A Christmas Story essay

A CHRISTMAS STORY A Christmas Story is an American comedy and family movie. The release date of the movie is 18 November 1983 in the United States of America. It’s about the child, Ralphie Parker who wanted to get a Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle from Santa in the Christmas and got the respond of â€Å"You'll shoot your eye out,† from his parents. It was directed by Bob Clark. In addition, the movie is based on the novel â€Å"In God We Trust, All Others Pay Cash† which is written by Jean Shepherd.Jean Shepherd is narrator of the movie and he voiced Ralphie’s adult voice as well. In the movie there are three actors that were starring in the movie. The most prominent character is Ralphie (Peter Billingsley). I think Peter Billingsley played his role in the movie; because he seemed like the most wanted thing that he wanted was Red Ryder. Also, Peter Billingsley is a member of Hollywood so he played in many movies. Ralphie’s fa ther called The Old Man (Darren McGavin), and Ralphie’s mother (Melinda Dillon) were starring in it.In the movie, Ralphie, his brother and his friend was tortured by Scut Farkus (Zack Ward) and his friend Grover Dill (Yano Anaya). A day, Miss Shields who was the teacher of Ralphie wanted to write an essay about what they wanted to get in Christmas. Ralphie wrote an essay about Red Ryder bur he got C+ from his essay. In the one of the most important events in the movie, for unusual Ralphie’s mother wanted Ralphie to help his father to change a flat tire. While Ralphie was helping his father, he dropped screws of the tire and he said a bad word and he was punished.In the other event Scut Farkus threw a snowball to Ralphie and Ralphie beat him up instead of running away but he could not to be punished because of his mother. At the end of the movie, â€Å"I can’t say what happened at end of the movie, watch and see,† say the writer of this essay. If you want to know is that movie if worth for watching or not, this movie is shown 24-hour in the Christmas day by TBS which is a cable channel of the USA. Watch and have a good time with your family.

Public School Essay

The Perfect Public School will be established with the vision to provide the quality education to the students of the Fateh Muhammad Jatoi and to enable them to compete at the national and international level. To achieve this vision the school will have the very well experienced and well groomed faculty that will provide the education on modern lines that will inculcate the students as well as their parents for the betterment of their children career development. The quality education that provide in our school is at low price as compared to our major competitors Beacon house, Frobels, roots and City school etc. The Perfect school is developed in order to facilitate the Pakistanis to get education as good and excellent as the students in Perfect school Pakistan. The Perfect school is located in Pakistan and is well renowned in all over the world for its Excellency in education field. Students from far flung countries go there with the aim to study and to get benefit from their quality education system. The Perfect school of Pakistan is also ranked among the top ten schools of the world. Moreover the Sindhi students also go abroad to study in this school and they score quite well as compared to other fellow students. The only difficulty that the Pakistani students face while going abroad is that they have to pay a huge sum of money for visa and passport requirements. The Perfect public school is going to be established to provide quality education as did other schools of Pakistan. The Perfect public school will be affiliated with the B. I. S. E Sukkur. The educational industry that provide these types of services includes the competitors like beacon house, Frobels, Roots and City school. These institutions are established with the purpose of providing the quality education but initially they have done their job quite well in providing excellent education, and with the passage of time they start diverting from their core mission of providing quality education. Now their focus shifts to provide the luxurious environments to the students and not to provide the quality education. The students living in the luxurious environments are used to enjoy the beauties or luxuries of life and are not willing to hard work, normally student involves in other activities which lead them to depression and illegal works. The Perfect staff is well trained to guide the student about their career development. The Perfect school is one of the prestigious students and established in the capital of Pakistan in F-10 Islamabad. The reason behind choosing this location that is capital of Pakistan is that we can get attention to the people. Secondly the people living in that part are very well aware of the educational needs and they fully know the importance of good education. Thirdly there are a reasonable number of foreigners living and they want to get their children to get a quality education. Fourthly there are mostly living the elite class of people in Islamabad and our business is mostly targeted to the elite class. The Perfect public school comprises of an elegant building, three grounds for outdoor sports activities of the students and one sports complex for indoor activities like table tennis, badminton, squash etc. The school will consist of almost 5-7 class rooms, 1 staff room and one principal office. The class rooms will be very well decorated and well furnished. The male and female staff will be hired for better education. As principal, I will regularly visit the classes, our progress towards implementing the strategies within the Business Plan, as well as the achievement of milestones and targets. Our values Success for every student. Diversity Ideal Customer The ideal customer for the Perfect Public School’s foreign language programs falls into one of two categories. The first is a middle class working person who feels the need to learn a foreign language either for a pressing work-related need, a desire to have more options in career, or a wish to travel to a foreign country and enjoy the experience more. These individuals, however, feel they cannot afford one-on-one tutoring, but are too social to be able to be content with a book, online program, or software to learn the language. They desire a classroom experience both as a structured approach to force them to make a commitment to the language learning and as a means to have extensive social interaction through the process. Market Description Perfect Public School targets customers with the following characteristics: 05 to 15 years of age Locals Male and Female Situation Analysis The Perfect Public School will be in the first year of business as a start-up operation. The School believes that the market demand for their services will be great and are convinced that a cohesive marketing strategy is required for The School. Market Summary The Perfect Public School possesses good information regarding their market and the target segments that they wish to serve. The School will leverage this information to better understand who is served, their specific needs, and how The School can better serve them. Market Needs The Perfect Public School will provide the education with a source of knowledge. This market need is important as many parents’ are faced with the dilemma of using their limited income on education. Pricing: The Perfect Public School’s fees will be noticeably better than local schools. Market Trends The market trend for schools reinforces consolidation. Market Growth In 2012, the global educational system/industry as a whole was 897 Million industry. The education system is forecasted to continue its record growth. Pakistani society in particular has become increasingly reliant on education. This conclusion seems to be fairly intuitive as many individuals have a vested interest in living longer and more educated. SWOT Analysis The following SWOT analysis captures the key strength and weaknesses within  the area, and describes the opportunities and threats facing The Perfect Public School. Strengths †¢A unique, current business-environment-appropriate business model. †¢Excellent staff who are highly trained and very competent. †¢Games. Weaknesses †¢The lack of visibility and brand equity of a start-up business. †¢Lack of true experience. †¢Government intervention/regulation into education is possible. Opportunities †¢Outside pressure on students. †¢The constant growth of the number of students taking education. †¢Newly formed alliances of school systems. Threats. †¢The entry into the market by an established school. †¢Some event that cripples education. Competition Competition takes many different forms in the education industry. †¢Chain of schools: These are private national chains such as City School. Keys to Success The keys to success are: Male and female students. Low overhead and operating costs. Normal prices and services. Financial Objectives A double digit growth rate for the first three years. Reduce the variable costs associated with servicing each student order by 4% a year. Profitability by the end of year. Sales Forecast. Sales Forecast 2013 2014 2015 Sales Walk-in customers (students) 83,056 243,778 343,540 New & Old customers 76,994 976,543 1,234,654 Total Sales 360,050 1,720,321 2,078,194 Direct Cost of Sales 2001 2002 2003 Walk-in customers 111,664 453,705 514,559 New & Old customers 79,647 439,444 555,594 Subtotal Direct Cost of Sales 191,311 893,149 1,070,154 Expense Forecast Marketing expenses are to be budgeted so they ramp up quarterly. These intervals are chosen because they are the common intervals that students who are getting several types of courses in same school. Controls. The purpose of the marketing plan is to serve as a guide to the organization. The following areas will be monitored to gauge performance: Revenue: monthly and annual. Expenses: monthly and annual. Repeat business. Students’ satisfaction. Contingency Planning Difficulties and risks: Problems generating visibility. Difficulty developing sufficient talent. An entry into the education market from an already established, larger schools like City and Grammar School. Worst case risks include: Determining that the business cannot support itself. Having to lab equipment to cover liabilities. Competition.

Hearing and Visual Impairments Essay

Understanding the struggles that hearing and visual impaired people go through has to be a tough challenge for them. Using their senses and other abilities to comprehend and communicate is truly extraordinary. They live their lives to the fullest and do not want anyone’s sympathy. Learning about how visual impairments take place must not be noted until we find out how a person can see. There are three functions for seeing: optical system, muscular system, and the nervous system, all play a role in how a person uses their vision. According to the IDEA, (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), any human being whose vision is 20/200 or less is considered legally blind (Heward, 2013). The educational definition when referring to learning states, an impairment in vision that disrupts a child’s ability to succeed in educational performance. Damage to the optical, muscular or nervous system can cause a visual impairment. Types of visual impairments include cataracts, color blindness and glaucoma. When it comes to academic achievement students will not be left behind when it comes to visual impairments. For students who are blind the use of braille is the way of reading and writing in which letters numbers and words are in arrangements of raised dots on the book or paper. Computers have special keyboards for students with visual aids so that the use of technology is not taking away from the student. Students with low vision have the options of optical aids where magnification plays a huge role in helping the student see. Hearing Impairments A person has the ability from gathering sounds from the environment and transforms that energy into a form that can be interpreted by the brain  (Heward, Hearing and Visual Impairments 3 2013). Hearing impairments may be the hardest of the five senses to understand. There are factors involved that are not completely understood by scientist and doctors. The IDEA defines hearing impairments as, a hearing loss that is so traumatic, that the child is impaired by understanding sounds and what they stand for, rather with sound or not, and affects a child’s work in school. A person who is deaf cannot hear what a person is saying to them without the use of hearing aids, reading lips, or sign language. People that are considered hard of hearing can comprehend things with the use of devices such as hearing aids. There are different types of hearing impairments that cause hearing damage. Conductive hearing loss has to do with damage to the outer or middle ear. Sensory hearing loss has to do with a disturbance to the cochlea that affects hearing. Neural hearing impairment is damage to the auditory nerve pathway (Heward, 2013). Hearing impairments can be caused by several factors: ear wax buildup, noise exposure, genetic factors, and meningitis. Things that can help students who suffer from hearing impairments in school are being improved every day. Technology such as hearing aids, cochlear implants, television and movie captioning. The thing that I feel is most important to hearing impaired students is the use of sign language. The fact that the use of sign language interpreters in the classroom has increased over the years is a sign that people see the positives in using the interpreters for success. In conclusion, technology has had a big hand in helping the hearing and visual impaired reach astronomical success in the classroom and outside the classroom. Although they still have their struggles in society it has improved a great deal from the early centuries. Hearing and visual impaired do not believe they have a disability and with good reason they should not. They can do anything they set their mind to and with good reason due to the advancements we have made as a society. Reference Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Education, Tenth Edition, by William L. Heward. Pearson, 2013.

