Macro and Micro Environmental Analysis - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 5 Words: 1438 Downloads: 9 Date added: 2017/06/26 Category Economics Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? Macro: Macro environment refers to the overwhelming and external factors that the firms cannot have the influence on which can affect its business if not addressed. The economy of Malaysia has been in a healthy growth, however it the year of 2012 has dropped. In addition, the inflation rates of the year 2012 have dropped from a whopping 2.7 to satisfactory 1.3 during a year. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Macro and Micro Environmental Analysis" essay for you Create order These factors have directly affected the inflation and unemployment rates of Malaysia, this is because the inflation rates have fallen and the unemployment rated have fallen as well. Micro: Micro environment refers to the internal factors that relates to a business environment which can affect the business’ operation. These factors are suppliers, shareholders, competitors, customers and distributors. These factors have played a very big rule in the performance of proton, where proton has a big problem with their suppliers, as well as a drop in its market shares, as they have a big competitor in the market which is Perodua, the other factor that has affected proton is the customs, where Proton is facing difficulties in dealing with their customers, in fact proton is losing its customers due to the lack of service and lack of trust. Cross Culture and Global Issues: Being an automobile industry, this firm has to deal with other cultures on a daily basis. Cultures a re hard to define values, norm, and traditions. Understanding culture is an extremely complex concept. Various theories have been made on culture but the most projecting perhaps is of Greet Hofstede’s. Hosfsted’s Cultural Dimensions: Collectivism and Individualism: This refers to the extent to which people of a country a willing to work together. In collectivistic societies people tend to better put the groups needs first eliminating personal goals, whereas countries with invidualistic culture have follow personal or individual attainment over the groups. Power Distance: this refers to the extent to which people accept the hierarchal position to be authority in the business environment. Meaning in high power distance societies like Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, people tend to respect the authority because of their hierarchal of social status other than personal achievement like that in the low power distance societies like France, Italy. Uncertainty Avoidanc e: Refers to the extent to which people accept change in the society. Countries like Indonesia, North Korea, and Japan represent a high uncertainty avoidance whereby they dislike change. Masculinity and Feminism: relates to the role of women in different cultures, masculine culture believes Male to be the dominant part of the family and the only one allowed to support the family financially. Cultures with low masculinity dimension show females to be an important part of the workforce. Global issues: When it comes to addressing global issues to and automobile industry (Proton) most of the issues are relevant, whether it is of rising cost, taxation, global financial crises, regulations safety and health issues, all of the issues can be tracked back to an automobile industry (proton). There are many factors that Proton has to constrains before going overseas, for example, the tax fees is different in different countries, as well as the economic condition which will affect the sales, these are some of the issues that have to be addressed from Proton. Business volatility and risk Management: Considering the automobile industry (Proton), it took thousands of failed attempts before finally making a plane that could’ve worked. With every attempt being shot down, the amount of risk involved kept increasing but it was a necessary evil to reach to the point now where cars are made with perfection and counter abilities to have a safe driving. In the case of Proton, there are a number of risks involved which the mangers in charge have to think about. Initially, since the automobile industry is a huge business, the risk of investing enormous capital is the prime risk which decides the fate of the operation. Secondly, there is the risk of economic decline or inflation to sweep over which would directly affect the businesses in the service industry such as carmakers. Thirdly comes the cost of the fluctuating cost of material steals globally which has been increasing. The point is not to note out the risks involved the point is to manage risks relating to the merger effectively. Branding Success and Challenges: Branding is a concept originated for as far back as the 1200 in Sweden, where they used to burn insignia’s on a horse to differentiate it from others. For a company that wants its name out in the market, it takes extensive marketing, heavy funds, and a lot of patience because it takes a while. Reaching brand awareness is only the first step, and then the company needs to reach its target market, once it’s done then it comes Brand loyalty, whereby customers prefer choosing a brand they have become loyal to. If the brands present a particular negative perception of the company then it may take a long time and efforts to change the perception of the masses. For example, when Lexus was first revealed and appreciated by the masses, it was unknown that it belonged to Toyota, because of Toyota’s percept ion of being an economical and affordable automotive vehicle. Business Sustainability: It is one thing to start a business but it is another to sustain it. By sustaining it doesn’t always mean running it profitably, it also include social and environmental obligations, risk and opportunities it has. There are a number of ways in which companies can ensure their business sustainability which would be as follows; Shareholder engagement. Environmental management system. Reporting and disclosure. If proton implements these sustainable strategies into their operation and monito the quality, sustainability can be expected. Tuckman theories on teamwork: Introduction For the subject of Business and Commercial Awareness, we got an assignment to make a business plan for Proton. According to Dr Mahathir’s statement â€Å"our immediate plan would be to change its strategy from being a maker of cheap cars to become a world standard car manufacture†. Stage one Forming The class was divided into a group of five members, each of the members was giving a department to work on, and these departments are Finance, Operation, Human Resource, and marketing. Unfortunately I was given Finance department, where I have to analyse the current situation of Proton’s finance performance. However, before the assignment my knowledge of finance was substantially lower than an average final year student of Business Administration, but I have had a mind-set to not pay attention to things that do not interest me for as far back as I can remember. Stage two Storming Then we moved into the second stage which is storming, in this stage we started to push against boundaries. We have many conflicts between us in the nature of our working style, where each of the members has a different working style, for example in marketing department, where Amir and Khider were handed this part, they had many issues in solving the problems which cause frustration to the entire group, as well as I was giving Finance department, which was a big challenge for my authority. As the team work wasn’t clearly defined, which cause us to feel overwhelmed by the workload. I believe that it was mission impossible for us to overcome the issues we were facing in this stage; we could not even come up with the framework for our strategies, which was a big disappointment. We end up working these issues out with Dr Tan, and finally we could move to the next step. Stage three Norming In this stage we finally identified our goals, and each of the members is fully aware of the methods and the strategies which should be adopted in order to achieve our goal. As well as trust and apperception was built between us, where the leader of our group Ben was a big motivation for us, he has helped each of us to take responsibility for progress towards achieving the goal. As most of the discussions were conducted through a facebook page. Stage four Performing In this stage we solved all the problems and issues by using appropriate controls, and we have achieved and effective and satisfying result. It was amazing that we worked collaboratively to achieve our goal, as there was caring from the members towards each there. For example Brain Scot was very helpful in helping me with my part in Finance department, he recommended me on how to finalize my part. In addition to, the commitment from the group members increased positively towards the group work com paring to the first stage.

The Emergence of Yellow Power - 2159 Words

The common perspective of the civil rights movement is often seen from one angle: and that is the African American civil rights movement towards racial equality. And though this movement had significant historical context in American history, the pursuits of other minorities such as the Asian American civil rights movement are often undermined and overlooked. Yet, the Asian American movement surpassed the efforts of the African American movement despite the social and cultural obstacles faced with integrating into a new society. Through intrinsic cultural unity and the influences of the African American civil rights movement, the Asian American civil rights movement achieved more success than the African American civil rights movement†¦show more content†¦The Asian American civil rights movement was set into motion and challenged Asian stereotypes and promoted equal rights as Asian Americans took charge. Since then, African and Asian Americans moved together in the pursu it for racial equality in similar pacing. Therefore, to fight for racial equality and combat bigotry, African Americans formed the NAACP as the Japanese Americans formed the JACL--similar organization both against racial discrimination and to assist its members in rising up in society. These councils significantly impacted the United States as they promoted the causes for social equality and influenced similar organizations all over the United States. Essentially as a catalyst for the civil rights movement, such organizations played a major role in gaining the voice of the people and created unification of citizens reluctant to voice their opinions in a white dominated country. For example, a similar council was created known as the Jackson Street Community Council, which promoted business, social groups, and public services. This created ethnic cooperation between blacks and Asians in the community because of the prior competition between the colored regions of Seattle for job s. This council helped dissolve tension, not only between Japanese and African Americans, but also between Japanese and whites, which came from the resentment from the war and Japanese internment. Subsequently,Show MoreRelatedThe Effect of Black Power on the Emergence of Yellow Power1257 Words   |  6 PagesEffect of Black Power on the Emergence of Yellow Power African-Americans were not alone in the shift to â€Å"ethnic power.† Other minority groups also shifted from the fight for integration and began to adopt the rhetoric of ethnic power and pride in the late 1960’s. By the late 1960’s, a host of other groups began to adopt the rhetoric of â€Å"power†: Red Power, Grey Power, Pink Power, Brown Power, etc. What were the similarities and differences between the rhetoric of Chicano Power, Yellow Power and Black PowerRead MoreThe Human Social Relations Changed With The Emergence Of Sedentary And Surplus Accumulation991 Words   |  4 PagesThe human social relations changed with the emergence of sedentary and surplus accumulation. This happened because people are moving to a place where they can live year round. The types of political economies that emerged were pyramidal and acephalous. The conditions that caused these differences is how fertile the land is. If the land was not fertile then they would have an a cephalous political economy, where if the land was fertile then they would have a pyramidal political economy. 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Extreme conditional value at risk a coherent scenario for risk management Free Essays

