Music and the african-american people

Think about black music and you immediately come up with black gospel music, right? There are a large number of famous soul singers nowadays who began as gospel music artists. This impressive list includes, among others, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, Lou Rawls, Sam Cooke and Otis Redding, says Leonard Goines in the online article â€Å"Gospel Music and the Black Consciousness†.In terms of history, Goines noted that black gospel music grew out of the late 19th and early 20th century folk church and is essentially created in a context of individual and collective spontaneity. As a total manifestation, black gospel can be viewed as a synthesis of West African and Afro-American music, dance, poetry, oratory and drama. There are two basic sources from which the aesthetic ideals of gospel singing have been derived.These are the free-style collective improvisations utilized by congregations in the black church and the black gospel preacher's rhetorical solo style. Since the beginning of their history in the plantation praise houses, black preachers have utilized folk poetry and the vivid phrase to excite the emotions and involve the participation of their congregations. Possessing special oratorical skills marked by a call-and-response format and punctuated with groans and gestures, these master preachers have been able to create an aura of excitement and hope rarely equaled (Goines, 2004)I would have to agree with Goines when he pointed out gospel has distilled the aesthetic essence of the black arts into a unified whole. The uniqueness of black gospel music, in my opinion, is in the experience itself when you listen to it. As noted by Goines, few people can experience gospel in its true cultural setting and fail to hear black poetry in the black preacher's sermon. Nor can they fail to see drama in the emotion-packed performance of a black gospel choir interacting with its congregation; nor fail to see dance in the gospel shout.It is also in this aspect that I would say yes, there is such a thing as a Black Style. Anyone who listens to gospel music can easily identify if the singer is black or not. The soulfulness and the emotions revealed in black gospel music is definitely a manifestation of the proud cultural heritage of the African-American people. Source: Goines, Leonard 2004: Gospel Music and the Black Consciousness [online] Available at: http://www. afgen. com/gospel21. html [cited on May 24, 2006]

An Analysis of Julia Alvarez’s Poem, “Touching Bottom” Essay

In the poem’s first stanza, Alvarez says, â€Å"Sometimes the best advice comes randomly†Ã¢â‚¬â€but without intent, how can it be advice? Perhaps good advice consists simply of one’s own ideas, rendered into words by another and recognized by the self as something true. If we go by this definition, then the random pieces of advice are, indeed, good advice. She is thus saying that some of the best â€Å"advice† is recognized by the self and in the self, and not merely received from others. Such advice is possibly worth more than any intentional directive, because the meaning of the advice is something that one makes for oneself. Alvarez implies that good advice is abundant, but requires some recognizing—which is what she does. To be able to give good advice, a person must think like the recipient of the advice, and who better to think like the recipient than the recipient herself? Alvarez creates remarkable associations in her mind between randomly heard directives and the troubles of her life; she is actually both the giver and the receiver of the random â€Å"advice†, and whoever (or whatever) â€Å"gave† her the advice only has an intermediary role. These random pieces of advice are nothing like what we usually conceive advice to be, but are simply reminders of things that she already knew. Thus these random pieces of advice that she recognizes are essentially advice that she gives to herself. In the second stanza, Alvarez talks of the power of these random bits of wisdom. She realizes that â€Å"a minotaur of your own making†Ã¢â‚¬â€that is, self-imposed limitations—puts the mind into a certain degree of paralysis, and that randomly received advice, in their simplicity, have the power to awaken an awareness of truisms deeply buried in the subconscious. Alvarez in essence, is talking about the â€Å"shock of recognition† that she experiences when she hears these random bits of meaning. It takes these to remind her of her own good ideas that she may have unintentionally discarded into the â€Å"dark labyrinth† of her mind. Additionally, Alvarez implicitly contrasts her random bits of â€Å"advice† with true advice intentionally given by others—too often, such advice is derived from the experiences of the giver and not the receiver. The poem, because of its focus on â€Å"accidental† advice, reminds us of the tendency of people to ignore intentionally given advice, no matter how good, because advice is usually given based on the perceived needs of the recipient; although these needs are often misidentified. This contrasts with her accidental bits of advice, which by their very nature are good and well received. The random advice that Alvarez hears makes her capable of   â€Å"touching bottom.† Although â€Å"touching bottom† in general usage has the negative meaning of reaching the lowest point of something (such as when a company goes bankrupt), what she means by having â€Å"touched bottom in my life† is that she realized and recognized the basic and most important aspects of her life. The examples that she gives of these bits of advice, such as â€Å"Please hold through the silence† (which she is able to connect to her problem of writer’s block) are of secondary importance, serving only to illustrate and strengthen the poem’s main point, which is that one needs only to look into the self to find wisdom.

Management - Public Personnel Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Management - Public Personnel - Assignment Example These resources can either be local based, state based or internationally based. The functions of public personnel today can be extensively classified into 4 different areas namely: planning, sanctions, acquisition and development. To be effective, theses functions are implemented through different organizations such as state, federal, local government and NGOs (Disalvo, 2010). Four trends affecting Public Personnel Today The four trends that affect the performance of public personnel today are governance changes, economic changes, technological changes in the work environment and the role that is played by citizens in the process of governance. First and foremost, the changes experienced in the economy have resulted in paradigm shift from national to global, production to delivery of service and finally from public commitment to limited commitment. For instance, in the majority of the urban areas, more than half of the human resources are from private organizations and not the gover nment agencies. Also, in most of the states, the number of employees within the private security organizations far outnumbers those of the local police departments. On the second point that affects the changes in the governance structure, the government is being redefined and this redefining includes, changing the perception of the government relationship with its citizens including focusing attention on the citizen whereby the citizen is regarded as a customer. It also involves the creation of a government that requires less to operate but does more in terms of service to its citizens and its general performance. Thirdly, we look at the effect of technology and the workplace. Technology and the workplace environment are a source of concern in the area of public personnel. The area of Public personnel has been widely impacted by the changes that have been experienced in the field of Information Technology. From the introduction of concepts such as cyberspace to the creation of the m any platforms with which communication can now take place, advancements in this field have impacted greatly in public agencies. The way that employees of public agencies carry out their day to day functions has greatly changed due to the impact of information technology. It has also resulted in diversity among the employees and affected their work ethics and other previously held values. Finally, we look on the aspect of the role played by citizens in their governance; it is evident that citizens are now playing a vital role in governance. This is because citizens are do not only perform the role of being recipients of government services, but they are also actively involved in governance by making contributions to policies and other legislation that will directly affect their lives. This participation by citizens also ensures that the values of democracy are upheld by the government (Robinson & Kary-Siobhan, 2002). Four strategies needed to create a diversified workforce Diversity in the human race is a fact that cannot be understated in any form. When we come to the workplace environment, diversity can be seen in terms of age, gender, nationality, and race etc. It is imperative to understand this diverse nature in the workplace and this implies recognizing and also encouraging this fact in addition to appreciating the uniqueness of everyone in such an environment. The strategies needed for the creation of a diversified workplace include: increase in the

Grandparents Raising their Grandchildren Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Grandparents Raising their Grandchildren - Essay Example This paper discusses the difficulties, benefits, causes and other such factor related to the topic of grandparents acting as parent to their grandchildren. Grandparents who raise their grandchildren have become prevalent as an alternative family.(Bert, 2005) It is reported that 5.7 million children are living with their grandparents out of which 3.7 million live in grandparents household. Various factsheets reveal that there thousands of grandparents in United States taking care of their grandchildren due to numerous reasons. It is not an easy task to identify the exact number of grandparents raising their grandchildren without a parent due to informal relationships. With rising divorces, death of parents, disability, inability to care for their children, have increased the number of grandchildren being raised by grandparents. Kleiner et. al (1998) has classified grandparents into three sub groups as custodial grandparents, caregivers and day care parents. Casper & Bryson (1998) Custodial grand parenting is growing trend in American society with some 5.5 million grandparents have reported to be housing their own grandchildren in the year 1997. (Bert, 2005) It is also reported that the ages of most of the grandparents are between 55 and 64 years and 20% are over 65 years. Caregiver is explained as 'living with' grandparents who provide daily care but do not have legal custody. In such cases, grandparents focus on providing the child with economically and emotionally stable environment. The another classification 'day care' grandparents focus on helping the child's parent and function closest to societal function of grandparent. Causes for Grandparents Acting as Grandparents According to American Community Survey, 6.1 million grandparents are engaged in parenting activity in respect to their grandchild. 8% of grandchildren lived with their grandparent in the year 2006 in United States. (US Census Bureau, 2006) Grandparent after retiring from parenting activities after their child has settled well, if resumes the parenting job again, it needs a lot of careful thinking on the topic. Grandparents usually accept the task out of natural love and affection towards their grandchildren and would not accept the role of stranger in raising their grandchildren. (www.cornellcares.org) Most of the causes would revolve around the normal parents. Most of the statistics reveal that drug or alcohol abuse among natural parents is the main cause for inviting grandparent to step in and take over the responsibility of raising their grandchildren. It has been reported that in 1998 nearly 44% of youngsters were living with their grandparents because of their parents' substance abuse. And interestingly 28% were victims of child abuse, neglect or improper attention and 11% because of death of their any one or both of the parents. (www.egyptianaaa.org) Various reasons include ill health of their parents, or inability of parents to take the responsibility of their child, divorce, unexpected pregnancy of teen or adult child, etc. The reasons why the grandparents are acting as parents may vary on various factors. Difficulties of Grandparents to raise their child Many researches have been

