Apply Dsm-Iv to William Styron Essay

He chronicles â€Å"the leaden and poisonous mood† (Styron, 1990) that occupies most of his days. He reflects his diminished interest and pleasure towards â€Å"exceptionally island’s pleasure†, his â€Å"beloved home†, writing and other activities that he used to enjoy. He wonders how his friendly place seemed so hostile and forbidding. As a writer it felt helpless and painful to him when he found out â€Å"the writing becomes more difficult and exhausting, finally ceased† because depression has made him unable to concentrate. Styron’s statement of â€Å"two or three hours of sleep I was able to get at night† indicated that he suffered from insomnia and the everyday sleepless was â€Å"a rare torture† to him. It was clear that his insomnia evolved from middle insomnia to severe insomnia just right before his hospitalization (Andreasen & Black, 2011). Styron also stated his slowed psychomotor functions that manifested in â€Å"slowed-down responses, near paralysis, psychic energy throttled back close to zero†. Styron further describes his mental illness severity as â€Å"reached the phase of the disorder where all sense of hope had vanished, along with the idea of a futurity†. While these particular descriptions depict Styron’s hopelessness and despair, he also proposed a question â€Å"Why wasn’t I in a hospital† which implies his later voluntary hospitalization and improvement in his illness. In addition, Styron constantly thinks about death and suicide evidenced by â€Å"Death, was now a daily presence†. His house has also become a place that was filled with possibilities of committing suicide. These core symptoms in Styron’s case defined major depression and has presented for more than two weeks (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Styron stated by himself that there was no manic episode occurs. And there were no evidence for a Mixed Episode. Although it was clear that client’s alcohol abuse history and his overuse of sleep medication play roles in his depression client’s depression are not due to the direct physiological effects of the substances or any general medical condition (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). It is interesting to address that client’s symptoms are not better accounted for by Bereavement but the unresolved grief Styron had toward his mother can be consider a major factor that contributed to his depression. The childhood trauma and the unresolved grief will be discussed later in this essay. In Styron’s case his depression began gradually during the six to eight month time frame. â€Å"Styron is on point in his astute description of milder dysthymic states that evolve into physiologically engaged forms of sever, endogenous depressions† (England, Ganzer, Foster, & Tosone, 2006). Based on client’s current situation it is reasonable to give Styron â€Å"moderate† with current GAF score of 65. Styron stayed in hospital for nearly seven weeks and discharged with an improvement in his illness and his functions. All of his statements of â€Å"I began to get well, gradually but steadily† â€Å"the fantasies of self destruction disappeared† â€Å"suicidal notions dwindled then disappeared† â€Å"had first dream in many months† indicated that he was in the process of Partial recovery. Not only he started to feel â€Å"peace† in his mind but also he was able to attend hospital group activities. Styron has high adaptive level of defensive functions at current state. The understanding of the causes of depression has evolved over centuries. While Styron was detecting his â€Å"forgotten or buried events† that underlay his depression it will be important to look into his case through the biopsychosocial lens. From biopsychosocial model perspective the three major factors which all play a role in causing depression are biological, psychological and social factors. There are three aspects that contribute to Styron’s biological factor: genetic, alcohol use and medication. Based on Styron’s memory, his father, a shipyard engineer, suffered from clinical depression. When Styron was a young boy he have witnessed his father’s depression and hospitalization. Recent genetic research supports earlier studies reporting family links in depression (Pittenger & Duman, 2008). If one or both of child’s parents have a vulnerability to depression, then it can be transmitted to the child. Therefore Styron’s father’s depression can be viewed as a risk factor to Styron’s later depression. In the narrative of Styron, he stated his dependence on alcohol and the overuse of Halcion for his sleeping problem. Excessive alcohol consumption significantly increases the risk of developing major depression (Gottlieb). Similar to alcohol, the increased risk for developing depression in benzodiazepines might be due in part to effects of drugs on neurochemistry, like decreased levels of serotonin and norepinephrine (Pittenger & Duman, 2008). Styron himself acclaims that â€Å"more significant factor† (Styron, 1990) to his depression was the death of his mother when he was thirteen. In order to view psychological factor in Styron’s case Styron’s early mother lost has strong affect on his depression. Attachment theory predicts a relationship between depressive disorder and the early bond between the child and parents. Particularly the experiences of early loss, separation may all lead to insecure internal working models (Ma, 2006). To Styron, the death of his mother has â€Å"created nearly irreparable emotional havoc† (Styron, 1990) for him. This huge hole in his life may lead to his insecure and self-worthlessness. This insecure internal working models manifest through depressed individuals often blaming themselves for negative events and may not taking credit for positive outcomes. Styron reaction towards can be interpreted as he subconsciously felt he was not worthy of the honor (Marowitz, 2009). Regarding Styron’s own insight of â€Å"incomplete mourning† (Styron, 1990) he is right about the unsolved grief can keep bring the â€Å"insufferable burden of rage, guilt and sorrow†. â€Å"The Styrons were a dignified Southern WASP fanily and open displays of grief were tacitly discouraged† (England, Ganzer, Foster, & Tosone, 2006). Since Styron was stuck in the phase of unresolved grief and using rage, guilt, and sorrow as the fuel for his work he never really learned a correct way to release his negative repeating emotions. Social factor in Styron’s case may be his social isolation during his early life from childhood to adolescent. As an only child in the family Styron’s social support can only come from his depressed father and mother with terminal illness. There was no one to share the burden and loneliness with him. As a pre mature and gifted child Styron went to school’s grade that did not match his developmental stage.

My Personal Experience As The Victim Of An Injustice Essay

In my life I have been very fortunate that I have not been exposed to confrontational injustice. Nobody directly came to me and told me that I have for instance, not been chosen for a position because of my skin color, my age or any other characteristic of mine that makes me who I am. However, I do know that after 911 individuals, which look like people from the Middle East and or Middle Eastern names are being looked at very differently than before. Before 911 I was commonly referred to as the â€Å"prince of Persia† in my high school. After 911 I was even by good friends jokingly called a terrorist. Growing I have lived next to an airport and used to take my dog to walk around the Hamburg airport in Germany. We went for a walk at all times and I especially enjoyed going there after dusk because of all the airport lights. Lufthansa airlines has a major mechanical facility hanger on the airport. After time I developed a great passion for airplanes. I would read anything and everything about airplanes. I would make my father take me to any air show that would be within reasonable driving distance from us. I have had spent countless hours studying the mechanics of airplanes just so I could start a career as a Lufthansa mechanic. Once I graduated High School in Germany I applied for an internship with Lufthansa. After a while I received an invitation, for a networking event for all internship applicants. Before I arrived I could have not been more ecstatic about finally meeting individuals who were just as excited about airplanes as me. May they have been master mechanics or fellow a pplicants. After settling in I kept on having the feeling that people were staring at me. I didn’t know why but after a while I felt very uncomfortable being there and couldn’t figure out why until I overheard applicants making terrorist jokes about me. Once I brought it up to one Lufthansa employees, he told me that they shouldn’t have said exact those words but that they had made a great point. He went on  to explain to me that I would never stand a chance of becoming an air plane mechanic because I am Persian. 911 just happened but I would have never thought on my own that I would be connected in any way or form to 911. From that moment on I always became very aware of the way I look and what my heritage is. I strongly believe that injustice has been done to me on that day because I did change very much the path I have taken in my life and I stopped pursuing my dream. I don’t think that the offender has had experienced anything negative or will experience anything negative unless someone just suits him. Even though the recruiter may has not been racist and may just sincerely wanted to help me, he made me learn that I could be excluded from things because of things I do not have any type of control over like the color of my skin. I do have to say though that I have grown personally from that experience and do not let anybody stop me from doing anything just because somebody has a wrong opinion about life, like how people from Middle Eastern decent should not be employed by airlines working on their airplanes. I am fortunate enough that I have come to understand this now but while I was younger and just heard that person say that and somehow confirming what he said in blogs it affected me very much negatively. My personal experience as the offender of justice I think that the biggest injustice I have done in my life has been, to adopt a puppy. I adopted Dino when me and my wife first got married in Atlanta and I thought that we would live the rest of our life there. I also thought that I would be able to start my career in Atlanta within the finance industry. Unfortunately nothing worked out as I planned. While my wife and I continued to grow our love for Dino, I continued to search for a job. I finally decided that Atlanta’s job market had nothing to offer and that we had to move to Chicago. Our new landlord would not accept pets and therefore we had to give our baby (Dino) for adoption. My wife and I had many arguments over that decision. Finally, we did move to Chicago and gave Dino up for adoption. My wife has been very much upset about giving up Dino and to this day misses him. Therefore, I believe that I have done my wife a huge injustice by making her give up on Dino. Looking back we didn’t have to move and we didnâ⠂¬â„¢t have to move in to that apartment. We could have had looked longer and maybe even find a place that would have let us keep Dino but my  rush decision prohibited that, which I didn’t comprehend back then. I must say that I have learned from both instances and therefore become a more mature and patient person. I have learned that although I should still base my decisions on logic rather than emotion I should not totally leave out emotions either. It is rather ironic thinking back, that emotions rather than logic has been the reason why I stopped pursuing becoming a mechanic at Lufthansa.

