Euthanasia Essays (373 words) - Euthanasia, Medical Ethics

Euthanasia Euthanasia in my opinion has many circumstances yielding many different opinions on this subject. The first circumstance that comes to mind is that of a person such as that discussed in the text, where a person, young or old is suffering from some type of terminal illness. This circumstance is obviously one in which the patient is destined to death and is in obvious pain. Though I would not want to make this decision myself I do not think that the patient should be denied of their right to die. I think that if all involved are consensual in the ending of the persons life the doctor should not be legally persecuted for their actions. There will always be the argument that doctors are not always correct in their assumption of a persons life. This argument is definitely valid in many cases, but in the circumstance where there is no doubt of the patients ultimate death the patient should not be denied of his or her wishes. I think that in the free and democratic society that we live in t oday a person should not be restricted by law that tells them that they must endure a painful death. In the situation where a person is on a life support machine the law should not decide the fate of a person, these situations should be left up to the patients family. Though it may sound greedy I dont think that a hospital should be able to profit by pinning someone with the legal binding of keeping a person facing inevitable death on life support. The argument of passive euthanasia is also very broad in my eyes. The circumstance where a person is the victim of a sudden accident or violent criminal act, yes I feel like if there is a capable and able person present at the scene that they should be held responsible for at least attempting to do everything in their power to save the victims life. Even if the victim is not coherent the doctor, EMT, or whatever they may be, should try to save that person. In my eyes this is not even a legal matter but one of personal ethics.

Tootsie essays

Tootsie essays Interpersonal communication is the communication that occurs simultaneously with another person in an attempt to mutually influence one another, usually for the purpose of managing relationships. Dustin Hoffman encountered and altered his interpersonal communication skills while playing the character of Michael Dorsey in the film Tootsie. Tootsie examines a gender bending, cross-dressing male in the mid 1980s. This movie was a script for its time as well as the future as its ideas on relationships between men and women still hold in todays society. Tootsie stars Dustin Hoffman as a talented but troublesome actor, unemployable due to his reputation. Out of desperation, he dresses up as "Dorothy" to win a role as a woman on a daytime soap. He continues his charade of the sexes for a full year. Michael faces many interpersonal relationships throughout the film between himself as a male along with what it means and feels like to be a woman. Michael faced stages of relationship building as a male and as a woman, in some cases with the same person. Michael was turning a friendship into more of an intimate relationship with a fellow actor (Teri Garr). Michael reached the intimacy stage with his new love however, as Dorothy, Garr despised him/her. Garr watched Dorothy enter Michaels apartment leaving Garr with a hostile and uneasy feeling on Dorothys intentions with her new man. In a chance encounter, I believe Garr and Dorothy would reach the turmoil stage quickly. Garr was able to hold two very different relationships with both characters. Michael and Dorothy conformed unknowingly to societies views of the loving man and the man stealing woman in turn changing Garrs reaction to each. Dorothys nonverbal and verbal communication changed dramatically from her original form as Michael. Dorothy used her small, frail and grandma like appearance to her advantage to create ...

It is unfair to deny students financial aid Research Paper

It is unfair to deny students financial aid - Research Paper Example The cost of a higher education is an issue of great concern for most students and even their families as well (Goldberg 81-84).   Regardless of the financial situations of ones family, paying for a higher education requires a considerable commitment of ones resources for several years and the problem is made even worse if more than two children have been admitted into a college or a university.  It may be surprising for some people to learn that a good number of full-time undergraduate students are incapable of paying the cost of their education without assisted financially.  The problem here is even more intricate if the st This paper discusses the aspect of unfairness in the context of student financial aid. Specifically, the paper argues that is unfair to deny students financial aid. To clearly bring out the subject, the paper will detail circumstances leading to award or failure to grant student financial aid. If inflation is held as a constant to assess the real cost of tu ition in relation to the real amount of federal aid, in public colleges and universities, it can easily be established that between 1990s and 2012, financial aid per student increased by about 200 percent (Ehrenberg 3-4). In the same period, tuition rose by more than 260 percent. However, in private colleges and universities, the cost of tuition over the same period only increased by less than 170 percent. In fact, this seems like a rush by colleges to proof William Bennett’s theory right. ... If really this is the case, then everybody who applies should be given some financial assistance to also cushion the ever increasing cost of tuition. Public colleges and universities have constantly maintained that traditionally, in economic difficulties, higher learning institutions record an increased enrollment. Supporting their arguments, the enrollments of the 1980s, 1990s and the mid 2000s are used. According to their argument, at such a time, the rate of unemployment results in diminished tax revenues. This, therefore, means that there is a reduction in subsidies for public schools, and to mitigate the situation, tuition must be increased so that the same quality of education can be maintained. In reality, these are just excuses. This is because; such costs never come down even when there is not economic downturn. Even though they are factors that contribute to ever increasing cost of tuition, available federal subsidies like student financial aid cannot be overlooked. This is because even private schools are affected by such economic conditions yet they have maintained their tuition increases at a much lower percentage than public schools. Therefore, it is easier to argue that the federal subsidies impact or contribute the extra percentage. This is because the only differentiating factor between private and public colleges is the federal subsidies in the form of student financial aid. It is without a doubt that it is next to impracticality to make any system fair at least for every person, unfortunately, in the case of awarding financial aid, things are not fair at all. In most cases, when students are denied financial aid for the first time, some are allowed to file an appeal

