Customer Satisfaction Essay

Filipino’s have been given a chance to finally choose groceries business and minimart across the country. One of the pioneer groceries in town is the Consumers Minimart Inc. formerly named Caragan. Ever since Consumers Minimart Inc. experienced a lot of competitors on their times, minimart is still existing and alive.At this time many establishments exist like CSI, Royal Mall, Save More, but the Consumers Minimart Inc. is still having a profit and their loyal customers were always remained.Bayambang is one of the town with the largest number of barangays in Pangasinan, a largest place to establish a business. Business opportunity is increasing like mini grocery market, malls, fast food chains, banks, water refilling station and other small and big enterprises. This business establishment where very profitable and have impact to the customers especially here, is the groceries stores because customer or people can get or buy their daily needs into this kind of business, and one of that business is the Consumers Minimart Inc.Consumers Minimart Inc. is owned and manage by Jovita De Leon. It was established last March 18, 2010. They established their business in Bayambang because this place is very promising town, has 77 barangays and there is a lot of nearby town, and prospect customers such as Bautista, Alcala, Urbiztondo, and Malasiqui.Caragan was became Consumers Minimart Inc. because of being long term industry and the owners were became stockholders. The standard monthly income has been reach also by the said business. The formerly competitors were Lita’s grocery, old Royal mall stores and some local stores located at the market of Bayambang.But there are things that this business needs to improve, including the satisfaction of the customers. Consumers Minimart Inc. need additional effort in making their service much better including in queueing system or waiting time, delivery service, visual merchandising and physical set-up, and add to the strategies of the business. This will be used as strategy to makes their customer more satisfy in their service, it will add to have more customers and become more profitable, more improvement in their services. Consumers Minimart Inc. also need to improve their marketing strategy because it is a part of over all plan of the said business by establishing another branch in the province of Pangasinan for expansion for them to become more popular in terms of selling diffirent kinds of product. According to Peng Shao and Zeliang Sun (2012), Groceries today have to deal with the more dynamic and competitive environments than before. The frequent mergers and acquisitions among the groceries suppliers and retailers made industry structure strongly concentrated and competitive.And the limited retail stores are being increasingly standardized and homogenized. Facing the Bayambang market which only has 96,609 population, the three major competitors grocery, CSI, Savemore and Royal Mall need to differentiate themselves. Thus maintaining long-term relationship with customers is important, in order to keep their good organizational performance and profits. Identifying the key attributes influencing customer satisfaction during customers’ purchasing in their stores is critical. Groceries need to explore their resources and internal capabilities, so that they can make proper strategies to remain competitive. Unique attributes and sub-attributes are the important resources and internal capabilities of each grocer, which can help grocer to differentiate themselves from its competitors, and maximize the level of customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction means that customer needs are fulfilled when doing the purchases. So the groceries must understand what the customers want and provide customers with what they need. A large number of studies have demonstrated a positive relationship between organization performance and customer satisfaction. Keeping long-term customer satisfaction is seen as a critical success factor for grocery retailers, because the competition in the groceries industry is strong and margins are becoming limited. There is a straight forward and simple link between customer satisfaction and profits. Retailers used to shape customers’ shopping habit, without listening much to consumers’ needs and desires. However, as the industry has been changing, customers change their shopping behavior. For example, the proximity between home and stores become less concerned, so retailers should adapt to new change of customers’ shopping behavior. Retailers must concern about the attributes, including quality of product, assortment, customer attention, additional service, store atmosphere, store location and price and discount, so that they can shorten the customers’ perception gap. In the future, the company will have applied its best practices especially to the customer satisfaction in their service not only in the province, but also in the entire Philippines. These Best Practices will not only consist of the most efficient systems, but also consider human elements such as local knowledge and relationship building which are equally essential in attaining great satisfaction. Statement of the problemThis study focused on the extent of customer satisfaction of Consumers Minimart Inc. located in Bayambang, Pangasinan. Specifically, this study sought to answer the following questions: 1. What is the profile of customers in terms of : a) Types of customers ; and b) Average purchased per transaction 2. What is the extent of customer satisfaction in terms of : a) Queueing system or Waiting timec) Visual merchandising b) Delivery systemd) Physical set-up 3. What are the problems encountered by the customer in terms of: a) Availability of product b) Parking area c) Sanitation d) Ventilation e) Services Accuracy f) Facilities g) Physical set-up h) Distribution i) Inventory j) Pricing Scope and Delimitation of the Study This study determined the extent of customers satisfaction of Consumers Minimart Inc. in the Municipality of Bayambang. The respondents of this study have the total of 100 respondents in a random basis like owners of sari-sari store or retailers, and end users who purchased in the Consumers Minimart Inc., regarding in their types of customers and average purchased per transaction, queueing system or waiting time, delivering system, visual merchandising, physical set-up, availability of product, parking area, sanitation, ventalition, services accuracy, pricin, inventory, distribution and facilities. Significance of the Study The researchers believed that the result of this study would benefit the following. The Manager. This study will enhance competence in the management and operation of the business and will provide with additional knowledge on how to improve business and to get customers satisfaction and loyalty. The Customers. The result of this study will serve as the source of affordable and easy buying decision. They would also be informed and be guided about the different services and existing prices that the business render to the public which the people will appreciate. The Government. This study will bring about additional income to the local government in the form of taxes and they will be provided with some needed basis to come up with rules and regulations to prevent cheating on the suggested retail price. The Future Entrepreneurs. This study will serve as a guide to those future entrepreneurs who wants to establish this kind of business. Definition of Terms To facilitate understanding of this study, the following terms were defined operationally. Consumers Minimart Inc. It is the name of the mini grocery business in the Municipality of Bayambang, that we are studying in our research. Satisfaction. Is an attitude of a person of being happy of the products and services offer. Suppliers. Is a person, company or organization that sells or supplies something such as goods or equipments to business. Customers. They are the retailers and end-users who consumed or use the products and services. Product. Something that is made or created by the manufacturer or supplier. It is offered to customers. Services. A product of human activity meant to satisfy a human need but not constituting item of goods. Queueing System. The queuing discipline describes the order in which arrivals are serviced. Visual Merchandising. Is a form of store presentation of all forms of advertising and marketing. Physical Set-up. Is a form of displaying the products. Delivering System. process for conveying a product or service to a customer. Chapter 2 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND STUDIES This chapter present a review of professional literature and related studies relevant to the present study. This literature and studies have given the researchers more information and clearer view of the problem in this study. Those that are relevant to this research are presented in the following discussion. RELATED LITERATURE This section presents the both foreign and local related literature relevant to the study. This relevance is shown by the proponents in order to give more reason and understanding of the proposition. Customer Satisfaction Customer satisfaction provides a leading indicator of consumer purchase intentions and loyalty. Customer satisfaction data are among the most frequently collected indicators of market perceptions. Organizations need to retain existing customers while targeting non-customers. Measuring customer satisfaction provides an indication of how successful the organization is at providing products and/or services to the marketplace. Customer satisfaction is an ambiguous and abstract concept and the actual manifestation of the state of satisfaction will vary from person to person and product/service to product/service. The state of satisfaction depends on a number of both psychological and physical variables which correlate with satisfaction behaviors such as return and recommend rate. The level of satisfaction can also vary depending on other options the customer may have and other products against which the customer can compare the organization’s products. In retailing, consumers typically patronize multiple outlets. Thus, an important issue is why consumers vary in how they divide their purchases across outlets and how outlets can get a greater share of consumer expenditures. Two potential avenues for increasing customer share are to raise customer satisfaction, and increase repeat purchase through loyalty cards. This study examines the effects of customer satisfaction and loyalty cards as well as consumer characteristics on customer share spent on the primary grocery store. The findings suggest that customer satisfaction has a positive, albeit modest, effect on share while consumer economic shopping orientation has a negative direct effect on share. The economic orientation of shoppers, their felt importance of a personal relationship with store personnel, and the level of their aggregate purchase volume moderate the effect of satisfaction on customer share. Finally, the results provide mixed support for the impact of loyalty cards on customer behavior. Customer Satisfaction in Queuing Systems Companies have to increase their customers’ satisfaction to keep their competitiveness. In services, waiting has great impact on service level and customer satisfaction. Consequently, in time-based competition, one of the main objectives of service companies is to minimize customer waiting. Waiting can be defined in several ways; however, the ultimate management objective should be the maximization of customer satisfaction. The paper shows how customer satisfaction can be approximated with utility functions and establishes a theoretical background for utility transformation of waiting time. The case study of the checkout system of a real do-it-yourself superstore is used to illustrate the application of the suggested method. The results show that utility related objective function may justify queuing system changes even if the average waiting time does not improve. Elements of Queueing Systems Population of Customers can be considered either limited (closed systems) or unlimited (open systems). Unlimited population represents a theoretical model of systems with a large number of possible customers (a bank on a busy street, a motorway petrol station). Example of a limited population may be a number of processes to be run (served) by a computer or a certain number of machines to be repaired by a service man. It is necessary to take the term â€Å"customer† very generally. Customers may be people, machines of various nature, computer processes, telephone calls, etc. Arrival defines the way customers enter the system. Mostly the arrivals are random with random intervals between two adjacent arrivals. Typically the arrival is described by a random distribution of intervals also called Arrival Pattern. Queue represents a certain number of customers waiting for service (of course the queue may be empty). Typically the customer being served is considered not to be in the queue. Sometimes the customers form a queue literally (people waiting in a line for a bank teller). Sometimes the queue is an abstraction (planes waiting for a runway to land). There are two important properties of a queue: Maximum Size and Queuing Discipline. Maximum Queue Size (also called System capacity) is the maximum number of customers that may wait in the queue (plus the one(s) being served). Queue is always limited, but some theoretical models assume an unlimited queue length. If the queue length is limited, some customers are forced to renounce without being served. Queuing Discipline represents the way the queue is organised (rules of inserting and removing customers to/from the queue). There are these ways: 1) FIFO (First In First Out) also called FCFS (First Come First Serve) – orderly queue; 2) LIFO (Last In First Out) also called LCFS (Last Come First Serve) – stack; 3) SIRO (Serve In Random Order); 4) Priority Queue, that may be viewed as a number of queues for various priorities; and 5) Many other more complex queuing methods that typically change the customer’s position in the queue according to the time spent already in the queue, expected service duration, and/or priority. These methods are typical for computer multi-access systems. Most quantitative parameters (like average queue length, average time spent in the system) do not depend on the queuing discipline. That’s why most models either do not take the queuing discipline into account at all or assume the normal FIFO ( First In First Out) queue. In fact the only parameter that depends on the queuing discipline is the variance (or standard deviation) of the waiting time. There is this important rule (that may be used for example to verify results of a simulation experiment). The two extreme values of the waiting time variance are for the FIFO (First In First Out) queue (minimum) and the LIFO (Last In First Out) queue (maximum). Theoretical models (without priorities) assume only one queue. This is not considered as a limiting factor because practical systems with more queues (bank with several tellers with separate queues) may be viewed as a system with one queue, because the customers always select the shortest queue. Of course, it is assumed that the customers leave after being served. Systems with more queues (and more servers) where the customers may be served more times are called Queuing Networks. Service represents some activity that takes time and that the customers are waiting for. Again take it very generally. It may be a real service carried on persons or machines, but it may be a CPU time slice, connection created for a telephone call, be ing shot down for an enemy plane, etc. Typically a service takes random time. Theoretical models are based on random distribution of service duration also called Service Pattern. Another important parameter is the number of servers. Systems with one server only are called Single Channel Systems, systems with more servers are called Multi Channel Systems. Output represents the way customers leave the system. Output is mostly ignored by theoretical models, but sometimes the customers leaving the server enter the queue again (â€Å"round robin† time-sharing systems). Queuing Theory is a collection of mathematical models of various queuing systems that take as inputs parameters of the above elements and that provide quantitative parameters describing the system performance. Because of random nature of the processes involved the queuing theory is rather demanding and all models are based on very strong assumptions (not always satisfied in practice). Many systems (especially queuing networks) are not soluble at all, so the only technique that may be applied is simulation. Nevertheless queuing systems are practically very important because of the typical trade-off between the various costs of providing service and the costs associated with waiting for the service (or leaving the system without being served). High quality fast service is expensive, but costs caused by customers waiting in the queue are minimum. On the other hand long queues may cost a lot because customers (machines e.g.) do not work while waiting in the queue or customers leave because of long queues. So a typical problem is to find an optimum system configuration (e.g. the optimum number of servers). The solution may be found by applying queuing theory or by simulation.

