Earthquake Impacts Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Earthquake Impacts - Essay Example Although more times than not earthquakes are tectonic, they can also occur in volcanic regions. Although many people seem to think that the only earthquakes that take place are those which can be felt, that belief is completely false. Instead, large numbers of earthquakes take place daily across the world, but the majority of these can only be felt by seismometers and cannot be felt by the person and cause no structural damage of any sort. The strength and damage caused by an earthquake can vary dramatically, depending on the strength of the earthquake. Smaller earthquakes may go completely unnoticed, while larger earthquakes can cause serious destruction and massive loss of life. In fact, most of the larger earthquakes are then followed by smaller ones - these are otherwise known as foreshocks or aftershocks; foreshocks being smaller earthquakes which precede the larger earthquake, and aftershocks being those which procede it. The first method of recording earthquakes was through of certain scales called intensity scales. The United States, Japan, and Europe each have their own form of scales. However the problem with all of these scales is that they are often a poor measure for the relative size of different events in different places. Seismologists now favor a measure called the seismic movement, which relates to the concept of moment in physics, to measure the size of a seismic source. The 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake - which is commonly referred to as the Kobe earthquake due to the fact that it took place near Kobe, one of Japan's largest and most populated cities - was one of the most devastating earthquakes to ever hit Japan. Although over ten years have passed now since this earthquake hit, it is still considered to be one of the most disastrous ever to hit Japan since the Great Kanto earthquake of 1923, and will not soon be forgotten. In due to this earthquake, more than 5,500 people were killed, with more than 26,000 left injured. The total economic loss was estimated as being approximately $200 billion USD. During this earthquake, it was recorded that the ground moved 7 inches in horizontal shaking, and 4 inches in the vertical direction, and the earthquake itself is actually still active, with 716 aftershocks recorded by 10 AM as of January 18, 1996, 74 of these could be felt by the human body, and 14 of these occurred on the 18th. The epicenter of the earthquake was 20km underneath the island of Awaji, across a strait from Kobe. With a magnitude of 6.9 (Mw) and a duration of roughly 20 seconds, in regards to the structural damage caused by the earthquake, there were: 144,032 buildings destroyed by ground shaking, 7,456 buildings destroyed by fire, 82,091 collapsed buildings, and 86,043 severely damaged buildings. All Kobe ports were shut down to international shipping, there was substantial damage to containing loader piers, and all access to Kobe via highway and railway were blocked. The Kobe earthquake struck early in the morning without any warning, taking the city completely by surprise. It was due to the city of Kobe's high population density and linear layout, that there was such substantial damage and trauma caused; infrastructure networks were made much less redundant because of this, and this was a key factor in the significant structural

Arabic Knowledge Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Arabic Knowledge - Essay Example The knowledge of the Greeks, which was passed down to the Romans, would have been doomed to oblivion. However, due to the Arabs’ study of Greek knowledge and their distance from the effects of Rome’s downfall, many of the Greek studies in the humanities, sciences and mathematics were saved. In the study of humanities, the Arabs were able keep texts of philosophy in reference to renowned Greek philosophers Plato and Aristotle. Arab scholars such as Ibn-Sina or Avicenna and Ibn Rushd or Averroes were able to preserve the philosophical teachings of Aristotle and Plato with their own understanding and interpretation of their philosophical concepts. This led to the development on Neoplatonism and Aristotelianism, which later on was adopted by Christian monk-philosophers like Augustine of Hippo and Thomas of Aquinas. Western philosophy was possible due to the Arab preservation of Greek classical philosophy as the Roman Empire dissolved by the barbarian invasions and

The Effect Of Capitalism On The Society Media Essay

The Effect Of Capitalism On The Society Media Essay The effect of capitalism on the society and culture has been an issue of great discussion since the time it emerged in Europe as a form of economic system in late 18th century. This issue of impact of capitalism on the society is an exception in terms of economic perspectives. In many ways, the cultural impacts outdo all other factors of the system. For the past two hundred or so years, Western civilization has been shaped by the impact of capitalism on the society. The impacts of capitalism on the culture are highly varied and therefore have created room for those who support the idea and also the detractors to challenge its bad effects. It is true that some aspects of society and culture can be seen to be as a result of capitalism. However, defining how and why an issue is said to be as a result of capitalism is quite necessary. Some of the major ideas connected to the study of the impacts of capitalism on the society and culture are beneficial, human, economical and desirable. The capitalist society has its backup on individual consolidation and ownership of the production means where the production of goods is directed by beneficial