Power of Cash Flows

The Power of Cash Flow Ratios EXECUTIVE SUMMARY CASH FLOW RATIOS ARE MORE RELIABLE indicators of liquidity than balance sheet or income statement ratios such as the quick ratio or the current ratio. LENDERS, RATING AGENCIES AND WALL STREET analysts have long used cash flow ratios to evaluate risk, but auditors have been slow to use them. SOME CASH FLOW RATIOS COMPARE THE RESOURCES A company can muster with its short-term commitments. OTHER CASH FLOW RATIOS MEASURE A COMPANYS ability to meet ongoing financial and operational commitments.THERE IS NO CONSENSUS ON THE DEFINITION OF NET free cash flow, although the authors suggest taking off-balance-sheet financing into account. AUDITORS CAN USE THE INSIGHTS uncovered by cash flow ratios to spotlight potential problem areas, thus helping them plan their audits more effectively. JOHN R. MILLS, CPA, PhD, is a professor in the Department of Accounting and CIS at the University of Nevada, Reno. His e-mail address is www. [email  protected] unr. edu1. Mills experience includes auditing and consulting in the gaming industry. JEANNE H.YAMAMURA, CPA, PhD, is an assistant professor in the accounting and CIS department at the university's Reno campus. Her e-mail address is www. [email  protected] edu2. Yamamura worked as an auditor overseas, including a stint in Papua, New Guinea. To fully understand a company's viability as an ongoing concern, an auditor would do well to calculate a few simple ratios from data on the clients cash flow statement (the statement of sources and uses of cash). Without that data, he or she could end up in the worst possible position for an auditor—having given a clean opinion on a client's financials just before it goes belly up.When it comes to liquidity analysis, cash flow information is more reliable than balance sheet or income statement information. Balance sheet data are static—measuring a single point in time—while the income statement contains many arbitrary noncas h allocations—for example, pension contributions and depreciation and amortization. In contrast, the cash flow statement records the changes in the other statements and nets out the bookkeeping artifice, focusing on what shareholders really care about: cash available for operations and investments.For years, credit analysts and Wall Street barracudas have been using ratios to mine cash flow statements for practical revelations. The major credit-rating agencies use cash flow ratios prominently in their rating decisions. Bondholders—especially junk bond investors—and leveraged buyout specialists use free cash flow ratios to clarify the risk associated with their investments. That's because, over time, free cash flow ratios help people gauge a company's ability to withstand cyclical downturns or price wars.Is a major capital expenditure feasible in a tough year? If the last time total cash got a hair below where it is now the company's capital structure had to be r evamped, the auditor should treat the deficient value like a loud buzzer. Many auditors and, to a lesser extent, corporate financial managers have been slow to learn how to use cash flow ratios. In our experience, auditors traditionally use either a balance sheet or a transaction cycles approach. Neither approach emphasizes cash or the statement of cash flows.While auditors do use the cash flow statement to verify balance sheet and income statement accounts and to trace common items to the cash flow statement, their use of ratios for cash-related analysis has been limited to the current ratio (current assets/current liabilities) or the quick ratio (current assets less inventory/current liabilities). According to an informal survey of Big 5 and other national accounting firms, even now their audit procedures have not changed in ways that take advantage of the information presented in the cash flow statement, even though that statement has been required for over a decade.The value of cash flow ratios was evident in the collapse of W. T. Grant. Traditional ratio analysis performed during the annual audit did not reveal the severe liquidity problems that resulted in a bankruptcy filing shortly thereafter. While W. T. Grant showed positive current ratios as well as positive earnings, in fact it had severely negative cash flows that rendered it unable to meet current debt and other commitments to creditors. Educators have not been emphasizing the cash flow statement either. Auditing textbooks commonly include only ratios based on the balance sheet and income statement with little or no discussion of cash ratios.The next generation of auditors needs to learn how to use cash flow ratios in audits because such measures are becoming increasingly important to the marketplace. Investors and others are relying on them. The cash flow ratios we find most useful fall into two general categories: ratios to test for solvency and liquidity and those that indicate the viability o f a company as a going concern. In the first, liquidity indicators, the most useful ratios are operating cash flow (OCF), funds flow coverage (FFC), cash interest coverage (CIC) and cash debt coverage (CDC).In the second category, ratios used to assess a company's strength on an ongoing basis, we like total free cash (TFC), cash flow adequacy (CFA), cash to capital expenditures and cash to total debt. Lenders, rating agencies and analysts use all of these. Auditors should know when and how to use them, too. The gaming industry expanded to 12 states from 2 between 1989 and 1995. During that time, many of the traditional casino corporations managed asset growth rates of 200% and more. Rapid expansion led to major problems, including bankruptcy, when revenues did not meet projections.As this examination of two gaming companies shows, cash flow analysis can help avoid business meltdowns, providing auditors and clients with an additional level of comfort in both planning the audit and ev aluating the strength of the going concern. Boomtown was a relatively young but successful Nevada company that went public in October 1992, with assets of $56 million. By 1995, its assets were up to $239 million, dropping to $206 million in 1996. Company operations grew from one casino in the local Nevada market to four properties in three states—Nevada, Louisiana and Mississippi.In the same period, Circus Circus was one of the largest and most profitable gaming corporations in the industry. Its properties, also all in Nevada at that time, included the Excalibur and the original Circus Circus in Las Vegas, the Colorado Bell and Edgewater in Laughlin and the Circus Circus in Reno. The company grew from total assets of $783 million in 1992 to over $2. 2 billion by 1996, including acquisitions. By the end of 1996, it had operations in three states—Nevada, Louisiana and Mississippi. Liquidity Assessment Exhibit 13, shows a variety of ratios calculated from the financial st atements of Boomtown and Circus Circus.The figures cover the period from 1992 to 1996, although Circus Circus was on a January 31 fiscal year while Boomtown used a fiscal year ending September 30. Look at the lines for the current ratio (current assets/ current liabilities) and the quick ratio (current assets less inventories/current liabilities) for each. Viewed through the lens of these traditional balance-sheet-based ratios, Boomtown appears to be stronger financially than Circus Circus. But this was not the case. Boomtown's current ratio was frequently well over 1. 00, even soaring to 4. 4 in 1993, while Circus Circus current ratio never strayed over 1. 32. Boomtown was able to maintain a higher quick ratio as well. Over the five years in question, Boomtown's current ratio showed fairly consistent improvement, a trend that would be reassuring to most auditors. Although the balance sheet ratios for both companies are fairly low, that is normal for the gaming industry. Casinos jus t don't carry much inventory—mostly perishable foods and the like. And gaming companies carry practically no receivables because gaming generally is a cash business.The traditional measures don't address operating cash flows or cash interest coverage directly, but auditors can use cash flow ratios to answer questions about their clients liquidity—Are these companies generating enough cash to cover their current liabilities? How many times does cash flow from operations cover interest expense? Running a Casino†¦ Image Boomtown's cash interest coverage was considerably weaker than that of Circus Circus, except in 1993, when Boomtown had no long-term debt. Circus Circus consistently maintained cash in excess of 5 times debt. Now look at the line for OCF.Over the interval shown, the Circus Circus OCF ratio slipped under 2. 00 only once, meaning that it generated enough cash to cover its current liabilities twice over—and even improved on that despite a rapid gr owth rate. The company's cash interest coverage ratio also was consistently high. Boomtown's cash flow ratios, however, might surprise an auditor relying solely on balance sheet ratios. Its OCF was consistently weaker than that of Circus Circus, even slipping into a negative position in 1994. Once Boomtown's OCF slipped below 1. 00, it was not generating enough cash to meet its current commitments.Accordingly, it had to find other sources for financing normal operations. An auditor relying solely on the quick and current ratios in this instance would have missed that important point. An auditor who bothered to calculate two other cash flow ratios—FFC and cash/current debt—would have gotten even more remarkable results. Because Circus Circus carried very little current debt, its cash covered current debt well over 175 times in every year, while Boomtown's cash didn't even cover current debt in 1994, and its cash/current debt coverage was in the single digits for three o f the other four years.More remarkably, Boomtown's FFC went negative in 1994 and again in 1996 and was consistently weaker than that of Circus Circus in every year. Accordingly, the conclusions an auditor might draw after looking at the cash flow ratios might differ sharply from his or her opinion based solely on balance sheet ratios. Going-Concern Analysis Traditionally, auditors have used the balance-sheet-based debt-to-equity ratio (total debt/total equity) and the times-interest-earned (EBIT/annual interest payments) ratio to examine a company's longer-term financial health (see exhibit 24).These measures do provide one perspective on the company's ability to carry its long-term debt obligations and its solvency. The traditional solvency ratios reveal big differences between Circus Circus and Boomtown. Although both companies expanded considerably in 1993 and 1994, the effects on each corporation's financial position were drastically different. Circus Circus showed a downward tr end in its traditional debt-to-equity ratio, an indicator of an increasingly strong balance sheet, while maintaining a fairly stable times-interest-earned ratio.After 1992, Boomtown's debt-to-equity ratio rose steadily, showing increasing reliance on outside borrowing. Its times-interest-earned ratio also weakened, even going negative twice. Cash flow ratios, however, provide an even clearer picture of each company's financial solvency. Consider the lines for TFC, two for each company—one based on actual capital expenditures and the other on estimated maintenance spending. Negative figures in 1993 reveal that Circus Circus needed to go outside to raise cash for capital expenditures in both 1993 and 1994.However, using a capital maintenance approach, figures consistently greater than 1. 0 show the company was clearly generating enough cash flow from operations to maintain its normal operations and to provide at least some funds for additional growth. But 1993 and 1994 were yea rs when total assets grew at 21% and 37%. Few companies could expand at this rate solely with internally generated funds from operations. Analysis of Boomtown's cash flow ratios unveils a very different kind of growth. Its TFC (maintenance) ratio slipped below 1. 0 for three years in a row.An auditor who notices that Boomtown wasn't able to fund normal operations from internal sources for three consecutive years has heard an alarm; however, the noise from the TFC (actual) ratio is even louder. Boomtown did not manage any of its growth from internally generated cash—it's TFC (actual) ratio never got above 1. 