The Roman Catholic Church

The Roman Catholic Church The Roman Catholic Church is governed by the Pope in Vatican City, Rome. He manages over every Catholic Churches on the planet and numerous Catholics make it their long lasting dream to visit Vatican City one day and to go to Mass with the Pope. The beginning of this Christian category drives right back to missional occasions. The ceremonies that the Roman Catholic Church has are fundamentally the same as Christian customs which incorporate submersion and affirmation. Most Catholics who go to the Roman Catholic Church follow and comply with the Bible and the manner by which their congregation deciphers it. The Roman Catholic Church is fundamentally the same as yet additionally altogether different in specific regions to Protestant convictions yet in general it is up to sincere belief regarding what religion an individual will follow and how they will follow up on it. Ceremonies that the Roman Catholic Church follows are immersion, first fellowship, affirmation, marriage, the last customs and turning into a cleric or a religious recluse. Sanctification is the place the child is taken to the front of the congregation to be sprinkled or poured over with water while a book of scriptures entry from Matthew 28:19 is being perused. This is to show everybody that the infant and their family admit their confidence in Jesus and will keep on in future life. Numerous families like to dress their kid in an outfit that turns into a memento for later life. First fellowship is a people first gathering of the holy observance of the Eucharist (focal points of the Catholic Church). Affirmation shows that the youngster is as yet rehearsing their confidence and will proceed from that point on. It is typically necessitated that the kid be purified through water before they can be affirmed to keep rehearsing their convictions. Marriage is a sign between a man and lady who are commonly enamored to God that they have interminable love. Separation isn't perceived in this religion yet cancellations might be allowed. The last ritual is otherwise called Anointing of the Sick. This is the place a genuinely sick individual is given three holy observances; Penance, Eucharist and Viaticum. The last custom is turning into a religious woman or cleric. This is the place the individual takes promises to submit that person to an otherworldly life. It additionally implies that they should follow and carry on with their life imploring and if a lady, should likewise live in a religious community or cloister. The Roman Catholic Church has numerous convictions, some of which are regular to the Protestant yet some are very surprising and may not be acknowledged by either conviction framework. Instances of qualities that are comparative: the two religions have faith in the Holy Spirit and great individuals go to paradise. There are almost no likenesses in view of the way that they may concur on one issue however the hidden way that the end was made are not the same as one another. The two religions accept that the Holy Spirit continues from both the Father and the Son. This is one regular conviction that both conviction frameworks hold. The possibility that great individuals go to paradise can be bantered just like a distinction between the two as a result of the reality with respect to how devotees go to paradise. The Roman Catholic Church accepts that the individuals who go to paradise have been following for their entire life and have not done any wrong in life will be permitted to paradi se. Protestants accept that on the off chance that you have demonstrated your confidence to God and indicated that you give your life to him, you will be spared and raised to paradise and have an existence with God. These are only the likenesses between these two religions, there a lot more contrasts which is the thing that separates these two convictions from one another What separates the Catholics from the Protestants are the convictions in the regions of through and through freedom, destiny, the translation of the Bible, marriage and separate and the hugeness of Eucharist. Unrestrained choice is the intensity of settling on free decisions unconstrained by outside organizations. For the Catholics this announcement is beneficial for them as they are allowed to do great or underhandedness. Be that as it may, for Protestants, this isn't the situation. They are just allowed to do beneficial things. Destiny is being resolved ahead of time where God picks what will befall you throughout everyday life and what befalls you in existence in the wake of death. Catholics accept that your destiny depends on Gods prescience of you and your activities while Protestants accept that your fate is identified with Gods orders. The understanding of the Bible is diverse as the Catholic translation incorporates unauthenticated written work which are books of the Bible th at are included to the Old Testament. While Protestants overlook these 14 books of the Bible. These are only a couple of contrasts between the Protestants and the convictions of the Roman Catholic Church. Marriage is acknowledged in the two religions and shows the solidarity of two individuals and shows their convictions and penances for God. Separation then again, is acknowledged by Protestants yet debilitated and is acknowledged as proof of human shortcoming. While with Catholics, separate is looked downward on except if there is some standard block wherein a revocation might be allowed in this circumstance. Eucharist is the holy observance of the Holy Communion. These two religions have various assessments with regards to this issue. To the Roman Catholics, the Eucharist is known as the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. This is against the Protestants, who accept that alongside Baptism, The Eucharist is an image of beauty and that is it. The conciliatory idea of The Eucharist is likewi se dismissed. Taking everything into account, the Roman Catholic Church is another religion that individuals have confidence in and is governed by the Pope. It is all up to genuine belief concerning what an individual has faith in and how they follow up on it. Protestants have altogether different convictions to Catholics yet they all admire a similar individual; God. Nobody can pass judgment on you on your religion and activities. These convictions and activities simply decide your future in certain people groups conclusions yet it is all up to genuine belief and individual perspectives.

