Essay on The Holocaust The Concentration Camps - 1484 Words

Holocaust is the most terrible human action in the history. It absolutely marks the ending of the previous mentality of human-beings. Therefore, a new round of discovery of evilness of human nature has been established. Best uncovering the truth of Holocaust will help prevent the furthur destuction of humanism, which is the most important mission of the society after World War II. There are many sources of Holocaust trying to best uncover the truth, such as the inhabitant’s experience of the immediate suffering in the camp, fragment memories from the survivors. However, only the analyzations with critical sights of these horrible actions will appeal for just humanitarian attentions to the most extent. Inhabitant’s experience of the†¦show more content†¦The Night is absolute a wonderful book of accounting the experience which happened in the Nazi death camp, perhaps, it is one of thoese few books which got published. It uncovers the horrible shocking memory of evil and carries it with unerasable mesagge. I remember when I was reading the book, I could hardly read during some dark nights, all of the bloody scenes would terrify me from falling asleep. The Dark Side of the Moon is another book with exceptional detail on the sufferings of Poles during Holocaust. â€Å"Very many of these people were carriers of disease. Enormous numbers of them were children; and for the most part orphans.... The conditions of the deportations, with their epidemics, loss of life, monstrous sufferings, privation and disease of all kinds, were now being reproduced in reverse, and on a still more gigantic scale(215 Zajdlerowa). Trying to imagine some reports from other survivors which did not get published, all the bloody scenes in the reports will absolutely add more burdens to the readers which causes a negative effect of spreading the truth of Holocasut. Therefore straight inhabitant’s experience of the immediate suffering in the camp fails to inspire people who have passions and are sympathized to the tragedy. Fragment memories from the survivors to some extent are not accessable or reliable. Firstly, the survivors who are able to recall their memories are not the ones who suffered the most.Show MoreRelatedThe Holocaust Of The Concentration Camp2097 Words   |  9 Pagesdeserve to be treated that way. The holocaust started in January 30, 1933. The president during the time was Adolf Hitler Chancellor of Germany. In march 20, 1933 an officers opened the Dachau concentration camp outside of Munich. The camp was help for people like jews to be tortured and it wasn t any good thing about the concentration camp. The Dachau concentration camp was the first regular concentration camp established by the National Socialist government. This camp was located on the grounds ofRead MoreThe Effects Of Concentration Camps On The Holocaust931 Words   |  4 PagesSam Gaglias English I Mrs. Novik 14 October 2014 Summer camps are fun, but Concentration Camps aren’t History is like a huge puzzle. People can keep find missing pieces to the story as they learn more about it. The Holocaust was one of those moments in history that has lead our minds to curiosity about why such a thing would occur at some point in time. For example, concentration camps. Concentration camps are one of those moments in history that make people’s jaws drop because of how flabbergastedRead MoreEssay on Concentration Camps and The Holocaust647 Words   |  3 PagesThe Holocaust was a horrifing event where many innocent humans were hopelesslt slaughtered in concentration camps or just shot. Thats why we study about the Holocaust, so it doesnt happen again. It started with Hitler. Hitler was a solider in the first World War and was injuredmultiple times in combat. When Germany lost the war, Hitler was enraged because he put himself in the face of danger and was injured for his country and they lost. This event combined with some childhood events was the startRead More Holocaust-concentration Camps Essay610 Words   |  3 Pages Concentration Camps nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Concentration Camps were a big part of the Holocaust. My first topic is the concentration camp Dachau. Then I will talk about another concentration camp called Bergen-Belsen. After that, I will tell you about the concentration camp Treblinka. Finally, the last concentration I will talk about is Auschwitz-Birkenau. Describing these camps will inform you that concentration camps were a huge part of the Holocaust. nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;DachauRead MoreThe Concentration Camps During The Holocaust1516 Words   |  7 PagesEleven million people died during the Holocaust of these eleven million people 2.4 million died from medical experiments conducted by German forces. These experiments were conducted mainly for three reasons. The first of which was to help the Germans gain knowledge that would help them better understand things that would have been viewed as threats or weaknesses to their military (Holocaust Museum). For example the Germans knew little of hypothermia and the weather located on the eastern front,Read MoreConcentration Camps During The Holocaust1675 Words   |  7 PagesImagine being pried away from your family. Not only that, but being left at the concentration camps, knowing that you are about to face the dreaded word â€Å"death†. Concentration camps broke people’s hearts and changed them forever. They had to encounter many terrifying and petrifying medical e xperiments. Alongside that, the so called â€Å"concentration camps† were basically almost becoming, or were, actual death camps. The things that they had to endure were heartbreaking and agonizing. They were starvedRead MoreThe Concentration Camps During The Holocaust1508 Words   |  7 PagesThe concept of conducting camps used to incarcerate, degrade and essentially murder millions of innocent people who were deemed ‘unsuitable’ would be barbaric, nonsensical and deranged to nearly any person. But what was truly intriguing was the fact that these camps were at a point in time supported and encouraged by many. The formation of these camps known as â€Å"Concentration Camps† were notorious for being one of the most unnerving events in not only WWII, but even world history. The treatment thatRead MoreThe Holocaust Of The Nazi Concentration And Death Camps939 Words   |  4 Pages Holocaust survivors give great insight to the realities of what the life w as like within the gates of the Nazi concentration and death camps. Not to say that the research of historians, writers, and professors does not provide pivotal information to the study of the Holocaust; but their research provides secondary sources and accounts. Primary sources for historic moments allows a reader to get into the mind and psyche of the writer who is sharing his or hers experiences. The ability to becomeRead MoreConditions of the Concentration Camps During the Holocaust Essay1077 Words   |  5 Pagesand forcing them into concentration camps all across Europe, Hitler and his Nazi advocates began one of the most destructive and horrifying genocides in history, known today as the Holocaust. Only after being introduced to the conditions of these concentration camps, the hatred and abuse put towards the Jewish, and the gruesome lifestyle they were trapped into living can one understand why the Holocaust affected so many as it did. What exactly were the conditions of th ese camps, and how did a few luckyRead MoreThe Holocaust The holocaust was the genocide of Jews and disabled humans in concentration camps600 Words   |  3 PagesThe Holocaust The holocaust was the genocide of Jews and disabled humans in concentration camps during World War 2. The Nazi’s were a political party that started with a few men who wanted to see the rise of Germany. 1933, Adolf Hitler became the Chancellor of Germany when the party was elected. Hitler and his party and the philosophy that Germans were a superior race and all other ethnic groups were not. They blamed the Jews and the disabled for the trouble that Germany had after World War 1. Therefore

Health and Social Unit 1 P2 Level 2 Free Essays

Unit 1 p2 health and social Visual impairment A visual impairment is when a person’s sense of sight is completely gone and the change is irreversible. However this can also mean someone is partially sighted, where their sight may be blurred or only able to see out of one eye. A visual impairment can be caused by age illness or incident; it prevents the patient being able to recognise people by face, body and other visual elements. We will write a custom essay sample on Health and Social Unit 1 P2 Level 2 or any similar topic only for you Order Now To overcome tis barrier glasses may be worn in some partial sighted cases, and a form of written communication called braille may be used. Braille is created by making indentations in materials patterned to represent letters without actually outlining the shape of the letter. A variety of people may need to communicate with the partially sighted patients. Some examples of these are: * Health care assistants * Service users * Dentists * Opticians * Physiotherapist * Social worker * Relatives * Friends * Occupational therapist All of these individuals are challenged by te barrier and have to use certain aids and procedures in order to communicate with the patient efficiently and effectively. Some examples of these are: * Braille * Presentation/convocation with descriptive speech * Physical examples to feel English as a second language. A patient which has English as a second language or isn’t very fluent in the language can be hard to communicate with. This prevents communication with a patient unless aids are used. Some examples of these are: * Interpreter Translations * Visual aids * Hand, body and face expressions or movements These aids are used by the following: * Health care assistants * Service users (residents) * Dentist * Optician * Doctor * Physiotherapist * Social worker * Occupational therapist Friends and relatives would not be included in this category because they would more than likely speak the same language. For both barriers any issues, impairments etc. should be written down in a patients notes. Staff in the establishment should be trained in how to use the necessary aids. How to cite Health and Social Unit 1 P2 Level 2, Essay examples

