Yeats’ poetry Essay Example for Free

Yeats’ poetry Essay Yeats’ poetry has survived over a century due to his depiction of various human states both in himself and those in the world around him. A personal and depressive depiction of humans is seen used in â€Å"The wild swans at Coole,† where Yeats reflects on the final rejection from Maud Gonne whom he was in love with. A juxtaposed human state is seen in â€Å"The Second Coming,† where Yeats depicts the chaotic and destructive nature of humans as a result of an external spiritual/religious force being removed. Both poems depict different representations of what is to be human, however both depictions are still very relevant in today’s society. In â€Å"The Wild Swans at Coole,† Yeats uses oxymoronic metaphors of the season â€Å"autumn beauty,† to represent the depressive state he was feeling. While â€Å"autumn,† has connotations of decay, Yeats views the season as â€Å"beautiful,† to emphasise the self-pity he is experiencing. Sexual tension and frustration is also conveyed through metaphors; â€Å"woodland paths are dry,† refers to the bleak and dry season of autumn but also to Yeats’ lack of sexual action as a result of chasing after Maud for such a long time. This sexual desire is emphasised through symbolism of the â€Å"swans,† as when these creatures’ wings open, they bare a remarkable resemblance to the male genitalia. Visual imagery of the â€Å"October twilight,† furthers the emphasis on Yeats’ depression and sadness as October in Ireland sees the arrival of grey skies which depicts Yeats’ conscience to his aging self. The grey skies that come in October metaphorically represent grey hair that Yeats’ is/will shortly grow as a result of his aging. As â€Å"twilight,† is the point between day and night, Yeats’ sees his youth disappearing with the day. Yeats is reminded later in the poem of his inevitable aging by the swan’s wings as they create a â€Å"bell-beat of their wings,† above his head. The use of alliteration with â€Å"bell beat,† places emphasis to the idea of a bell going off in his head and reminding him of his old age. Yeats uses â€Å"The Wild Swans at Coole,† to represent multiple phases in which every human will encounter. He makes it clear that rejection of love can cause a person to reflect on their depressive state as well as the sexual frustrations, which re a natural occurrence in human beings. By using metaphors Yeats is also able to convey the inevitable aging process that all humans take part in. In â€Å"The second Coming,† Yeats utilises striking metaphors to convey a different idea of what it is to be human. The word â€Å"turn,† is emphasised in the line â€Å"turning and turning the widening gyre,† due to the trochaic pentameter used. This beat is broke n however by the word â€Å"gyre,† which draws the readers attention to the chaos and lack of structure in the current gyre. This represents what Yeats believed about time being divided into two-thousand year periods (called gyres) in which the opposite of one gyre would occur in the other. The chaos and lack of structure in the line represents the violent and chaotic escapades that many people were a part of during that time. (The Nazi rule in Germany and violent struggle between England and Ireland. ) Personification of a falcon; â€Å"the falcon cannot hear the falconer,† depicts humans turning away from god or some external moral structure and this causing the violence and destruction that was occurring. Yeats depicts humans, as needing some form of spiritual structure in their lives or â€Å"mere anarchy,† will be loosed upon the world. Personification can be seen used on the word â€Å"anarchy,† to depict it as being some form of beast, which is released from its cage as people turn away from religion/spiritualism. Violent personification is used as the â€Å"ceremony of innocence is drowned. † This again furthers the idea that when religious/spiritual values are questioned, the good things that come from these values are lost. Through the use of the extended metaphor of â€Å"gyres,† Yeats is able to show that humans need an external moral guide (in religion or other spiritualistic ways) otherwise chaos and violence will occur as there is no moral structure to be followed. In â€Å"The Wild Swans at Coole,† Yeats portrays the natural human instinct to be with another human through the use of syntactical variation as seen in the line â€Å"nine-and-fifty swans. † By having the odd number â€Å"nine,† at the beginning of the sentence, the reader knows that one swan is without a partner. Yeats feels attached to this swan as he too is without a partner and this brings back his depressive and lonely state and how a person cannot feel completed unless they have someone to share their life with. Jealousy of the swans’ youthfulness and vitality becomes apparent through verbs â€Å"mount†¦wheeling†¦scatter,† which are juxtaposed when Yeats realises that â€Å"my heart is sore. † This juxtaposition shows Yeats wishing he too could wheel or mount or scatter, however his old age and anxiety makes it difficult for him to find the energy to do so. Yeats also makes it apparent that â€Å"all’s changed,† now that the â€Å"nineteenth autumn,† has come upon him since the first time he visited Coole park. Juxtaposed to Yeats’ changed state are the swans that are â€Å"unwearied still,† as the â€Å"paddle in the cold. † The swans appear unaffected by the cold water as they paddle side-by-side or â€Å"lover by lover. † This bring the idea that Yeats feels he would be able to conquer the hard times in his life better if he had a partner to help him along the way. This statement also brings back his idea that humans need a lifelong partner to live happily. In the second stanza of â€Å"The Second Coming,† Yeats proclaims, â€Å"surely some revelation is at hand. † Anaphora is used on the word â€Å"surely,† as it is repeated in the lone below and this combined with the rhetorical question Yeats poses, emphasises the idea that some god/divine spirit must/will reveal itself Yeats’ exasperation to the situation shows that he believes that the only way for the chaos to be over is if a spiritual guide reveals itself which Yeats believed was â€Å"somewhere in the sands of the desert. † The use of sibilance emphasises the greatness of the creature that has a â€Å"lion body and head of a man. The â€Å"sands of the desert,† is a metaphor for the sands in an hourglass, which shows the lack of time before the second coming takes place. Alliteration â€Å"darkness drops again,† stresses the metaphor of the gyre ending as the second gyre begins. The word â€Å"again,† suggests that this has happened before when the previous gyre ended and also proclaims that this pattern of chaos and destruction will occur in the future as the current gyre ends. In the chaos, Yeats makes it apparent that those who choose not to be a part of the violence will suffer as â€Å"the best lack al conviction. He makes it clear that in times of chaos you must either eat or be eaten. In Yeats’ poetry we can see different representations of what it is to be human. Although portraying very different phases of being human, â€Å"The Wild Swans at Coole,† and â€Å"The Second Coming,† both show representations of what being human entails. The stages of humanity that Yeats makes reference to in each poem are ones that are still relevant today (depression, loneliness, chaos, violence. ) It is because of these representations that Yeats’ poems are and will always be relevant to our lives.

