Australian Constitution Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Australian Constitution - Essay Example Justice M.D. Kirby (1997) succinctly highlights the difficulties in this manner: "I have elsewhere tried to point out that the Australian Constitution can be viewed as reflecting a struggle, which is still ongoing, between British and United States elements captured in its text." (The Honourable Justice M D Kirby AC CMG, 1997) "In 1992 in Australian Capital Television Pty Ltd v Commonwealth the High Court struck down the Political Broadcasts and Political Disclosures Act 1991 (Cth) which restricted political advertising on the electronic media during Federal, State, Territory and local elections. In doing so, it recognized that the Australian Constitution contains an implied freedom to discuss political matters. This freedom was primarily derived from sections 7 and 24 of the Constitution, which respectively provide that the members of the Senate and the House of Representatives 'shall be ... directly chosen by the people'. As federal laws passed under section 51 of the Constitution are passed 'subject to this Constitution', such laws are invalid if they infringe the implied freedom" (William, George (b); 1996-97). The reason for the High Court decision was clear. The 'implied freedom' took precedence over Political Broadcasts and Political Disclosures Act 1991. Or, the 'implied freedom' was implicitly clear while the written law was irrelevant. The Australian constitution does not guarantee freedom of speech. However, the court ruled in favor of Australian Capital Television Pty Ltd quoting 'implied freedom'. The learned judge ruled on the merits of the case. Had he ruled on the basis of the written constitution, he would have ruled otherwise (William, George (b); 1996-97). The constitution is a powerful document. It is the overriding and supreme determinant. However, sometimes there are verdicts that appear to have little to do with the constitution. At times, they also appear to run counter to the constitution. Nonetheless, the judges are in better position to provide the ruling. The ruling reinforces what many believe that the Australian constitution is a little more than a legal document. In other words, the Australian constitution must be taken with a pinch of salt. Does this also mean that this constitution is inconsistent and has inadequacies No responsible judge will be expected to make such sweeping remarks. However, there could be a silent consensus on what the constitution ought to be (Justice and the Rule of Law). Disputes arise that demand a constitutional resolution. These disputes are handled by legal specialists and settled in the courts. But from time to time, controversies occur, drawing the country's attention to its constitution. These raise major national questions about whether acts of government or parliament, decisions or actions of officials are constitutional, that is, whether they are authorized by the ultimate source of law and power in Australia (Justice and the

The early history of Eduction Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

The early history of Eduction - Essay Example This paved the way for determining how man could move ahead and thus acquire new ways and means through which he could be a part of the educated clan. As far as the private education domains are concerned, these have focused a great deal on how education is instilled within the society by means which are not run under the aegis of the government, rather by private entities and bodies who oversee that education is given to those who are ready to pay for it, and pay well. In entirety, education that is understood well is the education that is meant for everyone. If private education is expensive, it is because it was always like this and same will be the case in the coming times as well (Boyles, 2005). Hence gaining education is always a privilege and should always be thought as such because it helps solve the quandaries that are present within the societies and shape up the personalities of individuals on a consistent basis. Works Cited Boyles, Deron R. Schools or Markets? Commerciali sm, Privatization and School-Business Partnerships. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, NJ, 2005

Job satisfaction Essay Example for Free

Job satisfaction Essay Learning as a way to improve happiness: When a worker is satisfied, then happiness would be realized later on. As a worker is able to get the idea that his efforts are contributing to the growth of the company, he is able to feel the true sense of being satisfied and happy with his job. His duties become his achievements and these achievements become the source of his inner happiness. Learning as a way to boost self-esteem: When a person is knowledgeable of what he does, then he gains confidence that he could do well with the duties that are assigned to him. Hence, to no doubt, his excellent performance on the matter follows as well. As for example, if an employer provides his employees of a way by which they are able to increase their capabilities as his employees, then they are encouraged more to perform well with the tasks that are assigned to them by the management. This identifies the role of learning as a way to motivate employees. On the other hand, if an employee receives the provided knowledge or improvement programs provided by the employers, then they gain self-esteem and job satisfaction as well which in turn makes them fell happy about their job. As obviously seen, the chain of providing and receiving learning or education at certain point works within a motion of giving and taking and taking and giving, which in turn results to better outcome not only for the company but for the employee as an individual as well? The equity of performance and motivation To ensure that the employees are working their best, and that their needs are equally given compared to all the things that are required of them, the following elements of motivation should be considered: 1. Dual Factor The needs of people are subdivided into two main categories. These categories include both the hygiene factor and the motivation factor. These two factors both include the most important needs of the company employees such as the wage and job satisfaction matters. Being able to provide these needs may mean that the company management needs to apply more effort in implementing policies to be able to meet the required satisfaction factors of the employees, however, the ‘loyalty’ returns to the company would make the efforts all worth it. 2. Equity Equality among all employees basing on the performance that they apply for the company’s cause is indeed a way by which the management could encourage fine performance from the workers. Everything must be in uniform, especially when it comes to rewards and benefits that the employees receive from their company. Doing s may cause the management to create fine programs that could handle such demand from the workers, while it would also result to better realization of job satisfaction on the part of the employees. 3. Expectancy Everyone expects something from something. When an employee does a good job, it is normal that he expects appreciation from the management. Hence, knowing what the employees expect and providing them could encourage them to do better, however, it should be realized that too much application of this theory may result to the employees being too demanding from the company. As seen in the three elements, human motivation processes requires fine decision form the management. Once the process is decided, it is up to the management again, to take the risk of applying the process in actual motivating practice. Hence, from the first towards the fifth theory that has been listed herein, it could be noticed that the main focus of the responsibility of encouraging the employees lies on the management. Then as the results of the process progress, the employees are the ones who are expected to act bringing the end results back to the management. The administration at some point has held the pay of the employees who have been flagged to be performing poorly during the past three months. The employees then who did not receive their salaries during the allotted payday have complained and said that the process that the management has opted to use to encourage them to work harder and perform better in their job is lame excuse on not having the capability if paying their salaries. This rising problem has not been expected by the company administration when they have decided to engage in the said process of motivation. They thought that by holding the salary of the employees, they would be waken up and realize that they have to do better in their job to be able to receive their salaries on time.