Attend an Employment Tribunal and write a court report about your Essay - 1

Attend an Employment Tribunal and write a court report about your visit and what you witnessed - Essay Example The ground for his dismissal was not fair. Mr R Rembiszewski had been working for Atkins Ltd for a period of 16 years. He initially joined the company as a Railway architect, a position he held for four years, before he was promoted to the position of the deputy design officer. After working in this department for two years, his boss left, making this position vacant. After a thorough consideration by the Board of directors, he was found suitable to hold the position, and thus was promoted to become the design officer of the company. This was a clear indication that his hard work and efforts were recognized by the company. However, he was never promoted anymore during his tenure in the company, although many promotions had been made. His concern about this saw him protest against discrimination during promotions. This led to his dismissal without of reasonable notice (Painter & Holmes, 2011 p28). The Employment Tribunal had to consider these issues under a single case filed by Mr R R embiszewski, and determine the case appropriately. Lawyers represented each party to the case, where they argued the case for their clients. The facts regarding this case were first presented by Mr Rembiszewski’s lawyer. According to him, there were a series of promotions that occurred in the company during the 16 years that he had worked with the company, yet he had only been promoted twice. According to Mr Rembiszewski, an employee was eligible for promotion if he/she had worked with the company for a minimum of five years, as provided for by company’s policies. This meant that he ought to have been promoted at least three times. The facts also stated that he protested this discrimination, since most of his colleagues, who had worked with the company for a similar duration, had obtained their fair share of promotions. After protesting, the management of the company

Strategic Management- Case study Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Strategic Management- Case study - Essay Example In the corporate world the chief executive officer position with the corporate hierarchy outside the board of director of a public company. This paper analyzes a scenario of a high level executive who had romantic affair with another manager inside the company he was suppose to lead. The setting of our analysis takes place at Boeing Corporation where Harry Stonececher its chief executive officer (CEO) and a board member of the corporation got involved in an unethical act by starting a romantic relationship with a subordinate. His affair was discovered through unofficial information channel known as whistle blowing. A whistleblower is a person that revels to the general public or the authorities. Unethical or illegal activity within an organization (Schermerhorn, Hunt, Osborn, 2003). The situation was very awkward and let a bad taste in the minds of many stakeholders who did not take this news lightly. When something like this happens the general public gets ideas that bad things may be happing within the organization such as collusion, favorism, corruption, money laundering, human rights violations and cooking up the books scenarios such as the infamous Enron case (Kotler, 2002). The bylaws of the corporate which are part of its corporance governance framework are against such type of behavior generally speaking. If such a things happens between two floor workers the course of action a supervisor should take is simply separating the workers between division and areas of work to prevent labor efficiencies from occurring as a result of unnecessary socialization. The case at hand takes the rules to another level because the Boeing situation involved executive laborers at the peak of the chain of command. The fact that such individuals have so much power implies that there action affect all stakeholders thus social responsibility comes into play as an integral part of the equation. There are many stakeholders group whose company’s action are relevant and

Employee Dissatisfaction in the Company Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Employee Dissatisfaction in the Company - Essay Example An organization is also in need of the workers. They too realize that the employee who is working for them has a set of reasons to work. These reasons will defer from people to people. Each reason will determine the employee morale, motivation, and quality of life. Therefore, to create a positive impact and enhance expectations of their potential employees, organizations practice various exercises which include university drives, seminars, and creating assessment centers for the shortlisted students. Most organizations will achieve their objectives by the aforementioned exercises but that creates problems in the near future. Those expectations will be thrashed as the employee gets acquainted with the organization’s real culture. This is known as a breach of psychological contract. The term ‘psychological contract’ was initially used in the 1960s however; it gained popularity after the economic downturn in the early 1990s (Cranwell-Ward & Abbey, 2005). It has been defined as ‘perception of the two parties, the employee, and employer, of what their mutual responsibilities and obligations are towards each other.’ It encapsulates the expectations of both sides as to what each expects the employment contract to deliver. This contract is not formally written or signed but, they are formed by the unspoken act which has happened in the past, as well as from statements made by the employer (Petersitzke, 2009). They may be seen as ‘promises’ by some and ‘expectations’ by others. This is a high involvement mindset precisely for an employee. If these expectations are met, it will lead to an increased sense of happiness as well as the deliverance of real results. However, violation of the expectations will lead to feelings of betrayal, anger and wrongful harm arising from this realization. (Usman, Gary, & Filotheos, 2004) In our case, there has been a huge chunk of unmet expectations for the fresh graduates employed at the advertising agency. They went through a rigorous induction process which encompassed a 2-day assessment center along with a series of interviews and occasional visits to the client sites. Moreover, they met up with various senior staff members and interacted with them to gain knowledge about the organization’s culture. The lot of 225 about-to-be-qualified marketing and media graduates is reduced to 20 successful recruits. Sadly, the blooming picture of the advertising agency in the eyes of the employees was broken into pieces when the initial 6-months passed. They were engaged in trivial work which involved filling, answering telephone calls and doing emails. They were not given the opportunity to think creatively which was previously promised by the senior staff. There were no signs of training or development programs. On the whole, a breach of psychological contract took place. Employees were not motivated to work and a few of them started having days off. They felt that they have been cheated and deceived about the organization’s culture and values. This will eventually lead to high employee turnover.

Section 2 Video Report Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Section 2 Video Report - Movie Review Example The culture that was shown is our wanton disregard to the environment and the call to change this culture of abuse and neglect to restore the health of our plaent. The culture’s economic strategy and social organization shown in the film depicts how economic activity and big business contributed to the rising temperature because of its industrial waste. Big business is not to be entirely faulted because, us, the consumers propelled them to be manufacture goods to satisfy our wants to the point of being destructive. The film can be likened to Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth that discussed the ill effects of climate change that we should act now and change our ways before we see a different planet. At present, the ecosphere is already out balance and it is being destroyed beyond its restorative capacity. There is however a difference with regard to the dominant theme compared to the previous documentary An Inconvenient Truth, in this documentary, it stated that our planet in itself is just fine. It can heal itself and balance had always ruled her. The problem is us. We are too many and consumed too many goods that we do not even need. Our population over the last two hundred years has finally taken its toll on mother earth she is already nearing a point where the damage done to her would be irreversible. This problem is aggravated by the lack of political will of current leadership to implement policies that will drastically change our ways to cut carbon emission and prevent further destruction of the planet. Instead, current leaders are blocking these changes. Personally, I see the film as a documentary of our helplessness. I mentioned helplessness because cannot do anything significant despite knowing the problem. Everybody knows that mother earth needs to be healed and that there is something wrong with her. Even those who do not care cannot deny the destructive force of nature now compared

