Research Topics

Self-review versus review center; A Perceptual Analysis

Self-review versus review center; A Perceptual Analysis   There is no right or wrong in choosing to follow a self-review or going to a review center.  The choice is entirely personal and depends on what you think will be effective to help you study.  Finances is also another consideration which factors into the decision between self-review or a review center.  Examining the pros and cons of each would be a good way to decide if either or is suitable to your needs.  The ultimate decision is yours. Review centers cost money.  This depends on the type of review center and where it is located.  Generally review centers in the city cost more than those in suburban locations.   If one decides to attend a review center outside of their place of residence, then they would need to tack on the cost of dormitories or boarding houses, transportation, food, and other living expenses on top of the cost for the basic review fees.  Another consideration about joining a review center is convenience and practicality.  If the review center is located far away, you could be away from your family for more than 6 months.  Hence emotional anxiety may affect your studying.  Choosing a review center closer to home will reduce the worries and stress of finances and emotions. Review centers also work on a set schedule.  This can be awkward for fixing schedules as the times for the review centers are usually not flexible.  There are also rules which students are expected to abide by at these centers.  Oftentimes it may feel a wee bit too structured.  The school setting may also feel strange during vacation months.   Quality instruction and good guidance are two bonuses to be had at review centers.  The review leaders are knowledgeable about the type of tests that will be administered and thereby pattern the reviews to learn the skills so their students will excel at the exams.  Some of the skills which will be honed at the review centers include problem-solving techniques, critical thinking skills, and answering strategies.   Some centers may even be able to customize the program according to the students needs. Self-study is more cost-effective.  You will not have any expenses for fees, transportation and other costs which you will encounter if you decide to attend a review center.  You have the luxury of studying at your own time and at your pace.  There is no pressure to choose a review center.  And you will not have any emotional anxieties to further worry you which may detract from your attention on studying. However, self-study demands discipline.  You have to have discipline to manage your time to allot to studying.  Confidence is also necessary.  You need confidence to admit if you need more help or if you think you have studied sufficiently.  Resourcefulness is also imperative.  You need to be able to manage finding other sources if you need to supplement your study material. Each and every one of us has our own style of studying.  However there are guidelines suggested for self-study.  The following is from Howard Richman’s 11free study tips (http://www.soundfeelings.com/free/studying.htm, retrieved 30 April, 2011.): “1 Study in Short, Frequent Sessions. It has been proven that short bursts of concentration repeated frequently are much more effective than one long session. So, even if you only have 10 minutes, DO IT. Take a break. Then study another 10 minutes. This “distributed learning” approach is highly efficient because it honors the way the brain likes to work. The brain needs recovery and recharging time for “protein synthesis.” The rest periods are when your brain assimilates your effort. They are a powerful tool which many teachers do not acknowledge. To sit and study for hours and hours is not only boring; it creates fatigue, stress, and distraction. You cannot learn if you are fatigued, stressed, and distracted! 2 Take Guilt-Free Days of Rest. This follows the same principle as above, but on a longer, daily time cycle. The reason for resting is to refresh oneself. However, if you feel guilty (“I really should be studying”) then your precious rest period has been used to create more stress. The brain will not absorb new data if it is stressed. On days off from studying, really enjoy yourself and do not feel bad about not studying. 3 Honor Your Emotional State. Do not study if you are tired, angry, distracted, or in a hurry. When the brain is relaxed, it is like a sponge and it naturally absorbs data without effort. If you are emotionally stressed, your brain literally repels data. Forcing yourself to sit and study when your mind is on other things is a complete waste of time! 4 Review the Same Day. When you learn something new, try to go over the points the same day. If you wait a few days and then make efforts to review the material, it will seem much less familiar. However, a quick review later in the day will tend to cement the information into your brain so that the next “official” study session; you will recognize it and it will seem easy. 5 Observe the Natural Learning Sequence. Think of the activities you did when you were in nursery school. Using your whole arm, you probably performed the song that goes: “Put your right hand in, Put your right hand out.” Then, in kindergarten, using your hand, you might have been asked to draw lines or circles with crayons. Later, in first grade, now holding the pencil with your fingers, you drew smaller lines and circles to create letters. Believe it or not, this natural learning sequence, moving from large to small, coarse to fine, still remains effective even though we are now older. When you study, if you try first to grasp the big picture and then fill in the details, you often have a more likely chance of success. 6 Use Exaggeration. Why does a baseball batter warm up by swinging two or three bats? Why do runners sometimes strap lead weights to their legs? In both cases, exaggeration during practice makes the final result seem easy. This concept can be applied to studying anything. For example, if you are studying spelling, exaggerate the sound of the letters to help to remember them. So for studying purposes, “naive” would be pronounced “NAY -IVY.” By getting used to this exaggerated pronunciation, the correct spelling seems obvious. 7 Prepare Your Study Environment. If you require certain elements in your environment to help you study, try to always make these a priority. For example, do you need special lighting, silence, music, privacy, available snacks, etc.? Pay attention to what works for you and repeat it each time you study for best success. 8 Respect “Brain Fade.” It is normal for the brain to have an attrition rate and to forget things. This does not mean that you are stupid! Instead of getting mad about this fact, you should expect it and deal with it accordingly. See your brain as depositing layers of knowledge. As you place more information on top, the lower levels become older and less available to your immediate recall. The trick here is simply to review. Since we can anticipate the eventual fading of our memory, creating a review aspect to our study session will solve the problem. Once every two or three study sessions, simply review older material that you will still need to remember. Often, a quick overview is sufficient. Sometimes, a complete detailed study session of the older material is required. “Brain fade” is completely normal. (Unless you are gifted with a photographic memory, which is extremely rare.) 9 Create a Study Routine. Generally, if you schedule certain times of the day to study, you will get into a routine and accomplish more. If you just “fit it in” during your day, chances are that there will never be any time. An effective way to do this is to literally mark it down in your datebook calendar as if you have an appointment, like going to the doctor. For example: “Tuesday 3-4:30 P.M. — Study.” 10 Set Reasonable Goals. One of the main reasons people do not reach their goals is because they set them too high. If you set goals that are manageable, even if they seem too simple, you get in the habit of accomplishing them and gradually you can set higher goals. Also, recognize the difference between long-term and short-term goals. Set your vision on the long-term dream, but your day-to-day activity should be focused exclusively on the short-term, enabling steps. 11 Avoid the Frustration Enemy. Ironically, the quicker the person’s nervous system, the faster they learn. Yet, this fast nervous system also works overtime in being self-critical. So they are the ones who always think they aren’t going fast enough! In contrast, the “Type B,” less intense person who learns slower yet is more self-accepting, ends up ultimately learning the material in a shorter period of time. This is because he/she doesn’t waste energy blocking, getting upset, and thinking that they’re not good enough — they simply keep moving forward at a slower (but un-blocked) pace.” Self-study, review center, a combination of both perhaps- this is your decision as the student to make.  No one can make the decision for you on what will be effective to your review sessions.    Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Self-review versus review center; A Perceptual Analysis

Self-review versus review center; A Perceptual Analysis There is no right or wrong in choosing to follow a self-review or g...

