South African Office Sector as an Investment Opportunity - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 7 Words: 1965 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Economics Essay Type Research paper Tags: Africa Essay Did you like this example? SOUTH AFRICAN OFFICE SECTOR AS AN INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY TABLE OF CONTENTS DECLARATION CHAPTER 1: THE RESEARCH BACKGROUND 1.1Introduction 1.2The research problem statement 1.3The research questions CHAPTER 2: BRIEF REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE 2.1Real Estate Investment as a Wealth Creation Tool 2.2Real Estate Investment Framework CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMERCIAL OFFICE SECTOR 3.1Position of South African Listed Property Sector 3.1.12012 Performance 3.1.22013 Performance 3.1.3First Quarter of 2014 Performance 3.2Status of South African Commercial Property Market 3.2.12012 Performance 3.2.22013 Performance 3.3Condition of South African Office Sector 3.3.1Nominal Gross Market Rental Growth across All Grades of Regional Offices 3.3.2Nominal Growth of Regional A-Grade Office Gross Market Rentals 3.3.3Regional Pioneer-Grade Office Gross Market Rentals 3.3.4Regional A+-Grade Office G ross Market Rentals 3.3.5Regional A+-Grade Covered Reserved Parking Gross Market Rentals 3.3.6Rental Escalation Rates on New Leases across All Grades of Regional Offices 3.3.7Typical Gross Outgoings for All Grades of Regional Prime Offices 3.3.8Escalation Rates on Outgoings across All Grades of Regional Offices 3.3.9Capitalisation Rates for A-Grade Multi-Tenanted Regional Offices 3.3.10Typical Rent Free Periods across All Grades of Regional Offices 3.3.11Regional Vacancies CHAPTER 4: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 4.1Summary and conclusions 4.2Recommendations references . Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "South African Office Sector as an Investment Opportunity" essay for you Create order CHAPTER 1: THE RESEARCH BACKGROUND 1.1Introduction South Africaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s four traditional asset classes are equities, property, bonds and cash. As diversification essential to investment strategy, most investors opt to include either listed or unlisted property within their portfolios. According to Jones Lang LaSalle (2014: 5), around R15.8 billion of the R29 billion worth of sale transactions in 2013, an approximate 54.00%, occurred within the South African office sector. The value of transactions in the office sector improved from R7.6 billion in 2012 to R15.8 billion in 2013, an increase of around 109.00%. Approximately 60.00% of all sale transactions in 2013 occurred in the decentralised office nodes of Gauteng alone. The significant increase in the value of transactions was attributed to the aggressive acquisition of quality office properties by listed property funds. The most prominent transaction in 2013 was Growthpointà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s purchase of The Towers in Alice Lane, Sandton Central Business District (CBD) from Tiber on a 7.40% yield for R563.6 million. Investorsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ review of the abovementioned data may leave many with the perception that the office sector might currently be the best performing property sector in South Africa. In order to determine the accuracy of such a perception, most investors will conduct a thorough analysis of South Africaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s listed property sector, professionally managed investment property portfolios and office sector on a nodal basis. 1.2The research problem statement Insufficient research by investors negatively impacts their broader understanding of the South African office sectorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s current performance. 1.3The research questions How has the South African listed property sector been performing in comparison to other asset classes over the short term? How has the South African office sector been performing in relation to the national retail à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" and industrial sectors since 2012? How are the various nodes of the South African office sector currently performing? CHAPTER 2: BRIEF REVIEW OF THE RELATED LITERATURE 2.1What is outsourcing? Outsourcing may be defined as a contractually managed relationship between a vendor and an enterprise whereby the vendor undertakes responsibility for a business function of the enterprise, which may have been performed by in house staff (White and James, 1996, p. XIV; Barett, 1995, p. 124). It can more concisely be described as the contracting of functional specialists to manage business units that lay outside the framework of the organizations principal activities (Dominguez, 2006, p. 5). Quelin and Duhamel describe outsourcing as the operation of shifting a function previously governed internally to an external supplier through a long-term contract, and involving the transfer of staff to the vendor for the firm. According to their definition, five features typify strategic outsourcing: A close link between outsourcing processes and the key success factors of a firm in an industry. The transfer of ownership of a business function previously internalised, often including a transfer of personnel and physical assets to the service provider. A global contract, longer and denser than a classical subcontracting agreement. A long-term commitment between the client and the service provider. A contractual definition of service levels and of each partnerÃÆ' ­s obligations. Outsourcing is a process whereby an organisation transfers a function, previously governed internally, to an external third party via a service level agreement. It generally involves an organisation contractually conferring its staff and management responsibility to an autonomous vendor (Quelin and Duhamel, 2003: 652; Barrett, 1998: 124). Brown and Wilson (2005: 20) define outsourcing as the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"act of obtaining services from an external sourceà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. 2.2What can be outsourced? Outsourcing it not limited to services but also embraces business processes. An organisation can outsource any function it considers non-core and supportive of its main business. According to Unnico (2001) services being outsourced by organisations include: Table 1: Services being outsourced Custodial Architecture Trash Security Grounds Food Plant Facilities Management Space Mailroom Records Moves Reprographics Energy Audio Visual Cleanroom Commissioning Logistics Shipping Integrated Facilities Management Subcontractor Management Storeroom Routine Maintenance Production Brown and Wilson (2005: 22-23) states that the most prevalent commercial functions being outsourced by organisations are information technology, administration, distribution and logistics, finance, human resources, manufacturing, contact centres / call centres, sales / marketing, real estate / facilities management and transportation. The most predominant elements of business outsourcing encompass: Table 2: Element of corporate outsourcing Human Resource Services Knowledge and Decision Services Operations Support Services Marketing Services Customer Interaction Services Back Office Transaction Processing Information Technology and Software Operations Finance and Accounting Services 2.3Why outsource? The business environment as we know it changes continuously. The main drivers of such change are the revolution of technology, globalisation and financial pressure. In order for organisations to survive and prosper, it is imperative for them to focus on their core business functions. Core business functions are however reliant on non-core business functions and it is therefore essential for organisations to have a clear strategy to their support operations (Lee and Harris, 2001: 25-29). According to Brown and Wilson (2005: 45-47) the main drivers for outsourcing are: Fast tracking of re-engineering benefits; Access to world-class competencies; Cash injection from selling off assets to third party; Redeployment of internal resources; Need to re-evaluate problematic functions; Release and availability of capital; Enhanced company focus; Risk minimisation; Access to external resources; and Reduced operating costs. 2.4Risks of outsourcing In order for an organisation to decide whether to outsource a business support service or process, it need to study the risks involved with outsourcing. According to According to Hinks and Hanson** (2001: 48-49) the disadvantages of outsourcing are: Inefficient service provision; Non-realisation of projected cost savings linked to outsourcing; Excessive costs relating to the re-absorption of outsourced functions; Vulnerability relative to an organisationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s core business; Risk of unexpected collapse of service provider; Fixed term contracted service providers not upgrading technology and training; Service provider experiencing process or information technology failure; Overreliance on service providerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s support service; Dishonest behaviour by service provider; Security and confidentiality breaches by service provider; Sabotage by service provider; Breakdown of relationship between an organisation and a service provider; Disconnection between non-core function managed by service provider and core business managed by organisation; Organisationà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s competitiveness may be affected negatively should a service provider struggle financially and be unable to invest in technological advances; Negative impact on company culture, operations and business objectives; Incompatibility as a result of an organisation and a service providerà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s contrasting business objectives, work practices and business ethics; Reduced strategic input; Value loss due to fragmentation; Strategic dislocation and communication opacity between an organisation and a services provider; and Loss of key staff, expertise and knowledge. 2.5Benefits of outsourcing It is imperative for an organisation to analyse the benefits of outsourcing, and to weigh them up against the risks associated with contracting-out, before marking a decision of whether to outsource or not. According to Hinks and Hanson** (2001: 48-49) the advantages of outsourcing are: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"Reduced / variable overheads; Transfer of overheads from fixed to variable status; Removal of non-core operations allows management and investment to focus on the primary business activity (the core process); Savings in office space and equipment provisions; Possible staff cost reductions; Removal of uncertainty about future costs of maintaining effective and competitive business support; Reduced risk of costly errors arising from ignorance of the non-core practices; Investment risk transfer; Excellence of service can be achieved immediately; The service provider will be dedicated to that activity (no learning curve of division of interests); Access to market competitiveness and technological currency in the service provision; A downsizing of property commitments through outsourcing; Opportunity to get the company service provision out of a rut; The simulation of new solutions to problems from the appropriate mixing of different approaches; Scope for downsizing; Increases options for organisational re-structuring through property and human resource management flexibility; Access to specialist knowledge; Wider career scope for staff; Good in a fast-developing and / or highly technological area; Increased efficiency; Decreased headcount; Decreased cost of service; Access to world-class support; and Transfer of worry and riskà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢. 2.6Outsourcing Decision Process Chapter 2 brown and wilson 2.7Role of Facilities Management Service Provider 2.8Selection of Facilities Management Service Provider Chapter 6 brown and Wilson Chapter 5 wiley from 5.9 onwards CHAPTER 3: ANALYSIS OF 3.1Position of South African Listed Property Sector 3.1.12012 Performance CHAPTER 4: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 4.1Summary and conclusions It is evident from the research conducted, that even though the South African office sectorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s total return improved from 11.90% in 2012 to 13.60% in 2013, the sectorà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s performance remains inferior to that of the industrial à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" and retail sectors. Cape Town CBD remains the best performing city centre in South Africa. The top regional decentralised office nodes are Century City in Cape Town, La Lucia Ridge in Durban, Sandton CBD in Johannesburg and Menlyn in Pretoria. The South African office sector might recover during the course of 2014, should gross domestic product growth and employment figures improve, pending the implementation of the National Development Plan by the South African Government. 4.2Recommendations Investors should ensure that they undertake adequate research in order to establish the true performance of a sector. Inadequate research can result in poor investment decisions. It is evident from the research that even though the office sector achieved the highest total investment transactions value of all three sectors in 2013, it remains the bottom performer in terms of total return. REFERENCES Capgemini and RBC Asset Management, 2013. World Wealth Report 2013. [online] Capgemini and RBC Asset Management. Available at: https://www.capgemini.com/resource-file-access/resource/pdf/wwr_2013_0.pdf [Accessed 08 May 2014]. Catalyst Fund Managers, 2013. Listed Property Sector Monthly Overview January 2013. [online] Catalyst Fund Managers. Available at: https://www.catalyst.co.za/documents/fundDocs/monthlyReview/catalystDomestic/2013/monthlyReportJan2013.pdf [Accessed 08 May 2014]. Catalyst Fund Managers, 2014a. Listed Property Sector Monthly Overview January 2014. [online] Catalyst Fund Managers. Available at: https://www.catalyst.co.za/documents/fundDocs/monthlyReview/catalystDomestic/2014/monthlyreportJan2014.pdf [Accessed 08 May 2014]. Catalyst Fund Managers, 2014b. South African Listed Property Review April 2014. [online] Catalyst Fund Managers. Available at: https://www.catalyst.co.za/documents/fundDocs/monthlyReview/catalystDomestic/2014/Monthly%20Report%20Apr%202014.pdf [Accessed 08 May 2014]. Cloete, C.E., 2005. Property Investment in South Africa. 2nd ed. Pretoria: The South African Property Education Trust. IPD, 2013. South African property delivers improved performance in 2012. [press release], 25 March 2013, Available at: https://www.ipd.com/about/media_centre/2013/SAPOA%20%20IPD%20South%20Africa%20Annual%20Property%20Index.pdf [Accessed 08 May 2014]. IPD, 2014. South African property delivers stable yet impressive performance in 2013. [press release], 26 March 2013, Available at: https://www.ipd.com/about/media_centre/news_arc hive/2014/IPD%20South%20Africa%202014%20Annual%20Property%20Index%20PR.pdf [Accessed 08 May 2014]. Jones Lang LaSalle, 2014. Commercial Real Estate Transaction Review: South Africa. [online] Jones Lang LaSalle. Available at: https://www.joneslanglasalle.co.za/ResearchLevel1/JLL%20Commercial%20Real%20Estate%20Transaction%20Review%20South%20Africa%202014.pdf [Accessed 08 May 2014]. Phyrr, S.A.; Cooper, J.R.; Wofford, L.E.; Kaplin, S.D.; Lapides, P.D., 1989. Real Estate Investment: Strategy, Analysis, Decisions. New York: Wiley. Rode and Associates, 2014. Rodeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢s Report 2014:1. Bellville: Rode and Associates. SAPOA, 2014. Office Vacancy Survey Report Q1:2014. [online] SAPOA. Available at: https://www.cmsignition.co.za/download/files_1047/SAPOAOfficeVacancyReport_April2014.pdf [Accessed 08 May 2014].

