The Prelude – William Wordsworth

Fardad Hajirostami Guilty Conscience In his poem, â€Å"The Prelude†, William Wordsworth relives a childhood epiphany that alters his perception of nature. Wordsworth describes this experience of his through his voyage in a boat which later dramatically turns into a nightmarish journey. Through use of suspenseful diction, dramatic personification, and descriptive syntax, Wordsworth vividly illustrates his perception of nature and how he views it with certain trepidation after he encounters a â€Å"towering† and horrific figure.The opening lines of the poem immediately personify nature as having a feministic quality. When Wordsworth stumbles upon a boat and unloosens its chain, he describes this incident as an â€Å"act of stealth and troubled pleasure†. Wordsworth in a way foreshadows possible dangers that are lurking in the near future due to his guilty conscience. This guilty conscience can also be interpreted as a consequence of the sexual seduction of nature and the boat as suggested by the author’s syntax and tone.The author’s mentioning of the boat as â€Å"an elfin pinnace† and the description of how he â€Å"lustily †¦ dipped [his] oars into the silent lake† confirm the author’s premature and lascivious tendencies. Wordsworth’s attitude towards the relationship that he shares with the boat also infers a sense of egotism and overconfidence. He describes himself as â€Å"one who rows, proud of his skill, to reach a chosen point with an unswerving line,† with a â€Å"fixed† view. Wordsworth’s syntax and his choice of the words â€Å"fixed†, â€Å"chosen† and â€Å"unswerving† all further develop and emphasize his haughty youthful character.Later in the poem, when Wordsworth witnesses a monstrous black figure appearing on the horizon that seemed to acquire an â€Å"utmost boundary†, a sudden shift in tone and diction takes place. The authorâ €™s seemingly control of nature and his sexual dominance is abruptly stolen away from him due to a symbolic black figure that in a way represents Wordsworth’s guilty conscience and childhood illusions. In addition, the author has lost his composure and â€Å"proud skill† in the way he paddles away with â€Å"trembling oars†. The incidence of this daemon figure completely transformsWordsworth’s tranquil and lustful relationship with nature into a dreadful and outlandish one. Wordsworth’s earlier intimacy with nature transforms to â€Å"solitude† and â€Å"blank desertion†. The author’s perception of nature contrasts with that of the Romanticists. The â€Å"familiar shapes† are no longer prevalent and â€Å"no pleasant images of trees† or â€Å"colors of green fields† linger in the author’s conscience. The author’s anticipation of possible dangers that seemed inevitable due to the suspensefu l nature of the poem did not compare to the extent of such an episode.A key distinction between the author’s perceptions of nature earlier and later in the poem arises in the extent in which he personifies it. Initially, nature was illustrated as possessing an inert quality and a mere existence. This connotation suggested that he controlled nature’s way and determined its fate. Later, however, this earlier notion of his is altered once â€Å"a huge peak, black and huge† appears on the horizon. The â€Å"voluntary power instinct† of the figure implies that it has acquired unnatural and humanistic qualities and thus haunted the author’s dreams.Wordsworth’s description of nature can be interpreted as Wordsworth’s childhood sexual fantasies with feminine figures while the black figure symbolically represents religious condemnation of his society at the time. The morals and customs of the society in which Wordsworth lived in presumably dis dained the sexual desires of the youths. Consequently, Wordsworth unconsciously fears the black figure and interprets it as a force that has come to punish his unfitting and lustful behavior.

Factors Affecting Travel To Long Haul Destinations Report Essay

In this report I will talk about how factors affect travelling to long haul destinations and in this I will include: time zones, climate, seasonality and extreme climate conditions, travel restrictions, entry and exit requirements, health issues and social situations. In this report I will cover all of those with destinations such as : Australia, North Africa, Thailand, Indonesia, South Africa and few more. Time zones have a big effect on travelling to long haul destinations as people can get a jet lag which can ruin their holiday experience as they have to rest to get rid of it before they get active into more activities that they want to do whilst on holiday. The enjoyment of anything they do is reduced when they are jet lagged. Insomnia which is not being able to sleep properly is a very common side effect of jet lag and that is caused by the fact you wake up during the night and then sleep during the day which is caused by circadian rhythms being disturbed. Even NASA have estimat ed that you need 1 day of recovery for every time zone you cross to get back to normal so for example if it takes you 8 hours to get to Australia and you go from GMT to GMT+8 then you should have 8 days of recovery before you can actually be normal. This is also an issue with business trips as businessman need to get their thoughts straight on their work and projects as they land and sometimes they can’t because of the loss of concentration from jet lag. This is a big effect on business travel long haul as the employee’s aren’t as successful. The World Health Organization have also discovered that about 50% of people that travel to long haul destinations can catch more infections and illnesses to the lowering of human resistance which is what should fight any illnesses and infections and it cannot do it due to it fighting with the jet lag. The air in the aircraft is also not the same as on the ground and it gets you really dehydrated. British Airways have a jet lag calculator which you can use before your trip and it gives you tips on how to prevent jet lag and what to do to prevent it. Another risk of such a long flight like Australia can cause deep vein thrombosis which can be really fatal if not taken car e of as it can pop and enter straight to your lungs. It has been proven by the World Health Organization Research that the risk of deep vein thrombosis happening doubles. This is caused by the lack of movement and there are tips  on a lot of website of exercises you can do on the plane to avoid the risk and also to buy some in flight socks. Climate and seasonality also have a big effect ton travelling to long haul destinations but that is just because of people not checking and not being informed about important information. Australia has different seasons than England does. Australia’s hottest months are during Christmas time so if someone wants the best out of their weather they would be best to go at that time. People also aren’t aware of the monsoon season in Thailand which is a season of heavy rain falls. Travelling during that period of time is sometimes even more than 50% cheaper however you have to be prepared for worse rainfalls and worse storms than in the UK which not a lot of people like when they go on holidays. In march 2011 there was flooding in Koh Tao which lead to the evacuation of all people and if this happened whil st you were on your holiday it would totally ruin your holiday experience. When it comes to the extreme climate conditions such as the tropical cyclones which happen in the South Pacific Ocean on the South of the equator. There has been a Tropical storm in Mexico in 2013 leaving people with no way to get to the airport with one pair of shorts, sandals and a top waiting to be rescued. People are scared of visiting such destinations due to the risk of something like this happening. Moving onto the travel restrictions which are put in place by the government to inform tourists about any risks when visiting destinations or restrictions that stop them going to the country whatsoever. The FCO is a government company that has a website which gives all up to date information about any risks. There has recently been the Ebola virus ongoing which made the government put on restrictions on travelling to areas of West Africa. These restrictions are put in place at the moment until march 2015 as there still hasn’t been a cure fount and it’s a really deadly disease. Even though there has not been any risks of Ebola in the South Africa the times live have said in their news article that there has been a lot of people cancelling their holidays due to the fact that they are scared of getting the virus. Travel restrictions are put in place to prevent people from getting the disease and spreading it further. Next I will talk about the social situations that affect the travel to long haul destinations. The poverty in a lot of long haul destination countries reaches the extreme levels where beggars are around every corner. Tourists have to be really  careful with showing what they have and showing their wealth as the beggars end up making them feel guilty due to the fact that you maybe don’t want to help them and if you do it still makes you think that it isn’t enough. In Bandung which is a city in Indonesia there is an expected drop of 10% in tourism due to the increase of beggars on the streets. Tourists have to consider the culture and the level of poverty when they go to such an area and prepare themselves mentally to be able to enjoy this holiday. Also another example of this is the Ramadan city in Africa in which there are beggars not from even local areas harassi ng foreign tourists and making them give them all of their belongings. Recently these beggars were harassing two female tourists and when they didn’t succeed in getting anything out of them they tried to steal their stuff. This has been stated by Sumaiya Yousuf on the Rising Kashmir website. Next I will talk about the health issues that affect the travel to some long haul destinations. Health issues include things like diseases and epidemics. There is a disease ongoing at the minute of Ebola in the areas of West Africa which led to travel restrictions for UK citizens. This disease has not only lead to loss of tourism for West Africa but also for South Africa and some Asian cities as people are scared to come and visit those places because of the disease being this close. There has been researches done that showed that if the epidemic spreads into countries such as Nigeria and Senegal, Africa could lose up to 32.6 billion by the end of 2015. The Research also shows a 20%-40% drop in demand to travelling to areas close to the affected regions. All of this is stated in a International Business Times news online. Entry and Exit requirements are another issue affecting travel to a long haul destination due to the cost of it as they are really high. A single visit visa to China costs  £30 per person, vaccinations and the certificates for them could cost from  £15-  £150 per person depending on the destination and departure taxes when you are leaving to go back to England vary from  £20- £35 per person. Sometimes your departure tax is included in your flight however in some destinations such as Aruba, Dominican Republic, Jamaica and a few more you have to pay in local currency at the airport before you leave back home. Australia over the years since 2009 has increase their departure tax from $AUS7 to $AUS46 which as you can tell is a quick increase, we don’t know whether other countries will be doing departure taxes however it is really of putting when tourists  go to destinations and a lot of their money goes on Visas, Departure tax and Vaccination certificates.

People of the middle east Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

People of the middle east - Essay Example The first word that was revealed to Mohammad (P.B.U.H) in the Koran was â€Å"IQRA† which means to read, recite and seek knowledge. The Koran repeats several words in order to embed key concepts in the mind of the listeners. The word Elm (Knowledge) has been used 750 times which has got the third position after the words ‘Allah’ and ‘Rab’. So Allah emphasized the importance of education and knowledge in the first word of his revelation and even throughout the Koran. Islam is a precious gift for the Muslims to attain salvation and success in this world. For this they need to follow the Koran and seek knowledge from it. Education is an ultimate criterion in recognizing a true Muslim and every true Muslim need to seek and spread knowledge as taught by prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H). The following hadith (Sayings of Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H)) demonstrates the importance of education in Islam. Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H) said that if anyone travels on the road with the intention of seeking knowledge then Allah will cause him to travel on the roads of Paradise. The inhabitants of heavens, earth and the fish living in the deep water will ask for forgiveness for the knowledgeable man. The superiority of the learned man over a devout is like of a moon, over a full night, on the other stars in the sky. The learned people are the heirs of prophet who do not leave dirham (money or currency of Arabia) but only leave knowledge and whoever takes it take in generous amounts. History shows that Muslims have rose to the zenith of civilization and it was just because they adhered to the Islamic law and the teachings of the Holy Koran. The Islamic Empire was once the most advanced and civilized nation of the world. Muslims were responsible for setting the fundamental concepts of different fields. The teaching of the Koran drove them to accomplishments in various disciplines of science. By the end of the tenth century

Math IP 5 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Math IP 5 - Essay Example Answer: 3 Show work in this space. 27 9 =3 9 3 = 3 3 1 = 3 b) Using the formula for the nth term of a geometric sequence, what is the 10th term Answer: 19683 Show work in this space. a10 = a1 rn-1 a10 = (1) (3) 10-1 = (1) (19683) = 19683 c) Using the formula for the sum of a geometric series, what is the sum of the first 10 terms Answer: 29524 Show work in this space. Sn = a1 (1- rn) / 1-r = 1 (1-310) / 1-3 = 1 (1-59049) / -2 = -59048 / -2 = 29524 3) Use the geometric sequence of numbers 1, 1/3, 1/9 , 1/27 to find the following: a) What is r, the ratio between 2 consecutive terms Answer: 1/3 Show work in this space. 1/27 1/9 = 1/3 1/9 1/3 = 1/3 1/3 1 = 1/3 b) Using the formula for the sum of the first n terms of a geometric series, what is the sum of the first 10 terms Carry all calculations to 6 decimals on all assignments. Answer: 1.499976 Show work in this space. Sn = a1 (1- rn) / 1-r = 1 (1-(1/3)10) / 1-1/3 = 1 (1- 1.693508-5) / 2/3 = 1. 49976 c) Using the formula for the sum of the first n terms of a geometric series, what is the sum of the first 12 terms Carry all calculations to 6 decimals on all assignments. Answer: 1.499998 Show work in this space. Sn = a1 (1- rn) / 1-r = 1 (1-1/312) 1-1/3 = 1 (1-1.881676-6) 1-2/3 = 1.499998 d) What observation can make about the successive partial sums of this series In particular, what number does it appear that the sum will always be smaller than Answer: When plotted in a graph, it is expected that the partial sum of the series is a graph which grows flatter over time. This is because the partial sums grow slower over each value. The sum will always be smaller than 3....He rushed over and pulled a young lady out of the flaming truck. Farmer Crane came out and gratefully thanked the traveling salesman for saving his daughter's life. Mr. Crane insisted on giving the man an award for his heroism. So, the salesman said, "If you insist, I do not want much. Get your checkerboard and place one grain of wheat on the first square. Then place two grains of wheat on the next square. Then place four grains on the third square. Continue this until all 64 squares are covered with grains of wheat." As he had just harvested his wheat, Mr. Crane did not consider this much of an award, but he soon realized he made a miscalculation on the amount of wheat involved. c) Calculate the amount of wheat necessary to fill the whole checkerboard (64 squares). How much wheat would the farmer need to give the salesman Please provide the answer in either scientific notation, or calculate and show all 20 digits.

