MyReligionLab Assignment Week 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

MyReligionLab Assignment Week 2 - Essay Example They also believe in the karma, the law of cause and effects that make an individual to create his own destiny by thoughts, words, and deeds. In the context of Vellaringat (2002), religion is a set of beliefs (Hindu beliefs) that that relate humanity to supernatural realities. This brings the art of worship and ritual practices as observed by the Hindus. Self seeking, through the intense meditation in order to realize the whole self identity does involve acknowledging the gods, according to the Hindu religion and beliefs. Many of the Hindus have a primary focus on fulfilling their social, moral, political, as well as cultural duties and responsibilities appropriately to their gods in order establish their positions in life. As it may seem, there are similarities with other religious traditions and beliefs in this context. The Christians and the Muslims societies as well believe in the supreme God who determines destiny and affect their social, cultural, as well as moral motives. Considering the Hindus beliefs, practices, and holidays, one similar fact that connects these religions to the people’s daily lives is the ir commitments to devotion, liberation, and knowledge on what they believe in their respective religions. It is therefore true that religious practices centers daily lives of many and dictates their social, traditional, and cultural

Building Materials Market in Vietnam

Building Materials Market in Vietnam This part of the research provides a deeper view on Vietnam building materials industry with concentration on the recent business situation of construction and building materials market. Information about building materials firms is also provided. 1.1 Construction and real estate Vietnam’s economy has gone through a struggling period of insubstantial credit expansion, because of the decelerated development in the banking system characterized by non-performing loans (NPLs) and a property market slump. The property market in Vietnam is currently disheartened, disputing with market conditions including a lack of capital resources have resulted in construction companies being unable to complete projects, while purchasers are finding it challenging to afford property because of a lack of access to loans. As a result, many construction projects, housing, apartments, etc. are being unfinished .There are also signs of distressed property assets in the country. Therefore the construction industry’s growth rate declined from 19.7% in 2011 to 6.5% in 2012, although the industry reached a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 19% from 2008 to 2012 (Timetric, 2013). The construction market in Vietnam is expected to be higher than average growth rates until the end of the decade (CB Richard Ellis Group, 2008 2013). Construction spending was approximately US$18.6 billion in 2012, which accounted for slightly under 20% of the country’s GDP. This spending is estimated to grow by nearly 7% per annual over the next five years (Savills, 2013). In Vietnam construction market, the residential sector made up the largest proportion of more than half of total construction spending in 2012, followed by the infrastructure sector. The non-residential market constituted just about 10% of total construction spending in 2012. (IHS Inc., 2012) Currently, a mismatch between supply and demand in the Vietnamese property market has happened. Demand perseveres for affordable housing, office but construction developers of mid to high end assets are in difficulty to attract buyers or rental consumers. This table showed the existing and the new supply for office market in Vietnam. Chart 10: Existing and new office supply. Unit: sqm (000s) (Savills, 2013) In Cushman Wakefield Market outlook 2013, it stated that current average rents for Grade A in Vietnam have decreased by 46% and 41% in HCMC and Hanoi respectively, compares to 2008. Meanwhile the total value of inventory in housing projects was estimated at more than VND125 trillion (US$6 billion) in 55 cities and provinces in May 2013. High real estate prices and over-supply, which have rocketed due to speculative activities at the peak of the market, are serious problems. They resulted in rental rates declined during the recent years with average rents throughout all grades falling by approximately 2% quarter-on-quarter (DTZ Vietnam, 2012). Contractors are holding on a lot of purchased real estate products at relatively high prices and are unwilling to sell at a loss price throughout the current downward trend. In many reports were submitted to construction firms and Vietnamese government, they all advised to address the over-supply issue, adjustments to the apartment size and lev el of development are necessary. In Asia Construction Outlook by AECOM in 2013, they