Somalia Culture Essay -- Essays Papers

Somalia Culture Somalia is a country situated in the ÒhornÓ of East Africa. It is bordered by the Gulf of Aden in the north, the Indian Ocean on the east and southeast, Kenya in the southwest, Ethiopia in the west, and Djibouti in the northwest. Somalia is about four times the size of the State of Minnesota, or slightly smaller than Texas. The capital is Mogadishu. Somalia's population is mostly rural. Nearly 80% of the people are pastoralists, agriculturalists, or agropastoralists. Except for a small number of Somalis who rely on fishing, the rest of the population are urban dwellers. Somalia's chief cities and towns are Mogadishu (the capital), Hargeisa, Burao, Berbera, Bossaso, Marka, Brava, Baidoa, and Kismaayo. In the past few years, civil war and famine have changed urban demographics as hundreds of thousands of displaced Somalis have poured into the cities seeking sanctuary and relief. Ethnically and culturally, Somalia is one of the most homogeneous countries in Africa. Somalia has its minorities: there are people of Bantu descent living in farming villages in the south, and Arab enclaves in the coastal cities. A small number of Europeans, mostly Italians, live on farms in the south. But the great majority of the people are ethnic Somalis who speak dialects of the same language, Somali, and who practice the same religion, Islam. In a land of sparse rainfall, more than half the population consists of pastoralists or agropastoralists who raise camels, cattle, sheep, and goats. There are farmers, mostly in the south and northwest, and in recent years a new urban group of government workers, shopkeepers, and traders has emerged, but it is the nomadic way of life, with its love of freedom and open spaces, that is c... ...e or the hand up to the wrist. Its application often signifies happy occasions, such as a marriage or the birth of a baby. Somalia's economic fortunes are being driven by its deep political divisions. The northern area has declared its independence.. During 1992-1993, Somalia experienced a great famine. This famine was the result of a drought coupled with the disastrous effect that infighting among rival clan militias had on the land and the livestock in Somalia. Somalis have always relied on their land and livestock to support themselves, and so this famine was devastating to them. Consequently, over 900,000 Somalis fled to neighboring countries. Approximately 400,000 of these refugees fled to Kenya. Since that time, some of the refugees have returned to Somalia, yet the situation there is still so tenuous that many have chosen to remain in the refugee camps.

Internal Controls and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 Essay examples --

In order to be successful in business, a company must be able to track their assets. This tracking system is typically done by a bookkeeper and must be reliable in order to be effective. The way a company ensures their financial records are reliable is by setting up a system of internal controls. Internal controls allow a company to protect its assets from fraud and theft as well as ensuring records are kept accurately by reducing errors and irregularities (Keisco, Kimmel and Weygandt, 2008). Internal controls work by assigning responsibility, separating duties to provide checks and balances, hiring an independent verification agent and through the use of technology and physical controls. In many instances, internal controls are required and overseen by the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Assignment of responsibility for certain functions of the bookkeeping and accounting process ensures that when a problem occurs a specific person is accountable. This, in turn, provides an incentive to that person to do their job correctly because any issue or problem will be their sole responsibility. Splitting duties has a similar impact on employees. By providing a system of checks and balances, i.e. one person keeps the records while another keeps the assets, the chance for fraud is greatly decrease and honest mistakes are easily caught. There are many physical, mechanical and electronic controls that provide further safety for a company’s assets. These include passwords, safes, alarms, security cameras, time clocks and locks (Kiesco et.al, 2008). The use of an auditor or other third party to independently verify the bookkeeping and accounting procedures performed by employees adds another layer of safeguarding to a company’s inter... ... track the error to the fraudulent employee. In conclusion, internal controls include separation of duties, assignment of responsibilities, third-party verification and the use of mechanical and physical controls. In and of themselves, these tactics stop and prevent much abuse of the bookkeeping and accounting systems. The addition of Sarbanes-Oxley requirements in 2002 require that a company enact internal controls and assign responsibility of the control system to executives and directors, further providing insurance that financial reporting is accurate. Without this insurance that reports are accurate, company stock will fall and investors will be lost. Even with intrinsic limitations, the positive aspects of good internal controls far outweigh the negative implications. Good internal controls equal accurate financial records and future company success.