Accrual Accounting in Public Sector Essay Example for Free

Accrual Accounting in Public Sector Essay In the present age, accounting seems to be an indispensable tool for modern business activities. However, not only for the profit orientated commercial business, it also plays an important role in the non-profit profit organizations, such as public sectors. Moreover, due to several deficiencies and drawbacks of government accounting and financial-management systems, such as unclear accountability, poorly maintained assets and hided losses and long-term liabilities, reforms in the public sector have been conducted over the last several decades across the word from New Zealand, Australia to England (Ball and et al, 1999). Accounting innovation by implementing accrual accounting in the public sector is one of the major part of the reforms and an important element of the wider concept of the so called New Public Management, and draws much of public concern and debate (Connolly and Hyndman, 2006). Under this background, this essay is going to discuss the implications arising from the process of implementing and actual using of accrual accounting in the public sector in several aspects, and try to put forward some possible solutions. See more:  Perseverance essay Generally, two main accounting methods are use to determine when and how to record income and expenses in the books, namely, cash accounting and accrual accounting. The major difference between these two is the timing of when the transactions are recorded in the account (Tudor and Mutiu, 2006). To be specific, under the cash accounting method, income and payment are not counted until cash is actually received or made; while under the accrual accounting basis, transactions are recorded as soon as they incurred, regardless whether the cash is received or made. Comparing to cash accounting, accruals accounting place more emphasis on how the capital assets used and recorded (Connolly and Hyndman, 2006). More reliable figures of performance based on revenues earned and resources consumed will be achieved through accruals accounting. Owning to this, it is believed that accruals accounting will contribute to better longer-term perspective of governmental policies, resource management and decision making (Ball and et al, 1999); and both internal and external transparency may be enhanced. Moreover, it is also considered that comparability between different government departments will be improved, even between the pre and post privatization (Wynne, 2004 and FEE, 2006). Although several potential advantages are suggested that will be brought by implementing accrual accounting in the public sector, it is still under debate that whether it is really appropriate to use accrual accounting system, which is initially devised for private sector, in the public sector (CESifo, 2007). In the private sector, commonly, accounting tends to be seen as a neutral technology to record past activities and provide financial and other necessary information to operate the business more efficiently and profitable. However, due to the difference in the nature and role of the public sector, this description seems not appropriate. For example, the primary purpose of public sector accounting is not serving to generate more profit but controlling people’s behavior to protect public money (Ellwood and Newberry, 2007), and the ultimate users are electorate instead of stakeholders (CESifo, 2007). Due to the fundamental mismatch of the objects, potential inadaptable problems may emerge during utilization (Carlin, 2005). As for the incurred cost of implementation and operation of an accrual accounting, in the North Ireland (NI) case study conducted by Connolly and Hyndman (2006), almost all the â€Å"overseers† and â€Å"Operational Accountants† believed that the views of cost neutral of the transition process, which came up by the UK HM Treasury, are not conform to the reality. Besides that, another case study based on UK and Republic of Ireland (RoI) , the result also revealed that all the interviewees questioned the value of the changes whether can justify the substantial cost (Connolly and Hyndman, 2010). Usually, the additional introducing cost will occur mainly in four aspects, identifying and valuing existing assets, developing accounting policies, establishing accounting systems (such as computer systems), hiring or providing training for both the preparers and users of financial information; and some of those cost will persist (Wynne, 2004). The amount of the cost is significant, for example, according to the New Zealand Audit Office, there is about NZ$160-180 million expenditure accrued by the financial-management reform during 1987 to 1992 (Ball and et al, 1999). Upon the previous experience and data, special resource should be added to the budget separately to ensure that the normal department services will not be impacted by the implementation of accrual accounting. The actual cost associated with process can also be reckoned more easily by doing this. Through comparing several case studies, the perceptions of usefulness of accruals information and the extent of the information used in reality tend to be very different in different cases. Both of the two researches conducted by Connolly and Hyndman (2006 and 2010), based on UK and RoI, showed that almost all the interviewees agreed that the accrual accounting information was limited used or even not used and helpless for decision making; and several â€Å"Operational Accountant† participants expressed the view that the very complicated process may be one of the leading factors. Nevertheless, the situations seem to be rather dissimilar in Australia and New Zealand, where more comprehensively accrual accounting have been adopted. Especially in New Zealand, a significant decrease, from about 52% of GDP to just above 10%, of net debt could be found after the reforms during 1992 to 2005 (Champoux, 2006). The differences of performance of implementation of accrual accounting may attribute to three main reasons, the extent of the whole reform involved, insufficient implementing time and relevant people lack of professional knowledge. One of the possible reasons for the success of New Zealand is that New Zealand was the first country which had completely implemented accrual accounting system at both national and agency level (Carlin, 2005). According to Lye and et al (2005), the reform process in New Zealand not only occurred in economic level, but also extended to a much broader aspects, such as simplifying the machinery of government and changing industrial relations. In contrast, the extent of reform in the other countries which were also implementing accrual based accounting system, like the UK and the USA, is in a rather surface degree. Furthermore, the politicians who were responsible for the reforms in those two countries were right- wing, and may always hold conservative attitude to the reforms (Lye and et al, 2005). However, a thorough reform could generate many benefits and potential advantages. Turning to the issue of implementing time, â€Å"Overseers† participants in the research of Connolly and Hyndman (2006) also typically emphasized that the ineffectiveness of utilization could be a result of being the early stages of the development, and some â€Å"Operational Accountant† also showed positive attitude to the future through time increasing. The process of implementing accrual accounting in the public sector takes far more than 1 or 2 years until the whole system working effectively and efficiently. According to previous experience, the process of fully implementing the new accounting system and necessary reforms will take about 8 to 10 years; and it may be take even longer in the UK case (Wynne, 2004). Upon this, it can be found that the process may take a relatively longer time than people used to expect before the benefit being realized. One other reason is that relevant staffs and managers are unqualified because of lack of professional accounting knowledge. It is commonly accepted that better insight information, such as more complete financial performance and position, which could reveal the features of operation of public sector may be provided by accrual accounting. However, those characteristics make the statements more difficult to understand, especially for people with inadequate accounting knowledge. Comparing to cash accounting, the information provided by cash accounting seems more easily to understand and more straightforward for the general public (CESifo, 2007 and FEE, 2006). Moreover, in Connolly and Hyndman’ s research (2006), both â€Å"Overseer† and â€Å"Operational Accountant† participants particularly complained that, mostly, their efforts, spending extra time to process the complex information, are useless, because the potential users are lack of relevant accounting skills. Several participates also believed that the majority of senior managers are not equipped with necessary accounting knowledge and do not have a strong desire to learn and adopt the new accounting system. Besides that, in another Connolly and Hyndman’s research (2010), according to reflection of politicians to the new accounting information, the interviewees believed that not only the senior managers, but also the politicians, who are essentially responsible for decision-making, had inadequate accounting knowledge and superficial level of understanding of accrual accounting system. However, if politicians do not have certain level of accounting knowledge, they will not be able to evaluate and act upon accrual statements (FEE, 2006). The following is a case in point. Wynne (2004, p10) states that â€Å"only 20% of ministries had a director of finance who was a professionally qualified accountant and not all these were members of the ministry’s management board† in the UK central government. In order to ensure implementation of accrual accounting more smoothly, several approaches could be taken to achieve that. Firstly, one of the most effective ways is providing more accessible accrual information for the public, for instance, summarizing the important information and presenting it without using specialized vocabulary. Secondly, it is vital to provide more training programmes, which teach practically useful accrual accounting knowledge, for both the staffs and managers. Finally, based on the New Zealand experience, it was found that a strong communication with politicians is an indispensable part in the implementation process. The politicians need to realize the potential value of which the accrual based accounting system can bring. Thus, practical strategies, such as illustrating the core concept and benefit of accrual accounting and providing key figures, which can show the features of accrual information, will be needed. (FEE, 2006) In conclusion, through analyzing and comparing several case studies of implementation of accrual accounting, it can be found that a significant number of countries had already started to implement accrual accounting and use accrual information in practice, and the number is still increasing. However, only minority of them realized the substantial benefits from the new accounting system. The reasons for this status can be vary, such as Insufficient implementing time and relevant people lack of professional knowledge mentioned above. Several possible solutions can be used to tackle those problems, but it can be more complicate in the real case; and some gaps still exist in understanding of the implications of use of accrual accounting in the public sector (Carlin, 2005). For this reason, further research based on each countries own circumstances is still needed. Moreover, it is also quite certain that for many countries there are still a number of barriers to be overcome before accrual accounting can be utilized to its full potential. List of references Ball, I. and et al. (1999). â€Å"Reforming Financial Management in the Public Sector: Lessons U.S. Officials Can Learn from New Zealand.† Policy Study No. 258. Reason Public Policy Institute. Carlin, T, M. (2005), â€Å"Debating the Impact of Accrual Accounting and Reporting in the Public Sector†, Financial Accountability Management, 21(3) Center for Economic Studies., the Ifo Institute. and the CESifo GmbH (CESifo). (2007). â€Å"Accrual Accounting in The Public Sector†, CESifo DICE Report, 5 (3), pp. 43-45 Connolly, C. and Hyndman, N. (2006), â€Å"The actual implementation of accruals accounting: Caveats from a case within the UK public sector†, Accounting, Auditing Accountability Journal, [e-journal] 19 (2), pp. 272 – 290. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513570610656123 [Accessed 1 December 2012] Connolly, C. and Hyndman, N. (2010), â€Å"Accruals accounting in the public sector: A road not always taken†, Management Accountin g Research, 22 (1), pp. 36–45 Ellwood, S. and Newberry, S. (2007), â€Å"Public sector accrual accounting: institutionalising neo-liberal principles ? †. Accounting, Auditing Accountability Journal, [e-journal] 20(4), pp. 549 – 573. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513570710762584 [Accessed 1 December 2012] Federation des Experts des Comtables Europeens (FEE). (2006), â€Å"Accrual Accounting for More Effective Public Policy†, paper of the FEE Public Sector Committee. Lye, J., Perera, H. and Rahman, A. (2005), â€Å"The evolution of accruals-based Crown (government) financial statements in New Zealand†, Accounting, Auditing Accountability Journal, [e-journal] 18(6), pp. 784-815. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09513570510627711 [Accessed 1 December 2012] Tiron-Todor, A. and Mutiu, A. (2005), â€Å"Cash versus Accrual Accounting in Public Sector†, Studia Universitatis Babes Bolyai Oeconomica 1990, available at SSRN: http//s srn.com/abstract=906813. [Accessed 1 December 2012] Wynne, A. (2004), â€Å"Is the Move to Accrual Based Accounting a Real Priority for Public Sector Accounting†, Public Fund Digest, [e-journal] 6(1) . Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=1320219 [Accessed 1 December 2012]

