El Filibusterismo Essay

Background: After the fate of the Noli was sealed by the Spanish authorities, prompted Rizal to write the continuation of his first novel. He confessed, however, that regretted very much having killed Elias instead of Ibarra, reasoning that when he published the Noli his health was very much broken, and was very unsure of being able to write the continuation and speak of a revolution. Consequently, as expected of a determined character, Rizal apparently went in writing, for to his friend, Blumentritt, he wrote on March 29, 1891: â€Å"I have finished my book. To a Filipino friend in Hong Kong, Jose Basa, Rizal likewise eagerly announced the completion of his second novel. Having moved to Ghent to have the book published at cheaper cost. Inevitably, Rizal’s next letter to Basa contained the tragic news of the suspension of the printing of the sequel to his first novel due to lack of funds, forcing him to stop and leave the book half-way. Fortunately, Rizal was not to remain in despair for long. A compatriot, Valentin Ventura, learned of Rizal’s predicament. He offered him financial assistance. Even then Rizal was forced to shorten the novel quite drastically, leaving only thirty-eight chapters compared to the sixty-four chapters of the first novel. Title: Rizal had to define the word filibustero to his German friend Ferdinand Blumentritt, who did not understand his use of the word in Noli Me Tangere. In a letter, Rizal explained: â€Å"The word filibustero is little known in the Philippines. The masses do not know it yet. I heard it for the first time in 1872 when the tragic executions (of the Gomburza) took place. I still remember the panic that this word created. Our father forbade us to utter  it, as well as the words Cavite, Jose Burgos (one of the executed priests), etc. The Manila newspapers and the Spaniards apply this word to one whom they want to make a revolutionary suspect. The Filipinos belonging to the educated class fear the reach of the word. It does not have the meaning of freebooters; it rather means a dangerous patriot who will soon be hanged or well, a presumptuous man.† By the end of the nineteenth century, the word filibustero had acquired the meaning â€Å"subversive†. The Ending There are a variety of reasons for why the plans for a revolution (in the book) are not carried through as originally intended, but certainly Rizal’s own message (as also expressed by characters in the book) is that violence is not the preferred solution, and that, while change is necessary, it should come about peacefully and sensibly. Major Characters: Simoun – Crisà ³stomo Ibarra reincarnated as a wealthy jeweler, bent on starting a revolution Basilio  Sisa’s son, now an aspiring doctor  Isagani  poet and Basilio’s best friend; portrayed as emotional and reactive Kabesang Tales – Telesforo Juan de Dios, a former cabeza de barangay (barangay head) who resurfaced as the feared Luzà ³n bandit Matanglawin Paulita Gomez  the girlfriend of Isagani and the niece of Doà ±a Victorina, In the end, she and Juanito Pelà ¡ez are wed, and she dumps Isagani, believing that she will have no future if she marries him Father Florentino  Isagani’s godfather, and a secular priest; was engaged to be married, but chose the priesthood instead Don Custudio  a famous journalist who was asked by the students about his decision for the Academia de Castellano. In reality, he is quite an ordinary fellow who married a rich woman in order to be a member of Manila’s high society Ben Zayb Abraham Ibaà ±ez is his real name. He is a journalist who thinks he is the only one thinking in the Philippines http://www.kapitbisig.com/philippines/el-filibusterismo-the-reign-of-greed-by-dr-jose-rizal-book-notes-summary-in-english-the-characters-the-summary-of-el-filibusterismo_202.html http://joserizal.ph/fi01.html

The Effects of Dependency on Technology

Since the days of the industrial revolution, man has always wanted to improve his environment, or to make his life ceasier. Whether it was a way to speed up production of goods, better communication, or just improving and existing idea, man has yearned to exceed his boundaries and push the limits of his abilities. With the invention of the computer and rapid advances in technology, lifestyles have become physically, socially, and economically dependent upon a wide variety of electronic devises. If the technology were lost or became non functional, it would have a devastating impact globally.Beginning with the invention of the wheel and fire, man has strived to improve the way he performs basic menial tasks. Just as he did with the wheel, man has become more and more dependent upon technology to do his day to day work. What started as the industrial revolution has moved into the computer age of manufacturing goods at a faster and cheaper rate. Not only has production been effected by technology, it has spread to a wide range of work related tasks such as sales, where only two decades ago personal contact was the norm, now is done with e-mail and I pads.As well as shipping and receiving where once records were hand written, they are now inputted electronically. Thus it creates a network of human dependency on industrial technology. Even as industry has become dependent upon electronic gadgets so has society’s need to interact. There are a number of devices to help us communicate more efficiently with each other, but at a cost of the personal face to face connection. The number one improvement in social communication is the internet.With instant messaging, e-mail, and social sites such as facebook, my yearbook, and tagged there is very little if any personal contact. Also in the communication category are cell-phones where you can text, im, take and download pictures all at the touch of a keypad without even seeing the person on the other end. By doing so i t creates a varied number of choices for social interaction with no personal or physical contact. Commerce has also become dependent on computers and ever changing technology. Since the birth of the internet, on line sales have become as ommon as turning on a light. You can view a business’s entire inventory and make a purchase with just a couple of mouse clicks. Also effected by technology is in store checkout, where you can do self check out by scanning items over a price screen connected to a computerized cash register. A major change in commerce is security where cameras survey an entire store and electronic metallic strips are hidden in items to thwart shoplifting. In the future even sales clerks could be computerized which would lead to a total dependence on technology.Thus computers today have become an inseparable part of our lives, forcing man to ask several questions. Like where will the technology lead us, and how dependent are we becoming upon it. Therefore the ve ry things that are now operating industrial machinery, communicating socially, and driving commercial sales have brought about a dependency on technology that is nearly irreversible. It leads to the question, will all the advances in our lives be a benefit or will we become dependent soley on technology to complete everyday tasks thereby isolating ourselves from human interaction.

Nacirema Case Paper

The Nacirema case study reminds us how cultural rituals were many years ago and how some of them are still existing today. The Nacirema tribe has many unconventional practices of how they live day to day. From the article â€Å"Body Ritual Among the Nacirema,† it is clear that they believe their bodies are not attractive and should not be presented in a promiscuous way. Professor Linton documented the North American Tribe who think their bodies as naturally disgusting. They perform daily magic rituals to their bodies to prevent it from being decayed or diseased in anyway. Some of the rituals use potions, charms and physical suffering. One ritual they focused on was the one that was concerning the mouth. The Nacirema tribe believed that there is a strong relationship between their mouth and their social life. If they did not perform the oral rituals, it was correlated to them losing their friends and families. They perform a daily â€Å"mouth-rite† which is done by â€Å"inserting a magic bundle of hog hairs into the mouth, along with certain magical powder, and then moving the bundle in a highly formalized series of gestures. † (Allard 20) This body ritual is performed daily by everyone in the Nacirema Tribe. If I was to relate this ritual to something similar in the American culture, I would relate to people brushing their teeth every morning. The bundle of hog hairs (pretty disgusting to put in your mouth) is the same as the American toothbrush. The magic powder is similar to the toothpaste and the action of moving it in a series of formalized gestures is the same as us moving our toothbrush around our mouth to brush our teeth (I’m pretty sure everyone has a routine of how they brush their teeth every morning – I know I do). Along with that, the people also visit the â€Å"mouth-men† voluntarily once or maybe twice a year for torturous mouth rituals. The â€Å"holy-mouth-man† enhances any existing holes in the person’s teeth by using crude tools and then continues to fill the holes with â€Å"magical materials. † These magical materials that are placed into the holes of the teeth are used to stop their teeth from decaying and to draw friends closer. What surprised me is that even if these people did not have any naturally occurring holes in their teeth, the â€Å"holy-mouth-man† would gauge out normal teeth to purposely make holes in the client’s mouth. He would then follow through to filling them with the â€Å"magic materials. Part of this ritual is similar to the American culture of visiting the dentist. It is recommended for people to visit the dentist at least once or twice a year. The idea of filling any holes in the teeth seems like they are talking about people having cavities in the teeth. In the American culture, dentists use ‘fillers’ which is similar to the â€Å"magic al material† used to fix the holes in the teeth. I am surprised that the â€Å"holy-mouth-man† would proceed to make a hole in a client’s teeth even if they are perfectly fine. I find that appalling and not similar to the American culture. I also find it to be strange that these people still visit the â€Å"holy-mouth-man† even though their teeth are not getting any better. They still continue to go through the suffering just to be accepted in the Nacirema Tribe. After reviewing the article by Horace Miner, it is apparent that people of the Nacirema Tribe seem to have a reason for everything they do regardless of whether it is right or wrong or makes sense or not. Some of those reasons make sense but the main one that concerns me is why they inflict pain and harm on one another in these forms of rituals when physical torture is not even required for them. A prime example would be the one I discussed earlier of making holes in teeth when their teeth are perfectly fine. There is no need to purposely cause pain to the client to make a hole in their teeth when it is not necessary. This kind of behavior is related to people who are associated with masochism and sadism. Masochism is derived from inflicting pain on one self and sadism is derived from inflicting pain on others. The people are going to the â€Å"mouth-men† to inflict pain on themselves even if they do not need to. What is interesting is that Nacirema is actually American spelled backwards. It brings attention to whether these types of rituals are all make-believe or fantasy with the terms used such as â€Å"magic. † These rituals would not be accepted in the American culture (in the horrendous way it is described) but it relates to diversity and the acceptance of everyone’s culture regardless of whether you will follow it or not per say. This article is a great example of people during barbaric things which might not be acceptable to one person but is the norm to another.

Globalization and sport especially world cup in Qatar 2022 Research Paper

Globalization and sport especially world cup in Qatar 2022 - Research Paper Example It would not be wrong to say that with the intensive mediatization of sports and the technology facilitated broadcast of sports across nations and cultures, sports has emerged to be a common platform of interest and a vehicle for the exchange of values and political influences (Grundy 71). In the light of this fact, one simple can not underestimate the links existent between sports and the facilitation of democracy in today’s globalized world (Jay 51). Qatar being a Gulf nation, the impact of sports and globalization on the nation needs to be considered in the light of the emerging global network of interdependencies and influences and the still fresh Arab Spring. This approach gets even more imperative when one accommodates the fact that Qatar happens to be the host of 2022 FIFA World Cup. Globalization, Sports and Democracy- A Literature Review Globalization is a process that happens to be complex and controversial in its ramifications. Globalization has not only enhanced in terstate interdependencies, but also given way to a range of changes in the world (Mott IV 119). There is no denying the fact that democracy and globalization happen to be two of the most profound developments of the contemporary age. Globalization has led to the advent of democracy in many nations. Thereby one is many a time tempted to believe in the premise that globalization and democracy happen to be interrelated and symbiotic and one favors and promotes the other (Kuper 116). It could certainly be believed if one takes into consideration the opening up of economies and the commensurate democratization of the nations of Eastern and Central Europe after the fall of communism (Volten 66). One may readily believe in the veracity of this premise if one considers the opening up of the Latin American nations with the unraveling of the wave of democratization in the 70s (Harrison 166). The international transactions that define globalization do tend to benefit the societies as a whole, it is logical to assume that democracy that makes the political class more accountable to people is a sure shot way to remove the impediments that hinder such transactions. Also, one simply could not shy away from the fact that there exists a positive correlation between the eventual objectives of globalization and the socio-political environment facilitated by democracy (Ringen 262). The exchange of goods and services stimulated by globalization is invariably accompanied by the exchange and sharing of ideas and a sharing of ideas does make the societies politically more comparative and competitive (Henry & Springborg 16). Thereby globalization is indeed poised to pose much of a challenge to the nations that are traditionally non-democratic or autocratic (Archibugi 159). When one considers the political unrest unraveling in the Gulf in the wake of the Arab Spring, one is bound to assume that the influx of ideas in the hitherto closed societies and political systems has indeed motiv ated people to be politically more aspiring and has facilitated them with the courage to stand against autocratic regimes (Laqueur 175). Thereby such political developments inspire one to acknowledge that

Caring the Patients with Heart Failure and Type 2 Diabetes, Anorexia Research Paper

Caring the Patients with Heart Failure and Type 2 Diabetes, Anorexia - Research Paper Example According to the World Health Organization (as cited in van der Plas et al., 2012), palliative care involves improving the patients’ and their families’ quality of life by preventing and relieving suffering through identification, assessment, and treatment of pain and other problems brought about by the disease, including the patient’s physical, emotional, and spiritual problems. Palliative care uses a support system with a team approach to meet the needs of the dying patient and his family to help them regard dying as a normal process and easing the transition (World Health Organization, n.d.). Heart Failure According to Smeltzer & Bare (2003), heart failure is the condition wherein the heart has difficulty in distributing nutrients to the various tissues and cells. In heart failure, there is a problem with the heart’s contraction or its filling of blood. The risk of having heart failure increases with age. Class II Heart failure involves a slight limitat ion of the patient’s ability to perform normal tasks. The patient may experience symptoms during increased physical activity, but not at rest. Class 2 heart failure usually has a good prognosis. Class III Heart failure involves a much more significant limitation of his ability to perform, while the patient may feel comfortable at rest, the slight activity can bring about symptoms. The prognosis for Class III Heart failure is fair, but not as good as Class II (Smeltzer & Bare, 2003). Diabetes (Type 2) Diabetes mellitus is a chronic metabolic disorder which is characterized by hyperglycemia (Abdulameer, Sulaiman, Hassali, Subramaniam, & Sahib, 2012).  

Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility Essay - 2

Business Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility - Essay Example GSK accepts that the existence of harmful pharmaceutical chemicals in the environment is the critical area to be looked at and so GSK is performing deeper scientific experiment for understanding the problems in order to deal with the concerns. Thus GSK ensure that their products do not affect people, environment or the aquatic life. GSK have expertise knowledge about the chemical and biological compounds and thus the opportunity to invent new products without affecting the environment. The company has a deep learning in chemical and biological attributes of pharmaceutical compounds and thus has the expertise knowledge about the environmental impacts of the pharmaceutical compounds. GSK also performs pharmaceutical risk assessment programs to evaluate their position with respect to the current regulatory requirement as well as the Global Environment. They regularly update the environmental testing protocols as their knowledge and testing methods improvise both for long term and short term development. (Simpson 124). Human Resource Stewardship The company respect their employees and support them to the fullest to grow their talent and give positive contribution to the company (Schwartz 28). The employment practices of GSK are made in such a way that they create a culture in which all the employees feels that their work are valued and respected. Thus they feel inspired and accomplish their goal without much hurdle. The company also protect the Personal Identification Information (PII) of the employees including their sensitive personal information and thus creates a sense of trust among the employees. The working environment thus provided to the employees is comfortable and the employees are satisfied regarding the quality of work they do. But the staffs or the senior management who fail to comply with the code of conduct are penalized for them and also are terminated from the company. Community Service and Impact GSK has undertaken a number of projects and progra ms for improving the quality of life in the community in which they are working in. In India, GSK undertakes a number of rural development programs by giving specialized skills and making the unemployed youths employable. Training is provided to them on computers and lessons on agriculture are given. GSK provided anti-parasitic treatments to the school children in all the developing countries. It helped the children to fight against the effects of intestinal worms and the cycle of poverty to which they contribute. Broader Social Causes GSK engages in a lot of social activities all over the world. They have established many community

IT Project Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

IT Project Management - Assignment Example Besides being a way of reducing costs for organizations, outsourcing is a crucial aspect of growth and a strategic service. Basically, outsourcing comprises of reassigning at least one business process to an external vendor or service provider. Often, organizations outsource specific functions that were originally part of organizational departments. The specified functions focus on business core competencies with good and clear reasons driving such actions. The four key reasons for outsourcing are outlined by Axelrod. Cost efficiency is associated with saving money and reducing operating costs. Outsourcing grants organizations access to world class skills and capabilities that enable them to tap from the best examples within their industry translating to low costs and high quality. Additionally, reduction of operating costs eliminate debts, falling profitability, and low expansion opportunities. Secondly, outsourcing allows business to utilize shared knowledge accumulated by the IT s ervice provider over years of experience in the field. Additionally, the service provider has a unique mix of skills and talent that can successfully manage a project, unlike in-house department. Thirdly, outsourcing controls legal risk or improves compliance since the service provider assumes and manages some of the risks of the business. Additionally, a service provider understands the industry requirements in and out and these assists prevent instances of costly mistakes resulting in an agile, dynamic, and flexible business.

Risk and value management Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Risk and value management Report - Essay Example Value management helps in developing an awareness for value in an organization and also focuses on targets and objectives seeking solutions to function on practical innovative outcomes. In this case, value management would relate to development of value based systems, of aims and methods in the company TechWatt and developing skills and competencies in the staff members. Maximizing potential of a company by developing structures and functions appropriate to the value management principles would also be recommended. The concept of value is dependent on resources and needs of a company and satisfaction of these needs and resources would be dependent on management style, human dynamics and interaction, external and internal environment and effective methods and tools of achieving outcomes. The value management focus on management style highlights the importance of teamwork and communication, creativity, innovation, with focus on functional and customer approach and requirements. Considering the need for teamwork and cooperation, cooperative operating principles with enhanced meeting facilities and office space for many members of staff would be an important aspect of value management. Enhancing facilities for interaction and communication among members is very important and could be emphasized. Teamwork, communication as well as external and internal c onditions and managers can consider value management perspectives to influence these conditions. However means of achieving this outcome would relate to better business decision making with improved services and products, better competitiveness, value culture and common knowledge, with development of multitask and multidisciplinary teamwork. The benefits of value management with the technological sector as relates to TechWatt would be associated with provision of services in public and private sectors. The people who could remain involved in this aspect of management

Question .. Marine scince Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 9000 words

Question .. Marine scince - Essay Example 2 Figure 2: The eight bearings of successful yacht management 3 Figure 3: Captain’s Standing Orders, Ship’s Standing Orders, and the Daily Orders - the three important administrative tools for a large motor yacht. 5 Figure 4: The five-fold objectives for the master of the vessel 12 Figure 5: The four-fold objectives of a crisis management team 14 Figure 6: The five conditions for entitlement of GA 23 Figure 7: Three important objectives from the cargo owner's point of view 28 Figure 8: Methodology for computation of loss of income 36 Photo credit Cover page URL: http://www.imo.org/OurWork/Safety/FireProtection/PublishingImages/fire.jpg Section 1: Maintaining Yacht Operational Standards Case brief As the Ship/Yacht Manager of EITHER a 25,000 tonne merchant ship OR a 2,900 tonne motor yacht review the mechanisms by which you would ensure that your operational standards are maintained on board your vessel. Your answer should include but not be limited to:   ship/yacht ma nagement;   organisational structure;   consideration of routine and emergency operations.   1.1 Yacht management, organisation

The issues surrounding euthanasia Essay Example for Free

The issues surrounding euthanasia Essay ‘The concept of the Sanctity of Life is not helpful in understanding the issues surrounding euthanasia.’ Discuss. (10 marks) Some may agree with the statement because the Sanctity of Life does not allow people to make autonomous decisions when it comes to euthanasia. Voluntary euthanasia should be an option for a competent adult who is able and willing to make such a decision. The VES argues that every human being deserves respect and has the right to choose their own destiny, including how they live and die. However, the Sanctity of Life is too rigid as it does not make any exceptions. Furthermore, some may agree with this statement because the Sanctity of Life does not hold one’s quality life as important. For example, Diane Pretty used to lead a full and active life but then suffered from an incurable disease that limited her ability to move and communicate with others like she used. Her quality of life was clearly no longer desirable, and that is why she wanted her husband to end her life so that she could die in a dignified manner. However, the Sanctity of Life overlooks the quality of life, as all life is God given and is thus sacred; therefore it does not truly address the issues surrounding euthanasia. On the other hand, both Natural Law and the Sanctity of Life are against euthanasia because of the teachings in Bible, such as in Exodus 20 – ‘thou shalt not kill’. The primary precept to preserve innocent life is based upon this. Therefore, it is clear that euthanasia is wrong irrespective of the issues that surround it, there are no exceptions. In addition, in Job 1:21 it states that ‘the Lord can gave, and the Lord has taken away’, and this means that only God has the divine authority to take life away, and so euthanasia should not be carried out, it is intrinsically wrong. To conclude, it seems that most would agree with the statement because the Sanctity of Life leaves little room for compassion in comparison to a relative theory of ethics such as Situation ethics, which would aim to do the most loving thing in every situation – so would look at one’s quality of life for example, and other issues surrounding euthanasia. Ultimately, the concept of the Sanctity of Life is not the most helpful in understanding the various issues surrounding euthanasia.

