Monday, September 30, 2019

Negotiation strategies & procedures

It is agreed that negotiation is a process and that the first stage of any negotiation, the pre-negotiation stage, is very essential in the planning process for negotiations. But the stage of pre-negotiations, as scholars have come to agree, is in itself also a process. Since the pre-negotiation stage is so crucial there are therefore certain essential steps to proceed on in order to ensure success. While scholars are not agreed on the exact labeling of the different phases of pre-negotiation, nor on how many specific steps there are to be followed, they generally agree on the essential elements that must come into play during pre-negotiations. Peterson & Lucas (2001) identify four stages of pre-negotiations. Other writers have classified the processes involved in pre-negotiation into five categories and even some have limited their categories to only three components. Scholars agree that the first step to take in pre-negotiations is for the parties to identify and define the exact nature of the problem and conduct necessary intelligence gathering procedures. This first phase is basically the framing phase. Furthermore, in this first step, parties are able to demonstrate whether or not they are willing to negotiate address the issues. The next step is the formulation aspects where the parties begin to search for available options or alternatives to the issue(s) from the perspective of both parties. Each party will have to anticipate the possible options that the other could propose. In the third step there is first some amount of commitment to negotiate among the parties, whether formally or informally based on the information gathered and the alternatives identified. There is following this commitment a concrete agreement or decision to negotiate by both parties. Here the negotiating parties decide on the parameters under which such negotiations would take place. The final step in the pre-negotiation process is the structuring phase where negotiation strategies are developed and plans are made by each side as how best to tackle the actual negotiation. Formal negotiations begin as soon as the parties agree to negotiate and appoint a committee over the negotiations. What are the Individual Characteristics of Negotiators? One important factor that impacts greatly on the process and outcome of negotiations is the individual characteristics of the negotiators. While no scholar has proposed a particular model of the best characteristic traits for a successful negotiator, they have identified several factors that could swing negotiation outcomes either in favor of or against the party for with the individual is negotiating. Among the individual characteristics of negotiators the most commonly identified are negotiation experience, age, sex, education and training as well as culture and beliefs. Other variable characteristics could also have an impact on how well a negotiator performs. Irritability, tension, historical relationship between negotiators, physical health among others factors have been noted to affect the negotiation process. These characteristics are, however, quite variable, and depend heavily on the specific negotiation time and situation and not completely on the negotiator’s usual character traits. As it pertains to the classifiable characteristics, as it pertains to matters of age, research has not proven any significant relation between this variable and the outcome of negotiations. Younger or older negotiators have not been shown to produce better consecutive results than their counterparts. Age is only relevant only as it relates to experience because it is only as the negotiator ages and matures that significant experience would be gathered. Thus, in reference to experience, it must be admitted that the more experienced a negotiator is with particular negotiating situations, the easier and smoother the negotiation process flows. The know-how gathered with experience gives a sort of comfort level but it does not, however, suppose a greater propensity to succeed. Peterson & Lucas (2001) note of younger, more inexperienced negotiators, that they are more rigid and uncompromising to the proposals of the other side. Overall the amount of experience a negotiator has could in fact impact negotiations. A negotiators training and education could impact negotiators. While university qualification does not automatically signify a more successful negotiator, researchers have seen some amount of correlation between education and training and the performance of negotiators. However such correlation has not been shown to be significant enough to make a difference. The sex of the negotiator has also been highlighted as a characteristic of negotiators. The position of researchers on the approaches taken in negotiations by both sexes is mixed. Some studies suggest that women are more compromising than men and make a greater effort to obtain mutual agreeable solutions. Differences in negotiators’ cultures and beliefs do of course mean that particular tactics and approaches would be more characteristic of particular negotiators more than others. Such differences are, however, too varied to classify. Suffice it to say that a negotiator’s cultural convictions may be against certain negotiating styles. Of the characteristics of negotiators outlined above, experience appears to be the more crucial to the success of negotiation sessions. More experienced negotiators understand the intricacies of negotiation and are more familiar with the process and steps to take given any negotiation situation. Because of this knowledge gained overtime, negotiators would tend to move more smoothly through the process where a less experienced negotiation would demonstrate hesitancy. Unfortunately some experienced negotiations overtime tend to begin to overstep certain critical phases of negotiation (Peterson & Lucas, 2001) as they are quite competent and thus do not need to plan as much or as well as before. REFERENCES Peterson, R.M. & Lucas, G.H. (Fall 2001). Expanding the Antecedent Component of the Traditional Business Negotiation Model: Pre-negotiation Literature Review and Planning-Preparation Propositions. Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, vol #(issue #), pages.