Full Day Kindergarten

Full Day Kindergarten; The First Step in a Long, Successful Way of Life. Vera Kuznetsova Public Speaking CALC On September 2010 more than 600 schools across Ontario opened their doors for a new program full-day kindergarten. This project is supposed to help parents to build a better future for their children. Almost every parent has a daydream in which she or he wants to see his or her child’s success. The project of full-day kindergarten can drive this dream to a reality.This program has been approved in the USA and given a significant result; this program became very popular, according to Viadero` and Debra (2005), because it is affordable for families with low income. Today parents in Ontario are given a hope to see children more confident and succeed in their life. On the other hand, this low has the negative aspects; due this program a lot of teachers and day care’s staff have lost their jobs and the schools funds have been reduced. The provincial government invest ed for this program about $13, 500000 taxpayer’s dollars.The impact of full-day kindergarten project gives the new possibilities for children to increase level of knowledge, social participation and quality of life, but it takes away the school’s financial support to build up the successful educational process as a whole. And I have a question: â€Å"Is this investment worth in today’s economical situation or not? † Majority of children, who attend a full-day kindergarten, indicate a huge progress by showing great grades especially in the reading and mathematics skills. The researchers found that â€Å"children in such settings enjoy an academic edge over those in half-day programs† (Viadero & Debra, 2005).They can easily reach the high level by using extra time. †Many educators and parents of young children believe: Children learn more in full-day kindergarten programs than they do in half-day program. †(Viadero & Debra, 2005). These c hildren stay longer in school compared to the children, who attend half-day kindergarten, so they have extra time to practice and polish learning materials. Second, starting to study from young age has a great advantage, because at this age children have a tremendous ability to observe and absorb new information. â€Å"A seamless day of uninterrupted school gives children the time to explore, discover how hings work for themselves and engage with other children. † (Song, 2010, p. U1). Combining ability observing and absorbing new information with having extra time, when the children can polish learning material they usually get good marks for their assessments and tests. Those children, according to Viodera and Debra (2005) â€Å"on average, the learning gains that pupils make in full-day programs translate to about a month of additional schooling over the course of a school year†. Having enough time is increasing chances to get better marks and keep up with studying a nd improving their goals.The children, who are enrolled in full day kindergarten, have very good social skills. First of all, they have to be in the big group of children from very young age. Children have to learn how make friends, build relationships, and keep them. Those children also learn how to solve big and small issues and problems; they learn how to make concessions and compromises. â€Å"Children love to learn and thrive in an atmosphere where the only concern of the adult in their day is that they are successful and feel good about themselves†. (McClean,2010).They have an opportunity learning from adult; parents and educators can collaborate and teach the children how to communicate with each other and how to manage and come up with the same decision, which was chosen by a group of children. Having some knowledge about how to communicate, solve the problems is one of the characteristic of leader. Those children can build their leadership skills, because they spend a lot of time together; so they are becoming well-know very quickly. Song(2010) in his publication said that children at the age 4 or 5 are already prepared to enjoy the company with partners and mates.When children feel more confident and successful they are more active in social life of community. Participation in social life can be a step on the long way to success. Full-day kindergarten gives for children an opportunity to build a new life style, because parents can earn and save a lot of money. † Proponents say the day-long school program will let more parents upgrade job skills or work outside the home, while saving others the hassle of living work in the middle of the day to shuttle kids from school to childcare†( Pearson,2010).Parents will be able to have a better well-paid job, so they will make more money. They also will save a lot of money because they do not have to pay for childcare or babysitter. They can channel this money to different needs such as school supply material or enroll kids to different after school program and activities. Cost of post-secondary education grows up every year; putting extra-money in an educational fund will be paid a price in the near future. Children will have a chance to get diploma without debt or the debt will be paid off very quickly.Parents can make living their children more comfortable and relax. They can use savings on vacation and different activities. Having enough money avoids many problems; so fewer problems equal less stress. Money can change children’s life style. Supporters of half-day kindergarten asset that starting school life in very young age could be profitless, because when children stay longer day in school they can get bored and they cannot get their education without debt and they also could be egoistic. However, it is not true. According to Song (2010), children are able to study from young age.Using different methods helps make learning more effective and interesting. Le arning cannot be boring; how can some new thing be boring. Staying longer in big group of children provokes to communicate; ability to communicate built outgoing person. Even though cost of post-secondary education is not small amount of money it can less for children, who can have a scholarship because they will have great grades and they can also use money from different educational funds where parents had put money when children were little. All those factors give only positive points of view let’s take a look for the negative spots as well.There are not secrets that so many employees lost their jobs; how we can be positive about the future those teachers, what they have to do and how they have to live and support their families when there is a shortage of job positions availability. How they have to survive in this economical state. There is not doubt that putting the enormous amount of money for the program which might or might not be successful for Ontario was very risk y and unsafe. It might be more appropriate in the different time when government has enough assets to start this program; not today.There another fact such as long-term supports schools; due this law schools funds have been cut down. Schools do not provide any more school supplies such as graph paper and any other material that are needed during the educational process. There are not available after school activities any more; no more sport activities. As well full day kindergarten require more physical space; the little children have to have the space; space to play, space to sleep, so in many cases schools have to build the additional portables; and his is additional capital that will be pulled out from ours pockets. Building a new life style, communicational skills, and successful academicals grades could be one of the results of full-day kindergarten and financial deficit might be another a new educational program in Ontario. This project could be feasible; so future of our chil dren could be better and without worry. † Children who attend full-day kindergarten tend to be less advantaged, socially, economically and academically, than their peers in half-day programs† (Viadero & Debra, 2005, p. 1-16. ).Even though this project took start very quickly with poor support; it will be huge revolution in Ontario’s educational system in the next 4 or 5 years from today, according to Rushowy (2010). Sam Hammond says: â€Å"This is huge thing for Ontario. We are pleased that the government put this forward even a time of economical concern† (as cited Rushowy, 2010). This provincial regulation puts a lot of faith in children, their innate interest in learning and in their intelligence. Having a proper and solid fundament is the first step on the long, successful way of life.All those factors give only positive points let’s take a look for the negative spots as well. There are not secrets that so many employees lost their jobs; how we c an be positive about the future those teachers, what they have to do and how they have to live and support their families when there is a shortage of job positions availability. How they have to survive in this economical state. There is not doubt that putting the enormous amount of money for the program which might not be successful for Ontario it is very risky REFERENCES Song, V. , (2010). Toronto Star, Ont. : Sep 2, 2010. (pU. 1).Experts Say JK Kids Will Thrive: Retrieved September 20, 2010, from http://proquest. umi. com/pqdweb? did=212764451&Fmt=3&clientId=20373&RQT=30 Rushnowy, K. , (2010). Toronto Star, Ont. : Sep 7, 2010. ( p. GT. 1). Rest Time Will Be on Need-To-Nap Basis: As New Program Rolls out in 600 Schools†¦. Retrieved September 20, 2010, from http://proquest. umi. com/pqdweb? did=2131752211&Fmt=3&clientId=20373&RQT=309 Pearson, M. , (2010). The Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ont. : Sep. 7, 2010. (p. A. 1). Big Day for Our Littlest Students; Retrieved September 20, 2010 , from http://proquest. umi. om/pqdweb? did=2134488341&Fmt=3&clientId=20373&RQT=309 Viadero. , Debra. , (2005) Education Week; 10/19/2005, Vol. 25 Issue 8, p1-16, 2p. Full-Day Kindergarten Produces More Learning Gains, Study Says†¦. Retrieved September 08, 2010, from http://search. ebcohost. com/login. aspx? direct=true&db=aph&AN=18703444&site=ehost-live&scope=site McClean, S. , (2010) The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont. : Sep 10, 2010. P. A. 12. What Kindergarten Gives Kids. Retrieved September 20, 2010, from http://proquest. umi. com/pqdweb? did=2134583131&Fmt=3&clientId=20373&RQT=30

