Dead and Breakfast Essay

The person who killed dusty could have been anyone of these people, they all had motive but only one of them was desperate enough to kill one of his closest friends. (7:20)The murderer must have been wearing gloves when he set the table again because he left traces of sodium, carbon, iron, and gold. When the Murderer saw his chance, he took it. 7:25)Right when the table had been set and no one was around he slipped the Potassium cyanide into Dustys cup. Now potassium cyanide is a hard thing to come by and only someone who had worked with it for many years would have known the right amount to give to Dusty to make him drop dead. (7:35) Dusty returns down stairs to finish his breakfast. (7:40) Dusty takes one drink then five minutes later he drops dead. Now let me fill you in on how all this evidence plays into this. Mr. Horace Throat had been experiencing some money problems with the mob and really need this auction to go well. Horace was counting on Dusty to help him out but when he let him down, he snapped. Horace had been working in metal finishing for many years and he used the same gloves as he did to work as he did to place the cyanide in the drink, which is how the traces of gold ended up on the table. Second Dusty was the only one of that group of people who had already had potassium cyanide on him because he was already doing work for Dusty. Horace Throat killed one of his closest friends and best buyers of many years just for money to pay off the mob.

Bhopal Disaster

The night of 3rd December marked an industrial disaster when more than 40 tons of methyl isocyanate gas leaked from a pesticide plant in Bhopal, India that instantly led to the death of approximately 3,800 people and causing permanent injuries for thousands more. The company involved shamelessly tried to avoid its legal responsibility. Nonetheless, a sum of $470 million was paid as compensation, a considerably small amount in comparison to the impact from the consequences of this tragedy.The aftermath of the disaster indicated the need for international standards for environmental safety and preventive strategies to sustain from similar accidents. India has experienced rapid industrialization since the disaster. Despite some positive changes to government policies and behavior in several industries, rapid and poorly regulated industrial growth still remains exposing India to a major threat. Degrading of environmental practices with adverse consequences to human health continues to oc cur throughout India. 2. IntroductionThe Bhopal disaster, also known as the Bhopal gas tragedy was an industrial disaster that took place at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in the Indian city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh releasing tons of toxic chemicals and gases. This report is carried out with the objective of obtaining sufficient knowledge of the entire tragedy that took place and providing a detailed substantive summary of the mishap. Firstly, objectives and the management structure of the Union Carbide are discussed in this report to gain an overview of the company involved and its practices.Subsequently, an observation is done with regards to the industrial processes and operations of the plant to understand the on goings of the plant. The critical area of this report summarizes the key risks and contributing factors that ultimately led to the accident which provides an insight of the flaws in the plant. The consequences of the aftermath are then identified to provide an overv iew of the negative impact resulting from the disaster followed by a brief discussion on the improvements that should be done in the management systems to prevent similar accidents from happening in the near future. 3.Objective and Structure of the Management The Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL), a chemical factory which formed its establishment in 1969 near Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh in India and was owned by Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) and the Indian authorities. Pesticides such as carbaryl was produced in this plant and in 1979, a new addition was made whereby the methyl isocyanate (MIC) plant was introduced to the site. Prior to 1979, the methyl isocyanate was imported from its parent company in the United States and India was one of the three dozen countries whereby the parent company had affiliates and business interest.It was stated that the UCC had done extensive research on the chemical and had sufficient knowledge on handling the chemical. Methyl Isocyanate, one of the m any intermediates used in pesticides is known to be a very hazardous chemical which weighs much lighter than water but twice the weight of air. In the event that the gas escapes to the atmosphere, it will remain close to ground and this highly sensitive chemical can react with many substances which could cause serious damage.UCIL was proud to celebrate its 50th anniversary in 1984 and was making sales of approximately $200 million annually whereby 14 plants were being operated and it was segregated into 5 operating divisions making it a diversified manufacturing concern. The shares were publicly traded on the Stock Exchange 24% of these shares were owned by government run insurance companies whilst 50. 9% of the shares were owned by UCC as part of a corporate global business strategy. http://www. wikipedia. org/bhopaldisaster Due to its centralized location in India which gave it a competitive edge, Bhopal was chosen as the site for the UCIL’s plant.Transporting products were eased by the existence of railway systems that spanned around the country which evidently brought to extensive cost savings. Furthermore, the location of the plant being situated nearby a large lake guaranteed sufficient water supple for the chemical processes. Electricity needs were also available in Bhopal to supply enough electricity to the plant that enabled the plant to operate 24 hours. The origin on the Bhopal plant was to supply pesticide in order to protect the Indian agricultural production.These pesticides were made to cater to the Indian market and to gain the ability to transform its agricultural sector into a modern activity. No doubt the benefits, the plant also had its perks. India is still nonetheless a developing country which at current still lacks the infrastructure necessary to support this chemical plant. Nevertheless, companies invested in the plant failing to realize the flaws in the infrastructure. The impracticality of the plant’s management brought the creation of a low cost plant with minimal safety features. UCIL also had weak policies, procedures and regulations for their workers.The management’s goals and missions were set beyond the plant’s capability and this is said to be one of the main causes of the tragedy. 4. Industrial Processes and Operation Union Carbide is a known plant that produces the pesticide plant in the Indian City of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh for agriculture purposes in India. Using MIC as an intermediate, an alternative trademark brand name for carbaryl is also known as Sevin. Until 1979, MIC was imported from the United States of America. Bayer, another known manufacturer successfully produced carbaryl without using MIC which evidently led to a greater manufacturing cost.Methyl isocyanate (MIC) is an organic compound that consists of molecules and in 1888, it was discovered as an ester of isocyanic acid. The production of carbate pesticides such as carbaryl, carbofuran, methomyl and aldicar b is an intermediate chemical of Methyl isocyanate. These pesticides were also being used in the production of rubber and adhesives. Methyl isocyanate is a very hazardous chemical which can lead to chronic diseases and death. The chemical process or route that was used in Bhopal plant was to form a reaction between the methylamine with phosgene which could bring to the production of methyl isocyanate.Subsequently, this methyl isocyanate was then reacted with 1 – naphthol to form the end product. This route varies from the MIC free route used elsewhere in which the similar raw materials are used but in a different manufacturing order. This process would begin by forming a reaction between the phosgene and naphtol to produce chloroformate ester which would then be reacter with methyl amine. Either one of these processes would require the chemicals to be stored in large tanks. In the operational side, the plant workers were encouraged to use English manuals, even though only a m inority of them had a grasp of the language.Only six of the original twelve operators remained in service with MIC by 1984. There were no personnel to take on the position of a maintenance supervisor to be placed on the night duty and furthermore, instrument readings were only taken every two hours which differs from the normal practice. Through a union, workers made a strike and complained about these difficulties but no attention was given to them. http://www. wikipedia. org/bhopaldisaster The refrigeration system was designed to inhibit the volatilization of MIC whereby based on the manuals, it was advised that the MIC should be kept at 20 degrees.However, since May 1984 this refrigeration system had been shut down in Bhopal. Current practice shows that the methyl isocyanate should be kept below 5C and should be checked on all the time. Steam boilers were also used for the purposes of cleaning the pipes. 5. Risks that Lead to the Accident Bhopal gas disaster was an industrial tra gedy that took place at a Union Carbide pesticide plant in the city of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. At midnight on 3rd December 1984, it was reported that the plant had accidently released Methyl isocyanate gas and this mishap was exposed to more than 500,000 people.Official death toll announced by the government of Madhya Pradesh confirmed that a total of 3,787 deaths were the result of this gas tragedy. Factors leading to this tremendous gas leak include the use of hazardous chemicals such as MIC instead of a less dangerous but more expensive chemical. It was also noted that the flare tower and the vent gas scrubber had been dysfunctional for the past 5 months before the disaster took place. This eventually led to the gas scrubber not performing its function to treat the escaping gases with sodium hydroxide that subsequently brought the concentration down to a safe level.Investigations in the aftermath of the disaster pointed out that even if the scrubber was in a good working conditio n, the disaster would not have been prevailed as the maximum pressure it could handle was only one-quarter of that which was present in the mishap. Improper designing of the flare tower itself contributed to the tragedy as the tower could only support one-quarter of the volume of gas that was leaked in 1984. Since the cease of production in the early 1980’s, the maintenance of the plant has continuously deteriorated up to an intolerable limit which resulted in the failure of several safety systems.The steam boiler which existed to clean the pipes was out of service for reasons which are unknown. Furthermore, the omission of the slip blind plates installation has played its role in causing this disaster. This omission had incidentally led to a large amount water from the pipe cleanings to leak into the MIC tanks through faulty valves leading the temperature to rise to a level whereby the tank was not designed to support that subsequently resulted in a large amount of toxic gas es to be released..The MIC tank itself has been malfunctioned for roughly a week which caused other tanks to be used in that week. Instead of taking corrective action and repairing the dysfunctional tank, it was just left to â€Å"stew†. Overall to conclude, the build up in temperature and pressure was strongly believed to be the cause in the magnitude of the toxic gas released. Economic conditions also played its part in contributing to this mishap. It was said that the leaking of the large amount of water into the MIC tank was also due to bad maintenance and leaking valves.The pipes were not repaired as it was believed to be very costly and time consuming. Safety systems including the MIC tank refrigeration systems were also shut down to in order to bring cost savings and it is of the opinion that the MIC refrigeration system alone would have prevented the tragedy from happening. http://www. wisegeek. com/what-was-the-bhopal-disaster. htm Material corroding that took place in the pipelines was also the contributing factor to this disaster. Carbon steel valves that were being used in the factory would corrode when exposed to acid.Based on investigations, a leaking of carbon steel valves was found on the night of the disaster. Overall, several factors led to this industrial disaster namely caused by poor maintenance and regulations. 6. Consequences of the effect of the accident The Bhopal disaster can be said to be one of the world’s worst catastrophe that took place at the Union Carbide pesticide plant in the city of Bhopal, India. On 3rd December 1984, the plant released MIC and other toxic gases exposing more than 500,000 people.The city of Bhopal was surrounded with a mixture of poisonous gases causing great panic as people woke up with burning sensations in their lungs. Based on the government of Madhya Pradesh, the effect of the hazardous gas had caused 3,787 confirmed deaths and leaving many trampled in panic. Other sources estimated that around 8,000 people died within the next 72 hours from gas related diseases and roughly 100,000 – 200,000 people are estimated to have permanent injuries at different degrees. http://www1. american. edu/ted/bhopal. htmMass funerals and cremations were taking place as well as disposal of bodies in the Namada River. The health care system became tremendously overloaded as approximately 170,000 people required treatments at hospitals and temporary dispensaries. Authorities had marked 36 wards as being â€Å"gas affected†. Acute symptoms from the gases are burning in the respiratory tract, eyes, breathlessness, vomiting and choking which ultimately led to death. Humans were not the only ones affected from this terrible tragedy. Approximately 2,000 buffaloes, goats and other animals’ carcasses were collected and buried.The effect on trees could be seen immediately as the leaves yellowed and fell of within a few days. Food supplies became scarce due to the fear being felt by suppliers. Further shortages were also caused once fishing activities was prohibited. http://www. bhopal. com/pdfs/browning. pdf Overall, this mishap has brought fear and has frightened many people as the Bhopal city was turned into a toxic city. A settlement was finally concluded in 1989, whereby UCC agreed to pay the Indian government a sum of $470 million in full and final settlement of its civil liability. After the lap f 25 years, 390 tons of toxic chemicals were left neglected at the plant which continued to pollute the ground water which affected thousands of residents who relied on it. 7. Improvements to prevent the accident Substantive investigations pointed out that the main reason which escalated this disaster is due to the management’s intention on reducing their expenses. The design of the plant had been modified by the Indian engineers in order to bring cost savings. This practice should be improvised and the plant should be designed thoroughly and prope rly to support the volume of production and the type of chemical produced.A contributing factor to the tragedy was weak management practices that should be made more stringent. A proactive policy should be adopted whereby dysfunctional items and parts of the plant should be fixed immediately instead of prolonging the situation despite it being costly and time consuming. Strict maintenance should be carried out on a routine basis and the MIC tanks should be continuously monitored to ensure that all processes are smooth going. Rules and regulations set for the plant should be adhered and complied to prevent any setbacks. ttp://www. wisegeek. com/what-was-the-bhopal-disaster. htm As the plant’s production involves a hazardous chemical, more experienced workers in dealing with such reactive chemicals should be hired instead on focusing on low labor cost. Trainings should be provided continuously to improve their expertise. Furthermore, extensive research and studies on how to han dle chemicals of this sort should be carried out prior to any processes to ensure that the staff has sufficient knowledge on what to do and what to expect.Despite sufficient trainings and research, mishaps can occur any at given time. Following that, it is always best to have a detailed contingency and back up plans in order to contain any rotten situation. A good practice is always to expect the unexpected in order to be ready for mishaps. This tragedy has affected the lives of many in the Bhopal city. It is recommended that such factories as this plant should not be located in residential areas and best located in the outskirts to prevent residents being exposed to toxic gases.Ultimately, this disaster would have been prevailed with good management practices, abiding to rules and regulations set and also focusing on safety systems instead of cost savings. http://www1. american. edu/ted/bhopal. htm * 8. Conclusion * The Bhopal gas disaster marked one of the most tragic accidents in the world. The pesticide plant in Bhopal, India was managed by UCIL, a subsidiary of the UCC, had begun the production of a hazardous chemical, methyl isocyanate in 1979. The findings from this research pointed out that UCIL had weak policies and regulations and was prioritizing more on cost savings at the expense of the plant’s safety. The operational side of the plant was suffering from lack of staff namely there was no maintenance supervisor responsible to monitor the MIC tanks. Furthermore, critical parts of the plants were being left unattended when it was dysfunctional due to it being costly and time consuming to repair. Safety systems of the plant were being comprised in order to reduce expenses. * * To conclude, the main improvement to be done is to emphasize on the plants design to support the volume and type of production.Stringent policies and regulations should be set and adhered to in order to prevent similar accidents. Management should divert from a cost savin gs mindset and priorities more on the plant’s safety systems. * Despite being 25 years since the incident, tons of toxic chemicals were still abandoned at the plant and continued to pollute the ground water that affected thousands of residents. Overall, this disaster has brought awareness that international standards for environmental safety should be enforced to prevent similar mishaps. .References 1. Bhopal disaster,online,retrieved 15 November 2009 from http://www. wikipedia. org/bhopaldisaster 2. Bhopal disaster, online, retrieved 15 November 2009 from http://www1. american. edu/ted/bhopal. htm 3. Jackson B. Browning 1993, Health, Safety and Environmental Programs Union Carbide Corporation, online, retrieved 16 November 2009 from http://www. bhopal. com/pdfs/browning. pdf 4. What was the Bhopal disaster, online, retrieved 18 November 2009 from http://www. wisegeek. com/what-was-the-bhopal-disaster. htm

