A&E Home Video Essay Example for Free

AE Home Video Essay Of course, in the19th Century urban setting of Wilde’s English play, this upward push of class identity would not come without an enormous price, and in many ways this can be said to be what his play is actually all about. In order to enter the upper-class, one must display all the refinement that this newfound status was meant to betray. Jack, the protagonist of Wilde’s play seems altogether contemptuous of all the pomposity that London and modern life has to offer. But this is not at all lost on Gwendolyn, the woman that he intends to marry. It is to her for whom this new modern idealism is all just a part of what makes him such an attractive suitor. She seems to express this right away. â€Å"We live, as I hope you know, Mr. Worthing, in an age of ideals. The fact is constantly mentioned in the more expensive monthly magazines, and has reached the provincial pulpits† (Wilde, 1895) Thus at times Jack steals away to the countryside where he can be more of himself; even as he has convinced others that he is Earnest. When his best friend Algernon asks him why he goes away he tells him â€Å"When one is in town, one amuses oneself. When one is in the country one amuses other people. † (Wilde, 1895) It is almost as if he means to say that poverty or better, the remoteness of the country setting offers him a more realistic outlook upon life than the smugness of London. For a time, almost effortlessly he uses one identity to escape one world and another identity to escape the other. Soon, we discover that Algernon has incorporated the same manner of fantasy into his own life. In Sure Thing culture, class, and status are triggers which appear to deliver attributes to strangers meeting each other for the very first time. Betty sits in the coffee shop reading a book as Bill attempts to approach her. Here, the affirmation of what is good or bad worthy or unworthy is often elicited from the audience’s response to the dialogue, as if post modern urban Americans have all but learned to pimp a bogus sense of idealism no different from Great Brittan more than a century ago. This is a world where a first impression maybe all that you have, and thus win or loose you only get once chance at failure, as Ives takes us through a drama that often resembles several rounds of speed dating. We hear his instant desire for acceptance when Bill makes several attempts to correct his earlier mistakes, as in this exchange: â€Å"Where was college? † â€Å"Oral Roberts College† (Bell) â€Å"Tech† (Bell) â€Å"Metro† (Bell) â€Å"Harvard† â€Å"Do you like Faulkner? † (Ives, 1988) This is a play meant to involve the audience as a part of the cast as well. As we look on, it is the judgment of the bell that gets our approval one pick up line after another. Ives does not have to bring the cynicism; we all know that this is all simply about sex and nothing more. What else could it be? He leaves the rest up to us to decide. It is the familiar game of boy meets girl and predictably she holds all the cards. Still, we are intrigued by the scenario, because in a sense it forces us to take a cynical look at ourselves and just what governs what we consider to be proper in our own lives. There is really no escaping it. While Bill has to spend the entire play going through the motions in order to discover just what it will take to get next to Betty, Jack ultimately comes to realize in the end that he actually is. There is no shortage of symbolism in either of these plays. Indeed, perhaps the saturation of metaphor is put immediately on notice with the title of Wilde’s play; The Importance of Being Earnest. In the end, we discover that this has much more meaning that we may have been led to believe. Although they wrote one hundred years apart, both of these writers attempt to place male-female relationships in a number of ‘what if’ situation, and both in their very own brilliant way force us to look squarely into the mirror of our own lives. You just have to ask yourself at some point: What motivated my own relationships? What was I searching for? Have I gone about this in the right way? They make us question the world and they make us think; sometimes they do a good job of making us laugh as well. Isn’t this what any good literature is supposed to do? Both of these plays take pains to provide us a view of the sometimes agonizing acrobatics that can often attend an encounter of boy meets girl. They are bold statements about the weight that outside social forces often have on intimate relationships. We have seen how the rise of the middle class in 19th Century London society had a strong effect upon human relationships. In a sense, we have discovered just how The Importance of Being Earnest was actually a response to the pretentious neurosis of the landed gentry of the UK during that time. So too, in Sure Thing, we were made to examine what we have learned about relationships in the aftermath of the sexual revolution. Here, we saw just how the fast-paced exchange of two strangers encountering one another for the very first time, forced the issue of the social and class perceptions during the waning years of the 20th Century. Even though these two playwrights wrote a century apart from one another, through our analysis of the plot and the motivations that undergirded both of these masterpieces of the stage, we were able to see just how much they actually had in common. Bibliography AE Home Video (Release Date: July 26, 2005) Biography: Oscar Wilde Ives, David, (1994) All in the timing: Six on-act comedies. Dramatist’s Play Service. (2008) (Director) Jason Salazar. Sure Thing as performed by the pigeon player’s theatre company. Retrieved at: http://www. youtube. com/watch? v=XliV9M7-If4 Wilde, Oscar (2004) The importance of being earnest. Ist World Library

Financial Management Of The Tottenham Hotspur Plc Finance Essay

Financial Management Of The Tottenham Hotspur Plc Finance Essay Tottenham Hotspur is one of the famous Football clubs in England; the club had huge fan base reaching 20 million people worldwide and almost 2.1 million in UK, how ever the current stadium capacity is only 36,500 fans. The one Hotspur membership scheme the club created attracted over 70,000 fans. Since one of the revenues sources is attendance, the club starts thinking of expanding or building new stadium to increase the number of fans attending the games. The quality of the strikers are also critical, and usually clubs loses some of their players during the year, therefore need to replace them with better quality if possible and that costly too. The current Enterprise value of the club is 156 million, with Net Debt / EV of 0.12 and revenue of 75 million, in addition to that, the club Avg.net Goals ( 1998-2007) was -1.9 (December 31, 2007)  [1]   Such situation ranks the club 6 among other clubs. Mr. Daniel the chairman is about to take a very important business decisions which will drive the success of the club in the coming 13 years. The chairman has to decide if the stadium development plans made sense, and how best to proceed in the player acquisition market as well  [2]   It goes without saying that any further investment should be justify by the return on investment, therefore the chairman should take in to consideration all the financial aspects such as revenue and cost. As one of the most a manager can make is the capital decision. This key decision requires spending now in order to acquire long-lived assets that will be source of cash flow in the future a successful capital investment program will contribute to the firms financial performance for many years.  [3]   Executive Summary: In this case analysis I will try to answer three important questions which can be considered as the base of above mentioned capital investment program Mr. Daniel can set for Tottenham Hotspur club for the coming years. Is Tottenham at the current stock price of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤ 13.80 fairly valued? And to answer such question financial evaluation using DCF should be conducted assuming that Tottenham continues in its current stadium. What will be the value of the chairman decision to build new stadium? And also a DCF should be conducted taking in to consideration the increase on Revenues and capital expenditure. What will be the value of the chairman decision to sign a new striker? Taking in to consideration the cost to be paid to the formal striker club and the running cost of the striker him self once he join Tottenham. Since the purpose of an investment is to get more back, over time, than you put in. One of the most common valuation criteria, which satisfy the above condition, is called NPV. Net Present Value (NPV) (NPV =Present Value of Cash Inflows Present Value of Cash Outflows Decision Rule:  [4]   If NPV>0, then accept the project If NPV=0, then indifference position, go no go situation If NPV Based on the above, and my deep analysis my findings and recommendations are as follows: Tottenham Hotspur current stock price is over valued, Their Enterprise value as a result of DCF is 107.14 Million à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤, therefore the Value per share is 9.73 à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤,  [5]   Tottenham Hotspur Enterprise value of 107.14 Million à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤, confirm its rank as No.6 Just after Newcastle United and before Everton,  [6]   Investing à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤250 million in building new stadium is not visible or profitable , DCF based on incremental increase in revenue and operating cost due to Stadium resulted in negative NPV (-60.12)  [7]   Investing à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤20 Million as a cost of acquiring new striker in addition to his high running cost also is not visible or profitable. DCF based on incremental increase in Broadcast and others, and operating cost due to acquiring new striker resulted in negative NPV (-23.5)  [8]   All these questions and comprehensive analysis and recommendations will be included in the main report. The main report and questions Answers : Part one: At its current stock price of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤13.80, is Tottenham fairly valued? To answer this question we should conduct a company valuation, and calculate the Enterprise value (EV) of the company then divide the EV on the total Number of shares. In addition to the available data mentioned in both the balance sheet (Dec.2007) and income statement of Tottenham  [9]  and in order to be able to calculate the change in working capital, the following major assumption has been taken during the evaluation, In order to calculate the change in working capital i calculate it for the first year, then calculate it as % or revenue then I apply the % for the remaining years,  [10]  using this assumption enable me to calculate the Free cash flow and then discount that cash flow using the discounted factor 10.25, to reach Enterprise Value (NPV) of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤107.14 million out of that the Terminal Value and the PV were calculated. Since the company under long term debt of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤43.08 million and having à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤26.29 million as Cash and equivalent their Equity value is à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤90.35 million and accordingly their share value is à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤9.73.  [11]   It is clear that Tottenham share value is over valued and may be that because of commercial issues related to stock market. As a recommendation the management should start looking to find solutions where by the revenue can be increased with a strict control in operating Expenses, in order to increase the cash inflow versus the cash outflow. This will be reflected on their Annual net Income, and consequently on their share price. Part 2: One of the major resources of Tottenham Revenue is the attendance, and their current stadium capacity is limited to 36,500 fans only, however they have about 2.1 million fans in UK, in addition to that they launch an incentive program to their fans One Hotspur Membership scheme which attract over 70,000 fans.  [12]  That is why the club start thinking to build a new stadium which will cost à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤250 million to be paid in two equal installments over two years, such a decision need to be challenged in term of the return as revenue and Net profit , therefore New stadium DCF analysis was conducted to obtain the NPV of the project. The whole scenario was built on the following assumption: Since the cash out (à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤250) will be paid to generate cash in as revenue, so I only took in to consideration the INCREMENTAL increase in revenue( Attendance and Sponsorship only) and the INCREMENTAL increase in operating Cost using the forecasted growth as mentioned in the case  [13]  due to the new stadium. The (à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤250) million were considered as cost of constricting new stadium distributed equally, 2008 and 2009; the increase in capital expenditure was taken as it is forecasted in the case. Since the construction will take two years, the cash in as revenue will start by (2010)  [14]   The DCF result was not satisfactory, NPV is negative (-60.2)  [15]  . My recommendation to Mr. Daniel is not to go with this option based on the given cost of construction, how ever he can think of other solutions to increase the capacity of the stadium at lower cost and I can suggest one of two options The first one is do some expansion to the current stadium if possible to increase the capacity to almost 60,000 fans and definitely this could be at lower cost, The other suggestion is to go in partner ship with one of the small size clubs as to share the cost and benefit from the revenue. Part 3: Do the club has to acquire new striker at the acquiring cost of à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤20 million and salary of 2.6 million in the first year to reach à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤6.13 million in ten years or not? And what will be the impact of the new striker on Tottenham revenue and net income?. It goes without saying that answering these questions will depend on the financial analysis of the cash inflow as revenue versus cash outflow as cost. DCF To go with such Analysis I also took major assumptions in addition to what already mentioned in the case, the assumptions are: To consider only the Incremental revenue generated from Broadcast and others.  [16]   The new striker will enhance the team rank and then earned a greater share of league television broadcast revenue. The each moves up in the standings worth an estimated à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¤670,000  [17]  . So The club will move one rank up during 2008 season and another move every three seasons due to the strong completions Based on the above data and assumptions, the result of the DCF was not encouraging and the NPV negative (-23.5) therefore the club should not sign with the new striker at these conditions and instead I have the following suggestions: Knowing the importance of acquiring professional strikers Tottenham should negotiate better deal with the formal club of the striker and the striker him self. They can spend some of that money in developing their current strikers and enhancing their performance. An aggressive incentive scheme based on profit sharing could be established to motivate the existing team to enhance their Avg. Net Goals which is currently (-1.9)  [18]  . Because Investment tie up cash, their value is based on the amount of future cash flows that will accrue to investors  [19]  

E-Commerce: The Importance of Gaining the Trust of Consumers :: Personal Narrative Writing

E-Commerce: The Importance of Gaining the Trust of Consumers A crisp autumn breeze rustles through the trees, while I attempt to carry four bags of groceries up the two flights of stairs leading to my New York apartment. The anticipation I had previously felt while awaiting this important day, has now turned into extreme excitement. Today is the day of my interview with my possible future boss. Since I have just recently finished my fourth year of graduate school, I spent the entire summer searching the New York companies and firms for a reasonable job in the marketing business. I received my degree from Columbia University in the marketing aspects of online shopping. During school I studied techniques on how to effectively construct marketing websites. After three weeks of interviews and diligent searches for a respectable position, I became frustrated and overwhelmed. Fortunately, when I was just about to apply for a temporary teaching position at a nearby computer technical college, I met Ray Burke. Actually our very meeting was coincidence. After finishing a walk with my golden retriever, Benjamin, I was relaxing in a small street corner coffee shop when I first spotted Ray Burke. Benjamin became excited by a passing poodle, and took off knocking Ray Burke to his feet. Mortified, I dashed over to the spot where Ray Burke was now spread out on the ground, and observed that he was an older man around sixty. What was left of his gray hair was randomly dispersed and appeared to be stuck to his head with gel. His navy suite jacket was now muddy from his fall. I immediately started apologizing for Benjamin. However, to my surprise, Ray Burke was not mean and angry about the accident. Instead, he actually invited me inside and offered to buy me a cup of coffee. As we sipped our mocha lattes, he asked me about my work and I explained to him that I was n ow searching for a position as developing online markets and websites, but that I was struggling to find jobs in the market. Although I know that the situation was probably mere coincidence, that day I thought what followed next in our conversation was pure fate. Ray Burke turned out to be the CEO of a major marketing company in New York City that recently started a marketing branch concerning the construction of online electronic shopping sites.

Justification for Using Atomic Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki Essay

On August 6, 1945 an American B-29 bomber named the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. This was the first use of nuclear weapons in the history of human warfare and almost the last. Many people debate whether using nuclear weapons was a moral choice. I believe it was moral. Though many people died from the bomb, the amount of good that came from dropping it greatly outweighs the bad. A large issue that's brought up around the atomic bombings is the amount of people that were killed because of it. The total killed was 70,000 to 80,000 people initially and approximately 90,000 to 140,000 by the end of 1945. Though this number is catastrophic on it's own, it's relatively small comparatively. For example, when added with the number of people killed in the Nagasaki bombing (45,000) it comes to around 125,000 people killed in the first two blasts. Compare this with two firebombing raids over Tokyo, one raid killed about 125,000 people, the other nearly 100,000. That's approximately 125,000 killed with the atom bombs and 225,000 killed with normal...

Designer Babies

Abstract The term â€Å"designer baby† is used by journalist and media to refer to a baby whose genetic makeup had been artificially selected by genetic engineering combined with in vitro fertilization to make sure there is a presence or absence of particular genes or characteristics (Designer Baby, n. d. ). Before, designer babies have been used to prevent genetic defects of offspring or to prevent a child from a number of mutations and diseases. Now, with our advancements in reproductive technologies, doctors are taking this to a whole new level by using genetic diagnosis or PGD to design their patient’s idea of a â€Å"perfect baby. In this paper I will discuss the reasons why I’m against the idea of designer babies. Genetically Engineering A Designer Baby Imagine going to a hospital and ordering a baby, just like you order a meal at your favorite fast food restaurant: â€Å"Hi, can I have a girl in the model category. Straight brown hair, brown eyes, and a bronze tan. Actually, make that green eyes, instead of brown and make her hair a little wavy, but not too wavy. Medium stature is fine, with a fit body type. Oh yeah, can you make sure that she'll have perfect white, straight teeth too.And that will do it! † Sounds a little ridiculous doesn't it? Well believe it or not, designing your idea of a â€Å"perfect† baby may be completely normal in the next few years because of the highly advanced reproductive technologies out there today. Some would argue that being able to genetically design their own child would be a blessing but here are my reasons why I think the idea of designer babies isn’t just morally and ethically wrong, but could eventually lead to the possibility of controlling the human population to ensure certain physical characteristics.On March 3, 2009 an organization called Fertility Institutes offered what journalists call â€Å"designer babies† (Designer Babies: Parents can Select Physical Tra its, 2011). The technology they use is called preimplantation genetic diagnosis or PGD. It's been used to improve the likelihood of a successful pregnancy and birth for couples with either infertility related to recurrent miscarriages or unsuccessful in vitro cycles and couples who are at high risk for passing on inherited genetic disease to their offspring (Preimplantation Genetics, n. d. ).Before, PGD was strictly used only for the couples who absolutely needed it. Now they are taking this technology that we've used since the mid-1980s to a whole new level. Wanting to fulfill the desires of