Cadbury | Marketing Analysis

Cadbury | Marketing Analysis Cadbury, the global leader in the chocolate confectionery market, began in 1824 when a young Quaker named John Cadbury opened up a shop in Birmingham. He sold tea, coffee and drinking cocoa and chocolate and one of the main causes of poverty was alcohol, he hoped that his product would prove to be a suitable alternative for it and so he maintained high quality standards for all of his products. Quakers was not allowed to attend university at that time and his anti-military thoughts also kept him away from the military, so he devoted his time towards business related activities or to other social reforms. John was selling 11 different types of cocoa and 16 different kinds of drinking chocolate by 1842. His brother, Benjamin also joined the company and they formed Cadbury Brothers of Birmingham. They got the Royal Warranty from Queen Victoria in 1854 and opened their office in London. The partnership failed after six years when Johns wife died and due to his deteriorating health. The business was handed over to George and Richard, Johns sons and they operated the business later on. The two brothers continued to expand their business and were earning profit now. Cadburys Cocoa Essence, which was advertised as absolutely pure and therefore best, was an all-natural product made with pure cocoa butter and no starchy ingredients. Cocoa Essence was the beginning of chocolate as we know it today. They moved their business to South of Birmingham and the area became popularly known as, Bournville. Due to profitable business, the brothers also started selling tea in 1873. Master confectioner Frederic Kinchelman was appointed to share his recipe and production secrets with Cadbury workers. This resulted in Cadbury producing chocolate covered nougats, bonbons delices, pistache, caramels, avelines and more. In 1897, they manufactured their first milk chocolate and two years later, they were incorporated as a limited company and had hired 2600 people in their factory. Cadbury supported World War I and sent books, chocolates and clothes to the soldier. Around 2000 of their employees joined the armed forces. These people were allowed to work in the factory after taking educational courses once they were back from the war. During this period trade overseas increased, and Cadbury opened its first overseas factory near Hobart, Tasmania. The next year Cadbury merged with JS Fry Sons, a past market leader in chocolate. Cadbury also extended their support in the Second World War. Their factories were used for the manufacturing of arms and ammunitions. Their growing fields were used as runways for the airplanes used in wars. Cadbury St. Johns Ambulance unit helped people during air raids and chocolate were provided to soldiers through out the war. In 1969 Cadbury merged with Schweppes (a brand famous for manufacturing carbonated soft drinks and mineral water) to form Cadbury Schweppes. These two merged companies went on to acquire Sunkist, Canada Dry, Typhoo Tea and more. Schweppes Beverages was created, and the manufacture of Cadbury confectionery brands was licensed to Hershey. Today Cadbury Schweppes is the largest confectionery company in the world, employing more than 70,000 employees. In 2006 the company had over $15 billion in overall sales. Cadbury Product Timeline A history of Cadburys sweet success à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1824 John Cadbury, the son of Richard Cadbury, opened his shop in Birmingham and sold tea, coffee,hops, mustard, cocoa and drinking chocolate. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1866 The Cadbury brothers introduce a new cocoa process to produce a much more palatable Cocoa Essence the forerunner of the cocoa we know today. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1897 First milk chocolate manufactured by chocolate. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1904 George Cadbury Junior perfects a new recipe for milk chocolate. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1905 Cadbury launched Dairy Milk into the market contained more milk than any other chocolates. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1913 Dairy Milk became Cadburys best-selling line. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1915 Cadbury Milk Tray was introduced. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1920 Cadbury Flake was introduced. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1923 Cream filled eggs, the forerunner of Cadburys Creme Egg, were introduced. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Mid-1920s Cadbury Dairy Milk gains its status as the brand leader in the UK. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1928 Fruit and Nut was introduced as a variation of Dairy Milk and Cadbury introduced the glass and a half advertising slogan. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1933 Cadbury added Whole Nut to the Dairy Milk family. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1938 Cadbury Roses were launched. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1956 Cadbury supplied Roses for a Royal tour of East Africa. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1958 Picnic was launched. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1960s Chocolate Éclairs were launched by London confectioner, James Pascall. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1971 Halls joined the Adams family and Cadbury Creme Egg was launched. Pascalls was bought by Cadbury, with Eclairs becoming the second largest brand in the company (at that time). à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1974 Cadbury Eclairs were launched only in the UK. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1976 Cadbury Caramel was launched. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1979 New advertising idea of saying thank you with Cadbury Roses was introduced. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1980-96 Cadbury Eclairs became an international brand. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1985 Cadbury Creme Egg launched a new campaign called, How do you eat yours? . à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1987 Cadbury Twirl was launched and Cadbury Roses became the leading brand in the twist-wrap market. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1998 Cadbury Dairy Milk was relaunched only in the UK. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 1999 Cadbury Eclairs were relaunched as Cadbury Choclairs in important markets. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 2000 Cadbury Snowflake was launched. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 2005 Cadbury Schweppes acquires Green Blacks, the UK premium chocolate brand. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ 2010 Company accepted takeover bid from US food giant Kraft. Interesting Facts about Cadbury Instead of printing texts on chocolate boxes, Cadbury became the first company to include pictures as well. George Cadbury emphasized on mother-children relationship and whenever any woman worker had a baby, she was asked to leave the job and take care of the baby. Cadbury became the first company offering kitchens with dining tables and food for sale in 1886. A miniature metal animal (elephant, penguin, owl, fox, duck, squirrel, rabbit or turtle) was given away with specially designed cocoa tins in 1934. In the same year, Cadburys tokens, which came with packs of cocoa, could be redeemed for lamps, kettles and saucepans. Many children joined Cadburys Cococub Club in 1936. Cadburys World Visitor Center opened in 1990, welcoming 400,000 visitors in its first year. A Get Active program was launched by Cadbury in 2003, helping 10,000 teachers get in shape. Cadbury a leader in the global confectionery market Cadbury is one of the worlds leading confectionary firms, selling chocolate, gum and candy under its own name in addition to other brands such as Halls and Green and Blacks. It also produces a range of beverages and functional and health foods. The organization now operates in more than 60 countries, with the United States, New Zealand, Turkey and Canada among the nations in which its various products are sold. It has approximately 45000 employees and works with around 35000 direct and indirect suppliers. The firm earned a 7 percent rise in their revenue recently. Key categories and brands Cadbury is operating in a number of markets at the same time, including the functional and health foods and beverages sectors. It also sells a wide range of confectionery throughout the world both under its own brand and a range of other names. Among these are Green and Blacks chocolate ( UKs leading premium chocolate product). Other confectionery products include Cadbury Roses boxes of individually wrapped assorted chocolates and the Cadburys Creme Egg. Flake, Eclairs and Dairy Milk are the chocolates that are sold under Cadburys brand name. Other products that are offered by the firm within the confectionery sector include Freddo, Caramilk, Old Gold and Wendel Mieszanka Wedlowska. Cadbury is also a major player in the gum market, with Bubblicious bubblegum among the range of such products. Bubblicious is the number one bubblegum in Canada and the second-most popular in the United States. It comes in a variety of flavours including Watermelon Wave and Strawberry Splash. Stride is also among the gums available on the US market, while First a sugar-free gum launched in Turkey in 1995 has a number of sub-brands such as Neogum Lava. Among this particular product range is First Duo which contains a number of herbal active ingredients such as parsley, sunflower and extract of green tea aimed at providing clean and fresh breath. The firm is also active within the beverages sector, with its leading brands here including Bournvita a cocoa-based drink that can be mixed with water and/or milk which is particularly popular in India and Nigeria Cadbury Bournville Cocoa and Cadbury Drinking Chocolate. Cadburys Halls brand has a major stake within the functional and health foods sector. The range of mentholated products which includes Halls Defense, Fruit Breezers and Maxair provide nose and throat relief for those suffering from colds, coughs and other ailments and has a 22 per cent share of the medicated confectionery market. It also accounts for more than half of all cough drop products sold throughout the world and has licensed medicated status in northern hemisphere countries including Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. In other parts of the world particularly in hot, dry countries Halls products tend to be purchased for the purposes of mouth refreshment. The confectionary market was booming as many multinational firms were entering. Till the mid 80s, chocolate market was small and almost dominated by Cadbury only. It made chocolate for a distinct category with an identity of its own. So chocolates carried a only for kids tag ad and kept the adults away. Cadbury had 80% of the market share by mid 80s. Other categories like Amul and Campco tried to break into the market and reduce Cadburys market share, but failed. By now chocolate were categorized as luxury and were reserved for special occasions and for rewarding and reinforcing the positive behavior. Later on Cadbury also dominated the market because it not only focused on children, but on adults also. While its competitors thought and made chocolates only for children, due to which Cadbury had an upper hand in the chocolate market. Trends in the Industry à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Changes are rapidly taking place these days, so everyone (including the young and the elderly) will change according to the new lifestyle and will adapt to chocolate eating. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Population and family incomes as well as urbanization are increasing in the industry. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Approximately 6 million people have upgraded to the middle class. On February 2, 2010, Cadbury became part of Kraft Foods as both of them merged. Some fast facts on the combined company of Cadbury and Kraft are: Our Global Reach  · Approximately $50 billion in revenues  · 25%+ of global revenue from emerging markets  · #1 in global confectionery  · #1 in global biscuits  · More than 50% of global revenue from snacks and confectionery Our Brand Portfolio  · 11 brands with more than $1 billion in revenue  · 70+ brands with more than $100 million in revenue  · 40+ brands over 100 years old  · 80% revenue from #1 share positions Explanation Cadbury is considered in the market structure of Monopolistic Competition. All the firms in the industry face a lot of competition from each other and Hersheys and Nestle are some of the major competitors of Hersheys, to name a few. There is no collusion between such firms and so each firm determines its own pricing policy without considering the possible reactions of rival firms. They all are producing products with slightly different physical characteristics, offer varying degrees of customer service, providing various amounts of locational convenience or proclaim special qualities, real or imagined, for their products. Product differentiation may also be created through the use of brand names and trademarks, packaging, and celebrity connections, for example, Cadbury included Amitabh Bachan in their advertisements. It shows that the demand for Cadbury products is highly elastic. Entry and exit of firms in monopolistic competition is relatively easy as economies of scale are few and capital requirements are low and nothing prevents an unprofitable monopolistic competitor from holding a going-out-of-business sale and shutting down. The expense and effort of the firms would be wasted if the consumers do not know about the product, so the firms often advertise heavily and the goal of product differentiation and advertising is nonprice competition, which is to make price less of a factor and make product differences a greater factor. If it becomes successful, the demand curve of the firm shifts towards the right and becomes less elastic. ADVERTISING SALES PROMOTION Advertising and Sales promotion are very essential for a business to prosper and to