People Whose Native Language Is Not English

People whose native language is not English, but who wish to learn English as a second language, must learn English as a new language, as a skill, as an additional means of communication. They have to learn how to pronounce strange words, and which syllables to emphasise, and what rhythms and tonal pitches should be used. But people whose mother tongue is English do not have to go to school to learn these things, they learn it automatically, from their parents, their relatives, their friends and from everyday life.For example, they do not have to ‘learn' the grammar structure, or the various forms for past, present and future tenses; they just acquire that ability subconsciously and instinctively, from sheer exposure to the language; they do not consciously ‘know' the rules of grammar, and they probably could not even explain them. By the age of three, or maybe even earlier, they just automatically know what words to use in many situation and what form those words should take.However, later, as part of their formal educational training, they will have ‘English' lessons at school, along with other subjects such as Geography and History and Mathematics etc. They may be given writing practice, and the opportunities to read literature that will expand their communication and learning skills. They will be encouraged to read and write stories and poetry, and will be given opportunities to become more and more familiar with their native tongue and how it is used in different ways to communicate information and ideas. They do not need to learn to ‘understand' the English language.They can already do that, but by doing ‘English' as a school subject, they will expand their vocabulary; discover alternative, and maybe better, ways to express themselves. In doing so, any little ‘mistakes' in their English will be corrected along the way. ) SUMMARY †¢Those who are learning English as a ‘second language' are learning it as an ent irely new language. It is not easy to do this, but well worth the effort. †¢Native-English speakers do not have to learn ‘English', they already ‘know' English! But, by learning English as a school subject, their natural ‘English' is enhanced and developed.

Philosophical problems for people with religious beliefs Essay

* In what ways might evil and suffering create philosophical problems for people with religious beliefs? Outline two solutions to these problems( 21 ) * To what extent are these solutions successful?( 9 ) 1. Suffering can cause all sorts of problems that can shake people’s religious beliefs. Evil and suffering create problems in people’s faith because they have lost someone or they have suffered particular hardship in their life and they wish to blame someone or something for their personal suffering and this is normally God. If someone close to a person dies and that person is religious or has been brought up in a faith even if they have lapsed it will make them doubt their faith even though we know that everyone has to die someday but it is never the right time to loose someone you love. And because of this people blame God or if they have a faith it may make them feel that god is not there. This is the issue of the inconsistent triad. The triad says that god is all loving all powerful and all knowing. If this is true would an all loving God let innocent people suffer at the hands of illness and natural disasters. And if he is all loving and he wouldn’t want us to suffer like this he might not know it was happening and so the second angle of the triangle is disproved and finally if he is both all loving and all-knowing he would not want people to get hurt and he knew it was happening so maybe it is the fact that he simply wants to help but he cannot as he is not all powerful. The inconsistent triad is a very big philosophical problem as it is a very logical series of suggestions and seems perfectly logical that if you love someone you wouldn’t want them to be hurt if you knew it was happening and more importantly you had the power to stop it why wouldn’t you especially if you loved that person. This is then used to say that if God is not all of these things then he is not God. This sums up nicely the flaw in all religion. If you say your God loves you and they are all powerful then why do they allow people, innocent people to suffer. Also the second problem with the morality of evil and suffering that can hurt religious beliefs is the issue of unanswered prayers. If someone is praying that their friend or relative won’t die of an illness or something along those lines if they do people often turn away from god because they feel he is not listening because what they asked for had not been granted. And again this relates back to the inconsistent triad as if he can hear the prayers and if he loves the people who ask him and plead him for help and he ignores them and lets people die maybe he isn’t all powerful or isn’t all loving. Some theists respond that a perfect being may still allow some evil, asserting that it will enable certain greater goods, such as free will, which can not be achieved without allowing some evils. A theodicy, on the other hand, is an attempt to provide such justifications for the existence of evil. Richard Swinburne maintains that it does not make sense to assume there are such greater goods, unless we know what they are, i.e., we have a successful theodicy. Many contemporary philosophers disagree. Skeptical theism, which is based on the theological position that humans can never expect to understand the divine, is perhaps the most popular response to the problem of evil among contemporary philosophers of religion. But how do we truly explain the problem of evil and suffering especially in relation to the existence and power of god. Swinburne also once said â€Å"in a cool moment we must provide a satisfactory answer for atheists.† I believe that this concept could also be applied to the theists who are suffering or are questioning god as a result of evil and suffering. To deal with the issue of theist faith suffering as the result of suffering we must address the objections to the problem. These are many and varied; for example Christian scientists often say that God cannot exist due to the logical problem of the inconsistent triad whereby the two claims negatives the third and therefore the existence of a perfect god. The existence of evil is of course the strongest objection and causes the most problems for faith. But there are many types of evil there is natural evil, god created a flawed and imperfect world. There is also moral evil why did god create people capable of doing such terrible things but this comes down to the issue of free will in mankind. But overall evil is the min reason for philosophical problems in beliefs. This is often countered by some theists saying that maybe god is making us suffer out of love. In irenaean theodicy it is considered and based upon the fact that our god is a personal god unlike in the Augustinian theodicy where god seems more disinterested and distant. It is implied that god loved his creation. † god looked upon what he had done and he saw it was very good†( the book of genesis).and because he loved us so much he wanted us to have the chance to create our perfect soul through an imperfect world with challenges to receive the ultimate reward of a perfect soul. So we suffer for a positive purpose or outcome. Professor John Hick developed the soul making theodicy. John Hick believes that in order for moral growth to take place it is important that human beings are created at a knowledge distance from God. This knowledge means that human beings do not know whether God exists and so this knowledge gap means that human beings are genuinely free and have space to grow and mature through making their own moral choices. Irenaeus, a Church Father. Believed that human beings have a two stage process of moral development, having been created in â€Å"the image and likeness of God.† (Genesis 1:26). Created in the image of God, human beings have potential, which they may achieve in this world as they attempt to grow into the likeness of God, thus fulfilling their potential. This two stage process of moral development is compared to growing from a child into an adult through our moral choices. St irenaues also suggested that evil could be tracked back to human free will.he differed from Augustine by saying that god did not make a perfect world and that evil has a valuable part to play in god’s plans for humanity. Irenaeus said that god was partially responsible for evil. In the sense that god created humans imperfectly in order that they could develop into perfection. His own image but with the intention of letting them develop into his likeness or perfection of character later. Being in gods image means that you have intelligence, morality, personality, but perfection would only be accomplished as humanity was changed into god’s likeness developing over time. God couldn’t have created humans in perfection because attaining the likeness of god needed the willing cooperation of human individuals. Moreover freedom requires the possibility of choosing well instead of evil and therefore god had to permit evil and suffering to occur. St Augustine lived in the fifth century and it was his concept that god was perfect the world was perfect and it was mans evil that caused this to break. God brought the world into existence from nothing (ex nihilo) the fall itself is chapter three of genesis. Augustine taught that following the fall the devil tempted Adam and eve to eat the fruit from the tree of knowledge the fruit from the knowledge tree. The fruit which god had forbidden Adam and eve to eat. Sin is the definition of the will of a rational being away from god which is motivated by pride hubris. Augustine believed that original sin was passed down through the act of sexual intercourse so that every human being, as descendants of Adam and eve suffer from original sin. Humanity has a tendency towards sin. Man wants to sin. â€Å"The good that I would I cannot.† Evil is a privation of goodness. Evil doesn’t exist as a substance of his own right. Augustine described sin as a falling short or missing the mark of that which god intends. Augustine believed that the â€Å"ugliness of sin is never without the beauty of punishment In the scientific age of the twenty-first century people no longer believe in angels. The whole idea of the fall is nonsensical and is only fit for a pre-scientific view of the world. Similarly people no longer believe in the devil. Augustine’s theodicy depends on his assumption that the world was made perfect. This is contradicted by Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and natural selection. The story of Adam and Eve is not historically true, it is a myth. The teaching of Original Sin is not Biblical, but comes from St Augustine. The idea that the human race is fallen, as we inherit Original Sin from Adam and Eve is both Scientifically nonsensical and Even if it were true it is highly unfair to punish the offspring (the human race) for a sin committed by their parents, i.e. Adam and Eve. 2. As we see pain and suffering around us in the so called â€Å"perfect world that God created and we feel a need to justify why this is happening and more importantly who fault it is. This is where god comes into the equation, the designer of the earth and an all knowing being who loves us all no mater who we are. The mere idea of pain in this world with this being calls into question the very existence of what our existence is and how it came to be. The definition of a theology is to prove the divine attributes of god and when one sees death in ones family; could one ever possibly see a vindication of evils existence? In analysis both theodicy’s one must take into consideration the historical context in which both were conceived and written. With modern scientific knowledge we have com to believe that the universe came into existence through the big bang. Consequently many have discredited the possibility of the genesis version of creation. The Augustine theodicy is therefore open to much modern day speculation and criticism, as it is based on the belief that man established evil due to a conscious decision made by Adam and eve under temptation from Lucifer. This is the fall and when human existence supposedly turned away from the grace of God. In today’s more logical and pragmatic society the idea of man’s creation through such events is considered to be nothing more than mythological farce. Where the text should not simply be discredited but is more of a symbol in this case to Christianity. In discrediting the source of the theodicy therefore one considers what remains of Augustine theodicy ineffective due to our lack of belief in the first premise. The point to consider is if one is a traditional catholic and believes that this is the word of God or weather one takes a more modern stance on the issue and learns from scientific growth of the modern era. However scientist still struggle to provide a true explanation for the cause of the big bang, had Augustine been able to see these modern times he may have argued the point that when the fall happened (the expulsion of Adam and eve from the garden.) the big bang would have occurred. This is very open to interpretation as it is now a certainty that the story of Adam and eve is a metaphorical device to explain the beginning of the world to people who were simpler than today’s standards. What is clear is that the Augustine theodicy is a very traditionalist approach to the idea of evil. Whereas the irenaean theodicy was written before the Augustine theodicy it is actually a more modern in its approach to the problem of evil and suffering. In these modern times under newer scientific evidence such as the theory of evolution and the big bang theory St Iranian’s theodicy was cast into new philosophical light. It was shown to be a document before its time as it draws from an original state of imperfection in the universe. Which then has to work towards perfection? Her is so much evil in today’s society we can see many natural evil. In contrast to natural evil one cannot but help agree that the world is not perfect. In contrast to natural evil occurring due to a delicate balance being lost in the world the idea of an imperfect world working towards perfection appears far more feasible. To conclude one must draw to the evident change in sociological and intellectual factors from the time of Irenaeus and Augustine. Although both when written may have proved strong vindification for moral and natural evil in the case of the existence of god mans growth appears to change the significance of each thing in the universe.