intention to fulfill human needs (Chapman, 2010). The first effect of capitalism is that of promoting culture of work. Capitalism intends to encourage all people to participate in activities that appear beneficial to them. This is what is perceived by many people as capitalisms most important attribute. Actually, this is a very important factor in the manner in which the system of capitalism has succeeded. A particular level, profit motive and competition that is encouraged the capitalists market system stimulates the system. The motive to act is the main factor in various products that are made by the capitalists societies. In a manner that the capitalist system is functional, however, the reward is not usually proportional the process of contribution. In a number of ways, the capitalism system is a case of winner taking it all hence encouraging stiff competition. In this case, the person at the top is getting a fair share of the reward that was collected everyone. The winner pockets more than what he collects, with the hope getting more than what he has collected propelling the competition forward. It is obvious that could be perfectly fair because any one can become a winner. No one is discouraged or discriminated from participating. In this competition, the case is that an individual who collects a lot is proportionally rewarded with the biggest share. In that perspective, it appears fare. It is apparent however that the amount obtained by the winner is determined by the value collected by everyone el se. The winner takes more than what he contributed as n individual and gets part of what the rest of the participants contributed. In the same way, working hard does not mean that one will win the contest because there are some elements of chance involved (Rosenberg, 1990). Working hard is likely to increase the chance of anyone winning the competition. In the perspective of such a competition does a modern capitalism process enhance progress and create opportunities. It is also by the same fashion that capitalism promotes some form of work ethic, although not exact because it is hard for an individual to know exactly the amount of reward he or she has or the amount held by his competitor. At the end of the day, everyone believes that the amount of reward being given is the same amount they had collected. This makes the first place winner believe that he has collected he has collected all the prize not realizing that any gold has been taken from their contribution. Apart from promoting the culture of work, capitalism can also promote the culture of desire. College textbooks define economics as the study of individual choice in using limited resources to satisfy unlimited wants. The market is limited by the number of thing that people want. This consequently creates a natural trend in the market system for those individuals who sell in the system to work so that they can increase the human need, leading to the development of the extra stronger needs hence expanding the market (Rosenberg, 1990). Whereas marketing is a direct expression of the idea, it actually encompasses the whole culture and reflects individual attitudes, general entertainment, education system, government policy and religious values. The coming up of the culture of desire led as a result of market capitalism has indeed been among the biggest transformation in the American society since its independence. A number of Native Americans believed in strict lifestyles with the Puritans being the most conspicuous example of this. The same Puritans never allowed dancing to take place and put on black attire and practiced cultural self denial. Of course, the Puritans were relatively in small groups particularly during the time of founding of the country. Initially, the average American was comparatively reserve in the early times. It is apparent that America was not a capitalistic nation in the early times because people were self-sufficient. A number of communities and individuals provided for themselves their needs and wants in a direct manner without any regard to the market system. During the early times, America was mainly a family farming nation until the mid nineteenth century (Marable, 2000). Consumer culture and advertising had become significant in the early twentieth century when the American capitalist economy started thriving. Later on consumer culture and advertising increased with the adoption of radio although it was not realistic until mid 20th century with much concern on the use of television and movies. In terms of analysis, it is obvious that a rational need for a particular commodity has been enhanced by the industry itself. However, it is the overall consumerism culture that has a bigger influence. All the social and media practices that improve the desire are generally embraced by the capitalistic culture due to the promotion of the need itself even when it is not directly related to the a certain product, enhances the culture of consumerism and a significant portion of advertising is not related to the promotion of a particular product, but generally about promotion of the culture of desire (Friedrichs, 2009). Emotional needs motivate animals to participate in acts needed for survival and procreation in the natural world. Human needs have developed for millions of years in an environment with fewer resources with strong motivations required to provide action in the face of risk. With the upcoming of human civilization, people have managed to alter the environment make resources that were hard to obtain in the ordinary world much easier to get. This has been taking place very fast over the last ten thousand years or so, with the capacity of people to obtain these resources faster has continued to increase