The Product Or Service Itself Marketing Essay

The Product Or Service Itself Marketing Essay Ford Motor Company is one of the worlds largest producers of cars and other vehicles in the world. It owns a number of brands including Ford (of course), Volvo, Jaguar, Aston Martin, Land Rover, Mazda, and, in the USA, Lincoln and Mercury. Ford also has an extensive network of main dealer workshops, the Rapid Fit tyre and servicing chain, and owns the Kwik Fit brand. Ford is also one of the largest providers of automotive financial services. The company makes over 6 million vehicles per year and employs well over 300,000 people worldwide; it has around 25,000 dealers and over 10,000 suppliers. Ford is BIG. However, in recent years, Fords fortunes have been mixed: with increased competition, particularly from the Far East, sales have dipped in some areas dramatically. This paper attempts to reason why this has happened, and suggest ways in which more products and services can be sold to both new and existing customers. Except where specifically referred to, this document primarily focuses on the domestic car market in the United Kingdom. Since the turn of the century, Ford has been trying to turn around a sharp decline in worldwide sales. Every year or two, executives have swapped their roles in the boardroom to and from sales, marketing, finance and operations, and the brand message and sales slogans have been changed at the same time. In early 2009, for example, Ford announced that it was changing its marketing strategy to focus on its core brand and logo, rather than promoting specific models. By December 2009, Ford was working to integrate the companys marketing team members, global agencies and other supplier partners with a common and integrated plan to bring new global vehicles to market. Jim Farley, the companys group vice president of global marketing, confirmed  they were moving toward a new global marketing model and that global coordination would apply to everything from TV advertising to creating single vehicle marketing brochures. Fords new integrated global marketing strategy was deployed at the launch of the 2011 Ford Fiesta at the North American International Car Show in January. The company says it wants to create a more consistent and compelling connection with customers worldwide, while better leveraging the companys global assets and capabilities. The problem with Ford is: they dont have a clear marketing strategy. For some reason, Ford is finding the transition from a production oriented company to a marketing oriented company difficult. The Marketing Orientation The marketing orientation has become common in companies that make things for individual customers; not so common in business-to-business (B2B) companies. Many motor car companies have made the transition successfully, but Ford is not one of them. The Chartered Institute of Marketing defines marketing as: . . . the management process which identifies, anticipates, and supplies customer requirements efficiently and profitably. Probably the most important point when talking about marketing is the following: Marketing is both an important functional area of management and an overall business philosophy which recognises that the identification, satisfaction and retention of customers is the key to prosperity. (Lancaster Massingham, 1993, p.5) Marketing is both a functional area of management and a business philosophy, and can be viewed as follows: A basic concept that focuses on customers. A set of management techniques. As a function, part of marketings role is to identify correctly both the current and future needs and wants of specifically defined target markets. This information is then acted upon by the whole organisation in bringing into existence the products and/or services necessary to satisfy customers requirements. It is the marketing function which forms the interface with the firms existing and potential customers. Marketing provides entrepreneurship by identifying customer requirements, and through marketing the rest of the firm is able to mobilise resources to capitalise on. Although it can be seen that marketing has very important functional role within the organisation, the influence of marketing should not be restricted to the marketing department. A marketing oriented business has implications for the way people throughout the organisation respond to the initiatives that are forthcoming from marketing. Marketing as a Business Philosophy Many successful companies see marketing is the keystone of their business. Such firms do not see marketing simply as yet another functional area of management, but more as an overall business philosophy, and way of thinking about business, and a way of working which runs through every aspect of the firms activities. Hence, marketing is viewed not as separate function, but rather as a profit-oriented approach to business that permeates not just the marketing department but the entire business. Looked at from this point of view, marketing is seen as an attitude of mind or an approach to business rather than a specific discipline. The holistic view of the role of marketing within the firm has been expressed by a leading authority on management thinking, Peter F Drucker (Drucker, 1954, p.56), who stated: Marketing is not only much broader than selling, it is not a specialised activity at all. It encompasses the entire business. It is the whole business seen from the point of view of its final result, that is, from the customers point of view. Concerning responsibility for marketing must therefore permeate all areas of the enterprise. To be really effective, this marketing oriented business philosophy, known as the marketing concept, must pervade the whole company. An integrated approach is required, not just the creation or tweaking of a marketing department. Embracing customer satisfaction throughout the entire organisation is what separates a market-oriented firm from the rest. Having this approach to business drives the marketing oriented company into new activities and new opportunities and away from the narrow preoccupation with selling existing products to existing customers. Marketing cannot begin to be effective within a company unless it has the firm support of all layers of management and penetrates into every area of an organisation. So why, if the marketing concept is so simple and straightforward, has it been only relatively recently that firms have adopted it as a serious business philosophy? Very briefly, its because of the history of industrial development and the way in which business has been done since the Industrial Revolution. Production Oriented Businesses In the beginning, businesses were production oriented. There was virtually a never-ending demand for goods and services. Companies concentrated on production and efficient production in order to bring down costs, and product decisions were taken first and foremost with production implications in mind. This production point of view was workable as long as the sellers market existed. However in the early 20th century the rest of the world caught up with Great Britain and people could buy their goods and services from all over the world. For the first time companies had to compete, and had to differentiate themselves from their competitors. There are still some firms around today who are production oriented and they pay little regard to their customers wants: such firms take the attitude that they produce excellent products and common sense dictates that people will want to buy them. Ford started out as a production-oriented business, and still retains an element of this approach. Customers are, of course, convinced of the superiority of the companys products, and it is a company sales force that convinces them. If consumers are not buying the companys products, and as far as the companies concerned there can only be two possible reasons: 1) the customer is ignorant and does not appreciate a good product, or 2) the sales force is inept. Many companies have produced excellent products, but its not necessarily what customers want to buy. The British motorcycle industry produced fine quality machines, but consumers preferred the styling range offered by Japanese manufacturers. There is no longer a British motorcycle industry. In a production oriented company senior personnel such as the chairman and managing director are likely to have production backgrounds. Such companies are likely to have a small sales department which handles traditional marketing functions such as advertising. The greatest importance is placed on production. Under the production concept the salespersons task is a relatively minor one; he or she has to sell what the firm has produced. The sales area is viewed as a service function, and so the sales manager is not part of top level management. Sales Oriented Businesses In the early 20th century business people began to realise that it was not enough simply to produce goods as efficiently as possible. In order to make profits, these goods had to be sold. Business philosophy in many companies switched from production orientation to sales orientation. The sales force now became the most important people in the organisation. The firm could manufacture the goods, but these goods still had to be sold. The sales concept states that effective demand can be created by sales techniques, and it was thought that the sales department held the key to the firms future prosperity and survival. Techniques were developed that are still used today in modern marketing or, more accurately, selling. In order to achieve a competitive advantage, greater importance is attached to product differentiation and branding. Advertising, sales promotion and other sales techniques were increasingly used to achieve the sales angle. Customer satisfaction was not an issue: the whole ethos was based on getting the sale with the emphasis definitely on using the hard sell. Motor car dealers have a reputation for using sales orientation techniques. They believe that with some young, highly motivated salesman, hungry for success and with a well worked out incentive scheme, they can sell anything. Sales volume is the most important criterion, and planning horizons tend to be relatively short-term. The actual customer, and how customers might perceive the value of the utility or the goods being sold, is of secondary importance. Philip Kotler (reference here) defines the selling concept as: management orientation that assumes that customers will either not buy or not by enough of the organisations products unless the organisation makes a substantial effort to stimulate their interest in its products. Other examples of sales orientation companies would include certain home improvement type companies, such as double glazing or roof repairers, who send people door-to-door to get leads; once they have a lead from an unsuspecting targets, they send round a high-pressure salesmen with a foot in the door approach. A sales approach to business fine for those companies that are here today and gone tomorrow, but not to firms that want to remain in business and build their business on the basis of trust and respect and genuine customer satisfaction. A good high-power salesperson can sell virtually anything to anyone once! For repeat business over the long-term, however, the typical selling mentality of many firms is not enough: a more customer all market-oriented approach is necessary for long-term success. Marketing Oriented Businesses The modern marketing concept appeared in the United States during the 1950s, and since then has been adopted as the central business philosophy by many firms throughout the world. The marketing concept is sometimes referred to as a marketing or customer orientation. The theory is: in order for a firm to survive in the long term and make a profit it must ascertain the genuine needs and wants of specifically defined target markets and then produce goods and services that satisfy customer requirements. It is the customer who takes centre stage under the marketing concept. The satisfaction of customers is seen as the key to prosperity, growth and survival. The marketing oriented firm produces goods and services that customers want to buy rather than what the firm wants to make: the emphasis on the customer buying rather than on the company selling the goods. To progress from a sales oriented company into a marketing oriented company the firm must be able to cultivate a companywide approach to customer requirements. Marketing cannot begin to be effective within a company unless it has the full support of general management and penetrates every area of an organisation, from the lowest to the highest levels. Levitt (Levitt, 1960) has drawn a sharp contrast between the selling and the marketing concept: Selling focuses on the needs of the seller; marketing on the needs of the buyer. Selling is preoccupied with the sellers need to convert his product into cash; marketing the idea of satisfying the needs of the customer by means of the product and the whole cluster of things associated with creating, delivering and finally consuming it. Changing from a sales orientation to a more sophisticated marketing orientation will mean marketing will have much more influence and authority over other departments to bring about integrated co-ordinated marketing. This is the case at Ford: Ford seems to have attempted, half-heartedly, to change, but the sales orientation concept is entrenched, and the sales department, understandably, are reluctant to concede their status or influence. As stated earlier, the marketing concept requires whole-hearted cooperation from everyone within the company Ford needs an exceptional change management strategy to resolve the reallocation of power within the company. To turn around fords fortunes, management must adopt and use the marketing concept as a business philosophy. A change of management labels and titles will not achieve the necessary fundamental change in company attitude it is the companys whole approach to business problems that is the key issue. The adoption of a business philosophy that puts customer satisfaction at the very centre of management thinking is what will that finally convert Ford from a production or sales oriented company to marketing oriented one. Planning and Information Gathering The way to measure how committed a company is to the marketing concept is to analyse how it is planning for the future, particularly the information and procedures on which those plans are based. The focus for information gathering and planning should be based around catering for customer needs and satisfaction. The mistake that many managers make including many within Ford is that they think, by working in an industry for a number of years, they acquire a deep insight into what customers want. They believe, incorrectly, that marketing research would just confirm what they already know, and is therefore a waste of time and money. At the very least, the following questions need to be answered: Who are our customers? What do they buy? How do they consider value? How do they buy? When do they buy? It is essential for a company to plan their marketing based on an actual, accurate understanding of customer wants and needs. This means that processes and procedures must be in place to gather the information required to analyse and interpret these needs. What business are we really in? In a famous article published in 1960 Theodore Levitt, then a lecturer at the Harvard business School, asked the key question that all organisations must answer, What business are we really in? (Levitt, 1960). Levitt gave examples of organisations that have failed to understand the benefits their customers derive from the product offered. In the case of the American railroads, for example, he argued: The railroads did not stop crying because the need for passengers and freight transportation declined. They grew. The railroads are in trouble today, not because the need was filled by others (cars, trucks, air planes, even telephones), but because it was not filled by the railroads themselves. They let others take customers away from them because they assumed themselves to be in the railroad business rather than in the transportation business. The reason they defined their industry incorrectly was because they were railroad orientated; they were product orientated not customer orientated. Other important questions are: what are we selling? And where do our products fit in the marketplace? What is the publics perception of Ford as a brand? 30 to 50 years ago, people bought Ford because a) they were relatively cheap, b) spare parts were readily available, and c) maintenance didnt cost the earth in fact many maintenance tasks could were DIY. What does Ford stand for now? Inexpensive Korean and soon Chinese imports are now the choice for people buying on price considerations, and, as vehicles have become more technology advanced, most maintenance tasks are beyond the scope of the DIYer. The truth is, Ford has lost its way it just doesnt know (or doesnt know how to inform the public) what its cars stand for. As a quick, unscientific, exercise, take a look at these phrases taken from recent motor car advertising and see how many you recognise: Papa! Vorsprung durch technik The power of dreams Va va voom Kinetic design Are there any you dont recognize? Turn the page to see the products they are advertising. Phrase Association Manufacturer (Model) Papa! Fun! Feminine, trendy, young, sporty in a girly kind of way. Renault (Clio) Vorsprung durch technik Quality, precision, technical expertise. Audi The power of dreams Aspirational. Inspirational. Honda Va va voom Fun! Trendy, young, sporty in a way that appeals to everyone. Renault (Clio) again Kinetic design ? Ford Ford Kinetic Design? What does that mean? A European-wide television advertisement backs this up with It looks like its moving even when its not. Is that what you look for in a car? According to the online Cambridge Encyclopedia, kinetic has the following meaning: Energy associated with an objects motion; a scalar quantity; symbol K, units J (joule). For an object of mass m moving with velocity v, kinetic energy K  =  mv2/2. A change in kinetic energy is work done to the object by a force. (Net Industries, n.d.) It just doesnt work, does it? The Marketing Mix There are environmental factors that are outside the control of an organisation, but which nevertheless can affect it. A company is affected by, and therefore must take account of, factors that are environmental and hence outside its control. In order to accommodate these factors, the company must use those elements of which it does have control. The most important of these elements are those that comprise the companys marketing mix. Figure 1: the 7 Ps Neil H. Borden has been credited with coining the term marketing mix (Borden, 1965). It refers to the set of marketing ingredients a company can use to achieve its objectives. Just as a chef can select from a wide range of ingredients and combine them in different amounts to bake a cake, so to the marketer can pick and choose from an extensive set of marketing components in order to find the right combination. The main elements of the marketing mix have become known as the four Ps: Product Price Promotion Place Over time, and with the inclusion of the marketing of services, Bordens four Ps have been extended to 7, with the inclusion of: Physical Environment Process People Within each of these four broad categories of marketing decision variables are many subdivisions, as shown in figure 1. The Research Process While marketing research can be invaluable, it can also be very expensive. There is no point in conducting market research if the value of obtaining the information is less than the cost of obtaining it. Also, market research does have its limitations. There is always a chance at least part of the research is flawed; the aim should be to minimise the occurrence of at least some types of error, including: Sampling errors: specifying the incorrect target population, or selecting an unrepresentative sample. Non-response errors: failing to successfully contact all people in a sample, or not receiving a high enough response rate. Data collection errors: respondents supply answers designed to irritate, impress or please the interviewer. Or questions that lead, or give rise to inarticulate answers, or can be misinterpreted. Analytical and reporting errors: simple human error or bugs in the information-gathering process. Gathering information in this way is known as primary data collection: as already stated it is expensive and can have other drawbacks. It can make sense to use information, called secondary data, which has already been collected, often by specialist organisations who sell it on to 3rd parties. Ford themselves have information on the millions (perhaps billions) of people who own, or have owned, a Ford motor car, as well as all those, not necessarily Ford owners, who have used a Ford-owned garage or service centre. Organisations such as J.D. Power provide extensive feedback from car owners, not only on the cars themselves (both new and second-hand), but on after sales service. Target Marketing Once the research is complete, companies need to identify and attempt to satisfy the genuine needs and wants of specifically defined target markets: it should go without saying that they need to do this more efficiently and effectively than their competitors. Implementing this philosophy means that it is usually not possible especially not in the motor industry to assume that every customer is identical. This assumption would be a product-oriented approach rather than a market-oriented one. An important development in recent years in marketing has been the realisation that many markets are made up of significantly different sub-groups, which could be treated as separate markets in terms of product offering, pricing policy, communication strategy and other marketing mix elements. For example, Ford makes motor cars, but the target markets for the Ford Ka and any type of Jaguar are worlds apart. The tendency, therefore, is to target the most commercially attractive sectors in segments of the market for a product, such as the executive car market or the sports car market. Target marketing is the reason for the market research described earlier: it is the reason for the extensive information gathering. Consumers have become more affluent over the years and have been offered a much wider range of products within a particular market to choose from. For example, there is such a wide range of options available when purchasing a Ford Focus that its almost like buying a custom-built car. To be effective, target marketing needs to be carried out methodically and precisely. Kotler (Kotler, 1991) states that the process of target marketing has three distinct stages: Stage One: Market Segmentation. The overall market is divided into distinct groups of buyers who are likely to respond favourably to different product/service offerings and marketing mixes. The firm determines the most appropriate basis for segmentation, identifies the important characteristics of each market segment, and develops criteria for evaluating their commercial attractiveness and viability. Stage Two: Market Targeting. This is not to be confused with the overall process of target marketing. Market targeting is the process whereby one or more of the market segments previously identified are evaluated and selected. Stage Three: Product Positioning. Even within a given market segment, competitors products are likely to be positioned in a particular niche or position. Product positioning is the process whereby the product or service and all other marketing mix elements are designed to fit a given place within a particular segment. Such a position may be more implied than real. It is how the consumer perceives the product position relative to the competitors products that is important. Companies are now identifying customers whose exact needs can be met more effectively. Thomas Levitt (Levitt, 1974) said that the marketer should: . . . stop thinking of his customers as part of some massively homogeneous market. He must start thinking of them as numerous small islands distinctiveness, each of which requires its own unique strategies in product policy, in promotional strategy, in pricing, in distribution methods, and in direct selling techniques. There has always been some form of market segmentation. The wealthy buy fine wines and fashionable clothes, and poor people buy beer and more functional clothing. But this was by accident rather than design. As companies have come to realise over time, it is unlikely that they can produce one product that will satisfy everyone. You can look at any number of markets to see the huge array of choices within each particular segment. For example, washing detergent from the same brand can be bought in original powder form, liquid, concentrated, tablets, liqui-tabs, and so on. Likewise, Ford sells has a wide range of options and configurations within each marque, so a Mondeo could be a cheap(ish) family car, or it could be a well-respected high(ish) performance sports model, with a plethora of extras. Market Segments There are many variables that can be used in segmenting consumer markets. A combination of them may be necessary to define a specific segment. There are no golden rules when it comes to segmenting consumer markets. Very often it may be necessary to use a combination of variables in order to define a pre-precise market segment. Market segments include demographic variables, the main ones being: age sex family size family life cycle A company called Tesearch Services developed a family lifecycle approach and branded it as SAGACITY. This segmentation approach combines life cycle with income and occupation to define different consumer groups. SAGACITY is a powerful tool for differentiating consumer groups for a wide variety of products and services. The current standard in the UK is to use a mixture of social class and income. Classification is based on the occupation of the notional head of the household. The socio-economic groupings used in the UK are those established by the National readership survey, ranging from class A at the top higher managerial, administrative or professional, down to E at the bottom state pensioners, widows, lowest wage-earners and the unemployed. These are some limitations to geographical or social-class segmentation, so a number of approaches have been developed which are a combination of where the customer lives and a number of sociodemographic variables, such as occupation, home-ownership, family size, and so on. These have become known as geodemographic variables. One of the most popular and powerful of these is the A classification of residential neighbourhoods, or Acorn, system. This system is a method for geographically mapping concentrations of different types of people. The Acorn system, based on census data, has proved particularly useful for direct mail campaigns, but also for deciding on sites for retail outlets and advertising poster locations. Segmentation based on census data and neighbourhoods is effective and a number of similar approaches have emerged. Pinpoint (PIN) analysis uses 104 census variables to define up to 60 neighbourhood types which can further be clustered into 12 main types. Mosaic is also based essentially on census enumeration districts. Education is a popular segmentation type. Education is related to social class group because, usually, the better educated tend to obtain better jobs, and generally earn more. Consumers media habits are also generally related to education. The better educated tend to read the quality broadsheet newspapers such as the Times or the Guardian, and are more likely to watch more highbrow commercial television programmes. Benefit segmentation is when different people buy the same or similar products for different reasons. For example, some people buy cars simply to get from A to B; others for aesthetic reasons; others as a status symbol; others as an extension of their personality; and so on. Hayley (Hayley, 1968) first introduced this approach, based on the idea that consumers could be grouped according to the principal benefits sought. This approach assumes that no single variable is likely to be powerful enough to adequately segment the market on its own; the main variable is the benefits sought. As Hayley states: the benefits which people are seeking in consuming a given product are the basic reasons for the existence of true market segments. Another form of segmentation uses degrees of brand loyalty to separate customer types. Kotler divided consumers into 4 groups in descending order of loyalty: hard-core loyals, soft-core loyals, shifting loyals and switchers, who have little or no loyalty. These are many other types of segmentation, but the samples given here should illustrate the possibilities. Fords recent advertising strategy, both in Europe and the United States, has been to align itself to major sporting events. In recent years Ford has sponsored football tournaments and events, including the UEFA Champions League and the Premier League in the England. This has given the company considerable TV airtime through its association with Sky Sports. However, viewing figures show that, typically, the average top viewing figure a given week is just over 1,000,000, dropping to around 140,000 for the 10th most popular sporting event on Sky. Although the popularity of (first-class) football has increased in recent years, particularly amongst more affluent individuals and, in particular, women, Fords sales figures most certainly have not. In fact, there is no evidence to suggest that Fords allegiance to sporting events have had any effect on sales at all at least not in the UK. While it makes sense to promote the Ford brand, and to promote it globally, perhaps it would make more sense to promote individual marques in their own right. Potentially, Ford has the range of models to sell to people at all stages in their lives from the student in a second-hand Ka, to the executive a Jaguar. What is needed is a marketing strategy that segments the stages in customers lives, with a clear route through to their ultimate aspirational car, whether that be a Focus, Land Rover, or an Aston Martin. The Product or Service Itself For the marketer, the product becomes any good or service satisfies a want or need that is considered together with its perceived tangible and intangible qualities. To the consumer, a product is a series or a bundle of satisfactions. Whatever a company would like its products to be, the real nature of its products li