Traditional Viking Religion

Traditional Viking Religion The Vikings’ religious beliefs were constantly changing and evolving. They had many different ways of worshiping, and viewing their gods. It was dependent completely on where you lived, in what era, and what your social class was, though the Vikings weren’t very strict on this. Most of these beliefs were recorded after Christianity had already taken hold of the Viking culture. But, it seems that under their outer appearance of ‘good little Christians’, they were still telling the stories based on their original beliefs.These stories and myths ended up being documented in three different ways: Poetic Edda, Skaldic poetry, and Prose Edda. Poetic Edda was a compilation of poems written in Iceland just after the mid-thirteenth century. They came from all over Scandinavia, which includes the countries of present-day Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. Skaldic poetry was written mostly in the ninth century, but is very compl ex, and therefore difficult for most people to understand. The Icelandic poet, politician, and historian, Snorri Sturluson, wrote Prose Edda in the 1220s.Prose Edda is the most commonly used resource on Viking mythology today, because it was Sturluson’s goal to revive (but also explain) the skaldic art. Along with his poems, he had a key of sorts that made understanding his work possible. (Wolf 148-149) Some Vikings believed that the world was made up of several circles of different worlds; all of them connected in some way. Others believed in the nine worlds that were all connected by the world tree, referred to as Yggdrasil (Roberts). Yggdrasil was at the center of the world, and had nine roots, each root branching out to one of the worlds.At the bottom of everything was Niflheim, the world of the dead. This realm is ruled by the death-goddess, Hel. She named a portion of Niflheim after herself. Unlike its Christian counterpart when it comes to the world of the dead, Niflhe im is a land of ice, not fire. There is a root leading into Niflheim, and one leading directly into Hel. Then came the land of the giants, Jotunheim. It is also sometimes called Utgard (Wolf 149); it was mostly known as the land of monsters, and enemies of the gods. After this, came a realm that there isn’t much to known about: Nidavellir, the realm of dwarfs.Next came three realms of almost equal rank. The two elf lands, Svartalfheim, the land of the dark elves, and Alfheim, the domain of the light elves. Alfheim was thought to be at the same level as the middle world, where humans dwelt, known as wither Midgard or The Middle Yard. Then at the top of everything were the two different major realms where gods lived: Asgard, where the Aesier gods and goddesses lived, and Vanaheim, where the Vanier (another tribe of gods and goddesses that were more nature focused than the Asier) lived. In Asgard and Vanaheim each deity lived in his or her own kingdom.It was believed that a flam ing rainbow bridge called Bifrost, connected Midgard to the worlds where the gods lived. There were also two other realms that weren’t connected to Yggdrasil. These were Muspell, and Ginnungagap. Muspell was the land of the Fire Giants, and demons, ruled by Surt (Roberts), who plays a vital role in both the beginning and the end of the world. Ginnungagap is the Void of Chaos, where life began. It separates Niflheim and Muspell. In the beginning, before even humans or gods there were three realms: Muspell, Niflheim, and Ginnungagap.In between Muspell and Niflheim two creatures were formed; a gargantuan frost giant, Ymir, and a huge cow, Andumla. Ymir drank some of Andumal’s milk and grew strong. After this development, the first giants sprung out of Ymir’s legs and armpits (Roberts). Then while Andumla was licking the salty ice, it uncovered the first god: Buri. He had a son by a giantess, Bestla. This son, Bor, fathered three sons with the giantess Bestla: Odin, Vili, and Ve (godchecker ink. ). These three got into a fight with Ymir, and managed to kill him; in the way all classic heroes kill monsters.Then, after hauling the frost giant’s body to the middle of Ginningagap, they created the world with him. Using his flesh for land, bones for mountains, and his blood for water. Ymir’s skull formed the vault of the sky. Still-glowing embers from Muspell were used for the sun, moon, and stars. The first tree was Yiggdrasil. It was supposed to support the entire universe. The nine realms were built off it. They then made the first man and woman out of trees, an ash and an elm that they had found washed up on the shore. From the ash and a tree trunk they made Ask, the first man.From the Elm they created the first woman, Embla. At the base of Yiggdrasil lived the three norns. These were the goddesses of destiny. They represent past, present and future, and spin everyone’s destiny. Urd works with past, Verdandi deals with the present, and Skuld decides the future. It was also their job to take care of Yiggdrasil. They watered the land as well as repaired any damage done to the tree. They were very different from the rest of the gods. They didn’t go around having love lives, and getting mixed up in feuds of all sorts of trouble. There is one thing that the norns cannot save Yiggdrasil from.At the end of the world, Ragnarok, the world tree itself will be destroyed. The Viking story of the end of the world is the end of the entire universe. Everyone except a few select gods and two humans perish. Before the great battle between the gods and the evil creatures, a dark age comes upon the earth. For three years it is a dark winter. In this time the world of men will be consumed in war with everyone fighting each other. Family ties are broken, and become friendships forgotten. These relationships are vastly important to Vikings. To have them be destroyed would seem very wrong to any Viking.To top it all off the sun, moon, and stars disappear, leaving the world in darkness. The land is shaken with terrible earthquakes, causing trees to uproot, and mountains to topple. These earthquakes also free the wolf, Fenrir, and his father, the trickster god Loki from their bonds. Fenrir was imprisoned when he grew too big, strong, and wild to be kept as a pet in Asgard. A magical ribbon was the only thing capable of restraining him. But before this, he bit off the hand of his trainer, Tyr. Loki was imprisoned when he was accused correctly of causing the death of Odin’s favorite son, Baldur.The earthquakes also anger the great Midgard Serpent deep in the ocean. The serpent will come on land, and spew its terribly poisonous venom everywhere. Along with these creatures, all of the other enemies of the gods, such as the giants and the demons of Muspell (led by Surt), will come together and attack the worlds of humans, and cross Bifrost to attack the gods. All of the gods will fight to defen d their realm, and that of the humans. However, even with all of their strength, they will fail. Fenrir kills Odin. But Vidar, one of Odin’s many sons, avenges Odin’s death.Thor is poisoned by the Midgard Serpent’s venom after killing it. Surt kills Freyr, because Freyr doesn’t have his sword. After killing Freyr, Surt catches the earth aflame, and burns it all up. Then what is left of the earth will sink beneath the sea. But that is not the end. Not of everything. Yiggdrasil still exists. In it’s branches, two humans, Lif and Lifthrasir (godchecker ink. ), were protected. Also Vidar, leading several other gods have survived. As well as these Baldr and Hod come back from the dead to help recreate earth, and rule the gods.The three most commonly worshiped gods were Frey(r), Odin, and Thor. In several instances statues of the three of them were found together, usually with Thor in the center, and Frey and Odin at his sides. These three covered most o f the needs of the Viking people, which include the needs of farmers, sailors, warriors, poets, and noblemen. It isn’t a surprise why these three were the main gods. As well as Frey, Thor, and Odin there were many other gods. In Norse mythology there are dozens of different gods, each playing a different role. Odin, for a while, was the head god.He is the god of war, revenge, wisdom, poetry, and magic. His belongings are Gungir, a spear that always hits its mark, and Draupnir, a magical gold ring that can duplicate itself. Dwarves made these items, as well as most of the god’s enchanted tools. He also had five animal allies: two ravens, Huginn (thought) and Munninn (memory), two wolves, Freki and Geri, as well as his eight-legged horse, Loki’s son, Sleipnir. He was a bit knowledge-hungry instead of the usual: power-hungry. Once upon a time, Odin gave one of his eyes to the Well of Mimir for the right to drink from the well.The Well bestowed great knowledge to hi m. This Well of Mimir lies at the base of Yiggdrasil. Another time he was said to have hung himself on Yiggdrasil for the right to know all about the runes, so he could teach man, and his gods to be literate and even more powerful. Nobles, warriors, poets and magic-users (magicians, seers, mystics†¦) commonly worshiped Odin. They all gave sacrifices to him. He was worshiped by the nobles because he himself was pretty much god royalty. Odin was also very interested in politics, and these worshippers hoped that he could help them in their thinking.The poets worshiped Odin, because he had drunk some of the poetry mead (alcoholic beverage). This made Odin very talented with his words. So they worshiped him to gain his knowledge of language. He was also a good muse, for those poets lacking inspiration. But if Odin were used as a muse, then of course Odin would be pleased, and help them with their skills. So worshipping Odin was helpful for many poets. Odin was very practiced in the art of magic. So it was thought to be beneficial for any user of magic to ask for his favor. Odin however, wasn’t the only god versed in magical arts.Any other gods who knew much about magic could be called upon. Odin was not the only option. Warriors gave sacrifices to Odin before battles, praying for victory. To gain his favor one would usually give sacrifices of either animals or humans (Roberts). But sometimes this wasn’t good enough. Odin usually got his warrior worshippers killed during battle. Many of these warriors were the dreaded berserkers, who either took a drug-like-substance or riled themselves up so that they fought like fierce animals. As you can see, he clearly had a very violent, brutal, and insane side.The beautiful Valkyries, Odin’s shield maidens, took these dead men away. The dead men were brought to Valhalla, Odin’s hall. There, the warriors fought battles with each other all day, then ate and caroused all night. Then they did it al l over again. Any wounds suffered were miraculously healed at the end of each battle. Odin is officially married to Frigg, but, like many other pagan gods, has many affairs with many other women. He had many children with goddesses and giantesses of all sorts. His most well known children are: Baldr, Thor, Heimdal, Ty, Hod, Vidar, and Valdi.The god who was worshiped the most overall was Thor. This was because he was so easy to relate to, since his talents were those that most people wanted supporting them. He was a fabulous warrior, but he was also the god of farming and storm (and therefore was the weather) god. So he was worshiped by all of the common people: farmers and seamen. Because Thor became really popular in the ninth and tenth centuries, he was the chief rival of Christ, when the Christians were trying to convert all of the Vikings. This was one of the reasons it took so long to convert all of the Vikings.Thor also had some special items that helped him out in battle. His hammer, Mjolnir, iron belt and gauntlet gloves. The hammer never missed its target, and always returns to Thor after it has been thrown, like a boomerang. The iron belt gives Thor the strength needed to throw the heavy hammer; and the gloves give him the strength in his wrists to catch the hammer when it returns to him. Thor was very prepared for physical combat. Hammer amulets (representing Thor) were widely popular throughout Scandinavia. Scads of them have been found in archeological digs. This proves how beloved by the Vikings he was.Also, in later years of the Viking period, during Thor’s â€Å"prime†, he was at the center of monuments, bearing images of him, Odin, as well as Frey. One of the best things about Thor, at least in the minds of the Viking people, is that there were never human sacrifices given to him. At least there were never any records hinting at it. He was a kind god, and protected his people in all of the myths about him. Sacrifices of animals a nd valuable objects (weapons, jewelry, especially fancy tools) were