Communication Barriers Essay

â€Å"So the whole war is because we can’t talk to each other,† Orson Scott Card. Ineffective communication is a major risk when working in health care. Both speaker and listener need to be in agreement about the message transmitted between each other. There are many factors that influence the way we communicate, and the intended message may not be understood. A person’s gender, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, age, culture, language, economic status, stereotypes, regional differences and noise are several barriers to effective communication. For communication to be effective, everyone needs to be responsible for clear communication, endeavoring to send and receive clear messages with as little distortion as possible. What is communication? Communication is a process involving several steps, among two or more people, for the primary purpose of exchanging information. It takes place when people interact in both verbal and nonverbal conversations. To get the point across to a person that is going to be involved in the conversation the information must pass through various channels. There are different steps required to get any information across. The first step is to transmit your idea or message. This begins with the source or the originator of an idea. The source takes this idea and puts it into a code and then transmits this message through a channel. The channel is a means by which the message is expressed, and there is a variety of channels that can be used. Various channels include phone, face to face, text messages, emails, and even Twitter. Next the receiver takes the message and interprets the code, or decodes it. Once this is done the receiver responds or gives feedback. The message or code can be misinterpreted due to noise or barriers.  Communication barrier is what makes communication complex, difficult, and sometimes frustrating. Communication barriers can have a large impact on getting the message across. People tend to erect barriers hindering their ability to  communicate. Physical barriers are defined as the specific area of transmission of communication. There are various kinds of physical barriers like the presence of closed office doors, separator screens, specified cabins, cubes, workstations, sections for people of different status and task or anything that physically separates people from one another. In organizations, physical barriers can be effective in the overall spread of the message. With a variety of checks and a strong platform, they can avoid encroachment of strangers and create cohesive teams.  Emotional barriers are related to the emotions of both the source and receiver. A person’s emotions can have a great effect on their message. When various emotions are involved, the message could be no more than an emotional outburst. People will focus on these emotions rather than focus on the message. The challenge is to examine and evaluate emotional barriers in communication and focus on what the other person is saying. Cultural barriers are created when people of a different culture communicate. When they communicate there is a tendency to share less information than those of our cultural heritage. Translating messages into words and behaviors is based on a person’s cultural background and is not the same for each person. Culture is a combination of various formative influences placed on us as we grow up. The major factors in this development of culture are religion, caste, creed, nationality, social status, values, beliefs and many such elements. Cultural elements have their big role to play when a person participates in communication. When someone becomes a part of a group and become attached to it, sooner or later, they get adapted to that group in terms of the cultural code of the group. Intercultural communication occurs when people who have different cultural traditions start a conversation. In order for you to have an error-free communication, you need to study and understand the cu ltural differences of your receiver as well. Technological advancements have made the communication process far more speedy, accurate and smooth. The development of smart phones and computers has made communication more comfortably accessible. All business practitioners and modern managers understand the importance of multidimensional moving of communication at multi-location stations traveling through innumerous ways of channels and mediums. In the  circumstances, when the whole social-networking and business functioning depends on technological tools of communication, it becomes highly significant to operate these tools ensuring that they 14 The IUP Journal of Soft Skills, Vol. VI, No. 3, 2012 are error-free. On the contrary, devices are electronic systems and they keep facing errors now and then, causing unpredictable communication errors in terms of its delivery to the desired end. Sometimes even the accuracy of these gadgets is questioned. The more we depend on these technological tools, the higher the chances are of getting error harms involved in the process. Sometimes, poor signals or unreceivable frequency of the transmitted messages cause trouble in getting those downloaded or decoded, resulting and leading to the failure of accurate message delivery, and sometimes it becomes tougher to ensure even its partial delivery to anyhow run the activity. Devices like cell phones, Internet and various other technological applications keep facing such errors depriving us of comfortable transaction and transmission of messages. Such system failures and its non-competing performance as desired by the sender or receiver lead to technological noises. The world of language is full of variety and pleasing choices. In a country of various languages like India, language keeps slightly changing every fifty miles. In the southern part of India, organizations prefer the regional language of communication, while this practice is not found in the northern region of India. Language is a highly important tool to describe our opinion, likes and dislikeness, preferences, thoughts, and ideas while communicating. It is always important to ensure that the language of the sender and the receiver is the same for a successful transmission of communication, but most of the time, language proves to be a potential barrier in the course of communication. Gender Barriers Gender has its own specified impact on the pattern of communication. As has been observed by the researchers, a woman uses approximately 25,000 words a day while talking, whereas a man uses around 10,000 words. As per the various medical reports, the speech ability of girls begins far earlier than boys. There are certain things that the girls cannot express due to gender barrier what boys can do and vise versa. The physiognomy of the boy and girl is responsible for language ability differences. The reason for  this lies in the neuronal wiring of a man’s and woman’s brains. The communication model of man remains linear, logical and sectioned, while woman’s expression is a combination of logic and emotion. Normally, during an interaction, woman uses different types of words while explaining any incident, and man uses a different set of words while explaining and describing the same incident. This difference is majorly because of the gender barrier. Interpersonal Barriers Interpersonal barriers comprise differences between the source and the receiver. There may be multiple differences between the encoder and decoder which result either in failure or partial delivery of meaning or content. The success ratio of communication is far higher when the person who communicates and the person who receives it are Comprehensive Modeling of Communication Barriers: A Conceptual Framework 15 on similar wavelength in terms of language, understanding and both ensure alike interpretation of the message in question. The lesser the interpersonal gap, the stronger the chances of communication success. Noise Barrier Noise is an external factor which causes interruption in the flow of communication. There are various types of noises available in the environment blocking the communication flow fully or partially. The major types of noises are discussed in detail in Figure 3. Description of Components of the Model Communication Noise Communication is an intricate process which encompasses various ideal conditions for the message to pass through successfully from the sender to the receiver. The factor of noise is very important, as it has been given due representation in almost all the communication models propounded by various researchers. In communication models, noise interference occurs during the decoding process of messages transmitted over a channel by an encoder. There are many examples of noise, and some major noise problems have been discussed in the comprehensive model of noise barriers in Figure 3. Environmental Noise According to Adler (1991), since we are constantly bombarded with more stimuli than we can absorb and more perceptions than we can keep track of, we only perceive those images that may be meaningful. We group perceived images into familiar categories that help to simplify our environment, which become the basis for our interpretations and allow us to function in an otherwise overly complex world. Environmental noise majorly springs from physical disturbances causing disruptions and creating problems in the smooth flow of communication from one point to another. For example, it is highly difficult to listen or understand the message if the speaker transmits communication from a noisy place like near the loud speaker during party/celebration. Sometimes, it becomes very difficult to respond over the phone or to a person nearby communicating with you if you are at the railway platform or a bus stand as these places are known for high decibels. Physiological Noise Physiological reasons are also effective noise barriers in the communication process. In this category, biological reasons like physical maladies that prevent effective communication, such as actual deafness or blindness are also taken into account. Sometimes intricate problems in clear utterance also cause physiological barriers in the process of communication. In this category, all those physical deficiencies or impairment causing obstruction to clear and smooth flow of communication are taken into account. Psychological Noise The psychology of the source communicator and receiver has its inevitable influence on the process of communication. The final shape of a thought or opinion does undergo structural changes based on the psychology of the person who communicates. The psychology is such an important factor that it sometimes makes the opinion of one person appear differently to the others. Our psychology consists of perception, attitude, vision, experiences, feelings and emotions, including various experiential amalgamations collected from our childhood to adulthood. The psychological metamorphosis is an ongoing process. The communication pattern and the contextual value of it are very much demonstrations of one’s psychology. Similarity of a  psychological approach solves this noise barrier to some extent. Difference in psychology between the sender and receiver magnifies the complexity of psychological noise. Specific mental condition can influence communication. For example, the mood of communicator or receiver naturally influences psychological noise and sometimes severely hampers effective communication. Cultural Noise â€Å"As we are different from others in various areas so is our culture. While language and communication systems are part of the culture, and language has often been used as a proxy for culture, the overlap between language and culture is only partial. For example, Comprehensive Modeling of Communication Barriers: A Conceptual Framework 17 Spanish speakers come from a variety of countries with distinct cultures† (Del Pinal and Singer, 1997). Cultural differences cause cultural noises. Taken-for-granted assumptions most of the time cause misunderstanding. Stereotypical assumptions can be potential contributors of cultural noise. Diversity of culture and cultural background is the mother source of noises of this category. Organizational Noise The most significant activity of any organization is a constant flow of communication in multi-directed locations internally and externally. Communication is a constant happening in organizations in various structures, formats and modes channelized at various hierarchical levels. The possibility of lapses in communication always remains very high and needs to be given due care and attention through continuous monitoring. The most common directional flow of communication in the organization is upward and downward. But the horizontal flow is also the integral part of the process. In the cross-functional movement of communication, the poorly structured messages do create a lot of troubles. If a message is poorly crafted by the higher-ups, it might create confusion and improper decoding of the intended meaning. Such types of instances are considered as organizational noise. Syntactical Noise Grammar of any language is the base framework to provide a structure to our  thoughts and expressions. But converting thoughts at a fast pace and applying suitable grammatical structure to it and ensuring correctness while speedily interacting and exchanging sentences, whether verbal or written, may be difficult at times. Molding thoughts into sentences and at once following the appropriate grammatical pattern is a very intricate process, and sometimes the user of a language does not have the efficiency or dexterity required to do so effectively. For example, when any incident is described by a communicator, he might commit mistakes in altering tenses at a fast pace, which results in syntactical noise. Mistakes in grammar can disrupt communication, leading to syntactical noise. Semantic Noise Most of the times, words have more than one meaning. The context of the interaction also prefixes the preciseness of the meaning of a particular word. Each one of us, as a communicator, has got his own style of using different words in different contexts. Sometimes the meaning of a word is presumed but it is not the intended meaning. Adler (1991) commented that â€Å"misinterpretation can be caused by inaccurate perceptions of a person or situation that arise when what actually exists is not seen. It can be caused by an inaccurate interpretation of what is seen; that is, by using my meanings to make sense out of your reality†. Thus, the variety of interpretations causes semantic noise in the communication process. 18 The IUP Journal of Soft Skills, Vol. VI, No. 3, 2012 Conclusion Communication is an integral and underlying element in any relation, whether personal, social, professional, global or business. Communication is the key factor that helps any business to progress substantially. The advent of new technologies has ensured the availability of efficient tools of communication through which the percolation of message, sending and receiving, has become much faster. Even then, dependence on electronic gadgets begets new system errors, either haulting the communication process or transmitting it inaccurately or after much delay. There are innumerable factors which may disrupt the communication flow, and these disruptions are known as potential barriers or various types of noises causing unexpected interruptions. The models displayed in the paper are rich resources to  monitor the active zones where the barriers might occur and can cause difficulty in the delivery of the message intended. The proposed models describe the barriers in the overall communication process and the respective points at which the probabilities of such disruptions are higher. No doubt, the barriers create complexity, difficulty and interruptions in communication, but the suggested model will naturally help in understanding such undesired occurrences. The conceptual framework does provide an exhaustive understanding of such complex situations caused by barriers and noises and shows how to remove them from the path of communication flow to enjoy constant and accurate flow of communication from one to another or many. Hahn Gail (2007), The Communication Coach II, Coloring Outside the Lines. Palazzolo Sam (September 2008), â€Å"Influential Communication†, available at http:/ /findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5286/is_20080901/ai_n28118653. Accessed on November 1, 2014 . Sanchez Nick (September 2008), â€Å"Communications Process†, available at http:// web.njit.edu/~lipuma/352comproc/comproc.htm. Accessed on November 2, 2014