Essay 5 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

5 - Essay Example In other words, they wanted to fulfill their feudal obligations. There were strong connections between the social necessity of violence and papal reforms, as well as the exploitation of this revivalistic imagination of the Papacy age. Even though the Crusades failed to attain permanent control of the Holy Land, their influence was both wide and deep. In their crusading fervor, they carried out succesful fights against the Muslims in Spain along with the pagan Slavs in the eastern Europe. In some instances they engaged in the war with infidels in self-defense (Prevità ©-Orton 282). As cited by Esposito (335), in 1095, the destruction of the Holy Sepulchure by the Fatmid caliph al-Hakim sparked the initial Crusade. Majority of the Christians viewed al-Hakim as an Antichrist. In the same way, Prevità ©-Orton (282) notes that the Holy Sepulcher was the holiest shrine in Christianity. Another motivation for the Crusade was the Byzantine’s Emperor Alexius I plea for assistance. Most of the Byzantine Empire had been conquered by the Constantinople together with Seljuk Turks. The Christians engaged in the war because Jerusalem, Jesus’ birthplace was also at threat. They wanted to regain the occupied territories (Madden 10). Lastly, the Crusades also had economic motives. They were responsible for the reopening of the eastern Mediterranean to Western commerce. This resulted in the emergence of great cities like Venice in addition to the emergence of a money economy in the

Company analysis Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Company analysis - Essay Example Ans: The firm interacts with the financial markets, as a U.S. private equity firm, has bought a 48% minority interest in lululemon. The markets get the information thy need through these .the markets get the information of the company's position trough other companies feedback . Also ,lululemon athletica when announce divididends all arecatered to . Ans: This firm considers its social responsibility a very vital task; they manage their image in society, by treating their employees well. The employees are remunerated; a charge above the mini mum wage rate. Lululemon athletica offers other good services to its employees as well. This is why the goodwill of lululemon athletica circulates in the economy. Lululemon athletica has always looked at good organization and waste reduction. This is considered by them is actual elegant business. These are particularly taken care of in the production process. . Lululemon athletica is offering other good services to its employees. And so goodwill of lululemon athletica circulates within the society The programme of charitable giving is the one which actually gives the consumers back their power , their power to select from a group of locally held health charities . it is estimated that in the year 2005 lululemon athletica actully gave back almost $300,000 back to their communities . Lululemon athletica also holds , free yoga demonstration classes . further more , activties are held each year to raise funds for the department . II Stockholder analysis: Q: Who is the average investor in this stock (Individual or pension fund, taxable or tax-exempt, small or large, domestic or foreign) Ans: The individuals in this stock are the average investors; they are both small and large groups who are not exempted of taxes. Common stock and the exchangeable shares. Q: Who is the marginal investor in this stock An s: The marginal investor is the companies that are running through these plants frequently are the average investor; lululemon athletica has sold its shares upon some equity firm. They are the ones which are basically apart of the investment. IV. Measuring Investment Returns Q: Is there a typical project for this firm If yes, what would it look like in terms of life (long term or short term), investment needs and cash flow patterns Ans: This Company typically runs a specific project for the firm. This is to have maximum investment, pay the share holders more than the minimum, and pay their employees more than the minimum. This company wants to sustain over the longer term of the business. Q: How good the projects are that lululemon athletica has on its books currently Ans: They look pretty good, lululemon athletica plans to expand its franchises further more, which means more recruitments will need to take place. And alongside that they would definitely have to plan and establish departments respectively . lululemon athletica