given to him in times of danger from famine or plague. This proves the people’s trust in his kindheartedness. The third most popular god was Frey.He was the god of fertility. Actually the only know male god of fertility. Sacrifices were made to him at weddings to promote the fertility of the couple. Being a god of fertility also made him the â€Å"ecology god†, which made him god of meadows, farming, fisheries, and food in general. Since his father is Niord, the sea god, Frey has some power over the sea as well. Because of this position, he became the god of ship builders too. His magically special object is a ship. It can shrink and be folded up so that he can carry it around in his pocket. But still be large enough, when unfolded, to carry all of the gods.Frey is associated with ship funerals. Wealthier worshippers of Frey would be buried on land in ships filled with typical loot, which was a type of tcommon Viking burial. He was forced to give away his sword in the long arduous process of wooing his beautiful giantess wife, Gerd. So, worshippers of Frey don’t carry swords to honor and respect him. As well as not tolerating swords, outlaws of any kind are not permitted in his presence. Frey had a twin sister: Freya, who was the most widely celebrated of all the pagan goddesses. She is at the center of many myths. She was, like her brother, a goddess of fertility.She was also a goddess of magic known as Sied (Wolf, 151), love, and the leader of the Valkyries. She was married to Od (who might have been a version of Odin), but he left her for another. She was sad, as she had truly loved him, but was strong enough to move on easily. She had rather loose morals, and â€Å"slept around† quite a bit. Using her sexual prowess she was able to get the necklace of sensuality from the four dwarves who had made it. As well as being the head of the Valkyries, she was the head o f the Thedisir, a group of goddesses who are attached to a particular place, or type of object.This made her closely connected with guardian spirits otherwise known as fylgjur. These spirits protect certain special places, such as places of natural beauty, and the homes of their worshippers. Bragi is the god who recites poetry. He is the god of all bards and storytellers. He loves to learn, and promotes others to do likewise. His wife, Idun grows the fruit of immortality: golden apples. The laboring god, Weyland is a blacksmith. He is the God of experience, and a master craftsman. He was created because the people of Iceland wanted a god that wasn’t warlike, and who was actually a useful person. (Meadows) Weyland was that god.The god of justice and law was Tyr. He was a loyal man, and fought for his leader, usually Odin. He looses a hand to Fenrir because he trusts him. This shows his ability to blindly trust, and think the best of people. That was his best trait. Though when he did learn something foul about someone, they’d better beware because one-handed or not, he is a valiant warrior. Heimdall was the guardian of the rainbow bridge, Bifrost. He had a special horn to sound, warning the other gods, when he saw Surt’s great army approaching, announcing that the great battle of Ragnarok was to commence. He is the son of Odin and the nine wave sisters.Odin’s official wife, Frigg was the mother of all, protector of children, and associated with child bearing and the home. She has a sacred â€Å"Distaff of life† that she uses to spin for the â€Å"Fabric of the Universe†. She has the power to see into the future, and is the best of all the gods in this area. Loki is the trickster god. He was both a friend and an enemy to the gods. He is always stirring up trouble. He is the parent of many of the great monsters. As an outcome of his affair with Angrbodi (a beautiful giantess) he fathered the death goddess, Hel, the monste rous wolf, Fenrir, and the midgard serpent.His only legitimate offspring was Narfi, his son. Narfi doesn’t play a very large role. When he transformed into a mare, as part of a plan to save Freya, he begot Odin’s mount, Sleipnir One time Loki got into too much trouble. When he tricked the blind Hod into killing his beautiful brother Baldyr (sons of Odin), it was decided that he had gone too far. Because of his numerous crimes, he was tied up with Narfi’s guts, and imprisoned in a cave with only his wife to ease his suffering, until Ragnarok, when he rides with Surt to destroy the gods. As the Daughter of Loki, Hel had a lot to live up to.In anticipation of her evil tendencies, Odin sent her to Niflheim, and made her the goddess of the underworld, and the dead. She doesn’t like it down there very much, and resents Odin for this. To get back at him she also joins her father and Surt for Ragnarok. Surt was â€Å"The Destroyer†. He is the leader of the fire demons, and is a key player in the final battle of Ragnarok. He miraculously survives Ragnarok, so that he can do it all over next time round. No one was said to worship him. He was the closest thing to Christianity’s Lucifer. The Vikings had to have places to worship, or not worship in some cases like Surt.Most of the Vikings worshiped outside. In holy groves and meadows that had rocks, small hills, and swamps where they placed their offerings. These places were sometimes specific for gods, but most of the time the places were just general places of worship. As well as these outdoor places of worship there were also in-town places such as holy rocks, wells and other objects. In different places, at certain times worshippers had festivals to celebrate the gods. One such festival was held every nine years. Nine men, as well as nine each of different sorts of animals (all male) were sacrificed.Their blood was presented to an idol, and their bodies were strung up in a near by sacred grove. Sacrifices that were given to the gods were mostly animals such as dogs, horses, and farm animals. They were thrown into rivers, tossed off cliffs, and hung on trees in sacred groves for their blood to drain out into the holy ground. Human sacrifices were made sometimes. It was not an every-day occasion. Only for special occasions such as a festival, when a god’s help was especially needed, or when there was another important event, such as the death of an important man.There were often temples for the gods in Viking villages. The local chieftain or leader maintained each temple. The heads of the other main households always aided them. A classic example of a Viking funeral is this: the body is cleaned, dressed with normal clothing, and buried in the ground with items the person might need in the afterlife. Such as food, drink, weapons, tools, and other such things. There would often be dead animals such as horses, dogs, chickens, and sometimes their wife/ser vant/slave. Often times the dead would be set in an underground room in a bed with all of their belongings around them.Some Vikings believed that the spirit lived on as a ghost. Either in the underground tomb their body was left in, in a special haunted hill with the rest of the family, or close to their family as a protector. The alternate funeral would be to burn the body. This was especially common for Odin’s worshippers, and people in general who died in battle, so that they would be sent straight up to Valhalla, and to that fabulous hall of fallen warriors. The Vikings weren’t all that different from any other polytheistic religion of the time. Most of their gods represented desirable human qualities; just like the Greek/Roman gods.They had a creation story, and a destruction story (apocalypse). They bury and burn their dead; just like we do today. The Vikings also believed in a sort of heaven, and in ghosts. Their religion isn’t all that different from any other. They aren’t barbaric pagans; they weren’t the only culture to sacrifice humans and animals to their gods. They Viking religion is similar to other religions, but at the same time it has it’s own mythology and myths that are very unique. The Norse religion is just a religion, with its special characteristics that have transferred from the Viking way of life over into their religion.They needed strong, warlike gods because during the age of Vikings there was a lot of fighting going on. The Vikings made their gods able to defend them form the other evils in the world; ones that the Vikings couldn’t take care of without help. Like any other people would have if they lived in the same conditions. The Christian God of the day would smite badly behaved people, and sent them to hell. The Crusades, that the whole of Christian Europe was involved in, was all about fighting. Norse mythology and religion had their Gods constantly fighting he giants and monste rs; it was a way the Vikings expressed their part in all of the violence.Bibliography: Godchecker Ink. â€Å"Viking Gods of Norse Mythology. † www. godchecker. com, January 31, 2010 < http://www. godchecker. com/pantheon/norse-mythology. php >. This resource was mostly helpful. It was a good reference point. Its facts were all very straightforward, and it had information about almost all of the places and people mentioned in Norse mythology. The one problem with the site is that it was written in a very modern style. With innuendoes, and annoying, uneducated slang and inferior language. I used it only to reference my other sources.Jovinelly, Joan, and Netelkos, Jason. The crafts and culture of the Vikings. New York, Ny: The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc, 2002. Most of this book was craft projects for children. But in the page or two of information about Viking religion, I was told about the most important aspects of Viking religion. Which was very important for the organi zation of my paper. It also had all of the things that I knew that had to be in my paper. I don’t want to be less informative than a children’s book.Meadows, Edmund. â€Å"The Pre Ragnarok Viking Gods. www. viking-z. org, January 31, 2010 < http://www. viking-z. org/vikg. html >. This source was a bit overwhelming. It had a lot of information that I used, but a lot of things mixed in that either was a bit too deep, or that were about actually practicing the Viking religion. So I was forced to look through it all, and pick out the things that were relevant to my paper. But on the bright side, the information I found was very good, and it helped me a great deal with my research.Roberts, Judson. â€Å"Myth and Religion. † www. strongbowsaga. com, date accessed lt;http://www. strongbowsaga. com/introduction. asp>. This essay I found on the strongbow saga website was very useful. It had important information on all of the topics I planned to cover in the co urse of my paper. There was a detailed account on all of the main gods and supernatural beings. As well as information on the worship practices of the Vikings. There was also, included in the manuscript, the best description I could find on the creation of the earth story. With a decent telling of the end of the world.Simpson, Jacqueline. Everyday Life In The Viking Age. London, England: Jarrold and Sons Ltd, 1967. This resource was very similar to Daily Life of the Vikings. It had a lot of the same information. The main difference was that it was older and contained pictures relating to the gods, or rites described in the passage. But it, as was the former, was very useful, and had a lot of information. Including a shocking account of a Viking funeral. That was one of the best things about these two books. They had passages from the journals of people who had witnessed Viking religious rites. It was good to get first hand accounts.Wolf, Kirsten. Daily Life of The Vikings. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2004. This book was exceedingly helpful. It gave me a lot of invaluable information on subjects the other sources hardly touched on. Such as the sources for all of the knowledge we have of Viking religion today. It also tells about each of the important gods, and Viking practices involving worship, funerals, and the dead. It turns out that the Vikings were very superstitious of their dead people. It was very entertaining to read about.Unknown. â€Å"Meet the Gods and Goddesses of the Norse Pantheon. www. wizardrealm. com, Janurary 31, 2010 < http://www. wizardrealm. com/norse/gods. html >. This went into a lot of detail about each and every one of the known Norse gods. It was very useful in the portion of my report where I was talking about all of the important Viking gods. But sadly, it wasn’t very special, and didn’t tell me anything that I couldn’t have gotten from another of my resources. The best thing I can say about it is that is condensed the information about each god nicely. But there always has to be one (or two) of those.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Nokia Case Study