their patients, Fertility Institutes said that their patients could not only select the gender of their soon to be child, but could choose their baby's skin, hair, and eye color (Preimplantation Genetics, n. d. ). This new technology sparked many questions and controversies. From conception and on, parents are viewed as risk factors in their child's life.Pregnant women are constantly being remi nded to eat the right food, get enough exercise, stay away from alcohol and cigarettes, and the list goes on and on. If she doesn't follow these guidelines, she is putting her child at risk (Debating ‘designer babies’, 2003). A child is the icon of vulnerability. In using their power over a vulnerable child, parents can do harm whether they mean to or not. Parents are constantly making decisions for their child in hopes that one day they will be successful. With the idea of designer babies however, parents might replace their love with a mentality of perfection.These parents will pay thousands of dollars to make sure their baby is born physically perfect so of course their standards of their child will be extremely high. If a child can't live up to his or her parents expectations, they might go through their whole life feeling like they're not good enough. Knowing that their parents have selected every trait about them from their gender to hair color, children will feel less free. What if parents really do replace love with wanting their child to be perfect? The child might grow up not knowing what love is since he or she has never experienced it.I know it’s a bit dramatic, but this just might be the ending of love and compassion. Eugenics is defined as â€Å"the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, by such means as discouraging reproduction by persons having genetic defects or presumed to have inheritable undesirable traits† (Eugenics, n. d. ). We’ve all heard of the infamous Adolf Hitler. His plan was to create a world full of tall, blonde hair, blue eyed â€Å"perfect† people and to eventually obtain world domination.He tortured and killed thousands and thousands of people because they were Jewish, African American, homosexuals, handicaps, and communists. When I first read about designer babies this is the first thing I thought of. With all the n ew reproductive technology, there is a possibility that someday, there will be a perfect race. This also ties into who would be able to design their baby’s traits. Only the wealthy would be able to afford the luxury of designing a perfect child. So not only would these children be flawless and beautiful, but they would also be born wealthy.The average or poor people will have normal children while the wealthy have their perfect children. There is already a fine line between the wealthy and the poor. The wealthy are constantly getting richer, while the poor remains poor. Which brings me to my next point, if we start creating these designer babies, what happens to the â€Å"normal† children? These kids will be considered ugly and scary since they’re not perfect. The new generation of designer babies would hate anyone who doesn’t appear to have the flawless appearance they have and the normal children would hate the designer children because they’re n ot as good looking as them.The designer kids would act as if they are better and look down to normal people. Our society is constantly concerned with looks as it is. I can’t even imagine how the normal children will feel. They’ll hate themselves for not looking as beautiful as the others, blame their parents for them being â€Å"ugly,† and lose confidence in themselves. As you know, I’m against designing babies to achieve the perfect appearance, but I understand that sometimes using PGD to screen embryos is necessary. Take the story of Philippa for example. An interview done by United Kingdom BBC (2005) said that she had a problem with her DNA.It never affected her health, but it meant that most of her eggs didn’t carry genes needed for a baby to grow healthy. Every time she got pregnant, she miscarried. The doctors suggested that she try PGD. This ensured that her baby would be free from any genetic abnormalities. Nine months after using PGD she g ave birth to a healthy baby boy, named Ruiaridh (BBC, 2005). Philippa had no desire to design a perfect baby, so I don’t consider Ruiaridh a designer baby. In cases where a parent is preventing their future child from a disease, I think it’s 100% acceptable.If I was in that position I would do the exact same thing, without a doubt. All-in-all, designing perfect babies is something we shouldn’t be toying with. The results could be devastating. In my eyes, the bond between a parent and their child is something special. When I laid my eyes on my daughter for the first time, I was amazed at how much she resembled me. Her eyes, her nose, her lips, everything looked exactly like me. This is one of the best things about being a parent. I couldn’t imagine designing her with different features than God didn’t intend her to be born with.Children don’t need to be artificially selected by genetic engineering to be considered perfect. To a parent, every child should be born perfect no matter how they look. References Eugenics . (n. d. ). Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved April 22, 2012, from http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Eugenics Johnson, P. (2012, January 20). Pros and Cons of Designer Babies. Buzzle. Retrieved April 20, 2012, from http://www. buzzle. com/articles/pros-and-cons-of-designer-babies. html Lee, E. (2008, April 17). Debating ‘Designer Babies'. Spiked-Science. Retrieved April 21, 2012, from www. spiked-online. om/Articles/00000006DD57. htm[->0] Luck, M. (2011, May 15). Designer Babies. ce399 | research archive. Retrieved April 20, 2012, from http://ce399eugenics. wordpress. com/2011/05/15/designer-babies-parents-can-select-physical-traits-at-fertility-institute-2/ Pray, L. (n. d. ). Embryo Screening and the Ethics of Human Genetic Engineering. Scitable. Retrieved April 20, 2012, from http://www. nature. com/scitable/topicpage/embryo-screening-and-the-ethics-of-60561 Who's Afraid of Designer Babies?. (n. d. ). BBC. Retrieved April 20, 2012, from http://www. bbc. co. uk/sn/tvradio/programmes/horizon/babies_prog_summary. shtml

How does communication device helps students in their studies Essay