Challenges Facing Developing Countries

Information document B Interoperability problems in the developing countries 1. Introduction1 2. Developing countries2 3. CIS and Europe4 4. Asia-Pacific5 5. Americas8 6. Africa10 Introduction The ITU has made significant commitments to developing countries in a series of instruments: †¢ Article 17 of the ITU Constitution that the functions of ITU-T are to be performed â€Å"bearing in mind the particular concerns of the developing countries†; †¢ Resolution 123 (Rev. Antalya, 2006) on bridging the standardization gap; and Resolution 139 (Antalya, 2006) which invites Member States to implement rapidly Resolution 37 (Rev. Doha, 2006) of the World Telecommunication Development Conference on bridging the digital divide. Between the developing and developed countries there is a general digital divide of which one part is the standardization gap. This is recognised in Resolution 44 (Johannesburg, 2008) as having three dimensions: †¢ The disparity of voluntary standard ization; †¢ The disparity of mandatory technical regulations; and †¢ The disparity of conformity assessment.Resolution 76 (Johannesburg, 2008) on conformance and interoperability testing considered: †¢ that some countries, especially the developing countries, have not yet acquired the capacity to test equipment and provide assurance to consumers in their countries; and †¢ that increased confidence in the conformance of information and communication technologies (ICT) equipment with ITU-T Recommendations would increase the chances of end-to-end interoperability of equipment from different manufacturers, and would assist developing countries in the choice of solutions. Noted: the need to assist developing countries in facilitating solutions which will exhibit interoperability and reduce the cost of systems and equipment procurement by operators, particularly in the developing countries, whilst improving product quality; Resolved: †¢ assist developing countries in identifying human and institutional capacity-building and training opportunities in conformity and interoperability testing; †¢ assist developing countries in establishing regional or subregional conformity and interoperability centres suitable to perform conformity and interoperability testing as appropriate;Instructed the Director of TSB: †¢ to conduct exploratory activities in each region in order to identify and prioritize the problems faced by developing countries related to achieving interoperability of ICT equipment and services; The following sections review the issues of developing countries then the interoperability problems identified by developing countries in the different regions: CIS & Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Americas, Africa and the Arab states. Developing countries The ITU holds developing countries to include three specific categories: Least Developed Countries (LDCs); †¢ Small Island Developing States (SIDS); and †¢ Countries with Economi es in Transition (EIT). It does not define these terms, but uses the definitions provided by the General Assembly of the United Nations and by its Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). [1] Least Developed Countries (LDCs) can be identified by the following three criteria: †¢ Low-income, a three-year average of Gross National Income (GNI) per capita (under US$ 745 for inclusion, above US$ 900 for graduation); A composite Human Assets Index (HAI) based on: percentage of population undernourished, mortality rate for children aged five years or under, the secondary school enrolment ratio and adult literacy rate; and †¢ A composite Economic Vulnerability Index (EVI) based on: population size, remoteness, merchandise export concentration, share of agriculture, forestry and fisheries in GDP, homelessness owing to natural disasters, instability of agricultural production, and instability of exports of goods and services.While there is considerable overlap between LDCs and SIDS, th e latter face significant additional problems to achieve sustainable development, because of their small populations, limited resources, remoteness, susceptibility to natural disasters and excessive dependence on international trade. The growth and development of SIDS have been disadvantaged by high transportation and communication costs (e. g. , use of satellites in the absence of undersea cables), disproportionately expensive public administration and infrastructure (due to their small size) and the absence of opportunities to create economies of scale. 2] Countries with Economies In Transition (EIT) are those moving from a centrally planned economy to a free market. This requires economic liberalization, the removal of price controls, the lowering of trade barriers, the restructuring and privatization of financial and industrial sectors. It is usually characterised by the creation of new institutions, including private enterprises taking on activities previously performed by the state and new instruments for state governance, such as a national regulatory authority for telecommunications.In the 1990s, these comprised the countries formerly members of the CMEA, some of which are now members of the WTO and the EU. The problems faced in EITs have included the absence of a constructive policy framework, the slowness of the establishment of the network infrastructure, the training of people to use it and to exploit commercially the information and knowledge that it makes available. The issue of interoperability has become more important as countries deploy e-government systems. In order to provide high-quality services to citizens it is important that services can be accessed from the widest possible range of equipment.UNDP has published an e-primer on e-government, setting out the vision and value of interoperability and the steps required to achieve this. It explains the value of e-government interoperability frameworks, the parties that need to be involved an d are the critical success factors. InfoDev has an eGovernment Handbook for developing countries. Despite the enormous progress made in bridging the digital divide and, in particular, the standardization gap, there remain significant problems in terms of conformance and interoperability due to: Lack of human capacity and of training opportunities; and †¢ Weak institutional systems for: o Standardization, o Testing, o Certification, and o Market surveillance. However, the challenges are far from uniform, requiring careful assessment of regional and national circumstances and experiences. CIS and Europe The European Union has legal provisions that directly address interoperability and empower regulatory authorities to ensure the interoperability of systems (see information document C).For example, the EC adopted DVB-H as a common standard for mobile television to achieve interoperability throughout Europe. In 2005, the ITU published a study entitled Towards Interoperable eHealth for Europe with the Telemedicine Alliance. A previous study had identified interoperability as a major obstacle to the implementation of eHealth, which the second report addressed in the form of a strategic plan for trans-national eHealth interoperability. Its aim is to assist stakeholders at all levels in taking action to achieve real and sustainable interoperability. 3] As part of its eHealth Action Plan, the European Commission has adopted a Recommendation on cross-border interoperability of electronic health record systems (2008/594/EC). This will ensure that electronic health record systems interoperate, allowing health professionals from another country to access vital patient information from a home doctor and hospital, improving the quality and safety of medical care. The International Virtual Laboratory for Enterprise Interoperability (INTEROP-VLab) emerged from research projects funded by the European Commission.Its mission is to consolidate, develop and maintain the Europ ean research community in the domain of Enterprise Interoperability. In the United Kingdom, a survey of IEEE 802. 11b/g Wi-Fi usage for the Office of Communications (OFCOM) found a wide variety of problems, many due to causes other than spectrum (e. g. , wired Internet and device configuration errors). Spectrum issues tended to be interference between devices in the 2. 4 GHz ISM band, rather than congestion.However, in the centre of London demands on the band were higher than elsewhere and users experienced both interference and congestion. Interference between different types of radio device lead to a proposal for a certification scheme with a broad ‘2. 4 GHz friendly’ logo rather than the conventional ‘Wi-Fi-friendly’ mark, to help drive acceptance of innovative technologies in that band. Asia-Pacific One of the poorer of the Asian countries was the beneficiary of a sequence of initiatives by national and international aid programmes to assist the evelopm ent of its telecommunications infrastructure. [4] A side effect of this was that the equipment provided or purchased in the different projects were from different manufacturers, often selected by or linked to the donor agency. However, the variety of equipment could not easily be made to interoperate. The effects on the country were to increase the costs of training for its limited pool of technicians and experts (often with international travel), while it reduced the flexibility of use of the equipment.The already limited economies of scale in this country were made worse by fragmentation across different networks and systems, raising the costs for operators and thus for citizens. Within the Asia-Pacific Telecommunity Standardization Programme (ASTAP), the Industry Relations Group (IRG) addresses the needs and concerns of operators and manufacturers. At the 11th Meeting of ASTAP in June 2006 there was a Workshop on Conformity Assessment in the APECTEL Mutual Recognition Arrangement s (MRA).It was recognized that input from industry input into ASTAP and APECTEL could help to improve their operation. The IRG subsequently developed a questionnaire on type-approval and conformity assessment. Between June 2006 and February 2007, responses were obtained from 21 companies and 4 regulators, in Afghanistan, Australia, Iran, Japan, Macau SAR, Papua New Guinea, Singapore and Thailand. This identified issues in terms of: †¢ Costs: o Mandatory in-country testing, rather than accepting certified test results from other countries, Preparation of documentation for submission to the regulator, o Testing to meet specific national standards not aligned with international standards; †¢ Delays: o Time taken to approve a product after documents are submitted, o Testing to national standards not aligned with international standards. The survey identified actions to improve type approval process, including the recognition of certified test reports from other countries by Au stralia and Singapore, and limiting standards in technical regulations to international standards, avoiding national variations.An Asia-Pacific regional compliance mark was proposed, one that would be accepted by all national authorities, without further testing or documentation. The IRG called for national authorities to accept accredited test reports from other countries in order to reduce costs and time delays in type approval. The expansion of telecommunication networks, both in geographic coverage and the range of services, in response to market demand is a continuous process for operators, especially in very rapidly growing Asian markets. Operators have two options: a) Procurement of equipment from the original vendor; or ) Procurement of the best value equipment available at the time, not necessarily from the original vendor. However, the second option is not always possible as equipment from different vendors may not be fully interoperable. The procurement of additional equi pment is, therefore, constrained to be from the original vendor. The practical difficulties faced by this lack of interoperability in two types of networks are explained below. There are many proprietary implementations of Mobile Switching Centres (MSCs), Base Station Controllers (BSCs) and Base Station Transceivers (BTSs).Although the interface between the MSC and the BSC is now considered stable, the Abis interface between BSCs and BTSs is not yet interoperable (see Figure 1). Where additional BTSs are required, in order to meet growing demand, the network operator is constrained to purchase these from the vendor whose BSCs are already deployed. Figure 1Issues related to mobile networks [pic] An operator in India has experienced interoperability issues in the expansion of its GSM network. Its planners assumed that BSCs and BTSs required to be supplied by the same vendor, due to the proprietary interface between the two.However, the interface between the BSC and the MSC, which is a n open standard, required considerable time and effort before interworking could be achieved between equipment from different vendors. Two of the essential components for Intelligent Network (IN) services are the Service Control Point (SCP) and the Service Switching Point (SSP), the latter is normally part of the switch or local exchange (see Figure 2). Consequently, whenever the operator needs to deploy a new switch it has to be purchased from a single supplier, to ensure interoperability with existing infrastructure.Figure 2Issues related to fixed Intelligent Network (IN) [pic] An Indian operator found that SCPs failed to interwork with SSPs from different manufacturers. This issue is considered critical in view of the regulatory requirement to interconnect INs of different service providers. In April 2009, at the CTO/ITU-T Forum on NGN Standardization in Sri Lanka, the issue of non-interoperability was raised. Rajeshwar Dayal from the Indian Department of Telecommunications (DoT) , identified the need for interoperability between and within NGNs (see slides).The following month at the ITU Regional Preparatory Meeting for the Asia and Pacific Region, India proposed that ITU prepare a reference document containing interoperability requirements at the equipment level to help smooth the implementation of NGNs. An NGN Pilot Project by the Iran Telecom Research Center (IRTC) identified a number of problems associated with NGNs supplied by: Alcatel, Huawei, Siemens and ZTE (presented at ITU Kaleidoscope). [5] This acknowledged that NGN was not yet a mature technology and therefore subject to interim problems, that should eventually be eliminated.Tests were conducted initially between equipment of a single vendor, then between different vendors. Problems were identified with the implementations of the ITU-T G. 729 codec and ITU-T H. 248, plus difficulties with the call servers from one manufacturer not being able to control the access, media or signaling gateways of other vendors. The problems had been caused by some vendors not implementing standards completely or having done so imprecisely, while some standards were found to contain ambiguities. AmericasIn the USA, Section 256 of the Communications Act of 1996 requires the FCC to establish procedures to oversee coordinated network planning by providers of telecommunications services. The Act also authorizes the FCC to participate in standards organizations working on network interconnectivity. It is advised by the Network Reliability and Interoperability Council (NRIC), which makes recommendations to ensure, under â€Å"all reasonably foreseeable circumstances†, interoperability of networks, including reliability, robustness, security and interoperability of communications networks.One of the major issues addressed by NRIC in recent years has been to ensure the interoperability of enhanced services for emergency calls (i. e. , to 911). Interoperability for e-government has been addres sed by the Chief Information Officers Council (CIO). Concerns over problems of the non-interoperability of emergency services communication systems became a matter of public concern, following possibly avoidable deaths of firemen in the collapse of the New York World Trade Center on 9th September 2001 and again after Hurricane Katrina. 6] The US Congress called for work to resolve interoperability problems in emergency response communications. [7] To achieve the political objectives, Project 25 (P25) was established as a development process for the design, manufacture and evaluation of interoperable digital two-way wireless communications products for public safety services. The suite of P25 standards is administered by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and consists of the following interfaces: †¢ Common Air Interface (CAI); †¢ Inter-RF Subsystem Interface (ISSI); †¢ Fixed/Base Station Subsystem Interface (FSSI); †¢ Console Subsystem Interface (CS SI); Network Management Interface; †¢ Data Network Interface; †¢ Subscriber Data Peripheral Interface; and †¢ Telephone Interconnect Interface. The P25 Compliance Assessment Program (CAP) is a partnership between the Department of Homeland Security’s Command, Control and Interoperability Division (CID), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), suppliers and the emergency services. It seeks to: †¢ Ensure that emergency response technologies meet the needs of practitioners; †¢ Assist officials in making informed purchasing decisions; †¢ Provide vendors with a method of testing equipment for P25 compliance; and Support the migration to standards-based communications systems. As of May 2008, eight private laboratories had been accredited, using ISO 17025, for P25 conformance testing. These can test equipment against standards that ensure radios and other equipment interoperate – regardless of manufacturer – enabling em ergency responders to exchange critical communications. Additionally, there two non-governmental bodies as: †¢ Emergency Interoperability Consortium (EIC); and †¢ OASIS Emergency Interoperability. These work on the development of appropriate standards. Anatel has identified problems with fixed network equipment in: Incompatibilities with: o xDSL: between chipsets in Central Office (CO) and Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), and o GPON: between Optical Line Terminals (OLT) and Optical Network Units (ONU); †¢ Interoperability problems between: o softswitches using SIP and SIP-I standards, o PABX-IP equipment and NGN, and o Call Agent (CA) and Media Gateway (MG), when using the T. 38 fax with MEGACO protocol. Similarly with mobile networks, it has found problems with Inter-RAT (Radio Access Technology): †¢ Voice and data failures going from 2G on 1,800 MHz to 3G on 850 MHz and vice versa; On registration, instead of performing a type 02 a type 00 location update was performed; †¢ With 2G, on moving from 900 MHz to 1800 MHz and vice versa there were voice call interruptions; †¢ Despite automatic network search for 3G on 850MHz band, first tried a type 00 location update with 2G on 1800 MHz; †¢ A loss of network signal with 2 or 3G on any frequency band, terminals failed to repeat network registration when in an area with network signal; and †¢ Where there was no roaming enabled, but a secondary IMSI was available the SIM card terminal did not automatically restart the application for the second IMSI.Africa Much of the ICT equipment in developing countries is old, but has yet to be withdrawn from use, because of limited capital to purchase replacements. The interfaces and protocols of such systems are not able to communicate with any modern systems that are more complex and sophisticated. It required the use of gateways which reduces functionality and increases costs. For example, one international operator wishing to provide lower cost international connectivity into a NE African country had to provide a special gateway to what it considered obsolete technology.Unlike in the developed world, most African countries do not have laboratories to test whether or not communications equipment and systems conform to the required international, regional and national standards, making interoperability testing a challenge. Exceptions include Egypt, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia (see information document I). Rwanda has seen a profusion of very low-cost GSM handsets. Like India, many of these have proved to be counterfeit, with no proof that they comply with international safety standards or that they conform to network standards and interoperate without causing problems.Tanzania has identified a number of issues shown in Table 1. Table 1Interoperability issues in Tanzania |SN |Item |Positive |Concern | |1 |Antennae have different standards |Incentive to roll out in |Joined networks instead of single network th at | | |for different vendor and types |underserved areas |result in duplication of investment and operational | | |e. . space diversity, combining, |Increased employment |expenditure e. g. spare stock, training | | |polar | | | |2 |New technology (upgrade) |Increased competition |Delays or not possible to access some application or| | |compatibility with old versions |Service differentiation |documents e. g Windows 2003 to 2007 or VISTA. | |but not vice versa | |Forced to change from R2 signalling for circuit | | | | |(packet) switching and later likely to IP else miss | | | | |VAS applications | | | | |Environment issue e. g.Exposure or Recycle of | | | | |absolute equipment such as antennae | |3 |Pre-paid and online payment |Easy customer entry and |Revenue stream authenticity | | |(credit card) |consumer choice of services |National Security issues | | | | |e. g. satellite phones | |4 |Liberalization of International |Competitive tariffs |Cyber security. | |gateways. |Improved q uality of services |With multiple gateways how ccTLD and Internet | | |VSAT, Earth stations, submarine | |exchanges are to be on optimal use. | | |cables and optic fibre | |Incoming international traffic revenue loss? | |5 |Transmission systems. PDH and SDH |Incentive to roll out broadband|Different control and operational procedure (Central| | |and mono mode and DWDM optic fibre|data |operation management systems).Complex and costly | | |Core switch (TeS, NGN) not able to|Possible sharing of capacity |integration for various vendors | | |parent various media gateways, RSU|(infrastructure) |Need to share customer information e. g. from EIR or | | |(xDSL) |Increased employment |blacklist and fraudsters. | | |Access interface V5. 