What is the Status of Moral Claims Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

What is the Status of Moral Claims - Essay Example f is fundamentally and diametrically opposed to such a practice and does not consider any argument for it as being ethically or morally convincing (Nussbaum 1). As such, Nussbaum presents a very simple yet well reasoned approach that defines the process of FGM as reprehensible regardless of the cultural determinants that claim to the contrary. It is this author’s belief that the strong position that Nussbaum takes is absolutely defensible. Firstly, it should be a commonly held view across humanity that violence is not the solution to any perceived problem and that humans should most certainly not be subjected to a violent form of clitoral mutilation; especially prior to the age where they can make a determination for themselves how they would like their bodies to develop and represent their own unique understanding of culture. Whereas this view may be seen as xenophobic, the truth of the matter is that it should be understood across culture as patently wrong to inflict willful damage on any member of society; especially those that are unaware with regards to the pain and trauma that such a situation will effect later in their

The balance between cost and quality Essay Example for Free

The balance between cost and quality Essay Before we look closer into the subject, first we must look at exactly what is meant by quality and cost. Quality is the totality of the attributes of a good or service that meet the requirements of the buyer or customers. The materials which make up the product, the design and the engineering of the product, product performance, reliability and durability are all important characteristics of the quality package, which ultimately influence customers to buy a product and repeat-purchase It. (Pass 1995) Cost is the expenditure upon resources incurred by a firm in producing and selling its output, Each cost is a charge against revenues and profits for the use or consumption of resources during a trading period. Cost can be classified along the functional lines, distinguishing between production, selling, distribution, administration and finance costs. (Pass 1995) Quality is a term we use to signify excellence of a product or service. We think of a quality product, for example a B.M.W. motorcar. We know its well designed, well built and will therefore last a long time. If we think of car of being low quality, we think of something like a basic model type of Citroen or Fiat, with its flimsy panels, cheap components and low specifications. The quality hotel is denoted by the internationally recognised star rating system, i.e. a 1 star hotel will provide the most basic of comforts and low on hygiene, and a 5 star hotel will provide the most comforts and services. We can immediately recognise then, by simply looking at a hotels star rating how good it will be and how good of a time we will have if we stay at the hotel. Total Quality Management (TQM) is an organisational process that actively involves every function and every employee in satisfying customers needs, both internal and external. TQM works by continuously improving all aspect of work through structured control, improvement and planning activities that are carried out in concern with guiding principles that focuses on Quality  and Customer Satisfaction as the top priorities. TQM recognises that the Customer is at the centre of every activity. The customer may be external or internal. The key is to determine the gap between what the customer needs and what the system delivers. Once the gap is recognised, it would be systematically reduced and results in never-ending improvement in customer satisfaction at every level. The balance between cost and quality in purchasing is questioned when an organisation is looking to purchase the best for what they can get for their money. However, this is not always the case. One of the main considerations in the purchasing functions is that the quality in question is fit for purpose. Sometimes the overriding factor on the decision to purchase is that products are of the highest quality. E.g. luxury car manufacture Roll Royce will pride themselves on using the finest materials when manufacturing their cars. When at the ordering stage the emphasis will be on high quality rather then cost. Keeping cost to a minimum is an important factor for any business including companies like Roll Royce (to a certain degree). However, Roll Royce will not compromise their image of quality for the sake of cost. Often, a company has no choice but to use the most expensive materials or highest quality that money can buy. Sometimes safety is the overriding factor. If Rolls Royce is building an engine that is going to be mounted onto an aircraft, then titanium will be the preferred choice of material. Titanium is extremely expensive but will guarantee the utmost reliability in this situation. As mentioned above, purchasers have to take into consideration whether or not the quality is fit for purpose and what the product is going to be used for. The decisions that are made can be made personally for individual use or at corporate level. E.g. if a purchasing manager for a car manufacturer has to make a decision on the type radio to buy, then there is a combination of factors that will need to be considered. The price will have to suit his budget. The quality would have to be of a standard that one would expect from a car of that type from the company. The buyers final decision may well be to buy a radio system that he or she would never consider putting in their own car. But yet the decision made will mean that the system chosen will go into thousands of newly built cars. This is because the decision made was not personal; it was made of behalf of a company so it had to suit their needs. Many purchasing managers are under constant pressure to drive cost down. Even professionals have problems finding the balance between cost and quality when their budget is very low. If costs are too low then it seems inevitable that the quality will suffer. The Ford motor company has suffered the consequences of cutting costs too low. After rave reviews following introduction of the new Ford Focus into the US market, Ford decided to build the car using cheaper components in a bid to save money. The cheaper components included rear wheel bearings that would prematurely wear, causing noise and wheel instability. Not only does Ford now has to recall thousands of Ford Focuses, but it also has to deal with the fact the this decision has damaged their reputation even further. As people we are constantly trying to find the balance between costs and are own perception of quality on a daily basis. According to Juran, quality is: fitness for intended use. This definition basically says that quality is meeting or exceeding customer expectations. So according to this