Problems Faced By Easyjet

Problems Faced By Easyjet A comment on problems being faced by EasyJet and evaluation of strategies adopted by EasyJet Introduction EasyJet, a British airline company which has been fund in 1995 by Stelios Haji-Ioannou with 2 Boeing airplanes and 2 routs, has now expand to European market with 189 airplanes and more then 400 routes (Suit 101, 2009). Nowadays, EasyJet along with its well known low cost strategy is consisting on capturing larger market share. However, there has generated two main conflicts inside the firm. First, Stelios as the biggest shareholder against managers future growth plan of purchasing more aircrafts. Second, Stelios insist that shareholder of EasyJet should be paid by dividend. In order to examine the current issues of EasyJet, this report will analysis issues relate to EasyJet in aspect of economics and finance. In the economics section, this report will first discuss business objectives of EasyJet while focus on growth as its main objective. After that, the report will look into the separation theory of ownership and control issues and apply it into the discussion of current problems exist between shareholders and managers. Thirdly, this report will describe the market structure of British airline industry and discuss whether the low cost strategy could fit the market. In the finance section, this report will first examine the reflection of strategy adopted by EasyJet on the accounts using ratio analysis and trend inspecting. Then it will move on to a comparison among EasyJet, Jet2 and Ryanair, and explore the investment risk of EasyJet. Finally, this report will make a conclusion as well as recommendations that may probably solve the problems exist in Ea syJet. Part A. Economics A.1 Business Objectives According to Neild and Carysforth (2004, p.47), Business objectives are targets which must be achieved for an aim to be met. Strategies or plans adopted by firms are often based on targets such as profit, sales and growth. A.1.1 Growth Growth as the major objective of EasyJet, it is relatively easy to achieve during recession as well as recovery period. Growth of a company is regarded as expand size and enlarge sales. It is based on the scarification of short-term profit in favor of long-term profit. For example, EasyJet use retained earnings to push fleet growth. As a result, shareholders are not satisfied without dividends. In order to balance interests of both sides, managers have to increase the short profit through enlarge sales. Moreover, as managers are controllers of the company, they are free to choose growth as objective to fulfill their interests such as bonuses and share options based on acquiring a large volume of business (Stokes, 2010, p.477). A.1.1.1 Growth Strategy EasyJet adopts several strategies such as advertising and diversification to stimulate growth and enlarge market. Based on EasyJets dramatic investment programmes such as increase fleet size, EasyJet experienced a high rate growth of revenue even during the recession periods from  £264 million to  £2667 million. It increased nearly 10 times respectively and from 2000 to 2009 (EasyJet, 2009). However, certain growth strategies may result in rising expenditure and reducing price. Increase promotional expenditure While EasyJet already has a total number of 189 airbus A320 and Boeing 737 aircraft in 2010, it is respected to acquire another 59 planes in the next 4 years in favor of adapting increasing number of passengers and various destinations (Flightglobal, 2010). However, in order to get good revenue performance,  £86 million is spent on fuel costs in 2009 which partly lead to a reduction in profit margin (EasyJet, 2009). Decrease price In order to share larger market and promote growth, EasyJet carries out a strategy to make their travel fees as well as cost base lower than other established carriers. Since 1999, EasyJet has been voted as the Best Low Cost Airline by Business traveler Magazine and recognized as the first European carrier that won the award for Best Low Cost Carrier at OAG Airline Industry Awards in 2008 (EasyJet). A.1.2 Other Business Objectives Sales Revenue Maximising Sales revenue maximizing is achieved by increasing products and reducing price. Higher sales could efficiently help to expand and compete for the market. In addition, aim to maximize sale revenue could also benefit managers by enhancing their credibility as well as wages (Jain Khanna, 2009, p.22). EasyJet purchase more airplanes, provide various domestic and international flights and adopts low cost strategy to attract more passengers. According to EasyJet (2009), total revenue per seat has increased 10.9% with total revenue increased 12% from 2008 to 2009. Profit Maximizing Profit is considered as the strongest motivation of the company. Maximizing profit sometimes means maximizing the value of shareholders wealth when net cash flows back to the company in the long run. However, fixed cost may increase in a short term to promote output (Dransfield, 2004, p. 215). In future development, the objective that EasyJet might follow is profit maximizing. Nowadays profit margins are spend on aircraft purchase to meet the needs of passenger and capture larger market share, these will return to positive cash generation beyond the period of higher than normal capital expenditure (EasyJet, 2009). Managerial Utility Maximizing It is known that managerial utility could maximize when there is a higher level of output. The case indicates that EasyJet has ordered more airplanes to serve more passengers and explore new market. By increasing sales and profit, managers could provide enough money to make shareholders happy. Meanwhile, extra money could be used to promote salary, bonuses and many other perks as well as develop discretionary projects (Stoke, 2010, p.470). A.2 Ownership and Control Issues A.2.1 Ownership of EasyJet EasyJet is owned by shareholders who invest money for future dividends and for the potential increased value of their shares. Shareholders have been seen as the monitor of the operation and management of a company. Due to their interests on investment returns, they may indirectly influence company to increase share value or maximize profit (Turner, n.d.). On the other hand, shareholders could sale their stocks to express their dissatisfaction on the operation of the company. However, this conduct may lead to a reduction on share price and increase the risk of take-over bid by raider (Stokes, 2010, p. 478). Stelios Hajiloannous owns 38% stocks of the company, followed by Standard Life, who is the second large shareholder, owns 9.45% stocks (London Night Standard, 2010). Due to the family of Sir Stelios is the biggest shareholder, he could possible exercise an effective influence on the company, and directs the decisions made by directors and managers correspond to shareholders interests. A.2.2 Ownership Issues The biggest shareholder as well as Non-Executive Director, Stelios has been strongly opposed to EasyJets rapid expansion strategy and management strategy. Shareholders are more concern profit maximizing rather than sale revenue maximizing. Stelios claims that the capital cost and profit is no longer balanced and the expenditure for new airlines