Bpo Attrition- the Problem and Its Solution Essay

Human Resources In Indian Business Process Outsourcing Organizations- Attrition. Is there any solution? Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) is likely to be the next big thing for services in this decade. The industry is very diverse, with several sub-segments, each displaying its own unique characteristics. The BPO players need to be excellent in every facet of operations as the market is highly competitive at every level and re-defining itself every day. Being a People-Centric industry what are the people issues that, the HR will have to handle? What are the challenges faced by HR in dealing with them? HI Before this, one needs to gain an understanding about BPO’s and what businesses are Indian companies doing in this segment? BPO is based on the premise that whatever competencies are not very important for an organization   (not their core competencies); outsource or ask somebody else who is adept at doing it, to do it for the organization. In this way the organization can concentrate on its core competencies and not worry about on trivial issues, which are not strategic in nature. But these days we even find organizations outsourcing their core competencies or the core business aspects to BPO’s to gain the advantage of cost cutting and quality issues. Typically, BPO would include call centers, problem solving in insurance sector to other sophisticated activities like research and other back office dealings. India has the advantage of low cost, highly qualified English speaking labour, thus most of the BPO ventures in India are call centers, although of late, companies are entering into high-end areas like research. But for sometime at least we can assume that most of the companies would be doing the call center kind of business. Most of these kinds of jobs get done in the night in India to account for the 12-hour time lag between US and India. Over a period of time the biological rhythm of the employee changes, causing various kind of disorders like indigestion, fatigue, headaches etc. so the health of the employee is a major concern for the HR, more so because most of them are graduates in their early twenties. In addition the jobs are monotonous, often nerve wracking. So it is a challenge for HR to adequately rotate the jobs of employees and provide them with enough time to refresh, so that they are able to deliver service of highest quality. Although many companies are targeting fresh graduates, they are not able to retain them. Attrition continues to be high 35%. HR has to ensure that a proper career path is chalked out so that graduates increasingly see this area as a potential career for them. Clients in US, UK and other European Countries are very quality conscious and as increasingly complex jobs get outsourced, it becomes important that HR ensures right quality people are selected and the right quality of training is provided to them. This ensures that later they do not face embarrassing time from their clients. There has been enormous requirement in this sector for manpower and huge salaries are up for taking. The times are good for this industry, but one has to keep in mind that this industry is still in its way to figure out in the growth stage. One cannot predict the future so easily and the sour experience of software companies is still fresh in minds. So a little bit of caution is to be exercised in this matter and proper trends have to be forecast by the HR to ensure that they do not go the software way when ultimately the industry stabilizes. Attrition †¦ A major problem rocking the Industry. Some Facts to Ponder about†¦ * 95% companies in the industry have Attrition problems * The small-sized and medium-sized companies loose more people * Turnover rates are as high as 30% in some reputed BPO’s and over all around 35% in the Industry. Employees move to smaller companies for exciting opportunities and greater identity and move to large companies for defined roles, clearer career paths and better HR systems. Loyalty towards their employer or towards the organization has slowly seems to have disappeared. Executives know that fast-moving markets require fast-moving organizations that are continually refresh ed with new talent, and they have become quite adept to outside hiring. Even companies are quite comfortable with bringing in talent; they remain distinctly uncomfortable about seeing talent leave. The competition to headhunt employees with good performance ratings of other organizations is an open ploy. The mediators (so called Consultants) make this job easy for the organizations by gaining the data bases of employees and they lure the employees by offering huge pay packages finally making them to move from their job. One of the biggest assets of the BPO Industry is manpower. So, the biggest challenge in this industry is to attract and retain knowledgeable manpower. Today, BPO companies are facing a shortage of knowledge workers because the rate at which they lose employees is almost ouble the rate at which they hire. A major proportion of the turnover issue is attributed to the movement of manpower to the Companies who lure them by offering either better pay or higher designation. The average stay of an employee in bpo companies has dropped to one year. In such a scenario where companies are fighting to combat global business competition, and struggling to survive, employee turnover comes as a double blow. And the issue of managing employee separation often gets ignored. Just because a business is dependent on Communication skills, for instance, doesn’t mean that it has to go to great lengths to retain its employees. If there’s a large pool of people with good communication skills available, it might want to focus on recruitment rather than retention. Moreover, since new hires have lower salaries than long-term employees, the company is able to keep a lid on compensation levels. Cooperating with competitors is another way of dealing with retention. Because of the intensity of talent-war, companies instinctively view retention and recruitment as competitive exercises. But history shows that cooperation, even among competitors, can be one of the most effective ways of dealing with talent shortages. A New concept called Anti Poaching agreement between BPO organizations is on the Move. According to this agreement, the parties getting in to the agreement will share their employee databases with each other and so will restrain employees to shift in to each other companies. Lets hope that this works good for the BPO’s. Frequent job-hopping of employees is not good for any one, neither for the company nor for the employee in terms of Growth.

Corporal punishment in the home Essay

A 2013 study by Elizabeth Gershoff and her team (cited below) reviewed the previous two decades of research and confirmed that children who are spanked have less gray matter in their brains, and are more likely to exhibit depression, anxiety, drug use, and aggression as they get older. The only positive outcome that’s ever been shown from corporal punishment is immediate compliance; however, corporal punishment is associated with less long-term compliance. Corporal punishment has repeatedly been linked with nine other negative outcomes, including increased rates of aggression, delinquency, mental health problems, and problems in relationships with their parents. Large, peer-reviewed studies repeatedly show that the more children are hit, the more likely they are to hit others, including peers and siblings. As adults, they are more likely to hit their spouses. The more parents spank children for antisocial behavior, the more the antisocial behavior increases. All of the peer reviewed studies being published continue to confirm these findings. A major study at Tulane University, published in Pediatrics  controlled for other factors that have been found to contribute to aggressiveness in children, including the mother’s depression, alcohol and drug use, spousal abuse and even whether the mother considered abortion while pregnant with the child. Spanking remained a strong predictor of violent behavior in the child. As five-year-olds, the children who had been spanked were more likely than the non-spanked to be defiant, demand immediate satisfaction of their wants and needs, become frustrated easily, have temper tantrums and lash out physically against other people or animals. (http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2010/04/12/peds.2009-2678.abstract) Quite simply, spanking produces WORSE behavior, not better behavior. It also begets more violence, because hitting children teaches them that it is acceptable to hit others who are smaller and weaker. â€Å"I’m going to hit you  because you hit your sister† is a hypocrisy not lost on children. As every parent knows, kids do what we do, not what we say. I strongly believe that permissiveness without limits creates children who are unhappy, undisciplined, and impossible to live with. But discipline means â€Å"to teach.† If we’re serious about raising good kids, we need to use methods that teach kids to manage themselves. Spanking does not do that. Instead, it teaches kids to be afraid of us, which is no basis for love. It teaches them to be sneaky so they won’t be caught doing something wrong. It teaches kids that they are bad, so they are more likely to behave badly. It teaches kids to use violence when they want to solve a problem. And it keeps them from taking responsibility to improve their own behavior, because they â€Å"externalize the locus of control,† which means they only behave because an authority figure makes them, rather than behaving because they want to. I haven’t seen any research on this, but my anecdotal report is that if you talk to people in prison, you’ll find they wer e all spanked. The unfortunate thing is that spanking not only doesn’t work, it is totally unnecessary. When children are raised with age-appropriate expectations and limits accompanied by empathy, they tend to behave and cooperate. Those children don’t need much in the way of discipline at all, and they become self-disciplined adults. (Want more info on how to guide your kids without spanking?) What about Proverbs 23 (Do not withhold discipline from a child)? I’m no expert on the Bible, but here are two articles you’ll want to read. Crystal Lutton: http://crystallutton.com/you-keep-using-that-verse-i-do-not-think-it-means-what-you-think-it-means/ Arms of Love Family Fellowship: http://aolff.org/spare-the-rod/proverbs2 So next time you get so angry you want to hit someone, tell your kids you’re taking a timeout and you’ll deal with them later. Then go into the  bathroom, run the water, and calm yourself down. Use the time to get calm, not to justify your anger. When you come out, tell them you need to think hard about what they did, but right now you need to fix dinner (do the laundry, whatever.) Tell them you need them to be little angels, and you will talk when you are all calm later. Then follow through. Your discipline and teaching will be so much more effective. They’ll learn a lot better when they aren’t in the flush of flight or flight hormones. And you will be so grateful to see yourself becoming the kind of parent every child deserves. (For more on this, see For Parents: How to Handle Your Own Anger.)Elizabeth Gershoff is recognized as the leading researcher on spanking in the United States today. Here’s her most recent report: Report on Physical Punishment in the United States: What Research Tells Us About Its Effects On Children. To Spank or Not to Spank? The idea behind parental discipline is to ultimately create self-discipline within your child. That means the kid has to learn something — your value system and the difference between right and wrong — that will guide him or her throughout life. So what do kids learn from being spanked? The hitting itself doesn’t teach them anything. Whether you believe in physical punishment or not, Dr. Phil has some disciplining tips and alternatives to spanking: To Spank or Not to Spank? Read Dr. Phil’s blog and weigh in! †¢Don’t take out your frustrations while spanking. Ask yourself if the spanking is truly warranted because of the child’s behavior, or whether it’s an excuse for you to have an adult temper tantrum? Are you more prone to spank when you are in a bad mood? †¢There needs to be a sense of calmness and order in the house. If you are spanking your kid for being physical and chaotic, aren’t you adding to the  physical chaos by being physical and violent with your child? What are you teaching them? †¢Make a commitment to your child’s discipline. You have to do what you say you’re going to do. Consequences should be highly predictable for your child. †¢Define your child’s currency. What does he/she value? You can withdraw a positive (take away a favorite toy) or introduce a negative (giving a time-out) event — but be consistent. †¢Develop a child-level logic. For example, kids know that you are less likely to discipline them in public, so that’s where they’ll act out. †¢When you have a confrontation with your kid — don’t ever lose! They will miss out on the opportunity to learn an important lesson if you cave in and let them get away with a behavior that is unacceptable. †¢Two things you should NEVER say to your child if you want him/her to behave are: â€Å"I’ll give you something to cry about,† and â€Å"Wait until your father gets home.† Children can see through idle threats and will eventually ignore them. They will also take advantage of the fact that one parent doesn’t want to deal with doling out the discipline and tries to hand it over to the other parent. †¢Negotiate a disciplinary plan with your spouse in calm waters. Calm parents make calm children.