Basic Operational Features Of Grameen Bank Economics Essay

Basic Operational Features Of Grameen Bank Economics Essay I will like to focus my report on Grameen bank in Bangladesh. The patriarch culture in Bangladesh where women are treated as inferior to men restricts them from seeking wage employment. Their only source of income is self employment and they face difficulty in accessing individual lending programs. The labour force has been growing by 2.4% a year, while the agricultural, industrial and service sector can only accommodate 1.7% annual growth of the labour force. The agricultural sector which provides 78% of employment is saturated and limited due to technical constraints. The modern urban sector is too small to absorb additional labour, increasing productivity and income through self employment in the informal sector and improving human capital are the only viable ways to alleviate poverty and promote economic growth (World Bank 1997). The poverty in Bangladesh is mainly as a result of landlessness, high unemployment, low literacy and high population growth. The main determinants of so cial class in the rural areas are land ownership and command of financial resources. The Grameen bank was formally established in 1983 by Dr Muhammad Yunus, a professor in economics at the Chittagong University in Bangladesh, who instead of teaching economics decided to do something practical about it. Based on the philosophy that everyone has the right to credit, but the poor are excluded from conventional banking system. 2 BASIC OPERATIONAL FEATURES OF THE GRAMEEN BANK Lending is mainly directed towards rural poor women (97% of membership are women) with a maximum landholding of half an acre of land because the average farm size in Bangladesh is 2.4 acres (1984 figures) or non land owners. Only one member is allowed per household. These women are grouped into cells of five and they take collective responsibility for each others loan (no joint liability). This helps to substitute physical collateral with social collateral as it eliminates information asymmetry. These groups are separated according to gender, 5 to 8 groups come together to form a centre known as Kendros (between 25 to 40 women) organised by the banks staff. Weekly meetings are held at these centres where members of each groups attend to pay their weekly loan instalments, learn, practice, and discuss the rules of the program and other group activities. Members are required to save TK1 to TK2 per week (to create financial discipline). It is only of recent that the bank increased its weekly savings to TK5. A new member must have successfully saved for two consecutive weeks before qualifying for a loan and a deposit of 5% of the loan amount into a group fund (i.e. group tax). It offers interest rates for deposits between 8% and 12% and does not allow members to withdraw their savings from the group fund. However, members can borrow from at no interest from the group fund provided that all the other members of the group approve of the amount and its usage and that the loan does not exceed half of the funds total. If a borrower has been a member for 10 years, the bank will transfer total savings with interest to the savings account and the member can withdraw at will. One can argue that the lack of easy access to savings can be viewed as a short term additional fee for being a member and cannot be classified as a financial service but a down payment on a loan and a screening device. At the end of October 2009, total deposits in Grameen bank stood at TK74.55 million (US$ 1079.47 million). Deposits from its members constituted 54% of the banks total deposits. Balance of member deposits has increased at a monthly average rate of 2.29% during the last 12 months. The poor people in Bangladesh save between 2% and 12% of their annual income mainly to acquire land followed by providing family securities against unforeseen circumstances. Childrens education and their marriage and purchase of agricultural inputs are other factors. Collateral is not required to obtain a loan from the bank and the loan is repayable over 50 weeks instalment. Interest is payable at the end of the loan cycle. 20% interest for income generating loan, 8% for housing loans, 5% for student loans and 0% (interest free) for struggling members (beggars). If the loan is repaid on time, the borrower will be charged a 10% flat rate instead of 20% for an income generating loan at the end of the loan cycle. The interest charged is low compared to other government managed micro credit programs charging a fixed interest of 11% at flat rate which amounts to 22% on declining basis. The bank realised from the activities of BRAC that provisions of credit to the poor is not sufficient to alleviate poverty. In addition to credit provision, it also trains its borrowers to improve their skills and provision of other organizational inputs. All credit transactions are transparent and are openly conducted at the centre meetings. The virtue of this openness is to mitigate vested interest and constellations of power as well as deterring individuals from taking anti group actions. This peer monitoring mechanism works both within the group and at the centre, eliminating the danger of group collusion when the groups are self elected. 3 INNOVATIONS IN SERVICE DELIVERY The focus of microfinance agenda is now increasingly client or market driven as a result of the industrys focus on competition and dropouts. Competition, together with MFIs policies of encouraging clients to take larger loans each cycle has tempted some clients to take out multiple loans, far more than it exceeds their repayment capacity and they end up defaulting. The defaults were attributed to the fact that the poor do not always want to neither borrow nor automatically increase their loan size and the failure of MFIs to interact and keep contact with their clients in order to provide innovative products. Loans borrowed for microenterprise development, are mostly used to meet a multiple needs i.e. the fungibility of credit (Sebstad and Cohen, 2001) and this clearly shows the industry was not in tune with its clients. Borrowers demonstrated the imperfect nature of the products by withdrawing from the program. The high rate of drop out raised the operational cost for MFIs. Competiti on and client dissatisfaction was putting pressure on institutions to be innovative in their service delivery. Citing from the words of Hulme and Mosley (1997), they noted that the designers of the financial services for poor people need to acknowledge that the poor is not a homogenous group with broadly similar needs and the one size fits all approach will not work. However, recognising the heterogeneity of the poor clearly complicates matters for scheme designers. Homogeneity may be good for keeping the delivery cost low, but is it not necessarily good for institutional sustainability if dropout rates were kept low. Adopting the client-product nexus approach and improving the institutional-client linkages through the management information system to gather information from bottom up will help to broaden and deepen the outreach, and recognizing the financial landscape of clients for better evaluation of clients debt burden will aid better assessment of loan repayment capability of clients in order to reduce drop out rates. The bank has to some extent recognized the importance of product diversification to its clients as its financial structure and product diversification were subjected to questioning when the bank almost collapsed during the 1998 flood in Bangladesh. It decided to take up a huge rehabilitation programme by giving new loans start new income generating activities and to repair or rebuild their houses. Borrowers started to feel the pressure of accumulated loans as the new instalments sizes exceeded their capacity to repay. Another major factor unknown to donor agencies was that prior to the flood, some branch managers at the bank were giving out loans to customers who had defaulted on weekly repayments so the new loans could be used to make payments. This resulted to accumulated debts by the customers and the balance sheet statements did not reflect the true financial position of the bank. This led to the development of the Grameen Generalised System (GGS) commonly referred to as Grameen II. Under this new scheme, many rules that existed under the Grameen Classic System (GCS) were abolished or transformed. The major innovations under the Grameen Generalised System (GGS) are explained below. 