Project monitoring nd control Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Project monitoring nd control - Essay Example Project control t the senior mngement level consists of evluting nd responding to forml Project Sttus Reports prepred by the project tem. These reports detil the overll progress of the project with specil ttention pid to production delys or budget overruns tht might jeoprdize contrctul greements. The reports ssist senior mngement in determining when expenditures on prticulr project re no longer profitble nd should be terminted. Depending on the level of mngement control, sttus reports my prompt senior mngers to provide dditionl funding, direction, or clrifiction to the project tem. In contrst, project control t the opertionl level is driven by need to determine how successful the tem hs been in chieving specific plnned objectives nd by need to ssist in the coordintion of complex nd interrelted ctions. The project tem monitors the progress of ech ctivity, tking corrective ction when ctivities re shown to be delyed or drifting (Spinner, 1992). Knutson nd Bitz (1991) list five stges of the opertionl project control process: Time, cost, nd performnce form the bsis for the operting chrcteristics of project. These fctors help to determine the bsis for project control. Project control is the process of reducing the devition between ctul performnce nd plnned performnce. Mesurements re tken on ech of the three project constrints of time, performnce, nd cost. Cost Control. Cost Control. Tking the process one step further, cost control reports compre scheduled expenditures to ctul expenditures. The purpose of these reports, which re usully prepred by finncil plnners, is to identify or predict possible cost overruns. If cost overrun is likely, request for dditionl funds should be forwrded to senior mngement s soon s possible. If dditionl funding cn not be obtined quickly, nd the overrun is beyond the project's finncil tolernce, no further finncil commitments should be mde pending complete project cost nlysis. lthough this lck of finncil commitment my seem somewht hrsh, it is the best course of ction since it prevents the project from going bnkrupt, which would mke completion impossible (Spinner, 1992). There re certin techniques tht cn ssist mngers in controlling nd monitoring the project. To mny mngers, the costs ssocited with project my be considered more importnt thn the schedule; t minimum, senior mngement will require timely cost sttus reports. During the plnning stge, this will tke the form of developing project cost estimtes for inclusion in the initil project budget. Once the project hs begun, this informtion my be forwrded s prt of cost schedule or cost control reports. If the tem is considering ccelerting or "crshing" the project, the tem my develop cost minimizing reports (Spinner, 1992). Cost control hs received extensive coverge in the literture. Numerous ccounting nd reporting systems hve been developed over the yers for project cost monitoring nd control. Some of the strtegies suitble for controlling project cost include: Reducing lbor costs Using competitive

Identification Process Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Identification Process - Assignment Example Such behaviors like initiating interactions and engagements to conversations. A schedule of interaction is developed based on the times and the student needs. The social educator and colleagues identify methods for promoting and reinforcing the crucial students’ social interactions (Heller and Albert 1). Educators provide an ongoing support to peers through problem-solving meetings held in every week. Classroom teachers may be included if the peer support interventions are being put into practice during their class period. The purpose of these practices is to provide encouragements for peer involvement and input as well as minimizing the educator’s role in scheduling and identifying interaction strategies. Although an educator conducts the session, peers are actively involved through open discussions and problem solving. A certain format is recommended to assist in organizing each session (Heller and Albert 1).

EU law Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

EU law - Assignment Example The researcher states that in European Union, the most important legislative instruments are regulations and directives. A regulation is a general rule that is obligating upon member nations in whole and is directly applicable to all member states. Obligating in whole connotes that the member states has no preference as to method and form. On the other hand, directives are general rule, but they are binding as to their result. For each member state, it is expected, a directive is obligating as to the outcome to be accomplished. As to the choice to method and form, the institutions of the member states can exercise their power. There is less clarity about their direct impact due to the wider policy freedom given to member states in transposing EU directives. Nonetheless, one should not underrate the impact of directives, and the national rules shall have to be construed in such a style that is most in harmony with the directive under reference. Because of its own breakdown to carry ou t the commitments which the directive requires, a Member Nation which has not espoused the enacting initiatives as demanded by the directive within the stipulated time may not bank upon it as against such persons. At the request of an individual who has adhered with the stipulations of a directive, may request a municipal court not to direct to implement a municipal rule which is contrary to the directive not implemented into the domestic official system of a contravening Member Nation. Further, it must sustain that demand if the commitment in issue is sufficiently precise and unconditional.2. S2 European Communities Act 1972 stipulates that â€Å"all such privileges, authorities, responsibilities, commitments and limitations ... arising by or created under the Treaties ... as in agreement with the Treaties are devoid of further ratification to be accorded official impact or employed in the UK, shall be ... imposed so ... â€Å" Further, any designated Minister, Her Majesty may by Order in Council, and or department may by rules, make provision ... for the purpose of implementing any Community commitment of the United Kingdom. Directives fall under secondary legislation of the source of EU law. A directive is a most significant legislative mechanism together with the EU regulation. Its main aim is to bring together the dual aims of both ensuring the needed consistency of Union law and honouring the diversity of national structures and customs. It is to be remembered that directive chiefly aims for the harmonization and not for the unification of the law. The rationale is to get rid of conflicts and contradictions between national regulations and laws or progressively to weep out contradictions, so that, a uniform stipulation exists in all the member nations. It is to be noted that a directive is obligatory on all the member nations as to the goal to be accomplished, but it assigns it to the national officials to fix it on how the consented community goal is to be implemented into their domestic legal structures. Especially, the member nations can take into the picture of unique domestic scenarios when implementing the community rules. What is important that an EU directive does not surpass the laws of member nations but puts a commitment on the member nations to fine -tune their national law in harmony with Community regulations? Hence, there will be two –phases of law- making practice prevail in EU3. Source - eur-lex.europa.eu †º EUR-Lex Home †º Help In UK, the â€Å"General Product Safety Regulations 2005 â€Å"is in force and these regulations are enacted in conformity with the â€Å"section 2(2) of the European Communities Act and transpose the Directive 2001/95/EC on general Product Safety† into UK law. The main aim of the General Product Safety Directive (GPSD) is to make sure that all goods aimed for or probable to be used by UK residents under realistically and normal predictable stipulations are safe. In case of mobile phones, the GPS Regulations will extend to those-aspects of safety in UK. The GPSD is applicable to

The Monster Frankenstein from Various Films that Portray the Character Term Paper

The Monster Frankenstein from Various Films that Portray the Character in Different Shades of Human Nature - Term Paper Example The target audience of this piece is for all, especially towards the bureaucratic psychology bearers of the modern world who are generally hardcore supporters of the oppression, dominance, and torture and seeks to establish a social point of view with the urge towards the attainment of a solution. The Curse of Frankenstein was one of the movies on Frankenstein by Terence Fisher made in the year 1957. In the movie, it was shown how the son of a wealthy family, Dr. Victor Frankenstein got himself entangled between his penchant for science and societal boundaries. The protagonist i.e. Dr. Victor Frankenstein was shown to developed an interest in the origins of life and he had recreated a dead dog. His next ambition was to recreate a dead human being. He thought of fusing the body parts of people with different intellect and knowledge. The doctor was successful in his mission to create the monster but it lacked the human and intellectual traits he wished to see in it. Instead, it had dev eloped to be a scary, psychotic killer. Frankenstein could, not carry on with his work for long as he got involved in a murder case as well as faced hostility from the society and his dear ones (The Curse of Frankenstein). In another movie on the same theme Frankenstein Created Woman, it was shown how Frankenstein had tried to cheat death by transferring the soul of a dead person into a new body. In the movie, a female monster was created from a person who had drowned herself. The monster ultimately became a killer instead of a normal human being as was thought by Dr. Frankenstein (Women And Frankenstein). The movie ‘The Modern Prometheus’ centers around the life of Victor Frankenstein who was born and brought up in the Geneva in a wealthy family with a safe environment surrounded by beloved ones and pursued the education in science for establishing a quite interesting and promising future. The metaphor lies in the fact that the science is a powerful tool in innovation and in making the life of the people happier but as an aftermath of the industrial revolution science can be visualized as a curse in the then societal structure.  

Advertising Campaign Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Advertising Campaign - Essay Example The advertiser’s handling of the bath soap Safeguard on its Philippine end is an excellent example of a successful advertising campaign that keeps a close ear on actual market conditions. When the advertising agency, which goes by the name of Atlas Promotions and Marketing Co. (APMC), considered taking on the Safeguard account, it immediately launched a study on the demographic profile of its potential market. The company that produces Safeguard wanted the product to penetrate as wide a market as possible, not just establish a specific niche for it. The challenge for the agency then was how to present Safeguard as a soap product of choice for majority of the Philippine populace. There is cutthroat competition in the Philippine market for personal care products such as bath soaps, with nearly 100 different products vying for consumer attention. The market research conducted by APMC showed that majority of the populace is poor, with the low and middle income class comprising ove r 70 per cent of the entire bath soap market. If APMC projects Safeguard as, say, a skin beauty soap, it would reach only the smaller 30 per cent of the market’s upper income bracket which consists mostly of young women. This has been the narrow and limited market niche of soaps like Dove and Ivory, which is made up of women aged 16 to 40, with high school and college education and gainfully employed.