Wilfred Owen Essay Example for Free

Wilfred Owen Essay Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was conceived on 18 March 1893 and kicked the bucket on 4 November 1918. He was an English writer and trooper, one of the main artists of the First World War. His stunning, realistic verse about the First World War was intensely affected by his companion, Siegfried Sassoon. There was an immense differentiation between his verse about the war and that of others, for example, Rupert Brooke, as his took on a totally alternate point of view, and indicated the perusers an entirely different side of the war. This wasn’t how he generally took a gander at the war however. It was out of his own free decision that he joined the military, yet it was two horrible encounters that caused his view point to change so radically. Right off the bat, he was tossed into the air when hit by a channel mortar and arrived in the remaining parts of an individual officer. At that point, he was caught for quite a long time in a German burrow. It was these two repulsive encounters that caused his sensational difference as a main priority, and made him experience the ill effects of ‘shell shock’, which prompted him being sent to a clinic for treatment. That was the place he met individual writer Siegfried Sassoon, and this gathering transformed him. In March 1918, he was sent to an order terminal in Ripon, and here, various sonnets were composed. After he had recouped, he was sent back to the cutting edge, and deplorably, a simple week before the war finished, he was shot in the head and passed on. Owen began composing sonnets well before the war, and he expressed that he began at ten years old. His companion, Siegfried Sassoon largy affected his verse, particularly in ‘Dulce et Decorum est’ and ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’. These show direct aftereffects of Sassoon’s impact. A sonnet by Pat Barker was expounded on their relationship. His verse changed altogether in 1917, where as a feature of his treatment his primary care physician got him to record his encounters into sonnets. Despite the fact that a huge number of sonnets were distributed during the war, not many were recognized, and significantly less were cherished, yet Owen was one of them. Just 5 of Wilfred’s sonnets were distributed before he kicked the bucket. It was a prevalent view that Owen was a gay, and there were a few components of homoeroticism in his sonnets, however he never really said this. History specialists have estimated concerning whether he had an unsanctioned romance with Scott-Moncrieff, as Scott had committed a large number of his attempts to ‘Mr. W.O.’, however Owen never reacted on this issue. It was distinctly because of Sassoon being shot that prompted his choice to come back to the forefront back in France, despite the fact that he could have decided not to. He believed he expected to ‘take Sassoon’s place’. Be that as it may, Sassoon was firmly restricted to the thought, and even threatened to ‘stab him in the leg’ on the off chance that he attempted it. Mindful of what Sassoon thought, Owen didn’t disclose to him he proceeded with it and came back to the cutting edge. He was slaughtered while crossing the trench on 4 November 1918.

The Ultimate Guide to Service Design

The Ultimate Guide to Service Design Today’s service industry is all about creating better value and experience for users and improving their quality of life. Service Design is an emerging field that is helping service designers and managers in designing and delivering better services to their customers. As opposed to the traditional ways, technological developments improved products and services while also increasing customers’ expectations. Today’s customers demand products and services to not only perform their basic function but also go beyond that and enthrall them. © Shutterstock.com | ImageFlowIn this article, we will cover 1) what is service design, 2) the benefits of service design, and 3) a step-by-step process for service design.WHAT IS SERVICE DESIGN?Lots of metaphors are used to define Service Design. Service design is a roadmap comprising the steps and processes a customer of a service will undertake when using it. The Spider EU project defines it as a ‘journey’ that a user or customer will embark upon to go through a service. DIY Service Design, the toolkit, defines service design as “finding the most elegant way to help someone to do something.”NI Business Info defines that the ultimate benefit of Service Design is not to improve upon aesthetical outlook of a product or service but to improve its operability and efficiency. Service design is a brainstorming procedure that brings together the design, web design, product design, graphic design, and business departments, such as consumer research, customer services, sales, marke ting, together for deconstructing the user’s interaction and experience with a product and service and reconstructing it for betterment. One needs to envision and understand each step and how it would look and feel like to the customer, so that the service can be improved in the most creative way.A Combination of Creativity and PracticalityService Design is not just a logical and analytical approach towards improvement of a service but also a creative and innovative approach of doing things to set a product or service apart. James Rock, the managing director and chief business designer of  Cultivar Consulting Limited, describes Service Design as a right-brain creative thinking and artistic process and not just cut and dried engineering. The Service Design process consists of intensive research and surveys as well as creative and visual content like storyboards, role plays and personas. It means viewing your own service from the outlook of your customer and walking in his/her shoes . Thus, Service Design is a science as well as an art.BENEFITS OF SERVICE DESIGNService Design ensures that the service actually gets used by users in the intended way and creates positive experiences, thus minimizing the need for costly and lengthy customer