Tuesday, November 26, 2019

Asylum seekers and refugees as a social problem in the UK The WritePass Journal

Asylum seekers and refugees as a social problem in the UK Abstract Asylum seekers and refugees as a social problem in the UK ). Due to the word count, the term asylum seekers will refer to both asylum seekers and refugees in the following work. The following essay aims to examine why asylum seekers have been perceived as a social problem in the UK as well as to analyse how the government approaches this problem. First, the essay considers the changes in the number of asylum seekers in the UK over the past twenty years. Further, the essay discusses different perspectives of asylum seekers in the social context. Finally, the essay presents the government responses to the problem. Asylum seekers in the UK – statistical approach From the 1990s the UK has been characterized by significant fluctuations in numbers of asylum applications, as demonstrated in Appendix 1. Between 1993 and 2002 the number of asylum applications has increased rapidly from 19,700 to its peak of 103,080 in 2002. In this period of time a number of applications fell slightly in 1996 and 2001, based on year-to-year changes (Institute of Race Relations). The four major countries, from which the asylum applications were addressed to the UK at that time were Iraq, Zimbabwe, Somalia and Afghanistan. Wars, conflicts and political oppression, being the key features of these countries in the 1990s are perceived as major causes of the dramatic increase of the asylum applications to the UK from the mid-1990s (Prior et.al., 2008). From 2002 the number of applications was gradually reduced, reaching 17,916 in 2010 (Refugee Council, 2011). Currently, most of the applicants come from Pakistan, Iran, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan (Refugee Council, 2011). S uch decrease is a consequence of the government policy, strongly restricting the border control in the past decade. Additionally, from 2002 the government continues to reject almost 70% of applications each year.   In 2010 68% of applications were refused; 24% of them were granted the refugee status; 7% Discretionary Leave, while 1% Humanitarian Protection (Refugee Council, 2012). Nonetheless, the UK continues to be a country with one of the highest numbers of asylum applications in the European Union, next to Sweden, France, Greece and Germany, as presented in Appendix 2 (Eurostat, 2012). According to the report prepared by the Asylum and Destitution Working Group, there are four major pull factors that shape, shaping a decision to apply for asylum in the UK. These are the perception of the UK as a safe, democratic and tolerant country; the ability to speak English or willingness to learn the language; previous connections (including colonialism) between the country of origin or residence and the UK; and having relatives or family in the UK (Prior et.al., 2008). Asylum seekers and refugees as a social problem in the UK A rapidly growing number of asylum applicants in the UK led the great focus on asylum seekers in the British media. The media started to present asylum seekers in an unfavourable light, emphasizing the negative socio-economic effects of the massive inflows of foreigners. For instance, the Daily Express has published 22 negative front page stories on asylum within 31 days period of time in 2003, often using very abusive language. Further, the issue of asylum became a hot topic of the debate between the two main parties during the 2005 general election (Prior et.al., 2008). Exaggeration of the issue and misinformation resulted in spreading the perception of asylum seekers as a thread to the British people in the socio-economic context. Numerous research and surveys conducted amongst the British seem to confirm such approach. For instance, the IAC’s Citizens Speak research from 2008 revealed that most of the respondent perceived the asylum seekers as economic migrants, stealing j obs and welfare benefits from the British. Further, they believed that asylum seekers had a privileged access to housing and public services as well as that there were too many asylum seekers within the country. In turn, the 2003 Citizenship Survey conducted amongst the young British showed that 15% of them cited prejudice against the asylum seekers (Aspinall and Waters, 2010). Also the YouGov survey from 2011 demonstrated that the respondents had the poorest perception of asylum seekers amongst various groups of people, including the categories such as people from ethnic minorities; people from Christian religious groups; or people with disabilities (YouGov, 2011). Additionally, another survey conducted by YouGov in 2008 disclosed that 59% of the respondents argued that asylum seekers were a â€Å"drain on resources† and did not contribute to the economic growth of the UK. Additionally, 30% of the respondents saw the reduction in the number of asylum seekers as the most welc ome change in the British system (YouGov, 2008). It is important to add that at the same time the British have a highly exaggerated view on the number of the asylum applications in the UK. In YouGov survey from 2007 46% of the respondents estimated this number at 80,000 when additional 31% at 160,000. In fact, there was actually 23,430 asylum applicants in 2007 (Prior et.al., 2008). While the British media built the image of asylum seekers as a social problem amongst the British citizens, many academic scholars emphasized that asylum seekers are a disadvantaged group and that they often have to face various social problems. In particular, asylum seekers are vulnerable to poverty and destitution (Aspinall and Waters, 2010). They usually arrive to the UK without any financial reserves. Additionally, the financial support offered by the government to asylum seekers constitutes only 70% of Income Support, while they are not permitted to work (Buster, 2010). According to the British Red Cross in 2006 there was approximately 26,000 asylum seekers living in poverty in the UK (Prior et.al., 2008). Asylum seekers also have a limited access to the basic health care services mainly due to the registration problems (i.e. lack of documents proving the address or identity; lack of interpreting services). Similarly, asylum seekers face difficulties in education and training[3] what is mostly caused by limited knowledge of the British education system, poor level of English and high costs (NIACE, 2009). Finally, asylum seekers are the victims of crime rather than offenders. Although there are no official records, the research conducted by Stanley in 2001 revealed that a third of the respondents have experienced racism, harassment or bullying. Also 81% of the asylum seeking women interviewed by the Refugee Strategy Women Group in 2007 admitted that they had experienced racial harassment (Aspinall and Waters, 2010). The policy response to the problem of asylum seekers As asylum seekers started to be perceived as a thread by the British society, the government aimed to reduce their number by implementing new policies and regulations from 1999. The 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act tightened the borders control to block new arrivals to the UK by extending visa requirements, pre-entry controls as well as by imposing financial penalties on the companies that transported passengers without permission to enter the UK (Crawley, 2010). The 2002 Immigration and Asylum Act gave greater power to the authorities responsible for application process, including the right to detain the application at any time during the process, not just prior to removal. Additionally, people applying for legal staying in the UK by granting citizenship need to meet English recruitments; take Life in the UK test and attend citizenship ceremony (Guardian, 2009). Further, in 2004 the government established the juxtaposed UK border control in France and Belgium and thus, the UK was abl e to decide whether the foreigners are eligible to enter the UK on the territory of another country. Further in the framework of the New Asylum Model from 2007, the application process became accelerated (new screening process; single case workers), while detentions and deportations became commonly used (Aspinall and Waters, 2010). More importantly, the new legislation affected the asylum seekers’ access to accommodation and welfare. The 1999 Immigration and Asylum Act established the financial support for asylum seekers at the level of 70% of Income Support. Additionally, the food vouchers were granted to the asylum seekers instead of the cash.   In 2007 the government reduced the support rate for lone parents (66% of Income Support) and for the single adult above the age of 25 (55% of Income Support) (Williams and Kaye, 2010). Despite numerous controversies around the effectiveness of the voucher system, the government still supports such solution. Further, the government implemented the dispersal policies, providing the accommodation and housing to asylum seekers on ‘no-choice’ basis (Crawley, 2010). From 2002 asylum seekers are not permitted to work when their application is considered. There are only a few exceptions from this rule. It is crucial to emphasize that despite the overall fall in asylum applications to the UK and rising concerns on the government policy on asylum, the government continues to implement restrictive measures. These measures often worsen further the living conditions of asylum seekers in the UK (Prior et.al., 2008). Conclusions The UK is one of the main destinations of asylum seekers in Europe. From the 1990s the number of asylum applications rose sharply, reaching its peak in 2002. Asylum seekers started to be perceived as a thread within the British society. Such negative attitudes were mainly caused by the British media, postulating that asylum seekers steal jobs and welfare benefits from the British. Thus, the government aim became to reduce the number of asylum seekers by new legislation. From 1999 the government implemented numerous regulations and policies. Particularly important were the 1999 Immigration Asylum Act, the 2002 Immigration and Asylum Act as well as the 2007 New Asylum Model. As a consequence, the UK border control was tightened, including higher visa requirement and pre-entry control. The asylum process became faster and more effective; the detentions and deportations are commonly used. The government also decided to limit the access to welfare for asylum seekers, seeing it as an impor tant pull factor for high number of applications. To achieve that, various measures have been implemented. Amongst the most important were dispersal policies, withdrawing the rights to work for these asylum seekers whose applications has not been decided; as well as low financial support delivered in kind instead of cash. While the government is proud of reducing in 2010 the number of asylum application to the level from 1993; a number of academic scholars postulate that asylum seekers are not a thread to the British. Asylum seekers do not take the employment opportunities from the British. They have a very limited access to the welfare benefits. They also do not increase the crime level across the country. The scholars underline that asylum seekers are at the risk of poverty, discrimination and social exclusion due to the government policy. Additionally, some international organizations (i.e. Amnesty International; the Refugee Council) argue that the British policy â€Å"may also have the impact of denying the internationally agreed rights of people to seek asylum† (Aspinall and Watters, 2010, p.10). Despite these claims made by the academic scholars and various organizations, the British government seems to continue its strict policy towards asylum seekers and discourage asylum seekers from c hoosing the UK. It indicates that the government still perceives asylum seekers as a social problem rather than notice serious social problems that asylum seekers struggle with.pplications in selected European countries, 2007. References: Aspinall P. and Watters (2010). Refugees and asylum seekers. A review from an equality and human rights perspective. Manchester: Equality and Human Rights Commission. Buster M. (2010). Asylum seekers and refugees. London: Social Inclusion Unit. Crowley (2010). Chance or choice. Understanding why asylum seekers come to the UK. London: Refugee Council.    Eurostat (2012). Asylum applications [online] Available from: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/tgm/graphDownload.do?tab=graphlanguage=enplugin=1pcode=tps00021 (Accessed on 24.06.2012). Guardian (2009). Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Act 2002 [online] Available from: guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/libertycentral/2009/jan/15/nationality-immigration-asylum-act (Accessed on 24.06.2012) Institute of Race Relations (2012). Asylum Statistics [online] available from: irr.org.uk/research/statistics/asylum/ (Accessed on 24.06.2012). NIACE (2009). Refugee and asylum seekers in the UK: the challenges of accessing education and employment. Leicester: NIACE. Prior J., McDowell , Morell G., Taruvinga Y., Zanre L., Garner K. and Stranack A. (2008). Asylum Matters: Restoring Trust in the UK Asylum System. London: The Centre for Social Justice. Refugee Council (2011). Asylum Statistics. London: Refugee Council. Refugee Council (2012). Asylum Statistics. London: Refugee Council. RULAC (2012). International Refugee Law [online] Available from: adh-geneva.ch/RULAC/international_refugee_law.php (Accessed on 24.06.2012). UNESCO (2011). Asylum seeker [online] Available from: unesco.org/new/en/social-and-human-sciences/themes/international-migration/glossary/asylum-seeker/ (Accessed on 24.06.2012). YouGov (2008). Juniper TV Survey Results. London: YouGov. YouGov (2011). Stonewall attitude tables. London: YouGov. Williams R. and Kaye M. (2010). At the end of the line. Restoring the integrity of the UK’s asylum system. London: Amnesty International.