theory, we achieve quality when we buy a product that does what its supposed to do. If a purchasing manager is buying radios that he or she wouldnt use personally, this still ties in with Jurans definition of quality because the radios will meet the customers expectations, although is will not meet the buyers. When we shop we have to ask ourselves if the use of the product will justify the cost. E.g. when studying late at night, the natural choice of beverage for some students would be something like the caffeine boosting energy drink Red Bull at the cost of ?25. ?25 is far too much to pay (double) for a can of fizz pop. On this particular occasion, the beverage will not be used as a  thirst quencher or as a vodka mix, but used as an aid to keep the student awake through the studying session. The cost (?25) of the product is justified due to the products fitness for intended use. Deming states that the customers definition of quality is the only one that matters. This is true but I feel that the customer does not always get quality from what they perceive as quality. This is partly to do with the fact that some companies are very good at doing some things, but is not so good at others. Designer label brand Gucci is a prime example of this. If somebody buys a Gucci designer watch for the cost of ?0, there are a host of other things that the buyer will achieve like admiration, prestige and self-esteem. Gucci is not a watchmaker and does not have the same level of expertise of watch making as Rolex or Cartier. Although somebody who does not have knowledge of watches may perceive this watch as quality. Those with know-how or those in the industry would regard this watch as crap. Watches of this nature are purely soled through success of the brand. The watches are simply a spin-off from their designer clothesline and are made with very low quality and cheap components. According to Which magazine, the life expectancy for a Gucci watch is two three years. This is very low compared to Rolexs lifetime life expectancy. looking at Passs definition of quality, a Gucci watch does not carry vital characteristics such as, reliability and durability, which are key to the quality package. This brings us to Demings theory that the customers definition of quality is the only one that matters. I appreciate that the customers opinion is all that matters them, but whether or not the customer is actually receiving quality is another matter. If a product were purchased on the basis of the customer being happy with the product initially, then it would be very difficult to apply Demings theory of quality if the product has hidden defects. Similar to the phrase, things arent always what they seem. To achieve high quality, a company does not have to always have to pay the high costs. For example the cars produced by the Japanese used to be of low quality and unreliability was common. Things have changed now. Japaneses  cars are now built to an excellent standard and reliability is second to none. Not only are the Japanese building excellent cars, they are building them at a great speed. This is partly due to lean supply techniques that the Japanese have mastered. The whole area of purchasing and suppliers is streamlined to achieve minimum waste. Adopting these techniques cannot be done over night, but lean supply is an excellent step in the right direction in achieving a good balance between cost and quality long-term. Philip B. Crosby (1979) believed in the zero-defects program adopted by the US federal government defining quality as conformance to requirements. He emphasized prevention rather than inspection (audits) and promoted a definition of quality as meeting the customers requirements the first time and every time. His work is part of TQM. Crosbys (1979) philosophy on quality is driven solely by prevention of defects. It is expressed in a phrase he uses: Do it right the first time and every time. Crosby emphasizes zero defects, given that he believes there is only one level of quality. In other words, the presence of any flaw in the product deprives it of quality. He believes managements perception and attitude towards quality needs to be transformed if the organisation is going to succeed at delivering quality consistently. For example, Deming and many managers believe that error is inevitable and one only has to deal with it. Crosby believes it is self-defeating to plan and invest in strategies that deal with errors instead of investing in strategies and processes that prevent errors from occurring in the first place (Garvin and March, 1986). The Lean thinking method allows Japanese car manufactures have strong relationships with their suppliers and offer incentives for better quality. E.g. The supplier will carry out rigorous tests on their products before the buyer receives it to ensure reliability. Purchasing can improve quality by contributing to the competitive advantage of the undertaking by participating in the procurement of bought out items at the economical cost. It is important to ensure that quality is not confused with price and grade. Managers should be using their extensive knowledge and expertise to provide high quality to both internal and external customers of the purchasing function. To maximise quality, the purchasing departments responsibilities should meet with the requirements of BS/ EN and BS 7750 Keeping the balance between cost and quality in an important factor for any business. As mentioned above, it depends on what the buyer is trying to achieve overall. If high quality is the overriding factor for a company, then this will tie in with the companies high quality image. Whether it is no frills or impeccable quality, managers will try to find a reasonable balance where appropriate. Bibliography Lysons, K (2000) Purchasing and supply chain management. 5th edition. Prentice Hall Crosby, P. (1984) Quality without tears. 1st edition. Mc Graw Hall companies Crosby, P. (1995) Quality is still free. Mc Graw Hall companies Crosby, P. (1979) Quality is free. . Dutton signet Garvin, D.A. and A. March. (1984) A Note on Quality: The Views of Deming, Juran and Crosby. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Juran, J.M. (1988) Juran on Planning for Quality, New York: Free Press,. http://www.which.co.uk/

Privatization of Transmission Corporation of NAPOCOR

