Analysis on China real estate industry Essay Example

Analysis on China real estate industry Paper Land bubble planted a hidden danger for the real estate bubble. Third, financial institutions strong support of the real estate development create very favorable conditions for speculators, resulting in sufficient funds for housing exchange, led to further real estate bubble. Fourth, bank lending gives people good expectation for real estate. Besides speculative demand, it also stimulates peoples consumption demand. People have access to get loans, and participating in purchasing house. Rising demand finally leads to price increasing. (In external business, irrational people need a large number of capital. Financial institutions tend to offer lower interest rates for housing credit using houses as mortgage, considering the prospect of real estate. So, large amount of capital flows into the real estate market. This approach has provided funds for the protection of speculators, and artificially increased the demand for real estate. ) On the other hand, considering the banks own interests, when the bank holds a large number of real estate, its assets would be overvalued, thus enlarge the banks capital base and its asset quality and profitability. We will write a custom essay sample on Analysis on China real estate industry specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Analysis on China real estate industry specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Analysis on China real estate industry specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer Under these conditions, the bank will further expand housing credit, which further promoted the rise in house prices. 4) Government Factors Defects in land transfer system: In China, the ownership of land belongs to country. While, defects in Chinas current land transfer system also boost the high prices. When the real estate business needs to purchase land, you need to pay land transfer fees to the government. Of these, 70% of the transfer fee to the local government. As a result, driven by political achievements and rise of GDP, local governments sell lands at high prices through bidding, auction and licensed. This directly results rising house prices based on expensive land. In addition, the land transfer system provides a space for the rent-seeking. Rent-seeking costs also contribute to existing price. Related to economic policy: In the year of 2006, the exchange rate of RMB against the dollar increase continuously. So far, the RMB exchange rate has been increased from 1:8 to 1:6. 81. Under the pressure of currency appreciation, Chinese export, which contributes to over 1/3 of GDP and takes advantage of low price, experienced damage. Thus, in the next few years, the central bank lowers interest rates five times in succession. As other economic crisis around the world, the policy of lowering interest rates caused by currency appreciation has not guided capital flows into real economy. Instead, capital quickly enters the real estate industry, which has led to todays high demand for housing and high housing prices. Trends Analysis After discussion the causes, we will predict the trends by comparing the difference between China and Japan under researches and data analysis. 1) Chinese Governments Control on Financial Systems. The efficiency of banking regulation is inferior to Chinese ones, and the enterprises in Japan are more independent than Chinese ones. Before the bubble, the Japan government fails to exert effective regulation and guidance for the commercial banks, while the financial institution are the biggest supporters for the real estate bubble, fueling the bubble for almost 10 years. On the contrary, Chinese government possesses strong power to keep the banks and enterprises in regulation, by guiding the direction of the money, containing the speculation capital at the very beginning, implement policies at proper time, and hurdling the property bubble. Bank of China, the countrys third-largest listed lender by assets, announced this week that profits rose 26 per cent last year to Rmb81bn but, as with ICBC, the growth came on the back of a big expansion in credit and at the cost of falling margins. Both banks said they intended to cut back on lending this year in line with strict government quotas imposed at the start of the year because of worries that rampant credit growth has created asset bubbles, particularly in property. Although the Chinese government started to encourage the mortgage from 2009, to stimulate the real estate investment behavior, especially encourage the construction of affordable housing to ease the difficulty in house buying, the government is persistently strict with supervision of bank business in mortgage. The supervision process is complex and requires assessment in the loan applicants business activities, repayment ability, and study the profitability of investment projects. And at the same time, the mortgage real estate ensures the credit of lenders. Al these actions prevent banks from uncontrolled, low-security lending behavior and also inhibit the real estate market speculation to some extent. In addition, due to the level of Chinese economic development have not reached the level of Japan in late 80s 20th century, and the constraints in financial system, Chinese government is relatively strict with the supervision of financial sector, especially with the object of financing, such as prohibition of loans entering into the stock market. These actions reduce the credit risk of financial institutions and prevent sowing the seeds for the huge amount of irrecoverable debts. China Japan Table 7 However, we must have a clear conscious that, from the second half of 2009, to encourage real estate investment, the Chinese government relaxes the policy requirements for lending, resulting in a substantial growth of domestic lending part of investment and development funding. 