Self-Awareness Achieved Through The Struggles In and Out of Society

The main characters revolving around each of these pieces of literature, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Emma by Jane Austen, and My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok, have been positioned in different facets of society.Each of the protagonists have been endowed with qualities, traits and profiles that can strike attention for a reader, for an easier follow-through on each character’s progression or development as a character, at the same time the novel nears it climax and end.Huck, Emma and Asher have detached themselves from their old principles and life perspectives, as described by a number of literary techniques, and have entered into a new phase of self-realization, consciousness, awareness – the becoming of a new person.Huckleberry Finn, among the three protagonists, is considered to have been immersed in the most unlucky circumstances. Coming from the bottom sector of the society, Huck, as a child had formed a grave loathing for the society. He should undergo an enduring series of obstacles before he becomes the final and developed character in the story. Along the progression of the novel, Huck has turned this loathing into a substantial amount of doubt and distrust, but, we continually see Huck repeatedly rejected and violated by society. It was as if society turned him down when he desperately needed it.Consequently, Huck conjures up his independence from this society. Coming from this point, we can extrapolate Huck’s development as a character. There would only be two ways in Huck’s face, either he becomes a part of the society he despises or totally cut himself away from it.Emma Woodhouse, the female protagonist of Jane Austen, is a brilliant woman with all the money and approval of everyone around her. But, as the story progresses, we may realize that Emma could have had much of what she should actually have.Taken from the novel, Emma might have been to controlling of circumstances – things going her own way, and must have viewed a little too good of herself. This takes us to Austen’s clues on Emma’s flaws that shall play a great deal on the future blossoming of events and conflict, as well as, Emma’s development as a character. This is important as one reads through the progression of the novel and Emma.Asher Lev is the most distinct character of the three having rooted from a very restricted Jewish group. In his early years, Asher has developed an inclination towards the arts and eventually developed a talent for it.Restricted his community is – religious, for that matter, Asher is obliged to submit himself to the strict rituals of being a Hasidic Jew. An internal conflict within Asher begins to boil as he must choose between art and religion. Questions, such as, obligation and passion, emotion and priority will be raised in the entire novel. And the same questions shall guide the reader into Asher Lev’s character development and the rev elation of the novel itself.The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is set before the eradication of slavery which was of very controversial value. And this setting has become the major stir in Huck’s character development. Huck Finn is a non-conformist. He doesn’t readily accept the conventions of society. In this novel, slavery as a major subject, Huck was faced with decisions that heavily moral in nature. These decisions, which were controversial enough, left a very significant change in Huck Finn’s emotional and moral development. This is evident as he helps a slave, Jim, to find his way to freedom.Huck Finn may have had a difficult time overcoming societal pressures on his non-conformism but this is Mark Twain’s way of characterizing Huck as a person who is independent of society – which is the very point of his development as a character. Huckleberry Finn developed as a character because of his own doing. He developed as an individual by drawing h is own conclusions of the world apart from himself. His choice, his non-conformism, diverged into many factors that molded his final self in the novel.Emma, on the other hand, extracts her character development from the conflicts within the society. This is her distinction from Huck Finn. She hails from an affluent sector of the society and has been chained in its very strong limitations – confined in what is acceptable at the time. Her matchmaking practice has caused her the very same conflicts that shall allow her development as a character in the novel.These conflicts, apart from development, showed Emma a better picture of how her actions created an inflicting effect on the people in her society. This is the root of Emma’s self-realization.

Axe Analysis Essay

The environment Axe was inspired by another Unilever’s brand, Impulse. Like Axe, Impulse was a fragranced deodorant body spray for women that promised wearers male attention. Thanks to Axe’ success in France, Unilever decided to launch the brand in other European countries from 1985. However, in United Kingdom, the brand was renamed Lynx. Then, Axe encountered the same success in Latin America but it was less important in Asia and Africa. In 2000, the brand has been launched in the USA and Canada and encounters an important success. Since 1983, Axe is offering new fragrances every year. Therefore, from 1983 to 1989, the variant name was a description of fragrance inside. From 1990 to 1996, the names were geographic names like Africa, Alaska and Inca. Then it uses abstract names like Apollo and Gravity. Since 2003, Axe’s deodorants give the possibility for the men to attract many women. Its last launching was in 2008: Dark Temptation. It is a smelling chocolate smelling fragrance; thanks to chocolate, the women will find Axe users irresistible. Axe also launches limited edition variants like Recover and Shock in 2008. However, Axe encountered many controversies like its sexist and depraving advertisement and its deodorants include ingredients tested on animals. The industry Axe is a one of the European leader of the male grooming products thanks especially to the marketing of it lead product: the deodorant body spray. However, several competitors with the same product exist in the market. On one hand, direct competitors who have or will have an important place in the market (TAG Fragrance Company, Old Spice and RGX) and on the other hand, competitors like Adidas and Power Stick, who are â€Å"weaker† and less known than others on the market. I will focus here on the serious competitors of Axe and especially on their marketing and their packaging. First of all, I will insist on the TAG Fragrance Company who dominates the European body spray market with Axe. TAG Fragrance Company was a subsidiary of Global Gillette when his lead product, TAG Body Spray, was released in 2005. Then, in 2007, Procter and Gamble bought Gillette and dissolved this company. {draw:a} As you can see, the packaging is very similar from Axe. Also, the advertising for TAG Body Spray looks alike Axe: this product helps boys getting women. Actually, TAG’s advertising campaign shows that having this body spray will attract women in a way that they will want to attack him. Secondly, we’ll focus on the brand Old Spice who is the American leader of deodorant stick and body wash brand. His product is also manufactured by Procter and Gamble who bought the brand in 1990 from the Shulton Company. {draw:a} Here, the packaging of the product is developed around a colonial theme. Therefore, sailing ships are used as a trademark. Over the years, those various ships have become a valuable trademark for Old Spice male product. Old Spice managed to advertise his products in famous movies (for example, E. T. ) or in commercials with famous actors like Neil Patrick Harris in 2008. Thus, Old Spice is using a different kind of advertising than Axe and it works in the American market. Now, I will describe the main new entrant in the market – the brand RGX – and how the brand tries to break into the body spray market. RGX is owned by Dial and was launched in January 2007. As a new entrant, the main difficulty for the RGX’s product is to enter a body spray market with an excellent marketing strategy. First, the RGX’s product is mainly directed at older men that is to say customers who don’t actually use a competitor product. Secondly, the brand tries to create buzz on Internet via a website called RGX Life but also he tries to do commercials and online banners with a famous actress Rachel Specter. Men’s magazines are also a part of the advertising campaign. The advertising will also be like Axe and TAG (how boy can get girls) but will be more focused on mature men (what a girl wants in a man and what separates a man from a boy). {draw:a} The packaging is also an appeal to maturity. Instead of the black plastic of Axe (which suggests affairs), the RGX’s packaging will be modified as an â€Å"updated aerosol can† more futuristic and made in aluminum. Axe’s lead product is a deodorant body spray which has a specific smell that s to say it mixes a deodorant and a perfume. So, substitute products might be a simple deodorant (for example, Narta Deodorant), a perfume or Cologne. In this market, a simple deodorant will please consumers who don’t like the smell of Axe’s or TAG’s body spray. Actually, despite the high sales of the Axe’s product, a lot of consumers aren’t satisfied about the strong smell of it. In case of the perfume, consumers could prefer a lighter smell than Axe’s product.