The Most Important Discovery in the Last 100 Years

A lot of significant discoveries have been made over the past centuries. While various discoveries in astronomy, science, physics set our lives on entirely different course, I strongly believe that the discovery of the fist antibiotic, penicillin played a crucial role in the history of mankind. Firstly, before the discovery of penicillin some diseases were incurable and any wound could result in death because of bacteria. Though different methods in medicine were used to limit outbreaks and reduce the spread of diseases, researchers did not know how to kill bacteria that caused diseases. Invented by Alexander Fleming in 1928, penicillin cured a lot of diseases that had caused so much pain and suffering. For example, such illnesses as sepsis and pneumonia were fatal in the majority of cases. Penicillin became the fist drug to defeat those illnesses. Moreover, due the use of penicillin during World War II a tremendous amount of soldiers survived. Penicillin made a major difference in the number of deaths and amputations caused by infected wounds. This antibiotic was the most powerful, the least harmful and gave quick results. Though being the most limited cure, penicillin saved countless lives during the war. Last but not the least, penicillin played an important role in the increase of world life expectancy. It prevented population from the risk of getting the fatal diseases such as fevers, sepsis and pneumonia and reduced deaths at young ages. To illustrate this, the world life expectancy has doubled over the past two centuries from 45 years in 1920 up to 67 and more nowadays. Above all, a lot of other types of antibiotics were developed from penicillin, such as amoxicillin, which, in turn has treated other serious diseases and become innovation in medicine. To conclude, the invention of penicillin became a very important event in the history of medicine. The use of penicillin helped to save lives of many people and reduce the number of losses during World War II. It is impossible to imagine the modern life without antibiotics. Due to them people are not in danger of suffering from serious diseases as they were before the invention of the life-saving cure.

Popular Music in the Making of Modern Brazil Essay

Bryan McCann’s book â€Å"Hello, Hello Brazil† colorfully discussed the fascinating world on the development of the Brazilian music industry, the customs and the traditions of the population and the political standing that has influenced the Brazilian culture as a whole. The rapid acceptance of the cultural and political changes that has taken Brazil by storm has turned this nation to become one of the admired Latin American countries with the advancement of their musical industry. From the 1930s to the 1940s, the Brazilians have embarked on a cultural marketplace of recording and broadcasting that was influenced by Getulio Vargas, the politician from Rio Grande do Sul who was known for his dramatic and uneventful style of political agenda. In 1926, Getulio Vargas, a young congressman proposes that movie theaters and radio stations must grant royalties to the musicians for the recorded music they played. The â€Å"Getulio Vargas Law† suddenly became the congressman’s powerful means of endearing himself with the people of the music industry. The Brazilians love music and anyone in his power who protect and pursue the industry will be adored by the people. From then on, the music became livelier and the radio turned to be the most important tool for commercial broadcasting. Suddenly the seemingly boring stage of Brazil’s entertainment industry is teeming with composers, producers, music lovers and even politicians who ride up the wave for political purposes. But since there was a disparity between Minas and Sao Paolo, the two opposing regions with different roots and culture, music was used to unify differences over racial and regional gap. But as McCann discovers the living culture and the progress of Brazil into becoming a developing nation he also took a keen observation on the form of government ran by Getulio Vargas. From 1930 to 1954, the presidency has been advocated on and off by Getulio Vargas for which as some historians say has created a chain of uneventful events not only in Brazil but to the international scene as well. McCann relevantly categorized Getulio Vargas as the president with an unfamiliar way of rules not only in the world of politics but his way of influencing people as well. Vargas was loved by his nation not only because he has made Brazil the musical symbol of Latin America but he also imbibed a great authority on the country’s political and economic standard. He adopted and introduced different social, cultural and technological alternatives that were categorically from Western influence but this method, however, became unpopular especially to the socialist groups. Vargas became known for his goal in unifying Brazil to heal the long-standing class and regional differences between Sao Paolo and Minas. He tried to reconstruct Brazil’s political theme by removing regionalism and inject nationalism but his objectives have became so large that he ruled out the differences of ethnicity and class and at the same time introduced American influence into the culture starting with the music. However as the music progresses, Brazilian musicians and fans started to justify their musical preference with political color. This innovation has affected the purity of music into the realm of opinionated culture and nevertheless turned the foundation of music again into a tool of political segregation. And so the Brazilian and American influenced music industry although has founded solid grounds during the 1930s to 1940s has suddenly became fragmented in the 1950s (Bryann McCann). Getulio Vargas was born at Rio Grande do Sul in 1883. His family belongs to a wealthy clan who are politically strong which gave him the interest and advantage to assume a political career in his younger years. He became a congressman in 1926 through the Legislature in Rio de Janeiro and then appointed by President Washington Pereira as the Finance Minister of Brazil. Vargas has served his appointment well but in 1928 he decided to run for governorship against the political party of Pereira and incidentally won. After two years of being a governor, Vargas was selected by the party Alianca Liberal (Liberal Alliance) to run for president. But Pereira who is still the current president does not want to release his position to another party represented by a politician from the state of Minas. The â€Å"Golden Rule of Brazilian Politics† during that period is that it is required that there will be alternating president from among the state of Sao Paulo and the state of Minas. Since Pereira is from Sao Paulo, he quickly appointed Julio Prestes to be the upcoming president and asked the support of the people from Sao Paulo. This instigates a rebellion starting from the Southern Brazil but incidentally Prestes still won the presidency. Vargas publicly stated that he accepted his fate but then he clandestinely plotted to topple the administration of Prestes. A coup ensued and in three weeks, Getulio Vargas became by force the Provisional President of Brazil in 1930. Vargas’ ideals were of a capitalist and a corporatist and hates socialism. He focused on solidifying the powers of the federal government rather than providing strength and protection for the local and state government. Even in his first term in his office Vargas introduced a new constitution and people see it as a manipulation of the constitution to strengthen his hold. This is his means in achieving a long term project to turn Brazil into a strong nation with a strong economy much like the Western nation he is very fond of. When the people began to feel uncomfortable with his administration Vargas felt he has to do something to continue his ruling and prove himself again otherwise. When his original term was due to end in 1937, he staged another coup at the very last minute and declared that he is placing a new economic system – the â€Å"Estado Novo† or the New State. The Estado Novo was a corporatist state based on the same principles used by Antonio Salazar of Portugal. This new state allowed for Vargas to become President again because basically Estado Novo is founded by the support from large labor sectors in the government. He again snatched another term that will serve him until 1943. However, as 1943 came around he stated that, due to the crisis situation brought about by the eruption of World War II, he would remain in office and that a new election would be held as soon as the war ended. He made a similar announcement in 1944 in the middle of the war. When the war ended, however, it seemed he had no option but to allow for elections to continue. Brazilian election laws of that time required any government official to resign one year prior to elections if they wished to be eligible for the following elections. But Vargas did not want to resign nor showed any intention of doing so. During this period the people of Brazil want him out of the palace and branded him as a dictator. The military became upset and tell him he needs to resign because he is not eligible to run. Vargas was outraged and said if they wanted him to be out of the presidential palace then they have to remove him physically but assured the military he would fight them with his own men. The military officials want no bloodshed and so their only option was to cut off of the electricity and the water supply to force him out. Although he challenged them to attack so that, as he said, his blood would symbolize his protest against the violence they are imposing on him the military did not hurt him. Finally he left the palace with a belief that he has served his country well. But Vargas has a heart of concrete determination and the appetite for power. In his years of being out of the palace he became a senator and a congressman thanks to his political party who is always in support for his candidacy. He became the Senator for the state of Rio Grande do Sul but although he is still active as a politician for four years he said he prefers being a private person. Then suddenly Vargas re-emerged as a member of the Brazilian Labor party which encouraged him to run for president again. In 1951, Vargas re-assumed his third term as the President of Brazil. However, the Brazilian economy was in shambles and there is an increasing opposition against his ruling. The country’s inflation cannot able to cope up with the cost of living which made Vargas powerless in the middle of this crisis. His health began to fade and attacks of depression and insomnia became frequent. The worst thing, however, was that the United States which he thought was his ally have became less concerned with Brazil and do not want to fulfill its promise of economic assistance. His ever increasing critics became more direct in hitting his administration until his chief bodyguard was implicated in an attempted killing of Vargas’s infamous critics. Corruptions of his government were exposed and the military leaders again called for his resignation but he did not resign. On the morning of August 24, 1954, a large crowd gathered in his palace shouting for his resignation. Then the military officials gave him an ultimatum of forcing him out. Pressured and officiated as the great dictator he went to his room, sat down and wrote a note to his people and then committed suicide. He wrote all his frustrations against those who criticize him – the military and the opposition who continued to ask for his blood. He said they have insulted him and was not given the right to defend himself and has silenced his voice. He listed all the accomplishments he had done for Brazil such as liberating the people by means of social freedom, revised the wages in favor of the poor, guided the economy to prevent the effect of economic meltdown, and bring peace to warring factions by means of unification of the two states. He dramatically ended his note and added that now that he was condemned, he has to leave the people defenseless from an institution he has always protected but now exploited. When the note was read on the radio and aired on television, the audience suddenly felt his frustrations and despair. They began chanting his name and want him back. In the history of Brazil’s regime, Vargas became known by many to be the â€Å"Father of the Poor†. However, most people see him as an egomaniacal dictator. While he was seen as an idealist and a principled leader by captivating the hearts of the poor, his means in achieving a long lasting success for Brazil is nonetheless ostracized because of many shortcomings. First, he formed alliances with rich foreign countries in building a corporatist and a capitalist government so that he can control the economy and trash out socialism. In effect this did not materialize but socialism succeeded after he died. Second, those who oppose and criticize his dictatorial administration were imprisoned to contain them. Lastly his greed for power is endless and invalidated the laws by creating selfish deeds against the government just to hold on to power. Getulio Vargas ruled Brazil for almost 20 years. Unfortunately, most people claimed that his dictatorial leadership virtually destroyed Brazil’s constitutional government because of his greed for power and corruption. His means on making Brazil a great country was not successful for he has manipulated not only the constitution but fooled the people by denying them their own sovereign power to vote the person they want. Once in power he became an authoritarian and a corporatist which somehow destroyed the state controlled labor sectors. But as McCann said Vargas has at least earned a reputation of a good leader by those who he handed help. This is the part when he was successful with his leadership. In his long years of leadership, he once hailed a hero by the people of Brazil, Vargas became successful in some aspects for he has instituted social programs for the poor and created a bill that would allow women to vote. He gave freedom to women and encouraged them to become part of the labor forces of Brazil. He revitalized the military and for a time he enlivened the economy while improving the relationship of Brazil to other countries. Although many observers say Vargas was more prominent on the national than the local level, his relationship with the Western world signifies his intention in turning Brazil into an industrialized nation. Unfortunately his dreams did not completely materialize until he took his own life thinking he was a good president and had served his people well (Bryan McCann). Works Cited: McCann, Bryan. Hello, Hello Brazil: Popular Music in the Making of Modern Brazil Duke University Press, 2004. McCann, Bryann. â€Å"Hello, Hello Brazil: Popular Music in the Making of Modern Brazil. † Estudios Interdisciplinarios de AmA ©rica Latina y el Caribe (2004). August 4, 2009 .

