Is The Importance of Being Earnest a Realistic Fiction free essay sample

Realistic fiction is stories about imaginary people and/or events that can actually happen (Cullinan, 1989). The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde may seem realistic but, in fact, it is not. Fictional characters of the Victorian Period and various occasions of ridicule represent nothing but sarcastically mirror the reality of the Victorian society. The characters look humane and world view seems to be based on the Victorian society. Many scenes in the play suggest, with sarcasm, possible situations in the period. The Importance of Being Earnest chimes with Abrams’s notion of â€Å"realistic fiction† through three themes: the nature of marriage, the restriction of morality, and the lack of earnestness. The nature of marriage has a leading role in developing the plot of The Importance of Being Earnest and is a major debate on whether the reality is â€Å"pleasant†. Discussion about the nature of marriage first appears in the opening scene of Algernon and Lane talking about how demoralising marriage can be. We will write a custom essay sample on Is The Importance of Being Earnest a Realistic Fiction? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Lane remarks that his marriage was pleasant but has ended because of â€Å"a misunderstanding between himself and a younger person† (Wilde, 2006), which might be between him and his younger self or his ex-wife. This reflects the reality that, in the Victorian Period, marriage could be lax and divorce was common. The next question on the nature of marriage emerges when Algernon and Jack have a little disagreement on whether proposing to a woman is â€Å"pleasure† or a â€Å"business†. â€Å"Business† does not describe marriage proposal correctly. Although the result of a proposal may usually be an acceptance, the process is where it is romantic and hence â€Å"pleasure†. Before the marriage proposal, Gwendolen tells Jack that she loves a man called Ernest because she believes the name â€Å"inspires absolute confidence† (Wilde, 2006). Even before she knows Ernest, she already has fascination with him. Marriage is thought to be serious and getting married should be thoroughly considered. Gwendolen, however, superficially believes all that is told to her. Satire Lady Bracknell has a list of eligible bachelors in which Jack is not in it. She questions Jack of how competent he is that she has to consider him based on her assumptions of the nature of marriage. She regards smoking as an â€Å"occupation† and knowing nothing as â€Å"a delicate exotic fruit† (Wilde, 2006). Apparently, these assumptions make no sense and are sarcasm which the opposites are, in fact, the real, normal requirements, such as occupation and knowledge, for an eligible man (SparkNotes Editors, 2004). Morality in the Victorian Period affected the society and is another theme of dialogues in the play. Jack states that reading a private cigarette case is â€Å"ungentlemanly† (Wilde, 2006). Algernon responds with â€Å"it is absurd to have a hard and fast rule about what one should read and what one shouldnt. More than half of modern culture depends on what one shouldnt read. † with Wilde’s intention that moral limits how Victorians lose a majority of their freedom due to social practice (Wilde, 2006). The conversation suggests an over-moralised Victorian society which constraints Victorians behaviours. In fact, the book title has already hinted a paradox of being Ernest or earnest. Earnestness, the extent of being sincere (Oxford Dictionaries, 2013), is one of the major sources of Wilde’s satire. Jack seems to be an earnest man but he uses two names—Jack in the country and Ernest in town. Ernest is the name Jack invented for going to town. Algernon does a similar thing that he creates a dummy called Bunbury for him to go to the country. One does not need en extra name unless they need to control how identities present themselves to different people. When Gwendolen tells him that she loves a man named Ernest, which is indeed Jack, he does not directly tell his true name and later proposed to her by taking advantage of â€Å"Ernest†. Earnestness, as mentioned above, is about sincerity. The Importance of Being Earnest is indeed the importance of not being earnest. Plenty of seriousness in the play denotes the opposite—frivolousness. Algernon hates when meal is not taken seriously by people. He even thinks they are â€Å"shallow†. This extreme thought cannot be taken seriously since not being â€Å"serious† about meals does not render one superficial. Another apparent example is Gwendolen’s belief of style, but not sincerity, having a great significance. She contradicts herself saying earlier that â€Å"Ernest† gives her fascination from its possible notion of sincerity. Obviously, Gwendolen is not serious about â€Å"style† or else she would not have loved Ernest. The Importance of Being Earnest is filled with satire and sarcasm which Wilde used to reflect and criticise the Victorian society. All characters and events themselves in the play look very real. Common readers who do not know the Victorian Period may perceive them to be sophisticated and humane. It is the satire that readers will find world view in the play a reflection of reality rather than plain history. The Importance of Being Earnest supports Abram’s notion of realistic fiction. ?

9 Tips I Learned from Renewing My Certified Executive Resume Writer Certification

9 Tips I Learned from Renewing My Certified Executive Resume Writer Certification On March 17th, I got a â€Å"friendly reminder† that my most prized certified executive resume writer designation, the Certified Executive Resume Master (CERM), was up for renewal. What this meant is that I would have to submit four executive resumes, written by me, to a committee for examination. I had a problem: I have a team of amazing executive resume writers who write the initial drafts of all the resumes my company writes. I am the editor, not the writer. So I had to dig into my files to find good raw material that I could spruce up for my recertification. I identified six good candidates and went to work. It took hours of reformatting and rewriting before I could even narrow down my submission to four resumes. I cursed my short attention span for this detailed and challenging work. But I was able to create four resumes that I thought would make the grade. And then, I got a second opinion from my executive resume coach, Laura DeCarlo. I knew I was submitting myself to possible dismantling, but that’s kind of what I do. I want to do the best work possible, even if there’s pain involved along the way. And ultimately, I’m glad I asked for her advice, because not only did I pass the CERM renewal on the first try (and with very positive remarks), but I also was reminded of some important points for writing a top-notch executive resume – points I will now share with you. Here’s what I learned: Executive resumes require some â€Å"fairy dusting† – that magical something that makes the document come to life, whether it’s a catching turn of phrase like â€Å"fiscally rejuvenating† or just the right testimonial, or a tasteful, appropriate graphic element. Look for that element in the samples below, and throughout the examples provided in this article. Use a crisp, modern, not-too-fancy format. Don’t use more than two fonts (perhaps one for the headers and one for the body). Don’t overuse italics. Don’t overuse centering. And be consistent! It doesn’t fly, for instance, to have a header where there are two spaces before some bullets and three after others. Here’s an example of two fonts, one color, and evenly spaced bullets:Note: While you might think you’re being fancy by putting your contact information above your name, best practice is to stick with convention and put that information under your name or possibly to the side. Capture an executive’s contribution to ROI in the branding statement at the top. While some statements about experience and expertise are appropriate, tie as much as possible into results. And be sure to use keywords that are important in your industry. They matter! When writing summary statements under a position, open them with a â€Å"hook† – not with a list of responsibilities. Then, once you have your reader’s attention, you can talk about the scope of your work. Who says the only place you can list accomplishments is in your bullets?! Here are two examples: Use effective section headers to draw attention to accomplishments. You might, for instance, have an overarching accomplishment, with bullets underneath of how that accomplishment was achieved:Or, you might create functional headers with bullets underneath:Do you see how these dividing markers help the reader know what to pay attention to? The alternative is something we call â€Å"death by bullets† – a long list of bullets without any indication of what’s important. Don’t do that! Testimonials work well, especially when they are action-packed. Here’s my favorite from my CERM submissions:I’ve heard concerns that testimonials might come across as â€Å"cheesy.† My response is that the proof is in the pudding. I’ve seen client after client get job interviews with resumes that include testimonials. So I recommend using them! The more concrete results that can be included in the quotation, the better. If you had two positions with increasing responsibility, and you did less in the more recent position, combine them. Otherwise, it could look like you didn’t perform in the higher-level position. As a tool to make your executive resume bullets hard-hitting, use bolding to draw the eye – either to a noteworthy accomplishment or a functional area. See point #5 for examples, plus this one: Write, rewrite, get an editor, and rewrite some more. Or hire someone to write your executive resume for you. Resume writing is not easy, as the above examples may have illustrated. If you’re a busy executive, don’t spend the hours upon hours I spent working on these resume submissions, and that the executive resume writers at The Essay Expert spend on every executive resume project. Hire someone whose job it is to do that, and then go do what you do best! Category:Resume TipsBy Brenda BernsteinMay 15, 2017

What Type Of Content Creator Are You - CoSchedule Blog

