sidney L. Landau. Pleasantville: The Readers Digest Association, 1966. 652,1336. Rose, Mike. Lives on the Boundary. The Presence of Others. Ed. Marilyn Moller. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. 105-119. Spayde, Jon. Learning in the Key of Life. The Presence of Others. Ed. Marilyn Moller. Boston: Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. 58 64.

Music Copying Essay

Everyone should admit that he or she, at one point or another, has copied music or movies from TVs or downloaded music and videos from the internet. Everyone knows it is illegal and wrong ethically, but very few follow the regulations that outline the practice to be illegal (Moore). Artists have licensed and copy righted their music and videos and when individuals go ahead and copy to be their own for selling it is overtly illegal and unethical. It is possible for one to borrow a CD and enjoy the music. Upon finishing up with it; he or she should return the CD. However, most individuals go ahead and copy the music into their computers, for their own or in sometimes making copies of music CDs and selling them. This adds to pain to the music producers and even artists themselves. The artists and the music producers go at a loss since the music they produce and intend to sell end up going to waste and cannot be compensated for their efforts (Moore). The main reason why people do these activities is because they see it being done by someone else. When a friend sees another copying music into his or her computer, he or she also wants to have a copy of the same music. They do these not knowing what impact they are causing to the real owners of the music. Another reason why people copy other people’s music without permission is because they know the real owners of this music are so far from them. Therefore, they know that even if they copy their music, the owners will not catch up with them so as to sue them (Moore). Generally, copying of music is a global problem and it has been a great challenge to the artists and producers. This is because before they sell the music to the customers, most of the music consumers will already be having these songs with them. This has been blamed on technology since once the music has been produced, it is uploaded in the internet and some cyber pirates go ahead and download the music, to sell it at a lower price than the real price. Governments have tried their best to control these actions of music piracy but it has never been successful. The solution of music piracy lies in individual behavior and discipline. Work Cited Moore, Charles W. Is music piracy stealing? Applelinks, August 8 2003. Web: July 16, 2010 from http://www. applelinks. com/mooresviews/pirate. shtml

Sigmund Freud’s Psychosexual Theory

Going back to the previous stages of Sigmund Freud’s Psychosexual Theory of Development I have been, I think I have been fixated at my Latency Stage during my elementary years because I was not that free to explore things on my own. I do not mix up with my other grade school friends back then that much. I didn’t even play basketball with my nearby neighbors that’s why until now, I do not know how to play basketball. I and my siblings used to stay at home all day, all night even our parents were not around. We are not allowed to go out of the neighborhood just to roam around and talk around. Maybe this is the reason why I do not know how to socialize totally with other people, keeps me of not being hooked up with some of naughty things and vices. And gets me out of danger and trouble in the way. I think I am a well-rounded person already, regardless of being my unsociable behavior wherein I can’t and I don’t easily get involved nor caught up with the jests of my friend and when it’s my turn, they always find me corny and some sort of out-of-the-world guy. But then, I still thank my parents for raising me up like this. In such a way that it’s only me and my family can understand each other. It’s quite selfish though, but I like it that way.

Compare and Contrast of Hector and Achilles

Option B : Compare and contrast the characters of Hector and Achilles. I choose to compare and contrast the characters of Hector and Achilles because I am interested in their story. I think there are many theme in this story, but the central theme is the fate of men; if it is ? xed or changed by the will of men. I feel interesting that the gods decides the fate of people. And I choose this option because I feel that I can understand what the author wants to express to the readers by comparing Hector and Achilles.Therefore, I will compare the strengths and the weakness of both heroes. First of all, I will write about Hector. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest ? ghter for Troy in the Trojan War. He was born as a son of King Priam and Queen Hecuba. His father was the king of Troy. He had a wife called Andromache and the son, Astyanax. In the European Middle Ages, Hector was one of the Nine Worthies. And he was a good son, husband and father. Most of all, he loved the peace. He love d his country, his people, his family and wanted to die with honor.When he realized that Jove and his son Apollo are not with him for the protection anymore against Achilles, he says to himself â€Å" My doom has come upon me; let me not them die ingloriously and without a struggle, but let me ? rst do some great thing that shall be told among men hereafter. †. The gods decided not to protect him. That was the reason why Hector lost, but he wanted to ? ght against the strong Achilles. Therefore, I think Hector was the true soldier. I want to write about Achilles now. He was a hero and greatest warrior for Greek in the Trojan War.He was the son of the goddess Thetis and Peleus, the king of the Myrmidons. Achilles was a mortal person even though he was the son of a goddess. And he had the great pride that he was the strongest soldier, and he did not want to be under anybody. When the Agamemnon dishonored him, Achilles asked his goddess mother to go to Jove, then to ask Jove to help Troy, so that Agamemnon would be in trouble. Therefore, Achilles did not think about his country and his people. He only think about himself. So I think Achilles is not the person to be the king.Now I want to compare and contrast their strength and the weakness. First, I want to write about Hector’s strength. He was brave and courageous. He was the man who thought about his family, loved his family and thought his country and people. He wanted to die with honor. He went to Paris because he did not stand to hear bad things about Paris and said, â€Å"you ? ght bravely, and no man with any justice can make light of your doings in battle. But you are careless and willfully remiss. It grieves me to the heart to hear the ill that the Trojans speak about you, for they have suffered much on your account.Let us be going, and we will make things right hereafter, should Jove vouchsafe us to set the cup of our deliverance before ever-living gods of heaven in our own homes, when we have chased the Achaeans from Troy. † From this conversation, you can see that Hector thinks about his brother, thinks about the people of Troy, and is willing to push his brother to ? ght with honor. When he fought with Achilles, Hector escaped to ? ght him ? rst because he was afraid of Achilles. However, when he realized that the gods were not with him to ? ht Achilles, he decided to ? ght with honor until he died. Therefore, I think one of his strength is his brave heart. But Paris did not have the brave heart. Next, I want to write about Achilles’s strength. I think Achilles did not have many strength. I think the physical power from his goddess mother was the only strength he had. Even the king Agamemnon feared his strength. Hector was the greatest soldier in Troy, but even that greatest soldier run away from Achilles when Hector was standing in front of the gate of Troy.It says â€Å" Fear fell upon Hector as he beheld him, and he dared not stay longer where he was but ? ed in dismay from before the gates, which Achilles darted after him at his utmost speed. †. Then when Hector ? nally decided to ? ght with Achilles, Achilles killed him easily. Therefore, I think Achilles was the strongest worrier on earth. Next, I want to write about Hector’s weakness. I could not ? nd many weakness of Hector, however, the only weakness I could ? nd was that Hector did not know how strong he was. He thought that he could ? ht with Achilles, but when he met Achilles, he run away. He run away because he ? nally realized that he was not as strong as Achilles when he met the enemy at the gate. I think it is too late for him to realized that. Because of this weakness, he died. Therefore, Hector did not have many weakness, but the only weakness he had destroyed him. Next is the weakness of Achilles. I think Achilles had many weakness even though he was the greatest warrior on earth. I think Achilles was strong physically, but he was weak mentally. When Agamemnon took Briseis from Achilles,Achilles went to the sea and prayed to his mother such as, â€Å" Mother, you bore me doomed to live but for a little season; surely Jove, who thunders from Olympus, might have made that little glorious. It is not so. Agamemnon, son of Atreus, has done me dishonor, and has robbed me of my prize by force. †. He cried when he was saying it. This was not like the greatest warrior, but rather a small child’s doing. He liked to ? ght and liked to kill people. He was very good at killing people, but he did not have any respect to his king, his country and his people.When he killed Hector, he did something very dishonorable. Achilles treated the body of Hector with contumely. He pierced the sinews at the back of both his feet from heel to ancle and passed thongs of ox-hide through the slits he had made. He made the body fast to his chariot, letting the head trail upon the ground. Then Achilles lashed his horse on, and the dust rose f rom Hector as he was being dragged along. Thus was the head of Hector being dishonored in the dust. This is not something what the greatest warrior does. Again Achilles became so emotional that he acted like a child.Therefore, I think that Achilles is not a person to be a great king. If he becomes to be a king, his country and people will be destroyed. I do not want to live in his country. I think he has the extreme character. He was a supermen physically, but he was a little kid mentally. As the conclusion of the comparison between Hector and Achilles, Hector is more heroic than Achilles. I think that the hero is a person who think of his country and his people. After comparing the characters of Hector and Achilles, the person who thinks of his country and his people is Hector.Hector always thinks about his country, his people and his family. He loves his father, his mother, his brothers, his wife and his child. When Hector died, Paris’s wife, Helen, cried and said, â€Å" I have never heard one word of insult or unkindness from you. †. Helen was the person who was the cause of this war. I think it is dif? cult to be kind to Helen, but Hector was nice to her. That means Hector’s heart was so deep. And I think Hector will be the greatest king. I love to live in his country.

Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat Essay

The two poems I am comparing; â€Å"Ode on the Death of a Favourite Cat† by Thomas Gray and â€Å"To a Mouse† by Robert Burns were both written in the eighteenth century, which makes it interesting to make a comparison of their content, style and techniques, to see how poems of the eighteenth century differ from each other.  Both of the poems feature an animal as the main subject of the poem. In Gray’s poem he has a house cat as the main focus of the poem whilst Burns dedicates his poem to a field mouse. Both these animals come to an unfortunate end. The cat due to curiosity â€Å"tumbled headlong† into â€Å"a tub of gold fishes† This supports the well known phrase â€Å"curiosity killed the cat† In the poem it refers to the cat as actually loosing 9 lives: â€Å"Eight times emerging from the flood  She mew’d to ev’ry watry God†.  No one arrives to save her:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"No Dolphin came, no Nereid stirr’d :  Nor cruel Tom, nor Susan heared†.  The dolphin is included in the list of possible rescuers because it is a reference to the classical legend of the harpist, Arion, being saved by a dolphin which had been entranced by his music, much in the same way the cat wanted to be saved by someone who heard its meowing.  Ã‚  In Burns’s poem the mouse unlike the cat does not actually die, but it is made clear that the prospects for the mouse are bleak due to its home being destroyed by the plough and the fact winter is coming and the mouse has no time to build another home for itself: â€Å"Now thou’s turn’d out, for a’ thy trouble,  But house or hald,  To thole the Winter’s sleety dribble,  An’craneuch cauld!†Ã‚  The poems are both basically about a particular ill-fated animal but each has a deeper meaning and message through anthropomorphism.  The cat in Gray’s poem is given feminine characteristics: a â€Å"fair round face† illustrates the ideal image of an eighteenth century woman’s face. Gray also uses metaphors to describe the cat which also apply to a lady’s jewels and adornments: â€Å"The velvet of her paws,  Her coat, that with the tortoise vies,   Her ears of jet, and emerald eyes.†Ã‚  In verse four the comparison of the cat to a woman is made even clearer:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"She stretch’d in vain to reach the prize.  What female heart can gold despise?  What cat’s averse to fish?†Ã‚  It is clear here that Gray is illustrating how women are seduced by the desire for gold as cats are seduced by the desire for fish. The anthropomorphism continues in verses 5 and 7:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Presumptious maid† and  Ã¢â‚¬Å"From hence you Beauties, undeceiv’d  Know one false step is ne’er retrieved†.  The last lines of the poem contain a moral:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Not all that tempts your wand’ring eyes  And heedless hearts, is lawful prize;  Nor all that glisters gold†. Through the cat Gray created a cautionary tale specifically aimed at women. It’s a warning not to be tempted by what is not rightly theirs, and not to be seduced by glittering appearances because it may not be as good as it looks on the outside.  Gray is very direct with his message of warning to women but he writes in a light-hearted way throughout. However, Burn’s poem is much more serious and sombre. He uses anthropomorphism like Gray to get his message across through an animal, in this case the mouse is used to highlight the social and moral problems that he felt existed in both the public and in his own family – His father died after eighteen years of hard work as a farmer. After his father’s death they had little money, leaving them no choice but to sublease a farm in order to keep their home. These experiences were brought through in to his poem when the mouse had its home destroyed by the plough:

BUS305, Competitive Analysis and Business Cycles Mod 1 Session Long Essay

BUS305, Competitive Analysis and Business Cycles Mod 1 Session Long Project - Essay Example The organization is likely to bring interesting focus to this economic analysis for few reasons as follows. One is that it is one of the most successful cafà © chains operating across many markets. The supply of the organization is common across different markets and customers have derived customer satisfaction through the entertainment they gain from the cafà © in terms of food, music, ambiance and the association with the brand. Another interesting fact is that the Hard Rock Cafà © is currently owned by the Seminole tribe of Florida which comprise of Native American people. This ownership differs from the conventional forms of business ownerships by large firms and individuals. Economic terms carry varying relevance to different organizations. Within this economic analysis, the terms, â€Å"Resources†, â€Å"Costs†, and â€Å"Markets† will be considered along with their relevance to the Hard Rock Cafà ©. The term â€Å"Resources† refers to â€Å"things you need to survive and thrive† and as people have infinite wants, the resources available are not sufficient to satisfy all these wants. Thus the resources such as Land, Labor, Capital and Entrepreneurship need to be allocated efficiently if economic agents are to maximize the wants which they can satisfy. The relevance of this to Hard Rock Cafà © is that they will have limited capital, suitable locations, good managerial and entrepreneurial talent and good human resource and they need to invest these on most optimum business ventures to maximize their economic gains. While the potential to open cafes or hotels all over the world exists, they have presence only in 36 cou ntries which reflects the implication of scarce resources on business. The term Markets in terms of economics is â€Å"any convenient set of arrangements by which buyers and sellers communicate to exchange goods and services† (Anderton 2002). Relevance to Hard Rock Cafà © is that potential exists for them as a seller to meet their buyers and