forecasted that all major sectors in Vietnam would grow over the next five years at similar rates. Specifically, total construction output of Vietnam would be at around $18.5 billion till 2018, with the growth rate of about 6.7%. Infrastructure investment, such as highways, rail and ports, will be a main growth area until the end of the decade. However, the government is likely to have limited capacity for funding much of this because it is likely to be constrained by public debt levels. As a result Vietnam is set to offer significant opportunities through privately financed infrastructure projects, with the funding likely to take the form of foreign direct investment or PPP joint ventures. Geographically, the large amount of the investment will be focused on Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh and the North-South corridor in between. 1.2 Building materials market 1.2.1 Characteristics The companies In Vietnam building materials industry, almost top manufacturers are state-owned. See the table 3 and 4 below for the top building materials firm in Vietnam according to VNR500: Table 3: Top 12 biggest building materials firms in Vietnam Rank Company Type Products 1 Ha Tien Cement JSC State-owned Cement 2 Viglacera Corporation State-owned Tiles, Building Glass, Sanitary wares, AAC, bricks 3 Cement Holcim Vietnam Joint Venture Cement 4 Nghi Son Cement Joint Venture Cement 5 Chinfon Cement Corporation Joint Venture Cement 6 Vincem Hoang Thach Co. Ltd State-owned Cement 7 Vincem Bim Son JSC State-owned Cement 8 Vissai Group Private Cement 9 Phuc Son Cement JSC Joint Venture Cement 10 FICO JSC State-owned Cement 11 Phu Tai JSC Private Stone, Tiles, Wood 12 Vincem Hoang Mai JSC State-owned Cement Note that the joint venture companies above are among state-owned companies and foreign investors. Table 4: Top 12 biggest private building materials companies in Vietnam Rank Company Products Note 1 Vissai Group Cement 2 Phu Tai JSC Stone, Tiles, Wood 3 Quangninh construction and cement JSC Cement Sub-company of SOE 4 Prime Vinh Phuc Company Tiles 5 Vinh Tuong Industrial Corporation Ceiling, drywall grid 6 Song Gianh Cement Co. Ltd. Cement Sub-company of SOE 7 Viglacera Ha Long JSC Terracotta tiles Sub-company of SOE 8 DIC Intraco JSC Steels, AAC, Wood, Roof tiles, Klinkers Sub-company of SOE 9 Le Phan Construction Co Ltd Concrete 10 Vicostone Stone 11 Prime Dai Viet JSC Tiles 12 Tay Do Cement JSC Cement Sub-company of SOE As you can see from the above tables, the state-owned building materials companies account for large proportion in the industry. They also are the dominating factor in private sector, it has created bad business environment in Vietnam due to incentives that SOEs have received. Therefore, they do not have very active domestic rivals who put pressure on them to innovate. Regarding to types of products, it is seen that cement is the top priority in the industry. 10 out of 12 biggest manufacturers are producing cement and cement related products. This sector has contributed a large ratio in export activities of Vietnam (see table 9). However, nowadays, tiles sector attracts more attention of government because of this sector’s importance on the global market. Vietnam ceramic tiles sector was ranked in the top ten countries of manufacturing and exporting tiles (Stock, 2010). 1.2.2 Domestic performance As stated in above part, all 3 main sectors of construction and real estate (residential, infrastructure and non-residential) has been struggling in the ability to complete their projects. Not only that, the economic crisis led to high inflation, tightened credit expansion, and lower spending of people. It made people less likely to buy, or rent a new house or even fix or upgrade their house. Therefore, the building materials market of Vietnam has also suffered a serious downward trend in development. Regarding ceramic market, according to reports and articles from Vietnam building ceramic association (VBCA) in 2013, the amount of manufactured tiles was slightly under 70% of total capacity, estimated around 289.8 million square meter. This number is much lower than 375 million square meter in 2010 when Vietnam was ranked the 5th on top manufacturing countries over the world with 3.9% on the world production (Stock, 2010). Stock of tiles that was difficult to clear, was approximately 50 days of production, about 40 million square meter or 112.800.000 USD. On the other hand, sanitary ware products were produced nearly 70% of total capacity, assessed at 9 million units, and number of units in inventory hit an average of 50-60 days of production, about 1.2 million units or approximately 28.200.000 USD. Table 5: Total consumption for tiles and sanitary ware of Vietnamese manufacturers. 