What I Did Last School Holiday

In the last school holidays, my family and I return village to celebrate the up coming days with relatives. My village is located in Penang. I think this year’s election is more fun than the previous years because of this feast, there will be a meaningful day for my aunt, the marriage ceremony. Men who successfully captured the hearts of my aunt come from Alor Gajah, Perak. Me, my family and relatives happy because my aunt already a men’s wife. Because of the wedding, I and relatives can gather together in the village.When the feast ahead of the first day, me and my relatives went to the mosque as usual to perform the Eid prayers and listen to a sermon by the preacher. There are many important and meaningful knowledge can I get in sermon. I was touched and happy as many fellows Muslim went to mosque. After that, I, my family and relatives went to visit the grave of grandfather, uncle and relatives who had died. The tomb is near the mosque. In this area was clean, quiet and have green plants.For the area are responsible maintaining guardians in the tomb. When we visited the grave will create awareness of ourselves and always remember the dead. We also visited the neighbour house. Due to the feast of the forth day, my aunt’s wedding, so on the second and third election, I and other relatives who are busy doing weddings preparation to ensure the event runs smoothly. We work together to do a job. Thank God, they are so sporting, cool, not resolved and selfless. They are also helpful to one another.Some of the work we all do is updating and decorating the house, cooking, boiled eggs, and packing goodies together. I’m happy with them as in busy condition, they are my relatives still managed to make me and my relatives laugh with their joke. In the forth feast, a historic day for my aunt my new uncle’s recently has come to say, their wedding. The mother of my aunt and also my grandmother definitely felt happy to get law and felt sad too because her youngest daughter become my new uncle owned.On that day, everyone without exception had been given the task to be performed for the success of the event so smoothly and orderly. I and one of the relatives are asks to give goodies to the guest that present at the ceremony. There are many guests present at the event and surrounding quite lively. Thank God, during the event, everything smoothly with what is planned. The feast of the fifth and sixth, I, my family and relatives carry life like a normal person. Sometimes, we also managed to visit interest places in Penang. At least, hat we spend time with seeking knowledge and get new experiences. In the seventh feast, we make trip go to Alor Gajah, Perak to attend a wedding in the house of my new uncle. When all business was completed, I and my relatives back to our own house. My family and I travel to our house at Kompleks Penjara Sg. Buloh. The travel takes in four to five hours. Thank God, our travel smooth and does no t happen something undesirable. I’m happy can spend holiday times with family and relatives. Hopefully, we can go to village and with my relatives again.

Coca-Cola Financial Analysis Paper

Coca-Cola was originally invented by a pharmacist named John Pemberton in 1886. He had tried making several new kinds of drugs but all of them had failed. So that was when he decided to get into the world of soft drinks. Pemberton hired Frank Robinson to help advertise his new product but, Coca-Cola wasn’t very successful in their first year of business. Shortly, after that first year John Pemberton passed away in August 1888.In 1891, Asa Griggs Candler became the new sole-proprietor of Coca-Cola and began to give free samples, coupons and advertised everywhere for his new product. At first it was sold as a medicine to help prevent fatigue and headaches but, after the Spanish-American War congress passed a tax that would be applied to all medicines Coke would no longer be sold as a drug. (Cantwell) From there on Coca-Cola had grown bigger and bigger with the unique shaped bottle to help make them stand out and the idea of selling beverages in six packs were born.Our idea of Sa nta Clause was influenced by their advertisements. Even when Pepsi, one of Coca-Cola’s major competitors, was invented in the 1950’s Coke decided to make different sizes of bottles so they had a better variety for their customers. Things were good for Coke for many years until they decided to try to make a new Coca-Cola formula in the 1980’s in fear that their customers were sick of the original taste.This idea back fired, Coke received several thousands of complaints from their customer and decided to go back to the Classic Coke taste. (Cantwell) Today Coca-Cola has several varieties of flavors in soft drinks and is the world’s largest manufacturer, distributor, and marketer of non-alcoholic drinks and syrups. Coke has mastered the ability to adapt to the changes throughout history and has created a happy, patriotic and traditional feel for their product. This would explain how they are still so successful today. (Giebelhaus)