with time. The same stimulating factor is present in the mans brain today as it was millions of years ago when the hominids were working hard to survive (Marable, 2000). This is for instance the reason why people nowadays have a strong affiliation to fatty food. Fats are historically scarce resources for people to get and are extremely high in terms of energy provision. The need for fats made people to look for resources that were very beneficial to their survival in a natural perspective and to choose the resources against alternatives when there was a decision to be undertaken (Friedrichs, 2009). It is very important to remind ourselves that economics is the study of individual choice in connection to limited resources. Fatty foods in America today are not scarce resources. In terms of making a decision, people are mainly forced by their needs to choose fatty foods over others even if the choice for such is not rational. Such acts have resulted in the capitalistic market economy concentrating on marketing and production of fatty foods which they can sell easily to people because of the instinctive desire they have. The culture resulting from marketing feeds on these works and needs to make them more (Pells, 1998). Traditionally, many religions have come up because of the effort to limit the overloading of the normal needs for selfish gains. The setting free and deepening of human passion and the need creates the desire, and that the same demand moves the goods off shelf to satisfy those needs, hence making profit for the sellers. Commercialization of sexuality, because sex is a basic human need, is the initial result of capitalistic market structure. There is a direct marketing of sexuality. However, sexual cues are also highly linked to non-sexual goods in capitalistic economies. By relating sexual signals with goods like cars for instance, the biological need is stimulated. People tend to believe that some products can be achieved by behaving in certain manner. Perhaps the marketing of sexuality to teenagers is the most controversial good of the capitalistic system. Since sex is among the highly primal and strongest forms of need, sexuality is one of the very effective tools hence highly sexually active culture is very open general consumerism. Therefore, capitalism encourages a highly sexually charged society (Pells. 1998). During the puberty stage, people are highly influenced by the marketing of sexual nature. This form of marketing aims at influencing the preteens and teenagers with very sexual media. This is not just in the perspectives of adverts, but all forms of media including stories, books and music. People are highly influenced by things they see and would want to imitate them and see the consequences of the same things when applied in real life situation. Without capitalism, the society would have experienced a different form of life that is full of limitation. Capitalism has enabled people to choose independently what they want for themselves without considering the moral perspectives related to such systems of lifestyles.

The Crusade for Equal Rights in the United States Essay -- American Hi

The struggle for equal rights has been an ongoing issue in the United States. For most of the twentieth century Americans worked toward equality. Through demonstrations, protests, riots, and parades citizens have made demands and voiced their concerns for equal rights. For the first time minority groups were banding together to achieve the American dream of liberty and justice for all. Whether it was equality for women, politics, minorities, or the economy the battle was usually well worth the outcome. I have chosen articles that discuss some of the struggles, voyages, and triumphs that have occurred. The people discussed in the following articles represent only a portion of those who suffered. The first speech that I chose was written by Martin Luther King Jr. in December 1955. The speech was given in Montgomery, Alabama and spoke to African-Americans who gathered in protest after the arrest of Rosa Parks. She refused to give up her seat to a white passenger on a city bus and was subsequently arrested. The African-American community decided to protest the decision and a mass rally ensued. According to Foner, â€Å"Martin Luther King Jr. invoked Christian and American ideals of justice and democracy in his speeches.† (901) King used these themes to address the protestors and spoke of Rosa Parks’ character, morals, and integrity. Martin Luther King Jr. was a national symbol of the civil rights struggle and advocated for the African-American community by protesting in a non-violent manner. The demonstrations and protests that were led by King evoked the lack of freedom, justice, and equality that African-Americans endured. Even with all of the injustices that occurred, African-Americans were proud to be American and use... ...rations. Segregation, which was once considered the norm, is now a thing of the past because of such demonstrations. Women were considered inferior to men and were forced to stay at home in the traditional role of housewife until the 1960s. The fact that women united together for equality allowed them to become active in politics, professional roles, and have control over their own bodies. Protestors in the 90s brought attention to inequality on a different level. The environment and economic inequality were now pressing issues. Demonstrations brought public attention to environmental, global, and economic issues. Without unity from these groups the United States would be a completely different country. It is with great admiration that I discuss the events and struggles that these people endured, for I don’t know if I would have the courage to do the same.

