Animal Ethics and Environmental Ethics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Animal Ethics and Environmental Ethics - Essay Example There are two model approaches, through which the environmental ethics conception of wild animals is viewed. Both approaches place attention on the problems facing the endangered species, though they advocate for different rationales, in the area of giving animals preference, as opposed to the protection of the ecosystem at their detriment. First: is the anthropocentric view to wild animals, which seeks to guard endangered species from the destructive activities of humans. The second approach is the eco-centric model, which places attention upon the existence and the effects of wild animals, within the intrinsically valuable ecosystem (Des Jardins, 1993, p. 4-6). Discussion The key problem with adopting a perspective, which is informed, primarily, by intrinsic environmental ethics is that, such an approach, fails to fully consider the sentience of the wild animals benefitting from the ecosystem. The concept of consciousness or sentience is based on the fact that their interests shoul d be felt and perceived. Through failing to adequately recognize the sentience of these creatures, for instance, the kangaroos, the policy and laws in operation pay insufficient regard to the ethical needs of kangaroos as conscious beings. However, the notion that there is a conflict between animal rights and environmental ethics chiefly relies on a number of misconceptions about these animals and their effects on the ecosystem. For instance, in the case of the kangaroos, the misconceptions are evident, in the conception of their impacts in the areas of total grazing demands, populations, and sheep replacement. As evidence, Fisher Et al (2003, p. 1801-1808) argues that the effect of Kangaroos is immense on rangelands environs, where pressure on grazing land is evident. This is a misconception, mainly because the pressure on grazing land is not caused by kangaroos alone, but other animals like sheep as well (Des Jardins, 1993, p. 19-21). The moral status of animals is one major quest ion in this debate, mainly because; the question of the distinctiveness of humans, which earns them moral status is raised – and not that of the non-human entities in question. Answering this question is of great importance, among philosophers and the defenders of the rights of animals. In part, answering this question will aid humans to better understand the nature of human beings and the rightful scope of the moral obligations of humans. Some proponents of the debate argue that answering this question will help distinguish the value of humans as opposed to that of other parties of the natural world. However, this approach is considerably aimed at propagating the rightfulness of certain human activities towards the non-human creatures – especially, those that cause discomfort, suffering, pain and death to these entities. The other group – on the other hand – is of the opinion that answering the question will help humans justify granting moral considerati on to these nonhuman entities, namely animals and plant life. This is based on the philosophical consideration that despite the differences between humans and nonhuman animals; these differences do not justify denying these nonhuman entities moral consideration. However, the basis of moral considerati

Write a feature article about Travel, great places to go to in the Essay

Write a feature article about Travel, great places to go to in the world, Muslim woman in different countries, comparing different cultures to Saudi - Essay Example Today, global economic organisations and institutions have come up with several laws and regulations that have made the cross-border transfer of people from one place to another, which used to be very difficult in the time past very easy and simple now. Because of this, a lot more people are now able to travel easily to other places regardless of cultural or religious differences. Having established the point that cross-border traveling has now been made simple, the next aspect of discussion to look at is the choice of place to visit. Without any doubt, there are several excellent places a person may choose to visit for whatever leisured intentions the person may have. Most of these places are major cities of the world and they offer almost everything that makes a person’s stay away from home a memorable one. Talk of natural land sites, sports events and infrastructure, education and academic excellence, cultural integration, economic enhancement, historical symbolism, architectural innovations and technological advancements: there are countless number of cities to visit to have a feel of all these. Happily, each continent in this world can boast of a number of cities and countries that will readily give a person all of such travel expectations. The freedom to travel and abundance of choice notwithstanding, there are a number of factors that really aff ect the conduct of a particular traveller to and from different places of the world. One of such factors is religious and moral differences. A typical case can be given with Muslim women who may want to travel to some of the world’s most renowned destination. Making Europe the first point of call, one place that cannot be left out as an exquisite destination is Madrid. Sabina (2011) notes that ‘’the city of Madrid is located in the Community of Madrid (La Comunidad de Madrid). Â   The Community of Madrid is located almost exactly in the centre of Spain.’’ This is a

Political Power Essay Example for Free

Political Power Essay Power could be defined as â€Å"the ability to bring about change† according to Beyond intractability. Org website (http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/Power/). Power is the ability to influence the behavior of the others so as to make them do what one wants.   It entails authority and control.   Thus political power is the authority to control a society. Political power can be manipulated leading to negative use by the person or people holding it.   There are many bad uses of political power that can result from holding of the power by an irresponsible person. Such negative uses include dictatorship, corruption and oppression of the society.   Political power can also be used positively to bring benefit to the society. Political power can be used to foster development, to maintain peace and also to protect the society from external threats of invasion.   Despite the various harsh negative uses of political power, the positive uses shows that political power does not always lead to negative outcomes.   Political power can be effectively used to bring a lot of benefits to the society. Political power can be used to perpetrate corruption. People holding much political power can use it inappropriately to engage in corruption. This is particularly possible when much of the power is vested on a few individuals and there is no evaluation or a watchdog on how this power is used.   When they get enticed to use it for their personal gain at the expense of the society for which they are supposed to care. Corruption is abuse of office or power by a person so as he can benefit.   Corruption can take many forms all leading to great injustices to the society.   When political officers get into office, they do so promising the society that they will serve the interest of the society before their own personal gains.   However, after gaining political power they uphold their personal gain.   This can be done through misappropriation of funds whereby the offices holding the power spends public funds in a way that do not bring benefits to the society.   Example of misappropriation of funds may entail starting of projects that are not necessary to the society or buying luxurious facilities for their use at the expense of other more necessary facilities. Corruption can also be in the form of embezzlement o f public funds.   