Guest lecturer reports Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Guest lecturer reports - Essay Example Thus engineers are part of the problem solving process and apply an analytical approach in providing solutions. The knowledge of social construction of technology aids in the comprehension of societal problems in relation to the existing economic needs of the people. Therefore engineers are able to device appropriate solutions technically to suit the changing economic trends. Engineers are social scientific practitioners who mainly link scientific discoveries and the commercial applications to meet the day today societal and consumer needs (Anastasia & Reshma, 2009). This is incredibly plausible through the ideas this clever bunch of professionals put forward to act as economic solutions to technical problems in relation to the application of scientific principles. Sociology of technology is a theory that argues on the basis of human action shaping technology. One of the distinctive characteristics of technology is that it’s socially shaped i.e. a new technology available at o ne time may be developed and implemented following consumer interests. Thus a working technology is rendered unsuccessful when it does not meet the prevailing standards of consumer interests (Bijker, Wiebe, Thomas, Hughes, Trevor, & Pinch, 1987). Engineering socio-technical system defines societal roles in determining what design should be used by engineers to construct a device that is generally accepted, at certain limits. It is this design that influences the implementation of a particular technology at a particular time. As a theory and a methodology, SCOT analyses the causes of success and failure to a particular technology through formalizing appropriate scientific procedures and principles. This argument is evident in the evolution of bicycle, innovating different designs. The first invention of the bicycle was the velocipede, which was difficult to mount, had a poor braking system and the front wheel tended to clean itself on the cyclist's trousers while negotiating bents. T his paved way for penny-farthing part of the developmental process to find an efficient form of personal transport. Similarly, it took a cyclist some practice to learn how to get into and off the high wheel. This, accompanied by risks of tumbling for longer distances when one lost control, called for a new invention. The bicyclette, also known as safety bicycle, is the first chain-drive with advantages over the other inventions. The bicycle invention may be summarized in an innovation model continuum, as shown below. The linear innovation model suggests that the technical change in bicycle occurs in a linear fashion as illustrated in the flow chart below. On the other hand, multi-directional model provides a wider view on the relationship of the subsequent designs (Sismondo, 1993). Illustration 1: Linear Model of Innovation Illustration 2: Multi-directional Model Social analytical approach spells out clearly the diverse problems that need corrections, thus, which are very fundamenta l for my understanding. The interpretive flexibility stage analyses the problems affecting the male, elderly and female cyclists. By this, understand the requirements of the elderly, male, and female cyclists. The ordinary bicycle contributed major to the development of bicycles albeit having limitations on the elderly cyclists and female cyclists. It was rendered for young and athletic men who were thought to withstand its tumbling menace when it suddenly hit a rough surface, and also the rider's position over the centre of the

Critical Thinking Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 3

Critical Thinking - Essay Example Quoting those who support marine parks, he investigates the validity of their arguments, like the one that states that most Australians live in cities and cannot come across marine wild life except through such parks. However, Daly asserts that there are quite a number of places where city dwellers can afford to see wild life. In fact, such places are more in number than the number of marine parks. Moreover, most Australians need to travel more to the parks than to the natural surroundings which feature wildlife. Therefore, it is evident that there are a sufficient number of places where wildlife exists in Australia and most of them are accessible to Australians. Moreover, no one has to pay a costly fee to see the animals in natural surroundings – they are absolutely free. Daly contests another view propagated by scientists like Dr. Alison Lane, that people need marine parks so as to conduct scientific research on them. According to her most of the knowledge regarding marine m ammals were conducted at such parks. Daly quotes Jones to assert that such research is useful only as far the life of captive animals goes, and hardly useful for the life of wild animals. Even the biology and life habits of whales and dolphins change in marine parks. For instance, their diet habits are different, they have a lower life span and are more porno to disease. Their social behavior is also significantly different from wild animals, since they are trained at the parks, for providing entertainment for the visitors. Daly states that the research undertaken at marine parks are not reliable because of all these reasons. Daly attacks the view held by the Marine Park Owners association that marine parks attract a great number of tourists. But surveys prove that most of the tourists who visit Australia are drawn to its real wild life and natural

Benjamin Franklin Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Benjamin Franklin - Essay Example Benjamin Franklin reflected that culture through his life and this reflection of cultural and national pride of the Americans is evident in The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. It is clear that the cultural pride of the nation and its citizens has been so natural in the system that it is found the hardest element in life to live away from. Franklin explains this notion in the work when at the end of discussion on a long list of the desirable qualities of life that can be achieved through practice. Thus, when the Americans are hurt on their cultural pride, the natural outcome of every such attempt has been revolt which has been expressed through the historical events such as those touching the national consciousness and provincial thinking. â€Å"In reality, there is, perhaps, no one of our natural passions so hard to subdue as pride. Disguise it, struggle with it, beat it down, stifle it, mortify it as much as one pleases, it is still alive, and will every now and then peep out a nd show itself; you will see it, perhaps, often in this history; for, even if I could conceive that I had completely overcome it, I should probably be proud of my humility.† (Franklin). This has been the rule of life and that of culture that the integrity of every person, nation and culture is respected or the result will, naturally, be revolt. To find the origin of American provincialism, one may reach up to the days when the American people lived isolated from the disturbances of European life and this has been the center of their cultural pride and heritage. â€Å"Americans have long been proud of their pioneer roots, and have celebrated common sense over the pomp of aristocracy. This is just one of the more visible results of our founding provincialism. In fact, from the beginning, observers noted the salubrious consequences of Americas distance from Europe†¦ The ethic of rugged individualism is not

How legalizing illegal immigrants would help the economy of the United Research Paper

How legalizing illegal immigrants would help the economy of the United States - Research Paper Example While some Americans believe that ensuring the legal status to the illegal immigrants will not create any threat to the country, others are reluctant to approve any such reprieve. So the debate is very delicate and requires a proper justification regarding economic impact of a policy that legalizes the illegal immigrants. If we see the background of this issue, we observe that the illegal immigrants, the foreign nationals enter the USA devoid of any legal and proper immigration route and stay in the country. Generally the immigrants come to settle in USA for searching of better jobs, more money and to enjoy better standard of living, which is lacking in their native nations. At present in USA the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act have granted almost 3 million illegal immigrants the legal status as the permanent residents of the country. This law has also approved the case of the employers who has hired the illegal foreigners. To control the number of illegal residents some laws were amended in 1990. But those were proved to be inefficient regarding that issue. To provide the legal certificate to almost 12 million illegal residents of the USA, a bill was also commenced in 2007. But this bill was also unsuccessful to provide any such solution. (McFadyen). In USA, since 1990, the number of illegal immigrants has significantly enlarged though the then government spends huge money for amending an immigration enforcement act to control the entry of the unauthorized foreigners into America. One of a major reason behind this fact was that the illegal immigrants tried to gat an entrance in any way into America until they became succeed neglecting the government’s increased expenses to the security border of the country. At present they maximum number of illegal residents are found in California, but almost in every state of the USA there are some illegal immigrants reside. Almost half of them are