In What Way Can China’s ‘Socialist Market Economy’ Be Regarded as Successful and to What Extent Is It Not Achieving Its Promise?

Question 2: In what way can China’s ‘socialist market economy’ be regarded as successful and to what extent is it not achieving its promise? China is much more than just a mere country. It has been through many ups and downs and exciting changes in the Chinese society, from changes of dynasties to establishing a name under the ‘7 wonders of the world’ with its creation of the ‘Great Wall of China’. Its heritage and history for the past thousands of years have made China of what it is today. Hence, with Deng Xiaoping’s widely quoted phrases: â€Å"crossing the river by grouping for stones†, â€Å"Getting rich is glorious†, and â€Å"seek truth from facts, and not from ideology†, how has China develop and grown over the years? How did China attain its current economic prosperity? How did China seek the truth of its economy transition from a planned economy to a market economy over the decades? â€Å"In a planned economy, government controls and determine business ownership, profits, and resource allocation. The theory behind a planned economy is ‘communism’, which suggests that all property is shared equally by the people in a community under the direction of a strong central government. It is an economic system that involves public ownership of businesses. Rather than entrepreneurs, the government decides what products consumers will be offered and in what quantities. As the main planner, the government establishes trade polices that historically have been very restrictive in allowing foreign companies the opportunity to compete† (Stralser, 2004). China was a planned economy under Mao Zedong’s leadership as he thoughts was mainly equality, where he established nationalization of China’s economy through the control of markets by keeping it free from foreign dominations, price, and production as well as natural and human resources. He also introduced the promotion of egalitarianism and collectivism with little incentives, while individuals’ needs are not being realized. As a result, economic development in China was stagnant and there was not much of an economic progress. In the late 1930s, Oscar Lange started the idea of â€Å"Market Socialism,† an economy in which assets or methods of productions, were owned socially by the communist party or State, but which imitated the supply-demand price adjustment of the competitive market economy. Conversely, Lerner and Lange debated on the issue that the key element that is common to ‘market socialism’ is socialist (i. e. party) ownership and (managerial) control of assets. The key difference is that market-based allocation of goods and services versus centrally planned allocation of goods and services. In China, the ‘market’ element has expanded gradually since the start of the agricultural reforms in 1979 and the introduction of Urban reforms in 1984. In 1992, China publicly stated that its goal is a â€Å"socialist market economy with Chinese Characteristics. † Though China has successfully expanded the scope of the market, â€Å"socialist† (communist) control of factors remains very important. An understanding of these elements is vital to an understanding of the economic performance of China. Thus, China’s transition from a planned economy to a ‘Socialist Market Economy’ started in 1978, after the death of Mao Zedong in 1976, when Deng Xiaoping recognized the need to reform its economy and political structure, as China was experiencing economic and developmental problems under Mao’s leadership. Deng Xiaoping’s thoughts were different from Mao Zedong’s, as Deng Xiaoping believed in prosperity and efficiency for China’s economy. His aim was to raise living standards and introduced the ‘Four Modernisations’; namely the Industry, Agriculture, Science and Technology and Defence, by developing ‘a market economy with Chinese Characteristics’. Moreover, he establishes a contract responsibility system in agricultural areas and revives individual businesses in urban areas to understand and satisfy individuals’ needs. Furthermore, he decentralized a substantial amount of authority in state enterprises and reform the irrational price system due to the high demand and selling in the market. The call for such a change is for the reason that China was under a very centralized planned economy system that has high speed and excessive accumulation of national income at the expense of consumption, but produces a low result and consumptions due to poor planning and economic mismanagement. It led to the excessive emphasis on grain production and the low productivity of commune systems. On the other hand, China sees the need to be modernized and strong, thus establishing what Deng Xiaoping introduces, the ‘Four Modernisations’. In particular, the Industry sector, where overemphasis is placed on heavy industry while the light industry and services are being ignored. In addition to that, the Defence sector has placed too much emphasis on their national defence and lacked efficiency. Too much attention is placed on self-reliance (Riskin, 