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Total domestic consumption volume Tiles (million sqm) 150 203.65 297.5 290 272 246,9 Sanitary ware (million unit) 7.5 7.8 9.0 9.7 9.3 8.5 (Vietnam Ceramic Business Association, 2013) As we can see from Table 5, the volume of domestic consumption for tiles and sanitary ware started to decrease significantly from 2011, since Vietnam stand in its own recession. Before this year, the world economic crisis obviously had no negative effects on the local market because the amount kept raising until 2010. Table 6: Total tiles (ceramic and porcelain) in stock of some Vietnamese manufacturers No. Company Max Capacity (million sqm/ year) Actual Capacity (million sqm) In Stock (million sqm) 1 Mikado 1.5 1.07 0.1 2 Viet Y 1.8 1.30 0.25 3 Granite Trung Do 3.5 2.43 0.4 4 Prime 99 74 5.5 5 Catalan 15 10.5 1.3 6 CMC 5 4 0.3 7 Vinh Thang 9 6.5 0.6 8 Vitaly 4.5 2 0.3 9 Thach Ban 2 1.2 0.2 10 Toko 15 10.5 2 11 Viglacera 25 20 2 (Vietnam Ministry of Construction, 2013) From Table 6, it is clearly seen that those 11 manufacturer of tiles in Vietnam did not reach the maximum target capacity of them, and also had a large quantity of tiles in stock which is very difficult to clear. Regard to building glass products, Vietnam has 7 companies producing over-size building glass with maximum capacity is over 150 million square meter. However, in 2012, the goods in stock was approximately more than 60 million square meter of standard glass. It slightly equaled 4 month capacity of all manufacturers. Moreover, in that 60 million, there was 57 million meter of float glass, respectively 5 month production output. Besides that, imported glass from China and ASEAN countries with lower price also impacted on Vietnamese firm’s consumption. Therefore, some factories had to temporary stop producing for a while, for instance, Viglacera Dap Cau glass factory was closed from middle 2012 to September 2013 due to oversupply. In 2013, consumption of bricks and roofing tiles experienced a 70% of overall capacity. The actual produced quantity of brick was estimated of 17 billion units, but the purchased quantity just reached 14 billion bricks, about 80%. Table 7: Bricks manufacturing capacity and consumption in 2012. Product Maximum Capacity Actual output Consumption Factory standard brick 14 billion 12 billion 10 billion Manual brick 6 billion 5 billion 4 billion Total 20 billion 17 billion 14 billion Unit: brick. (Vietnam Ministry of Construction, 2013) A new kind of brick (or block that is non-fired) which was started to produce in Vietnam not long ago, is Autoclave Aerated Concrete (AAC) blocks. It also has been struggling with output clearance because of low demand in construction, especially no new projects tend to implement this kind of brick. Beside the unstable quality, lack of synchronous building solution also one of the stand-out issues. Therefore, there was not many construction contractors in Vietnam using this building material. As a result, consumption of AAC is limited, it reached just around 60-80% of total capacity and some fresh-built factories are facing perfunctory production or threat of bankruptcy. However, according to non-fired products development program of the government, the prime minister signed the decision that AAC will replace 30-40% traditional bricks, and it is mandatory for building higher than 8 floors. So, with this policy the future of AAC in Vietnam is valuated as brightest among other material s. Table 8: Vietnam AAC Factories production and consumption in 2012. No. Company Location in Vietnam Capacity (m3/year) Actual Consumption (m3) Total 9 factories 1.500.000 1 Viglacera AAC Bac Ninh 200.000 150.000 2 Vinema Ha Nam 100.000 60.000 3 Song Da Cao Cuong Hai Duong 200.000 100.000 4 Phuc Son Hoa Binh 150.000 90.000 5 An Thai Phu Tho 300.000 240.000 6 Truong Hai Hai Duong 200.000 110.000 7 Vinh Duc Lam Dong 100.000 50.000 8 Vuong Hai Dong Nai 100.000 60.000 9 Ky Nguyen E-block Long An 150.000 70.000 (Vietnam Ministry of Construction, 2013) Concerning cement market in Vietnam, it has been even worse than other materials. Due to government policy on lowering inflation, stabilizing market price and macroeconomic, from 2008 to present, cement price just increased about 30% while input materials, coal price raised 4 times. In addition, electricity, fuel price also rocketed continuously. Moreover, from 2010, the exchange rate between VND-USD rose and the access to banking credit was difficult, so cost over cement price jumped up 20-30%. According to Vietnam Cement Association, total cost of manufacturing is 60% of selling price, exchange rate increased, loan interest is about 20%/year, almost all cement companies in 2011, 2012, 2013 suffered losses. For example, Cam Pha and Ha Long cement factory had accumulated debt of 1200 billion VND (about 56 million USD) and 1090 billion VND (51 million USD) respectively. Reports of Vietnam Cement Association said 48 million tons of cement was manufactured in 2012, the number decreased 5% compared to that