Failure In Small Business Essay Example for Free

Failure In Small Business Essay It is actually a fact that only about 53% of small businesses are not able to keep on trading after three years after their preliminary set up. Some of the businesses fail within their first year of operation. There are so many reasons why this tends to happen. However, business failure does not only happen with the new businesses but it also happen to those businesses which have been in operation for quite some time regardless of how successful they tend to be. Even if business failure happens to all sizes of businesses, the small businesses are very much affected by larger threats for the reason that they do not have the support of additional money as well as resources that the big companies have. Business failure does not only come about through the problems experienced in your own company, they can as well be achieved as a subsidiary effect from dealings made by other businesses, clients and suppliers. It is very necessary for one to identify the premature signs of business failure in order to solve the problem before it is too late (Dwight, 1993). Finally, the business failure comes about when the business has gone beyond a point where it can not continue operating in business any long without encountering supplementary troubles. These troubles might not offer any feasible solutions and for one to go ahead in trading, he or she has to put him or her self in even deeper problems. When the business has reached this point, it is very important for one to acknowledge the business failure early or else he or she will face increased financial as well as legal troubles when trying to save his or her business or he can even go further and put his business to rest. There so many causes of business failure. So many businesses fail because several managers do not incorporate accounting as well as accounting practices to a practical level in their business. Despite the fact that they don’t posses all the accounting knowledge, they really suffer from the lack of financial control together with the problems concerning the cash flow which leads to business failure. If one has a weak accountancy expertise, he is likely to employ a very knowledgeable bookkeeper to manage the financial records on a regular basis. It is very important for one to have somebody who can comprehend the monetary accounts plus the management accounts. Before starting up the business one is supposed to find some time to learn the financial management skills (Claire, 1998). Lack of funds is also another cause of business failure. If one finds out that he does not have enough capital to start up the business, he is supposed to wait until the time when he has saved enough money he needs before starting up a business. If one risks and starts up a business without enough capital then the fellow is destined for business failure. Lack of funds usually leads to too much borrowing and as a result, the business becomes insolvent for the reason that the liabilities becomes too high than the assets. Bankruptcy is a very common result as in it has a cycle of poor management. Lack of funds can also come through competition. As much as the business is offering competitive prices, the business will end up making little profit margin hence it will be too difficult to fund other areas within the business. High costs of finance is another cause of business failure because it can be so disastrous as soaring interest rates as well as unfavorable compensation schedules are so much ignored due to the difficulty of financing the business (John, 1994). As a matter of fact, it is very necessary for one to manage his or her finance with a very keen concern towards interest as well as repayment schedules in order to avoid the business becoming insolvent in the early moments. The collection of data is rather a frustrating process. One needs to persuade the potential data providers to take part. One has to convince them about the value of the information to the business. I provided the incentives for sources to participate such as the clean copy of the eventual database of the relative data to the rest of the database. Eventually I drew a data table in the business notebook to help during the collection of data. A data table ensured that the business is consistent in recording data and it makes it easier to analyze the results of the business. The techniques which were used during the collection of data are data mining techniques. I sorted from large amounts of data and picked out the information because it is the analytic process which is desired to discover data (Claire, 1998). It is expected that all the business persons must have a clear understanding of the failure points in future. Another outcome is that all the business persons must stay in business successfully by not selling cheap products or service. He is not intending to impress the customers but all business persons are supposed to make people feel that they are not getting ripped off. In future all business persons must learn to begin businesses with enough capital. The business person must always learn to hire more staff when there is too much work to be done. They are not supposed to get behind on the work or else the clients will not feel happy. The business is intending to get sufficient operating funds. The business will require the costs of starting and the costs of staying the business in operation. Enough funds are needed in order to cover all the costs until sales can finally pay for these costs. However, all the funds will be borrowed from the bank which will be repayable after the business picks up. References Claire, W. (1998). Risky Business: The Personal and Financial Costs of Small Business Failure. California: Policy Studies Institute. Dwight, R. (1993). Failure and Progress. New Mexico: Cato Institute. John, L. (1984). Success and Failure in Small Business. New York: Gower Publishing Company. John, H. (1991). Measurement of Success and Failure in Small Business. Washington: Curtin University of Technology. John, E. (1963). Small Business Instability and Failure. Alabama: Bureau of Business Research.

