Umaaraw Umuulan Kinakasal Ang Tikbalang Essay Example for Free

Umaaraw Umuulan Kinakasal Ang Tikbalang Essay Since our childhood days, we are very familiar with the Philippine folklore introduced to us by the Spanish friars namely: the tikbalang, aswang, mananaggal, kapre and the like. Who would have thought that these creatures are in fact friends of the animals commonly around us and act as guardians of Mother Earth? This brilliant idea spawned from a short story written by Gilda Cordero-Fernandez entitled The Magic Circle and amazingly performed by the Dulaang UP last December. Basically, the story revolves around Jepoy, a boy living in the forest with his banished mother Aling Barang, and his journey within the depths of the forest to attend a mysterious wedding of fabled creatures. Jepoy is accompanied by his dog Galis, which can walk upright and talk inside the forest. He is welcomed by Doà ±a Geronima, the leader of the magical creatures and Aling Pacqui, a dwarf and later on introduced to the kapre, Kap. I liked how the play was acted. Being a theater enthusiast, I also commended the beautiful set onstage and how they made colorful costumes out of recycled materials, especially Doà ±a Geronima’s. My favorite character was the humorous but kind Aling Pacquita. She was very funny and I find her walking on her knees tiresome but very effective in portraying her character as a dwarf. But they could have cut down on the miscellaneous actors, (except for the three heads). I found them disturbing sometimes. I didn’t like the use of sprayers to show rain. I guess I expected more. The lesson of the story is about saving the environment. The story reached the resolution later in the play. Before the play ends, Jepoy, the main character, finds him as a certain â€Å"chosen one† by the magical creatures and asks him to be their representative to help save the environment. Because of being just a poor boy, with no one but a hysterical mother to live with, he hesitated to accept their request. At that point on, the creatures along with the animals helped convince Jepoy that he can make a change no matter how small he may seem to be. He accepted the request after that. The lesson wasn’t just exposed due to the development of the story but also through the nonverbal cues that helped the audience understand it better. These nonverbal cues were present in all of the characters but Kap had the most distinguished one. He displayed a body motion known as an illustrator. His action, slow movements and frequent nodding of the head showed his sadness to the previous treatment of humans to him. He also displayed paralanguage where his voice was hoarse and frequently disturbed by wheezing and coughing showing how old and sickly he was. Lastly, the environmental factors when Kap was talking were very evident. The lighting, the sound and even the expressions of other creatures showed how they really need Jepoy’s help to save our environment. In conclusion, the play Umaaraw, Umuulan Kinakasal ang Tikbalang is an effective and wonderful play that would renew our love for nature and respect it, too. The only thing left for us to do is help Jepoy in his task. Let’s show our love and appreciation for the mother that nurtures us all: Mother Earth.

Literature Review On Foreign Direct Investment

Literature Review On Foreign Direct Investment The theory of the determinants of private investment, irrespective of whether it originates domestically or from abroad, is relevant for an understanding of what drives FDI. This has become increasingly true with the globalisation of world markets, although there remain additional factors which may inhibit or encourage FDI that would not affect domestic investment. Much of the research on the determinants of investment is based on the neoclassical theory of optimal capital accumulation pioneered by Jorgenson (1963, 1971). In this framework, a firms desired capital stock is determined by factor prices and technology, assuming profit maximisation, perfect competition and neoclassical production functions. This theory was a deliberate alternative to views expressed initially by Keynes (1936) and Kalecki (1937), that fixed capital investment Much of the research on the determinants of investment is based on the neoclassical theory of optimal capital accumulation pioneered by Jorgenson (1963, 1971). In this framework, a firms desired capital stock is determined by factor prices and technology, assuming profit maximisation, perfect competition and neoclassical production functions. This theory was a deliberate alternative to views expressed initially by Keynes (1936) and Kalecki (1937), that fixed capital investment depends on firms expectations of demand relative to existing capacity and on their ability to generate investment funds (Fazzari and Athey, 1987:481; Fazzari and Mott, 1986:171). Several studies have challenged the neoclassical assumption that any desired investment project can be financed2. Asymmetric information3 about the quality of a loan could lead to credit rationing, implying that not all borrowers seeking loans at the prevailing cost of capital may be able to obtain financing (e.g, Greenwald, Stiglitz and Weiss, 1984). Consequently, firms tend to rely on internal sources of funds to finance investment, and to prefer debt to equity if external financing is required4. A further theoretical development was the introduction of irreversibility and uncertainty in explaining investment behaviour. This literature demonstrates that the ability to delay an irreversible investment expenditure can profoundly affect the decision to invest (Dixit, 1989; Pindyck, 1991:1110). Firms have an i ncentive to postpone irreversible investment while they wait or new information which makes the future less uncertain (Bernanke, 1983; Cukierman, 1980). The development literature has long been concerned with investment, because of its importance for the rate of growth of per capita output in the economy (Dornbusch and Reynoso, 1989:204; Fei and Ranis, 1963:283; IMF, 1988). Although empirical models of the determinants of investment in developing countries are in broad agreement with results obtained for industrialised countries, there are additional factors which have been found to constrain capital accumulation. Most of these are related to the problem of uncertainty and/or risk, which acts as a disincentive to private investment, because of the irreversible nature of most investment expenditures (Pindyck, 1991). Inflation reduces private investment by increasing risk, reducing average lending maturities, distorting the informational content of relative prices, and indicating macroeconomic instability (Dornbusch and Reynoso, 1989:206-208; Oshikoya, 1994:585,590). Empirical studies show that the variability of inflation has a stronger negative effect on private investment than does the level (Serven and Solimano, 1993:137). Large external debt burdens also have a