Anaylsis of a Sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards

Jonathan Edwards told congregation of Enfield, Connecticut in 1741, who wanted to turn people who thought they were too much to Christianity. Edwards creates scores using different metaphorical language strategies to capture the emotional aspects of the audience. By using various styles to scare his audience, Edwards' sermon, powerful words bring good results. Obviously, people rely on God to keep them away from hell. Your evil makes you heavy like a collar, and makes you go to hell with great weight and pressure. In his sermon Sinner in the wrath of God, Jonathan Edwards wrote to his audience and those who read the sermon in the form of a booklet - later they are sinners, sentenced to hell It was convinced that it would be done. As long as they rely on Christ and believe that his grace will be saved. Amazingly, most of the sermons of Edwards are not eternal condemnation, but about the love of God. Nevertheless, this sermon has become an integral part of his religious heritage in the United States. In American early history and literary research, college students often encounter sinners in angry god 's hands. This is usually a quick work between Salem Magic Trial and American Revolution. The sermon of Calvinist theology is drawn with an angry god hanging people in the holes of hell, so you can feel the strangeness of modern American emotions. This article reexamined the sermon of Jonathan Edwards' sinners in the hands of angry gods. There are two main goals. First, studying this sermon should give a clearer understanding of the nature of the god of Edward. That preaching states that God is angry, and that his anger is specifically directed to sinners, but you can not ignore the sacred attributes of another wonderful class that Edwards emphasizes. His grace, compassion, compassion, patience, and love. Edwards believes that this is because of the grace of God that calls pure happiness, and the sinner has not been destroyed yet, but appeals to respond to the audie nce, not the god who prefers to destroy sinners. God's grace for faith and repentance. The God of Edwards is an angry god who exactly hates sin and sinners

Pitfalls and Prospects in Partnership Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Pitfalls and Prospects in Partnership - Article Example This essay will explain and analyze the pitfalls and prospects in Partnership in Probation Programmes for substance misusing offenders. Based on researches crimes are usually committed by those who are under the influence of drugs. The article of Judith Rumgay and Sharon Cowan has presented the effectivity of partnership in the probation programmes. If the probation service is to play significant roles in working with problem drug users, this will inevitably involve more partnership work with drug services. The aim of the article is to present the Pitfalls and prospects in partnership in probation programme for substance misusing offenders. Impact on inter-agency relationships is beginning. Home office directions to probation services are forging financial partnerships with voluntary sector organisations. For the past ten years the probation services has been increasingly working in conjunction with other agencies. The probation services are being pressured to work with criminally involved problem drug users. The Advisory Council for the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD, 1991) made specific recommendations about probation service delivery. In addition, the 1991 Criminal Justice Act revised the statutory provision for the treatment of drug- (and alcohol-) misusing offenders within a probation order. The authors report on an ongoing study of partnerships between probation services and substance misuse agencies in England and Wales. Rumgay and Cowan compare the expectations of partnership as revealed in policy and management perspectives with the experience of probation officers and drug/alcohol workers involved in projects at pract ice level. The authors compare the expectations of partnership as revealed in policy and management perspective with the experience of probation officers and drug/alcohol workers involved in projects at practice level. The following differences between successful and problematic partnerships are explored and the question is asked as to how far inter-agency relationships are influenced by the additional factor of financial contracts for the services of voluntary agencies. Statutory and Voluntary agency partnerships in community supervision of offenders are considered with particular reference to issues in compulsion and enforcement. Discussion The involvement of private and public sector in the development of a new probation services is important. The probation service supports and monitors offenders in the community, oversees the implementation of Community Sentences, administers a range of Offender Behaviour Programmes and provides a service to the courts where pre sentence reports are required. It works in partnership with Prison Service, the Police, the Drugs Intervention Programme and the Youth Offending Team and at a strategic level with the local authority and other NGO's. The article provides information on how the service is being rendered to the offender. NGO group such as the staff of voluntary sector housing providers and employment and training agencies are embedded at a local level and there are established links with services specialising in mental health and alcohol. The aim to reduce

Mental Health Training for UK Crown Prosecution Lawyers Article

Mental Health Training for UK Crown Prosecution Lawyers - Article Example In order for the Crown Prosecution lawyer to achieve this objective, first, they need to be able to understand and emphasize with their client themselves. - Anna Bird, states that â€Å"MIND believes that CPS does not provide sufficient  training about mental health for prosecutors to make consistently good decisions concerning mental health and credibility. We understand that prosecutors-indeed all lawyers- receive no mental health awareness training at all. Given the strength of the association between distress and not being believed, it is cited that all justice professionals understand the relationship between credibility and mental health in order to ensure equal access to justice† (Bird, 2008). - Countless offenders, chiefly those with a record of persistent offending, have mental health problems that may be correlated to their offending behavior pattern. Additionally, this population of persistent offenders with mental health problems are disproportionally higher than those reported in the general offender population. Often they are also associated with ‘issues of drug and/or alcohol misuse and social exclusion’ (Lewis, 2007, p.1). -Help to identify links between mental health problems and persistent offending, this will lead to a reduction in persistent offending, and in addition help to develop prevention programmes aimed at persistent offenders who have received a diagnosis of a psychiatric or psychological problem. - A report provided by MIND (Another Assault, 2007) has shown a lack of awareness from the criminal justice system about mental health issues, much of which is because they have received no training at all in the area of mental health, its varying symptoms and effects on the individual.