Privatization of Transmission Corporation of NAPOCOR In Philippine context, privatization is used to refer to the policy which allows the government to disengage in activities which are not part of the governments inherent function. This may be in many forms, such as the complete turnover of public corporations to the private sector and contracting services to private firms who has the necessary resources to manage it, or the government would just turnover certain services to the private sector but it would still be under some government regulatory procedures and incentives. This privatization mostly occurs within the framework of economic globalization. By economic globalization, it means that privatization is used as a measure to pursue the globalist restructuring of the state and to further develop the market access which mostly benefits the business elites of a state and of course, the transnational corporations (TNCs) (UP and Stiftung 91-93). Privatization, along with liberalization and deregulation, is also a part of neoliberal globalization which aims to produce surplus products within the economy and also huge capital for production. In the process, private sector continues to have a big role over the public sector activities, made possible by direct transfer of ownership and management and by the elimination of the laws that promotes the public interest (deregulation), and through the reduction of budget for the basic services, that in turn leads to the graver degradation on the access on public services of the people. For example, in privatizing public utilities like the water and power sector of the Philippines, many detrimental factors are experienced by the people, particularly the government workers under the corporation because they were displaced as private companies turned to control those sectors. The poorest sector of society also was immensely affected since those private companies seek to get high profits which leads to very high prices at the peoples expense (IBON xi-4). During the Marcos regime, a decree on creation of government owned and controlled corporations (GOCCs) was made through Presidential Decree (PD 2029) and later on through PD 2030, a policy was made which promulgates privatization. By the time of Cory Aquinos regime, this decree was first implemented through Presidential Proclamation 50 on the 9th of December in 1986 (TransCo). In 1990, Aquino also signed 6957 or what we call as the Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) law which has let and approved the intervention of the private sector in the financing, contracting, operation and also maintenance of infrastructure projects. But in 1993, when Ramos assumed the presidency, he signed RA 7718 amending the BOT law and further allowed the full involvement of private sector in crucial government development projects. Through this act, various forms of privatization schemes have evolved (TransCo). Many reasons were presented by the government regarding the privatization of the GOCCs. To enumerate some, they said that through transferring these assets to the private sector, it would yield a better efficiency in its operations. Furthermore, it was also stated that the government needed to collect more revenues for government spending to improve the economy, and this can only be done with such move. Also stated as reasons by the government is that first, it would lead to increase in investments which will boost up the economy and will also help to develop markets for capital generations. Through lessening the budget for public services in GOCCs, and selling those which are poorly performing and money-wasting, the government expected to decrease our budget deficit and also to recover its expenditures (PSALM). START OF NAPOCOR PRIVATIZATION When the National Power Corporation (NAPOCOR) was created in 1936, our government has mandated it to generate and transmit sources of energy while letting the private sector to be in charge of its distribution. But it 1980s, the government has started to gradually entrust the entire power sector to private companies. From former Pres. Aquinos Executive Order (EO) No. 215 issued in 1987, the power generation sector of NAPOCOR was started to be deregulated. By the power of build-operate-transfer scheme, EO No. 215 also gave way to private firms to establish and manage power plants in the country. This situation was further strengthened when Ramos took over the presidency. RA 7648, the Power Crisis Act of 1993 was passed and encouraged more private companies to partake in the power generation sector of NAPOCOR. Later in 1984, Expanded BOT law was also passed and had given Ramos to have emergency powers which allowed him to make contracts, most of which were foreign corporations, regardi ng the construction, repair and other technical maintenance of NAPOCOR without the need to undergo it through a public bidding (IBON 82-83). Due to the contracts of mostly 10 to 25 years made with the foreign companies, NAPOCOR was obliged to pay the power contracted to them whether they had actually produced or consumed power or not. This is what is referred to as the take or pay provision. According to this provision, NAPOCOR needs to buy 75-80 percent of a firms power capacity even though it didnt really produced or consumed it. This in turn made NAPOCOR to pass the obligation to the local consumers even though they really hadnt consumed even a small part of it, which is really a great burden since it takes about 60 percent of the total power available at the economy. Of course, this is clearly seen when power distributors such as Meralco get wholesale power from NAPOCOR and pay for it which is the Purchased Power Cost Adjustment (PPCA) that corresponds it (IBON 83-84). Aside from this Purchased Power Cost Adjustment or PPCA, NAPOCOR has also passed the Fuel Cost Adjustment (FCA) fees to the power distributors due to the need to do its obligation to supply enough fuel to the firms or power plants in which it had its long-term contract with, regardless of the fluctuations in the price of oil or fuel in the global market or even in the domestic domain. These two costs of NAPOCOR and wholesale costumers further make up the Fuel and Purchased Power Costs Adjustments or FPCA (IBON 84-85). Furthermore, the contracts made by NAPOCOR to the independent power plants (IPPs) are in dollar rates. This only means that charges between the two entities are affected by the foreign exchange rates or peso-dollar rates to compensate the change in payout because of the continuing weakness of peso currency as against dollars. Due to the fact that these IPPs are owned by foreign companies, they are selling their power to NAPOCOR by almost $20 per megawatt hour (mWh) higher than the power sold to them by their own power generators. Of course, these very high rate would translate and reflect to the additional fees charged to the end-consumers of electricity through the purchased power adjustments (PPA) without their power to refuse against it even though in 2002, a review made by the government showed that most of these IPPs has either legal or financial issues and are disadvantageous for the government itself. During the Arroyo administration, this PPA was still not stopped in operations of NAPOCOR since it was a great source of income for the government, although we know that the local consumers are the ones who intensely suffer from it; and also of course not to jeopardize the privatization of NAPOCOR and to continue attracting foreign corporations to invest and participate in