Advertising and Sex

Sex and indecency are very mature areas and should not be used loosely. In todays society almost anything goes. This should not hold true for certain areas; like sex. I intend to use many examples of sex in advertising and various studies to show how this strategy is not only over used, but is improperly used and viewable to all consumers, including young children. The advertising industry has taken a low blow at society and needs to focus their attentions on preserving human decency and uphold a higher standard of moral concern. What are we really dealing with here?As time grows older, the acceptance of more and more ideals is growing by the second. Not only ten years ago were standards different. I remember when girls couldnt wear shorts that came higher than four finger widths above their knees to school. Today this standard is not only unheard of, but laughed at. Foul language on television is more accepted. Video games are more graphic than ever before and advertisements are using the idea of sex or sexuality to sell products to all ages (including video games: they now have nudity in video games). Do we really want our children growing and learning room these explicit images?How can companies sleep at night knowing they are using corrupt techniques to sell products to our children? We are talking about corporate social responsibility (CARS). CARS is defied that a corporation should be held accountable for any of its actions that affect people, their communities, and their environment (McGraw-Hill, 1999, peg. 3). Companies have two choices in this world today. They can either be for CARS or against it. This paper will use both sides of the coin to view the argument about sexuality in advertising. Is the burger really that good?The advertisement industry is a no-holds-barred industry where just about anything goes. Companies need to focus their attention on their CARS more than getting the edge in ads. We might ask ourselves, who exactly is watching these ads? Who are they intended for? What are they selling? Sometimes an advertisement can actually be confusing as to what is being sold. I do not agree with a sexual display for irrelevant products. The reason I take an anti- sexuality view on the subject started from a Carols Jar. Commercial. In this particular commercial, Paris Hilton was displayed eating a Caracals. Ambusher. While eating she was dressed in black bathing suit crawling over a Bentley. Some might find it attractive and enticing while others find this a little explicit for them. This commercial is basically soft-core porn. The way she moves, the way she puts her finger in her mouthits very suggestive and very titillating (http://money. CNN. Com/2005). Said Melissa Caldwell, research director for the Parents Television Council (APT). Carols Jar. Responded by saying that the group needs to get a life. This isnt Janet Concessionaires no nipple in this.Its a beautiful model in a swimsuit washing a car (http:// none. CNN. Com/2005). The APT is very concerned about this matter considering this commercial airs in the hours of popular television shows such as The O. C. And sporting programs. Milton Friedman (1970) would agree with Carols Jar. Friedman believes in the interest of the business and the business only. In his article with the title that speaks his opinion, The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profits, Friedman states that only people have responsibilities business as a whole cannot be said to have responsibilities (Freidman, 1970, Peg. ). From Friedmans point of view if this immemorial, which more than likely improved profits, did not air because of some social value or norm then the company lost money. More specifically they would be spending someone elses money; the stockholders. The corporate executive made a decision to improve revenue for the company, which in turn makes more money for stockholders. He is not about to hold back from higher profits because of some social backlash. In the world of advertising sometimes bad press is good press. !Hold! A Mexican restaurant showed a lascar-clad woman posed with her hands on her hips over the headline 0 Tickle my Taco (Rotifer, 2003). In this case the owner probably thought this would be a good slogan to have. What he doesnt realize that the use of irrelevant sexual innuendos is actually more distracting attracting. He actually thought this was the best campaign he had ever had because of the numerous complaints he got. Another backfire experience involves a trucker business that had passed out calendars for his business with half naked women on each month.This was thought to be a perfect ad scheme until most of the people with the calendars actually forgot the name of his company. Advertising creators are so myopic as to believe hat publicity from offending people is always beneficial. They do not see it as being a distraction from saying positive things about the restaurant or store (Rotifer). Joe cool? Advertising is not created and used just to provide a smug example of public morality; advertising is honest because it has to be. What I mean by honesty is the product information is not all ways how it is displayed.Lets address the issues of what we care about, the way we raise our children, our ideas of right and wrong conduct, these in my view are all together. Lets take a look at liquor and tobacco advertising. The image of the Marlboro Man is one example. This type of advertisement depicts a buff, handsome, cool man smoking a cigarette. What message is this conveying to our young people? That it is cool to smoke. We all know it has been proven that smoking cigarettes can cause cancer. This type of advertisement causes the consumer to subliminally change their opinion of various items.This is why most advertising is geared towards the younger more susceptible crowd. Firebombed and who? The Caracals. Case is not alone in sexual content. Sex is everywhere we look in todays society. In The Prevalence of Sexual Imagery in Ads Targeted to Young Adults, Firebombed Fitch made an advertising attempt at combining a magazine with a catalog. They call it the analog. In this analog they TA regret young adults by using sexual imagery throughout their products. They increased their revenues from $50 million to over SSL . 5 billion in 2001.From these numbers one could say that sex does sell. In a survey taken in 2001 results found that 44% of young adults (age-24) said they are more likely to buy the clothes if the ad contains sexual imagery (Richter, 2003). Others may not agree that sex sells. Most people (61 %) report that sexual imagery in ads makes them less likely to buy the products (Richter). This quote was taken from the same article, but was used as a generalization about all people young and old. Other than being aimed at a much too young audience, there are more issues that are raised with sexuality in ads.Who wants to look like a celebrity? Lets talk about images. For example, most advertisements for clothing (I. E. Bathing suits etc), show shapely thin women and men. This has led our country to think that fat is demeaning and not socially accepted. This type of advertising has caused everyone to want to look like the people in the ads. Diets of all sorts have been developed to try to meet these expectations. But when their goals are not reached it causes depression, low self-esteem that in turn causes a poor image is developed.In my opinion these advertisements have a negative outreach. Who is to say only thin people look great? Advertisements do. These ads also have created anorexic teenagers, which has lead to serious health problems and even death. Advertisements often do not explicitly urge the consumer to buy a given product; rather they promise hat the products will enhance a persons life. If a stunningly attractive person claims to use a beauty product, that product may be assumed to be an element of the beauty formula.Ads arguing that consumers will be more attractive, accepted or appealing to other offer relevant to teens and young adults, for whom dating and group memberships are important (Richter). I Whats it goanna be? From one of my readings I have gathered two hypotheses about advertising that find relevant to our study. Hypothesis 1: A higher proportion of ads with sexual imagery appear in ads targeted to young adults compared to those targeted to mature adults. Hypothesis 2: Overall, ads contain a higher proportion of sexually dressed women than men (Richter).These two combined show that most advertising is targeted towards young males and that females are the primary source of sexual content in media and advertising. This could possibly lead to a bad outcome. Studies have shown that males viewing these sexual ads of women are far more accepting of sexual aggression towards females, including rape. These studies agree with the theories of Moses Papa (1997). Papa believes hat there are four criteria to our thought of social responsibility and that there is a trade-off between three of these four.These areas are; local knowledge, level of responsibility, shared consensus and relationship to financial performance. We find that most of the time local knowledge and relationship to financial performance are the one being traded off. Local knowledge would mean that the company designing the ad would know the background of the product being displayed and the target audience. Most of the time they do not take the product and audience into consideration, as we have seen. These companies are more focused on the relationship to financial performance: making a profit.Reaching perfect social responsibility seems very unattainable. These four criterion were setup as a guideline to reach such a goal. No program will meet all of these standards. They are purposely couched as ideals to be pursued, rather than as minimalist goals to be obtained easily (Papa). Whos doing it right? The idea of Corporate Social Responsibility is an optimistic outlook for todays society. A perfect example would be the Cummins Engine Company. Year after year this company insisted on donating to charitable foundations. And year after year they were threatened by bankruptcy.Any business or economics professor will tell you that their choices were not the smartest in the world. Their short term benefits suffered greatly because of these choices. Their long term, however have not suffered. They now produce over $5 billion in revenues each year. The iron law of responsibility states that in the long run, those who do not use power in ways that society considers responsible will tend to lose it (McGraw-Hill, peg. 4). Cummins Engines saw their long run capabilities and stuck with them. They prove the stewardship Renville that profits and social responsibility can coexist.

The Parmalat Scandal Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

The Parmalat Scandal - Research Paper Example Parmalat employees tried to obstruct justice by shredding documents and spoiling computers. Tanzi and two members of his family were arrested. Zini of Zini legal firm was the mastermind behind the fraudulent activities while Fausto Tonna is played a key role. Parmalet’s outside counsel and ten members of its management pleaded guilty to criminal charges, but were lucky to get sentences not exceeding thirty months. While claims against Deloitte&Touche LLP and Grant&Thornton LLP were allowed to continue, a suit against Bank of America was dismissed (Markham 375). Italian prosecutors sought to cast the net wider. They indicted Deloitte &Touche, Grant & Thornton and their employees. They accused Citigroup and Morgan Stanley Deutche Bank with aiding and abetting the fraud since they were the company’s investment banks. Citigroup filed a countersuit in New Jersey claiming they were also a victim of Parmalet’s fraud (Markham 375).The scandal was an embarrassment to the Italy political establishment that had received $120 million in political contributions from Tanzi. The Parmalat scandal forced the Italian government to take measures to restore investor confidence. It passed laws that should have been passed long ago to prevent frauds such as the Parmalat scandal. However, as history has shown, there will always be a lot to be done. It takes an economic collapse or a big scandal to force legislators to seal loopholes and increase regulation (Mallin 86). The measures the Italian government took to prevent fraud were long overdue. Publicly traded companies should have been required to rotate their lead auditor’s after a brief period. The government set it at two years that should be ideal. The new laws extend the time of engagement from three years to six but limit the number of times they can be contracted (Mallin 86). The extension ensures continuity that is crucial to an auditing firm’s success. In addition, mandatory rotation

To what extent is US policy in the Gulf region driven primarily by Dissertation

To what extent is US policy in the Gulf region driven primarily by energy needs - Dissertation Example Retrieved from, http://schirachreport.com/index.php/2011/01/21/old-lobbies-prevent-new-energy-policies/ Teixeira, R, 2010. Public Opinion Snapshot: Public turns against offshore drilling. Centre for American progress, retrieved from, http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/06/snapshot062810.html The Progress Report, 2010. Big giveaways to big Oil. Retrieved from, http://www.barbrastreisand.com/us/article/big-giveaways-big-oil Weiss, D. September 2010. GOP â€Å"Pledge to America† is an oath to Big Oil- written by a former EXXon lobbysist. ClimateProgress. Retrieved from, http://climateprogress.org/2010/09/23/gop-pledge-to-america-big-oil-exxon-lobbyist-brian-wild/ Literature review summary: With approximately 70 % of the global oil reserves located in the Middle Eastern regions, which includes Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Iran, the United Arab Emirates, and Iraq, these group of countries have formed the group of leading exporters of oil, especially in the post WWII era. Sampson, (1975) and Tanzer (1974), into their books gives us detailed insight into the pre WWII era when the oilfields were in the hands of the colonels British empire, and how slowly US took over after emerging as the chief power during the WWII. Tanzer in his book especially traces the rise of US as the main global power, the rise of strong oil companies and the formation of the famous US oil lobby, and it’s taking control over the European oil trade market. Kinzer, (2008) in his book traces the interference of US oil lobby in Iran internal politics during the 1950s to bring in the Shah of Iran (pro-US) as the head of the country, so that the oil fields would be effectively under the control of the US oil firms. Klare 2001, in his book traces the rise in strength of the US oil firms and the beginning of USA’s relentless drive to gain global energy supremacy. Cordesman (1999) gives us detailed insight into US’s ever-increasing oil consumption rate, and the governmentâ⠂¬â„¢s unceasing drive to gain energy security, which drove the US oil companies and the government to attempt to bring all the oil rich countries under their control. These books show us how US created Saudi Arabia and established its control over the oilfields, while Iraq managed to give the western countries the slip by nationalising their oil fields, which finally led to the 2003 war with Iraq. Bennett, et al. (2007), Sepehri (2002), Kay (2001) in their articles give us an insight into the true nature of the 1991 and 2003 Iraq war and the actual reason behind this war. They show very clearly, as what were conditions that ultimately led to the 2003 war, and established clear links oil firms and the Bush regime. Phillip, 2003, very categorically shows in his paper the actual nature of the war and how the oil lobbyists stood to gain from the2003 war, while various news articles in BBC, Times, and CNN also shows strong link between US oil firms, US government, US foreign polices and the US-Iraq war in 2003. Articles by Lee (2005); Weiss (2010) and Paolo Schirach (2011) show the strong link that exists between US’s ineffective energy saving policies and the connection between government officials. These articles put up figures that reveal the huge donations made by the oil firms to the Republican party, and consequent failure on the part of the US government to draw up strong energy saving policies in the last 5 decades, after the end of the WWII, when the consumption of oil suddenly became high owing to the arrival of automobiles in the US