3.1 Basic Loan The basic loan was introduced to provide for other unforeseen circumstances the borrower might face along the loan cycle. It provided an exit option for the borrowers. This is referred to as a flexi loan which provides an alternative route to any borrower who needs it without making her feel guilty about failing to fulfil the requirement of the basic loan. The basic loan is normally referred to as the Grameen Microcredit Highway. The logic behind the basic loan is that if a borrower keeps up with repayments (stays on the highway) throughout the loan cycle, she can borrow a larger sum (change gear and accelerate faster) on the next loan cycle and she knows ahead of time how much enhancement in loan size is coming, and can plan her activities accordingly. But if the borrower should experience some difficulties (such as natural disaster, sickness etc) during the loan cycle, she can renegotiate the loan (first detour) by reducing the instalment size that she can afford to pay by extendin g the loan period. The essence is to help the borrower overcome the problem in order to get back to the basic loan. Even if the borrower defaults further (second detour), the flexi loan will be renegotiated to another flexi loan until the borrower can comfortably keep up with the instalment payment. This flexibility was absent under the Grameen Classic System. It is important to note that once a borrower renegotiates to a flexi loan, she will loose the loan ceiling she must have accumulated over the years and can only re-enter the basic loan scheme with a loan size equivalent to a new entrant and as long as shes on the flexi loan, the borrower can only borrow the same amount for every loan cycle. Fig. 3.1: The interlink between basic loan and flexi loan Source: http://www.grameen-info.org 3.2 Custom-made Credit Service The GGS has created a methodology which can provide custom-made credit to a poor borrower. It allows a staff to be creative. He can design his loan product to make it a best fit for his client in terms of duration with the flexibility of variation from any number of months and years, timing of the loan and the size of weekly instalments can be varied. A borrower can pay more weekly when the business is doing well, and pay less during difficult times. In an extreme case, each instalment can be of different size. In the other extreme, all instalments can be exactly equal, like in GCS. 3.3 Group Fund Replaced Every new member is obliged to save 5% of the total loan amount into the obligatory savings account formally known as group tax. But now, half of the 5% is deposited into a personal savings account and the remaining half goes to a special savings account. A borrower can withdraw any amount from her personal savings account any time she desires. There is no restriction on her withdrawal. Weekly saving still continues and it goes to personal savings account. Special savings account is non withdrawable for the first three years. Then withdrawal is allowed generally once in three years keeping a minimum balance of TK2000 or half the amount in the account, whichever is larger. Under special circumstances the entire amount in the special savings account can be withdrawn. Some money from this account will be used to buy shares of the Bank. 3.4 Pension fund-Leading to Financial Self-Reliance Grameen Bank requires all borrowers with loans above TK8, 000 (US$ 138) to contribute a minimum of TK50 (US$0.86) each month in a pension deposit account. After ten years a borrower will receive a guaranteed amount which is almost double the amount she has put in for 120 months. The pension fund generates about TK 100 million ($1.75 million) per month. I find this very interesting because households in Bangladesh are large in size and it is customary for several generations to live together within a household. In such households, there is no need for retirement saving, and it can internalize many of the insurance activities that would require saving. For example members of the household can insure against health risk and old age. But this has not been the case with Grameen Bank because the benefit of the insurance package is appealing to its members and the pension pot also serves as a means of financial stability for the bank. 3.5 Other Savings The bank accepts deposits from non borrowers as well by incorporating a number of savings products into the system. Total amount of deposits account for 67% of the total outstanding loans of Grameen Bank in July, 2002, after paying back TK3.3 million (US $ 60 million) of its loans to the central bank, local commercial banks and foreign lenders, fell due the same period. 3.6 Loan Loss Provisioning and Write-off Policy If a borrower fails to pay her instalment for ten consecutive weeks or if she fails to repay the total amount she is required to pay within a six month period and she does not move into flexible loan, she becomes a defaulter. If she becomes a defaulter, 100 per cent provisioning must be made for the unpaid principal and interest. Exactly one year later, the amount must be written off. Writing off will be done on a monthly basis, rather than at a time of annual account closing. If a borrower is on flexible loan, generally the same policy will hold. Fifty percent provision must be made for the total balance amount of flexible loan and accrued interest on the annual closing date, even if the payment rate of flexible loan is 100% of the whole bank Fig. 3.2: Provisioning policy in Grameen Bank II Source: http://www.grameen-info.org 3.7 Loan Insurance Once a year, on the last day of the year, the borrower is required to put in a small amount of money in a loan insurance savings account. It is calculated on the basis of the outstanding loan and interest of the borrower on that day. She deposits 2.5% of the outstanding amount. If a borrower dies any time during the year, her entire outstanding debt is paid off by the insurance fund which is created by the interest income of the loan insurance savings account. In addition, her family receives back the amount she saved in the loan insurance savings account. 