Background Over the years as technology keeps improving, more and more people are using it in their daily lives. Over these past few decades, there has been a significant advancement in the field of technology. What is more obvious in the public eyes nowadays is the advancement of communication devices. Communication devices are equipment or hardware designed to move or convey information or data from one place to another. In other words, allowing one person to communicate with another. In the olden days, there is only one form of communication device which is the telephone. At that time, the phones can only be used to make calls or receive them. However, in this modern age, phones can do much more than that. In fact, there are many more sophisticated communication devices available besides phones. Communication devices have evolved over time. Besides making and receiving calls, phones nowadays are equipped with abilities such as taking pictures and connecting to the Internet. Humans have also developed various types of communication devices such as computers, smartphones, tablets and many more. What’s more is that most of these communication devices can access to the internet. Internet is what makes these communication devices flourish. This is because the internet is the most powerful, global data communications system making it the greatest invention of science because of its wide range of benefits and uses in the world today. The biggest benefit of the internet can be found in the educational sector. Educators can obtain learning material from it, prepare courses online and deliver audio and visual information to students. It is a valuable source for referencing material and tool in enhancing their knowledge. Example of one of the most effective and most used form of internet technologies in the educational sector is E-learning. According to (Ove, Salleh & Iahad, 2010): â€Å"E-learning is the use of Information and Communication Technology e.g. Internet, Computer, Mobile phone, Learning Management System (LMS), Televisions, Radios and others to enhance teaching and learning activities. E-learning is a unifying term used to describe the fields of online learning, web-based training and technology delivered instructions.† E-learning is a popular learning approach in higher educational institutions due to the fast growth of internet technology. Nowadays due to the competitive advantage, many universities have implemented E-learnings. By doing so, it left a huge positive impact on the students’ performance. The internet also provides a faster and more efficient ways of communication such as video conferencing, emails and more. With just the click of a mouse a person can be connected to someone who is in another city or even halfway across the world. Distance is erased within seconds and spatial boundaries have come crashing down due to instant messaging services. For a student, information such as the student details, notes, documents and etc. can be transferred instantly from anywhere with the help of internet. Besides that, students can also leave short messages or notification to others by using e-mails. This is both convenient for students, lecturers and also faculty staffs of the university. However, communication devices are needed in order to access to the internet. There is no way to connect to the internet without using communication devices these days. Therefore, this shows the importance of communication devices for people especially in the workplace and educational sectors. Reference: 1. N.D.Oye, Noorminshah A. Iahad, Madar, M. J., NorZairah Ab. Rahim (2012). The impact of E-Learning on students performance in tertiary insitutions. http://www.ijcnwc.org/papers/vol2no22012/2vol2no2.pdf. Accessed on 29th July 2014. 2. Shamsul Arrieya (2012). Student perspectives on M.Learning for local cultural studies in Malaysia. http://www.academia.edu/3129483/Student_perspectives_on_mLearning_for_local_cultural_studies_in_Malaysia. Accessed on 30th July 2014. 3. Computer Hope (2014). Communication devices. http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/c/communication-devices.htm. Accessed on 20th July 2014. 4. Teach-ICT (2014) Communication devices. http://www.teach-ict.com/gcse_computing/ocr/211_hardware_software/types_hw/miniweb/pg6.htm. Accessed on 20th July 2014.

Research on Ginger in Meghalaya

Report on the field study of Ginger and Turmeric in Meghalaya PREFACE Meghalaya is a state which is rich in natural resources, be it from flora to fauna to the mineral resources, the state has it in abundance. Agriculture, including crop and animal husbandry, fisheries, forestry and agro processing constitutes the very basis of socio economic lives of India. One of the major activities in the state is cultivation of horticulture crops which includes that of Ginger and Turmeric.Ginger is being predominantly grown in Ri Bhoi District while almost the whole belt of Jaintia Hills, the best quality of Turmeric found in the whole country with the reported cucurmin content up to 7. 6%. However amidst plenty of what we have, there are too many missing links in between for the state to realize the full potential in terms of commercial activities in revenues and most importantly to address the issues of the farmers to increase the income for better livelihoods in the villages.Therefore the mar ket access team from MBDA along with the staffs of Appropriate Technology India (ATI) made a visit to some of the important cultivation belt of ginger and turmeric of Ri Bhoi District and West Jaintia Hills District for assessment of production which includes cultivation practices as well as understanding the organic practices for the potential of organic certification for premium pricing of the products, post harvesting and processing aspects as well as marketing aspects for improving livelihood security in the state.The visit was spanned in six days and within these six days; the program was conducted in the following order: 12th February 2013 On this day the team comprising of three interns from MBDA and five ATI workforce under the supervision of Mr Iai Majaw, the Horticulture Officer with the Government of Meghalaya, left Shillong at around 10 AM and visited the Ginger belt of Ri Bhoi District. Firstly we visited the farm house which is located next to the Highway to Guwahati a t Umsning. There we met and interacted with around twenty five ginger cultivators in and around Umsning.These villages are located within the distance of 1 to 3 kilometers from Umsning. The farmers start sowing ginger from the last week of April throughout the month of May. We came to know that they inherited the ginger cultivation practices from their fore fathers seeing that the climate is conducive for the crop to thrive and that there is a market for all of their produce from year to year. The main area of concern for them is that, the plant is frequently getting infected with root and stem rotting, thus spoiling their effort in time and money.Stem rot is more frequent than root rot and occurs in between the months of June to September. They don’t have any solution to tackle these kind of infections, the only activity that they do is to uproot the whole crop and throw it as far as possible from the cultivation land and sometimes even burning that particular crop but it se ldom help the cause as the infection will start to spread to the whole row and even at times the whole field. They practiced Jhum cultivation with the belief that it softens the soil and helps in the ploughing activity.They also have a fair idea of the reason behind crop rotation and practiced it once in 3 years. They do give manure to the crop once in a while in the form of poultry, pig and cow droppings. They said that they have received training from the horticulture officers but most of the time they apply those methods being taught to them in the beginning phase but revert back to their traditional method of cultivation. They stored the seed in a proper way and have no problem with the occurrence of seed spoilage before the cultivation period.The nearest market for them is the Umsning market which is being held once a week. At the weekly market, traders which are middle men come to purchase their crop at rates of 1,100 – 1,200 rupees per 40 kgs which is a standard unit o f weight being applied in terms of