00! That can't go on forever. Now look at the total debt ratio line and the two cash flow adequacy (CFA) ratio lines for each company. The total debt ratio, to which credit-rating agencies and loan officers pay close attention, was quite stable for Circus Circus throughout.Boomtown's, which started out weaker, took one wild fluctuation way up and then collapsed. Looking at the CFA ratios, once again Circus Circus exhibits more than adequate funds for maintenance and sufficient internally generated cash for new capital investments in all but one year. The one exception was attributable to rapid growth. Boomtown's spectacularly negative ratios shout the company's need for substantial outside funding. Turning to the capital expenditures ratio lines, Boomtown was unable to generate enough cash internally to even maintain plant and equipment in 1994, despite more than doubling its total assets.Circus Circus, on the other hand, had plenty of cash for maintenance throughout and needed outside cash to fund growth only for a two-year interval. In fact, Boomtown's cash ratios do indeed reveal that drastic changes would have been needed for this company to survive on its own. It didn't. Boomtown was acquired by Hollywood Park, Inc. , on June 30, 1997. Boomtown also disposed of its Las Vegas property, which had generated continuing operating losses. Despite its earlier promise, Boomtown ran out of cash. Traditional ratios would not have provided sufficient warning, but cash flow ratios would have.Auditors who employ cash flow ratios to assess corporate liquidity and viability can help their clients spot trouble in time to take corrective action. HOW TO TEST SOLVENCY WITH CASH FLOW RATIOS Creditors and lenders began using cash flow ratios because those ratios give more information about a company's ability to meet its payment commitments than do traditional balance sheet working capital ratios such as the current ratio or the quick ratio. When a loan officer evaluates the risk she is taking by lending to a particular company, her greatest concern is whether the company can pay the loan back, with interest, on time.Traditional working capital ratios indicate how much cash the company had available on a single date in the past. Cash flow ratios, on the other hand, test how much cash was generated over a period of time and compare that to near -term obligations, giving a dynamic picture of what resources the company can muster to meet its commitments. Operating cash flow (OCF) Cash flow from operations Current liabilities Company's ability to generate resources to meet current liabilities Operating cash flow (OCF) ratio. The numerator of the OCF ratio consists of net cash provided by operating activities.This is the net figure provided by the cash flow statement after taking into consideration adjustments for noncash items and changes in working capital. The denominator is all current liabilities, taken from the balance sheet. Operating cash flow ratios vary radically, depending on the industry. For example, the gaming industry generates substantial operating cash flows due to the nature of its operations, while more capital-intensive industries, such as communications, generate substantially less. The gaming giant, Circus Circus, exhibited an OCF of 1. 37 for fiscal year l997 while the media king, Gannett, produced an OC F of 1. 148 for a similar period. In order to judge whether a company's OCF is out of line, an auditor should look at comparable ratios for the company's industry peers. (For further details, see the case study5. ) Funds flow coverage (FFC) EBITDA (Interest + Tax-adjusted* debt repayment + Tax-adjusted* preferred-dividends) Coverage of unavoidable expenditures *To adjust for taxes, divide by the complement of the tax rate. Funds flow coverage (FFC) ratio.The numerator of the FFC ratio consists of earnings before interest and taxes plus depreciation and amortization (EBITDA), which differs from operating cash flow. Operating cash flow includes cash paid out for interest and taxes, which EBITDA does not. The FFC ratio highlights whether the company can generate enough cash to meet these commitments (interest and taxes). Accordingly, interest and taxes are excluded from the numerator. The denominator consists of interest plus tax-adjusted debt repayment plus tax-adjusted preferred divi dends. To adjust for taxes, divide by the complement of the tax rate.All of the figures in the denominator are unavoidable commitments. An auditor can use the FFC ratio as a tool to evaluate the risk that a company will default on its most immediate financial commitments: interest payments, short-term debt and preferred dividends (if any). If the FFC ratio is at least 1. 0, the company can meet its commitments—but just barely. To survive in the long run, any company must have enough cash flow to maintain plant and equipment. To be really healthy, it should be able to reinvest cash for growth. Accordingly, if a company's FFC is less than 1. , the company must raise additional funds to meet current operating commitments. To avoid bankruptcy, it must keep raising fresh capital. Cash interest coverage Cash flow from operations + Interest paid + Taxes paid Interest paid Company's ability to meet interest payments Cash interest coverage ratio. The numerator of cash interest coverag e consists of cash flow from operations, plus interest paid plus taxes paid. The denominator includes all interest paid—short term and long term. The resultant multiple indicates the company's ability to make the interest payments on its entire debt load.A highly leveraged company will have a low multiple, and a company with a strong balance sheet will have a high multiple. Any company with a cash interest multiple less than 1. 0 runs an immediate risk of potential default. The company must raise cash externally to make its current interest payments. The cash interest coverage ratio is analogous to the old-fashioned coverage ratio (also known as the interest coverage ratio). However, where the numerator of the coverage ratio begins with earnings from the income statement, the numerator of the cash interest coverage ratio begins with cash from the cash flow statement.Cash interest coverage gives a more realistic indication of the company's ability to make the required interest payments. Earnings figures include all manner of noncash charges—depreciation, pension contributions, some taxes and stock options. A company with a low income-based coverage ratio may actually be able to meet its payment obligations, but the mask of noncash charges makes it difficult to see that. A cash-based coverage ratio gives a direct look at the cash available to pay interest. Cash current debt coverage Operating cash flow—cash dividends Current debtCompanys ability to repay its current debt Cash current debt coverage ratio. The numerator consists of retained operating cash flow—operating cash flow less cash dividends. The denominator is current debt—that is, debt maturing within one year. This is, again, a direct correlate of an earnings current debt coverage ratio, but more revealing because it addresses managements dividend distribution policy and its subsequent effect on cash available to meet current debt commitments. As with the cash interest coverage ratio, the current debt ratio indicates the company's ability to carry debt comfortably.The higher the multiple, the higher the comfort level. But like most other ratios, as long as the company is not insolvent, the appropriate level varies by industry characteristics. HOW TO USE CASH RATIOS AS A MEASURE OF FINANCIAL HEALTH Beyond questions of immediate corporate solvency, auditors need to measure a client's ability to meet ongoing financial and operational commitments and its ability to finance growth. How readily can the company repay or refinance its long-term debt? Will it be able to maintain or increase its current dividend to stockholders? How readily will it be able to raise new capital?Banks, credit-rating agencies and investment analysts understandably are very concerned with these questions. Accordingly, they have developed several ratios to provide answers to them. Auditors, who are more concerned about full disclosure, can use these same ratios to pinpoint area s for closer scrutiny when planning an audit. Capital expenditure Cash flow from operations Capital expenditures Company's ability to cover debt after maintenance or investment on plant and equipment Capital expenditure ratio. The numerator is cash flow from operations. The denominator is capital expenditures.A financially strong company should be able to finance growth. This ratio measures the capital available for internal reinvestment and for payments on existing debt. When the capital expenditure ratio exceeds 1. 0, the company has enough funds available to meet its capital investment, with some to spare to meet debt requirements. The higher the value, the more spare cash the company has to service and repay debt. As with all ratios, appropriate values vary by industry. Cyclical industries, such as housing and autos, may show more variation in this figure than noncyclical industries, such as pharmaceuticals and beverages.Also, a low figure is more understandable in a growth indu stry, such as technology, than in a mature industry, such as textiles. Total debt Cash flow from operations Total debt Company's ability to cover future debt obligations Total debt (cash flow to total debt) ratio. The numerator is cash flow from operations. The denominator is total debt—both long term and short term. Total cash flow to debt is of direct concern to credit-rating agencies and loan decision officers. This ratio indicates the length of time it will take to repay the debt, assuming all cash flow from operations is devoted to debt repayment.The lower the ratio, the less financial flexibility the company has and the more likely that problems can arise in the future. Auditors should take diminished financial flexibility into account when identifying high-risk audit areas during planning. NET FREE CASH FLOW RATIOS Other ratios that spotlight a company's viability as a going concern rely on a computation of net free cash flow. Net free cash flow (NFCF) is not yet well defined, although bankers are working to standardize these computations in a way that would facilitate comparisons across companies and across industries.However, at present, there are still many variations of net free cash flow. We propose a total free cash (TFC) ratio developed by First Interstate Bank of Nevada, which uses it to make loan decisions and loan covenant agreements. This TFC computation offers the advantage of incorporating the effects of off-balance-sheet financing—by taking into account operating lease and rental payments. Total free cash (TFC)†  (Net income + Accrued and capitalized interest expense + Depreciation and amortization + Operating lease and rental expense – Declared dividends – Capital expenditures) (Accrued and capitalized interest expense Operating lease and rental expense + Current portion of long-term debt + Current portion of capitalized lease obligations) Company's ability to meet future cash commitments †  These rat ios require computation of the company's net free cash flows. As net free cash flow can vary by company as well as by industry, the formulas should be considered as recommended rather than absolute. TFC ratio . The numerator of this ratio is the sum of net income, accrued and capitalized interest expense, depreciation and amortization and operating lease and rental expense less declared dividends and capital expenditures.The denominator is the sum of accrued and capitalized interest expense, operating lease and rental expense, the current portion of long-term debt and the current portion of long-term lease obligations. Varying definitions of capital expenditures can confuse the issue. Since different definitions change the value of free cash flow ratios, it is best to be clear about which definition the auditor is using and why it makes sense for a particular purpose. For example, if the auditor is trying to determine whether the company can maintain its present level of operations, the capital spending figure used hould exclude new investments and be limited to the amount of spending required to maintain operating assets. Sometimes maintenance spending is estimated at 2% of total assets, or up to 5% of property, plant and equipment. Industries with very long-lived capital assets may use smaller percentages to estimate maintenance spending. However, if the auditor is more interested in long-term growth potential, then actual capital expenditures from the cash flow statement should be used. Cash flow adequacy (CFA)†  (EBITDA – taxes paid – interest paid – capital expenditures) (Average annual debt maturities scheduled ver next 5 years) Company's credit quality †  These ratios require computation of the company's net free cash flows. As net free cash flow can vary by company as well as by industry, the formulas should be considered as recommended rather than absolute. Cash flow adequacy (CFA) ratio. The numerator is earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) less taxes paid (cash taxes) less interest paid (cash interest) less capital expenditures (as qualified above). The denominator is the average of the annual debt maturities scheduled over the next five years.Cash flow adequacy helps smooth out some of the cyclical factors that pose problems with the capital expenditure ratio. It also makes allowances for the effects of a balloon payment. Companies with strong NFCF compared with upcoming debt obligations are better credit risks than companies that must use outside capital sources. Thus, a high CFA means high credit quality. KNOW YOUR CLIENT In order to fully understand where to set the levels at which the cash flow ratios discussed here should trigger deeper investigation, auditors need to understand their clients businesses and the industries in which they operate.As with any other ratio, an auditor should listen to the client's explanation of any unfavorable changes in cash r atios before becoming too alarmed. An auditor should know what cash concerns are critical to a company's business. We wouldn't suggest that a successful audit is just a matter of picking the right equations and plugging in the numbers. There are no absolutes. But properly applied, cash flow ratios can be revealing to auditors during the audit planning stages and can give the auditor a more accurate picture of the company. Auditors must ascertain whether the financial statements are fairly presented in accordance with GAAP.They must be satisfied with the accuracy of the transactions and balances summarized in the four financial statements and the related disclosures. Effective auditors can use cash flow ratios to improve their understanding of the cash concerns critical to the particular company and to plan the audit more effectively. References ^www. [email  protected] unr. edu (www. readability. com) ^www. [email  protected] edu (www. readability. com) ^Exhibit 1 (www. journalo faccountancy. com) ^exhibit 2 (www. journalofaccountancy. com) ^case study (www. journalofaccountancy. com)

