Euthanasia Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Euthanasia - Research Paper Example The concept of Euthanasia or Physician Assisted Suicide is one such idea which has been subjected to many moral and ethical implications. The word euthanasia actually means â€Å"good death† and it is also sometimes referred to as â€Å"mercy killing.† It is a practice whereby the life of an individual is ended with the assistance of physicians to end the agonizing state and misery of a patient. The subject has sparked many controversies globally and many nations across the world have taken the bold step of legalizing this practice. Euthanasia is a practice which is mainly for the good of the patient as it is a method of ending the difficult state that a person lives in. It is mainly a patient selected option and the desire of the patient is given due preference before this practice is carried out (Knox 2005; Manning 1998). Euthanasia is a controversial practice but legalization of this practice is justified owing to the assistance that it brings to the people and owing to the fact that every individual has a right to choose what he considers correct for himself. The subject of Euthanasia is a globally acknowledged issue and there are many countries in the world that have legalized this practice. Netherlands, Switzerland and Belgium are amongst the countries where this practice has been allowed. Switzerland is a country where foreigners are also allowed to come and opt for this practice. There have been cases of people who go to Switzerland to undergo the process of euthanasia. These difficulties can be overcome if the euthanasia is globally legalized. According to statistics, many people from Britain have gone to Switzerland to avail the practice of euthanasia. Jacqueline Herremans who was the President of the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity in Brussels clearly upheld the fact that every individual has a right over his life. They do not need to take permission from the state or their doctors or from other groups for ending their lif e. Thus she argued that the practice of euthanasia should be legal so that people do not have to face difficulties in their personal choices (Knox 2005). The subject of euthanasia has become of increasing interest as the number of patients who are treated in the hospitals for euthanasia related issues have increased. The patients who mainly visit their physicians for euthanasia suffer from lethal and life hampering pathological conditions that greatly alters the living standards and the quality of life of those individuals. These people wish to end their lives with dignity as the pain and suffering in their life is beyond treatment and beyond their control. Furthermore, if this issue is considered with a different perspective, it can be seen that people who are suffering from fatal conditions require excessive monitoring and they may interfere with the treatment of other patients who suffer from curable diseases. Also, the number of people visiting the hospitals has greatly increase d over the years. Thus, if a person consents to and pleads the physician for a dignified death, he should be granted the permission to do so (Quaghebeur et al 2009). There has been strong opposition against the case of euthanasia by religious as well as ethical groups. According to religious groups, euthanasia is a process of killing someone and it is an unforgiveable act owing to the fact that the master of life and death is god. According to these groups, the act of opting for death is actually a challenge to the

Symbolic Interactionism in Police Murder Investigations Essay

Symbolic Interactionism in Police Murder Investigations - Essay Example In this sense, the communicative acts serve as "dramaturgical realizations" exemplifying the cultural identities of the police. (Innes 69) To appreciate Innes' premise, it is imperative to identify the basic constructs of the symbolic interactionist theory. Interactionism is best understood in terms of the existence of an "I" and a "Me" in a social actor2. The "I" manages the impression of the self to produce an identity known as a "Me". When a social actor interacts with another, the initial "Me" generates another "Me" by "imposing on the other a definition of the self". Consequently, the second actor's initial sense of "Me" is influenced by his interaction with the first actor. In this sense, each actor manages the image of the self being projected while at the same time imposing symbolic meanings on others. (Wilfrid Laurier University) Central to this paradigm is the social actor's concept of self. Hester and Eglin describe how the self is conceptualized - both as a process and as an object. As a process, the self is capable of communicating to itself from the standpoint of a "generalized other", producing situational and contextual responses to varying situations and environments. Through "self-interaction", the social actor produces self-indications by defining the context of the situation and then judging the course of action or response appropriate to the defined situation. Meanwhile, self as an object pertains to a social actor's self-image, his understanding of who and what he is. The social actor judges himself from the perspective of a "generalized other" and thus determines his roles and functions. (Hester and Eglin 92) In exploring the symbolic constructions of homicide investigations, Innes utilizes this interactionist perspective by examining how police officers create and interpret meanings through various communicative acts. Innes posits that the police officer as a social actor acts towards situations in terms of the meanings he interprets from them. These meanings are derived through social interaction and depend on a process of self interpretation. Innes sets this framework against the back drop of the "police occupational culture", which has been imposed by prevailing media and public perceptions about the nature of police work. In this context, the police officer, through his self-impressions combined with the labels imposed upon him by prevalent public views, sees himself as an agent of social order. The police officer is socialized into an "occupational role", and thus "develops an occupational identity based on the role's demands, and contributes to the maintenance or modification of this character." (Vincent 2) This "occupational role" is evidenced by organizational communications, which in turn serve to construct and maintain a symbolic representation of the organization's roles and functions. (Innes 71) A major component of this "occupational culture" is the "moral ambiguity" of policing. Interactionism asserts that

Nokia Company Product Marketing Plan Assignment

Nokia Company Product Marketing Plan - Assignment Example Nokia Corporation is one of the major global producers of mobile phones, serving consumers in more than 130 countries. Nokia is separated into 4 business groups which include Mobile phones, Multimedia, Enterprise Solutions and Networks. The Nokia group, promotes wireless voice and data products in consumer and corporate markets. The Nokia solution group manufactures wireless phone for use in the corporate sector. Wireless broadcast and switching equipment is sold (Nokia, 2012).In the beginning of 1960, Nokia started to diversify in an effort to change the company into Regional Corporation with increase in interests outside Finnish borders. Being unable to begin effective internal development, the company turned its focus into achievement. However, the local government realized to decrease two underperforming local industries which supported Nokia’s development within the country and encouraged its eventual merger with â€Å"Finnish Rubber Works†, which was founded in 18 98, and â€Å"Finnish cable works†, which was formed in 1912, to form Nokia Corporation.In 1967, Nokia started a division to demonstrate design and manufacturing abilities in data processing industrial computerization and communications systems. The division was later expanded and made into several divisions, which then concentrated on developing information system, including personal computer and workplace, digital communication system and mobile phones. Nokia’s essential focus was development of the electronics sector.... Eco-friendly Mobile. This paper shows how Nokia can develop a marketing plan by implementing their past strategies, which the company has already applied. Firstly, in this paper, it shows the brief background about the company and its existing products and also shows the company’s past strategies i.e. how Nokia achieved its brand name and goodwill in past and current market situations. Next, it highlights the company’s situation analysis and overall study of internal and external factors through different marketing tools. For examining the situation analysis of Nokia’s market PEST analysis, competitor and consumer analysis have been applied. In internal analysis, it depicts the company’s current position in the market and the current data on brand performance of Nokia. This marketing plan also provides information of the company’s basic goals and objectives and shows after launching the Eco-friendly product, within this 12 months campaign, what can be expected regarding the fulfillment of their goals and objectives. Then, in this paper, Nokia’s target market and customers of their eco-friendly product has been analyzed and this paper also provides a clear picture regarding how the company segments their market for their eco-friendly product using four perspectives of segmentation. The marketing mix strategy of Nokia’s eco-friendly mobile using 4P’s has been provided. Certain evaluation and control methods have been provided which shows how the company can evaluate their market performance when they would launch their new eco-friendly product. An action plan is also provided which highlights the various elements of marketing plan through â€Å"Gantt chart† of 12 months campaign. 2 Table of Contents 3

Economic Theory Essay Example for Free

Economic Theory Essay Two of the primary tasks in the world of Economics are prediction and evaluation. This assignment illustrates, at a rudimentary level, how models, techniques and methods constructed or borrowed from Economic Theory or other Sciences respectively are used to help accomplish these tasks. To do so, we consider a standard theoretical model of consumer choices in an economy in which the only activity is the exchange of goods. Due to the above-mentioned we can say that the most powerful technique used to predict the consequences of policies or future trends is modeling. A model is an abstraction intended to convey the essence of some particular aspect of the real world. Most economic models assume the existence of adequate information, yet information is a costly and scarce resource. Good models predict well enough to increase our understanding of certain situations, even though they may not predict them perfectly and there may be related situations in which the same models do not predict as well as expected. Last but not least there are models that constructed without using any numerical data; these are based entirely on economic theory. We shall begin by looking at some of the ways in which forecasting techniques can help us to predict future trends. Most business and economic decisions rest upon forecasts of future conditions. Methods of forecasting may be roughly categorized as follows: * Opinion polling * Mechanical extrapolations * Barometric techniques * Statistical and econometric methods Finally, forecasting techniques vary widely in their accuracy and sophistication. The most accurate technique is to be preferred, subject to the availability of data, expertise and finance and to the nature of the  forecast required. OPINION POLLING The assumption here is that by asking people who are likely to be directly involved, such as consumers or the sales force, attitudes and opinions which affect economic decisions can be assessed and predicted in advance. Opinion polling is a subjective method of forecasting made up largely of a weighted or unweighted averaging of expectations and attitudes. This general idea of developing informed and deliberated polling opinion has had a relatively length history successful experimentation beginning roughly during the 1970s in the U.S.A. In statistics polling is about probability sampling. A good poll: locates people who fairly represent the population were interested in; asks them fair, comprehensible and useful questions; calculates results fairly, without reaching beyond the data; and  is reported so people can understand where it does and does not apply. The importance of opinion polling and the way it can be done is shown in the below Figure: Opinion polling is a very powerful technique used to predict future trends. Based upon probability sampling it can give people many answers upon many problems in the society. Depending on the size of the sample, the results are relatively accurate, scientific representation of the entire publics considered opinion on perplexing issues. Today there are a lot of companies which provide a wide variety of consultancy services and offer top quality research based solutions to their clients problems. They also provide full service market research process, from defining research objectives through analysis and presentation of data. To achieve their goals they use research methodologies, advanced statistical analysis and strategic relevant and decision reports. Their credibility and reputation is reflected in the fact that their publicly released findings are regularly quoted by the media (press, radio and television). Additionally, these companies are leading agencies in Socio-Political public opinion polls and Political Candidate Evaluation research. Another aspect of opinion polling is exit-poll. For example scientists use exit-poll method to predict who is going to win in elections. The exit-poll method is not 100% accurate, but the error between the real results and the ones from exit-poll is very-very small. Asking a small sample of population inside a society it can predict whether the conservative of socialist party is going to be elected. Finally, opinion polling is also used by companies to know which product of theirs is more consumed by people. Asking a small sample of people using questionnaires (more often) they can realize which product of theirs is more consumed by people, which product are less consumed and tries to find means of improvement for others. MECHANICAL EXTRAPOLATIONS This is probably the most frequently adopted method of forecasting. It involves the basic assumption that past patterns of economic behavior continues to the extent that past behavior can be used to predict the future. It has the attraction of also being relatively cheap in that the company is likely to posses most of the relevant historical information. Last but not least, the mechanical methods of forecasting rely on future conditions being an extent of past ones. Also, this method might consist of taking a time series of historical sales figures, and fitting a trend line to it by eye as shown in the figure below: This can then be used to read off sales predictions for the required future dates. To produce this line between the dependent and independent variables of data, as shown in the above figure, the ordinary least-squares (OLS) technique uses a mathematical formula to illustrate this line. However, the technique also produces a measure of the explanatory power of the relationship on the basis of the relationships observed in the original data. A mathematical formula for producing this line is: Where a and b in this equation have been estimated using regression analysis (a set of statistical techniques used to quantify the relationship between two or more variables). BAROMETRIC TECHNIQUES In addition with mechanical extrapolations, barometric techniques assume that present happenings can give an indication of future events. Also, this technique is based on the observation that there are lagged relationships between many economic time series. Moreover, to give an indication of future events, there are three types of indicators as far as economic activity. Leading indicators are those which tend to herald future changes in the course of business activity. Coincident indicators move in step with the cycle; examples of these might include aggregate levels of sales, employment and industrial production. Finally, there are lagging indicators, which trail behind the level of economic activity. Although it is possible to isolate various leading indicators the direction of movements in each does not presage movements in economic activity with complete accuracy. The reason is that the lead-time between their behavior and the ensuing change in economic activity is not likely to be constant. Nowadays, many companies who want to see which of their product is more consumed by people, they make a statistical figure in order to calculate this. Using barometric techniques they can find which product of theirs is more consumed by people, which is not going too well and try to give improvements for others. So, they can indicate from present happenings, how a product can be in the future. STATISTICAL AND ECONOMETRIC METHODS Science is given as truth ascertained by observation, experiment, and induction. The purpose of science known as statistics is to provide the means for measuring the amount of subjectivity that goes into the scientists conclusions and thus to separate science from opinion. Hence, statistical and econometric methods, similar to those used in time series regression can be used to analyze the economic relationships between variables. Many of the firms forecasting problems can be solved with a single equation econometric model. Laws of probability are applied to this model in order to determine what chances are for the various possible outcomes of the experiment. The first step in the construction of such a model is to specify the hypotheses, which purport to explain the relationships between the variables. Hypothesis testing is the process of inferring from a sample (a collection of some elements of a population) whether or not to accept a certain statement about the population. The statement itself is called the hypothesis. When the model is constructed it gives the businessman the opportunity of experimenting to test the predicted results of various strategies. There is a vast variety of companies offering a full-service market  research which means the capability to successfully undertake any research project from the conceptual stage through the design, data collection, tabulation, analysis, interpretation of findings, recommendations, and presentation. The projects they undertake span a broad array of industries, types of studies, experimental designs and analytical statistical techniques. They are skilled in the wide variety of quantitative and qualitative techniques, providing their clients with a seamless connection between all phases of the research program. Their full range of custom research for Consumer and Business to Business research includes the following: * Tracking studies * Product testing * Taste testing * Home-use tests * Advertising research * Strategic research * Product Positioning research * Concept tests * Customer satisfaction tests * Etc.