Overview of Different Wireless Networking Technologies

Overview of Different Wireless Networking Technologies Overview of different NMS WIRELESS NETWORKING TECHNOLOGIES Various wireless technologies are under evaluation or are already in use by operational forces. Among these technologies are: WLAN, WiMAX, cellular-based, satellite-based, and MANET. Previous research provided an analysis of the qualities of many of these various technologies based on their ability to support ECO (McHuen and Price, 2009). Each of these technologies has unique features that allow it to fill a particular niche and each has shortcomings that require the incorporation of other technologies into the network. Because this differentiation is likely to continue, the network management system design must include the basic elements incorporated into any tactical wireless technology. 1. WiMAX The Institute of Electric and Electrical Engineers (IEEE) 802.16 standard defines the standards for Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) (IEEE, 2004). WiMAX provides point to multipoint, broadband communications to areas not connected by fiber optic or copper cabling. WiMAX is capable of providing throughputs of up to 70 megabits per second and has a range of approximately 50 kilometers. WiMAX uses a multicarrier modulation scheme known as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM). A limitation of WiMAX is that OFDM is sensitive to multipath and Doppler effects that occur in rapidly changing RF environments such as with mobile users (Fuller, 2008). 2. WLAN The IEEE 802.11 series defines the wireless local area network (WLAN) standards (IEEE, 2007). The most common of these standards in use today will include 802.11g and 802.11n. A WLAN can typically provide throughputs of 54 megabits per second and a range of 100 meters without the need for copper cabling. Most WLAN 31 implementations have the advantage of a fixed access point in order compensate for some of the effects of changing RF conditions; however, a truly mobile ad hoc network must support mobility without being tethered to a fixed infrastructure. 3. Satellite-Based Systems Satellite-based solutions provide beyond line of sight connectivity, but the availability of satellite channels is limited for tactical users. The existing military satellite system known as the UHF Follow-on system (UFO) only provides capacity for 600 concurrent users. DoD users also have commercial services such as Iridium to fill this access gap. That is no panacea, however, since commercial satellite services may not be available when DoD needs them most (Rosenberg, 2010), and it is cost prohibitive to use satellite connectivity exclusively (U.S. Navy To Rely on Netted Iridium Service as Gap-Filler, 2010). The long-term solution in lieu of commercial satellites systems is the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) that provides cutting edge technology based on commercial 3G cellular phone services. MUOS offers both voice and data in a converged, handheld device. However, the MUOS program has experienced several technical problems that delayed the launch of its first satellite, and t here are other issues with the development of the MUOS handsets (Iannotta, 2009). It is likely to be several years before the capabilities offered by MUOS are available to the majority of DoD’s tactical forces. 4. Commercial Cellular The use of commercial cellular technologies on the battlefield has gained significant attention because senior military leaders recognize the potential benefits of putting these devices in the hands of a generation of soldiers and marines that have grown up using this technology. The basic requirements of any cellular network are the handsets and the cellular base stations that are typically associated with towers to increase network coverage. Current capabilities of the tactical cellular network provide throughputs of 1.8 megabits per second while ranges are dependent on the height of the mobile cellular tower placed on a tactical vehicle such as Mine Resistant Ambush 32 Protected (MRAP) vehicle (Lowler, 2009). The current tactical cellular solution is best suited for special operations soldiers who operate in small groups. This network requires a tethered aerostat or a circling aircraft equipped with a cellular base station in order to relay the communications. Other architectural designs have focused on integrating the cellular handsets with tactical radios filling the role of the base station (Tuttle, 2010). That used the cellular handset essentially as an external computer in order to host command and control (C2) and situational awareness (SA) applications in this case. A more efficient architectural design entails developing the tactical radios to host the C2 and SA applications internally, thus eliminating the need for an external computer worn or carried by soldiers (â€Å"New Military Radio Unveiled,† 2011). C. MANET SYSTEMS MANET technologies are highly desirable in tactical environments because each node in the network is able to communicate with all other neighboring devices over one or more hops in order to extend connectivity to areas where a fixed infrastructure is not available. There are many factors that influence the performance and reliability of a MANET. Communications links within the MANET are continuously fluctuating due to the location of devices, power, or environmental factors. MANET technologies are valuable for enhancing command and control because they provide network connectivity beyond line of sight and in harsh environments where this previously was not possible. A tactical MANET provides considerable flexibility through its rapid deploy-ability to provide a wireless voice and data network without any fixed infrastructure. The general characteristics for a tactical MANET include attributes such as rapid deploy-ability, ease of use, mobility, and flexibility. These features make it very suitable for military applications in environments where setting up fixed infrastructure may not be feasible or practical. The MANET nodes also allow transmission of position location information (PLI) in real-time to increase situational awareness at the company level. History of Wireless Networks A wireless network consists of many types (GSM, Wi-Fi, UMTS, and WiMAX)11]. Wi-Fi technology is used in indoor environment because as for considering its accessibility and cost which is very low. Wi-Fi has its specific range in which its calculation can be made. The main goal of the project is indoor positioning system with accuracy to locate an object or target in a room and the identifying rate must be fast that can be deployed considering real time constraints [ HYPERLINK l FLa06 12 ]. More accurate location can be achieved for mobile clients or users which are based on GSM network13]. GSM gives birth to three methods that are positioning by a cell, calculating the distance accordingly to signal strengths SS and based on time difference distance computation [ HYPERLINK l Eve07 14 ]. Positioning by a cell is located simply by using a Base Transceiver Station (BTS) it has a specific area in omnidirectional. A mobile connected to a BTS can be easily located as a BTS has its specific range (from100m to several Km) depending upon the size of the cell in which a target is located. The direction of the target is or mobile user is achieved by sect oral antenna. Positioning can also be measured by the signal strength SS, the distance between the Transmitter and Receiver is calculated through BTS. The method adopted for it is trilateration which identifies the position of a mobile phone. The accuracy obtained between the range of 50 o 500 m having great amount of errors due to structure of buildings and obstacles present there. Enhanced Observed Time Difference (EOTD) is the estimation method in which the time is noticed as it reaches from the mobile station towards the BTS. This is called timing in advance and requires the synchronization between the mobile phone and BTS. Distance is calculated by the time difference on EOTD. After that by trilateration which identifies the position of mobile phone. These methods are not used in Wi-Fi indoor environment because of Wi-Fi limitation and short range and inside the building the signal strength SS, is weak as compared to outdoor environment15]. Accuracy and Precision are the required main factors in indoor localization, weak signals degrade the accuracy of positioning [Ing06 16 ]17]. Indoor positioning detection is achieved by using Wi-Fi signal strength (SS), and formulae to locate user’s position. Wi-Fi signals are of radio waves where movements of signals are dependent upon frequency [Mah12 18 ]. Signals are transmitted by Access Point’s (APs) in all directions regarding their signal strengths. Wireless router can cover an area of about 100 feet i.e. (30.5 m).Recent research work shows that received signal strength indicator (RSSI) localization of an object or target is achieved quite accurately. RSSI is measured in dBm. From different APs the RSSI values are observed on the basis of these values of RSSI the location can be observed between the Transmitting AP and the Receiving node. Mathematically RSSI is ten times logarithmic ratio of received power signal and reference power (i.e. 1mW)19] which has an equation of RSSI ÃŽ ± 10 log P / Pref (2.1) Power is dissipated from a source point by moving further, the relation between distance and power (P) is inversely proportional to square of distance (S) travelled. Mathematically RSSI ÃŽ ± log (1/ S2) (2.2) The attraction of RSSI is that calculation and measurements are almost very simple and less time consuming rather than using other methods. Problems and Degradation of Signal Strength Indoor environment faces a lot of problems due to which weakness in the strength of the signal occurs due to path loss as it becomes weaker as the distance increases from the origin. Different barriers occur in the direction of signals such as sun or rain drops also effect the strength of the signal, even it occurs very rarely but it has its influence with signals, the structure of the building which have many walls, doors, windows, glass, concrete, shelf’s and penetration from the floors, the result is in the form of attenuation. Interference is another problem with other wireless station with in an office or a building. Signal Attenuation in Static Environment When Electromagnetic waves strike with a wall or any other barrier as it passes through, Thus the wave becomes further weaker because of reflection that starts when it strikes the barrier. Another main factor is absorption which is converted in the form of heat and its impact is very small that it cannot be noticed by human. Loss is related to the size of material, focusing on its thickness, attenuation effect of glass is higher than brick walls. These factors have a critical impact especially by using the methods to measure distances by measuring the signal strengths. Attenuation in Signals By User’s By experiments it is concluded that with the presence of users the signal strength is changed. The signal strength is thus weakening due to the human’s in an environment. The radiations are partially absorbed as human body contains water in their bodies and this attenuation occurs in the signal strengths. Location of a mobile device with signal strength map relates measurements with a SS map. Two approaches are for measurement matching either Deterministic or by Probabilistic. Map-based systems are identified by signal strengths SS, in two steps i.e. (Offline step and Online step). The Offline step creates a map of signal strength. The Online step relates with the signal strength maps previously built. For both of steps, two approaches exists Offline step is achieved through measurements or with simulation. The Online approach consists of matching measurements of the signal strength SS, with the map content which was as above said that matching can be achieved either by Deterministic or probabilistic. But creating the signal strength map with simulation requires a great work for building a propagation model that computes signal strength map. Focusing on study that is simulating the signal propagation for creating signal strength map that relies on propagating based positioning techniques, but there is a difference among both systems. Positioning system using propagation based technique does not know mobile’s location; therefore it does not look into having obstacles between mobile and transmitters. On the other hand signal strength mapping are associated with SS values for knowing its geographical coordinates. It has the ability for looking in the obstacles in models such as Motley-Kennan. With the availability of SS map, positioning mobile is built by the content of the map with signal measurements which are provided by mobile or architecture of wireless network that matching may be Deterministic or by Probabilistic approach. Deterministic matching is a simple method for mapping SS, which has a database of all access points within its coverage area and having an average value for signal strength for every Access Point (AP). The matching may be at single point or at several points, where the average value of its coordinates are taken. Probabilistic matching is not a simple method as it required greater data for mapping the signal strength. Probability distribution is used to provide signal strength values. Matching is done by probabilistic methods which are based at Gaussian’s model i.e. CMTA. Other models include Histogram which is done for signal strength distribution. Inconsistency is one of the properties for indoor radio wave propagation. It implies very close values of signal strength for two models in space; description is in two geographical points are opposite and very far from each other. Paramvir Bahl proposed an idea for enhancing positioning estimation considering the previous locations for eliminating the ambiguities in location which relies on Viterbi-like algorithm. Positioning is a main factor in deploying a Wireless Local Area Network. The other hardware or technologies which are used for localization are Active Badge System which works on Infrared sensors detectors that are used to detect the signal’s from Mobile Stations (MS) Active Badge; the central unit processes the data and determine location of mobile stations. But the main drawback of infrared signals is due to its short range and interference from fluorescent light in indoor environment and from sunlight. Cricket system uses RF receivers and ultrasound to get information about time of flight and works on Multilateration for estimating location. Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) based technologies systems (i.e. SPOTON) and LANDMARC systems are also studied. Other hybrid systems like Zigbee radios are proximity sensors, which improves accuracy in positioning system that are WLAN-based.

