Mothers, Daughters and Common Ground in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club Ess

Mothers, Daughters and Common Ground in Amy Tan’s The Joy Luck Club Here is a journey that not only started "a thousand Li away", but from generations upon generations of tradition. The Joy Luck Club travels over time and continents to present the background and turmoil of eight amazing women. All of these women have had to deal with the issues of culture, gender, and family, each in their own way, yet all similarly. Amy Tan dedicates her novel to her mother with the comment "You asked me once what I would remember†¦ This, and much more." Each of the mothers in Tan's novel wanted to teach their daughters the lessons learned in China while giving them the comforts of America. But language and culture barriers diverge the women until they were almost lost to each other. Each character had to take their own journey to finally understand what drove them apart and find their common ground. Each Mother brought baggage with her across the pacific. They wanted to teach their daughters from all of their pain and suffering, but were never able to communicate the complexities of their life. Suyuan Woo struggles to explain herself to her daughter "'This feather may look worthless, but it comes from afar and carries with it all my good intentions.' And she waited, year after year, for the day she could tell her daughter this in perfect American English"(3). The journey that brought Suyuan to America was long and full of hardship. From the Japanese invasion of Kweilin were she lost her husband and had to leave her daughters, to her assimilation in America. Suyuan wanted to teach her daughter about these hardships so that she could understand the extent of her potential. " My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in Ameri... ... finding her sisters and in doing this fulfilling her own. Just as Jing-Mei found what made her Chinese, Lindo discovered what made her American. "I was so much like my mother. She did not see how my face changed over the years. How my eyes began following the American way"(293). She is a mixture, no longer one hundred percent Chinese, yet she has held her culture with her throughout her life in America. "Not only traditional and not only modern, not just Chinese and not just American, but Chinese-American"(Reece). This is the same discovery that Waverly and Jing-Mei come to, they finally understand were their mother's have come from and the history brought with them from far away. And the mother's best intentions are no longer like the illusive mountains covered in fog, left in China. Works Cited Tan, Amy. The Joy Luck Club. New York: Random House, 1989.

DBQ Federalists and Democratic-Republicans Essay

Thesis: It would appear that the assertion that Democratic-Republicans were strict interpreters of the Constitution while Federalists were not are only somewhat accurate. The Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Samuel Kercheval is of particular interest because Jefferson outright states â€Å"†¦I know also, that the laws and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind†. This is somewhat different from the traditional image of Jefferson interpreting the constitution as absolute under any circumstances. The fact that he himself writes that the constitution must be adapted to the times suggest that Jefferson, like the Democratic-Republican party as a whole, was not such an absolutist. Jefferson also states that â€Å"I am certainly not an advocate for frequent and untried changes in laws and constitutions†¦Ã¢â‚¬  which would seem to indicate that He also believed that a change to the constitution was a serious thing not to be taken lightly much like the historical image of the Democratic-Republicans. Jefferson believed that amendments would eventually become necessary to preserve the constitution as a credible document, however he also believed such changes should only be made when absolutely necessary. The fact that this idea about the constitution (that it was not perfect and would eventually need change) contradicts the historical image of strict and absolute interpretation of the constitution that Democratic-Republicans, and by extension Jefferson himself, are given. -While Jefferson shows sympathy towards eventual change on issues such as slavery he did not follow through in the least as president. -Jefferson is sometimes portrayed as the first great president by historians. -Jefferson actually helped sign in the constitution with many of the men who would go on to be federalists. -Jefferson made many of his statements against slavery and absolute interpretation of the Constitution later in life which could suggest that much of these writings were out of hindsight of his actions as president and the unofficial leader of the Democratic-Republicans One document that might suggest that Federalists were not all so supportive of the federal government over the states was the speech that Federalist  Daniel Webster delivered before Congress on december 9th 1814. Webster states â€Å"If the secretary of war has proved the right of Congress to enact the law enforcing a draft of men out of the militia into the regular army, he will be able at any time be able to prove quite as clearly that Congress has the power to create a dictator†. This quote is loaded with sentiments normally expected from a Democratic Republican rather than a Federalist. States rights, negative sentiment towards Federal authority