International Business Analysis Project Research Paper

International Business Analysis Project - Research Paper Example According to Busfield (2006), the total worldwide sales of pharmaceutical products in the year 2003 amounted to $ 466 billion (10). It is necessary to note that the usage of prescription medicines globally is on the increase (Blume 1992). All the leading pharmaceutical multinationals, including Glaxo Smith Kline, have head offices in all advanced societies; and their worldwide presence is on the increase (Berg, 1997,). The challenges driving down revenues from the blockbuster strategy to 5% are recognized: declining R&D (Research and Development), rising expenditures of commercialization, augmenting payor influence and shorter exclusivity terms. The pharmaceutical industry has traditionally used the blockbuster approach to develop new drugs, despite numerous challenges of this approach (Williams et. al., 2008, p. 845). Using this approach, some prospective drugs may fail and when their costs are factored in, the actual cost of discovering, developing, and launching new drugs overly i ncreases (McKeown 1976). Publishing arm of a consultancy firm forms the basis of this report and audience are expert in the pharmaceutical field. Challenges of the model The model structure is provided in the diagram below revealing the requirements of the model. The challenges of the model are viewed as the enslaving factors in the pharmaceutical industry. ... vironment for pharma companies has transformed dramatically in the recent past; however, the founding model has not kept the pace thus posing challenges to emerging pharmaceutical companies. The declining research and development (R&D) productivity, increasing costs of commercialization, shorter exclusivity periods and augmenting payor influence have increased the mean expenditure per a successful introduction to $ 1.7 billion and decreased average expected profits on novel investment to the indefensible level of 5%. The challenges has presented predicaments that mergers created will not improve profitability. This forces pharmaceutical organizations to require fresh business models that fit the new environment. The model presents major challenges to all but the three largest organizations; GlaxoSmithKline PLC, Pfizer Inc., and Merck & Co. Inc. the choice is comparatively desolate: with little resources to drive primary care commodities and to venture in the arms race in sales & mark eting, and research and development project (R&D), they will probably be driven faster to replace their blockbuster-based models (Moncrieff 2002). Market worth is shifting previously to some smaller actors that have embraced new models. The effects of model dilapidation have been seen in many pharmaceutical organizations. According to Busfield (2006), pharmaceutical companies get most of their revenue from patented drugs, with most patients lasting for a period of up to 20 years. In 2003, for instance, The US pharmaceutical market, including of six of the peak 10 pharmaceutical corporations, accounted for ‘just under half of the world’s revenue, (Busfield 2006, p. 3).’ The other four companies were based in Europe. Despite the importance of this industry in the world, companies in

Place Paper Research Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Place - Research Paper Example In the book, Tropic of Chaos, the author, Christian Parenti talks about the core issues and critical problems associated with the harsh environment of East Africa, ‎US borders and mountain region located in Afghanistan, as well as the political turmoil with reference to Rio De Janeiro slums. The book presents quite a compelling description of the bloody war and political turmoil faced by the regions under discussion. This historical analytical account provides insight on episodes of terror and transformation through ‎fact-based knowledge in support of the new worlds where there could be melting glaciers meet beautiful rivers and ‎abundance of refreshing green grass. The author portrays a realistic for the readers that are ‎basically outside of the privileged US class. Parenti’s hardnosed journalism describes the issues ‎related to climate change from a personal perspective and divulges the discussion of the issues that were not explored so deeply by any other writer in such a detailed and analytical manner (Parenti 154). Globalization has impacted both positively and negatively on society and corporations, in which the negative impacts have hindered realization of human dignity and moral values (Nwaogaidu 9). A person’s confirmation of human dignity is influenced by the realization of moral development and its negative causes, and this is what drives an individual to seek achievement a world where an individual’s dignity is entirely valued. The poor in Nigeria thought that because of belonging to a certain ethnic group, a particular neighborhood, or a particular background of education, they were weak to stand up against their poverty. Subsequently, it was a question of whether the poverty was due to overpopulation or vice versa, or individuals became poor because of bearing too many children, or they had created large numbers of responsibilities on their own that they could not

A mix CD with Songs that Inspire Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

A mix CD with Songs that Inspire - Essay Example It also received a Golden Satellite Award nomination for â€Å"Best original Song in a Motion Picture†. It was nominated for the 2000 Grammy Award for â€Å"Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals†, losing to â€Å"I Still Have That Other girl† by Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello. One of the features of the song is when Carey and Whitney Houston sing a section of the song in thirds; they have done this and still kept in tune. The lyrics of When You Believe consist of ten stanzas starting with a painful and seemingly hopeless situation gradually evolving into a more favorable one. The persona (who can be practically anyone) can begin to hope and believe in himself, thus enabling him to achieve. The first stanza goes thus: The speaker accepts that the fertile ground for miracles to happen is the presence of hope which is frail, yet hard to obliterate. He firmly states that when one believes, success is just around the corner. There are times in life when prayers remain unanswered and fear on all sides threaten to overwhelm. These are times when hope flies to other climes like summer birds before the onset of winter. But this is just a feeling as shown by the next stanza wherein the speaker wonders why he has not succumbed to failure. His heart overflows with words of gratitude that he never thought he would need to say. Of course, miracles such as these do not always take place when one asks for them. He admits that it is easy to give in to one’s fears. There are times when one cannot think straight because of the pain or see one’s way through the rain. (Rain here is used a s a metaphor meaning a state of suffering). It is then when a small but still resilient voice can be heard, saying that love can provide relief, love is the solution. The lyrics do not say whose voice it is, but the concluding paragraph hints that the voice is God’s voice. Everyone who is alive on this planet goes through difficult times. The song

Should Euthanasia be legalized Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Should Euthanasia be legalized - Essay Example Involuntary euthanasia is considered as murder in most countries. This can be said to be euthanasia performed to a person who was able to provide consent on whether he chooses to die or not. As much as this practice has come to form part of some countries in the world, in most countries of the world it is illegal and many are yet to embrace the positive sides of euthanasia. Euthanasia is a term that was first applied in the 17th century, and the term was used to refer to a quick and painless death. Towards the approach of the 21century, more countries got to embrace this as it proved to be a solution towards illness related issues. The act became in the light of many critics including religions like Christianity. According to the Bible, God is the Supreme Being and the giver of life, and from this angle most of church faithful has argued that no man has the authority over the life of another. Euthanasia as a practice is known to be administered to patients who have suffered long illn esses and do not seem to show any form of improvements. The type of illnesses euthanasia is administered are mostly terminal illnesses. A terminal illness is an illness which when one develops, he then has no chance to recover. Definition of terminal illness in a country like Netherlands is that terminal illness is a ‘concrete expectancy of death’, Some countries like Oregon has further illustrated the definition of terminal illness as that illness within reasonable judgments will produce death within six months, this is to state that with terminal illness, death is inevitable. When one suffers from terminal illnesses like cancer or a heart related illness, there are many implications in relation to what he goes through. A family member who develops a terminal condition goes through many hardships which are related to the illness he has, this is in relation to fear of his or her life ending, pain and constant stress. Chemotherapy is a cancer related treatment. In this t ype of treatment, chemicals are used as medication. This treatment is used in cancer treatment as a way of destroying cancerous cells. It is also meant as a way of ensuring that cancerous cells do not spread to other parts of the body. Chemotherapy treatment has been known to be effective in some cases around the world. One disadvantage of this type of treatment is that it is very expensive and not many people can afford it. Chemotherapy has long term and short term effects that a patient may face. Short time effects are such as constant dizziness, constipation, and nausea and general discomfort. The long term disadvantages are that the treatment is time consuming and there are always a risk of the cancerous cells regenerating after the treatment is through. It is for these drastic effects of terminal illnesses that some countries chose to embrace euthanasia as the way out. Spending all of the family money on one member of the family is a decision that can be said to be dangerous in relation to the well being of the other family members. The attempt to treat a family member diagnosed with cancer has been known to put families in tough financial situations. As much as one would give anything for a family member to get better, considerations should always be taken regarding how the remaining members are to continue living. Persistent vegetative state is a condition which is known to be one with both ethical and medical

Assignment of Managing Organisation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Assignment of Managing Organisation - Essay Example A series of facts can contribute to above outcome: a) the plan attempted has not been appropriately designed – in terms of the resources available for its realization, b) the reaction of employees – internal organizational environment – towards the specific plan has not been the one expected; the resistance developed has led to the cancellation of the plan or to the delay in the completion of one or more of its phases, c) the conditions in the organizational environment have changed at such level – referring to the period between the beginning of the planning process and the beginning of the implementation process – that the development of the plan became non-feasible or the value of the plan for the increase of the organizational performance has been eliminated. Current paper focuses on a particular aspect of the strategic management: the cross-cultural management; reference is made especially to the multi-national firms of the tourism and hospital ity industry. The cross-cultural management practices initiated by the managers of these firms are presented and evaluated. It is concluded that even if a range of such practices are available to the managers of these firms, still problems exist in the successful implementation of the relevant projects across these organizations. It has been proved that the above problem is mostly related with the lack of consistency of these strategies across the various departments of these organizations; moreover, failures have been identified in the service delivery to customers from different cultural backgrounds. These issues are analytically discussed below by referring to appropriate literature; the findings of empirical studies, where available, have been also employed in order to highlight the challenges of cross – cultural management in the tourism and hospitality industry worldwide. 2. Cross-cultural management in modern organizations 2.1. Cross-cultural management – descri ption, framework Culture may have different forms within different frameworks or using different criteria: for instance the national culture is differentiated from organizational culture; however, it has been proved that the former can influence the latter (Browaeys et al 2008, 20). The above view can be verified by referring to the study of Hofstede who emphasized on the fact that ‘management can be affected by differences between cultural groupings’ (Browaeys et al 2008, 21); the above researchers studied the performance of the strategies of IBM in markets worldwide – the performance of the firm in 64 countries was reviewed. It was proved that differences existed in the behaviour/ performance of employees in various organizational activities under the influence of the national culture - involved in each case (Browaeys et al 2008, 21). From a different point of view, Adler et al. (2008) noted that, in the context of international market, the understanding by glo bal firms of the national culture is important because of the following reason: being aware of the culture of a foreign country multi-nationals are able to make the necessary adjustments to their existing strategies so that the latter are implemented successfully in the firm’s branch in the particular country (Adler et al. 2008, 13). In this way, the culture of a country is closely related to the strategies used by the organizations operating across the specific country. In order to understand the challenges for the cross-cultural mana

The case study of Tui Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

The of Tui - Case Study Example The report reveals its marketing strategy and describes how and why TUI has to change its plans and strategy under different changing environments. The study also reveals a general picture of company’s profile, history and achievements in all facets of tourism industry. The research is based on online data, excerpts from interviews and Company’s annual reports from 2004 to 2008. Touristik Union International abbreviated as TUI is a German based company with headquarters in Hanover. By name Preussag AG, the company remained involved in transportation and industrial business for many years. During mid-1990s the company adopted growth corporate strategy and introduced itself as a tourism and shipping company. Preussag AG sold off many of its industrial assets to beneficially purchase several travel and transportation firms. The structure of the group Preussag was renamed to Hapag Touristik Union (HTU) which in the year 2000 was transformed into TUI Group. Today TUI is the largest and leading tourism and shipping organization of the world, operationally active mainly in Central, Northern and Western Europe while it also has networks across Europe. The inventory of TUI is decorated with hotels, restaurants, retail stores, container ships, travel agencies and airlines. TUI AG Airline, having 7 common brand TUIfly airlines, is the largest holiday fleet in Europe. TUI is also the largest shipping company of the world. The company is strongly adhering to persevere with its position as world’s No. 1 tourism organization in all aspects along with a customer oriented vision. TUI as well as its affiliates like Thompson Travels, Portland Direct, Lunn Poly, and Skydeals are accredited as most trusted and professional organizations throughout the Europe. The company approximately consists of: At present, TUI has 43.3% shares in Hapag-Lloyd AG. During the fiscal year 2008, TUI’s had revenue about â‚ ¬759 million. On 31 December, 2008 the company and had 70,200