are from the expense of profit margins. Stelios insists that approximately 190 aircrafts is enough to operation and other excess ones should be sold to conserve cash (Flightglobal, 2010). The fleet growth strategy is not suitable for recession period as there are poor economic returns and market changes. Sometimes non executive director has insufficient influence on the Board. As a result, Stelios tries to persuade other shareholders to reject the growth strategy. However, Stelios failed to gain enough support to exert power on managers. Standard Life, who is the second large shareholder, expressed his satisfaction with management team (London Night Standard, 2010). Shareholders have the right to benefit from the company. According to the case (2010), Stelios argues that the firm is a mature company that the share price do not has the capacity to increase. Thus Stelios claims that shareholders should receive reward from dividend payments instead of the share price of the stocks they hold. Huge capital expenditure should be limited while cash should be conserved. Stelios quitted the Board to against growth strategy. There generates another disputation about the brand license. The Easy brand belongs to Stelios Easy Group and was licensed to EasyJet. However, he now is concerns to reclaim the brand and license to another airline (Daily Mail, 2010). A.2.3 Control by Managers EasyJet is controlled by managers. Although shareholders own the company, they left the operation and governance power to the Boards and management. There are two kinds of executive in the board: non-executive director who purely give advice and executive director who really exert power to make decision. The decision made by executive director and managers should be based on the interests of stakeholders to a certain degree. Thus, managers can be viewed as the agents of shareholders (Stocks, 2010, p. 477). On the other hand, managers have their responsibilities be loyal to the company while exercise judgment to operate the company. Managers should be informed the business environment to make decision that benefits the company. Rewards such as bonus are the motivations of managers. However, it may also be the stimulation of risky policy making (Bevans, 2007, p. 220). It is known that appropriate corporate governance is the guidance to achieve success operation of the company. It requires greater administration managers. However, it is difficult to balance different interests between shareholders and managers, thus lead to several problems (Rees Sheikh, 1995, p.145). A.2.4 Control Issues With the aim of growth, EasyJet sets the goal to maintain a growth of 7.5% and increase its European market share from about 7% to 10%. EasyJet believes that its growth plan on fleet size could contribute to occupy larger short-haul European market (Flightglobal, 2010). EasyJet indicates that they earned a profit of  £ 4 million and performed well in the recession period, the expansion plan is under control instead of taking huge risky (London Evening Standard, 2010). Andy Harrisons chief executive position was taken place by McCall due to the disagreement with Sir Stelios (New Statesman, 2010). Although there is a 5% drop of share price due to the long battle between shareholders and managers, EasyJet claims that overall there was a 34% rise of the share price in 10 years which shown a remarkable potential among European airline carriers as well as a sufficient reward to shareholders (Independent, 2010). A.3 Market Structure A.3.1 Market Structure of British Airline Industry According to Moschandreas (2000, p.10), market structure is the characteristics of the market that could have impact on the mode of competition. Those characteristics include product diversification, barriers of entry the market, number of suppliers and the level of price control. The market structure of British airline industry is oligopoly. Oligopoly is an imperfect market with standardized or differentiated products and a high degree of interdependence which dominated by a few companies (Chauhan, 2009, p.65). A.3.1.1 The Characteristics of Oligopoly Few Sellers: The market is dominated by few companies. Figure 1 shows the market share in the UK main airport London Heathrow. British Airways, BMI and Virgin Atlantic have relative higher market shares than others. Figure 1. Top Airlines market share at London Heathrow. AnnaAero. (2008). [One line] Available from: http://www.anna.aero/2008/12/05/flybe-heading-for-no-1-in-uk-domestic-market/ [Accessed 05th December 2008] Product diversification Many companies in oligopoly market established brands and offer various products (Jain Khanna, 2009, p.115). For example, British Airways with the slogan The worlds Best Airline serves more than 300 destinations by 238 aircrafts (British Airways, 2009); BMI with the slogan Better for Business serves various destinations by 43 aircrafts (BMI, 2010). Entry Barriers There are several barriers that protect incumbents from new firms. First, due to diversification of the products, established companies could consolidate market by branding and promotion. As a result, new firms have to spend more money on advertising and branding to conquer customer loyalty to incumbent companies and attract passengers. Second, financial requirements or vital resource also restrict new entrants, such as difficulty in accessing available landing airports and huge cost of purchasing aircraft (Tucker, 2008, p.178) A.3.1.2 Common Strategies of Oligopoly There are several price strategies or non-price strategies which could be used in oligopoly market. A.3.1.2.1 Price Strategy (Stokes, 2010, p.148) Prestige pricing. If one firm increases the price of the product, it may still attractive to customers. This may because of the promotion of quality and service or conspicuous consumption behavior. Price discrimination. Charging different price in different market could help to increase revenue. There are three degree of price discrimination (Dwivedi, 2008, p.328): First degree discrimination exits when sellers charge the highest price of the product that customer willing to buy. For example, BA offer free drinks and snacks, they could charge a higher price compare to EasyJet, who do not offer free airline catering. Second degree price discrimination exits when sellers charge different prices for the different quantities of purchase or different category of consumers (p.328). Such as first-class and economy class charge differently in airline industry as economy class is frequent required by passengers. Third degree price discrimination occurs when different price are charged refer to different submarket. For example, airline companies may offer discounts according to the time that customers book ticket in advance. Limit pricing. Limit pricing occurs when firms pricing products lower but still can get profit. Such strategy could help to deter competitors or new entrants. Price elasticity of demand. When demand is inelastic, increase price could result in revenue increase. On the other hand, when demand is elastic, decrease price could also result in revenue increase. A.3.1.2.2 Non-Price Strategy Non-Price Strategies in oligopolistic markets could help to increase demand and develop loyalty among