The First Generation Currency Crisis Model Finance Essay

The First Generation Currency Crisis Model Finance Essay Reinhart, 1999). A currency crisis is an episode in which the exchange rate depreciates substantially during a short period of time. The models in this literature are often categorized as first-, second- or third-generation. FIRST GENERATION CURRENCY CRISIS MODEL: The classic first-generation models are those of Krugman (1979) and Flood and Garber (1984). It is a model without uncertainty. It states that, traders speculate against fixed exchange rate in order to profit from an anticipated speculation. Speculative attacks in this framework are inevitable and respect an entirely rational market response to persistently confliction internal and external macroeconomic targets. In first-generation models the collapse of a fixed exchange rate regime is caused by unsustainable fiscal policy. A hallmark of first-generation models is that the government runs a persistent primary deficit. This deficit implies that the government must either deplete assets, such as foreign reserves, or borrow to finance the deficit. The key ingredients of a first-generation model are its assumptions regarding purchasing power parity (PPP), the government budget constraint, the timing of deficits, the money demand function, the governments rule for abandoning the fixed ex change rate, and the post-crisis monetary policy. Burnside, Eichenbaum and Rebelo argue that their model accounts for the main characteristics of the Asian currency crisis. This explanation of the Asian currency crisis stresses the link between future deficits and current movements in the exchange rate. In first-generation models the government follows an exogenous rule to decide when to abandon the fixed exchange rate regime. The things to note about this model of currency crisis are- The root cause of the crisis is poor government policy. The source of the upward trend in the shadow exchange rate is given by the increase in domestic credit. The crisis, though sudden, is a deterministic event: the crisis is inevitable given he policies and the timing is in principle predictable. The first generation currency crisis model seen to do no harm. In this model, there is no effect on output, but even a richer model will not generated a real economy slump in the aftermath of a first generation currency crisis model. The crisis determination is a future policy stances that investors foresee, not the one observed in the past. The importance of policy choice in deciding to quit the fixed exchange rate regime. There was no mechanical link between capital flight and abandonment of the peg. There was no obvious trend in long-run equilibrium exchange reate. There was no evidence of irresponsible policies in any of the country involved. SECOND GENERATION CURRENCY CRISIS MODEL: The logic of this model is the interactions between expectations, macro economic trade-offs and decisions. This class of model is characterized by multiple equilibria and the interactions between market expectations and policy outcome can lead to a self-fulfilling crises. As long as the peg is credible this is the price the government is willing to pay because there are political and/or long-run economic goals. In second-generation models the government maximizes an explicit objective function (Obstfeld, 1994). This maximization problem dictates if and when the government will abandon the fixed exchange rate regime. Second-generation models generally exhibit multiple equilibria so that speculative attacks can occur because of self-fulfilling expectations. It differs with the first generation models in- 1. No irresponsible policy. 2. No predictability of the crisis and 3. If the country leaves the peg, there is no negative impact on employment and output. Since the monetary policy constraint is removed and the result is positive in terms of short-run macroeconomics benefits. 2. MORAL HAZARD Moral hazard is a situation in which one party in a transaction has more information than another. The party that is insulated from risk generally has more information about its actions and intentions than the party paying for the negative consequences of the risk. Moral hazard arises because an individual or institution does not take the full consequences and responsibilities of its doings, and therefore has a tendency to act less carefully than it alternately would, leaving another party to hold some responsibility for the consequences of those actions. Moral hazard also arises in a principal-agent problem, where one party, called an agent, acts on behalf of another party, called the principal. EXPANDED GOVERNMENT GUARANTEES FOR BANK LIABILITIES: Government provision of a financial safety net for financial institutions has long been a key element of the policy response to crises and the current crisis is no exception. This particular crisis is fairly severe however, so governments have felt obliged to go beyond the usual support measures, moving to expand existing guarantees and to introduce new ones, in some cases quite markedly. Valuation problems are also complicit in the duration of the problems. These and other related actions (such as loss sharing arrangements for assets and capital injections) appeared to have avoided a further loss of confidence on the part of market participants, by raising the likelihood that retail depositors and other creditors would continue to provide a stable source of funding for banks, thus reducing the threat of insolvency of these entities. Thus, these actions have bought time, with limited if any upfront fiscal costs. Actually, just like financial guarantee insurance companies, the governm ent earns a small fee from the debt issuer for lending out its top credit rating. There are nonetheless potentially substantial costs associated with these measures. Even if guarantees do not generate significant upfront fiscal costs, they create large contingent fiscal liabilities, as well as other potential costs that may arise as a result of distortions of incentives and competition. In recognition of this situation, the discussions of financial safety net issues at the past CMF meeting concluded that, going forward, policy makers need to consider the issue of exit strategies from expanded guarantees. Another important issue related to the additional guarantees is their pricing. In this respect, the premise of the discussion in the present note is that potential distortions should be limited to the extent that government guarantees are priced appropriately. By contrast, distortions are more likely to arise where guarantees are offered at prices that appear to be substantially low er