Tsinelas

Garcia, Kimberly G. August 24, 2012 ENG 10 – WFW5 Concept Paper (Final Draft); 1,910 words Juan Dela Cruz’s Flip Flops The capacity to think introspectively – to wonder about the world within – is one that is unique to mankind, and one that has led to age-old search for identity. Perhaps more intriguing than questions about the physical are questions about the world that cannot be seen, but that is felt in every aspect of life. This unseen world comprises things that may seem mundane, such as beliefs, principles, traditions, and culture, but those are an essential part of the fabric of human nature.This unseen world is the world of identity. Because the Filipinos are a diverse group, this question is of great interest. What is distinctly Filipino, and what does this translate to in terms of who the Filipino is? To answer this, at least in part, an artifact of culture must be found that transcends regional boundaries and socioeconomic status. This object, a lbeit in varying forms, is a quite essential part of the Filipino household. And for a people of an island nation, it has become an extension of the body itself.This paper aims to draw insights about Filipino identity from an object so familiar, so simple; yet one that has been a part of every Filipino’s life – the tsinelas. It defines the tsinelas as not only a staple footwear in the Philippines but also a reflection of what being Filipino is. In construction, basic rubber slippers are very simple. The body of these rubber shoes is nothing more than a comfortable sole; the foot rests on the sole, which is secured to the front area of the foot in one of two ways.The traditional design includes a simple band that spans the top of the foot in the area between the instep and the toes. Attached to this band is a small loop that fits neatly between the big and second toes. The heel of the slipper is left open, allowing it to flop as the individual walks (†What are Rub ber Slippers? †). This gives the tsinelas its unique oblong look with a y-shaped band. It usually comes in different sizes and colors and also in a variety of designs for those who love cartoons and for those who want the face of their favourite actor or actress on their footwear.Flip flops are a common sight in the markets of the Philippines. The reason for their popularity is because they are both cheap and convenient to wear especially in a country of wet and dry seasons, where it is too hot to wear socks and shoes and where it is too uncomfortable to have wet shoes and socks during the rainy season. The origin of the tsinelas dates back to the barter trade among other nations. This footwear was brought long ago to the Philippines by the Chinese merchants, but the name ‘tsinelas’ evolved from the word â€Å"chinela† (slippers) came from the Spaniards.Since then, it has become the staple footwear among the Filipinos despite the fact that there were other forms of footwear before the tsinelas was introduced. For instance, â€Å"bakya† and â€Å"abaca slippers† are also uniquely Filipino footwear. The ‘bakya’, which is made out of thick wood with a band of leather or some other similar material attached to each end of the sides of the body with a nail, has been deemed uncomfortable and inconvenient for everyday use compared to ‘abaca slippers’ and ‘tsinelas’.Nowadays, it seen only paired with traditional Filipino clothes or costumes. ‘Abaca slippers’, which is made out of abaca, a species of banana plant which are harvested for their strong fibre called Manila hemp (†Abaca† 1), are cheap and are highly praised for their durability and lightness, characteristics footwear should have. Why then are these not the staple footwear in the Philippines? Unfortunately, the abaca is difficult to process and most of the abaca the country produces is exported.Abaca slipp ers are also difficult to find in the markets compared to the slippers, and they are more expensive than the tsinelas. Ergo, the tsinelas got its position as the staple footwear of the Filipinos. However, these have more significance than just being a form of footwear. â€Å"Tsinelas† or rubber slippers are an integral part of Filipino culture, pervading aspects like social status and practicality, as well as, a tool of discipline and a prop in uniquely Filipino games. The tsinelas plays an integral role in every Filipino’s youth.It does not only serve as a vessel through which the youth can achieve their dreams but it also serves as two important objects in molding their characters. The tsinelas serves an object of discipline and fear for Filipino children. Much like the bamboo stick that the old Chinese man uses to threaten or spank the ‘bad’ children with in the movies, the tsinelas is also the favourite tool of the Filipino adult to discipline a child with. The tsinelas has been used by adults to spank, preferably the buttocks, of children as punishment for something that they have done wrong.When a child starts to throw a tantrum, the adult would take off his/her tsinelas and hold it in one hand. Then the child suddenly turns quiet, as if the tsinelas was a magical silencing tool. The tsinelas becomes an object of fear among the Filipino children because of such circumstances. However, the youth have managed to turn the tsinelas as something that they fear into something that they can readily play and have fun with. It becomes a prop in uniquely Filipino games.These types of games become a common sight in the streets of the Philippines, whether in the province or in the city. The most famous of these games is the Tumbang Preso or Chinelas Lata where each player brings a slipper which they use to topple a can in the middle of a circle, the objective of the player to get back to the slipper and get to the other side of the base wi thout being caught by the guard who also brings the can back into position (â€Å"Tumbang-Preso† 2). Another one is the Shakay where the circle is small and playing field is smaller in size.The rules are the same as softball. The player uses feet to play the slipper thrown toward the player and score (â€Å"Games† 2). Pinoy flip flops do not only hold significance in a Filipino’s childhood. They still continue to hold significance through adolescence and adulthood and play a role in domestic and social life as well. The tsinelas has been used by so many generations that it has become a part of social culture. For instance, the branding of flip flops has turned them into a subtle status symbol.In the past, the wearing of tsinelas was regarded as something the people of low status would wear outside the home. However, as Lauren Dado, a well know Filipino blogger, asserts: What’s incredibly interesting about this whole slipper fad is that two years ago, if y ou decided to wear tsinelas to a school like Ateneo, people would look down on you or think you were poor or something†¦my school imposed a dress code on the tricycle drivers that could go in Ateneo, and one of the no-nos was- you guessed it- wearing of slippers (â€Å"Sinelas, Tsinelas, or Chinelas? †).Moreover, the tsinelas was seen by many Filipinos as something as should not be worn in hotels or big malls because is presents a ‘street look’ of the poor to middle class Filipinos. In fact, the term ‘bakya crowd’, which is a term described as the larger population that consists of citizens of the lower class, is now referred to as the ‘tsinelas crowd’. But the term ‘tsinelas crowd’ has evolved from the term ‘bakya crowd’, in a way that the ‘tsinelas crowd’ now refers to street protesters, so called because of the cheap rubber slippers that are worn by them (Patajo-Legasto 421).Recently, the ts inelas have transformed from being a form of low status into a form of high status. The tsinelas have evolved to become a fashion trend and more are using the western term ‘flip flops’ to refer to the tsinelas. According to Smith in â€Å"The Evolution of Flip Flops†: They have since evolved from beach walks to concrete pavement and have taken on a more preppy look. Not only do men wear them at the beach but also when going to the mall or dining out with friends. The revolutionary sandals like the [Lacoste] Palison leather footwear are now [classier] and savvy (par. ). Indeed, the tsinelas has now become a fashion craze resulting to many brands that are now out in the market. A few years ago, the most common tsinelas was the Beachwalk slippers, the cheapest ones that can be bought from the stores that are usually white in body color with different rubber strap colors such as red, blue and yellow that is below a hundred pesos or even the infamous Islander ‘T ibay ng Orig’ slippers. Who would have thought many brands of tsinelas- or in this case the most proper term would be flip flops- would emerge?Who would have thought that one day there would be a tsinelas that is worth one thousand pesos or more? The emergence of expensive brands of tsinelas (flip flops), such as Havaianas and Crocs, led to the evolution of the tsinelas from a footwear unworthy of being worn to the mall to a footwear worthy of being worn in malls, at fancy beach resorts, and even in hotels. Although there are still cheap tsinelas out there, it is not looked down upon as much as before. The tsinelas remain an essential part of the most intimate Filipino things – the home.It does not only play a part in our social life. The tsinelas has been the footwear that most Filipinos seek comfort from at home after wearing shoes for a whole day. At the end of the day, the first thing that is done is to taking off the shoes and putting on the tsinelas. In a classic Filipino home setting, the tsinelas are aligned from biggest to smallest at the bottom of the staircase or near the door. As each member of the family comes home, they replace their shoes with their tsinelas, which also becomes a convenient way of finding out if a family member is already home.There are always ‘extra tsinelas’ for guests and visitors. The tsinelas is also used as way of showing hospitality to guests. The tsinelas is offered to the guest by the owners of the home, often insisting that the guest should remove his shoes to be more comfortable. It is also deemed unusual for Filipinos if a person wears his shoes all day inside the house. It is as if the Filipinos have created a rule of ‘no wearing shoes inside the house’ that it is necessary for every member of the family to have a tsinelas.The Filipinos also have created a new classification of tsinelas, the ‘tsinelas panlabas’ or tsinelas for outside the home and the ‘tsine las panloob’ or tsinelas for inside the home, which is strictly imposed in many homes in the Philippines. Pinoy flip flops have also been a way to show love and respect to the elders. Most Filipino children were taught to deliver the tsinelas to their parents and/or grandparents as soon as they get home. This is one of the most unique traditions that Filipinos have.In conclusion, Juan Dela Cruz’s flip flops, the tsinelas, is something uniquely Filipino. The tsinelas become more than a reflection of individual taste or class – they are a mirror of the Filipino people. It becomes a reflection of Filipino ingenuity and practicality. Works Cited: â€Å"ABACA (Musa textilis). † Global Facilitation Unit for Underutilized Species. cropsforthefuture. org. Web. 4 Aug. 2012. Dado, Lauren. â€Å"Evolution of Flip Flops. † Sinelas, Tsinelas, or Chinelas?. Ang Sapatos ni Juan dela Cruz. Blogspot, 15 Jan. 2008. Web. 4 Aug. 2012. Games Played by the Native Childr en in the Philippines. † Uupcc. org. n. d. Web. 4 Aug. 2012. Patajo-Legasto, Priscelina. Philippine Studies: Have We Gone Beyond St. Louis? Quezon City: The University of the Philippines Press, 2008. 421. Print. Smith, Diana. â€Å"The Evolution of Flip Flops. † Ezine Articles. Ezinearticles. com, 23 Jan. 2011. Web. 4 Aug. 2012. â€Å"Tumbang-Preso. † Tagalog Lang: Filipino Culture. n. d. Web. 4 Aug. 2012. â€Å"What are Rubber Slippers? † wiseGEEK: Clear Answers for Common Questions. wisegeek. com, n. d. Web. 4 Aug. 2012.

Community Organization Reflective Paper Essay

Every little change counts, and this is what I have learned after watching this video. A few people that are committed are better than having thousands of people that do not care about anything. This is like having few people that are willing to accept change than people who embraces the old system for fear of losing what they already have. The capitalists out there though don’t seem to mind groups made of small numbers of people because of their number as they fight for social change in their area. Social change when defined is a change that is happening in the environment, in our society, in the way we deal with other people, changes in the society or within the community. There are certainly good and bad sides of social change, including having social movements and social community organization that tries to work with it. One example of social change and the movement that is associated with it is the equal right movement for blacks in the United States. There was also the movement that was established for the right of women to vote or the suffrage right for women. It only means that social change can happen globally or within the locality and it can be caused by certain aspects like religion or economic or social forces that we encounter from time to time. We also have what we call progressive organizing which is about defending the weak and providing for the needy in an attempt to have a balance world (Rubin & Rubin 2008, p.4). With progressive organizing, everyone is equal hence there is no racial discrimination and they have everyone and accepts everyone regardless of their culture and gender preference or skin color. These people are bonded with one goal and they have one belief in attaining their goal. With progressive organizing, the inequality among people and progression is being eliminated hence allowing for a more balance society both financially and economically. But there are things that even this type of movement needs in  order to succeed like infrastructure, financial assistance or fund, good leaders, trusted members and supporters that are willing to help at all costs, one vision and goal and shared value (Hardisty & Perea, 2005). Just like progressive organizing, we also have community organizing where in members of the community forms a group together to protect themselves and their love ones from possible social issues within the community. Community organizations are established with the goals that everyone is aware of like policies and rules within the community. The role of community organization is to involve everyone in the community and make them create actions for their own good. Most of the community organizations that we have are established by non-profit organizations to make people in the area work together. The key for a community organization to work is to make sure everyone is involved, empowered and aware of the importance of their presence. Here are the ten concepts that we need to have when organizing a community group: -the power to make something happen -the capability to make everyone work for the group and not for themselves alone hence makes them participate -having leadership trainings to develop members that shows potential leadership capability -to make them aware of the current political condition hence political education should be provided -give strategies on how to achieve goals -to make people do something, mobilization or making thing happen -to make them do the action, let the members participate and do their job themselves -to be a winner meaning they are achieving their goals as they wanted -to do evaluation and assessment because through assessment can they figure out which action works and which one not. From then, they can move on and improve on the current action they have and do better the next time they have a project to work on with (Getsos & Minieri, 2007). Social community groups can start by doing something that they believe is right for their community like having curfews for their children. Once the goal is established, the members can share responsibilities like who will guard the community exits and entrances to ensure that everyone is home at the said hour. Individual member can now play their role, select the part they want to play and do it for the common goodness of their community. I knew a  community where in everyone is encouraged to participate in buying the products of their fellow members before choosing other products from the market especially when it comes to fruits and vegetables which is actually good because they can now buy fresh fruits and vegetables while at the same time helping their co-members earn something. Social change is needed because there is a social problem hence in order for a social change to take effect, we must understand first the social problem we have. Identify the problem that you are havin g in the society and community and make sure that it is in fact a problem and not just a part of your cultural heritage like maybe part of your prejudistic personality. If you have a clear problem in the community, then it will be easier to device a resolution for it and this time, make sure that everyone on the organization is ready to participate and are willing to be empowered. References Hardisty, J. & Perea, A. (2005). Mapping the Progressive Movement. Retrieved from:http://www.jeanhardisty.com/essay_mappingtheprogressivemovement.html Rubin, Herbert J., and Rubin, Irene S: (2008)Community Organizing and Development; Pearson Education, Inc. New York, NY. Getsos, P. & Minieri, J. (2007). Community Organizing- what do we mean?., Chardon Press., Retrieved from: http://archive.changemakers.com/media/docs/0133_Community_Organizing.pdf 21st Century Enlightenment (2011). Retrieved from: http://comment.rsablogs.org.uk/videos/