Music Piracy free essay sample

In the 21st century, many changes have been made to digital media. One such media that has experienced an extreme change is music. It is no longer just a type of media that Is made by singers and bought by consumers, but It is now part of the dark, scary side of the Internet. There are even journal article authors who have written about music piracy. Music is the most widely pirated media in the world today. From singles to albums to recording demos, music of all genres Is ripped and released into the music piracy scene (Craig, Honing, and Burnett 174). These authors illustrate how big music piracy has become. Currently, in the world of music Industries, music piracy Is taking over the money business and leaving musicians financially unstable; this instability is the reason for convincing music pirates to stop downloading music, illegally, off the Internet by coming up with different solutions to the Issue of piracy. The solutions consist of finding other websites where music downloading can be done at a reasonable price, taking legal action if necessary, and coming up with hi-tech development that could stop pirates from downloading.People may be wondering what exactly music pirates are defined as. According to Amy Wither, they are normal, everyday people who download music illegally off the Internet (2). Music piracy has been occurring for a long time, as long as the sasss where music was conventionally regarded as lying beyond the purview of copyright altogether, so publishers sold unauthorized reprints freely (Johns 67). Later, though, big companies started to form in the world. Shawn Fanning, a college student, created the Anapest Company online. ND once It was established, everyone started to use Anapest in college and it spread around quickly becoming the new website to use and download music from (Wade 10). Anyone can do the downloading through Anapest and many people participate. Also, music piracy Is definitely not an untouched topic. There have been law cases against certain Internet companies that allow music sharing to occur. For example, Matt Richter discusses in the New York Times article that the company Fanning started (Anapest) was part of a court case against The Recording Industry Association of America.The court had ordered the industry and company to get along by allowing Anapest to copyright certain music that the recording Industry approved and, of course, for a price. Anapest failed to eave the music approved and only caused the court case to become bigger. Finally, the Judge ordered Anapest to stop swapping copyrighted music that the recording company owned. Even though all of these controversies occurred, Anapest and music piracy, in general, still believe they are doing no harm to the music industry and that they are actually benefiting the sales and profits.In an article titled Securities Price Effects of Anapest-Related Events, there is a phrase that reads the evidence indicates that events that threatened Anapests survival resulted in decreases in the stock prices of the music firms (Navies 167). Even though Anapest believed they were beneficial, It turns out they brought nothing but harm to the stock market. It was actually beneficial that Anapest was shut down. The court case is just one of the many issues Anapest has been through. It was a part of eleven court cases toys companies are still up and running, though, and there is not going to be a stop to piracy Just because one company has been shut down. It will keep on occurring until a stop is put to the companies. As the years have been going by, music sharing and downloading has been increasing and less people seem to care about it now. There ere once many news articles and online articles that discussed music piracy during the early sasss, but it has seemed to die down now. There has not been much talk on the issue.One reason why less people care about the music piracy issue is because the recording industries, themselves, have stopped trying to ban the illegal downloading. Also, there are a multitude of people that do this downloading; therefore, it is Just difficult to stop every single person from downloading music online. Since the people of the music industries and the pirates have stopped caring, other actions will have to be taken. In order to stop piracy from continuing, music pirates must completely stop the illegal downloading or technological protection strategies (Chug, Hung-Change et. L 723) must be taken on. As mentioned before, legal actions have been taken to stop the illegal purchasing, but the legal actions were only successful up too certain point. Certain technological advances could help, though, in stopping piracy. These advances consist of watermarks on Cads (Craig 175), blocking music piracy sites, and putting music into secure areas of the Internet to where one can only access the music with a small fee. All of these strategies seem relevant enough to work, but no one will ever know unless they are put into action. Music piracy has become the next big issue and measures must be put down to stop it. Music pirates have yet to realize the real dangers behind this illegal downloading. The people do not realize that music artists are being affected, financially, by their downloading and music industries are losing billions of dollars with a decrease in CD sales. When music industries first started to grow, there were only one to two companies that were part of the industry. Now, the industry as a hole is composed of five major companies that make over 14 billion yearly (Abortionist 10).These companies make good money, and the start of downloading and sharing has only ruined it. According to Alexandra Center, there is about 9 percent of the total population that download music every day. Also, the regular users that download the music also share the music to people who do not download as much. Because of this downloading and sharing, there has been a drop in music sales by 2. 7 percent making music industries lose billions. When it comes to music artists, they already have a hard time making money through recording impasses and music pirates do not make it easier.The statistics say that The costs of recording an album can easily reach several hundred thousand dollars, so an artist can only expect to earn royalties from an album if it sells over 500,000 copies (Abortionist 11). People may believe that artists are financially successful, but, in reality, they make barely any money. According to Janis Ian, a famous music artist, if were not songwriters, and not hugely successful commercially (as in platinum plus), we [recording artists] dont make a dime off our recordings (CTD. N Abortionist 12). Imagine how much recording artists would make if piracy took over completely.These artists would basically make zero money if they were not the least bit successful or had only been in the music business for a few years. Now, artists are Zimmermann men that were making good money off of selling pirated music in Botswana finally have their house broken into by famous music artists and they ended up confiscating all the pirated music (Legroom). Violence has even become a part of stopping piracy; therefore, music pirates do not know what may be coming to hem. Although there may be many other alternatives to piracy, some music pirates may not want to stop pirating at all.There are many opposing views in discontinuing music downloading or music file sharing. The views consist of music pirates not Anatine to drive to a store to buy a CD; in other words, they would want to do something that is more convenient for them. Also, most music pirates do not want to pay for the music. According to Cultures of Music Piracy, Making a single CD costs record companies well under $1 (Vogel, 2001: 162), students feel that CDC are overpriced, especially when it turns out there are only a couple of good songs on the album (CTD. In Condor 20).Even though it may look cheap if a CD only costs one dollar for it to be made and put into stores, the price of the CD afterwards is high and Nat the consumers have to pay is that high price. If anything free is available at hand, they would rather take that than purchase it. Music pirates, also, Just do not care that their downloading is affecting music artists. Music artists, famous celebrities who do not have much personal interaction with the common folk, are not ere important to the pirates and, therefore, do not care to take their music illegally.All of these opposing views seem reasonable on why music pirates do not want to purchase the music. There are solutions to all of these views, though. For example, hen it comes to music pirates wanting convenience in obtaining their music, they can easily purchase music at home on the Internet. There is absolutely no need for anyone to leave his or her own home and go to a store to buy a CD. Money is also a ere big issue in buying music, but that issue can be reasonable solved, too. There re many other websites that have packages put together for purchasing a certain amount of music. Rhapsody, a legal downloading music website, has a 14 day trial for anyone who is interested in signing up with them and, after the sign-up, it is either lust one dollar per track or $12. 99 per month for unlimited downloading :www. Rhapsody. Com). That deal is a very reasonable price and the website has broken down the payments in a way that is convenient for anyone. There are also many other websites out there who are willing to help anyone that needs financial assistance with his or her music purchases. For example, Limier is also another online company that allows anyone to become a member of his or her website and purchase music. Usually there are free membership trials if no one wants to obtain the full program. Since this option is available, people save money by not becoming full member of the program, but they would still have to purchase the music. It is a total of $34. 95 to acquire the full program of Limier (beta. Limier. Com). That price is a lot of money that can be saved if one Just signs up for the free membership. Also, there has even been a start to a certain number of students who seed to be pirates and now have taken measures to stop piracy.According to Elise Ackerman in her article titled Student Gets around Program to Prevent Music Piracy, Princeton University graduate named John Hildebrand actually installed a device Into a certain CD he owned that can stop anyone from copying that CD. He has even to it, the software was still made and put into certain computers to where no one can copy music from his or her CDC. Since this student came up with a way to prevent piracy, anyone has the capability to stop pirating and becoming like this man who reed stopped piracy.Even though music pirates can conveniently purchase music at home (even purchase it at a reasonable price) or even come up with software to prevent piracy, some music pirates could actually Just not care at all about how their downloading is affecting the careers of musicians. Music pirates do not realize, though, that if they ke ep on pirating, soon enough music artists will be out of the Job and there will be no more music made for the pirates to download illegally. Music pirates will have no more music to listen to and there will be no more artists in the industry. Several music artists that have been close to experiencing this scenario are all over programs online such as Limier, Anapest, Rhapsody, and etc. Anyone that may seem to be doing well in the music industry such as Taylor Swift, Jessie McCarty, and Akin all end up on these piracy sites and they are gradually losing money every second one of their singles are being downloaded (Center 64). Soon enough all these famous artists will have no more money to produce more music and the music industry will come crashing down.There are no benefits in either of the tuitions where music pirates are stubborn in stopping piracy and, at the same time, music artists are losing money. It is better if the music pirates Just stop pirating all together. Therefore, music artists do not go bankrupt and are available to make more music for the pleasure of listening. Everyone benefits if this solution comes true. Now, what if music pirates still do not care that a certain number of artists lose their Jobs since there are many artists in the industry? What are music pirates going to do if all the music artists make their music only accessible to Tunes or Junes?There is no way one can obtain music for free if all the music is put into these types of services. Therefore, again, it is for the best if piracy is put a stop to otherwise, one day, all the music made by all the music artists will be only a part of services like Tunes and then there will be no music by music artists available for pirates to listen to. Only way they can is if they start buying music. Music piracy has many ways of being stopped and music pirates would be able to see this now. Music piracy, a big Issue among the entire world, has been ruining music industries for decades, now, ND leaving most music artists with no money.These results are the very reason on NH music piracy needs to be put a stop to either by legal action, technological software, or by the music pirates themselves. Piracy has become a big issue and certain actions have been taken to stop pirates from continuing their downloading, but these certain actions have not seemed to have worked at all. Music pirates, however, have been given a sufficient amount of reasons on why piracy needs to be put to a stop to, and if these reasons stop the whole piracy issue, there will be a Nor filled with no piracy and music artists will be financially stable again.

The above statement and discuss its accuracy in relation to airspace and subterranean space Essay Example