strong disincentive effect on private investment, especially short-term debt (Faruqee, 1992:52). Debt-service payments reduce the domestic resources available for investment, and poor international creditworthiness reduces access to foreign savings5. For domestic investors, the existence of a large debt overhang reduces the future returns to investment because a high proportion of the forthcoming returns must be used to repay existing debt (Borensztein, 1990:315). A debt overhang is also a major source of uncertainty: the size of future transfers to creditors is uncertain; macroeconomic policy is uncertain; and the exchange rate is uncertain. The combined risks of changes in relative prices, taxation and aggregate demand reduces investment by both domestic and foreign entrepreneurs. Whatever the cause, the irreversibility of real capital expenditures can result in underinvestment if the future is uncertain, even when current conditions are righ t (Tornell, 1990). During macroeconomic adjustment, the credibility of policy changes is an added problem (Rodrik,1989), and the possibility of policy reversal can have serious consequences for real private capital expenditures. Investors prefer to hold financial capital, which is easier to realise if conditions turn out to be adverse, and which retains the option to purchase real capital if optimism continues. For this reason, there are frequently long lags in the investment response to adjustment(Serven and Solimano, 1993:131,137). Several studies report the effects of changes in the real exchange rate6 and the terms of trade7 on investment. These studies generally find that the variability of the real exchange rate is usually Some researchers support the notion that FDI contributes to the productivity and growth of local enterprises. Blomstrom and Sjoholm( 1998) are of the opinion that the productivity and growth of local enterprises could be achieved through spill over effects/externalities from FDI. This is achieved as the Multinational Enterprises (MNEs) either introduce superior technology of through the marketing activities of MNEs that affect the market equilibrium forcing local operators to act in such way that they can retain their original market shares. Graham and Krugman (1995) indicates that competitive enterprises (MNEs) contribute to productivity and growth of the host nation by infusing technology, labour skills, management methods, and training into the host economy. Empirical research shows that FDI affects the economy of a host country in a variety of ways. Firstly, it provides the required capital and state -of -the- art technology that enhances economic growth in the host country (Caves,1996; Dunning, 1993; Blomstrom and Sjoholm, 1998; Smarzynska,2002; Akinkugbe ,2005). Secondly, it augments the skills of the host nations and thus stimulates growth through the infusion of managerial, labour skills and training (de Mello,1999). Thirdly it promotes the technological upgrading, regarding start- up, marketing , and licensing arrangements (de Mello and Sinclair , 1995 ; Markusen and Venables ,1999). FDI is thus seen as a catalyst to the host nations economic growth and development as it enhances technological process and promotes industrial development (Asheghian, 2004). In addition, FDI can be expected to encourage economic growth of the host nation, given the prevailing view that MNEs can complement the local industry and stimulate growth and welfare in the host nations (Grossman and Helpman, 1991; Barro and Sala-i-Martin, 1995). The major determinants of the host countrys economic development and growth is the economic environment portrayed by its rate of economic growth , trade policy, political stability, legislation , domestic market size and balance of payments constraints (Caves, 1996; de Mello, 1999; Dunning, 1993)- the political economy of the nation . These factors may inevitably influence the decision of foreign investors (MNEs ) on the possible choice of a viable investment location (Akinkugbe, 2005). Dunnings (1981, 1988) electric theory provides a flexible and popular framework where it is argued that Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) is determined by three sets of advantages which direct investment should have over the other institutional mechanisms available for a firm in satisfying the needs of its customers at home and abroad. The first of the advantages is the ownership specific one which includes the advantage that the firm has over its rivals in terms of its brand name, patent or knowledge of technology and marketing. This allows firms to compete with the other firms in the markets it serves regardless of the disadvantages of being foreign. The second is the internationalisation advantage, that is why a bundled FDI approach is preferred to unbundled product licensing, capital lending or technical assistance (Wheeler and Mody, 1992). The location-specific advantages relate to the importance for the firm to operate and invest in the host country and are those advantages that make the chosen foreign country a more attractive site for FDI than the others. For instance firms may invest in production facilities in foreign markets because transportation costs are too high to serve these markets through exports. This could either be directly related to the actual nature of the good, either being a high bulk item or a service that needs to be provided on site, or due to policy factors such as tariff rates, import restrictions, or issues of market access that makes physical investment advantageous over serving the market through exports. Location advantage also embodies other characteristic (economic, institutional and political) such as large domestic markets, availability of natural resources, an educated labor force, low labor cost, good institutions (the clarity of countrys law, efficiency of bureaucracy and the absen ce of corruption), political stability, corporate and other tax rates among others. Bende-Nabende and Slater (1998) investigate both the short-run and long-run locational determinants of FDI under the broad categories of cost-related, investment environment improving and other macroeconomic factors. The short-run dynamics indicate that European investment in the Thai manufacturing sector has been more responsive to the macroeconomic factors. The long-run dynamics on the other hand suggest that European investment has been more responsive to the investment environment improving factors. In particular, there is evidence to suggest that the Thai manufacturing sector is losing its cost-related comparative advantage. Dar, Presley and Malik (2004) studied the causality and long-term relationship between Foreign Dirct Investment (FDI), economic growth and other socio-political determinants. Although a considerable literature gives the evidence of relationship between FDI and economic growth. Their paper considers economic growth, exchange rate and level of