2) The Difference of Urbanization The urbanization rate of Japan scaled the height of 76. 7% in 1985, indicating the end of urbanization process; yet China is still accelerating in the progress of urbanization, reaching only 45. 68% in 2008. In comparison with the developed countries with the urbanization rate of 90%, more and more population will be shifted from rural areas to cities. The population of rural areas was only 34% of the total population when the Lewis turning point appeared in Japan in 1960s; and the percentage of rural population is 34% for North Korea when the Lewis turning point appeared in 1980s. China has a long way to go. Whats more, there is a much more vast area of the real estate market in China than Japan, when the risk accumulated quickly in one specific area, the capital will shift to other cities. The development of transportation enhances the shift from first-line cities to second-line cities. Therefore, the breadth and depth of the Chinese real estate market is unmatchable by Japan, with the immense volume of accommodating risk. Figure 3 3) The Difference of Demographic Structure The total population of Japan reaches its pinnacle in 1990, while the total population of China wont reach its peak until 2030. Lewis turning point, the indication of the transform form the rural labor to urban labor, appeared in Japan at the end of 1960s. However, China saw the Lewis turning point around 2007. The demographic dividend (the large portion of potential efficient labor) of China will persist to around 2015 in comparison to Japan, where the demographic disappeared in 1980s. Furthermore, China could achieve a second round demographic dividend through establishing creative systems, social security system, improving the labor market, enhancing the education level and job training, abolishing the household registration system. Figure 4 Economic indicators before and after the Lewis turning point Table 8 (Source:Arthur Kroebor(2010)) 4) Monetary and Exchange Rate Policy The origin of Japans stagnation for the 20 years after its housing bubble burst lies in its failure to stand up to US pressure for the yen to appreciate. Indeed, the yen rose from a low of Y260/$ in February 1985 to Y200/$ 10 months later and on to the high of Y80/$ in May 1995. Japans economic performance in the past 20 years has lagged its potential. In fact, policy counter-measures monetary easing and fiscal stimulus against too-rapid yen appreciation grew stronger in 1986. Monetary easing continued until 1989. Considering what was going on in the property market, this monetary tightening and strong regulatory measures, such as restrictions on loan-to-value ratios, should have been applied much earlier, in 1987 or 1988. The bubble may not be completely avoided purely by monetary tightening, but the damage may be reduced by early tightening and prudential regulations. The Chinese authorities are doing better than their Japanese counterparts in the 1980s. The central bank is tightening regulation of loan-to-value ratios and trying to end easy credit. But they are hesitating to take up the best policy interest rate hikes and appreciation of the Chinese Renminbi. The property bubble is a clear sign of overheating. Chinas reported inflation rate does not show rampant inflation, but that was also the case in Japan in the 1980s. 5) Investment Demand in China The need of investment in property market is huge in China, which should be satisfied. To some extent, the investment need is rigid demand, while the dwelling need is merely soft demand. The unusual prosperity in Chinese real estate market is highly related to the limited channel to invest in China, where the lower tax of household transaction and the demographic structure each play a role. An important reason for the real estate bubble in Japan was due to the aging of the population, when the passion for investment faded. However, the average age of Chinese people is around 32, which is the peak period of investment with overwhelm passion. Therefore, even though the adjustment is made upon the property market, the investors will not be too pessimistic to lead to the irrational plummet of the real estate market. Whats more, the real estate market in China is contained by the monopoly by the government and the storing of real estate companies, while the demand is promoted by the process of urbanization, resulting in the demand over supply. It is quite different from Japan, since the prosperity is backed up by real demand of investors and consumers. Conclusion: As mentioned before, based on our research, comparison and analysis, our point of view is that there is slight bubble in China property industry, which is different from the one happened in Japan and was less severe. Thus, if China government can take immediate and effective action to deflate the bubble, China property industry can still lead a healthy and promising future. Recommendations to Deflate Bubble: Finally, we come up with some recommendations to deflate the bubble. 