Investigation report Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Investigation report - Assignment Example I went further to investigate the reasons that could have contributed the disparity. In my investigation, I realized that two of the union members had not done any overtime work while that of the nonunion members were relatively high. The two members demonstrated a higher percentage of rejection for the period hence their inability to do any overtime work is justifiable. This means that the union leader cannot defend the positions of these two individuals. Through a discussion with the head of the department, Mr. Wilfred Kundson, I got a clue of the reasons why the parity existed. After investigating the proposition that the overtime was awarded based on seniority and productivity in line with the company’s polices, I affirmed Kundson’s views (Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1). The findings show a very close relationship between the two factors and overtime. For example, Ralph Andrews, one of the oldest workers that has served the company for 35 years received less overtime as opposed to the more productive workers, apparently having served the company for only eight years and are member of the union. I established that the problem could have emanated from inadequate communication and lack of employees involvement in decision making in the organization. The union members may have thought that they are discriminated against because of their affiliation to the union, which was not the case. The work done and the seniority are the most important aspects considered as a matter of policy. However, there must have been a communication breakdown somewhere hence creating suspicion among the union affiliated employees (Queensland Government 1). The employees were not aware of how the overtime was awarded; the criterion used was unfamiliar to them. However, when they are informed of the policies of the organization as pertains the award of overtime, most of them would be comfortable. The findings also

Manifest Destiny and the Civil War Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Manifest Destiny and the Civil War - Essay Example The notable opposition on the issue led to a division in the Democratic Party (Catton, 2006). The sectional Debate was a special debate that revealed very difficult differences the USA had amongst itself. The Kansas-Nebraska Act, introduced by Sen. Stephen A. Douglas, had a huge impact on the Northerners. This is because it made them believe that the Act was slave power conspiracy to control the federal government. The Minnesota moved and amended the constitution that abolished slavery. Ohio decided to make it a punishable offence to own or have slaves. The Kansas-Nebraska Act seemed to favor the Southern parts. This was because they raised opposition against the passing of the railroad in their land. The Act was amended such that they were allowed to states that allowed the owning of slaves. This later led to the introduction of the many slave states. The Northerners in general opposed the idea and some of the big Whigs decided to form the Republican Party (Catton, 2006). Some of the slave in the United States included Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Maryland, Virginia, Texas, Florida, New Jersey and New York. Later, New York and New Jersey became Free states. The Free states included Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, Michigan, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Wisconsin, Oregon, Iowa and Minnesota. The altering of the latitude line in the redrawing of the map made Utah and New Mexico areas that were open to slavery. The South did not gain from the compromise of 1850. This is because the states were highly dependent on the slave labor provided for by the slaves they owned. Unlike their Northern counterparts, the Southern lacked the ability to industrialize since they relied solely on cash crop production. The Northern states, however, were much luckier since they had added more miles of railroad, steel production, modern factories and even t he

Leaving a Job between Shannon kaiser and Tomoyuki Iwashita Essay

Leaving a Job between Shannon kaiser and Tomoyuki Iwashita - Essay Example In the case of Shannon Kaiser, she had been dragging herself and crying on her way to work due to the severe emptiness that she feels about her work that she is seeing it to be a cage. In her words, she â€Å"followed a career path that felt soulless†. Clive Offley typified the regular upscale life of a Japanese â€Å"yuppie† where they work for a prestigious that is desired by many. But Offley was so tired of because the amount of work that they do is already taking toll on the quality of their lives. He spoke of Karoshi or death from work to emphasize how Japanese companies will make you work to death. This was highlighted in his article when he â€Å"collapsed from working too hard†. But instead of being taken cared off, he was instead admonished by his boss that â€Å"it's your own fault if you get sick†. This kind of life was succinctly described by Kaiser as â€Å"I followed a career path that felt soulless†. It has perks that can make one fee l successful and supposed to be happy due to the accompanying superficial trappings that goes with the perks. Kaiser for a time had it. She had a fancy car, awards, achievements and money she could get. But instead of being happy, she instead felt an animal that is caged longing to come out. She longed to be with the â€Å"three-story tall maple tree. ... His workplace also provided everything that he never felt the need to leave the building. There is a barber shop there, doctor, sauna and other facilities and amenities that would cater to his needs. But all of these privileges have their price. And the price is worth more than the privileges because the change of lifestyle that his work wrought deteriorated the quality of his life instead of improving it. Suddenly, his life was reduced to work and his dormitory with the commuter train in between. They also have to work hard to the point of Karoshi or death from work in the company that they do not have anything left for their personal lives. The demand of work deprives them to find girlfriends (for the bachelor) and if an employee is married, they have less time to spend with their wives and their children. The predicament about work that was articulated by Kaiser and Iwashita represents the situation that many people are in with their work. Kaiser and Iwashita is not an isolated ca se and is shared by many people. Most of the time, we are doing the jobs that we are doing because we needed the job to pay our bills, mortgages, send children to school, etch. Or, it is because we are trapped by the impression of prestige of working in top companies and the trappings that goes with it that even if we feel miserable, we still stayed with the company just to keep the respect of other people. What made Kaiser and Iwashita’s casespecial was because they had the courage and opportunity to break free from the bondage of their work which Kaiser put it as â€Å"A giant ball of energy burst outward from my †¦ For the first time, I had let my inner voice, my heart, speak its truth.  I felt alive. For the first time in my

Social problems paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Social problems paper - Essay Example The following statement made by Bankoff becomes highly significant in this context: "If the Indian Ocean Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina can be said to have any 'lessons' for us, it is to suggest that western developed countries may have as much to learn about disaster preparedness, management and recovery from non-western developing countries in terms of community-based assistance and the integrated flexible use of technology as the latter do from the former in terms of technocratic know-how and scientific expertise." (Bankoff, 2006). Thus these disasters "appear to both reinforce and then question the way western people think about what makes communities and societies vulnerable." (Bankoff, 2006). We always talk about economic inequalities at the time of a disaster rather than focusing on more relevant factors. Does it matter a lot When we consider the lessons taught by the two disasters, we are sure that economic inequalities did not have such a great significance. Both the economically sound and weak nations are yet to learn the real lessons of the hazards. In the matters of hazards and disaster preparedness, management and recovery, the economically weak nations always rely not on the technocratic solutions.

New malaria 'poses human threat' Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

New malaria 'poses human threat' - Assignment Example P. knowlesi resembles the less serious P. malariae under microscopic inspection, but if not properly diagnosed, it can be as deadly as dreaded malarial parasites like P. falciparum. Since P. knowlesi has the ability to reproduce every 24 hours in the blood, urgent medical treatment is needed in cases of infection, failing to which it can turn deadly. The research, headed by Professor Balbir Singh of University Malaysia Sarawak, involved testing over 150 patients with malaria infection admitted to hospital in Sarawak between July 2006 and January 2008. Their study revealed that more than two thirds of these infections were caused by P. knowlesi. Since the major symptom among patients infected with P. knowlesi was the low blood platelet count in them, doctors can take it as a lead to further diagnosis even in places where P. knowlesi is not yet detected to be the cause of malaria. Professor Balram suggests that while treating a patient who had visited a place where P. knowlesi is detec ted to be the cause of malarial infections among humans, clinicians should be â€Å"aware of the diagnosis, clinical manifestations, and rapid and potentially serious course of P. knowlesi malaria†. The study throws light on the future possibilities of having to deal with new kind of deadly

Texting while driving Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Texting while driving - Essay Example These efforts that include commercial like the AT& T have in the past failed and still show no sign of succeeding in future due to the following: first, the ever growing culture which sees vehicles as haven, roving office and friendly place where people do whatever they like. The second reason is the culture of connection that has left most people afraid with the issue of being left out. Lastly, the technological culture that leaves many trapped in a bias where they are tempted to permit the act first and only ask question later. Some supporters of the idea of texting while driving argue that it only becomes bad when the act takes place while the driver is on a high speed. It is on this ground that some people recommend that wireless mobile service providers ban texting incase the phone is detected to be moving faster than 20miles per hour. It has been suggested that phone makers configure the mobile devices to automatically advice persons communicating from the other side the driver is on the wheels. But is driving and texting really sinful? Does it go against God’s standards of what is right? It is not debatable that drinking and driving is unethical. The same applies to similar acts such as drugs and driving, speedy driving in a school zone or construction area where men are at work. Again it may be important to take a break and ask why these acts are considered unethical driving. The answer will obviously be based on the idea that it endangers other people’s lives (Rachels, and Stuart). Now coming back to the current scenario, it is argued that texting does not tamper with people’s intellect like drugs and alcohol. However, it is important to note that texting and driving greatly affect the sense of sight, a key element while driving. It is on this ground that everything about it becomes wrong. Taking the ideas carried in the consequentialism theory of morality and

