Examine the presentation of the relationship between Keith and Stephen in Spies Essays

Examine the presentation of the relationship between Keith and Stephen in Spies Essays Examine the presentation of the relationship between Keith and Stephen in Spies Paper Examine the presentation of the relationship between Keith and Stephen in Spies Paper The relationship between Keith and Stephen is one of the central parts of the book and provides much of the dynamism. Keith and Stephen are best friends and when Keith tells him that his mother is a German Spy the two of them embark on a mission to uncover her secrets. As the story progresses we see both of the characters develop and with this their relationship with each other.At the start of the book Frayn portrays a relatively harmless and normal relationship. As they follow Mrs Hayward, the German spy, around it seems to be a childlike fantasy. The possibility of Keiths mother actually being a spy is fairly unbelievable and there is little suggestion of the secret that is later uncovered. Great plans for underground railways and overhead cableways are described but there is the admission that these plans of Keiths have not been put into effect. On page 50 Frayn presents them as a comic duo as they try and figure out the elusive x. The reader can plainly work out that the x, which is happening each month, is Mrs Haywards period. Frayn is clearly presenting the naivety of the two children to humorous effect. Stephen tries to suggest an explanation for the mysterious x but as he tries in vain he realises,Hes somehow ahead of me again, and simply biding his time to tantalise me.Keith is clearly dominant over Stephen but this is not an unusual arrangement. Stephen explains his status in the relationship in the boyhood terms of,He was the officer corps of our two man army. I was the Other Ranks and grateful to be soStephen is not bitter about the inferiority of his role because it seems natural to him. At some parts of the book Stephen even seems to think of himself as part of Keith. He talks about them as if they are a single entity: we say nothing; we mustnt let her know that we know. This is similar to deadkidsongs by Toby Litt in which, at the start of the book, the gang of boys is portrayed as one single entity which slowly breaks apart as the book progress es. Stefan admits that Keith was one of a long line of dominant figures in his life and so he seems to be a naturally subservient character. In contrast Keiths position as leader seems entirely natural because of his intellectual and imaginative superiority and social background.To understand the nature of their relationship it is important to understand the social contrasts between them. Keiths family is seen as the paragon of what every family should be. In contrast Stephens family is decidedly unsatisfactory. A similar situation exists in L.P Hartleys The Go-Between where Marcuss family is a lot richer than Leos and this creates a feeling of inferiority in Leo. A lot more is said about Keiths parents than is ever said about his own. Keiths dad punishes him and, as absurd as this may seem to the reader, Stephen sees this as the right thing for a father to do. Stephen idolises the well groomed Mrs Hayward whom his own mother, in her faded apron cannot compete with. Stephen feels an admiring jealousy at Keiths luck for having,A father in the Secret Service and a mother whos a German SpyWhereas Stephen doesnt even have one parent of any interest. Unlike the terrible connectedness of his own semidetached house Keiths house stands on its own. Stephen describes, in great detail, the ethereal qualities of Keiths house. The smell in Keiths toy room is a rightful scent; everything in Keiths house seems right. Stephens own house has scuffed armchairs and a boring savannah of a garden. They attend separate schools and wear different uniforms, Stephen remarks that they are colour coded for ease of reference. Stephen acutely feels the social divide between the two families and feels a sense of good fortune in being associated with such a family of heroic proportions. Biblical allusions are present in many of Stephens messianic descriptions of Keith, he says,In each case he uttered the word and the words became soOwing to their relationship Stephen is pushed into doing th ings he would not necessarily do. Stephen is a weak boy and is highly dependant on Keith and this is exploited by Keith. Keith seems to be the main protagonist; he tells Stephen about his mother, he makes them look in her diary and he chooses to follow her. When they go to her study Stephen voices his reservations that her journal is private but Keith has no qualms about such matters and ignores his friends comment. Stephen does not have the strength to assert any control over Keith and thus he complies with Keiths wishes. Stephen finds it hard to articulate himself and thus Keith provides what Stephen lacks. Keith seems to have somewhat of a moral deficit and thus his and Stephens relationship is a dangerous one because Stephen is easily led. He is constantly making Stephen feel inferior whether it is verbally or by a disdainful silence. Keith castigates Stephen when he discovers that he hid his face in fear of the mysterious man. Even before Keith calls him a baby Stephen anticipa tes his reaction and feel ashamed. Keiths hypocrisy is revealed later on when he hides his face in fear. Stephen has internalised Keiths view of him and a lot of what he does out of shame. He goes out at night to make one heroic deed which will cause all his weaknesses and errors to be wiped away. A similar relationship exists in Litts deadkidsongs; Andrews psychopathic agenda draws the rest of gang into criminal activities. The full potency of Keith and Stephens relationship is revealed when they attack the tramp. Stephen seems to morph in Keith and shows a sadistic pleasure in scaring the tramp,I cant wait to see the comical terror on the old mans faceStephen is mimicking Keiths attitude. The bullied has transformed into the bully. Stephen relishes the chance to assert authority upon what he perceives to be a lesser being. We can trace the origins of this conduct back up the chain of authority to Keiths father.Despite Stephens worshipping of the Haywards there is already a rift be tween his perception and the readers. He never mentions that Keiths