The political officers may use their power to get access to money belonging to the public through public corporations and use it for their own personal interests.   Facilities of such corporation can be wrongly used to serve the officer’s personal interests instead of their official use. Such actions lead to poor performance of such corporation leading to difficulties in meeting the essential needs of the society.   If funds belonging to a government institution, for example, a hospital are embezzled by a few officers, it means the hospital is not able to offer the services it is supposed to offer efficiently.   This will lead to great suffering of the members of the society which depend on such public facilities.   It is also very unfair to the society as they pay taxes so that they government can offer such services Corruption can also take the form of bribery.   This is mostly an administrative form of corruption but can be perpetrated by political officers also.   This involves the political officers asking for bribes from the members of society or organization so as they can be offered certain services. The is bribes may range from small gifts to massive amounts of money.   This form of corruption means the members of society are not able to get services without parting with other resources.   It also means there is segregation of some of the members of the society as, if they fail to raise the required bribes, they don’t get access to the resources they need. Corruption can also lead to extortion.   This entails use of political power by the political officers to obtain something by illegal threats.   The political officers may acquire interests in certain things or organization though issuing threats or force. Corruption has various costs to a country. If corruption is predominant in a country all the members of society are affected in one way or another.   The wealth of such a country is significantly affected leading to decrease in income.   The economy in a very corrupt state will be poor and businesses will not operate efficiently.   Consequently, the national income goes down affecting the ability of the government to offer essential services to the citizens.   This will inform produce a society with high rates of illiteracy and poverty. In the animal farm Napoleon used his political power to instigate corruption. He changed the rules from what had been collectively agreed to what suited his rule. He also used the dogs to threaten any other animal that opposed his rule. Napoleon and the other pigs also used the property of the farm for their own use which the other animals had not agreed upon. Another negative use of political power is establishment of dictatorship rule. Dictatorship is whereby the country is controlled by one or a few individuals who have absolute power.   Their rule is not limited by anyone, buy law constitution or social justices.   They do what they want. To gain dictatorship political officers use the little political power they have to gain more political power and later dictatorship. This is possible through oppression of nay efforts that try to limit their power.   This may include execution of people who take the bold steps of openly opposing the rule of these political powers. Dictators take control of all the operations of power in the country and personalize the rule. The dictatorship may also regulate all the actions by the citizens of a country and directs these actions against the will or consent of the citizens. Dictatorships are influenced by different factors that lead the political rules to misuse their political powers and establish dictatorships.   There are many countries that have been ruled by dictators or are still ruled by dictators.   An example of dictatorship is Stalinism which was a regime established by Joseph Stalin who lived between 1878 and 1953 in United Social Soviet Republic.   He was a dictator party leader whose tenure and campaigns costed lives of millions of people.   His rule had big negative impacts on USSR but also transformed it from a peasant society to an industrial nation http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSstalin.htm). In George Orwell’s book (1996), the Animal Farm he depicts how people struggle collectively to oust bad rule but after gaining control, the few who are trusted with the political power misuse it and establishes an autocratic form of rule whereby they dictate on all the others. The pigs in the story, after chasing the oppressive farmer, took control of the farm and established a rule that oppressed the other animals.   The animals that questioned the rule were mistreated or executed (Orwell 1996). Napoleon used mudslinging to destroy the reputation of Snowball and later chased him from the farm. These represent how people who oppose a dictator are exiled after being falsely accused. This is typical of many African and Asian countries whereby after gaining independence form colonialism, the leaders who were trusted with political power went ahead to establish dictatorship.   Other examples of dictators include Idd Amin of Uganda, Hu Chi Minh of North Vietnam and Saddam Hussein of Iraq. Oppression of citizens and social injustices is another form of negative use of political power.   In this case, the leaders vested with political power bends the rules, and perpetrate actions that lead to oppression of citizens and social injustices.   The law or the constitution is not followed and injustice becomes inaccessible to the society. In political system where citizen are oppressed and social injustice are rife, a few people control all the branches of government. Though the legislative, executive and judiciary branches of the government may seem independent, this few individuals use their political powers to influence the operations of all these branches.   This results to much suffering of the citizens and as the justice system are faulty the citizen lack a forum through which their injustices can be addressed. In modern society this can be done through practices like imposition of rules that are aimed at oppressing the citizens, coercion to the citizens to carry out certain actions and even detention of some prominent people.   The individuals who do not support the action of those with the political power are mistreated, detained or exiled. In the Animal farm, George Orwell depicts how this is done when the pigs after assuming the leadership of the other animals change the rules and uses their power to mistreat, overwork, starve and oppress the other animals (Orwell 1996). Napoleon sold off one of the animals after he became old and less productive. This was an act of betrayal and oppression of the animal as he had also taken part in the fight for their independence. Political power can also be used for the benefits of the society. There are many countries that have benefited from positive use of the political powers to the benefit of the society.   One way political power can be used positively is fostering development can greatly be encouraged through use of political power to create the right environment for development.   Political powers can be used to enact laws, policies and strategies that are aimed at fostering development.   As the political systems influence much of the economic systems in a country, positive use of the political power can lead to positive influence on the economy of a country. The leaders vested with political power can use this pioneer to help enact laws or policies that will encourage investment and expansion of the economy.   This may be in the form of providing incentives to investors building effective infrastructures or providing a conducive environment for the economy to flourish.   In the animal farm the decision to build the windmill was a good idea aimed at bringing development in the farm and comfort to the animals (Orwell 1996). United States is a country that has massive political power that is used to foster developments. The country has a free market economy with policies encouraging conducive running of the economy.   