World Hunger Through Out the World Essay Example for Free

World Hunger Through Out the World Essay 1. Political Conditions Cause World Hunger War is a political cause for hunger. War slows or stops food production and marketing. Food supplies are often taken and used for soldiers during war, crop cycles are interrupted, seeds and livestock are consumed in desperation, and children suffer lasting health damage as a result of insufficient food. Even if fighting never occurs, heavy military spending takes away from food production, education, and health care. 2. Economic Conditions Cause World Hunger One of the main causes of hunger is poverty. Most of the people who are hungry do not have enough money to purchase the food they need. The poorest and most food-insecure people live in Africa, while the largest number of continually undernourished people live in the Asia-Pacific region. Hunger is also especially severe in South Asia, where growing poverty, debt, economic decline, poor terms of trade, fast population growth, unfavorable weather, war, and government collapse have all contributed to the continent’s food problems. In the United States, the share of the population facing hunger has risen because of poor economic conditions. But, hunger in wealthy nations is not as severe or widespread as in developing countries. 3. Environmental Conditions Cause World Hunger Hunger is also caused by environmental problems. Fresh water, land, forests, and fisheries are being used so much that they are losing their resources. In trying to use the environmental resources, poor and hungry people, lacking economic and political power, have become even more affected by hunger. This is true especially in countries where property ownership is not fair, and poor families are forced to move onto unstable land and to overcrowded cities.

Madonna: Queen Of The Pop

Madonna: Queen Of The Pop When you hear the word Madonna, a lot of thoughts and memories might come to your mind. Some of us would remember her as this young blonde girl who was singing songs like Like a Virgin or Papa dont preach in her debuts, others will rather remember her countless tours around the world, other might think more of the controversies she caused and other might just criticize her for her latest trial to adopt a child of the Malawi. Since we are doing a music project, I will try to be as focused on her music as much as possible but since Shes Madonna (Robbie Williams song), I will to talk about her overall career. According to Biography (2009), Madonna was born Madonna Louise Ciccone in 1958 in Michigan, USA. She grew up in the Catholic faith, lost her mother by cancer when she was still 5 years old and was an incident that highly affected Madonnas teenage days who said I think the biggest reason I was able to express myself and not be intimated was by not having a motherà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ For example, mothers teach you manners. And I absolutely did not learn any of those rules and regulations. Her stepmother treated her like Cinderella since she had to take care of her younger sisters and brothers and that made her revolt by rejecting her faith and putting exposed clothes. Being an excellent student, and a fine dancer, she dropped college and decided to learn dance in New York City. (ibid) She met Dan Gilroy of Breakfast Club and discovered the combination of the stage and the singing. She went solo in 1981 and released her first hit Everybody in 1982 under her original name Madonna which has reached the first place on the dance charts of that year. The rest was like a fairy tale (ibid). The success was immediate and her album Madonna which sold 10 million copies in the world set the artist for an international career according to Linternaute (2009). Musical style Peach (1998:191) notes in her book that Her music shifted from disco and bubble-gum to rock to personal statements and melodic torch singing, then, with the aid of her music videos, to pop modernism . Listening to her songs and her albums, we can notice that her first albums are very different musically speaking from her last album. Madonna evolved with the demand of its epoch along with her style and her clothes. In fact, I listened to her second album Like a virgin and it was talking more about the universal themes like the parents, family, marriage and giving morals and was more pop and rock than her last album Hard candy which was a mixture of Pop, dance, electro pop, RB, hip hop which by the way I didnt personally like. Although on her 2nd albums cover, she was dressed in a wedding robe and her hair was long while her last albums cover shows a Madonna more provocateur than ever touching her lips, putting the cross and wearing a wrestlers belt. Why do people listen to her? I do believe that despite that she now reached the age of 50 years; shes still famous and well known for her music. In fact, she is not talented naturally nor is a Miss Universe. Grant (2005:6) wrote that the activities she do which are music videos, concerts, records, movies, books and charity events have all one goal which is the search for a celebrity position. Grant (ibid ) argues that once she reached this status, she started abusing from it and using it to attract or reject more people around the world especially when it came to using sex as a advertising instrument, pornographic images, nudity, suggestions of sexual deviance and combination of sexual and spiritual themes. Shes an icon, shes famous worldwide. The church condemned her music and especially her album like a prayer. In 1992, she released a book called Sex which showed some pictures of her in different erotic poses (Biography, 2009). I see Madonna as an entrepreneur who knew how to keep up to date with her epoch and this can be seen from her musical style and clothing style and I believe people adore this type of person because if a singer doesnt bring up constantly something new , people will get used to his/her style and soon he/she will be forsaken. Targeted Audience The youth are Madonnas prime target since her last album Hard Candy was for example featuring her and Justin Timberlake on the song 4 minutes to save the world, Timbaland and the Neptunes who are icons for the younger generation. Also she talks about other young talents like Ali G or William Orbit:Ive met these people along the way in my career and I want to take them everywhere I go. I want to incorporate them into my little factory of ideas. I also come into contact with a lot of young talent that I feel entrepreneurial about (from Grant (2005:6)). This is also a confirmation of her steps to keep up to date with its epoch. As for the targeted people when she started, and talking from a personal point of view, I remember my mother telling me that she used to listen to Madonna in her 20s but nowadays she doesnt follow her actuality anymore since it is not her style of songs any longer and in fact, when going higher in age, our