INDEPENDENT STUDY RESEARCH ON THE PURPOSE AND IMPORTANCE OF BUDGETTING Essay

INDEPENDENT STUDY RESEARCH ON THE PURPOSE AND IMPORTANCE OF BUDGETTING TO AN ORGANISATION - Essay Example Analysis and findings 6.0. Conclusions and limitations of the study 7.0. Bibliography 8.0. Appendices PROBLEM STATEMENT A lot of effort has been made in the theoretical area of budgeting and its concept but little has been done to show the applicability and the importance of the budgeting process to organisations. Many students in the field of finance, accounting, strategic management and other related fields have more theory and little practicability about the theories. However, this study was aimed at linking theory with practical applications of the theory of management accounting; this was done by looking at how organisations apply the various theoretical aspects of strategic managerial accounting. IMPORTANCE OF THE STUDY This study is important since it was carried out to reinforce the theory of budgeting and its application in real life situations. The study also gives advice on how businesses can go about budgeting and this will go a long way to provide information on the same to organisations. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The study objectives were: To appreciate the managerial accounting theory. Appraise the importance of budgeting to the success of an organisation and discuss the available budgeting methods. Discuss the budgeting process. Analyse the assumptions of budgeting. To link managerial accounting theory with practical application. ... REVIEW Management accounting is specialization of accounting that provides for information to the managers to help them plan, make decisions, and control functions (Bragg 2009). It involves collection, analysis and interpretation of accounting information for managers of an organisation to help the managers to make plans, make decisions and to exercise control to ensure that the organisation goals are being achieved. Management accounting extends to cover strategic management, performance management and risk management which are key issues in management. The tools used in management accounting are costing techniques, budgets and control charts among other tools (Waygandt, Kimmel and Kieso 2009). Budgeting is a critical function in management accounting and it is a key to the success of an organisation. When the resources are scarce, an organisation must determine the optimal way to allocate resources among the organisational processes to achieve the set goals. A budget is thus a coor dinated plan of the operations and the resources available to an organisation represented monetarily for a specific period of time (Shim and Siegel 2008). A budget is a very important to an organisation since it provides a clear and measurable statement of expectations, improves communication and coordination in an organisation and provides a basis on which evaluation is done and control is exercised. Typically the objectives of budgeting can be stated as following: 1. Budgeting report provides information to help to determine the adequacy of current-year revenues pay for current-year services. 2. Budgeting report illustrates whether resources were obtained and used in accordance with the budget. 3. Budgeting report exhibits its adherence to other finance-related legal or contractual

Ameliorating poverty and other social ills will surely lead to a Essay

Ameliorating poverty and other social ills will surely lead to a decrease in crime. Discuss - Essay Example iota of evidence to show that crime is in the best interest of the criminal, in the long run (Ludwig et al, 1999 p.3; Jargowsky and Rebecca, 2006 p.55). Understanding the root causes of crime has been the subject of countless discourse and criminological research studies over the years. Many of these documented research attempts have linked, directly or indirectly, crime to multiple adverse social, economic, cultural and family conditions. The socioeconomic angle to crime, especially, economic status, as reflected in poverty - poor living conditions, have shown a great correlation to criminality. And as a result, improving living conditions by ameliorating poverty and the accompanying social ills are most likely to have a decreasing effect on crime rates in any society (The Root Causes of Crime, 1995 p.1-2). People who live under sub optimal conditions, lack a range of social and economic resources and opportunities are described as poor and thus living in poverty. The term poverty can be understood in a number of senses. However, in the most generalised sense, poverty is associated with the lack of material necessities, typically including the necessities of daily living such as good food, clothing, shelter and access to proper health care facility. Poverty in this sense may be understood as the deprivation of essential goods and services. Although, in another sense, poverty may be viewed from the perspective of social needs, such as social exclusion, dependency and the ability to participate in the society, or in another way, the lack of sufficient income or wealth, such as the increasingly widening gap between the rich and the poor and the feelings of inequality that is festered by such feelings (Wikipedia, 2006). All of these understandings of poverty hold serious implication for cr ime and thus any efforts towards crime reduction. Since early in the 1960s, a great number of social scientist have demonstrated that alleviating poverty would have a

UNIFICATION IN GERMANY&IN ITALY Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

UNIFICATION IN GERMANY&IN ITALY - Essay Example A cobbler can serve his people but he cannot dominate them in any way. In his speech, Otto von Bismarck laments on the Socialist Law. He said that socialist law should ensure the lives of workers are improved and protected. Citizens should be allowed to self-defense themselves and also help them when they are dissatisfied. Bismarck blamed the social democratic leaders for anxiety to rule citizens without satisfying them. He said his stand is to support absolutist government. He also laments that, it is the responsibility of the state to workers from any accidents that may occur. The state should also protect the workers when they become old. The state should control the private stock companies in order to ensure that workers are not exploited by the employers. Another objective of the state according to Bismarck is to protect the helpless citizens in the society. Bismarck also talked about the way people understand freedom. He said that people have used freedom to mean dominance of the free people over others. He gave an example of freedom of speech which he said that it gives the speaker freedom to dominate. He also said that freedom of church gives priests chances to dominate. He urged that freedom perspective should be changed for the better. This is one of the unifying factors that Bismarck used to unify Germany. John Leighton talks about commune in Paris. In this document, he talks about the centralized nation state that Otto von Bismarck and Lincoln had proposed. A revolt occurred in this nation and French National Guard was sent to suppress but they did it differently. They murdered some of their officers and joined. They later decentralized the area. John talks about the commune. He is complaining to the landlord concerning their responsibilities. He says that without a tenant, landlord would not be gaining any more. Therefore, landlord should be aware of the status of his or her tenants and treat them correctly. Tenants were

Performance Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Performance Management - Essay Example Therefore, the system of performance management generally involves evaluating and developing the skills, behaviors, and the performance of individual employees, for ensuring that the organization competes favorably in the market through its high performance. Performance management is used as a measuring and management instrument of employees in the organization. This process mostly benefits the big international companies, and those companies, whose workforce is greatly distributed. As a process, performance management comprises different types of activities aimed at achieving the objective of the general process. These include reward and remuneration for employees, coaching and mentoring of employees, team working, measuring, competencies, and personal development plans, among others. Today, performance management is characterized by various changes, as the way it is approached today differs with how the process was approached in the past centuries. The changes in performance management today have contributed to its increased efficiency, and help organizations retain their high-performing employees. Performance management today is a holistic process, which embraces different processes, and this is efficient in people management in compa nies (Kreitner 2008). Armstrong & Baron (2005) note that performance management is not a new process. This has lasted for the past seventy years, since its inception in the 1940’s. Initially, managers of companies developed performance management during this period, in order to establish whether the different salaries and remuneration for the employees were justified or not.... The difference between performance management of those days, and the performance management today, is reflected in the complexity of the process. Today, performance management process is more sophisticated, as managers have incorporated more elements, which lacked in the past. For instance, managers have incorporated the aspects of development planning, competencies, and 360-degree feedback, among others, in the recent times (Armstrong & Baron 2005). According to Hale and Whitlam (2000), it is possible to trace the roots of performance management back to through the various past themes of organizational development. In this case, there was a work-study performed. Work would be broken down into different tasks in a way that is analytical. This helped with time planning, supervision, and cost planning. Additionally, this would help in determining the incentives for employees on the job. In this case, the aspect of competency took a different approach, as we know it today, since this di d not apply to more diverse work, and not only limited to work-study (Hale &Whitlam 2000). Another situation in past organization that reflects performance management is the use of merit schemes. The merit schemes in organizations were historically used to provide the generic definition of effective performance, in addition to providing a scale, with which performance would be assessed and rated against. However, today, the merit schemes have been disregarded due to their weaknesses. For instance, merit schemes cannot be used to measure aspects of a job that are unique, therefore, this is limiting. Additionally, the merit schemes could not be used to measure behavioral characteristics, which

Sonnet 130 vs. Dim Lady Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Sonnet 130 vs. Dim Lady - Essay Example We find in both poems how the man finds something special from his loved one. Shakespeare’s â€Å"Sonnet 130† is in iambic pentameter. It has a rhyme scheme of abab cdcd efef gg. Lines one and three uses the words, â€Å"sun† and â€Å"dun†, lines two and four make use of â€Å"red† and â€Å"head†, lines five and seven â€Å"white† and â€Å"delight†, lines six and eight â€Å"cheeks† and â€Å"reeks†, lines nine and eleven â€Å"know† and â€Å"go†, lines ten and twelve â€Å"sound† and â€Å"ground†, and lines thirteen and fourteen â€Å"rare† and â€Å"compare†. The sentences used by Shakespeare are not choppy and the sentence structures are smooth flowing. Flowery language is not employed; in fact, it is contrary to the usual conventions of love poetry. Mullen’s â€Å"Dim Lady† on the other hand, does not have a rhyme scheme. There is no meter and verse l ineation unlike â€Å"Sonnet 130† The level of diction used by Mullen is slang in a way and more contemporary. She used the words â€Å"peepers† to mean eyes, â€Å"noggin† to mean head and â€Å"mug† to mean face. She also used commercial brands to compare the physical characteristics of the woman. Brands such as Shakey’s, Slinky, Liquid Paper, Muzak, Twinkie and Red Lobster were used. Several similes and metaphors are used in both poems.