My Goals Essay -- essays research papers

As the most of my peers, I have been asking myself a question, what is it really I want out of my life? This question has been bothering many people, and not only the college students who are trying to figure out the path which will lead them to the comfortable life. One might ask, what is that comfort that we all are striving for? Is it a state of mind or is it some unknown world that we are so eager to enter? Well, it varies from person to person, it depends on the life that the person has left behind when the decision to go to college was made. There are several aspects of our lives that could influence us and the future decisions that we'll make. The biggest part of our decision making is the way we were raised and the culture we have got used to. Many Americans believe that the success depends on the family background that you have. There are those who say that if the person was raised in a rich family, all opportunities are available to them and there is a high! chance that th e person will live a comfortable life. The same people are saying that if the person was raised in a poor family there are too many obstacles to overcome and most of the time these barriers on the way are too hard to cross. On the other hand, there are those people who say that the America is the land of opportunities and any person could achieve his/her goals if they set their mind to it. It is true that being born in the rich family helps a great deal during the course of your life. You are brought up in the household that provides the best conditions for exploring the world of knowledge. There are no worries about the basic needs like food, shelter or security, and all the resources are provided thanks to the excessive amount of money. Being rich allows people to worry less about the material things and more about the fundamentals of the learning and knowledge. Being born in a rich family also means meeting people and making the contacts earlier in life, which will later be helpful in that most difficult step of finding the first job. There is also the morality, which comes from the conditional learning of the environment that person is surrounded by. Person that is surrounded by the morally and financially stable people will adopt that thinking. Another aspect of being born to a rich family is the set example by the surroundings. When people that! you feel close to have acco... ...lder generation knows that they will do what ever it takes to put their children through school, even if it takes working late nights. For the most part the immigrants do not go to the restaurants very often, they try to save money by cooking home meal and limiting the extra expenses, such as entertainment, clothing and vocation. Within a short period of time, in less than three years immigrant families began to receive middle class income. Their children are in school, and most likely they had gone to school as well to obtain a better profession than the one that pays minimum wage. This is a clear example that it is possible to achieve something in life for any person in the United States. This argument will not be solved until people realize that the excuses are not the easy way out. It seems to me that many people would use their family poverty as an excuse for themselves not to make something of their life. To strive for a certain goal and not to loose interest or motivation is the name of the game for the twenty-first century. Only then, the desirable state of mind and your "pocket" will be achieved. The life that so many people are dreaming of only few steps away.

Issues of Youth in Pakistan

ISSUES FACED BY YOUTH IN PAKISTAN Youth, in this era of modern technology, is facing problem all over the world. But especially in developing countries of the world like Pakistan our youth is helpless and are growing up without clear goals and ideals. Of the 15 largest countries in the world in terms of population size, Pakistan has the largest population of the youngest people. In one’s mind this question may arise whether such a large population be regarded as a burden or an asset for country. But in my view such a large population could prove itself an asset towards the country.This demographic situation provides our Pakistan’s youth with an extra ordinary opportunity that because of such a large young population our country could compete even with the developing countries of the world, then how could this population be designated as a burden. Particularly when we talk about the young people of Pakistan then we will get to know that our youth counter through number o f issues from their education period up till their settlement in life. Hardest of all the time is the duration of their career making. Unemployment is the major issue confronted by our youth. Today 12% of our youth is unemployed.Most of the educated students such as degree holders of Bachelors and Masters have no value in national or international market now. These unlucky guys are delivering pizzas and doing other door to door services. Some of them are so unlucky that they don’t even get such kinds of job too. Another prejudice being done every day to our youth is favoritism. It is processed in every organization of our country from lowest to highest level. Students who belong to any political parties or are far relatives of any high post officials they get job easily within few hours without any struggle.Although they are impotent for that job, and because of this brilliant students are deprived of their right. Another problem being faced by our youth is flawed education s ystem in our country. There is no unification in education system. 3 to 4 systems are running at a parallel level. Students of private educational institutions such as NUST and LUMS are being taught entirely in different way as students of government institution are taught. Most of the students are misfit in their positions. They are not satisfied with their careers and jobs. Those who wanted to become engineers they are in medical colleges and vice versa.The reason behind this is improper education counseling. They are not guided properly and many of them are enforced by their parents to join particular field. In developed countries students are being counseled after regular intervals for their better future but there is no such system in our country which could recognize the true talent of our own students. Our youth has lost its identity. Western and Indian culture has submerged gradually deep in our roots and are targeting our youth. They are easily targeted because they are far away from their own religion and culture and due to this they are lost in the blind end of street.Dilemma of our youth is that they are talented and are capable enough to compete with the students of other countries but they are getting no chance to show their inner talents. Their talent is not being utilized in proper way. Their energies are used by political parties for their own sake. Negative role of media is another factor which is exploiting our youth. Youngsters are running in a race to copy the latest fashion as soon as possible. For this youngster especially young girls waste several hours in watching channels such as STYLE 360 to keep an eye on latest fashion. To look cool they smoke, drink wine etc. nd all this they learn by media, imitating their favorite TV actors. Computers and mobile phones instead of using them in a positive way they are being used to boast off. Message packages and late night packages provided by different phone companies like TELENOR, UFONE, WARID , JAZZ etc. and our youth instead of concentrating on their studies they are involved in such activities talking and texting all night and sleeping at day time during the class which in the end affect their grades. All of these problems are leading towards the mother of all problems which is FRUSTRATION.Our youth is frustrated because of poverty, unemployment and injustice to them in society. Consequence of this is abundantly drug usage, suicide attempts, terrorism in some cases, rape and increase in crime rates. Depressed youngsters indulge themselves in unhealthy activities which not only harm the society but themselves too. They are either captured by corrupt company of gangsters or they themselves inhabit the company of bad boys who entangle these depressed one’s and spoil their whole life. And if he is the sole earner of family then we could imagine the destruction of lives of his whole family.In this whole scenario youth need health resources, awareness, time for relaxa tion and affordable healthy entertainment but we are lacking all these things. Our youth should be engaged in such activities which enhance their talent and also contribute towards the development of country. Ministry of youth affairs take such initiatives so that youth is benefited in some way or other. But if the government properly support youth as in developed countries then we will gradually see the progress in economy of our country which will ultimately lead us to prosperity. INSHALLAH.

NCAA Sanctions and Paying Players: Should This Be Allowed

A customer walks into the local Pizza Hut, and sits down. A waiter approaches and asks what kind of pizza they want. The customer gives his order to him, and lays 200 dollars under the menu. The waiter notices, and takes the money. The customer’s pizza is 10 dollars, and he pays for it by a debit card. When he leaves, he puts 300 dollars under his own plate. The waiter grabs the money, places the money in his pocket, and goes back to working. Now, if two new characters illustrated the names of the waiter and the customer for the football player, and an athletic booster, then everyone would be saying how rude it is, and how corrupt our society is. That is an exact reason why we shouldn’t pay players, and how the sanctions that the NCAA has put down to prevent the main sanction (paying players) from happening. Paying players to play an athletic sport in the NCAA should not be allowed, and that’s because colleges aren't allowed/shouldn't pay players and they don't need to earn money. There are many arguments against paying players The first argument, â€Å"Colleges aren't allowed/shouldn't pay players† has many opinionated answers, are biased, or have no clue of what's going on. In some past research, there have been some points that have been made that they should be paid. Others, for instance, show that they shouldn't be paid. There’s been that they’re getting free academics, free board, free meal, etc. and there’s also seen that full-ride scholars can't have a full-time job, so they could use some money. Both, I agree with, but in general, they shouldn't be paid, but there should be some rule changes. What I'm saying is, is that you notice smaller schools getting hit with the sanctions. For instance, Southern Methodist University, in the 80's, paid 21 football players over $61,000 to play for them over 3 years. If you notice, there is a rule that you can't pay players to play NCAA Football. To pay college athletes to play football for you is illegal. They tried to get above the level playing field that the NCAA had set. Their punishment was extremely serious, and called â€Å"The Death Penalty†. â€Å"They lost 55 scholarships, had their 1987 season cancelled, pulled from live television, and banned from postseason play until 1989. And obviously, since they are still in the Conference USA, they haven't recovered since. â€Å"(Yahoo â€Å"Penalty 4†) The rules are made for a reason, and should always be followed. In another example, The University of Southern California, or known as USC, received a letter of investigation concerning Reggie Bush and his time at USC. He had knowingly received benefits from an outside source. NBC reporter Greg Beachem stated, â€Å"A two-year bowl ban, four years’ probation, loss of scholarships and forfeits of an entire year’s games for improper benefits to Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush dating to the Trojans’ 2004 national championship. † As you can tell, he received benefits from some sort of person who won’t be questioned for who he is, because he doesn’t have a name like Reggie Bush does. There were also had noticed that the rule changes that were mentioned earlier were a major part in fixing the rules for players to make money. For instance, Title IX states that all men and women must have an equal amount of scholarships. That may sound just fine, but the truth is, there is no â€Å"Women's Football†. So that's 85 scholarships that have to be evened out to women. If Title IX disregarded football, then that rule would be completely fine. Plus, there are 2 sports that generate revenue for an athletic program. That would be men's football, and men's basketball. So it's up to those teams to pay for the entire athletic department. This also shows how players shouldn't be paid. If only two different sports make money for an entire team, what are the reasons that they should be paying players, when that team may want to use the money for other additions to the campus? Plus, if you left the rich schools to pay for players to come, then a smaller school like Texas Christian University, or Boise State University, wouldn't ever earn any big time players. Teams like Texas University, Ohio State University, Michigan University, (other rich D1 schools), would buy out all the players, and leave everyone in the dust. The 2nd argument, that players don't need to be paid, is also a biased argument. Finding information on this rule is very tough, because all search engines bring up many blogs about people's opinions and those aren't credible. I've noticed that some people think that rule changes are needed, and some say that the whole rule should be abolished, and all athletes should be paid. With my personal knowledge of secrecy and how people can secretly hide items of interest, some students would possibly work at Pizza Hut, have a boosters guy order a $10 dollar pizza and leave a $500 dollar tip. We all know that that's not right to do, but some regulations need to be lifted. If you let college athlete’s work within the school, such as in the cafeteria, or the library, the NCAA could possibly monitor the earnings they make. It's possible that if they worked at a Pizza Hut, or a Taco Bell, they could make sure that the NCAA has some sort of access to see the paycheck they earn and make sure it makes it to the bank account. Depending on how big the college is, depends on how the school will be corrupted more. For example, at Capital University, the cost for a year is $33,210 for a full-time undergraduate year, including room, board, etc. Now, if that is compared to the University of Southern California, their tuition is $56,813 per year, including room, board, etc. (USC 2011 estimations) The difference here is, Capital is a Division III school, and has an extremely lower school population than a school like USC. USC has a population of â€Å"15,600 undergraduates as well as a staggering 15,224 graduate students† (USC College Admission). At Capital, you get a smaller amount of TV Time, if not any, while USC is making a large amount of money and getting TV Time every week. If you have to pay players that play for a college that can’t afford to do it, like Capital University, many small colleges will be taken out of athletics, and will be losing scholarships. To add on, it's not like these athletes have to spend their built-up savings account to go play football. They get to use all the money they saved up to go earn an education in college, to buy what they want. They may not get any more money to spend, but the rough $30,000 that would be in their bank account should be enough if they’re not paying a penny for the classes they have, the meals, their dorm, and their textbooks. Plus, if they’re at a big-time school, like Ohio State, or Texas University, then they especially wouldn’t have to pay the $35,000 that a semester of college costs. But my point isn’t completely set in stone because colleges shouldn’t pay players, but some rule changes need to be made, as I will talk about later. NCAA rules state that if you’re an athlete, you can’t work. When you read that rule, you think of the â€Å"big-name athletes† like Cam Newton or Terrelle Pryor, that have full- rides to play football. But, there’s always the people who have half-year scholarships, or are considered walk-ons, that also can’t work. To add on, I believe that if you aren’t being paid in that season/year, you should be allowed to work. The full-ride scholars are being paid to play football, and getting a free education, while half-scholarship athletes and walk-on athletes are not allowed to work, and are being forced to pay their education. When you go on to any college website, you will find a link to go to something about financial aid, so it’s not like nobody is out to help. To talk about rules are a different story, and it needs to be addressed. To define what the NCAA calls a Professional Team, â€Å"is if it declares itself to be professional or provides any player more than actual and necessary expenses for participation on the team. † (NCAA Guide 10) The NCAA-made pamphlet answers all questions to the rules that I’ve mentioned. It states rules for students who are in Division I or Division II schools, such as Division 1 student-athletes aren’t allowed to accept a salary, while Division II student-athletes are permitted to do so. Division II teams can enter a contract with a professional team, while Division I teams can’t. Do these rules sound fair? I have to say yes, because Division II teams don’t get any TV Time. If a team has some TV Time, it increases their stock value to play in the NFL. There are also some rules that apply to both Division I and Division II teams. For example, Division I and II teams can’t receive benefits from an agent, or enter an agreement with an agent. The reason that this rule is made is because agents would have the most contact with an athlete, and would be able to obtain money from a boosters guy and the athlete would illegally receive the money. If the rule was changed so that sanctions would be softer on the crime, or players being paid was made legal, the rich schools would become the ultimate powerhouses, and the other schools would become obsolete, like what was discussed earlier. These big schools, like Texas or USC would take over college football and leave teams like TCU or Boise State behind. When you decide to pay players on a two-sport revenue generator, you have to decide who you’re going to pay, how much you’ll pay them, when you’ll pay them, and decide about which players don’t get paid. An offensive lineman may not get paid, and he makes the running back or the quarterback look like he carries the team. Does he deserve to get paid over the quarterback? The final thought that goes with this paper is, if we paid student-athletes, should we pay every sport, and if we do, do we give an equal amount to each player? You find your own opinion on the matter.