Media Influence On The Media - 1973 Words

Every day we rely on the news to keep us abreast of the state of affairs in our lives. From the tiniest of towns to the largest sprawling metropolis we need our news to be accurate, objective and we need it fast. As times change not only does the way in which we get our news change but in how it is presented to us. Biases in our media have always existed but the public’s distrust of the media because of these biases is quite high. Recent polls show that nearly 80 percent of Americans believe that the media influenced by influenced by the powerful and that they tend to favor one side of issues over another (Keiner, 2013, p. 401). A Pew Research Center poll conducted in 2011 found that 77 percent of respondents believed news organizations tend to favor one side over the other (Keiner, 2013, p. 405). Much like beauty, bias is in the eye of the beholder. Conservatives have long believed that the mainstream media have liberal ideologies and that they unfairly skew their news reporting in favor of a liberal or progressive viewpoint (Keiner, 2013, p. 403). One particular case in point was during the Presidential election race between President Obama and Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney. In a Pew Research poll, 46 percent of respondents believed that the press coverage was fair. However, when only Republicans were asked, 60 percent believed that the media gave favorable coverage to President Obama (Keiner, 2013, p. 409). Furthering their argument was during the secondShow MoreRelatedMedia Influence On The Media1721 Words   |  7 PagesIntroduction The topic of how the media influence governmental issues is confounded, yet in its most fundamental definition, the right response to it is this: It depends. Albeit early standard way of thinking held that the media had solid, direct, supposed hypodermic impacts, later research gives persuading proof that individual-level and logical elements essentially impact the degree to which media influence individuals political conduct and convictions and, in the long run, open arrangementRead MoreMedia Influence On The Media993 Words   |  4 Pageswhich are known as technology. And media is the one of the powerful tool of this world, they can do anything. Media is the way to translate different news, videos, music over the people. I think media influence the most about the sexuality. Media influence me by showing different sexual stories in the newspaper, by posting videos and picture on the website, and by watching different sexual videos on movies influence the most about sexuality. It is a positive influence because we can get the knowledgeRead MoreMedia Influences On The Media1362 Words   |  6 PagesMedia is a very powerful factor in today’s world, it influences the way that the public thinks about situations and problems in today’s society. News and social media put out there own thoughts of a problem in the country. When they do this, it gives a perspective to the general people to base off of and make a conclusion on the situation. The media such as news on television and internet can be manipulating minds of the general public to believe what they say. Media actually has there own opinionsRead MoreMedia Influence Media956 Words   |  4 PagesHow does the media influence elections and politics During the past 20 years, the media has experienced massive changes in terms of the platforms it appears in as well as the audience it reaches. While traditional forms of media such as newspapers, television, are considered to be more controlled, with the newly occurring and vastly growing online media, information reaches more people and in a rapid pace never seen before. This essay will describe how new occurrences have gained media the power toRead MoreMedia Influence Mass Media795 Words   |  4 PagesMass Media and the Influence on America and Television By. Mozelle Jones HUMANITIES In real life, we are in Mass Media and we did not even know it. Everything from you learning to just leisure involvement. The cultural products that influence mass media and has taking part is Net Flix. It has made an impact on the movie business where television can be used to see movies and mass media. Television still has an impact on cultural meanings. It shows us the news, ads, and movies that changeRead MoreMedia s Influence On The Media1637 Words   |  7 Pagesdisplayed in the mass media is conditioned by wealth and power, so as a result of the concentration of power and the official censorship done by the government and corporate sources; the media follows the ideas of the elite. In order to deliver messages that support the elite’s beliefs, the media goes through five different filters that determine the information presented, this are ownership of media, funding, sourcing, flak, and fear. First, when referring to the ownership of media, it is importantRead MoreMedia s Influence On Media1543 Words   |  7 PagesSocial media publicizes a substantial amount of messages about identity and acceptable ways to express gender, sexuality and ones lifestyle, but at the same time, the viewers have their own differing feelings about the issues. The media may suggest certain feelings and actions, but the audiences feelings can never overpower self-expression completely. The media portrays certain things because it is what is being accepted. Neither parties, these being the media and its audience, have full power overRead MoreThe Media s Influence On Media Essay1606 Words   |  7 PagesLusby English composition 12/1/2016 The Media s Influence    Can the media really persuade you into thinking a way about a person you have not even meet? The media can make influence you into thinking a certain way about some and also influence a choice that you could have to make about them that could change their life forever. To prove this I have researched into articles that could help me prove that the media can influence these things. First the media in the form of television can give you aRead MoreMedia s Influence On Media1703 Words   |  7 Pagescentury, mass media became widely recognized. In a period of mass availability, people today have entry to more media outlets than ever before. According to media scholar Jean Kilbourne,â€Å"the average American is exposed to over 3,000 advertisements a day and watches three years’ worth of television ads over the course of a lifetime† (back cover). It is all around us, from the shows we watch on television, the music we listen to on the radio, and to the books and magazines we read each day. Media is the numberRead MoreMedia s Influence On Media2111 Words   |  9 Pagestoday is communicated through media. Media is the most powerful and influential force in the country. The media are powerful agents of socialization and they set the standard that majority follow. The power giving to American media has allowed them to be very effective using propaganda as strategy, the media tend to say they serve to relieve social conflicts into minimum. We clearly see that the media promote social conflicts by separating class. The image that media has created in the mind of masses