tastes and interests change. This means that her target w as always the youth generation (early 20s to 32). Relationships related to Other Activities As mentioned before, Madonna is a singer, writer, dancer, movie actress. When reading about her multiple relationships with famous people of her epoch, I can see that these relationships were a strategy for reaching goals faster than normal. She dated Dan Gilroy of the breakfast club, her first band ever, then with the musician Jellybean Benitez (AbsoluteMadonna, 2009). Her marriage with movie actor Sean Penn took place in the equivalent timeline of her entry to the world of Hollywood. At this point of time, she was already famous and many men were actually looking forward to date her. Nowadays, she has a boy toy named Jesus whom she uses for every task. Influences In an interview with Larry King Live cited on CNN (1999), she says that her influences were Led Zeppelin, Karen Carpenter, the Suppremes and Martha Graham, Rudolph Nureyev for the dance. As for the influences of actors, she admits in an interview with the TIME magazine in 1985 cited in Allaboutmadonna (2009) I also loved Carole Lombard and Judy Holliday and Marilyn Monroe. They were all just incredibly funny, and they were silly and sweet and they were girls and they were feminine and sexy. The provocateur, the icon Madonna is such a big icon that many artists/bands have sung songs about her like the Shes Madonnaby Robbie Williams or even the song Do it with Madonna from The Android (Onpedia, 2009). We cannot compare her to Elvis Presley whos got more than 50 songs referencing him, but we can say she does pretty well. Her domination of the Masculine sex is incontestable. Peach (1998:198) writes in her book talking about the Queen of the Pop that she was [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] frequently wearing mens clothes, grabbing her crotch, and declaring she the boss, thus occupying male positions. She also had her male dancers wear fake breasts, womens clothes, and submit to her power and control. The message was that male and female were social constructs that could be deconstructed and that women could occupy male positions, roles, and behavior and vice versa. In her fourth album Like a prayer, Madonna broke all the traditions of her time being the first singer to reveal what is normally masked by showing off one bellys button as we can see on the albums cover (Virginmedia). She was a pioneer in this type of marketing. Madonna has been voted by the Advocate, a LGBT magazine as the biggest gay icon of all time as seen on Madonnanewsroom (2009). Who doesnt remember her kissing Britney Spears in a trio with Christ ina Aguilera? I still remember it very well when it happened in 2003 and at that time, I was only aged 14 years old and I was shocked by this kiss. I do think that following this video, I started to learn more about the LGBT community especially the lesbians. Records Dailymail (2006) wrote that Madonna made the highest earnings a female singer has ever achieved. The Guardian (2008) notes that Madonna made it into the UK Top 40 every year except three years; 1988, 2004 and 2007. She has sold more than 200 million albums worldwide in 27 years of career according to ArticlesBase (2007). Interesting Facts The following facts have their sources from The Guardian (2008): According to her brother Christopher, the only thing Madonna can cook is Rice Krispie cakes. This means that dishes she is incapable of serving up include La Isla Bolognese, Dear Jelly, Hanky Lamb Shanky, Dont Cry for Me Polenta, and Crazy for Yule Log. Like A Virgin was originally written for a MAN. Madonna once noted: I want to be like Gandhi and Martin Luther King and John Lennon but I want to stay alive. Madonna lost her virginity in the back of a Cadillac, later explaining that she saw it as a career move. Conclusion As words of conclusion, I would like to say that Madonna has never stopped to surprise us with whatever she does, was it controversial, unusual or provocateur, and I do believe that she will remain the Queen of the pop constantly adapting herself to the changes and variations of our epoch. As time goes on, she will keep breaking records and I do believe that her age is not a barrier at all.

Caring for Older People Essay -- Health Care, Diseases, Dementia

Caring for older people highlights many special and difficult issues for nurses and carers, such as separation, illness, loneliness, death and how to provide continued care (Morrissey et al, 1997). This essay discusses the strategies of care delivered for an older person with dementia during my recent clinical placement. Discussions will focus on normal ageing process taking into account the relevant biological, sociological and physiological perspectives and the impact this had on this individual’s life experience. Ropers’ model is used as a frame work in which cae is delivered. Other related issues to be considered include the role of informal carers and the impact this had on him. Confidentiality is maintained in conjunction with NMC 2010 code of conduct. Thus a pseudonym (Scot) is adopted where the client’s name is mentioned. Scot is a 70 year old man with a long term history of psychosis. Recently he had been diagnosed with dementia. He had been well managed on quiatiapin until he had stopped taking the medication and his psychosis had worsened. And due to his decline in his mental state, he has also been refusing access to his carer (his wife) and was at risk of self neglect. Dementia is a disorder manifested by multiple cognitive defects, such as impaired memory, aphasia, apraxia and a disturbance in occupational or social functioning, Howcroft (2004). Disturbances in executive functioning are also seen in the loss of the ability to think abstractly, having difficulty performing tasks and the avoidance of situations, which involves processing information. Scot suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, a type of dementia, which affects the brain cells and brain nerve transmitters, which carry instructions around the brain. The b... ...is condition and how she can reduce the feelings of anxiety, tension and loss of control that has resulted from the impact of Scots deterioration. By the end of my placement, evaluations showed that although there have not been significant changes in Scots mental and physical state, it is also imperative to note that he has been supported and maintained well to carry some of the daily activities of living. Whilst Scots care plan continued to be reviewed, there is also an ongoing support and educational programmes for his wife, which will enable her to effectively care for Scot. Having gained experience working with older people, I have understood that whenever you care for a person especially the older person, one must take a holistic view of the person’s physiological and psychological and social circumstance in order to provide effective and continuous care.