Business Interests vs German Pressures L/O/G/O www. themegallery. com What are the trends in mobile handset industry? Nokia is the largest mobile handset manufacturer in the world with a 40% market share. Industry enjoyed healthy margins however since 2001, industry is marked by declining prices and week margins making companies look at low-cost production options. Outsourced manufacturing of handsets Demands in the developed markets like US & Europe has saturated Significant growth has been noticed in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Africa, China, India and South Korea. Demands of low cost phone in the emerging market has increased Average selling prices fell by 35%, which is directly impacting the revenue What is Nokia’s strategy and how had globalization changed its way of operation? High cost manufacturing to low cost manufacturing regions Dominant position in emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China. High growth of in Middle East, South East Asia, Africa, China and consecration on low cost countries Moving to the locations where Govt. s more supportive in granting huge subsidies Impact of globalization : Shifting of manufacturing facilities Operations are taking place at selective places(where both the suppliers and the partners are present to give impetus to over all productivity) Was the German backlash against Nokia justified? No country would prefer a MNC like Nokia to close its plant and hence affecting 2300 odd workers and their families. )Job less count to grow up , b)the overall economic development of the region t o get affected In this particular scenario it was obvious for German backlash as the operating plant is a profit making unit and not a sick unit. It was justified more because the Nokia authority had failed to explain clearly the reason for the closure of the plant to the employees Nokia’s refusal to enter at any kind of discussion with the German authorities to find a mid way to continue the operations. How can nation make themselves more competitive? Cheap labor cost(26$in case of Germany compared to 4. 2$ in china) Supportive govt. with subsidies to establish a business. Lower corporate taxes Less bureaucracy. What, if any, were the flaws in Nokia’s approach to announcing and handling its plant closure? The flaws are : No clear explanation for the closure. Thousands of people were left jobless. Refusal to think of an alternative to continue the plant. What can be company do now for damage control? Compensate employees Discuss the situation Shift employees to Romania. Try to understand the culture of Germany and be sympathetic to their cultural practices and perceptions. Can return back some portion of subsidies. Conclusion Apart from the concept of Globalization, big corporation should consider corporate social responsibility, not as Nokia did to shut down the plant which leads towards unemployment just for the high profit even than Bochum plant was make huge profit margin of Euro 90,000 per production worker out of Euro 7. 2 Billions Global profit. Thank You! Harsahl Buranpuri L/O/G/O www. themegallery. com

Friday, September 27, 2019

Christian wordview Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Christian wordview - Essay Example I Corinthians 12:3-6 – These texts show that people, who have the Holy Spirit do not curse Jesus, but praise him. In addition to that, they show that the Spirit gives different people varying gifts, but all for serving the Lord. John 17:20-26 – In these verses we find Jesus praying that believers should be one with God and fellow Christians so that unbelievers may see and believe. Further, Jesus prays that believers may one day ascend to where he is and see his glory. These verses are important and can shape the perspective of a Christian about the world. From the texts, it is evident that God intends humans to have a better life than we currently have. For this reason, Jesus came down to earth humbled himself, taught disciples, and commissioned them to preach the same good news to the entire world. The commission that the disciples receive involves preaching and baptizing those who believe in the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit. This implies that man’s life ought to have a purpose, to believe in God, which is marked by the Holy Spirits presence. Genesis 1 and 2 – These two chapters of the Bible describe creation. Chapter 1 details the process of creation in seven days while chapter shows God creating Adam and Eve and settling them in the Garden of Eden. Romans 8:18-25 – Paul expresses his concerns over the frustration that creation was subjected to because of sin. However, he provides assurance that Christ will liberate creation and asks readers to trust and have faith in Him. Colossians 1:15-20 – These passages depict Christ as the master architect of the creation process. What is more, God allowed His glory to be shown through Christ, that man might be liberated and the beauty of creation before sin be revealed. These texts principally talk about creation showing how beautiful the process was and that Christ will