dad is retired and that this is the reason for him always being at home. He seems to admire the fact that Mr Hayward canes Keith and criticises his father for not doing this seems absurd to the reader. Stephens perception of what is right has no real logical basis and this is revealed by phrases like,Greens the right colour for a bicycle, just as its the wrong one for a belt or a busThe reader cant help but feel sorry for Mr Wheatley who went away for a year but nobody really noticed. The extent of Stephens warped perceptions is gradually revealed throughout the book. Even relatively near the beginning Stephens belief in Keiths intellectual superiority is called into question when Keith misspells privet and secrit. Barbara Berril tells Stephen that, no-one likes him except you and refers to him as stuck-up and horrible. Gradually the image Stephen provides us of a hero is eroded to expose Keith as being just a dama ged little boy. Keiths cruelty culminates in his attack on Stephen. Keith attacks him with his own bayonet in an imitation of his fathers violence.Keith attacks Stephen because he thinks that Stephen has broken their oath. There is a very ritualistic element to their friendship which Keith takes very seriously. At the beginning Keith makes Stephen swear on the bayonet never to reveal anything and, foreshadowing Keiths attack, Keith makes him say,So cut my throat and hope to dieThis oath is another way in which Keith asserts his control over the malleable Stephen. Like many other things in the book this seemed to be just a childish game but it has dark consequences. When he thinks Stephen has broken this oath Keith feels himself losing control and cuts Stephens throat with the bayonet. Stephen realises by now that part of the reason for Keiths actions are what is happening in his house, he says,the crime hes punishing in me is not mine at all, but one thats being committed in his own house.Keith might be perceived as a lonely and abused boy exerting dominance over Stephen as some form of self validation. From the start links are drawn between Keith and his father and as the true extent of his fathers cruelty is realised so is Keiths. Keith goes from merely imitating his fathers half lidded stair and adopting affectations like old bean to outright violence. Keith makes no attempt to stand up for himself and says,My heart shrivels at the sound of his fathers tone and his fathers phrase, at my own hopelessnessThe relationship between these two young boys is the stimulus of the plot. Keith and Stephen both begin a game but find themselves flung into the dangerous adult world. Together they cross the frontier into another country altogether. At the end it seems to be Stephen who comes out of the ordeal the worse. The inferiority Stephen feels at the expense of Keith is what motivates him to uncover the secret. Frayn uses the relationship to present how appearances c an be deceiving. At the start Frayn presents us a seemingly innocent and typical relationship. They are two boys wrapped up in their own fantasy world of German spies and conspiracy. However, the relationship transmutes and as the book progresses it becomes increasingly more dangerous.

Forming Plural Nouns in Italian

Forming Plural Nouns in Italian When you have just one bottiglia di vino  (bottle of wine), especially from one of the many family-run vineyards in Tuscany, you’re doing pretty well. But, if you have several  bottiglie di vino (bottles of wine), youre doing even better. Learning to speak fluent Italian requires that you understand the difference between singular and plural nouns. Turning singular nouns into plurals in Italian is a bit more difficult than in English. Learn the rules, though, and soon youll be able to turn one  bottiglia  into two or more  bottiglie  with ease. Creating Plural Nouns in Italian In Italian grammar, nouns must  agree not only in gender (masculine or feminine) but also in number (singular and plural). To form the plural of Italian nouns, vowel endings change to indicate a change in number. For regular masculine nouns that end in -o, for example, the ending typically changes to -i in the plural: Singular Plural English (Plural) fratello fratelli brothers libro libri books nonno nonni grandparents ragazzo ragazzi boys vino vini wines Plural Feminine Nouns Ending in -A As noted, the ending of plural nouns needs to change to agree  in gender. Regular feminine nouns that end in -a generally take an  -e ending in the plural: Singular Plural English (Plural) sorella sorelle sisters casa case houses penna penne pens pizza pizze pizzas ragazza ragazze girls Plural Nouns Ending in -E Plural nouns that end in  -e  (feminine or masculine) generally end in -i in the plural form. Singular Plural English (Plural) bicchiere bicchieri wine glasses chiave chiavi keys fiume fiumi rivers frase frasi sentences padre padri fathers Words of Foreign Origin When forming plural of nouns ending in a consonant, such as words of foreign origin, only the article changes, as in these examples, where the singular is listed on the left together with the English translation and the plural is printed on the right: Il film (the film) i film (the films)La photo (the photo) le photo (the photos)Il bar (the bar) I bar (the bars) Exceptions Its also important to know the exceptions when forming plural nouns, including: Feminine nouns ending in -ea change to -ee in the plural. For example: dea/dee (goddess/goddesses).Words that end with a grave accent, such as  la citt, (the city),  change only the final letter of the article, making the plural of this word,  le citt (the cities).Feminine nouns ending in -ca change to -che in the plural, as in  amica/amiche (friend/friends). For nouns ending in -e,  the plural forms end in -i   regardless of whether they are masculine or feminine. Additionally, some nouns appear to be feminine (ending in -a)  but are actually masculine, as in these examples: Il poeta i poeti / poet poetsIl poema i poemi / poem poemsIl problema i problemi / problem problemsIl tema i temi / topic topicsIl braccio le braccia / arm armsIl dito le dita / finger fingersIl labbro le labbra / lip lipsIl ginocchio le ginocchia / knee kneesIl lenzuolo le lenzuola / sheet sheetsIl muro I muri / wall walls The walls would be le mura  if you are talking about buildings, particularly historical buildings.