consumers (Riley, 2005, p.83) Expanding into new markets Develop new markets could help to enlarge network and strengthen market power as well as increase sales. For example, recently EasyJet has lunched new route from Edinburgh to Dortmund, which is expected to carry more than 55000 passengers during the first year (EasyJet, 2010). Diversification of the product A company could be benefit from the diversity of its product against rivals. The more distinct products they sale, the smaller their rivals could occupy the market (Mukherjee, p.460). For example, EasyJet offer 422 flight routes among 27 countries and 114 airports (EasyJet, 2009). Advertising and Branding Advertising and Branding are essential especially for the new entrant. Advertising could establish brand images to customers. For example, EasyJet use orange as its main colors and permitted ITV operating a reality show named Airline that present EasyJet plane in the air to increasing its popularity (Fastcompany, 2002). EasyJet used to advertise its low price flight and claims that people could fly to Scotland for the price of a pair of jeans (Fastcompany, 2002) A.3.2 Low Cost Carriers Strategy of EasyJet EasyJet adopts a low-cost model to attract passengers and seize larger market share (Dunmore Gleave, 2003) Offer cheap fares: EasyJet sale tickets through internet or phone in order to avoid commissions. By the end of 2005, 98% of tickets were sold online (EasyJet, 2005). Customers could book in advance for cheap seats and transform flight for different time schedule without extra charge. Do not offer airline catering. Uniform airplane types: Airbus A320 and Boeing 737. Have higher aircraft utilisation: EasyJet aircrafts operate 11 hours a day which more than 3 hours than BA. Use high seating density airplane and increase load factors to reduce cost base: By the end of June 2010, the load factor has increased to 87.2%, thus reduces per seat costs by 16% compared to BMI (EasyJet, 2010) Use smaller airports to reduce charges: Such as London Luton and Liverpool A.3.3 Low Cost Strategy in Oligopoly Market In the UK oligopolistic market, as oligopolists are interdependent among others, firms are sensitive to competitors actions. A rational company may try to speculate reactions of competitors using game theory before they adopt various strategies such as price changes. However, even one company reduce its price, it is unlikely lead to a price war or significant profit changes. According to the theory, when companies change prices, their competitors will adjust strategies such as advertising to avoid loss (Stokes, 2010, p.152-156). As a result, low cost strategy which aims to enlarge market by reducing price is not typical in oligopoly market. However, due to the conception of price elasticity of demand, reduce price may lead to the increase of demand. Lower price strategy combined with higher frequencies could attract more business passengers who account for a remarkable proportion of passengers for EasyJet. Although such strategy could make overall cost considerably lower, it still enjoys an average growth of 4.4% while 10.5% in some major routs when fist became a low cost carrier. Apparently the successful low cost airlines are more profitable than established carriers, thus easy to survive in the market (EasyJet, 2009). In the first part, this report has discussed the features of growth strategy and low cost strategy adopted by EasyJet. The next part of the report will examine these features by analysing the financial accounts of EasyJet. Part B. Finance B.1 Strategies reflect on EasyJets Accounts B.1.1 Growth B.1.1.1 A Growth Company From Figure B1, it can be seen that sales revenue has shown a consistently upward trend and nearly doubled from  £1341.4 million to  £2666.8 million during the 5 years. Hence, according to product life cycle, EasyJet still being in the period of introduce to the market instead of maturity. Figure B1* Figure B2 shows a significant increase in trade creditors and debtors. However, it can be seen in Figure B2 that EasyJet could pay suppliers more slowly while receive debtor quicker than before. As a result, working capital as well as financial environment may probably get better, which could benefit for its growth strategies. It can be seen from Figure B3 that the market value per share has increased from 2005 to 2007 before it reduce sharply in 2008. However, it has recovering in 2009 after the recession period. The overall trend shows a growth in shareholders wealth as well as the company itself. P: E ratio is the indicator of investors wishes for long term profit. It reduced from 2005 to 2007 followed by an increase since 2008. The upward trend could reveal a huge potential growth in the future. B 1.1.2 Growth Strategies Increase promotional expenditure Figure B5 illustrates a growth of current assets and current liabilities. Current ratio of EasyJet reflects that the growth rate of current assets is slowly than current liabilities, which could reflect EasyJets fast growth of borrowings for increase promotional expenditure, as current ratio shows a downward trend. Nevertheless, the ratio is fluctuating above 1, which means that current assets always more than current liabilities and EasyJet has the ability to pay future bills. However, the more the ratio near 1, the less cash or cash assets could be contributed to short term debt. A large amount of cash of EasyJet is used to pay for aircraft order for future long term profit. Interest cover ratio could reveal whether EasyJet pay interest borrowings by generating enough profits. However, from Figure B5, EasyJet experienced a dramatic decline on interest cover ratio and lower than 1.5 in 2009. Due to the sacrifice on short term profit and large amount of borrowing for airline purchase, EasyJet may burdened by interest of debt. Gearing ratio could be used to describe the proportion of long term liabilities in capital employed. The higher a gearing ratio is, the more debt a company loaned and the more risk a company may take. From Figure B6 one could know that overall the gearing ratio has increased with a peak in 2007. Due to the huge cost of aircrafts, EasyJet is now in serious financial problem. Decrease in short term profit Gross profit and net profit margin ratio is helpful to know the percentage of profit generated from total revenue. Profit margin of EasyJet has shown an upward trend until 2007, both gross profit and net profit margin ratio decreased about 10% by the end of 2009. Such reduction indicates a increase in cost of sales and may not be satisfied by shareholders. However, despite of the rising in tax rate, this trend could reflect EasyJets strategies to explore new market, increase net work as well as route length which lead to a rise of fuel costs, airport charging and advertising costs. Capital employed includes shareholders funds and long term liabilities. Figure B8 indicates that EasyJets capital is rising, which indicates an expansion of EasyJets size. Although the investment of EasyJet has been increasing, profit has been used for further expansion. Hence, large short term profit may not be generated from capital. The situation is reflected on the reduction on ROCE. It also can be seen from Figure B8, return