The Emotional Usability

The Effective Interactivity on the Emotional Usability of Visual Medium Focusing upon Viewer to Immerse and Interact by Putting Interactive Storytelling     This thesis refers to the proposal to find a new design pattern or interpretation in inter-active communication, usability and information architecture on the basis of storytelling structure and interface.  This paper will tackle the relevance of the topic and will present the relevant literatures related, methodology, research questions, feasibility and time-scale, and the researcher’s own expertise on the topic.   Research Questions             The researcher proposes that there is a need to explore improved ways of communication among media devices.  As a result, the researcher aims to examine characteristics of story telling and interfaces and what can they do to enhance interactivity that are not yet fully tapped by the media industry.  Specifically, the researcher will try to answer the following queries: <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> What are the complementarities between letter and visual image?</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> What are the characteristics of hypertext and Hypermedia?</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> What are the factors that affect the effectiveness of multimedia interface?</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> What are the factors that affect the immersion to multimedia by a user and what are the roles of visual and storytelling to this?</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> What are types of storytelling and what are the factors that make them effective?</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> Finally, from the answers to the above questions, what could be said are the features of an effective interface design?</li>   Relevance of the Research             The research will be useful to improve the quality of visual media that it transforms an audience from a passive to an immersed one.  Thus, messages intended to be decoded by the media are accomplished and communication problems of conveying the meaning of visual messages will be minimized.  With this, media practitioners will be the primary benefactors in their search to align their services, mostly in advertising and profit-centered, to a huge national audience.  Non-profit media practitioners, on the other hand, can also benefit the research to create a framework from which their public service, religious and other objectives could be easily understood by the population.             Audience of visual media can select from internet, television, mobile among others the most user-friendly so that their efforts to look for information can be done efficiently.  This study will enlighten them on factors that can affect their reception of visual information for better decision-making.  Lastly, the government, being the guardian for the greater good of the public, will extract principles about visual media that can guide them in making laws to restrict contents or promote them based on their meanings.  Without the knowledge that will be presented in this paper, stakeholders will not have the tools towards the achievement of effective and efficient visual media.   Relevant Literatures               The limitation of the print media as a visual medium gave rise to a situation in United States that adversely affect its educational sector.  According to one of the most respected educational researcher, reports about America’s public schools are based on inaccurate and misunderstood facts.  In this case, how could the media report correctly if itself cannot select the accurate data and deliver it in precise manner.  Thus, there would be a chain effect of wrong rumors.  This was the exact case of the educational system of the country specifically the performance of math and science elementary students.  In reality, the top 10% of American students scored almost the same grade in math against the average student in Singapore. With the intent to become the global leader, United States’ educational system could hinder its potential due to seemingly declining human capital.  Although President Clinton had formulated actions to curb the trend, this scenario could have been prevented if only authorities have figured out early the misleading media reports about its educational system.             Context and text should be working together to     attain, at least, partial understanding between a sender and receiver especially on on-line communications like chartrooms.  The so called e-lore or partial jokes created in memory of 9/11 bombing is less personal in delivery unlike Princess Diana.  Commentators and jokers resorted to the internet to convey their sympathy and humor due to the abruptness of the tragedy.  However, limiting to the borders of the cyberspace provided a more distant discrepancy on meanings of the conversing sender and receiver. The sender has its implicit messages hidden between the words of text messages which the receiver fully or partially failed to take into consideration.  A more disrupting fact is that even visual and auditory cues are not reliable to help the assessment of the message in the same way the sender wanted the receiver to think.  E-lore of 9/11 was an example of folklore where context was not visible in the scene.  To be able to prevent too much misconceptions on the jokes, chatters would try to belong themselves to a community of chatters that share the same context.  Perhaps, they had the same education or were emotionally attached to the situation, like family of the victims and designers of World Trade Towers.              The impact of pornography in visual media is one of the most intriguing but widely consumed.  As one feminist authors said, “staple to visual image is the sexualized female body.”  Many argued that even in commercial use, women posing their jeans, lips with lipstick and jewelries, already signifies the entire body of women.  This somehow leads to soft-core pornography which most discriminatory men would avail to peak to show superiority over the model’s body parts forming partial excitement.  As a result, this lays the condition that leads to hard core and violent pornography.  To make women puppets of man’s desire, pornography industry formulated several examples of this like “the “urination pornography” in which men urinate on women; “defecation pornography” in which men defecate on women; “torture pornography” in which women are burned, raped, and penetrated with bottles, animals, and vacuum cleaners; and “bondage pornography,” in which men learn how to tie a range of knots that can be used to restrain women or hang them from devices nailed into the ceiling.”  Although concluded to dives a mechanism where violence could be produced, pornography is ironically gaining prominence especially with the introduction of the internet.         Methodology             This study is aimed to identify the factors that affect storytelling and interface performance for an effective visual media communication.  The presentation is largely qualitative in nature with a inclusion of some numerical information.  Books, digital reference and other academic materials are used to come up with the study.  Gathered information will be filtered and analyze to arrive at a conclusion and ultimately to design an experimental interface design.  Findings will be based on the data under the lists of contents presented.  The study of the following areas will signal the factors that could create a framework where effective interactivity will result.  Areas to be studied are the complementarities of letter and visual image, hypertext and hypermedia, understanding interface in multimedia, immersed in visual media through visual and storytelling, narrative techniques and finally interface design testing.            Feasibility and Time-Scale                 The study proposed is feasible because there are available references that explain several information about the subject which is visual media.   All the research will do is to conduct intensive research to come up with useful findings.  The researcher is also tasked to analyze the findings he gathered on his research.  This will serve as the fruit of his study where implications and testing will be emanated.  Accordingly, the study needed a time frame of 2 weeks to cover relevant areas that can aid to accomplish the problem of the research.  However, the testing of the experimental interface needs succeeding testing to evaluate its performance.  In this case, another study could be done to reflect the effectiveness of the created interface that is assumed to be effective based on the executed study. After constructing chapter 1 (The Problem and its Background), 2 (review of Related Literature) and 3 (Methodology), after a week, the researcher will proceed to the data gathering probably for four days.  On the other hand, the canalization process could take three days.  The latter is relatively easy because of the four days exposure to the relevant data. Within this process, data presentation and conclusion and findings can be made. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

The Emotional Usability

The Effective Interactivity on the Emotional Usability of Visual Medium Focusing upon Viewer to Immerse and Interact by Putting Interact...