Research Paper - Flight Nursing in Community Setting

- Flight Nursing in Community Setting - Research Paper Example The essence of our lives lies with how effectively we play our part in the community; and the complete satisfaction of making life admirable can be attained through the profession of flight nurse. A flight nurse is the one, skilled to work in critical care settings and avail assistance to the community in emergencies. Flight nurse must be well experienced and expertised in all aspects of healthcare. Flight nurses, always well prepared for life saving activities makes their presence confirmed in all critical situations such as accidents, earthquakes etc. They aid in the essential intensive care of the seriously wounded or sick patients when being shifted to a healthcare facility through plane or helicopter. In addition to serving the people injured by disasters, they also go to remote areas to support people during the airlifting to provide healthcare facilities. The presence of flight nurse as a member among the passengers makes the journey safe and sound for the entire crew of the f light (Nursing Jobs and degrees-flight nurse, n.d.). The line of work of a flight nurse is highly demanding; and in addition to having the mentality of serving the community, a flight nurse must be all set to function in the highly challenging situations which could be even life threatening.

Summery business Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Summery business - Assignment Example The focus of attention can move from making better stuffs to investing in selling stuff better. The author elaborates this idea by stating that in the 90s most of the companies were trying to sell their products in new ways rather than detoxifying them. Haque shows how Detroit’s business model innovation of integrating into auto finance resulted in perverse incentives and he purports that â€Å"the costs of business model innovation exceed the benefits† in most cases and this can also result in financial crisis (Haque). The author concludes by stating that business model innovations should give primary emphasis in making insanely great stuff by detoxifying and dezombifying the products rather than seeking new ways to sell the same old products. Haque’s arguments deserve attention as one can find many companies who sell products of poor quality and aim at short term benefits. Similarly, there is possibility that the emerging of a new business model can sometimes a ffect the product adversely. Thus, Haque is advocating for a competent product innovation instead of a new business model innovation. However, I feel like disagreeing with Haque because one cannot separate product innovation from the business model as sound and competent business model innovation is a necessary prerequisite for the marketing of any products, however insanely great they are. Haque, Umair. â€Å"The Best Business Model†. Harvard Business Online (May 1, 2009). The McGraw-Hill Companies Inc. 26 October 2009.

Financial Analysis of Coles Ltd

Financial Analysis of Coles Ltd 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 Purpose In this report my purpose is to do a financial analysis of Coles Ltd which provides a basis, on which the valuation of company can be done. 1.2 Scope This report conducts a financial analysis for Coles by performing a trend analysis of financial ratios using the data given for past 5 years. It also includes a cash flow analysis which along with financial ratios helps compare coles with its industry counterparts, Woolworths and Metcash; and finally this analysis would help in price valuation to calculate a fair price for coles share. 1.3 Methodology This report is based on primary data available from Coles website as well as secondary data such as research paper, electronic database and other publications. 1.4 Limitation Although all efforts have been made to use as much available information as possible but there were some constricting factors such as lack of available data of past financial information which restricted this research. Reliability of data and time constraints were also hurdle in performing this analysis. The biggest shortcoming was that current data was based on AIFR and data for years before 2005 was based on AGAAP, which made comparative trend analysis very difficult. 2. FINANCIAL ANALYSIS In this we will be evaluating the firms financial ratios and cash flow measures of the operating, financing, and investing performance of a company in relation to key competitors historical performance. Given the firms strategy and goals, together these tools allow the analyst to investigate and examine a firms performance and its financial condition. Ratio analysis is the tool which involves assessing the firms income statement and balance sheet data. On the other side, the cash flow analysis relies on firms cash flow statement. 2.1 Ratio analysis The ratio analysis deals with evaluation of the performance of Coles in perspective of its mentioned strategies and goals. In order to achieve this objective a combination of cross sectional analysis and time series analysis is performed. Workings of Ratios for 2006 are mentioned in APPENDIX 4. 2.1.1 Profitability analysis If we look at the return on equity (ROE) of Coles, for a period of 5 years, it is being observed that ROE has increased in 2006 as compared to 2002. Although ROE has fallen in 2006 (15. 