Raymond George Neher :: essays research papers fc

Because roads, streets, highways, boulevards, and freeways are an everyday part of our life, they understandably are part of our art. In the foreground or the background, they secure our art to reality, serve as symbols, or twist and turn in ways never dreamed by the imagination. Raymond Neher used roads and highways as his subject in many of his paintings. He began painting for his own benefit, because he â€Å"Enjoyed putting brush to canvas.† Raymond George Neher was born in Orange, New Jersey on September 14, 1943; he was the only child to Rudolph Neher and Evelyn Posadzki. Neher was awarded his Bachelor of Architecture form the Carnegie Mellon University and his Masters from the Columbia University. He began his career as an architect in New York City. In 1973 he transferred to San Francisco, California, where he worked on the Master Plan for a New Community in Ahwaz, Iran. He was well known and appreciated for his work in historical restorations and adaptive reuse. His projects included work on art and science museums, hotels and spas, hospital and medical school, as well as construction administration. As an artist his career spanned nearly 40 years. Neher worked mostly in acrylic paint on canvas. His works have been shown in exhibitions all across the United States of America and are in private collections throughout the United States, as well as Amsterdam, Rome and Santorini, Greece. Neher joined the Fort Mason Prin tmakers in the early 1980’s and created etchings and monoprints that often complemented his canvas work. Many of his subjects sprang from his travels around California’s Central Valley Interstate 5 highway. His roadscapes paintings he created were on photo quality. The images he creates, whether it is a highway, a bridge or a suburban street, are always free of pollution, road kill and litter. The paintings are full of colour which makes the painting a bit surreal, as if the image is just too good to be true. All his roadscapes are from the perspective a person in a vehicle on the road, making the viewer feel more engaged with the painting, as if they are actually there. The painting above is called Mount Hood Highway. Neher has used such contrasting colours to layer the painting. His use of straight lines and angles on the road, pine trees and the snow covered mountain in the background brake up the painting causing the painting to be easier to take in by the viewer.

Gay marriages :: essays research papers

Part I: Throughout the contents of this paper, I will discuss the article dealing with the legalization of gay marriages in Massachusetts by Richard Cohen. I will begin my discussion by analyzing the article and providing a brief summary of the factual information presented in the text. In addition, I will present my opinion on the article along with corresponding information regarding this particular issue. In turn, I will present my personal beliefs on this topic and support them with other additional information to support my opinions. I will also present more details on the Massachusetts case that legalized gay marriages. This topic is important because this piece of legislation will effect every person and generation in the United States, homosexual or not. Part II: In this portion of my paper, I will summarize the article by Richard Cohen regarding the state of Massachusetts legalizing gay and lesbian marriages. Recently, the state of Massachusetts announced that the band on gay marriages would be lifted. Despite the fact that the majority leader of the House of Representatives Tom Delay is strongly against gay marriages, he may want to stand aside on this issue. Delay, who is known for his adamant concern regarding traditional marriage, needs to understand that not only is the institution of marriage wobbling and wheezing, it is desperately on the rocks. According to statistical research, twenty percent of first marriages do last more than five years, and if the marriage lasts a decade, one third end up in divorce. Married couples, who once dominated both life and television, have gone from a high 80 percent in the 1950?s to only half of American households today. If you look into an average home in the United States today, only one i n four of those households are married with children, and a reported 86 million adults living in the country are unmarried. It is easy to see from these statistics that traditional marriage is in trouble.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gay and lesbian marriages may be the key component to rescue marriages from this social and economic relevance. Not only do homosexual couples seek marriage for the pecuniary reasons such as taxes and estate purposes, they also seek the bond of long term commitment based on love and romance. If people like Tom Delay would stop and look at the issue without such bigotry and fear, he might understand that these couples provide the best argument in their defense, love and commitment. Gay marriages :: essays research papers Part I: Throughout the contents of this paper, I will discuss the article dealing with the legalization of gay marriages in Massachusetts by Richard Cohen. I will begin my discussion by analyzing the article and providing a brief summary of the factual information presented in the text. In addition, I will present my opinion on the article along with corresponding information regarding this particular issue. In turn, I will present my personal beliefs on this topic and support them with other additional information to support my opinions. I will also present more details on the Massachusetts case that legalized gay marriages. This topic is important because this piece of legislation will effect every person and generation in the United States, homosexual or not. Part II: In this portion of my paper, I will summarize the article by Richard Cohen regarding the state of Massachusetts legalizing gay and lesbian marriages. Recently, the state of Massachusetts announced that the band on gay marriages would be lifted. Despite the fact that the majority leader of the House of Representatives Tom Delay is strongly against gay marriages, he may want to stand aside on this issue. Delay, who is known for his adamant concern regarding traditional marriage, needs to understand that not only is the institution of marriage wobbling and wheezing, it is desperately on the rocks. According to statistical research, twenty percent of first marriages do last more than five years, and if the marriage lasts a decade, one third end up in divorce. Married couples, who once dominated both life and television, have gone from a high 80 percent in the 1950?s to only half of American households today. If you look into an average home in the United States today, only one i n four of those households are married with children, and a reported 86 million adults living in the country are unmarried. It is easy to see from these statistics that traditional marriage is in trouble.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Gay and lesbian marriages may be the key component to rescue marriages from this social and economic relevance. Not only do homosexual couples seek marriage for the pecuniary reasons such as taxes and estate purposes, they also seek the bond of long term commitment based on love and romance. If people like Tom Delay would stop and look at the issue without such bigotry and fear, he might understand that these couples provide the best argument in their defense, love and commitment.