Psychology - personality and values Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Psychology - personality and values - Essay Example I have however changed to a self-confident individual who is outgoing and influential. My values have also transformed from instrumental orientation to terminal orientation. Even though we share some characteristics with my siblings and my parents, most of my values are different from theirs, as my academic and work environments have largely influenced me (Graduate, p. 29-38). Values affect cohesiveness of a workplace by defining what is perceived to be right and what is perceived to be wrong by members of the organization. Common values therefore eliminated conflicts by identifying what every member of the organization consider to be bad and discouraging it while different values generates conflicts because a party will undertake an initiative that is wrong to another party (Graduate, p. 29-38). Jodi’s point that his values have not changed much is valid because people respond to their environmental factors differently. Factors such as the loss of a close relative may have also played a role in his conservative nature to retain his earlier developed personality and values. His matured values with time, together with differences between his values and his family’s, however identify response to his different environments. People cannot however have same values, as he argues, because of cultural

Analysis of the Silicon Valley Context for Entrepreneursip and Essay

Analysis of the Silicon Valley Context for Entrepreneursip and Innovation - Essay Example High-tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, Cisco, eBay, Pixar, and many other commonly known technology-based companies all call Silicon Valley home. In recent years, such groundbreaking advances as digital video recording and high speed wireless internet have been part of a non-stop stream of innovations that have facilitated a new way of life based on mobile and on-demand telecommunications capabilities. Other important advances have reshaped the way we utilize the internet, further integrating it into the normal course of our day-to-day existence. This extraordinary success not only devising hi-tech advances, but also bringing them to market in a wildly successful way, has rendered the Silicon Valley economy the envy of the world. Web innovations have been the latest hot developments to come out of Silicon Valley. Levy and Stone (2006) maintain that innovative new websites such as MySpace and Flickr â€Å"are milestones in a new high-tech wave reminiscent of the craziness of the early dot-com days. This rebooting owes everything to the enhanced power and pervasiveness of the Web, which has finally matured to the point where it can fulfill some of the outlandish promises that we heard in the ‘90s.† Some refer to this latest phase in the evolution of the internet as â€Å"Web 2.0.† This new web generation holds great promise for a stream of innovative new solutions that will redefine the extent to which the internet is integrated into daily life. â€Å"Aided by faster broadband connections, consumers are using the web more than ever and are publishing their own content to it in droves. At the same time, the web is morphing into a platform for applications that once existed only on computers – such as marketing and customer support tools for businesses – and providing a new distribution for products† (Bazeley 2005). The exuberance resulting from this success has certainly not come without cost. The 1990s produced a glut of dot-com

History of Canadian Labour Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

History of Canadian Labour - Article Example Thousands of workers earlier excluded from the labor movement found a home in the Knights. Women now came to the union movement for the first time in our history. In another further thinking step, the Knights allowed separate local assemblies for French and English workers in Montreal. However, this grace did not expand to Chinese and other Asian workers, in particular in British Columbia. The Knights in Canada were part of a bigger movement that had appeared in the United States in the 1860s. This was not unexpected since workers all through North America faced the same problems. Fraternal ties between workers in the two states gave the impression of making good sense. The Knights' assemblies in Canada, however, emerged first and principally out of local conditions. In small communities like Galt and St. Catharines, Ontario as well as in Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, and other larger centers, workers established assemblies to address local grievances in their workplaces, as well as the general health of their communities. Concerned with the effects of an increasingly competitive labor market and poor living environment in their towns, the Knights attempted to moderate this situation that appeared to go hand-in-hand with industrialism.

All About My Mother (Pedro Almodovar, 1999) and The Idiots (Lars Von Essay

All About My Mother (Pedro Almodovar, 1999) and The Idiots (Lars Von Trier, 1998). Compare and contrast how these two movies rep - Essay Example A film can depict what are the morals of the country and what is going on at the moment, and what cultural issues are being addressed by the common public of that nation. As Mohandas Gandhi has said â€Å"A nation's culture resides in the hearts and the soul of its people† (Wederspahn 32). Film is an appropriate medium to portray culture of a nation. Two movies from the European region have been chosen to be compared about how art can depict a nation’s culture, identity and past. First movie All About My Mother (1999) revolves around the norms of Spain where as the second one The Idiots (1998) revolves around the regions of Denmark and Scandinavia. As it is very important to first summarize the whole plot on which the two movies are based upon, a brief summary together with points that have been highlighted in these movies. All About My Mother (Pedro Almodovar, 1999) Summary The main actors in this film are Cecelia Roth and Penelope Cruz. The story starts with a woman n amed Manuela i.e. Cecelia Roth, who is a single parent and a â€Å"medical transplant coordinator†, taking care of his son who is 17 years old named Esteban. She takes him to attend a stage performance on "A Streetcar Named Desire." When the show ended Esbteban expressed the desire to meet his favorite actress, â€Å"Huma Rojo†`, so that he could get her autograph, but as he was going towards his favorite actress a terrible accident happens, Esteban gets hit by a car and is killed, this was the most devastating point of Manuela’s life. In bereavement, for placing her life back in order, Manuela wanted to do certain things which she should have done a long time ago, in which the first thing that she includes is a journey to Barcelona to enlighten the boy's unknowing father about the loss. Later the father, named Lola, was found to be an â€Å"HIV-positive transvestite†. As the story unfolds it is also shown that Manuela runs into an old acquaintance called Agrado, a transsexual who was unexpectedly appointed as Huma Rojo’s personal assistant; the star Esteban had always admired and helps administer her co-actor and lover Nina. Manuela also happened to meet Sister Maria, a young nun role performed by Penelope Cruz in the movie, who works in a nonprofit organization, that helps battered prostitutes, and intends to visit El Salvador, but soon discovers that she is pregnant. Sister Maria came to know that she has also been contaminated with AIDS; Cecilia makes a decision to help the nun by letting her stay in her home. Points About national identity and national past The points which have been highlighted in this movie, that depict the nature of the past and identity of Spain, are as follows (smith 28-30): anti-government strikes the celebration of democracy the spread of AIDS Manuela’s journey in search of herself identifies a great number of things which can be also identified as the national marks of Spain and at the det erritorialized frontier of national identity and sexuality. Manuela finds that a transvestite can bring a lot of things together because he is neither from here nor from anywhere else, he is somebody in between and could help things to reconnect, especially the masculine and feminine sense together. Here, the best

Comparison of the health staus of Australian males and females Essay

Comparison of the health staus of Australian males and females - Essay Example e paper will aim at analyzing if healthcare institutionalization paradigms operational in Australia facilitate in offering similar services for both genders. Study reveals that there are striking contrasts in healthcare patterns amongst both genders, however, the comparison also reflects the fact that the factors affecting the health of both the genders are also quite diverse in nature which calls for differing treatment for ailments. Furthermore, the ailments affecting both the genders also reflect distinct patterns which also instigate policy mechanisms diverging at various points. Though the proposition made here reveal divergent policies for both genders in Australia, it must not be assumed that convergence in no way is possible since there are a few areas in health sector where similar treatment is also available for both genders. To understand the divergent patterns of healthcare in Australia, it is crucial to understand how social determinants affect the physical well being of individuals. Since through their lives, men and women go through different social and cultural phases, the health status of both genders also differ. For instance, over the years cardiovascular diseases have been assumed to be a man`s disease which is also true in the context of the kind of stress they go through in the competitive work environment (Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. 2010). Since women are associated more with other kinds of diseases, they are under-represented in the healthcare system when it comes to cardiovascular diseases. Similarly, the prevalence of diabetes is more widespread amongst the male populace of Australia owing to the genetic variations and lifestyles which the males exhibit more often than women. However, diseases like breast cancer may only be accounted to females, which is almost 28 % of the diseases which the females are diagnosed for (Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing. 2010). Yet, lung cancer is diagnosed