Thursday, September 26, 2019

California Gold Rush Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

California Gold Rush - Essay Example Many people became wealthy but many returned home with very little money. The Gold Rush transformed San Francisco from a tiny village consisting of tents to a town with roads, churches and other buildings. Laws were created and government was established in the region. New transportation methods like steamships and railroads were created. Agriculture became widespread throughout the state. There were negative aspects of the Gold Rush as Native Americans were attacked and confined to the reservations. The gold mining also caused environmental harm. This paper explores the meaning and nature of the Gold Rush by examining the first hand accounts of James ayers and William Shaw. James Ayers had a brief career as a miner and visited California in 1849. William Shaw was an Englishman living South Australia when he heard of the California gold rush. He visited San Diego and San Francisco. He began a long trip to the gold fields and as prospectors in the international community of the camps. San Francisco was a tiny settlement before the start of the rush. The residents would leave their ships and businesses to join the Gold Rush. Many merchants and new people also arrived in the city. The population of San Francisco exploded from one thousand in 1848 to twenty five thousand in 1850. James Ayer says that gambling was the main business at the Portsmouth Square. The streets of San Francisco in 1849 were alive with people from all parts of the world. San Francisco had a magnificent harbor which had no level ground beyond the narrow rim that formed the crescent beach (Ayers 31). Thousands of profiteers were more than willing to separate a miner from his gold. Gold was a magnet that attracted many people from all over the world. San Francisco is described as a cultural mecca by Ayer (Pg. 31). The city had theaters, opera and more newspapers than any city in the world except London. The collision of cultures was its

2 short journal entries Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

2 short journal entries - Essay Example Secrecy, by contrast, concerns what citizens may know, and the citizen is not told what may not be known.† Government restrictions on press credentialing as documented in the June 2014 study, and the government’s de facto position that embedded journalists have reduced First Amendment rights, as highlighted by Manning’s editorial, point to crisis of the free press, one of the most fundamental institutions in a democratic society. First and most obviously: in 2014, corporate media continue to reproduce what Hall termed â€Å"official ideologies of the status quo†- not simply reflecting a â€Å"consensual† style of politics but also reinforcing it by blocking certain kinds of events and actors from achieving news worthy status. It’s well known that burning fossil fuels in the form of coal, oil, and natural gas releases carbon dioxide into the air. Less understood is that a quarter of this carbon dioxide- about twenty trillion pounds, every year- is absorbed by oceans. Governments and international organizations are least concerned with damages caused by the burning of fossil fuels, and this negligent behavior of the policy makers have resulted in the unprecedented increase of ocean acidification. The top ten countries and their expected assistance (in millions of current US dollars) are as follows: Israel 3,100; Afghanistan 2,200; Egypt 1,600; Pakistan 1,200; Nigeria 693; Jordan 671; Iraq 573; Kenya 564; Tanzania 553; Uganda 456 Three former General Electric bankers- Dominick Carollo, Steven Goldberg, and Peter Grimm- had been convicted in 2012 for rigging auctions of municipal bonds, essentially stealing from projects intended to build public schools, hospitals, libraries, and nursing homes in virtually every US state. Exploiting the world’s resources and governments with criminal impunity, a wealthy elite- sporting an estimated $32 trillion in tax-exempt offshore havens- are the deep dark secret of plutocratic imperialism, operating

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Democracy and the Current Situation of Latin America Research Paper

Democracy and the Current Situation of Latin America - Research Paper Example These definitions are just two among the many but are representations of its broadest sense. Though no matter the word â€Å"democracy† is defined, it has no universal established definition. Different democratic countries all over the world have their own democracies in varying degrees. Despite the differences based on specific experiences of each nation, democracy is seen to be distinguished by mainly two characteristics. First is the equality among its people while the other is the freedom to what it is to be fully human. A very informative case of all the other aspect of democracy can be seen through Latin America with a special focus on countries namely Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, and Mexico. These countries meet the conditions of a democratic regime. However, continental regions of Latin America are confronting serious dilemmas brought by their current democracy which is lacking in quality. Berkman and Cavallo’s (2006) research has found out that democracy is one of the top 10 that challenges the regions of Latin America. ...  Given the lack of effective political leaders that should govern and impose what it means to be democratic, the people of Latin America suffer from wide range problems, may it be individual or social. For the reason that Latin American nations have ineffective democratic governments, democracy comes closer to its negation. Instead of equality, it is inequality which shapes the said regions. Despite the unceasing conscious efforts of strengthening the political rights of the people, Latin America is extremely suffering from inequality as well as extreme poverty. The distinction between the rich and the poor becomes now clearly evident. This difference is even reinforced by different factors. Due to poverty, starvation is witnessed from the different regions. These regions lack the access and resources to the basic necessities. Not all are fortunate to have the right to education for it has been now a privilege amo ng those who can afford to get themselves educated. With the lack of education comes along the hindrance to employment. All these further lead to increase of poverty level which then, contributes more to all the other problems faced by the Latin Americans. Since all these are related and connected like a spider web, less and less are having the lives they should have as promised by the democratic system. Each day is getting worse and worse for the failure of the State of functioning properly to its people. Freedom is no longer attainable. Freedom to what it is to be fully human is now only for those who have all the means and all the capital. People feel suppressed with all the absence of their rights.

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Information on databases Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Information on databases - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that databases are found anywhere structured data needs to be stored and referenced for future use. This includes places like schools, hospitals, businesses, libraries, banks and even at the home. Tables are the basic entities that store structured data in the form of rows and columns. Forms are designed to make the entry of data into tables easier. Queries are used to make searches on tables based on specific criteria and the output can be given in the form of a report that clearly shows the results of the query. The researcher states that he uses a timetable to store data about my classroom activities and he uses a paper based table to store records of things he needs to do during the week. This includes such items as shopping for groceries, studying and places to visit. It has two columns of time and activity and several rows. Paper and database forms differ in the following ways. Database forms are electronic and thus can handle more da ta than paper can by several orders of magnitude. Paper forms are limited in their functionality, unlike database forms which allow functionality search as carrying out quick searches, sorting, delete and undelete and etc. Database forms can allow an audit trail to indicate who accessed what and when. Paper forms cannot allow this to happen. Database forms are more persistent and more difficult to destroy, unlike paper forms because of easing of copying and storage.