Monsoon Wedding And East Is East Film Studies Essay

The ‘ethics of regard ‘ in both movies was coming from different positions. Monsoon Wedding, the regard was an insider and East is East the regard was an foreigner. The professor in the talk spoke about how Monsoon Wedding was about a Punjabi household and the scene was in New Delhi, India, which is a familiar district for Mira Nair, the manager of the movie. This may besides be one of the grounds why Monsoon Wedding has an insider ‘s position to the Indian Punjabi civilization. An illustration of the insider ‘s position is when the nuptials planner/decorator Mr. Dubey fell in love with the artlessness of the amah and the simpleness of her character. This was a small hard for me as a spectator to understand because the construct explored much traditional Indian civilization which a western audience may non be familiar with. This movie shows the positions of secondary characters and the viewing audiences as the others. An illustration of this is, when Aditi â⠂¬Ëœs cousin who has come from a Western state to go to the nuptials, he is shown as ‘out of topographic point ‘ in footings of civilization and ethnicity, which this movie captures attractively through music, linguistic communication, nutrient, idiosyncrasy, and apparels. The film showed many struggles through the emotions of the characters. An illustration of this is when Aditi was acquiring engaged, it was a happy juncture but her facial looks gave away her emotions of unhappiness. This directs the spectator ‘s understandings towards the characters and forces us to mime the emotions by acquiring the audience ‘s empathy. Many of the emotions of the characters are expressed through lighting and camera work. An first-class illustration of this is the scene where Aditi ‘s male parent and female parent go into her room where she is kiping and look at their girl, how grown up she has gotten. This scene was shot at dark, but the lighting and camera captures the male parent and the female parent ‘s facial look in such a elusive manner that the viewing audiences might non detect, but they are emotionally sympathizing with the male parent. East is East on the other manus was filmed through an foreigner ‘s position. I surely felt that when watching the film because foremost the scene of this film was in England in the seventiess. Second, the secret plan showed the Muslim Pakistani civilization in a satirical manner which I believe may do the position of the film as the foreigner. The professor mentioned in the talk that the construct of ‘the other ‘ is shown as alien and beautiful in East is East. The regard in this movie is of the other and hence all characters are shown as being invariably measured by the viewing audiences. This movie touches upon many sensitive issues such as ethnicity, faith and marginalisation of civilizations. As an immigrant myself in Canada, this film aroused my emotions for all the characters including the male parent. At first when watching the movie, it seemed that the male parent was shown as a negative character, but subsequently on in the film I sympathized with the male parent. That is, he is shown to be torn between two civilizations and keeping on really tightly to each. Issues of individuality are profoundly explored in this movie and are shown a small through each character. The character of the female parent is shown to be really loving and lovingness, this I believe is the lone character which is shown to be impersonal and non in struggle in footings of civilization. An illustration of this is throughout the film, the female parent ‘s character did non confront any personal cultural struggle. Her kids were called ‘half strains ‘ but she was ne'er faced with any direct cultural struggle since she had assimilated in the Pakistani civilization ‘s unhappiness. This in bend directs the spectator ‘s understandings with her and makes her a character that the audience hand clapping for. The camera work, music, costumes and sound effects emphasized the secret plan and helped the audience to the full understand the characters emotions. I peculiarly liked the costumes and music in the scene, when the girl is dancing with the broom. She is have oning the saree but in a manner that is western and listening to an Indian vocal and dance. The audience can non assist but smile because the facial looks of the girl are extracted towards the audience. The camera work and make-up are done attractively for the amusing scene when a household had come to run into the two boies for their girl ‘s matrimony. The girls near ups were nicely shot ; that full scene had good camera work capturing everyone ‘s uncomfortable emotions unusually. To reason, both movies Monsoon Wedding and East is East have showed different positions. The regard in both movies directs the viewing audiences ‘ attending to characters and their emotions. The camera work and proficient facets of the movie helped both Monsoon Wedding and East is East gaining control the narrative and emotions of each character.Mention PageHelfield, Gillian. â€Å" Week 1 – East is East / Monsoon Wedding. † 06-01-2010. Web. 1 Feb 2011. & lt ; hypertext transfer protocol: //webct.yorku.ca/SCRIPT/2010_FA_FILM_W_1701__3_M_EN_A_INTR_01/scripts/serve_home & gt ; . Mira, Nair, Dir. Monsoon Wedding. 2001, Film. O'Donnell, Damien, Dir. East Is East. 1999, Film.

Jeremy Bentham Biography Essay

â€Å"Jeremy Bentham was an English philosopher† that â€Å"is primarily known† for his philosophical contribution, the ethical theory of utilitarianism (Sweet). Utilitarianism is the ethical theory that states that the best action is the one that brings about the greatest amount of good for the greatest number of people (DeGeorge 44). Specifically, Bentham was a hedonistic utilitarian arguing that â€Å"what ultimately motivates us is pleasure and pain† (Sweet). Bentham over the course of his life gave a lot to the field, whose influence is still seen today. Jeremy Bentham was born into a line of attorneys on February 15, 1748, in the town of Houndsditch, London (Sweet). Bentham studied so intensely, â€Å"often eight to twelve hours a day†, that when he reached the age of sixteen he had already graduated from Queen’s College at Oxford and was continuing in his father’s and grandfather’s footsteps to becoming an attorney by studying law at Lincoln’s Inn (Sweet). Although Bentham was qualified, he never practiced law, but instead chose to write on the philosophy of law and focused on â€Å"critiquing the existing law† and was a strong advocate for legal reform (Sweet). In 1785, Bentham along with his brother worked on a project called ‘Panopticon’, that he hoped would garner the attention of the Czarina Catherine the Great (Sweet). Unfortunately, the project, which Bentham hoped would be â€Å"a model prison where all of the prisoners would be observable by (unseen) guards at all times†, was not a great success (Sweet). Even though Bentham was not largely appreciated, he was still able to continue his writings and work with the financial stability afforded to him from an inheritance. Bentham’s most notable writing seems to be, Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. Three of the biggest principals that run throughout the book, as well as most of Bentham’s works are: â€Å"the greatest happiness principle, universal egoism, and the artificial identification of one’s interests with those of others† (Sweet). Bentham’s fundamental principle, the greatest happiness principle, says that human beings motivated by pleasure and deterred by pain is what determines the degree of happiness, which Bentham also calls â€Å"the principle of utility† (Sweet). This principle adds a level of objectivity to a very subjective discipline, allowing it to be clearer, more observable, and measurable (Sweet). Bentham also had strong views on the concept of natural rights. According to Bentham, rights or a lack thereof are formed through the law or â€Å"within a legal system where the law is silent† and therefore â€Å"the term ‘natural right’ is a ‘perversion of language† (Sweet). Jeremy Bentham has made a large contribution to the field of ethics through his lifelong dedication to his theory and principles. Bentham coming from a back ground of law was able to quantify ethics in a way that others did not do, allowing it take into consideration the greatest number of people. Works Cited De George, Richard T. Business Ethics. 7th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2010. Print. Sweet, William. â€Å"Jeremy Bentham (1748—1832).† Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 11 Apr. 2001. Web. 25 Jan. 2013. .