services. Engaging in a service design process benefits an organization in several ways:Improves SalesThe application of the service design structure helps a business to understand the customers’ needs, demands and expectations, and create solutions in accordance to them. It adds enrichment to the customer’s experience and creates value for them. Customers’ positive interaction with the product or service means their retention and ultimately greater success and profitability for the business.Creates LoyaltyThe ultimate challenge for businesses in today’s competition driven era is not just attracting new clients but also retaining them in the long run. With availability of a wide range of service options, customers can sw itch services and brands very easily and thus are spoilt for choice. So enterprises have to look for ways to make their service or product distinct from their competition. Service design allows businesses to understand what customers are looking for and expecting from a service. They can then make their offerings adaptable and better suited to those needs. This vintage point can help them stand apart from their competition and retain their customers’ loyalty.Strengthen the Brand and IdentityThe service design approach allows enterprises to strengthen their brand. The service design process helps service managers to progress from the known to the unknown. It consists of the basic and yet critical evaluation of how the new envisaged product or service fits into the overall image and objectives of the company. Thus, the process helps an organization to stay true to its image and reaffirm its brand and stop it from steering away from its core values and objectives while offering a new service. Service design puts a brand to work, unlock its hidden potentials, and create and deliver value to the customers.Improve EfficiencyCreative and imaginative steps involved in the service design process help firms improving the efficiency of their employees and procedures. It helps in elimination of wastage and allows team members to pinpoint areas where there is a resource drain or a bottleneck. Service design blueprints help businesses locate problematic areas and potential failure points and rectify them before hand. Engaging teams in the service design procedure allows them to envision the bigger picture and situate their role in it. It helps them understand why change and innovation is necessary in what they are offering and how they are offering it.Reduce RedundanciesEnvisioning the whole cycle of the service design process allows companies to take a bird’s eye view of their service and remove duplicative segments. It helps managers pinpoint where services might be c onverging or overlapping and it can help them straighten them out before hand. This way inconsistencies and ambiguities can be discovered within the process on and can be rectified. The process of elimination of redundancies conserves energy, improves staff’s efficiency and reduces costs.SERVICE DESIGN â€" A STEP-WISE PROCESS This process can be a fairly simple and straightforward one or a complex one with several converging and diverging points. Breaking down the entire process into steps, tracing and retracing your step backwards and forwards and around different areas of the service ensures that even the minutest details are covered, steps are thought through, problems are identified and rectified, promises are set, service is delivered, and expectations are met.Step 1: Align Vision and GoalThis step is the starting point of a service design process. It decides how the service fits into the strategy of the company. A project may run too far ahead of the company due to ambitious working and innovations, and comparing them with the company’s vision statement and core goals can help the project team realign the service with the company’s desired outcomes. Here is how you can align a service with the company’s image and values:Situate a product or service in the overall vision statement of the compan y.Think of ways how designing a service supports the company’s goals in the best possible manner.Step 2: BrainstormThe next step is to place a creative and hard working team to sustain this vision and provide it a common space to work together, brainstorm and share ideas. Coming with ideas is easy and hundreds of ideas can be generated in very little time; however, execution tests the practicality of an idea. Solid, workable, and practical ideas tend to get buried under the rubble of the mediocre ones. Here are a few brainstorming tips to ensure that a good idea doesn’t go to waste:Allow everyone to pitch ideas during the brainstorming session and participate equally in the service design process.The Spider Project has an idea selection tool called ‘Ideation’ on its website through which the generated ideas can be sorted into the following broad categories i.e.,Ideas those are unworkable, absurd, and unrealistic.Ideas that are good but not workable or achievable at the momen t; they can be saved and used for later.Ideas that are original and will make a difference.Ideas that are ordinary but should be included so as to achieve the minimum service standard.Write down, act out and discuss ideas. Legal Design Tools website defines the brainstorming stage of the design service process as a way of getting ideas out of one’s head and out in the open. This way practical ideas will automatically get sifted from the impractical and absurd ones. It further recommends borrowing ideas liberally from sources to improve them further.The “Diabetics Away Morning” is an example of a project that employed the above-mentioned ideation ways. A workshop was held with stakeholders and they were asked to give presentations and tell personal experiences through narrations. The designers onboard gathered ideas from the presentation and developed them further through discussion. They also illustrated some of the stories told in the workshop. Through these exercises, they c ould develop a process that would mark the users’ journey and develop a service process that could address the challenges the users