Teleological vs deontological Essay Example for Free

Teleological vs deontological Essay The difference bewtween deontological and teleogical theories is that teleogical theories are the outcome of your actions and deontological is the actions that you perform. Teleological theories are what the consequence or outcome of what your actions do and Kant thinks that this is wrong and that we should act deontologically and act out of duty, not out of compassion. He believes that we should do something, because we have to, not out of compassion or if we think its morally wrong or right, we should just do it. Teleological theories are based on outcome. If you perform a bad act but the outcome of the act is good than it is considered to be a good act. However deontological theories are based on the act itself. Teleological theories. If you do an act that is intended to be good but actually turns out to be bad, its still considered a good act. For example, You and a friend are at school or work place or where ever you go and your friend starts to get bullied, you stick up for your friend but you end up getting into a fight with a bully. You tried to do something good but it also resulted into something bad. The idea was to get the bully to stop bullying and that was the good act; the fight was the bad act and you may get punished for the bad act but its still considered as an overall good act. The decision of punishment or whether or not it was a good act would be how much it helped or benefited the situation. It would have to be questioned of how much it helped the situation, and what was more for seen (what was intended to happen.. if the good has more reason for the bad)

What Is The New Economic Model Economics Essay

What Is The New Economic Model Economics Essay Earlier of 2010, Malaysia government introduces the four pillars of national transformation which the aim is to achieve Vision 2020. The New Economic Model (NEM) is part of the four pillars of national transformation. The figure above showed the pillars of NEM. NEM consists of several plans and strategies such as Government Transformation Plan (GTP), Economic Transformation Programme (ETP), 10th 11th Malaysia Plan, and Principle of 1 Malaysia. Combination of these plans can form the NEM which plays the role of shelter to our country. From the bottom, there are 10th and 11th Malaysia Plans. These plans will act as the supported foundation for the NEM. With the aids of GTP and ETP, NEM can be implemented more comprehensive. However, if without the 1 Malaysia concepts, our shelter cannot complete. Therefore, concept of 1 Malaysia will act as the roof to cover all the plans and strategies. The NEM is an economic plan in Malaysia which is unveiled on 30 March, 2010 by Malaysian Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razaks. NEM will generate benefits for all Malaysians. This economic plan is proposed to gain double income per capital Malaysia by 2020. Besides that, one of the NEMs propose is to reduce income disparity between the rich and poor in Malaysia, improve the system of affirmative action to becoming more competitive market and investor friendly, and improving workers productivity. Figure 1.2: Goals of New Economic ModelThe focus of the NEM is to transform the Malaysian into a developed and competitive economy whose people enjoy a high quality of life and high level of income from growth that is both of inclusive and sustainable by 2020. The keys to the plan as described unveiling are high income, sustainability and inclusiveness, which together will translate into a high quality of life for the rakyat. The first goal of NEM is high income. NEM aims to bring Malaysia to high income country with per capita income US$15,000 until US$20,000 by 2020. Currently, per capita annual income in Malaysia only worth at $7,000 in US currency; under NEM plan the figure would be double to US$15,000. When achieve this target, Malaysia would be able to escape from the middle income trap. Inclusiveness is second goal of NEM. Under inclusiveness, all Malaysian include Sabah and Sarawak enables to fully benefit and share the nation wealth. In additional, inclusiveness which can ensure that every citizen right could be preserved and no group could be ignored in the nation. Discrimination and bias will fully prohibited. The last goal of NEM is sustainability, which its refers to current generations meets present needs without compromising the future generations. Because of that, government will safeguard the natural resources that we have now from miss-spent. Furthermore, sustainability of the quality life will be pursuing and government takes action in order to reform the sector so that it achieves efficiency and equity. To achieve the goals of New Economic Model, there are eight Strategic Reform Initiatives (SRIs) those recommendations by NEAC. First SRI is re-energising the private sector. That because private sector play an important role in enhancing economic growth in the country. So, private sectors are encouraged to involve themselves in investment especially in high value added products and services so that sustained economy growth and high income country can be generated. Second SRI is developing quality workforce and reducing dependency on foreign labour. Under this policy, government will focus on labour markets and ensure that to work well. Efforts will put on such as workers must work efficiently to increase productivity and wages. Under the adjustment of labour market must be smooth, government need to ensure that workers are doing in the correct jobs which match with their knowledge and skill. Brain-drain problem needs to be solved to attract our skilled labour so that they can contribute in Malaysia economy. Besides that, government also focuses to generating a talented workforce to meet the needs of a high-value knowledge economy. Therefore, wage-restraining labour market distortions, such as excessive and indiscriminate use of foreign labour, will be removed. Creating a competitive domestic economy is a third SRI in NEM. To create the competitive domestic economy, many distortions such as subsidies, price controls and a myriad of distortion-creating incentives will be removed. Additionally, government also will build entrepreneurship to achieve this policy. Therefore, the ETP will help the vulnerable groups with an enhanced social safety net such as health care, education and etc, and a special transformation fund for them. The fourth of SRI is strengthening of the public sector. Public sector must be re-engineered. The reform programmes will continue to improve and speed up decision making processes using the whole-of-government approach and others. Government also focuses to improve the service delivery to rakyat. One main point in this policy is government want to reduce the friction costs. That means government wants to zero tolerance for the corruption. SRI 5 is transparent and market friendly affirmative action. Government will encourage equal and fair economic opportunities, and ensure that affirmative action programmes will continue in order to achieve the objectives, rent-seeking and market distorting features which have limited their effectiveness of the programme should be eliminate. Furthermore, this policy also emphasize in narrowed the gap between rich and poor. The real intention to reduce the income disparity is because in Malaysia still have the bottom 40 percent of households earn an average lower than RM1,500 per month. Besides that, government want make