Kosovo Independence Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Kosovo Independence - Essay Example Social order and political progress in most societies emerge from the interplay of the way social institutions are managed and run, as well as its overall relation with social forces. As a result, most societies become victims of social and political conflict when social institutions fail per se to regulate the social behaviors of diverse population and interest groups (Raeder p.1). Kosovo gained independence in 2008 when major international states recognized and ratified its charter for statehood. The culmination of Kosovo independence came about after witnessing one of the worst political conflicts that disintegrated the larger Yugoslavian nation. The post-independence Kosovo has become of great interest to many political analysts who in various capacities evaluates the interplay of social and political forces, together with their ability to motivate conflict in the society. Therefore, it is important to evaluate post-Kosovo independence within the major social and political stages proposed in Edmund Burke theory. Stage 2: Society becomes divided by the change (Independence) Kosovo has various political parties, but the two leading parties are the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDP) and the Democratic League of Kosovo, with former being the largest and newest, which also reigns in the country, and the latter being the second largest party and the oldest party in the country. These two parties are predominantly composed and supported by the Albanians, with the Serbians, who are the second largest community being represented by the Independent Liberal party. Independence is associated with changes that political leaders and other interest groups envision for the new society. On large scale and even smaller, the independence changes may be the source of discontent and subsequently some people, groups, and civil society may be opposed to the new changes. Edmund Burke observes that society in this stage manifest some level of discontent that eventually results into social, political, and cultural divisions. As a result, the people together with discontent groups may become vocal in speaking against the changes proposed or carried out by the new power and this form of opposition may be in words or violence. Immediately after Kosovo was declared independent in 2008, internal discontent and discomfort between two major ethnics Serbs and Albanians emerged, which led to violent incidents in the Northern Mitrovica in December 2008 (Notholt p.33). Despite this independence, the two communities have always been in conflict, with the Serbs feeling ill-treated by the majority Albanians to an extent that they have always advocated for separation of the assembly among ethnic lines. The violence continued up to the first few weeks of 2009. At the same time, during April 2009, there was ethnic conflict between Serbs and Albanians again this time due to returning Albanians families to their homes in North Mitrovica. The gravity and intensity of these violent protests were eased by the intervention of Kosovar police and KFOR troops after a few days. What surveys have revealed is that in the larger Kosovar state, there is still dissatisfaction among the population about the economic, social and political progress (Eifler and Seifert p.157) and the blame of the population has shifted from UNMIK to the Kosovo government. People see the government as doing little to rectify and make their life better. In post-independence period, Kosovo cannot be described to have succumbed to this stage of independence and conflict as proposed by Edmund Burke. What can be said is that social, economic, and political divisions in the country have to be addressed through restructuring of economic, social, and political aspects that are framed on an inclusive

Research Paper on Qatar Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

On Qatar - Research Paper Example English speakers tend to include the â€Å"t† in the second syllable of the name, which is a tension of sort that mirrors the complication political tension between the native Arabs and the foreign Western powers such as the British Empire. Today, Qatar is a relatively well-developed, progressive-looking Arab state that has much in common with the West, but still retains many of the traditions and ethnic identities that define it as an Islamic monarchy. Each of the distinct aspects of Qatar, including its geography and political structure, are deserving of a closer look for anyone trying to understand the country better. In terms of the country’s location, Qatar is a small state that shares its own border with Saudi Arabia. The country sits on the northeastern corner of its much larger neighbor on a peninsula that juts out into the Persian Gulf. Across the Persian Gulf from Qatar lies Iran, and across a narrow strait in the Gulf lies the island nation of Bahrain. Relatively close to Qatar and its neighbor Saudi Arabia is the United Arab Emirates. This location as a peninsula proximate to Saudi Arabia does not pose a political threat to the tiny nation of Qatar, but instead has proven to be an advantage for Qatar’s growth. For instance, during the Persian Gulf War, Qatar military forces joined the coalition against Iraq in stabilizing the Middle East. Within its space, Qatar has excelled and has built favorable relations with its neighbors. Geographically, Qatar is not only small but also flat. As was mentioned previously, Qatar is a small nation based on a peninsula jutting out from neighboring Saudi Arabia. The peninsula is just about 100 miles (or 160 km) in length, which is roughly the same length as Delaware. Much of that length consists of barren plain covered with sand, without much in terms of high fixtures or rock faces. One interesting feature of Qatar

Comparison between the classic lectures and the small group discussion Essay

Comparison between the classic lectures and the small group discussion for fifth -six th year students -college of medicine,Taif - Essay Example One of the recent developments found in the identification of different modes of teaching is the small group discussion technique. It has been put to practical use and has been providing some radical changes about the perspective that students had about teaching. However, there are certain dark areas about this method of teaching that are still needed to be put as questions to extract measurable answers. In order to identify whether this new approach will provide results in the long run, an analysis survey among the students is planned to take place. Based on the survey results, a decision could be brought out on whether this new method could eventually and completely replace the classic approach. This paper aims at determining those survey questions that are to be asked to the students of the Taif University. A general survey methodology which involves a comparison of two methods needs to identify pros and cons of each method and provide an accumulative result to the surveyor. Later , the surveyor could weigh the accumulated results of both the methods and can provide the results that either state which method is better or propose changes that could improve the aspects of the second coming method. Hence, it is critically important to determine the questions to be asked in the survey. The nature of the questions should be practical, argumentative and direct to the point. (Fowler 1995) Questions related with Classical Lecture method Classical Lecture Method has its advantages and disadvantages. Advantages Lecture method allows for a direct and logical interpretation of the facts and procedures. They provide an opportunity for the students to directly understand the concepts and techniques that are proven over the years. (Monroe 1915) Lecture method allows students to experience the concepts as and when they hear about it, through the speech of the lecturer. It allows them to easily grasp the concepts which they would have had a hard time to understand. Lecture me thod gives an equal opportunity for all of the students to get to know about the information that is explained. As far as this method goes, all students get equal information, provided if they all are attentive.(Hghert 1981) The ability of the lecturer plays a bigger part. Analysis, comparison and examples related to the lecture topic always enhance the studying interest of the listener. In addition, with the presence of a lecturer, there is always a guiding force for the students to look forward.(Lieberman 2004) Disadvantages The ability of the lecturer could act as a disadvantage too. If the lecturer does not have good oral communication skills, then he or she may falter in sending the right message to the listeners. Most often, there is no direct involvement of the listeners in any lecture, unless requested. This often creates a passive environment and many a times the lecturers’ fail to recognize whether the listeners are mentally involved in the session or not. (Donald 2 000) Because communication in these lectures is most often in one way mode, there is high percentage of difficulty that could arise in understanding tedious subjects, irrespective of the number of virtual presentations that the lecturers could provide. (Bassey 1968) Another problem that could arise is that all listeners cannot cope up with the pace of the lecturer and understand at the same speed. Some may be slow in understanding the concepts whereas

Understanding and interpreting financial statements Essay - 1

Understanding and interpreting financial statements - Essay Example report on the financial performance of Siemens, a German high tech company by comparing it with that of Nokia, one of its competitors in the industry. The value and limitations of using ratio analysis would be evaluated and accounting issues that would surface would be discussed. Recommendation to potential investors on the basis of findings from the analysis would be made accordingly, To understand the profitability of the company would lead for further understanding the rest of company’s financial report. Every business organization should aim for profitability as a way to recovering is opportunity cost of doing its business. Profitability therefore implies having more a net advantage for every business transaction for the company. Thus generally as expenses are incurred which would represent the cost, there should be corresponding benefit in terms of revenues. Deducting expenses that include cost of goods and service, cost of operation, cost of taxes and other expenses from revenues would therefore mean profit or net income from the for the company. This net income figure could also be divided with the amount of resources that the stockholders put into the business organization, would produce the return on equity (ROE). Comparing the Siemens’ ROE with Nokia and the rest of its average competitors would provide betters results of and analysis. Its five-year average return on equity (ROE) of 14% for Siemens indicates better superiority about its past performance in relation to the industry average of 8%. See Table A below and see Appendix A for more details. Such a 14% return on equity definitely entices investors, as it would mean that for every 100 euros, the investors expect returns of about 14 euros. These rates could be viewed as something scarce for a company like Siemens given the present condition of the economy (Slavin, 1996) in Europe and other parts of the world which still shows very lower GDP growth as compared with the past. See also

Finance research paper 123 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Finance research paper 123 - Essay Example Omar Kassem Alesayi was established in 1997 to assist Saudi citizen to own suitable housing units at reasonable terms. The company specializes in mortage and property financing. Over time, it gradually expanded its business activities to include external entities, i.e. other real estate developers and individuals . In 2006, approximately 87% of its turnover was generated from external parties (OKAG, 2000) They currently work out of one branch, with a total of 28 employees and owns a total of almost 135 million assets. SISCO being a privately owned company is not married in bureaucracy which is common in state-owned firms. The company’s organisational structure is horisontally desgined, with adequate processes and procedures. However, with the expansion plans, a review of its processes and procedures needs to be conducted. The processes and procedures of the company were implemented on an ad-hoc basis, on a learn-as-we-go basis. The company has competitive adavantage over its competitors with a large product portfolio. The key resources of any organization comprise of the financial resources and the human resources or as they are now known as human capital. It is staffed by some of the best professionals in the field. Intangible assets have gained importance now and human capital is the profit lever of the knowledge economy (Low, 2000). Human capital is the source of innovation and strategy; it is the combination of genetic inheritance, education, experience and attitude towards life and business (Bontis and Fitz-enz, 2002). Tacit knowledge has to be converted and retained in the knowledge economy to compete in the market (Marwick, 2001). . The market value of a firm consists of its financial capital and ‘something else’. The book value can be ascertained through the financial assets but this ‘something else’ is the firm’s intellectual capital (Pablos, 2002). The other key resource is finance. SISCO has a strong financial