8th Grade History Observation

I was very excited about this assignment. I enjoy going into the classroom and being able to observe what is going on and how everyone interacts with each other. I decided to attend a classroom at an expulsion school that has 4th- 12th grade students. Every student has a different story of why they are they at this school, some students made a mistake and want to earn their way back to their school site and some do not care about school and to not try to work towards anything positive. The staff explained that working there is a challenge and takes a special type of person that can adjust to a variety of challenging students and still try to accomplish a positive learning environment. I decided to observe the 8th grade history class for an entire chapter. I wanted to get the full experience from the start of the lesson to testing and see how the whole lesson is presented, delivered and received from start to finish. The text book used is United States History: Independence to 1914. I sat in when the students were learning about the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The book seemed difficult for some students to read and comprehend. There was an aide in the classroom at all times. I sat in a class with 31 students in it and 12 of them had an IEP, 504 plan or BSP. The teacher and aide were constantly walking around and helping the students with a diverse set of challenges. Some students I could see clearly could not read the book. The level of reading was considerably lower that what the textbook was. I could see there were students with a 2nd grade reading level trying to read a 8th grade textbook. There was also one student who caught my eye because he had a one on one aide. The first day of class the teacher passes out a page that is front and back. This has a few vocabulary words that are in the text and has sentences from the text with blanks within the sentences. The student is to read through the text and fill in the blanks and define the vocabulary words. Most students are able to complete this task without help. It took them to look in the glossary or dictionary and copy the definition. The student with a one on one aide did not have the skills to find the words alphabetically. He needed assistance finding the words and then was able to copy the words down on the page. The teacher and aide continued to walk around with the class and that kept everyone on task. I thought this was a good idea and the students seemed to know what to do and got right to work. They are allowed to work in a group of two or independently. The students that seemed serious about getting the work done worked independently. The students who worked â€Å"smarter not harder† split to front and back pages and then copied so that they could finish and have free time. The second day of class was for the students to finish their sheet of work. The students that already finished earned free time. I saw this was a distraction for the students who were still working. They were constantly looing at the students that had free time and could not focus on the job they needed to complete. A few students rushed through their work to earn free time. I did not notice anyone checking their completed work. After this class knowing that all the students were finished I asked the teacher if I could see the answer key and review the students work. He gladly granted my request. Out of 30 students, only 5 students did a great job and it showed in their work that they cared about getting a good grade and had little to no incorrect answers. More than half of the students clearly did not care and wrote in bogus answers. The few that were left copied each other’s work and clearly did not care about what was written. The third day of class the students traded papers and corrected their work with the teacher. He went through every question and had them write in the correct answer if they got it wrong. This was the first time I saw interaction between the teacher and the students. There was no conversation about the information and how this may apply to the students today. The correction of the two sided paper took the whole hour period, mainly because the students were uninterested and wasted a lot of time talking. It was almost like the students did not know how to behave when the teacher was in front of the class. After the students were done correcting their work the teacher collected the papers and recorded their grades. The next day, which was day 4 and the 4th hour of instruction on this lesson, the teacher passed out their work with the correct answers and a similar paper that read â€Å"test†. This format was the same as the assignment and had sentences from the text with blanks for the student to write the correct answer completing the sentence. I reviewed the test and see that the answer or black portion for the student to fill in was the question in the assignment. The question in the assignment was the answer or blank portion in the test. The whole concept seemed a little easy for this age and to be honest very boring and redundant. The next day the teacher had the students watch a history movie on the Constitution and Bill of Rights. The movie had more interest to the kids than the assignment that week. I was disappointed with the teaching aspect of this class. The teacher said he feels this â€Å"packet method† gets through the material and is repetitious for the kids to learn the material. I felt the kids were bored and had no desire to read the material. These kids especially strive for attention and most of the times do not have positive interactions with adults. The Constitution and Bill of Rights is a LARGE part of our history and after this week these kids did not have a better understanding or respect for our country and the rights they take for granted. The teacher and the children were not involved with each other at all with exception to correcting the assignment together. There are many things I would do differently. I would first, to get their attention, had out a blank piece of paper and ask them to make their own rights and make their own Constitution. I would have them do this to grab their interest in the lesson. These kids are more interested in what they think and what they want than anything else so I would use that and ask them what they want. I would then let them speak to the class about what they feel like they should have as right and why. This would teach the kids to respect the student speaking and also teach the kids courage to get up and speak in front of a group of their peers without using foul language. I would want to spark up a conversation about right and how important they are to each and every person. After that I would use the study guide the teacher created and read and answer the study guide as a class. I would also relate the lesson to what the students wrote in their own Bill of Rights. This was a great learning experience for me as an aspiring teacher. I would want more interaction within my classroom and my students. The students were very diverse in the aspect of some wanting to work, some not caring about the work, some unable to do work and some tweeners. I think having control of the classroom is the key in this environment. Being in front of the students and showing them you care about this and they should too, this is the philosophy I would do every day in class. I would have very little time in this environment where the student has the option when they are finished they would have free time. The only incentive there is the quicker you finish the quicker you can do whatever you want. I would have different incentives and a more positive environment that the kids could participate in with me, the teacher, the leader and their peers. In this type of school I feel with the curriculum you are also teaching life skills that they have not had the privilege of learning in their home environment. I cannot wait to have my own classroom and see the outcome of constant interaction and having the students give their personality to the lesson and assignments.