Design a programme plan focusing on the introduction of safe sharps Essay

Design a programme plan focusing on the introduction of safe sharps mechanisms - Essay Example Sharp injuries are common risks that are well recognized in the healthcare sector. Medical sharps that are contaminated with a patient blood can transmit pathogens that cause more than twenty diseases of inclusive of the deadly one such as HIV and hepatitis is B and C (Pike 1976). The main aim of this health program is to come up with new regulations and strategies that will supplement the already existing ones in the control and prevention of health issues that arises from sharps injury. In this health program plan we will Ewels and Simnet 2003 planning model to come up with a very concrete and elaborate healthcare program to control and prevent the health care issues that arises due to sharp injuries. An effective sharp injury prevention program includes several components that must work in concert to protect health workers in mental institution and other medical centers from suffering injuries that are caused by needlesticks and other sharps (Ewels & Simnett 2003). This program plan is designed to be integrated into the existing infection control, performance improvement and safety programs in the various hospitals that aims at minimizing these tragedies (Linsley & Kane 2011). An institutional review of sharp injuries was conducted to help in determining the priorities in allocation of resource in this sharp prevention program. A review of about two hundred of sharp injuries that occur every year was analyzed and categorized into high, low or moderate. A total of 119 risks were considered to be moderate and the remaining ninety were considered to be at the low risk of acquiring blood borne diseases while the rest could not be categorized (Perry & Robinson 2004). Epidemiological data on sharp injuries incident, including those circumstances that are associated with the occupational transmission of the blood borne viruses, are very crucial elements in targeting and evaluating intervention at the national and local level. The actual magnitude of the

Alignment of Business Strategy and IT Strategy Essay

Alignment of Business Strategy and IT Strategy - Essay Example Fortune 50 financial services companies consented to be the respondents of this study. The research methodology used in this study was qualitative. The Alignment of Business and IT strategy department participated in the interviews to be a representative of the Business IT and balance opinions. The respondents were 17 senior managers, 5 with knowledge in balanced, 3 with knowledge with IT and 2 with a business perspective. The interviews will be 90 minutes. All of these respondents agreed that there is an alignment gap between business strategy and IT strategy. The advantage of the method used by the study is that qualitative research is the attempt to gain an in-depth understanding of the meanings of the situation presented by informants, rather than the manufacturing of a quantitative measurement of their characteristics or behavior by the researcher. This concern to reveal the subjective points of view of those being studied is common to ethnography, participant observation, and t he various other strands of qualitative research. For many qualitative researchers, the subjective beliefs of the people being studied are more important than the theoretical knowledge of the researcher. The methodology is often to ‘see through’ the eyes of those being studied. There are two considerations. First, no attempt is made to place the beliefs and behavior of the people being studied into a historical or structural context; it is considered sufficient to simply describe different forms of consciousness without trying to explain how and why they developed. The second one is the tendency to adopt an uncritical attitude to the beliefs and consciousness of informants, without considering their adequacy.

The Rome Convention has followed the English notion of the proper law Essay

The Rome Convention has followed the English notion of the proper law of the contract very closely. Discuss with reference to case law and academic opinion - Essay Example ace has hitherto followed along the lines of English law on contract, notably on the issue of determination of the intention of the parties concerned. When commercial contracts are executed between two parties who belong to two different countries or where the contract is executed in one place and performance takes place in another, the parties sometimes specify clearly by which country’s law they choose to be governed in the event of any dispute arising out of the provisions of the contract. Article 3 of the Rome Convention become relevant when the parties concerned have specified their choice of law2 and any disputes in such cases are governed by the law of the country specified in the agreement. However, uncertainties arise only when no specific choice of law has been made in the contract between the two parties, or when there is a dispute between the parties as to which law they will agree to adopt for the resolution of the dispute and Article 4 becomes relevant in that case. According to the provisions of article 4, In making a determination about which country’s law is most connected, the characteristic performance will be the determining factor, which will depend upon the residence or office of the party responsible for administration of the contract.4 But this feature will not necessarily apply in all cases. The place of residence of the parties will not apply when from the circumstances of the case as a whole, the contract appears more closely connected with another country.† 4 The English law of contract has traditionally been governed by the free will theory of contract or consensus as idem, which was an expression of laissez faire philosophies, governed by the belief that parties have the ultimate freedom to contract and may draw up any terms that are acceptable to both of them, wherein the courts will not interfere with a free will agreement reached by the parties5. However, despite this subjective approach, the English Courts have

American Politics in the Context of Obama’s Election and the First 100 Days Essay Example for Free

American Politics in the Context of Obama’s Election and the First 100 Days Essay Though none opposes the fact that motivation is the real driving engine of every action, there is considerable differences among the theorists about its mechanism, especially when it comes to explore the possibility to bring out the best out in the employees of an organization, where one school of thought advocates for extrinsic motivation for instant solution and the other insists on capitalizing the long-term efficacy of intrinsic motivation. Under the present context of economic downturn, this issue is extremely important, as extrinsic motivation primarily involves money. Therefore, this paper explores the core elements of motivation and concepts of extrinsic and intrinsic rewards from relevant literature, before coming into its own conclusion. Core of Motivation The core of motivation contains three elements like Consciousness, Inverted Qualia and Absent Qualia. These three together create various mental states. Consciousness It has six major identifiable states like 1. State of awareness: When someone is aware of something (Rosenthal, 1986). 2. Qualitative states: Sensing something out of something like enjoying a meal or experiencing a pain. Such experiences are called qualia, and are regarded as intrinsic, private, ineffable and nomadic features of experience, (Dennet, 1990). 3. Phenomenal states: A state involving more than sensory qualia, covering spatial, temporal and conceptual organization of experiences about the world and the persons inference about it. 4. What-it-is-like states: Associating a sense of experience with another. 5. Access consciousness: Its like seeing a thing and ideating something and then deciding on something, where there may or may not be any relationship among the above-said three stages. 6. Narrative consciousness: This stream of consciousness contains a series of thoughts from the perspective of an actual or merely virtual self (Dennett, 1991). Inverted Qualia It refers to a personal package of intrinsic and intricate experiences, with which humans decipher various external signals and respond to them, where the nature of experience governs the nature of response. The difference in perception causes inverted qualia, as for example someone might like green tea and detest coffee for no unexplainable reasons. This trait has a strong connection with intrinsic motivation (Dennet, 1991) Absent Qualia The concept of absent qualia claims that functional duplicates of a creature would do the same. As for example, if Mr. X likes tea and dislikes coffee, then his absolute clone would also do the same, for which the clone would not need an intricate and intrinsic package of experiences (Dennet, 1991). This concept backs the idea of getting result through extrinsic reward – as for example, if Mr. X and Mr. Y do identical jobs under identical conditions, then if Mr. X feels satisfied with cash reward, Mr.  Y would too follow the suit without a second thought! This study thus highlights two sets of hidden relationships, one, between inverted qualia and intrinsic motivation/rewards, and two, between absent qualia and extrinsic motivation/rewards. In any case, humans (apparently) involuntary association with rewards too has its routes in their perceptions, which maintain a master list of individual desires, and accordingly propel them to fulfill such desires. Put into an imaginary diagram, the mechanism of human mind can look somewhat like below: Mechanism of Motivation Motivating Tools From the organizational perspective, the ways and means to motivate the employees can be many. However, the common ones among them are, 1. Rewards 2. Retention 3. Morale 5. Job-enrichment 6. Reinforcement 1. Rewards System: Rewards or recognition system has a great bearing on the emotional plane of humans. † Every behavior comes out of pain and gain principle, says Khera (2004, p. 110). There can be many types of tangible gains like money, vacations or gifts, or they can be intangible, like recognition, appreciation, sense of achievement, growth, responsibility, sense of fulfillment, self-worth, etc. 2. Retention: It highly motivates the employees, as Retention is critical to the long term health and success of the company (Heathfield, 2008). 3. Morale: The elements like praise, love and faith can charge up anyone under any circumstance. 4. Job Enrichment: It relates to the in-house grooming of the employees to become an expert in the related field. 5. Reinforcement. By all means, it is a tool to control the employee behavior (Positive, 2000), which binds the company activities together. Other Factors Related to Motivation There are three other factors that can be instrumental to keep employees motivated, and they are: Job Satisfaction, Goal-setting and Performance appraisals. They are considered to be the self-boosters of the employees, and according to Murphy (2001), belief is a thought that causes the power of subconscious to be distributed into all phases of life. Motivation and Reward System Reward systems are created to fuel the employee cooperation, effort and overall satisfaction of all members of the company Cacioppe (1999). Other researchers like Hackman (1997) Shea and Guzzo (1987) too have endorsed this view, and suggested to align rewards with group activities. The basic parameter of the formulating a reward structure, however, is expected to apply the common logic like optimizing the ability of the workforce as a whole, though in practice it might go down to an individual, especially where the work patterns are not interdependent. This situation commands a quick review of the nature of intrinsic and extrinsic rewards. Intrinsic Rewards Deci (1975) says that intrinsic rewards evoke a sense of personal causation i. e.  , an inward mechanism serving as the guiding engine for the action, where its elements are usually intangible and working on the plane of ones perception, where the journey is being enjoyed over the outcome. Extrinsic Rewards Extrinsic rewards are supposed to generate perceptions of external causation (Deci, 1975) by being mostly tangible in nature – a hike in salary or status, or material gains in other forms. However, researchers like Guzzo, (1979) defies any division in the reward system and considers it a single, usable tools to tweak the frequency of desired response of the employees towards a desired direction. Researchers like Hull (1943) and Skinner (1953) placed extrinsic reward as a direct link between stimulus and response, and their views include punishment as a stimulus too, besides subscribing to the power of stimulus. Reaction No matter how much Hull (1943) and Skinner (1953) wanted to establish extrinsic motivation as the best motivating tool to earn competitive advantage, extrinsic motivation carries a hidden cost besides the cost involved in its implementation. Researchers like Deci and Ryan (1985) used attribution theory and suggested that humans constantly reassess the reasons for their behaviors besides others. Before that, Lepper et al. (1973) had observed that reinforcement generates two effects for the management, like gaining control over activity or fastening the process; two, the backlash effect in absence of reinforcement. The example below would explain it better: A group or an individual gets a reward of x amount of money for a period y, where x+y=m, m being the increased rate of production. Before that, the situation was y=z where production was z. Now in the absence of reinforcement and with the influence of attribution theory, the situation would stand like y-x = n, where n z. This clearly goes against the basic reason for motivating the employees, i. e. , to enhance the profit of the organization. Engagement occurs when an employee connects emotionally with his work, says Paul Glen (2007), and if one checks the mechanism of motivation, one gets convinced that extrinsic motivation cannot influence the employees to connect emotionally with their work, as it is guided by absent qualia, i. e. , a momentary and involuntary chase, where emotion has no role to play. On the other hand, the intrinsic motivation is guided by inverted qualia, i.  e. , conscious chase and that clearly takes along emotion in its journey and influence the human mind in no less than six ways. Conclusion The research and discussion above clearly shows that extrinsic motivation system can be a threat in disguise for the organizations especially under the present context of economic downturn, while intrinsic motivation can be the ideal solution under the same circumstance, where it can raise emotional attachment with the organization and inspire the employees to produce more for less. References Cacioppe, R. (1999). Using team-individual reward and recognition strategies to drive organizational success. Leadership and Organization Development Journal, 20(6), pp. 322-331. Deci, E. and Ryan, R. (1985) Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behaviour. New York: Plenum Press. Deci, E. L. (1975). Intrinsic motivation. New York: Plenum. Denett, D. C. (1990). Quining qualia. In Mind and Cognition, W. Lycan (Ed. ), Oxford: Blackwell, 519-548. Dennett, D. C. (1991). Consciousness explained. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. Glen, P. (2007). You Cant Outsource Retention. Computerworld, July 16, 2007. Guzzo, R. A. (1979). Types of rewards, cognitions, and work motivation. Academy of Management Review, 4(1), pp. 75-86. Hackman, J. R. (1997). Why teams dont work. In R. S. Tindale, J. Edwards, E. J. Posavac (Eds. ) Applications of theory and research on groups to social issues. New York: Plenum.