What Type Of Content Creator Are You Blog We spend a fair share of time talking about the different types of content you could create.  Lists. Infographics. Video. Interviews.  That seems to be the pressing question for busy content marketers: what kind of content should I create? But what if your content were like a blood type, and there were some people who were better matched for one kind of content over another? If that were the case, the better question might be: what kind of content creator am I? What Type Of Content Creator Are You? A Visual Guide To Your Copywriting Identity viaKnowing what type of content creator you and members of your team are will help you better match up who writes what on your editorial calendar. 1. The Teacher A  teacher is someone whose ultimate goal is to help others both learn and put into practice all that they need to accomplish a specific goal. A teacher has the ability to break down an idea or task into the incremental parts that will build on each other. They carefully choose the words, exercises, worksheets, examples, and illustrations in order to not confuse, but to allow their students achieve a bit of success at each level so they have the confidence to keep going and get to the end. Signs you might be a teacher: You love writing step-by-step articles. You maintain help or FAQ documentation as well as write marketing content. Your headlines often start with How To. You love creating screenshots that illustrate procedures. Why we love teachers: Teachers write the posts that are often the winning search result when were desperate to figure something out. Those long-tail searches such as how do I remove the time stamp from my WordPress post or how do I do a 301 redirect in .htaccess will take you to a classic teacher post. The weaknesses of teachers: Teachers are excellent at showing and telling you how to do something, but they dont always tell you why you should do it. For people who need to be convinced first, usually with facts and data, a teaching post isnt going to be enough. They have another first stop to make, and thats someone who convinces them it needs to be done. 2. The Insider An insider is that intriguing person who has the gift of pulling back the curtain to reveal the hidden secrets and inner workings of something. Only they have the access and understanding, and so only they are qualified to reveal and discuss it. They help put what is otherwise confusing or new into context and explain what it means. Signs you might be an insider: You work in an industry people are clamoring to understand or be a part of. You frequently refer to and share your own data to prove a point. You share what your company is doing, and why, to prove a point. Why we love insiders: Insiders are all about exclusivity and curiosity. They have secret knowledge that we want access to, and we are thrilled when they share it. When an insider is part of a company or brand that we admire or that is experience success, the information they share is especially relevant. Readers  want to learn by example, emulating success. Others prefer the proof of we did it and it works to all the theoretical data in the world. Insiders answer both kinds of readers. The weaknesses of insiders: Because their focus is so much on what they know, and what worked for them, it is easy for insiders to forget that their experiences and data cant always be used across the board for everyone in every situation. The best insiders acknowledge this, but others trumpet and sell their insider knowledge as if it were broad knowledge and indisputable fact. 3. The Outsider The outsider is a questioner. He asks questions of those in positions of power and authority both to test their mettle and see if their content actually holds water outside of the protected realm they operate in, but also because he genuinely wants to know and currently doesnt. Signs you might be an outsider: Your first reaction to content is is that really true? You frequently try to replicate data others promise will work to see if it does. Your content is the go-to source for people who want to know if its BS or not. Why we love outsiders: They ask the hard questions, and brave the sometimes unpleasant responses, that we are afraid to ask. They probe, pick apart, test, and sometimes prove, helping us better believe what were reading without those nagging doubts on whether were being told a fast one. They do the testing to see if an idea holds water, saving us the time. And they do it without having a conflict of interest. The weakness of outsiders: Its easy for an outsider to become a curmudgeon, someone whose content is based solely on being disagreeable and seeking to prove other content creators wrong or make them look foolish. 4. The Expert An expert knows pretty much everything. In her niche, at least. She is the one people turn to for advice, the one whose blog sifts through all of the noise. This expertise comes from actual experience. She practices what she preaches, because she was practicing it long before she started preaching it. Signs you might be an expert: You find yourself writing content to clarify or correct wrong information youve run across. You can whip out fantastic 1,000+ word blog posts with little trouble on a few select topics. You often write from what you already know in your head, illustrate with your own experiential anecdotes, and write the content others refer to in their posts. Other content marketers often reference your content as their own research material. Why we love experts: Experts are the college professor, who teaches far beyond the basic how to method. We love to ride the coattails of their experience and subsequent knowledge without having to go through the trenches they went through to get to their level of expertise. The weakness of experts: Sometimes experts assume everyone knows as much as they do. Thats fine if their audience is other people with a similar level of understanding and experience, but most of us arent experts in everything. Experts can sometimes forget to find a way to share their knowledge in a way that readers can not only understand, but put to good, practical use. 5. The Newbie The newbie is the opposite of experts. He knows very little, has just gotten started, and is both excited as well as concerned about the learning curve. Newbies create content that they may, in the future, look back on in horror. What was I thinking? Signs you might be a newbie: You find yourself doing online searches of acronyms and jargon you find in the content you read because you dont know what they mean. The content you create tends to talk about how you just started, what you hope to achieve, the process of content creation and what youre discovering about it, and open ended questions. You often write curated posts, sharing other content youve found to be helpful with your own newbie audience. Why we love newbies: Newbies are very enthusiastic, and they have a way of banishing our content creation doldrums with questions that make use feel good. We can answer their questions, they are appreciative, and they actually seem to read what youre writing. When the newbie writes, they bring fresh eyes to the topic, without being jaded. They havent succumbed to the jargon or buzzwords that others in their niche may have. The weakness of newbies: Newbies dont always last long in the content marketing world, where blogs often die within three months. They also ask questions weve answered, neglecting to do their own research and reading in favor of pelting experts and anyone that will listen with questions or requests for advice. 6. The Observer With a detached eye, hovering at the edge of the action, the observer takes note. She  writes with a birds-eye approach to things, providing the bigger picture, or putting a topic into context so we get a bit more meaning out of it. She has a way of understanding a topic, an event, or a piece of content that allows her to explain it from the outside, not delving too deeply into detail but providing a good foundation. Her goal is to make us think, make us curious, and make us go digging for answers ourselves. Signs you might be an observer: You write about topics in first person often. You curate content, prefacing and repackaging it for your readers so they understand it differently. You often introduce new topics or concepts to your readers. Your posts are usually less than 1,000 words. Why we love observers: Observers help us get our perspective back. When we create content, we are necessarily focused on our audience and our niche that we start to lose an understanding of where our content fits in the larger ecosystem. Observers have the ability to note when something is sliding off the rails, when things have taken a wrong turn, or to connect seemingly unrelated content together to create new meaning. The weakness of observers: Observers spend so much time on the outside they never really gain a deep grasp of topics. Without a good understanding of a topic, their observations can be completely off. If they arent careful, observers can quickly turn into nothing more than critics. 7.   The Cryptographer The cryptographer has plenty of knowledge about a subject, but dispenses it under great control. He speaks in circles and in vagueness, not wanting to reveal everything to his audience easily. He has a vast amount of knowledge, and shares just enough of it to whet appetites. He has a business to run and doesnt give away his best content without a price. Signs you might be a cryptographer: Your calls to action are necessary if the reader wants a conclusion to your content. You use big promising words in marketing-esque copy for much of your content. Above all else, the first thought you have when creating content is how can I convert readers? Why we love cryptographers: We dont, really, unless theyre an excellent storyteller and marketer who can write copy that naturally flows towards a call to action that offers something truly of value. The weakness of cryptographers: Cryptographers are generally problematic.   The key pieces to the information and knowledge that should be shared in the content are tucked behind a pay wall or a forced download. If you want anything out of the guy, you absolutely must play along. Some cryptographers are excellent at the promise of big things, but when you finally do relent and give an email address for an ebook, its nothing new. 8. The Convincer The convincer is a natural salesman. She is here to convince you, whether on how to think about a topic or how to act. Her content is full of powerful (and useful) research that, after reading, leave her audience in no doubt that she is correct. Signs you might be a convincer: You spend much time digging into research from reliable and unique sources. You use stories and anecdotes in your content that have a moral to them. You end blog posts with a call to action that prompts readers to act on their new belief. You write blog posts with titles that start with Why You Should Why we love convincers: Convincers can get the ball rolling on a new idea. They dont just observe it or announce it, they convince people it is true and provide the research to back it up. They provide the proof to use in our own content or discussions. They inspire us, and get us excited about a new idea. The weakness of convincers: When a convincer is wrong, it doesnt matter how great she is. Shes still wrong. Convincers are also prone to sound bites that they use to prove a point, willingly taking information out of context. Killer Content Creator Combinations Most of us are a combination of these content creator types.  When assembling your content marketing team, you might want to take these into  consideration. You dont want all teachers or all insiders. You need a good mix. What are some great combinations, for your team or for yourself? Here are just a few: Teacher + Expert = Content that creates more experts. Observer + Insider = Brings context to complex proprietary data. Convincer + Cryptographer = Builds email lists or sells services rapidly. Outsider + Observer = Brings checks and balances to the content of an industry. Newbie + Convincer = Gets more people interested in starting. Insider + Teacher = Helps people learn to replicate the real success of a business. What do you think would be killer combinations?