Relationship Dynamics in The Perks of Being a Wallflower Essay Essays

Relationship Dynamics in The Perks of Being a Wallflower Essay Essays Relationship Dynamics in The Perks of Being a Wallflower Essay Paper Relationship Dynamics in The Perks of Being a Wallflower Essay Paper Essay Topic: The Perks Of Being a Wallflower â€Å"My life is an afterschool particular. † These words. spoken by the character. Patrick. sum up the kineticss of the relationships portrayed in the film. The Perks of Bing a Wallflower. The film is a coming-of-age narrative about Charlie. a male child without any friends. as he enters his first twelvemonth of high school. While the film is geared toward immature grownups. the message portrayed about relationships touches everyone: We accept the love we think we deserve. In the film. Charlie has a crush on a fun-loving. party-girl. senior. Sam. who is already dating an older male child in college. Though they become close friends and portion intimate experiences and feelings with each other. Charlie neer asks Sam out. The film upholds traditional high school relationship stereotypes from the Sadie Hawkins dance to prom photo shoots but it besides illuminates the singularity of every close confidant relationship. It is best described by Charlie when he says. â€Å"I know someday our images will go old exposure. † like how a minute captured on camera can be seen but neer experienced the same manner once more. Through the kineticss of Sam and Charlie’s relationship. I will demo how The Perks of Bing a Wallflower depicts a echt. true love narrative that represents cosmopolitan elements everyone experiences in close relationships. Before his first twenty-four hours of high school. Charlie writes. â€Å"I am both happy and sad and I’m still seeking to calculate out how that can be. † He begins his first twenty-four hours entirely. eating by himself in the cafeteria. neer raising his manus in category. and maintaining his caput ducked down in the hallways. One dark he decides to travel to a high school football game. where he foremost meets Sam and her half-brother. Patrick. Together. they watch their school football squad win the game and Sam and Patrick invite Charlie to the diner with them afterwards where they talk about their favourite music and what they want to be when they grow up. This act of sharing positive experiences together that benefits the patterned advance of a relationship is called capitalisation( Reiss. Carmichael. Caprariello. Tsai. Rodriguez A ; Maniaci. 2010 ) . Sam and Patrick portion the experience of Charlie’s first party. his first school dance. and even the first clip he gets high. The most theatrical illustration of capitalisation in the film is when the three friends are driving place and the vocal. â€Å"Heroes† by David Bowie comes on the wireless and Sam demands that Patrick drive through the Fort Pitt Tunnel so she can stand in the dorsum of the pickup truck while blaring the vocal over the wireless. Charlie is so afflicted by the feeling of belonging that he looks at Patrick and says. â€Å"I feel infinite. † Sam and Charlie become closer when they offer each other the comfort of cognizing that they are non entirely. Their relationship grows even deeper when they learn that they can portion their experiences and feelings with each other without being rejected. This happens the first clip at Charlie’s foremost high school party. Charlie. while he is stoned. confesses to Sam that his lone friend. Michael. shooting himself last spring. Sam portions what Charlie told her with Patrick and they subsequently toast Charlie at the party in order to welcome him as their new friend in forepart of everyone. Charlie looks as if he is about to shout because for the first clip. he feels like he belongs someplace. As their familiarity progresses. Charlie demonstrates his fondnesss for Sam by giving her gifts and offering shows of fondness known as care behaviours in relationships ( Stafford. 2003 ) . For illustration. he makes her a assorted tape themed after the dark that they drove through the tunnel together even though he couldn’t happen the particular vocal that made them experience â€Å"infinite. † Charlie besides offers to assist Sam survey for the following Saturday after he sees how defeated she is when she receives her tonss. Charlie’s self-disclosure and attempts to expose fondness encourages Sam to portion the more private parts of her life without fearing she will be rejected by him. Sam’s minute of self-disclosure is after the Christmas party. when she invites Charlie up to her room for the first clip to give him a thank-you nowadays for assisting her survey for the SATs. On her desk is an old typewriter with a bow for Charlie. because she knows that Charlie wants to be a author someday. When Charlie sees the gift on her desk. he says withincredulity. â€Å"You got me a present? † The freshness of felicity off of Charlie’s face demonstrates the physiological reaction of showing gratitude in relationships. Acts of gratitude are known to significantly increase relationship satisfaction ( Demoss. 2004 ) . Not merely does Sam expose gratitude towards Charlie. but she lets him into her room. her private infinite where none of the other party invitees had been invited to travel. In a minute of intimacy. after Charlie confesses he’s neer kissed a miss. Sam portions with Charlie that her first buss was when her dad’s foreman molested her at the age of 10. Charlie responds with proof. stating her that the same thing happened to his aunt Helen and that she turned her life about. When Sam remarks that his aunt must hold been a great adult female. Charlie responds. â€Å"She was my favourite individual in the universe. until now. † Sam. overwhelmed with cryings. Tells Charlie that she knows that he knows she has a fellow. but she wants to do certain that the first individual that kisses him. loves him. Charlie nods. and Sam tilts in and kisses him. For the first clip she says. â€Å"I love you. Charlie. † And he responds. â€Å"I love you excessively. † Charlie and Sam do non go a twosome. but they continue to learn each other that they are meriting of echt love. The greater the impact close relationships have on one’s self-image. the greater satisfaction one will have from the relationship ( Mattingly. Oswald. Clark. 2011 ) . Sam and Charlie do this by perpetuating a positive self-image of each other. increasing the felicity they receive from disbursement clip together. Sam does this for Charlie by admiting that he is non brainsick and that he is person deserving being friends with. Charlie does this for Sam by promoting her to use to colleges and offering the emotional support that he believes in her. Sam and Charlie have a echt concern for each other’s good being. These compassionate. supportive ends are another illustration of how antiphonal they are to each others’ needs ( Conovello A ; Crocker. 2011 ) . Charlie doesn’t merely give Sam his most darling gift because he thinks she’s reasonably and wants her to wish him. He gives her the Beatles record his asleep aunt Helenleft him because he genuinely cares about her. and he wants her to be happy. It is for the same ground Sam gives Charlie his first buss. They have ends to run into the demands of each other. However. like all persons and relationships. Sam and Charlie are non perfect. Despite the echt love and fondness Charlie offers her. Sam continues to day of the month her fellow who is rip offing on her. and Charlie continues to day of the month Sam’s friend. Mary Elizabeth. even though he doesn’t have romantic feelings for her. After Sam eventually dumps her fellow and Charlie is no longer dating Mary Elizabeth. Sam confronts Charlie and asks him why he had neer asked her out. Charlie responds that he didn’t believe she wanted him to and that he merely wanted her to be happy. Sam answers. â€Å"You can’t merely put everyone’s lives in front of yours and think that counts as love†¦I don’t want to be someone’s crush. I want people to wish the existent me. † Charlie restlessnesss nervously and after a long intermission he tells Sam. â€Å"I know who you are. † and he tells her that she’s beautiful and he kisses her. This minute suggests that the impact their relationship had on their self-pride. brought them both to a point where they could accept the love that the other idea they deserved. Despite all the attempts Sam and Charlie made towards the familiarity of their relationship. the film does non stop merrily of all time after. The following twenty-four hours Sam leaves for college. and the intimate sexual experience between Charlie and Sam triggered Charlie to hold flashbacks of his aunt Helen molesting him as a kid and he is hospitalized in a psychiatric ward. Charlie is left entirely inquiring how it is possible to be happy and sad at the same clip and how person he loved and idolized like his aunt Helen could hold done something that hurt him so severely. The Perks of Bing a Wallflower is a love narrative that is told the manner Sam described stone love ballads to Charlie: both kitschy and brilliant. The narrative uses the general scene of stereotyped high school play to portray the human experience of close relationships. Charlie experiences the euphory of first love and besides the hurting of lay waste toing grief. And merely like old exposure. whether the scene was a high school dance or asocietal at a retirement place. the relationships in this film are relatable to anyone who views them. while besides bing as independent alone experiences that will neer be lived the same manner twice. Even though the film doesn’t terminal with Charlie and Sam as a happy twosome. it still ends with an uplifting scene reuniting Charlie. Sam. and her brother. Patrick. Charlie is standing in the dorsum of Sam’s pickup truck while they drive through the Fort Pitt Tunnel and his voice narrates. â€Å"I know these will wholly be narratives someday and our images will go old exposure. but right now. this is go oning. † He acknowledges that the experience of human relationships is something that everyone will see and that all of the minutes shared will go memories. but Charlie shows that the energy that comes from love lives in the minute where you feel like you are the lone 1 who has of all time experienced it before. â€Å"That one moment†¦when you’re listening to that vocal on that thrust with the people you love most in this world†¦I swear. we are infinite. † MentionsCanvello. A. . A ; Crocker. J. ( 2011 ) . Interpersonal ends. others’ respect for the ego. and self-esteem: The self-contradictory effects of self-image and compassionate ends. European Journal of Social Psychology. 41. 422-434. Demoss. Y. ( 2004 ) . Brief intercessions and resilience in twosomes. Dissertation Abstracts International: The Sciences and Engineering. 65 ( 5-B ) . 2619.Mattingly. B. A. . Oswald. D. L. . A ; Clark. E. M. ( 2011 ) . An scrutiny of relational-interdependent self-construal. communal strength. and pro-relationship behaviours in friendly relationships. Personality and Individual Differences. 50. 1243-1248. Reis. H. T. . Smith. S. M. . Carmichael. C. L. . Caprariello. P. A. . Tsai. F. . Rodriguez. A. . A ; Maniaci. M. R. ( 2010 ) . Are you happy for me? How sharing positive events with others provides personal and interpersonal benefits. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 99. 311-329. Stafford. L. ( 2003 ) . Keeping romantic relationships: A drumhead and analysis of one research plan. In D. J. Canary A ; M. Dainton ( Eds. ) .Keeping relationships through communicating: Relational. contextual. and cultural fluctuations ( pp. 51-77 ) . Mahwah. New jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Forgiveness Essays - Virtue, Emotions, Forgiveness, Mythology

Forgiveness Essays - Virtue, Emotions, Forgiveness, Mythology Forgiveness Forgiveness is Freedom One of the most important issues that we all face in life is the question of forgiveness. It is important because, whatever our belief in moral matters, we will never be free of the need to receive forgiveness or give it to one another. Most believe that forgiving is the right thing to do, but when it comes down to it human nature takes over and grudges take place. Many people do not realize the rewards of forgiveness or the cost of refusing to forgive. In his novel, The Sunflower: On the Possibilities and Limits of Forgiveness, Simon Wiesenthal challenges readers with the moral question of forgiveness. If someone is truly remorseful, should he or she be forgiven? Are some actions too horrible to forgive? Though it may be difficult, depending on our circumstances, it is important to understand how crucial and liberating forgiveness can be, even for Wiesenthal when faced with the dying Nazi member, who murdered innocent women and children. To be able to forgive is to be able to strive for the future instead of regretting the past. Being unforgiving enslaves the one who cannot forgive. Even years later, Wiesenthal was still haunted by the incident and was still pondering whether or not he did the right thing in not forgiving Karl. It was obviously not his duty to pardon Karl, but forgiveness would have been for his own benefit. The purpose of forgiveness would not be to excuse or benefit Karl, but rather to free Wiesenthal. Forgiveness is not a sign of weakness or a way of condoning the evil done; rather it is a way to experience freedom and healing. As Jose Hobday strongly asserted in The Sunflower, "No one, no memory, should have the power to hold us down, to deny us peace. Forgiving is the real power." The concept and benefits of forgiveness have been explored in religion, social sciences and medicine. Most world religions include teachings on the nature of forgiveness, and many of these teachings are the basis for the varying modern day traditions and practices of forgiveness. Most Christian denominations teach that a believer receives forgiveness directly through a genuine expression of repentance to God, and that the believer completes this in the act of forgiving others. In Buddhism, forgiveness is seen as a practice to prevent harmful thoughts from causing destruction to one?s mental well-being. Not having the ability to forgive causes such emotions as anger, bitterness, despair and resentment. These harbored feelings are toxic, creating stress and even illness. Whether we realize it or not, these underlying emotions affect our lives and our relationships with others. Unforgiveness can cause immense harm physically, relationally, emotionally and spiritually. Very few people say forgiveness is easy, but even fewer question how great they fell when they forgive. If Wiesenthal desired healing, the best way to receive it would have been by forgiving. But how could he have forgiven such a man, who slaughtered his people and tortured them? Harold S. Kushner, profoundly comments about this matter of forgiveness in The Sunflower, "Forgiving is not something we do for another person?Forgiving happens inside us. It represents a letting go of the sense of grievance, and perhaps most importantly a letting go of the role of victim . . . For a Jew to forgive the Nazis would mean, 'What you did was thoroughly despicable and puts you outside the category of decent human beings. But I refuse to give you the power to define me as a victim. I refuse to let your blind hatred define the shape and content of my Jewishness. I don't hate you; I reject you.' And then the Nazi would remain chained to his past and to his conscience, but the Jew would be free." I had to ask myself Wiesenthal?s question: What would I do if I was a prisoner in a concentration camp and a dying Nazi soldier asked for my forgiveness? As a Christian, I would want and be compelled to forgive him. However, I have never been in a situation where such atrocities were committed against me or those I love, nor have I ever been in any troubled time where survival is