sure that all Malaysian get equitable and fair opportunities through the transparent process. The sixth SRI is building the knowledge base infrastructure. The key focus here is to promote an economic transformation in the industrial, agricultural and services sectors for innovation by strengthening the delivery of high quality education that nurtures innovation and technology. The aims of this policy are to create an ecosystem for entrepreneurship, promote an environment for innovation and lastly establish stronger enabling institutions. SRI 6 is enhancing the sources of growth. Malaysia will control its natural resource endowment and made sectors of comparative advantages as the main sources of high value added growth. From that, government can maximize spillover effects into new areas of activities. The aims from this policy are to create value from first mover and other comparative advantages, develop greater integration between the product and etc. Lastly, SRI 8 is ensuring sustainability of growth. Our country is rich in natural resources. So the purpose of this policy is to preserving our natural resources from the wasting. At the same time, government focuses to safeguarding the interest of future generations. The safeguarding interest of future generations will be complemented by sustainable public finances through stringent fiscal discipline. 2.0 Why we need NEM? Figure 2.1: GNI Per Capita (1990-2008; USD Thousand) Source: The World Bank The figure had shown the gross net income (GNI) per capita for nine selected countries which are Korea, Czech Republic, Slovakia Poland, Poland, Chile, Argentina, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia that at the middle income boundary in 1990. This figure reveals the position of the Malaysia had reached a middle income boundary since 1990. Malaysia had performance well in the early 1990 and able achieved 9 percent growth rate of gross domestic product (GDP) in the mid 1990. However, Malaysia stood at middle-income position for three decades and unable to break up the middle-income trap and achieve to high income nation despite its achievement in the past few decades (Abdullah, 2010). The figure show that Korea, Slovakia, Czech Republic and Chile had cross over middle-income trap and achieved as a high income nation especially Korea with the GNI per capita USD 19,830 in 2009 which is high than the goal of NEM that USD 15,000 targeted for Malaysia. NEM report states that economic engine is slowing due to the absence of the private investment, difficulties of doing business, low value added industries, low-skilled jobs and low wages, stagnating productivity growth, insufficient innovation and creativity and lack of appropriately skilled human capital. Malaysia trapped in a low-cost, low-value economic structure; persistent low wages too are not attracting and retaining domestic and foreign talents, making it more difficult to move up the value chain (Teoh, 2010). The figures 2.2 have shown the private and public investment conditions in Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore: Figure 2.2: Private and public investment as share of GDP (1989-2008; %) Source: BNM, CEIC, Bank of Thailand The GNI per capita of Malaysia was seriously affected by Asian financial crisis 1997 when Malaysia had a good performance in the investment in mid 1990 which occupied 40 percent of GDP in Malaysia. However, the investment in Malaysia had fallen to 20 percent of GDP in 2008 (NEAC, 2010). This was implied that Malaysia was facing difficulties in recovery from the economic recession after 1997. Besides that, the foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign portfolio investment (FPI) were the main reasons that Malaysia suffers in capital flight due to the financial crisis. This had supported with the figure above which Malaysia had experienced rigorous declined in private investment due to the government and Government Linked Company (GLC) presence has discouraged the private investment and the barriers of the regulation for foreign company entries Malaysia domestic market (NEAC, 2010). Importantly, Thailand was recovered from the economic recession quickly compare to Malaysia that stagna ted in private investment. Moreover, Malaysias competitiveness in term of attracting foreign direct investment also show a declining trend which Malaysia global competitiveness index has dropped to 26th in the 2011 show that Malaysia was less attractive compared to other countries such as Singapore are closely related with Malaysia (World Bank, 2011). In public investment context, Malaysia had more reliance on the public investment rather than private investment which the private and public investment share are occupied almost same percentages of share in GDP in recent year even high than private investment after the economic recession. The averages annual growth of three components contributed to Malaysias economic growth from 1991 until 2006 was shown as below. The figure 2.3 implies that Malaysia more focus on the public investment which government expenditure relatively increase compared to other two components. In contrary, the contribution of investment toward economic growth was declined from 14 has dropped to 3 implied that Malaysia is reliance on the consumption to driving economic growth rather than investment after post-crisis. Figure 2.3: Average annual growth from 1991 to 2006 of Malaysia Whilst NEM emphasize on pushing Malaysia toward a high income nation, the inclusiveness also highlight in this model to reduce the income disparities of Malaysia. According NEM reports, there are only top 20 percent of Malaysian income earners shown the strong of income growth as presented in the figure 2.4. The bottom 40 percent of households have experienced the slowest growth of average income, earning an average of RM1,222 in 2008 (NEAC,2010). This one of the factor needed to concern in Malaysia in order to assist Malaysia achieves the Vision 2020. Figure 2.4: National household income (Average by segment, 1980-2008;RM) Source: MDI Thus, the NEM is needed as bold approach that provided policy measures derived from the SRIs in order to pushing Malaysia economic cross over the middle-income trap and provide the equitable and fair opportunities to Malaysian in order to reduced the gap between poorer and richer widening. However, the success of the NEM is significantly reliance on the steadfast commitment by government to implement NEM, the preparedness of the rakyat to comprise the difficult changes and a big push of strategic policy measures but not incremental changes (NEAC, 2010). 