Case Study on Sumitomo Corporation Essay

1.Case Study on Sumitomo Corporation on Derivative Losses and Lesson Learned 1.1Introduction Sumitomo Corporation was top in market in copper business in the world prior to 1996 in term of trading size and it operations. Copper business is part of their portfolio and it was delegated to Yasuo Hamanaka who was the Head of Copper Trading and he was engaged in illegal copper trading and faced extensive losses and massive cover-up. As the result of this loses, he attempted to avoid losses many times. This was against the rules and regulation of the London Metal Exchange (LME). LME created new regulation to prevent the market domination, as the result of this; he faced losses on his operations. There were two malfunctions recorded; he maintained two types of books, one is to showing big profit, and the second one is to keep secrete account, unauthorized trades over 10 years. No one except Hamanaka was not aware of accumulated loss of $ 1800 million. 1.2Background of the Company Sumitomo Corporation is one of the subsidiaries of Sumitomo Group which is one of top 5 â€Å"Sogo Shosha† general trading in Japan. It has 120 overseas branches in 65 countries, and having diversified business of Metal, Mineral Resources, Energy, Chemical & Electronic and Infrastructure. Copper Department is one of the departments in Copper Corporation which is owned Mineral Resources, Energy, Chemical & Electronic Business unit. In 1800s, Sumitomo Corporation was diversified the business into Sumitomo Bank, Sumitomo Metals, and Sumitomo Corporation. In 1980, they obtained strong position & positive reputation in the Copper market. Competition in Copper industry was very high; Copper was traded on LME listed in London and COMEX in USA. Copper was placed 3rd used Metal after Iron & Aluminum. There were two types of market participants i.e. one is supplier who does physical supply, and the second is speculators who arbitrage deal without delivery. Sumitomo was acted as speculator and after acquiring mines in Philippines in 1984, Sumitomo changed from speculator to supplier. After 1988, they made of $3 to 4 million profit and they followed cost leadership strategy which caused huge loss because of having high inventory while declining demand. LME is popular for providing spot and future markets where clearing systems reduce counter party risks. The delivery would be taken place for the authorized warehouses and storage facility. The specification of copper would be included i.e. quality, trading unit, price quotation, trading month, minimum fluctuation, and tick value. The copper contract would meet the following conditions i.e. counter party information is open, and delivery condition is by the party, not LME. Yasuo Hamanaka was the Chief/Head of Copper Corporation. He was committed wrongful Act during the 1985-1996. He was referred as by many Mr. Five percent/Mr. Copper. He traded 0.5 million metric tons per year which was the 5 % of total world demand and having experience of 23 years in copper trading. 1.3Sumitomo Copper Scandals From 1985, Hamanaka lost a total of $1800 million. He executed as many as $20 billion worth of unauthorized trades a year. His main strategy was the â€Å"short squeeze†. The future market was particularly vulnerable to manipulation since the market volume was relatively small. By buying up futures and choosing physical delivery, future seller ended up buying copper in a spot market, which resulted in backwardation: the spot price is higher than the forward price. As far as LME concern, it considers only the inventory in their authorized warehouses. If someone moves away from copper inventory outside of an authorized warehouse, LME inventory appear to decrease and therefore, copper price rise due to a perceived tight supply in the market. Hamanaka implemented such strategy because of all his illegal trades was not booked, but is clear that this was a possible way to induce backwardation. In December of 1991, the LME decidbed to set new regulations that would limit the range of backwardation within 25 pounds to prevent market manipulation. Backwardation shrunk to almost $0 or even negative, thus causing a huge loss in Sumitomo’s portfolio. To recoup the loss, he conducted a Radr transaction in June 1993, but at the end he ended up closing their Radr position and incurred a $1.1 billion loss. Hamanaka tried to recoup the loss by increasing the trade volume and made a contract with Winchester for1 million metric tons over two years at the price of $2,800, however, due to price declines, the loss kept expanding. Hamanaka’s next step was to create an option portfolio named â€Å"Radr† transactions. He made six different transactions in Radr. The counterparty of these transactions was Credit Lyonnais Rouse (â€Å"CLR†, currently Calyon Group). Since the position held by CLR was large and caused backwardation, LME tightened the backwardation limit to $5 in September 8 1993. In addition, LME informed Credit Lyonnais that they were to cancel part of their transactions with Sumitomo on September 17th,, Thus resulting in a $1.16 billion loss for Sumitomo. ïÆ'Ëœ1st: In June 25, 1993, Hamanaka buys call option with an average price of $2,400 and which expires after 2 years. The transaction is totally irregular because the total volume was 1 million metric tons as compared to all LME inventory of 0.5 million. The portfolio could make a profit if the price went up to $2,480. To pay a premium of $69 million, Hamanaka made a 2nd trade. ïÆ'Ëœ2nd: Hamanaka made a short strangle, combination by selling a 0.5 million $2,100 call and $1,900 put option. The portfolio could make a profit if the price remained between $1,900 and $2,140. From this transaction, he got $94 million