Health and Social Care Act Essay Example for Free

Health and Social Care Act Essay Legislation: Health and Social Care Act; the Medicines Act and The Misuse of Drugs Act. Guidelines could include the Nursing Midwifery Guidelines for the management of medicine administration registered nurses have to abide by this set of guidelines and for paid carers, the General Social Care Councils Code of Conduct will have something which could relate to medication. Policy for example consider the Governments drive to ensure people with dementia are not over medicated so their policy is currently designed to push the professionals responsible for prescribing to bear in mind the effect of drugs on frail elderly people and to consider alternative treatments such as activities and therapies. Other examples of policy might be the Government’s drive to limit the prescribing of antibiotics to reduce the incidence of resistant strains of bacteria. Protocols a protocol is a procedure and you could outline your companys procedure (protocol) for disposing of controlled drugs or medication in general. 2- Know about common types of medication and their use. Antibiotics- The most common side effects of antibiotics affect the digestive system. These occur in around 1 in 10 people. Side effects of antibiotics that affect the digestive system include: being sick feeling sick diarrhea bloating and indigestion abdominal pain loss of appetite Ibuprofen- Ibuprofen can cause a number of side effects. For this reason, take lowest possible dose of ibuprofen for the shortest possible time needed to control your symptoms. Common side effects of ibuprofen include: nausea (feeling sick) vomiting (being sick) diarrhoea (passing loose, watery stools) indigestion (dyspepsia) abdominal (tummy) pain Antihistamine- Common side effects of first-generation antihistamines include: drowsiness impaired thinking dry mouth dizziness constipation blurred vision an inability to fully empty the bladder (urinary retention) Drugs like insulin (blood has to be taken from a pinprick so that glucose can be measured before the insulin can be given); warfarin to thin the blood again blood levels must be checked regularly; digoxin to slow and steady the heart (pulse should be checked prior to administration and advice taken if the pulse dips below 60 beats per minute) Common adverse reactions might be diarrhoea (some antibiotics for example); skin rashes; nausea through to serious adverse reactions such as anaphylactic shock (facial swelling, blistering of the skin, wheezing and hives) leading to total system collapse and (if not treated with adrenalin) death. The different routes of medication administration are orally, injection/intravenous, creams, and liquids. 3- Understand procedure and techniques for the administration of medication. The required information from prescriptions and medication administration charts are medication name, the name of the person the mediation is prescribed for, dosage, freq uency/PRN and medication strength. 4- Prepare for the administration of medication. Standard precautions for infection control would be hand washing, ppe for  example gloves and aprons etc. In a structured health care setting, medication would be administered to the patient or resident or client by a nurse, such as an RN or LPN whoever was assigned to be the med nurse. In other facilities, medication is administered by persons with med certs (certification training to administer meds). Its a very specific, precise duty. Meds are secured in locked rooms, areas, and carts. No one is allowed access except the med nurse or scheduled med cert. (person). Meds have to be administered in the correct dosage, which can only be according to a doctors prescription. Dosage cannot be altered unless a doctor alters or updates the Rx. The person administering the meds must observe the person they administer them to and ensure that they took them. Pocketing meds (in the cheek), or refusing meds are handled according to the persons meds and orders. Sometimes it is marked as declined / refused meds. Sometimes, it is documented that they did not swallow it initially and had to be encourag ed, etc. or whatever happened according to the facilities guidelines. Meds are always, and must be, administered and documented accurately when they are administered (contemporaneously). Meds are prescribed to be given sometimes at certain intervals. If the med is a few minutes late, no one is to assume that it was already administered, and skip it. Likewise, if it is offered a little early and that is appropriate according to the order, the med, or the patient request, etc. and it is not documented correctly and contemporaneously, and a second dose is administered, assuming it is on time, and assuming falsely that it was not recently administered (upon request or whatever the circumstances were), then the patient would have been given an incorrect dosage, more than they were prescribed. You know that with some meds, that could be very a very serious overdose, sometimes terminal. They do try to put many checks and balances in place to prevent as much human error as possible, but it can happen. The consequences are usually pretty severe. A med cert would automatically lose their med certification, and they would be disciplined up to, and including, termination. With a licensed nurse, Im not as sure of the procedure, but Im fairly certain it would definitely include reporting the med error or  abuse, suspension without pay, an internal (or perhaps external) investigation, and disciplinary actions up to and including termination. Also, unauthorized access and theft of prescription medications whether by the assigned med nurse, or an outside party, would automatically involve criminal charges. And of course, criminal charges are always a possibility in the other two scenarios I presented above for med certs and nurses, depending on the laws, the circumstances, and the outcome of the investigations. Like I said, very serious consequences. And it’s not like someone could just take a med and it could go unnoticed. med admin documentation is reviewed / audited at least daily, if not more often, and if someone was suspected of confiscating meds, such as narcotics, the building, in some agencies would go into lock-down and staff could / wo uld be subjected to a search.