TQM/Customer Service

TQM/Customer Service Brief History McDonald’s was originally a restaurant set up by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald in 1940’s in California. The company emerged from Ray Kroc who in 1955 became the exclusive franchising for the entire United States. McDonald’s global motto is focused on the quality, service, cleanliness and value (Q.S.C. & V.). In 1977,  opened Ireland’s first McDonald’s restaurant in Dublin’s Grafton Street. Since then McDonald’s has become hugely popular in Ireland. A second restaurant followed shortly on O’Connell Street. Today, 74 restaurants around the country and have recently opened five McCafés in Dublin, providing more variety to their service and employed over 3,500 people. As an achievement, McDonalds Restaurants of Ireland was included in the 2005 ’50 Best Companies to Work for in Ireland’ list. Also McDonald’s supports community programs which operate and focused on family and local environment related issues. These include sponsorships of local teams, fundraising for children’s charities and educational and environmental initiatives. In addition, McDonald’s globally has extensive conservation policies applicable not only to its packaging but to the products and ingredients it sources from suppliers. McDonald’s Ireland was the first restaurant that provides customers with complete nutritional and ingredient information which offered through nutritional leaflets. The business plays its role in promoting well-balanced diets and active lifestyle for all, especially on children. This is done through interactive menu planner available on McDonald’s website and information on the reverse of restaurant tray-liners, helping customers to make informed choices based on their lifestyles and preferences. Many programs were created like the Scholarships and Charity. The Ronald McDonald House Charities of Ireland was founded in 1977, and many children are benefited from the healthcare, education and social welfare projects. The entire McDonalds’ stands for the principles of Quality, Service, Cleanliness and Value, the combination of which is designed to achieve 100 per cent total customer satisfaction. The business operated strict specifications for all its products and raw materials and is responsible for developing as well as, implementing systems to ensure safe food of the highest quality throughout the restaurants in Ireland. Focus on the Competition The weakness of a business depends on system and people involved within the organization. It starts by hiring the people who can devote in the business’s objectives and can do better job. In McDonald’s, the crew or the people can make the business achieved the success and its downfall. Investing in the value chain is a simple idea but still works. Happy employees create happy customers, which creates happy shareholders. McDonald’s value is important to adopt a good ambience that can invite the customers to come. The automation of the process can eliminate the manipulation and corruption inside the company. In McDonald’s the automation process of the sale are introduced to make it more efficient and easy than the manually operation. The training and re-training can leave a legacy for the future employees. The on-the-job training in the management of the McDonald’s can open the door for the opportunity and they can acquire the trainees to be part of the company. The leadership involvement in the business is the most prominent strategy. But if a leader failed to manage the business, the problem might break the connection of the business towards the people and its customers. The strength can start in an intensive research study where they can explore for the new extraordinary service they can offer to the customers as well on their shareholders. The strength also lies on the management’s ability to analyze where they can find the solution in their problems. Improvement of some process and systems can make the problems be solved. And with further understanding, all the issues that involves inside the business whether it concerned with the people or the system. The Five Gaps  Gap 1: the gap between what customers want and what management thinks customers want. This gap results from a lack of understanding or a misrepresentation of the customers’ needs, wants, or desires. A firm that does little or customer satisfaction research is likely to experience this gap. Gap 2: the gap between what management thinks customers want and the quality specifications that management develops to provide the service. Essentially, this gap is the result of management’s inability to translate customers’ needs into delivery systems within the firm. Gap 3: the gap between the service quality specification and the service are present in every company. If both gaps 1 and 2 have been closed, then gap 3 is due to the inability of management and employees to do what should be done. Poorly trained or poorly motivated workers can cause this gap. Management needs to ensure that employees have the skills and the proper tools to perform their jobs. Gap 4: the gap between what the company provides and what the customer is told it provides. This is clearly a communication gap. It may include misleading or deceptive advertising campaigns promising more than the firm can deliver or doing “what it takes” to get the business. To close this gap, companies need to create realistic customer expectations through honest, accurate communication about what firms can provide. Gap 5: the gap between the service that customers receive and the services they want. This gap can be positive or negative. For example, if a patient expects to wait twenty minutes in the physician’s office before seeing the physician but waits only ten minutes, the patient’s evaluation of service quality will be high. However, a forty-minute wait would result in a lower evaluation.   Recommendations The success of a recommendation relies on the ability of the whole organization to comprehend. These recommendations are not hard to handle because it will begin from the initiatives of the organization or the entire team. Reliability is the ability to perform the service dependably, accurately, and consistently. Reliability is performing the service right the first time. This component has been found to be the one most important to consumers. Responsiveness is the ability to provide prompt service. Examples of responsiveness include calling the customer back quickly, serving lunch fast to someone who is in a hurry, or mailing a transaction slip immediately. An assurance can be experiences when the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust. Skilled employees who treat customers with respect and make customers feel that they can trust the firm exemplifies assurance. Empathy is the act of caring, individualized attention to customers. Firms whose employees recognize customers, call them by name, and learn their customers’ specific requirements are providing empathy. Union Square Hospitality Group, owner of several popular New York City restaurants, will return items customers have left behind by messenger or FedEx so the customers do not have to return to retrieve their belongings. Tangibles are the parts of a service include the physical facilities, tools, and equipment that a firm can use to provide the service, such as a doctor’s office or an ATM, and the appearance of personnel. Analysis Service firms like other organizations are realizing the significance of customer-centered philosophies and are turning to quality management approaches to help managing their businesses. An effective approach has been studied and its role in the analysis of the difference between customer expectations and perceptions has been highlighted with support of an example. The important service quality gaps associated with external customer services, it could be extended to close other major gaps and therefore, it could be developed in order to be applied for internal customers, like the employees and service providers. Works Cited: Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

TQM/Customer Service

TQM/Customer Service Brief History McDonald’s was originally a restaurant set up by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald in 1940’s in Californ...

To Qualify or Not?

