Dr. Martin Luther King s I Have A Dream Essay - 1331 Words

Dr. Martin Luther King’s â€Å"I have a dream† speech in 1963 emphasized the idea that the founding of the United States entailed a promise of equality for all citizens. This, of course, would have been a very important idea in the mind of Dr. King and his followers as they sought to end racism in the United States, and gain civil liberties for blacks across the nation. Although that movement was turning point regarding civil liberties and racism in the United States, the work was certainly not finished. Since then, the battle for equality has continued and expanded to include much more than race. Today, the battle for equality encompasses race, gender, economic status, and many others. The writers of the Constitutional chose to include the belief that all men are created equal, and have rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Dr. King understood the founding of the United States, and therefore its Constitution, to be a promise of equality for all citizen s. The questions are, how well has this promise been met, and how will the Supreme Court today impact this process? In order to answer this question, it is paramount to analyze Supreme Court decisions and federal laws regarding constitutional principles, civil liberties and equality, and representation and citizen participation. These decisions and laws reveal that although the promise of equality for all citizens was not met well for many years, it has improved with time, and will continue to improve under theShow MoreRelatedDr. Martin Luther King Jr. s `` I Have A Dream?852 Words   |  4 PagesAccording to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s, â€Å"I Have a Dream† speech, Blacks were denied their equal rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness (I Have a Dream). The Emancipation Proclamation, written by Abraham Lincoln, supposedly freed all slaves but Blacks were still treated with disrespect. Blacks needed to have equal rights for many reasons. Blacks were mistreated, they were subjected to injustice and biased laws. Blacks were the â€Å"victims of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality†Read MoreDr. Martin Luther King s I Have A Dream Speech1696 Words   |  7 PagesDr. Martin Luther King’s â€Å"I Have a Dream† speech has served as inspiration to multiple generations in the 52 years since his words were spoken. Individuals and groups have rallied behind his message of equality and peace and quoted this speech countless times in an attempt to further Dr. King’s dream of bringing racial injustice to an end. In this speech, which was delivered as the culmination of the March for Jobs in 1962, Dr. King addressed nearly 250,000 people to bring awareness to the injusticesRead MoreObservations On The s I Have A Dream Speech By Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.881 Words   |  4 Pages5 years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his I Have a Dream Speech on the Washington Mall 47 years ago, and Mot her Teresa was born a century ago. Monday: Katrina; Tuesday: I Have a Dream; Today: Mother Teresa After spending a great deal of time on and devoting a good deal of space to the two previous subjects in this series on recent anniversaries, 2005 s devastating Hurricane Katrina and the world-changing 1963 I Have a Dream speech by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I had looked forwardRead MoreRhetorical Analysis Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. s I Have A Dream 1448 Words   |  6 Pagesmore influential words have been spoken than those uttered by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s, â€Å"I have a dream,† speech. Perhaps one of the most famous and paradigm shifting speeches in all of history, Dr. King’s was spoken with candor, authenticity, fervor, and an enormous amount of tact. With his incredible intelligence and eloquence as a doctorate in Theological Studies, his establishment as such a respected leader, and his fervor and charisma in delivering the speech, Dr. King effectively establishedRead MoreAnalysis of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s I Have A Dream Speech619 Words   |  3 Pages28, 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered one of the most famous speeches of all time to an audience of more than 200,000 civil rights supporters on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. In his, â€Å"I have a dream† speech, King addressed his encouragement of white and black people working together to achieve racial peace and harmony. He especially wanted to teach the young blacks that equality could be gained through the use of non-violence. The main reason King used nonviolenceRead MoreRhetorical Analysis of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.s I Have A Dream Speech915 Words   |  4 Pages Dr. Martin Luther King delivered his I Have a Dream speech to the thousands of African Americans who had marched on Washington, D.C. at the height of the Civil Rights Movement. The date of the speech was August 28, 1963, but it is one that will live for generations. Of course his purpose was to convince his audience on several fronts: he sought to persuade the black community to stand up for the rights afforded them under the Constitution, and he also sought to Read Moreâ€Å"a Comparison of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’S ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech and ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’†.1444 Words   |  6 Pagesâ€Å"A Comparison of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech and ‘Letter from a Birmingham Jail’†. 9% Similarity Born in Atlanta Georgia in 1929, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., conceivably lived as one of the greatest social and religious leaders in a country where a group of its citizens had to endure excruciating conditions of disenfranchisement, inferiority and degradation of a second class citizenship by reasons of race, color or origin. In effort to condemn allRead MoreAnalysis Of Martin Luther King Jr s I Have A Dream Speech1480 Words   |  6 PagesRights Movement, Martin Luther King Jr s I Have A Dream speech was broadcasted across the nation and heard by millions of Americans on August 28, 1963. Throughout the decades, many have promoted the importance of racial equality in America. Leaders such as William J. Clinton, Barack Obama, and George W. Bush have contributed to modern social movements by, doing as Dr. King himself, giving speeches to varying audiences concerning the issue of racial inequality. Above all, Martin Luther King Jr made theRead MoreEssay on The Life of Martin Luther King Jr.1244 Words   |  5 Pagesworld. Martin Luther King, Jr. was born to Alberta and Martin Luther King. Alberta Williams King was born September 13, 1904 in Atlanta, Georgia. Martin Luther King, Sr. was born December 19, 1899 in Stockbridge, Georgia. Martins dad was a pastor at the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. His mother was a school teacher. His siblings were Christine King Farris born September 11, 1927, and Alfred Daniel Williams King born July 30, 1930. Martin was the middle child. Martin Luther KingRead MoreDifferences Between Martin Luther King and Malcolm X Essay805 Words   |  4 PagesDuring the 1960’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X represented two sides of the Civil Rights Movement. Speaking to all of humanity, Dr. King made these famous peaceful words, â€Å"I have a dream, a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: â€Å"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal† (King, 1963, para 10). Malcolm X spoke of a violent revolution by claiming, â€Å"If it’s necessary to form a Black Nationalist army, we’ll

Descartes Philosophy On Method And Meditations On First...

Countless philosophers show a way of clarifying what is real and what life is meant to be. Philosophers are typically all different, but follow a similar policy by trying to use all of their mind and prove their points. Many philosophers were different from Rene Descartes, Descartes had an opinion that if he could somehow disregard everything that he knew was real, try to doubt it and it would help him in life; â€Å"I will be happy to show in this discourse what paths I have followed and to represent my life† . In his book, Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes explains that his way of thinking is the best â€Å"no better proofs can be found than mine† , this shows that Descartes was really confident in his works and his accomplishments. Descartes controlled his mind even though he knew his mind was real, he believed that other things could not be certain, except his own mind, because that is what he used to doubt all other things. Descarte s knew how to catch the eye of the reader while he was introducing an argument. He would start of by giving the reader an idea or telling a story to help guide his audience throughout the introduction of a new argument. On part three of his book, Descartes brings in his opinions of the morals and maxims. â€Å"And finally, just as it is not enough, before beginning to rebuild the house where one is living, simply to pull it down† . This introduction goes on to talk about the architectural idea of building a house. TheShow MoreRelated The Folly of Renà © Descartes’ Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy1462 Words   |  6 PagesThe Folly of Renà © Descartes’ Discourse on Method and Meditations on First Philosophy In order to embark on his quest for truth, Descartes first devises his four rules which should serve as a solid foundation for all else that he comes to understand. Those rules are here evaluated in terms of what they fail to take into consideration. The rules are examined individually and consecutively, and are therefore also reiterated in order to be clear about them. Furthermore, the approach of usingRead MoreEssay Rene Descartess View on God1300 Words   |  6 Pagesseventeenth century?   Well, in the seventeenth century, there was a man, named Rene Descartes, who was interested in God and wondered about His existence.   After an unforgettable night in November 10, 1619, his interest in God became stronger, and had developed many views that concerned or were about God. When he expressed his investigations of applying inductive methods of science and mathematics to philosophy by the Cogito ero sum (I think, therefore I am), he started to argue the existenceRead MoreDescar tes Six Meditations on First Philosophy Essay1347 Words   |  6 PagesThroughout the six meditations on First Philosophy, French philosopher Rene Descartes seeks to find a concrete foundation for the basis of science, one which he states can only include certain and unquestionable beliefs. Anything less concrete, he argues will be exposed to the external world and to opposition by philosophical sceptics. The sense of the Cartesian reform is the imposition of a new method of thinking. Descartes’ method to begin with is reductive, removing all knowledge acquired withoutRead MoreAnalysis Of Rene Descartes s Meditations On First Philosophy 1399 Words   |  6 PagesPhilosophy Essay 1 Rene Descartes was born in in La Haye, France, in 1596 and he studied at La Fleche Jesuit College and University of Poitiers. Descartes also lived in Germany, Holland and Sweden. He then worked in the army as a private councillor and then as a court philosopher. Descartes book ‘Meditations on First Philosophy’ was first published in 1641. The edition used to write this essay was edited by John Cottingham and was published by the Cambridge University Press in 1996. Descartes wasRead MoreThe Life of Rene’ Descartes: His Works and His Beliefs in God1578 Words   |  7 PagesWas Rene’ Descartes just a visionary of truth, mathematical equations or was he truly a man that knew he was born to tell the world about life, knowledge, and how it all came together metaphorically? Please see the research on Rene’ Descartes cited accomplishments. Descartes was known as the first modern philosopher. Famous for making a connection between geometry and algebra, which allowed for solving of geometrical problem by way of algebraic equations, which promoted a new conception of matterRead MoreThe Allegory Of The Cave By Plato And Rene Descartes1241 Words   |  5 PagesWhat is Philosophy? Well, by conventional definition, Philosophy is the rational investigation of the truths and principles of being, knowledge, or conduct. This, while providing a contextual definition of the word philosophy, just scratches the surface of its actual meaning. In this essay we will attempt to answer â€Å"What is Philosophy?† by discussing the works of Plato and Rene Descartes. First, we begin by summarizing and comparing the theme of their works for similarities so as to better formRead More Weaknesses of Descartes Arguments Essays1641 Words   |  7 PagesDescartes was incorrect and made mistakes in his philosophical analysis concerning u nderstanding the Soul and the foundation of knowledge.   Yes, he coined the famous phrase, â€Å"I think therefore I am,† but the rest of his philosophical conclusions fail to be as solid (Meditation 4; 32). Descartes knew that if he has a mind and is thinking thoughts then he must be something that has the ability to think. While he did prove that he is a thinking thing that thinks (Meditation 3; 28), he was unable toRead MoreMeditations on First Philosophy Essay examples1290 Words   |  6 Pagesstimulated a renaissance in the field of philosophy, creating modern Western philosophy as is known today. This important notion was dictated by Rene Descartes in his 1641 metaphysics work, Mediations on First Philosophy, and influenced all modern philosophical works written after Descartes revolutionary achievement. This work was written at a time when modern physics was being developed as a mathematization of nature. The principles of metaphysics contain in Meditations were d eveloped in order to serveRead MoreDescartes s Meditations On First Philosophy986 Words   |  4 Pagesinwards, or as Renà © Descartes would call it, meditation. These ‘meditations’ are moments of reflection, time spent with one’s thoughts, and time to figure out where one is placed within the world. During one of these meditations, Descartes creates the phrase, â€Å"cogito ergo sum†, I think, therefore I am, in his monumental book, Principles of Philosophy, though it was written in another form earlier, â€Å"ego sum, ego existo†, I am, I exist, in his book Meditations on First Philosophy. This phrase, put soRead MoreDescartes Meditations On First Philosophy1536 Words   |  7 Pagesdid I formerly think I was? A man, of course. But what is a man?† (Descartes 340). This question that Descartes addresses in Meditations on First Philosophy is important because it outlines his core philosophical view in his work. His philosophy primarily foc uses on dualism, which is the concept that there is another world that exists with ideal forms and is separate from the world of perception. The part of dualism that Descartes focuses his work on is the distinction between the soul and the body

Haitian Revolution Free Essays

Rationale The researcher chose to investigate this topic because she is solely interested I finding out why Haiti’s socio-economic structure deteriorated after the Haitian Revolution ended in 1804. It has always been the curiosity of the researcher to discover Haiti’s state prior to this major revolt and also to find out the factors which caused the socio-economic break down of the colony. This research seeks to educate the researcher and whoever may read it in an effort to broaden their knowledge on Haiti’s socio-economic structure and why it is the way it is. We will write a custom essay sample on Haitian Revolution or any similar topic only for you Order Now Introduction The Haitian Revolution was a strategy used by African slaves in Haiti to resist slavery. In the 18th century, Haiti was the richest colony in the entire Caribbean and was the largest market of cane sugar. They accounted for half the sugar used in the Americas and Europe; they also produced cotton, coffee and indigo which were also used in developing France socially and economically. Even though Haiti was very successful in its own and France’s economical endeavours, the strategy used was somewhat detriment as they applied brutal measures to the enslaved who worked on their plantations. According to Liberties Lost: Caribbean Indigenous Societies and Slave Systems written by Hilary McD Beckles and Verene A. Shepherd, it was the background of the civil war between the free mixed race and French communities and their mutual opposition to French domination, that those enslaved on the 22nd of August 1791, launched the greatest revolt for freedom from slavery ever known. Due to the revolt that lasted for thirteen long years, there was mass destruction in property, plantations and loss of many lives. These resulted in the break down of the socio-economic structure and further more the economy. This research will address the socio-economic state of Haiti or previously known as ‘St. Domingue’ prior to the revolt and the factors that contributed to the deterioration of its socio-economic break down which will be used to prove that it was the Haitian Revolution that destroyed the  French colony. How to cite Haitian Revolution, Papers Haitian Revolution Free Essays Rationale The researcher chose to investigate this topic because she is solely interested I finding out why Haiti’s socio-economic structure deteriorated after the Haitian Revolution ended in 1804. It has always been the curiosity of the researcher to discover Haiti’s state prior to this major revolt and also to find out the factors which caused the socio-economic break down of the colony. This research seeks to educate the researcher and whoever may read it in an effort to broaden their knowledge on Haiti’s socio-economic structure and why it is the way it is. We will write a custom essay sample on Haitian Revolution or any similar topic only for you Order Now Introduction The Haitian Revolution was a strategy used by African slaves in Haiti to resist slavery. In the 18th century, Haiti was the richest colony in the entire Caribbean and was the largest market of cane sugar. They accounted for half the sugar used in the Americas and Europe; they also produced cotton, coffee and indigo which were also used in developing France socially and economically. Even though Haiti was very successful in its own and France’s economical endeavours, the strategy used was somewhat detriment as they applied brutal measures to the enslaved who worked on their plantations. According to Liberties Lost: Caribbean Indigenous Societies and Slave Systems written by Hilary McD Beckles and Verene A. Shepherd, it was the background of the civil war between the free mixed race and French communities and their mutual opposition to French domination, that those enslaved on the 22nd of August 1791, launched the greatest revolt for freedom from slavery ever known. Due to the revolt that lasted for thirteen long years, there was mass destruction in property, plantations and loss of many lives. These resulted in the break down of the socio-economic structure and further more the economy. This research will address the socio-economic state of Haiti or previously known as ‘St. Domingue’ prior to the revolt and the factors that contributed to the deterioration of its socio-economic break down which will be used to prove that it was the Haitian Revolution that destroyed the French colony. The Effects of the Haitian Revolution after it ended in 1804 How to cite Haitian Revolution, Papers