Primary productivity Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Primary productivity - Lab Report Example time by calculating the amount of oxygen produced which is directly proportional the amount of carbon bound to organic compounds such as carbohydrates in photosynthesis. In this experiment the light and dark bottle method was used. A set of 24 clean bottles each with a capacity 300ml were prepared. Twelve of the bottles were covered with aluminum foil and a black tape while the other twelve were not covered. All the 24 bottles were then filled with algae water. All the bottles were then exposed to light for a period of 1 hour. Dissolved oxygen probes were prepared and allowed to stay in water for 5 minutes as the probe warmed up and the initial dissolved oxygen concentration recorded. Data in each bottle was collected by gently stirring the probe in the water sample until the readings were relatively stable for about 30 seconds and the values recorded. The values for the light and the dark bottles were recorded and the means calculated. The respiration rate, gross productivity and net productivity were then calculated. The means were compared using student’s t-test and considered significant at P The data obtained for the dissolved oxygen concentrations in the light and dark bottles were subjected to paired student’s t- test. The results obtained indicated that there was a significant (P The algae in the bottles exposed to light predominantly carry out photosynthesis as they trap light energy which is converted into chemical energy in the form of sugars. Photosynthesis leads to the production of O2 and thus explains the increased concentrations of the dissolved oxygen. In the dark bottle only respiration occurs since algae are C3 plants. Since there was no sunlight the plants did not manufacture more sugars but rather there was breakdown of the sugars to provide energy for cellular activities with the production of carbon

Long-term Sources of Finance Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Long-term Sources of Finance - Essay Example Hence to meet the requirement of long-term capital, there are long-terms sources of finance which the business should seek for ensuring viability in their operations. Main sources are equity, debt and derivatives. While equity comes from share capital from the public and promoters, debt finance and derivatives can be procured in the form of debentures,, convertible notes, warrants etc. The share holders acquire right of ownership in the company by which they are entitled to share of profits, to vote in general meeting to elect and remove directors and pass or reject important resolutions concerning the company's management. In case of liquidation of company due to loss, the share holders may lose their money invested the shares of the company or in part in accordance with the company's liquidity position. Ordinary share form bulk of the company's capital having no special rights over the other shares. As already mentioned, in case of liquidation, the ordinary share will rank last for being paid after all other liabilities of the company are met. The management of the company may decide not to pay dividends in any one or more years for reasons of losses or any such reason. Most important feature of share form investment is that the share holders' liabilities are limited to the value of their shares and they will not be called upon to pay more than that in case of l osses incurred by the company... ThiPreference Shares This type of shares carries a right of dividend over ordinary share holders above discussed. The dividend is generally a fixed amount every year whether there is profit or not earned by the company. At the time of liquidation also, the preference share holders are paid before ordinary share holders. Preference share holders do not have voting rights but it may be exercised in case of failure to pay dividends to them. Several types of preference shares as follows. a) Participating preference shares. These share are entitled to additional dividends which may fluctuate as per profits earned by the company. b) Cumulative preference shares. If in any particular year, dividends are not paid, they are carried over and cumulative of such dividends is paid in subsequent years. c) Non-cumulative preference shares. They are so called as are not entitled to accumulate arrears of dividends. d) Redeemable preference shares. Company can redeem these shares and pay the owners a redemption price usua lly set above the par value in order to compensate them for untimely redemption. e) Convertible preference shares. Holders of theses shares have an option to convert them into other types of shares usually ordinary shares. This form of investment being less risky, carries lesser returns than ordinary shares which may be eligible for higher dividends in case of abnormal profits. Practical example of above said shares is taken from the Annual Report of M/S Reckittenkisser, Uk for 2004-05. The Annual Report says that parent company holds 4,500,000 nos 5% cumulative preference shares. The rights and restrictions of these shares are mentioned in note 16 to the report. Number of ordinary shares at the book price of m76 as at 31 December 2005, is mentioned as 722,160,934. as against

Hybrid cars Essay Example for Free

Hybrid cars Essay Industrialization has contributed to high-energy consumption across the world. The developed countries consume the larger share due to more industries that operate there. The release of pollutant substances into the atmosphere has led to global warming whose dangerous effects are already being felt today. The motor industry, being one of the largest pollutants, has been seeking new technologies that would lead to less pollution. The amounts of carbon dioxide by the motor industry are large enough for the industry to get concerned. In the early days, most cars were solely powered by fuel combustion engines alone. Such vehicles did not have much power as the new hybrid engines of nowadays. The fuel engines also produced large quantities of harmful gases. With the current debate on environmental issues, car manufacturers have resulted to developing more energy efficient vehicles that will produce equal or more power as earlier engines but with less harmful effects. The idea of developing hybrid car engines was borne from the successful introduction of hybrid powertrains. These hybrid powertrains were found more fuel efficient and this triggered car manufacturers to adopting the technology to the car industry (Haan et al, 2006). Hybrid cars are those cars whose engines use more than one power sources. Much criticism as well as commendation of these hybrid cars has been witnessed. The main issues of contention are the fuel efficiency of the hybrid vehicles over other engine cars and the effect of the hybrid cars on the economy. Some authors have argued that as much as hybrid vehicles lead to fuel efficiency, there are counter effects that negate any gains made. Studies have been done to quantify these factors to authenticate the allegations and interesting findings have come up. () In a study by Haan and others, they aimed at assessing the extent to which hybrid cars had changed people’s choice of buying cars. It had been argued that the introduction of hybrid cars led to people abandoning the fuel efficient vehicles they used earlier in favour of hybrid cars. The study was an assessment of the various ways that policy makers in different countries intended to address issues of pollution by cars. Several measures had been proposed and they centered on reducing the demand for cars, reducing energy consumption per vehicle per distance in kilometers and reduction of carbon emissions (Haan, 1082). Hybrid cars were considered energy efficient and that fewer pollutants were released (http://www. activehybrid. com). It was, however, generally argued that the hybrid cars had other counter effects. The study by Haan sought to quantify this. This suggests that there was an argument that hybrid cars, for some reason, were bought as additional cars thus increasing the number of cars owned by a household. Governments aim at reducing number of cars per household and hybrid cars worked against this principle. Following this argument, there was a general view that the lesser taxes charged on hybrid cars had led to the influx of the cars into the markets. (http://www. activehybrid. com/). The results of the study indicate that hybrid cars indeed reduce emissions. If a government is to effectively reduce the amount of emissions from the motor industry, hybrid cars have to be adopted. Policy should, therefore, allow more hybrid cars and to encourage this, tax reductions on hybrid cars should be sustained. The study further identified that hybrid cars do not increase the number of cars per household. The increment that was recorded was due to other factors unassociated with hybrid cars themselves. The findings of this study quell fears that hybrid cars have an overall effect that harm the economy (http://www. activehybrid. com/Why-Hybrids-are-the-Vehicles-of-Choice-these-days. html). Authors expressed that it was insufficient to evaluate a vehicle’s pollution level without considering other factors involved in the vehicle’s life cycle. Authors expressed a need of focusing not only on the output emission levels of the final product but also on the processes involved in developing these cars. Economic factors had to be considered to justify the efficiency of any type of car engine including hybrid. The cost aspect also had to be checked, to assess the economic viability of the car engines, the prices of having batteries was analyzed, fuel costs also, and driving range (Granovskii, 1186). Granovskii and others carried out a study to assess the environmental factors. The study sought to quantity the amounts of greenhouse gases related by each of the types of engines considered. The various other pollutants emitted in the manufacture and repair of batteries were also analyzed. The results of this study show that in comparison with the electric car, hybrid car was superior in car emission produced. More pollutants were released. The prices of electric cars were less than those of hybrid cars. There results suggest that if electric power would be generated and conserved in the car engines, the gains from such an electric engine would be more than that from hybrid cars. However, the study found that no car engine was superior to all other on all fronts. On every aspect the different cars engines should advantages over others. The hydrogen engine, though, did not have any advantage over other engine types except that it had least pollution. The study further indicated that when natural gases are used for generation of electricity in an engine, the hybrid is better than other engine types (Anderson). Manufacturers had further developed intelligent technology that enabled cars to sense their environments and adjust their fuel consumption levels. The developers of this technology strongly believed that this technology was the most fuel efficient that should be adopted to replace the hybrid cars. The new technology engine was proposed as fuel saving and less pollutant than all other engine types. A review of literature in a study done by Manzie and others reveal that hybrid cars had high initial costs that dispelled many customers from buying them. Hybrid engines had been found to be more fuel efficient in trains and this technology was extended to the cars. The study by Manzie focused on identifying any benefits realized from the use of hybrid and communication technologies in fuel economy. A situation model was used in evaluation of the fuel economy of combining these two technologies. The study was carried out in Australia. The hybrid model used in this consisted of the hybrid electric vehicle. The speed of the vehicle was evaluated when the technologies are combined. Several control procedures were put to ensure the result are not skewed to any side (http://www. hybrid-vehicles. net/). The results of the study indicate that there were significant improvements in fuel economizing. Less fuel was consumed by the hybrid vehicles. Telematics, which combine intelligent capabilities in a car, were found to be cost effective and fuel efficient. The results also indicate that there may be challenges in adopting the new telematics technology because it affects overtaking between intelligent and unintelligent cars. The study indicated that hybrid systems alone consumed less fuel. A combination of hybrid and telematics technology to create an intelligent hybrid car led to more improvements in fuel consumption. There are benefits that are associated with the hybrid cars. Studies have shown that these cars consume less fuel, release fewer pollutants and have more power. Today the hybrid model car engines are being improved their capabilities. Hybrid cars are environmental friend. These cars are also cheap enabling people to acquire vehicles fast and save money to do other important things. The hybrid cars have now found their way into United States military operations (Mehney). It is evident from the above analysis that hybrid vehicles consume less energy than combustion engines. The evidence is not only in theory but has been supported by empirical evidence. The several control measures applied in each study ensure that the results are a true representation of the actual situation. Hybrid cars have all evidently been found to release fewer pollutants into the atmosphere. In fact, this is the technology that every country serious on reducing pollution should emphasize on. The criticism of the hybrid cars has not presented empirical evidence to authenticate allegations. Most of these allegations are generalizations. It seems that the hybrid technology poses a threat to some manufacturers and that is why they resist it. The technology, however, has revealed its evidence and we can go by it. Manufacturers need to focus on building energy efficient cars such as the hybrid ones. Works Cited Granovskii, Mikhail. , Dincer, Ibrahim and Marc A. Rosen. â€Å"Economic and environmental comparison of conventional, hybrid, electric and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles† Journal of Power Sources. Volume 159, 2, (2006): 1186-1193. Haan, Peter. , Peters, Anja and Scholz W. Roland. †The Automobile Industry Sustainability† Journal of Cleaner Production. Volume 15, 11-12, (2006): 1076-1084. â€Å"Hybrid cars are an excellent choice! † 2007 Hybrid Cars Blog 15 August 2007 http://www. activehybrid. com/ â€Å"Hybrid Vehicles† 2005, 15 August 2007 http://www. hybrid-vehicles. net/ . Manzie, Chris. , Watson, Harry and Halgamuge, Saman. â€Å"Fuel economy improvements for urban driving: Hybrid vs. intelligent vehicles† Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies Volume 15, Issue 1, 2007: 1-16. Mehney, Paul. â€Å"Public Affairs Officer Army Unveils First Hybrid-Electric Propulsion System for New Combat Vehicles,† Aug 15, 2007. US Army. 15 August 2007 http://www. army. mil/-newsreleases/2007/08/15/4424-army-unveils-first-hybrid-electric-propulsion-system-for-new-combat-vehicles/. Anderson, Tony. â€Å"Proven Ways to Increase Your Gas Mileage†, July 1, 2007, 15 august 2007 http://www. gasmileagemanual. com/? gclid=CO3UhKPF940CFQWIlAodGRsjMA. â€Å"Why Hybrids Are The Vehicles Of Choice These Days. † 15 August 2007, http://www. activehybrid. com/Why-Hybrids-are-the-Vehicles-of-Choice-these-days. html.

