Tuesday, August 6, 2019
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Essay Example for Free
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Essay ââ¬Å"Many people called her the American Queen. â⬠(Mattern) Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was by far the most iconic fashion figure of the 1960ââ¬â¢s. She shaped fashion especially for women in her own time, but more than just being a significant influence on how women dressed in the 1960ââ¬â¢s her style has transcended the boundaries of time and the modern women even looks to her on matters of fashion. Jackie, as she was fondly called, did not remain as a potent fashion figure only in the 60ââ¬â¢s but continued to shape the fashion industry worldwide, even after her days of glory as the First Lady of America. The influence of Jackies style can still be seen now on the catwalks, every designer shows a look inspired by her. She was very classic, but with a modern twist. (Reuters) Nevertheless, it would be presumptuous to just make this conclusion without looking at how this lady was able to change the way women dress. Jackie was highly instrumental in the fashion scene of the 60ââ¬â¢s as well as in modern eras because she instilled a sense of courage into fashion, she equated fashion with personality, and she pioneered the concept that simplicity was in fact stylish, elegant and fashionable. The baroque and almost boisterous fashion sense of women in the 60ââ¬â¢s were a basis for Jackieââ¬â¢s influence in making women bolder and more unique in their choice of clothing. Note that during this period discreet strain between American and French relations, and despite of this, Jackie rose above the rest and refused to be influenced by this. Oleg Cassini, Jackieââ¬â¢s designer, ââ¬Å"created her wardrobe for the 1961 inauguration. Jackie told him she wanted to dress as if Jack were President of France. Jacobs) While this remark may be considered as un-patriotic at that time, it simply shows how Jackie chose to ignore political and social constructs in delivering her message of fashion. She was also known for quite radical fashion decisions such as when she ââ¬Å"kicked off a craze for the one-shoulder dress, encouraged women to ditch their high, pointy heels, endorsed chain belts, oversized sunglasses, and YSL midi skirts. â⬠(Mathai) All these changes in the way women dress all speak of the boldness Jackie which was what women of the time wanted to acquire. Fashion was almost secondary to women of this period; what were more important to them were the decisiveness, innovation, and courage that riddled decision making among the feminine gender. For instance, ââ¬Å"Jackie had been forced by her public role into wearing hats, as called for by formal protocolâ⬠¦She made fashion history, however, by choosing to wear the hat tipped to the back of her head rather than straight on top. (CAVF) This is an illustration of how Jackie set the example for women to remain undaunted by male dominated policies and so take flight; she did this in a language that all women would easily understand ââ¬â fashion. Jackie was never one to follow what was ââ¬Ëinââ¬â¢ during the moment because she believed in the value of individualism and unique style. Her penchant for seeking what was most comfortable to her was the best indication that she was not about to sacrifice her comfort for trendiness, and this worked for her as a result. ââ¬Å"Trends and fads never dictated Jackies fashion choicesâ⬠¦she had the courage of her convictions to reject it if she didnt feel it was right for her. Flaherty) Her courage in fashion rubbed off on all women of the time and even on the modern woman and to this day, people will remember how she breathed new life into the American fashion scene even making the industry more competitive when compared to its global rivals. ââ¬Å"At that time, most high fashion clothes were made in Europe. However, the first lady decided to promote American designers. â⬠(Mattern) Jackie also exercised her influence over women of the 60ââ¬â¢s and on todayââ¬â¢s fashionable female by showing that clothing was not everything and that what one wore was in fact a reflection of oneââ¬â¢s personality. Jackie understood the power of clothing and image and used it to reflect the internationalism of the Kennedy Administration and the promise of the 1960s. â⬠(Leight) So, Jackie always made sure that what she wore made a statement, if not about her, at least about the country she was in. Nevertheless, she also insisted that it was not really the clothing that one wore that made the person, rather, this was just the extension of the ideals and principles that a particular person stood for. As much as Jackie loved fashion, she was much more than the clothes she wore. Although appearances clearly counted, how she lived her life mattered most. â⬠(Flaherty) Jackie was not the kind of person who would as she pleased while compromising the image of her family and of her husbandââ¬â¢s administration. Through her many women all around the world realized how important it was for a person to use fashion as a means of conveying a message either about oneself or about the society that he/she was in, but more importantly about oneââ¬â¢s beliefs and convictions. Jackie chose clothes that played to both her athletic sensibility and her Vassar-educated, Francophile refinement, notes Bowles. â⬠(Tauber) This meant that Jackie was always on top of her style, that her outfit almost usually reflected not the designer, not the luxury of the attire, but the sensibilities and the principles of the wearer. This had to mean wearing clothes that were not only practical but also simple and Jackie did not destroy the concept of simplicity in the process, in fact, she even re-invented simplicity at a time when artistic expression was at its noisiest. Jackie had left her legacy on the woman of the 60ââ¬â¢s as well as on contemporary fashion trends by making women see that simplicity can in fact be fashionable, stylish and elegant. Her passion for simplicity ââ¬Å"took America out of the staid and conservative 1950s and into the world of classy international elegance. â⬠(Leight) Jackie knew what it meant to make an impression and she believed that a lasting impression was possible even with the simplest white dress. She knew that she did not have to be overly verbose about her dressing styles to make people want to turn and have a second look. Her clothes were informed with an understated modern elegance, characterized by cleanliness, solid colors, and ease of movement. â⬠(Leight) So again, one sees here that Jackie found convenience in simplicity in that other than being overly numbered, her fashion sense was fluid and responsive to the needs of the contemporary woman. Nothing went wrong with fashion when Jackie was in the limelight because her style was almost a nude expression of the feminine psyche. ââ¬Å"Years before she became Jackie O, Kennedy was a first lady with impeccable style. (Shih) Simplicity, however, did not come without a price because appearing simple meant that she had to carefully plan her wardrobe so that she achieved the kind of impression that she wanted to get; and so for Jackie, fashion was never unintentional, it was always a conscious effort like poetry and literature; ââ¬Å"Jackie put an enormous amount of work into appearing effortlessly elegant. â⬠We look at her and think, How simple! ââ¬Å"says Hubert de Givenchyâ⬠¦But it was deliberate. She was very conscious of her style, her body, her face. (Tauber) A woman of the 90ââ¬â¢s can look at Jackie and like the woman of the 60ââ¬â¢s still say that she was in fact right in deciding to look simple amid the fame and glory that she was in because it was this simplicity in her fashion sense that gave her authority over the world of fashion and a healthy appreciation for the elegance that came with a piece of clothing. Jackie was nevertheless quite innovative as she always believed that simplicity could be expressed in a thousand different ways, and even with this ironic contradiction, women of the 60ââ¬â¢s were able to identify with the effortlessness of Jackieââ¬â¢s fashion. It is this that transcended the trends of the 60ââ¬â¢s and began a whole new movement in contemporary dressing, now even known as Jackie O fashion. Jackie was aware that she was changing the world of fashion little by little and building a monument to the element of feminism that is almost non-existent to the opposite sex. So, to date, the world fondly recalls ââ¬Å"the elegant simplicity of Jacqueline Kennedys style that would come to influence fashion all over the world. â⬠(CAVF) It is not always that a woman is able to change the world by being herself; but the fact remains that Jackie sparked a revolution or more appropriately a renaissance in how women dressed in the 60ââ¬â¢s and in the new millennia. Of course, some would say that fashion is just a small piece of the bigger picture depicting world shattering issues but how comforting it is to have someone slink back once in a while and remember that there is nothing that one does not have that one can give to the world. Making a difference means having that difference initiated within oneself and through fashion Jackie was able to make this bold and courageous statement. History will forever remember Jackie as the woman who was able to put policy into fashion; as the women who through her humility and respect for the female persona was able to take the fashion of the 60ââ¬â¢s and the contemporary era and mold it to perfection by making women understand that fashion meant courage and conviction, that fashion was an extension of oneself, and that fashion does not need to be loud and un-moderated for it to be elegant, fashionable, and more importantly, stylish.
