Analysis Of Business Environment For Coca-Cola Company Research Paper

Analysis Of Business Environment For Coca-Cola Company - Research Paper Example The company can minimize weaknesses and fight threats to improve financial and training systems and undertake staff motivational initiatives to minimize risks associated with new markets and increase competitive advantage as well as constantly build expertise in the firm to minimize chances of the firm undertaking risky business internationally such as the experiences seen during the global financial crisis. Also, technological advancements in the industry may be useful to increase competition. Using SWOT analysis, the company should be able to focus on its strengths, curtail threats, and take the utmost possible gain of opportunities available, and trigger aggressive strategy formulation. The firm has a better understanding of its competitors which can provide insights to craft a coherent and successful competitive position. To maintain and/or increase customer loyalty, the company should employ strategies that jealously guard its existing market share and also explore ways of expan ding the customer base to grow revenue and increase business performance. Product differentiation based on customer segments is one of the strategies the company can use. The company should also explore the strengths and limitations of its competitors by interrogating the soft spots of alternative products to strengthen its products. Other strategies may include going an extra mile to know its customers better, meet and exceed customer expectations, increase value derived by customers from its products.

Fate vs. Free

Fate vs. Free Will Essay What we do, where we walk, how we act and what decisions we take; are they guided by our free will or by the hand of fate? Even if we do have free will; are we one hundred percent, truly free or is free will just training wheels carrying us along different paths to our predestined location? If so, we are inherently limited from birth in the aspects of our intelligence, success, and true freedom depending on how binding the shackles of fate truly are. We cant control circumstances of our birth or generally life-altering things that are out of our control such as a random lightning strike or traffic accident, but perhaps we can control the broader course of our life through our actions. One who trains their body diligently and with supreme effort may become a famous MMA fighter with a body that the ancient Greeks would marvel at, but what if that persons profession and training were stamped into him at birth? At conception? At the beginning of time itself? Possible, but what if he just made a decision one day and earned it? There simply is no way to know, short of speaking with the divinity that has assigned us all our fates if such a being exists. Say we are all prisoners in an inescapable prison of destiny. Perhaps some of us are given the opportunity to control our fates. Perhaps some of us are afforded a choice between the blue pill or the red pill; the choice to be a living puppet or to break into our own universal order and control our own lives. We will never know. The one thing we may know however, is that we may be given this choice one day, and this rift in the balance of the universe will afford us enough free will in the situation simply to make the decision between the blue pill and the red pill. We can know in our hearts what our decisions will be when we are handed our destinies and told to take control and become the master of our own destinies or release them back into the cosmic wind, and become a simple puppet once more. I can speak for no one but myself, but I know my answer in my heart. The thought of my life being anything but my own up until this point sickens me. I will not be a puppet, I will not be led forcefully through my destiny by the imperceptible shackles of fate. I will take control of my destiny, steer my own ship; I will be the master of my own destiny if the expense is my life; because I know the life I led will have truly been mine.