Definition and Examples of Analysis in Composition

Definition and Examples of Analysis in Composition In  composition,  analysis  is a form of  expository writing  in which the writer separates a subject into its elements or parts. When applied to a literary work (such as a poem, short story, or essay), analysis involves a careful examination and evaluation of details in the text, such as in a  critical essay.  Maybe youll discuss theme, symbolism, effectiveness of the work as a whole, or character development. Youll use a formal writing style and a third-person point of view to present your argument. As the writer, you will come up with a topic to analyze the work of literature around  and then find supporting evidence in the story and research in journal articles, for example, to make the case behind your argument. For example, maybe you want to discuss the theme of freedom vs. civilization in Huckleberry Finn,  analyze the effectiveness of satirist Jonathan Swifts criticisms of government at the time, or criticize Ernest Hemmingways lack of depth in  his female characters. Youll formulate your thesis statement (what you want to prove), start gathering your evidence and research, and then begin weaving together your argument. Introduction The introduction may well be the last piece you write in your analytical essay, as its your hook for the readers; its what will grab their attention. It might be a quote, an anecdote, or a question.  Until youve gotten your research well in hand and the essay well formulated, you probably wont be able to find your hook. But dont worry about writing this at the start. Save that for a bit, until your drafting really gets rolling. Thesis Statement The thesis statement, which is what youre setting out to prove, will be the first thing that you write, as it will be what youll need to find support for in the text and in research materials. Youll likely start with a broad idea of what youd like to investigate and then narrow that down,  focusing it,  as you start your preliminary research, writing down your ideas and making your outline of how you want to present your points and evidence. Itll appear in the introduction after the hook. Supporting Examples Without examples from the text, your argument has no support, so your evidence from the work of literature youre studying is critical to your whole analytical paper. Keep lists of page numbers that you might want to cite, or use highlighters, color-coded sticky notes- whatever method will enable you to find your evidence quickly when it comes time in the essay to quote and cite it. You may not use everything that you find in support, and thats OK. Using a few perfectly illustrative examples is more efficient than dumping in a load of tenuous ones. Keep two phrases in mind when preparing an analysis: Show me and So what? That is, show me (or point out) what you think are the significant details in the text (or speech or movie- or whatever it is youre analyzing), and then, regarding each of those points, answer the question, So what? What is the significance of each?What effect does that detail create (or attempt to create)?How does it shape (or attempt to shape) the readers response?How does it work in concert with other details to create effects and shape the readers response? The So what? question will help you to pick the best examples. Sources Youll likely need to have a works cited, bibliography, or references page at the end of your essay, with citations following an existing style guide, such as MLA, American Psychological Association (APA), or the Chicago Manual of Style. Generally, theyll be alphabetical by the source authors last name and include the title of the work, publication information, and page numbers. How to punctuate and format the citations will be spelled out in the particular guide youre to follow as a part of the assignment. Keeping good track of your sources while youre researching will save you time and frustration when putting this page (as well as your citations in the paper) together. When Writing In writing an analytical essay, your paragraphs will each have a main topic that supports your thesis. If a blank page intimidates you, then start with an outline, make notes on what examples and supporting research will go in each paragraph and then build the paragraphs following your outline. You can start by writing one line for each paragraph and then going back and filling in more information, the examples and research, or you can start with the first main paragraph and complete one after the other start to finish, including the research and quotes as you draft. Either way, youre probably going to reread the whole thing several times, flesh things out where the argument is incomplete or weak, and fiddle with sentences here and there as you revise.   When you think youre complete with the draft, read it out loud. That will find dropped words, awkward phrasing, and sentences that are too long or repetitive. Then, finally, proofread. Computer spellcheckers work well, but they wont necessarily pick up where you accidentally typed bet for be, for instance. Youll want all of your paragraphs to support your thesis statement. Watch where you get off topic, and cut those sentences. Save them for a different paper or essay if you dont want to delete them entirely. Keep your draft on the topic you stated at the outset, though. Conclusion If directed in your assignment, your analytical essay may have a concluding paragraph that summarizes your thesis and main points. Your introductory hook could make another appearance in the conclusion, maybe even with a twist, to bring the article back full circle.

Capacity Building as an International Response to Cybercrime Assignment

Capacity Building as an International Response to Cybercrime - Assignment Example From the srudy findings it is clear that technologies used by people globally are required to be organised for better usage in terms of social consideration. It is apparent that Information and communication technology (ICT) has been rapidly transformed over the past two decades especially in the northern and southern regions of the world owing to which numerous development has been observed in various domains. Notably, the development of ICT has enlarged the choices of people, which further helped them towards personal and professional growth. This discussion stresses that cybercrimes are offences against computer systems, which are conducted within or via computer networks. It affects the security along with the rights of the people living in a society and on the hand, it further strengthening the presence of crime within a society. It has been analysed that cybercrime raised considerable risk for infrastructure to which the people in a society are dependent that further impact the aspect of security and trust in a negative manner. Cybercrime is a particular crime that is conducted with the use or within computers and internet networks. It is regarded by legal authority as a punishable crime and is one of the major issues to be resolved in the contemporary scenario. Cybercrime is also often regarded as computer crime, which involve the use of computer, as a particular instrument to conduct illegal activities such as fraud, child pornography and unauthorized access or damage of other’s property among others.

Identification Procedures Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Identification Procedures - Essay Example After all, the liberty and in some jurisdictions life of a man are at stake and one wrong ruling can completely re-route the course of a trial. Against that backdrop, there are several types of pretrial identifications employed by law enforcement. With respect to lineups, showups, on-the-scene identifications, and photographic or sketch identification, the requirements of due process must also be met before the prior identification may be admitted. The pretrial identification procedure of course may not be suggestive unless required by the exigencies of the circumstances. However admission into evidence of testimony concerning a suggestive identification not required by the exigencies of the circumstances does not violate due process so long as the identification possesses sufficient aspects of reliability so that there is not a very substantial likelihood of misidentification. Factors to be considered in determining reliability include the opportunity of the witness to view the criminal at the time of the crime, the witness' degree of attention, the accuracy of his prior description of the criminal, the level of certainty demonstrated at the confrontation, and the time between the crime and the confrontation. Against these factors is to be weighed the corrupting effect of the suggestive identification itself. ... One type of identification of a prospective defendant, and the least popular, is known as the single show up. Generally, a showup in which a witness views only one suspect has been held to be suggestive. Bratcher v. McCray, 419 F. Supp. 2d 352 (W.D. N.Y. 2006). As a result, this method is generally not preferred. State v. Gibbs, 864 So. 2d 866 (La. Ct. App. 5th Cir. 2003). However, a single man lineup even when requested by the accused has been held to be proper if the procedure is ruled to be reliable and it does not violate due process. U.S. v. McGrath, 89 F. Supp. 2d 569 (E.D. Pa. 2000). A showup may be proper under the following circumstances: where it occurs shortly after the alleged crime1 near the scene of the crime2as the witness' memory is still fresh3, and the suspect has not had time to alter his or her looks or dispose of evidence,4 and the showup may expedite the release of innocent suspects, and enable the police to determine whether to continue searching. State v. Mans field, 343 S.C. 66 (Ct. App. 2000). The jurisdictions are somewhat varied but under some, pretrial showup identification procedures are only permissible under the following circumstances: 1. Where exigent circumstances require it People v. Matthews, 257 A.D.2d 635, 684 N.Y.S.2d 564 (2d Dep't 1999). 2. The suspects are found at or near the crime scene and an immediate viewing may be held. People v. Matthews, 257 A.D.2d 635, 684 N.Y.S.2d 564 (2d Dep't 1999). While some jurisdictions have ruled that exigent circumstances are not required, courts have held that exigent circumstances have not been demonstrated where the suspect was not in direct flight , the witness's life was not in peril and a lineup or photographic lineup were not impracticable. Ex parte

Climate change Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Climate change - Essay Example The human factor is highly credible in causing this climate change. One of the human causes is the ever-growing population. This trend has been observed all over the world from census statistics. The increasing number of people results in a growing need for more space and demand for usage of natural resources to sustain them. In these modern times of the 21st century, more settlement will be needed. The process of building houses releases gases from machines. Settlement brings about purchase of cars, use of electricity brings about release of vehicle gases, and the process by which electricity is created causes pollution of the air. Overpopulation also contributes to deforestation to create space for settlement and farming activities. Deforestation decelerates rate of carbon dioxide-oxygen conversion (Seymour 23). Pollution is another major factor contributing to global warming. It falls under the broad categories of air and land pollution. The glasshouse effect affects the atmosphere where the expulsion of greenhouse gases whose high concentration entraps heat in the earth’s atmosphere. The gases are released from automobiles, residential areas, and industrial plants, which are the major contributor. Because the human race is highly dependent on energy, constant production requires high combustion of coal, generally fossil fuels, to meet the high demand. A higher percentage is taken by vehicle emissions, and in overall the transportation industry. Fields contain landfills, which are nowadays occupied by garbage waste. The erosion of compost soils, together with the burning of this waste releases greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. In addition to this, clearing of trees or deforestation increases amount of carbon dioxide in the air (McKibben 30). Although many may argue that agricultural farming is a life-sustenance practice, it is a surprising fact that it is a

Analysis of Counseling Theories Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Analysis of Counseling Theories - Assignment Example Even though some might seem similar, all theories of counseling have particular differences that make each appear unique and useful in different situations. Counselors have unlimited discretions to select and apply more than none counseling theory in a single treatment situation. Counselors can also shift and change counseling theories randomly or systematically provided that their strategies are capable of producing the best results out of a given therapy session. Commonly used counseling theories include cognitive-behavior, solution-focused, integrated social ecology, postmodernism or social constructionist, systems, ecological and structural/feminist. Even after extensive coverage of counseling theories, solution-focused therapy is the best and favorable therapeutic approach to most of the psychological discomforts affecting human beings. According Ungar (2011), solution-focused therapy focuses on finding solution to particular problems faced a client. In so doing, a counselor employing solution-focused therapy is likely to concentrate on positive and encouraging incidences and experiences that seemed to help a client evade problems. Solution-focused approach of counseling deters a counselor from seeking deep into the problems or bad experiences of a client that escalated the given problem. Instead, a counselor employing solution-focused therapy makes inquiry on the time that a client avoided involving in particular stressor condition. The role of a counselor should be investigation of things a client did or have ever done to avoid and overcome a particular problem or unwanted situation. A counselor should then acknowledge and ap preciate the experiences of a client and be careful to make a client view a given problem as too big and recurrent to solve. Ungar (2011) reports that theorists of the solution-focused approach urge counselors to look at the good thing and efforts of a client towards avoiding a given

Is the U.S. a rapeculture Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Is the U.S. a rapeculture - Essay Example and is part and parcel of life even though it is not either biologically or divinely ordained; despite being a set beliefs, values or attitudes, which can be changed by society (Buchwald, Pamela and Martha XI). Therefore, from the definition, it is justifiable to say that rape culture encompasses such elements as TV, jokes, legal jargon, jokes, words, rules and regulations, etc. that formalize and normalize sexual coercion and violence against women in society. Therefore, â€Å"Is the U.S. a rape culture?† This paper looks at the extent to which the American culture can be perceive as a rape culture historically and the present. Therefore, to answer my question, â€Å"Is the U.S. a rape culture?† Yes. Statistics indicates that there are many unreported cases of rape committed in the United States both in the past and the present. According to Buchwald, Pamela and Martha, many cases of assault that are unreported by the victims are perceived either as domestic disputes or bad dates implying that the victims perceive rape as just a mere normal occurrence in life or an acceptable behavior in society. For instance, a study report carried by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1992-2000 indicate that of all sexual assaults committed against women in America, only 36% of rapes, 26% of sexual assaults and 34% of attempted rapes were reported to the police signifying that most sexual assaults and rapes were not reported or treated. The report further states that, when the victims were asked why they never reported their cases to the police, they cited reasons like: they feared reprisal, it was a personal matte r or they wanted to protect the offenders (Buchwald, Pamela and Martha). Therefore, from such studies it is evident that Americans perceive rape as a culture and a normal occurrence or behavior, which is condoned in society. In addition, the monthly reports compiled by the Uniform Crime Report of the FBI from more than 17,000 law agency enforcement, which covers over

Analysis of Counseling Theories Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Analysis of Counseling Theories - Assignment Example Even though some might seem similar, all theories of counseling have particular differences that make each appear unique and useful in different situations. Counselors have unlimited discretions to select and apply more than none counseling theory in a single treatment situation. Counselors can also shift and change counseling theories randomly or systematically provided that their strategies are capable of producing the best results out of a given therapy session. Commonly used counseling theories include cognitive-behavior, solution-focused, integrated social ecology, postmodernism or social constructionist, systems, ecological and structural/feminist. Even after extensive coverage of counseling theories, solution-focused therapy is the best and favorable therapeutic approach to most of the psychological discomforts affecting human beings. According Ungar (2011), solution-focused therapy focuses on finding solution to particular problems faced a client. In so doing, a counselor employing solution-focused therapy is likely to concentrate on positive and encouraging incidences and experiences that seemed to help a client evade problems. Solution-focused approach of counseling deters a counselor from seeking deep into the problems or bad experiences of a client that escalated the given problem. Instead, a counselor employing solution-focused therapy makes inquiry on the time that a client avoided involving in particular stressor condition. The role of a counselor should be investigation of things a client did or have ever done to avoid and overcome a particular problem or unwanted situation. A counselor should then acknowledge and ap preciate the experiences of a client and be careful to make a client view a given problem as too big and recurrent to solve. Ungar (2011) reports that theorists of the solution-focused approach urge counselors to look at the good thing and efforts of a client towards avoiding a given