Effect of Vegetation on Slope Stability

Effect of Vegetation on Slope Stability 5.1 Introduction Incorporating the vegetation effect in slope stability has been used for many years in geotechnical engineering. The vegetation effect on slope stability usually ignored in conventional slope analysis and it is considered as a minor effects. Although the vegetation effect on slopes qualitatively appreciated after the pioneer quantitative research. The vegetation cover is recognized in urban environment and it is generally utilized along transportation corridors such as highways and railway, river channels, canals, mine waste slopes and artificially made sloping ground. There are some remedial techniques for soil stabilizations in civil engineering practice such as geosynthetic reinforcement or soil nailing are often used at slopes at great expense, but now many parts of the world considered sustainable alternative methods such as using the vegetation cover or soil bioengineering in civil engineering applications. This method reduces the cost and local labour force and it is environmental friendly method. The vegetation cover, the roots draw out moisture from soil slopes through evapo-transpitation leads to shrinking and swelling in soil. After prolonged wet and dry period, it is possible to foam cracks at dry period due to reduction of moisture content from vegetation covers. 5.2 Influence of vegetation The vegetation effect influence on soil slopes, generally classified into two types, they are mechanical and hydrological effects. The hydrological effect is responsible for soil moisture content, increasing the evapo-transpiration and resulting increasing the soil matric suction. Water is removed from the soil region in several ways, either evaporation from the ground surface or by evapo transpiration from vegetation cover. The process produces upward flux of the water out of the soil. The mechanical effects from the vegetation root responsible for physical interaction with soil structure 5.2.1 Hydrological effects The influence of vegetation cover in soil moisture content in different ways. The rain water evaporates back to atmosphere ultimately reduce the amount of water infiltrate into the soil slope. The vegetation roots extract moisture from the soil and this effects leads to reducing the soil moisture content. The reduction in moisture content in soil, it will help to increase the matrix in unsaturated soil or decrease the pore water pressure condition in saturated soil. Both of this action ultimately improves the soil stability. The vegetations moisture reduction ability is well recognized. The root reinforcement is most important factor, it is generally considered in vegetation effects on slope analysis, thought the recent studies shows the importance of hydrological effects on slopes by Simon Collision (2002). They studied the pore water pressure and matric suction in soil over for one cycle of wet and dry cycle under different vegetation covers. This result shows the significant effec ts of vegetation hydrological effects are soil structure. 5.2.2 Mechanical effects The vegetations root matrix system with high tensile strength can increase the soil confining stress. The soils root reinforcement is described with roots tensile test and adhesional properties. The additional shear strength of soil is given by the plant root bound together with the soil mass by providing additional apparent cohesion of the soil. The slope contain large trees need to consider the weight of the tree. The additional surcharge to the slope may give from larger trees. This surcharge increases the confining stress and down slope force. The surcharge from larger trees could be beneficial or adverse condition depending of the location on soil slope. If the trees located slope toe, the slope stability will be improved due to additional vertical load. On the other hand, if the trees located at upper surface of the slope, hence overall stability reduced due to vertical down slope force Furthermore, the wind loading to larger trees increasing the driving force acting on the slope. In the wind load is sufficiently large it may create the destabilizing moment on the soil slope from larger trees. Larger trees roots penetrate deeper strata and act as stabilizing piles. The effects of surcharge, wind loading and anchoring usually considered only larger trees. 5.3 Vegetation effects on soil slope numerical study In this parametric study, the effect of vegetation on the stability of slope has been investigated using the SLOPE/W software tool. In this study only consider the parameter root cohesion known as apparent root cohesion (CR). This coefficient incorporated with Mohr-Coulomb equation. 5.3.1 Model geometry 20 m 10 m 20 m 10 m 20 m Figure 5. 1 Slope geometry à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ §Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ½Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  20 kN/m3 c = 15 kPa à ¯Ã‚ Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ½Ãƒ ¯Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚  20 °In this parametric study 10 m height 2:1 homogenous slope (26.57 °) is used to investigate the vegetation effect on stability analysis, as shown in Figure 5.1. The soil properties are as follows: 5.3.2 Vegetation covers arrangement for the numerical model Case Slope geometry Description 01 No vegetation cover 02 1 m height vegetation cover-entire ground surface cohesion 1 kPa to 5 kPa 03 2 m height vegetation cover-entire ground surface cohesion 1 kPa to 5 kPa 04 3 m height vegetation cover-entire ground surface cohesion 1 kPa to 5 kPa 05 vegetation cover only at the slope surface 06 vegetation cover only at the slope surface and upper surface Figure 5. 2 Vegetation covers arrangement for the numerical model 5.3.3 The root cohesion values from previous researchers Source Vegetation, soil type and location Root cohesion c v (kN/m2) Grass and Shrubs Wuà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¡ (1984) Sphagnum moss (Sphagnum cymbifolium), Alaska, USA 3.5 7.0 Barker in Hewlett Boulder clay fill (dam embankment) under grass in concrete block reinforced 3.0 5.0 et al. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   (1987) cellular spillways, Jackhouse Reservoir, UK Buchanan Savigny * (1990) Understorey vegetation (Alnus, Tsuga, Carex, Polystichum), glacial till soils, Washington, USA 1.6 2.1 Gray  § (1995) Reed fiber (Phragmites communis) in uniform sands, laboratory 40.7 Tobias à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   (1995) Alopecurus geniculatus, forage meadow, Zurich, Switzerland 9.0 Tobiasà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   (1995) Agrostis stolonifera, forage meadow, Zurich, Switzerland 4.8 5.2 Tobiasà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   (1995) Mixed pioneer grasses (Festuca pratensis, Festuca rubra, Poa pratensis), alpine, Reschenpass, Switzerland 13.4 Tobiasà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   (1995) Poa pratensis (monoculture), Switzerland 7.5 Tobiasà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   (1995) Mixed grasses (Lolium multiflorum, Agrostis stolonifera, Poa annua), forage meadow, Zurich, Switzerland -0.6 2.9 Cazzuffi et al.  § (2006) Elygrass (Elytrigia elongata), Eragrass (Eragrostis curvala), Pangrass (Panicum virgatum), Vetiver (Vetiveria zizanioides), clayey-sandy soil of Plio-Pleistocene age, Altomonto, S. Italy 10.0, 2.0, 4.0, 15.0 Norrisà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   (2005b) Mixed grasses on London Clay embankment, M25, England ~10.0 van Beek et al. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   Natural understory vegetation (Ulex parviflorus, Crataegus monogyna, 0.5 6.3 (2005) Brachypodium var.) on hill slopes, Almudaina, Spain van Beek et al. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   (2005) Vetiveria zizanoides, terraced hill slope, Almudaina, Spain 7.5 Deciduous and Coniferous trees Endo Tsuruta à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   (1969) OLoughlin Ziemer à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   (1982) Riestenberg Sovonick-Dunford * (1983) Schmidt et al. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¡ (2001) Swanston* (1970) OLoughlin* (1974) Ziemer Swanston à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ § (1977) Burroughs Thomas* (1977) Wu et al. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¡ (1979) Ziemer à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   (1981) Waldron Dakessian*(1981) Gray Megahanà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¡ (1981) OLoughlin et al. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   (1982) Waldron et al. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   (1983) Wu à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¡ (1984) Abe Iwamoto à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   (1986) Buchanan Savigny * (1990) Gray  § (1995) Schmidt et al. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¡ (2001) van Beak et al. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   (2005) Silt loam soils under alder (Alnus), nursery, Japan Beech (Fagus sp.), forest-soil, New Zealand Bouldery, silty clay colluvium under sugar maple (Acer saccharum) forest, Ohio, USA Industrial deciduous forest, colluvial soil (sandy loam), Oregon, USA Mountain till soils under hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) and spruce (Picea sitchensis), Alaska, USA Mountain till soils under conifers (Pseudotsuga menziesii), British Columbia, Canada Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) western hemlock (Tsuga heterophylla), Alaska, USA Mountain and hill soils under coastal Douglas-fir and Rocky Mountain Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii), West Oregon and Idaho, USA Mountain till soils under cedar (Thuja plicata), hemlock (Tsuga mertensiana) and spruce (Picea sitchensis), Alaska, USA Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta), coastal sands, California, USA Yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa) seedlings grown in small containers of clay loam. Sandy loam soils under Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii) and Engelmann spruce (Picea engelmannii), Idaho,USA Shallow stony loam till soils under mixed evergreen forests, New Zealand Yellow pine (Pinus ponderosa) (54 months), laboratory Hemlock (Tsuga sp.), Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis) and yellow cedar (Thuja occidentalis), Alaska, USA Cryptomeria japonica (sugi) on loamy sand (Kanto loam), Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan Hemlock (Tsuga sp.), Douglas fir (Pseudotsuga), cedar (Thuja), glacial till soils, Washington, USA Pinus contorta on coastal sand Natural coniferous forest, colluvial soil (sandy loam), Oregon Pinus halepensis, hill slopes, Almudaina, Spain 2.0 12.0 6.6 5.7 6.8 23.2 3.4 4.4 1.0 3.0 3.5 6.0 3.0 17.5 5.9 3.0 21.0 5.0 ~ 10.3 3.3 3.7 6.4 5.6 12.6 1.0 5.0 2.5 3.0 2.3 25.6 94.3 -0.4 18.2 * Back analysis and root density information. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚   In situ direct shear tests. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¡ Root density information and vertical root model equations. Laboratory shear tests. Table 5. 1 Values of Cv for grasses, shrubs and trees as determined by field, laboratory tests, and mathematical models In this parametric study apparent root cohesion (CR) was varied over the following range: 1 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ CR à ¢Ã¢â‚¬ °Ã‚ ¤ 5 kPa ; CR à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€  {1 kPa, 2 kPa, 3 kPa , 4 kPa , 5 kPa } Three vegetation root depth zones (hR) were used namely: hR à ¢Ã‹â€ Ã‹â€  {1 m, 2 m, 3 m} A C BThe soil slope assumed as homogeneous slope. The case 1 soil slope (no vegetation cover on it) compared with the soil slope with vegetation cover on it. Figure 5. 3 Slope failure plane through slope region 5.3.4 Vegetation layer entire surface The case 2 condition applied the vegetation cover entire surface, the vegetation depth (hR) were 1 m and root cohesion were 1 kPa to 5 kPa. The same root cohesion applied to the case 3 and case 4 conditions. C (kPa) CR (kPa) hR (kPa) FOS Case 1 15 0 0 1.568 Case 2 15 1 1 1.571 15 2 1 1.575 15 3 1 1.579 15 4 1 1.582 15 5 1 1.586 Case 3 15 1 2 1.575 15 2 2 1.583 15 3 2 1.591 15 4 2 1.599 15 5 2 1.605 Case 4 15 1 3 1.580 15 2 3 1.593 15 3 3 1.605 15 4 3 1.618 15 5 3 1.630 Table 5. 2 Slope Analysis results for Case 1, Case 2, Case 3 and Case 4. Vegetation cover plays a significant role in slope stability analysis. The root cohesion experiments from various researchers over the past three decades results are shown in Table 5.1. In this research only consider the grass and shrubs root reinforcement. The apparent root cohesion range is 1 kPa to 5 kPa. If we consider the bigger trees in slopes need to consider its weight for slope stability calculations. The Table 5.2 shows the factor of safety analysis results for different root cohesion for different depths. Figure 5. 4 Different root cohesion (CR ) values for factor of safety for different root depths The analysis carried out with the software tool SLOPE/W. The graph shows the influence of vegetation cover i.e. root cohesion (CR) and its root depth (hR). The soil slope without any vegetation cover (CR = 0 kPa), the factor of safety is 1.570. This result shows the vegetation cover applied entire surface. The factor of safety linearly increase when increase with the root cohesion and root depth. The root cohesion and root depth has linear relationship with slopes factor of safety. 5.3.4 Vegetation layer only at slope surface and upper surface C (kPa) CR (kPa) hR (kPa) FOS FOS Case 6 Case 5 15 1 1 1.571 1.569 15 2 1 1.575 1.572 15 3 1 1.579 1.574 15 4 1 1.582 1.576 15 5 1 1.586 1.578 15 1 2 1.575 1.572 15 2 2 1.583 1.577 15 3 2 1.591 1.581 15 4 2 1.598 1.586 15 5 2 1.605 1.591 Table 5. 3 Slope Analysis results for Case 6 and case 5 The vegetation layer only considered at slope surface and upper surface, analysis carried out with SLOPE/W tool. The case 6 analysis results same as the case 2 and case 3. The results not affect with toe vegetation (section C at Figure 5.3) because failure plane only at section A and B section at Figure 5.3. So only influence with slope vegetation layer and upper surface vegetation layer in this slope analysis. The vegetation layer only at slope surface analysis results (case 6) compared with vegetation only at slope condition (case 5) shows lesser factor of safety values. The slopes upper surface vegetation has considerable influence in slope stability. 5.3.4 Vegetation layer only at toe C (kPa) CR (kPa) hR (kPa) FOS Vegetation layer only at toe 15 1 1 1.568 15 2 1 1.568 15 3 1 1.568 15 4 1 1.568 15 5 1 1.568 15 1 2 1.568 15 2 2 1.568 15 3 2 1.568 15 4 2 1.568 15 5 2 1.568 Table 5. 4 Slope Analysis results for Vegetation layer only at toe The SLOPE/W analysis shows (Table 5.5) for vegetation at toe Figure 5.1 section C. All the results for different depths and different root cohesion values are the same. The failure plane of this analysis only at section A B. So there is no influence with the toe vegetation. If the failure plane goes to section only toe vegetation influence in slope stabilization. 5.3.5 Slope failure plane through toe C B A Figure 5. 5 Slope failure plane through toe CR (kPa) Vegetation at toe hR (kPa) FOS 1 1 1.619 2 1 1.624 3 1 1.628 4 1 1.632 5 1 1.636 1 2 1.621 2 2 1.626 3 2 1.632 4 2 1.637 5 2 1.642 Table 5. 5 Slope Analysis results for failure plane through toe region, Vegetation layer only at toe This slope analysis failure surface was set through slope toe using entry and exit method. The Figure 5.5 shows clearly the failure plane, the failure region cover the entire region (A, B C). The vegetation layer applied at toe region for this analysis. The FOS increase with the increasing root cohesion and root depth, but there is no changes observed from the previous analysis, which is the failure plane only at section B C Figure 5.1. So the vegetation layer influent with the slope failure surface.