of premium and paid for the 1st option. With 1st and 2nd strategy, total breakeven was $2,700. ïÆ'Ëœ3rd: Selling future at a price of $2,000 which increased payoff to around $1,900. ïÆ'Ëœ4th: Buying 1.35 million metric tons of $1,750 put, breakeven was $1,580. He predicted that the copper price would go down below $1,600 level. ïÆ'Ëœ5th: Buying 1.35 million metric tons of $1,800 put again, breakeven was changed to $1,680. This portfolio could make a profit slightly if the price went down below $1,700 level. ïÆ'Ëœ6th: Selling 1.2 million metric tons of $1,950 call to get $29 millions of premium. With this transaction, breakeven was changed to $1,680. However, if the copper price exceeded $1,950, Sumitomo suffered a huge loss. 1.4Lesson Learned from Sumitomo Case The Sumitomo Case explains following lessons base on internal control and risk management prospective, and it believed that if controls were in place, losses would have been detected much earlier. (a)Management Level Control: Sumitomo Corporation failed to execute a risk management practices and they believed the expertise and specialized knowledge of Hamanaka. The essence of the problem was unauthorized trading that the culprit undertook to enhance his firm’s profitability and then his own career and pay. Hamanaka tries to cover up the losses through taking more risk that end up with further losses. Setting up corporate discipline and sound Management structure is important to manage the risks. (b)Independent Transaction Monitoring: Sumitomo should create a separate and independent supervisor system within the company hierarchy to avoid these agency issues; specifically the issues between recording and checking procedures. Segregation of duties is important to prevent the malpractices. Middle and bank office should be totally separated from the front office.   (c)Corporate Responsibility: We should also consider corporate responsibility with regard to timely reporting. In the Sumitomo case, the management waited ten days until issuing a press release. Sumitomo needed some time to calculate their losses; they could have avoided additional declines in copper prices that were caused because of the rumors and uncertainty in the market. (d)Government Regulations: The regulatory agency should execute more stringent rules on the derivatives market to avoid price manipulation and impose new regulations on corporate reporting obligations so as to provide investors and other market participants with greater information regarding the organization’s willingness to take risks and capability to manipulate market prices. The official and market pressures of stringent regulation will strengthen the internal auditing and information systems of many firms and provide a check against possible management discretions. 2.Case study on the Orange Country on Derivatives Losses & Lessons Learned The purpose of this case is to explain how a municipal lost $1.6 billion in the financial market. In December 1994 Orange County stunned the market by announcing that its investment pool had suffered a loss of $ 1.6 billion this was the largest loss ever recorded by local government investment pool and led to the bankruptcy of the county shortly thereafter. The loss was the result of unsupervised investment activity of the Bob Citron, the county treasure who was dealing with the $ 7.5 billion portfolio belonging to the county schools, cities, special districts, and county itself. In the tome of fiscal restrains Citron was viewed as a wizard who could painlessly generate greater results to the investors. Citron generate 2% higher than the comparable state pool Figure 01 citron’s track record Citron was able to increase returns on the pool by investing in derivatives securities and leveraging the port folio to the hit. The pool was such demand due to its track record that citron had turn down investments by agencies outside Orange County. Some local schools districts and cities even issued short term taxable notes to the investment in the pool by increasing the leverage even further. For that there was a repeated public warning, which was by notably by John Moorlach, who ran for treasurer in 1994, that the pool was too risky. Unfortunately, he was widely ignored by Citron when he was re elected. The investment strategy worked excellently until 1994, when fed started a series of interest rate hikes that caused severe losses to the pool. Initially it was announced as a paper loss. Shortly thereafter, the county declared bankrupts and decided to liquidate the portfolio. This occurred because citron expect that interest rates would fall or stay the same, the citrons main purpose was to increase income by exploitation that the fact that medium term maturities had higher yield than short term investments. On Dec 1993, for instance short term yields were less than 3%, while 5year yield were around 5.2% .which such positive sloped term structure of interest tares , the tendency maybe to increase the duration of the investment to pick up extra yield . The boost, of cause comes at the expense of great risk .the strategy went as long as interest rates went down. In February’94 however the Federal Reserve Bank starred a series of six consecutive interest rate increases, which led to a bloodbath in the bond market. The larger duration led to a $1.6 billion loss 2.1. Lessons Learned from Orange Country Case Due to the activities of Bob Citron the municipality lost $1.6 billion in financial markets. Therefore, it is essential to understand the lessons to be learnt from the Orange Country case. (a). No autocratic decisions should make in investment activities Bob Citron was investing the funds owned by the taxpayers in risky securities in Wall Street as per his own interest. Since