Friday, November 22, 2019

Subordination with Adjective Clauses

Subordination with Adjective Clauses In English grammar,  coordination is a useful way of connecting ideas that are roughly equal in importance. But often we need to show that one idea in a sentence is more important than another. On these occasions, we use subordination to indicate that one part of a sentence is secondary (or subordinate) to another part. One common form of subordination is the adjective clause  (also called a relative clause)a word group that modifies a noun. Lets look at ways to create and punctuate adjective clauses. Creating Adjective Clauses Consider how the following two sentences might be combined: My father is a superstitious man.He always sets his unicorn traps at night. One option is to coordinate the two sentences: My father is a superstitious man, and he always sets his unicorn traps at night. When sentences are coordinated in this way, each main clause is given equal emphasis. But what if we want to place greater emphasis on one statement than on another? We then have the option of reducing the less important statement to an adjective clause. For example, to emphasize that father sets his unicorn traps at night, we can turn the first main clause into an adjective clause: My father, who is a superstitious man, always sets his unicorn traps at night. As shown here, the adjective clause does the job of an adjective and follows the noun that it modifiesfather. Like a main clause, an adjective clause contains a subject (in this case, who) and a verb (is). But unlike a main clause an adjective clause cant stand alone: it has to follow a noun in a main clause. For this reason, an adjective clause is considered to be subordinate to the main clause. For practice in creating adjective clauses, try some exercises in Sentence Building With Adjective Clauses.   Identifying Adjective Clauses The most common adjective clauses begin with one of these relative pronouns: who, which, and that. All three pronouns refer to a noun, but who refers only to people and which refers only to things. That may refer to either people or things. The following sentences show how these pronouns are used to begin adjective clauses: Mr. Clean, who hates rock music, smashed my electric guitar.Mr. Clean smashed my electric guitar, which had been a gift from Vera.Mr. Clean smashed the electric guitar that Vera had given me. In the first sentence, the relative pronoun who refers to Mr. Clean, the subject of the main clause. In the second and third sentences, the relative pronouns which and that refer to guitar, the object of the main clause. Punctuating Adjective Clauses These three guidelines will help you decide when to set off an adjective clause with commas: Adjective clauses beginning with that are never set off from the main clause with commas. Food that has turned green in the refrigerator should be thrown away.Adjective clauses beginning with who or which should not be set off with commas if omitting the clause would change the basic meaning of the sentence. Students who turn green should be sent to the infirmary. Because we dont mean that all students should be sent to the infirmary, the adjective clause is essential to the meaning of the sentence. For this reason, we dont set off the adjective clause with commas.Adjective clauses beginning with who or which should be set off with commas if omitting the clause would not change the basic meaning of the sentence. Last weeks pudding, which has turned green in the refrigerator, should be thrown away. Here the which clause provides added, but not essential, information, and so we set it off from the rest of the sentence with commas. Now, if youre ready for a short punctuation exercise, see  Practice in Punctuating Adjective Clauses.