1) Reinforce the supervision and control of real estate market. On one hand, Chinas transaction system of land and the industry supervision system is still developing, which accelerates the speculation and results in slight bubble. On the other hand, over-investment on property make the overall growth of property industry surpasses the growth of urbanization significantly and results in the imbalance between supply and demand and the increase of housing vacancy rate. Thus, first about how to prevent over-speculation, its essential for the China government to make out specific policies for all-round supervision of the real estate market. No only national policies , but also policies based on different situation of local places, especially those developed cities. Even though speculation on property in China is not as heat as the one in Japan, the first step to deflate bubble is to establish the basis for supervision and control by setting specific and reasonable policies. As for cool down the over-investment on property, the government should keep controlling the scale of property development at a stable speed. That is, first to invest based on local places income level and reduce overstock. Second, to reinforce the supervision on second market and prevent over-speculation. Last is to further develop housing based on real demand, sector with deep insight of property market and make Property the leading industry in China without bubble. 2) Strengthen land resources management Government can keep a good control on housing price through the supply of land resources. The supply of land resources should be based on local market demand and public bids system should be used under supervision. The usage of land resources should also keep a balance between housing and business use. Furthermore, to punish irregular investment and development, keep a close supervision on the developers, and make necessary amendments to the rules and regulations are important. Besides, its necessary to prevent corruption among the government and developers in China as to strengthen land resources management. 3) Build up a sound forecast system for healthy development of property industry As important as supervision and control, building up a sound forecast system is crucial for risk management ,come up with timely reaction and deflate bubble. By collecting analyzing information on property market, predicting and evaluating properly on the market based on analysis and publishing research report by period, the government can make out proper policies and better supervise property market. Also, the investors and developers can have a better and clearer evaluation on the whole property market, which may benefit reasonable investment. 4) Strengthen supervision on finance sector and prevent loan risks There is a strong combination between property sector and finance sector, no matter in Japan or China. To deflate the bubble, it definitely should strengthen supervision on finance sector and take financial strategy to deflate the bubble. For example, China had made several moves in the last month to do just this, including reimposing a sales tax on homes sold within five years of their purchase from this year and increasing the down payment requirement for property purchases to at least 50 percent of the total price. In another move to cool the property market, the Peoples Bank of China, the central bank, announced on Tuesday to raise the deposit reserve requirement ratio by 0. 5 percentage points from Jan. 18 this year. The government also renewed its pledge on Wednesday to stabilize home prices by providing more affordable housing and cracking down on speculation. 5) Keep the RMB exchange rates long-term stability In 1985, Japanese yens appreciation was forced under the great pressure put by America. Then to alleviate depression caused by decreasing exports, Japans government substantially reduced the interest rate to stimulated domestic demand, which Led to the expansion of real estate financing and become the driving force for real estate bubble. Learning from this, China should Keep the RMB exchange rates long-term stability.

applications of technology essays

applications of technology essays A quote I heard many times when I was in high school and which I now know traces back to Sir Francis Bacon, one of our earliest scientist or philosophers as they were then called, is the statement "Knowledge Is Power." Today, I believe that the fuller, more correct statement is to say, "the application of knowledge is power." The study of science, and technology subjects will broader our opportunities in life. As we continue to advance to the 21st century- now lesser than 30 days away-we are well aware that technology is possibly the hottest industrial commodity around the world today. In the years ahead, it will be an increasingly critical factor in determining the success or failure of businesses. It is the fuel many of us are looking at to help us win this race to the 21st century. To do that, we should make technology matter. In this paper I am going to share my technology forecasts. I try to focus on my new forecasts a decade into the future - the first decade of the 21st century, because that is how far most businesses need to be looking ahead. There has never been a neutral or value-free, technology. All technologies are power. They evoke economic and social consequences in direct proportion to their dislocation of the existing economy and its institutions. I believe that technologies such as: biotechnology and genetic engineering, intelligent materials, the miniaturization of electronics, and smart manufacturing systems, and controls, will be the hottest technologies in the next decade. I am going to put together a list of what I think as the top ten innovative products that will result from those technologies. Number one on the list is something we call genetic. There are pharmaceutical products that will come from the massive genetic research going on around the world today. In ten years, we will have new ways to treat many of our ills - from allergies to ADIS. We may see the discovery of new methods of treatment...