Review of the ball and brown study

Review of the ball and brown study With the rise of multinational companies and the rapid growth of transnational investments, there has been an increasing demand for an empirical evaluation of accounting income numbers. This is a broad area of research that originated with the seminal publication of the Ball and Brown study(1968).The literature has grown rapidly, with over 1,000 published papers in leading academic accounting and finance journals in the past three decades (Kothari,2001).However, several accounting experts assert that there are some weaknesses in the research of Ball and Brown. Meanwhile, critics argue that their empirical evaluation contributed to the positive accounting theory that revolutionized accounting literature in the late 1970s. The purpose of this essay is to introduce the strengths of Ball and Browns paper and identify its influence on the development of accounting. This essay will argue that the limitation of the paper is not serious, but its advantages are very significant. First, argume nts for and against the empirical research are discussed. Then, an evaluation is explored .Lastly, a conclusion is presented. 2. The weaknesses of the paper Providing empirical evidence to ascertain whether accounting numbers contain or convey information about a firms financial performance was the major motivation that led to the research of Ball and Brown (1968). They pioneered capital markets research in accounting. However, their study still has some weaknesses. 2.1 Unreliability As a potential limitation of their studies, the reliability of their results depends on the sources of information. Although we are not disputing the reliability of the said sources, they should be investigated. Research should be conducted to document various types of institutions. According to Zhang (2007), the selection of the sample did not include companies meet the following four conditions. The first one is the failed company. The second one is a company whose financial year does not end on the 31st of December. The third one is the company that is not recorded in the CRSP database of stock price research centers. It also includes the young firm that is not described by the Wall Street Journal. Given those situations, the generality and reliability of their results may be reduced. 2.2 Limitations This research firmly establishes that earnings reflect some of the information in security prices. However, this early research did not perform statistical tests comparing alternative performance measures, considering that the primary concern was to ascertain whether there is any overlap between the earnings information and the information reflected in security prices. In the 1980s, several studies statistically compared stock returns with earnings, accruals, and cash flows (Rayburn, 1986). Aside from providing a formal test, the previous research used a relatively crude measure of cash flow. The succeeding studies used more sophisticated expectation models to isolate accurately the unexpected components of earnings, accruals, and cash flows, given that returns in an efficient market only reflect the unanticipated components (Livnat et al., 1990).ListenRead phonetically 3. The strengths of the paper Although the weakness of this paper is obvious, the design of variables and the results of the test have made outstanding contributions to research of accounting income. 3.1 Ingenious design of variables After identifying the research themes, Ball and Brown selected the most representative accounting income numbers to measure the information content. Considering that shareholders are more concerned about EPS and net income, Ball and Brown used them as variables. To determine the information content of the accounting income, they used market efficiency hypothesis and the capital asset pricing model as references. According to the efficient market hypothesis, the authors maintained that observable stock price is fluctuant and linked with information. This can mean that accounting income numbers are useful. The key to determining the relationship between accounting income and stock price is to distinguish the security prices of a particular company as well as all the other companies. Therefore, the authors built two models of market expected return to examine how the market reacts to accounting income numbers. Ball and Brown separated factors that affect earning into two different kinds: specific factors and system factors. System factors affect all companies, thus, the surplus of one company and other companies can be linked with each other. If the link is suitable, then stability can be shown using a fixed function, enabling us to achieve the income conditional expectation of one company based on other companies data. Thus, changes in the unexpected surplus of earning can be estimated by calculating by the changes in both actual income and conditional expectation. The authors defined the difference as the gain of current information. At the same time, they assumed that the changes in policy and corporate have been enacted before the first estimation. Thus, the influence of macroeconomic and policy changes can be estimated jointly. The authors initially used the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) to estimate the linear regression coefficient and intercept of samples annual income changes and average income changes. Secondly, the changes in the market income average were used as independent variables and included in the regression model to calculate the expected value of income changes. Finally, the changes in the value of unexpected earnings (prediction residual) referred to the actual value of the earnings change minus the change in earnings expectations. Therefore, market effect was removed from the estimation of expected surplus, which means the authors did not take system factors into