interest rates, unemployment, and political stability as determinants of the level of FDI inflows for Pakistan over the period 1970-2002. Almost all variables are found to have the theoretically expected signs with two-way causality relationship. The present study also estimates an error correction model by ordinary least squares, based on cointegrating VAR (2). Nunnenen (2002) argues that there is a startling gap between, allegedly, globalization-induced changes in international competition for foreign direct investment (FDI) and recent empirical evidence on the relative importance of determinants of FDI in developing countries. He shows that surprisingly little has changed since the late 1980s. Traditional market-related determinants are still dominant factors. Among non-traditional FDI determinants, only the availability of local skills has clearly gained importance. As concerns the interface between trade policy and FDI, he finds that the tariff jumping motive for FDI had lost much of its relevance well before globalization became a hotly debated issue. Artige and Nicolini (2005) analyse the determinants of FDI (foreign direct investment) inflows for a group of European regions. The originality of their approach lies in the use of disaggregated regional data. First, they develop a qualitative description of their database and discuss the importance of the macroeconomic determinants in attracting FDI. Then, they provide an econometric exercise to identify the potential determinants of FDI. In spite of choosing regions presenting economic similarities, they show that regional FDI inflows rely on a combination of factors that differs from one region to another. Bà ©nassy-Quà ©rà ©, Coupet and Mayer (2007) re-examine the role of institutions in the host and in the source country by estimating a gravity equation for bilateral FDI stocks that includes governance indicators for the two countries. Second, they tackle multicollinearity and endogeneity bias by implementing a three-stage procedure for instrumentation and orthogonalisation. Third, they look further into the detail of institutions by using a new database constructed by the French Ministry of Finance network in 52 foreign countries. This database is used to point out in some detail the relevant institutional features. Its country coverage, which focuses on developing countries, is very helpful for studying the impact of the institutional environment of the host country. It does not allow, however, going deeply into the impact of the institutional environment in the source country as well as into the impact of institutional distance. Hence they complement our analysis with estimatio ns based on the Fraser database, which provides fewer details on institutions, albeit on a more balanced country coverage between industrial and developing countries. Finally, they study the impact of institutional distance on bilateral FDI. Onyeiwu and Shrestha (2004) argues that despite economic and institutional reform in Africa during the past decade, the flow of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) to the region continues to be disappointing and uneven. In their study they use the fixed and random effects models to explore whether the stylized determinants of FDI affect FDI flows to Africa in conventional ways. Based on a panel dataset for 29 African countries over the period 1975 to 1999, their paper identifies the following factors as significant for FDI flows to Africa: economic growth, inflation, openness of the economy, international reserves, and natural resource availability. Contrary to conventional wisdom, political rights and infrastructures were found to be unimportant for FDI flows to Africa. The significance of a variable for FDI flows to Africa was found to be dependent on whether country- and time-specific effects are fixed or stochastic. Nakamura and Oyama (1998) studied the macroeconomic determinants of FDI from Japan and the United States into East Asian countries, and the linkage between FDI and trade, and other macroeconomic variables. Their analysis focuses on the structural differences among East Asian counties and classifies them based on statistical tests of fixed effects models using panel data. This examination helps to clarify how Japanese and American multinational firms position their production bases in East Asian countries within their world marketing strategies. In order to avoid the problem of simultaneity among variables, they examine simultaneous equation models to confirm the validity of panel regression results. In their study they find that East Asian countries can be classified into four groups depending on FDI from Japan and other elasticities to macroeconomic variables, and this grouping almost coincides with their economic development stages. Moreover, they confirm that FDI from Japan into a ll the groups are strongly affected by changes in real bilateral exchange rates, but this is not always the case for FDI from the United States. Among different country groups, FDI into group 1 (Taiwan and Korea) responds positively to the Japanese capacity utilization, indicating their industries integration with the Japanese economy. Group 3 (Indonesia and the Philippines) shows that Japanese FDI is buoyed up by the yens appreciation against the U.S. dollar. FDI into group 4 (China and Malaysia) and, to a lesser extent, group 2 (Singapore and Thailand) is oriented more toward capturing local markets compared to the other groups. They also find that Japanese FDI has strong trade expansion effects, which is rarely seen for U.S. FDI. With regards to research on the determinants of FDI to Africa there appears to be a dearth of literature. A Search on the Econlit database using Foreign Direct Investment and Africa as keywords yielded the other two reffered journal articles on the Determinants of FDI to Africa. One of the papers, Schoeman et al (2000), analyses how government policy (mainly deficits and taxes) affects FDI. However, their analysis focuses on one country, South Africa. The Second paper , Asiedu (2002) examines whether the factors that drive FDI in developing countries have a different impact on for countries in Sub Sahara Africa (SSA). However, the analysis focuses only on three variables the return on investment, infrastructure availability and openness to trade, and does not take into account the natural resource availability , which is an important determinant of FDI to Africa. Another paper that focuses exclusively on Africa is Morisset (2000). Unlike Asiedu (2002), Morisset (2000) controls for natural resource availability , measured by the sum of primary and secondary sectors , minus manufacturing. However, this measure of natural resources is too broad and does not accurately capture the availability of minerals and oil, the most important types of natural resources relevant for FDI to SSA. In addition none of the studies examine the impact of some of the