Open System Theory in Nursing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Open System Theory in Nursing - Essay Example Various associations exist between the environment and the systems outlined. After the patient acquires a MRSA infection, various departments have to make some amendments in the way they operate. Isolation of the patient profoundly affects the admissions, dietary, billing, and utilization review departments involved in the management of the patient. These departments have to alter the patients' records and management so as to comply with the new change of the environment i.e. MRSA infection (Johnson & Webber, 2010). In addition, there is the improvement in the overall services offered to the patient in terms of the hiring of a consultant and acquisition of equipment. Moreover, it is mandatory for the patient’s visitors and health care providers to wear protective clothing in the presence of the patient. From the case study, an increase in the severity of the environmental factors leads to a bolder response by the system and the subsystems. Strict measures are thus applied if t he condition of a patient deteriorates. From the case study, Mr. Michaels, Mrs. Courts, and other health service providers are justifiable in the way that they react to the situation of the MRSA patient. Their reasoning is aimed at restricting the transmission of the MRSA and improving the patient’s quality of life while remaining accountable. This is observed through measures of quarantine and the use of protective gear and sterilization in the presence of the patient to both visitors and health care providers.

The Impact of Burger King's Arrival in Lausanne Research Paper

The Impact of Burger King's Arrival in Lausanne - Research Paper Example The questions took both the open and closed format. The data thus collected were analyzed using SPSS version 19 and the results presented in graphical, tabular and arithmetic formats. The questions were designed to draw as much feedback as possible on the satisfaction levels of clients in terms of product quality, affordability, and service. There was one question which was inferential and it was aimed at establishing the respondents’ loyalty. The multiple choice format and Likert based scales which is a preferred method for determining the ranking of answers (Huck 76; Creswell 98) were used. The questions were set with the assistance of findings from previous studies and the questionnaire was self-administered. The questionnaire was constructed with the eventual purpose of analysis in mind. The setting of the research questions was done with reference to previous research done in competing firms and the multiple choices were double checked to ensure that they captured all nec essary aspects of the research. Care was taken to use only positive statements and the questionnaire was in easy to understand language and was checked for grammatical errors, spelling, and punctuation to ensure all respondents understood it in the same manner (De Vaus, 62). The return rate for the Questionnaire was 100% since it was self-administered. 9 Results and Findings 11 1.0 Descriptive results for demographic variables 11 2.0 Preliminary results of main outcome measures 12 The main aim of the study was to establish the level of loyalty and contentment among McDonald’s clients, In this regard, major selling points of McDonald's were identified and respondents questioned on how they rated them. Table 2 presents a summary of the qualitative variables. 12 Hypothesis Tests 15 Discussions and Recommendations 16 Works cited 19  Ã‚   Executive Summary:   Businesses do not operate in a vacuum. They operate in an environment peopled with individuals otherwise referred to as the customers, suppliers, the civil authorities, diverse economic and social factors, entrepreneurs and shareholders as well as homogenous institutions otherwise known as competitors. A business has to navigate all these factors so that to remain economically viable (Israelite, 27). In the current research, the Lausanne Franchises of McDonald's are faced with imminent competition from the entry of McDonald's perennial competitor; Burger King. This entry is presumed to be sometime in December of this year. The entry of a competitor always heralds new challenges to be surmounted by any company. The customers were the main source of revenue also become, at such times, an important source of information. In this regard, McDonalds Lausanne commissioned this study to establish whether their current customer base is under threat from this new entrant.

On Leadership Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

On Leadership - Essay Example The king was put into a difficult situation, without adequate resources to recruit new people and the current regime of fighting soldiers was devoid of nourishment, adequate clothing, and even pay for their previous wartime efforts. The king needed to rally support without expressing that difficulties that were currently plaguing the king at the economic level and in terms of his current human resources capabilities. Like a regular company, these are sometimes going to be real-life situations that prevent being able to simply replace or renew the existing organizational culture through new recruitment efforts. The goal is to help retain employees and Henry V does an excellent job by appealing to their personal vanity, as a more of a transformational leader than one that simply barks commandments. The soldiers in his army already have some of the symptoms of burnout commonly found in businesses, especially those with more rigid hierarchies of control. For example, manufacturing facilities where people have specialized job roles might have a leadership structure that puts more restrictions on workers and the job design does not allow for a great deal of personal creativity, ingenuity or autonomy. In this type of environment, without offering certain rewards, either physical or psychological, the end result can be less satisfaction and commitment to meeting organizational goals. Henry V realizes that this is occurring due to his current limitations as king, yet at the same time he does not want to create negative motivation by constantly citing that there are both economic and HR-related problems with his current leadership structure. He builds motivation effectively by creating a more unified organizational culture where people are treated much like equals. This type of rhetoric is very effective as such speeches remind the subjects of Henry V that they are valued and that they will, indeed, earn a reward for

Health Care Debate Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Health Care Debate - Essay Example Part I â€Å"In Health Care Debate, Fear Trumps Logic† aired on NPR on August 28, 2009, is an apt example of the usage of scare tactics by the anti-reform camp to scuttle the health care reform initiatives and to make the general public, and especially the senior citizens, more apprehensive and weary of the proposed reforms. The anti-reform vested interests are actually manipulating the deep seated fears of the target audience to turn them against the health care reforms. The scare tactics relies for its success on the fact that fear is the most common and universally shared human emotion. Humans tend to learn from their past experiences and mostly store the information in their mind as to which things are to be feared and avoided (Goleman, 1996). So associating a proposed change with something that is already feared by the target audience is bound to generate feelings of fear and hence revulsion. Thus, linking the health reforms with communists, involuntary euthanasia, lack o f access to healthcare and other such things is an exercise in scare tactics. May sound enervating, but scare tactics do enjoy a fare degree of success rate. A large share of this success could be attributed to the biochemistry of human brain (Goleman, 1996). People are automatically programmed to a ‘fight or flight’ response to the things they fear (Goleman, 1996). It is seldom that people stop to recheck the facts pertaining to a situation that triggers fear, because this strictly goes against their instinct for self preservation (Goleman, 1996). Besides, the essential human gregariousness motivates people to spread the fear psychosis, so as to protect as many fellow humans as possible (NPR, 2009, a). Thus it is the human physiology that assures a partial if not complete success of a scare tactics. Such scare tactics do have the potential to drag the relevant public and political issues like health reforms into the realm of the impossible, and hence prevent formalizat ion of the intended reforms or changes into statutory provisions or laws. The usage of such influence tactics does have the potential to distort the very nature of a political process or debate and to discourage the social and political leaders supportive of a change. Owing to the very nature of democracy, political leaders are required to be sensitive to the majority opinion. The coercion of majority opinion through the subtle approaches like scare tactics may willingly or unwillingly force the courageous few to tow the popular line, when the facts point to the contrary. Part II In that context, â€Å"Senior Groups Reject Health Care ‘Scare Tactics’†, aired two days later on NPR that is on August 30, 2009, is a predictable outcome of the scare tactics used by the anti-reform camp, especially in a modern context when the authentic information and data are readily accessible. As previously told, humans are programmed to a ‘fight or flight’ response to the things that portend to be dangerous (Goleman, 1996). However, the thing to be noted is that ‘fight’ is as much a possible response to a scare tactics as a ‘flight’. Moreover, the interest groups and individuals that have much at stake, are posed to offer a tough fight to dispel the danger posed to their long term well being, by the intended outcome of a

TO WHAT EXTENT ARE LEADERSHIP ATTRIBUTES CONSIDERED UNIVERSALLY Essay

TO WHAT EXTENT ARE LEADERSHIP ATTRIBUTES CONSIDERED UNIVERSALLY EFFECTIVE AND DESIRABLE - Essay Example Table of contents 1. Introduction 3 2. Requirements of international and domestic leadership in terms of leadership skills and competencies 4 2.1 Leader – characteristics 4 2.2 Environment that makes leadership international 5 2.3 Culture as related to domestic and international leadership 6 2.4 The influences of environment on domestic and international leadership 8 2.5 Challenges that international leaders face 10 2.6 Domestic vs global leader – differences and similarities 12 3. Conclusion 13 References 14 1. Introduction The performance of organizations in the global market is usually evaluated by referring to their leadership style. A leader is the individual who has the power to take all important decisions of each organization, including the design of its strategy and the control of all its activities (Grisham 2011). The behaviour of leaders is not standardized since each leader has his unique experiences, skills and perceptions. In fact, it has been proved that the development of an effective leadership strategy is depended on a series of factors. Most commonly, the socio-cultural and economic environment but also the objectives of the organization are the criteria on which leadership decisions are based. In addition, a leadership strategy needs to be feasible in terms of available resources. At this point, the following issue appears: can the effectiveness of a leader being influenced by the geographical region in which his decisions will be applied? In the literature, a distinction is made between domestic leaders and international leaders. The activities of the former are limited within a particular area; the leaders of organizations that operate only locally belong in this category. International leaders are those who can be involved in leadership decisions related to the global market (Marquardt 2000). In other words, a leadership is made international when referring to the global environment of an organization, meaning not only the n eeds of the organization in regard to its activities in a foreign country but also the challenges that the organization has to face in the global market; competition, cultural differences and regulatory framework are the most common challenges of this kind. The differences and similarities of domestic leaders and international leaders are analytically presented in this paper aiming to show that domestic leadership requires different skills and competencies than the international leadership. For this reason, the appropriateness of individuals to act as leaders domestically or internationally can be evaluated only if reviewing carefully their skills, as responding to the demands of each of these two leadership types. 2. Requirements of international and domestic leadership in terms of leadership skills and competencies 2.1 Leader - characteristics In order to be successful as a leader an individual needs to have certain qualities. In practice, the characteristics of leaders can be hig hly differentiated under the influence of their personal experiences and perceptions. Still, there are certain requirements that leaders need to meet (Maxwell 2005). A leader who meets all these requirements can be considered as fully successful in regard to his role (Maxwell 2005). It should be noted that leadership, as a role, can incorporate many phases. In each of these phases a leader should meet different requirements. These phases can be set in a hierarchy, and would be the following, starting from the lower level: a) Position;, b) Permission, c) Production, d) People development (Maxwell 2005). Each of these phases has different requirements; for example, in the first phase followers simply execute the orders given to them because they are obliged to; the autocratic leadership style