than market or some form of fair prices. It has long been known that financial intermediaries whose liabilities are guaranteed by the government pose a serious problem of moral hazard. The U.S. savings and loan debacle is the classic example: because depositors in thrifts were guaranteed by FSLIC, they had no incentive to police the lending of the institutions in which they placed their money; since the owners of thrifts did not need to put much of their own money at risk, they had every incentive to play a game of heads I win, tails the taxpayer loses. WORKING OF CIRCULAR PROCESS IN REVERSE TO CAUSE ASSET PRICES COLLAPSES The mechanism of crisis involved that same circular process in reverse: falling asset prices made the insolvency of intermediaries visible, forcing them to cease operations, leading to further asset deflation. This circularity, in turn, can explain both the remarkable severity of the crisis and the apparent vulnerability of the Asian economies to self-fulfilling crisis which in turn helps us understand the phenomenon of contagion between economies with few visible economic links. Asian economies experienced a noticeable boom-bust cycle not only in investment but also or even especially in asset prices. Presumably this reflected the fact that assets were in imperfectly elastic supply. The easiest way to do this is to imagine that the only available asset is land, which cannot be either created or destroyed. Again, let us initially consider a two-period model. In the first period investors bid for land, setting its price. In the second period they receive rents, which are uncertain at the time of bidding. But now suppose that there are financial intermediaries, once again able to borrow at the world interest rate (again normalized to zero) because they are perceived as being guaranteed. And also as before, we assume that owners need not put any of their own money at risk, but that competition among the intermediaries eliminates any expected economic profit. The result is obvious: intermediaries will be willing to bid on the land, based not on the expected value of future rent but on the Pangloss value in this case 100. So all land will end up owned by intermediaries, and the price of land will be double what it would be in an undistorted economy. 3. MORAL HAZARD CAUSE A DEADWEIGHT SOCIAL LOSS The phenomenon of undertaking risky and often corrupt loans and transactions, but knowing that if the gamble fails someone else (usually the state) will pick up the tab, is known as moral hazard. In the table 1, two alternative investments are available. One yields a known present value of $107 million; the other will yield $120 million if conditions are favorable, but only $80 million if they are not. The good state and the bad state are equally likely, so that the expected returns on this risky investment are $100 million. However, the owner of the financial intermediary knows that while he can capture the excess returns in the good state, he can walk away from the losses in the bad state. So if he chooses the safe investment he gains a sure 7; but if he chooses the risky investment he gains 20 in the good state, loses nothing in the bad state, for an expected gain of 10. Thus his incentive is to choose the risky investment, even though it has a lower expected return. And this distortion of investment decisions produces a deadweight social loss: the expected net return on the invested capital falls from $7 million to zero. 4,5, 6 7. DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE EXPECTED VALUE OF LAND RENT AND ITS CORRESPONDING PENGLOSS VALUE. There is a two period model to explain land value. In the first period, investors bid for land and setting its price. In the second period they receive rents, which are uncertain at the time of bidding. The financial intermediaries will be willing to bid on the land, based not on the expected value of future rent but on the Pangloss value. So all land will end up owned by intermediaries, and the price of land will be double what it would be in an undistorted economy. In an undistorted economy we can solve backwards for the price. The expected rent in period 3, and therefore the price of land purchased at the end of period 2, is 50. The expected return on land purchased in period 1 is therefore the expected rent in period 2 (50) plus the expected price at which it can be sold (also 50), for a first-period price of 100. This is also, of course, the total expected rent over the two periods. Now suppose that intermediaries are in a position to borrow with guarantees. Again working backwa rd, at the end of period 2 they will be willing to pay the Pangloss value of third-period rent, 100. In period 1 they will be willing to pay the most they could hope to realize off a piece of land: the Pangloss rent in period 2, plus the Pangloss price of land at the end of that period. So the price of land with intermediation will be 200 in period 1 again, twice the undistorted price. It seems, then, that the multi-period version of the model, in which part of the return to investment depends on the future prices of assets, makes no real difference to the distortion of those prices imposed by guaranteed intermediaries. However, this result changes in a dramatic way once we allow for the possibility of changes in the financial regime that is, if we believe that moral hazard may be a sometime thing. 8. KRUGMANS MODEL JUSTIFICATION ON OCUURANCE OF SELF-FULFILLING FINANCIAL CRISIS Using a signalling approach-based EWS model, this paper has attempted to provide more empirical evidence on the causes of the 1997 Asian financial crisis, with a view to discriminating between the two hypotheses of weak fundamentals and investors panic. The results show that the overall composite leading index of the EWS model issued persistent warning signals prior to the 1997 crisis in not just a few, but all of the five countries most affected by the crisis. This finding appears not to square well with the investor panic, market overreaction and regional contagion postulate. Instead, it lends support to the hypothesis that weaknesses in economic and financial fundamentals in these countries triggered the crisis. First, in most countries under consideration, there were appreciations in the real exchange rate against both the US dollar and the basket currencies of their major trading partners. The real appreciations appeared to have contributed to the deteriorations in these countri es trade and current account positions. Second, there were apparent problems in the capital account, as indicated by persistent warning signals by the ratio of M2 to foreign reserves in the case of Indonesia, and the ratio of foreign liabilities to foreign assets of the banking sector in Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. Third, there was strong evidence of excessive growth of domestic credit, particularly in Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, and Thailand. Last, there was also evidence of deteriorations in the real sector in most countries, and the burst of asset price bubbles, especially in Korea and Thailand. The fact that all these individual leading indicators issued warning signals prior to the 1997 Asian crisis indicates that they had reached the critical levels that historically had often triggered currency crises, lending further support to the weak fundamentals hypothesis. 