Obesity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 7

Obesity - Essay Example Apart from the social stigma that one may have to suffer, the health implications of obesity are much more expensive. According to Crawford (para, 2), 20% of population of all but fifteen states in the USA are obese and this number is increasing by the day. We all need to protect ourselves from obesity. B. Reason for listening: Obesity is becoming more and more common in the society and most of us have had or will have to deal with this issue either in ourselves or in people we love and care about. According to Childhood Obesity Facts (Para 1) obesity among children has doubled over the last thirty years. Obesity is not just a cultural issue, it is not just about the physical looks but rather it is a matter health. C. Credibility: Credibility: I have had some of my friends who have been affected by this issue. I can confidently say that I have experienced firsthand (or at least second had) the issues affecting obesity. Obesity is a cruel thing to deal with (Maureen). D. Enumerated Preview: Obesity is a serious issue with so many factors surrounding it. In this forum though, I wish to discuss three major issues which are pertinent with regard to the issue of obesity. These issues include, poor eating habit (fast food culture), laziness (lack of physical activities), and poverty which makes it harder for poor families to afford healthy food. II. The human body has its natural mechanisms of dealing with various issues. As disused above, when an individual takes in carbohydrates (energy-giving-foods), the extra energy is converted and stored in the form of fat thus resulting in fat accumulation. This means that people can reduce fat accumulation through exercise to burn the stored fats. There are vicarious ways of exercising which include; III. Poverty is probably at the apex of the issues influencing increasing rates of obesity in the United States as statistics show that poorer families are at a higher risk of obesity than those which are economically

Analysis of Bullying in Schools Literature review

Analysis of Bullying in Schools - Literature review Example Bullying has been in existence for decades, and some countries like Australia and England have had bullying problems for centuries. It is only since the 1980s when "three middle school boys" from Norway "committed suicide" (Green, 2007, para.2) as a consequence of repeated bullying. Because of this reason, attention has been placed on the issues of bullying. There has been a great increase in the younger children committing suicide because of bullying which makes these younger people go on violent rampages, it is hardly surprising that public concern with student safety has also led to an increased awareness of the consequences of bullying. Recent research has focused on both bullies and victims in a number of terms but this literature review will focus on research in relation to gender and age, and the accounting for victims and bullies. The research will be focusing on gender as a factor of bullying seeing is there is any difference in the way the girls or the boys are involved in bullying. Age as a factor will be considered and the psychological angles of bullying will be covered. In the research literature, there have been a number of definitions  Ã‚   " Olweus claimed there were two sorts of bullying - direct, wherein the victim is subjected to physical abuse, and indirect, wherein the victim suffers psychological or emotional mistreatment (as cited in Green, 2007, para.1) Gray has defined bullying as repeated damaging actions that were perhaps linked with negative intent (as cited in Attwood, 2004, What is bullying section, para.1). Gender Issues Seals and Young, (2003) carried out a study on the occurrence and relationship of bullying to gender, age, ethnicity, self-esteem and depression, experienced by seventh and eighth-grade students in the northern delta region of the US. The study has shown that there were considerably more male than female bullies, with "twice as many males identified as females identified as bullies" (Discussion section, para.2). Delfabbro et al. (2006) carried out a study on bullying by peers and teachers in secondary schools in South Australia. The results have truly reflected the fact that the boys are "more likely to be the perpetrators of bullying" (Delfabbro et al. 2006, p.72).   