1987; Hsu,1991). Not forgetting the acknowledgement of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) mistakes in the Cultural Revolution, whereby permanent revolution, class struggle, mass movement and political unrest exist and the rejection of key theories of Maoism that has seriously damaged the Chinese economy (Wei, 2000). From the period when China was under Deng Xiaoping’s leadership till the end of 1998, China’s economic reform has gone through a transition from a planned economy to a market economy. And at present, China portray itself as a â€Å"Socialist Market Economy† or where it is called â€Å"Socialism with Chinese Characteristics†, which means that â€Å"using market forces to improve the efficiency of production while retaining a managed, predominantly state-owned economy and authoritarian control over political activity† (Dorn, 1998). Deng Xiaoping introduced both the economic and political reform program to achieve four major objectives, namely, instituting contract responsibility in agricultural areas such as the labour responsibility system that determines where a person can work legally and where it cannot; reviving individual businesses in urban areas; decentralizing a substantial amount of authority in state enterprises where the banking system has evolved little from a government department where loans are decided on the basis of provincial or national objectives and ability to repay is irrelevant to the variable cost of the capital. And lastly, reforming the pricing system, which simply means that the market rather than the government itself determines the pricing system. Cities or Provinces can and do price land to any buyer at any price. Infrastructure pricing and supply, mainly to foreign invested enterprises, is likewise determined on the basis of national or provincial or city objectives and can vary within the various enterprise. This is also applicable to the limit for some of the output of the State Owned Enterprises (SOEs) that remain subjected to the central department, who are their bosses for orders and directions. As for the economic reform, Deng Xiaoping came up with three propositions that are private ownership has useful place in a socialist economy; market forces should be allowed to influence the allocation of goods and the determination of prices and material incentives should be the principal mechanism for stimulating greater productivity and efficiency, for example, having rewards to set the moods up for the workers so that they would work hard to achieve their rewards and hence, increases productivity and efficiency. According to Virmani 2005, he mentioned that â€Å"in moving from the ‘Socialist’ to the ‘Socialist Market’ Economy, China has borrowed aspects from the â€Å"Nationalist Market Economies† of developing Japan, S. Korea and Singapore. The main purpose of China’s government was to be able to economically draw closer to the advanced countries through fast growth of average income. Consequently, China developed a national consensus to maximize GDP growth. The whole nation was called together to achieve this aim. The simplicity of this purpose of growth, investment and production made China much easier to decentralize its economy structure and ensure accountability at every level including that of the private corporate sector†. Now we move on to the political reform, Deng Xiaoping wanted China to seek a sharper and decisive break from Maoism and the Soviet model; de-maoisation by abolishing class struggle and permanent proletarian revolution; to reduce the role of ideology in political and intellectual life and also reduce Party’s role in making technical and administrative decisions. Therefore, separate the Party’s ideology and administrative competence area and also not forgetting the technical and political areas. Today, China’s ‘Socialist Market Economy’ can be regarded as successful due to the â€Å"high rates of growth China has sustained for the last quarter or a century, with GDP averaging 9% per annum. China’s trade activity, including both imports and exports, has grown an average of 15% a year since 1979† (Eswar, 2004). Its achievements were from political and economic decentralization that consist of the introduction of entrepreneurial autonomy to the Chinese economy, and to the new booming of rural industries, so as to offer higher employment opportunities, income and prosperity to the local communities. With reference to the World Bank research done on fighting poverty, the overall living standards for the vast majority of the Chinese population improved as 400 million people were lifted out of poverty, while business dynamism spread across China's urban and rural areas. As a result, its transition to a market economy system gives individuals a higher share of their earnings, increasing their per capital wealth. Furthermore, Virmani also mentioned, one of China’s most significant market innovations to its socialist economy was the product market (2005). It started with agriculture output markets in 1979 where initially agriculture markets were partially liberalised in a manner similar to that used in India for sugar and other