Wk2 econ Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Wk2 econ - Essay Example The slope is usually concave from the origin, which means, that opportunity costs increase with increasing production of a good. In the example above the Production Possibility Frontier is a straight line, which represents constant opportunity costs for different combination of goods production (Mankiw, 2011). Trade plays important role in reducing poverty in developing countries and increasing their growth rates. According to European Commission trade gives the following advantages to the developing countries: it increases commercial opportunities of a country; contributes to improvement of value chain of a product, which makes it more competitive; promotes innovations in the country; increases investments into the country; expands export of local producers to other countries; generates employment opportunities; influences exchange of experience and strengthens economic and social ties between developing and developed countries (European Commission,

Analysis of Context and Critical Evaluation Essay

Analysis of Context and Critical Evaluation - Essay Example This makes it easy for an organization like Ford to adapt easily to meet evolving needs. The eternal environment of an organization contains social and economic conditions which play a crucial role in the process of decision making by the executive. These factors must be incorporated with the requirements of the stakeholders which are often inconsistent. Execution of decision in top organizations requires a broad approach and skills. Strategic management cannot be separated from organizational success. Introduction Strategic management refers to decisions and actions that aim at formulation and execution of initiatives in order to achieve the objectives of the corporation. Henry Ford founded the company in 1903 in Michigan, USA. The company pioneered in the use of the moving assembly line. The company had a market share of 50 percent. In 1956, the company went public. This was greatly influenced by the company’s growth coupled with a significant presence in the automotive mark et around the world. However, the company has not been doing well for the last one decade. This has been contributed by a product portfolio that is below par. Allan Mullaly became the chief executive in the year 2006. The company was functioning as detached entities in the United States, Australia, Europe and other regions. The move impacted the company negatively because of the huge operational expenses incurred. Reports indicate that the cost of developing a single vehicle from the scratch was approximately $800 (Ford 2012). The new top executive was duty bound to come up with strategies that were cost effective and profitable to the running of the organization. The new organizational leadership was compelled to come with strategies that would make the company globally competitive. Mullaly altered the structure of Ford’s management structure. This included transforming the company’s operations from regional ineffective company branches to an integrated globally compe titive organization. The company came up with the one-ford initiative whose aim was to reduce time spent in duplication and focus in high quality products instead. The new organizational strategy intended to make the Ford company products high quality and appealing to the global market. Ford’s business strategy focused on how to make a broad and sustainable strategy in order to remain competitive (Hoffman 2013). The rise in fuel prices and green technologies had called for a change of strategy in the motor vehicle industry. Ford Company decided to invest in development of affordable vehicles in the face of an organizational crisis that amounted to debt (Hoffman 2013). The company decided to break from using few important products to multiple affordable and accessible products. Ford was able to establish that most of the loyal customers across the world wanted safety, reliable brands and after sales service for customers (Hoffman 2013). Ford Company differentiated itself from other companies by investing in R & D. features like my-ford-touch and sync were only affordable in expensive vehicles. Ford Company has made products affordable to common man. The strategy has made a difference as the company has increased motor vehicle sales. The Ford used the One-ford strategy to simplify the brand structure. This caused the Ford strategic team to have to sell Land Rover, and Jaguar at most of the Mazda ownership. This reinvented the original Ford brand which had a high reputation when it came to safety,

With close reference to the setting Essay Example for Free

With close reference to the setting Essay With close reference to the setting of Psycho and Edward Scissor hands discuss how the directors use elements of the Gothic tradition. The gothic tradition is rooted in many great works of fiction such as, Wuthering Heights and Dracula. It comprises many distinct features including Gothic architecture, lighting and the colour black. Setting is a very important aspect of the gothic tradition. In the two film texts studied Psycho and Edward Scissor hands, the directors have used the gothic tradition to create interesting effects. To define the word gothic when being used in the form of a novel, one can say that it contains supernatural or horrifying events. Alfred Hitchcock the director of Psycho, uses many effective camera shots throughout the film to add depth and tension to the atmosphere of the scene that the viewer can easily relate to. For example when Marion the leading female role is traveling on the highway in her car towards the Bates Motel, prior to her arrival the scene shows a very open and light space around her. There is lots of other traffic on the same stretch of road and gives a presence of safety in numbers to the viewer. As the sunset starts to emerge the lighting dims and Hitchcock uses a medium close-up shot of Marion in the car, the focal point being her face that is the only luminous thing that can be seen. The background behind her is not clearly visible and is set to a Gothic shadow view. As she continues to drive away further from her home the weather changes to heavy rain, the whole atmosphere draws in on her and the frantic music that plays adjacent to the fantastic camera shots results in a penetrative impact upon the viewer. As she continues driving it comes to attention that there is no other traffic visible. Solitarily driving down the highway Hitchcock takes a shot that shows what Marion would see from behind the windscreen. He takes a high angle shot looking down on to the road and all that can be seen are the road markings lit up by the headlights and only stretches so far as approximately 100cm in front of the car. This gives a feeling of isolation and curiosity as to what lies on the tarmac ahead. When Marion finally pulls of the highway and into Bates Motel, one of the fist camera shots we see is of a large house in shadow. Hitchcock films it using