4 NATURE OF TARGET GROUPS IN TERMS OF GENDER AND POVERTY The bank targets women regarded to be very poor using the size of land ownership as the measure of poverty. As previously highlighted, the banks members are either non land owners or own half an acre of land. Based on the measure of poverty, these are very poor women. Women are generally seen as moral guardians of the household and there are perceptions that women in Bangladesh have a high repayment rate (a factor necessary for the financial sustainability for a micro lender) because it allows them to retain access to village groups, whereas men have many more opportunities for social contact. Women are more vulnerable to pressure to repay. They are easy to locate, being much less able than men to leave a locality temporarily to evade field workers and they are easier to intimidate into repayment than men who can always threaten violence. Women had limited access to credit and the banks model tries to address this limitation in order to strengthen womens social and economic worth. Ac cess to credit will empower women by improving their bargaining position, both within and outside the family. It provides a visible foundation of economic and social gain and a process that mainstreams their participation at institutional and policy levels. To successfully empower women, MFIs must provide services that will lead to economic gains for women and should also enhance their role in economic decision making. Grameen Bank has been able to empower women through the provision of basic loans with an option of switching to a flexi loan if the borrower defaults on repayment. The bank also provides other services such as education loan, housing loan and at the same time encouraging its members to save by deducting 5% of the total loan amount before disbursement. Grameen Bank also offers life insurance product for its customers to manage life risks. Empowerment must lead to greater leveraging and networking among women in the community. Grameen bank groups its members into cells. Each cell consists of five members and a total of 5-6 cells meet once a week at a centre referred to as kendros to make their weekly loan instalment payment, discuss with each other on new business ideas, help each other in their book keeping of accounts etc. These centres help women to create a sort of social network. MFIs must also provide a gender sensitive and proactive institutional framework for women where women are providing financial services to women. This will create opportunity for role modelling at all levels of the institution and also caters for the specific needs of women in microfinance and beyond. Unfortunately, most of the Grameen Banks staff that organise centre meetings are men. Access to credit is believed to empower women but there is a variation in the degree to which women borrowers in Bangladesh control their loans directly. A large proportion of womens loans are directly invested by their male relatives, who then channel the funds towards investment which are generally regarded as mens work. This problem can be eliminated if Grameen Bank can impose some restrictions on the type of investments the loan can be used for. R. Rahman (1986 Pg.33) discovered a diminishing loan control overtime, with the amount of loan borrowers themselves use falling from 86.6% of the total loan amount in the first year to 66% in the fifth year of membership in the Grameen bank. Womens high demand for loan and their ability to repay are normally seen as proxy indicators for empowerment. Unfortunately, the method for evaluating empowerment does not reveal patterns of loan controls within the household. In Bangladesh, field workers and women beneficiaries gave evidence of the p henomenon of women transferring control to men within their households. There is also the case where new members of a household in some villages in Bangladesh are forbidden to have contact with strangers, especially when the field worker in question is a male. This strengthens the case why Grameen bank should employ more women to manage these Kendros. Even though credit is very important, it must be provided with access to market and access to technology which extends beyond the neighbourhood and the community as identified by Montgomery, Bhattacharya and Hulme. It is true that access to credit will most likely reduce violence against women if channelled through the right path but it can at the same time exacerbate violence against women. According to the staff of Grameen Bank, some women who were unsuccessful in gaining loan access or who have to wait too long for their turn to get a loan are experiencing increases in domestic violence from frustrated husbands. In cases where loans have been managed by the husbands, there is the possibility of the husband refusing to repay, might have invested badly or abscond altogether with the money. The pressure is on the women to find repayment funds from their homestead activities. 5 WIDER IMPACTS The idea behind the wider impacts of microfinance is to account for the positive externalities on spheres (economic, social, political and cultural) beyond households at the local, regional and national level. Economic Impact: these types of impacts are mediated primarily through the intervention on markets. The establishment of MFIs have direct impact on individuals, households or enterprises which in turn has an affect on their participation in one or more markets and therefore affecting the outcomes of those markets. For example, if women have access to credit and markets just as men, they will become key players in the market. This will make the domestic market more competitive and eventually have an effect on the relative prices of all goods and services. The funding of small enterprises by microfinance institutions will help increase output growth and in turn create employment opportunities. Social Impact: social impact refers to changes in the social relations between individuals and between groups of individuals living in the society. Social sector variables are housing quality, education, health and sanitization. Grameen Bank offers the fewest support services for these variables of interest when compared with other leading MFIs in Bangladesh. Beyond the banks sixteen decisions about how members can manage their household and community and social justice which members are made to recite at the beginning of each group meetings. It has started however, to offer credit on special terms for investments in the quality of household life, like loans for tube wells, latrines and housing. Social relation may be rooted in ownership of tangible assets, such as land. Intervention of MFIs may change social relations either by introducing non land resources, which are now being owned by land-poor households. As explained by Rao (2001), microfinance interventions have been able to c hange poor peoples way of thinking about social expenses, such as celebrations that are less about showing off and more about maintaining links across families, building bonds and sustaining webs of obligations. Political Impact: this refers to changes in policy regimes and protection of civil rights. Several rural studies have pointed at the intimidating and coercive role of the state machineries, such as police and the land administration in rural society. MFIs should provide services that seek to address these issues. MFIs can achieve this objective by helping to establish local interest groups similar to that of the self help groups in India, to influence local politics, policies and resource allocation at the local level. Cultural Impact: MFIs should also provide services that will help address the adverse effects of cultural norms on women which is fuelled by institutionalized religion, or, may be inherited from predecessors. Other issues of interest are attitudes towards cleanliness, perception on the role of daughters, need for religious education for children, perceptions on husband wife relations, attitude toward cultural entertainments and participation of women in such programs etc. CONCLUSION MFIs have to some extent helped to alleviate poverty even though it is limited by some constraints and problems. It is important that MFIs must be innovative in their credit service delivery in order to completely meet the needs of the poor people. Considerable emphasis has been placed on providing service to women which tends to be widening the gap between financial services to poor women and poor men. MFIs should also include tailored services to poor men. It is also important that MFIs should in the future fit into mainstream financial sector such as listing itself in the capital market as an alternative source of funds to achieving self sufficiency and striking a balance between the welfarist and institutionalist approach to microfinance.