on equity has shown the same trend as that of profit. They both have increased till 2007 and then decreased sharply. Although the reduction of return on equity may due to the tax policy released in 2009 and increasing costs, which lead to a reduction on earnings after tax, it also partly result in the expansion of shareholders funds (EasyJet, 2009). However, overall it shows a lack of ability to return profit for owners investment. Figure B9 shows that after 2005, assets turnover decreased and has been fluctuating around 1, which reflects a poor utilization of assets and less profit return on assets. However, this primarily because of the large bulk of airplane purchase plan during the next few years. As a result, the long term benefits may not be reflected in more than one year. B.1.2 Low Cost strategy Figure B10 shows increase both in sales revenue and number of employee, which indicates the expansion of companys size and growth of finance performance. This may probably base on the low cost strategy. According to low cost strategy, EasyJet offer more frequencies on flight and larger capacities than other companies, thus lead to an increase in passenger flown as well as efficiency in airplane utilities. Aiming to enlarge its market, EasyJet has lunched more airports and increase its route length to various European destinations which result in a raise in cost, especially fuel cost. As a result, it can be seen from Figure B11 that a sharp rise of cost per passenger has increased since 2007. B.2 Compare EasyJet with Jet2 and Ryanair In order to discuss investment risky of EasyJet, this part of the report will compare EasyJet with Jet2 and Ryanair, both of which also adopt low cost strategy as EasyJet. B.2.1 Differences and Similarities in Balance Sheets Apparently from Appendix 1, Appendix 2 ad Appendix 3, EasyJet shows a significant higher increase rate of total assets, liabilities and capital employed, which indicate a rapid expansion of companys size. Ryanair also shows a slightly development of the company. By contrast, although Jet2 experienced an increase in total assets, the total liabilities has reduced, mainly due to the decline of non-current assets. Although the current assets of Jet2 raised sharply from 2008 to 2009, according to Figure 15, unlike Ryanair and EasyJet, the current assets of Jet2 is much lower than current liabilities. Thus Jet2 may not have the ability to pay bills or have enough cash to develop business. By comparing the proportion of total liabilities and shareholders fund in total assets, it can be seen that all three companies liabilities is higher than shareholders funds. Thus, EasyJet, Jet2 and Ryanair are mainly financed by debt. As Ryanair has the largest number of assets while Jet2 has the lowest, one may presume that Ryanair has the largest size of company while Jet2 has the relatively smallest. While the major liabilities of both EasyJet and Ryanair is long term borrowings, Jet2 takes trade payable as major total liabilities and deferred tax as major non-current liabilities. This situation may probably indicate that the working capital of Jet2 could be influenced negatively due to a poor ability of paying debt. B.2.2 Investment B.2.2.1 Comparison among EasyJet, Jet2 and Ryanair By comparing current ratio in Figure 12, it can be see that Jet2 current liabilities is more than current assets, thus Jet2 may have difficulty to pay bills immediately. On the other hand, Ryanairs current ratio has increased to 1.84 in 2009, as current assets in much higher than current liabilities. The figure may indicate a poor utilization of resource. Compared to Jet2 and Ryanair, EasyJet has a better management on assets and liabilities. It can be seen that EasyJet has the highest rate of gearing ratio, as the operation of company is largely depend on borrowings. Meanwhile, according to Figure 12, EasyJet has the relative lower interest cover ratio, which indicates that EasyJet may have more difficulty to pay interest expense than other company. As a result, an investment in EasyJet is more risky than invest in Ryanair and Jet2. Earning per share has been widely used as measurement for the growth of a firm as well as the indicator of the amount of profit could return to each share. Although the EPS of Jet2 rose remarkably, the PE ratio also declined dramatically. On the other hand, it can be seen that the PE ratio of EasyJet as well as Ryanair has increased sharply. It indicates potential capabilities of future growth of the two companies which could give confidence to investors. From Figure B16, it can be seen that Jet2 has the longest time to pay creditors, thus has a longer time to utilities liabilities. However, it also needs the longest time to collect receivables. On the other hand, although Ryanair has to pay creditors quicker compared to the time in 2008, the period is still longer than EasyJet. Moreover, Ryanair could receive debt much quicker than EasyJet. Thus Ryanair may have the best efficiency cash flows which could contribute to company operating. Obviously from Figure B13, Ryanair has much higher figure of return on capital employed, which means that Ryanair could profitably operation the company by using investment. As a result, investor could receive more interests in the short run from Ryanair rather than EasyJet, which has the lowest ROCE ratio among others. B.2.2.2 Brief Evaluation Based on the ratio discussed above, it can be seen that overall Ryanair is the best choice for investors compared to EasyJet and Jet2 despite its lower efficiency on the utilization of assets. It has the highest PE ratio and return on capital employed rate. Moreover, the working capital of cash flows is also considered as the best one among others. Investment on Ryanair could have less risky than EasyJet. Jet2 relatively has a poor condition of capital. It seems that Jet2 may easier fall into the dilemma of debt difficulty. Although EasyJet has a large amount of borrowings, and the lowest return on capital, a more flexible cash flow as well as a proper utilization of capital could be compensations. In addition, higher PE ratio implies a potential power of growth. Thus, investment on EasyJet could have less risky than Jet2 and may probably get better profit in the future. Conclusion To sum up, EasyJet as a growth company has adopt several strategies to compete in oligopoly market. EasyJet utilise low cost strategy to increase it efficiency in business operation will use growth strategy to seize larger market share and expand the size of the company. However, scarification of short term profit may leads to unsatisfactions of shareholders. Moreover, by looking at the accounts of EasyJet, it can be seen that its growth plan of aircraft purchasing lead to a heavy burden on debt. EasyJet has potential risky due to the large proportion of liabilities. In recommendation, EasyJet could reduce its growth plan while pay dividend to shareholder in order to alleviate the conflicts. As a result, the reputation of EasyJet could be maintained and attract more funds invest in the capital. Hence, EasyJet may not need to largely depend on liabilities and the risk of investment could reduce. References AnnaAero. (2008). Flybe Heading for #1 in UK Domestic Market; Overall