Languages Reflect Societies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Languages Reflect Societies - Essay Example This word still aptly describes the hypothesis up to these days attracting continued studies about the relationship between language, thought and culture. Its strong version called Linguistic Determinism, posits that â€Å"people’s thoughts are determined by categories made available by their language† (Pinker, 1994, p. 57), that â€Å"language may determine our thinking patterns† (Liang, 2011, pp. 569-570), or that â€Å"one cannot think outside the confines of their language† (He, 2011, p. 562). Linguistic Relativity which is its weaker version, maintains that â€Å"differences among languages cause differences in thoughts of their speakers† (Pinker, 1994, p.57). Among the articles that I have read, I summarized the strengths and weakness of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis in Table 1. Pinker (1994) thoroughly debunked the hypothesis in his book The Language Instinct. From the circumstances that contributed to Whorf’s formation of the hypothesis – to the two aspects of the theory, the strong and weak versions, Pinker (1994) questioned them all using anthropological and logical reasoning and results of empirical studies. As Pinker (1994, p. 67) have said, â€Å"Linguistic determinism is just a conventional absurdity†. Liang (2011) also examined the same hypothesis and came up with views similar to the ones maintained by Pinker. The study of Chi-Shing and Altarriba (2008) yielded a result contrary to the theory. Though He (2011) in his study acknowledged the shortcomings of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis due to lack of empirical evidences, he focused on cross-cultural communication which made the hypothesis in one way, promote cultural diversity. If there are studies that question the authenticity of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis, there are studies that support the views of Sapir and Whorf. One such study is that of Kodish (2003). As he penned it, Whorf â€Å"did not posit a language isolated from human behavior-in-a-culture as the sole, one-directional, single-valued

Developing new or existing funding streams for a Social Enterprise or Essay - 1

Developing new or existing funding streams for a Social Enterprise or Charity Project - Essay Example Thus, the social enterprises can considered to be a business model which is primarily engaged in promoting sustainable society by generating prospects for better socio-economic and environmental development. Moreover, social enterprises have charitable intentions rather than commercial and profit centred inclinations (Kernot & McNeill, 2011). Since many social enterprises have emerged from the voluntary sector due to which these enterprises are often encountered with unique challenges in growing their business as well as accessing requisite funding (Kickul & Lyons, 2012). Currently, funding has become increasingly difficult for social enterprises to obtain because social enterprises concentrate more on attaining social, economic and environmental sustainability at the cost of growth which might place potential risks on their ability to generate and to access requisite funds (Scottish Social Enterprise Coalition, 2009). The creative problem solving process such as ECI has been proven to be a much effective technique for overcoming issues such as difficulties in fundraising which have unfavourable impacted on the functioning of the social enterprises. Thus, in order to effectively tackle the challenges of fund raising encountered by the social enterprises such as The Children’s Society, Enterprise Case Initiative (ECI) technique has been duly applied for the study. The ECI comprises a few relevant stages, for example, mess finding, problem finding, data finding, solution finding, idea finding and acceptance finding. Additionally, this report critically analyses the environment under which social enterprises are operating in the United Kingdom. Furthermore, this report intends to discuss and to evaluate the challenges encountered by social enterprises like The Childrens Society in the UK. This report shall duly emphasise on ECI model for addressing various fund raising issues associated with T he Childrens Society in the UK. The

Peugeot Case Essay Example for Free

Peugeot Case Essay * Introduction Through this final assignment I will explain how the French company Peugeot, can introduce it hybrid car the 5008 hybrid HDI. I choose an hybrid car for different reasons. The first one is that I think that hybrid cars are going to know a better future than electric cars. In effect, this is a huge change for people in general and they are not used to that way of driving and consuming. Offering an electric car is too radical and making hybrid cars, combining fuel and electricity is a good way to make a transition. This is why I choose to makes it on hybrid car. Secondly, I choose the 5008 hybrid HDI because is one of the biggest car that Peugeot is offering, and as we know American people are more likely to use biggest vehicles than in France. Finally I choose Peugeot for the reasons explained bellow. The company is also known as the Group PSA. Actually PSA is the biggest car company if France and have for main competitor Renault the second biggest group in France. The company has extended and sells their products to different region in the world like in Asia and Latin America. With all the ecological issues within the car industry the car industry, companies have the obligation to find alternatives to the CO2 problems, but also because innovation is always recommended no matter the industry. This is why Peugeot presented in 2009, its new car the Peugeot 5008 HDI Hybrid. Nowadays, Peugeot is not very present in United States, and this new product could be an opportunity for them to enter this market. Through this assignment, I will answer the question of the case by explaining the reasons to export, but also by studying the competition present in the US market and all the potential risks that the company has to avoid. Finally I will end the final by making the marketing plan that Peugeot could adopt in order to enter the market. Why Peugeot should export the 5008 HDI hybrid? Many reasons make that Peugeot want to invest in the US market. But even if they already have an international experience due their presence in Latin America and Asia, they have to be careful because the US market has its own specificity. Their new hybrid cars could be a huge opportunity to enter this market. In effect, hybrid cars are becoming more and more appreciated in the US market and people like this kind of car. The American market is such important that it gives more or less the trend of sales for the coming years. Since 2001, the market never stops growing and the forecast for the next year seems to be good as it is show on the graph below: As we can see, the increase has been constant through the years and will don’t stop until 2015. Those forecasts seem to be excessive but in fact they are quite true. In August 2012, a study has been made by an American website â€Å"hybridcars† and it shows that the number of sales has increased looking at the previous year. In august 2012, 249,311 of cars have been sold which represent an increase of 63.2% looking at the number of sale at the same period. As we can see the increase is extremely important, and when we look at the total number of sales of all cars, it makes more important the increase. In effect, the increase of all the vehicles at the same period is â€Å"only† about 14.0%. I say only because there are 50% of gap between all the type of cars and hybrid cars. This enormous increase is also due to the fact that the US government is helping people who want to buy an hybrid car by creating incentives. This incentive is made by giving a tax credit. The  credit is not fixed and it is calculated in function of the State where the car is bought and also about the brand of the car. Those tax credits are quite important because it goes from $900 to $3500. Each state have its own program, like in New York, they have the â€Å"Clean Pass†. All those points show that Peugeot should enter in the US market. The forecast that we have seen are very encouraging, and other factors should help hybrid cars in general, like the environmental issues. Something that also shows that hybrid cars are â€Å"trendy† is that in many movies or tv shows we can see hybrid cars, and the most used one is the Toyota Prius which is like the muse of hybrid cars and that we have seen in the tv show â€Å"Desperate Housewife† or â€Å"South Park†. Peugeot should try to surf on that new wave, but everything is not going to be so easy and Peugeot is going to face several barriers. Economic and political barriers that impact the export. The car industry is an industry that is facing a lot of legal issues. In France for example, car that are polluting and that have an important CO2 emission are going to be taxed, but security law and regulations are also numerous. When you want to enter in the US market you have many things you have to be careful about. Concerning the product in itself for example the company has to obtain a certificate which is called the CBP clearance. If car companies want to obtain that CBP certificate that says that you are not bringing weapons or drugs, you have to be conformed to the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of transportation. If you want to bring cars in the US, your cars have to answer to those norms as described by the official American website www.cbp.gov , â€Å"Imported motor vehicles are subject to safety standards under the Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966, revised under the Imported Vehicle Safety Compliance Act of 1988; to bumper standards under the Motor V ehicle Information and Cost Savings Act of 1972, which became effective in 1978; and to air pollution control standards under the Clean Air Act of 1968, as amended in 1977, and 1990.† In general, cars that are manufactures outside the US have to be in good standing with the US safety regulation, bumper and emission standards. Still with the CBP website, taxes are also established for the importation of goods. For autos, the importation tax is about 2.5%, and duty rates are based on price paid.  All those elements, Peugeot have to take them into account and adjust their production and prices following those rules. But those laws specific to the US market are not the only problems that Peugeot can face. In effect, the international competition can be also a huge issue. Peugeot, a strong international competitiveness. To make a good study of the international position of Peugeot in comparison to its competitors I will first make a study of the macro environment, following by the study of the meso environment. To make the study of the macro environment it is advocated to use the Porter’s Diamond. * The factors conditions: Actually, this is one of the most important things for the company because they are not present in the United States and they don’t have any infrastructures and if they want to produce their car, they will have to invest a lot in that. Concerning the human resources, United States is a huge country with many people that are already trained to this kind of industry and they are very competent in that industry, so this would be a strong advantage for Peugeot. * Demand conditions: I think that the demand in the American market is quite important. As we have seen in the first part of the final the demand for hybrid cars is increasing, and we are talking about a huge increase of 63%. * Related and supporting industries: All companies are focused on what the consumer is expecting, it means making economies. A lot of companies were developing and making research on electric engines in aim to reduce the consumption of gas. The car industry has done the same and developed new cars with both engines with gas and electricity. Those industries working in the new raw materials and fuel are in the center of a lot of other industries because they want to reduce their cost. * Firm strategy, structure and rivalry: I will develop this part in the following parts and in the Porter’s 5 forces. * Government: In a general aspect the US government is making efforts to promote the Hybrid cars, by allowing the different states to make incentives and making a tax credit to people who are buying hybrid cars. But Peugeot is a foreign company, and as we have seen they are a lot of laws and standards that foreign companies have to respect if they want to integrate the US market. * Chances: Looking at a general aspect Peugeot have good chances, because of the global warming and the fact that people don’t want to spend so much money in gas and that they want to reduce their cost. This is a chance because if they can produce a good car it is going to be the future and people will buy it. They have to make huge efforts in Research and development in aim to be competitive, because they are not the first one that want to be present in USA. In effect, Toyota and its famous Prius are present in the US market for many years, so Peugeot have some delay looking at them. Now I will use the Porter’s 5 forces for Peugeot to make the study of the meso environment. * Threat of New Entrants: I clearly think that the industry won’t see another competitors coming. The market is actually saturated and it count really big companies that can develop their product development and can invest in research and development which cost a lot and that new entrants could not support. So for the moment Peugeot will have to face actual competitors. So we can say that the threat of seeing new entrants coming is very low. * Bargaining power of suppliers: Peugeot is one of the biggest companies in France and in Europe, and to be at the top of such region they need to have a very good relationship with their suppliers. But what makes the quality of the car is the quality of the raw materials, this is why it gives a huge power to their suppliers. * Bargaining power of customers: I think that the power of customer is very high. This is mainly due to the substitutes that are offered to those customers. Train, bus, plane all those alternatives are offered to the customer, this is why they have a lot of power, because if Peugeot want to keep them they have to listen to them and do what they want. More of that they have a lot of competitors, and the customer is looking for the best product at the lowest price and he is helped by the development of internet where he can have access to different companies staying at home, but also where they can post their comment on a product. This is why the power of customers is high. * The threats of substitute products: They are a lot of different substitutes, on a local way and on a more national and international way. When I say local I think about bicycles for example and when talked about national or international I talked about buses train and plane. But even if they are numerous that doesn’t mean that they are powerful, because even if environmental problems are present nowadays, people prefer use hybrid cars rather than carpooling for example. So we can say that the power of substitutes is quite low. * Rivalry among existing competitors: The car industry is a very hard industry with a lot of different competitors. Following the International crisis and the environmental issues all the companies have adopted the same strategy by developing hybrid cars to answer to the new demand. Some of the big competitors have disappeared like General Motors, but in Europe, Volkswagen is leading everything and they have