he managed to generate higher returns for the funds invested in the early stages Citron was viewed as a wizard. This made him over confident on his actions which resulted in huge losses at the end. When the leverage increase due to these activities Bob Citron, the treasurer was warned by John Moorlach thath the pool was too risky. However, counter arguments were widely ignored and Citron was re-appointed as the treasurer. (b). Local governments need to maintain high standards for fiscal oversight and accountability. As noted in the state auditor’s report following the bankruptcy, a number of steps should be taken to ensure that local funds are kept safe and liquid. These include having the Board of Supervisors approve the county’s investment fund policies, appointing an independent advisory committee to oversee investment decisions, requiring more frequent and detailed investment reports from the county treasurer, and establishing stricter rules for selecting brokers and investment advisors. Local officials should adjust government structures to make sure they have the proper financial controls in place at all times. (c). State government should closely monitor the fiscal conditions of its local governments, rather than wait for serious problems to surface The state controller collects budget data from county governments and presents them in an annual report. These data should be systematically analyzed to determine which counties show abnormal patterns of revenues or expenditures or signs of fiscal distress. State leaders should discuss fiscal problems and solutions with local officials before the situation reaches crisis stage. (d). Always aware of the negative side on risky investments The treasurer was assuming that interest rates would fall or stay low when he goes for huge investment activities. However, when the things moved the opposite direction and the interest rates went up the pool suffered severe losses. Therefore, always be cautious when making predictions on market phenomena. (e). Use proper statistical risk assessing methods before invest in securities An investor could use a proper risk assessment method such as Value At Risk (VAR) method to assess the market risk of the portfolio. VAR is the maximum loss over a target horizon such that there is a low, pre specified probability that the actual loss will be larger. Therefore, shareholder and managers can decide whether they feel comfortable with the given level of risk. 3.Case study on the Procter & Gamble on Derivatives Losses & Lessons Learned Procter & Gamble Co. is a Fortune 500, American global corporation based in Cincinnati, Ohio, that manufactures a wide range of consumer goods. In late 1993, Proctor & Gamble financial managers, well known for actively managing their interest costs, expected interest rates to drop and went to Bankers Trust searching for aggressive interest rate swaps that would allow them to profit on these expectations. P&G told to Bankers Trust about ways of replacing a fixed-to floating swap that was maturing. P&G’s specific objective was to negotiate a new $100 million swap that would †¢Again put it in the position of paying floating rates and †¢Squeeze these to a minimum. Specifically, the company wanted to pay 40 basis points (0.4 of 1%) less than its standard, upper-crust commercial paper rate (then about 3.25% for six-month paper). Bankers Trust responded with a highly levered, extremely risky, and extremely complex five-year interest-rate swap agreement. In this the P&G had to pay 75 basis points less than rate of Commercial Paper, if the interest rates of 30 years and 5 years treasury bills will remain constant or go down. Five-year Treasury rates rose from 5% in early November 1993 to 6.7% on May 4, 1994. P&G’s other benchmark, 30-year Treasury rates, went from about 6% to 7.3%. Because of large duration the effect of rise in interest rate on long term bonds was very high. When interest rates headed up, Proctor & Gamble’s treasurer realized the magnitude of the company’s potential derivatives losses and decided to get out of the swap. Because of the intricate complexities and linked derivatives of the agreement, however, P&G lost $157 million to lock-in interest rates (which were 1,412 basis points (14.12%) above the commercial paper rate) in only six months of a five year contract. When interest rates headed up, Bankers’ trust entered into another contract with P& G- a wedding band. When this strategy also failed, it led P& G to pay even higher rate of interest from 14.12% above Commercial Paper (CP) to 16.40% above CP. CEO Edwin Artzt, called the swaps â€Å"a violation of the company’s policy against speculative financial transactions† and banned all leveraged swaps. As the Bankers Trust had suggested the contracts, P& G blamed them for the losses. 3.1Lesson Learned from Procter & Gamble Case The Procter and Gamble Case explains following, (a)Legal dispute between P&G and Bankers: Therein lies the crux of the legal dispute between P&G and Bankers. P&G claims that before the swaps were signed, Bankers repeatedly assured it that in the early stages of the swaps, the company would be able to do lock-ins at acceptable prices. Court papers, in fact, include letters from Bankers that make such assurances, though these consistently cite assumptions of stable or only slightly rising rates. P&G says, however, that on one occasion it â€Å"pointedly† asked the Bankers Trust person with whom it was dealing what the lock-in situation on the first swap would be if rates and volatility were not â€Å"stable.† The answer, P&G says, was that â€Å"possible changes in rates or volatilities would not have a material or significant effect† on the company’s lock-in position. (b) Purpose of Deliveries: A P&G spokeswoman stressed that the transaction was â€Å"speculative and goes outside the P&G policy of conservatively managing our debt portfolio.