Demand Down Around 4% in 2008. [One line] Available from: http://www.anna.aero/2008/12/05/flybe-heading-for-no-1-in-uk-domestic-market/ [Accessed 05th December 2008] Bevans, N. R. (2007). Business Organizations and Corporate Law. New York: Thomson Delmar Learning. Chauhan, S. P. S. (2009). Microeconomics: Theory and Applications. New Delhi: Learning Private Limited. Daily Mail. (2010). Stelios Warns He May Reclaim EasyJet Name. [On line] Available from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/article-1287205/Stelios-warns-reclaim-easyJet-name.html [Accessed 16th June 2010] Dransfield, R. (2004). Business for Foundation Degrees and Higher Awards. Oxford: Heinemann Dwivedi, D. N. (2008). Microeconomics: Theory and Applications. New Delhi: Dorling Kindersley Ltd. EasyJet. (2009). Annual Report and Accounts 2009. [On line] Available from: http://2009annualreport.easyjet.com/files/pdf/easyJet_AR09.pdf EasyJet. (2010). EasyJet to Launch Two NEW Routes: Edinburgh to Dortmund and Dortmund to Thessaloniki. [On line] Available from: http://www.easyjet.com/en/news/new_routes_dortmund_edinburgh_thessaloniki.html EasyJet. (n. d.) EasyJet Awards and Tributes. [On line] Available from: http://www.easyjet.com/EN/About/Information/infopack_awards.html Fast Company. (2002). Stelios Makes Growth Look Easy. [On line] Available from: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/64/ioannou.html [Accessed 31st October 2002] Flight Global. (2010). Haji-loannou Bids to Overturn EasyJet Expansion Strategy. [On line] Available from: http://www.flightglobal.com/articles/2010/05/14/342001/haji-ioannou-bids-to-overturn-easyjet-expansion-strategy.html [Accessed 14th May 2010] Jet2. (2009). Annual Report 2009. [On line] Available from: http://www.dartgroup.co.uk/pdf/DartReport09.pdf Kothari, J. E, Barone. (2006). Financial Accounting. An International Approach. Essex: Pearson Education Limited. London Evening Standard. (2010). Standard Life Backs EasyJet after Stelios Quits. [On li

Nina Simone Essay -- Eunice Kathleen Waymon

Eunice Kathleen Waymon born February 21, 1933. She was the sixth of eight children born to John - an entertainer turned family man - and Mary Kate - who became a church minister - a poor southern black family that lived in Tryon, North Carolina. Her father played piano, guitar, and harmonica; her mother played piano and sang. Her brothers and sisters all played piano and sang in the church choir, gospel groups, glee clubs and social events. She started learning music the natural way by watching her family. The Waymon’s owned a pedal organ, and by the time Eunice was tall enough to climb on the stool and sit on the keyboard, she had musical talent. She was a child prodigy. By the age of 6, Eunice would play piano in church and other events where her mother preached. Her mother also worked as a housekeeper for a white lady, Mrs. Miller. She heard Eunice playing for a choir and insisted that she had to have proper piano lessons. Since her family could not afford lessons, Mrs. Miller would pay for Eunice to have piano lessons for a year and if she showed promise they would have to figure out a way to continue the lessons. Her tutor, an English woman Mrs. Muriel Massinovitch, introduced her to Bach. Once she understood Bach’s music, she wanted to dedicate her life to music. As a child, her biggest dream was to be a concert pianist. After a year of lessons, Eunice showed amazing potential. Since Mrs. Miller could not continue to pay for her lessons, Mrs. Massinovitch created the Eunice Waymon Fund and raised money by getting the town of Tryon involved with regular recitals to showcase Eunice’s talent. After graduating high school, Eunice got a scholarship to attend Julliard in New York for one year. After a year in ... ...lina. After high school, she attended Juilliard School of Music for one year. She studied with Vladimir Sokhaloff, Married twice and had one daughter, Lisa Celeste Stroud (AKA Simone Kelly) who followed in her mother’s musical steps. In her later years, she became a world wanderer and preferred Europe to America. Her concerts were wide ranged from Philadelphia, Atlantic City, New York – including Carnegie Hall and Apollo Theatre, Chicago, and Alabama – during the racial raids; to Nigeria, Canada, London, France, Germany and Holland. She toured with Bill Cosby during the late 1960s and Richard Pryor opened for her shows when he was first starting out. The Nina Simone estate has created the Eunice Waymon-Nina Simone memorial project to support both the short- and long-term educational goals of individuals on career paths who need economic assistance. Nina Simone Essay -- Eunice Kathleen Waymon Eunice Kathleen Waymon born February 21, 1933. She was the sixth of eight children born to John - an entertainer turned family man - and Mary Kate - who became a church minister - a poor southern black family that lived in Tryon, North Carolina. Her father played piano, guitar, and harmonica; her mother played piano and sang. Her brothers and sisters all played piano and sang in the church choir, gospel groups, glee clubs and social events. She started learning music the natural way by watching her family. The Waymon’s owned a pedal organ, and by the time Eunice was tall enough to climb on the stool and sit on the keyboard, she had musical talent. She was a child prodigy. By the age of 6, Eunice would play piano in church and other events where her mother preached. Her mother also worked as a housekeeper for a white lady, Mrs. Miller. She heard Eunice playing for a choir and insisted that she had to have proper piano lessons. Since her family could not afford lessons, Mrs. Miller would pay for Eunice to have piano lessons for a year and if she showed promise they would have to figure out a way to continue the lessons. Her tutor, an English woman Mrs. Muriel Massinovitch, introduced her to Bach. Once she understood Bach’s music, she wanted to dedicate her life to music. As a child, her biggest dream was to be a concert pianist. After a year of lessons, Eunice showed amazing potential. Since Mrs. Miller could not continue to pay for her lessons, Mrs. Massinovitch created the Eunice Waymon Fund and raised money by getting the town of Tryon involved with regular recitals to showcase Eunice’s talent. After graduating high school, Eunice got a scholarship to attend Julliard in New York for one year. After a year in ... ...lina. After high school, she attended Juilliard School of Music for one year. She studied with Vladimir Sokhaloff, Married twice and had one daughter, Lisa Celeste Stroud (AKA Simone Kelly) who followed in her mother’s musical steps. In her later years, she became a world wanderer and preferred Europe to America. Her concerts were wide ranged from Philadelphia, Atlantic City, New York – including Carnegie Hall and Apollo Theatre, Chicago, and Alabama – during the racial raids; to Nigeria, Canada, London, France, Germany and Holland. She toured with Bill Cosby during the late 1960s and Richard Pryor opened for her shows when he was first starting out. The Nina Simone estate has created the Eunice Waymon-Nina Simone memorial project to support both the short- and long-term educational goals of individuals on career paths who need economic assistance.