Book report on The Hobbit

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He’s proud too and he wants his family’s tre asure back and he’s willing to do everything for it. He has a great desire for it. Sometimes he’s a bit stubborn. Gandalf He’s a wise and old wizard. Gandalf is on the good side. He knows a lot and especially about magic, he has great powers that no other person has. When people need him, he shows up immediately. He’s that person that knows more than any other people, he knows how things will be, how people will react. Smaug The evil dragon that took the treasure of Thorin’s family and now guards it in the Lonely Mountain, this is his only purpose. He can speak, and he tends to do this in a very bitter tone. With his flaming breath he can destroy cities. He’s got a hide which is impenetrable. There’s nothing good about him, therefore no-one cares about him. Summary Once there lived a hobbit, called Bilbo Baggins. Hobbits are small creatures, half the size of a man. He likes comfort and he’s not very into adventures. But then Ga ndalf the wizard shows up at his house and he wants him to go on an adventure, Bilbo doesn’t want to go. Though he asks him for tea the next day. But the next day, one after another, thirteen dwarves – their leader is Thorin – come to his house. Bilbo provides food and drinks for them and then Gandalf shows up with a map with a secret door on it. Bilbo is convinced and so this party goes on an adventure. They want to capture Thorin’s treasure, taken away by Smaug the dragon. They leave and then suddenly three trolls capture Bilbo and the dwarves, Gandalf stays out their hands. He makes them stay outside so they turn into stone. They find weapons which they take. After that they rest at the place of lord Elrond in Rivendell where they get some advice on the map. They go to the Misty Mountains and then a snow storm makes hem go into the caves where they get prisoned by some goblins. Gandalf saves the dwarves but he forgets to take Bilbo out of there. Bilbo finds a golden ring, which he takes with him. Suddenly he meets Gollum, a creature that lives there. Gollum wants to eat Bilbo and makes him solve some riddles. If he wins he can go, if he loses Gollum can eat him. Bilbo wins but Gollum still wants to eat him and searches for the ring, Bilbo has got it though and uses it to get away from the cave. He gets back to the group and then they are being pursued by the goblins and Wargs, creatures that look like wolves. Luckily Beorn and some eagles bring them to a safer place, Beorn’s house. Then the group enters Mirkwood’s forest. Gandalf has something more important to do at this moment and leaves them. In the wood spiders capture the dwarves in their webs. Bilbo saves them by killing some spiders with his sword and magical ring. Then they are captured by wood elves. Bilbo again saves the dwarves, he hides them in wine barrels using his ring. The barrels go to Lake Town, a town near the Lonely Mountain where Smaug protects Thorin’s treasure. With help of people in Lake Town they go to the Mountain. By looking on the map with the hidden door they manage to go into the Mountain carefully and Bilbo talks to the dragon. Smaug reveals by accidence that he’s got a weak spot near his heart. Bilbo steals a golden cup and Smaug gets very angry. The dragon wants to destroy Lake Town, but the archer Bard kills him by shooting an arrow in his heart. However, the town was burned to the ground. Its residents go to the Lonely Mountain to get their hands on a piece of the treasure. Thorin doesn’t want to share his treasure so the humans and elves trap Bilbo and the dwarves inside. Bilbo gets out of the mountain, because he wants to find solution for bringing peace. Thorin wants revenge on Bilbo, but Gandalf manages to save him just in time. Then an army of Goblins and Wargs comes to the Mountain. The elves, humans and dwarves have to make an alliance to fight the enemy. It seems like the goblins are winning but then Beorn and the eagles come to help the good army. After this battle Bilbo and Gandalf go back to The Hill, where Bilbo lives. Bilbo gets a fraction of the treasure. Many hobbits don’t accept him anymore, since hobbits were respectable and unadventurous creatures. Though he gets lots of respect of elves, dwarves and men now. Bilbo changed, he likes talking to elves and wizards now, though he still likes his home, because he likes the comfort of it.

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Memo - Essay Example It is during this time that the company was confirmed to have increased its earnings in a profit margin of 50% as compared to 25% in the previous years. As a result, the CEO rewarded me for the contribution I had made for the two years through my hard work and diligence while working with the company, affirming that the company had a tremendous increase in profit during my tenure. Needless to say, this is one of the achievements I am still proud of to date. Moreover, before I came to the U.S from Saudi Arabia I used work with one of the biggest Oil Companies (Saudi Aramco) in the country. My job description was a manager, with the responsibility of overseeing 65 employees out of the total 300 working under my supervision. Consequently, I would like to retaliate that the responsibility of supervising 65 employees particularly in the production department of an Oil company is not easy but requires patience, understanding and motivation of the employees in order to increase productivity and maximize on profit. Finally, I have engaged myself in a number of community services in the last few years since I completed grade school. To begin with, I am a member of ‘Keep it Clean’ initiative which has over a hundred volunteering members who clean recreation parks and public amenities around busy cities in San Diego three or four times a week depending on the weather. Secondly, I belong to a very young youth initiative known as ‘Clear the road and save time’ that began three months ago with the aim of assisting the few traffic personnel present on the roads in easing traffic jams on major roads in Washington D.C. Since it is volunteer work, I ensure that I dedicate two hours of my day to the initiative. Similarly, I have strictly dedicated my free time to assisting lost people and locating their intended destinations. This idea came up after I realized that

Holder in Due Course Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 47

Holder in Due Course - Case Study Example In the case study, Talcott sent a check for $5700 on January 15th to Guarino, who presented it to Stuart Any Kind Store for cash. In this case, Guarino was the holder or bearer of the check. Upon confirmation of the validity of the check from the drawer, the check was approved for cashing of $5700 check. Any Kind cashed the Guarino’s check after deducting the service fee of 3 percent or a value equivalent to $171. In order for the holder to qualify as the holder in due course, they must have obtained the instrument in good faith (Mann & Roberts, 2013). In this case, Any Kind Store became the holder in due course of the $5700 check after paying the value of the check to the holder. Any Kind Store was the proprietor of a negotiable instrument which they had taken for value and in good faith. They had given a consideration equivalent to the face value of the check less a 3% discount charges to the holder of the check in accordance with the requirements for the holder in due cours e. When Guarino presented the second check for cashing to Any Kind Stores, the accountant called upon the person who had approved the first check in order to approve for the payment. They called Talcott the drawer to confirm the validity of the check. The drawer approved the $5,700 check for payment after which Any Kind cashed for the holder. In this regard, Any Kind became the holder in due course since they had exercised appropriate care to ensure the check was valid and without defect. However, they did not make an inquiry to about the validity of the $10,000 check of which they had already cashed for Guarino.

Fascism vs Communism Essay Example for Free

Fascism vs Communism Essay All within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state. † Benito Mussolini I am writing about a host of differences between Italian Fascism and Soviet Communism. Yes, they both are totalitarian regimes, one under Lenin, then Stalin, who, in my opinion takes the cake for worst ever when it comes to the world’s extensive list of dictators, and Mussolini’s Fascist Regime, who ruled from 1922-1945, the last three years serving as a somewhat puppet ruler in northern Italy for Adolph Hitler, before his unfortunate and brutal death at the hands of partisans. Both nations were militarized, both were dictated, both were ruthless and oppressive to political and foreign enemies, and both were aligned to Nazi Germany at one point. But let’s be real, this is where any sort of comparison comes to a screeching halt. The March on Rome took place on Oct. 22 and last until the 29th of October, 1922. In a time of uncertainty, it was a daring and bold move, and thanks to no intervention by the military on King Emmanuel III’s orders, was a successful one. That week, around 30,000 â€Å"black shirts† assembled and helped bring about the establishment of a new regime, the National Fascist Party. On Oct. 28th, with the King’s blessings, â€Å"Il Duce† assumed all powers as a functioning Prime Minister, and Fascism became a welcome way of living to most Italians. Mussolini would be recognized as his regime slowly but surely took power as a hero to many across Europe at the time and a savior in a sense to his people. As for the Soviets, their rise to power came about as they were being thoroughly and clearly defeated by the Germans on the eastern front in the First World War. †Peace, Land, and Bread† were promised, but the people of Russia and the occupied nations under Soviet control would soon learn otherwise. Military reverses and losses were mounting, and Vladimir Lenin, the coward that he was, made promises that him and his communist state had no intention of following through with. After the treaty was signed, the oppression had to begin immediately to shout down the majority of the populations present complaints. The war began soon between the â€Å"Reds† and the â€Å"Whites†, and the masses suffering at the time of the civil war was only a sample of the taste of what the Soviet people were going to go through in the future. Once Stalin took over, he would over shadow both Hitler and Mussolini in their respective cruelness combined. â€Å"Fascism should rightly be called Corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power. † This is a direct quote from Benito Mussolini, and Fascism more or less lived up to it. The glorious destiny and manifestation of the nation and its peoples were more important than the individual, something that was the extreme opposite of the supposed rights for all individuals of Communism, which purpose was to ensure rights for the factory workers over the factory owners, the poor masses over the rich elite, something that was precarious considering the Soviets were as a majority peasants, who, when coming to power under Lenin or Stalin, now had to watch themselves as any move deemed too right or wrong could get you killed in this backwards, barbaric communist state. As factory workers in a nation such as Fascist Italy, you might be working for less Lira and strikes were out of the question unless you didn’t value your own life, but it was necessary for the resurrection and rebirth of the Roman Empire, which Mussolini tried in earnest to turn Italy from a 2nd rate European Power to a World Power, which he in my opinion succeeded. While the Soviets, especially under Stalin, were also into updating their countries industrialization and economy, at the cost of literally millions of human lives. I’m not trying to say that Italy’s Fascism was a saint, as many thousands were locked away and or perished under Mussolini’s Regime, but literally tens of millions would die for this greater â€Å"communist† cause. While Mussolini was promoting successfully an increased birth rate, the Communist cause was killing people as fast as the bubonic plague. Let me put it this way, Communism protects the individual at the all costs, while Fascism protects the States interests, to the cost and sacrifice of the individual and his rights. And lastly, if Fascism had anything in common with Communism, Mussolini wouldn’t have sent a expeditionary force in with the axis after Operation Barabossa opened up. What was a force of 50,000 was expanded into the 200,000 strong 8th Italian Army, fighting with bravery, valor and even leading the last documented (and successful) cavalry charge against the Soviets on the eastern front. Both nations had intervened for their opposing sides during the Spanish Civil War, the Soviets for the republicans, Fascist clearly for â€Å"Il Caudillo† General Franco and his Nationalists. While both were revolutionist governments with a need for oppression, I admire the Nationalistic aspects of all Fascist regimes in Europe. Not saying that I agree with or condone genocide on any scale commited by Fascism like the Ustasha Regime of Croatia, The Iron Guard of Romania, or the Anti- Jewish laws enforced by Germany or Italy, But they fought with selflessness and sacrificed their lives for their nation, something Americans used to do and believe in, when this liberal change took over I don’t know. But you can bet your life that if this country suffered invasion from China, I’d defend with my life this coast as the Germans had Normandy. Or if we were invaded by Mexico, I’d defend our deserts as the Italian Parachute Division Folgore defended their African positions, to the last man. Bottom line: Communism has more differences than similarities with Fascism. Sources: Brutal Friendship: Mussolini, Hitler, and the fall of Italian Fascism, F. W. Deakin Wikipedia. com BrainyQuotes. com The Third Reich: a new history, Michael Burleigh