Listening assignment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Listening assignment - Essay Example The piano provides a quirky and unique harmony which helps to push the limits of the jazz composition beyond what had been there before bebop. The focus of the drummer is on using the cymbal as the main element for time-keeping in his drum set. This has served to allow a more flexible and freer sound which in turn gives the soloist room in which he experiments and with the rhythm. The end result is a very unique collaboration between the drummer and the soloist. In my opinion, the solo is very successful as it is done in a very ingenious way leading the whole band in the creation of the rhythmic melody that is so mellow and captivating. The description of the melody as being cool is very accurate and on point. The solo progresses through the whole performance through an intricate build up that starts off a bit slow and mellow and has several crescendos in the course of the performance until it reaches the climax where it becomes the most dominant melody in the whole rhythm guiding the listeners all along the performance in an entrancing and captivating dominating performance which still allows for the other melody components to shine through. The bebop rhythm runs through the performance and it is the clearest example of how the bebop era began in jazz music. The composition is soul full and very inspirational as well and the instrumentation is perfect and deserves to be taken as the trend setting performance it

Movie Analysis Supersize Me Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Movie Analysis Supersize Me - Essay Example Culture of the Spanish influenced to build up the behavior of the persons engaged in that drama. The documentary ‘supersize me’ is a behavioral oriented and cultural oriented movie with much impact on the current prevailing US culture. The region where the story takes place is in United States and the culture affecting the hero of the story was the American culture of having fast food from the posh restaurants, in the movie context the starring character finds his 5 time daily food in Mc Donald restaurant. The environment which describes here is the food experimenting intention by the hero ,where he also wanted to establish that the outside junk foods are good for health and it will cause no effect on the health, there he doesn’t follow the principle’when health is lost something is lost’. The values mainly depicted in the movie are the cultural values which were priorly stated and the family values where the utmost care taken by the family in bringi ng back to normalcy. Personality: Personality of the person is the self-concept. That is, they offer a structure for the person so that a reliable pattern of behavior can be build up. It is the particular amalgamation of attitudinal, emotional, and behavioral reaction patterns of a human being. At the same time as there are various different theories of personality that explain the relevance and components of the personality traits of the individual. A short definition would be that personality is made up of the attribute patterns of belief, approach and behaviors that create a person unique. Besides to this, personality arises from inside the human being and remains reasonably reliable throughout life. Some of the basic individuality of personality consists of: Psychological and physiological, multiple expressions, Consistency and finally the It impacts behaviors and actions. This particular drama Biutiful follows the personality traits of the people. Story is usually talks about t he relationship between the father and his children’s. The unique personality of the father, children develop their own culture and attitude to react with the certain situations. Motivation: The motivation is a widely described behavior of individuals, where they are the tendency for the doing the particular actions due to external or internal stimuli. The internal factors of the motivation are the within the individual as they arise due to the basic need fulfillment of the person,or to achieve a particular goal.There can also be the motivation due to less-apparent causes like the altruism and selfishness,the motivation is indirectly related to emotion. Non-behavioral psychologists observe motivation to have two proportions, intensity (strength) and direction (behavior focused) As the Maslow’s hierarchy of the needs is considered; there are four kinds of needs for an individual. The hierarchy model of Abraham Maslow is in the pyramid form, from the bottom. It states th e psychological need of a person where the person is more selfish in his own ways and he gives priority to his personal comfort than considering the needs and wants of others. The main constraints of the psychological needs are the breath, food, finance and the other essential resources. The second is the safety need which mainly emphasis on the safety and security of the family, finance, resources and the security of oneself from any other calamities and robbery. The next step in the pyramid shows the necessity for the love and care

Sunlight on the Grass Essay Example for Free

Sunlight on the Grass Essay For the purpose of this assignment I will analyse two stories. Firstly I will examine the â€Å"Compass and Torch† by Elizabeth Baines and will demonstrate how the objects in the title relate to the characters of the story and represent key themes. I will then discuss â€Å"Something Old, Something New† by Leila Aboulela and highlight the ways in which the title relates to the story. Firstly the â€Å"Compass and Torch† is a story about a young boy setting out on a camping trip with his estranged father. The compass and torch are used symbolically throughout the narrative to reflect the boy’s feelings and relationship to his family. I feel that the compass symbolises a lack of direction or the absence of a relationship between father and son. This can be demonstrated when they are about to leave the car for their journey together at the bottom of the hill. â€Å"The man looks up – for the first time – at the path they will take, which runs from the gate to the brow of the hill. Then he groans: I didn’t bring a compass†. The lack of compass showing with nothing to guide them the chance for them to get closer in their relationship is doomed. However, the narrative continues to suggest that the compass is not required, that with love and hope in their hearts, father and son will always be bonded. â€Å"Compasses are things boys and dads tend to have, but which, when they are alert and strong at heart, they can leave behind.† The compass can also be seen as a metaphor for the pull of the boy between his divorced parents. This idea is shown when the boy had gone upstairs looking for his torch and overhears his Mother and her boyfriend Jim talking in the kitchen. â€Å"The boy might have remembered it, the compass, as they were leaving. But he couldn’t wait to get going, for it all to be over †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ And the way his mother said hardly anything, and made her face blank whenever Dad spoke to her or looked her way†. This text demonstrates that mother and father remain hostile following their divorce and reflects the boy’s awareness of this and feelings of being in the middle of it all. The story demonstrates how the camping trip is an opportunity to strengthen the father son relationship, with the torch signifying the path of reconciliation, used as a tool to light the way to a new future. This is highlighted when, as the boy is sitting in his father’s car, he shows him he has brought his torch, representing the boys longing to bond with his dad.â€Å" as the man drops into the driving seat something in the boy’s chest gives a little hop of joy and he cries excitedly, ’oh I brought my torch!’†. This idea is further reinforced in the narrative when we discover both father and son have torches, â€Å"Two torches are for lighting a bigger space in the wilderness, for lighting it together. Two torches are for father and son to back each other up.† Furthermore, the colour of the torches seems to hold some significance. It is shown that the boy has a red torch whilst the father has a green one. I feel this is deliberate and hold connotations similar to a traffic light system where the red torch symbolises the lack of relationship with this father, with no way of moving forward whilst the fathers green torch reflects the idea of rebuilding the relationship, with the possibility of new horizons. Although not in the title of the story the horse is also symbolic of the boy’s mother and highlights further how Baines uses symbolism to represent characters throughout the narrative. For example whilst on his journey with his father a horse appears. â€Å"The horse comes up to the car. She nudges up, puts her nose over the edge of the door. The man bats her away† I feel this represents the mothers need to protect her son and the struggle the boy feels between his parents. The quote above illustrates the father not wanting the mother to be involved, to take a step back. Similarly â€Å"the horse nuzzles the rucksack top and the man pushes her away†. In Something Old, Something New, Leila Aboulela writes about a wedding due to take place between a Scottish man and his Sudanese bride. The title is therefore appropriate to the story as the popular wedding phrase something old, something new, something borrowed, and something blue. However, the title goes deeper than that and relates to the story in many more ways representing a number of key themes. The groom is depicted as a man desperate to find himself. He has dropped out of medical school and is unsure on which direction his life should take. He converts from Catholicism to Islam and his new spiritual world seems to have saved him. Indeed, the narrative demonstrates how his view of Islam is different to his brides. â€Å"She associated Islam with her dark skin, her African blood, her own weakness. She couldn’t really understand why anyone like him would want to join the wretched of the world. But he spoke with warmth†. Religion for her seems a flaw, but for him represents a new beginning in life. This theme of conflicting ideas of old and new is also depicted when he arrives in Egypt to meet his bride and her brother. Back in Scotland, her ethnic difference seemed exotic, exciting but once in her home country he realises its nothing new any more â€Å"He became aware that everyone looked like her, shared her colour, the women were dressed like her†. The author also utilises the Nile as a metaphor for the proposed marriage. The Nile is one of Egypt’s most anticipated sights, but on closer inspection the groom finds it is not as he expected â€Å"yes it’s beautiful he replied. But as he spoke he noticed that the rivers flow was forceful, not innocent, not playful. Crocodiles no doubt lurked beneath the surface.† I feel this represents the marriage that his idealised view of his wedding and his bride suddenly turning fearful, with the lurking crocodiles a metaphor perhaps for her overbearing brother. With this fear in place, the groom begins to yearn for the comforts of home and staying at the Hilton hotel represents to some degree the characters longing for home comforts. The Hilton used as sign of the Western world in contrast to the barren landscape of Egypt. †The hotel lobby was impressive, the cool tingling blast of the air-conditioner, music playing, an expanse of marble. He felt soothed somehow, more in control†. Another example of this is when the character struggles to follow the strict Islamic custom of mourning following the girls Uncle’s death. â€Å"He shrugged, he did not want to talk about it, was numbed by what had happened, dulled by the separation from her that the mourning customs seemed to impose.† Furthermore the anxiety he feels about this new culture is noted again â€Å"He had thought, from the books he’d read and the particular British Islam he had been exposed to, that in a Muslim country he would find elegance and reason. Instead he found melancholy, a sensuous place, stripped to the bare bones†. The idea of a new life and a new culture suddenly turning sour in his mind is reinforced with the theft of his British passport contributing to a feeling of a loss of identity. To conclude I feel I have demonstrated how the stories titles relate to the overall meaning of the story and how symbolism is used to portray characters and to enhance the mood and tone of the narrative. Where possible I have provided key examples to support my ideas and to illustrate my understanding of the texts.

