Summary about singin in the rain movie Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Summary about singin in the rain movie - Essay Example To her embarrassment from Don’s reaction, she aims a pie at him but hits Lina instead. Don and Kathy however reconcile and fall in love. A subsequent presentation at the party is however successful and the producer decides to change the movie into a talkie whose production process is challenged with the worst experience being Lina’s voice. The production is then changed, upon success, into a musical with Kathy dubbing Lina’s voice. This annoys Lina and she determines to end the relationship between Don and Kathy as well as diminishing Kathy’s credit in the production. Following the success of the production, the audience calls on Lina to make a live performance. Don, his friend Cosmo and the producer decides to let Lina sing on stage while they project Kathy’s voice to the audience from the powered microphone behind a curtain. Don, Cosmo and the producer then reveals Kathy by opening a curtain, to Lina’s embarrassment forcing her to flee from the stage. When Kathy tries to run away, Don stops her, introduces her as the real star before the two sings, and they later appear kissing on a billboard advertisement of the ‘singing in the rain’ film with Don and Kathy as the stars (Donen and Kelly,

Accounting Standards Boards Essay Example for Free

Accounting Standards Boards Essay Increased globalization in the business world has brought to fore some of the issues and challenges that multinational businesses face in financial recording and reporting of foreign based operations. With operations based in different countries that operate under different accounting principles and with varying currencies, there has been a need for the accounting principles and standards to be converged. This has in the past nine years seen the accounting policy making suggesting a complete overhaul in the way financial statements are reported and a convergence between the USs generally accepted accounting principles (US GAAP) and the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS). This has been through various meetings between the International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) and US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), two boards which determine these accounting standards. This paper therefore evaluates the history of the two boards and their relationship and looks at IASB equivalents to FASB original pronouncements. It also describes how a Master of Science in Accounting would prepare a student for an accounting profession. History of the Relationship between FASB and IASB US Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) is a board which is responsible for setting and improving financial accounting standards in the US and for governing and fostering preparation of financial reports by non-governmental organizations (Financial Accounting Standards Board, 2012).International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) on the other hand is also an independent board responsible for setting international financial reporting standards (IFRS Foundation, 2011). Whereas IASB and IFRS takes a principle based approach to accounting standards setting, FASBS GAAP does this through pronouncements which are based or rules. They both put a lot of emphasis on income statements, balance sheet, statements of changes in equity and cash flow statements as key reports that are important in financial reporting. Over the past decade these two boards which determine the accounting standards in the world have been working towards ensuring that the financial reporting all over the world converges. The convergence concept first took root in the 1950s in response to the cross border capital inflows that were as a result of the economic integration after world war two. These efforts initially focused on reducing difference in accounting principles between major capital markets globally otherwise referred to as harmonization of the accounting principles. By 1990s the concept had changed into convergence which sought to build high quality financial reporting standards to be applied internationally (Financial Accounting Standards Board, 2012a). Both developed in the 1970s, FASB and IASC (international Accounting Standards Committee) a predecessor to IASB, set a trend for expanding international accounting standards and with the reorganization of IASC into IASB in 2001, the use of IFRS among various countries has progressed rapidly. For instance, over 100 countries and the European Union use these standards issued by IASB. The U.S. mainly uses its own issued US GAAP (Progress Report, 2011; Cain, 2008). IASB and FASB have been working together towards converging the IFRS and the US GAAP since 2002. Even China and Japan have been working to bring together their accounting standards with IFRS as at 2009. Over the past decade the pace of convergence has been very fast with the internationalization of standards growing rapidly. In 2010, Securities and Exchange Commission in the US issues a report supporting the convergence of these standards through incorporation of the IFRS in the US financial system (Financial Accounting Standards Board, 2012a). This implies that the US has been increasing exploring adopting IASBs IFRSs, although there have been issues such as the fair value issues in IFRS and the cost of implementation that have slowed the progress. The IASB equivalents of the FASB original pronouncements As noted above, IASBs IFRS takes a principle based approach to accounting standard setting as compared to FASBs pronouncements which are viewed to be much stricter. In essence therefore, though IASB and FASB may address similar accounting concepts their approach to it may be different. It is these IASBs equivalents to FASBs pronouncements that bring the differences between GAAP and IFRS standards. Evaluating the FASBs original pronouncements and IASB, the manner in which accounting concepts are approached can be noted. These are: whereas IASBs IFRS requires that inventory costs of spoilage and idle capacity be excluded from the cost of inventory, FASBs GAAP does not; IFRS requires yearly comparison of financial statements unlike US GAAP which only views comparisons as desirable but require three year comparisons; IFRS permits but does not require reporting of comprehensive income unlike US GAAP which requires it; IFRS classifies liabilities as non-current if refinancing is complete before the date of the balance sheet unlike GAAP which classifies it as so, if refinancing is completed before the financial statements are issued; and prohibition of extraordinary items from the financial reports by IFRS unlike GAAP which permits but to a restricted items which affect profit and loss (Deloitte, 2004; FASB Report, 2002). Other accounting concepts that differ between IASB and FASBs original pronouncements are that IFRS requires that LIFO method of determining inventory cost be prohibited in IAS 2, unlike US GAAP which permits LIFO in SFAS 151, and that IFRS requires reversal of inventory write downs if given criteria are met unlike US GAAP which prohibits it. In addition FASB permits that inventory at net value be measured even if it is above cost unlike IFRS which restricts this to producers and broker-dealers inventories. FASB classifies the interest received and paid as operating activity in the cash flow statement unlike IASB which may classify it as financing, investing or operating activity. This leaves room for a number of interpretations. Furthermore, though FASB excludes overdrafts from cash, IASB includes it if it forms a critical and integral part of an organizations cash base or cash management (Deloitte, 2004; FASB Report, 2002). Other IASB equivalents to FASB pronouncements are enumerated as shown below (Deloitte, 2004; FASB Report, 2002): -IFRS restates previous financial statements in the event of non-mandated changes in accounting policy, unlike FASB which includes cumulative effects current financial statements net loss and profits -IASB uses change in estimated method to evaluate changes in depreciation of assets, unlike FASB which used change in accounting policy that is the net profit or loss cumulative effect. -IASB uses cost recovery method for construction contracts when the completed percentage cannot be determined for sure unlike the USA GAAP which uses completed contract method -IASB does not recognize deferred tax due to the an asset or liability tr ansaction that doesnt affect accounting or taxable profit and is not a business combination in IAS 12 unlike the US GAAP recognizes this these through its lack of initial recognition exemption as addressed in SFAS 109. -US GAAP has special exemptions due to the provision of deferred tax such as leveraged leasing, intangible developments in the gas and oil industry and undistributed earnings -IASB uses a tax rate that is substantially enacted to measure deferred tax liabilities and assets, which can be left to a lot of interpretations, unlike FASBs enacted tax rate which is sure and consistent -IASB uses rate applicable to undistributed earnings of an organization to measure the deferred tax on those earnings , unlike FASB which uses the higher of the tax rate between the one applicable to undistributed profits and the one applicable to distributed profits as addressed in SFAS 109 -IASB recognizes expense for share-based payment based on fair value of the payment whereas FASB recognizes this based on intrinsic value at grant date -IASB measures business combinations on the date of the acquisition whereas FASB does this on the date of consummation or closing date -IASB requires that recognizing a liability prior to acquisition restructuring be only if the one being acquired recognizes it under IAS 37, this is unlike FASB which recognizes it if the acquisition has already began -IASB recognizes in process RD as an intangible finite asset or good will, unlike FASB which recognizes it as expense How MSA Program prepares student for professional Accounting A Master of Science in accounting program is very important for anyone who intends to pursue an accounting career in the future. This program prepares a student by providing knowledge on the various accounting principles that need be applied in accounting profession. It also makes a student be aware of the various accounting standards that are existing in the world, how each differ, and how accounting records and done in each. In addition such a program provides analytical and critical thinking abilities. In addition, it offers a global perspective on accounting practices and business issues and provides a framework for effective development for team building and leadership skills, and ethical decision making in business. Lastly it will enhance interpersonal and communications skills through interactions which seek to learn ways of solving problems and issues in the accounting and finance realm. All these are critical for a career as an accountant. Conclusion This paper has discussed the history of the FASB and IASB boards and their relationship and has looked at IASB equivalents to FASB original pronouncements. It has shown that standardized management accounting and controlling concepts that transcend national boundaries are increasingly needed with concern on the need of an internationalized Accounting and financial reporting standard to help in comparing of financial statements of countries from different countries and also to make it efficient and less costly for multinational companies when they are conducting financial reporting of their performance. IASB and FASB have made tremendous progress thus fur in their bid to converge the global accounting standards.

Sams :: essays research papers fc

Ancient Egyptian Burial A profound belief in life after death is why burials in ancient Egypt are so elaborate. There was two different ways to artificially preserve bodies. When the Ancient Egyptians buried their dead they did not want the bodies to be washed away by the floods. They also didn’t want to use up valuable farmland for cemeteries. The dead were buried close to the villages in the higher elevated dry deserts that covered the Nile. One-way of preserving a body was the linen and plaster method. The body would be wrapped in many layers of preservative linen. This would give the body the look of mummies that are in today’s movies. The idea of wrapping the bodies in linen was to preserve as much as the body’s features as possible. The linen and plaster was used to hold the shape of the face. Another widely used method of preserving bodies has to do with Natron. Natron is a natural salt that is found in Egypt. The salts would dry out the body parts so rotting would go slow. Salts were used to â€Å"pickle† a dead body. The Egyptians experimented with many different ways of mummifying. Only kings and their royal wives were buried in pyramids. Funerals depended on how much money you had. There were many different burials for different people. The poor, craftsmen and artists, nobles and courtiers, royal family, and the kings had different methods in which they were buried.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The poor people didn’t have very elaborate funerals. They were just buried in the sand. Given the gifts of a pot, some food and some other small goods is what poor people used to survive in the world after life. Craftsmen and artists were buried with a little more care but the burials were still not fancy at all. Buried in the fetal position they were basically just thrown in the dirt and mud. The nobles and courtiers were sometimes given the gift of a tomb. The nobles and courtiers were buried in shafts that sometimes were nice.