A country like Japan has used their political power to build good infrastructures that facilitate expansion of their economy. Another positive use of political power is maintenance of peace. Political power can be effectively used to maintain peace and order in the country.   As peace is very crucial for co-existence and development in a country such use of political power can lead to great benefits to the country.   The political leaders can use their authority and influence in the society they rule to encourage and foster good co-existence between the citizens.    Political powers are needed to ensure that this happens.   The leader will use their authority to maintain order in the society and make sure that no one single citizen engages in practices that infringe the rights of others.   Laws are enacted to guide the actions of the citizens and certain strategies are taken to make sure that the laws are followed.   Political power is used to establish such a system. In Orwell’s Animal Farm the animal had collaborated to come up with rules that were aimed at maintaining good co-existence among the animals (Orwell 1996). This is done through establishment of a police force that maintains law and order and enactment of a court system that ensures that those who defy the rules are punished or forced to obey. Political power also establishes the judicial system that offers a forum through which the citizens can have their rights enforced.   All these actions bring peace by ensuring all the citizens get their rights and live harmoniously. Another positive use of political power is protection of the country from invasion. Political power is used in establishment of strategies of ensuring that a country is protected from external invasion.   This will ensure that the country is safe from threats and can concentrate on development. Political power can be utilized in different ways to protect a country from external attacks.   First the political leader can use their power and authority to help and lead in formation of policies aimed at protecting the country from possible attacks.   These policies may include security measures aimed at preventing such attacks.   The political powers can also establish armed forces that will maintain the security of the country and defend it in case of any external attacks. Weapons can also be acquired either through manufacturing or purchase form other countries aiming at providing a security measure to prevent or defend an attack.   Political leaders can also use their authority to established partnerships links with other countries aimed at fostering co-operation thus minimizing threat of attack from those countries.   These co operations may also be used as partners in maintenance of the peace of the country.   Such partners will collaborate in case of an attack or in strategies aimed at minimizing possibilities of an attack. In Orwell’s Animal Farm he depicted good use of political power when the animals united in their fight against Mr. Jones, the earlier owner of the farm. Because of this unity they were able to defeat Mr. Jones (Orwell 1996). Political leaders can use their authority to influence the practices of their country so as to prevent any actions that may trigger attacks from other countries.   Such actions may include neutrality in conflicts involving other parties. Countries in Europe have formed the European Union aimed at co-operation and collaboration in different issues.   This union unites the country hence minimizing the possibility of attack of one country by another.   There are many such unions that have been formed for such purposes including organization for economic co-operation and development (OECD) and the African Union (AU). Other countries in Europe and other places have formed NATO which is aimed at collaboration to prevent attacks form other countries.   All these efforts are aimed at protection of the individual countries and are established by political powers Political power can be used to instigate very bad and harmful activities in a country such as corruption, dictatorship and oppression of citizens. These activities lead to a lot of suffering and deterioration of economies of such countries.   However, political power can also be used to establish policies and practices for the benefit of a country. Political power is a key ingredient for development, peace and safety of a country.   Actually for country to be successful it must have a good and strong political powers that will help instigate the success.   Ã‚  Thus, it is evidence that political power does not always lead to negative outcomes.   It can be used effectively to produce many benefits to a society. Reference: Beyondintractability.org. Power. Retrieved on February 6, 2008 from http://www.beyondintractability.org/essay/Power/ Orwell G. (1996).Animal Farm. New York; New American Library. Spartacus educational. Joseph Stalin. Retrieved on February 6, 2008 from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/RUSstalin.htm

The International Air Transport Association Tourism Essay

The International Air Transport Association Tourism Essay Another article written by the International Air Transport Authority states that some airlines have started to see some stabilization in the business and the first class sectors of the airlines. These are the most profitable sectors for an airline.however it is pertinent to note here that not all airline have been as lucky and thus some airline are still facing a loss on these sectors as well. For the other airline which are seeing stabilization, these sectors are back up and running because of the fact that the economic crisis is now improving and slowly people are returning back to their normal lives and businesses have stabilized and thus they are back to doing business as they were before the crisis took place a few years ago in the world. World trade has thus become essential once again and the companies are now slowly allowing their employees to start spending extravagantly as well. Business class has not recovered fully either on the other hand. Passengers who used to fly these classes now resort to flying economy or taking budget airlines. This is due to the new reforms that some companies have come up with restricting the use of the high end seats by its employees in an effort to save up on the money. Economy class passengers who were the tourist class passengers have not fully come back to their original number however. As the majority of the revenue on a flight does come from the economy class, airlines are starting to feel the effects of decline of passengers now. When on certain routes the economy class used to go packed, it is now seeing empty seats as well and empty seats are causing the airlines problems and thus the management of the airlines are considering alternative strategies to deal with these seats. The strategies include offering special last minute deals on seats and thus earning something in comparison to having nothing when a seat goes empty on a flight. The article further goes on to state that as a result of all of the above, passengers numbers are now being stabilized at the expense of much lower yields for the airlines now as airlines are trying to boost up their cash flows now. Having the financial independence is necessary for airlines in order to remain afloat thus they need to take a profit that is lower than that they would normally be receiving just to remain afloat. Times are hard for the airlines but they realize that without this they will not be able to survive and thus will see their precious consumer base going to other airlines in the market.  [ii]   This article written by Jones (2012) states that at a time when the airline industry was booming, many airlines had made their future expansion and growth plans according to this. However after the global financial crisis, airlines had to cut back on their plans in order to remain afloat. Airlines used many techniques to cut back on these plans. Airlines which had ordered planes in advance to cope with the demand that had been increasing over the last few years had to cancel their orders and thus face losses with that as well. Airlines which had merged with other airlines in order to cope with the demand were not regretting this decision as it was becoming too expensive to cope with these expenses in the prevalent economic conditions. Airplanes were being sold off as well. An example can be that of Lufthansa which added 50% more capacity in 2007 in order to cope with the increasing demand but only added 2.3% capacity in 2012. This has shown that there is a downward trend in the increasing world market and that has actually crippled the airline industry. Airlines have also had to retire their older fleet of aircrafts as well in order to cut back on their losses. International routes have been hit the hardest as these were the routes which generated the most profitability for these airlines. The airlines have shrunk their size and laif off their employees as well in order to cope with the decreasing demand for these routes. Many routes have also been scrapped by these airlines as now some routes are not generating the profitability that once was generated and some are even running on loss. This has also resulted in airlines reducing frequency of their flights. This all has an impact on the airline profitability and thus they are now having lower profitability. Feeder airlines have also impacted the profitability of the larger airlines as they were the ones who used to transport people to the major airports from where larger airlines used to operate to the long haul destinations. These feeder airlines have reduced their frequency and some routes have also been closed down thus hampering the profitability of the larger airlines on the long haul routes. Given these changes their has been an immense price competition in the market as well which has resulted in airlines offering cheaper tickets in order to grab the maximum passenger load.  [iii]   Business and first class travel have been the airlines prize possession and they have counted on these seats for they are the ones that achieve maximum profitability for an airline. These seats used to be fully booked well in advance and were typically booked by business travellers. These seats are now going empty a lot of the time as there has been a decrease in the passenger revenues and thus these seats are the ones that once used to bring in a lot of profitability for the company but now are becoming a source of loss for airlines in the economic downturn. Business class and first class passengers are now shifting to cheaper alternatives, like flying in Economy class or shifting to other modes of transportation like the train and even not flying at times and resorting to modern technology like video conferencing in order to cut back costs which are associated with the premier class travel which is expensive. This has impacted the European market the most as the level of business confidence has gone down considerably and thus has proven to have very small increase chances in Europe. However, it is noted that the fluctuation is not consistent and can bounce back as well. However if it does not bounce back it can also spread to other markets as well and thus also hamper profitability. This article highlights the reasons for the decline in PIA air travel which is ultimately affecting the profitability of the airline. there are many reasons given for the decline and all of them are related to PIA in terms of the way the airline is being currently run and thus are not related to the workings of the airlines who are also being faced with this problem as well. One of the major issues faced by PIA is the devaluation of the rupee. PIA suffers high losses due to the exchange rate fluctuations. This devaluation of the rupee has thus led the airline to experience losses even in 2012. Many of the purchases are made in US Dollars are thus the rupee has depreciated and thus the airline is now suffering losses as steps were not taken in advance to solve this problem. The article goes on to say that the airline has also had to deal with the fuel price risk as well however In 2012 the price of the fuel has declined by 8%. The fluctuations in fuel prices has thus led to losses being incurred by PIA as they were not able to protect themselves against this fluctuation. Other airlines have protected themselves by adopting many techniques like purchasing fuel in advance at pre determined rates and thus avoiding the fluctuations that were happening in the international airline market and thus avoiding the problems which were being faced by airlines all over the world as well. Its own internal problems have also led to the profits being decreased as well. This is majorly due to the internal inefficiencies of the airline and the unstable operating performance of PIA well. However recently due to the change in the management the airline has been able to bounce back a bit and improve its European operations as well considerably but it will take more than that in order to improve the condition of the airline. policies also need to be formulated which will help the airline run properly and thus avoid losses. Experienced personnel need to be brought in to take care of this problem. PIA needs to have a long term strategy which it needs to follow in order to improve the profitability and the image of the airline. only by having a long term strategy will PIA be able to protect itself from the changing patterns in the market and thus avoid making losses in the long term as well. Thus it can be said that a long term strategy is something that is needed but is lacking currently in PIA.  [iv]   An article written by IATA(2012) states that the jet fuel prices have also been a reason for the high increase in airline tickets. This has led to the passengers sales declining. The jet fuel prices have risen at a time when there is an economic meltdown and thus passengers have already been forced to reduce their expenditures and this increase has further led them to not travel on airlines thus hampering their profitability. Airlines have not been able to hedge themselves against this fuel rise and that is why many airlines have had to suffer losses and also face decrease in passengers as well. Very few airlines were able to hedge against the rise in fuel prices which have saved them from facing such losses. Other airlines have continued to face losses with the increase in jet fuel prices. PIA has not been able to do so and thus they have lost out on passenger revenues on long haul flights. The management does not have a long term strategy to deal with the rise in fuel prices and thus hedge from it either in any possible way that will help it minimize the losses being faced by the airline. Airlines have also not had the breathing space to adapt to these changes as the changes in the price of jet fuel has increased steadily. Owing to this IATA has spotted a decrease in the industry profits and weak traffic volumes as well. The price of the jet fuel will also determine how the airlines operate in order to best address this situation they are facing. They may need to re think their routes and perhaps even cancel some routes as well. Restructuring will also take place.  [v]   An article written by Hafeez UdDin(2012) states that as PIA is an airline which does not have many international agreements with other airlines, that is why passengers choose not to fly PIA. in this day and age, airlines have contracts with many airlines in order to facilitate the passengers so they can connect on to their destinations with another airline if a particular airline does not fly to a particular destination. Code sharing has become essential now a days and thus is proving to be useful for many airlines in order to improve their profits as well as their image as it really helps facilitate the passengers travelling with one particular airline. However with PIA, they do not offer many options to passengers who need to connect at an airport to another airline. that is one of the core reasons why passengers then choose to fly airlines other than PIA and thus the demand for long haul flights with PIA decreases as well. In Pakistan, there has been a lack of tourism owing to the current conditions of the country. There has been terrorism, political instability, viral outbreaks and acts of violence as well which have caused the condition of Pakistan to deteriorate. This reason has also caused the aviation industry in Pakistan to suffer as well. People feel insecure about travelling to Pakistan that is why the Pakistani tourism industry has decreased considerably. Owing to this people are not willing to travel to Pakistan in order to sight see as much as they once used to at a point in time. Even Pakistani people who reside abroad are a bit reluctant to come to Pakistan and that is why the passenger sales on long haul flights has also decreased as well as the EXPATS were the ones who used to travel on PIA long haul flights the most as well. The reason listed above show why there has been a decline in the sales of PIA long haul routes. Being the national airline of a country that is plagued with these problems is one of the reasons why PIA has been losing out on sales. However, it is not the only reason.  [vi]   According to an article published by IATA (2012), Airlines around the world have devised a new strategy in order to cope with the changing trends in the international market. These airlines are now aware of the impact of the global crisis and are thus adopting new strategies in order to effectively target that segment who has been impacted by it. The effective implementation of this strategy has led them to regain their market share and thus avoid making losses which were going to be inevitable owing to the changing market trends. It is of most importance to note here that the consumers who travel on airlines will not be the ones to change. It is the airline which has to change their strategy in order to effectively cope with the consumers and their varying trends. Airlines have thus adopted new strategies to deal with this. Some new ways of doing it are by offering loyalty programs with added benefits. The other is by cutting on the expenses which an airline were incurring in order to satisfy their customers like providing a meal on board. Even though meals are still provided by the airlines on long haul flights, those meals are then prepared by contractors who charge the airline less for the food. This in turn helps reduce the cost of the ticket. Airlines have also resorted to using the low key airports to operate their flights which have less taxes etc. this means a lower cost ticket for the consumer. All of this eventually leads to lower priced tickets which is what in reality the consumer wants and thus t he airlines needto give them. However the airlines have also taken quite a large dip out of their profits in order to provide them with this. Airlines that are not using strategies like these mentioned above are the ones that are incurring losses on their flights. Passengers will continue to move to other airlines as they feel that those airlines are more suited to their needs and are thus a more viable option for them. Thus this will result in the airlines making more losses and losing out on the market share that is important to them.  [vii]   This articles states that people are very conscious of the things they use these days. People want value for their money and as the competition is immense these days the consumers are spoilt in terms of choice and thus they will very easily switch brands in order to gain something. This shows that there is very little brand loyalty left in consumers. This is also applicable to airlines as well. Airlines need to remain on top of the game in order to deal with the competition they are facing. Every particular aspect needs to be taken into consideration as it can be any factor that changes the mind of the consumer. Many airlines think that things like inflight entertainment are not important factors but the reality is that they are of importance especially on long haul flights. Passengers do give importance to them and thus the consumers believe that these are the aspects which are really important to them Failing to take these into account are the reasons why some airlines are now facing losses. These airlines are also facing consumer shifts to other airlines as well hence steps need to be taken to curb this. An article written by the centre of aviation(2012) states that the problems faced by the airlines are obvious but the successful implementation of a strategy are proving to be problematic. Many airlines face the issues of government intervention. This ultimately leads to a greater time for approving any changes that need to take place as many people/authorities need to approve of the changes before they can be implemented. By the time the strategy is actually implemented, it is too late as the airline is also facing losses owing to the loss in time that the airline faced while getting the approval for the changes that they wanted to the airline. Given the limited finances available to these airlines as well, growth may peak at one time but the financial recovery is slow. This ultimately leads to the unability to raise capital for the airlines. And given the global economy, banks are also reluctant to give out loans as well as they are uncertain of the future in this day and age which leads to financing problems for the airlines. With lack of financing available, airlines thus resort to leasing aircrafts instead of purchasing them. This in the long run is not profitable for the airline. The management of the airline also needs to take into account the micro issues that the airline is facing. Many a times the management aims at solving the macro issues which at the given time appear to be larger but the micro issues are also very important in the running of an airline. these are the issues which need to solved as well because a pile up of these issues will ultimately result in the airline suffering from losses if these issues are not addressed as well as the macro issues as well. Thus an environment needs to be set up where all the problems can be tackled.  [viii]   The article written by Houriani(2012) states that the airline industry is being faced by an excess capacity. This is basically derived from underutilized planes which ultimately lead to an increase in competition. Airlines are facing cut throat competition and because of this the airlines have had to deal with many problems. The operational costs of actually running an airline are increasing and as a result of this airlines are not making that much profits as they once used to. The airline is not passing on the excess costs on to the consumers in fear of losing out on the consumers. This also related with the inflation which is taking place leads the airlines in a very uncomfortable position. Airlines which are in trouble have had to take drastic steps in order to actually live through this. They have had to merge with other airlines and thus resort to compromising on many things. Another thing which the airlines have had to do is join strategic alliances. Joining these alliances have kept the airlines afloat in one way as it means that the consumer powers have gone down and thus the members of strategic alliances have more control thus allowing them to incur less losses as well in these troubling times. The case of operational costs further split into fixed costs and variable costs particularly on long haul flights also needs to be taken into consideration. The airlines are faced with intense inflation which is happening and thus owing to that the fixed costs are rising and the airlines are trying very hard to curb their variable costs so that their expenditures do not increase by that big of a margin. However the variable costs that the airline is now cutting down on are the costs which create a deep and meaningful relation with the customers. Examples of this can be the frequent flyer programs and the lounges that the airlines operate. However, these are the costs that the customers care about the most and thus that eventually leads to the customer base diminishing.  [ix]   An article written by Thompson (2009) states that long haul flights were once an airlines main source of income. Revenue earned from these were greater in comparison to the revenues earned by other flights operated by an airline which were termed as short haul flights. However in this day and age, passengers have been spoilt for choice. Many passengers prefer having layovers in other cities which lets them relax and thus does not prove to be tedious for them either. However, this has not been fared well with the airlines. This has ultimately resulted in lower profits for them. Airlines have taken this change in customer patterns to their advantage. Many airlines now allow their passengers to have a break in many cities before continuing on with their journeys. Many airlines also offer tourism services as well in many cities which ultimately allows the passenger to see the city they are stopping over in. this allows the passenger to book tourism services with the same airline and thus can be less stressful for the passenger and possibly also more cheaper as well for the passengers. This change of pattern has let the airlines branch out into many other services as well which ultimately allows them to have more than one source of income. This has led them to increase their income which is beneficial for the airline. They realized that the passenger patterns have changed and thus aligned themselves with those changing trends. Airlines which have adopted this technique are more profitable than those airlines who have not done so and thus still suffer from making low profits or even losses. Airlines which have not adapted themselves to the changes in the passenger patterns have ultimately lost out on profits and thus they are seeing that the travelling passenger loads have thus shifted to other airlines. This ultimately leads to passengers preferring one airline over the other and thus creating strong loyalties with the airline that best suits their needs. In the long run this is not good for an airline as it leads to the company losing out on its precious consumer base. It is important for an airline to change itself with the changing passenger trends as that is what it is about at the end of the day. Airlines can not stick to their own agenda and not worry about what the travelling passengers want because at the end of the day the passengers are the ones who bring income to the company so their likes and preferences also need to be taken into consideration.  [x]   An article written by Paylor (2005) states that airlines now a days are operating at a capacity that is larger than required. These airlines tend to have excess fleets, larger number of employees and overall are using resources that are not required. Owing to these excess utilization of resources, airlines are now being faced with the problem of incurring losses repeatedly. The losses can be cut down and hence the profitability of these airlines can be improved if various techniques are implemented to cut down on the expenses incurred by these airlines. Airlines feel that they need to have a larger fleet size in order to cater to the global market. Purchasing or even the leasing of aircrafts is expensive hence airlines incur losses. One way for airlines to reduce the losses is to cut down on the flights which they operate. As many of their flights are going with empty seats especially on long haul routes, airlines should thus resort to cancelling flights and filling the load of empty planes on other planes. This can only happen if airlines cancel their scheduled flights and then operate only on those flights which they have full capacity. This way they will be able to minimize the losses incurred and thus will have more profitability as well. The case of an airline is given where the airline should operate one larger aircraft instead of multiple smaller aircrafts and this will prove to be a more viable option for these airlines as they will be able to fill the larger aircraft with the same number of passengers as the smaller aircrafts. This will ultimately result in a lesser loss for the company as the airline will not have to incur the costs of fuel or employee salary on both aircrafts. Thus this is a useful technique. Hence airlines can benefit from employing a strategy which will help minimize the losses incurred by the airline so that the financial position of the airline can be improved. This strategy needs to be employed so that the airline can benefit from the advantages that are derived from it. the advantages of the strategy will help improve the workings of the business and thus allow them to regain some things like the improved profitability and the internal management workings of the company. This will ultimately help the airline in its operations amongst many other things.  [xi]   This article written by Chiu (2012) states that global inflation along with the global economic crisis is the root cause for the losses that the airlines are making especially on the long haul flights. The profitability of the airlines are under pressure and high oil prices are escalating the problems the airlines are currently being faced with in this economic crisis for the last couple of years. Even freight has been showing a low trend and at one time the demand for this way very high but over the last few years this has been been showing a fall as the international market has been slowing down as well. In this condition, many airlines have no choice but to downsize. The first half of this years results have proven to not be good and thus the airlines have had to resort to taking appropriate steps to ensure that losses will not be incurred like they were in the first half of the year. Given this not good scenario for airlines, the airlines are now cancelling orders for aircrafts that they have booked and thus losing lots of money on it as well. Moreover the airplane currently in operations in these airlines are being retired from use as well as the airline can not afford to use them anymore. Over all it can be seen that a long term strategy needs to be in place for the airlines to start maxing profits. Firing employees will not solve the problems because the problem is much more than that. Where as that may be a short term solution in order to increase the profits, in the long term this is not a valid solution as the same thing will occur again hence steps need to be taken to avoid that from happening. Thus these airlines need to come up with long term initiatives in order to solve this problem as this is not a small problem but will continue to increase if it is not properly handled to ensure it happens again.  [xii]   The article written by Upadhyay (2012) states that the future for the airline industry in the long term does seem to improve. By 2030 the airline industry should improve its operations and thus the global traffic for airlines will also double that what it is right now. This will help create jobs as well and this will also be beneficial for the economy as well. The global GDP is also expected to rise substantially too. Thus the aviation sector is perceived to be a very successful and integral one as well to the global growth as it will help the global industry in many ways. However currently the market conditions are not ideal for that to happen. Owing ot the tazes imposed by the EU in favour of a creating a cleaner carbon footprint. Other countries are suggesting imposing similar type of taxes on EU airlines. If this is continued it could lead to a global war which is not in favour of anyone. Thus steps need to be taken to take care of this problem as well. Now a days the industrys profitability is precariously balanced on the edge of a knife which shows the fragile state of the industry. It will not take much to push it over and thus steps need to be taken in order to ensure that it is not pushed over to the side which will lead to a loss. Thus steps need to be taken to ensure that there are proper legislations in place which are in favour of all the airlines and thus are not stopping the progress of any one particular airline.  [xiii]   Industry Overview Air travel remains a large and growing industry. It helps increase theinternational investment, world trade, economic growthand tourism and is therefore central to the globalization taking place in many other industries. Transportation sector is most important sector of any economy and aviation industry is major part of this sector.  [xiv]   In the past decade, air travel has grown by 7% per year. Travel for both business and leisure purposes grew strongly worldwide. Scheduled airlines carried 1.5 billion passengers last year.  [xv]   Worldwide, IATA, International Air Transport Association, forecasts air travel to grow by an average 6.6% a year to the end of the decade and over 5% a year from 2000 to 2010. These rates are similar to those of the past ten years. In Europe and North America, where the air travel market is already highly developed, slower growth of 4%-6% is expected. The most dynamic growth is centered on the Asia/Pacific region, where fast-growing trade and investment are coupled with rising domestic prosperity.  [xvi]   In Pakistan the transportation and communication sector holds more than 10% share in GDP (Gross Domestic Production). The aviation industry can affect the other sector of the economy, e.g. the International Trade, tourism and socio-economic condition of the country.   Historically Pakistan International Airline dominates the major portion of aviation industry. The state owned PIAC establish in 1955 to conduct the domestic as well international operations. It enjoys the monopoly until the deregulation of aviation industry.  Ã‚  [xvii]   Pakistan has a limited number of airlines operating in the country and an even more limited number of airlines that provide international destinations as well. PIA being the National Flag Carrier Is the largest airline in Pakistan and is thus offering the largest network in comparison to any other airline in Pakistan. In the international arena, PIA is being faced with intense competition as many International airlines, especially middle eastern airlines are operating in Pakistan on a regular basis and provide flights to destinations that PIA does not. With the advent of these airlines, PIA has faced stiff competition and has thus lost out on passenger revenues as it has done nothing to cater to those problems. If the financials for PIA are looked at, it can be seen that the revenue being generated by international flights is decreasing at an alarming rate over the last few years. This is despite the fact that PIA has introduced new aircrafts for routes such as London, Toronto, New Yo

Animals’ Rights? Essay -- Argumentative Persuasive Essays

Animals’ Rights? Animals flock about nature going on with their daily lives eating, mating, playing, and hiding. â€Å"Hiding from what?† someone might ask. They are hiding from the predators that roam the earth as if it is only theirs to move about freely without respecting the other inhabitants of the earth. These predators are known as humans. Many of these predators have taken the lives of many animals selfishly and disrespectfully. Some animal species have been killed by the hundreds each year, many times for the purpose of putting money in the pocket of the killers. Some animals have been wounded and not retrieved and therefore left to die in agony. This must stop and there are some reasons why. If all of the animals were gone, then they could not reproduce and would not survive as an ongoing species. Humans could not survive without animals for food and shelter. Killing these animal species off without any purpose but for the pleasure of hunting and for the small portion of money earned thereafter. This leads to the belief that a certain amount of respect has been lost for animals. This respect that I am trying to give to the animals is in the sense that humans will do almost anything to ensure that life continues for them for as long and prosperous as possible. Plants will grow back and animals reproduce, but something must exist if it is to reproduce. We as humans do not see this problem. When I speak for the humans I am speaking for the majority of people who do not realize that this is a problem. However, I believe that some do understand the reality behind excessive amounts of hunting. There are those, however, who see nothing except for the animal that stands in fron t of them and the weapon they hold. Those who stan... ...en every year. Hunting them within the set limits has resulted in the decrease of these accidents and it has also regulated the deer population. Without these rules however, animal species are at risk. Humans have become predators of everything that exist. Animal, plants, and the earth are prey for the humans. The amount that the humans use of each has drastically increased. The earth was made for the humans to look after and humans are not doing a very good job of keeping it fit for survival. Of course, not all humans act in this way nor do they believe that this is how the human race has developed. Remember that animals and humans both live on the earth and though it may be human nature to hunt for our survival, over-hunting many of these animals will result in our extinction, especially when many of the animals that we use for food and shelter cease to exist.

How Does William Blake convey his anger in the poem London ? Essay

How Does William Blake convey his anger in the poem London ? The poem 'London' by William Blake, relfects his feelings upon the society that he was living in , and how despreratly it needed help. Blake thought that all of the poverty and misfortune that was happening on the streets were caused by the political opression in London. Blake was angered by what he saw in his homeland as other countries started fighting for their indipendence and equality whilst his country stayed dormant, eventhough he felt that there was a serious need for serious action. Eventhough Blake wasn't a typical romantic writer, he too possesed the same beliefs of fighting for what one believes in, and the urge to be liberated from the opression of society. So, by being a writer of the romantic period, watching a controlled and restricted society not showing an intent to break free and fight against the monarchy, angered him and inspired him to convey his ideas and feelings throuh the poem 'London'. In the poem, Blake travels through London and descibes what he sees. And as a result, he sees a severly opressed society that is caused by the authority, such as royalty and the church. This is as Blake sees that even the 'streets' and the 'thames' are 'chartered' and governed by the authorities. This is furthur emphasised by his repitition of the word 'chartered' which then gives the reader an image of the lack of freedom that the people in London posses as the 'streets' is a metahor for the general public while the 'thames' represents their freedom, this is as rivers are normally associated with free will while the 'streets' are gernerally associated with the lower class in society. So, by describing the streets and the thames ... ...y that the monarcy creates. I feel that the poem 'London' effectively convyed William Blakes anger towards the society and his feelings about it. This is as Blake is awear of everything that goes on in the society, and the poem clearly expresses his repulsiveness towards the political opression imposed by the monarchy. However, Blake does not soley balme the monarcy, but also the people of his country. This is because he saw all the other countries that previously suffered the opression of a monarcy, fight for their rights and equailty. Eventhough the monarcy did impose rules upon society, Blake strongly believed that people could overthrow the authorities if they were to truly try and do so. Hence, a part of Blake's anger was conveyed by descibing the self-imprisonment of the people, and how they could break free anytime, but still chose not to do so.