a low angle shot to make the house look more superior and threatening, this camera technique is used to make the viewer feel vulnerable. The house is of a very Gothic nature, the lighting especially created to set the old, menacing house in a black shadow so that the outline is only visible, contrasting against the night sky. The house has a very overgrown ramshackle appearance and there are only two lights that can be seen both coming from two upstairs windows that are set closely on one of the corner rooms. The blinds of both windows are drawn and then the viewer is able to see Mothers figure as a shadow walking past the window, and almost looks like a ghost more than a human. Later, when Marion is in her cabin, Hitchcock takes a camera shot of her standing in front of a mirror. He cleverly does this to reinforce in the viewers mind the illusion that Psycho is not a film but reality as if there was a camera crew taking the shot then they would be seen also n the reflection. Hitchcock then diverts the camera to an open window beside her bed, it is almost as if it is letting the darkness in from the outside of her room and the view beyond the window frame is of the house. The house has become even darker and no visible features can be seen eg. The front door. It is completely shot in darkness and is just an outlined silhouette, next to the house stands a single very ugly drawn tree that is also in shadow, only allowing its shape to be seen due to the lighter background. This creates a very eerie feeling that the music adds to which all highly compliment the Gothic Tradition. Behind the motel is an isolated, desolate area that is largely overgrown and is where the swamp situated to dispose of Marion and her belongings lies. It is enclosed by spindly trees that have no leaves or blossom; this makes them look dead, and makes the area look unattractive. The colour black is used very much throughout this film to emphasize all the Gothic elements that Hitchcock has used to perfect the setting. When Marion accepts the invite to go and eat her dinner in the parlour from the main office, stuffed birds surround her and Hitchcock makes a particularly remarkable shot in which Marion is in the bottom right hand side of the camera and behind her left shoulder can be seen a huge owl with its wings spread out to make her look like she was its victim that it was about to pounce on, kill and eat. The stuffed birds are everywhere and those towards the ceiling almost look as though they are circling above her in flight. They are made to look even more menacing by their shadows that create a larger image of them that creates an enlarging image of them. The birds are all birds of prey and in one shot that focuses of Marion you are able to see a stuffed crow behind her which symbolizes death! At one point during this particular scene Hitchcock uses a very clever camera shot in which hes in alignment with one of the birds of prey to show that the bird is a representative of him and his evilness. The bird that represents him is then seen above two pictures of naked women who represent Marion when shes in the shower, so in a sense almost gives away what will happen next through imagery! The birds are the most Gothic features of that scene but all the other props that are used also have a Gothic appeal, for example- the swirly, long candlesticks. To emphasize the charactors of the two people Hitchcock has placed the light beside Marion so that when the camera shoots at her, her face is lit up and when it focuses on him he is in shadow and in a darkened corner away from the light. Just before he commits the murder Hitchcock takes another shot of the house on the mount using the same low angle camera technique that gives the impression of power. The two lights that were bright upstairs have now been turned down to a minimal level of lighting and dark black clouds have congregated in the background which gives a far more atmospheric feeling to the surroundings of the Motel. Hitchcock chose to make all the bathroom facilities and decoration brilliant white so there would be a bigger more lucive contrast with the blood red when Marion was stabbed to death. When she is in the shower Hitchcock always uses a medium close-up, high angle shot to show that Marion is vulnerable, small and weak. However when the camera is on Bates it looks up to him like the house and so gives him a sense of superiority as well. Edward Scissor hands the other film studied, also showed Gothic elements that had been used to create a successful effect by the Director, James Burton. Burton starts the film off with a magical fairy tale beginning where a grandmother is telling her granddaughter a bed time story. As she starts to tell it the camera shoots through snow which eventually reveals a big mansion on top of a cliff. Suburbia the small community of average people lies below the cliff and unlike the mansion that stands upon it, is a brightly coloured, happy and social place. Burton uses camera shots to depict the huge contrast between the community and the isolated, solitary house on the hill. Within the mansion walls, where the only resident is Edward Scissor hands, the camera pans through an overgrown driveway into a magical garden. As Peggy Boggs, one of the main charactors of the film enters the mansion drive the whole setting takes a vast atmospherical change. The set from being very neat and tidy, changes almost indistinguishably to an overgrown, unkept, confined garden. Such props as stone gargoyles are used to emphasise the Gothic feeling that Burton tries to pass to the audience. What strikes one as most odd and is a great contrast to Psycho is the word that Peggy Boggs uses to describe the house, she describes it as beautiful and Burton uses a high angle shot that shows a close up image of her magical facial expression as she says it. The garden although firstly thought was poorly kept takes a dramatical change as Peggy Boggs goes further in and has a huge colourful array of flowers and many thriving, healthy green bushes that have been carved in to remarkable animal figures. Burton uses this scenery to make the house seem less threatening than it did on first impressions from the start of the driveway. This scene is also taken in daylight, with a bright, shining sun and the house not shown in shadow, unlike Psycho which is essential to create an eerie, Gothic effect. Burton also makes sure that the camera focuses on the Gothic architecture and other Gothic features of the house such as the large solid, old wooden door, the big lion doorknocker that Burton makes a close up camera shot of, and the church- style windows. When Peggy Boggs enters the house, Burton shoots the camera at her on a very long, high angle. Burton uses this shot, as the area that surrounds her can also be seen and as it is all in shadow and Peggy stands in a thin channel of light that floods solitarily into the dark, gloomy room, a great contrast between light and dark can be shown. Burton then shoots around the room focusing