Legal Requirements for Employee Benefits Essay Example for Free

Legal Requirements for Employee Benefits Essay As we discussed earlier in this chapter, some benefits are required by law. This requirement adds to the cost of compensating employees. Organizations looking for ways to control staffing costs may look for ways to structure the workforce so as to minimize the expense of benefits. They may require overtime rather than adding new employee, hire part-time rather than full-time workers(because part-time employees generally receive much smaller benefits packages),and use independent contractors rather than hire employees. Some of these choices are limited by legal equirements, however. For example ,the Fair Labor Standards Act requires overtime pay for nonexempt workers, as discussed in chapter 11. Also,the Internal Revenue Service strictly limits the definition of independent contractors,â€Å" so that employees cannot avoid legal obligations by classifying workers as self-employed when the organization receives the benefits of a permanent employee . Other legal requirements involve tax treatment of benefits ,antidiscrimination laws, and accounting for benefits. Tax treatment of benefits A modern, flexible benefit plan provides a number of potential tax advantages to employees and employers. Employees A flexible benefit plan allows employees to choose to swap some of their existing benefits or purchase benefits from a menu of options. Payments in excess of the employees spending allowance are normally collected via a gross salary adjustment. If employees exchange salary for tax exempt benefits (pensions, life cover, childcare vouchers, mobile phones, etc. ), they do not pay tax or National Insurance on the amount exchanged. This gives a basic rate tax payer earning less than the National Insurance (NI) Upper Earnings Limit (UEL) a saving of 33% compared to receiving the money as salary. For example, an employee that exchanges ? 200 per month of their salary for childcare vouchers and additional pension payments will save ? 792 in tax and NI compared to taking the money as salary. Even if the benefits are not tax exempt, employees can still exchange salary for employer provided benefits and, whilst they will be charged income tax, they save NI as their salaries have been reduced by the value of the benefit. This gives employees earning under the UEL an 11% saving. Employers Employers participating in a flexible benefit plan do not pay employers NI on payments on payments to exempt benefits. If these payments have been exchanged from salary by employees then the employer will save 12. 8% employers NI on the amounts. For example, an employee that exchanges ? 200 per month of their salary for childcare vouchers and additional pension payments will deliver an annual NI saving to the employer of ? 307. Antidiscrimination Laws  Legal treatment of men and woman includes equal access to benefits, so the organization may not use the employee’s gender as the basic for providing more limited benefits. That is the rationale for the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which requires that employers treat pregnancy or childbirth, the employee needs time off for conditions related to pregnancy or childbirth, the employee would receive whatever disability benefits the organization offers to employees who take disability leave for other reasons. Another area of concern in the treatment of male and female employees is pension benefits. On average, woman live longer than men, so on average, pension benefits for female employees are more expensive (because the organization pays the pension longer), other things being equal. Some organizations have used this difference as a basis for requiring that female employees contribute more than male employees as a basis for requiring that female employees contribute more than male employees to defined benefit plans. The Supreme Court in 1978 determined that such a requirement is illegal. According to the Supreme Court, the law is intended to protect individuals, and when women are considered on an individual basis ( not as averages ), not every woman outlives every man. Age discrimination is also relevant to benefits policies. Two major issues have received attention under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and amendments. First, employers must take care not to discriminate against workers over age 40 in providing pay or benefits. For example, employers may not set an age at which retirement benefits stop growing as a way to pressure older workers to retire. Also, early retirement incentive programs need to meet certain standards. The programs may not coerce employees to retire, they must provide accurate information about the options available, and they must give employees enough time to make a decision. In effect, employees must really have a choice about whether they retire. When employers offer early retirement, they often ask employees to sign waivers saying they will not pursue claims under the ADEA. The Older Workers Benefit Protection Act of 1990 set guidelines for using these waivers. The waivers must be voluntary and understandable to the employee and employer , and they must spell out the employees rights under the ADEA. Also , in exchange for signing the waiver, the employee must receive â€Å"compensation† that is , greater benefits than he or she would otherwise receive upon retirement. The employer inform employee that they may consult a lawyer before signing, and employee must have time to make a decision about signing-21 days before signing plus 7 days afterward in which they can revoke the agreement. The Americans with Disabilities Act imposes requirements related to health insurance. Under the ADA, employees with disabilities must have equal access to whatever health insurance coverage the employer provides other employees. Even so, the terms and conditions of health insurance may be based on risk factors -as long as the employer does not use this basis as a way to escape offering health insurance to someone with a disability. From the standpoint of avoiding legal challenges, an employer who has risk-based insurance and then hires an employee with a disability is in a stronger position than an employer who switches to a risk-based policy after hiring a disabled employee. Accounting Requirements Companies financial statement must meet the many requirements of the Financial Accounting standards Board ( FASB) . These accounting requirements are intended to ensure that financial statements are a true picture of the companys financial status and that outsiders, including potential lenders and investors , can understand and compare financial statements . Under FASB standards, employers must set aside the funds they expect to need for benefits to be paid after retirement, rather than funding those benefits on a pay-as-you-go basis. On financial statement, those funds must appear as future cost obligations. For companies with substantial retirement benefits, reporting those benefits as future cost obligations greatly lowers income each year. Along with rising benefits costs. This reporting requirement has encouraged many companies to scale benefits to retirees. Summarize the regulation affecting how employers design and administer benefits program. Employers must provide the benefits that are required by law, and they may not improperly classify employees as independent contractors to avoid paying benefits. Tax treatment of qualified plans is favorable, so organizations need to learn the requirements for setting up benefits as qualified plans-for example, ensuring that pension plans do not discriminate in favor of the organizations highly compensated employees. Employers may not use employees gender as the basis for discriminating against anyone, as in pension benefits on the basis that women as a group may live longer. Nor may employers discriminate against workers over age 40 in providing pay or benefits, such as pressuring older workers to retire by limiting retirement benefits When employers offer early retirement, they must meet the requirements of the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act of 1990. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, employers must give disabled employees equal access to health insurance. To meet the requirements of the Financial Accounting Standards Board, employers must set aside the funds they expect to need for retirement benefits ahead of time, rather than funding the benefits on a pay-as-you-go basis

Avivas Services Marketing Mix Marketing Essay

Avivas Services Marketing Mix Marketing Essay This report will be looking at the services which Aviva provides and how the services the business offer differ from a typical manufacturing firm. Looking at the theoretical issues of intangibility, heterogeneity, inseparability and perishability which affect the various elements of the services marketing mix of Avivas products provided to their customers. Company Introduction Aviva is the sixth-largest insurance group in the world. It has a turnover of over  £47.1 billion. Aviva provides more than 44.5 million customers with insurance, savings and investment products. They are one of Europes leading providers of Car insurance, Motor insurance, Life insurance, Home insurance, Health insurance, Travel insurance, Personal accident insurance, Pet insurance and Business insurance. Avivas main activities are the provision of general and life insurance, long-term savings products and fund management services. The group has around 36,600 employees,  £379 billion of assets under management and 43 million customers. Avivas Principal subsidiaries are: Aviva Life Pensions, investments, Life Insurance and long term savings (formerly Norwich Union) Aviva Insurance General Insurance Aviva Investors Fund Management (formerly Morley Fund Management) Aviva is ranked as one of the UKs top 10 most valuable brands in 2012 and has been voted the UKs top life, general and health insurer by insurance intermediaries. Aviva aims for superior long-term investment performance and it is UKs one of the most financially strong investment company. Aviva provides an extensive range of value-for-money, good quality products investments, retirement, protection and healthcare designed and changing to meet your needs, both now and in the future. Aviva was created by a merger of two British insurance firms, Norwich Union and CGU plc. In October 2009 the company decided to focus on its commercial insurance sector and demonstrate its commitment to brokers by launching their find a broker facility, using the British Insurance Brokers Association search engine. To help them with this endeavour, Paul Whitehouse was recruited to play the part of a successful hairdresser running three salons. The message of the campaign focused on business insurance through insurance brokers. The closing line of the campaign was Were in business to keep you in business. The Marketing Mix Marketing is the ability of an organisation to provide the right product, at the right price, via the right outlets and presented in the correct way . In addition to product, price, place and promotion, services marketing calls for three additional Ps people, processes and physical evidence. The idea of classification affecting the marketing mix often expands our understanding of the marketing mix itself. For example excluding product classifications such as tangibility, reputation, heterogeneity, inseparability, perish-ability and ownership which are associated with service, we can look at the marketing mix as simply four Ps: The product, the price, the place, and the promotion. This initial idea of a marketing mix originated in the 1960s when developed by Neil Borden in his book: The Concept of the Marketing Mix (Borden, 1965) In this article Borden lists various elements of the marketing mix for manufacturers, twelve in total, stating the list can be long or short depending on how far one wishes to go in his classification and sub-classification of the marketing procedures. From this list has derived the four Ps of the marketing mix we know today. These four Ps make up the raw product without any service factor, the actual product, where it is sold, the promotion to the target consumer and the selling price. There is arguably no evidence to show any kind of customer service in the four Ps marketing mix, can be thought of as distinctly producer-orientated. (Kotler, Armstrong, Harker, Brennan, 2009) Product Distinctions Theoretical issues of Intangibility, Heterogeneity, Inseparability and Perishability are as follows Intangibility is a unique characteristic of service which cannot be seen physically, felt, tasted or touched as physical goods are. For example when we watch a movie in the theatre, we are entertained by watching it. Entertainment is the output of the service that is delivered. Issues caused by intangibility are Lack of service inventories: Services cannot be stored as the physical goods are. Lack of patent protection: As services are intangible, they cannot be patent protected as the physical goods are. Service offered by one firm can be also offered by other company in different way. Difficulty in communicating services: Goods can be physically displayed, but whereas services are not physically shown to customers. Its hard for the companies to convince the customer to buy make the products that are offered as services. E.g. Insurance Difficulty in pricing services: Services offered by companies differ and no two services can be same as customers needs are different. Services are customised and hence tend to have fixed pricing. Heterogeneity is a unique characteristic of service that reflects the difference in the service that is provided from one customer to other customer. For example when a customer goes to a restaurant and ordered food would be different kind from the other customer and no customers experience is the same. Similarly no ones custom made jewellery looks alike as its unique to the customers requirements. Issues caused by heterogeneity Service standardization and quality control are difficult to achieve Services provided by different providers within the same location tend to be same. Mood and skills of a single provider differ from day-to-day Inseparability is a unique characteristic of service which displays the association between the people or company which provides service and the person who is engaged in receiving the service and also other customers who are indirectly or directly getting the knowledge. For example when a customer wants to take an internet connection, the sales team of the internet company need not interact face to face with the customer to give the information about the product. But whereas in a production process like Saloon, the customer has to be physically present to get his hair cut. Issues caused by inseparability Physical connection of the service provider to the service: In order to provide the service to the customer, the service provider has to be physically present and Face-to-face interaction with customers makes employees satisfaction critical when they are not able to provide proper guidance to customers. Involvement of the customer in the production processes: Customers involvement may vary according to the requirement that the customer be physically present to receive the service, i.e. for a dental service, customer has to be physically present in order to solve his or her problem related to teeth. Involvement of other customers in the production process: Customers presence is required in some service and some customers often share a common service experience and that shared experience can be negative or positive depending upon the experience the customer gets out of the service he has received. Perishability is a unique characteristic of service in which the service cannot be saved. Unused services cannot be reserved or neither can be inventoried. For example seats in a theatre can be inventoried for a period of time before the purchase of the ticket and cannot be inventoried after the show is finished. Another example of perishability is fresh meat, it can be stored for certain time period but once it sold it is completely perished. Issues caused by Perishability Matching supply and demand is a major challenge for the service provider, if there is a higher demand of service, than service providers tend to make the supply of the service maximum. When there is a higher demand, than the service provider gives optimal supply level. Avivas services marketing mix Product There is no point in developing a product or service that no one wants to buy. Companies try to find out what the customers need and then develop the right product that attracts customers. A produce is we produce. If we produce goods it means tangible product and when we produce or generate services, it means intangible service product. A product is what a seller sells and what buyer buys. Thus, Aviva provides insurance services and therefore insurance services are their products. Aviva is the leading company offering insurance services to the users. Apart from offering life insurance policies, they also offer underwriting and consulting services. When a person or an organisation buys an Insurance policy from Aviva, he buys a policy along with it the assistance and the prestige of the insurance company and the facilities of claims and compensation. It is natural that the customers expect a reasonable return for their investment and Aviva as insurance company wants to maximize their profitability. Aviva would have intangibility issue as the company can introduce new insurance scheme which would give the customer the advantage of having to take single insurance policy for the whole family. The company can protect the product brand but it cannot restrict other insurance companies to come up with similar scheme with a different name, hence there is lack of patent protection. The company provides different schemes according to the customers needs and the pricing of the insurance is not the same for every customer. Pricing A product is only worth what customers are prepared to pay for it and the price needs to be competitive. In insurance business the pricing decisions are concerned with the premium charged against the policies that a customer would take and also interest is charged for defaulting the payment of premium. The factors that Aviva uses for determining the premium rates under a life insurance plan are mortality, expense and interest. The premium rates are revised if there are any significant changes like Mortality: When deciding upon the pricing strategy the average rate of mortality is one of the main considerations that it takes in to care. Expenses: The cost of processing, commission to agents, reinsurance companies as well as registration are all incorporated into the cost of instalments, premium sum and forms the integral part of the pricing strategy. Interest: Rate of interest is one of the major factors which determine if the customers willingness to invest in insurance. Customers will not be willing to put their funds to invest in insurance if the interest rates provided by financial institutions are much greater than the perceived returns from the insurance premiums. Aviva would have intangibility issue in pricing, Aviva provides different kinds of insurances. Customers tend to choose which product they would want to opt and as insurance is not same for all the customers the price varies depending on the premium and the term that a customer is will to go for. Hence pricing the service plays a major role in Aviva. Place The place where customers buy a product must be appropriate and convenient for the customer and the product must be available in the right place at the right time. Place plays an important role at Aviva. It has branches all over the UK and also has insurance agents in order to offer the services. This helps the company to process the services to the end-user so that the gap between services that are promised and services that are offered is bridged over. Aviva also offers customers to apply for policies online. This helps the customers to get their insurance without going to the branch or to contact agent and saves customers time. Aviva would have inseparability issues, if a customer wants to take insurance he has to get in touch with the staff and get the information needed to choose the right kind of product he wants. Aviva should have more dedicated advisers to educate the customers for taking insurance and explaining the benefits of having insurance from their company . Promotion Promotion is the way a company communicates what it does and what it offers to the customers. Good promotion is necessary for a company to have better income and it also shows what advantages the customers get when they choose their services. Aviva promotes its services by advertising in television ads, radio and billboards. This helps Aviva to boost its sales. It also provides loyalty discounts to existing customers which helps the company to attract new customers by word of mouth. The company also uses direct mail and online campaigns to target new customers. Aviva also offers special promotional deals which help the company to get new customers who wish to switch from an existing insurance company. When it comes to promotion, Aviva would have heterogeneity and intangibility issues as no customer would have the same kind of policy. Insurance policy depends on various factors like age , health etc. so the company has to customise the policy according to the customer needs so that they could attract more customers. The company gives promotional offers to customers which are intangibility in nature and this makes it hard for the company to actually convince the customer to take their service as they are not physical products which a customer can feel. People Anyone who comes in contact with customers will make an impression and it might have positive or negative. It is out most important for a company to ensure that all employees who have contact with customers are properly trained and also should have right kind of people for the job. Understanding the customer better allows designing appropriate products. Aviva being a service industry and involves a high level of people interaction, Aviva makes sure that all its staff is given regular training so that they can maintain strong relationships with the customers. They have 24 hour helpline with multi-lingual staff to answer customer queries regarding them policies or any other service related issues. When it comes to people, Aviva would have perishability issue. If a customer is not happy with the service that the company is providing then he tend to look for better services that other company offers. Employees should make sure that they understand what the customer issues are and try to help them out so that they dont loose the customer. Process The process of giving a service to a customer is crucial in terms of customer satisfaction such as waiting times, the information given to customers and the way the staff helps the customers are important for a company to keep the customers happy. Customers are not interested in the detail of how the business runs. Avivas process is customer friendly. They advise customers about the products that they offer and tell the customers which product is best suited. Aviva has the reputation of speed and accuracy of payment. Their processing method is easy and convenient to the customers. The instalment schemes they provide cater to the ever growing demands of the customers. They provide different schemes to cater the demand of customers who wish to go for the service. The IT Data Warehousing system of Aviva helps the company to have a unified way to provide service large no. of customers efficiently and maintain their overheads. This helps to improve customer service levels. When it comes to process, Aviva could have issues related to inseparability, intangibility and perishability because they have to have advertise regularly about their products that they offer, new schemes that the company is giving to its existing customers as well as new customers. Service and quality control could also have adverse effect on the sales of their products. If they dont offer customers the help that they need on time, customers might feel unhappy about the service that they get which leads to switchover to a different company. Physical evidence Service cannot be experienced before it is delivered. Physical evidence given by an organisation must confirm the assumptions of the customer. As the customer cannot experience the service before buying it, but they can talk about the service with other people about the experience they have got by choosing their product. Distribution is a key determinant of success for all insurance companies. Today, the insurers have a large reach and presence throughout UK. Building a distribution network is very expensive and time consuming. Aviva provides all the information on their website so that customers can have all the information about the products and the services the company provides. Aviva has also been using remote distribution channels such as telephone and email in order to reach more customers so that they can avoid intermediaries, bring down overheads and increase profitability. Aviva offers an entire range of products including motor, home and life insurance and pensions. Conclusion The seven ps of Marketing Mix The marketing mix is the combination of marketing activities that an organisation engages in so as to best meet the needs of its targeted market. Taking product classification in to account when dealing with marketing of services, it expands the understanding of the original 4ps. The Insurance business deals in selling services and therefore due weightage in the formation of marketing mix for the Insurance business is needed. The marketing mix includes sub-mixes of the 7 Ps of marketing i.e. the product, its price, place, promotion, people, process physical attraction. The above mentioned 7 Ps can be used for marketing of Insurance products. The services that Aviva offers as mentioned above is affected by issues of classification of being Intangibility, Heterogeneity, Inseparability and Perishability which based on the researched information is performed well by the business. Aviva offers services which are competitive with other insurance companies on price and service support which has helped the company to be ranked as one of the UKs top 10 most valuable brands in 2012 and sixth-largest insurance group in the world. It has become one global brand with 43 million customers and has over 300 years of heritage.