Economics †Short Answers Essay

Answer #1 One of the problems that concern me right now would be the continuous increase of prices of petroleum products in the market which greatly affected my budget. Moreover, the said hike of oil prices causes our economy to perform badly for the past quarters which indirectly affects the prices of major commodities in the market like sugar, coffee, rice etc based from what I have read from the news papers and magazines. In this regard, oil price hike imposes negative externalities on our welfare –consumers. But to some extent, oil price hike also bring benefits to our economy in a form of forcing our federal government to find ways of providing alternative sources of energy aside from crude oil like bio-fuel. If it not for the price hikes of petroleum products in the market for the past decades, authorities would make no effort to find other sources of energy especially one that would serve as substitute for crude oil. After a few more decades, prices of petroleum products will start to decline as a consequence of emerging alternative sources of energy like bio-fuel as what I have said a while ago. Answer #2 One of the best examples of monopolists that currently exist in the market would be Microsoft Company. Microsoft Company serves to be the sole provider of Windows – software being used by almost all of personal computers around the globe. In this regard, the absence of other provider of Windows other than Microsoft makes the latter a monopolist catering for a large pool of buyers. Moreover, since Microsoft is the sole provider of Windows which we are all using nowadays, there is a great possibility for Microsoft to charge higher prices due to the absence of substitute goods for Windows. Furthermore, monopolists, because of its large market influence, can easily prevent new players to enter the industry of Software production giving them enough room to enjoy sole player in the market. Answer #3 Based from the negative effects that monopolists imposes not only to consumers but also to other market players, the federal government made necessary laws that would restrict the action of monopolists in the market creating enough way to protect the welfare of the consumers and other market players. One of the said laws could be the Anti-Trust Law. Anti-Trust Law is a bulk of laws that forbid unfair market competitions and anti-competitive behaviour of monopolists through illegalizing some practices of the latter that believed to hurt either or both businesses and consumers (U. S. Department of Justice, 1996). As for the case of labor monopolization of giant unions, I think we could also consider them as a source of potential negative effects just like of Microsoft as well as the misallocation of economic resources. The main reason here would be that, having a giant union monopolizing laborers in the market, there is a tendency that they will have a higher bargaining power on private firms of various industries, such as salary increase, which imposes negative effects on the operation of the businesses. At the end of the day, it is the consumers who will suffer from the actions of giant unions since the tendency of the private firms is to pass what ever the added costs they will incur from the said increase of bargaining power of labor unions. Answer #4  Another type of market structure aside from monopoly would be oligopoly. Oligopoly is a type of market structure wherein there is a few sellers and many buyers in market. As compared to monopoly, there exist market competition in oligopoly which improves the quality and quantity of goods and services in the market and so with the consumer welfare. One possible example of oligopoly would be Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart is a retail stores and tagged as â€Å"the Giant Store† which leads the industry of retailing due to its large size relative to other retail stores in the industry. The only down turn here in oligopoly would be the possibility of collusion between those â€Å"few sellers† in the market in order for them to minimize competition and have control on the price level in the market. The said collusion of oligopolists is called cartel and this act in the market just like a monopoly. This is the reason why federal government is keeping an eye on oligopolists to prevent such scenario since cartel is no difference with monopoly. Answer #5 Yes, the local phone service market, which was dominated before by Bell, has a great possibility of reaching competitive market due to the forces of competition. With the existence of competition, the local phone service industry members would have to compete to one another in order to attract more customers in terms such as higher service quality and lower price. Those improvements in the service quality and lower price of local phone service would make the said industry competitive since consumer welfare will surely improve; and at the end of the day, societal welfare will start to improve along side with the local phone service industry itself. Answer #6  One of the ways for us to determine if the product differentiation of competitive firms us wasted or not would be to know if the consumers possess brand loyalty which is the main target of differentiating product from one another. Product differentiation serves as the â€Å"identity† of any firm belonging to the competitive market and that identity will stand as the â€Å"brand† for the private firm. Now, if consumers in the market do not have the sense of â€Å"brand loyalty†, then, there is a big possibility that the product differentiation of private firms will be deemed unsuccessful in penetrating its target consumers. Answer #7  OPEC has been successful in controlling the production of oil since it has a bargaining power superimpose on the government of various countries that supplies oil in the market. OPEC determines the market demand and supply existing in the world market and either they increase or decrease the oil supply depending on the season, economic stability of their member countries and volume of supply of oil-producing countries to the organization, moreover, there are times that OPEC regulated the supply of oil for precautionary reasons like during the times of war and during the times of potential shortage in the coming period. The only negative effect of OPEC’s intervention on our welfare, especially during the times when they cut the supply of oil in the world market, would be the high prices of petroleum products on our domestic market. Therefore, the reason why there is existing oil price hike in the market would be either OPEC cut the supply of oil in the world market which creates pressure for the prices of petroleum products to increase, or because of the economic and political instability of oil-producing countries which creates threats for oil supply shortage in the world market. At the end of the day, consumers will carry the burden of that economic and political instability of other country through the intermediation of OPEC in the world market for petroleum products. Answer #8 The reason behind the success of Wal-Mart for the past years lies on its market share and size which provide rooms for further lowering down the prices of their goods relative to their competitors. Because of the large market size and share of Wal-Mart, they have been able to have more bargaining power to their suppliers in a form of price discounts since once Wal-Mart buys products to their suppliers; millions of volumes of goods are at stake. This is the reason why suppliers would want to supply Wal-Mart due to large volume of order that they can get once they were able to close a deal with the management of the Giant. At the end of the day, those price discounts that Wal-Mart was able to receive from their suppliers will give them enough room to further set the prices of their products lower as compared to their competitors, thereby, attracting more customers which eventually lead to experiencing high company growth in terms of profitability and sales volume.