30%) as compared to 2005 (18.30 %) but it can be seen that on an average Coles ROE has been stable or increased over last 5 years. Return on asset (ROA) has also been stable around 10% during the last 3 years and increasing from 7.17% in 2002 to 9.54% in 2006.The main reason for stable ROE and ROA are better performance delivered by the management and as well as the mature characteristic of the industry, that produces stable return as well as stable growth seeing population demographics in the country. Table 1 Profitability Ratio of Coles Ltd Source: Coles financial statement after adjustment Gross profit has been quite stable and good for the last 5 years but the concerned part is the net profit margin. Net profit margin has been very low, it had been increasing from 2002 to 2005 but it again fell in 2002 to 1.57% from 2.08%. Coles need to reduce its operating and interest expenses so as to increase its net profit margin. Table 2 Profitability Ratio Comparison within the industry in 2006 On comparing the performance of Coles with its industry counterparts we can conclude that Coles Ltd is way behind its major competitor, Woolworths, in terms of ROE and ROA which might be attributable to lower net profit margin and lower financial leverage. Coles has higher financial leverage as compared to Woolworths and metcash, which means it, has greater financial risk. But despite of high leverage it has low ROE which confirms the fact that Coles has low net profit margin asset turnover ratio. 2.1.2 Activity Analysis A firms operating activities require investments in both short-term (inventory and accounts receivable) and long term assets. Activity ratios describe the relationship between the firms level of operations and assets needed to sustain operating activities. Asset turnover is important in determining firms ROA; it also formulates reasons of how it will affect firms ROE. Evaluating the effectiveness of asset management is the purpose of asset turnover analysis. 2.1.2.1 Short term activity ratios Working capital is our main concern while evaluating a company. It can clearly be observed that since Coles has high turnover ratios it uses cash basis in its sales. It can be clearly being seen that it took only 4.48 days on an average for Coles to convert its inventory investment back in to cash. From the figures last 5 years we can clearly interpret that Coles has drastically improved its cash conversion cycle from 23 days in 2002 to 4.48 days in 2006. Table 3 Short-term Activity Ratios for Coles Ltd Table 4 Short-term activity ratio comparison, 2006 Now, if we compare Coles with its competitors we can see that Woolworths has lower cash conversion cycle and metcash has higher cash conversion cycle. Woolworths has lower cash conversion cycle because it keeps inventory in stock for shorter duration and stock is converted in to good sold in less span of time. On the other hand Metcash keeps inventory in stock for lower no. of days but it provides more no. of days to its receivables for payment due to which it has higher cash conversion cycle. Seeing the industry it can be concluded that Coles has good cash conversion cycle but it can improve on it by reducing the Average number of days for which inventory is in stock. 2.1.2.2 Long term activity ratios In the analysis of long term activity ratios, long-term asset turnover and property, plant and equipment turnover have been utilized. Table 5 Long term activity ratios for Coles Ltd On the whole both ratios moved in the same pattern during these periods. Relatively, this pattern shows that asset utilization has improved uniformly for the period ranging from 2002 (310.12%) to 2006(372.70%). This helps to conclude that company is continuously improving its utilization of assets to increase its production. Table 6 Long term activity ratios comparison, 2006 While comparing to its competitors it can be seen that Coles total asset turnover ratio is approximately 30% higher than its competitors. It helps to analyze that Coles is more efficiently utilizing its resources to increase its production as compared to its competitors. Metcashs high PPE turnover ratio can be contributed to the fact that PPE forms a very small part of Metcashs total assets. If compare Coles with its major competitor Woolworth on PPE Turnover Ratio we can conclude that Coles has been utilizing its fixed asset better than Woolworths. 2.1.3 Liquidity Analysis Liquidity is referred to a firms ability to have sufficient funds when needed and convert its non-cash assets in to cash easily. Liquidity Ratios are employed to determine the firms ability to pay its short-term liabilities. Liquidity analysis enables us to determine Coles ability to cover its liquidity risk. Liquidity risk may arise due to shortfall or over liquidity within the firm and this in turn lead to firms disability of fulfilling its liquidity needs. In order to determine firm liquidity level, Current ratio, quick ratio and cash ratio are short- term liquidity ratios which have been employed. Table 7 Coles Short-term Liquidity Ratios On doing the trend analysis for last 5 years it can be observed that Coles current ratio has been consistently falling, which increases the possibility that Coles will not be able to meet up its short term liabilities. Current ratio has fallen from 1.37 in 2002 to 0.98 in 2006 which is of major concern, as a current ratio of less than 1 means that company has negative working capital and is probably facing a liquidity crisis. The more stringent measure of liquidity is quick ratio and cash ratio which have also been falling uniformly in last 5 years. It seems Coles is falling in to liquidity crunch and might need short term funds to meet its current liabilities. There has been lot of volatility in the cash ratio of the firm as they have been rising and again falling, so we can conclude that Coles is not able to maintain stable liquidity. Table 8 Short term liquidity ratios comparisons, 2006 As compared to its competitors Coles has better current ratio than Woolworths but has current ratio less than Metcash. Comparing Coles with its major competitor in retail sector, Woolworth, we can clearly see Coles has better current cash ratio but is behind on quick ratio. On comparing with metcash we see that Coles is behind on all the short term liquidity ratios by a very high margin. Metcash has twice the cash ratio as compared to Coles, which makes Coles ability to meet its short term liabilities questionable. 