Monday, August 5, 2019
What Causes Air Pollution Environmental Sciences Essay
What Causes Air Pollution Environmental Sciences Essay Looking at the recent situation in big cities, it is not difficult to find out that these cities are suffering from serious problems in human health, atmosphere and creature. First of all, air contamination leads to bad effects on human health, which causes the appearance of a range of stern diseases such as chronic respiratory disease, lung cancer, heart disease, and even damage to the brain, nerves, liver, or kidneys. Air pollution can affect our health in many ways with both short-term and long-term effects. Different groups of individuals are affected by air pollution in different ways. Some individuals are much more sensitive to pollutants than are others. Young children and elderly people often suffer more from the effects of air pollution. People with health problems such as asthma, heart and lung disease may also suffer more when the air is polluted. The extent to which an individual is harmed by air pollution usually depends on the total exposure to the damaging chemicals, i.e., the duration of exposure and the concentration of the chemicals must be taken into account. Moreover, sky is also influenced significantly by fog smoke. Beijing in China is the most typical example. According to Diego Azubel, a writer in EPA, cars run on an elevated road as buildings in the background are covered in haze, Beijing, China, Jan. 15, 2013. A succession of heavily polluted days hit Beijing, prompting the government to issue a first-ever orange warning. Heavy pollution and poor visibility led to the cancelation of flights, and several schools banned all outdoor activities. Air quality improved from dangerous to unhealthy on a sixth day of thick, grey skies that limited visibility and sent people to hospital with breathing difficulties. It is clear that smoke fog in big cities is usual, which means that level of pollution is very high. Finally, creatures are also things that air pollution impacts on. Like human, animals are also suffering from the problem. Although the number of creatures in cities is not more than that in rural areas or somefield like that, we can see that the quantity is being declining regularly. Moreover, acid rain caused toxic factors also ruin the development of plants, sometimes buildings.etcà ¢Ã¢â ¬Ã ¦ 2.2.What causes air pollution Following by Nicky LaMarco, eHow Contributor, there are some main causes of air effluence.To begin with, Cars, trucks, jet airplanes and other combustion engine vehicles cause air pollution. The exhaust from these contains carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide and gaseous oxide. This type of air pollution creates smog (as seen in Los Angeles) which causes respiratory health problems and holes in the ozone layer, which increases the exposure to the suns harmful rays. In addition to vehicles, factories, office buildings, homes and power-generating stations burn fossil fuels, which cause air pollution. The burning of oil and coal (fossil fuels) also contributes to smog. This air pollution destroys plants, damages buildings and creates oxidation on iron. Petroleum refineries also release hydrocarbons and various particulates that pollute the air. Secondly, some power lines are not insulated and are high voltage. This creates air pollution. Moreover, pesticides used to kill indoor and outdoor pests, insecticides used to kill insects and herbicides use to kill weeds all cause air pollution. Radioactive fallout is also a factor that causes air pollution from the nuclear energy dispersed, which is a dust. The final causes are that sick building syndrome (SBS) is the term used when there is indoor air pollution. This happens when there is not enough ventilation to disburse the toxic fumes from new carpet, paint and/or cleaning chemicals that are used indoors. Mold can also cause SBS and Mills and plants, include paper mills, chemical plants, iron mills, steel mills, cement plants and asphalt plants, release emissions into the air causing air pollution. 2.3.How do we deal with this problem? Air pollution is a huge problem around the world. The good news is that there are many air pollution solutions. The bad news is that it will take making changes in our way of living and in our choices to make a difference. This can be the most difficult part of being good to environment, making changes. There are ways that you can help become an air pollution solution rather than an air pollution problem. Fossil fuels dont burn cleanly, so using them for heating contributes to air pollution. Building more energy efficient buildings will reduce the need to burn fossil fuel for heating. Using better filters for the exhaust is another good option for controlling air pollution. The different modes of transportation are some of the largest contributors to air pollution. This includes the use of cars, buses, trucks, trains, planes, ships, and other vehicles. Alternative fuels are available, but it will be awhile before they are widely used. The different modes of transportation release several different pollutants into the air, including nitrogen oxide, hydrocarbons, and carbon monoxide, in addition to other particulates. These pollutants mix with natural elements in the air to create smog, nitrogen dioxide, and other environmental concerns that help to contribute to global warming. In addition to fossil fuels burned in vehicles, there are other pollutants that dirty our air. The friction of tires against the driving surface causes both the tire and the surface to deteriorate, and the result is particulates that enter the air for us to breathe. Whether you live in the city or the country, this type of pollution is a reality. The resulting pollution is more obvious and serious in the city because of the high number of vehicles on the road, but its a problem in the country too. Magnesium chloride, used to deice roads in the winter and to manage dust and ruts on dirt roads, is another air pollutant we havent come to terms with. Have you noticed, for those of you living in areas where its used, that the trees and bushes along the side of the road are dying? Some of that is due to the salt concentration at their roots, but some of it is also due to the fumes given off by the application of the solution and of the pollution of vehicles driving on the mag chloride coated road. There have to be other ways to deice roads and control dust and ruts that wont be as polluting. Synthetic fabrics rely on fossil fuels for their manufacturing, and that causes air pollution. Organic cotton is a better solution than non-organic cotton because the chemicals used on cotton to control weeds and posts gets into the air and causes health problems. Fabric dyes also pollute the air we breathe, so buy fabric dyed with organic substances that have a lower impact on the environment and the air you breathe. Even the finishes put on fabrics to make them fire resistant, wrinkle-free, and stain resistant contribute to air pollution. Start incorporating alternative fuels, especially of renewable resources like solar, water, and geothermal, for heating and cooling into buildings, new and existing. Use cleaner fuel sources for transportation. Instead of driving your car, walk where possible, ride your bicycle, and use mass transit as much as possible to help reduce air pollution. Buy items made of natural and organic fabrics cotton, bamboo, soy, and modal being some possibilities. Avoid fabric finishes that pollute the air. Your clothes, bedding, towels, upholstery and carpets are all subject to these finishes that foul your air and endanger your health. Use low VOC paints and finishes. The furniture, carpets and other flooring choices, and wall surfaces we tend to have today pollute the air often worse than burning fossil fuels. Using energy wisely in your home and office is also important. Energy efficient appliances, light bulbs, and more moderate room temperatures help reduce your energy consumption, which helps decrease the need for energy production, not only contribute the air pollution solution but also reduce your electric and energy bills. The thing about air pollution solutions is that you have to be willing to change your approach to life and the choices you make. You need to research ways that you can help decrease air pollution. Not all solutions work for all people in all areas, so find out what your alternatives are. You will be surprised by the things that you do everyday that contribute to air pollution. From hairspray to spray paint to driving your car, everything has an impact on the environment and the air we breathe. That is why it is so important that everyone do their part, no matter how small a contribution, to discontinue being air pollution problems and start being air pollution solutions. 3.Conclusion Much is being done to control, monitor and rectify damage done by pollutants. The problems are diverse and some are only being recognised but it is important to keep a close control over pollutants so that we can maintain the environment in an acceptable condition for future generations. We need to take pollution issue seriously because ignorance is certainly not the proper way to go. The stakes are really high and world needs to wake up and start acting right now because environmental issues are constantly growing in both number and size. Arent we aware of the different problems occurring in our nature, especially in different bodies of water? We, humans are only creating problems that consequently we will also carry the burden of these problems. We all know how important environment is .Act right now.