The Importance of Creating a Learning Environment in which Diversity Essay

The Importance of Creating a Learning Environment in which Diversity is Respected - Essay Example In order to ensure respect for diversity in learning, teachers must focus and be interested in all students equally. They should employ flexibility in the teaching process for consideration of all students. Additionally, to avoid biased learning outcomes, instructors must utilize curriculum and other resources in which there is a representation of both male and female genders (Standard 52). When there is respect of diversity in the learning environment, a student will be informed and have a better understanding of the dynamics in life, careers, and relationships in the modern world. Students who are exposed to a learning environment where there is respect for diversity are more likely to become good citizens and leaders in the new emerging global community. Therefore, the student develops both academically and socially. Additionally, such an environment boosts the confidence levels of students, raises their expectations about the future, and makes them discover their potential and talents. Similarly, this raises the educational outcomes of students and presents them with an enriched learning experience. Students therefore become productive and culturally literate citizens of their country and the

Google products Essay Example for Free

Google products Essay In 2011, 96% of Googles revenue was derived from its advertising programs.[116] For the 2006 fiscal year, the company reported $10.492 billion in total advertising revenues and only $112 million in licensing and other revenues.[117] Google has implemented various innovations in the online advertising market that helped make it one of the biggest brokers in the market. Using technology from the company DoubleClick, Google can determine user interests and target advertisements so they are relevant to their context and the user that is viewing them. [118][119] Google Analytics allows website owners to track where and how people use their website, for example by examining click rates for all the links on a page.[120] Google advertisements can be placed on third-party websites in a two-part program. Googles AdWords allows advertisers to display their advertisements in the Google content network, through either a cost-per-click or cost-per-view scheme. The sister service, Google AdSense, allows website owners to display these advertisements on their website, and earn money every time ads are clicked.[121] One of the disadvantages and criticisms of this program is Googles inability to combat click fraud, when a person or automated script clicks on advertisements without being interested in the product, which causes that advertiser to pay money to Google unduly. Industry reports in 2006 claim that approximately 14 to 20 percent of clicks were in fact fraudulent or invalid.[122] Furthermore, there has been controversy over Googles search within a search, where a secondary search box enables the user to find what they are looking for within a particular website. It was soon reported that when performing a search within a search for a specific company, advertisements from competing and rival companies often showed up along with those results, drawing users away from the site they were originally searching.[123] Another complaint against Googles advertising is its censorship of  advertisers, though many cases concern compliance with the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. For example, in February 2003, Google stopped showing the advertisements of Oceana, a non-profit organization protesting a major cruise ships sewage treatment practices. Google cited its editorial policy at the time, stating Google does not accept advertising if the ad or site advocates against other individuals, groups, or organizations.[124] The policy was later changed.[125] In June 2008, Google reached an advertising agreement with Yahoo!, which would have allowed Yahoo! to feature Google advertisements on its web pages. The alliance between the two companies was never completely realized due to antitrust concerns by the U.S. Department of Justice. As a result, Google pulled out of the deal in November 2008.[126][127] In an attempt to advertise its own products, Google launched a website called Demo Slam, developed to demonstrate technology demos of Google Products.[128] Each week, two teams compete at putting Googles technology into new contexts. Search Engine Journal said Demo Slam is a place where creative and tech-savvy people can create videos to help the rest of the world understand all the newest and greatest technology out there.[129] Search engine Main article: Google Search On February 14, 2012, Google updated its homepage with a minor twist. There are no red lines above the options in the black bar, and there is a tab space before the +You. The sign-in button has also changed, it is no longer in the black bar, instead under it as a button. Google Search, a web search engine, is the companys most popular service. According to market research published by comScore in November 2009, Google is the dominant search engine in the United States market, with a market share of 65.6%.[130] Google indexes billions[131] of web pages, so that users can search for the information they desire, through the use of keywords and operators. Despite its popularity, it has received criticism from a number of  organizations. In 2003, The New York Times complained about Googles indexing, claiming that Googles caching of content on its site infringed its copyright for the content.[132] In this case, the United States District Court of Nevada ruled in favor of Google in Field v. Google and Parker v. Google.[133][134] Furthermore, the publication 2600: The Hacker Quarterly has compiled a list of words that the web giants new instant search feature will not search.[135] Google Watch has also criticized Googles PageRank algorithms, saying that they discriminate against new websites and favor established sites,[136] and has made allegations about connections between Google and the NSA and the CIA.[137] Despite criticism, the basic search engine has spread to specific services as well, including an image search engine, the Google News search site, Google Maps, and more. In early 2006, the company launched Google Video, which allowed users to upload, search, and watch videos from the Internet.[138] In 2009, however, uploads to Google Video were discontinued so that Google could focus more on the search aspect of the service.[139] The company even developed Google Desktop, a desktop search application used to search for files local to ones computer (discontinued in 2011). Googles most recent development in search is its partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office to create Google Patents, which enables free access to information about patents and trademarks. One of the more controversial search services Google hosts is Google Books. The company began scanning books and uploading limited previews, and full books where allowed, into its new book search engine. The Authors Guild, a group that represents 8,000 U.S. authors, filed a class action suit in a New York City federal court against Google in 2005 over this new service. Google replied that it is in compliance with all existing and historical applications of copyright laws regarding books.[140] Google eventually reached a revised settlement in 2009 to limit its scans to books from the U.S., the UK, Australia and Canada.[141] Furthermore, the Paris Civil Court ruled against Google in late 2009, asking it to remove the works of La Martinià ¨re (Éditions du Seuil) from its database.[142] In competition with Amazon.com, Google plans to sell digital versions of new books.[143] On July 21, 2010, in response to newcomer Bing, Google updated its image search to display a streaming sequence of thumbnails that enlarge when pointed at. Though web searches still appear in a batch per page format, on July 23, 2010, dictionary definitions for certain English words began appearing above the linked results for web searches.[144] Googles algorithm was changed in March 2011, giving more weight to high-quality content[145] possibly by the use of n-grams to remove spun content.[146] Productivity tools In addition to its standard web search services, Google has released over the years a number of online productivity tools. Gmail, a free webmail service provided by Google, was launched as an invitation-only beta program on April 1, 2004,[147] and became available to the general public on February 7, 2007.[148] The service was upgraded from beta status on July 7, 2009,[149] at which time it had 146 million users monthly.[150] The service would be the first online email service with one gigabyte of storage, and the first to keep emails from the same conversation together in one thread, similar to an Internet forum.[147] The service currently offers over 7600 MB of free storage with additional storage ranging from 20 GB to 16 TB available for US$0.25 per 1 GB per year.[151] Furthermore, software developers know Gmail for its pioneering use of AJAX, a programming technique that allows web pages to be interactive without refreshing the browser.[152] One criticism of Gmail has been the potential for data disclosure, a risk associated with many online web applications. Steve Ballmer (Microsofts CEO),[153] Liz Figueroa,[154] Mark Rasch,[155] and the editors of Google Watch[156] believe the processing of email message content goes beyond proper use, but Google claims that mail sent to or from Gmail is never read by a human being beyond the account holder, and is only used to improve relevance of advertisements.[157] Google Docs, another part of Googles productivity suite, allows users to create, edit, and collaborate on documents in an online environment, not dissimilar to Microsoft Word. The service was originally called Writely, but was obtained by Google on March 9, 2006, where it was released as an invitation-only preview.[158] On June 6 after the acquisition, Google  created an experimental spreadsheet editing program,[159] which would be combined with Google Docs on October 10.[160] A program to edit presentations would complete the set on September 17, 2007,[161] before all three services were taken out of beta along with Gmail, Google Calendar and all products from the Google Apps Suite on July 7, 2009.[149] Enterprise products Googles search appliance Googles search appliance at the 2008 RSA Conference Google entered the enterprise market in February 2002 with the launch of its Google Search Appliance, targeted toward providing search technology for larger organizations.[26] Google launched the Mini three years later, which was targeted at smaller organizations. Late in 2006, Google began to sell Custom Search Business Edition, providing customers with an advertising-free window into Google.coms index. The service was renamed Google Site Search in 2008.[162] Google Apps is another primary Google enterprise service offering. The service allows organizations to bring Googles web application offerings, such as Gmail and Google Docs, into its own domain. The service is available in several editions: a basic free edition (formerly known as Google Apps Standard edition), Google Apps for Business, Google Apps for Education, and Google Apps for Government. Special editions include extras such as more disk space, API access, a service level agreement (SLA), premium support, and additional apps. In the same year Google Apps was launched, Google acquired Postini[163] and proceeded to integrate the companys security technologies into Google Apps[164] under the name Google Postini Services.[165] Additional Google enterprise offerings include geospatial solutions (e.g., Google Earth and Google Maps); security and archival solutions (e.g., Postini); and Chromebooks for business and education (i.e., personal computing run on browser-centric operating systems).