china :: essays research papers

THE CHANGING POLITICAL-MILITARY ENVIRONMENT: SOUTH ASIA The security environment in South Asia has remained relatively un-settled since the Indian and Pakistani nuclear tests of May 1998. The Indian government’s efforts to publicly emphasize the challenges China posed in the weeks leading up to those tests—after more than a decade of mostly sotto voce complaints—served to rupture the or-dinarily glacial process of normalizing Sino-Indian relations. This process always possessed a certain fragility in that the gradually de-creasing tensions along the Sino-Indian border did not automatically translate into increased trust between Beijing and New Delhi. Even as both sides sought to derive tactical advantages from the confi-dence- building measures they had negotiated since 1993—for ex-ample, the drawdown of forces along the utterly inhospitable LAC in the Himalayas—each ended up pursuing larger grand strategies that effectively undercut the other’s interests. Beijing, for example, per-sisted in covertly assisting the nuclear and missile programs of India’s local competitor, Pakistan, while New Delhi sought in re-sponse to develop an intermediate-range ballistic missile whose comparative utility lay primarily in targeting China. The repeated identification of China as a threat to Indian interests by both Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders and other influential Indian elites in the first half of 1998 not only underscored the fragile nature of the Sino-Indian rapprochement but also ruptured the carefully maintained faà §ade of improving relations between the two coun-204 The United States and Asia tries.1 When this public finger pointing ultimately gave way to India’s resumption of nuclear testing on May 11, 1998 (an event ac-companied by the Indian prime minister’s explicit claim that those tests were driven by the hostile actions of India’s northern neighbor over the years), security competition in South Asia—which usually appears, at least in popular perceptions, as merely a bilateral affair between India and Pakistan—finally revealed itself as the â€Å"regional strategic triangle†2 it has always been. This appendix analyzes Indian and Pakistani attitudes toward China in the context of the triangular security competition in South Asia. Taking the 1998 nuclear tests as its point of departure, it assesses how China figures in the grand strategies of the two principal states in the Indian subcontinent and identifies the principal regional geopolitical contingencies for which the United States should pre-pare over the next decade. Finally, it briefly analyzes the kinds of opportunities the region offers to the USAF as it engages, even as it prepares to hedge against, a rising China. NUCLEAR TESTING AND THE TRIANGULAR SECURITY COMPETITION IN SOUTH ASIA Impact of the Nuclear Tests on Sino-Indian Relations Although Pakistan was directly affected by the Indian nuclear tests, these tests engaged Chinese security interests as well. To begin with, India’s decision to resume testing made manifest New Delhi’s re-sentment

Gender Roles in The Thin Man Essay

The period of the 1930s was an offshoot of the â€Å"roaring twenties† or the â€Å"jazz age†, a time when women gained a heightened sense of prominence in the society after the First World War saw young men leaving their homes and their work in response to the nation’s call to arms (Freedman, 1974, p. 374). Towards the end of the war and at the beginning of the 1930s, women became more in control of their liberty, proof of which is their newly recognized right to suffrage (Murphy, 1996, p. 52). They became regular members of the social workforce, thereby giving them a renewed sense of control over their lives. The â€Å"flapper†Ã¢â‚¬â€young women who defied the norms of what a conservative woman is by engaging in casual sex and wearing short skirts, among others—took the center stage, so to speak. As for men, such circumstances only brought them closer to the temptation of pleasing the opposite sex. This is clearly portrayed in the 1934 film The Thin Man. In the film, Nick Charles and his wife Nora represent the life of married couples whose lives are characterized primarily by the attitudes of the social elites—fun meant enjoying martinis and sleuthing. In a way, the couple captures the gender roles of each partner during the 1930s. Nora was a wealthy heiress who had almost everything at her disposal. She was beautiful and seemed to have a passion for adventure owing largely to her living a life of liberty. She was the 1930s woman who saw life as the ultimate provider of adventure in all its daring forms. Nick was a handsome man and a retired private detective who previously investigated and solved murders. He was the 1930s man who was deeply entrenched with his passion for resolving issues no matter what it takes, much to the amusement of the female partner. In fact, Nora was more than delighted upon knowing that Nick accepted the task of investigating the disappearance of his friend Clyde Wynant and the death of Clyde’s former girlfriend, Julia Wolfe. It leaves little room to speculate that Nora was indeed the typical 1930s woman who seized her liberty as if it would never run out, putting her self to risky situations together with her man. She portrayed the woman who embraced the â€Å"flapper† culture with open arms, spending her time drinking alcohol or romantically engaging her partner. While she remained supportive of Nick like a female partner might usually commit herself into, she was on her own a liberal minded individual. For the most part, Nick played the role of the adventurous husband which perfectly complements Nora’s interest in the same. He was someone who lived every danger with such boldness. He was someone who sought the pleasure of his spouse—from accepting her request for him to take the case to completely allowing her to partake in his drinking sessions—no matter what the cost may be. It goes to show that Nick was a man who shared entirely similar interests with his spouse and will gladly fulfill whatever it is that will make his woman happy. It was his role to please his woman. On the other hand, it was the woman’s role to act is if she was herself a man, fully absorbed in exactly the same interests as the husband’s. Here we see the approximate gender roles prevalent during the 1930s. Men and women had more similarities than differences as far as their inclinations are concerned. To a certain degree, there was no â€Å"woman†. Woman drank, dressed and acted in an unconventional so that they may be desired by the opposite sex, and actively participated in fairly dangerous tasks. Her liberty stood at the very core of her character and this made her more appealing to every man. Towards the end of the film, Nick gives in to the implied gesture of Nora to spend the night together in the same bed. The scene is revealing insofar as it gives rise to the idea that women exerted a certain influence or power over men especially when it comes to passionate affairs. The 1930s woman had too much liberty, in fact, that she can do anything she pleases and become pleased in the end. Nevertheless, the 1930s man still had a lot to do with her sources of pleasure. References Dyke, W. S. V. (Director). (1934). The Thin Man. United States: MGM. Freedman, E. B. (1974). The New Woman: Changing Views of Women in the 1920s. The Journal of American History, 61(2), 372-393. Murphy, M. (1996). ‘†¦ And All That Jazz’: Changing Manners and Morals after World War I. Montana: The Magazine of Western History, 46(4), 50-63.