such measures of the government. Among other transnational corporations (TNCs), NAPOCORs IPPs incorporate energy sectors giants such as Marubeni, Kawasaki, Mitsui, Chevron, and Enron (IBON 85). According to Meralco, PPA is just one cost adjustment mechanism that is passed on to the local consumers, since there is also the CERA which is intended so that Meralco will be able to recuperate the changes in operating costs and repayment of principal debt mainly brought about by the changes in foreign exchange rates in which the contracts are bound. Due to this, Meralco claims that only little of the consumer charges go to them, since it primarily goes to NAPOCOR as PPA and to the government as franchise tax. But, apparently it turns out that these might be made up stories or complains since Meralco as a power distributor was also allowed to have its own IPPs by virtue of former Pres. Aquinos EO 215. Meralco has indeed three IPPs which are among the countrys largest companies which supply almost half of its power requirements. This only means that Meralco, having its own IPPs actually earns a lot of money from the PPA. It has also made use of it to make a way out of the controversy arising from the fact that it has monopoly control over power distribution. By this, it was also able to control and manipulate the computations regarding the IPPs which are remarkably its sister companies. For example, First Gas which is one of its IPPs and partly owned by Meralco itself, was used to make anomalous transactions in PPA since Meralco c an actually protect and cover the supply cost from the said IPP even though in reality it doesnt even delivered one kilowatt of power to Meralco (IBON 86-89). Meanwhile, we can clearly see that the results of letting private corporations participate in the power industry is contrary to the rationale behind its approval, which among others is to relieve the government from its burden on funding the setting up of power generating plants (UP and Stiftung 115-116). Instead of it happening, the reverse had taken place. NAPOCOR has left in charge of paying the debt obligations of the IPPs assured by state guarantees which were made to further attract investors. Through those incentives, including long-term power contracts, IPPs were assured that they will have return on investments whatever happens. Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) Through the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or EPIRA which is RA 9136, payment for stranded costs of NAPOCOR or the costs due to stranded debts and contracts, were passed on to consumers as a universal charge along with the cost of restructuring the power industry. This was implemented during the Arroyo administration when she declared that the government must not shoulder this expense but must be recuperated through a universal charge. To further clarify some previously mentioned terms, stranded debts as part of the stranded cost is the obligations that will be left out by NAPOCOR once it is sold to private individuals, while the other one, the stranded contract cost is the difference from the price of electricity from the wholesale market to be set by EPIRA itself and the price from IPPs. Due to this very large cost of NAPOCORs obligations which are partly paid by the government through debt from foreign sources, very high priced bonds were sold by the government to finance its principal obligations mainly due to those long-term contracts. So it is obvious that it has only made the government and the people suffer from paying them instead of getting away from funding large amount for power generators, while the private sector like the transnational corporations (TNCs) and other local elites were getting more and more income from it each year making it as its milking cow. Also it is evident that PPA has only intens ified the dependence of government to private sector to pay its foreign debts and its grave situation of national bankruptcy which clearly impacts detrimental effect to the poor Filipino citizens (IBON 89-91). Actually, in 2001, the Arroyo administration had pushed EPIRA to be approved for a great loan to be released, the $900 M ADB Power Sector Restructuring loan which was filed since 1998. IMF had also played a part on its approval, since it made it a condition for it to release a $300 M rehabilitation loan for the Philippines since 1999. By this, we could clearly see that the government had pushed it not to improve the condition of accessible power service to the people, but the adverse that favored the private companies and further strengthened their control over the power service. Transmission Corporation (TransCo) Along EPIRA in 2001, the creation of a National Transmission Corporation (TransCo) in 2003 under NAPOCOR was also signed into law. In line with this, the Arroyo administration had also pushed for its privatization by the mandate of the same aforementioned law. This TransCo as a GOCC is basically in charge of operating and managing the power transmission system of the country which will link power plants to the electric distribution utilities throughout the Philippines (TransCo). In simple terms, it will be taking control over the transmission and sub-transmission functions, assets, as well as the liabilities of NAPOCOR. TransCo, in taking over the sub-transmission assets will manage it until they are finally disposed into their proper distribution utilities which in turn will hold its planning and overall maintenance of those assets. But, as like NAPOCOR, through EPIRA, TransCo is mandated to be privatized through either an outright sale or a management concession contract lasting fo r about 25 years. The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Finance (DOF) were basically in charge in the planning and setting up its transfer to private companies (Cook and Mendoza, 9; 68). As again an expectation of the government, from privatizing TransCo, it expects a high income which will be used to pay the NAPOCORs remaining debt that is extensively big which will in result lessen or decrease the governments public sector deficit. Aside from that expected revenue from its sale, the government also expects that when a technologically advance and proficient private concessionaire will take over the transmission line, it will result to more efficient and world class network. It says that due to the crippling energy crisis, people are hard to be provided with a dependable and secured supply of electricity at low rates, so privatization of such sector will be a necessary response to it, while attracting more investments at the energy division (Perez). But, the government actually marginalizes the stake of local power sector by doing this. First, they can be exploited since through the privatization of TransCo, it will surely lead to a monopoly of the private business. Since in EPIRA, the cross-ownership of distribution, generation, and transmission under NAPOCOR