over the states, and the assertion that this expansion of Federal power is a step towards tyranny, are all opinions typical of a Democratic Republican, not a Federalist. This clearly suggests that not all Federalists were loose interpreters of the constitution since states rights is an argument usually made by someone advocating for a strict interpretation of the Constitution. – It would appear that this speech was relatively pointless to affect the conflict at hand considering that the war of 1812 (Mr. Madison’s war as dubbed by Federalists) was only fought for a few more weeks before it was officially concluded. – Federalists were quite against this war with Britain which could mean that Webster could have come to this argument more out of anger over the war than actual ideals. – It is interesting that the measure Webster is referring to took place in 1814 considering that the Democratic-Republicans, who would have been against drafting militiamen into the national army, controlled the Congress, Senate, and the White House. -1814 was the last year that Federalists had a major role in Congress given their attempt to secede from the union in 1815 in the Hartford Convention. The report and resolutions of the Hartford Convention serves to demonstrate how Federalists did support a loose interpretation of the constitution. In the resolution the participants (of whom many were Federalists) proposed that several amendments to the constitution be adopted by the states. While this may seem fairly insignificant the fact that they were trying to conform state laws to national law shows a very strong leaning towards Federal authority over state authority. This was very much in line with Federalist principles and loose interpretations of the constitution since they are proposing three changes to several state constitutions. The Federalists are taking a stance against state rights which are guaranteed in the  constitution and requesting that the states conform to federal law which can be seen as a rather loose interpretation given that powers not afforded to the national government are given to the states by the tenth amendment. -The three proposed amendments seem to inhibit the power of the government which is more in line with Democratic-Republican ideals, which could suggest that this was meant to gain bipartisan support in the states. – The Hartford Convention was also famous for being the unofficial demise of the Federalist party considering that the resolutions also threatened to declare New England independent from the union if the government did not comply which the largely Democratic-Republican populated nation viewed as treasonous. – One of the amendments proposed made it illegal to enforce an embargo for longer than 60 days which is interesting considering that leading up to the war with Britain, many Federalists were advocating ignoring the embargo on Britain. – Although the Democratic-Republicans controlled Congress, the Senate, and the presidency prior to the Hartford Convention, the negative reaction to the resolutions layed out by the Hartford Convention ensured what could be described as a near one party rule for the Democratic-Republicans through the mid 1800’s. One Final Document that would serve to demonstrate how there was a large grey area in how Democratic-Republicans and Federalists interpreted the Constitution is actually another speech made by John Randolph in 1816 before Congress. Randolph himself was a very strict interpreter of the constitution but what makes this speech interesting is who he is calling out in this speech and why. â€Å"We have another proof that the present government (the Madison administration) have renounced the true Republican principles of Jefferson’s administration on which they raised themselves to power†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Randolph is calling out the Democratic-Republican president James Madison, for â€Å"renouncing† the policies laid out by Thomas Jefferson who is seen as  the establisher of many of the ideals of the Democratic Republican Party. Madison is accused of â€Å"aggravating the burdens of the people for the purpose of favoring the manufacturers†¦Ã¢â‚¬ . Essentially he is being called out for raising taxes on the middle class. Why this demonstrates how Democratic Republicans could have taken a loose interpretation to the constitution is because raising taxes is something that many Democratic-Republicans believed to be a state by state issue even though the Constitution gives the government the power to levy taxes. However Madison is going against that ideal and raising the national tax rate which given the Democratic-Republican interpretation of only allowing states to raise taxes, is a very loose interpretation. -Madison was known to have changed his opinion on these matters several times as a politician which could explain why he was raising taxes. -Randolph also linked Madison to John Adams who was also a loose interpreter of the constitution and rather unpopular amongst the Democratic-Republicans because of it. – Madison was very much influenced by Thomas Jefferson who would have definitely disapproved of raising taxes on the middle class. – Madison was the first president to preside over the â€Å"Era of Good Feelings† or the time period where the Democratic-Republicans enjoyed a near one party rule in the government. This tax would have been a very unusual interruption in the usual lack of debate and argument that was apparent in Congress and the Senate.