9. EXPLANATION OF ASIAN CRISIS 1997 BY KRUGMANS MODEL The crucial point here is that capital is not so much interested in aggregate growth rates as sectorial profitabilitythus a growing economy might still experience declining profitability in certain sectors which in turn can scare off financial capital and possibly later productive capital. However, in East Asia, this would have meant hundreds of banks and finance houses being forced to shut downthreatening not only the financial system of Asia, but also institutions across the globe with which they have myriads of dealings. The credit crunch that followed led to massive layoffsthis is the classic paying for the crisis. The East Asian crisis does shed light on developments in the world economy which make it highly likely that similar crises will erupt in the future. Such developments relate to the deregulated nature of world financial markets, so that the triggering mechanism of a crisis may be financial (currency devaluations, runs on banks, etc) even though the ultimate origins lie in the real economy . This is not to deny that financial panics may also emanate in situations where there has been no significant deterioration in the real economyabove all on the profit rates. Hence when profits start to dip, or are likely to fall below expectation, a careful calculation needs to be madeeither stay with the gamble or move elsewhere. In regard to direct investment, the decision naturally cannot be acted upon with immediate effect, but in financial markets exiting from markets can be done almost instantaneouslyand this potentially accentuates the stampede and contagion. Evidence suggests that the origins of financial instability in East Asia do indeed reside within the real economyabove all in the falling returns on investment.

Why Did The Soviet Union Collapse?

Why Did The Soviet Union Collapse? More than two decades have passed since the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics disappeared from the world political stage. Starting with 1985, the internal situation of the Soviet Union, as well as its international status, began to experience breathtakingly fast and radical change, which eventually led to its collapse in 1991, event probably commemorated today only by Vladimir Putin, who describes it as the greatest geopolitical catastrophe of the century (annual state-of-the-nation address to Parliament,  Moscow, April the 29th, 2005, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty). The are many controversial debates about the actual reasons that caused the collapse of the vast Soviet Empire, but one thing is certain: they cannot be reduced to one single factor, as for an historical event of such calibre to happen, it took the interaction of many factors, producing a set of circumstances that made the change urgent and inevitable. In the following essay, I shall present and argue the main fact ors that contributed to and can be described as reasons for the end of the Soviet Union. To begin with, we are talking about a disintegration process with different origins and extremely intense dynamics. The systemic involution had actually begun in February 1956, when Nikita Khrushchev struck the deadly blow against the myth of Stalins inerrability (February 25, 1956: Khrushchevs Secret Speech, denouncing Stalins abuses). It was followed by other disillusions, which would undermine the myths of the irreversibility and invincibility of the communist order. The economic problems of the USSR were asking for desperate measures, the society was becoming more and more corrupt, harsh, and inefficient, the sole existence of the USSR as a union was starting to be questioned. After the removal of Khrushchev from power in 1964, Leonid Brezhnev was appointed his successor. The economic crisis that engulfed the Soviet Union and the majority of the socialist states in the 1970s spread to the following decade. The reform surrogates consecutively introduced by the communist leaders failed to optimize the economy and release tension in social relations. The soviet socialism model proved to be completely inadequate, considering that the world was about to enter as Jeremy Rifkin calls it the third industrial revolution. Yuri Andropov (1982-1984) appeared to be trying to put into practice a reform policy, but was confronted by the inflexibility of the superior political structures and resistance from the bureaucratic system installed by Brezhnev. But shortly after the death of Konstantin Cernenko, on March the 11th 1985, in Moscow, a new leader emerged, animated by reforming ideas, under the aegis of Mikhail Gorbachev. The Soviet Union was confronting grave issues at the time Gorbachev took over, and they were all exacerbated by the immense quantum of military expenditures. The new General Secretary was quite cautious at the beginning, apparently proving to be consequent to his predecessors, but he then rapidly proceeded to consolidating his power, replacing, in a few weeks time, much of the governing team, and casting away his main rivals. This was meant to pave the way to Gorbachevs reforms. It started with the Central Committee plenum of the CPSU in April 1985, where Gorbachev brought forward the principles of the policy he intended to put into practice in the Soviet Union, in an attempt to save the communist system by implementing a slow liberalizing process that would lead to the abolition of the systems most heinous features, without destroying its ideological fundaments. That policy bears the name of perestroika, or restructuring. In his vision, the soviet system had deviated from the Leninist theory, and needed a reorganization based on reforming the political and economic systems, and improving the system of social relations, above all economic (Kommunist, no. 5, 1985, as cited in Sakwa, R., 1999, The Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union, London and New York: Routledge, p.424). The main goal of perestroika was to demolish the