important variables that feature predominantly in investor surveys, such as corruption and regulatory framework in the host country. This research extends the limited to empirical literature on the determinants of FDI to Africa by examining the extent to which the economic, political, institutional characteristics of a country, as well as the policy environment affect FDI flows. Nunnekamp (2002) sought to assess whether determinants of FDI have changed with globalisation i.e whether traditional determinants are losing importance whilst non traditional ones are increasingly gaining importance. Two approaches were adopted, namely survey data from European Round Table of Industrialists ( ERT 2000) and simple correlation for 28 developing countries. Market size (proxied by host countrys population and level of GDP ) as a traditional determinant of FDI is said to have declined in importance over time. Other factors such as location, cost differences, qualities of infrastructure, ease of doing business and the availability of skills measured by average years of schooling have become increasingly important as non-traditional determinants of FDI (Nunnekamp 2002:16) The survey results were supplemented by World Bank Data on variables that are considered important FDI determinants. Results show that traditional market related determinants still dominate determinants of FDI distribution among the countries considered (Nunnekamp 2002:24). Non traditional determinants such as cost factors, and trade openness , measured by ratio of exports plus imports to GDP, have typically not become more important with globalisation. Of importance is the availability of skills which is proxied by average years of schooling, which has become a relevant pull factor of FDI in the process of globalisation (Nunnekamp 2002:35). An analysis of a developing country by (Tsai 1991) focused on Taiwan by providing demand size determinants of FDI using time series data. Tsai (1991:279) employed OLS method using equations in logarithm form. Two equations were specified, i.e first on the demand size determinants and the second using variables as ratio of GDP to eliminate possible side of influences. A dummy variable was used to assess the impact of government incentive polices on FDI in different periods. Tsai (1991:276) suggests that for Taiwan only labour cost, market size and government incentive policies are important demand size determinants. Although FDI is seen to exploit cheap labour in developing countries, the case of Taiwan seems to show that growth in FDI with rising labour costs indicates the cheap labour may not be as important as expected. No clear evidence was found to support the expectation that government incentive policies were effective in attracting FDI to Taiwan. An interesting finding in Tsai (1991:279) is that Taiwans relatively outstanding economic performance as reflected in the expanding domestic market and ever increasing per capita GDP during 1965-1985 was not particularly attractive to foreign investors. As Tsai argues, this could be attributed to FDI being used supply side determined rather than demand side or perhaps non- economic factors outweigh the investment incentives. It is generally believed that factors determine FDI inflow in developing countries could have a different impact on SSA countries in particular . This is because developing countries outside Africa seem to attract huge FDI inflow while SSA attracts low levels of FDI as discussed by Asiedu (2002). Another study in Africa by Obwona (2001) investigated the FDI-growth linkage for Uganda. Obwona used the investor surveys approach and econometric tests. Using investor surveys, both local and foreign investors were directly questioned regarding their decisions and decision making processes when investing in Uganda (Obwona 2001:55). The focus was on productive investment, as such purely commercial and consulting activities were excluded. For econometric tests , time series data was used for the period 1975-1991to estimate the determinants of FDI and growth. Findings from the survey showed that increased foreign investment was a result of a conducive investment environment provided by government though its policies and institutions (Obwona 2001:56). The author concludes that from the investors surveyed, foreign investors are primarily concerned with fundamental factors, i.e a stable macroeconomic and political situation and credible policy reforms. For Uganda , Obwona considered pull factors such as growth factors , liberalised exchange rate, low inflation and fiscal discipline. The major determinants are availability and cost of natural and human resources, adequacy of infrastructure , market size, trade policies, macro stability, economic growth and political stability (Obwona 2001:62). The importance of each of these variables , however depends on the type of investment and motivations or strategy of investors. Obwona (2001:62) agrees with other researchers, such as Nunnekamp (2002) that given the shifts in the type of investment, the availability of low cost unskilled labour in location decisions has declined over time. This has meant more emphasis on skilled labour or the trainability of workers. Furthermore, two notable studies by Moolman et al (2006) and Fedderke and Romm (2004) have focused on determinants of Inward FDI to South Africa. Moolman et al (2006) sought to examine the macroeconomic link between FDI in South Africa and its resultant impact on output for the period 1970-2003. In so doing, they initially identified supply side determinants of FDI before analysing their impact on output. Their research method follows the supply side macro econometric framework, which does not take into account the demand side determinants that are equally important as well. On Model specification , five variables were explored as explanatory variables for FDI in the empirical estimation, namely, market size measured by real GDP, exchange rate proxied by the rand-dollar exchange rate , infrastructure, openness and a dummy variable for sanctions. The empirical results of Moolman et al (2006:3) indicate that market size, openness, infrastructure and the nominal exchange rate are factors which South African policy makers should focus on when seeking to attract FDI. The FDI output link does not take other factors such as increased employment , improved skills and new management techniques into account (Moolman et al 2006:29). After thorough investigation and studies, it was found out that only market size and openness are common factor determining FDI. The role of exchange rate is an important determinant of foreign investment in most countries. Particularly for South Africa, it should be considered whether it could be an important FDI determinant. Studies from developing countries have also identified other factors that should be considered as in the case of South Africa as those of Loots (2000) and Ahmed et al (2005).