Write a response paper to the book Out of Poverty by Paul Polak Essay

Write a response paper to the book Out of Poverty by Paul Polak - Essay Example According to Polak the group is a massive consumer but lack the financial ability to purchase the products. Additionally, he discovers that the group comprises of viable entrepreneurs. When designing products for the group, Polak advises that an entrepreneur consider the consumption pattern of the group. Firstly, the poor have minimal finances they therefore attach more importance on the price of the commodes they purchase often at the expense of the quality of the products. An entrepreneur must therefore devise cost effective means of production to ensure the manufacture of cheap products that will fit the budgets of the group. Additionally, the group is huge. At 90% of the world population, it is therefore the greatest market and after designing products that appeal to the group, the next big feature of such a business becomes the mass production and determination of effective retail services. Of all the ideas Polak fosters in his book, among the most surprising findings is his claim that the 90% of the world’s population is poor. Additionally,, the scholar claims that the 90% drive the world economy. However, he breaks down his points to validate his claim by explaining the financial movement in the market economies thus validating his claims. According to his explanation, it becomes factual that a larger percentage of the world’s population is poor but still controls the global economy. I agree with most of his ideas. I like the idea that products that target the poor often sell faster and better than those targeting the wealthy in the market do. Just as he explains it, the poor are the majority this widens the base of the market for any product or service that targets the population. An entrepreneur must therefore determine the best way of producing such products at cheap costs but in bulk. As a marketing strategy, by targeting the poor, an entrepreneur earns smaller profit margins per product but sell many

Multinationals and Global Business essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Multinationals and Global Business - Essay Example Before the merger, these companies had been rivals and the process of bringing them together ensured that both of these companies were able to put aside their rivalry and cooperate in an international level; becoming among the most dominant oil and gas companies in the world. Since its formation, Royal Dutch Shell has continuously grown and evolved according to the different circumstances that it has encountered; essentially ensuring its success where many others have failed. According to Jones (2005, p.164), in the twentieth century, â€Å"firms sought to access knowledge to develop technology that are distinct from but contemporary to those created by their parent companies.† At the period of its formation, the two parts of Royal Dutch Shell were not merged, but were kept separate as a result of nationalist sentiments in both the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. The result is that these two parts of the company continued to be run as separate entities with one based in The Hague and the other in London. The portion based in The Hague took on the responsibility of production and manufacture while the one in London took over the transportation and storage of the products. Thus, in order to cater for nationalist sentiments in both countries, Royal Dutch Shell chose not to go ahead with the merger because to do so might have hampered its operations. This strategy can be related to Alfred Chandler’s structure follows strategy theory which s tates that the structure of a company is often determined by its strategy and this is based on the formation of independent units that operate under the umbrella of a parent company (Chandler 1990, p.61; Gopalan and Stahl 1998, p.32). Thus, through its headquarters, Royal Dutch Shell was able to continue coordinating the activities of its Dutch and British units without compromising their independent nature. Royal Dutch Shell chose to begin its

What photography can and should document

What photography can and should document The social crisis of our time, however, calls for a redefinition of what photography can and should document. Obviously, not all documentary photography has to be didactic in pointing to a possibility of social change. But there is a need for discourse among documentary photographers about the content of work, and its relationship to the social movements of our time. The social movements of our day are more complex. Its often harder to find the sense of political certainty which filled the vision, and inspired the dedication of these artists who came before. Photojournalism relies upon the notion that photography captures an objective record of reality for viewers. Yet, at the same time, a clearly defined system of rules and conventions governs the professional practice of photojournalism, delimiting the range of appropriate images and shaping the form those images take. Paradoxically, news photographs are valued as neutral records at the same time that they are admired as carefully crafted pictures. Photojournalists earn kudos not only for what they show, but also for how well they show it. Documentary photography was tied, historically, to both exploration and social reform. Some early documentarians worked, literally, documenting features of the natural landscape. Others worked, like Lewis Hine for the great social surveys of the early part of the century. Their work was used to expose evil and promote change. Their images were, perhaps, something like those journalists made but, less tied to illustrating a newspaper story, they had more space to breathe in. A classic example is Hines image of Leo, 