Analysis of Board of Directors and Risk Propensity

Analysis of Board of Directors and Risk Propensity Banks are all similarly confronted with particular regulations and inspections of banking supervisions. Within this topic, the board of directors plays an important role. There are different factors considering how the composition of a board might influence its performance and the decision-making process. Therefore, factors like independence, age structure, percentage of minorities and women and the size of the board will be analyzed. After determining the composition, the influence of it on the percentage of equity financing and therefore the risk propensity will be analyzed. Furthermore, the composition will also be linked to performance indicators as Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), and the development of stock quotations. 3.1. Corporate Governance The term corporate governance describes processes through which an organization is controlled and directed. Those structures specify which rights and duties certain participants in a company have and how the decision-making process works. This mostly affects the board of directors, the top management team (TMT) as well as shareholders and other stakeholders (OECD, 2005). Corporate governance is concerned with the possible abuse of power of the managers and the need for certain qualities like openness, integrity and accountability during the whole decision-making process. As shown in Figure 3.1, it also examines how certain mechanisms, including incentives, can help to minimize transactions costs that arise in an organization between principals and agents as described in the agency theory below (Mathiesen, 2002). 3.2 Structure of the Board of Directors The members of the board are generally elected by the shareholders and their responsibilities vary with the nature and the complexity of the organization. However, there are two different systems regarding the boards of directors. On the one hand there is the Anglo-Saxon system in countries like the United States and Japan (12Manage: The Executive Fast track, 2008). This consists of a one-tier board structure, where executive and non-executive directors work together in the board of directors (Weimer and Pape, 1999). This single board is usually entirely appointed by the shareholders and the CEO often also holds the board chair (12Manage: The Executive Fast track, 2008). On the other hand, in countries like Germany and the Netherlands, companies have adopted a two-tier board structure. There, the board is divided into the managing board and the supervisory board to formally separate powers (12Manage: The Executive Fast track, 2008). The managing board is monitored and advised in major policies by the supervisory board (Weimer and Pape, 1999). The CEO holds the chair of the managing board, but cannot hold the chair of the supervisory board at the same time (12Manage: The Executive Fast track, 2008). Even though, the board of directors is usually elected by the shareholders, in some cases also employees elect their own representative(s) from the workforce to support their interests on the board. In state-owned banks directors are delegated to the bank by the State Council and in where the board of directors is spitted up into managing board and supervisory board, the managing directors are appointed by the supervisory board members as shown in Figure 3.2. 3.3 Tasks of the Board of Directors In general, directors represent the shareholders interests, because they provide the elementary assets for running a company. Therefore, the main role of the board of directors is to govern an organization while acting for the shareholders in order to protect their assets and to ensure a decent return on their investments (Oss, 2003; Kennon, 2008). The board of directors is the à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“highest governing authority within the management structure at any publicly traded companyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (Kennon, 2008, n.p.). For this reason, the board is in charge of defining the corporate mission, setting the companys objectives and approving the firms strategy concerning the well judged allocation of the financial resources (Oss, 2003). Even though the board holds the total authority for a companys decision making they cannot manage the companys day-to-day operations, because this is the role of the CEO and the TMT (Oss, 2003). The resulting conflict potential is discussed in the Agency Theory below. According to Oss (2003) it is the boards task to govern and the CEOs to manage. Therefore, a clarified classification of who is in charge will eliminate these conflicts. Furthermore, another stakeholder group exists, as mentioned in the Stak eholder Theory (see Figure 3.3) with additional interests and requirements for the board of directors. Regarding all players and interest groups in an organization, the responsibilities of the board are possible to be divided into a Governance Role, a Service Role and a Control Role. Beside the strategic decisions, an important task of the board members is to appoint special committees like the Audit and Risk Committee, and to select qualified managers, as well as to help and to support them with their skills and expertise. Finally, the board controls if the management meets the companys objectives concerning ethical tenets or laws (Oss, 2003). 3.5 Related Research regarding Board Composition From the theories and former research, it becomes clear that boards have different tasks. Therefore, an optimal structure or composition of the board is essential for fulfilling the tasks. The main tenor in the literature is that in order to work efficiently boards have to be independent with diversity in backgrounds, gender, race and age. However, a certain composition of the board might also affect how much risk the directors are willing to take. The composition of the board receives more and more attention in terms of structure and stability. If a better structured and more stable board of directors is related to a better firm performance, companies with a well-composed board should perform better than other companies. For the purpose of this paper, a well-composed board is defined as a stable and diverse board composed of a majority of independent members along with a number of women and ethnic minority directors. To build the connection to the topic terms à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" board composition on the one side and firm performance and risk propensity on the other side à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" it is important to focus on different behavioral patterns which are the result of variations in board compositions. By investigating the influence of the board composition on firm performance and risk propensity it is possible to get insights into how differently composed boards behave regarding specific board tasks. Differently composed boards behave differently in various situations; for example, when they decide whether to replace a poorly performing CEO or when they choose at what price the company should be sold. The boards decision is also important when the acquisition of another firm has to be approved or whe n takeover defenses have to be adopted and employed. Finally, the board plays a big role when it comes to establishing the CEO and executives compensation packages (Bhagat and Black, 1999). 3.5.4 Board Size Board size is seen as one of the most important factors when it comes to the influence on the performance of a company (Kyereboah-Coleman and Biekpe, 2005). The main view regarding board size is that large boards have a negative impact on the performance of the company. That is, because tasks like coordination, decision-making and the communication between the members are more difficult and expensive, the more directors have to be included (Belkhir, 2008). Therefore, the costs would outweigh the gains of having more expertise on the board. Belkhir (2008) cited Jensens (1993) statement that boards with more than seven or eight people are less effective and easier to control for the CEO. Earlier research of the board size supports the proposition that smaller boards are better. Yermack (1996) discovered a negative relationship between board size and firm performance measured by Tobins Q and several other accounting figures. In their sample of small Finnish firms, Eisenberg et al. (1998) also find a negative relationship between the number of directors and financial success of the company. Furthermore, Kyereboah-Coleman and Biekpe (2005) determined that large board sizes are bad for the sales and growth ratio of companies in Ghana. However, Belkhir (2008) found a non-negative relationship between the size of the board of directors and the firm performance measured by Tobins Q, as well as, by return on assets (ROA) for financial institutions. Especially savings-and-loan holding companies (SLHC) might increase the value of the company with a rising number of directors. Therefore, the next hypothesis is that: H4a: An increasing board size has no negative influence on the company performance. When it comes to taking risks, there is not as much empirical evidence. However, if one looks at the decision-making process of a board, especially when its number of directors is very high, the obvious assumption is that for risky decsions it is more difficult to get a consensus the more people have to vote for it. Furthermore, Pfeffer and Salancick (1978) and Lipton and Lorsch (1992) determined a relationship between the capital structure of a company and its board size. Additionally, a study of Abor and Biepke (2005) discovered that an increasing board size and the debt level of Ghanaian SME are negatively related. Thus, the authors assume that: H4b: The board size is negatively related to the risk propensity of the company. 3.5.5 Board Independence You can distinguish between inside directors (current officers of the company) affiliated outsiders (former company officers, and persons who have business relationships with the company) and independent directors (Bhagat and Black, 1999, p. 4). Independent board members (outside directors) are à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã…“not associated with or employed by the companyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬? (Kennon, 2008, n.p.). According to Kennon, in the United States at least fifty percent of the directors must meet the requirements of independence. A board with fifty percent of independent directors is called a majority-independent board (Bhagat and Black, 1999, p. 4). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 places a strong emphasis on the independence of directors. Brown et al. (2004) confirmed this requirement with positive results in their study on the effects of the independence of the board members on financial firm performance data. They found that independent boards have higher return on equity (ROE) and profit margins. Furthermore, it is determined that outside directors can monitor the management more effectively than insiders (Bonn, Yoshikawa, and Phan, 2004). Therefore, the conclusion of several empirical studies is that, besides a more diverse board, a more independent board has a positive effect on the financial performance (see also Adams and Mehran, 2008). But, boards with majority-independent directors have both positive and negative effects. On the one hand, inside directors are more involved in the companys operations and might know the business better than outsiders. On the other hand, outside directors might keep cool and act in a more objective way than insiders. Besides that, several studies did not find significant evidence that a higher number of independent directors within the board is related to the quality of financial reporting, or to the likelihood of firm failure. Additionally, there is no evidence of more firm-level diversification or a connection to research and development spending (Bhagat and Black, 1999). Therefore, Bhagat and Black (1999) recommend that it might be valuable for companies to compose their boards with at least a moderate number of inside directors. This is supported by their results that there is a negative relationship between the degree of board independence and firm performance. However, different firms need different types of boards and an optimal board contains a combination of inside, affiliated and independent directors who bring different skills and knowledge to the board (Bhagat and Black, 1999, pp. 32-33). Along with the companys objectives and shareholder interests, boards of banks additionally bear micro- and macro-economic responsibilities, which can be positively influenced by the optimal composition of the board. For board members of financial institutions, a cooperative board-CEO relationship is elementary. Only when the board gets the complete information about the operating business processes from the CEO, can they make the right decisions for the company. For this reason, it is important to know if inside or outside directors can deal better with the CEO or TMT and generate a higher performance. The writers therefore hypothesize for the banking sector, that: H5a: A higher number of outside directors does not influence firm performance. Pfeffer and Salancik (1978) developed the Resource Dependency Theory and determined that a number of outside directors upgrade a companys ability to protect itself against outside influences and reduce the uncertainty level. Furthermore, they stated that outsiders might help the company retain a certain status and raise funds. Thus, a higher number of outside directors on the board should increase the debt level of the company. On top of that, independent directors might act more in the shareholders interests than inside directors (Bonn, Yoshikawa, and Phan, 2004), and for this reason we hypothesize: H5b: A higher number of outside directors will be positively connected to the risk propensity of the company. 3.6 Summary of the Hypotheses In table 3.1. below, all hypotheses are presented at one glance. These propositions have been derived from past studies and behavioral theories as presented above. Table 3.1 Hypotheses Composition Company Performance Risk Propensity Gender Diversity H1a: A higher percentage of women on the board of direc-tors has a positive influence on firm performance. H1b: A higher percentage of women on the board is nega-tively connected to the risk pro-pensity of the company. Average Age of Directors H2a: The average age of the board of directors is nega-tively connected with firm performance. H2b: The average age of the board is positively connected to risk avoidance of the company. Ethnic Diversity H3a: A higher number of minority directors on the board is positively related to company performance. H3b: Minority directors do not affect the risk propensity of the company. Board Size H4a: Increasing board size has no negative influence on the company performance. H4b: The board size is nega-tively related to the risk pro-pensity of the company. Board indepen-dence H5a: A higher number of outside directors does not in-fluence firm performance. H5b: A higher number of outside directors is positively related to the risk propensity of the company. 4. Empirical Study 4.1 Research Methodology 4.1.1 Sample In this empirical research the top 50 banks in the world according to Bankersalmanac.com4 were investigated. The banks were ranked according to their total assets as of June 30, 2008. For the data collection, there was a time span of three years, from 2005 to 2007. This particular group of banks has been chosen, because of their size and international branches. The reasons for choosing the largest banks from all around the world were to have a comparable size of international business when comparing them. If the banks had only been from one or two countries the differences in size would have been significant and the developments on the financial market would have probably only affected the bigger banks. This might have had an effect on the performance. Thuse, for 2007 the results could have possibly been very inconsistent. Regarding the chosen sample, it can be assured that the international situation has affected them all à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â‚¬Å" some banks more than others, depending on how risky their business operations were. That results in a possible interpretation on how each bank, with managers and board directors, has dealt with the problems and obstacles. 4.1.2 Data Collection Method The necessary data for this study were collected from the annual reports of the 50 financial institutions. The data about the board of directors were found in the corporate governance section of the reports. Data about the company performance were gathered from the consolidated income statements and balance sheets of the banks. The data were usually dated the 31st December of the year. However, some bans adopted a fiscal year ending on March 31, or September 30 of the year. Then, we considered the Annual Reports from March 31, 2008 as belonging to 2007 as well as the Annual Reports from September 30, 2007. This way, it could be assured that the figures were all derived during the similar time period. Furthermore, the main capital ratios, necessary for the risk propensity were taken from the section risk management. However, there are no strict regulations on how companies have to structure their annual reports. Therefore, the relevant data of some financial institutions was found in different parts of the annual reports or on the websites of the companies. 4.2 Operationalization The research data were collected in an Excel sheet for further calculations and preparation purposes with regard to the statistical analysis using the statistics program SPSS. During the research process the researchers also used a complementary list to record secondary and supportive information needed to calculate the total numbers for the primary Excel list. 4.2.1 Board Composition Data The five board composition variables were selected by the authors and the corresponding information about those data were collected as presented in the following paragraphs. 4.2.1.1 Board Size The board size was recorded by counting the members and listing their names. This was done for all three years to find out if there were any changes in the board composition from one year to another. The changes were recorded in the complementary lists. The total number of board members for each bank and each of the three years were transferred to the primary Excel sheet. 4.2.1.3 Independent Directors Next, the authors looked at the percentage of independent directors. The financial institutions usually indicated in the annual reports or on their homepage which members of the board were independent. However, sometimes it was not explicitly alluded neither in the annual report nor on the companys website. Then, the researchers decided if a director was independent or not using an own definition described above. The authors examined if s/he has any other connection to the company beyond the board activities; for instance if him/her is or was employed by the bank in the last years or bears executive tasks. If there was no connection (excluding shareholding) at all, s/he was defined as independent director. The share ownership of directors was excluded, because at some banks each director is obliged to hold at least a small number of shares. The sum of all independent directors of each bank was copied to the list and divided by the total number of members. 4.2.2 Company Performance Indicators To investigate the influence of the board composition on the firm performance the authors chose four performance measures divided into two categories: operating performance and shareholder payout. The three most important financial indicators are the performance measures Return on Assets (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE), and the Efficiency Rate (CIR). Besides this, the researchers also looked at the share performances compared to previous years. These are all common indicators, which are important for shareholders. Furthermore, they are well comparable to the results previous studies in other industry branches showed using the same indicators. To control for the possibility that the performance indictors will be connected to the size of the bank, total assets were also recorded and will be included in the correlation tables and regression models. 4.2.2.1 Return on Assets The accounting measure of a companys profitability, Return on Assets (ROA), indicates net income from all of the banks operations relative to the average book value of all assets (Carter, DSouza, Simkins, Simpson, 2007, p. 15). It shows how beneficial assets are used by management to create earnings for the company. This means that it is possible to see how much profit was derived from invested assets (Investopedia, Definitions, 2008). It is calculated as: ROA= Net Income/ Avg. Total Assets 4.3 Credibility of the Research Data 4.3.1 Reliability Reliability is concerned with the question if the data that were collected by the researchers would be consistent with the findings other researchers would have using the same sources (Saunders et al., 2007). The most data were collected by the authors in a quantitative but diligent manner from the published and certified annual reports of the banks. Due to this fact, the research data cannot be interpreted wrong by the researchers and therefore have a high reliability. However, when it comes to the board composition data about women, minorities and independent directors, the authors had to interpret by using pictures or curriculum vitae of the directors. The gender of the board members is usually recognizable when using pictures. Thus, it is clear and should not be inconsistent when other researchers collect these data. A little more difficult is the question about minorities. For that part, the biographies have to be considered, especially, when it comes to questions about backgrou nds and where the people grew up. This fact can lead to different interpretations depending on who collects the data. However, the definitions on ethnic minorities were made clear in the theoretical part and thus, the results should be very consistent. When deciding about the independence of the directors, there are two factors to consider. First, when the banks noted if the directors were independent, this was just copied for the research. These data are very reliable, because there is no space for interpretation. However, if it was not indicted and the biographies of the directors were read and the decisions about the independence were basically made after reading the professional background. Therefore, other researchers could have a different opinion about directors independence. To summarize, most of the data are very reliable, because they are published and just have to be copied. Only for factors, that the authors had to interpret, it could come to inconsistencies, which should be very limited though, because the data collection was done very diligently and clearly set definitions have been used. 4.3.2 Validity Validity of data is concerned with the question if the findings are what they appear to be. The researcher has to find out if the variables really have a causal relationship (Saunders et al., 2007, p.150). In this study, it was made clear through the theoretical background that board composition and company performance, as well as, risk propensity influence each other. This is mainly secured by the fact that the board of directors makes decisions which are intended to influence the financial results. However, to make sure that the relations between the board and firm performance and risk propensity are not accidental, four performance measures and two risk measures that were studied. A problem could arise, if the results are inconsistent. If that was the case, the contradicting results have to be interpreted and explained. 4.3.3 Generalisability The aim of this research study was to be able to generalize the results, which means to be able to apply the results to other settings (Saunders et al., 2007). Other settings could be for example a different group of banks or maybe other companies located in the same countries and also have international operations. For this reason, the quantitative research method was applied. To get reliable and valid results the authors collected almost 150 data sets by investigating 50 banks over three years. The number of banks was not selected by the authors but provided by a public resource which registered the 50 largest banks as measured by their total assets as of June 30, 2008. This amount of research data and the fact, that the sample includes banks situated on three continents in many different countries, allows the authors to generalize the findings. 5. Analysis 5.1 General Findings The sample of fifty banks consists of the largest financial institutions from North America, Europe and Asia. The biggest group are the European banks. One bank from the sample had to be excluded because its structure differed too much from the other banks and did not fit to the research questions. It was a state-owned bank which was controlled by politicians to a large percentage. Furthermore, for the year 2005, one more bank had to be left out, because it was just created in 2006 by a merger of two smaller banks. To be able to compare the banks, all performance indicators that were stated in different currencies have been converted into Euros with the currency rate of December 31 of each year.6 In table 5.1 general statistical values of the variables are listed. A value that was controlled for in the research was total assets. This was important for detecting if the board size or any of the other independent variables changed with the size of the bank. However, there is no significant relationship between the total assets and the size of the board (see table 5.2). Therefore, it is possible to say, that banks do not decide about the number of directors based on their size measured by total assets. It is rather noticeable that banks with a two-tier board system have larger boards than the other banks. The maximum number of directors came up to 48, when adding up the number of directors in the supervisory and the managing board compared to a minimum of seven board members in a one-tier system bo ard of directors. Table 5.1 Descriptive Statistics years 2005-2007 Samples Minimum Maximum Mean Median Std. Deviation Total Assets (Mio. à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬) 146 168,119 2,579,194 732,994 557,269 415,293 Board Size 146 7 48 18.36 17.00 6.92 Board Age (years) 142 49.1 64.70 57.32 57.74 3.44 Women (%) 146 0.00 42.90 10.02 6.8 9.32 Minorities (%) 146 0.00 41.20 3.73 0.00 7.79 Independent Directors (%) 146 0.00 94.10 49.15 50.00 28.80 Share Development cp. to Previous Year (%) 100 -44.75 106.67 14.61 16.90 27.52 ROE (%) 146 -37.90 37.50 14.56 15.35 8.60 ROA (%) 146 -0.30 1.75 0.65 0.59 0.40 Cost/Income Ratio (%) 125 34.70 114.00 58.89 56.00 13.07 Debt-Ratio (%) 146 87.73 98.54 95.31 95.95 2.19 B.I.S Capital (%) 135 8.5 19.70 11.79 11.60 1.72 5.2 Interdependency between the Independent Variables Before checking for the influence of the board composition on performance and risk propensity, the interdependency of the independent variables was evaluated in table 5.2. It is noticeable that many of the factors correlate with each other within the one percent significance level. The strongest correlation exists between the variables board age and percentage of independent directors. It shows that the higher the average age of the directors is the more independent directors are on the board. This leads to the conclusion that outside board members are usually older than executive directors. Another strong significant relationship is shown between the variables board age and board size. This correlation is negative and implies that the average age of the directors decreases when the number of board members increases. The reason for this link could be that the younger board members are introduced into the tasks before the older directors retire. One more noticeable factor is that the percentage of women on the board is positively correlated with the percentage of minorities on the board. This supports the results of Carter et al. in 2002. Furthermore, independent directors correlate significantly positively with women and minorities, which supports the conclusion that female and minority directors usually seem to be outsiders to the bank. An interesting fact is also that minority directors usually seem to be of more importance in smaller boards. The correlation between the board size and the percentage of minorities is slightly negative, which indicates that smaller boards have a higher percentage of ethnic minority directors. Furthermore, it is interesting that the boards of directors of banks do not significantly correlate with their total assets, as mentioned before. However, the board age has a very significant positive correlation with the assets. This implies that larger banks usually have an older board of directors. Besides, those banks also seem to have a slightly higher percentage of independent outside directors as shown by the positive correlation between these two factors. With the high interdependencies between the independent variables, it could come to multicollinearity problems in the regression analyses for the dependent performance and risk indicators. Fortunately, this is not the case as shown by the VIF-values, which are lower than 2.5, in the regression models below. Table 5.2 Correlations between Independent Variables 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 Total Assets a 1 2 Board Size a -.113 1 3 Board Age a .308*** -.403*** 1 4 Women (%) a -.052 .037 -.026 1 5 Minorities (%) a .098 -.176** .254*** .267*** 1 6 Indep. Directors (%) a .208** -.114 .465*** .369*** .308*** 1 *** Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) ** Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) a Pearson correlation coefficient 5.3 Influence of Board Composition on Performance Data At the beginning, the correlations of the data from all three years were evaluated together to get a general overview over the connections made between the independent and dependent variables. 5.3.1 Return on Assets When regarding the influence of the board composition on the first performance indicator it is very obvious that ROA is connected to all variables, except for total assets (see table 5.3). The strongest positive correlation exists between the variables return on assets and percentage of independent directors, followed by minorities. A little weaker connection is shown with the percentage of female directors and the board age. The linkages indicate that outsiders or a more divers and experienced board (concerning average