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Market analysis for Childrens Parties Services in the UK Essay

Market analysis for Childrens Parties Services in the UK - Essay Example This paper illustrates that a family business works with creating children parties making it stress-free for her parents. At these parties, everything that the client feel is necessary is provided. These include party suppliers, cakes, children’s costumes, and entertainers. Daisy entertainments market is wide and deals with all kinds of organization and communities dealing with children. Whether it is a large corporate or community with special needs, daisy entertainment crew is capable of adapting its services to suit the client's needs of the children. The team, which forms Daisy Entertainers, is energetic, in-house talented fun loving, loves children hence reliable and enthusiastic. Daisy's entertainment has a unique and simple party planning known as a party in a box. Party in a box includes everything the client requires for their child’s party as suggested by Daisy entertainments. These include filled party bags, napkins, invitations, table covers foil, cups, plat es, banners, party hats and latex balloons. However, all these facilities depend on customer’s choice and are delivered to the door anywhere in the UK. There are also various children themes from which entertainment programs are chosen. They include Disney princess, Hannah Montana, Spiderman, and the Night Garden. Daisy’s entertainers provide a wide scope of entertainment activities such as puppets, face painting, balloon modeling, magic, plate spinning among other. This organization can over a variety of things ranging from fun and lively children entertainers to catering services, birthday cakes, decorations, themed goody bags and set up services. The party is usually planned within the client’s requirements and budget. Children character entertainer; all types of children character entertainers are available at Daisy's entertainment and it is upon the client to make choice. They include games, magic, music, and puppets. The charges for character entertainers are  £195 for every two hours of fun.

Tuesday, November 19, 2019

Health Physiology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Health Physiology - Essay Example It gives the exerciser freedom to reach their physical activity goals through different types and amount of activities each week. Moreover, the general suggestion for maintaining health and preventing diseases is doing at least 150 minutes of moderate physical activity per week. How regularly one does exercise is a vital aspect of fitness in order to stay healthy and with continued progress. This prescription often starts with 2 to 3 times a week and progress to 4 to 5 times per week. Depending on the current fitness level and the exercise history, the prescription may possibly start with as little as ten minutes of steady exercise and build upwards. Preferably, you will strive for a minimum of 20 to 60 minutes of regular exercises about three times a week. The intensity of the exercise prescription may be the most important aspect of an efficient, safe and fun program. Because every person responds differently to exercises and finding the right intensity and balance between effort and rest is critical, this is where skills of the specialist are put to test. But mostly, exercise program will usually follow a similar order, but this varies depending upon your training goals. All programs will begin with a warm up and end with a cool down and stretching. A go od exercise prescription is adjustable and flexible and can be modified frequently and easily while still moving you towards your goals. Adjustments are a steady and ongoing part of exercise prescription for the rest of your life. You will find that you need to constantly change your routine, try new activities; take breaks increase and decrease your time and intensity over the years. A huge part of exercise prescription is what type of exercise you will do. A good prescription will include a range of exercises and a balanced practice to build core strength, flexibility and endurance and base fitness first and then become much more