in on Gothic related props like the old throne that has been covered in dust sheets which creates an ancient, abandoned effect towards the audience. Edward Scissor hands, which can be closely related to another famous Gothic film, Frankenstein, also shoots close up camera shots on the contraptions and machinery that have created the main character, Edward. In many other Gothic novels apart from these, bringing bodies back to life has for a long time been an obvious favourite with authors. However when methods to do this started involving science big issues were raised concerning this. The camera follows Peggy Boggs as she goes slowly up the magical, windy staircase. Here, Burton uses some of the most regularly used Gothic elements such as very low lighting, creaking noises from the stair case and floor boards after every step and cobwebs that line the hand railings. The camera looks down on her as she proceeds up the stairs which makes Peggy Boggs look small and vulnerable. Peggy wears a bright violet suit that makes her stand out clearly against her dull surroundings, Burton uses this to show the contrast of Suburbia and the mansion. When Peggy meets Edward the scenery and Edwards shy character, make this particular scene a lot less Gothic than it could have been. Although Edward appears from shadows, he can be clearly seen as half of the roof is missing letting a more than sufficient amount of light into the room. As this scene is shot in an open- aired sunny room, Burton creates a calmer atmosphere which gives the audience the impression that nothing bad is going to happen at the present. During the scene when Peggy takes Edward back to Suburbia, Burton uses a series of long, two shots which again fulfills his aim to show contrast. Against the garish scenery of Suburbia Edward really stands out as hes the only black thing in sight. Suburbia, from the outside is extremely unrealistic and delights the audience eye as this picture perfect place is unveiled. The insides of the houses are much more related to normal, realistic living which signifies the room for evil, and the charactors of Suburbias residents are far in contrast with the setting. When Peggy Boggs opens her front door to let herself and Edward in the colour scheme which is the complete opposite of Edwards signature colour comes to the audiences attention. The walls are all white washed which symbolizes purity and reflects Peggys good, generous and loving personality. Towards the end of the film the witch hunt gathers for Edward, tension builds up and the sky turns black, which is a key factor that Burton has finally used to create a sinister, Gothic atmosphere. The mansion garden, shown throughout the film to be a colourful, wonderful place, is plunged in to a deep darkness. The flowers black, the animal carved bushes threatening, and a garden that now matches the interior, of the Gothic mansion upon a hill. In these films one can conclude that both directors have tried to incorporate influences and elements of the Gothic Tradition in to the desolate and sometimes bleak film settings. In particular, the attic of the large house in which Edward Scissor hands lives and the large dark remote house where Norman Bates live, both have a strong correlation with Gothic Traditional architectural style. This is often characterized by dark 12th 16th Century castle type structures with vaulted ceilings and pointed arches. Also they have used many symbolic objects within the sets that portray themes dealing with macabre and other events typical of the genre. The lead characters in both films are to a large extent depicted as social outcasts, displaying severe psychopathic tendencies thus further reinforcing the Gothic impression created by the film sets. From studying the films I feel that they both successfully display the Gothic Tradition and the settings and other background props greatly contribute to achieve this distinctive theme.

Urban Planning Strategies in Cairo

Urban Planning Strategies in Cairo Cairo is the Egyptian capital, the largest city in Africa. It is located in the Nile Delta, 14 kilometers south of the Nile River. The most area of the city is in the east of the river and it is 120 kilometers east of the Suez Canal. The urban area is about 214 square kilometers. Great Cairo included Helwan, Maadi, Nasser, Aslamm, Ramadan City, October 6 and other satellite towns with a total area of 1200 square kilometers. The population of those satellite towns is about fifth of the countrys total. It is standing for both financial centre and transportation hub. The city is the countrys largest business and financial center. Manufacturing output value is nearly half of the country. Textile industry is the most important sector. Raw cotton material is particularly well-developed but also wool, silk, hemp textile industry. And they are followed by the food, sugar, cigarettes, cement and household appliances. There are also included traditional leather tanning, show-making, as well as gold, silver ornaments and other handicrafts. The satellite town, Helena which is 25 kilometers away from south of the city, focus on heavy industry in order to iron and steel industry. It has developed coking, machinery, automobile, motorcycle, oil and chemical sectors. Cairo gathered the national third of the trading companies and nearly a quarter of the banking, commercial and various service industries flourish. Tourism is an important part of the city economy, as directly or indirectly employed about 40 million. It also stands for an important transport hub. The nations major rail ways and roads meet at this intersection, connected Alexandria, Port Said, Ismailia, Suez, Aswan and other major cities. The Nile to the west is the major way connected through Upper and Lower Egypt. Canal Ismailia which has access to Canal Suez is just on the west side of Nile. Eastern suburb of Heliopolis has a modern international airport, the provision of Article 30 domestic and international routes. There are 13 elevated railways, highway overpasses, and three large pedestrian bridges in the city. The bridge in the 6th Oct is more than 10 kilometer. From the foregoing, Cairo is a city is the Egyptian center of economic, transportation and politic. The development clear influences the country. Today, many developing countries are faced with problem of urbanization. As the first open country in the Arabian world, Cairo plays a crucial role in urbanization which cannot be ignored. Existing urban planning strategies The general master plan which established in 70s in to create a super agglomeration or poly-nuclear City to accommodate large population growth caused by rural-urban migration. In each individual satellite town, it expected to be self sufficient which included residential, commercial and entertainment development in order to reduce the need for commuting. Ring road, metro and other transportation system should be built in order to serve expanding settlements. In agriculture aspect, it encourages development to spread to the