string(52) " returns in the modelling of extreme market events\." CHAPTER ONE 1. INTRODUCTION Extreme financial losses that occurred during the 2007-2008 financial crisis reignited questions of whether existing methodologies, which are largely based on the normal distribution, are adequate and suitable for the purpose of risk measurement and management. The major assumptions employed in these frameworks are that financial returns are independently and identically distributed, and follow the normal distribution. We will write a custom essay sample on Extreme conditional value at risk a coherent scenario for risk management or any similar topic only for you Order Now However, weaknesses in these methodologies has long been identified in the literature. Firstly, it is now widely accepted that financial returns are not normally distributed; they are asymmetric, skewed, leptokurtic and fat-tailed. Secondly, it is a known fact that financial returns exhibit volatility clustering, thus the assumption of independently distributed is violated. The combined evidence concerning the stylized facts of financial returns necessitates the need for adapting existing methodologies or developing new methodologies that will account for all the stylised facts of financial returns explicitly. In this paper, I discuss two related measures of risk; extreme value-at-risk (EVaR) and extreme conditional value-at-risk (ECVaR). I argue that ECVaR is a better measure of extreme market risk than EVaR utilised by Kabundi and Mwamba (2009) since it is coherent, and captures the effects of extreme markets events. In contrast, even though EVaR captures the effect of extreme market events, it is non-coherent. 1.1.BACKGROUND Markowitz (1952), Roy (1952), Shape (1964), Black and Scholes (1973), and Merton’s (1973) major toolkit in the development of modern portfolio theory (MPT) and the field of financial engineering consisted of means, variance, correlations and covariance of asset returns. In MPT, the variance or equivalently the standard deviation was the panacea measure of risk. A major assumption employed in this theory is that financial asset returns are normally distributed. Under this assumption, extreme market events rarely happen. When they do occur, risk managers can simply treat them as outliers and disregard them when modelling financial asset returns. The assumption of normally distributed asset returns is too simplistic for use in financial modelling of extreme market events. During extreme market activity similar to the 2007-2008 financial crisis, financial returns exhibit behavior that is beyond what the normal distribution can model. Starting with the work of Mandelbrot (1963) there is increasingly more convincing empirical evidence that suggest that asset returns are not normally distributed. They exhibit asymmetric behavior, ‘fat tails’ and high kurtosis than the normal distribution can accommodate. The implication is that extreme negative returns do occur, and are more frequent than predicted by the normal distribution. Therefore, measures of risk based on the normal distribution will underestimate the risk of portfolios and lead to huge financial losses, and potentially insolvencies of financial institutions. To mitigate the effects of inadequate risk capital buffers stemming from underestimation of risk by normality-based financial modelling, risk measures such as EVaR that go beyond the assumption of normally distributed returns have been developed. However, EVaR is non-coherent just like VaR from which it is developed. The implication is that, even though it captures the effects of extreme mar ket events, it is not a good measure of risk since it does not reflect diversification – a contradiction to one of the cornerstone of portfolio theory. ECVaR naturally overcomes these problems since it coherent and can capture extreme market events. 1.2 RSEARCH PROBLEM The purpose of this paper is to develop extreme conditional value-at-risk (ECVaR), and propose it as a better measure of risk than EVaR under conditions of extreme market activity with financial returns that exhibit volatility clustering, and are not normally distributed. Kabundi and Mwamba (2009) have proposed EVaR as a better measure of extreme risk than the widely used VaR, however, it is non-coherent. ECVaR is coherent, and captures the effect of extreme market activity, thus it is more suited to model extreme losses during market turmoil, and reflects diversification, which is an important requirement for any risk measure in portfolio theory. 1.3 RELEVENCE OF THE STUDY The assumption that financial asset returns are normally distributed understates the possibility of infrequent extreme events whose impact is more detrimental than that of events that are more frequent. Use of VaR and CVaR underestimate the riskiness of assets and portfolios, and eventually lead to huge losses and bankruptcies during times of extreme market activity. There are many adverse effects of using the normal distribution in the measurement of financial risk, the most visible being the loss of money due to underestimating risk. During the global financial crisis, a number of banks and non-financial institutions suffered huge financial losses; some went bankrupt and failed, partly because of inadequate capital allocation stemming from underestimation of risk by models that assumed normally distributed returns. Measures of risk that do not assume normality of financial returns have been developed. One such measure is EVaR (Kabundi and Mwamba (2009)). EVaR captures the effect of extreme market events, however it is not coherent. As a result, EVaR is not a good measure of risk since it does not reflect diversification. In financial markets characterised by multiple sources of risk and extreme market volatility, it is important to have a risk measure that is coherent and can capture the effect of extreme market activity. ECVaR is advocated to fulfils this role of ensuring extreme market risk while conforming to portfolio theory’s wisdom of diversification. 1.4 RESEARCH DESIGN Chapter 2 will present a literature review of risk measurement methodologies currently used by financial institutions, in particular, VaR and CVaR. I also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these measures. Another risk measure not widely known thus far is the EVaR. We discuss EVaR as an advancement in risk measurement methodologies. I advocate that EVaR is not a good measure of risk since it is non-coherent. This leads to the next chapter, which presents ECVaR as a better risk measure that is coherent and can capture extreme market events. Chapter 3 will be concerned with extreme conditional value-at-risk (ECVaR) as a convenient modelling framework that naturally overcomes the normality assumption of asset returns in the modelling of extreme market events. You read "Extreme conditional value at risk a coherent scenario for risk management" in category "Essay examples" This is followed with a comparative analysis of EVaR and ECVaR using financial data covering both the pre-financial crisis and the financial crisis periods. Chapter 4 will be concerned with data sources, preliminary data description, and the estimation of EVaR, and ECVaR. Chapter 5 will discuss the empirical results and the implication for risk measurement. Finally, chapter 6 will give concussions and highlight the directions for future research. CHAPTER 2: RISK MEASUREMENT AND THE EMPIRICAL DISTRIBUTION OF FINANCIAL RETURNS 2.1 Risk Measurement in Finance: A Review of Its Origins The concept of risk has been known for many years before Markowitz’s Portfolio Theory (MPT). Bernoulli (1738) solved the St. Petersburg paradox and derived fundamental insights of risk-averse behavior and the benefits of diversification. In his formulation of expected utility theory, Bernoulli did not define risk explicitly; however, he inferred it from the shape of the utility function (Bulter et al. (2005:134); Brancinger Weber, (1997: 236)). Irving Fisher (1906) suggested the use of variance to measure economic risk. Von Neumann and Morgenstern (1947) used expected utility theory in the analysis of games and consequently deduced many of the modern understanding of decision making under risk or uncertainty. Therefore, contrary to popular belief, the concept of risk has been known well before MPT. Even though the concept of risk was known before MPT, Markowitz (1952) first provided a systematic algorithm to measure risk using the variance in the formulation of the mean-variance model for which he won the Nobel Prize in 1990. The development of the mean-variance model inspired research in decision making under risk and the development of risk measures. The study of risk and decision making under uncertainty (which is treated the same as risk in most cases) stretch across disciplines. In decision science and psychology, Coombs and Pruitt (1960), Pruitt (1962), Coombs (1964), Coombs and Meyer (1969), and Coombs and Huang (1970a, 1970b) studied the perception of gambles and how their preference is affected by their perceived risk. In economics, finance and measurement theory, Markowitz (1952, 1959), Tobin (1958), Pratt (1964), Pollatsek Tversky (1970), Luce (1980) and others investigate portfolio selection and the measurement of risk of those portfolios, and gambles in general. T heir collective work produces a number of risk measures that vary in how they rank the riskiness of options, portfolios, or gambles. Though the risk measures vary, Pollatsek and Tversky (1970: 541) recognises that they share the following: (1) Risk is regarded as a property of choosing among options. (2) Options can be meaningfully ordered according to their riskiness. (3) As suggested by Irving Fisher in 1906, the risk of an option is somehow related to the variance or dispersion in its outcomes. In addition to these basic properties, Markowitz regards risk as a ‘bad’, implying something that is undesirable. Since Markowitz (1952), many risk measures such as the semi-variance, absolute deviation, and the lower semi-variance etc. (see Brachinger and Weber, (1997)) were developed, however, the variance continued to dominate empirical finance. It was in the 1990s that a new measure, VaR was popularised and became industry standard as a risk measure. I present this risk m easure in the next section. 2.2 Value-at-risk (VaR) 2.2.1 Definition and concepts Besides these basic ideas concerning risk measures, there is no universally accepted definition of risk (Pollatsek and Tversky, 1970:541); as a result, risk measures continue to be developed. J.P Morgan Reuters (1996) pioneered a major breakthrough in the advancement of risk measurement with the use of value-at-risk (VaR), and the subsequent Basel committee recommendation that banks could use it for their internal risk management. VaR is concerned with measuring the risk of a financial position due to the uncertainty regarding the future levels of interest rates, stock prices, commodity prices, and exchange rates. The risk resulting in the movement of these market factors is called market risk. VaR is the expected maximum loss of a financial position with a given level of confidence over a specified horizon. VaR provides answers to question: what is the maximum loss that I can lose over, say the next ten days with 99 percent confidencePut differently, what is the maximum loss that will be exceeded only one percent of the times in the next ten dayI illustrate the computation of VaR using one of the methods that is available, namely parametric VaR. I denote by the rate of return and by the portfolio value at time. Then is given by (1) The actual loss (the negative of the profit, which is) is given by (2) When is normally distributed (as is normally assumed), the variable has a standard normal distribution with mean of and standard deviation of. We can calculate VaR from the following equation: (3) where implies a confidence level. If we assume a 99% confidence level, we have (4) In we have -2.33 as our VaR at 99% confidence level, and we will exceed this VaR only 1% of the times. From (4), it can be shown that the 99% confidence VaR is given byVaR (5)Generalising from (5), we can state the quantile VaR of the distribution as follows (6)VaR is an intuitive measure of risk that can be easily implemented. This is evident in its wide use in the industry. However, is it an optimal measureThe next section addresses the limitations of VaR. 2.2.2 Limitations of VaR Artzner et al. (1997,1999) developed a set of axioms that if satisfied by a risk measure, then that risk measure is ‘coherent’. The implication of coherent measures of risk is that â€Å"it is not possible to assign a function for measuring risk unless it satisfies these axioms† (Mitra, 2009:8). Risk measures that satisfy these axioms can be considered universal and optimal since they are founded on the same mathematical axioms that are generally accepted. Artzner et al. (1997, 1999) put forward the first axioms of risk measures, and any risk measure that satisfies them is a coherent measure of risk. Letting be a risk measure defined on two portfolios and. Then, the risk measure is coherent if it satisfies the following axioms: (1)Monotonicity: if then We interpret the monotonicity axiom to mean that higher losses are associated with higher risk. (2)Homogeneity: for; Assuming that there is no liquidity risk, the homogeneity axiom mean that risk is not a function of the quantity of a stock purchased, therefore we cannot reduce or increase risk by investing different amounts in the same stock. (3)Translation invariance: , where is a riskless security; This means that investing in a riskless asset does not increase risk with certainty. (4)Sub-additivity: Possibly the most important axiom, sub-additivity insures that a risk measure reflects diversification – the combined risk of two portfolios is less than the sum of the risks of individual portfolios. VaR does not satisfy the most important axiom of sub-additivity, thus it is non-coherent. More so, VaR tells us what we can expect to lose if an extreme event does not occur, thus it does not tell us the extend of losses we can incur if a â€Å"tail† event occurs. VaR is therefore not optimal measure of risk. The non-coherence, and therefor non-optimality of VaR as a measuring of risk led to the development of conditional value-at-risk (CVaR) by Artzner et al. (1997, 1999), and Uryasev and Rockafeller (1999). I discus CVaR in the next section. 2.3 Conditional Value-at-Risk CVaR is also known as â€Å"Expected Shortfall† (ES),â€Å"Tail VaR†, or â€Å"Tail conditional expectation†, and it measures risk beyond VaR. Yamai and Yoshiba (2002) define CVaR as the conditional expectation of losses given that the losses exceed VaR. Mathematically, CVaR is given by the following: (7) CVaR offers more insights concerning risk that VaR in that it tells us what we can expect to lose if the losses exceed VaR. Unfortunately, the finance industry has been slow in adopting CVaR as its preferred risk measure. This is besides the fact that â€Å"the actuarial/insurance community has tended to pick up on developments in financial risk management much more quickly than financial risk managers have picked up on developments in actuarial science† (Dowd and Black (2006:194)). Hopefully, the effects of the financial crisis will change this observation. In much of the applications of VaR and CVaR, returns have been assumed to be normally distributed. However, it is widely accepted that returns are not normally distributed. The implication is that, VaR and CVaR as currently used in finance will not capture extreme losses. This will lead to underestimation of risk and inadequate capital allocation across business units. In times of market stress when extra capital is required, it will be inadequate. This may lead to the insolvency of financial institutions. Methodologies that can capture extreme events are therefore needed. In the next section, I discuss the empirical evidence on financial returns, and thereafter discuss extreme value theory (EVT) as a suitable framework of modelling extreme losses. 