Leonardo Da Vinci :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Leonardo Da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and naturalist. He was born in Vinci, Tuscany and was the son of a notary. He studied painting with Verrocchio in Florence. He worked at Ludovico Sforza’s court in Milan as an architect, military engineer, inventor, theatrical designer, sculptor, musician, scientist, art theorist, and painter.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Leonardo wanted his paintings to express the laws of light and space and of sciences like anatomy, botany, and geology. He often accompanied condemned criminals to their execution to study the expressions on their faces and he dissected thirty cadavers to perfect his knowledge of anatomy. He was fascinated with the dynamic movement to be found in nature. He was considered a genius and a very handsome man and is still thought of as on e of the most gifted men in the human race.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  One of the things that fascinated everyone about him was the enticing smile he painted on the faces of some women. It was called â€Å"more divine than human† and seemed to move before our eyes. The mystery of the smile is most often associated with the Mona Lisa, one of the world’s most famous images, but it first appeared 20 years before in the angel from The Madonna of the Rocks.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are several theories as to whose smile cast such a spell on Leonardo. One of them is Cecilia Gallerani, who was celebrated for her beauty and was painted by Leonardo when she was seventeen. However, no one knows where that portrait is. It is said that he painted her again as Lady with an Ermine and then as the angel in The Madonna of the Rocks. He seems to have loved the painting of the angel so much that he kept it for himself and painted another one.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Another theory is that, previous to Leonardo, painters outlined their figures, so that they stood away from the background in stiff, immobile poses. He deliberately omitted outlines, blurred and softened the corners of the eyes and mouth, blending light into shadow, giving life to his figures.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Lastly, during the Renaissance, well-born maidens were carefully schooled to â€Å"charm†. Women were advised to close their mouths from time to time at the right corner with a suave movement, and open it slightly at the left as if you were smiling secretly and perhaps Leonardo was just painting the way a thousand well-born ladies smiled in his day.

The Bull Market of Television and Bear Market Of Responsibility Essay

The Bull Market of Television and Bear Market Of Responsibility The inanimate, lifeless object consists of 10 feet of copper wiring, a hardwired main board, thousands of electrical switches and receivers, all compactly encased in 25 pounds of hardened plastic. This plastic box occupies minimal space, requires electrical energy just greater than a toaster, and can be purchased anywhere in America for under $100. It is more accessible, prevalent, and influential than any other person, place, event, or thing this world has every seen; and to many it acts as the present day Hitler carrying out genocide on America’s value system, societal fabric, and treasured democracy. Parent groups, conservative parties, and Christian coalitions decry its ubiquitous influence and demand reform from the syndicates. All about this box of wires camps crowds rise up to cast the first stones in the name of America, ignorant that the blood they spill is the very life of the capitalistic process that has come to epitomize the United States of America. Televis ion should not and does not have the responsibility of being the projector and champion of society’s ideal and sought after utopia. Like every other product or business that has come from the grove of America, it is a fruit of capitalism and exists solely and absolutely for revenue. To say this product is the arena for social reform and advancement corrodes the very ideal of free enterprise and this persecution is in itself an end to social reform and advancement. The deification of television places society’s failures and faults as television’s failures and faults. Critics condemn television for its violent tone, lack of equal ethnic representation, low moral values, manipulative ta... ...ssesses the nutritional substance of bubblegum. American’s have developed an insatiable appetite not for culture and fine art but for violent, sexual, graphic entertainment consumed like food, forgotten and replaced by a new dish on the menu of TV Guide. In American capitalistic society, television syndicates fall over themselves to supply America’s growing addiction. America exists diseased and television functions as the â€Å"Typhoid Mary† that spreads this disease. Americans outraged with the condition of the United States seek to heal America by healing television. Television acts not as the cause of the disorder but as a symptom and a vice of the infection. Until society faces the true culprit in the mirror and own to their part in the decline of a once proud nation, iniquitous debauchery will remain as an untreated, unseen cancer slowly killing America.