Threat of Endangerment: The Mountain Gorilla :: essays research papers

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The mountain gorilla was first discovered roaming the Virunga Volcanoes in Rwanda (von Beringe, 2002, p.9). German Captain Robert von Beringe and his African soldiers stumbled upon two mountain gorillas around the volcanic region on October 17, 1902 (von Beringe, 2002, p.9). Von Beringe captured and killed one of them and sent the body to the Zoological Museum in Berlin, Germany. Professor Paul Matschie, who worked with the museum, identified the gorilla as a new class and named it after its founder: Gorilla beringei beringei (von Beringe, 2002, p.10). Twenty-three years later, American naturalist Carl Akeley persuaded King Albert of Belgium to turn a Belgian trust territory, near Rwanda, into a national park for the conservation of mountain gorillas. The Albert National Park, later named the Virunga National Park, was the first park established in Africa (Ngowi, 2002).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Between 1960 and 1980, American zoologists studied mountain gorillas. George Schaller spent one year doing basic study on the animal. Dian Fossey devoted her life to extensively studying and protecting mountain gorillas. Fossey moved to Rwanda to be closer to the animals and set up the Karisoke Research Center in 1967 (Robbins et al., 2001). She directed the center for thirteen years, learning the habits and gaining the acceptance of the mountain gorillas (Robbins et al., 2001). In 1983, she wrote a book, Gorillas in the Mist, to promote public awareness of the troubles mountain gorillas face. Her memoir was later made into a movie. Her relationship with mountain gorillas and concern for their safety was unmatched. She created an organization to save gorillas in 1978 called the Digit Fund, named after a mountain gorilla Fossey was close to (Robbins et al., 2001). After her mysterious death in 1985, the organization switched its name to the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International. Fossey contributed to much understanding of mountain gorillas.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Dian Fossey was so driven to protect mountain gorillas because they are an endangered species. Several threats have kept their population from thriving. One threat is disease, especially those which humans are equally as vulnerable to (Ferber, 2000). Tourists enjoy visiting the mountains of Rwanda to admire the gorillas and encourage their safety; however, humans help put mountain gorillas at risk. In 1999, a team of researchers with the Journal of Parasitology noted roundworm parasites in the feces of mountain gorillas (Ferber, 2000). These parasites normally have affected only humans through contaminated water. Early, in 1988, blood and tissue samples of several mountain gorillas indicated measles infection (Ferber, 2000).

Trade Show Intelligence Essay -- Marketing, Competitive Intelligence

Trade show intelligence Introduction Many organizations that offer products and services in their individual markets are involved in the practice of gathering data and information about their rivals or competitors. This practice is common in trade shows and other similar exhibition events. Trade shows offer a rich source of actionable information and most organizations know this and thus; their participation therein is crucial in order to adapt to their environment and keep up with their market (Calof, 2004). The aim of this paper is to discuss trade shows by focusing on how the most actionable information can be gathered from trade shows to enable better decision making and adaptation to changing environments. Firstly, a brief description of trade shows and trade show intelligence is provided, followed by the benefits and problems of trade and lastly; recommendations on forming an appropriate information collection and analysis team are provided. What is meant by trade show intelligence? Bonoma describes trade shows as a marketing tool whereby organizations and vendors are invited to participate to showcase their products and services in an exhibition setting (Bonoma, 1983). They are events organized solely for the purpose of marketing and information sharing, where competitors and partners are in direct contact with each other. As mentioned in the last paragraph, organizations are actively collecting information on each other’s strategies and operations. This allows them to identify trends and predict changes in their environments in order to become flexible and remain in operation (Calof, 2004; Cherry & Gardner, 2002). Trade shows are important for this reason, they provide organizations with â€Å"†¦the best opportunity for coll... ...ormation from trade shows (Calof, 2004). Once the trade show is over and information has been collected, it will be time to return to the office and analyze the results. A follow up can be made on formed relationships; agents can use these relationships to collect more data in the future. Since these agents will actively be involved in CI even after the trade show; these formed relationships can be of advantage to them. Conclusion To conclude, trade show intelligence is a sub-concept of competitive intelligence that allows organizations to use actionable information to change their position in the market, maintain it or make strategic decisions. A dedicated CI team made up of CI agents that understand the full context of the information needs derived from Key intelligence topics is required to collect the data and bring it back to the organization for analysis.

Covenanted Governments :: essays research papers

The covenant is very dear to our modern world, being that many political philosophers that shaped our modern world based much of their theories on a covenanted government. When looking at the United States, the theory was considered important from the Mayflower Compact and on. The theory of â€Å"a covenanted people† is associated with Locke, Hobbes, and Rousseau. Our â€Å"framers† took all of the aforementioned history and philosophy in account to develop our virgin nation. The concept of a covenant and covenanted form of government has greatly metamorphisised over time into nations such as ours. The thoughts of its origins are also very electric and diverse. Despite all of these idiosyncrasies, there runs a common thread through a compact form of government, and that is power is in the hand of a sovereign and all involved in the government are there by tactic consent. Around the time the pilgrims rebelled against King James in England, philosophy was abundant, especially that influenced by the belief in god. A majority of the governments around the world were monarchies. As far as our country is concerned, the pilgrims were the first to establish a covenanted government with the Mayflower Compact. This compact stated that all aboard the ship headed for the â€Å"new city of God†, were under the rule of God. Here is the clincher: even though it was a government under the rule of God, the agreement was that the people in God’s name would run the institutions of government. People executed God’s will his â€Å"permission†. In these times, people believe that they were carrying out God’s name and very will. These people weren’t bound together by caprice and whim, but for and out of necessity and deep-rooted religious beliefs. They formed a civil body politics so they may increase their chances at survival. The next vital document that was created in the â€Å"New World† was the Fundamental Orders of Connecticut. This document was closely related to the Mayflower Compact in that it was made in the name of God, it established a theocracy. This document brought people together in a tacit agreement that they would obey the word of God, as interpreted by the people and the sovereign appointed (a magistrate). The fundamental Orders and the Mayflower Compact are very distinct from the Articles of Confederation and the US Constitution in that they are theocracies. The people governed the letter two of the aforementioned; religion played little or no importance.