† Asked whether the company’s treasury was expected to be a profit center. In a speech, William J. McDonough, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, warned that top managements of financial and nonfinancial companies have a responsibility to understand and constantly monitor derivative markets when their companies are involved in them. Also Mr. McDonough said. â€Å"To put it simply and directly, if the bosses do not or cannot understand both the risks and the rewards in their products, their firm should not be in the business.† 4.Case study on the Showa Shell Sekiyu on Derivatives Lossess & Lessons Learned Showa Shell Sekiyu is one of Japan’s leading oil refining companies and is engaged in producing gasoline, diesel fuel, fuel oil, kerosene, lubricants etc. It was established in 1876 under Samuel Samuel & Co, and was later became a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell group, in 1985. And presently, 50% of shares are owned by Royal Dutch Shell Group. In the year 1993, the Company made history by making approximately USD 1.4 Bn with unauthorized forward currency transactions. As an oil importer, company imported crude oil in US Dollars and sold the end products in Yen. Showa Shell had been used to hedge a proportion of its currency exposure using foreign exchange forward contracts. In 1989, company entered into a series of forward options where it agreed to buy dollars forward at an average rate of USD 145. Over the next few years Yen strengthened ageist the dollar. However, at the time of maturing of these contracts, the foreign exchange rate was at USD 125, indicating a difference of USD 20 or a drop of approximately 14%. But, treasury department of the company decided not to recognize the losses and chose to roll over the forwards using historical rates, without appropriate internal authority. And consequently, the actual losses made were concealed within the new forward contracts, and this actually meant that the company was borrowing money under the guise of forward contracts. This practice or rather malpractice was continued until the end of 1992, and at that time the company had in excess of USD 6.4 Bn of forward contracts on their accounts, and out of this, it was revealed by the management of the company that hidden financial losses were USD 1.4 Bn. And the losses amounted to more than five times of its annual oil import at that time. Four senior executives of the company had resigned following the discovery of unauthorized currency dealing including, Kiyoshi Takahashi chairman of Showa, Takeshi Hemmi the president, who took responsibility for the dealings that resulted in the huge losses. The resignations were made as shell, one of the biggest world oil groups , reported a 28% decline in net profits. Main reason for the losses was that treasury department of the company, entering into unauthorized forward currency transactions, with the expectation of US Dollar to rise against Yen, and attention was not given to the fact of worsening the situation in case of Yen strengthening against Yen. John Jennings, then Shell Group managing director, had stated that, an unauthorized currency speculation was like â€Å"A gross contravention of established rules and practices which was deliberately canceled†. The continued dealings that were made were the result of one treasury manager trying to recoup losses amounting to single figure millions, incurred during normal course of his job, although with failures in attempts made, continues dealings were made by exposing the company to increasingly large exchange rate risks. 4.1Lessons Learned from Showa Shell Sekiyu Case These huge losses made, forced the company to focus on more tight internal controls and focus on the importance of having internal controls. Although defining of risk limits is not necessarily provide results, if proper controlling is not there to take corrective measures, in case of deviations. And furthermore, it is never advantageous to assume that market fluctuations can be predicted accurately, at all times. And if being successful in the past, it can purely be due to luck and it does not guarantee that next time would be the same. Company incurred the losses on the assumption of currency value increasing rather than decreasing. The purpose of using derivatives is to hedge the risk and not to make profits by speculating and speculators take huge risks, rather than hedging risks. Company should have focused on the fact of maintaining their crude oil import price by mitigating exchange rate risks by using the forward contracts. If a loss is made in the process of trying to maintain price level, although losses are made in the profit and loss account, the objective of maintaining price level is still achieved. This fact is very important in dealing with derivatives and should not make harsh judgments on losses made when trying to maintain price level. It is difficult to measure the exact point, where, the hedging of risks ends and being speculative starts. And in Showa case, treasury department of the company, who were there to hedge risk, had dealt as a speculator and without adhering to the internal controls and not obtaining proper approval for its dealings. In addition, it took more than four years to recognize this malpractice by the higher authorities, which pin points the lack of transparency in accounting practices. And it was blamed by some experts on the Japanese accounting system, since the dealings were not identified earlier. And the dealings were only revealed by chance, during a conversation between a Japanese bank manager and Showa manager.