Business Intelligence in a Corporate Environment Essay Example for Free

Business Intelligence in a Corporate Environment Essay The purpose of this literature review is to provide an overall perspective to the workings of business intelligence in a corporate environment. With the onset of massive technological gains in the past decade the implementation of business intelligence has grown accordingly. In the workplace the demand for business process improvement, responsive reporting, cutting edge forecasting, and internal business customer relations has triggered a need for a unit that understands the business needs as well as the impact on company technology. This review will focus on the various areas that business intelligence impacts in the workplace. There will also be an emphasis on understanding the longevity of these types of units. With these units in the workplace questions concerning departmental automation goals and the impact on the maturity stages that are involved with the creation of business intelligence units. Finally, with the growth of data collection and ease of use, the security and management of company information is intertwined with the operation of business intelligence. The Age of Information The Role of Shifting Technology Throughout history technology has influenced the very fabric of business operations. The role of business intelligence in this shift is the implementation and continuous improvement of that technology. This role is ever changing because technology continues to improve. While to some the role of business intelligence seems new and upcoming the usage and practice goes back to the earliest days of industry. An example of this history would be in the automation industry. In years past large amounts of labor was done by hand. The role of the business analyst would be to collect and analyze the entire business process from start to finish. Once this was done the analyst would narrow their focus to the individual in an attempt to provide management with data to increase speed and efficiency. That role is now used  to analyze the systems and machines that are responsible for making the products. While the example above is simple the connection between the shift in technology and the role of business intelligence is clear. With any business the desire for information is strong. To be competitive a company needs to be aware of the business environment in which they operate. Business intelligence serves to meet the information and improvement goals that drive the company to greater success. For this literature review there is an article written by Elliot King that exemplifies the shift of technology and the role of business intelligence on it. King focuses on the large amount of company resources that are spent on the implementation, development, and management of business intelligence technology in the workplace. This attention has been driven by the increasing demand for such software products and personnel to manage them. Understanding this current shift King focuses on the role business intelligence has and will continue to have on the business that use data en mass. The article provides a brief look at the history of data storage and misconceptions about employee interest in accessing the data. This interest has largely been pushed down due to the complex nature of interacting with the information present within the data warehouse. With the explosion of the internet and user assimilation to it these technical barriers are slowing beginning to fall (King, 1998). With the ease of use and understanding increasing employees are beginning to grasp the value of data. This is where the role of business intelligence has thrived. Business intelligence has been implemented to bridge the gap between the employee and the business data stored in the warehouse. This is done through a variety methods that have made data more and more useful to the companies that have and utilize their data. King summarizes his article with the theory that as the internet was opened  far and wide to all this should concept should be applied to the data warehousing. While King understands that the two pieces of technology are different he affirms that they are similar enough in nature that the same approach can be applied. Overall, the article provide a good look at how the shift of technology in business can affect the demand for systems and the personnel that maintain and operate them (King, 1998). The impact of Business growth With the growth of business the world has begun to shrink. No longer are companies that employ a hundred or even a thousand considered to be impressive. In 2014 Bank of America was reported to have employed two hundred and eighty four thousand people to run its operations around the globe (Bank of America, 2014). The implications of companies of this size are astounding and have significantly impacted the demand for business intelligence. To truly understand why a company would spend millions of dollars on business intelligence operations a simple example can be provided. For Bank of America each employee is assigned a unique number or code that distinguishes him or her from the rest of the employees within the organization. On the other side of the table each customer that has interacted with the bank is also assigned a unique identifier. If these are added together the quantity of unique entities starts to become astounding. The example above shows why a business like Bank of America would be heavily interested in utilizing business intelligence assets to manage the data associated with its business units. While the example provided only touches on areas concerning employees and customers the amount of data associated with those people can be mind boggling. For employees this data could be anything from human resource forms to vacation day requests. For customers the data could be products purchased, recorded marketing calls, website interaction as well as a host of other areas. In 2000 Deborah Rowe an article that centered on business trends pushing database management systems to greater growth. Rowe focuses on the data  warehousing concept that has proved to meet a large majority of business needs in terms of information management. The focus of the article is to explain how progress is pushing for better and better systems for managing data. The article talks about how increasing competition has created a lean environment for data management. Companies that are complacent with their data are either failing or catching on to the need for better interaction and usage of their data. Rowe delves into the process of choosing these systems from a corporate perspective. The challenges presented by this type of implementation are rather glaring. These challenges include upfront cost, long term cost, and mismanagement of data. If a company chooses to implement a product that its employees don’t understand correctly the effects can be devastating on the business. Hiring knowledgeable employees to manage and implement the product is essential to long term success. With all of these hurdles of implementing a DBMS system the task can be daunting. Rowe discusses how the task of purchasing and implanting a DBMS needs to be done with great caution and a clear focus. If a business isn’t able to look further down the road and consider how the DBMS can be used in the future it will fail completely. Having a perspective that encompasses as much of the companies goals and visions is critical. This is why companies are constantly looking for individuals that are able to focus on a detailed system but be able to at the same time look at the broader scope of the company’s needs (Rowe , 2000). In summation the article leaves the reader with an interesting perspective on the increasing demand for these systems. Rowe concludes that the ERP industry will grow and tremendous pace in the future. With that growth the need for knowledgeable employees that understand the systems use and can translate the data to affect business needs will continuing to increase. The increasing corporate demand. At its very core business is driven by two simple concepts. These are the laws of revenue and expenses. In business these two laws drive companies on a daily basis. Popular opinion about these  concepts can sometimes sway in either direction. Proponents may put all of their support into revenue generation while others will focus on creating the perfect lean business model. Whatever the theory or opinion is the law of revenues and expenses will remain the same. As discussed in this review the expenses of implementing DBMS systems and employing highly skilled individuals can be massive. To a company that purely focuses on the expense side of the equation these systems may seem like a waste of precious assets. To others who understand the future and current impact of these systems the decision to utilize them is an easy one. Like the concepts of revenues and expenses the goals of a company can dictate the perspective of business intelligence units. The reason demand has begun to steadily increase over the past decade is the potential to affect both the expense and revenue side of the business structure. Business intelligence units are designed to support departments in ways that can amplify their current revenue production and decrease their expense habits. An article written by Ken Rudin explains how corporate demand for business intelligence in their companies is steadily increasing. Rudin talks about how business intelligence has become a very high priority for business executives who understand the values they can derive from business improvement. This demand has grown to the point where corporate leaders are focusing on moving past the traditional business intelligence processes (Rudin , 2007) . Rudin explains the implications of this progressive thought process by paralleling the impact of software applications that software products have had on industry to business intelligence services. The discussion is focused on how executives are looking into custom company specific solution provided on an instant. This type business process software is highly intuitive and seeks to provide all of the necessary tools needed to make an informed business decision. Examples of these on-demand solutions are software’s likes SQL Server Reporting Services by Microsoft. This software allows for not only the display of information but the real time interaction with the data that the web services are pulling their content from. Rudin discusses how these types of solutions are not only catching fire they are exploding all over the business world. This explosion of demand is driven by the complexity of the data being pulled as well as the cost associated with the data being collected and stored. This cost and complexity equation is what Rudin believes is the key piece to business intelligence demand. Like the example of revenues and expenses the idea surrounding on-demand solutions is the same. The question asked is, â€Å"What can these solutions do that allow a normal employee to do their job at a higher level which in turns into a higher rate of return for their employer?† Concluding Rudin’s article he discusses that a key factor associated with on demand business intelligence solutions is the usability of the product. Having solutions created that users do not understand or lose trust in can be a major drain on process improvement. Rudin emphasizes that the development of these processes needs to be done in such a way that they take into account the users that are interacting with them. This is essential to developing a trust relationship between the users and the product (Rudin , 2007). Business Intelligence Tools The Role of Reporting Reporting is one the most essential pieces of and type of business process. If a company sells laundry detergent it needs to know how much product it has, how much product it has sold, and how much it should produce. These three simple questions speak to the ramifications of good reporting data within a business. There is so much information that is gathered by companies with the singular intent of providing reports for business decisions. This gathering is done in a way that the information collected in stored in some type of server  which houses a virtual warehouse. Like a physical warehouse it is critical to understand how and where something is stored so that it can be retrieved for future use. When it comes to reporting the challenge presented to businesses is the quantity and placement of their data. If a business is unable to utilize their data efficiently they are sacrificing business opportunities every second the data is left idle. This quandary has been analyzed and the solution has been to purchase and employee people and products to provide this data in a useful format for business use. In a business intelligence unit a data analyst will focus on first understanding the overall goal of a report request. This is important because the impact of creating something purely based on the request can lead to disastrous results. These can range from customers not understanding the terminology used within the reporting system to not grasping the capability or usage of the system being used to provide the report. To make sure these requests are understand correctly a business intelligence unit is commonly found implemented within a specific area of the business. This cultivates a cross knowledge between the highly technical nature of the reporting systems to the broad scope goals of a particular business department. This type of side by side interaction can be a major benefit to not only getting more precise and accurate reporting it also serves as educating tool to the department through exposure. An article written in 2005 by Harry Debes explains this process in detail. The author of the article begins the discussion by emphasizing the importance of timely and accurate data. These two pieces are the bread and butter of business intelligence. The reason for this is that both factors are highly dependent on each other. Debes explains this concept by focusing on the energy market and the application of business reports in this area of industry. He shows that there various daily functions that are conducted that are in need of  constant monitoring to allow for efficient operation. Some of the examples include repair requests, credit collections, meter usage, demand fluctuations, and most important customers (Debes , 2005). All of the examples cited by Debes are common sense in nature but they require an entire business process to effectively report on. Using the example of meter usage by having daily reports energy companies can identify issues based on real time data and not be forced to swallow a catastrophe because of something as simple as mechanical fault. The problem could easily be identified by a simple reporting tool that was programmed to expect a specific range of usage. If the range was violated the system would send an alert with a level of priority based on the disparity of the ranges. The article written by Debes is a good example of how business intelligence reporting can be implemented in ways that benefit the company at levels of the corporate ladder. From interactive financial data and forecasting to specific customer energy consumption and history reliable and accurate reporting in the energy industry is a very powerful tool that has been used and is being continuously