Philosophy of Nursing Essay

Nursing refers to a contact or a bond that exists between two or more persons in which one of the two persons provide professional care to the other in addition to providing advice with an aim of improving the health of the other individual an preventing illness. Philosophy of nursing may refer to beliefs that different individuals have towards nursing. Humans refer to the primates in the family of hominids. They have a brain which is highly expanded enabling them to solve problems through reasoning, control of feelings, use of language and introspection. Humans are always yearning to understand the world around them and influence the natural occurrences. Nursing involves the interaction between two human beings and therefore human must exist for the process of nursing to be successful. Health refers to a state of well being where there is no sickness and reflects the social, physical, spiritual and mental fitness of an individual. Good health may be brought about by a balanced diet, exercise and rest. It is through nursing that an individual acquires good health (Pharris, 2001, pp. 8-12). Nursing refers to a science in which the person involved aims at ensuring a good health for individuals, families and communities. In general, the science of nursing aims at upholding the quality of life. It involves caring for individuals in a conducive environment to promote good health and prevent illness. Environment is defined as the extensive information on issues, programs and policies affecting our surrounding. It refers to anything internal or external that may create some impact in the life of an individual including all the living and non living organisms that exist on the earth. It has to conducive to facilitate the process of nursing. Humans A good pain control after surgery when accompanied by appropriate community health services enables an individual to rebuild him or herself. It is however the responsibility of every person to ensure that the nurse or the doctor knows about him or herself before the pain control is administered on him or her. This the patient could do by enabling the doctor to know about his or her drug addiction either the past or present. This will enable the nurse to know the type and the amount of medication to offer. Surgery of the stomach is a very painful one and the drug history of a person may affect the person’s tolerance to the pain or response to the pain relievers. The pain control in patients also depends on the age of the patient as well the conditions of health of the individual before the surgery. Controlling pain after surgery is a very essential step in the life of a patient as it helps the individual to gain the best results on functionality. This is appropriate because the pain after surgery increases the functionality of the patient. Patients who before the surgery were on pain medication do require an administration of extended pain medication. Otherwise the patient may require shorter acting pain medications for the control of pain (Newman, 2003, pp. 110-115). Nursing The belief that good pain control and community health services help rebuild a person after surgery relates to nursing in the sense that nurses have been found to be mediums through which terminal care at home can be improved. Pain control is one of the components of quality terminal care in the community. Patients who have undergone surgery should be given enough advice by the nurses on where to get help if necessary. In addition to this they should be given appropriate analgesics to carry home which should be accompanied by sufficient instructions on their usage. Nevertheless, patients should be given both verbal and written information about pain so that and how pain can be reduced. The nursing staff should always be there for patients to advice them and to discuss with them their choice of a pain relieving techniques. The pain that is experienced by patients after surgery is usually very great that it should not be underestimated. This is because the pain does different implications on both the patients and the community health services. A proper pain control after surgery therefore requires the intervention of the nurse which will give way for community health services thus helping the patient to gain his or her health back. Nurses facilitate the process of pain control and ensure that it well managed to speed the process of recovering of a patient ( Margaret,1999, pp. 227-230). Health The health of a person enables that person to function mentally, spiritually, physically and socially in full ability. The belief that a good pain control and community health service helps an individual to rebuild after a surgery relates to health in the sense that an individual will only have a good health when he or she is not in pain. A person is considered to fully healthy if he or she is not feeling any pain. Surgery involves a lot of pain therefore after a surgery an individual requires pain relief which is achieved through proper pain control by the nurses to enable him or her to function properly both physically, mentally, spiritually and socially. When a person is in pain, he or she will not perform any physical activity in addition the person will not be able to socialize freely with other people. The person will also not think properly thus lacking both mental and spiritual thinking. This is because pain makes a person uncomfortable creating a feeling that something is wrong in the body. The pain in the body i. e. physical pain sends a signal to the brain through the spinal cords that something is wrong thus stopping the mind from working properly. It is therefore essential that after surgery a patient should receive a good pain