Overview Of The Nigerian Financial Sector And Economy Finance Essay

Overview Of The Nigerian Financial Sector And Economy Finance Essay CHAPTER 2 Nigeria is one of the largest countries in Africa. It was a colony of the British Empire. In 1960, after the abolishment of the colonization, Nigeria became independent and a new country was established and ruled by Nigerians. This was viewed as an outstanding milestone in that Nigeria at that time was viewed as one of the African countries with apparent growth potentials and it was believed that it will rise up to defend all other Africa countries dignity. However, this dream could neither be materialized nor actualized. Nigeria is known as a federal country, which consists of thirty-six different states and a federal capital territory. This nature of Nigeria came about due to the fact that Nigeria is a multi-cultural society, consisting of different ethnic groups with their respective languages and cultural identity. Nigeria is a culturally diverse country. Nigeria is a country blessed with vast mineral resources ranging from agricultural products which includes cash crops like coffee, pepper, cocoa, palm kernel, timber and rubber. Also mineral resources like tin, columbite, steel, bauxite, crude oil and natural gas are of vast availability. Amongst these; crude oil constitutes the largest revenue. Table 2.1 below contains the data for the economic and business environment which explains Nigeria at glance. Table 1: Overview of Nigerian Economic and Business Environment: The Economic Profile. 1 Land Area 923,773 Square kilometers 2 Population 140,000,000 3 GDP 140 Billion (2007) 4 GDP Growth 10% 5 GDP/H $1,200 6 % Petroleum to Total Revenue 95% 7 % Petroleum to Export Earnings 95% 8 Average Daily Output 2.3b/d 9 Oil Reserves 40bb 10 Gas Reserves 150 Trillion Cubic Meter. 11 Average Interest Rates 22% per annum 12 Average Inflation 17% 13 Exchange Rates N240/GBP $1 : N150 14 Major Trading Partners UK, USA, Spain, Germany, France and China. 15 Cost Of Capital 8.7 16 Country Rating BB by SP, Moody and Fitch. Source: Husaini Muhammad (2010), Pg.4. Given the economic profile above, one can discover all the indicators needed in seeing the strengths and weaknesses of the Nigerian financial sector and the economy at large. By looking at the land area, it can be seen that the huge population of 140 million people, which comprises of vast young population that are perceived to be productive labor force, both skilled and un-skilled since technical expertise is closely associated with the literacy level in a country which Nigeria has high level of illiteracy rate as indicated by most of the international organizations in their development reports such as the international monetary fund and the world bank. As can be seen from the report above, petroleum is one of the major exports which are in fact the main export that generates revenues for Nigeria. Nigeria is the 12th largest producer of petroleum in the world and the 8th largest exporter, and has the 10th largest proven reserves. (The country joined OPEC in 1971). Petroleum plays a large role in the Nigerian economy, accounting for 40% of GDP and 80% of Government earnings. However, agitation for better resource control in the Niger Delta, its main oil producing region, has led to disruptions in oil production and currently prevents the country from exporting at 100% capacity (Wikipedia, 2010) As the report shows, 95% of the revenue that is generated as a result of export is through petroleum and the rest of the 5% includes all other activities from different sectors such as the agriculture, services and so on. The revenue generated from the sale of petroleum is huge amounting to 44 billion USD, which in principle can be enough for the development of Nigeria infrastructure and other sectors as well. Yet upon the huge revenues from the oil sector, the GDP Per capita is relatively low compared to most of the countries in the world that are by far poorer than Nigeria in every aspect. Nigeria has been classified by the World Bank group as a lower middle income country. Also according to the Economist Intelligence Unit and the World Bank, Nigerian GDP at purchasing power parity has nearly doubled from $170.7Â  billion in 2005 to 292.6Â  billion in 2007. The GDP per head has jumped from $692 per person in 2006 to $1,754 per person in 2007 (Wikipedia, 2010). Almost Doubling of the GDP per head and GDP at purchasing power parity is a sign that Nigerian economy is doing well, because as we have known that these aggregate measures are the ones being used to access the growth potential and facts of a certain country, which therefore makes Nigeria a potential place for investment as a result of the certain improvements mentioned that took place. A clear sign shows that when GDP per capita increases and the purchasing power also increases, the welfare of the people is attached to that because the whole poverty index decreases as a result thereby increasing the living standards of Nigerians in general. The fact also shows that Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, the eighth most populous country in the world, and the most populous country in the world in which the majority of the population is black. It is listed among the Next Eleven economies, and is a member of the Commonwealth of Nations. The economy of Nigeria is one of the fastest growing in the world, with the International Monetary Fund projecting a growth of 9% in 2008 and 8.3% in 2009 .It is the second largest economy in Africa, and is a regional power that is also the hegemon in West Africa (Wikipedia, 2010) This gives Nigerians privileged amongst their African counterparts. With the growth rate increasing from a lower figure to the level of 9%, even though it decreased by 0.7% is not that much but taking in to consideration that its an aggregate measure, this makes it very important because all sectors are included and therefore, the whole economy is taken into consideration. 2.2 The Formal Financial Sector Formal financial sector consists of all regulated financial institutions such as banks and insurance companies. What determines a formal financial sector changes from country to country because of the differences in the level of their respective economic developments. The way the formal financial sector is shaped depends on how market environment is perceived in a given country. Nigerian financial sector consists of different sections. These sections include: 2.2.1 The Regulatory Authorities The Nigerian Financial System comprises bank and non-bank financial institutions which are regulated by the Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF), Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC), Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), National Insurance Commission (NIC), Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), and the National Board for Community Banks (NBCB).These agencies are briefly discussed below: The Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF): The Federal Ministry of Finance advises the Federal Government on its fiscal operation and co-operates with Central bank of Nigeria in monetary matter. Recent amendment to the laws of the Central Bank of Nigeria compels it to report through the Federal Ministry of Finance to the Presidency. This ministry serves as the centre where the whole economic activities are being viewed and also it acts as a linkage between the trades partnerships between Nigeria and the world. The minister who is dully in charge of all the financial as well as economic activities those are of interest to the Nigerian society. Also it serves as the centre that informs different business initiatives that are of particular interest on Nigeria. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN): This is the apex regulatory authority of the financial system. It was established by the Central Bank of Nigeria Act of 1958 and commenced operations on 1st July 1959. Among its primary functions, the Bank promotes monetary stability and a sound financial system, and acts as banker and financial advisor to the Federal Government, as well as banker of last resort to the banks. The Bank also encourages the growth and development of financial institutions. Enabling laws made in 1991, gave the Bank more flexibility in regulating and overseeing the banking sector and licensing finance companies which hitherto operated outside any regulatory framework. By the powers of the central bank of Nigeria, the whole economy and especially the financial sector is being regulated and overseen. This gives Nigerian financial sector, hence the banking sector a sound environment in which the banks and other financial sector actors performed well even during the recent e conomic down turn. The Nigerian Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC): This compliments the regulatory and supervisory role of the central bank of Nigeria. It is however autonomous of the CBN and reports to Federal Ministry of Finance. The NDIC effectively took off in 1989 and was set up to provide deposit insurance and related services for banks in order to promote confidence in the banking industry. The NDIC is empowered to examine the books and affairs of insured banks and other deposit-taking financial institutions. Licensed banks are mandated to pay of 1% of their total deposit liabilities as insurance premium to the NDIC. A depositors claim is limited to maximum of N50, 000.00 in the event of a bank failure. The Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN): The FMBN took over the assets and liabilities of the Nigerian Building Society. The FMBN provides banking and advisory services, and undertakes research activities pertaining to housing. Following the adoption of the National Housing Policy in 1990, The FMBN is empowered to license and regulate primary mortgage institutions in Nigeria and act as the apex regulatory body for the mortgage finance industry. The financing function of the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria was carved out and transferred to the Federal Mortgage Finance, while the FMBN retains its regulatory role. The FMBN is under the control of the Central Bank. With this bank serving as the apex regulatory authority for the mortgage industry in Nigeria, investors have hugely invested in real estate and this has been in boom right from the adequate regulation of the mortgage sector in Nigeria. The Financial Services Coordinating Committee (FSCC): This is a committee established to co-ordinate the activities of all regulatory institutions in the financial system. The Committee is chaired by the Federal Minister of Finance. This committee is one of the important nails of the Nigerian financial sector because it reports on basis the strengths and shortcomings of the financial sector and the economy at large. By having that report as needed, and by co-operating with the legislative body which is the parliament, which is responsible for passing the budget allocation and its ratification, the whole financial system is being scanned to meet the needs of the present world and make the sector as competitive as possible with adequate regulations and supervisions. Figure 1: A Typical Nigerian Financial System Source: Husaini Muhammad (2010), Pg.8. 