The above statement and discuss its accuracy in relation to airspace and subterranean space Essay The law concerning airspace and subterranean space appears to be exceptionally complex and to an extent even outdated. Sir William James attempt to clarify the law using the Latin maxim cuis est solum eius est usque ad coelum et ad inferos1 seems to have created even more legal uncertainty and appears to have done more harm than good. The maxim is now subject to vast exceptions as well as having been denounced by contemporary legal commentators and even senior judges. This essay will explore the accuracy of Sir William James judgement; it will also question the argument that the maxim is still considered the ordinary rule of law2 and will look at how modern land law has gone about dealing with the legal confusion caused by this judgement, focusing primarily on airspace and subterranean space. Firstly, in order to explain the above statement, it may be beneficial to look closely at the facts of the case in which the judgement was made (Corbett v Hill 1870)3. In brief, the case concerned the trespass of land where the claimant failed in attempting to seek an injunction to stop the defendant building a room over-looking the claimants property. After citing the maxim as being the ordinary rule of law4, Sir James admitted its exceptional level of legal ambiguity and even conceded that no doubt, [the maxim] is frequently rebutted5, especially in regards to property in towns [by] other adjoining tenements6. We will write a custom essay sample on The above statement and discuss its accuracy in relation to airspace and subterranean space specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on The above statement and discuss its accuracy in relation to airspace and subterranean space specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on The above statement and discuss its accuracy in relation to airspace and subterranean space specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Thus, in relation to the accuracy of the statement, one must appreciate the case is from the 19th century; during a time when technology had not progressed as much as it has today and accordingly airborne methods of transport had not yet been invented. This meant trespassing through the higher levels of airspace would not have been an issue and consequently, detailed legislation regarding the law of airspace may not have been considered necessary at the time. Hence, it may be argued that Sir William James simply cited the maxim with the intention of it serving merely as a rough direction of law but, unaware of the rapid advancement of technology within the 21st century, and so the inventions of aeroplanes and other methods of aerial transport have subsequently required clarification within the law of airspace and have demonstrated the impracticality of applying the maxim in modern times. Inevitably, the judgement has caused vast legal uncertainty and for this reason has been at the centre of immense criticism from both legal commentators7 as well as even senior judges. The suggestion that a land owner has complete control of everything up to the sky and down to the centre of the earth is not only practically unrealistic, but also, theoretically delusional which has resulted in Sprankling8 dismissing the maxim as merely a poetic hyperbole9 suggesting its over-dramatic implications regarding a landowners rights in airspace and subterranean land. This criticism is supported by Lord Wilberforce who has openly criticized the maxims feasibility as being sweeping, unscientific and impractical10. Furthermore, its implication that land is only measureable on a two-dimensional level (in terms of its physical structure) is an argument that has been strongly dismissed by Gray and Gray (2009)11 who claim that portions of a land may be owned by several different owners and thus claim that a transfer of a merely two-dimensional plot of land would have little meaning and even less utility12. They argue that a third dimension of land should have been recognised within the maxim and should now be explicitly acknowledged by the courts as they believe it can exist as as an independent unit of real property13. Gray and Gray (2009) further criticise the maxim for being virtually worthless suggesting it holds very little, if any, legal value in the modern legal system. Hence, these strong dismissals and denunciations of the maxim by senior academics and legal professionals may be argued as representing the modern attitude towards it; suggesting its significance in modern land law is not as much as it was when cited in the 19th century or at the time of its creation. Inevitably, as a result of the vast legal ambiguity and immense criticism that the judgement has faced, a major attempt to rectify the confusion regarding airspace finally came about with the establishment of the terms the lower stratum and the upper stratum. Although these terms appeared to contradict the maxim, they created a groundbreaking change in the law of airspace by splitting airspace into two categories. The lower stratum is that which was necessary for the landowners reasonable enjoyment. In Bernstein14 it was held that determining the requirement of reasonable enjoyment15 is dependent on the type, height and size of the property. Whereas, the upper stratum is that which is above the height which is reasonably necessary for the ordinary enjoyment16. In Bernstein17, Griffiths J also stated that a landowner has no greater rights in the upper stratum than any other member of the public. This is also identically reflected with the obiter dicta of Lord Brown in Bocardo SA (2010)18 where he stated that the air is a public highway19 and if that was not true then every transcontinental flight would subject the operator to countless trespass suits. 20 Both statements appear to be valid and rational as there can be no private ownership of airspace which is entitled to the public. However, both of these statements appeared to be expressly undermined in Kelsen (1957)21 where it was held that the placing of an advertisement banner on (the upper stratum of) another persons land, although did not interfere with the defendants reasonable enjoyment, yet still constituted a trespass. This judgement can be criticised on the basis that it appears to overtly contradict the basic judgement in Bernstein and the consequently conventional principle that the upper stratum is open for the use of the public and that the landowner has no greater rights to it over any other public. However, in Liaqat v Majid22, Silber J justly diverged from the judgement in Kelsen23 and rightfully re-emphasized the principle established in Bernstein24 stating where the interference of land was at a height that did not interfere with the claimants airspace25 then it does not constitute a trespass. This principle was further re-emphasized in Manitoba and Air Canada (1978)26 in which the state of Manitoba argued that goods being sold on an aeroplane flying over Manitoba could be subjected to domestic taxing. Prima facie, it appears that if the maxim is applied retrospectively then technically Manitoba argument should be accepted, however, the maxim was again dismissed by the court and the claim failed as they emphasized the judgement in Bernstein27 that there can be no ownership of the upper stratum. The inaccuracy of the maxim is further demonstrated by the enactment of The Civil Aviation Act (1982)28. Section 76(1)29 discusses grounds for trespass30 and nuisance31 stating that no action can arise if an aircraft is flying over a property, providing it has shown consideration to the wind, weather and so long as all circumstances of the case [are] reasonable. The wording of this statute appears to be as equally ambiguous as the maxim itself in the sense that it leads to the question how would a mere bystander or a reasonable man know if an aircraft has had taken the wind and the weather into consideration and that all the circumstances of his flight are reasonable before establishing if his/her airspace had been trespassed?. Although there are exceptions for aeroplanes landing and taking off, the general rule stated in the Rules of the Air (Amendment) Regulations 200532 is that it is not permissible for an aircraft to fly any closer than 500 feet to any person, vessel, vehicle or structure. 33 Both statues have considerably clarified the confusion regarding invasion of airspace and have further demonstrated the inaccuracy of Sir James statement. Additionally, Gray and Gray (2009)34 further go on to emphasise the importance of remedies for trespass in modern land law. In particular, the rise in privacy laws such as Article 8(i) of the European Convention on Human Rights35, which give landowners the right to respect of his private and family life, his home and his correspondence36, have also had a big impact on modern land law. The question that subsequently arises is how does the law protect a landowner from invasion of his airspace or violation of his convention rights? The answer to this is damages are available on the grounds of trespass37 or nuisance38. It should be noted that trespass does not have to include damage to the property and can simply be interfering or crossing over onto another property without lawful consent. This is demonstrated in Lewvest Ltd (1982)39 where the court held that construction cranes which operated over the upper stratum40 of the claimants property constituted a trespass and thus, the defendants were required to pay damages. Prima facie, this judgement can be criticised on the basis that there was no direct or indirect damage to the claimants property as the claimant did not even suffer any physical loss but it was merely the defendant attempting to make use and benefit out of the claimants airspace. Consequently it may also be argued that the cranes were being operated on the upper stratum of the claimants property as it was out of the level of that which was necessary for the claimants reasonable enjoyment41 and so under the Bernstein principle that there is no ownership of the higher stratum. On the other hand, one can understand why the courts came about this judgement. In particular, the flood gates argument comes to mind in that, if the court held that large construction companies were able to use machinery over nearby property without facing any legal charges, this would cause an enormous influx of cases on the grounds of both trespass and nuisance. Hence, with the benefit of hindsight it appears that the judgement was valid. Similarly, there has been a substantial attempt to clarify the meaning, scope and invasion of the lower stratum through the aid of subsequent case law. Everyday scenarios such as cutting off your neighbours overhanging branches have been declared lawful however, after cutting the branches off they must be returned to the neighbour (Lemon v Webb)42. Subsequently, taking the fruits off the branch either for personal benefit or to sell them on has been declared unlawful (Mills v Brooker)43. It may be argued that all these judgements (regarding both the upper and lower stratum) have drastically moulded the modern law of airspace in an attempt to adapt to the lifestyle of the 21st century; in particular acknowledging the development of technology and airborne methods of transport. However, there still seems to be some unanswered questions which remain; for example, if a child playing football accidently kicks the ball over the fence does that encompass trespass? Alternatively, if youre next door neighbours pet comes into your garden and eats the food youve left for your pet does that include trespass? Likewise, the decision in Lemmon and Webb (date)44 appears to answer the obvious question regarding over-hanging branches, but fails to explicitly recognise or answer the somewhat un-obvious questions. For example, if someone puts their hand across the garden fence to try and cut a tree belonging to them but over-reaches onto their neighbours side of the garden; does this constitute trespass? Although, these are mere policy arguments and are not as common as the cases cited above, these scenarios should be taken into consideration by the courts and clarified before possible future cases arise and thus avert them from causing even more confusion regarding airspace. In relation to subterranean land, the maxim has caused just as much legal uncertainty and confusion as it has in regards to airspace. Although, it is certainly true in stating that a land owner has rights to land under the soil, however, the suggestion that these rights go down to the centre of the earth is equally as misleading as the suggestion his rights go up to the sky. The general rule regarding subterranean land, in particular treasure, is that if an item found fits under the definition of treasure (as defined in the Treasure Act 1996)45 then it automatically belongs to the crown. Under this definition, treasure is any object at least 300 years old with a metallic content of which at least 10% is precious metal. Subsequent case law has determined that, minerals, treasures and other inorganic substances which are found underneath the grounds of the owner all belong to landowner46. However there are exceptions regarding coal47 which has not been worked on and petroleum48; both of which belong to the Coal Authority and the Crown respectively. Gray and Gray (2009) further state that the landowner has no absolute title to the water that flows through his/her land whether it is through a channel or river. Although, in Embrey (1851) it was declared that the landowner has the right to reasonably enjoy the flow of water, however, this was later amended in John Young Co [1893] where it was held that this right only exists providing that the flow of water or its purity is not diminished for others to use. Likewise, in Fothringham (1984)49 it was held that the landowner has the right to fish in the water flowing through his land as far as he can reach by normal casting or spinning50. This was later strengthened and clarified in Nicholls[1936]51 where it was held that the landowner has the right to the fish once he/she catches and kills them they then become his/her property. As subterranean land is included within a landowners property, it is therefore possible to constitute trespass through the subterranean zone; the area beneath the land which is owned by the landowner. Subsequent case law has demonstrated various ways in which trespass of the subterranean zone have occurred including trespass via entry to a cave as demonstrated in Edwards (1930)52 or alternatively by installing sewage and draining pipe underneath the owners land without lawful consent or authorisation from the landowner as was the case in Roberts (2001). 53 Consequently, before identifying if there can be a possible claim of adverse possession, there are certain statutory and common law requirements which need to be fulfilled. These statutory requirements are listed within the Limitation Act (1980)54 which state that no action can be brought by a landowner in an attempt to recover his land after the expiration of twelve years from the date on which the right of action accrued to him, or from the date on which the right accrued to some person through whom he claims. The right of action is perceived as having accrued once a landowner has been dispossessed of his land or has discontinued use of it. In terms of airspace it is both practically and legally impossible for adverse possession of the higher stratum. This is because the higher stratum has been identified as being open for the use of the public55. Likewise, in terms of adverse possession of subterranean land, though it appears theoretically and to some extent lawfully possible however, it appears impractical and unfeasible. Moreover, in regards to classifying landowners subterranean rights including that of adverse possession, legal commentator Dr Jean Howel56 suggests that the same test that has been applied by Griffiths J in Bernstein57 should also be applied to identify ownership of subterranean land. This argument appears to be supported by the Supreme Court in Bocardo SA v Star where the court reduced damages in regards to subterranean trespass. They did so on the grounds that the defendants actions occasioned no harm whatsoever to the land and more importantly it did not interfere with Bocardos [the claimants] use or enjoyment of its land58. This judgement appears to be sensible and makes a substantial attempt to clarify the law regarding subterranean land by referencing the reasonable enjoyment of land principle established in Bernstein. However, although the principle seems to be an established precedent, it may be criticised for lacking practicality in regards to how it can be applied to subterranean land. The biggest problem being how would one classify what is reasonably necessary for enjoyment in terms of land under the ground? It is not as easy as classifying the lower and upper stratum of airspace as subterranean land is not as widely used as airspace. Hence, if Howels theory is applied, the courts will have the complex task in overtly establishing how far below the soil a landowner has rights to; with consideration to Gray and Gray (2009) who suggest that it is unlikely to be much further than 200 metres below the surface59. Furthermore, one must clearly comprehend and differentiate the fact that Spranklings commentary in Owning the Centre of the Earth60 and opinions therein reflect his thoughts on American land law which, although can be compared to Britain in some respects, cannot be applied wholly or generalised entirely to British land law .