2.4 The Empirical Distribution of Financial Returns Back in 1947, Geary wrote, â€Å"Normality is a myth; there never was, and never will be a normal distribution† (as cited by Krishnaiah (1980: 279). Today this remark is supported by a voluminous amount of empirical evidence against normally distributed returns; nevertheless, normality continues to be the workhorse of empirical finance. If the normality assumption fails to pass empirical tests, why are practitioners so obsessed with the bell curveCould their obsession be justifiedTo uncover some of the possible responses to these questions, let us first look at the importance of being normal, and then look at the dangers of incorrectly assuming normality. 2.4.1 The Importance of Being Normal The normal distribution is the widely used distribution in statistical analysis in all fields that utilises statistics in explaining phenomenon. The normal distribution can be assumed for a population, and it gives a rich set of mathematical results (Mardia, 1980: 279). In other words, the mathematical representations are tractable, and are easy to implement. The populations can simply be explained by its mean and variance when the normal distribution is assumed. The panacea advantage is that the modelling process under normality assumption is very simple. In fields that deal with natural phenomenon, such as physics and geology, the normal distribution has unequivocally succeeded in explaining the variables of interest. The same cannot be said in the finance field. The normal probability distribution has been subject to rigorous empirical rejection. A number of stylized facts of asset returns, statistical tests of normality and the occurrence of extreme negative returns disputes the normal distribution as the underlying data generating process for asset returns. We briefly discuss these empirical findings next. 2.4.2 Deviations From Normality Ever since Mandelbrot (1963), Fama (1963), Fama (1965) among others, it is a known fact that asset returns are not normally distributed. The combined empirical evidence since the 1960s points out the following stylized facts of asset returns: (1)Volatility clustering: periods of high volatility tend to be followed by periods of high volatility, and period of low volatility tend to be followed by low volatility. (2)Autoregressive price changes: A price change depends on price changes in the past period. (3)Skewness: Positive prices changes and negative price changes are not of the same magnitude. (4)Fat-tails: The probabilities of extreme negative (positive) returns are much larger than predicted by the normal distribution. (5)Time-varying tail thickness: More extreme losses occur during turbulent market activity than during normal market activity. (6)Frequency dependent fat-tails: high frequency data tends to be more fat-tailed than low frequency data. In addition to these stylized facts of asset returns, extreme events of 1974 Germany banking crisis, 1978 banking crisis in Spain, 1990s Japanese banking crisis, September 2001, and the 2007-2008 US experience ( BIS, 2004) could not have happened under the normal distribution. Alternatively, we could just have treated them as outliers and disregarded them; however, experience has shown that even those who are obsessed with the Gaussian distribution could not ignore the detrimental effects of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. With these empirical facts known to the quantitative finance community, what is the motivation for the continued use of the normality assumptionIt could be possible that those that stick with the normality assumption know only how to deal with normally distributed data. It is their hammer; everything that comes their way seems like a nail! As Esch (2010) notes, for those that do have other tools to deal with non-normal data, they continue to use the normal distribution on the grounds of parsimony. However, â€Å"representativity should not be sacrificed for simplicity† (Fabozzi et al., 2011:4). Better modelling frameworks to deal with extreme values that are characteristic of departures from normality have been developed. Extreme value theory is one such methodology that has enjoyed success in other fields outside finance, and has been used to model financial losses with success. In the next chapter, I present extreme value-based methodologies as a practical and better methodology to overcome non-normality in asset returns. CHAPTER 3: EXTREME VALUE THEORY: A SUITABLE AND ADEQUATE FRAMEWORK? 1.3. Extreme Value Theory Extreme value theory was developed to model extreme natural phenomena such as floods, extreme winds, and temperature, and is well established in fields such as engineering, insurance, and climatology. It provides a convenient way to model the tails of distributions that capture non-normal activities. Since it concentrates on the tails of distributions, it has been adopted to model asset returns in time of extreme market activity (see Embrechts et al. (1997); McNeil and Frey (2000); Danielsson and de Vries (2000). Gilli and Kellezi (2003) points out two related ways of modelling extreme events. The first way describes the maximum loss through a limit distribution known as the generalised extreme value distribution (GED), which is a family of asymptotic distributions that describe normalised maxima or minima. The second way provides asymptotic distribution that describes the limit distribution of scaled excesses over high thresholds, and is known as the generalised Pareto distribution (GPD). The two limit distributions results into two approaches of EVT-based modelling – the block of maxima method and the peaks over threshold method respectively[2]. 3.1. The Block of Maxima Method Let us consider independent and identically distributed (i.i.d) random variable with common distribution function ?. Let be the maximum of the first random variables. Also, let us suppose is the upper end of. For, the corresponding results for the minima can be obtained from the following identity (8) almost surely converges to whether it is finite or infinite since, Following Embrechts et al. (1997), and Shanbhang and Rao (2003), the limit theory finds norming constants and a non-degenerate distribution function in such a way that the distribution function of a normalized version of converges to as follows;, as (9) is an extreme value distribution function, and ? is the domain of attraction of, (written as), if equation (2) holds for suitable values of and. It can also be said that the two extreme value distribution functions and belong in the same family if for someand all. Fisher and Tippett (1928), De Haan (1970, 1976), Weissman (1978), and Embrechts et al. (1997) show that the limit distribution function belongs to one of the following three density functions for some. (10) (11) (12) Any extreme value distribution can be classified as one of the three types in (10), (11) and (12). and are the standard extreme value distribution and the corresponding random variables are called standard extreme random variables. For alternative characterization of the three distributions, see Nagaraja (1988), and Khan and Beg (1987). 3.2.The Generalized Extreme Value Distribution The three distribution functions given in (10), (11) and (12) above can be combined into one three-parameter distribution called the generalised extreme value distribution (GEV) given by,, with (13) We denote the GEV by, and the values andgive rise to the three distribution functions in (3). In equation (4) above, and represent the location parameter, the scale parameter, and the tail-shape parameter respectively. corresponds to the Frechet, and distributioncorresponds to the Weibull distribution. The case where reduces to the Gumbel distribution. To obtain the estimates of we use the maximum likelihood method, following Kabundi and Mwamba (2009). To start with, we fit the sample of maximum losses to a GEV. Thereafter, we use the maximum likelihood method to estimate the parameters of the GEV from the logarithmic form of the likely function given by; (14) To obtain the estimates of we take partial derivatives of equation (14) with respect to and, and equating them to zero. 3.2.1. Extreme Value-at-Risk The EVaR defined as the maximum likelihood quantile estimator of, is by definition given by (15) The quantity is the quantile of, and I denote it as the alpha percept VaR specified as follows following Kabundi and Mwamba (2009), and Embrech et al. (1997): (16) Even though EVaR captures extreme losses, by extension from VaR it is non-coherent. As such, it cannot be used for the purpose of portfolio optimization since it does not reflect diversification. To overcome this problem, In the next section, I extend CVaR to ECVaR so as to capture extreme losses coherently. 3.2.2. Extreme Conditional Value-at-Risk (ECVaR): An Extreme Coherent Measure of Risk I extend ECVaR from EVaR in a similar manner that I used to extend CVaR from VaR. ECVaR can therefore be expressed as follows: (17) In the following chapter, we describe the data and its sources. CHAPTER 4: DATA DISCRIPTION. I will use stock market indexes of five advanced economies comprising that of the United States, Japan, Germany, France, and United Kingdom, and five emerging economies comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa. Possible sources of data that will be used are I-net Bride, Bloomberg, and individual country central banks. CHAPTER 5: DISCUSION OF EMPIRICAL RESULTS In this chapter, I will discuss the empirical results. Specifically, the adequacy of ECVaR will be discussed relative to that of EVaR. Implications for risk measurement will also be discussed in this chapter. CHAPTER 6: CONCLUSIONS This chapter will give concluding remarks, and directions for future research. References [1] Markowitz, H.M.: 1952, Portfolio selection, Journal of Finance 7 (1952), 77-91 2 Roy, A.D.: 1952, Safety First and the Holding of Assets. Econometrica, vol. 20 no 3 p 431-449. 3 Shape, W.F.: 1964, Capital Asset Prices: A Theory of Market Equilibrium under Conditions of Risk. The Journal of Finance, Vol. 19 No 3 p 425-442. 4 Black, F., and Scholes, M.: 1973, The Pricing of Options and Corporate Liabilities, Journal of Political Economy, vol. 18 () 637-59. 5 Merton, R. C.: 1973, The Theory of Rational Option Pricing. Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science, Spring. 6 Artzner, Ph., F. Delbaen, J.-M. Eber, And D. Heath .: 1997, Thinking Coherently, Risk 10 (11) 68–71. 7 Artzner, Ph., Delbaen, F., Eber, J-M., And Heath , D.: 1999, Thinking Coherently. Mathematical Finance, Vol. 9, No. 3 203–228 8 Bernoulli, D.: 1954, Exposition of a new theory on the measurement of risk, Econometrica 22 (1) 23-36, Translation of a paper originally published in Latin in St. Petersburg in 1738. 9 Butler, J.C., Dyer, J.S., and Jia, J.: 2005, An Empirical Investigation of the Assumption of Risk –Value Models. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, vol. 30 (2), pp. 133-156. 10 Brachinger, H.W., and Weber, M.: 1997, Risk as a primitive: a survey of measures of perceived risk. OR Spektrum, Vol 19 () 235-250 [1] Fisher, I.: 1906, The nature of Capital and Income. Macmillan. 1[1] von Neumann, J. and Morgenstern, O.: 1947, Theory of games and economic behaviour, 2nd ed., Princeton University Press. [1]2 Coombs, C.H., and Pruitt, D.G.: 1960, Components of Risk in Decision Making: Probability and Variance preferences. Journal of Experimental Psychology, vol. 60 () pp. 265-277. [1]3 Pruitt, D.G.: 1962, Partten and Level of risk in Gambling Decisions. Psychological Review, vol. 69 ()( pp. 187-201. [1]4 Coombs, C.H.: 1964, A Theory of Data. New York: Wiley. [1]5 Coombs, C.H., and Meyer, D.E.: 1969, Risk preference in Coin-toss Games. Journal of Mathematical Psychology, vol. 6 () p 514-527. [1]6 Coombs, C.H., and Huang, L.C.: 1970a, Polynomial Psychophysics of Risk. Journal of Experimental psychology, vol 7 (), pp. 317-338. [1]7 Markowitz, H.M.: 1959, Portfolio Selection: Efficient diversification of Investment. Yale University Press, New Haven, USA. [1]8 Tobin, J. E.: 1958, liquidity preference as behavior towards risk. Review of Economic Studies p 65-86. [1]9 Pratt, J.W.: 1964, Risk Aversion in the Small and in the Large. Econometrica, vol. 32 () p 122-136. 20 Pollatsek, A. and Tversky, A.: 1970, A theory of Risk. Journal of Mathematical Psychology 7 (no issue) 540-553. 2[1] Luce, D. R.:1980, Several possible measures of risk. Theory and Decision 12 (no issue) 217-228. 22 J.P. Morgan and Reuters.: 1996, RiskMetrics Technical document. Available at http://riskmetrics.comrmcovv.html Accessed†¦ 23 Uryasev, S., and Rockafeller, R.T.: 1999, Optimization of Conditional Value-at-Risk. Available at http://www.gloriamundi.org 24 Mitra, S.: 2009, Risk measures in Quantitative Finance. Available on line. [Accessed†¦] 25 Geary, R.C.: 1947, Testing for Normality, Biometrika, vol. 34, pp. 209-242. 26 Mardia, K.V.: 1980, P.R. Krishnaiah, ed., Handbook of Statistics, Vol. 1. North-Holland Publishing Company. Pp. 279-320. 27 Mandelbrot, B.: 1963, The variation of certain speculative prices. Journal of Business, vol. 26, pp. 394-419. 28 Fama, E.: 1963, Mandelbrot and the stable paretian hypothesis. Journal of Business, vol. 36, pp. 420-429. 29 Fama, E.: 1965, The behavior of stock market prices. Journal of Business, vol. 38, pp. 34-105. 30 Esch, D.: 2010, Non-Normality facts and fallacies. Journal of Investment Management, vol. 8 (1), pp. 49-61. 3[1] Stoyanov, S.V., Rachev, S., Racheva-Iotova, B., Fabozzi, F.J.: 2011, Fat-tailed Models for Risk Estimation. Journal of Portfolio Management, vol. 37 (2). Available at http://www.iijournals.com/doi/abs/10.3905/jpm.2011.37.2.107 32 Embrechts, P., Uppelberg, C.K.L, and T. Mikosch.: 1997, Modeling extremal events for insurance and finance, Springer 33 McNeil, A. and Frey, R.: 2000, Estimation of tail-related risk measures for heteroscedastic financial time series: an extreme value approach, Journal of Empirical Finance, Volume 7, Issues 3-4, 271- 300. 34 Danielsson, J. and de Vries, C.: 2000, Value-at-Risk and Extreme Returns, Annales d’Economie et deb Statistique, Volume 60, 239-270. 35Gilli, G., and Kellezi, E.: (2003), An Application of Extreme Value Theory for Measuring Risk, Department of Econometrics, University of Geneva, Switzerland. Available from: http://www.gloriamundi.org/picsresources/mgek.pdf 36 Shanbhag, D.N., and Rao, C.R.: 2003, Extreme Value Theory, Models and Simulation. Handbook of Statistics, Vol 21(). Elsevier Science B.V. 37 Fisher, R. A. and Tippett, L.H.C.: 1928, Limiting forms of the frequency distribution of the largest or smallest member of a sample. Proc. Cambridge Philos. Soc. Vol 24, 180-190. 38 De Haan, L.: 1970, On Regular Variation and Its Application to the Weak Convergence of Sample Extremes. Mathematical Centre Tract, Vol. 32. Mathematisch Centmm, Amsterdam 39 De Haan, L.: 1976, Sample extremes: an elementary introduction. Statistica Neerlandica, vol. 30, 161-172. 40 Weissman, I.: 1978, Estimation of parameters and large quantiles based on the k largest observations. J. Amer. Statist. Assoc. vol. 73, 812-815. 4[1] Nagaraja, H. N.: 1988, Some characterizations of continuous distributions based on regressions of adjacent order statistics and record values. Sankhy A 50, 70-73. 42 Khan, A. H. and Beg, M.I.: 1987, Characterization of the Weibull distribution by conditional variance. Snaky A 49, 268-271. 43 Kabundi, A. and Mwamba, J.W.M.: 2009, Extreme value at Risk: a Scenario for Risk management. SAJE Forthcoming. How to cite Extreme conditional value at risk a coherent scenario for risk management, Essay examples

