Africa essays

Africa essays Rainforest covers a mere 6 percent of the worlds land mass, yet contains a more varied plant, insect, and animal life than other remaining 94 percent. In addition, the rainforest provides more than 20 percent of the worlds oxygen, and 80 percent of the world's basic foods ("Passport to the Rainforest"). The plant life contributing to these statistics is a particularly interesting aspect of the climate zone, namely those plants indigenous to Africa. The African rainforest is composed of many layers containing thousands of exotic plants, many of which are close to extinction, or that offer valuable medical considerations. The African rainforest is a composite of many different plants, living at varying heights simultaneously. The highest layer of the rainforest is the emergent layer. Here trees tower 200 feet or more from the forest floor. Plant life at these heights mostly consists of hardwood evergreens. The Canopy is the next highest level, consisting of plants from 60 to 90 feet off the ground. Plant life is extremely varied at this level, but consists manly of top-heavy trees with tight leaf formations near the upper 90 percent of the trunk. In addition to trees there are many vines and other "air plants," that do not touch the ground, but entwine themselves in canopy tree branches and trunks. Below the Canopy is the Understory. Plants in this layer receive little light, and as a result rarely grow above 12 feet from the forest floor. These plants mostly consist of shrubs, bushes, and dwarfish trees. The final level in the rainforest is the forest floor. Here there is little to no growth due to an almost complete lack of light. Most plant life in this level consist of the remains of fallen trees, root systems from plants in various other levels, and fruits and berries fallen from higher up plants. Thousands of plant varieties have very different existences in the extremely varied layers of the A ...

How Long Is Long Enough Essay

How Long Is Long Enough Essay How Long Is Long Enough? Essay How long is long enough? Discrimination in its broad meaning is a treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction in favor of or against, a person or thing based on the group, class, or category to which that person or thing belongs rather than on individual merit. Today, most cases of discrimination that are brought to court are related to employment discrimination. The plaintiffs have different reasons for filing a discrimination lawsuit against their employers. Some employees file a lawsuit because they were denied a promotion, other file a complaint because they are paid unequally with their co-workers who have same qualification and job performance as them. Additionally, there are other employees who bring a complaint against their former and future employers because they were fired or could not be hired to a specific job they feel they are qualified to do. However, not anyone can file a discrimination lawsuit. In order to file a discrimination complaint against your employer you have to be a mem ber of a protected class. According to the textbook, title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its amendments prohibits job discrimination against employees, applicants, and union members on the basis of race, color, nation of origin, religion, and gender at any stage of employment. (Cross Miller, 2012) However, seeing that today member of minority groups and women have made enough economic progress in the last several decades compared to 1964, it is fair to ask this question: do members of protected groups still need special legislation to protect them? This is not an easy question to answer because everyone has different opinion on this issue, but regardless of what other people think, it would be fair to ask this question instead: for how long will special legislation that protect minority groups and women last? The truth is that there is still a long way to go since new forms of discrimination keep evolving, like weight discrimination and pregnancy discrimination for instance. According to Svetlana Shkolnikova in â€Å"Weight discrimination could be as common as racial bias; Studies find a surge in reported cases†, weight discrimination, especially in USA society, is increasing and is as common as racial discrimination. Shkolnikova continues by stating that two studies claim this. One study claims that reported discrimination based on weight has increased from 7% to 12% in the USA which is a 66% increase in the last decade. The other study says that such discrimination is common in both institutional and interpersonal situations. It is even dominant than rates of discrimination based on race and gender in some case. Moreover, Shkolnikova says that according to Rebecca Puhl of the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University, a co-author of both studies, weight discrimination is a very serious social problem that we need to pay attention to. Institutional discrimination according to Puhl involves health care, education or workplace situ ations, such as cases in which people say that they were fired, denied a job or promotion because of their weight. Interpersonal discrimination on the other hand focuses on insults, abuses and harassments from others. Currently there is no Federal laws against weight discrimination exist and Puhl states that weight discrimination will not decrease until attitudes change and laws begin addressing it. (Shkolnikova, 2008) Another example of an increasing new form of discrimination is a pregnancy discrimination that women face. According to Stephanie Armour in â€Å"Pregnant workers report growing discrimination†, the number of women claiming they have been discriminated against on the job because they are pregnant is soaring even as the birth rate declines. Armour continues by stating that according to an analysis of government data by the Washington-based National Partnership for Women Families, from fiscal year 1992 to 2003 pregnancy discrimination complaints filed

Financial Strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Financial Strategy - Essay Example Thus, a risk-conscious enterprise already has strategic plans in hand to handle any sort of crises prior to its happening and furthermore, it would inculcate such strategies in its daily working environment which would minimize any foreseen risks so as to avoid danger. To begin with a theoretical point of view a firm that does not prioritize and foresee danger points in the ongoing business lacks the power to cope up with any kind of transformation that a potential risk may bring in the long run. It might overrate its focus upon other profit-making strategies than making alternative strategically workable plans to overcome those risks (Ackermann, pp.5-6, 2008). As a matter of fact, potential risks that big firms and organizations may face are divided into three categories which include hazard risks, operating risks and financial risks (Slywotzky, 2007). The case of Toyota is quite obvious in this regards. In the 90s, though the company enjoyed a very good position and had a well know n repute in the eyes of its consumers with leverage over other competitors, they worried about what future could bring to them since; a period of maturity never lives very long. The foreseeing ability of potential threats of the company made the executives plan for the first ever car of the 21st century by Toyota even a decade ago. They penned down unique characteristics of any comfortable car ever and assigned an engineer, who had never worked for a whole new developmental project, to transform the ideas into concrete proposal. The Japanese automaker lived up to its promises when it launched its breakthrough car Prius in the 90s. The strategy was to lend three years to the task force of the new car to analyze each aspect of the internal working of Toyota and to have the company’s first hand knowledge to produce the new generation of the model. This move worked a lot and the assigned engineer made his team from the most talented engineers whose ages reflected maturity yet eag erness in adaptability. The idea was to introduce hybrid engine in the newly-designed car. Nevertheless, the potential risk was that the competitors were experimenting the same sort of experiments. Assessing the risks, Toyota decided to make their breakthrough as fast as possible so as to be ahead of all (Slywotzky, 2007). One crucial move that Toyota took was to bring the Resident Engineers (REs) during the phase of design development who usually work at the manufacturing plants to take care of the problems that arise in the production stage. This move was taken so as to avoid any possible fault that is probable to happen in a stage where everything is in blueprint. One more strategy that it employed was to create alternative options with regards to engine design and the overall car design so that they may end up choosing one which proves to be the best among all. During the whole process, cross-referencing of the experts continued to be taking place to implement the best given ide a in the making (Slywotzky, 2007). Consequently, the world knows how Prius took over the market in a few period of time. In theory, the Competitive Strategy Theory by Michael Porter talks about certain focus points to be made and implemented by any firm to achieve a sustainable ground in any market in the absence of which the company is prone to serious losses. A firm’s risk consciousness is quite visible if it emphasizes upon planning for ‘differentiation, overall cost leadership and focus’