A study of the new century financial corporation

A study of the new century financial corporation New Century Financial Corporation was originally founded in 1995. It was a Maryland corporation based in Irvine, California in business to originate, purchase, sell and service home mortgage loans. Court documents reported the company experienced phenomenal growth during its 10 year history, originating $350 million in mortgage loans in 1996 to $50 billion in 2005 with earnings per share increasing $.013 to $7.17. New Century was an aggressive subprime lender catering to customers who could not qualify for conventional mortgage loans. New Century would then pool these loans and sell them in the mortgage secondary market at a profit. These loan sales came with warranties and representations which if breached could require New Century to repurchase the loans at a substantial loss. These repurchases began increasing in 2004 and were soon taking a toll on the companys liquidity. Still, as late as the latter part of 2006, the company was able to raise $142.5 million from a new stock issue. It all came tumbling down February 7th, 2007 when New Century admitted it was restating the companys financial results for the first three quarters of 2006. The market reaction was a drop of 40% in the stock price from $30.16 to $19.24 according to court documents. By March 13th the stock price had declined all the way down to $.84 after a March 1st announcement informing the public that its 2006 10-K filing would be late along with a March 12th announcement disclosing a discontinuance of financing by some lenders. This crippled the companys ability to honor loan repurchase demands. New Century Financial filed for bankruptcy protection on April 2nd 2007. KPMG LLP and KPMG International KPMG LLP was New Centurys independent auditor from 1995 thru 2006. KPMG is a Delaware limited liability partnership and the U.S. member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International Cooperative, a Swiss entity with over 137,000 employees operating in 144 countries according to their website. New Century Financial What Fraud Happened? The executives at New Century Financial violated many accounting rules and U.S. laws. The three perpetrators in this case are the former CEO Brad Morrice, former CFO Patti Dodge, and former Controller David N. Kenneally. The offenses are related to New Centurys disclosure fraud, violations of the Sarbanes- Oxley Act, violations of generally accepted accounting principles, and violations of the Securities Act. DISCLOSURE FRAUD New Century Financial failed to make adequate disclosures regarding its loan production (the nature and risk of its products), its loan repurchase obligations, and its backlog of repurchase requests. In the 2006 Forms 10-Q, both Morrice and Dodge, failed to disclose that a substantial portion of it new loans were derived from what are termed 80/20 loans, where New Century would underwrite 80% of the first loan on the property, and underwrite a second loan for the additional 20%, actually creating a 100% loan to value ratio. These loans were risky, because the buyer of the property was able to make the purchase without risking any money of their own. In 2006 33.47% of New Century Financials loans were of this type, up from 23% in 2004 and 9% in 2003. Additionally, New Century disclosed materially misleading loan to value (LTV) information on its loans. To the public, New Century disclosed a weighted average LTV, which in 2006, was between 80.9% and 81.4%, of total loans made, but in company internal reports the actual numbers were between 86.6% and 87.6%. Also in the 2006 Forms 10-Q, New Century made disclosures that downplayed the risks of its interest only and stated income loans, (loans in which ones income is not verified). New Century failed to disclose that through the second quarter of 2006 that it was actually experiencing greater defaults on its 80/20, stated income and layered risk loans. Regarding New Centurys loan repurchase obligations, adequate disclosure was not given to investors. Under the contract for the loans, New Century could be required to repurchase loans sold pursuant to repurchase agreements in two situations: (1) the representations and warranties about the loan were untrue; or (2) the borrower defaulted on the loan by failing to make the first payment due after the loan was sold. These loan repurchase obligations would have negatively affected investor and lender expectations of New Centurys earnings potential had they been disclosed. In 2006 New Century experienced an increasing rate of Early Payment Defaults and First Payment Defaults, which could trigger the loan repurchase obligation. In 2006 New Century had to repurchase $784.3 million dollars on loans, and was left with loans with a value of 80% of the repurchase price. In addition to its actual repurchases, New Century had a backlog of repurchase requests that it did not disclose in 2006. From 2005 to 2006 the backlog grew from $143 million to $400 million. Failure to disclose these significant facts greatly altered the information available to investors regarding the Company and would have had an unfavorable impact on net revenues and income from continuing operations. SARBANES-OXLEY VIOLATIONS In violation of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, the CEO, CFO, and company Controller personally signed New Centurys disclosures, first and third quarter 10-Q forms, and the Sarbanes-Oxley certifications associated with those filings knowing that the financial statements were materially misstated. Furthermore, each of the company officers benefited from the financial misstatements in terms of pay, and bonuses, none of which was returned to shareholders. During the year 2006 the CEO and CFO made misleading statements in press releases and earnings calls regarding the financial position of the company. ACCOUNTING FRAUD In line with generally accepted accounting principles, New Century Financial was required to estimate the fair value of its repurchase obligation and to reduce the gain it reported on the sale of that amount. In deriving an estimate of this obligation New Century was required to estimate, (1) the amount of loans that it would have to repurchase, i.e., the repurchase rate: and (2) the costs that it would incur in repurchasing loans. When New Century repurchased a loan it was recorded at the loans unpaid balance and not at the fair value as required under SFAS 140. However, prior to the second quarter of 2006, the repurchase reserves recorded by New Century Financial were sufficient to state the net value of the assets in amounts materially in compliance with SFAS 140. In the second quarter of 2006, however, the reserve calculation methodology was changed resulting in much lower reserves. As a result of these changes, the net assets were no longer stated at fair value, a violation of S FAS 140. This reduced its repurchase expense and overstated revenues. Also under GAAP, New Century was required to estimate contingent liabilities, in line with SFAS 5. SFAS 5 requires accrual of loss contingency if information indicates that it is probable that the liability has been incurred and the amount can be reasonably estimated. The liability related to the substantial backlog of unprocessed repurchase claims was not properly accrued, a violation of SFAS 5. This allowed New Century to overstate its financial performance. New Century also failed to implement internal controls over financial reporting to appropriately track repurchase requests from investors to buy back their loans, further reducing the firms loss contingency. As a result of improperly accounting for loan repurchase obligations, which reduced the reserve expense needed to repurchase those loans; New Century overstated its financial results, with reported pre-tax earnings 165% higher than the corrected amount (a total overstatement of approximately $84 million). In the third quarter of 2006, earnings were overstated approximately $108 million. VIOLATIONS OF THE SECURITY ACT In connection with the November 16, 2006 securities offering both Morrice and Dodge filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, they reported that New Centurys financial statements presented fairly in all material respects the financial condition of the company. Furthermore, it was stated that New Century Financial had no undisclosed material liabilities, and that the financial statements complied with the requirements of the Exchange Act. The reality was that, New Century had a substantial backlog of pending repurchase claims, which were not reflected as liabilities in New Centurys financial statements. With all of these defalcations combined the executives at New Century Financial violated the following laws: Fraud in the Offer or Sale of Securities, Section 17(a) of the Securities Act Fraud in Connections with the Purchase or Sale of Securities, Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act and Rule 10b-5 Violations of Commission Periodic Reporting Requirements, Aiding and Abetting Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act and Rules 12b-20, 13a-11, and 13a-13 Circumvention of Internal Controls, Section 13(b)(5) of the Exchange Act False Statement to Accountants, Rule 13b2-2 Certification Violations, Rule 13a-17 of the Exchange Act Failure to Reimburse, Section 304 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act KPMGs Role in the Fraud KPMG LLP (KPMG) was the external auditor for New Century Financial from inception (1995) to 2006. They resigned in April 2007, a few months after New Century filed for bankruptcy. Although they had completed a significant portion of the field work for the 2006 audit prior to their resignation, they did not issue an opinion on the 2006 financial statements. They issued unqualified opinions in all prior years audited by them. They also performed reviews of the quarterly financial statements through 2006 and performed audits of the effectiveness of internal controls at New Century (SOX 404 audits) for 2004 and 2005. The SOX 404 audit for 2006 was substantially completed but the opinion was not issued as of KPMGs resignation. Although financial statements are the responsibility of management, an independent auditors opinion that the statements present fairly, in all material respects, the financial condition of the Company in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles does provide investors and creditors a certain level of assurance that managements statements are reliable. The opinion is not a guarantee of the accuracy of the financials but the public should be able to trust that, at a minimum, the auditor followed professional standards in the audit process. An auditors role in the issuance of fraudulent financial statements, then, could come from either a) their failure to exercise due care in the audit process which resulted in their failure to discover and communicate material misstatements or b) their complicity in the fraudulent misstatements. Most of what we know about KPMGs relationship with New Century and their work as New Centurys auditors comes from a report by Michael Missal, the bankruptcy examiner in the New Century case, to the United States Bankruptcy Court. Mr. Missal was charged with identifying any potential causes of action that might arise from the New Century bankruptcy. He reviewed KPMGs audit workpapers and New Centurys accounting records and interviewed KPMG and New Century employees as part of his research. Missals report focuses primarily on KPMGs work during 2005 and 2006. He suggests that, during those years, KPMG failed to follow professional audit standards and that certain members of the audit team were complicit in the fraud by giving advice to New Century, which was followed by them, that was inconsistent with generally accepted accounting principles and that resulted in material misstatements. The evidence presented to support the contention that KPMG failed to act in accordance with accepted auditing standards (GAAS)) was substantial. The three general auditing standards require that 1) the auditor must be technically competent, 2) the auditor must be independent and 3) the auditor must exercise due professional care. Mr.. Missal provided evidence that KPMG failed to meet any of those standards. Mr. Missal reviewed the New Century engagement staffing during 2005 and 2006. During the first quarter review in 2005, the entire audit team was new to the engagement (other than two junior auditors). The engagement partner was new to KPMG and had very limited experience in the mortgage banking industry. The senior manager was a recent rehire of KPMG and his only industry experience was a three year stint as an assistant controller at a small mortgage lending company. The senior manager on the 2005 SOX 404 audit had no prior SOX 404 audit experience. The concurring partner had worked primarily with financial institutions and leasing companies. Field work on two of the most sensitive areas (testing of the repurchase reserve and residual interest valuation) was done by first year auditors. Given the complexity of the mortgage banking industry, Mr. Missal argued that the team did not have the technical skill required to audit New Century. Mr. Missal reviewed internal communications between KPMG staff and external communications