48 inches high, 8 years old, picks up bobbins at fifteen cents a day, in which a young boy stands next to the machines which have, we almost surely conclude, stunted his growth. Documentary photography supposed to dig deep, get at what Robert E. Park (a sociologist who had worked as a journalist for daily papers in Minneapolis, Denver, Detroit, Chicago and New York) called the Big News, be concerned about society, play an active role in social change, be socially responsible, worry about its effects on the society in which its work is distributed. Photographers like Hine saw their work, and it has often been seen since, as having an immediate effect on citizens and legislators. Today, we see this work as having an exploratory, investigative character, something more like social science. Contemporary documentary photographers, whose work converges more consciously with social science, have become aware, as anthropologists have, that they have to worry about, and justify, their relations to the people they photograph. Photographs get meaning, like all cultural objects, from their context. Even paintings or sculptures, which seem to exist in isolation, hanging on the wall of a museum, get their meaning from a context made up of what has been written about them, either in the label hanging beside them or elsewhere, other visual objects, physically present or just present in viewers awareness, and from discussions going on around them and around the subject the works are about. Documentary projects typically go on for years, often focus on social issues rather than news events, and are usually independently conceived and financed by the photographer, rather than commissioned by a publication. Documentary is often assumed to be subjective, to have a point of view on the subject being investigated, but it is also presumed to be honest reporting and photographers in this mode do not generally resort to setting up shots. These sort of projects are sometimes sold in pieces to magazines but with the decline of mass circulation magazines like Life, the usual goal has become to publish the whole project in book form. Photojournalism is used here to refer to the coverage of current news events in an extended format, both in the investigation and shooting stage and in the final story product which normally consists of more than one photograph. Because these projects are time-sensitive, they may take months but not years to complete. Photojournalism is usually commissioned by a publication, such as a magazine or newspaper, but will sometimes later appear in book form as well. While documentary projects are usually driven by the personal interests or convictions of the photographer, photojournalisms subject matter is generally determined by what is deemed news-worthy by the media. The question of whether an image appropriately â€Å"reflects reality† is an issue that documentary photography and photojournalism has contended with throughout their histories. The global audience is changing, and photography needs to reflect this in order to remain effective. Readers are disillusioned at the manipulation they are slowly becoming aware to via pseudo-documentaries on society and politics by filmmakers. That the camera cannot lie is true only in the sense that the images it captures must have existed in one form or another at some particular time. We are familiar with historical photos that have been retouched to include or exclude political figures. We are less familiar with the potential of new technologies for falsifying images, particularly those that appear in newspapers and magazines. Photojournalism, photography that accompanies stories intended for newspaper and magazine readers, has a long and cherished tradition of truthfulness. The faking of photographs, either through stage direction by the photographer or through darkroom manipulation, unfortunately, also has a long tradition. However, computer technology puts photographic faking on a new level of concern as images can be digitized and manipulated without the slightest indication of such trickery. If the manipulation of photographs is accepted for any image, the public will naturally doubt all photographs and text within all publications. Scoopt, the citizen photojournalism arm of Getty Images, claims to have experts who carefully screen images to ensure no digital tampering has occurred. As Far id points out, however, tampering is becoming increasingly difficult to detect with the naked eye—particularly for understaffed organizations trying to push through photos of breaking events. Yet, human beings continue to die from war, murder, natural disasters; to be born, now in litters as large as seven or eight: to live in harmony and conflict. Newspapers and photojournalism have survived the onslaught of electronic media, continuing to report the human maelstrom of a global citizenry as if it were a vivid reality play m the midst of the non reality o turn-of-the-millennium culture. Almost drowned within media criticism have been the voices of those professionals whose appreciation of the subjective nature of observation and reportage has led to more sensitive and sophisticated practice of visual journalism. In daily practice, digital-imaging technology has led to increased awareness of the ease of manipulating visual reportage, in turn leading to higher not lower ethical standards. At the same time, new technology has made visual coverage faster, easier, and more prolific via digital distribution. More and more photojournalists are asked to also be advertising photographers shooting fashion, food, architecture, portrait, and editorial illustration assignments. These assignments take photojournalists away from doing meaningful documentaries about social conditions in their community. These economically driven assignments are fuelled by