east and west of the city centre, into desert land, to avoid building on valuable nutrient-rich arable land in the Nile Delta. In Figure ii, it shows the original proposal of expansion gesture at west and east direction. Unfortunately, the master plan has failed. The plan doesnt have significant effect on the urban development. Its mostly because of naà ¯ve urbanization which didnt consider some basic social issues well. First, the master plan covered large areas; however, the infrastructural development fell behind. Second, the new satellite town failed to attract population. (Table 1)The target of population cannot be carried out and there are not enough employment opportunities in some of development areas. Feedback from Interview Peoples points of view are always considered as the most powerful evidence. Before starting deep research of the project, an interview has been taken by M. Shaker in Cairo. Therefore, the public opinions have been investigated and analyzed. The interview is focusing on their residence history, the location they aspire to live in and their opinions about the downtown area. The population of downtown is shrinking sharply and the reason why people dont want to live in the downtown area is basically showed in the pie chart. Quality of living and traffic condition seem to be concerned mostly. Also, in the bar chart, it clearly shows that working close to residents is the most important factor for job selection. To sum it up, people intended to move out of the downtown for better housing and living environment. They also want the new settlement to provide job opportunities so that they can work close to their residence. pAs the analysis of interview information, the main problems and contradictions come out in two aspects: one is about the living quality and the housing status with large number of rural population, and another is about traffic problems with the developments of satellite towns. Living Quality The population of Cairo increased sharply from 1970 to 5.9 million, up to 8.7 million to 1980. In 1996, it reaches 14.6 million which is a quarter of this countrys. However, Cairos population is still growing at a rate of 0.35 million per year. The population is too large to enormous pressure on Cairo. (CAPMAS 1997) Firstly, there are the food shortages. Cairo consumed half of the total imports of the country; any city in the world cannot be compared in this point. Import food prices keep rising, although the government spends huge sums of money for food subsidies, the result is not pleasing. Secondly, it caused the residents of Cairo declining standard of living. From 1985 to 1989, the general consumer price almost increased double, and it keeps increasing. Third, the large number of people ran into the city cause a serious shortage of rural labor force and unemployment to the citizens. In 1961, the national unemployment rate was 4.7%, Cairo unemployment rate was 7.5%. In 1970, the national unemployment rate was 2%, Cairo was 7.6%. Meanwhile, the young population is another challenge in Cairo, According to statistics, 1988 the population aged 0 to 14 accounted for 40%. The large number of young people will put a huge pressure on Cairo social and economic development in the future. What is the reason for population expansion in Cairo? It has the heavy urban function. The density of its urban functions is highest in Africa. It loads half of the industry in the country and it has to main international and domestic trade activities. In addition, it has education institute such as Al-Azhar University, Cairo University and American University. As the Governments road construction, housing, water, electricity and other public facilities placed in Cairo, which determines the governments majority of investments are staying in the area. Therefore, it provided substantial employment opportunities in this area, on the other hand, small towns and rural areas infrastructure construction will be lack of funds. It so that expand the gap between urban and rural areas. The contrast cause rural youth do not want to go home after graduation. In the other hand, basically, there are three types of housing in Cairo: A. Legitimate housing. It was divided into three types: 1. Countries to rent and sell or provide housing for the national staff. 2. Cooperative housing (Cooperative). 3. Private housing. B. Illegal construction. Since 1960, annual housing construction accounted for 70% of urban housing about 60000 units of housing annually, is mainly for citizens with low income. C. Slums. They are mainly used by people with lowest income and new immigrants. The legitimate housing is getting old and loses their attraction to citizens, but the slums are keeping growing and cover most of the urban places. The Government cannot stop the poor to build that as the very low incomes they have. The Roof room effect shows a housing shortage in Cairo. Today, in the city, the many buildings left room on the top and those places are nice place for the poor. Therefore, the slum and informal settlements became strong impression of some development site. These dense concentrations of human and economic activity are often located near factories, garbage dumps, or other noxious activities where eviction pressures are relatively low. While slum residents typically plan, finance, and build their own communities, they do not have the financial resources to also construct basic infrastructure like waste disposal and drainage facilities. With little assistance forthcoming from outside the slums, these facilities are often inadequate, resulting in degraded and unhealthy living and poor environmental conditions. Informal housing and slum areas are, in most cases, the source of environment pollution, both above and underground, slum and informal communities in the GCMR are typically found in the developed portions of the GCA. (M. EI Araby 2002) The pollution of Cairo is another big issue and makes people get away from it. Today, the motor vehicle emission is major source of the air pollution. Another source is industrial emission. Because some of the high density of heavy industry located near the city, the air pollution is really dangerous to public health especially children. All the people are trying to escape from those industrial regions. All of those show that the environment of living in downtown area is really bad and even getting worse; therefore, new settlements were built for people especially for those can afford a new house and want to have a better living standard. Some of those settlements included working, education and other living infrastructure; it became more and more self sufficient and part from the city main part. In the future, as satellite towns increasing, the population will be drag out of the city and disperse to the desert. Transportation issues Traffic and transport situation is a measure of urban functions, while the city has promoted the evolution of modern transportation. In 19th Century, as several trams developed, various modern transports