1 and V5. 2 | |Difficult or too costly to integrate various vendor | | | | |equipment in the network.While specializing to a | | | | |single vendor also ties to limited QS, services and| | | | |costly upgrades. | |6 |Revenue assurance systems |Increase Custom er satisfaction |Integration of modules for fixed, GSM and CDMA are | | | |Quality of service monitoring |likely to be too costly | | | | |Integration of data and voice |Few countries in Africa have in place the necessary accreditation systems and technical regulations need to provide a framework for the granting of certificates and licenses for the provision of communications services or the supply of telecommunications equipment. There is a general lack of expertise and human capacity in standardization. African countries have been less able than developed countries to participate in and to influence standards making processes.One consequence of this is that they have been much less involved in the work of devising conformity and interoperability tests and then of conducting the tests of equipment and services. Training in standardization and testing has been insufficient and when available been expensive or involved travel. This has resulted in a lack of understanding of test res ults when they are submitted from accredited laboratories. In particular, there is a lack of understanding of international standards concerning the implementation of interoperability of ICT systems and devices.The large and growing number of producers of standards is seen as confusing, especially since the standards and the resulting equipment and interfaces are mostly not interoperable. As with the Indian example, African operators have encountered problems interoperating BSCs and BTSs from different manufacturers. Some types of equipment conforming to international standards are intended to operate in specific radio frequency bands, but this spectrum may not be available in Africa.This has made the efficient use of radio spectrum one of the key challenges African countries confront and which has brought about interoperability problems. The Southern Africa Telecommunications Association (SATA), a group of fixed incumbent operators, has identified specific interoperability challeng es (see Table 1), relating to NGN equipment. Table 2Southern African interoperability challenges (Source: SATA) Equipment supplier and type |Interoperability problems with | | |Equipment Supplier |Equipment Type | |Huawei Technologies SoftSwitch |Nokia Siemens Networks |Trunk Gateway | |Huawei Technologies SoftSwitch |ZTE |CDMA Equipment (Fax problems) | |Huawei Technologies SoftSwitch |Alcatel-Lucent |WiMAX WAC | |There are several interoperability issues between the BOSS and the Element Managers from different suppliers. | |The standard Northbound interfaces between EM and the OSS are not always open, or the supplier is not willing to open | |those interfaces. | In summary, Africa faces the following problems: †¢ Increased supply of poor quality equipment; †¢ Difficulties in the selection of interoperable equipment from a wide range of vendors; †¢ Lack of testing centres, facilities and trained professionals; †¢ Lack of national or regional laws and regulations ; and †¢ Lack of understanding of ITU-T Recommendations, the conformance tests and their results. ———————– 1] Specific tasks have been assigned by the United Nations to the Office of the High Representative for the LDCs, Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) and SIDS (OHRLLS). [2] The telecommunications needs of SIDS are being studied by ITU-D under Question 23/2. [3] See, for example, European Connected Health Leadership Summit ‘A Manifesto for Connected Health’ [4] Permission has not yet been granted by the country to disclose its name. [5] http://ieeexplore. ieee. org/ielx5/4534704/4542234/04542262. pdf? arnumber=4542262 and http://ieeexplore. ieee. org/ielx5/4115171/4115172/04115219. pdf? isnumber=4115172 [6] Jerry Brito (2007) Sending out an S. O. S. public safety communications interoperability as a collective action problem. Federal Communications Law Journal 59 (3) 457-92. [7] Senate Report 109-088. Departments of Commerce and Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, 2006. House Report 109-241. Making Appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security for the Fiscal Year Ending September 30, 2006, and for Other Purposes. ———————– BTS of Vendor A BSC of Vendor A MSC of Vendor A BTS of Vendor B Proprietary/Non-interoperable interface SSP of Vendor B Switch /LE Calling Card User Switch /LE SCP SSP SSP SCP of Vendor A SSP of Vendor A Called Subscriber Proprietary/Non-interoperable interface Challenges Facing Developing Countries Challenges Facing Developing Countries Janita Aalto Principles of Microeconomics ECO 204 Instructor Kathryn Armstrong March 28, 2011 Challenges Facing Developing Countries Developing countries, also known as third and fourth world countries; face economic challenges that first world countries do not face, on a large scale. Poverty, low literacy rates, poor investments in both human capital and domestic capital, poor nutrition and devastation to populations due to the HIVAIDS pandemic contribute to developing countries moving towards development. The primary focus of this paper is to explore the impact the HIV/AIDS pandemic has had on Sub-Sahara African economies and to explore the challenges facing developing countries to stimulate domestic savings. The impact on the economies of some of the African countries is still not completely known. If we look at economic impacts, first we must look at the human cost HIV/AIDS is having on Africa’s economic development and ability to cope with the pandemic. According to an online journal, there are four variables that outline the effects on Africa’s future development: â€Å"Economic research helps to estimate the effects of HIV/AIDS on the African economy and the cost effectiveness of prevention and treatment programmes; Economic theory predicts that HIV/AIDS reduces labour supply and productivity, reduces exports, and increase imports; The pandemic has already reduced average national economic growth rates by 2-4% a year across Africa; Prevention and treatment programmes and economic measures such as targeted training in skills needed in key industries will limit the economic effects of HIV/AIDS†, (BMJ. 2002, p. 232). In examining the economic effects of HIV/AIDS, it is hard to look past the fact that over 17 million African people have lost their lives to HIV/AIDS and has 70% of all HIV/AIDS related cases in the world. These are staggering statistics. As outlined in the above journal article, the mortality rates have ca used a reduced labor supply, reduced labor productivity and reduced exports and increased exports. The population of people hardest hit by the HIV/AIDS pandemic are the prime-aged adults. HIV/AIDS robs industries of both skilled workers and a generation of workers in their prime working years. The associated illnesses and sickness as a result of HIV/AIDS can lead to high absenteeism which impacts labor productivity. The effects of a reduced labor supply and reduced labor productivity, â€Å"reduces exports, while imports of expensive healthcare goods may increase. The decline in export earnings will be severe if strategic sectors of the economy are affected. The balance of payments (between export earnings and import expenditure) will come under pressure at the same time that government budgets come under pressure. This could cause defaults on debt repayments and require economic assistance from the international community†, (BMJ. 2002, p. 233). In a 1992 macroeconomics a study on the impact of HIV/AIDS in Africa, it was concluded that â€Å"reduced availability of skilled labour would reduce growth rates by about 50% and investment by 75%, that imports of food and other basic products would increase, and that exports of manufactured and other products would decline†. It was also estimated that by 2010, â€Å"South African’s GDP per capita would be some 8% low and consumption per capita would be about 12% lower than would have been the case without the HIV/AIDS pandemic†, (BMJ. 2002, p. 234). The pandemic will have lasting effects on the economic development on the Sub-Sahara African countries without international assistance. â€Å"An important step in limiting the economic effects of the pandemic is to develop comprehensive policies tailored to the needs of the economies of individual countries. These policies will inevitably include the introduction of treatment and prevention programmes but may also include economic measures, such as targeted training of skills needed in key industries†, (BMJ. 2002, p. 234). One way to help stabilize the economy may be to push expensive antiretroviral drugs at â€Å"highly productive groups of socioeconomic groups in specific industries on the basis of their contribution to economic output rather than their healthcare needs†, (BMJ. 2002, p. 235). This would most likely be a controversial plan, but the strategy would help the people in those groups and buy time for skills training and development of a new work force to replace those that will either lose their health or their lives. It would also boost the economy if industry production levels can be maintained and exports of goods can remain at a profitable pace. The pandemic is having a major effect on life expectancy, which has been dropping. â€Å" In Zimbabwe, for example, life expectancy is 40 instead of 69. In seven countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, life expectancies are below 40 years of age†, (CHG, 2009, p. 3). Not only does this impact the work force, but impacts the children, many of whom lose not only one, but both parents, and other family members that might be able to take them in. Instead these children now become a government responsibility, as they are put into orphanages, group homes, etc. It is estimated that there are 15 million orphaned children across Africa. Standards of living are decreasing, and countries that were once starting to make progress both socioeconomically and economically are headed backwards instead of forward. Poverty is increasing as the family breadwinners are dying or becoming incapacitated by their illnesses. If there are savings, those savings are dwindling as people use their savings just to survive. With mainly young adults dying off, the tax base is shrinking which reduces a countries ability to invest in human capital, such as education and health services, which puts pressure on government finances and reduces economic growth. Investment in education is not a priority with the belief that children will contract HIV/AIDS in adulthood. The poor education of children translates into low adult productivity a generation later. This raises important social and fiscal implications for economic policy. The first is the threat of worsening inequality. If the children left orphaned are not given the care and education en joyed by those whose parents remain uninfected there will be increasing inequality amount the next generation of adults and the families they form†, (CHG, 2009, p. 6). Investing in human capital is one of the keys to bringing economic growth to developing countries. According to an online website, human capital is defined as â€Å"the set of skills which an employee acquires on the job, through training and experiences†, (InvestorWords. com). An investment in human capital also includes; development of and access to, health and nutrition programs. â€Å"Recent studies suggest that 40 percent of the population of the developing nations has an annual income insufficient to provide adequate nutrition†, (Case, Fair & Oster, 2009, p. 427). Low nutrition affects health and poor health affects productivity. Low productivity levels then affect the ability to provide for one’s family, let alone provide any surplus that can be sold and the money put into savings. There are two explanations as to why capital is in such short supply in developing countries. The first is the vicious-cycle-of-poverty hypothesis. According to our text, â€Å"the vicious-cycle-of-poverty hypothesis suggests that a poor nation must consume most of its income just to maintain its already low standard of living. Consuming most of national income implies limited savings, and this implies low levels of investment†, (Case, Fair & Oster, 2009, p. 428). Investment is needed for capital stock to grow and for income levels to rise. Without it, â€Å"poverty becomes self-perpetuating†, (Case, Fair & Oster, 2009, p. 428), and the cycle is complete. The second explanation is that there is a lack of financial incentives for citizens to save and invest, as well as a lack of financial institutions. It is common for the wealthier citizens to invest their monies in Europe or the United States instead of in their own countries. The term for this is capital flight, which â€Å"refers to the fact that both human capital and financial capital leave developing countries in search of higher expected rates of return elsewhere or returns with less risk†, (Case, Fair & Oster, 2009, p. 428). According to an online article, â€Å"Africa is estimated to lose hundreds of billions of dollars in domestic revenues annually through capital flight†, (Africa Renewal, 2008, p. 12). In order to reverse this trend, it is imperative that the government remove the barriers that turn away wealthy citizens from investing in their own countries. Without domestic savings, investment isn’t possible. Without investment, growth isn’t possible and this cycle continues much like the vicious-cycle-of-poverty hypothesis. What decisions do leaders of a developing country make in order to stimulate domestic savings and in turn, capital? If I were the President of a developing country, I would invest in human capital and banking reform. In investing in human capital, I would target health and nutrition programs for kids and young adults, the next generation of workers. With life expectancy rates falling, efforts must be made to reverse that trend. A much larger investment in education would be made; incentives for college kids that go to school abroad to return to their home country and work in their field for a required number of years. I would emphasize training and skill development for replacement workers in the industries hit hardest by HIV/AIDS. In investing in banking reform, I would offer incentives to people who put their money in banks and other financial institutions. Some of the reasons African people in particular do not put money in savings accounts are; â€Å"physical distance from banking institutions, high minimum deposit and balance requirements†¦and the considerable documentation needed to open an account†, (Africa Renewal, 2008, p. 7). There are also a limited number of banks available and with over 60 percent of African people living in rural areas, they just don’t have physical access to banks, unless they travel a long distance. In order to convince people to put their savings in banks, interest paid on savings would need to be high and interest rates on loans low. Somehow, people must be encouraged to place their money into savings so money will be available for future investments. â€Å"The UNCDF noted in its 2004 report that in Rwanda about half a million savings passbook accounts, with an average account size of $57, pulled almost $40 mn into circulation in 2001. â€Å" Although this may not appear significant†, argued the UNCDF, â€Å"proper circulation of these funds into credit products could have a significant multiplier effect in the Rwandan economy†, (Africa Renewal, 2008, p. 7). Poverty, low literacy rates, poor investments in both human capital and domestic capital, poor nutrition and devastation to populations due to the HIVAIDS pandemic contribute to developing countries moving towards development. For these countries to become economically viable, the governments must encourage citizens to invest in their own countries and not rely on international assistance. It’s time for both the citizens and the governments to step up and help themselves. References: Case, K. E. , Fair, R. C. and Oster, S. E. (2009) Principles of Microeconomics (9th ed. ) Upper Saddle River, New Jersey:   Pearson Prentice Hall. Dovi, E. (2008) Boosting domestic savings in Africa: From Africa Renewal, Vol. 22#3 (October 2008), page 12, Retrieved on March, 26, 2011, from http://www. un. org/ecosocdev/geninfo/afrec/vol22no3/223-boosting-domestic-savi ngs. tml Economic Commission for Africa, CHG: Commission on HIV/AIDS and Governance in Africa: Africa: The Socio-Economic Impact of HIV/AIDS, Index No. CHGA-B-11-003, Retrieved on March 27, 2011, from http://www. uneca. org/chga/doc/SOCIO_ECO_IMPACT. pdf InvestorWords, Retrieved on March, 20, 2011, from http://www. investorwords. com Copyright ©2011 by WebFinance, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PubMed Central: The impact of HIV and AIDS on Africa’s economic development Simon Dixon, Scott McDonald, and Jennifer Roberts BMJ, 2002 January 26; 324(7331):232-235 PMCID:PMC1122139 ; Retrieved on March 25, 2011, from http://www. ncbi. nlm. nih. gov/pmc/articles/PMC1122139