Temple of Zeus at Akragas, Agrigento, Sicily 500-460 B.C Essay

Temple of Zeus at Akragas, Agrigento, Sicily 500-460 B.C - Essay Example In Agrigento, Sicily, one of the most ancient architectural designs stands there even today, attracting thousands of people from across the globe. Historically, the town is famous for its splendid assortment of more than seven Greek temples that dates back to the sixth and fifth centuries BC. Standing on the southern part of the city of Agrigento, these temples provide a classic example of a historical study about ancient architectural designs, and how they influences modern day architecture (Wilson 7). Many historians believe that the Greek colonialists are the ones who built the city of Akragas in 580 BC. These colonialists had travelled from far, precisely from Rhodes and settled in Sicily. Life during the colonial times was not any easy, as tyranny, persecutions and slavery took the orders of the day. However, these periods happened and democracy settled in slowly and the city dwellers, about 200,000 of them in the fifth century BC, embarked on a journey of developing their city. High-quality wine, olives, and horses decorated the beautiful city, and later on the most famous and beautiful temples stood elected. However, something astonishing happened in 406 BC. The Carthaginians invaded Akragas just barely eight months after the construction of the temples, and mutilated the temples. The Carthaginians ruled the city until 340 BC when Timoleon engaged the Carthage in war and finally defeated them. However, it is important to note that the city had lost its glory and magnificent scene, a scene that stands unrecovered even up to today. The change o one empire to another has not helped in the rebuilding of the temples. However, these temples still have a historical significance to modern day historians and architectural designers (Paton 74-94). In Italy, historians agree that the Olympian Zeus Temple is the prevalent Doric temple ever built and it has some historical significance. However, it is paramount to note that due to various reasons, the construction of these temple never ended. In fact, today, the temple of Zeus lies in ruins as the people responsible for its construction did not do much to compete it. Standing in the Valle dei Templi, other famous temples surround the temple of Zeus thus giving the later a sheer significance. Nonetheless, it is imperative to note that nobody recorded the exact history this temple, and therefore it is quite unclear. This does not however imply that there are no absolute facts about the temple of Zeus. In fact, one of its significance is the commemoration of war pitting Syracuse and Carthaginians (Battle of Himera 480 BC). As earlier noted the Carthaginians had taken control of the city and imposed their rule. Some historians such as Diodorus Siculus point out that the Carthaginians are the ones who built the temple by using slaves. Here, the slaves were mainly the captured enemies parading as soldiers but were now defeated and taken into captivity where they subjected them into hard work and labo r (Wilson 48-61). The ancient literature does not say much about the temple of Zeus although many historians mention it in their writings. For example, Polybius, one of the Greek historians records in a memo that although the other temples surrounding the temple of Zeus looked complete and beautiful unlike the temple of Zeus, the later was completely odd in terms of appearance, design and dimensions. He goes on to say

Proposal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 3

Proposal - Essay Example It is very important for the treatment of the ischemic stroke that the scope of the damaged made to be defined. Diagnostic requirements for imaging the patients with ischemic stroke changed due to the result of research made by National Institute of Neurological Disorder and Stroke (NINDS). A new treatment for ischemic lesions of the (MCA) middle cerebral artery territory was introduced. It is called Thrombolysis. A metanalysis was published and it summarizes the entire outcome for which Thrombolytic agents were used to treat severe ischemia in three to six hours (Kobayashi et al 2007). The result was significant decrease in patients with negative outcome after the treatment. However there was also higher threat of hemorrhage and death in the first ten days of treatment. At the increase of the time interval between the beginning of the stroke and thrombolytic treatment, the threat of death and hemorrhage also increases. The determining factor of the success of thrombolytic therapy de pends greatly on the earliest detection of the unfortunate event. The study shows that those patients that have been diagnosed as early as three hours from the onset have the greater positive outcome. Thus, the efficiency of the diagnostic imaging is of uttermost importance. It will ascertain the right patients for thrombolytic therapy so that severe complications could be avoided. For this reason the efficient diagnostic imaging should greatly help (a) leave out intracranial bleeding, (b) to determine which brain tissue is irreversibly affected and which is still has the good chance to recover, (c) and recognize stenosis or narrowing of the passage of the major extra and intracranial artery. On time restoration of blood flow to an organ or tissue may help prevent death of cell and reestablish normal function (Tomandl et al 2003). The one aim of the neuroimaging in ischemic stroke is to ascertain the tissue at risk of infaction (Murphy et al 2008). The aim of this

Employee Retention in UK Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Employee Retention in UK - Essay Example Organizationally committed employees will usually have good attendance records, demonstrate a willing adherence to company policies, and have lower turnover rates. In particular, their broader base of job knowledge often translates into loyal customers and even pay premium price. Employee retention is an issue since the turnover levels from various industries are rising. Statistics show different percentages related to turnover rates as well as the reasons for the increasing turnover. "Turnover levels vary very considerably from industry to industry. The highest levels of turnover (22.6%) are found in private sector organisations. Successive surveys of labour turnover show that the highest levelsare found in retailing, hotels, cateringand leisure,and among other lower paid private sector services groups. The public sector has an average turnover rate of 13.7%." (Stone, 2007) Almost a quarterof employees in the UK have been in their current jobs forfive years.As a proportion of aggregate turnover, the percentage of people leaving organisations through redundancy remains small. There was a slight decreasefrom 28% to 24%of organisations making more than ten people redundant during 2006 and in those operating a recruitment freeze from 24% to 22%in the course of the year. The cost of high staff turnover can be substantial. ... irect financial costs of replacing staff but also other repercussions such as the potential loss of key skills, knowledge and experience, disruption to operations and the negative effect on workforce morale. In addition, high turnover represents a considerable burden both on HR and line managers as they are constantly recruiting and training new staff. When seeking to resolve the problems associated with high turnover, companies must first investigate the underlying causes. They need to have in mind an appropriate level of attrition by benchmarking against similar organisations and taking into account the real costs of turnover to the company. Different theories of employee retention People are vital components for the effective operation of the organisation; as a matter of fact, managers often say that people are their most important assets. The human assets are never shown on the balance sheets as a distinct category, although a big amount of money is invested in the recruitment, selection, training of personnel. Rensis Likert suggested maintaining accounts of the valuable human assets through human resource accounting. The importance of the employees cannot be over emphasized because it can determine the success or failure of the organisation. Make-You-Happy Action Teams (MAT) plays a critical role in managing employee retention. This is Z-Theory management. To briefly sate, Z-Theory management means everyone that is effected by a decision for the company gets a "say" or a "vote" in the decision (tons more on Z-Theory Management in another article). This means employees are directly involved in decision making that affects them. When then make decisions that directly affect them, they stay around longer. This theory can help in managing employee retention due

HUMAN RESOURCES IN ACTION Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

HUMAN RESOURCES IN ACTION - Assignment Example Jobseekers would evaluate the requirements of particular jobs before engaging in the application process of such jobs. This paper analyses the websites of Fairmont Hotels and Resorts and DoubleTree by Hilton, henceforth referred to as Fairmont and DoubleTree respectively, to determine how their effectiveness in meeting the needs of jobseekers. Overview of the Chosen Companies Fairmont operates luxury hotels and resorts in nineteen countries around the world. Founded in 1907, its headquarters is in Canada (http://www.fairmont.com/). Founded in 1969, DoubleTree is a hotel global brand with presence in over 325 locations in five continents (http://doubletree3.hilton.com/en/index.html). Its headquarters is in Virginia, US. These companies have incorporated the capabilities of information technology into their human resources functions, both leveraging on their website capabilities. Interestingly, both hotels have Taleo as their website developer. Being in the hospitality industry, the ho mepage of each of the websites provide convenient navigation for customers seeking to make bookings or to directly contact the companies, each displaying not only their traditional telephone numbers and postal addresses but also the addresses of their various social network subscriptions. Important to this task would be the careers tab which appears on both websites enabling the companies get in touch with potential employees. Evaluation of the Careers Tabs on the Websites It would be noted that the careers tab on each of the websites appear in small font and would not be easy to note as compared to other tabs such as those on about the companies and the offers available. This could be interpreted as the companies’ greater interest in attracting customers as opposed to interest in attracting others players in its distribution chain, including potential employees. Since the tab appears at the bottom of the homepage in each website, the jobseeker would be required to scroll dow n the webpage, making it a difficult to navigate to this webpage. The careers tab leads to web pages that give descriptions on the careers available in each of the companies. Fairmont headlines this webpage as ‘an extraordinary company; an extraordinary career’ with the ‘extraordinary’ emphasized by bolding. This could be a strategy to assure jobseekers of their prowess in the industry. To further attract the best pool of skills, the company encourages one to click on their ‘search position’ tab to identify exciting job opportunities. DoubleTree’s strategy for capturing the best skills in the market involves wording, introducing itself as the â€Å"most recognizable hotel brand in virtually every region of the world.† Fairmont’s website career tab has minimal information on job opportunities. It prompts one to search for available opportunities. Therefore, unless one is searching for a specific vacancy, no general informati on on career opportunities would be available, as filled in positions would return no meaningful results. It would be interesting to however note that the website has an option of one creating a profile based on which email alerts would be delivered every time an opportunity that matches such a profile arises. DoubleTree on the other hand provides much more information based on what the job seeker is looking for. It categorizes its careers into regions and level of professional qualification. Therefore, depending on what a job seeker is loo