COPs and their Disadvantages

COPs and their Disadvantages Manage the mutual relationship by fostering institutional cooperation and coordination. Such cooperation could take place simply through information exchanges between treaty bodies, or in a more ambitious form comprising joint planning of programmes or even the coordination of substantive decision-making or implementation activities. It argues that this soft alternative also has its limitations, which can be explained by incongruent memberships and limited legal mandates. It appears that while the treaty bodies of the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol have been rather passive on the issue of the relationship with the biodiversity convention, the CBD COP has actively sought to manage the interactions between the regimes. Since the adoption of this decision, however, there have been no major efforts to manage interactions between the two treaties. The CBD parties, in contrast, have adopted various decisions on biodiversity and climate change. These decisions have been instrumental in highlighting biodiversity concerns in UNFCCC decisions but have not led to strong references to biodiversity in the climate regimes decisions on forests. Although the institutional cooperation efforts to address the interactions between the climate and biodiversity regime are clearly intensifying, their effects are as of yet uncertain: at best, they can be seen as creating mutual awareness and building capacity at various levels; at worst, they can be viewed as an exercise in rhetoric. First, any effort by actors in one reg ime to influence rule development in another will be limited by the extent to which memberships are congruent. In this case, an important barrier is that the United States is a party to the UNFCCC, but not to the CBD. A broad mandate for the climate regimes treaty or administrative bodies to cooperate with the CBD could lead to the perception that state sovereignty is eroded by importing concepts or rules from the CBD.304 A submission by the United States to the UNFCCC seems to confirm this fear. Commenting on the paper concerning options for enhanced cooperation prepared by the Joint Liaison Group in 2004, the United States notes that the Rio Conventions have a distinct legal character, mandate and membership.305 Although this limitation may not have to hold for the Kyoto Protocol-to which the United States is not a party after all-the secretariats mandate for cooperation is determined by the UNFCCC COP rather than the Kyoto Protocols COP/MOP. More generally, it shows that parties in the climate regime may not be ready to give biodiversity conservation a more prominent place at the expense of achieving cost-effective emission reductions. Legal solutions The notion of conflict resolution leads to the second explanation of why legal techniques are not necessarily the most appropriate means to manage regime interactions: it is not always desirable that one norm prevails over another. Yet such a view ignores the notion that different treaties may pursue similar or overlapping objectives. This is particularly pertinent in the field of international environmental law. In the context of the interactions between the climate and biodiversity regimes, this would mean that any satisfactory resolution needs to result in further greenhouse gas emission reductions, while simultaneously ensuring the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity. My main point is that the focus on normative conflict has overshadowed the idea that norms may also reinforce each other. There is, for instance, a strong argument for using the concept of sustainable development as an overarching objective for international environmental law, and perhaps even internati onal law more generally. The ILC Study Group report has not completely ignored this critique. In its discussion of conflict clauses, the report acknowledges that in some cases it is necessary to put in place a clause that avoids a straightforward priority and instead seeks to coordinate the simultaneous application of the two treaties as far as possible. This is in line with Chambers, who suggests that [t]here is a need to create a positive rule of cooperation . . . which promotes treaty negotiators and treaty interpreters to maintain consistency between treaties. too narrowly focused on conflicts. Conflict resolution rules resulting in a hierarchical relationship of norms may still be useful in conflicts between legal regimes with incompatible objectives, but management of interactions between environmental treaties more generally may be better achieved through conflict avoidance techniques, as well as institutional cooperation and coordination. http://www.glogov.org/images/doc/WP30.pdf It concludes that neither legal nor political approaches are a panacea for interplay management. However, there is potential for the one approach to address the gaps in the other. Whereas international law does not address synergies between environmental treaties, strengthened political coordination and cooperation between them could. It is worth investigating further how international law and politics can work together in reaping synergies and addressing conflicts between multilateral regimes on climate change. In short, the very nature of climate change as an issue of sustainable development makes it almost impossible to capture all relevant aspects under a single legal regime, necessitating the consideration of interactions with other regimes. Similarly, it is not always necessary for two treaties to state their mutual supportiveness in order for States to implement them in a synergetic fashion. The main questions for international lawyers are: 1) can a conflict be established?; and 2) if so, which treaty prevails? CONFLICT CLAUSES The starting point in addressing conflicts is examining whether States have sought to regulate these through so-called conflict clauses (Pauwelyn 2003). The purpose of these clauses is to clarify the relation between treaties, thus preventing contradictions. This can be achieved, for example, by providing that existing treaties prevail or that a new agreement prevails over existing ones (Wolfrum and Matz 2003). It would not be advisable for the Paris agreement to rely on the adoption of conflict clauses due to their prioritising nature which doesnt conform to scientific management. In contrast, the climate agreements contain several clauses that regulate their relation with other multilateral treaties. With regard to the Montreal Protocol, the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol delimit their scope by only covering greenhouse gases not controlled by the Montreal Protocol. Thereby, the climate agreements express awareness of the substantive interlinkages between the problems of climate change and ozone layer depletion, as some ozone-depleting substances are also greenhouse gases. However, it does not in itself prevent or resolve conflicts.ÂÂ   Another clause is relevant for an issue that has garnered much attention, namely the use of carbon sinks in the Kyoto Protocols Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). Forestry projects are to a limited extent eligible for emission reduction credits under the CDM rules. However, it is feared that these rules do not ensure the protection of biodiversity and the prevention of land degradation, and could hence conflict with objectives and obligations of other environmental treaties Although this provision does not state which agreements need to be taken into account, it is reasonable to assume that given the role of forests and wetlands as sinks, the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands are relevant. Additionally, the membership of these agreements should be taken into account: it is difficult to see how an agreement can be relevant for a Party that has not signed or ratified it. However, it is unclear what precisely is meant with taking into account, leaving open the question which treaty would prevail in case of a conflict. TREATY INTERPRETATION Treaty interpretation is an important method that can be applied by diplomats and dispute settlement bodies to harmonise two norms that seem to be in conflict. Art 31 VCLT provides gives basic interpretation rules, stipulating that a treatys ordinary meaning, its context, and its object and purpose should be taken into consideration. It also gives more dynamic interpretation rules, which determine that interpretation should take into account a) any subsequent agreement between the Parties on interpretation of the treaty, b) any subseque nt practice in the application of the treaty, and c) any relevant rules of international law applicable in the relations between the parties. CONFLICT RESOLUTION RULES Article 30 VCLT provides rules on the resolution of conflicts. An apparent limitation of this provision is that it only applies to treaties relating to the same subject matter (Article 30.1 VCLT). Of course, application then depends on how one defines subject matter. On the one hand, if this is seen as broad as protection of the environment, Article 30 could theoretically apply to conflicts between the UNFCCC and CBD. The previous section has shown that international law does not particularly aim at enhancing synergies between treaties. Stokke (2001) points to the relevance of institutional coordination and cooperation in dealing with interactions. This could take place simply through information exchange between treaty bodies, or in a more ambitious form of comprising joint planning of programmes or even the coordina tion of substantive decision-making or implementation activities The climate regime has become increasingly involved in this form of interplay management.

Hakim Bey, Chaos: The Broadsheets of Ontological Anarchism :: Essays Papers

Hakim Bey, Chaos: The Broadsheets of Ontological Anarchism Such is the fast-paced world and style of Hakim Bey’s writings. Sporadic and rarely rounded up for interrogation, Bey’s Ontological Anarchism pervades all his writings, on topics as varied as â€Å"Islam and Eugenics†[1], â€Å"The Information War†[2], â€Å"The Evil Eye†[3], a critique of multiculturalism[4], and Celtic-African entheogens[5]. Hakim Bey’s zine writings and early 90’s hipsterism have made him known to some as â€Å"The Marco Polo of the Subunderground†[6] and a counter-cultural guru to many more. With information becoming more firm only in the last few years, Hakim Bey has been identified as a pseudonym for Peter Lamborn Wilson, a New York based translator and author. Drawing on his experiences wandering India, Asia, and North Africa, Hakim Bey authors (what offer to be) outrageous manifestos and leftist anarchist essays primarily for zine publication and distribution or for lectures and performance. He draws explicitly on a Moorish and sufiist intellectual heritage with occasional references to contemporary philosophers and cultural theorists. He situates himself as a post situationist anarchist informed by critical theory, and has written in both ctheory and Trip. Bey’s writing is ultimately so fascinating precisely because it does not fit neatly into a schools of thought, academic discipline, or a relation between the major figures of contemporary theory (eg loves Baudrillard, ignores Lacan, sometimes uses Foucault). As such, his writings are rather esoterically his own, and not only do not make their ties with other theorists explicit, but also cannot be immediately connected to theirs (because Bey’s assumptions are so different on account of his background’s differences from western academic philosophy). His work, as a theorist of media (and everything else), operates at a straightforward and accessible level, filled with obscure references that don’t point towards an expertise in his readership so much as an explosion of it. For some, his writings are meaningless babble on the level of Principia Discordia[7]. He does not get much mainstream citation except in regards to his concept of PT and the TAZ[8], but he does get plenty of crap. This disdain culminated in the publication of a ‘fake’ Hakim Bey book, actually written by â€Å"Luther Blissett†[9]. Hakim Bey is a persona. His behaviors and secrecy are all a part of the body of work of which he is accredited with authorship.

Man of the House :: essays research papers fc

Character Analysis of The little boy from â€Å"The Man of the House† by Frank O’Connor   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The story opens with the boy, whom to this point had ignored his mothers coughs, drops everything to rush to her aid as she â€Å"collapsed into a little wicker armchair, holding her side†. (O’Connor 206) As he watched his mother struggle trying to light the fire he told her, â€Å"Go back to bed and Ill light the fire†. (206) Now to this point, as the reader, I am unsure of the age of the boy, but I get the impression that he is a young boy. My idea of this boy is that he tries to take on too much throughout the day and eventually it was the demise of the opposite sex that eventually caused the meltdown of the â€Å"awesome† little boy. This is certainly something that will happen again to this young lad but he has definitely learned his lesson this time.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The young boy while tending to his mother also did the following things to try and help her get better because of how sick she was at the time. When he made her some tea and it was a little strong he agreed with her in a manner of almost trying to be equal saying that â€Å"†Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Tis too strong,† I agreed cheerfully, remembering the patience of the saints in their many afflictions. â€Å"I’ll pour half of it out.†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ â€Å"’Tis my fault,† I said, taking the cup. â€Å"I can never remember about tea.†Ã¢â‚¬  (207) When the young boy says this I feel that he is trying to act as if he is older than he really is because he is â€Å"the man of the house† and he is taking care of his sick mother. Also, while he has been taking care of his mother, he decides not to go to school today because taking care of his mother is much more important to him than going to school. After he turns down the bus ride to school he offers to go to the store to pick up a few things that his mother might want to get but is certainly unable being laid up in bed all day. So he offer to get eggs because â€Å"â€Å"What will I get for dinner? Eggs?† As hard boiled eggs were the only dish I could manage.†(207) I believe that in this exchange he denotes his young age because all he could make is a simple kind of dish that a lot of people and young people certainly know how to prepare.