The KMT vs. The CCP essays

The KMT vs. The CCP essays The conflict of the Kuomintang(KMT) and the CCP(Chinese Communist Party) became obvious when the leader of the KMT died in August of 1925. This death caused the initial overthrow of Wang Jingwei and finally Chiang Kai-shek. Even before Chiang gained power, however, he had oppressed the CCP by arresting many of the leading Communists in the KMT. When he took over a struggle for the superlative form of government became apparent. The outcome, however, is one with much dispute. Why did the Communist regimes defeat the more equipped and better-aided Kuomintang? I would have to argue that it was mostly the fault of Chiang Kai-shek and the corruption of the KMT. In the following I will give the reasons to support this statement. Firstly, under the control of Chiang, the KMT did not have a very well organized or loyal administration. When the KMT was taking control over the warlord-controlled territories of China, instead of appointing the KMT's officials to oversee his conquered territories, Chiang allied the warlord armies and gave them control without significantly changing the underlying structure of their system. This led to become a very insecure form of government to which Chiang could not trust nor rely on to shape his 'nationalist' ideals. Furthermore, the moment Chiang was out of the warlords' sight, they would go back to being warlords. It was almost a mock-defeat, with Chiang forced to return to these territories to regain his control and weaken his subordinates. Also, Chiang mad no distinction to exactly what form of government he would like to see implemented. While the goal was democracy, the KMT believed that China was not ready for such a system. Or was it Chiang who did not believe that China was ready for this... The second mistake the KMT made is one of disassociation with the masses. Chiang and the KMT made no effort to identify or even communicate with the Chinese people the principles of his system o...

Peter Abelard - Philosopher and Teacher

Peter Abelard - Philosopher and Teacher Peter Abelard was also known as: Pierre Abà ©lard; also spelled Abeillard, Abailard, Abaelardus, and Abelardus, among other variations Peter Abelard was known for: his significant contributions to Scholasticism, his great ability as a teacher and writer, and his infamous love affair with his student, Heloise. Occupations: MonasticPhilosopher TheologianTeacherWriter Places of Residence and Influence: France Important Dates: Died: April 21, 1142 Quotation from Peter Abelard: This first key of wisdom is defined, of course, as assiduous or frequent questioning. Sic et Non, translated by W. J. Lewis More Quotations by Peter Abelard About Peter Abelard: Abelard was the son of a knight, and he gave up his inheritance to study philosophy, particularly logic; he would become renowned for his brilliant use of dialectics. He attended many different schools seeking knowledge from a variety of teachers, and often came into conflict with them because he was so headstrong and certain of his own brilliance. (The fact that he really was brilliant didnt help matters.) By 1114 Peter Abelard was teaching in Paris, where he met and tutored Heloise and became a notable figure of the twelfth-century Renaissance. As a philosopher, Peter Abelard is well-remembered for his solution to the problem of universals (definitive qualities of any given class of things): he maintained that language itself cannot determine the reality of things, but that physics must do so. He also wrote poetry, which was very well received, and established several schools. In addition to these scholarly efforts, Abelard wrote a letter to a friend, which has come down to us as the Historia Calamitatum (Story of My Misfortunes). Together with letters written to him by Heloise, it provides a great deal of information about Abelards personal life. Peter Abelards affair with Heloise (whom he had married) came to an abrupt end when her uncle, wrongly believing Abelard was forcing her to become a nun, sent thugs to his house to castrate him. The scholar hid his shame by becoming a monk, and his philosophical focus shifted from logic to theology. Abelards subsequent career was extremely rocky; he was even condemned as a heretic at one point, and the work the Church deemed heretical was burned. Because Abelard was so cocksure, applied logic so ruthlessly to matters of faith, criticized anything he found worthy of contempt and frequently insulted fellow clerics, he was not well-loved by his contemporaries. However, even his harshest critics had to concede that Peter Abelard was one of the greatest thinkers and teachers of his time. For more about Peter Abelard, his relationship with Heloise, and the events that followed, visit  A Medieval Love Story.   More Peter Abelard Resources: A Medieval Love StoryOnline Text of Abelards Historia CalamitatumQuotations by Peter AbelardAbelard and Heloise Picture GalleryPeter Abelard on the WebAbelard Heloise on FilmThe link below will take you to an online store, where you can find more information about the film. This is provided as a convenience to you; neither Melissa Snell nor About is responsible for any purchases you make through this link. Stealing HeavenBased on the fictional novel by Marion Meade, this 1989 film was directed by Clive Donner and stars Derek de Lint and Kim Thomson. The text of this document is copyright  ©2000-2015 Melissa Snell. You may download or print this document for personal or school use, as long as the URL below is included. Permission is not granted  to reproduce this document on another website. For publication permission,  please   contact  Melissa Snell. The URL for this document is:http://historymedren.about.com/od/awho/p/who_abelard.htm

Models of Decision Making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Models of Decision Making - Essay Example Although, the offshore firm was willing to do revisions, there were issues of quality control, language barrier, distance and timing to contend with. Maybe it was partly because it was the first time we use outsourcing service, but the foray was certainly disastrous. In line with the normative model, I have tried the outsourcing initiative with the idea that I am doing whatever yields the best consequences for the company in the future. I have asked myself several times, if by outsourcing I am displaying some form of personal bias and have found that maybe I am, in an effort to cut cost for the current year. I was working now on descriptive model grounds. It never occurred to me to dig deeper on this area in the course of my judgment. If after identifying this bias, I could have tried to correct it by analyzing further what others would have done and by doing some research in order to be objective with my decision. This would have been the prescriptive decision making model and I have missed to comprehensively use it. When I decided to outsource service, it was a decision in the area of the normative model as I am concerned with cost-cutting and the profit for my company. However, when I arrived at the decision of choosing an Indian firm to outsource our database revision, I was working within the descriptive decision making model. Prescriptive model would have required me to explore the judgment, beliefs and preferences of decision makers in relation to issues before them (Rios 1994, p. 25) and would lead me to choose a better outsourcing destination or simply hire an additional staff to work on the database in-house. According to Grunig and Kuhn (2005 p. 8), a decision can be approached: 1) purely intuitively, 2) through routine recourse to procedures used in the past, 3) by adopting unquestioningly the suggestions of experts, 4) by choosing at random or 5) by systematic rational thought supported

Leadership Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 2

Leadership - Research Paper Example Therefore, in order for the businesses to remain competitive, they need effective leadership (Giuliani, & Kurson, 2002). This paper will therefore, analyze reasons why leadership is a fundamental part of the organization behavior. Effective leadership is very instrumental because the organizations take the personality of their leaders. Currently, the market has become very dynamic. As a result, in order for the organization to remain competitive, it must have a positive behavior. The subordinates should be market oriented. In addition, they should work together as a unit towards a common objective. This cannot be achieved if there is no effective leadership (Giuliani, & Kurson, 2002). For instance, if there are wrangles between the top-level managers the problems are likely to trickle down to the rest of the subordinates. Therefore, strong leadership is significant in fostering positive behavior between the employees. Once this is achieved, the organization is able to deal with varying challenges, an aspect that plays a significant role in ensuring that the organization remains united towards a common objective. Effective leadership is instrumental in enhancing communication which in-turn leads to positive organization behavior. Teamwork has become an important concept towards the success of any organization. However, teamwork cannot be achieved if there is no effective communication. Effective leadership ensures that issues that are raised by the employees are dealt with before they get out of hand. This is through ensuring that they implement an open office policy which enables the employees to report any grievances to the top-level managers without the use of intermediaries. This plays an important role in motivating the employees, thereby creating a serene working environment. The behavior of the organization depends on the personnel on the helm. If the leaders are involved in the daily operations of the