control and community health service to enable him or her to rebuild his health. Effective pain management is therefore considered by nurses as part of recovery because it when it is well controlled it speeds up the process of healing and reduce complications that a person may experience as a result of surgery (Endo, 2004, pp. 240-245). Environment The surroundings in which individuals live do affect the activities performed in that particular environment. Nurses do require an enabling environment to enable them to perform their duties properly. After surgery it will for the well being of the patient to have a conducive environment in which physical, mental, spiritual and social healing is possible. The nature of the environment in which pain control is conducted is very essential and should be set to fit the requirements of different patients. Pain control will enable an individual to feel comfortable as he or she heals, get well faster and avoid some problems associated with surgery. The nurse theorist observed was Margaret Newman who also came up with a nursing theory of health as an expanding consciousness which requires every person to find the meaning of life and find connections with other people in the rest of the world. According to Margaret, health means increasing awareness. She put forward that the role of a nurse is to identify the lifestyle of an individual so that the nurse can work within that lifestyle to help the individual achieve the goals of his or her life. Newman’s theory includes the health of every individual irrespective of the condition of illness i. e. whether sick or well (Desai, 1996). Jean on the other hand developed a caring theory which involves the caring actions taken by nurses in their interaction with the patients. The caring theory involves the deep respect offered to patients by the nurses for the mysteries of life and the ability of the patients to change their lifestyles. Watson’s caring theory also requires a nurse to help the patients to acquire self control, knowledge and healing not regarding their health conditions. The difference that exists between my beliefs on Newman’s theory and Watson’s caring theory is that Newman’s theory was focused on helping every person whether in the absence or presence of sickness to understand his or her status. It focused on the adjustments that a nurse should put to ensure that a person meets his or her requirements. Watson on the other hand focused on caring for the patients, respecting them and helping them to understand themselves by acquiring self control, knowledge and healing. The similarity between the two theories is that both the two believe that it is the role of a nurse to ensure appropriate lifestyles for different persons whether sick or not. They both believe that a nurse should be able to identify or recognize and accurately detect the health status of a person and be able to help that person accordingly. They believe that a nurse must come together and engage in an interaction so that the nurse can understand the unique lifestyle of the person and provide care in a manner that fits that lifestyle. Finally both the beliefs involve human and nursing in the science of nursing in order to provide desired care to persons. The statement of my philosophy of nursing is the belief that Good pain control and community health services help rebuild a person after surgery. My philosophy of nursing views nursing as both an art and a science. It requires a nurse to understand the meaning of health in addition to understanding the perception of moral and ethical importance of care. The caring offered by the nurses involves the application of theoretical nursing knowledge, behavior and humanity.  My nursing philosophy includes wellness, family, collaboration and disability (Yamashita, 1997, pp. 34-39). Conclusion Surgery is a very painful exercise which usually requires an immediate pain control to stop the patient from suffering. Pain management especially after surgery is therefore very essential for the well being of the patient and nurses should ensure that it is provided to enable the patient to rebuild his or her health. This is because pain control facilitates the process of healing of an individual.

Deutsche Brauerei Essay

Deutsche Brauerei was founded in 1737 and has been in the Schweitzer family for 12 generations. The company produces quality beer and has won awards over the years and is owned entirely by 16 uncles, aunts and cousins. In 1998, Deutsche Brauerei expanded into Ukraine. Despite the Russian debt crisis, the popularity of Deutsche’s beer increased its sales greatly and within three years of launch, Ukrainian consumers accounted for 28% of Deutsche’s sales. Furthermore, most of the unit growth in sales during that time period was also contributed by Ukraine. In an attempt to market the beer even more aggressively, Lukas hired Oleg Pinchuk, a marketing guy who understood the Ukrainian markets and had previous experience of marketing beer for a major Ukrainian beer producer. In the following report, we aim to evaluate the past and prospective financial performance of the company, dividend policy and to critique its liberal credit and inventory policies. An appropriate compensation scheme will also be recommended. Adoption of a Compensation Scheme for Oleg Pinchuk It is our belief that Oleg Pinchuk does deserve an increase in his compensation package to provide incentive for him to stay and provide future results. His strategies for setting up infrastructure in the Ukraine have been fundamental to the company’s sales growth. We are also concerned that some of his current policies may not be profitable and are taking on too much risk as the economy shows signs of a