British American Tobacco

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Any organization regardless of the fact of its size, age needs to run smoothly and achieve the goals and objectives which it has set forth. And thus the organization needs to manage Human Resource Management effectively and efficiently. For it develops and implements its own Human Resource Management concepts. British American Tobacco Bangladesh is one of the oldest and largest multinational companies operating in Bangladesh. At British American Tobacco Bangladesh, the key factor to their sustainable growth is human resource. BAT Bangladesh is a leading business organization in the industrial sector employing more than 1,300 employees directly and a further 40,000 indirectly as farmers, distributors and suppliers. It has always been committed to good employment practices and has set out the framework of its Employment Principles on workplace practices, employee relations and employee human rights. BATB employs more than 852 people directly and about 40,000 people indirectly as farmers, distributers and local suppliers. BATB is one of the most preferred employers in the country. It is their pool of talented people who give this place the wonderful and pleasant working environment that takes the company forward every day. It is a team of different people, different cultures and backgrounds, coming together to form something new, something remarkable everyday. In this report, we have tried our best to exemplify how the basic functions of HRM are exercised in British American Tobacco Bangladesh. We have analyzed BATB’s several functions: planning, recruiting and selection, training and development, performance appraisal and employee. We also discussed the BATB’s goals, mission and vision. BATB wants to attract, develop and retain high caliber talent. It also wants an organization that is constantly learning. This learning culture shares knowledge quickly, learns from its mistakes and replicates success formulas quickly. BATB’s Employment Principles set out BATB’s commitment to good employment practices and workplace related human rights. BATB invests time in these forums because it is committed to developing employees’ career and because in business, individual performance matters. BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO History : The  British American Tobacco  Company (BAT or BATCO) is the second largest listed tobacco company in the world, with a market capitalization of over ? 30 billion (U. S. $44 billion). It is based in London in the United Kingdom. It began operating in 1902 as a joint venture of the  Imperial Tobacco  Company and James Duke's  American Tobacco Company, and grew to be the major cigarette company in many countries – but not in the USA or in the UK, where each of the partner organizations had agreed not to compete with the other. During the trust-busting era of President Theodore Roosevelt, the American Tobacco Company was forced to divest its interest, and in the years that followed. Imperial Tobacco also reduced its shareholdings. Eventually BAT became a relatively independent organization that out-grew its parent. BAT Industries : The international remnants of the original company were reorganized into a holding company called BAT Industries in 1976, and it acquired what was left of the American Tobacco Co. after the anti-trust split-up. BAT later acquired  Brown ; Williamson  (B;W) which, at that time, was the largest cigarette company in the USA. BAT's US subsidiary retained a degree of independence from the UK, although clearly it must report to the London office — and occasionally they exerted their own pressure. BAT is based in London and has subsidiaries in the UK, Europe, Asia and the old British colonies. In 1999 it acquired the South African-based company of  Rothmans International  after a long battle with Philip Morris  for control. The company has also diversified into many other industries – owning, for instance, a major life insurance company, food and beverage companies, etc. The acronym BATCO is often used when referring to this larger conglomerate. BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO BANGLADESH Beginning the journey as Imperial Tobacco 100 years ago, the company set up its first depotat Armanitola in Dhaka Bangladesh. After the partition of India in 1947, Pakistan Tobacco Company was established in 1949. Then it became Bangladesh Tobacco Company Limited in 1972 immediately after Bangladesh’s independence. In 1998, the company changed its name and identity to British American Tobacco Bangladesh aligning the corporate identity with other operating companies in the British American Tobacco Group. Address : British American Tobacco Bangladesh New DOHS Road Mohakhali PO Box 6069 Dhaka – 1206 Bangladesh Tel: (+880) 2 882 2791 Tel: (+880) 2 882 2786 BATB’S SHAREHOLDERS BATB is among the first companies to be listed on the Dhaka and Chittagong Stock Exchanges and currently rank amongst the top 20 companies in terms of market capitalization. British American Tobacco Group holds 65. 91% of our shares; 18. 76% is owned by investment Corporation of Bangladesh; Shadharan Bima Corporation, Bangladesh Shilpa Rin Shangstha, Government of People’s republic of Bangladesh, Sena Kallyan Sangstha owns 4. 73% and further 10. 609% is owned by other shareholders. BATB’S OPERATIONS BATB grows tobacco leaves through its registered farmers in Kushtia, Chittagong, Manikganj and Rangpur zones. Both its head office and cigarette manufacturing plant are located in Mohakhali, Dhaka. It has one Green Leaf thrashing plant in Kushtia and a Redrying Plant in Manikganj. RESPONSIBILITIES BATB aims to ensure that it only purchases leaf from responsible and sustainable sources. Its Social Responsibility in Tobacco Production program addresses the social and environmental issues associated with tobacco growing and processing, and reaches more than 300,000 farmers who supply all the leaf it buys. The program covers good agricultural practices for improving soil and water conservation, appropriate use of agrochemicals, environmental best practice and occupational health and safety. It is also active in eliminating exploitative child labor and promoting forestation initiatives for the farmers who need wood for tobacco curing. As part of the program, it provides direct agronomy support and training to some 250,000 of its grower suppliers where it is not otherwise available. BATB’s VISION BATB’s vision is â€Å"to achieve leadership of the global tobacco industry in order to create long term shareholder value. Leadership is not an end in itself, but a company that leads its industry, is the preferred partner for key stakeholders and is seen to have a sustainable business, should be valued more highly. † BATB defines leadership in both a quantitative and qualitative sense. Quantitively, it seeks volume leadership among its international competitors and in the longer term, value leadership. It recognizes that its success will depend on adult consumers and that, therefore, it must be consumer driven. But the hard, quantitative measures do not in themselves address all the things it must do as a company. It takes a long term view, focusing on the quality of its business and how it works. As a result, qualitatively, it seeks to be recognized as industry leaders and to be the partner of first choice for governments, NGOs, investors and potential employees. It will do this by continuing to demonstrate that it is a responsible tobacco Group, with a sustainable business, outstanding people and superior products. In order to deliver its vision, its strategy for creating shareholder value has four elements around which all our efforts revolve – Growth, Productivity, Responsibility and Winning Organization. HR MISSION Embedding winning culture where people always strive to excel. How BATB Works To Achieve Its Organizational And HR Vision : To develop the most vital element of the organization which is the human resource BATB has put in a lot of efforts in responding to various changes and problems through effective formulation and implementation of human resource strategies through the HR department. A key part of BATB’s work is helping nurture an open, confident and winning culture, where all are aligned in delivering consumer satisfaction. It ensures that people have the opportunity to release their energies in a constructive and focused way. It wants its employees to have a clear vision for the business and to foster enthusiasm to drive superior performance. Furthermore, BATB expect its leaders to engage with their teams and to develop their people. BATB’s culture also encourages ongoing development, so its role includes optimizing personal and organizational learning in order to leverage the capability of both the business and the individual to establish the company vision. BATB strives to match the needs of the organization and individual aspirations and encourage personal fulfillments. Therefore, success is recognized in ways which are relevant to the individual. Strategic Human Resource Management The company clearly identified that a strategic approach to human resource management, development and administration was the primary requirement for dealing with the critical issues that it faced, and has been following such an approach since 1996. Under this approach, it has set out to achieve the following objectives: * Create an environment within which all parties could engage each other, build trust and produce satisfactory results. Ensure a stable working environment in which the unions and the workers would become partners in achieving the company’s overall objectives. * Develop leadership among workers and create an innovative environment; * Ensure the virtual absence of disruptive industrial relations issues; * Upgrade the base level of education and skill of all employees; * Achieve significant increases in productivity even while there has been a reduc tion in employment levels; * Create the cultural change from a manufacturing orientation to a service orientation; * Manage the separations that were required; Develop an environment at work that focuses on worker health and welfare, on safety and on the hazards of smoking; * Improve the focus on customer service and product quality; * Develop and maintain a reputation as an employer of choice HUMAN RESOURCE PLANNING practiced by BRITISH AMERICAN TOBACCO BANGLADESH Employment Planning : Human resource planning is a process of determining an organization’s human resource needs through ensuring that it has the right number and kinds of people at the right place, at the right time in order to achieving the organization’s overall objective. Like every other organization BAT also has its own employment planning. This planning includes determining the demands and supplies of labor in their organization. Determination of Demand of Labor : The management of BAT forecasts the company’s employees’ personnel needs based on its mission, strategic goals & objectives & technological and other changes resulting in increased productivity. Although there are several methods to predict personnel needs, but they use managerial judgment because it gives them more real world scenario for personnel needs. They think that the other methods cannot give the accurate situation of the personnel needs. These are basically graphical methods, which cannot measure the actual personnel needs. But managerial judgment method depends upon the change in productivity, market conditions etc. Determination of Supply of Labor : Internal Supply- Increase in Internal Supply – * New hires * Contingent workers * Transfers-in * Individuals returning from leaves Decrease in internal Supply – * Transfers * Layoffs * Voluntary Quits * Dismissals External Supply – BAT searches for fresh graduates among the business schools and other universities for fulfilling the demand of labor. It also targets the experienced workforce who is already working in different organizations. Besides, it offers contractual jobs to the people among who most are students. It also goes through the â€Å"Battle of Mind† competition through which they bring out the best promising faces from the crowd. BAT has recruited 37 fresh students judged through this competition since 2004. Job Analysis of British American Tobacco Bangladesh JOB ANALYSIS A job analysis is a systematic exploration of the activities within a job that provides information about the jobs currently being done and the knowledge, skills and abilities that individuals need to perform the jobs adequately. A thorough Job Analysis can enhance the effectiveness of regular or recurring HR processes like Recruitment and Selection, Training and Development, Performance Appraisals etc to long-range areas like HR Planning, Succession Planning etc. British American Tobacco Bangladesh does not follow any specific type of method to do the job analysis. Rather it uses a combination of different type of methods. The methods are based on the principles of modern management and of organizational psychology. Purpose of Job Analysis : The purpose of Job Analysis is to establish and document the ‘job relatedness' of employment procedures. A job analysis helps to determine the * Training Needs * Compensation of the employees * Selection Procedures Performance Review Job Analysis Process A job analysis process has three outcomes: Job Description: Job description is a statement indicating what a job entails. It includes what the job holder does, how it is done, under what conditions and why. BATB is comprised by experienced human resources executives who at a first level, with the help of managers; define the needs of the organization assessing the characteristics and obligations of each job post, as well as the organization's cultur e and structure. The focus of BATB lies on preparing a job description accurately, rapidly and in a scientific and effective way. The job description includes information such as the job title, a short job description, the job's place within the organization chart, the immediate supervisor, coactive departments, obligations and authorities, degree of freedom to make decisions and proceed to initiatives, degree of blame in several circumstances, objectives etc. Job specification: Job specification states the minimum acceptable qualifications that incumbents must possess to perform the job successfully. Based on information acquired through job analysis, the job specification identifies prerequisite qualifications such as knowledge, skills, education, experience, certification, necessary personality traits and abilities. BATB’s experienced and specialized collaborators prepare job descriptions for different posts based on a structured guide and specified methodology. Job Evaluation: Job evaluation is a method of determining on a systematic basis the relative importance of a number of different jobs. By sector and size, job evaluation is far more prevalent in the public and private sectors and among