consequences of the Brezhnev era (famously described as an era of economic stagnation), so Gorbachev decided to adopt a strategy of rapid accel eration (uskorenie) in the rate of growth, confident of the command economys potential to deliver it (Acton, E. and Stableford T., 2007, The Soviet Union: A DOCUMENTARY HISTORY, vol. 2: 1939-1991, Exter: University of Exter Press, p. 384). Applying this concept relied entirely on the support of the society, but conscious of the obstacles standing in his way, the soviet leader took a set of measures in order to stop the nomenclature who would have wanted to prevent these reforms from happening. A general view of this vision could be summarized in this extract from Gorbachev, M. S., 1987, PERESTROIKA: New Thinking for Our Country and the World, London: Collins, p. 66: I am pleased that theres a growing understanding, both within the Party and in the society as a whole, that we have started an unprecedented political, economic, social and ideological endeavour. If we are to implement everything we have planned, we must also carry out unprecedented political, economic, social and ideological work in both the internal and external spheres. Above all, we bear an unprecedented responsibility. And we are aware of the need for large-scale and bold efforts, especially at the first stage. In any case, the contradictions and limits of perestroika prevented the political system from being reformed. Therefore, there was a radical difference between what the initiator of the reforms wanted and what the final result was. Another important component of the reforming policy Gorbachev was introduced in 1986, and is called glasnost (openness), which meant gradually abolishing censorship, introducing political transparency and freedom of the media, which was a gate to elucidating the problems that were blocked, or remained unsolved for decades. The freedom a person had to publicly express a point of view which, not many years ago, would have had him deported in gulags (or even sentenced to death, in Stalins time), became an ordinary right thanks to glasnost. Soviet newspapers could criticize the government policy, the CPSU, and even Gorbachev himself. Yet remarkable were the results of perestroika in the external relations. He was convinced that this program could not be fulfilled unless the countrys international relations radically changed. Indeed, the USSR started redrawing its essential external policy. Together with his External Affairs Minister, Eduard Shevardnadze, Gorbachev managed to practically revolutionize the soviet external policy, enjoying great sympathy around the world. He introduced a new political thinking, based on a few components: external policy no longer needed to be reasoned and led through the ideological factor; the conflict between the 2 superpowers, USSR and USA, was non-productive, and military power did not automatically guarantee national security; the soviet state needed to revise its external objectives. Signing an agreement with China on the issue of the oriental borderline, his propositions to limit nuclear and conventional armaments, and drawing off his troops in Afghanistan, made Gorbachev loo k like a man who was promising peace. Furthermore, at the European Council in Strasbourg, he admitted that there is no such thing as an unchangeable social system, and suggested that such transformations could occur in Eastern Europe. This signal was also received in Eastern European states, not only in the West. His declaration was widely interpreted as a green light to the reformers in Eastern Europe, in their efforts to implement a democratic system and a market economy, but especially, it dispelled the fear of the intervention of the Big Brother (the name Hà ©là ¨ne Carrà ¨re dEncausse gives to the Soviet Union) to end the reforms. Another important step in the democratization of the USSR was made in 1989, with the election of a new Soviet Parliament, the Congress of Peoples Deputies. These were not free elections like the ones in the West, taking into consideration that 90% of the candidates were members of the CPSU and other political parties were strictly forbidden. But these elections offered the people the possibility to choose their candidates, and the vote counting had been correctly done. It was definitely the closest thing to democratic elections since 1917. Yet despite the radical reforms adopted in the USSR, no one anticipated the fundamental changes that were about to happen in Eastern Europe between 1989 and 1991. Poland was the first country in Eastern Europe where Gorbachevs perestroika and glasnost turned into an anticommunist revolution. The non-violent Polish break-up with a totalitarian regime was made possible by the existence of both governing and opposition elites, who understood the necessity of such a compromise. The final closure of the communist era in postwar Poland was done in December 1990, with the election of Lech Walesa as president. The Polish events in 1988-1989 had a substantial impact on the entire region. Hopes were reborn in Hungary, as in the spring of 1990, elections were held and won by the Democratic Forum, which led to overthrowing the communist power through the will of the people. In Czechoslovakia, the collapse of the communist regime was done by what the historians and public opinion know as The Velvet Revolution. Active opposition became visible since early 1989, when demonstrations were held throughout the country, and just as expected, democratic forces would take over later that year. The regime collapse in East Germany came as a natural consequence of the events rapidly taking place in the soviet bloc. In late October and early November 1989, hundreds of thousands of protesters went out on the streets of East German cities, demanding their rights. On November the 9th, the Berlin Wall, the main symbol of both German separation and the Cold War, was demolished. In Bulgaria, in December 1989, the communist leader T. Jivkov was arrested and the Communist Party changed its name into the Bulgarian Socialist Party, as a symbolic break-up from the Leninist dogmas. In Romania, unlike other countries in the soviet bloc, communism was overthrown through a violent, open fight. The lack of real opposition within the Communist Party made a peaceful transition impossible. The revolution first started in a city in Western Romania, and was first repressed by the secret police. But a second revolutionary wave broke out on December the 20th, which eventually spread out across the country, breaking the psychological barrier. First encountering militia and army resistance, the huge crowds managed to take over, forcing the Ceausescu dictatorial couple to flee. The communist dictator and his wife were captured, an improvised Court charged them with genocide and impairment of national economy, and the two were finally executed on the Christmas Day in 1989. 