Progressive Supranuclear Palsy: A Neurophysiological Report :: Biology Essays Research Papers

Progressive Supranuclear Palsy: A Neurophysiological Report Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP) is a rare neurodegenerative disorder categorized as a form of parkinsonism. First described in 1964 by three Canadian neurologists, PSP is sometimes referred to as Steele-Richardson-Olszewski Syndrome, or Nuchal Dystonia Dementia Syndrome (1). Progressive damage to multiple brain cells associated with deterioration of the myelin sheath that speeds up nerve impulse conduction, as well as destruction of the entire nerve (2), result in severe and irreversible problems controlling balance, eye movement, breathing, and voluntary muscle movement (3). The actor Dudley Moore has been diagnosed with PSP and presently works to improve awareness and treatment of this enigmatic disease. Although PSP is frequently misdiagnosed as Parkinson's, the disorder progresses much more quickly, maintaining very unique and exclusive manifestations. Individuals suffering from PSP present clinically with akinetic rigid syndrome, gait ataxia, and supranuclear vertical-gaze palsy (4). Akinesia refers to the loss of control of voluntary muscle movements. This is expressed in loss of balance while walking and recurrent falls. A permanent "Mona Lisa" stare and wide-eyed expression is often described, in addition to guttural, slurred speech and swallowing difficulties (5). These facial distortions result from nerve damage controlling the facial muscles. All PSP individuals suffer from some degree of vertical-gaze palsy, in which the ability to move the eyes up-and-down is impaired (4). Muscles in the back of the neck and spine are usually severely affected, resulting in a retro-collis posture; the individual appears to perpetually look up toward the ceiling. Rigidity in the limbs is al so observed, although to a lesser degree. If rigidity does exist here, it is equal on both sides of the body. In Parkinson's disease, rigidity is more prominent and pronounced in the limbs, favoring one side more that the other (6). None of the tremors characteristic of Parkinson's are observed in PSP. Personality changes and dementia are also noted, particularly later in the development of the disease. PSP affects the brainstem, basal ganglia, and cerebellum. The brainstem controls involuntary movements such as breathing and heart rate. Three divisions of the brainstem have been delineated: the medulla oblongata, the pons, and the midbrain. In PSP, all three sections are affected. The pons controls facial nerves and eye muscles, while the midbrain is the visual center of the brain (3). The medulla (sometimes referred to as the "bulb") maintains speech and swallowing abilities. Paralysis here results in impairment of these functions.