Motivation and job performance of employees Essay

Motivation and job performance of employees - Essay Example We also try to identify some flaws in the ideas and implementations in the ways organisation carry out the motivation, performance appraisal and reward system. Organisations have failed to realise that employee’s needs are not consistent and numerous factors are not taken into consideration before some of these factors actually contribute in demotivating employees. The analysis hopes to prove that rewards are not directly responsible for employee motivation and motivation is essential for job performance and that rewarding employees is not in the organisations best interest. According to Bono and Judge (2003) the standard and quality of work carried out by employees usually depends on the level of motivation and commitment. The biggest asset any organisation has is its employees mainly because these are the individuals who make the difference when it comes to highly successful organisations and not so successful ones; this applies to both senior and junior employees. The relationship which exists between employer and employee in terms of driving the business forward has been largely based on the employers ability to motivate his employees to excel in their various departments within the organization ( Linder, 1998). Burr and Cordery (2003) suggest that motivation plays a critical role in job performance of employees; organizations are constantly inventing new ways through which motivation can always be maintained at its highest, since it has a direct effect on employee attitude towards work. The heart of any work force lies with its employees, so it is imperative performance catalyst be introduced however and whenever seems fit. The blind side of motivation is that it tends to assume that motivation is predominantly based on rewards or benefits which are gained by employees who perform satisfactory. In the past organizations have laid emphasis

Sex and Gender Essay Example for Free

Sex and Gender Essay When most of us think about differences between men and women (or boys and girls) we tend to think first about the biology involved. The physical shape of our bodies genitalia mostly, but also the relative breadth of hips and shoulders, the presence or absence of a uterus and the potential to sustain a pregnancy helps us sort humans into male and female. Simple as pie. Which is good because sorting people by sex is something that is very important to most people. Watch nearly anybody go up to someone holding an infant and the first thing that she or he will ask the parent if the child is a girl or a boy. But why should it matter to anyone what the sex of the baby is? Even if it is easy to tell masculine from feminine. Except, of course, that its not. Theres nothing at all simple about the differences that exist between men and women because the biological differences between the sexes are only the beginning of the overall difference. (And even the biology itself can be ambiguous at times: Intersex individuals and others whose DNA is different from the most common XX or XY can be ambiguous in terms of appearance. Much of what gives us our gender identity as opposed to what we might call our sexual classification derives not from biology (or at not from genetics) but from the social and cultural values that give shape to each persons life. Because of this latter fact, the sociologist (along with the anthropologist and the social psychologist) is ideally qualified to help us understand what distinguishes the male from the female and why there are more differences among men and women than between them. Doctors and physiologists are of far less use in determining gender than one might have suspected. One of the most longstanding, most intense (and ultimately most frustrating) questions within the social sciences is that of nature-versus-nurture or how much we come into the world with and how much that birthright is shaped by our experiences ex utero. This is frustrating because, of course, there is simply no way to determine what we begin with in terms of understanding our gender and having a sense of self: Infants are very poor reporters about their internal states. Moreover, phrasing the question as one of a binary choice between nature and nuture suggests that the two do not interact with each other rather than the reality, which is that they continuously affect, alter, or reinforce each other in an iterative fashion. The area of sex and gender is one in which this debate (of nature and nurture) is especially fierce. This is true currently not primarily because of any discussion or disagreement about the nature of sex differences but rather because of the debate over same-sex marriage. One of the arguments that many proponents about same-sex marriage make is that sexual orientation is biological, something that results either from genetics, from biological conditions in utero, or from some interaction among genetics, biology, and other factors. If we accept this to be the case (and I do), then it is important to acknowledge that there are clear genetic/biological elements to gender identity and gender orientation in addition to the physical shape of peoples bodies. Thus, while I am arguing here that gender is primarily socially and culturally constructed, I am not disregarding the fact that biology has no small part in identity. While I am discussing the issue of sexual orientation, I would like to note that one of the ways in which men and women are both like each other (and highly variable within each sex) is that of sexual orientation. Very few men and women are purely heterosexual or purely homosexual. Rather most women and most men fall somewhere between these two poles. In this way a woman who is wholly homosexual is more like a man who is wholly homosexual than she is like a woman who is wholly heterosexual. The graph below demonstrates the way in which sexual orientation plays out. Men and women can equally be graphed in each sector, and those in each sector are highly similar to each other, regardless of sex (Ross, 1983, p. 28). Likewise, those of the same sex can be very different from each other depending where they fall on this scale of sexual orientation. But while there is an important biological element to gender, the majority of what creates a sense of gender identity (that is, what makes us identify and understand what masculine and feminine are and provides us with the psychological and social tools that allow us to act the way society expects us to) come about through several key areas: Our families and home environments, religious institutions (in some cases), schools, mass media, and what we might call simply society or culture. From infancy, our culture teaches what it means to be a boy or a girl. From the colour of clothes to the toys we play with, the messages begin at a very early age. Young people are influenced by a barrage of messages to conform to a variety of expectations, to buy this widget, and to preserve a rigid set of values that stress the differences between genders (Learning Gender Stereotypes, n. d. ) Because I think that it has the most influence of all (simply because of the amount of time we spend at home and the fact that we are exposed primarily to our families when we are developmentally at our most receptive or vulnerable I will focus on the family of origin and the early home environment, including toys. Anyone who has spent some time with small children knows that there is a great deal of pressure on parents to give their children the right toys. This is (I believe) generally true more for boys than for girls. A relevant anecdote here. A few weeks ago I was in a Target store and heard a man talking to a woman I assume his wife who was carrying an infant. She had a package of pacifiers in her hand and the man was saying, You get him anything that isnt blue and I swear to God if he turns out to be a fag then Ill kill you. I wanted to kidnap the child. Many parents are adamant about dressing girls in pink (and handing them only dolls to play with) and boys in blue (and giving them only cars and guns). Parents who raise their children like this tend to make the argument that they are not forcing their children into gender roles, but rather that they are simply catering to the inherent gender self-identity of their children. This is perhaps most commonly seen in the way that parents dismiss the bad behavior of their sons with the phrase, Oh, boys will be boys. True but the kind of thing that a boy is is in large measure what his parents make him. Boys like girls are the creations of their cultures. We can see this dynamic in the study performed by Condry and Condry. (The study was performed in 1976, but I believe it remains valid today. It is certainly a powerful study. ) They asked a group of subjects to observe the behavior of a group of nine-month-old babies (who were dressed so that the observers could not determine the sex of the baby). After a few minutes, the babies were scared by a Jack-in-the-box leaping out at them. When observers were told that the infants were boys, the subjects described the infants as being angry. Then the next group of observers was brought in and asked to observe the same infants who were then scared (again! ) by the Jack-in-the-box. This time, told that the infants were girls, the research subjects described the infants as being fearful. Bland (1998) summarizes the cumulative effects of his kind of reinforcement from the outside world on the growing childs sense of self, including her or his sense of what her or his own gender should do. The suggestion is, that boys may react with anger, and girls with fear, because we expect them to. All through our lives we tend to behave to match the attributions people make from social stereotypes because, to behave untypically, sets us apart. We are unconsciously behaving how we are expected to.