generate revenue. As Cadbury has many substitutes as well like Hersheys and Nestle etc., so it is in a stage of great competition. It needs to focus a lot on advertising to capture the market share because all of the firms in the industry are selling differentiated products, due to which they are heavily focusing on advertising. Slogans of advertising are the tools of sales promotion are very important as they persuade the customer to purchase the product. Following are a few advertising slogans used by Cadbury for introducing the product to the customers:- THE REAL TASTE OF LIFE (DAIRY MILK ) THODI SI PET POOJA KABHI BHI KAHI BHI (PERK) WHEN EVER ON HUNGER STRIKE (PERK) TAN KI SHAKTI, MAN KI SHAKTI (BOURNVITA) KUCH ZADA HI SOLID (PICNIC) YEH CHOCOLATE KHAE AAP INHE KHAE (ECLAIRS) Along with great advertisements, these slogans are beautifully used by Cadbury so they can persuade the consumer to buy the product. PRICING POLICIES ADOPTED BY CADBURY Although there is intense competition among different chocolate firms for market share and new products, it has been seen that the prices of chocolates has risen since the last one year. Prices of important brands like Nestles Kitkat and Cadburys Dairy Milk have rose by 25 per cent each and prices of brands like Cadburys Eclairs have also rose. Cocoa is one of the most important inputs of Cadburys chocolate and accounts for 45% of the total cost of chocolate production. Since its domestic production (estimated at 4500 to 5000 tonnes for the current year) is not increasing in India, so they have to import it at a higher price. More than half of the cocoa used in production is being imported. This is one of the major reasons why a rise in prices of Cadburys chocolate can be seen. Along with it, the Indian rupee is also depreciating, so it makes the company worse off. Another reason is that internationally the prices of cocoa has risen, so the production cost of firm increases which compels the firm to rise its prices. The excise duties have imposed a heavier charge on imports by increasing the tax paid on excise duties from 8% to 18%.Maximum retail prices have been introduced in the budget which adds to the cost of production. All these factors have risen the cost of production of the firm and it is unlikely that the prices will recede in the near future. FACTORS INFLUENCING PRICING OF CADBURY Internal Factors Corporate and marketing objectives of the firm. The image sought by the firm through pricing. The characteristics of the product. Price elasticity of demand of the product. The stage of the product on the product life cycle. Use pattern and turn around rate of the product. Cost of manufacturing and marketing. Extent of distinctiveness of the product and extent of production differentiation practiced by the firm. Other elements of the marketing mix of the firm and their interaction with pricing. Composition of the product line of the firm. External Factors Market characteristics. Buyers behavior in respect of the given product. Bargaining power of major customers. Competitors pricing policy. Government controls regulations on pricing. Other relevant legal aspects. Societal (or social) considerations. Understanding, if any reached with price cartels. Cadbury objective of pricing Profit maximization in the short-term. Profit optimization in the long-term. A minimum return (or target return) on investment. A minimum return on sales turnover. Targets sales volume. Target market share. Deeper penetration of the market. Entering new markets. Target profit on the entire product line irrespective of profit level in individual products. Keeping competition out, or keeping it under check. Fast turn around and early cash recovery. Stabilizing prices and margins in the market. Cadbury vs Kraft Confectionery Market Value Share by Region 2008 The Kraft/Cadbury strategic fit It is the end of 3 years turnaround plan and its redeveloped growth strategy is strongly based on selected primary categories, such as chocolate, biscuits and coffee. It has secured a leading position after the attainment of DANONEs biscuit and cereals division in the global market with 18.4% value share, the company seems to follow the same policies in order to gain a leading position in confectionery market. The joint value share of Kraft and Cadbury in the global confectionery market will be 14.9%, it captures the top position from current leader Mars (14.5%). Krafts further expansion in confectionery market is dependent on its current reforms strategies and its aim is to become a global powerhouse in snacks, confectionery and quick meals. It is expanding its activities in confectionery which will fully complement the Danone biscuits and cereal product operations. Even though Krafts market share is higher in all region except for the smallest Middle East, Africa and Australia is comparatively higher than Cadburys, in confectionery Cadbury has a noteworthy lead over Kraft, except for Eastern Europe where Kraft was one of the first multinational movers to enter the market. With this attainment Kraft will gain a strong value share and leading position in many major developing markets in Latin America, the Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific, such as India As well as wider geographical reach, Kraft will also benefit from Cadburys brands meeting its own chocolate and sugar confectionery portfolio as well. Attaining Cadbury Kraft will get leading position in global confectionery and it helps it expand it geographical coverage in meeting regions. However, even confectionery is expected to perform below overall packaged food growth over the 2009-2014 period, with a 1.5% CAGR compared to a 1.7% CAGR, respectively. Asia Pacific and Latin America are most relevant set, gains of Kraft. As their confectionery market of 2009 and 2014 are expected to post CAGR of 2.3% and 2.6% respectively DANONEs biscuits and Cadbury are Krafts latest acquisitions and are revealing the companys strategic direction of establishing strong growth platforms in categories in which it can benefit from complementary operations and significant economies of scale. Revenue Performance by Category Throughout the year there was a good demand for chocolates and bagged candies the expected beneficiary of stay at home culture. At the same time, regardless to a softer start to the year, the more functional or activity related product, like medicated gums and candies delivered a positive growth from the end of second quarter. Chocolate (46% of revenue in 2009) delivered revenue growth of 7%, reflecting strong performances in the UK, India and South Africa. India and South Africa benefited from continued investment behind affordable products, supporting chocolate growth in emerging markets of 11%. Australia delivered progressively good growth, benefiting from the relaunch of the core Cadbury Dairy Milk (CDM) brand in the second quarter of the year. Similarly, our business in Poland benefited from the relaunch of Wedel in the second half, leveraging the experience of the UK relaunch of CDM in 2008. Gum (33%) revenue growth improved strongly in the second half (up 5%) more than compensating for the weak first quarter. As a result, Gum was up 2% for the year as a whole. Despite weak market conditions overall, our businesses improved market share in nearly all key markets, including the US where the launch of Trident Layers in the second half re-established strong growth momentum in the category. Candy (21%) revenues grew 5% for the year as a whole reflecting strong second half growth of 9% with significantly improved performances from Halls, Éclairs and other mainstream candy brands. Halls benefited from product innovation and a good start to the cold and flu season. Innovation drove strong growth in other focus brands, including Éclairs (up 29%) and The Natural Confectionery Co (up 24%). Revenue Performance by Market Our performance by market reflected some local market share performances, even though weak economic conditions in many developed markets, in addition to the different mix between chocolate, gum and candy. Generally, based on the markets for which we have recent share data available, that represent 90% of our revenue, market share, progress has been very good. Cadbury has generated over 70% of our revenue. In emerging markets (38% of revenue in 2009), revenue growth was again very strong for the year as a whole, up 9% (up 7% in the first half and up 10% in the second half), led by strong performances in India, the Middle East and Africa and South America. While trading in European emerging markets was challenging, Russia and Turkey improved toward the end of the period, and both countries delivered growth for the year. In developed markets (62%), revenue grew 2% with an improved second half (up 3%) offsetting the slow start to the year. The impact of weak market conditions in developed Europe was mitigated by strong growth in the UK and significantly improved performance in the US and Canada. V I S I O N The governing objective for Cadbury is to deliver: Superior Shareholder Value Cadbury in every pocket The company believes this requires: Broadening our consumer appeal and extending their reach to newer markets Sustained growth of their market share through aggressive product development Striving for international quality in their products and processes Focusing on cost competitiveness and productivity in their operations and innovative utilisation of their assets Investing to develop people. Developing a product which would gain a permanent place in the companys product portfolio is not an easy task. It take minimum 58 new product ideas in order to come up with on successful new product and some researchers estimate to a 100 ideas. Majority of the ideas fail even before they are made to the consumers, a rest major portion fails during the marketing test process and do not make it to national distribution. With the enormous investments needed to fund such projects it becomes essential that the entire project is carefully researched. Successful new product development is mainly team work research and development, marketing and sales, market research, production, engineering and finance. At Cadbury, the marketing role is fulfilled by the Product/Brand Manager , function is to coordinate and mastermind the project through from the initial brief to national launch, until the largest sales capacity has been achieved. The initial incentive for embarking on a New Product Develop ment project can be: Changes in consumer lifestyles Technology developments where new processing techniques have been devised The need for market extension abroad, particularly into Asia Pacific, and the demise of trade barriers. However, products cannot be simply transferred from one market to another without review and possible adaptation to suit differing expectations and cultures. Whether the product strategy is: Existing product improvement New product development within the current range of activity Production diversification. Situational factors when designing market planning and analysis of environment is serious as it would allow Dairy Milk to capitalize on organizational strengths, minimize any weaknesses, exploit market opportunities and avoid any threats. Strengths Cadbury would realize several possible advantages in going abroad. By penetrating a foreign market the company could: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Maintain a stable growth of a company by maximizing the use of its production capacity and thus increase economies of scale and scope. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ With its brand name, Cadbury could counterattack the competitors it faces in the domestic market by attacking their domestic market. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Keep up with the financial strength by increasing its sales and profit, indeed the foreign market could present higher profit opportunities than the domestic products. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Acquisition rules in UK reduce its dependence on the UK market and therefore diversify its market specific risks. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Overall, Cadbury has been successful through the new products (development) it has to offer. Weaknesses Overall, Cadbury has a weak position in the US market; therefore, need to change its target to a different location. It lacks of distribution network, it also has a small total of market share altogether. Therefore in order to market the product in France successfully, Cadbury has to find out how it should improve, in order to have great performance. It should also find out, what are the situations they can avoid in order to be successful. In order to market products the following issues should be considered: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Total French production of chocolate bars and confectionary, which has increased by 24.5 % between 1988 and 1991, has slowed down in more recent years, partly due to the economic fall. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Intake of chocolate products, which has been growing since 1991, remained properly still in 1992, causing a fall in demand due to the gloomy economic situation. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Sales of milk chocolate bars, which account for 24% by volume of total sales of chocolate bars, came down by 3.7 %. Opportunities Through its confectionary product line, least to mention is to build feasible positions in focused markets through biological growth and acquirement. Besides what is mention above, Cadbury has opportunities to have developed market in Russia and China. The Timeout Candy Bar market is growing worldwide. This company is also at the same time distributing its products through the internet Develop Gourmet Line. Besides developing the Low Calorie variety of chocolates and sweets, they also offer the Sugar Free sweets variety. This has therefore completely opened a Cadbury world in US. In order to get the product into a new foreign market, France, Cadbury would have good opportunities in store for them. Opportunities are as follows: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ In terms of political issues, France has advanced parliamentary democracy and is highly stable politically. The political power is nationalized in the parliament, the Prime Minister and the President. The country specific risk is insignificant. France is a member of the European Community and has excellent relations with the UK. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Economically, France has the fourth largest GDP in the world. It has an advanced market based economy. Despite a recent recession, its economy is very strong and also highly relaxed in line with European Union policies. France represents a very large potential market with a high standard of living and purchasing power. The economy is highly open internationally and conducts a high percentage of trade within its European partners. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ With regards to its social situation, France has a broadly central/southern European culture which has many similarities with the UK. However cultural differences do exist and these must be considered when planning for the market. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ France has a high technological level and a lot of industries are based in the technological sector. This technological base constitutes one of Frances competitive advantages. Threats Due to its confectionary products, it is very important for Cadbury threat that is present or eminent. The company should take note of the changes in the consumers buying trend. It is perceived that consumers might shift from chocolates to Healthy snacks. If this were to happen, there might be a poor product development which would stain the Cadburys name. Useless to talk about price wars would occur between its competitors like Mars, Hershey and Nestle. Due to the abovementioned, there would be seasonal sales slumps all year round which will reflect to an increase in cost of the raw materials needed. Cadbury would then have to be prepared for growth of small local gourmet chocolates and regional candy manufacturers. However if Cadbury were to market its products in France, the company has to be aware of the risks it could meet. It might: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Not understand foreign customer preferences and fail to offer a competitively attractive product; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Not understand the foreign countrys business culture or know how to deal effectively with foreign nationals; à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Underestimate foreign regulations and incur unexpected costs. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¢ Threat of entry due to the competition growing through acquisition. Although the company has come up with a few current products, it is targeting to a new market. Despite the competition against the rest (Hersheys, MM Mars and Nestle), Cadbury needs to have a bargaining power of the buyers in order to be competitive in the market. The company even needs to know that substitutes are not a major concern. Finally, to conclude that Cadbury is in the Market Development, they would have to have the bargaining power of suppliers as they are not in power position due to commodity like nature. And also to be aware of the cost of packaging materials as it has increased over time. There are a few strategic recommendations that Cadbury could come up with in order to market its products not only in the region of France, but also to market it products successfully. After much discussion on the position of the product Urban Poverty in Canada: Political Analysis Urban Poverty in Canada: Political Analysis Submitted to: Professor. Nugent Submitted by: Nadia Haidar Introduction Urban poverty in Canada has become one of the major factors that require consideration in a political perspective to arrive at a solution. This problem took its foothold in the country between the year 1990 and 2000. According to a report by the urban poverty project, in the year 2012 about half of Canada’s population an amount totaling to 15.3 million people lived in just four of the urban areas among them Toronto. This makes the country of Canada one of the most urbanized countries with a population of 25 million people living in the urban areas. Among these people about one of every six people lived in Poverty. In the year 2000, about 3.3 million people who are poor Canadians had their residence in the Census Metropolitan areas. As the population of the people in the Metropolitan area grow, the rate of poor urban dwellers increases at a faster rate. Among the major city of Canada, the City of Toronto has the largest number of low earning people with a population of about 77 1530 and has a poverty rate of about 16.2%. (Katherine, 2007) Abstract With the upcoming elections of the Ontario provincial election, a city election, and a federal election, this paper tries to focus on the election in terms of the impact it would have on the geographical urban poverty. It also focuses on the platforms and candidates take on the various ideologies that they advocate for in their campaign in relation to the urban poverty. The paper also focuses on the debates and the effect of quality on the people as per the decision they make in voting for the leaders. One of the parties in with fighting for the poor urban people is the Communist party. The party which in the provincial elections due to happen on June the 12th, is running 11 Candidates has on its website encouraged people to vote for the program in which the working class were fighting for. According to the 1990 to 2000 report, about 45% of people living in the urban area contribute to the GDP of Canada. Yet among these people, the poor have quite a good percentage. According to one of their candidates Elizabeth Rowley she promises to put the needs of the people first before cooperate greed. The party intends to achieve this by offering good jobs to its people, affordable renting and housing controls among others. (Rowley, 2014 ) In the communist party campaign they are pointing out clear that, there is a gap between the rich and the poor, pointing out that the poverty level is on the rise and unemployment is quite as high as well. As the provincial leader of the communist party Ro wley points out that what they fear most is not the liberal party that has failed the people of Ontario, but the conservative party led by Tim Hudak. The conservative party is laying the facts clear that if elected they will lay down about 10000 people working in the public sector. According to the communist, this attempt would demolish the public sector. In attempt to slash the wages arguably, the conservative party would be contributing to the rise in the poverty level, greatly affecting the urban poverty negatively making it grow rather than decrease. Contrary to what the communist party is offering, with the likes of a quality public service with better health care and hospitals being one of their promises to the people. According to the NDP, they have an economic plan, which involves a raise in the minimum wage rate to $12 per hour and later tying it to the inflation. This move of increasing the current paltry by a dollar per hour as it is currently at $11 per hour will help the poor in the province to make more money to live off well. (Stockton, 2014) This comes from the leader of the NDP Andrea Horwath. Asking the employers to pay more however, would result to the workers losing their jobs. The Capitalists aim of cutting off operation costs and raising the price of the goods, acting in the disfavor of the poor. According to the campaign of the NDP party, their argument is that increasing the minimum wage gives the poor people a chance to have a hold of the money, which they spend, putting it in the circular flow of the economy thus experiencing growth. To dispute this however, looking at a place where it has been in application, in the United States of America, a study after comparing the geograph ical contiguous regions whose minimum wage was different found that a high minimum wage rate related to the unemployment rate in the region. (Debra Burke) Looking at the facts on the ground it is also important to identify the people who are working below the minimum age, only 4.6 % of the people of Ontario that works below the minimum wage rate. While this seems like quite a good idea, the minimum wage rate raise may not be the solution to most of the problems. The liberal party of Canada policy resolutions: Most of Toronto seems to ignore the local politics, with the current mayor Rob Ford still running for office. There are a number of other candidates among them Ashok Sajnani, Morgan Baskin, a dentists and a student who are considered as long shots for the job. Arguably, they should start the city hall politics serving as a councillor but not in their opinion. The Conservative’s party candidate however John Tory deemed as one of the most likely candidate to topple Rob Fords leadership idea as per his fiscal strategies include lowering taxes especially property taxes which to some extent is in the favor of the poor. (Powell, 2014) The debates of the parties in the Ontario representatives seem to carry weight on the people of Ontario based on their influence. The big parties do have a great say in the debates and the emphasis is majorly in them. The parties presented in the debates mostly are; the Liberal Party, the Progressive Conservative Party, and New Democratic party their leaders are Kathleen Wynne, Tim Hudak. The other parties, such as the communist party of Canada do not seem to get an equal platform with these two. The quality of the debates may be quite good since they are a great determinant of the polls; the politicians try their best to lay it out for the people the actions they are going to take once in their government. In a recent call from the doctors, they asked the four on the province political parties to engage in a debate involving health care. (CBC News, 2014) The poor people being among the great number of the 700000 Ontarians who do not have the primary access to such care needs clarifi cation. The Liberal leader take on this through their leader Kathleen Wynne promised of primary access to a health care provider by the year 2018. According to Kathleen, this would cost less than $20 million. In the opinion of the Progressive Conservative party through their leader Tim Hudak, he suggested demolishing the existing health service and focusing on the employees like nurses as the frontline. The New Democratic Party leader Andrea Howarth plans to reduce the time by half that ER wait times take. Adding another 250 nurse practitioners in the emergency rooms was a further suggestion as well as 50 new family clinics working on a 24-hour system. Despite this suggestion, the request to have a formal debate that involves the four leaders would help the citizens make an informed decision. The health care anticipated debate is a good example of showing the quality of the debates since they greatly affect the decision of the voter. In a study that was carried out by Ipsos, show th at the majority of the Ontarians whom were undecided about the leader they were going to support were going to make their decision based on the June 3rd debate. Thirty eight percent of the people make their decision on whom to vote for on the day after the debate. Thirteen percent of them wait until the last debate while fourteen percent will wait until the last week of the campaign, and eleven percent of the people make the decision on the day of the election. However, this is significant to the quality of the debate and how convincing they can be, the study also shows that sixty two percent of the Ontarians make the decision long before the elections begin with forty one percent of them not changing their decision throughout the campaign. Twenty-one percent of the Ontarians however might change their mind. (Ipsos, 2014) An issue reported with the debates is about the inaccessibility to the debate by candidates of the provincial election of Ontario. On May, 29th 2014, a debate was held in Cambridge Ontario and was inaccessible to the people with disability. The event organizers did not put into consideration that the disabled people too would want to attend the all candidates’ debate. In this event, the local advocator of the people with disabilities Lyn McGinnis was not able to access the all candidate debate. Having an accessible venue is important to have a barrier free debate that all willing to attend can do so. Conclusion Conclusively, the results of the election will greatly determine the state of the urban poverty since the policy that the party that will win by a majority will determine the future of the people. Different people hold different opinions in the parties’ and have a strategy to make their condition better. The liberal party may, to majority of these people, see that they have been failed by the party since in their rule, unemployment has not been solved, greater disparity of the poor and the rich, and the greedy capitalists have not made it better for the people. The political debates are of great significance to the election of the country. The quality of these debates is therefore required to be high to influence the voters to make their decision based on the policy that the different provincial parties make. Many families, including my own, have suffered through poverty decade after decade. It is up to us citizens to make this vote count, vote for the right party, and help end this vicious cycle of poverty so many Ontarians continue to suffer through. WORD COUNT: 1990 References CBC News. (2014, May 30). Ontario election 2014 :Doctors Want Parties to Debate . Debra Burke, S. M. (n.d.). Minimum Wage and Unemployment Rates :A study of Contiguous Counties . Ipsos. (2014, June 2). Whats Riding on the Ontario Election Leaders Debate. Retrieved from Ipsos News and Polls: www.ipsos-na.com Katherine, F. G. (2007). A Lost Decade: Urban Poverty in Canada 1990 to 2000. Ottawa: Canadian Council on Social Development. Powell, B. (2014, March 15). Toronto Mayoral election Profile: John Tory. Toronto Stars. Rowley, E. (2014 , May 19) Communist Party of Canada. Retrieved from www.communistpartycanada.ca Stockton, M. W. (2014, May 24).Minimum Wage in the Ontario Election and Canada. The True North Times.