Data Processing in Big Data Centres Cost Reduction Approach
Data Processing in Big Data Centres Cost Reduction Approach A Cost Reduction Approach for Data Processing in Big Data Centers R. Reni Hena Helan ABSTRACT- The tremendous development in cloud data processing leads to the high load on computation, storage and communication in the data storage centers, which influence the data center providers to spend a considerable expenditure in data processing. There are three features leading to this increased expenditure, ie., job allotment, data positioning and data movement. In this paper, these three features are taken into consideration and an approach for cost reduction for cloud data processing is proposed. I propose a Markov Chain Model to analyze the task completion considering the data transmission and its computation. Keywords: Markov Chain Model, Data Center, Cloud data, Data Positioning, Data Processing. INTRODUCTION In recent years, the outburst of data all over the world has led to the demand of data processing in the data storage centers. This demand further leads to the increase in the cost incurred in the computation and the communication resources. As predicted by Gartner, by 2015, 71% of the data storage center hardware utilization would be from the cloud data processing which will cross around $126.2 billion. So, it is of vital importance to analyze the cost reduction problem in cloud data processing in the data storage centers. Data Center resizing (DCR) has been proposed to reduce the cost involved in data processing by adjusting the number of activated servers through task placement[1]. The Cloud Data Service Architecture mainly consists of distributed file systems which is helpful in distributing the data and its copies all over the data centers for an efficient load balancing and high performance. Some studies focused on reducing the communication cost by taking steps to place data on the servers where the input data exist to solve the remote data loading problem. Even though there were many solutions proposed to solve the above issues, none of the solutions were helpful in providing a cost efficient big data processing due to few disadvantages. First one, being the wastage of resources for the data that is not often accessed. Second, being the transmission costs involved depending on the distances and the type of communication used between the data centers. Not all the data could be stored on the same server because of its high volume; it is a mandatory one to store few data into remote servers that would incur transmission cost. Transmission costs get increased proportionally with the number of communication links involved. To get rid of the above disadvantages, I consider the cost reduction for cloud data processing through a joint optimization approach of task placement and data positioning in the data centers. Every server may have only a few resources needed for each piece of data residing on it. The data will need more resources to carry out with its big data processing tasks. The main aim of this paper is to optimize the data positioning, task allocation, routing and DCR to minimize the overall computation cost involved. The contributions are briefed as follows, 1.This paper considers the cost reduction problem involved with the cloud data processing in the data centers by the joint optimization of data positioning, task allocation and routing. To explain the computation and the transmission involved with the data centers, the Markov Chain model has been used and the task completion time has been derived. 2. For cost reduction, three factors are taken into consideration. The first one is how to place data in servers and the second one is how to distribute the data and the third one is how to resize the data centers to achieve minimum cost operation. II. OTHER RELATED WORKS Cost Minimization in Server The data centers are distributed throughout the world to store huge volumes of data that are accessible to thousands of users. A data center consists of a large number of servers that consume much power. Few Million dollars were to be spent on electricity cost that is a rising problem leading to the increased operation cost. The best known mechanisms proposed that grabbed attention was the DCR that focused on energy management by the data centers. Liu et al.[2] examined the same issue by considering the delay with the network. Fan et. al [3] analyses on how much computing equipments can be hosted within a fixed power budget in a safer and an efficient manner. Data Management The main aspect of data management is the reliability and effective data positioning. Sathiamoorthy et al. [4] proposed a solution based on erasure codes that offered high reliability in comparison with the Reed-Solomon codes. Yazd et al[5] proposed a scheduling algorithm to improve energy efficiency in data centers considering the data locality properties. Data Placement Agarwal et al[6] gave a data placement approach for the geographically distributed cloud services by considering the bandwidth cost, data center capacity, etc. It analyzes the logs based on the data access types and the client locations. All the existing works either focus on the task allotment or on the data placement or on the data management. But this paper takes into consideration, the data positioning, the task allotment and the routing of data systematically. SYSTEM MODEL The geographically distributed data center topology is shown in Fig. 1. with all the data centers containing the same data are connected via switches. There are a set of data centers(D), and each data center d à à µ D that consists of a set of servers Sd connected to the switch md à à µ M having a local transmission cost of Cl . The local transmission cost Cl will be less than the data center transmission cost Cr. Le the whole system be modeled as a Graph denoted by G=(N,E) where, N is the vertex set that includes all the switches(M) and the servers(Sd) E is the edge set. The weight involved with the edges are represented as, w(u,v)= Cr , if u,v à à µ M Cl, otherwise The data stored in geographically distributed data centers are divided into a set of chunks C. Each data chunk c à à µ C has a size and its is normalized to the server storage capacity. For each chunk of data, there will be P copies available in the distributed system for the fault tolerance. à »c be the average task arrival rate requesting for chunk c. Fig. 1. Data Center topology The task arrival in each server is considered as a Poisson Process. If the task is distributed to a data center where the data chunk does not reside, it will take some amount of time till the data chunk gets transferred to that data center. Each task should be replied with a response time of R. PROBLEM FORMULATION Data Placement and Task allocation constraints The binary variable ysc is used to refer to whether the data chunk c is placed on the server s. ysc takes the value 1 if the chunk c is placed in the server s and it takes the value 0 if the chunk c is not placed in the server s. In any distributed file system for each data, there are P copies of data chunks stored and the data stored in each server cannot go beyond the storage capacity. Any server is termed as an activated one(as), only if there are data chunks stored onto it or else tasks assigned to it. Data Loading Constraints For every data chunk c required by the server s, there are few external or internal data transmissions involved for which a routing procedure is devised. The Graph containing the servers and the switches is divided into three categories, 1. Source Nodes: These are the servers consisting of the data chunks 2. Relay Nodes : These nodes receive data from the source nodes and forward them to theà other nodes based on some routing technique. 3. Destination Nodes: These are the nodes that are receiving the data chunks. Each and every destination node will receive the data chunks only if does not have a copy of it. Cost Reduction The cost involved with the transmission of the data chunks could be minimized by choosing the parameters such as the ysc ,as , à »c etc. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION The performance analysis of the joint optimization approach describes that the communication costs decreased if more tasks and data chunks were placed in the same data center. Further increase in the number of servers will not affect the data chunk distribution among them. Increased requests lead to more activated servers and more computation resources and the joint optimization approach tries to lower the server cost. This approach balances between the server cost and the communication cost. When the delay requirement is very small, many servers are activated to provide quality of service. And the server costs decrease as the delay constraints increases. CONCLUSION This paper explains the joint optimization approach of data positioning, task allotment and routing ofà data to reduce the overall operational cost involved with the data centers that are geographically distributed. This approach reduced the computational complexity considerably. REFERENCES [1] L. Rao, X. Liu, L. Xie, and W. Liu , ââ¬Å"Minimizing Electricity Cost: Optimization of Distributed Internet Data Centers in a Multi-Electricity ââ¬âMarket Environment,â⬠in Proceedings of the 29th International Conference on Computer Communications (INFOCOM).IEEE,2010, pp. 1-9. [2] Z. Liu, M. Lin, A. Wierman, S.H. Low, and L.L. Andrew, ââ¬Å"Greening Geographical Load Balancing ,â⬠in Proceedings of International Conference on Measurement an Modeling of Computer Systems(SIGMETRICS. ACM, 2011,pp.233-244. [3] X. Fan, W. D. Weber, and L. A. Barroso, ââ¬Å"Power Provisioning for a Warehouse-sized Computer,â⬠in Proceedings of the 34th Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ICA).ACM, 2007, pp.13-23. [4] M. Sathiamoorthy, M. Asteris, D. Papailiopoulos, A. G. Dimakis, R. Vadali, S. Chen, and D. Borthakur, ââ¬Å"Xoring elephants: novel erasure codes for big data,â⬠in Proceedings of the 39th International Conference on Very Large Data Bases, ser. PVLDBââ¬â¢13. VLDB Endowment, 2013, pp.325-336. [5] S. A. Yazd, S.Venkatesan, and N. Mittal, ââ¬Å"Boosting energy efficiency with mirrored data block replication policy and energy scheduler,â⬠SIGOPS Oper. Syst. Rev., vol.47, no.2, pp.33-40, 2013. [6] S. Agarwal, J. Dunagan, N. Jain, S. Saroiu, A. Wolman, and H. Bhogan, ââ¬Å"Volley: Automated Data Placement for Geo-Distributed Cloud Services,â⬠in the 7th USENIX Symposium on Networked Systems Design and Implementation (NSDI), 2010,pp.17-32. [7] S. Govindan, A. Sivasubramaniam, and B. Urgaonkar, ââ¬Å"Benefits and Limitations of Tapping Into Stored Energy for Datacenters,â⬠in Proceedings of the 38th Annual International Symposium on Computer Architecture (ISCA). ACM.,pp.341-352. [8] P. X. Gao, A. R. Curtis, B. Wong, and S. Keshav, ââ¬Å"Itââ¬â¢s Not Easy Being Green, ââ¬Å" in Proceedings of the ACM Special Interest Group on Data Communication(SIGCOMM), ACM,2012.pp.211-222. [9] J. Cohen, B. Dolan, M. Dunlap, J. M. Hellerstein, and C. Welton, ââ¬Å"Mad Skills : new analysis practices for big data,â⬠Proc. VLDB Endow. Vol.2, no.2, pp. 1481-1492, 2009. [10] H. Sachnai, G. Tamir, and T. Tamir, ââ¬Å"Minimal cost reconfiguration of data placement in a storage area network, ââ¬Å"Theoretical Computer Science, vol. 460.pp.42-53, 2012.