are turning up in Cairo. With the development of the city, vehicle grows rapidly. Until early 1995, an official statistics shows a total of 3.6 million various types of motor vehicles. All the auto motor companies take notice of the huge markets in this country, variation types of cars and new cars exhibitions emerge one after another. However, car congestion has been a threat to pedestrians on the sidewalk. The disorderliness gave a bad impression of this city. When people say that a city, or a part of it, is dangerous or is a jungle what they mean primarily is that they do not feel safe on the sidewalks. (Jacobs, J 1961 p. 37) In downtown area, many pedestrian are exposed with motor vehicle on the street. The lack of effective management and the underlying dangerous created an image of chaos. The problem is also charged upon urban distribution. The urban layout is unreasonable in some ways. Some of the government departments located in the central business district, others located in the Nasser City which is one of the satellite cities. Industrial areas occupied the south of Helwan, housing area are around the north. Major education institute, Cairo University, Al-Azhar University and Ain Shams University located in the different sites. As a result, almost half of the citizen in Cairo is far away from their workplace. About 1 million people have to get out of town for work every day. Therefore, public transportation becomes the key issue of the economic development. From 1970 to 1980, passengers are rising about 10% per year, while public transport is almost not increased. However, in 1990, it accommodated 13million passengers. It is not easy to imagine a bus can carry so many passengers and spend more than an hour for about 1mile. Inadequate of public transport is getting worse; however, several solutions have been established by the Government to solve that. In order to relieve the traffic crisis from the 70s, Cairo, built 13 large-scale motorway bridges and more than 3 thousands pedestrian bridges. The new road system has been built; a large road network connects the city with other towns. New ring road is built surround outside of the city and connected with most of the districts. Especially, the motorway bridge located in the heart of 6th Oct. is up to 10 kilometers. Also, because of the high pressure of public transportation, the need of cheep and fast transport revealed. A study was made about the needed capacity in 1990 for the transportation power, which showed the need of 8,400 Million trips a day for public transportation like buses and 2,770 million trips a day for other transportation systems like taxis and cars. The actual available capacity for public transportation is 4,872 million trips a day which is 3.5 million trips less than the needed capacity. The Government reached an agreement with France, in March 1982 1 September 1987. It takes five and a half years, costs 500 million Egyptian Pound to build 43 kilometers Metro. This is the first subway in the Middle East and Africa, which operates daily from 5:30 to 12 midnight, with a passenger capacity of 60000 people per hour. From 1996, they began to build the second line which connects from Shobra El Kheima to El Mounib and it finished construction in 2005. But as the need of the large capacity keep growing; Egyptian Railway Authority has already proposed another two lines: Line 3, Mohandiseen to Cairo Intl Airport; Line 4, October to Oasis Highway to Mubarak Police Academy. It is expected to finish by 2020. The subway construction to solve the traffic problems has made a significant contribution. Meanwhile, the Government started to develop the river transport on the Nile to relieve the traffic congestion, particularly, the peak traffic congestion pressure. International Airport is also a crucial factor in the economic development of a capital. Cairo international airport stands for the gateway of the city and the country. It located in the Heliopolis district, which is about 10miles away from the city central area. However, the air port will be connected with Metro Cairo in couple of years. It also is the second busiest airport in Africa. Cairo Airport handles about 3,400 daily flights, more than 12,100 weekly flights and about 125,000 yearly flights. The airport has three terminals with the third (Terminal 3) opening in April 2009 which houses Egypt Air and its Star Alliance partners. (Wikipedia 2009) Practically speaking, the airport really contributes international communication of Cairo and promotes the development of economic. Future developments Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif has commissioned the Ministry of Housing, a representative in the General Authority for Urban Planning, to prepare a comprehensive plan for the development of all Downtown Cairo.'(The Boursa Exchange 18 Oct. 2009) Therefore, several large downtown development competitions have been hold recently. The Urban Planning Authority planed to create open space to the citizens by this redevelopment. For example, the Cairo Expo City designed by Zaha Hadid and the Sorouh City district designed by Callison. From 2009, the Government is planning to develop the Ramses Square in the central Cairo. A comprehensive vision of the area will primarily rely on the transformation of downtowns main streets into pedestrian areas, so that it becomes an area of open-air restaurants and spaces. Said Mustafa al-Madbouli, president of the Urban Planning Authority Among the other proposals is to design the areas principal squares, such as Talaat Harb and Abdel Moneim Riad Squares, in a distinctive way, creating multi-story underground garages, so that most of the traffic remains underground. Conclusion about Cairos urbanization problems Theoretically, the right urban planning strategy is a proof for urban development. It is important to note, Egypt is an agricultural country with a high proportion of the population, a large number of peasants moved to cities, particularly in large cities. As result, the urban intensity of Cairo in different levels is rare in the world. The large expansion, rapid growth of population, housing issue, traffic congestion and environmental problems are coming out under this situation. It shows that the main development strategy today is to build satellite towns which can be self-sufficient and be part from the city. It is good for economic growth in the few years but it might be cause more and more problem in the future. First, many projects which have done or are going to do are not considered with sustainable issues. The architecture which introduced might not fit with the Cairo culture and climate. Many critics are still questioning if those new landmark development project will reall y attract people as the failure of 70s master plan. Second, the large expansion will rely on the infrastructure which cost huge amount of money and will take a long time to complete. Before that, how to solve the traffic problem? Lots of people live in new settlement are still working in downtown; they need to travel a long way to work. So this will put more loads on the transportation again. The expansion will make more contrasts between old Cairo and new towns. The poor and people who could not move will leave there. This has lead to a lower standard of living than in other areas and the standard of living in downtown will keep getting worse. However, the development should never leave the old city behind and make escape for upper-mid class people. Cairos development process must make efforts to their self-awareness, to overcome the excessive dependence on external weaknesses. The Government should prevent the blind copy and follow other foreign capitals, seek for large developmen t to leave away from the reality. Many issues are undergoing right now and those are really what should be improve and solve in the first place. Bibliography Alexander, C. (1977), A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction, Oxford University Press. Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS) (1987), Population, Housing and Establishment Census 1986, Preliminary Results, CAPMAS Press, Cairo. CAPMAS (1990), The Statistics Annual Book for A.R.E., 1952-1989, CAPMAS Press, Cairo. CAPMAS (1991), Housing Units and Buildings Characteristics,Final Report, Vol. 4, CAPMAS Press, Cairo. CAPMAS (1997), Population, Housing, and Establishment Census 1996, Preliminary Results, CAPMAS Press, Cairo. Jacobs, J. (1961), The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Random House Inc. Internet Sources World Architecture News.com, http://www.worldarchitecturenews.com/index.php?fuseaction=wanappln.projectviewupload_id=12571 The Boursa Exchange, http://nottooshaabi.wordpress.com/2009/10/18/the-boursafication-of-downtown Wikipedia, Transport in Cairo, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_in_Cairo (modified on 21.11.09) Wikipedia, Cairo Metro, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairo_Metro (modified on 5.1.10)

King Nebuchadnezzar II :: History

King Nebuchadnezzar II Nebuchadnezzar II was a Babylonian king around 605 B.C. and was the second king in the Chaldean dynasty. He was born in 635 B.C. and died in the October of 562 B.C. He became King in 605 B.C. 3 weeks after his father’s death. He was 30 years old when he became king and reigned for 44 years. When he died his son, Amel-Marduk took over the throne. He wasn’t only a great king but a great warlord. He is known for conquering Jerusalem, deporting the king of Judah, Jehoiakim, and many of Jehoiakim’s people to Babylon. He and his father Nabopolassar commanded an army together north of Assyria. When he lead a campaign against the Egyptians and came back victorious, Babylon became the most powerful military force in the Middle East. When he was 25 he started acting as a military administrator. One year after his crowning he gets the oath of submission from the rulers of the local states in Syria and Palestine. When Nebuchadnezzar gets his first serious military defeat which was when he was fighting an Egyptian army, it weakened him politically and many of the states withdrew their oaths of submission. His other main achievements were revitalizing Babylon, rebuilding the temple of Marduk and a nearby ziggurat. The Median Wall was built under the reign of Nebuchadnezzar. The Ishtar Gate, one of the eight gates of the inner city of Babylon, was also built during the reign of Nebuchadnezzar II. King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon dedicated the great Ishtar Gate to the goddess Ishtar. It was the main entrance into Babylon. His most famous achievement was creating the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Some people think that King Nebuchadnezzar built that gardens for his homesick wife from Medes. A historian in 450 B.C. named Herodotus wrote that the Hanging Garden outer walls had â€Å"a 56 mile length, a 80 foot thickness, and a 320 foot height†, but archaeologists claim that it’s outer walls had about a length of 10 miles and not nearly as high but still high enough to be very impressive. It was made with huge slabs of stone (stone was only used one other time in Babylon and that was on the north wall of the Northern Citadel). Within the walls there were fortresses and temples with huge statues of solid gold.

Examine the Key Concepts of the Ontological Argument for the Existence of God

1b) Examine the key concepts of the ontological argument for the existence of God (18) The ontological argument rests on the premise that the universe’s existence is contingent- it depends on something else to exist. The argument is deductive, analytic and a priori, and was first formed by St. Anselm, who prayed for a short argument that would prove God to be â€Å"that than which nothing greater can be conceived†.This prayer was called the proslogion and tried to prove God by means of reductio ad absurdum, which states that the existence of God is logically necessary. The argument is based on the word â€Å"God†, a being that possesses all perfections, therefore must exist. Anselm was aware that the existence of God is denied by atheists and in response to this, he states â€Å"the fool has said in his heart there is no God†. Descartes later reformulated the ontological argument, who sought to prove the existence of God through reason alone.He stated that he exists, and in his mind he has the concept of a perfect being, and as an imperfect being, he could not have conjured up the idea of a perfect being, therefore this idea must have originated from the perfect being itself, and this perfect being must exist in order to be perfect, consequently a perfect being exists. He also stated that the idea of God is the idea of a perfect being, and a supremely perfect being has all perfections, existence is perfection, a supremely perfect being must have existence, therefore it is impossible to think of God as not existing, hence God exists.Gaunilo stated that if the ontological argument was applied to things other than God, then it led to invalid conclusions. He applied Anselm’s premise to the idea of a perfect island: I can conceive of an island that no greater island can be thought of; such an island must possess all perfections; existence is a perfection; the island exists. He also stated that the views of the â€Å"greatest islan d† would be subjective. Kant stated that â€Å"existence is not a predicate†, which would flaw both Anselm and Descartes arguments.He observed that existence is not associate with the definition of something since it does not add to our understanding of that thing; â€Å"it would be self-contradictory to posit a triangle, yet reject its three angles†. Russell furthered Kant’s idea, and stated that we should consider the claims that a) all cows have tails and b) all unicorns have horns. Grammatically, this is correct, however, it does not state whether they exist, and therefore does not provide explicit information. Similarly, Hume stated that the argument makes false assumptions about existence; â€Å"we cannot define something into existence†.