Synthesis Preserving Artifacts Essay Example For Students

Synthesis Preserving Artifacts Essay Priceless artifacts, made centuries ago, should in no means belong to an individual. Who gets to decide who owns them? Was it created for an individual or nation? Artifacts, which holds the culture, stories and even the past of civilizations, should belong to everyone. â€Å"Does it really matter who owns a particular artifact whether it is a museum in the first world or a nation in the third world? † ( Source A ). The topic of whether to remove an artifact of its place or origin and who it belongs to has been longed debated. Removing historic artifacts from their place of origin is in fact essential, and necessary to ensure a fuller understanding of human history, that can be shared by the world. Through global warming and natural disasters, if left in their found spots; treasured artifacts are likely to be destroyed. Warfare and terrorist attacks can also lead to the disappearance of a treasured artifact. â€Å"In 2001, the ruling Taliban blew up this 175 foot tall Buddha, which dated back fifteen hundred years† ( Source C ). This event is a perfect example of why artifacts need to be preserved and how if left alone, can result in its destruction. The statue of Buddha, represents the pride and strength of the religion, standing tall for years, meant to be By putting these priceless and treasured artifacts in a secured place like a museum, they will have the protection and the ability to continue to exist and teach others about the past. Besides educating the ordinary people, museums also serve as research centers for historians, archeologists and other scholars. It is through their studies that we know so much today about the lives of our ancient ancestors. If the artifacts were scattered around the globe, it would had been more difficult for experts to travel in order to study them. Museums are definitely major contributors to the advancement of knowledge about our past. â€Å"They are not in the collection of the art museum for the art museum. They are there for the public Besides, we have too many examples where presumed countries of origin could not preserve its antiquities: Afghanistan and Iraq, only most recently ( Source A ). With the advanced facilities and security museums of today provide, Artifacts have a higher chance of being preserved. The protection of these artifacts are also questionable in countries in financial difficulty. If a country fails to do so, then in no right should it be kept by them. â€Å"What does it mean, exactly for something to belong to a people? † (Source E). To which extent does an artifact belong to a group of people or in individual? Modern countries, should not claim monuments and statues merely on the basis that it was found in their land, when in reality the artifacts dates back centuries before the country’s border were even drawn. â€Å"Most of Nigeria’s cultural heritage was produced before the modern Nigerian state existed. So why should Nigeria have a special claim on those objects, buried in the forest and forgotten for so long? (Source E ). Every individual, disregarding their cultural background, should have the same amount of rights and ownership of the artifacts. Only through preserving the artifacts in a secured and well facilitated building, will treasured artifacts be able to last, long enough for the future generation to study and appreciate them. Removing historic artifacts from their place or origin is infact a necessary act to ensure a fuller understanding of human history, that can be shared by the world.