1.                  Recap the major issues in this case. What is/are the ethical dilemma(s) in this case?   The major issues in the case are questions of violations of the fundamental principles of accounting ethics. The primary ethical dilemma experienced by Jane Ashley is the proper course of action in dealing with the actions of her superiors Frankie Small and Mr. Vicio of covering a discrepancy in the items under audit, which in the point of view of Ashley is inconsistent with standards of good practice and inimical to the long-term interest of the client Models Inc.      2.                  Did Jane Ashley, the staff accountant, have any legitimate choice except to follow the direction of the partner on the job with regard to what happened on the job?   Jane Ashley has the option of putting into record her disagreement with the decision of the partner but she has to comply with orders unless she can find an alternative legitimate way of solving the problem.     3.                  Outline your understanding of the cut-off problem that has developed. What issues are involved?   Models Inc. has several suppliers, which the firm scheduled for payment. In auditing the accounts payable, the person in-charge looks into expense reports, invoices and other supporting documents to trace and account for payments. However, there were several missing documents, which may not be found and the person in-charge is faced with the dilemma of deciding on how to reflect the insufficiency of data in the audit report.   4.                  What are the fundamental principles underlying a professional accountant’s code of ethics applicable to this case?   There are five fundamental principles forming the foundations of the accountant’s code of ethics, which are: 1) integrity—being straightforward and honest; 2) objectivity—freedom from prejudice or bias and conflict of interest; 3) professional competence and due care—maintaining standards for professional knowledge and skills; 4) confidentiality—preservation of the privacy of clients and non-disclosure of sensitive information; and 5) professional behaviour—compliance with law and professional standards.   5.      What, if anything, should Jane Ashley do under the circumstances?   Jane Ashley may voice her opinion on the decision of the partner to her senior or to the partner. She should look for legitimate ways of resolving the lack of documentation and suggest this to the partner. If there is no way to find the missing documents, the she can find guidance in the company policies and accountant’s code of ethics. To Resign or Serve? 1.      What is/are the ethical dilemma(s) in this case?   The initial ethical dilemma of Ben Hunt revolves around integrity and professional competence on whether or not to report the risky and inimical practices of their client and the succeeding ethical dilemma revolves around objectivity and confidentiality on whether or not Ben Hunt should apprise concerned parties of the business practices of Prairieland.      2.      Was the renegotiation of overdue loans to current correct? If not, are there any conditions under which a “current” classification would be warranted?   Renegotiation to report the overdue loans as current loans is practiced but it is a risky move because the bank’s non-recognition of the possibility that a debtor may not be able to pay decreases its credibility to declare the loan later on as non-performing and invoke security nets in claiming payment.      3.      Was the arrangement for insurance against non-payment of loans and/or Prairieland’s (non)disclosure of the insurance arrangement acceptable? If not, how should it have been handled?   Even with an insurance against non-payment of loans obtained by the bank, the risk is still high because insurance companies conduct thorough investigation to ensure that the bank is not deliberately lax on their demands for payment since the payment of loans is insured. The non-disclosure of the insurance arrangement is also not acceptable because this is an important information to the accounting firm. The bank should practice reasonable loan assessments and disclose valuable information.   4.      As James London/Ben Hunt, what would you have done? What (if any) other options were available to James London/Ben Hunt beside resignation?   If I were James London/Ben Hunt, I would have supported the resignation. This is because when Ben Hunt expressed his concern over the banking practices of the client, the representatives of the bank were adamant. Provided Hunt and London explained the risks thoroughly but the bank still refused to budge, then there is no other option for Hunt and London but to resign.   5.      In this situation, what responsibilities does Jack London/Ben Hunt have to various stakeholders?   The responsibility of Hunt and London to inform stakeholders is subject to the confidentiality of information. Unless the bank and its representatives permit the disclosure or the disclosure is called for in a legal proceedings or in other authorized venues of disclosure, both Hunt and London are barred from disclosing sensitive information to stakeholders who are not a party to their previous business dealings. What are your thoughts on this situation? 1.      What do you think are his concerns? Jeff’s primary concern is the possibility that the judgment of Trevor regarding their client’s billing practices may have been clouded by Trevor’s personal relationship with the accounts receivable supervisor of their client company. The development of the personal relationship between the auditor and client gives rise to questions of conflict of interest of Trevor because he could have made a favourable report on the client company to be on the positive side of Fleurette or his objective judgment may have been overpowered by his personal emotions towards a representative of the client company. In this cases, the integrity of Trevor’s report becomes questionable and unreliable. 2.      What actions can be taken to address his concerns? Jeff has to make sure that the report passed by Trevor on the practices of the client are accurate and supported by sufficient documentary evidence to ensure the integrity of the entire audit report. During the remaining days before the report presentation, Jeff should remove Trevor as part of the audit team working with the client company to prevent further issues on the validity of the report. Jeff should also have Jeff’s report validated before the final report to ensure the accuracy of the favorable recommendations to the client. As a preventive measure, Jeff should also remind his employees or staff of their duties provided by the accountant’s code of ethics and the importance of practicing objectivity to the profession.        Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

To Qualify or Not?