is allowed, this only means that through the profit-seeking goal of the monopolies over those areas, power rates will still remain indefinable (TransCo). TransCos privatization clearly manifest the government favoring TNCs as well as local elites like the Lopez Group of Companies in their reinforced power over the Philippines power sector. According to the president of PSALM or Public Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Edgardo del Fonso, it would seem not attractive to foreign investors if the assets of TransCo will not be franchised nationwide (PSALM). Actually, based on a primer released by IBON Foundation in 2003, there were already at least eight TNCs which had expressed their interest in the privatization of TransCo, not to mention that these TNCs are among the worlds largest. And some of those TNCs were already on hold of some local power industries operations. But due to certain limitations of our constitution, they were only allowed to operate up to 40 percent of the power sector, but then again PSALM had admitted that later on, it is possible that there would be some restructuring to be done to allow greater share of private sector on power service. This only means that possibilities are open on the total foreign control of our local power sector at the expense of the national interest and welfare. As of now, this transmission system under NAPOCOR known as the crown jewel of the governments power privatization program is already at the hands of the private sector. On the 12th of December in 2007, PSALM has conducted a successful bidding for TransCos 25-years concession contract to be able to maintain its functions on transmission. On the year 2008, it finally announced that TransCos transmission function will be transferred under the management of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the successful bidder who offered a US $3.950B for the said concession after the three failed attempts in the previous years (PSALM). This was despite the opposition of various consumer and militant groups like the People Opposed to Warrantless Electricity Rates (Power) and the Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) because for them it was a crucial step for the government to take since the burden soon will heavily fall at the local consumers when the winning bidder will make a way to recover its loss and investments at the earliest time possible. As Legazpi cited in her article, according to Tapang, a convener of Power, (Transcos) infrastructure provides a highway for electricity and other uses. Whoever controls it can impose a toll fee on users of this highway. In the hands of private interests, there is always the potential for abuse in the name of greater profits. Bayan has also released their statement through their secretary general in the person of Reynato Reyes, adding that TransCo is of strategic importance to our economy and so it must remain as state-owned and it is basically a prejudice on the part of the g overnment to continue to such action due to the fact that this will lead to a great load to be carried on by ordinary consumers (Legazpi). Amidst those oppositions, unfortunately on that same year also, the congress had approved a bicameral resolution which will grant franchise of TransCo to NGCP, legitimizing it as a private unit to run a public service. By December of that year, former Pres. Arroyo signed the law which will officially grant franchise to NGCP, RA 9511. Following that year, in 2009, TransCo was formally turned over to PSALM in a ceremony held at PSALMs office in Makati on January 14, 2009. The event significantly indicated the NGCPs authority to start TransCos operation under its new management with Atty. Moslemen T. Macarambon as its first new president. Currently, it is headed by Rolando T. Bacani, president and CEO (TransCo). After the sale transaction of TransCo, NGCP has paid almost US $1B to PSALM as provisioned by the contract as its straight payment for its operation. PSALM is also confident that after TransCos privatization and turning over of NGCP on its operation will eventually result to an efficient operation and effective maintenance of our transmission network, while counting on the successful record and wide experience of the consortium and its foreign partners (PSALM). After TransCos successful bidding and private transfer of ownership, PSALM is still opening its invitation for bidding of other power plants such as those at Naga, Cebu, the Naga Power Plant Complex, in Tongonan, Leyte, the Unified Leyte Geothermal Power Plants, and in Pililia, Rizal, the Malaya Therman Power Plants (PSALM). In 2010, many assets under power generation have been sold as well as its contracted capacities. In spite all of those, the PSALM and the government still pushes for further privatization of the power sector. EFFECTS OF PRIVATIZATION When the government resort to privatizing state owned corporations especially those involved in economic services, this basically turn to an impact which is as destructive as the liberalization of trade and investment. As a Third World country, taking this crucial step marginalizes the interest and welfare of the people and other economic development programs and projects for the country. The people are more vulnerable and are easily affected by the impact of having no jobs and the inaccessibility of basic social services. After some years of the promise of improved effectiveness and efficiency of these privatized sectors by the government to the people as the reason behind the privatization of such basic public services, the supposedly good results are yet unseen but on the contrary, public menaces and difficulties are experienced of the people on that particular service (IBON 131-134). First of all, the government did not had a financial relief on privatizing public services, since like in NAPOCOR and other corporations, the government becomes more bankrupt and indebted to private or foreign investors since privatizing assets only provide short-term or one-time big-time revenue, but in the long run, results to a great dependence on private sector due to the debts incurred after privatization. it has also resulted to a lesser allocation of budget for other social services due to the automatic appropriation of budget to debt servicing mandated by the law. Some privatized assets by the government were also not as considerable since sometimes they are key economic players in the countrys economic growth. Moreover, in the case of privatization of NAPOCOR, the government had shouldered the huge liabilities left when it was privatized, or some parts of it. This results to a huge public funds being used to pay for its interests and amortization. Through state guarantees, t he government bore the obligations of the IPPs, which through long-term contracts are assured by the government to have return on its investments no matter what. In short, the government is no more than