What is Diabetes Essay Example For Students

What is Diabetes? Essay Diabetes is a condition that affects the way the body uses food. During the normal digestion process, the body converts food into glucose (sugar) to be used by the bodys cells as a source of energy. In order for glucose to get into the bodys cells, the body needs insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas gland. In people with diabetes, insulin is either absent or lacking, or the body doesnt respond to the insulin that is produced. As a result, the body cannot use glucose for energy and it begins to builds up in the blood, creating high sugar levels in the body. We will write a custom essay on What is Diabetes? specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now Approximately 14 million Americans have some form of diabetes. The two major types of diabetes are Type I, a.k.a. insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus, and Type II, a.k. a. non-insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. A third type, called gestational diabetes, occurs during pregnancy and usually disappears after pregnancy. Diabetes Type I Diabetes Type I, a.k.a. insulin-dependent diabetes, is a disease that affects the way your body uses food. In type I diabetes your body destroys the cells in the pancreas that produce insulin, usually leading to a total failure to produce insulin. It typically starts in children or young adults who are slim, but can start at any age. Without insulin, your body cannot control blood levels of sugar. And without insulin, you would die. So people with type I diabetes give themselves at least one shot of insulin every day. More than 700,000 Americans have this type of diabetes. This is about 10 percent of all Americans diagnosed with diabetes. You must inject insulin under the skin, in the fat, for it to work. You cannot take insulin in a pill. The juices in your stomach would destroy the insulin before it could work. Scientists are looking for new ways to give insulin. But today, shots are the only method. Type I diabetes often appears suddenly. Signs and symptoms are: 1.High levels of sugar in the blood. 2.High levels of sugar in the urine. 3.Frequent urination, and/or bed wetting in children. 4.Extreme hunger. 5.Extreme thirst. 6.Extreme weight loss. 7.Weakness and tiredness. 8.Feeling edgy and having mood changes. 9.Feeling sick to your stomach and vomiting. We do not know exactly what causes diabetes. We do know that people inherit a tendency to get diabetes. But not all people who have this tendency will get the disease. Other things such as illnesses must also come into play for diabetes to begin. Diabetes is not like a cold. Your friends and family cannot catch it from you. Diabetes Type II Type II diabetes used to be called non-insulin-dependent diabetes. This is the most common type of diabetes, it affects about 15 million Americans. Nine out of ten cases of diabetes are type II. It usually occurs in people over 45 and overweight, among other factors. About 7 to 7.5 million Americans have been diagnosed, and another 8 million remain undiagnosed with type II diabetes. When you have type II diabetes, your body does not make enough insulin. Or, your body still makes insulin but cant properly use it. Without enough insulin, your body cannot move blood sugar into the cells. Sugar builds up in the bloodstream. High blood levels of sugar can cause problems. Medical experts dont know the exact cause of type II diabetes. They do know type II diabetes runs in families. A person can inherit a tendency to get type II diabetes. But it usually takes another factor such as obesity to bring on the disease. Diabetes type II often develops slowly. Most people who get it have increased thirst and an increased need to urinate. Many also feel edgy, tired, and sick to their stomach. Some people have an increased appetite, but they lose weight. Other signs and symptoms might include repeated or hard to heal infections of the skin, vagina, or gums; blurred vision; loss of feeling in the hands or feet; or dry and itchy skin. These symptoms can be so mild that you dont notice them. Older people may confuse these symptoms with signs of aging and may not go to their health care practitioner. .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6 , .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6 .postImageUrl , .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6 , .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6:hover , .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6:visited , .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6:active { border:0!important; } .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6:active , .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6 .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .u1c7e81acf6af726d92ed8667f26402e6:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: The Wampanog Indians Lived In The Northeast Region Of The Island. They Essay Half of all Americans who have diabetes may not know it. People with diabetes can .

How to Shoe a Horse essays

How to Shoe a Horse essays I. Most horse shoers are referred to as fariers a farrier is a horse shoer and a blacksmith all in one. Most horse shoers are blacksmiths, because many parts of the job require a blacksmiths skills. II. I came into shoeing horses by my grandfather. He had just hired a new farrier named Dana. When Dana showed up he didnt have any help. So my grandfather told him I would help, so I did. I was only thirteen at the time so it was pretty hard for me but I learned quickly. After we were done Dana asked me if I wanted to help him again, and soon I was doing it full time around school. Dana and ended up becoming great friends. Dana is only ten years older than me so he has always been a big brother to me, and thats how it has been for the past seven years. Now I do it off and on, I have a couple of jobs that I do on my own, and I still help Dana when I can. The job pays very well. For a trim I get paid 35 dollars for a miny to a quarter horse, and 45 for a draft horse. For four shoes on a quarter horse it costs 125, for four shoes on a draft horse it costs 150. For 4 shoes with borium it is 150, now the money is made by the time it takes, Dana and I together can shoe 10 draft horses in a day, more if we tried. thats 1500 dollars in one day. Now I have a job in Newport where I shoe 6 minis in 1.5 hours. The year before Dana got hurt he claimed 100,000 on his taxes, and the only money he claimed was the checks he got, and most people pay with cash Explain borium. But the work is the hardest Ive ever experienced, and I have worked some hard jobs. These horses way around 2200 pounds and you have to hold about 500 pds between your legs putting all the stress on your back. Usaully the shorter the farrier the better, because it is less stress, on your back. Dana is only 29 years old, but when he was 27, he had major back surgery, they actually had to cut part of his vertebrae out, and his back wil ...

The Role of a Project Manager in All Atages of a New Computer Game Assignment

The Role of a Project Manager in All Atages of a New Computer Game Development Project - Assignment Example This research will begin with the statement that a project is a unique attempt at bringing a certain set of outcomes or items within well-specified parameters on time, costs and quality. Given this definition, a project is, therefore, a set of operations aimed at a certain goal. This set of operations can be considered to be a singular event with a distinct selection of activities that lead to a specific result. The planning, organization, coordination, and control of these activities are what is hence termed as project management. There are various kinds of projects that organizations and teams can undertake. The most common classification for business organizations places all projects under two categories; business process and information technology projects. Business process projects are intended to change or introduce a new business process into the organization with a little adjustment the information technology or systems in place while an information technology project may see k to overhaul the existing information technology and replace or upgrade it while still maintaining the structure of business operations that are already running. The ideal purpose of projects is to achieve a measurable goal. As such a project manager is put in charge of this role. He is thus responsible for planning the course of the project, organizing the various resources and activities across the project scope, directing the people who will be in charge of the activities and finally controlling the progress of the project towards its desired end result.

Marketing Planing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words - 1

Marketing Planing - Essay Example The first IKEA Store was opened in Almhult, Sweden to showcase the entire furniture range to the common people. The main objective of the company was to offer exclusive furniture range at an affordable price for the common people. In the year 1940 the company published its first advertisement in reputed newspaper and also sent 800000 catalogues across Swedish homes (IKEA, 2013h). The furniture range was tested at the Swedish design laboratory for proving its genuine quality. The unique selling proposition of IKEA showroom is its wide availability of products ranging from candlestick to coffee tables and exclusive sofa sets (IKEA, 2013c). In addition to the variety of products the inclusion of the restaurant to each store outlets of IKEA was very popular among the customers. The company is famous for manufacturing the four legged easy to assemble table. In spite of the global economic crisis IKEA has witnessed an increase in the sales of furniture by 1.4 percent in the year 2009 from 2008 (IKEA, 2013e). The company yielded profits from the UK sector in spite of the slow economic growth in furniture industry. Figure 1: Annual Sales of IKEA Market Planning Changing &Assessing Capability The market planning method helps in developing plans which help in identification and satisfaction of customer needs. One of the major elements of market planning is to identify the customer needs and requirements through market research and development. Understanding customer requirements is necessary to develop a product as per customer specifications and requirements. Initially, the IKEA furniture range had shades of European design which reflected the European culture and heritage. IKEA was aware of the refined taste of the Europeans and it reflected in the furniture designs. IKEA came up with a unique idea of providing customers with elegant designs at minimalistic prices. This marketing strategy worked wonders for IKEA and the company started yielding huge amount of profits. When the company opened its first American store in Philadelphia in the year 1985 the market seemed to be a very good prospect for IKEA however, the cold behaviour of the American towards IKEA furniture range took the management by surprise. IKEA revamped its marketing strategy completely and renovated the entire furniture range. The marketing tactics worked wonders for IKEA and the sales of the company skyrocketed immediately. By the end of the year 2008, USA became the second largest furniture market after Germany for IKEA. This incident taught IKEA a lesson that the customers of different countries have different requirements and tastes and products should be developed accordingly. Before entering the Asian markets the management of IKEA did their homework well and studied the Asian culture carefully. For example the designs of the IKEA stores in China were similar to that of Chinese homes with attractive colours. IKEA also started paying heed to specific customer needs and requi rement for example when a woman would shop with her husband, her husband would get bored so a tool section was introduced for the comfort of the customers. The customer knows that the publication of the