a huge potential of growth because they can invest in research and development. So we can clearly say that the existing competition is very high. If we look at the whole 5 forces, the car industry is a very strong industry with strong actors which are closing the entry for new competitors and where actual ones have to be more and more innovative and invest a lot in R D. The influence of culture in the marketing strategy. To have a quick view of the culture of the USA, we can use the study of Hofsted. You can see below the difference between the USA and France: * Power distance: Comparing to France, the US score is low (40), and this is mainly due to the premise â€Å"liberty and justice for all†. This also involved the fact that superiors in a company are more attainable for employees than in France, the information easily shared and employees are more frequently consulted to take decisions. * Individualism: When we look at that score we can see that the American has one of the highest score possible (91). It means that everything is based on the personal performance but also that employees are self-reliant and promotion for example is made looking at your previous result. But this also means that we expect from American people to be very autonomous very young. * Masculinity: The American score of 62 is quite elevated regarding to the French score. Again it means that American people tend to display and talk freely about their â€Å"successes†. American people â€Å"live to work† in aim to earn money and rewards. This is an important point for Peugeot, because as we have seen in the diamond description they don’t have any building or employees, and this could be a very good opportunity. * Uncertainty avoidance: The score of 46 is also a very good news for Peugeot. This means that American people have a good acceptance for innovations and a strong willingness of testing new things and new products. American people tend to be more tolerant of ideas or opinions from anyone and allow the freedom of expression. * Long-term orientation: Both of the countries have a short term oriented culture. It means that companies perspectives are based on short term with profit and loss statement made on a quarterly basis. This is why we ask employees to have quick results. We can also use Hall’s communication context, to try to identify and define the American culture. I think I can say that USA is a  low context culture. In general American people prefer to communicate on situation and are more oriented on their daily life. They mostly communicate within their out-groups in a broad and diffuse way. In general they communicate only on what is necessary. This is one of the main difficulties for the company is to adapt their product to a culture unknown for them. They have to succeed in doing the cross-cultural management and create and make coordination from this cross-cultural management. Which market entry? They are many ways for Peugeot to enter in the US market, they are all different, they have all their advantages and drawbacks. But in those times, where everything needs to be done very quickly, some choices are more relevant than others. Importing could be a good solution quick but also complicated in a sense that it would be expensive because as we have seen there are taxes to make enter cars into the US, more of that they will have to find a distributor in the USA and they will lose some of their power in distributing their cars. I think the best, the easiest and the quickest way is to make and create a franchise system. They are many advantages of creating a franchise. First you will use workforces of the country where you want to be in, and those people already know how their market is working and are things are doing in their country, you don’t have to spend such time looking for information and local people are more aware of those cultural differences. Secondly, you don’t have to change your brand name, it will only cost you few trainings that you have to provide to the employees. It is also very benefic because you can make pay the people that want to make a franchise with your brand some royalties, but in return you will have to give them communication support, you have as I told it before to trained the employees and you will have to keep eyes and see if the franchisee is not doing things on its own. In general, companies like this kind of market entry because they can keep some control on the franchisee, and because they received royalties which are between 1 and 20%. They are other risk that Peugeot don’t have to forget also. It is the fact that the franchisee will pay with delay or won’t pay at all. Another recurrent issue of the franchise is that the franchisee can use the knowledge taken from the franchisor and  use it on its own after that. It is a problem of intellectual property. What about an acquisition? Making an acquisition could also be a good type of market entry, because of some advantages like: * Quick entry: it allows acquiring resources and competencies in a new market very quickly. * Market power: it also gives you more market share if you make an acquisition with a competitor, you will take its market share and it will help you to be bigger. * Market penetration: it also allows you as in this case to enter in a new country or market. * Gain of competencies and resources: you will also earn some knowledge and knowhow from the new company and you will improve your productivity. But it has also some disadvantages: * Cost of acquisition: acquiring another company could be very expensive and specifically if we talk about a hostile takeover. The price depends on the size of the company, their market shares, their resources and other many things. * Managerial issues: the company that you are acquiring may have different way to work, different business culture and it can create tensions between the two entities. * Unrelated diversification: a company can make different acquisition, an horizontal and a vertical one. The company has to be careful and see if the company that it acquire has relation with its industry to make the acquisition easier. * Management of workforces: when acquisition happened it is not unusual to see people fired and it can create tensions within the company or strikes like in France. The International Product Life Cycle: The international product life cycle has some particularities. The IPLC is divided in 4 phases. In general, during the first phase, it is the US exportation that dominates the global market. But when this phase is ending, the next 3 phases see the producers from other developed countries becoming more and more important. Those countries first established their production and sale their product only in their own market, but in a second phase they go to third country market and finally integrated the US market in the last phases. If the US market is very strong in the very first phase is for some  reasons we have seen previously. In effect, the important market size, the acceptance for innovation, the R D resources and the well-developed marketing information system, make of the US market a very good market to launch a new product. So if we looked and follow what we have seen just before we would be in the fourth part of the international product life cycle, but because we are talking about an innovation in a very well-known market and industry we can talk about a new product so we would have been in the first phase, but in this first phase we already have seen companies from countries different from the US like Toyota, exporting and developing the Hybrid market in the US. I think the Hybrid car market is not at the maturity phases and it will reach in the future more customers. Effects of the exchange rates and inflation: In effect, the exchange rate is an issue that Peugeot have to consider if they want to make business in another country. The device in the US is the USD (United States Dollar) while in France it is the â‚ ¬, which is good in fact, because it will cost less for the French company to invest in the US. We should have a quick look at the fluctuations of the exchange rate of the two devices since the beginning of the year: As we can see, the exchange rate has fluctuated a lot with a minimum of 1.21 and a maximum of 1.34. Even if it seems to be a small change, in reality it represents a huge amount of money due to the big quantities of possible product sold. Peugeot has to take into account those fluctuations, but the consequences are less important that if would have been in the other way passing from dollars to euros. They still have to be careful and to anticipate those changes in aim to invest at the right moment. This is also very important, because the whole euro zone knows some bad times due to the economic crisis, this is why it could be interesting for them to invest in a country in a more â€Å"stable† country. Personal selling: First of all, before adapting its way to communicate and sale its product, the French company has to define its target. Because it stills an innovative product, the final consumer should have an higher income’s average and should be from the high-middle and upper class. Also the majority of people  that are buying hybrid car are people about 55 years old and older. They are also people that are aware and that are concerned about environmental issues that the planet is facing and that what to contribute to its safety, but also that think that they are going to save money because the price of the fuel is going to increase. When you want to sell a product in United States, you have to take into account many factors. First that they see themselves as the best business men and having the biggest companies of the world and that foreign companies are inferior. But American people are also expert of cross-marketing which means that they like to promote their product on different support like blogs, website, banners, tv adverts†¦ The use of technology is also important and using them is very important when you want to sell your product to an American consumer. Finally, American people love to have humor on their advertising. But contrary to France, they prefer to make humor on situations of the everyday life and not on the people. More of that when you want to communicate in the US, you have to be careful with the fact that this country have a lot of different ethnics within it. They are people coming from South America that are latinos but they also have a strong black community which have a lot of power, so you have to communicate to each of them. Making communication and selling products in USA is very different from selling in France and Peugeot again has to adapt to that issue. But with the principal Idea of making a franchise in the US it will be easier to adapt their communication to their customer because they will have employees from the US and that understand the American culture. International marketing controls: I think that if Peugeot what to be successful in the US, they will have to constantly make marketing controls. The different points we have been through this final are part of the control that Peugeot have to make. Make studies about their competitors, use the Porter’s 5 forces and Porter’s diamond, making a SWOT analysis, making a PEST analysis, controlling their financial management with the money they have invested in R D for example, controlling the fluctuation of the exchange rate and studying the international product life cycle, all those elements are tools that all companies have to be careful about. A good marketing strategy is established in a long term vision by preventing changes or at least adapting their  strategy as soon as possible by finding the needs of the customers. * Conclusion: Exporting a new product to another country is something difficult for many reasons. The very first one is because of the cultural differences between the countries. But the cultural differences are not the only issues; there is also the way that the Peugeot want to enter the American market. But I think that the company should do it, because as we have seen through this final, USA is a good country for innovative product but also because it is a huge country with a lot of potential consumers. Being present on the American market could also be a good start for the company to be durably present on such powerful market where a lot of innovations came to. But if they are aware of that, it means that other companies from other countries are also aware of it, so if they want to be successful they have to take a quick decision and to take the risk to do it, because as many business men say, the biggest risk is not taking any risks. * Bibliography: * â€Å"Peugeot 5008, le monospace by Peugeot† , Forum-Peugeot.com, 2012, Web, http://www.forum-peugeot.com * â€Å"Policy Priorities for advancing the U.S. electric vehicle market†, Deborah Gordon, Daniel Sperling David Livingston, Carnegie Endowment, September 2012, Web, http://carnegieendowment.org * â€Å"Importing a Motor Vehicle†, CBP- Securing America’s Borers, August 2008, Web, http://www.cbp.gov * â€Å"Importing vehicles and engines into the U.S.†, EPA-United States Environmental Protection Agency, Web, http://www.epa/gov * â€Å"United States vs France† National culture, Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimension,2012, Web, http://geert-hofstede.com * â€Å"Top 10 tips for selling products in the United States†, Bill Decker, Denver Business Journal, June 2011, Web, http://www.bizjournals.com * â€Å"2012 Hybrid Cars†, Hybridcars, March 2012, Web, http://www.hybridcars.com * â€Å"July 2012 Dashboard†, Hybridcars, Augus t 2012, Web, http://www.hybridcars.com * â€Å"Hybrid market Forecasts†, Hybridcars, September 2006, Web, http://www.hybridcars.com * â€Å"Hybrid car tax credits: incentives fade into Memory†, Hybrids, February 2011, Web, http://www.hybridcars.com * â€Å"Hybrid and Plug-in Incentives and rebates – Region by Region† Hybridcars, March 2010, Web, http://www.hybridcars.com * â€Å"Profile of hybrid drivers†, Hybridcars, March 2006, Web, http://www.hybridcars.com * â€Å"Boursorama EUR/USD Spot†, Boursorama, December 2012, Web, http://www.boursorama.com

The Truman Show Essay -- essays research papers

The Truman Show is a film which has been developed through a range of images. Peter Weir has creatively directed a film portraying the media and its impact on society. Within this film we see the effectiveness of techniques, which include camera angles, framing, shot types, camera movement, style of music, costuming and sequencing. By using a range of different techniques Weir is able to create emotive images and portray three different worlds to the audience. Image is everything in today’s society appearance of things have become more important that what they really are and these images are being constantly fed to us through the media. Image has both a positive and negative influence on the individual but most people have been drawn into the stereotypical world. Truman Burbank is the star of a television show who lives a perfect life - stable job, wife and friends to support him but he is unbeknown to the world which revolves around him 24 hours a day. Truman is portrayed as a uncomplicated, affable and contented insurance salesman. His conservative costuming reflects this as he is clean shaven and dressed in light neat fitting clothing. Distortion of truth and constructed images are key themes portrayed in the movie this is characterised by the drowning of Truman’s father which was staged purely to implant a fear in Truman’s mind of going on or over the water. This is the way that Christof could control Truman from finding the truth and leaving the island by boat or bridg...