Tourism and terrorism in egypt

Tourism and terrorism in egypt Introduction The tremendous historical sites and sights and rich cultural heritage has made Egypt a unique tourism destination. The prominence of tourism industry has had such undeniable impact on the overall Egyptian economy that it has been regarded by many observers as the life blood of Egyptian economy. The crucial significant of tourism industry have not been overlooked by Egyptian political dissents. Although unsuccessful, they at time attempted to make their political demands by carrying out terrorism attacks on this vulnerable industry. This chapter attempted to offer some general insights on tourism industry and terrorism accidents in the contemporary Egypt. The chapter begins with a cursory review of the Egyptian context proceeding with discussion on the fluctuation of the tourism industry in Egypt in the past three decades. The analysis is largely based upon the official data taken from Egypt Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) and the annual analysis of the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). On occasions, the complementary aggregated data has been adapted from other resources like Business Source Premier and Regional Surveys of the World, the Middle East and North America (2008). The analysis is spilt into three periods, comparing the international tourists arrivals and receipts. Finally the results are represented in a graph tracing the trends in past three decades. The next section deals with the main tourism stakeholders playing role in the tourism in the Egypt. The final section di scusses the emergence, evolution and challenges of terrorism groups in Egypt and their engagement in terrorist attacks targeted tourism destinations. In this section counter-terrorism strategies oscillating between carrot and stick policies will be reviewed and discussed the degree to which each has been successful. Egypt at a glance The Arab Republic of Egypt located in the northeastern of the African continent and the Sinai Peninsula. It has land borders with Sudan in the south and with Libya in the west and shoreline extending along the Mediterranean Sea in the north and Red Sea and the Gulf of Aqaba in the East. Since the most of the country is desert, the population is distributed very unevenly in Cairo and Alexandria and around the Nile and Suez Canal. These areas are among the worlds most densely populated regions. (Countries of the World and Their Leaders Yearbook, 2008) Egypts geographic arrangement and distribution of population, and especially the sole reliance on the Nile River for irrigation has been resulted in central administration and allowed the government to extend well its authority to the peripheries. (Goldschmidt, Arthur, 1988) In 2008, the total population of Egypt was 81,713,520 which make the Egypt one of the most populous countries in the region. A large proportion this population is young; half of them are under twenty years of age and two-thirds are under thirty a situation that severely strains the economy. (CAPMAS, 2008) Egypts government is hardly able to meet the demands for food, shelter, education, and jobs. Around three million Egyptians have migrated to other Arab countries, particularly the oil-rich states, in search of work. Their payments to their families constitute a major source of Egypts income. Much like elsewhere in the world economy have come to play a crucial role in Egyptian lives. The long history of colonial exploitation and the legacy of enduring authoritarian rulers forestalled the industrial development of Egypt in nineteen century. At the turn of twentieth century, the industrialization began to take root by a rapid growth in textile industry. The growth was comparatively satisfactory before socialist government of Abdel Nasser (1956-1970) took the power. Abdel Nasser eighteen years era is characterized by militarization of politics and concentration of power through the supremacy of the executive branch. Under Nasser the state took the control of the economy to ensure equitable development, a policy known later as Arab Socialism. Nasser was a charismatic leader and earned reputation as champion of Arab interest, however, his economic policies brought the country on the verge of bankruptcy. Nassers death in 1970 ushered in a massive political and economic change i n Egypt. By initiating the economic policy of Enfetah (openness), which means liberalization of economic, Sadat his successor began a series of fundamental reforms in the economy. In addition, Sadats regional foreign policy including peace initiative and rapprochement with Israel enhanced the international image of the Egypt. Under President Hosni Mubarak (1981 until now) Egypt paved the same routes and strove for the same goals, however, there was along way to go as the country still was grappling with chronic problems emanated from inside and abroad. (Countries of the World and Their Leaders Yearbook, 2008) Flow and ebb of Tourism Industry in Egypt Between 1982 and 1990, the number of international tourist arrivals went up from 1,423,251 to 2,600,117 which indicate an increase of 182 per cent. Coupled with the numbers of arrivals, revenue from tourism was about 2.5 billion US dollars by 1990, ranked tourism sector as one of the most lucrative sectors of the Egyptian economy. (Table. 5.1) Such great advancement was mainly because of the Egypt government economic initiatives of liberalization I indicated before. (Wahab, 1997) However, the tourism industry proved to be one of the most susceptible sectors to instability in the region. The triggering of terrorist activity in the Middle East after mid-1980s and the anti-American sentiment in the region, intensified by the US air-strikes on targets in Libya in 1986, resulted in tourists reduction, particularly US citizens, in traveling to Egypt. The 90s started with one of the most dramatic event of region caused by the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 and the following international dispatching of troops to the region. Not surprisingly the tourism industry in Egypt was affected considerably by the consequences of this event. (Conrad, 2005) In February 1991 tourist arrivals fallen off to 57,000, compared with 208,000 in February 1990. Following the end of the Persian Gulf conflict, tourist numbers recovered quickly, reaching to 2214277 on average in 1991 and account for the record figure of around 3 millions in the 12 months to June 1992. (Table. 5.2) Yet, the tourism sector in Egypt went bust again, when a tourism destination were targeted by Islamist militants terrorists. The number of tourists visiting Egypt dropped off about 22% in 1993, while revenue fell by 38%. (Table 5.2) Having failed to eradicate the problem of terrorism through its campaign against militant Islamists, the Government allocated 25 million US dollars for a venture to promote tourism in 1994, with the aim of restoring revenue from this sector to its 1992 level. (Wahab, 1997) However, the number of visitors in the first three months of 1994 was 15% lower than the 1993 level. In January 1993 the World Bank had approved a 130 million US dollars loan for the development of new tourism infrastructure, within the frame ­work of a program, valued at some 805 billion US dollars (EIU, 2004) Realizing that tourism is one of the main cornerstones of the national economy, a com ­prehensive plan was prepared for the fiscal year 1994/1995 to enhance the efforts in three main tourism fields: (a) development; (b) promotion; and (c) public awareness (El Beltagui 1995). The Ministry of Tourism was among the pioneer to put into action the policy of privatization. In addition, an overall national tourism development strategy drawing on marketing techniques was adopted. This strategy laid out the priority zones and determined the detailed rules for investors while taking into account a sustainable development strategy by protecting the natural and cultural resources. The Ministry of Tourism also undertook practical measures in the promotion of tourist industry through an ambitious plan. One important element of this promotional plan was to strengthen Egypts image on the international tourism map as a place for convention tourism. Furthermore, it attempted to raise public awarenes s of the significance of tourism through the mass media. Ten TV spots were produced in 1993-94 and repeatedly shown on main Egyptian TV channels. Also, an agreement was made between the Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Education to incorporate tourism issues in the curricula of primary and secondary schools. (El Beltagui 1995). By mid-1995 several developmental plan with the aim of enhancing tourism infrastructures were implemented in the Abu Soma and the Red Sea coast at Sahl Hashish. According to the Tourism Development Authority report during these years some 27 new projects also were taken into consideration on the south Sinai coast. (EIU, 1998) the consequences of such measures was obvious, in 1995 tourist arrivals increased a quarter further compared to last year culminating to 3.13 millions, a pattern repeated in the following year with some 3.9 million tourist arrivals and estimated revenue of 3.7 billion US dollars. (Table 5.2) Source: Egypt Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) Flourishing of the tourism industry was halted by a dramatic setback in late 1997. Constant fears of the safety and security of travelers followed a terrorist attack on a German tour bus in Cairo in September, which nine German tourists and one Egyptian lost their lives, were aggravated the next month by the massacre of 58 tourists and four Egyptians in Luxor. Many tourist agencies cancelled their travels and similarly many potential tourists withdraw their application for travelling to these destinations. Immediately the Government took extensive recovery measures including compensation of loss of tourism by internal tourism in the region. (Conrad, 2005) Egypt Air, which lost many foreign tourists, offered a half priced fares tickets for domestic tourists. Key among the recovery measures taken in these years is a numerous discounts on several goods and services to urge the potential travelers to come back to the region. The official statistics estimated 1.2 billion US dollars result ed from decrease of tourists numbers from 3.9 to 3.7 and other recovery expenses. Since 1999 the tourism industry undergone recovery and the former construction plans in tourism industry accelerated. The statistics in this year confirm such rapid recovery as around 4.8million tourists visited Egypt and brought about revenue of about 3.9 million US dollars. (CAPMAS, 2008) The investing in tourism industry in the following years was unprecedented. For instance, the value of only one contract for development of luxury accommodation in Port Ghaleb on the Red Sea was around 2,000 million US. These investments proved to be effective as tourist arrivals increased to 5.5 million in 2000, bringing around 4.345 billion US dollar income. (EIU, 2000) The regional crisis including conflict between Palestinians and Israelis in second intifada in September 2000 and the September 11th attacks of 2001 put the sector once again into decline, a number of projects put on hold and many travellers cancel their flights as a result. By November 2001 tourist numbers had fallen off 54.5% compared with the same month the previous year. Since then tourist arrivals have steadily risen and by August 2002 arrivals were a remarkable 15% up on the previous year. However, revenues were taking longer to return to pre-September 11th levels as a result of increased discounting. (Table 5.3) Once again the Government took into consideration the recovery measures in 2002 to make up for the tremendous losses of tourist revenues. Due to global values of Egypt heritages the prestigious international organization showed willingness to make investment in tourism industry in Egypt. A prime example is UNESCO which supported a 350 million dollar project to reconstr uct the Great Egyptian Museum near the Pyramids at Giza. The second Gulf War in 2003 affected the tourism industry in Egypt in some extent. The same year Egypt was host of an international conference on promotion of sustainable tourism following which contribute immensely in offering a positive image of Egypt tourism industry. In 2004 tourist income reached 6.1 billion US dollar which was the Egypts most important current-account credit in the economy history of the country. Tourist arrivals increased by 35% in 2004 to 8.1 million arrivals and a second successive record. (EIU, 2004) The Egyptian government since kept supporting the industry by targeting the markets in European and Arab countries and removing the existing barriers for foreign investing. A successful measure taken by Egypt government was sponsoring the travel of tourism journalists and allowing German and Italian visitors to show any identification cards rather than passport. Key among these measures has also been investing in human resources. The latest measure in this respect was signing a contract with Cornell University to offer training course for Egyptians in the hospitality and tourism industry. The similar educational contract has also been signed with countries with high experiences in the tourism industry such as Greece and France. In addition a five-year campaign with the aim of raising the awareness of public was undertaken in April 2006. Within these programs Egyptians are given training about significant of tourism industry in their life and how to communicate in a hospitable manner. Such training has also incorporated in the primary school curriculum. The campaign also makes best use of televised and printed media to meet its mission. Another campaign has been undertaken to enhance tourism at international level. UK-based DDB International has been hired for this purpose. Marwa Fayed, senior account manager notes â€Å"The campaign borrows some of the same concepts used by Malaysia and India .We are trying to make Egypt into a brand.† (Cited in Meed, 2007) These measures resulted in the renewal of attacks on tourist facilities in 2004 and 2005 and a victory for authorities. Finally according to most recent statistics, in 2006 tourism revenue reached 7.6 billion dollars, Egypt largest source of export earnings. Tourists arrivals rose by 5 percent to 9.1 million, a third successive record. (EIU, 2008) Source: Egypt Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) Tourism stakeholders in Egypt Central and Local government Due to centralized system of governance, appointed authorities in Egypt at local and central level has taken major roles in tourism industry. In particular in recent years they have drawn considerable attention to the industry. Egypt is organized into 27 governorates, each headed by an appointed governor. The local government system act in 1960, stipulated a diverse responsibility for governorates ranging from social, health, welfare, and educational services to the social and economic development of their region. They are monitoring on the measures and plans of the city and village councils. The actual authority however rest with top officials in Cairo in a highly centralized manner through a heavily burdened bureaucracy. The village mayors who were only elected local authorities are now selected by the Ministry of the Interior. (Fahmi, 2002) The ministry of tourism The Ministry of Tourism has come to play destination management organization (DMO) role in Egypt albeit with more and more limited power compared to its Western counterparts. The Ministry is organized into four major sections: (a) Planning and Development; (b) Regulation of Tourist Services; (c) Administration; and (d) Financial and Legal Affairs. Like most other ministries, the Min ­istry of Tourism suffers from overstaffing and inadequate technical capa ­bility. The Ministry in recent years has taken many proactive steps to ensure the private sector dependency tourism. The initial step was establishment of the Tourism Development Authority in 1991 with the aim of enhancing the relationship of private sector with the Ministry in guiding and promoting touristic investments. (Wahab 1997). The Ministry also supervises a number of public sector organizations: (a) Egypt ­ian General Authority for Promotion of Tourism; (b) Public Authority for Conference Centres; and (c) Tourism Dev elopment Authority. A crisis management unit has been established in the Ministry of Tourism to coordinate the stakeholders activities during and after crisis. Key to the recent changes in the Ministry is the new position of the public sector Tourism Authority, as an umbrella company consists of five associated companies including Egyptian General Organization for Tourism and Hotels, Misr Travel Company, Egyptian Hotels Company, Misr Hotels, and Grand Hotels of Egypt (Wahab 1997).The new appointments in the top managerial body of the Ministry of Tourism 2004 is also represents fundamental positive changes for the tourism sector in Egypt. (American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt, 2008) Ministry of Interior and Police There are two major branches of the police in Egypt. The State Security Investigations Sector (SSIS) dealing with crime and investigation, and the Central Security Force (CSF) dealing with internal security issues like public protests and combat with oppositions. As a whole, the force maintains law and order, detects and prevents crime, collects evidence, processes passports, controls traffic, and screens immigrants. In each governorate, a director of police oversees law enforcement in the district. The director reports to the governor. Both the governor and director are overseen by the Ministry of the Interior. Police ranks reflect the gradations within the army, with the higher ranking police officers being major generals down to first lieutenants. Below this are lieutenant-chief warrant officers. Enlisted officers hold the ranks of master sergeant, sergeant, corporal, and private. There is a special tourist police, who wear an armband with an insignia in Arabic and English and are able to speak in English. It was established in 1997 after the massacre of 60 tourists at the Hatsheptsut temple in Luxor. According to one report, a large body of tourist police has been deployed to guard tourist sites. (Fielding, D. and Shortland, A. 2005) Egyptian Tourism Federation (ETF) The tourism private sector in Egypt is represented by Egyptian Federation of Tourist Chambers (EFTC) which was established in 1968 when the first law for tourism was enacted. With new demands for more and more enhancing the tourism industry its official title was changed to Egyptian Tourism Federation (ETF) in 2002. The main ETF task as mentioned in its constitution is to ensure the common interests of the tourism industry by developing strategic cooperation and joint planning between the five Affiliate Associations. This is accomplished through close relationship with the five affiliate business associations: Egyptian Hotels Association (EHA) Egyptian Travel Agents Association (ETAA) Egyptian Chamber of Tourist Establishments (ECTE) Egyptian Chamber of Tourist Commodities (ECTC) Egyptian Chamber of Diving and Water Sports (CDWS). The ETF is also work in association with the following institutions: Travel and tourism enterprises Ministry of Tourism and public authorities in general Supply structure of the tourism industry According to its official site the areas of activity of the ETF is to enhance and support following sectors: Resources development Transportation Infrastructure and superstructure of tourism destinations Human resources development International and regional organizations concerned with tourism development (ETF website) Egypt Airline EgyptAir is a major Egypt state-owned airline established in 1932 and headquartered in Cairo, Egypt. Beginning in 1980, EgyptAir embarked on a modernization and marketing plan. Accordingly, EgyptAir planned its network to maximize its traffic and scope, reaching main cities in all five continents. To carry out its marketing plan, EgyptAir purchased several new aircraft and then developed an autonomous infrastructure to support and serve its fleet in order to operate in a safe and efficient manner. As a result of its market research, EgyptAir was reinvented in a stepped-pyramid form. The base of the pyramid was EgyptAirs most profitable markets. This was a significant step toward establishing the airlines financial credibility, which can be very challenging for an airline from an underdeveloped region of the world such as Egypt. EgyptAir owns shares in many tourism companies and hotel chains, such as Cairo Airport Mà ¶venpick, Tut Amon, and Nefertari in Aswan and Abu Simbel, and Taba Hilton resorts in Sinai. EgyptAir also owns shares in many charter companies, such as Shorouk Air and Air Cairo. Such investments have increased EgyptAirs assets tenfold since the implementation of the airlines modernization and expansion plan in 1980. EgyptAirs network has also expanded to reach major cities and capitals in all five continents. (Groenewege, Adrianus, 2003) Terrorism in Egypt There is little debt that the main challenge to the Tourism Industry comes from a major anti-government extremist movement, the Islamic Group (IG, known in Arabic as Al-Gamaat al-Islamiya).[7] IG emerged in the late 1970s with the principle objective of removing the current Egyptian government from power and replacing it with an Islamic regime. Affiliated with al-Qaida, it has also developed an absolute anti- United States (U.S.) pledge. From 1992 until 1999, IG militants carried out several attacks against tourist destinations in Egypt, most notably a November 1997 attack at Luxor that claimed the lives of 58 foreign visitors. (Graph, 2) Since 1992 Egyptian police and security centres embarked massive attacks on Islamic groups. Coupled with these counter terrorism measures Egyptian parliament passed new anti-terrorism law stipulating death penalty for some crimes and consequently and the Egyptian martial judiciary convicted a number of terrorist to death on accusation of overthrowing the regime. The Islamic groups fought back through terrorism attacks mainly toward the tourism destinations. Such attacks continued constantly over 1993, and proved to be a suitable target for terrorists to gain their goals and at the same the tourism industry suffered considerably from the attacks. These left an intensively negative image of Egypt as a tourism choice and were resulted in withdrawal of many international tourism operators from Egypt. This time the government accelerated its counter-terrorism measures by deployment a massive number of security forces. Those accused of terrorist act were received very severe punishments by military courts. In 1993 these courts in an unprecedented action convicted a record number of 38 Islamists to death and 29 were executed. (Tal, 2005) Not surprisingly, such measures run in contrast with human right principles and triggered an extensive international criticism. Such opposition slowed down a little aggressive measure. The Egyptian government also tried to carry out the policy of carrot instead of stick by allowing the oppositions to occupy some minor public posts. (Kepel, 2005) The tug of war between government and Islamic dissents carried out till after 1997 when in massive trial 98 oppositions were sentenced charges of subversion, four of whom were convicted to death penalty and eight to imprisonment for life. This triggered a new wave of terrorism fight back marked by terrorism attack to tourist bus in Cairo which lead to killing nine German tourists and injuring 11 others. This attack is still remained unclear as the government claimed that terrorist had no link with IG but evidences all support the strong connection IG members with the event, following this event two suspects of conducting the attack were executed. This severe reaction led to the tragedy of Luxor in which 70 people, including 58 foreign tourists, wore massacred by members of IG. This over reaction learnt the Government to emphasis more on carrot policies. As such, they opened up a dialogue with moderate oppositions as part of a national reform. (Kassem, 2004) As a result, Muslim Brotherhood condemned the attack. Other political measures taken into account to combat terrorism was secret agreement between Egypt and the West for the identifying and extraditing IG leaders in exile. Since the public opinion no longer supporting the aggressive actions of terrorist, IG showed the signs of ceasefire in 1999. In 2000 Al-Jihad also paved the same way and declared the halt in terrorism attacks. The ceasefire was short-lived when in October 2004, 34 people were killed in bomb attacks at Taba. These were followed by terrorists attacks in Sharm al-Sheikh in 2005, which led to 64 lose of life, and a series of bombings exploded in Dahab in April 2006, which killed 20 people. Yet, the government has linked these attacks to terror cells of local Bedouin from North Sinai, which have connections to al-Qaida. Conclusion The progress in tourism industry in Egypt was maddeningly slow in Nasser era; however, aftermath of Nassers death the country drew attention back to tourism industry and since as the official statistics indicates it has thrived and dramatically developed. The industry proved to be very vulnerable to the security incidents. In respond, the Egyptian government has undertaken a plethora of counter terrorism techniques. The balance sheet of their measures demonstrated a capacity of for rebounding strongly from such incidents, but a sustained campaign would be far more difficult.