Racial and Ethnic Discrimination in Canada Essay Example for Free

Racial and Ethnic Discrimination in Canada Essay You know the world is off tilt when the best rapper is a white guy (Eminem), the best golfer is a black guy (Tiger Woods), the tallest basketball player is Chinese (Yao Ming, 76) and Germany doesnt want to go to war (in Iraq). Charles Barkley stated in a 2003 interview, pointing out various misconceptions with stereotypes. A stereotype is defined by dictionary. com as: something conforming to a fixed or general pattern; especially: an often oversimplified or biased mental picture held to characterize the typical individual of a group. I have commonly heard stereotypes such as the French are good cooks, Italians are great lovers, and the Irish are lazy or comments made like dumb jock, lazy Cape Bretoner, or that women are not strong!! The list could go on endlessly as there appears to be stereotypes regarding people of all races, religions, sexes and ethnic groups, etcetera. Stereotypes can be either positive or negative. Most stereotypes tend to make us feel superior in some way to the person or group being stereotyped. Stereotypes ignore the uniqueness of individuals by painting all members of a group with the same brush. Throughout the course of this paper I plan to discuss some racial and ethnic issues in Canada. Where some of these issues originated from, what we can personally do to help eliminate discrimination in the workplace and what the government is doing to try to combat such discrimination. Let me first begin by defining discrimination, racism and ethnicity since these terms are all important terms to understand before going into further discussion. To discriminate is simply defined by yourdictionary. com as: To make distinctions on the basis of class or category without regard to individual merit; show preference or prejudice. Therefore, discrimination occurs when a person is not treated equally because of their gender, race, religion, ethnic origin, nationality, sexual orientation, or age. Yourdictionary. com defines racism as: The belief that race accounts for differences in human character or ability and that a particular race is superior to others. Discrimination or prejudice based on race. In other words, when an individual or group is treated unfairly or abused because of their skin color or racial heritage they are victims of racism. Ethnic, as defined by yourdictionary. Com is: Of or relating to a sizable group of people sharing a common and distinctive racial, national, religious, linguistic, or cultural heritage. B. Being a member of a particular ethnic group, especially belonging to a national group by heritage or culture but residing outside its national boundaries. With that being said, it is my belief that stereotypes and ignorance about others most often lead to discriminatory behavior both inside and outside the workplace. I have heard Canada described as a multicultural nation meaning that Canadians are not of any one cultural background, race or heritage. For all Canadians, including Aboriginal People, this multicultural diversity can be traced to an immigrant past. This does not mean that the majority of todays Canadians are immigrants but rather that the majority of Canadians have in their past, perhaps many generations ago, a family member who migrated here from another country. That is why many of us have a mixed ancestry, for example; Irish, Scottish, Ukrainian, French and Aboriginal, and the list can go on. Canadas Aboriginal People were the first to immigrate, and settle across the continent, tens of thousands of years before European settlers. After the European settlers came the French, followed by the English, Scots and Irish formulating Canada into the diverse country it is today. In the years before the American Civil War, thousands of black slaves escaped slavery in the United States by following the Underground Railway north to Canada. Then, at the turn of the century, American farmers moved northward into the Canadian prairies to develop farm lands. Although Canada originally consisted of a wide variety of immigrants, some people were not as welcome in the country as others and were therefore not treated equally. Those who were of different race, color, or religion then the majority of Canadians were labeled as foreigners. The use of the term foreigner held many connotations for example, different, strange or inferior and many at the time wanted to see the foreigners assimilate to fit into Canadian society. There are many events in Canadas past that has contributed to the racism and discrimination in Canada today for example, the disregard and unfair treatment of Aboriginal Peoples by Europeans who settled here. Even though a vast majority of African-Americans moved to Canada to avoid slavery, from early in the 1600s until 1834 there was a recorded 4092 slaves throughout the country, mostly living in Quebec . The Asiatic Exclusion League, which originated in California in 1905 as an anti-Oriental movement, moved north into Vancouver in 1907. The league was the main instigator in anti-Asian riots in the city since their main goal was to have all Chinese and Japanese immigrants removed from North America out of fear that they were taking jobs away from Whites . It also appears that throughout history the acceptance of immigrants in Canada greatly depended upon the economic state of the country at that time. During the Great Depression of the 1930s immigrants seeking jobs were unwelcome and overlooked for employment. Although the Government of Canada has made many advances in breaking the barriers that Aboriginal People, immigrants and minorities face in the country; immigrants today still face a number of problems when trying to enter the labor market, for example: ? Non-recognition of international credentials and work experience ? Lack of Canadian work experience ? Inability to communicate in English or French ?Insufficient labor market information prior to immigrating to Canada I have traveled to some of the major cities in Canada and was a little surprised by the degree of segregation that is apparent in these cities. By this, I mean that these larger cities, like Toronto and Vancouver, have communities which are almost completely independent from the rest of the country. These independent communities that I saw, of Chinese or Italian people, seemed to have everything they needed to survive within the community including their own schools. I could not help but wonder what effect this type of segregation has on the country. I respect the fact that all people are trying to protect their identity. At the same time, by choosing to live in Canada, shouldnt they try to integrate into the country a little more while still preserving their identities? Shouldnt they try to assimilate? How can Canada thrive as a country with so much segregation? We need to become a unified country. Not such a historical thought pattern, I guess!! It is people who have attitudes like mine that are causing problems in the country or do all people have these thoughts and choose not to admit it. I have similar negative feelings about scholarships being available only to certain people or government funding for certain people to attend university because they are a minority. I understand that differential treatment is required in order for equality to become a possibility. However, I still feel a degree of resentment about these programs being offered when I have to borrow money in an effort to obtain my university degree. Will this resentment evolve? When I hold a management position in the future, will I discriminate against a person because he or she doesnt have a huge student loan to pay and another does? It is cases like mine that causes racism to continue in society and the workplace today? With the announcement of Nova Scotias plan to increase immigration into the province came an increase in the racist comments I have heard. Since I work in bars I hear, and partake in, a great deal of conversation. When people are drinking they tend to be even more likely to say things they normally wouldnt. That is why I have heard, at times, some very racist remarks. People have said that the government should be trying to retain people in the province that are born here before they bring foreigners here. They need to take care of their own first!! It is because of these comments and feelings that I am doubtful that discrimination against people, because of their race or color, will ever be completely eliminated in the country. How do we achieve equality with so much differentiation? How do we check or personal opinions at the door when we go to work? Since it is impossible to eliminate racism and discrimination entirely in society, we need to do as much as possible to eliminate it in the workplace. We need to make changes similar to the changes companies have made in an effort to combat discrimination against people because of their religion. For example, adapting zero tolerance rules, providing more education for employees, human resource departments need to provide more opportunities for people of minorities, immigrants, and Aboriginal Peoples and barriers have to be removed for all these people who are trying to enter our labor market. March 21, 2005 is International Day for Elimination of Racial Discrimination a day to remember the struggles and challenges that Aboriginal peoples and people of color have endured. It is also a time to recognize and applaud the fact that members of these two communities have made anti-racism struggles a significant part of labors agenda. Lets respect this day and try to make some positive changes at home, school, or work toward eliminating racism.

Dead Asleep :: Essays Papers

Dead Asleep I am walking through a damp forest that only allows light through the breakage in the vast tree limbs. It is rather hard for me to find a path to follow when there is such little light but I am compelled to go in this certain direction. I am not scared, however, I am being very cautious of my surroundings. I think of leaving the window cracked, but I know this section of the brain is still in reality because I am walking right now and there is no window to be seen. It seems like I have been walking for miles when I here a slight crackle in the brush behind me. This is not a heavy crackle; it is like the sound of a toddler wearing feeted pajamas tip-toeing through a flower garden. I swing around to see what is there, but all that I can see is blank space: no forest anymore, just a blank reel of film that is still playing in the projector of my mind. I hastily turn back toward the direction I was compelled to go in before but it is also blank space now. I hear the cushiony crac kling noise again and wonder how blank space can crackle. A droplet of sweat trickles down my left cheek and my heart rate is starting to quicken so I know I am getting nervous. I feel the need to take a deep breath and close my eyes to try and relax myself. I kept my eyes closed for probably about a minute waiting to hear the noise again. Not hearing anything, I opened my eyes with a little difficulty. Expecting to see blankness again, my eyes were forced closed again when I saw all the bright colors. It seems as though a rainbow has thrown-up on my blank canvas of a dream. When my eyes finally adjusted to the brightness, the colors were swaying and swirling very rapidly, yet also in rhythm to the song â€Å"The Wheel†. I spin around and around in circles trying to assess my newfound surroundings and begin to realize the bright swirling colors are forming figures. Each color: red, blue, yellow, green, and orange turn into fuzzy bears with bib-like things around their necks. The green bear approaches me as if he had something important to tell me; he began to talk, but his mouth only moves- there is no sound.