Limitation of GDP as a Measure of Economic Welfare

Limitation of GDP as a Measure of Economic Welfare Introduction There are various different indicators used by the economists to measure the development of the economy and GDP should be the one most commonly used in practice. It could reflect the quantitative changes of the economic development, but its qualities. The limitation of GDP in this area prevents it from measuring the economic welfare people get. This essay will discuss how GDP is calculated and the limitations of GDP in measuring the economic welfare. There will be also the introduction of the replacements of GDP which are developed to measure the economic welfare. The Concept of Gross Domestic Products (GDP) and Its Calculation GDP is the abbreviation of gross domestic product. It refers to the market value of all the final goods and services produced by one country or region with the production factors in one year or in certain period of time (Gutierrez et al., 2007). It was first developed by the economist Simon Kuznets in the 1930s and has been gradually used by the governments of various countries to measure the total value of the output of the economy after the Second World War. Since then, GDP has been the indicator for the measurement of development level of the economy. It is an important index of the general situation of the macroeconomics, which reflects the developments of the economy. GDP belongs to the field of the measuring of the aggregate economy. There are mainly three methods to calculate the value of GDP, namely, the production approach, the income approach and the expenditure approach. They reflect the results of the national economy from different views. The production approach calculates the economic results by summarizing the total output values of all the sectors of the economy and subtracting the value of all the intermediate goods. The approach only includes the value added in the production process, so it is also called the value added approach (Viet, 2009). The second method is the income approach. It focuses on the income generated in the production process. Various production factors are involved in the production process and they can get the income per their relevant contribution to the economic activities. The summary of all the incomes of the various production factors is the result of the economic activities. For example, labors and capitals are the main factors used in the production. So their incomes, the wages and the interest constitute the main part of the GDP calculated by theincome approach (Viet, 2012). The expenditure approach calculates the GDP from the view of the final usages of the products and services. The results of the final products and services usually include two main parts, the consumption and the investment. And consumption covers the need from the household sectors, the government and the foreign consumers. So in the expenditure approach, GDP includes the household consumption, the investment, the government spending and the net exports. In practice, the expenditure approach is most common method used by the government of countries in the world. (Viet, 2011) The Limitations of GDP The changes of GDP could reflect the trend of the economic development and most of the countries consider the increase of GDP as the targets of the economic growth. Although GDP has been used widely as the indicator to measure the development level of the world economy, there are inherent limitation and weaknesses in this method that prevents its wider use in the economic growth. And it particularly reduces the efficiency of GDP in evaluating the economic welfare. The main limitation of GDP is that it does not reflect all the contents of the economic activities, which weakens the role of GDP as the indicator of the economic welfare. GDP cannot reflect the overall situation of people’s welfare Generally speaking, the economic growth could bring the increase of people’s income, as well as their economic welfare. The per capita GDP is usually used to indicate the average level of people’s income in the countries. And it is also used to classify the counties of their economic development levels. But it cannot reflect the differences of the people’s welfare caused by the differences of income distribution. For example, for the man having no money at all, he could become a billionaire in terms of the per capita GDP when there is only he and Bill Gates in his country. But he is not likely to enjoy the same welfare as Bill. So GDP, or the per capita GDP masks the real situation of the welfare people really get (Bà ©renger and Verdier-Chouchane, 2007). Besides, there are plenty of things in people’s welfare, not just the economic one. The leisure and family pleasure are also very important part of the welfare. People would have little time to spend with families when they are busy in producing the final products and services. The increase of the GDP does not mean the increase of people’s overall welfare. The non-market economic activities Besides, what GDP does not cover is the non-market economic activities. Per the concept of GDP, it reflects the market values of the final products and services. For the products and services that are not exchanged on the market, their values are hard to evaluate. For example, the household works finished by the full-time housewives, like cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the olds and children, are not paid in by the family. So they are not included in the calculation of GDP. But if these works are done by the baby-sitters who hired and paid by the families, they will be covered by GDP, since they have the market values. In the developed countries, there is a high level of the marketization of the housework. The children will be sent to kindergartens, olds to the nursing home. People have more chance to eat outside instead of cooking home. All these works will be calculated in GDP. But in the developing countries, most of the housework is finished by the numbers of the family. An d their efforts are not recognized by the market and the GDP. The same household works will make different contributions to the calculation of GDP in different countries. But for people no matter in the developed countries or the developing ones, these works increase their welfare (Bridgman et al., 2012). In the calculation of GDP, the lack of these non-market economic activities reduces the ability of GDP to give a full reflection of the economic activities. So it could not tell the complete welfare people get from the economic activities. GDP does not reflect the quality of the economic development What people could get from GDP is just the number of the value added in the given time. It only reflects the number changes of the output of the economy or the quantitative growth of the economy. The quality of the output and the economy cannot be answered by this indicator. And the growth of GDP does not equal with the economic growth, since the economic growth also contains the improvement of the economic quality (Costanza et al., 2009). For example, the increase of GDP could not tell how the economy grows. There are usually three driven forces of the economy, the consumption, the investment and the exportation. If the increase of