Fixed Income Securities Market in Pakistan

Fixed Income Securities Market in Pakistan Free Online Research Papers A well functioning bond market is imperative for the development of a nation’s economy and ensuring the financial sector stability. This paper gives an overview of the current structure of Fixed Income Securities Market Pakistan and its functioning. The paper also focuses on the key obstacles which are in Pakistan’s way to make its bond market strong, deep and liquid. Suggestions are also given to remove the impediment from the development of an efficient Fixed Income Securities Market in Pakistan. Introduction An efficient fixed income security market, both government and corporate, is highly gratifying for the swift development of any economy as it leads to the efficient mobilization of resources for long-term investment. Governments can help achieve the allocative efficiency from the Market based Government Debt Securities . The frequent issues of securities of various maturities by the government helps building a yield curve that serves as the benchmark for the issuance of corporate debt securities. Raising funds through bonds saves the company from the cumbersome procedure of issuing equity. Companies know their interest expenditures before hand and this known cost of capital helps them in planning budgeting process. A strong bond market offers an alternative source of financing to companies other than banks. This alternative source of financing was quoted as â€Å"the spare tire† of economy by the former Federal Reserve Chairman Allan Greenspan . Lack of an efficient bond market is often seen as the primary reason behind the Asian Crisis. The banking sector could not stand in front of the Asian Crisis of 1997, FDI started flying back and the financial system had nothing to offer in terms of capital as the inability of the emerging markets of Asia to borrow long term in local currencies had resulted in very weak fixed income securities markets and this â€Å"Spare tire† was not available to the crisis struck countries. This shifted the focus of policy makers towa rds the creation of an efficient bond market. However, many crisis ridden emerging economies still lag behind in terms of the bond markets (Table-1) Table-1 Country Bond Market as % of GDP Country Bond Market as % of GDP India 0.4 Malaysia 38.2 China 0.7 USA 22 Brazil 0.6 Korea 21.1 Russia 1.5 Japan 16.3 Global Financial Stability Report-2005, IMF So, a strong efficient bond market and a strong banking sector offer healthy competition to each other and by complimenting each other ensure financial stability even if one source in under stress. 1. Country Background Pakistan inherited an undersized and undeveloped financial structure after the independence. The financial structure that we have today in Pakistan is the result of many experiments, policy shifts and developments. We can segregate the eras of policy shifts developments into following periods; Till 1971, the primary focus was of the governments was on the development of commercial banks in the private sector and creating Development Institutions backed by government. The 1947-1960 era was marked with private sector development while the focus during the 1960-1971 was on the development of public sector institutions e.g. KPT, SSGCL, SNGP etc. The private sector development almost clogged during the 1971-1990, owing to the nationalization policy of the Z.A Bhutto regime and non-friendly policy towards private businesses by their predecessors. The banking sector came into government’s control during this period. The government, however, followed more liberal and market based reform in the post 1990 era. The fixed income securities market followed the similar shift as shown in the above given developments. The initial phase of the fixed income securities market is from 1947 to 1990. The government, federal as well as provincial, used to borrow on tap instruments and captive funding. Owing to the concessionary loans available from the state bank, the federal government could finance its fiscal deficits from these loans. So, till 1990s, there was no scope for the development of an efficient government securities market that could provide a benchmark yield curve for the development of a private sector bond market The government issued prize bonds in 1960s and some NSS schemes but since they were all on TAP so there could not develop a secondary market for them. In 1960s and 1970s the debentures issued by Pakistani corporations were listed on the stock exchanges with a very limited secondary market. Prior to 1990, the biggest issue of bonds by some corporation was by WAPDA (Table-2). This issue was a failure and the reasons are mentioned below. However, there is strong opinion that the debentures issued by WAPDA failed because the market was very immature for such kind of move. . Issuing Corporation WAPDA Issuance Year 1988 Funds Generated RS 22.5 billion Experience Failure Reason WAPDA was unable to payback on maturity due to insufficient funds No Secondary Market Table-2 Post 1990 Era The post 1990 era was marked with liberal reforms market based reforms by the government in the economy. This is the era in which Pakistan came into the fixed income Securities Market. We can segregate the post 1990 bond market into 1) Government Debt Securities, 2) Corporate Debt Securities. 2. Government Debt Securities The government of Pakistan has run over large fiscal deficits over the two decades. The fiscal deficit stands at $373 billion in fiscal year 2006-07 . This has resulted into the accumulation of large domestic debt of Rs. 2511 billion in fiscal year 2006-07 3.1 PIBs- Pakistan Investment Bonds Government of Pakistan issued long term paper (FIBs) in 1992, with this came into being the long term yield curve so the corporate enteritis to benchmark and issue their own long term securities. The auction of FIBs was stopped in 1998 due to less response by the public on the declining earnings on these instruments. At that time, there was no long term marketable government security that could meet the investment needs of institutional investors. The, government, in order to develop the longer end of its debt market for creating a benchmark yield curve and to enhance the corporate debt market, decided to launch Pakistan Investment Bonds in December 2000. These bonds have the following characteristics Issued in five tenors of 3, 5, 10, 15 and 20-years maturity. Primary Dealer maintains a Subsidiary General Ledger Account (SGLA) with SBP for the settlement purpose Purchased by individuals, institutions and corporate bodies including banks irrespective of their residential status. SBP Ministry of Finance announce the coupon rates and the target amounts after consulting each other Profit is Paid Semiannually The PIBs represent 63% of total permanent debt while 13.23% of the total domestic debt by March 2007. 3.2 MTBs Market Treasury Bills are the short term securities for government borrowing. They have the following Characteristics; Issued in three tenors of 3-month, 6-month and 12-months maturity Zero Coupon bonds sold at a discount to their face values Purchased by individuals, institutions and corporate bodies including banks irrespective of their residential status. Primary Dealer maintains a Subsidiary General Ledger Account (SGLA) with SBP for the settlement purpose The outstanding amount of MTBs as of March 2007 is Rs. 1086.25 billion (43.25% of total Domestic Debt) 3.3 Auction Process for Government Securities State bank of Pakistan acts as an agent for the government to raise the short term long term funds from the market. State Bank sells the MTBs and PIBs to the 10 primary Dealers through price sealed bids auction. The 10 primary dealers are: ABN Amro Bank NV Citibank Habib Bank Limited JS Bank Limited MCB Bank Limited National Bank of Pakistan Pak Oman Investment Co. Prime Commercial Bank Standard Chartered Bank (Pakistan) Limited United Bank Limited The auction of MTBs is done on a fixed schedule on fortnightly basis while the auction of PIBs is done under Jumbo issuance mechanism under which the previous issues are reopened in order to enhance their liquidity in the secondary market. Domestic Debt Profile of Pakistan-March 2007 Domestic Debt $2511.969Billion Permanent Debt 528.802 Market Loans 3.026 Federal Government Bonds 9.313 Income Tax Bonds 0.022 Government Bonds 0.052 Special Governemnt Bonds for SLIC ( capitalization) 0.585 Bearer National Fund Bonds(BNFB) 0.007 Special National Fund Bonds 0.001 Government Bonds (issued to HBL for settlement of CBR Refund) 9,805 9805 Federal Investment Bonds(Auction) 3.331 Federal Investment Bonds (TAP) 0.001 Pakistan Investment Bonds (PIBs) 332.534 Prize Bonds 170.126 F loating Debt $ 1086.524 billion Treasury Bills(3 Months) 0.013 Market Treasury Bills 556.67 MTBs for Replenishment 529.994 Unfunded Debt $ 896.643 billion Defence Savings Certificates 291041 National Deposit Certificates 0.023 Khas Deposit Certificates 0.28 Special Savings Certificates 143.528 Special Savings Certificates 0.286 Regular Income Certificates 572.23 Bahbood Savings Certificates 181.716 Khas Deposit Accounts 0.321 Savings Accounts 9.224 Special Savings Accounts 55.272 Mahana Amdani Accounts 2.479 Pensioners Benefit Accounts 66.903 Postal Life Insurance 67.122 GP Fund 20.723 Source-Economic Analysis Department, SBP 3. Corporate Debt Market/Statutory Debt Market The bond market in Pakistan saw its first corporate issuance in 1995 by Packages Limited. The trend of issuing TFCs could not pick up the pace till 2000 when government stopped the institutional investors to invest in NSS which proved to be highly beneficial for TFCs. Almost all the public offers were over-subscribed, this was also mainly due to the declining interest rates offered by banks and the National Savings Schemes (NSS). There is a great potential in the Pakistani debt market that is yet to be explored. Currently the corporate debt market is 1.12% of the total GDP. 4.1 TFCs The first TFC was issued in 1995 by the Packages Limited (Table-3). Table-3 Issuing Corporation Packages Limited Funds Raised RS 232 million Issuance Year 1995 Rating (PACRA) A+ Coupon Rate 18.50% The largest TFC was issued by PIA in 2003 (Table-4) Table-4 Issuing Corporation PIA Funds Raised RS 15.4 billion Issuance Year 2003 Reason Purchase of Boeing 777s Table-5 TFCs in Pakistan Type of Security Redeemable Debt Security Legislative Background Companies Ordinance, 1984 Distinctive Feature Sharia Compliance/ Interest Rate was termed as â€Å"Expected Profit Rate† Year of First Issue 1995 Largest Issue RS 15.4 billion Smallest Issue RS 100 million Average Issue RS 660 million Benchmark Rates KIBOR, DSCs Type of Interest Rate Floating The interest rates, however, are falling for TFCs (Table-5). A major reason can be the falling interest rates for KIBOR, NSS, PIB and discount rate (Graph-1). Moreover, the trend has shifted from non-financial institutions issuing TFCs to Banks issuing TFCs to raise their Tier II capital 4.2 Role of Credit Rating Agency There are two credit rating agencies in Pakistan. The Pakistan Credit Rating Agency (PACRA) was established in 1994 prior to the first public issue of Term Finance Certificate in 1995. PACRA is a joint venture between LSE Fitch-IBCA of UK. The second credit rating agency is DCR-VIS which is a joint venture between Duff Phelps Rating Agency Vital Information Services (a local company). The objectives of PACRA are to provide technical assistance for establishing operating procedures, establishing mechanisms for rating, the training of professional personnel Joint handling of rating process in initial stages, a review of public information on the client and its industry, preparation of agenda for discussion with the issuer. For this the agency meets the issuer, and has a rating committee meeting. During this meeting the agency holds a discussion and assignment of rating. The issuer is advised of the rating and the rating and report is made public Graph-1 Source: SBP â€Å"Fostering Bond Market in Pakistan†, Farhan Hameed 4. Impediments to Bond Market Development in Pakistan The economy of Pakistan is booming and there is a lot of potential for growth in the coming years. The governmental policies and the overall economic environment of the region promises a lot in terms of financial development, Pakistan is the fastest growing economy in south Asia and this has attracted many foreign investors. This is evident from the fact that in the fiscal year 2006-2007 the net foreign direct investment in the country was greater then $6billion. There is a vast potential that is yet to be explored in the fixed income securities market of Pakistan. There is widespread agreement among the government and private sector participants that Pakistan needs a viable bond market in order to mobilize private savings efficiently for long term investments. We can mention here some obstacles which are in the way to create a strong efficient bond market in the country. 5.1 Crowding Out by the Government Securities A very big hurdle in the development of an efficient corporate bond market in Pakistan is the fact that the Government Securities and the Corporate Securities both compete for the same pool of resources. The government has the advantage of being the risk free. Government attracts savings from the retail investors through NSS while from the institutional buyers through PIBs and MTBs. Since the government securities are risk free so their rates should be less than the TFCs which have more risk than the government securities but the TFCs are priced very close to the Defense Saving Certificates which are another type of government securities with 10 year maturity and government guarantee. So this very small difference of returns between a riskless investment (DSCs) risky investment (TFCs) make the later less attractive for the investor. So there lacks a level playing field between the government securities and that of corporate sector. 