Occupational Health and Safety Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Occupational Health and Safety Report - Essay Example This common reoccurrence in this department are heavily expensive in terms of revenue and employees on leave due to workplace injury. I personally think there should be a distinct appropriation sequestered for those types of emergencies. Workplace hazards are an issue within my department in which I must take care of. However, I feel there is lackluster effort on your part in aiding my cause. I pray this composition does not create strife or offend you in any sort but it is my every intention this may be read as a cordial admonishment. Work place hazard regulations have been drafted and implemented in the past few decades in Australia as well as other industrialized countries. The promulgations of such mandates are the byproduct of horrors and abuses of the industrial age. Thus, to prevent and limit the abuses and mistreatment of huge businesses and corporations for its faulty safety methods and little, if not any, precaution procedures, lawmakers has taken initiatives to protect those unable to stand against employers who usurp their less- fortunate employees. Also, labor unions grew to further protect workers hazards and wrongful dischargement. Such efforts to reform safety measures has transcended through the decades to protect workers from hazards the can affect the health of an employee. (www.ohs.annu.edu.au/ohs, 2002) In this composition, an analysis will be done of the regulations and legislations on occupational health and safety. A situation will be used a variable in which the occupational health and saf ety will have to be implemented. Here are the particulars: On Wednesday, October 24, 2007, our receptionist in the Administration Department of the East Coast Secretarial Service, Mary Smith, tripped over an extension cord en route away from her desk. Her misstep caused her to fall heavily on her knee which was a critical insult to her bone and joint. This trauma to her knee prompted edema accumulation. I instructed one of her colleagues who witnessed Mary misstep to accompany her to the hospital. The X-ray results revealed that a piece of the platella has been fractured off the main bone. The prognosis to insults to the body such as these prompts the immediate leave of absence. Hence on this precept, Mary Smith has been given two fortnights of leave and she will be given an extended leave of absence upon further analysis of her knee after her preliminary respite. Events such as these prompted me to address you my concerns about the status of this enterprise. The "lack of uniformity" (www.ohs.annu.edu.au/ohs, 2002) in the regulations can be an impediment toward adjusting to these laws, but I believe this gives us the opportunity to make amends on our own. The recommendations in the British Robens Report (1972) encourages enterprises like ours to use a self-regulation methodology that includes workers and management to improvise the Occupational Health and safety standards set down be the state. (www.ohs.annu.edu.au/ohs, 2002) In chapter 4, section 2, divisions 3 on the Occupational Health and Safety Act 2000 in regards to work premises, the prefect of the premises are obligated to protect employees from hazardous electrical equipment and appliances. (www.austii.edu.au, 2001) All appliances that places a potential threat to employees (i.e. fires, flaring, overheating) should to be turned off. Appliances that are open in workplace premises and can be a

Politics and Sport Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Politics and Sport - Essay Example The ideology has the tendency to promote mobility socially, fight for the rights of the society occupants most so the women. At the same time the ideology fights for equality in inclusion between the minority and the majority in the society as they try to promote policies that exploit new ways of doing sports as they emerge (Riordan 2007, p.2). The impacts of the ideology on sports has since died in Europe specifically the USSR with most of its impacts still only being felt in the countries of the far East like China, Cuba and North Korea. Countries most so the ones which did not practice communist sports got interested in the game after the countries like Germany and Soviet Union excelled in the Olympics (Riordan 1978, p.16). Therefore, they wanted to know how such countries were treating sports. The findings were much extensive; the ideology tries to use models of sports that transform the society from handling sports in a traditional manner into a modern manner. Sports is used to promote important life issues like health and hygiene, productivity of the people, defense or even the integration of diverse ethnic communities of a country (Lee and Bairner 2009, p.97). Communism and sports derived a basis from the fact that most of the countries that practiced it had a lot of rural and illiterate population. Communism presents sports as an agent of social change as guided by the state, hence the essence of the leisure classes which used to be held after revolutions or liberations (Senn and Riordan 1992, p.43). Certain theories under communist ideology stressed on the importance of steadiness in the physical as well as the mental states of the human beings. This prompted and encouraged sports a lot as it was considered wise and vital to develop the mental and the physical aspects of the population alongside the other. Most of the communists’ countries posses’ political instability as an issue of controversy coupled with less economic and social

Managerial Economics Individual Work wk1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Managerial Economics Individual Work wk1 - Essay Example Some of these are discussed below: Scarcity is the excess of human wants over the resources he holds (Devlin, 2014). As the resources available to the world are limited while wants are unlimited, therefore we say that the resources are scarce in relation to human wants. Opportunity cost means trade-off of one desire for the choice of another. Since resources are scarce compared to human wants, every person needs to make choice of what he should purchase with his limited resources (ICAP, 2013). It is not possible for a person to buy everything with his resources. Hence if a person has two choices of buying a burger or some bread and he chooses to buy a burger, then the amount of bread he ignored for that burger is the opportunity cost of that burger. It shows those economic activities in which income earned by one factor is the expense of the other factor (Hirschey, 2008). For example, in a commercial organization, labor provides factor services and in return the organization pays the labor wages. These wages are income for the labor whereas expense for the organization. Market efficiency is directly related to property ownership. It may be explained as whenever there is a factor of property ownership in a specific region, there will be economic stability which will then lead to efficient markets. Let us take the example of America where property ownership is not very difficult. For this reason, the people in that region, after ownership of the property, look towards further investments in the region. It is a well-known fact that where investment increases, markets get more and more competitive leading to market efficiency. Illegal immigration means moving or living in a country without its citizenship or legal visa of the country. In almost all the countries of our world, illegal immigration is strictly prohibited. These countries quickly deport such immigrants as soon as they

Jacques-Louis David Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Jacques-Louis David - Essay Example However, he was more interested in drawing than studying to be an architect. Because of David’s growing discontent and his failure to do well at the college, his mother and uncles sent him to study under a distant relative; Francois Boucher, a well-known Rococo artist. Soon Boucher also recognized David’s restlessness and his rejection of the Rococo genre. As a result of this Boucher persuaded his friend, Joseph-Marie Vien, to take David under wing for the purpose of instruction him in the classical painting style. He also wanted Vien to see to it that David the attended the Royal Academy-later to be known as The Louvre. Attending the academy represented another turning point in David’s life. Finally, he was able to do what he wanted to do. Excited about the possibilities now awaiting him, it wasn’t long until he met a constitute-Gavin Hamilton. With his approval and others of the same thinking, it wasn’t long until David was confident in his own abilities and works. Soon he was recognized as one of the most important artists of the neo-classical movement. However, he felt he could do more in Paris, and returned there in 1780. In the years following this, David began to be considered as one of the most serious artists of the times to represent the social and political society in which they lived. Still under tutelage of Vien, David was full of ambition and confident in his work to the point of believing he could win the academy’s acclaimed â€Å"Prix de Rome† award. After several failed attempts to do so, David became enraged at the judges, including Vien, for their favoring lesser talented students over him. According to legend, David was so upset over this that he attempted to starve himself. Overcoming his despair, he continued to compete for the award, and in 1774, he succeeded- his diligence had finally been rewarded. Soon after this, Vien was appointed director of the French Academy of Rome in Italy.

President Johnson and the Vietnam War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

President Johnson and the Vietnam War - Essay Example l analysts was only because majority of Americans were against the war and he required to be elected hence did what the majority of the citizens wanted. As soon as he was elected, he started receiving pressure to send in more American troops to Vietnam because the South Vietnamese (who America was supporting) were losing the war. He gave in and started sending in more and more troops and hence lost his focus on domestic issues and concentrated on the war. This situation was not approached correctly because President Johnson knew that the American citizens who had elected him were against the war and were concerned about their domestic welfare. Even with this knowledge in mind, he still went ahead and sent in more troops. He therefore lost favor of majority of the American citizens and hence was not even re-elected. He also made most American troops in the Vietnam die as a result of the war and because he wanted to win