Reflection in a Stranger Essay -- Essays Papers

Reflection in a Stranger Being on a college campus, you are surrounded by many different kinds of people. Whether you get to know them personally or you just know the familiar faces, some of those people will remind you of friends at home, family members, neighbors, and even yourself. This is what I have experienced here at UVM. I have met so many people that have certain characteristics that remind me of the friends from home whom I miss dearly. But most of all, it is the people I see that remind me of myself that impacts me the most. It is well known that eating disorders are a problem in our society, and college campuses are a place where that problem is magnified a bit. Not to say that all the girls I am thinking of have eating disorders; a few do, and the others are maybe on the verge. But it is seeing these girls where I see myself, and it makes me cringe inside. I don’t even know how the disease got a hold of me. That is one of the mysterious things about anorexia nervosa, it kind of creeps up on you. I was always tall and thin growing up. I never really thought about my weight or my body for that matter. I was always active in different sports, and never thought I needed to lose weight. When I entered high school I continued playing basketball and running track. But in high school these sports were more competitive. I wasn’t a great basketball player, but I wanted to be. I began to train during the off season, especially for basketball, playing every day in the summer. And the work paid off, I made the varsity basketball team my sophomore year, and also placed seventh in the state track meet running the 300 meter hurdles. But that only caused me to set more expectations for myself. The varsi... .... They need to find a person they trust that can convince them that they need help. And they need to see it inside themselves that they have a problem. What bothers me just as much is seeing girls trying all these diets to lose weight, when they really don’t need to. It just reminds me of how I got sucked into an addictive behavior, which started in that same way. There are a few people on campus that I have met and grown close with that I have talked to about their eating problems. I told them my story and told them that if they ever need anything to just ask. I told them how I recovered and how it is a long process and it is really up to you. And I told them I know how it feels to be in that situation. I only hope that they will find it in themselves to accept the help offered to them by their friends and family, and understand that they are not alone.