recession. Also, we highly recommend that the design of the compensation package be changed as it currently creates a large agency problem. In 1998, Deutsche Brauerei employed Oleg Pinchuk as the Company’s Sales and Marketing Manager. Previously Pinchuk has worked for a major beer producer in the Ukraine giving him invaluable insight into the industry and environment. The main goals he was placed with was to market Deutsche Brauerei’s beer more aggressively while taking advantage of the large opportunities existing in Central and Eastern Europe. â€Å"Our beer almost sells itself; discount pricing and heavy advertising are unwarranted. The challenge is getting people to try it and getting into a distribution pipeline. † Pinchuk quoted. Initially in 1998, Ukraine had no beer distributors, presenting a large problem – the company had no means of distributing the product amongst ustomers. Distributors in the Ukraine had no capital and could not receive financing from banks to set up their business because they had no collateral, low profits, negative cash flows and were seen as a high risk. They were also not able to bear the credit terms that were currently implemented on the German distributors . This is where Pinchuk’s strategies have been essential for our expansion into the Ukraine. Pinchuk, on a small budget, managed to organise five distributors and set up warehouse arrangements. He relaxed the credit policy for the Ukraine distributors from 2% 10, net 40 to 2% 10, net 80 – essentially financing their business and making it possible for them to set up and operate. Carrying a substantial part of the distributor’s inventory also took pressure and costs away from the distributors while making it possible to respond rapidly to changes in demand. These strategies have increased customers in the Ukraine from 0 to 211, with even more expected in 2001. For Oleg’s strategies to be implemented, the business has required large working capital investments. Particularly in accounts receivable where days in receivables is nearly 90 days. We believe that Pinchuk’s analysis of the return on investment has been overstated because he hasn’t taken into account the investments in inventory and capital expenditure that would also be needed. Exhibit 3 shows our adjusted analysis of the return that the business is receiving after taking into account changes in inventories and capital expenditure. We assumed that 85% of changes in inventory and 90% in capital expenditure were attributed to investment in the Ukraine. These assumptions are explained in the exhibit. Our results still produce a high return of 42% in the year 2000 which is much higher than the cost of financing long-term debt at 6. 5%. Notably, these investments are risky and the company needs to compare the return to their risk adjusted cost of capital for the Ukraine and not the cost of financing the debt to see if it is worthwhile. Exhibit 4 gives a good analysis of how these policies have affected the business’ performance and situation. Although sales growth has been consistently large, operating profit margin has decreased overall since his strategies were implemented. Return on equity and net assets have increased and in the year 2000 were 10. 3% and 8. 4% respectively. This is a good result for the business and shows efficient management of assets. It seems that Pinchuk’s strategies were possibly harmful to the business by decreasing the profit margin and taking on a lot of risk. It is our belief that the credit policy should not be relaxed and could even be tightened to less than 80 days. Unfortunately, reducing risk by tightening the policy would be accompanied by a decrease in sales. Although Pinchuk’s strategies have been potentially damaging, we do believe that he deserves an increase in his salary for expanding the company despite facing difficult conditions. His current compensation package is a base salary of EUR40,000 plus an incentive payment of 0. 5 % of sales growth. The current compensation package provides Pinchuk with an incentive to pursue projects that are risky to the company like extending large credit to distributors who are unable to pay it back. This would increase sales, thus increasing his salary, but would have a negative effect on both profits and the company. His incentive payment needs to be aimed more at collection and profits rather than sales growth. Our recommendation is to increase his base salary to EUR50,000 and have his incentive payment tied to annual profits (0. 6% of the annual increase in profits). However, in our recommended financial plan for 2001, there is a projected net profit of EUR 2,712,000. This is a decrease in profits from the previous year and would imply that Pinchuk would receive no incentive payment for 2001. Hopefully this would motivate him to increase the following year’s profits by revising his marketing and collection strategies. Analysis of Dividend Declaration Traditionally, DB pays out 75% from earnings as dividends each year to shareholders. At the moment, the company has a cash shortage as it is holding high levels of inventory and is extremely relaxed in credit terms for their Ukrainian distributors. Paying out dividends at 75% would mean increasing debt in order for the company to fund their proposed investment in a new plant. This would add strain on the already huge short-term debt that they have taken on. The possibility of a financial downturn in 2001 adds to the uncertainty of an increase in profits as projected in the financial plan. Guaranteeing that the company will pay out EUR698,000 in dividends might be too risky. Rather than rely on more bank borrowings, Deutsche Brauerei should retain more earnings to cover their bank borrowings and to