news directors, publishers, and photographers who dont necessarily distinguish between magazine and television commercial advertising and classic photojournalism documentation. When a young photojournalist is expected to split her time between news and corporate controlled images, its hard for her to take herself seriously as an on-call visual documentarian. Issues and debates surrounding truth will continue as long as media is reported. Even with the saturation of so-called amateur journalists, there will always be motives of greed, a human trait that is undeniable in our society. Some critics have predicted that in a few years, images whether still or moving will not be allowed in trials as physical evidence because of the threat to their veracity created by digital alterations. Most consumers of the media can easily tell the difference between an advertisement and a news story. But sometimes the distinction is so subtle, only highly observant readers can tell the difference. But no matter how the tools of journalism change, fundamental ethical concerns still apply. Displaying violent, sensational images for economic reasons, violating a persons privacy before the judicial process can function, manipulating news-editorial pictures to alter their content, stereotyping individuals into pre-conceived categories and blurring the distinction between advertising and editorial messages were journalism concerns in 1895, are important topics in 1995 and will be carefully considered issues, no doubt, in 2095. Now, as we witness the dramatic transformations to the print journalism industry, these questions not only reveal how the idea of visual journalism has congealed but also indicate the kinds of issues that both photojournalism practitioners and their audiences will need to resolve in a world in which the printed periodical is no longer the favoured institution through which these images are mediated. Over the last fifteen years or so we have witnessed the emergence of new kinds of visual story-telling. Digital photography gave us instantaneous feedback; camera phones gave us ubiquitous photography; picture-sharing sites gave us a developing social milieu in which these instant and ubiquitous pictures could be shared. As a result we have new formal models for presenting visual information. There is more documentary feature production than ever before. Still images are organized as slideshows, browse-and-enlarge albums, or in an irregular temporal flow. Reuters Bearing Witness: Five Years of the Iraq War is a brilliant use of multimedia that is not a linear display of images. These new formal properties will redefine visual grammars and inform how and of what photographers make pictures, but they will also be subject to the new contexts and frameworks that will continue to emerge. The value of information increases not only when it is controlled and withheld but also when it is given shape and purpose, when value articulates with meaning. We may not remember many of the facts that led to the brief student uprising in Chinas Tiananmen Square in 1989, but you can never forget the image of the lone protester standing defiantly in front of a line of menacing, green Chinese tanks. Words and pictures become one powerfully effective communicative medium inside your own mind. Professional photojournalists cannot be in the best places at the right times in order to capture events as they unfold. The future of photojournalism lies with the new breed of moral and aware consumers. The Internet offers us the chance to reinvent photojournalism by enabling us to blend the best practices from still photojournalism, broadcasting, and independent films. The Internet permits us to blend still photographs with audio, text, video, and databases to make compelling content that is far richer than print or broadcasting typically deliver. This new world of visual story telling gives us a chance to reinvent the form and to adapt integration of various media types to tell the most compelling possible story. Visual journalism on the web offers the chance to tell narrative stories that speak powerfully to underlying truths of the human condition. The traditional model of print distribution and direct editorial funding has been unravelling from the 1970s onwards, ever since weekly pictorial magazines like Life folded. This demonstrates photojournalism that required an editorial paymaster was in trouble long before the Internet was an issue or the global recession added to its woes. It involves seeing oneself as a publisher of content and a participant in a distributed story, the form of which helps reshape the content of the story. Rather than just producing a single image or small series of images to be sold into another persons story, multimedia on the web has numerous advantages for visual storytellers. â€Å"Both media are time-based, as opposed to space-based. A print layout is about space — the eye wanders; the viewer controls the time and rhythm. Time-based, of course, means the show is driven by the audio and is viewed over time,† â€Å"good slideshows, I think, have a very different rhythm than video — less literal. Slideshows need to lean on the strength of the still image — these punctuated moments in time that visually meld with the audio.