Military Intervention and Human Rights Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Military Intervention and Human Rights - Essay Example However, a general consensus has been developed about the basic idea behind humanitarian intervention; Humanitarian intervention is essentially an armed effort in which a state or a group of states intervene in the internal affairs of another state and it often involves the violation of international borders or airspace of that particular state. Moreover, the state against which the humanitarian intervention is being conducted does not necessarily pose a threat to the peace or security of other states therefore the military action is taken solely on humanitarian grounds for the protection of human rights. Humanitarian intervention is a matter of great debate today because it involves two of the fundamental pillars of the United Nations system; one of them being state sovereignty and other is the protection of human rights; and unfortunately the scenario of a humanitarian intervention involves dealing with very complex circumstances in which one of the two pillars mentioned have to be compromised for the greater good (Jokic, 2003). The proponents of humanitarian intervention argue that it is imperative in certain circumstances to conduct military operations in states where the people are being opressed by the government, particularly in states which are ruled by dictators because in such states the change of government is not possible without intervention from outside. However, the critics of humanitarian intervention argue that it can be used as a pretext for a military action for the achievement of the vested interests of strong actors in the international political scenario. The issue of humanitarian intervention is also important because of the fact that there are a large number of lives associated with a military action taken against a state. In this paper an analysis based on the scenarios in various countries various military interventio

Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER) in Toyota

Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER) in Toyota ABSTRACT Corporate Social Responsibilities (CSR) is an organization must act ethically in business and sensitively towards society, cultural economic and environmental issues. A company emphasized corporate social responsibility (CSR) not only can gain better company reputation but also gain benefits in other aspect such like save environment, brand loyalty from customer, attract or retain qualities employee and so on. The purpose we carry out this assignment is to do research study Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER) for Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC). In this assignment we will argue the impacts of CER Practices to today’s business world. Next, we will identify the CER Practices of Toyota Motor Corporation had been performed by the company. Also, we will propose Toyota Motor Corporation for the CER Practices it can involve in or explore in the future. We apply the relevant knowledge that we learned in the class into this assignment. Through this, we can understand the import ant of CER better. Introduction Corporate social responsibility is a company doing voluntary activities that will bring benefit to society, economic and public. It also represented a sense of the responsibility towards the community and environment by contributing educational and social program. The goal of CSR is to encourage a positive impact to the environment which included consumers, employee, investors, communities and others. Government also has encourages those company conduct their business in a socially and environmentally responsible. The first argument of the CER is that when corporations have to contribute the environmental problem, they have a responsibility to involved in the solutions. It is important to remember that corporation act within society and that they do fulfil useful roles – employing people and producing products and services by Dunphy et al (2003) The next argument for CSR is that, corporations must be responsible for what they do, including the society’s problem such as pollution, as stated by Drea DeFoe in â€Å"Arguments For and Against Corporate Resposibility†. By this way, the corporates’ power is balanced with its responsibility. So, if a corporation acts in the favor of the society, they get to retain their corporate power. Next, Drea DeFoe suggests that voluntarily practicing CSR discourages government from imposing regulations on corporations. This act will helps corporations form being charged extra economic costs due to irresponsible acts. Furthermore, Drea DeFoe also proposes CSR can aids corporations in building up reputation while generating more profit. If a corporation always put in effort to solve societal and environmental issues, society will recognize it as a corporation which is committed to preserve the environment. However, there are also some arguments that is against CSR. Drea DeFoe mentions an argument that suggests corporations should focus on its nature, which is generating maximum profit and leave all social and environmental issues to government or non-profit organizations to solve them. Also, practicing CSR lowers a corporation’s economic efficiency and profits. Because it has to divert some of its man power and resources to solve these issues. In addition to, â€Å"the invisible costs are imposed to customers cover the spending on solving society and environmental issues†, states Drea DeFoe in her article. Moreover, Drea DeFoe also indicates that these issues may require some skills that corporation lacks to solve it. In order to solve these issues, some employees are sent to learn these skills. This may cause these employees to not be able to focus on their works. Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) is a Japanese multinational automaker, with headquarters in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. Toyota was started in year 1933 as a division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works devoted to the production of automobiles under the direction of the founders son, Kiichiro Toyoda. Its first vehicles were the A1 passenger car and the G1 in year 1935. The Toyota Motor Co. was established as an independent company in year 1937. Currently, TMC is part of the Toyota Group, one of the largest conglomerates in the world. Under Toyota Motor Corporation group, there are Toyota (including the Scion brand), Lexus, Daihatsu, and Hino Motors, as well as several non-automotive businesses including housing, financial services and marine. Besides that, the company also owns and operates Lexus and Scion brands and has a majority share in Daihatsu and Hino Motors, Fuji Heavy Industries, Isuzu Motors, Yamaha Motors and Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation. Toyota is known for its mass-produced hybrid cars along with few other eco-cars such as electric and fuel cell cars. It is touted as the world’s largest automobile manufacturer, largely due to its remarkable sales record. As in year 2010, the corporation had a total of 325,905 employees worldwide. The next year, it became the third-largest automobile manufacturer by production behind General Motors and Volkswagen Group. Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER) Practice Analysis All corporate organizations are required to take responsibility for their acts inside and outside of its business environment because protecting the environment is becoming a crucial matter. However, apart from the environment, such acts could also involve the human resource initiatives, social welfare, and any other moral or ethical measures that the company is supposed to address so that its operations are in line with the set standards and norms (GANESCU). Toyota has practiced corporate environmental responsibility (CER) that further strides to lessen our environment impact. The initiatives on the environment are anchored on three pillars. First of the pillars concerns itself with ensuring that the company establishes a low carbon society by decreasing its water consumption and minimizing the amount of carbon gas emissions into the atmosphere while increasing the production volumes over the years. Toyota has an environmental management system that takes care of environmental affairs. Under this system, the company also formulated Toyota Earth Charter in 1992 and revised in 2000 which contains information concerning means and ways of maintain the environment. The second pillar concerns about establishing a society which is able to produce other reusable products by recycling its waste and substances which could have been thrown as waste and continue polluting the environment. Therefore, before getting rid of wastes, the company makes sure that it recycles the wastes which are capable of being recycled. In 2004, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc. (TMMC) has set a goal of sending zero waste to landfill and achieved in 2006 through comprehensive reusing, reducing, recycling and composting programs (Environmental Responsibility Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc., nd) . As they reduced landfill waste and recycled more materials, recycling rate is increasing as there are new improvements, moving into the 80-90 percent range (McMullan, 2013). Moreover, the third pillar is about making sure that the society is established in harmony with nature and protecting the environment. The company reduces the impact of its processes of manufacturing, distribution and marketing of the same on the environment to achieve this goal (Mutemi, nd). Planet Ark’s National Tree Day is Australia’s largest community tree planting and nature care event and it is to save the world. Toyota has sponsoring and partner with Planet Ark since 2000. It is also an opportunity for them to do something and reconnect with the nature. This event is very special because it can let all Australians gather together and lend a helping hand to plant and to take care of the native trees. This event is about community, individual and the country to make positive impact for the future generation. (About national tree day, n.d.) Besides sponsoring, Toyota’s staff, dealers and brand ambassadors are encouraged to support this event. They will also join with the others to plant trees and save the world to show support. Through this event, it also can reduce the effect of global warming. â€Å"Native trees help to sustain the local environment and it can provide a cleaner and healthier future for all Australians,† said by Toyota Executive Director Sales and Marketing, Matthew Callachor. Toyota company not just caring about planting, they also attempt to manufacture vehicles which are environmentally friendly and also hybrid in the sense that they do not emit lots of harmful substances to the atmosphere. The hybrid car is produced to conserve the environment and our future. Toyota is making revolution by producing hybrid car and building more fuel-efficient vehicles, Toyota Prius, that can reduce the impact on environment. It is the world’s first mass-produced hybrid vehicle. It used an electric motor and petrol engine to reduce fuel consumption and gas emissions. Following the Prius, Camry Hybrid became the first locally-built hybrid vehicle. For example, Camry H is created to cut fuel costs and reduce the CO2 emissions. Camry H is powered by a 2.5L Hybrid Engine, it is more efficient than previous Camry Hybrid model. It is more powerful and emits lower emissions. With this hybrid car which is an â€Å"ECO† car, they can optimize the fuel usage and let the driver use battery as a replacement of fuel with the press of a special button. This Camry Hybrid car is a full Hybrid System different with the previous hybrid car. The special part is petrol engine and electric motor can power the car individually or together. It also offers superb fuel economy and ultra low emissions. (Toyota, n.d.) Conclusion In this technology and the environment era, petrol and diesel become lesser and expensive. Even the Toyota Company current practice is producing hybrid car in order to reduce fuel and diesel consumption, the air pollution also can’t obviously reduce (Guest, 2013). Therefore, we recommend that Toyota Company should produce solar vehicle. Solar vehicle is an electric vehicle that uses solar energy. Company use photovoltaic technology to produce solar vehicle. This technology use Photovoltaic (PV) cells which embedded in solar panels that able to transform the sun’s energy into electric energy (Conger.C, n.d.). Solar energy is an endless resource. It is a good substitute resource for fossil fuels. For instance, solar energy free of emission during generating electricity (Callahan.R, 2010). By using this solar energy can significantly reduce damage to the environment. Thus, the air pollution can effectively minimize in future. The company use recycling, reusable materials in producing products. Besides that, one of the issues is car a battery is not long lasting. It will create many substance and wastage towards the environment. To fix this problem, company should implement rechargeable car batteries approaches tend to reduced carbon footprint. A rechargeable car battery is one type of the electrical battery. It is consist of electrochemical cells. It can be used for the energy storage. In addition, rechargeable batteries able to help company minimize negative impact towards environment and encourage cost saving. The rechargeable fee is inexpensive and also can be reuse many times. Other than that, company can recycle that rechargeable battery which is damaged. It can help company to save the environmental resources that needed to produce a battery (Environmental Protection Agency, 2012). Even the company has the plantation event, it also unable to effectively contribute to the environment. Through this event, it can save the world and reduce effect of the global warming. Furthermore, the company is suggested to be used the organic infill car tires (GeoTurf, 2015). Currently, the company is using traditional ways which is using rubber tires. Rubber tires can’t be recycle and reuse. It is difficult to disposal. Thus, it may create more rubbish to the environment. If using burning way to dispose the tires, it may serious create negative environmental impacts. Such as air pollution, lead to global warming that harmful to the people health. Throughout this strategy, company can contribute more to the environment. Last but not least, company should reduce their paper work. All the paper work should be computerized. For example, advertising their products, product order and documentation. The company use e-commerce to sell and advertise their products. Such as, the company can advertise their products through TaoBaos. It can help to minimize the usage of the paper. It avoids cutting more trees so that the extinct of tree can be prevented. References (n.d.). Retrieved March 3, 2015, from CSR Press Release: http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/37744-Organic-Infill-Replaces-Car-Tires-in-Turf CSR Press Release. (2015, March 9). Retrieved March 12, 2015, from http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/37744-Organic-Infill-Replaces-Car-Tires-in-Turf About National Tree Day. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://treeday.planetark.org/about/ Batteries. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/materials/battery.htm Callahan, R. (2009, May 29). The Advantages of Solar Powered Vehicles. Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://www.livestrong.com/article/134597-the-advantages-solar-powered-vehicles/ Camry features. (n.d.). Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://www.toyota.com.au/camry/features Conger, C. (n.d.). How can solar panels power a car? Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://auto.howstuffworks.com/fuel-efficiency/vehicles/solar-cars.htm Contributor, G. (2013, June 21). 10 Companies With Eco-Conscious Production Processes. Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://planetsave.com/2013/06/21/10-companies-with-eco-conscious-production-processes/ McMullan, R. (2014, September 4). Developing New Strategic Indicators for Toyota’s Waste Reduction Programs. Retrieved 3 11, 2015, from http://www.thegreentie.org/voices/developing-new-strategic-indicators-for-toyotas-waste-reduction-programs. Mutemi, M. (n.d.). CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY INITIATIVES BY THE MOTOROLA AND TOYOTA COMPANIES. Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://www.academia.edu/7746053/CORPORATE_SOCIAL_RESPONSIBILITY_INITIATIVES_BY_THE_MOTOROLA_AND_TOYOTA_COMPANIES Toyota. (n.d.). Why is National Tree Day so important to Toyota? Retrieved March 11, 2015, from http://www.toyota.com.au/tree-day/toyotas-commitment