losing in this kind of program and gradually is put into a profound bankruptcy. This is one of the main reasons behind the fiscal crisis experienced by national government in 2004 and still contributes to the worsening condition of the economy. On improved efficiency One point that is to be remembered regarding privatization is that having the private sector does not necessarily mean that the previously owned and controlled corporation of the government would yield better efficiency. In the first place, they were not created to be profit-oriented but to provide accessible support and basic service to the people. This is critical to the consumers situation, since if the market fails, there should the government to secure them against it and continue to provide them its responsibility. Supposedly, our government expect that when private corporations took control over it, they will invest in its improvement, but just like the MWSS privatization, this is not what is actually happening but they use their revenues to expand their properties around the globe, in short they are not concerned of efficacy of operation of the corporation, but more concerned on how to gain more profits. Peoples access to basic services When GOCCs are privatized, people can expect spikes in their rates and inaccessibility and unaffordability of the basic service that were previously provided to them by the government in low and accessible prices. Of course this is only logical since private corporations main objective is no other than to get more profit. We can expect this effect to be mostly aggravating to the poor and marginalized Filipino citizens who also try their best to survive with their very small income that doesnt increase in real terms and growing joblessness throughout the country. In fact, almost 20 percent of an average household income is spent to pay their electricity bills alone. Because of this, some of the poor Filipino families had chosen to cut their electricity connection to lessen daily budget costs, or even on some families their supply was cut due to being not able to pay for their high electric bill. Up to now, many the typical Filipino consumers are not able to get basic services at lower or reasonable rates since as like the government said, those privatized institutions should have been more efficient due to improved infrastructure implemented by private firms. But, it just bloated up their rates that the people could hardly pay for it, just like in the power service of NAPOCOR, cost recovery mechanisms were passed to the peoples responsibility. So through that, we can already conclude that when market forces rule without any regulation from the government promoting public welfare, the consumers situation is largely at stake and worsened. Because of this we can clearly say that where is the choice of power and power choice that the government said and promised to its consumers if the power industry and its functions will be privatized? Clearly, it shows that it was merely a false and deceiving statement. Workers situations Aside from these detrimental impacts, privatization also increases level of unemployment especially in underdeveloped nations like the Philippines. This is due to the displacement of workers from the previous state-owned corporations or in other way, through contractualization of those somehow lucky workers left at the privatized corporation. In this way, workers are put in an acute situation while the private corporation continues to gaining more profits and cutting production costs. They are also aggrieved through cutting their wages without their power to stop those private firms. In the restructuring and privatization of NAPOCOR, more than 2,000 of its employees had already lost their job and currently, as threats of further privatization of electric cooperatives are on the way, this number will possibly increase. Aside from the employees of NAPOCOR who lost their jobs, there are also many workers from industrial and commercial sectors who lost their jobs due to closure of their companies which one of the factors which caused it is the very high electricity rates that they have lesser production that cannot compete with other industries either around the country or outside. Factory workers also dont get wage hike since their employers insist that they are spending more and more on operation and maintenance costs as industrial electricity rates also sores up. Actually last July 2009, more than 1,000 former workers of TransCo were not accepted by NGCP to continue their work on it after 5 months of transition period, despite having EPIRA assurances that were not that effective afterwwards. This was due to the high NGCP standards in accepting new employees according to the Mindanao Transco Employees Union or Mintrea. Before TransCo was privatized, the consortium of the private companies to take over it said that they will not let those more than 5,000 employees of TransCo to lose their jobs instead they will again hire them even privatization is already done. But according to Walder Revellar, North Luzon chapter president of Mintrea, most of the TransCo employees suffered retrenchment even before when NAPOCOR was started to be privatized when reorganization within the sector began. Most of them were of old age but has not reached the age of retirement on the new private administration of TransCo due to forced leave since according to them, they dont have the full capacity to absorb all of the previous workers of TransCo. Being too old to be rehired, workers like them as a result had difficulties in finding new jobs because of their age constraint. Some of the previous employees also are at young age, which are said to be too young to be retired, that could have done great job on TransCo if they w ere not removed from their jobs as Revellar stressed out also. Unfortunately, despite the workers complains they couldnt anything about that concern because it has been transferred already to the private sector (Inquirer). After of all the results of TransCo privatization, it only appears to us that the government is just making a way to decline its social responsibility to the state and most especially to the people in providing the basic services that it must provide in the first place. Public utilities and services play an important role in protecting the poor and marginalized sector of society so letting the free-market and the market forces operate on its own on those assets would defy the public assets original intent like the power sector in generating efficient and affordable electricity throughout the country. It had also meant a lesser government intervention to the economic and social activities of the state, and so it results to peoples situation becoming worse over time as private sector continues to exploit our resources and earn super-profits. This should not be tolerated since first and foremost, these are all done at the peoples expense.