US Foreign Policy in Africa Essay Example for Free

US Foreign Policy in Africa Essay The question is that: what type of foreign policy should the US have with South Africa and the larger Africa? The answer of this question goes back to the foreign policy formulation and implementation of the United States government. According to the United States Department of State, the foreign policy approach for South Africa and the larger Africa is Transformational Diplomacy (â€Å"US Foreign Policy in Africa for 2007†). The principle being expounded in this kind of foreign policy approach is partnership. During the past years, what is being applied to South African people is the principle of paternalism, but this has been a failure (â€Å"US Foreign Policy in Africa for 2007†). The philosophy of transformational diplomacy is to do work with the people and not for them (â€Å"US Foreign Policy in Africa for 2007†). In other words, the United States government must work hand in hand with the South African people as their partners for economic, social and political progress. The idea behind this foreign policy is to facilitate in helping the Africans to improve their lives by means of building their own nations and transforming their own futures (â€Å"US Foreign Policy in Africa for 2007†). As such, the utilization of diplomatic power of the United States to reach this goal is instrumental for that matter. It is true that there are various conflicts in South Africa and the larger Africa. It could be remembered that Somalia gain benefits from the transformational diplomacy approach headed by the government of the United States. Somalia collapsed as a state for about 15 years due to war involving Ethiopian military, but with the foreign policy implementation of the United States in its benefit there was improvement (â€Å"US Foreign Policy in Africa for 2007†). At present time, Somalia was guided to the path of recovery and stability by the United States government owing to its partnership ideals with the country. The people were being taught on how to get out from poverty and at the same time working with them for economic and political stability. There are methods that are followed by the United States in resolving conflicts involving the African race. These methods are considered part of the transformational diplomacy and proved to be useful and proper. First, there was a call for resolution of the conflicts in South African nations including the larger Africa. Second, the United States government have backed African conflict mediation processes and improved the capacity of the Africans to bring out peace support operations and combat terrorism within the continent (â€Å"US Foreign Policy in Africa for 2007†). And lastly, there were also efforts to work with leading African mediators and with representatives of the United Nations, as well as the African Union and other African organizations. The transformational diplomacy approach is useful to retain peace in the African continent. Within the year 2001 and 2007, there were 6 wars that erupted in Africa and many people suffered to death (â€Å"US Foreign Policy in Africa for 2007†). The partnership of the United States government and African s together with the United Nations resulted to ongoing recovery of the war-torn areas in Sierra Leone, Liberia, Congo, Burundi, Angola as well as the North and South conflicts in Sudan (â€Å"US Foreign Policy in Africa for 2007†). Since the concept of democracy is an effective tool for peace and economic progress, the United States government tried to work with Africans in order to reject oppression and terror. Hence, it is always true that governments that mirror the popular will of the people are more likely to revere boundaries and human rights compared to those who failed to do so (â€Å"US Foreign Policy in Africa for 2007†). Majority of the African nations are now working towards democratic governance with the help of the United States foreign policy formulation and implementation under the auspices of transformational democracy. References U. S. Department of State. (2007, February 15). US Foreign Policy in Africa for 2007. Retrieved November 6, 2008, from http://www. state. gov/p/af/rls/rm/ 80210. htm.