Project management Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Project management - Coursework Example That is, business would go on as usual without interruption. Renovating such an old building considering the extent of the damage while at the same time worrying about the safety of millions of passengers passing by, posed a great challenge (Badiru 2009, pp. 71-78) Second, it was challenging to install sustainable resource utilization systems like new water systems considering that the building was constructed using old and outdated materials. Third, the project’s size and scale made it difficult to manage the suppliers effectively due to communication breakdown. The project had more than dozen employees and 11 suppliers reporting to the project manager. As a result, effective communication was compromised. Fourth, it was challenging to replace the network system in the terminal since the systems currently used by the passengers and flight systems would be shut down during the process. As mentioned the renovation was to take place without interrupting the usual activities. The network system replacement process was also a challenge (Larson, Gray, Danlin, Honig & Bacarini 2013, pp. 77-100). Despite the above mentioned and other challenges, strategies were formulated to ensure effective utilization of resources. The strategies comprise of the following: first, the project manager was strict on gauging the performance of different stakeholders with the standards set by BAA Airport Ltd. The strategy enhanced the performance of the suppliers, workers, and the contractor. Second, even though it was impossible to overhaul the water system, the contractors were able to replace lights and heaters with those that economically consume electricity. Third, the network system was improved without disrupting the usual activities at the terminal by use of â€Å"Online change control† software built by IT specialists. The strategies facilitated the delivery of project

433Mod5SLP Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

433Mod5SLP - Essay Example This website is precise and can be easily used by the viewers. Its separate segments make the entire website easy to be operated. The major usability criteria for this website was to understand whether all information has been provided regarding visual design, content strategy, project management, maintaining high usability, etc. All of these factors have been properly addressed in the website (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2014). The next website highlights the different elements which enable a website to be transparent by nature. There have been many images and stories portrayed in the website that reflects stories of the past history. However the entire assessment for this website was aligned toward the aspect of how well it brings forth the meaning of transparency. The usability of this website is comparatively low in comparison to the previous website simply because of the fact too many information has been embedded in the site (Transparency, 2013). It meets the re quirement in terms of content and structuring but the website appears to be complicated to the users. There is a need to possess knowledge about the factors that has been stated in the site. The last website is of Nielsen Norman Group and it describes history and achievements of Jakob Nielsen. Its usability assessment is done on productive contents of the site. This website has an ease of usage and learning (Nielsen Norman Group, 2014). All the useful resources have been categorized articles, training, reports, etc. In the first website there are no such specific areas for improvement as all the vital elements that improves user experience has been properly addressed. However in the second website the excessive content is not usable. It appears to be complex in relation to viewing as well as understanding. The major improvement in this website should be in the form of structuring where all the information will be grouped under separate categories (Rubin &

How Babies Learn Language Compared to How Adults Learn a Second Essay

How Babies Learn Language Compared to How Adults Learn a Second Language - Essay Example They further expand on these skills through imaginary play and through their perception of audio around them, as has been stated (Berk 2004). There is no extraordinary difference here then in regards to how adults being learning a second language as they hone in on their audio perception as well and gradually sound out new words from how they are hearing them formed in their social environment and through educators as well. Babies develop what sociologists and psychologists term as, "private speech" (Berk 2004). Even adults do this when they are learning a second language, and younger children do it when they are engaging in all sorts of activities such as building blocks, art and drawing, fantasy play, and in many other personal areas as well. For example, when adults are learning a second language, often when they are in the privacy of their car or at home they speak the new vocabulary words to themselves, sounding them out and testing themselves to see if they can pronunciate them properly. In Berk's book (2004) some sociologists define how children and adults utilize private speech when they are faced with issues that are relative to their cognitive abilities or issues that promote social challenges as learning language definitely would do. So obviously the correlation between the development of babies, young children, and adults who are learning a second language is absolutely obvious. The cognitive technique is identical yet is just approached in different ways at various stages of life. Therefore, for babies and toddlers, private speech is simply their way of vocalizing their developing cognitive skills. For example, the cooing that babies do early on such as when they are between 1month to 6 months later develops into actual pronunciated words, the first being ma-ma normally then da-da. Sociologists therefore point out that every stage of life is a developmental form of learning, even in adult life (Berker 2004). Liebergott et al (1995) points out that although th e language skills of infants in their first year of life is usually indiscernible it is still considered to be the most important year of cognitive development for babies, especially in regards to communication skills. This is due to the fact that this first year lays the groundwork for future cognitive learning abilities and the verbal sounds that infants hear during this first year and develop are then enhanced upon and developed into actual vocabulary words. Again, the similarity of adults learning a second language is astonishingly similar to the beginnings of vocabulary of that of an infant. This is because adults have to learn how to speak all over again, just in a secondary fashion. So adults, listen, observe and interact with others to develop the necessary cognitive skills to speak the second language fluidly just as infants follow the same developmental phases of their learning processes to develop their initial language abilities. Libergott et al (1995) emphasizes that the interactions between the mother and the infant in regards to vocalizing needs and wants is what helps build on the