5.2 Lack of Benchmark Yield Curve There does not exist a credible long term yield curve which hinders the development of an efficient corporate bond market in Pakistan. PIBs are the long term papers issued by the government and there are two reasons behind for which they do not form a credible long term yield curve. First the interest rates on the PIBs are not market driven, government teds to keep them low while market expects them to be high. This is why since 2004 there has been only one successful auction of PIBs and other bids were rejected. Secondly, there is hardly any secondary market for the PIBs which undermine its status as the benchmark. Due to recent scraping of PIB’s auctions, its supply has decreased in the market which has resulted into increased prices of the bond so we see that prices have increased just because of a factor of demand and supply that has nothing to do with the actual attractiveness of the security and the state of the nation’s economy. Since government has the influence over the institutional investors so they buy government’s long term paper even at lower rates but even they don’t keep and trade the PIBs till maturity in order to avoid booking the capital losses. Since the PIBs by now means serve as the benchmark for the issuance of the corporate bonds so TFCs are issued by the corporate entities making the floating interest rates, like KIBOR, the benchmark rate. 5.3 Administrative Hurdles The issuance cost of TFC is a big hurdle in the way of development a strong bond market in Pakistan. In addition to the coupon rate of the bond, the costs include the stamp duty as 0.15 % of the face value, listing charges, trustee fee, advertising fee and rating charges. These issuing costs can really affect the development of a bond market. The cost of issuing in Japan was approximately 2.5 % of the face value that hampered the growth of the bond market in the country, as opposed to only 0.7% in USA. On the other hand SECP SBP are following discriminating policies towards the corporate bonds. State Bank of Pakistan does not consider the investment in TFCs eligible for SLR. However, SBP allowed the Sukuk Islamic Bonds issued by WAPDA to be the part of SLR â€Å"Statutory Liquidity requirement â€Å"of the banks. This shows a clear example of ad-hoc policies by the regulators. Such regulations shatter the investor confidence in the bond market. 5.4 Liquidity/ Secondary Market Although TFCs are listed on the stock exchanges but still there is hardly any trading. In the absence of well functioning secondary market investors demand higher premium for liquidity on TFCs which increases the cost of capital for the issuing firm. World over, the bonds are traded over the counter (OTC) and large corporate issues are encouraged. The scale of issues is very small in Pakistan and that means that even small trading can affect the price which is a negative aspect. Above all, the pricing and trading of bonds is highly complex mechanism which requires very sophisticated professionals financial analysts which are hardly available in a developing country like Pakistan. 5.5 Non-diverse Investor Base The major part of the government securities is in the form of MTBs and they are mostly bought by the financial institutions which use them for the REPOs. That’s why the bonds are only purchased by the banks only and are exchanged in between themselves. The diverse investor base is imperative for making the bond market less volatile and reducing the risk. A more diverse set of market players is considered beneficial to help eliminate the uniform direction and provide greater stability to the market. 5.6 Disclosure Requirements/Transparency Pakistani investors are more risk averse and they have always been prone to invest in NSS and gold which offer almost negligible risk. The transparency requirements have to be met by the companies in order to issue debt. Lack of transparency in local private firms makes them less likely to attract the investors by issuing debt, specially the foreign investors who are used to work in very regulated and transparent environment where hardly anything is left to chance. Most of the companies lack the reputation to qualify for a rating that could elicit a satisfactory public response 5. Recommendations The current economic circumstances in Pakistan satisfy many of the prerequisites for the development of an efficient fixed income securities market. A strong corporate debt market can flourish at the point where Pakistan is standing today with stable macroeconomic indicators and excellent banking system. However, still some steps are yet to be taken in order to take Pakistani bond market to its actual potential. Some of those steps are put as recommendations here; 6.1 Building a yield curve for the bond market The government should create a long term yield curve for the bonds this could be achieved through ensuring regular issues of the government bonds of various maturities. However, emphasize should be on building the long term yield curve which is almost non-existent in Pakistan. A benchmark yield curve helps in the pricing of other fixed income instruments. This would not only attract the new investors but will also help in enhancing the confidence of customers on the economic policies and the local itself. In order to ensure the regular supply of PIBs in the market, government should come up with a proper issuance calendar with clearly indicated targets. Government should borrow more from market at market rates rather than from the State Bank. Even if there does not exist a secondary market and government increases the issuance of PIBs at market determined rates, it can help create a benchmark yield curve. The lack of supply of PIBs in the market results into an artificial increase in their prices which should be avoided and the government should ensure the regular issues of PIBs even if it does not require the funds. This is because the fact that the regular issues would stop the increase in the prices of PIBs just because their unavailability and their prices would reflect their actual market worth and the state of the Pakistan’s economy and PIBs would serve as the justified and credible benchmark long term yield curve. The economic managers of the country state that the less issuance of the PIBs in last two years is due to high inflows in NSS. The government should understand that it will have to issue PIBs regularly even if it is running in surpluses. It is the same as the government raised $500 million from Euro bonds when it did not require the funds but issued the bonds just to show the presence in the international market . The similar approach should be adopted in the domestic market. 6.2 Increased Size of the Bond Market A big hurdle in the creation of a secondary market in Pakistan has been the limited size of the issuance. The policymakers should focus on the fact that larger the size of the outstanding bond market, the larger is the turnover and the liquidity. Since the outstanding size of MTBs and PIBs is just $ 23 billion in Pakistan which is quite small. In order to create the size of the market, the government can opt for issuing the bonds for some specific maturity, mainly the long term maturity. The major chunk of the outstanding domestic debt is in the form of MTBs which are short term 6 or 12 months securities. The preference should be given to PIBs with 10 years maturity. This increased focus by government on PIBs would enhance its market size and there would be more turnover and trading in this long term government security that would give it a market based price and interest rate which would further become a justified and credible benchmark for the corporate bonds. 6.3 Stopping Institutional Investors from NSS The government of Pakistan barred the institutional investors to invest in NSS in 2001 but it has allowed the institutions to invest in NSS. This would damage the market for TFCs since the institutions would invest largely in NSS. The government should also lower the interest rates on NSS as they serve as the benchmark for the long term corporate funds and since the current rates are high on them so they make the rates on corporate bonds higher. Since the NSS certificates are usually not held to maturity so actual cost of debt is even lower so this further distorts the rates on corporate bonds. 6.4 TFCs as the part of SRL The SBP should accept the TFCs of blue chip companies as the part of SLR, statutory liquidity requirement. This would not be a big deviation from the current policies as SBP accepts the NIT units as the part of the SLR which is similar in nature to a TFC and NIT certificates are not rated by any rating agency but a company that issues TFCs is a rated company so SBP should reconsider its policy towards TFCs. This would increase the marketability of TFCs and Banks and other Non Banking Financial Institution would be more interested in buying TFCs for Repos purpose. 6.5 Diversifying Investor Base Currently the majority of bondholders are financial institutions i.e. banks. Retail investors and foreign investors have much smaller participation in the bond market. This small investor base gives rise to a one-way market. A sort of cartel has developed and only a few buyers are able to dictate the terms. The government could increase the customer bade by targeting the retail customers. For this purpose, the government can use the channel it uses to sell prize bonds to local investors. Since the government has infrastructure available for selling the prize bonds so there would be less costs related to this new approach. This more diverse set of market players will be beneficial in eliminating the uniform direction and will provide greater stability to the market. 6.6 Investor Awareness The government should announce the calendar for the auctions of the bonds and this should be communicated to the potential investors. The aim of announcing should be that people should know ahead of time and it should be seen as continuity, predictability, and transparency in issuing bonds. The prices and rates should be given immediately in the local newspaper as well as on the website of SECP SBP. 6.7 Availability of Professionals as mentioned above, the mechanism of bond market is highly complex and integrated so pricing and other related activities is very challenging and requires exceptional professional skills which are scarce in Pakistan, even in many institutions. Most of the investors, both retail and institutional, fail to gauge the sentiment of the market and opt for the buy hold strategy. State Bank and SECP should conduct regular investor awareness seminars of international standards. SECP SBP should offer the training programs to professionals to make them equipped with the skills needed to work in bond market. The SBP, SECP, Leading Banks, Brokerage Houses and other financial Institutions should work closely with the top business schools of the country (NIMS, IBA, and LUMS) to equip the students of finance accounting with the skills which are needed by a professional to work in a bond market. 6.8 Risk Management/ Hedging Instruments Hedging instruments are essential to mitigate the risk associated with the bonds and enhance the investor confidence and thus create an efficient and liquid bond market. Government should encourage the institutions to come up with interest rate futures and bond futures and these futures should be allowed to be traded on the stock exchanges in order to provide them liquidity. 6.9 Administrative Reforms The government should ease the issuance procedure of TFCs at SECP and remove the administrative hurdles. So, the companies would be more motivated to issue TFCs. The government should revise the stamp duty on TFCs. SECP should be proactive in its approach. With the passage of development, there would be new kinds of debt securities in the Pakistani market; the SECP should be ready to formulate policies for such securities. 6.10 Stopping the Municipal Bonds The government should only issue bonds at the federal level and no provincial and municipal government’s should be allowed to issue bonds as they don’t have an income of their own and are dependent on the federal and the provincial government for the allocation of the resources. Generally the municipal administrations are in deficit coupled with corruption and mismanagement of resources has lead to the malfunctioning of the municipal government. The issuance of the municipal bonds would only lead to the default and putting the federal bonds credibility at stake. Conclusion Developing a well-functioning, deep and liquid bond market is not an easy task. The scenario in Pakistan is much more conducive today for the development of an efficient strong bond market than a decade ago but still much is left to be done. Relevant institutions, both from government public sector, will have to be very well focused and work collectively for the bond market development in Pakistan. It may take a long time in turning today’s Pakistani bond market into an efficient one that comes at par with those of developed countries but if Pakistan makes the structural adjustments today, the affects would start to become visible in the recent future in the form of benefits sought. If we recall the words of Mr. Allan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Pakistan still does not have that â€Å"spare tire† of that economy that can hedge against any possible financial economic crisis in the future. Today we have to make a well directed and calculated e ffort to provide the country with this â€Å"spare tire† and a strong shield against any possible catastrophe. [1] 2nd SBP Conference, Call for Papers, Fixed Income Market Development in Emerging Market Economics. [2] Barbie Martin, 2001, â€Å"Government Debt as Insurance against Macroeconomic Risk†, Paper Abstract [3] Allon Greenspan, Former Federal Reserve Chairman, Speaking to a delegation of Financial Professionals Economists in Sundaresan University, Columbia, 2005 [4] Arif, M., 2006, â€Å"Developing Bond Market in Pakistan†, Research Paper Presented at SBP conference held at Karachi [5] Associated Press of Pakistan, Budget Statistics [6] Daily Times, Sunday, 20th May 2007 [7] FSCD Circular No. 1 of 2007, SBP [8] Luengnaruemitcha and Ong, 2005, â€Å"An Anatomy of Corporate Bond Markets: Growing Pains and Knowledge Gains†, Research Paper [9] Dr Ashfaq Hasan, Economic Business Review of Daily ‘DAWN’ on March 15, 2004 [10] McCauley Remolona, Their Statement about the minimum size of the Bond Market. [11] Pongpen Ruengvirayudh, â€Å"Fixed Income Market Development in Emerging Market Economies: Thailand† [12] Farhan Hameed, â€Å"Fostering Corporate Bond Market in Pakistan†, 2006, Research Paper presented at SBP conference [13] Ms. Uzma Khalil, â€Å"The Development of Debt Securities Market- Country Experience of Pakistan†, 2004, Research paper written for World Bank Seminar on Strengthening Bond Market in Pakistan. [14] Shabbir H. Kazmi, â€Å"A Growing Market for TFCs†, 2000. Research Papers on Fixed Income Securities Market in PakistanAnalysis of Ebay Expanding into AsiaPETSTEL analysis of IndiaTwilight of the UAWMarketing of Lifeboy Soap A Unilever ProductDefinition of Export QuotasInfluences of Socio-Economic Status of Married MalesIncorporating Risk and Uncertainty Factor in CapitalBionic Assembly System: A New Concept of SelfOpen Architechture a white paperHip-Hop is Art