Ambush Marketing

Ambush marketing is a marketing tool, which may lead to serious marketing success. Ambush marketing emphasizes the importance of shows in big business promotion, and the role of big business in creating shows. Sporting events represent just one example of the way ambush marketing can work in real world business environment. Sponsorship becomes secondary as soon as ambush marketing tools are applied in practice. Ambush marketing is the use of a Sporting Event, in marketing, while not sponsoring the event.The use of the event is done to associate the company with the event, however, in most cases a rival company will be the official sponsor of the event. This is done in full legality and does not break any laws. Ambush marketing is an extremely flexible means of using shows in business promotion. Ambush marketing can take variety of forms, and be adjusted to particular marketing situations. However, this form of marketing strategy generates numerous legal and ethical issues. Sponsors c laim discriminative character of ambush marketing approaches.Simultaneously, ambush theory offers a list of solutions to tackle ethical and legal issues. A Great, yet hypothetical, Example of ambush marketing would be an American Superbowl, which is usually sponsored by Budweiser Beer. Miller beer traditionally associated with the game is not its official sponsor. In reality, Miller uses the benefits of Budweiser’s sponsorship to promote its own trademark, without breaking the legality of the sporting event. Why this trend? Sport is a big business and big businesses are heavily involved in sports.Athletes in the major spectator sports are marketable commodities, sports teams are traded on the stock market, sponsorship rights at major events can cost millions of dollars, network television stations pay large fees to broadcast games, and the merchandising and licensing of sporting goods is a major multi-national business. Although sports have had a commercial component to its o peration since its formative years tracing back to Ancient Greece, in no previous time have we seen the type of exponential growth in the commercialization of sports as occurred in the past decades.This is mainly due to the sophistication of advertisement such as the purchasing of TV and radio slots and billboards in prime locations. It is important to note that sponsorship is not the first financial resource of sport organisations. The main sources of funding for major sport and mega events are TV broadcast rights, sponsoring comes in second and ticketing third . Sponsoring grew in line with the phenomenal increase in TV demand for sport events. One of the main reasons for the emerging yet inevitable trend of Ambush Marketing is to this hype surrounding famous events such as the Olympics, FIFA World Cup and the NFL Super Bowl.Due to the high costs of sponsoring such events, smaller companies cannot afford to spend the amounts larger conglomerates and multinational companies like Co ca Cola, Samsung, McDonalds, Nike, and Kodak pay for getting their sponsorship, and this is one of the basic reasons that is perpetrating ambush marketing. Even larger companies are limited to the amount of events they can sponsor since the sponsorship fees do not include the expenses of the advertisement such as TV, print, outdoor ads, and promotional activities.For the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, the Coca-Cola Company forecasted their expenses to about $60 million for commercial air time on NBC’s Olympic telecasts in addition to the $40 million the company paid for its worldwide sponsorship rights. Common Forms & Strategies Ambush Marketing takes many forms. One main form commonly used is known as Association Ambushing. This is when the non-sponsor gives the impression of being an official sponsor by using words or symbols associated with the event.For example, during the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Anheuser-Busch was the official sponsor and Schirf Brewery, a local and small company, came up with a fairly clever idea of marking its delivery trucks with â€Å"Wasutch Beers. The Unofficial Beer. 2002 Winter Games. † Another main type of ambush marketing is known as Intrusion Ambushing, which is when the non-sponsor piggybacks on the media and spectator exposure of the event for instance by advertising near event venues. Some of the most commonly, but not restricted, employed ambush marketing strategies are as follows:1. Sponsoring the broadcast of the event: Kodak’s sponsorship of the ABC broadcasts of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics when Fuji was the official IOC sponsor.2. Sponsoring sub-categories within an event and exploit the investment aggressively: During the 1988 Olympics at Seoul, Kodak secured the worldwide category sponsorship for the Games, while Fuji obtained sub-sponsorship of the U. S. swimming team.3. Making a sponsorship-related contribution to a players’ pool: Ian Thorpe was sponsored by Adidas when Nike was the official clothing supplier for the Australian Olympic team.Thorpe was even photographed with his towel draped over Nike’s logo at a medal presentation ceremony to protect his personal contract with Adidas. 4. Engaging in advertising that coincides with a sponsored event: Intense advertising done by a competitor during or around a sponsored event such as booking billboards near to event venues to fool consumers into thinking there is a link to the event. An example of this was during the 1992 Olympics; Nike placed large murals of USA basketball team members Michael Jordan and Charles Barkley on the sides of buildings in Barcelona.Nike was not an official sponsor of the Games. 5. Pulling a stunt: This is when a small amount of people pull a high profile stunt to attract attention. For example, during an Australian-New Zealnd rugby match in 2002, two naked men streaked onto the playing field â€Å"wearing† a painted-on Vodafone logo, while Vodafone was not a sponsor. Effectiveness Ambush marketing, undoubtedly has been found to be quite effective in its success in creating the appearance of being a legitimate sponsor. In practice, it appears that the public does not properly identify the official sponsors.On corporate sponsorship, Tony Meenaghan explained in an article for the Sloan Management Review, â€Å"By sponsoring an event or providing a budget for an event's broadcast, a sponsor can generate audience awareness while simultaneously creating associations of the event's values in people's minds,† Further on he states, â€Å"An ambush marketer can associate with a major event without large-scale investment in securing rights and thereby fulfill brand awareness and image objectives at low cost—benefits usually available only to the official sponsor,† â€Å"It also generates goodwill, which is a consumer's natural reaction to support for an activity of which he or she approves.At the very least, it creates consum er confusion, thereby denying the legitimate sponsor clear recognition for its sponsorship role. † Meenaghan claimed that ambush marketing â€Å"simultaneously reduces the effectiveness of the sponsor's message while undermining the quality and value of the sponsorship opportunity that the event owner is selling. † In a 1994 survey by the Wirthlin Group, a corporate image research organization, showed that only 12 percent of American adults were able to identify Coke as an Olympic sponsor, despite its’ 66-year affiliation. Furthermore, no other Olympic corporation sponsor had more than 3 percent recognition.An outstanding example on the effectiveness of ambush marketing that is still seen as the ambush of all ambushes is Nike’s marketing campaign for the 1996 Atlantic Olympics. Nike plastered the city in billboards, handed out swoosh banners to wave at the competitions and constructed an enormous Nike center overlooking the stadium. Following the 1996 Atla nta fiasco, many thought Nike had been an official sponsor of the games. In December 2001, a study found that, from a list of 45 likely sponsors of the 2002 World Cup, 20 percent of those polled picked Nike. Ethical & Legal Issues The main question that arises is whether or not the practice of ambush marketing is ethical, illegal, or simply smart business practice.In reality, marketing has never been a gentle industry to begin with. Ambush marketers refer to the event and to their own names and products in an ingenious and creative manner, without using registered trademarks, logos, and slogans so in most cases they manage to circumvent the law. This puts the legal position of ambush marketing practices in an unclear position. Referring back to the Nike example during the 1996 Atlantic Olympics, Simon Pestridge, Nike’s brand manager explains diplomatically in an interview with MSNBC following the event, â€Å"We play inside the rules and we bring a different point of view th at’s true and authentic to sport. â€Å"Corporate sponsors and event organizers regard the â€Å"parasitic† or piggyback tactics, a term often used by aggrieved event organizers and their sponsors, as unethical. On the other hand, ambush marketers argue it is a fair game. Merrill Squires, managing partner of the Dallas-based Marketing Arm, said in a 1999 interview with ABCnews. com, â€Å"The weak link is marketers who sign a sponsorship deal and don’t look at it carefully. They need to negotiate for every potential right to block out competitors. † Tackling the Issue Learning from experience, sponsors and event owners have picked up on several strategies for countering ambush marketing:1. Pressurize event owners to protect their events. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) seeks to block ambushing by controlling images, official license souvenirs, and by offering first option to official sponsors on other promotional opportunities.2. Link event and broadcast sponsorship. This includes combined packages of event sponsorship, broadcast sponsorship and advertising time around television broadcast of the event.3. Anticipate potential competitive promotions. Sponsors must investigate the terms of sponsorship contract, what rights co-sponsors have and if they are in the same industry.4. Exploit the sponsorship rights secured. Sponsors should launch a well-rounded marketing communications campaign and exploit the association with the event fully.5. Resort to legal action, especially if a non-sponsor uses marks associated with an event. There have been several major attempts to crackdown on ambush marketing. One major attempt was the Sydney’s Solution also known as the Sydney 2000 Act, which went further than ever in trying to counter ambush marketing.The highlights of the Acts passed were the Indicia and Images Act and Olympic Arrangements Act. The Indicia and Images Act prohibited the use of phrases and images from unlicense d commercial use, which was broadly defined that would suggest a connection with the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. The Olympic Arrangements Act prohibited any selling or distribution of articles in public places within a 3km radius from the event.There were several non-sponsors who were still able to legally market their brand around the event. In the end, Sydney went further that ever in trying to crackdown on ambush marketing strategies, but were still found to be inadequate for responding to ingenious marketing strategies. It is clear that the control of ambush marketing requires additional strategies. In the future as the Beijing Olympic Games are approaching in August 2008, the International Olympic Committee claims they are preparing to counter ambush marketing. The IOC plans to safeguard its sponsors’ interests inside the venues by making sure no ambush marketing campaigns are being picked up by television cameras.Non-authorized beverages will be banned from the venues as well as t-shirts and products featuring non-sponsor corporate names linked with the Olympic Games. Conclusion If Ambush marketing provides smaller companies with a chance to promote themselves, does that mean that ambush marketing approaches are legally and ethically misbalanced?Does that mean that smaller companies illegally use the official sponsorship benefits to promote their trademarks? There is no definite answer to that question. One thing is clear: Ambush marketing remains one of the most effective marketing tools in contemporary business and sports. As long as sports turn into business, and business makes money in sports, ambush marketing will bring substantial financial profits to those who are aware of its benefits.The coming Olympic Games in Beijing will show the effectiveness of anti-ambush procedures which the IOC plans to implement, but companies will still seek new means of advertising themselves without sponsoring big shows. Ambush marketing is an evasive tool of s elf-advertising; as long as it takes unclear legal position, ambush marketing strategies will keep flourishing across all levels of promotion in business. Ambush marketing is an ambiguous means of companies’ self-promotion. On the one hand, it helps smaller companies gain a better market share and make their trademarks recognizable to potential customers. On the other hand, larger sponsors view ambush marketing as the means of undermining their marketing stability.Confusion is the third, and probably, the most important effect ambush marketing causes on consumers. In this complicated marketing environment, competitors should be more careful when signing sponsorship deals. Legal responsibility will eliminate the majority of ambush marketing threats which sponsors should address on their way towards success and recognition.Bibliography1. Sauer, Abram. â€Å"Ambush Marketing Steals the Show. † May 27, 2002. .2. Meenaghan, Tony. â€Å"Ambush Marketing—A Threat to C orporate Sponsorship. † Sloan Management Review. Fall 1996. .3. â€Å"THE MEDIA BUSINESS: ADVERTISING; In ‘trolling for sponsors,' organizers of the 1996 Games are playing against the clock — and trailing. † The New York Times. 31 August 1995 .4. Garrigues, Cristina. Ambush Marketing: A Threat to Global Sponsored Events? 26 March 2004. .5. http://www. usp-age. com/flash/2006/jul06/marketing_battle. swf.6. http://www. austlii. edu. au/au/journals/MurUEJL/2001/10. html.7. http://www. accessmylibrary. com/coms2/summary_0286-9614696_ITM.8. Shah, Tina. â€Å"Ambush Marketing.† November 2004 http://www. advancedge. com/archives/nov04/MBArk_ambush_marktng. pdf.9. ALSO NOTE ABOUT RAPPAPORT DOCUMENT Wei L, Kretschmer M. , Ambush Marketing: A study of strategies and legal responses, ISLR Pandektis, Vol. 5:3, 2004. Davis R. N. , Ambushing the Olympic Games, ISLR/Pandektis, Vol. III Nr. ?, p. 7.10. Page name: Ambush marketing, Author: Wikipedia contributors , Pu blisher: Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. , Date of last revision: 28 April 2008 04:46 UTC , Date retrieved: 30 April 2008 15:14 UTC , Permanent link: http://en. wikipedia. org/w/index. php? title=Ambush_marketing&oldid=208688867 , Page Version ID: 208688867.FOOTNOTE : According to the International Olympic Committee, the revenues generated from these sources for the period from 2001 until 2004 accounted for respectively 53%, 34% and 11% of , the remaining 2% coming from other licensing activities, http://www. olympic. org/uk/organisation/facts/revenue/index_uk. asp;This is roughly true in relation to football as well. According to FIFA’s 2006 Financial statements, 58% of its revenues in 2006 came from TV broadcasting rights and 24% from marketing rights, i. e. sponsoring, http://fr. fifa. com/mm/document/affederation/administration/2006_fifa_ar_en_1766. pdf; FIFA’s overall yearly revenue for the period 2003-2006 reached CHF 3. 238 billions.