Models of Teaching Essay Example for Free

Models of Teaching Essay This paper explores the experience of synectics, a teaching model that comes from the informational-processing family. This model is known as the art of enhancing creative thought and through our group experience it has given us proof. Creativity is a huge part of the model and its purpose is to bring out creativity from the students. Synectics brings all children the process of metaphoric thinking known as the foundation of creative thought. As my group and I continued to study the model we discovered great connections and outcomes from teaching a lesson through synectics in two different grade levels. This paper will serve as a reflection from my experience using the synectics model as well as my group experience. Synectics Model In the beginning, my group and I were very puzzled about the model because it was something we were unfamiliar with and it took a while for us to comprehend the book. So, our first thing we decided as a group was to go home and read the chapter and explore the model and do personal research that could benefit our understandings. When Amanda, Tessa, Doug and I met up again we shared what we learned, but once again we remained stuck. My group was still feeling fuzzy about the model because we understood the rational but we did not know how to put it into practice. The Models of Teaching by Joyce, Weil, and Calhoun provided great information and examples but we still had no clue on how and what we were going to conduct a lesson using the model. Amanda and I brought in some lessons that we found on the internet that could be helpful for our group. One of the lessons was called â€Å"Running the Mile† by Jennifer Hoffman and just by reviewing it on my own it clicked and I understood what we needed to do. I know Amanda had an idea but I was not sure about Tessa and Doug because they still seemed unsure. The day we met in class for the last time was when our group asked our instructor for guidance and what she did was read the Synectics part from the Models of Teaching out loud and our group’s light bulb lit up. It was very interesting on how that happened because right after our instructor left the table we began coming up with a plan and lessons. As we group we decided that we were going to carry out two lessons. Doug and Tessa worked together to create a lesson for juniors at Doug’s school while Amanda and I collaborated on lesson for her 6th graders. We decided to carry it this way so we could compare the different outcomes for out final reflection. Once we figured out the synectics model we quickly put together two lessons less than ten minutes and began scheduling dates to teach and observe in the actual classroom. Working with Amanda we talked about an appropriate lesson that could connect to her current theme in the classroom. She mentioned that they will be studying the Holocaust so from there we came up with a lesson that dealt with Adolf Hitler whereas Doug and Tessa created a lesson that involved the Great Depression. Both lessons seemed very interesting and exciting because using the synectics model to teach it had unlimited outcomes. On November 15, I arrived at Amanda’s classroom as an observer and began my note taking. When I got there Amanda shared with me that she taught the lesson to another class of hers and said that it went very well because she got them to compare Hitler to a computer as well as a shark. Synectics consists of six phases and is easy to get confused at first but when it is successfully carried out it offers a creative outcome. I will provide the lesson summary that we will use to conduct the lesson. Lesson Summary: Step One: Phase One- Provide background information over Hitler and the Holocaust. The main resource for this is: http://www. ushmm. org/museum/. This will provide a ton of information over the different groups that were targeted and it provides background information over the process of the Holocaust. Step Two: Significant Question: How is Hitler like a Machine? This will be written on the front board and students will be asked to complete their answers in their journals that are stored in class. This will be a warm up to the lesson that we will be doing. Step Three: As a class, we brainstorm different machines. Students decide on one machine to become. They are to then write what they would do as this machine. Step Four: Compressed Conflict- Write adjectives on the board that describe the machine. Then have a discussion over the antonyms and the adjectives that conflict with one another. Example: Violent versus Quiet. We will then choose these as a class to compare together and discuss. Step Five: Now pick and animal to compare the compressed conflict with. Ask students, how is this animal like the compressed analogy? Example, say we choose a lion. How is a lion both quiet and violent? Step Six: Going back to the Holocaust, how can we compare this animal to a machine? Why is the Holocaust a quiet and violent lion, for example? Students will now gain an understanding of being able to connect Hitler/Holocaust to an animal that they are more familiar with. In the classroom this is what I observed. Phase One: Substantive Input- Teacher provides information on new topic which was carried out by Amanda the day before I came. She provided a PowerPoint about the Holocaust as well as information about Hitler. Phase Two: Direct Analogy- Teacher suggests direct analogy and asks students to describe the analogy. Amanda asks her 6th grade students to create a list of machines and gives them two minutes. These are the machines they came up with disposal, computer, microwave, car, oven, washer, lawn mower, shredder, copy machine, blender, toaster and vacuum. Phase Three: Personal Analogy- Teacher suggests students â€Å"become† the direct analogy. Amanda then tells her students to choose a machine and write about how it would be to be the machine. For example, a student chose a vacuum and this is what she wrote, â€Å"My owner always uses me to clean up stuff. In my point of view, I get fed. I am always sucking up all kinds of things like junk etc. Whenever they dump stuff out, I become hungry and it makes me feel like my whole stomach has been taken away. † Phase Four: Comparing Analogies- Students identify and explain the points of similarity between the new material and the direct analogy. Amanda then asks her students to vote on a machine as a class that they will use to compare Hitler with. The class voted on a shredder and came up with a simile. This is what one student wrote, â€Å"Hitler is like a shredder because he killed people and a shredder also kills paper. Also since a shredder sounds torturous, Hitler also tortured people. They are also both powerful. † The students came up with adjectives for the shredder such as hungry, happy, choking, short, powerful. Phase Five: Explaining differences- Students explain where the analogy does not fit. Amanda explained this step as the compressed conflict and had the student create a list of oxymoron from the adjectives in step four. This is what her class came up with†¦ Short vs. Powerful, Choking vs. Happy, Torturous vs. Happy, Choking vs. Hungry. Phase Six: Exploration- Students reexplore the original topic on its own terms. Amanda then gave her students 2 minutes to list some animals. The students listed zebra, tiger, lion, cheetah, pony, and bear. As a class they were told to choose one animal that matched their compressed conflict of being torturous vs. happy. Hence, they all agreed on a lion. Phase seven: Generating Analogies- Students provide their own direct analog y and explore the similarities and differences. Amanda then instructed her students to compare a lion to Hitler. Here are some of the responses her students gave. * â€Å"Hitler is like a lion because they are both like leaders and have followers. They also kill a lot and they are both smart. † * â€Å"Hitler is like a lion because they are both very powerful and vicious. They both kill things they don’t like and are both big leaders and have followers. † For the extension part we agreed that they could illustrate their outcomes if there was extra time available. Overall, the experience of using the model was a success because it brought so much creativity to the table and I was shocked that her class chose a lion for the animal to describe Hitler. I was shocked that no one brought up Lion King the Disney movie, because that movie makes a lot of reference to Hitler and dictatorship. It was very interesting how her students made a connection to it without thinking very hard. The rational of the model synectics gives students an opportunity to express their ideas creatively and make connections with the unknown. As students are prepared to start mixing analogies and similes together to create a connection, it gives students a chance to make a much more interesting connections in their daily writing and for the purpose of this assignment. Using the Holocaust as our main focus to teach about Hitler was an achievement because by overlooking what the students made connections with was obvious that they could express what Hitler felt and acted. In conclusion, this model at first seemed more challenging but after awhile it began to fall into place. It deals with thinking outside the box and for me being a creative person I enjoyed learning about the model and having to teach students to also think outside the box and not be afraid of the unknown outcomes. As a future educator, I feel that this model has been very beneficial and I look forward to utilizing again in my own classroom as writing warm ups to new stories or materials. This model helps students make connections with their background knowledge as well as concepts they are unfamiliar with and it also challenges them to bring their creativity out. Reference Joyce, B. , Weil, M. , amp; Calhoun, E. (2009). Models of teaching.