Wal-Mart SWOT Analysis :: essays research papers

Rochester Area Habitat for Humanity The community project selected by our cohort was the Area Habitat for Humanity (AHH). Out of several options, this project was picked on the basis of task verity, task arrangement, and task schedule. A contingency project was also selected at that time. Mission of RAHH is to create and provide affordable homes for low income families. RAHH selects eight to ten families out of hundreds that apply on the basis of income level, credit worthiness, and family size each year. Each adult member of the selected families requires to spend 250 hours in home construction and 35 hours in classroom training on home maintenance. A typical house that RAHH builds is comprised of four bed rooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, a dinning room, a living room, and a garage. The average cost of building each house is about $60000. A finished house can get appraised up to $150000. The house we were selected for our project is located in the North-East. We started the project at about 9:00am on Saturday. Trent Frugal, a member of the RAHH, provided us with a short orientation. In this orientation, we learnt about the RAHH value and the proper process, procedure, and needed precautionary measurement in doing our task. Our task for the day was to put sheetrock on the wall and on the ceiling. Two of eight cohort members had some previous experience in sheetrocking. We divided ourselves into two groups by having one of the experience sheetrockers in each group. The whole effort was based on collaboration and was driven by consensus. Members of the group that I worked with were good hearted, friendly, cooperative. Each of us acted as a true team player by providing opinions, suggestions, and sharing knowledge with in the group. Our task was to scale, cut, and fasten the sheetrock in the wall and the ceiling. A volunteer who was not part of our cohort, an expert builder, was with us to provide some guidance as needed. This provided guidance helped us identify the right materials and the process to complete the task. In doing the sheetrocking task, I quickly learnt the importance of having a cohesive and harmonious team. The whole opportunity was a great learning experience for me.

Healthy Personality: Ability to Adapt Change and Handle Stress

The road to a healthy personality is like a road itself. It has many curves and blind corners. Ones ability to adapt to this constantly changing road is one of the most important components of a healthy personality. That is, the ability to adapt to a changing world. Another important component is the ability to handle stress. We are just beginning to find out what stress does to our bodies and minds, and most of it is not good. Some other components I will discuss are having a good self-concept and everything that encompasses self . Our world is constantly changing and putting different pressures and demands on us. We have to adapt to many new kinds of stressors resulting from evolution alone. Time is changing constantly and that brings on new situations we need to cope with. When a person can adapt well, they have less stress and in general have a healthier personality. Adapting gives us the means to survive. It provides us with shelter, food, and a competitive edge. Without these things its hard to survive. There are people like this too. Some people, whether it be circumstantial or relative, just do not have what it takes to make it these days. These people usually do not have a healthy personality. It would be hard to even think about what a healthy personality is like. The ability to adapt gives us access to the resources needed for lives essential biological needs, which in turn allows us to think deeper about our state of mind and relationships with others. The way we handle stress and how we react to it plays a big role in the development of a healthy personality. To go out into the world not prepared to handle stress would be like going into war with no ammo in the guns. You would not last very long in either situation. There is no denying the fact that all of have stress to deal with. I'm not going to tell you or anyone else what I'm going through. You don't need to hear it and I don't like hearing it from other people. What it comes down to is how one deals with their individual stressors. Psychological hardiness comes into play here. If you are a psychologically hardy person, stress may be a foreign word to you. On the other hand if you are not a psychologically hardy person you will have a very good idea of what stress is. Psychological hardiness, to me, is the act of actively knowing you have stress and using three simple guidelines to deal with that stress. Those three are commitment, control, and challenge. These three things are very important in stress management. Especially in comparison to other ways of stress management like substance use, withdrawal, or defense mechanisms. While these things temporarily relieve the effects of stress they usually are short lived or have negative consequences attached to them. If you commit yourself to do something you are actively staying involved in that activity. This helps you to set goals and achieve them. Challenge is taking a stressful situation and turning it into a challenge instead of some situation you just have to deal with. When you take on something it doesn't quite seem the same as a stressful situation. The situation may be very stressful, it's all about the attitude one takes on before going into a certain situation. Finally control can aid in stress relief. When people feel that they are in control they have an easier time dealing with whatever situation they are in. If you feel that you are in charge of your life and the decisions you make and the attitudes you take on are your own you will have an easier time dealing with stress. These are not the only ways of dealing with stress. There is Albert Ellis's concept of controlling stressful thoughts. Ellis says that what we think is directly correlated to what we feel. His theory includes concepts like catastrophizing thoughts and irrational beliefs. These things are hard to detect, but I think we all do them. Irrational beliefs and catastrophizing thoughts are negative feelings about situations you feel stress in. An example would be thinking you have to act a certain way to get the approval of others in a social setting, or thinking that there is nothing that you could possibly do in a situation. The main point in dealing with stress that Ellis is trying to make is realizing that we all have these negative thoughts and beliefs. When something happens to us, Ellis called this event the activating event, we have consequences that follow. In between those two events is when the belief or thought will take place. An example would be if you lose your job, activating event, you will have negative consequences. A lot of people would add in a catastrophizing thought like â€Å"that job was everything to me† or â€Å"I'll never find a job as good as that one†. When we do that it makes it easier to look at