A good neighbour Essay Example for Free

A good neighbour Essay A good neighbour is a blessing while a bad neighbour is a curse. The city-bred people are generally lacking in sympathy. They are mostly cold in their manners; they are more selfish than the villagers who are large hearted. I live in a thickly populated part of the town. I like to cultivate good relations with the people around me. I believe that no man, however rich or strong, can live in self-sufficiency. My next door neighbour to the right is Mr. Tara Singh. We are on the best of terms. We are deeply attached to each other. He is a gentleman par-excellence. He has a completely non-communal outlook on life. We share each others joys and sorrows. He has a jolly temperament. His robust optimism and his constant high spirits have always cheered me. Whenever some anxiety weighs upon me, I immediately seek his company and draw comfort from his ever-smiling face and carefree looks. He makes light of an illness, a financial loss, a near and dear ones death, even an insult, whereas anyone of these things is sufficient to rob me of my peace of mind and impose a severe strain on me. His companionship dispels all my fears, doubts and worries. We daily go for a walk together. We are both fond of boating and go to the river for boating every Sunday. We both have a passion for chess and never miss a game or two every evening. He is also a cinema fan like me. We differ in our preferences for film stars but that does not prevent us from enjoying a picture together. He cannot tolerate my smoking. His hatred is not based on any religious sentiment. He just feels a natural aversion for it. He is very stingy. I have often tried to set before him an example of liberality but he continues to be close-fisted. He is very much interested in sports. He does not miss any sporting event. We like each other immensely and I can call him a good neighbour who is very accommodating. Just opposite me there is the palatial house of Seth Karori Mai. He is some rare specimen of humanity. He is a millionaire. He is issueless but he is so miserly that he would not spend a penny. He is a thin and lean fellow. He is putting on the same weather-beaten suit which he purchased of a second -hand dealer twenty years back. He never brushes it lest it should wear out sooner. He never takes milk or fruit. He lives on a few biscuits, a rotten banana or an orange and a cup of tea without milk. He has more than half a dozen buildings but he himself lives in a small, dark, dingy room. His room is electric fitted but he never makes use of electric light. He lights a small candle when he stands in need of light. If some drops of wax are split over, he would go on collecting them and remould them into candles. To buy a banana or an orange, he would trot all the way to the fruit market and would buy a few rotten bananas or oranges after a lot of higgling, haggling. He trusts nobody. He hates social contacts. He is a big banker. He lends money at usurious rates of interest. Money is his God. He loves hoarding. He never gives a penny in charity. He is selfish and greedy. He fleeces his tenants but seldom looks to their needs. He seldom wears shoes and never goes to the movies. He is always serious and business-like. He never presents a smiling face to anybody. He is quite illiterate but very quick at figures. He is a psychologist and can easily read your mind. He is very shrewd. He has a very strong instinct. He is too clever to be ever taken in by anybody. He is a past master in the art of exacting money from others. You will be surprised to know that his bank balance runs into eight figures. From his general appearance, one will be led to think that he is a very poor miserable fellow who is penniless. I have failed in my efforts to draw him into conversation or establish any social contact with him. He is a man of few words. People avoid his ominons looks in the morning. Small children are terribly afraid of him. My neighbour on the left-hand side is a college lecturer. He has married quite recently. His wife is also a college lecturer. They form a happy couple. They are a well-matched pair. They live in perfect harmony. They have refined tastes. They are always dressed according to the latest fashion. Their rooms are artistically decorated. The modern paintings, curtains and curios in the rooms, all make you envy them. They have cultured friends and I love to hear their fine jokes and laughter. There are some other people also in my street. But there is nothing about them worth mentioning. They just lead their lives like machines and attract no notice of their neighbours.

Paper on Career Skills Essay Example for Free

Paper on Career Skills Essay 1. Career direction It starts with five articles which help you think about career direction. These tools help you uncover what you do best and identify the types of work that you’ll enjoy doing most. From this, you can figure out how to make the most of your skills and preferences, whether in your current role or in a new one. a. Personal SWOT Analysis shows you how you can apply the well-known SWOT strategy tool to your life and career, helping you identify your strengths and weaknesses as well as the opportunities open to you and the threats you face. This leads naturally into the idea of job crafting. This is something that many of us do subconsciously to some extent, but our article gives you a rigorous approach that you can use to craft your ideal job. b. Develop your career in various ways. We show you what you can be doing now to future proof your career and to get ready for promotion. And if you’re frustrated because your hard work and abilities are going unnoticed, find out how to get the recognition you deserve. we show you how to live with a lack of job security and how to cope with life after job loss. Yet even when the economy’s booming, you can still face challenging career situations such as hitting a â€Å"glass ceiling†. We round off this section with two articles that will help you transition through significant events in your career. First, we look at what you can do when you get a new boss, and then we see how to wrap up in one role before moving on. Finding Career Direction Discover Yourself and Your Purpose How long has it been since you asked yourself what you want to be when you grow up? If you havent considered the idea since high school, then you may have settled into a job that is not fulfilling your professional aspirations, or your purpose. Each of us has particular talents that, when expressed or exercised, make the world a better place. Most likely you enjoy doing these things, and you find that people respond well to you when you do them. Perhaps theyre things you gravitate towards during out-of-hours activities, and that people respect you for. When you develop these talents as far as you can, you can make your greatest possible contribution to the world, and enjoy personal and professional satisfaction that goes along with this. Your Career Direction Journey The process of uncovering what you are meant to do, that is finding career direction, is a journey. It starts with discovering the essential you: the person who truly resides behind the facades, defenses, and stresses of everyday life. Once unmasked, your journey continues with specific career exploration and identification of a career that allows you to make good use of your talents. And it moves on with a focused job or career move, in which you identify the jobs you want and put yourself in the best possible position to get them. In fact, this journey never really ends because work itself is all about change, growth, development, and reinvention. By taking a talent-based approach to your career search right from the start, you keep yourself heading toward the right career even when the actual direction shifts over time. This approach consists of sequentially answering three questions: 1. Who Am I? 2. What Do I Want to Do? 3. How Do I Get Hired? 1. Discovering Who You Really Are The first question to answer is Who am I? Well take two approaches to answering this firstly asking you to explore your talents, and secondly using psychometric tests to explore your preferences. Exploring Your Talents First of all, consider your answers to the following questions: * When have you been most committed, passionate and enthusiastic? * When have you been most creative? * When have you been most sure of yourself and your decisions? * What do you consider to be your greatest accomplishment? * When have other people considered you to be most successful? * When have you enjoyed your work most? * What talents were you relying on, and using, in these situations? * For what would you take a very strong stand? * What about the world puzzles or disturbs you that you could make an impact on? * What jobs do you like to do at work when you have a choice? * What activities are you drawn towards out of work? * If money were no concern, what would you be doing? Brainstorm each of these questions, and then use your answers to identify the top three talents that you most use when youre successful. Rank these in order. Tip:If youre having problems choosing, use a technique like paired comparison analysis to rank things in order. | Personality Inventories Next, well look at using personality inventories as a way of looking at your preferred way of working relative to other people. There are many typologies available including Myers-Briggs, DISC (Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Conscientiousness) and the strength finder evaluation in Now Discover Your Strengths. Tip 1: Some of these cost quite a lot of money, however considering the importance of what youre doing, it is probably worth investing in them if you havent already done so. Tip 2: It can be hard initially to see how to apply these tests. One trick is to turn things around, and as you identify possible careers, think about what personality type is most likely to be successful in these careers. Is there a match or a mismatch? Well do this later. Tip 3: Treat these tests as advisory only you cant capture the whole complexity of your personality and experience with only a few questions. That said, youll probably find the tests quite insightful! | With personality testing you learn what you have in common with other people. You also discover potential points of friction with people of other personality types. While no personality type is good or bad, it does help you discover what motivates and energizes you. This in turn empowers you to seek those elements in the work you choose to do, and avoid the things that frustrate and demotivate you. As you explore your personality you come to realize that who you are is really determined by the choices you make. You choose to react one way over another, or to prefer one thing to another. You can take this self-awareness one step further by examining why you make the choices you do. In psychological terms, what is your payoff for making the choices you make? When you know the why it is easier to see how you can become fulfilled through the work you do. Write a Who I Am Statement Now draw this together into a simple written statement of who you are. This is an important step toward self-discovery and defining your purpose. Use it to answer the following questions: * What your talents and strengths are. * The talents you achieve most with. * The activities you get most satisfaction from. * The type of activity the psychometrics youve completed guide you towards. Tip: When youre doing this, be careful not just to look back nostalgically at simple jobs where you performed well after all, many different people could perform well in these situations, and this gives you little information. Focus instead on more difficult areas where you made a positive difference, and where others didnt. 2. Finding Out What You Want to Do Now that you know who you are, the next stage is to think about what you want to do. For your life to be balanced and fulfilled, your career must be aligned with who you are: Otherwise youll be unhappy with work, and youll probably underachieve. After all, ill-fitting jobs demand different talents from the ones that you have. If you try to pursue a career path that is at odds with your values, your beliefs, and your way of seeing the world, then youll struggle constantly and be under a great deal of stress and pressure. The starting point is to do some brainstorming on the jobs that you think would suit who you are. Well then confirm this with some different psychometric tests, and then extend this list with some more brainstorming. You then need to spend some time researching the top careers youve identified. i. Exploring the Options You Know About Starting with your Who I Am statement, start thinking about all of the jobs you can see that would suit you someone with the talents and interests in that statement (by depersonalizing it in this way, you help to avoid being too close to the issue.) Starting here is particularly important if youre already established in a career: Its important to capitalize where you can on the experience and contacts youve already built up, compared with ditching everything and starting completely afresh (while this sounds glamorous and enticing, it puts you in the position of competing equally with other career starters, who may be much younger than you. On the other hand, if youre profoundly unhappy with your company, industry and profession, a radical career change may be the best thing) So start by asking yourself if your current role can be adapted to suit you much better; if there are other roles within your existing company that would be worth trying; or whether similar roles in other organizations might be more rewarding. Once youve done this, extend out and brainstorm the other options available. ii. Using Career Tests The next stage is to use online career tests to explore options that you might have missed. Useful ones are: Free, but limited career selection advice: Princeton Review Career Quiz Chargeable (but inexpensive, and with good selections of possible careers): http://www.self-directed-search.com http://www.assessment.com iii. Thinking Further The unavoidable flaw with these career tests is that theyre based on backward-looking data, and can only cope with the major career types. Because of this, they cant recommend new careers, nor do they know about less well-known careers. Using the test results as a starting point, do some brainstorming to see if there are new technology careers which demand similar personality types, or if there are more obscure careers that may also be open. iv. Pulling This Together. Youll now have identifies a wide range of possible careers open to you. Nows the time to cut these down and prioritize them. Were not asking you to choose one now, but to cut down to your top 5 or 6 choices (the reason being that when you start researching these careers, some of them may turn out to be quite bad!) Again, if youre having trouble prioritizing, use paired comparison analysis to rank your choices. v. Perform Career Research Armed with a solid understanding of how you can participate in fulfilling work, you now need to research the various options you have to make money doing so. Career research is not something many people relish, but it is necessary in order to eliminate choices that seem to be great fits on the surface but really wont align with your mission and purpose. Yes, this is quite tedious. But think about the consequences of getting things wrong! Surely its worth spending time exploring your options, rather than a lifetime kicking yourself for making a bad choice! Methods for researching careers include: * Researching the career using sites like Acinet.org, so that you can understand industry trends, job pay levels, qualifications needed, job availability, etc. * Conducting your own PEST Analysis to confirm your own view of likely career trends. * Reading industry/career magazines and get a sense of how happy the industry is, who the major players in it are, and what the issues and problems within it are. Also, looking at job vacancies to see if the career is in demand. * Understanding what talents and personalities make people successful in the career, and mapping these back against your own talents and personality. * Attending professional and trade shows. * Participating in job fairs; * Visiting company websites, and keep an eye on how companies are talked about in the press. * Understanding where organizations are based, and deciding if youre prepared to travel to interviews, and perhaps to move. * Volunteering. * Working part time and/or seasonally in the industry. Tip: Be careful when using career trends to identify career possibilities: The desire to pursue an up and coming career may overshadow your mission and purpose. This will only lead to dissatisfaction down the road. Also be aware that theres a natural desire from people within an industry to inflate its prospects (to ensure a good supply of new recruits in the future.) Take official figures with a pinch of salt! | By the end of all of this research, you may have rejected several possible careers. Nows the time to narrow down to one! Again, Paired Comparison Analysis may be useful here, however so can Grid Analysis which helps you make comparisons where many variables are involved. 3. Answering How do I Get Hired? In this last phase you answer, What am I going to do to get hired? With your Who I Am statement and your research as your compass, now you need to actually map your progress. Many people tend to move from their purpose right into job search mode. This is a mistake because unless you have a plan, it is far too easy to get derailed by a lucrative job offer, an opening that Uncle Vinny has, a job that sounds really glamorous, or a whole host of other distractions. Develop your plan first and youre more likely to get where you want to go, faster. * Start by writing down the career you want. What is your long-term vision for yourself in terms of your career? * Write down the steps you need to take or the things you need to accomplish, in order to get there. What qualifications should you get? What experience should you build? Which organization will give you the best start? * For each of these steps create a detailed implementation plan. * These are your short term goals. * Be sure to express as SMART objectives. * Go back and identify contingency plans * Do a what if analysis on your goals If you dont get accepted to grad school this year, what will you do? Tip: The more contingency plans you have the more likely you will be able to survive the inevitable setbacks. You will also have much more confidence in yourself despite the bumps in the road. Tip 2: Recognize that the more opportunities you have, the better the job that youll be able to choose. Concentrate on creating as many opportunities as possible! | Now you are free to pursue your dream career with confidence. There are certainly no guarantees but with the right amount of planning and a sufficient dose of reality, the career that you are meant for will materialize. Signs a career direction evaluation may be in order: * Your job lacks challenge and excitement for you. * You are feeling unappreciated. * Your promotional and/or development opportunities are limited. * You are no longer having fun. * Learning is replaced with routine. * You sense that your skills and talents are being wasted. * You are suffering from stress or depression. Finding career direction is a process. The more effort you put into the planning stages the better your results. Uncovering your true self and your purpose is heavy, emotional work and you may have to go through this process a few times in the span of your working life. The effort however, is certainly worth it when you end up with a clear sense of the direction your career should be taking.