Baskin Robbins Executive Summary

BR is a global chain of ice cream parlors founded in Glendale, California by Burton Baskin and Irvine Robbins, ice cream enthusiast brothers-in-law, whose passion inspired what is now the world's largest chain of ice cream specialty shops. What was once a selection of 31 flavors—Baskin-Robbins â€Å"31 ®Ã¢â‚¬  stands for a different ice cream flavor for each day of the month—has grown to more than 1,000 in its flavor library. â€Å"We sell fun, not ice cream. Today, Baskin-Robbins is the world’s largest chain of ice cream specialty stores, serving over 150 million customers worldwide, but the brand is still guided by the same credos and innovative thinking as its founders. Baskin-Robbins has historically led the industry with innovations such as hand-packed quarts of ice cream, a unique flavor ribbon technique and the use of traditional ingredients such as apple pie and cheesecake. And, Baskin-Robbins continues to introduce new creations that surprise and delight customers – in 2008 the brand launched Soft Serve, making it the largest national chain to offer both Soft Serve and hand scooped ice cream. Additional products include layered sundaes, signature ice cream cakes and a growing line of beverages, including Fruit Blasts, Fruit Blast Smoothies, Cappuccino Blast ® and shakes. Dunkin' Donuts, BR and Togo's, formerly branded together as Allied Domecq Quick Service Restaurants (ADQSR), now are known as Dunkin' Brands, Inc. The new name comes with a tagline: â€Å"eat. drink. hink. † that headquartered in Canton, Massachusetts. In December, Dunkin' Brands was acquired by a U. S. investment group of Bain Capital, Thomas Lee Partners and the Carlyle Group. They have leveraged the brand equity and success of Dunkin' Donuts to create a name that clearly identifies their business and provides immediate recognition in the global marketplace. The re-branding has created renewed motivation from the teams of talented people involved with each brand and the organization, providing the resources to drive strategic market expansion both nationally and internationally.

Cause & Effect Of Reading Books Essays - Reading, Free Essays

Cause & Effect Of Reading Books Essays - Reading, Free Essays Cause & Effect Of Reading Books This essay argues that the cause and effects of reading books are numerous, but will focus on one cause, starting to read books on a regular basis, and two effects, increased comprehension abilities, and the promotion of vocabulary growth. Reading skills are essential to success in society today. The ability to read is highly valued and very important for social and economic advancement. The following paragraphs will try to explain some of the important effects that reading books will have in a persons life. In America today, most children are beginning or trying to talk around the age of two years. This is a time when language skills are just starting to develop. Even though it usually too early of an age to expect a child to read, there is no reason why the parent cannot start the reading process by reading aloud to them. Instilling reading into a childs life can prove to be one of the most valuable skills that they will ever learn. As a result from reading books, the child will be more likely to read and speak in front of people. This is a very marketable skill to have in the workforce and for school. One of the effects that reading has on a person, is the ability to understand more terms or words, over a period of time. This is commonly 1 referred to as comprehension. Reading can be a challenge but is one that must be met accordingly in order to succeed. Children who are successful readers tend to exhibit progressive social skills. Having confidence in reading only comes from the daily practice of reading. One good way to accomplish the task of reading daily is through books. Reading books can develop a persons comprehension by learning new words. The easiest way to do this is to look up words in the dictionary that are not understood when they are first read. Writing these words down and reciting them aloud also help to establish them in memory. Incorporating these new words in everyday speaking will increase language skills and boost confidence in the speaker as well. The second effect that reading books has is vocabulary growth. Along the same lines of comprehension, the growth of vocabulary is also very important. Having a large vocabulary is not only impressive but useful in many areas of public speaking. For example, many politicians say the same things over and over again, and to the untrained listener this might go on unnoticed. Their ability to do this comes largely from an extensive vocabulary base. Many different words have the same meaning, or as they are more commonly referred to are synonyms. Upon looking up a word in 2 the dictionary one might be surprised to realize that they already know the definition to it. By cross-checking these words and learning the different synonyms to them, a vocabulary is being established. As a result of reading books over a period of time, a learning process is formed. In summary, although only two effects are mentioned within this essay, there are a great many benefits to be gained from reading books. It is proven that in this technological society, the demands for higher levels of literacy are creating unfavorable consequences for those who fall short. This is even more of a reason to get into the habit of reading books. Sharing books with a child is an active approach to the learning of lifelong language skills and to ensure future success. 3

Environment Essays Essays

Environment Essays Essays Environment Essays Essay Environment Essays Essay Can the needs of industry and the environment ever be balanced? June 2003 7. How far can poor countries afford to show concern for the environment? June 2004 8. Consider the problem of noise in society and ways to reduce it. June 2004 9. Can the use Of nuclear energy be justified? Novo 2003 10. Assess the impact of technology on the environment. Novo 2004 1 1 . Can renewable resources ever meet all our energy needs? June 2005 12. How important is the conservation of the seas resources? Novo 2005 13. How important is it to explore alternative forms of energy? June 2006 14. Discuss the view that most natural disasters are caused by human activity. June 2007 15. To what extent should countries have the right to develop their own energy programmer? Novo 2015 16.