3.0 Conflict between first part and second part of NEM The affirmative action policy had been implemented for a long period in Malaysia which granting special status and privileges schemes to Malays aims to reduce bumiputera poverty and special scheme were adopted to reallocate corporate assets in Malaysia from Chinese-Malaysians and Indian-Malaysians to the benefit of bumiputeras (Lee, 2011). This is because bumiputera only occupied 2.6 percent of ownership in the corporate sector in 1971 which relatively lower than other community. This policy also focuses on bumiputeras contribution toward national wealth and 30 percent equity of company reserve to the bumiputera in the certain selected sectors that rise up the government expenditure which the total government debt is 41.5 percent of GDP is relatively high for a regime that provide few social services (Lee, 2011). Importantly, these schemes had encouraged the rent seeking bumiputera elites dependent on government assistance and requested the continuation of affirmation action. In this context, the NEM incorporates a new approach which can be summarized as inclusive growth. Inclusive growth is pro-poor growth and is concerned not only with the level but also the effect of persistent inequality on economic growth and poverty alleviation (NEAC, 2010). A key challenge for inclusive growth is to attain a balance between the special position of Malays, the natives of Sabah and Sarawak and legitimate interests of other group (Abdullah, 2010). Hence NEMs market-friendly affirmative action programmes in line with the principle of inclusiveness had revised from the past affirmative action will discontinue past practices that gave rise to unhealthy and pervasive rent-seeking and patronage activities; ensure equitable and fair opportunities through transparent processes; provided the assistance to the bottom 40 percent of households which 77.2 percent are bumiputeras and many are located in Sabah and Sarawak; allow right to use to resources on the basis of needs and m erit to enables improvement in capacity, income and well-being; have sound institutional frameworks for better monitoring and effective implementation(The Star Online, 2010). In SRI 5, NEM proposed that the revised affirmative action policy should be based on the bottom 40% of households. An affirmative action policy based on the low income group such as giving preferential treatment to the relatively disadvantages group proposed in NEM would be in the interest of distributive justice. Affirmative action will reflect on all ethnic groups equally as long as they qualify for access to resources under affirmative action. Moreover, an Equal Opportunity Commission (EEC) is proposed with the responsibility of monitoring and considering cases of discrimination and unfair treatment in the economy to cover both the public and private sectors (NEAC, 2010). Interestingly, in the NEM concluding part, targeted programmes for the bumiputera Commerce and Industry Community (BCIC) is one of policy measures for income disparities which contradict with the market-friendly policy. In the targeted programmes, market friendly, transparent and granted on the basis of needs and merit was emphasized on the special programmes in order to allow beneficiaries to adapt with the impetuosity competitive business environment to become self sufficient although weaning them away from prolonged dependence on such special programmes (NEAC, 2010). The NEAC recommends that Government and GLC procurement reservation for BCIC should continue but be targeted for bumiputera SMEs only. This was obviously implied that there is conflict between the reservations for BCIC with the market-friendly affirmative action that purposed in the first part of the NEM. According Asia Views, 34 years after implement New Economic Policy (NEP), official statistic states that bumiputera held equity in Malaysia stood at 18.7 percent or close to 11 percent below the target (Teoh, 2011). Moreover, there are a small layer of people (and it is a multi-ethnic group) have used the policy of affirmative action for the bumiputera to improve themselves through rent seeking, over-priced contracts and naked corruption. The majority of the bumiputera have only received a minor portion of the economic assistance that they were supposed to have received, and a large number of them are still stuck in poverty (Devaraj, 2010). However, NEM does not advocate the removal of the special position of bumiputera and the legitimate interests of the other communities (Abdullah, 2010). There are some arguments that support the retention of 30 percent bumiputera equity. In the targeted programmes for BCIC, open tenders for government and GLC procurements which are reserved for bumiputera small-medium enterprises will foster greater inter-racial unity (Khoo, 2010). 4.0 Issues facing by NEM In NEM, it is an economic model where it promises to bring Malaysia escape from the middle income trap and promote to high income level. The targeted income level will be USD 15,000 to 20,000 per capital in year 2020. Inclusiveness and sustaining are the considered factors in making policy. There are three important issues will be highlighted through NEM. There are: Education Entrepreneurial Skills Institutional Reform First issue that will discuss is education. Why education will be an issue in NEM? The most probably answer is that education is a persistent factor and it was also the root to Malaysia economy problems. Besides that, it is also the one of the factor that cause Malaysias investment growth one step behind if compares to our neighbour countries such as Singapore and even Thailand. Another significant reason is because NEM highly depends on technology upgrading, creation of a knowledge-economy and the development of a highly skilled workforce. In these three perspectives, high quality of human capital, innovation and effective RD is needed. To fulfill the requirements of NEM, education system plays an important role. The problems behind of education are education reform and brain-drain problems. First of all, education reform is an effort to change the present education system. When people talk about the education reforming, tertiary education will be the focus. University will be the root of blame because graduates unable to performing in their workplace. However, the blame should not only go to university. This is because students only spent three to four year time in university according to their course taken. Primary school and secondary school were occupied most of their time. Interest, intellectual curiosity, and creativity should be cultivated from younger period. Besides that, basic knowledge should be instilled from young to promise for the future understanding. When students are weak in the basic knowledge, they may find difficulty in their future study. Cannot be denied, universities have responsibility too. The most probably problem is graduates cannot speak and write proper English. Lectures and professors in university should teach in proper English. Foreign student exchange programme can encourage students speak and write better English. Not only the quality of the teachers in primary school and secondary school should be improves, however, the quality of lectures and professors need to be improved too. Another problem related with education in Malaysia is Brain-drain problem. Brain-drain problems can be defined as the loss of skilled intellectual and technical labour through the movement of such labour to more favourable geographic, economic, or professional environments. In Malaysia, brain-drain problems reach a critical stage where within the past nine years; only less than one percent of Malaysian who work overseas are willing to return to their mother land (Chua, 2011). The questions come out with why the professional are not willing to return to their mother land? Is that they will achieved greatness in performing their speciality, social status even prosperity if they develop their talent and skill overseas? Certainly, there must be several reasons why this happened. The first and the most, attractive wages in overseas encourage local professionals not dong their speciality in their mother land. For example, in United Kingdom, a fresh graduates from a degree of law can average earn  £36,500 a year in a law firm whereas in Malaysia fresh entrance only pay RM 21,600 a year. Second reason for brain drain in Malaysia