were facing.Step 3: Conduct a Market AnalysisBefore a new service is launched or an improvement is being made in the existing one, extensive research needs to be done to situate the service in a context. At this step, you and your team can do the following:Analyze the market size, trends and drivers for the service.Understand the ways your envisaged service would address a gap in the existing market.Then try to establish your own service stance i.e., whether you are breaking into a market as a new entrant, improving an existing service to satisfy and retain established customers, challenging your business competitors or willing to coexist with them, or looking for ways to establish yourself as market leaders.Consider the users’ needs for the service and its potential tangible and intangible benefits to the customers, such as savings in terms of cost , gains in terms of quality and convenience.You also have to weigh the pros and cons of launching the service at a certain point in time or not launching it altogether.Step 4: Identify Barriers and LimitationsThis is one of important steps of the service design process as it helps you put your ambitious ideas into the realistic realm.Allow all team members to critically evaluate their own ideas and of others and identify weaknesses and kinks and iron them out. Remember service design is a learning opportunity and not a ground to prove others wrong.Identify the internal and external barriers working against the service implementation. The Spider project encourages identifying the ‘brakes within an organization’ at this stage.Also, set limitations and define boundaries within which you must situate your service.Identify creative ways to work around these barriers and limitations.Here is how the Holstebro Municipality in Denmark responsible for providing meals to the elderly overca me an emotional barrier. During the service design process, it learnt that many senior citizens were embarrassed to have a van titled “HOLSTEBRO MUNICIPAL MEAL SERVICE”  parked outside their homes. Hence, they renamed their service ‘The Good Kitchen’ and experienced great success.Step 5: Establish a User Profile/PersonasThis is another critical step of the service design process. You must have spent lots of time and energy into your design process and think about the service, your organization’s aspirations and expectations from the service but you must answer the most important question: Who are the users of this service and how will they use it, and what are their expectations. An example of this step is a social work project titled ‘Social Inclusion of Seniors in Urban Centers’ conducted in Belgium. The service designers utilized creative techniques such as the “lotus blossom” and different “personas” (Spider Project Tool) to get an insight into the senior c itizens’ needs, values and desires. Service designer and managers have to learn to step out of their own paradigm and think of the service from the users’ perspective in order to make it user friendly. Here is how you should go about this step:Develop different types of fictitious personas or user profiles of your users.Think about what your users do; where do they live; what do they do, etc; and endow them character traits accordingly.List down the users’ possible motives in using your service when they have other options.Step 6: Prototype and TestThis important step provides a creative, quick and inexpensive way of testing service ideas. It gives quick insights into what works and doesn’t. The Design Gym and Service Design Tools recommend the use of storyboards, hand-sketched screens and improvised props to facilitate the process. For instance, the UK based Lewisham Housing Options project developed as many as three prototypes during their service design process.You can te st prototypes of a service on your employees as well as engage a few real users. Here is how you should go about it:Create mockups to create something as close as possible to the real environment.Define the contact points at which the users will come across your service.Develop a stepwise procedure of how they will interact with your service.Step 7: Evaluate Users’ ExperienceCustomers’ interaction with the service leads to users’ experience. This aspect of the service design procedure ensures that the user’s experience with a service is a ‘wow’ moment and certainly not a ‘yuck’ one. It’s all about the feeling a user retain after using the service. This means conducting surveys with users or giving them brief questionnaires. You should focus on two areas:Gather insights from the users about the service features that made the users happy and created moments of delight for them.Inquire the users about the service features, which they found off putting.Probe the users deeper and ask them if the service is:easy to use with no or minimum assistanceuseful for them in getting closer to their goalsvaluable enough for them to desire it and pay money for itClosely investigating customers’ expectations from a service will help service managers improve the service design.Step 8: Get Feedback, Improve the Service, EvolveThe Evolution step is the final phase of the service design process that is from conceptualization towards recommendation. Service Design is a cyclic process and means gathering feedback and feeding it forward. Thus, you should gather all the information that you have learnt from engagement in the above mentioned steps and use it to:Identify gaps and fill them upDefine how you would define your service’s successDevelop metrics to gauge this successFeed the results into your final productDecide if you want to roll out a pilot version of the service or go towards full fledged implementationTwo companies might be offering a similar servic e but ultimately their respective design process will set them apart in terms of how users will experience this service. Better user experience is not just about creation of the best product but how this product is served to the customer. Service design is not just a process to improve a service but a process to touch upon and improve people’s lives.