Neisseria gonorrhoeae Essay -- Essays Papers

Neisseria gonorrhoeae Introduction Neisseria gonorrhoeae is the obligate human pathogen that causes the sexually transmitted disease (STD) gonorrhea. This Gram-negative diplococci/gonococci does not infect other animals or experimental animals and does not survive freely in the environment. The gonococcal infection occurs in the upper or lower tract, pharynx, ophthalmic area, rectum, and bloodstream. During the 1980’s gonorrhea was also referred to as â€Å"the clap† when public awareness was quite minimal. This was one of the venereal diseases prostitutes hoped to contract since it resulted in infertility by pelvic inflammatory disease (PID). As documentation, diagnostic testing, and public awareness improved, there has been a decline in incidence reports, however, it is still considered a very common infectious disease. Encounter Sexually active men and women of all races, ages, and socioeconomic backgrounds are susceptible to the gonococcal infection. However, out of the infected population, the CDC states 80% of the females and 10% of the males are asymptomatic. After incubation of five to seven days, males tend to display symptoms of swelling in the urethra, painful and more frequent urination, and abnormal penal discharge of a thick yellow exudate (pus). Similarly, females experience chronic abdominal pain, inflammation of the cervix, painful urination, bleeding or irregular menstrual cycles, fever and increased vaginal yellow discharge. Females have a higher risk factor of 60-90% of being infected after a single sexual encounter. Both sexes experience sore throat in oral infections if they are not asymptomatic. However, this response is most commonly mistaken as a viral sore throat. Entry Neisseria gonorrhoe... ...584.doi: 10.1046/j.1462-5822.2002.t01-1- 00215.x Park, Hae-Sun Moon, Wolfgang, Matthew, van Putten, Jos P. M., Dorward, David, Hayes, Stanley F. & Koomey, Michael. Structural alterations in a type IV pilus subunit protein result in concurrent defects in multicellular behaviour and adherence to host tissue. Molecular Microbiology 42 (2), 293-307.doi: 10.1046/j.1365-2958.2001.02629.x Soper, David E, Disseminated gonococcal infection. (Protocols). Contemporary OB/GYN. June 2002 v47 i6 p135(4) Bradbury, Jane. Neisseria gonorrhoeae evades host immunity by switching off T lymphocytes. The Lancet. Feb 23, 2002 v359 i9307 p681. Senior, B.W., Steward, W., Galloway, C., Kerr, M. Cleavage of the Hormone Human Chorionic Gonadotropin, by the Type 1 IgA1 Protease of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, and Its Implications. Journal of Infectious Diseases. Oct. 1, 2001 v184 i7 p9022.

all quiet on the western front :: essays research papers

What was going through Remarque’s mind? Paul is caught in WWI fighting to prove his loyalty to his country. Amidst the war, he struggles to find meaning in the new image he has become. In the beginning, their teacher persuades everyone in the class to enlist in the military to fight the glorious war. Thinking this is an honourable idea; everyone joins even those who secretly fear the battlefield. However, they are forced into volunteering. Not enlisting is like turning their back on their own country. To the teachers, schoolmasters, and older men, going to war is the best thing a man could do for his country. In reality, Paul and his friends do not want to kill or be killed. After Behm became Paul's first dead schoolmate, Paul viewed the older generation bitterly, particularly Kantorek, the teacher who convinced Paul and his classmates to join the military, feeling alone and betrayed in the world that they had left for him. Paul's generation felt empty and isolated from the rest of the world due to the fact that they had never truly established any part of themselves in civilian life. In the story, Paul tells us that all the older soldiers are stilled linked to their present lives. These older soldiers have wives, children, jobs and interests to come back to. According to Baumer, all the younger soldiers have to come back to is their parents and maybe a girlfriend. The young soldiers have no jobs and no idea on what life beyond the war will be like for them. All the young soldiers know how to do is fight in the war. And that is what they do till they are injured, or killed. This war has totally ruined the lives of Baumer, his friends, and all the young G erman soldiers who fought in this war. At boot camp, Himmelstoss abused Paul and his friends, yet the harassment only brought them closer together and developed a strong spirit amongst them. After a battle Paul was given leave and returned home only to find himself very distant from his family as a result of the war. He left in agony knowing that his youth was lost forever. Before returning to his unit, Paul spent a little while at a military camp where he viewed a Russian prisoner of war camp with severe starvation problems and again questioned the values that he had grown up with, compared to the values while fighting the war.

Harry Potter Archetype paper -- J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter, in many ways follows the hero journey and archetype. Throughout the book many of his adventures and exploits leave many of the others feeling as if he were a hero. The journey he takes part in is ones that make me feel he's living a hero's journey. Harry was born with many special talents and abilities. The following paragraphs I state my views and how Harry fits the hero archetype and journey. In many ways Harry Potter fits the hero archetype. A few of the examples are as follows. When Harry was born his life was planned to be one of an ordinary wizard, but due to his parent?s death by Voldemort he was destined to live a normal muggle life with the Dursleys. Also at age ten Harry discovers he was a wizard was a surprise to him not knowing what lay ahead of him. Harry inherited many of James and Lily's traits and skills in the wizarding world, he was soon to face many of the challenges they faced. For example Harry using the flute to memorizing Fluffy to access the chamber bellows chapter sixteen page two hundred seventy five. In chapter three Harry states that when ...

The Values of Skepticism

The values of skepticism The attitude of skepticism isn’t about not believing; it’s about suspending judgment until a claim can be verified with evidence and explanation. In most cases people tend to be easily tricked in believing what the majority of people believe in, just because of that simple fact. As intellectual individuals, humans have the ability to distinguish what seems to be good, and what seems to be not good and inconvenient simply by means of sight, taste, smell, touch but assumptions without out any sort of support only leads people to become ignorant, confused, and perhaps end up hurting oneself or other people emotionally.Practicing skepticism is crucial to protecting oneself from believing unsubstantiated claims, it also allows people to discover the truth about their assumptions, and become more knowledgeable by using their own reasoning. Therefore individuals should adopt a more skeptical outlook to their everyday lives. A reason for there to be ide as efficiently transmitted to people, is that they are presented in a finished form. However, ideas are plentiful and human brain can only deal with a small number of them, and individuals usually tend to show a practical interest in adopting only the best idea.Sometimes people choose ideas based on their cultural beliefs such as respect to an authority figure, tradition, religion, commonsense, spirituality, prejudices, etc. The virtue of skepticism attempts to apply rationality to thoroughly get to the bottom of ideas with the great intention to seek for reliable knowledge. While thinking about the prompt of this essay I realized that people do this everyday, sometimes people question authority and ideas presented by other individuals. How do we know when it is appropriate to do so?Main leading thinkers and philosophers of the Enlightenment and the Scientific Revolution were highly sophisticated skeptics, and whether it was provoked by their own curiosity or their own knowledge the y continued to doubt the way natural things in life were explained by clergy individuals. Think about it for a second and it makes sense. Perhaps authority figures may not always be correct, and therefore it is very significant to doubt or have a critical attitude against authority.If philosophers like Copernicus never hypothesized that our planet earth is not the center of the universe, then we would most likely still be living with geocentric point of views. It is never a good suggestion to accept some ideas without questioning them before, but unfortunately we do this everyday. For example, at school during class, students usually take the professor’s word as they educate them, and for all they know all this information that was once given is completely false.Not many of the students actually take the time to do their own research and try to seek for the truth. In our society we have come to trust what other people tell us, it would be a better idea to have our own opinion and not always trust what our ears hear. One of the many important arguments regarding skepticism is that a certain individual will doubt ideas until the very end of the argument and eventually come up to the closest to true knowledge.Whatever the idea of the subject may be or whomever the person asked may be, questions are always necessary, essential and only if they are the right questions, the response will always be the correct one. What this basically means is that the pursuit to ask questions and obtain answers is the starting point of true skepticism. When a certain person believes on something without questioning its authenticity, it leaves their mind completely open to believing all kinds of different unsubstantiated claims, from foretelling to forwarded e-mails sent by anonymous people.This means that people are literally being led by misinformation, which supports Carl Sagan’s point in The Dragon in my Garage â€Å"Claims that cannot be tested, assertions immune to disproof are veridically worthless. † (pg. 171) As an example to illustrate this problem of unjustified beliefs, I would like to introduce this fictional scenario. Imagine that a person receives a forwarded Email from his friend, and it claims that the President of the United States is an unpatriotic, foreign-born Muslim, socialist person who desires the terrorists to win, and consequently of this he or she must immediately be impeached.In the off likelihood that someone happens to take this hypothetical false e-mail to heart, this certain individual will begin to base their political decisions on this extremely false belief. This person could attempt to vote the person out from the office, perhaps create a campaign for impeachment, or even try to persuade others to not vote for this person as a presidential candidate. It is certainly not wrong at all to commit these political activities, but the explanation behind doing so, are absolutely wrong. They are not proven in real ity.Occasionally when people are confronted with unethical claims such as the forwarded e-mail, they would rather investigate it thoroughly before taking it on faith. After all, the resource of this information is a forwarded e-mail, which could have been initiated by anyone. To begin with, are any of those reasons even good enough to impeach the president? Well, not being a U. S. citizen and being a terrorist supporter may be great reasons to impeach someone, but for being a Muslim or a socialist individual is definitely not a good reason.As a result, it is very comprehensible that the significance of each claim differs from the others, and like Carl Sagan said if people don’t exercise some minimal skepticism â€Å"If you have an absolutely untrammeled credulity, there is probably some price you will have to pay later. † (pg. 8). Of course this may be a very tremendous illustration, but it satisfies the point. Skepticism is a good way to introduce a person to new thin gs and it is one of the best methods of acquiring knowledge, as people are always certain of the things they know.It is distinguished that raising questions for the sake of it will not be considered profound skepticism, since the need to raise questions is supposed to bring out the total truth behind anything, but when it comes to new unproven claims, why not be the first one to examine it? First consider if the claim leads to the conclusion, then investigate it, and gather informative credible sources. Then consider the information and make a hypothesis based on the evidence. Chances are, if the justification is supported by continuous evidence it is a good theory.