Children after Parents Divorce Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Children after Parents Divorce - Essay Example This may be caused by the lack of parental involvement following divorce. According to Wood, Repetti, and Roesch, "From a child's perspective, having a sad, self-oriented, and withdrawn mother may evoke a sense of isolation and rejection, particularly if the mother is the primary caregiver. The child may attempt to re-engage the mother by making bids for 'negative attention'" (125). This negative attention manifests itself as anti-social behavior. In teenage children who are impacted by divorce, there are higher levels of alcohol, drug, and tobacco use (Andres and Gilman 3). Among adolescent girls there are increased rates of behavioral problems, lower self-esteem, and an increase in depression (Andres and Gilman 3). There is also an increase of early exit from the home environment, unplanned pregnancy, teenage marriage, and subsequent divorce (Lye 4-8). Lye further states that these actions are heavily influenced by the degree of post-divorce parental involvement, income, neighborhood, and parental conflict (4-8, 4-9). Younger children will be most affected by the upheaval in the family living arrangements.

Reform movement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Reform movement - Essay Example Selfish needs of certain people especially if they are in power often result in backlash and revolt. Such revolts arise mostly because of suppression and lack of freedom. There have been many revolutions throughout the world which has changed the world for better. Abolitionist movement is one such revolution which arose in 1800’s with a motive to achieve emancipation for all slaves and to end all kind of racial discrimination in Unites States of America. People who supported the movement or advocated immediate end to slavery were known as abolitionist. Abolitionist movement which had started centuries ago was not new to the American people as many African slaves used to kill either themselves or their captors in order to resist slavery. In nineteen century when the society became more liberal and aware, more and more white people condemned slavery as unchristian.1 The first white people to denounce slavery in Europe and European colonies were known as Quakers. Quakers believed in universal equality and demanded equal rights for black and white man. They played an important role in abolishing slavery in Europe and were also behind the abolitionist movement in United States.2 Slaves were chained and were transported in crowded diseases ridden ships. These slaves were subject to abuse from the ship crew. Many of the Africans died on their way to America. The working conditions of these slaves were inhuman and were made to do rigorous labor in dreadful conditions. Although the movement started in 1800’s the overall sentiment regarding the abolitionist movement remained muted until 1830 when American Anti Slavery Society was formed to raise voice against slavery and the overall anti slavery movement gathered pace. The movement was very controversial as many powerful businessman and politicians opposed ending slavery, as it meant huge economical losses to them. The movement which started in the year 1800‘s gathered momentum in

Jesus and Caravaggio Essay Example for Free

Jesus and Caravaggio Essay Caravaggio (1573-1610) Originally named Michelangelo Merisi, Caravaggio was born on September 28, 1573 in the Lombardy hill town of Caravaggio near Milan, which he is named after. He was born to relatively privileged parents who were victims of an epidemic and he became an orphan at the age of eleven. When Caravaggio was only 13 years old his family decided he would devote his life to painting. Caravaggio began as an apprenticed in 1584 to Simon Peterzano, a Milanese painter in oils and fresco. His earliest years in Rome, from-1588 were very difficult for Caravaggio. He was employed for a while in the workshop of Mannerist painter Giuseppe Cesari, also known as the Cavaliere dArpino as a fruit and flowers specialist, the only Caravaggios still life work known without figures is a Basket of Fruit (1597 Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan) the facts about this piece are not really clear although it is possible the painting was made as a trial piece, since the background was added later (the piece is now lost). Basket of Fruit (1597)- In 1592, Caravaggio arrived in Rome at the age of 21. His first five years in Rome were the hardest period for Caravaggio. He had no money and lived a very modest life style because he couldn’t find a suitable work place, therefore he moved from one workshop to another frustrated from working as an assistant to painters who had much smaller talent than his own. He earned his living mostly from uncreative routine work and never stayed more than a few months at each studio. Finally in 1595, he decided to set out on his own and began to sell his pictures through a dealer, Maestro Valentino, who brought Caravaggios work to the attention of Cardinal Francesco Del Monte, a bishop of great influence in the Vatican. Caravaggio soon came under the protection of Del Monte and was invited to receive a place to live, and a pension in the house of the cardinal. Despite spiritual and material deficiency, Caravaggio had painted approximately 40 paintings for Francesco Del Monte. The subjects of this period are mostly adolescent boys, such as the above paintings: Boy with a Fruit Basket (1593; Borghese Gallery, Rome). The boy with a fruit basket has similarities with another painting the- Fruit seller by the Lombard painter Vincenzo Campi, painted about 1580, nevertheless, Caravaggio is not following his footsteps and using innovative drawing techniques. Differently from Vincenzo Campis drawing posing a young woman in the center of the piece, Caravaggio preferred a teenage boy which was his most common theme of drawing at the time. Also his subject is brought almost to the front of the picture, so that the boy seems to offer himself as well as the fruit to the observers. There is a sign of uncertainty in the way that the boys long neck raises out of his shoulders edge. Caravaggios incredible techniques of light and shadow are already seen in his early work. Against a near-blank ground, attention is focused on the right side of the boys upper body, his right arm and the fruit basket, displaying very rich variety of fruits. The Young Bacchus (1593; Uffizi Gallery, Florence). Caravaggios Bacchus no longer seems like an ancient god, or the Olympian vision of the High Renaissance. Instead, Caravaggio paints a rather vulgar and soft yang boy, who turns his chubby face towards the viewer and offers wine from a large glass held by his small thin fingers. This is not Bacchus himself, but some perfectly ordinary individual dressed up as Bacchus, who looks at the viewers rather exhaustedly. It appears that Caravaggio used real people for his paintings even in his early work. The Music Party (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York). The two figures seen in the front of the piece are the main characters of the composition. They are shown in an oppositional structure, and only one of them is fully shown. The figure of the instrument player and the corresponding figure that we see from behind. The face between these two is Caravaggios; the figure on the left is taken from an earlier composition (Young Peeling a Pear). Caravaggios usage of a narrow range of earth colors which was his signature method of painting is shown from his earliest work as well as in his most famous ones. Also his amazing use of details, he describes every part of the figures anatomy and he always creates movement in his paintings. These early pictures show an innovative, direct, and empirical approach; they were painted directly from life and show almost no usage of the academic method of painting which was used in Rome at the time.