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

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Close Reading Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Close Reading - Essay Example r breath at the ‘avant-garde style†¦ snazzy visuals†¦ snappy stories to the enthusiastic, upbeat score.†(Tasha Robinson) Anime, made in Japan is well-suited to global audiences because of its adherence to using traditional storylines but with a western flavor, and it makes it even more adaptable for â€Å"Global Web-based communities.†(Nicholas, Kyle) Western audiences are lured to the world of anime because of its unique identifying feature which is according to Horn â€Å"colorful, exciting, strange and Japanese.† (Horn 1999, p.13-31) Dating back to the 1920’s musical and film- noir style, Cowboy Bebop, O.S.T draws heavily from its musical themes. The majority of the soundtrack that was created mostly by the ‘Seatbelts’ contained a variety of elements such as pulsating techno beats, morose jazz, ofjump blues and yes, Bebop indeed without a doubt. The majority of the tracks on O.S.T 1 was a mixture of Jazz and blues. Songs such as ‘Digging My Potato’ and â€Å"Spokey Dokey† which is perhaps the most vivid song, though sounding seemingly ridiculous actually had maturity of the use of pause and space between the lyrics that is rarely found in the recordings of modern or contemporary jazz. (Sean McCarthy, 1998) Speaking of the band â€Å"Seatbelts† who were the primary musicians for almost the whole of the Bebop series are greatly hyped as one of the most progressive and futuristic bands who had gained wide popularity during 2048. The Seatbelts prided themselves in taking a whole lot of creative liberties in making use of contradictory themes such as ‘hard and soft’ and ‘peace and anarchy.’ The soundtrack of Cowboy Bebop also has two other discs titled ‘No Disc’ and the other called ‘Blue O.S.T-1 which is considered to be the prime of the lot that helped a great deal in introducing both Blues and Jazz to its audience who otherwise would not have been attracted to this particular genre. The sound created by the ‘Seatbelts’ are as

Explain this statement and conclude your discussion by saying whether Essay

Explain this statement and conclude your discussion by saying whether or not you agree with the law commission's current proposa - Essay Example Laws regarding the rights of consumers across the UK were not protective enough to sufficiently safeguard the interest of consumers. The new laws were, therefore, put forward to enhance sanity in sales of products and consumption of faulty products. In order to show that the grievances presented by the European Commission were heard, the Law Commission published laws that would protect the consumers against consumption of faulty goods. Law Commission made an indirect response to the European Commission’s paper with pretence that it was responding to the 2002 Consumer Sales Directive. Whether or not the publication of the Law Commission was ignited by the October release of the European Commission, these laws are a sure relief to the UK consumers. The laws protect the rights of consumers in a way that had not been possible in the past. A critical analysis of the Law Commission Proposals and Remedies for Faulty goods to Consumers relays a lot to be desired about the laws. The ne ed for harmonization of European consumer rights and related remedies was the primary objective of both publications. Whereas the consultative paper was not designed to directly respond to the â€Å"The European Law Commission Proposals†, it indirectly touched the core values of that proposal as an attempt to harmonize all United Kingdom Laws relating to consumer rights and remedies with those of the Commission proposals. This Consultative paper further earmarked an indirect advice to the commission regarding short term remedies to be harmonized across Union members without necessarily deviating from the traditional Contract Law remedies like rejection, repair and replacement or rescission (The Joint Consultative Paper, 2009, P.63). European Commission Proposals are another area of the laws that exhibit great deal of fascinating and likeable issues. The Law Commission Proposals were aimed at achieving the â€Å"consumer acquis† across the European Union relating to goo ds consumed and trading rights (The European Law Commission,2008). These rights include the right of withdrawal by the consumer from an ambigueous contract and is associated with the â€Å"cooling off period†, the need to protect consumers from â€Å"aggressive commercial practices†, removal of all trade barriers across all member states boarders, promotion of online contractual arrangements or trading among other things. The right of withdrawal is concerned with door to door and distance trading activities including both goods and services rendered to the consumer (Schultze, 2009, P.179). By all means, such steps to protect the rights of citizens of the wider European Union are a reason to smile about. The commission proposals are most likely going to enhance economic productivity of the region with increased trade and commerce. These European Commission proposals are majorly intended to harmonize trading activities among European states and once the Union has achieve d this, it will have a better competitive advantage over other regions in trade and industry. The major bottleneck is understanding the micro and macro economic factors that drives businesses. More in particular is an understanding of the