Albanian Mobile Communications (AMC) Analysis

Albanian Mobile Communications (AMC) Analysis Albanian Mobile Communications Market segments characteristics. (Demands type) Business and Residential are the main customer segments for Data and Internet services. According to ERG Report on regulation of access products necessary to deliver the business connectivity, business customers distributed with remote branches/offices nationally, tend to order wholesale services ordered by the headquarter rather than ordered as separate packages by the remote branches and while this is typical for big and organized business, smaller one sometimes find themselves convenient to buy and use the retail offered services (ERG, 2009). Regarding the demand from business customers different needs are found and a clear line between the high-end and low-end business customers can not be set but what separates them is often the quality of services demanded and the way of ordering the services as a complete network solution from one provider only or having different providers and the company itself does the role of the integrator (ERG, 2009). Another common behavior of businesses is the demand for a full solution for communication services covering the range of fixed and mobile services while it is noted that big business and in addition while the standard users are more sensitive for the price, the business big ones stick to well known brands, quality and reliability of services and after sales support provided (ERG, 2009). Big Business Multi-site customers seem to have different needs when compared to residential users or to small business users: Different services such as mobile, fix, data networking, convergent products and value added services; high quality communication services; quick response and good support; dedicated personnel as account manager (ERG, 2009) 5. AMC Company Profile Albanian Mobile Communications (AMC) is the biggest Mobile Network operator in Albania and is part of the Cosmote Mobile Telecommunications, the mobile part of OTE SA Greece. Part of Cosmote Group which is operating in 4 countries Greece, Albania, Bulgaria and Romania, AMC is operating in Albanian market since 1996 and has constantly dominated the market by means of customer base and revenue. AMC is founded as a state owned company by early 1996 and launched the standard GSM services on May 1996. It was privatized in 2000 when Cosmote Telenor Consortium became the controlling shareholder privatizing 85% of the shares while around 2% were provided to the employees and the rest of 13% remained to the state. Now 97% of the shares it is owned by Cosmote and 3% by the employees. At the time of privatization AMC was offering the services only to about 30,000 postpaid customers and only at xxx% of the territory and xx% of the population. (ASK ILIR) After the privatization, due to the low level of development of fixed telephony, lack of real completion and the investments made by the Greek company Cosmote, the company developed very fast by expanding the network to all the territory of Albania, offering the services to prepaid customers segment and adding a broad range of mobile services such as SMS, MMS, VMS and Internet access. After Vodafone entrance in the Albanian market in 2001, the competition in the market forced the constant decrease of prices, increase of number of services and their quality. The third operator, Eagle Mobile, entered in the market in 2008 and further busted the competition among the three operators. Positioning itself as a low cost services operator, Eagle mobile initiated a price war in the market forcing further decreases of services prices. Today AMC is the biggest Mobile operator in Albania, dominating the market by having around 1.9 million of customers with 43.3% market penetration. AMC is covering 99.8% of the population and 90% of the territory in Albania. Roaming agreements are established with more than 300 GSM operators worldwide. Major mobile product and services offered to individuals are: voice, SMS, MMS, voice mail, internet access, WAP portals and push email for residential. Corporate push email, data internetworking, ISP and VPN services are provided to corporate customers. EDGE technology is implemented covering 86% of the population and 63% of territory offering the possibility to the customers to access the internet through the mobile at acceptable rates. 3G technology is not yet licensed in Albania but the licensing process is expected to start during this year. AMC has around 530 employees highly qualified and trained. Around xx% of employees have a university degree and xx% of them are under the age of xxx. Personnel is organized in three main division, Commercial, Technical, Finance and Operations Administrative. The revenues for 2008 were at 191,272 millions, the OIBDA margin was at 64.7% and the net profit margin was at xxx%. During 2009, due to several factors present in the market such as the third entrant competition, world financial crises and intervention of regulatory body in decreasing the retail and interconnection termination tariffs AMC has faced some challenges on realizing the revenue objectives although the figures were still very good: revenue at 145,744mil, OIBDA at 57% and net profit at xxx%. For the future, considering the expected fierce competition due to also to the entrance of the fourth operator in the market and present financial crisis as well, AMC is looking to realize the targets through orienting the business towards the customer, finding other revenue streams, offering a wide range of products and services, the best technology in the market and best network quality. Offering of 3G services within 2010 and enrichment of products portfolio with services that this technology makes possible are considered as good opportunity for AMC in the near future for increasing the revenue. 6. Current Situation Analysis 6.1 General environment factors Political Albania is a small country located in southeastern Europe bordered by Adriatic Sea, Greece, Montenegro and Kosovo. Territory is 28,748 sq km and population at 3,639,453. After the Second World War, Albania established a communist regime which has ruled the country for 46 years until 1991 when it collapsed and a new democratic system was established. Albania has gone through a difficult process of transforming society to a democratic one and of developing the market economy. The process has proven to be very challenging and although a lot of progress has been done, the country is facing a lot of problems and deficiencies related to corruption, week infrastructure, unemployment, organized crime and sometimes lack of political stability. Since starting the transition process in 1991, the progress of Albania has been impressive although the transition period has taken longer than enough. Albania has established the institutions of democracy, has developed the capacities of public institutions, and has established the foundations of market economy (World Bank, 2010). Albania has joined NATO in 2009, has signed in 2006 the agreement for Stabilization and Association with EU and is one of the potential candidates for joining the EU. As part of EU association agreement, Albania since ten years has transformed and adopted the legislation based on EU recommendations and framework. The legislation improvement has been a continuing process and is performed under the tough monitoring and supervision of EU. In this regard, currently we may say that Albania has a very good legislation frame although there are evident gaps between the legislation and practical implementation of the laws in the country. The country has joined the WTO in 2000 and since then has adopted its international trading policies in accordance with the agreement with this organization. Government policies and strategies on Electronic communications are focused on liberalization, development of market and competition, attraction of foreign direct investments, protection of consumer and are developed in compliance with the National Strategy for Development (covering years 2007-2013) and the EU integration directives. Economy Albania is a country with low to middle income with a gross domestic income per capita of $3740 in 2008. The Economy of the country has been totally transformed during the transition period from a communist economy towards a market-based economy. Albania has achieved a sustainable economic growth, while containing inflation almost constant every year. During the transition period, the structure of economy has been transformed from an agriculture and industry to services and construction. Large scale migration has fueled high workers remittances, which make up around 8-13 percent of GDP (World Bank Web Page, 2010, Albania in Brief). During that period the GDP growth rates of around 5-6 percent per year have been achieved while the poverty level has been reduced constantly. The absolute poverty rate was 25.4 % in 2002 but dropped to 18.5 percent in 2005 and to 12.4 percent in 2008. The extreme poverty rate decreased from about 5 to 3.5 percent but inequality has increased significantly (World Bank Web Page, 2010, Albania in Brief). According to World Bank data, the Albania GNIP (Gross National Income per Capita) in 2008 was at 3840$ ranking at 113th position while PPP (Purchasing power Parity) was at 7950$ during 2008 ranking at 108th position worldwide (World Bank, 2008). The GDP composition by sectors the year 2009 was as following: agriculture 20.06%, industry 18.8% and services 60.6% (CIA Fact book, 2010). In 2009 unemployment rate was at 12%, population under the poverty line 25%, Inflation rate 2.1% and has been kept within the range of 2-4% since 2002 (CIA Fact book, 2010). Major agriculture products are wheat, corn, vegetables, potatoes, fruits, sugar, grapes and meat while the industrial ones are food processing, textiles and clothing, oil, hydropower, cement, chemicals, mining and basic metals. In 2009 the exports were at 1994 billion while the imports were at 3602 billion (CIA Fact book, 2010). Strong growth has been seen during the years 2002 -2008 at the rate of 14-15% in the construction industry which has been considered as very successful one in the country. Evidences of global crises effects have been shown during 2009 when the GDP growth was 4% less than 2008. The remittances and bank deposits have declined much during 2008 and 2009 causing the slowdown of consumption while imports went down from 4,898 in 2008 to 3.602 Billion in 2009 (INSTAT, 2010). The deposit rates during 2007 were at the average of 6.3% while the bank interest rates were at 13.6% (INSTAT, 2010). Following are shown the main competitiveness indexes for Albania provided by the Harvard University, M. Porter in The Global Competitiveness Report. Source: M. Porter, The Global Competitiveness Report, 2008-2009 Based on this report, Albania is categorized in the group of countries being at the stage of efficiency driven economy, has many deficiencies in infrastructure, technology and innovation and market efficiency while fits with the standards of this category for macroeconomic stability, health and primary education, labor market efficiency and institutions, Source: M. Porter, The Global Competitiveness Report, 2008-2009 From the above report we can see that corruption, inadequate infrastructure, governing efficiency and bureaucracy and Tax regulations are the main problematic factors for doing business in Albania. Source: World Bank, Doing Business 2010 Albania According to World Bank, Albania is currently well positioned to continue with its strong economic growth and is able to make significant movements towards the integration with the European Union but the government must strongly address the governance problems, maintain a stable macroeconomics framework, improve the business environment and attract investments, upgrade public infrastructure, develop its human capital and make sure that the development benefits are fairly distributed to different categories of society with a special attention to supporting the poor ones (World Bank 2010). Although it has sustained high growth rate by keeping the microeconomic stability during the last decade, Albania remains still one of the poorest countries in Europe showing a large scale of informality in economy, a week and inadequate energetic and transportation infrastructure. Shortages in Energy caused from the dependency from hydropower plants and inadequate distribution infrastructure contribute much in a poor business environment and is a factor for not being successful in the process of attracting the foreign investors. According the European Commission 2009 report , Albania has kept and maintained the macro-economic while the worldwide crises had only a limited impact on the country, inflation was low, exchange rate has been stable, liquidity of banks have been ensured (EU Commission, 2009) Social According to INSTAT, 46 % of the population is between the age of 15-44 years and average age is 32.1 years therefore we may say that Albania has a young population however the population has started aging for the reason of decreased rate of births and longer life rate (INSTAT,2010). The number of people living in urban areas has increased from 35.8% in 1989 to 45% in 2004. Consumer telecom utilization and spending is high and at around 6 % of the total household expenditures. New generation like the new technology of mobiles and are followers of offers. Some future social trends are mentioned below: Urbanization will continue therefore increasing the chances for the fast rollout of broadband technologies Economic inequality will increase, therefore the customer segmentations should be considered and product and services should be customized to each segment needs Family size will decrease People joining the social networks will increase Regulatory The country has adopted the national legislation in accordance with the EU 2003 regulatory recommendations and framework. The Law No. 9918 (May 19, 2008) is the main legal instrument for the electronic communications industry regulation. It defines the responsibilities of government and regulatory institutions for this regulation. Based on this law, the Minister of State for Reforms and Parliamentary relations is the administration body for the electronic communications services and it is responsible for drafting the related legislation and for preparing the plan for radio frequencies. Based on the proposals submitted by the regulatory, the Ministry has the authority to approve the tenders for limited spectrum assignment and universal service providers. In 2009, the Council of Ministers has approved the National Frequency Plan while there is under the approval process the policy for the sector development for the period 2009-2014 which is oriented on liberalization, European integration and convergence. The regulatory authority (AKEP) is an independent, self-financed entity which covers the regulatory tasks for the electronic communications. Under its authority belong also some tasks related to adoption, administration and implementation of legislation. For the industry of Electronic Communications, the regulatory body should safeguard the competition, guaranty the quality of services offered and delivery of them, protect the consumer, license and develop the market through promoting the investment and latest technology implementation. AKEP can impose prices control, set administration fees and define methodologies for regulation of tariffs and defines its own structure and salaries without any intervention from the Ministry. The financing is taken from fees applied to operators and service providers. It reports to the parliamentary assembly. The privatization of Albtelecom and Eagle Mobile, in 2007, increased the level autonomy and independence for the AKEP and the Ministry although the state still owns 25% of the shares. Lately the government has announced these shares will be sold. Another institution was established by the government in April 2007, National Agency on Information Society (NAIS) which role is to coordinate the government activities for the information society and communications. It prepares and proposes the national strategies, draft ICT legislations and coordinate the projects of government in ICT. With regards to market access and authorizations, Albania has moved forward with the gradual process of liberalization. In 1998 the liberalization started with the rural local networks, then in 2003 was liberalized the operations for the domestic long-distances networks and in 2005 for international ones. In 2006 the market was liberalized for urban operation of local alternative providers. The law of 2008, established the concept of â€Å"General authorization† based on which the networks and services which do not require the usage of limited resources could start operating without getting a license but just by sending a notification for their start to the regulatory authority within 15 days of operations. Based on this, the need for getting the license remained only for the frequencies and numbers. Based on the law, AKEP can use the SMP (Significant Market Power) designation mechanism in order to regulate the competition in the market. The decision for designation should be based on a Market Analysis procedure results. In 2007 AKEP has designated AMC and Vodafone as SMP in the market of retail mobile services and for the wholesale voice termination. Based on that, AKEP imposed to these two operators obligations related to non-discrimination, transparency in RIO (Reference Interconnection Offer), imposed the prices of interconnect termination by cutting them by 31.2%% and applied a reduction in retailed prices of 30% for on-net and 40%for the off-net calls for a period of two years. In 2007, AKEP has designated Albtelecom as SMP in six markets related to fixed voice services offered to customers and for voice transit services. Obligations were set to Albtelecom including the imposed reduction of retail and transit tariffs. Following a review of the markets in wholesale and retail tariffs done in 2009, the competitive safeguards LLU and CS/CPS were imposed to Albtelecom which are not yet implemented. AKEP has already launched several markets analysis procedures on most of the wholesale and retail markets such as: Mobile wholesale market for call termination, access and call origination; fixed retail access and call services for wholesale interconnection. In December 2009, AKEP introduced to operators a reference document with the model of BULRAIC cost calculations for mobile services MTR based on which the data have been provided to AKEP by the operators. As the result of these analyses, it is expected that AKEP imposes the Mobile Terminated Rates for national calls while the rates for the international calls will be reviewed. During 2009 AKEP has launched the market analysis and public consultation process for wholesale and retail leased lines markets and finalization of it is expected by mid 2010. As result of public consultation process, is expected to be defined the services, demands, providers, supply structure and markets and then based on these is expected that regulatory designates the SMP operators for which the tariffs for their services will be regulated. During Q1 2010, AKEP has launched a public consultation process on â€Å"The rule for the indexes of service quality† which is expected to be finalized during Q1 2010. The above mentioned actions which regard regulation of competitions can be considered as steps to develop the competitive safeguards environment, however we can mention other steps not yet realized by the regulatory although the process has already started. Such missing measurements are: number portability, carrier selection and pre-selection (CS, CSP) not in practice yet, local loop un-bundling (LLU) not in practice yet, national roaming, MVNO and whole sale line rental. Number portability public consultation is in progress and based on AKEP plans, the service will be available in the market by end 2010 while the process for licensing for wireless broadband spectrum (WiMAX and mobile 3G) are expected to start with public consultations opening by March 2010 and be finalized by mid 2010. According to latest European Commission assessment, there were noted some progress including the alignment of primary legislation, while still some secondary lines laws have to be adopted yet, market liberalization and competition still are at early stage and administrative capacities of the ministry and regulator was not sufficient (Cullen, 2008). Technological In the area of mobile communication technology, GSM 2.75 technology (EDGE) is implemented since 2006 and now three operators offer it to the