Lyndon Johnsons Vietnam War Strategy

Lyndon Johnsons Vietnam War Strategy LYNDON JOHNSON’S PEACE INITIATIVES DURING THE VIETNAM WAR â€Å"What did the Johnson administration hope to achieve from diplomatic efforts to resolve the Vietnam War between 1965 and 1968 and with what success?† Introduction: Lyndon Johnson had become highly besieged in the pursuit of his Vietnam policy. Most historical arguments centre round his inept handling of the situation, in which he escalated the bombing offensives and then tempered them down making a mess of the peace moves, which were never done with any serious intent. The core of the historical criticism of the president is that he allowed himself to be blindly guided by inappropriate advice from Robert McNamara, and caused avoidable loss to American lives. Obsessed with the idea of keeping the armed forces subordinate to the presidency, the Johnson administration gave instructions that were out of sync with the happenings on the battlefield. This paper takes a look at these developments, while listing in some detail the peace moves he tried to make, and how they came a cropper. It finally looks at the reasons for their failures, and tries to point out who could be held responsible for the fracas. Limitations of this paper Since this paper is about a highly narrowed down topic, a background to the war and its developments is not made; this paper is limited to discussing its defined purview, and hence these details and the persons involved in the war are taken as given. Need for negotiations In order to understand with what objectives the president initiated negotiations, it is necessary to understand the situation that forced him to make these moves. With a series of ill-conceived actions, the president had crossed the Rubicon over Vietnam. Well into the middle of his term, it was a thorn in the flesh from which there seemed no reprieve for the beleaguered president, even as enormous pressure mounted at home to end the war. As aptly summed up, â€Å"Vietnam was a stalemate producing irreconcilable domestic divisions and a nightmare†¦from which Johnson could not awake.† (Dallek, 1998, p. 443) From the sunny days of his presidential campaigning of 1964, when less than a third of the population saw Vietnam as the most pressing problem the nation faced to a near doubling of this figure by the winter of 1965-66, the decline in support for the president’s policies on Vietnam was rapid. (Dallek, 2004, p. 251) His gauche at handling the press was also another factor for this situation, with the result that Vietnam soon became, in the perception of the American public, â€Å"President Johnson’s war†. (Liebovich, 1998, p. 45) Egged on by his Defense Secretary, Robert McNamara, Johnson had given the war efforts no respite; he was firmly convinced that all it needed were a few more bombings and a few successful fights to end the war. He could not have been more off the target; while the president’s men assessed that the Vietcong and the North Vietnamese regular armies could be subdued, the latter resorted to guerrilla tactics, from scattered and well-spread positions. The result was calamitous –by 1967, nearly half a million Americans had been sent to Vietnam, of whom the total casualties were in the region of 100,000, among whom no less than a seventh had lost their lives. (Liebovich, 1998, p. 44) Although the Government of South Vietnam, (GVN), whose fragile nature had for so long worried the US, had coalesced, with the Cao Ky coup by the beginning of 1966, the Johnson administration was in a bind about the policy it had to pursue, because astronomical sums were going down the drain. An April 1966 intra-governmental policy review had not seen any major reason for hope. The views of the presidential staff differed sharply from those of the men on the battlefield. Air strikes, on which the administration had pinned its highest hopes to achieve a breakthrough in the war, had come to a virtual naught, and were becoming a colossal waste of resources. One of the prime air strike programmes, ROLLING THUNDER, in the assessment the Institute of Defense Analysis made in the summer of 1966 had â€Å"had no measurable direct effect†. This was after the air strikes on the highly strategic and vulnerable areas of Petroleum, Oil and Lubricants, (POL) of the Democratic Republic of Nor th Vietnam (DRV). (Gelb Betts, 1979, pp. 146-148) At this point, the lack of effectiveness of the bombing strategy was also severely compounded by the exorbitant cost of carrying out these operations, which according to the CIA, cost almost ten times as much as the gains they brought. Having dropped as much as 643,000 tons of bombs on North Vietnam, the cost of this on the US exchequer was $ 9.60 for every dollar’s worth of damage they inflicted on the DRV with only half the fighter bombers having the capability of surviving the year-long stint as pilots. (Wiest, 2003, p. 27) This terrible cost of escalation was also reflecting on the economy, taking it on an inflationary spiral, and threatening to neutralise its post-war gains. (Isserman Kazin, 2000, p. 224) Gold prices were becoming very volatile, and all these contributed to completely undermine his ‘Great Society’ programme, on which he had come to power, (Reiter Stam, 2002, p. 121) and whose central theme was economic growth accompanied by poverty reduction. (Brown-Collier, 1998) In addition, another extremely important factor was threatening to bring the president on his knees –sustained antiwar movement, that had been inspired by the success of the Civil Rights movement. On the field, the highhandedness of the American forces had only succeeded in making the South support the North, and the infiltration of men and other supplies from the North. Through the Ho Chi Minh Trail, an estimated 90,000 men infiltrated to the South between 1965 and 1967. The Americanisation of South Vietnam was a total disaster. (Best, Hanhimà ¤ki, Maiolo Schulze, 2004, pp. 296) It was in the wake of these major drawbacks associated with continued bombing that the president was forced to mellow his position. By December 1966, the administration was convinced that since there was no way by which they could win the war, at least by election time, the only road that lay ahead was negotiation, (Dallek , 1998, p. 444) since this was the only way by which he could reverse these conditions. However, as the next section illustrates, he was no better at these negotiations, either. Johnson’s objectives, the negotiations and reasons for their failure These debacles were to reflect heavily on the president personally; by December 1966, the realisation had clearly and irrevocably dawned on the administration that unless the Americans ended the war at the earliest, it would reflect badly on the nation’s elections of 1968. At this stage, there was no alternative to negotiation, if the president was to have the slightest chance of re-election. From the high perch at which the president was seated, the only non-negotiable point at the discussions now became a separate state within South Vietnam (SVN), and a non- communist government for the president. (Dallek, 1998, p. 443) The first concrete steps towards negotiation were taken furtively, in 1966. At this point, the US was still very imperious, even though it was the one that initiated the negotiation. It made a blanket, unconditional demand –that the DRV stop infiltration into the south for bombing to stop. The first of these steps, known as bombing pauses, was hardly f ruitful. Taking off from here, the Johnson administration made a clearer move towards negotiation at the Manila Conference in the Declaration of Peace in 1966. The aim of the administration, which was to negotiate from a position of strength, offered the condition that the US would withdraw from South Vietnam within six months of Hanoi withdrawing the last of its troops from there. However, the DRV too was equally determined to bargain from a position of strength. The result was that the Johnson administration was seen to be keen on making peace, but within the administration, the same problem of the mismatch in thinking between the executive and the armed forces remained, (Gelb Betts, 1979, p. 151) because the president, in whose mind the famous spat between Harry Truman and Gen. Douglas McArthur during the Korean War had been weighing heavily, decided that the best way to avoid a repeat of such a situation now was to keep the military under the firm control of the presidency. Unf ortunately, he was ham-handed in doing this, ending up in only isolating the military and creating a terrible disharmony between the two. (Jacobsen, 1996, p. 216) Accordingly, after the raids of December 13 and 14, the president ordered a Christmas ceasefire, and extended it up to January 1 as a goodwill gesture. The main objective for Johnson at this stage was securing the territorial integrity of the north and south of Vietnam, or all Vietnam, should its people choose reunification. His objective was also clearly aimed at silencing his critics at home, of whom there was no dearth. He sought to make these moves towards negotiations to silence the doves in the Congress, who kept insisting on negotiations, and the American public, who were becoming war-weary. (Dallek, 1998, pp. 443-448) The quick progress Eugene McCarthy made at the Hampshire primaries jolted the president about his sagging popularity. Drawing from McCarthy’s success, Robert Kennedy, too decided to challenge t he president. (Isserman Kazin, 2000, p. 224) Internally, the most urgent need for him was to use the Vietnam War as a means to finish off his political rivals at home, chief among whom was Robert Kennedy. â€Å"For all his hope and brave talk about progress in the fighting, he still feared that the war would destroy him politically and open the way to a successful Kennedy bid for the presidency.