Development of Entrepreneurial Decision Making

Question: Describe about The Development of Entrepreneurial Decision Making? Answer: Importance of Market Reputation: Over the timeframe, consumer behavior has been governed by peer-generated positive as well as negative reviews, ratings, and word-of-mouth recommendation. Consideration of market reputation gives an idea on Company Client Confidentiality and explains how the company has respected the privacy of its client's business as well as any information regarding its employee base (Jain, 2015). In this context, it is also true that any other fact that the client shares with the Company are of a confidential nature. According to Shaw (2013), the maintenance of customer privacy is an ethical practice which should be considered by all Companies if they wish to improve and succeed. The only way in which a business can flourish is if the clients can secure the buoyancy of the Company and its owner. The nature of todays business demonstrates that company keeps a database of some information about its employees. This information can be in the form of bank details, personal information or any other relevant data. Therefore, sharing such information just to attain revenue affects the ethical principle of doing business. My thoughts: To better understand this situation, if the scenario of Yelp is taken into consideration, then it can be seen that they gave out the personal information about its customers, to other business organization just to earn revenue. This process was done to lure new customers to purchase shares of the Company at a high value. This act was criticized heavily, and such actions might result in the violation of business ethics. Legal proceedings can also be instituted against him in the form of a Breach of a Confidentiality clause. Therefore, as per my opinion, every business owner has to be aware that he cannot divulge in the personal, financial or any other information of his clients to any source outside (YouTube, 2016). While building up review is not illegal, forcing businesses to use their services by threatening to ruin the reputation of the company is neither ethical nor intelligent. Doing business ethically acts as the key while taking about long-term sustainability. From that point of view, it can be said that Yelp is losing its consumer base because of the bad name earned due to bullying. This paints a picture of contradiction. To strike a good note, Yelp should change its business tactic and policy. References Jain, R. (2015). The Development of Entrepreneurial Decision Making: The Effect of Feedback and Gender on Risk Taking, Confidence and Decision Making. Shaw, W. (2016).Business ethics: A textbook with cases. Cengage Learning. YouTube,. (2016).Billion Dollar Bully Trailer. Retrieved 26 February 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2dkJctUDIs

A Jury of Her Peers Speaks Volumes Above Trifles

A Jury of Her Peers Speaks Volumes Above Trifles Free Online Research Papers â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† Speaks Volumes Above â€Å"Trifles† While Susan Glaspell’s drama â€Å"Trifles† uses actors to vocalize the many emotions of the story of the investigation of Minnie Wright, her short story â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† makes the emotions very clear without making a sound. Susan Glaspell’s short story â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† makes the reader feel the emotions evoked by Minnie Wright’s story much deeper than her drama version of the same story, â€Å"Trifles†. Glaspell uses basically the same dialogue and action in both works but she is able to elicit much stronger feelings in her short story by including descriptive passages to accompany the dialogue in her narration. These passages evoke intense feelings from the characters and introduce new emotions. The introduction of new feelings gives the story a more passionate impact on the reader and more emotional depth. The emotional depth of â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† allows the characters sentiments to be felt by the reader more easily than the sentiments conveyed by the drama â€Å"Trifles†. The intensity and range of emotions created by Glaspell’s use of narration makes the emotional impact of â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† grea ter than that of â€Å"Trifles†. In â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† and â€Å"Trifles†, the characters’ emotions are not only stated in the dialogue but are also expressed through their actions. The narration in â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† makes these emotions more vivid by exaggerating the characters’ actions which places more emphasis on the feelings that provoked the action. In â€Å"Trifles†, the passage â€Å"We don’t know who killed him. We don’t know.† is delivered by Mrs. Peters â€Å"With rising voice† (Speech 130). But in â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers†, Glaspell has Mrs. Peters whisper the same passage â€Å"wildly† as if she is frantic to believe Minnie is innocent (182). Both passages use the same words, but the passage from â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† has a stronger emotional impact simply because of the exaggerated expression of Mrs. Peters in the descriptive narration of the story. The use of exaggerated actions makes the emotions of characters such as Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale seem more real to the reader and prompts the reader to experience exact emotions. Glaspell introduces precise wording into her short story version to bring out specific feelings from her characters. In â€Å"Trifles†, Minnie’s skirt is scrutinized by Mrs. Hale while in â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† Mrs. Hale handles Minnie’s â€Å"shabby black skirt† with â€Å"carefulness† (Glaspell 178). By introducing more descriptive text, Glaspell makes Mrs. Hale’s compassion for Minnie evident to the reader. Glaspell’s new descriptive text in her short story empowers the characters with a broader range of emotions and this entices the reader to relate with the characters on a more personal level. As well as giving more impact to the characters emotions and introducing some new sentiments, Glaspell also uses new passages of text to describe the setting of the story. New passages of text included in â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† allow Glaspell to have more emotional impact on the reader by describing the setting of the story for the reader. In â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers†, the setting of the story is established by Glaspell before the characters ever enter the farmhouse. Glaspell’s initial description of the farmhouse is described with Mrs. Hale’s thought â€Å"it looked very lonesome† as the party of characters approach the house (â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers†, 172). This foreshadows the loneliness of Minnie’s existence. In â€Å"Trifles†, Glaspell describes the setting as an â€Å"abandoned farmhouse of John Wright, a gloomy kitchen† at the beginning of the play (1291). While this does tell the reader something abo ut the setting, it does not evoke emotion as well as the narration in â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers†. The fact that Glaspell describes the setting well enough for the reader to envision the scene in his mind gives her short story version the ability to leave a more poignant impression on the reader. This ability makes â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† more successful at conveying the emotions of the characters and the reasons for the characters actions to the reader than â€Å"Trifles†. While Susan Glaspell’s drama â€Å"Trifles† is a great work of drama, her short story â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† leaves the reader with a greater degree of emotional involvement. Her use of description and narration brings the characters emotions and actions to life in the reader’s imagination. The use of precise wording in the text elicits from the reader specific emotions that are conveyed by the characters and settings. Glaspell’s use of basically the same dialogue and setting in both works makes the story familiar to the reader, but the emotions of the characters are explored more fully by the author in â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers†. Glaspell’s exploration of the character’s emotions and actions and the setting of the story is highly effective at impacting the reader more fully in the short story version. This effectiveness gives â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† the advantage of greater emotional impact than its predecesso r â€Å"Trifles†. Roberts, Edgar V. and Henry E. Jacobs, eds. Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 2007. Glaspell, Susan. â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers.† Roberts and Jacobs 172-84. . â€Å"Trifles.† Roberts and Jacobs 1291-1300. Research Papers on â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† Speaks Volumes Above â€Å"Trifles†Mind TravelThe Masque of the Red Death Room meaningsHonest Iagos Truth through DeceptionTrailblazing by Eric AndersonComparison: Letter from Birmingham and CritoHarry Potter and the Deathly Hallows EssayThe Fifth HorsemanThree Concepts of PsychodynamicBook Review on The Autobiography of Malcolm XRelationship between Media Coverage and Social and