Women in Psychology Essay Example for Free

Women in Psychology Essay Modern Psychology has been formed mainly by men during the 19th and 20th century, men like Wilhelm Wundt, Henri Bergson, and Sigmund Freud, major philosophers of the era include Franz Gall, Francis Galton, and William James. During these times women were not taken seriously in psychology; it took strong, pioneering women, such as Margaret Floy Washburn, Karen Horney, Mary Calkins, and Mary Cover Jones to bridge the gap in this male- dominated field of science. Mary Cover Jones looked at what others had studied, and rethought how to make the science better; she is known as the â€Å"Mother of Behavior Therapy† (Nevid Pastva, 2011, p. ), and contributions to psychology. Mary Cover Jones background Mary Cover was born in Johnstown Pennsylvania, in 1897. Always wanting knowledge she attended Vassar College, graduating in 1919. Mary took every psychology course offered with the exception of one. Mary Floy Washburn’s senior seminar in psychology do to Washburn disallowing Mary because of a middle of the road grade received in a laboratory course her sophomore year (Mary Cover Jones (1897-1987), n. d. ). After graduating from Vassar, Mary Cover began her graduate work at Columbia University and received her Master’s degree in the summer of 1920. While attending Columbia she met and married Harold Jones a fellow graduate and who the Harold E. Jones Children Study Center at Berkley University is named after. In 1923 Mary Cover Jones was appointed Associate in Psychological Research at the Institute of Education Research, Columbia University College Teachers College (Mary Cover Jones (1897-1987), n. d. ). Here is where she started her most famous study of Peter and his fear of furry animals. Peter and the rabbit In 1920, Mary Cover Jones attended a lecture given by John B. Watson on a child named â€Å"Albert† who was conditioned to be afraid of anything with fur due to scaring â€Å"Albert† with loud sounds whenever the infant reached for a white rat. While listing to the charismatic Watson, Mary wondered if Watson’s learning approach could be used to remove children fears (Nevid Pastva, 2011, p. 1). In 1924 Mary was introduced to Peter, a three-year-old that had a natural fear of furry animals. Adapting from Dr. Watson’s study Mary observed Peter at play in his crib, introduced a white rabbit and noticed Peter cry and flail until the rabbit was removed. Throughout her study Mary tried to introduce things Peter liked along with the rabbit to see if she could condition Peter into embracing the rabbit instead of afraid. With the other stimuli, (food) being added as the rabbit was introduced into Peter’s â€Å"space† Mary was able to bring the rabbit closer and closer until the rabbit sat on Peters lap as he ate. This counterconditioning of Peters fear not only removed his fear of Rabbits but also other fears such as, cotton, a fur coat, and Feathers (Nevid Pastva, 2011, p. 1). Contributions to psychology Peter may have been what Mary Cover Jones was most famous for, but she did much more for psychology among those are on how early and late maturation in adolescence effect personality, personality antecedents of drinking problems (Logan, 1980, 103). Mary was instrumental in her husband, Harold E.  Jones, establishment of the institute for Child Welfare at the University of California, Berkley. Mary became involved with the Oakland Growth Study where she followed a group of 200 fifth and sixth grade students from puberty to adolescences. Several follow-up studies have been done on these children as they entered adulthood. Mary Cover jones became a full professor in 1959 and in 1960 she served as president of the Division of Developmental Psychology of the American Psychological Association. That same year her husband passed away of a heart attack (Rutherford, n. . ). Conclusion Mary Cover Jones’ study of Peter challenged the predominate belief at the time that treatment of the underlying psychological conflicts rather than overt behavior is necessary to accomplish change. Her work proved that behavior can be changed through therapy and regardless of where a fear roots stem from, positive results can be achieved. Mary Cover Jones lived to be 91, and according to her sister her last words were â€Å"I am still learning about what is important in life† (Rutherford, n. d. ).