of 2011. Domestic consumption recorded a figure of 40 million tons, around 18% of decline. The designed capacity is approximately 70 million tons, but the actual production just hit 52 million tons (72% of capacity). Vietnam steel and metal industry has stayed in the same situation. However, the troubles are not only oversupply caused by frozen construction sector, but also the limited capital, numerous debt from loans, raw input ingredients relied on importing sources, out-of-date production technology. All of those reasons led to weak competitive strength on its own home-market. According to Vietnam steel association’s 2013 report, about 30% of Vietnam steel manufacturers were using old technology, more than 40% with average technology, and just less than 30% of steel firms had new technology for production and management. Moreover, 2013 growth rate was 7%; total capacity reached 10 million tons, 8.5% y-o-y growth but the actual domestic consumption poorly hit 1/3 of capacity. In summary, Vietnamese building materials companies have been endeavoring to find solutions to overcome domestic crash since crisis happened. Although the government provided some supporting actions for the sector since 2011 and then ratified $3.3 billion economic package in early 2014 (Dieu Tu Uyen, 2014), the building materials industry seems to be difficult to recover. In 2013, there were 10077 construction and real estate companies went bankruptcy, while other firms were struggling in tackling the oversupply issue. 1.2.3 Export international business situation Due to the difficulties of local market, many companies have tried to enhance exporting activity. However, the majority of products is still mainly used for consuming inside the country and export’s profits could not cover the losses of domestic sale. It happened to all kind of building materials. In general, export turnover of building materials in 2011 hit slightly over 766 million USD, that was an 86.45% increase compare to 2010. See the table below: Table 9: Export turnover of building materials in 2011 and percentage of increase. No Type of building material Turnover (thousand USD) Percentage of increase (%) 2010 2011 1 Building Stone 105.646 131.715 24.67 2 Tiles 109.656 185.144 68.84 3 Sanitary ware 46.481 64.343 38.42 4 Glass 40.135 49.027 22.15 5 Clinker and cement 96.887 319.101 229.35 6 Raw materials 12.027 16.682 38.70 Total 410.832 766.012 86.45 Regarding building stones, top ten companies accounted for more than 66% of total exporting revenue of stone. The top consuming markets of Vietnam stone are Belgium (29.21%), Australia (13.38%) and United States (9%). Referring to ceramic products, just about 15% of total manufactured goods was exported. Top ten companies constituted 56% of total revenue, and the biggest markets are Laos, Taiwan, Thailand, Cambodia, etc. Besides that, tiles and sanitary ware have been imported with lower price than Vietnamese firms, most of them come from China. It has pushed domestic manufacturers to face high pressures and challenges in selling products in the country market. Table 10: Import and Export situation of tiles and sanitary of Vietnam. Consumption 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Export (million USD) Tiles 77.16 80.88 69.57 109.66 185.14 190 Sanitary ware 35.7 41.3 37.4 46.5 64.3 65 Import (million USD) Tiles 33.65 22.4 70.16 95.5 46.4 46 Sanitary ware 4.2 6.8 6.7 8.07 12.54 12 (Vietnam Ceramic Business Association, 2013) According to top exporting countries of ceramic tiles, Vietnam was ranked the 12th with 28 million square meter exported in 2010, that accounted for 0.3% and 1.5% on the world consumption and the world export respectively (Stock, 2010). However, in terms of money, the total value of exported tiles of Vietnam is much lower than Thailand and Malaysia (not mentioned China here). The Vietnam Association for Building materials A said that the reason is because the competitive strength of Vietnamese firms is lower than Thailand, Malaysia, and China. Regarding to glass, total value of glass and glass related products was $0.54 billion in 2012. It was a 46.7% rise compare to 2011. However, because of the domestic downturn, this increase could not cover the loss in glass sector. For example, Mr. Nguyen Anh Tuan said in the interview that Viglacera Corporation still had to close their glass factory in the north for more than 12 months in spite of having foreign customers. About cement sector, in the last 10 years, Vietnam cement generally had the lower selling price than other countries in ASEAN. It stayed at around $50/ton, while the ASEAN average cement price fluctuated from $65 to $75/ton (Vietnam National Cement Association, 2013). In 2012, exporting volume levelled up to 1.7 million tons of cement and 7.3 million tons of clinker. After that, in 2013, total cement and clinker exported increased to nearly 14 million