Sunday, August 4, 2019
Essay --
Recently, the topic of oil consumption and production has been thrust onto the world stage. As demand for oil increases internationally, the role of major producers will change dramatically. As a representative of Saudi Arabia, I will offer my position on these topics, and I will represent the views of my nation as clearly as possible. The first topic Iââ¬â¢d like to address is OPECââ¬â¢s control on global oil production, supply, and pricing. Right now, OPEC member nations control nearly 81% of crude oil reserves, compared to 19% of non-OPEC member nations (EIA.gov). Because we control such a large percentage of the total amount oil reserves in the world, we can effectively control prices through production. If we decrease production, prices rise, and if we increase production, prices fall. As a representative of both Saudi Arabia and OPEC as a whole, I believe that our control over world oil production and supply is both justified and correct. My country in particular controls nearly 1/5 of total world oil reserves, and acts as the largest exporter and producer of petroleum (EIA.gov). Therefore, we should have a significant amount of control over world oil prices, because we control such a large percentage of world oil reserves. We should be able to essentially control international oil prices, and cut off supply to any country we see fit. On the topic of our cooperation with OPEC, the current member nations need to reorganize and reassess our goals. Although we have set oil production allocations for each nation to ensure price stability and adequate supply, nations like Iran and Iraq have skewed production due to their unstable oil output and refusal to adhere to production quotas. In terms of my countryââ¬â¢s position on non-OPEC produ... ...my, because OPEC has such a large influence on world oil supplies. Therefore, although Iraq and Iran have, in the past, taken action contrary to OPEC policy, we have to continue cooperating with them. These points of opposition against my country, although they may be justified, do not take into account Saudi Arabiaââ¬â¢s political and economic situation. Because of this, they are short-sighted and unreasonable. At this conference, we hope to resolve outstanding foreign relations issues with countries around the world to both ensure continued oil exports and stable oil prices. We will not, however, make any concessions in terms of oil production and greenhouse gas emission, as any decrease in production would stunt our economy growth. Hopefully, we will be able to achieve our goals of mending foreign relations issues while sustaining our control over world oil prices.
Saturday, August 3, 2019
Breakfast of Champions :: Breakfast of Champions Essays
Breakfast of Champions "Our awareness is all that is alive and maybe sacred in any of us. Everything else about us is dead machinery."(p.221) Introduction Breakfast of Champions; or Goodbye Blue Monday is Kurt Vonnegut's seventh novel. He wrote it in 1972, as he himself says, for his fiftieth birthday. It is Vonnegut's own parody of himself and his works. "The various themes and mannerisms that have animated the earlier novels are seen here in a grotesque, cartoon version of themselves," (Todd). It is a confrontation of tragedy of America brought forth by Vonnegut's sensitivity to tragedy (Uphaus), where Vonnegut "seems to rub middle America's nose in the sheer ugliness of life." (Merill) The story Breakfast of Champions is a story of "two lonesome, skinny old men on a planet which was dying fast,"(p.???). One of these two men is Dwayne Hoover, a "fabulously well-to-do" Pontiac Dealer, and the other is Kilgore Trout, an "unknown" and unsuccessful science fiction writer. These two characters are destined to meet in Midland City and Kilgore Trout's book Now It Can Be Told is destined to turn Dwayne Hoover into "homicidal maniac". How the novel is written The novel attacks many things: slavery, racism, commercial greed, jingoism, ecology, capitalism, imperialism, overpopulation etc., all of these aimed precisely at modern American society. Vonnegut "brings a remarcable air of discovery to these themes, the pretense that no one has quite seen before the stark outlines of our hypocrisy," (Todd). Vonnegut is "impolite" in his writing about these matters. He was taught to this impoliteness when he was a kid (p.2) by Phoebe Hurty -- the person this novel is dedicated to. The whole book is written in quite familiar style which was used in Vonnegut's previous novel Slaughterhouse Five. The style can be defined by one line from it: "If accident will" (Vonnegut 1969, p.2). Breakfast of Champions also has the vague image of absolute chaos. Vonnegut denounced books that "make people believe that life had leading characters, minor characters, significant details, that it has lessons to be learned, tests to be passed, and a beginning, a middle, and an end," (p.209). But chaos is not only a way in which Vonnegut writes, it is also what Vonnegut writes about. As I approached my fiftieth birthday, I had become more and more enraged and mystified by the idiot decisions made by my countrymen. And then I had come suddenly to pity
Friday, August 2, 2019
Aid for Drug Addicts
Drug abuse is one of the major concerns of our society today.à It probably has the most negative effects on our communities. It does not only destroy the life of the substance user but also of the others around him. Substance abuse is also directly linked to heinous crimes such as rape, murder and theft.Teenagers are reportedly the most drug users. However, even adults can also be lead to using the substance. There are many factors, most of which are social and psychological, which may have pushed a person to taking in these illegal dugs.Although these persons know the downside of doing drugs, they may have been driven out of curiosity or more probably by their problems to take in drugs. Whatââ¬â¢s scary about this is that even if the person would want to stop, he becomes addicted to it.A drug addict should be strong enough to fight this addiction. On top of that, he should confide to the persons close to him, and trust them to help him. A drug addict could not fight this probl em alone, he needs to solicit all the help he could get.Drug addiction is defined as a condition wherein a person taking in drugs has much difficulty quitting the habit. Even if you have successfully showed the drug user the potential harm drugs can do to him, it would be very difficult to make him stop using it because his body has become thoroughly dependent on the substance.That is why combating the use of drugs is a problem that is very hard to address. A desire to stop the habit is simply not enough to cure drug addiction. The fight against drugs is not just a fight of one person, or of one family. The government should also be responsible enough to take proactive steps to help address the issue.As mentioned previously, drug abuse can take a large toll on our society. Eventually, crime rates would go up as the drug abuse cases go up. Drug abuse is directly linked to probably every problem and crime you can think of.As soon as a person shows signs of drug abuse, he must be helpe d immediately. Addicted individuals may not open up easily but with proper nurturing, he will soon allow other people to help him.Currently, there are a lot of ways or methods implemented thatââ¬â¢s been proven to help remedy drug abuse. These methods vary widely from each other, depending on the type of drugs used.Different drugs have different effects on an individual, and thus, would require specific cures. Other factors that should be considered in curing a drug addict are: the duration of his drug addiction, any medical complications, and most importantly, his social needs. Most of the time, it may also be necessary that the other persons with close ties to the drug addict undergo some form of treatments.Drug addiction is a complicated ailment. Unlike other medical conditions which can be simply treated with a medicine, drug addiction affects the whole being of a person, not just his physical condition. Drug addiction has a major effect on a personââ¬â¢s mental and especi ally social well being. That makes drug addiction a real crisis of everybody.Fortunately, everybody is aware of this crisis. There are concerned non-profit groups aimed to help individuals to recover from their drug addiction. If youââ¬â¢ll just take a good look around in your neighborhood, you can probably hear about certain groups of addicted individuals hoping to cure themselves from drug addiction.Joining one of these groups would greatly help a drug user in his fight against drugs. Here, heââ¬â¢ll learn to interact with other individuals who are also in his same situation. If a friend of yours is suffering from drug addiction, you wouldnââ¬â¢t be able to help him more than to find him a group whom he can relate with.Thereââ¬â¢s probably no better cure than fighting it together with persons whom he knows can understand