will be the job opportunity. Especially for those job are unavailable in Malaysia, they are force to move to overseas to found the place where they have chances to performing. For example, in the political field, Penny Wong, who born in Kota Kinabalu, is a first openly gay and at the same time she is one of the members in Australian Commonwealth cabinet. Besides that, she is also the Australian Minister for Finance and Deregulation. In Malaysia, she might not have chance to step in political field just because of she has unique preferences. The other example will be the famous shoes designer Jimmy Choo who is expert in fashion line. He is also a Malaysian but contribute lots in London through fashion line. If he remains his expertise in Malaysia, he might not that successful because Malaysia has less market and demand in fashion line. In science and technology sector, although Malaysia has motif to join in this sector, however, resistance is still especially in the technology that we have might loss behind. Pua Khien Seng, who born in Selangor, was the first in the world who invented the USB pendrive that we widely use today. He is now currently own a listed company worth RM4.3 billion in Taiwan. Among the example, they are not return to Malaysia maybe is because they cannot perform their expertise in Malaysia, but not because of they are not willing to return to their mother land. The second issue that been emphasize is the entrepreneurial skill. Entrepreneurship can be defined as the recognition and pursuit of opportunity without regard to the resources you currently control with the confidence that you can succeed, with the flexibility to change course as necessary, and with the will to rebound from setbacks according to Bob Reiss, in his book Low-Risk, High-Reward: Starting and Growing Your Small Business With Minimal Risk (Hupalo, 2004). The reason why entrepreneurial skill is highlighted is because of it is close concern with SRI1 in NEM where its core has the re-energisation of the private sector as its goal. When the private sector as the targeted sector to growth, entrepreneur will be the focus because small and middle enterprise are highly depends entrepreneurship. However, the issue behind is that bumiputera entrepreneurs are less representation is nation wealth. Since the New Economic Policy, bumiputera entrepreneurs are given special treatment where there are 30% of the equity ownership are been given. According to a journal article, bumiputera entrepreneurs are less successful is due to several factors. The factors include inability to compete, lack of competency and capital, customer-related problems, employee-related problems, unfavourable economic conditions, bureaucracy, supplier discrimination, and negative community attitudes were found to be crucial (Abdullah, Hamali, Deen, Saban, Abdurahman, 2009). This meaning that among the bumiputera entrepreneurs, they must sharpen their skills to flourish without any dependence on government handouts. Of course, if NEM want to achieve successful, the equity ownership issue should be adequately address. The third issue will be discuss is the institutional reform. Institution reform can be defined as the changes to transportation organizations policies and practices to support government implementation. Institution reform should in term of norm, habits and convention in society must support efficiency and competitiveness of a country. Civil liberties and more liberal political do helps in promote economic development. Therefore, the issue behind is that how much of our government do given the liberty? It is suppose to have institution reform to gain fully freedom of speech, freedom assembly and demonstration. Unluckily, in NEM, it is lack emphasis on the state capture. State capture can be defined as the efforts of firms to shape the laws, policies, and regulations of the state to their own advantage by providing illicit private gains to public officials. It is always referring to corruption. Although there are zero-tolerance for corruption been mention in NEM, however, it just a list of it. There are no proper and effective strategies being introduce to reduce the corruption problems in our country. According to Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI), Malaysia corruption score is getting lower from year 2008 to 2010. This ranking is based on data from independent institution such as World Bank, Economist Intelligence Unit and World Economic Forum. The score of CPI have the scale from zero to ten. The lowest score zero show it is high corruption and low transparency. When the score is ten, it is high transparency and lowest corruption. Malaysia corruption scores as follow show that corruption problem is getting serious from year to year. Table 3.1 Corruption Perception Index (CPI) of Malaysia from 2008 to 2010. 2008 2009 2010 Malaysias CPI 5.1 4.5 4.4 Source: (Rogers, 2009) Therefore, more and more effective policy and strategies should be draw up to cure this problem in our country. 5.0 Challenges in NEM NEM is about to change Malaysias current economic condition to the better economic in 2020 through the NEM goals. Change is the buzzword in order to reach the goals. However, in order to change, Malaysia faces challenges in terms of: Mindset Political will Labor force Satisfying all quarters? Sustaining the change Mindset is refers to the way of how people thinking. The people mindset as well as the politicians mindset must be ready to the changing in Malaysian economy through the NEM policy. Most of people in Malaysia are not aware that Malaysian economies are lagging behind some of the countries that now experience the emerging economies such as China and India. This mindset changing is the biggest challenge for the NEM to achieve its goals, because the operationalization of NEM is requiring the whole nations contribution. If they are not willing to change their mindset, then there is a big potential for the NEM policy to not work smoothly or it might fail in achieving its goal. As the Malaysian Prime Minister speech on March 30, 2010, he said that the process of changing the nations mindset is not easy and while the process, there will be a painful moments. This is because in the short term, there will be entrenched opposition and some of economic sectors may experience adverse effects. But in the long term, the mindset changing will bring lots of benefit to the nations. Political will is one of the key and important enabling factors for the NEM in supporting changes in this new policy. Without the political will, it is hard for the government to achieve the goal in NEM. In NEM report, it has mentioned that the political will and leadership needed to break the log-jam of resistance and preparing the peoples. In other words, the government must have the determination to break the log-jam of vested interest and beneficiaries of rent-seeking. If the log-jam of vested interest and beneficiaries of rent-seeking is still exists during the operationalization of NEM, it will cause to only some party gained the benefit of NEM and this result to inequality and lead to the failure in achieving the NEM goals which is inclusiveness. To achieve the NEM goals, political together with the intellectual leadership must demonstrate the necessary commitment to the NEM besides the political will and leadership need an emphasis on a coherent explanation of the vision and agenda of the NEM and transformation process (The Star, March 301, 2010). Furthermore, after the government spending