History of Somalia

History of Somalia Somalia has had no central government since after the Civil War in 1991. Only the internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government controls a small part of the country.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on History of Somalia specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In the late 19th century, during the years of the European scramble for Africa, Somalia officially the Republic of Somalia and formerly known as the Somali Democratic Republic, located in the Horn of Africa was colonized by four countries, namely Italy, Great Britain and France, and Ethiopia. The colonizers divided it into five parts. Two of the parts in 1960 united to form what is now Somali Republic. The other two remained under Ethiopian and Kenyan rule. The fifth part, the Republic of Djibouti was recognized as an independent state. Break from the colonial York Somalia’s reaction to the rule of the colonial powers was led by religious leaders whi ch had been suppressed by 1925 either through eliminating or neutralizing their leaders. As a country it has been characterized as a failed state and is one of the poorest and the most violent states in the world (Said). As a start to the long process of creating elites, colonial powers endeavoured to employ more Somalis in the lower echelons of the colonial civil and military labour force, and opened limited schools, in which children of the traditional elite were given priority and privilege. In the Second World War, most of the Somali territory fell under British military administration who proposed, in the four power’s conference (USA, British, USSR, and France) held in 1946, to put all territory under British administration† (Said). Whatever the real intent of the British plan for Somali unity was; it was hailed by people of Somalia and strengthened their aspirations for unity. However, this proposal was utterly repudiated by the United States, France and Soviet Un ion for a variety of reasons including a strong Ethiopian lobbying at the US administration. Ethiopia, according to this plan, would have lost the Somali’s territory it had captured during 19th century. As a result, in 1949, the former Italian colony was retuned to Italy under UN trusteeship. After 10 years and with support to Somalia from Egypt, in a haphazard way, the Somali Republic gained independence on the 1st of July 1960 (Aidid and Satya; Drysdale).Advertising Looking for essay on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The year 1969 is the first milestone towards the failing of the Somali state. The earlier years of multiparty system and democratic culture were flawed and elections were rigged with all means possible. More than 60 parties which were sub-clan based took part in the 1969 elections. However, the ruling party of SYL rigged the election and received a majority of the seats. Over and ab ove this, in order to claim one party rule, SYL absorbed all members of the parliament from the opposition parties. Therefore, the nationalist SYL party of the earlier years of struggle for independence, domesticated by colonial powers in the years of 1950 till 1960, had drifted towards one party dictatorial rule in 1969. Consequently, grievances of overt rigging of the election, rampant bureaucratic corruption, and widespread unemployment especially among the educated elite that dismayed with the lukewarm illegal government policy towards pan- somalism, had culminated in the political turmoil and the assassination of president Sharmarke. During this period, the prestigious national army launched a coup detat on 21 October 1969 and received enthusiastic support from the majority of the disgruntled Somali people. It was not long before the new regime curtailed freedoms and banned all social and political organizations, exercised heavy-handedness on the opposition and practiced extra judicial detentions and persecution. The regime adopted a new covert policy of targeting particularly specific clans and offering particular privileges to others under the pretext of promoting revolutionaries and eliminating anti-revolutionary elements. Needlessly to say, the latter developed into armed rebel factions. With the execution of the Islamic scholars, hitherto dormant Islamic movements took on new momentum and underground organizations proliferated in every region in defence of the faith against the â€Å"Godless socialists† (Adam). From this historical moment, contemporary Islamic movements formulated their ideological foundation and launched social reformist programs. Gradually, these two forces, stemming from the indigenous ideologies of clanism and Islamism, united in their ardent desire for regime change but disagreed on the means. Apparently, the military regime clashed with these two indigenous inviolable Somali ideologies, clanism and Islam, creating a crac k in the fabric, cohesion and solidarity of Somali society (Adam).Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on History of Somalia specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The coup plotters who fled had begun to form armed oppositions and received a welcoming hand from the hostile neighbours, particularly Ethiopia. Fleeing to Ethiopia the coup plotters came back with no coordination to take over power from the nationalists. â€Å"The motor forces of Somali clannish particularism overwhelmed the centripetal forces of nationalism and Islam† (Alisha). When President Mohammed Said Barre was forced to take refuge in 1991, and the Somali state fundamentally was no longer in existence, and became characterized by the almost total absence of any coordinated governmental authority. Since that time, there have been at least fifteen attempts to establish a government in Somalia, all unsuccessful. Similarly, since the collapse of the Somali army in 1991, there has been no meaningful security of any kind, with virtually every attempt being undermined by opposition groups, who essentially turned soldiers into domestic mercenaries. The lack of designated policing authorities has created an ongoing security vacuum. This has encouraged the clan violence and anarchy that make Somalia a global poster child for a failed state. â€Å"During the decade which followed, some European and Asian countries took advantage of the chaos in Somalia and sent their commercial fleets to fish in Somali waters,† says Adam, Hussien (99). He adds by saying, â€Å"Roger Middleton has argued that what began as a legitimate fight by Somali fishermen against foreign exploitation has turned into a criminal enterprise once its lucrative potential was discovered.† The current Somali government has a facade of a working cabinet but is supported by no real departments, no civil servants in staff positions, and perhaps most importantly, has an almost total lack of funds. Also missing are any of the services that working governmental departments would provide. Corruption and criminality are defining characteristics of Somali governments. Given Somalia‘s lack of central government, there exist small fiefdoms whose rulers are always subject to change and which are inherently unstable. The current Transitional Federal Government is an Islamist regime led by President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who was elected by the Transitional Federal Government in January 2009. His power nominally extends no farther than the capital city of Mogadishu, and even within these confines there are multiple groups who compete politically and militarily for neighbourhoods and even particular streets.Advertising Looking for essay on government? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More â€Å"The effort to control Mogadishu is heightened by its status as a port, which affords those who control it considerable financial opportunities. One radical group known as The Islamic Courts Union was pushed out of Mogadishu in 2006 by Ethiopian soldiers who supported the Transitional Federal Government, and in coordination with the military wing known as al-Shabab, assumed control from the Transitional Federal Government over central and southern Somalia. The Transitional Federal Government is now completely disconnected from central Somalia. Irrespective of ICU control, they do not hold the support of those Somalis living in these regions. The use of Sharia law and their continuing insurgent conduct have actually created greater alienation from the local population† (Adam). The lack of a central government, and continued internal strife, has facilitated external intervention, which in turn has made the domestic conflict even worse. On December 28, 2006, Ethiopian troop s captured Mogadishu from the ICU. This intervention led to more chaos and instability in the country, with humanitarian, political, and security conditions continuing to deteriorate across south-central Somalia (Alisha). Somaliland claims independence as a sovereign nation known as the Republic of Somaliland, but has no international recognition. Puntland remains part of greater Somalia, but generally administers its own affairs through its own military and government. The two have fought for years over the Sool and Sanag regions, part of which Puntland exists on an ethnic basis, while Somaliland says they are part of its territory under the colonial border Britain left behind. Somalilands capital‘ city of Hargeysa has a government which has a legislative branch, a police force, a currency and even their own passports, along with a Constitution that it ratified in 2001. The dependence of Somaliland on the Port of Berbera for revenue greatly undermines its claim for sovereign status. Since there is virtually no recognition of Somaliland as an independent state outside the region, no foreign aid or benefits of any kind are available. There is no law and order of any kind in Somalia due to the lack of a central government, along with extreme poverty. As a result, criminal activity is rampant throughout the country. Some engage in criminal behaviour for basic survival, while others have created what amounts to a professional criminal enterprise. Those who participate in criminal activities are more apt to resist any efforts to establish a safe and stable Somalia, as it does not serve their long-term interests. Perspectives on Somali State Collapse Collapse of Somali state can be looked at from different perspectives in accordance to schools of thought. The issues looked at in this paper include Cold War and foreign aid, Somali irredentism and war with Ethiopia, primordialism, moral degradation and eclectic factors. Cold War and Foreign Aid The Somali state collapsed with the withdrawal of external assistance and increased local demand for improved political goods. Drysdale, John quoted that, â€Å"When external support was withdrawn and societal demand for economic advancement and better governance increased it tumbled down†. Other than the withdrawal effect it is bearing the triple burden of defeat in the war and accompanying humiliation, an economy on the skids and the burden of the absence of super power patronage, Somali politics turns inward. The national focus turned into the regime and the state, which were caught in an enveloping atmosphere of acridity and suspension. Somali Irredentism and War with Ethiopia Somalia’s national aspiration for unity and its neighbor’s unwillingness to cede the disputed territory due to different views of the state-territorial versus cultural led to state collapse. â€Å"Somalia’s arguments under the principle of greater Somalia were sharply contrasted to Ethiopia, Ke nya and Djibouti’s insistence on the principle of territorial integrity and sanctity of colonial border, principles these states were prepared to defend by force if necessary,† Drysdale, John (55). Siyads demise and the disintegration of the Somali state were therefore, not only a consequence of clan politics but are attributable in part to Somalias irredentist foreign policy. Other recognized factors are border permeability with countries that hosted the growing number of Siyad Barre’s opponents. Primordialism This traditionalist approach is based on the segmentary lineage social system that is antithetical to the nature of the state. The collapse of the colonially created state represents technically a triumph for the segmentary lineage system and political power of kinship. Somalia is a country of clans where the beginnings of a modern State have been only in the making in the midst of capricious forces of history within the context of a unitary capitalist ord er and yet politically compartmentalized system. Ideally, the utter destruction of pre-capitalist devolvement in the form of decentralization and traditions which are primordial in Somalia and the concomitant convergence of basic institutions around market exchange of historic necessity in order for the Somali State to complete its evolution Moral Degradation This concept is widely held by Somali Islamic scholars who trace all of the socio-political non-conformity of the Somali state to its secular factor, moral deterioration and the unscrupulous expediency of the leadership elites. However, very recently others have appeared to voice the cultural dimension of the state’s collapse. For example, Ahmed Samatar wrote â€Å"It is one of later arguments that at the heart of the Somali catastrophe is a full breakdown of culture (e.g., heer, Islam)† (Said). Abdullahi, explains how the indigenous ideologies – Islam and clan- were suppressed and perverted, became radical ized in the late 1970s. Therefore, he concludes that â€Å"Only Islam possesses the essential ingredients for successfully integrating the various elements of Somali society and providing stable government capable of meeting the urgent social, political and economic needs of the country†. Eclectic factors Alisha says, â€Å"To focus solely on the contradictions between a foreign imposed colonial system of government and an indigenous political system would be to overlook the impact of the oppressive, corrupt and violent system of political patronage that marked the 21 year military rule of Mohamed Siad Barre (1969-1991), the influence of Cold War and post-Cold War politics in the region, the impact of structural adjustment and economic liberalization policies in the 1980s and the character of the armed movements in Somalia,† (99). Somalia civil war is the product of the togetherness of contingent and proximate factors. In the case of the former, the factors are the evo lution of the Somali state, its incorporation into the global capitalist system, and the failure of the first experiment at state-building by the Somali compradors, who assumed the reigns of power when â€Å"flag independence† was granted. The latter factors are the repression, exploitation, economic deprivation, social unease, and manipulation of identities which are primordial in nature visited on Somalia by the dictatorial regime of General Mohammed Siad Barre. Steps involved in the movement to a democratic state â€Å"Most critical of Somalia reconstruction is the political rehabilitation. Divergent views are held are on how to reconstitute the Somalia state†. Alisha (100). â€Å"Some prepositions are that state reconstitution should take its own track, in the revived hope that new state (or states) structures will emerge from the civil society once hostilities end† Adam, Hussien. This research paper observes that in order for reconstruction to occur the fol lowing are necessary to be achieved. Provision and delivery of security throughout the country must be possible before a peace process can truly become a rebuilding Endeavour. Infrastructure had to be made secure in order to ensure users were not harmed. This was made possible with the help of even peacekeepers Disarmament and demobilizing the combatants was one of the major factors to bringing peace. War participants should be indulged in other activities that are not violence related or they can also be issued with pieces of land that the can adequately use to the benefit of the community, thus making them acceptable to the society. This is a step that was unfortunately omitted in Somalia in 1993. Partial restoration of stability and confidence is a requirement for lasting peace. Order and the right rule are key factors to a transitional rule in the republic of Somalia, without which the environment would not be favorable running of a smooth government. Transitional administratio n and international agencies can once this is in order – â€Å"focus on four primary and parallel objectives: jump-starting the economy, restoring the rule of law, re-creating political institutions, and rejuvenating civil society† (Said). Restoration of law and order is necessary for transitional administration to function towards ensuring an atmosphere conducive to recovery. â€Å"A new introduction of the rule of law can be done in stages, over the course of time, but nationals will not support reconstruction efforts until they are certain that legal redress will be available,† Adam, Hussien (104). He also adds by saying, â€Å"Training or retraining of police personnel, judges, bureaucrats, and parliamentarians for reconstruction and democratization of the failed state. The state’s defense forces will have to be arranged in a new way and their chiefs reoriented. Strong local leadership cannot be assumed but must be nurtured and strengthened.† (Adam, Hussien, 110). Sustainable state rebuilding will require a promise of commitment from the rich nations to stick with the newly formed functional state. They should partner to support rebuilding and stick around through the tough work of till completion. Formation of institution will require outside state help since they were mutilated and destroyed in the collapse period. Conclusion In conclusion we could say that Somalia has had several attempts to reconstruct its government but all this has been in vain. Despite the intervention of other organizations such as the UN who have imposed sanctions in order to have help it has still failed to reconstruct its government. Although Somalia still suffers, there are progressive activities all over the world that have been put in place in order to help Somaliland regain the peace and have a government system that will unite its citizen and ensure they live in peace with each other. Adam, Hussien. Militarism, Warlodism or Democracy? R eview of African Political Economy 54.Surviving Democracy? (1992): 11-26. Aidid, Mohammed Farah, and Pal Ruhela Satya. Somalia: From The Dawn of Civilization To The Modern Times. India: Vikas Publishing House PVT LTD, 1993. Alisha. Somali Government, The Somali Peninsula: New Light on Imperial Motives. London: Staples Printers, 1962. Drysdale, John. The Somali Dispute. New York: Praeger, 1964. Said, S. Somalia Country Studies: Federal Research Division of Library of Congress.

Database Management Systems Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Database Management Systems - Lab Report Example All the users of the system must be satisfied. It is, therefore, important that the underlying database, which is the core data source and storage, meet all the needs. This project aims to implement a possible underlying database for a General Practice. A General Practice is a people centered environment, thus details of people is important for any form of operations to be undertaken. Patients trickle in and are admitted while doctors treat patients and prescribe medicines. Patients can also be referred to other health institutions it sent to the laboratory for medical tests. All these activities have to be recorded somewhere, and in such a way that the records reflect on these important activities. Additionally, doctors and other health workers need this data to perform even basic tasks such as appointment and referrals. Diagnosis can also be made with the aid of a repository of possible diseases, which the doctor can use to decide on the next course of action. This system will use a database known as GP for General Practice. We begin by identifying the main entities of the system. These are the the most obvious entities that will reflect on the database in its first normal. More entities can be derived from these so as to enable a normalized database when translating it to its physical schema. For this project, we used MySQL Workbench Community Edition for the modeling as well as the physical design. The UML diagrams and SQL code in this report have been directly extracted from MySQL Workbench CE. Connection to the database was through the WampServer, which additionally holds the final database. The tables are written in Standard Query Language (SQL). Therefore, any code in this paper will be in this language. The patient is a nonfunctional entity within this system, but it the most important data source since all operations are

Latin american and the global economic#1 Assignment

Latin american and the global economic#1 - Assignment Example During war, for instance, local wars, there are usually major causalities to the population while the government, on the other hand, fights hard to contain the situation. To do so, there is usually increased spending on both the government part and the citizens on basic commodities. This creates an increased demand into the economy with less supply. Thus for an open economy, there would be an influx of goods from a foreign market {Berman, Nicolas, Philippe and Thierry, 2012}. This will make the imports exceed exports hence creating unfavorable balance of trade. As a result, there will be current deficits that eventually will lower the value of the local currency. China has progressively growing technology and will be able to produce more units of television with time. More TV produced will make the sets to cheaper in the future. Production of vodka, on the other hand, will reduce significantly. Thus, china will have a comparative advantage over Russia {Berman, Nicolas, Philippe, and Thierry,2012}. Thus, Russia will have to spend more bottles of vodka if they are to acquire a single television set since the balance of trade does not favor them. China will also export more TVs to Russia than the number of bottles of vodka to them. Thus, this will make Yuan be of more value than the Russian currency. Rubbles would depreciate since the country would need more of it if they were to acquire Yuan to import TVs. i} when the fed lowers interest rates, commercial banks will be able to borrow more from the central bank. Thus, they will have excess credit to lend to the public. To attract more borrowers, they will have to charge low-interest rate. Thus, the interest rates will reduce in the market as a whole. Ii} lowering the interest rate will increase the amount of money into the economy. This will result in increased spending by the population leading to increased demand in the economy.