Japan Food Production Sustainability - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 2 Words: 688 Downloads: 3 Date added: 2019/08/02 Category Biology Essay Level High school Tags: Sustainability Essay Did you like this example? Iconic for the unique culture and extensive history, Japan is an incredibly interesting country. Japan consists of 6,852 islands with the largest being Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu, Hokkaido and Ryukyu Island Chain (JICC, 2018). Its located in the northwest quadrant of the Pacific Ocean, adjacent to South Korea and China. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Japan Food Production Sustainability" essay for you Create order Due to the proximity of these other countries, you can find cultural influence, with the exception the historical isolation from 1603-1867 (New World Encyclopedia, 2017). Today, Japan is home to over 126 million residents and 98.5% are Yamato Japanese (Global Sherpa, 2018). Japan has the longest life expectancy at birth which is 83.2 years (Worldbank). The capital city is Tokyo where the population is 13 million in the city and 32.5 million in the metropolitan area. Japan has a shrinking population, due to a large elderly population, low fertility rate for women, and minimal net immigration. It is predicted that Japans population will decrease by more than 25% (95 million people) (Global Sherpa, 2018). Relative to other countries, Japan is fairly small. However, its culinary arts and foods have reached all corners of the world. Traditional Japanese cuisine is known as Washoku and is characterized by an emphasis on sea food and soybean products and little animal fat or meat. Flavors are enhanced by umami, or the savory taste. Umami flavor is primarily achieved by the amino acid glutamate (Gabriel et al., 2018). This healthy diet is possibly linked to the long lives of people in Japan (Worldbank). Typical foods include noodles, rice and fish. The basic structure of a Washoku meal is a staple, either rice or noodles accompanied by various side dishes, including vegetables and soup. Almost every meal in Japan is served with rice (Gabriel et al., 2018). It can be served boiled, steamed, or fried. A very popular combination with rice is curry. The most typical noodles are soba, white, and ramen noodles (Food by Country). As an island nation, Japan has a ready supply of fish. Fish is grilled or fried and served with rice. Popular fish are salmon, tuna, and mackerel. Others prefer to eat fish cold in the form of sushi; fish rolled up in rice, served cold or hot and with in many varieties. Sashimi is cold fish without rice and dipped in wasabi or soy sauce (Ro, 2016). Farmland is scarce and precious in Japan and the vast majority of it is devoted to rice fields. Minor crops include soybeans, wheat, barley, and vegetables (USDA). As of 2017, Japans top 2 partner countries for food exports include China and the United States. The three main food exports from Japans gross domestic product are seafood, prepared foods, and cereal, flour and starch (Globaledge). Japan has a total export of 644,932,439.50 in thousands of dollars from United States. Japan has 606,924,046.81 total imports which leads to a positive trade balance of 38,008,392.68 in thousands of dollars from the United States (Worldbank). The top three imported commodities are soybeans, wheat, and maize. Most of the maize is used as livestock feed for an increasing beef industry (Barrett, et al., 2012). Other imported foods are seafood (1.78% of GDP), meat (1.5% of GDP), and prepared meats (0.926% of GDP) (Globaledge). One major challenge for Japan is food self-sufficiency. Japan produces only about 39% of consumed calories, with the other 61% coming from imported foods. As a comparison, the United States has 124% calorie-based self-sufficiency, Canada has 168% and Australia has 173% (Barrett et al., 2012). Another problem Japan is facing is a decline in their agricultural communities. Japans rural population has declined to only 2.6 million farmers in a population of over 125 million. This declining population is also aging; the average farmers age is 65. This pattern arises from both the shrinking population discussed above and the continued urbanization of the Japanese population (Barrett et al., 2012). The Japanese government is also starting to consider problems that may arise in the future such as what the effect rising oil prices will have on the countrys food supply. Rising oil prices will lead to an increase in the cost of producing food (due to oil-fueled machinery) and therefore a potential decline in agricultural productivity. Expensive oil will also increase the cost of importing food, which will increase the price of food for the Japanese people (Barrett et al., 2012).

History Of Whole Foods Inc. - 1934 Words

Introduction History of Whole Foods After dropping out of the University of Texas in 1978, John Mackey and friend, Renee Lawson (Hardy) were able to borrow $45,000 from Mackey’s family to open a small health food store, Safe Way Natural Foods, in Austin, Texas. A few years later in 1980 they met Craig Weller and Mark Skiles, who owned the Clarksville Natural Grocery, they decided to merge their stores. Thus Whole Foods Markets was born. The first Whole Foods was hardly a small market. It was a 10,500 square foot supermarket with only nineteen employees. And although it wasn’t the first natural food supermarket, the threesome found instant success. Their stores not only included the typical natural food fare such as organic fruits and†¦show more content†¦This strategy proved to be quite successful as the Whole Foods label included more than five hundred SKUs in over twenty-two categories. In the early 1990’s Whole Foods bought out Wellspring Grocery in Raleigh spawning the birth of their presence in the southeast region of the United States. However, Whole Foods decided to keep the name Wellspring for these two stores, even opening another just months later. The third store however, was launched as a central distribution center for the region. In 2004, Whole Foods expanded globally when they acquired the Fresh Wild chain of seven natural food stores in the United Kingdom. In 2007, they opened a three level store in West London. (Whole Foods Market History) Over the course of their existence they have acquired multiple stores that have added to their growth, including Bread Circus, Mrs. Gooch’s, Fresh Fields, Bread of Life, Amrion, Merchant of Vino, Allegro Coffee, Nature’s Heartland, Food for Thought, Harry’s Farmers Market, Fresh Wild and Wild Oats Markets. In 2002, the company opens its first store outside of the United States in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Their mission statement and eight core values are the underpinning of their company culture. The eight core values include: 1) Selling the highest quality natural and organic products available, 2) satisfying, delighting and nourishing its customers, 3) Supporting team members excellence and