† As a result, photojournalism at the beginning of the 21st century find itself maturing beyond the naive idealism of early and mid-20th-centur positivism, and even beyond the dark cynicism of late-20th-century post modernism, toward a profound sense of purpose: Good visual reportage may very well be the only credible source of reasonably true images in decades to come. The heart of photojournalism is reporting human experience accurately, honestly, and with an overriding sense of social responsibility. The key to earning and maintaining public trust is increasing awareness of the process of visual reporting and its potential to inform or misinform. Published in Life magazine in 1937, Robert Capas photograph shows in one instant the suddenness and loneliness of an anonymous soldiers death. It has been suggested that the photograph was either a chance occurrence by the photographer shooting blindly, or it was staged for the benefit of the camera. He photographed in China, on the beaches of Normandy, in Israel, and finally in Vietnam, where he was killed by a land mine./10 Capa consistently produced images with strong emotional impact and high technical expertise. Those Capa images that have been chosen by his brother Cornell Capa and by Magnum to represent his lifes work emphasize the qualities of drama and heroism and thus have had a crucial role in sustaining the Robert Capa legend. Robert Capas saying, often quoted, that â€Å"If your pictures arent good enough, youre not close enough,† has helped reinforce the important elements of drama and the heroic photographer that have been emphasized in the Magnum style. Capas most famous photograph, â€Å"Death of a Loyalist Soldier, Spain 1936,† often celebrated as the greatest war photograph of all time, creates drama with a close-up depiction of the moment of death and conveys a macho persona with the clear implication of Capas decision to place himself in close proximity to danger. His choice of a type of lens that closely resembles normal human vision, probably around 50 mm, gives the feeling that we are right next to the soldier as he falls. The fact that the viewer can see the landscape around and behind him indicates that Capa is clearly not hidden safely far away with a telephoto lens (which would compress and narrow our view of the background), but is closely engaged with the action.43 Capas photographs of D-Day where he is obviously in the surf with the advancing troops has a similar effect of dramatizing events by being as close as possible to the action, and thereby also endowing the photographer with even more daring and courage than the heroes of the moment, the invading soldiers, since he had a choice that the soldiers did not: to photograph from up close or from afar. While many of Robert Capas photographs of war, such as â€Å"Death of a Loyalist Soldier, Spain 1936,† do not seem particularly dramatic viewed now, in the 1930s they were hailed as the finest pictures of front-line action ever taken.44 Certainly, this kind of close-up view of war was relatively new to viewers who were more used to images of fightings aftermath. However, captions applied by the picture magazines certainly played an important role in the creation of Capas images as dramatic. As Fred Ritchin notes, Capas Spanish Civil War photographs were often accompanied by captions such as In the Heart of the Battle: The Most Amazing War Picture Ever Taken, and You can almost smell the [gun] powder in this picture, and the most famous, This is War! in the British magazine Picture Post.45 Robert Franks book, The Americans. Frank traveled around the United States on a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1955/56 taking photographs of people at funerals, on the street, at drive-in movies, in restaurants, driving cars. Rather than rely on neat geometrical compositions to create abstract patterns, he focused on fleeting, contemplative facial expressions or included empty space to lend his photographs a sense of sad loneliness and of disjuncture between people. In his photograph Elevator Miami Beach the young elevator girl looks wistfully off into the distance as her rich-looking patrons blur past her out the door. Its not possible to know whether it is her sadness the photograph conveys, or Franks. While the documentary aspect of Franks work in The Americans is highly subjective, like much of Magnums own work, he uses the element of artistic expression to create a whole different visual style, leading viewers to conclusions about his subjects at odds with the conclusions drawn from work in the Magnum style.

Ceramics of the North and South Coasts Essay -- Pottery Mochica Cerami

Ceramics of the North and South Coasts Ancient Peruvian Ceramics of the North Coast March 11, 1997 The first pottery pieces found in Peru were made somewhere between 1500 and 1000 b.p. The pieces were found in the central Andean region where a religious cult lived. This cult was called Chavà ­n, after the best known ceremonial center, Chavà ­n de Huà ¡ntar. The religious center was the home to massive temples that were highly embellished with low relief sculptures of gods, animals, and symbols. The pottery found in the area where vessels that were well made and highly decorated with a similar motif as the temples. But the evolution of Peruvian pottery becomes somewhat confusing and complex after this first civilization of potters. There is a division of people into the North Coast and the South Coast. The split created two styles of pottery, although similar, they never quite merge. I am only going to talk about the north coast traditions. On the North coast there are five cultures that evolve into the dominant Mochica style, which was one of the most vigorous and prosperous cultures of Ancient Peru. The next earliest North Coast style, other than the Chavà ­n, started with the Cupisnique people in the Chicama valley. Their ceramics â€Å"closely resembled those of highland Chavà ­n. They were well made and polished, though somewhat thick walled and heavy. The type of firing used produced a dark semireduced ware that varied from brownish gray to carbon black in color. Decoration consisted of bold, curvilinear human, feline, and birds of pray heads, eye patterns, pelt markings, and other brief symbols of geometric devices.