Measuring weak-form market efficiency

Measuring weak-form market efficiency Measuring Weak-form Market Efficiency ABSTRACT This paper tests weak-form efficiency in the U.S. market. Both daily and monthly returns are employed for autocorrelation analysis, variance ratio tests and delay tests. Three conclusions are reached. Firstly, security returns are predictable to some extent. While individual stock returns are weakly negatively correlated and difficult to predict, market-wide indices with outstanding recent performance show a positive autocorrelation and offer more predictable profit opportunities. Secondly, monthly returns follow random walk better than daily returns and are thus more weak-form efficient. Finally, weak-form inefficiency is not necessarily bad. Investors should be rewarded a certain degree of predictability for bearing risks. Efficient market hypothesis (EMH), also known as information efficiency, refers to the extent to which stock prices incorporate all available information. The notion is important in helping investors to understand security behaviour so as to make wise investment decisions. According to Fama (1970), there are three versions of market efficiency: the weak, semistrong, and strong form. They differ with respect to the information that is incorporated in the stock prices. The weak form efficiency assumes that stock prices already incorporate all past trading information. Therefore, technical analysis on past stock prices will not be helpful in gaining abnormal returns. The semistrong form efficiency extends the information set to all publicly available information including not only past trading information but also fundamental data on firm prospects. Therefore, neither technical analysis nor fundamental analysis will be able to produce abnormal returns. Strong form efficiency differs fro m the above two in stating that stock prices not only reflect publicly available information but also private inside information. However, this form of market efficiency is always rejected by empirical evidence. If weak-form efficiency holds true, the information contained in past stock price will be completely and instantly reflected in the current price. Under such condition, no pattern can be observed in stock prices. In other words, stock prices tend to follow a random walk model. Therefore, the test of weak-form market efficiency is actually a test of random walk but not vice versa. The more efficient the market is, the more random are the stock prices, and efforts by fund managers to exploit past price history will not be profitable since future prices are completely unpredictable. Therefore, measuring weak-form efficiency is crucial not only in academic research but also in practice because it affects trading strategies. This paper primarily tests the weak-form efficiency for three stocks-Faro Technologies Inc. (FARO), FEI Company (FEIC) and Fidelity Southern Corporation (LION) and two decile indices-the NYSE/AMEX/NASDAQ Index capitalisation based Deciles 1 and 10 (NAN D1 and NAN D10). Both daily and monthly data are employed here to detect any violation of the random walk hypothesis. The remainder of the paper is structured in the following way. Section I provides a brief introduction of the three firms and two decile indices. Section II describes the data and discusses the methodology used. Section III presents descriptive statistics. Section IV is the result based on empirical analysis. Finally, section V concludes the paper. I. The Companies[1] A. Faro Technologies Inc (FARO) FARO Technologies is an instrument company whose principle activities include design and develop portable 3-D electronic systems for industrial applications in the manufacturing system. The companys principal products include the Faro Arm, Faro Scan Arm and Faro Gage articulated measuring devices. It mainly operates in the United States and Europe. B. FEI Company (FEI) FEI is a leading scientific instruments company which develops and manufactures diversified semiconductor equipments including electron microscopes and beam systems. It operates in four segments: NanoElectronics, NanoResearch and Industry, NanoBiology and Service and Components. With a 60-year history, it now has approximately 1800 employees and sells products to more than 50 countries around the world. C. Fidelity Southern Corp. (LION) Fidelity Southern Corp. is one of the largest community banks in metro Atlanta which provides a wide range of financial services including commercial and mortgage services to both corporate and personal customers. It also provides international trade services, trust services, credit card loans, and merchant services. The company provides financial products and services for business and retail customers primarily through branches and via internet. D. NYSE/AMEX/NASDAQ Index It is an index taken from the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) which includes all common stocks listed on the NYSE, Amex, and NASDAQ National Market. The index is constructed by ranking all NYSE companies according to their market capitalization in the first place. They are then divided into 10 decile portfolios. Amex and NASDAQ stocks are then placed into the deciles based on NYSE breakpoints. The smallest and the largest firms based on market capitalization are placed into Decile 1 and Decile 10, respectively. II. Data and Methodology A. Data Data for the three stocks and two decile indices in our study are all obtained from the Center for Research in Securities Prices database (CRSP) on both daily and monthly basis from January 2000 to December 2005. Returns are then computed on both basis, generating a total of 1507 daily observations and 71 monthly observations. The NYSE/AMEX/NASDAQ Index is CRSP Capitalisation-based so that Decile 1 and 10 represent the smallest and largest firms, respectively, based on market capitalisation. In addition, The Standard and Poors 500 Index (SP 500) is used as a proxy for the market index. It is a valued-weighted index which incorporates the largest 500 stocks in US market. For comparison purposes, both continuously compounded (log) returns and simple returns are reported, although the analysis is based on the result of the first one. B. Methods B.1. Autocorrelation Tests One of the most intuitive and simple tests of random walk is to test for serial dependence, i.e. autocorrelation. The autocorrelation is a time-series phenomenon, which implies the serial correlation between certain lagged values in a time series. The first-order autocorrelation, for instance, indicates to what extent neighboring observations are correlated. The autocorrelation test is always used to test RW3, which is a less restrictive version of random walk model, allowing the existence of dependent but uncorrelated increments in return data. The formula of autocorrelation at lag k is given by: (1) where is the autocorrelation at lag ; is the log-return on stock at time; and is the log-return on stock at time. A greater than zero indicates a positive serial correlation whereas a less than zero indicates a negative serial correlation. Both positive and negative autocorrelation represent departures from the random walk model. If is significantly different from zero, the null hypothesis of a random walk is rejected. The autocorrelation coefficients up to 5 lags for daily data and 3 lags for monthly data are reported in our test. Results of the Ljung-Box test for all lags up to the above mentioned for both daily and monthly data are also reported. The Ljung-Box test is a more powerful test by summing the squared autocorrelations. It provides evidence for whether departure for zero autocorrelation is observed at all lags up to certain lags in either direction. The Q-statistic up to a certain lag m is given by: (2) B.2. Variance Ratio Tests We follow Lo and MacKinlays (1988) single variance ratio (VR) test in our study. The test is based on a very important assumption of random walk that variance of increments is a linear function of the time interval. In other words, if the random walk holds, the variance of the qth differed value should be equal to q times the variance of the first differed value. For example, the variance of a two-period return should be equal to twice the variance of the one-period return. According to its definition, the formula of variance ratio is denoted by: (3) where q is any positive integer. Under the null hypothesis of a random walk, VR(q) should be equal to one at all lags. If VR(q) is greater than one, there is positive serial correlation which indicates a persistence in prices, corresponding to the momentum effect. If VR(q) is less than one, there is negative serial correlation which indicates a reversal in prices, corresponding to the mean-reverting process. Note that the above two test are also tests of how stock prices react to publicly available information in the past. If market efficiency holds true, information from past prices should be immediately and fully reflected in the current stock price. Therefore, future stock price change conditioned on past prices should be equal to zero. B.3. Griffin-Kelly-Nardari DELAY Tests As defined by Griffin, Kelly and Nardari (2007), delay is a measure of sensitivity of current returns to past market-wide information.[2] Speaking differently, delay measures how quickly stock returns can react to market returns. The logic behind this is that a stock which is slow to incorporate market information is less efficient than a stock which responds quickly to market movements. SP 500 index is employed in delay test to examine the sensitivity of stock returns to market information. For each stock and decile index, both restricted and unrestricted models are estimated from January 2000 to December 2005. The unrestricted model is given by: (4) where is the log-return on stock i at time t; is the market log-return (return for SP 500 index) at time t; is the lagged market return; is the coefficient on the lagged market return; and is the lag which is 1, 2, 3, 4 for the daily data and 1, 2, 3 for the monthly data. The restricted model is as follows which sets all to be zero: (5) Delay is then calculated based on adjusted R-squares from above regressions as follows: (6) An alternative scaled measure of delay is given by: (7) Both measures are reported in a way that the larger the calculated delay value, the more return variation is explained by lagged market returns and thus the more delayed response to the market information. III. Descriptive Statistics A. Daily frequencies Table I shows the summary statistic of daily returns for the three stocks and two decile indices. The highest mean return is for FARO (0.0012), whereas the lowest mean return is for NAN D10 (0.0000). In terms of median return, NAN D1 (0.0015) outperforms all the other stocks. Both the highest maximum return and the lowest minimum return (0.2998 and -0.2184, respectively) are for FARO, corresponding to its highest standard deviation (0.0485) among all, indicating that FARO is the most volatile in returns. On the other hand, both the lowest maximum return and highest minimum return (0.0543 and -0.0675, respectively) are for NAN D10. However NAN D10 is only the second least volatile, while the lowest standard deviation is for NAN D1 (0.0108). Figure 1 and 2 presents the price level of the most and least volatile index (stock). All the above observations remain true if we change from log-return basis to a simple return basis. In terms of the degree of asymmetry of the return distributions, all stocks and indices are positively skewed, with the only exception of NAN D1. The positive skewness implies that more extreme values are in the right tail of the distribution, i.e. stocks are more likely to have times when performance is extremely good. On the other hand, NAN D1 is slightly negatively skewed, which means that returns are more likely to be lower that what is expected by normal distribution. In measuring the peakedness of return distributions, positive excess kurtosis is observed in all stocks and indices, also known as a leptokurtic distribution, which means that returns either cluster around the mean or disperse in the two ends of the distribution. All the above observations can be used to conclusively reject the null hypothesis that daily returns are normally distributed. What more, results from Jarque-Bera test provide supportive evidence for rejection of the normality hypothesis at all significant levels for all stocks and indices. B. Monthly frequencies Descriptive statistics of monthly returns are likewise presented in Table II. Most of the above conclusions reached for daily returns are also valid in the context of monthly returns. In other words, what is the highest (lowest) value for daily returns is also the highest (lowest) for monthly returns in most cases. The only exceptions are for the highest value in median returns and the lowest value and standard deviation in minimum returns. In this situation, NAN D10 (0.0460) and FARO (0.1944) have the least and most dispersion according to their standard deviations, compared with NAN D1 and FARO in daily case. From above observation, we can see that decile indices are more stable than individual stocks in terms of returns. Whats more, monthly returns have larger magnitude in most values than daily returns. Coming to the measurement of asymmetry and peakedness of return distributions, only NAN D10 (-0.4531) is negatively skewed. However, the degree of skewness is not far from 0. Other stocks and index are all positively skewed with both FEIC (0.0395) and LION (0.0320) having a skewness value very close to 0. Almost all stocks and index have a degree of kurtosis similar to that of normal distribution, except that NAN D1 (8.6623) is highly peaked. This is also consistent with the results of JB p-values, based on which we conclude that FEIC, LION and NAN D10 are approximately normal because we fail to reject the hypothesis that they are normally distributed at 5% or higher levels (see Figure 3 and 4 for reference). However when simple return basis is used, FEIC is no longer normally distributed even at the 1% significant level. Except this, using simple return produces similar results. IV. Results A. Autocorrelation Tests A.1. Tests for Log-Returns The results of autocorrelation tests for up to 5 lags of daily log-returns and up to 3 lags of monthly log-returns for three stocks and two decile indices from January 2000 to December 2005 are summarised in Table III. Both the autocorrelation (AC) and partial autocorrelation (PAC) are examined in our tests. As is shown in Panel A, all 5 lags of FARO, FEIC and NAN D10 for both AC and PAC are insignificant at 5% level, except for the fourth-order PAC coefficient of FARO (-0.052), which is slightly negatively significant. On the contrary, NAN D1 has significant positive AC and PAC at almost all lags except in the fourth order, its PAC (0.050) is barely within the 5% significance level. The significant AC and PAC coefficients reject the null hypothesis of no serial correlation in NAN D1, thereby rejecting the weak-form efficiency. In terms of LION, significant negative autocorrelation coefficients are only observed in the first two orders and its higher-order coefficients are not statistically significant. Besides that, we find that all the stocks and indices have negative autocorrelation coefficients at most of their lags, with