Software Applications and Information Systems Free Essays

Software Applications and Information Systems A software application and an information system is vital for any company to manage its business. An unbelieveable amount of information and procedures that is made within a company, both the application and system relieves a company of a huge amount of paperwork. By aquiring a software application the accounting, marketing, and human resources department can keep track of many different areas within their department. We will write a custom essay sample on Software Applications and Information Systems or any similar topic only for you Order Now The information system helps to manage all information coming in and going out. An excellent software application is the Formtran application. This application works in all departments, accounting, human resources, and marketing. This application is known for being the fastest data collector. For accounting the application offers compliance, consistency, and effciency. This provides help with purchase orders, credit memos, invoices, physical inventor forms, fixed asset forms, capital expenditure requests, and check requests (Formtran, 2010). The software provides a system that helps with certification testing, applicant tracking, charitable fund drives, emplyee satisfaction, pre-emplyment testing, time sheets, training, and pay roll forms (Formtran, 2010). The marketing and sales part of the application gives a company easy acess to the data needed. This includes contest enrollments, customer comment cards, award claim forms, expense reports, focus group surveys, product registration, sales call reports, sales force testing, and warranty cards (Fortran, 2010). Information systems help accounting departments by maintaining records that control the movement of funds within the company and produces finanical statements. Information systems for accounting will manage cash flow, loans, securities trading, and check processing. Human resources information systems help with placement, recruitment, compensation, career development, and evaluations of the employees within a company. The different examples is applicant tracking, training and skills, positions, benefits, and personnel record keeping. Marketing and sales use the system for marketing functions and sales support with keeping track of all movement with goods and services between producers and customers. Target points are telemarketing, point-of-sale, order processing, and slaes support. Basically the system for marketing and sales covers the improvement of customer service, maintaining customer data, total and record purchase transactions with the required packing list (Kelly, 2008). Software applications and information systems are a vital part to running a business today. These applications and systems help a company run smoother and more organized. In today’s world most all company’s use computers to run their business. Customers and employees expect to have answers in a reasonable time, and the applications and systems provide everyone with the information in a respectful time frame. The employees of the different departments (accounting, human resources, and marketing) tasks are made easier with the capability of the applications and systems. How to cite Software Applications and Information Systems, Papers

Intrigue at the (Royal) court Essay Example For Students

Intrigue at the (Royal) court Essay Alls quiet now on the behind-the-scenes front at Londons Royal Court Theatre, which means the Sloane Square playhouse can devote its attentions to its real function as Britains premier theatre for new writing. But it wasnt always thus, and who know how long the calm will last? The British press spent 1991 reporting all manner of courtly intrigue, and this year has already seen artistic director Max Stafford-Clark win his first-ever libel suit, against GQ magazine in Britain, for spreading defamatory comments about him. Personalities aside, the Chelsea venues plays have often made news. Everyone knows that this is where modern British drama is said to have begun in 1956 with John Osbornes Look Back in Anger, but the theatre was more recently the sight of a protracted row over Jim Allens purportedly anti-Semitic piece Pendition, which was withdrawn from a production in 1987; and John Guares Six Degrees of Separation this past June drew a local loony several nights running claiming the plays real-life story of Manhattan con artistry as his. ITS RARE ON AND OFF stage to find a theatre so consistently in the headlines, which may be a tribute of sorts to the esteem in which the Court has long been held. Still, do readers of the downmarket London tabloid the Daily Express even know what the Royal Court is? Perhaps not, but last year, that paper, like many others, knew a good story when it saw one, and Stafford-Clarks security of tenure was for a while the hottest showbiz story in town. The fact is that journalists want controversy, and most people in the British theatre are so uncontroversial, Stafford-Clark, 51, says now, looking back at the fierce debate engendered by his desire to prolong his leadership. Appointed in 1979, Stafford-Clark had already extended his contract once only to find that his desire for yet another extension was dividing the theatres ranks. Leading the pro faction were playwrights like Timberlake Wertenbaker, whose career has blossomed at the Court from The Grace of Mary Traverse through Our Countrys Good and Three Birds Alighting on a Field, her 1991 play which returns to the mainstage in November. The nay-sayers included Hani Kureishi, who was a Court dramatist some years before he found screenwriting and an Oscar nomination with My Beautiful Launderette; and Matthew Evans, chairman of the publishing house Faber and Faber and former head of the Royal Courts governing board, whose barbed comments in GQ prompted Stafford-Clarks lawsuit. The ultimate decision, when the board delivered it, seemed like a classic fudge: Stephen Daldry, 31-year-old artistic director of the tiny Gate Theatre in west Londons Notting Hill and winner of a special Olivier Award for that theatre in April, was appointed artistic director designate and would accede to the top job in October 1993. At that point, Stafford-Clark would become Daldrys deputy, with the proviso that Daldry could dispense with him altogether if he wished. On April 1, Daldry moved into the buildingto a desk adjoining Stafford-Clarksonly to find that it would be a while before the two men occupied the room simultaneously. Stafford-Clark had a prior engagement with the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford to direct Richard Bromes 1642 play, A Jovial Crew, adapted by the Courts literary associate, Stephen Jeffreys. And Daldry was off in the summer, rehearsing his Royal National Theatre debut Sept. 12 with an unexpected choiceJ.B. Priestleys wartime warhorse, An Inspector Calls. The National opening night arrived, and history, it can fairly be said, was made: Here, working on a scale heretofore unavailable to him in London, was Daldry exploding for full emotional and visual impact the fustiest of repertory stalwarts, bursting Priestleys play wide open to discover the Pirandello-ish masterwork that lay inside. No longer a domestic chamber piece about civic duty, Inspector Calls was played for visceral bravura, allowing Priestley his full weight both as a leftist agitator and theatrical renegade. Working with an extraordinary set by Ian MacNeil, Daldry turned the play inside out (often literally), placing the Birlings drawing room in a jewel box perched near the rear of the stage, while a charred, war-ravaged landscape occupied the front. The result was to cast Daldry immediately as a directorial subversive, which is no bad thing for an adventuresome cutting-edge theatre to have at its helm. .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 , .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .postImageUrl , .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 , .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797:hover , .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797:visited , .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797:active { border:0!important; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797:active , .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797 .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u783d48c012a42f0846237b52c0b1b797:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: American Theatre' marks 10th year EssayAlthough Daldry hasnt directed at the Court since his appointment (excepting a reading of Canadian writer Brad Frasers Unidentified Human Remains and the True Nature of Love), his influence can be felt in the choice of repertoire. While most Court shows are chosen by committee, its not difficult to tell which selection bears which artistic directors imprint. While Six Degrees might have materialized at the Court anyway, it probably wouldnt have arrived so speedilyand with the name of director Phyllida Lloyd, a Daldry chum, attached to itwithout Daldrys appointment. German dramatist Klaus Pohls Karate Billy Comes Home, seen in the Cour ts Theatre Upstairs studio space in April, was originally meant for the Gate until Daldry, and it, shifted homes. CONVERSELY, APRIL DE ANGELISS spiky but problematic Hush, seen on the main stage in August, was classic Stafford-Clark farea vaguely left-of-center lament for lost idealism written by a woman who had graduated from the 70-seat studio to the 397-seat mainstage. The Courtss similarly pungent but underwritten current entry, John Byrnes Colquhoun and Macbryde, about two London-based Scottish artists and lovers, represents a longstanding commission from a writer-designer whose most celebrated work, The Slab Boys Trilogy, began at the Court in 1978. Next years principal commissionsfrom Martin Crimp and Martin Sadofski, among othersare from writers with whom Stafford-Clark has sustained a relationship, a list which includes significantly more women (Wertenbaker, Clare McIntyre, the immensely gifted Winsome Pinnock) than are ever seen at the RSC or the National. Indeed, if Daldry has any catching up to do, its not in the field of directorial legerdemain but in forging ties with working write rs. What, then, is the Courts agenda? Undoubtedly to do the highest quality new work around, a task that may be more daunting than ever as competition for top-rank work mounts. Already, the Court has lost such writers as David Storey (In Celebration), Jim Cartwright (Road) and Alan Bennett (Kafkas Dick) to the National, where it is rumored that longtime Court devotee Caryl Churchills next play, The Striker, may end up as well. Under Richard Eyres guidance, the National is as hot right now as its possible to get, and its no secret that Six Degrees would have opened there also if Eyre had been fonder of the play. (As it was, the Theatre of Comedy, owners of the British rights, brought Guares play to the Court.) Elsewhere, the Almeida and the newly opened Donmar Warehouse offer significant competition, not to mention fringe houses like the Bush, Hampstead, and, yes, the Gate. ON THE CLASSIC FRONT, the Court has an equally free (if competitive) rein, and its been heartening to watch the theatres programming establish certain modern plays as outright classics. Last years revival of Churchills Top Girls, directed by Stafford-Clark, reasserted the timelessness and scope of a play originally seen as a product of its age, the early years of Margaret Thatchers 1980s. (Lesley Sharps delivery of the final word, frightening, was indeed that.) This winter, the Court mounted Brian Friels 1979 Faith Healer, directed by Joe Dowling, in a shattering evening that gave this difficult playa sequence of four monologues left to the audience to piece togetherits due. In January, Stafford-Clark will make a rare foray into Shakespeare to direct Tom Wilkinson, his onetime T.S. Eliot in Tom and Viv, in King Lear. It wasnt long ago that some thought Stafford-Clark to be exhibiting a Lear-like folly as he clung to a theatre from which it was perhaps best to move on. But he, like his audiences, knows that when a play works at the Court, theres nothing like it. Stafford-Clark may be tenacious; he and Daldrys greatest link is their recognizable ambition. But when it comes to acknowledging a good thing on your doorstep, he is, as Lear might have said, no fool.