what heââ¬â¢s going through. Thus, it is important to encourage drug users to join such groups. Prominent examples of these groups are the Narcotic s Anonymous and Alcoholic Anonymous.If an individual has been seriously addicted to a certain drug, the best option for him is to undergo a residential treatment. Substance abuse rehabilitation centers offer effective drug treatment programs, not only for the addicted individual but also to help his family and friends who may have also been seriously affected by his condition.These residential treatment programs isolate the drug addicts from any contact with drugs or dealers to speed up his drug addiction recovery. There are also outpatient clinics that offer individual and group counseling. Qualified physician and psychiatrist assist individuals in coping with their treatments.Most people would find it helpful to visit a psychiatrist and maybe a psychologist once in awhile to talk about the most common side effects of curing drugs ââ¬â anxiety and stress. It would be a great help if the government can maybe subsidize counseling centers which provides individuals information on how they can recover from these drug addictions.This may sound quite ironic to some, but drug addiction can also be effectively treated by prescribing other addictive drugs, such as methadone.These drugs are considered replacement drugs. From the term replacement, other less addictive substances are prescribed to the addicted individual to gradually alleviate his addiction on the strong substance.Sometimes, a psychiatrist can come into a conclusion that this is the only way to reliably treat the drug user. However, for those not interested in using other drugs to cure their drug addiction, they could consider acupuncture detoxification. This remedy may also be used to treat drugs, as well.There are really a lot of ways to recover from drug addiction. A lot of ideas and programs have already been developed and proven to effectively cure drug addiction.These programs have successful outcomes. In deciding which of these is the best type of recovery program for an individual, one should consider several factors including the type of drugs being used, the personality of the addicted individual, his concept of religion and spirituality, mental and physical fitness, and of course, the affordability of the program.Despite the improvements of the medical sciences in combating drug addiction, still the most widely accepted ââ¬Å"cureâ⬠for drug addiction is abstinence from these addictive substances. The old adage, Prevention is better than cure, holds true in the fight against drug addiction.Treatments for drug addiction donââ¬â¢t usually come cheap, and they also donââ¬â¢t come easy. It requires hard work for both the addicted patient and the people around him.It can affect the lifestyle of every people he constantly makes contact to. Thus, nothing can be better than preventing people from using these addictive drugs in the first place.Since most people are tempted to try drugs for the first time during their teenage years, it is important that they develo p a good relationship between their family, peers and educators.Prevention programs should reduce the risk factors of taking in drugs and at the same time enhance the protective factors. Probably the strongest of the factors is the personââ¬â¢s behavior and support he gets from the people he usually interacts with.At this stage of a young adultââ¬â¢s life, family bonding is deemed to be very important. Parental supervision is very critical in substance abuse prevention.A god parent-child communication is very beneficial in monitoring some factors which may possibly lead the child from taking in drugs. Parents are also the best educators when it comes to drug information and their harmful effects. Studies have shown that whatever the parents says and act have the greatest effects on an individual.Ineffective parenting, especially if the parents also abuse drugs, will likely result in a child who would be a victim a drug abuse in his later life.
Thursday, August 1, 2019
KFC vs McDonaldââ¬â¢s
When you like fried chicken, KFC is always the first thing that comes to everyoneââ¬â¢s mind. The reason for this is these companies claim of particular products that have became their trademark until now. The difference between McDonaldââ¬â¢s and KFC is mainly the cuisine. The following report is a comparative analysis of the operational parameters of McDonaldââ¬â¢s and Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and projects an overview of various factors that differentiate the services of the two food giants. The survey was based on the consumerââ¬â¢s response on their choice between KFC and McDonalds and the basis of their choice was differentiated into various factors.MCDONALDââ¬â¢S: COMPANY PROFILEThe year 1940 is the birth year of McDonaldââ¬â¢s and they have started https://phdessay.com/explaining-of-the-child-protection-in-the-wider-concept-of-safeguarding-children-and-young-people/everything. Their Speedier Service System that was introduced in their very first restauran t is being followed until now in modern day fast food chains.Their very first mascot was a man with a head of a hamburger that is wearing a chefââ¬â¢s hat. It was replaced by McDonaldââ¬â¢s ever popular clown man. McDonaldââ¬â¢s is recorded to currently serving 58million customers each day in 119 countries.Their restaurants differ from their settings, some offer by-passers with their drive thru service, some have playgrounds for kids but are just counter service alone. Some of their restaurants have outer seats as well. McDonaldââ¬â¢s signature colours are red and yellow.Their well-supported products are their famous hamburgers, breakfast offers, desserts, chicken sandwiches and French fries. For vegetarian customers, McDonaldââ¬â¢s have offerings that are suitable for them. When it comes to regional branches, McDonaldââ¬â¢s are known for being fond of offering theseà countries food taboos for them to have some sort of relationship with people around. For example , Portugal McDonaldââ¬â¢s are the only ones who have soup in the menu. Another example would be Indonesia for Mc Rice.MCDONALDââ¬â¢S IN INDIAThe year 1996 saw the opening of the first McDonald'sâ⠢ restaurant in India and since then, there have been numerous milestones for us. Here is a look at the last 17 years and all that was special about them.First McDonald'sâ⠢ restaurant opened on Oct. 13,1996 at Basant Lok in New Delhi. It was also the first McDonald'sâ⠢ restaurant in the world to not serve beef and pork based productsFirst Drive -Thru restaurant at Noida (UP) in 1997.First disabled friendly store at Noida (UP).First Mall location restaurant at Ansal Plaza (New Delhi) in 1999.First highway restaurant at Mathura (UP) in 2000.First thematic restaurant at Connaught Place (New Delhi) in 2001.The first restaurant in a food court at 3C's, Lajpat Nagar (New Delhi) in 2002.The first restaurant at the Delhi Metro Station at Inter State Bus Terminus. The first fundr aiser in association with ORBIS and Dr. Shroff's Charity Eye hospital. (Delhi)The first Dessert Kiosk ââ¬â Faridabad (Haryana) in 2003.McDonald'sâ⠢ Delivery Service (McDeliveryâ⠢) introduced in New Delhi Local menu innovations like McAloo Tikkiâ⠢, McVeggieâ⠢ and Pizza McPuffâ⠢ exported to Middle Eastin 2004.McDeliveryâ⠢ on Bicycles flagged off at Chandni Chowk (Delhi) ââ¬â another firstà initiative by McDonald'sâ⠢ India.100th McDonald'sâ⠢ Restaurant opens in India in 2006.Also celebrated.10th Year Anniversary.First McDonald'sâ⠢ open in Eastern Region at Park Street, Kolkata in 2007.Also,first restaurant opened at Airport (Domestic Airport at New Delhi).First ââ¬ËMade For You' (MFY) restaurant opened at Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh.First 24 hours McDonald'sâ⠢ Restaurant opens at Old Delhi Railway Stationin 2008.Also,Chicken McNuggetsà ® launched in India. The first reimaged (new look) restaurant opened at Ambiance mall, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi in 2010.McDonald'sâ⠢ launches the global singing contest for its restaurant employees ââ¬â Voice of McDonald'sâ⠢ in 2012 and also introduces Spice Festival from April ââ¬â June ââ¬â Launches Spicy variants (Limited time offer).New Product Launch ââ¬â McEggâ⠢.McDonald'sâ⠢ Celebrates National Breakfast Dayin 2013.McDonaldââ¬â¢s has developed a menu especially for India with vegetarian selections to suit Indian tastes and preferences. Keeping in line with this, McDonald's does not offer any beef or pork items in India. In the last decade it has introduced some vegetarian and non-vegetarian products with local flavours that have appealed to the Indian palate. There have been continuous efforts to enhance variety in the menu by developing more such products. McDonald's has also re-engineered its operations repeatedly in its 11 years in India to address the special requirements of a vegetarian menu. Vegetable products are 100% vegetarian, i.e. they are prepared separately, using