Part Time Job Influenced Student’s Study Essay

The prevalence of secondary school students working part-time is linked to economic cycles: when there is an economic upturn, more students work; when economies are depressed, fewer work. Most students who work do so in low-paying service, clerical, or sales jobs, with some evidence that proportionately more students from middle-class families work than students from either poor or wealthy families. There appears to be a general view that there is a connection between working more than 15 to 20 hours per week and reduced school success in terms of academic achievement, as well as an increased risk of dropping out of school. However, it is not clear whether increased work causes the problems, or whether academic failure leads more students who are failing to increase their work hours. Literature Review A range of literature has been reviewed and some details from this literature are shared below. The prevalence of work It is not clear what proportion of students work, but in a (U. S. ) study of 21,000 senior high school students, 75% were working part-time for an average of 16. 4 hours a week (Gordon, 1985). The study found that working was related to a need for immediate income and to a lack of interest in school. In Canada, 40% of teenagers aged 15 to 19 had jobs in 1993, but these data include full-time summer jobs (Canadian Social Trends, Winter, 1994). B. C. teenagers are more likely to be employed than teenagers in Ontario, Quebec, or the Atlantic provinces, with 44% employed in B. C. Slightly higher teenage-employment rates than B. C. ’s were reported in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta. When only part-time work is considered, 72% of those employed worked part-time. 3% of full-time Canadian students aged 15 to 19 worked during the school year. The Statistics Canada (StatsCan) data reported in Canadian Social Trends appear low in comparison to other data, but one possible explanation may be the differentiation between full- and part-time students, a difference not always clarified in some reports. Bernier (1995), using Canadian Labour Force data, found that 40% of Canadian full-time students participated in the labour force, compared to 77% of part-time students. There may be considerable differences across socio-economic groups, though there is little firm data to support this: Lawton (1992) states that middle-class students are more likely to work than either lower- or upper-class students. Lawton also indicates that about two-thirds of students in senior grades hold part-time jobs, findings closer to Gordon’s study than to the data supplied by StatsCan. The effect of working part-time on students’ academic achievement Most research shows that there is a detrimental effect on achievement if secondary students work for over 15 hours a week (Stern, 1997). Such students have lower grades, do less homework, are more likely to drop out, and are less likely to enter post-secondary education. Those students who work fewer hours suffer fewer negative consequences. These finding are supported by a Toronto study (Cheng, 1995), and are similar to StatsCan data (Canadian Social Trends, 1994), which show that students who worked fewer than 20 hours a week had much lower dropout rates than those who worked for more than 20 hours a week. There were startling differences between males who worked fewer than 20 hours (16% dropout rate), and those who worked longer than 20 hours (33% dropout rate), although the highest female dropout rates (22%) occurred among females who did not work at all while at school. There is one important caveat to the link between part-time work and marks: there is mixed evidence as to whether marks decline because students work more, or whether students whose marks are declining choose to work more. However, Singh (1998) in a study which factored in socio-economic status and revious achievement, stated that the more hours worked, the greater the negative effects on student achievement. The consequences for younger students working longer hours could be more severe than for older students (Barone, 1993). Many students who work find some problems balancing school and work demands (Worley, 1995). Many who work part-time have limited participation in extra-curricular activities (Hope, 1990). The effect of working part-time on students’ overall well-being Stern (1997) and Cheng (1995) both state that students derive benefits from working, as long as the hours are below 15 per week. Stern identifies a benefit to future earning potential and a more positive attitude to work formed while working or during work experience at school. These findings are also supported by Canadian data. However, Lawton (1992) argues that those who support this argument also tend to support a vocational rather than a liberal view of education. Greenberger and Steinberg (1986), in an analysis of psycho-social aspects of working high-school students, concluded that â€Å"it may make them academically rich but psychologically poor. They also argued that instead of instilling good work habits, many students who worked part-time learned how to cheat, steal, and deal with boring work. Mortimer (1993) found no evidence to support the claim that working long hours fostered smoking or increased school behaviour problems, but there was evidence of increased alcohol consumption. Other studies, however, have found increased drug and alcohol use, and higher rates of delinquency associated with hig her number of hours worked by students. A 1991 Oregon Task Force found the numbers of 16- and 17-year-olds who were working to have increased in recent years. Jobs were often low-paying, unfulfilling, and offered little in the way of educational value or preparation for adult work. Canadian data suggest that trends in teenage employment are linked to economic cycles, with numbers rising and falling with buoyant or depressed economies. Most Canadian students (69%) work in service, clerical, or sales industries, with more females (84%) than males (57%) in these industries. Four times the number of males (16%) compared to females (4%) were employed in construction. Research also indicates that too many hours of work for teenagers increases fatigue and may cause lower academic performance. Carskadon (1999) describes changing sleep patterns during adolescence and discusses the influence of employment on sleep patterns. She found that students working 20 or more hours reported later bedtimes, shorter sleep times, more frequent episodes of falling asleep in school, and more late arrivals in school. An article in the American Federation of Teachers’ publication, American Teacher (February 1999), cited a report produced by the (U.  S. ) National Research Council (NRC) and the Institute of Medicine (IOM) which provided evidence of what it claims is an underestimate of 70 documented deaths of children and adolescents as a result of injuries at work, and 100,000 young people seeking treatment in hospital emergency wards as a result of work-related injuries. Based on these data, a committee established by the NRC/IOM is calling for Congress to a uthorize limits to the number of hours worked per day by teenagers, and to regulate teenagers’ work start-and finish-times on school nights.