Monday, September 23, 2019

Unit 3IP Green Power Sources Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Unit 3IP Green Power Sources - Research Paper Example Inherent conversion losses that lead to energy wastage also result from the power distribution and usage (Patrick, 5). Given that the sum of energy is constant, energy conservation can be achieved by maintaining high efficiencies in the machines used during energy conversion in order to minimize the amount of energy wasted during conversion. Adaptive power control can be adopted at the user end that will substantially reduce energy wastage and loss through the use of light loads. With adaptive power control, a tremendous amount of energy can be conversed since there is an automatic monitoring and control of energy consumption by optimizing the light load efficiency. The current appliances used at home only utilizes about 20-50% of load for a significant amount of time leading to lots of energy wastage. Adaptive control ensures an optimized light load efficiency through the use of automatic switching of the appliances and devices (Patrick, 23). Fossil fuel includes oil, natural gas and coal. The combustion fossil fuel generates high amount of energy that is considered to be of high efficiency. Fossil fuel is easily available and their conversion into a usable form is simple. Coal is cheap as compared to the other energy sources and can be easily transported from one point to the other. Transportation of oil and natural gas over long distances is also easy through the use of pipelines. Coal is plentiful and is easily available in addition to its low costs of extraction and processing. A major disadvantage of fossil fuel is pollution. The processing and conversion of fossil fuel into a usable energy form releases hazardous gasses in addition to the greenhouse gasses released during their consumption. The greenhouse gasses released causes global warming and acidic rain. Oil spills in deep sea destroys the aquatic ecosystem. Oil drilling and excavation is quite

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Historical Interview on Nigerian Fashion Essay Example for Free

Historical Interview on Nigerian Fashion Essay In line with my background, I found it imperative to carry out this interview in Africa. This was made possible via Skype, as my granddad and mum had a 2 hours session with me on this topic, â€Å"How clothing was obtained in our family during their time and their sense of costume while they were still champions in the village. Other relative questions they attempted to answer in this interview are the nature of clothing production during their time, and how they had influenced their style of dressing. The interview was divided into two parts as clearly indicated above. The first questions were answered by granddad, while the later questions were answered by my grand mum. The era in focus is before colonization. It was an era commonly tagged the ‘pre-colonial’. Nigeria at this time had a very unique sense of costume, basically defined by the resources found within the African environment. They made do with what they had as there was no serious western or colonial influence. FIRST PART INTERVIEW WITH GRANDDAD This interview was conducted with my grandfather who joined me on Skype last night. My granddad is at his late 90, and had experienced different eras in Nigeria. With his wealth of experience as one of the few enlightened African man at his age, he comfortably took me on a ride to the past. In this interview, M represents the interviewer, and D represents the respondent M: What is your general view about African fashion? D: well, African Fashion is unique, decent and special. African fashion communicates in different ways. If you see a king in Africa, you wouldn’t want to ask questions before you you accept that he is a king. The royalty is often defined by their costumes. This is also applicable to native doctors, magicians and soothsayers. African fashion and costumes are original, only that lately, there has been an infiltration of western culture which seems to have adulterated the originality of our costumes, and the era of Obente, skin shoes, skin bags and cloths are beginning to go into extinction. M: Would you have preferred to go with the older costumes as against what’s trending now? D: I still wear traditionally made cloths even up till today. I’m a title holder of my community, and this position is often defined by one’s adherence to African values. I see Costumes as one of those values we must not discard. M: Can you succinctly tell me how clothing was obtained in those? D: Well, in those days, men would usually have little to cover their lower region while the women had a piece for their upper region and another for their lower region. Cloths were mainly gotten from animal skin and sometimes fibres made from trees. Usually, most of us made these cloths by ourselves, and sometimes we buy them. The means of obtaining them could as well differ, depending on who is involved. Then, we used to have trade by barter. Because I was enlightened and had government job, we would buy our cloths with some kind of money called Anderi; then, there was no naira and kobo. We were also engaged in trade by barter with some of the things we had. For instance if I needed a piece of skin to make my shoes or cloth, I would put up my yam or oil for sale. Most of the time, cloths were bought during festive period, like the New yam festival and the Akatakpa festival. Ordinarily, people find it difficult looking for what to buy as fashion was really not the priority as a then. The wealthy ones as of that time wore more beautiful deigns on their animal skin or bark cloth adorned with several accessories. It was always the influential families looked more adorned. M: Were you engaged in the actual buying and selling of cloths? Have you ever gone to the market looking for cloths? D: Like I said earlier, the African man in those days could wear just one piece of skin for days, so the issue of going to the market was really not there. These skins were locally made. The only time we started going to our local markets to buy cloths was when cloths were imported into Africa by the Portuguese and Britain. It was after then, that we began to wear what we have today as cloths, even though it had very low patronage as at then. M: Thank you dad: D: Thank you my daughter and face your studies squarely. SECOND PART INTERVIEW WITH GRAND MUM This interview was also conducted via the same medium (Skype) Here, ‘MM’ will represent the respondent while the interviewer’s remains M’ M: How was clothing made when you were growing up? MM: Clothing was usually made from animal’s skins and back of trees. This means that livestock and economic threes as well as other threes in the forest were sources of clothing. For the making of animal skin, the fur or hair would be shaved clean and compressed to soften, and then it would be tanned. This process unstiffens the hide, which becomes natural leather. After this leather is produced, it is either decorated with shapes and outlines, shells, beads or left plain, this could be as a result of choice of who it’s been made for. Leather clothing could be simple to make as it takes few days to be made. Bark cloth on the other hand was made by peeling off the inner bark of trees, after that is done; it is beaten until it becomes soft. Bark cloth was fashioned into skirts and robes long enough to float around. Then, we would use the fig tree for making bark cloth. Patterned bark cloth garments were made from the different colored bark of various trees, which were combined to create designs, in addition, the bark cloth was always painted for aesthetic purpose. At a point, we went into Batik cloth, which has been important to many African women. Here, pattern is applied to fabric to make it look beautiful. It is resist-dyeing method involving coating fabric with a dye-resistant substance and dipping the fabric into colored dye. I could recall how we used to make the dye-resistant substance from cassava root or rice flour and the chemicals called alum. The substance is boiled with water to make paste out of it for various designs. Once the paste is dry, the fabric is dipped into dye in large clay pots or pits. At the end of the day, a beautiful African fabric is made. M: How has this kind of cloth making influence your style of fashion in those days? MM: It depends on what you mean by style of fashion though. We have had very good sense of costume in those days. All our locally made shoes and bags must always have a touch of the design on our batik. The Batik design was usually seen as the type of clothing that must not be worn by men, because of the beautiful designs. Additionally, because the African woman, or better still, the Nigerian woman applies a lot of facial makeup, which she called ‘Uri’, she would always patronize Batiks that were beautifully designed. M: So when was considered the most appropriate time to wear Batik? MM: Anytime, but mostly during special events. In those days, if you wanted a man to respect you, then you must go with very well designed Batik.