larger employers. In BATB it's a useful process because job titles can often be misleading – either unclear or unspecific. IN BATB it's impossible for those in HR to know each job in detail. As a rough guide, job evaluation is very much essential for a huge organization like BATB. Job evaluation is counted as an ongoing process in BATB. According to the company a job evaluation should be transparent, and reviewed regularly to ensure business needs continue to be met. Recruitment Recruitment is a process of seeking sources for job candidates. Recruitment process aims at getting responses from job seekers and avoiding applications from unqualified candidates. BAT searches for fresh graduates among the business schools and other universities for fulfilling the demand of labor. It also targets the experienced workforce who is already working in different organizations. Besides, it offers contractual jobs to the people among who most are students. It also goes through the â€Å"Battle of Mind† competition through which they bring out the best promising faces from the crowd. BAT has recruited 37 fresh students judged through this competition since 2004. Recruitment Policy British American Tobacco Bangladesh has been in e-resourcing since 2002. It focuses on e-based advertisement for more visibility and transparency beside the conventional print media. All recruitment related notices are posted on the www. bdjobs. com website. Candidates are required to fill up the blank resume format provided in the website. A well-structured and systematic selection procedure is followed to get the most suitable candidate. Following the selection procedure, pre-employment medical examination and reference checks are done. * BATB asks for applications from recognized universities from home and abroad. * Applicant must be a citizen of Bangladesh. BATB encourages students with good academic track record to apply. * BATB is not prejudiced against race, sex, religion, age etc. Positions are offered to the candidate on the basis of his/her ability and the requirement of the company. If an application is successful, the applicant is invited to a preliminary interview  which will be taken by a member from the function to which he has applied an d a member of the Human Resource team. This is a chance for him to find out more about BATB, as it is for the company to find out whether he has the competencies BATB is looking for. BATB is committed to keep the applicant informed of the progress through every step of the selection process. BATB now outsources the recruitment process to People Scape. Mid Careers : â€Å"Whatever stage of your career, we can offer new challenges† Talented people join BATB at all points of their career and for many reasons. Some seek a new challenge or an environment where they can prove themselves and where their current skills will be appreciated. Others want to reinvigorate their career or achieve a better work-life balance. And most want to improve their rewards package. BATB doesn’t just offer a dynamic, diverse environment laden with opportunity – people find the company a truly exciting and fulfilling place to work. They enjoy being part of a high profile company with a strong corporate culture that promotes individual and personal flair, while encouraging teamwork and delegation. They're proud of BATB’s commitment to corporate responsibility in a controversial industry. The nature of the tobacco industry contributes to the challenges of our work – and to job satisfaction. Our people need a broadness of vision and understanding not always necessary in other sectors. They need people skills to communicate with diverse and multicultural audiences. They need the intellectual curiosity to try out new ideas and the imagination to ensure our story is told, even when under serious constraint. Selection The selection process of BATB consists of the following steps: * If the application is successful, candidates are invited to a preliminary interview which is taken by members from the functional department for which the candidates have applied and a member of the Human Resource team. The candidates who selected in this interview are invited to a specifically designed British American Tobacco assessment centre. This provides them with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills and suitability through their performance in a number of participative and individual exercises. They also have the opportunity to meet managers and to gain firsthand experience of what i t is like to work for British American Tobacco Bangladesh. * If they get through the Assessment Centre, they will be recommended to the respective Heads of Functions for a final Interview. And if a candidate is can prove he is suitable for the job in this interview s/he is selected. British American Tobacco has put in a lot of efforts in responding to various changes and problems through effective formulation and implementation of human resource strategies through the HR department to successfully utilize this large number of employees. BATB has proved that it is functioning very well and that it will continue its operations and will become the trendsetter of the Human Resource Management practices of Bangladesh. Managing performance While managing performance BATB focuses on: * Measuring ; aligning performance * Rewarding performance * Managing ; administering benefits * Managing organizational learning and development * Managing change * Designing ; developing the organization * Managing organizational climate * Learning in the organization Managing careers  and development include: * Assessing competencies and potential * Career development systems * Coaching and mentoring * Training and development Managing employment relations includes: Managing employment legislation * Managing workplace relations * Managing HR customer services BATB’s employment beliefs and principles BATB’s people are its business and its Guiding Principles represent the common values at the heart of its success, shared by employees across the world. Its Employment Principles set out BATB’s commitment to good employment practices and workplace related human rights. Guiding Principles * Strength from Diversity * Open Minded * Freedom through Responsibility * Enterprising Spirit Strength from Diversity  reflects its cultural mix and a working environment that respects employees’ individual differences. BATB embraces different people, cultures, viewpoints, brands, markets and ideas – to create opportunities and strengthen performance. In short, we are interested in what makes you unique. Open Minded  reflects BATB’s openness to change, to identify opportunities and to consider new ideas, including ways of addressing regulatory issues and changing social expectations. People seek to listen without prejudice, actively and enthusiastically considering other viewpoints. Freedom through Responsibility  helps our people to get on with their jobs – BATB believes they should be free to make their own decisions, accept responsibility for them and not be hampered by unnecessary bureaucracy. Employment Principles Like all major international companies, BATB takes its employment policies and procedures very seriously. BATB’s Employment Principles cover topics such as: * Equality of opportunity and non-discrimination; * Internal communications and the free flow of ideas; * Worker representation and freedom of association; Fairness at work and the unacceptability of harassment and bullying; * That we do not condone or employ child labor; * That forced or bonded labor is completely unacceptable; * Performance responsibility; * Health, safety and environmental responsibility; * Community contributions and skills development for employees and communities in markets where our companies operate; * Personal development and learning; * Reasonable wor king hours and family friendly policies; * Fair, clear and competitive remuneration and benefits. Training and development * We recognize that getting the right start is crucial to building a successful career. This is how we approach your early training and career development. * The  Challenge Initiative is structured around the following components: INDUCTION| FUNCTIONAL DEVELOPMENT| MANAGERIAL DEVELOPMENT| BUSINESS AWARENESS| PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL| The induction gives you the opportunity to learn about our company, objectives, products and markets. | Developing a base of excellence in the function into which you have been recruited. Developing managerial competencies needed in your future roles. | Gaining an understanding of the overall business and appreciating the role played by each function. | Giving you regular and constructive feedback, both formally (every 6 months) and informally (every 6 weeks) to ensure that you achieve the defined standards for the  Challenge Initi ative. | * The  induction  gives the opportunity to learn about BATB’s Group objectives, products and markets. It introduces the corporate guiding principles and culture, the role of each function, and industry issues in your country. It also introduces to the product – and how the company markets it. * The Challenge Initiative programmer includes employees’ functional development  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ development of a base of excellence in chosen function. BATB will clearly explain what it expects from employees. Then, with support from employees coach and mentor, they set their objectives and work towards achieving them in order to meet the needs of the business and their personal development objectives. * Employees will develop the  management skills  they need in their future roles with both formal training and on-the-job experience. And they will have the opportunity to put these skills into practice in preparation for the move into their first management role. * BATB also expects them to develop  business awareness, an understanding of the overall business and the role played by each function. In other words, BATB wants them to understand the business beyond their own functional and geographical area of responsibility. It wants them to question its existing ways of working and to bring positive change to the business. BATB will provide them with opportunities to challenge its practices, a receptive audience and the feedback they will need to build their knowledge. BATB monitors their success through regular  performance appraisal. It gives regular and constructive feedback, formally every 6 months and informally every 6 weeks. This ensures that employees are aware of the standards they should aim for, and also that it can tailor their development to its needs. Training Training is a learning experience that seeks a relatively permanent change in an individual that will improve his or her ability to perform a job. To make training a success, a BATB takes care of the following points: * Make learning meaningful * Make skills transfer easy and Motivate the learner Employee Training Method followed in BATB ON-THE-JOB TRAINING It means having a person learn a job by actually doing it. Advantages: * Relatively inexpensive * Trainees learn while producing * No need off-site facilities Drawbacks: * Low productivity while the employees develop their skills * The errors made by the trainees while they learn. Apprenticeship Training: It traditionally involves having the learner study under the tutelage of a master craftsperson. Informal Learning: This learning process is not determined or designed by the organization. But the organization may ensure it by creating a learning environment in the organization. Job Instruction Training: Listing each jobs basic task, along with key points, in order to provide step-by-step training for employees. Lectures: The most simple and quick way to provide knowledge to large groups of trainees. Simulated Training: It places the trainee in an artificial environment that closely mirrors actual working conditions. OFF-THE-JOB TRAINING †¢The Case Study Method: Here the manager is presented with a written description of an organizational problem to solve in a discussion with other trainees. Management Game: The manager presented with a computerized decisions regarding but simulated situations. †¢Outside Seminars: Many organizations now are using this popular method on various aspects of business and management. Employee Development BATB’s approach to personal development is based on a simple belief – that the person who best knows your ambition s and aspirations is you. BATB aims to support its development. People will find that BATB invests strongly in people to increase their skills, improve their performance and stimulate them with new ideas. BATB is committed to motivating people so they can also motivate others. But BATB also believes that you're the best person to map out your own evelopment. BATB expects employees to drive regular career discussions. It encourages to assess their strengths and weaknesses honestly and to seek feedback from colleagues. BATB counts on them to make continuous learning and the quest for improvement a part of your personality – to be hungry for new ideas, skills and assignments. Managers play a key role in this and employees play a key role in developing the careers of people reporting to them. The managers assess individual capabilities and place a high priority on development planning. They set stretching performance goals, which are regularly reviewed. The discussions focus not just on what employees have achieved, but how they achieved it and what they've learned along the way. Career development tools Career planning benefits both the employees and the company. It helps build succession that mesh with employees’ own aspirations – making them more accurate, reliable and robust. BATB encourages them to spend quality time thinking about their career and it has highly developed tools to help them. BATB is prepared to invest significant time reviewing their career and meeting their development needs to ensure that their potential is fully realized. BATB holds annual Talent Review Meetings which are chaired by Board members, for all regions and functions around the world. These meetings aim to ensure that BATB has good succession plans in place that take account both of individuals' needs and of the future shape of the organization. BATB invests time in these forums because it is committed to developing employees’ career and because in business, individual performance matters. CONCLUSION British American Tobacco has put in a lot of efforts in responding to various changes and problems through effective formulation and implementation of human resource strategies through the HR department to successfully utilize this large number of employees. BATB has proved that it is functioning very well and that it will continue its operations and will become the trendsetter of the Human Resource Management practices of Bangladesh. Bibliography www. bat. com www. batb. bd-servers. com www. wikipedia. org