2.3 The Informal Financial Sector While the formal sector consists of the highly regulated portion of the economy that deals with the day-to-day operations of the economy, the informal sector as well play a very big and important role in the economy. Its true that the informal sector is un-regulated, and as a result, certain benefits that the economy get from different sectors is being missed, one cannot say that its not an important sector of the economy. This is because of the fact that the informal sector in some countries is perceived to be an added option when it comes to job opportunities. Job opportunities are almost endless when it comes to the informal sector perspective because anytime a person wants to enter it can be possible as a result of its nature of not being regulated and taken into consideration. Millions of dollars are being traded in the informal sector. Lets take an example of the black money market in Nigeria. This market consists of people selling and buying currencies and exchanging currencie s, which huge transactions takes place every day of the year. Why most of the time people prefer this sector and why that it disregards all the regulatory rules that are been exerted on those businesses called bureau de change which are dealing with the currency exchange. One can go directly and buy or sell any currency he/she wishes and leave in peace without giving any identity in carrying out the transaction. Traditionally, the informal sector in Nigeria comprises not only of the currency exchange market, it consists of different modes of transactions have been happening long periods of time. In the old days, inhabitants of different districts in Nigeria have their own ways of transacting currencies from one place to another, and these ways were all informal. Long before the arrival of the colonial powers, inhabitants in the country now called Nigeria were dealing with outside traders. This trade depends entirely of the closeness of the trade in terms of distance. For long time; the Arab caravan traders have penetrated the northern Nigeria since before the coming of the white colonial powers. This made them to know and get exposed to the world of gold as an object-serving like a currency for exchange of goods and services at that time. The southern part of Nigeria too had its on exposure with the white men, which its believed that they stayed there for decades before they penetrated to th e mainland Nigeria. By looking at the recent situations compared to the old days that I have discussed above, the situation some few decades changed as a result of the changing nature of the world itself due to different developments that took place. Clearly it has been observed that different ways of savings and business techniques developed amongst different ethnic entities in Nigeria. A common way where poor people used to save to gather money in order to use for the future, as its believed that poor people always have the thought of saving for the future because they always feel insecure that they are poor, with also cultural and religious beliefs that made the poor to save for their future welfare. In Nigeria, there used to be special kind of people who usually are informal groups that go round taking money from people in their job places, these kinds of people serve like the village bank, where they accept the money as deposit and save it for the people. This kind of agreement between the inhabitants of the respected area and the people going round to collect their money is in form of trust between them. Although it defers between community to community, the whole idea is the same which is deposit taking and saving, but what remains interesting here is that in some cases, these people that agree to save form group amongst them, and one or two people among them collect the money after it has been accumulated, usually they gather the money for some months, ranging from 6-12 months. The people that collect the money usually use it to boost their businesses and have agreements such as paying higher than what they have taken after some few month, which they are required to return b ack the money to the deposit taker, which another person among them will get the same and this procedure turns round and round. This is only one of the interesting cases because it gives us an insight of what informally the financial sector had been conducted in Nigerian villages and towns. These kinds of activities discussed above were those that gave rise to the need for the rural or remote area inhabitants to organize groups which are little bit stronger than the ones before. These groups were mainly in the form of Non-Governmental Organization NGOs that represent the interest of the inhabitants. Solidarity and trust were the main mechanism behind the driven force of these organizations. Moving from Southern to Northern Nigeria, these organizations became popular as every community wants to have a proper lead and a controlling leader that will prevent their business interests. Taking an example of the eastern part of Nigeria where is inhabited predominantly by the Igbo speaking tribe. Igbo people are known to have elders in their communities long before the western influence came to Nigeria. Apart from the elders, a king also is available. The elders are the king-makers, so they have the controlling power. These elders organize community groups which purposely protec t the businesses of the poor people from being bullied by the richer ones.so this is a typical example that can be seen as protection of the minority businesses against any monopolistic pressure from other bigger businesses around, hence one can conclude that this constitute the earlier version of micro-finance of a village think. These kinds of savings that the remote inhabitants engaged have been named differently among the ethnic groups in Nigeria. Generally there are three major ethnic groups in Nigeria which comprises of the Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo. These groups provide savings and credit services to their members. The informal microfinance arrangements operate under different names: esusu among the Yorubas of Western Nigeria, etoto for the Igbos in the East and adashi in the North for the Hausas (CBN, 2000). This became one of the main driven forces behind the establishments of the modern day micro-finance banks in Nigeria. The informal associations that operate traditional microfinance in various forms are found in all the rural communities in Nigeria (Otu, 2003). They also operate in the urban centers. However, the size of activities covered under the scheme has not been determined. 2.4 The Nigerian Banking System and Environment The Nigerian banking sector has been in existence right from the colonial era. The fact that Nigeria was a top producer of most of the needed cash crops by the colonial masters, it became an important need for the country to have a proper financial system that will be used in conducting the businesses efficiently. In 1892 Nigerias first bank, the African Banking Corporation, was established. No banking legislation existed until 1952, at which point Nigeria had three foreign banks (the Bank of British West Africa, Barclays Bank, and the British and French Bank) and two indigenous banks (the National Bank of Nigeria and the African Continental Bank) with a collective total of forty branches. A 1952 ordinance set standards, required reserve funds, established bank examinations, and provided for assistance to indigenous banks. Yet for decades after 1952, the growth of demand deposits was slowed by the Nigerian propensity to prefer cash and to distrust checks for debt settlements. (CIA, 1991). Since then,the Central Bank Of Nigeria has been the regulatory authorithy that oversees the whole banking system of nigeria in order to guarantee the soundness in the financial system.Since from its inception,many banks were given licences which could not perform well and some of them failed as a result of bad risk management or mis aapropriations of public funds.In the early years back some banks were reported to have weak capital base and some of them could not meet their daily liquidity needs,this rose the idea of tightening the regulatory standards of the establishing laws of the Central Bank Of Nigeria which led to the amendments of the CBN act in 1999 which restructure the banking system and tight risk management policies were implemented (CBN, Amendments Of CBNAct, 1999). As a result of adequate regulatory system by the CBN, in 2004 also another development took place. This development was aimed at a comprehensive change of the whole Nigerian banking industry, particularly the deposit money banks which are otherwise knows as conventional or traditional banks.These major key points and solutions were proposed by the CBN Governor and are indicated in Appendix A. With these amendments taken into force in 2005, which made the banks to have adequate capital base to at least begin to be able to regain their reputations in the eyes of world. Before the reforms, Nigerian banking sector stopped attracting international investors due to the higher country risk and inadequate regulatory rules on the banking sector. Many businesses were attracted as a result of the reforms which increased the soundness of the banking and hence the financial sector in Nigeria. As a result, some banks had to merge with others because they cannot meet the capital requirement of 25 Billion Naira set by the CBN. This reduced the total number of the banks from 89 to 24 in 2005 as a result of the reforms (CBN, Banking Supervision Annual Report, 2008). Below is a table showing some of the banks that merged and acquired other banks as reported by the CBN bank supervision annual report in 2008. Table 2: Resolution Of Private Sector Deposits for Acquiring and assumed Banks. Source: Central Bank of Nigeria, Bank Supervision Annual Report, (2008).Pg.24. However, by looking at the table 2 above, its understandable for the Nigerian banks to merge because they had less capital base to continue with their operations and be able to meet-up and compete with the rest of the world. The merging of the banks gave them strength in terms of capital and also variables like number of branches and employees and hence human capital and technical expertise increased. Even though that some of the banks had to close down totally, that did not affect the financial system negatively in terms of performance measures accessed of the banks, instead efficiency is fostered and more reliability is seen in the banking sector as the whole aggregate balance sheet structure of the banking system showed below: Table 3: Aggregate Balance Sheet Structure of the Nigerian Banking System Source: Central Bank of Nigeria Bank Supervision Annual Reports (2010), Pg.68. Clearly changes have been seen between the pre-mergers/recapitalization and post-mergers/recapitalization of the banks. The pre-merger period which was the year 2004, the annual growth of the entire banks in the system was 12.24 percent and in 2008 which is the recent post-merger period, the annual growth rate stood at 60.43 percent, even though in 2007, a negative growth of 12.78 percent was realized. Certainly, this was an outstanding performance that indicated the working of the mergers between the previous 89 banks in the system. This clearly shows that the merging of the banks to 24 banks in number had brought to the banking system of Nigeria a sound sense that is perceived as a component that will aid in regaining the long-eroded trust of the industry in the eyes of the world. Therefore, this was and still is a tremendous milestone in the history of the Nigerian banking system. Table 4 below shows the list of the current 24 banks that came to being as a result of the mergers between the previous 89 banks. Note that some of the banks maintained their positions and name due to the fact that they met up with the requirements setup by the CBN. Table 4: List of the Current Banks in Nigeria. Institution Name Type Of Institution Date Re-registered Date Licensed 1 Access Bank Nigeria Plc. Universal Bank 1/17/1990 1/17/1990 2 Afribank Nigeria Plc. Universal Bank 1/3/2006 1/3/2006 3 Citibank Nigeria Limited Universal Bank 10/11/2004 10/8/2004 4 Diamond Bank Nigeria Plc. Universal Bank 12/31/1990 12/31/1990 5 Ecobank Nigeria Plc. Universal Bank 4/24/1989 4/24/1989 6 Equitorial Trust Bank Plc. Universal Bank 1/2/2006 1/2/2006 7 Fidelity Bank Plc. Universal Bank 1/2/2006 1/2/2006 8 First Bank of Nigeria Plc. Universal Bank 1/29/1979 1/29/1894 9 First City Monument Bank Plc. Universal Bank 11/11/1983 11/11/1983 10 First Inland Bank Plc. Universal Bank 1/2/2006 1/2/2006 11 Guaranty Trust Bank Plc. Universal Bank 1/17/1990 1/17/1990 12 Intercontinental Bank Plc. Universal Bank 10/2/1989 10/2/1989 13 Oceanic Bank International Nigeria Plc. Universal Bank 1/31/2006 3/20/2000 14 Platinum Habib Bank Plc. Universal Bank 5/2/2001 5/2/2001 15 Skye Bank Plc. Universal Bank 1/3/2006 1/3/2006 16 Spring Bank Plc. Universal Bank 1/3/2006 1/3/2006 17 Stanbic IBTC Bank Plc. Universal Bank 1/2/2006 1/2/2006 18 Standard Chartered Bank Nigeria Plc. Universal Bank 12/1/2004 6/9/1999 19 Sterling Bank Plc. Universal Bank 1/25/1999 11/25/1960 20 Union Bank of Nigeria Plc. Universal Bank 1/2/2006 1/2/2006 21 United Bank For Africa Plc. Universal Bank 1/2/2006 1/2/2006 22 Unity Bank Plc. Universal Bank 1/2/2006 1/2/2006 23 Wema Bank Plc. Universal Bank 1/18/1965 1/17/1945 24 Zenith Bank Plc. Universal Bank 9/13/2004 6/20/1990 Source: Central Bank of Nigeria, (2010).