Issues of Adverse and Moral Selection

Issues of Adverse and Moral Selection MUKHTAR MUHAMMAD AHMAD DISTINGUISH BETWEEN ADVERSE AND MORAL SELECTION, AND HOW A FIRM MIGHT OVERCOME EACH PROBLEM Adverse selection can be said as the process that occurs when seller valued goods more highly than the buyer does, because the seller has the full information and understanding about the good. Due to this information known by the seller, the seller is unwilling to part with the goods for any price lower than the value the seller knowns it has. On the other hand, the buyer who has no any information about how good the product is, is unwilling to pay more than expected of the good, which take into account the possibility of getting a bad piece. It is the Asymmetry information prior to the transaction that prevent the transaction from happening. If both the seller and the buyer were not sure of the quality, they would be willing to trade based on its actual value. Moral hazard, is usually seen as services such as insurance and warranties. In this case, when the deal is done, one of the party involved in the deal (in this case, the person purchasing the insurance) may be less careful because he/she has the insurance, thus is not expected to the full cost the losses insured. Example, a person with an insurance against theft may not border about closing all what is necessary when leaving the house, here, it is not the prior information that either party has ,but due to lack of information that the insurance company has in providing and controlling the risk taking behavior that can leads to the market failure. Lets look into adverse selection in details especially in the case of insurance. Adverse selection; can also be said as the selection originally used in insurance. Its describe a situation where in an individuals demand for insurance (The propensity to insurance and quantity purchased) is possibly the individuals risk of loss (higher risk buy more insurance), and the insurer is unable to allow for this correlation in the price of insurance. This may be because of an information known only to the individuals. (Information Asymmetry), or because of regulation or social Norms which prevent the insurer from using certain categories of known information to set price (For example, gender, genetic, test or pre existing medical conditions. The last of which amount to a 100% risk of losses associated with the treatment of the condition).The letter scenario is sometimes referred to as regulatory adverse selection. The potential adverse nature of the phenomenon can be described as the link between the smoking status and mortality of those not smoking, on the average, are more likely to live longer, while smokers on average are more likely to die younger. If the insurer did not distinguish the prices for life insurance according to the smoking status, life insurance would be better buy for smokers than does not smoking. In this case, the smokers may be more willingly to buy insurance or may tent to buy larger amount of the insurance than the does not smoking, there by raising the average mortality of the combined policy holder group above that of the general population. From the insurers view point, the higher mortality of the group which select to buy insurance is adverse. The insurer raises the prices the insurance accordingly and as a consequences, does not smoking may be less likely to buy insurance (Or may buy smaller amounts) than they would buy at a lower prices reflectively to their lowe r risk. The reduction in the insurance purchases by does not smoking is also adverse from the insurers view point, and may be also from public policy view points. Furthermore, if there is a range of increasing risk categories in the population, the raise in the insurance prices because of adverse selection may leads to the lowest remaining risk to cancel or not renew their insurance. This promote a further raise in price, and so on. Eventually this adverse selection death spiral might in theory leads to the collapse of the insurance market. SOLUTION TO ADVERSE SELECTION PROBLEM Alternative solution to the effects of adverse selection to the insurers (to the extent that law permit) ask a randomely question requesting medical or other reports on individual who apply to buy insurance so that the price quoted can be varied accordingly, and any unreasonable highly or unpredictable risk rejected. This risk selection method is known underwriting in many nations, insurance law incorperate as utmost good faith doctorine. Which requires potential customers to answer any underwriting question asked by the insurer fully and honesty; if they fail to do so, the insurance may refused to pay the claim. While adverse selection in theory seems a clear and inevitable consequences of economic incentives, empirical is mixed. Several studies investigating correlations between risk and insurance purchased has fail to show the predicted possible correlation of life insurance. On the other hand, positive test result in adverse selection have been reported in health, long term care and annuity market. These possible result tent to be based on demonstrating more subtle relationship between risk and purchasing behavior (such as between mortality and whether the customer chooses a life annuity which is fixed or inflation linked), rather than simple correlations of risk and quantity purchased. MORAL HAZARD Moral Hazard is a situation in which a party is more likely risk because the cost that could be result which not be borne by the party taking the risk. In other words, it is a tendency to be more willing to take the risk, knowing that the potential borden of taking such risk will be born in whole or in potentially by others, A moral Hazard may occur where the actions of one party may changes to Sthe detriment of another after the financial transaction has taken place. Moral Hazard arises because an individual or institution does not take the full consequences and responsibility of its actions, and therefore, has a tendency to act less careful than its otherwise would leaving another party to hold some responsibility for the consequences of those action. Economists explain Moral hazard as a special case of information asymmetry, a situation in which one party has a wider information than the other in particular moral hazard may occur if the one that is been cheated from the risk has more information about the action and intention than the one paying for the negative consequences of the risk, more broadly, moral hazard occurs when the one with more knowledge about its action or intention has a tendency or incentive to behave inappropriately from the perspective of the one with less information. Moral Hazard is also arises in a principal Agents problem, where one party, called an agent acts on behave of another individual called principal. Usually have the knowledge about his action than the principal agents does due to the principal. Usually can not completely monitor the agents. The agents may have incentive to act inappropriate way. (From the view point of the principal) if the interest of the agents are the principal are not alligned. SOLUTION TO MORAL HAZARD Alternative way a firm can solve a problem of Moral hazard is the major aspect of the insurance deals with the effect of the availability of insurance on the level of care exercised by the insured to reduced the probability of loss. When an insured policy is not available like in the case of theft, an economic agent could devoted time to watch his property. At the extreemed, he could insure that the probability of losses was zero, but the cost of such strategy would likely be prohibitive. For example, the optimal action is to be expand on effect less than that require to reduce. The probability of theft to zero and hence, to bear the some risk. If we assumed the economic agents are risk averse, they would be willing to pay for transferred of risk to another Agents thereby enhancing their welfare. This transferred of risk is obtained through the purchase of an insurance policy. In conclusion, Adverse selection is the selection before the deal or transaction is done in which the person with the product or selling, valued and worth the good than the buyer in the sense, the seller has the better understanding and knowledge about the good and buyer who with less information about the good, would just purchase it based on his own assumption of the quality of the goods. and here, to counter such problem, the seller would have to emphasize more of his products and try to study the consumer behavior before getting into any transaction. while Moral hazard on the other hand, is the situation that occurs when the transaction is done that is, when the deal is done. One of the party in the transaction. here, the person taking the risk is more likely to be the one with the full information in the transaction and acted less carefully knowing that he would not bear the full losses alone thereby, affecting the one with less information about the transaction without his cons ents. To solve such problem, the insurer has to have an agreement on the facts that, the one that acted carelessly would likely be the one to bear more losses. That would make the one with more information to be more serious in the deal and avoiding any lapses that would occur after the deal is done.

The Chrysler Building Essay -- Architecture Structure Building Essays

Today technology allows us to construct structures that we would never have been able to make in the past. Some of the creations are impressive based on what they accomplish but others are masterpieces in themselves. Man’s capability to build such tall buildings, as the skyscrapers we are familiar with covering our cities today, is a major expression of the advancements we have made as a culture. The power necessary to build such tall structures inspired competition between architects to see who could build the tallest one. One skyscraper that has inspired many and served as a model, for high rise buildings that were created after, is the Chrysler Building. The Chrysler Building serves as an identifying mark to anyone that views the New York City skyline. The history surrounding the Chrysler Building is almost as intricate as the artwork and engineering of the building itself. Today it elicits a reaction from anyone who passes by just as it did when it was f irst created. The term skyscrapers has become the term used for tall, multi-storied buildings that have a height of at least 152 meters or 500 feet. The term was originally used to refer to a tall mast on a sailing vessel. Skyscrapers were first introduced in the 19th century. Prior to the 19th century a high rise building was thought of as unrealistic because it was irrational to have people walk up multiple flights of stairs. There was also the problem of providing the top floors with water pressure. Early on they only had the technology to provide water up to 50 feet or 15 meters. These problems were soon rectified by the invention of the elevator and also with the development of a water pumps that were made of steel and reinforced w... ...i-bin/articles/partners/cbs/search.cgi>. 3. Chrysler Building- SkyscraperPage.com. 2004. SkyscraperPage.com. 7 Nov. 2014 . 4. Chrysler Building and 42nd Street: New York History. 7 Nov. 2014 . 5. Chrysler Building, New York City. 2004. 7 Nov. 2014 . 6. Icon of the Modern. 7 Nov. 2014 . 7. Skyscraper. 7 Nov. 2014 . 8. The Chrysler Building. 2003. Daniel's Manhattan Architecture. 7 Nov. 2014 . 9. The Midtown Book- The Chrysler Building. The City Review. 7 Nov. 2014 .

Local Area Networks :: essays research papers

LANs: Local Area Networks Local Area Networks also called LANs have been a major player in industrialization of computers. In the past 20 or so years the worlds industry has be invaded with new computer technology. It has made such an impact on the way we do business that it has become essential with an ever-growing need for improvement. LANs give an employer the ability to share information between computers with a simple relatively inexpensive system of network cards and software. It also lets the user or users share hardware such as Printers and scanners. The speed of access between the computers is lighting fast because the data has a short distance to cover. In most cases a LAN only occupies one or a group of buildings located next to each other. For larger area need there are several other types of networks such as the Internet.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  LANs systems can be defined and connected in many different ways. This is the reason for the standardization for every one can have a common ground to start from. â€Å"The LANs described Herein are distinguished from other types of data networks in that they are optimized for a moderate size geographic area such as a single office building, warehouse, or a campus. The IEEE 802 LAN is a shared medium peer-to-peer communications network that broadcasts information for all stations to receive. As a consequence, it does not inherently provide privacy. The LAN enables stations to communicate directly using a common physical medium on a point-to-point basis without any intermediate switching node being required. There is always need for an access sublayer in order to arbitrate to access to the shared medium. The network is generally owned, used, and operated by a single organization. This is in contrast to Wide Area Networks (WANs) that interconnect communication faci lities in different parts of a country or are used as a public utility. These LANs are also different from networks, such as backplane buses, that are optimized for the interconnection of devices on a desk top or components within a single piece of equipment.†(IEEE 802 Standard 1990) That is the standard definition for LANs by Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineer committee 802. They are the committee used to set the standard in workmanship and operations for technicians that set-up and perform maintenance on LANs systems. And through all the technical words what they are trying to say is a LAN is a small area network that distributes information among computer in a small work environment unlike WANs that distribute information across global areas.

Energy :: essays research papers

-  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The pump found in the tropical oceans is responsible for the movement of air and the surface ocean over most of the globe. The energy source that drives this pump is solar radiation from the sun. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The second pump is the deep ocean circulation which is also driven by the sun. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The third pump is the heating of the earth’s interior by radioactive decay and radiation of heat causes plate tectonics and continents to move. This long term pump has ceased in Mars. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The winds and ocean currents redistribute the energy received from the Sun -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Air moves from high pressure areas to low pressure areas horizontally due to horizontal differences in pressure. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As a parcel of air warms up it becomes more buoyant and the air rises. Warmer air has less density. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Pressure differences among air masses are typically related to the distribution of surface temperatures -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The radiation reaching the Earth is spread over larger and larger areas as we move from the equator to the poles. You get more light per unit area at the equator than at high latitudes. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The incoming solar radiation varies with latitude and seasons, whereas the outgoing terrestrial radiation depends on the temperature at the surface and atmosphere. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Primary causes for temperature distribution on earth are because it’s warmer at the equator and colder at higher latitudes. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The solar radiation absorbed at the surface varies with cloud cover and atmospheric absorption. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Heated air rises at the equator causing air to move towards the equator. This converging air makes up the intertropical convergence zone. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Rising air cools which causes it to loose its water in the form of rain. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Areas of rising air cause low pressures. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The warmer stratosphere acts as a barrier to the rising warm air causing it to spread out and diverge. As the air diverges it becomes more and more cooler and it sinks at 30 degrees N/S of the equator (Hadley Cell) -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Most of the earth’s deserts are located at about 30 degrees N/S of the equator. Descending air causes an area of high pressure at this 30 degrees N/S -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Hadley Cell: the convergence occurring in the tropics and divergence some 30 degrees N/S of it is called the Hadley Cell. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Hadley Cell and the ITCZ are not continuous around the globe. -  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The equatorward-moving cold air meets the warm air moving poleward from the subtropics producing a zone of steep temperature gradients called the polar front zone at approximately 60 degrees N/S latitude.