ginger and turmeric in the whole area. However, when they feel that a better price is available at Iewduh market in Shillong or when there is a need to go Shillong for personal work, they carry along the ginger which fetched them a price of around 1,500 – 1,600 per 40 kgs.From there the team moved to Sohpdok village which is approximately 5 kms from Umsning. Here we interacted with the headman of the village and around 15 farmers in the processing unit which is next to the SSA school premises and found out that the ginger cultivation was enlarge by the intervention and help of RRTC, Umran. There are 3 driers, 2 slicers and 1 pulveriser at the processing unit which is not yet functional as they have just received the machines from North Eastern Hill University.The problems and practices regarding the cultivation practices are the same as the ones which have been described above. However, the people said that they rate of ginger that they sell at the village when traders come to collect from the village is around 900 – 1,000 rupees per 40 kgs. The last visit for the day was at Regional Resource Training Centre (RRTC) Umran, which is run by the Catholic Church and presently headed by Father James.The center spans around 400 acres campus and facilitates in imparting training to various livelihood and entrepreneurship program and one of the main activities is the food processing centre which includes turmeric and ginger processing. The ginger after undergoing a series of treatment which includes peeling, trimming, weighing, washing, and processing by boiling with citric acid is then mildly dried and mixed with fine sugar in specific proportions and then properly dried and added with sugar to add as topping. It is then packed and labeled as Ginger Candy.The ginger candy is retailed at an MRP of 35 rupees for 100gms. When asked about the costing, the staff who is taking care of the processing unit said that the whole c ost of labour and various activities from start to finish is around 120 – 150 rupees/kg, while the retail cost is 350 rupees/kg thus making a profit of 200 rupees/kg. The ginger is also converted into powder form firstly dipping the dried ginger in Sodium Carbonate solution to increase the shelf life of the product and then grind to powder and packed.The same goes for turmeric which is simply grind into powder form and retailed at the stores. Their main area of concern is marketing, which they say they have a limited penetration to the market through their retail outlet next to the national highway and some retail shops in and around Shillong. 13th February 2013 The team left for Nongpoh and along with the existing ERPs of MBDA went to Umkon village which is 23 kms away from it. Here we interacted with just around 5 farmers as there is a funeral in the village. Almost each and every ousehold practice ginger cultivation in large scale and turmeric cultivation for their own con sumption on a lower scale. Almost all of the households exceed 500 kgs of ginger production in a year with some of them going up to 3 or 4 tonnes. The main market is at Umden in which the price of the ginger is around 1,000 rupees/40 kgs while the seed is being sold at 35 rupees/kg. The seed is being sold among the farmers from nearby areas and new farmers while the raw ginger is being bought by middlemen and commission agents who then supply either to Guwahati or Kolkata directly.The main areas of concern for the farmers is again the same issue of their inability and lack of knowledge how to tackle diseases such as stem and root rot. However, they shared their success story of how ginger cultivation has improved the general living conditions in and around the area. There is no value added activity for the ginger being produced in the area. Then at around 4 pm we left for Byrnihat to visit the North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Ltd (NERAMAC).There is a process ing plant to extract ginger oil from fresh or raw ginger. The plant capacity is around 3 to 5 tonnes per day, yielding 1. 5 liters of oil which retails at 7000 – 9000 rupees/liter. The major problem that they are facing is the availability of raw ginger as most of the ginger which is produced within the region is being sold to middlemen at a higher rate. 14th February 2013 The team left Shillong at around 8 AM for the turmeric belt of West Jaintia Hills District.We stationed at CTC hotel and then under the supervision of Mr Lyngdoh, a horticulture officer with the Govt. of Meghalaya, proceeded to Wahiajer village where we interacted with 2 farmers, one farmer just started the ginger cultivation activity since he saw that there is a market and the soil is very good for ginger to grow, so keeping in mind of the above factors he started cultivating ginger and after harvesting the produce, decided not to sell any of it but to keep it as seed for the next year.When we arrived ther e we interacted with him and asked him to show us the place where the seed is being store and when he dug up some of the seed, even though the ginger quality and size is good, it was found that the whole ginger is moist and wet and infected with fungus, budding has also begun to take place. He said that he has received no training on how to cultivate, harvest and store the ginger so he is not aware of what procedures and process to follow.Then we told him to take out the whole lot of ginger stored there and to dry it in the shade and treat it with organic chemicals which might be available at the horticulture office in the block. Being a starter in the activity he is unaware of the whole system, except the price that he might get if he is to sell the product at the local market. He also practices slash and burn cultivation like the rest of the farmers are doing in the whole area.We then met with another farmer who has been practicing the ginger cultivation activity for quite some ye ars but he confessed that he is quite disheartened with the activity as there is no help from the government side in monetary terms nor in training facilities, so he is contemplating of shifting his cultivation activity from ginger to that of tomato as there is a better market currently prevailing in the whole area. The horticulture department is also neglecting the ginger farmers in the area while promoting that of the tomato.We then proceed to Laskein grinding and processing centre which has a Federation comprising of 9 clusters, 30 villages and around 100 SHGs. The Unit was set up in 2007 with the objective of improving livelihood and income within the area. The processing unit was set up with the help of MRDS which also helps in the training of man power as well as marketing activities. The unit is well equipped with Dryers, Slicers, Pulverisers and for the first time this year an Oil extractor machine is being set up which will be functional from this year onwards, the staffs a lso are yet to get training how to utilize the machine.The steps in the processing of ginger in the unit here are as follows: WASHING BOILING SLICING DRYING GRINDING PACKAGING The production of turmeric powder last year was around 3 tonnes and this year they aimed at a higher quantity. Each and every cluster of villages which falls under the association have a commitment to bring the produce of raw turmeric to the processing centre and the Federation buys it at a rate of 30 rupees/kg, when the turmeric is being sold in powder form at 250 rupees/kg as of last year, 230 rupees is being given back to the farmer and 20 rupees is being kept by the federation.The packaging is done in quantities of 1/4th kg, ? kg and 1 kg for the local market while it is packed in gunny bags of 40 kgs each for the lot which is supposed to be transported to Guwahati. 