about RM40 billion to came out with the policy, it is a big loss if the political will is not willing to operationalize this new policy. There must be a mindset changing and political willingness in order to successfully transforming to the NEM and achieved its goal while facing these challenges ( November 12, 2010, Dato Dr Mahani Zainal Abidin, Institute and International Studies, Malaysia): Getting the needed in investment but this will require restoring investors confidence via accommodating business environment. Undertake restructuring prices for goods and services will improve economic efficiency but may initially raise consumer prices and costs of doing business. Transforming the education system as a medium and long term task but requires policy consistency. Reduced dependence on foreign labor encourages firms to move up the value chain or embrace automation while those cannot, will exit and this also costing some local jobs. Moving towards green economy and promoting energy efficiency but this will require expensive initial investment and may erode price competitiveness. Reducing inequality between income levels and between rural and urban areas while striving for high economic growth. Addressing problem of urban poverty and improving infrastructure while maintaining a balance with achieving high investments in urban areas. One of the NEM intentions is making Malaysia entering the new phase in the industrialization process, moving away from a low-cost, export-oriented strategy to a higher value-added capital intensive and high technology-based industrialization where it is requiring a highly-skilled labor force. Comparing a knowledge-based economy or k-economy, NEM is an advance economic structure which requires a huge number of knowledgeable and high-skilled labors in new and emerging fields such as robotic engineering, information and communication technology and bio-technology and this development requires a high percentage of knowledge workers which would become the backbone of the Malaysian economy (February 18, 2011, Blog Rasmi Jabatan peguam Negara). High-skilled workforce not only needed in industrial sector but in service sector as well. Without the existing of high-skilled labor, it is impossible to entering the new phase besides high-skilled labor also one of the factors that attract foreign direct investment (FDI) to invest in Malaysia. But then, Malaysia is now facing the brain-drain problem where most of the talented, knowledgeable and high-skilled labor force moves to the more developed country such as Singapore. This matter becomes one of the challenges in NEM because in order to fulfill the requirement of high-skilled labor force, they have to attract back those Malaysian who work outside from Malaysia to work back at their motherland. Not only to attract them back but also find a way on how to eliminate the brain-drain problem and to reduce the number of high-skilled labor force that move away from Malaysia. They have to recognize what the factors that make all the high-skilled labor work out from Malaysia and develop some policy or law to prevent them work out from Malaysia. Since Malaysian people is consist of various races and religion, when making a policy it must satisfying

American Identity Essay -- History Indians Historical Essays

American Identity Works Cited Not Included American identity has been created by many events throughout the course of history. This country was founded on the clashing and mixing of many different cultures and lifestyles. One of the most important periods of time for this country was during the period of conflict between Americans and Native Americans over land rights. Americans had an idea of manifest destiny and that this land was theirs for the taking. The Americans were going to walk through anyone who opposed them in this quest for land. The treatment of the Indians during this time period was harsh, cruel, and violent to say the least. It is in this treatment that Americans came to view the Indians as a ?racialized other? and where race began to matter. This early thinking is what created our American identity which is based on race.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the early settling of this country, when the English first encountered the Indians they viewed them as uncivilized beasts. ?The first English colonizers in the New World found that the Indians reminded them of the Irish? (Takaki, 28). To the English the Irish represented a lower and uncivilized class of people, a group that the English considered to be beneath them. This association was the beginning of creating an ?Indian Race.? The Indians were different then Irish in they had a reddish tint to their skin. This was important because this lead further to their separation by their color. The Indians were further looked at as...

The Falling Sky :: essays research papers

I gave this paper quit a bit of thought; I was sitting in a meeting on some air problems here at General Motors and started doing some investigation. Life on this planet Earth is the product of a delicate balancing act provided by nature. Mankind’s very existence is totally dependent on this fragile ecosystem’s ability to maintain itself. A valuable player in the balance of the environment, the ozone layer, is facing a very serious threat to man. Chloroflourocarbons (CFCs) are chemicals agents commonly found in refrigerants, aerosol sprays, and in the manufacturing of Styrofoam and industrial solvents. With the rate of more than a half-million tons CFCs being spewed into the atmosphere yearly, the rate of ozone depletion is rising at an alarming rate. If a global effort is not made to end the unnecessary use of CFCs, the inhabitants of this plant face an extremely difficult and frightening future. CFCs were invented in Dayton, Ohio; in 1928.They were the product of an intensive search by engineers with the G.M. Research Corporation to find a safe non-toxic, non-flammable refrigant. Frigidaire patented the formula CFCs in 1928 and the â€Å"new wonder gas† was called Freon. Seth Cargin and Phillip Dray, co-authors of Between Earth and Sky, informs us in their story of CFCs that â€Å"Freon soon topped the list of wonders, a ‘miracle’ refrigerant †¦[with the] combination of safety, cleanliness, and efficiency†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (66) Not only was the apparently â€Å"safe† gas being used in refrigeration, but with the innovation of air-conditioning by Willis Carrier prior to World War I, Freon would one day be used to cool our homes, automobiles, and businesses. Other applications for CFCs soon followed. Out of the need to eliminate malaria-carrying mosquitoes during the First World War, Freon 12 was found to be an excellent propellant to distribute insecticide—thus the birth of the aerosol spray can. â€Å"From eight aerosol-related companies in the late forties, the industry grew to more than one hundred just a few years later† (Cagin and Dray 87). CFCs were soon making the lives of millions of Americans much more comfortable. They were also making the Kinetic Chemical Company, a joint corporation of General Motors and Dupont who manufactured and marketed Freon, extremely wealthy. But in August of 1985, the entire world was informed by a group of scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center that the sky was literally falling. A NASA satellite photo revealed that a portion of the ozone layer the size of the continental United States had disappeared from the atmosphere above Antarctica.