1. Recap the major issues in this case. What is/are the ethical dilemma(s) in this case? The major issues in the case...

ADVOCACY

ADVOCACY, RIGHTS AND REPRESENTATION FOR ASYLUM-SEEKERS AND REFUGEES Introduction             This report will discuss the concept of right, advocacy and representation as they relate to young adult offenders. I will identify an advocacy role that supports the asylum-seekers, refugees and migrants in their immediate communities while demonstrating their rights and critically evaluating their contribution in promoting effective social work practice. I will collate information on issues, challenges and conflicts from my placement experience in lieu with applying the concept of advocacy and representation with these service-user groups.             My placement is with an organization that provides asylum-seekers and refugees that are driven to find a safer place and protection. According to a poll carried out by  that coincided with the Refugee Week in 2002, treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers are four times more likely to show a positive attitude than negative one. However, people often misunderstood these groups specially about their entitlement to state benefits particularly when the media portrays negative images of refugees and asylum-seekers.       As an instrument to provide assistance, advocacy for young offenders grants them a practical guidance for their being, individual support counseling particularly in judicial processes and safeguarding the implementation of the youth justice system. The effectivity of advocacy reflects an efficient representation of youth offenders through increasing their engagement level in education, training and employment in a way than enables them to envisioned themselves as a functional member of the society.         The concept of advocacy, rights and representation             Understanding the concept of advocacy conforms to realistic, convincing and confident advises. As  puts it, advocacy is “a valuable skill, a transferable skill and a lifelong skill” (1999).  Learning a competent job as advocating is as tough as the need to persuade people. Placing advocacy in a meaningful framework means to effectively understand the clients’ objectives, to analyse the extent to which the law can help to achieve such and to prepare and present a case through the most favorable technique. The concept of advocacy deals with a two-fold conduct: the case advocacy and the cause advocacy. Case advocacy focuses on individual cases which involves a partisan intervention on behalf of the client or identified client group. Cause advocacy collective/communal issues by means of social change efforts and improving social policies ( 1996, ). The essence of advocacy is winning cases. Toward this end, advocates take a closer look on the depth of cases and its strength and taking part in the administration of justice as well. The qualities of advocacy conforms to a continuous technique acquisition, practice and honing. Its application makes it different from any other specialties as advocacy was observed in public upon the scrutiny and judgment of people. Advocacy also deals with different cases; thus, each case has to be custom-built ( 2007, ).             Effective advocacy requires an effectual advocate. The attributes of an effective advocate includes voice – quality over volume; words – good command of words and eloquence; order – apparent logical presentations; courage – a civilised warfare that avoids tenacity and belligerence; presence – the sense of being there mentally and physically; observation – intent use of sight; wit – quick-witted and serious; emotions – a good knowledge on human affairs and of human nature; law and evidence – knowledgeable on the statute law and its application and familiarity on rules of evidences ().              Advocacy, in addition, takes into account the awareness on rules of procedure, court propriety, ethics, language and logic aside from laws and evidences. The rules of procedure refer to the formalities while inside the courtroom. Propriety is the do’s and don’ts in court undertakings. Examples of these are standing when spoken to by the judge, keeping silent when a witness is taking an oath or affirmation and being respectful in words and demeanor at all times. Advocates steer clear of making serious mistakes and expect arguments during court procedures ().                   The concept of right is figuratively expressed upon the concept of ‘person’ – physical or juristic – who has obligations and rights as part of their totality ( 2002, ). Whether technical or personal advocacy, the process provides a right of choice, access, justice, social development, support, empowerment and prevention to which the advocate represents ( and  2001, ). The strongest right to advocacy and right to representation are held by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW) especially for children and young adults (1991, ). It states that children must have to right to be represented, right of an effective advocacy services and right to have their interests protected and fight against for. The right to representation provides more social empowerment and right to advocacy ensures benefits and legal rights are provided accordingly ( 1992, ).    Legal representations are central to advocacy. The concept of representation deals with three dimensions: nature of expertise, representative-client relationship and accountability and control. There are general and specific expertises. General process expertise refers to the knowledge on how-to’s as examining and cross-examining witnesses, preparing written arguments and developing and presenting a case. Specific process expertise involves know-how on particular differences from the general model. The clear connection between the representatives and clients manifests in a thorough understanding of the representational role. Formal legal representations purport on accountable proceeding through a forum-centred control ( 1998, ).    Advocacy Role             The primary goals of advocacy are achieving social justice and people empowerment. In achieving these goals, a proactive, responsive and participatory advocacy is necessary. The role of the advocate is to speak on behalf of the clients and to empower clients to speak on their behalf whenever their rights have been denied. The advocacy role is a critical strategy, according to , more specially for those who are grounded in ecological approach to practice since it expands opportunities by protecting the interests of the clients.  also viewed advocacy as a classic role which aimed at changing the social environment of clients (1996, ).             Effective advocacy role is evident from data collection to building coalitions. In particular, the advocacy process begins with locating the problem, identifying objectives of intervention, the target system of advocacy intervention, determining levels of authority or sanction for the targeted system, identification of resources available, determining degrees of reception or resistance with regards to the proposed advocacy effort, analysis of the level at which intervention will occur, identification of object of intervention and explanation of probable outcomes of advocacy efforts (. ). The advocacy role is carried-out at three levels that include advocacy for oneself, advocacy for clients and advocacy for the community as a whole ( and  1992, ).             Advocacy is a concept embraced by social work. Advocating for clients’ rights is vital for social work profession. Government-sponsored case management systems enabled the legitimization and standardization of advocacy functions as a component of a professional social work services (as cited in  and ). As an intervention strategy at first, advocacy now directly point to improving social functioning as the major goal. The advocacy role, from a social context, includes the redistribution of power and resources to an individual or group with demonstrated needs, guarding the clients’ rights and preserving their values, conserving their best interests and overcoming the sense of powerlessness ().                The Refugee and Asylum-Seeker Advocacy (RASA) Project, for example, is very particular with their advocacy role. The group ensures that specifically aimed at providing services to refugees and asylum-seekers. RASA lend a hand for these groups through understanding the legal implications, settling into the community and appreciating the social benefits of resettling in the Wakefield Area. Specifically, the group provides them with advocacy and information on family issues and problems, healthcare, housing, employment and racial harassment. Placement Experience – Asylum-seekers and Refugees Services             To act as an advocate for asylum-seekers and refugees means to ensure that they are receiving necessary welfare benefits advice and informations. Since UK had a long tradition of welcoming refugees and asylum-seekers, the advocacy role for them is immense. The key responsibility is to integrate and relate refugees and asylum-seekers within the entire construct of the host countries. As advocates, the work is to make them participate in social, cultural, civic, economic and political life.             The advocates must also empower them to contribute to the community in exchange of an effort to protect their rights and being. In particular, the advocates, aid- and service-providers, government and the population alike create and prepare communities that shall welcome asylum-seekers and refugees. Likewise, these groups must be provided with an improved condition for engagement and empowerment.             As advocates, the main purpose is to provide them with access to services such as employment, legal support, education and others. While using several community development techniques customised for asylum-seekers and refugees, advocates are challenged to perform their social services work. They must perform to use to and make service-users adopt the frameworks of individual and communal empowerment. They are assigned to place equal importance in capacity-building for themselves as well as the asylum-seekers and refugees. They are also asked to explore receiving communities and understand the basics of settlement process. So that advocates can aid them at resolving conflicts with nationals and laws and the media.  Challenges and Conflicts             The primary challenge for advocates for asylum-seekers and refugees refer to undocumentation. There are many undocumented arrivals of migrants all over the world. They are forced to work outside their home countries. The conflict arises when, as a result to enter in another society and culture, asylum-seekers and refugees inflict self-harm, denial of medical treatment, destitution, hazardous working conditions and racist attacks. Some are even prevented by laws to work and stay legally. Another challenge for these service-users is deportation and unlawful deaths that jeopardizes their rights specially of children and young adults.             Since this is already the case, the challenge for advocates conform to legal protections, providing humanitarian aids, handling combatants, managing mass flights and non-refoulement. Local and international policies, along with advocates and services-providers, concern the issues that haunt refugees and the like. They are challenged mainly by their responsibility to protect. The dilemma for humanitarian aid-givers is to provide protection under conditions of conflict ( 2002). The main challenge for advocates is asylum-seekers and refugees’ resistance. Some of these groups are not ready to accept and integrate to new communities. They thought of themselves as futile, malfunctioning new members of the society. When they wanted to have access on education, employment and resources, they are often faced with discriminatory practices. In effect, asylum-seekers and refugees arrived at looting, drug-pushing and using and nervous breakdown.             As they are always judged by the media and the people at host country destinations, their every act is taken against them even if it was the other people’s fault. Representing them before the court places a challenge on educating them at what must be done. The challenge and conflict herein is finding a low-cost, quality legal assistance so as not to further deprive their rights. Another challenge is to sustain their entitlement rights of state benefits while avoiding violence exacted by refugees and asylum-seekers once their pride is overstepped by other individual or even law that could later result in court proceedings and misrepresentations. Conclusion             The concept of advocacy, rights and representation are separate yet intertwining constructs. Advocacy directly purports a representation. Both advocacy and representation are rights to offenders. Applying these three concepts require an understanding of the basics of advocacy and representations as well as acquiring knowledge on what must be fight against for.  The evaluation of an effective advocacy role is explicit on the outcomes of interventions as success or failure. The role encompasses from individual to communal to societal or internal to external processes. As such, the broader perspectives of advocacy must mean significant changes in social functioning of the individual offender and the community in general. Acting as asylum-seekers and refugees advocates means a holistic and proactive engagement from the inception of the offense into sentencing processes. Advocacy necessitates the expertise, skills and attributes that could likely win cases in favor of what is right and just. Notably, advocacy efforts underpin a critical role made by the social workers as intermediating mechanisms that enables a proper implementation of rights and justice systems. The challenges experienced by the asylum-seekers and refugees are engaging in the larger community, overcoming powerlessness and functioning as a real member of the society. The challenges for advocates and services-providers are resistance, legal representations, education and communal-acceptance support. Bibliography Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

ADVOCACY

ADVOCACY, RIGHTS AND REPRESENTATION FOR ASYLUM-SEEKERS AND REFUGEES Introduction This report will discuss the concept of ri...

The Emotional Usability

Proposal should be around 1500words. I captured some of interesting area, (copy and paste) so you may need to edit this following sheet. (Best to use your own words, Juan and footnote and reference properly) But please stay with the details.   Title The effective interactivity on the emotional usability of visual medium Focusing upon viewer to immerse and interact by putting interactive storytelling (How electronic narrative and user interaction can be combined-user to explore and experience the narrative as an immersive experience)   Body   Designs for the interactive media such as Website, Mobile, Digital TV, etc., are evolving in a clear direction that places importance on User Experience based on usability. Although consideration of these artifacts of User Experience can be approached through numerous perspectives involving information Architecture, Contents Service, user interface, Identity, Usability, Visual Effect, Motion Graphics, Storytelling, etc,this research intends to study on the interactive storytelling, which is the communication way, based on the site conveying the story through the visuals among the sites on the visual digital medium. the visual image has much more informative implication comparing to the letters, and it has a cultural industrial potential power conforming to instinctive sensibility of the communication. On the other hand, modern visual media or the genre do not show a strong explosive power as a cultural industry completely due to the lack of the story, which do not conform to the advancing speed of the technique. Therefore, it is urgently wanted the fundamental and deep study about the storytelling structure conforming to each media. I, firstly, will review a concept of hypertext and hypermedia which is not only the text of the static communications but also the media which are proceed in a nonlinear way such as the graphic, the video, the sound, the animation, and the motion picture. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

The Emotional Usability

Proposal should be around 1500 words. I captured some of interesting area, (copy and paste) so you may need to edit this following she...