The heart that bleeds Latin America Now Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The heart that bleeds Latin America Now - Essay Example policy like no others in the Western Hemisphere. Interspersed are profiles of the Argentineans Evita Peron and Che Guevara and Peruvian Mario Vargas Llosa. Nearly half of the book is devoted to a series of scarcely believable tales from Mexico, where Guillermoprieto was born and returned to live in the mid-1990's. All of these essays appeared in The New Yorker and in The New York Review of Books between 1994 and 2000. In this book, Guillermoprieto is at her best in her psychological portraits of Latin America's unconventional politicos. Among them are Vargas Llosa, the Peruvian writer who lost a presidential bid; Guevara, the icon by which the Latin American left defined itself, and Vicente Fox, the Mexican rancher who dethroned a corrupt political machine to take the presidency. Guillermoprieto makes it clear why Vargas Llosa, an author of inspiring prose, failed miserably in his presidential bid. Her essay about Vargas Llosa also opens up a window into a cruel theme what Guillermoprieto calls a fundamental trait of Peruvians, but is very much a continuing problem of Latin America and those in the diaspora to the United States. These nations and their peoples are constantly immersed in conflict over their mixed blood and class. It's the deep-seated explanation for the conflicts and frustrations of Peruvian life. In her artfully handled essay on Che, it's easy to understand why Guillermoprieto, with her sympathies for the poor, was drawn to Che as a subject matter. Here she dissects three weighty tomes, published in 1997, on Che. And in doing so she quickly takes the reader into her generation's own psyche. She said Guevara was born in Latin America's hour of the hero. And so many of our leaders have been so corrupt, and the range of allowed and possibly public activity has been so narrow, and injustice has cried out so piercingly to the heavens, that only a hero can answer the call, and only a heroic mode of life could seem worthy. Guevara stood out against the inflamed horizon of his time, alone and unique. She sees Che's flaws, though. With horizon inflamed, a generation of followers were "incinerated" by their Che ideology. In a very personal passage, she details how those "children of Che" armed in radical revolution would die, including a great friend of Guillermoprieto's mother, a poet and feminist editor named Alaide Foppa. And by synthesizing details from a book by Jon Anderson, she shows how Che, this man of the people, was a machista of an elitist background who would have his sexual way with the family maids. She writes that Guevara's slogans now sound foolish. And she highlights that with work from a book by Jorge Castaneda, a political scientist who is now Mexico's foreign minister. Castaneda's Che is a man who cannot bear the natural ambivalence of the world, a world of gray where people have mixed allegiances. As the eventual head of the Central Bank, for example, Che was flummoxed by day-today realities of running a government. "Why corrupt workers by offering them more money to work harder" Given the region's history of rickety economies, the reader wonders if a Latin American could be found today

Term Paper Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

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McCain will win the 2008 presidential elections Essay

McCain will win the 2008 presidential elections - Essay Example Majorities across all regions except South said Mr. Obama held an edge in their state.† The newspaper further reported on the same date that this poll was taken before Mr. Obama selected Senator Joseph. R. Biden Jr. of Delware as his running mate. The paper further reported, â€Å"when asked about their views on supporting war in Iraq, only 2% of the sampled delegates said yes, while 95 % said no.† capital Amman that security situation in Iraq has improved and time is coming for USA forces to pull out. Mr. Robert Burger of VOA reported that Mr. Obama said â€Å" I welcome the growing consensus in Iraq and USA for a timeline. My view, based on the advice of military experts, is that we can redeploy safely in 16 months, so that our combat brigades are out of Iraq in 2010.† VOA again reports in its same issue of 22nd.July 2008, further on this issue.. Mr. Jim Malone of VOA reports that,† McCain opposes setting a timeline for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq.† Senator McCain further said while addressing his audience in New Hampshire, in July end that â€Å"he looks forward to US troops coming home, but only because of success on ground in Iraq and not as per the preset timetables† This highlights the difference of opinion between the two presidential candidates on the Iraq war. While Senator McCain supports the strategy of his fellow republican President Bush, as he believes the costs incurred so far on Iraq does not warrant early withdrawal, which may mean defeat on that front and diminishing global image for USA. Further VOA issue of 3rd. Sept. carries a report from its national correspondent Jim Malone, that most republicans admire John McCain as a true American hero and a man who survived repeated torture and beatings, while in captivity during Vietnam War. Therefore, he knows the meaning of victory and defeat in a war. VOA further reports in same issue, as Mr. McCain saying, â€Å"I have always put my country first, and I will always do

Samsung Mobile Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Samsung Mobile Company - Essay Example Therefore an information audit is vital in determining whether a company is utilizing its information resources adequately to enable it to compete favorably within the business environment. As a result it is evident that an information audit has a major contribution to a company’s information systems strategy. This paper gives a critical analysis of the contribution of information audit to the information systems strategy with special reference to the Samsung Mobile Company which is the case study in this discussion. In addition, the application of competitive intelligence in strategic information system analysis is discussed in this paper with examples of Samsung Mobile Company’s Critical Success Factors being used to discuss how information audit contributes to a company’s information systems strategy. Bateman (1997, p. 167) asserts that it is through an information audit that a company is able to identify all the information resources available to it. Samsung Mobile Company has vast information resources both within and outside the organization. These resources include human expertise. Information can also be obtained through research on specific aspects of business operation such as marketing and training. Identification of the information resources of the company is crucial to enable the management come up with strategic information system strategies. ... These strategies include the development of various computer applications which are to be used in effective management of the company’s resources as a way of facilitating the achievement of objectives. According to Chen et al. ( 2010, p. 233), the production and marketing functions of a company perform optimally when information systems are used to facilitate the production process of a company in addition to the promotion of its brands. This is essential in making a company have a competitive advantage over other businesses dealing in the same line of products. Through an information audit, Samsung Mobile Company will be able to have strategic plans for the application of technology in promotion of its mobile products to have a competitive advantage over its competitors such as Nokia and Sony Erickson. As explained by Dubois (1995, p. 20), an information audit is essential for all organization because it enables them to identify and determine their information needs. Informat ion is very essential in any production company because it acts as the most important resource for the successful achievement of goals and objectives. Samsung Mobile Company should do an information audit to enable its management to make strategic plans on the information technology which is needed to enable the company meet its information needs. For example the company needs information about the political, economic, social and technological environment which will allow it to compete favorably with other mobile manufacturers. However Akhavan, Jafari and Fathian (2006, p. 97) point out that identification of the information needs during an information audit should focus on the information which

Case Study Mcdonalds Essay Example for Free

Case Study Mcdonalds Essay It operates over 35000 restaurants in more than 100 countries on six continents. 5 It has an unparalleled global infrastructure and competencies in restaurant operations, real estate, retailing, marketing and franchising. McDonald’s website says that it is a leader in the area of social responsibility and is committed to protecting the environment for future generations. 7 Strong and wide communication channel in the market. (deng, 2009) 8 Play areas for children. 9 Large target markets. 10 Recession resistant (Birchall, 2008) 11 In September 2003 successful backing up of new products was launched with MTV’s advertising campaign featuring the new tag line, â€Å"I’m Lovin’it†. (Jennifer, 2004) WEAKNESSES 1 McDonald’s has not achieved its growth expectations in past several years. Narrow Product lines. (deng, 2009) 3 McDonald’s brand association as a junk food. (deng, 2009) 4 Few option for healthy eating 5 High employee turnover rates. (macy, 2012) 6 McDonald’s also have some bad effects on environment. (ltd. , 2006) 7 McDonald’s also faces many types of legal actions on many issues. OPPORTUNITIES 1 Product packing for McDonalds now features QR codes for customers to get nutritional information. Mcnamara, 2013) 2 Opportunity to enlarge market, the consumers who care about health issue. (deng, 2009) 3 Slightly changing market brand image of McDonalds. (deng, 2009) 4 In 2009, McDonald’s launched its hefty Angus burger in all U. S. A locations. 5 Introduction of trans-fat-free French fries in all restaurants in the U. S. A and Canada. 6 Introduction of McCafe. 7 Testing marketing fruits and vegetables as happy meal at some outlets. 8 McDonald’s franchises overseas became a favorite target of people and groups expressing antiglobalization sentiments. Entry into new and highly popular product categories. THREATS 1 Public attack about obesity issue. (deng, 2009) 2 Changing taste of consumers. (deng, 2009) 3 Unable to keep patrons as special order sandwiches offered by rivals Burger King and Wendy’s. 4 Promotional plans like McDonalds game found conspiracy with 51 people charged in a part of scam winning $24 million by stealing winning McDonald’s tickets. 5 McDonalds showed a delayed effect than other restaurants operators in switching over to zero trans-fat cooking oil. In 2001 McDonald’s was sued for hurting religious sentiments by vegetarian groups for not revealing its flavors in French fries as it added beef extract to vegetable oil and showing it as veg in menu. 7 Consum ers began filing law suits that eating at McDonald’s had made them over weight. 8 Competition from burger kings and Wendy’s. (Thomadsen, 2007) MARKET SEGMENTATION TARGET MARKET| BABY BOOMERS| GENERATION X| GENERATION Y| GENERATION Z| DEMOGRAPHICS| 45-65+| 35-44| 19-34| 0-18| GEOGRAPHICS| URBAN| URBAN| URBAN| URBAN| PSYCOGRAPHICS| More concerned with low cholesterol food| More concerned with low fat food| More concerned with physical fitness food products| Generally eats taste oriented food products| BEHAVIOURAL| Mostly concerned with good quality of food products| Requires access with quick and fresh food service| Generally catch-up food by themselves by reaching out| Check out with friends and family| ISSUE ANALYSIS In 2004,Morgan Spurlock’s documentary film Super-Size Me gave very criticism to McDonald’s fast â€Å"nutrition†, in which he shows how he gains fat and destroy his health by eating McDonald’s. 2 In 1998 McDonald’s started â€Å"Made for you† System but it was not successful. There was a decrease in growth of sales in stores. 3 In 1999 before the implementation of â€Å"made for you â€Å"scheme ,McDonald’s planned to provide about 190 million in financial assistance to its franchisees ,but the actual cost of implementing the system ran much higher than the corporation had estimated. In 2001, 51 people were charged conspiring to rig McDonald’s game promotions over the course of several years, revealing that $24 million of winning McDonald’s game tickets had been stolen as a part of scam. 5 In 2004, McDonald’s was sued for extracting a small amount beef added in to the vegetable oil used for cooking French fries. 6 Many people still complain that the food served by McDonald’s is not hot to eat. RECOMMENDATIONS PRODUCT :- 1 McDonald’s should provide hot food to eat because many customers complaint that their food is not so hot to eat otherwise it will affect sales. McDonalds should bring some new healthier products for all ages because bad effect on health is one of the weaknesses of McDonald’s and bringing some healthier food will help to overcome this image. 3 McDonald’s should provide some free snacks because it will help it compete with its competitors and increase sales. 4 McDonalds should make their products in fat free oil because it will have good effect on health. 5 McDonald’s should also provide some regional food because in this way some rural people will also start accepting its products. Launching of new fried and bone in treats in Chicago. PRICE:- 1 The price of products should be affordable because if they will not be affordable to small income group then its sale will be affected and it will also give the opportunity to competitors to increase their sales. 2 The prices of products should be regularly checked so as to compete with competition because people will buy those products which they can get in low price. PLACE:- 1 McDonald’s should open new franchises in small cities also . It will help them to expand its business and increase growth. McDonald’s should increase the number of its franchises in all countries in order to expand its business. PROMOTION:- 1 McDonald’s should provide some discount on more products purchased because in this way people will buy more. Because some people will start purchasing more items if they can get discount. 2 McDonald’s should provide home delivery service because sometimes some people can’t go to store in order to pu rchase them. It will increase sales. 3 McDonald’s should provide online sale because in this way people can place their orders online. McDonald’s is working on new salads and wraps . (wong, 2013) 5 McDonald, s will test the new fried and bone in treats in Chicago. (wong, 2013) 6 Success of mighty wings in Atlanta. (wong, 2013) BEST RECOMMENDATIONS PRODUCT:- McDonald’s should provide some healthier food for all ages because health obesity is the major problem with McDonald’s . In this way they can get good image regarding health. PRICE:- Prices of products should be regularly checked in order to compete with competition because people will cheapest product. PLACE:- McDonald’s should open new small franchises at small cities also because it will help him to expand its business and increase growth rates. PROMOTION:- McDonald’s should provide home delivery service because sometimes people can’t go to store in order to purchase product. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bibliography Birchall, J. (2008). McDonalds claims fast food sales fighting off slowdown. Financial times. deng, t. (2009, may). McDonalds new strategy on changing attitudes and communication. International journal of marketing studies, 37-42. Jennifer, R. (2004). online branding :the case of McDonalds. ritish food journal. ltd. , n. m. (2006). ICCR sponsered proxy resolutions on genetically modified organisms gain recognition among shareholders at wendys McDonalds . financial wire. macy, a. (2012). financing a remodel:a case of McDonalds Franchisee. journal of case research in business and economics. Mcnamara, B. (2013). McDonalds give the people what they want. Nutrition business journal. Thomadsen, r. (2007). product positiong and competion:the role of location in the fast food industry. Marketing science. wong, V. (2013). will McDonalds mighty wings fly? Business weak.