account. Similarly, the factors affecting the impact of no stock or stock returns can still be separated into two factors: system factors and specific factors. First, the authors used capital asset pricing model to separate the system factors and from non-system factors, then calculated the deviation of actual rate return and expected stock return. Secondly, Ball and Brown calculated the companys stock return residuals (abnormal returns). Given that markets are efficient, stock prices will adjust quickly and effectively about the new information, so residuals can show the impact on stock prices of new information. To test the validity of statistics, Ball and Brown used an alternative model- naive model. In this model, an alternative variable is the expected surplus for last years actual surplus. The naive model does not eliminate the market effects, but verifies the earnings per share targets. 3.2 Remarkable results This paper distinguished expected changes and unexpected changes in accounting incomes to estimate the abnormal return and changes in unexpected accounting incomes. In addition, it theorized that when the surplus prediction error is negative, it is both advantageous and disadvantageous. This paper presented the hypothesis that if the accounting income numbers could be linked with stock prices, then the announcement of accounting income numbers could result in changes in the stock returns. In the empirical test, the authors defined the month of annual report as 0, API representing the abnormal performance index of month M. In the process of calculating the API, the changes in unexpected earning are first separated into two groups (positive and negative), and then all samples are calculated together. Ball and Brown thought that if accounting income is related to stock returns, it can be assumed that if the changes in unexpected surplus are positive, then API is larger than 1 ; if they are negative, then the API is less than 1. In the combined sample, API is close to 1. Ball and Brown thought that annual income report can provide new information; however, it cannot be transmitted in time, because most of its content comes from various sources (interim report and non-accounting information, annual accounting report is only one of them) .The authors also found that after the announcement of the annual report, API has a tendency to drift on, that is, revenue projections residual error signal and the relationship between stock returns in the annual report may be continued for two months. After analysis, which may be caused by the transaction costs, and excluding the impact of transaction costs, the market reaction to the numbers tends to be unbiased. 4. Evaluation At first glance, one weakness of this empirical research is the limitation of the sample which may decrease the generality and reliability of the results. However, the selection of the sample was similar to the tests used in related literature, which could lead to consistent results if used the same way on other samples. The weaknesses of the paper also include the limitation of the statistical tests. Nonetheless, it had a significant impact on later research. Ball and Brown (1968) provide compelling evidence that there is information content in accounting earnings announcements. In the meantime, they correlate the sign of the abnormal stock return in the month of an earnings announcement with the sign of the earnings change of a certain firms earnings in a previous year earnings. Starting with Ball and Brown (1968), many studies used such association with stock returns to compare alternative accounting performance measures, such as historical cost earnings, current cost earnings, residual earnings, operating cash flows, and so on. Circumstances similar to those that facilitated the Ball and Brown (1968) study also contributed to Watts and Zimmermans positive accounting theory that revolutionized the accounting literature in the late 1970s (Watts and Zimmerman, 1979). As Watts and Zimmerman (1986) po int out, most accounting research since Ball and Brown (1968) has been positive, and the role of accounting theory is no longer normative. Ball and Brown (1968) heralded the positive-economics-based empirical capital markets research in the late 1960s.Concurrent developments in economics and finance constituted the theoretical and methodological impetus to the early capital markets research in accounting. This historical detour exploring the forces that shaped the early capital markets research has positive pedagogical externalities, particularly for guiding new researchers. Seasoned researchers can skip over portions of this section without losing continuity. In addition, this paper analyzes the insufficiency of theoretical studies using empirical testing to find out whether the accounting income numbers are useful. It initially provides reliable evidence that stock markets can influence annual reports. Then researchers began to do a lot in reflect of stock market. Furthermore, the method used is also applicable to a large number of accounting and financial issues, including dividend announcements, earnings announcements, mergers and acquisitions, and investment spending. 5. Conclusion This essay has discussed the weaknesses and strengths of the empirical evaluation of accounting income numbers by Ball and Brown (1968). Although this research has some limitations, the merits far outweigh the disadvantages. It preceded the positive-economics-based empirical capital markets research of the late 1960s. Concurrent developments in economics and finance constituted the theoretical and methodological impetus to the early capital markets research in accounting. Therefore, it is suggested that this research plays a great role in the development of accounting .In this essay, only a few strengths are mentioned; the ways of putting these benefits into practice need further exploration.