1990 was the year in which increasing social convulsion started to lead towards questioning perestroika, as an effect of the resurgence of national consciousness in all the Soviet Republics and satellite states, a factor which Gorbachev had not predicted in his plan to redress the Soviet Union. Interethnic confrontations arose in all the Soviet Republics, and national conflicts were threatening the cohesion of the USSR. Lithuania proclaimed its independence in March 1990. It was shortly followed by Estonia, Latvia, Georgia and Armenia. Other Republics proclaimed themselves sovereign: The Russian Federation, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Moldova, Byelorussia, and Ukraine. The laws of the USSR were no longer obeyed, and the leaders of the republics were demanding that the recruits should no longer be incorporated in the Soviet Army. Aware of the danger, Gorbachev proposed, in February 1990, a new treaty that was to establish a confederation, in order to avoid secession. The Congress of Peoples Deputies approved the project for a referendum on keeping the Union. The instauration of a new presidential power weighed significantly in the rapid evolution of the national problem. However, on August the 19th 1991, in Moscow, a group of conservative members of the Politburo who were against the reformation processes, launched what is known today as The August Coup, with the intention of removing Gorbachev from power, but eventually failed. The coup strengthened Boris Yeltsins position as elected President of the RSFSR (Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic) and leader of the democratic forces, and weakened Gorbachevs position. Finally, Gorbachevs desperate endeavors to transform the Soviet Union into the Union of Sovereign States, to organize new elections, to rescue his power, ended in failure. The Republics proclaimed their independence after August 1991. On December the 8th 1991, near Minsk, the Presidents of RSFSR, Ukraine and Byelorussia signed an agreement dissolving the Soviet Union and forming the Commonwealth of Independent States. In these given conditions, on December the 25th 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev would resign from the position of president of a state that no longer existed. The Soviet Union officially ceased to exist starting with December the 31st 1991, 69 years after its establishment. All in all, my view is that the economic backwardness of the USSR, the failure to effectively implement reforms (reforms which, paradoxically, led to its destruction), the loss of the arms race, and not least, nationalism, formed the main factors that determined the collapse of the Soviet Union. The dismantling of the Empire can be interpreted as an unhappy implosion, deriving from profound internal causes, from the inability of communism to build a viable economy. And the germs of the implosion had laid right in the theses of Gorbachevs brilliant by some, a non-sense by others perestroika, in his political actions, as the leader himself is the one who drove the first nails into the coffin, when he demanded the abrogation of article six of the USSR Constitution, which guaranteed the CPSUs supremacy. Gorbachev tried this way to transfer the political power to the Soviets, angering the elder conservative activists. Also, 1989 was the year that practically switched on the genetic immu ne system of captive nations. The long-dispraised nationalism was the explosive that dashed the Empire of proletarian internationalism to the ground. And yet, the revolution did not fail, considering that we cannot talk about a revolution that is totally triumphant. All the founding myths of that system based on the quasi-religious cult of the single party were shaken, and finally collapsed.

My Mom Committed Suicide Essay -- Personal Narrative Writing

My Mom Committed Suicide For the longest time it never occurred to me that I actually did have a mother. The facts I had just weren't enough, I needed more evidence. t is the same thing every year. I find myself guilted into another mother-daughter banquet by my grandmother. As soon as I enter the room she senses my presence and immediately starts parading me around. She drags me from table to table trying to show me off as if I am some door prize she has just won. The dialogue is more or less the same. "Y'all, I would like you meet my granddaughter Julie." Under my breath I correct her, "My name isn't Julie," while still keeping that fake smile on my face that I mastered years ago. She politely restates her introduction: "This is my granddaughter Jobi, Julie's daughter, my middle child. Julie passed away a few years ago." It is at this moment that all noise drowns out and the only words I hear are those spoken through body language and facial expressions: "Oh you poor thing, how tragic." It is also at this moment I feel like running towards the glow of the nearest EXIT sign to escape all the looks of sympathy that make me feel as though my mother died right before I arrived rather than fourteen years ago. I cannot even pretend to know the bond and relationship that these women are celebrating and feel I need to excuse myself for intruding on their special moment. I do appreciate the concern, but the apologies just aren't necessary. I was so young when she passed away that I really don't remember her. This made it hard to relate to my Dad and my brother who were in fact deeply affected by this awful event, and when they talk about her it makes me feel extremely odd. They talk about their memories and the way she was and I ha... ...ords how odd it was to watch me interact with my own mother, a person I don't even know. It is a fact that that moment actually took place, but it is still so unreal to me because I just can't remember. I can't remember anything. And I resent myself for that. They say everyone has a destiny and that your life is planned before it even starts, but I would like to know what it was about me that made me destined for this. I do find peace in the belief that everything happens for a reason and God won't give you more than you can handle at one time. I also take comfort in the belief of a "Heaven" where one day I may get answers to all of my questions and then some. Until that day I will just have to continue day dreaming and dealing with my emotions because no matter how angry I get or how loud I scream, I know that there is no one to answer me. At least not now, anyway.