15th February 2013 The team accompanied by Mr Remi from MRDS went to Umsalait village which falls under Iakitlang cluster, comprising of two v illages, Umsalait and Umsaroo which has 245 and 70 households respectively. There are 6 SHGs in the cluster, out of which 5 groups consist of women and 1 group that of men.The team interacted with around 30 farmers and learnt that they have been practicing the cultivation of turmeric from generation which they inherited from their forefathers but increased the activity to a larger scale as soon as they see that there is a market and it contributes to the generation of income activity. The problems faced by the farmers are almost the same throughout the state in which the major issues are that of diseases and not knowing how to tackle them.They are quite grateful to MRDS which helped them in imparting knowledge and funds even if it’s in small mount, the intervention has helped them to increase their income for a better living conditions. 16th February 2013 The team visited Mr W. Nongspung processing centre situated at Laitkor which is roughly 12 kms from Shillong. Mr Nongspung took advantage of the PMEGP scheme from DIC, Shillong and set up his processing centre there.However, fewer spices products are being processed at his unit since he only supply dry turmeric to a company in Guwahati known as Amalgamated Plantations, located at Christian Basti on a commission basis. His commission stands at 20 rupees/kg. He supplies around 30 tonnes of dry turmeric in a year and the company financed the money entirely in advance. Owing to this, he processed dry turmeric at a very less amount. He then started processing fruit juices such as star fruit, cherry as well as pickling of ginger, radish, chillies and bamboo shoots.His products have Organic tags along with them, while there is no proof of paper work that his products are organic certified. He sources the packaging materials from Industrial estate in Guwahati and get the label locally printed in Shillong. According to him, the major difficulty he is facing is that he doesn’t know how to market his produ cts in a big way and he has no idea about branding at all OBSERVATIONS Below are the few parameters of observation prevailing in the production areas where the team has visited a) AREA AND PRODUCTIONMost of the households in the villages which fall under the area that we have visited do not have a fair idea of the size of their respective plot under ginger and turmeric cultivation. From the conversation that we had we could make out that the minimum area of cultivation per family is around 1 acre up to 4 to 5 hectares. As far as production is concerned, the quantity that each household produces ranges from 750 kg to 5 tonnes. b) LAND USE The land that is used is normally rotational and at times shifting and bun cultivation is a normal practice which is traditional in nature.The area to be cultivated is first covered with the soil on top of the leaves and then slowly burned and often left overnight so as to soften the soil in the ploughing process thus easing the tilling process. Thi s practice also helps in sterilization of the soil. The agricultural land is mostly owned and controlled by individual farmers and some of them have been leased by people who are not engaged in agricultural activities who are mostly traders or government servants or who have migrated from the village on a nominal fee or in exchange for the products the cultivate. ) LAND PREPARATION Ginger and turmeric is normally cultivated in slopes and terrains under the shade of some trees. The land is normally not ploughed but just holed and dug up to 6 to 7 inches for the seed to be buried inside. Very few farmers added manure of animal dung to the crop while the rest just leave it as it is. There are no proper irrigation facilities to retain the water content during the rainy season, thus leaving the crop to absorb as much water as ossible during the rainy season and dried throughout the rest of the months. d) SELECTION OF SEED After the harvest is done, rhizomes which are large, healthy, free from any injury spots and more buds are selected to be stored as seed. The seeds in the case of turmeric are simply stored under the shade above the ground and normally very few infections would occur on turmeric seed, whereas in the case of ginger it is more complicated as the seed is normally infected with fungus and budding usually takes place before the sowing season.The method of storage is traditional in practice as the seed is stored under a pit dug below the ground and simply covered with a thin layer of soil thus attracting moisture and fungus to infect the seed. There are many cases in which farmers have complained that the seed gets spoiled before the sowing season starts. e) PLANTING Planting is usually done in the month of April to May just at the start of the rain. The rhizomes are planted in about 6 inches apart from each other and 6 to 8 inches deep and then covered with soil. During plantation the rhizomes are broken and make sure that they at least have 4 to 6 bud ding sprouts.The turmeric and ginger is normally cultivated along some other vegetables in the field such as beans, maize and pumpkin. f) HARVEST The harvest is done in when the crop attains maturity, the sign given by the death of the stem and leaves. It usually starts from early November and goes till the end of January. The seed is normally left till end of February to attain maximum maturity. Farmers also sometimes look at the market demand and when they know that there is a demand for the product in the market, they normally harvest the crop as and when required. ) MARKETING The marketing of ginger and turmeric usually happens in weekly local markets which are near to the villages and sometimes at Iewduh, in Shillong. Commission agents, middle men and traders purchase the products at a wholesale rate from local markets and then sort out and grade the lot according to the quality and packed them in gunny bags to be transported outside the state. In case of turmeric, trade happen s mostly as a dry material in the form of slices or in powder, whereas in case of ginger trade happens at the raw or fresh ginger state.Thus we can see that the middlemen control the market of ginger and turmeric in the whole state. h) COSTING 1) Cultivation-(umsalait) For 1 hectare land, they need around 10 people for 60 days and labour cost is Rs 200/day. (a) Labour 10 x 60 = 600 (b) Labour Cost 600 x 200 = Rs 1,20,000 (c) Seed Cost Rs 30 x 2000kg = Rs Rs 60,000 ————————————————————————– DIRECT TOTAL COST = Rs 1, 80,000The production from 2000kg seed is around 5 tonnes. And the cost of raw turmeric is Rs 30/kg PRODUCTION OUTPUT= 30 x 5000 = Rs 1, 50,000 Therefore we can see that the expenditure exceeds sale, thus instead of benefitting from the agricultural activity, the farmers are suffering losses, which th ey cannot understand as there is no costing method being followed. 