VarPhen: Web Based Tool for Genotype-phenotype Association

VarPhen: Web Based Tool for Genotype-phenotype Association Elsayed Hegazy1, Mahmoud Elhefnawi1, 2 1Nile University, Giza, 12588, Egypt. 2National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt. Abstract Personalized medicine and the highly attention of next generation sequencing increase the demand of turning the genotype data into meaningful phenotype data. VarPhen is a web based tool used to do such thing. Its written in C# code its based on using RefSeq SNPs ID as a genotype to retrieve the relevant phenotype. VarPhen use ClinVar database as the source of clinical information and phenotypes relevant to specific variant. Introduction Next generation sequencing workflows and pipelines is now available for analyze all row data from quality control and mapping to variant calling but very few tools deals with vcf file to interpret to generate a meaningful reports with the common and rare diseases. One of the biggest servers regarding this issue is ClinVar (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/clinvar/) which provides a freely available archive of the relationships among medically important variants and phenotypes. ClinVar is a huge database for reporting human variation, interpretations of the relationship of that variation to human health and the evidence supporting each interpretation. The database is tightly coupled with dbSNP and dbVar, which maintain information about the location of variation on human assemblies. ClinVar is also based on the phenotypic descriptions maintained in MedGen (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/medgen). Each ClinVar record represents the submitter, the variation and the phenotype. The demand of vcf interpretation to valuable knowledge and phenotype increased day by day with the increasing of personal genome demand day by day. Here we will develop web based application that able to connect to CinVar and retrieve diseases associated with each variant listed in vcf file or sample. Availability and implementation VarPhen available for use on http://www.varphen.com as a web based tool written in ASP.Net with C# code behind using NCBI Database ClinVar API as a source of phenotypes. Review of literature Knowledge is more valuable when shared. By contributing these tools to the big spectrum which is the research community and healthcare as industry, we want to increase the quality and accuracy of genetic data analysis and interpretation available to all patients, physicians and researchers. OpenSNP is a Crowdsourced Web Resource for Personal Genomics. Its based on collecting users or patients vcf files from different sources like 23andme and decodeme plus the normal vcf file then detect variants and all relevant phenotypes. CLINVITAE is a clinically observation database uses the genetic variants aggregated from public sources. It is operated and made freely available by INVITAE which is a service like ClinVar. To make CLINVITAE as informative as possible, CLINVITAE aggregate the data from multiple public databases. CLINVITAE long term goal is to facilitate the search for clinically interpreted variants by creating a single unified resource for all interpretation results. CLINVITAE want physicians and researchers to save their time when comparing variants across multiple platforms and resources, and fully utilize the available data. GWAS Central or the Human Genome Variation database of Genotype-to-Phenotype information which is a database of summary level findings from genetic association studies, both large and small. GWAS actively gather datasets from public domain projects, and encourage direct data submission from the community improving the quality and accuracy of interpretation. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have been successful at identifying some of the variation in traits attributable to genetics. The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) has begun aggregating results of association studies into a master GWAS catalog. Also, INTERPRETOME is a freely available and secure personal genome interpretation engine analyze vcf file into valuable knowledge for diseases from GWAS. Another database from the big company QIAGEN is The Human Gene Mutation Database represents a good trial to collect the known published gene lesions responsible for human inherited disease. Also, The Diagnostic Mutation Database (DMuDB) is a secure repository of clinical quality variant data collected from diagnostic genetics laboratories. Access to DMuDB is available by annual laboratory subscription, and must be for diagnostic purposes only. Many of databases and tools do such analysis or job but very few tools and databases are freely available or accessible by programming inside your application. Aim Developing web based application for transforming variants from vcf into knowledge by identifying which variant pathogenic and what is the associated diseases with that variant. Methods Technically this web based tool developed straight forward by using one of the most powerful web technologies which is ASP.Net web forms with C Sharp back end code. User asked to upload vcf file then file processing done by manipulating file to discard vcf header and start reading vcf data after the header. After that VarPhen only read the third column which represent the RefSeq of the variant as ClinVar input. Also VarPhen detect if the SNP is novel or not this improve the tool performance because if VarPhen found a novel variant so there no web request created to ClinVar but if the variant not novel so VarPhen create a web request to ClinVar asking for full listed information associated with this variant. After the web request processed ClinVar web response retrieved by VarPhen as XML file. VarPhen start to parse and analyze the resulted XML file. Manipulation of XML file target is extracting the phenotypes which associated with the variant of interest. VarPhen uses C# data structu re Queue which help also to improve the performance of the VarPhen web requests to ClinVar API because its based on the concept of First in first served first out. All phenotypes saved in another C# data structure which is the List data structure as a series of strings. After that its the turn of the presentation layer by populating ASP.Net grid view by the list of phenotypes as a table in the user interface. Figure 1- VarPhen flowchart Figure 1 shows the flowchart of VarPhen tool as it indicated its start with vcf file the check if variant is novel or not. No web request created in case of variant novel. API calling starts only with known variants to retrieve the XML file containing the phenotype data. Conclusion VarPhen is one of the easiest ways to know what phenotypes associated with a specific vcf file is. VarPhen target users with no programming experience. No registration required to use it. So simple by its user friendly interface. Renewable Energy in the UK: Government Role Renewable Energy in the UK: Government Role UK Renewable Energy: Electricity Generation and the governments role in driving CO2 reductions. Business Management EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This dissertation will mainly concentrate on UKs efforts to increase renewables contribution to electricity generation in the UK, which are part of a broader range of government strategies to reduce CO2 to meet global concerns and international obligations. It will also examine the forces driving the development of renewable energy market in the UK, as well as the overview of the governments role in driving CO2 reductions. The governments strategy on renewables includes several different elements, each attacking the problem from a different angle: mandatory regulation, information and education, technology RD support, and establishment of market-based mechanisms. The main findings presented will be based mainly on the literature review, expert opinions and future forecasts. A review of recent literature on this topic highlights the risk of failure due to failure of coordination among the many initiatives and government bodies involved, and the dangers of insufficient data in measuring progress. Also, they reveal the practical limitations of reliance on renewable to fulfill future electricity generation needs. The first part of the main analysis will provide an overview of the renewable energy market in the UK; it will include a summary of the current renewable energy policy and the main instruments which act as a driving forces for the development of renewables in the UK, as well as electricity market overview; second part would specifically concentrate on evaluation of whether the policies and targets set by government are efficient and achievable, the conclusion will summarize the findings and elaborate on future prospects for the renewable energy market in the UK. The available data indicates that the UK is already falling behind on its original plans for the uptake of renewable. However, government policy suggests growing awareness of the limitations of most renewables; and a consequent shift in focus away from renewables towards easier ‘bigger solutions such as nuclear power and carbon sequestration for coal-fired power stations. CHAPTER 1 1.1 INTRODUCTION A sustainable energy future is possible, but only if we act urgently and decisively to promote, develop and deploy a full mix of energy technologies We have the means, now we need the will†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Claude Mandil, International Energy Agency (IEA) In the 21st century, there has been a significant increase in energy demand due to factors such as population growth and changes in our lifestyle. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA) today 86.5 % of total worldwide energy consumption is generated from fossil fuels such as natural gas, oil and coal; which are said to be non-renewable, and are the main cause for increase in green house gases and carbon dioxide emitted into the atmosphere. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2007, rising carbon dioxide (CO2) levels are the primary cause of global warming since 1950, and are expected to rise due to ongoing burning of fossil fuels and land-use change. As the worlds fossil fuels continue to diminish at an alarming rate, and global energy demand is forecasted to increase by 60% over the next 25 years (G8 Summit, 2005), alternative forms of energy must be developed that are economically cost effective, environmentally friendly, and easily harness ed. The development of renewable energy sources as a solution to these problems is expected to play a major role in the future energy supply and has developed a considerable interest within national government policies, environmental groups and the private sector. The term ‘renewable energy can be defined as â€Å"energy that is derived from natural processes that are replenished constantly† (Energy Statistics, 2004). The renewable energy sources are also covered by Europes climate change and energy policy. In March 2007, the European Council set a target of 20 percent of the total EU energy consumption to be generated from renewables by 2020. The policy also commits the EU Member States to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 and by 30 percent globally (The EC White Paper, 2007 (BERR)). According to BERR renewable energy is an integral part of the UK Governments longer-term aim of reducing CO2 emissions by 60% by 2050. The Government has set targets of reducing CO2 emissions by 20% by 2010 and 10% of electricity supply from renewable energy by 2010 (Digest of UK Energy Statistics, 2007). This raises the main questions addressed in this dissertation: Can the UK expect to meet and exceed the existing targets? What measure will be required to realize this potential and to encourage further investment in renewables? Despite the fact that renewables are seen by many policy-makers as a solution for improving energy security and saving the environment, there is still some uncertainty whether renewables could compete with conventional energy sources. Supportive policies and heavy investments are still needed to promote further development and deployment of renewables in energy markets. The establishment of new renewable energy technologies and their efficiency will depend on the costs and effectiveness. As a result, in order to promote renewable energy technology into the market there is a strong need to identify and analyse the policies which have a direct effect on technology and market development. 1.2 Renewable energy in the UK The United Kingdom is one of the worlds most globalized countries with the second largest economy in Europe and a population of 60 million. The UK currently contributes about 2 percent to global emissions, which, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, were estimated to be 38 billion tones carbon dioxide in 2004. UK energy industries are the main contributors to UK greenhouse gas emissions; according to statistics CO2 accounted for about 85 per cent of the UKs greenhouse gas emissions in 2006. In order to reduce emissions, the 2007 UK Energy White Paper sets out an objective to cut the UKs carbon emissions by 60% by 2050, with real progress by 2020. One way of achieving those targets would be by generating our energy from sources that produce very low or zero levels of greenhouse gases such as renewable energy sources. Renewable energy is â€Å"an integral part of the Governments strategy for reducing carbon emissions as renewable energy resources produce very li ttle carbon or other greenhouse gases†. (Commission, 2006) In 2006, about 75 percent of UK electricity was generated from fossil fuels, about 19 percent from nuclear power, and the remaining 4 percent from other renewables (Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES), 2007). The UK has one of the most suitable markets for the development of renewable sources of energy due to its geographic location; especially in wind, wave and tidal energy. However, the UK is also rich in fossil fuels and until the climate change issue became evident the successive governments have neglected renewable energy as an alternative source of our main energy supply. The UK Government initially started to show support for development of renewable energy sources in 1990, when renewables became a part of the so-called non-fossil fuel obligation (NFFO), originally set up to protect nuclear power. The issue of climate change and high levels of greenhouse gases has given a new drive to the development of renewable energy in the UK. As part of the Climate Change Programme, in June 2000 the UK government replaced NFFO by the Renewables Obligation (RO) in England and Wales with the main aims to encourage further the development of the UK renewable energy industry and to achieve a 10 percent share of renewables in electricity generation by 2010 (Environmental Policy Integration). Overall the renewable energy contribution is increasing. Total electricity generation from renewables in 2006 amounted to 18,133 GWh, an increase of 1,263 GWh (+7 ½ per cent) on 2005. The main contributors to this substantial increase were 1,072 GWh from onshore wind (+43 per cent), 248 GWh (+62 per cent) from offshore wind 134 GWh (+3 per cent) from landfill gas and 119 GWh (+12 per cent) from municipal solid waste combustion (UK Electricity Statistics,2007). One of the other main drivers for the development of alternative energy sources in the UK aside from climate change issues is the security of energy supply. The UK continues to heavily rely on the diminishing sources of fossil fuels, such as coal, gas and oil, which are increasingly sourced in geopolitically unreliable areas, such as Venezuela, Nigeria and Russia. According to the UK Energy Statistics 12 percent of the UKs gas supply came from gas imports (Digest of UK Energy Statistics (DUKES), 2007). Therefore further development of alternative energy sources in the UK will reduce the amount of imported fossil fuels, as well as have a key role in resolving the climate change issue. In order to maintain the UKs energy supply and to achieve the carbon dioxide targets set in the Kyoto Protocol under which the UK has committed itself to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5 percent by 2012 (Sustainable Development Indicators in Your Pocket, 2007), as well as longer term goal set out in Energy White Paper to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 60 percent by 2050, it is vital to sustain further development of energy sources that produce low or zero levels of greenhouse gases, such as renewable energy. Figure 1, shows the Kyoto target and CO2 emissions, 1990 to 2012. Figure 1: Defra, BERR, â€Å"Sustainable Development Indicators in Your Pocket†, 2007 The Governments policies together with the White Paper made proposals to help increase the sources of renewable energy in the UK. The initial proposals set out in the Energy White Paper 2007, concentrate on three main areas: Electricity generation, by strengthening and modifying the Renewables Obligation, by reforming the planning system and by removing barriers to the growth of decentralised electricity generation; heat, by publishing a Biomass Strategy which identifies opportunities for increasing the use of renewables in energy production and by announcing further work to develop a more strategic approach to heat; and Transport, by requiring through The Renewable Transport Fuel Obligation Programme (RTFO) that an increasing proportion of our transport fuel should come from renewable sources. (Energy White Paper , 2007) According to the recent study undertaken by the Poyry Energy (Oxford) LTD, by 2020, renewable energy supply is expected to account for around 12 percent of EU total energy demand, where 59 percent of this volume will come from electricity generation, 32 percent from renewable heat and 9 percent from transport (Compliance costs for meeting the 20% renewable energy target in 2020., 2008) This paper will mainly concentrate on electricity generation through renewable energy sources, as consistency of electricity supply is fundamental to a robust UK economy, and renewables appear to be a suitable solution to improve security of electricity supply in the UK. The UK Government has set a target in order to promote the generation of electricity from renewable sources, by 2010, 10% of UK electricity should come from renewable sources (BERR, UK). The costs of electricity production from renewable energy sources presented in the figure below demonstrate that generation costs depend on the resource conditions in different countries or regions, particularly the EU Member States (Compliance costs for meeting the 20% renewable energy target in 2020, 2008). Therefore, in order to establish and sustain the competitiveness of renewable energy sources it is essential to analyse whether renewable energy technologies can compete with conventional sources. Figure 2: Electricity generation cost of renewable energy technologies (EU Commission 2005: 24, Support of electricity from RE sources). To support the new energy strategy there was a significant development to the UK Renewables Policy, the government has established key elements such as Renewables Obligation, which is driving force for the investment and consumer interest in renewables and it does