A Critique of Data warehousing in Enterprise Resource Planning Systems

A Critique of Data warehousing in Enterprise Resource Planning Systems INTRODUCTION General Background There are different ways in which companies have collected and accessed the data in order to support and enhance the business. Since 1990s, with the emergence of the concept of business data warehouse, companies have been instituting data warehousing for data mining, data analysis, reporting and other business intelligence purpose (Matthias et al., 2003). Bill Inmon in 1990, defined data warehousing as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“a subject-oriented, integrated, non-volatile, and time-variant collection of data in support of managements decisions. He also stated that the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“data warehouse contains a very useful source of data for the explorer and data miner. The data found in the data warehouse is cleansed, integrated, organized. And the data is historicalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Inmon W. H, 2002). Data warehouse is also defined as the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“architecture used to maintain critical historical data that has been extracted from operational data storage and transformed into formats acce ssible to the organizations analytical communityà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Anne Marie, 2009). In the same decade, with the success of Material Requirements Planning 2 (MRP II) and its evolution to Enterprise resource planning (ERP), various companies implemented ERP software as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“integrated suitesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  that automate core corporate activities and helps the corporate managers to coordinate the common functions of an enterprise (Gibson et al., 1999). ERP can be defined as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“techniques and concepts for integrated management of business as a whole from the viewpoint of the effective use of management resources to improve the efficiency of enterprise management. ERP packages are integrated (covering all business functions) software packages that support these ERP conceptsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Alexis Leon, 2008). For every critical business decision taken, information is the foundation. To facilitate this, all functional areas of the organization are integrated using ERP (Chou, 2005). Most ERP vendors have an integrated business suite containing busi ness intelligence (BI) tools to access their data modules directly. However, data warehousing in ERP system is a complicated task that requires the use of various types of inputs like the historical data, and the information that are external to the ERP system (Peng and Nunes, 2008; Chaudhuri et al., 1997). Although ERP systems can integrate all business transaction data into their master databases for organizational planning, it may not be a solution for data analysis and decision support process. Selection of ERP, implementation and integration with BI is the costly and risky processes in the companys life span (Baki et al, 2005). This paper reviews the value of data warehousing in ERP systems. It identifies the power and the capabilities ERP and Data Warehousing. And, reviews the claims made by ERP vendors about their integrated BI solution. The conclusion is provided in the last section. Research Objectives The paper presents the study of features and claims by ERP vendors on its ERPs efficiency of the data warehousing in ERP system. This study attempts to critically review and question the claims by ERP vendors on their efficiency of Data warehousing in ERP systems. Research objective is also to identify those issues that occur in Data warehousing in ERP systems, and then map them in the research framework, perhaps with more detail related to the dimensions that are found. The issues are defined with the viewpoints of vendors and consultants. This paper will provide an overview of the issues and challenges that the intersection of these two IS concepts are creating. Research Design An overview of the importance of the information technology sector and a synopsis on enterprise resource planning systems are presented first, followed by a discussion on the research problem and the academic and practical motivations for undertaking the present study. The study is a review of literature, and claims made by prominent ERP vendors on the data warehousing in ERP system. Critical Literature Review The research design of this study consists of theoretical risk ontology through a critical literature review. A critical literature review was conducted by first searching for the appropriate literature. Initial phase of the literature research attempted to search and retrieve the secondary literature sources like journals, books and newspapers that are directly related to data warehousing in ERP, and data mining. In this process it was identified that current research studies on data warehousing in ERP system focus mainly on ERP selection, implementation, integration with data warehouse, and business intelligence (Chou et al, 2005; Shehab et al, 2004; Davenport, 1998; Themistocleous et al, 2006). The process involved a search of prominent Publisher of journals in information services like ACM Portal, Emerald, Wiley Interscience and Web search engine Google Scholar and IEE Explore. Journals and databases were searched by generating key words and search terms with initial reading and brainstorming. I decided to focus my study on articles that discuss the ERP and particularly the integration with BI. This paper presents the critical literature review about the data warehousing in ERP systems. ERP SYSTEMS Definition of ERP ERP system is a software package that integrates the flow information through the company, including financial, accounting, human resources, supply chain, and customer information. Yen et al (2002) defined ERP system as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“a business management system that integrates all facets of the business, including planning, marketing and manufacturingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . An integrated ERP system can cover wide range of functionalities like reporting, planning, budgeting, forecasting, strategy management, scorecards, and risk management (SAP, 2009) and integrate them into one unified database. It automates core corporate activities by incorporating best practices to facilitate rapid decision making, cost reduction, and greater managerial control (Holland et al, 1999). For example, functional modules such as manufacturing, warehouse management, human resources, finance, customer relations management, supply chain management were all once stand alone software applications, typically having its own database and network (tech-faq, 2009). Best practices are incorporated as a result of the long development history of the ERPs. ERP market is led by companies like SAP AG, Oracle Corporation, Sage Group, Microsoft Corporation and Infor Global Solutions (Wikipedia, 2009). Importance of ERP An important reason for implementing ERP is that, it can help companies re-engineer their business process and compete in the market. Davenport (1998) says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“for managers who have struggled, at great expense and with great frustration, with incompatible information systems and inconsistent operating practices, the promise of an off-the-shelf solution to the problem of business integration is enticingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Following are the benefits of ERP systems over the distributed stand alone departmental systems (Yen et al, 2002): * Business process automation a unified enterprise view of the business that encompasses all functions and departments. Improvement in the supply chain via the use of e-communication and E-commerce. * Timely access to management information an enterprise database where all business transactions are entered, recorded, processed, monitored and reported There are many reasons why organizations find ERP system very attractive. The primary reasons focus on the frustrations in using the existing stand alone systems. Convincing reasons for a purchasing ERP system may include (Chen, 2001): * Efficiency of the current system Inability of the existing stand alone systems to support organizational needs * Failure in the distributed system The use of multiple points of input using multiple application which leads in duplicated effort of capturing and storing the data in existing system * Maintenance overhead in the current system The requirement of extensive resources (man and machine) for maintenance and support of the system. * Competition Competition in the global market and the desire to reengineer its business process * Company growth The growth of the enterprise and subsequent incompatibility of several legacy information system * E-commerce Inability of employees to respond easily to questions or information requested by key customer or suppliers ERP systems provide a common platform and business practices across the enterprise that allows the real-time access. According to Davenport (1998), ERP solutions are designed to solve the fragmentation of information in large business organisations, and integrate all the information flowing within a company. ERP failures ERP system implementation can either reap huge benefits for successful companies or it can be disastrous for organizations that fail to manage the implementation process (Holland et al, 1999). The selection and acquisition of ERP software is a risky and challenging task. And a wrong purchase may adversely affect the organization. Themistocleous states many reason for the failure of ERP system. For example, * Resistance from the employs against the change in the system * Differences between organisations and consultants as a result of cost overruns and projects delays. * Non-flexibility in ERP software forces organisation to abandon their way of doing business * Conflict with the business strategy of the organization Selecting ERP and implementation In-house software system development is generally expensive, time consuming and often covered by uncertainties and integration of various incompatible software systems may not function well with each other. If different software packages are being used, data may not be consistent. On the other hand purchasing off-the-shelf ERP software packages can solve problem. Holland et al (1999) says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“the companies are radically changing their information technology strategies by purchasing pre-packaged software instead of developing IT systems in-houseà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . There are different strategic approaches to ERP software implementation. It can be implemented with either a minimum deviation from the standard settings that the ERP vendor provides or with the customization of a system to suit local requirements (tech-faq, 2009). As discussed by Yusuf et al (2004) in the case study about the implementation of ERP in Rolls-Royce in partnership with Electronic Data Services (EDS), ERP implementation is a complicated task. The project implementation problems faced while implementing are * Cultural Problems Some of the functions and processes of the new system did not receive full appreciation from the employee. So, the implementation team had to resolve this by illustrating the improvements made to the company as a whole. Also extensive trainings were provided to the employees of Rolls-Royce. * Business Problems Because of the rigidity in the business structure of SAP R/3 ERP, employees of Rolls-Royce adjusted their working practices in order to fit SAP. * Technical Problems As the system required the retrieval of old data from legacy system which were in de-normalized form, Rolls-Royce had to run legacy system in parallel with the ERP until the expensive process of extracting the old data from legacy system was normalized, screened and stored in a sensible data format in the new database. Implementation of ERP and planning of the resources required to run the enterprise is not the end of the road for ERP. Organization will realize the full potential of ERP when it is used and properly managed (Yusuf et al, 2004). One of the main difficulties experienced by ERP implementations have been the costly development of additional software to summarize and retrieve the information for generating the reports (Themistocleous et al, 2001). A company that plans to invest into ERP needs to have a good strategy and a clear idea about the cost of ERP system. Implementation slowdowns the routine works within an organization. Customization is costly and time consuming (Yen et al, 2002). As outlined by Peng and Nunes (2009), reasons like insufficient user training, loss of in-house IT experts, bankruptcy of system vendor and barriers like inefficient communication between functional divisions can cause ERP post implementation failures Analytical and forecasting functions of ERP: Business managers will have different information needs for planning and decision making (Peng and Nunes, 2009). Decision support system can reduce the time, cost and improve efficiencies. Analytical and forecasting functions are the skills, processes used to support decision making and forecasting. Analytical and forecasting features of ERP can be accessed by managers using an interface such as web-based or graphical interface via the internet or intranet (Marnewick, 2005). If an organization does not take advantage of decision support systems, it cannot take complete advantage of the data and may lose its competitive edge. Most ERP systems today have highly integrated databases and business intelligence (BI) tools to access their data modules directly (Chou, 2005). ERP vendors, data warehousers, and third-party tool vendors have numerous products and solutions for using the ERP data. There are 3 major solutions for ERP data (searchSAP, 2009): 1. Solutions from third-party vendors that analyze data within ERP systems 2. ERP-based solutions that analyze data within ERP systems 3. ERP-based solutions that build data warehouses outside their ERP systems An ERP-based data warehouse is a classical, external data warehouse or data mart built with tools offered by an ERP vendor (Russom, 2007). ERP reports are generated using the existing ERP schema as the foundation for building the standard reports. Integrated business intelligence system pulls the data from ERP systems to a data warehouse and enables to perform data analysis and deliver superior reporting for making timely and accurate decision (Chou et al, 2005). Closer integration of corporate wide data warehousing data with ERP data potentially enhances companies return on their ERP and data warehouse investments (Wiley, 2009). ERP contains a set of analytical tools to facilitate sales planning. Yen et al (2002) says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“many companies deploy data warehouses for facilitating the data analysis in ERP. They will buy packaged analytic applications that include a data warehouse, analytical tools, and predefined data models to accelerate the data analysis in ERPà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . But, in spite of deploying ERP and an integrated data warehousing and BI, there is no guarantee that the forecast generated is up to the accuracy. As discussed by Peng and Nunes, one of the reasons for inaccurate forecasting is due to inherent difficulties in predicting the fluid market. This results in significant impact in companies. ERP systems are usually designed to record business transactions data, make changes to existing data, reconcile data, keep track of business transactions, run predefined business reports, and manage business transactions. In contrast, analytical systems are designed to examine large volumes of data and then to generate essential information for decision-making. There are five major software vendors offering ERP solutions to business worldwide. According to reports from Gartner Dataquest, quoted by destinationcrm (destinationcrm, 2006) SAP is the market share leader in ERP, followed by Oracle, Sage, Microsoft Dynamics and SSA Global Technologies. DATA WAREHOUSING AND DATA MINING Data Warehousing Bill Inmon (2002) says that the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“data warehouse contains a very useful source of data for the explorer and data miner. The data found in the data warehouse is cleansed, integrated, organized. And the data is historicalà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . To help managers