Software as a Service (SAAS) as It Pertains to Enterprise Architecture Essay

Software as a Service (SAAS) as It Pertains to Enterprise Architecture - Essay Example The concept and notion of architecture date back to the prehistoric times. Originating in the design and architecture domains, the concept has been invariably associated with the principles of structure, symmetry, functionality, and harmony. Rapid advances in technology during the 20th century gave an impetus to the development of new, enterprise architectures; the latter remain the most complex, challenging but nonetheless desirable elements of productive business functioning. The Software as a Service (SaaS) model marks a new stage in the evolution of enterprise architecture and paves the way for the smooth integration of various EA frameworks with the principal business operations and functions. In contemporary business environments, the choice of SaaS is justified by the need to consolidate IT applications and models and reduce the costs of IT management at all levels of organizational performance. It is through SaaS deployment that organizations can easily achieve the desired fu ture state of technologies where computing is integrally linked to communication, and seamless integration of technological efforts into end user-centered frameworks precipitates the creation and sustained usability of cost-efficient and flexible IT models. Software as a Service: A Brief Introduction Understanding the SaaS model is important for understanding its place and role in enterprise architectures (EA). â€Å"SaaS is software deployed as a hosted service and accessed over the Internet†. ... Software as a Service: A Brief Introduction Understanding the SaaS model is important for understanding its place and role in enterprise architectures (EA). â€Å"SaaS is software deployed as a hosted service and accessed over the Internet† (Carraro & Chong, 2006). Actually, it is due to the rapid expansion and accessibility of the Internet that SaaS is gradually becoming a fundamental ingredient of many enterprise architectures. Thousands of end-user organizations move to adopt SaaS frameworks and applications, in order to automate front and back-office business operations, enhance accessibility of data, and guarantee security of information (SaaS, 2011). The Software as a Service model is: Loosely coupled services and components – that SaaS avoids tight coupling characteristic of earlier models means that the framework has a potential to reduce the costs of maintenance and integration. Configuration over programming – the SaaS framework depends on smaller compo nents, which are coupled and shared to create business solutions based on minimal codes. Agnostic to databases – the choice of relevant databases is usually left to the needs of the SaaS provider. Agnostic to topologies – most enterprise architectures and computing topologies constantly involve, but the use of SaaS guarantees applicability, seamless integration, and deployment of various SaaS elements in any topology. GUI agnostic – enterprises using the SaaS frameworks have the free choice of GUI technologies, including performance and firewall issues, and makes it easier to integrate and design loosely coupled architecture elements, including Flex user interfaces. Agnostic to data sources – the SaaS

Environmental Science Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Environmental Science - Essay Example Understandably, there was an angry response from the Indian intelligentsia, some of them calling Bush an imperialist, while many others blamed America for being the cause of the food crisis by its diversion of grains for manufacturing biofuels. The burgeoning population of the less developed countries like India and China has always been a favorite butt for some scientists and politicians to blame for all the ills of the world from climate change to the food crisis. They quote the Malthusian catastrophe, but according to Paul and Anne Ehrlich, all the developed, rich nations can be called overpopulated because they are using up the resources of the planet rapidly. (Ehrlich & Ehrlich 1990). The poorer societies make do with much less. The consumer oriented life style of the developed nations , with their hunger for more and more energy is responsible for the depletion of resources and the environmental degradation of the planet. Rainforests of the Amazon basin are being destroyed to produce ethanol, to fuel the energy hungry West. Michael Grunwald in his article "The Clean Energy Scam" , published in the Time magazine says, "Brazil now ranks fourth in the world in carbon emissions, and most of its emissions come from defore station". The invaluable rainforests, with their enormous biodiversity.