dedicated equipment and utensils only pure vegetarian oil is used as a cooking medium.Cheese and sauces are completely vegetarian and egg less. Separation of vegetarian and non-vegetarian food products is maintained throughout the various stages of procurement, cooking and serving.KFC: COMPANY PROFILE KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is a fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, United States, which specializes in fried chicken. It is the world's second largest restaurant chain overall (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with over 18,000 outlets in 120 countries and territories as of December 2012. The company is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, a restaurant company which also owns Pizza Hut and Taco Bell.KFC was founded by Harland Sanders, a colourful figure who began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. Sanders identified the potential of the r estaurant franchising concept, and the first ââ¬Å"Kentucky Fried Chickenâ⬠franchise opened in Utah in 1952. KFC popularized chicken in the fast food industry, diversifying the market by challenging the established dominance of the hamburger. By branding himself as ââ¬Å"Colonel Sandersâ⬠, Harland became a legendary figure of American cultural history, and his image remains prominent in KFC advertising. However, the company's rapid expansion saw it grow too large for Sanders to manage, and in 1964 he sold the company to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown, Jr. and Jack C. Massey.KFC was one of the first fast food chains to expand internationally, opening outlets in England, Mexico and Jamaica by the mid-1960s. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, KFC experienced mixed fortunes domestically, as it went through a series of changes in corporate ownership with little or no experience in the restaurant business. In the early 1970s, KFC was sold to the spirits distributor He ublein, who were taken over by the R.J. Reynolds food and tobacco conglomerate, who sold the chain to PepsiCo. The chain continued to expand overseas however, and in 1987 KFC became the first Western restaurant chain to open in China. The chain has since expanded rapidly in China, and the country is now the company's most profitable market.PepsiCo spun off its restaurants division as Tricon Global Restaurants, which later changed its name to Yum! Brands. KFC primarily sells fried chicken pieces and variations such as chicken fillet burgers (chicken sandwiches[US]) and wraps, salads and side dishes such as French fries and coleslaw, desserts and soft drinks, often supplied by PepsiCo. Its most famous product is pressure fried chicken pieces,à seasoned with Sanders' ââ¬Å"Original Recipeâ⬠of 11 herbs and spices. The exact nature of these ingredients is unknown, and represents a notable trade secret. Larger portions of fried chicken are served in a distinctive cardboard ââ¬Å "bucketâ⬠, which has become a signature of the chain since being introduced by franchisee Pete Harman in 1957. KFC is known for the slogan ââ¬Å"finger lickin' goodâ⬠, which has since been replaced by ââ¬Å"Nobody does chicken like KFCâ⬠and ââ¬Å"So goodâ⬠.KFC IN INDIA The first Indian KFC opened in Bangalore in June 1995. Protests ensued from left wing, anti-globalisation and environmental campaigners, as well as local farmers, who objected to the chain bypassing local producers. Many Indians were concerned about the onslaught of consumerism, the loss of national self-sufficiency, and the disruption of indigenous traditions. The protests came to a head in August 1995, when the Bangalore outlet was repeatedly ransacked.KFC Bangalore demanded, and received, a police van permanently parked outside for a year. Rural activist M. D. Nanjundaswamy subsequently claimed KFC would adversely affect the health of the impoverished, by diverting grain from poor people to make the more profitable animal feed. Former environment minister Maneka Gandhi joined the anti-KFC movement. KFC was also accused of using illegally high amounts of monosodium glutamate (MSG) and frying its food in pork fat.A second store opened in Delhi, but was closed by the authorities soon afterwards, purportedly for health reasons, but more likely to avoid a repetition of the Bangalore incident. The two stores only managed to attract a limited, affluent clientele, and KFC decided to abandon the Indian market. KFC returned to India in 1999, with a new Bangalore outlet. This was the sole KFC in India until 2004, when the chain began to expand, albeit with a makeover and a range of new vegetarian dishes. As of December 2012, there were 280 KFCs in the Indian market. As well as the standard KFC offerings, the chain sells a chickpea burger and hot wings with chilli lemon sprinkles.RESEARCH METHODOLOGYIn simple terms methodology can be defined as, it is used to give a clear cut idea on what the researcher is carrying out his or her research. In order to plan in a right point of time and to advance the research work methodology makes the right platform to the researcher to mapping out the research work in relevance to make solid plans.More over methodology guides the researcher to involve and to be active in his or her particular field of enquiry. Most of the situations the aim of the research and the research topic wonââ¬â¢t be same at all time it varies from its objectives and flow of the research but by adopting a suitable methodology this can be achieved. Right from selecting the topic and carrying out till recommendations research methodology drives the researcher in the right track. The entire research plan is based on the concept of right methodology.More over through methodology the external environment constitutes the research by giving a depth idea on setting the right research objective, followed by literature point of view, based on that chosen a nalysis through interviews or questionnaires findings will be obtained and finally concluded message by this research. On the other hand from the methodology the internal environment constitutes by understanding and identifying the right type of research, strategy, philosophy, time horizon, approaches, followed by right procedures and techniques based on his or her research work. In other hand the research methodology acts as the nerve center because the entire research is bounded by it and to perform a good research work, the internal and external environment has to follow the right methodology process.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY USEDIn this project, the research used is qualitative research method focusing on what kind of reasons led to the comparison between the two. Large amounts of necessary data and information were collected from the internet.RESEARCH OBJECTIVETo conduct survey analysis on the consumerââ¬â¢s preference of food joint amongst McDonaldââ¬â¢s and KFC.RESEARCH HYPO THESISWhen young consumers choose the fast food restaurants, I selected six factors as the major factors, which are price, food selections, taste of food, environment, service and brand image and I consider that everyone has different beliefs on the six factors.The Six Hypotheses to be verified in this Research Hypothesis 1 Compared with KFCï ¼Å'â⬠Environmentâ⬠is a competitive advantage of McDonalds Hypothesis 2 Compared with KFCï ¼Å'â⬠Food Selection.â⬠is a competitive advantage of McDonalds Hypothesis 3 Compared with KFCï ¼Å'â⬠Priceâ⬠is a competitive advantage of McDonalds Hypothesis 4 Compared with KFCï ¼Å'â⬠Brand Imageâ⬠is a competitive advantage of McDonalds Hypothesis 5 Compared with KFCï ¼Å'â⬠Serviceâ⬠is a competitive advantage of McDonalds Hypothesis 6 Compared with KFCï ¼Å'â⬠Taste of Foodâ⬠is a competitive advantage of MacdonaldsRESEARCH FRAMEWORKThis research is to understand how young consumers select fast food restaurants. On the other hand, this can help the two fast food restaurants to know their drawbacks and edges for improving and maintaining. The questionnaire is designed base on six hypotheses. After analysis, the result will indicate if the hypotheses are confirmed or rejected, through which the advantages of two fast food restaurants and consumersââ¬â¢ perception will be revealed. SAMPLE FRAMEA questionnaire was designed and used to verify the six hypotheses. 