Sub-Saharan Africa: An Extraordinary Period of Change

Africa's hopes for a better future depend in large part on improving the health of its people. Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing a period of extraordinary change. Across the continent, policy reforms are contributing to dynamic economic growth. Greater political openness has strengthened the commitment of African governments to meeting the basic needs of their people. Despite these positive trends, sub-Saharan Africa faces a development challenge greater than any other region. Much of the continent's population remains desperately poor. With record numbers of adolescents entering their childbearing years, in less than three decades Africa's population is projected to double again from the current level of 620 million. Meanwhile, many African nations are struggling to provide health and education services to populations expanding at a small percent a year. In many countries, rapid population growth is contributing to degradation of the environment and undermining prospects for prosperity. Africa's hopes for a better future depend in large part on improving the health of its people. Better access to good quality reproductive health services, particularly family planning, is key to improving health status – especially for women. The reality of reproductive health in Africa, however, is far from ideal. Women begin child-bearing in their teens and have an average of six children. Meanwhile, AIDS has struck hard in Sub-Saharan Africa, where roughly 1 in 10 adults – both men and women – are infected with HIV. Yet traditional attitudes favoring large families are changing rapidly, owing to the growth of cities, the rising cost of living and lower child death rates, among other factors. Demand for family planning has increased dramatically in some countries, and the decline in birthrates ,limited as recently as a decade ago to only a few countries in the region, appears to be spreading steadily across the continent. In much of Africa, however, large families are still the norm. This situation is reinforced by low levels of education, particularly among women, and social barriers to the full economic participation of women. Yet, school enrollment rates declined or came to a standstill during the economic crisis many African countries experienced in the 1980s. Compared to countries in other developing regions, African countries have only recently begun to adopt population policies and initiate family planning and related reproductive health programs. However, African governments increasingly recognize the individual and societal benefits of smaller families. In the last decade there has been steady growth in the number of countries establishing national family planning programs and in the scope of these efforts. Still, Sub-Saharan Africa has a long way to go. In addition to meeting the growing need for family planning and reproductive health services, African countries must expand access to education for girls and economic opportunities for women. This will require significantly increased financial contributions from African governments and house-holds, as well as international donors. In sum, addressing poor reproductive health and rapid population growth is a daunting task requiring comprehensive action on many different fronts. A priority area is population growth. This is a function of birth or fertility, mortality, and net migration. Sub-Saharan Africa lags behind other regions in its demographic transition. The total fertility rate, the total number of children the average woman has in a lifetime. For Sub-Saharan Africa as a whole has remained at about 6. 5 for the past 25 years, while it has declined to about 4 in all developing countries taken together. Recent surveys appear to signal, however, that several counties, are at or near a critical demographic turning point. Sub-Saharan Africa continues to maintain the highest total fertility rates in the world. The total fertility rate is the average number of children a women will bear during her reproductive years, usually between 15 and 49 years old, although some analysts have expanded this range to include 10 and 55 year old's. Families in the region average an estimated 6. 4 children. Although there is considerable variation by region, socioeconomic status, and place of residence (rural vs. urban). Disease vectors are not solely responsible for low fertility rates in Sub-Saharan Africa. Some countries have made significant inroads in their family planning efforts to reduce fertility. You can separate fertility rates into two types of determinants: first being the direct that relates to the behavioral and biological aspects of fertility. And the second are indirect factors such as socioeconomic (one's income, education, cultural, historical, environmental, and politic-institutional factors Marriage patterns in Sub-Saharan Africa have a number of features that are unique and quite distinct from North America and Europe. Most marriages, particularly in traditional societies, are universal and occur at an early age. This may also be view as a reason to the problem of rapid population growth. The belief systems, customs, traditions, and values of Sub-Saharan Africans have significant impact on fertility levels. The African family structure is male dominated, and decisions about reproduction and family size are usually deferred to the husband. This may tend to make the women find it difficult to talk to their husbands about family planning. Since a high premium is placed on children, African women aspire to elevate their status, comparing with their husband's request to have more children. Mortality levels in Sub-Saharan Africa have declined substantially over the years, thus converging towards levels associated with more developed countries. Improvements in health, sanitation, and nutrition standards; massive vaccination campaigns against measles, small pox, and other diseases; and increased efforts on the part of World Health Organization and the International Red Cross have all contributed to this downward trend. Even with the lowering of death rates, there are still slight regional variations in mortality levels that reflect environmental, economic, and sociocultural factors. Death rates may be prone to drought, areas with high incidence of AIDS and those areas that have experienced social unrest, civil war, and political upheaval also may have relatively high mortality rates. Migration involves the movement from one administrative unit to another, resulting in a change in permanent residence. Recent estimates show that Sub-Saharan Africa contains 35 million international migrants, almost half of the world's total. Another concern like many other countries has been the â€Å"brain drain† of African intellectuals and students. Another concern regarding international migration is the refugee crisis, which has taken on added proportions recently. The most widely used definition is one which characterizes refugees as anyone who,†owing to well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality and is unable or unwilling to avail himherself of the protection of that country. † Average per capita food production has declined in many countries, per capita calorie consumption had stagnated at very low levels, and roughly 100 million people in Sub-Saharan Africa are food insecure.. The average African consumes only about 87 percent of the calories needed for a healthy and productive life. Women's Time, and Their Role in Rural Production and Household Maintenance Systems Most women in Sub-Saharan Africa bear heavy responsibilities for food crop production, weeding and harvesting on men's fields, post-harvest processing, fuel wood and water provision, and household maintenance. But the burdens on rural women are increasing, as population growth outpaces the evolution of agricultural technology and growing numbers of men leave the farms for urban and industrial jobs. Many factors underlie the persistence of very high human fertility rates. The fundamental problem is low demand for fewer children. Environmental degradation, agricultural problems, food insecurity and poverty, and the heavy work burdens of woman all play a part in this respect. High infant and child mortality rates are a major factor explaining the persistent high demand for large number of children in Africa. Where girls are kept our of school to help with domestic tasks, this negatively affects their fertility preferences and their ability to make informed decisions about family planning once they reach childbearing age. The appropriate policy response and action program to address these problems are not easily brought into compatible focus. Many of the most immediately attractive remedies have been tried and have failed. A key aspect will be to increase demand for fewer children. Educational efforts, directed at both men and women, are needed to raise awareness of the benefits of fewer children. Women's work loads need to be eased to reduce the need for child labour. Dynamic agricultural development and improved food security will also reduce the demand for children. Promoting Environmentally Sustainable Agriculture Farm productivity per unit area must be raised significantly to generate more output with little increase in the area farmed. To minimize negative impacts on the environment, much more emphasis is required on â€Å"environmentally benign and sustainable† technologies. Numerous such agricultural techniques have been developed and successfully applied, often through adaptation of traditional practices that have evolved in response to local agro-ecological and socioeconomic condition. However, intensification with these technologies alone is unlikely to be sufficient in most Sub-Saharan African countries to achieve agricultural growth rates of 4 percent per year and more. Improved variety/fertilization/farm mechanization technologies will also be necessary. Increased use of fertilizers will be especially important to raise yields and maintain soil fertility. Intensive and resource-conserving agriculture must be made less risky and more profitable. This requires appropriate marketing, price, tax and exchange rate policies as well as investments in rural infrastructure, health and education facilities. Creating parks, reserves and community-owned range land and protecting these against conversion into crop land will be important to conserve natural resources and bio diversity. So will reducing infrastructure development in forests and other fragile areas to discourage settlement in these areas. Since this will limit the scope for further expansion of cropped land and, potentially, the scope for agricultural production growth, there is a trade-off between conservation and agricultural growth. Creating additional protection areas will only be feasible and sustainable if agricultural production can be intensified at the rate suggested here (i. e. to about a 3. 5 percent annual increase in farm out put per unit of land farmed). in this sense, conservation and agricultural intensification are complementary. As African farmers have shown, land scarcity leads to agricultural intensification — if the necessary advice and inputs are available, intensification can be made sustainable and the rate of intensification greatly accelerated. Infrastructure Development and Settlement Policy The strong bias in urban infrastructure investments favoring the few major cities needs to be abandoned. Adequate transport lines to product markets are major factors associated with the intensification of farming — even where population densities are comparatively low. Rural roads and improved tracks navigable for animal-drawn vehicles are crucial. Major efforts are also needed to promote the use of locally suitable and appropriate intermediate transport technology, especially animal-drawn implements, and of improved off-road transport. Infrastructure development also has a major impact on the productivity of rural labour and on key determinants of fertility. Roads provide access to health facilities and schools. Better educated and healthier farmers are more productive and more likely to be innovators. Water supply and sanitation facilities have significant impact on health and labour productivity. Rural water supply, sanitation, health and education facilities and services are particularly important in terms of their impact on infant and child mortality and on female education — both critical determinants of fertility preferences. With the major exceptions of the humid regions of Central and coastal West Africa, almost all of Sub-Saharan Africa will be facing water shortages or water scarcity early in the next century. There is an urgent need for effective hydrological planning and for prudent demand management. Water must be recognized as the critical and limiting resource it is. it must be carefully allocated, and must be protected against pollution. Planning for water use must be based on natural hydrological units such as river basins and integrated with planning for land use and other activities that affect, and are affected by, water development. Since water resources are frequently shared among countries, it is important to cooperate closely in planning for long-term water sharing. Twenty-one of the world's thirty poorest countries are in sub-Saharan Africa. Nearly half the region's people live in absolute poverty – the equivalent of a dollar a day or less. Positive per capita growth in the past four years has not been enough to prevent an increase in the absolute number living in poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. By end of 1998, nearly 23 million adults and children were estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa – accounting for 2/3 of the world's infected persons. More than 1. 8 million Africans will die from AIDS this year. New infection rates are staggering: in South Africa, 1,750 are infected by AIDS daily. Problems extend beyond the health sector. HIV/AIDS has raised the cost of doing business, killing professionals, schoolteachers and farmers, reducing incomes now and investments in the future. HIV/AIDS is overloading social welfare systems. Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 95% of the 13 million children worldwide who will be orphaned by AIDS by end of 2000. At current rates of population growth, sub-Saharan Africa will grow to over one billion people by 2020, despite declining birthrates and increasing number of deaths from AIDS. Contraceptive prevalence rates have been rising for the last three decades, yet remain under 10% in most of sub-Saharan Africa. The high rate of population growth intensifies existing social, political, economic, and environmental pressures. Aids assists African countries to reduce these pressures through family planning programs emphasizing healthier, smaller families, and through support of girls education, a major determinant of family size. As a result of the above information you can see that rapid population growth in Sub-Saharan Africa at the present time is a moment of opportunity on the African continent. Africa is making new headway: democracy and economic reform are revitalizing the continent, and a number of countries are experiencing dynamic economic growth. With greater political open-ness, African governments are increasingly seeking to address the health and education needs of their people. Despite these positive trends, sub-Saharan Africa faces a development challenge greater than any other region. Africa's progress has not reached enough people, and too much of the continent is still plagued by political instability. Many African nations are struggling to meet the health and education needs of populations expanding at about three percent a year. In too many countries, rapid population growth continues to threaten the natural resource base and future prospects for prosperity. The region's ability to slow current high rates of population growth is thus key to achieving its full potential for development. The international community has good reason to care about African development. The continent is endowed with ample mineral and agricultural resources, including the greatest potential in the world for increases in farm productivity. Africa is also one of the last untapped markets for goods and services; industrialized countries thus stand to benefit by trading with a more prosperous Africa. Beyond economic self-interest, there are strong humanitarian reasons to support efforts to alleviate poverty in Africa, home to 11 percent of the world's population. In many respects, Africa in the late 1990s resembles the East Asian economies as they began their economic take-off three decades ago. African governments need to emphasize three key strategies in their efforts to improve individual well-being and slow population growth. The first priority should be to expand reproductive health and family planning services to meet existing unmet needs. The second, to expand educational and economic opportunities, especially for women, both to improve the lives of individuals and to help encourage a desire for smaller families. The third, to slow the momentum of future population growth through education and reproductive health programs that help young people choose to delay childbearing. Carrying out the comprehensive agenda described above will require enormous effort by African governments. The task is large, yet attainable if these governments increase their current low levels of commitment to reproductive health and family planning programs. Governments and donors should be prepared to invest years of sustained effort to build successful population programs. Over the long haul, there are bound to be setbacks and difficulties. Currently, there is no reason to expect that either the fertility or development transitions will occur more quickly and with less external aid in sub-Saharan Africa than they did in other places. Yet the needs are pressing, and Africa must accelerate the development of population programs and the current trend towards smaller families. This may be possible if African countries are willing to learn as much as possible from the experiences of other regions, while at the same time recognizing the continent's own special challenges, such as the HIV/AIDS crisis. Africa's relatively recent establishment of population policies and programs has given it the chance to learn from both the mistakes and achievements of other regions which have grappled with the problem of rapid population growth. African countries, with help from the world community, have the potential to build on these experiences and create their own success story.