and decision makers retrieve information they need from tremendous amount of data reside in database, many enterprises have built system environments focusing on data warehousing technology, deployed that as an integral part of a decision support systems (DSS). Data warehouse is responsible for providing information needed for supporting executive decision making. As a result, data warehousing technology has been integrated into ERP systems (Zhang et al, 2006). Yusuf et al (2004) defines Data warehouse as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“an integrated collection of data. The data is stored centrally and is extracted from operational, historical and external databasesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Data warehouses are used for decision support. Historical, summarized and consolidated data is more important than detailed, individual records. Data Mining Data mining is the study and extraction of patterns from a large set of data. It can be defined as the process of analyzing data from different viewpoints and summarizing it into useful information for planning and increase revenue. It allows users to analyze data from many different dimensions or angles, categorize it, and summarize the relationships identified (Anderson, 2009). Data mining can also be defined as the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“practice of automatically searching large stores of data to discover patterns and trends that go beyond simple analysisà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Oracle, 2009). Data mining uses sophisticated mathematical algorithms to slice the data and evaluate the probability of future events. The key properties of data mining are (thearling, 2009): 1. Automatic discovery of patterns 2. Prediction of likely outcomes 3. Creation of actionable information Data Mining is widely used in applications such as product analysis, demand and supply analysis, understanding consumer research marketing, investment trend in stocks real estates, telecommunications, e-commerce and so on (Chou et al, 2005). However, a database which is new and which has only a current piece of information is not suitable for data mining as it can never detect trends and long term patterns of behaviour. Historical data is very essential for data mining as historical data contains valuable chunk of information hidden in it. Mature data is crucial for understanding the seasonality of business and the larger cycles of business to which every corporation is subject (Inmon, 1996). Data mining uses data from data source in order to provide users with meaningful indicators. Data from ERP systems is used as data source. Modern ERP systems provide advanced BI tools out of the box, avoiding the hassle of connecting a stand-alone BI system, and lowering the cost which is a critical capability to consider ERP for midsize companies, with limited staff and resources to maintain multiple systems (Newcomer, 2009). After implementing the ERP system in organizations, they tend to concentrate more on the return on investment (ROI). Chou et al (2005) says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“In order to justify their return-on-investment (ROI), more and more organizations are turning to BI tools that make data collected by ERP, customer relationship management (CRM), and other data-intensive applications meaningfulà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Since a BI system includes technologies for reporting, analysis, and sharing information, many ERP vendors have integrated these solutions with ERP systems to truly maximize the ROI of ERP. The integration of BI and ERP systems can strengthen corporate decision-making capability through utilizing the analytical capability of BI system and data managerial capability of ERP system (Chou et al, 2005). Business Intelligence (BI) can help in competition analysis, market research, economical trends, consume behaviour, industry research, and geographical information analysis and so on. Business Intelligence using data mining helps in decision-making (Naxton, 2006). ERP VENDOR CLAIMS Modern ERP systems may provide advanced BI tools, avoiding the hassle of connecting a stand-alone BI system, and lowering the cost. Integrated business intelligence contains a broad category of analytical applications that help companies in making decision based on the data in their ERP systems (Moller, 2005). Oracle and SAP are currently the only major ERP vendors with such offerings. Analytical applications can be broadly classified as follows: Financial Analytics Financial analysis refers to an assessment of the viability, stability and profitability of a business, sub-business or project (Wikipedia, 2009). It is concerned with optimising the profitability of the business. When used effectively it can provide a competitive differentiator. Financial analytics helps the business focus on the most important customers and the most profitable products and services (Brook, 2009). It helps them to (Schroeck, 2001): * Understand the overall performance of the organization * Identify ways to measure and maximize the value of intangible assets (eg. Services) * Effectively manage enterprise-wide investments and reduce operating costs * Forecast variations in the marketplace, * Optimize the capabilities of information systems, and * Business processes improvement. Integrated analytics allow organizations with an ERP infrastructure to facilitate reporting and tools required for decision-makers. Oracle E-Business Suit (EBS) is one suite of applications that contains ERP and integrated BI. Oracle says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Oracle Financial Analytics helps front-line managers improve financial performance with complete, up-to-the-minute information on their departments expenses and revenue contributionsà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . SAP Business Suite is a range of software modules with an integrated Business Intelligence. SAP states that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“SAP ERP provides powerful analytic software that enables powerful financial analysis to help you analyze your business, develop business plans and budgets, and track performance during execution.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (SAP AG, 2009). Few of the features and functions that support financial analytics as stated by SAP are * Financial and management reporting Providing a set of tools to meet the financial and management reporting needs. * Planning, budgeting, and forecasting Support traditional budgeting, rolling forecasts, and collaborative planning, such as cost center planning. * Working capital and cash flow management Optimize cash flow, including cash flow calculations and middle- and long-term planning. Sales Analytics Sales analytics is a procedure involving the gathering, classifying, comparing, and studying of company sales data. It may simply involve the comparison of total company sales in two different time periods. Or it may entail subjecting thousands of component sales (or sales-related) s to a variety of comparisons, like comparison with s for earlier periods of time (Wikipedia, 2009). SAP says that the SAP sales analytic help the organization to obtain the data necessary to proactively address trends and measure success and revenue shortfalls. Oracle states that analytics solutions provided by its E-business suite dramatically improve the effectiveness of sales people by providing real-time, actionable insight into every sales opportunity at the point of customer contact. With more accurate sales forecasts and enhanced identification of potential problems and opportunities, Oracle Sales Analytics helps close business faster and increase overall sales revenue. It lists the following benefits: * Resource allocation Identifying critical opportunities so that executives can assign the appropriate resources to increase the chance of winning * Sales forecasts Analyzing pipeline opportunities to determine actions required to meet sales targets. Provide the information about sales documents, such as opportunities, sales orders and sales contracts. Thus, help in future revenue forecasting. Integrated sales planning and analysis enables sales managers to understand the financial status and overall effectiveness of the sales organization quickly and easily. These scenarios help users obtain the data necessary to proactively address trends, measure customer retention and revenue shortfalls, and assess future opportunities (SAP, 2009). Operational Analytics Operational analytics is a process that facilitates delivery of the in-depth and focused analysis of the performance of each key operational area of the business. Operational Analytics try to provide comprehensive and focused analysis of every aspect of the operational area of a company (Information Management, 2007). Oracle says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Oracles Business Intelligence Suite delivers real-time operational analytics that enable you to make better business decisions fasterà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Operational analytics is also a part of SAP business suite. SAP says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“SAP ERP provides features and functions for operational analysis to help you optimize the entire supply chain, improve revenues, and increase customer satisfactionà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Few of the features and functions that support financial analytics as stated by SAP are: * Manufacturing reporting Provides various standard reports and analyses detailing production-related information. * Customer service analysis Used for monitoring financial trends, costs, and revenues per customer, as well as service contracts and operations. * Sales planning Used for opportunity planning and analysis and partner planning. * Sales analysis Provides an accurate overview of current sales performance and an overview of sales force effectiveness. Workforce Analytics Workforce Analytics is a powerful decision-making platform using business intelligence tools that offer to the management at every level the right and timely information at point of decision making process for a better visibility and accountability in regards to workforce-related issues (Information Management, 2007). Workforce Analytics is used by HR professionals, and line managers. It provides an analysis option that gives real-time insight into your workforce. They can identify trends at an early stage and make well-informed decisions, enabling you to manage your human capital more effectively, predict human-capital investment demands, and track workforce costs and the ROI associated with HR projects (Wikipedia, 2009). The focus is to analyse current and historical employee data to identify key relationships among variables and use this to provide insight into the workforce they need for the future. Oracle says that Oracle workforce analytics in the e-business suite à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“provides the strategy management and performance tracking needed to measure the effectiveness of HR initiatives. It helps to evaluate and communicate company performance, staffing, turnover, HR readiness, compensation, and competencies.à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Managers need information that will help guide your strategic decisions. Implementing an Enterprise Resource System (ERP) that integrates all the information and processes into one coherent environment is a first and major step towards improved decision-making. But capturing and processing data is not sufficient to give the insight into the business that decision makers need today. Only when coupled with a business intelligence system can your ERP software enable users analyse and act on that data quickly and effectively. IT industrial leader, Microsoft quotes that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Forecaster for Microsoft Dynamics ERP helps you manage financial performance through accurate budgeting and planningà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  (Microsoft, 2009). A CRITIQUE OF VENDOR CLAIMS Data Warehousing In todays ever-competitive business climate, the ability to understand business conditions and gain timely insight into business performance is essential for survival. Business users have long faced the challenge of being unable to easily analyze business data in their enterprise resource planning (ERP) environment. Oftentimes, the reporting tools available are too complex for business users to utilize effectively, and IT experts do not have the business background to sufficiently understand business users analytical needs. The delay in IT departments turnaround time can quickly render information irrelevant and outdated by the time it is available to business users. ERPs serve as transaction engines in many organizations. It provides mission-critical operational workflow but do not support decision support systems (DSS) directly (Inmon, 2000). Therefore, the need to source a data warehouse from the ERP system and other legacy systems is obvious. Many organisations are now discovering that the solution to leveraging investment decisions in and retrieving useful data from, an ERP system is to undertake a Data Warehousing initiative in conjunction with the implemented ERP system. But, the harsh reality of ERP systems implementation, to the expense of those organisations that invested resources in the initiative, is that ERP only gets data into the system, it does not prepare data for use and analysis (Inmon, 2000). ERP systems lack certain functionality and reporting capabilities. It has been realised that ERP systems are good for storing, accessing and executing data used in daily transactions, but it is not good at providing the information needed for long term planning and decision making (Radding, 2000) as ERP systems are not designed to know how the data is to be used once it is gathered (Inmon, 2000). Consequently, in the post-implementation phase organisations are often dismayed to find that they havent improved their an alytical and decision support capabilities (Inmon, 2000; Radding, 2000) as ERP systems do not provide an environment for decision support activities such as analysing historical trends, drawing conclusions, scenario building and planning. Business Intelligence using Data Warehouse built on ERP System Analytical and forecasting features are provided by the business intelligence tools that are linked to the data warehouse. Some of the common functions of Business Intelligence technologies are reporting, analytics, data mining and benchmarking (Wikipedia, 2009). Integration of ERP and BI can provide a consolidated analysis of the data and user-friendly reporting capabilities and help users make and correct decisions and gain advantages over their competitors. Financial analytics, sales analytics, operational analytics and workforce analytical, may provide the facility to analyze relationships and understand trends that ultimately support business decision. However, few of the challenges faced by data warehousing in ERP systems are in its capability of providing a valuable and accurate reporting service, data analysis and forecasting. Chou et al says (2005) says à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“Organizations recognize the wealth of information within ERP systems, the challenge lies in the ways of min ing themà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . The lack of historical transaction data in the database containing the data from ERP is the most significant obstacle in successfully implementing a BI on ERP system. One of the key elements in accurate forecasting like trend reporting is the need for historical data. Most of the ERP vendors claim that the reports and forecasts generated by ERP or a BI that is integrated with ERP environment are of high accuracy. Zhang et al (2006) says that à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“although ERP system is powerful, a serious challenge is how to make use of previous experiences and knowledge to support managerial decision makingà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ . Still the research has to be carried out to know the accuracy of the reports as ERP system does not contain the historical data in the enterprises data warehouse. Traditionally, the enterprise data warehouse needs historical data. When a large amount of historical data starts to stack up in the ERP environment, the ERP environment is usually purged, or the data is archived to a remote storage facility. When an enterprise data warehouse needs to go back in time and bring in historical data that has not been previously colle