Sunday, November 17, 2019

How does a free market prevent a monopoly Essay Example for Free

How does a free market prevent a monopoly Essay We often listen to this statement that there are no monopolies in a free market or a free market prevents monopolies. Though there are some arguments about if the statement is completely true and, if a government plays a part in making or preventing a monopoly. To understand and to validate the statement first we need to understand few terms used in the statement and concepts of market. Types of market economies There are majorly four types of market economies namely: * Free-Market Economy (or Liberal Market Economy). An economic system comprised mainly of privately-owned enterprise (businesses), low levels of regulation and relies heavily on the free-price system to allocate resources. This is distinguished with a planned economy based on private enterprise. * Social Market Economy A free-market system that utilizes heavy taxation and regulation and recognizes organized labour at the national level, but relies on the free-price system rather than economic planning to allocate goods and services. * Market Socialism and Socialist Market Economies An economic system comprised of state-run or worker-run enterprises and either a free-price system or a directed and regulated market to allocate resources. This is distinguished with a socialist planned economy. * Mutualism and Cooperative Markets A form of participatory economics where enterprises are run as worker and consumer cooperatives (socially-owned) which compete with each other in a market economy. This is distinguished from participatory and cooperative planning. To describe free market economy in a nutshell, it is the kind of economy in which the system of prices is a result of a vast number of voluntary transactions, rather than of political decrees as in a controlled market. The freer the market, the more prices will reflect consumer habits and demands, and the more valuable the information in these prices is to all players in the economy. Through free competition between vendors for the provision of products and services, prices tend to decrease, and quality tends to increase. Types of Competition There are namely four major kinds of competition * Perfect Competition * Monopolistic Competition * Oligopoly * Monopoly Monopoly exists when a single seller controls the supply of a good or service and prevents other businesses from entering the field. Being the only provider of a certain good or service gives the seller considerable control over price. Monopolies are prohibited by law however; government-regulated monopolies do exist in some business areas because of the huge up-front investment that must be made in order to provide some types of services. Examples of monopolies in the India are public utility companies that provide services and/or products such as gas, water, electricity and railways. To talk about monopoly in detail while single-firm monopolies are rare, except for those subject to public regulation, it is useful to examine the monopolist’s market conduct and performance to establish a standard at the pole opposite that of perfect competition. As the sole supplier of a distinctive product, the monopolistic company can set any selling price, provided it accepts the sales that correspond to that price. Market demand is generally inversely related to price, and the monopolist presumably will set a price that produces the greatest profits, given the relationship of production costs to output. By restricting output, the firm can raise its selling price significantly. The monopolist will generally charge prices well in excess of production costs and reap profits well above a normal interest return on investment. His output will be substantially smaller, and his price higher, than if he had to meet established market prices as in perfect competition. The monopolist may or may not produce at minimal average cost, depending on his cost-output relationship; if he does not, there are no market pressures to force him to do so. If the monopolist is subject to no threat of entry by a competitor, he will presumably set a selling price that maximizes profits for the industry he monopolizes. If he faces only impeded entry, he may elect to charge a price sufficiently low to discourage entry but above a competitive price—if this will maximize his long-run profits. Though monopoly has its advantages like in some industries it is the most cost-effective way of providing services, example is public utilities, as it would obviously be inefficient to have 2 or more competing sewer or power distribution systems in a city, monopoly has many disadvantages like Poor level of service as there is no fear of competition, No consumer sovereignty. Consumers may be charged high prices for low quality of goods and services. Lack of competition may also lead to low quality and out dated goods and services hence making it necessary to check a market from becoming monopolist to safeguard the interests of consumers. Now coming back to the question ‘how does a free market prevent a monopoly? ’ In a free market, competition drives away bad ideas. What stops monopolies? Small companies being allowed to set up and compete, without loads of regulations and fees making it impossible for them to afford to keep costs down. The free market prevents people from cornering the market, because there is always someone else that is capable and willing to make the same product for the same or lesser price. Eventually, if that keeps going, everything will be free in the free market, or rather, people will start trading for goods and services again, like they used to. Of course, along this path to free produce, you have the interruption of the Laws of Supply and Demand, where you eventually have too much product for the demand, and can no longer make a profit because of your losses. Price Wars eventually even themselves out, because at a certain price, everyone will be able to buy your product, and then no one else will need it anymore. When you have a high demand for a product, the price is naturally high. This obviously attracts investors and manufacturers to that field in order to make as much profit as possible. As more competitors enter that field of production, the prices for the product fall accordingly, until the supply meets the demand, and prices regulate based on 1. The cost to produce, and 2. The fact that everyone already has one and likely doesnt need another right now. For e. g. in the early days of the automotive market, Ford used to say You can have the Model-T in any colour you want, as long as its black. Then Chevrolet came in with more colour choices, and to compete, Ford had to change its policy or they would have fallen off the face of the Earth. Though there is an argument that exists, which says government sometimes does enable formation of a monopoly for example corporate trusts. Government supports an entity to a level that it becomes very big and later, in order to keep a check on the entity from preventing it to become a monopoly, government lays down set of rules and regulations which make it practically impossible for new budding competitors to grow up to the level of first organisation and compete efficiently, resulting in formation of a monopoly. But in the end, No matter how successful a company is, it is never immune from competition. It always faces at least potential competition, as well as actual competition from companies that offer substitutes. References: http://wiki. answers. com http://www. britannica. com http://answers. yahoo. com http://www. physicsforums. com.

Thursday, November 14, 2019

Essay --

It has been my constant endeavor to improve all the skills I have gained in 22 years of my life. Right from gaining good academic scores to participating in extra-curricular activities, I have given my 100% to everything I do. My new found passion in technology coupled with this tremendous endeavor has been a source of inspiration for applying to the Master’s degree in Information Systems Management. I have always been fascinated by Big Data and its implications in today's world, the IT strategies that different companies follow to optimize their operations and the way information access is changing the way we live and work. At this point in the development of IT operations, companies worldwide face a deluge of information, information that needs to be harnessed and deployed in a meaningful manner. It is this need and opportunity that I hope to address by pursuing a renowned techno-management course like Information Systems at a prestigious university like Carnegie Mellon. During my undergraduate course at SASTRA University, I had an opportunity to be exposed to various interesting subjects like Database management systems, Operating System concepts, networking etc. These subjects rekindled my passion for technology and IT. I also had an opportunity to take electives like Software Project Management, Organization behavior and Supply Chain Management. Exploring areas like Software Project Management and e-commerce made me realize how they can make or break a software company. My experience with these core subjects would help me in taking up the rigor of the curriculum in Info systems. I have got excellent grades all through my under grad life and also have been part of prominent clubs like GLOSS (Open Source community at my colle... ...o churn out better minds (Students) for uplifting the society. Carnegie Mellon is known to be the best in doing this and it would be great if I am admitted to this prestigious institution. I think with its wonderful faculty and facilities, CMU is a notch ahead of many other schools and universities. These things put together, make CMU my number one option for pursuing my higher studies and improve my technical and analytical skills. If admitted, I promise to be really up to all the challenges and would strive to achieve my goal through hard work and dedication. One quote that always lingers in my mind even today was the one Kevin Turner (COO of Microsoft) told us when we were in the US: â€Å"Hard work does not guarantee success but lack of hard work guarantees failure.† This will be the driving force if admitted to Carnegie Mellon and I really look forward to it. Essay -- It has been my constant endeavor to improve all the skills I have gained in 22 years of my life. Right from gaining good academic scores to participating in extra-curricular activities, I have given my 100% to everything I do. My new found passion in technology coupled with this tremendous endeavor has been a source of inspiration for applying to the Master’s degree in Information Systems Management. I have always been fascinated by Big Data and its implications in today's world, the IT strategies that different companies follow to optimize their operations and the way information access is changing the way we live and work. At this point in the development of IT operations, companies worldwide face a deluge of information, information that needs to be harnessed and deployed in a meaningful manner. It is this need and opportunity that I hope to address by pursuing a renowned techno-management course like Information Systems at a prestigious university like Carnegie Mellon. During my undergraduate course at SASTRA University, I had an opportunity to be exposed to various interesting subjects like Database management systems, Operating System concepts, networking etc. These subjects rekindled my passion for technology and IT. I also had an opportunity to take electives like Software Project Management, Organization behavior and Supply Chain Management. Exploring areas like Software Project Management and e-commerce made me realize how they can make or break a software company. My experience with these core subjects would help me in taking up the rigor of the curriculum in Info systems. I have got excellent grades all through my under grad life and also have been part of prominent clubs like GLOSS (Open Source community at my colle... ...o churn out better minds (Students) for uplifting the society. Carnegie Mellon is known to be the best in doing this and it would be great if I am admitted to this prestigious institution. I think with its wonderful faculty and facilities, CMU is a notch ahead of many other schools and universities. These things put together, make CMU my number one option for pursuing my higher studies and improve my technical and analytical skills. If admitted, I promise to be really up to all the challenges and would strive to achieve my goal through hard work and dedication. One quote that always lingers in my mind even today was the one Kevin Turner (COO of Microsoft) told us when we were in the US: â€Å"Hard work does not guarantee success but lack of hard work guarantees failure.† This will be the driving force if admitted to Carnegie Mellon and I really look forward to it.