Is Crime and Punishment a Realist Novel?

Is Crime and Punishment a Realist Novel? This essay will explore how the novel Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky does not adhere to the realism conventions we have come to know; it will explore the way in which the text is not realist because of Dostoevskys use of phycological realism, commonly referred to as fantastic realism whilst still employing some realist tropes. Firstly, to argue that the text is not a realist text, realism must be defined. There is a distinction between a realist novel and other literary works, realist writing is a representation of reality thus, it can never give the reader a type of true reality that is associated with life. The OED definition of realism defines it as the presentation of things in a way that is accurate and true to life.[1] However, Catherine Belsey states that a realist text positions itself between the facts and a type of illusion through a representation of a simulated reality which could be possible but not real[2], Realism imposes limitations on the text therefore Dostoevsky wanted to move away from such limitations imposed by classical realism. In a letter written to Strakhov, Dostoevsky explains that he has his own ideas that are shown throughout his works, he declares I have my own idea about art, and it is this: What most people regard as fantastic and lacking in universality, / hold to be the in most essence of truth.[3] One of his ideas that he employs is Fantastic realism which moves away from traditional conventions with emphasis on the characters rather than the narrator. Fantastic (or transcendental) realism varies from classic realism because Dostoevsky explores the significance of reality and dreams, it focuses on penetrations into the deepest realities of the human soul.[4]   Dostoevsky first experienced the fantastic when he had the vision of the Neva [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] a silent and frozen world glittering magically in the last rays of the sun[5]. Prior to this, he pictured himself as living in an imaginary and exotic world of Schiller and Hoffman[6] but the dream of Neva changed his view on the real world, it suddenly became fantastic and memorable to him referring to the world as a literary daydream. In the text, it is referred to as Little Neva. Dostoevskys realism explores reality to its utmost extreme that would not be utilized in a classic realist novel. Dreams are scattered thro ughout Crime and Punishment. Raskolnikov has about the horse being whipped and abused. Secondly, Dostoevsky was influenced by Freuds theory of dreams when writing such passages in his works, In Freuds study he realised that the unconscious often expresses itself in the form of dreams[7], he has a dream that drives him into action and [illuminates], in striking fashion, the unconscious forces at work within him[8]. The dream portrays his plan to murder the pawnbroker, he associates himself with the tavern owner Mikolka, and it is with this that Raskolnikovs anger is shown in the dream; The experience confirms that he does wish to carry out the heinous act however he tries to desperately convince himself that he will not act upon the motivations to no avail God! He exclaimed is it possible, is it possible, that I really shall take an axe and strike her on the head[9]. After the dream, he goes on to commit the crime which shows the unconscious influencing his decisions; the protagonists conscious and unconscious tears Raskolnikov thoughts into contrasting positions. Raskolnikov is not the only character to experience such dreams and reality in the text, Marmaladov experiences a different reality when he passes out from his alcoholism, this is where the fantastic is found. Svidrigailov also experiences a dream, he finds a young girl aged five crying, he proceeds to carry her to his bedroom and lays her on his bed, an impudent invitation gleamed from that unchildlike face; it was corruption, it was the face of a courtesan[10] Svidrigailov wakes up and heads to the Little Neva, he tells a Guard he is going to America and [pulls] the trigger[11] The dream is the moment that the characters mind is explored, The little girls innocence is taken away by the image of the courtesan representing the characters sins. In the dream, he also meets a fourteen-year-old girl that committed suicide; this young girl could be Svidrigailov himself because he commits suicide not long after the experience. Dreams are not the only device to show the fantastic in the text, Crime and Punishment goes beyond character dialogues and appears to enter the characters minds, the events as they happen are shown through the main protagonist Raskolnikov, the characters that are introduced to the reader appear to be different aspects of his personality. There are many evident doubles in the text that reflect the main characters alter ego, even when the character themselves are not there in the scene they show varied aspects of his personality, however, the characters that double Raskolnikov are themselves complex., having full developed personalities. Bakhtins theory of the dialogues between the characters exhibit this. Dostoevsky realises Bakhtins theory because the greatest of all contrapuntists genuinely surrenders to his characters and allows them to speak in ways other than his own.[12] The characters that he creates in his novels are polemicized with, learned from; attempts are made to develop their views into finished systems.[13]   The characters are their own authors of their ideas, allowing them to break away from the usual use of the narrator, Characters that are presented in this way have multiple viewpoints that are equal in importance to that of a narrator on their own. The main protagonist appears to be in conflict that concerns his conscience and his unconscious throughout the text. To show this, Dostoevsky created the characters Sonya and Svidrigailov. Sonya represents the kindness that Raskolnikov occasionally shows, this is depicted through his charitable acts and kind gestures towards others. Sonya becomes a prostitute to support her family through hardships whilst her father Marmaladov cannot control his alcoholism, she goes to great lengths to be kind to others whilst managing to maintain her innocence.   On the other hand, Svidrigailov opposes this kindness, he represents the will and power of Raskolnikov; he is the extraordinary aspect, the characters dislike one another showing their opposing aspects of his personality. The charitable acts that he carries out, he later comes to regret. This duality is confirmed by Dmitri Prokofichs description of Raskolnikov he is moody, melancholy, proud and haughty, [à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦] He is kind a nd generous. He goes on to say Really, it is as if he had two separate personalities, each dominating him alternately.[14] Overall, although Crime and Punishment make use of some realist tropes it is not a realist text because of the use of fantastic realism. The minds of the characters and their relationship with the protagonist take emphasis in the novel, through the dreams that the characters experience the reader can see aspects of characters that one would not see in a traditional realist novel. The characters develop and display aspects of the main protagonist, in doing this in his novels such as the text discussed, Dostoevsky created a fundamentally new novelistic genre.[15] [1] Maurice Waite (ed.), Realism, Oxford English Dictionary (London: Oxford University Press, 2012). [2] Catherine Belsey, Critical Practice, Second Edition, (London: Routledge, 2002). [3] Marlene Chambers, Some Notes on The Aesthetics of Dostoevsky, Comparative Literature, 13.2 (1961), 114-122 . [4] Ilya Vinitsky, Where Bobok Is Buried: The Theosophical Roots of Dostoevskis Fantastic Realism, Slavic Review, 65.03 (2006), 523-543 . [5] Joseph Frank, Dostoevskys Discovery Of Fantastic Realism, Russian Review, 27.3 (1968), 286 . [6] Joseph Frank, Dostoevskys Discovery Of Fantastic Realism [7] Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan Strangers to Ourselves: Psychoanalysis Julie Rivkin, Michael Ryan: Literary Theory: An Anthology, Second Edition (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2004) pp. 389- 396 (p.390) [8] Louis Breger, Dostoevsky: The Author as Psychoanalyst (Somerset, N.J.: Transaction; London: Eurospan [distributor], 2008). pp. 28-29 [9] Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Gibian (ed.), Crime and Punishment, p. 51 [10] Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Gibian (ed.), Crime and Punishment, p. 431 [11] Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Gibian (ed.), Crime and Punishment, p. 433 [12] Mikhail Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevskys Poetics, ed. and trans. Caryl Emerson; intro. Wayne C. Booth (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1984). P xxii [13] Mikhail Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevskys Poetics, p. 5 [14] Fyodor Dostoevsky, George Gibian (ed.), Crime and Punishment, p. 182 [15] Mikhail Bakhtin, Problems of Dostoevskys Poetics, p. 7 Trends of the Coffee Sector in Ethiopia | Research Proposal Trends of the Coffee Sector in Ethiopia | Research Proposal Coffee is the most important commercial crop-plant and favorite drink in the world. Next to oil, coffee is the second important and valued global commodity. It is estimated that around 20 million coffee producing households worldwide and nearly 100 million persons used coffee as a means of income for their living. The export value of the crop is enormous (US $15.4 billion in 2009/10). The genus Coffea seeds are used to make coffee from a roasted form and changed into cup for drink through a complex process (Davis et. al., 2011). Nowadays, studies indicated that over hundred coffee species exist. Out of these, the three coffee types, i.e., Coffee Robusta, Coffee Arabica and Coffee Liberica have economic significance. The first two types are traded in the world market. Coffee Arabica has an important part in some tropical countries economy. This type of coffee is cultivated in several places of the tropics, contributing for 80 percent of coffee market worldwide. It plays a substantial part in employment and income generation for developing countries like Latin America, Africa and Asia (Girma et al., 2008). Ethiopia is the home and basis of inherent resources and coffee Arabica diversities. The South and Southwestern parts of the country’s humid high rain forests were believed to be the original place of Coffee Arabica. Like many developing nations, the country relies greatly on export of key agricultural products in which coffee is the major and significant crop (Behailu et. al., 2007). Ethiopia was the 6th biggest coffee producer in the world and first in Africa, producing 273400 metric tons in 2008. During the same year, the country exported 179283 tons of coffee to the world market with a value of about US$562 million. This accounts 66% of the total produced coffee that is exported and 50% of the total worth of agricultural goods traded. 