Chicanoism Today :: essays research papers

Chicanoism Today   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For a more symbolic meaning of the word Chicano/a, to many of us it is the mixture of both American and Mexican culture. It had become a political term for those who wanted to find a more specific word to identify themselves with than Hispanic, a word to classify all who spoke Spanish in America from Latin America. In the 60s the word Chicano/a grew strong with many political Mexican-American’s and used it as a source of pride. Today, the older generation of Chicano/as’, some but many, see young Chicano/as’ as those who live in the past or use the pasts’ struggle to reflect on their own lives and go no where to empower their society. For the most part I disagree, I understand and I am grateful for what the older Chicano/as’ have done historical for us newer generations of Chicano/as’ but I resent that I’m labeled as a â€Å"wannabe†. In the definition of what it is to be the newer race of Chicano/as’ I will have to interpret it from what the past has led us to be now.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In many historical moments of the 60s, you could find many racial groups emerging for their rights to liberation from oppression. The Chicano/a movement was certainly one you couldn’t miss in the books. Organizations like the United Farm Workers or the Brown Berets, as well as protests and rallies such as, pro-Affirmative Action, helped in glorifying the meaning of Chicano/a power. It made many Mexican-Americans proud and not alone in a country that didn’t want them there. Yet with such an upraising in praise and pride for this new identity, the movement declined gradually throughout decades to come. Not much political activism had gone on but the word Chicano/a carried on but not in the sense that the Chicano/as of the 60s intended it to be. It would become an identity to those born in America of Mexican parents.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  By this time around, now in the 90s, I could have the choice on any application to indicate, optionally, what ethnicity I am. It was either Latino/other, or Mexican/Mexican-American/Chicano. With my parents consent of what I was, I’d proudly pick the box that had Chicano beside it. I grew up proud being Chicana because my dad always had pride in what he was, Mexican. Now, as I write/say this, it isn’t pride so much but honor. I honor being Chicana for what the past Chicano/as’ have done to be recognized but now, I honor what the newer Chicano/as’ will do for themselves and society.

Teaching Is An Art For The Teachers

Teaching is an art for the teachers who spend all their love to students. Teaching is not only the way to deliver their knowledge but also teach them how to behave and success in their future. After learning teaching method course. I gain some experiences for myself. To be successful in teaching, found out that discipline is one of the most important role. Then, lesson plan must prepared carefully and the lesson should be easy and interesting.First of all, my first question when I attended some classes in my observation that is why discipline is important. It is because it creates safe learning environment for both students and teachers. Discipline is of great importance in schools. If there is no discipline in schools, it is not possible to imp education effectively. It is necessary to maintain law an order in the society. The teacher can inspire lessons effectively without classroom disruption, and students can receive a quality education without constant distractions.Discipline is the training of the mind and character. It must be instilled in us from very young age. It must begin at home and continued in school. Secondly, Planning and preparing for instruction is the best way to ensure that a lesson is implemented smoothly. The reason why that is when you start teaching without preparing the lesson carefully, you will recognize how difficult it really is to communicate instructional content to a classroom full Of students. Then you do not feel frustrated.However, preparing the lesson is eke a plan that help you know what you going to say in order and it is easy to follow when you teach, and you will not miss any information that you want to tell the student. Prepared the lesson plan carefully not only make you minimize your mistakes when you teach the students, but also help you feel comfortable to be in class. Finally, an effect way to teach that is to make the lesson as simple as you can by using simple words or words and grammars that you know the studen ts are already known. Why?It not only help the dents review the words but also grammar, so they can be interested in the lesson. They want to learn and they feel comfortable to communicate. Also, you can start by telling them a funny story which is related to the lesson and suitable for their level. You can make the lesson more interesting by interacting with the students as asking them to guess the words in the situation or role play.