2.1.4 Long term Debt and solvency Analysis The analysis of a firms capital structure is essential to evaluate its long term risk and return prospects. The long term debt and solvency ratios which we are going to use here are debt to equity, debt to capital and interest coverage ratio. Table 9 Coles long term Debt and Solvency ratios As indicated by Coles debt and long term solvency ratios, it denotes that firm is not a solvent company and relies heavily on debt financing. The firms debt to equity and debt to capital ratios are consistently above 1.00 which shows that Coles employed more debt than equity as its source of financing. Debt to total capital has also been consistently been around 0.55-0.60 during the 5 year period. This shows that firm has been stable with its financing policy and has not done much change with its debt and equity mix. Since it relies so heavily on debt financing, issues can be raised regarding its ability to pay off the interest arising due to long term debt financing but we see that company has EBIT 7 times more than the interest charges it has to pay, so that should concern much. It can be observed interest coverage ratio has declined in 2006, as compared to 2005 2004, but it is still able to meet industry benchmarks. Table 10 Debt and Solvency ratios Comparison 2006 Compared to its competitors, long term solvency ratios of Coles seem to be performing optimally. Woolworths has got the highest debt to equity, debt to capital interest coverage ratio. Historically a debt to equity ratio of 2:1 is considered optimal so Coles can still rely on debt to finance its future undertaking rather then issuing new shares. It can be observed that Coles has interest coverage ratio greater than Metcash but less than Woolworths but that can be attributable to its low profit margin as compared to Woolworths. It seems Coles is at par with its competitors in terms of debt and solvency ratios. 2.2 Cash Flow Analysis Cash flow analysis is essential to understand that whether the firms cash flow have the ability to sustain the business, to meet unexpected obligations and to meet its short term liabilities. This also helps to understand whether firm will be requiring additional financing and firm can take advantage of new business opportunities as they arise. In cash flow analysis we will evaluate 3 ratios; Operating cash flow to current liabilities, Interest coverage (cash flow basis) operating cash flow to dividend payment. Methodology for calculation of cash flow ratios is shown in APPENDIX 5 Table 11 Cash flow ratios for Coles Ltd Based on the table above, we can say that Coles has the ability to service its debts which can be seen in firms interest coverage ratio from cash flow basis. Moreover, we observe that Op. cash flow to dividend payment has fallen over the time span from 2002 to 2006 which could be an area of concern. Operating cash flow to current liabilities has also fallen a bit, which means it can be a problem for the firm if certain unexpected obligation come up due to which it might require additional financing. Table 12 Cash flow ratios Comparison, 2006 If we compare Coles to its competitors in the industry which it operates we observe that Coles has got better interest coverage ratio (cash flow basis) as compared to Woolworths Metcash which means that Coles has better ability to service its debts than its counterparts. Coles also has a shortcoming in operating cash flow to dividend payment ratio, as it can be seen it has the lowest operating cash flow to dividend payment ratio. It can be attributable to the fact that it pays more dividends than it should pay. So it can be concluded that Coles needs to reduce dividend payment as it might lead Coles in to financial difficulties if some unexpected obligations turn up. In terms of operating cash flow to current liabilities we see that although it has fallen substantially for Coles in last 5 years but it is at par with its biggest competitor Woolworths greater than Metcash. 3. Prospective analysis Prospective analysis enables us to determine future performance of the firm based on historical performance of the company. Here will be determining the mean return for sales and earning before interest taxes (EBIT) . Using those mean returns we will be making a sales forecast and EBIT forecast. 3.1 Sales and EBIT forecast In determining the sales growth, I have considered the following assumptions- Past trend of sales is going to continue in the following years. Firm is not going to bring a major change in its pricing policy. The foundation for sales EBIT growth is historical sales EBIT growth and I have used mean reverting model to determine the future sales growth, in which future sales EBIT growth will be mean return of last 4 years sales growth. I have not taken the 5 year sales EBIT growth because EBIT growth rate is to high in 2002 (73%) which could adversely effect the mean return considering present situation of Coles. Table 13 Sales EBIT Growth Rate for Coles Ltd Using the mean reverting model we are able to find out a growth rate of sales for 7.64% EBIT growth rate of 11.87%. Using these growth rates we will be able to make a sales forecast EBIT forecast. This forecast will help in proper valuation of Coles on the basis of its predicted future performance. Figure 1 Line chart for sales EBIT growth Table 14 Sales EBIT Forecast for Coles LTD Using the growth rates we can forecast the sales and EBIT for Coles which helps an analyst in a fair valuation of the company. The main reason we use the sales growth as a base for forecasting, is that the majority of firm income is derived from its supermarket business. This forecast suffers from one serious shortcoming that EBIT growth has fallen from 34.31% in 2004 to 11.16% in 2005 and then to -17.07% in 2006 but we are still predicting a growth in EBIT of 11.87% in 2007 and thereafter. 