Abortion Essays (431 words) - Abortion, Fertility,

Abortion It is an undoubted fact of biological science that from the moment of conception, a new human life has been created. Only those who are irrational or ignorant of science doubt that when a human sperm fertilizes a human ovum, a new human being is created. That is why I disagree with aborting infants. If abortion is the taking of a human life and yet people feel that it should be just a personal matter between a woman and a doctor there seems to be two choices open to them. First, that they would believe that other acts of destruction to human beings should be of no concern of society and therefore, eliminate them from the criminal code. Secondly, because a person is not close to the deceased, they shouldn't be concerned with their death. I agree that the fetus has not developed full potential as a human being, but, neither have any of us. Nor will any of us ever reach that level of perfection. Because some of us may be less far along the path than others, does not give them the right to kill us. Those in favor of abortion assume that they have that right. To say that a ten week fetus has a less value that a baby, means also that one must consider a baby of less value then a child, a young adult of less value than an old man. This idea is completely absurd. Some try to excuse the murder of a person because the mother might have been forced upon pregnancy due to either the tragedy of rape or incest. I am not condemning the crime that the female had to undergo, but I will also not condemn abortion. No sane reasoning can place the slightest blame on the unborn child it might produce. Murder is never justified, even to relieve a great pain, and even if there was a prior injustice, such as the child being forced on the woman against her will. Should we compound the psychic scar already inflicted on the matter by her having the guilt of destroying a living being which was at least half her own? While it is easy to feel that abortion is being performed for the sake of the fetus, in reality abortions are performed for adults. There is no way to indicate that an infant with a birth defect would rather not be born since he cannot be consulted. If we kill infants with confidential defects before they are born, why not after birth, why not any human, we declare defective?

Blue Shadow

Blue Shadow In a land of magic, there is a castle on the top of the mountain. There lives a family with a new born child. The brother of the new born is watching the baby, and the mother tells her husband give each child a ring. The brother asks mother what is the meaning of that ring. The mother smiles to the boy and says it is family tradition to pass on the ring to their children. In that moment, a dark witch comes in to the castle. Everyone is being spelled by the dark power. The dark witch comes in and kills the man and the woman with a strong fight. The parents known the dark witch will come, so they send both the boy and the baby sister to the real world from being killed.Once the boy and the baby sister to the reality world, the brother left the sister in a secret alleyway.Elizabeth Martin many times the ring's is color just like the skin, only a short time it will appear blue. It was...

Healthcare reform efforts Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Healthcare reform efforts - Coursework Example They and adopt ways that can easily be accessed, human labor have to be utilized for the benefits of the hospitals activities with customer waiting time to be reduced from the time of admission to the time of discharge. On the other hand, increase in patients waiting time results to the reduction of doctor’s productivity and more so the patients may not benefits fully. With the good and available skilled care, providers can reduce of nursing expense by the employing competent personnel that offer the best service. They can the introduction of software to regulate the number of nurses according to their work competence (David Sterret, 2014). Furthermore, the setup of standardize operation rooms not only with an adequate supply of lower rates of products but also with increase operation rooms to enhance the reduction of distribution cost since quantity discounts are to be offered. With the establishment of employer health insurance, both the employers and employees premiums results in the sharing of the costs and individuals in private health insurance have their cover on health (Juras, 2015). It thus helps to reduce any patients cost-sharing requirements both in private, public, employees, health care providers and finally with the consumers in order to contribute the required amount of the tax. With the insurers benefits from the essential health, various health benefits of ambulance services, hospitalization, maternity care together with the drugs supply to help the patients for the service required. With the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in control, it is believed that the consumers with established choices and plans to use hence reducing any expense down low best on their efforts. To add on, the excess cost of health care might bring issues like the decline of customer turnover to the business leading to the absence of job availability over years

My Study Space Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

My Study Space - Essay Example I feel comfortable here. Everything I need is close at hand and everything I don't want is far away and out of sight. The lighting is adequate, though at times it seems a bit dim. The fluorescent desk lamp has a failing bulb and sometimes does more harm than good. It gives off just enough light to illuminate the surrounding area, which is quite cluttered and acts as a constant reminder that I need to clean out the basement. Because it's underground, the temperature stays well regulated all year around. It's cool in the summer and warm in the winter. My cat, AWOL, likes the area also and spends many hours here with me. He can often be found lying in my plush, swivel chair as I come down here to study. At times he can be a distraction, though it's only a short walk up the stairs to put him out of sight and out of mind. As much as I enjoy my personal study space, there are some improvements I'd like to make. I would like to partition this corner of the basement off and create more of an office atmosphere. That would allow me to introduce some aroma into the area with the hopes of overcoming the perpetual musty smell of an old cellar. My favorite would be vanilla, though I also like the more exotic eastern incense smells. The partition would also serve as another barrier that I could place between the outside world and me, instilling an added layer of safety and recluse.

Accounting for Planning and Control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Accounting for Planning and Control - Essay Example In making investment decisions, various factors must be considered. Managers have to know that the success of the business entirely depends on how best the investments are analyzed before they are undertaken. First, capital budgeting requires large capital outlay (Dugdale 16). Most of the capital budgeting decisions require a large proportion of business funds. It, thus, implies that failure to make proper investment decisions will lead to losses for the organization. Secondly, investment decisions are irreversible. After deciding on what projects to invest in, managers will lack the ability to reverse their decisions, i.e., equipment once acquired cannot be easily disposed of. The managers must therefore be careful before settling on a particular investment projects because of this nature. Moreover, in analyzing investment, the future cash flows are of importance. The cash flows likely to arise to the organization after determining which projects to invest will be realized in the future. The cash flows cannot be determined with certainty and therefore depend on forecasts and future changes in conditions (Szpiro 53). Managers will use their skills in forecasting future cash flows and in evaluating the worth of the investments. Capital budgeting needs long time decisions and commitments. Various models are used in evaluating the investments to pursue by the organization. These can be largely categorized into two: non-discounted methods and discounted methods of capital budgeting. The non-discounted method include payback period in which the period required to recoup the capital invested is used. Projects with a short payback period are preferred. The return on investment is the second non-discounted method of project evaluation. In this method, projects with the highest returns are chosen for investment purposes. This method is pegged on the historical accounting estimates. The