customers, AMC, Vodafone and Eagle. Regulatory has not yet provided the licensing for the Mobile 3G CDMA and broadband technologies HSPA and HSPA+. There is a delay in this aspect and the licensing for 3G technologies may be provided only now, at the end of lifecycle for 3G technology and at the time that other markets have started trialing and adopting the 4G network technologies (LTE). Video Digital Broadcasting (DVB-H) services are offered by three operators (DIGITALB, TRING and TV SHIJAKU) already to the market through terrestrial or satellite broadcasting. Number of PCs and PC utilization at home is low and estimated to xxx% of the houses while the utilization in companies and government is high. Internet services are provided in the country by more than 36 ISPs and technology for access is mainly fixed broadband xDSL, hybrid fiber coax and dial-up. Wireless broadband spectrum available for WiMAX is not licensed yet by the regulatory while the WiFi networks are frequently used for the Internet access in cafes. Points to multipoint systems such as LMDS are not present in the country. Fiber networks are present only in the main cities such as Tirana and Durres and implemented by some ISP-s for the purposes of internet access or triple play services provided to the end user. Fiber backbone is missing and the mobile operators backbone is mainly build of microwave transmission links based on SDH or PDH technology. Two of mobile operators have taken already some steps on offering the mobile fix substitution services to the customers but not providing the convergence of the mobile and fix telephone number. Content development is weak and mainly is based on external international resources. The main technology factors that will shape the next decade of electronic communications development are the following: Convergence of networks Fixed and mobile network differences will vanish and a common network providing integrated services will serve the customers. Mobile to fix substitution and integration has already started Convergence of network technologies to an all IP networks Traditional telecom networks and internet (ISP) will merge together to a next generation carrier network which is based on all IP technology. Services will clearly separate from transport networks and competition will be focused and oriented on services Convergence of services Convergence of networks and network technology will make possible to design, combine and deliver to the customer services which traditionally have been provided before by different technology, networks and vendors such as triple play services, (video, voice and internet) provided all at one network access point, accessed through same application environment which run in many different types of devices. Unified services access and unified messaging Customers can access through same software environment and through same or different devices and from everywhere (office, home, when traveling) same set of applications and services. Reduction of cost for hardware and increase of software role and power Software will run on standard hardware. Big software players will play a big role while the network HW vendors will become more software oriented. Growth of video content and internet utilization while the voice remains strong Demands for capacities will be huge while the needs for integrating all sets of services at one management and control will increase. Increase of connected number and types of devices Web connected devices will increase. PCs, mobiles, TVs, game devices, etc. There will be a need to standardize the applications to all these set of devices. 6.2 Electronic communications industry analysis We will use the M. Porters â€Å"Five forces model† for analyzing the industry. We selected this model as being already one of the most worldwide known, widely recognized and used model for industry analysis. The analysis done based on that model will be used for business strategy development recommendations. Market overview General data The following graphs show the sector revenue growth and market in 2008 compared to the other countries in the region. Source: (Cullen Report, 2010) Source: (Cullen Report, 2010) Mobile telephony In May 1996, AMC a state owned company by this time launched for the first time in Albania the GSM services becoming one of the first countries in the region to offer such services. Currently there are three companies operating in the mobile services market AMC, Vodafone and Eagle Mobile. The fourth operator is licensed and is expected to launch the services on July 2010. On July 2009, the mobile customers were at 3.52 millions, mobile service penetration was at 110% of the population, and more than 99% of population and 90% of territory is covered by GSM signal. Around 93.8% of customers are prepaid and 6.2% are postpaid. AMC has 43.30% of customer base, Vodafone AL 43.00% and Eagle 13.7 % (Cullen, 2010). Technology used is 2G EDGE while 3G spectrum is expected to be licensed by mid 2010. Main services offered in the market are voice, SMS, MMS, WAP, internet access and GPRS intranets. 43.3% of market share is owed by AMC, 43% by Vodafone and 13.4% by Eagle Mobile. Fixed telephony Albtelecom is the incumbent fixed operator in the market while more than 70 alternative operators operate mainly in the rural zones. Number of fixed telephony users by July 2009 end was 360,000 which represents 11.3% penetration while alternative operators customers are at 49, 690 representing 14% of this number(Cullen, 2010). 99.92 % of the fixed telephony is digitized. In July 2009 the numbers of PSTN lines were at 359,100, ISDN lines at 929, lines given to residential customers were at 338,300 and to business customers at 21,700 (Cullen, 2010). Leased lines and Data services Albtelecom and the three mobile operators are the providers of leased lines services at national and international access. Albtelecom has had the monopoly of such services until few years ago and kept it for international access until 2006. Albtelecom has implemented a few fiber lines connecting some main cities while internationally have access of fiber backbones to Italy and to Greece and other Adriatic see countries through the Adria fiber backbone. The mobile operators have not build yet a backbone to be used for leasing yet but are offering for the moment free capacities of their backbone build for their core business, mobile services. Besides AMC, there are not any clear evidences and data on the leased lines or data services provided by the other two mobile operators (Vodafone and Eagle Mobile). Albtelecom and mobile operators are moving forward their plans for implementation of a national Fiber backbone which will serve future needs for capacities nationally or for international access. AMC has provided data internetworking services to banks and other business or government institutions. More than 200 local networks of xxx customers are internetworked nationally and xxxx connections to international networks are established. COMPLETE STATISTICS Use Cullen report data on lease lines (pages 53-67, here are prices only) Broadband and Internet Services These services are offered for the moment by fixed operators while the mobile broadband services are not yet licensed by regulatory authority. Broadband penetration rate was at 2.51 % on January 2010 and was the lowest one in the region while EU penetration was at 23.9% (Cullen, 2010). About 36 ISPs are operating in Albania mainly providing the services in Tirana area and few in the other western cities. According to Cullen report, by January 2010, the number of broadband connections was 80,000, narrowband connections were at 28,512 and 30% of people are regularly using the Internet (Cullen, 2010). Number of internet users in 2008, including the mobile internet access users, was at 580,000. Main operators are Albtelecom, Abisnet, ABCOM, Alfa cable and ASC (AKEP, 2010). 65% of broadband market is owned by Albtelecom and 35% by the alternative operators. Broadband technology used is ADSL and HFC. The following table shows the internet penetration progress over the years. Source: (Internet world statistics, 2010) Albtelecom offers upstream capacities of internet access to retail customers from 512Kbps to 4Mbps while Abisnet from 1 to 3 Mbps. Albtelecom is the main operator offering to other ISP-s high capacity access to internet international gateway through fiber. Other alternative operators access the international gateways through Albtelecom use other alternative microwave links. The internet backbone access capacity in October 2009 was 5.5GB and was one of the lowest in the region. The threat for substitute product and services AMC offers Data Internetworking and Internet services through ISP in addition to its core business mobile services. International IP transit services are provided through the partnership established with OTEGlobe which is an international data services provider. The type of service is IP transit, (Layer3 Networking) where turnkey IP network is provided through delivering the end routers, installation and configurations of them and IP packet encryption as well. IP capacities provided are dedicated. Availability of services is above 99.9% and quality of network is very good. For such type of data services, substitute services in the market are considered the MPLS VPN-s, satellite data links, internet VPN services, GPRS Intranets and data dial-up. MPLS VPNs are becoming standard services worldwide but not yet present in the local market. This comes mainly due to the reasons of lack of a dedicated data backbone in the country, the lack of development of IP backbones technologies by the operators for the moment and the lack of fiber backbones. Since the data IP backbone is missing for the moment and establishing it will need time and big investments, MPLS VPNs may present a substitution threat after some years. There are not operators offering such products for the moment. Satellite data links are established through satellite terminals installed at the local remote offices locations. Links are aggregated to the satellite nub and then connected to the headquarter network. These links have the advantage of installing anywhere in the country and this represent an advantage considering the terrain but are more convenient to be used as point to point links rather than in a distributed multipoint top Albanian Mobile Communications (AMC) Analysis Albanian Mobile Communications (AMC) Analysis Albanian Mobile Communications Market segments characteristics. (Demands type) Business and Residential are the main customer segments for Data and Internet services. According to ERG Report on regulation of access products necessary to deliver the business connectivity, business customers distributed with remote branches/offices nationally, tend to order wholesale services ordered by the headquarter rather than ordered as separate packages by the remote branches and while this is typical for big and organized business, smaller one sometimes find themselves convenient to buy and use the retail offered services (ERG, 2009). Regarding the demand from business customers different needs are found and a clear line between the high-end and low-end business customers can not be set but what separates them is often the quality of services demanded and the way of ordering the services as a complete network solution from one provider only or having different providers and the company itself does the role of the integrator (ERG, 2009). Another common behavior of businesses is the demand for a full solution for communication services covering the range of fixed and mobile services while it is noted that big business and in addition while the standard users are more sensitive for the price, the business big ones stick to well known brands, quality and reliability of services and after sales support provided (ERG, 2009). Big Business Multi-site customers seem to have different needs when compared to residential users or to small business users: Different services such as mobile, fix, data networking, convergent products and value added services; high quality communication services; quick response and good support; dedicated personnel as account manager (ERG, 2009) 5. AMC Company Profile Albanian Mobile Communications (AMC) is the biggest Mobile Network operator in Albania and is part of the Cosmote Mobile Telecommunications, the mobile part of OTE SA Greece. Part of Cosmote Group which is operating in 4 countries Greece, Albania, Bulgaria and Romania, AMC is operating in Albanian market since 1996 and has constantly dominated the market by means of customer base and revenue. AMC is founded as a state owned company by early 1996 and launched the standard GSM services on May 1996. It was privatized in 2000 when Cosmote Telenor Consortium became the controlling shareholder privatizing 85% of the shares while around 2% were provided to the employees and the rest of 13% remained to the state. Now 97% of the shares it is owned by Cosmote and 3% by the employees. At the time of privatization AMC was offering the services only to about 30,000 postpaid customers and only at xxx% of the territory and xx% of the population. (ASK ILIR) After the privatization, due to the low level of development of fixed telephony, lack of real completion and the investments made by the Greek company Cosmote, the company developed very fast by expanding the network to all the territory of Albania, offering the services to prepaid customers segment and adding a broad range of mobile services such as SMS, MMS, VMS and Internet access. After Vodafone entrance in the Albanian market in 2001, the competition in the market forced the constant decrease of prices, increase of number of services and their quality. The third operator, Eagle Mobile, entered in the market in 2008 and further busted the competition among the three operators. Positioning itself as a low cost services operator, Eagle mobile initiated a price war in the market forcing further decreases of services prices. Today AMC is the biggest Mobile operator in Albania, dominating the market by having around 1.9 million of customers with 43.3% market penetration. AMC is covering 99.8% of the population and 90% of the territory in Albania. Roaming agreements are established with more than 300 GSM operators worldwide. Major mobile product and services offered to individuals are: voice, SMS, MMS, voice mail, internet access, WAP portals and push email for residential. Corporate push email, data internetworking, ISP and VPN services are provided to corporate customers. EDGE technology is implemented covering 86% of the population and 63% of territory offering the possibility to the customers to access the internet through the mobile at acceptable rates. 3G technology is not yet licensed in Albania but the licensing process is expected to start during this year. AMC has around 530 employees highly qualified and trained. Around xx% of employees have a university degree and xx% of them are under the age of xxx. Personnel is organized in three main division, Commercial, Technical, Finance and Operations Administrative. The revenues for 2008 were at 191,272 millions, the OIBDA margin was at 64.7% and the net profit margin was at xxx%. During 2009, due to several factors present in the market such as the third entrant competition, world financial crises and intervention of regulatory body in decreasing the retail and interconnection termination tariffs AMC has faced some challenges on realizing the revenue objectives although the figures were still very good: revenue at 145,744mil, OIBDA at 57% and net profit at xxx%. For the future, considering the expected fierce competition due to also to the entrance of the fourth operator in the market and present financial crisis as well, AMC is looking to realize the targets through orienting the business towards the customer, finding other revenue streams, offering a wide range of products and services, the best technology in the market and best network quality. Offering of 3G services within 2010 and enrichment of products portfolio with services that this technology makes possible are considered as good opportunity for AMC in the near future for increasing the revenue. 6. Current Situation Analysis 6.1 General environment factors Political Albania is a small country located in southeastern Europe bordered by Adriatic Sea, Greece, Montenegro and Kosovo. Territory is 28,748 sq km and population at 3,639,453. After the Second World War, Albania established a communist regime which has ruled the country for 46 years until 1991 when it collapsed and a new democratic system was established. Albania has gone through a difficult process of transforming society to a democratic one and of developing the market economy. The process has proven to be very challenging and although a lot of progress has been done, the country is facing a lot of problems and deficiencies related to corruption, week infrastructure, unemployment, organized crime and sometimes lack of political stability. Since starting the transition process in 1991, the progress of Albania has been impressive although the transition period has taken longer than enough. Albania has established the institutions of democracy, has developed the capacities of public institutions, and has established the foundations of market economy (World Bank, 2010). Albania has joined NATO in 2009, has signed in 2006 the agreement for Stabilization and Association with EU and is one of the potential candidates for joining the EU. As part of EU association agreement, Albania since ten years has transformed and adopted the legislation based on EU recommendations and framework. The legislation improvement has been a continuing process and is performed under the tough monitoring and supervision of EU. In this regard, currently we may say that Albania has a very good legislation frame although there are evident gaps between the legislation and practical implementation of the laws in the country. The country has joined the WTO in 2000 and since then has adopted its international trading policies in accordance with the agreement with this organization. Government policies and strategies on Electronic communications are focused on liberalization, development of market and competition, attraction of foreign direct investments, protection of consumer and are developed in compliance with the National Strategy for Development (covering years 2007-2013) and the EU integration directives. Economy Albania is a country with low to middle income with a gross domestic income per capita of $3740 in 2008. The Economy of the country has been totally transformed during the transition period from a communist economy towards a market-based economy. Albania has achieved a sustainable economic growth, while containing inflation almost constant every year. During the transition period, the structure of economy has been transformed from an agriculture and industry to services and construction. Large scale migration has fueled high workers remittances, which make up around 8-13 percent of GDP (World Bank Web Page, 2010, Albania in Brief). During that period the GDP growth rates of around 5-6 percent per year have been achieved while the poverty level has been reduced constantly. The absolute poverty rate was 25.4 % in 2002 but dropped to 18.5 percent in 2005 and to 12.4 percent in 2008. The extreme poverty rate decreased from about 5 to 3.5 percent but inequality has increased significantly (World Bank Web Page, 2010, Albania in Brief). According to World Bank data, the Albania GNIP (Gross National Income per Capita) in 2008 was at 3840$ ranking at 113th position while PPP (Purchasing power Parity) was at 7950$ during 2008 ranking at 108th position worldwide (World Bank, 2008). The GDP composition by sectors the year 2009 was as following: agriculture 20.06%, industry 18.8% and services 60.6% (CIA Fact book, 2010). In 2009 unemployment rate was at 12%, population under the poverty line 25%, Inflation rate 2.1% and has been kept within the range of 2-4% since 2002 (CIA Fact book, 2010). Major agriculture products are wheat, corn, vegetables, potatoes, fruits, sugar, grapes and meat while the industrial ones are food processing, textiles and clothing, oil, hydropower, cement, chemicals, mining and basic metals. In 2009 the exports were at 1994 billion while the imports were at 3602 billion (CIA Fact book, 2010). Strong growth has been seen during the years 2002 -2008 at the rate of 14-15% in the construction industry which has been considered as very successful one in the country. Evidences of global crises effects have been shown during 2009 when the GDP growth was 4% less than 2008. The remittances and bank deposits have declined