End of Poverty Guide Essay

Sachs throws out the normal ways of thinking about the causes of poverty in countries, for instance that people are lazy or stupid, or the countries are not democratic, and that corruption is wide-spread. Fifty percent of the world’s population exists on less than one dollar per day. He believes that much of the problem is structural, which can only be dealt with through the help of the rich countries. Sachs believes, first of all, that all current debt owed by the poor countries should be cancelled. Secondly, if the rich countries would increase their development aid from .2% to .7% there would be enough money available to increase the economic growth so that all countries would no longer be extremely poor. If MAI is to become known as an agency which teaches a new way of dealing with poverty, then we need to become aware of this book and Sachs understanding and approach to poverty. Chapter Twelve really speaks to CHE. I have tried to review what has appeared to me to be the most salient points, chapter by chapter. All chapters are not treated equally. I primarily do this exercise for myself to help me understand the key points from the book. If they are of any help to others, then that is a plus. I have gone into more detail in the other synopsis I have done because of the possible guidance this book can give us for a new paradigm for dealing with poverty individually, locally, nationally and globally (which in reality we are already on the road in doing). Some things are both structural and governmental issues and I am not suggesting that we get involved in these, but change must begin at the village level and then we can scale up our strengths from there. Chapter One–A Global Family Portrait Sachs sets the stage for his thesis and book using examples of Malawi, Bangladesh, India, and China to show different levels of poverty. He talks abut the ascending ladder of economic development for countries. †¢ Lowest are those who are too ill, hungry, or destitute to get even a foot on the bottom rung of the development ladder. They make up the bottom 1/6 of the world’s population, or one billion people. They are the poorest of the poor and live on less than $1 a day. †¢ A few rungs up the ladder at the upper end of the low-income countries are another 1.5 billion people. They live just above the subsistence level. These two groups make up 40% of the world’s population. CHE targets both of these groups, and especially with the first group. †¢ Another 2.5 billion include the IT workers of India. Most of them live in the cities and are moderately poor. †¢ One billion or one-sixth of the world come from the rich developed countries. Sachs says the greatest tragedy of our time is that one-sixth of the world’s population is not even on the first rung of the ladder. A large number of the extremely poor in level one are caught in the poverty trap and cannot escape it. They are trapped by disease, physical isolation, climate stress, environmental degradation, and extreme poverty itself. He breaks poverty into three levels: †¢ Extreme poverty means households cannot meet basic needs for survival. This only occurs in developing countries. World Bank says their income is less than $1 a day. †¢ Moderate poverty is where needs are generally just barely met. World Bank says this represents countries where their income falls between $1 and $2 per day. †¢ Relative poverty generally describes household income level at being below a given percentage of the average national income. You find this in developed countries. He then presents the Challenge of our Generation which includes: †¢ Helping the poorest of the poor escape the misery of extreme poverty and help them begin their climb up the ladder of economic development. †¢ Ensuring all who are the world’s poor, including moderately poor, have a chance to climb higher in economic development. He believes that the following can be done: †¢ Meet the Millennium Development Goals by 2015. †¢ End extreme poverty by 2025. †¢ To ensure well before 2025, that all of the world’s poor countries can make reliable progress up the ladder of economic development. †¢ To accomplish this with modest financial help from the riches countries, which will be more than is now provided per capita. Chapter Two–The Spread of Economic Prosperity Sachs uses several graphs in this chapter. I will not go into detail on these, but I will point out some salient points: †¢ All regions of the world were poor in 1820. †¢ All regions experienced economic progress, though some much more than others. †¢ Today’s richest regions experienced by far the greatest economic progress. As an example, Africa has only grown at .7% a year while the USA at 1.7%. This may not seem much, but when compounded year-by-year, it results in the great differences between the two. †¢ The key fact today is not the transfer of income from one region to another, but rather that the overall increase in the world’s income is happening at different rates in different regions. Until the 1700’s, the world was remarkably poor by today’s standards. A major change was the industrial revolution coming to certain regions and not to others. The steam engine was a decisive turning point because it mobilized the vast store of primary energy which unlocked the mass production of goods and services. Modern energy fueled every aspect of the economic takeoff. As coal fueled industry, industry fueled political power. Britain’s industrial breakthrough created a huge military and financial advantage. But Britain also had existing individual initiative and social mobility than most other countries of the world. They also had a strengthening of institution and liberty. Britain also had a major geographical advantage–one of isolation and protection of the sea, in addition to access to the oceans for worldwide transportation for their goods and importation of other countries’ goods. Sachs then goes on to outline what has fostered major economic growth: †¢ Modern economic growth is accompanied by people moving to the cities, or urbanization. This means fewer and fewer people produce the food that is required for the country. Hopefully, food price per farmer decreases as larger plots are farmed more productively. This also means sparsely populated land makes good sense when many farms are needed to grow the crops, but sparse land makes little sense when more and more people are engaged in manufacturing in the cities. †¢ Modern economic growth fostered a revolution in social mobility which affected social ranking of people. A fixed social order depends on status quo and agrarian population. †¢ There is a change in gender roles with economic development. This affects living conditions as well as family structure. The desired number of children decreases. †¢ The division of labor increases. By specializing in one activity instead of many, producti vity increases. The diffusion of economic growth occurred in three main forms: †¢ From Britain to its colonies in North America, Australia and New Zealand. (It was therefore relatively straight-forth to transfer British technologies, food crops and even legal institutions.) †¢ A second diffusion took place within Europe that ran from Western Europe to Eastern Europe, and from Northern Europe to Southern Europe. †¢ The third wave of diffusion was from Europe to Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Sachs believes that the single most important reason for prosperity spread is the transmission of technology and the ideas underlying it. The technological advances came at different times. †¢ The first wave revolved around the invention of the steam engine which led to factory-producing goods. †¢ The second wave in the 19th century was led by the introduction of the rail and telegraph. It also included the introduction of steam ships instead of sailing ones, and the construction of the Suez Canal. †¢ The third wave was initiated by electrification of industry and urban society. Along with this came the development of the internal combustion engine. †¢ The fourth wave came in the 20th century with the globalization of the world due to new methods of communication starting in Europe. †¢ There came a time of a great rupture which took place with the start of World War I, and sidetracked economic development for awhile. This led to the Great Depression which led to World War II. †¢ A fifth wave took place right after World War II, and in 1991. It began with the massive efforts of reconstruction of Europe and Japan right after World War II. Trade barriers began to come down. There were three worlds: the first was the developed West, the second was comprised of Socialist countries, and the third was made up of undeveloped countries (which were made up of the old colony countries). The world therefore progressed on three tracks. The problem was that the second and third worlds did not share in economic growth and actually went backward. By closing their economies, they closed themselves off from economic development. So what did this mean to the poorest of the poor countries? †¢ They did not begin their economic growth until decades later. †¢ They faced geographical barriers of being land-locked †¢ They faced the brutal exploitation of the colonial powers. †¢ They made disastrously bad choices in their national policies. Chapter Three–Why Some Countries Fail In this chapter, Sachs looks at the cause of poverty and possible solutions. He first deals with, how a family’s per-capita income might increase: †¢ The first way is through savings– either in cash or similar assets like animals, etc. †¢ The second way is shifting to crops that bring a higher yield per hectare, and then adding value to the crop (which is what we teach in our PAD training). †¢ The third way is adopting new technology, which improves their productivity. †¢ The fourth way is resource boom, which means to move to a much larger and more fertile farm. The flip side of increasing their economic growth is by decreasing their per capita income which is more than just the opposite of the above factors: †¢ Lack of savings is of course one way to reduce per capita income. †¢ Lack of trade, meaning that a household hears of the new crop but cannot take advantage of it and stays with what they have. †¢ Technological reversal is when something like HIV hits an area and children lose their parents etc. †¢ Natural resource decline is where the land becomes less and less fertile producing less and less crops. †¢ Adverse Productivity Shock is where a natural disaster hits like a drought, tsunami, earthquake, typhoon, etc. †¢ Population growth lessens per capita income where the father has two hectares of land and it is divided among his five sons at his death. Now Sachs begins to get into the true heart of poverty on a country level: †¢ The poverty trap itself is where poverty is so extreme that the poor do not have the ability by themselves to get out of the mess. †¢ Physical geography plays a major role where countries are land-locked with poor or no roads, a lack of navigable rivers, or situated in mountain ranges or deserts with an extremely high transportation cost. The low productivity of the land is another factor in the geography. †¢ The fiscal trap is where the government lacks the resources to pay for the necessary infrastructure on which economic growth depends. †¢ Government failure happens when the government is not concentrating on high priority infrastructure and social service projects. †¢ Cultural or religious barriers especially as it relates to gender inequality play a significant role in dampening economic growth. †¢ Geopolitics such as trade barriers can impede economic growth. †¢ Lac k of innovation and technology plays a role if people cannot try new things because they cannot risk failure, or because they do not have funds to do so. Sachs believes that over the span of two centuries, the lack of using new technology is why the richest and poorest countries have diverged. †¢ He shows a scatter-gram graph showing there is a demographic trap as well. The higher the fertility rate, the lower rate of economic growth there is in a country. When they have too many children, they cannot invest in education, nutrition, or health, except maybe for the oldest male. One of the best ways to lower the number of children per family is through the education of the girls. Sachs then goes into detail in putting countries into different classes. He points out that none of the rich countries in North American, Western Europe or East Asia have failed to grow economically. All the problems lie in the developing world where 45 of these countries had a fall in GDP. Not all of these countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. He also points out that the oil-exporting and ex-Soviet