4. Conclusion I have gone through the multi-step process of ratio analysis, cash flow analysis and prospective analysis to present a report on financial analysis of Coles ltd. During the process, I have identified that Coles is operating in a mature industry with small profit margins. I have performed ratio analysis, cash flow analysis prospective analysis which would help a great deal in valuation of Coles based on its current market situation. During the Ratio analysis I was able to conclude that Coles has got good activity liquidity ratios but the major area of concern is profitability ratios. Coles needs to improve its net profitability so as survive in this competitive environment. Cash flow analysis helped us to depict that Coles has cash flow ratios at par with its competitor, Woolworths, but Coles need to reduce its dividend payout as it is too high as compared to industry counterparts. By doing a prospective analysis I am able to forecast the future sales EBIT for Coles for next 4 years. Growth rate for forecast has been calculated using the mean return for past 4 years. This helps us to understand future growth of the company. I would like to conclude by saying that although Coles is competing in a low profit margin industry but it is the 2nd biggest company in the retail industry, therefore if it brings about certain petite changes in its financing and operating activities it can add a great deal to its shareholders value.

Gun Control: Research Paper Essay

People of this country have the right to protect themselves and own guns, so long as they are capable and responsible. Even though guns are dangerous, being defenseless is even more dangerous and everyone should have the right to defend themselves, whether or not firearms are used. As people of this country we should have the right to defend ourselves, and that should include defense by firearms. The gun owner does not have to pull the trigger of a firearm. Sometimes the threat of the gun and the possibility of it being fired is enough to send those who intend harm away. Statistics show that in true life instances of self-defense with firearms, firing the gun was necessary only one third to one half of the time, the rest of the time the mere presence of a gun was enough to scare away the attacker† (Moore 5). Some people are more defenseless than others including the elderly and smaller men and women. People have the right to defend themselves, but sometimes they are limited in doing so by inadequate physical ability, age and other factors. Statistics show that people who are attacked by a criminal are safer if they use a weapon to resist their attacker than if they do not resist. In addition, those who resist with a gun are less likely to be injured than those who use a less effective weapon, such as a knife. (Moore 5) Although there are means of defense other than guns, they are the most effective form of protection from someone trying to harm you. A knife is threatening, but there is not much you can do from a long distance, and throwing it won’t be the best option, since you would essentially be losing your weapon if you miss. Self-defense such as karate and other martial arts techniques also really can’t be used at a long distance, and are of no match to a criminal threat with a gun. Larry Pratt says, â€Å"Evil is in our hearts, not in the guns† (Burbaker1). Many advocates for gun restrictions and bans like to state that â€Å"Guns kill; people do not† (Zaremski1). I find this to be a faulty argument. It is people who kill, a gun will not kill unless the person holding it decides to use it to kill, and pulls the trigger. A gun lying around is not going to do any harm a gun is not making the decision to kill or to shoot its bullets; it does not have a mind. It is when a person picks up that gun that it is fired, the person with thoughts and a mind, he or she is killing not the gun. Anything can be fashioned into a weapon, and there are so many already made weapons out there. We should have the right to our guns, just as we have the right to any weapon out there. None of these weapons are doing any harm to us unless someone makes that happen. We should have the right to defend ourselves with a firearm if necessary if we are threatened by someone. The second amendment of the constitution states that, â€Å"A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed. † Back then, a militia was comprised of ordinary, common male citizens, who not only had the right, but the duty to own guns to protect the country and form a militia. Don Kates states that, â€Å"The amendment, in guaranteeing the arms of each citizen, simultaneously guaranteed arms for the militia† (2347). The founding fathers set it up so that the people had means of defense from anyone, including other citizens, foreigners, and even their own government. People such as James Madison, who was the one to introduce the Bill of Rights stated that the amendments in it â€Å"relate first to private rights† (NRA-ILA). He is stating that the Bill of Rights relates to private rights of the citizens before it relates to state or national rights, proving that it is the right of the people to own a firearm for protection. The second amendment talks about us as citizens owning guns for defense, not just the government. It would be going against the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights to take away or limit gun ownership and usage. Yes, this privilege should be taken away from those who abuse it and harm others or have the potential to harm, but not from regular, responsible citizens. This amendment is not only for personal and military defense, but also was intended to protect citizens from a tyrannical government, so that if it happens, people are able to defend themselves. Moore