between KPMG and New Century management and board members. The senior members of the audit team ignored or dismissed concerns raised by KPMG specialists about the appropriateness of certain accounting methods used by New Century. They also dismissed concerns raised by junior auditors and by members of New Centurys Audit Committee as unfounded. Mr. Missal concludes that the senior audit members were more concerned about retaining the client than they were about the quality of the audit work and therefore lacked independence. There were numerous examples given by Mr. Missal to demonstrate KPMGs lack of due professional care including their failure to follow the second and third field work standards (the auditor must design tests to adequately respond to their understanding of the entitys internal controls (or the lack of internal controls) and is required to obtain sufficient evidential matter to support their opinion). The examples given included KPMGs failure to expand testing based on deficiencies noted in their review of New Centurys controls as part of the audit planning process, failure to properly test the repurchase log, failure to properly test the models developed by New Century accounting personnel to determine the reserve requirements, failure to expand testing given significant changes noted in the number of loans repurchased and failure to expand planned testing when the risk assessment related to residual interests was changed to high (as part of the SOX 404 audit work in 2006). Mr. Missal also noted that certain significant control deficiencies noted as part of the 2004 SOX 404 audit were not communicated, as required, to the Board of Directors and that the 2005 SOX 404 audit did not consider, as required, the failure of New Century to resolve control deficiencies noted as part of the prior year SOX 404 audit. Mr. Missal also provided evidence KPMG was complicit in the fraud. According to interviews of KPMG and New Century staff, the Senior Audit Manager on the engagement team suggested two changes to the calculation of the repurchase reserve which were adopted by New Century during 2006. Both changes resulted in significant reductions of the amount of the reserve recorded in the financials and both changes were contrary to GAAP. Mr. Missal does not suggest that the actions were criminal. The inference is more that the suggestions were made based on a lack of understanding of the applicable GAAP as it applied to the mortgage industry. To date, KPMG has not responded to specific issues raised in Mr. Missals report. They have, however, issued a general statement that they believe the firm complied with all professional standards. It should also be noted that the SEC, in their action against New Century, included a claim that New Century had lied to their auditors. Mr. Missal does conclude that although he believes that the trustees for New Century could have a reasonable basis for suing KPMG for professional negligence, he also cites a number of possible defenses that could be raised by KPMG. All of the defenses speak directly, or indirectly, to New Centurys contributory negligence. The Affect of the Fraud on KPMG No charges have been brought against KPMG by the SEC. However, both KPMG and their parent firm, KPMG International (KPMGI) were sued in April of 2009 by The New Century Liquidating Trust and Reorganized New Century Warehouse Corporation (the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy). The suit against KPMGI has two causes of action. The first cause of action states that KPMG is an agent of KPMGI and therefore KPMGI is liable for the actions of KPMG (vicarious liability). The second cause of action claims deceptive and unfair business practices by KPMGI. KPMGI advertised that its member firms performed quality work but did not properly oversee or control that quality. The suit seeks, in part, actual compensatory and consequential damages and punitive damages plus costs. The suit against KPMG has three causes of action. In the first cause, the plaintiff requests that the agreement signed by KPMG and New Century prohibiting New Century from seeking punitive damages be set aside as illegal under California law. In the second cause of action, the suit claims that KPMG was negligent in their performance as New Centurys auditors. The lawsuit includes the claims reported in Mr. Missals report as described in the section KPMGs Role in the Fraud above. In the third cause of action, the suit claims that KPMG aided and abetted the breach of fiduciary duties by New Centurys directors and officers. The suit claims that KPMG was aware of the breaches of duty and that the engagement team provided assistance and encouragement in those breaches. The suit seeks, in part, actual compensatory and consequential damages (in an amount not less than $1 billion) and punitive damages plus costs. Since the suits have not been settled, there is no way to know or estimate the f inancial impact on KPMG. KPMG has undoubtedly been affected in unpublicized ways. Mr. Missal notes several of the engagement team members left KPMG or were transferred out of the local office during 2007. There have probably been changes in internal processes related to engagement management and technical review. It is possible KPMG has lost clients as a result of the publicity surrounding the case. Since the final outcome of these cases is still unknown, its impossible to evaluate the complete effect upon KPMG LP and KPMGI. KPMGs Violations of Legal and Ethical Standards New Centurys auditor, KPMG LLP (and its parent company KPMGI) is a large multinational auditor which employees over 135,000 people in over 140 countries. The breadth of accounting law and ethical standards it may be bound to is diverse and multilayered, including regional, state, national, and international provisions. To illustrate this fact both New Century and the US arm of KPMG were incorporated in Delaware, while headquartered in Irvine, California and New York City respectively, and may be subject to legal precedent in potentially any state in which material business is conducted. United States accounting standards (GAAP) are primarily set by the Financial Accounting Standards Board. Compliance with GAAP is often required by regulatory agencies such as the SEC and by statutory law both at the state and federal level. Additionally there are an extensive number of statutory requirements which bind both public auditors like KPMG and publically traded entities like New Century on a federal level including SEC provisions and rulings of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB). Some examples of potentially breached laws and ethical standards include Article 9, Section 58 of the California Board of Accountancy Regulations which requires CPAs to comply with GAAP and GAAS (Generally Accepted Auditing Standards) since KPMGs treatment of the reserve requirement was inconsistent under FAS 140 and FAS 5. It is also possible that Section 65 was breached since there were allegations that KPMG sought to maintain New Century as a profitable client over accurate financial reporting thus compromising independence. At the national level, several AICPA principles and rules may have been compromised. Principles allegedly breached include the principle of objectivity and independence based on the aforementioned profitability rationale, and the principle of due care based on the inconsistent application of GAAP (and alleged technical/professional insufficiency of the audit team). Since the AICPA rules are a codification of the principles, several rules by nature would have been violated including the following, rules 101, and 102, plus rules 201 through 203. Rules 101 and 102 which govern independence and integrity/objectivity respectively were potentially breached by the conflict of interest associated with retaining profitability clients which would have affected both independence and objectivity. Rule 201, the General Standards is broken down into 4 parts each of which may have been broken during the anomalous treatment of the reserve requirement among other accounting guidance provided by KPMG. Rule 201 A which dictates professional competence and rule 201 C which dictates appropriate levels of planning and supervision may have been violated if the audit team was insufficient in technical skill and frequently unsupervised as alleged. Rule 201 B which prescribes due care again may have been breached by inconsistency in the application of GAAP. Lastly there is evidence that the last and final provision of rule 201 was breached, section D discusses the acquisition of sufficient supportive evidence of audit opinions and there is evidence that the audit team may have cut the engagement short on account of time and profitability pressures. What could have been done to prevent the fraud? Severing the financial incentive between client and auditor by mandating that auditing fees be paid via a trustee or other third party irrespective of audit findings could significantly reduce the pressure to deviate from GAAP and decrease conflicts of interest. Perhaps a pooled system like insurance could be created where publicly traded firms, those regulated by the SEC and the PCAOB, would pay into a pool of funds from which fair compensation can be disbursed, reducing profit based incentives from altering the quality of audit findings. Rotating audit firms by lottery or by imposing some form of term limits may prevent the collusion often formed by longstanding relationships. The creation of an anonymous complaint system by regulatory authorities could provide an outlet for junior members in auditing firms to report major violations of standards by higher levels of management in both the company being audited and the accounting firm itself. Additional individual penalties for failure to exercise due care, especially for senior members, may insure work is not rushed or delegated improperly while preserving the limited amount of competition remaining in the public auditing industry. But at the end of the day it is always about the basics. A framework is in place to prevent financial fraud by companies. The framework is: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles Generally Accepted Auditing Standards Corporate governance exercised by the Board of Directors The failure of New Century Financial was not so much a regulation failure but a human failure. But this is why we have regulations-to reduce the temptations of humans. Strict adherence by KPMG to the generally accepted auditing standards would not have prevented the failure of New Century, it probably would have speeded-up its demise. But it would have given New Centurys investors, creditors, and board the critical information needed to make sound decisions. The potential for human failure in both New Century and KPMG could have been reduced by what is now termed the tone at the top. New Centurys board, especially the audit committee and the upper management of KPMG did not provide the environment for the violations to come to their attention. KPMGs ignoring of the warnings of junior staff and specialists of problems is inexcusable. How did the New Century failure affect our groups views and opinions? A former auditor in our group understood the tension between the auditors duty to follow professional standards and their desire to retain clients. Comparable tensions exist for accountants in private industry. I also know that hindsight is 20/20 and without hearing the defendants side of the story, its difficult to fairly evaluate their work or their ethics. Its difficult to read about the economic and personal impact that these large corporate failures have on the various stakeholders the employees, the investors, the creditors, and the public without wanting to see changes that will at least reduce the risks we all face. Maybe its time to make the auditors more independent which might mean that auditors should be paid by someone other than the audit client and that audit firms serving public companies need to be rotated on a regular basis. A CPA candidate in our group felt reminded of the constant conflict between quality and quantity; profitability and sustainability. The pressures placed on auditing firms by virtue of the free market often creates particularly troublesome adverse incentives which I may be subject to one day, this is unfortunate. These same pressures are the reasons why public accounting is needed in the first place, typified by New Centurys unsustainable financial position over time, and reminded me of just how important it is to maintain trust and faith in the public accounting industry. Another CPA candidate felt disillusioned of the culture of the Big Four accounting firms. Noting the firms are quick to lecture others about tone at the top but are they looking at the tone at the top in their own organizations? He added do I want to work at a place where the input of juniors is routinely dismissed? Where was the quality control mechanism at KPMG? Finally, one of us believed this case only confirmed my views about the people involved in the Real Estate/Mortgage market, most of them were in the market to make a quick buck, 99% of the people in this industry had no understanding of the real estate market or did not care, and the market was doomed to collapse due to weak lending practices.