Managing Financial Resources in the health and Social Care Essay

Managing Financial Resources in the health and Social Care - Essay Example They will also provide residential support, transition program, visual therapy, special needs education etc for young people and children. This organization also has to manage its financial resources to provide such kind of services consistently. There are few principles of costing which significantly exist in the financial management. Care Tech Holdings PLC has to follow and apply such principles in their costing activities. If they are unable to reduce the cost or to control the cost then they never will face the financially healthy situation within the organization. For this reason they cannot take better initiatives in their activities and cannot help more adults and children. These principles are generally helping any organization to plan their activities in a systematic way. Break even analysis is one of the important principles among the costing method (Brayley and McLean, 2008). By applying this method the organization can get information that at which level the company meet all its costs and expenditure and started to earn profit for further investment or expansion of business. This is generally indicating a point at which the company can recover all its fixed and variable expenses. Minimum cost analysis is another principle to control the business activities. It is generally based on the assumption and prediction before starting a business or before starting any new financial year or before taking any kind of new initiative by the organization. What will be the minimum fixed and variable cost that has to be analyzed and how much revenue can be generated from those particular business activities that also have to be analyzed. If the revenue will be higher than the anticipated cost then the initiative will be granted. This method is generally used as a guideline to operate activities in an efficient way. If the mentioned company will follow these principles then it will never face any kind losses and always can maintain

Relationship Of Religion And Afghanistan Politics Essay

Relationship Of Religion And Afghanistan Politics Essay Historically, religion has a strong influence in every aspect of life, especially politics, in Afghanistan. The relationship between these two entities has been established for long time. The religion of Islam has been always integrated into the political and educational system of the country. Afghanistans constitution is derived from Islamic Sharia laws, which has combined religious and secular systems. The amalgamation of religion and politics in Afghanistan has caused decades of instability and in order to stabilize the country the politics and education system should be separated from the religion. We believe that Islam is the superior religion, and we appreciate the Islamic laws. However, religious leaders who are in the politics are misusing Islamic decrees. Therefore, it is not only defaming Islam, but also creating misunderstanding between nations, slowing down the economy and becoming a reason for conflicts in the county. To stabilize the country, apply human rights, and bring overall peace in Afghanistan, there should be compatibility between religion and politics. This can be possible through a secular system to fragment the religious elite powers from the state or in Islamic point of view Ijtihad (General acceptance of new concepts and privileges in to Islamic Sharia law) in the religion. For the first time in the history of Afghanistan, King Amanullah Khan brought magnificent reforms in the political and education systems of the country during 1928 after his state visit from Europe. King Amanuallah Khan struggled to apply European norms in Afghanistan. He realized that a secular system is the best solution to overcome dilemmas in the country. Europe could not stop their internal political problems for many decades due to religion influences between the sects of Christianity. After years of quarrels Europeans realized that beside religion, which directs spiritual life, government should control secular life. Europeans achieved their goals and created a strong union by their novel idea of separation of religion from state. The king chose the same strategy, but the strong bonds of religious parties and their extremist movements failed him. The religious leaders with public furor turned down the system and ousted the king from the throne(Riza). The newborn secular system was devastated by religious bodies, which changed governments systems. The secular schools, including girls schools, closed. Women divorce rights ended. They abolished the secular courts and replaced them by Sharia law courts, which are still applicable. Overall, Afghanistan relinquished a huge opportunity and faced challenges that led the country to the current instability in every aspect of life, especially politics, education, and social integrity (Riza). The state system was already mixing with strong Sharia law, so that the country faced a dark age of obstacles, three decades of war and Soviet invasion. After the collapse of communist regime, Mujahedeen took over the power and civil war started in the country. It was not long that the fundamentalist Taliban captured Afghanistan. These extremists not only were deprived from global modernity, but also neglect of the real Islamic knowledge. They were claiming on applying pure Islamic Sharia law. In actuality, they applied a system that was anti-Islamic and anti-human means. After the collapse of the Taliban regime, the world supported Afghans and changed the government system of the country. Afghanistans new constitution ratified, an amalgamate government formed. Yet religious parties are strongly involved in the system. They interfere in every component of the government. Indeed, they are a strong barrier against application of democracy in the country and people are still suffering. On the other hand, the legal system is a mixture of devout and customs that mostly religious leaders are practicing customary ideas inside the Islamic laws. It contradicts both Sharia law and human rights. Because of the less and primitive cultural and madrasas knowledge most religious leaders cannot distinguish between Sharia laws and old practiced customs. For example, in the rural regions they are applying a customary concept called Baad. In Baad case when, there is a conflict between two families or relatives, if anyone is killed from any side, to resolve this dispute, the murderers side usually gives his daughter or a girl to the victims family. It is opposite to any Islamic and state laws in the world. This custom is completely against human rights, even not acceptable in the Islamic law, yet it is practiced in many parts of the country. If there were a secular state legal system established in the country, the state would resolve the issue and people would not suffer. Likewise, religion influences has strongly affected globalization and the national interest of Afghanistan. The world market is so diverse now, globalization interconnects the world, and countries have close business relationship in most cases without consideration of differences in ethnicity, language, and religion. Nevertheless, in a country like Afghanistan the devout leaders and their wrong interpretation of Islam have severely damaged the national interest of the country. As an example, a few months ago the Ministry of Work and Social interaction presented a draft of new law for two days of national holiday in a week to the parliament. The ministry clearly pointed the reasons behind its appeal. They calculated the saving of total cost of government employees during the one day off. In broader prospect, Afghanistans official days has a serious problem with global market. Many businesses are suffering from global transactions, because of the clashes between the holidays in Afghani stan and the rest of world. We have one and half-day holiday during a week, half day off on Thursdays and one day off on Friday. Conversely, most countries especially the Europe and market-oriented countries such as US and China are off on Saturday and Sunday. There is a delay of any business activity at least for two days, which can create huge financial damages for businesses in the country. Besides the strong reasons of the Ministry, the parliament of Afghanistan rejected this draft of law. Because, the parliament is consists of many religious leaders they strongly refused to ratify this law. Their only reason behind was that it is an infidel movement and Afghanistan is an Islamic country. Parliament declared that never want to copy the Christian and Jewish customs and refused the draft. They have forgotten that the Saudi Arabia, which is believe to be the center of Islam, has accepted the two days of holiday because of its compatibility with global market and other political issues. I strongly believe that Afghanistan will never triumph over its economic and political struggles, unless the religious leaders are removed from politics and the separation of the state from the religion. Similarly, ignorant religious leaders deprive women of education. We accept that there are certain rights for women in Islam. However, we cannot compare the current modern area with 1,400 years ago. Moreover, a secular system to stabilize the society and apply the human rights should be compatible with the religion and modernity. Sociologist Steve Bruce argues that: Modernity undermines religion, except when it finds some major social role to play other than mediating the natural and supernatural worlds.(Bruce) In the broader view if religion steps outside of its traditional roles and takes on tasks or identities that are useful on a broader social scale, then it is possible for religion to maintain itself into modernity(Barker). In Islam, it is possible through Ijtihad, which Muslims scholars come to gather and introduce new contemporary concepts and privileges into Islamic Sharia law. The concept of Steve Bruce is acceptable in Islam via Ijtihad. They can include further womens rights inside Islamic laws including education, divorce, and gender equality. Unfortunately, considering Afghanistans situation and its religious and political leaders, it is impossible to apply Ijtihad. Therefore, the only proper way to bring prosperity to the people and the country is to set the religious leaders aside from politics. Let them to practice their religion and the government to do its job, like Turkey, another Islamic country. At the same time, education in Afghanistan like other Muslim countries has a long history. Islam had a major role on Afghan education for centuries. Today, education consists of three different categories: traditional or indigenous (pre-Islamic), modern, and Islamic education. Within the last category, there are four types of Islamic schools in Afghanistan: mosque schools; traditional madrasa, first level; second level; and the modern madrasa or in other words Islamic studies in university level. In addition, Arabic schools have appeared from the eighties and onwards. Moreover, Islam has been a dominant religion in most parts of the country for more than 1200 years and Islamic education has reached many parts of the population including rural people living in remote areas. The Koranic education not only teaches Koran but also writing, reading and counting to rural villagers, -i.e. boys and men. Islam also includes Sharia law, which infers that legal regulations and documents used among illiterate people. During the early twentieth century, the leaders tried to modernize the country, and were influenced by the developments in Turkey. The first constitution was approved on 1923 and more opportunities were given to education, and girls were also allowed to go to school. During the supremacy of King Zahir Shah (1933-1973) the government adopted new constitution and there was a significant growth in modern sector. An Islamist movement was crushed in 1975 and its leaders fled to Pakistan (Karlsson and Mansory). Throughout the 20th century there have been excessive waves of both liberal reform and traditionalist movements in Afghanistan. In the meantime, struggles over control of the education system have become a major competition between democratic and Islamist parties. The democratic and Islamist parties of the Mujahedeen have all tried to shape the political and ideological landscape of Afghanistan by carrying out reforms and religious decrees through education institutions. Afghanistan suffered immensely from the struggles for secular and religious control of educational institutions. Control of the education system has been a mobilizing force for the Mujahedeen movement, the socialists, and the overthrow of the Soviet-made government and the rise of the Taliban. There have been Links between the radical madrassas and the formation of the Taliban and involvement of such institutions of education in breeding Islamic extremism and have been a considerable factor on the security of the Afghan state (Afghanitan and Education). The struggles between secular and religious control of educational has almost totally collapsed the social sector. The literacy rate, for men 45 per cent and for women 11 per cent, among the lowest in the world. (Carlson and Mansory) Gender discrimination has been strengthened in the last decades. Over gender issues there have been many insurrections and battles in Afghanistan. Often, when womens participation in education has been enhanced, it has provoked counteractions. It is an empirical fact that education is a component of human security and one of the most important cornerstones of a society. Every society in the world has known the importance of secular education system and replicates each others experiences in peace-building and conflict prevention. A great example could be Turkey, which is one of the most developed Islamic countries in the world. Afghan government can imitate the Turkey experience and build a prosperous state. Education is a key component in creating communities and grantees their stability. However, the institutional aspects of education can also function as a root cause and source of conflict. This dual nature of education implies both the positive, or peace building and the negative, or conflict enhancing potential. Decades of instability in Afghanistan shows the linkage between institutional education and conflict, which has inadvertently helped to create the conditions for further conflict instead of building a foundation for reconciliation and sustainable peace. Education has a very essential but too often ignored role in relation to conflict prevention, reconciliation, resolution, and reconstruction. In fact, education had been known as a basis for investment in human capital, economic growth and mitigation of conflict. This rationale implies that education should be considered as a non-traditional instrument for building security. Brad Hayes and Jeffrey Sands authors of Non-traditional Military Responses to End Wars: Considerations for Policymakers, state: One, final and perhaps surprising, security area is education. Opening schools and getting children (particularly teenagers) off the streets reduces one source of potential instability, and frees their parents to go to work. School attendance also gives children hope for the future and provides them an alternative to joining factional militias.(Chesterman) By providing a civic curriculum and enhancing opportunities for students, education can act as a unifying factor in nation-building and stability. Education is also known as an essential component of peace-building. The global peace building means to empower the society to manage conflicts without violence and achieve sustainable human security. In brief, I would like to conclude that integration of political and educational system with religion has always been a chaos for countries like Afghanistan. Decades of instability and violence in Afghanistan are a good example to cite here. Afghanistan has faced many challenges with religious leaders who have used the religion as a tool to gain power and use the country for their own favors. Afghanistan political situation will never improve until the Afghan citizens identify the place of religion and politics. Since religion is a fate and politics is a game played to gain power. Afghan people should not trust anyone who uses the religion and play with peoples sentiments and gain power. In order to change the political situation in Afghanistan and lead the country to prosperity it is very important to disintegrate the political system from religion and establish a liberal and secular platform for educational system. As a Muslim I am pretty sure that Islam never contradicts modern ed ucation and democracy. Work Cited Page: Riza, Ali. The strategic use of Islam in Afghan politics. New York. Routledge, 2010: p1. Bruce, Steve. Religion in the Modern World. Oxford University Press. 1996: p 3. Barker, Philip W. and William J. Muck. Holy War for the 21st Century: Globalization, U.S. Foreign Policy, and the Development of Islamic Identity. University of Colorado. 2003: p 3. Afghanistan, Education, and the Formation of the Taliban. Fletcher School, Tufts University Leigh Nolan. January 2006: p1. Karlsson, Pia Amir Mansory. Islamic and Modern Education in Afghanistan Conflictual or Complementary? Institute of International Education Stockholm University, July 2008: p2-3. Chesterman, Simon. Walking Softly in Afghanistan: the Future of UN State- Building, Survival, Autumn 2002: vol. 33, p3.

Exploring Teacher Pay Incentives Essay examples -- education reform, t

This study analyzes four articles’ study findings as well as authors’ conclusion on the teachers’ incentive pay issue based on the studies presented by the authors. Those articles include Steele, Murname and Willnett (2009) that seek to analyze the effect of incentives on teachers’ retention. In the article, a natural experiment done in California between the year 2000 and 2003 involving an incentive of $20,000 that was called the Governor’s Teaching Fellowship (GTF) analyzes the incentives’ effect on talented teachers’ attraction and retention in low-performing schools. In addition, Fryer (2011) is the other article presenting an analysis of teacher’s incentives’ effect on students’ success in terms of attendance, academic performance or graduation. The article utilizes a school-based random trial involving more than 200 public schools in New York. Further, the analysis reviews an article by Figlio and Kenny (2006) which is a documentation of students’ performance’s relationship with teachers’ performance incentives. The study utilizes United States data combining the authors’ survey that was conducted in 2000 with National Education Longitudinal Survey on students and schools in regard to teachers’ pay incentives. Finally, Nael (2011) is an article on an analysis of education incentive schemes through a review of empirical studies that evaluates educators’ performance pay programs. Thus, the article will provide a suitable review on designs of student’s achievements measures and teachers’ performance metrics. Article 1: Relationship between teacher pay incentives and student’s performance Figlio & Kenny (2006) presents the first systematic documentation of the relationship that exists between students’ performance and the ... ...g jobs at the existing pay. In addition, incentives would retain the teachers as they would not be motivated to look for alternative jobs. (Barron & Lynch, 1987) Works cited Barron, J. & Lynch, G. Economics. London: Richard D. Irwin Inc, 1987. Print. Figlio, N. D. & Kenny, L. â€Å"Individual Teacher’s Incentive Programs and Student’s Performance†. NBER Working Paper 12627, October 2006. Print. Fryer, G.R. â€Å"Teachers Incentives and Students Achievement: Evidence from New York City’s Public Schools†. NBER Working Paper 16850, March 2011. Print. Neal, D. â€Å"The Design of Performance Pay In Education†. NBER Working Paper 16710, January 2011. Print. Steele, J., Murname, R. & Willnett, J. â€Å"Do Financial Incentives Help Low Performing Schools in Attracting and Keeping Talented Teachers? Evidence from California†. NBER Working paper 14780, March 2009. Print.