also finance their future investments and projects. In addition, should there be a financial crisis, the retained earnings would help to cushion the impact from the crisis. As most of the shareholders are older members of the Schweitzer family, and are retirees who depend on the dividend payout, reducing the dividend payout might cause some upset. However, paying out a dividend percentage of 75% is causing more harm to the company. By reducing this percentage to 60%, the company is able to retain 40% of their net profits for reinvestment and financing future projects. These retained earnings would also help ease the problem of their current cash shortage. Dividend Payout| 50%| 60%| 75%| | 2001| 2002| 2001| 2002| 2001| 2002| Net Income| 2712| 3439| 2712| 3439| 2712| 3439| Dividends| 1356| 1720| 1627| 2063| 2034| 2579| | | | | | |   | Retention of Earnings| 1356| 1720| 1085| 1376| 678| 860| The table above shows the changes in retained earnings according to the changes in dividend percentages – the higher the dividend payout, the lower the retained earnings. It is recommended that, in the first quarter of 2001, the company should pay out the same amount of dividends which the shareholders received in 2000 (EUR 546, 500). It should be explained that if the forecast for 2001 is correct, and there is no financial crisis, the shareholders can expect a larger dividend payout in the next quarter. From our recommended financial plan (i. e. net profit is EUR 2,712,000), paying out dividends of 60% would mean that the shareholders can expect to receive a payout of EUR 406,800 in the second quarter. Analysis of Deutsche Brauerei’s 2001 Financial Budget One of the main concerns for Deutsche Brauerei’s financial budget for 2001 is its heavy reliance on short-term debt financing. This is mainly due to operating strategies, policies, large sales growth, dividends and capital expenditure being financed through working capital. These have all attributed in draining the company’s cash and causing the business to finance the investment through working capital using short-term borrowing. The overall reliance on debt financing has stayed around 42% (debt/total capital ratio, Exhibit 4). The main borrowing used by Deutsche Brauerei has been short-term debt, so the company has incurred a large cash drain. Short-term debt requires fast repayments to be made and normally charge a higher interest rate than what is charged on long-term debts. Short-term bank borrowings have increased dramatically from 1997 to 2000 and are projected to increase further in 2001 and 2002 (Exhibit 1). As for long-term debt, it has been steadily decreasing since 1997, further showing Deutsche Brauerei’s heavy reliance on short-term debt as their main source of financing. The 80-day credit policy given to Ukraine distributors has resulted in large increases in sales and accounts receivables. Exhibit 4 shows a large growth rate in sales and receivables mainly from the Ukraine. In 1998, accounts receivable in the Ukraine were EUR 424,000 and by 2000 have dramatically increased to EUR 6,168,000. In comparison with Germany, the Ukraine accounts receivable has grown at an extremely large rate. This is mainly due to the fact that most of the new Ukrainian sales are on credit. The credit policy gives distributors 80 days to pay, but in reality, in 1999 and 2000, the days in receivables was 85. and 87. 1 respectively. The fact that it is taking such long periods of time to receive cash from sales is forcing Deutsche Brauerei to finance working capital in other ways such as short-term borrowing. The company also holds a large amount of inventory for the Ukraine distributors. This requires extra investment in inventory and that this inventory is held for longer . This results in it taking even longer to receive cash from our investment, thus increasing the already stretched cash conversion cycle. Exhibit 1C shows that Deutsche Brauerei’s inventories have been steady right up until 1999 and have approximately doubled. The large dividend payout ratio has also resulted in the increased use of short term financing. Although the business has substantial profits to pay out these dividends, the cash is already tied up and these payouts have required more short term financing. The business’ 25% plough back ratio is not sufficient for reinvestment, requiring even more future borrowing to pay for capital expenditure. Capital expenditure of EUR 7 million has been forecasted for both 2001 and 2002, requiring even more short-term borrowing. To prevent large cash drainage in the upcoming years, Deutsche Brauerei needs to re-evaluate their debt financing choices. Long-term debt should be considered as an alternative to short term debt. Not only will this decrease the strain on the company’s cash, it will also allow for the investment in a new plant and equipment for 2001 because of the availability of funds. Long term debt can also be used in 2002 as a source of financing for the proposed new warehouse. Since the cost of the warehouse is considerably high (EUR 6. 8 million), it would be unwise to finance it using short term debt, thus, long term debt would be the appropriate choice. Proposed Amendments to 2001 Financial Budget: To produce more accurate predictions for the coming year, there are some amendments that need to be made to Pinchuk’s forecasts and assumptions. Firstly, in Pinchuk’s financial plan, sales growth in Germany and Ukraine were projected to be 3% and 45% respectively. Germany’s growth is believed to be a fair representation but the predicted sales growth for the Ukraine seems to be overestimated. New projects initially have large growths per year but they also decrease rapidly. In 1999, actual sales growth for the Ukraine was 312% but in 2001, Ukraine’s actual sales growth was 47%. Therefore, for the year 2001, it is believed that sales growth should decrease to a figure considerably less than 45%, for example, 30%. Also, the operating margins seem to be optimistically high at 7%. An average of the operating profit margin from the past 4 years is 6. 