International Trade Structure

International Trade Structure Examine the International Trade Structure. Do you accept Krasners Argument for an Open Trade Regime? Address his Desire for a Hegemon. Now that todays world is more of a global village, international trade has become institutionalized not only by economic factors, but also non-economic factors. Trade is not solely based on commercial objectives rather politics also plays a dominant role in it. ‘Much of the international trade system both drives and reacts to national, political, fiscal and monetary policies (Hanink 1989: 268). As a result, there are new emerging problems and concerns that have come up in the international trading structures (Boger 1958: 1753). ‘The international system is anarchical†¦sovereign states are rational self-seeking actors resolutely if not exclusively concerned with relative gains (Krasner 1992: 39). Trade usually takes place keeping in view the classical principles of opportunity cost, factor endowment theory and comparative advantage where, ‘each country specializes in those branches of production in which it has a comparative advantage, or in other words produce those goods whose costs are relatively lowest (Ellsworth 1940: 286-287). However, the international trade system can best be regarded as a situation of prisoners dilemma under which the best outcome for an individual player is for that player to cheat by for instance imposing an optimal tariff, while the other player cooperates. However, if both players cheat, they will be worse off than if both had cooperated (Goldstein, Krasner 1984: 284). Experimental findings suggest that the winning strategy for this sort of a situation is the Tit for Tat strategy ‘in which the player cooperates on the first move and then does whatever the other player did on the preceding move (Goldstein, Krasner: 1984: 284). In their views, such a strategy is not meant to start a trade war rather its aim is to promote cooperation and freer trade (1984: 284). The prisoners dilemma depiction also ‘claims that a stable system of international free trade involves the supply of a public good. Such goods are joint in supply and non-excludable (Gowa 1989: 1245). This public good may be one or numerous depending upon the case. These public goods include political stability, regional stability, liberal economies etc. After the second World War the emphasis of the trade regime was to regulate all trade distortions. ‘Liberal rules, norms and procedures were to be adopted by states and patrolled by international organizations (Goldstein, Krasner 1984: 282). But in todays world, ‘the bulk of international trade takes place between the industrialized or rich countries. This pattern of trade is in contradiction to the factor endowment theory because trade is taking place between countries with similar, rather than dissimilar, factor (capital) endowments (Hanink 1988: 323). The international trade structure is also characterized by the hegemonic stability theory which ‘asserts that an open international trading regime is most likely where there is a single dominant power (Krasner 1992: 40). This view is held by Krasner, Gilpin, Kindelberger and Hirschman. ‘A hegemonic power creates a stable international order and the hegemons decline leads to global instability (Stein 1984: 355). The assumptions of this theory are that the international system is anarchical with nation-states being the dominant actors, the international market is a non-homeostatic market and the nation-states seek to maximize their absolute and relative gains from trade (Lake 1984: 149). It asserts that the hegemon has an incentive to see if the collective good is provided even if the hegemon alone has to bear the full burden of providing it. ‘The hegemonic leader will place a greater, absolute value upon a liberal international economy than others and, as a result, w ill undertake to stabilize the international economy and construct a strong regime (Lake 1984: 146). Because of the provision of public goods, the element of free riders exist. ‘Kindleberger argues that the international political economy will be stable only if a single leader is willing to assume responsibility for maintaining a relatively open market for distress goods; providing counter-cyclical long-term lending; and discounting in a crisis†¦the leader must also undertake to manage in some degree the structure of foreign exchange rates and provide a degree of coordination of domestic monetary policies (Lake 1984: 145). This theory asserts that only large states have the power, capabilities and the responsibility to lead the international economy. ‘A hegemonic leader will place greater absolute value upon a liberal international economy than others and, as a result, will undertake to stabilize the international economy and construct a strong regime in order to ac hieve this goal (Lake 1984: 146). So the hegemon will provide the public good of stability and security because its own benefits far exceed the costs that it has to bear. For the large nation, the larger its size is, the more willing it will be to opt for international stability because of its large relative and absolute gains from trade. ‘The free functioning of the international market is therefore assumed to concentrate wealth in nations of high productivity. Under this assumption highly productive nations will give free play to the functioning of the international market and will favor free trade because they enjoy disproportionate benefits from such trade (Lake 1984: 149). In the case