Semester 1 Examination_SM258 / 263 CASE STUDY – Tanzania: Elephants or Electricity?

SM258 / 263 CASE STUDY – Tanzania: Elephants or Electricity? 2007/8 Semester 1 Examination January 2008 Search is on for some fresh successes By Tom Burgis, Barney Jopson and William Wallis, Financial Times, Published: Nov 07, 2007 Long a favourite of donors in Africa, Tanzania is accustomed to receiving the plaudits and aid dollars of the international community. Rich in farm land, mineral resources and wildlife, it is free of tribal tensions and has experienced a series of peaceful transitions of power, thanks to a sense of unity forged by Julius Nyerere, its founding father. It also has a stable macro-economic environment and its administration is relatively well-organised: the principal achievements of Benjamin Mkapa, who ruled from 1995 to 2005. Jakaya Kikwete, who was elected president at the end of 2005, has yet to prove that he can build significant new successes on those foundations. Less than two years into a five-year mandate, even some of Tanzania’s friends are worried that the country is losing direction and momentum. His most obvious challenges are to further invigorate the economy – which has been growing at a healthy annual average of 6.2 per cent in the past five years – and to make inroads into poverty and transform rural lives. Yet while his government has released several policy frameworks and programmes, it has not set clear priorities. “We are swaying in the wind,” says John Ulunga, executive director of the Foundation for Civil Society, a donor-funded non-governmental organisation. “We don’t have a clearly defined set of steps that will take us to the promised land. We don’t see the direction.” Tanzania was among the top 10 reformers in the World Bank’s Doing Business survey last year, but slipped back a place this year to 130 of a total of 178. Mr Kikwete’s government’s biggest achievement has probably been the introduction of universal primary education: more schools have been built in the past 18 months than in the previous 20 to 30 years, say officials, although there are now not enough teachers. But in the United Nations’ human development index, which measures standards of living and health as well as education, Tanzania has barely moved. Andrew McAlister, the outgoing Canadian high commissioner, who first lived in the country in 1977, told a local newspaper: “After years of struggle and effort, Tanzania is still 164th out of 177 on the [index] and hasn’t moved much. Tanzania simply doesn’t belong there…I do wonder why things have not progressed much, much further.” In rural areas, home to 70 to 80 per cent of the population, life has not changed a great deal since Mr Nyerere’s experiment with socialist collectivisation was abandoned. Most of the population are cashless peasants who produce enough food with their hand hoes to feed themselves, but no more, and are isolated by bad roads and poor public transport. According to the last national household survey, conducted in 2000-01, almost one in five people was receiving less than the minimum calorie requirements. More recent government research showed two-thirds of mainland households did not have access to piped water and 89 per cent were without electricity. The country’s adult HIV/Aids infection rate is 6.5 per cent and in some regions hits 15 to 20 per cent. In a few business sectors, the trends are more encouraging. The Kikwete government has maintained foreign investment flows that began under his predecessor in the mining, tourism and telecoms sectors, taking advantage of Tanzania’s reserves of gold and precious stones, its wildlife and natural beauty, and the universal appeal of the mobile phone. Overall, foreign direct investment flows into Tanzania have been at least 20 per cent greater than those into Uganda in each of the past three years and at least seven times higher than those going into Kenya, east Africa’s most important economy, according to statistics from the United Nations. But to achieve meaningful poverty reduction, economic growth needs to be more broad-based. David Stanton, head of the UK’s Department for International Development in Tanzania and chairman of the committee of donors and development agencies, says: “Added value, technology and access to regional markets are critical. But no one is saying that’s going to happen, even in a generation. The growth is going to be coastal and urban and will expand the income gap.” “You don’t see great industrialisation,” says Paul Kunert, who until August was head of Songas, a privately-owned electricity generator. “Why do people set up industrial activity? They do it to be closer to a market or because there’s something about a nation that makes it good to be there: a workforce or resources. So mines and tourism are here. But you don’t get people clamouring to build cars because the workforce, while cheap, is not very productive.” Aid, meanwhile, keeps flooding in. Tanzania has received more overseas assistance since independence than any other country south of the Sahara: it accounts for 42 per cent of this year’s national budget. Last month, the US’s Millennium Challenge Corporation approved a 8m, five-year grant for the country. The government faces a dilemma. It is reluctant to become more dependent and is increasing domestic revenue by collecting taxes more effectively, yet ministers say budgetary constraints are still holding the country back. In her 2007-08 budget speech, Zakia Hamdani, the finance minister, said the resources needed for the implementation of the previous administration’s growth and poverty reduction strategy – known as Mkukuta – “were immensely large compared with the resources available”. Tanzanians and foreign observers suggest several reasons why Tanzania is not making more determined progress. Helen Kijo-Bisimba, executive director of the Legal and Human Rights Centre, another donor-funded NGO, complains that Mr Kikwete, a former foreign minister, has been on too many overseas trips. “The president has not had time to sit down and think: what do I need to do?” she says. Other explanations conflict: some say Mr Kikwete is a micro-manager and that nothing happens unless he is involved; or that ministers imposed on the president by elders in the ruling Chapa Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party are dragging him down; or that the money men behind the party are blocking reform. A deeper explanation, critics contend, is that Tanzania lacks political accountability, which means people in power are isolated from the masses. One manifestation of the problem is corruption. Suspicions of high-level graft were stoked by several multimillion-dollar projects that pre-dated the Kikwete era: the acquisition of a presidential jet; the building of a new Bank of Tanzania headquarters; and the purchase of a military radar system from BAE Systems. No wrongdoing, however, has been proved. In other cases several high-ranking members of CCM have been arrested on corruption charges and Mr Kikwete says: “If people want to get into leadership through corrupt practices, through corrupt means, I think that’s detestable. We have to take action.” A second sign of the accountability deficit is that Tanzania, while notionally a multi-party democracy, has many of the characteristics of a one-party state. The political scene is dominated by the CCM, Mr Nyerere’s party, and in the only region where it faces serious opposition – Zanzibar – its past three election victories have been in polls deemed flawed by independent observers. Ismail Jussa, head of foreign affairs and international relations for the Civic United Front, the main sition party, says: “Everywhere there is a serious challenge to the ruling party, it resorts to intimidation and threats.” The opposition is increasingly vocal in its criticism But as 82 per cent of MPs are from the CCM, parliament still functions primarily as a rubber-stamp institution One bright spot is the newspapers, which have become increasingly aggressive in their reporting, if sometimes off-target. The number and prominence of civil society organisations is growing. Mr Jussa argues that political accountability is a two-way street that requires the engagement of the people, and most Tanzanians are not in the habit of challenging power. He links this to the impact of the Nyerere era, when the party and the state become one. “Because of that legacy of indoctrination, even when multi-partyism was allowed, people viewed the opposition in a negative way. They equated it with opposing the state.” Some donors are beginning to acknowledge