our failures and concentrate on them instead of trying to fix them. It also makes it easier to become depressed or anxious. People get in the habit of using these beliefs and thoughts over time and have a hard time breaking there habits. My final component to a healthy personality is a collaboration of several different theories. They all have to do with how we perceive ourselves and how we feel about ourselves. Individual theories that will be discussed are self perception, the self concept, self esteem, and ideal self. I feel that all of these things are closely related and tied together very intricately. They are reflected within each other and none could really be complete without the others. Self perception is an ongoing and constantly changing view of what we are. It can be broken down into three major components, they are: the physical self, the social self, and the personal self. The physical self is the bodies we walk around in and the unique features each of them possess. Our physical appearance has an enormous effect on a healthy personality. Some people tower over others and some, like me, wish they had a few more inches. Some people are physically more beautiful than other people, and in turn get more attention for their appearance. Other people are ridiculed for their appearance. How people deal with their physical self has a lot to do with a healthy personality. For example if a young girl really wants to be a model, but is not cut out to be one, the realization that she will not be a model will have a profound effect on her personality. Perhaps she will take on negative attitudes about her body and appearance. Maybe those attitudes will develop into false beliefs that people, including her, are somehow not as valuable unless they are beautiful. You can also look at it from the other end, perhaps a very beautiful young lady develops negative feelings about unattractive people. And those feelings develop into beliefs that she is better than everyone else and the most beautiful person on earth. How we deal with the fact that we are constantly being judged and evaluated on our physical appearance has a profound effect on personality. The social self is the many different masks and roles we play in social and home settings. You might play the role of a sophisticated gentleman at a fancy Christmas party, or the role of a brother, sister, mother, father, or child within a household. How we use these different roles and masks has an effect on our personality. What if you went to fancy Christmas parties in wholly jeans and a t-shirt? You would probably be looked down upon. And if you did that all the time, that is use the wrong social masks in the wrong situation, it would affect your personality negatively. The personal self is the part of you that nobody else knows. It is the constantly changing feeling of being yourself, with always changing emotions, attitudes, and feelings. The personal self includes our names and self concept. Our names do have a small effect on our personality. They can change others perception of us, which can lead to many different things, but for the most part peoples names do not have a profound impact on personality. A self concept is an impression or concept of yourself. It is a collaboration of personal traits you feel are important, and your own impression on how you stack up to these traits. Your self concept can have positive and negative impacts on your personality. If you have a very rigid view on what values you should have and you do not live up to them you could consider yourself not worthy. It can lower your self esteem, which is another closely related concept. Self esteem is approving of yourself. It is respecting yourself as a valuable person. Self esteem is said to form in childhood when parents either show conditional or unconditional love. This can have a profound affect on personality. People with lower self esteem tend to be depressed more and are shown to be more susceptible to suicide. Flip side of the story, people with high self esteem tend to live happier lives with overall healthier personalities. Concepts of how we ought to be is our ideal selves. This is all the traits we think we should be full of. Things like compassion, honesty, or it can be things like physical appearance, height, and hair color. The closer we actually are to what we think we should be correlates to ones self esteem. That is, the closer we are, the higher our self esteem. If we think we are not up to par with ourselves it can lower self esteem. Our concept of self is a very intricate and delicate web of emotions and outside pressures we need to keep tabs on. The concepts in this essay are a lot like car accessaries. You can add new shiny paint to show of its physical appearance and you can add snow tires to adapt to different road conditions in the future. What we do to our vehicles that we have is up to us. We have the innate ability to change our surroundings and ourselves. That is why a lot of these components are related. If we feel like we have low self esteem we can start exercising to feel better, which will in turn allow us to be physically fit. Physical fitness will allow us to feel less stress about being overweight or lazy, and that in turn will allow us to concentrate on adapting to our natural surroundings.

20 Brilliant Winston Churchill Quotations

20 Brilliant Winston Churchill Quotations Listed below are twenty Winston Churchill quotations that we found amusing and insightful. After you get over the initial abruptness of these quotations, you will begin to see a deep underlying meaning. Strength Today we may say aloud before an awe-struck world: We are still masters of our fate. We are still captain of our souls. Never give in- never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees all others. There is nothing more exhilarating than to be shot at without result. Truth There are a lot of lies going around... and half of them are true. In wartime, truth is so precious that she should always be attended by a bodyguard of lies. A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on. Truth is incontrovertible, ignorance can deride it, panic may resent it, malice may destroy it, but there it is. Humor I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals. Golf is a game whose aim is to hit a very small ball into an even smaller hole, with weapons singularly ill-designed for the purpose. This report, by its very length, defends itself against the risk of being read. We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle. The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. We are all worms. But I believe that I am a glow-worm. Leadership However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results. When I am abroad I always make it a rule never to criticize or attack the Government of my country. I make up for lost time when I am at home. The price of greatness is responsibility. If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce. Those who can win a war well can rarely make a good peace and those who could make a good peace would never have won the war.