of middle and smaller nations, they too will be in favor of such a system because they too will gain from the trade, although relatively less. ‘The incentives to cheat and become a free rider are great enough that any international regime which depends on collective provision is inherently unstable. Stability can only be assured when a hegemon both bears the cost of providing the collective good and extracts the support of others (Stein 1984: 356). But this theory has some loopholes as well. First, Krasner is concerned with regime formation and trade but he does not take historical context into account while explaining how the free trade regime is established. He mentions ‘that a hegemon uses inducements and force to create or maintain open markets but does not provide a sense of how this occurs (Stein 1984: 357). A hegemon cannot bring about a free trading regime, it can unilaterally lower its own tariffs but this by no means assert that it can create an international trading system of lower tariffs. Tariff bargains only leads to trade liberalization among major trading states. This leads to similar sort of nations trading with each other, especially the powerful trading with one another and the poor nations are discriminated against. ‘It can impose an open trading regime on weak countries, but this too does not create an open regime (Stein 1984: 358). This is evident from the fact that both in the 19th and the 20t h centuries, the hegemonic power accepted compromises but itself deviated from the free trade ideal. ‘The liberal trade regimes that emerged in both the centuries were founded on asymmetric bargains that permitted discriminations, especially against the hegemon. The agreement that lowered tariff barriers led not to free trade, but freer trade. In the process, they legitimated a great deal of mercantilism and protectionism (Stein 1984: 359). Great Britain and the United States had important political motives behind their economic concessions. Also, such economic orders created by trade agreements have been sub systemic rather than global since only some states became parties to such agreements and many were actually excluded from them. They did not even provide collective goods because the non signatory states could be excluded. Thus ‘the systems allowed for discrimination and exclusion, and cannot be considered to have provided a collective good (Stein 1984: 360). ‘The periods dubbed ‘free trade eras certainly saw years of rapid trade expansion, but they were hardly periods of free trade. Rather, they were periods of freer trade (Stein 1984: 383). There was severe discrimination against those outside the system and these systems were based on asymmetric tariff bargains characterized by dumping. Also in the process of evolution, international trade has become institutionalized and non economic factors have become relatively important in evaluating the consequences of changes in the relevant variants (Boger 1958: 1753). ‘Krasner suggests nations may also be interested in additional goals of social stability, political power and economic growth (Lake 1984:145).It is this dramatic change in the structure of the international trading system that has led to the creation of new problems and at the same time, more and different concerns. Although the hegemon does provide collective goods, it only promotes and creates liberal internat ional economic orders because of their own vested interests in open markets and not because of altruism (Stein 1984: 357). ‘The hegemon effectively changes the policies of others to satisfy its own goals†¦the leverage exerted by the hegemon may take many different forms including negative sanctions (threats), positive sanctions (rewards), the reconstructing of market incentives, ideological leadership or simply success worthy of emulation (Lake 1993: 469). So it thus proves that the hegemon will go to any length just to satisfy its own self interests. Bibliography Boger, L.L 1958 Discussion:Trading Problems in International Markets Journal of Farm Economics, Vol. 40, No. 5, pp 1753-1755 http://links.jstor.org/ Ellsworth, P.T 1940 A Comparison of International Trading Theories The American Economic Review, Vol.30, No.2, pp 285-289 http://links.jstor.org/ Goldstein, Judith L. and Krasner, Stephen P 1984 Unfair Trade Practices:The Case for a Differential Response The American Economic Review, Vol. 74, No.2 pp 282-287 http://links.jstor.org/ Gowa, Joanne 1989 Bipolarity, Multipolarity and Free Trade The American Political Science Review, Vol. 83, No. 4, pp 1245-1256 http://links.jstor.org/ Hanink, Dean M. 1989 Introduction:Trade Theories Scale and Structure Economic Geography Vol. 65, No. 4, pp 267-270 http://links.jstor.org/ Hanink, Dean M. 1988 An Extended Linder Model of International Trade Economic Geography Vol. 64, No. 4, pp 322-334 http://links.jstor.org/ Krasner, Stephen P. 1992 Realism, Imperialism and Democracy: A Response to Gilbert Political Theory Vol. 20, No. 1, pp 38-52 http://links.jstor.org/ Lake, David A. 1993 Leadership, Hegemony and the International Economy: Naked Emperor or Tattered Monarch with Potential? International Studies Quarterly Vol. 37, No. 4, pp 459-489 http://links.jstor.org/ Lake, David A. 1984 Beneath the Commerce of Nations: A Theory of International Economic Structures International Studies Quarterly Vol. 28, No. 2, pp 143-170 http://links.jstor.org/ Stein, Arthur A. 1984 Great Britain, the United States, and the International Economic Order International Organization Vol. 38, No.2, pp 355-386 http://links.jstor.org/