A Non-Bourgeois Analysis of Tout Va Bien

Jose Alvarez English 2 David Lau A Non-Bourgeois Analysis of Tout Va Bien In the 21st century modern cinematic film industry an audience is enabled to experience a wide array of films beholding an eminently developed Hollywood perspective. Hollywood blockbusters assuredly dominate the United States film industry for various reasons. The general population absorbing modern Hollywood movies may manage to argue that the highly advanced state of the art techniques that blockbuster films utilize in order to enhance and flourish their big screen cinemas are the ideal justifications of their success.Such film techniques can vary widely from exquisite execution of state of the art animation, proficient synchronization of movie scores and progressive character augmentation just to name a few. These Hollywood methods tend to be harmonized collectively and conglomeratized for the constantly recycled concept of progressive plot development. Although many filmmakers have effectively exploited sim ilar progressive concepts for years, it has also inspired other filmmakers to create inverted juxtapositional styled films.The collaborative film Tout Va Bien by the Dziga Vertov Group which consists of Jean-Luc Godard and Jean-Pierre Gorin is an exemplification of such a counter Hollywood style film. Brian Henderson a film critic and writer of â€Å"Towards a Non-Bourgeois Camera Style,† characterized Godard’s approach on certain films as â€Å"non-bourgeois† for various reasons. Henderson’s essential point was concerned with Godard’s camera style, yet there is also other demonstrations of Godard’s non-bourgeois approach to filmmaking.Additional elements outside of camera style range from political topics, adoption of Brectian mechanisms and the use of other deviant aesthetic filmmaking devices. When considering Henderson’s term â€Å"non-bourgeois,† its primary and essential definition is when filmmakers develop anti-illusion ary and authentically realistic films. Godard’s films from 1967 onwards had this anti-illusionary perspective because of multiple reasons. The first reason to consider in regards to Godard’s non-bourgeois approach stemmed from student protests that broke out in France during the May of 1968. According to CollinMacCabe, writer of Postscript to May 1968 â€Å"French students occupied the administrative offices of the University of the Sorbonne in protest against planned government reforms of the university† (MacCabe 19. ) This modest student protest progressively gained support and cooperation from hundreds of thousands of workers. It eventually turned into a massive revolt that brought the French economy to a temporary halt and almost collapsed France’s government of the time. The repercussions of these events had a sizeable impact on Godard since it conveyed his proceeding films to become more political.Godard not only politicized his work by subject matt er but more dominantly by the aesthetic process of â€Å"creating a film politically. † Godard utilized various aesthetic strategies to express his political intentions. One specific approach that embodied the non-bourgeois political aspect in Tout Va Bien was the camera style. Henderson described this camera style as a â€Å"slow tracking shot that moves purely laterally-usually in one direction†¦over a scene that does not itself move, or strictly speaking, that does not move in any relation to the camera’s movement. According to Henderson this unique camera style enhances an anti-illusionary perspective due to its flatness and avoidance of depth. Two big scenes from Tout Va Bien that make use of this aesthetic approach are the final supermarket scene and the Barbie house styled factory set during the strike. A secondary non-bourgeois political device that Godard and Gorin utilized in Tout Va Bien was Brecthian distanciation. This method which was adopted from B ertolt Brecth is when actors actively express and represent themselves as actors, therefore estranging and distancing the audience.The purpose of this device intends to ruin illusion and inform the audience that the movie is an aesthetic work of art and not a real life situation. Another utilized device similar to Brechtian distanciation was the conceptual approach of breaking the fourth wall. This concept, which was also adopted from Brecht, is the acknowledgement and interaction between the actors and the audience in order to raise awareness of fiction. One major way that Tout Va Bien broke the fourth wall was by having actors look and talk straight into the camera.The scenes that utilized this concept exceedingly well where the ones which showcased one-sided interviews such as the ones with Jacques the filmmaker, the union representative, the Salumi factory boss and a female worker. A third aspect that made Tout Va Bien a non-bourgeois style film was its editing style. Godard and Gorin progressed their scenes strangely and often left the viewer open-ended towards the ultimate meaning. It seems that they intended to lead their audience vaguely by placing subtle hints of the films direction and leaving it open for the audience to interpret.The editing of the scenes really demanded activation from the audience since they usually had clever little inferences towards the filmmakers aesthetic intentions. One scene that really presented this unconventional editing style was when the boss needed to urinate. Due to factory workers blocking access to restrooms, the boss eventually broke a window inside of his own office in order to urinate out of it. A few scenes later however, the same window in the boss’s office is no longer broken.An earlier scene that also displayed this grotesque editing style had the camera locked on Susan while a conversation between Jacques and the boss was being heard. Susan eventually joined the conversation auditorially but you coul d not visually see her mouth moving with the pronunciation of the words. Lastly, of the reasons that Tout Va Bien is considered to be non-bourgeois is the political subject matter. Many classical Hollywood films hardly touch on political content but Tout Va Bien’s central plot revolved around the concept of class struggle.Conversations of class struggle were established throughout the film from various political perspectives ranging from that of the workers, the boss and the union representative. From the workers perspective many of them politicized about the negative aspects of their job, such as exhaustion, injuries and bad wages. In the boss’s perspective his political argument criticized that class struggle had become irrelevant and that Marxist philosophies where long gone. In the final political perspective, the union representative stated his agreement with the workers opinions but disapproved of their approach in starting the wildcat strike.Analyzing Tout Va Bi en from a non-bourgeois perspective, it was undoubtedly created in antagonism of Hollywood cinema. Many of the ways the film was directed and edited embraced deviance from what classical Hollywood films would consider norms. Everything from using political topics to presenting some of the film in non-chronological order contributed to the non-bourgeois perspective. This approach is quite possibly a conscious critique towards classical cinema since it juxtaposes Hollywood culture and exposes its artificiality.It emphasizes self-reflexive interpretation to draw out activation from its audience and promotes didacticism, which often lacks in Hollywood films. Tout Va Bien is fundamentally embedded with political arguments against Hollywood cinema, capitalism and class structure. It may very well be that the film was ultimately created to inform and stimulate activism. Works Cited Henderson, Brian, â€Å"Towards a Non-Bourgeois Camera Style. † Film Theory and Criticism MacCabe, Col in, â€Å"Postscript to May 1968. † English 2 Reader Spring 2012: 19-22.

1 Upper-Intermediate Essays - Apostrophe, English Spelling

1 Upper-Intermediate Essays - Apostrophe, English Spelling 1 Upper-Intermediate Covering Letters 1: Letter Content The letter of application you send with your CV is sometimes called a covering letter. It is usually the first direct contact between a candidate and an employer, so make sure it is well-written and presented. It should normally contain 3-4 paragraphs. Here is a list of points you should include: Say that you would like to apply Say where you found out about the job Say why you would like the job Say why you are qualified to do the job Say you can provide more information if necessary Say when you would be available for interview Covering Letters 2: Useful phrases Vocabulary advertised made known to people to apply to ask in a formal way to be considered for a job to pursue to have, to chase, to follow to work well under pressure to be able to keep calm and do a good job in difficult situations Select the correct words so that this covering letter is in good English. Dear Mr Saleh, I am writing to 1) _____ a _____ for the position of Editorial Assistant which was 2 )_ ___ _ b _____ in the latest edition of Gulf News. I am currently 3)_____ b _____ by a Market Research company as a research assistant, but am keen to 4)____ b _____ a career in publishing, because I enjoy reading and write my own poetry. As you will notice on the 5) ______ c ______ CV, I graduated in European Literature. At University I gained considerable 6) ______ c _______ working on the student magazine, so I am 7) ____ c _____ with editing techniques. I work well under 8) ______ c ______ and enjoy working in a team. In addition, I speak English 9) _____ b _____. I would be 10) _____ a _____ for interview from next week. Meanwhile, please do not 11 ) _ _____ a _______ to contact me if you require further information. I look forward to hearing from you. Yours sincerely, Margaret Roan 1 a) apply b) ask c) request 2 a) shown b) advertised c) presented 3 a) worked b) employed c) used 4 a) want b) pursue c) take 5 a) included b) mentioned c) attached 6 a) experiment b) expression c) experience 7 a) familiarised b) familier c) familiar 8 a) anxiety b) demands c) pressure 9 a) excellently b) fluently c) strongly 10 a) available b) around c) accessible 11 a) hesitate b) wait c) stop Covering Letters 3 : Style (part 1) Vocabulary informal relaxed, friendly slang very informal words and language idiomatic language language using groups of words which have a certain meaning that is different from the ordinary meaning of each individual word e.g. 'My boss bit my head off when I was late for work' (my boss was angry and told me off) complex complicated, not simple Decide whether the following tips for writing covering letters are true or false. The letter should be as friendly a nd informal as possible - False You should avoid slang id iomatic language - True Your sentences should be long and complex - False It is fine to use contracted forms (e.g. I'm, it's) - False Emotive words (wonderful, great, terrible) should be avoided - True Covering Letters 4 : Style (part 2) Here are some common phrases you might use when applying for a job. However, the prepositions are missing - type out the correct ones choosing words from the table below. to of under in for I would like to apply1) _____for_____ the position 2) _____of_____ If you would like to discuss this 3 ) ____ in _____ more detail I enjoy working 4 ) _ ____ under _______ pressure I was5 ) _____ in ____ _ charge _ _____ of ______ I was responsible6 ) ____ for _____ With reference 7 ) _______ to _______

positie discrimination

positie discrimination Student ID: 27342271Consider the extent to which it is advisable to conduct worldwide immunisations against a particular emerging health threat, such as Avian or Swine Flu. Might such action be possible and/or advisable in the near future?OutlineIntroductionUsing the news about Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever introduces the question about the worldwide immunisation, the importance of immunisation, brief introduction of positive and negative effects and my opinions of related questions.Body 1Paragraph 2 will mainly state the infeasibility of global vaccination in parts.There is a large number of kinds of epidemic.Barriers and limitations from different areas.Paragraph 3 will describe disadvantages of global vaccination in parts.Resources wasteImmunisation itself will bring secure issue and cause negative effects.Body 2Paragraph 4 will describe the possibility of integrating the global information to and resources to prevent and treat one kind of epidemics.Mature information transmission techn ologyInternational organizations gather more power to focus on one outbreak epidemicParagraph 5 will illustrate the advantages for integrating.Easier to discover solution for one specific diseaseStudent ID: 27342271Developing countries can follow successful experience from developed ones.Give more equal opportunities to people to access to vaccination by transparent information.ConclusionFinally summarising the disadvantages and infeasibility of global vaccination and the necessity of integrating all world epidemic information to prevent people from infection and to confront future challenges in disease treatment field.Student ID: 27342271Nearly the sudden outbreak of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever in many Africa areas catches people attentions from every corner of the world. It is a kind of high mortality diseases caused by Ebola virus, initially found in the region of Ebola River, and until now there are not any effective treatments to cure this terrible epidemic. Although no specificall y...

Measurements Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Measurements Paper - Essay Example Finally the paper concludes with the statement of present research's variables and describe the types of reliability and validity that is intended to be used in respect of such variables. The target object of the proposed research is to evaluate service quality performance versus customer expectations of the same. A variable is a data that can assume one or more attributes called its values. The level of measurement refers to the relationship among the values that are assigned to the attributes for a variable. Level of measurement is important as it helps researcher to decide how to interpret the data from that variable. It also helps the researcher to decide what statistical analysis is most appropriate on the values that were assigned. As is typically posited four levels of measurements are identified i.e nominal(here the numerical values just "name" the attribute uniquely; no ordering of the cases is implied),ordinal( here measurement of the attributes can be rank-ordered and distances between attributes do not have any meaning),interval(in such measures distances between attributes do have meaning) and ratio(in such measurement there is always an absolute zero that is meaningful; this means that you can construct a meaningful fraction (or ratio) with a ratio variable).(Trochim,2006-a). Th ese measurements have to be reliable and valid in an integrated manner and based on true score theory of measurement. to ensure high quality (Trochim, 2006-b). Unobtrusive measures are measures that don't require the researcher to intrude in the research context. Direct and participant observation requires that the researcher be physically present.Reseracher presence can affect respondent behavior and response. Three kinds of unobtrusive measures are normally used in social science research: Indirect Measures, Content Analysis and Secondary Analysis of Data(Trochim,2006-c).In short, unobtrusive measurement work to reduce the bias caused by researcher's presence but result in lesser control over the data. The earlier paper on relationships had identified the primary constructs as: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, tangibles, and business success in relation to services' quality. Construct validity refers to the degree to which inferences can legitimately be made from the operationalizations in your study to the theoretical constructs on which those operationalizations were based. Construct validity involves generalizing from the program or measures to the concept of such program or measures (Trochim, 2006-d). Threats to construct validity may be caused by not properly defining operationally the constructs; using only one version of your treatment; inadequacy of using a single measure to look at a particular concept; interactions between different treatments; interaction of the testing and the treatment; unanticipated consequences etc.( Driebe ) It is posited here that answers to the proposed

Analys Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Analys - Essay Example Joe has taken a loan of $5000 which is not being put into any use since cash of $14,444 is lying idle. The high profitability and strong liquidity of indicates that the overall financial position Joe’s firm is quite strong. However, Joe should better utilize the resources to generate more revenue and expand his business. C) The inventory costing method that a firm uses does affect the level of profit in the income statement of a company. If the closing inventory is overstated, the cost of goods sold decrease, since the closing inventory is deducted when calculating cost of goods sold, and when cost of goods sold decrease, net profit increase. The reason is that the units that remain in the closing inventory are not sold and hence they should not be included in the cost of goods sold. For example, if a company has a revenue of $2000, opening inventory of $300, purchases of $700 and closing inventory of $175 using Average Cost method and $200 using FIFO method then its profit will be as