Definition of Clipper Ship

Definition of Clipper Ship A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the early to mid-1800s.   According to a comprehensive book published in 1911, The Clipper Ship Era by Arthur H. Clark, the term clipper was originally derived from slang in the early 19th century. To clip it or to go at a fast clip meant to travel fast. So it is reasonable to assume the word was simply attached to ships which had been built for speed, and as Clark put it,  seemed to clip over the waves rather than plough through them. Historians differ on when the first true clipper ships were built, but there is general agreement that they became well established in the 1840s. The typical clipper had three masts, was square-rigged, and had a hull designed to slice through the water. The most famous designer of clipper ships was Donald McKay, who designed the Flying Cloud, a clipper that set an astounding speed record of sailing from New York to San Francisco in less than 90 days. McKays shipyard in Boston produced notable clippers, but a number of the sleek and speedy boats were built alongside the East River, in shipyards in New York City. A New York shipbuilder, William H. Webb, was also known for producing clipper ships before they fell out of fashion. The Reign of the Clipper Ships Clipper ships became economically useful because they could deliver very valuable material faster than more ordinary packet ships. During the California Gold Rush, for instance, clippers were seen to be very useful as supplies, ranging from lumber to prospecting equipment, could be rushed to San Francisco. And, people who booked passage on clippers could expect to get to their destination faster than those who sailed on ordinary ships. During the Gold Rush, when fortune hunters wanted to race to the California gold fields, the clippers became extremely popular. Clippers became especially important for international the tea trade, as tea from China could be transported to England or America in record time. Clippers were also used to transport easterners to California during the Gold Rush, and to transport Australian wool to England. Clipper ships had some serious disadvantages. Because of their sleek designs, they could not carry as much cargo as a wider ship could. And sailing a clipper took extraordinary skill. They were the most complicated sailing ships of their time, and their captains needed to possess excellent seamanship to handle them, especially in high winds. Clipper ships were eventually made obsolete by steam ships, and also by the opening of the Suez Canal, which dramatically cut sailing time from Europe to Asia and made speedy sailing ships less necessary. Notable Clipper Ships Following are examples of illustrious clipper ships: The Flying Cloud: Designed by Donald McKay, the Flying Cloud became famous for setting a spectacular speed record, sailing from  New York City  to San Francisco in 89 days and 21 hours in the summer of 1851. To make the same run in less than 100 days was considered remarkable, and only 18 sailing ships ever accomplished that.The New York to San Francisco record was only bettered twice, once again by the Flying Cloud in 1854, and in 1860 by the clipper ship Andrew Jackson.The Great Republic: Designed and built by Donald McKay in 1853, it was intended to be the largest and fastest clipper. The launch of the ship in October 1853 was accompanied with great fanfare when the city of Boston declared a holiday and thousands watched the festivities. Two months later, on December 26, 1853, the ship was docked on the East River in lower Manhattan, being prepared for its first voyage. A fire broke out in the neighborhood and winter winds tossed burning embers in the air. The rigging of the G reat Republic caught fire and flames spread down to the ship. After being scuttled, the ship was raised and rebuilt. But some of the grandeur was lost.   Red Jacket: A  clipper built in Maine, it  set a speed record between New York City and Liverpool, England, of 13 days and one hour. The ship spent its glory years sailing between England and Australia, and eventually was used, as were many other clippers, transporting lumber from Canada.The Cutty Sark: A late era clipper, it was  built in Scotland in 1869. It is unusual as it still exists today as a museum ship, and is visited by tourists. The tea trade between England and China was very competitive, and Cutty Sark was built when clippers had been essentially perfected for speed. It served in the tea trade for about seven years, and later in the trade in wool between Australia and England. The ship was used as a training vessel well into the 20th century, and in the 1950s was placed in a dry dock to serve as a museum.

Too Much Homework Pros Cons of Having Many Assignments to Do

Too Much Homework Pros Cons of Having Many Assignments to Do In 2014, Stanford University showed the pitfalls of too much homework. Students name several reasons why they feel overloaded: regular stressful situations, lack of time, and worsening relationships with their family members. The question is how much homework is too much? PLEASE HELP WITH MY HOMEWORK Education Scholar Denis Pope says the following: â€Å"Students in high-achieving social groups who spend too much time on homework face regular stressful situations, problems with physical/mental, life imbalance, and issues with communication.† How does too much homework affect students? Thanks to the research conducted by Stanford University, it was found that spending more than 2 hours on learning after school has a negative impact on student’s health. Do you wish to work less on your assignments? Are you here to increase your current grades? Contact professional online homework writing services to gain extra time to spend at home with your family friends! How Much Homework Is Too Much? The famous song has these lines: â€Å"Too much is never enough!† It is true when it comes to learning, traveling, reading, observing the world around, and developing. An overloaded learning or work schedule is not a sober phenomenon. Spending less time on activities aimed to relax our body and give our mind a good rest is not a healthy option, and not many teachers understand the dogma. Think about how much time you are spending on your homework assignments after you return home. Is it half an hour, an hour, or a couple of hours? According to the research conducted by a Stanford researcher/educational scholar Denis Pope, it is not okay if the amount of your homework exceeds two hours in a time equivalent. Extra requirements like formatting (e.g., APA writing style) are part of the final grade. It is a mistake not to count a lengthy requirement as a separate task. Parents worry their children are not spending a sufficient amount of time completing their home duties. Together with numerous assignments, each day of an average American schoolboy/schoolgirl is followed by different activities: Sports clubs Fan clubs Leisure with friends Partying Two categories of parents exist regarding their opinions on the school homework assignments: parents who support the idea of many assignments and those who believe the amount of homework should be limited. The second type of parents supports the idea of ordering custom papers online: if you say, â€Å"I have too much homework,† get affordable help on the web! We try to answer how much homework is too much in high school after hearing the comments from parents, students, and teachers. Students’ Parents Share What They Think about Modern Homework Assignments One caring parent shared their family story about a school-aged daughter: â€Å"My daughter, Paula, has joined her third grade. She complained of the tremendous amount of homework assignments: in summer, her schoolteachers forced the students to waste six days each week on accomplishing different homework tasks. Her least favorite job is writing. It appeared her school Language Literature teachers do not provide students with the sufficient amount of knowledge and writing skills (e.g., different writing styles). I decided to debate against the amount of useless homework assignments in the United States together with our family of friends whose son’s school schedule was more overloaded than his part-time job schedule (he is in the final grade, working as a waiter). Our family wants more time with our kids! There are many activities to do: fishing, swimming, traveling, playing table games, shopping, practicing music, and other exciting things to do. Why should our daughter dedicate all her free time to school homework?† You see? One of the California high school teachers suggested that students should be spending more time with their families. She is ready to cancel homework assignments for the entire learning period, but every family must meet a single condition: involve specific activities to correlate with student success. It is not easy to study in a home atmosphere. If the family knows how to combine fun learning night activities, the result will be great! Children memorize better by visualizing things, so it is important to choose associative learning methods: e-Learning (choose your career wisely) Table games Educational movies Special student mobile applications When children read with their family members, write descriptions to their favorite cartoons, play outside, and go to bed early, there is no need to waste time on doing homework assignments. ORDER HOMEWORK NOW Know How Much Homework Is OK We found that ordinary family activities could be more effective when accompanied by the modern learning tools. The worst thing some schools have done is limiting summer holidays. Several high school teachers from Phoenix think children forget half of the studied material during the summer break. In addition to shortening the vacation, such schools increase the workload by assigning more homework. Let’s come back to the research conducted by Denis Pope who is a co-author of the â€Å"Journal of Experimental Education,† where the study on school homework was published. The teachers and journalists analyzed three criteria to find the pros cons of spending time on school homework assignments: Perceptions about homework assignments Student well-being Behavioral/student engagement Learn how to survive your first college year in this article! The researchers worked day night to collect information on ten high schools in California communities with the best academic performance; they selected a sample of 4,317 students to analyze. To support the numbers, Pope initiated an open-ended set of answers. Both students and their family members took part in the survey aimed to discover the value of homework assignments. The homework-related survey showed the following: An average household income exceeded $90,00 in the communities these children came from, and 93% of the kids went on to college, either 2-tear or 4-year. Students spending time in these high schools average approximately 3.1 hours of homework every night at home. This amount of homework assignments is not healthy, and every second family agrees with it. See, the time has come when it is not about earning the highest grades; the time has come for the parents and other family members to take care of their children’s health through debating the unfair amount of school homework. What is the Most Effective Solution to the Great Amount of Homework Assignments? Benjamin Franklin used to say, â€Å"An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.† Everybody knows it is true, but it does not mean spending the entire human life on learning is healthy. We recommend spending no more than two hours of your nighttime on the homework assignments. Kids should see the world around! There are many activities waiting for you; choose homework assignments you can handle, and which you believe would provide a necessary experience for your future career. What should students do with the rest of their homework? Forget about the homework nightmares – see how professional academic writers editors can solve your tasks after ordering a high-quality custom essay online!

Tourism of Valais,Switzerland Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Tourism of Valais,Switzerland - Research Paper Example Every tourist area undergoes a life cycle that mainly consists of the exploration, involvement, development, consolidation, stagnation, and rejuvenation or decline stages. The involvement stage saw the establishment of a few hotels and the significant growth in the number of tourist arrivals in the destination. The domestic and German markets were the most popular at this time. The development stage saw the involvement of government and private developers in the establishment of infrastructures such as roads, airports and railway networks and expensive facilities for the expansion of the tourism sector. The consolidation stage was characterized by the improvement of infrastructure and tourist facilities so as to boost the tourism economy of the area. Over the last six years, the tourism sector has been on the decline stage with tourist arrivals reducing almost every year and the balance of payment only slightly improving.Valais has gone through most of the stages of the TALC model. A t the exploration stage, locals especially enjoyed the natural environment the number of tourist arrivals being quite low. Considering domestic tourist arrivals as shown in table one, it is evident that for the last six years beginning 2005 and ending in 2010, the popularity of Valais has been on the steady decline. This state of events is mainly as a result of the destination having reached a point of unsustainable development. The destination generally seems to be congested with little room for development.

Bowen Family Systems Therapy Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Bowen Family Systems Therapy - Research Paper Example Unlike normal family development, in which families learn to differentiate parts of them when interacting on an emotional level and set healthy boundaries, enmeshed families become overly involved with each other, increasing the chances of anxiety and conflict. Lack of differentiation occurs due to the inability to separate their emotions from their reactions. What they feel and how they react to those feelings are governed by the interactions between themselves and others. Bowen attributed this differentiation of self to family of origin. His philosophy was emotional attachment either created a positive or negative reaction, depending on how the family interacted with each other. An anxiety-provoking situation could cause withdrawal and distancing or, family members could deal with the conflict reasonably. The more stable families’ interactions were towards each other, the less likely individuals would carry these unresolved conflicts into another relationship. In essence, families’ interdependence relies heavily on the daily changes that occur. In families that experience a high level of conflict, there is often one family member that becomes vulnerable to the effects of the conflict. This results in anxiety, depression, alcoholism, drug abuse and other clinical problems. These problems manifested themselves in other relationships, often creating the same tension and conflict. Murray Bowen developed eight interlocking concepts involving systems theory and that emotions were in part, the key that affects families as a unit. Not only did he base his studies on the family, but applied the systems theory perspective to both work and social systems The key to the Bowen therapy basically lies within the emotions and the activities governed by these emotions that may have taken many years to develop. Bowen has emphasized the significance of having a deep insight into the contribution made by different generations in the