The Waste Heat Energy Such As Motorcycle Engineering Essay

The Waste Heat Energy Such As Motorcycle Engineering Essay The concept of using the waste heat energy such as motorcycle exhaust, heat exchanger, home exchangers, electrical equipment, industrial process and others to generate electrical energy is the main idea of this project. The energy produced will be used to power the battery charger. Battery chargers refer to a device that used to put energy into a secondary cell or rechargeable battery by forcing an electric current through it. The charging protocol depends on the size and type of the battery being charge. Existing battery charger is mainly relied on electricity to supply the energy. As electricity consumption one of the main concern nowadays. This is because it contributes to high household expenditure. In this project, we will design a new battery charger that mainly powered by thermal energy and it will backup by normal electricity source. A thermoelectric generator (TEG) module is used to harvest heat from the surrounding and convert into electricity. During the time when the electricity supply from TEG is insufficient, a microcontroller-based monitoring and switching circuit will switch to normal electricity source. An analysis and comparison of the energy consumption between the proposed battery charger and existing one will be carried out. Thermoelectric powered battery charger consists of thermoelectric generator (TEG), power management, DC to DC boost up converter, charger circuit and switching circuit. Thermoelectric modules can convert heat energy to electrical power directly (Jose Antonio B. V. et al., 2009). The Basic principle of a TEG is the Seebeck effect. Imposing different temperature on both ends of a thermoelectric generator, the devices can output a certain electrical energy which is proportional to the temperature difference of both ends of the device. The energy produce will be used to charge the battery charger and has the capability to reduce the power consumption. It is also in order to support and move towards a green technology application. PROBLEM STATEMENT The demand for electrical energy around the world is increasing every year, every month and every day. The human needs the electrical energy to live their lives. Nowadays, lots of electrical equipments were design to use electrical energy in the most efficient way. However, the existing source of energy will be depleted one day. Based on the World Resource Institute, fossil fuel such as oil, natural gas and coal make up a total 80 percent of the total energy consumption in the world (Damasa, 2006). The reproductions of fossil fuels are almost impossible as they require millions of year to be produced by the anaerobic decomposition of remains of organisms that settle to the sea bottom (Habjanec, 2009). To overcome this problem, it is important to find a new source of energy to replace the existing energy. This new energy is known as renewable energy (RE). Renewable energy means the energy that comes from the neutral source. The research for renewable energy is grown rapidly. Renewable energy such as solar, wind and hydro has limited resources and depend on weather and topography. Heat is one of the renewable energy. More than half of the energy consumed worldwide is wasted in the form if excess heat (Quick, 2009). Heat waste energy produced and released without attempted to capture it and reuse it since heat is a kind of energy. Nowadays, global warming become a big issues caused by the heat released to the environment. In order to converse the environment, the power will enable to supply small amount of power to electronic devices. OBJECTIVE This project has the following objectives: To design a prototype of an efficient, reliable thermoelectric battery charger to charge the battery. To analyze the productivity, profits, etc. compared to the existing battery charger. To analyze the time taken, complexity efforts to design electronic devices for thermoelectric battery charger. SCOPE OF WORK Hardware Proteus 7 professional will be used to design and running the simulation circuit on the hardware for thermoelectric powered battery charger. This software is choosing based on their characteristic that easy to use, and easy to run hardware simulation and software. Software MPLAB will be used to write a programming assembly language for the microcontroller in the switching circuit. This switching circuit used as a backup system for the battery charger when the voltage produced from TEG is insufficient by supplying the normal supply. PROJECT SIGNIFICANCE This project has the following significance: The ability to reduce power consumption by harvesting thermal energy from the surrounding The energy produced from thermoelectric will used as a main source of battery charger and backup by normal electricity source. In order to support and move towards a green technology application THESIS ORGANIZATION CHAPTER 1 (INTRODUCTION) This Chapter will present the introduction of the project, which is brief information and scope of the project is discussed. It is also including the objectives of the project, software and hardware proposed and thesis organization. CHAPTER 2 (LITERATURE REVIEW) This Chapter discussed the literature review and detail about information and scope of the project. It consists of general theory and provides information about thermoelectric powered battery charger. CHAPTER 3 (METHODOLOGY) This chapter will discuss briefly about the methodology of this project. It consists of several phase which are project planning, design, simulation and project fabrication. A proper planning is needed to be done to complete this project. CHAPTER 4 (RESULTS) This chapter contains all the result obtained in this study. All the simulation result for the hardware will be performed in graph form. The result for thermoelectric powered battery charger will be performed in table. CHAPTER 5 (DISCUSSION) In this chapter the discussion of designed thermoelectric powered battery charger will be carried out. This provides a general discussion of the output result. CHAPTER 6 (SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION) This chapter contains a brief summary of this project. A future recommendation will be carried out. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW INTRODUCTION During 1821, Thomas Johann Seebeck discovers a circuit from two dissimilar metals with junction at a different temperature would deflect a compass magnet (Lazaridis, G., 2009). It was quickly realize that the temperature different could produce electrical potential which can drive an electric current in a closed loop circuit. The voltage is found to be proportional to the temperature different between the two junctions. This is then named as Seebeck Effect after his name. In 1834, one decade after Seebeck effect was found, Jean Charles Anthanesa Peltier a French physicist investigate the thermocouple effect and found that the electrical current would produced heating as well as cooling at the two different material. This phenomenon was called Peltier Effect. In the middle of nineteenth century, Irish-born William (Lord Kelvin) completes the thermoelectric theory by trying together what Seebeck and Peltier had observed (Peter D. Heinz, 2012). THERMOELECTRIC GENERATOR (TEG) Thermoelectric generators use the Seebeck effect to produce electrical power from a temperature different caused by heat energy flow [3]. Thermoelectric generator can convert heat energy into electrical energy directly (Ahmad Nazri A. R. et al., 2011). Thermoelectric power generation have advantages in term of free maintenance, quiet in operation and involving no moving or complex part. The Thermoelectric generator works by heating one face and cooling the other face of thermoelectric module and in the thermoelectric circuit is connected a load (Jose Antonio B. V., 2009). The thermoelectric generator is formed based on two elements which are N-type and P-type semiconductors. The N-type and P-type semiconductors are connected in series electrically and in parallel thermoelectrically among two ceramics layers (Jose Antonio B. V., 2009) The bigger temperature different, the higher the voltage can be generated (Ahmad Nazri A. R. et al., 2011). The electron flows from hot to cold side through the N-type, and the electrons hole flows from hot to cold side through the P-type will allows the combination of electrical produced in series and increased the voltage and power output. Figure 1.1 shows the diagram for thermoelectric generator. As the heat flows from hot to cold side, the voltage will produced. http://static.newworldencyclopedia.org/thumb/8/8b/Thermoelectric_Generator_Diagram.svg/277px-Thermoelectric_Generator_Diagram.svg.pnghttp://images.iop.org/objects/phw/news/15/5/7/valley.jpg Figure 1: Basic thermoelectric generator diagram. The voltage produce from the heat flow is proportional with the temperature different between the hot and cold plate. This phenomenon can be shown by the following equation: V = ÃŽÂ ±ÃƒÅ½Ã¢â‚¬ T 1 Where V is the resulting voltage, ÃŽÂ ± is the Seebeck coefficient and ΆT is the temperature different. THERMOELCTRIC BATTERY CHARGER EXISTING WORK In the previous year, the research about TEG and it application has growth rapidly. In 2011, on Power Engineering and Optimization Conference, Ahmad Nazri A. R. et al., has develop Heat Energy Harvesting for Portable Power Supply (PosHEAT). In this research, his investigate the best material to design thermoelectric generator by using Bismuth Terlluride (Bi2Te3). Heat source for this research was taken from motorcycle engine. The voltage produce from the TEG stored in the rechargeable batteries and will used to charge the mobile phone. The portable and compact thermoelectric generator was designs to make it is easy to used and carry. From the experiment conduct, the maximum voltage produced when the temperature different 75dT/oC is 4.4V. It is sufficient to charge a mobile phone, PSP, MP3, MP4 and other digital products anywhere and anytime. Jose Antonio B. V., 2009, was research about Thermoelectric Generator Using Water Gas Heater Energy for Battery Charging. In this research he designs a prototype of a maximum power point tracker (MPPT) for the thermoelectric (TE) module in order to increase the energy conversion in the battery charging. A SEPIC (single-ended primary inductance converter) DC-DC converter is applied and controller by a microcontroller and to achieve the maximum power of point tracking is used the perturbation and observation (PO) algorithm. The performance of the battery charging by using PO MPPT is compared to the battery charging directly to the TE module. The source of heat conversion in this research comes from water gas heater. From the experiment conduct the MPPT improved the energy delivery to the battery charger compared to the direct connection. The principle of using thermoelectric heat converter is used to design a battery charger for a lab-top computer. In 1995, Marmudur R., Roger S., on Thermoelectric Power Generation for Battery Charger, develop a battery charger to charge a lab-top computer that consists of thermoelectric converter system, that powered by butane gas and DC-DC boost up converter. In this research, the voltage produced from the heat is 5watts and can be used to charge the lab-top computer. In another word, the heat conversion from butane gas can expand the internal batteries for lab-top computer. Besides that, a battery charger by using compost also has been research. On 2010, Caitlin Ahearn, investigate about heat conversion by using compost pile. The energy produced will be used to charge a battery. From the experiment, by using the copper slab insulated with extruded polystyrene at placed at the center of compost pile, would transfer 86% ±2% heat from hot side to the cold side. At the 60oC  ±1 oC temperature different can produced 463mW ±6mW, which is this amount sufficient to charge a battery. To improve the energy transfer, more researches were conducted. In 2012, Xu Yingyin et al., was investigate about the DC to DC boost up converter by using two controls mode, maximum power tracking (MPPT) and power matching (PM). The performance of MPPT and PM were investigated by using mathematical model and transfer function. The results for this research shown in Figure 2 below. Figure 2.1: Input power curve and control mode From the Figure 2.1, it show when Pin_max CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY INTRODUCTION This chapter is very important to provide information of the methods that being used in completing this project. STARTMETHODOLOGY PROCESS FLOW Literature Review Project Proposal Technical Project 1 Project Seminar 1 Design and Build System Design Hardware Success? NO Design Software YES Success? NO Implementation and Testing YES Success? NO YES End Conclusion Thesis Writing Analysis Literature review Literature review is a very important part of the research process. The general purposed of the literature review is to gain knowledge and understanding of the current state about the selected research topics. This chapter was conducted to investigate the past researches that have been done in suspension system include passive and active. It is because the research in this field has already been done before. All the works in this project is based on the previous research. Design Hardware The new battery charger that mainly powered by thermal energy and it will backup by normal electricity source will be design. Design Software During the time when the electricity supply from TEG is insufficient, a microcontroller-based monitoring and switching circuit will switch to normal electricity source. The software will be design to switch the system. Implementation and testing Once the system has been fabricated, the implementation and testing will be conducted and the time to the thermoelectric charge the battery will be taken. Correction might be done if needed. Analysis From the testing process, analysis of time taken to complete the battery to charge will be obtained and will be comparing with the existing battery charger. Conclusion and thesis writing A thesis will be written for submission, which includes all process stated above along with conclusion obtained from this work and some recommendations for future project