that they bear some responsibility for a weak political culture. The government’s dependence on aid makes the donors the most important check and balance the country has, yet they have focused on economic and administrative issues rather than politics. “We believe in strong government and channelling the bulk of our development assistance through the government structure, but we have probably been too soft in the past,” says Kristin Sverdrup, minister counsellor at the Norwegian embassy. Mr Kikwete, however, disputes the donors’ potential influence. “We design our own [development] programmes, we take leadership,” he says. “Of course the donors come in to support us … Our responsibility to the donors is about accountability; about how we use that money… It’s not a question of being more accountable to them than to our people.” The daily struggle to meet rising demand for power By Barney Jopson, Financial Times, Published: Nov 07, 2007 Addressing a London breakfast meeting of business people interested in Africa, the chairman of CDC, a private equity investor owned by the UK government, rolled out a biting anecdote this year. “I was talking a few years ago to a finance minister in a south-east African country and emphasising the vital importance of reliable infrastructure in attracting foreign investors,” recalled Sir Malcolm Williamson. “Then the lights went out.” Knowing members of the audience chuckled wryly. Those operating in Tanzania would have winced. Last year, due to a drought that withered its hydropower capacity, the country was hit by severe power rationing. At times it could not generate enough electricity to meet even half its needs and the state-owned power utility was providing customers with as little as eight hours a day. For businesses and well-to-do households that had grown dependent on electricity, the black-outs were at best highly inconvenient, at worst devastating. Those that could afford to resorted to chugging diesel generators, which burn cash rapidly at today’s high oil prices. Others were left to sit idly next to dormant computers and machinery. “It was hell, and we raised hell against the government,” says Isaac Dallushi, vice-president of the Tanzania Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture. “The production costs went up, so we couldn’t compete. And those who couldn’t afford generators had to close down.” Economic growth, which had been forecast at 7.1 per cent for 2006, instead came in at 6.2 per cent, due to the impact of the drought on both electricity generation and agriculture. To prospective foreign investors, which Tanzania desperately needs, the rationing was highly off-putting. (To 89 per cent of Tanzanians, however, it did not matter a jot because they never had electricity anyway.) Tanzania is not alone in sub-Saharan Africa. Electricity shortages in the region are the norm, not an exception. But that does not mean they are inevitable. Next to the drought itself, which began in 2003 and continued into 2006, Tanzania’s immediate problem was a heavy reliance on hydro power. Poor management by the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco), the state-owned utility, compounded the problem. Tanesco has six hydro plants with a capacity of 561MW. In 2002, when all was well, they met about 90 per cent of grid demand, according to the ministry of energy and minerals. In 2006 they could manage only 20 per cent. In countries such as Canada and Norway, where rainfall patterns are fairly consistent, reservoirs can be tapped continuously without being depleted too much. But in Africa, reservoirs tend to be topped up during the rainy season and then run down gradually during the long dry season. This is inherently risky given the tendency of African rains to be delayed, or to not turn up at all. Tanzania has tended to drain its reservoirs steadily, leaving no margin to cope with failed rains. A severe drought in 1997 showed the country how easily power generation could be crippled.. Tanzania had already initiated two privately-owned thermal generation projects in 2001 and 2004 to reduce its dependence: Independent Power Tanzania Limited (IPTL) (burning heavy fuel oil, capacity 100MW) and Songas (burning gas, 190MW). The fact they did not prevent shortages made the rationing all the more galling. Tanesco’s response last year was to install a number of temporary generators, the cost of which was met by the government. Then, in November and December, it received a gift from the heavens as extraordinarily heavy rains filled the reservoirs back up to the brim. A more fundamental problem is a persistent lack of long-term planning in the face of economic growth and rising power demand, which experts blame on a lack of experience and expertise. So while the UK always budgets to have 20 per cent more generation capacity than it needs, Tanzania is consistently behind the curve. Running deeper than issues of competence, the power crisis is ultimately the creation of Tanesco and a botched plan to privatise it, which was launched in 1997, dragged on too long, and put a stop to new investment. The drought was the final straw for Tanesco, supposedly the lynchpin of the power sector, and reduced it to a financial basket case. The group has negative cash flow and an accumulated cash deficit that last year exceeded 0m, according to the ministry of energy and minerals. The ministry blames it on several things: the high cost of oil- and diesel-based thermal generation; power seepage due to under-investment in the transmission network; and electricity tariffs that for many years have not been raised to cover operating and maintenance costs. Tanzania now appears to be tackling the root cause of the power shortages. The government and Tanesco have outlined an ambitious five-year, .3bn capital investment plan which includes funds for new generation, strengthened transmission and expanded distribution. In September, the company secured east Africa’s biggest corporate finance package, raising a government-guaranteed 0m from local banks and pension funds. The government has appointed Idrid Rashidi, a former central bank governor, managing director of Tanesco, instead of a South African management group which left the country earlier this year. The company is to buy out IPTL and convert it to natural gas so the generator becomes a cheaper source of power. It will also raise its own tariffs for customers so they reflect generation costs – not an easy sell given the unreliable supply. Empire built on chickenfeed By Barney Jopson, Financial Times, Published: Nov 07, 2007 Like a true entrepreneur, Hillary Shoo lives and breathes his business. But he has little choice in the matter because the air at his factory is thick with the product, which races up nostrils, chafes down throats and impregnates clothes. This is the world of chickenfeed and Mr Shoo, managing director of Hill Animal Feeds, is one of its impresarios. His eight-year-old business is small, employing just 25 people on the outskirts of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania’s commercial capital. But its strategic originality sets him apart from the crowd. Mr Shoo’s experience also underlines the difficulties of running a company in Tanzania. Hardy-looking young men staff the factory, all of them dusted in a light film of yellow feed. They tip carefully-measured ingredients into four giant blenders (including maize, fish meal, limestone and animal bones from a nearby national park) and haul sacks filled with the output on to trucks waiting outside. One 50kg sack costs about TSh12,000 to make and sells for between TSh13,000 and TSh15,000, Mr Shoo says, but he does not want to reveal any profit figures. As he sips Coca-Cola in his office next door, he explains how the factory has become the centre of a chicken-themed mini-empire. First, he saw that demand for chickens was booming and decided to open his own poultry farm with 8,000 to 9,000 birds. Then, realising the importance of chicken vaccinations and antibiotics, he opened an Agrovet Supplies store so customers could pick up medicines when they came to place feed orders. His latest idea is to make the polypropylene sacks in which feed is transported, a brainwave that came when his own supplier made him wait three weeks for new sacks because it could not keep up with orders. He has even grabbed the attention of GroFin, a business development and finance group funded by western financial institutions such as the UK’s CDC, which will lend Mr Shoo 0,000 to buy a sack-making machine from India. It is GroFin’s second Tanzanian investment since it set up shop