88%. This is possibly still too high in comparison to Germany and Ukraine’s operating margins of 6. 10% in 2000. Our recommendation is to use 6. 1% again for 2001 because you would not expect operating profit margin to increase if the predicted global recession occurs. We have also changed the dividend payout policy to a recommended 60% as explained earlier in the dividend declaration section. Increasing the credit policy in the Ukraine to 90 days could be seen as a very risky strategy to pursue especially with the current signs of a global financial crisis. Sales would increase in terms of accounts receivable but the company already stands to lose a lot of money if distributors start to default. A financial crisis would cripple the distributors in the Ukraine and they would be forced to default their accounts. It is suggested that the policy should be left at 80 days to prevent that potential loss. It is also suggested that allowance for doubtful debts should be increased from 2% to 6% to account for the potential recession. As mentioned earlier, it would be wise to tighten the policy rather than let it increase to 90 days in 2001. A sensitivity analysis on allowance and net profit was undertaken in Exhibit 2C, the purpose of this analysis is to determine how net profit would change given our assumption for the allowance of doubtful debt. Pinchuk assumed in his projections that the allowance percentage for the year 2001 is going to be 2%. However, it is believed that this is a considerably low percentage and should be increased to 6% to account for the potential recession as mentioned above. Our sensitivity analysis yielded the following results, in 2001 – if the allowance percentage is set at 2%, then net profit would be EUR 3,083,000. On the contrary, if the allowance is set at 6%, net profit will decrease to EUR 2,712,000. We believe that this decrease will account for the potential recession that may strike in 2001. The company is also advised to take on some long-term borrowing as well as reducing their investment in working capital. This will reduce the reliance on short-term borrowing. It is believed that the firm should get a long-term loan of EUR 14 million because under our assumptions, it would reduce short term borrowings to EUR880,000 which is significantly less than the firms forecasted cash of EUR12 million. This would get rid of the firm’s short-term borrowing reliance and greatly enhance the firms liquidity. Exhibit 2D shows a sensitivity analysis of the effect of changing the quantity of long-term debt and the effect dividend policy has on short-term borrowing required in 2001. Keeping the current dividend policy of 75% and under the assumption the firm borrowed EUR 14 million, short-term borrowing would be EUR 1,292,000. Reducing the payout to our recommended ratio of 60% would reduce short-term borrowing to EUR 881,000. Reducing the ratio to below 30% would eliminate the need for short-term borrowing in 2001. Though due to the large quantities of cash the firm has, eliminating short-term debt completely is redundant. Exhibit 1A shows our forecast of Deutsche Brauerei’s income and balance sheet for 2001. We believe that net income for 2001 will be just over EUR 2,712,000 which is about EUR 1 million less than Pinchuk’s forecast. We have incorporated all our suggestions of policy changes including a long-term loan which will help finance the planned capital expenditure for 2001 as well as fix the current cash problem. Recommendations for Deutsche Brauerei Firstly, in regards to a compensation scheme for Oleg Pinchuk, it is recommended that his base salary of EUR 40,000 to EUR 50,000. Also, instead of having his incentive payment be 0. % of sales growth, it is suggested that the incentive payment be 0. 6% of annual growth in profits. This implies that Pinchuk might need to reconsider his marketing and collection strategies. However, it is believed that this would give him the motivation to increase profits every year and this is beneficial to both him and the company. After our analysis on dividend payouts, it is recommended that the company reduce the dividend payout ratio from 75% to 60%. This would enable the company to retain more earnings for future investments and also to cover their short-term borrowings. This also improves their current cash shortage situation. Lastly, it is recommended that several changes be made to Pinchuk’s proposed financial budget for 2001. Instead of a predicted growth rate of 45% for sales in the Ukraine, it is recommended that a more conservative figure of 30% is used. Also, instead of using an operating margin of 7% for both Germany and Ukraine, an operating margin of 6. 10% should be adopted for 2001. In addition, instead of relaxing credit terms from 80 days to 90 days, the company should keep it at 80 days and aim to reduce that in the future. It is also advised that the company take on a long-term loan of EUR 14 million for the building of the warehouse. Lastly, it is recommended that the allowance for doubtful debts be increased from 2% to 6%. These proposed changes take into account the possible recession that may take place in the coming year. Overall, Deutsche Brauerei has been successful in its expansion into the Ukrainian market despite difficult conditions. With slight changes to their current strategies, the company has the potential to achieve even greater success.