Impact of Foreign Aid on Poverty and Economic Development in Nigeria

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION This project focuses on the poverty profile in Nigeria, the foreign aids given to the nation to help alleviate poverty and how it affects the economic development of Nigeria. According to the World Bank website, â€Å"poverty is hunger. It is lack of shelter. Poverty is being sick and not being able to see a doctor. It is not being able to go to school, not knowing how to read, and not being able to speak properly. Poverty is not having a job, and is fear for the future, and living one day at a time. It is losing a child to illness brought about by unclean water. And lastly, it is powerlessness, lack of representation and freedom. † Poverty is the inability to achieve a certain minimum standard of living. It is multidimensional, involving not only a lack of income, but also ill- health, illiteracy, lack of access to basic social services, and little opportunity to participate in processes that influence people’s lives. Mollie Orshansky, who developed the poverty measurements used by U. S government states that poverty is â€Å"to be poor is to be deprived of goods and services, and other pleasures that people around us take for granted† (Schwartz, 2005) Poverty is pervasive; as about 1. billion people in the world still live on less than a dollar a day and nearly 850 million people go hungry every night. (World Bank) According to Jhighan (2003), poverty is a misery-go-round plaguing the less developed countries. 1. 1BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY The poverty level in Nigeria; as described by the World Bank (1996) is a paradox tha t contradicts the immense wealth it has. Nigeria is a country endowed with human, agricultural, petroleum, gas and large untapped mineral resources. It earned over US$300 billion from just petroleum during the last three decades of the twentieth century. Rather than recoding remarkable progress in national, socio-economic development, Nigeria has retrogressed to being one of the 25 poorest countries of the 21st century while she was among the richest 50 in the early 70s. Nigeria enjoyed steady economic growth and relative stability in the 1960s and 70s especially with emergence of the mining industries. The per-capita income grew steadily and few people were between the poverty line as the agricultural public and industrial sectors absorbed a highest percentage of the labor force. In the early 1980s, severe economic crisis shook Nigeria bringing along with them real and perceived increases in the level of poverty in the country. This was due to factors such as declining prices of oil, the country’s main export, rises in the real international interest rates that compounded the external debt and subsequent slowing down of economic activities and growth. The major underlying cause of all these was domestic policy mistakes. (Aigbokhan, 2000) In 1980, poverty was regarded as a rural phenomenon but by 1985, it had spread to urban areas. This was due to the high rural urban migration that accompanied the impetus to development generated by oil revenues. Also, the collapse of oil exports income and massive importation of food to meet the production capacity in the agricultural sector severely affected urban dwellers. Economic reforms were introduced by the government in 1986; Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), which led to the removal of reduction of subsidies that were incidentally strategic to improving human welfare. Government spending on social services became dismal while the quality and quantity of public social services declined, especially in poor communities. Its social costs are reflected in increasing unemployment, cuts in social services, and general increases in the prices of basic commodities. The economic reform programme placed untold hardship on the vulnerable groups of the society such as the women, children and the aged, who make up a larger share of the poor. The standard of living of the general populace fell and led to poor access to food, shelter, education, health and other essentials of life. In 1992, urban poverty remained the same at 37. 5% while rural poverty reduced to 46%. By 1996, it was very obvious that urban poverty had become an increasing problem in Nigeria. For example, the number of people in poverty increased from 27% in 1980 to 46% in 1985. it declined slightly to 42% in 1992, and increased very sharply to 67% in 1996. In 1999, estimates showed that over 70% of Nigerians lived in poverty. The government then declared in November 1999 that the 470 billion naira budget for the year 2000 was â€Å"to relieve poverty. † By 1996, Nigeria had become the 13th poorest country in the world and occupied the 142nd rank on the human development index (HDI) scale. World Bank, 1996) With the reforms, the real growth became positive but there was still a question whether the reform alleviated poverty; how far poverty was reduced. Foreign aid is the economic help provided to communities of countries due to the occurrence of a humanitarian crisis or for the achievement of a socioeconomic objective. There are two types of aids: Humanitarian aid is the i mmediate assistance given to individuals, organizations or government for emergency relief caused by war or natural disasters. Development aid is help given by developed countries to support economic or social development in developing countries so as to create long term sustainable economic growth. The sources of foreign aids include bilateral and multilateral aids. Bilateral aid is given by the government of one country directly to another. Multilateral aid is aid from an international financial institution; such as the World Bank; the International Monetary Fund; the African, Asian and Inter-American Development Banks; the European Development Fund; and various United Nations agencies such as the United Nations Development Programme. These organizations are governed by individual contributing countries and capital markets. Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) also play a major role in distributing aids. Tied aid is the aid which the donor requires a recipient to spend some or all of its foreign aid on goods and services produced in the donor’s country. This process is called tying of aids. This can also be done by offering aid as subsidized credit for the purchase of its exports. Majority of the NGOs in Nigeria receive foreign aids from USAID (The United States Agency for International Development) USAID is an independent federal agency that receives overall foreign policy guidelines from the United States Secretary of State. It seeks to extend a helping hand to countries struggling for a better life, recovering from a disaster or striving to live. It supports economic growth, agriculture, trade, health, democracy, conflict prevention and humanitarian assistance. Other organizations in Nigeria also receive funds from USAID to undertake projects ranging from HIV/AIDS prevention to bringing solar energy to a rural village. On the other hand, Nigeria is currently not eligible to receive grants through the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which was established under President Bush as part of the â€Å"new agreement for global development. † Its mission is to reduce global poverty through promotion of sustainable economic growth. Before a country is eligible to receive assistance, MCC looks at their performance on 16 independent and transparent policy indicators. Nigeria is a country, strategically important to the U. S. and a country whose citizens are greatly in need. At the same time, it is a country whose government does not pass the test for receiving aid through the MCC. 1. 2STATEMENT OF PROBLEM Poverty is a persistent problem which has existed for a long time in Nigeria. A lot of policies have been applied to alleviate it but without much success. This research x-rays the contribution of foreign aids as a solution to thi s problem. The specific problems we will look at in this study are the causes of poverty and also how foreign aids can contribute to poverty reduction in the Nigerian economy. . 3OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY The major objective of this study is to examine the effects of poverty and foreign aids given to us on the development of the economy. The study will focus on other micro objectives, which include: i. To analyze the poverty profile and discuss the national trends of poverty in Nigeria. ii. To review the causes, measures and impact of poverty on the GDP of Nigeria. iii. To identify the forms and roles of the foreign aids given to Nigeria. iv. To identify the relationship between foreign aids and poverty in the Nigerian economy. 4. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK This study uses the theoretical framework employed by Ogbuaku, Adebisi and Feridun (2006) based on the neoclassical growth model by Barro (1991). It is based on a small open economy version of the Solow (1956)-Swan (1956) growth model. The decision to study foreign aid in an open economy, as opposed to a closed, is three fold. First, most of the economies that receive foreign aid must reasonably be considered small and open. Second, to the extent that international credit markets are imperfect, some forms of foreign aid can have a positive impact on the poor. Third, in our empirical work we provide statistical evidence to suggest that greater international openness and access to credit stimulates economic growth. 5. METHODOLOGY The data for this study will be mainly from secondary sources such as World Bank reports, Central Bank of Nigeria publications such as the CBN Economic and Financial Review Bullions, occasional papers, CBN annual reports and statement of accounts, Federal Office of Statistics (Statistical bulletin) and other relevant journals. This research makes use of econometrics in estimating the relationship between poverty, foreign aids and its contribution to the development of the Nigerian economy. The multiple regression technique is used in obtaining numerical estimates of the variables in different equations. This is because the computational procedure is a component of other estimation techniques. The estimation period will be from 1981 to 2007. 6. MODEL SPECIFICATION This study uses the theoretical framework employed by Ogbuaku, Adebisi and Feridun (2006) based on the neoclassical growth model by Barro (1991). They specify a simple model of poverty and globalization as follows: POV  =     ? 0+1 ? TRADE+ ? 2FDI+  µÃ‚  (1) This model is augmented to include the foreign aid element thus: POV  =      ? 0+ ? 1TRADE+ ? 2FDI + ? 3AID+  µ   Ã‚  Ã‚   (2) Where POV is the yearly average per capita income trade is import + export /gdp fdi is foreign direct investment aid is foreign aid  µ is the stochastic error term 7. RESEARCH QUESTIONS This research aims to answer the following questions: †¢ Has foreign aids flow reduced poverty? †¢ Does foreign aid achieve its basic objectives in its recipient countries? Does foreign aid lead to a positive, negative or no effect on growth and economic development? 8. HYPOTHESIS To carry out this study, the following hypothesis will be tested based on a model to be specified and formulated to determine the relationship between foreign aids and economic development. Hypothesis 1 H0: Foreign aids have no significant impact on the econom ic development of Nigeria. H1: Foreign aids have a significant impact on the economic development of Nigeria. 1. 9SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY This significance of this project can be viewed from the perspective of using foreign aids to alleviate poverty and also develop our economy. It studies the poverty profile of the nation and shows how the proper allocation of foreign aids will help improve the development of our economy. 1. 10SCOPE/ LIMITATION OF THE STUDY The research work attempts to cover the effect of the foreign aids given on the Nigerian economy and its impact on the poverty level in our nation. It focuses on the empirical analysis of the relationship between poverty, foreign aids and inflation in Nigeria. The objectives of this study cannot be achieved without encountering either minor or major problems. The major limitations of the study are those that characterize the use of secondary data. They include errors of improper data collections, errors of omission, the problem of over or under estimation of estimates, etc. 11. CHAPTERIZATION Chapter one contains the introductory part; the background to the study, the statement of the problem, the objective of the study and the methodology used. Chapter two contains the literature review and theoretical framework. Chapter three explains the methodology and also includes the model specification. Chapter four covers the analysis of data. Chapter five discusses the summary and conclusion. 1. 12DEFINITION OF TERMS The key terms in this chapter include: Poverty: is the shortage of common things such as food, clothing, shelter and safe drinking water, all of which determine the quality of our life. Foreign aid: is the help provided to communities in the event of humanitarian crisis, or to achieve a socio economic objective. Economic development: is the qualitative change in economic wants, goods, incentives, institutions, productivity and knowledge or the â€Å"upward movement of the entire social system. † Gross Domestic Product (GDP): is the total final output of goods and services produced by a country’s economy, within the country’s territory. Human Development Index (HDI): is a composite index that ranks all countries based on three fundamental dimensions: longevity, educational attainment and standard of living. CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2. 1DEFINITION OF POVERTY Poverty comes in the form of deprivation. It is when there is lack of the means to satisfy basic needs. According to the Penguin Dictionary of Economics, poverty is â€Å"the situation faced by people whose material needs are least satisfied†. It also specifies that â€Å"poverty exists not merely because the needs of some low-income households are high. People are poverty – stricken when their living standard falls radically below the community average. This implies that, such people cannot have what the larger society regards as the minimum necessity for decency. Poverty is a living condition characterized by disease, illiteracy, malnutrition and squalor, to the extent that it inhibits the realization of potentials of individuals and even entire societies. It is therefore being regarded to as a socio-economic and political liability to any nation (Ekpo, 2000: 347). The poverty affects all aspects of a person’s life: susceptibility to disease, limited access to most types of services and information, lack of control over resources, subordination to higher social and economic classes, utter insecurity in the face of changing circumstances, including its psychological effect – the erosion of human dignity and self respect. The effects of poverty can not be over emphasized. It results into hunger, diseases, inadequate shelter and homelessness as part of the consequences of poverty. In our contemporary time, the poor man/woman has no voice in the society, lacks political influence, personal recognition; he is often emotionally and psychologically distressed and is always the downtrodden element in the society. (Fasoranti, 2008) 2. 2Concepts of Poverty Poverty is a multifaceted concept that manifests itself in different forms depending on the nature and content of human deprivation. It affects many aspects of human conditions, including; physical, moral and psychological. Poverty is so broad that the literature referring to the efforts of defining and estimating poverty is greater than the one concerning the strategies for overcoming poverty. The concept of poverty answers the question of what is a sufficient degree of needs satisfaction and how it is established. Different criteria have been used to conceptualize poverty. Most analysis view poverty as a result of insufficient income for securing basic goods and services. Others view it as a function of education, life expectancy, health, and child mortality, etc. According to Blackwood and Lynch (1994), poverty can be identified using the criteria of levels of consumption and expenditure. Sen (1983) relates poverty to entitlements, which are taken to be the various bundles of goods and services over which one has command, taking into cognizance the means by which such goods are acquired. Poverty can also arise as a result of inefficient use of common resources which is due to weak policy, environment, inadequate infrastructure, and weak access to technology, credit, etc. Poverty can also be described as structural or transient. Structural poverty (chronic poverty) is defined as persistent or permanent socio-economic deprivations. It is linked to factors such as lack of skills for gainful employment, limited productive resources, gender, endemic socio-political and cultural factors. Transient poverty, on the other hand, is defined as temporary or transitory and is linked to natural and man-made disasters. Transient poverty is more reversible but can become structural if it persists. Poverty was also conceptualized by Steeten and Burki (1978); broadly into four ways. They include: †¢ Lack of access to basic needs or goods; †¢ Lack of or impaired access to productive resources; †¢ Outcome of inefficient use of common resources; and †¢ A result of â€Å"exclusive mechanisms†. 3. CAUSES OF POVERTY Many different factors have been cited to explain why poverty occurs; but none of them has been able to gain universal acceptance. Possible factors include: Economic factors: 1. Recession: In general, the major fluctuations in poverty rates over time are driven by the business cycle. Poverty rates increase in recessions and decline in booms. Extreme recessions, such as the Great Depression have a particularly large impact on poverty. In 1933, 25% of all workers and 37% of all non-farm workers in the United States were unemployed. In New York, one child in every five was hungry. 2. Economic inequality: Even if average income is high, poverty rate will also be high if incomes are distributed unevenly. However the evidence on the relationship between absolute poverty rates and inequality is mixed and ensitive to the inequality index used. For example, while many Sub-Saharan African countries have both high inequality and high poverty rates, other countries, such as India have low inequality and high poverty rates. In general the extent of poverty is much more closely related to average income than it is to the variance in its distribution. At the same time some research indicates that countries which start with a more equitable distribution of income find it easier to eradicate poverty through economic growth. In addition to income inequality, an unequal distribution of land can also contribute to high levels of poverty. 3. Food prices and Poverty: Poor people spend a greater portion of their budgets on food than rich people. As a result poor households and those within the poverty threshold can be particularly vulnerable to increases in food prices. For example in late 2007 increases in the price of grains led to food riots in some countries. Decreases in food prices can also affect poverty although they tend to impact a different group – small farmers – than food price increases. 4. Democracy and Poverty: When we look at social dimensions of development, access to drinking water, girls' literacy, and health care are starkly divergent. For example, in terms of life expectancy, rich democracies typically enjoy life expectancies that are at least nine years longer than poor autocracies. Opportunities of finishing secondary school are 40 percent higher. Infant mortality rates are 25 percent lower. Agricultural yields are about 25 percent higher, on average, in poor democracies than in poor autocracies—an important fact, given that 70 percent of the population in poor countries is often rural-based. Poor democracies don't spend any more on their health and education sectors as a percentage of GDP than do poor autocracies, nor do they get higher levels of foreign assistance. They don't run up higher levels of budget deficits. They simply manage the resources that they have more effectively. † 5. Welfare states and Poverty: Currently modern, expansive welfare states that ensure economic opportunity, independence and security in a near universal manner are still the exclusive domain of the developed nations, ommonly constituting at least 20% of GDP, with the largest Scandinavian welfare states constituting over 40% of GDP. These modern welfare states, which largely arose in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, seeing their greatest expansion in the mid 20th century, and have proven themselves highly effective in reducing relative as well as absolute poverty in all analyzed high-income OECD countries. †¢ The governance effectiveness of governments has a major impact on the delivery of socioeconomic outcomes for poor populations †¢ Weak rule of law can discourage investment and thus perpetuate poverty. Poor management of resource revenues can mean that rather than lifting countries out of poverty, revenues from such activities as oil production or gold mining actually leads to a resource curse. †¢ Failure by governments to provide essential infrastructure worsens poverty. †¢ Poor access to affordable education traps individuals and countries in cycles of poverty. †¢ High levels of corruption undermine efforts to make a sustainable impact on poverty. In Nigeria, for example, more than $400 billion was stolen from the treasury by Nigeria's leaders between 1960 and 1999 (Ribadu,2007) 6. Environmental Degradation: In  many  parts  of  the  world, environmental degradation—the deterioration of the natural environment, including the atmosphere, bodies of water, soil, and forests—is an important cause of poverty. Environmental problems have led to shortages of food, clean water, materials for shelter, and other essential resources. As forests, land, air, and water are degraded, people who live directly off these natural resources suffer most from the effects. People in developed countries, on the other hand, have technologies and conveniences such as air and water filters, efined fuels, and industrially produced and stored foods to buffer themselves from the effects of environmental degradation. Global  environmental  degradation may result from a variety of factors, including overpopulation and the resulting overuse of land and other resources. Intensive farming, for instance, depletes soil fertility, thus decreasing crop yields. Environment al degradation also results from pollution. Polluting industries include mining, power generation, and chemical production. Other major sources of pollution include automobiles and agricultural fertilizers. In  developing  countries, deforestation has had particularly devastating environmental effects. Many rural people, particularly in tropical regions, depend on forests as a source of food and other resources, and deforestation damages or eliminates these supplies. Forests also absorb many pollutants and water from extended rains; without forests, pollution increases and massive flooding further decreases the usability of the deforested areas. 