Managing financials in the Canadian Public sector Case Study

Managing financials in the Canadian Public sector - Case Study Example In other approach, contracting these services would create room for specialization; the companies will use the best janitors/ janitresses in the job to enhance quality and efficiency thus cutting down on extra costs for the same job, and employees will have ample time to serve the members of the public assuming that these companies will be doing their tasks efficiently and on timely manner (Frey, 2005). Further, outsourcing these services to other companies has a financial merit in the long run; apart from one time severance payment the ministry will cut off the recurrent expenditure in the subsequent years, these companies will dedicate their skills and expertise to offer quality services with hope of license renewal after five years, with which the surplus can be channeled in other sectors/ ministries. Externalities such as injuries to employees while doing the janitorial services in a rush to get started for the day’s work will be ruled out once the contracting process is c omplete. Retaining in-house services on the other hand might be profitable in the short run as the employees are engaged in other creative activities but it is costly to the financiers or the exchequer in the long run. Contracting route on the other hand is faced by legal and other challenges which can socially and /or economically tumble the wellbeing of the country and the public confidence towards the ministry. For instance, depending with the government’s provision for public contracts, a 35% requirement (Graham & Q.U, 2005) would mean that the favorite bidder would be Adanac Cleaners who despite their costly service of $440000 a year have a greater chance of approval from the government. The major problem for the management will be the decision making process on which company to award the contract factoring in issues of cost, performance and the public policies by the government. Question 2: The major external control factors to be considered in

Movie Reflection Paper - Contact Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reflection Paper - Contact - Movie Review Example The paper "Movie Reflection Paper - Contact" provides a review of the film "Contact". The movie is about a young scientist who is obsessed with finding some kind of extra terrestrial being. She, Judie Foster, eventually become aware of signals that seems to be coming from the some non human living entities residing far in space on a planet called Vega. This discovery shocks the world and everyone is panicked to a certain extent. The message sent by the space being is decoded with the help of a rich billionaire, but eccentric, inventor. The message is about building a machine that can take a single person to the planet. After a long process one person is selected to take seat in the machine but after a blast the main character gets an opportunity to take the most important journey ever taken by a human being. The journey is quite eventful for the scientist but NASA could not verify anything she says to have experienced. Finally the whole world realizes that this was a hoax by the ecce ntric inventor who helped decipher the message of the space beings. But top government officials of USA found, in the end, that there was little proof for the experience of the scientist who travelled in the machine. In Contact we find many themes that are explained in our text book. When the world becomes aware of the existence of an extra terrestrial entity, a mass religious hysteria breaks out and many people come out with their own interpretation. Scientists attempt to explain the phenomenon by objective facts. while others think that this journey should not be taken as it will be a step against God. The reason behind the suicide bomb attack in the movie was also to stop the ‘ungodly’ actions of human beings. Other educated theologians believed that discovery of an intelligent species would straighten the idea of God. The Second Chapter of our text books talks about the non religious explanations of religion or religious beliefs. In the film too we can identify some of the explanations that are given in the text book. There seems to be an intellectual motivation for the theologian to believe in God because he thought that the discovery of a new intelligent being further ensures that a God exists. He was actually trying to explain and indentify the cause of the new being and in turn satisfying his intellectual thirst of inquisition. Many people do the same when encountering with complex phenomena that cannot have a rational justification. In the case of the movie Contact there was no rational explanation of how the intelligent specie came into existence and how did it acquire intelligence superior to human beings. When there seems no explanation then people associate it with supernatural beings, and this is what the theologian in the movie is doing. He is rationalizing the cause of existence of the nonhuman living species. There is another religious side in the movie. A religious extremist group’s leader argues that building of the machi ne is not moral because we are not sure whether the aliens believe in God or not. This may sound nonsensical to educated people but it is an extremely important dimension of the film. In the text book author explain that primitive people believed in rituals that had important social functions like sustaining peaceful family life, and preventing fights (37). Now the same idea is

Construction and Purpose of Chumash Tomol Coursework

Construction and Purpose of Chumash Tomol - Coursework Example The dimensions of the Chumash Indians’ canoe aimed at depth and speed with a minimum of materials. The resulting vessel was fully sea-worthy and it impressed even the early Spanish explorers. It could be used for fishing, transportation, and commerce around the islands. It was so efficient that some of the mission padres ordered construction to continue.The Chumash were a North American maritime culture, originally based on the mainland and Channel Islands on both sides of the Santa Barbara Channel in California. Even though the culture of Chumash living in the area today is not fully defined by maritime activities, the area is particularly rich in marine resources, and the Chumash used at least three kinds of boats to exploit them.At the time, cultural devastation was so rapid that canoe building was a dying art by the mid-nineteenth century. Fortunately, Fernando Librado, a Ventureno Chumash and one of the last members of the Brotherhood-of-the-Canoe, lived to the age of 111 , and even more fortunately, that ubiquitous ethnographer, J.P. Harrington2, discovered him. The two collaborated in constructing a replica of the plank canoe, which was exhibited for the first time during the Panama-California Exposition in San Diego on January 1, 1915.If Harrington had not taken detailed notes at the time, the elaborate art of canoe building would have been lost forever. As it was, it was moribund for fifty years until the vast collection of Harrington material became available. The editors sifted through box loads of Harrington's data in compiling the present volume, only those who have worked with these multilingual, cryptic and digressive notes can fully appreciate such a task.The book begins with a synoptic introduction. Precise instructions on plank canoe building follow, augmented by chapters on the tule balsa and the dugout canoe. There is an additional section on the uses of the canoe, one on myths and stories concerning the canoe, and another on the above mentioned Brotherhood-of-the-Canoe, the editors modestly attribute authorship of these chapters to Fernando or Harrington and Fernando. They conclude with an extensive bibliography and a set of photographs.The data on the construction of the canoe was tested by an actual construction of an actual canoe from driftwood under the sponsorship of the American Revolution Bicentennial Committee of Santa Barbara. The canoe builders were Chumash descendants, and the resulting craft, named the Helek, has been to see many times.

Movie Reflection Paper - Contact Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reflection Paper - Contact - Movie Review Example The paper "Movie Reflection Paper - Contact" provides a review of the film "Contact". The movie is about a young scientist who is obsessed with finding some kind of extra terrestrial being. She, Judie Foster, eventually become aware of signals that seems to be coming from the some non human living entities residing far in space on a planet called Vega. This discovery shocks the world and everyone is panicked to a certain extent. The message sent by the space being is decoded with the help of a rich billionaire, but eccentric, inventor. The message is about building a machine that can take a single person to the planet. After a long process one person is selected to take seat in the machine but after a blast the main character gets an opportunity to take the most important journey ever taken by a human being. The journey is quite eventful for the scientist but NASA could not verify anything she says to have experienced. Finally the whole world realizes that this was a hoax by the ecce ntric inventor who helped decipher the message of the space beings. But top government officials of USA found, in the end, that there was little proof for the experience of the scientist who travelled in the machine. In Contact we find many themes that are explained in our text book. When the world becomes aware of the existence of an extra terrestrial entity, a mass religious hysteria breaks out and many people come out with their own interpretation. Scientists attempt to explain the phenomenon by objective facts. while others think that this journey should not be taken as it will be a step against God. The reason behind the suicide bomb attack in the movie was also to stop the ‘ungodly’ actions of human beings. Other educated theologians believed that discovery of an intelligent species would straighten the idea of God. The Second Chapter of our text books talks about the non religious explanations of religion or religious beliefs. In the film too we can identify some of the explanations that are given in the text book. There seems to be an intellectual motivation for the theologian to believe in God because he thought that the discovery of a new intelligent being further ensures that a God exists. He was actually trying to explain and indentify the cause of the new being and in turn satisfying his intellectual thirst of inquisition. Many people do the same when encountering with complex phenomena that cannot have a rational justification. In the case of the movie Contact there was no rational explanation of how the intelligent specie came into existence and how did it acquire intelligence superior to human beings. When there seems no explanation then people associate it with supernatural beings, and this is what the theologian in the movie is doing. He is rationalizing the cause of existence of the nonhuman living species. There is another religious side in the movie. A religious extremist group’s leader argues that building of the machi ne is not moral because we are not sure whether the aliens believe in God or not. This may sound nonsensical to educated people but it is an extremely important dimension of the film. In the text book author explain that primitive people believed in rituals that had important social functions like sustaining peaceful family life, and preventing fights (37). Now the same idea is

Implication of Global Warming on Organizational Leadership Essay - 1

Implication of Global Warming on Organizational Leadership - Essay Example Although the twentieth – century is still young, recently a variety events and concerns have surfaced that pose as major challenge for contemporary business world. In recent years, climate change has developed from being a fringe concern within the corporate world, addressed primarily through a company’s corporate and social responsibility, to an increasingly central topic for strategic deliberation and decision – making by executives and investors around the globe. Climate changes issues are among the most urgent global challenges in international business arena. The international environment issue attracted much more attention from politics, civil society, the media and business because of its actual and potential impact. With wide spread industrialization, the environmental impact of fossil fuels has taken centre stage in an international debate over the phenomenon known as global warming. The global warming affects several regions of the world adversely and hence industries around the world are at a major threat from environment. The responsibilities of MNCs with regard to global warming are huge and a strategic move from leaders of international business would make much difference. The Concept of Global Warming The phrase global warming has become familiar to many people as one of the most important environmental issue of our day. Human activities of all kinds whether in industry, in the field , or concerned with transport or the home are resulting in emission of increasing quantities of gas, in particular carbon – did- oxide, into the atmosphere. Every year these emissions currently add to the carbon already present in the atmosphere carbon dioxide a further seven thousand million tones, much of which is likely to remain there for a hundred years or more.