Trusts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Trusts - Essay Example There are a number of benefits where trust is concerned. For instance, specific terms can be made hence controlling who or when distributions can be made (Ramjohn, 8). Agatha was a renowned business woman in London who was believed to be without parents and grew up in the streets. She had a fleet of public transit buses, 20 business stores, 5 clothing lines, and 30 restaurants among others. As fate would have it, she was diagnosed with cervical cancer final stages. Like any other person would do, she knew that she had to leave a responsible person to manage the assets. Her firstborn son was business oriented. Her youngest daughter was barely 16 years old. In her trust therefore, she let his son benefit from the business stores and the public transit buses only when he would marry and have at least one child. The rest of the property was a trust for her daughter Eva, after completing her master’s level of education so that she would be at a better position to manage. This infor mation was taken with great amazement by her children as none of them had any idea in the first place how much their mother had left for them. She had not shown any signs that she was leaving anything behind for them as they knew that she owned nothing much. Meanwhile, the family lawyer was left in charge of all property. A trust that is properly structured can protect an asset the creditors of the beneficiary or beneficiaries who are not at a position to wisely manage their money. A trust can also be allowed to change from a public record and become private (Watt & Todd, 20). Robert was brought up from a very rich background. However, due to peer influence and the fact that his parents never denied him anything, he turned out to be an arrogant man and a drunk. Unfortunately, his parents were involved in a road accident and were pronounced dead at the arrival of the hospital. As the only child, he was placed on a trust for the family business, a top cream 5 star hotel, only when he would stop taking alcohol and own up. When Robert learnt about the trust, he was taken aback. He never would have thought that his parents would ever make him a beneficiary for anything due to his irresponsible behavior. It took him a few days and Robert sought ways of becoming sober. The board of the hotel was therefore placed in charge until then (Watt & Todd, 45). Types of trusts Marital Trust- this is whereby the beneficiary is the surviving spouse. Adam, a mechanical engineer working for Ford Motors Company, has been overly ill. At the time of his date, he made a trust for his wife as a beneficiary of all his businesses which was approximated to be about a $2,000,000. This was done by Adam without his wife’s knowledge with his reason being that she may not carry his wishes to terms. He made his wife the beneficiary so that she would be at a position to educate their two children, Paul and Eva. Adam knew his wife too well and there was no other kin he had in mind to carry such obligations rather than his wife. Adam had not given his wife reason to believe that he would place a trust on for her. At first, his wife thought it was a big joke the minute she learnt about the figure placed in her trust. That is the time that she realized how much her husband believed in her. Charitable lead trust- This kind of trust allows some benefits or assets to go to charity and what remains can go to the beneficiaries (Clements & Ademola, 121). Thomas is a person who has worked at a number of hospitals. The last years of his living, he worked for Penzance hospital. He has several houses in St Ives and Penzance. In his will, Thomas decided to place a trust for charity in the Cornwall County. The charity was to

Read below. ( college students struggling in writing when they get in Essay

Read below. ( college students struggling in writing when they get in the college. how can we overcome) - Essay Example Therefore, students need to direct their skills and intelligence to a new task in order to cope up with the required standards in college writing. Sometimes meeting the required standards for college writing can be very difficult and challenge, therefore, it is necessary for students to understand themselves and what motivates them to write. This essay provides a very thoughtful discussion on why transitioning from high school to college especially when it comes to writing using support from Rose and Bartholomae’s articles and my experience. More so, the essay will explore what teachers and students should do to help new college students to be successful in their college writing classes. Notably, expectations of writing in high school and college differ, but generally, speaking and writing is very important and are required before learning the skill (Bartholomae 5), and even though college has some features similar with high school, college introduces a new set of rules and ex pectations including writing expectations. Studies reveal that both high school teachers and college instructors agree on the importance of reading and writing skills but college instructors stress more on grammar and usage as opposed to high school teachers. ... More so, college students can sometimes be invited to use writing to react to a reading and speculate about it, or be asked to analyze the reading and make a worthwhile claim with good reasons to support this claim. All these tasks are not done in high school and this shows how writing advances when one joins a college. Actually, in college, an argument is less contentious and more systematic, and it can be described as a set of statements arranged a coherent and thoughtful manner. Usually, students are expected to propose a claim and develop evidence and reasons to back up their claim. More so, they have to ensure that there are limits and objections to their claim. A claim should be reasonably challenged for it to be interesting, and in colleges, students not only write to express what they think but also to show why others might agree with their writing. Moreover, students know that what they write is not the absolute truth and so they consider whatever they write as partial, inco mplete and subjected to challenge. Therefore, college students do write in a way that enables other people to test their reasoning, that is, propose a claim, reasons and responses to the challenges so as to allow the readers to see what the students think and decide whether to agree with their ideas or not. All these form an integral part of college education and for the time covered in college, students are expected to read, conduct research, gather information, analyze and then communicate it to the readers through writing. Some high school English teachers tend to teach skills that they think colleges and universities want from their students, but they may not catch up with the expectations of the