HR project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

HR project - Essay Example This shows that a comprehensive review was made of the HR department of the Bank. 2. Best Performing HR Function In my opinion the best performing HR function was that of the John Manville Corporation. This was because the efforts made by HR for the training and development of the employees were really visible. The HR department encouraged the training and development efforts of its employees, and had an open door policy; it was also felt that the HR department recognized the need for work life balance and had a relationship with its employees that went beyond just the job function. 3. Most Comprehensive, Professional and Effective Project Summary and Presentation I think that the presentation made by the team that chose Nordstrom was the most comprehensive, professional and effective project summary. The various sections of their presentation regarding company history, HR evaluation and the way the company operates and its guiding principles and investment in HR training and practic ability is most clearly shown. They do not hesitate to hide their weaknesses but are keen to learn from them. The balance of text and images and flow of information was also quite effortless and very well made. 4. My Three Greatest Learning Points Acquired From This Project I think my number one learning point would be the value of teamwork. I really appreciated how my team got together for this project, how we discussed ideas for going about the project from start to finish, how we set them out on paper, about how to approach the project, who would do what and how, and what would be the final outcome and how it would be set out on paper. The other important part was to see that everything was covered as far as possible, and nothing was left out. The last part was in coordinating it all together in the form of a presentation and reviewing it until we felt that we had done a good enough job for a final presentation. The second learning point that I would mention was although that the re was a wide variety of the type of organizations covered by this project, from profits to non profits, engineering to retail. Yet it was amazing how the HR functions and responsibilities were more or less the same no matter what the organization or its purpose. In the final analysis, employee satisfaction and care was all that mattered from an HR perspective. The third learning point was that it helped each of us take responsibility for the project. Each team member had certain tasks to perform, with specific output desired and a deadline to meet the same. He or she had to do this so that the contributions to the project could be consolidated and sorted out before making the final presentation. The final shape would not have been possible if all the team members did not play their part. 5. What Has Become Powerfully Clear To Me as to the One or Two Most Critical Aspects of Managing Human Resources for an Organization I think that based upon all the reviews and presentations made i n class regarding this project, certain common factors emerged which made it clear to me that the one or two most critical aspects of managing the HR function for an organization are to promote a level playing field where justice and equity is provided for each and every employee, there are no favorites and nobody can bend the rules and get away with it. This is instrumental in boosting employee morale. Employees know that HR cares when they see these principles in action. Moving from improving employee

Effects of Technology Essay Example for Free

Effects of Technology Essay The advent and development of computer technology through the past three decades may be the most important and revolutionary technology ever invented in history. It has completely changed the way people do things, from interpersonal communication to professional transactions. Computers have affected the cultures of families, friends, offices, academes and even states and countries. The effect of computer technology can be felt starting with the most basic social institution, the family. The personal computer has become a regular fixture in millions of homes around the world as much as the television or the couch. Some families even own more than one computer units. Of course, the statistics would be lower among less developed countries. Nevertheless, an effect of the prevalence of the personal computer is that it has become more and more affordable. For third world countries, the idea of catching up has also come to mean being competitive when it comes to computer literacy compared to developed countries. Parents use the computer to surf the Net, look for job-related information or anything that interests them like news or hobby sites. The children use the computer as aid in making assignments and research, playing video games or make friends they won’t ever see in person through the chat rooms. Outside the home, the influence of computers is felt much more. Offices cannot survive without computers as they are used for word processing, calculations, presentations, and other tasks. Internet technology, an offshoot of computers, has created a thriving electronic-based commerce which has made millionaires out of people whose capital has been their mere creative minds. Other activities that before were done without computers are now computer aided. Automated banking has made banking and bill payments possible even outside office hours. People can shop online using their credit cards without the hassle of crowds and miles of walking inside malls just to find the perfect shirt or gift. Government agencies keep voluminous records and provide computer-aided services making it possible to make transactions with the public even without the latter’s physical appearance. Like all technologies, the computer has its downsides, too. For instance, it has caused concern regarding the privacy of people as with the interconnectedness of networks in cyberspace it has become easy to look for information about anybody. Another is that computers, being machines, break down. Since people have grown dependent to this machine, a crash or malfunction of computers especially those doing tasks which a lot of people depend on (like ATMs when they go offline or very important data that suddenly become irretrievable with a crash) could result to a lot of frustration and anxiety. Computer technology has also created computer addicts and affected the health and social skills of some people who would rather sit in front of a monitor than interact with humans or play ball outside. Computer technology has become so prevalent and people and nations have become dependent to it so much so that in modern times it has become unimaginable to survive without computers. The future is going to be defined by how fast and how far computer technology is going to take humankind and to be computer-illiterate in this modern world is to be left behind in the past.