Roman Aqueducts :: essays research papers

Ancient Rome had eleven major aqueducts, built between 312 B.C. (Aqua Appia) and 226 A.D. (Aqua Alexandria); the longest (Anio Novus) was 59 miles long. It has been calculated that in imperial times, when the city's population was well over a million, the distribution system was able to provide over one cubic meter of water per day for each inhabitant: more than we use nowadays. For most of their length the early aqueducts were simply channels bored through the rock, from the water intake in the hills almost to the distribution cistern in Rome. The depth of the channel below ground varied so as to maintain a constant, very shallow gradient (less than 1/200) throughout the length of the aqueduct; vertical shafts were bored at intervals to provide ventilation and access. Only in the final stretches was the conduit raised on arches, to give a sufficient head for distribution of the water within the city. In order to keep the gradient constant, the aqueducts took a roundabout route, fol lowing the contours of the land and heading along spurs which led towards Rome. The most dramatic parts of a Roman aqueduct were—and still are—the bridges (also known as arcades) that carried the water over low spots in the terrain. Perhaps the best-known of these is the Pont du Gard, a part of the aqueduct that served the town in Nà ®mes in Gaul (today's France). The bridge stands on three tiers of arches and has a length of 274 m (900 ft). Built without the use of mortar, it stands 49 m (160 ft) above the Bornà ¨gre Ravine. Another famous Roman aqueduct is the one in Segovia, Spain; it still carries water, although it did need restoration in the 15th century. s time went on, Roman engineers became more daring in the construction of high arches to support the conduits across valleys and plains and some of the later aqueducts were as much as 27 meters (about 100 feet) above ground level in places. Closed pipes were occasionally used to cross valleys by the "inve rted syphon" method: the pressure forced the water down and up again on the other side, to a level slightly lower than before. But this system was costly, as it required lead pipes (lead had to be imported from Spain or Great Britain) and it was difficult to make joints strong enough to withstand the pressure; so arches were far more common.

NASCAR drivers are true athletes

In the public consciousness, sport is normally associated with human-powered activities like football and basketball, whereas those, engaging with human-assisted activities like racing, are not viewed as true athletes as they allegedly do not need great physical effort to achieve success. This tradition derives from Ancient Rome, whereas the major emphasis was placed upon the activities, which demonstrate the perfection of human body, but in the modern world, due to the arrival of new technological novelties, it would be unwise to limit the list. The present paper presents the reasons for which NASCAR drivers can be categorized as athletes. First of all, it is necessary to provide a definition of a true athlete: athlete is a person who possesses either natural or trained skills, needed to do a particular type of sports on the professional basis, participates in the competitions, observing the rules prescribed,   and is able to use the skills they possess in a beneficial way. Thus, there are several key aspects, which characterize an athlete, so they can be used as categorization criteria. First and foremost, an athlete should engage with a particular type of sports. Thus, it is important to prove that motor racing belongs to the realm of sports; for this purpose, it is necessary to define the term â€Å"sport†. â€Å"Sport is an activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively. Sports commonly refer to activities where the physical capabilities of the competitor are the sole or primary determined of the outcome (winning or losing), but the term is also used to include activities such as mind sports and motor sports where mental acuity or equipment are major factor† (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sport, 2006). Furthermore, true athletes should be skilled enough to engage with a specific type of sports. In the present case, they should have dexterity, good at car driving and have sufficient intellectual abilities and the basic knowledge of the physical laws, which rule the process of driving. Thirdly, the true athlete should be able to use their skills and proficiency in the particular type of sport in the beneficial way, because the utilization of such abilities determines the maintenance of qualification and expertise. Fourthly, the true athlete participates in the contests in their narrow sports sphere, as competition is an opportunity to look critically at oneself and assess one’s own skills in the proper way. As it has been mentioned, the athlete engages with professional sports, which require certain development and adjustment of one’s skills to the requirements of the present day, which could be achieved only through observing peer performance. Finally, the true athlete values competitive spirit and thus observes the major rules that regulate the competition, namely those which determine the fair contest. It is possible to disagree with the aforementioned criteria. For instance, a number of extremely professional athletes, who participate in international competitions, tend to abuse the disciplinary rules and demonstrate aggressive behavior, but in the present case major rules that determine the equality and evenhandedness in the contest are discussed. These rules normally prohibit artificial measures, taken to temporarily increase one’s strength or dexterity. In addition, it is also possible to criticize the criteria that relates to the beneficial use of one’s skills in sports. In fact, the term â€Å"beneficial† doesn’t actually points to making money on the basis of sport activity, in fact, it might include such minor issues as using strength to protect oneself or another person from violent hooligans or utilizing intellectual abilities, developed during the years of chess playing, in mathematics. Finally one might claim that competition is not necessary for self-development as an athlete, as it is possible to hire a very qualified coach and train without engaging into the interactions with other sportspeople, but according to the aforementioned definition, positive and inspired rivalry is a core of all sports and victory is their purpose. Applying the first criterion, it is necessary to state that beyond the traditional sports like tennis and gymnastics, there also exist activities, which need more mental capacities and can be also classified as sports. In addition, the NASCAR refers to the activity it promotes and develops (motor racing) as motor sports, and due to the fact that this association is national, it implies the conventional view on sports, approved by the experts in this sphere. Secondly, NASCAR drivers really possess the necessary skills and abilities – otherwise they wouldn’t have been accepted by the association of the national level. Most of them have been training for many years and using professional race equipment in order to provide continuous growth of their skills. Thirdly, the individuals, participating in NASCAR races, have managed to make the sport bring them money – this way of using the complex of sport skills can be considered beneficial. Nowadays, the NASCAR drivers are amongst the richest athletes in the country. Turning sports into one’s personal profitable work is a true art, so the NASCAR drivers have succeeded in utilizing their unique talent. Fourthly, the NASCAR drivers participate in a variety of races amongst which the NEXTEL Cup, the Busch Series and the Truck Series. In order to have an idea about the level of these competitions, it would be useful to read about the NEXTEL, for instance: â€Å"The NASCAR NEXTEL Cup Series is the sport’s highest level of professional competition. It is consequently the most popular and most profitable NASCAR series. The 2006 NEXTEL season