the GDP is caused by the consumption from the household sector, the quality of the economic growth could be considered as a good growth. But if it is mainly driven by the investment, especially the one in the real estate market or the infrastructures, the quality of the economic growth is worth to worry, since this kind of growth cannot sustain for a long time. The investment only increases the number of GDP, but not the welfare people could get. When using GDP as the main indicator to assess the economic growth, there would be some strange things in the development plans and practices of the governments. They would have the motivation to investment huge funds in the building of the infrastructures, like roads, railways and airports, since these projects would generate great increase of GDP. And they don’t have to consider whether these projects are needed or not, which could cause the waste of the social and economic resources. Besides, accidents would be welcomed by the governments, since they also can increase the GDP. When there are accidents, the new vehicles or properties will be needed to replace the ones damaged in the accidents, which means the increase of the final products and services. But people’s welfare does not see any increase in these activities (Costanza et al., 2009). What GDP provides is just the cold numbers about the amount changes of the economy. It cannot reflect the quality of the economic growth. The environment cost and pollution Except for the limitation in calculating the complete contents and quality of the economic growth, GDP also cannot reflect the hidden costs of the economic growth, particularly the environment cost of the economic activities. GDP only covers the costs that could be exchanged and valued in the market. These environment costs, like the environmental disruption and pollution, usually cannot be valued in the market and they are not calculated by GDP (Costanza et al., 2009). When developing the economy, it is needed to consume the natural resources from the environment. But the resources are limited. The excessive usage of the recourses in the current economic activities could bring the negative influence on the future development. And the economic growth is not sustainable in this model. But this cannot be reflected by GDP. Meanwhile, economic growth could cause the environmental disruption and pollution. These are also the costs of the economic growth. However, they are not included in GDP, since Mother Nature does not charge the price in humans’ economic activities. And the stupid humans will not calculate these costs until they pay for it. The Replacements of GDP The limitations of GDP mentioned above have been exposed in practice and there have been some other indicators developed to replace GDP. These replacements of GDP make up the limitation of GDP in evaluating the welfare people get in the economic activities and help people to have a better understanding of the welfare people get from the economy. In this process, there are main two directions for the measurement of the economic welfare. One direction is to measure the total level of the economic welfare. This method is easy to measure and the result could reflect the differences between different countries. The second direction is to get the per capita level of the economic welfare. These two directions could be seen as the same one, since it is easy to get the per capita results when people get the total level of the welfare. The GNI-Lorenz curve Since GDP cannot reflect the differences of the national income distribution, the Lorenz Curve is then developed to indicate the condition of the income distribution. It is developed in a coordinate system with the percentage of income and households as the axis. It reflects how the wealth of one country is distributed among the households. People could find the level of the inequality in the income distribution per the camber of the Lorenz Curve (Helene, 2010). The gross domestic income (GDI) The gross domestic income or GDI is another indicator used to reflect the condition of the economy. It calculates the income generated by the economic activities, which includes the compensation of employees, the gross operating surplus and the gross mixed income. This indicator could be seen as the version of GDP calculated in the income approach (Fixler, Greenaway-McGrevy and Grimm, 2011). Since people’s welfare is largely influenced by the income level, so the changes of GDI could reflect the situation of people’s welfare. The physical quality of life index (PQLI) The physical quality of life index is developed by David Morris in the mid-1970s. This index is consisted of three main indicators, the literacy rate, the infant morality rate and the indexed life expectancy. The average value of these three indicators is the level of the physical quality of life. This index is easy to measure and understand. But it does not reflect the complete contents of the welfare. And the excessive attention to the health indicators reduces its ability to give a full explanation of the welfare level (Bà ©renger and Verdier-Chouchane, 2007). Conclusion The gross domestic product can partly reflect the results of the economic activities. But it cannot reflect the economic welfare, the non-market economic activities, the quality of the economic growth, and the environment cost and pollution. These limitations prevent GDP from measuring the economic welfare people get from the economic activities. So that people have developed the new methods to replace GDP to measure the economic welfare. References Bà ©renger, V. and Verdier-Chouchane, A., 2007. Multidimensional Measures of Well-Being: Standard of Living and Quality of Life across Countries. World Development, 35(7), pp. 1259–276. Bridgman, B., Dugan, A., Lal, M., Osborne, M. and Villones, S., 2012. Accounting for Household Production in the National Accounts, 1965–2010. Survey of Current Business, May, pp.23-36 Costanza, R., Hart, M., Posner, S. and Talberth, J., 2009. Beyond GDP: The Need for New Measures of Progress. The Pardee Papers No. 4. Boston: Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer-Range Future. Fixler, D.J., Greenaway-McGrevy, R. and Grimm, B.T., 2011, Revisions to GDP, GDI, and Their Major Components. Survey of Current Business, July, pp.9-31. Gutierrez, C.M., Glassman, C.A., Landefeld, J.T. and Marcuss, R.D., 2007. Measuring the Economy: A Primer on GDP and the National Income and Product Accounts. Washington, D.C.:à £Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€š ¬Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce. Helene, O., 2010, Fitting Lorenz Curves. Economics Letters, 108, pp.153-55. Viet, V.Q., 2009. GDP by Production Approach: A General Introduction with Emphasis on an Integrated Economic Data Collection Framework. New York: United Nations Statistics Division. Viet, V.Q., 2011. GDP by Final Expenditure Approach an Operational Guide for Using Commodity Flow Approach. New York: United Nations Statistics Division. Viet, V.Q., 2012. Income Approach to GDP and Other Issues Relating to the Compilation of Household Income and Consumption Expenditures. International Workshop on Household Income, Consumption and Full Accounting of the Households Sector, 26-28 March, Beijing. China.