Belgacom Case Study

Belgacom Case Question 1 a) Why did the share price of Belgacom increase following the announcement of the acquisition? b) Why did the ratings of Belgacom drop (S&P) or put on negative watch (Moody’s)? a) As Belgacom secured the purchase of the remaining 25% share of Proximus it did not own yet, the share price of the Belgian company increased by 0. 92 % the same day and 9. 8% over the following month. An announcement can lead to pre-event abnormal returns as markets react to this information to get a premium.Investors will try to assess the increase in expected earnings and dividends. The impact of this assessment will depend on how the merger is done, how the transaction is paid, the sector it concerns, etc. However, according to market efficiency theories, overreaction on stock prices tend to disappear in the long-run and the price reflects the present value of expected returns. (FAMA, 1998) That being said, several reasons may explain this jump.First, we can underline the fact that this operation enables Belgacom to collect all the benefits of Proximus. Before the purchase, 25% of the earnings of Proximus were placed in minority interests, these were payable to Vodafone. After the operation, Belgacom owns 100% of the shares and can enter all the cash of its subsidiary in its accounts. It represents an increase of the future cash flow not only for the firm but also for its current shareholders, which will be comforted to receive more in the future or that their shares represent more cash.This is due to the decision of Belgacom to finance its acquisition by debt which doesn’t give ownership rights to the bond owners. Fig. 1: Evolution of Belgacom Share Price (2005-2008) Second, Belgacom was familiar with Proximus business as Belgacom (75%) founded the company with Airtouch (25%) in 1994, creating by this way the first mobile phone operator in Belgium. b) Unlike the market, rating agencies did not welcome positively this transaction: Moodyâ€℠¢s changed its outlook to negative and Standard&Poors downgraded Belgacom rating to A from A+. Moody’s xplained that it keeps Belgacom’s rating unchanged because according its methodology designed for GRI (Government-Related Issues), there is no change in Belgacom solvability. Moody’s GRI methodology use three inputs: the rating and the outlook of Belgium, the low level of default dependence and the medium level of support from the Belgian government. While there is no change in those inputs, there should be no change in Belgacom rating. That being said, several indicators lead the agency to wonder about the ability of the Belgian company to deal with its creditors.First, Belgacom announced a bunch of outflows for the months to come: just at the same time, Belgacom decided to sell its 5,8% stake in Neuf Cegestel to SFR: the outcome of the operation was EUR 187 million plus a share buyback (maximum 200 million) and a dividend in 2006 for EUR 100 million. Futhermo re, Belgacom decision to use its current financial stability and therefore weaken its debt ratios. As for Standard&Poors, the agency decided to downgrade the rating of the Belgian firm from A+ to A.S&P said this decision lies on the fact that the Belgacom debt will rise of about EUR 2 billion, making notably increase the debt/Ebitda ratio from 0,8 to 1,9. Moreover, its business in a competitive and liberalized market, as well as the decline of fixed lines market make fear for future results of the company. However, the outlook remains stable, that can be explained by the strong position of the company on the Belgian telecom market and its huge ability to generate cash. Question 2 a) Why was the acquisition financed by a bridge loan? ) What were the alternative financing sources? a) Bridge loans are short-term financial instruments usually used to lock-in a settled price( (frequent in Real Estate Market). This practice buys time for the deal maker to sort things out and to better str ucture its financing scheme. This seems to be the main rationale for Belgacom in this case. The management wanted to lock-in the price agreed on with Vodafone and as the deal was subordinated to the Belgian Authorities approval, it was more cautious to make it happen right away.Yet there is another way to see a bridge loan as a temporary expensive loan serving the purpose of being an intermediate financing mean for the company that benefits from it (Fabozzi, 1991). Later on, this bridge loan is reimbursed with more advantageous types of loans. was in fact a syndicated loan underwritten in order to finance an acquisition. As a matter of facts, the loan was made by several lending institutions called the mandated lead arrangers i. In the case of Belgacom, the company took a bridge loan for several reasons that are detailed below.The bridge loan e. BNP Paribas, Citi, Fortis, ING and JP Morgan. For the investment banks that underwrite the syndicated loan, the main interest resides in th e fact that they gain a fee. In this specific case, the bridge loan was arranged as a revolving credit instrument type. This meant Belgacom had to pay a fee plus interest expenses and can draw-repay-redraw as many times as needed. As said before, a first valid reason would be that the cash was needed quickly (maybe) and bridge loans are arranged more quickly.In any case it is in the best interest of the company (Belgacom here) to reimburse the bridge loan as quickly as possible because it is very expensive and the interest rate generally increases with the maturity. Moreover issuing corporate bonds takes time. In fact, there are four main steps to issue a bond in the bond market. First, there is the pre-mandate phase which aims to determine the funding needs or whether it is the right time to tap the bond market. Additionally, the currency has to be determined, the market as well plus the targeted investors.After that, comes the book building process which is one of the most importa nt tasks that consists of taking the orders from the investors. Then, a range for the coupon rate has to be determined and the amounts have to be allocated to the investors. Those steps could typically take weeks. Helping companies with short term funding is thus a major need for the client. Another reason may be that it gives Belgacom time to wait for more favourable economic conditions for issuing the bonds. Depending on investor’s appetite, timing is in fact crucial in such deals.Now, from the investment bank’s perspective, there is possibly a conflict of interest as the investment bank is at the same time creditor (through the bridge loan) and the entity that prices the securities that will be used to reimburse this loan. One could argue the investment bank could lack objectivity (Glazer, 1989). However, this constitutes an additional incentive for the book runners to successfully carry the deal to its end. Additionally, four of the five banks that granted the brid ge loan became the joint book runners. To that extent, there are clearly business interests which are involved.This can be interesting for the investment bank in order to get closer to the client. Moreover, this form of short term financing is more expensive for the company because it bears higher risks. Alternatively, it means that it is more lucrative for the investment bank as well. To sum up, bridge loans seem to be a lucrative source of profits for investment banks. First, they place themselves in a comfortable position to issue bonds for the company later on. Second, they can diversify their revenues and be a good candidate for the bond issuance.As a matter of facts, four of the five banks providing the bridge loan took care of bond issuance. b) Alternatives to bridge loans were traditionally letters of comfort written by the investment bank stating that the bank was ‘highly confident’ that the additional financing needed by the company could be obtained. This imp lies no bridge funding at all. Hence the alternative would be to wait for the bonds to be issued. The risk here however would consist of being too late for acquiring the target. Another alternative would be to use your own capital to fund the acquisition in the short run.This depends, of course, on the ability of Belgacom to generate such a large amount of cash. Yet another option would have been to raise more capital by issuing shares with the agreement of its existing shareholders. However, this option could have been detrimental to existing shareholders: the Belgian state which had a major stake in Belgacom with 50. 1% of the shares. Here is a summary of all the plausible alternatives: * Pay with retained cash: Belgacom could put 2Bnâ‚ ¬ on the table for Vodafone’s stake (assuming that the amount was available at the time).Although, this is known as the worst case scenario for current shareholders. Putting the cash in an acquisition would also have constrained Belgacom to lower (even cancel) its expansion investments. * Go straight to the Market: Belgacom could issue the bonds without taking the bridge loan but since the company had no prior bonds outstanding in the secondary market, the pricing would have been necessary anyway and it takes time and money to process it. The risk in that case is the agreement with Vodafone; other players could profit from the info and buy the stake in order to sell it back to Belgacom at a premium.Question 3 Assuming the 5-year swap rate was 3. 922% and the 10-year swap rate was 3. 977% at the time of pricing the deal (primary market), could you calculate: a) The yield for investors The yield is composed of the risk-free interest rate and the risk premium. The risk-free rate is usually defined as the rate of a government bond or the interbank rates (ex: Euribor) for the same maturity. However, the swap rate is used for maturities beyond 12 months. Here, the explanatory statement assumes that the 5-year and the 10-y ear swap rate were respectively 3,922% and 3,977%.The credit spread or risk premium depends on the maturity and the quality of the issuer. After comparing the coupon offered by companies with the same risk profile from the telecom peer group in the secondary market, the explanatory note explains banks’ position which suggested to issue the 5Y bond and the 10 Y bond with a spread guidance of respectively 30-35 bp and 60-65 bp. Bonds 5 and 10 years| Years to| 2006| | | Maturity| 5 years| 10 years| | | Swap Rate (rf)| 3,92%| 3,98%| | | | Min| Max| Min| Max| | | Risk Premium| 0,30%| 0,35%| 0,60%| 0,65%| | |Face Value| â‚ ¬ -100,00| â‚ ¬ -100,00| â‚ ¬ -100,00| â‚ ¬ -100,00| | | Yield to Maturity| 4,222%| 4,272%| 4,577%| 4,627%| | | Coupon Rate| 4,125%| 4,250%| 4,500%| 4,625%| | | Price â‚ ¬| â‚ ¬ 99,57| â‚ ¬ 99,90| â‚ ¬ 99,39| â‚ ¬ 99,98| | | Price %| 99,57%| 99,90%| 99,39%| 99,98%| | | Fees| 0,15%| 0,15%| 0,25%| 0,25%| | | Proceeds| 99,42%| 99,75%| 99,1 4%| 99,73%| | | Cost %| 4,256%| 4,306%| 4,609%| 4,659%| | | Table 1: Results for the Bond Issuance Thus, the yield for investors should be the sum of the risk-free and the risk premium rate: * Min. 4,222% and max. 4,272% for the 5-year bond * Min. 4,577% and max. 4,627% for the 10-year bond ) The coupon rate The coupon rate is the amount of interest payable on the bond. It is important to keep in mind that the market practices want the yield to vary by steps of 0,125%. Therefore, according to table 1, the yield for the investor varies between 4,125 and 4,250 for a 5-year maturity bond and 4,5% and 4,625% for a 10-year maturity bond. c) The issue price The issue price is the price at which investors buy the bonds in the primary market. The bond issue price is the present value of the bond’s cash flow. To obtain this price, we have to use the coupon rate, the face value and the yield for investor as described in this formula:Issue Price = Coupon 1(1+y)+ Coupon 2(1+y)? +†¦ +Coupon n1+yn+ Face value1+yn At issuance, the subscriber will pay: * Min. 99,57%, Max 99,90% for a maturity of 5-year * Min. 99,39%, Max 99,98% for a maturity of 10-year d) The cost for Belgacom The cost to maturity for the issuer y is defined as: Issue Price – Fees of