Tuesday, November 12, 2019

Deutche Bank

9-205-059 REV: APRIL 26, 2005 GEORGE CHACKO PETER HECHT VINCENT DESSAIN ANDERS SJOMAN Deutsche Bank: Finding Relative-Value Trades It was the third week of August 2003, and Jamil Baz, head of Deutsche Bank’s Fixed Income Research Group, gathered his research group for a morning meeting. â€Å"So, what are the markets telling us today? † he asked the group. â€Å"Are there any trends or news for new trade ideas? † The Fixed Income Research Group that Baz led was Deutsche Bank’s internal research and development (R&D) department for fixed income instruments.Their mandate was to look for untapped value across bond markets and interest rate derivatives. Long-term-oriented research findings were presented to clients, whereas immediate opportunities were suggested as trades to internal traders as well as clients. The success of the group was in part measured by how many of their trade suggestions actually turned into successful trades. So far, they had achieved an impressive 75% success rate. A natural place to start looking for new trades was the latest prices on various U.S. Treasury bonds (see Exhibit 1 for data from August 15, 2003). The group’s members consistently went through that data set, looking for possible trades to recommend. Typically relative-value trades took both long and short positions across different parts of the yield curve. Baz’s standard weekly question just emphasized what they all knew: that it was time to scour through the numbers one more time to see if any such positions were available. The Deutsche Bank Fixed Income Research GroupHeadquartered in Deutsche Bank’s London office, the company’s Fixed Income Research Group consisted of about 50 analysts and strategists. (An additional 10 were located in the bank’s New York offices. ) Global head of Fixed Income Research and in charge of the group was Baz, a managing director with Deutsche Bank since 2001. Previously at Lehman Brot hers in London, Baz also held an M. S. in management from MIT and a Ph. D. in business economics from Harvard University. As a part of a large financial institution, the research group was under constant pressure to monetize the ideas that they generated.The group presented its findings both internally to the ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Professors George Chacko and Peter Hecht, Executive Director of the HBS Europe Research Center Vincent Dessain, and Research Associate Anders Sjoman prepared this case. This case deals with trade-specific advice activities of a research department and draws heavily from â€Å"Deutsche Bank: Discussing the Equity Risk Premium,â€Å" HBS Case No. 205-040, by the same authors. Case No. 205-040 deals with macro-level advice from the same research department.Some names and data have been disguised for confidentiality. HBS cases are developed solely as the basis for clas s discussion. Cases are not intended to serve as endorsements, sources of primary data, or illustrations of effective or ineffective management. This case is not intended as financial advice, and it should not be used as the basis for any investment decision, in whole or in part. Copyright  © 2004 President and Fellows of Harvard College. To order copies or request permission to reproduce materials, call 1-800-545-7685, write Harvard Business School Publishing, Boston, MA 02163, or go to http://www. bsp. harvard. edu. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of Harvard Business School. 205-059 Deutsche Bank: Finding Relative-Value Trades Deutsche Bank traders, as well as externally to Deutsche Bank clients at the CEO, CFO, and Treasury level. Baz explained how the ideas were pitched: The final goal is to create a franchise with fixed income clients.So, for clients on the asset side, such as mutual funds, hedge funds, insurance companies, and pension plans, we help them generate high returns on their assets. We give specific ideas to be executed by the clients—hopefully with us, although that is never certain. However, even if we don’t get a trade out of our recommendation, it is important enough that we maintain Deutsche Bank’s presence at the client. Sometimes we also do bespoke—or customized—work, where we analyze their balance sheet and asset-liability mismatches for them, almost like technical financial consulting.In general, research alone will not give us clients, but research combined with pricing are the keys to building long-lasting relationships with external clients. Overall, we strive to push the frontiers of analytical finance when it comes to modeling interest rates, volatilities, and spreads. Owing to data avail ability and an intimate exposure to institutional market realities, we are often pushed to reach results ahead of academic finance journals. On a group level, Deutsche Bank organized its fixed income activities in the global markets around three main pillars: investor coverage, issuer coverage, and research.The trading desks dealing in these areas were in turn divided into two groups: credit (with credit trading/credit derivatives, new issue syndicate, asset securitization, and emerging markets) and rates (with foreign exchange, money markets, fixed income, and interest rate derivatives). The research efforts of the group were set up to match these organizational divisions. The Fixed Income Research Group was one of several research groups (as shown in Exhibit 2). All these groups were run under the banner of Global Markets Research.Research as a whole was headed by David Folkerts-Landau. Demand for direct meetings with Deutsche Bank’s research groups had grown over the past few years, taken internally as a sign of increased respect for the bank’s research output. In the last year, Baz’s group alone had logged over 1,500 client meetings. All clients had access to the Deutsche Bank research in papers and newsletters that were available online. Internal traders also benefited from the research, which was a major influence behind much of the bank’s proprietary—or â€Å"prop†Ã¢â‚¬â€trading.Most members of the research group shared their time between external clients and traders, with more senior staff members working more with external clients and less with the trading floor. In the end, measuring the research group’s value to the organization was still difficult. Said Baz: Putting a value on the work we do, and the effect we have on the bank, is very hard. In fact, if you were to really measure it by attributing sales and trades back to us, the trading floor would be more reluctant to work with us. Instead, we are mostly evaluated by top management on three other factors.Firstly, overall market direction, which is how much of rate and spread moves did we catch in our advice. Secondly, the relative-value trades we originated. Thirdly, any customized business we have brought in from our client meetings. Compensation to the members of the group was tied to the evaluation of the group as a whole. Individual bonuses were then given at the discretion of Baz as the group’s manager, based on his qualitative impression of each member’s contribution. 2 Deutsche Bank: Finding Relative-Value Trades 205-059 Strategic Advice and Relative-Value ActivitiesThe group’s activities were normally broken down into strategic advice on macro trends and relative value. The strategic advice activities built on long-term discussions with clients, where the group presented Deutsche Bank’s view on macroeconomic trends to external clients. In these discussions, George Cooper, the group’ s global fixed income strategist, typically did not expect a quick monetary return. Cooper, a Ph. D. graduate in engineering at Durham University with experience from both Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan, explained: This type of activity does not generate a lot of money from a trade perspective.It generates brand value, though, and is especially appealing to insurance companies or asset-liability people, who appreciate the long-term view. We believe it serves more of an educational purpose. It gets the fund managers thinking. They are not looking for prescriptive research, where we tell them to â€Å"do this trade,† but they look for interesting ideas. Of course, they then weigh our ideas against whatever Goldman Sachs or Morgan Stanley are saying. Our role is to come up with hopefully insightful but also informative new ways to look at things.By contrast, the relative-value activities looked for more immediate opportunities by comparing different instruments and then recommendin g various trading strategies to clients and internal traders. Head of Relative Value Research for Europe was Jean Dumas, an engineer from ESME SUDRIA in France with a specialization in finance, who had worked with