34% of the total produced coffee was locally consumed (FAOSTAT, 2009). Currently, Ethiopia contributes 3.6 percent of the total value and 3 percent of the total quantity of coffee traded to the global market, which leads the country to be the 10th largest exporter of coffee in the world and the first exporter in Africa. 40% of the total coffee production of Ethiopia is exported, which earns 33% of the overall value of agricultural goods exported and 24% of the whole export value of the country (Ministry of Trade, 2013). Over one-third of the population living in the rural areas and over 15 million populations sustain their livelihoods and participated in coffee production. There are around one million coffee growers in the country (Aklilu and Ludi, 2010). Coffee has been an important commodity which has got greater attention by the government of Ethiopia. It is the first cash crop that the Ethiopia Commodity Exchange (ECX) started trading operations in April 2008 in order to advance coffee markets in the country. High costs and high risks of transaction were the features of agricultural markets in Ethiopia before 2008, with only one third of the production reaching the market. Besides, smallholder farmers have little information about the market which limits them to sell their final products at the nearby market, deal with good prices as well as minimizing their market risk (ECX, 2008). Sale of agricultural products and earning income is the primary objective of farmers. As a result, production resource allocation decision is affected by various factors such as price and level of output. Measures to increase production are incomplete without steps to increase market supply. The cash needed to purchase production inputs depends on the income earned from the sale of farm products (Bekabil, 2004). Smallholder farmers are the main producers of coffee by contributing 95 percent of the total coffee output in the country (ODI, 2009). The coffee growers in Ethiopia integrate coffee production into their strategic family livelihoods by cultivating food related crops for home consumption. Small scale coffee farmers do not have the chance to sell their products at competitive prices in the remote areas of the country (ODI, 2009). According to Aklilu and Ludi (2010), farmers faced different challenges even if the coffee marketing arranged by the government. They pointed out insufficient regulation of coffee price by the government where suppliers and collectors fixed their own price which is generally lower than the market price as stated by the government. Thus, such coffee market incompetence chiefly affect the income of coffee farmers and discourage them in the process of coffee production and marketing which lead to a significantly decreases in the country’s foreign exchange. This suggests that it is very critical to study and monitor systematically the production and marketing systems in all coffee growing areas of the country for the sake of planning and designing suitable research and development interventions that are applicable to the specific systems. Objectives of the Study The general objective of the study is to analyze the trends of coffee sector in Ethiopia in general and generate baseline information on production and marketing systems of the selected study are in particular by concentrating on parameters like production, marketing, institutional and organizational support and challenges and opportunities. Specific Objectives The specific objectives of the study are: To assess the production system and performance of coffee in the study area, To assess the market information and related socio-economic situation of the study area, To identify the major challenges and opportunities related to coffee production and marketing in the study area and Based on the findings of the research, forward viable recommendations. Significance of the Study The result of the study is helpful for the coffee growers and traders in the study area in planning and for development planners and policy makers in drafting policies for coffee production and marketing. Moreover, potential investors in coffee bean marketing in the study area can utilize the information in order to understand the market structure, price and profitability of the business. It will be an added value to the knowledge base on the production and marketing of coffee and a stepping stone and foundation for future research studies and researchers in this particular subject in the region. Finally, practitioners and academicians are expected to benefit from the findings of this research. Scope and Limitations of the Study The study is based on one-year data on coffee production and marketing in the study area. It also focuses on dry processed coffee bean as it accounts for the lion’s share in type of coffee exported by Ethiopia. In addition, the spatial coverage of the research work is one district (woreda) within a major coffee growing region in Ethiopia. Moreover, the study was constrained by the lack of vital data from most coffee traders in the study area. Organization of the Paper This thesis paper is comprised of five main chapters. The first chapter presents the introduction part. The second chapter contains review of related literatures. Chapter three presents material and methods used in the study including description of the study area. Chapter four presents the main findings of the research work. The last chapter summarizes the results, draws conclusion and offers recommendations. References and appendices will be next to the closing chapter.

Changing Roles Essay examples -- essays research papers

The contemporary American family is one that shows a picture perfect lifestyle of happiness and normalcy, but this normalcy can be challenged by anything. The present war our country is engaged in is one factor that has changed the lives of many families since it began. Husbands, sons, and sometimes even mothers and daughters are leaving their homes to fight in the war with Iraq. If the traditional American family consists of a husband, wife, and two or more children living in suburbia, my family could once have easily represented it. However, when our country went to war, my dad’s military-career transferred him thousand’s of miles across the ocean disrupting almost every aspect of our once, near perfect household. Most of my life I have had a very comfortable, no worries lifestyle. I was raised by both my parents in a nice home just outside of a pretty big city; we lived there almost eleven years of my life until we moved to a bigger home in a different side of town. My mom became pregnant after we moved into our new house and we soon celebrated the arrival of my sister. After my sister was born our family seemed to change in some ways. I noticed my parents were becoming more involved with both of our schools and doing more parental things. Both of my parents really settled down what little wild youthfulness was still left inside of them; our family was becoming very contemporary and more of the picturesque family most view as normal. My mom didn’t work, but rather stayed home and did the housewife thing while raising my sister and I. My dad has a job in the military, which often times calls him to placed around the country for a few days at a time but never for long. I remember the day I found out my dad had to leave for Iraq. It struck me with different emotions. I was sad for my dad and our family, but I was also shocked because I had never thought this was going to happen to me, to my family. My mom did not take it well. She was very upset because my dad was going to have to leave. Although we knew that my dad, being in the position he is in, would probably avoid much combat, we were still scared, angry and confused as to why this was happening to us. We understood that our country needed my dad, but at that moment it was hard to find much patriotism. We had a few weeks left before my dad left. We didn’t know when he was coming back or what all he w... ...e able to come home. It was an unexpected but wonderful surprise. When my dad returned things almost immediately went back to the way they were when he was around, which was good, but at the same time my mom was doing things that she had really never done before. This change in my mom continued even when my dad was back. He had some trouble at first adjusting to my mom’s new career, but everything worked out okay. The experience I had with my dad leaving is one that many families face. Not every family is as lucky, being so that their father leaves the family to go fight in a war or for some other reason, most are just deadbeats and leave for their own personal reasons. My dad leaving at first turned our family upside down, throwing what we had always known into something totally different, but as time wore on we came to realize that things would be okay. We grew to accept that this experience was difficult, but out of it came positive things. My dad’s leaving challenged my mom’s role as a simple housewife, which then challenged my mom to take over our household. She raised us alone, got a job, and found more self-confidence within herself. My family’s change did a lot of good.