2. 4MEASUREMENT OF POVERTY/INDICATORS Poverty is usually measured as either absolute or relative poverty (the latter is actually an index of income inequality). . 4. 1Absolute poverty: This refers to a set standard which is consistent over time and between countries. An example of an absolute measurement would be the percentage of the population eating less food than is required to sustain the human body (approximately 2000-2500 calories per day for an adult male). The World Bank defines extreme poverty as living on less than US $1. 25 (PPP) per day, and moderate poverty as less than $2 a day. Estimating that in 2001, 1. 1 billion people had consumption levels below $1 a day and 2. 7 billion lived on less than $2 a day. Other absolute poverty indicators include: Life expectancy: According to Encarta encyclopedia, it is the average length of life that would be observed in a population in which the currently prevailing mortality risks at each age continued indefinitely. Infant mortality: Infant mortality rate is the probability of death in the first year of life, usually stated as a number per 1,000 births. 2. 4. 2Relative poverty: According to Wikipedia, relative poverty views poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context, hence relative poverty is a measure of income inequality. Usually, relative poverty is measured as the percentage of population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income. There are several other different income inequality metrics, for example the Gini coefficient or the Theil Index. Relative poverty measures are used as official poverty rates in several developed countries. As such these poverty statistics measure inequality rather than material deprivation or hardship. The measurements are usually based on a person's yearly income and frequently take no account of total wealth. The main poverty line used in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and the European Union is based on â€Å"economic distance†, a level of income set at 50% of the median household income. 2. 5Social Aspects of poverty Analysis of social aspects of poverty links conditions of scarcity to aspects of the distribution of resources and power in a society and recognizes that poverty may be a function of the diminished â€Å"capability† of people to live the kinds of lives they value. The social aspects of poverty may include lack of access to information, education, health care, or political power. Poverty may also be understood as an aspect of unequal social status and inequitable social relationships, experienced as social exclusion, dependency, and diminished capacity to participate, or to develop meaningful connections with other people in society. The World Bank's â€Å"Voices of the Poor,† based on research with over 20,000 poor people in 23 countries, identifies a range of factors which poor people identify as part of poverty. These include: †¢ Precarious livelihoods †¢ Excluded locations †¢ Physical limitations †¢ Gender relationships Problems in social relationships †¢ Lack of security †¢ Abuse by those in power †¢ Disempowering institutions †¢ Limited capabilities †¢ Weak community organizations 2. 6 FOREIGN AID The standard definition of foreign aid comes from the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) of the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), which defines foreign aids as financial flows, technical assistance, and commodities that are; designed to promote economic development and welfare as their main objective and are provided as either grants or subsidized loans. . 6. 1Humanitarian aid Humanitarian aid or emergency aid is rapid assistance given to people in immediate distress by individuals, organizations, or governments to relieve suffering, during and after man-made emergencies (like wars) and natural disasters. The term often carries an international connotation, but this is not always the case. It is often distinguished from development aid by being focused on relieving suffering caused by natural disaster or conflict, rather than removing the root causes of poverty or vulnerability. The provision of humanitarian aid consists of the provision of vital services (such as food aid to prevent starvation) by aid agencies, and the provision of funding or in-kind services (like logistics or transport), usually through aid agencies or the government of the affected country. Humanitarian aid is distinguished from humanitarian intervention, which involves armed forces protecting civilians from violent oppression or genocide by state-supported actors. The Geneva Conventions give a mandate to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and other impartial humanitarian organizations to provide assistance and protection of civilians during times of war. The ICRC has been given a special role by the Geneva Conventions with respect to the visiting and monitoring of prisoners of war. The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is mandated to coordinate the international humanitarian response to a natural disaster or complex emergency acting on the basis of the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 46/182. The Sphere Project handbook, Humanitarian Charter and Minimum Standards in Disaster Response, which was produced by a coalition of leading non-governmental humanitarian agencies, lists the following principles of humanitarian action: †¢ The right to life with dignity. †¢ The distinction between combatant and non-combatants. †¢ The principle of non-refoulement. 2. 6. 2Development aid Development aid is aid given by developed countries to support development in general which can be economic development or social development in developing countries. It is distinguished from humanitarian aid as being aimed at alleviating poverty in the long term, rather than alleviating suffering in the short term. The term â€Å"development aid† is often used to refer specifically to Official Development Assistance (ODA), which is aid given by governments on certain concessional terms. It is given by governments through individual countries' international aid agencies and through multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, and by individuals through development charities such as Action Aid, Caritas, Care International or Oxfam. In terms of dollars, the United States has consistently being the world’s largest donor (except in the mid-1990s when Japan briefly topped the list). In 2004, the U. S provided $19. 7 billion in ODA, with Japan, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany as the next largest donors, (including OA, the U. S provided a total of $21. 3 billion). However, when aid is measured as a share of donor income, the most generous donors are Norway, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden, each of which provided between 0. 79- 0. 92% of GDP in 2004. Saudi Arabia provided aid equivalent to about 0. 9% of its income. The United States is one of the smallest donors by this measure at about 0. 17 percent of U. S income in 2004, just over half of the 1970 level of 0. 32% and less than one-third of the U. S average during the 1960s. Donors have pledged since the 1960s to devote 0. 7% of their income as aid, most recently at Financing for Development Conference in Monterrey, Mexico in March 20 02, but only a handful of small donors have achieved this level of aid. The offer to give development aid has to be understood in the context of the Cold War. The speech in which Harry Truman announced the foundation of NATO is also a fundamental document of development policy: â€Å"in addition, we will provide military advice and equipment to free nations which will cooperate with us in the maintenance of peace and security. Fourth, we must embark on a bold new program for making the benefits of our scientific advances and industrial progress available for the improvement and growth of underdeveloped areas. More than half the people of the world are living in conditions approaching misery. Their food is inadequate. They are victims of disease. Their economic life is primitive and stagnant. Their poverty is a handicap and a threat both to them and to more prosperous areas. For the first time in history, humanity possesses the knowledge and skill to relieve the suffering of these people. † 2. 6. 3Specific types of Aid †¢ Project aid: Aid is given for a specific purpose e. g. building materials for a new school. †¢ Programme aid: Aid is given for a specific sector e. g. funding of the education sector of a country. †¢ Budget support: A form of programme aid that is directly channeled into the financial system of the recipient country. †¢ Sector wide Approaches (SWAPs): A combination of Project aid and Programme aid/Budget Support e. . support for the education sector in a country will include both funding of education projects (like school buildings) and provide funds to maintain them (like school books). †¢ Food aid: Food is given to countries in urgent need of food supplies, especially if they have just experienced a natural disaster. â₠¬ ¢ Untied Aid: The country receiving the aid can spend the money as they chose. It improves the government’s inter-temporal fiscal balance. †¢ Tied aid: The aid must be used to purchase products from the country that donated it or a specified group of countries. It always lead to deterioration, thus suggesting a potential tradeoff between consumer welfare and government solvency in the latter case. (Chatterjee and Turnovsky;2005) †¢ Technical assistance: Educated personnel, such as doctors are moved into developing countries to assist with a program of development. Can be both programme and project aid. OECD Categories The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development's Development Assistance Committee puts foreign aid into three categories: †¢ Official Development Assistance (ODA): is the largest, consisting of aid provided by donor governments to low- and middle- income countries. Official Aid (OA): is aid provided by governments to richer countries with per capita incomes higher than approximately $9000 for three consecutive years; and to countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union or its satellites. †¢ Other Official Flows (OFF): Aid which does not fall into the other two categories, either because it is not aimed at development, or it consists of more than 75% loan (rather than grant). 2. 7 POVERTY AND ECONOMIC GROWTH The impact on poverty on economic growth is problematic and is not clear. It is indicated that effective anti-poverty action is difficult to achieve largely because the poverty problem is multidimensional, complex and location specific deeply rooted into the social fabric and distribution of economic and political power (Tarp, 2000). One implication of these is that donors as well as analysts of the impact of aid on poverty need to be realistic about the severity of the difficulties that are likely to be encountered and the scale of effort needed to overcome poverty. Most evaluations have shown that achievements in this area are modest at best. In general, it was found that there is a wide gap between the stated commitments to poverty reduction and the actual practices of reducing poverty in the field. Most donors have paid little attention to conceptualization and analysis of poverty and have been particularly weak in translating the poverty reduction objective into operational guidance and in their country assistance strategies. Similar pitfall applies to most analysis of the impact of aid on poverty. The main instruments of donor intervention has been a series of ad hoc projects and in these improvements have been observed over time in respect of participation by beneficiaries and gender sensitivity but few donors have been concerned about sustainability. 2. 8FOREIGN AID AND ECONOMIC GROWTH Most foreign aid is designed to meet one or more of four broad economic and development objectives. †¢ To stimulate economic growth through building infrastructure, supporting productive sectors such as agriculture, or bringing new ideas and technologies; †¢ To strengthen education, health, environmental or political systems; To support subsistence consumption of food and other commodities, especially during relief operations and humanitarian crises; †¢ To help stabilize an economy following economic shocks. Despite these objectives for aid, economic growth has always been the main yardstick used to judge aid’s effectiveness, with more aid expected to lead to faster growt h. But at a broad level, there is no apparent simple relationship between aid and growth. The absence of a simple relationship means that for some observers, it is an evidence of a failure of aid to achieve its basic objectives. But for others, it is misleading, as other factors affect both aid and growth. Not surprisingly, the views on the economic impact of foreign aid on poor countries turn out to be highly divided. Some papers, e. g. Rwabutomize(2008) and Cato Institute (2004)) totally oppose the notion that foreign aid has beneficial effects on developing economies and even go as far as saying they indeed hinder growth. Others like Karras (2006), Durbarry, Gemmell & Greenaway (2004) and Wangwe (2004) find a positive relationship between the two. Yet a lot of research finds conditional relationships between the two variables. This section gives a summary of the views from the examined relevant and available literature on this subject. 2. 9Economic impact of foreign aid in theory The impact of foreign aid on recipient countries’ economies has been a subject of research and debate among scholars and policymakers for more than five decades. There are two obvious stands in the literature of foreign aid effectiveness: one argues that foreign aid spurs growth and development of the recipient countries while the other opposes this view by arguing that aid crowds out savings and investments and thus slows down economic growth. There is also another stand that proposes that foreign aid has a conditional relationship with growth, accelerating growth only under some certain circumstances. A possible reason for the high variability of opinions on the benefits of foreign aid is that there is no generally accepted theory on the workings of foreign aid. Frameworks like the gap theory have been widely criticized in contemporary research leaving the employed frameworks highly subjective. Simon (1987) offers five criteria for economic aid disbursement. First, the recipient person or nation â€Å"needs† the help. Second, the recipient wants the help. Third, the gift will not have bad effects in the long run on the recipient or others. Fourth, the charity will be used more-or-less efficiently rather than largely wastefully or simply to obtain more money in a pyramid scheme. Fifth, the charity will not be useless to the giver. In addition, a lot of the conditional relationship between foreign aid and economic development is premised on differentiation of foreign aid categories. For instance, Annen and Kosempel (2007) differentiate between foreign aid as technical assistance (TA) and non-technical assistance (NTA). They believe that the policies which will be most effective in reducing international income disparities will be the ones that help reduce the productivity gap, and this is exactly what technical assistance is intended to do. They also explained that when foreign aid takes the form of technical assistance, it can have important effects on improving economic conditions in poor countries; at least when it is administered efficiently. Chatterjee and Turnovsky (2005) in their work classified foreign aid into ‘tied’ and ‘untied’. They posit that the link between foreign aid, economic growth, and welfare depends crucially on the mechanism through which a particular aid program, whether tied or untied, is absorbed by the recipient economy. 2. 9. 1Dissenting views On the other hand, the Cato Institute (2004) actually proffers negative economic impact. In their opinion: †¢ There is no correlation between aid and growth. †¢ Aid that goes into a poor policy environment doesn’t work and contributes to debt. †¢ Aid conditioned on market reforms has been a failure. †¢ Countries that have adopted market-oriented policies have done so because of factors unrelated to aid. There is a strong relationship between economic freedom and growth. †¢ Even aid intended to advance market liberalization can produce undesirable results. Such aid takes the pressure off recipient governments and allows them to postpone, rather than promote, necessary but politically difficult reforms. Easterly (2003) cha llenges the growth gap theory usually used to justify increase in foreign aid. He states that the â€Å"financing gap† model in which aid increases investment and that investment increases economic growth has dubious theoretical foundations and numerous empirical failings. It assumes a stable linear relationship between investment and growth over the short to medium term but there are sound reasons to doubt whether the incremental capital-output ratio is constant and thus whether the relationship from investment to growth is linear. A second key assumption of the model in which aid fills a financing gap and allows greater investment is that aid will actually finance investment rather than consumption. This assumption will hold true only if investment is liquidity-constrained and incentives to invest were favourable. Another opponent of the gap theory is Erixon (2005). He carried out a literature analysis of aid and economic growth by examining case studies of countries who have received considerable amounts of aid. He also contends that the reason countries are poor is not that they lack infrastructure; roads, railways, dams, schools or health clinics. Rather, it is because they lack the institutions of the free society: property rights, the rule of law, free markets, and limited government. He maintains that even in the face of sound policy, foreign aid fails to have the desired effect. According to him, there is much evidence supporting the view that aid largely has backed political regimes with little interest in growth and development. It would be much more sensible to scale back the levels of aid considerably; provide aid only to governments that are already reforming and agree to continue reforms; and make clear that aid will be available only for a strictly limited period. M’Amanja & Morrissey (2004), in their study contend with foreign aid–economic growth relationships based on the often wrong theoretical assumptions used as a basis for it. With respect to the stipulations of endogenous growth theory, high investment ratios do not necessarily lead to rapid economic growth; the quality of investment, its productivity, existence of appropriate policy, political, and social infrastructure are all determinants of the effectiveness of investment. Time series was used to investigate this relationship in the Kenyan economy. They focused on one element of growth and used a multivariate approach on time series data for Kenya over the period 1964 – 2002 to investigate the growth effects of foreign aid, investment and a measure of international trade. In addition, some opposition to foreign aid comes from social biases. An example is Mutambara (2008) who claims that although the stated intention is ostensibly to assist the poor economies, most foreign aid benefits the donor countries. The modus operandi has been that the rich West provides financial assistance or loans to poor nations to engage Western consultants or institutions to carry out unsustainable and useless projects on the continent. As a result, there is minimum benefit to the African country while the money is recycled back via western