Hrm Brunei vs Other Western Country Essay

Introduction Employees are indispensible to an organization. Personnel management, now known as human resource management (HRM), ensures that an organization produces maximum output with the greatest efficiency. The role of HRM covers selecting and hiring the right employee, training and retaining talent, wage dispensation to maintaining employee relations (Nankervis et al, 2011). In this essay, we will be looking into a case study of HRM in Brunei and will cover three topics. Firstly we explore how culture affects the way a country runs its economy, its legal and political system, and how they adapt to technology. Next, we discuss how HRM allows individual employees to acclimatize themselves to technical differences in an organization. Lastly, we will do a comparison of how HRM differs in Brunei as compared to a western country. Culture (An Overarching Umbrella) Laurent (1986, p. 92) stated that, ‘every culture has developed through its own history some specific and unique insight into the managing of organization and their human resources.’ Hofstede’s (1984) cultural dimensions theory defines that the values of a society are influenced by their culture, and their belief in those values shapes the behavior of the society. This cultural dimension is most frequently used across culture studies, especially in differentiating Asian and Western cultures (Cho, et al. 1999). Figure 1: Hofstede’s Software of the Mind (Hofstede, 1984) Dimension| Explanation| Power Distance| The degree to which the less influential associates of institutions (such as family) and organizations expect and accept the unequal distribution of power.| Collectivist vs. Individualist| The scale of which individuals are incorporated into groups| Masculinity vs. Femininity| Refers to the distribution of roles and values between the genders. The women in feminine countries have the same modest, caring and competitive, like the men. However, in masculine countries, women are more competitive and assertive, but not as much as the men.| Uncertainty Avoidance| A society’s tolerance for uncertainty and ambiguity| Figure 1 identifies the characteristics of the four dimensions (Hofstede, 1984). Brunei regained independence from British rule in January 1, 1984 (Brunei Civil Service, 2007). Bruneian’s are ruled by the Sultan and adopt the National Philosophy called the ‘Malay Islamic Monarchy’ (MIB) where the Malay culture, language, customs and Islam is incorporated as a set of model values. The population in Brunei is estimated at 390,000 and it comprises of Malays, Chinese and Ethnic Minorities with 67 per cent, 15 per cent and 18 per cent respectively (Kramar & Syed, 2012). According to the Country Paper of Brunei Darussalam, the Government Sector employs 12.23 per cent of the entire population (Brunei Civil Service, 2007). Brunei’s legal and political system is based on both the Islamic law and English Common law. The Sultan takes on the role of the Prime Minister and is the head of government and chief of state (Central Intelligence Agency, 2013). Brunei’s social structure is one of absolute conformity to the Sultan’s authority and challenges made by individuals and organizations are frowned upon (Clarke & Salleh, 2011). Therefore it is evident that power distance is high in Brunei. Brunei’s economy is heavily dependent on the Oil and Gas sector. Actions have been made to branch out into a variety of non-oil related sectors. In a 2008 estimate by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the labor force is composed of agriculture, industry (oil and gas) and services, with it being 4.2 per cent, 62.8 per cent and 33 per cent respectively (Central Intelligence Agency, 2013). Local males and females hold different employment structures, with the females being hired excessively in office, cleaning jobs and associated occupations. Males are predominantly hired in top managerial roles, as well as ‘non-office’ middle level jobs, such as agriculture, plant and machine production. Employment patterns between the local genders does not drastically differ from 20 years prior to 1991, and has been ingrained in Brunei’s employment structure. Thus, masculinity proves to be strongly evident in Brunei due to the job scopes each gender undertakes. The socio-culture in Brunei’s organizations stresses the importance of upholding the national heritage to pass down to generations to come. Islamic values and teachings have been endorsed since 16th century, which differentiates Brunei from other South-East Asian Islamic or Malay countries (Zanko & Nugi, 2003). Hence, Brunei is skewed towards a collectivist culture as they are influenced by the MIB, which instills a family like culture in the workplace. Loyalty to family and the Sultan is expected of Bruneians (Minnis, 1999). The Sultan, in a bid to improve data entry efficiency, transparency and eliminate the use of paper, is implementing a new form of technology. The system, also known as Government Employee Management System (GEMS), is being implemented in three main sectors: government employees, human resource administrators and the public. GEMS will permit the sharing of documents, leave applications and benefits entitlement to be accessible any time, anywhere. There has been mixed reactions toward the implementation of GEMS, with some preferring to stick with the old system, as it is in Malay, which is their national language. It may cause stress to older employees who have difficulty keeping up with technological advances and learning of a new language. From this, we can conclude that Bruneians have concerns towards adapting to new technology. Therefore we can conclude that they have high uncertainty avoidance. From the results above, it can be deduced that Brunei’s culture is adapted in their law and politics, technology, and the economy. The Importance of Human Resource (HR) Policies The heart of organizational effectiveness is developing long-term goals to nurture and skillfully develop human resources as key assets. The importance of investing in training and development has proven to contribute positively to the success of organizations. Government policies worldwide have since adopted management programs to help improve the quality of their human resources, in order to improve overall organizational effectiveness (Rajah & Wallace, 1993). According to Brunei Economic Development Board, 54 per cent of its population is made up of 20-54 year age group that are economically productive. This indicates a major productive workforce with both experienced and inexperienced individuals. With the availability of the workforce, HRM needs to provide training and development to upgrade their staff with knowledge and skills that is required in both macro and microenvironment. (need evidence) Comprehensive policies and procedures establish the foundation of HRM in the public sector. Policies are crucial and serve several important functions. It ensures that organizations comply with legislation and are accountable for the protection against employment claims. Policies also help the management make consistent judgments that are perpetual and expectable. Established HR policies protect not only individuals, but also organizations as well from the pressures of pragmatism (Hard Power: Soft Power, 2011). Human rights legislation is crucial as it protects employees from discrimination. It guarantees equality treatment for the people regardless of well-known characteristics that involved stereotyping or biasness in relation to employment. In Krama & Syed (2012), some interviewees felt that favoritism is still the pivotal point of recruitment, particularly in the government sector. Some interviewees suggested that cohesive social relationships in Brunei society had influence on work connection in the workplace. Although the impact was moderated by the HRM practices, particularly in employment, there is a strong need for Human Rights Legislation to be firmly enforced in Brunei in order to create inclusive workplaces that are more diverse and respectful. (can we link this to how hrm enables individual employees to adjust themselves to technical changes?) Krama & Syed (2012) stated that staff not in managerial roles was not familiar with the availability of the General Order (GO) and State Circulars (SC) as the regulations were poorly imposed. To improve the situation, HR policies must be enforced and properly implemented. Communication of policies horizontally and vertically is important. All new and existing staff could be issued an employee handbook that clearly defines an organization’s values, expectations and standard operating procedures (SOP). The purpose of the policies should be transparent, easily understood and not perceived as variable. A policy training session across the board can be implemented for certain policies like dispute resolutions, disciplinary and safety issues, which are more complicated. With the policies inaugurated, it will greatly support the country’s consistency in treatment of staff, fairness and transparency. These policies must be direct, serve the organization’s mission and not simply be enforced to regulate the conduct and rights of the staff. HRM could also implement key training in communication skills. As mentioned above, Brunei’s national language is Malay, which may lead to language barriers. Teaching employees to communicate in fluent written and spoken English is vital as Brunei branches out into the international market. In comparison to the old SIMPA system in Malay, the new GEMS system in English causes older employees to have a harder time in keeping up with the changes. HRM could provide information technology (IT) trainings to older generation employees to ensure that they are equip with relevant IT skills such as computer software (usage of emails, software program and knowledge of file format) and hardware skills, usage of organization intranet/internet and how to access and use GEMS systems (including searching, gathering of information, applying electronic-leaves, allowance and benefit application). Provision of IT skills would equip them with knowledge and skills to keep up with the technology. HRM can also implement performance management systems within the organization. The purpose of these systems is to identify, gather individual performance and information through self-review of employees and their managers/supervisor. With the self-review programs, managers/supervisor would gather more information about each individual within a team. Self-review program promotes team bonding, interaction and communication between managers/supervisor and staff. By discussing, identifying potential key individual talents, retaining key individuals that benefit the organization. With this, it allows HRM to identify key training areas that can be provided to their employees to adapt to the ever-changing environment. It could be done by overseas attachment allowing the staff to get more exposure and experience. Workshop targets on leadership quality, self development and team building within the organization that allows HR to identify potential leadership quality in individual of each different department of the organization, thus helping individual to achieve self actualization. Implementing formal and informal work environment learning in the organization. Informal workplace learning involves senior experience and junior management where senior management would hold a small meeting/sharing session with the junior management on their knowledge, skills and experience in their field of work. And as for formal work environment learning, a junior will be attached to a senior manager to attend for international meeting or conference held overseas for exposure and experience. Learning and Development program such as social and business etiquette, current affairs between host and home countries, languages, sensitivity awareness and pre-departure training. HRM In Brunei Versus HRM In A Western Country Using Hofstede (1984) and Cho, et al. (1999), we will examine the difference in society cultures of Brunei as compared to a western country, and the differences between their HRM. As mentioned above, Brunei’s culture and politics are represented by Malay-Islamic values whereas a western society where wide mixtures of culture groups are incorporated in the workforce. (need evidence) Malay cultures are highly collectivist with strong emphasis on family orientation (Blunt, 1988; Maxwell, 1996). HRM in Brunei looks beyond the welfares of the employees. Consideration for their families implemented in their HRM policies. A married female interviewee stated that work hours are family friendly and flexible. (Krama & Syed, 2012) Individuals are also less receptive to individual responsibilities, and prefer collective responsibilities in the organization. However, this collectivism also results in informal recruitment as suggested by the case (Myloni et al. 2004). In the individualist western context, employees are likely to focus on self, which also applies for compensation and rewards, where HRM rewards individuals for good performances rather than that of a team, or as collective whole. High power distance is present in Brunei’s workforce; senior managers of organizations take the lead and are regarded as significant role models based on rank, title and status, along with a tall organizational structure. (Abdullah, 2005) In the past, employees were afraid to disagree with their superiors. (Blunt, 1988) Nowadays, managers take into consideration the suggestions and point of view of employees to ensure that they feel valued by the organization. (Kramar & Syed, 2012) Apart from that, managers have no authority to press for change. This reflects a centralized system where the top management exercise great power and subordinates choose to leave the decision making process to senior executives. It is the duty of HRM to ensure that these leaders are highly committed in leading subordinates to fulfill the organization values and goals. In the western context, a decentralized structure is adopted and employees seek to be part of management decision-making process. A low power distance means that they want to be empowered by their management and be autonomous, being able to make decisions and be given responsibilities. The way to motivate them is through challenging jobs, where HRM needs to focus on the job design (Herzberg, 1966). Group discussions value the input of individuals that are taken into consideration, whereas in Brunei, SC and GO shape the HRM practices and the Sultan holds the decision making power. As mentioned in the case study, Bruneians have high uncertainty avoidance. (Blunt, 1988) Employees prefer a clear organizational structure and respect and behave ritually towards authority figures. Promotions or a raise in salary are also based on passing an examination based on the SC and GO. In contrast, a western country is skewed towards having low uncertainty avoidance whereby they are more uncertainty accepting, with higher acceptance for new ideas, innovative products and a willingness to try something new, be it technology or business practices. They also tend to be more tolerant of ideas or opinions from anyone and embrace freedom of expression (Hofstede, 1994). Maybe find a country to support this? In Brunei, the emphasis is on masculinity, men are expected to be assertive and dominant over women in social relations and demonstrates ambitious and competitive behavior. (Maxwell, 1996)