the only exception of NAN D1, whose coefficients are all positive. The strictly positive AC and PAC indicates persistence in returns, i.e. a momentum effect for NAN D1, which means that good or bad performances in the past tend to continue over time. We also present the Ljung-Box (L-B) test statistic in order to see whether autocorrelation coefficients up to a specific lag are jointly significant. Since RW1 implies all autocorrelations are zero, the L-B test is more powerful because it tests the joint hypothesis. As is shown in the table, both LION and NAN D1 have significant Q values in all lags at all levels, while none of FARO, FEIC and NAN D10 has significant Q values. Based on above daily observations, we may conclude that the null hypothesis of no serial correlation is rejected at all levels for LION and NAN D1, but the null hypothesis cannot be rejected at either 5% level or 10% level for FARO, FEIC and NAN D10. This means that both LION and NAN D1 are weak-form inefficient. By looking at their past performance, we find that while NAN D1 outperformed the market in sample period, LION performed badly in the same period. Therefore, it seems that stocks or indices with best and worst recent performance have stronger autocorrelation. In particular, LION shows a positive autocorrelation in returns, suggesting that market-wide indices with outstanding recent performance have momentum in returns over short periods, which offer predictable opportunities to investors. When monthly returns are employed, no single stock or index has significant AC or PAC in any lag reported at 5% level. It is in contrast with daily returns, which means that monthly returns follow a random walk better than daily returns. More powerful L-B test confirms our conclusion by showing that Q statistics for all stocks and indices are statistically insignificant at either 5% or 10% level. Therefore, the L-B null hypothesis can be conclusively rejected for all stocks and indices up to 3 lags. When compared with daily returns, monthly returns seem to follow random walk better and are thus more weak-form efficient. A.2. Tests for Squared Log-Returns Even when returns are not correlated, their volatility may be correlated. Therefore, it is necessary for us to expand the study from returns to variances of returns. Squared log-returns and absolute value of log-returns are measures of variances and are thus useful in studying the serial dependence of return volatility. The results of autocorrelation analysis for daily squared log-returns for all three stocks and two decile indices are likewise reported in Table IV. In contrast to the results for log-returns, coefficients for FEIC, LION, NAN D1 and NAN D10 are significantly different from zero, except for the forth-order PAC coefficient (0.025) for FEIC, the fifth-order PAC coefficient for LION (-0.047) and third- and forth-order PAC coefficient for NAN D1 (-0.020 and -0.014, respectively). FARO has significant positive AC and PAC at the first lag and a significant AC at the third lag. The L-B test provides stronger evidence against the null hypothesis that sum of the squared autocorrelations up to 5 lags is zero for all stocks and indices at all significant levels, based on which we confirm our result that squared log-returns do not follow a random walk. Another contrasting result with that of log-returns is that almost all the autocorrelation coefficients are positive, indicating a stronger positive serial dependence in squared log-returns. In terms of monthly data, only FEIC and NAN D10 have significant positive third-order AC and PAC estimates. Other stocks and indices have coefficients not significantly different from zero. The result is supported by Ljung-Box test statistics showing that Q values are only statistically significant in the third lag for both FEIC and NAN D10. This is consistent with the result reached for log-returns above, which says that monthly returns appear to be more random than daily returns. A.3. Tests for the Absolute Values of Log-Returns Table V provides autocorrelation results for the absolute value of log-returns in similar manner. However, as will be discussed below, the results are even more contrasting than that in Table IV. In Panel A, all the stocks and indices have significant positive serial correlation while insignificant PAC estimates are only displayed in lag 5 for both FARO and LION. Supporting above result, Q values provide evidence against the null hypothesis of no autocorrelation. Therefore, absolute value of daily log-returns exhibit stronger serial dependence than in Table III and IV, and autocorrelations are strictly positive for all stocks and indices. Coming to the absolute value of monthly log-returns, only FEIC displays significant individual and joint serial correlation. NAN D1 also displays a significant Q value in lag 2 at 5% level, but it is insignificant at 1% level. Based on the above evidence, two consistent conclusions can be made at this point. First of all, by changing ingredients in our test from log-returns to squared log-returns and absolute value of log-returns, more positive serial correlation can be observed, especially in daily data. Therefore, return variances are more correlated. Secondly, monthly returns tend to follow a random walk model better than daily returns. A.4. Correlation Matrix of Stocks and Indices Table VI presents the correlation matrix for all stocks and indices. As is shown in Panel A for daily result, all of the correlations are positive, ranging from 0.0551 (LION-FARO) to 0.5299 (NAN D10-FEIC). Within individual stocks, correlation coefficients do not differ a lot. The highest correlation is between FEIC and FARO with only 0.1214, indicating a fairly weak relationship between individual stocks returns. However, in terms of stock-index relationships, they differ drastically from 0.0638 (NAN D10-FARO) to 0.5299 (NAN D10-FEIC). While the positive correlation implies that the three stocks follow the indices in the same direction, the extent to which they will move with the indices is quite different, indicating different levels of risk with regard to different stock. Finally, we find that the correlation between NAN D10 and NAN D1 is the second highest at 0.5052. Panel B provides the correlation matrix for monthly data. Similar to results for daily data, negative correlation is not observed. The highest correlation attributes to that between NAN D10 and FEIC (0.7109) once again, but the lowest is between LION and FEIC (0.1146) this time. Compared with results in Panel A, correlation within individual stocks is slightly higher on average. The improvement in correlation is even more obvious between stocks and indices. It implies that stock prices can change dramatically from day to day, but they tend to follow the movement of indices in a longer horizon. Finally, the correlation between two indices is once again the second highest at 0.5116, following that between NAN D10 and FEIC. It is also found that the correlation between indices improves only marginally when daily data are replaced by monthly data, indicating a relatively stable relationship between indices. B. Variance Ratio Tests The results of variance ratio tests are presented in Table VII for each of the three stocks and two decile indices. The test is designed to test for the null hypothesis of a random walk under both homoskedasticity and heteroskedasticity. Since the violation of a random walk can result either from changing variance, i.e. heteroskedasticity, or autocorrelation in returns, the test can help to discriminate reasons for deviation to some extent. The lag orders are 2, 4, 8 and 16. In Table VII, the variance ratio (VR(q)), the homoskedastic-consistent statistics (Z(q)) and the heteroskedastic-consistent statistics (Z*(q)) are presented for each lag. As is pointed out by Lo and MacKinlay (1988), the variance ratio statistic VR(2) is equal to one plus the first-order correlation coefficient. Since all the autocorrelations are zero under RW1, VR(2) should equal one. The conclusion can be generalised further to state that for all q, VR(q) should equal one. According to the first Panel in Table VII, of all stocks and indices, only LION and NAN D1 have variance ratios that are significantly different from one at all lags. Therefore, the null hypothesis of a random walk under both homoskedasticity and heteroskedasticity is rejected for LION and NAN D1, and thus they are not weak-form efficient because of autocorrelations. In terms of FARO, the null hypothesis of a homoskedastic random walk is rejected, while the hypothesis of a heteroskedastic random walk is not. This implies that the rejection of random walk under homoskedasticity could partly result from, if not entirely due to heteroskedasticity. On the other hand, both FEIC and NAN D10 follow random walk and turn out to be efficient in weak form, corresponding exactly to the autocorrelation results reached before in Table III. Panel B shows that when monthly data are used, the null hypothesis under both forms of random walk can only be rejected for FARO. As for FEIC, the random walk null hypothesis is rejected under homoskedasticity, but not under heteroskedasticity, indicating that rejection is not due to changing variances because Z*(q) is heteroskedasticity-consistent. As is shown in Panel A for daily data, all individual stocks have variance ratios less than one, implying negative autocorrelation. However, the autocorrelation for stocks is statistically insignificant except for LION. On the other hand, variance ratios for NAN D1 are greater than one and increasing in q. The above finding provides supplementary evidence to the results of autocorrelation tests. As Table III shows, NAN D1 has positive autocorrelation coefficients in all lags, suggesting a momentum effect in multiperiod returns. Both findings appear to be well supported by empirical evidence. While daily returns of individual stocks seem to be weakly negatively correlated (French and Roll (1986)), returns for best performing market indices such as NAN D1 show strong positive autocorrelation (Campbell, Lo, and MacKinlay (1997)). The fact that individual stocks have statistically insignificant autocorrelations is mainly due to the specific noise contained in company information, which m akes individual security returns unpredictable. On the contrary, while the positive serial correlation for NAN D1 violates the random walk, such deviation provides investors with confidence to forecast future prices and reliability to make profits. C. Griffin, Kelly and Nardari DELAY Tests The results of delay test for the three stocks and two decile indices over the January 2000 to December 2005 period are summarised in Table VIII. We use lag 1, 2, 3, 4 for the daily data and 1, 2, 3 for the monthly data. As is presented in Panel A for daily returns, Delay_1 value for NAN D10 is close to zero and hence not significant, while NAN D1 has the highest delay among all stocks and indices. The rank of delay within individual stocks seems to have a positive relationship between size and delay value, by showing that delay of LION, the stock with smallest market capitalization is lowest, while the delay of FEIC, the stock with largest market capitalization is highest. It seems to contradict with the Griffin, Kelly and Nardari (2006) study, which says that there is an inverse relationship between size and delay. One possible explanation for that is that delay calculated by daily data on individual firms is noisy. The scaled measure Delay_2 produces consistent conclusion but with higher magnitude in values. Delay_2 values are very different from zero for FARO, FEIC, LION and NAN D1. The largest increase in value is seen in FARO from 0.0067 for Delay_1 to 0.7901 for Delay_2. Therefore, Griffin, Kelly and Nardari delay measure is preferable, because the scaled version can result in large values without economic significance. As is displayed in Panel B, employing monthly data also leads to higher Delay_1 values, indicating that more variation of monthly returns are captured by lagged market returns and hence monthly returns are not as sensitive as daily returns to market-wide news. However, an inverse relationship is found this time between delay and market value of individual stocks. Therefore, monthly data provides consistent result to support Griffin, Kelly and Nardari (2006) result as one would normally expect larger stocks to be more efficient in responding to market. Similar to the result for daily data, scaled measure once again produces higher values than its alternative but it provides the same results. V. Conclusion The main objective of this paper is to test weak-form efficiency in the U.S. market. As is found by selected tests, NAN D10 and FEIC provide the most consistent evidence to show weak-form efficiency, while the deviation from random walk is suggested for other stocks and indices, especially for NAN D1 and LION. It indicates that security returns are predictable to some degree, especially for those having best and worst recent performance. The three autocorrelation tests provide different results in terms of daily returns. While the null hypothesis of random walk is rejected for NAN D1 and LION based on log-returns, it is rejected for all stocks and indices based on both squared and absolute value of log-returns, indicating that return variances are more correlated. On the other hand, results in the context of monthly returns are consistent. Monthly returns follow a random walk much better than daily returns in all three tests. Most evidently, the autocorrelation test fails to reject the presence of random walk for all stocks and indices when monthly log-returns are employed. The variance ratio tests provide supportive evidence for autocorrelation tests. Both tests find that in terms of daily return, NAN D1 and LION show a significant return dependence. In particular, variance ratios for NAN D1 are all above one, corresponding to its positive AC and PAC coefficients, thus implying positive autocorrelation in returns. Whats more, individual stocks have variance ratios less than one with FEIC and FARO both being insignificant. The above evidence conclusively suggest that while individual stock returns are weakly negatively related and difficult to predict, market-wide indices with outstanding recent performance such as NAN D1 tend to show a stronger positive serial correlation and thus offer predictable profit opportunities. The evidence regarding delay tests is consistent with earlier findings to a large extent. NAN D1 has highest delay in both daily and monthly cases, implying an inefficient response to market news. In the context of monthly log-returns, delay values for individual stocks rank inversely based on market capitalisation with larger cap stocks having lower delay, suggesting that small stocks do not capture past public information quickly and are thus inefficient. Finally, deviation from a random walk model and thus being weak-form inefficiency is not necessarily bad. In fact, investors should be rewarded a certain degree of predictability for bearing risks. Therefore, future research could be done by incorporating risk into the model. [1] Company information is mainly obtained from Thomson One Banker database. [2] Griffin, John M., Patrick J. Kelly, and Federico Nardari, 2006, Measuring short-term international stock market efficiency, Working Paper