improved upon for future endeavors (Debes , 2005). Impact of data driven Forecasting Forecasting is an important an element of any business. At its most basic level it is simply looking to the future and making guesses to a specific result based on past and present data. This is where the role of business intelligence arrives. Data analysts like their namesake are paid to look at data and decipher how that data works and relates to the business. Once a data analyst is able to firmly grasp company data they can provide constructive advice based on the knowledge of that data. In addition to providing advice the data analyst can create reports that take past data and make estimations programmatically based on definable trends. These reports can be provided through an assortment of software’s and displayed in formats that best fit the target audience. Having a system in place that looks to past data and provides useful  forecasts can not only give a company an idea of where they are going they can also give an idea where their competition is going as well. This ability to compare company performance to the market and project where the company is headed is critical. With timely and reliable forecasting a company can discern opportunities and threats within the marketplace before they even occur. With market competition becoming more and more intense the role of forecasting has been prioritized highly by most companies that operate on a large scale. This is clearly supported by an article written by Susana Schwartz about the greater need for more robust forecasting technologies. The concept of the article focuses on the next level of forecasting that business intelligence units are seeking to achieve. The author talks about how the next set of tools utilized by business intelligence units will be integrated into the business processes that have already been laid down. The key factors that are emphasized are the broad categories that these tools can influence. Examples of these are products such as SSRS by Microsoft, ARGOS by Ellucian, and APEX by Oracle. Each of these tools provide granular interaction with business process data while still being able to be applied to other categories. These tools are used to be the developing platforms that take the business process driven data and formulates it into reportable information used for forecasting. In the article these are the types of tools that Schwartz describes when talking about integrated and real time driven tools (Schwartz, 2007). Concluding the article by Schwartz she emphasizes the value of report generation. She talks about how even if the emphasis might be redundant the need to focus on this factor is critical to accurate forecasting. This is because all of the past data collected is contained within the reports. Schwartz’s realizes that for business units to understand any of the forecast data they need to be familiar with the data that has been collected and displayed within the provided reports (Schwartz , 2007). Data analysis and Improvement The core of what business intelligence does is data analysis and improvement. Both of these factors contribute to each other in a never ending spiral of push and pull. When data is analyzed it is used to improve a process which in turn is analyzed. With this concept firmly in place understanding the role of business intelligence becomes clearer. As the facilitator of analysis and improvement business intelligence units are responsible for the flow between the two actions. When a department senses a need for analysis or improvement the business intelligence unit is used to facilitate that action. This responsibility to facilitate these actions is what drives the demand by corporate leadership. As expressed earlier in this review having units that are constantly looking at moving the expense line down and the revenue line up is very beneficial a corporate entity. An article that was created in response to a seminar on business data analysis describes how this process is essential to the strategy development and future readiness of company’s based on data analysis. The article provide insight into a couple areas within the sphere of data analysis. One of these is building the foundations and structure of the culture within the company to respect the data and make decisions off of it (Computer software .., 2012). This whole concept of creating a decision based culture is driven by the need for action in the market. If a company fails to take action on its corporate strategy it will fall behind its competition fairly quickly. The article discusses how through data analysis an attitude of decision making individuals can be created to promote action. The key of this data driven culture is the analysis that goes into making the data credible. Without credible data the ability to make decisions quickly and effectively is crippled. If employees can’t trust the data they are working with they will begin to question the entire infrastructure based on a single data set. In addition to data analysis the article talks about  improving recruitment through data analysis tools. Being able to create a clear picture of who a person is before the expense of bringing them in for an interview can be a great time and money saver. This is done through internal and external data analysis (Computer software .., 2012) . Once research is done on an individual the business intelligence units can categorize potential recruits and provide reports based on recruiters specifications. If an office manager needs someone with three years of experience and a knowledge of a specific software system a tool can be created to provide that data in real time to the inquiring party. When it comes to data analysis and improvement making sure that they are used in conjunction is essential for seamless implementation and continued success. An example of poor usage is providing a complicated and detailed report within a system that can’t handle the data correctly. Even though the data itself is good the system used for improvement is poor. This can create animosity towards certain products and mistrust in data (Computer software .., 2012). Data management The term data management is something that has been thrown around industry the past few years. When this happens the real meaning of the terminology begins to take on a life of its own based on the perception of those trying to comprehend its true meaning. A clear way to explain what the definition of data management is to show the similarities between an industries accepted practice. Like employee management data management requires a certain style to correctly guide the direction of the data. In a department setting a manager may spend time developing a plan that their employees will play specific roles in. The same is true with data management. Depending on the setting and usage data is set aside in specific formats to meet highly granular needs. A good example is list of information that is associated with a company’s employees. The data will stay the same but it requires a level of management to break into specific formats to meet different needs. The human recourse depar tment might need the list as a reference sheet to pull information about quickly and efficiently. That same information could also be used by the employee development department to conduct surveys and  gauge employee satisfaction. These examples are very simply but they do provide a good idea of how managing data in a succinct and efficient way can broaden its usage and usability immensely. There is an article written in the Journal of Digital Asset Management that describes the role of business intelligence on data management. This article provide a brief look into how the emergence of big data has pushed an emphasis on utilizing business intelligence units to provide levels of data management. The article talks about how business intelligence is beginning to play critical role in the storage, maintenance, and usability of the data. These three factors are critical in guaranteeing the reliability of information collected and scrubbed for company use. The first of these factors briefly mentioned is the storage factor. Arguably the most important of the three storage is the bucket where all unstructured and structured data is stored (Jordan Ellen , 2009) . Within the context of the article the authors describe how storage is the first step that business intelligence units have to consider when managing data. The tasks associated with this piece range from creating feeds to port information from various databases to creating tables and views within specific schemas. Within these tasks the question that is constantly asked is the question of available space. This question permeates each of the three factors but is most prevalent at the initial of data management. The second piece is the maintenance portion. This factor is most prevalent once data has been stored and refined into a usable manner. The article shows how this responsibility is what keeps business intelligence units in a critical role to companies data management needs. The tasks that occur with data maintenance can range from eliminating old data, archiving, inputting new systems, and creating methods to encourage more efficient data retrieval and reporting. The final factor addressed in the article is the factor of usability. This concept is what non-IT personnel will focus most of their attention on when looking at data resources. Business intelligence plays critical role in getting the data into an understandable and usable format at the customer level. This is the defining piece of business intelligence focus. Employers look specifically for individuals who are able to translate the technical data from a database perspective and be able to make that information as clear as possible for non-information technology users (Jordan Ellen , 2009). Internal communications When considering things that business intelligence employees should do well is internal communications. In many companies business intelligence units will be the ambassador between the data and the customer. These individuals are responsible for understating the customers’ needs from an IT perspective. Once the needs have been determined the customer needs to be made aware of how close or far away from their original needs are to the ones seen by the business intelligence personnel. Being able to discern what a customer needs is extremely important. The emphasis placed on cultivating effective communications between all parties is absolutely critical to getting the information needed to create or improve business processes. There are so many adverse situations that occur within corporate setting that could have been avoided by simply establishing channels of communications with involved parties. A good way to do this is to provide updates on the progress of the project. This c an done by collaboration software, email, phone calls, and face to face interaction. By establishing a working and efficient internal communication structure customers are more at ease with the progress and process being developed. This is essentially a status gauge that shows that all parties are involved and have a say in what is happening. An article released by press wire gives a good example of how companies are understanding the importance of internal communications and the role of business intelligence in it. Based on the trends within industry the article shows how the shift of technology has affected the way internal communications are done between IT and the various corporate departments. What has occurred in recent years is the need for new strategy development with business intelligence as key factors in these strategies (Business intelligence..,2001). From a corporate standpoint these new strategies have ushered in a different perspective of IT individuals in the workplace. No longer are individuals that work with databases left out of conference calls a nd meetings that determine company direction. The article clearly explains that the need for individuals with technical and corporate goal understanding need to have an opinion in new processes and strategies. These individuals are becoming more and more important because of their perspective on how technology is being used in the marketplace. The final portion of the article by press wire addresses an important decision the  transitioning companies have to make. The authors emphasize that decisions makers need to reshape their perspective of units like business intelligence and truly value the opinions that are being shared. If this perception of the average IT worker from the 1970’s continues to permeate a company’s upper level management the likelihood of less opportunities and more threats to occur is much more likely than competitors who are understand the shift (Business intelligence..,2001). Business Intelligence Outlook From a sustainable field outlook the question has been raised is whether business intelligence as a field is here to stay. In any profession this question has been and will be asked as the world changes. No profession is one hundred percent guaranteed that the field will continue to be useful to the society in which operates. This simple truth puts into perspective the fragility of any profession. In regards to business intelligence determining whether the field is going to progress for years to come is difficult. Currently, the demand for business intelligence employees and or software is currently high. With many top competitors in various industries searching for ways to cut cost and improve efficiency the current market outlook is good. On the flip side of this equation the risk for business intelligence to improve itself out of a job is a definite possibility. With new software’s being created the technical barrier created by big data is beginning to slowly fall. The threat to the field is that companies will purchase a customer based software that provides cookie cutter reports that can be used by non-IT users to make business decisions. An article by the journal of Journal of International Technology and Information Management touches on this topic and describes how measuring the effectiveness of business intelligence on a company can determine its future market outlook. The authors take a detailed look at how in some situations a business intelligence department has been effective for some companies while for others the effectiveness has been limited (Vinekar,Teng, Chennamaneni , 2009). The important factors that the authors cite for effectiveness center on corporate understanding of the role of business intelligence, implementation, defined goals, and perceived value opinion. Each of these factors are cited because of they are all touched at the inception of the business intelligence unit within the company. Without these factors being addressed correctly the ability for a business intelligence unit to operate effectively is severely hampered. The first of these factor is the identity of the department. Just like meeting a person for the first time the impression created on the meeting is what defines the perception of the relationship. The article talks about how it is the responsibility of those implementing the unit to clearly lay out the benefit that the department will bring to the company as a whole. These individuals include directors and manager. This push stage is the first step in gauging whether business intelligence will be