so by obliging electricity suppliers to source a certain percentage of electricity from renewable sources. It has also launched strategies which allow UK to identify its main strengths and to develop world-leading capabilities in renewable energy sector. The main drivers of UK Renewable Energy Policy include: Renewable Obligation (RO) The RO is the main support scheme for renewable electricity projects in the UK. It places an obligation on UK suppliers of electricity to source an increasing proportion of their electricity from renewable sources. Suppliers are required to produce evidence of their compliance with this obligation to the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (Ofgem). Evidence can be via certificates, referred to as Renewable Obligations Certificates (Renewable Obligation, 2008). UK renewable electricity has increased considerably since the introduction of RO. In 2006 electricity supplied from RO eligible sources stood at around 4% of the UKs total electricity, up from 1.8% in 2002 (Energy White Paper , 2007). Climate Change Levy (CCL) Exemption The Climate Change Levy (CCL) is â€Å"an environmental tax levied on the supply of certain taxable commodities, for example electricity, gas and coal, and charged by energy suppliers to final business consumers. Domestic, and most charitable, consumers do not pay CCL (Microgeneration and the Climate Change Levy, 2007). In order to support further development of renewables and to encourage consumers to use environmentally friendly sources of energy, renewable electricity supplied to non-domestic consumers is exempt from CCL. Research Development Programme The Government has constantly introduced programmes for renewable energy sources to remove obstacles which stood in the way of the development of renewables by furthering research and gathering information as well as assist industrial activities in the UK. Such programmes support the Renewable Obligation and the exempt renewable from Climate Change Levy. The programmes will also require cooperation with in the industry between the government and environmental organisations to maintain a steady approach to the growth of the renewable energy sources in the market. The programmes also set out plans to address the key issues together, with the concentration divided between technology development as well as non-technological issues, such as raising finance and obtaining planning permission. Each technology is set to be tested though several stages, which include assessment, RD, demonstration and market entry, full-scale industrialization and competition (Challenges Ahead for UK Renewable Energy Program, 2007). Strategies for individual technology programmes also include this operation at the different stages of technology development. An exit strategy will also contribute to the competitiveness of the industry without creating a subsidy. Green trading can play a major part in electricity generation strategy to move to a system of renewables which operates strictly in the commercial market. The Government will carry out several actions together with the industry in order to encourage the development of renewable technologies in the UK, such actions include technological and environmental assessment in addition to resource assessment ;demonstration; the industrialisation of the market; removing legal and administrative obstacles; dealing with planning and development control issues; promoting research and marketing and education. The set priorities for the development of renewable technologies depend on their cost effectiveness and the amount of greenhouse gas emissions that can be reduced on different timescales. The priorities for the development of the renewable energy sources are set in time scales and include: Near Term includes most competitive renewable technologies in the UK. (Geothermal (heating and cooling),waste and some biomass residues, landfill gas, onshore wind, hydro, passive solar) Medium Term (by the year 2010) includes renewables that show maximum contribution by 2010, as well as assist to achieve the target of 10 percent.(Some biomass residues, energy crops, offshore wind) Longer Term (after 2010) includes renewable technologies that show longer term potential under the RD programme. (Fuel cells, photovoltaics, wave) Very Long Term (after 2050) includes renewable technologies which at this stage are only worth pursuing through the basic research. (Tidal barrage, hydrogen, ocean thermal currents) (UK Renewable Eneegy Policy , 2007) The Department of Trade and Industry will divide the budget allocated for the development of renewables according to the priorities table set above, particularly between the short, medium and longer term periods. The renewable technologies which are included in short and medium term will benefit from the market simulation under the Renewable Obligation. 1.3 main aim: The mixture of the issues introduced briefly in the first Chapter leads to the overall aim of investigating the governments role in achieving the targets set and through analyzing the market and the economic forecasts concluding whether these targets are achievable. Following chapter will review the existing literature that has investigated UK Renewable Market and Policies, critically evaluated the UK performance in renewables sector and consist of relevant data in order to set out the specific objectives for this study. United Kingdom has one of the most suitable potential markets for the development of renewable energy sources and could act as a leading example for the rest of the world, but the main question remains whether the UK will adopt the right approach to support the new technologies or is it just an ambitious set of targets based on wrong evaluations? CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Global Perspective Today, the rising issue of climate change can be identified as â€Å"the biggest challenge facing humanity† (International Socialist Group, 2006). The UK Prime Minister has said climate change is â€Å"probably, long-term the single most important issue we face as a global community†. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has concluded that â€Å"global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions must be reduced at least 70 percent over the next 100 years to stabilize atmospheric CO2 concentrations† Considerable technical change will be needed to maintain growth in economy combined with large CO2 emission reductions at a cost as low as possible (Grubb, 1997), however the timeframe is not clear as many ways lead to certain CO2 stabilization levels which correspond to fixed increasing amounts of CO2 that can be released during the target year. Furthermore, economic arguments were raised favoring deferred emission abatement pathways (Wigley, 1996). There is a possibility that unexpected political objectives may trigger the need of short-term investments in long life capital stock, this leads to high costs due to the early retirement of long life capital stock units. Additionally, there is a high risk of only focusing on short-term emission reduction targets while creating technical change policies in relation to climate change which may result in a framework unable to achieve long-term future targets (Sande ´n, 2005). The increasing concerns of climate change has played one of the key roles in supporting the development of renewable energy sources, which are environmentally friendly and impose low or zero carbon emissions released into the atmosphere. In order to sustain the development of renewables it is essential to meet the stabilization scenario for carbon dioxide reduction and show that they can be competitive in cost with energy from other sources (Houghton, 2004, p.306). Houghton also stated that â€Å"under some circumstances renewable energy sources are already competitive in cost (e.g. local sources of energy), however where there is a direct competition with fossil fuel energy from oil and gas, many renewable energies at present compete only marginally†. Conversely, fossil fuels such as oil, coal and gas have limited resources and â€Å"at some time between 2010-2020 the worlds supply of oil and gas will fall below the level required to meet international supply† (Oil and gas running out much faster than expected, 2003). As the result the costs of fossil fuels will increase which will unveil the opportunity for renewable energy sources to compete more easily (Houghton, 2004, p.306). A recent report from the UN environment programme said â€Å"investment in renewables such as wind, solar and biomass jumped 43% last year and may be about to increase by much more substantial amounts†. It also predicted that renewable energy sources could supply approximately a quarter of the worlds electricity by 2030. This fast development of renewable energy sources occurred as a result of rising demand for energy, security of energy supplies and the environmental and the dangers associated with the burning of fossil fuels (Sawin, 2004, p.5). The additional drivers for the rapid expansion of renewables incorporate the political support for renewable energy around the world, dramatic cost reductions and significant technology advances (Sawin, 2004, p.5). However, Karl Mallon in his book â€Å"Renewable Energy Policy and Politics: A Handbook for Decision-Making† has set out several challenges which can affect the development of renewable energy sources. Mallon mentioned that renewable projects usually have a long lifetime (20 years or more), but the investment and the main industrial activity occurs at the beginning. Therefore in order for investors to get a return on their investment, the developers on their end will try to make the projects as long as possible and try to establish capacity as early as possible in the scheme to yield the maximum return time (Mallon, 2007). As a result, generation schemes with targets that run less than 20 years will create a market with increasing activity and a massive industry growth for the first few years, and once a capacity meeting the long term target is in place downturn of activity will take place (Mallon, 2007). Mallon also stated that a â€Å"boom-bust† activity cycle is terr ibly inefficient form of industry development; if targets are used they must be dynamic to provide a constant but steady pull on industry. Another challenge which faces the development of renewables is the governments concentration on the economic side, namely where â€Å"the desire for economic certainty overrides the objectives of industry development or climate mitigation† (Mallon, 2007). Furthermore, according to Mallon, effective climate mitigation will require not less than 50-100 years transition to zero-emissions, therefore the schemes with deadlines ending 2010-2015 will make no contribution to solve in the climate change problem. Such schemes only provide economic certainty and tell investors that this is only a short term engagement rather than a long term, ignoring the fact that the prices of renewables and conventional energy change all the time. Finally, Mallon emphasized on the fact that â€Å"it is important to recognize that renewable energy policy consists not just of a driver but rather comprises a complete framework, ignoring or overlooking parts of that framework will undermine the entire vision†. 2.2 UK Perspective The energy policy of the United Kingdom fully supports targets for carbon dioxide emissions and is committed to achieve mandatory 60 percent cut in the UKs carbon emissions by 2050 (Carbon Abatement Technology for Fossil Fuels, 2005). The current interest in renewable energy in the UK reflects the global view in relation to the shortage of the existing energy sources and the necessity of finding alternative energy supplies to meet the future energy demand. The need for securing energy sources as an alternative to the current energy sources, mainly fossil fuels, lies in the uncertainty of such fuels which is diminishing over the years. This is particularly pertinent to the UK as it is estimated that by 2020 the UK could be importing 90% of its gas (which currently produces 41% of energy consumed) (DTI 2006). Additionally, the rising concerns over global warming and climate change also played a major role in ‘shedding the light on renewable energy sources. By 2050, global energy demand could double as populations rise and developing countries expand their economies (World Energy Organization, 2008). The UK Government started to tackle such concerns in 1999 when it introduces its first strategy â€Å"to help deliver a better quality of life through sustainable development† (Tony Blair, The UK Government Sustainable Development Strategy, March 2005). The Governments 2003 Energy White Paper sets a direction towards achieving low carbon economy, by attempting to resolve the issue on domestic basis first and to influence the major players in the global community to follow the same footsteps. The UK Government has committed itself to cut down greenhouse gas emissions, as mentioned above the government; according to its 2003 Energy White Paper, declared that its mission is to move to a low carbon economy and set out its target that by the year 2050 carbon dioxide emissions will be reduced by 60 percent in addition to the Kyoto Protocol target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5 percent by the year 2012, and the ambitious national goal of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 20 percent below the 1990 levels by the year 2010 (The UK Government Sustainable Development Strategy, 2005). However, the UKs CO2 emissions rose in the period 2002-04 (levels in 2004 showing a 1.5% increase over 2003) (DTI 2005a). These issues are arising at a time when large numbers of the UKs coal and nuclear-fired power stations are also reaching decommissioning age. This presents the UK with an opportunity to re-structure the fuels in its energy mix. According to the British Wind Energy (BWEA) the UK could face some challenges in meeting the renewable energy target of 20 percent by 2020 if it increases the amount of electricity generated under its Renewable Obligation, but puts on hold â€Å"financial penalties for utilities that help fund the program at 2015 levels† (Challenges Ahead for UK Renewable Energy Program, 2007). The BWEA Chief Executive Maria McCaffery has commented on reform proposal: The RO has been highly successful in bringing forward the cheapest renewables: onshore wind, landfill gas and biomass co-firing. The Governments plan to band the RO could allow more technologies to share in this success, particularly offshore wind but this cannot be at the expense of onshore winds current strong growth. Accommodating the more expensive technologies whilst trying to get to a 20% target in 2020 using the same amount of money as a 15% goal is like trying to extract a quart from a pint pot. It just doesnt add up. E ssentially, said BWEA, â€Å"the government is attempting to get a third more renewable power with a mix that includes significant quantities of technologies that are not economic under the current system for the same amount of money† (Challenges Ahead for UK Renewable Energy Program, 2007). John Loughhead, the Executive Director of the  UK Energy Research Centre  (UKERC)  said: Achieving these targets will be challenging, since the UK currently obtains less that 2% of its energy from renewable sources. It is probable that electricity production will have to bear a disproportionate share and initial estimates from the European Commission and others suggest it may need to produce about 40% of all electricity from renewable sources by 2020 if the overall targets are to be met. Additionally, the recent study â€Å"Renewable electricity generation technologies†, January 2008, issued by Institute of Physics (IOP) has outlined further barriers to the development of renewable energy sources. According to the study, one of the main challenges facing the renewables is â€Å"the liberalisation of the UK energy market, the current price of electricity is so low that it is not economically viable to develop and introduce new generating technologies to the market, unless they can be developed at a low cost and can provide electricity predictably at competitive wholesale prices† (Renewable electricity generation technologies, 2008) 2.3 UK Renewable Policy Targets Karl Mannon regards the renewable energy policy as a framework rather a single driver and emphasized that all the parts forming this framework must operate jointly in order for us to achieve the highest benefit of this policy (Mannon, 2007). As to the influence such policies may have on the market, Mannon added that there are unknown factors in these policies which can affect the size of the market, the prices paid for renewable energy or the duration of the scheme. Some of the factors which control the growth of the market include: the level of support, the duration of support eligibility, the duration of support schemes and the quantity of renewables required under the scheme. (Mannon, 2007, p.37) However, Adrian Smith in his report â€Å"Multi-level governance: Towards an analysis of renewable energy governance in the English regions†, December 2006, has identified challenges for governance in promotion of renewable energy systems. Smith, 2006, has outlined that â€Å"governments policy objective of transforming existing energy systems into ones with greater renewable energy content requires coordinated efforts and changes amongst many different actors, institutions and artifacts. Renewable energy systems are complex, and their construction is far from straightforward. It is consequently difficult to direct them into being exclusively through hierarchical government measures like planning† (Smith, 2006). John Sauven, the Executive Director of Greenpeace UK, in his article â€Å"Its rip-off Britain, even when it comes to climate change†, October 2007, has stated that the targets set by Renewable Obligation which were set for electricity suppliers have all been missed and â€Å"the governments own projections show that the final target of just 15 percent in 2015 will also be missed†. Additionally, Dave Toke, in his academic paper, has concluded that â€Å"RO is relatively inflexible in that it effectively sets a single level of payments for all renewable-energy generators, which is relatively generous for onshore wind power, barely sufficient (even with capital grant supplements) for offshore wind power, and not enough for much else. The target of supplying 10% of UK electricity from renewables by 2010 is not likely to be achieved some 7% is a more likely level† (Toke, 2005). Toke, D., also noted that â€Å"the more ambitious the targets are, the more expensive w ill be the incentives (or penalties) needed to ensure compliance with these targets†. The analysis of renewable energy policy carried out by the Carbon Trust, â€Å"Policy Framework for renewables†, July 2006, states that â€Å"overall, the existing renewable energy policy suffers from inefficiencies, resulting in a unit cost of renewable energy to consumers that is higher than necessary given the current technology cost†, as well as â€Å"given the renewable and carbon reduction targets and the 2015 gap, diversity of investment in renewable energy is needed†. The UK policies are not created to determine what a sustainable energy system i