The Patriot Essay -- essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Patriot was a very accurate movie. It has gone to great lengths to have the most accurate information and to tell the real story, but still make it interesting. The movie itself contains tents, ammunition boxes, medical kits, campaign furniture, uniforms, weapons, battle formation and more that were made completely flawless with help from museums and the Smithsonian Institute (Revolutionary War experts). Also too some amazement, the movie has very accurate weather details. One of the main things that isn’t accurate but was put in the movie to show significance, was the old flag that was ripped but Gabriel sowed it back together and at the end of the movie Benjamin Martin leads the militia with it.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The Theme is about freedom, but it is a different freedom then you are thinking of. It’s the freedom for Benjamin Martin trying to live his life in peace and not be bothered by war. Benjamin Martin is a well known war hero from the French Indian war. After that war all he wants to do is be peaceful and live a happy life with his family. He is shortly dragged into the war because the English army comes to his farm and kills his son, so he gets his revenge and returns into another mental state of mind. Martin wants his life back the way it was with his family on his farm and being peaceful, so for this he forms a militia and fights for his freedom against the English army.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  &...

Waking Life :: essays research papers

Most (i didnt really even know what to make of it. its the kid from that movie dazed and confused basically trying to find out the meaning of life and his identity and shit.. and hes like constantly in this dreamworld.. that he cant seem to wake up of.. he cant differentiate his dreams from reality. so one of the points is that there is no waking life...there is life and nothing else....each experience is an experience, nothing more or nothing less, each has the same value...the things you experience in your dreams are life itself... also...a lot of stress on wherever you are is the place to be...accept that every moment has the potential for greatness Waking Life is clearly an experiment, and, as such, looks and feels much different from anything else recently seen on a movie screen. The backgrounds frequently waver, making it look like all of the action is taking place on board a gently rocking ship. This is all intentional, since every moment of Waking Life is meant to be transpiring inside a dream. ). They are present in an interlude, having an intriguing discussion about dream activity and reincarnation. Indeed, Waking Life is comprised of a series of philosophical discussions ranging from how language evolved to the role of the media in modern life to free will & quantum mechanics to the meaning of identity. Waking Life certainly isn't for everyone, but, in large part because of its fresh approach and its endlessly fascinating discourses, it ends up staying with you long after the jittery animated images have faded from the screen. , but instead of grounding the film in reality, it allows for a wide range of visual styles. Th is is necessary since it all takes place in a dream state. The dreamer is unnamed, but voiced by Wiley Wiggins. He meets various people, who go on long soliloquies about philosophy and how it relates to dreaming and death. At other times, he eavesdrops (with the audience) on other similar conversations.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The film doesn't make it known whether he is dreaming from the beginning, but the visuals are always disjointed, as if from a dream. Objects float and surfaces shift while perspective is distorted in Picasso-like fashion. The style is distracting at first, but the deep conversations pull you in until a dream-like state falls upon the audience.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   A man in a dream state encounters many characters who, one by one, talk about their views on the meaning, perception, and reality of human existence.