effective within a company. If corporate leaders understand the benefit of the unit and put their support behind it the initial reaction is more likely to be positive than negative. The caution that is applied to this phase is that if there isn’t top down approval the unit will not succeed. The authors strongly emphasize the need for an executive push at the inception of the business intelligence unit (Vinekar,Teng, Chennamaneni , 2009). The second factor discussed by the authors is the implementation phase of a business intelligence unit. This is the first step to making a concerted effort for a business intelligence impact on a company. The authors talk about how this phase needs to be handled in a way that allows for immediate impact. The rational for this approach is that if the business intelligence unit can prove its value at inception the perceived value of the unit will be cemented in its early success. With this approach the authors also caution at the risks involved. If the unit is not prepared the likelihood of error is high. Just like the  perceived value of the unit based on a positive rollout the same can occur for a negative one. The authors are adamant in their idea that to make a good impact the unit needs to be prepared and aware of the tentative situation in which the unit is placed on the onset. The third factor is defined goals. The unit needs be able to clearly express their goals for improving the company’s internal and external business processes. The article describes how the focus of the department needs to be grounded in the goals and direction set at the onset. This allows for an immediate understanding of what the unit hopes to achieve. The authors caution that without clear goals for the department the unit will not be able to work succinctly. The final and most important factor discussed in the article is the perceived value opinion of the business intelligence unit from the rest of the company. This perceived value is critical for unit to be able to provide opinions and trusted data. The reason cited by the authors why this value opinion is most important is because the opinion can be had by every employee within the company. The simple truth is that with more eyes watching the unit there is a higher level of critique applied to the actions done by the business intelligence unit (Vinekar,Teng, Chennamaneni , 2009). Departmental Goal Impact In most businesses the unit structure is broken out into various departments that meet company specific needs. Examples of these include accounting, budgeting, marketing, human resources, RD, and many more. These departments all do things that are subject specific but require a certain level of overlap with the rest of the company. For example the budgeting and accounting departments are joined at various stages of the financials that the company uses. Having an understanding of these departments is very important from the perspective of the business intelligence unit. The reason business intelligence units need to grasp the subject impact as well as overall impact of departments is because the processes built usually touch more than one specific department. What this means is that a data analyst needs to be able to determine what is best for not just one department but for all parties involved. With a macro perspective of the company the business intelligence units are able to impact broad groupings of departments. This in itself is a big benefit to the company as a whole. The reason for this is because the improved processes help promote better interaction between departments. This is like connecting various standalone silos to each other with an agreed on process. An article that addresses this departmental impact comes straight from the Business Intelligence Journal. The whole premise of the article is the authors argue that by assimilating business intelligence units into departments these units can change the departments core business practices. This can be done by embedding individuals from the business intelligence department into other departments through the company (Elbashir Williams , 2007). The authors lay out a plan for making sure the company gets the best benefit when the embed business intelligence personnel in a different department. The authors talk about how it is important to make sure an understanding of the units function is clearly laid down before the unit is implemented. The importance of this is that the departments understand the business intelligence units are not directly under the units they are embedded in. The article makes it clear that to make the relationship work between the BI unit and the department the BI unit cannot be under the department they are servicing. The rational for this is that if the BI unit is under their own department they will be less inclined to favor a department when building a business process for multiple departments. This is important because it allows the business intelligence employees to say no to things that might be requested out of ignorance or selfishness. The second step for success when embedding a BI unit is to establish the  relationship. The authors describe how important it is to set up the way communication is supposed to occur. In most situations it is important to have the directors of the department as the individuals responsible for setting up the proper channels. The benefit of this is that it forces employees to acknowledge the support of the department’s directors. This means the BI unit will be able to get the information they need from department employees to formulate effective business process improvements (Elbashir Williams , 2007). The final piece that the article discusses is how much leeway the BI unit has to make departmental decisions. In some cases the BI unit make most improvement decisions based on technology understanding and departmental trust. In others the unit has little leeway and requires approvals from the department to enact improvements. Whichever way the process is set up it is important to have that clearly explained and understood by all parties involved to avoid confusion (Elbashir Williams , 2007). Tiers of maturity. In the business intelligence community there are various levels of maturity associated based on the length of time the unit has been in service to the company. Each of these levels are determined based on the progress the unit has made. These level begin at inception and end at forecasting. It is important to recognize these levels to determine the progress the department is making in the company that it is being utilized in. These levels are broken out into three specific categories. These are the inception phase, the break even stage, and the forecasting stage. Each of these stages is unique and presents its own set of challenges to the business intelligence unit. The most critical phase is the inception phase. Since this phase is what spawns the impact that the BI unit makes it is critical that it goes well. During the inception phase of the unit the challenges presented center on assimilation to the company. The unit must be able to find their place within the work environment if they are going to effective in the company. By analyzing company needs prior to actually meeting and planning with departments the unit can have a head start on how to make an immediate  impact on their departmental customers. The second tier is thoroughly described in an article by a group of authors writing for Information Technology and Management. This group of authors describes how the second phase of maturity is centered on getting to a point of break even. This term refers to the business intelligence unit being able to complete/automate enough critical tasks that they are able to look begin forecasting (Zeng Duan, 2012). During this second phase the authors stress the importance of consistency and performance. These two ideas are what the authors believe drive the unit towards a proactive mindset and away from a reactive mindset. This transition of thought processes is what make this phase important. Once a unit can break though to a state of mind that is forward looking they can begin to develop ideas that will prevent problems before they happen and predict future opportunities before they occur (Zeng Duan, 2012). The final phase is briefly addressed in the article and deals with the forecasting and future opportunities phase. This is tier of maturity that each business intelligence unit strives to get to at some point in its existence. With this phase the unit is able to think more creatively and follow leads and trails into data that could provide beneficial to the company (Zeng Duan, 2012). The conclusion makes a final point in regards to the level of maturity. The point made is that these levels once attained are not concrete. With the ever changing needs of the company as well as the creation of new technologies the department can easily waver between different tiers. The authors suggest that having a proactive approach is the best way to stay at the highest level of maturity for the longest periods of time (Zeng Duan, 2012). Marketplace perspective The final point of this literature review centers on the industries perception of business intelligence as a whole. This perception is what drives the demand for business intelligence within the workforce. If  industry believe the benefit of a business intelligence department is greater than the cost then demand for these units will be high. If the value garnered is perceived as minimal then the field will falter. The real question that the marketplace has been asking falls on longevity. There has been speculation the technology will eventually push this field out into the cold. This would be done by platforms that mimic the various functions and responsibilities that are currently being held by business intelligence employees. If this happens the need for large quantities of analysts would no longer be needed. An article written by Chen talks about the perspective of business intelligence by outside entities. He looks at how a business intelligence unit can provide a competitive a dvantage to a company based on the agility it affords. He argues that by having units that can provide data quickly the competitive advantage created is enough to sway popular opinion into the positive (Chen, 2012). Chen talks about the need for business intelligence units and his belief that the agility of these units will continue to drive demand. His entire argument is based on the unit’s ability to adapt to new technology and processes quickly enough to afford decision makers consistent windows of opportunity. Chen’s belief is that no matter how advanced technology gets the need for individuals to understand and communicate it to decision makers will always be needed. Chen concludes by describing how business intelligence units need to maintain a high level of flexibility. He addresses the issue of complacency and warns that if laziness creeps into the department then shifting technology will engulf the department. The real value is the ability to quickly analyze and develop a well thought out process that improves the current one using the existing resources at their disposal (Chen, 2012). Conclusion Business intelligence at its very core is business process improvement. This can be done through many different ways but the concept never changes. An individual working in a business intelligence department always ask the question, â€Å"How can I make this process better?† This simple phrase is the core of what business intelligence is and what it will always be. There are many companies that understand the importance of business intelligence. These companies have realized how important it is to strive for a lean work  environment. This is achieved by isolating areas of work that can be automated or improved through the efforts of business intelligence units. The impact that can be made by tasking a unit to think through a process from every perspective and redesign it to meet current needs can be a massive benefit. In conclusion, there are many areas in which business intelligence can be utilized to benefit a company. From data management to data security business intelligence departments are meeting the needs of companies as today’s technology moves faster and faster into the future. It remains to be seen whether these units will become a staple of the workplace but their current impact has been instrumental to the information technology industry as a whole. Reference Bank of america company statistics. (2014, March 3). Retrieved from http://www.statisticbrain.com/bank-of-america-company-statistics/ BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE: Internal communication excellence is critical to business success. (2001, Jun 29). M2 PresswireRetrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/444695082?accountid=12085 Chen, X. (2012). Impact of business intelligence and IT infrastructure flexibility on competitive advantage: An organizational agility perspective. (Order No. 3522073, The University of Nebraska Lincoln). ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, , 124. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1035336826?accountid=12085. (1035336826). Computer software; business data analysis provides key to delivering successful workforce planning strategies. (2012).Marketing Weekly News, , 286. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/926791455?accountid=12085 Debes, H. (2005). Business intelligence for the bottom line. Energy Markets, 10(4), 36-38. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/228760265?accountid=12085 Elbashir, M., Williams, S. (2007, Fourth). BI impact: The assimilation of business intelligence into core business processes.Business Intelligence Journal, 12, 45-54. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/222617043?accountid=12085 Jordan, J., Ellen, C. (2009). Business need, data and business intelligence. Journal of Digital Asset Management, 5(1), 10-20. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/dam.2008.53 King, E. (1998, October). The business intelligence technology shift. Enterprise Systems Journal, 13(10), 17+. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA21260167v=2.1u=vic_libertyit=rp=CDBsw=wasid=6f3bfaa58245586c92ea5fb6ad499092 Rowe, D. (2000). Business intelligence trend leads DBMS growth. Technology in Government, 7(4), 17. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/206108771?accountid=12085 Rudin, K. (2007). On-demand business intelligence. DM Review, 17(8), 26. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/214676633?accountid=12085 Schwartz, S. (2007). BI 2.0 the next generation of business intelligence tools will be integrated within business processes themselves, enabling improved forecasting and real-time data analysis. Insurance Technology, 32(4), 41-44. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/229300747?accountid=12085 Vinekar, V., Teng, J. T. C., Chennamaneni, A. (2009). The interaction of business intelligence and knowledge management in organizational decision-making. Journal of International Technology and Information Management, 18(2), 143-159. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/205859311?accountid=12085 Zeng, L., Li, L., Duan, L. (2012). Business intelligence in enterprise computing environment. Information Technology and Management, 13(4), 297-310. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10799-012-0123-z