Lux Soap Marketing Project Essay

Executive Summary Unilever is a multinational consumer product manufacturing giant operating in over hundred countries all around the globe. Unilever Bangladesh is the Bangladesh chapter of Unilever, where the company holds 60.75% share whereas the Government of Peoples Republic of Bangladesh holds 39.25% share. UnileverÂ’s one of the most popular brand is LUX. They segments LUX.Â’s market according to geographical locations. It further differentiates these segments into Socio Economic Cluster (SEC) which takes into account the criteria of education and profession which ultimately measures the financial ability of consumers. The cluster is divided into five parts starting from A to E. Unilever targets the urban and sub urban upper middle class and middle class segment of the population, who falls under A to C of SEC. Tactical marketing tools, 4PÂ’s, are extensively used by the company to market LUX. Though LUX is produced in Bangladesh, Unilever Bangladesh maintains the same standard all around the globe. The product is available in six different fragrances under three different sizes. Since the demand for beauty soap market is to a great extent oligopolistic, variations in price lead to price war which can eventually break down the companyÂ’s market share. Thus Unilever cannot provide a better price than its competitors. But the price is affordable by most of the people. Unilever Bangladesh has outsourced its distribution channels to third party distributors which allow them to distribute LUX in massive bulks amounting to around ten million pieces. It undertakes the largest promotional activities in the beauty soap industry. The beauty soap industry has a few major producers of which Unilever holds market share of slightly less than 50%. Other competing brands like Tibbet, Aromatic and Keya have started to have a strong consumer base, but LUX.Â’s product features distribution and promotional activities have created high brand loyalty for which it is still the market leader. Unilever, with the aid of its heavy promotional activities, has been able to penetrate the market. But the other producers in the industry are posing a  threat towards UnileverÂ’s market share as they have moved towards the rural masses of the population. Therefore, Unilever Bangladesh should undertake further steps such as moving towards the rural and/or poorer segment; attract children (by making a special product for kids) and other innovative promotional activities to retain its command in the industry. Chapter 1Introduction1.1 Unilever at a Glance:Unilever is one of the worldÂ’s largest and leading multinational companies; Unilever commenced their business activities on a larger scale by setting up their first factory in Netherlands, in the year of 1872. Operating in Bangladesh for over the last four decades the company is trying to significantly contribute towards the augmentation of the standard of living by bringing world class high quality products at the door step of their customers. The usage of Unilever products by over 90% of the people in Bangladesh stands a testimony to their successful operation. . Their array of products show that they produce household care, fabric cleaning, skin cleansing, skin care, oral care, hair care, personal grooming, and tea based beverage products under worldwide famous brand names Wheel, LUX, Lifebuoy, Fair & Lovely, Pond’s, Close Up, Sunsilk, Lipton, Lipton Taaza, Pepsodent, All Clear, Vim, Surf Excel, and Rexona. 1.2 Objective of this report:This report is an outcome of an analysis of marketing strategies used by Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. The main purpose of the report is to find what strategies the company uses to market its world famous beauty soap, LUX, in Bangladesh; the positive and negative aspects of those strategies. The report further analyzes the position of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. in the toiletry industry in comparison to its competitors. The report discusses the process of using market segmentation, target marketing, the product, pricing, promotional and distribution strategies and a competitive analysis. 1.3 Methodology of this report:For accessibility and availability of information we have chosen to work on the strategies of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. As the company operates in the market with a huge number of products in different industries, we have decided to focus on one of their world wide  successful brands, LUX. Most of the information used in this report is from primary sources. The main source of information was the focus group discussion. In addition information was also collected from websites. Chapter 2Product Category, Market Segmentation, Target Marketing and PositioningThis chapter describes the category of the selected product. The chapter is organized into four sections. Section 1 states under which category the product falls. Section 2 describes how Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. differentiates the population and categorizes them into different segments. Section 3 analyzes which segment the company targets and why they target that specific segment. Finally section 4 describes the process through which the company tries to capture a place in the buyers mind i.e. the product positioning method. 2.1 Product Category:LUX falls under the category of toiletry product as a beauty soap. 2.2 Market Segmentation:The company claims that LUX is the highest selling beauty soap in Bangladesh. Moreover some survey reports also reveal the same result. Though LUX is the highest selling beauty soap in Bangladesh, it does not go for traditional mass marketing. Moreover as a beauty soap LUX does not even segment its market according to gender. The population of the country is segmented into three parts which are urban, sub urban and rural area consumers. The company further differentiate the geographical segments according to Socio Economic Cluster (SEC) i.e. education and Income. The SEC divides the population in five segments starting from A to E, where A categorizes the highly educated and high income earners holders, and sequentially in descending order E categorizes the opposite. 2.3 Target Market:urban and sub urban middle class, and rural poor people are the largest part of Bangladesh population. A research carried out by Unilever Bangladesh reveals that urban rich people are more likely to buy imported and expensive products. Moreover rural poor people tend to buy cheap products even without evaluating its quality. However urban and sub urban upper middle and middle class people tend to buy affordable and quality products. LUX is not a highly expensive but an affordable product. That is why the company targets urban and sub urban upper middle and middle class people who are the second highest population of segment of the country. From the segmentation of customer according to SEC they target category A, B and C, because they are assumed to be financially well-off and can afford to buy LUX. 2.4 Product Positioning:Unilever Bangladesh Ltd obtained a good position in the buyersÂ’ mind through better product attributes, price and quality, offering the product in a different way than the competitors do. The company offers improved quality of products in the industry at an affordable price with high branding, which ultimately helps to position the product in the buyersÂ’ mind as the best quality beauty soap. The market share of the company in the beauty soap industry is somewhere around 43%.Since in the beauty soap industry all products are of same price Unilever cannot provide its consumers with better price but it is in a great position in reference with its packaging, fragrances and product designing. A positioning map of the company is shown Figure 2.2 (P-10) to describe LUXÂ’s position in the consumers mind on two dimensions, price and quality. It states that though in comparison to its competitors the pricing of LUX is same but consumers rate it as the product which gives them the highest quality. This positioning created a strong customer loyalty for LUX, for which it the market leader in the industry. Chapter 3Using the Tactical Marketing ToolsThis chapter describes the way Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. use the tactical marketing tools for marketing LUX in Bangladesh. The chapter comprises of four sections. 3.1 Product:LUX is an internationally renowned beauty soap brand of Unilever. Though manufactured in Bangladesh for the local market by Unilever Bangladesh Ltd, as an international brand, it maintains an international quality for the product. Formula given by Research and Development departments in foreign countries, LUX is produced in Bangladesh from imported raw materials like sodium soap, glycerol and different extracts according to flavors, coming from Unilever plants situated abroad. LUX is offered in Bangladesh in six different flavors which are: LUX Energizing Honey, LUX Golden Glow, LUX Nature Pure, LUX Orchid Touch, LUX Almond Delight and LUX Aqua Sparkle. Taking into account the convenience of its customers, the company manufactures all flavors of LUX in three different sizes, 40gm, 80gm and 120gm. 3.2 Price:Though Unilever Bangladesh gives its LUX customers a lot in terms of the product itself, it cannot provide a better pricing. This is due to some constraints in the beauty soap industry. Beauty soap is a product with a vulnerable demand in Bangladesh. A change in price has a high risk of creating price war among the rivals which will eventually cause a loss of profit. Its prices are almost equal to its competitor. Company carries out research on competitorsÂ’ price and brand loyalty when it feels extreme necessaity of chaging price. The brand loyalty test is an exploratory research which is known as Brand Health Check-Up (BHCU). 3.3 Place:Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. has a huge distribution channel for LUX all over the country as its sales reach more than 10 million pieces a year. The company has six huge warehouses, one in each division of Bangladesh, where the product goes after they are manufactured at Kalurghat factory. The company does not use its own fleet of transport for distributing its product. However, it has outsourced its distribution process to various  third party distributors, exclusively dedicated to Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. These distributors then supply the product all over Bangladesh to a huge number of retailers. Even though LUX targets the urban and sub urban middle and upper middle class people they are distributing their products all over Bangladesh because of a recent increase in demand of its product to all segments of the population. 3.4 Promotion:Unilever Bangladesh undertakes huge promotional activities to promote LUX which has topped the beauty soap industry of Bangladesh. It spends almost 20% to 25% of its Net Proceeds from Sales (NPC) of LUX for promotional activities for LUX 1ItÂ’s certain annual promotional campaigns like LUX Channel i Superstar and LUX Channel i Annual Cinema Awards has made the product a part of the glamour world. Since the 1930s, over 400 of the worldÂ’s most stunning and sensuous women have been proudly associated with Lux advertisements. They do not only promote LUX in Bangladesh for the beauty conscious females, it also promotes the brand for males and the company proved that, by including world famous male celebrity Shahrukh Khan for their advertising campaign. Unilever Bangladesh Ltd spends a huge amount of money for promoting LUX through TV commercials, newspaper advertisements and billboards. Moreover it also undertakes small promotional campaigns at different schools, colleges, universities and recreational parks with winners of its Zonal Beauty Contests. Till now promotional activities of LUX has always been successful which has made it a household common name and helped it reach almost one billion taka sale value in the year 2004 2. Chapter 4Analyzing the Market for LUXFor better comprehension of Unilever Bangladesh, its marketing strategy, product quality, positioning and placement, we present here a comparative analysis of its competitors. This part of the report illustrates the market share of different companies in the beauty soap industry. 4.1 Market Share:The beauty soap industry in Bangladesh consists of only seven major producers. Unilever Bangladesh Ltd is operating in the industry  with its world famous brand LUX. Out of these giant companies Unilever Bangladesh Ltd is the market leader with a share of around 43%. market share of all the companies in the sector. Unilever Bangladesh Ltd is leading the market. The other competitors are very competitive among themselves but they cannot put a intense competition with Unilever Bangladesh Ltd, as they have market share much less than Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. Other companies in the industry are not as big as Unilever Bangladesh Ltd but they are posing threat to the company by a tendency of a gradual increase in their market share. Kohinoor Chemicals which is operating with the brand name Tibet is an extremely famous brand to the rural segment of the population and possess a significant share in that segment which is the largest population group in Bangladesh. Moreover Keya Cosmetics Ltd operating with the brand name Keya and Marks & Allys Ltd operating with the brand name Aromatic are also uprising brands to both the rural and sub urban segment of the population. Moreover a recent takeover of Aromatic by multinational consumer product giant MARICO who operates with famous brands in other industries like Parachute Coconut Oil is posing to be a threat to Unilever BangladeshÂ’s market share. Chapter 5ConclusionThe beauty soap industry of Bangladesh consists of a few producers in the industry. The demand for this product is very much vulnerable in terms of pricing. Unilever Bangladesh is providing LUX. at a price which is affordable to most of the people in the country. Beauty soap is an uprising product in Bangladesh as a greater portion of the population, both male and female, are now getting more beauty conscious. As a multinational company Unilever Bangladesh with heavy promotional activities, has been able to penetrate the market. With six different fragrances, three different sizes, international standard and high quality design, as a product, LUX has been highly successful over  the years. Its distribution process is highly efficient. Its promotional activities, like the beauty contest has been a milestone in attracting a huge number of customers. Overall with its marketing activities LUX has been a successful brand. The only place where rival companies are progressing is in giving customers redemption offers. Research revealed that Bangladeshi customers are highly attracted to this sort of offers. These offers are not sustainable in the long run but still it takes away a considerable part of LUXÂ’s sale in the short run. Chapter 6RecommendationIn this chapter the team would suggest some recommendations to Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. to adopt more successful operation in Bangladesh. Since a huge portion of the rural poor people is demanding LUX in recent days, Unilever Bangladesh Ltd should expand their target market also towards the rural people. They should also conduct different promotional activities in rural fairs and socially responsible promotional activities to attract rural consumers and social awareness . Because Lux has different skin type soap so now if they provide different types of beauty soaps for male and female soapunder the same brand name i.e. LUX it might increase their sales. Lastly, as Bangladeshi culture children have a huge say in shopping so they should also promote the product to children like their another brand “Dove”. These are the recommendations suggested by teem members to Unilever Bangladesh Ltd. to adopt for a more successful operation in Bangladesh with large market share. Bibliography 1.www.unilever.com•http://www.unileverea.com/ourbrands/personalcare/lux.asp•http://www.unilever.co.uk/ourbrands/personalcare/lux.asp2.www.unileverbd.com3.Report on “Competition Scenario in Bangladesh”, page 18, prepared by Bangladesh Enterprise Institute, July 2005.)4.http://www.gfk.be/ProductsAndServices/ConsumerDiagnosticTools/SpecialAnalyses/BrandHealthCheckUp5.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilever6.http://ladytobaby.com/show.php?item=155