The Problems of SOL Testing :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

The Problems of SOL Testing Education is one of the most important tools that society possesses. The right implementation of this tool is one of the greatest ways of assuring the quality of life within a society. The ability to better ourselves, is one of the strongest inherit abilities of the human race. At its most basic definition, education is nothing more than the teaching of ideas. The early stages of schooling instill more attitude and social skills than knowledge. The younger stages of a person's life are usually the most definable years of their lives. As the age and skill level of the student increases, more education is based upon the interest of the student. For society to progress and excel, every generation must learn just a little more. Education is important and the ways that it is tested should show the most accurate measure of achievement. SOL's (Standards of Learning) is the testing I am going to explain, and why it should not be required in high school as a form of measurement of a s tudents achievement. First of all, what is SOL testing? SOL (Standards of Learning) Tests are prescribed tests in the state of Virginia that must be taken in order for students to attain credits required to graduate. SOL's are the minimum curriculum requirements for student achievement, so they say. This test is designed to test knowledge in subjects such as history, math, science, english and computer science. SOL's are required tests in the state of Virginia in order for a student to graduate. According to the Virginia Board of Education, SOL test scores are the single best measure of students' and schools performance and should be the primary criteria for graduation and accreditation. But is this really true? According to fairtest.org, no standardized test can accurately measure a student's achievement. Multiple choice tests cannot truly assess critical thinking, problem solving, and application skills. The only real tests of knowledge are through essay questions and performance tests. I don't believe any single test should be used to make big decisions concerning students futures. The Virginia Board of Education, according to fairtest.org, also believes that SOL's set reasonable targets for essential knowledge and skills all teachers must teach and students must learn.

Taking Care of All Whose Service Places Them in Harm’s Way Essay exampl

As Americans we all take jobs to support us from eighteen till the time we die; a job that gives a pension or a retirement plan for enjoying the golden years. Among those receiving retirement benefits are U.S Armed Forces veterans. However, these veterans who have fought for American freedom, the American dream that founded this great nation, are being cheated of their retirement benefits. Though the benefits are making progress in the past couple of years, it is slow and full of bylaws and prerequisites that are not clearly stated to veterans. The veterans of the military deserve more respect, better retirement checks, permanent basic base privileges for dependents, and undisturbed funeral services when they die. As a veteran of the military you receive half of your base pay for retirement, â€Å"Help Military† program guidelines are catered to those who have died or been injured in combat yet so many soldiers have died from ignorance and bull-headedness, and healthcare for mentally ill or injured soldiers is in poor condition. If not worse is the way they are treated by those they serve to protect. When soldiers serve, come home, and finally retire, they are treated like scum. Yet they only did their jobs, carrying out orders given by their commander in chief and his advisors and congressmen. The U.S Military was established so Americans can live their lives in peace and do as they please. It’s time for veterans to stop taking the brunt for doing their job and putting bread on their families table; instead they should receive a deeper respect for the freedom they give us. Veterans of the military are not uncommon to see as they were ten years ago. In truth the issues at hand affect one quarter of the U.S population; those one quar... ...litary Budget Cuts." Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 27 Feb. 2012. Web. 5 Apr. 2012. . "Military Families Overseas (sidebar)." Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 3 June 2010. Web. 5 Apr. 2012. . Powers, Rod. "2008 Military Average Annual Salary." About.com US Military. 07 Feb. 2008. Web. 05 Apr. 2012. . "Repositioning U.S. Troops and Bases at Home (sidebar)." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 27 May 2005. Web. 5 Apr. 2012. . "Veterans' Services." Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 15 Aug. 2011. Web. 5 Apr. 2012. .

European settling in America Essay

The discovery of the Americas was one of the biggest events in history. But some tend to look over the fact that the discovery of the Americas led also to the discovery of Native American groups who were already settled here. So did the Europeans really have the right to settle in the Americas? The Europeans had every right to settle in the Americas. They had this right because no nation or form of government had been established here. If a nation or government had been established, then it would be a different story. The problem with the Native Americans was that they were so sparsely spread out around the Americas. If they had all been in one large area things possibly could have gone better for them than they did. The Europeans did have every right to settle in the Americas, but they had absolutely no right to dispossess Indians of their land. The Indians had settled here years and years before the discovery of the Americas by the Europeans. The Indians had somehow ventured over to the Americas, just as the Europeans had done, and made a home here. Europeans had no right to take that away from them. The Europeans should have been more compassionate towards the Native Americans. They should have respected the fact that they had settled here first, but human pride got in the way and they wanted what they couldn’t have. The Europeans lied, cheated , and stole from the Indians making for a very confrontational accommodation. This is not the way they should have gone about this. Many things could have been done to aid in a more peaceful accommodation. First and foremost, the Europeans could have settled anywhere else in the Americas, whereas it is very large with plenty of land. If they really wanted the specific land the Indians were on they could have coincided with them. They could have lived in peace amongst each other. The two cultures could teach other new things, and help one another. If this still didn’t work, the Europeans could have peacefully negotiated with the Indians, no violence or deceit involved. Sadly, the Europeans hearts weren’t in the right place when they came across the Indians, and most of the Europeans wanted the Indians gone or exterminated. As Christians, we are supposed to help others and be compassionate. Had the Europeans approached the Indians with this mindset things could have been done more peacefully between the two cultures.