Zoot Suit by Luis Valdez :: essays research papers

â€Å"Zoot Suit† Luis Valdez made a great contribution to Chicano theater when he created a Chicano musical a form of theater that was more common for white America. As I read Zoot Suit I could not stop wondering how the play would look once it was on stage. I could not picture a play that included singing and dancing one which does not compare to the other plays written by Luis Valdez and the Teatro Campesino. I only wish that I had been lucky enough to watch the play live. However, I do feel that if the play was to be re-enacted it would not have the same effect on it’s viewers of today as it might have then. Unfortunately I feel that might be its only downfall. I was still really amazed that this play made it to Broadway and I feel it was just as worthy of it as other plays have been. It is also very interesting to note that it was his longest running play in Los Angeles however; I am assuming that has to do with the large number of Mexican and Mexican-Americans living in LA during that tim e.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I found the play very interesting and could not stop reading especially because I knew that the play was based on a true story a crime that actually took place against Chicanos. I did not know much about the sleepy lagoon case before I read the play. Having an interest on the subject helped me stay focus on the story and kept me reading. However, I kept wanting a stage visual of the play so that I could stay alert. As I watched the movie for the first time I felt great and yet, a bit bewildered to see so many brown faces on stage at the same time but ultimately I truly loved the feeling of it. I only wish that more plays or even movies would include Latinos onto the stage. I feel that the fact that Luis Valdez created a more American type of play made it more possible to be seen by many more people. If Zoot Suit would have been kept as an acto its audience would have been selective and minimal.

Social Commentary in The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald :: free essay writer

The Great Gatsby:Â   Social Commentary On one level The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald comments on the careless gaiety and moral decadence of the period in which it was set. It contains innumerable references to the contemporary scene. The wild extravagance of Gatsby's parties, the shallowness and aimlessness of the guests and the hint of Gatsby's involvement in crime all identify the period and the American setting. But as a piece of social commentary The Great Gatsby also describes the failure of the American dream, from the point of view that American political ideals conflict with the actual social conditions that exist. For whereas American democracy is based on the idea of equality among people, the truth is that social discrimination still exists and the divisions among the classes cannot be overcome. Myrtle's attempt to break into the group to which the Buchanans belong is doomed to fail. Taking advantage of her vivacity, her lively nature, she seeks to escape from her own class. She enters into an affair wi th Tom and takes on his way of living. But she only becomes vulgar and corrupt like the rich. She scorns people from her own class and loses all sense of morality. And for all her social ambition, Myrtle never succeeds in her attempt to find a place for herself in Tom's class. When it comes to a crisis, the rich stand together against all outsiders. Myrtle's condition, of course, is a weaker reflection of Gatsby's more significant struggle. While Myrtle's desire springs from social ambition, Gatsby's is related more to his idealism, his faith in life's possibilities. Undoubtedly, his desire is also influenced by social considerations; Daisy, who is wealthy and beautiful, represents a way of life which is remote from Gatsby's and therefore more attractive because it is out of reach. However, social consciousness is not a basic cause. It merely directs and increases Gatsby's belief in life's possibilities. Like Myrtle, Gatsby struggles to fit himself into another social group, but his attempt is more urgent because his whole faith in life is involved in it. Failure, therefore, is more terrible for him. His whole career, his confidence in himself and in life is totally shattered when he fails to win Daisy. His death when it comes is almost insignificant, for, with the collapse of his dream, Gatsby is already spiritually dead. As social satire, The Great Gatsby is also a comment on moral decadence in modem American society.

Morality and Generally Good Morals Essay

Morals, values and beliefs are all very similar in a way even though they may have different scientific definitions. Everyone in the world has morals, values and beliefs, although they may differ and have different roles in each other’s lives; theses three things all have an impact on how we choose to live our lives in some way. According to the online Merriam Webster dictionary, a moral is defined as something â€Å"concerned with the principles of right and wrong behavior and the goodness or badness of human character. † How we act in certain situations is often based on our morals. With morals, the way one was raised plays a big factor on whether or not that person makes morally right or wrong decisions. More often than not, someone who had a stable and well-rounded upbringing will make more morally right choices in their life compared to someone with less family influence or support. Sometimes there are exceptions with this, but generally good morals are usually instilled in people at a young age which can last a lifetime. A moral can also serve as a lesson or theme which is why the phrase â€Å"the moral of the story† exists. With that being said, it is possible for someone to gain moral values through learning lessons through personal or others’ life experiences. By learning lessons through experiences it allows us to have a better understanding on how to act if a similar experience arises again. One moral value that my parents always stressed me to have was to be honest with everyone. They taught me that with honest actions comes more respect and trust from others, which will be very beneficial in my personal and professional life. Value is defined as â€Å"the regard that something is held to deserve; the importance, worth, or usefulness of something† by the online Oxford Dictionary. Values are the components of peoples’ lives that they find important and meaningful. People’s values often change throughout their lives as their circumstances change. Personally, my values are education, family, friends and money. All of these are important aspects to me which I find necessary to be content with my life. If I didn’t find education valuable to me I would not be enrolled in school right now. Also, without my family and friends, I would not be who I am today since they serve as a great support system and offer value to my life. Money is important because without it I would not be able to support myself while away at school . For example I would not be able to buy necessary items such as books and supplies to give me the best chance at succeeding in college. As time goes on these values may change to my career, my children and more things that would be more meaningful to me as I get older in age.