† (Dallek, 1998, p. 448) There was also another factor –a change in US attitudes towards China, following the perception of Chinese expansion being the cornerstone of a Vietnam policy getting significantly reduced around the middle of 1966. (Parker, 1989, p. 142) Johnson hoped that he could hold his people together while using the armed forces and air strikes to force the Hanoi government to buckle just in time to give him a great fillip for the 1968 elections. Internationally, too, he was keen to be seen as a man who was interested in peace, accepting British and Russian offers to mediate, albeit reluctantly. He followed these up with another ceasefire for February 6-13. (Dallek, 1998, p. 446) Peace moves Operation Marigold was the name given to the Johnson administration’s attempt to make peace with Hanoi through indirect means, by which intermediaries in the form of emissaries of neutral countries were sent to develop channels of communication. It first started when the Polish member of the International Control Commission, Janusz Lewandowski apprised the Italian ambassador in Saigon, Giovanni d’ Orlandi and then the US ambassador to South Vietnam, Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., about Ho Chi Minh’s mind. The North Vietnamese leader was surprisingly amiable to US propositions. He suggested that if the Americans suspended bombing, he was more than willing to talk with them; an even greater surprise was that he was not going to insist that a socialist regime be established in the South, would not meddle in the affairs of the southern government, and that he was willing to consider a â€Å"reasonable calendar† for American withdrawal. Yet, in typical hubris, the John son administration threw away an easy way out of the conflict that had presented itself on a platter. The reason? Washington’s perceived untrustworthiness of the neutrality of communist Poland. Such a baffling, completely unfounded assumption destroyed a great chance for peace. A glaring example of the complete lack of coordination between the presidential and military staff, the basic reason for which bombing had not stopped earlier, showed itself up in December 1966. While the US ambassador in Poland, John Gronouski, was making preparations for a highly sensitive meeting with Polish officials, out of the blue, the US dropped bombs on sensitive targets in Hanoi heavily on December 2 and 3. This completely set the clock back on whatever little progress the Poles were making towards negotiating with the DRV, which centred round the issue of bombing. To this, the unrepentant administration offered the flimsiest of reasons for which the air strikes could not go ahead as planned on November 10 – bad weather! Further, even the planned attacks on December 13 and 14 went ahead as scheduled, giving the Marigold initiative a quick burial. Analysts are of the opinion that even after the bombings of December 2 and 3, there was hope for some salvage, but that the Johnson administration, which had in the first place created the truce move, killed it with its own hands. The simple reason for this was the total lack of sincerity on the part of the Johnson administration about going ahead with the bombing pauses. After briefly halting its bombings in mid-December, the US once again insisted that Hanoi reciprocate unequivocally. It read wrongly the situation on the ground in Hanoi in mid-late January 1967. With the DRV Foreign Minister, Ngoyen Duy Trinh’s tough words on January 28, demanding that the US stop its bombings immediately, the official obituary to the Marigold initiative came to be written. (Gelb Betts, 1979, pp. 152, 153) The fate of another such mission, Operation Sunflower, was no different; having been declared on February 6, 1967, the first reaction it drew was a strong letter from Ho Chi Minh, who warned the president that â€Å"the people of Viet Nam are determined not to surrender under the threats of bombing†. (Brigham, 1998, p. 143) This phase offered a six-day bombing pause in February 1967. Even while the Americans were again strict on the condition of reciprocity from North Vietnam, that of stopping infiltration, the administration gathered evidence that the North Vietnamese were taking advantage and were supplying arms to the South, forcing Washington to drop the plan. Another initiative was the San Antonio formula of September-December 1967. This, too, did not offer anything new or different; it reiterated American willingness to stop bombing and talk, if the North met its obligation of supplying arms to the South. North Vietnam, predictably, dismissed the offer. There were other initiatives for negotiation, too, between October 1966 and February 1968. Starting with moves initiated on the occasion of the funeral of Indian Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, other steps, clearly half-hearted, were taken. These, in addition to neutral moves by eminent persons and the Glassboro summit, were given high sounding codenames such as Packers, Aspen, Ohio and Pennsylvania. (Gelb Betts, 1979, p. 163) Another prominent attempt of a peace mission was that of the Italian cleric, Giorgio La Pira in 1965. To his desperate pleas to end the war, all that the Johnson administration made was this indifferent reaction: State Department Executive Secretary Benjamin Read commented to presidential advisor, Walt Rostow thus: â€Å"[La Piras] telegram is another in a voluminous series of peace messages. In view of La Piras well-known position on Vietnam and other issues, it is recommended no reply be made.† (Miller, 1999, p. 143) The net result of these peace overtures was a near zero. All these gave rise to the Tet offensive. (Gelb Betts, 1979, p. 165) This was the event that signalled what a morass the US had got into. On the night of January 31, 1968, some troops owing their allegiance to the North Vietnamese leader attacked the American embassy of Saigon. Although the Americans put it down in no time, the event opened the floodgates to the seemingly never-ending nature of the war, showing up the complete lack of understanding of the war of the American soldiers, who went on the rampage, committing acts of unheard of savagery. (Isserman Kazin, 2000, p. 223) Thus, while peace was being sought, the actions of the administration took the two sides anywhere but there. Conclusion While fixing the blame for the failures of the negotiations processes, students of history need to see the situation in the backdrop of the Cold War era. In retrospect, in the age of extremely fierce rivalry between the two superpowers played out through their allies, perhaps some of the blame can be mitigated from Johnson when he refused to trust the Polish, a staunch communist country. To be fair, he was only reciprocating an attitude of great mutual distrust of the Cold War protagonists. (Vandiver, 1997, p. 156) However, it needs to be said that on this particular, extremely important occasion, he was allowing the history of their relationship to cloud his judgement, when there appeared no motive on the part of the Polish other than to bring about a ceasefire during Operation Marigold. The bottom line of the historic criticisms against Johnson relates to his oscillation between escalation and negotiation, the total disconnect between the executive and the armed forces, and the catastrophic consequences these produced. Offensives continued even as Operation Marigold was on; later, two months into the Tet offensive, there were no concrete results, by when the president had made up his mind not to run for the 1968 elections. This decision made no great difference: the purpose for which the bombing operations took place, forcing North Vietnam to end its support for Vietcong, was not served. The bombings of ROLLING THUNDER were in no way deterring a regrouping of the North Vietnamese guerrilla fighters, who still possessed all the strength to defeat the South Vietnamese Army. (Jacobsen, 1996, p. 216) Taking an overall view of the escalation and the failure of the peace negotiations, it is difficult to point an accusatory finger at anyone other than the president. The decision to escalate the offensive was entirely his and McNamara’s. In dealing with the situation, the president had thoroughly misread the situation, and had kept insisting to the American public that the war was all but won. At no stage of the war did the president behave in a manner befitting his office. In what was to be the ultimate show of lack of conviction in the peace moves, the man he appointed to oversee the peace negotiation, Averell Harriman, was never invited to the Tuesday Lunches briefings, where updates about the situation used to be made! Moreover, the Johnson administration regarded bombings as its biggest bargaining chip, a basis upon which all its negotiations were to proceed. A lack of coordination and understanding between these two vital organs was one of the prime reasons for the failu re of whichever peace missions the president undertook. (Gelb Betts, 1979, p. 151) Neither his offensives, nor the peace moves he made later when left with no other choice was done in the right spirit. As a result, the president’s handling of the Vietnam War was to dwarf the stature of one of America’s tallest presidents. References Best, A., Hanhimà ¤ki, J. M., Maiolo, J. A., Schulze, K. E., (2004), International History of the Twentieth Century, Routledge, London. Brigham, R. K., (1998), Guerrilla Diplomacy: The NLFs Foreign Relations and the Viet Nam War, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY. Brown-Collier, E. K., (1998), Johnsons Great Society: Its Legacy in the 1990s. Review of Social Economy, Vol. 56, No.3, p. 259+. Retrieved May 13, 2006, from Questia database. Dallek, R., (1998), Flawed Giant: Lyndon Johnson and His Times, 1961-1973, Oxford University Press, New York. Dallek, R., (2004), Lyndon B. Johnson: Portrait of a President, Oxford University Press, New York. Gelb, L. H., Betts, R. K., (1979), The Irony of Vietnam: The System Worked, Brookings Institution, Washington, DC. Isserman, M., Kazin, M., (2000), America Divided The Civil War of the 1960s, Oxford University Press, New York. Jacobsen, M., (1996), 13 President Johnson and the Decision To Curtail Rolling Thunder. In The Tet Offensive, Gilbert, M. J. Head, W. (Eds.) (pp. 215-227), Praeger, Westport, CT. Liebovich, L. W., (1998), The Press and the Modern Presidency: Myths and Mindsets from Kennedy to Clinton, Praeger Publishers, Westport, CT. Miller, J. E., (1999), 5 Ambivalent about America: Giorgio la Pira and the Catholic Left in Italy from NATO Ratification to the Vietnam War. In The United States and the European Alliance Since 1945 /, Burk, K. Stokes, M. (Eds.) (pp. 127-144), Berg, New York. Parker, F. C., (1989), Vietnam: Strategy for a Stalemate (1st ed.), Paragon Press, New York. Reiter, D., Stam, A. C., (2002), Democracies at War, Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. Vandiver, F. E., (1997), Shadows of Vietnam: Lyndon Johnsons Wars (1st ed.), Texas AM University Press, College Station, TX. Wiest, A., (2003), The Vietnam War, 1956-1975, Routledge, New York.