the bookrunners = Coupon 1(1+y)+ Coupon 2(1+y)? +†¦ +Coupon n1+yn+ Face value1+yn The rate y solving (cost to maturity) this equation is: * Min. 4,256%, Max 4,306% for a maturity of 5-year * Min. 4,609%, Max 4,659% for a maturity of 10-year e) Cash Flows Here are the cash flows for the issuer. For a maturity of 5 years: At inception (time 0), the issuer receives (99,57%-0,15%)=99,42% multiplied by the total face value. Every year for 5 years, the issuer pays the coupons of 4,125% * face value of the bonds At maturity, the issuer has to repay the whole face value plus the last coupon. | | | | | | | | | | | | Cash Flows as % of Face Value| 5y-Bond| 0| 1| 2| 3| 4| 5| | | | | | Bottom| 99,42| -4,125| -4,125| -4,125| -4,125| -104,125| | | | | | Up| 99,75| -4,25| -4,25| -4,25| -4,25| -104,25| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 10y-Bond| 0| 1| 2| 3| 4| 5| 6| 7| 8| 9| 10|Bottom| 99,14| -4,50| -4,50| -4,50| -4,50| -4,50| -4,50| -4,50| -4,50| -4,50| -104,50| Up| 99,73| -4,63| -4,63| -4,63| -4,63| -4,63| -4,63| -4,63| -4,63| -4,63| -104,63| | | | | | | | | | | | | Question 4 Consider an outstanding corporate bond in the secondary market (issued a few months ago). All else being equal, the market suddenly perceives a more important credit risk associated with the considered issuer. What impact should it have on: a) The credit spread The credit risk is the risk that the issuer may default and not pay back the full amount he owes to bondholders (the total face value of the bonds).The credit spread translates the uncertainty about potential future stock price movements†. (Berk, 2011) If the market suddenly perceives more important credit risk associated with the issuer, the credit spread will widen as the market is perceived has being relatively safer. The payoff associated to extra credit risk is a higher yield. Therefore, the credit spread represents a bonus for investors when supporting extra risks. Fig 2: Yield curves Source: CFA b) The yield There are two components in the yield: the risk free rate and the credit spread. All else being equal, if the credit spread widens, the yield increases. ) The price Investors want to pay less for a risky bond having the same pay-offs as a risk-free bond. By taking more risk, the final amount the investor expects to receive may be less than what he will get as there is a credit default risk. (Berk et al. , 2011) The variable on which the market has a direct influence on in order to adjust for a higher yield is the market price. Due to the negative relation between the yield and the price and if the coupon payments and the principal repayment remain unchanged, the price must decrease in order to translate the surge in the yield.T his is particularly relevant when the issuer is the target of a leveraged buyout, which, in most cases, is leveraged by the issuance of new bonds. The increased debt used in order to make such financial actions often decrease the totality of the bonds of the issuer to a status of  «Ã‚  junk bonds  Ã‚ ». Question 5 How would you assess Belgacom’s position with regard to the qualitative factors enumerated to assess the pricing ? * Issue premia for recent transaction First of all, this is the first bond offering issued by Belgacom.Therefore, it cannot be referred to a previous premium offered in its own recent transactions. Therefore, the reference will be the telecom peer group having the same risk profile. * After market performance of recently launched deals The issue premia have widened for two main reasons. First, a trend towards more acquisition in the Telecom sector since 2005. Second, the Telecom sector suffers from the fact its services are more and more commoditize d which in turn may hurt the profitability of a Telecom company. At the time it was expected the bond could be split in three types.A floating rate note and two fixed rate notes. It was expected the 3-year FRN had a spread of 15bp to 20bp whereas the fixed 5-year note would have a 30bp to 35bp spread. Finally the 10-year note would have had a spread of 60bp to 65bp. With regards to recent transactions, Deutsche Telekom was offered a spread of 20bp for a 3-year floating note. 15-20bp is thus potentially better for Belgacom. As far as the fixed notes are concerned, Belgacom seems to benefit for a slightly better spread for 10-year notes but not for the 5-year ones as the one of Deutsche Telekom was only of 17bp in April 2006. Date| Swap 5-y| Swap 10-y| Coupon| Spread(bp)| Currency| Amount| Deutsche T| April 2006| 3. 83%| | 4%| 17| EUR| 750m| Deutsche T| May 2006| | 4. 13%| 4. 75%| 62| EUR| 500m| Telefonica| Feb 2006| 3. 42%| | 3. 75%| 33| EUR| 2250m| Telefonica| Feb 2006| | 3. 68%| 4. 37%| 69| EUR| 1750m| Vodafone| Jun 2006| | 4. 07%| 4. 75%| 68| EUR| 300m| * Are investors liquid? (hedge funds) However, according to the case, investor’s appetite remained high at that time. In fact, bond issuances remained low because corporates generated increasingly more cash flows and made use of cheaper ways of funding. Market sentiment? (world, Belgium, politics) There has been a lot of deleveraging followed by acquisitions in the past years. Moody’s says the economy of Belgium is only weakly correlated with Belgacom’s credit quality. However, for companies that are partly owned by the state, the credit quality of the Sovereign may play a greater role. At that time however, there was no political complications in Belgium yet. In 2006, the subprime crisis had not begun yet either. Hence one could argue the political setting was relatively clear.Moreover, there were strong liberalization policies pushed by the EC and investors were afraid that the Belgian state would disinvest in Belgacom after the following elections. The Belgian state had already to divest, keeping 50,1% of the share. Therefore, investors wanted an insurance against a change of control in case the Belgian State sold his participations but also to cover the risk against an LBO. As Belgacom could not introduce a step-up language, it could have had an impact on the credit spread by increasing it. * Credit Spread volatility Credit spread rose significantly more for telecom companies in 2005-2006.This was due to the fact the telecom companies ventured more in acquisition activities during that period. 5-year and 10-year credit spread for A-rated telecom companies respectively rose 10bp and 20bp during that period. * Saturation effect in investors portfolio? Are investors sick of telecom bond issuances? In principle, investors were not sick of telecom bond issuances as the one of Belgacom would add diversification to their portfolio. What is more, Belgacom was seen as a safe and relatively liquid company as they were previously weakly leveraged. * Amount raised in the pastAs far as Belgacom is concerned, the company has never issued any bond. Hence this was a premiere for the company. If we look at the issue amount of comparable transactions in the peer group of the same year, telecom issuers have issued in 2006 from three to 5 times with an issue amount from 500 million. For example, Telefonica issued in 2006 a total of 11. 750 million â‚ ¬ * Credit quality of issuer and peers In terms of credit quality, Belgacom is better than most competitors. This is mostly due to the fact that Belgacom was weakly leveraged before the issuance.For instance, EBITDA/Interest expenses of France Telecom, Telecom Italia and KPN was between 2. 4x and 7. 2% while Belgacom’s was 93x. However, Belgacom wasn’t the best according to credit rating agencies. The considered peer group is made of France Telecom, Telecom Italia, KPN and Belgacom. Moreover, Moo dy’s seems to give to Belgacom a better rating that Fitch. Therefore, we may suppose that Belgacom’s cost of issuance may be slightly lower than those of his peer group. Question 6 What is a change of control put provision? How would it have protected investors?Why did some investors think the step-up language would not be useful? Looking at the step-up language, what would be the coupon rate if the rating of Belgacom was downgraded a) to BBB- (S&P)/Ba1 (Moody's)? b) to BB+ (S;P)/Ba1 (Moody's)? A change of control put provision is an option given to the bondholder to get its bond repaid before maturity at par or above, in the event of change of control followed by a rating downgrade (e. g. after an LBO). Companies may be reluctant to issue bonds including this clause, because it can place more constraints on their finances as investors have the power to control repayments.Besides, it protects investors so they can have the opportunity to change their investment decisio n strategy if the issuer would happen to change its ownership. In case of a LBO, for example, the ownership of the company is transferred by using debt relying on the future cash flows of the company. According to (Rosenbaum et al. , 2007), â€Å"a target only represents an attractive LBO opportunity if it can be purchased at a price and utilizing a financing structure that provides sufficient returns with a viable exit strategy. In such a case, a former bondholder would see the credit risk he faces considerably increase, given the amount of additional debt supported by the company. This clause should then enable a bond investor to exit his position without bearing that increased risk because firstly, the change of control was likely, since the Belgian government was seeking to sell its stake in Belgacom and secondly because some argued that the inclusion of a step-up language taking the form of a +50bp in interest payment per downgrade below investment grade would be far from comp ensating the additional risk they would be bearing.In the case of Belgacom, there were some concerns about this possible withdrawal of Belgian state from its majority stake, intensified by the fact that the company could also be the target of a potential LBO operation as explained above. In order to reassure prospective investors and consequently lower interest rates for long term bonds (10 years), it has been considered to include such a clause in the deal. Therefore, Belgacom finally decided to add a step-up language despite the concerns emitted by some investors.The main benefit of the step-up language is that investors will usually get the initial coupon above the market and will also know what is to expect from their bond(s) over a longer-term period. However, bonds including a step-up language present the disadvantage of being callable by the issuer in order to issue it at lower rate to reduce their cost of borrowing which is the reason why some investors were reluctant concer ning the step-up. In the case of Belgacom, a downgrade in the rating would have had the following impact on the coupon rate: ) If the rating of Belgacom would have been downgraded to BBB- (S&P) / Ba1 (Moody's) and if the lowest rating is taken into account which is Ba1 (one grade below investment grade), the interest paid (coupon rate) would have increased by +50bp. b) In this scenario, both rating agencies consider a one notch downgrade below investment grade leading therefore to a +50bp increase in the interest rate paid. Bibliography BERK J. , DeMARZO P. (2011) â€Å"Corporate Finance – Global edition† Second edition, Pearson edition, pp. 001 FABOZZI F. (1991) â€Å"The handbook of Fixed Income Securities†, Mc Graw-Hill edition, Third edition, p. 224 FAMA E. (1998) â€Å"Market efficiency, long-term returns, and behavioral finance† Journal of Financial Economics, 49, pp. 283-306 GLAZER A. (1989) â€Å"Acquisition bridge financing by investment banks à ¢â‚¬â€œ bridge financing, as source of revenue for investment bankers, poses risk and conflict of interest† Business Horizons magazine, Sep-Oc 1989, Website: http://findarticles. om/p/articles/mi_m1038/is_n5_v32/ai_8120675/ (Seen in April 2012) ROSENBAUM J. , PEARL J. (2009)  «Ã‚  Investment Banking  : Valuation, Leveraged Buyouts and Mergers ; Acquisitions  Ã‚ » Wiley finance Vodafone Non Official Website  : www. vodafonews. com/belgique. html (Seen in April 2012) ——————————————– [ 1 ]. www. vodafonews. com/belgique. html [ 2 ]. Exhibit 13