To what extent did propaganda influence Nazi consolidation of power 1933-1939? :: World War II History

To what extent did propaganda influence Nazi consolidation of power 1933-1939? The Nazi regime in Germany implemented itself swiftly and effectively - the National Socialists had only three Nazis in a cabinet of twelve in January 1933, yet within two months Hitler had consolidated his political power by entirely legal means . With this, came the need for support from the German public. For a regime to 'consolidate' its power people could be too afraid to rebel against it, or they could be convinced of the value of the regime, or a combination of both. In the National Socialist era, the latter was used. In the period of 1933-1939, this was achieved by a number of methods, notably the use of propaganda, the various legislative and administrative changes, Hitler's personal charisma, the achievement of economic recovery and the 'reign of terror'. The extent to which each contributed to the consolidation of National Socialist regime is an issue that has remained in discussion, and is to be addressed in this essay. Although the relative importance of factors is in debate, it is certain that propaganda was one of the major causes of consolidation of power. As the historian Ian Kershaw emphasises, "It was plain from the beginning that the regime would attach a high priority to the steering of opinion ." However, the exact extent that propaganda affected the Nazi consolidation of power is extremely difficult to gauge, for a number of reasons. For instance, although the Nazi film 'Triumph of the Will' by Leni Riefenstahl may have been a success (and regarded as a brilliant achievement in today's film industry), there is no evidence to suggest that the film depicting Nazi strength affected a great deal of people. For instance, many Germans felt the film was too long and was extremely repetitive. In addition, market research was non-existent, and there were very few non-Gestapo polls to analyse the success of this enormous propaganda campaign, which was conducted primarily by one man. Joseph Goebbels, master propagandist of the Nazi regime was seen as man who represented the propaganda campaign. As he said himself on 25th March 1933 "The Ministry has the task of achieving a mobilisation of mind and spirit in Germany. " It was Goebbels that created the 'Hitler myth' - which portrayed an image of the Messiah-like figure and a man who was the saviour of Germany, in line with the publicising of the economy and so forth.

Adventures in a Lifetime

Definition Essay Adventures in a Lifetime â€Å"An exciting or very unusual experience. † This is how the English Dictionary defines the word adventure. Many people may define it in a different way, but not a single person is wrong. Adventure isn't boring, nor is it exciting. It is but both at the same time, intertwining between the two. Adventure is exploring the unknown, and doing things a person isn’t normally comfortable with. But, it also doesn't have to be hanging on a rope off the side of a mountain.It can be anything from facing new challenges in school, to living off the land for 3 months in the woods. It's seizing new opportunities, testing our resources against the unknown, and in the process, discovering our own sole potential. It can be falling in love, getting your heart broken, and surviving the whole experience, even though it was so grim at the time. Living through an experience that makes a difference in your life, no matter how small, can be the bigge st adventure of them all.One of the biggest adventures we all know about is Christopher Columbus who sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in 1492. He hoped to find a route to India in order to trade with others but ended up on this foreign land, America. His adventure was sailing to a new land, but making it a larger adventure without meaning to. Why do we say he went on an adventure? Not because he went out of his comfort zone, but because he went someplace he has never been before and had an experience where he learned many new things.It may not be as immense as Columbus did, but we have all adventured hundreds of times in our life, whether we know it or not. Even if it’s just something fresh to learn, or going someplace never explored, everybody has completed it. Going on an adventure means being bold, venturesome, brave, and daring. Does that mean someone has to go skydiving or scuba diving hundreds of feet into the ocean? Absolutely not. Adventure doesn’t even have to be a physical act; it can be a light inside the body that comes out a little more each day.Adventure is not having a routine every single day nor is it thinking about what you will do next. It’s living through every day and experiencing something new in the hours we are given. It can be from walking into the darkest cave known to man, to frolicking through the most colorful valley of flowers in the world. Every step in a person’s life is a new adventure he or she has conquered, and every new adventure is a new stepping stone ultimately reaching your final and optimal destination. Adventure is living life and experiencing it to its upmost capacity.It can be exploring oneself in ways nobody else can. Gandhi is a perfect example of looking inside oneself and making it into an adventure. He explored inside his soul to know what he thought was right and to find what he really wanted to do to make a difference in other’s lives. He took those feelings and made it into a lifelong adventure of freeing others from the British rule as well as to better the lives of India’s poorest classes. He went through countless adventures, ranging from great to minor.