40 people were surveyed on their choice and perception on both the restaurants.CHAPTER II: ANALYSIS PART I MCDONALDS VS KFC: ENVIRONMENT KFCUnlike some other international food brands available here in India, KFC offers the same taste and value no matter which part of the world you are. You can sit back, enjoy and be assured of the world class quality. The environment of its outlets should you choose to dine in is always informal and fun like a select few can offer. It focuses on self service. Many times both m en and women enjoying a meal alone without judgement and pleasant service. Everyday 8 million customers are served in KFC and this is not without reason. They have formally announced the absence of Trans-fats in their cooking oil thus making your occasional binge less worrisome.MCDONALDââ¬â¢SThereââ¬â¢s always a rush near McDonaldââ¬â¢s because they have planned their locations very well near colleges, classes stations etc so before going home or during the lunch break many people come for a snack. There is also a special counter for home delivery. A major highlight of the chain. Itââ¬â¢s the interior which attracts you to the place, especially the well polished and squeaky clean floors and good seating arrangement. There is no formal stuff in here and it truly follows the concept of self service. Mc Donaldââ¬â¢s is one of the most happening hang out joints. In all, a very ambient atmosphere for dining out.MCDONALDS VS KFC: FOOD SELECTION KFCKFC is geared up to tap th e countryââ¬â¢s Youth crowd.KFC has launched their new menu Streetwiseââ¬Å¾ aiming at the college goers. With ââ¬Å"Streetwiseâ⬠, KFC is offering a range of signature KFC products at affordable prices.KFC has also launched several new television commercial as part of the promotional activities for the new offering.KFCââ¬â¢s earlier menu consisted of Chicken Wings and Wraps which were too alien for Indian taste buds. Hence, KFC localized its brand by introducing the Veggie Options to its menu that included rice meals, wraps and side dishes that was desirable to the Indian consumers. Also, it stuck to eggless mayonnaise and sauces. Even its trademark chicken dishes were given a local flavour with the use of Indian spices and cooking techniques. The recentlyà launched Veg Zinger burger is at par with its chicken counterpart. Also, KFC has changed its target audience. From Higher Income group to Middle Income Youth. While they have localized the menu according to the Ind ian Taste they havenââ¬â¢t forgotten their originality that is resides in Chicken.MCDONALDââ¬â¢SMcDonald's regular scrumptious menu includes wide range of products like McAloo Tikki, Filet-O-Fish, Spicy Range, Chicken McGrill, McVeggie, Veg Pizza McPuff, Chicken Mcnuggets, Fries, Wraps, an assortment of Sundaes, Soft Serve and refreshing beverages such as Ice Tea & Cold Coffee with outstanding service in a vibrant and lively ambience, for which McDonald's is known worldwide.McDonaldââ¬â¢s has also recently introduced Masala Grill, a range of grilled vegetarian and non-vegetarian products inspired by the kebabs of the province in Pakistan formerly called the Northwest Frontier Province. These products are wrapped in roasted chilli sauce, a specially-developed condiment, and are available both a la carte and in meal combos. The range comprises two products, namely the Veg Masala Grill which is a blend of potatoes and a soya patty flavoured with aromatic spices, and the Chicke n Masala Grill , which comprises a chicken mince patty seasoned with Indian herbs and spices.MCDONALDS VS KFC: PRICE COMPARISONKFCKFC globally enters the market using market skimming. Their products are priced high and target the middle to upper class people. Gradually they trickle down the prices focusing on the middle to lower class people to penetrate both sides of the market. KFC price their product keeping different points in view. They adopt the cost base price strategy. Pricing of the product includes the govt. tax and excise duty and then comes the final stage of determine the price of their product. The products are bit high priced according the market segment and it is also comparable to the standard of their product. Total Pounds of Chicken Served in KFC RestaurantAnnually =1.914 Billion Total KFC Chicken Pieces Sold Annually = 5.89 BillionTotal Retail Sales = $8.9 Billion Sales Price of per Chicken Piece =$1.51MCDONALDââ¬â¢SMcDonaldââ¬â¢s has realized that, despite the cost savings inherent in standardization, success can often be attributed to being able to adapt to a specific environment. This is indeed the case with its implementation of its pricing strategy, which is one of localization rather than globalization.As a part of its business strategy to penetrate deeper into the new and existing markets, the forever young brand McDonaldââ¬â¢s introduced Happy Price Menu at Rs.20/- in the year 2004 in India. This value for money proposition has been well accepted by the discerning customers. The communication towards this proposition has graduated over the years, but the Happy Price Menu platform has been consistent. It came up with a very grasping punch line à ³Aap ke zamanemein ,baap ke zamane ke daamà ´in 2008. This pricing strategy was founded to attract middle class and lower class people and the effect can clearly be seen in the consumer base that McDonalds has now.It started offering value meals in a range of prices.Ensured afforda bility and attracted the widest section of customers. Brought the customer and provided arrange of entry-level products. Trial of those new items and graduate to higher-rungs. For E.g. ââ¬â if a customer starts with McAloo Tikki, he will finally graduate to McVeggie and so in Nonveg. McDonalds has certain value pricing and bundling strategies such as happy meal, combo meal, family meal, happy price menu etc to increase overall sales of the product. MCDONALDS VS KFC: BRAND IMAGEKFCKFC holds the position of a youth based brand with its youthful, lively ambience of stores and the friendly service. In KFC feedback is taken from the customer in order to know the customer demands and then improvements are made in products. KFC focuses on pure and fresh food in order to create a distinct and clear position in the minds of customers KFC has a strongà brand name and they are leading the market in fried chicken. KFC uses its attributes to Position its Product (Fried Chicken). KFC positi ons itself as a youthful, quick service restaurant brand that serves unique, great tasting food and beverages. The focus of the brand strategy is to highlight this across all their communication, menu offerings and the experience that is delivered.MCDONALDââ¬â¢SAt first people were rather sceptical about this brand. It was a foreign brand and people dint know what to expect. But clearly now, this doesnââ¬â¢t seem to be that way. Now when one thinks about McDonalds, one thinks about a place to go and ââ¬Ëhang outââ¬â¢ with our friends because it has a comfortable environment. At the same time it not very expensive and gives quick service and value for money. And most of us have grown up having a meal in McDonalds with a cardboard crown on our head, a balloon in our hands, sitting in Ronald McDonalds lap and walking out with a toy in the end and also a big smile. As we left the restaurant we just could not wait to go back and enjoy the whole experience all over again.It is things like these that create a certain kind of an impression, a perception, and an image in our heads that lingers on for most of our lives. McDonaldââ¬â¢s wanted to position itself as ââ¬ËIndianââ¬â¢ and a promoter of ââ¬Ëfamily values and cultureââ¬â¢ as well as being ââ¬Ëcomfortable and easyââ¬â¢. Simultaneously the brand wanted to communicate that it was committed to maintaining a quality service, cleanliness and offering value for money. But at the end of it McDonald's means different things to different people and doesn't have one brand position.MCDONALDS VS KFC: SERVICEKFCSelf Service is the concept followed by KFC. It gets very crowded especially on weekends, but they have a very competent staff that provide quick service. Itââ¬â¢s difficult to get a place to sit on weekends and takeaway seems to be the best bet. The staff is very polite irrespective of the maddening rush and always lends a ear for your complaints. Home delivery is one area where th ere have been complaints.MCDONALDââ¬â¢SThough thereââ¬â¢s self service, i.e. you have to order at the counter and collect your items yourselves, the service is quick and sharp; and the people make sure you get the food as early as possible. It normally takes around 30 secs after taking your order to delivering the food at the best McDonald outlets. McDonaldââ¬â¢s also provides home delivery which has been appreciated by the customers.MCDONALDS VS KFC: TASTE OF FOOD KFCThough the name KFC indicates chicken but thatââ¬â¢s not the case. KFC has diversified itself in all the food items and thatââ¬â¢s why they have shortened ââ¬ËKentucky Fried Chickenââ¬â¢ to KFC. The food is delicious with less spicespices and good quantity and anyone fond of chicken can surely go there and gorge on the various chicken dishes. Though KFC is mainly famous for chicken, the vegetarians are also not disappointed here. There are as many varieties of vegetarian stuff as there are of chick en dishes. Typical chicken made by Indian style is not available here, but the combination of chicken is interesting here.MCDONALDââ¬â¢SMcDonald's strives to maintain its international quality standards in every single one of its outlets. Dealing directly with the farmers, McDonalds ensures that every ingredient is of the best quality. Strong supply chain efficiencies, cold chain delivery, minimum storage times, standard recipes and food