Report on the European Bond Market †March 2010 to August 2011 Free Essays

string(110) " and difficult for institutions such as the European Central Bank and IMF to prevent the contagion spreading\." ABSTRACT This report evaluates the European bond market’s performance over the last 18 months, and explains some of the underlying causes and events that have affected it, including the perception of risk related to sovereign debt levels in the Eurozone. The report goes on to discuss the outlook for the bond market over the next 12 months, and possible mechanisms that may be used to bring debt to more sustainable levels not only for the benefit of struggling economies, but also for the future of the Eurozone and global economy as a whole. Introduction A bond is a fixed income security, issued by Governments and corporations to raise long term capital. We will write a custom essay sample on Report on the European Bond Market – March 2010 to August 2011 or any similar topic only for you Order Now Governments sell bonds to finance the shortfall between their spending and revenue. Investors are interested in bond returns, which are determined by the initial bond price, coupon value and the maturity date (Buckle and Thomas, 2009). Although there is no formal single European bond market, bonds by countries in the Eurozone are viewed as a single market, as these economies share a single European currency (excluding the UK), and are heavily exposed to each others’ economies. As the majority of bonds are held by Governments, global banks and institutional investors, even perceived risk of one Government defaulting on bonds can have severe consequences for the European and global economy. European Bond Market Performance Bond markets increased in importance post 2008 as investors shifted exposure from equity to debt instruments, and from private to public sector securities (Forster et al. 2011), in a flight to safety. The European bond market has experienced volatility over the last 18 months, due to a number of concerns regarding sovereign debt and growth prospects of European and global economies, leading to a decline in investor confidence. Greece’s default risk (see Appendix 1.3) resulted in sharp increases in yields (Appendix 1.4) on Government bonds. This also resulted in bond yields of other European countries including Ireland, Portugal and Spain to rise due to fears of contagion (Bank of England, 2010a). In Greece’s case, already high sovereign debt levels meant that higher yields made servicing debts more expensive. Due to this and to stop contagion spreading, in May 2010 the European Union (EU) and International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed a bailout package for Greece of 110bn Euros, to provide certainty to the market and prevent Greece defaulting on its debt. Chart A plots the spread of ten-year Government bond yields for European countries (benchmark – German Bonds/Bunds). Greece’s bond yields began to rise sharply from late 2009, peaking in May 2010 as the bailout package was announced. For risk neutral investors, higher yields meant increased returns, however this had to be balanced against the risk of default by the issuer. Irish, Portuguese and Spanish bond yields also increased with their spreads diverging away from other European countries. Concerns now started to build for these countries as the Euro continued to fall, decreasing Europe’s buying power in the global economy. From June 2010, bond yields began to fall as economies experienced a redistribution of capital into safe assets, causing economies to struggle to attract investors to finance spending. In November, the EU and IMF were forced to agree a bailout package for the Republic of Ireland of 85bn Euros, due to the re-emergence of sovereign and banking system concerns. Bond yields hit historically low levels (Bank of England, 2010b), as sovereign debt crises triggered a search for safe assets (Chart B). However, it was also deemed that such extended periods of low bond yields could trigger a search for yield in riskier assets, resulting in overheating in emerging markets. Then between March and May 2011, Greece, Ireland, and Portugal experienced sharp rises in yield spreads due to uncertainty about how they will resolve their economic challenges (Chart C). In May 2011, the EU and IMF were forced to bailout Portugal, as it struggled to finance its sovereign debt. In August 2011, the European Central Bank indicated that it will buy Spanish and Italian Government bonds, in a bid to bring down those countries’ borrowing costs, and prevent concerns growing of a Europe-wide sovereign debt crisis. Future of the European Bond Market Over the next 12 months, movements in the global economy, including the downgrade of the US bond market from its AAA rating may slow growth and return the country, and global economy, into recession. This will have a significant impact as investor confidence falls and global growth expectations are downgraded. In terms of debt sustainability, there will be further efforts by EU Governments to implement more severe austerity measures, in a bid to bring sovereign debt to manageable levels. However, as we have seen over the past 18 months, this has come at a cost to growth. Without growth, it is evident that countries cannot afford to service their current debt levels, let alone reduce them. In the EU, this leaves Governments with a lack of fiscal policy levers to manage the economy. Apart from the UK which has not joined the Euro, other Eurozone countries are unable to use mechanisms such as currency devaluation in an attempt to control economic fluctuations. In addition, as the budgets of larger European countries come under