Customer Satisfaction at Sainsburys

Customer Satisfaction at Sainsburys Implications for the development of Sainsbury in the future 1. Introduction The retail industry is one of the oldest industrial sectors of UK having its roots based in the 19th century. An article in The Financial Times about Sainsburys dropping sales and consequently market shares triggered the research topic and we drove ourselves to the history of supermarkets to reveal the secret behind the big giants (Tesco, Sainsburys and ASDA) fighting for the top position in the market. The reason to select Sainsburys rather than other two foes from the flock was the interesting reign of Sainsburys in past 100 years of business. The article first illustrates the supermarket retailers background and outlines the present problems. Secondly, it analyzes the perception of customers towards the current supermarkets and the extent to which their needs are satisfied by Sainsburys. Finally, the possible solutions are evaluated and it indicates some recommendations for implementation. The work established in the following research is purely based on a quantitative data collection and scrutiny with a wide implementation of literature and marketing research tools. In the following research work, we, group of five students, have cloaked the role of researchers and reaped a considerable amount of sagacious know-how about conducting a research and using marketing research gears in different areas of research. 2. Background to the problem 2.1 About Sainsburys Sainsburys Supermarket is the longest standing major food retailing chain in the UK, with their first store opened in 1869. The mission and policy of Sainsburys is to provide customers with healthy, safe, fresh and tasty food. The quality and fair prices of Sainsburys is taking responsibility to their business. Sainsburys stores have particularly emphasized on fresh food and they devote themselves to create continuous innovation. Moreover, they are concerned about customer needs and based on these needs improve products regularly. Its market share is around 16 % and now they serve over 18 million customers a week. Sainsburys own 455 supermarkets and 301 convenience stores, the type of these stores are categorized into 3 types, which are Main Mission outlets, Main Plus format stores (hypermarkets),and Mixed mission format shops (Sainsburys Central and Local). The large stores offer approximately 30,000 products and offer and support the non-food products and services in many of their stores. Around 88% of British households are provided by the internet-based home delivery shopping service. At present, Sainsburys is the third biggest supermarket chain in Britain after the countrys largest retailer Tesco and Wal-Mart owned ASDA. Their business mission is to be the consumers first choice for food, delivering products of outstanding quality and great service at a competitive cost working faster, simpler and together.'(http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/index.jsp, N.D) 2.2 Describe the problem Sainsburys used to take the biggest slice of the whole retail market in the UK. However, since 1995, Tesco started with their membership cards, and out of blue their sales have increased rapidly. Sainsburys became the third biggest supermarket chain in Britain after the countrys largest retailer Tesco and Wal-Mart owned Asda. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4694974.stm, N.D, BBC News) 2.3The main reasons for exploring the problem The formula of Sainsburys success could be concluded in the points which are listed below: High quality products quality assurance Wide range of products Different customer segmentations (http://www.foodprocessing-technology.com/features/feature56457/, ND) Although Sainsburys still follows these points to manage the company, but according to the reduction of the market share, the profit of managing Sainsburys has been more seriously affected. Although Sainsburys could retain the balance of revenue and expenditure, moreover, it remained permanent. It still needs to attract more customers and raise its market share. Furthermore, the needs of its customers should be valued and respected. We need to do marketing research to explore the possible factors which affect customers satisfaction and then use marketing strategies to improve these factors to increase customers shopping demands and enhance their loyalty. 3. Problem Definition An extensive study of market conditions and retail industry in United Kingdom gave us a brief idea about the status of Sainsburys in the retail industry. The largest retailer in the UK till mid 1990s suddenly dropped to the third position loosing its hold on market and decrement in the potential market customers. The decline in market shares and a low rate of sales returns was enough to define the problem for Sainsburys in the present market scenario. With new retailers emerging in the sector deploying all their marketing strategies to be the best in the race, it is very important for Sainsburys to take a brave step now to protect their current position and then to improvise on their hold in the industry. 3.1 Management Decision Problem What can Sainsburys doto regain the market share in retailing industry? The management team now require to sit down and discuss the failure points and the current shortcoming to establish a conclusion to why there is a constant downfall in the shares of the company and why it is being overtaken by a company (ASDA) which has its central operating sector based in a country (USA) which is thousands of miles away from UK. As per a latest study, the retail industry is expected to show an increase in 15% annually and Sainsburys needs to identify the market requirement till they become history for the consumers. (sources) 3.2 Marketing Research Problem The Management Problem was turned into a Research Problem which more specifically tackles the aim of this study. l To determine the various needs of shoppers and the extent to which current Sainsburys experiences were satisfying those needs compared to the competitors. The conversion of the management problem into a research problem makes the concept easier to understand and tackle. It gives a broader prospective of the problem and alongside makes a simple way to handle and implement the desired implications. 3.3 Research Components The research components further diversify the purpose of research and explain the problem in detail. The following components define the research problem: What is the demographic and psychographic profile of the customers? What do customers expect when going shopping in the stores? How well does Sainsburys existing products and service offering meet customers needs compared to Tesco and ASDA? Are there any customer needs that are not being adequately met by Sainsburys? How often do customers go shopping per week? 4. Research Approach Development In this section, it reveals the Exploratory Research conducted and the Conceptual Model. 4.1 Exploratory Research 4.1.1 Literature Reviews This section concerns some available information extracted from Literature Reviews. Based on literature reviews, service quality, is seen as an important factor, and closely related to a retail companies performance. Service quality is perceived by customers as the result of comparing the expectations about the service they are going to receive and their perceptions of the retail companys actions. (Rodolfo Vazquez et al, 2001). It is of great help to demonstrate how to assess the service performance of a retail company and it carries some implications itself as well, which is beneficial when making the model of this study. According to Yan Lu et al (2008) there are five dimensions of service quality in a retail store setting, including: physical aspects, reliability, personal interaction, problem solving and policy. In addition, Rodolfo Vazquez et al. (2001) found that service quality in retail companies adopting the commercial format of supermarkets has a four factor structure (physical aspects, reliability, personal interaction and policies). Physical Environment Physical environment incorporates the inward and outward appearance of the store. According to Rodolfo Vazquez et al (2001), physical environment involves the simplicity and importance of shopping from the internal appearance of the sales outlet. Based on this, Rodolfo Vazquez et al states that there are two physical aspects of supermarkets: store appearance, which includes: decoration, fixtures, equipment, cleanliness, design of product and services publicity leaflets and the convenience of shopping, which includes: interior design and store layout of sections and product shelf position. According to Poping Lin (2005), traditional wisdom teaches that one key to win market share is offering a wide variety of products, which can be helpful for attracting a wider variety of customers. Providing products and services at a close and most convenient location, is the very core of deriving the best return from investments, also the ambience a store maintains can influence a customers purcha se decisions to a great extent. (Prakash Gupta, year) Reliability According to A.Parasuraman et al. (1988), to be reliable is being able to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. Based on his research, A.Parasuraman et al. found out that reliability is the most important factor taken into consideration by customers when they evaluate a retail companys overall service quality. This has also been supported by many researches in other studies. Dabholker et al. (1996) indicate that reliability in the eyes of customers is a combination of keeping promise and doing it well. Keeping promise means that a retail company should stock enough products to satisfy customers needs and guarantee the products quality as well as allowing returns and exchanges and being willing to dealing with any problems from customers. On the other side, in the terms of doing it well, a company is expected to be able to provide customers with fast sales transactions and precise information, such as sales promotions, price and sales slips. (Rodolfo Vazquez et al, 2 001) Personal Interaction Based on existing literature, it is noted that customers are not only interested in the product offerings and physical environment, but also on the service provided by staffs. Personal interaction involves the process followed in order to obtain the sale and the service encounters where the need arises while coming in contact with the retail company employees. (Rodolfo Vazquez et al, 2001) According to Prakash Gupta (year), consumers look for help whenever they are in an emergency. In that situation, store employees helpful advice and assistance will help to reduce the attrition rate of customers and enhance shopping experience. Policy Policy captures aspects of service quality affected by the strategies of the prices and brand assortment. Brand assortment policy must be established with great care and also a large and wide-ranging assortment of well-known brands is needed. (Rodolfo Vazquez et al, 2001) In addition, retail stores should be able to come up with an attractive pricing policy. According to Siu and Cheung, policy has a great impact on customers repeat purchase intention. (Yan Lu, Yoo-Kyoung Seock, 2008) Customer Satisfaction Customer satisfaction is a measure of how an organizations total product performs in relation to a set or customers requirement (Nigel Hill, Jim Alexander, 2006). There is no better advertisement than a Satisfied Customer and nothing worse than a Dissatisfied Customer (Phillip Kotler et al, 2008). Marketing Researchers and Managers have realized how important customer satisfaction is. According to Robert Heller (2006), customer based strategy is the only important form of strategy, product and producer driven strategies are fast dying. Similarly, Customer Satisfaction is the ultimate goal, and an investment that often doesnt produce result in a short term, but leads to Customer loyalty in a medium or long term (Craig Cochran, 2003). The lack of attention to customer Satisfaction costs companies money because there is an intractable connection to high level of customer satisfaction and increased share holder value (Chris Denove, James D. Power IV, 2007) Loyalty It is believed that maintaining the current customers costs less than attracting new customers, in the light of this; it is wise for companies to pay close attention to retaining their current customers. There are efficiencies in dealing with existing customers rather than new customers. (Ruth N.Bolton, 2000) Relative retention has been shown to explained profits better than market share, scale, cost position, or any of the other variables usually associated with competitive advantage. (Niren Sirohi et al, 1998) In general, the customers loyalty is indicated by an intention to perform a diverse set of behaviors that signal a motivation to maintain a relationship with focal firm, including allocating a higher share of the category wallet to the specific service provider, engaging in positive word-of -mouth, and repeat purchasing. (Ulrich R. Orth, Mark T.Green, 2009) According to Zeithaml et al., favorable assessment of service quality leads to favorable behavioral intentions such as p ositive word-of-mouth and preference for one company over others. (Yan Lu, Yoo-Kyoung Seock, 2008). In other word, higher satisfaction relates to higher loyalty. (Ulrich R. Orth, Mark T.Green, 2009) 4.2 Conceptual Model On the basis of the literature reviews, a final model has been defined (Refer to figure 1), which consists of two parts. In the first part of the model, there are 4 Independent variables (namely Physical Environment, Reliability, Personal Interaction, Policy), consisting of several aspects respectively, that may have an impact on the Dependent variables (Customer Satisfaction as shown in the model). As regard to the second part of the model, we assume that the Independent variable, Satisfaction, is connected with Loyalty, Dependent variable. Table 1: Summary of Research Questions and Hypothesis Specification of information needed Depending upon each component of the problem and the conceptual model, research questions and hypothesis, the information needed can be defined as follows: Component 1: To determine the factors customers are apprehensive about when selecting a store for shopping. Perceptions of customers on factors that influence choice of supermarkets Component 2: To determine how well do existing service offering meet customers needs. Evaluation of customers on the performance of ASDA. Evaluation of customers on the performance of Sainsburys. Evaluation of customers on the performance of Tesco. 5. Research Design and Methodology 5.1 Research Design In order to obtain the required information to solve the marketing research problems, research design was carried out for the further step. The research design is the framework or blueprint for conducting the marketing research project that specify the procedures necessary to obtain the information needed. (Malhotra, 2009) There are two basic types of research designs available which are classified in terms of the research objectives: exploratory and conclusive. (Malhotra, 2009) In this report, both exploratory and conclusive research designs were conducted for Sainsburys. 5.1.1 Exploratory research design In order to understand and gain insight to the problem that the company is facing now, a detailed literature review was prepared. 5.1.2 Conclusive research design After gaining understanding of current situation and management-decision problem of the company from exploratory research, the conclusive research was designed to make the management decision, testing hypotheses and also examining relationships between factors influencing the supermarket selection and customer satisfaction of Sainsburys as compared to its competitors. Furthermore, the descriptive research was used to describe the market characteristics and determine those relationships. Due to time constraint, the single cross-sectional design was used and a selected group of respondents were measured at one time. The data-collection technique used in this report was the survey conducted by a predesigned questionnaire. 5.2 Methodology 5.2.1 Secondary research methodology In order to collect data about the companys problem in general, two types of the secondary research were collected. The first one is the internal secondary data. Obtaining information from companys annual report provided the background of the company and fundamental data about its market shares. The second one is the external secondary data. In research approach development step, literatures have been reviewed. The information was retrieved from many sources including census data that provided elementary background of demographic data of UK households and consumption behaviors of UK consumers. In addition, abstracts in form of bibliographic databases have been retrieved from the University of Leeds Portals library. Gaining information from above secondary data can help us to understand the companys situation, define the research problem and also develop an approach to that problem. Journal articles and books provide knowledge in defining the variables in the research model which led to formulate the hypotheses and forming questionnaire design. 5.2.2 Primary research methodology 5.2.2.1 Research approach The major research approach chosen in this report is questionnaire survey. A detailed survey selecting a large sample was conducted to support the literature to get a deeper understanding of factors in choosing supermarkets. Furthermore, surveys were chosen in order to gain insights into the consumer behaviors pattern and consumers perceptions of UK supermarkets. 5.2.2.2 Sampling design Due to budget and time limitation, sample surveys were selected based on direct questioning. A sample is a subgroup of the elements of the population selected for participation in the study. (Malhotra, 2009) In this report, the sample group was selected from the total population in the UK. In determining the sample size, the statistical method was chosen. The sample size was calculated as follows: 2500 * N * Z2 n = ____________________ [25(N-1)] + [2500 * Z2] Where n = sample size required N = population size Z = number of standard errors The total population size (N) is 41,020,711 which are derived from the estimated people aged at 15-64 years in the United Kingdom as of July 2009. The source of information is The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In this case, the most commonly used 95% confidence level is applied. When the variables are taken, the result obtained from the formula could be as below: 2,500 * 41,020,711 * 1.962 n = __________________________ 25(41,020,711 -1) + (2,500 * 1.962) = 384 Due to time and cost constraints, 40% of the total sample size was taken into consideration, therefore adding up to 154 samples could be collected in conducting the survey. For the sampling method used in the surveys, the data collected through a survey of 154 respondents was divided into two proportions equally. The probability sampling techniques used in this report is Simple Random Sampling (SRS) in which each sample in the total population has an equal probability in selecting. (Malhotra, 2009) Therefore, half of the total questionnaires were executed by people living in Leeds and the rest was from people living outside Leeds. Moreover, two ways in distributing the questionnaires were conducted: paper based and online based survey. 5.2.2.3 Questionnaire Design (Refer to Appendix 1) The division of research problem into components made the way to design the questionnaire to analyze the market scenario and the customer needs. The background of the questionnaire design was the basic study of the component and sub-dividing the components into various similar factors which are considered to select or prefer any retail industry. The Physical Factors were classified as size, location, layout, and etc. of the store and mentioned as questions in the draft. 12 broad questions were decided on the basis of relevance and availability of time for the participant to come out with rational answers without any external or internal influence of reviewer or the industry. The intention was to collect some primary data about the general perception of people and then segmenting them as per their responses and choices. As required questionnaire was designed in 4 major segments in five pages including the introduction and purpose of study, literature was consulted to find out the best blue print of the questionnaire. It was also considered that all the questions are easy to understand and the response is useful for the analysis of the components. The questionnaire was designed with both multiple choice and dichotomous questions with all the scales referred as per the 5 Point Likert Scale l The first section dealt with the general introduction of the respondents to the retail industry, the shopping habits and the familiarity with the retail market. l Section 2 were the general factors affecting the selection of supermarkets and respondents preference of retail stores, continued with the acuity of three major supermarkets in the UK namely ASDA, Sainsburys and Tesco. l Section 3 covered the satisfaction and loyalty level of the participants towards their favorite retail store. l The final section was the personal information about the respondent assisting with the demographical and segmentation of the participants. The sentences of the questionnaire were made simple and all the options and questions were double checked for any offence in the questions. It was specially taken care that every response should be informative and two open questions were also provided in the questionnaire in order to find depth know-how about the stance of people towards Sainsburys irrespective they are loyal members of Sainsburys shopping club or not. 5.2.2.4 Field work The data was collected between the 18th and the 22th of November, 2009. The questionnaires were collected in different times and different places, targeting all supermarket shoppers throughout the UK; starting from University of Leeds, city centre, flat residents and people outside Leeds. The questionnaire delivering method was personal interviews in order to control the response rate and clarify the complex questions. 5.2.2.5 Analytical issues A diversity of analytical methods was used to gather the data and analyze the results. To analyze the basic statistics, descriptive statistics has been used. Furthermore, graphical representations and one-sample tests were applied to present the demographic and psychographic profile of respondents and also examine the influential factors when choosing a supermarket. To analyze the relationship between independent and dependent variables, the regression analysis has been used. Bivariate regressions were used to test the hypotheses H1, H2, H3, H4, and H5 while multiple regression analysis was used to test whether or not there is collective relation between all hypothetical factors and customer satisfaction. 6. Results and Analysis In this part, SPSS was used to represent the basic statistics, graphical representations and one-sample tests in order to answer the five problem components. Also, it was used for testing whether or not the results support the hypotheses. 6. 1. Analysis of Problem Components 6.1.1 Examining demographic and psychographic profile of respondents There are 154 questionnaires have been completed which 60 % is female and the other 40% is male. (Refer to Appendix 2) More than 50% of respondents aged between 18-24 years old and they are all students. The second most majority is people aged between 25-34 years old. The minority is people aged more than 65 years old. (Refer to Appendix 3) By far the most of respondents are single due to the fact that they are students. One-fifth of them are married and there is no widowed who filled in the questionnaires. (Refer to Appendix 4) More than a half of respondents are students and nearly 30% of all respondents are working and employed by the company. (Refer to Appendix 5) Nearly half spend between  £20 40 when going shopping while the average household annual income is below  £ 15,000. (Refer to Appendix 6 and 7) 6.1.2 Examining factors affecting supermarket selection Table 2: One-sample T-test statistics results One sample T-test were carried out to test the extent to which the mean scores are significantly higher than the mid point 3 on the scale ranging from 1 = the least important to 5 = the most important. Results summarized in the table indicate that customers evaluate the Independent variables positively when choosing which supermarket to shop in, but at different levels. It is also obvious from the table that Price, Location/Nearness, Quality of Products, Variety of Products have the strongest mean. It is important to note that the 4 Independ Customer Satisfaction at Sainsburys Customer Satisfaction at Sainsburys Implications for the development of Sainsbury in the future 1. Introduction The retail industry is one of the oldest industrial sectors of UK having its roots based in the 19th century. An article in The Financial Times about Sainsburys dropping sales and consequently market shares triggered the research topic and we drove ourselves to the history of supermarkets to reveal the secret behind the big giants (Tesco, Sainsburys and ASDA) fighting for the top position in the market. The reason to select Sainsburys rather than other two foes from the flock was the interesting reign of Sainsburys in past 100 years of business. The article first illustrates the supermarket retailers background and outlines the present problems. Secondly, it analyzes the perception of customers towards the current supermarkets and the extent to which their needs are satisfied by Sainsburys. Finally, the possible solutions are evaluated and it indicates some recommendations for implementation. The work established in the following research is purely based on a quantitative data collection and scrutiny with a wide implementation of literature and marketing research tools. In the following research work, we, group of five students, have cloaked the role of researchers and reaped a considerable amount of sagacious know-how about conducting a research and using marketing research gears in different areas of research. 