Night Essay Example for Free

Night Essay Compare the hanging of the â€Å"youth from Warsaw† and the hanging of the â€Å"sad eyed angel† and explain, using evidence from there and elsewhere in Night, why Elie Reacted differently to the two hangings. Elie Wiesel’s Night is a memoir of his horrifying childhood experiences of suffering as a Jew in the concentration camps. Eliezer was found to suffer in many camps, and during this time he witnessed the daily sufferings and deaths of many humans. His faith faltered as a result, and after so much pain he grew apathetic to the withering away of mortal life. By the end of the book nothing really surprises Elizer anymore because he knew anything could happen at any moment. However, Eliezer’s reaction towards hanging of the â€Å"youth from Warsaw† was different from the hanging of the â€Å"sad eyed angel. † Eliezer’s faith faltered daily when he witnesses the death of many innocent lives including the hanging of the youth from Warsaw, but he never loses his hope or questions the existence of God until he witnesses the hanging of the â€Å"sad eyed angel. † Eliezer witnesses many death during his time in concentration camps, and he never wept once, even when he witnesses the hanging of the youth from Warsaw. This young boy is described as tall and strong. Supposedly, he had stolen something during the alert in the concentration camp. Looking back at his execution, Eliezer expresses his feeling about the hanging saying that it â€Å"upset him deeply† (Wiesel 62) in a way quite distinct from his knowledge of the thousands who died daily in the camps. Elizer was disturb by the hanging because he did not lost all of his faith and hope, he still have humanity so that’s why he feels upset when he witness people die, deep in his heart faith and hope were just broken, now after witness the hanging of the youth from Warsaw he found the broken pieces of hope that is why that evening after the execution he finds â€Å"the soup tasted better than ever† (Wiesel 63). Another reason that Eliezer finds the soup taste better is because he was actually grateful that it was not him or his father toward the execution. Elizer realize that death is everywhere in concentration camp, and it could be either him or his father next time standing on the gallows. He is thankful that he still alive at that moment and can is still eating his ration of soup, although he knows that he could be in line next to get hang in the gallows. Eliezer also felt the youth from Warsaw brought the death on themselves. He realizes that there are rules in the concentration camp that you can never disobey, if you break the rules in the camp, you will be killed. Where is merciful God, where is He? †(Wiesel 64) It was another day when Eliezer return from work and roll call begins. There were three gallows for three prisoners that are going to be hang on the gallows for conspiring to blow up the electric power station, but among the three prisoners there is a little pipel in the middle, the sad eyed angel. At every hanging, no one in the audience will ever shed a tear or weep, but the hanging of the sad eyed angel affected not only Eliezer but many others. During the execution all eyes were on the child, the two men died immediately, but the child was too light â€Å"and so he remained for more than half an hour, lingering between life and death. † (Wiesel 65) The hanging pained Eliezer so much and it makes him wonder how God can be present in a world with such cruelty, he question the present of God and when he heard a voice saying â€Å"For God’s sake, where is God? † (Wiesel 65) he answers â€Å"Where He is? This is where –hanging here from this gallows†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (Wiesel 65). Following the death of the sad eyed angel Eliezer thinks that was the death of God as well. â€Å"That night, the soup tasted of corpses† (Wiesel 65), after witness the hanging of the sad eyed angel Wiesel finds the soup tasted like corpses and also like death, the death of God. The sad eyed angel represent a symbol of silent which God is presents as in the novel Night. God was a symbol of silence in the novel because when Eliezer and the other Jewish people cries out for God’s aid and mercy, their please were left unanswered. The God in Night did not save them from cruelty and death, God has remained silence throughout the novel, so when the angel was hanged Eliezer’s relates the death of angel to the death of God, as he meant that God was hanging upon the gallows and had abandoned them. Eliezer realizes that the Nazis were coming closely to destroy his faith in God and so he was unable to enjoy anything because he thinks that life, hope, and joy could not be reach because all goodness had been destroyed. â€Å"I’ve got more faith in Hitler than in anyone else. He’s the only one who’s keeping his promises, all his promises to the Jewish people† Wiesel 81) Hitler the ultimate evil was conquering the good Jewish people every day through death and destruction. To Eliezer there was no hope for life and no chance for survival. He thinks God had abandoned them because there seems to be no end to evil. After witness the hanging of the sad eyed angel, Eliezer was constantly being reminded of death, he feels like death was everywhere in the camp, and when he were forced to watch the hanging of the sad eyed angel, which appeared to be innocent and full of hope, he feels that he was forced to watch innocence and hope die in front of him. As Eliezer watched the young pipel struggle between life and death he felt that the boy was innocent and he did not deserve to suffer. Eliezer and the young pipel were around the same age, so when he witnesses the hanging of the young pipel he felt as he shared the pipel’s pain and suffering and that he was suffering from a slow painful spiritual death as well. The hanging of the young pipel pained Eliezer so much because he knew he could not rescue him. In Elie Wiesel’s Night the author present a significance of the hanging and the brutal elements of the surroundings in the concentration camp. He express that evening â€Å"the soup tasted better than ever† (Wiesel 63) after he witness the hanging of the youth from Warsaw, and yet after he witness the hanging of the sad eyed angel â€Å"the soup tasted of corpse. † It was trying to present how Eliezer’s slowly loses his hope and faith in God. Eliezer’s faith was being challenged under such brutal condition, and many do not get their beliefs put to the test in such extreme condition as Eliezer did, and this leads Eliezer to question his faith. The meaning of hanging in this novel represent the bad conquers good, death and evil become apparent. The goodness that had been present prior to concentration camp had been destroyed through death, evil and abandonment. Every killing that Eliezer witness deteriorated his faith and finally after witness the sad eyed angel, it was the end of hope for Eliezer, he finally understood the murderous nature of concentration camp, and he could not walk away unaffected by the hanging. At last, Eliezer walked away as a completely different person than how he entered.