scrutiny, if fears of default or a downgrade of their debt arise, the fallout will be massive. For these economies, a bailout may prove impossible, causing the disintegration of the Euro and Eurozone. Conclusion The European bond market has experienced volatility over the last 18 months, due to fears of default by European economies such as Greece, Ireland and Portugal, and deteriorating economic conditions globally. The pursuance of austerity plans have meant that growth has stunted and with the recent downgrade of US debt, fears of a double dip recession have returned. The financial crisis that began in 2008 has now evolved into a sovereign debt crisis in 2011, making it difficult for countries to service their debt, and difficult for institutions such as the European Central Bank and IMF to prevent the contagion spreading. You read "Report on the European Bond Market – March 2010 to August 2011" in category "Essay examples" Although the new Basel regulations have supported banking systems by ensuring Banks are retaining profits to improve their capital to lending ratios, their level of exposure to sovereign debt means that default by any advanced economy may trigger another, deeper, financial crisis, as Governments will not have the funds to bail Banks out. However, there are some mechanisms that are being explored to return normality to the bond markets. Short selling is currently banned, reducing volatility in the equity and bond markets. In addition, other solutions are being explored such as the automatic extension of bond maturities, allowing Governments more time to pay back lenders, and the potential for a common Euro area bond. This would potentially bring down the cost of borrowing for Greece and other troubled countries, however may increase costs for countries with healthy balance sheets such as Germany, meaning this proposal has faced substantial opposition. Finally, there is renewed debate that credit ratings agencies such as Moody’s, Fitch and Standard Poor’s cause volatility in markets by prematurely downgrading Government and corporate debt, and subsequently causing weak investor confidence and market jitters that affect all economies. Their role in the financial crisis of 2008 and the current sovereign crisis is coming under intense scrutiny and we may see Governments coming together to reign in their power, reducing volatility in both bond and equity markets. APPENDIX 1.1Bond Definition A bond is a fixed income security, or debt instrument, issued globally by Governments and corporations to raise long term capital. Governments sell bonds to finance the shortfall between government spending and government revenue. In the UK, this is referred to as the Public Sector Net Cash Requirement. Bonds represent a promise by the issuer (borrower) to pay the holder (lender) a fixed single payment or stream of payments, called coupons, at specified dates over the term of the bond. Once the bond matures, the issuer must return to the holder the par value of the security plus any outstanding payments. Importantly, bond returns are determined by the initial bond price, coupon value (dependant on percentage of yield) and the maturity date (CFA UK, 2009). 1.2Bond Calculation The Present Value of a bond can be calculated using the following basic formula: C = coupon payment n = number of payments i = interest rate, or required yield M = value at maturity, or par value 1.3The Beginnings of the European Sovereign Debt Crisis Bond markets have increased in importance following the global financial crisis in 2008. Investors shifted exposure from equity to debt instruments, and from private to public sector securities (Forster et al. 2011), in a flight to safety. However at this time, government borrowing also rose substantially, partly due to the banking crisis, but also to provide a stimulus to ailing economies. In 2009, the EU ordered France, Spain, Ireland and Greece to implement austerity measures to reduce their burgeoning budget deficits. Following this, in December 2009, Greece admitted that its debt had reached 300bn Euros, equivalent to 113% of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Ratings agencies swiftly downgraded Greece’s credit rating due to fears that it may not be able to repay its lenders on the bond market. This led to concerns about the debt sustainability of other European countries such as Portugal, Ireland and Spain, and fears of contagion, where other countries’ national banks were exposed to Greece’s default risk. If Greece did default on its debt, this would have severe consequences for other European economies and the European single currency, and this led to bailouts for Greece and other economies. 1.4Explanation of Yield The yield determines the value of the coupon payment that the issuer must pay to the lender on the bond. An increased yield can indicate that there is a greater risk associated with holding that bond for the lender, and therefore the lender requires a greater return. 1.5Growing Sovereign Debt Levels as a Proportion of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) As bond markets finance Government debt, and this debt can only be serviced by economic growth in the domestic economy, it is important to consider the growing levels of Eurozone debt as a backdrop to the volatility in the bond markets. Table A shows the consolidated gross debt of European countries since 2004 as a percentage of GDP (Source: Eurostat). GEO/TIME2010200920082007200620052004 Belgium96.896.289.684.288.192.194.2 Germany83.273.566.364.967.668.065.8 Estonia6.67.24.63.74.44.65.0 Ireland96.265.644.425.024.827.429.7 Greece142.8127.1110.7105.4106.1100.098.6 Spain60.153.339.836.139.643.046.2 France81.778.367.763.963.766.464.9 Italy119.0116.1106.3103.6106.6105.9103.9 Cyprus60.858.048.358.364.669.170.2 Luxembourg18.414.613.66.76.76.16.3 Malta68.067.661.562.063.469.972.2 Netherlands62.760.858.245.347.451.852.4 Austria72.369.663.860.762.163.964.8 Portugal93.083.071.668.363.962.857.6 Slovenia38.035.221.923.126.727.027.2 Slovakia41.035.427.829.630.534.241.5 Finland48.443.834.135.239.741.744.4 United Kingdom80.069.654.444.543.442.540.9 REFERENCE LIST BANK OF ENGLAND (2010a) Financial Stability Report, Issue no 27 (June). London. BANK OF ENGLAND (2010b) Financial Stability Report, Issue no 28 (December). London. BANK OF ENGLAND (2011) Financial Stability Report, Issue