Italy – Research Paper

Geographically, Italy is comprised of a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, as well as two large islands. The shape of Italy has been depicted as a ‘boot’ in many cartoons and drawings for years. The country covers over 116,000 square miles, making it approximately the combined size of Florida and Georgia. Killinger, 2002) Italy is a democratic republic that has a current population of around 60 million people, making it the twenty-third most populous country in the world. Italy is a founding member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the ‘Group of Six’, which later became the G8, and the European Union. (â€Å"Italy,† 2010) Italians are primarily Roman Catholic and are required to have fourteen years of formal education.This has lead to a 98 percent literacy rate among the population that only has a growth rate of 0. 02 percent per year, which is one of the lowest growth rates in the world. Killinger, 2002) After the decl ine of the Roman Empire, it took what is now Italy over fourteen centuries to become unified and drive out foreign rule. The state of Italy was formed following the Italian unification movement, known as Risorgimento. Italy installed their first Parliament and declared the Kingdom of Italy in 1861. (Killinger, 2002) In 1922, Benito Mussolini created the first Fascist regime in history. Mussolini later established the Lateran Pact of 1929 with Pope Pius XI, which recognized the Catholic religion as the ‘sole religion of the state’ and the Vatican as an independent state.Italy entered World War II in October of 1940 by attacking Greece from Albania. In December of the same year, the victorious Greeks invaded Albania. Their advance was only stopped by German support. In North Africa the Italians were handed multiple defeats by the British and again had to be rescued by the Germans. In July of 1943, American and British forces landed in Sicily. Fifteen days later Mussolini was arrested and power was returned the parliament and the king. In April of 1946, Mussolini attempted escape, and was caught, shot, and hung in Milan.A few days later, the German army corps in Italy surrendered to allies. (Hearder, 1990) At the end of World War II, a vote by the people concluded that the kingdom of Italy would be replaced by the Republic of Italy. In 1948, a new constitution granted the President of the Republic the powers of the chief of state while the head of government was a prime minister with the title of President of the Council of Ministers. A constitutional court holds the supreme judicial power in Italy, while a lower and upper house were set up and were given the legislative power. (Killinger, 2002)After World War II, Italy entered a period known as the ‘Economic Miracle’, which was driven by multiple industries and firms that contributed to the production of cars. These included the steel, rubber, and oil industries. (Amyot, 2004) Oil was d iscovered in the South, in the Northern Po Valley, and in Sicily in 1949. Natural gas was found the following year. (Hearder, 1990) The Marshall Plan also sent more than $1. 2 billion from the United States to Italy for reconstruction. The strong growth that Italy experienced after World War II helped it become a major player in the business world.Italy’s Quality of Life Index was eighth in the world in 2005 (the United States was ranked thirteenth) and was ranked as the eighteenth most developed country in the world. (â€Å"Members of the,† 2010) Some major international companies based in Italy are Versace, Gucci, and Armani in the fashion industry, Pirelli automobile tires, Beretta firearms, and car manufacturers Fiat, Alfa Romero, Maserati, Ferrari, and Lamborghini. In total the automobile industry contributes 8. 5 percent of Italy’s GDP. Italy is also the world’s leading producer and exporter of grapes, artichokes, and kiwis, and produces about a fif th of the world’s wine.Italy is also the fourth largest tourism earning nation in the world and the fifth most visited country. (â€Å"Economy of Italy,† 2010) Italy is currently said to be in a recession, with industrial output dropping 6. 6 percent in the last year. The shutdown of factories has been announced by Fiat in the wake of falling car sales. Italy is referred to as the â€Å"sick man of Europe† due to political instability, lack of infrastructure development and economic stagnation. The average annual rate of growth in Italy is 1. 23 percent compared to the 2. 28 percent average growth rate in the EU over the last ten years.In January of this year unemployment hit 8. 6 percent yet it is predicated that Italy will pull out of its recession by the end of 2010. (â€Å"Economy of Italy,† 2010) Culture Values and Norms Since World War II, Italian society has profoundly changed, with a significant impact on daily life. One of the main elements of ch ange is the more visible role women play in society outside the home, such as increased participation in higher education and various professions. One aspect of this changed role is that Italy records one of the lowest average numbers of children per woman in the world, as well as some of the lowest birth and fertility rates. Brittanica Online Encyclopedia) For Italian families, popular daily leisure activities include watching television, listening to the radio, reading newspapers, and going to movies. Italians are also known for their love of sports, something that can be traced back to the ancient Gladiatorial games. Sport is an important part of many Italian festivities like Palio and the Gondola race in Venice. Popular sports include football, cycling, and auto racing. (The Culture of Italy) Italians are very satisfied with their family relations, friendships, and health status, while their economic status and their working positions are less satisfactory.This is especially the case in southern Italy, where there are fewer job opportunities and where unemployment is high. (Brittanica Online Encyclopedia) Though the popularity of home entertainment has grown, the use of public spaces remains important. Young Italians meet friends on a daily basis, often in the cities’ piazzas in the evenings, making frequent trips to bars, cinemas, pizzerias, and discos. Coastal areas are popular destinations in the summer. The automobile retains a strong hold on daily life as well. Ownership levels are high, and many cities and towns suffer severe congestion and pollution as a result. Brittanica Online Encyclopedia) Regional life in Italy is typified by a diversity of customs and a great variety of festivals, even if it is their appeal to the tourist industry and to television that helps keep them alive. The majority of religious festivals are dedicated to the Madonna or to different saints of the Roman Catholic faith. The most notable Carnival celebrations are hel d in the cities of Viareggio and Venice, where in 1992 they were financed for the first time by major sponsors. Italy’s strong agricultural tradition gives rise to a multitude of festivals celebrating the harvest, food, country, and seafaring pursuits.These festivals reflect the traditional activities of the area in which they are held. (Brittanica Online Encyclopedia) Language The official language of Italy is Italian, a descendant of Tuscan dialect and a direct descendant of Latin. When Italy was unified in 1861, the Italian language existed mainly as a literary language and almost each region had its own dialect. Standardizing the language was an important step in unifying Italians, and the standardized language was based on the Florentine dialect spoken in most of Tuscany. The Languages Spoken in Italy) The largest group of non-Italian speakers includes those who speak Sardinian, a Romance language, which retains many pre-Latin words. Some of the other languages spoken ar e German, French, and Slovene. (The Languages Spoken in Italy) Religion 90 percent of Italy’s population is Roman Catholic. The remainder of the population is comprised mostly of Jews, along with some Muslims and Orthodox and Eastern Rite Catholics. Supernatural beliefs are based in the Catholic Church and mixed with older beliefs stretching back to antiquity.In Sicily, for example, Arabic and Greek influences have mixed with popular Spanish beliefs and been incorporated into Catholicism. Thus, there are beliefs in the ‘Evil Eye’, charms, spells, messages through dreams, and various other types of omens. People believe witches have powers and in the existence of anti–witches. Many of these beliefs have yielded to the rationalism of the modern age. Others, however, exist below the surface. (Culture of Italy) Italy is filled with over 2000 years worth of holy places. Rome and the Vatican City alone have thousands of shrines, relics, and churches.There are re lics of Saint Peter and other popes. Various relics of many saints, places holy to Saint Francis of Assisi, shrines, places where the Virgin Mary is reputed to have appeared, and sites of numerous miracles are found across the country. Similarly, religious ceremonies are frequent. There are the usual holy days of the Roman Catholic Church—Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, the Immaculate Conception, and others. In addition, there are local saints and appearances by the Pope. The sanctification of new saints, various blessings, personal, family, and regional feast days, and daily and weekly masses are observed.There are also various novenas, rosary rituals, sodalities, men's and women's clubs, and other religious or quasi–religious activities. (Culture of Italy) Education Education in Italy is free and compulsory for eight years for children between the ages of 6 and 14. Primary school lasts 5 years and secondary education (Scuole medie) is further divided in two stages: Med ie Inferiori, which correspond to the middle school grades and lasts for 3 years, and Medie Superiori, which correspond to the secondary school level and lasts another 5 years.Every tier involves an exam at the end of the final year. Secondary schools are of different types and allow students to choose alternative career paths depending on their interests and aptitude. These include the Liceo, the Istituto Tecnico (technical institute) and the Istituto Professionale (professional institute). The Liceo includes secondary schools oriented towards the study of the arts and sciences. TheLicei are again divided into four types: Liceo Classico, which offers Latin, Ancient Greek, Italian, History, and Philosophy as its most important subjects; Liceo Scientifico, where the emphasis is on scientific and mathematical topics; Liceo Linguistico, which focuses on languages; and Liceo Artistico, which is oriented toward the arts. The university system in Italy is similar to that of the United Kin gdom, where students concentrate on one subject throughout their degree. Courses consist of the Laurea (roughly equivalent to a bachelor's degree) and the Laurea Specialistica (roughly equivalent to a master's degree).There are 41 state universities and 15 other universities, colleges, and higher learning institutes. These include the University of Bologna (the oldest in Italy, founded in the 11th century), and the University of Rome, which is the country's largest. (The Education System in Italy) Social Structure The Italian Institute of Statistics assesses the class system using 6 different categories. The first is the bourgeoisie, which includes entrepreneurs employing a minimum of 6 people, self-employed professionals, and managers. This category accounts for 10 percent of the working population.The white collar middle class covers employees engaged in non-manual jobs and makes up 17 percent of the working population. The urban petit bourgeoisie comprises 14 percent of the worki ng population, defined as small entrepreneurs with a maximum of 6 employees, shopkeepers, and self-employed artisans. The rural petit bourgeoisie, at 10 percent, own and operate small enterprises in the primary sectors of agriculture, forestry, hunting, and fishing. The urban working class is the 37 percent of the workforce who engage in manual labor. Finally, the rural working class, at 9 percent, are employees of the primary sector.This class breakdown, in identifying two categories each of the working and entrepreneurial classes, is considered to be a more precise method of class division, and has been used since the mid-1980s. (Italian Poverty and Wealth) Despite being a wealthy country, Italy suffers from serious inequality in the distribution of wealth and resources. These dramatic statistics stand out: in 1998, 11. 8 percent of families lived in poverty. The figure was even higher at the end of the 1980s, when families living in poverty represented 14 percent of the populatio n. The contrast between north and south was very clear, with over 5 percent of impoverished families living in southern regions. The gap between the rich north and the impoverished south continues to increase, as does the depth of poverty itself. Of those classified as poor, elderly people living on a simple state pension make up 53 percent of households living in poverty. Their numbers, however, are steadily decreasing, to be overtaken by the working poor. This phenomenon, which looks likely to become a permanent feature of Italian society, affects couples with one or more children, where only one parent works, is under 40 years old, and has few qualifications and, thus, low earning power. Italian Poverty and Wealth) As a result of Italy's generous welfare state, the great majority of poor families do not live in extremes of squalor or deprivation. Essential needs provided by the state include basic health care and education, clean water supplies, and housing. Moreover, extensive f amily networks help those living in poverty to feel less isolated and are sometimes a source of financial help. However, it is extremely difficult for families in poverty to improve their circumstances, and over 70 percent of households classified as poor in 1994 remained poor 2 years later. Italian Poverty and Wealth) Necessity often forces individuals in poverty to accept low-paying and unsafe jobs in the informal economy, where they are subject to threats and blackmail. In urban areas of the south, the younger generation finds it very difficult to obtain work, and poverty drives some of them into the arms of organized crime. Migrations to the north or leaving Italy altogether still remain ways out for many. While poverty is less visible in the wealthy north, it does exist.In particular, young couples with 2 or more children who struggle to meet the high cost of living on low salaries find themselves caught in the poverty trap. (Italian Poverty and Wealth) Economy Italy has a dive rsified industrial economy with roughly the same total and per capita output as France and the UK. The economy is split between the developed industrial belt in the north and a less-developed, agricultural region in the south. According to nominal GDP calculations, Italy was ranked as the seventh largest economy in the world in 2006, behind the United States, Japan, Germany, China, UK, and France, and the fourth largest in Europe. The Economy of Italy) Italy's major exports are precision machinery, motor vehicles, chemicals and electric goods, but the country's more famous exports are food, clothing, and luxury vehicles. With over 37 million tourists a year, Italy is also ranked as the fourth major tourist destination in the world. (The Economy of Italy) Most raw materials needed by industry and more than 75 percent of energy requirements are imported. Despite some short-term reforms aimed at improving competitiveness and long-term growth, the economy experienced low growth in 2006, and unemployment remained at a high level. The Economy of Italy) The currency of Italy is the Euro. Politics Italy has a bicameral parliament consisting of a Chamber of Deputies and a Senate, a separate judiciary, and an executive branch composed of a Council of Ministers headed by the Prime Minister. (The Government in Italy) The President of the Italian Republic heads the armed forces and has powers to veto legislation, disband parliament and call elections. He is elected for seven years by the parliament sitting jointly with a small number of regional delegates. The president nominates the prime minister, who proposes the other ministers.The Council of Ministers must retain the support of both houses. (The Government in Italy) The houses of parliament are popularly and directly elected through a complex electoral system (latest amendment in 2005), which combines proportional representation with a majority prize for the largest coalition. All Italian citizens, who are older than 18, can vote. (The Government in Italy) Former Communist Party member, Giorgio Napolitano, is Italy's 11th President and Romano Prodi, an economist and former academic, is currently Prime Minister. Economy Current Statistics After the end of World War II, Italy was left a ravaged and broken country.Struggling both economically and culturally, a culture that was once dominated by farming now developed into cities. â€Å"Italy has the world's 6th (7th including the  European Union) highest exports,  that of US $546,900,000,000 (est. ) in 2008. Italy, also, is the world's fifth largest industrial goods producer with a US $381 billion output in 2008. † (CIA World Fact Book) Italy has a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $2. 09 trillion. According to the IMF and World Bank Italy, is the tenth ranking country for purchasing power in the world, based on its purchasing power parity (PPP).The Italian economy’s inflation rate is estimated to be 0. 6 percent. The current exchange rates are euros (Italy’s official currency) per US dollar – 0. 7153 (2009). (CIA World Fact Book) The current interest rate in Italy is 1. 00 percent (2010). (Trading Economics) Despite achievements made since the 1940’s, Italy struggles with growth in the current world wide financial crisis, considering their heavy dependence based on exports and tourism. As the world tightens their belts, Italy’s pockets feel the difference. When adjusted to the U. S concept, their unemployment rate as of April 2010 is 9. percent, making them the fourth highest in the world, with the U. S. at number one with 9. 8 percent. (Bureau of Labor Statistics) Currency While the infrastructures of the Italian market and government have evolved, so has the country’s currency. The original dominant coin, the Florin, was created in the thirteenth century in Florence. Each city-state at the time had differing money system and coins. When the country became unified in 1861, the  Italian lira  became the dominate trade coin. The Italian lira â€Å"was taken out of circulation in 2002. (World Book Encyclopedia) Though the primary currency now used in Italy is the euro, the city of Campione d’Italia uses the Swiss Franc. The European Union countries that currently use the euro as their currency are Italy, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, and Finland. â€Å"Euro banknote denominations for the euro are 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, and 500. Coin denominations are 1, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 50 cent and 1 and 2 euro. † (seeitalia) With a history richly based in the arts, it is no surprise that each coin and bill has been created with a uniquely different design and theme.Designs were created by different artists to depict the works of one of the most influential artists, Raphael. The original coin, the euro 2. 00, set the standard and is a depiction of Dante Alighieri (one of Raph ael’s works). Despite attempts to be unique, there are standards required of each coin. Each must have twelve stars to represent the twelve countries unified with this currency. Each must also have the year of imprint under overlapping letters â€Å"RI† for  Repubblica Italiana (meaning Italian Republic). Below this is a letter R, representing Rome.Trading Policies In the 1950’s, Italy helped found the European Community (EC). The European Community consists of four components: the European Coal Community, the Steel Community, the European Atomic Energy Community, and the European Economic Community. Italy was able to strengthen their economy through increased trade with the nations of the European Community. â€Å"In 1993, Italy and the other European Community countries formed the European Union, which works for both economic and political cooperation among its member nations.The European Community was incorporated into the European Union. † (The Worl d Book Encyclopedia) Through trade, preferential trade agreements can be used to build strong relationships. Some trade policies can be used to punish those who do not abide by international law. â€Å"Italy’s trade policy is the same as that of other members of the European Union. The common (EU) weighted average tariff rate was 1. 