The Purchase Of Detergent Powder In Brazil Marketing Essay

The Purchase Of Detergent Powder In Brazil Marketing Essay Following is the consumer behaviour with respect to the purchase of detergent powder in Brazil explained through consumer decision making process. Product Choice Evaluation of options Information Search Problem Recognition Post-purchase Evaluation Problem Recognition: According to Solomon et al (2009) the problem recognition occurs when there is a gap between the desired state and actual state of a consumer. From the case inferred that, People in north-east region of Brazil wash clothes more frequently and they see cleanliness of clothes is part of their culture. They will change their detergent powder if they felt that their clothes are not clean enough. Most of the families own a washing machine in south-east region. People in this region perceive doing laundry as a duty and find ways to make process easier. They will change their detergent powder if it is not to their expectations. Information Search: Solomon et al (2009) stated that once the problem is recognised consumer will do an internal and external check to find possible solutions that might solve his problem. Women in the north east region wash their clothes in public laundry. This gives them the option of taking advice from their peer group in choosing the detergent powder, or point of purchase advice from the store owners or from their past experience apart from information through advertisements. On the contrary, Southeast consumers wash their clothes alone at home since most of them own a washing machine. Therefore, their information search is restricted to television advertisements and the advice from small store owners. Evaluation of options: Solomon et al (2009) stated that once consumers identify the possible solutions they will evaluate the alternatives using their respective convincing attributes to find the best solution which can solve their actual problem. The prominent attributes for majority of the Brazilian consumers are price, power of the detergent, brand and their past experience. Product Choice: According to Solomon et al (2009) while making the final choice on purchasing or using a product consumer is influenced by some factors. There are three main categories which will influence the consumer decision, 1. Internal influences 2. Situational influences 3. Social Influences 1. Internal influences on consumer decision From the case inferred that people in north-east region are highly sensitive to price than to the brand itself. Whereas in south-east region people are more brand conscious and go by their top-of- mind awareness. 2. Situational influences on consumer decision The Belk (1975) cited in Sydney et al (2000), has defined five situational variables which can influence the consumer purchase at a particular moment and place. They are Antecedent states, task definition, physical surroundings, temporal perspective and social surroundings. While purchasing a detergent powder, people in north-east region are influenced by the antecedent states (Brand preference and price sensitivity) where as in south-east region people are influenced by physical and social surroundings like display place of detergent powder in the store. 3. Social influences on consumer decision Solomon et al (2009) stated that consumer evaluative criteria generally vary across social class because of their variations in education, attitudes, values, income and communication style. Most of the women in north-east region are under same economy class and share a common washing practice of washing their clothes in public laundry. Therefore, their decision on purchasing detergent is directly influenced by these social groups. Post-purchase Evaluation Solomon et al (2009) stated that after purchasing the product consumer will evaluate how good a choice it was. The result of this evaluation is consumer satisfaction or dissatisfaction on the product. Table1 shows the list of attributes used by Brazilian consumers to evaluate detergent powder. Table 1 North-east Region South-east region Ability to clean and whiten clothes. Smell of a detergent powder. Ability to remove stains. Easy packaging. Ability to clean and whiten clothes with less effort. Key industry players in Brazil detergent powder market: Unilever at a glance: Unilever has started its operations in 1929 and launched its most successful brand OMO in 1957. Unilever is the leader in detergent market of Brazil with an 81% market share achieved with brands like OMO (Favourite brand of Brazil), Minerva (brand sold as detergent and laundry soap) and Campeiro (cheapest brand of Unilever). Unilever wanted to increase sales by adopting penetration strategy. For the same, they launched their favourite brand OMO with four extensions viz. OMO Multicao, OMO Progress, OMO Cores and OMO Maquina. Each brand had its unique characteristics to target the diversified consumers. Procter and Gamble at a glance: Procter and Gamble started its operations in 1988 and acquired a Brazilian company Bombril in 1996 which has brands like Quanto, Odd Fases and Pop. With his formidable RD migrated Quanto towards Ace and Odd Fases towards Bold, Ace and Bold are PGs popular global brands. Procter and Gamble is in second place of Brazilian detergent market by holding 15% of market share. Procter and Gamble strategy is to enter the market by acquiring the local firms and their distribution channels. This seemed a cost effective strategy than developing own distribution channels. Local Manufacturers: A local brand Invicto is holding a 5% of market share in Brazilian detergent market. Invicto is the cheapest brand in north-east region of Brazil. Invicto follows a concentrated marketing strategy through mainly targeting the low-income consumers. Unilever SWOT Analysis: Strengths: High Brand Recognition: Unilever brands are highly recognised in the north east part of the Brazil. Market Penetration: High percentage of consumers in north east region of Brazil bought at least one unit of OMO or MINERVA which are the brands of unilever. Top of Mind Awareness: we have best results for the top-of mind awareness for unilever brands in north east part of Brazil. Unilever is a worldwide recognised company with a portfolio of 1600 brands which includes 45 key detergent brands. As of 1996 Unilever is a leader of the detergent market sector in Brazil by holding 81% market share. Pioneer of consumer goods industry in Brazil. Weakness: The price of OMO is perceived as high than all the detergents available in north east part of Brazil. The cheaper brand of unilever Camperio is perceived as a low-quality brand in the market. Except OMO, the other brands of unilever are perceived as low quality than the main competitor brands Bold Ace. Unilever is facing a big distribution problem in distributing his brands to the approximately 75,000 small outlets spread over north east region of Brazil, which are the key shopping areas for low-income consumers. Opportunities: Federal and local governments providing tax incentives to companies investing in the north east region of Brazil. The detergent market in north east region of Brazil is growing with an annual rate of 17%. Women in north east region wash clothes more frequently and they see cleanliness of clothes is part of their culture. Strong economic recovery in 1995-1996 leads to increase the purchasing power of low income consumers by 27%. Threats: Standardization of strategies is not possible with the socio-culture differences among the two region of Brazil. Threat from local brands is higher which are cheaper than the Unilever brands. There is a high competition from porter gamble with good worldwide marketing expertise. Market Segmentation: In a study by Sally Dibb and Lyndon Simkin (1991) stated that different customers have different needs and desires. It is not possible to satisfy all customers with a single product or service. Companies are shifting from mass marketing to target marketing strategy where the focus will be on a particular group of consumers. This process of dividing market into different groups is called market segmentation. The process of segmenting the market consists of three main elements. Segmentation Targeting Positioning Segmentation: The market can be segmented in many ways. Table 2 shows the different options for marketers to identify different segments in the market. Table 2: Demographics Socioeconomics Geography Physiological and behavioural differences among consumer Age, Sex, family, race, religion. Income, occupation, education, social class. Country, region. Purchase behaviour, consumption behaviour, attitude to product, lifestyle and personality Segmenting by Socioeconomics: In north-east region the per capita income was only around 2,250$. 