Purchasing Power Parity; Does It Exist Essay Example for Free

Purchasing Power Parity; Does It Exist Essay Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Purchasing Power Parity doctrine is perhaps one of the most controversial financial theories. Over the years, it has had its ebbs and flows, with proponents expositing several mathematical and statistical formula to strengthen the theory, while critics have severally condemned the utility of the theory; however, according to Belassa1 the doctrine has managed to survive nevertheless. Belassa argues that, though in somewhat ambiguous terms, the doctrine has been invoked as early as during the Napoleonic wars, the christening and explanation of the doctrine came from Prof. Gustav Cassel during the First World War and was popularized after the Second World War. The author further posits that interests in the theory tend to be invoked when existing exchanges rates were thought to be unrealistic and there was, therefore, a search for what is considered equilibrium rates2.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Perhaps one of the controversies that have built up around the Purchasing Power Parity starts with the issue of definition. Different authors tend to come up with their own definition (version) of the theory, and as a result, the theory has come to mean different things to different authors3. Before looking at some of the conceptualizations of the theory that has generated over time, it is pertinent, to first examine the theory as was professed by its author Prof. Gustav Cassel.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Bunting4   presents the first exposition of the theory in Cassels’s Money and Foreign Exchange after 1914, which he said was one of the earliest and best explanation of the theory by the author.   Bunting explains that the concept of purchasing power parity was borne out of the need to establish what determined exchange rates in Europe after the era of gold standard was gone, that is, when national currencies were on inconvertible basis. On this basis, Cassel explains that considering the fact that the primary reason a country’s currency is in demand in a foreign country is the need to purchase goods produced in that country. Thus, when normal, unrestricted trade between [two] countries have been established over time, the exchange rates become fixed relative to the purchasing power of each currency domestically, and as long as this domestic purchasing power of the currencies do not change, nothing will happen to the exch ange rates5. Further, the theory states that when the currencies of these countries undergo inflation, the â€Å"the normal rate of exchange will be equal to the old rate multiplied by the quotient of the degree of inflation in the one country and in the other†6. While this explanation describes the basic skeleton of the theory, there have been several adjustments and modifications of the meanings and concept of the theory as several authors tend to strengthen or criticize it. Some of these adjustments to the meaning of the theory will suffice to buttress this point.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Everett and his colleagues7   attempting to measure currency strengths and weakness with the purchasing power parity concept, posited that as long as there is unrestricted trades, exchange rates of currencies tend to obey the purchasing power of the currencies. In this regard, they succinctly conceive the theory to mean thus regardless of how currencies are denominated, when adjusted for units; all currencies tend to command the same basket of goods8. This definition is similar to that adopted by Klein et al.9, who likened the purchasing power parity doctrine to the law of One Price with the explanation that an identical good (or service) would command the same price, measured in a given numeraire system, all over the trading world10.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Belassa, however, gave a more elaborate explanation of the purchasing power doctrine, differentiating between the relative and absolute interpretations of the theory. According to him, the absolute version of purchasing power parity theory argues that when purchasing power parities are calculated as a ratio of consumer goods prices for any pair of countries, the result reflects the equilibrium rates of exchange. On the other hand, the relative version of the theory asserts that, when compared to a period when equilibrium rates prevailed, changes in the relative prices of goods would indicate the necessary adjustments in exchange rates11. In a sense, one can infer from these definitions that the absolute version of the theory seeks to establish ‘equilibrium’ exchanges rates between any pair of countries based on purchasing power of their currencies, while the relative version intends to measure the over and undervaluation of currencies at any period in time12.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Despite the controversies surrounding the validity and utility of this theory, recently, authors have sought to clothe the doctrine in â€Å"the garments of respectability† and in this regard, several statistical materials have been presented that more accurately reflects the relationship between power of currencies and exchange rates, as conceived in the theory 13. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to examine some of the literatures regarding the theory and perhaps to infer from these, the implications and future research possibilities of the theory. Literature Review   Balassa, Bela (1964). The Purchasing-Power Parity Doctrine: A Reappraisal.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Belassa14 apparently belongs to the group of authors that intend to strengthen the validity and utility of the purchasing power parity doctrine. He begins by first differentiating between absolute and relative versions of the theory, as explained above. He, however, asserted that the doctrine as postulated by Cassel tends towards the absolute version when he states that the rate of exchange between two countries will be determined by the quotient between the general levels of prices in the two countries15. Further, he explains that theory as invoked by another author indicates that the German mark was undervalued against the dollar, while the mark too was overvalued, and the Austrian shilling, Danish crown and Dutch guilder all undervalued, by extending the theory to the currencies of less developed countries, their currencies appears to be undervalued against the dollar. The author contends that the deviation from the calculated exchanges were too much to be caused by errors.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the bid to correct the perceived weakness in the theory, Belassa created a new model for the theory by introducing non-traded goods (services) into the traditional two-country, two-commodity model of the theory. This model of the theory is strengthened by the following assumptions; that there is only one limiting factor – labor, and constant input coefficient. Also, under the assumption of constant marginal rates of transformation, countries with relative higher productivity levels will experience higher relative price of non-traded commodity compared to another. From these propositions, the author posit that income levels play a significant level in the calculation of purchase powers and that purchasing power parities will be more closely related to exchange rates when prices are expressed in terms of wage units.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   From this equation, the author posit that if we were to assume production of traded goods relative to non-traded goods constitutes the major difference in international productivity, currencies of country with higher productivity will appear to be overvalued using purchasing power parity calculations. However, if per capita income was to be used as a representative of levels of productivity, the ratio of purchasing power parity to exchange rate will be an increasing reflection of income levels   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In providing empirical confirmation the proposed relationship between purchasing power parity, exchange rates and income levels, the author argues thus: â€Å"if differences in tastes do not counterbalance differences in productive endowments, there will be a tendency in each country to consume commodities with lower relative prices in larger quantities†16 . The result is that the purchasing power of country II’s currency will be undervalued if country I’s consumption pattern is used as weights and overestimated if country II’s consumption is used. This is shown in the tables below.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The second table above shows the comparison of the cost of household services in the United States and Italy for 1950. The author argue that after conversion at exchange rates, domestic services in Italy seem to cost about one-fifth of their United states’ price, barber and beauty shops cost one-fourth, laundry and dry cleaning the same cost. In the same vein, purchasing power equivalents for household services was 391 lira at US weights and 165lira at Italian weights. These figures confirm, the author argues, that services (non-traded goods) cost more, relatively, in countries with higher income levels. Thus, it buttresses the relationship between purchasing power parity, exchange rates and income levels. Bunting, H.   Frederick (1939). The Purchasing Power Parity Theory Reexamined.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Bunting18, while conceding that the purchase power parity doctrine has been severally criticized, further adds his criticism by, according to him, submitting the theory to an improved statistical test. The basis of the argument set forth in this paper is that though the author of the doctrine of purchasing power parity discussed some likely exceptions to the theory, which could account for the differences observed between actual exchanges rates and parity calculated rates, several other exceptions that render the theory impracticable exists.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The author proffered an elaborate definition (explanation) of the theory, as conceived by Cassel and the proposed relationship between purchasing power of currencies and their exchange rates. Further, he went on to summarize the major exceptions to the general rule into seven main points, as discussed by Cassel in his book; Money and Foreign Exchange After 1914. Accordingly, he explained that exchange rates are expected to deviate from the calculated rates if, domestic prices fluctuate in relation to one another, due to any series of factors; tariffs and/or shipping costs change in relation to those prevalent in the base year used for the calculation; obstructions to trade other tariffs and shipping costs becomes operational during the year under consideration; sudden devaluation of currency occurs during the transition period; the activities of speculators affect exchange rates; governments are in need of foreign exchange, for example to pay international debts; and the base year or general price index is not properly selected, as defects in the price index used or the base year could cause predictive error in calculated rates. In sum, Bunting posits that though these exceptions are many and powerful, they do not fully subsume factors/reasons responsible for differences in actual rates and calculated rates.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In this regard, the author asserts that the critique of the theory can be simplified by considering problems of price levels and direction of change. On the issue of price level, he argues that, problems with choice of base year and the commodities that should make up the price indices to be used in the calculation shows ambiguity in the theory. First, with base year determination, the author argues that Cassel’s contention that it is only if we know the exchange rate which represents a certain equilibrium that we can calculate the rate which represents the same equilibrium at an altered value of the monetary units of the two countries19 i.e. we can only calculate the equilibrium rate now if we know the rate at a particular ‘base’ year; is faulty because there is no such thing in international trades. He argues that the fact that international economic conditions do not persist for long means that a given base year can only be reasonably used to measure relative price changes for only a short period of time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   On the commodity prices to be included in the price index, Bunting also faults Cassel’s insistence that ‘general’ price index should be used, arguing that not all goods are traded internationally. Thus changes in commodities not traded internationally can, therefore, have no effect on foreign country’s evaluation of a country’s currency. Further, on the direction of change, the author argues that Cassel’s contention that â€Å"when currencies are not on a convertible specie standard it is parities which determine exchange rates†20   tend to overlook the possibility that the direction of change could be the reverse i.e. price levels may be caused by changes in exchange rates. Thus, while Cassel concedes that the actions of speculators could cause changes in exchange rates without necessary price changes; there are several other factors that are capable of inducing change in exchange rates. Bunting mentions the following factors; Government monetary policies – alterations of central bank rates, stabilization funds, international government loans; Private international loans and special considerations such as large corporations transferring their capital holdings from one country to the other to protect their profits, or tourist expenditures and immigration remittances, which both involve the purchase of foreign currencies with no regard for the purchasing power of the currencies involved.