Do the family and the peer group play important roles in the reproduction of violence in everyday practice? :: essays research papers

The term violence doesn’t necessarily have a fixed definition; it can be interpreted in many ways and the understanding of violence changes from person to person, circumstance to circumstance†¦. What one man may see as a violent act, the next man may disagree. A violent act cannot, â€Å"amount to a criminal offence unless at least some observer considered it to be justified.† (1) One has to consider whether the violent act was committed intentionally, recklessly or accidentally. The word aggression is often synonymous with violence, yet we are encouraged to channel aggression properly and put it into practices in fields such as sport and business. This can be dangerous as â€Å"aggressive tendencies develop in many people†¦ in an increasingly competitive world† (2) the most important factor here is that both violence and aggression are attempts to impose dominance. (3) The various interpretations of violence can be best put simply into four categories ; physically defensive, where violence is seen as the only way to prevent injury to one’s self. The defining emotion here is fear; frustrative, where the victim is seen as uncooperative or resistant. The defining emotion here is anger; malefic, where the victim is seen as disrespectful or contemptuous. The defining emotion here is hatred; and frustrative-malefic where anger is displaced by hatred. Juvenile violent crime today often heavily involves the usage of weapons, In particular knives. The crimes of juveniles are often a lot more violent than years previous and we can draw on examples from the murder of Jamie Bulger and Damiola Taylor. Although these, at large, are restricted (and high profile) cases there is still a growing feeling that juveniles today are more competitive on the â€Å"streets† and are getting involved in violence as a means to impress fellow peers through gaining a reputation and also getting more desperate in search of material goods such as mobile phones. Both these factors have always been key in the growing-up process of adolescents. Peer group influence is well established especially regarding drugs and alcohol. It can also extend to bullying behaviour- which can also be a response by a child who, themselves, is being bullied at home by an over-bearing parent. In this way the child uses bullying as a release, out of frustration with conditi ons at home. Bullying can also be attributed to part of growing up. A lot of bullies are regular children, with no history of violence or abuse, who simply try to impress their peers by physically and mentally attacking a child whom they deem weaker than them.

John Steinbecks East of Eden - The Character of Adam Trask :: East Eden Essays

The Character of Adam Trask in East of Eden In Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language, the word love is defined as a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person. Love can bring two people together but it can also have a person be rejected by another because of love. In the novel East of Eden by John Steinbeck, the main character, Adam Trask, confronts a feeling of love throughout the whole book but he either rejects the love of people who care about him or has his love rejected by the people that he cares about. When Adam was a young man in the beginning of the novel, his father, Cyrus Trask loved him but Adam did not love him back and when Adam went into the army he did not come back home until his father's death. Later on in the story Adam really loved his wife, Cathy, but she didn't love him back and so when she tried to leave him and he would not let her, she shot him. Even though Adam survived he was demoralized for most of his life because he still loved her. Through Adam's ex periences of love in the novel, John Steinbeck shows that Adam Trask has an inability to handle love. When he first appears in the novel, Adam Trask is a young man who is not loved by his brother or mother but only by his father. Cyrus had punished Adam before and had tried to teach him to be a soldier and so Adam hated him for that and when Cyrus told him he loved him, Adam did not accept his love. Cyrus tells Adam, "I think you're a weakling who will never amount to a dog turd. Does that answer your question? I love you better. I always have. This may be a bad thing to tell you, but it's true. I love you better. Else why would I have given myself the trouble of hurting you?" (Steinbeck 28). Cyrus is telling Adam that he has always loved him and that the only reason that he punished him is because he loved him. He wants Adam to go into the army because he knows that Adam would be courageous and since Cyrus was in the army, he wants to pass on the legacy. When Adam came home from his discharge, his brother and him were talking about their father and Adam told him the truth.

Critical Thinking Scenario: Blood Money Essay

The purpose of this essay is to provide an explanation for the relationship between critical thinking and ethics based on an ethical scenario called, Blood Money as analyzed from a critical thinking perspective. First, the moral responsibility of the participants in the scenario and the stakeholders’ moral failings will be defined. Next, the conflict of obligations or ideals will be analyzed while the best possible outcomes for the given consequences will be provided. Last, a brief analysis will be presented which describes the relationship between ethics and critical thinking. Critical thinking is a form of deliberate decision making based on reflective judgement. It is used for problem solving that involves evaluating and weighing two or more pieces of incoming information. Australian Moral Philosopher, Peter Singer, defined ethics this way: â€Å"Ethics is a major branch of philosophy, encompassing right conduct and good life. It is significantly broader than the common conception of analysing right and wrong. A central aspect of ethics is ‘the good life’, the life worth living or life that is simply satisfying, which is held by many philosophers to be more important than moral conduct†, (Singer, P. 2011). Simply, ethics refers to a set of theoretical morals that involves right conduct meant for the greater good. Critical analysis The scene begins with a group of under cover reporters who discover a Chinese business of the purchase and sale of human organs from the bodies of Chinese prisoners who are ordered to be executed in China. The Chinese and United States governments both denied that such a business exists. The under cover reporters who worked for Primetime Live managed to tape the transactions during their investigation which began is New York City’s Central Park and continued all the way to a military based hospital located in Hong Kong,  China. The reporters discovered that the Chinese military was one of the primary players in this get-rich scheme which generated revenue in the hundred millions. Apparently, $30,000 can buy one kidney and pay for the transplantation. In fact, a down payment of $5,000 is all that is required to get placed on the reservation list. This black market of organs sales by the Chinese military was common knowledge which involved numerous doctors in this barbaric business. Before the prisoners were even executed, they were forced to accept anticoagulants prior to their execution in order to prevent their blood from clotting. Such acts alone are a violation of the prisoners’ human rights. Shockingly, an American company was discovered having an active involvement is this black market. It was confirmed that W.R. Grace Corporation played a crucial role in the success of the black market business by providing the Chinese Army with a fully equipped dialysis centre. Moral responsibilities There are three active participants and two passive participants in this scenario. The three active participants are the doctors, the Chinese military, and W.R. Grace who made the business possible. The two passive participants are the Chinese government and the United States government. The Chinese military was morally responsible for making sure that the prisoners’ consent was obtained for taking organs from their bodies after their execution. The doctors were morally responsible for protecting the prisoners’ organs and for exercising honourable conduct that falls in line with their Hippocratic Oath of ethics. W. R. Grace Corporation was morally responsible for ensuring that the hospital did not engage in unethical practices and more importantly, the company had a moral responsibility not to assist the hospital in doing so. The Chinese and Unites States governments shared the responsibility of protecting the prisoner’s rights which included the implementation o f such rights while preventing unethical practices. Stakeholders’ moral failings The moral failings of the stakeholders are different as the Chinese military failed in getting away from an unethical trade, the doctors failed morally in performing their moral duties and the American company failed in its moral duty by supporting and equipping a hospital involved in unethical  practices. The governments of China and the United States failed morally in ensuring implementation of human rights and ethical practices. Ideals or obligations in the conflict The ideal or obligations in the conflict include using the organs of the prisoners with their consent, instead of selling the organs it could be used for the needy, for example, poor Chinese population, and lastly educating people about the actions of the Chinese military and its objectives and benefits. Best outcome of the given consequences The best outcome of the given consequences is that the organs of people can be used for medical purposes provided they give their consent for it. Conclusion Ethics are a set of standards which people use for living a good life while critical thinking makes the ethics or causes to be fluid. Critical thinking is the concept emerged by applying cognition while ethics refers to the perception of right or wrong in a given situation. Ethical principles have global or universal overlaps, but the ethical problems and solutions are hardly universal. Here is when there is a need to draw the connection between ethics and critical thinking. Applying critical thinking in a defined situation enables people for making the right decisions about choosing right ethical principles for applying to a particular situation. References Foundation for Critical Thinking. (2013). Critical Thinking in Everyday Life: 9 Strategies. Retrieved from http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/critical-thinking-in-everyday-life-9-strategies/512 Manias, N., Monroe, D., & Till, J. E. (2013). Ethics Applied (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc. Paul, R. & Elder, L. (2001). Modified from the book by Paul, R. & Elder, L. (2001). Critical Thinking: Tools for Taking Charge of Your Learning and Your Life. Singer, P. (2011). Why Act Morally?. Cambridge Books Online, 3rd(30), 276-296.

Village Life vs City Life

It is a firm belief on the part of people that there is a big difference between village life and city life. It is absolutely true that the life in a village and that in a city varies so much that the difference is glaring at times. In fact it can very well be said that people living in cities are different from people living in villages. It is normal feeling amongst us that city life is more enjoyable than village life. It is only an assumption. City life is endowed with a lot of advantages. This is because of the fact that there are a number of opportunities open to you in a city. City life is provided with a lot of facilities too. You would not find many facilities and opportunities in a village. Parents would be happy to send their children to cities for higher studies rather than to villages. Cities are endowed with quality higher education institutions whereas villages are not endowed with high quality colleges and universities. In addition to schools and colleges, city life is preferred for improved medical facilities. If someone falls ill in the family, you tend to take him or her to a popular hospital in a city since villages are not equipped with the best of medical attention. The number of hospitals in a city and the facilities are far more when compared to that in a village. A city has banks, cinema theaters, parks, golf courses, sports stadiums, clubs, hostels and shopping malls. The behavior of people in a city is different from that of the people in a village. People in a city are generally unfriendly and they maintain distant from others. The people in villages on the other hand are warm-hearted and friendly. Villagers receive you well where as city-dwellers tend to be within doors. People in villages are very helpful in nature whereas people living in cities tend to be more selfish in their attitude. A city is characterized by various kinds of pollution such as noise pollution, visual pollution and air pollution. This is due to that fact that there a number of factories, industries and mills in a city than in villages. Hence villages are endowed with pure air devoid of pollution. Visual and noise pollution are also less in villages. Since village life is calm and quiet and bereft of pollution of any kind, older people tend to settle down in villages after their retirement from service