3 percent in 2008. However, the (EU) has high or escalating tariffs for agricultural and manufacturing products and its most favored nation (MFN) tariff code is complex.Non-tariff barriers reflected in (EU) and Italian policies include agricultural and manufacturing subsidies, quotas, import restrictions and bans for some goods and services, market access restrictions in some services sectors, non-transparent and restrictive regulations and standards, and inconsistent regulatory and customs administration among (EU) members. † (2010 INDEX of ECONOMIC FREEDOM) Trading Partners As most countries do, Italy relies on international trade to help sustain their economy.Italy depends a great deal on imports such as food, machinery, metals, motor vehicles, petroleum, and textile yarns. â€Å"Italy’s principal trading partner is Germany. Other leading trading partners include Belgium, France, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. † (The World Book Encyclopedia) Because Italy is such a mountainous region, farming and cultivation are very difficult. While the majority of exports are chemicals and machinery, Italy is known for such world class luxury brand as Prada, Armani, Versace, Valentine, and Maserati.Trade Agreements Italy has often led the way for European economic development and international integration. For example, Italy has a membership in several trade agreements. â€Å"Under the European Free-Trade Association (EFTA) member states constitute an enlarged single market. The European Economic Area (EEA) extends (EU) commercial law to the (EFTA) states, thereby providing for the f ree circulation of goods, services, capital and labor, giving businesses the right to establish themselves or subsidiaries throughout the (EEA).Other commercially significant international agreements include numerous tax treaties. † (Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada) â€Å"Italy was admitted to the United Nations in 1955 and is a member and strong supporter of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade/World Trade Organization (GATT/WTO), the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), and the Council of Europe. † (U. S.Department of State) In 2009, Italy was the president of the G8 Summit held in L’Aquila, Italy. Member of the G8 Summit have come together annually since 1975 to discuss and debate important economic issues on the global agenda . The G8 member countries are Italy, Canada, the Russian Federation, France, Ger many, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Dominant Industries ; Companies Italy’s massive post World War II trend toward the industrialization of its nation has changed due to the recent global recession.High unemployment rates exist, and a lack of natural resources has slowed the industrial growth of Italy dramatically. â€Å"Three state-holding companies have played a large role in industry: ENI (National Hydrocarbon Agency), IRI (Industrial Reconstruction Institute), and EFIM (Agency for Participation and Financing of Manufacturing Industry). † (Encyclopedia of the Nations) The economic situation of the world has deeply affected these companies. As of 2001, IRI became dismantled, and ENI sold stakes in the company in an attempt to eliminate high debt.Despite economic difficulties, iron and steel, food processing (including olive oil, wine, and cheese), textiles, footwear, and ceramics remain thriving Italian industries. â€Å"The bulk of industry is c oncentrated in the northwest, in the Milan-Turin-Genoa industrial triangle. The government has made concerted efforts to attract industry to the underdeveloped southeast. (Encyclopedia of the Nations) Several major successful private companies include the Fiat automobile company, the Olivetti company (office computers and telecommunications), the Montedison chemical firm, and the Pirelli rubber company. Encyclopedia of the Nations) Italy is home of some of the world’s most popular fashion designers. â€Å"Black Market† Transactions Despite its relatively high standard of living, problems with crime and the existence of a ‘black market’ exist in Italy. The estimated black market value is around $111. 05 billion. Unfortunately, these markets are everywhere. Usually these markets target tourists by selling fake designer goods such as Prada, Armani, and Versace. Italy is also a breeding ground for organized crime. Due to high unemployment rates, mobsters have found a cheap workforce within the recently unemployed.Taking advantage of the economic situation in Italy, the mafia has struck it rich using any and all means of crime to turn a profit. â€Å"It is estimated the mob’s joint turnover last year at 135 billion euros, topped by trafficking in drugs, people, weapons and contraband worth just under 68 billion euros. Second came â€Å"business† interests like public contracts, gambling, forgeries and supplying illegal labor at 25 billion euros, then extortion and loan sharking at 25 billion euros. † (Reuters) The Italian mafia is big business, and would possibly be the largest company in Italy – if it was one.Unless the Italian government can intervene, huge amounts of revenue will continue to be lost due to arms trafficking, drug sales, counterfeit, piracy, Ecstasy, human trafficking, and trash smuggling. Standard Operating Practices Conducting Business in General As a business manager wishing to conduct busi ness in Italy or with Italian businesses, having a good understanding about how the country conducts business can yield many benefits. Demonstrating your understanding of their culture and background information will help you refine your approach and be more appealing to them. Spend time reviewing the company dynamics.Italy has a large portion of small and medium sized companies financed primarily by families. As such, the center of influence and decision making typically happens in upper management, which is likely to be staffed by family members. It is also important to know that the time spent on cultivating a relationship is equally as worthwhile an investment as knowing the culture. It serves to position you ahead of competitors that may not have done their homework on the nuisances of the Italian business and culture. Italian style should also be noted as it something not taken very lightly. Italians are very fashionable.You will be judged by your dress code, including accesso ries and how you carry yourself. It’s a first impression and a lasting one. You must look the part to garner the respect you seek and expect. Business dress does vary between industries and formality can go from suits and ties to somewhat less formal attire. Managers tend to be well groomed with tailored quality clothing. In an ever changing business and cultural world, Italians do not have high regard for in-depth long term planning. It is viewed as a waste of time and at most they will commit to very high level plans and leave room for flexibility and growth.Foreign women can do business without great difficulty in Italy. Being a woman may even be considered an advantage in some circumstances. Statistically speaking, only 38 percent of Italian women under the age of 65 are in the labor market — one of the lowest percentages in Western Europe. Few Italian women hold managerial positions. The Italians are generally not inhibited when interacting with the opposite sex. Flirtation is part of the spirit of life in Italy. Business Entry Strategies Entering the Italian market can be accomplished in two simple steps. The first is planning.You should complete extensive research of the market and develop a thoughtful business plan. Second, leverage the U. S. and Foreign Commercial Service (US;FCS) trade events in Italy. The US;FCS Service Program facilitates companies testing the Italian market through an inexpensive agent/distributor dynamic. Participating in the trade events is not only about exposure, but potential sales based on relationships that are seeded. As noted previously, rapport and trusting relationships is a great benefit when doing business in Italy. The trade events can lend themselves to exposing companies to other countries in addition to Italy. http://findarticles. com) Relationships are critically important. From relationships, cooperation can be established for business success. Verbal communication and how articulate you are is muc h more heavily weighted than written communication. It is highly beneficial to brush up on your speaking skills for clarity and conciseness. Conducting Meetings In Italy, meetings are to be scheduled in writing two or three weeks in advance and followed up with a phone call to confirm the details. Depending on what region you are in, punctuality relevance may vary.In northern Italy, punctuality is a virtue and your business associates will likely be on time. You should be early or on time, unless you have a good excuse for tardiness. Whatever materials you have to present should be in print form in both English and Italian. Another cultural influence is how meetings are managed. Meetings are generally informal and the smaller the group the less formality exercised. Agendas tend to be flexible as the meetings are highly interactive due to participant engagement, not to mention that there are multiple streams of conversations going on.There may also be changes in audience members or p articipants throughout the meeting. It is important to start meetings with small talk to get to know your Italian peer otherwise you are viewed as being weak. A few safe conversational topics would be around Italian culture, food, family, movies, wine and art. You should make sure to pay special attention to the eldest person at an Italian business function. If you are expecting negotiations to occur, this is another area that differs by region. Northern Italians are more direct and see time as money.They want to get down to business immediately following brief small talk. However, in the southern part of the country, people tend to be more leisurely and rely on personal relationship development to know who they are doing business with. It is ill-advised to use high pressure sales tactics but you may need to indulge in some haggling over price and delivery. (www. worldbusinessculture. com) You should have a clear understanding of who the authority figures or decision makers are in t he company and for the business transaction you are trying to negotiate.You may expect to have some dialogue with stakeholders and influence a favorable decision, but frequently the decisions are made prior to the â€Å"formal† meeting with a smaller group of people to hash out the deal. Essentially, in order to be able to influence the group and the outcome, you will need to be present in the pre-meeting to provide perspective. Before the pre-meeting, the stakeholders would have likely had the information in hand and have had time to review at their leisure, prior to making any decisions in the pre-meeting. It is acceptable to give out business cards while in business meetings, but not in social settings.Many Italians carry two different cards one for business and the other with personal information for less formal relationships. Business cards are exchanged only at the first meeting and should be a hand to hand exchange with the intended recipient. Do not give a business ca rd to the same person more than once. (www. kwintessential. co. uk) You should make sure to pay special attention to the eldest person present at a business function. Business Etiquette Italian culture is inviting and personal, thus when talking, people are up close and personal.While respecting someone’s personal space is preferred in the American culture, in Italy any attempt to create space or distance from the person or people you are talking to is seen as disrespectful and rude. Handshakes are common for both men and women and may also include grasping the arm with the other hand. You will shake hands both coming and departing from your company. As the relationship develops, the greeting may grow to an embrace and air kisses on the both sides of the cheeks. (www. ehow. com) Formal names and titles should be used until you are invited to use first names.Generally in business women will use their maiden names for business and legal affairs, but outside of business they may use their married name or combination of married and maiden name. (www. ediplomat. com) When talking, maintain eye contact with the person or persons you are speaking with, otherwise you will be perceived as hiding something or being deceptive. (www. ediplomat. com) Time Orientation When scheduling meetings, timely starts are important, but it is understood that situations arise that will need attention and interfere with punctuality.Meetings should be avoided during the month of August, as that is a time of national holidays and many companies will be low on staff. In terms of optimal meeting times, it is best to schedule meetings between 10 – 11 AM and after 3 pm. (www. ehow. com) You should also make note of time zone differences when making contact by telephone. Italy’s time is Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) +1, which is equivalent to five hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time (EST). Gifts/Incentives You should follow some general guidelines for gift giving. Refrain fro m giving a business gift until you receive one first.Gifts are expected for social events, especially to express your thanks after you have been invited to a dinner party at a home. Gifts are usually opened at the time they are given and received. Your gift should be a prestigious brand name that is at the same time small and not obviously expensive. Gifts of alcohol or crafts from your own country are often good choices. If you want to give a gift to someone who has been particularly helpful around the office, good choices include fine pens, a framed print/picture, silver key chains, or calculators.Regardless, make sure your gift is a reputable name-brand! Secretaries generally appreciate a gift of flowers or chocolates. If you are invited to a home, bring gift-wrapped chocolates or flowers. Never give an even number of flowers. Do not give chrysanthemums; they are acceptable only for funerals. Moreover, red roses are reserved for romantic occasions. If you are invited to a home an d decide to give wine, buy a good vintage. Bring one or two (maximum) bottles. A good wine or spirit from your country could be an excellent choice as Italians are interested in learning about other countries.If you bring a present from your home country, be ready with a short description of what it is and why you have chosen it [e. g. it is from your home town and has an interesting and unique way of being made, etc]. If you are staying with a family, good gift selections can include coffee table books about your home country, or anything that reflects the interests of your hosts and is representative of your country. Holiday cards can be appropriate, particularly as an expression of thanks to your business associates. Ensure that your cards are mailed in time to be received a week before Christmas.Card sending is not very common in Italy, so your card will be received with interest. There are some gifts to avoid giving to Italian business associates. These include gifts showcasing your company's logo, brooches and handkerchiefs (these items are associated with funerals), gifts wrapped in black and gold paper (traditionally, these are the colors of mourning) or purple (this color is considered a symbol of bad luck), and knives or any other type of sharp object–such items may be interpreted to suggest the severing of a friendship or other close bond. www. 1worldglobalgifts. com) Legal Issues FITA provides this chart to explain the legal forms of companies in Italy: |Form |Number of |Minimum and/or maximum capital |Liability |Registration fee |Release of | | |partners/shareholders | | |financial | | | | | | |documents | |Societa a responsabilita |No minimum |Minimum 10,000 â‚ ¬, totally subscribed |Liability is limited|About 100 â‚ ¬ |No | |limitata (SRL) is a |nb: 1 partner for a sole |and released up to 3/10 at the |to the amount | | | |Private Limited Company. proprietorship. |creation. |contributed. | | | |Societa per azioni (SpA) |Minimum 2 sh areholders. |Minimum 100,000 â‚ ¬, totally subscribed|Liability is limited|About 1,000 â‚ ¬ | | |is a Public Limited | |and released up to 3/10 at the |to the amount | | | |Company. | |creation. Their liability is limited |contributed. | | | | |to the amount contributed. | | | | |Societa in nome Colletivo| | |Partners' liability |Lower expenses | | |(SNC) is a general |Minimum 2 partners |No minimum capital. |is joint and |compared with Private |No | |partnership. | | |several. Limited Company | | |Societa in Accomanditari |Two types of partners: |No minimum capital. |Liability of active |Lower expenses as |No | |Semplice(SAS) is a |active partners and | |partners is |compared to a Private | | |limited partnership. |sleeping partners. | |unlimited |Limited Company | | |Societa Cooperativa (SC) |Minimum 9 partners |No minimum capital. Liability is limited|Lower expenses as |No | |is a co-operative company| | |or unlimited |compared to a Private | | | | | |depending on the |Limi ted Company | | | | | |status. | | | According to the FITA website, Italy encourages the development of small and medium sized businesses and promotes jobs creation.Companies receive incentives through grants and tax exemptions if they are working in sectors of decline. Registration and licensing status must be drawn up in a deed by the solicitor. They must be introduced within 30 days with the register of companies, then with the Commercial Court of the province where the company will be located. A registration with the local Chamber of Commerce is also required, as well as a notice in the official journal of advertisements. These formalities take about 4 weeks. (www. fita. org) SWOT Analysis Strengths |Weaknesses | |   |   | |Tourism |Slow Developing Capitalist Economy | |Cotton Commodity |Declining Birth Rate | |Textiles Industry |High Debt Level | |European Union Member |Fiscal Budget Deficit | |   |Unskilled Workers | |   |   | |   |   | |Opportunities |Threats | |   |   | |Jobs Yielded From Tourism |Unemployment | |Jobs Yielded From Cotton |Poverty |High Investment Flow Potential |Potentially Insurmountable Debt | |High Export Country |   | |   |   | STRENGTHS Tourism â€Å"Rome, Venice, and Florence are the top three destinations for tourism in Italy. Other major tourist locations include Turin, Milan, Naples, Padua, Bologna, Perugia, Genoa, Sicily, Sardinia, Salento, and Cinque Terre. Two factors in each of these locations are history and geography. The Roman Empire, middle ages, and renaissance have left many cultural artifacts for the Italian tourist industry to use. Many northern cities are also able to use the Alps as an attraction for winter sports, while coastal southern cities have the Mediterranean Sea to draw tourists looking for sun.Italy is home to forty three UNESCO World Heritage Sites, more than any other country, including many entire cities such as Verona, Siena, Vicenza, Ferrara, San Gimignano, and Urbino. Rave nna hosts an unprecedented eight different internationally recognized sites. Italy is a true open-air museum with 65 percent of the world's artworks and historical monuments. † (Korea Times) Cotton Commodity † Cotton is a the fiber grown to make yarn, thread and a textile called â€Å"cotton† that is the most widely used natural fiber cloth in the world. Cotton’s long term growth potential is moderately favorable due to low scores on short supply and substitute products. † (Wiki Wealth) Textile Industry â€Å"The Italian textile and clothing industry is unique, lively, innovative, and leader in the world.Its innovation ability represents its main and most lasting competitive advantage. The â€Å"mission† of the Italian fashion system lies in offering original and very distinctive products, which meanwhile answer to consumer’s taste and meet his needs. This also implies a continuous improvement in technical performances of fibers, yarns, fabrics, and finishing. The success of the whole chain – from the first processes on fibers to fabrics, finishing operations, and final products for the market – is favored by the interaction of a sophisticated manufacturing network, where the strength of each element is at the same time a condition and a function of the vitality of the whole system.This dynamic combination of productive, creative, and managing activities involves about 67,500 industrial companies with large, medium, and even very small scale operations. This unique mix still turns out to be the main point of strength of Italian T/C industry, whose about 540,000 employees contribute to roughly 10 percent of the manufacturing sector’s added value. The strong export trend of the T/C industry is shown by the turnover share totalized abroad, amounting to 62 percent of total sales. The significant flow of exports ensures a foreign trade surplus of about 12 billion Euros, which compensate, to a large extent, the country’s deficit in energy and agriculture.Besides the value which can be measured in figures, Italian fashion, strongly founded on T/C, has enormously contributed to the definition of the ideas of Italian â€Å"good taste† and â€Å"life quality†, with positive effects on Italian products all over the world† (Slide Share) European Union Member â€Å"The European Union (EU) is a political and economic community of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in Europe. It was established in 1993 by the Treaty of Maastricht, adding new areas of policy to the existing European Community founded in 1957. With almost 500  million citizens the EU is generating an estimated 33 percent share of the world's nominal gross domestic product (US$16. 