Case Study-Duraweld

1. List the 5S and compare to the lean implementation at Duraweld. If there are differences, explain them. The ‘5S’ principles which originated from Japanese terms of seiri (sort), seiton (set in order), seiso (shine), seiketsu (standardize) and shitsuke (sustain) are used to create efficient, clean and well organised working environment. Sort – refers to ensuring that each item in a workplace is in its proper place or identified as unnecessary and removed.When â€Å"sorting† is well implemented, communication between workers is improved and product quality and productivity are increased Set in order – The second stage of 5S involves the orderly arrangement of needed items so they are easy to use and accessible for â€Å"anyone† to find. Orderliness eliminates waste in production and clerical activities. Shine – refers to a clean work area. This maintains a safer work area and problem areas are quickly identified. An important part of à ¢â‚¬Å"shining† is â€Å"Mess Prevention†. In other words, don’t allow litter, scrap, shavings, cuttings, etc. , to land on the floor in the first place.Standardized – means to formalized procedures and practices to create consistency and ensure that all steps are performed correctly. Orderliness is the core of â€Å"standardization† and is maintained by Visual Controls. Sustain – means to keep the process going through training, communication and organisation structure. This last stage of 5S is the discipline and commitment of all other stages. Without â€Å"sustaining†, the workplace can easily revert back to being dirty and chaotic. That is why it is so crucial for the workers to be empowered to improve and maintain their workplace.When employees take pride in their work and workplace it can lead to greater job satisfaction and higher productivity. Among the benefits of implementing 5S System:- * Improve safety * Decrease down time * Raise employee morale * Identify problems more quickly * Develop control through visibility * Establish convenient work practices * Increase product and process quality * Strengthen employees’ pride in their work * Promote stronger communication among staff * Empower employees to sustain their work area Duraweld applied ‘sort’ and ‘set in order’ principles by using a shadow box as proper tool storage.Storage areas for quick moving materials were set line-side. Labels were used to ensure tools were stored in proper place. These implantations have help to reduce worker’s travel time as all machines, tools, and information related to their task is set within a defined area. Duraweld ensure ‘shine’ / cleanliness is practice at the factory. Cleaning and maintenance procedures are advertised in the factory. The floors under the machines were purposely painted in white so as to ensure that spilled/oil leak can easily detected – w hich can prevent corrective maintenance. Duraweld created two-cell manufacturing units for repeat stock products.The floor was painted to define the work area, aisle space and location of necessary items. By linking the routes together, the production team managed to reduce conveyance and set-up time, build awareness of previous/next process and increase productivity. This ‘standardized’ process was further enhanced by the implementation of Kanban cards – the visual management system that incorporates scheduling and maintenance. The Kanban cards indicate what to produce, when to produce and how much to produce. These standard operating procedures has help to reduce over-production at Duraweld.Furthermore its ‘pull’ as opposed to ‘push’ system allows better regulation of intermediate stocks in the production cycle. Among the key factors which lead to successful lean implementation in Duraweld is through its ‘sustain’ processe s. The company ensures its employees from shop floor to the top managements are committed to the lean programme. Proper communication sessions via workshops, training were held to explain about the changes, how it affect them, the benefit etc. This helps to instil positive values and make everyone be part of the system – employee engagement.Duraweld has also invested in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to micromanage stock variation and seasonality. This system link operation across the organisation. The practicality of 5S principals can be seen through various implementations in Durawell as explained above. What makes the implementation of these principles throughout the organisation a big success is its employee’s engagement that makes the lean system as part of their culture in their work place and organisation as a whole. The principle aim of a 5S system is improved safety, efficiency, and employee morale.By deciding what should be kept, where it should be kept, and how it should be kept, 5S eliminates wasteful clutter and creates ownership of processes among workers. The results of 5S are both visually and economically dramatic. 2. Describe which kind of waste was eliminated for each lean implementation at Duraweld. Can you think of other types of waste that could be eliminated? Waste is defined as non-value added activity or expense that the customer is not paying for. By eliminating waste in the operations, we can reduce lead times, increase quality and decrease costs.Before we can eliminate waste from the processes, we need to be able to identify it. The following are the wastes most commonly associated with Lean. * Transportation: Is there unnecessary (non-value added) movement of parts, materials, or information between processes? * Waiting: Are people or parts, systems or facilities idle – waiting for a work cycle to be completed? * Overproduction: Are you producing sooner, faster or in greater quantities than the cu stomer is demanding? * Defects: Does the process result in anything that the customer would deem unacceptable? Inventory: Do you have any raw materials, work-in-progress (WIP) or finished goods that are not having value added to them? * Movement: How much do you move materials, people, equipment and goods within a processing step? * Extra Processing: How much extra work is performed beyond the standard required by the customer? At Duraweld, the 5S (Sort, Set to order, Shine, Standardize, and Sustain) was the cornerstone that helps the organisation eliminating the waste. The first step taken by Duraweld was converting a ‘push’ manufacturing flow to a ‘pull’ process by