Rome vs. Han Essay Example for Free

Rome vs. Han Essay Rome and Han were two classical civilizations which collapsed in many similar ways. For instance, they were similar because they both had problems protecting their borders from invading nomads, which helped lead to their demise. Also, another similarity is how the empires split and create provinces. Although, there were similarities between these civilizations, there were also many differences. One difference between the fall of the Han and the Roman empires is how China had the ability to revive itself and return to its former glory under a new dynasty after the fall of the Han, and the land of the Roman Empire never regained its previous power. Another difference is the matter of isolation, and how it effects China and how being a trade forerunner in the Mediterranean helps the empire. First, one similarity between the fall of the Han and the Roman Empires is the problem of expansion. Expansion allows an empire to gain wealth and prosperity by expanding their control over land and trade routes. Although, the larger and empire becomes, the harder it is to maintain its boundaries and is also more susceptible to invasion by other empires or nomadic tribes. Both empires had to build walls to protect the northern side of the empire. Rome spread its borders to wide for them to control, so as Germanic invaders started to invade from the north, Rome couldn’t protect its borders which ranged from Macedonia to the Indus River Valley.The Han also had a similar problem with herders from the north. Many would invade small peasant villages and pillage whatever they needed or wanted. With a current problem of feeding the countries large population, this didn’t help matters, actually it only made matters worse. Riots and mobs formed which stormed major cities until finally the Han fell and China was split into three kingdoms similar to Rome being split into two kingdoms. Rome and Han had many differences as well as similarities. One difference is after the decline China was revived during the Ting dynasty, and brought back to a unified state while the lands of the Roman Empire was never able to reach its former height after the Germanic tribes invaded from the north. Although, the Eastern half of the Roman empire, the Byzantines survived and strengthened over the next thousand years. Another difference between the Roman and the Han empires is isolation. China was isolated by mountains and  deserts to the west. This provided not only a natural barrier against invasions, but it helped create an isolation from the many other classical civilizations. Rome, on the other hand, was not isolated, it sat mostly on the Italian peninsula, which jutted out into the Mediterranean Sea, a forerunner in sea trade. China being isolated created a problem with the economy, where the governments money only came from the taxation of the peasants and citizens. This depleted the money of the peasants and lower class, and still, the government didn’t have enough money to run properly. This effected the outcome of the invasion of the Huns which helped lead to the Han downfall because the government didn’t have enough money to pay for military action. Both the Roman Empire and Han Dynasty arose and expanded to become superpowers of their time, but at the end of their reign, China fell as it will do with many other dynasties after the Han, but still revive itself and create new. China has done this up to modern times, but Rome never recovers and will never become the superpower it once was again. It is amazing though how two civilizations that are completely isolated from each other can be so similar though, and still influence the world we live in today.