6 trillion) in 2007.The EU comprises a single market created by a system of laws which apply in all member states, guaranteeing the freedom of movement of people, goods, services and capital. Fifteen memb er states have adopted a common currency, the euro. Passport control between many members has been abolished under the Schengen Agreement. The EU maintains common trade and agricultural policies, and a regional development policy. It has developed a role in foreign and security policies, and in justice and home affairs. The EU represents its members in the World Trade Organization and attends at G8 summits and at the United Nations. Twenty-one EU countries are members of NATO. The functioning of the EU involves a hybrid of government and supranational.Particularly the need for moderation of the single market has prompted the establishment of bodies capable of making decisions without the consent of national governments. The exact distribution of competences between member states and Union is explicitly defined in the proposed Treaty of Lisbon. Important institutions and bodies of the EU include the European Commission, the Council of the European Union, the European Court of Justice , the European Central Bank, and the European Parliament which citizens elect every five years. † (EU School) WEAKNESSES Slow Developing Capitalist Economy â€Å"The Italian economy has changed dramatically since the end of World War II.From an agriculturally based economy, it has developed into an industrial state ranked as the world's fifth-largest industrial economy. Italy belongs to the Group of Eight (G-8) industrialized nations; it is a member of the European Union and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Italy has few natural resources. With much of the land unsuited for farming, it is a net food importer. There are no substantial deposits of iron, coal, or oil. Proven natural gas reserves, mainly in the Po Valley and offshore Adriatic, have grown in recent years and constitute the country's most important mineral resource. Most raw materials needed for manufacturing and more than 80 percent of the country's energy sources are imported.Ital y's economic strength is in the processing and the manufacturing of goods, primarily in small and medium-sized family-owned firms. Its major industries are precision machinery, motor vehicles, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, electric goods, and fashion and clothing. Italy continues to grapple with budget deficits and high public debt–2. 6 percent and 105. 9 percent of GDP for 2008, respectively. Italy joined the European Monetary Union in 1998 by signing the Stability and Growth Pact, and as a condition of this Euro zone membership, Italy must keep its budget deficit beneath a 3 percent ceiling. The Italian Government has found it difficult to bring the budget deficit down to a level that would allow a rapid decrease of that debt.The worsening of the economic situation is expected to jeopardize this effort. The deficit is expected to grow well above the 3 percent ceiling in 2009 and 2010. Italy's economic growth averaged only 0. 8 percent in the period 2001-2008; 2008 GDP decreas ed 1. 0 percent, largely due to the global economic crisis and its impact on exports and domestic demand. GDP is expected to contract further, with a huge decrease in 2009 (ranging from 2 percent to 3 percent) as the Euro zone and world economies slow. Italy's closest trade ties are with the other countries of the European Union, with whom it conducts about 60. 1 percent of its total trade (2007 data).Italy's largest EU trade partners, in order of market share, are Germany (12. 9 percent), France (11. 4 percent), and the United Kingdom (5. 8 percent). Italy continues to grapple with the effects of globalization, where certain countries (notably China) have eroded the Italian lower-end industrial product sector. The Italian economy is also affected by a large underground economy–worth some 27 percent of Italy’s GDP. This production is not subject, of course, to taxation and thus remains a source of lost revenue to the local and central government. † (Travel Docs) Declining Birth Rate â€Å"Italy, as we all know, is the world center of the Catholic Church.Strangely, in spite of its deep-rooted Catholic culture and tradition, it has today changed into a nation having the second lowest birth rates in Europe, next only to Spain. At 1. 2 per woman that means one child per woman, according to Global Agenda Magazine. It was brought out in an article in April 2004 in the Sunday Telegraph that Sweden's Birth rate was close to Italy's though 50 percent higher. In order to arrest this situation, the Italian Government started offering 1,000 Euros to every woman who had a second child. Other traditionally Catholic nations, like Ireland and France, have the highest and second highest birth rates in Europe.Even Sweden has a 50 percent higher birth rate in comparison to Italy. These increased numbers may be due to better government-controlled child and health care facilities as well as incentives for families that have more children. † (Trans4Mind) High Debt Level â€Å"Italy’s public debt, the highest among the 27 nations of the European Union, rose last year as the economy contracted the most in more than 30 years, the country’s central bank said today. The debt climbed to 105. 8 percent of gross domestic product from 103. 5 in December 2007, the Bank of Italy said in a faxed statement. The debt reached 108. 1 percent of GDP in January 2009, the central bank also said. Italy will contract 2. percent in 2009 after shrinking 1 percent last year, Bank of Italy’s deputy director general, Ignacio Viscous, said on March 4. The budget deficit rose in 2008 to 2. 7 percent of GDP, the Rome-based national statistics office, Istat, said on March2. This year’s budget deficit will widen to 3. 7 percent of GDP and overall debt will soar to 110. 5 percent of output from 105. 9 percent, the government forecast on Feb. 9. Italy should raise the retirement age for women as a way to stop pension costs from increasi ng, European Union finance ministers said on March 10. As pensioners become a larger part of the population, falling tax receipts and increased government spending threaten to swell the overall debt. † (Italian Economy) Fiscal Budget Deficit Italy’s government cut its economic growth forecasts for this year and next, citing a â€Å"more contained† recovery in exports than in other European nations, and also raised its debt projections. Gross domestic product will rise 1 percent in 2010 and 1. 5 percent in 2011, down respectively from the 1. 1 percent and 2 percent predicted in January, according to the forecast included in a document posted on the Finance Ministry’s website today. The government raised its debt forecast to 118. 4 percent of GDP this year and 118. 7 percent next year, from a previous prediction of 116. 9 percent and 116. 5 percent, respectively. This month, the European Commission forecast Italian debt of 118. percent of GDP this year and 1 18. 9 percent in 2011. † (Italian Economy) Unskilled Workforce â€Å"Unemployment is a regional issue in Italy–low in the north, high in the south. The overall national rate is at its lowest level since 1992. Chronic problems of inadequate infrastructure, corruption, and organized crime act as disincentives to investment and job creation in the south. A significant underground economy absorbs substantial numbers of people, but they work for low wages and without standard social benefits and protections. Women and youth have significantly higher rates of unemployment than do men. Unions claim to represent 40 percent of the work force.Most Italian unions are grouped in four major confederations: the General Italian Confederation of Labor (CGIL), the Italian Confederation of Workers' Unions (CISL), the Italian Union of Labor (UIL), and the General Union of Labor (UGL), which together claim 35 percent of the work force. These confederations formerly were associated with im portant political parties or currents, but they have evolved into fully autonomous, professional bodies. The CGIL, CISL, and UIL are affiliated with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and customarily coordinate their positions before confronting management or lobbying the government. The confederations have had an important consultative role on national social and economic issues. † (Travel Docs) OPPORTUNITIES Jobs Yielded from Tourism â€Å"With more than 43. 7 million tourists a year, Italy ranks fourth among tourists destination in the world.People mainly come to Italy for its rich art, cuisine, history, fashion and culture, it's beautiful coastline and beaches, its mountains, and priceless ancient monuments, especially those from the Greek civilization and Roman civilization. Tourism is one of Italy's fastest growing and most profitable industrial sectors, with an estimated revenue of $42. 7 billion. † (Tourism In Italy) Jobs Yielded from C otton † Cotton is a the fiber grown to make yarn, thread and a textile called â€Å"cotton† that is the most widely used natural fiber cloth in the world. Cotton’s long term growth potential is moderately favorable due to low scores on short supply and substitute products. † (Cotton Commodity)High Investment Flow Potential Italy welcomes and encourages foreign direct investment, but the government of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi that took office in April 2008 has taken only modest steps toward structural economic reform that could increase investment, business creation, production and employment. Economic policymakers have been mainly preoccupied addressing the effects on Italy of the severe global economic downturn. The GOI has focused on measures to stimulate aggregate demand and demand for products of sensitive sectors such as autos and household durable goods. In early 2009 the government adopted additional modest fiscal incentives for companies, fo reign ones included, investing in research and some new equipment, and temporarily eliminated a small surtax on firms. As an EU Member State, Italy is bound by EU treaties and legislation, some of which have an impact on business investment.Under the EU treaty’s right of establishment, Italy is generally obliged to provide national treatment to foreign investors established in Italy or in another EU member state. Exceptions include access to government subsidies for the film industry, capital requirements for banks domiciled in non-EU member countries, and restrictions on non-EU-based airlines operating domestic routes. Italy also has investment restrictions in the shipping sector. EU and Italian anti-trust laws give EU and Italian authorities the right to review mergers and acquisitions over a certain financial threshold. The government may block mergers involving foreign firms for â€Å"reasons essential to the national economy† or if the home government of the forei gn firm applies discriminatory measures against Italian firms.Foreign investors in the defense or aircraft manufacturing sectors are likely to encounter an opaque process and resistance from the many ministries charged with approving foreign acquisitions of existing assets or firms, most of which are controlled to some degree by the para-statal defense conglomerate Finmeccanica. The EU in 2009 ordered the GOI to recover from a US investor previously agreed subsidies for electricity. The GOI had provided these subsidies to induce the investor to keep two plants operating in Italy. The fate of the plants is up in the air, pending the GOI finding an acceptable mechanism to make energy available to the investor at a market-comparable price, i. e. , close to the median cost of electricity in other western European countries. † (Investment Climate) High Export Country â€Å"The demand for Italian products is at an all time high.Italy has become known for niche products, including f ashion eye-wear, specialized machine tools, packaging, stylish furniture, and other products featuring high design. Italy produced 1,579,656 automobiles in 2001, a 9 percent drop from 2000. It also manufactured 42,618 heavy trucks in 2000. The construction industry stands to gain in importance in the early 2000s, as Italy's less-developed regions are slated for infrastructure development. † (Industry in Italy) THREATS Unemployment â€Å"Unemployment is a regional issue in Italy–low in the north, high in the south. The overall national rate is at its lowest level since 1992. Chronic problems of inadequate infrastructure, corruption, and organized crime act as disincentives to investment and job creation in the south.A significant underground economy absorbs substantial numbers of people, but they work for low wages and without standard social benefits and protections. Women and youth have significantly higher rates of unemployment than do men. Unions claim to represent 40 percent of the work force. Most Italian unions are grouped in four major confederations: the General Italian Confederation of Labor (CGIL), the Italian Confederation of Workers' Unions (CISL), the Italian Union of Labor (UIL), and the General Union of Labor (UGL), which together claim 35 percent of the work force. These confederations formerly were associated with important political parties or currents, but they have evolved into fully autonomous, professional bodies.The CGIL, CISL, and UIL are affiliated with the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) and customarily coordinate their positions before confronting management or lobbying the government. The confederations have had an important consultative role on national social and economic issues. † (Travel Docs) Poverty â€Å"More than one in 25 Italians lived in absolute poverty before the latest recession hit the country as difficulty in entering the labor market made it hard for people to reach an a cceptable living standard. The number of Italians living below the level of absolute poverty reached 2. 4 million in 2007, statistics office Istat said today. That’s equivalent to 4. 1 percent of the population, up from 3. percent in 2006, the Rome-based statistics agency said in a report today. The absolute poverty threshold is based on a basket of necessary goods and services rather than on average household consumption, as in relative poverty.Italy entered its fourth recession since 2001 in the third quarter of last year as the global financial crisis aggravated the effects of waning productivity, prompting companies including Fiat Spa, Italy’s biggest manufacturer, and Luxottica Group Spa, the world’s largest eyeglasses maker, to cut jobs. Earlier this year, the government gave 1 million of the poorest pensioners and 300,000 of the lowest-paid employees shopping cards inspired by the U. S. subsidy program known as food stamps. The position of family members in the labor market is clearly related to whether the family is under the level of absolute poverty,† Istat said. â€Å"The most serious problems arise when no family member is employed or when a worker has retired and has no current or past income from employment; 20. 5 percent of people in this situation are in absolute poverty. † † (Italian Economy) Potentially Insurmountable Debt â€Å"Fears are mounting that Italy will be the next European country to be hit by the sovereign debt crisis, which has seen Greece’s credit rating slashed to junk. Markets believe Italy will be the next Euro zone country to see its credit rating downgraded due to its high levels of debt and weak economy.Were that to happen, it would severely impact Italy’s ability to borrow money and finance its operations. The panic in financial markets started with Greece – struggling to repay its creditors due to massive debts, low tax receipts, messy public finances and an a iling economy. † (Fears for Italy) Conclusion Global expansion to Italy should be favorable, especially among companies that can contribute to the country’s already booming tourism industries. Companies that specialize in economies of scale in production of textiles, precision machinery, chemicals, electric goods, food, and clothing could locate production facilities in this country. Jobs provided to unemployed workers would make up for the increased competition with domestic companies.Businesses could enter the Italian market and provide jobs to unemployed workers. This might persuade many younger citizens to turn away from crime and the mafia. These workers could then learn employment skills and earn an income to support their families. Unemployment rates would improve, and the workforce would be much more skilled and have more discretionary income per family. There are many strengths and opportunities to take advantage of, such as Italy’s membership in the EU, and the potential to create jobs. Although Italy is considered to currently be in a recession, it is not expected to last very much longer. Italy has experienced strong growth throughout various periods of time.Italians still continue to hold fast o their strong cultural values, and business is expected to continue to prosper. If the decision to expand business within Italy is made, the optimal mode of entry would be to enter the country with production facilities of goods that are not overly expensive. Italy has seen a decline in production of expensive luxury items such as the Fiat and various fashion designer items. It would be beneficial to a company entering the host country of Italy to consider the current status of the worldwide economy and Italy’s unmanageable high debt. It may be preferred to delay entering the Italian market until the temporary recession the country is in passes. Governments ay still block mergers and acquisitions, so a method of entry may be a Gre enfield operation, where the company enters the foreign market as a new operation.References Killinger, Charles. (2002). The History of Italy. Greenwood Pub Group. Hearder, H. (1990). Italy: A Short History. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. Italy. (2010, June 15). Retrieved from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Italy Amyot, G. (2004). Business, The State and Economic Policy – The Case of Italy. New York, NY: 2004. Members of the EU – Italy. (2010, June 15). Retrieved from http://europa. eu/abc/european_countries/eu_members/italy/index_en. htm Ecomony of Italy. (2010, June 15). Retrieved from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Economy_of_Italy