custer :: essays research papers

The controversy of General Custer and the actions that culminated his fate and almost three hundred men under his command has long been discussed and debated by many historians as well as important military officials all trying to conclude what happened at the Battle of Little Bighorn. There have been countless myths and legends of what occurred on that fateful day in American history, but there has yet to be a solid right answer. This answer is difficult to conclude for one reason, there were no survivors of the battle from Custer’s troops. This led to the many different sides of story that were mostly fabricated by newspapers and authors to sell their papers and books, without much care towards the accuracy of the battle and it events. The book, Custer and The Great Controversy try’s to put into context the developing situations prior to and after the battle to get to the roots of these legends and myths to try and make sense of them. The author’s goal is not to come to a conclusion and a theory of his own, but to disregard the myths and legends of the past and in doing so shed some light on the controversy for people who may have thought otherwise. The author achieves this goal in a unique way by writing chronologically but at the same time writes about the major events of the developing controversy, sometimes overlapping in years but making smooth connections between similar the events. First, the author starts out by giving a background of The Battle of Little Bighorn. Describing the main characters of the battle and the events leading up to the battle and then finally the battle itself in a broad context. Doing this gives the reader a foundation of what lies ahead in the book. Secondly, the author describes the role of the press and its impact after the battle has concluded. The press can be looked upon as the main reason for the overwhelming myths and legends that followed due to their unwillingness to find the facts and their motivation to sell their papers. Thirdly, the author attends to the great debate that followed the battle a few years later, that was fueled by these myths and arose during this hostile time. The debate was between the critics who thought that Custer led his men into suicide by disobeying orders and selfishly seeking the individual pride and glory that followed him throughout his military career up until his death at The Battle of Little Bighorn.

Humans and Parasites

Parasites and Humans: Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? Introduction The definition of a parasite is: â€Å"an organism that lives on or in an organism of another species, known as the host, from the body of which it obtains nutriment. † (Dictionary. com,2012) There are several kinds of parasitic relationships in the world. Mutualism is one of them. This occurs when each member of the association benefits the other. Can humans and parasites have a mutualistic relationship in medicine? Dating back to the B. C. era it has been believed that parasites, most commonly leeches and maggots, were the cure for various maladies.Leeches at one time were thought to cure everything from obesity to mental illness. In the early 20th century there was no longer a need for parasites with the medical and technological advances we were making. Their popularity has begun to grow since the 1980s and is seen more often in medical practice. Thesis Statement Some parasites, over the course of h istory, have proven to hold a symbiotic relationship with the human body in medical applications. Prior to the days that we think of as modern medicine, parasites were used for many things in medical practice. One example is leeches.The use of leeches in medicine started around 2,000 B. C. with the Greek and Roman physicians. During the medieval times they were very prevalent in the household medicine cabinets as they were used on a regular basis to treat many different ailments. (Jaffari, M. 2012) As modern medicine emerged parasites were viewed as a bad thing. Things we did not want inside us or around us. We discovered many ways to eradicate them from our bodies, thus also eradicating them from medicinal use. In more recent years testing is being done especially with the helminth (worm) species of parasites.These parasites are being used to treat medical conditions such as ulcerative colitis, vascular diseases and allergies, just to name a few, with very interesting results. Itâ €™s beginning to seem as if humans and parasites in some applications can benefit each other after all. The use of parasites to treat ailments has been around for centuries. It is thought to date back as far as the Stone Age. The first written reference of this was in a medical poem by Nicander of Colophon (185-135BC). This poem referenced leeching (bloodletting) in particular. It is believed that all ancient civilizations used bloodletting in their medical practice.In ancient Greece they believed in the Humoral Theory. This theory stated that the body was made up of four humors; these were blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile and you became ill because these humors were out of balance. The leeches were used to keep these humors in balance; thus, keeping the patient healthy. During the early nineteenth century in Europe it was not uncommon to find leeches in people’s medicine cabinets. The use of leeches during this time was very prevalent and they were believed to be almost a â€Å"cure all†. Bloodletting became so popular in Europe, that the commercial trade in leeches became a major industry.France during this era suffered such a shortage of leeches that they had to import 41. 5 million of the parasites. Due to the extremely high demand for this product, the medicinal leech almost became extinct in Europe. When the numbers being harvested from the wild became insufficient, some countries started the practice of leech farming. (El-Awady, 2003) Leeches were not the only parasite that received high acclaim for medical uses. The maggot has been known for its healing ability since the 16th century. In 1917, Dr. William S. Baer made an incredible observation while working as a physician during World War I.Two soldiers were brought into the hospital, both having compound fractures to their femurs and very large wounds to the abdomen. It was discovered that these two soldiers had been wounded in battle seven days prior but because of the ove r growth in the area the two men were over looked when the wounded were first recovered. At that time the mortality rate for people with compound fractures was as high as 85%, even with the best medical care. Despite the lack of food and water, being exposed to the elements during those seven days, and the severity of the wounds, the doctor found that the men had no fever, and there was no evidence of sepsis.When their clothing was removed the doctor discovered that the wounds were filled with blow fly maggots. The maggots were washed from the injuries to find that the exposed bone and tissue were in perfect condition. Cultures were taken with very few bacteria still present. Ten years later Dr. Baer would use this theory on four children with osteomyelitis which is a disease causing inflammation of the bone and bone marrow usually caused by reoccurring bacterial infections. (Dictionary. com, 2012) All four children had