Essay on Identity in Song of Solomon -- Song Solomon essays

Searching for Identity in Song of Solomon      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Abstract: Whether Africans really fly or just escape a monumental burden, perhaps only through death, is a decision Toni Morrison has apparently left to her readers. Never the less, no matter what you believe, within Song of Solomon, the suggestion is, that in order to "fly" you must go back to the beginning, back to your roots. You must learn the "art" from the old messages.    O Sugarman done fly away Sugarman done gone Sugarman cut across the sky Sugarman gone home... (6)1    Milkman was born to fly. Perhaps not! Maybe, he was just doomed to a life of flight. Toni Morrison seemingly presents her readers a choice. Milkman is born under a paradoxical cloud. His life seems to be destined for controversy. Toni Morrison eventually leaves the reader with a "choose your own ending" configuration. As in Beloved, Morrison's unique style of ending a novel with no finalization, only enhances the content and tickles the imagination. Evidence of the influence of Zora Neale Hurston is sprinkled liberally throughout the story. In addition to folklore and mythology, Song of Solomon is also rife with the cold, hard facts of reality. Did Milkman actually become airborne or was he merely a man, consistently trying to escape reality?    Toni Morrison's, Song of Solomon, was inspired in part, by All God's Chillun Had Wings (Andrews et al 103). According to this folk tale, at one time all Africans could fly. Through transgressions, they lost the ability of flight. On occasion, someone would shake off the weight of their burdens and be able to fly. Only a select few held onto remnants of the memory of flight. According to a legend in Hurston, the transgression, ... ...to converge in the distance. Soon they begin to twine and twist together. At the core, is a solid rope, with each strand braided neatly with the others to form a tightly woven story. With its many parts, but only one beginning, Song of Solomon is absolutely, the "perfect soft-boiled egg" (40).    Works Cited Andrews, William L., et al. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 1997. 103 Barnhart, C.L., et al. The American College Dictionary. New York: Random House, 1970. 919 Heinze, Denise. The Dilemma of "Double-Consciousness": Toni Morrison's Novels. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 1993. 14 Hurston, Zora Neale. Hurston: Folklore, Memoirs, & other Writings. Ed. Cheryl A. Wall. New York: Penguin Books,1995. 315, 581, 597, 618 Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York: Penguin Books, 1977.

The Clifford Ball :: essays research papers

The Clifford Ball The Ball, the ball, the ball. The Clifford Ball 1996, the greatest musical performance I've ever witnessed, a time I'll never forget. "Where the fuck is Plattsburg, New York?" That was the main concern on a warm summer afternoon, as we began to pack up the car for a trip that will remain crisp in my mind better then vacation I've ever been on. It was Tom, Tim, Joe, Beau, Tom' brother Steve, Alex who flew in from Wisconsin, Tim's brother Sean and myself Tony. The weather couldn't been better, the mood...excitement, joy, and a little nervousness. After all it was my first Phish show, and Tom was the only other one out of us all who had seen a Phish show. I had always liked phish, but I was always reluctant to get tix for a show, I figured I could wait till they came to Giant Stadium, or The Meadowlands. One day I decided â€Å" What the hell!!† Plattsburg was a good 6 hours up I-87 from quiet River Vale, New Jersey. So we spent most of the afternoon at Shop-rite, Campmor, and Ramsey outdoor. We had sleeping bags, coolers of beer, soda, food, and more beer, tents, stoves, lanterns, bug torches, and clothes. At around 12 midnite Friday morning we hit the road and embarked, on what would be a scared trip. Tom drove the van with his brother and myself. Tim in his red Festiva with Joe and Sean, and Beau in his blue Festiva with Alex. Stopping only to piss and re-fuel, we busted up to Plattsburg, arriving around 6am. It was amazing to see all the VW Westvalias up I-87 with Steal you Face, and dancing bear stickers. Once arriving, we picked a spot to set camp (out of the Wetlands of course) We followed the lead of crickets bouncing gently round room to a nice spot. Close to the potable water, yet far enough from the rank smell of port-a-jons. Then we got some needed sleep. We woke up around 1pm and I opened my eyes to my suprise...100,000 other people arrived while we were asleep!!! Didn't bother me, the more the merry. It was really strange. Once I stepped out of the tent, I think I left something behind. I didn't have a care in the world. I forgot about my job, my house, my life back home. I WAS AT A PHISH SHOW, that's all that mattered. Yeah, in an ordinary situation, the crickets would have bothered me. I liked um. The real freaky people that lived off acid and trying to get that one miracle would

The Person I Dislike