Exegetical Paper on Christ Hymn Term Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Exegetical on Christ Hymn - Term Paper Example The Christ Hymn and the Early Christian Community In the opinion of Robert J. Karris, there are many possible backgrounds of the hymn as the large number of studies into the New Testament put forth. Some of them are Christ as the Gnostic redeemer, the Suffering Righteous, and finally, the ruler-worship that existed during the Greco-Roman period1. According to Martin and Martin, the early Christian message about Jesus should be considered in the political context of that time. According to the scholars, the teaching had to confront two political ideologies at the same time; the Roman and the Jewish2. An example is the imperial cult of Rome. According to the cult, emperors enjoyed divine sanction of authority. According to Christian apologists and martyrologists, the imperial cult was nothing other than an instrument of pagan impiety. Thus, it is clear that at the time the hymn was composed, Christians were already aware about their association with a godly kingdom when all other group s were in search of a new kingdom that would replace the naked power of Roman kingdom. However, it is rather surprising to note that despite Jesus’ trial, the persecutors are not mentioned in the hymn. The reason for this hiding, according to Martin and Martin is that identifying the persecutors would have resulted in a lot of trouble for the church. If the Jews were blamed, it would diminish all chances of persuading more Jews to join the church, and blaming the Romans would only result in more atrocities3. As R. P. Martin rightly points out, the hymn may have had one meaning in its original form and a totally different meaning in the context of Paul’s letter. For example, there were the Jewish-Christians who possessed over-realised, triumphalistic eschatology. In order to oppose these ‘enemies of cross’, Paul intentionally stresses on the death on a cross. To counter them, Paul put forward the theory of Jesus who took the form of a servant and who emptie d himself and humbled himself4. This Jesus, according to the hymn, did not take advantage of the equality with God. Instead, He took the appearance of a man and was obedient till death. The second point that attracts the readers is the claim that ‘every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledges that Jesus Christ is Lord’. To explain why Paul wanted to give Jesus such a cosmic leadership that placed Him above all others, R. P Martin points out the fact that since the time of Second Isaiah, it was common for various sectors of Judaism to consider various figures as closely related to, and sometimes equal to, God. Such figures were often considered as divine attributes, patriarchs or angels. Thus, the Christ hymn went one step ahead of them by giving Christ such a cosmic leadership that is above and beyond all other figures. As already said ‘every knee should bow and every tongue should acknowledge tat Jess is the Lord ’. According to R. P Martin, it is this need that made the composers of the hymn switch from the monotheistic God of Isaiah to Jesus. Another explanation is that the hymn was very vital for the early Christians to stay firm on their belief under the raw power of the Roman empires. In order to show how tolerant Jesus was, the hymn introduced a Jesus who decided to take the nature of a servant and humbled him by being

The National Curriculum, and Bilingualism - A Review and Summary of Essay

The National Curriculum, and Bilingualism - A Review and Summary of Mitchell, Hooper and Brumfit (1994) - Essay Example These areas were meant to see the relationship between pupils’ developing understanding of language and language learning. In the end it is concluded that given the fragmented and episodic nature of mush AL work, its full potential contribution to pupils’ development as language users is not being realized. Suggestions for improvement are made. The project carried out in the case that is being reviewed has been initially taken into consideration for research as the strong curriculum debates about â€Å"Knowledge about language† (KAL) have taken place. This term implies that pupils’ learning language in formal setting started to acquire some explicit understandings and knowledge of the nature of language as well as the development of practical language skills were debated to be needed. Therefore, researches of the project that is being reviewed have found it reasonable to review the range of rationales which have been advanced in recent years in support of this position and to provide review of two important findings about teaching of English and of foreign languages. Overall these projects revealed substantial levels of KAL-related activity in English and foreign languages, and some suggestions of its positive contribution to learning, especially for control and planning in writing. The case study that is being reviewed is well organized and consists of several parts that cohesively complete a new investigation about knowledge of language. After Abstract, and executive summary, authors provide acknowledgement to those who were helpful to complete the research. Primary thanks are made to several teachers of English and Modern Language as well as to their 9-year classes, who gave access to visit lessons and thus to willingly share the thought and achievements with researches of the study. Also thanks are made to ESRC who funded the project and for the general encouragement to think in a cross-curricular framework which came