Candide Response

Arthur Johnson Western Letters – Professor Fayard Response Essay 2 10/29/12 Arthur Johnson Western Letters – Fayard 10/29/12 Response Essay #2 Francois-Marie Arouet De Voltaire shows in many instances in Candide that he does not buy into the idea of the Enlightenment. With Voltaire’s simple mockery of the idea of a perfect world with a perfectly good God, it is evident that he does not appreciate the idea that everything happens for a reason.Despite Voltaire holding these extremely negative views on whether or not there is a good God, if there is a God at all, he puts in place a character in Candide that arguably contradicts his hateful and pessimistic views on the idea that everything happens for a reason. Voltaire places an old lady in Candide, whom clearly suffers greatly, but continues to get out of her tragedies and makes the decision to continue on living life because living is worth every bit of pain and suffering that comes.This old lady contradicts Volta ire’s negative views on the idea that everything happens for a reason because she continually escapes from her tragic experiences. The old lady continues to reinforce the idea that there is a purpose for everything and that good will eventually come out from even the most evil of situations and scenarios. The old lady not only contradicts Voltaire’s hateful outlook on the idea that everything happens for a reason, but she to an extent revamps and matures Pangloss’ outlook on optimism.Instead of thinking that everything is great and perfectly good, the old lady believes that there are some horrible things in life, but living is worth every bit of struggle that comes along with it. In theory it would be safe to come to a conclusion that would suggest that the old lady believes that despite of all the horrific and brutal events that come with living, there are greater things in life that make suffering a worthwhile price. This idea would also fall into the idea tha t everything does indeed happen for a reason.The old lady used to live a promising life as the daughter of the pope and a princess, who was once seen by many as one of the most beautiful people women ever, a woman who had a body as beautiful as â€Å"the Venus of Medici†. For a better graphic, the Venus of Medici was a Hellenistic life-size classical statue, much like the Venus de Milo, that was a depiction of the Greek goddess of love, Aphrodite. The old lady was at one point in her life a modern day celebrity, but all of what she had going for her was stolen, and yet she continued to live.The old lady while in conversation with Candide and Cunegonde says â€Å"Imagine my situation, the daughter of a pope, only fifteen years old, who in the space of three months had been exposed to poverty and slavery, been raped almost daily, had seen her mother torn to pieces, had endured war and famine, and who is now dying of the plague in Algiers. As it happens, I didn't die† (Vo ltaire). Voltaire also makes a strong emphasis on the old lady losing one of her buttocks, but despite that she continues to get on her horse, and ride it with just one of her buttocks.The old lady has clearly suffered tremendously. She has been through more hardships and trials than Candide and Cunegonde ever have, even though they seemed to have suffered a lot themselves. Despite all of the pains and sufferings that this old woman has been through, she consistently chose not to loathe in self-pity, and also chose life over death one hundred out of one hundred times. If this old woman did not sincerely believe that there was a reason to live and suffer, then why in Heaven’s mind would she ever decide to continue to live a life full of painful and tragic events?Simply putting it, she would not be in her right mind to continue on living a life of pain and suffering if there was no greater payout or at least a small reason for her pains and sufferings. The old woman’s re ason for living, the old woman’s payout for all of her pains and sufferings, and the old woman’s reason for not loathing in self-pity and ending her life was because she enjoyed living life too much. The old lady says to Candide and Cunegonde, â€Å"a hundred times I wanted to kill myself, but always I loved life more† (Voltaire).On the contrary the old lady also mentioned that the notion of loving life while it is miserable is equivalent to holding on to existence in horror, but still clinging on to it or to fondle a serpent that devours until it has eaten our hearts away. The old lady labeled this notion that she carries and that many others carry as ridiculous, extremely weak, and one of human’s worst instincts. Yet, she still decided to endure the hardships, live in her self-labeled â€Å"weakness†, and continued on living a life that pays her with reasons in wanting to live out her life.There is never a crystal clear glimpse of why the old wom an loves living so much, but she does defy Voltaire once more at the end of Candide. While in conversation with Candide in the final chapter, the old lady says to Candide â€Å"I should like to know which is worse, being raped a hundred times by negro pirates, having a buttock cut off, running the gauntlet in the Bulgar army, being flogged and hanged in an auto-da-fe, being dissected and rowing in the galleys—experiencing, in a word, all the miseries through which we have passed—or else just sitting here and doing nothing? (Voltaire). Voltaire places Candide’s garden in Candide as another form of mockery to the idea that everything happens for a reason and their world is the best of all possible worlds. Despite Voltaire inputting the garden as a mockery to Candide’s â€Å"ignorant and ridiculous† philosophy on life, the old lady was not any happier than she was when she was being raped, flogged, beaten, or hung. The old lady was just as â€Å"mis erable† as she was during all of her actual tragedies and hardships she faced, and yet she still continued to love living life and not loathe in her self-pity.The old lady’s life is a testament to there being a reason to the events and tragedies that occur in life. All of the hardships, pains, and sufferings that enter the lives of people happen so that people can grasp and understand the greatness and love for living life. Much like the old lady, people have to endure the pains and sufferings of life because living and experiencing life is worth every ounce of lost blood, sweat, and tears.

Does Divorce of Parents Harm Children?

Divorce has become prevalent, but what are its effects on children? Many researchers began studying this question in the 1970s, and they have learned a great deal about children and divorce. One thing researchers have learned is that we must distinguish between children's initial or short-term reactions to marital disruption and their long-term (more than two years) adjustment. Children's long-term reactions vary greatly, depending on how the parents respond to the child during and after the breakup. In particular, the most important factors that shape long-term adjustment are (1) the amount of parental conflict children are exposed to and (2) the quality of parenting or childrearing competence they receive. In addition to these two factors, children's reactions are affected by social or environmental factors such as living in a neighborhood with high crime and violence. Economic factors are an important aspect of divorce, as most single-parent mothers have more economic stress and can provide fewer resources and opportunities for their children following divorce. Economic stress leads to increasing family mobility and an unwanted decrease in kinship networks and family support systems. This becomes especially problematic when it deprives families of grandparents and other kin who can help parents cope in the aftermath of divorce. Yes: Judith S. Wallerstein, from â€Å"Growing up in the divorced family† Clinical Social Work Journal (Winter 2005) Clinical psychologist Judith Wallerstein argues not only that children are harmed when their parents’ divorce but also that these negative side effects continue into their adult lives. Wallerstein claims that adolescents of divorce families often become involved with drugs, alcohol, and sexual activity earlier than adolescents of intact families. And once they are adults, she claims that these children suffer from acute anxiety when attempting to love and form permanent relationships. Parent- Child relationships not only change at the breakup but continue to change during the years to follow. When this bond is broken by divorce, a wide range of passions spills over into all domains of the family. These emotions, as noted, have the power to derail parent-child relationships that were in place during the intact family. One immediate consequence of these chronic uncertainties in the post-divorce family is the eruption of persistent anxiety in the child, setting into motion a hyper vigilant tracking of each parent. They grow up insecure. They worry about another loss or sudden change in their family or household. They worry for many years about their parents’ well being. The central finding of our study is that, adulthood, the experience of having been through parental divorce as a child impacts detrimentally on the capacity to love and be loved within lasting, committed relationship. At young adulthood when love, sexual intimacy and commitment and marriage take center stage, children of divorce haunted by the ghosts of their parents’ divorce and terrified that the same fate awaits them. In addition to overcoming their fear of failure, they have a great deal to learn about the give and take of intimate living with another person, about how to deal with differences and how to resolve conflicts. Children recover, typically within a 2 year period, and then resume their normal developmental progress, if three conditions obtain: 1) the parents are able to settle their differences without fighting; 2) the financial arrangements are fair and; 3) the child has continued contact with both parents over the years that follow. Our findings are that where parents got along both maintained caring relationships with their children of the first marriage, undiminished by their post-divorce relationships, and where both parents were doing reasonably well in their personal lives, the childhood and adolescence of the children were better protected. Personal Evaluation: Are people just too selfish to make commitments or care about others anymore? Have people become too lazy or unwilling to work on the problems that exist in every relationship? I believe people still are capable of making mistakes. It's not that divorce is such a bad thing†¦ it's more that people are making the mistake of rushing into marriage for whatever reason and finally coming to grips with reality. Divorce is not questioned, in my opinion, when one of the spouses is abusive an adulterer, or other legally or morally wrong issues. I believe that divorce can harm children. However, I also believe that God can heal those wounds and He can teach them how to live healthy lives. In my opinion, divorce leaves a mark. Like the books says: â€Å"†¦ impacts detrimentally on the capacity to love and be loved within lasting, committed relationship. At young adulthood when love, sexual intimacy and commitment and marriage take center stage, children of divorce haunted by the ghosts of their parents’ divorce and terrified that the same fate awaits them. † I do agree with what the book says. I also come from a broken family and it’s been hard to come to the place where I know and believe in commitment of marriage and love. In my case, my adoptive family had to do a lot with my healing process and the role model they were to me. A loss of family identity often makes one feel inadequate, inferior or incomplete. And that’s how I felt at the beginning but the truth of the matter is; none of us are, whether we come from a broken home or not. Bibliography: Slife, Brent. Taking Sides- Clashing views on Psychological Issues. FIFTEENTH ed. Boston: McGraw Hill Companies, 2006. Newton, Lee. â€Å"Divorce is like a Death in the Family. † About. com. 1 Mar. 2009