Illiteracy Rate Of Mozambique At A Glance Education Essay

Illiteracy Rate Of Mozambique At A Glance Education Essay The purpose of our research is to have a better understanding about the condition of illiteracy in Mozambique such as the reasons of high illiteracy rate in Mozambique, gender issues and solutions to reduce illiteracy. Illiteracy is defined as the condition of being unable to read and write. Our area of study is focused on Mozambique which is one of the country of Bottom Billion. We also hope to raise the awareness among all nations about the importance of education through this research. The sampling method we used throughout this research is purposive sampling and snowball sampling. We have sent out our questionnaire which consists of 9 questions to 30 respondents who came from Mozambique. They are all full time students resident in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP). Each of them is given 15 minutes to answer the questions. Our research is a small scale study which concentrates only on Mozambican students in UTP. From our research, we found out that most of the respondents grade illiteracy rate as average. Besides, the main reason behind the high illiteracy rate in Mozambique is due to insufficient budgets. Female has higher illiteracy rate than male is because of the cultural background of Mozambique. Introducing more high quality teachers and provide enough facilities are among the effective solutions to reduce illiteracy rate, as stated by our respondents. In conclusion, the Mozambique government should revise their current plan in reducing the illiteracy rate in Mozambique. Besides, the government should also compromise and develop strategies with international communities to contain enough funds for education facilities and adult literacy programs, so that every Mozambicans can gain access to basic education. The limitations of our research are that our scope of study is narrow and it does not represent the overall opinions of every Mozambicans. Thus, the research is encouraged to be carried out outside UTP with a larger group of respondents involved, so that the data obtained is more reliable. The time allocated to complete this research should be increased too, in order to intensify our understandings and researches on the illiteracy in Mozambique. CONTENTS Abstract à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ pg.2 Chapter 1: Introduction à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. pg.4 5 Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Mozambique (Country Context) à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. pg.6 2.2 History of Literacy in Mozambique à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ pg.6 7 2.3 Statistics of Illiteracy in Mozambique .à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. pg.7 8 2.4 Structure of the current educational systemà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦..à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. pg.8 2.5 Reasons, solutions and consequences regarding illiteracy pg.9 10 Chapter 3: Methodology 3.1 Overview à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ pg.11 3.2 Population/Sample à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ pg.11 3.3 Location à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. pg.11 3.4 Limitation à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ pg.11-12 3.5 Sampling technique à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. pg.12 3.6 Procedure à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ pg.12 3.7 Materials à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. pg.13 3.8 Statistical Treatment à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. pg.13 Chapter 4: Results à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. pg.14 18 Chapter 5: Discussion 5.1 Reason behind the high illiteracy rate in Mozambique à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ pg.19 5.2 Effects of illiteracy à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. pg.20 5.3 Illiteracy rate among women and men in Mozambique à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ pg.20 5.4 Solutions to overcome illiteracy in Mozambique à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ pg.20 21 5.5 The role of the international communityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. pg.21 5.6 Limitations and Recommendation à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ pg.22 Chapter 6: Conclusion à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ pg.23 References à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦.. pg.24 25 Appendix Sample Questionnaire à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. pg.26 27 Chapter 1: Introduction Our group has decided to study the issue of illiteracy which still exists, in fact, getting more serious for the Bottom Billion. Based on Oxford dictionary, illiteracy is defined as the condition of being unable to read and write. It can be further explained as the ignorance resulting from not reading. The Bottom Billion refers to those people living in impoverished countries which fail to progress, despite international aid and support. Collier (2007) points out that the majorities of the 5-billion people in the developing world are getting richer at an unprecedented rate, however, a group of countries, where mostly in Africa and Central Asia, are stuck and that development assistance should be focused heavily on them. In this context, the conflict of illiteracy is rather important and need to be resolved immediately. Our area of study is focused on Mozambique. Mozambique situated in south eastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, with almost 17.5 million inhabitants living in an area of 801,590 km2. The countrys main economy is based on agriculture where more than 70% of the population live in rural areas and work mainly in agriculture, forestry and fisheries. In All Africa (2011), Deputy Education Minister Augusto Jone pointed out that the illiteracy rate was 60.5% when the First Literacy and Adult Education Strategy were approved in 2005, however in between 2005 and 2010; the rate was cut to 48.1%. Besides, South African Press Association (2007) stated, Ernesto Muianga, the national director of adult education in the ministry of education and culture said illiteracy level in the country is still low where only seven out of 100 Mozambicans could read and write. Melo (n.d.) mentioned that Mozambique is still lack of schools and teachers to guarantee education for the nations youth after independence in 1975 where an estimated 60% of adults still cannot read and write, with the illiteracy rate higher among women. These studies focused on the illiteracy rate in Mozambique which has fluctuated. Our research paper is to get a better understanding and to investigate the condition of illiteracy in Mozambique. The increasing interest in the issue of illiteracy has heightened the need for education as a necessary element of development and fundamental human right. An educated population is essential to national development. Education is considered a key factor in promoting social well-being and in poverty reduction because it can have a positive impact on national productivity. This investigation hopes to create awareness among all nations so that the development of a country and human civilization is not neglected due to insufficient education. Our research paper hopes to answer the following questions: What are the reasons behind the high illiteracy rate in Mozambique? What are the effects of illiteracy? Why is the illiteracy rate among women higher than men in Mozambique? What are the solutions to overcome illiteracy in Mozambique? How effective is the role of the international community in helping to improve the situation? We hope our research paper is able to answer these questions. To complete this task, interview has been used as methodology. Our respondents are the Mozambiques students studying in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) so that we can obtain the information directly. Our numbers of respondents are expected to be around 30. Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Mozambique (Country Context) Mozambique, with almost 17.5 million inhabitants living in an area of approximately 801590 km2, has the highest population among the former Portuguese African colonized country. (Mario Nandja, 2005) The main economy of Mozambique is depends on agriculture. Thus, most of the Mozambicans live in rural areas which make up of 70% of total population. They work mainly in agriculture, forestry and fisheries. According to the World Bank (2011), Mozambique also have large share of youth population with about 44 per-cent of population is younger than 15 years old. After independence from colonization of Portugal for about 470 years in 1975, Mozambique was left with a very high illiteracy rate among adults with the illiteracy rate of about 93%. According to USAID (2009), an estimated of 60% of adult is still unable to read and write in 2009 where the rate decrease for about 33% with higher illiteracy rate among female. 2.2 History of Literacy in Mozambique During the colonial period, formal education in Mozambique was provided by Koranic schools in Muslim towns. In 1907, education is conducted in Portuguese and some other native languages, where schools and textbooks were subjected to government approval. The class of Assimilados was firstly introduced in 1927 which separates Africans who possess a fluent command of Portuguese. In 1930, the education system has reached an amount of 47 elementary schools with 11217 students, 186 rudimentary schools where basic Portuguese were taught to just fewer than 30000 Africans and one secondary school in the capital of Mozambique. (Wikipedia, 2012) Unfortunately, in the Mozambique Civil War (1977-1992) after the national independence from Portugal in 1975, schools were a particular target of Renamo attacks which causes the literacy rate decreases from 20% in 1983 to 14% in 1990. According to Mario and Nandja (2005), this first phase of education, from 1975 until the mid-1980, has recognized the importance of education as one of the main element of the national education. Mario and Nandja states that: This phase was marked by a dynamic and multifaceted process in which the people were mobilized in national reconstruction tasks, forging national unity and affirming their Mozambican identity. Accordingly: a number of nationwide adult literacy and education campaigns were conducted; a series of planned and agreed adult education and training schemes involving particular enterprises, communities and social sectors considered strategic for the social and economic development of the country were launched. From mid-1980s until 1995, the second phase of education in Mozambique went on and was marked by a substantial reduction in adult literacy and education activities owning to the escalation in the destabilization war. When National Adult Education Department was disbanded, this phase ended where their activities were taken over by National Basic Education Department. The third and as well as the last phase began in 1995 and is still going on that it can be as a process of rediscovery and rescue of adult literacy and education. In 1998, United Nations has estimated a literacy rate of 40% in Mozambique, where the literacy rate among women was almost half of the men. 2.3 Statistics of Illiteracy in Mozambique According to United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (2012), the adult literacy rate of Mozambique in 2009 is 55.06% out of the total population of people aged greater than 15 years old. For Malaysia, the adult literacy rate in 2009 is 92.46%. The difference between the two countries is about 37.4%. The youth literacy rate of Mozambique in 2009 is 70.87% whereas for Malaysia is about 98.55% (Index Mundi, n.d.). The difference is approximately 27.7 % which is 10% less than the difference for adult literacy rate. The rate of youth literacy is higher than the adult literacy for both countries. Similarly, CIA World Factbook (2009) stated that the literacy rate of Mozambique is 47.8%. If compared with worlds highest literacy rate countries such as Andorra, Finland, Georgia, Greenland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Norway and Vatican City which have 100% rate of literacy, Mozambique is about 52.2% lesser. Mozambique is ranked as 199 out of 213 countries for the world literacy rate. (CIA World Factbook, 2009) Women have high illiteracy rate if compared with men in Mozambique. According to the data published by the National Institute of Statistics in 2004, the illiteracy rate for female is 69% whereas male with 38% of illiteracy rate only. However, Millennium Development Goals (2010) as cited in United Nations Development Programme (n.d.), reported that the illiteracy rate of female has decreased as time goes, with about 66.2% in 2004 and dropped to 56% in 2009 after the launching of the literacy programmes. It also stated that the female literacy rate in rural areas is 31.3% while in urban is 70.1% 4. Structure of the current educational system Currently, there are several policies in Mozambique that govern the education system. Among them, the most noticeable are the Republic of Mozambique, which states that every citizen has the rights to receive education and education consists of a means of achieving national unity, eradicating illiteracy, mastering science and technology and providing citizens with moral and civil values. The 1990 Constitution enshrines modernized the National Education System (SNE), bringing it into line with the new economic and political model. Besides, the eagerness of government and society in reducing the illiteracy rate due to the awareness towards the importance of education in the development of the country is further highlighted through the implementation of Action Plan for the Reduction of Absolute Poverty (PARPA) which defined literacy and adult education as primary goals in education programme from 2001 to 2005 as well as the National Strategy for Adult Literacy and Education and for Non-F ormal Education (AEA/ENF) to eradicate illiteracy. The purposes and objectives of Education For All (EFA). (Mario and Nandja, 2005) 2.5 Reasons, solutions and consequences regarding illiteracy According to Mario and Nandja (2005), the high illiteracy rate in Mozambique is because most of the population does not have an adequate and full command of Portuguese, the countrys official language after the colonization of Portugal. Despite the governments intention to increase funding budget for education, the amount instead remained the same without much significant difference. It is undeniable that the country has developed since its civil war but ineffective policies, government mismanagement and prolonged drought have haunted its economy. Mozambiques annual budget depends much on foreign assistance and a large of the population lives under extreme condition. As mentioned by Linden and Rungo (2004), due to insufficient budget, the condition during learning is considered bad. The students face an amount of problems, such as lack of information, lack of classrooms and learning materials and inconvenient timetables. Lessons under a tree or in buildings of weak construction are co mmon. These results in some of them have negative attitude towards the path of learning. Well, according to de Melo (n.d.), the reason behind the high illiteracy rate is mainly due to the legacy of colonialism and 16-year civil war. Also, in this context, gender inequality plays vital role in contributing to the high rate of illiteracy. Mario, Nandja (2006), and Linden, Rungo (2004) highlighted the effect of unequal gender opportunities towards this issue. Linden mentioned that women seemed to be more interested in programmes specialized to enhance their lives and well-being of their families. Cultural background also affects significantly, where many women dropped out as they were kept at home when family members need care or the family ran out of money. There are also cases where men do not allow their wives to attend classes. They feel that womens responsibilities are to stay at home, handling chores and it is pointless or rather ridiculous for them to learn new knowledge. To most of them, they assumed that wives must not be smarter than their husbands because if they do, they will start to disobey and become disobedient, opposing the usual cultural background. After all, due to the high illiteracy rate, there a lot of measures that has been done in order to control and rectify this problem. de Melo (n.d.) told us that  actually, IBIS has been working on 2 programmes, Education for Change in Rural Communities (ECRC) and a Governance programme. In ECRC, it is known that this intervention aimed to upgrade teachers training in the poorest parts of the countryside besides ensure better educational methods in the classroom with improved teaching materials. The main objective of ECRC is to introduce new concepts that underpin and inspire the reformations of Mozambican education. On the other hand, United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has employed a food security strategy which provides rural Mozambicans knowledge to be used to increase their incomes. To reduce the consequences brought by illiteracy, USAID recognized this problem by providing funds to literacy instructors in 10 specified rural districts to supplement the governments struggling literacy program. In addition, the Ministry of Education of Mozambique is expanding its adult literacy program and now are able to incorporate the USAID-funded instructors into its payroll. (USAID, 2009) Community, school and technology are the three fundamental components in order to improve literacy. As globalisation occurs, Karchmer, Mallette, Soteriou and Donald (2005) strongly agree the importance of ICTs as the central technology for eradicating illiteracy. Hargreaves (1994), as cited by Glover and Law (2002), stated that the teaching force should be trained and retrained in order to cope with the demands of a national agenda for school improvement. Self-evaluation is also important in improving literacy rate. Education system in a country should aware about the initiative to develop a more effective planning processes, monitoring and evaluating techniques. Chapter 3: Methodology 3.1 Overview This chapter would focus on the methodology that was employed to enable the collection of data from the respondents points of view regarding the illiteracy rate in Mozambique. Our task is to give out questionnaires to find out whether the causes, effects and solutions that we had listed out in the past chapters were agreed by our Mozambican respondents. These questionnaires were then compiled and the information obtained were analysed and interpreted. 3.2 Population/Sample To conduct our research to find out more about the illiteracy rate in Mozambique, 30 individuals which were full-time students at Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP) were randomly selected to answer the questionnaires, we had prepared beforehand. Our respondents were fellow students of Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP), who came from Mozambique to further their studies in our country. They were from different courses, programmes and social background. 3.3 Location Our location for the research was in Universiti Teknologi PETRONAS (UTP). The campus is built on a 400-hectare (1,000 acre) site strategically located at Bandar Seri Iskandar, Perak Darul Ridzuan, Malaysia. All of our respondents lived inside the campus. Majority of our respondents lived in Village 2, while some lived in Village 1, Village 5 and Village 6. 3.4 Limitation There were some of the limiting conditions that affected the accuracy of our research paper. For example, there were limited Mozambican students in our university to be respondents which mean we could not get sufficient information in details from that country. In addition, we had to search for them in order to have the questionnaire session because of the limited Mozambican students in our university. Besides, there were some conditions where the Mozambican students were reluctant to collaborate to carry out the research where most probably were due to their heavy language accent and some miscommunication. 3.5 Sampling Technique The sampling techniques that we used were snowball sampling and purposive sampling. Using the snowballing technique, we found a group of Mozambican students to reach our target of 30 respondents by contacting some of our Mozambican friends. This technique helped us to obtain the information easily and precisely by approaching the Mozambican community in our University. The Mozambican community in our University are definitely literate and is able to aid in our research. 3.6 Procedure The questionnaires were based on the respondents opinions on aspects related to the research, multiple choice questions were provided. Firstly, we contacted our Mozambican friends and went to their room to conduct the research. The Mozambican friends were helpful to bring us to meet the others Mozambican students in UTP and some even gave us their friends contacts for us to approach them. Mostly, we met them at their place of living and some in front of the market in UTP. We had also borrowed a car to reach Village 6 to approach the respondents there. All respondents were given fifteen minutes to complete the questionnaires on the spot. We had explained the questions in the questionnaire to those who didnt understand and assisted them while answering to complete the research. After the time limit, we collected the questionnaires back and thanked them for their co-operation. The collected quantitative data was analysed and illustrated in tables, bar graphs and pie charts as in the res ults section. 3.7 Materials We decided to use a quantitative method, instead of qualitative to obtain our results in regarding to the topic of research. We prepared a set of questions with 9 questions for them to fill up with multiple choice questions provided. Besides, we also provided a grading scale from very poor to excellent, from low to high or from strongly disagree to strongly agree, to ease the respondents answers and feedback. (Refer sample of questionnaire in Appendix 1) 3.8 Statistical Treatment After we obtained the results or questionnaires from the respondents, we compiled the questionnaires according to the answers they had done. After that, we compared each questions and the answers in one questionnaire with the others. With different responses from the respondents, the data were able to compile effectively and efficiently. The answers from the 30 respondents are calculated and converted into percentages. Then, we substituted the information obtained into pie chart and bar chart form for easier analysis. Lastly, the statistics obtained from our results are interpreted and further discussed in the discussion section. Chapter 4: Results Figure 4.1: Illiteracy rate in Mozambique According to the column chart above, most of the respondents consider that the illiteracy rate in Mozambique is neither high nor low. Figure 4.2: Reasons for higher illiteracy rate in female than in male According to the pie chart above, cultural background is the main reason behind the high illiteracy rate among female. Figure 4.3: What illiterate affect the most According to the pie chart above, illiterate affects employment prospects the most. Figure 4.4: Reasons for the high illiteracy rate in Mozambique According to the pie chart above, insufficient budget is the main reason behind the high illiteracy rate in Mozambique. Figure 4.5: International community in helping to reduce illiteracy rate in Mozambique From the column chart above, most of the respondents disagree that international community is helping in reducing illiteracy rate in Mozambique. Besides, the statistics above also shows that the percentage of respondents grade it as Average and Agree are the same. Figure 4.6: Education system in Mozambique According to the column chart, most of the respondents feel that the education system in Mozambique is considered average. Figure 4.7: Public awareness towards education in Mozambique As shown in the column chart above, most of our respondents grade the public awareness in Mozambique towards education as average whereas none of them grade it as very poor. Figure 4.8: Effort of government in reducing illiteracy rate in Mozambique From the column chart above, most of the Mozambicans grade the effort of government in reducing illiteracy as average whereas only 10% of respondents grade it as very poor. Figure 4.9: Ways to reduce illiteracy rate in Mozambique According to the pie chart above, high quality teachers and sufficient facilities show the highest percentage proportion in the ways to reduce the illiteracy rate in Mozambique. Chapter 5: Discussion In this chapter, the quantitative results are discussed with the support of past research. Similarities and differences between the results and our literature review are explained logically and concluded for a more comprehensive discussion. The aim of this discussion is to investigate the reasons, consequences, solutions and the role of international community in regarding the illiteracy in Mozambique. 5.1 Reason behind the high illiteracy rate in Mozambique In Figure 4.1, 33.67% of the respondents think that the illiteracy rate in Mozambique is considered average, where in fact; the adult literacy rate of Mozambique in 2009 is 55.06% which is at a place of 199 out of 233 countries. The illiteracy rate is still most likely to be high, as approximately half of the Mozambican community is illiterate. In our study, there are only about 13.33% of our respondents considered the illiteracy rate in Mozambique as very high. None of them chose very low while grading the illiteracy rate in Mozambique. This is contradicting to our literature review which is possibly due to the low public awareness, specifically from the respondents. Furthermore, it was found out that the major reasons that contribute the most to the high illiteracy rate in Mozambique is due to insufficient budget where 40% of the respondents supported as shown in Figure 4.4. After the independence of Mozambique from Portugal in 1975, surviving from the colonization era and the Mozambique Civil War which happened from 1977 to 1992, these probably result to insufficient budget and then the abandonment of education. Linden and Rungo (2004) mentioned too that, due to insufficient budget, the condition during learning is considered bad. The students face an amount of problems in the learning process which further results to the unresolved illiteracy problem in Mozambique. The education system in Mozambique is a catalyst to improve literacy rate. In Figure 4.6, 40% of our respondents rate the current education system in Mozambique as average. Several policies in Mozambique that govern the education system are not noticeable, which indirectly causes the low level of respond from the Mozambican community. To achieve Education for All (EFA), a good education system provides a strong basis to attract the awareness of all Mozambicans, and to eradicate illiteracy. 5.2 Effects of illiteracy Figure 4.2 shows 46.67% of our respondents feel that illiteracy affects employment prospects the most. The respondents realize that being literate and armed with knowledge are able to guarantee a job with promising aspects. In addition, the current condition in Mozambique depends mostly on agriculture, forestry and fishery as their main source of income. Mozambicans have to go by leaps and bounds to develop an advanced country, by exploring industries that require high qualifications and education, where literacy plays a pivotal role in increasing chances of employment prospects. Only 10% of them think that illiteracy will affect family life. This low value is likely to show that the awareness of education is still low. They may feel that they have adapted themselves perfectly in the traditional way, ignoring the importance of literacy and progressing. 5.3 Illiteracy rate among women and men in Mozambique Based on Figure 4.2, 56.67% of the respondents stated that illiteracy rate among women is higher than men because of cultural background. It has been a tradition that males are the leader and also the sole bread winner of the family, whereas females should stay at home to do the house chores and nurture their children at home. Females are always prohibited from learning due to cultural purposes that causes the significant lower illiteracy rate among females. There are also possibilities that the programmes offered by the schools are mainly favouring the male students. Women seem to be more interested in programmes designed to improve their lives and the well-being of their families as stated by Mario and Nandja (2005). 5.4 Solutions to overcome illiteracy in Mozambique We found out that both introducing more high quality teachers and providing enough facilities for education show the highest percentage (30%) in reducing the illiteracy rate in Mozambique as in Figure 4.9. This is due to the reason that there are still lacks of sufficient teachers in school especially in rural areas. Besides, there are also insufficient classroom where the children have to learn under extreme conditions in Mozambique. Thus, most of the respondents may think that both of the ways above are the solution to reduce the illiteracy rate in Mozambique. As shown in Figure 4.7, most of the respondents grade the public awareness towards education among the Mozambicans as average with 40%. This is more likely to happen because of the less effectiveness of the campaign carried out which only stress on the importance of education to parts of the Mozambique nation and also yet being practiced thoroughly. It is clearly to be seen that the public awareness towards education should be increased and measures have to be taken drastically to resolve this issue. Furthermore, as stated in Figure 4.8, 33.33% of our respondents grade the effort of the government in improving the literacy rate as average. It is possible that parts of the Mozambican do not recognize the policies introduced by government in reducing the illiteracy rate. Moreover, it is more likely that some of the respondents may think that the government did not increase the funds for adult literacy and education programmes. Besides , the plans in improving the education are not translated into action. 5.5 The role of the international community From Figure 4.5, it shows that most of our respondents (30%) do not think that the international community is helping in reducing the illiteracy rate in Mozambique. Only 6.67% of them agree that help has been provided. There are contradictions as United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has employed a food security with the purpose of increasing the Mozambicans incomes. Besides, financial assistance is also provided with literacy instructors in 10 specified rural districts are given funds. The existence of contradictions most probably results from the lack of awareness towards this issue in improving literacy. 5.6 Limitations and Recommendations The result of the research is considered reliable. However, there are som