also states that, â€Å"The Founding Fathers of our country won our freedom with firearms. After we won our independence the Founding Fathers included the right to keep and bear arms in the Constitution to ensure that the freedom they fought for would last† (6). They put this in so that we had the right not only to defend ourselves from any harm from others or even animals, but also so that we had a defense to protect our freedom if it was ever threatened by the government. By taking away our guns, you are in a sense taking away part of our freedom as the people of this country. Some people argue that we have the right to protect ourselves from all dangers, including guns, and that there should be a more restrictive gun control. While it is true that we should make sure that guns should stay out of the hands of felons and mentally unstable people, they should not be banned from regular, responsible citizen’s hands. Moore defines what a responsible citizen is, The citizen must be law-abiding, with no felony record, must not abuse alcohol or drugs, must not be mentally ill, must not have renounced U. S. citizenship, must not have been dishonorably discharged from the military, and must be in the U. S. legally (2). Upon purchasing a gun you have to take a class on gun safety and use and are required to have a full criminal background check and to give your full set of fingerprints. I do not think that this is being enforced enough and shouldn’t be taken lightly. If we can keep the guns out of the wrong hands, we can eliminate most of the crimes caused by them. â€Å"By definition, a criminal is someone who breaks the law. Criminals have many ways to obtain weapons without going through the process mandated by the Brady Bill. Two obvious examples are theft and black market purchases. According to studies only one firearm of every six used in a crime is obtained legally† (Moore 3). Eliminating guns in this country will do nothing, stopping the wrong people to get their hands on it could. We are not going to ban cars because someone crashed it and they died. Many things are dangerous, it is up to the person to be responsible with it. Most products have a warning label or say what not to do with them, such as do not use your hair dryer in the bath, but, it is up to you as a person to be responsible with it and to protect yourself from harm. If another person lacks that responsibility, and uses something to harm you, such as a weapon, you should be able to defend yourself, even with a gun. Think about how well it went in the 1920’s when the prohibition happened and alcohol was made illegal, people still got alcohol through the black market, and because of that demand, the black market grew. The same is true today with the ban on drugs, they are illegal, but people can still get them, and people still use them. The same thing is going to happen, only with guns. Many surveys suggest criminals obtain their weapons through this illegal firearms market. One study indicated that in 37 percent of their arrests the criminal said they could obtain a gun in less than a week, while another 20 percent said they could get a firearm in a day or less. (O’Niell 1). You everyday criminals don’t just walk to the gun store and buy a gun; they get it from the black-market. These guns are usually stolen guns and unregistered. Taking away our right to legally have and buy guns is only going to lead to guns being in the wrong hands and ordinary citizens will be defenseless. Chicago, once seen as one of those go-to American cities, with its sweeping skyline and the lake, is now seen and is a haven for gun violence and crime. It has the strictest gun laws in the country; the question is what went wrong. Houston is very similar to Chicago in terms of socioeconomic factors such as population, density, and segregation. Houston, like Chicago, is a major center for illegal activities such as the drug trade and human trafficking. Despite all this, Houston has a murder rate  two-thirds [than]  that of Chicago. This is because the people of Houston are well armed, while innocents in Chicago have been condemned to be sitting ducks. (Vidal1) Many of the guns in Chicago that are used for these shootings are illegally obtained and are in the hands of criminals and gangs. You are able to get a gun in Chicago now, but you have to go through a firearms training class, 2 background checks, and have a firearm’s owner I. D. card. Only 7,640 people legally own a gun in Chicago, the rest are illegally had, 7,400 illegal guns last year were confiscated from crimes (Maass 1). The gun free law in Chicago is clearly not working if more guns are being confiscated from criminals than responsible citizens who own guns. Many people complain about the high rate of crimes involving guns and gun use in America. A law banning guns probably won’t lower this number at all. If we don’t have means to protect ourselves, we would have to find a way to call for help, such as law enforcement. There are not enough police to go around and protect everybody, and sometimes they come and too late. In that time it took for the cops to get there, that could have been the last few moments of that person’s life. We need to be able to defend ourselves. â€Å"Laws are not enough to protect people from aggression. We must allow people the means to protect themselves. Protection is a major reason that about half of all Americans own a firearm† (Moore 5). Yes firearms can be used against us, but they can also be used for us. We need to have more effective criminal regulations and crime control, rather than more gun control. This is the only way to stop crimes whether or not they involve guns. The tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut was unsettling, killing twenty-seven people, including twenty school children and seven adults. This school, just like all in the United States, is a