World Trade Organisation

The WTO TRIPS traces its origins from the 1994 General Agreement on Trade Tariffs (GATT) Uruguay Rounds which proposed its existence. The TRIPS in essence spells out the standards for divers forms of regulations that touch on the intellectual property rights. To this effect, it divulges on standards each nation must meet to enforce the copyright laws, patenting, trade marks, the protection of confidential information, and the geographical indications. After the narrowness and the limitations that were found in the TRIPS, DOHA was then proposed. The DOHA is a multilateral commercial system that has been enshrined in the World Trade Organization(WTO) and seeks to make enhancements on economic growth, expansion and establishment. Having existed over fifty years, this multilateral trading system aims at working towards the entrenchment of international trade by ensuring a system that promotes the liberalisation of trade and international trade policies that catalyse the recovery of the economy, its growth and development. It is on this backdrop that the DOHA multilateral commercial system is against protectionism in international trade, following the objections that were created in the World Trade Agreement, the Marrakesh Agreement (Yeaman, 2003 pp. 39). Recent developments in the DOHA and TRPS meetings and their impacts on the LDCs' agriculture and industries. The latest DOHA development and TRIPS Agreement national workshop meeting was held on 22nd February, 2007 in Indonesia, under the aegis of the WTO which was in liaison with the ministry of foreign affairs (Oberg, 2002 pp. 14). In the meeting, there were pressure from the developed economies on the developing countries to fulfill their obligations spelt out in the TRIPS Agreement Article 66. 2. This demanded that the Least Developing Countries (LDCs) facilitate and carry out technology transfer so as to introduce and maintain an efficient technological base that will make international trade feasible. The LDCs were censured for only submitting r eports that touch on technological training and capacity erections (Zhang, 2001 pp. 66). This is normally taken as a failure on the side of the developing economies, yet their financial base is too narrow to support this undertaking. The main issue here is the time and the financial resources that are needed to realise the policy- and this is not being well considered by the developed counterparts (Tawfik, 2000 pp. 138). The fourth WTO conference was held in November 2001, in Qatar, to ensure that TRIPS (Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights) member states are helped to interpret the TRIPS policies so as to be able to take comprehensive measures on public health. Even in the WTO which is still a confederation of different states which have come together for the sake of trade, interests still thrive. The interests range from interstate competition to competition taking on the form of regional blocks pitted against each other (Plat, 2000 pp. 92). In this sense, regions and states will always seek to have policies that are favourable to them, entrenched by the WTO. For instance, Europe, the biggest global importer of agricultural and farm produce wants all forms of local support accorded to farmers plummeted. Europe's main import zones include the developing economies and few developed countries such as the United States, Canada, Japan, New Zealand and Australia. In the same wavelength, it wants all the export subsidies offered to the same farmers extirpated by 2013. On the other end, it is pushing for lower tariffs (Taylor, 2003 pp. 40). The European Union says that it is pushing for global accessibility of all industrial goods in the international market. For this, it is aiming at pressuring the WTO to cut out high tariffs. From the facade, this seems a good idea, but it is, under close scrutiny, an artifice to strengthen Europe. Reduced subsidies will increase farming expenses for the farmers while at the other end, plummeted tariffs will only enable Europe to acquire agricultural and farm imports at a very affordable rate (Probs, 2002 pp. 155). From the days of the WTO's General Agreement on Trade Tariffs (GATT), there have been serious cases of structural imbalances and over protectionism in some trading regions, compared to the others. Therefore, Developing countries in the Uruguay Round expected that the heavily protected sectors (textiles and agriculture) would be made more accessible so as to make it possible for the LDC products to have sufficient international access. Howbeit, the two sectors remain locked being characterised by highly proscriptive tariffs with some striking and passing the 200%- 300% mark (Correa, 2004 pp. 244). This comes in the wake of the OECD's Domestic subsidies having soared from 275 American billion dollars to 326 billion. In the textiles and fabrics domain, very minimal items produced by the LDCs have been removed from the quota list even after ten years of corrective implementation period has elapsed. According to the Bureau of International Textiles, only thirteen out of seven hundred and fifty have been exempted from the quota list by the US, while Europe has only excised fourteen out of two hundred and nineteen, and Canada, twenty nine out of two hundred and ninety five. This made it obvious that most of the quotas will not have been eradicated by the arrival of the targeted period of 2013 (Thomas, 2005 pp. 39). At the turn of the century, the realisation towards this exercise was retrogressed by America's announcement that she would in order to protect her local steel industry, impose a 30% tariff on her steel imports. This demonstrates clearly the fact that most developed nations in the WTO are not ready to forfeit their interests just to facilitate international trade (Rajan, 2005 pp. 139). Inspite of the fact that the developed countries have not carried out all of their liberalization obligations, yet LDCs are the ones currently under pressure to expedite their liberalisation of their investments and imports from the international financial entities and regional trade facilitators. The paradox of these developments is that the developed countries who propose these policies ask for more time to restructure their textiles and agriculture while the LDCs having been forced to restructure, are told to persevere the pains thereof for a time. For instance, the proscription of investment subsidies and measures makes it very difficult to facilitate the domestic or local industries. This in turn ushers in poverty and then consequently, dependency syndrome. The liberalization of the agricultural sector is also a setback to small scale farmers since their products become subject to international competition which is characterised by cheaper foreign products ,making incursions into the market. The products from the developed countries are always cheap, following the fact that the dealers in them enjoy huge government subsidies. On the other hand, the developing economies do not have a financial pool, large enough to facilitate the issuance of subsidies to its farmers. This amounts to nothing else but unequal competition ( Tomilson, 1998 pp. 106). WTO TRIPS tolerates very high standards of IPR ( Intellectual Property Rights) type of leadership. This leads to the entrenchment of high prices on medicine, health services and other essential services at the behest of Northern corporation patenting. These Northern corporations deal in biological materials which come from the south and their patenting leads to high costs and at the same time, diminishes the accessibility of industrial technology to developing countries (Trebilcock, 2000 pp. 91). Again, on the 15th May, 2003 WTO TRIPS Meeting that was aimed at implementing policies that were to aid development seemed to lack sincerity and good will. The TRIPS were to engage in the technical support and assistance of the LDCs. However, even the Secretariat was not accorded with chance to air the key issues as touching on the options of the LDCs. This means that should this plan be carried out, the assistance may not be that which will truly meet the needs of the LDCs (Hoekman, Philip and Mattoo, 1996 pp. 45). The matter of patenting of the pharmaceuticals that have been proposed by the WTO TRIPS is also posing a potential threat to the LDCs. The developed economies know this well and this is why, in liaison with the movers and shakers of these ministerials, are trying to hoodwink the LDCs by exempting them from subscribing to the Sections 7 and 5 fully, citing an extended grace period that stretches to January 2016 (Gamharter, 2004 pp. 9). However, they are quite sure about the accruals that will begin to trickle in on the inception of these sections. This period is not enough for the LDCs to improve their health sectors to match the competition that will be coming from the international medical and health care practitioners. LDCs are likely then to face untold miseries in the public health sectors, taking the form of the in ability to provide comprehensive medicinal services and health acre due to price fluctuation from the international dealers. The local medical care givers will also face a lot of disillusionment, stemming from competition from the international medical care givers. In the agricultural sector, the TRIPS has also been a let down to the LDCs. This is because, although the LDCs have not yet industrialised, meaning that their economic mainstay is agriculture, yet, Paragraph 11 of the Agricultural Section of the TRIPS only lists down matters pertaining to agriculture, in relation to the LDCs' development, but does not elaborate further how the issues are to be tackled. This section contains serious matters such as the LDCs being excluded from the exercise of curbing the subsidies, so as to extirpate cases of cheap foreign food products from inundating the local food products and market, the ratification of a market access that is quota free to the LDCs agricultural products (Evenson and Staniello, 2004 pp. 203). This section also was supposed to tackle the issue of LDCs being given the chance to re- evaluate their bound tariff rate to ward off cases of disillusionment of local farmers in the LDCs . Inspite of the seriousness of this provision, it has never been developed or revised for ratification, since it seems that the accruals will now not be trickling so much more to the developed economies (Carvalho, 2002 pp. 97). The local service providers in the developing world have also been left non- viable due to the fact that developing economies have been forced to open up to international market, their service sectors. For instance, it is on this backdrop that national telecommunication corporations in Africa, are closing down following the arrival of the international telephone service providers such as the American originated Vodaphone company, and the European telephone service provider known in Africa as the Celtel (Trendl, 2002 pp. 49) LCDs' frustrations stemming from inconsistencies in the running of the WTO programmes. Apart from these glaring facts about the competitive interests of the states, developing countries encounter setbacks in the realisation of its goals due to lack of structural balance and some pitfalls within the WTO. For instance, in 1999 Seattle ministerial and in the 2001 DOHA ministerial, developing economies presented these realities with the intention of making the WTO revoke the pristine stipulations, only for the developed economies to state that developing economies had entered commitments that were legally binding, and that it is incumbent upon the developing economies to complete their payments first before such matters of abrogation of policies are considered. In the fifth Ministerial which was convened in Singapore, 2003, the LDCs were being prevailed upon to postpone the issues for the new agreements but at the same time, the LDCs were still subject to the many concessions on their side. This does not only betray the lopsidedness of the WTO, but also acts as a pointer to the fact that the developing economies were going to continue being subjected to double payments (Twiggz, 1989 pp. 80). Hitherto, the developed countries had not accrued any anticipated gain from the textile or agricultural concessions. Developing countries are, concerning the issue being told that their proposals that they be given access to the Northern markets, will only, as a pay package deal, be considered in the post DOHA meeting schedule. However, this was to be on condition that they conform with new WTO issues. It is a fact that the new agreements may not usher in gains since the WTO lacks reciprocity, as is being seen in the international trade imbalance. This is also intimating the fact that even in the face of new agreements, developing countries will still be poised to be shortchanged. Furthermore, there is no clear pointer to the fact that there will be the WTO systems and policy re- evaluation or balancing. Neither is the access to the Northern market by the developed countries, nor the abrogation of these policies going to take place so easily (Wu, 2003 pp. 120). Many developing countries also find themselves receiving difficulties in the form of plummeted prices of commodities and the incapacitation on the side of the developing countries to diversify or to adjust upwards, their exports, due to the limitations on the side of the supplies and the accessibility of the market. This problem also arises out of the imbalances within the trading system of the WTO (Wong, 2002 pp. 75). Even the process by which consensus is reached in the WTO is wanting. The will of the developed countries always seem to inundate that of their counterparts in the developing countries. While it is true that the majority in the WTO comprise the developing economies, yet their unified voices cannot secure their interests against their developed counterparts. When the LDCs presented their objections to the WTO, the developed economies maintained that there was no apparent need for WTO systems and rules being rebalanced. The developed economies being the minority, yet could still prevail upon the WTO panel to have it that the recommendations by the LDCs be reviewed in peace meals. This is the reason why even after several years before and after the DOHA, no re- balancing or review of these inequalities have been carried out. On the contrary, appeals by the developing economies that there be the reviewing of the problems before the inception of negotiations on new areas were drastically scuttled (Vohra, 2000 pp. 19). Upon these development, the developed countries also arose to exert pressure on the WTO to lengthen its mandate to make rules so as to integrate the new areas that were being opposed by the LDCs, an action which the developing economies countered together with other groupings from other regional blocks (Benson, 1996 pp. 102). Apart from stating their case that they were not set to have new negotiations and/ or to adhere to the subsequent rules, the underdogs stated it clearly that they were not in full knowledge of what the newly proposed issues could portend, in terms of obligations. In addition to the above reasons, the developed economies maintained that the newly proposed agreements would add to their already inundating burdens, more obligations which would continue to further derail their development progress. As a result, the LDCs maintained that these newly proposed agreements be still considered for discussions but without being given first hand priority (Burke, 1999 pp. 33) . However, spates of unusual and enigmatic methodologies in WTO decision making, made it possible for the views of the developing countries not to be considered in Geneva DOHA Ministerial Declaration. This state of affairs elicited disgruntlement from the developing countries' side since they saw in this, nontransparent and unrepresentative draftings. The LDCs posited that a draft elaborating the differences between the two sides be availed in lieu of the one sided draft which tended to carry some elements of deception that it was drafted on a consensus. Strangely enough, once again, these proposals were disregarded and the document that favoured the new issues was adapted as the premise of the negotiations. This gave the developed economies an upper hand. At Doha, in the Green Room meeting, only very few countries were allowed in, to act as the representatives of those left out. The process turned out to be unrepresentative, nontransparent, and not the true representation of their views. Objections arose at the last session at DOHA when the chairperson at the meeting declared that a consensus touching on modalities and the newly proposed agreements was a prerequisite for the negotiations to begin in the next sitting (Chan and Sherman, 2000 pp. 54). The prospects of the post DOHA constructions and how they are likely to affect the LDCs. Experts posit that the talk is to touch on nineteen areas which are broad scaled, touching on politics and economy, as opposed to the Uruguay Round agenda which only touched on economics. The Post DOHA program is said to be heavy since it touches on human resources, time and technical expertise which the developing countries lack. Other issues that are likely to come up are subsidies, electronic commerce, dumping, and the new work program which at the present is said to promote the imbalance between the developed and the developing economies in the WTO. Instead of seeking to offset the inconsistency between the two spheres, the WTO has on the contrary, accorded special handling of the high areas of interests to the developed economies and neglecting the high areas of interest to the least developed economies (Shan, 2007 pp. 203). This has translated into situations whereby areas that are considered to portend deep interests are being rushed after by the developed countries while in the mean time the developing economies try to deliberately hinder these areas from being seized by the developed economies. Some of these areas of interest touch on matters such as electronic commerce, matters touching on the environment and employment (Tsuruoka, 1995 pp. 89). More problems are bound to arise since, whereas the the developing countries consider the implementation issues such as the provisions