Token ring :: essays research papers

Token ring is a local area network protocol which resides at the data link layer (DLL) of the OSI model. It uses a special three-byte frame called a token that travels unidirectionally around a star-wired logical ring. Token ring frames travel completely around the loop. The name 'Token Ring' is misleading since the physical topology is a loop. Each station passes or repeats the special token frame around the ring to its nearest downstream neighbor. This token-passing process is used to arbitrate access to the shared ring media. Stations that have data frames to transmit must first acquire the token before they can transmit them. Token ring LANs normally use differential Manchester encoding of bits on the LAN media. Token ring was invented by Olof SÃ ¶derblom in the late 1960s. It was later licensed to IBM, who popularized the use of token ring LANs in the mid 1980s when it released its IBM token ring architecture based on active multi-station access units (MSAUs or MAUs) and the IBM Structured Cabling System. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers or IEEE (http://www.ieee.org) later standardized a token ring LAN system as IEEE 802.5 (http://www.ieee802.org/5/). Token ring LAN speeds of 4Mbps, 16Mbps, 100Mbps and 1Gbps have been standardized by the IEEE 802.5 working group. Token ring networks had significantly superior performance and reliability compared to early shared-media implementations of Ethernet (IEEE 802.3), and were widely adopted as a higher-performance alternative to shared-media Ethernet. However, with the development of switched Ethernet, token ring architectures lagged badly behind Ethernet in both performance and reliability. The higher sales of Ethernet allowed economies of scale which drove down prices further, and added a compelling price advantage to its other advantages over token ring. Token ring networks have since declined in usage and the standards activity has since come to a standstill as switched Ethernet has dominated the LAN/layer 2 networking market. The Token Frame When no station is transmitting a data frame, a special token frame circles the loop. This special token frame is repeated from station to station until arriving at a station that needs to transmit data. When a station needs to transmit a data frame, it converts the token frame into a data frame for transmission. The special token frame consists of three bytes as follows: Starting Delimiter - consists of a special bit pattern denoting the beginning of the frame. The bits from most significant to least significant are J,K,0,J,K,0,0,0. J and K are code violations.

Dystopian Society’ Essay

There are many dystopic experiences in Incognito and the real world. Examples include Nazi Germany, North Korea, the Taliban and Joseph Stalin. One main example is the Communist China which involved a revolution, power in the government and no freedom of speech. The person mainly responsible for this is Mao Zedong who overthrew his enemies and millions of people were killed or persecuted. This is similar to Incognito as it involves data lords and the overpowering government. It also shows similarity in the lack of freedom because in both realities, if you do or say something which is not smiled upon in the society, you don’t exist anymore (obliteration and persecution). Another example is Nazi Germany which was ruled by Adolf Hitler who eradicated all Jews in Germany by sending them to concentration camps. This shows a lack of freedom similar to Communist China’s lack of freedom of speech. However, this simply involves who you are religiously instead of physically. For example, while you could hide your opinion in China, you could not hide that you were Jewish in Germany. Also, this, instead of simple execution could also take away a part of you as a person, due to the Nazis forcing you to convert to their ways. In Incognito, the data lords stripped people of their identities if they were not worthy of their identity. The Taliban is a fundamentalist Muslim movement whose militia took control of much of Afghanistan from early 1995. During the Taliban’s years of control over Afghanistan, most governments did not recognise it as a legitimate government, due to concerns about human rights violations. Their aim was to publicise, in an often exaggerated fashion. The group is also attempting to assure Afghans that it has a strategy for governing the country again, presenting a platform of stamping out corruption and even protecting women’s rights. This is similar to Incognito’s (the spy group) purpose towards the government and trying to reduce corruption of people with a higher status than most others, ie: the data lord.

Presidential debates essays

Presidential debates essays This debate was focused on homeland security, and how one would better America as Commander and Chief. One of the first questions asked of the candidates was on their plan to prevent an attack like 9/11. Kerry admitted his mistakes in talking down of the war with Iraq, but he states that Bush has made the first mistake of choosing to invade Iraq. Kerry seemed to base his issues on the fact that Bush didnt promise what he promised America before he became President. Kerry alerted our attention on Bushs decision to go on to Iraq and when the true problem was with Bin Laden and Afghanistan. Kerrys constantly issued on Bushs fall on keeping his word to keep war as a last resort. Kerry basically doesnt believe Bush went on with the war in the right way. He didnt believe it was enough diplomacy. The term was Colossal misjudgment, Kerry said he would rather use the 200 billions of dollar that where placed in Iraq and give use it to support the homeland. Kerry obviously doubts Bus hs ability to get the job done, and he stated that Bushs plan for the next for year is four words, more of the same. In this debate, I believe John Kerrys main motive was to show the non-relationship of the war on terrorism and the problem with Al-Queada and Bin Laden. In counter Bush seemed to focus on our need to win and the best way for us to do this and protect the homeland, is to stay on the defense. Bush tried to base his thought on Kerrys thought of the war being the, Wrong war, Wrong place, and Wrong time. In addition to this was John Kerrys flip flopping. Bush said the goal is to become allies with Iraq and all. It seemed like George Bush tried to push this by expressing his relationship with other foreign leaders. From Bush some of Kerrys examples of flip flopping ...

George W Bush essays

George W Bush essays In this brief essay about Governor Bush, I will be talking about my standings on regarding his issues. I think Bush is making a great decision to reduce or completely stop abortion. Abortion is just like taking someone else's life. It is just as if someone was to go outside and shoot someone and go on with his or her life like nothing happened. In a way it is basically murder. What I dont get is why he won't force litmus paper test yet he wants to reduce the rate of abortions. I think he has the right idea in mind, but is just a little confused with what he wants to accomplish when he becomes president. Governor Bush believes that the best way to protect the innocent is to fully enforce the law and to ensure swift and sure punishment for criminals. I am fully for Bush's tough crime policies. As a result of his tough policies, violent crime in Texas is down 20 percent and violent juvenile crime is down 44 percent. I think that the best step Bush took, was in signing the legislation providing comprehensive juvenile justice reform, tougher sex offender laws, longer sentences for violent repeat offenders, and zero tolerance for drunk driving. That should have a huge effect in the polls, for Bush's part. Also if the violent crime rate dropped when Bush was governor for Texas, what's no to say that it may drop for the whole U.S. if he is elected for president? Governor Bush believes that all Americans should have the opportunity to learn and develop skills, should be able to work, choose where to live, and participate in community life no matter what type of disability they have. That is very high spoken of Bush because not all disabled Americans have that privilege and for him to propose to fix it is really great of him. Although progress has been made over the last two decades Governor Bush believes that much more needs to be done. I think that Governor Bush's a $1.025 billion over 5 years proposal is great. He wants to use t...

Bonuses for senior executives in the banking sector should only be Essay

Bonuses for senior executives in the banking sector should only be paid for genuine excellence - Essay Example For example, a Sales Director will earn bonuses if turnover targets are met and exceeded (Nkomo, Fottler and McAfee, 2010: 85-93). Recent years have been characterized by an outcry against paying of bonuses to senior corporate executives. This is mainly due to malpractices by top executives to ensure they earn high salaries with little regard to how the company is performing or stockholder value. These malpractices include accounting fraud. Bonuses remain popular with firms because in today’s world of heightened competition and reduced profitability, bonuses represent a variable rather than fixed cost (Murphy, 2005: 110-117). It is also widely believed that bonuses create motivation, which leads to organizational performance. Bonuses help to attract and retain managerial talent and motivate executives to perform to the best of their abilities and prevent executive dissatisfaction. It has been argued that rather than incentivizing executives to raise shareholder returns, bonuses have been turned into rent-seeking avenues by self-interested executives. This defeats the main logic behind paying of bonuses, which is to tie executive pay closely to organizational performance (Kieff and Paredes, 2010: 44-49). At the same time, it has been argued that executive bonuses affect firms negatively. Performance-based bonuses foster individualism, business aggression and uncertainty. Bonuses create competitiveness among the executives which hurts cooperation. Bonuses encourage executives to take unreasonably high risks and make short-sighted decisions that may not be good for the firm’s long-term prospects. It is also argued that senior executives spend a great deal of time and focus on their past and expected bonuses than on the returns of shareholders. Bonuses also foster bad relations and resentment between the executive and the lower ranking staff (Marchica, 200 4: 8-15). Bonuses are rooted in two theories; the Expectancy theory and Agency

Strategic Planning Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Strategic Planning - Case Study Example In the next part of the report I will be highlighting the areas on which the company needs to stress more and will also make some necessary recommendations. The first thing that GIFC needs to accomplish is that it should define its business, goods and services and also the target customers. Also defining a clear vision for the organization which clearly expresses the intentions of the company and where it wants to be in the future will also help to serve the purpose. Defining their thoughts on social responsibility, culture and ethics will further strengthen the standings of the organization. The company can think of commencing operations in the global market by using effective expansion strategies. This will not only help the company to earn more revenue, but will also allow them to cater to a number of segments around the world. However the growth is directly related with the quality of their service, level of customer service and also the location of the outlets. In order to develop core competencies for itself the company must focus on various aspects. Some of the evident factors are variety of dishes, authenticity of the ingredients, and ambience of the outlets. Furthermore the company should also develop a strong customer relationship management tool, which will ensure highest level of customer satisfaction and they could even become a word of mouth promoter for the company. One of the important suggestions for the company is that while getting into any new kind of activity, the company should perform an analysis of the macro environment. This will help them to make decisions purely based upon the external situations and can sustain with it for a longer period of time. Strategic planning is defined as the process by which the management personnel of the company decides about the objectives of the company and also defines the proper courses of action required to achieve the objectives (â€Å"Strategic Planning†). It is also referred to as a

Conflict analysis of Israel Palestine Research Paper

Conflict analysis of Israel Palestine - Research Paper Example On the other hand, the Hebrews referred to Palestinian territory as the land of Israel. Thus, it made the decision of the Zionist be problematic in nature. In late 1930, the UN Partition plan and Peel Partition Plan redefined the territorial location of the Jews and proposed the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. The Zionist took over the best Coastal and Valley areas alienating the indigenous Arab people. In this case, Jesrusalem, Judea and Samaria were bound together to become the West Bank. The Arab people rejected the UN Partition plan in 1947 and considered Zionist as a threat to their people. This is because the plan gave authority to Palestine to take over 75 percent of the Arab state making the Arabs to become refugees in the neighboring state Israel. This created a refugee problem in Israel over three decades, but a new political equation was formed in the 1967 and the late 1980’s war (Hunnicutt 2011). Palestinians had refused to respond to any official or diplomatic relation with Israel. This led to more Jewish settlements in Israel leading to the conflict between Palestinians and Israelites. This paper analyzes the main conflict between the two nations; Palestine and Israel. During late 1940’s and 1960’s, conflicts made Palestinians to run away voluntarily while others were forced to evacuate. They were moved to bordering countries and thus turned out to be refugees. An estimated 4 million Palestinians are refugees, and most of these refuges live in camps in the Gaza Strip, Syria, West Bank and Lebanon. The refugees get assistance from the United Nations and other bodies and individual willing for help (Faruqi 2011). Even though the Palestinians did not have an army in Palestine at this time, rockets were fired on a frequently from Gaza heading to Israel. In return, the Israelis who lived in the

The Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 Essay Example for Free

The Global Financial Crisis of 2007-2008 Essay Economists and scholars spend years dissecting financial markets and evaluating the causes of booms and busts. Throughout United States history there have been multiple economic booms that were underestimated and followed by recessions. In the situation of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis many culprits have been identified as causes, such as loose monetary policy, credit booms, deregulation, over complexity, and greed. Since the economic boom was solely dependent on weak policies and misconceptions, this leads me to believe prevention was possible with adequate regulatory policy, risk assessment and clarifications for commercial banks. Monetary Policy The Federal Reserve uses monetary policy to control the supply of money in order to determine interest rates and manipulate currency values. Markets commonly favor lower interest rates because people are able to pay less for capital. When the capital costs decline, banks and other entities are able to build up leverage for financing activities. When banks become highly leveraged they begin to take on more credit and liquidity risks without providing addition collateral. This is sometimes in reckless proportions that drive institution into possible closure and the need for bailouts (Investopedia, 2012). At the turn of the century during the infamous â€Å"dot-com bubble†, the stock market was flooded with new investors trying to take part in the newest financial craze. These investments were overestimated and premature, and as the stock market crashed high interest rates nearly crippled the economy. The Federal Reserve reacted by lowering the interest rates in order to stabilize the economy and aid in its recovery. In response, consumers, bankers and other investors took advantage of the cheaper borrowing costs and flooded the economy with capital (businessinsider, 2012). Aside from the United States, many countries’ economies behaved similarly and the global economy prospered. Cross-country borrowing and investing began to increase relative to the flow of capital. Historically cross-country capital exchanges happen at disproportionate levels and create global financial imbalances amongst countries (IMF, 2012). At this point domestic economies begin to blend and become globally dependent, increasing their vulnerability and sensitivity to market fluctuations. Housing Bubble At the start of the century the U.S. economy experienced a credit boom that was underestimated on regulatory, institutional and consumer levels. Low interest rates attracted consumers and increased the demand for asset acquisition. Real estate and other marketable assets increased in value (dailybeast, 2012). Traditionally investment bankers invested in Treasury bonds, but interest rates were so low the yields were not worth the investment. At this time there were drastic increases in home ownership and a booming market for mortgages. Investment bankers began to purchase individual mortgages as a means to acquire more debt leveraging to continue financing more mortgage purchases. These mortgages were grouped together with other comparable mortgages then they were reformed, rated and packaged as a marketable product known as a collateralized debt obligation (CDO). The CDOs had different levels of risk and returns based on the estimations of default probability (NY times, 2012). To insure their investments, investors also purchased derivative instruments known as credit default swaps (CDS). Credit defaults swaps are known as insurance contracts that protect the investor’s investments by gambling on whether a company or homeowner will default on debt obligations. The CDO and CDS markets were not new concepts, but had never experienced this level of investing in prior periods. In the past consumers generally purchased a CDS to go along with their bond or CDO investment. Since the CDS markets were facing large potential returns, external investors began to flood the market without having any principal ties. As these markets began to take hold, there was a realization of finite number of qualified homeowners (Wikipedia, 2012). Generally homeowners were required to meet certain qualifications in order to borrow funds for mortgages, also known as prime mortgages. Since the prime mortgage market had receded, lenders were encouraged to lower their requirements for lending and began to allow subprime mortgages. These less responsible homeowners began to default on their mortgages, which turned investment bankers’ stream of mortgage payments into empty houses. Increases in foreclosures raise the supply of available houses, which lowers the fair market values of houses. The prime mortgage homeowners were left with houses that were highly devalued relative to their mortgages and began to abandon their mortgage obligations. Mortgage lenders, investment bankers, and outside investors froze their activities, as they faced possible bankruptcy. Regulatory/Supervisory Inadequacies Deregulation is believed to be the underlying cause of all economic downturns, as its scope of responsibility reaches all markets. In the 1930s the United States experienced a bank crisis that sparked a widespread distrust in the banking system and people withdrew their money from the depository institutions overnight. The sudden retraction of the money supply from the economy caused many banks to close and the economy to suffer. The Banking Act of 1933, also known as the Glass-Steagall Act, was created to insure depositors’ savings and restore confidence through the limitation of bank security activities and the affiliations between commercial banks and securities firms(Wikipedia,2012). The Glass-Steagall Act was successful for many years, but grew to be disliked by the banking community. In the 1980s-90s the world experienced economic booms and recessions that fueled the banks preoccupation with regulation. The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act was enacted in 1999, this removed barriers in the market among banking companies, securities companies and insurance companies that prohibited any one institution from acting as a combination of an investment bank, commercial bank, and an insurance company(Wikipedia, 2012). This act repealed part of the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933 and allowed banks to function with limited regulation. During the House of Representatives debate, Rep. John Dingell argued that the bill would result in banks becoming â€Å"too big to fail†, which will result in a bailout by the Federal government. In light of the most recent economic boom, investors demanded greater return yields from their investments. This search led many people and entities to invest in unregulated securities markets. In some securities markets there were no regulations available, because the securities were overly complex and dependent on the recently deregulated banking industry. Some examples of unregulated securities are credit default swap derivatives, collateralized debt obligations and predatory lending connected were tied to the housing bubble. This era of financial engineering and limited regulation could be the main cause for our financial crisis and its following recession. The financial crisis cost Americans trillions in investment losses, home equity declines, unemployment increases and lost wages. The broad spectrum of the global financial system is complex and involves almost everyone. It is difficult to isolate the causes of the financial crisis to a short list, but many economists and scholars commonly agree and a select few major contributors to the crisis. Whether it be deregulation, loose monetary policy, or global financial imbalances; the economy must return to some state of normalcy. In response to any mistake all participants should learn from the crisis and attempt to cultivate a plan for prevention and sustainability. References * http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials-on-the-right/103012-631374-financial-crisis-was-caused-by-bad-policies.htm#ixzz2DLcCmbVd * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gramm-Leach-Bliley_Act * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Financial_crisis_of_2007%E2%80%932008 * http://www.imf.org/external/np/seminars/eng/2012/fincrises/pdf/ch6.pdf * http://www.imf.org/external/np/res/seminars/2010/paris/pdf/obstfeld.pdf * http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/monetarypolicy.asp * http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/c/collateralized-debt-obligations/index.html * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Credit_default_swap * http://www.businessinsider.com/the-consequences-of-easy-monetary-policy-2012-9 * http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/06/the-clinton-recession.html * http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/09/13/846281/financial-crisis-lost-trillions/?mobile=nc