2. Background to the problem 2.1 About Sainsburys Sainsburys Supermarket is the longest standing major food retailing chain in the UK, with their first store opened in 1869. The mission and policy of Sainsburys is to provide customers with healthy, safe, fresh and tasty food. The quality and fair prices of Sainsburys is taking responsibility to their business. Sainsburys stores have particularly emphasized on fresh food and they devote themselves to create continuous innovation. Moreover, they are concerned about customer needs and based on these needs improve products regularly. Its market share is around 16 % and now they serve over 18 million customers a week. Sainsburys own 455 supermarkets and 301 convenience stores, the type of these stores are categorized into 3 types, which are Main Mission outlets, Main Plus format stores (hypermarkets),and Mixed mission format shops (Sainsburys Central and Local). The large stores offer approximately 30,000 products and offer and support the non-food products and services in many of their stores. Around 88% of British households are provided by the internet-based home delivery shopping service. At present, Sainsburys is the third biggest supermarket chain in Britain after the countrys largest retailer Tesco and Wal-Mart owned ASDA. Their business mission is to be the consumers first choice for food, delivering products of outstanding quality and great service at a competitive cost working faster, simpler and together.'(http://www.sainsburys.co.uk/sol/index.jsp, N.D) 2.2 Describe the problem Sainsburys used to take the biggest slice of the whole retail market in the UK. However, since 1995, Tesco started with their membership cards, and out of blue their sales have increased rapidly. Sainsburys became the third biggest supermarket chain in Britain after the countrys largest retailer Tesco and Wal-Mart owned Asda. (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4694974.stm, N.D, BBC News) 2.3The main reasons for exploring the problem The formula of Sainsburys success could be concluded in the points which are listed below: High quality products quality assurance Wide range of products Different customer segmentations (http://www.foodprocessing-technology.com/features/feature56457/, ND) Although Sainsburys still follows these points to manage the company, but according to the reduction of the market share, the profit of managing Sainsburys has been more seriously affected. Although Sainsburys could retain the balance of revenue and expenditure, moreover, it remained permanent. It still needs to attract more customers and raise its market share. Furthermore, the needs of its customers should be valued and respected. We need to do marketing research to explore the possible factors which affect customers satisfaction and then use marketing strategies to improve these factors to increase customers shopping demands and enhance their loyalty. 3. Problem Definition An extensive study of market conditions and retail industry in United Kingdom gave us a brief idea about the status of Sainsburys in the retail industry. The largest retailer in the UK till mid 1990s suddenly dropped to the third position loosing its hold on market and decrement in the potential market customers. The decline in market shares and a low rate of sales returns was enough to define the problem for Sainsburys in the present market scenario. With new retailers emerging in the sector deploying all their marketing strategies to be the best in the race, it is very important for Sainsburys to take a brave step now to protect their current position and then to improvise on their hold in the industry. 3.1 Management Decision Problem What can Sainsburys doto regain the market share in retailing industry? The management team now require to sit down and discuss the failure points and the current shortcoming to establish a conclusion to why there is a constant downfall in the shares of the company and why it is being overtaken by a company (ASDA) which has its central operating sector based in a country (USA) which is thousands of miles away from UK. As per a latest study, the retail industry is expected to show an increase in 15% annually and Sainsburys needs to identify the market requirement till they become history for the consumers. (sources) 3.2 Marketing Research Problem The Management Problem was turned into a Research Problem which more specifically tackles the aim of this study. l To determine the various needs of shoppers and the extent to which current Sainsburys experiences were satisfying those needs compared to the competitors. The conversion of the management problem into a research problem makes the concept easier to understand and tackle. It gives a broader prospective of the problem and alongside makes a simple way to handle and implement the desired implications. 3.3 Research Components The research components further diversify the purpose of research and explain the problem in detail. The following components define the research problem: What is the demographic and psychographic profile of the customers? What do customers expect when going shopping in the stores? How well does Sainsburys existing products and service offering meet customers needs compared to Tesco and ASDA? Are there any customer needs that are not being adequately met by Sainsburys? How often do customers go shopping per week? 4. Research Approach Development In this section, it reveals the Exploratory Research conducted and the Conceptual Model. 4.1 Exploratory Research 4.1.1 Literature Reviews This section concerns some available information extracted from Literature Reviews. Based on literature reviews, service quality, is seen as an important factor, and closely related to a retail companies performance. Service quality is perceived by customers as the result of comparing the expectations about the service they are going to receive and their perceptions of the retail companys actions. (Rodolfo Vazquez et al, 2001). It is of great help to demonstrate how to assess the service performance of a retail company and it carries some implications itself as well, which is beneficial when making the model of this study. According to Yan Lu et al (2008) there are five dimensions of service quality in a retail store setting, including: physical aspects, reliability, personal interaction, problem solving and policy. In addition, Rodolfo Vazquez et al. (2001) found that service quality in retail companies adopting the commercial format of supermarkets has a four factor structure (physical aspects, reliability, personal interaction and policies). Physical Environment Physical environment incorporates the inward and outward appearance of the store. According to Rodolfo Vazquez et al (2001), physical environment involves the simplicity and importance of shopping from the internal appearance of the sales outlet. Based on this, Rodolfo Vazquez et al states that there are two physical aspects of supermarkets: store appearance, which includes: decoration, fixtures, equipment, cleanliness, design of product and services publicity leaflets and the convenience of shopping, which includes: interior design and store layout of sections and product shelf position. According to Poping Lin (2005), traditional wisdom teaches that one key to win market share is offering a wide variety of products, which can be helpful for attracting a wider variety of customers. Providing products and services at a close and most convenient location, is the very core of deriving the best return from investments, also the ambience a store maintains can influence a customers purcha se decisions to a great extent. (Prakash Gupta, year) Reliability According to A.Parasuraman et al. (1988), to be reliable is being able to perform the promised service dependably and accurately. Based on his research, A.Parasuraman et al. found out that reliability is the most important factor taken into consideration by customers when they evaluate a retail companys overall service quality. This has also been supported by many researches in other studies. Dabholker et al. (1996) indicate that reliability in the eyes of customers is a combination of keeping promise and doing it well. Keeping promise means that a retail company should stock enough products to satisfy customers needs and guarantee the products quality as well as allowing returns and exchanges and being willing to dealing with any problems from customers. On the other side, in the terms of doing it well, a company is expected to be able to provide customers with fast sales transactions and precise information, such as sales promotions, price and sales slips. (Rodolfo Vazquez et al, 2 001) Personal Interaction Based on existing literature, it is noted that customers are not only interested in the product offerings and physical environment, but also on the service provided by staffs. Personal interaction involves the process followed in order to obtain the sale and the service encounters where the need arises while coming in contact with the retail company employees. (Rodolfo Vazquez et al, 2001) According to Prakash Gupta (year), consumers look for help whenever they are in an emergency. In that situation, store employees helpful advice and assistance will help to reduce the attrition rate of customers and enhance shopping experience. Policy Policy captures aspects of service quality affected by the strategies of the prices and brand assortment. Brand assortment policy must be established with great care and also a large and wide-ranging assortment of well-known brands is needed. (Rodolfo Vazquez et al, 2001) In addition, retail stores should be able to come up with an attractive pricing policy. According to Siu and Cheung, policy has a great impact on customers repeat purchase intention. (Yan Lu, Yoo-Kyoung Seock, 2008) Customer Satisfaction Customer satisfaction is a measure of how an organizations total product performs in relation to a set or customers requirement (Nigel Hill, Jim Alexander, 2006). There is no better advertisement than a Satisfied Customer and nothing worse than a Dissatisfied Customer (Phillip Kotler et al, 2008). Marketing Researchers and Managers have realized how important customer satisfaction is. According to Robert Heller (2006), customer based strategy is the only important form of strategy, product and producer driven strategies are fast dying. Similarly, Customer Satisfaction is the ultimate goal, and an investment that often doesnt produce result in a short term, but leads to Customer loyalty in a medium or long term (Craig Cochran, 2003). The lack of attention to customer Satisfaction costs companies money because there is an intractable connection to high level of customer satisfaction and increased share holder value (Chris Denove, James D. Power IV, 2007) Loyalty It is believed that maintaining the current customers costs less than attracting new customers, in the light of this; it is wise for companies to pay close attention to retaining their current customers. There are efficiencies in dealing with existing customers rather than new customers. (Ruth N.Bolton, 2000) Relative retention has been shown to explained profits better than market share, scale, cost position, or any of the other variables usually associated with competitive advantage. (Niren Sirohi et al, 1998) In general, the customers loyalty is indicated by an intention to perform a diverse set of behaviors that signal a motivation to maintain a relationship with focal firm, including allocating a higher share of the category wallet to the specific service provider, engaging in positive word-of -mouth, and repeat purchasing. (Ulrich R. Orth, Mark T.Green, 2009) According to Zeithaml et al., favorable assessment of service quality leads to favorable behavioral intentions such as p ositive word-of-mouth and preference for one company over others. (Yan Lu, Yoo-Kyoung Seock, 2008). In other word, higher satisfaction relates to higher loyalty. (Ulrich R. Orth, Mark T.Green, 2009) 4.2 Conceptual Model On the basis of the literature reviews, a final model has been defined (Refer to figure 1), which consists of two parts. In the first part of the model, there are 4 Independent variables (namely Physical Environment, Reliability, Personal Interaction, Policy), consisting of several aspects respectively, that may have an impact on the Dependent variables (Customer Satisfaction as shown in the model). As regard to the second part of the model, we assume that the Independent variable, Satisfaction, is connected with Loyalty, Dependent variable. Table 1: Summary of Research Questions and Hypothesis Specification of information needed Depending upon each component of the problem and the conceptual model, research questions and hypothesis, the information needed can be defined as follows: Component 1: To determine the factors customers are apprehensive about when selecting a store for shopping. Perceptions of customers on factors that influence choice of supermarkets Component 2: To determine how well do existing service offering meet customers needs. Evaluation of customers on the performance of ASDA. Evaluation of customers on the performance of Sainsburys. Evaluation of customers on the performance of Tesco. 5. Research Design and Methodology 5.1 Research Design In order to obtain the required information to solve the marketing research problems, research design was carried out for the further step. The research design is the framework or blueprint for conducting the marketing research project that specify the procedures necessary to obtain the information needed. (Malhotra, 2009) There are two basic types of research designs available which are classified in terms of the research objectives: exploratory and conclusive. (Malhotra, 2009) In this report, both exploratory and conclusive research designs were conducted for Sainsburys. 5.1.1 Exploratory research design In order to understand and gain insight to the problem that the company is facing now, a detailed literature review was prepared. 5.1.2 Conclusive research design After gaining understanding of current situation and management-decision problem of the company from exploratory research, the conclusive research was designed to make the management decision, testing hypotheses and also examining relationships between factors influencing the supermarket selection and customer satisfaction of Sainsburys as compared to its competitors. Furthermore, the descriptive research was used to describe the market characteristics and determine those relationships. Due to time constraint, the single cross-sectional design was used and a selected group of respondents were measured at one time. The data-collection technique used in this report was the survey conducted by a predesigned questionnaire. 5.2 Methodology 5.2.1 Secondary research methodology In order to collect data about the companys problem in general, two types of the secondary research were collected. The first one is the internal secondary data. Obtaining information from companys annual report provided the background of the company and fundamental data about its market shares. The second one is the external secondary data. In research approach development step, literatures have been reviewed. The information was retrieved from many sources including census data that provided elementary background of demographic data of UK households and consumption behaviors of UK consumers. In addition, abstracts in form of bibliographic databases have been retrieved from the University of Leeds Portals library. Gaining information from above secondary data can help us to understand the companys situation, define the research problem and also develop an approach to that problem. Journal articles and books provide knowledge in defining the variables in the research model which led to formulate the hypotheses and forming questionnaire design. 5.2.2 Primary research methodology 5.2.2.1 Research approach The major research approach chosen in this report is questionnaire survey. A detailed survey selecting a large sample was conducted to support the literature to get a deeper understanding of factors in choosing supermarkets. Furthermore, surveys were chosen in order to gain insights into the consumer behaviors pattern and consumers perceptions of UK supermarkets. 5.2.2.2 Sampling design Due to budget and time limitation, sample surveys were selected based on direct questioning. A sample is a subgroup of the elements of the population selected for participation in the study. (Malhotra, 2009) In this report, the sample group was selected from the total population in the UK. In determining the sample size, the statistical method was chosen. The sample size was calculated as follows: 2500 * N * Z2 n = ____________________ [25(N-1)] + [2500 * Z2] Where n = sample size required N = population size Z = number of standard errors The total population size (N) is 41,020,711 which are derived from the estimated people aged at 15-64 years in the United Kingdom as of July 2009. The source of information is The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). In this case, the most commonly used 95% confidence level is applied. When the variables are taken, the result obtained from the formula could be as below: 2,500 * 41,020,711 * 1.962 n = __________________________ 25(41,020,711 -1) + (2,500 * 1.962) = 384 Due to time and cost constraints, 40% of the total sample size was taken into consideration, therefore adding up to 154 samples could be collected in conducting the survey. For the sampling method used in the surveys, the data collected through a survey of 154 respondents was divided into two proportions equally. The probability sampling techniques used in this report is Simple Random Sampling (SRS) in which each sample in the total population has an equal probability in selecting. (Malhotra, 2009) Therefore, half of the total questionnaires were executed by people living in Leeds and the rest was from people living outside Leeds. Moreover, two ways in distributing the questionnaires were conducted: paper based and online based survey. 5.2.2.3 Questionnaire Design (Refer to Appendix 1) The division of research problem into components made the way to design the questionnaire to analyze the market scenario and the customer needs. The background of the questionnaire design was the basic study of the component and sub-dividing the components into various similar factors which are considered to select or prefer any retail industry. The Physical Factors were classified as size, location, layout, and etc. of the store and mentioned as questions in the draft. 12 broad questions were decided on the basis of relevance and availability of time for the participant to come out with rational answers without any external or internal influence of reviewer or the industry. The intention was to collect some primary data about the general perception of people and then segmenting them as per their responses and choices. As required questionnaire was designed in 4 major segments in five pages including the introduction and purpose of study, literature was consulted to find out the best blue print of the questionnaire. It was also considered that all the questions are easy to understand and the response is useful for the analysis of the components. The questionnaire was designed with both multiple choice and dichotomous questions with all the scales referred as per the 5 Point Likert Scale l The first section dealt with the general introduction of the respondents to the retail industry, the shopping habits and the familiarity with the retail market. l Section 2 were the general factors affecting the selection of supermarkets and respondents preference of retail stores, continued with the acuity of three major supermarkets in the UK namely ASDA, Sainsburys and Tesco. l Section 3 covered the satisfaction and loyalty level of the participants towards their favorite retail store. l The final section was the personal information about the respondent assisting with the demographical and segmentation of the participants. The sentences of the questionnaire were made simple and all the options and questions were double checked for any offence in the questions. It was specially taken care that every response should be informative and two open questions were also provided in the questionnaire in order to find depth know-how about the stance of people towards Sainsburys irrespective they are loyal members of Sainsburys shopping club or not. 5.2.2.4 Field work The data was collected between the 18th and the 22th of November, 2009. The questionnaires were collected in different times and different places, targeting all supermarket shoppers throughout the UK; starting from University of Leeds, city centre, flat residents and people outside Leeds. The questionnaire delivering method was personal interviews in order to control the response rate and clarify the complex questions. 5.2.2.5 Analytical issues A diversity of analytical methods was used to gather the data and analyze the results. To analyze the basic statistics, descriptive statistics has been used. Furthermore, graphical representations and one-sample tests were applied to present the demographic and psychographic profile of respondents and also examine the influential factors when choosing a supermarket. To analyze the relationship between independent and dependent variables, the regression analysis has been used. Bivariate regressions were used to test the hypotheses H1, H2, H3, H4, and H5 while multiple regression analysis was used to test whether or not there is collective relation between all hypothetical factors and customer satisfaction. 6. Results and Analysis In this part, SPSS was used to represent the basic statistics, graphical representations and one-sample tests in order to answer the five problem components. Also, it was used for testing whether or not the results support the hypotheses. 6. 1. Analysis of Problem Components 6.1.1 Examining demographic and psychographic profile of respondents There are 154 questionnaires have been completed which 60 % is female and the other 40% is male. (Refer to Appendix 2) More than 50% of respondents aged between 18-24 years old and they are all students. The second most majority is people aged between 25-34 years old. The minority is people aged more than 65 years old. (Refer to Appendix 3) By far the most of respondents are single due to the fact that they are students. One-fifth of them are married and there is no widowed who filled in the questionnaires. (Refer to Appendix 4) More than a half of respondents are students and nearly 30% of all respondents are working and employed by the company. (Refer to Appendix 5) Nearly half spend between  £20 40 when going shopping while the average household annual income is below  £ 15,000. (Refer to Appendix 6 and 7) 6.1.2 Examining factors affecting supermarket selection Table 2: One-sample T-test statistics results One sample T-test were carried out to test the extent to which the mean scores are significantly higher than the mid point 3 on the scale ranging from 1 = the least important to 5 = the most important. Results summarized in the table indicate that customers evaluate the Independent variables positively when choosing which supermarket to shop in, but at different levels. It is also obvious from the table that Price, Location/Nearness, Quality of Products, Variety of Products have the strongest mean. It is important to note that the 4 Independ