countries, all high income countries, did not increase their economic growth evenly, primarily because of their authoritarian political structure. He also points out that the most important factor is agriculture. Those countries that used high yield cereals per hectare and that used high levels of fertilizers are the poor countries that tended to experience economic growth. In Africa, the land is much less densely populated but they use neither high yield cereals nor fertilizers and they had falling food production per capita. But they also have far less roads for transporting extra crops to markets and they depend on rainfall which is generally more erratic than high-producing agricultural countries. He also goes on to point out the following: †¢ Economic growth is rarely uniformly distributed across a country. †¢ Governments also fail in their role in allowing growth that might enrich the rich households, while the poorest living in the same area seldom seem to benefit. †¢ Another detriment to growth can be culture especially as it relates to women inequality. Chapter Four–Clinical Economics (CE) Sachs compares clinical economics to clinical medicine. He lays out five parameters for Clinical Economics: †¢ CE is made up of complex systems. The failure in one system can lead to cascades of failures in other parts of the economy. You therefore need to deal with very broad and multiple issues. †¢ CE practitioners need to learn the art of clinical diagnosis. The CE practitioner must hone-in on the key underlying causes of economic distress and prescribe appropriate remedies that are tailor-made to each country’s condition. †¢ Treatment needs to be viewed in family terms, not individual terms. The entire world is part of each country’s family. If countries work together they can have far more impact than working in isolation. †¢ Good CE practice requires monitoring and evaluation. More than just asking if the goals are being achieved, but also asking â€Å"why?† and â€Å"why not?† †¢ The development community lacks the requisite ethical and professional standards. Economic development does not take its work with the sense of responsibility that the task requires. It demands that honest advice be given. He points out where economic development practice has gone wrong: †¢ The rich countries say, â€Å"Poverty is your own fault. Be like us, have a free market, be entrepreneurial, fiscally responsible and your problems will be gone†. †¢ The IMF period of structural adjustment which supposedly dealt with the four maladies of poor governance, excessive government intervention in the markets, excessive government spending, and too much state ownership were not solved by the IMF prescription of belt tightening, privatization, liberalization, and good governance. †¢ The responsibility for poverty reduction was assumed to lie entirely with poor countries themselves. He then lays out his differential diagnosis for poverty reduction. He believes the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) goes a long way in reducing poverty. Once the diagnosis is completed, a proper treatment regime must be carried out. In doing differential diagnosis, questions must be asked in each one of the following areas: †¢ Identify and map the extent of extreme poverty– from the household level all the way up through the community to the country to the state– in all areas of life. †¢ The second set of questions deals with the economic policy framework. †¢ The third set deals with the fiscal framework. †¢ Fourth deals with physical geography and human ecology. †¢ Fifth, the questions deal with the patterns of governance. History has shown that democracy is not a prerequisite for economic development. †¢ Sixth are questions which deal with cultural barriers that hinder economic development. †¢ The last are questions that are related to geopolitics which involves a country’s security and relationship with the rest of the world. The next six chapters, five through ten, deal with specific countries that have gone through this process, and their results. His results are quite impressive. I will not deal much with each country, but an individual chapter might be of interest to the RC involved if he is interested in such things. Chapter Five–Bolivia’s High Rate of Inflation Problem: A hyperinflation rate of 3000% (30 times) between July 1984 and July 1985 with a longer term hyperinflation rate of 24,000%. Lessons Learned: †¢ Stabilization is a complex process. Ending a large budget deficit may be the first step but controlling the underlying forces that cause the budget deficit is much more complex. †¢ Macroeconomics tools are limited in their power. †¢ Successful change requires a combination of technocratic knowledge, bold political leadership, and broad social participation. †¢ Success requires not only bold reforms at home, but also financial help from abroad. †¢ Poor countries must demand their due. Chapter Six–Poland’s Return to Europe Problem: By the end of 1989, Poland had partially suspended its international debt payments. The economy was suffering from high rate of rising inflation and there was a deepening political crisis. Sachs’ approach in Poland, as in other countries, was built on five pillars: †¢ Stabilization–ending the high rate of inflation, establishing stability and convertible currency. †¢ Liberalization–allowing markets to function by legalizing private economic activity (ending price controls and establishing necessary laws). †¢ Privatization– identifying private owners for assets currently held by the state. †¢ Social net–pensions and other benefits for the elderly and poor were established. †¢ Institutional Harmonization–adopting, step-by-step, the economic laws, procedures, and institutions. Lessons Learned: †¢ He learned how a country’s fate is crucially determined by its specific linkages to the rest of the world. †¢ Again the importance of the basic guidance concept for broad-based economic transformation, not to stand alone with separate solutions. †¢ Saw again the practical possibilities of large-scale thinking †¢ He learned not to take â€Å"no† for an answer, press on with your guidance. †¢ By the time a country has fallen into deep crisis, it requires some external help to get back on track. †¢ This help may be in the form of getting the basics right which includes debt cancellation and help to bolster confidence in the reforms. Chapter Seven–Russia’s Struggle for Normalcy Problem: The Soviet Union relied almost entirely on its oil and gas exports to earn foreign exchange, and on its use of oil and gas to run its industrial economy. In the mid- 1980’s, the price of oil and gas plummeted and the Soviet Union’s oil production began to fall. Sachs suggested three actions of the West (but generally they were ignored by the West): †¢ A stabilization fund for the ruble. †¢ Immediate suspension of debt repayment followed by cancellation of their debts. †¢ A new aid program for transformation focusing on the most vulnerable sectors of the Russian economy. Lesson Learned: †¢ Despite much turmoil and rejection much went right so that eventually Russia became a lopsided market economy, still focused on oil and gas. †¢ Russia has a gigantic land mass which causes it to have few linkages with other nations of the world. †¢ Their population densities are low and agrarian and food production per hectare remains low. Over history, 90% of the population has been rural, with cities few and far between. This hinders economic growth. †¢ Without adequate aid, the political consensus around the reforms was deeply undermined, thereby compromising the reform process. Chapter Eight–China Catching Up after a Half Millennium Being Isolated Problem: China lost its economic and cultural lead that it had in its early history. Sachs points out five dates which caused this: †¢ 1434 China had been the technological superpower. This year Emperor Ming closed China to the rest of the world and stopped their advanced ship fleets from going out to the world. †¢ 1839 China finally ended its economic isolation. †¢ 1898 Several young reformers tried to gain power and were stopped. †¢ 1911 Ching Dynasty collapsed and by 1916 China was falling into civil unrest. Their military took control of the empire. †¢ 1949 the rise of the Maoist Movement. He then compares China to Russia: †¢ The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe had massive foreign debt while China did not. †¢ China has a large coastline that supported its export growth, while Russia and Eastern Europe do not. †¢ China had the benefit of large off-shore Chinese business communities which acted as foreign investors, while Russia and Eastern Europe did not. †¢ The Soviet was experiencing a drastic decline on their main export product, oil and gas. †¢ The Soviet Union had gone further down the industrialization road than China. Chapter Nine–India Market Reform Which Was the Triumph of Hope Over Fear Problem: India was controlled by a business, British East India Company, which was driven by greed, and it did everything to maximize profit for the company at the expense of the country. Though India’s population throughout history has been Hindu, vast numbers of Muslims and Christians lived in and sometimes dominated the land. India had poor political and social structures because the land was broken into many small kingdoms governed by many different leaders. In addition, India has the caste-system of stratification of peoples. With independence from the British in 1947, Nehru looked for a path to self- sufficiency and democratic socialism. The Green Revolution had a major impact on the country as high yield crops were introduced. By 1994, India now faced four major challenges: †¢ Reforms needed to be extended especially in liberalization and the development of new and better systems. †¢ India needed to invest heavily in infrastructure †¢ India needed to invest more in health and education of its people, especially the lower castes. †¢ India needed to figure out how to pay for the needed infrastructure. Lessons Learned: †¢ The 21st century is likely to be the era when this poor country’s economic development is substantially reversed. †¢ The country has announced electricity for all as well as essential health services and drinking water for everyone. These are achievable goals and the basis for much-needed investment. †¢ The Hindus did not stifle growth. The Green Revolution and then market reforms overrode the rigidness of the caste-system and the slow growth of the 1950’s and 1960’s. †¢ India has become increasingly urbanized, thereby further weakening the caste-system. †¢ Democracy is wearing away age-old social hierarchies. †¢ India has grabbed the potential of the internet and IT and is leading the way for developing nations in this regard. †¢ India’s varied geography and its miles and miles of shoreline fosters its market position for the manufacture of products. Chapter Ten–Africa and the Dying Problem: Three centuries of slave trade were followed by a century of colonial rule which left Africa bereft of educated citizens and leaders, basic infrastructure, and public health facilities. The borders followed arbitrary lines, not historic tribal lines which now divided former empires, ethnic groups, ecosystems, watersheds, and resource deposits. The West was not willing to invest in African economic development. Corruption was not the central cause for their economic failure as he showed. In the 1980’s, HIV became the worse killer of mankind. In 2001, life expectancy stood at 47 years, while East Asia stood at 69 years, and developed countries at 78 years. Sachs spends time looking at the major diseases of malaria, TB, diarrhea, and HIV. He says poverty causes disease and disease causes poverty. Lessons Learned: †¢ Good governance and market reform alone are not sufficient to generate growth if a country is in a poverty trap. †¢ Geography has conspired with economics to give Africa a particularly weak hand. Africa lacks navigable rivers with access to the ocean for easy transport and trade. †¢ Africa lacks irrigation and depends on rainfall for their crops. †¢ Farmers lack access roads, markets, and fertilizers, while soils have been long depleted of their nutrients. Chapter Eleven–The Millennium, 9/11, and the United Nations. The beginning part of this chapter deals with the Millennium Development Goals. Sachs says that the goals and commitment to reach them by 2015 convey the hope that extreme poverty, disease, and environmental degradation could be alleviated with the wealth, the new technologies, and global awareness with which we entered the 21st century. He says the first seven goals call for sharp cuts in poverty, disease, and environmental degradation, while the eighth goal is essentially a commitment to global partnership. Because you have all seen them, I am not including them here. Regarding 9/11, he says we need to keep it in perspective. On 9/11, 3000 people died for once and for all, but 10,000 people die each day from diseases that are preventable. He believes we need to address the deeper roots of terrorism of which extreme poverty is an important element. The rich world needs to turn its efforts to a much greater extent from military strategies to economic development. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt spoke of freedoms we were fighting for in WWII and for which we still should be attempting to accomplish: †¢ Freedom of speech and expression everywhere in the world. †¢ Freedom for every person to worship God in his own way everywhere in the world. †¢ Freedom from want which translates into economic development. †¢ Freedom from fear which translates into a worldwide reduction in armament, a reduction to such a point that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor. One major thing he is suggesting is that the rich countries elevate their giving to .7% of their GNP from the average of .2% it is today. The rest of the chapter is about President Bush and the USA policies and actions. Chapter Twelve–On-The-Ground Solutions for Ending Poverty This chapter is really talking about CHE, but Sachs does not realize it. He says that the world’s challenge is not to overcome laziness and corruption but rather to take on geographic isolation, disease, vulnerability to climate shocks, etc. with new systems of political responsibility that can get the job done. He talks about a village of less than 1,000 in western Kenya, in a Sauri sub-location (in Siaya district in Nyanza province) that he visited, which opened his eyes. He found what we find place after place– that they are impoverished, but they are capable and resourceful. Though struggling to survive, presently they are not dispirited but determined to improve their situation. He then goes on to describe the needs of a rural African community, the same type of community that we deal with every day, as shown in the abundance of applications we receive for CHE. A major problem, he feels, is that the farmers do not have the money to buy fertilizer that would impact their crop productivity drastically. Also they have no school or clinic. He then begins to calculate what it would cost per person to bring a school and teachers, simple clinic and staff, medicines, agriculture inputs such as seed and fertilizer, safe drinking water and simple sanitation, and power transport and communication services. The total cost for Sauri is about $350,000 a year, which converts to $70 a person per year, which could revolutionize the community. If he did CHE, the total cost and per person cost would be greatly reduced. He then goes ahead and extrapolates this up for the country of Kenya to $1.5 billion. At the same time he points out that Kenya’s debt service is $600 million a year and that it needs to be cancelled. But one problem that donors talk about is corruption needing to be eliminated. If countries do not eliminate corruption, they would not be eligible for relief. Also, a budget and management system need to be designed that will reach the villages and be monitorable, governable, and scalable–a set of interventions to ensure good governance on such a historic project. The key to this is to empower village-based community organizations to oversee village services. Most of what he says in this chapter sounds like CHE to me, but we can do it at even a lower cost and we have the experience to implement it. That is why I said earlier that we need to talk to Sachs about CHE. He then goes on with this theme but changes the venue from rural to urban in Mumbai, India in a slum community built smack up against the railroad tracks, one-house deep. He points out the outstanding needs are not latrines, running water, nor safety from trains, but empowerment so they can negotiate with the government. He then mentions that several groups have been found and empowered to do this in this community. Again sounds like CHE for urban poor. Sachs says what this community needs is investments in the individual and basic infra-structure that can empower people to be healthier, better educated, and more productive in the work force. CHE deals with the individual side of the equation. He ends this chapter by discussing the problem of scale. He says everything must start with the basic village. The key is connecting these basic units together into a global network that reaches from impoverished communities to the very centers of power and back again. This, too, is what we are talking about when we describe scaling-up and creating a movement and then forming it into councils and collaborative groups. He believes the rich world would readily provide the missing finances but they will wonder how to ensure that the money made available would really reach the poor and that there would be results. He says we need a strategy for scaling up the investments that will end poverty, including governance that empowers the poor while holding them accountable. I believe CHE fits his prescription. Chapter Thirteen–Making the Investments Needed to End Poverty Sachs says the extreme poor lack six kinds of capital: †¢ Human Capital: health, nutrition, and skills needed for each person to be productive. †¢ Business Capital: the machinery, facilities, and motorized transport used in agriculture, industry and services. †¢ Infrastructure Capital: water and sanitation, airports and sea ports, and telecommunications systems that are critical inputs for business productivity. †¢ Natural Capital: arable land, healthy soils, biodiversity, and well- functioning ecosystems that provide the environmental services need by human society. †¢ Public Institutional Capital: commercial law, judicial systems, government services, and policing, that underpin the peaceful and prosperous division of labor. †¢ Knowledge Capital: the scientific and technological know-how that raises productivity in business output and the promotion of physical and natural capital. He spends several pages on charts showing income flow. He also uses the example of child survival and how it applies to the six kinds of capital. He makes the point that even in the poorest societies, primary education alone is no longer sufficient. He says all youth should have a minimum of 9 years of education. He says technical capacity must be in the whole of society from the bottom up. He talks about trained community health workers and the role they can play. Villages around the world should be helped in adult education involving life and death issues such as HIV. The main challenges now is NOT to show what works in small villages or districts but rather to scale up what works to encompass a whole country, even the world. Again sounds like CHE and where we are going. He goes through several examples where major diseases are being dealt with such as malaria, river blindness, and polio, as well as spread of family planning. He also briefly talks about the cell phone revolution by the poor in Bangladesh and how East Asia has established Export Processing Zones, all of which are improving the life of the poorest of poor nations. Chapter Fourteen–A Global Compact to End Poverty He says the poorest countries themselves must take seriously the problem of ending poverty and need to devote a greater share of their national resources to accomplish this. Many poor countries pretend to reform while rich countries pretend to help them. The chronic lack of donor financing robs the poor countries of their poverty-fighting zeal. We are stuck in a show play that is not real. There are two sides in a compact. In this compact, there should be the commitment in the rich countries to help all poor countries where the collective will to be responsible partners in the endeavor is present. For the other poor countries where authoritarian or corrupt regimes hold sway, the consequences for the population are likely to be tragic but the rich countries have their limits also. He spends time looking at several countries that have Poverty Reduction Strategies where some are working and some not. Ghana is a star in his book. He says a true MDG-based poverty reduction strategy would have five parts: †¢ A Differential Diagnosis which includes identifying policies and investments that the country needs to achieve the MDGs. †¢ An Investment Plan which shows the size, timing and costs of the required investments. †¢ A Financial Plan to fund the Investment Plan, including the calculation of the MDG financing gap, the portion of the financial needs that donors will have to fill. †¢ A Donor Plan which gives multi-year commitments from donors for meeting the MDGs. †¢ A Public Management Plan that outlines the mechanisms of governance and public administration that will help implement the expanded public investment plan. During the 1980’s and 1990’s, the IMF forced Structural Readjustment on the poor countries which did not work. The poor were asked to pay all the expenses for new services. They then moved to a compromise called Social Marketing where the poor were asked to pay a portion of the expense. But neither plan worked because the poor did not have enough even to eat, much less pay for electricity. He says a sound management plan should include the following: †¢ Decentralize. Investments are needed in all the villages and the details for what is needed needs to be established at the village level through local committees, not the national capitol or Washington DC. †¢ Training. The public sector lacks the talent to oversee the scaling up process. Training programs for capacity building should be part of the strategy. †¢ Information Technology. The use of information technology–computers, e-mail and mobile phones– needs to increase drastically because of the dramatic increase of knowledge that needs to be transmitted. †¢ Measurable Benchmarks. Every MDG based poverty reduction strategy should be supported by quantitative benchmarks tailored to national conditions, needs, and data availability. †¢ Audits. No country should receive greater funding unless the money can be audited. †¢ Monitoring and Evaluation. Each country must prepare to have investments monitored and evaluated. He then goes through the following Global Policies for Poverty Reduction: †¢ The Debt Crisis. The poorest countries are unable to repay their debt, let alone carry the interest. Therefore, for each country that agrees to the guidelines noted previously, their debt must be cancelled if there is to be true poverty reduction. †¢ Global trade Policy. Poor countries need to increase their exports to the rich countries and thereby earn foreign exchange in order to import capital goods from the rich countries. Yet trade is not enough. The policy must include both aid and trade. The end of agriculture subsidies is not enough for this to happen. †¢ Science for Development. The poor are likely to be ignored by the international scientific community unless special effort is made to include things that help the poor. It is more critical to identify the priority needs for scientific research in relation to the poor than to mobilize the donor community to spur that research forward. That would include research in tropical agriculture, energy systems, climate forecasting, water management, and sustainable management of ecosystems. †¢ Environmental stewardship. The poorest of poor nations are generally innocent victims of major long-term ecosystem degradation. The rich countries must live up to the ecology agreements they have signed. The rich countries will have to give added financial assistance to the poor countries to enable them to deal with the ecosystem problems. The rich countries will have to invest more in climate research. Chapter Fifteen–Can The Rich Afford to Help the Poor? He asks the question â€Å"Can the rich countries help the poor?†, and his answer is â€Å"Can they afford not to do so?