tons. This was a big leap in Vietnam cement industry on international business. It is clearly seen that building materials products such as tiles, sanitary ware, glass, cement, or steel have had a stable increase in export. However, these improvements could not help to overcome the downward trend in domestic market. According to building materials business community, the ASEAN market is considered as similarities and has strong points for Vietnamese companies to expand businesses. So, most of building materials manufacturers in Vietnam has focused mostly on this areas. The imposed tax for goods from Vietnam is 0%, but the technical barrier and quality is highly required. Especially, ASEAN countries also strictly control and apply the anti-dumping policies. Together with the competition with China, it makes the profits of exports stay relatively small. However, if Vietnam succeeds in signing the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, Vietnamese firms will have greater chances to expand their business into different nations outside ASEAN. Currently, Vietnam companies are paying import tax for members of TPP such as Mexico 25%, Chile 6%, Peru 5%, etc. Therefore, when Vietnam joins TPP, import tax equals 0%, companies will have more incentives to exploit these potential markets. This also true for other trade agreements Vietnam is negotiating. 1.3 Conclusion The financial crisis did have an extremely negative impact on construction and building materials industry. Factories had to cut down their capacity around 30% in general. The goods in stock increased and was difficult to sell, especially for tiles sector. Many companies went bankrupt, some have to close their factories, and many of them suffered losses. The export volume and value of building materials products have kept rising recent years. However it can not cover the huge losses in domestic market. On the other hand, the state-owned enterprises have dominated the sector over the private companies.

The Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand : Trigger for War :: World War I History

The Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand : Trigger for War Bosnia and Herzegovina were provinces just south of Austria, which had, until 1878, been governed by the Turks. The Treaty of Berlin, in 1878, settled the disposition of lands lost by the Turks following their disastrous war with Russia. Austria was granted the power to administer the two provinces indefinitely. Many Bosnian-Serbs felt a strong nationalistic desire to have their province joined with that of their Serb brothers across the river in Serbia. Many in Serbia openly shared that desire. On October 6, 1908, Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina directly into the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The reasons were complex. Annexation would remove any hopes Turkey might have for reclaiming the provinces. Full inclusion into the empire would give Bosnians full rights and privileges. It may have been an act of will by the Austrians, just to show that they were still an active, sovereign power. Two days later, many men, some of them ranking Serbian ministers, officials, and generals, held a meeting at City Hall in Belgrade. They founded a semi-secret society, Narodna Odbrana (National Defense), which gave Pan-Slavism a focus and an organization. The purpose of the group was to recruit and train partisans for a possible war between Serbia and Austria. They also undertook anti-Austrian propaganda and organized spies and saboteurs to operate within the empire's provinces. Satellite groups were formed in Slovinia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Istria. The Bosnian group went under the name Mlada Bosna (Young Bosnia). Narodna Odbrana's work had been so effective that in 1909 a furious Austria pressured the Serbian government to put a stop to their anti-Austrian insurrection. Russia was not ready to stand fully behind Serbia should things come to a showdown, so Belgrade was grudgingly forced to comply. From then on, Narodna Odbrana concentrated on education and propaganda within Serbia, trying to fashion itself as a cultural organization. Many members formed a new, and again secret, organization to continue the terrorist actions. Ten men met on May 9, 1911 to form Ujedinjenje ili Smrt (Union or Death), also known as The Black Hand. By 1914, there were several hundred members, perhaps as many as 2500. Many members were Serbian army officers. The professed goal of the group was the creation of a Greater Serbia, by use of violence, if necessary. The Black Hand trained guerillas and saboteurs and arranged political murders. The Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand : Trigger for War :: World War I History The Assassination of Archduke Francis Ferdinand : Trigger for War Bosnia and Herzegovina were provinces just south of Austria, which