Malaysias Relationship with the US

Malaysias Relationship with the US Case Study Tense ambivalence under Mahathir During Mahathir’s premiership (1981-2003), Malaysia enjoyed a cooperative relationship with the US was on economic and security front. Politically, however, there has been much tension between the two states. On the economic front, the US has been one of Malaysia’s most important trading partners. In Mahathir’s final year as prime minister, the volume of two-way trade amounted to US$34,352.5 million[1], with the balance of trade in Malaysia’s favour. Additionally, Malaysia has traditionally relied on US foreign investments, particularly during the former state’s rapid economic mobilisation from the 1970s to the end of the 1990s. Malaysia, a former colonial state which inherited a dwindling, natural resource-dependent economy from the British, achieved unprecedented rate of growth under Mahathir’s developmental plans. Malaysia’s economic development achieved its zenith in the 1990s, hailed by the World Bank as an `economic miracle’ in the developing world. During this course of development, the US played a pivotal role via its foreign investments. For instance, US investments in Malaysia tripled between 1990 and 2000, from US$1.5 billion to US$6 billion, of which 57% was in manufacturing, 21% in petroleum and natural resources, and 22% in services and related industries.[2] In terms of security, Malaysia under Mahathir has seen much cooperation with the US in matters of counter-terrorism. Malaysia had become a vital partner in combating terrorism due to Malaysia’s leadership role in the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) at a time when the region was dubbed the `second front’ in the war against terrorism due to links between its regional militant groups and Al-Qaeda.[3] Moreover, Malaysia’s status as a Muslim nation was crucial as the US was looking for a Muslim ally in Southeast Asia. As Malaysia practices moderate Islam, The US hoped that it could be a good example for other Muslim nations to follow. As such, both countries thought that this security partnership could improve relations between the United States and other Islamic nations, and could greatly help with America’s global fight against terrorism. Politically, however, Mahathir’s premiership was marked with bilateral tensions between Malaysia and the US. In 1990, Mahathir proposed the creation of an East Asia Economic Grouping (EAEG), a regional trading bloc similar to the European Union (EU) and North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). In order for Mahathir’s proposal to seem less of a trade bloc and more of a forum for discussion, it was officially renamed by Asean as the East Asia Economic Caucus (EAEC) in 1991, at the Asean Economic Ministers’ Meeting, before formally endorsing the EAEC in 1992 at its Fourth Asean Summit in Singapore. [4] However, tensions arose regarding the EAEC since membership was accorded only to East Asian countries, therefore excluding the United States and its political presence in the region. One of the biggest tensions between the two states arose during the 1997/98 Asian financial crisis. Specifically, there were disagreements over the causes of the crisis. US policymakers blamed it on the Asian economies’ structural deficiencies, underdeveloped financial systems, strong links between government and business, opaque business dealings, corruption, and cronyism. Mahathir, on the other hand, blamed it on international factors, namely international currency speculators and hedge funds.[5] There were also different views on how to respond to the crisis: Mahathir believed in currency and capital controls to jumpstart the Malaysian economy, whilst the US believed in reform proposals by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank, which proposed reforms through fiscal restraints and the cutback of subsidies. Malaysia nevertheless instituted its currency and capital controls and while it did work for Malaysia, Mahathir was criticised by the US. [6] Bilateral relations were further tested in September 1998 when Mahathir dismissed Anwar Ibrahim, the deputy prime minister and finance minister, on charges of corruption and sexual misconduct. This was because, during the financial crisis and before the implementation of Mahathir’s currency controls, Anwar (in his capacity as the finance minister at the time) went against Mahathir by proposing contractionary financial policies which closely resembled the proposals set by the IMF. In November 1998, these tensions were exacerbated following comments by then US Vice-President Al Gore at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Kuala Lumpur, praising `the brave people of Malaysia’ for seeking reform.[7] Relations would then worsen when Anwar was sentenced to six years in prison for corruption in April 1999. US officials considered Anwar to be a political prisoner in this case as they considered the charges against Anwar to be trumped up. Unsurprisingly, when Anwar Ibrahim was sentenced in August 2000 to an additional nine years in jail for sodomy, a US State Department official stated that the US was `outraged by Anwar’s conviction’ and that the `co-operative relationship with Malaysia has been impeded by Malaysia’s poor record on human rights.’[8] As a result, an annual human rights report released by the State Department in February 2001, contained criticism of Malaysia’s handling of the Anwar case, citing political motivations and questioning the independence of the judiciary. Criticism was also directed to Malaysia’s use of its Internal Security Act (ISA), dubbed by the US as `draconian,’ since it allowed for detention without trial. For instance, the Malaysian government had used the ISA in July 2000 after it had prevented an arms heist by a militant group, Al-Ma’unah, which had links to Al-Qaeda terrorists. Additionally, the 9/11 attacks on New York’s World Trade Center and the US’s subsequent ‘War on Terror’ would further strain Malaysia-US relations. In March 2003, Mahathir vehemently condemned the US and the UK’s decision to go to war against Iraq. Bilateral tensions also arose over Mahathir’s anti-Jewish remarks at the summit of the Organization of Islamic Conference in Kuala Lumpur in October of the same year. Mahathir had said, ‘The Europeans killed six million Jews out of twelve million, but today the Jews rule the world by proxy. They get others to fight and die for them.’ The US State Department deemed these comments offensive and inflammatory, stating, ‘We view them with the contempt and derision they deserve.’[9] Moderation Under Abdullah Under the premiership of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (2004-2009), Malaysia-US relations saw a continuation of cooperation on economic and security fronts. Within the economic sphere, bilateral ties remained crucial. In 2004, Malaysia was America’s tenth largest trading partner, with more than US$39 billion a year in bilateral trade[10], whereas the US was Malaysia’s biggest single investor and the largest market for Malaysian exports.[11] That same year, Malaysia’s GDP grew by 6.8% its highest rate in four years.[12] Additionally, to deal with a budget deficit that spanned six years since 1998, Abdullah exercised fiscal restraint which included measures such as the postponement of costly projects. However, during Abdullah’s Prime Ministership, the ringgit peg of RM$3.8 to the US dollar was removed in July 2005 – seen as a move to make Malaysia more independent and self-reliant vis-à  -vis the US. This measure of currency control had been in place for nearly seven years, as part of Mahathir’s currency controls to stem capital flight and speculative attacks during the 1997/98 Asian Financial Crisis. The peg was removed after Malaysia became more concerned about the state of the US economy at the time and the instability of the US dollar. Moreover, it was also because the government felt assured enough to make the change due to its own economic growth. Malaysia’s cooperation in the realms of security also continued under Abdullah. A marked difference under Abdullah was Malaysia’s enhanced international position, strengthening Malaysia’s role as a partner to the US. For instance, from October 2003 to March 2008, Malaysia served as Chair of the 57-member Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), the largest federation of Muslim nations.[13] This made Malaysia a key partner in the Muslim world at a time when the US was particularly concerned about the terrorist threat in many Muslim states and valued having a strong Muslim ally in the region. Abdullah held increased stature as a Muslim leader in his role as the OIC Chair leader and was able to express the OIC’s views on the Israel-Palestinian conflict. For instance, he stressed the need for peace brokers to be fair and unbiased to both sides and for Palestinians to present a united front by finding ways to end their internal divisions. In recognition of his enhanced position, Abdullah was featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine’s December 2004 and was hailed as a leader who forged a moderate brand of Islam and who was capable of mending the divide instigated by radical Muslim movements in the region.[14] Thus, Malaysia’s role as a security partner of the US was solidified over this period. Tensions on the political front, on the other hand, continued under Abdullah, albeit there was not as much hostility and confrontation as it was under Mahathir. Malaysian opposition to US policy included condemnation of Israel, a country that Malaysia does not share a diplomatic relationship with. When Israel invaded Lebanon in 2006, Abdullah and his Foreign Minister urged the US to push for an immediate ceasefire while UMNO Youth held an anti-Israel protest. Another change under Abdullah Badawi was that he removed a predominant strain in Malaysia-US relations since 1998 — the Anwar Ibrahim issue. After the ruling National Front coalition won a landslide victory in the 2004 national elections, Abdullah – confident of his position and not wanting to remain in Mahathir’s shadow – was emboldened to go against his predecessor’s wishes about freeing Anwar. Hence, in September 2004, Malaysia’s highest court reversed Anwar’s convictions of sexual misconduct and freed him after nearly six years in jail. However, tensions on this matter resumed in June 2008. This time, there was criticism by the US over allegations that Anwar had sodomised one of his male aides. By then, Anwar was no longer barred from entering politics and he had won re-election in a by-election in August 2008, allowing him to return to Parliament as the opposition leader. The US government maintained their stance on the issue, bel ieving that the sodomy charges were politically motivated – especially as they appeared so soon after Anwar’s gains in the March 2008 general elections. With Anwar’s comeback in Malaysian politics coinciding with the National Front’s substantial losses in the March 2008 general elections, Abdullah faced mounted criticism from within his own party – especially after the party lost its hold over five states and its two-thirds majority in parliament. Abdullah’s predecessor, Mahathir, was particularly critical as he had started finding fault with Abdullah long before the general elections. Hence, calls for Abdullah to step down escalated, from both within the National Front and from opposition parties. At first, Abdullah said that he would do so in 2010 but brought the date forward to early April 2009 after facing surmounting pressure from within his party. To summarise Malaysia-US relations under Mahathir, there has been a continuation, if not an increase, in cooperation on economic and security fronts. Although there were lingering political issues between the two (such as the Anwar Ibrahim issue and conflicts in the Middle East) a marked change in the US-Malaysia relationship was Abdullah’s different brand of leadership. While Mahathir was blunt, confrontational, and often anti-West in his rhetoric, Abdullah was mainly calm and diplomatic – allowing for a more amiable relationship. The US welcomed this change. As a secret US Embassy cable unveiled by Wikileaks, revealed: ‘Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi is a breath of fresh air after the long serving and ituperative Mahathir Mohamad, who retired in late 2003.’ The cable also added that Abdullah was ‘publicly committed to fighting corruption and reining in costly mega-projects, though his government’s follow-through has been disappointing.â€℠¢[15] Pragmatism under Najib Since assuming the Prime Ministership in 2009, Najib Abdul Razak’s policy has been implemented in a broader and more sensible way, with marked improvement in Malaysia-US relations within the spheres of economy, security, and politics. On the economic front, the Najib government has made efforts to increase bilateral trade and investment flows. During a week-long working visit to New York in April 2010 for a Nuclear Security Summit hosted by Obama, Najib had his first ever meeting with the US president on the side-lines of the summit. He also held discussions with key officials of the administration in Washington, and met with American business leaders to promote his newly-launched New Economic Model (NEM).[16] Najib returned to the city on 17 May 2011 to attend the New York Invest Malaysia 2011 held at the New York Stock Exchange, before returning on 20 May 2012 to meet with business leaders of various Fortune 500 companies at the prestigious Harvard Club.[17] This is largely a continuation of the amicable economic relationship between Malaysia and the US as the United States has consistently been an important economic partner for decades and has been Malaysia’s largest foreign direct investor. In 2011, even though America was experiencing slower growth, it remained Malaysia’s top foreign investor. [18] Hence, bilateral trade was robust, with total trade between the two countries totalling to US$33.68 billion in 2009, before increasing to US$39.98 billion in 2010 and US$39.99 billion in 2011.[19] On the security dimension, the Najib administration has pursued a deepening of Malaysia’s military partnership with the United States. For instance, Malaysia upgraded its participation in the Cobra Gold multilateral military exercises[20] from an observer to a participant. Malaysia’s Defence Minister Zahid Hamidi commented in June 2010: â€Å"As a participant of the exercise, Malaysia can obtain valuable experience on defence strategy, technology, training and operating sophisticated equipment.†[21] In February 2011, Malaysia was involved in the Cobra Gold as a participant for the first time in February 2011. However, the starkest changes in Malaysia-US relations have been political. Soon after assuming his post in 2009, Najib articulated his resolve to enhance Malaysia-U.S. relations. In June 2009, approximately two months after taking office, Najib took the opportunity to offer an olive branch when he responded positively to Obama’s speech in Cairo, where the new president discussed ‘new beginnings’ between the US and Muslims all over the world. Recognising the U.S. leader’s reference to Malaysia as among the ‘progressive and developed Muslim nations’, Najib praised the US president’s for reaching out to Muslims and offered to assist his administration in forging better ties with the Muslim world.[22] Additionally, a closing of these political ties has resulted in more regular visits by leaders and key officials of Malayia and the US. In September 2010, Najib and Obama met again at the second ASEAN-U.S. meeting during the United Nations General Assembly in New York. On 2 November of the same year, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Malaysia for three days in an official visit – a significant milestone as it marked the first visit by a U.S. secretary of state to Malaysia since Warren Christopher in 1995. Clinton’s maiden trip was followed up by the visit of U.S. Secretary of Defence Robert Gates on 9th November 2010.[23] The frequency of high-level exchanges and meetings was maintained up by both sides the following year, witnessing a number of visits by senior US officials to Malaysia, including the Commander of the U.S. Pacific Command Admiral Robert Willard in June 2011, and the Deputy Secretary of State William Burns in December 2011. At a roundtable in Kualal Lumpur organised by the Institute for Strategic and International Studies (ISIS), Burns defined America’s relationship with Malaysia as a vital part of U.S. strategy to engage the Asia-Pacific, remarking: â€Å"For decades, this relationship did not realise its potential. We all too often found ourselves on different sides of geopolitical fault lines, and at times, in the past, have struggled to rise above mistrust. And yet today, this relationship has become one of America’s most promising in all of Southeast Asia.†[24] In summary, it is evident that Malaysia’s policy towards America has undergone considerable changes since Najib assumed the Prime Ministership in 2009. Whereas Mahathir often adopted a rhetorically confrontational and politically controversial approach towards the US, Najib’s policy is centred on increased cooperation and more pragmatism. [1] The Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1990-2011 (Washington D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau) [2] Sodhy, P. (2012). [3] Gershman, J. (2002) ‘Is Southeast Asia the Second Front?’ Foreign Affairs, 81:4. [4] Sodhy, P. (1998) ‘The East Asia Economic Caucus (EAEC) Controversy in ASEAN-US Relations,’ Western Pacific Journal, 4. [5] Ping, L.P. Tham S. W. (2007) ‘Malaysia Ten Years After the Asian Financial Crisis’, Asian Survey, 47:6, University of California Press. [6] Jayasankaran, S. (2002) ‘Malaysia Turns Around,’ Far Eastern Economic Review. [7] Sodhy, P. (2012). [8] Ibid [9] Sipress, A. (2003) ‘Malaysians Calls on Muslims to Resist Jewish Influence’, The Washington Post, 17th October, A21. [10] The Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1990-2011 (Washington D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau). [11] Sodhy, P. (2012). [12] UN Data (2014) [13] Sodhy,P.(2012) [14] ibid [15] http://www.malaysia-today.net/us-viewed-pak-lahs-reform-a-failure/ [16] Samad N. (2010), ‘Najib set for talks with Obama,’ New Straits Times, 11th April 2010, p.12. [17] http://www.1malaysia.com.my/en/speeches/new-york-invest-malaysia-2011/ [18] Damodaran, R. (2011) ‘U.S. investment trend in Malaysia to remain strong,’ New Straits Times, 23rd August 2011, p. B4. [19] The Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1990-2011 (Washington D.C.: U.S. Census Bureau). [20] A command post exercise aimed at cooperation in building regional readiness for future missions. [21]David A. (2010) ‘Lifeline for our Nuri copters,’ New Straits Times, 4th June 2010, p.15. [22] Kuik, C.C. (2012) ‘Malaysia’s U.S. Policy under Naib: Ambivalence No More?’ RSIS Working Papers, S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies Singapore. [23] ibid [24]http://iipdigital.usembassy.gov/st/english/texttrans/2011/12/20111215111225su0.7890393.html#axzz25xvpdcp8