had several surgeries for this, all of which had failed to heal .The doctor obtained maggots from his neighborhood and trying to copy most of the conditions that he observed with the soldiers he attempted his experiment. He used no chemical antibiotics, no iodine to clean the area, surgery was done bare handed and using only water. This way if the wound healed it would be strictly due to the maggots. Dr. Baer continued his treatment of maggot therapy to find that in six weeks the wounds these children suffered from had healed completely. In the spring of 1929 more cases were submitted using this form of treatment with the same results. (Baer, 1931)During the early to middle 20th century the technological and medical advances we had made took the place of â€Å"medieval medicine† and along with it the use of parasites in medical practice. Maggots were removed from medicinal use in the 1930s. With the introduction of new antibiotics and better surgical techniques we found that we had a much better grasp of healing and inhibiting bacterial i nfections and we no longer required the use of maggots to heal open wounds. Although, in 1989 there were findings that maggot therapy was superior in certain cases to antibiotic therapy for eradicating a bacterial infection.The first modern clinical studies of maggot therapy were started at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Long Beach, CA, and at the University of California, Irvine. The results of these studies showed that the use of maggots today is still an effective and safe treatment for certain types of wounds. The reports also stated that there is no reason to use maggots as a last resort. There are published reports of a limb salvage rate of over 40% in pre-amputation maggot therapy. When this therapy was used even earlier in the course of treatment the results were even more dramatic. Sherman, 2010)   Leeches have always had their place in history as we have seen. Leech therapy was used up until the 1960s when it too was removed from medical practice. Bloodletting of sorts was taken over by modern day phlebotomy. So we again saw no need in using the old practices with the advances we had made. In the 1980s, leech therapy made a big comeback by plastic surgeons that used leeches to relieve venous congestion. If this congestion was not treated, the blood would clot and arteries that bring the blood and nourishments to the tissues would become plugged and the tissues would die.This is where the leech therapy would come in handy. Once they were applied to the site, the leeches sucked the excess blood, which helped to reduce the swelling in the tissues and promoted healing by allowing fresh, oxygenated blood to reach the area until normal circulation could be restored. The leeches also assisted in the healing by the secretion of an anticoagulant known as hirudin which would keep the blood in the area from clotting. The present day medical world is once more looking towards some parasites as very useful tools in certain areas of medical practice.The leech’s saliva contains a number of chemical compounds that are very useful in medicine. We already mentioned the anti-coagulant hirudin. This has been studied for use in helping to prevent heart attacks and strokes. The leech naturally secretes a local anesthetic that it uses when attaching to the host to avoid detection. This has proven helpful to lessen pain in some patients. Doctors and patients have seen the benefits of the vasodilator and a prostaglandin secreted by this parasite as it is known to reduce swelling in situations of inflammation.The leech’s gut harbors a bacterium known as Aeromonan hydrophila which aids in its digestion of ingested blood and produces an antibiotic that kills other bacteria that can cause tissue decomposition. The most present day uses for leech therapy are digital replants, skin grafting, hematomas, and some leeches are being raised specifically for pharmaceutical uses. Leech therapy is proving to be useful for a number of other co nditions including osteoarthritis, ophthalmology and dermatology.As with any treatment there can be side effects. Leeching is no exception. A few of the side effects associated with leech therapy include infection, excess blood loss that may require blood transfusion, and allergic reactions. Science has developed a â€Å"clean† leech which helps to lessen the number of bacterial infections. These are leeches specially raised to not carry the normal bacteria that regular leeches carry. As an alternative to real leeches, Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a mechanical leech.This invention mimics the action of the live leech allowing for fresh blood to flow through the wound. (El-Awady, 2003) Maggots have also found their niche in today’s medical world. These often thought of as â€Å"icky† parasites are used in some wound care applications. This therapy even has a name, maggot debridement therapy or MDT. Maggots are very efficient hea lers of wounds as we have seen. The reason for this is that the maggots eat only the dead tissues and leave the healthy, living tissues intact. They also excrete compounds which inhibit and may even kill bacteria.This is extremely useful in areas where there is poor blood supply; these areas are unable to benefit from antibiotic therapy as it is unable to reach the required area in high enough concentrations to do what was intended. The most common uses for maggots today are wound debridement and diabetic foot ulcers. The side effect patients are most at risk for is bacterial infections. As with the leeches scientists are able to raise â€Å"clean† maggots, lowering the number of infections. More recently added to the list of helpful parasites has been the hookworm.These parasites live in your gut and thrive on the nourishment that you take in. Hookworm infection is actually known to have a beneficial effect on health. There are published studies that show hookworms can lesse n or even cure allergies such as inflammatory bowel disease, food allergies and even asthma. The saliva that the worms produce changes the immune system and keeps your body from overreacting to the substances that cause the allergies. (Sifferlin, 2012) There are several uses for hook worms being studied presently.These are; ulcerative colitis, allergies and asthma control. Some of the outcomes have been very positive. Because the worms feed from the same nutrients that you are taking in the largest risk with hookworm infection is anemia. In third world countries this can be a devastating side effect but, in the western world there is less concern about this issue. Conclusion Parasitic mutualism occurs when each member of the association benefits the other. Our ancient ancestors seemed to have made good use of the human parasite relationship.As technology increased we turned from the â€Å"old way† of doing things and disregarded any use of parasites in medical practice. But, did our ancient ancestors know something that we are just now starting to grasp once again? With the testing we are seeing more recently it seems that it is possible for these creepy crawlies that make us feel so squeamish could be very helpful to us and our health. Even with the positive results of the use of parasites in medicine there are still many mysteries regarding the symbiotic relationship between parasite and man.