Enrons Collapse and Its Corporate Culture

Enrons Collapse and Its Corporate Culture According to Albert Camus A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world At first sight, Enron looks like a mega-size illustration of the bad apple among the ripes ones. It projected itself as financial of Business Ethics. On December 2.2001 Enron Corp. Filed the largest bankruptcy in U.S history due to many unethical issues. The Enron Scandal shocked the world. Enron had an overwhelming aura of pride and carried with it the deep-seated belief that its people could handle increasing risk without any consequences. The culture promoted greed and focused on how much money could be made for executives. For, example Enrons compensation plans seemed less concerned with generating profits for shareholders than with enriching Companys wealth. Enrons corporate culture reportedly encouraged profiteering. The Enron collapse has sent shockwaves all over the financial world and raised serious questions regarding corporate governance. The Enron bankruptcy is becoming the most famous and highly publicized bankruptcy case in history. There are numbers of unethical issues that contribute Enron to its bankruptcy. They are as follows-: Improper Accounting: One of the major reason behind of its bankruptcy was improper accounting system. (Enrons lawyers in august 2001)The company used corrupt accounting measures to make their profits .Although these practices produced more favorable financial picture ,outside observers believed they might constitute fraudulent financial reporting because they didnt accurately represent the companys true financial condition. For example the company established the special-purpose entities (SPEs) to move the assestd and debt of its balance sheet and increase cash flow by showing through its books when it sold assets. Hiding the losses and inflating profits: The company has a cash flow of negative amount $154 millions, Enron claimed of 3 million in its cash flow Bad Communication-: Delivering the bad news. Lying to the various stakeholders, the financial statements hide the momentous losses to their Stockholders. Stock analysts were often vague and didnt specify their operation cost and their finances. Misleading the financial reports-: The bankruptcy filing came after revealing that Enron used (SPEs),Special Purpose Entities. SPEs hid losses. Enron used SPEs to move assets and debts off it balance sheet. This enables increase in its Cash Flow. Poor business and accounting procedures encouraged greed. Unregulated private partnerships(SPES) to take on debts Over 5000 Enron employees lost their livelihood due to Top Managements greed. Enrons VP Sherron Watkins consistently sent reports out to the then Chairman outlining improper accounting methods employed. The biggest problem was that Enron outsourced its internal audit function. It outsourced both its internal and external auditing function to Arthur Andersen. 2. Did Enrons bankers, auditors, and attorneys contribute to Enrons demise? If so, what was their contribution? Enrons demise involve its relation to its bankers ,auditor and attorneys . Enrons auditor: Enron auditors knew in mid August from a senior Enron employees concern about improprieties in the energy companys Accounting practices (Washington Jan16) .Arthur Andersen was responsible for ensuring the accuracy of Enrons financial statements and internal bookkeeping. Andersons reports were used by potential investors to judge Enrons financial soundness and future potential before they decided whether to invest. Current investors decide if their funds should remains invested there. Former CEO Jeffrey Skilling, widely seen as Enrons mastermind. He was so sure he had committed no crime that he waived his right to self-incrimination and testified before Congress that he was not aware of any inappropriate financial arrangement. Jeffrey McMahon told a congressional subcommittee that he had informed Skilling about the companys off-the-balance-sheet partnership in March 2000, when he was Enrons Treasurer. (ENRONS COLLAPSE: OVERVIEW;RECEIVE WARNING ON ENRON FIVE MONTH AGO(Richard A jr. opeel. published on Jan 17 2007) Enrons bankers: Although the bank knew there was a problem with Enron finances Its own bankers . Their under writing feeling on debt issue sold to the public to prove that without the bankers Enron will never remained its scheme on the investing public . JPMorgan Chase and Citibank were already aware of the tax regulations and would have had sources for audited accounts. These banks issued large loans to the company. They could do so because they would then lay off much of the risk through a complex process of financial engineering. While shareholders pursue individual claims against the bank the decision Monday stymies any mass effect by shareholders recovers all the parts of loss of $40 billions from a wall street bank that earned millions of dollars from Enron in banking fees .(Julie Creswel) Enrons Lawyers: In the events leading up to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enquiry, Enrons employees shredded important documents to prevent any indictments. 3.What role did the chief financial officer play in creating the problems that led to Enrons financial problems? According to Bill Saporito, Fastow earned a reputation of being a money wizard who constructed the complex financial vehicles. He employed techniques that could rapidly exploit deregulating markets for energy, water, broadband capacity and anything else that could be traded. In 1993, Fastow created hundreds of special-purpose entities designed to transfer Enrons debt to an outside company and get it off the books-without giving up control of the assets that stood behind the debt. To prevent degrading in Enrons credit rating, Fastow tripled his staff, to more than 100.He hired various banking experts and giving them the task of selling and buying capital risk. This effectively allowed Enrons audited balance sheet to appear debt free, while in reality it owed more than 30 billion dollars at the height of its debt. While presented to the outside world as being independent entities, the funds Fastow created were to take write-downs off Enrons books and guaranteed not to lose money.. Fastow made tens of millions of dollars defrauding Enron in this way, while also neglecting basic financial practices such as reporting the cash on hand and total liabilities. Giles Darby, David Bermingham, and Gary Mulgrew worked for Greenwich NatWest. The three British men had worked with Fastow on a special purpose entity he had started called Swap Sub. When Fastow was being investigated by the SEC, the three men met with the British Financial Services Authority (FSA) in November 2001 to discuss their interactions with Fastow. REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRSPHIES: 1.Farrell, O., Fraedrich ,J and Ferrell, L,(2010)Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases (8th edition),Houghton Mifflin. 2.Cullen,J(1999)Managing Ethical and Social Responsibility: Challenges for Multinational Companies ,in Multinational Management .a Strategic Approach, International Thomson Publishing. 3.Ackman, Dan. .Enron Files Chap. 11.. Forbes Online 3 December 2001. http://www.forbes.com/2001/12/03/1203topnews_print.html Farrell, Greg and Woodyard, Chris. .Three powerful men forged Enron.s path.. USA Today 28 January 2002 4.Miller, Roger and Jentz, Gaylord A. .Business Law Today.. West Legal Studies in Business, 2000. 5.St. Onge, Jeff. .Enron set to file largest-ever Chapter 11.. Seattle Times 30 November 2001. 6.Talaski, Karen. .Enron.s fall sped Kmart into tailspin.. The Detroit News 27 January 2002. 7.Bankruptcy in Brief.. 4 May 2002 http://www.moranlaw.net/bankruptcybasics.htm 8.Cooper outlines Enron reorganization proposal.. Houston Chronicle.com 3 May 2002. 9.Enron Arranges $1.5 Billion of Debtor-In-Possession Financing.. Enron Corp. Press Release, 3 December 2001. http://www.enron.com/corp/pressroom/releases/2002/ene/95- 120301ReleaseLtr.html 10.Enron: Crouching Profits, Hidden Debt.. 30 April 2002 http://usgovinfo.about.com/library/weekly/aa011402a.htm 11.Enron Files Voluntary Petitions for Chapter 11 Reorganization.. Enron Corp. Press Release, 2December 2001. http://www.enron.com/corp/pressroom/releases/2001/ene/PressRelease 12.Enron Races to File for Chapter 11, Avoid Liquidation.. Wall Street Journal 30 November 2001. 13.Enron, the basics.. 5 May 2002 http://abcnews.go.com/sections/business/DailyNews/enron_subindex.html http://www.enron.com/corp/pressroom/messages/ees.html 14.Frequently Asked Questions About the Chapter 11 Filing.. Enron Corp. Press Release, 30 April 2002 15.http://www.enron.com/corp/pressroom/chapter11faq.html Profnet Round-Up: Corporate Bankruptcy.. Profnet Online 26 February 2002 16.http://www3.profnet.com/profnet_home/bubriefs-102.html