The Negatives of Technology in the Classroom

Why Technology in the Classroom Is a Negative For schools and universities, both have experienced many changes with the technology that is available. Instead of students having to go to the library to complete their work, most can now just walk into their classroom filled with new desktops and laptops. With the increase of technology in most schools, it is almost becoming a necessity for classrooms to have up to date technology for students. Students that have been able to work with laptops ever since elementary school get so used to the technology available that most find it just standard in classrooms today.In the classroom it does not stop with the computers, now teachers are having smart boards made and put into classrooms. But do these smart boards really help the students learn better? I highly doubt that a smart board in the classroom is going to help a student want to pay attention to another boring lecture of some moment of time in our history. Frankly, that smart board is a ll but making the teacher’s job easier. Or is it? What if that teacher or professor is a little older than some of us?Someone who is not used to having the high amounts of technology in today’s classrooms may not know how to work that smart board. All that does is waste time. The same can go for students who grew up in low income areas who are not used to working with computers. While others in the classroom are busy typing a paper, this student is probably sitting in the back wondering how to change his font. The fact is too much technology in the classroom can cause negatives for both the student and teacher in many ways. Imagine an English class walking in to their room filled with new laptops.Everyone sits down and waits for the teacher. The teacher comes in and tells them to continue working on their paper. Unfortunately one student in there is using this word program for the first time. While his peers are busy writing their papers, he is still trying to figure o ut how to save his document. My first issue with technology in the classroom is that it takes away from valuable learning time. While this student could be starting his paper, he must be aided by his teacher multiple times during class for his technical issues.Not everyone in a classroom may have had the opportunity that most students have had of growing up with computers in the classroom. Everyone comes in at a different skill level which makes it hard for students to actually learn something on a lesson based on using the computer. The same can be for the teacher. Not all teachers are used to the new technology in classrooms today. When it comes time for a lesson to be taught through using a computer and the teacher doesn’t even know how to load the document needed, it just becomes wasted time for the students.A teacher who posted his experience about new technology on A Novel Idea writes â€Å"I looked down at my iPad and it had gone dark. So I slid my finger across the f ace of the tablet to wake up the screen, then punched in my password, then flipped through the electronic pages until I found the place where I left off. This was not only distracting to the kids, but it also added frustration to the problem, making me anxious in front of a crowd† (A Novel Idea). This teacher shared his experience of new technology being brought into the class and how it took away from the valuable learning time that was available.Instead of technology being a part of the curriculum in schools, it is now becoming the center of attention. My second reason for the negatives of technology in the classroom is the overuse of it. Many students learn best by physically and mentally interacting with what they are studying. If most teaching is done using a computer, these students’ needs are not being met. For example, a class could be playing a review game for math using PowerPoint. The teacher would have the problems on the board while the students race to ans wer it.But what about some of the students who have really struggled this year in math, this review is pointless for them because they cannot even figure out how to solve the problem. Also, while the teacher is busy changing the problems it is hard for the student who is struggling to ask for help because that takes away from the lesson plan for that class. The issue with overuse is that overtime it will just become boring for students who are excelling in that particular class, and seem like a pointless strategy for students who are struggling.Charlene Kamper states in her article of the overuse of technology that â€Å"With information and answers just a click away, today’s teens are falling short when it comes to deductive reasoning and problem-solving on their own† (Kamper). The availability of technology causes students to not be able to learn information on their own but be able to type something into Google and find the answer. In a class where the lesson for to day is researching topics for the next research paper, some students will take advantage of that time in class.However, some students will use this time to get and twitter and tweet about how English class is lame (in 160 characters or less of course). Distraction in a technology filled classroom is a huge issue. In some classes where the teacher gives the students the freedom to get on the computers and research, some will misuse it and just go web surfing. This issue does not just apply to the middle and high school levels, even in elementary. In Matt Richtel’s article about technology in the class room, he writes about a young student playing a math game.He writes â€Å"Xavier Diaz, 6, sits quietly, chair pulled close to his dell laptop playing Alien Addition†¦Xavier’s goal is to shoot only the spaceship with the correct answer but he is just shooting every target in sight† (Richtel). While this math game is supposed to be helping Xavier improve his math skills, he just sees it as another video game he would play at home. It’s hard to stop the distractions with technology available in most classes. Imagine walking into history class. It’s just another average day. You sit down, say hey to some of your friends and possibly send out a tweet.Then your teacher pulls up a PowerPoint. You automatically know that your teacher is going to be reading off the PowerPoint for the whole class and it’s just going to be another period of taking long notes. My final issue with technology in the class room is the misuse of it. â€Å"PowerPoint works best for things that are presented visually, not verbally. It helps when you need to draw a picture† (Kaminski). Too many teachers today use PowerPoint as a verbal aid for lectures. The use of PowerPoint is best used as a visual aid in the classroom setting.For years students have had to deal with the long PowerPoints with the endless notes. How do these long PowerPoints help students? The only thing that it does is that it will help cause arthritis in your wrist before age fifty. Also, these long PowerPoint’s just make students not wanting to pay attention. These students are unable to play an active role in their education. Then when a teacher complains and how the students are unresponsive and unwilling to participate, that teacher needs to look in the mirror along with their teaching strategies.Jeffrey Young states in his article When Good Technology Means Bad Teaching â€Å"Colleges have spent millions on â€Å"smart classrooms† packed with the latest gadgets to assist teaching†¦But colleges have spent far less time and money giving professors the skills to use even the simplest technology effectively† (Young). Colleges and schools can spend as much money as they want for state of the art classes, but if you don’t have an instructor that knows how to use that technology available it just becomes a waste of money. Al so, it becomes the students that suffer the most. In today’s world, technology is going to be improving all the time.No matter what schools are going to be updating the technology available for students. Now, it is important for the libraries to be up to date with the computers available because that is a useful are for students to help complete work when they want too. But at some point, we must put up the stop sign with how much technology is integrated in the classroom. Sixty minutes without a computer screen in front of you is not going to kill us. But instead could help us. While we do need technology in our everyday lives, we do not need excessive amounts in our classrooms.