Alcohol :: essays research papers fc

It has been stated in each research source that hazing and particularly binge drinking is the most serious problem affecting social life, academic life, and health on college campuses today. The journal article pertaining to this issue, How Harvard’s College Alcohol Study Can Help Your Campus Design a Campaign Against Student Alcohol Abuse (CAS: Campus Alcohol Study for short), focuses more heavily on binge drinking and prevention than it does on the Greek system itself. The authors, Wechsler, Nelson, and Weitzman, contend that binge drinking is a nationally recognized problem but has not been studied efficiently enough to warrant effective prevention plans. The purpose of this article is to share with the public the results of a survey representing 50,000 students in 140 colleges, in 39 states. This is the first nationally representative survey of its kind and the analysis of its outcome by the authors of this article has resulted in seemingly sound prevention ideas. To begi n interpreting the binge drinking phenomenon, a solid understanding of the term must be presented. Binge drinking is defined by all the articles as consuming five or more drinks in rapid succession (four or more for women) at least once in a two week period. Shockingly, the College Alcohol Study (CAS) found that two out of every five college students binge drink. The authors of this article argue that binge drinking has negative effects not only on the drinkers, but also on the entire student body. The binge drinker might get alcohol poisoning, other related physical injuries, or weakened academic performance, while the non-binging students are subjected to insults, arguments, vandalism, physical and sexual assaults, and loss of sleep due to alcohol influenced peers. The next topic that the article gets into is the different areas that change need be made to lessen the presence of binge drinking and ways in which these changes might be made. The first idea presented is that simply e ducating students about alcohol abuse and related problems is not effective. The CAS shows that four out of five students have been exposed to anti-alcohol education and still two out of these five binge drink, let alone drink at all. In fact, Wechsler, Nelosn, and Weitzman state that most members of predominant binge drinking groups like athletes and Greek organizations openly admit to being educated in this area. These findings display how ineffective alcohol education on college campuses is.

foolear Role of the Fool in William Shakespeares King Lear Essay

The Role of the Fool in William Shakespeare's King Lear In the play King Lear, by William Shakespeare, there are many intriguing characters. Perhaps the most intriguing of them all is the fool. The fool seems to exist outside the play appearing and disappearing without warning. The fool is, however, a necessary character to the evolution of Lear's character, since he is the personification of truth and reason. The fool serves to show Lear how he is going insane, as well as to attempt to delay this inevitability. The fool also demonstrates to Lear the truths about people around him, and tries to point out what treachery and deceit they wish upon him. When Lear is too far-gone to heed the advice and knowledge of the fool, he vanishes without a trace no longer useful, or needed. Right from the beginning of the play Lear shows sings of insanity. Dividing up his kingdom, for the reasons he stated, may seem to be a wise thing to do. Not trusting Cordelia, however, is a sing of insanity, as she is the only daughter who truly loved him. The fool, throughout the entire time he is i...

External/Internal Factors Essay -- Business, Technology, Innovation

In this modern business world that utilizes multitudes of technologies from powerful computers to hand held smart phones, one company has managed to secure it position. Google is now a household name in many parts of the world. The success that Google has enjoyed the past decade was not the result of pure luck. Rather it was a well organized business endeavor that incorporated sound business principles planning, organizing, leading, and controlling and timely quality products. In a number of ways Google is a benchmark company in regards to Technology, Innovation, Globalization, Diversity and Ethics. Google is a great modal of a modern technology company producing the software tools and toy that the world desires. Technology and Innovation Since its beginning in 1996, Google has always in the forefront with technology and innovation. Founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, collaborated on an idea that would amaze their peers and the world (Google history, 2010, figure 2). Larry and Sergey were faced with internal and external forces that would propel and inhibit the invention of Google. Their plan was to develop a search engine that their fellow college students could access for information. They were able to organize their thoughts and pool their talents to start formatting and formulating the search engine. One of the external forces that very quickly became a problem was that Google had outgrown the bandwidth it was using, and they had to find more room. Larry and Sergey began hiring the staff that would propel Google into the history books. They hired people who had the technological savvy and innovative ideas to lead Google into a market that they could only imagine at the time. In May 2000, Google rele... ..., 2011). Like every business owner, they strive to make their products and organization the best it can be. Instead of resulting, once again, to dishonest practices, they have kept their moral compass intact and have expanded globally hiring the best talent. These employees now constantly monitor the web through the use of Googlebots, ensuring that accurate and relevant information is provided quickly, every single time. In short, when it comes to controlling and adapting to change, Google is well ahead of the curve. Today the main component of the business is the search engine, although Google has added new innovations such as Google Earth, Universal Search, Realtime Search and Android. By staying informed and making conservative decisions, the leaders at Google will be able to maintain the quality of their produces and ensure their popularity for years to come.

Lord of the Flies and the Story of Creation

Satan, Prince of Darkness, Lucifer, Iblis; no matter what title he bears, the devil is the most recognizable and distinct representation of evil In existence. In the story of Adam and Eve, the devil's wicked evilness takes the form of temptation. He uses temptation to stray Eve from the path of God, the path she was created to follow. In the Lord of the Flies evil disguises itself as temptation yet again. The boys are tempted by their persisting desires to leave their civilized morals behind and indulge in the vicious and untroubled ways of savagery.Numerous parallel themes, in ddition to evil disguised as temptation, between Lord of the Flies and the story of Adam and Eve are present. Themes such as original purity, the spread of sin, chance for redemption and tainted innocence. When Adam was created by God from the â€Å"dust on the ground and the breath of life† (Genesis 2:7) and Eve from Adam's rib, they were perfect, pure human beings and devoutly loyal to God. Similarly, when the boys first arrive on the island they are unwavering In their devotion to maintain civilized morals and disciplined behavior.In chapter 2, Jack displays this devotion by nnouncing to the group, â€Å"We've got to have rules and obey them. After all, we're not savages. We're English, and the English are best at everything. † In the beginning of both plots, the characters of the story are pure in their Innocence and loyalty to what they believe is right. Adam and Eve pure in their loyalty to God and the boys retain their innocence by maintaining civilized behavior. Jack and Eve have one clear thing in common; they both lead their companions in straying from the path of righteousness.Eve by being the first to give into the evil temptation of eating the fruit nd Jack by glvlng In to the evil temptation of power and the â€Å"compulsion to track down and kill that was swallowing him up. † Subsequently after, the evil that engulfed Jack and Eve quickly spreads to th eir companions like a terribly contagious disease. Eve convinces Adam to eat the forbidden fruit as well, thus damning them both. Jack starts a new savage tribe that most of the members from the civilized tribe quickly Join.Upon witnessing this conversion from good to evil Ralph remarks, â€Å"The world, that understandable and lawful world. was slipping away,† Later in the book. aces savage ways even begin to infect two of the most civilized boys left on the Island. During one of Jack's feasts, Ralph and Piggy â€Å"found themselves eager to take a place in this demented but partly secure society. They were glad to touch the brown backs of the fence that hemmed In the terror and made it governable. † In continuance of his custom, God goes to visit Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.When they hear him coming they grow ashamed of their nakedness, something they had never noticed before, and try to cover themselves with leaves and hide from him. God, being all knowing, p retends to search for them. He does this in order to give Adam and Eve an opportunity to return to Him and acknowledge their sin. The British Naval offcer that arrives on the island in Lord of the Flies represents what was originally good and right in the eyes of the boys, as does God In the eyes of Adam and Eve.When the boys come storming out of the burning forest to discover their saviors standing on the beach, they feel no Joy but shame. Shame for the uncivilized ways 1 OF2 tney nave conauctea tnemselves. In emoarrassment was only ampllTlea wnen the British Navvy Officer remarked, â€Å"l should have thought that a pack of British boys†¦ ould have been able to put up a better show than that. † This humiliation experienced by the boys is similar to that of Adam and Eve. In correspondence with God's actions in the Garden of Eden, the Navvy officer â€Å"turned away to give them time to pull themselves together. In warning Adam and Eve of the dangers of the Tree of Know ledge of Good and Evil, God says, mfou may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die. † (Genesis 2:16-17) God's warning proves itself very true. Upon eating the fruit, their spiritual death is immediate, Adam and Eve are spiritually separated from God and lose a part of themselves they will never truly regain. The boys in The Lord of the Flies lose something of great value as well; their innocence.In realization of this, Ralph â€Å"wept for the end of innocence. † Both the boys on the island and Adam and Eve permanently tainted their purity in falling victim to the temptations of evil. â€Å"Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. † â€Å"He is everywhere represented as the deceiver, ssuming false guises, and making false representations. † (Peter 5:8) (Corint hians 2:14) Both Adam and Eve and the boys in Lord of the Flies were deceived by the false guises of the the devil's evil.The bible categorizes evil in two groups; evil against one another, such as murder, theft, and adultery and evil against God such as idolatry and blasphemy. The Devil tempted the characters in the two stories to commit both evil against one and another and evil against God. Adam and Eve committed evil against God by disobeying his orders and Eve committed evil against Adam by convincing him to eat the fruit. In Lord of the Flies the boys committed evil against one another in numerous ways. They murdered Simon, Piggy, and attempted to kill Ralph.In the book, civilized behavior and morals represented God. They committed Evil against God/civilization by losing faith and worshipping symbols of their savagery (pig's head and beast). In the world today, evil against God is very frequently committed because in most people's eyes, it is not true evil. From the Connecticu t shooting to domestic abuse, in society today it seems as if people are carelessly making no effort to resist the devil's temptations to commit evil against one another.