markets in the sixties. This was a ‘Dual pricing and distribution’ system in which part of the produce continued to be handed over to the government at a controlled price, while the rest could be sold freely at the market price. Many of the rules circumscribing small-scale service activities were also abolished or ignored, resulting in a boom in collectively and individually owned restaurants and shops. Labour contracting services also developed in the interior provinces to supply construction workers to urban areas. Dual pricing in industrial goods was introduced by China in 1985-86, with prices on the market channel allowed to fluctuate according to market conditions. At this point, more than half of all industrial goods were still distributed at administered prices. Product liberalisation was gradually extended to the entire manufacturing sector. It has also been selectively extended to the real estate sector and retail trade. One of the recent evidence on China’s success is seen during the Beijing Olympics that showed to the outside world its successfulness, spectacular and advancement, prosperous and modernity is like any other west countries. But there is also the more genuine and in fact improved aspect of China that raised itself up, so to speak, in the earthquake that occurred in May in Sichuan, â€Å"with heroic rescue efforts by government at all levels, the army, and people from all walks of life throughout the country. The resilience and resourcefulness of the Chinese people are the real source of optimism. With a socialist ideal and politically conscious forces to pursue it, true reform is well within China's capacity† (Lin, 2009). However, like any other communist or socialist country, to a certain extent China is not achieving its promise because in China, the single party rule is none other than the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). To paraphrase Perkins (1994), ‘All political power in China is monopolised by the Chinese Communist party, a party that is organised along Leninist lines. Power is centralised at the top and not easily challenged from below. ’ The party is a hierarchy stretching from the party general secretary at the top to the party honcho in the smallest settlement/village. The objectives, broad approach to achievement of these objectives and the parameters within which lower levels can take initiatives, is decided at the top. national to provincial level, and the Metro cities and Town & Village level. Also, with reference to Virmani 2005, in China, all land is owned and controlled by the State, however, due to the historical heritage of cooperative ownership of farmland, the controlling system is slightly different in the rural areas. In many provinces, farming households supposedly have an ownership share in village and farmland, but lose this right if they move to the urban areas to work. Similar to every other Communist country, in this case, China, the Party controlled the labour unions and therefore the terms and conditions of work. Therefore, the overall policy approach to terms & conditions of employment, work hours and wages is decided by the CCP (at an appropriate geographical level or level of government). If the CCP decides to apply different work and pay rules in a particular province, sector, industry or type of enterprise (e. g. foreign invested) from those applied to general domestic enterprises, neither the (so called) labour unions nor the employees can do anything to change it. China’s labour market is also controlled through the Hukou system that determines where a person is entitled to live and work and receive State provided social benefits. Hukou is a resident permit given by the government. It is issued on family basis where every family have a Hukou booklet that records information about the family members, name, birth date, relationship with each other, marriage status, address and your employer. In other words, its legal residence in an area entitles one to access public schooling and healthcare, housing and job opportunities and/or land for farming. Legal change of residence is possible if either a person succeeds in getting a place at a senior middle school and then at a city college by clearing competitive exams for the same, or if the state allows it, say allowing firms in a city to hire permanent workers from nearby rural areas. The Chinese government used the family register system in order to control the movement of people between urban and rural areas. Thus, with Hukou System, it limits mass migration from the land to the cities to ensure some structural stability. Also, it was an instrument of the command economy. Hence, if people move without formal CCP permission, they are in effect illegal migrants with no rights. Chinese government’s restrictions on rural-urban mobility primarily operate through the Hukou system. A worker may live legally in an urban area, without acquiring an urban hukou as a permanent resident on a long-term permit or as a contract worker. Permits for legal residence are neither easy nor cheap to come by, and illegal migration has been increasing throughout the reform period. When the special economic zones were first opened, all labour contracts were with a Chinese labour bureau that is effectively controlled by the CCP’s ‘terms and conditions’ of employment. 