Fedex Vietnam Strategic Annalysis Marketing Essay

Fedex Vietnam Strategic Annalysis Marketing Essay Established in 1973 under the name Federal Express by founder Frederick Smith, the company quickly became leading transportation service provider. In 1994, the company changed its mane to FedEx Corp. Nowadays, FedEx Corp includes seven subordinate companies that are FedEx Ground, FedEx Freight, FedEx Kinkos, FedEx Customs Critical, FedEx Trade Network and FedEx Service. These companies focus on its core services but also support each other in providing customer with full range of transportation services and logistics. FedEx is handling more than 3.6 mil packages a day and is very famous for its excellent services and for the innovation that it brings to the world of transportation.Eng-logo-4C.jpg FedEx Express operates with 2 sub-companies, which are FedEx Express International and FedEx Express US Domestic, FedEx Express is providing its services to more than 220 countries and territories worldwide. Under FedEx Express International are 3 Regional Divisions which are FedEx LAC (for US, Canada and Latin American), FedEx EMEA (for Euro, Middle East and Africa) and FedEx APAC (Asia Pacific region). FedEx Vietnam belongs to FedEx APAC Division (Federal Pacific Inc) with head office in Hong Kong. Mission and Strategy: Mission FedEx Corporation will produce superior financial returns for its shareowners by providing high value-added logistics, transportation and related business services through focused operating companies. Customer requirements will be met in the highest quality manner appropriate to each market segment served. FedEx will strive to develop mutually rewarding relationships with its employees, partners and suppliers. Safety will be the first consideration in all operations. Corporate activities will be conducted to the highest ethical and professional standards.  [1]   With this mission statement, FedEx defines the industry it develop the business, the financial returns for shareowners, relationships with shareholders. FedEx also commit for high quality and professional standard as well as safety to compete and develop the business. This mission is also going with P-S-P philosophy which stand for People Service Profit meaning FedEx focus and invest in People and believe that only best people can create valuable service. And certainly, valued service will bring money to the company. Strategy FedEx also defines the objectives which must work seamlessly and simultaneously on three levels: Competition: collectively  compete by standing as one brand worldwide. Just one FedEx brand and speak one voice. Operating must be independent  by focusing on independent worldwide networks to meet customer needs. Managing collaboratively  by working together to gain loyal relationships from workforce, customers and investors. FedEx Express in Vietnam Business history FedEx has established its operation in Vietnam since 1994, right after US government lifted the trade embargo to Vietnam. Its business model in Vietnam is agency in which FedEx services are provided to customers through FedExs partners. And FedEx global service partner (GSP) in Vietnam was Post and Telecommunication Express JSC; a company belong to Vietnam Post Corporation which has nationwide network for pickup and delivery until 2009. Since then, the contract with this GSP was terminated and Seabornes and Danatrans were appointed to be new GSPs in Vietnam. At the same time of launching its services in Vietnam, FedEx representative office was opened. The office role is to carry out market research, coordinate the communication among FedEx in VN and other countries, facilitating the implementation of contracts/agreements between FedEx Pacific Inc and other Vietnamese organizations Under the agency contract, the GSPs provide manpower, facilities, and vehicles to bring FedEx service to customers. It is also responsible for customs clearance site for import and export activities. FedEx take responsibilities of all sales and marketing activities. It also supervises and supports GSPs in making the service meet with FedEx global standard and customers requirement. These supports include but not limit to customer service, informatics technology, pricing, billing. Currently FedEx Vietnam provides country wide services with 2 main stations in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city but direct service is only provided to major provinces/cities. The station in Ho Chi Minh City handles all inbound and outbound shipment to and from the south of Vietnam (southern of Hue). It has its own gateway for customs clearance and 4 world service centres. The station in Hanoi handles shipments to and from north of Vietnam. Beside its own gateway in Hanoi, it also has 3 world service centres for walk in customers. FedEx is providing direct pick up and delivery service to all major cities/provinces in Vietnam. For the other areas, the pick up and delivery is made by using domestic express service of Vietnam Post Corp. Mission and Objectives: Mission: FedEx Vietnam together with its partners will implement FedEx philosophy People-Service-Profit. We will be market leader with the best international express service at global standard. We will gain profit base on our core business competitiveness and the efficiency of the investment in Vietnam. We will bring customer with satisfaction for each and every transaction. (FedEx Vietnam Mission statement) Main objectives: Standardize service in Vietnam at global standard by having its own employee to generate service to customer. Become customers top in mind express service Annual growing rate at 15% In the context of current recession in developed countries, these are challenging objectives. The downturn in industrial countries will lead to a decline in export of developing countries and Vietnam is not an exception. Demand for transportation of export commodities is predicted to be declined until 2014 along with a weak economy. To maintain the annual growing at 15%, FedEx needs to both extend the operation to new markets and expand its market share at current service area by promoting its competitive advantages. This is a hard time for all companies in air express industry, but it can be a good opportunity for FedEx to consolidate its position over the competitor. Competitive advantage is the key and more than ever a right strategy to promote competitiveness is very critical to FedEx. Organization: FedEx Representative Office With the roles to support and supervise GSP in providing FedEx services to customers, FedEx representative office is organized as functional model. Figure 9: FedEx VN representative office organization chart Country manager HAN Operation manager HAN Sales Manager HAN ramp manager SGN Operation manager HAN CS manager SGN CS manager Country coordinator SGN ramp manager SGN Sales Manager Inside sales Manager Revenue ops Manager Accounting Manager Marketing Manager Technology service Manager Direct report Indirect report Source: FedEx country Review, 2011 At top of the representative office is Chief Representative, Senior Manager for FedEx Indochina and Myanmar who has very good knowledge about market, culture and working style of Vietnamese people. He directly manages operation function and also gets indirect reports from other functional groups. Operations: This group includes station operation (for pick up and delivery), gateway operation (for customs clearance), ramp operation and customer service operation. The group is responsible for managing all operation activities in accordance to FedEx service standard Airport ramp: This group is under operation and responsible for aircraft operation include loading and unloading of shipment on/from aircraft, landing/take off paperworkà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Country Coordinator: Admin the communication to all GSPs in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar on policy, regulation issues Sales: This group report to regional sales. They are responsible for selling FedEx services to customer. Marketing: Perform market research, design and implement marketing plan under direction of regional marketing management. Billing and collection: Control all GSPs invoicing and collecting activities. All customer debts are managed by this group. Accounting: Control all payment transactions of FedEx in Vietnam and perform all other accounting activities. Technical service: Responsible for FedEx communication network, customer technology solutions. GSP organization GSP has two independent teams to work at FedEx agency in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city. They both report to Seabornes head office. But in daily operation, they are under supervision of FedEx functional groups from representative office. The team in Hanoi includes 69 GSP employees with 1 General Manager and 4 functional managers. In Ho Chi Minh number of employees is 125 with 1 General manager and 7 functional managers Business result overview Figure10: FedEx Vietnam revenue from 2006 to 2011 (Unit: 1000 USD) Source: FedEx country review 2011 As indicated in Figure 10, FedEx had very good growth in revenue. Total revenue grew by 3 times from 2006 to 2011. The revenue increased at 100% in 2008 after FedEx up gauged it feeder capacity from 3 tons to 6 tons to Ho Chi Minh city. FedExs core products International Priority (IP) and International Priority Freight (IPF) are the main contribution. After the sharp increase in 2008, revenue of these core services grew steadily at 10-12% a year. Revenue of IXF (air port to airport) service took a relatively small part of total revenue. However growing rate of this product has been extremely high since 2009 when the company sell this service to some forwarders to explore their existing customers. Figure 11: FedEx business performance from 2006 to 2011 (Unit: 1000USD) Source: FedEx country review 2011 Figure 11 shows both revenue and profit of FedEx on good growth. However with increased ratio of IXF shipment (which are low yield per kg for big shipments), expense was getting bigger and made profit growing rate in 2009, 2010 and 2011 lower than revenue growing rate. Strategic Annalysis Internal Factor Evaluation (IFE) Human resource The philosophy P-S-P (People-Service-Profit) is cornerstone of FedEx. This can be considered a success cycles of FedEx in which the company take care of its employees and assist them in generate excellent service to customer. That excellent service in return brings Profit to FedEx and enables the company to take a better care to its work force. Thank to this, FedEx is many times voted as most admired company by Fortune Magazine. In many major markets in LAC and APAC, FedEx is voted as one of the best companies to work for. Bring that philosophy in business, FedEx attracts a very excellent team for its representative office in Vietnam. Figure12: FedEx rep office personnel (Experienced and Education) Source: FedEx VN HR profile. Figure 12 shows number of FedEx employee divided by work group and education/experience categories. All FedEx managers (1 senior manager and 6 managers in Ho Chi Minh city, 4 managers in Hanoi) are very experienced in express industry. Sales team is young but very aggressive in selling with 10 for Ho Chi Minh city and 5 for Hanoi. Ramp team includes two groups with equal number of employee, one at Noi Bai airport and the other one at Tan Son Nhat airport. Functional group include employee at marketing, accounting and billing/collection As reflected, 100% FedEx representative office employees are graduated with 29.31% of the employees are holding master degree. With this strong back ground and excellent human development programs through training, couching all FedEx employees are skilful and knowledge in the field that they are responsible. Most of FedEx employees have long term commitment with the company. Many of them stay with the office since it was established. The package benefit and the reward program at FedEx not only keep its employees commit to stay a long time with the office, but also encourage them to perform their best in daily job. But in contrast, the FedEx GSP is a Vietnamese and young company so the recruitment, human resource policy is very different. This leads to poor quality of the work force and impacts to the image of the company in Vietnam. Employees in many cases are not care about productivities. Their attitude in making service is not very much acknowledged and appreciated by customers. This hit the level of FedEx service in Vietnam. However in recent years, with the changes of GSP management and higher demand from customers, some positive changes have been made. The GSP frontline managers and employees attitude to customers and to the service quality issue has been improved. Those employees that could not adapt to this change have been replaced. This in long run will have positive contribution to FedEx operation. But in short term, high turnover of employee impacts to the operation, especially when the new one lack of experience. Over all, the working skills of GSP employees are met with job requirement. However their English is not so good. Especially the couriers who are directly handling shipment for customers. This is room for improvement that FedEx can do to further standardize its service in Vietnam. Finance FedEx Vietnam is a dependent branch of FedEx Pacific Inc. All finance planning and management is performed at division level. The two major finance activities that done at local level are customer debt management and operation cost management. Customer debt management At FedEx, 90% of the shipment transportation charges are billed to customer accounts and the billing options can be to shipper, to consignee or to third party. That makes it very convenient for customer to ship with the company. But on the other hand it brings risk to the company if the payers refuse to pay and the re-bill is done in late (Shipper must takes the final responsibility to pay transportation charge when using FedEx service. In case the charge billed to recipient or 3rd party but payer refuse to pay, then it will be billed back to the shipper). Under agency contract GSP takes responsible for collection of the debt from customer. However their limitation in managing this area makes the on time collection of the payment is not high. Bad debt at 2% and over due debt at about 15% lower the working capital. However as reflected in Figure 11, FedEx revenue is increased year on year and the company has a good profit ratio. In addition, with FedEx Pacific Inc as a mother company, FedEx finance is on strong base. Operation cost management Though most of the ground operation costs are covered by GSP under agency