Control of the Corporation, Mergers and Acquisitions

The Agency Problem and Control of the Corporation, Mergers and Acquisitions The Agency Problem and Control of the Corporation Corporate managers are the agents of shareholders. This relation creates a problem for shareholders who must find ways to induce managers to pursue shareholders interests. Financial managers do act in the best interest of the shareholders by taking action to increase the stock value. However, in large corporations ownership can be spread over a huge number of stockholders. It has been mentioned that this agency problem arises whenever a manager owns less than 100 percent of the firm’s shares. Because the manager bears only a fraction of the cost when his behavior reduces the firm value, he is unlikely to act in the shareholders’ best interest. Let’s just say that management and stockholder interests might differ, imagine that the firm is considering a new investment, and the investment is expected to favorably impact the share value, but is relatively a risky venture. Owners of the firm will then wish to take the investment because the stock will rise, but management may not with the fear of there jobs being lost. One obvious mechanism that can work to reduce the agency problem is increased manager insider shareholding. But, even where managerial wealth permits this is costly since it precludes efficient risk bearing. Other mechanisms are also available. More concentrated shareholdings by outsiders can induce increased monitoring by these outsiders and so improve performance by a firm’s own managers. Similarly, greater outside representation on corporate boards can result in more effective monitoring of managers, and the market for managers also can improve managerial performance by causing managers to become concerned with their reputation among prospective employers. The available theory and evidence are consistent with the view that stockholders control the firm and that stockholder wealth maximization is the relevant goal of the corporation. The stockholders elect the board of directors, who, in turn, hire and fire management. Even so, there will undoubtedly be times when management goals are pursued at the expense of the stockholders, at least temporarily. Mergers and Acquisitions An acquisition, also known as a takeover or a buyout or â€Å"merger†, is the buying of one company (the ‘target’) by another. An acquisition may be friendly or hostile. In the former case, the companies cooperate in negotiations; in the latter case, the takeover target is unwilling to be bought or the target's board has no prior knowledge of the offer. Acquisition usually refers to a purchase of a smaller firm by a larger one. Sometimes, however, a smaller firm will acquire management control of a larger or longer established company and keep its name for the combined entity. This is known as a reverse takeover. Another type of acquisition is reverse merger a deal that enables a private company to get publicly listed in a short time period. A reverse merger occurs when a private company that has strong prospects and is eager to raise financing buys a publicly listed shell company, usually one with no business and limited assets. Achieving acquisition success has proven to be very difficult, while various studies have shown that 50% of acquisitions were unsuccessful. The acquisition process is very complex, with many dimensions influencing its outcome Although they are often uttered in the same breath and used as though they were synonymous, the terms merger and acquisition mean slightly different things. When one company takes over another and clearly establishes itself as the new owner, the purchase is called an acquisition. From a legal point of view, the target company ceases to exist, the buyer â€Å"swallows† the business and the buyer's stock continues to be traded. In the pure sense of the term, a merger happens when two firms agree to go forward as a single new company rather than remain separately owned and operated. This kind of action is more precisely referred to as a â€Å"merger of equals†. The firms are often of about the same size. Both companies' stocks are surrendered and new company stock is issued in its place. For example, in the 1999 merger of Glaxo Wellcome and SmithKline Beecham, both firms ceased to exist when they merged, and a new company, GlaxoSmithKline, was created. †¢In practice, however, actual mergers of equals don't happen very often. Usually, one company will buy another and, as part of the deal's terms, simply allow the acquired firm to proclaim that the action is a merger of equals, even if it is technically an acquisition. Being bought out often carries negative connotations, therefore, by describing the deal euphemistically as a merger, deal makers and top managers try to make the takeover more palatable. An example of this would be the takeover of Chrysler by Daimler-Benz in 1999 which was widely referred to in the time, and is still now, as a merger of the two corporations. The buyer buys the shares, and therefore control, of the target company being purchased. Ownership control of the company in turn conveys effective control over the assets of the company, but since the company is acquired intact as a going concern, this form of transaction carries with it all of the liabilities accrued by that business over its past and all of the risks that company faces in its commercial environment. †¢The buyer buys the assets of the target company. The cash the target receives from the sell-off is paid back to its shareholders by dividend or through liquidation. This type of transaction leaves the target company as an empty shell, if the buyer buys out the entire assets. A buyer often structures the transaction as an asset purchase to â€Å"cherry-pick† the assets that it wants and leave out the assets and liabilities that it does not. This can be particularly important where foreseeable liabilities may include future, unquantified damage awards such as those that could arise from litigation over defective products, employee benefits or terminations, or environmental damage. A disadvantage of this structure is the tax that many jurisdictions, particularly outside the United States, impose on transfers of the individual assets, whereas stock transactions can frequently be structured as like-kind exchanges or other arrangements that are tax-free or tax-neutral, both to the buyer and to the seller's shareholders A purchase deal will also be called a merger when both CEOs agree that joining together is in the best interest of both of their companies. But when the deal is unfriendly that is, when the target company does not want to be purchased it is always regarded as an acquisition. Whether a purchase is considered a merger or an acquisition really depends on whether the purchase is friendly or hostile and how it is announced. In other words, the real difference lies in how the purchase is communicated to and received by the target company's board of directors, employees and shareholders. It is quite normal though for M deal communications to take place in a so called ‘confidentiality bubble' whereby information flows are restricted due to