Relative Value Research for Deutsche Bank in Paris, Frankfurt, and Sydney before moving to London. Dumas explained his work: We come up with different types of trades all the time.The trade opportunities may be there for a week or two, sometimes longer. I look at different spreadsheets, listen to what traders are saying, watch the news, study different models. . . . Then I try to put everything together—and suddenly there is a trade opportunity. Our job is really grabbing things that don’t seem to be related at first and see if there is a trade to be done. The trade opportunities that the research group identified were published weekly in the newsletter â€Å"Deutsche Bank Fixed Income Weekly,† which was distributed to Deutsche Bank traders as well as to clients.A frequent contributor to the newsletter was Dr. Nikan B. Firoozye, head of Global Quantitative Strategies and a Ph. D. graduate in mathematics from Courant Institute at New York University with experience from Alliance Capital, Sanford C. Bernstein, and Lehman Brothers. Firoozye explained: I write a piece on Euroland strategy every week where we suggest trades. Some of these are big trades that we don’t change very often, such as curve-steepening trades. We can have the same trade off and on for a full year. We also summarize economic data as it impacts the bond markets.For instance, how structured trades could be influenced by the move in dollar versus yen, and how you should position for that. In his role as head of Euroland Strategy, Firoozye also oversaw all strategic investments in Euroland bond markets. He was also involved in all modeling issues and wrote stand-alone papers on quantitative strategy. Looking for a Relative-Value Trade For the research group, one way to find relative-value trades was to compare the prices of traded securities against the prices that the group thought the securities should trade at. This subjective view 205-059 Deutsche Bank: Finding Relative-Value Trades was based on a proprietary model developed at Deutsche Bank. (Most banks used proprietary models as a base from which to evaluate the prices of traded securities. ) The models were built on the fact that the returns offered by fixed income instruments could be characterized by the yields that they offered. The yield was roughly seen as compensation for the risk borne by the holder of that security. There were many sources of risk in fixed income securities, such as interest rate risk, credit risk, and prepayment risk.Also, the yield of an instrument could be broken down into components. The components could be thought of as compensation for the different sources of risk. So, for example, the yield on a corporate bond could be thought of as being compose d of a risk-free yield plus a credit spread. The risk-free yield represented compensation for interest rate risk in the bond, while the credit spread represented compensation for default risk in the bond. 1 To understand the compensation for the interest rate risk alone, banks typically constructed â€Å"yield-curve models. These were models for the yields on zero-coupon Treasury securities, since Treasury instruments typically contained only interest rate risk. Models for the yield curve could be then used to compare the current and expected prices of U. S. Treasury instruments. 2 The research group at Deutsche Bank had developed their own proprietary yield-curve model, a so-called three-factor affine model (see Exhibit 3 for a conceptual description of the model). Firoozye explained the fundaments of the model: We have three factors driving the yield curve that we see as analogous to the economy.In an economy, there is inflation, output gaps, and short rates. So first among our f actors is a long rate, which is analogous to inflation. It is the slowest mean reverting of our three factors. In the fifties inflation was low, in the seventies it was extremely high, and now it is back down again. It takes 20 years to go through its cycle. It is very slow, very persistent, whereas the business cycle is much, much faster. You go through a business cycle in about seven years. So slope, our second factor, is then the measure of output gap. Slope mean reverts much more quickly than inflation.The third factor is the short rate, which mean reverts the fastest. After estimating the variables of the three-factor model, the team calibrated the model to price the one-month, two-year, and 10-year zero-coupon bond. After Baz’s request at the weekly meeting, the analysts now used the latest numbers on various U. S. Treasury bonds to update and calibrate the model (see Exhibit 4 for the resulting output from Deutsche Bank’s model). The idea was to then compare the actual zero-coupon yield curve against the predicted ones coming out of the model and see if any trade ideas presented themselves.In fact, several trades seemed to come out of that comparison. Baz and the team now had to pick the trades with the highest profit potential. 1 It should be noted that the notion of compensation here is approximate. The yield on a zero-coupon corporate bond is not the expected return of that bond. It is simply the promised return of that bond, or the return an investor would get if the bond did not default. Starting with this promised return and then factoring in the probability of default and a default risk premium leads to the expected return for that bond. More generally, yield-curve models could be used to price any interest rate-sensitive security. For example, the pricing of interest rate options starts with a yield-curve model. 4 Deutsche Bank: Finding Relative-Value Trades 205-059 Exhibit 1 Prices and Coupon Rates of Various U. S. Treasury Bonds on August 15, 2003 Coupon Rate (%) 3 2. 125 1. 5 6. 5 5. 625 2. 375 6. 25 3. 25 3 3. 25 5. 5 6 6. 5 5. 75 5 5 4. 875 4. 375 3. 875 4. 25 13. 25 12. 5 11. 25 10. 625 9. 25 7. 5 8. 75 8. 875 9. 125 9 8. 875 8. 125 8. 5 8. 75 7. 875 8. 25 8 7. 25 7. 125 6. 25 7. 5 7. 5 7. 625 6. 875 6 6. 75 6. 625 6. 375 6. 125 5. 5 5. 25 6. 125 Maturity Date 2/15/2004 8/15/2004 2/15/2005 8/15/2005 2/15/2006 8/15/2006 2/15/2007 8/15/2007 2/15/2008 8/15/2008 2/15/2009 8/15/2009 2/15/2010 8/15/2010 2/15/2011 8/15/2011 2/15/2012 8/15/2012 2/15/2013 8/15/2013 2/15/2014 8/15/2014 2/15/2015 8/15/2015 2/15/2016 8/15/2016 2/15/2017 8/15/2017 2/15/2018 8/15/2018 2/15/2019 8/15/2019 2/15/2020 8/15/2020 2/15/2021 8/15/2021 2/15/2022 8/15/2022 2/15/2023 8/15/2023 2/15/2024 8/15/2024 2/15/2025 /15/2025 2/15/2026 8/15/2026 2/15/2027 8/15/2027 2/15/2028 8/15/2028 2/15/2029 8/15/2029 Current Price 101. 0544 100. 9254 99. 8942 109. 0934 108. 438 99. 7848 111. 7184 101. 0841 99. 1692 99. 271 109. 7707 112. 145 114. 9084 110. 3894 105. 2934 104. 7607 103. 4391 99. 2806 95. 0288 97. 7693 174. 3251 168. 9389 157. 0552 152. 4222 140. 0135 123. 3044 136. 0598 137. 504 140. 792 139. 9079 138. 7431 130. 7162 135. 2938 138. 3466 128. 4995 131. 7341 130. 4736 121. 58 120. 1744 109. 4538 125. 46 125. 4466 127. 1477 117. 5509 106. 3626 116. 1986 114. 7086 111. 036 108. 0391 99. 633 96. 2876 108. 4062 Source: Adapted by casewriter from Datastream. 5 205-059 Deutsche Bank: Finding Relative-Value Trades Exhibit 2 Deutsche Bank Global Markets Research Organization Global Head COO and Co-Head Global Economics Global Strategist Foreign Exchange Securitization Index Development Regional Heads – Asia/ Pacific – Germany Strategy – Fixed Income/ Relative Value Research – Emerging Markets – Credit Credit (High Grade Credit Research) Economics – Global – US – Europe – Emerging Markets Source: Deutsche Bank. Exhibit 3 †¢ †¢ †¢Deutsche Bank†™s Zero-Coupon Yield Model Key variables: Short rate, slope, and long rate (or short rate, output gap, and inflation) Model specified by a system of equations (in Q measure) Long rate mean reverts slowly (possibly to nonzero mean) dX t= (  µ X ? k X X t) dt + ? X dWt X †¢ Slope mean reverts faster (to zero) dYt = ? kY Yt dt + ? Y dWt Y †¢ X t + Yt ? rt = 0 †¢ In equilibrium short rate, rt, follows the target Xt+Yt (an analogue of the Taylor rule) Short rate mean reverts fast in order to restore the equilibrium drt = k r ( X t + Yt ? rt ) dt + ? r dWt rSource: Adapted by casewriter from â€Å"Quantitative Models for Fixed Income,† Deutsche Bank presentation, October 2003. 6 Deutsche Bank: Finding Relative-Value Trades 205-059 Exhibit 4 Output from Deutsche Bank’s Zero-Coupon Yield Model Model Prediction (BEY) 1. 2443% 1. 8727% 2. 4110% 2. 9665% 3. 4454% 3. 8557% 4. 1996% 4. 4677% 4. 6528% 4. 7107% 5. 7160% 5. 9517% 5. 9315% Maturity (years) 1y 2y 3y 4 y 5y 6y 7y 8y 9y 10y 15y 20y 25y Source: Note: Adapted by casewriters from Deutsche Bank information. The yields in this table are bond equivalent yields (BEY), that is, the semiannual yield multiplied by two. 7