40% of people in north-east region are illiterate. The lifestyle, culture and religion of people in this region were influenced by African culture. In south-east region the per capita income was around 6,600$ (more than double of north-east region). Only 15% of people in south-east region are illiterate. Most of the south-east part was influenced by European culture Segmenting by Psychological and behavioural differences among consumer: 73% of women in north-east region think that bleach is necessary to remove stains and use detergent powder primarily to make the clothes smell good. Where as in south-east region only 18% of women think bleach is necessary to remove stains. Frequency of washing clothes is higher in north-east region than south-east region. North east region people of Brazil find cleanliness of clothes is part of their culture. In south-east region most women uses washing machine for cleaning clothes, for them cleanliness of clothes is less important for self-esteem and social status. In a study by Sally Dibb and Lyndon Simkin (1991) stated that segmentation definitely will help to identify the different consumer segments but slapdash implementation will leads to failure. The segmentation process must satisfy the following criteria. Segments must be identifiable, executable, stable, marketable and controllable. In this case Unilever should segment the Brazil detergent powder market in to north-east region and south-east region. Targeting: Once identified different market segments, managers has to make decisions about how many and which customer groups need to target. In a study by Sally Dibb and Lyndon Simkin (1991) stated that the decisions would be like, Concentrating on a single segment with one product/retail brand Offering one product/retail brand to a number of segments Targeting a different product/retail brand at each of a number of segments Because of socio-cultural differences among the two regions of Brazil the standardization or undifferentiated targeting strategy will not work. The tailor made and differentiated marketing strategy will give the best results. Positioning: Positioning is not about doing something to the product it is what is created in the minds of the targeted consumers. In a study by Sally Dibb and Lyndon Simkin (1991) stated that the challenge here is to translate the needs and wants of the targeted consumers into a tangible mix of product, price, promotion, distribution and service levels with maximum appeal. North-East region: Most of the people in this region are illiterate and low income people. Most of the people in this region believe cleanliness of clothes is part of their culture. To satisfy the above needs of the consumers and to achieve higher market share in this region unilever management has to position their product as low price with high quality. South-East region: Most of the people in this region use washing machine to wash their clothes, cleanliness of clothes are less important for self-esteem and social status. People in this region are not price sensitive towards detergent powder as long as it has good quality. To satisfy the above needs of the consumers and to achieve higher market share in this region unilever management has to position their product with high quality. Portfolio Analysis: BCG (Boston Consulting Group) Matrix: BCG matrix helps marketers to find the potential brands in the market. BCG matrix for Unilever detergent brands in north-east region of Brazil. Stars: Question Marks () OMO Campeiro Cash Cows: Minerva Dogs: Brilhante High Market Growth Rate Low High Low Relative Market Share Diagram Adopted from BCG Matrix (Solomon, fifth edition) Stars: OMO has a dominant market share in north-east region of Brazil. Because OMO has a potential growth, managers have to design strategies to increase market share in the competitive environment. Cash Cows: Minerva which is the only brand to sold as detergent powder and laundry soap it has a reasonable market share in north-east region. Question marks (): Camperio has a low market share in north-east region. People perceive Camperio as a low-quality product. To increase the market share Unilever has to reposition his Camperio brand in north-east region. Dogs: Brilhante has a zero market share in north-east region. Its better for Unilever to stop the marketing of this brand in north-east region. BCG matrix shows us on which brand Unilever has to invest to increase its market share in north-east region. But how and what actually we have to do to increase the market share, marketing mix will help firm to accomplish its objectives by using product, price, promotion and place decisions. Marketing Mix: Product: North-East region: Camperio is perceived as a low-quality detergent which is the cheapest brands of Unilever. Repositioning of Camperio with new packaging and with new advertising message like Improved Quality with low-price in this region will help to increase the marketing share of Unilever. Repositioning of existing brand would be easily recognised by the targeted consumers than launching the existing brand. Repositioning of existing brand would not lead to any incremental marketing costs. In this region most of the people using OMO and the results showing that consumers are well satisfy with the quality of the product. Even the low-income people like Maria would love to buy OMO, only because of their tight budget they are going for cheaper brands. Solution to the above problem is selling the detergent powder through small sachets. Price of the product can reduce due to the small quantity which will not cannibalise the existing product. All the low-income consumers will highly satisfy when they get their high quality product in low price. The idea of selling the detergent powder in small sachet will eventually help unilever to increase their market share. Packaging should be simple and distinctive and should be based on culture that is the colour selection and the graphics. South-East region: In south-east region OMO and Minerva will go well as the people in this region are not price sensitive. Price: Use Pricing Strategy to defend its strong competitors and reposition Camperio brand with more attributes than that of competitor with less price to retain and gain the market share. Promotion: The advertising message should be different for north-east region and south-east region because there is a cultural difference and variation in literacy rate within the two regions. As Brazilians are more television watchers Unilever should go with 70% of media advertising with more emphasis on product price and availability in its different packaging sizes. In south-east region advertising message should concentrate more on product benefits. In north-east region they should go for extensive media advertising emphasizing more on product price and availability of packaging sizes to wipe out the negative perception among the consumers. In north-east region most of the people are illiterate they often depends on the advice of a retailer while purchasing a product. Marketers of unilever can use a push strategy in this case to promote their product, providing some incentives on number of sales to distributors and retailers. Place: Extensive distribution is necessary in north-east region by making the product available in small stores. Unilever management should provide some employment to the women in north-east region as sales girls to sell their products which will ultimately help to increase the word of mouth among people and sustainability of marketing. In south-east region most of the people decision on detergent powder resembles as habitual decision making, in this region point-of-purchase (ex: displaying of cigarettes near cash counter) display will help to increase the sales.