Hamlet’s Revenge Essay -- Shakespeare, denmark

William Shakespeare’s masterpiece, Hamlet, is the story about the Prince of Denmark’s struggle for revenge against his murderous uncle, who is now the new King of Denmark. Hamlet is stricken blind with revenge and has even been considered mad. Hamlet’s fall into insanity is a result of many different, tragic reasons. Throughout the entire play, Hamlet seems to be a loner, with a lack of true companionship. Most everyone seems to be against him throughout the play. They mistrust Hamlet, as he does them. He does not fully trust anyone, which will ultimately lead to his downfall. Hamlet does in fact have a tragic flaw that may lead him to disaster. Hamlet has a tendency to over think every thing he does. With every thought and process he goes through he must have a reason of doing it the way he does, and if they are not done how he likes, he will not attempt the task. Hamlet is portrayed as intelligent. This is shown through Hamlet’s use of his obvi ously superior mind and knowledge to deceive most everyone in the kingdom. He is clearly more intelligent than any other character in the play, and to us, the most human. His intelligence does get him into a great deal of trouble though. He must always prove for himself every thing that he is told. He cannot take anyone’s word for granted. Hamlet is meant to seem more psychotic and delusional the farther into the play the reader gets. Shakespeare meant for this. Without seeming crazy, Hamlet would not have the opportunity of revenging his father’s death. Hamlet’s pseudo madness is the very means for his revenge. Hamlet seems to be a loner throughout the play. The first time that this is seen is through Hamlet’s mistrust and even disgust of his uncle and mothers wedding... ...mon theme in the play, and it plays a major role throughout Hamlet. It seems that no body really trusts each other. Hamlet has little trust in anyone, which could make it easier to follow through with his revenge. He doesn’t really trust anyone, and no one really trusts him, so there is nothing to lose. This is seen in life with friends. If you know or trust someone, you try harder not to hurt their feelings. If you don’t know them then hurting their feelings is not quite as important since you do not have a strong bond with that person. Hamlet uses these advantages he has to create a mad persona of himself, which is believable, to gain his revenge. Works Cited Shakespeare, William. â€Å"The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark† Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. Ed. Edgar V. Roberts. 9th Ed. New York: Pearson Longman, 2009. Print

The Poetry of Simon Armitage Essay -- Papers

The Poetry of Simon Armitage Simon Armitage was born in Marsden, West Yorkshire in 1963. He studied Geography at Portsmouth, and Psychology at Manchester, qualified as a social worker and worked for six years as a probation officer. He has also worked as a shelf stacker, disc jockey and lathe operator. He is now a freelance writer and broadcaster. His work includes song lyrics, plays and scripts for TV and radio. Armitage's first collection, Zoom, was published by Bloodaxe in 1989. Subsequent poetry books, all published by Faber, include Kid (1992), Book of Matches (1993), The Dead Sea Poems (1995), Moon Country (1996) and CloudCuckooLand(1997). Untitled Poem: "I am very bothered when I think..." This poem comes from Book of Matches, 1993. It appears to be based on memories of Armitage's schooldays. He says that: "most poetry has to come from personal experience of one kind or another." The first two lines actually come from a probation service questionnaire, but Armitage has chosen to use them in a different context. Here he tells the story of a science lab prank that went wrong. The person in the poem heated up a pair of tongs and then handed them to another person, presumably a girl. This girl innocently slipped them onto her fingers and was badly burnt. The doctor said that she would be "marked for eternity" by the ring-shaped scars. The narrator claims now that he was using this as a way of attracting her attention: "that was just my butterfingered way, at thirteen, of asking you if you would marry me." The language in stanza two emphasises this idea of a marriage proposal with words such as ... ... * What was the final demand? * What did the note of explanation say? From all these details we can guess what might have happened, but we cannot know for certain. But this does not matter: it's the thought processes involved that are more important. The structure of the poem is a series of rhyming couplets, although some of them are not complete rhymes. The opening couplet sets up a steady, regular rhythm. This is orderly and satisfying and perhaps suggests the "regularity of police methods". The longer lines have four beats and the shorter ones have two beats, until the last two lines, where the regular rhythm seems to break down. "That was everything" is ambiguous: it could mean that the list has finished, or it could mean that the ring is the item that was most important. It finishes off the poem.

The Rising of the Characters in Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises

Ernest Hemingway’s novel entitled â€Å"The Sun also Rises† is a story of different men from different backgrounds. The main character or protagonist in the story is Jake Barnes. Along with him in his journey were Robert Cohn whom to be his closest friend, Lady Brett Ashley whom to be the love of his life, Mike Campbell whom to be Brett’s fiancà ©, and Bill Gorton whom to be the other friend of the group. The story started in a biographical description of Jake on his friend Robert Cohn. He called him Cohn while he narrates his story, their story.Jake is a World War I veteran whom soon becomes a journalist while Cohn is a rich Jewish writer. Cohn asked Jake to go with him to the South America but Jake refuses to go with him. When they went to a disco club, they saw Brett. Jake reminisce the memory when he and Brett met during the World War I. It was actually a great time for them to have their relationship but Brett refuses to make up with him because she learned that because of Jake’s wound, he is already impotents and she could did not want to sacrifice her sexual urge just for Jake.Soon, Brett and Mike met that made Brett fall in love with him. Brett became Mike’s fiancà © and would like to go to Spain to spend their moment together and watch the fiesta. They met Jake, Cohn, and Bill during their trip. During the journey, they could not able to find each other so they went to Spain in pairs – Jake and Bill as a pair, while Mike, Brett, and Cohn as the other pair. They had a great time during the first night but it’s been Brett who has the greatest night because she had the opportunity to know Pedro Romero, a handsome but young bullfighter.Brett decided to go with Romero but soon went back to Mike and said that she does not want to ruin Romero’s life and career. The story ends when Brett asked Jake to accompany her to Mike. Brett realizes that Jake is a good companion during their journey together. Jake and Cohn have many similarities and differences throughout the whole novel. Even if they have different backgrounds, they are similar in the way on how they treat a woman and how they think about the larger perspective of human life.Because in the beginning of the novel, Jake illustrated the biography of Cohn, he had stated all his strengths and weaknesses that made the readers understood the personality of Cohn in the beginning of the novel while Jake’s character emerged and evolved into a larger scale as the novel went through. Jake described Cohn depending on how he perceived Cohn’s identity whether on his career, personal life, or love life. â€Å"He was more enthusiastic about America than ever, and he was not so simple, and he was not so nice,† (Hemingway 16).Even if Cohn was not a war veteran, both of them have simple dreams and per4spectives in life. It was seen on their journey in Spain and the way they treated women especially Brett. Even if Cohn did not acknowledge his feelings right through Jake’s naked emotions, he knew that he likes Brett, next to Francesca. Because they both like Brett, they wanted Brett to be happy even if the cause is strange to both of them. However, Jake is more prank than Cohn. Cohn does not show his feelings so much while Jake is open to his feelings or emotions in different people.The difference between Cohn and Jake aside from the fact that Jake went to the war while Cohn did not is that Jake is more open to reality while Cohn was not that broad when it comes to the real situations. Another thing is that Jake is a journalist while Cohn is a writer. It means that Jake is more on the actual or real revelation of the reality while Cohn is more on the fictional sense of the world. â€Å"The publisher has praised his novel pretty highly and it rather went to his head.Then several women had put themselves out to be nice to him, and his horizons had all shifted,† (16). Cohn lived in a fiction al life with all the praises and acknowledgement of the people behind him while Jake lived in a realm where there is battle, fear, hatred, and sufferings that he needs to overcome while he is living. Their differences evolved into a wider scenario as the novel went on. However, in the beginning of the novel showed their big differences as Jake did not want to go where Cohn wants and vice versa.Cohn wants more on the historical side while Jake wants on the cultural side of the country they want to go. â€Å"So there you were. I was sorry for him, but it was not a thing you could do anything about because right away you ran up against the two stubbornness: South America could fix it and he did not like Paris,† (20). However, the thing is that Jake is more convicted with what he says rather than Cohn. When Jake wants something, he pursued it even if there are things that might be interrupted. Nevertheless, he worked on it to avoid circumstances that Cohn could not obtain.This is what Jake learned in the war that Cohn did not learned while having his rich life and popularity as a writer. As a whole, both Jake and Cohn showed their contrasting and similar personalities throughout the whole novel. All the other characters helped them obtain their characterization and realization in the beginning and end of the story that mould them to become significant protagonists in the novel. The author showed balance information on how to perceive the characters in different angles and concepts that would not overlap Jake and Cohn’s establishment of characterization.