The Impact Of Online Communities On Physical Social Relationships Essay

Abstract Nowadays, people spend much time in online communities to network with virtual friends and play role plays. They provide an advantage for people with special needs who cannot leave the house, because they benefit from the accessibility of the internet. Moreover, they help people who often move to stay in touch with their friends. Nevertheless, spending too much time in online communities leads to drawbacks in the development of the user’s personality. More energy is dedicated to the virtual life than to real life and people lose track of their personalities while busy building online ones. Also, frequent users of online communities have difficulties beginning meaningful real life relationships. Virtual friendships are shallow due to the physical distance and the anonymity of the internet and it is common to have more friends than you are able to care for. Therefore, it is more rewarding to invest into physical relationships. Virtual friendships Danger of online communities Anonymity of internet The Effects of Online Communities on Physical Social Relationships Introduction Meeting for an after-work drink at the pub, going to yoga classes twice a week and having coffee with the ladies afterwards, organizing events for your local church community – all of those are only examples of what you can do with friends. At all times, relationships consisted of activities and common experiences which form an unforgettable bond between people. Sharing a memory gives a feeling of belonging and is something that can be laughed and talked about still a long time after the experience. However, times have changed. Nowadays, it seems to be common to solely communicate with people over the internet. First, there were... ...20, 2008, from http://family.jrank.org/pages/660/Friendship-Benefits-Friendship.html Lovenberg, F. von (2007, November 10). Und wann steigen Sie aus? [And when will you drop out?]. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 262, Z1. Scribner, R. (2007, June 11). ‘Second Life’ presents societal dangers. Retrieved April 21, 2008, from http://media.www.reflector-online.com/media/ storage/paper938/news/2007/11/06/Opinion/second.Life.Presents. Societal.Dangers-3079650-page2.shtml Second Life. (2008). What is Second Life?. Retrieved April, 8, 2008, from http://secondlife.com/whatis Warford, H. (n.d.). Virtual vs. real communities [Msg 5]. Message posted to http://www.theinstitute.ieee.org/portal/site/tionline/menuitem.130a35585 87d56e8fb2275875bac26c8/index.jsp?&p Name=institute_level1_article& TheCat=1021&article=tionline/legacy/inst2007/may07/marketplaceques.x ml&

Passionate Learning :: Philosophy Psychology Education Essays

Passionate Learning To lack [self-respect] is to be locked within oneself, paradoxically incapable of either love or indifference.....It is the phenomenon sometimes called 'alienation from self.' In it's advanced stage, we no longer answer the telephone, because someone might want something; that we could say no without drowning in self-reproach is an idea alien to this game. -Joan Didion, "On Self-Respect" Last Spring, as part of a senior project, I took Tai Chi classes and researched how meditation is used in mind/body medicine. I read several books by doctors who use meditation as a form of healing, in stress-reduction clinics and as treatment for people suffering from severe pain and panic disorders. One doctor in particular, Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn teaches a method he calls mindfulness, in which he has his patients meditate in order to achieve total mind/body awareness. Zinn instructs patients to focus on their pain and to become aware of it. This often helps them realize that they can live with their pain. No pain is too extreme, he says, in the same way that no emotion is a wrong emotion. Awareness is the only absolute, and the only thing that allows people to live in the moment. Not live for the moment, but live in the moment. I left that project feeling extremely aware and extremely at peace. After three years of struggling to find answers, happiness, and a sense of purpose, I began to appreciate my present state of mind. I began to revel in the struggle, confusion, and push of not knowing. And as I approached graduation, my high school experience suddenly made sense to me. I understood life as a system of games. High school was simply one of them. I came to realize that playing games was both understandable and necessary as long as we are aware that we are playing them. I realized that a major struggle throughout high school had been my struggle to resist playing its game. I spent my three years at boarding school governed by my passions rather than playing by the rules of the institution. And in refusing to play by its rules, I made it increasingly more difficult for me to function within its realm. By rules, I do not mean the actual do's and don't's, but rather, I am referring to the prompts the school sets up in order to fulfill its goals as an academic institution.