no 29 (June). London. BUCKLE, M. and THOMAS, S. (2009) Official Training Manual, Volume 2: Investment Practice, 7th ed. London: CFA Society of the UK. FORSTER, K. et al (2011) European Cross-Border Financial Flows and the Global Financial Crisis. Occasional Paper Series, European Central Bank, No 126 (July). BIBLIOGRAPHY BANK OF ENGLAND (2010) Financial Stability Report, Issue no 27 (June). London. BANK OF ENGLAND (2010) Financial Stability Report, Issue no 28 (December). London. BANK OF ENGLAND (2011) Financial Stability Report, Issue no 29 (June). London. BBC NEWS (2010) Greece Crisis: Fears Grow that it could Spread. www.news.bbc.co.uk, 28th April. BUCKLE, M. and THOMAS, S. (2009) Official Training Manual, Volume 1: UK Regulations Markets, 7th ed. London: CFA Society of the UK. BUCKLE, M. and THOMAS, S. (2009) Official Training Manual, Volume 2: Investment Practice, 7th ed. London: CFA Society of the UK. DE GRAUWE, P. and MOESEN, W. (2009) Gains for All: A Proposal for a Common Euro Bond. Intereconomics (May / June), pp 132-135. EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK (2011) Financial Integration in Europe (May) Germany. EUROPEAN CENTRAL BANK (2011) Financial Stability Review (June) Germany. EWING, J and HEALY, J (2010) Cuts to Debt Rating Stir Anxiety in Europe. The New York Times, 27th April. FORSTER, K. et al (2011) European Cross-Border Financial Flows and the Global Financial Crisis. Occasional Paper Series, European Central Bank, No 126 (July). NASH, M. (2011) Debt Report: Sovereign Issuers Dominate the Debt Agenda. FTSE Global Markets, Issue 53, pp 32-34 (July / August). ZANDSTRA, D. (2011) The European Sovereign Debt Crisis and its Evolving Resolution, Capital Markets Law Journal, Volume 6, No. 3, pp 285-316 (May). How to cite Report on the European Bond Market – March 2010 to August 2011, Essay examples

The Black Panthers Essays - Politics, Black Power, Identity Politics

The Black Panthers center850008549640 January 8, 2017 Perspectives of homeland security Shea Trenary1000000 January 8, 2017 Perspectives of homeland security Shea Trenary The Black Panther Party, original name Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, African American revolutionary party, founded in 1966 in Oakland, California, by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. The Party's original purpose was to patrol African American neighborhoods to protect residents from acts of police brutality. At its peak in the late 1960's Panther membership exceeded 2,000 and the organization operated chapters in several major American cities. The Panthers eventually developed into what some call a Marxist revolutionary group that called the arming of all African Americans, the exemption of African Americans from the draft and from all sanctions of so-called white America. In the 1960's civil rights legislation that followed the landmark U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Brown V. Board of Education of Topeka (1954), African Americans living in cities across North America continued to suffer economic and social inequality. Poverty and reduced public services characterized these urban centers , where residents were subjected to poor living conditions, joblessness, chronic illness, violence, and limited means to change their circumstances. These contributed to the urban uprisings in the 1960's (such as those in the Watts district of Los Angeles in 1965, among others) and to increase use of police violence as a measure to impose order on cities throughout North America. The Federal Bureau of Investigation declared the group a communist organization and an enemy of the U.S. government. Hoover had pledged that 1969 would be the last year of the Black Panther Party and devoted th e resources of the FBI through COINTELPRO, toward that end. In a protracted program against the Black Panther Party, COINTELPRO used agent provocateurs, sabotage, misinformation, and lethal force to eviscerate the national organization. The FBI's campaign culminated in December 1969 with the headquarter of the Black Panther organization in which Chicago Black Panther leader Fred Hampton was killed. The measures taken by the FBI were so extreme that, years later when they were revealed, the director of the agency publicly apologized for "wrongful uses of power." In the 1970's radical scholar and activist Angela Davis became widely associated with Black Panthers, she never became a standing member of the party. She had strong connections with the party and taught political education classes for it. She initially gained notoriety in 1970 when the governor of California which at that time was Ronald Reagan led the Board of Regents in refusing to renew Davis's appointment as lecturer in philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles, due to her politics and her association with the party. About the same time, Davis became involved in a case of three African American inmates at Soledad Prison who had been accuses of Murdering a guard. She became deeply involved with one of the inmates, George Jackson, whose younger brother's attempt on August 7.1970, to win Jackson's release by taking hostages in the Marin county courthouse went violently wrong. Four deaths resulted, and when at least one to of the guns proved to be re gistered to Davis , she fled charges of conspiracy, kidnapping, and murder, she went underground and became on the FBI's Top Most Wanted Fugitives list. In 1998 there was a group of shotgun- and rifle toting New Black Panther Party members to Jasper, Texas in the wake of the murder of James Byrd Jr, a 49-year-old African American man who had been dragged behind a pickup truck by three members of the Ku Klux Klan. The New Black Panther Party also became known to the public through the Million Youth March it first organized in New York in 1998. On July 7, 2016, the FBI issued a "Potential Activity Alert," for "Violence Against Law Enforcement Officers and Riots planned for 8-10 July 2016 which is a day before 12 officers were ambushed and shot, killing 5 of them in Dallas Texas. The alert stemmed from social media threats, after the Alton Sterling shooting, after that incident the calling for a planned "purge to kill all cops in Baton Rouge July 9." Everything that has happened in the United States since this shooting there have been riots, blocking freeways and