consisted of 36 races over 10 months, with over $4 million in total prize money at stake at each race† (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASCAR#NEXTEL_Cup, 2007). This mean, the NASCAR drivers belong to the so-called â€Å"high sports†, as they participate in the national competitions. Finally, the NASCAR drivers observe the principles of fair competition. For instance, they â€Å"do not use performance-enhancing drugs† (McCormick, at http://nascar.about.com/od/drivers/a/nascarsteroids.htm, 2007) and tend to support the idea of the spirit of positive rivalry through following the rules of politeness and good tone in the relationships with other participants. Criticizing this argument, one can state that NASCAR races are not actually a sport, but rather a show with minor elements of competition. In this case, the accents are placed inaptly , as these races are a true competition in all aspects, but the modern mass-media have turned into a show, broadcasted by numerous TV-channels. In reality, the NASCAR is interested in maintaining its reputation and thus deals merely with professional sport rather than amateur shows . To sum up, the present paper successfully proves that NASCAR drivers are true athletes, as they meet the aforementioned criteria such as skillfulness, obedience to ethical codes, participation in racing and the corresponding competitions and use of their skills in the beneficial way   The paper thus illustrates that a true athlete should possess not merely skills, but also high intelligence, ability to negotiate and make career in the field of sports as well as satisfactory   inner moral culture. Works cited McCormick, S. â€Å"NASCAR Drivers Don’t Use Performance Enhancing Drugs†. 31 July 2007, Wikipedia. â€Å"NASCAR†. 17 July 2007, Wikipedia. â€Å"Sport†. 4 October 2006,                  

Hotel Management System Essay

The following subsections of the Software Requirements Specifications (SRS) document provide an overview of the entire SRS. 1.1 Purpose The Software Requirements Specification (SRS) will provide a detailed description of the requirements for the Hotel Management System (HMS). This SRS will allow for a complete understanding of what is to be expected of the HMS to be constructed. The clear understanding of the HMS and its’ functionality will allow for the correct software to be developed for the end user and will be used for the development of the future stages of the project. This SRS will provide the foundation for the project. From this SRS, the HMS can be designed, constructed, and finally tested. This SRS will be used by the software engineers constructing the HMS and the hotel end users. The software engineers will use the SRS to fully understand the expectations of this HMS to construct the appropriate software. The hotel end users will be able to use this SRS as a â€Å"test† to see if the software engineers will be constructing the system to their expectations. If it is not to their expectations the end users can specify how it is not to their liking and the software engineers will change the SRS to fit the end users’ needs. 1.2 Scope The software product to be produced is a Hotel Management System which will automate the major hotel operations. The first subsystem is a Reservation and Booking System to keep track of reservations and room availability. The second subsystem is the Tracking and Selling Food System that charges the current room. The third subsystem is a General Management Services and Automated Tasks System which generates reports to audit all hotel operations and allows modification of subsystem information. These three subsystems’ functionality will be described in detail in section 2-Overall Description. There are two en users for the HMS. The end users are the hotel staff (customer service representative) and hotel managers. Both user types can access the Reservation and Booking System and the Food Tracking and Selling System. The General Management System will be restricted to management users. The Hotel Management System’s objectives is to provide a system to manage a hotel that has increased in size to a total of 100 rooms. Without automation the management of the hotel has become an unwieldy task. The end users’ day-to-day jobs of managing a hotel will be simplified by a considerable amount through the automated system. The system will be able to handle many services to take care of all customers in a quick manner. The system should be user appropriate, easy to use, provide easy recovery of errors and have an overall end user high subjective satisfaction. 1.3 Definitions, Acronyms, and Abbreviations. SRS – Software Requirements Specification HMS – Hotel Management System Subjective satisfaction – The overall satisfaction of the system End users – The people who will be actually using the system 1.4 Overview The SRS is organized into two main sections. The first is The Overall Description and the second is the Specific Requirements. The Overall Description will describe the requirements of the HMS from a general high level perspective. The Specific Requirements section will describe in detail the requirements of the system. 2 The Overall Description Describes the general factors that affect the product and its requirements. This section does not state specific requirements. Instead it provides a background for those requirements, which are defined in section 3, and makes them easier to understand. 2.1 Product Perspective The HMS is an independent stand–alone system. It is totally self contained. 2.1.1 Hardware Interfaces The HMS will be placed on PC’s throughout the hotel. 2.1.2 Software Interfaces All databases for the HMS will be configured using Oracle 8i. These databases include hotel rooms and customers information. These can be modified by the end users. The room database will include the room numbers and if they are vacant or occupied. The customers information database will contain all the information of the customer such as first name, last name, number of occupants, assigned room, default room rate(may be changed), phone number, whether or not the room is guaranteed, credit card number, confirmation number, automatic cancellation date, expected check in date and time, actual check in date and time, expected check out date and time, amount owed by customer, and abbreviated customer feedback. 2.2 Product Functions Reservation and Booking System Allows for typing in customer information Has a default room rate that is adjustable Includes a description field for the changed rate When a customer checks in, the room number will be changed to occupied in the database Ability to modify a reservation When no rooms are available and a customer would like to extend their reservation their information will be placed in a database and when there are rooms available the first customer on the list will have the room When a customer checks out the amount owed is displayed If the internal clock states that is a customer’s time to have checked out and customer has not checked out, adds an extra night to amount owed and provides a report Records that room is vacant Records payment Allows for space to write customer’s feedback Tracking and Selling Food System Tracks all meals purchased Charges the current room as necessary General Management Services and Automated Tasks System Reports generated to audit hotel occupancy, future occupancy, room revenue, and food revenue Exception reports listing exceptions to the normal cost Allows addition, deletion and modification of information on rooms and rates, menu items and prices, user profiles Creation of users and assigning passwords 2.3 User Characteristics Educational level of HMS computer software – Low Experience of HMS software – None Technical Expertise – Little 2.4 Apportioning of Requirements The audio and visual alerts will be deferred because of low importance at this time. 2.5 Assumptions and Dependencies – The system is not required to save generated reports. – Credit card payments are not included 3 Specific Requirements This section contains all the software requirements at a level of detail, that when combined with the system context diagram, use cases, and use case descriptions, is sufficient to enable designers to design a system to satisfy those requirements, and testers to test that the system satisfies those requirements. 