creating a visual management system of Kanban card.The cards indicate what to process, when to process and how much to produce. Not only it reduces over-production but allows better regulation of intermediate stocks in production cycle. Only the required amount is produced in every stage. This process eliminate waste – no work was carried out unnecessarily, machine time is lesser, better utilisation of space in factory. The use of shadow boards helps to organise the essential tools. Relevant machines and tools were aggregated in cells. Floors were painted in white to assist warning of maintenance issues or detect early wear.Labelling program ensures item/tool used returned to their designated location. This helps in reducing motion of workers i. e. one of the wastes in production line whereby workers can find all machines, tools, and information related to their task is set within a defined area without having to travel around to find what they need. The preventive maintenance by ensuring early detection of wear machine or tools can reduce maintenance cost. The 3S – sort, sort in order and shine exercises as explain above also found waste from plastic cuts from the production line which can be recycled and reinserted the manufacturing cycle.The implementatio n of visual management technique and clear work area organisation ensure people were kept working which means the resources are fully utilised. This eliminates unproductivity among the workers – their movements are fully controlled not only by the supervisors but also by the workflow process/schedules. Duraweld made big investment by using an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) system to manage stock variation and seasonal stock adjustments. The system allows materials movements, stocks, and production schedules to be managed and monitored through a database in a computer.By using this technology, Duraweld can reduce its manpower cost whereby less supervisor is require to monitor the database as compared to more supervisor required to monitor each tasks if it’s done manually. Communication is the key success to sustain the lean implementation in the organisation. Clear message was sent across the board on how the changes is require to be done, the benefits an d the impact of the implementation to the workers effectively communicated. This not only gets rid of grievances among the workers which are a waste in any organisation but improve employee morale and create sense of belonging to the organisation.The tracking and elimination of waste is an on-going process. When waste is not actively sought and removed, it will continue to build in your company. 3. Considering Duraweld’s situation, explain which elements of the lean system you would further implement and what would be their positive consequences on the company. As discussed in question no. 2, one of the important elements in the lean system is eliminating the waste which in Duraweld’s case, the 5S systems are used as a tool to eliminate the wastes within its factory.On top of that the use of Kanban cards system help to increase efficiency in its production cycle by replacing the ‘push’ system with the ‘pull’ system. In my opinion, the followin g elements of Lean can be further implement at Duraweld:- 1) Visual Management: A Standard Operating Procedure and a step-by-step instruction which implemented through the visual management such as a manual board/instruction board at each workstation and machine can be used to show how each task is perform or machine is operated.When this visual management is fully utilised, not only the production flows are in order, job rotation among workers can be perform effectively – any employees can be trained to do any task or operate any machine by referring to the instruction board. This will reduce the company dependency of particular skilled workers. Everyone in the shop floor is multi-tasked. 2) Quality at the source: The quality at source require the production line to do things right the first time. This will eliminate the opportunity of waste i. e. waste of raw material, defect outputs etc. hich will help to reduce cost. At the early stage of production cycle, the workers wil l inspect, analyse and control their own work to guarantee that the goods and services passed on to the next process stage meet the specification/requirement. 3) Continuous improvement: Conventional wisdom told us â€Å"if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! † The reality of today’s business environment is that if we’re not improving our business processes and meet and exceed customers’ expectation, our business will not survive. Many organizations create change either by vision or by crisis.The latter seems to be the most prevalent. A major crisis takes place that forces a company to make an improvement. When a crisis hits, it’s because the vision or change efforts were not sufficient to avoid it. Quick fixes are then applied, and teams are formed to root out the problems. We have to take the time to step back, identify, and analyze what the real issues are, and the type of method to use. There are numerous improvement choices; Kaizen, Lea n Manufacturing, Six Sigma, TQM, Process Reengineering, Value Propositions, etc. 4) Standardized OperationsOne of the most important tools of lean manufacturing is standardized work. When starting a 5S program, the cleaning, organizing, and developing of sustainable practices is done so the elements of work can be standardized. In lean product development deployments, by developing and releasing design guidelines, we are in effect implementing standardized work for engineers. The principles of lean and flow production do not work well when everyone is allowed to choose the method or sequence in which to do the job; quality suffers, and productivity drops.This reduces throughput and the carefully developed production system develops unanticipated bottlenecks. Standardized work is a detailed, documented and visual system by which associates develop and follow a series of predefined process steps. It should be used whenever the work requires completing a series of tasks. Production wor kers, shipping departments, and warehousing teams all can benefit from implementing standardized work. References:- 1. Implementation of Lean Manufacturing Techniques. Retrieved December 1, 2012, from Implementation of Lean Manufacturing Techniques | eHow. com