had, until 1878, been governed by the Turks. The Treaty of Berlin, in 1878, settled the disposition of lands lost by the Turks following their disastrous war with Russia. Austria was granted the power to administer the two provinces indefinitely. Many Bosnian-Serbs felt a strong nationalistic desire to have their province joined with that of their Serb brothers across the river in Serbia. Many in Serbia openly shared that desire. On October 6, 1908, Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina directly into the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The reasons were complex. Annexation would remove any hopes Turkey might have for reclaiming the provinces. Full inclusion into the empire would give Bosnians full rights and privileges. It may have been an act of will by the Austrians, just to show that they were still an active, sovereign power. Two days later, many men, some of them ranking Serbian ministers, officials, and generals, held a meeting at City Hall in Belgrade. They founded a semi-secret society, Narodna Odbrana (National Defense), which gave Pan-Slavism a focus and an organization. The purpose of the group was to recruit and train partisans for a possible war between Serbia and Austria. They also undertook anti-Austrian propaganda and organized spies and saboteurs to operate within the empire's provinces. Satellite groups were formed in Slovinia, Bosnia, Herzegovina and Istria. The Bosnian group went under the name Mlada Bosna (Young Bosnia). Narodna Odbrana's work had been so effective that in 1909 a furious Austria pressured the Serbian government to put a stop to their anti-Austrian insurrection. Russia was not ready to stand fully behind Serbia should things come to a showdown, so Belgrade was grudgingly forced to comply. From then on, Narodna Odbrana concentrated on education and propaganda within Serbia, trying to fashion itself as a cultural organization. Many members formed a new, and again secret, organization to continue the terrorist actions. Ten men met on May 9, 1911 to form Ujedinjenje ili Smrt (Union or Death), also known as The Black Hand. By 1914, there were several hundred members, perhaps as many as 2500. Many members were Serbian army officers. The professed goal of the group was the creation of a Greater Serbia, by use of violence, if necessary. The Black Hand trained guerillas and saboteurs and arranged political murders.

Explore how Shakespeare develops Essay

Explore how Shakespeare develops the themes of duty, responsibility, love and loyalty in the â€Å"Antony and Cleopatra†. Throughout the play â€Å"Antony and Cleopatra†, Shakespeare develops and explores the themes of duty, responsibility, love and loyalty; from the very beginning of the play Shakespeare places these themes in conflict with one another and these conflicts are embodied in the most obvious sense through Antony’s rejection of the Roman Empire and its ideals for the love of Cleopatra and a far more frivolous laid back life in Egypt. And in turn these differences in ideals are conveyed to the audience in the beginning of the first act when Philo and Demetrius come to the stage and discuss Antony’s â€Å"dotage† over Cleopatra and how it â€Å"O’erflows the measure. † Philo laments at how Antony, once a powerful warrior, triumvir of the Roman Empire and a â€Å"triple pillar of the world† has given up all this power and become â€Å"the bellows and the fan [that] cool a gipsy’s lust†. The language used by Shakespeare at this point in the play helps to establish the antithetical nature of the Egyptians and the Romans; Philo describes Antony with powerful hyperboles and metaphors, evoking potent superhuman, heroic imagery as he speaks of Antony’s eyes that glowed like â€Å"plated mars†, passionately and verbosely referring to his â€Å"captain’s heart† which was so powerful that it â€Å"burst the buckles on his breast. † The conviction with which Philo speaks brings the political and war faring nature of the Romans to the forefront and it becomes clear that the world Antony used to occupy is greatly at odds with the world he now inhabits with Cleopatra who is derogatorily described as having a â€Å"tawny front† (highlighting the Romans’ latent racial prejudices) and whose â€Å"gipsy’s lust† has reduced Antony to a â€Å"strumpet’s fool†. Philo never once uses positive words or language to describe the love between Antony and his queen; he constantly uses words that undermine the actual power she has a queen. The potency of his hatred for Cleopatra is conveyed eloquently through his use of language; Philo makes it obvious that in Rome intangible emotions such as love are undervalued in comparison to the far more corporeal physicality of â€Å"great fights† and the â€Å"musters of war. † It is very obvious that Philo does not view the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra as a great or Romantic but one of blind and