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Subjecting the purchasing power parity theory to statistical tests, the author presents his result in the graphical form shown below. In the charts below, Franco-American exchange rates were compared for 1920s and 1930s. The solid line represents calculated rates while the broken line labeled no lag represents actual rates. The differences exhibited between the actual and calculated rates for the statistical test constitute discrepancy in the theory. The 1month, 2months and 3months lag periods were allowed in the assumption that time should be allowed for changes in purchasing power parities to effect a change in exchange rate, thus the 1-3months lag should show more correlation with the actual rates, however, this was not the case. The author concludes that proponents of the theory should simply recognize the fact that the theory as it stand is defective and needs to be refined. The authors of this paper proffered answers to criticisms of the validity and utility of the purchasing power parity theory, and especially to the claims that though the theory worked relatively in the 1920s, it failed in the 1970s by some other authors. Davutyan and John21 contend that possible reasons for the apparent failure of the purchasing power theory to predict exchange rates accurately when figures from the 1970s are used could include the fact that relatively to 1920; monetary policies were more coordinated in the 1970s. They therefore, assert that it is the coordination of monetary policies, not the failure of the purchasing power parity theory that causes conventional statistical tests to reject the validity of purchasing power parity for the 1970s. Providing evidence to support their claims, the authors posit that if we are to assume that there are no obstructions to trade, i.e. all goods are tradable and effective arbitrage refers to the relative version of the purchasing power theory, as explained by Bellassa22 above. In consolidating their argument, the authors contend that purchasing power parity tend to fail under two instances: when arbitragers fail to respond to profitable opportunities or when transaction costs and other impediments inhibit trades. However, they contend that the first factor might not be feasible, so the latter appears to be more important. Elucidating on the second factor, Davutyan and John   posit that under the assumption of zero transaction costs all goods are tradable, when this assumption is listed, goods could be divided into two categories, tradables with zero transaction costs and non-tradables with high transaction costs. Thus, in the absence of transaction costs, arbitrage keeps relative prices of tradable goods across countries equal, but this is not the case between non-tradables as well as between tradables and non-tradables. Therefore, when there are economic shocks, the equation above holds tradables but not for non-tradables. Furthermore, the authors contend that even with tradables, while the zero transaction costs is convenient in theory, it is not always so in reality. The fact is that relative transaction cost differs between countries and this too, tends to introduce errors into the purchasing power parity calculation, as with the non-tradables.   Another source of error in purchasing power calculation, according to the authors, is unequal weights used for calculation. They argue that in the second equation above, the weights in the price index are the same for both countries; however, using CPI or wholesale price index or GNP deflators would violate the requirement for similar weights and could introduce error into the measurement. To support their claims, the authors present the data in the table below, where R2 and estimate of the regression coefficient supports the argument that purchasing power parity works.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Everett24 and his colleagues presented a practical and working model of the purchasing power parity theory and argued that by using this model of the theory to calculate exchange rates, currency strengths and weakness can be measured. Defining purchasing power parity, the authors contend that the primary concept of the theory is that when the forces of price mechanism are unrestricted, exchange rates tend to conform to the purchasing power of currencies. Thus, instead of price levels adjusting to exchange rates, the reverse is the case. In this regard, the authors assert that while this general idea of the theory applies to a world of floating exchange rates, their model of the purchasing power theory can be adapted to a variety of exchange rate regimes, such as managed floats, crawling pegs and fixed exchange rates.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In explaining this model of the purchasing power parity, the authors refer to what they called the parity chart. As shown below, the chart is derived thus: the horizontal axis measures time from a chosen time of origin – the base year; while the vertical axis measures two things, one, the difference in the percentage of the purchasing power of currencies and two, the percentage change in the actual exchange rate from the base year. While the dotted line represents the actual/observed exchange rates, the parity (solid) line represents parity (calculated) exchange rates over time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Using the two country model to explain the ‘parity chart’, the authors explain that if we assume that there are no restrictions to trade, and the perfect base time, under this scenario, if the change in the purchasing power of country A’s currency differs from that of country B, the parity line in the chart above will have a positive or negative slope, depending on the sign of the difference between the purchasing power of the currencies under consideration. Further, if actual exchange rates were to be plotted on the same chart, the slope should conform closely to that of the parity line. What can be inferred from this explanation is that the parity line in the chart closely reflects the expected change in exchange rates that should follow changes in the purchasing power of country currencies.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   To support their claims that the parity chart can be used to measure changes in exchange rates under any type of exchange rate regime, the authors presented empirical results of several currencies with different exchange rate regimes, these included the German mark-a more or less freely floating exchange rate; Spanish peseta-a strictly managed exchange rate; Colombian peso-a crawling peg currency; and South African rand-a fixed exchange rate25. The result for the German mark is presented below:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The authors explain that the vertical axis measures the percentage deviation from the calculated rate. While the line representing the inflation factor shows a fairly steady rise, in line with the well known fact of relatively lower rates of increases in the West German price level compared with most other countries, the line representing the exchange rate, on the other hand, shows no apparent trend, reflecting the fact that the exchange rates of West Germanys trading partners vis-à  -vis the dollar on a trade-weighted basis may have moved in opposite directions. These two factors when compounded, yields the parity line.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   After presenting empirical results for all the four representative countries listed above, the authors concluded that an indepth examination of the parity chart and line indicates that the parity line provides an effective and informed judgment about future currency movements. Further, that if â€Å"the parity rate diverges from the actual rate, this indicates that the currency is presently either over- or undervalued, and will therefore have to adjust, the longer the persistence of such a divergence, the more likely that an adjustment will occur soon†26.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This is another study that attempted to strengthen the validity and utility of the purchasing power parity doctrine. These authors, in this study, posited that purchasing power parity could be used to derive a more effective simulation or projection of world economy. Admitting that the theory has come to mean different thing to different writers, the authors adopted the law of ‘one price’ definition of the theory, which explains that an â€Å"identical good or service would command the same price, measured in a given numeraire system, all over the trading world†27.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The authors further state that though there are several controversial issues about the theory, such as what category of goods should be included in the calculation or what time should be used as origin/base in the calculation, they assert that any detailed exchange rate modeling system should obey the purchasing power parity rule, in the long run. Statistically estimating the movement of exchange rates in relation to the purchasing power parity principle for the 1970s, the authors presented the following formula:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to the authors, this formula states that the â€Å"U.S. dollar terms, should have a common rate of change across all countries, namely, the U.S. rate of change of export prices†28. Thus, if the exchange rates during this time, had moved in accordance with the principle of purchasing power parity, then the estimates of: would be consistent with the hypothesis of purchasing power parity. Where a =O; b = -1.0; c = +1.0; eit =additive random error. Scatter diagrams of the data points of the two equations above are shown below. Conclusively, the authors assert that judging by these statistics, all the regression estimates in the charts above passed significance tests. Thus, it could be deduced that the relationship between purchasing power of currencies and the actual exchange rates was tightest for members of the EMS, but slightly less tight when the UK is included. Based on this evidence, the authors believe that their contention that, on average, purchasing power parity movements approximately reflects actual exchange rates in the 1970s has been adequately justified, and as a result, it could be generalized that calculations of purchasing power parity could be used in predicting movements of exchange rates.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   John29 proffered answers to criticisms concerning the predictive errors observed with exchange rates calculated from purchasing power parity. They observed that studies carried out by several authors indicate that for several countries, the predictive error of purchasing power parity during the 1970s followed what they referred to as ‘random walk’ i.e. whatever the deviation between the parity rate and actual rates observed this month, next month it is likely to increase as decrease.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In this regard, the author argued that the basic idea behind the purchasing power parity doctrine is that in the long run, the differences between the parity rates and the actual exchange rates tend to disappear and the tow rates are equated. They argue that, though economic shocks, in whatever guise, could, in the short term, drive the actual rate from the parity rates, but in the absence of new shocks, the price mechanism tend to equate the tow rates, in the long run. Based on this argument, the author contend that predictive errors for purchasing power parity should not perform a random walk, instead there should be a gradual decline or increase towards the actual rate.