PR1MA Group Housing Affordability

PR1MA Group Housing Affordability AFFORDABILITY RATE AMONG PR1MA RECIPIENTS IN PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA Nur Aini Syafawani Binti Umar1 ,Shirley Tan2 and Mohd Zairul bin Mohd Nor3 Master of Architecture (M. Arch) Faculty of Design and Architecture University Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Abstract A house is one of the basic important needs for humans. According to Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 17, Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. Affordable housing is housing that balance with the average household income and as the rule of thumb, housing is considered affordable if the costs is less than 30% of gross household income. The increasing in housing prices cause imbalance between housing affordability and household income which has becomes the dilemmas for the young starters to buy their first house. Malaysian government has introduced several affordable housing policies to facilitate home ownership among different groups of household income. However, the policies which only benefit the low-income household group have neglected the needs for affordable housing for middle income group. PR1MA housing policy is one of the methods of policies aimed at ensuring that all eligible Malaysians are given chance towar ds home ownership. Therefore, this study is to investigate the rate of affordability among young home owner of PR1MA in Federal Territory of Putrajaya using the survey method; pilot survey, a preliminary survey to gather information in smaller scale and personal interview survey to explore the responses of the respondents to gather deeper information towards understanding factors influencing rate of affordability. The findings establish that the main housing issue faced by the middle-income groups are housing price and household expenditure. Hence, it is recommended to address these issues in designing an affordable scheme for the middle-income groups based on the findings of the study. Keywords: housing, affordability 1.0 INTRODUCTION In the recent years, rapid economic development has leads to population growth and this has resulted in the increasing demand for residential housing at urban city in Malaysia. The increasing of housing prices has become the dilemma of the young starters which falls under middle income group to buy their first house. Most of the young starters are having difficulties to secure a mortgage from the final institution. Despite many assistance from the government to assist the young starters to own their dream house, the affordable issue still haunting the target group for realizing their dreams. The main purpose of this paper is to study the rate of affordability among eligible young starters for PR1MA program. The Government of Malaysia aware that housing is a basic need for every citizen and is an important element in contributing for the urban economy. PR1MA housing policy is one of the methods of policies aimed at ensuring that all eligible Malaysians are given chance towards home ownership. According to general PR1MA guidelines, those eligible to apply for PR1MA homes are Malaysians owning not more than one home and having a gross household income of not more than RM7, 500 per month. The PR1MA apartments in Putrajaya were certainly popular with over 7,000 applications received for 560 apartments (PR1MAs website, 2017). As a result, PR1MA housing in Putrajaya was chosen as our pilot study and this study aims to investigate the rate of affordability among the young starter who are eligible for the PR1MA housing program. Therefore, the objectives of the present study are: To identify the average household income expenditure among young starter who are eligible to apply PR1MA houses. To identify the affordability issue over PR1MA housing price among young starter 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW Affordability means differently to renters and owners. Although every group in the housing market is affected by the mortgage rates, owners are affected much more as compare to the renters (CVRDs Regional Growth Strategy, 2016). Several studies or research have been done to understand what does affordable housing mean in this context. The definition of affordable housing is the subject of different analyses and debates among experts (Baqutaya, 2016). Upon the debates, definition of affordable housing is a housing that is considered affordable if the debt service ratio is 30% of the income expenditure (Zairul, 2017). Families that pay more, especially lower and medium income families, are considered cost burdened because they may have difficulty paying for non-housing needs such as food, clothing, transportation, childcare, and medical care (Gary Pivo, 2013). Rate of affordability was measured by house price to income ratio according to Median Multiple methodology (Cagamas, 2013). The definition of affordability is essential before further analyzing the root cause of housing affordability. Issues relating to affordable housing has becomes a dilemmas among low and middle income group. The root cause of affordability among the group was due to the increase of non-housing expenditure by 4.7% based on the Consumer Price Index (Cagamas, 2013). Affordability is mainly defined by the relationship between household expenditure and income. Many authors (Yates and Gabriel, 2006; Carney and Boyle, 2004) argues that housing affordability is affected by the distribution of house prices, household incomes and the structure of financing costs.  Based on the growth of current housing scenario in Malaysia, the issue has been underpinned by the interface of three forces; growing population, high rates of urbanization and growing economy. The imbalance between demand and supply, particularly in the affordable housing segment, has contributed to a high increase in housing prices. This has compounded housing affordability issues, particularly for the low and middle income population (Eco nomic Developments, 2015). Malaysian government has introduced several affordable housing policies to facilitate home ownership among different groups of household income. However, little is done to attend the needs of the middle income group. Despite economic growth, 60% of the middle income group is young starters and majority of their income level falls under lower middle category (Dr. Azriyati, Dr. Rosly and Dr Kuppusamy, 2013). The increasing in housing prices, household expenditure and the lacking of more affordable housing policies AFFORDABILITY RATE AMONG PR1MA RECIPIENTS IN PUTRAJAYA, MALAYSIA Nur Aini Syafawani Binti Umar1 ,Shirley Tan2 and Mohd Zairul bin Mohd Nor3 Master of Architecture (M. Arch) Faculty of Design and Architecture University Putra Malaysia, 43400 Serdang, Selangor Abstract A house is one of the basic important needs for humans. According to Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), Article 17, Everyone has the right to own property alone as well as in association with others. Affordable housing is housing that balance with the average household income and as the rule of thumb, housing is considered affordable if the costs is less than 30% of gross household income. The increasing in housing prices cause imbalance between housing affordability and household income which has becomes the dilemmas for the young starters to buy their first house. Malaysian government has introduced several affordable housing policies to facilitate home ownership among different groups of household income. However, the policies which only benefit the low-income household group have neglected the needs for affordable housing for middle income group. PR1MA housing policy is one of the methods of policies aimed at ensuring that all eligible Malaysians are given chance towar ds home ownership. Therefore, this study is to investigate the rate of affordability among young home owner of PR1MA in Federal Territory of Putrajaya using the survey method; pilot survey, a preliminary survey to gather information in smaller scale and personal interview survey to explore the responses of the respondents to gather deeper information towards understanding factors influencing rate of affordability. The findings establish that the main housing issue faced by the middle-income groups are housing price and household expenditure. Hence, it is recommended to address these issues in designing an affordable scheme for the middle-income groups based on the findings of the study. Keywords: housing, affordability 1.0 INTRODUCTION In the recent years, rapid economic development has leads to population growth and this has resulted in the increasing demand for residential housing at urban city in Malaysia. The increasing of housing prices has become the dilemma of the young starters which falls under middle income group to buy their first house. Most of the young starters are having difficulties to secure a mortgage from the final institution. Despite many assistance from the government to assist the young starters to own their dream house, the affordable issue still haunting the target group for realizing their dreams. The main purpose of this paper is to study the rate of affordability among eligible young starters for PR1MA program. The Government of Malaysia aware that housing is a basic need for every citizen and is an important element in contributing for the urban economy. PR1MA housing policy is one of the methods of policies aimed at ensuring that all eligible Malaysians are given chance towards home ownership. According to general PR1MA guidelines, those eligible to apply for PR1MA homes are Malaysians owning not more than one home and having a gross household income of not more than RM7, 500 per month. The PR1MA apartments in Putrajaya were certainly popular with over 7,000 applications received for 560 apartments (PR1MAs website, 2017). As a result, PR1MA housing in Putrajaya was chosen as our pilot study and this study aims to investigate the rate of affordability among the young starter who are eligible for the PR1MA housing program. Therefore, the objectives of the present study are: To identify the average household income expenditure among young starter who are eligible to apply PR1MA houses. To identify the affordability issue over PR1MA housing price among young starter 2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW Affordability means differently to renters and owners. Although every group in the housing market is affected by the mortgage rates, owners are affected much more as compare to the renters (CVRDs Regional Growth Strategy, 2016). Several studies or research have been done to understand what does affordable housing mean in this context. The definition of affordable housing is the subject of different analyses and debates among experts (Baqutaya, 2016). Upon the debates, definition of affordable housing is a housing that is considered affordable if the debt service ratio is 30% of the income expenditure (Zairul, 2017). Families that pay more, especially lower and medium income families, are considered cost burdened because they may have difficulty paying for non-housing needs such as food, clothing, transportation, childcare, and medical care (Gary Pivo, 2013). Rate of affordability was measured by house price to income ratio according to Median Multiple methodology (Cagamas, 2013). The definition of affordability is essential before further analyzing the root cause of housing affordability. Issues relating to affordable housing has becomes a dilemmas among low and middle income group. The root cause of affordability among the group was due to the increase of non-housing expenditure by 4.7% based on the Consumer Price Index (Cagamas, 2013). Affordability is mainly defined by the relationship between household expenditure and income. Many authors (Yates and Gabriel, 2006; Carney and Boyle, 2004) argues that housing affordability is affected by the distribution of house prices, household incomes and the structure of financing costs.  Based on the growth of current housing scenario in Malaysia, the issue has been underpinned by the interface of three forces; growing population, high rates of urbanization and growing economy. The imbalance between demand and supply, particularly in the affordable housing segment, has contributed to a high increase in housing prices. This has compounded housing affordability issues, particularly for the low and middle income population (Eco nomic Developments, 2015). Malaysian government has introduced several affordable housing policies to facilitate home ownership among different groups of household income. However, little is done to attend the needs of the middle income group. Despite economic growth, 60% of the middle income group is young starters and majority of their income level falls under lower middle category (Dr. Azriyati, Dr. Rosly and Dr Kuppusamy, 2013). The increasing in housing prices, household expenditure and the lacking of more affordable housing policies  for the middle group declining the rate of affordability for home ownership. Towards resolving affordable housing issues, the National Housing Policy (NHP) has been established to outline the direction and form the basis for the planning and development of the housing sector at the federal, state, and local levels (10th Malaysia Plan, 2009). The NHP is introduced to provide sufficient and affordable houses to improve the well-being of the people as well as tackling the issues and challenges faced by the housing industry today (Dato Ahmad, 2009). However, the NHP targeting on the affordability issue for all level of income group which is the low and middle income group. Targeting on the middle income group, the type of available affordable housing scheme by the government is as follows: Table 1: Schemes for middle income group in Malaysia. Adapted from: Zairul (2017) My First Home Scheme (SRP) PR1MA PPA1M Eligibility Income limit for individual loans from RM 3,000 to RM5,000 per month or joint household incomes for up to RM10,000 per month. Eligibility to own property costs up to RM400,000 Malaysian citizen Total individual or household income (husband wife) between RM2,500 to RM15,000 monthly Single or Married Owns no more than 1 property between the applicants and applicants spouse, if any RM90,000-RM120,000 (joint income and not more than RM6000) RM150,000-RM220,000 (joint income not more than RM10,000) RM221,000-RM260,000 (joint income not more than RM10,000) 18-35 years old and first-time buyers 21 years old and above 18-60 years old (for government servant only) Table 1 shows the available schemes for middle income group in Malaysia. Most of the middle income group consists of young starters who could not afford to buy their first house and at the same time, they are not eligible for low cost housing. This study will focus on the PR1MA housing policy which is aimed at ensuring the middle income group are given chance towards home ownership. In conclusion, affordability expresses the challenge each household faces in balancing the household income and household expenditure. Affordable housing schemes launched by the government was to promote affordability in all levels of income group. Towards realizing of home ownership, little has been done to cater the needs of housing for the middle income group. Even though the middle income group are eligible for purchasing affordable house from the affordable housing scheme, but their affordability does not depends only on the eligibility but also influenced by the household expenditure. It is important for the government to revise the term affordability to ensure the affordable housing scheme is able to balance with the income level of the group. 3.0 METHODOLOGY The study was conducted by three methods: 1) desk review; 2) process analysis; 3) in-depth interview. This paper started by first understanding the definition of affordability through the method of desk review by searching relevant information on the meaning of affordability in local context. The definition of affordable housing is the subject of different analyses and debates among experts (Baqutaya, 2016). The source of reading materials was also searched through desk review. Types of affordable housing scheme available, the eligibility of the policies related, and the current issue of housing affordability was focused in this method. The second method was process analysis which involves the collection of data through questionnaire survey and in-depth interview. The questionnaire survey were done among the young home owners of PR1MA in Putrajaya to determine age, occupation, and income bracket. In-depth interview was carried out to further study and is essential to review on factors influencing housing affordability among young starters. Thus, the questions were more detail and specified on the household expenses and in-depth understanding about affordability. 4.0 DATA ANALYSIS This survey divided the study into two sections; The income category of current young starters as home owners of PR1MA affordable house unit and, The category household size of the young starter. The survey with young starters involved two sessions, starting with a pilot study conducted among the young home owners of PR1MA house in Putrajaya. The next session involved an in-depth interview with the young starters to study the factors that would influence the rate of affordability. The pilot study was conducted to determine age, occupation, and income bracket. Criteria for the selection of the respondents included the following: 1) young professionals age between 21 to 35 years old; household income or combined income not exceeding RM7500 monthly; 3) home owner of PR1MA house in Putrajaya. Total number of young starter respondents from the current PR1MA home owners according to income category surveyed is as shown in Table 1. From the survey conducted, 60% of the respondents with household income range from RM2500 to RM4000, 20% range from RM4001 to RM6000, 10% with income ranging RM6001 to RM7000 and 10% from RM7000 to RM7500. Table 2: Distribution of Young Starter Survey PR1MA Respondents by Household Income Income Category Number of response Percentage RM2500-RM4000 6 60% RM4001-RM6000 2 20% RM6001-RM7000 1 10% RM7001-RM7500 1 10% Total 10 100% The second session with the young starters involves an in-depth interview. During the interview session, the emphasis was on the factors influencing the rate of affordability. The category of household size of the young starter determines the percentage of household expenses from household income monthly. The interview feedback was used to study 1) the price of PR1MA house bought, 2) types of household expenses involved monthly, 3) alternative used by the young home owners to lessen mortgage burden. Table 3 shows the household size of the current young starter of PR1MA home owners. 50% of the young respondents are single, 20% of them are married without having children and 20% are with married status and blessed with one children. Only 10% of the respondents with higher household size with two or more children in a family. Table 3: Distribution of Young Starter Survey PR1MA Respondents by Household Size Household Size Number of response Percentage Single 5 50% Married with no children 2 20% Married and have 1 children 2 20% Married and have 2 or more children 1 10% Total 10 100% 5.0 FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS According to a study from Azriyati (2013), middle income households can be categorized into three sub-categories; Low-Middle Income, Middle-Middle Income and Upper-Middle Income. Table 4: Categorization Income for Middle Income Group. Extracted from Azriyati (2013) City Income Category Lower-Middle Middle-Middle Upper-Middle Kuala Lumpur RM2001-4000 RM4001-RM6000 RM6001-RM8000 Table 4 shows the sub-categorization of middle income group. The income category for lower-middle group is RM2001 to RM4000; middle-middle group is RM4001 to RM6000; and upper-middle is RM6001 to RM8000. In relation to table 1, 60% of the respondents falls under lower-middle income category; 20% falls under middle-middle income category; and the remaining 20% falls under upper-middle income category. It can be concluded that majority of the young starters income category falls under lower-middle income category which is near to the bottom line of low income group. Table 5: Calculation of affordability rate among Malaysians. (Source: flexZhouse, Zairul (2017)) CASE 1 CASE 2 CASE 3 CASE 4 PROPERTY PRICES RM500,000 RM400,000 RM280,000 RM150,000 Net pay (household) RM7,500 RM7,000 RM8,000 RM5,500 Less: statutory deductions Income tax RM225 RM210 RM240 RM165 EPF contributions (8%) RM825 RM770 RM880 RM605 Net take-home pay RM6,450 RM6,020 RM6,880 RM4,730 Less: monthly commitment Mortgage Installments (6% for 30 years) RM2,700 RM2,160 RM1,512 RM810 Utilities RM300 RM300 RM300 RM300 Car hire-purchase (one car) RM800 RM800 RM800 RM800 Petrol and maintenance for one car RM1,000 RM600 RM600 RM600 Food and other expenses RM1,000 RM1,000 RM1,000 RM1,000 Childcare (one person) RM800 RM800 RM800 RM800 Insurance plan (RM200 per pax) RM200 RM200 RM450 RM450 Parents (RM200 per pax) RM400 RM400 RM400 RM400 Net savings (-RM600) (-RM490) RM1,018 RM430 Household to income ratio 5.56 4.76 2.92 2.27 From the table above, the calculation was based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), 2013 which has increased by 4.7% (Cagamas,2013). The calculation above illustrates the typical monthly expenses of young starters in Malaysia. Against this scenario, the acceptable range for affordability current middle income home owners is between RM150,000 and RM280,000 (Zairul, 2017). Table 6 shows the price to income category determining the affordable rate. Table 6: Ratio of House Price to Household Income (Source: Cagamas Berhad, 2013) Category House Price to Income Ratio Severely Unaffordable 5.1 Above Seriously Unaffordable 4.1 to 5.0 Moderately Unaffordable 3.1 to 4.0 Affordable 3.0 Below The house price for PR1MA house unit at Putrajaya are based on two prices, RM120,000 for 815 sqft and RM150,000 for 1,006 sqft according to the feedback through interview conducted. Table 6 shows the calculation of affordability rate among young home owners of PR1MA house in Putrajaya based on the data analysis section. It was learned that 60% of the young home owners income range falls under lower-middle income category. From table 7, both case shows negative disposable income of the PR1MA young home owners which is -RM1,174 and -RM1,218. In relation to data obtained and showed in table 3, the household size of the respondents contributes to household expenditure base on the feedback from the interview. As the rule of thumb, the housing is considered affordable if the debt service ratio is 30% of the income expenditure (Zairul,2017). Table 7: Calculation of affordability rate among young home owners of PR1MA house. Adapted from Zairul (2017) CASE 1 CASE 2 PROPERTY PRICES RM120,000 RM150,000 Net pay (household) RM2,800 RM4,000 Less: statutory deductions Income tax RM120 EPF contributions (8%) RM224 RM288 Net take-home pay RM2,576 RM3,312 Less: monthly commitment Mortgage Installments (6% for 30 years) RM670 RM810 Utilities RM80 RM300 Car hire-purchase (one car) RM800 RM800 Petrol and maintenance for one car RM600 RM600 Food and other expenses RM1,000 RM1,000 Childcare (one person) RM800 Insurance plan (RM200 per pax) RM200 RM200 Parents (RM200 per pax) 400 RM400 Net savings (-RM1,174) (-RM1,218) Household to income ratio Figure 1: Non-Affordability Rate among Young Starter of PR1MA Figure 1 shows data analysis derived from the relationship between income category (table 1) and affordability rate calculation (table 7). Based on the results obtained, 60% of the middle-income group falls under lower-middle income category and the rate of affordability was calculated based on the income range of this category which is between RM2500 to RM4000. The results show the non-affordability for this income category. Figure 1 demonstrates the PR1MA young home owners under income range from RM2500 to RM4000 shows the highest percentage of non-affordability whereas the income category from RM6001 to RM7500 shows the least percentage. Figure 2: Types of Alternative to Increase Household Income Figure 2 demonstrates different alternatives taken by the young owners of PR1MA despite the non-affordability burden. Freelance is the most common way to increase household income and shows the highest percentage which is 70%. Other alternative such as renting out room, part-time insurance agent, and overtime stands 10% respectively. Base on the findings, the rate of affordability was affected by the monthly household income. However, based on the survey conducted, the household expenditure which has incl