contract, there are areas for FedEx to control and save cost. They include: Cost for using commercial flights (where FedEx flight is not in operation) Cost for revenue supplies (Supplies that provided to customer for them to use FedEx service like airway bill, packing materialà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) Cost for claim settlement (for damage, late or missing shipment) At FedEx there is an index call cost per package in which all costs raise from handling a package is taken into account and bi-weekly management has a meeting to review it. This is a good tool for continuous improvement of cost saving. In 2010 the company had saved in average 2.3% of its cost per package in compare to the previous year. Facilities All the ground facilities are under GSP charge. But with booming business in past few years, the investment of the GSP on to this did not meet with requirement. Size of business in 2011 was almost 3 times larger than the one in 2006, but there was no major investment to expand ground facilities. That makes the station buildings and warehouses become too congested for FedEx operation and impacts to productivity and the service quality. Figure 13: FedEx ground facility Current Required  [2]   Gateway 800 sqm 1500 sqm Station 2000 sqm 2500 sqm Number of van 24 26 Number of truck 5 5 Number of motor-bike 20 20 Source: FedEx IE report 2011 Beside ground facility, communication network is very critical for FedEx. The network is not only for communication among FedEx locations, but also for posting and updating of shipment status. The network is considered as back bone of FedEx service. In Vietnam the company has its own lease lines to Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh. The lease lines are upgraded to meet with demand of growing business. The latest upgrade in earlier 2010 increased the lease lines capacity to 256 KBps. A broad band line was also established to be backup network for the lease line. This helps to avoid service impact due to communication problem. Marketing Marketing function in Vietnam is more on the implementation. Marketing planning is done at regional level by marketing management. With this arrangement, there is only 1 marketing specialist in FedEx Vietnam to cover the whole country. She has very limited decision making power on marketing plan. Most of the marketing campaigns in Vietnam are small with very limited budget. There is lack of big campaign in media that attracted mass audience. In Vietnam the new emerging market, FedEx does not have commercial TV advertisement while its major competitor DHL spends heavily on this. In past few years, FedEx involved in numerous of activities for community benefit like building 3 schools in Nam Dinh and Quang Nam, sponsoring transportation of medicine and equipment for Heart to Heart organization, major sponsor for OBIS flying hospital to Vietnam in 2007 and 2010, APEC summit in 2006. These activities were very efficient in bringing benefit to the community, but were not very well promoted by marketing and the number of earned media was not large. In terms of product that FedEx introduced to Vietnam market, the service is more diversify to provide customs more option for their shipment. Currently FedEx provide following services: International Priority (IP): This is fast, customs-cleared, door-to-door pickup and delivery of shipments to all international destinations for package weighted lower than 68 kgs. For those destinations in AsiaOne (all major cities in Asia) net work, document or packages sending under this service will be delivered on the day after ship date. This is FedEx Express core service in Vietnam International Economy (IE): This service is similar to IP service, but the transit time is longer than IP service and shipping rate is lower than IP. International Priority Freight (IPF): This is priority service using for package heavier than 68 kgs. This service is only available in designated cities/countries International Economy Freight (IEF): This is a new service launched in 2010 using for packages over 68kg. Customer use this service does not need a fast transit time. The price rate is lower than IPF and transit time is longer certainly. International priority Distribution (IPD): This is customized service using for customer who send shipment at different consignees at same country. The shipper can send all of them under 1 shipment and FedEx will separate the shpt to delivery to each consignee. This service is only available to some country and normally for global customer Beside the range of services provided, FedEx rate to each customer is different base on the customer volume. However this is not the main competition tools of FedEx. The company is more focus on its differentiation by excellent service. Despite of some weaknesses in marketing in Vietnam, FedEx brand is quite well known in business society thanks to its global image. However, to reach the level on brand awareness that FedEx has in other markets, marketing function in Vietnam should play a more active role. Sales In 2008, FedEx took over all sales activities from GSP. All sales personnel belong to FedEx. This enables the company to recruit and keep talent employee for this important function. The performance of sales team has been improved since then Currently sales team is organized under 3 sub-teams to take care of different groups of customers: Global sales: Take care of global accounts. These global customers are big accounts and very demanding for service quality. As many big international companies are setting up their business in Vietnam, revenue from this group of customer is growing very fast. In 2006, it took only 8% of total revenue, but in 2011 it took up to 27% Telesales: Take care of small accounts. There are low revenue customers but most profitable ones. Revenue from small customer takes 18% of the total FedEx Vietnam revenue. Field sales: Most of customer that taken care of by field sales are local importers/exporters. This area of sales have steady annual growth at 20% in recent year thank to strong growth in international trade in Vietnam With this arrangement, sales team can be more focus on targeted customer, hence the performance is improved. Figure 14: FedEx sales volume from 2006 to 2011 (Unit: 1 package) Source: FedEx country Review 2011 Before 2008, sales only focus on selling outbound, but with global sales network, both outbound and inbound volumes are taken care by sales. This supports strong growth of inbound volume (Figure 14). The exception in 2010 the inbound volume was down turn due to the fisrt year sales under direct management. Operation Air craft operation: With the launch of A310 to Vietnam in September 2009, FedEx increased its aircraft capacity to 5 times bigger than before  [3]  . The aircraft upgrade enables FedEx to introduce more services in and out of Vietnam. The company now can better secure space for its shipment and reduce the risk of dependence on commercial flights. The A310 serves both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city. This first time ever FedEx aircraft arrives in Hanoi making big service improvement for the capital city. Transit time reduce by 1 day for both inbound and outbound. This was an excellent preparation for FedEx Asia hub relocation to China in first half of 2009  [4]  . Station operation: Operating under agency contract, FedEx is facing with number of issues for its station operation because of differences in business strategy. Investments in work forces, vehicles, equipments are not adequate. Coverage area of FedEx service in Vietnam is large while number of couriers is limited with 30 in Hanoi and 60 in Ho Chi Minh city making it a big challenge for pick up and delivery, particularly on the surge volume dates. With booming of EPZ and Industrial Park country wide, many provinces become potential markets for air express service. However FedEx direct pick up and delivery service is only available in big cities/provinces. In other provinces, pick up/delivery is provided through a domestic express service. It means any customs in non-direct service want to use FedEx service they have to send the shipment to FedEx by domestic service first. And the same arrangement for delivery, FedEx will have domestic service to deliver package to customer in these areas. This not only makes transit time for the package longer but also impacts to service quality that customer suppose to receive when they use FedEx service. FedEx in Vietnam operates with standard procedure of FedEx global. However the ability of courier team, especially English speaking and reading skill is not good making barrier for them to learn and consult customers on shipping requirement. There is lack of rewarding program to encourage courier team, so productivity and the over all performance is not very good. Gateway operation: FedEx has 2 gateways in Vietnam, one for Hanoi and the other for Ho Chi Minh city. Both gateways are in the same buildings with stations. That makes it convenient for customers in case they have to come to do customs clearance. But it is a disadvantage for the company to maximize the use of air craft arrival time. The main job of gateway is to ensure shipments are clear customs at shortest time, reduce number of shipment pending in customs warehouse. In Vietnam, FedEx is the first company that was selected by Vietnam customs to implement electronic clearance. By applying technology in to clearance process, this area of service has been improved remarkable. The percentage of shipment released for same day delivery in 2010 is 50% higher than the one in 2007. However the constraints of ware houses and clearance facilities and the lack of customs regulations on express clearance make this clearance still not yet reaches its height of potential. Customer service operation: Customer oriented system and excellent internal communication network are very supportive tools to customer service agents to successfully handle transaction with customer. However, the weakness of call centre which under GSP control with lack of necessary equipments makes it difficult for FedEx to measure and control call quality. There is considered number of complaints regarding to customer service in Vietnam. This is contrast with FedEx customer service in other countries where most of customer praise FedEx for professional, helpful and customer oriented service. In addition, shortage of manpower for this group in Hanoi (with only 3 persons) reduces the ability to handle customer calls to FedEx at this city. Service quality management: Service quality is non-compromised issue at FedEx. It makes FedEx different from competitor. The quality driven management concept has been put in FedEx today business. With that strategy, service quality is also one of the top priorities for FedEx in Vietnam. The company is very good in making all KPI (key performance index) in service to be measurable and has strong systems to control it. Service quality is measured by both network system (base on system scan) and data collection from practice. A group of operation excellence is formed up. This group is supported by advisors at regional level. The group is doing root cause analysis for all service issues and coordinates with respective operation teams for corrective action plan. The quality report is made on daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly depend on KPI. Bi-weekly there is meeting among all managers to review service quality issue for necessary actions. With this mechanism, quality improvement is continuous process at FedEx. Information Technology (IT) Information plays very important role with express company like FedEx. Provide customer with accurate and updated information is as important as on time delivery of the package. Within FedEx operation teams, information exchange and communication among the teams is also very critical for its success. FedEx in Vietnam has its own lease line to ensure the connection of network. This system is operated and managed by very experience and skilful IT team. Numbers of IT projects have been implemented in past few years to bring benefit to FedEx and its customers: Automation shipping tool: With software installed at customer site, customer does not need to wait for FedEx to bring in shipping forms for manual completion but they can create the form on their own at any time. With this customer can complete shipping document for many shipment just in few minutes. This helps FedEx to save cost while provide more convenience to customers. Transmission of shipping documents images: FedEx Vietnam now can transmit all shipping documents of its export shipments to countries of destination before shipment departs. With this ability, FedEx in destination does not need to wait for shipments arrival to retrieve the documents but having these documents much earlier than the physical shipment arrives. So they can do pre-arrival customs clearance and ensure that the shipment is immediate released for delivery once it arrives. This tremendously improves the service and saves FedEx hundred thousands of UDS a year for fax fee, storage fee. In conclusion, FedEx Vietnams major advantages are: Operating FedExs own flight to both Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh city Best express service from Vietnam to US, North America and Japan the key export markets of Vietnam Management awareness of service quality and use it as differentiator. A good service quality control system is put on place. Innovative service base on information technology Meanwhile, FedEx major weak points are operating under agency and poor quality call centre for customer operation. With above analysis, an IFE matrix is formed up by strategist team. The IFE matrix for FedEx Vietnam includes 12 factors with seven strengths and five weaknesses. Values of weight and rate for each factor are calculated base on average scores of the team members with some minor adjustment after review with the whole team (Appendix H). The final IFE matrix for FedEx is reflected in Figure 15. Figure 15: IFE Matrix of FedEx Vietnam No. Factors Weight Rate Weighted score 1 FedEx has 5 flights a week to both Hanoi and HCMC 0.14 4 0.56 2 Well known brand 0.12 3 0.36 3 Hub Operation Model Global Network 0.09 4 0.36 4 The best express service to US, North America and Japan 0.12 4 0.48 5 Wide range of services 0.04 3 0.12 6 Management awareness of service quality issue and use the quality of service as differentiator. 0.05 4 0.2 7 Innovative service on the base of information technology 0.04 4 0.16 8 FedEx operates under agency contract 0.15 1 0.15 9 Low quality call centre 0.13 1 0.13 10 High over due debt ratio 0.03 1 0.03 11 Poor marketing activities