Numbermatching.com business strategy

Advertising is an impersonal selling and communication method which makes use of various types of media to reach the target public in short time. Advertising aims at gaining exposure, creating awareness, changing attitudes of target customers in favor of sponsors product and services and also at effecting sales and improving corporate image. Media Selection for No. 1 match Media planning includes decisions relating to which media should be used and when and how often should advertisements be placed in the selected media. The basic purpose of media planning is to optimize the communication reach to the relevant audience within the available budget. Effective and efficient adverting rests on decisions based on collecting data from appropriate internal and external sources. a)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Press (including all types of newspapers and magazines): wider circulation, limited life, good for mass communication and reminder message. b)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Direct Mail: Restricted circulation, flexible usage, private in nature, high impact. c)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Outdoor (including hoardings, posters, neon signs): local circulation, durable, reminder media. d)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Radio: Wide reach, cuts through illiteracy barriers, quick reminder messages possible. e)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Television: Combines both Audio and Visual, limited reach, high degree of viewers involvement, suitable for product demonstration. f)  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Miscellaneous (such as exhibition/fairs): Local reach, good product demonstration, impactful response. Promotion: It is through Budget, theme, media, timing. If major resources are to be committed, plan for measurement of promotional effectiveness should be include feedback from the market place, marketing research. Like products and prices, customization of advertising and promotion are very much possible in cyber marketing. Besides customization, the customer is contacted when he is giving full attention to the website. In fact, when a customer views any site he has done so after deliberate and conscious effort and choice. This increases his commitment to the message that he is viewing on the internet. It generates a hierarchy of impacts like creation of awareness, interest, desire and action on the consumer. Internet has been found to be amenable to finer tuning for most of these impacts. As a result, it is possible to better transport the customer from one level of impact to the next higher one and do so more quickly. The combination of this factor with the feature of individualization makes the output very powerful. Direct Marketing All corporate marketing activities have to be necessarily carried out in such a way that they lead to generation of surplus funds. Market segmentation helps in optimising the marketing mix for a segment. The output of a segmentation analysis is a profile of customer target group focusing on details that will best help to develop product, promotional, pricing and distribution strategies. The set of benefits sought to build the configuration of benefits sought and then select benefits in our offering that will constitute a critical advantage to act as the buying inducement. Segmentation of a market is not an arbitrary process, but neither is there a unique set of segments to be discovered. The two approaches, top down and bottom up (logical division and offering) which are used for breaking up. Public Relations measuring the degree of success of a public relations campaign or improving the response of personnel in numbermatch.com Measuring performance against standards Measurement of performance against standards should ideally be a forward-looking or on proactive basis with a view to detecting deviations in advance of their occurrences, and should be avoided by appropriate corrective action ‘in advance’. The project manger can often predict probable perceive much ahead of schedule, it should be uncovered as early as possible. References Philip Kotler (2002), 11th ed., â€Å"Marketing Management†, PHI-New Delhi

Argumentation in the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Essay

At the beginning of the story, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Huck is constantly under the influence of a mother figure. That mother figure makes him feel guilty when he does something wrong, rewards him when he does something right, and also serves as a kind of protector of him. Although Huck does not realize it, he is always being looked after by something or other. At one point it’s the widow, and throughout most of the story it’s the river. In the story, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the river becomes a provider of food, transportation, and refuge, metaphorically taking over the role as his mother when he runs away with Jim. At the beginning of the story, the Widow takes Huck under her wing and tries to teach him right from wrong. She makes him wear nice clothes, go to school, and say his daily prayers. Throughout his stay with the widow, Huck does not respond to the widow’s ways of teaching very well. When the widow asks Huck to do something, he does it, however, begrudgingly. She tries to teach Huck to become a gentleman and treats him as if he were her own son. When Tom Sawyer comes back into the picture, the widow takes on the motherly role of disapproval. She does not like the way Tom acts and makes believe all the time. This is why, rather than asking to see Tom, Huck usually snuck out when she did not know. The widow can not act as Huck’s mother for long though, because Huck is kidnapped by his father and fakes his own death to get away from everybody. After Huck’s â€Å"death,† he escapes to the river where he hides out on an island while his friends and family are searching for his body. During this time the river, without Huck realizing it, kind of takes over the role of mother. It provides protection from the elements when rain hits. It also hides Huck as the steamboat sails past with all his friends and family on board. Huck does not want the people to see him, or they will know he was just faking and will take him back to the life he is not fond of. Knowing this, Huck hides in the bushes and trees that grow along the river. When a mother knows that its child is in danger, she will hide it from the world so that it won’t get hurt. The river shows this motherly trait to Huck. The first thing a mother does for its child when it is a newborn, is to feed it. While Huck is a runaway, he needs food for survival. The river, in a way, provides this when Huck finds a loaf of bread floating down the river. Also later on in the story, Huck and Jim happen upon a house boat where they find many different types of fruit among other things.

“I’m Still Here” by Veronica Ross Essay

Courageous and full of determination, Jake Garson in one of the short stories I’m Still Here, written by Veronica Ross, shows the set of characteristics that many Canadians regard as expressing their unique place and role in the world. He tried to fight and stand up for his own rights against the government through his act of bravery. By doing this, he had influenced many people in his hometown that faced the same situation as Jake; however, they did not show the same kind of courage that Jake showed. Readers who like to reevaluate and rethink what they are reading are recommended to read short stories such as I’m Still Here. It is one of the stories that teach us the moral lessons of standing up for yourself without anger or violence and to have a positive attitude at all times. This is one of the effects it had made to the short story. Some other effects also include a slow beginning introduction with an unpredictable ending. The author also does an excellent job of capturing the reader’s interest through plots twists, characters, theme, symbolism and much more, which made an effective short story. Although the use of vulgar language had made an unattractive impression, it showed the characteristics and emotions of the character inside the story, which made it more alive for the readers to read. Kezia, the main character from the short story The Wedding Gift, written by Thomas Raddall had a similar situation like Jake. Both of the short stories teaches us the moral lessons of standing up for yourself. Courage and bravery was something Jake had successfully shown in the short story. â€Å"Glad to see you’re standing up for your rights. We had the same thing happen to us, but we didn’t have your courage. Good luck† (Ross 201). In the story, the government wanted to take away his land with fair compensation being paid. However, Jake was not caring about the money; he was determined to stay because he was born on that land and it had been in the family a hundred and eighty years. His roots are there so losing it would be like losing a part of him. Although it looked like a foolish act to do, it had influenced many people in his hometown. All the children came and said the same thing, â€Å"that Jacob Garson was a hero, a man brave enough to stand up for his freedom. And that they were behind him† (Ross 201). However, not all people supported him. They were others who thought he was being selfish and tried to threaten him. â€Å"We’ll burn your house down, you  fool† (Ross 199). â€Å"Your land could be enjoyed by all, you selfish son of a bitch† (Ross 202). Nevertheless, those people did not make a successful interference toward him. With this bravery attitude and act of determination, it had made an effective short story that teaches readers a great moral lesson.

15 Facts about Recycling

15 Facts about Recycling The important facts about recycling are immense. What is the use of filling landfills with trash from valuable materials we have used only once? The best thing to do would be take the material for recycling and utilize all the resources and energy previously used in manufacturing the product. Materials collected for recycling had been processed and refined in the past, hence the process of manufacturing again is much cleaner and energy saving than the initial one. Here are some of the facts about recycling: 1. Recycling aluminum cans saves energy There is enough energy saved from recycling an aluminum drink can that is sufficient for running a television for 2hrs, a computer for 3hrs and a bulb (100watts) for 20hrs. You can save 37 barrels of oils by recycling a ton of aluminum. It is possible to power a home for a whole day with the energy saved from recycling 125 aluminum cans. The energy it takes to manufacture one aluminum can from raw bauxite ore can produce 20 aluminum cans from recycling. Aluminum can be recycled limitlessly. 2. Steel Recycling saves enough energy to power a city Energy amounting to 3.6 barrels of oil is saved when one ton of steel is recycled. Manufacturing new steel requires 1.49 tons of iron ore. The total energy saved from recycling steel annually can power a whole city like Los Angeles for a decade. 3. Do not throw used car batteries Recycling battery acid can produce sodium sulfate which can be utilized in the manufacture of textile, glass and washing detergent. 4. Eco-Friendly Coffins When we burry coffins, we pollute the ground with hard wood laminated with toxic materials, tons of steel and copper. Recently, there has been a push for eco-friendly coffins made completely from recycled paper. 5. The Most recycled material in ancient times was bones Prior to the 20th Century bones were the most recycled material. From bones they made button and gelatin that was important for producing glue, paper and utilized in photography and food processing. 6. Paper recycling reduces pollution Recycling paper uses half the amount of water required to make paper from virgin pulp and minimizes air pollution by over 70%. Almost 250lbs of Carbon dioxide can be absorbed from the air by 17 trees on the other hand 15,000lbs of carbon dioxide is released when you burn a ton of paper. 7. Save energy recycle paper Manufacturing recycled paper uses 40% less the amount of energy needed to make paper from trees. The energy saved from recycling a ton of paper is the same as 165 gallons of gasoline or 4100KW hours of electricity that can run a home in the US for 5 months. 8. Recycling paper saves trees When one ton of paper is recycled 17 trees are saved and the land fill space is increased by 3 cubic yards. If 10% of the newsprint bought by everyone in America would be recycled a total of 25 million trees would be saved. The American paper mills consume over 900milliom trees as raw materials. 9. Too much E-waste Annually, the amount of electronic waste produced in the world is over 50 million tons. To get the real picture, you can line up garbage trucks across half the World full of the e-waste. 10. Much of the e-waste lands in China China takes more than 70% of the e-waste for recycling in local workshops. The recycling techniques they use produces toxic materials that are pose both environmental and health risks. 11. Plastics choke up landfills Each day there are over 60 million plastic bottles that wind up in landfills. It takes between 100 to 400 years for plastic to biodegrade. There is enough plastic produced annually in the US to wrap up the state of Texas. 12. Recycling plastic saves energy Manufacturing plastic from raw materials uses over 40% more energy than you would use for recycling plastic. Plastic packaging packing is cheaper to produce than paper bags and saves enough energy to run over a million city homes for a period of 3 years. About 2000 gallons of gas is saved from recycling one ton of plastic. 13. Recycling Food The amount of food waste generated annually is close to 22 million tons. Through waste food composting, we can reduce the carbon footprint equal to removing 2 million cars from the road. 14. Recycling glass over and over Recycling glass reduces the amount of waste in landfills by over 180,000 tons. Glass is one of the most recycled materials with over 80 % recycled into fresh containers. 15. Plastic recycling protects Marine life Over a million sea creatures die annually from swallowing plastic bags. The above facts about recycling could not emphasize its importance enough. We hope you found them invaluable.