Capital Punishment: The Best Solution Essay -- Death Penalty

Capital Punishment is defined as the legal infliction of the death penalty. The death penalty is corporal punishment in its most severe form and is used instead of life long imprisonment. Putting people to death that have committed extremely terrible crimes is an ancient practice, but it has become a very controversial issue in today's society. Capital punishment has been used for centuries, even the Bible contains over thirty stories or incidents about a person put to death for a crime they committed. Public executions stopped after 1936. The death penalty has been inflicted in many different ways. Today in the United States, there are five ways that the death penalty is performed. These criminals are put to death by a lethal injection, electrocution, lynching, a firing squad, or the gas chamber. These punishments are much less severe than the forms of execution in the past. In the past, people were executed by crucifixion, boiling in oil, drawing and quartering, impalement, beheadi ng, burning alive, crushing, tearing, stoning, and even drowning. The methods used today compared to those of history are not meant for torture but instead for punishment for heinous crimes and to rid the earth of these dangerous people. The majority of America supports the death penalty. There are many reasons why capital punishment is a good thing, and should be enforced and used more. First off, capital punishment is a good thing because it deters crime. For example, in the 1960s while the number of executions was decreasing, the homicide rate was increasing. As execution started to increase, statistics show that the homicide rate slowly decreased or stayed the same, but it did not increase. Fear of death deters people from committing crime. The... ...ling do not deserve to live in our society. The death penalty is a sever penalty for severe crimes. Capital punishment is essential for a stable and safe society. No executed murderer has ever killed again. No one can say that about the criminals sentenced for time in prison. Work Cited Good News Bible: Todays English Version.. American Bible Society. New York. 1996. Web. 26 May 2015. https://www.biblegateway.com/versions/Good-News-Translation-GNT-Bible/ Works Consulted Death Penalty Focus (2015). Facts. Web. 8 June 2015. http://www.deathpenalty.org/index.php?pid=facts Eddlem, T. R. (2004). Ten Anti-Death Penalty Fallacies.The New American. 2002. Web. 10 June 2015. http://www.thenewamerican.com/tna/2002/06-03-2002/vo18no11_fallacies.htm Pro-Death Penalty (2014). Death Penalty Paper. Web. 8 June 2015. http://www.prodeathpenalty.com/DP.html

Human hair wigs vs Synthetic

From Napoleon to Cher, wigs have been indicators of social status, allow oneself to become another person in a matter of seconds, change one’s overall appearance for either a very natural look or a dramatic look. I’d like to discuss the difference between synthetic and human hair wigs and hairpieces.Synthetic wigs are durable and more often than not more affordable than human hair wigs. Because they are made of synthetic materials, up close and to the touch, they do not feel like natural hair. They are also abnormally shiny which can be a dead giveaway that the person is wearing a wig..   The synthetic wig, because it is made of thicker material, will also not breathe as well as the human hair wig alternatives. Synthetic hair wigs are prepared from man-made fibers called Kanekalon, Toyokalon and can change from brand to brand.The quality of Synthetic wigs varies from four to six weeks if well maintained. Synthetic hair is usually easier to handle than human hair wigs. Synthetics wigs hold styles a lot longer because they were made to look a certain style and even the hair fibers were molded via chemical processes to keep the look intact. Usually, synthjetic wigs do not last as long as human hair because they tend to easily shed, tangle & get frizzy. There are however, exceptions, and treatments to help maintain the look of your wig. The advantages to purchasing synthetic wigs are price, along with ease of wear plus and a greater variety of particular styles, including the ability to wear any texture without having to chemically treat the natural hair.Hot appliances should not be used on synthetic wigs. These tools will melt the synthetic hair strands and ruin the wig. Occasionally, a clothing steamer may be used to bring back the shape. Synthetic wigs cannot be dyed either. The wigs undergo several chemical processes prior to being sold, making them nearly impossible to alter. Even if a wig says it is human hair, chances are unless you paid good money for it, it is a synthetic blend and cannot be dyed or heat styled. These blended wigs are made from human hair blended with synthetic materials, They look less fake as a straight synthetic wig would, and has the light, airy feeling of a much lighter human hair wig.Mixed blend wigs are less expensive that can last up to three to four months, However it must be handled with care as one would treat their own natural hair once the  hair has been worn.  Lower-quality of mixed â€Å"human hair† wigs is often diluted with animal and synthetic hair to lower the price. New fibers are developed continuously that are better resistant to heat and have an appearance closer to human hair. Mixed hair can be styled with heating tools at a very low temperature. Using tools that are too hot on these blended wigs will cause them to melt, frizz and shrivel up. Human hair is available in many different grades; mainly from women that offer their hair to deities in Hindu temples and othe r countries in a show of respect and gratitude. Few don’t realize the offerings wind up in a lucrative export market serving China and Hollywood and all over the world.  Human Hair texture wigs need special care to last longer than one year, as they can become delicate and brittle. This type of wig is usually more expensive because of the natural look and softer feel it originates. Using suitable hair products to keep the wig moisturized and protected can lengthen the lifetime for the wig. Human hair wigs is a more indistinguishable alternative to natural hair. They are easier to care for but do not have as much flexibility as natural hair, which can still be dyed, permed, and restyled to match personal tastes Best of all, human hair wigs are more durable than synthetic and mixed wigs since human hair is much stronger.The downsides to owning a real human hair wig are the price and the extent of care. Most human hair wigs are very expensive .Human hair is, however, more vers atile than synthetic hair being that it can be colored, relaxed, or curled with heating appliances just as one would do with his or her own hair. Human hair wigs also require more upkeep. Just like real hair, human hair wigs do not hold their shape after washing. Each time you wash a human hair wig you must restyle it or take it back to the stylist for setting. These wigs don't hold their style permanently you must use more products on them to keep them looking good.High quality 100% human hair is more expensive than hair mixed with other materials (synthetic hair is most common) most wigs come with excessive hair and it is recommended that they be taken to a stylist to be shaped and customized to your individual features. The same maintenance that one would apply to his or her own hair should be applied to the human hair to keep it in good condition. While most synthetic hair wigs are less expensive than human hair wigs, you do need to choose a higher priced wig if you want a more natural look. The higher the quality of the wig the more it will  resemble human hair.The best hair is of Either Brazilian or Indian. Before deciding between a human hair and synthetic hair wig it is best to consult with a hair stylist. They will be able to help you settle on which type of wig that would be the best match to your individual needs and liking, they may also style it for you for optimum customization and make it look even more natural. So, if you are in the market for a wig,as with most things in life, it’s best not to go with the cheapest option.High quality brazilian or Indian hair makes for the most luxurious and natural looking hair. If you’re looking for a last second option to change your look dramatically, a nice synthetic wig will suffice and is always fun to throw on before going out with the girls.