Surveillance and the right of privacy Essay -- Research Surveillance P

Surveillance and the Right of Privacy Introduction to Surveillance: According to Merriam-Webster’s collegiate dictionary, surveillance is defined as a â€Å"close kept watch over someone or something (as by a detective).† Surveillance has been used ever since the days of, â€Å"Follow that cab!† From their primitive state, surveillance techniques and technology have evolved. Policing agencies no longer need to use methods of surveillance such as listening through walls, looking through windows and over fences, and even sifting through a suspect’s garbage. Because of the continuous development of new technology, policing agencies can hear, see, and track almost everyone and everything. As more and more technology is developed, who is to regulate the use of the technology and surveillance? Parabolic Microphones and â€Å"Bionic Ears†- This technology allows a person to amplify sounds (i.e. talking, movement) from a long distance away. For example, a suspect’s conversation can be pinpointed and heard 50 meters away as if the sounds were coming from short distance. Digital Audio Equipment- Digital Audio Equipment allows police agencies to listen and record a phone conversation at any given time. These range from a digital voice stick that can be hidden in a room, or a â€Å"bug† device that can be placed inside a phone (landline or cellular). Night Vision- Night Vision Goggles are electronic devices designed for observing remote objects and orientation at night. Special military, security forces, pilots, paratroopers, security agents and tact ops commandos have used this equipment. Covert and Fixed Cameras- The use of covert cameras allows security and policing agencies to hide cameras, in turn, they would ca... ...rveillance will be ethical is if policing agencies are policed. By making sure that these agencies follow strict codes, this will reduce the amount of unethical uses of surveillance technology. Although this would be the most ethical way to handle this issue, I feel that it would be hard to stop all unethical uses of surveillance. The continuous advancements in surveillance technology will continue to make it more difficult to regulate the use of surveillance. Resources [1]http://www.lkwdpl.org/cffr/polsumm.htm [2]http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/oicd/iscop.htm#1 [3]http://www.alchemind.org/DLL/kyllo1.htm [4]http://www.fcw.com/fcw/articles/2001/0618/cov-main-06-18-01.asp [5]http://www.e-sci.com/genSci/5/1022/1039/10205.html [6]Orloff, Thomas J. Point Of View: A Publication Of The Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. Vol. 29 Number 4, 2001

High School and Movie Rudy Essay

The movie Rudy is about a person named Rudy who wants to play football for the Notre-Dame Irish. Rudy has been told his entire life that he wasn’t good enough, he was too small and that his goals will never come true. He dreams of playing on the team but since his marks aren’t high enough his teacher didn’t let him apply for the school. There are three main aspects about Rudy that helps him get into Notre-Dame and its football team, his decision making, goal setting and values. Rudy’s decisions were well thought out, letting him work his way into Notre-Dame. After Rudy graduated from high school he went to work at a mill with his father. In an accident at a mill his best friend Pete died in an explosion and after this explosion he went to a priest. The priest told him that his marks need to be very good for him to get into Notre-Dame and suggested that he go to Holy Cross till he can get his marks up high enough. When he started studying at Holy Cross he met someone who was willing to be his tutor. From him he found out Rudy suffered from dyslexia, a learning disorder which made it hard for him to recognize and comprehend written words. Finally after 3 semesters Rudy got into Notre-Dame and was accepted into the football team because of how he played, giving it his all and trying harder than most. Rudy didn’t get dressed to play in a football game for about 2 years, then finally all the other players appealed on his behalf to the coach and he was finally got to play a game. Near the end of the game the players started to chant â€Å"Rudy† because he wasn’t able to get dressed for the game

Poverty Alleviation Strategy Essay

Poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere. It is a scrooge and one of the worst curses and miseries that a human can face. According to Homer. â€Å"This , this is misery! The last, the worst that man can feel†. Poverty can be measured either in absolute terms, for example, the number of those who cannot afford more than two pairs of shoes, or in relative terms, for example, the number of the poorest ten percent of house holds. In either sense it is a concept, which is defined arbitrarily . Poverty exists not only because incomes are low, but also because the needs of ertain low income households are high. Poverty has many dimensions, which include economic, political, social, environmental and human dimensions. In economic terms a county, a region or a household is poor when the per capita income of purchasing power of a poor country or household is below a certain minimum standard, there are low medical care and health facilities, productivity is very low and there is illiteracy. In political terms a country, a regionor a group of people are poor when they do not have a voice in the community or dependent on other more powerful groups or individuals in order to express their own rights and hoices. In social terms poverty in a country a region o a household breeds all types of socially unacceptable behaviors like drug addiction, crime, position, violence ad terrorism in a family or in a community, These factors degrade human self respect, moral and social values of the society as a whole and as a result more and more people in the community become intolerantand rude towards each other in their day to day life. In environmental dimension, poverty destroys the living environment not only of those who live in poverty but of all other human beings as well as non-human iving things that depend on the same resources and ecosystem on which those living in poverty depend and survive. People living in poverty cannot change their behaviors easily because of lack of resources, knolwledge about their own surroundings and education. Thus by destroying their own living environment, the poor in reality are destroying their own resources on which they survive in the long run. Poverty in its human dimension is the most important of all, because poor people live in conditions that are miserable, conditions in which some members of their family die of hunger, disease of famine. Poverty in tis human dimension exists, when a child is down with a curable disease and the parents have to take a decision whether to take the child to a doctor and buy expensive medicines or purchase other essentials of daily use. It exists when parents of a child sell their child into slavery or prostitutionbecause of lack of resources to feed or care for that child and when government institutes fail to protect the rights of the poor. Poverty has emerged as the most important issue for Pakistan. Poverty redressal requires economic growth accompanied by an improvement in access to social services. The reason that economic growth has failed to trickle down to the poor in Pakistan is the slow improvement in social indicators Economic growth and social sector development are interdependent as one reinforces the other. In fact economic growth is necessary for poverty reduction but poverty reduction itself is necessary for sustained growth. The estimates ot poverty are not consistent in Pakistan. According to caloric based calories per person), the incidence of poverty declined sharply from 46. 5 percent in 1969-70 to 17. 3percent in 1987-88. However , poverty increased significantly in 1990’s ising from 17. 3 percent in 1987-88 to 22. 4 percent in 1992-93 and further to 31 percent in 1996-97. The recent estimates suggest that poverty ahs further increased from 32. percent in 1998-99 to 33. 50 percent in 1999-2000. This shows that the incidence of poverty has increased in 19990’s. similar trends have been observed in the case of urban and rural poverty. The main reasons for increase in poverty during 1990’s can be attributed to the relatively lower rate of economic growth, rising unemployment, stagnant real wages, declining flow of worker’s remittances and bad overnance. In addition to the factors mentioned above the high population growth also puts pressure on the merge social services thereby causing social distress. Painting a broad picture of third world poverty is not enough. Before anyone can formulate effective policies and programmes to attack poverty at its source, one needs some specific knowledge of poverty groupsand their economic characteristics, It is not sufficient simply to focus on raising growth rates of Gross National Product in the expectation or hope that this national income growth will â€Å"trickle down† to mprove levels of living for the very poor. On the contrary many observers argue that direct attack on poverty by means of poverty focused policies and plans can be more effective and one cannot attack poverty directly without detailed knowledge of its location, extent and characteristics. National Economic development is central to success in poverty alleviation. But poverty is an outcome of more than economic processes. It is an outcome of economic, social and political processes. To attack poverty requires action at local , national and global levels. The following actions are equired to be taken y poor people, government, private sector and civil society organizations. Growth is essential for expanding economic opportunities for the poor. The question is how to achieve rapid, sustainable and pro-poor growth. A business environmental conducive to private investment and technological innovation is necessary, as is political and social stabilityto invite public and private investments. The poor should be empowered in the true sense. Empowerment means enhancing the capacity of the poor to influence the states institutions that affects their lives by trengthening their participation in political process, and local decision-making. It also means removing the barriers political, legal and social that work against particular groups and building the assets of poor people to enable them to engageeffectively in markets. Enhancing security for poor people which means reducing their vulnerability to such risks as ill health, economic shocks and natural disasters and helping them cope with adverse shocks when they occur. The ultimate cause of the unequal distribution of personal incomes in most third world countries s the unequal and highly concentrated patterns of asset ownership (wealth). The principal reason why less than 20 percent of their population receives over 50 percent of the national income is that this 20 percent probably owns ad controls over 90 percent of the productive and financial resources, especially physical capital and land but also financial capital (stock and bonds) and human capital in the form of better education. It follows that perhaps more important line of policy to reduce povertyand inequality is to focus directly on reducing the concentrated control of ssets , the unequal distribution ot power, unequal access to education and income earning opportunities. Policies to enforce progressive rates of direct taxation on income especially at the highest levels are, what are most needed in this area of redistribution activity. Unfortunately, in many developing countries the rich do not show a larger part of their income and assets. Further , they often also have the power and ability to avoid paying taxes without the fear of government. Pakistan is facing twin challenges of reviving growth and reducing poverty. This requires rapid conomic growth keeping in view the factors responsible for slow growth and rising poverty, the government has formulated a comprehensive economic revival programmed aimed at reviving economic growth and social development. The government has adopted a multi-pronged approach to promote pro-poor economic growth and reduce poverty. Engendering growth by correcting macroeconomic imbalances and stabilizing the economy has been made the central pillar of the government’s economic revival program. The government has adopted a sound macroeconomic framework aimed at both stabilizing the economy and stimulating growth. It comprises five building blocks namely tax reforms, expenditure management, prudent monetary policy, external adjustment and debt management. Implementing broad based governance reforms are essential ingredients of he government’s poverty alleviation strategy. Without governance reforms thee enormous tasks of reviving growth and reducing poverty cannot be addressed. Sagging growth and rising poverty are in partresults of the poor performance of the government institutions in Pakistan. In fact, poverty in Pakistan is not merely an outcome of economic ills but also a result of mis-governance over the past years. The main element of reforms are devolution of power at grass roots level, civil services reforms, access to Justice and financial transparency. The care principle of Pakistan’ poverty alleviation strategy is to empower the people and to create greater opportunities for increasing real income by improving access to productive assets mainly housing, land an credit. Access to credit is the surest way of empowering thepoor and improving their income generating opportunities. In addition to the already existing financial intuition, thegovernment has now established the Khushhali Bank† or â€Å"Micro Finance Bank† for the provision of micro credit to poor communities. The effects of sluggish economic growth are clearly reflected in Pakistan’s performance in the social sectors, Human development is essential for attracting investment and generating the capacity for future sustainable growth. pakistan’s progress on almost every social indictor e. g. education, health and nutrition is poor as compared with that of other developing countries. In order to address this situation, the government has prepared comprehensive human development strategies aimed at the effective utilization of the available resource s hrough improved institutional mechanisms.