2) Processing-(laskein) Cost of raw turmeric is Rs 30/kg. if 100kg is taken for processing, then cost of procuring raw turmeric will be Rs 3000. kg of raw turmeric when dried will produce only 1kg. Therefore 100kg will produce 17kg of dried turmeric. a) Cost of dried turmeric = 3000 / 17kg = Rs 176/kg b) Other Indirect Cost = Rs 100/kg (sorting, washing, drying, slicing, grinding, packaging, transportation, electricity bills and other miscellaneous fee) ___________________________________________________________ TOTAL COST PER KG = Rs 276SELLING PRICE OF 1kg POWDERED TURMERIC = Rs 250 Thus over here we can also see expenditure exceeds sale which results in a loss for the farmers. From the above analysis, it can be concluded that there is a need to reduce the DIRECT COST and to increase the Seed to Production Output in order to generate higher revenue. Interventions like introduction of power tillers, is not feasible because the cultivated areas are located in far away terrain and slopes, which are not motorable. ORGANIC PRACTICES AND SCOPE OF CERTIFICATIONAs the method of cultivation in the whole state is mostly organic in nature and with the awareness on importance of organic certification that organic products fetches a premium price in the market, there is a need to promote and to create awareness among the farmers to opt for organic certification so as to increase their income from selling their products. While discussing with various farmers, it is found out that organic farming, although practiced, is mostly done using traditional methods which consist mainly of slash and burn and composting.However, the â€Å"slash and burn† method is not considered as organic method because it kills the microbes which fertilize the field. Also, they have no access or awareness about organic pesticides like Trichogramma which is available from the State Biological Control Laboratory in Shillong. And Trichoderma which is use mainly for Ginger and Turmeric is still in the testing stage and will be available shortly. Some of the reasons that the farmers have not under gone organic certifications are mentioned below- 1) No awareness about organic certifications and its potential. ) The farmers have not received any training methods regarding organic farming. 3) They are also not aware of the market and its demand for organic products. 4) The certification process is quite long which takes up to three years. On top of that, the certificate has to be renewed every year. 5) It is also quite expensive. PROBLEMS FACED BY THE FARMERS/ PRODUCERS AT PRODUCTION LEVEL 1) Low yield of the horticultural crops in which the ratio is 1:2. ) Prevalence of bacterial and fungal infections which affect both stem rot as well as root rot 3) Unsuitable farming practices with poor drainage system to retain water 4) Very seldom crop rotation to replenish soil nutrients 5) Jhum cultivation in which the soil microorganisms died in the process 6) No organic manure is being given to the crops 7) There is no treatment of the seed before sowing 8) There is no capacity building measures being taken to tackle infections and other diseases.POST HARVESTING AND PROCESSING ASPECTS 1) 99% of the farmers sell ginger as a raw produce while turmeric is often converted to dry slices or at times into powder form but at a lower scale. 2) The market is being dominated by the middle men 3) There is no system of grading the ginger based on size and quality 4) The seed to be stored is not harvested at the right time so as it is mature enough to resist spoilage and not properly dried to resist fungal infection 5) Lack of knowledge and training how to store the seed ) Lack of knowledge regarding value addition activities which will fetch a premium price 7) Lack of appropriate technology and infrastructure in many aspects of modern storage. SUGGESTIONS FOR TRAINING/MBDA INTERVENTION CULTIVATION LEVEL 1) Treatment of the seed with organic chemicals such as Trichoderma, one day before sowing to control any seed infection later on. 2) Use of organic compost manure to increase the yield and productivity 3) Proper inter-culture activities from month to month ) Digging of horizontal drain-like pit of about ? ft depth perpendicular to the cultivation rows in terrain areas for water and manure retention. 5) Training in capacity building measures to tackle infections and diseases of both root and stem. 6) Practicing rotation cultivation of turmeric and ginger with leguminous plants on a yearly basis to replenish the nitrogen content of the soil 7) The seed which has to be stored needs to be harvested when it has matured. POST HARVESTING ) Grading and segregating the harvest if needed 2) Proper drying of the seed for a week under the shade to avoid moisture content in order to prevent fungus infection during storage. 3) Modern method of storage to maintain the health and freshness of the see d, by digging a hole up to 1 ? ft deep inside the ground and covered with lumps of soil up to 1 ft height and then plaster with a thin layer of wet mud to prevent entry of moisture. 4) Costing method should be taught. 5) Record keeping and internal assessment. ) Awareness of the importance of value addition process post harvesting. 7) Exposure visit. 8) The officers at various levels in District headquarters should play a pro-active role in imparting training and looking at various aspects where there could be an intervention. CONCLUSION In both cases of Turmeric and Ginger, there is hardly any value addition that is being done in the State. Middlemen control the market and influenced the fluctuation in price of both these items.In the case of Ginger alone, except for a meager percentage which gets converted into Ginger Candy at Regional Resource Training Centre (RRTC), Umran and North Eastern Regional Agricultural Marketing Corporation Ltd (NERAMAC), Byrnihat, there is no other val ue addition activity being practiced in the State. The whole amount of raw ginger is being packed into sacks of gunny bags of 40kgs and transported directly to Guwahati and Kolkata, thus we are deprived of the real value of what ginger could have fetched if proper knowledge, skills and machineries are being set up for value addition activities within the state.Whereas in terms of Turmeric, people are more aware of the better price which powder turmeric fetches in the market. Beside few turmeric processing units at the village level which were set up by Self Help Groups (SHG) at the cluster or village level, such as one at Laskein Block in West Jaintia Hills and smaller individual Grinding units at Shangpung and Laitkor, there are many small entrepreneurs who take their produce of dry turmeric to grind at any of these grinding units and sell at local markets as well as in the main market, Iewduh in Shillong.Of what we observed, most of the farmers involved in cultivation of turmeric and ginger, are women which comprises of around 70 percent workforce, the men are usually involve during ploughing activity which is more related to strength but as soon as the sowing season started they shifted to other kinds of works or migrated to other villages in search of work. Thus there is a lot desired and to be done in order to improve livelihood security through integration in growth value chains and market linkages in Meghalaya. ______________________________________________________________________