Mitch Alboms Tuesdays with Morrie :: Essays Papers

Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie Tuesdays with Morrie, written by Mitch Albom is a story of the love between a man and his college professor, Morrie Schwartz. This true story captures the compassion and wisdom of a man who only knew good in his heart. A man who lived his life to the fullest up until the very last breath of his happily fulfilled life. It is a story of a special bond of friendship that was lost for many years, but never forgotten and simply picked up again at a crucial time of both Morrie’s and Mitch’s lives. When Morrie learned that he had only a few months to live with the deadly disease of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, Morrie began the last class of his life with Mitch – life’s greatest lesson. Throughout the last fourteen weeks of Morrie’s life, Mitch met with him every Tuesday to learn and understand all of the wisdom and lessons of life that were within Morrie. The weekly routine consisted of lunch and lecture. These meetings included discussions on everything from the world when you enter it to the world when you say goodbye. From the relationship that these men had with each, a love is revealed like no other love resembles. This is a love of friendship and of respect. Such a bond between people is difficult to achieve. Their relationship consists of an â€Å"unembarrassed love† that is constantly present. Morrie Schwartz was a man of great wisdom who loved and enjoyed to see and experience a simplicity of life, something beyond life’s most challenging and unanswered mysteries. From Morrie, we learn that life is most happily experienced when enjoyed and fulfilled to its highest ability. Morrie shares this with Mitch in the last days of his life and these great lessons will be carried and practiced throughout Mitch’s life. After reading Tuesdays with Morrie I felt a sense of discovery. Morrie Schwartz was a man that touched the lives of many. He will always be remembered for his sincerity and his compassion for life and for love. The lessons that Morrie loved to teach were of his own experience with life. These great lessons were full of wisdom and love and they came deep from within Morrie. I enjoyed reading this book by