Ethnic Intolerance Essay

The Yugoslavia collapse was a homemade tragedy. In sharp contrast to most of Balkan history, outside powers did not play a major role in stimulating Yugoslav division. Societies in which human development needs are threatened are ripe for conflict. In Yugoslavia ethnic groups misunderstood each others needs and desires. Political elites deliberately perpetuated and exploited conflicts between the general populace. The hypothesis of the essay is that the main propellant behind war in Yugoslavia was not ancient history and ancient hatreds but recent hatreds manipulated by elites. As it the case in all ethnic crises, it is possible to identify a wide rage of questions that have arisen during the course of Yugoslavia crises. In my opinion, there are some points of particular importance, where my paper will be based on. These are: (1) why has the ethnic hatred exploded now, after half a century of peaceful intermingling? (2) Are the roots and causes of the ethnic war ancient or recent? (3) Do politicians create nationalism, or does existing nationalism shape the political power struggle? I will handle the subject in four parts- `Socialist development and Yugoslavism`, ‘Post- Tito debate`, ‘New elites, old leaders’ policy (post-federalism)’, and ‘The slide toward disintegration’. Socialist development and Yugoslavism The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (the SFRY) was born â€Å"Phoenix-like, †¦ rising from the ashes† (Judah 2000, p. 136) of the World War II to live under the iron presidency of a Communist Josip Broz Tito (1892-1980). Whatever controversial Tito’s political reputation is, researchers acknowledged that he was the only leader whose â€Å"wartime record, †¦ undeniable charisma and †¦ ability to stand up to the Soviets in 1948 to assert Yugoslav independence allowed †¦ for several decades to maintain at least an illusion of the country’s unity† (Kozhemiakin 1998, p. 73). Williams (1998, p. 48) insisted that the head of the re-born country, Josip Tito, â€Å"deliberately aimed to create an entirely different sort of state† in 1945, and one of the most significant differences was â€Å"the equal treatment of the various groups in the population and a down-playing of the nationalities issue† (Williams 1998, p. 48). According to Judah (2000), the chronology of an ethnic question in the Yugoslavia under Tito consists of three phases: 1945-66, 1966-74, and 1974-80. During the first period, the Communist leaders were rather successful in keeping the lid on the boiling pot of nationalism. The new Yugoslav federalism was created after the USSR model with its autonomous unites within the single state framework. Under the 1946 Constitution the SFRY consisted of six republics (Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia–Hercegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia and Slovenia) and two autonomous regions (the multi-national Autonomous Province of Vojvodina and the predominantly Shipetar, or Albanian Autonomous District of Kosovo-Metohija [KOSMET] within Serbia). Conversely, the Yugoslavia national identity consisted of six ‘nations,’ or â€Å"officially recognized groups with national homes in one of the federal republics† (Hudson 2003, p. 50): Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Montenegrins, Macedonians and Muslims (those slavs who converted to Islam under Ottoman rule); eight ‘nationalities,’ or â€Å"officially recognized groups† who â€Å"had an internationally recognized national homeland outside Yugoslavia† (Hudson 2003, p. 50): Albanians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Czechs, Italians, Romanians, Slovaks and Turks; two ‘nationalities’ – Roma and Ruthenians – who â€Å"did not have a national homeland outside Yugoslavia† (Hudson 2003, p. 50); and others (Austrians, Greeks, Jews, Germans, Poles, Russians, Ukrainians, Vlachs, etc.). It seems that the republican and district borders were established holding ethnic, historic and economic factors in view. Tito himself underlined that the aim of republican and district borders was not †¦ drawing a boundary line between this federal unit and the other, and now you on the other side shall do as you please, and I shall do as I please on my side of the boundary. No! These boundaries, figuratively speaking, should resemble the white lines on a marble column. The boundaries of the federated units within the federal state of Yugoslavia do not denote separatism but unity. (as cited in Judah 2000, p. 140) As Judah (2000, p. 137) noted, â€Å"Bosnia was restored, with its historic 1878 frontiers, in recognition of its mixed population and to prevent it becoming the renewed object of dispute between Serbs and Croats.† The Slavs of the Macedonian region were acknowledged to be neither Serbs nor Bulgarians, but a distinctive group, therefore the Macedonian republic was created to eliminate the possible â€Å"bone of contention† (Frankel 1955, p. 416) between Serbia and Bulgaria. Montenegro acquired a republican status â€Å"in recognition of its historic status and so partly to satisfy that portion of the population which resented being relegated to the position of a far-flung province of Serbia† (Judah 2000, p. 138). The large groups of the Albanians in Kosovo and the Hungarians in Vojvodina received ‘nationalities’ status because they had homelands outside Yugoslavia. The re-born Yugoslavia has never ceased to be a shelf stuffed with ‘skeletons’ of reciprocal convictions between different ethnic populations. However, until the mid-1960s people’s minds were occupied rather with the agrarian reform, Tito’s split with Stalin, and the economic innovation of self-management. A two-chamber legislature, the Federal People’s Assembly, consisted of a directly-elected Federal Council and a Council of Nationalities, comprising delegates from the assemblies of the republics (25 representatives of each Republic, 15 of the Autonomous Province, and 10 of the Autonomous District). The Federal People’s Assembly elected the Praesidium and the Executive Council. Tito has been occupying the seat of the Executive Council’s chairman for thirty-five years, and simultaneously he was the head of the Communist party. The 1946 SFRY Constitution granted equal power to both cameras of Federal People’s Assembly, and was said to rely on â€Å"the principles of equality and voluntariness† (Frankel 1955, p. 422): The Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia is a federal people’s State of republican form, a community of peoples equal in rights who, basing themselves on the right to self-determination, which includes the right to separation, have expressed a will to live together in a federal State. At the initial stage of the Yugoslav consolidation under the Communist dictatorship, the group in power was likely to understand that the state â€Å"should not rest on coercion, brute force, or realpolitik†: [The Communists] sought [legitimacy] in an explanatory creation myth: the new Yugoslav state had come into being as a result of â€Å"two kinds of solidarity, that of the Yugoslav nations who had united to fight the enemy, and that of the Partisan veterans, the stari borci, who had done the actual fighting.† (Bokovoy 1998, p. 36) The new Yugoslav leaders relied heavily on the concept of ‘bratsvo i jedinstvo’ (â€Å"brotherhood and unity†). It declared â€Å"that Yugoslavia would be strong, not because its peoples were one, but because they were many, and that strength was born of unity† (Judah 2000, p. 136). However, the concept of unity was treated in a rather original way. Lake and Rothchild (p. 105) paraphrased Djilas (1995) who stated that â€Å"the communist party served as the primary safeguard [to the treat of nationalism] in Yugoslavia, largely through coercion and repression.† A critical eye should not be blinded by the phrase about possible separation of any federal units. Elazar (1991, p. 176) stated that â€Å"the constitutional process in Yugoslavia is very centralized indeed.† As Burg (1982, p. 131) observed: The federal system was originally adopted by [the Yugoslav] leadership in order to accommodate the frustrated national aspirations of the Yugoslav peoples and thereby to mobilize national sentiment in support of the establishment of a socialist order. But commitment to a Stalinist model of development, and ideological conviction that that development would reduce and eventually eliminate the political salience of nationality, led the postwar Communist leadership to subordinate the constituent republics to a powerful federal center and to resist meaningful concessions to their national distinctiveness. (Burg 1982, p. 131) Tito and the Communists re-arranged the ethnic map of the country according to their ideological concerns. Soon after the end of WWII the Yugoslav government began to organize peasantry into cooperatives. The region of Vojvodina became the first experimental ground for collectivization. The leadership moved almost 300,000 Serbs from Croatia, Macedonia, and Bosnia-Hercegovina to Vojvodina to prove the effectiveness of a socialist agrarian experiment â€Å"with the hope of cultivating a Yugoslav identity† (Bokovoy 1998, p. 49). However, in the 1960s, the Yugoslav leadership was split by arguments about â€Å"the question of decentralisation, the introduction of certain market mechanisms and the related issue of increasing republican autonomy† (Judah 2000, p. 144). Hot arguments between elites triggered a tide of reciprocal convictions between the Croats and the Serbs. The Serbs were accused of the attempts to â€Å"Serbianize Croatia,† as Petar Segedin, the president of the Croatian Literary Society, has put it (Judah 2000, p. 146). Bosnia was covertly inflamed by statistics produced by Matica Hrvatska, a Croatian intellectual organisation, to prove the jeopardy of pan-Serbianism. Serbian intellectuals reacted accordingly. The Bosnians and the Serbian Kosovars wanted to get rid of the Albanians, who in turn went into streets demanding a republican status for the province and the establishment of an Albanian-language university in 1968. Despite the evident shift towards liberalism and decentralisation provided by the 1967 and 1971 amendments, there was an â€Å"upsurge of nationalism† that â€Å"met a harsh response† (Hudson 2003, p. 52) from the Yugoslav President. Tito was a proponent of ‘ethnic contracts’: â€Å"nationality or ethnic representatives met with the president in cabinet sessions, where strong differences were sometimes aired by group spokespersons behind closed doors† (Lake & Rothchild 1997, p. 115). The constitution of 1974 seemed to break a fragile balance between the ethnic groups inspired by nationalism (the discussion will continue in the sections above). Cottam (2004, p. 201) called the constitution â€Å"an example of †¦ reduction of power†: In that constitution, Tito gave Kosovo and Vojvodina more power and autonomy (their own assembly, representation in the Serbian assembly, and a turn in the rotating presidency), Serbian power was reduced, and the other republics were reassured that Serbia would not be able to control the federal government. (Cottam 2004, p. 201) It seems that constitutional amendments were introduced partly in response to â€Å"nationalists who favoured the concentration of power with the republican elites† (Hudson 2003, p. 53). Tito warned about the menace caused by those emerging local elites in 1972. By 1980, when he died leaving no political heir to delegate powers to, the Yugoslav power-sharing system – â€Å"a form of coordination in which a somewhat autonomous state and a number of less autonomous ethnic-based and other interests engage in a process of mutual accommodation in accordance with commonly accepted procedural norms, rules, or understandings† (Lake & Rothchild 1997, p. 115) – collapsed. As Chary (2000, p. 735) stated: Tito could not solve all of Yugoslavia’s problems. He was never able truly to unite the country, and hostility among the nationalities remained, although he was able to keep them under control while he lived. When he died, however, these burst forward with a new fury. Post- Tito debate Cottam (2004, p. 201) described the situation in Yugoslavia immediately after Tito’s death in 1980: †¦ the economy was on a downward spiral, and no political leader had emerged who could fill Tito’s role as national unifier. †¦ He did not promote a successor, but instead developed the peculiar idea of a rotating federal presidency, which would rotate among the republics annually. This made it virtually impossible for any single political figure to emerge as a national leader, and it fueled the rise of nationalism among the separate nationalities in Yugoslavia. Despite the economic and political turmoils, as Popov (2000, p. 96) stated, â€Å"[e]ven after his death, Tito’s authority was untouchable.† Dimitrijević (2000, p. 424) also acknowledged that new political leaders (e.g., MiloÃ… ¡ević) were â€Å"actively protecting the cult of Tito’s personality primarily to please the army.† The concept of â€Å"collective leadership† introduced by Tito was aired by the 1980-leadership as â€Å"After Tito – Tito!† (Judah 2000, p. 156). Doder (1993, p. 3) once has remarked that â€Å"Tito’s strong hand was replaced by a council of bland ethnic chieftains.† It has been already noted that Yugoslavia represented an ethnical mosaic with people of different national backgrounds living under the same federal roof. Of course, by the 1980s the SFRY has stopped being an ideal federation where the units equally and eagerly complied with the economic and political dictatorship of the federal center. Since 1963, the Yugoslav leadership attempted at least formulaic retreats towards the ideas of republican individuality and decentralisation . The 1974 SFRY Constitution has granted the status of a â€Å"‘socialist, self-managing, democratic community’ of working people and citizens, and of the particular set of nations and nationalities comprised by it†Ã¢â‚¬  (Burg 1982, p. 141) to each of the republics and autonomous lands. They received a greater portion of authority in regard to decision-making at the local and federal levels. The paradox was that â€Å"Yugoslavia [appeared to be] a country without Yugoslavs† (Lendvai & Parcell 1991, p. 253). In other words, artificially drawn borders failed to coincide with cultural demarcation lines inherited by national memories. In regard to national self-identification, Sekulić, Massey and Hodson (1994) found out that the census category of ‘Yugoslav’ was introduced only in 1961, thus fifteen years upon the creation of the SFRY. However, the term denoted not all citizens of the federation, but â€Å"‘nationally noncommitted persons,’ and was treated as a residual category for those who offered no particular national identity† (Sekulić, Massey & Hodson 1994, p. 84). The identifier ‘Yugoslav’ was eagerly utilized by the Bosnians and the Kosovars of Muslim confession who protested against registering themselves as ‘Serbs’ or ‘Croats’ in the 1961 national census. By 1981, however, more and more people started identifying themselves as ‘Yugoslav’ in Croatia, Vojvodina and even Bosnia. Apart from the trend, the Kosovars preferred to register themselves as either ‘Albans’ or ‘Serbs.’ The trend points at the rise of national self-identification that climaxed after Tito’s death. In the early 1980s, as Burg (1982, p. 133) observed, â€Å"Despite the evolution of consensual decision-making practices, †¦ neither the central party leadership nor the federal government could resolve the conflicts that divided their members, and each fell victim to paralyzing deadlock.† The most vivid example of the post-Tito political imbalance was Kosovo. Hudson (2003, p. 64) called it â€Å"a powerful symbol in Serbian history.† However, the majority (85 percent) of the people who inhabited that autonomous province in the 1980s were ethnical Albanians. The constitution of 1974 granted Kosovo that was dominated by the Albanians enough voting power to take part in presidential and other elections, but many Albanian radical nationalists treated it as minor â€Å"step on the way to a Greater Albania† (Hudson 2003, p. 64). The Kosovan Albanians marched to the streets in 1981 to demand a republican status for their province and, in some ultimate cases, for the unification of Kosovo with Albania. The Yugoslav army entered Kosovo in the late 1983 to face terrorism in response to mass arrests (Hudson says that almost 7,000 people were arrested throughout the 1980s for nationalist activity in Kosovo). The minor group of Kosovars who were Serbs by origin fled the province. Stories began to circulate about the ‘persecution’ of Kosovo Serbs, the destruction of their churches and graveyards and frequent acts of violence. For every real incident, though, the rumour mill could fabricate a thousand more. (Judah 2000, p. 156) The poisonous smog of mythmaking and resurrection of past nationalist sorrows and grievances could not be dispelled by â€Å"the party [that] was governed by conservative nonentities who had been recalled by Tito from retirement, in conjunction with the obedient apparatchiks who had replaced the liberals and technocrats ten years earlier and who had been promoted on the basis of the criteria of obedience and faithful repetition of current slogans† (Dimitrijević 2000, p. 421). As Van Evera (1997, p. 54) has stated, such leadership’s bankruptcy in face of ideological distortion was logical in case of the post-Tito Yugoslavia: Democratic regimes are less prone to mythmaking, because such regimes are usually more legitimate and are free-speech tolerant; hence they can develop evaluative institutions to weed out nationalist myth. Absolutist dictatorships that possess a massive military superiority over their citizens are also less prone to mythmaking, because they can survive without it. The most dangerous regimes are those that depend on some measure of popular consent, but are narrowly governed by unrepresentative elites. Things are still worse if these governments are poorly institutionalized, are incompetent or corrupt for other reasons, or face overwhelming problems that exceed their governing capacities. The case of Kosovo contributed to the wave of Serbian nationalism. As Kozhemiakin (1998, p. 73) observed, â€Å"The most active revisionists were Serbs who were discontented with the structure of the federal system created by Tito †¦ and its alleged discrimination against Serbia.