much during 2008 and 2009 causing the slowdown of consumption while imports went down from 4,898 in 2008 to 3.602 Billion in 2009 (INSTAT, 2010). The deposit rates during 2007 were at the average of 6.3% while the bank interest rates were at 13.6% (INSTAT, 2010). Following are shown the main competitiveness indexes for Albania provided by the Harvard University, M. Porter in The Global Competitiveness Report. Source: M. Porter, The Global Competitiveness Report, 2008-2009 Based on this report, Albania is categorized in the group of countries being at the stage of efficiency driven economy, has many deficiencies in infrastructure, technology and innovation and market efficiency while fits with the standards of this category for macroeconomic stability, health and primary education, labor market efficiency and institutions, Source: M. Porter, The Global Competitiveness Report, 2008-2009 From the above report we can see that corruption, inadequate infrastructure, governing efficiency and bureaucracy and Tax regulations are the main problematic factors for doing business in Albania. Source: World Bank, Doing Business 2010 Albania According to World Bank, Albania is currently well positioned to continue with its strong economic growth and is able to make significant movements towards the integration with the European Union but the government must strongly address the governance problems, maintain a stable macroeconomics framework, improve the business environment and attract investments, upgrade public infrastructure, develop its human capital and make sure that the development benefits are fairly distributed to different categories of society with a special attention to supporting the poor ones (World Bank 2010). Although it has sustained high growth rate by keeping the microeconomic stability during the last decade, Albania remains still one of the poorest countries in Europe showing a large scale of informality in economy, a week and inadequate energetic and transportation infrastructure. Shortages in Energy caused from the dependency from hydropower plants and inadequate distribution infrastructure contribute much in a poor business environment and is a factor for not being successful in the process of attracting the foreign investors. According the European Commission 2009 report , Albania has kept and maintained the macro-economic while the worldwide crises had only a limited impact on the country, inflation was low, exchange rate has been stable, liquidity of banks have been ensured (EU Commission, 2009) Social According to INSTAT, 46 % of the population is between the age of 15-44 years and average age is 32.1 years therefore we may say that Albania has a young population however the population has started aging for the reason of decreased rate of births and longer life rate (INSTAT,2010). The number of people living in urban areas has increased from 35.8% in 1989 to 45% in 2004. Consumer telecom utilization and spending is high and at around 6 % of the total household expenditures. New generation like the new technology of mobiles and are followers of offers. Some future social trends are mentioned below: Urbanization will continue therefore increasing the chances for the fast rollout of broadband technologies Economic inequality will increase, therefore the customer segmentations should be considered and product and services should be customized to each segment needs Family size will decrease People joining the social networks will increase Regulatory The country has adopted the national legislation in accordance with the EU 2003 regulatory recommendations and framework. The Law No. 9918 (May 19, 2008) is the main legal instrument for the electronic communications industry regulation. It defines the responsibilities of government and regulatory institutions for this regulation. Based on this law, the Minister of State for Reforms and Parliamentary relations is the administration body for the electronic communications services and it is responsible for drafting the related legislation and for preparing the plan for radio frequencies. Based on the proposals submitted by the regulatory, the Ministry has the authority to approve the tenders for limited spectrum assignment and universal service providers. In 2009, the Council of Ministers has approved the National Frequency Plan while there is under the approval process the policy for the sector development for the period 2009-2014 which is oriented on liberalization, European integration and convergence. The regulatory authority (AKEP) is an independent, self-financed entity which covers the regulatory tasks for the electronic communications. Under its authority belong also some tasks related to adoption, administration and implementation of legislation. For the industry of Electronic Communications, the regulatory body should safeguard the competition, guaranty the quality of services offered and delivery of them, protect the consumer, license and develop the market through promoting the investment and latest technology implementation. AKEP can impose prices control, set administration fees and define methodologies for regulation of tariffs and defines its own structure and salaries without any intervention from the Ministry. The financing is taken from fees applied to operators and service providers. It reports to the parliamentary assembly. The privatization of Albtelecom and Eagle Mobile, in 2007, increased the level autonomy and independence for the AKEP and the Ministry although the state still owns 25% of the shares. Lately the government has announced these shares will be sold. Another institution was established by the government in April 2007, National Agency on Information Society (NAIS) which role is to coordinate the government activities for the information society and communications. It prepares and proposes the national strategies, draft ICT legislations and coordinate the projects of government in ICT. With regards to market access and authorizations, Albania has moved forward with the gradual process of liberalization. In 1998 the liberalization started with the rural local networks, then in 2003 was liberalized the operations for the domestic long-distances networks and in 2005 for international ones. In 2006 the market was liberalized for urban operation of local alternative providers. The law of 2008, established the concept of â€Å"General authorization† based on which the networks and services which do not require the usage of limited resources could start operating without getting a license but just by sending a notification for their start to the regulatory authority within 15 days of operations. Based on this, the need for getting the license remained only for the frequencies and numbers. Based on the law, AKEP can use the SMP (Significant Market Power) designation mechanism in order to regulate the competition in the market. The decision for designation should be based on a Market Analysis procedure results. In 2007 AKEP has designated AMC and Vodafone as SMP in the market of retail mobile services and for the wholesale voice termination. Based on that, AKEP imposed to these two operators obligations related to non-discrimination, transparency in RIO (Reference Interconnection Offer), imposed the prices of interconnect termination by cutting them by 31.2%% and applied a reduction in retailed prices of 30% for on-net and 40%for the off-net calls for a period of two years. In 2007, AKEP has designated Albtelecom as SMP in six markets related to fixed voice services offered to customers and for voice transit services. Obligations were set to Albtelecom including the imposed reduction of retail and transit tariffs. Following a review of the markets in wholesale and retail tariffs done in 2009, the competitive safeguards LLU and CS/CPS were imposed to Albtelecom which are not yet implemented. AKEP has already launched several markets analysis procedures on most of the wholesale and retail markets such as: Mobile wholesale market for call termination, access and call origination; fixed retail access and call services for wholesale interconnection. In December 2009, AKEP introduced to operators a reference document with the model of BULRAIC cost calculations for mobile services MTR based on which the data have been provided to AKEP by the operators. As the result of these analyses, it is expected that AKEP imposes the Mobile Terminated Rates for national calls while the rates for the international calls will be reviewed. During 2009 AKEP has launched the market analysis and public consultation process for wholesale and retail leased lines markets and finalization of it is expected by mid 2010. As result of public consultation process, is expected to be defined the services, demands, providers, supply structure and markets and then based on these is expected that regulatory designates the SMP operators for which the tariffs for their services will be regulated. During Q1 2010, AKEP has launched a public consultation process on â€Å"The rule for the indexes of service quality† which is expected to be finalized during Q1 2010. The above mentioned actions which regard regulation of competitions can be considered as steps to develop the competitive safeguards environment, however we can mention other steps not yet realized by the regulatory although the process has already started. Such missing measurements are: number portability, carrier selection and pre-selection (CS, CSP) not in practice yet, local loop un-bundling (LLU) not in practice yet, national roaming, MVNO and whole sale line rental. Number portability public consultation is in progress and based on AKEP plans, the service will be available in the market by end 2010 while the process for licensing for wireless broadband spectrum (WiMAX and mobile 3G) are expected to start with public consultations opening by March 2010 and be finalized by mid 2010. According to latest European Commission assessment, there were noted some progress including the alignment of primary legislation, while still some secondary lines laws have to be adopted yet, market liberalization and competition still are at early stage and administrative capacities of the ministry and regulator was not sufficient (Cullen, 2008). Technological In the area of mobile communication technology, GSM 2.75 technology (EDGE) is implemented since 2006 and now three operators offer it to the customers, AMC, Vodafone and Eagle. Regulatory has not yet provided the licensing for the Mobile 3G CDMA and broadband technologies HSPA and HSPA+. There is a delay in this aspect and the licensing for 3G technologies may be provided only now, at the end of lifecycle for 3G technology and at the time that other markets have started trialing and adopting the 4G network technologies (LTE). Video Digital Broadcasting (DVB-H) services are offered by three operators (DIGITALB, TRING and TV SHIJAKU) already to the market through terrestrial or satellite broadcasting. Number of PCs and PC utilization at home is low and estimated to xxx% of the houses while the utilization in companies and government is high. Internet services are provided in the country by more than 36 ISPs and technology for access is mainly fixed broadband xDSL, hybrid fiber coax and dial-up. Wireless broadband spectrum available for WiMAX is not licensed yet by the regulatory while the WiFi networks are frequently used for the Internet access in cafes. Points to multipoint systems such as LMDS are not present in the country. Fiber networks are present only in the main cities such as Tirana and Durres and implemented by some ISP-s for the purposes of internet access or triple play services provided to the end user. Fiber backbone is missing and the mobile operators backbone is mainly build of microwave transmission links based on SDH or PDH technology. Two of mobile operators have taken already some steps on offering the mobile fix substitution services to the customers but not providing the convergence of the mobile and fix telephone number. Content development is weak and mainly is based on external international resources. The main technology factors that will shape the next decade of electronic communications development are the following: Convergence of networks Fixed and mobile network differences will vanish and a common network providing integrated services will serve the customers. Mobile to fix substitution and integration has already started Convergence of network technologies to an all IP networks Traditional telecom networks and internet (ISP) will merge together to a next generation carrier network which is based on all IP technology. Services will clearly separate from transport networks and competition will be focused and oriented on services Convergence of services Convergence of networks and network technology will make possible to design, combine and deliver to the customer services which traditionally have been provided before by different technology, networks and vendors such as triple play services, (video, voice and internet) provided all at one network access point, accessed through same application environment which run in many different types of devices. Unified services access and unified messaging Customers can access through same software environment and through same or different devices and from everywhere (office, home, when traveling) same set of applications and services. Reduction of cost for hardware and increase of software role and power Software will run on standard hardware. Big software players will play a big role while the network HW vendors will become more software oriented. Growth of video content and internet utilization while the voice remains strong Demands for capacities will be huge while the needs for integrating all sets of services at one management and control will increase. Increase of connected number and types of devices Web connected devices will increase. PCs, mobiles, TVs, game devices, etc. There will be a need to standardize the applications to all these set of devices. 6.2 Electronic communications industry analysis We will use the M. Porters â€Å"Five forces model† for analyzing the industry. We selected this model as being already one of the most worldwide known, widely recognized and used model for industry analysis. The analysis done based on that model will be used for business strategy development recommendations. Market overview General data The following graphs show the sector revenue growth and market in 2008 compared to the other countries in the region. Source: (Cullen Report, 2010) Source: (Cullen Report, 2010) Mobile telephony In May 1996, AMC a state owned company by this time launched for the first time in Albania the GSM services becoming one of the first countries in the region to offer such services. Currently there are three companies operating in the mobile services market AMC, Vodafone and Eagle Mobile. The fourth operator is licensed and is expected to launch the services on July 2010. On July 2009, the mobile customers were at 3.52 millions, mobile service penetration was at 110% of the population, and more than 99% of population and 90% of territory is covered by GSM signal. Around 93.8% of customers are prepaid and 6.2% are postpaid. AMC has 43.30% of customer base, Vodafone AL 43.00% and Eagle 13.7 % (Cullen, 2010). Technology used is 2G EDGE while 3G spectrum is expected to be licensed by mid 2010. Main services offered in the market are voice, SMS, MMS, WAP, internet access and GPRS intranets. 43.3% of market share is owed by AMC, 43% by Vodafone and 13.4% by Eagle Mobile. Fixed telephony Albtelecom is the incumbent fixed operator in the market while more than 70 alternative operators operate mainly in the rural zones. Number of fixed telephony users by July 2009 end was 360,000 which represents 11.3% penetration while alternative operators customers are at 49, 690 representing 14% of this number(Cullen, 2010). 99.92 % of the fixed telephony is digitized. In July 2009 the numbers of PSTN lines were at 359,100, ISDN lines at 929, lines given to residential customers were at 338,300 and to business customers at 21,700 (Cullen, 2010). Leased lines and Data services Albtelecom and the three mobile operators are the providers of leased lines services at national and international access. Albtelecom has had the monopoly of such services until few years ago and kept it for international access until 2006. Albtelecom has implemented a few fiber lines connecting some main cities while internationally have access of fiber backbones to Italy and to Greece and other Adriatic see countries through the Adria fiber backbone. The mobile operators have not build yet a backbone to be used for leasing yet but are offering for the moment free capacities of their backbone build for their core business, mobile services. Besides AMC, there are not any clear evidences and data on the leased lines or data services provided by the other two mobile operators (Vodafone and Eagle Mobile). Albtelecom and mobile operators are moving forward their plans for implementation of a national Fiber backbone which will serve future needs for capacities nationally or for international access. AMC has provided data internetworking services to banks and other business or government institutions. More than 200 local networks of xxx customers are internetworked nationally and xxxx connections to international networks are established. COMPLETE STATISTICS Use Cullen report data on lease lines (pages 53-67, here are prices only) Broadband and Internet Services These services are offered for the moment by fixed operators while the mobile broadband services are not yet licensed by regulatory authority. Broadband penetration rate was at 2.51 % on January 2010 and was the lowest one in the region while EU penetration was at 23.9% (Cullen, 2010). About 36 ISPs are operating in Albania mainly providing the services in Tirana area and few in the other western cities. According to Cullen report, by January 2010, the number of broadband connections was 80,000, narrowband connections were at 28,512 and 30% of people are regularly using the Internet (Cullen, 2010). Number of internet users in 2008, including the mobile internet access users, was at 580,000. Main operators are Albtelecom, Abisnet, ABCOM, Alfa cable and ASC (AKEP, 2010). 65% of broadband market is owned by Albtelecom and 35% by the alternative operators. Broadband technology used is ADSL and HFC. The following table shows the internet penetration progress over the years. Source: (Internet world statistics, 2010) Albtelecom offers upstream capacities of internet access to retail customers from 512Kbps to 4Mbps while Abisnet from 1 to 3 Mbps. Albtelecom is the main operator offering to other ISP-s high capacity access to internet international gateway through fiber. Other alternative operators access the international gateways through Albtelecom use other alternative microwave links. The internet backbone access capacity in October 2009 was 5.5GB and was one of the lowest in the region. The threat for substitute product and services AMC offers Data Internetworking and Internet services through ISP in addition to its core business mobile services. International IP transit services are provided through the partnership established with OTEGlobe which is an international data services provider. The type of service is IP transit, (Layer3 Networking) where turnkey IP network is provided through delivering the end routers, installation and configurations of them and IP packet encryption as well. IP capacities provided are dedicated. Availability of services is above 99.9% and quality of network is very good. For such type of data services, substitute services in the market are considered the MPLS VPN-s, satellite data links, internet VPN services, GPRS Intranets and data dial-up. MPLS VPNs are becoming standard services worldwide but not yet present in the local market. This comes mainly due to the reasons of lack of a dedicated data backbone in the country, the lack of development of IP backbones technologies by the operators for the moment and the lack of fiber backbones. Since the data IP backbone is missing for the moment and establishing it will need time and big investments, MPLS VPNs may present a substitution threat after some years. There are not operators offering such products for the moment. Satellite data links are established through satellite terminals installed at the local remote offices locations. Links are aggregated to the satellite nub and then connected to the headquarter network. These links have the advantage of installing anywhere in the country and this represent an advantage considering the terrain but are more convenient to be used as point to point links rather than in a distributed multipoint top