Cost and Value of Providing Domestic Partner Benefits Essay

Employers worldwide are beginning to embrace the idea of a domestic partner employee by reorganizing their benefit packages to include coverage for domestic partners in order to stay competitive and retain current employees. Most often these benefits are an extension of the same ones offered to married employees. The only difference being that a marriage is not a requirement. Many are confused by what exactly a domestic partner is and readily assume it refers to an individual that is part of a same-sex relationship. When, in fact, it can refer to a variety of situations in which two people commit to and build a life together. Just as married couples do, they usually share bank accounts, financial obligations, home, meals, and a host of other things with one another. A domestic partner is defined as, â€Å"a person you live with and have sexual relations with, but are not married to† (Merriam-Webster.com, 2014). It was in 1986 that the living arrangements of a domestic partner were first described as two persons sharing a family household but are not joined in a traditional marriage, common-law marriage, or civil union. The rising cost of seeking medical attention is making it nearly impossible these days to live without insurance coverage. Not recognizing our employees that are in unmarried opposite and same sex relationships is creating unnecessary financial hardships and stress. Changing the current benefit plan to include domestic partners will create a happier more committed employee for the business. Happy employees are more productive and aid the bottom line. It is important to note, that if something should happen to an employee or their significant other that medical attention is easily and readily available; allowing the employee to return to work sooner. As an employer, we have a moral obligation to respond to the needs of our employees. We can start by allowing them to define in their own terms what a family is to them. Background MCJAR, Inc. has suffered due to the loss of three of their high ranking positions resigning. The reasoning behind their resignation was due to lack of benefits being offered to their domestic partners. As in all positions  the human resources person, Keri Miller, has posted the open position with much success. She had found three successful candidates to fill the positions with high qualifications, but all three had turned down the job once they learned about the lack of benefits being offered to those in domestic partnerships. Once finding out the candidates had turned down the positions, Ms. Miller had created a survey to give out to all employees to complete and turn in. The survey asked about how they felt about the current benefit package being offered to all employees at MCJAR, Inc. The results of the survey showed that those that were in a domestic relationship were unhappy of the benefits. That those in domestic partnerships are currently looking for work elsewhere because they feel they are not being treated fairly. Ms. Miller is understanding of the restriction on the benefits being offered due to the budget concerns. Ms. Miller also understands that the cost of the benefits may be minimal, just need to research the cost of adding domestic partnership benefits to the existing plan. Ms. Miller is also concerned to how the public will perceive the company unless the concerns of benefits being offered to those in a domestic partnership are resolved. Key Problems Primarily, the budget is already strained due to the comprehensive benefits package we currently offer our employees. We must carefully weigh the cost of providing benefits to those in a domestic partnership, not only for our current employees, but potential new hires as well. If we are to make room, where can we make these adjustments? Will they be from a specific department, from employees’ pay, or perhaps we need to scale down our benefits package to make room for additional benefactors. Each option we look at has many different consequences, we may lose employees or productivity due to our lack of foresight. In addition, we must consult and potentially alter our corporate policies and if possible those of Federal and State as well. Federal law will be the most simple to circumnavigate if there is any rebuttal, but having the proper documentation will be the key to success. State law will also require the same attention. Correct wording is crucial for ensuring equal authority and proper application of power of attorney. Lastly, we need to adjust the new benefits package to match the modified policies and procedures. This includes everything from  new hire training, corporate office signage, and our own interweb support. Finally, and most complicated is the reworking our benefits package with our health service providers, and insurance companies. We need to make sure that each person is covered with the same benefits. We also need to make sure that we can lower or maintain our current deductible with the increase in the number of patients being seen, and consequent incidents being filed. This process can take be lengthy at times and will be battled on two fronts. First is the unhappy employees without benefits, and the other is insurance companies fighting to make themselves greater profits. Solutions Providing domestic partner benefits will give the company a competitive edge, improve employee morale, and create an equal business environment, with minimal additional cost to the company’s already strained budget. According to the Fickewirth Benefits Advisors (2012), website the majority of the nation’s largest companies provide benefits to the domestic partners of their employees. This trend is increasing in order to retain and attract talented employees. A domestic partner benefit plan can yield to employee’s satisfaction and, therefore, produce a greater willingness to stay and recommend the company to others. This can be of great advantage because it can improve employee productivity. Employees will also feel that they have a safety net for their families thereby allowing them to better focus on work. Employers have raised the arguments about high cost, but despite such perception the overall cost of adding these benefits is quite low. In the end, implementing the new domestic partner plan will help this corporation to thrive. Solutions are listed as follows: Implementing a new domestic partner benefits plan for all employees Current employees are looking elsewhere since they have no access to domestic benefits. The way to rectify this problem is to implement domestic partner benefits plan. Before implementing this plan, Human Resource Director Keri Miller needs to have a private meeting with all managers involved in this matter along with a financial advisor. With everyone present, these topics can be thoroughly discussed and changed as needed, such as federal, state, and corporate policies or the application of a reasonable savings plan. Some existing benefits can be cut, but in the end the financial advisor will try to use the proper solutions to make sure the company is not affected in a negative  manner that can hurt the morale of employees, the company’s profit or production. An expert on the health benefits package needs to be also present in order to obtain the right guidance on how to rework the benefits plan with all health service providers and insurance companies. Executing things in this manner will ensure that the business can safely implement the new plan and be sure that it can afford to extend benefits to domestic partners. Once all issues are addressed and the plan is given approval, a meeting should be held to inform all employees. The companywide meeting will be arranged to discuss this issue with employees who have domestic partners and are interested in the plan. The Human Resources Director should direct the meeting along with other assistant managers that can assist employees after the meeting has ended. During this meeting, the new plan can be addressed and encouraging words used to assure employees that the company cares about them and their needs. It demonstrates that the company values equality among their employees. After the discussion, the manager can have a space of time for questions and answers. This encourages good communication between employees and managers. The assistant managers can have a few tables set up at the back of the room so that when the meeting has concluded employees that have more in depth questions or issues they can discuss them privately. Employees can obtain further guidance in the subject if needed and also have the opportunity to update and complete paperwork needed for enrollment in the new domestic partner benefits plan. As employees are exiting managers can hand out new surveys regarding the new benefits and turn them in the following day. This survey will ensure that the company has proper feedback from employees that state how satisfied they are with the changes being made to the benefits package. Modifications can then be made accordingly if needed, to ensure that employees are fully satisfied in this matter and all other areas as well. Having good communicatio n and treating everyone well will make certain that there is a positive work environment in the business and thus improving it greatly. Send letters to former employees informing them of new plan Following the implementation of the new domestic partner benefits plan, past employees who resigned due to this subject should also be informed and properly contacted. Letters can be sent to former employees notifying them  of the newly offered domestic partner benefits and extend an invitation for them to return to the company. Promote the recently implemented Domestic Partners Benefits Plan Publicize to all outside sources that a domestic partner benefit plan has been implemented. This includes updating the company’s website and other sources that promote employment for MCJAR Inc. The quick and timely release of this exciting information regarding the renovation of our company offered benefits may inspire many potential new hires to apply for employment opportunities and decrease the amount of current vacancies. As a result from all these changes, the company’s productivity and success will increase as a whole. Recommendations As a condition of employment, most employers require their employees to register for company provided benefits. It is recommended that MCJAR, Inc. develop a list of set criteria that would define an eligible domestic partnership. Common criteria used by many employers today are that the couple must live and maintain a home together for a minimum of six months and can provide proof. Next, financial interdependency must also be proved. They both must be at least 18 years of age and not legally married to anyone. MCJAR, Inc. has the leisure of choosing their own criteria and should do so as soon as possible. Offering domestic partner benefits will help MCJAR, Inc. reflect diversity as a company. It will also help recruit and retain employees, and boost employee satisfaction with very little additional cost. References Advisors, F. B. (2014). Fickewirth Benefits Advisors. Retrieved from Fickewirth Benefits Advisors: http://www.fickewirth.com/ask-an-expert.php?ask Astray-Caneda, E. E. (2011, Volume 40, No. 2). Offering Same-Sex Domestic Partner Benefits to Government Employees: Reasons, Examples, and Methods. Public Personnel Management, 89-97. Bevins, F. &. (2013, January). Making time management the organization’s priority. McKinsey Quarterly. Retrieved from Insights and Publications: http://www.mckinsey.com/insights/organization/making_time_management_the_organizations_priority hrc.org. (2014, May 12). Human Rights Campaign. Retrieved from hrc.org: http://www.hrc.org/ James Schaefer, M. (2009, Volume 12, Issue

Peak Oil and Global Warming Essay

There is now much debate regarding whether the remaining oil supply can last to realize the worst of the negative effects of global warming. According to one controversial analysis done by scientists at the University of Uppsala based in Sweden, all fuel will be burned even before temperature levels become exceedingly hot (Coghlan, 2003). Although estimates on the remaining oil reserves are not the same, it is believed that oil will reach its peak by as early as 2010. The scientists say that combined oil and gas reserves amount to only 3,500 barrels which is less than the very optimistic figures from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (Coghlan, 2003). On the other hand, IPCC scientists defended that even if the oil reserves is not enough to constitute the more devastating effects of global warming, the burning of coal will more than make up for the deficiency. Nonetheless, both sides agree that burning coal is even more harmful (Coghlan, 2003). In a worst-case scenario, it is depicted that there is still 18,000 billion barrels of oil left but according to University of Uppsala geologist Kjell Aleklett that claim is â€Å"completely unrealistic† and that even the expected 8,000 billion barrels is more than double the remaining amount estimated by Sweden. The IPCC, however still argues that their predictions still has grounds using â€Å"a much broader and internationally accepted range of oil and gas estimates† and even if reserves of oil and gas do run out, there is still huge reserves of coal that may be burned for fuel or be converted into gasoline notwithstanding the fact that coal is much more harmful to the environment because it produces more emissions and particulates (Coghlan, 2003). Peak oil and global warming are two related problems and solving these two problems requires the same measures which is by reducing reliance on fossil hydrocarbon fuels. For America, coal, oil, and natural should be eliminated as a primary source of energy (Holson, 2007). Aside from being an energy source, oil is also being used as feedstock, particularly for the manufacturing of â€Å"plastics, pharmaceuticals, synthetic rubber, asphalt, lubricants, nitrogenous fertilizers, pesticides, and insecticides†. It is also an important resource for the military especially during periods of war (Holson, 2007). There are many other alternative sources of energy that produce basically no emissions and are renewable. Such energy sources include solar energy, wind energy, hydroelectric energy, and geothermal energy. These forms of energy sources have already proved efficient and effective yet many refuse to market it because of greater profit earned from oil and other exhaustible fossil fuels. Nuclear energy is another efficient energy source but this should be given much thought because nuclear power provides all sorts of other risks. The Kyoto Protocol is also a good recourse as it will aggregately reduce greenhouse gas emissions of countries that have committed to the protocol. Being one of the top producers of greenhouse gases, the US should also ratify the protocol, as currently, it is the only country that refuses to ratify the protocol after Australia agreed last year. US President George W. Bush that said reducing emissions would be bad for the US economy. However, failure of the US to do so will be bad for the rest of the world. Be it peak oil or global warming. The best recourse would be finding alternative energy sources. This would reduce oil consumption rate and oil will be available for a longer time avoiding the possibility of an extreme energy crisis. Alternative energy sources that literally produce no emissions would also be more beneficial to the environment.