in the country in March. In addition to charging an 18 per cent interest rate, which is not unusually high for Tanzania, it has the right to 2 per cent of annual revenues and is taking property as collateral. “The decision to lend is simply because Hillary is a successful business person,” says Ezra Musoke, GroFin’s investment manager in Tanzania. “There’s a feel-good factor. The vet shop, the poultry farm – they’re complementing the business. He’s done a structured expansion.” Mr Shoo’s existing empire is clearly vulnerable to bird flu outbreaks. But GroFin calculates there is big demand for polypropylene sacks for non-poultry products too, such as maize, rice and sugar. Its projections are that in three years Mr Shoo will be churning out 15,000 a day. Tanzania, however, does not make running a business easy. Following repeated power cuts last year Mr Shoo is planning to buy a diesel-run generator, reasoning that expensive electricity is better than none at all. And, because he gets only two or three days of water a week from the authorities, he has dug his own borehole. Given Tanzanian bureaucracy, the mention of licences elicits a groan. Mr Shoo needs one from the tax man, one from the Veterinary Council and one from the Food and Drugs Authority. In spite of the time required to secure them, they do not seem to stop other officials from coming round to probe. “They need to centralise it so you can get one ticket that makes it clear you’re allowed to do business,” he says. Financing is another problem, which is why Mr Shoo hooked up with GroFin. He was introduced by a local bank, Eurafrican which, like most of its peers cannot, or does not want to, lend risk capital to start-ups. “Banks will only come when things are good,” he says. He had to start Hill Animals Feeds in 1999 with the money he had saved from a successful bar he once ran. A departure from the poultry theme? “Well,” he says with a grin, “the customers did eat chicken.” Attempt to catch a new class of traveller By Tom Burgis, Financial Times, Published: Nov 07, 2007 Elephants, explains Hassan Mwinjuma, spend 18 hours of every day consuming the 300kg of grass they need to sustain their bulk. As if to prove the point, a male of the species chomps laboriously on tuft after tuft just five metres away, one of 60,000 elephants in Tanzania’s Selous game reserve, an expanse of bush and jungle substantially larger than Switzerland. It is precisely the image the country’s tourist industry wants to project. By day, man and beast indulge in mutual, solitary curiosity. At dusk, the former repairs to the likes of Sable Mountain Lodge – a 0-a-night, solar-powered retreat popular with honeymooners, and owned by the Tent with a View travel company where Mr Mwinjuma is operations manager. The latter, meanwhile, slopes off to rest before another hard day’s eating. The government has made tourism, along with agriculture and mining, a pillar in its blueprint for economic growth. It would have been foolish not to in a country that boasts the Serengeti national park, Ngorongoro crater, the Zanzibar archipelago, Mount Kilimanjaro and the conference resort of Arusha. In the decade from 1996, annual tourist arrivals have doubled and receipts almost trebled. Further expansion in gross visitor numbers is capped, however, by a deliberate “low-volume, high-value” policy designed to retain the mystique of the 14 national parks, 31 game reserves and a brace of marine parks while maximising income. Intense branding is afoot in an attempt to corner the top of the market. Peter Mwenguo, head of the national tourist board, has at last seen his marketing budget, which had languished at less than m since 1993, rise to .8m for 2007-08. He plans to spend a sizeable chunk of it advertising on CNN and BBC World. Mr Mwenguo sits on a panel of businesspeople and officials charged with concocting a pithy national tag-line along the lines of “incredible India”, Malaysia’s “truly Asia” or South Africa’s “rainbow nation”. The finished article is expected to be somewhat catchier than the present effort – “Tanzania: land of Kilimanjaro, Zanzibar and the Serengeti” – a legacy of the days when the country’s marketing focused on pointing out that its most precious assets were not, contrary to suggestions from north of the border, in Kenya. The strategy to target a limited number of big spenders – in contrast with Kenya’s mass tourism approach – appears vindicated, however. Mr Mwenguo says it took Kenya 1.2m visitors last year to generate 0m, while Tanzania made m more from just over half as many tourists. Moreover, although the amount each visitor spends daily has been static at about 0 for a decade, the average length of a stay has risen steadily from 7.5 days in 1997 to 12 last year. “All safari destinations have seen boom times over the last two years,” says Mahmud Jan Mohamed, managing director at Serena, whose seven top-end hotels and lodges in Tanzania make it the country’s biggest private-sector operator. “But we have to understand that every destination is cyclical. There is always a danger when tourism in any area goes through a boom that everybody wants to get into tourism. Then when the chips are down you get a price war and you are back to square one.” Official figures indicate that the main growth market is Europe, home to one-third of all Tanzania’s visitors. But tapping that pool more deeply will be difficult as long as the paucity of direct flights continues. International airlines flying from Europe and the Middle East favour Nairobi over Dar es Salaam, so much so that Mr Mwenguo had to fight to secure a ticket for his minister on one of British Airways’ thrice-weekly direct flights from Tanzania’s commercial capital. Air Tanzania, the state-owned flag-carrier, has long been a regional laggard, humbled by Kenya Airways, which is expanding its routes rapidly. The latest relaunch furthers the branding exercise by emblazoning on the tails of Air Tanzania’s ageing Boeings a new logo – the peaks of Kilimanjaro and the national icon, a placid but purposeful giraffe. Yet even as expectations for the sector soar, the state’s stewardship of its four-legged resources has been called into question by a particularly exclusive strand of tourism: big game hunting. It is largely shielded from view, confined to designated blocks of the game reserves and specialist areas of the internet, where satisfied hunters display their trophies. Hunting is legal and, officials say, strictly regulated so that it poses no threat to population levels. Indeed, with newly-raised trophy fees ranging up to ,000 for an elephant, it is potentially very lucrative. Nonetheless, it has been enveloped in a furore born not of squeamishness but of what is seen as opaque licensing and the scant collection of fees. A critical 2004 study published by the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation determined that, even as hunter numbers grew by 400 per cent between 1988 and 2001, government income per hunter flatlined. Press investigations into murky allocations of hunting blocks have further stoked outrage. Roads and schools promised in return for concessions have not materialised. In response, the government has raised hunting fees by 500 per cent. Then there is the so-called Google factor. Tanzania’s efforts to pitch itself as an “eco-destination” to tourists who fret about carbon footprints and endangered species will be sorely hampered if their internet search on Selous yields up hunters’ snaps of bullet-ridden buffaloes. Such obstacles are unlikely to derail the sector’s progress, observers say. The country has set a clear course and can expect more investment. With a quarter of its land devoted to parks and reserves, there is significant room for expansion. In spite of the low-volume policy, officials are moving to accommodate more backpackers and are gradually raising the number of highly prized construction licences. Serena is finalising plans for two high-quality camps, one in Selous, to cater for what Mr Mohamed foresees as 20 per cent year-on-year growth in tourist volumes. But he counsels that the region as a whole would do well to let rivalries give way to a united front. “As far as I’m concerned, the sooner they [Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda] talk about marketing it as an east African destination, the better.”     Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Semester 1 Examination_SM258 / 263 CASE STUDY – Tanzania: Elephants or Electricity?

SM258 / 263 CASE STUDY – Tanzania: Elephants or Electricity? 2007/8 Semester 1 Examination January 2008 Search is on for ...