100% of capital assets were owned and controlled by the State, that is the CCP. The management of these assets is distributed to different levels of government, which in turn is controlled by different levels of the party. Some are controlled at the National level through the departments of the central government and their CCP bosses. Others are managed or controlled at the provincial, City and Village level. As a result, China’s political system is interlocked and intertwined with the majority of administrative heads being Party members, who still is in today’s China, controls everything. For example, China’s listing could also be solely on the Hong Kong stock exchange or even a foreign exchange. This does not convert them into private enterprises as management control remains with the same CCP boss or his nominee or appointee who represents them. In conclusion, China is trying to establish an entirely diverse conceptual economic system that is neither a traditional socialistic economic system nor a capitalistic economic system. Furthermore, it is not apparent that â€Å"Socialist Market Economy† can be said to be socialism or capitalism. In fact, Deng Xiaoping made it clear that capitalism and socialism are both non-conflicting ideas, as both of them are tools for managing China’s economy. For this reason, China would like to be at the so-called ‘middle mark’ where it is not at the extremes of the both sides but rather in the centre, with a system that makes use of the virtues of both capitalism and socialism. The changes that were brought about by the success of the transition to a ‘Socialist Market Economy’ are that its agriculture system moved from People’s Commune system to the family based ‘responsibility system’ and land has become a commodity. Market prices were from a price fixing system to a dual-price system, where the market determines 80% and the government determines the remaining 20%, so as to strengthen and institutionalized the price system in the market. The banking sector changed its allocation of funds according to the policy to dual system partially making decisions on its allocation. The marketing of goods and services have changed from central planning to allocation to the market’s allocation of goods and services. China’s relation with other countries improved from economic isolationism to a desire to be active in the worlds economy via foreign investments and allowing labour into export production and export to sustain domestic growth. As a result, the national economy showed a fast and constant growth, the overall strength of China expanded evidently, the standard of living of the people improved together with time and distinctive esults have been attained in such activities as science and technology, education, culture, health and physical culture have advanced. The people of China are happier now with such changes in their life. And not forgetting that China’s political system is still governed by the Party, Chinese Communist Party (CCP), that makes China still a capitalist country that controls and determines everything and not achievi ng its promise. References Dorn, James A. ed. 1998. China in the New Millennium: Market Reforms and Social Development. Washington D. C. Cato Institute. Hsu, Robert C. 1991. Economic Theories in China, 1979-1988. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press. Lange, Oscar. 1971. On The Economic Theory of Socialism. New York. : Comparative Economic Systems. Lerner, Abba, P. Economic Theory and Socialist Economy: Review of Economic Studies 1934. Lin, Chu. 2009. The Socialist Market Economy: Step Forward or Backward for China?. Science & Society, Vol. 73, No. 2, April 2009, 228-235. Perkins, Dwight. 1994. Completing China’s Move to Market. Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. , No. 2, Spring 1994, pp 23-46. Prasad, Eswar. ed. 2004. China’s Growth and Integration into the World Economy: Prospects and Challenges. International Monetary Fund, Occasional Paper N 232, Washington DC. http://www. imf. org/external/pubs/ft/op/232/op232. pdf (accessed 04/05/09). Riskin, Carl. 1987. China's political economy: the quest for development since 1949. New York: Oxford University Press, Incorporated. Stralser, Steven. 2004. MBA In A Day: What You Would Learn At Top-Tie. New Jersey. : Wiley & Sons, Inc. Suliman, Osman. ed. 1998. China’s Transition to a Socialist Market Economy. Westport, CT. : Quorum Books. The World Bank, â€Å"Fighting Poverty: Findings and Lessons from China’s Success,† The World Bank Research, http://econ. worldbank. org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTRESEARCH/0,,c ntentMDK:20634060~pagePK:64165401~piPK:64165026~theSitePK:469382,00 html (accessed 04/05/09). Virmani, Arvind. 2005. China’s Socialist Market Economy: Lessons of Success. Working Paper No. 178. December 2005. Wei, Yehua Denni. 2000. Regional Development in China: States, Globalization, and Inequality. London. : Routledge.