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Supporting their claims that predictive errors in purchasing power parity does not perform random walk in the long run; the authors presented the results of empirical studies of several countries using data for over seventy years.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Following the same path with paper reviewed above, Yeager30 also sought to strengthen the validity and utility of the purchasing power parity theory. He started off his argument with the basic assumption that people primarily value currencies for what could be bought with it, based on this assumption, he argues, it is safe to presume that in an unrestricted market, people will tend to exchange such currencies for their relative purchasing powers. The author admits that the theory, in its basic form, as stated above, is loose and ambiguous, he posits, however, that the theory performs tow main functions. First, the theory gives an expression of what the equilibrium exchange rates should be for currencies, however crude this rate appears. And two, the theory act like a stabilizing force for exchange rates. Explaining this second function, he assert that when for any reason, actual exchange rates deviate from the equilibrium rates, the theory describes pressures at work tending to check and reverse this random departures from the range of equilibrium rates.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The author provides this example to buttress the point made above about the stabilizing powers of the parity theory:   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Let us suppose, for example, that prevailing exchange rates unmistakably   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   undervalue the British pound in relation to the purchasing powers of the pound   Ã‚  Ã‚   and of foreign currencies.   Foreigners -say Americans- will offer dollars for   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   pounds to buy British goods at bargain prices. Britons will offer relatively few pounds for dollars to buy, American goods at their apparently high prices.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Unmatched attempts to sell dollars and buy pounds will bid the exchange rate toward the equilibrium level.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the same light, the author evaluates some of the numerous objections raised about the theory and posits that in most of these objections, the stabilizing pressures aspect of the theory has been mostly ignored. In sum, the author concludes that most of the discrepancies observed in purchasing power parity rates are due to â€Å"inappropriate base periods; disequilibrium exchange rates (including base-period rates), often imposed by official pegging; tariffs, quotas, and other interferences with trade, payments, and exchange rates.31†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Wyman32   extends the utility of the purchasing power parity further, by applying the concept of the doctrine to calculating gains or losses incurred by holding foreign items, such as foreign currencies or goods. Relating purchasing power parity to currency changes, the author explain that purchasing power is related to the exchange rates of currencies, in that, differential rates of inflation between, say the United States and a foreign country, influences the exchange rates between the monetary units if each country. Putting this definition into an equation, he states that the calculation of the purchasing power parity can be illustrated thus: If the exchange rate between the United States and a foreign country is 20FC = $1 where FC denotes a unit of ‘foreign currency’, if during the year, the US price level index changed from 100 to 110 and that of the foreign country changed from 100 to 120, the purchasing power parity rate can be calculated by determining an adjustment factor that would be applied to the exchange rate. The adjustment factor is calculated as:   ÃË†t à · Øt = the adjustment factor for period t or (120,100t 110,100) = 1.0909 where ψt =   the price-level ratio in the United States defined as the general price-level index at   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   the end of period t divided by the general price-level index at the beginning of   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   period t Øt = the price-level ratio in the foreign country defined as the general price-level index at   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   the end of period t divided by the general price-level index at the beginning of   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   period t   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Explaining this formula, the author assert that when the adjustment factor is applied to the exchange rate, for the example above, result is FC 20x 1.0909 = FC 21.8182=$1. So, if the actual exchange rate at the end of the time t is at the calculated rate of FC 21.8182 to $1, investors in either country will maintain their purchasing power relative to each other, however, if for example, the exchange rate was to be at FC 22 to $1, FC would have depreciated more than is necessary to maintain the purchasing power parity, and so US investors in need of the foreign currency would have exchanged the currency at a loss. The author went on to establish a multiequation system that can be employed in analyzing potential gains and losses in foreign exchange, based on the purchasing power parity concept. Ruble, L. William (1961). A Comparison of the Parity Ratio with Agricultural Net Income Measures: 1910-1958. Journal of Farm Economics, 43(1):101-112. And Stine O. C. (1946). Parity Prices. Journal of Farm Economics, 28(1):301-305.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   These two works covered a slight different aspect of purchasing power parity. They were focused on the purchasing power of farmers, comparing prices changes in farm and non-farm products, and thus, what farmers are paid for their farm products and what they have to pay to buy non-farm products.   Stine33   explains that in the years after the first World War, when the purchasing power parity concept was birthed and first applied as measurement in of changes in purchasing power, marked changes in general price levels was observed, as expected, however, it was also observed that farm products declined more rapidly and farther compared to non farm products. As a result, what farmers had to pay for products they buy was considerably different from what they earn from the sells of farm products.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Ruble34   supporting this line of argument, argues that since the prices received by farmers and prices paid by farmers affect the livelihood and wellbeing of the farming family, the parity ratio provides a good indicator of the standard of living of farmers. Further, contends that the level of the parity ratio is expected to give   good indication of the following methods of estimating the standard of living of farmers: Net money income per capita, per farm, or per worker. Net real income per capita, per farm, or per worker. Income of farmers compared to income of non-farmers on a per   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   capita or per worker basis (the parity income concept)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   However, data and result of empirical studies was presented to measure the relation between the parity ratio and the well being of farmers suggests that the parity ratio might not indeed properly reflects the general well being of farmers, if the well-being of farmers in general is expressed by the per capita, per farm, or per worker net income, real or money. In arriving at the figures in the table, the parity ratio was correlated separately with the per capita net agricultural income of the farm population, the net income of farm operators from farming per farm, and the net income of farm workers from farming per worker, income from all sources, and deflated by the index of prices paid by farmers for family-living items (1917-19 = 100) Summary   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There is no denying the fact that the Purchasing Power Parity doctrine is an important theory in the financial world. It is true that a lot of controversies have been generated about its validity and utility, but it is also true that several authors have been able to categorically prove its validity, and more importantly, utility, in an array of fields. Just as the theory has come to mean different thing to different authors, it has also carved for itself, different functions, depending on the perspective one adopts. It is not surprising, therefore, that authors have been able to apply the doctrine to a number of endeavors, as seen in the reviews above.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In its most basic form, the concept argues that people primarily need currencies of other countries for the purpose of buying goods/commodities of that country. Therefore, people will only be prepared to exchange currencies for its relative worth. Here lies the relationship between purchasing power parity and the exchange rates of currencies i.e. when it is suspected that a currency is under or over valued, market forces will tend to force the rate back to the equilibrium level. Equilibrium here describes the rate achieved after trades have occurred between two countries, uninterrupted, for a certain period of time and a common exchange rate has been established, as a result.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   From this very basic understanding of the theory, as proposed by the author Prof. Gustav Cassel, several modifications, adjustments, and extension of the theory have been proposed and proved. For example, Bellasa fine tuned the predictive value of the theory by modifying the basic two-country, two-commodity model, to include considerations for non-traded goods (services) and the per capita income of each country, which, he argues, play crucial role in the purchasing power of currencies. Klein and his colleagues   modified the theory and employed it in simulating/projecting changes in world economy; Everett and others , also modified the theory and proved it to be useful in appraising strengths and weaknesses of countries’ currencies; while John   showed that the predictive errors in rates calculated with the purchasing power parity concept could be as a result of  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   faults inherent in the calculation methods and data.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   From the foregoing, one can only infer that purchasing power parity is still an important financial concept. Although, further academic and research efforts should be geared towards resolving some of the objections raised against the theory. It is obvious that criticism of the theory will further help to strengthen it, in the future, as we have seen it done in the past. Most of the objections raised have been somehow addressed, even if not completely resolved. One can, thus conveniently conclude that with time, the theory might be better fine tuned and become more effective at explaining and predicting exchange rates of currencies. Endnotes Balassa, Bela (1964). The Purchasing-Power Parity Doctrine: A Reappraisal. Ibid p.584 Klein, R. Lawrence, Shahrokh Fardoust and Victor Filatov (1981). Purchasing Power Parity in Medium Term Simulation of the World Economy; Balassa, Bela (1964) Bunting, H. Frederick (1939). The Purchasing Power Parity Theory Reexamined Bunting (1939) provided almost a word-for-word definition and explanation of the theory as postulated by Cassell. The author gives a better idea of the original theory Ibid p.283 Everett, M. Robert, Abraham M. George and Aryeh Blumberg (1980). Appraising Currency Strengths and Weaknesses: An Operational Model for Calculating Parity Exchange Rates. Ibid p.80 Klein et al., 1981 Ibid   p.486 Belassa, 1964 p.584-585 This is personal opinion based on the definition of the absolute and relative PPP proffered by Bellasa, 1964 Ibid Ibid Belassa, 1964 p.585 quoting Cassel in his book Money and Foreign Exchange After 1914. Ibid   Ibid p.587 Bunting,   H. Frederick (1939). The Purchasing Power Parity Theory Reexamined. Bunting, 1939 p.285 quoting Cassel in his book Money and Foreign Exchange After 1914. Bunting, 1939 p.288 Davutyan, Nurhan and John Pippenger (1985). Purchasing Power Parity Did Not Collapse During the 1970s Balassa, 1964 Davutyan and John, 1985 p.1151 Everett, M. Robert, Abraham M. George and Aryeh Blumberg (1980). Appraising Currency Strengths and Weaknesses: An Operational Model for Calculating Parity Exchange Rates. Ibid p.84 Ibid p.90 Klein, R. Lawrence, Shahrokh Fardoust and Victor Filatov (1981). Purchasing Power Parity in Medium Term Simulation of the World Economy. p.486 Ibid p.487 John, Pippenger (1982). 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