The Person I dislike Hate is a very strong word. So it feels a little awkward to say that I hate a particular person. But there are certain types of people who are easy to be disliked. There are lots of people I met in my life, it is not necessary that I like all of them. I categorize the people in three types. One that I like most, second one I don’t like and the third one who has no impression at all in my life. It is a natural phenomenon that we can’t be friendly or alien to all people to whom we met.Of course here are always some good reasons behind as why we like or dislike someone. For me, such people include hypocrites, people who abuse women and children, people who gossip and backbite, and people who are greedy. In my personal opinion, it is very awkward to hate person solely on the basis of their physical appearance or on such things at which they have no control for example their face, color, height, race or religion etc. However, there are many other good re asons that you can hate a person or group of person that is their character or deeds.I dislike Mr. Tindu more than anything in the world. He is related to my father and is forty years old. Tindu is a mean, contemptible fellow. Tindu is an educated person but behaves like an illiterate person. He is dead to all sense of shame and very talkative. I saw Tindu arguing with Majid it looks that some fight is going on. Tindu often talks tall and freely indulges in self-praise. He talks ill of others behind their back and very selfish. Tindu told me uncle Baber likes to gamble and drink whisky and then he met uncle in front of me saying uncle never drinks.Tindu enjoys nobody's confidence. To feel superior to others is in his nature. Tindu does not give respect his parents. Tindu has a habit of cursing and yelling. I saw him to cursing them out for no reason and openly defy them. Tindu has no respect for woman and never think that a woman gave him birth. He is a man of loose morals and have no ethics. Tindu has no love for his motherland. He is not an American by birth but act like that. He is migrated from Pakistan and belongs to a middle class family. Tindu lacks of civic sense.He is very quarrelsome and fought with my brother in law in a marriage ceremony. Tindu does not extend a helping hand even to his relatives and friends in trouble. He laughs at the miseries and troubles of others. Tindu have bad credit. Two years ago he borrowed money from my father never give back. He makes fun of everybody, even the beggars on the street. Tindu loves to smoke marijuana and drink whisky. He cannot be calm always speak loudly to enforce his ideas. Thus he brought a slur to his family.He never does anything worthy of a gentleman. He is seldom fair and square in his dealings with others. Because of his greediness, Tindu makes money by foul means. He is working as inspector in hosiery. He deliberately rejects the stuff and sales that stuff in open market. Hypocrite can easily be disliked. Because of uncle Baber I knew that Tindu talks ill of others behind their back. Although hate is difficult to express in words, to dislike someone is natural. One must avoid that rogue. I dislike Tindu because he is a jerk!

The Hazard of Internet, Cell Phone, and Television Addiction

I am a technology addict. When I have my computer connected to the internet, I can forget the time. I am very busy to search any informations through the internet. Beside internet, I also use my cell phone to chat with my friends all day long. One more activity that can make me addicted is spending my time to watch my favorite TV programs. Yeah, those three kinds of technology are very enjoyable. But, I want people to know the potential risk of over using internet, cell phone, and television in the daily life.First of all, those three kinds of technology make us lazy. Take a look when we are too enjoy watching our favorite TV programs, we will postpone our assignments. We will delay them in 5 minutes later, then 5 minute later again, and again, and finally we don't finish them. Moreover, our time for studying are reduce. We are more interested watching television, browsing through internet, or chatting by phone than study the lesson. When we get assignments from lecturers, we just co py and paste from internet.Once we are too over using those technologies, we will be very wasteful person. for example, If we chat with friends all day long, we will spend so much money to pay phone bills. If we are blogging through the internet, we also have to pay the bandwidth bills. Or maybe, sometimes we don't turn off the computer or the television until we are fall asleep, so the electric claim will increase. Thus, our monthly expense will uncontrolable.Some studies find that over use of those technologies can create diseaseses. A simple example is if we are sitting in front of the screen for a long time without rest, absolutely we will get stomachache, headache, and back pain. The radiation of television or computer screen are also dangerous for our eyes. Just take a look to me, who has been suffered myopic since I become television addict. Another case is when we are using cell phone, actually, we are potentially get the brain cancer.According to Vini Khurana, one of Britai n's top neurosurgeons, using cell phones for more than 10 years can effectively double risk of developing the cancer, such as Vestibular schwannoma (accoustic neuroma) and Astrocytoma (Karachi, 2008). How terrible they are, aren't they? No doubt that those three kinds of technology bring big impact in our life. They give us pleasure and happines. So we can very addict of them. But, they will be very dangerous for us, if we can not manage the time to use them. Thus, cosidering the potential risk of them are very important. (an23)