of the balance of payments, textile and agriculture, these matters have not been slotted anywhere in the work programmes main text book. On the other hand, matters that are considered more important by the developed countries compared to the developing counterparts, – matters such as science, technology, and finance are already in the main text book of the main program. Matters such as special and designated treatment are also considered important by the developing countries since this party wants to tackle the issue in the next DOHA ministerial, to instill precision, effectiveness and efficiency. In the main text book of the work program, this matter has not been featured anywhere, meaning that the developing countries will in the meantime continue to be subjected to the whims of those with the upper hand in the WTO. This system of special and designated provision plummet the substantive extent of the obligations that are to be presided over by the developing economies. It is thus very clear that even the work programs provision, or its running is lopsided and is therefore of no benefit at all to the developing economies. Instead, it is a stepping stone to the developed countries for their beneficence, yet, these countries give nothing to the developing countries (Schuller, 2002 pp. 144). This happens in the face of total contravention to the GATT/ and the WTO Reciprocal Principle since the process of negotiations amongst all members of the WTO must be guided by the chief principle of reciprocity. The concept of reciprocity according to experts should not be pegged on particular commitments in the agreements, but should also be based upon the designation of items for close attention . Albeit, it must be noted that it is quite paradoxical that the WTO new face started with a promotion of an imbalance. Interestingly enough, this same work program has been at times referred to alternatively as the development plan. It is commonsense that if the development plan itself is faulty, and has also been totally fixed by the top developed countries to suit their own economic interests, given the fact that nothing has been reflected in it to give priority to the developing countries, then the world should anticipate nothing else but the widening of the gulf between the rich countries and the poor countries ( Chan, 2002 pp. 002). Not only this, but if the situation is not turned around (for which there is a very slim chance), then capital is likely to continue flowing from the developing countries into the metropoles, making the metropoles richer day by day, while leaving the poor more emaciated upon every actualisation of an international business deal. As touching on the imp lementation issues, the decisions by Doha has not been very satiating. For instance, it is now a WTO policy that agreements and countervailing policies touching on subsidies in the least developing countries with a Gross National Production (GNP) less than 1,000 US dollar per annum, keep on being included in the sanitary and phytosanitary agreement measures list. It is only upon exceeding this line for three consecutive years that a country will be expunged from this list. On any country's GDP falling below this mark, the country will automatically be re- included in this list (Chan- Gonzaga, 2001 pp. 21). This portends more problems to the Developing economies since they are the ones who are highly susceptible to fall into these traps, given their small scale economies and hence, low GDP. Although there have been proposals by developing economies that these systems that cause imbalances and give rise to problems be revoked, yet as far as touching on these substantive matters, there has been hardly development made on the issue. It is on this premise that many developing economies will be given no priority in the oncoming post DOHA meetings, since these countries will be falling within this rubric of countries that fall below the mark of 1,000 US dollars per annum. Much to the chagrin of these developing nations, the matters already designated for negotiations (the Singapore issues) are not only very sensitive, but are also posing higher potential of reaching the negotiation status. This makes it harder for the rest of the developing countries, should there be need to reach consensus through a plebiscite, which is usually a game of numbers (Das, 1999 pp. 120). Following the stipulations from the Uruguay Round, part of the oncoming designated agenda for the WTO will touch on the negotiation on agriculture. The previous DOHA declaration spells out that in the agricultural negotiations, the principal focus will be working out towards total excision of the export subsidies. This will also include the working towards making governments desist from issuing local support offered to the farmer and the trader, since this local support, they say, distorts international trade. Mostly, this will demand that developed countries be prevailed upon to to revoke the issuance of subsidies (Elchelberger and Allen, 2000 pp. 55). Experts point out that the major developed countries can use these terms to point out that the measures of the domestic support that were included in Annex 2 are not to be subjected to reduction talks. This will lead to the major developed nations being exempt from the reduction injunctions. This will be catastrophic to the farmers and traders in the developing economies since they will not be liable to receiving subsidies while their counterparts in the developed economies will be receiving the subsidies. This brings about unequal competition in the international market yet at the same time, it poses high protectionism in the developed countries. This is an outright application of double standards. The oncoming negotiations will also include the part of services as one of the set- in agenda. This will follow in the wake of the realisation of the fact that the WTO branch, the General Trade on Services, the GATS, is also imbalanced. The developed economies poses far much greater power in the services sector, while the developing countries on the other hand, are very feeble in this sense. In addition to this, they are faced with limitations in supply. This leaves the developing economies with the incapacity to fairly compete with the developed countries. General impact of the WTO stipulations on the LDCs Having looked at that pitfalls of WTO and its bodies (the DOHA and the TRIPS), it is now incumbent that the consequences of these pitfalls on developing economies be looked at. It is also important to note that some of these implications have already been dealt with. The WTO deals with other nations through the two Bretton Woods institutions, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. It is these two Bretton Woods institutions that some times make sure that the policies carried out in the WTO to promote the international financial transactions are implemented or carried out by the developing countries. It is to this effect that these institutions are known to carry out draconian measures on developing countries to ensure that these countries ratify the implementations. For instance, the 1990s saw most African countries and other developing countries being denied foreign aid because they were still resisting the implementation of the Structural Adjustment Programs. Apart from the fact that this measure stagnated the development process and the financial growth rate, most countries were left paralysed, not being even able to support even the running of the daily domestic economic activities (Guo, 2002 pp. 100). These Structural adjustment programs were in themselves not suitable to the developing economies' prospects and programs ( it must be remembered that the Structural Adjustment Programs were the initiatives of the WTO which then was out to bolster international trade). To be more precise, the Structural Adjustment Programs had one of its guidelines being cost sharing. Herein, developing countries were to reduce their debt- to- revenue ratio by accepting this methodology of cost sharing. This policy was being heralded by the developed economies and the two Bretton Woods Institutions as the panacea that was to extirpate the widespread cases of over reliance on foreign aid (Lewis 2000, pp. 208) In the first case, African countries and their developing counterparts were told that they were spending too much on their educational programmes. To turn around the situation, these countries were supposed to withdraw permanently, the custom of issuing allowances to students. In addition to this, access to educational loans was to be plummeted, meaning that only students with high outstanding performance were to access these loans. The governments in the developing countries, and especially Africa, were to invent ways of making money from the educational sector, and for this, the Module Two Programs emerged. These Module Two Programmes, otherwise known as Parallel Programmes run autonomously from the government funded, or subsidised conventional university programs (Hu, 2001 pp. 255). These measures on the educational programs have lead to massive cases in the developing economies not being able to expand their educational programmes, to match the rising educational demand that stems from the growing population. As a result, many students who merit going to the university miss securing admission. In addition to this, the Parallel programmes are too expensive for the ordinary citizens in the developing countries to afford. In a nutshell, this measure of cost sharing in the educational sector only succeeded in making education in the developing countries inaccessible, and thus making these countries susceptible to massive cases of brain drain. For the first time, in the 1994, four years after the inception of the Structural Adjustment Programmes, there were cases of university students being dismissed from universities due to fee arrears in the eastern Africa region. At the same time, those students with good grades and a fair financial pool who fail to make it to the government subsidised programmes opt for oversees studies in the developed countries. Upon completion, these students prefer to work in these developing countries. This massive cases of transnational exodus for greener pastures has left the developing countries more and more subjected to brain drain and lack of skilled labour (Kang, and Feng, 2002 pp. 107). Still on the concept of cost sharing, the governments in the developing countries were prevailed upon by the two Bretton Woods Institutions to reduce their expenditures by carrying out a massive exercise of downsizing the civil service so as to trim its size. These exercises were to be carried out starting from 1995- 2005 in most African economies for example. In Latin America, the measure was to be carried out in phases starting from 1992- 2002. However, contrary to what developing countries were told, the carrying out of this exercise only proved to be a Pandora box, ushering in untold catalogues of untold misery at the hands of poverty. Simply put, the myriad numbers of the retrenched civil servants found themselves subject to poverty ( Low, 1997 pp. 124). In the same spectrum, the concept of international trade which was formed by the WTO and heralded by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund that nations cede away the production of certain products to other countries with specialisation ( both natural and human resources, together with technological endowment), does not ager well with the developing nations. Developing nations are kept from realising their dreams of indutrialisation through this concept. Moreover, the concept itself is innately twisted since a nation can be having adequate natural resources and man power, but can be a fledgeling economy that has not yet fine tuned its technological advancement with its indutrialisation programmes (Lyon, 1996 pp. 51). More importantly, the exercise translates into more problems since it leads to more cases of jobs being forfeited, especially in the developing economies, since developing economies have not yet fully been industrialised. This strain of international outsourcing coupled together with its twin, the downsizing of the civil service, has increased the level of unemployment in the developing sector. The problem proves to be hydra headed since the potential tertiary education students who miss out on learning opportunities together with the retrenched civil servants, add to the bulk of the unemployed population with no means of livelihood. It is on this backdrop that all the developing economies have national security matters making it to the top five national agenda in the annual review of national programmes (Shrybman, 2001 pp. 7). World trade, an undertaking which the WTO Is chiefly interested in, is in itself also bedeviled by many issues that touch on the entrenchment of political, cultural and economic domination of the developing countries by their global trading counterparts, the developed countries. For instance, although the developed countries form the minority in the WTO DOHA, yet their will is highly predominant over the developing countries' (Wong and Mc Ginty, 2002, pp. 40). In addition to this, the same institutions that are used to channel foreign funds to the developing economies, the World Bank (WB) and the International Monetary Funds (IMF), belong to the developed economies. In addition to being the conduit through which foreign fundings reach other countries, these two Bretton Woods Institutions are supposed to offer advisory services, and at the same time, carry out investigative and monitoring activities on the developing economies' progress (Mah, 1998 pp. 120). In the course of the monitoring progress, the developing economies are supposed to submit their statements of accounts to either the WB or the IMF. This exposes easily, the developing countries to political manipulation by the developed countries, especially those in the west (Markel, 2000 pp. 43). It is also through the WTO's international outsourcing that different multinational corporations have been able to make incursions into the developing nations territories to indulge in the provision of goods and services in the developing countries. Some of these companies include the shipping company, Maersk, the petroleum companies such as the British owned, British Petroleum (BP) and the Shell, and the American and British owned Kenol Kobil (Lauffs and Singh, 2000 pp. 173). Any country that wants to take part in the trade that uses the sea routes in the eastern African region must register with the Italian shipping and handling company, Maersk. This in itself amounts to economic domination since these countries are accorded a laissez faire condition, devoid of domestic competition. In the same vein, the companies that come from the developing countries are not accorded by the WTO and the international trade counterparts any chance to trade in the developed countries' backyard ( Lewis and Rhodes, 2002 pp. 88). It is a well known fact that the process of international trade relations is mostly hinged upon the concept of instantaneous exchange of information in a trans border sense. Because this process is aided by the existence of technological advancement, the previous WTO DOHA ministerials and the TRIPS meetings have been characterised by the prevailing upon the developing countries to hasten the process of technology transfer and installation (Li, 2002 pp. 187). This was in accordance with the aim to have free and efficient flow of information in an interstate manner that could promote trade. Although this measure being considered by the TRIPS under the aegis of the WTO is not geared towards any harm, yet the WTO has not yet looked at the full repercussion of this measure. For instance, it is on this backdrop that developing nations have fell for serious cases of cultural domination. Since the developed countries exceed the the LDCs in commercial and technological knowledge and skills, most of the trans border exchange of information flow from the developed countries to the LDCs. However, with this huge volume of needed information, also comes, information that always insinuate the socio- cultural traits of the developed countries as being superior to the LDCs'. At the same time, the Socio- cultural practices in the developed economies are insidiously permeated into the social fabric of the developing economies (Lewis, 2002 pp. 62). It is on the above premise that small factions have come up to resist these spates of developments by using terrorist attacks. While these attacks are always aimed at the major developed economies, yet to instill pressure on the developed nations, these quasi religious military ragtags also aim at the trading allies of the major developed countries who are normally, the LDCs. It is because of these state of affairs that there were twin bombings in the two most lucrative capitals in the eastern African region in August 1998 by the Al Qaeda forces. Similar cases are also widely common in the world of the developing countries (Mukherjee, 2000 pp. 172). Conclusion. Therefore, it can be seen clearly that the LDCs in the international trade through their relations with the developed countries, courtesy of the WTO, has elicited more pain than gain. Nevertheless, all is not lost for the LDCs, since the Doha declaration posits that it, as an organisation, has an aim of making the development of the LDCs actualise. To this end, the development needs of the LDCs such as food security and health will continue to remain core issues that will control the implementation of other policies. The LDCs should seize this provision to illustrate that their indutrialisation and development will not come without food security, and food security will not be realised by their economies since the mainstay of their food source remains, small scale farming. These small scale farmers being economically challenged, deeply need government subsidies and domestic support. In nearly the same manner, the LDC factions within the WTO such as the the Group 15 that is made up of the heads of the governments should continue working towards collaborations among the LDCs in calling for new global approaches, as it was agreed upon by the same in the 11th Summit that was held in Jakarta, Indonesia.