war on cocaine :: essays research papers

â€Å"The potential supply of drugs is virtually unlimited; trafficking routes and points of entry into the U.S. are multitudinous; and once destroyed laboratories, drug shipments, planes, money, chemicals, and other trafficking assets can be replaced easily.† Robert L. Clawson and Rensselaer W. Lee give their readers insight into cocaine trafficking, the effects of cocaine on the Andes, and what has been done to lower the amount of cocaine produced and exported. Together the authors paint a picture that the cocaine trade is here to stay and that it has not fundamentally changed since the 1980s. They are realists about the severe limitations on any element of U.S. and international strategy to control supplies of coca and cocaine in countries such as Colombia, Bolivia, and Peru. Clawson and Lee state, â€Å"Our suspicion is that the most effective counter narcotics program for the Andean nations will be ones that are designed by and implemented by governments concerned, rath er than by the United States or International Aid Agencies.† When the counter narcotics efforts were initially implemented they sometimes seemed successful, but the drug traffickers quickly learned how to beat the system. International counter narcotics efforts in the 1980s and 1990s have been unsuccessful in eliminating the drug cartels by extraditing, eradicating coca, or having a strong, counter trafficking effect on the supply of drugs in the Andean countries. These counter narcotics efforts are the best examples of the poor performance level of International cocaine control.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the counter narcotic efforts was to eliminate the drug cartels, which were revolutionizing the production and transport of multiton loads of cocaine to foreign markets. The Medellin cartel and the Cali cartel are often remembered as two of the more dominant drug trafficking organizations in the 1980s and 1990s. The Medellin Cartel is considered to be the more violent drug organization. Followed by the less violent organization, known as the Cali cartel, which took over the cocaine trade after the Medellin cartel fell apart. Pablo Escobar was the original pioneer of the Medellin Cartel. He also was the leader of it from the mid eighties all the way till his assassination by the Medellin Search Bloc in December of 1993. Pablo Escobar and other members of the Medellin cartel successfully accomplished their political objective, which was to defeat the U.S.-Colombian extradition treaty and dominate the Colombian justice system. The U.S. extradition treaty was important in that it allowed for Colombia to send traffickers to the United States for trial and sentencing.

Enviromnetal Degradation as a Result of Overpopulation :: Environment Pollution Research Papers

Enviromnetal Degradation as a Result of Overpopulation Introduction There are simply too many people on our planet, and the population is not showing any signs of slowing down. This is having disastrous effects on our environment. There are too many implications and interrelationships to discuss in this paper, but the three substances that our earth consists of: land, water and air, are being destroyed. Our forests are being cut down at an alarming rate, bearing enormous impacts on the health of earth. Our oceans and seas are being polluted and overfished. Our atmosphere is injected with increasing amounts of carbon dioxide, which hurts the entire planet. All of these problems can be traced to our vast, rapidly expanding population, which has stressed our world far too greatly. Our Population In 1994, the world population was 5 602 800 000. This population had a doubling time of only forty-one years (De Blij and Muller, 1994, p.527). The massive amount of people has had highly destructive impacts on the earth’s environment. These impacts occur on two levels: global and local. On the global level, there is the accumulation of green house gases that deplete the ozone layer, the extinction of species, and a global food shortage. On the local level, there is erosion of soils (and the loss of vegetation), the depletion of water supply, and toxification of the air and water. The earth is dynamic though, all of these aspects are interrelated, and no one impact is completely isolated. All of these destructive elements can be traced to our enormous population. As the population increases, so do all of the economic, social, and technological impacts. The concept of momentum of population growth is one that must be considered. It states that areas with traditionally high fertility rates will have a very young structure age. Thus, a decrease in the fertility rate will still result in a greater absolute number of births, as there are more potential mothers. Populations are very slow in adjusting to decreases in fertility rates. This is especially frightening when considering that South Asia has a population of 1 204 600 000 (and a doubling time of thirty two years), Subsaharan Africa has 528 000 000 (doubling time: thirty one years), and North Africa/Southwest Asia has 448 100 000 (doubling time: twenty seven years) (De Blij and Muller, 1994, p. 529-531)and all of these areas have traditionally high fertility rates.