† In the valley to the south of the Cupisnique were the Salinar people who someti me during the fifth century b.p. moved into the north coast of Peru and spread its influence throughout the Cupisnique area. Salinar pottery, â€Å"though deceptively primitive in ornamentation, was technologically superior to that of the Cupisnique. Vessels were made of well-prepared clays that were fully oxidized in firing, making them an even orange color. Cream and red slips were used to accentuate sculptural forms and create flat geometric patterns, but not to draw figurative motifs. The technical advances of the controlled oxidation firing and slip decoration soon had their effect on contemporary Cupisnique ceramics.† Personally, I enjoyed the bottle forms they used wi... ...V period they had an extensive kingdom established and it brought together the peoples of all the north coast valleys. The ceramics were decorated in flowing, expressive lines and the modeled vessels showed attention to individual detailed ornamentation. But the creative flow in the ceramic styles was hindered somewhat because of a strict militant rule of the warrior-priest class that was beginning. Yet this was still the most creative time for the Mochica people. The final period in Mochica ceramics, due to a collapse of the culture, brought an abrupt termination of the great art tradition that it had expressed so well. The vessels found from this period show a carelessness in painting designs, and less attention to details in the sculptural forms. Many of the figures modeled in to the vessels were warriors dressed for combat. The decline in quality that can be observed, and the nervousness and tension that were expressed in their designs and forms was related to the pressure from the militant expansionist group, the Wari. The struggle between the Mochica and the Wari, was long and fierce, ending in a total collapse of their culture and a loss a 1200 year ceramic tradition.

Organized Crime Essay

Ever since the time that human beings began living in any form of community setting, it is likely that organized crime, albeit in a primitive form, was born. Today, organized crime is quite different than the stereotyped mobster of the days of Al Capone. With this evolution in mind, this essay will answer various questions about the modern face of organized crime. Why Does Organized Crime Still Exist? Organized crime still exists today for a variety of reasons, especially when the development of the modern world is taken into account. First, on the most basic level, the classic organized crime organizations still serve a vital function in every corner of the world as a means of managing drug trafficking, illegal gambling, prostitution and many more typical vices that represent profitable opportunities for the criminal enterprise. The complex nature of the political, technological, and economic world in the 21st century also lends itself very well to the proliferation of organized crime. For instance, the many global terrorist groups that are active at the present time are very well run organized crime groups (Washington Times, 2003). Technology, and its link to international commerce has also fostered present day organized crime; in a far cry from the days of â€Å"Murder Incorporated†, organized criminals today often use the Internet and related devices to commit what is called transactional crime, such as bank fraud, embezzlement, stock market swindles, and more (Punch, 2005). What are the Roles of Various Law Enforcement Agencies in Fighting Organized Crime? Traditionally, the various law enforcement agencies served the purpose of protecting the common good and to promote common decency by eradicating the vice and corruption that organized crime fueled. In most cases of localized organized crime, local or state police agencies were able to keep organized crime in check; in the extreme cases when organized crime was international in nature, world police organizations such as Interpol and the FBI got involved. Presently, however, due to the globally terroristic nature of organized crime, which represents as much of a threat to global security as it does to the quality of everyday life, organized crime has been challenged by the armed forces of the nations of the world (Olson, 1995). In these circumstances, world leaders have formed crime fighting alliances to act as a global police force to bring international organized criminals to justice (Fighting Organized Crime, 2000). What are the Challenges with Undercover Investigations in Organized Crime and the Use of Informants to Prosecute Organized Crime Figures? Undercover investigation, due to its very nature, poses its own unique challenges; the need for the undercover officer to maintain his or her assumed identity, effectively infiltrate criminal groups, and bring criminals to justice is perilous to say the least. When undercover investigation is employed in organized crime, a whole new realm of challenge and danger surfaces. To begin with, organized crime groups are typically tightly knit, making the introduction of a new person, especially one whose whole life was created as a work of fiction highly difficult. Once â€Å"inside†, the undercover officer must also maintain the identity at the peril of the investigation at least and their life at worst. Use of informants to prosecute organized crime figures is highly challenging as well; the reliability of the informant, who is of course a criminal, can make or break the investigation. Moreover, keeping that informant in place without being revealed as an informant is daunting and also risks the investigation and the life of the informant. Conclusion Organized crime is alive and well in many forms, given the complex nature of the modern world. As time goes by, fighting organized crime will become increasingly difficult, and the stakes will get higher and higher. World leaders and law enforcement must work together to make a difference.