gun-free zone, but should that mean those teachers and other staff, such as the cop in the school should not have access to guns? The gun free zone did not stop Adam Lanza, the shooter from bringing in his three guns to the school and killing 20 students and six adults. â€Å"Police and other first responders arrived on scene about 20 minutes after the first calls† (Sandy Hook 1). Had these teachers and staff had a gun or any means of protection at all, he may have been stopped before he killed anybody or at an even lower number, especially since the police arrived that long after calls. Pratt states, â€Å"Virtually all mass murders in the past 20 years have occurred in gun-free zones† (1). A mass murder is considered three or more deaths. The main reason that these have happened in gun free zones is because no one other than a police officer has a gun and can stop him and by that time one shows up there is a relatively high chance that more than three people are dead. I do believe that teachers should have a gun in their desk and ready just in case of another incident such as the Sandy Hook Tragedy or at least a cop in every school. Guns should be allowed on these gun-free zones by honest citizens. Criminal are not obeying the rules about the gun-free zones, so why should we take the chance and leave the school children, or mall goers at risk? Taking away guns is not going to solve anything, but instead leave the guns in the hands of criminals. Guns should be kept legal, and yes there should be regulations and better eye on who has it, but making them illegal all together will just cause us to be defenseless and a black market will start up for guns, just like all illegal things. We just need to better regulate the criminals, mental patients, and those on prescription drugs that could alter personality and rationality, not have guns. We need to have better crime control, rather than gun control and teach responsibility and safety and risks of guns. Making everyone well-educated on the topic and of guns themselves will overall help. Even making it mandatory to have a background check and mental health check every few years to make sure that these guns are in the right hands would help out a lot. Most of the time it’s not normal citizens that commit the crimes but criminals, and by taking away guns from normal good, people, we will be essentially leaving them in the wrong hands and taking away our protection. Works Cited Burbaker, Elisabeth. â€Å"Larry Pratt on Guns in America: â€Å"Evil’s in Our Hearts. Not in the Guns†Ã¢â‚¬ Piers Morgan RSS. Cable News Network, 8 Dec. 2012. Web. 29 Mar. 2013. KATES, DON B. , Jr. â€Å"Second Amendment. †Ã‚  Encyclopedia of the American Constitution. Ed. Leonard W. Levy and Kenneth L. Karst. 2nd ed. Vol. 5. Detroit: Macmillan Reference USA, 2000. 2346-2347. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 10 Mar. 2013. Maass, Harold. â€Å"Chicago’s Rising Murder Rate: Has Gun Control Failed? – The Week. †Ã‚  The Week. N. p. , 31 Jan. 2013. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. Moore, Richard. Gun Control. Rep. N. p. : n. p. , 1995. Print â€Å"2013 NRA-ILA Firearms Fact Card. †Ã‚  NRA-ILA. N. p. , 8 Jan. 2013. Web. 1 Apr. 2013. ;lt;http://www. nraila. org;gt;. O’Neill, Kevin. â€Å"Gun Control, Unregistered Firearms and the Black Market. †Ã‚  Examiner. com. N. p. , 9 Nov. 2010. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. Pratt, Larry. Blood – Gun Owners of America. †Ã‚  Gun Owners of America. GOA, 16 Dec. 2012. Web. 29 Mar. 2013 â€Å"Sandy Hook Elementary Shooting: What Happened? †Ã‚  CNN. Cable News Network, n. d. Web. 29 Mar. 2013. Woodhill, Louis. â€Å"The Sandy Hook Horror Begs Us To Have The Courage To Do Nothing. â€Å"Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 27 Dec. 2012. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. Vidal, Charlie. â€Å"PolicyMic. †Ã‚  PolicyMic. N. p. , Feb. 2013. Web. 17 Apr. 2013. Zaremski, Miles J. â€Å"Guns: Screaming in Silence Is No Longer an Option. †Ã‚  The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost. com, 11 Jan. 2013. Web. 29 Mar. 2013

Do Video Games Cause Aggression

Do Video Games Cause Aggression? Over the past few years there has been a multitude of complaints about the violent content of video games and it has been suggested that they can make players more aggressive in real life. The fact that video games are getting more and more elaborate and violent can’t be denied – game designers strive to make images more realistic and show the injuries the characters get or their suffering in agony. However, blaming games for aggression outside the virtual world appears to be ungrounded and exaggerated. Firstly, researches conducted on this issue seem to contradict each other. Although some studies show that video games affect people’s emotional state, others claim that their influence upon the players is the same as that of books or films. Moreover, according to Patrick Kierkegaard from the University of Essex, England, there is no obvious link between real-world violence statistics and the invention of video games. He argued that with millions of sales of violent games, the world should be seeing an epidemic of violence, but violence, particularly among the young, has declined. Its true that notorious school shootings in America have been committed by young game players. However, the overwhelming majority of teenage game players are law-abiding citizens. According to 2001 U.S. Surgeon Generals report, the strongest risk factors for school shootings centred in mental stability and the quality of home life, not media exposure. Thus, there is no evidence to suggest that video games are the primary factor that breeds aggression among young people. The moral panic over violent video games misdirects energy away from eliminating the actual causes of youth violence and allows problems to fester further on.