Saturday, September 21, 2019

Curbing Child Labour In African Countries Young People Essay

Curbing Child Labour In African Countries Young People Essay 1.0 Definition of Child Labour The International Labor Organization (ILO, 2004) defined child labour as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental development. It refers to work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and that is harmful to their physical and mental development. Also, child labour refers to any working activity that is physically, mentally, socially or morally harmful and dangerous to children, with interference in their education by depriving them of the chance to attend school, prematurely obliging them to leave school, or requiring them to combine schooling with extremely long and heavy work. 2.0 The Negative Effect of Child Labour on Human Capital Accumulation and Economic Development One of the most significant problems in developing countries especially in Africa is the unpleasant incident of child labour. Children do labour to earn money by sacrificing their health, their education, and their normal development to maturity. The child labour exists prevalently in most countries in Africa. It has been a deep-rooted evil phenomenon, which delay the development of human capital accumulation and economic growth. Most African countries are lying on a stagnation situation or downward spiral in which poor performance in human development has been liable to poor economic growth and poverty, which consecutively discouraged human development achievements. Nowadays, while most of developed countries are enjoying wealth and prosperity, some of developing nations and most third world countries in Africa are struggling themselves to combat the problem of child labour. The prevalence of child labour causes the children to occupy their lifetime with working, leaving school and education behind. The main aim for these children to work would be the wages gain from working in order to support household income. However, because of the time in a day is limited to 24 hours, there will be high probability for a working child to forgo schooling if they want to concentrate working to help their parents income. As working children become an adult without a sound education, their future generation soon is likely to do the same duty as they were child ago. As a result, there will be a lack of human capital improvement in one country even after generations, and thus in long-term will bring about stagnant economic development. 3.0 Child Labour in African Countries The ILO is an international organisation charged to count with child labor. The ILO reported in 2004 that 218 million children engaged in economic activity globally, excluding child domestic labour (UNICEF, 2006). Within this number, 126 million or one in every six children aged 5-17 years were trapped in hazardous work. The ILO estimated that children represent 40-50 percent of all victims of forced labour, or 5.7 million children were caught in bonded and forced labour. Available data suggested that more boys than girls were economically active, but girls who are engaged in household chores and sibling childcare not be accounted for in these statistics (ILO, 2002). Children who were working in household of a third party or employer are particularly at risk to abuse and exploitation. The ILO estimates that more girls below age 16 were in domestic (household) service than in any other category child labour. African continent has the highest percentage of economically active children. The ILO study showed that 41 percent of children in Africa continent are devoting to labour work (ILO, 2003). The sectors where child labour is most employed are agriculture, fishing, hunting, and forestry. More than 30 percent of African children aged between 10 and 14 are working in agriculture sector. In most countries which are producing raw materials, children are used to work on agriculture estates of cocoa, coffee, and cotton. Also in Africa, the incident of child labour varies among areas in the continent. Child labour occupies nearly most of the teenagers population in the countries of central Africa. Meanwhile it is nearly absolutely lacking in South Africa, and the similar situation occurs in the nations of northern Africa. As stated by the ILO in 2003, there are 400,000 child labourers in Rwanda. Within this number, there are 120,000 are considered to be engaged in the worst forms of child labour, while a number of 60,000 identified as child domestic workers. In Rwanda, children are also involved in prostitution in several large cities. The report showed that 94 percent of these child prostitutes lived in extreme poverty stricken, 40 percent had missing both of their parents, and 41 percent had never enroll themselves in schooling. In Zambia, according to the Zambian, there are a number of 595,000 child labourers in the country. Of these, 58 percent are below age 15, thus, disallowed for any kind of employment as controlled by the Employment of Young Persons Act. According to the ILO in 2003, as much as 1.9 million children in Kenya, with age ranges between 5 and 17, are child labourers. Only 3.2 percent of this population has accomplished a secondary level (school) of education, and 12.7 percent had never been to school. In Kenya, during the peak coffee picking season, it was approximated that up to 30 percent of the coffee pickers are under age 15. In Tanzania, it has been estimated that 4,600 children working in small-scale mining. It is common to find children as young as eight digging thirty-meter underground in mines for at least eight hours per day. It is usually been carried out without proper light and ventilation, and child workers are exposed to risk of injury or death underground. Furthermore, in Zimbabwe, it was approximated that 5 million children with ages between 5 and 17 are being compelled to labour work. While, a survey conducted on child labourers in small-scale mines in Madagascar found that 58 percent that population were aged 12 or under. In addition, only a third had being exposed to learn skills, and half were belonged to families that trapped in poverty stricken with bad living conditions. Moreover in Africa, a number of 120,000 children below the age of 18 have been forced into military labors such as child soldiers, or military messengers, cooks, porters, or sex slaves. An amount ranged 10,000-15,000 children from Mali are working on plantations in CÃ ´te dIvoire. Most of them are victims of child trafficking. It is estimated that 50,000 children are working as household servant in Morocco. In West Africa, an estimated 35,000 children are in commercial sexual exploitation. The Sub-Saharan Africa is the geographical area of the world with the highest rate of child labour. As stated by the ILO report, the high populations growth rate in Sub-Saharan Africa corresponds with the increasing of poverty in the region (ILO, 2004). In addition, the HIV/Aids outspread hinders all effort against child labour although the report does show clear evident of improvement in gross school enrolments, where the primary school registrations in the area have raised by 38 percent between 1990 and 2000. The Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported that in 2002, regarding child trafficking in Togo, asserted that the governments of western African countries had done fragile enforcement to curb the prevalent trafficking of child labour (Human Rights Watch, 2003). As reported by HRW, the local crisis of children trafficking was brought about by HIV/Aids. A large number of these children are orphans, compelled to work for survival after the death of their HIV- positive parents. The HRW asserted that children are forced into labour work in several countries in western Africa. The traffickers attract the children by promising them with professional training as well as sponsored schooling. The vast majority of these children were trafficked by neighbouring countries, such as Burkina Faso and Mali. The incidence of child labour trafficking occurs in many paths, as the government didnt execute strict enforcement to ban it. Girls were sold to work in the night markets, and during the day as baby sitt ers, and victims are generally subjected to physical violence and psychological abuse. The countries of destination of child trafficking in general have power over economies of western Africa. The report by Institute of Tropical Agriculture in 2002 showed that 70 percent of world cocoa production made in western Africa (Boas, M. Huser, A., 2006). From this statistics, 43 percent world cocoa production supplied by Cote dIvoire, 15 percent in Ghana, 7 percent in Nigeria, 4 percent in Cameroon, and the remains 1 percent in other regions in western Africa. In these supplier countries, the ripe cocoa is collected from plantation and processed by children. Children aged between 5 and 15, all came from poor background, were lured by the traffickers to leave their countries, even with forged labour contracts, were sold to the owners of agricultural estates. Often the children realised of their condition only afterwards, when they are forced into sheds and locked up inside. Children who ran away from the plantations disclosed of how they were victimised, exploited and tortured , and never received any pay. 4.0 Major Determinant of Child Labor Child labour is an issue in worldwide concern, especially in least developed countries in Africa, with many governments officially declares laws that protect children from labour work. There is no single root of child labour in Africa, and the important factors that cause children to become labourers are wide-ranging. Indeed, the particular conditions will differ depending to the different background between children. In spite of this, the determinants of child labour may be categorised into two groups based on 1) demand determinants or market mechanism, and 2) supply determinants. This classification is based on the works by Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (Edmonds, E. V., 2003; Bhalotra, S., 2003). Demand side determinants are the factors which encourage an employer to employ children into labour work. While, supply side determinants are the factors which induce the parents or head of the households to make a decision about the exploitation of children s time into labour work. Demand side determinants of child labour are the composition of labour market, the current production technology, the weak law-making or weak implementation of legislation, childrens beneficial features for a specific work, small amount paid to children with extra working hours, and little bargaining power of children. In contrast, the supply side determinants of child labour origin from the household background. These include a range of socio-economic variables such as poverty, lack of educational and public facilities, unemployment of adults, and population pressure. These variables are associated with the decision making of the household to send the children to work. 5.0 Curbing the Child Labour in Africa: A Few Recommendations on Development Policy for Human Capital Improvement Most countries in Africa prohibited the employ of children in economic activities, especially the worst form of child labour. This was due to its bad consequences of the children in their present and future time. However, most of law enforcement failed to curb child labour. Labour intensive industries and agricultural sectors will always welcome a huge demand for cheap labour, in other word, child workers. Moreover, parents are willingly to send their children working to increase household income in order to survive in poverty stricken. Drawing upon the historical experience of several countries, both economic factors and legal restrictions played a role in reducing child labour, although legislation appears to have been less significant. I suggested that banning child labour through law enforcement and legislation is an inappropriate action. This is because this action will reduce the welfare of people. The primary purpose of working is to earn money, to earn living. Parents submitt ed their children to labour work to help families income, to maintain their life survival. After studying the conditions child labour in several African countries, I would like to suggest some development policies that can be implemented by their governments in order to curb child labour, then improving the welfare of children in order to develop high human capital in Africa in the future. Those recommended policies are: 5.1 Reducing Household Poverty The first and major cause of child labour is poverty. Absolute poverty as a synonym for extreme poverty is the lack of enough resources (such as financial resources) to ensure of obtaining basic life necessities. The poverty is concerned with the income level of the household. A strong negative relationship exists between child labour and total income of a household. The additional level of income will reduce the probability of a child to work. Most of the incident of child labour as a parental decision, where parents will only send their children to work when compelled to do so by poverty stricken. Therefore, when parents income surpasses some threshold, parents tend to withdraw the children out of labour market (Basu, K. Van, P. H., 1998). A historical analysis has shown that the decline of child labour was highly associated with the rise of married womens participation in the labour force (Cunningham, H., 2000). This is because the rise of married womens participation in the labo ur force had caused the childrens contribution (income) to the economy of the working class family become less significant. I would like to suggest for governments to implement the minimum wage legislation on adults. The increase in adults wage will decrease the population of child in labour market since fewer children in a family will have to work. The increase in income by implementing the minimum wage legislation will reduce the frequency of child labour. Therefore, the implementation of minimum wage laws policy in African countries is an appropriate action in checking the stagnation of child labour. I would like to recommend for the government to increase employment opportunities for women. Government ought to stimulate sectors of economies that highly associated with women, such as laundry, cleaning, cooking, and sewing. Poor families must also be allowed to have loan from financial institution, so that they will have opportunities to start their own businesses and economic activities. This will be an embarkment of a large scale poverty alleviation program and target income support, in purpose to keep children away from work market and attending schools. 5.2 Providing Better Quality of Education for Children Evidence from communities areas in Ghana showed that the incidence of high childrens employment and the low school enrolment is caused by the bad quality of education (Ray, R., 2002). This has led to the lack of importance of education for children as viewed by most parents. The likelihood of full-time school attending could be increased by reducing the cost of schooling. The expansion of school allocation by government, which reduces the opportunity-cost of schooling, would decrease the number of working children, but attending school (Cigno, A., Rosati, F. C. Tzannatos, Z., 2002). I would like to advise for the government that the education policies should aim to improve the quality of schooling, and expansion in schooling subsidy must prove impressive in order to encourage parents keeping their children in schools rather than submitting them employed. Government policies should center on improving school infrastructure facilities and quality of schooling especially in rural areas. The quality of education will determine the parents awareness concerning the education route as a way to advance life status. The low quality of education will dispute the need of schooling for their children if to have a promising future with a stable and well-paid job. This kind of judgment is normally found among people communities with low income level because their occupations are commonly requiring no formal education attainment, but basic skills as a cheap labour. I would like to put forward for the reduction of costs of schooling. This is purposely to reduce opportunity cost of schooling, in term of payment (salary) obtained from working children. Scholarships for schooling students should not for only school tuition fees, but must cover other benefits, such as school accessories like school uniforms and free meals in order to make education more attractive. The school enrolment, especially primary school enrolment is most essential for children to ensure of obtaining basic and necessary education before jumping into the higher stages of education. Students who are obliged to attend a longer years of education by compulsory education laws will make higher wages in their future as compared to others with less years of education. Therefore, public investment in improving school infrastructure will give rise to a significant beneficial effect to born better educated labour force in the future with higher productivity to the society. 5.3 Controlling the Family Size through Policies Among fifteen countries with highest fertility rate in the world, the fourteen of them are belonged to African countries (United Nations, 2007). The high fertility and birth rate each year had caused to the large family size in Africa. And, the larger the number of children, so then the larger the total cost of living and rearing children. The big number of siblings had forced the elder siblings to working, instead of attending school. According to a study, this additional work increases with the number of younger siblings and the spacing between siblings. Because family sizes raise, the additional work for elder siblings will significantly be increased to help additional households income (Edmonds, E. V., 2006). I would like to advocate for the government of those African countries to implement the one or two-child policy in their countries. This is purposely to decrease fertility rate in those countries. This policy can be adopted from the China one-child policy introduced in 1978. It was created by the Chinese government to alleviate social, economic, and environmental problems in China. After the introduction of the one-child policy, the fertility rate in China fell from over three births per woman in 1980 to approximately 1.8 births in 2008. In my point of view, the controlling of family size will reduce the total cost of rearing many children in a family. This will increase disposable income in a family, in which this income can be saved for future use and to finance good quality education for children. The government must promise a direct benefit for the only first one or two children in the family, such as free schooling or educational subsidies. This family size control may promise a better quality of children with high human capital, even with smaller numbers, rather than having a large number of children but with low human capital. This not only improve the welfare of each children, but also give to human capital improvement in Africa, and thus in long-term will bring about healthier economic development. 5.4 Introducing Modern Labour-Saving Technologies into Economic Sectors The major characteristic of labour markets in most developing countries is a high proportion of employment of unskilled labour force in the informal sectors. This trait has led to a creation of large labour intensive market space with low-level of technology that encourages the demand for children to become labour force (Edmonds, E. V, 2003; Dinopoulos, E. Zhao, L., 2007). Thus, the level of technology in an economy will determine both the supply and demand for child labour. I would like to suggest that the introduction and adoption of modern labour-saving technologies as a tool to inhibit child labour. At a distance from raising agricultural productivity, the adoption of modern labour-saving technologies could free children from repetitive working duties in agriculture and thus increase their chances of attending school. Therefore, policies and programmes that promote the adoption of land and modern labour-saving technologies should be listed as policy tools to curb child labour in the African countries. The introduction of new technologies such as mechanization or automation in industries, and the use of improved strains and fertilizers in agricultural sector will reduce the demand for unskilled child labour. A study had also found that the returns to education will also increase because people understand the need for higher education attainment to fulfill the high demand for high-skilled labour. (Cigno, A., Rosati, F. C. Tzannatos, Z., 2002). Thus, t his will discourage the supply of child labour. This low motivation of supplying child labour and low interest to employ unskilled labour will further the declining of children exploitation into economic activities. In my opinion, from the technological perspective, it should be noticed that childrens participation are unnecessary in the process of industrialisation because child workers keep low human capital stock. In addition to the least developed African countries, in most industries where children work, there are existing technologies that being utilised in developed countries. Thus, the employment of these modern technologies by African countries would replace tasks performed by child labour, and finally reduce child employment in productive economic activities. I would also like to advise the African countries to welcome globalisation in their economic policies. The accepting of globalisation will improve capital market through foreign direct investment (FDI), and will generate technological and knowledge spillover. This will help introducing new modern labour-saving technologies as a tool to improve economic sectors, and at the same time will inhibit child labour. This is according to a study which had found that the forces of globalisation can curb the phenomenon of child labour through the trade policies that beneficial for modern sector, and the increase in FDI in modern sector that will reduce the demand of child labour without deteriorating the wage-income distribution. (Dinopoulos, E. Zhao, L., 2007).