that is specially ââ¬Ëmade for you' deliver freshness right to the customer's plates. Paying attention to minutest of details, McDonald's India has ââ¬ËIndianised' their menu with introductions like the Mc Aloo TikkiAlooTikki Burger, McSpicy Chicken Burger, McSpicy Paneer Burger and more. With due respect to local customs and customer sentiments, no McDonald's outlet in India serves either beef or pork. Furthermore, the vegetarian and non-vegetarian kitchens are completely separate.CHAPTER III: ANALYSIS PART II SURVEY ANALYSISThe report has been designed to study the consumer behaviour with respect to McDonalds and KFC. A questionnaire was designed in order to understand theà reasons of the consumer perception towards the two food giants. My method of going about the study at hand involved the basic survey method, whereby I put forward questions to individuals who were divided into the basic segments provided by and aimed at as either the source or target service provider. Question 1Which age group do you belong to?The first question was essentially designed to throw light on the age group of people visiting/dining at the food joints. This gave us an idea of the preference of a particular food brand among a given age group if any. For e.g. the HAPPY MEAL available at McDonald's attracted the major portion of the younger crowd. As a matter of fact as shown in the following questions, this particular strategy drained almost the entire young consumer segment. Of the individuals surveyed a majority of the individuals be longed to the 18-25 yr age group both for McDonaldââ¬â¢s as well as KFC. Question 2What is your profession?This question was essential in calculating the trend of the customers who visit these food joints i.e. the working class of the people visiting the respective places. The survey revealed that the majority of people visiting both the places i.e. 46% for KFC and 55% for McDonald's were students. This thus lays direct stress on the strategies adopted by both the joints resulting in a heavy demand among the student group. Question 3Are you a vegetarian/non-vegetarian? This was essentially designed to demarcate the groups according to whether they were vegetarians or otherwise. It was a preconceived idea that the vegetarians preferred McDonald's of the two while KFC proved to be a non-vegetarian paradise. This thus showed a balanced market for McDonald's whereas a strong shift for KFC towards the non-vegetarian section. Question 4How do you consider the environment at both the jo ints? This question was essentially designed to find out what people think about the environment and crowd at both the joints. There is no significant difference observed when it comes to the environment and the experience ofà people at both the joints. Question 5What is your saying on the pricing of both the joints?In KFC 31% found the food priced nominally and an equal amount of people surveyed i.e. 31% found inexpensive. Hence it was concluded that it dropped down to the individual in the case of KFC and there was no clear market trend. In McDonald's 46% found it nominally priced as well as value for money while just 8% found it expensive. Hence in terms of comparative study it was concluded that McDonalds was optimally priced although KFC wasn't overpriced either.Question 6What is your saying on the service provided by both the joints and which one would you prefer? This question was designed to find out the type of service provided by each of them and peopleââ¬â¢s percepti on on quality of service at these joints KFC got an upper hand when it came to service with 51 % people opting for it whereas 49 % opted for McDonaldââ¬â¢s.Question 7Rate both the joints on the scale of 10 on the basis of taste of food This question was designed to get an idea about the taste of food provided by each of these joints. No significant difference was observed when it came to the food served by both the joints. Although KFC is known for their chicken dishes, itââ¬â¢s also come out with its vegetarian menu which is equally enjoyable. McDonaldââ¬â¢s on the other hand had been the place for everyone since the very beginning. Therefore, when it comes to taste of food, both McDonaldââ¬â¢s and KFC have been given equal preference.DIAGRAMMATIC REPRESENTATION1. Which age group do you belong to?2. Are you a Vegetarian/Non-Vegetarian?3. What is your Occupation?4. What is your saying on the pricing of the eat-outs?5. How do you consider the environment at both the eat-o uts?6. What is your saying on the service of the eat-outs and which one would you prefer?7. Rate both the eat-outs on the scale of 10 on the basis of taste of foodFINDINGSWhat do the young consumers care most? From the Histogram, it shows that the young consumers care about the service and taste of food most. Note that the score of rating is from 0 to 6 The results show that there are no significant difference on environment, food selection, brand image, service and taste of food and that means they are not the competitive advantages of McDonald. However, the price of McDonald is a competitive advantage of McDonald Young consumers generally considered that McDonald provides a more reasonable food price of food.CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION/SUMMARY/RECOMMENDATIONS CONCLUSIONThis research studies the competitive advantages of two fast food restaurants, McDonald and KFC, from young consumersââ¬â¢ perspective. Summary of hypotheses test Hypothesis1 Compared with KFCï ¼Å'â⬠Environmentà ¢â¬ is a competitive advantage of McDonaldââ¬â¢s Rejected Hypothesis2 Compared with KFCï ¼Å'â⬠Food selectionâ⬠is a competitive advantage of McDonaldââ¬â¢s Rejected Hypothesis3 Compared with KFCï ¼Å'â⬠Priceâ⬠is a competitive advantage of McDonaldââ¬â¢s Supported Hypothesis4 Compared with KFCï ¼Å'â⬠Brand imageâ⬠is a competitive advantage of McDonaldââ¬â¢s Rejected Hypothesis5 Compared with KFCï ¼Å'â⬠Serviceâ⬠is a competitive advantage of McDonaldââ¬â¢s Rejected Hypothesis6 Compared with KFCï ¼Å'â⬠Taste of Foodâ⬠is a competitive advantage of McDonaldââ¬â¢s RejectedWhen young consumers selected a fast food restaurant, they care about the service and taste of food most. In order to increase the market share of young consumers, restaurant managers have to put plenty of efforts on the service and taste of food. Young consumers consider that the McDonald provides a more reasonable food price than KFC. To McDon ald, itââ¬â¢s an advantage against KFC and should be maintained. On the other hand, KFC should do a detail research about the reason why young consumers have such perception about the price of two restaurants.SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS SUMMARYIn India fast food market is strongly dominated by these 2 brands. But when it comes to comparing these two brands the above study brings us to a conclusion that as far as market presence and brand value is concerned McDonald's has definitely proved a point for themselves.But KFC who re-entered in 2003 has shown a rapid progress and no wonder if in the coming years KFC overtakes McDonaldââ¬â¢s in the Indian market share. Both the food-giants have given each other immense competition in terms of customer satisfaction and promotional strategies.The range of products and offers offered by each is remarkable in every context. Although McDonalds has an upper hand with the vegetarian crowd because of its exclusive products, KFC is slowly catch ing up to the challenge. KFC provides vegetarian alternatives with an added advantage of a complete meal including rice and desert.Where McDonalds fall into the snack option KFC has covered the meal area.à Thus it is not quite evident which one can be termed as better than the other.RECOMMENDATIONS KFCKFC still needs to do a bit of re-vamp in its vegetarian menu and add more options to it. The fried chicken category already has more options and varieties as compared to the vegetarian section. The prices of KFC are reasonable as compared with other fast food restaurants. But as price is always a primary concern for the customer, therefore, they should adopt certain strategy to attract the customers. And it can only be done by lowering the prices. It could be by introducing some discount packages for families, employees, students or regular customers. The membership card can be used to provide certain extra value to the customer.MCDONALDââ¬â¢SOff recent, there have been a lot of complaints on the quality of food that one gets at McDonalds. This should be a matter of prime concern when it comes to the progress of the fast food restaurant. McDonaldââ¬â¢s should start focusing more on improving the quality of products rather than being completely driven by quantity and variety. McDonaldââ¬â¢s also needs to work on their advertising strategy. For example, the breakfast menu at McDonalds does not find many takers due to poor publicity. Ignorance of the breakfast menu at McDonaldââ¬â¢s is one of the biggest drawbacks of this restaurant.
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