Acer Group

The Acer Group Acer global mission statement â€Å"fresh technology enjoyed by everyone, everywhere†. The Acer group allied with other companies is globally one of the largest Manufacturers for PC, computer parts. Mobile computers, network server components etc†¦ Starting in Taiwan, Acer was the market leader in thirteen countries around the world and ranked top five in thirty countries globally.With more than 120 enterprises in 44 countries, supporting dealers and distributers over 100 countries, 23,000plus employees around the world excl Taiwan, , US$500million operation in OEM manufacturing, Concentrating on the 3E market- education, entertainment, e-commerce with all its abilities Acer truly made itself a Global Organization, in 1997. Working with Acer Operating independently, yet working together was one of the features of the Acer Group. Decentralization in organization allowed the Acer employees to become responsible in decision making process.The senior management however tried to preserve the concept of â€Å"Symbiotic common interest†, assuaging any difference of opinion and consolidating them, and keeping up the centralized core. The Acer group had a long term vision to transform as a high-tech global corporation, hence taking a smart step to enter foreign markets by allying with the local distributors, retailers, suppliers, Managers, labor etc. Every region has its own need in case of electronics; Acer kept up to the local needs and customized their products accordingly.A local touch was achieved by Acer with every person associated with be it the customer or supplier or its own employee. The Acer aimed at expanding its manufacturing globally, by setting 17 plants in different countries. However it faced the difficulty in transportation of the materials or assembled parts due to various custom restrictions in each region. Different countries applied ISO regulations independently. Certain times these made it difficult for the Acer to continue the traditional way of working as they had planned.The most affected area was the inventory at the global level. It was difficult to predict the inventory level in the market with rapid changes happening around, moreover the product supply was far away. It was now necessary to set up a centralized kitchen to each production unit to reduce the freight and material handling costs. Hence it adopted the ‘Fast Food Model’, wherein the perishable and non-perishable goods were handled and transported separately as per their need. The inventory turnover was however now reduced to half once the fast food was implemented.Each production unit now had its assembly plant, developed R&D, which helped them in shortening the time and cost of component production to delivery. The quality of service they provided was of the foremost importance. Exploring Chinese Mainland Acer wanted to secure a firm footing in the niche market. After suffering the losses in 1996-97, Acer real ized that to win over the large markets it has first capture the smaller surrounding the larger ones. The big markets like Japan and USA had so many competitors trying to find its place that it was impossible for Acer to step in or sustain.However Acer tried entering USA, facing a big time loss. This Failure motivated the Acer to apply the â€Å"Go† Game philosophy of the WAR. Capture the villages to win over the cities. Hence seeing immense scope in the mainland Acer had plans to set up the unit in the Mainland. The Acer Group assumed that being aware of the Chinese culture and ethics would make them easy to establish in the mainland, however the reality was not very pleasing. Initially the political issues between china and Taiwan since the World War II were the major concern.Neither did Taiwan Govt. allowed the invasion of Acer in China mainland, nor was China willing to welcome the setting of Acer in the mainland. However, later after few years in 1998, Taiwan opened its port for Chinese materials; china was still reluctant to do so. Every exchange of goods happened via the south port of china which increased the freight cost. The manager at Acer still thinks moving to china is a good decision as the political issues seemed to be sorting out to some extent as well the WTO granting them membership.Moreover he assumes to see immense resources which could ascend them to their destination. Yet again, there stood another problem the human resources. Though Taiwan and China are closely related traditionally both share complete different work cultures and ethics. The labor in china though was cheap; no guarantee was given about the reliability. No family bonding, no tax incentives, nothing worked. Moreover, the Taiwanese workforce, whether the manager or labor was reluctant to relocate; reason- safety issues, status and standard of living, higher level of education in Taiwan, ocial living which were genuine! Finding reliable, efficient, skilled work force another major issue Acer has to deal with. Discussion China is emerging country in manufacturing. It possesses abundant resources that could catalyze the success of any growing manufacturing industry. The case study indicates about the plans of Acer as well the problem they are facing implementing it. The sales exhibit shows the drop downs of the company during 1996-97. Reason: move to bigger markets in its first step rather taking smaller ones.Hence capturing the niche is surely a wise decision. China has immense resources in terms of land, workforce, etc. Major PC manufacturers now realized the advantages of moving the plants to china, being among the first ones and nearest ones, Acer should not leave the opportunity of growing, for some hurdles across their way. †¢The Acer groups seems to lack with the international expertise from the previous experiences, networking is important in supply chain;they should associate with the locals to understand work culture of the Chinese labors, the incentive policy.Acer has been hiring the locals, and should follow the same and not force the Taiwanese to relocate. †¢However the senior management will have to relocate, in need of a skilled employee who can centralize the autonomy within each plant. The Taiwanese managers however can be provided with better social living facilities, relocation incentives that could maintain their standards. †¢Setting a plant in sparsely industrialized region, closer to east coast. More employment for the locals- cheap labor plus ready to learn. Maximize information flow; minimize material flow between Taiwan and China to avoid Political conflicts and custom issues by utilizing resources within. †¢Not many major PC manufacturers have their units in China, Setting a unit in China will help Acer to invade Asian and European countries. Reducing operation and transportation efforts and cost. To overcome the past loses, Changes in organizational working is necessary, hence r isk is inevitable! Acer to manufacture in China?! (Review)