Definitions of Justice in the Melian Dialogue

Amidst an interlude in the fierce struggle for power between the two dominant Greek poleis, Athens and Sparta, the Peloponnesian war, there was unrest. Despite the Peace of Nicias, belligerence between the two states did not cease, but rather took on a new face. While careful to remain within the parameters set several years before in the peace treaty, Athens moved cautiously, but aggressively in establishing alliances, albeit coerced, and strengthening its empire. It was at this juncture that it made its move toward securing the small, weak island-state of Melos, which in its neutral independence suggested danger to the Athenian empire.In a move not of fairness, but of survival, Athens offered the Melians an ultimatum: to be subjugated under Athenian rule as a colony, or be utterly destroyed. It is the Melian dialogue which follows and presents the presumed diplomatic debate between the two nations; the Melian people’s argument for their own neutrality, and the Athenian peopl e’s attempt to persuade them to submit. The issue which arises in light of the events at Melos remains to be whether it is the people of Melos’ views of justice which is correct, or if it is Athens’ definition which is truer.By examining each city-state’s contributions to the Melian dialogue, each respective interpretation becomes clear, enabling further judgement on the event’s outcome. The Athenians offer the Melians a choice in their own fate, both of which result in Athens’ domination; essentially, this boils down to the Athenian’s definition of justice lying in expediency for those in power. Not a question of fairness, for them, justice lies in survival, and that which results in the most certain preservation of both the subduer and the subdued is just, â€Å"†¦ t would involve your submitting before suffering the worst possible fate, and we would profit from not destroying you,† (Thuc, V, 91). For the Athenians, thei r own pursuit of power, and that which enables its acquisition, is paramount to survival, and as heirs to this mentality, they believe it only natural and therefore not reprehensible, â€Å"divinity†¦ and mankind†¦ are under an innate compulsion to rule wherever empowered. Without being either the ones who made this law or the first to apply it after it was laid down, we applied it as one in existence†¦ and one that will endure for all time,† (Thuc. V, 105). The Athenians see no injustice in doing simply as their nature impels them to do. In fact, the Athenians see their offer of subjugation to the Melian people as more than reasonable, â€Å"What we will demonstrate is that we are here to help our empire and that there is salvation for your city in what we are now about to say, since we hope to rule over you without trouble and let both parties benefit as you are saved,† (Thuc. , V, 91). Following their belief in doing what is necessary to strengthen th emselves, even at the expense of others, is what brings Athens to Melos.The Melians, contrarilly, see justice as grounded in fairness. They contend that action based in reason is the true definition of justice. â€Å"There is every advantage in your not destroying a universal benefit, but that at all times there be fairness and justice for those in danger,† (Thuc. ,V, 90). This belief in abstinence from aggression without cause is what defines the fundamental differences in the Athenian’s and the Melian’s philosophies. As a neutral state, Melos remained impartial up until it was confronted by Athens, and it is this confrontation which violates the Melian definition of justice.Having not been harmed by the Melians, nor threatened, they had no right, in the Melian’s eyes, to act toward them with hostility. Desiring only to be left alone, the Melians wanted Athens to accept their neutrality and depart, â€Å"You would not tolerate our staying neutral, frien ds not enemies, but allies of neither side? † (Thuc. , V, 94). According to the Melian definition of justice, Athens has no reason or right to inflict any harm upon them, nor to coerce them into the loss of their independence.Having had no desire to take part in the war between Athens and Sparta, Melos’ conception of justice was disregarded as Athens imposed their own definition of justice upon the island-state, at which point, Melos was forced to fight. The results of Athenian’s view on justice are exemplified its being an empire state holding power over many and acting with aggression when the opportunity for greatness is before it. Holding justice to be that which benefits the strong, the building of an empire serves to allow the mother nation-state to collect monetary benefits and resources from those states which it dominates.This collection enables the powerful polis to become more so and then further its sphere of influence. Additionally, this definition o f justice permits an ambitious city-state to spread, conquering not only the states which stand in direct opposition, but also any that could serve as a barrier to reaching absolute greatness. The Melian’s definition of greatness, likewise, serves to explain its position as an isolationism island city-state. In order to act justly, in accordance with Melian belief, a nation-state must act with aggression only in instances where it is necessary for the safety and welfare of its citizens and only as defensive.Justice would require the respect of a peaceable state’s existence, and the humane treatment of all wartime participants. A just state could not openly provoke another state without cause, nor upset its independence. Ultimately, it was not only a question of justice which lead to the genocide at Melos, but also one of power. It was the Athenian’s drive for power, especially control over others, which lead to its provocation of the Melians, and in fact, their definition of justice nearly demanded it.Under the belief in that which served its own benefit as justice, Athens was spurred toward the indispensable pursuit of power, specifically power over the Melians. The Melian philosophy of neutrality and fairness is in direct opposition to this bellicose ideology. At its heart, the fundamentals of Melian justice conflict with the pursuit of power, i. e. , dominance over others and therefore with Athens, resulting in an insurmountable discrepancy over which their negotiations are futile to transcend.Though the Melian dialogue is a primarily fictional account of a conversation written by a former Athenian, it is clear that the definition of justice that is favored in Thucydides’ account is that of the Melians. Logical and noble, it is the Melian’s defenses of their own interests that wins out as the stronger, while leaving the Athenians’ assertions of justice sounding brutish, pessimistic, and altogether contrary to modern conceptions of justice. It is the Melian’s definition which wins out as truly virtuous and altruistic, exactly what justice should be.

African American Theatre 2 Essay

African American Theater started out, hundreds of years ago, as a foundation of amusement for the black community. The theater was a place where African Americans, equally men and women, could work, study, and perfect their expertise. The beginning of African American theater set in motion back in the 1830’s, and it eventually became one of America’s most prevalent sources of entertainment Over the course of over one and a half decades, there has been an apparent transformation within the dominion of African American theater. For example, African Americans have prevailed over the intense burden of subjugation in forms such as political affairs, comfortable residency and most significantly, equal human rights. One of the most apparent leisure pursuits that were in remission from African-Americans came in the appearance of the performing arts, more particularly film. During this time, the society in general would not permit, for example, blacks to drink from the same water fountain, so to share the same onstage experiences or television effects was, without a doubt, not even simply prohibited but unheard of. However, as time went by, the potency of the hopeful African American actors and actresses weighed down the greater part of the general society, and society ceased being able to keep African Americans from appearing on stage and on television. For the longest time, the stage became and stayed the only way for African Americans to communicate the deep sorrow and oppression that the society, particularly the white population, had placed in front of them. Through acting, in addition to both singing and dancing, African Americans were able to, mentally and spiritually, go to a place that no tormenter could find them. With this new form of communication, African Americans found a new method of endurance, and acting was the fundamental technique. Even though the African American actors and actresses were forced to take the road of continued existence in the theater to gain self contentment, it was, as an understatement, not unproblematic. For the longest moments in time, African American actors and actresses were not permitted to step foot on stage. However, black actors were instead ridiculed by Caucasian actors in what they called â€Å"black face. † Black face was a performance where white actors and actresses would literally conceal their faces with black paint and makeup, so as to imitate an African American actor. From this falsification of the hopeful actors, derogatory names such as Tom, Mulatto, Mammy, Coon, and Buck resulted. Similar to Black Face, there was what is called Minstrel Shows. Minstrel shows, which consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, ridiculed and made fun of African Americans in the most disapproving ways. According to these shows, black people were looked upon as ignorant, lazy, and unreasonable, but also cheerful and melodious. Broadway, which is the heart of theater for Americans, had been closed to blacks for more than a decade. However, this was only until the African American musical â€Å"Shuffle Along† turned out to be a runaway success, which some historians believe was the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. The first African American play to be produced on Broadway was â€Å"The Chip Woman’s Fortune† in 1923, written by Willis Richardson. In the year of 1959, Lorraine Hansberry, a famous playwright, became the first African American woman to have her play produced and performed on Broadway. Hansberry’s play, titled â€Å"A Raisin in the Sun,† became an outlet for a continual assembly of plays by African American playwrights who often brought their own individual occurrences in the great effort in opposition to racial discrimination to the theater plays that they produced. . By the revolving of this period, the minstrel show enjoyed but a shadow of its former popularity, having been replaced for the most part by vaudeville. It survived as professional entertainment until about 1910; amateur performances continued until the 1960s in high schools, fraternities, and local theaters. As blacks began to score legal and social victories against racism and to successfully assert political power, minstrelsy lost popularity. The typical minstrel performance followed a three-act structure. The troupe first danced onto stage then exchanged wisecracks and sang songs. The second part featured a variety of entertainments, including the pun-filled stump speech. The final act consisted of a slapstick musical plantation skit or a send-up of a popular play. Minstrel songs and sketches featured several stock characters, most popularly the slave and the dandy. These were further divided into sub-archetypes such as the mammy, her counterpart the old darky, the provocative mulatto wench, and the black soldier. Minstrels claimed that their songs and dances were authentically black, although the extent of the black influence remains debated. Spirituals (known as jubilees) entered the repertoire in the 1870s, marking the first undeniably black music to be used in minstrelsy. Blackface minstrelsy was the first distinctly American theatrical form. In the 1830s and 1840s, it was at the core of the rise of an American music industry, and for several decades it provided the lens through which white America saw black America. On the one hand, it had strong racist aspects; on the other, it afforded white Americans a singular and broad awareness of significant aspects of African American culture.