institutions. The Cato Institute (2004) gave its position based on economic freedom. They assert that the greater a country’s economic freedom, the greater its level of prosperity over time. Economic freedom, which includes not only policies, such as free trade and stable money, but also institutions, such as the rule of law and the security of private property rights, does not only increase income. It is also strongly related to improvements in other development indicators such as longevity, access to safe drinking water, lower corruption, and lower poverty rates. Radelet (2006) examines aid magnitudes and who gives and receives aid. It discusses the multiple motivations and objectives of aid, some of which conflict with each other. It then explores the empirical evidence on the relationship between aid and growth, which is divided between research that finds no relationship and research that finds a positive relationship (at least under certain circumstances). It also examines some of the key challenges in making aid more effective, including the principal-agent problem and the related issue of conditionality, and concludes by examining some of the main proposals for improving aid effectiveness. Karras (2006) investigates the relationship between foreign aid and growth in per capita GDP using annual data from the 1960 to 1997 period for a sample of 71 aid-receiving developing economies. More specific studies like Asiedu and Nandwa (2004) focused on whether foreign aid in education has a significant effect on growth. In carrying out their study on the effect of foreign education aid they took into consideration the heterogeneous nature of aid as well as the heterogeneity of aid recipients—they disaggregated the aid data into primary, secondary and higher education, and ran separate regressions for low income and middle income countries. Neanidis and Varvarigos (2005) examined the effects of aid transfers and their degree of volatility (different kinds of variability) on economic growth. They conducted regression analysis for a panel of 74 aid-recipient countries over the time period from 1972 to 1998. Bhandari et al. (2007) carried out a region specific study the effectiveness of foreign aid and foreign direct investment in the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. They used a model that includes the labour force, capital stock, foreign aid and foreign direct investment, and is estimated using pooled annual time series data from 1993 to 2002. Before carrying out the estimation, the time series properties of the data were diagnosed and an error-correction model was developed and estimated using a fixed-effects estimator. Inanga and Mandah (2008) examines the role of two foreign aid financing agencies, Enterprise Development Fund (EDF) and Export Development Programme (EDP), in promoting Zambia’s economic growth in a country study. They assessed and analysed the impact of each of them on the growth and development of different sectors of the Zambian economy. The sector impact analysis included manufacturing, agriculture, transport, and institutional capacities. Al Khaldi (2008) analyses the trend and impact of foreign aid on the economic development of Jordan during the period 1990-2005 using for this purpose different statistical techniques. Chatterjee and Turnovsky (2005) introduced two crucial aspects of this mechanism that have been absent from previous work: the importance of the endogeneity of labor supply as an additional margin through which foreign aid may impact on macroeconomic performance; and the role played by the interaction of labor supply and public capital; and externalities associated with public capital accumulation in determining an economy’s response to a foreign aid shock. They suggest that when donors decide on whether a particular aid program should be tied to an investment activity, careful attention should be paid to the recipient’s opportunities for substitution in production, the elasticity of labour supply, and production externalities. It is perfectly possible for a tied transfer to have a presumably unintended adverse effect on the recipient economy, if that economy is structurally different from what the donor perceived. Durbarry, Gemmell and Greenaway (2004) assessed the impact of foreign aid on growth for a large sample of developing countries. They used an augmented Fischer-Easterly type model and estimated this using both cross-section and panel data techniques. This allowed them to identify not only the ceteris paribus growth effects of aid using an established conditioning set of policy variables, but also to assess the robustness of this set to the inclusion of aid, and other forms of, investment finance among the growth determinants. Annen and Kosempel (2007) tested the hypothesis that the effectiveness of aid depends on its level of fragmentation. The study presented a theoretical growth model for a small open economy that was capable of identifying the appropriate specification required for an aid-growth regression. 2. Empirical findings Annen and Kosempel (2007) found that non technical aid (NTA) has no statistically significant impact on growth; but technical aid (TA) has a positive and significant impact, except in countries where it is highly fragmented. A possible explanation for this result is that the savings rate applied to NTA is low, and therefore most of these resources are used to finance consumption instead of investment. Although the policy interaction term for NTA was found to be positive, as expected; the partial impact of NTA conditional on policy was found not to be statistically significant for any policy level. When aid takes the form of TA our results showed that it has a strong positive and statistically significant impact on economic performance. Specifically, their estimates show that for the average developing economy a 25% increase in TA will lead to about a quarter percentage point increase in its yearly growth rate. Their estimates indicate that when the level of fragmentation is high – above 73%, the partial impact of TA on growth is zero or even negative, depending on the estimation procedure. Asiedu and Nandwa (2004) also gave a conditional aid – growth relationship. They report that the effect of aid varies by income as well as by the type of aid. These results underscore the importance of the heterogeneity of aid flows as well as the heterogeneity of recipient countries when analyzing the effect of aid on growth. Aid depends on the level of development of the recipient country (low and middle income) as well as the level of education at which aid is being targeted (primary, secondary or higher). Aid in primary education enhances growth in low income countries but aid in post-primary education has no significant effect. For middle income countries, aid in primary education and secondary education has an adverse effect on growth but aid in higher education enhances growth. Thus, their results highlight the importance of taking into account the heterogeneity of aid and the heterogeneity of the recipient countries when analyzing aid-growth relationships. Sound policy is another condition given for aid to be beneficial. In the view of Al Khaldi (2008), policies are also important in the effectiveness of the foreign capital inflow, as aid has a more positive impact on growth with good fiscal, monetary and trade policies. In the presence of poor policies, on the other hand, aid has no positive effect on growth. Accordingly, there is a need of not only good policies but also the implementation of these policies as well as the proper monitoring of the aid -utilizing projects is necessary in order to avoid the mis-utilization and the mismanagement of the foreign capital resources. However, according to M’Amanja & Morrissey (2004), aid in the form of net external loans is found to have a significant negative impact on long run growth. Private investment relates to government investment and imports negatively, but positively to foreign aid though they note that the negative association between aid and growth may be due to their use of aid loans rather than grants.. Private investment has been a consistently strong determinant of growth both in the short- and long- run. The implication here is that in order to stimulate and sustain economic growth in Kenya, policy makers need to pay closer attention to factors that determine private investment. However, some findings disregard these conditions and oppose the benefits of foreign aid altogether. The results from Bhandari et al. (2007) indicate that an increase in the stock of domestic capital and inflow of foreign direct investment are significant factors that positively affect economic growth in these countries. Foreign aid did not seem to have any significant effect on real GDP. Rwabutomize (2008) reports that empirical findings reveal that foreign aid has no impact on economic growth amongst the low-income economies under investigation within the Sub-Sahara Africa region from 1990-2004. He concludes that the growth process of poor economies have not benefited from the official development assistance (foreign aid) inflows and increasing aid will not have a positive impact of growth either. Thus these economies should rely on other development resources other than foreign aid such as their domestic savings and tax revenues. Radelet (2006) came up with similar conclusions. Aid can keep bad governments in power for too long, and can undermine incentives for saving, tax collection, and private sector production. Aid relationships are made much more difficult by a complex chain of principal-agent problems that weaken information flows, introduce myriad motivations for different actors, and make monitoring and accountability more difficult. Inanga and Mangah (2008) in their study support these findings. According to them, although Zambia has, on the average, received aid of about US$ 514 million annually over the past three decades, its per capita income has declined from US$1,251 in he early 1970s to about US$ 600 in the late 1990s. They concluded that although it may be difficult to separate the effects of foreign aid finance from those of other growth-inducing factors, efficient and effective utilization of foreign aid finance can contribute to growth in a stable macroeconomic environment. As stated already, not all findings opposed the notion of beneficial foreign aid. The results from Karras (2006) show that the effect of foreign aid on economic growth is positive, permanent, statisticall y signi? ant, and sizable: raising foreign aid by $20 per person of the receiving country results in a permanent increase in the growth rate of real GDP per capita by approximately 0. 16 per cent. Using an alternative foreign-aid measure, a permanent increase in aid by 1 per cent of the receiving economies GDP permanently raises the per capita growth rate by 0. 14 to 0. 26 per cent. Wangwe (2009) states that a survey of three generations of empirical work found a consistent pattern of results. It found that aid increases aggregate savings, aid increases investment and there is a positive relationship between aid and growth in reduced form models. In Durbarry, Gemmell and Greenaway (2004) results vary according to income level, levels of aid allocation and geographical location. They report a positive coefficient on foreign aid as defined by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (FAIDOECD) in 1993 as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP), significant at 10%. Point estimates indicate that raising the aid/GDP (or domestic savings/GDP) ratio by one percentage point raises the growth rate by about 0. 10 percentage points. Finally, adopting an alternative measure of foreign aid – aid per capita – yields similar results, confirming a positive and significant impact on growth. Panel data also yields similar results. And lastly according to Neanidis and Varvarigos (2005), on the one hand, devoting aid inflows into productive public spending promotes growth while the related volatility has a damaging effect. On the other hand, the non-productive use of aid transfers has an adverse effect on growth while their volatility is growth-enhancing. They proffer that the general onclusion emerging from their analysis can be summarized as follows: when aid is used productively (unproductively) it has, on average, a positive (negative) effect on growth while its respective volatility has a negative (positive) growth effect. Our results propose that recipient countries should allocate the aid they receive on the most productive uses, while donors should make sure that aid provision is the least erratic p ossible. 2. 10 DEFINITION OF TERMS Economic growth: For the purpose of this study, economic growth will be represented by the annual Gross Domestic Product at current factor cost. Labour force: Labour in this context consists of the number of people aged 15 and over who are employed (that is those who currently have jobs). Individuals who do not fall into either of these groups such as the unemployed, retired people and discouraged workers are not included in the calculation of the labour force. Unemployment: The International Labour Organization (ILO) defines unemployment as the proportion of the labour force which was available for work but did not work for at least one hour in the week preceding the survey period. However, the definition used here is that of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Nigeria. The NBS defines unemployment as the proportion of the labour force that is available for work but did not work for at least 39 hours in the week preceding the survey period. Foreign Aid: is the economic help provided to communities of countries due to the occurrence of a humanitarian crisis or for the achievement of a socioeconomic objective. Foreign direct investment (FDI): FDI is an investment in real assets where real assets consist of physical things such as factories, land, capital goods, infrastructure and inventories. CHAPTER THREE THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND METHODOLOGY . 1INTRODUCTION The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between foreign aid and economic growth in Nigeria. This section starts with a theoretical framework then continues with a description of the model to be used for quantitative analysis. The regression is run using Ordinary least squares technique. The theoretical framework of this study is taken from theories, concepts, views and models. 3. 2TH EORETICAL FRAMEWORK This study uses the theoretical framework employed by Ogbuaku, Adebisi and Feridun (2006) based on the neoclassical growth model by Barro (1991). It is based on a small open economy version of the Solow (1956)-Swan (1956) growth model. The decision to study foreign aid in an open economy, as opposed to a closed, is three fold. First, most of the economies that receive foreign aid must reasonably be considered small and open. Second, to the extent that international credit markets are imperfect, some forms of foreign aid can have a positive impact on the poor. Third, in our empirical work we provide statistical evidence to suggest that greater international openness and access to credit stimulates economic growth. The two-gap model can also be employed. The first gap is the gap between the amount of investment necessary to attain a certain growth rate and the available domestic saving. Easterly (2003) examined the investment-savings gap. It goes thus: economic growth depends on investment as a share of GDP, adjusted by a factor that reveals whether investment is of high or poor quality. The amount of investment will be the sum of domestic savings and foreign aid. The model of the â€Å"financing gap† approach thus makes two key assumptions. First, it assumes the above stable linear relationship between investment and growth over the short to medium run. This assumption grows out of a Leontief-style production function with fixed requirements for capital and labour per unit of output. A second key assumption of the model in which aid fills a financing gap and allows greater investment is that aid will actually finance investment rather than consumption. This assumption will hold true only if investment is liquidity-constrained and incentives to invest were favourable. If the cause of low investment is due to poor incentives to invest, then aid will not increase investment. (Easterly, 2003) . 3 RESTATEMENT OF RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS H0: Foreign aid has no significant impact on the reduction of poverty and hence the economic growth of Nigeria. H1: Foreign aid has a significant impact on the reduction of poverty and the economic growth of Nigeria. 3. 4 RESEARH DESIGN 3. 4. 1MODEL SPECIFICATION This study uses the theoretical framework employed by Ogbuaku, Adebisi and Feridun (2006) based on the neoclassical growth model by Barro (1991). The y specify a simple model of poverty and globalization as follows: POV  =     ? 0+1 ? TRADE+ ? FDI+  µÃ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦(1) This model is augmented to include the foreign aid element thus: POV =      ? 0+ ? 1TRADE+ ? 2FDI + ? 3AID+  µÃ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦(2) Where POV is the yearly average per capita income trade is import + export /gdp fdi is foreign direct investment aid is foreign aid  µ is the stochastic error term 2. SOURCES OF DATA The analysis will be based on time series data of AID, TRADE, FDI and POV for the Nigerian economy for the period 1981 – 2007. These are secondary data collected from publications of Central Bank of Nigeria such as statistical bulletin and annual reports. 4. METHOD OF DATA ANALYSIS As stated in the introduction to this study, the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) method of regression analysis is used in this research work. The OLS is one of the most commonly employed and most important methods in estimating relationships in econometrics. Furthermore, to contain the problems associated with time series data, a unit root test; the Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test, is employed to test for stationarity. Other methods applied include Johansen co-integration and error correction model. 3. 5. 1Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test Augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) test is used to test the stationarity in time series. Stationarity refers to the constancy in mean and variance of time series over a period of time. This will enable us to know if there is co-movement in time series in long run equilibrium. It is the augmented version of the Dickey-Fuller test for a larger and more complicated set of time series model. Stationarity test reveals the presence or absence of random-walk (unit root) in regression analysis. If the time series are non-stationary it means that our regression is spurious and as such estimates cannot be used to predict future values. The time series can then be adjusted in order to make them stationary. The augmented Dickey-Fuller (ADF) statistic used in the test is a negative number. The more negative it is, the stronger the rejections of the hypothesis that there is a unit root at some level of confidence. 3. 5. 2Johansen Co-integration This especially has been developed to overcome the problems of spurious regression which is associated with non-stationary time series data, in such instances, econometric results may not be ideal for policy making. The theory of co-integration arises out of the need to integrate short run dynamics with long run equilibrium. In cases where the data series exhibit the presence of unit roots, short-run dynamics properties of the model can only be captured in an error correction model when the existence of co-integration has been established. On this note, if variable are co-integrated, it shows that such variable possess the capacity to reach equilibrium in the long run. 5. LIMITATIONS TO THE STUDY Using economic growth as a measure of the influence of foreign aid on poverty in Nigeria assumes that there is adequate distribution of wealth in the Nigerian economy such that gains in economic output is transmitted to poor areas. It is possible that this is not the case. In addition, it is necessary to note that the use of regression techniques always comes with limitations. The first is the common warning that correlation does not mean causation. Therefore, even if a relationship is established between the examined variables, this does not guarantee that the occurrence of one necessitates the occurrence of the other. CHAPTER FOUR EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS AND PRESENTATION OF DATA 4. 1 INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the statistical data gathered during the course of this research work is subjected to investigation and analysis. The chapter starts with the brief explanation of various criteria for decision making, followed by the analysis of the static regression equation. In order to test for the presence of unit root (i. e. , spuriousness) in the static regression equation, stationarity test would be conducted using Augmented Dickey Fuller Test (ADF), while co-integration test using Johansen Co-integration test would also be conducted in order to establish the long-run co-movement among the variables. Finally, the error correction model will be used to test the relationships between the variables. . DECISION MAKING CRITERIA The following criteria for decision making are used in the analysis. Coefficient of determination (R2): The R-squa