foolish lust which has distracted Antony from his responsibilities and his duty. Furthermore, when Antony himself speaks of his love for Cleopatra the contrast between his former Roman ideals and his new Egyptian way of thinking become clearer, his first line to Cleopatra as he enters the stage is â€Å"There’s beggary in the love that can be reckoned†, implying that his love for her is immeasurable and takes precedence above all, the fact this is powerful and Romantic statement is the very first thing Antony says as he enters the stage magnifies the sentiment behind it. Further evidence of the greatness of Antony’s love for Cleopatra is given when she chides him about the messenger from Rome who may be carrying a message from Caesar or his wife Fulvia, both of whom represent his responsibilities at home and both of whom he dismisses in his grand and dramatic statements that he provides her in response to her teasing (â€Å"let Rome in Tiber melt and the wide arch of the ranged empire fall!†), reassuring her that the two of them and their love for each other â€Å"stand up peerless. † It is Antony’s use of imagery here that really encapsulates the depth of his love for Cleopatra, his acknowledgment of the greatness of Rome has a paradoxical quality to it as he confirms the greatness of its â€Å"wide arch† in the same breath and sentence as he confirms it.

Poor Infection Control

Poor Infection Control This story is about a man in his twenties named Michael Skolnik. He was born in March of 1979 and died in June of 2004. He was the only child of his parents. It all started one day while he was doing normal activity, and he passed out in September of 2001. His parents took him to the hospital and a CT scan showed the slight possibility of a colloid cyst, but whatever the two to three millimeter dot was, it was not symptomatic. His mother consulted with a neurosurgeon who said that it was urgent to place Michael in ICU for observation.The neurosurgeon said that Michael needed to have brain surgery within two days. It was supposed to be a three hour operation, and Michael was only supposed to have to spend six days in the hospital. The neurosurgeon explained to Michael’s mother that he had done many of these procedures before, and that he really didn’t even have to go inside Michael’s brain to remove the cyst. He said that the cyst was there and was blocking the cerebral spinal fluid from flowing. The three hour operation ended up lasting six hours without a cyst ever being found. Meanwhile, heavy manipulation had been done to Michael’s brain.His â€Å"six day hospital stay† became five months in ICU, Twenty-two months in other medical institutions, and the last six months of his life at home, in his parent’s own ICU. Upon the hospital’s further examination of Michael’s CT scan, it became evident that the neurosurgeon’s pressure to rush Michael into surgery was unwarranted. This marked the beginning of a Thirty-two month long nightmare of brain surgeries, infections, pulmonary embolisms, respiratory arrest, vision impairment, paralysis, psychosis, severe seizure disorder, short-term memory loss, multiple organ failure, and near total dependence and disability.Michael could not eat, speak, or move anything but his right hand. Almost every day during this traumatic time, Michael w as so miserable that he actually would use his sole limb control to shape his fingers into a gun, and hold them to his temple. This 6’4† EMT and nursing student was now totally helpless and had the cognitive ability of a third grader. Michael’s medical bills amounted to be 4. 5 million dollars, and his legal bills were just beginning. His parents listened to a doctor that had claimed to have performed many surgeries finally admit in a legal deposition that Michael’s procedure had only been his second surgery ever performed.Despite all their attempts to research the doctor’s background, this was the first time they had ever heard the truth about his level of experience. They then knew they had to do something, knowing their son was never going to come back, but they wanted to make sure that it did not happen to anyone else’s family. Three years after Michael’s death this parent’s fought for physician profile transparency and disc losure in Colorado. They had found out that there were other medical malpractice cases pending and a number of formal complaints to the Board of Medical Examiners regarding this medical predator.At that time, none of this background information was available to the public, so they worked to change that. On May 24, 2007 Colorado Governor Bill Ritter signed into law â€Å"The Michael Skolnik Medical Transparency Act†, which became effective on January 2, 2008. In 2009 their organization Colorado Citizens for Accountability,† launched PatientsRightToKnow. org, which allows you to find out what physician background reporting is available to you in your state.