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Abraham Lincoln and the Struggle for Union and Emancipation

DBQ: Abraham Lincoln and the Struggle for Union and Emancipation, 1861-1865 Lincoln began the civil war claiming to want only to preserve the union, and I think that saving the union was his main goal, but I think even from the beginning, slavery played a part in the start of the war too and another one of his goals was to gradually get rid of slavery. I think as time went on, it started to have a bigger and bigger role in the war, but I don’t think the goal of ending slavery every surpassed his goal of saving the union. He did whatever he thought it would take to save the union, and he also managed to end slavery while doing it.Lincoln knew that slavery was an issue from the beginning, and he wanted to stop it, but wasn’t making an incredibly big deal out of it at first. in March of 1862, Lincoln addressed congress (Doc A), and was encouraging congress to offer compensation to any state that was gradually abolishing slavery, which showed that he didn’t want slav ery anymore, but wasn’t pushing too hard for it and was making it so that there wasn’t any punishment for not abolishing slavery, but that there was a reward for those that were trying to abolish slavery.In a letter to Horace Greeley in August of 1862, he said, â€Å"if I could save the union without freeing any slave I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing all of the slaves, I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others I would also do that. † this again proves that he knew that slavery was a problem and was an inevitable part of the war, but that his primary focus was to save the union, and then worry about the slavery issue later on. He was also trying to keep the Border States happy, not obviously just focusing on freeing the slaves.He did want to gradually abolish slavery but it wasn’t his main goal at the time. Lincoln came to believe that the emancipation proclamation would actually help save the union. There are several different things that the abolishment of slavery could do that would be good for the union and would help keep the union together. In a speech from Lincoln to a Committee of Religious Denominations of Chicago on September 13, 1862, (Doc B) Lincoln talked about how the abolition of slavery would help keep Europe from supporting the south.He also said it would be good for helping the union win the war because without the blacks laboring for the southerners, the south would have an even harder time growing food and getting the things that they need to survive, it’s hard enough with a labor force helping out the south, but if all that labor was taken away from them, then the south would be ruined. He also believed that emancipation would help in saving the union because it would bring in more men that were willing to fight.In a speech from Lincoln to members of the Democratic Party on August 26, 1863 (Doc G), Lincoln said â€Å"You say you will not fight to free Negroes . Some of them seem willing to fight for you, but, no matter. Fight you, then, exclusively to save the union. I issued the proclamation on purpose to aid you in saving the union. † So he was saying that since white men weren’t willing to â€Å"fight to free Negroes† he had to issue the proclamation of emancipation freeing the blacks, therefore making it so that there were more men available to fight and to fight willingly for their freedom, and for the union to stay together.The emancipation proclamation helped in pretty significant ways to save the union. Everyone kept thinking that Lincoln started to put his desire for slavery to end, over his desire to save the union. They all thought that his goal had changed and all he cared about was freeing the blacks when, in fact, his goal of saving the union was always there and was always greater than the slavery issue. Granted, he did want to end slavery and he did what he could to end slavery, but that wasn’t his primary goal. He wanted more than anything to keep the union together.In a speech by Frederick Douglas delivered at the unveiling of the Freedmen’s monument in memory of Abraham Lincoln (Doc K) Douglas said, â€Å"he was preeminently the white man’s president, entirely devoted to the welfare of white men. He was ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored people to promote the welfare of the white people of this country. † He is saying that no matter what, Lincoln was doing everything for the whites. He would do to the blacks whatever it took to do what is good for the white men.The white men were his top priority. Even though Lincoln’s goals slightly shifted from being almost entirely only wanting the security of the union to wanting slavery to end, he never lost sight of his main goal. The entire time he wanted, more than anything, to save the union . He did whatever he needed to do to save it, even if some people disagreed on if he made the best choices or not. The war was not about his desire for the abolition of slavery. It was about saving the union, and he ended up being able to abolish slavery along with saving the union.