3.1 External Interfaces The Hotel Management System will use the standard input/output devices for a personal computer. This includes the following: Keyboard Mouse Monitor Printer 3.1.1 User Interfaces The User Interface Screens are described in table 1. Table 1: Hotel Management User Interface Screens Screen Name Description Login Log into the system as a CSR or Manager Reservation Retrieve button, update/save reservation, cancel reservation, modify reservation, change reservation, adjust room rate, accept payment type/credit card Check-in Modify room stay (e.g., new credit card), check-in customer (with or without a reservation), adjust room rate, special requests, accept payment type/credit card Checkout Checkout customer, generate bill Hotel Payment Accept payment for room and food Room Service/Restaurant Create order, modify order, view order, cancel order, generate meal bill Customer Record Add or update customer records Administer Rooms Availability and rates Administer User Create, modify, and delete users; change password Administer Meals Create, modify, and delete meal items and prices Reports Select, view, save, and delete reports 3.1.2 Software Interfaces The system shall interface with an Oracle or Access database. 3.1.3 Hardware Interfaces The system shall run on a Microsoft Windows based system. 3.1.4 Communication Interfaces The system shall be a standalone product that does not require any communication interfaces. 3.2 Functional Requirements Functional requirements define the fundamental actions that system must perform. The functional requirements for the system are divided into three main categories, Reservation/Booking, Food, and Management. For further details, refer to the use cases. 1. Reservation/Booking 1.1. The system shall record reservations. 1.2. The system shall record the customer’s first name. 1.3. The system shall record the customer’s last name. 1.4. The system shall record the number of occupants. 1.5. The system shall record the room number. 1.6. The system shall display the default room rate. 1.6.1. The system shall allow the default room rate to be changed. 1.6.2. The system shall require a comment to be entered, describing the reason for changing the default room rate. 1.7. The system shall record the customer’s phone number. 1.8. The system shall display whether or not the room is guaranteed. 1.9. The system shall generate a unique confirmation number for each reservation. 1.10. The system shall automatically cancel non-guaranteed reservations if the customer has not provided their credit card number by 6:00 pm on the check-in date. 1.11. The system shall record the expected check-in date and time. 1.12. The system shall record the expected checkout date and time. 1.13. The system shall check-in customers. 1.14. The system shall allow reservations to be modified without having to reenter all the customer inforamtion. 1.15. The system shall checkout customers. 1.15.1. The system shall display the amount owed by the customer. 1.15.2. To retrieve customer information the last name or room number shall be used 1.15.3. The system shall record that the room is empty. 1.15.4. The system shall record the payment. 1.15.5. The system shall record the payment type. 1.16. The system shall charge the customer for an extra night if they checkout after 11:00 a.m. 1.17. The system shall mark guaranteed rooms as â€Å"must pay† after 6:00 pm on the check-in date. 1.18. The system shall record customer feedback. 2. Food 2.1. The system shall track all meals purchased in the hotel (restaurant and room service). 2.2. The system shall record payment and payment type for meals. 2.3. The system shall bill the current room if payment is not made at time of service. 2.4. The system shall accept reservations for the restaurant and room service. 3. Management 3.1. The system shall display the hotel occupancy for a specified period of time (days; including past, present, and future dates). 3.2. The system shall display projected occupancy for a period of time (days). 3.3. The system shall display room revenue for a specified period of time (days). 3.4. The system shall display food revenue for a specified period of time (days). 3.5. The system shall display an exception report, showing where default room and food prices have been overridden. 3.6. The system shall allow for the addition of information, regarding rooms, rates, menu items, prices, and user profiles. 3.7. The system shall allow for the deletion of information, regarding rooms, rates, menu items, prices, and user profiles. 3.8. The system shall allow for the modification of information, regarding rooms, rates, menu items, prices, and user profiles. 3.9. The system shall allow managers to assign user passwords. 3.3 Nonfunctional Requirements Functional requirements define the needs in terms of performance, logical database requirements, design constraints, standards compliance, reliability, availability, security, maintainability, and portability. 3.3.1 Performance Requirements Performance requirements define acceptable response times for system functionality. The load time for user interface screens shall take no longer than two seconds. The log in information shall be verified within five seconds. Queries shall return results within five seconds. 3.3.2 Logical Database Requirements The logical database requirements include the retention of the following data elements. This list is not a complete list and is designed as a starting point for development. Booking/Reservation System Customer first name Customer last name Customer address Customer phone number Number of occupants Assigned room Default room rate Rate description Guaranteed room (yes/no) Credit card number Confirmation number Automatic cancellation date Expected check-in date Expected check-in time Actual check-in date Actual check-in time Expected check-out date Expected check-out time Actual check-out date Actual check-out time Customer feedback Payment received (yes/no) Payment type Total Bill Food Services Meal Meal type Meal item Meal order Meal payment (Bill to room/Credit/Check/Cash) 3.3.3 Design Constraints The Hotel Management System shall be a stand-alone system running in a Windows environment. The system shall be developed using Java and an Access or Oracle database. 3.3.4 Standards Compliance There shall be consistency in variable names within the system. The graphical user interface shall have a consistent look and feel. 3.3.5 Reliability Specify the factors required to establish the required reliability of the software system at time of delivery. 3.3.6 Availability The system shall be available during normal hotel operating hours. 3.3.7 Security Customer Service Representatives and Managers will be able to log in to the Hotel Management System. Customer Service Representatives will have access to the Reservation/Booking and Food subsystems. Managers will have access to the Management subsystem as well as the Reservation/Booking and Food subsystems. Access to the various subsystems will be protected by a user log in screen that requires a user name and password. 3.3.8 Maintainability The Hotel Management System is being developed in Java. Java is an object oriented programming language and shall be easy to maintain. 3.3.9 Portability The Hotel Management System shall run in any Microsoft Windows environment that contains Java Runtime and the Microsoft Access database. 4 Change Management Process Changes to this document may be made after approval from the project manager and the client approval officer. 5 Document Approvals 5.1 Team One Approval ____________________________________ Sandra Busik/Reita Sikka Date 5.2 Team Two Approval ____________________________________ Lisa Ferrett Date 6 Supporting Information A system context diagram as well as use cases and use case descriptions have been developed in separate documents.