Literature Review on Customer Relationship Essay

The hospitality industry is a broad category of fields within the service industry that includes lodging, restaurants, event planning, theme parks, transportation, cruise line, and additional fields within the tourism industry. The hospitality industry is a several billion dollar industry that mostly depends on the availability of leisure time and disposable income. â€Å"CRM†, or Customer Relationship Management, is one of the most important topics in the business world. Its attributes and consequences cannot be disaffirmed. Without proper customer relationship management, there is no way you can build interest and acquire and retain customers to the business, in order to be profitable. CRM features an embryonic reputation and it is getting among the most popular educational as well as useful subjects in the industrial area. Due to the competing atmosphere, it has turn into a niche with regard to a company’s overall performance. Still there is certainly restricted investigation which shows the relationship between CRM and hotels’ overall performance. Consequently this particular research is a try to give a worth conceptual model which describes the actual speculative linkages between CRM and hotel’s performance. This particular research just not explains the connection among CRM and hotel performance, but in addition describes the actual mediation part of promoting/marketing abilities in the relationship. â€Å"CRM is never done, it is an ongoing effort.† The essence of a customer-focused environment is a preliminary indication of how the hotel industry can truly benefit from a strategic and focused approach to CRM. Hotel companies have in evidence had recourse to elements of CRM for a variety of strategic and tactical reasons. It is argued that the success of a strategy depends not only on the ability of a company to identify and understand what its target customers genuinely need and want, but also on the company’s ability to deliver enhanced value in terms of these specific needs and wants (Diana Luck and Geoff Lancaster ,2013). In order to remain competitive, hospitality and tourism companies must adopt the knowledge management approach (Ruhanen & Cooper, 2004). As customers become more experienced at finding the best deals for hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, and tourist destinations, the hospitality and tourism organizations face increasingly intense worldwide competition. Considering  the severe competition and the nature of the industry, employees and managers have to acquire more knowledge, in order to consistently provide the best deals and service to customers. What is more, customers’ preferences can be various and changeable, requiring employees and managers to understand the changes and continue to provide the best experience (Hallin & Marnburg, 2008). However, the question often posed is: What kind of knowledge should be obtained in order to gain competitive advantage (Ruhanen & Cooper, 2004). One of the basic and most common sources of failure for CRM implementations is a missing customer strategy â€Å"as the creation of a unique and valuable position involving a different set of activities†. A robust customer strategy is based on customer segmentation is one of the first steps necessary when implementing a sound CRM solution (Gillies et al.2002). Human beings have had the urge to select and choose what to them can satisfy their desires since creation and will continue to have this desire because of their changing nature. This tendency makes them explore what to them is the best in terms of quality when purchasing, especially in the area of service consumption. This is supported by Palmer’s assertion that: â€Å"customers have always been concerned about quality and that the proliferation of competitive market for a lot of services has also made customers become more selective in the services they choose†. This attitude means that service providers must be innovative in their service provision and delivery. The Hotel Industry is also experiencing increased globalization, competition, higher customer turnover, growing customer acquisition costs and rising customer expectations, meaning that hotels’ performance and competitiveness is significantly dependent on their ability to satisfy customers efficiently and effectively. To enhance profitability and guest loyalty, hotels must nowadays focus on implementing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategies/techniques that aim to seek, gather and store the right information, validate and share it throughout the entire organization and then use it throughout all organizational levels for creating personalized and unique guests’ experiences (Nana Yaw Asabere and Vida Doku, IJAIEM, Volume 2, Issue 3, March 2013). To retain customers, the relationship with customers has to be managed in a long-term and trusting manner for mutual benefits. Thus, the adoption of CRM should enhance the hotels’ performance through increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty, declining customer acquisition costs and increasing profitability by customers who are willing to pay a premium for better services (Piccoli et al., 2003). Although CRM is imperative for organizational survival, its implementation has resulted in mixed outcomes (King and Burgess, 2008), which is customer oriented believing that customer loyalty increases organization’s profitability. Therefore, Performance is improved since CRM involves the ongoing process development of market intelligence for building and maintaining a profit-maximizing portfolio of customer relationship (see Zablah et al., 2004). Thus, the hotels are expected to use strategy that focused on customers in order to sustain their competitive advantage. For these hotels, the use of the financial measures is not only short-term oriented but also inadequate to capture the customer perspective of performance (Kaplan and Norton, 1996). Customer-related performance measures are therefore needed to quantify customer relationships (Shoemaker and Lewis, 1999) and to differentiate customers who are worthy of the CRM efforts (Noone et al., 2003). All participating hotels have practices in place to manage customer relationships. The most commonly cited goal for CRM is guest retention. Evaluation and control are perceived as very important activities not only to create value for the customers, but also to track the performance of the guest contact departments and the customers’ evaluations of the hotel/restaurant experiences (Ada S. Lo, Hong Kong, 2010). Freeland (2002) suggests that organization must address four critical strategies and understand the key interplay with them: * Identifying the customer * Selecting the most appropriate channel to reach the customer * Receiving the effects on the brands value * Determining the most appropriate CRM capabilities (Wolfgang Emperger, 2004) The use of a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application to create a business strategy is an excellent way to increase customer loyalty and customer retention. By personalizing a customer’s stay, a hotel can ensure that customers will come back again and again simply by remembering their favorite beverage, pillow or other preferred amenity (Nick Nikolis, Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/2066799).