Tuesday, November 5, 2019

Monologues From Molières Famous Theatrical Comedy

Monologues From Molià ¨re's Famous Theatrical Comedy Tartuffe translates to The Imposter or The Hypocrite. The play was performed for the first time in 1664 and features popular characters like Tartuffe, Elmire, Orgon, and Dorine. Tartuffe is written in twelve-syllable lines called alexandrines. The plot focuses on Orgons family dealing with the pious fraud Tartuffe as he pretends to talk with religious power, fool the family with random antics, and even seduce women in the household. The Characters in Tartuffe While Orgon is the head of the house and husband of Elmire, he is unfortunately blindsided with desire for Tartuffe, who is but a houseguest of Orgon and a hypocritical fraud. Tartuffe meddles with seduction and romantic agendas with members in the home. Orgons wife, Elmire, is one of Tartuffe’s prospects, and she is also the stepmother to Damis and Mariane. Luckily, Dorine is the family housemaid who tries to get to the bottom of Tartuffes fake personality to help the other characters. A Focus on the Housemaid, Dorine Dorine is the sassy, sensible, witty, and wise servant in the household that is the focus of Moliere’s Tartuffe. Her servant status makes her an inferior, but she courageously expresses her opinions to her superiors, who are actually her intellectual inferiors. For young females in search of a classical monologue, Tartuffe’s cheeky and clever Dorine has quite a few worth examining. The beginning and ending lines of eight monologues involving Dorine are listed below, along with a brief explanation of the content of each speech.  These monologues come from  Moliere’s Tartuffe, translated into English verse by Richard Wilbur, an extraordinarily understandable translation of the French comedy. Act I, Scene 1: First Monologue The scene begins with: â€Å"If there is talk against us, I know the source / It’s Daphne and her little husband, of course.† Dorine expresses disdain for how people who behave badly seem to be the first to smear the reputations of others. She speculates that their delight in spreading the word of the transgressions of others springs from their belief that their own guilty deeds are less obvious when those of others are emphasized. The scene has 14 lines. The scene ends with: â€Å"Or that their own black guilt will come to seem / Part of a general shady colour-scheme. Act I, Scene 1: Second Monologue The scene begins with: â€Å"Oh yes, she’s strict, devout, and has no taint / Of worldliness; in short, she seems a saint.† Dorine dismisses the criticisms of her lifestyle by a woman who is no longer young and beautiful. She attributes this woman’s prudish perspective to jealousy of looks and actions that she is no longer privy to. The scene has 20 lines. The scene ends with: â€Å"And cannot bear to see another know / That pleasures time has forced them to forgo.† Act I, Scene 2: First Monologue The scene begins with: â€Å"Yes, but her son is even worse deceived / His folly must be seen to be believed.† Dorine expounds on ruse after ruse that Tartuffe has used to fool the master of the house Orgon. The scene has 32 lines and ends with: â€Å"He said it was a sin to juxtapose / Unholy vanities and holy prose.† Act II, Scene 2: Second Monologue The scene begins with: â€Å"Yes, so he tells us; and Sir, it seems to me / Such pride goes very ill with piety.† Dorine tries to convince Orgon that he should not impose marriage to Tartuffe upon his daughter. The scene has 23 lines and ends with: â€Å"Think, Sir, before you play so risky a role.† Act II, Scene 3: First Monologue The scene begins with: â€Å"No, I ask nothing of you. Clearly, you want / To be Madame Tartuffe, and I feel bound / Not to oppose a wish so very sound.† Dorine sarcastically endorses Tartuffe as a brilliant catch of a bridegroom for Marianne. The scene has 13 lines and ends with: â€Å"His ears are red, he has a pink complexion / And all in all, he’ll suit you to perfection.† Act II, Scene 3: Second Monologue The scene begins with: â€Å"Ah no, a dutiful daughter must obey / Her father, even if he weds her to an ape.† Dorine tortures Marianne with a predictive description of her life as Tartuffe’s wife. The scene has 13 lines and ends with: â€Å"To the drone of bagpipes- two of them, in fact, / And see a puppet show or an animal act.† Act II, Scene 4 The scene begins with: â€Å"We’ll use all manner of means, and all at once. / Your father’s addled; he’s acting like a dunce.† Dorine explains to Mariane and her betrothed ways to delay and ultimately avoid marriage to Tartuffe. The scene has 20 lines and ends with: â€Å"Meanwhile we’ll stir her brother into action / And get Elmire, as well, to join our faction.† Act III, Scene 1 The scene begins with: â€Å"Do calm down and be practical. I had rather / My mistress dealt with him- and with your father.† Dorine convinces Mariane’s brother Damis to abort his plan for exposing Tartuffe and follow hers. The scene has 14 lines and ends with: â€Å"Says that he’s almost finished with his prayers. / Go, now. I’ll catch him when he comes downstairs.† Resources A video of the complete stage play using the Richard Wilbur translation  is available.Read more about Jean Baptiste Poquelin who took the stage name Moliere.

Sunday, November 3, 2019

Contract Law, The Law of Personal Property Essay

Contract Law, The Law of Personal Property - Essay Example exemption clauses. According to the provisions of this act there are three broad divisions of control: first, is the control over contract terms that exclude or restrict liability for 'negligence', secondly, control over contract terms that exclude or restrict liability for breach of certain terms implied by statute or by common law in contracts of sale of goods, hire-purchase etc. Thirdly, a more general control in consumer contracts and standard form contracts over terms that exclude or restrict liability for breach of contract, or which purport to entitle one of the parties to render a contractual performance different from that expected or to render no performance at all. If the term of the contract comes within the purview of this act then the control regime will take its form in either of the two ways i.e. the restriction or exclusion of liability may be rendered absolutely ineffective or it may be effective only in so far as the term of the contract satisfies the test of reasonableness. ... It can be said that subject to certain exceptions, the Unfair Contract Terms Act,1977 only applies to contract terms 'excluding or restricting' specific types of liability; but they are extended to include terms such as : (a) making the liability or its enforcement subject to restrictive or onerous conditions;(b) excluding or restricting any right or remedy in respect of liability, or subjecting a person to any prejudice in consequence of his pursuing any such right or remedy, (c) excluding or restricting rules of evidence or procedure. The practical difficulty, however, is to distinguish such terms from provisions that prevent a contractual duty from arising or circumscribe its extent, or which merely allocate the responsibilities under the contract between the parties(5) The Courts should determine whether a term in a contract 'excludes or restricts' liability by asking whether it deprives a contracting party of the contractual performance which the parties reasonably expected(6). The Unfair Contract Terms Act,1977 for most part exclude or restrict 'business liability'. It means liability for breach of obligations or duties arising - (a) from things done or to be done by a person in the course of a business.; (b) from the occupation of premises used for business purposes of the occupier. As a general rule, greater protection is afforded by the act to a person who deals as consumer than to one who does not. In order that a party should have dealt as consumer, two conditions must have to be satisfied. First, the party must not have made the contract in the course of a business or held himself or herself out as doing so. Secondly, the other party must have made the contract in the course of a business. 'R.&B