Examine how Shakespeare Presents Essay

Romeo and Juliet’ has many different themes and messages, with one of the most popular being love. Shakespeare gives most significance to the romantic love between Romeo and Juliet, but there are lots of other aspects of love in the play and Shakespeare uses the different characters to present this. One form of love that Shakespeare describes in the play is the parental love between parents or carers such as the nurse, and children. Romeo’s family life is presented as more caring than Juliet’s. This is shown when Romeo’s mother dies of grief when Romeo is banished and also when Juliet’s parents don’t understand how she’s feeling and don’t guess that she is prepared to kill herself. The Montague’s are concerned about Romeo’s state of mind at the beginning of the play, as he seems very depressed: ‘Many a morning hath he there been seen, with tears augmenting the fresh morning dew, adding to clouds, more clouds with his deep sighs†¦ ‘ This is contrasted with the way Shakespeare presents Juliet’s family life. Capulet at first appears to love Juliet as a parent loves a child and does not consider her an adult. When Paris asks to marry Juliet, Capulet says he should wait as they do not feel she is ready to be a bride. This could be interpreted in two ways, that he does not feel she is ready to experience sexual love, but also that he does not want her to leave his household. ‘She hath not seen the change of fourteen years. Let two more summers wither in their pride Ere we think her ripe to be a bride. ‘ However, later his attitude changes, it seems to be more important that she obeys him and he threatens to disown her if she doesn’t marry and settle down in a good arranged marriage. This still appears to be a loving thing to do, as he feels he knows what’s best for her as a loving parent and he is sure that Juliet will do what he wants: ‘Sir Paris, I will make a desperate tender Of my child’s love. I think she will be ruled In all respects by me: nay more, I doubt it not. ‘ However as soon as Juliet refuses to do what Capulet wants, he completely loses his temper and says: ‘And you be mine, I’ll give you to my friend; And you be not, hang, beg, starve, die in the streets, For by my soul, I’ll ne’er acknowledge thee, Nor what is mine shall never do thee good. Trust to’t, bethink you, I’ll not be forsworn. ‘ As Juliet has mainly been brought up by her nurse, she is not very close to Lady Capulet in a mother/daughter way and theydo not have a very good relationship; Lady Capulet seems to be unsure of being alone with Juliet and asks the nurse to stay when she is going to tell Juliet that she is to marry Paris. Later Lady Capulet refuses to comfort Juliet, when she is distraught at the thought of marrying Paris. Her view of love seems to be that marriage is far more important than love and a woman is not secure until she is married. She feels that as long as Juliet likes the look of Paris when she sees him that evening, then love can come later: ‘Read o’er the volume of young Paris’ face, And find delight writ there with beauty’s pen; Examine every married lineament. ‘ And see how one another lends content;’ The nurse though is far more natural when talking of Juliet, for example she knows Juliet’s birthday to the last minute, while Lady Capulet seems a little unsure of Juliet’s exact age and the nurse reminisces at length about Juliet’s childhood. It is also the nurse who Juliet gets to help her to contact Romeo. The nurse also shows another type of love, which is a crude form of love. The nurse, even though she brings some of the things she talks about down to this level, does it in a somehow more pleasant way than Sampson and Gregory, as she is not boasting but just reflecting her upbringing ‘Go girl seek happy nights to happy days’ This language also contrasts with the language of Juliet and her mother when the three of them have a conversation, it is obvious that Lady Capulet and Juliet are of a higher class. She refers to Juliet’s wedding day and of course the first thing she thinks about is the wedding night; she quotes her husband:†yea,’ quoth he, ‘dost thou fall upon thy face? Thou wilt fall backward when thou hast more wit,’ Another character who uses this kind of language is Mercutio, but because he is a higher class, therefore his language is more superior and witty. The characters Sampson and Gregory, are also used by Shakespeare to highlight the more crude forms of love. They parade around the streets and are always boasting and showing off. ‘Therefore I will push Montague’s men from the wall, and thrust his maids to the wall’ This is obviously not talking about true love, but simply referring to sex. It is all talk of what they are going to do to the enemy, but none of it is likely to happen. ‘Aye the heads of the maids, or their Maidenheads – take it in what sense thou wilt. ‘ Shakespeare has used Sampson and Gregory and their bravado in the opening scene of Romeo and Juliet to demonstrate the hatred between the two families and also that it has spread right through the households to the servants. The whole idea of Shakespeare using this crude speech, is to then emphasize the beautiful poetry between Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare also presents love in the form of infatuation. Initially Romeo is portrayed as a young man who thinks he is desperately in love with Rosaline. However he is evidently very confused and his language reflects his feelings. ‘Mis-shapen chaos of well- seeming forms Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health, Still waking sleep, that is not what it is’ Romeo’s behaviour shows he enjoys his melancholy state as he cuts himself off from the outside, but makes sure everyone knows about his depression. He tries to explain to Benvolio how depressed and confused he feels. ‘love is a smoke made with the fume of sighs,being purged, a fire sparkling in lovers’ eyes, being vexed, a sea nourished with lovers’ tears, What is it else? A madness most discreet, A choking gall, and a preserving sweet. ‘ Unfortunately for Romeo, Rosaline does not love him back and is unlikely to: ‘From love’s weak childish bow she lives uncharmed. ‘ Benvolio’s view of love seems to be quite cynical. In his opinion, all Romeo needs is to meet someone else to love and that will cure him of loving Rosaline: ‘Tut man, one fire burns out another’s burning, One pain is lessened by another’s anguish. Then later: ‘Take thou some new infection to thy eye, And the rank poison of the old will die. † When Romeo does see Juliet, his feeling for Rosaline is proved to be infatuation, as he forgets all about Rosaline: ‘Did my heart love till now? Forswear it sight, For I ne’er saw true beauty till this night. ‘ Romeo also confides in the Friar who is amazed that Romeo’s feelings for Rosaline can be so quickly changed: ‘Holy St Francis, what a change is here! Is Rosaline, whom thou dids’t love so dear, So soon forsaken? Young men’s love then lies. Not truly in their hearts but in their eyes! ‘ The Friar tells Romeo that what he felt for Rosaline was not true love but what he feels for Juliet might be. ‘For this alliance may so happy prove, To turn your households’ rancour to pure love. ‘ Romeo had taken his infatuation very seriously and it affected him deeply. His love is like a religion and he is angry that his faith leads him to believe something so false: ‘When the devout religion of mine eye Maintains such falsehood, then turn tears to fire,’ Romeo’s behavior undergoes a big change when he meets Juliet. Shakespeare contrasts Romeo’s feelings of infatuation for Rosaline, with his true love for Juliet, through the language Romeo uses. Instead of the confusion he felt when he was in ‘love’ with Rosaline his speech becomes romantic and gentle. ‘Two of the fairest stars in all the heaven Having some business, do entreat her eyes. To twinkle in their spheres till they return. ‘ Romeo is presented as an extremely romantic character and true love means a lot to him. Shakespeare has shown us what false love or infatuation is like and this then emphasises how he presents true love. Romeo has a complete change in his personality after he meets Juliet. He had been hiding himself away from company, but in Act 2 scene 4 there is a complete change in his manner and he is sociable again. His friends try to tease him but Romeo gets the better of them and they comment on the change in his nature: ‘Why is not this better now than groaning for love? Now art thou sociable, now art thou Romeo. Now art thou what thou art, by art as Well as by nature†¦. ‘ Juliet’s behaviour also changes as soon as she meets Romeo at her father’s party. As she is so young she is an obedient and dutiful daughter, whose only love is for her parents, but as soon as she falls in love with Romeo, she becomes headstrong and determined towards her parents. Before she meets Romeo she is willing to marry Paris because it is what her parents want: ‘Ill look to like, if looking liking move. But no more deep can I endart mine eye Than your consent gives strength to make it fly’ However when she falls in love with Romeo she is prepared to stand up to her parents even if it means being disowned. This shows that Juliet is also affected by love. She realises that it is going to be very difficult loving Romeo because of the fact that he is a Montague, but she is powerless to do anything about it: ‘My only love sprung from my only hate, Too early seen unknown, and known too late! Prodigious birth of love it is to me, That I must love a loathed enemy. ‘ In the love scenes between Romeo and Juliet the whole language becomes more eloquent. At one point Romeo is lost for words and Shakespeare puts this across by leaving the last four syllables on the line empty, so as to create the feeling of silence and words unsaid: ‘It is my lady, O it is my love. O that she knew she were. ‘ In conclusion, the main theme of the play is love, but all the characters view it’s importance and meaning differently. It is obvious to anyone that Romeo and Juliet feel that love is the most important thing in their lives, as they are prepared and do die for it. However every character treats love in a different way. Benvolio for example cares more about his friendships than romantic love and shows no desire for a romantic relationship in the play. Mercutio treats love as a game and as he has never experienced true love, he enjoys mocking other people’s experience of love. The parents of the two lovers care a lot about their love for their children, but this parental love is treated differently by each set of parents. Capulet for example, wants the best for Juliet, but is also conscious of the family name while Lady Montague actually dies of grief for her son when he is banished. The nurse loves Juliet as if she was her daughter up to a point, but is not prepared to stick by her when she is in trouble. Through these characters and their presentation of the many meanings of love, Shakespeare illustrates that love has many aspects.