† He gives five reasons that show that the current effort is so modest. †¢ The numbers of extremely poor have declined close to 50% two generations ago to 33% a generation ago to 20% today. †¢ The goal is to end extreme poverty, not all poverty, and to close the gap between the rich and the poor. †¢ Success in ending the poverty trap will be much easier than it appears. Too little has been done to identify specific, proven, low-cost interventions that can make a difference in living standards and economic growth (CHE does this). †¢ The rich world is vastly rich. What seemed out of reach a generation or two ago is now such a small fraction of the vastly expanded income of the rich world. †¢ Our tools are more powerful than ever, including computers, internet, mobile phones, etc. He then spends time in doing calculations to show how this can be accomplished. First he starts with the World Bank. They estimate that meeting basic needs requires $1.08 per person per day. Currently, the average income of the extremely poor is 77 cents per day, creating a shortfall of 31 cents per day or $113 per person per year. He then shows that this represents only .6% of a nation’s GNP. The MDG target which many countries have agreed to is .7% of their GNP. Later on, he shows that the USA is only spending .15% for aid to the world. Sachs then spends time on a six-step process to do a needs assessment to come up with the real number needed: †¢ Identify the package of basic needs. †¢ Identify for each country the current unmet needs of the population. †¢ Calculate the costs of meeting the unmet needs through investments, taking into account future population growth. †¢ Calculate the part of the investments that can’t be financed by the country itself. †¢ Calculate the MDG financing gap that must be covered by donors. †¢ Assess the size of the donor contribution relative to donor income. He proposes that interventions are required to meet the following basic needs: †¢ Primary education for all children with a designated target ratio of pupils to teachers. †¢ Nutrition program for all vulnerable populations. †¢ Universal access to anti-malarial bed nets for all households in regions of malaria transmission. †¢ Access to safe drinking water and sanitation. †¢ One-half kilometer of paved roads for every thousand population. †¢ Access to modern cooking fuels and improved cooking stoves to decrease indoor air pollution. He states extreme poverty (a lack of access to basic needs) is very different from relative poverty (occupying a place at the bottom of the ladder of income distribution) within rich countries, and goes through a more detailed approach of implementing the six steps. He points out that not all donor assistance is for development. Much is used for emergency relief, care for resettlement of refugees, geopolitical support of particular governments, and help for middle-income countries that have largely ended extreme poverty in their country. Also, only a small portion of development aid actually helps to finance the intervention package. Much of it goes for technical assistance which is not part of the MDG numbers. He spends time on the question, â€Å"Can the USA afford the .7% of their GNP?† He responds with a deafening â€Å"Yes!† He does this in multiple ways, one of which is to show that the increase is only .55%, which would be hardly noticed in the US’s average 1.9% increase year-by-year of its GNP. Chapter Sixteen–Myths and Magic Bullets This is an interesting chapter because Sachs shoots down commonly held beliefs concerning the causes and solutions for poverty. He uses Africa as his case to do so:. †¢ Contrary to popular conception, Africa has not received great amounts of aid. They receive $30 per person per year but only $12 of that actually went to be used in development in Africa. $5 went to consultants of donor countries, $3 went to food and emergency relief, $4 for servicing Africa’s debt and $5 for debt relief. In reality, in 2002, only six cents per person went to development. †¢ Corruption is the problem which leads to poor governance. By any standard of measure Africa’s governance is low, but not due to corruption. African countries’ governance is no different than other poor countries in the rest of the world. Governance improves as the people become more literate and more affluent. Secondly, a more affluent country can afford to invest more in governance. †¢ There is a democracy deficit. This is also not true. In 2003, 11 countries in Africa were considered free, with 20 more partially free, and 16 not free. This is the same as is found in other regions of the world. Democracy does not translate into faster economic growth. †¢ Lack of modern values. Again, this is also false. Virtually every society that was once poor has been castigated for being unworthy until its citizens became rich and then their new wealth was explained by their industriousness. He traces this trend in multiple countries. One major factor that does cause change is the change in women’s position in society as their economic situation improves, which accelerates the growth. †¢ The need for economic freedom is not fully true. Generally market societies out perform centrally planned economies. This leads to the thought that all is needed is that the people must have the will to liberalize and privatize which is too simplistic. He shows that there is no correlation between the Economic Freedom Index and annual growth rate of GDP. †¢ The single idea of Mystery of Capital put forth by Hernando de Soto which relates to the security of private property including the ability to borrow against it is also incorrect. Most poor hold their assets such as housing and land. †¢ There is a shortfall of morals which is thought to be the main cause of HIV in Africa. A study shows that Africa men are no different in the average number of sexual partners they have than any other part of the world. †¢ Saving children only to become hungry adults leads to population explosion. Actually it has been shown that the best way to reduce the fertility rate is to increase the economic status. In all parts of the world (except the Middle East) where the fertility rate is over 5 children, those countries are the poorest ones. As children survive, the parents feel less of a need to have more children which is a result of improved economic conditions. †¢ A rising tide lifts all boats. This means extreme poverty will take care of itself because economic development will pull all countries along to improvement. A rising improvement does not reach the hinder lands or mountain tops. †¢ Nature red in tooth and claw means that economic improvement is based on survival of the fittest and those who cannot compete fall behind. This is a Darwin thought which seems to still prevail throughout the world. Competition and struggle are but one side o f the coin which has the other side of trust, cooperation, and collective action. He rejects the doomsayers who saying that ending poverty is impossible. He believes he has identified specific interventions that are needed as well as found ways to plan and implement them at an affordable rate. Chapter Seventeen–Why We Should Do It There are several fallacies which affect the USA’s giving: †¢ The American public greatly overestimates the amount of federal funds spent on foreign aid. The US public believes that the government is providing massive amounts of aid. A 2001 survey by the University of Maryland showed that people felt that US aid accounted for 20% of the federal budget versus the actual of .15%. That is 24 times smaller than the actual figure. †¢ The American public believes that the US military can achieve security for Americans in the absence of a stable world. This has been proven untrue especially with 9/11. †¢ There is a fallacy in belief that there is a war of cultures. For many, this relates to Biblical prophesy of Armageddon and end times. The problem in the US is not opposition to increased foreign aid but a lack of political leadership to inform the public how little the US does supply, and then asking the US public to supply more. Hard evidence has established a strong linkage between extreme poverty abroad and threats to national security. As a general proposition, economic failure (an economy stuck in a poverty trap, banking crisis, debt default or hyper-inflation) often leads to a state failure. A CIA Task force looked at state failures between 1954 and 1994 and found that the following three factors were most significant in state failure: †¢ Very high infant mortality rate suggested that overall low levels of material well-being are a significant factor in state failure. †¢ Openness of the economy showed the more economic linkages a country had with the rest of the world, the lower chance of state failure. †¢ Democratic countries showed fewer propensities to state failure than authoritarian regimes. He then reviews what the US government has committed to since 9/11: †¢ Provide resources to aid countries that have met national reform. †¢ Improve effectiveness of the World Bank and other development banks in raising living standards. †¢ Insist on measurable results to ensure that development assistance is actually making a difference in the lives of the world’s poor. †¢ Increase the amount of development assistance that is provided in the form of grants, not loans. †¢ Since trade and investment are the real engines of economic growth, open societies to commerce and investment. †¢ Secure public health. †¢ Emphasize education. †¢ Continue to aid agricultural development. In reality, little progress has been done by the US to the accomplishment of these goals. But he does spend time discussing where plans were established and that funds were flowing where massive amounts of aid were provided by the USA: †¢ End of World War II with the Marshall Plan which revitalized Europe and Japan. †¢ Jubilee 2000 Drop the Debt Campaign started slow but ended up with large amount of national debt being cancelled in the poorest of countries. †¢ The Emergency Plan for HIV is providing $15 billion to fight this pandemic. The bottom line of this chapter is, â€Å"OK, USA and other rich countries, you are saying good things, now step-up to the plate and do what you have agreed to do.† Chapter Eighteen–Our Generation’s Challenge Our generation is heir to two and a half centuries of economic progress. We can realistically envision a world without extreme poverty by the year 2025 because of technological progress which enables us to meet basic needs on a global scale. We can also achieve a margin above basic needs unprecedented in history. Until the Industrial Revolution, humanity had known only unending struggles against famine, pandemic disease, and extreme poverty–all compounded by cycles of war, and political despotism. At the same time, Enlightenment thinkers began to envision the possibility of sustained social progress in which science and technology could be harnessed to achieve sustained improvements in the organization of social, political, and economic life. He proposes four thinkers which led this movement: †¢ Thomas Jefferson and other founders of the American Republic led the thought that political institutions could be fashioned consciously to meet the needs of society through a human-made political system. †¢ Adam Smith believed that the economic system could similarly be shaped to meet human need and his economic design runs parallel to Jefferson’s political designs. †¢ Immanuel Kant called for an appropriate global system of governance to end the age-old scourge of war. †¢ Science and technology, fueled by human reason can be a sustained force for social improvement and human betterment led by Francis Bacon and Marie-Jean-Antoine Condorcet. Condorcet put much emphasis on public education to accomplish the goals. One of the most abiding commitments of the Enlightenment was the idea that social progress should be universal and not restricted to a corner of Western Europe. He said now it is our generation’s turn to help foster the following: †¢ Political systems that promote human well-being †¢ Economic systems that spread the benefits of science, technology, and division of labor to all parts of the world. †¢ International cooperation in order to secure a perpetual peace. †¢ Science and technology, grounded in human rationality, to fuel the continued prospects for improving the human condition. He then spends three or four pages discussing the good and bad points of the Anti-globalization Movement which is taking place. He also spends time discussing three movements which made these kind of changes in the world in their time: †¢ The end of Slavery †¢ The end of Colonization †¢ The Civil Rights and Anti-Apartheid Movement He closes with discussing the next steps which are: †¢ Commit to ending poverty †¢ Adopt a plan of action built around the Millennium Development Goals †¢ Raise the voice of the poor †¢ Redeem the role of the United States in the world †¢ Rescue the IMF and World Bank †¢ Strengthen the United Nations †¢ Harness global science †¢ Promote sustainable development †¢ Make a personal commitment to become involved Summary This is an interesting book with new perspectives for me, and which is beginning to be taken seriously by the world. I believe, as stated earlier, that MAI’s role is on-the-ground solutions for ending poverty through CHE which is spelled out in Chapter 12. But, as also noted, we can do it at a far lower cost than he estimates because of our commitment to empowering people to do things on their own and primarily with their own funds.