† Once Lendvai & Parcell (1991, p. 253) named four reasons for the nationality problem of Yugoslavia: â€Å"a fundamental conflict between federalism and centralization, a situation in which the largest nation’s overriding claims to power come up against the defence of the interests of the smaller nations and minorities,† â€Å"the bankruptcy of so-called ‘self-management socialism’,† â€Å"economic crisis† and â€Å"the North-South divide within the state.† The access of revisionism on the part of Serbs fitted their national leadership’s call for liberal democracy, that is â€Å"reformists were seeking to mobilize broader popular sentiment against conservative positions among party rank-and-file as well as the wider population, at a time when the economic crisis had discredited the conservatives’ ideological stance† (Gagnon 1997, p. 148). Although any remote possibility of liberalism sent shivers down the spine of Slobodan MiloÃ… ¡ević, a new Chairman of the Serbian League of Communists since 1986, it was he who unified Serbs under the slogan â€Å"No one should be allowed to beat you!† (as cited in Hudson 2003, p. 70) announced on the Kosovo battlefield, another cultural icon for the Serbs, in April 1987. By 1989, the autonomy of Vojvodina and Kosovo within the Serbian republic was abolished. Kosovo was stirred up by Albanian miners who protested against the Serbian expansion. The protestants were publicly justified by the Slovene president Milan Kućan that caused Serbs a great pain. Hudson (2003, pp. 70-71) stated on the point: Milosević’s championing of the Serbian cause against the autonomous provinces was in a sense ‘saying what had for long been unsayable under the prohibitions of the Titoist state. The political inconsistencies of the constitution served as an easily identifiable â€Å"cause† for the multiplicity of ills afflicting post-Tito Serbia. Thus, the terrible impact of the IMF [International Monetary Fund] reforms, which had exacerbated and compounded the tendencies towards secessionism in Slovenia and Croatia, also contributed to the rise of Serbian nationalism. (Hudson 2003,) In other words, it seems that not only MiloÃ… ¡ević was to be blamed for the disintegration of the Yugoslav state and the mass hysteria of nationalism torturing the South Slavs throughout the 1990s. To conclude the section about the post-Tito debates about the future of Yugoslavia without its charismatic proponent of Non-Alignment Communism and the artificially centralized federation, it makes sense to return to Sekulić, Massey and Hodson’s research (1994). The scholars observed a significant shift in public opinion from the consolidated Yugoslav national identity to the nation- and ethnic-specific formulations. The shift was made especially vivid from 1985 to 1989 across Croatia, Bosnia and Serbia. The American scholars stated that the Yugoslav national identity was significantly affected by four factors: modernization, political participation, demographic factors, and majority/minority status. They emphasized that the concept of ‘Yugoslavism’ became a defensive strategy for the communities portrayed as minority nationalities (the cases of Croat-born individuals in Bosnia and Serbia, and of Serbs in Croatia). Sekulić, Massey and Hodson (1994, p. 95) finally stated: While this failure to establish a shared identity among the people of this region cannot be said to explain the disintegration of Yugoslavia, it is apparent that a shared identity was not much in evidence as a mediating mechanism sustaining Yugoslavia through difficult transitions or slowing its disintegration into warring national camps. Without any restrictive mechanisms to stop the SFRY disintegration, the country sloped down into the chaos of national conflicts. New Elites, Old Leaders’ Policy:   Post-Federalism Judah (2000) was evidently right saying that â€Å"history is accelerating† (p. 295), meaning that, â€Å"While the great empires of the past †¦ lasted for centuries, ‘modern’ empires are increasingly short-lived affairs.† The researcher also demonstrated that history repeated itself when he restored â€Å"all the old arguments which had so sapped the Yugoslavia born in 1918† (Judah 2000, p. 104). In 1918, Stjepan Radić, the leader of the Croatian Peasant Party, declared to the deputies of a National Council of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs: †¦ you think it is enough to say we Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes are one people because we speak one language and that on account of this we must also have a unitary centralist state †¦ and that only such a linguistic and state unity can make us happy. . . . our peasant in general, and especially our Croat peasant, does not wish to hear one more thing about †¦ a state which you are imposing on him by force. . . . You think that you can frighten the people and that in this way you will win the people to your politics. Maybe you will win the Slovenes, I do not know. Maybe you will also win the Serbs. But I am certain that you will never win the Croats . . . because the whole Croat peasant people are equally against your centralism as against militarism, equally for a republic as for a popular agreement with the Serbs. And should you want to impose your centralism by force, this will happen. We Croats shall say openly and clearly: If the Serbs really want to have such a centralist state and government, may God bless them with it, but we Croats do not want any state organization except a confederated federal republic. (as cited in Judah 2000, pp. 105-6) Radić was excluded from the party for his words, and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was declared on 1 December 1918. From this date onwards people of Yugoslavia could at least hope for, if not live in, the state where every nation would enjoy equality and solidarity. The Yugoslav constitution of 1974 put an end to those idealistic aspirations. Dimitrijević (2000, p. 399) named it to be â€Å"one of the reasons for the civil war in that country, or at least as one of the contributing factors leading to Yugoslavia’s disorderly and bloody dissolution.† The document’s aim was to smooth †¦ a general pattern of inter-regional and inter-ethnic fragmentation which had occurred in the late 1960s but which Tito had sharply quashed through the ‘surgical’ use of military police power and political purges of the regional party machines. (Cohen 1992, p. 304) Pursuing such goal, the constitution of 1974 allowed a few liberal amendments conducted in 1971 in favor of republics and autonomous regions. As Burg (1982) observed, the Montenegro region was able to extend the conceptual framework of ‘the republic’ by introducing categorization by ethnicity. A functionary of the Montenegrin regional parliament notes that â€Å"public discussions of the Draft Constitution showed that the constitutional definition of the republic has politico-psychological significance. . . .† Added to the draft definition was a section that â€Å"emphasizes that Montenegro is the state of the Montenegrin people and members of other nations and nationalities. . . .† (Burg 1982, p. 141) Serbia was defined as â€Å"†the state of the Serbian people and parts of other nations and nationalities who live and realize their sovereign rights in it† (Burg 1982, p. 141). Despite those â€Å"concessions to the linguistic, cultural and corporate political rights of the nations and nationalities,† as Burg (1982, p. 142) observed, the constitution of 1974 â€Å"continues to hold the line against changes that might threaten the cohesiveness of Yugoslav society.† However, in 1992 it became apparent that those few ‘concessions’ became a ‘magic stick’ for â€Å"ethno-regional political and bureaucratic elites† that allowed them â€Å"to substantially advance their autonomy and power during the 1980s† (Cohen 1992, p. 304). Dimitrijević (2000) argued that the constitution of 1974 contained at least some grains of confederate structure that would be possible for Yugoslavia on due time. Article 3 defined the republics as state structures organized according to the principles of ‘sovereignty’ and ‘equal rights.’ Dimitrijević stressed that the term ‘sovereignty’ was used only in regard to the republics but not the federation itself. Part I of Basic Principles became â€Å"an ominous statement† (Dimitrijević 2000, p. 406) in this context so far as it talked about â€Å"the right to secession, on the basis of their will freely expressed in the common struggle of all nations and nationalities in the National Liberation War and Socialist Revolution, and in conformity with their historic aspirations† (as cited in Dimitrijević 2000, p. 406). A reference to ‘historic aspirations’ was really dangerous. As Van Evera (1997, p. 46) has noted, when â€Å"the groups with the greatest historic grievances [are] also the groups with the greatest power,† such â€Å"combination brings together both the motive and the capacity to make trouble† and becomes really explosive. This happened when MiloÃ… ¡ević initiated the â€Å"wave of nationalist euphoria† (Judah 2000, p. 163), and †¦ the Serbs were going through an exercise of mass catharsis. All the old fears and the old banned nationalist songs bubbled back up to the surface. (Judah 2000, p. 163) The Serbs always used to victimize themselves and, to be sincere, they had enough reasons to do so. However, that aggrievement, as Van Evera, was far from being passive. General Veljko Kadijević, Yugoslavia’s defence minister, played a significant role in arming the Serbs’ national grievance. By 1990 the Yugoslav military adopted the system of the Territorial Defence (TO) and Total National Defence. This meant that, apart from the regular army, each republic had reserve forces to call upon in the event of war. These were to be local forces which, in the event of a breakdown in communications, would be able to continue functioning on their own. For political guidance they would work closely with the leadership of the local Communist Party. By substituting the Communist Party with the SDS [Serbian Democratic Party], the Serbian leadership was able to make use of the TO system for mass mobilisations of Serbs in what was to become Krajina and then in Bosnia. (Judah 2000, p. 170) When Slovenia declared independence on 25 June, 1991, within the following forty-eight hours the Yugoslav People’s Army (JNA) attempted to retake the Slovene border that had turned from the inter-republican into the international one. The Slovene TO forces blocked the JNA soldiers who were predominantly conscripts. As Judah (2000, pp. 178-9) observed, The fact that the army had got involved in fighting in Slovenia was at the time seen by some as proof that nostalgic communist generals were desperate to preserve the old country. In fact it was nothing of the kind. Many people were of course deeply confused and loyalties were divided, but in the end men like Kadijević had already made the decision that as Yugoslavia was dying they had little choice but to seize as much of it as they could for the Serbs. Judging from the researchers’ accounts (Judah 2000; Hudson 2000; Dimitrijević 2000), there could be no bloodshed if there was a chance of a proper confederalizing process. Dimitrijević (2000, p. 421) blamed †¦ constitutional experts, political scientists and jurists who do not seem to have made any effort to provide constitutional solutions for real political difficulties, to secure alternative decision making in the case of the failure of the party system and thus not to save Yugoslavia if it was not wanted, but to increase the chances for a reasonable transition into explicitly confederate arrangements and the peaceful dissolution or separation of the constituent units. Another group of researchers (Gagnon 1997; Snyder & Ballentine 1996) accused Yugoslav political and military elites of playing with the dangerous fire of nationalism. Snyder and Ballentine (1996) argued that nationalism could be an incident product of the old and new elites re-arranging the informational marketplace in democratizing states. Snyder and Ballentine (1996, p. 10) introduced the concept of ‘the marketplace of ideas† as the situation â€Å"in which contending discourses and evidence confront each other directly on an even playing field.† The scholars argued that the Yugoslav marketplace of ideas was highly segmented in the 1980s that caused an informational imbalance: Tito’s decentralizing reforms of the 1960s, which were intended in part to assuage and defuse ethno-nationalism, put Yugoslavia’s media in the hands of regional leaderships, which in the 1980s fell into the hands of nationalists like MiloÃ… ¡ević. This federalization of power left pan-Yugoslav reformers like Ante Marković with no instrument for transcending the Serb and Croat nationalists’ media monopoly over their respective ethnic niche markets. (Snyder & Ballentine 1996, p. 21) It seems that the post-Tito Yugoslavia was a place where a severe intra-elite competition took place. Cohen (1992, p. 302) spoke about â€Å"the impressive pluralization of the Yugoslav political landscape† after Tito, accompanied by the lamentably â€Å"rapid erosion of federal authority.† Prime Minister Ante Marković, who had skillfully reoriented federal government policy along post-socialist reformist lines, made an admirable effort to implement country-wide economic and political changes during 1990, but his ability to fully accomplish such measures was stymied by the autarkic policies of contending ethno-regional elites. Marković’s formation of a federally-oriented party in mid-1990 – the Alliance of Reform Forces – to garner support for the unity of the country looked initially promising, but the Alliance did poorly against ethnically and regionally-oriented parties in the republican elections. (Cohen 1992, p. 302) Snyder & Ballentine (1996, p. 16) explained the shifts of political regime on the scale from autocratic to pluralistic in economic terms: As a democratizing political system opens up, old elites and rising counter-elites must compete for the support of new entrants into the marketplace through popular appeals, including appeals to the purported common interests of elites and mass groups in pursuing nationalistic aims against out-groups. In many instances, including the case of Serbian President Slobodan MiloÃ… ¡ević, these elites evince little interest in nationalism until rising pressure for mass political participation gives them an incentive to do so. It is interesting that Gagnon (1997, p. 134) also talked about elites manipulating public opinion and remaking a political scene to suit their needs: †¦ violent conflict along ethnic cleavages is provoked by elites in order to create a domestic political context where ethnicity is the only politically relevant identity. It thereby constructs the individual interest of the broader population in terms of the threat to the community defined in ethnic terms. Such a strategy is a response by ruling elites to shifts in the structure of domestic political and economic power: by constructing individual interest in terms of the threat to the group, endangered elites can fend off domestic challengers who seek to mobilize the population against the status quo, and can better position themselves to deal with future challenges. Gagnon pointed an indicative finger solely at Serbian elite for all the internal wars that shook Yugoslavia in the 1990s. Conversely, Hudson (2003) referred to Croatian and Bosnian Muslim nationalists as warmongers. But the researcher saved even bitterer accusations for international elites: Without the prospect – and eventual achievement – of international recognition, and the acceptance by a number of foreign states of the arguments of the nationalists, it is possible that a negotiated settlement could have been arrived at which would either have maintained some form of Yugoslavia, or achieved a peaceful dissolution. (Hudson 2003, p. 89) To provide an account of Yugoslavia sliding towards disintegration, it makes sense to summarize the viewpoints of that time Yugoslav political leaders in regard to the federation/confederation dichotomy. Serbs, Croats and Muslims were the groups most susceptible to nationalism so far as they were scattered across the republics and districts. Two of those groups identified themselves as ‘nations’ by language, history, and culture, whereas Muslims distinguished themselves from the other Yugoslavs on the principle of confession. Both Serbs and Croats had their own republics of Serbia and Croatia, respectively, but each republic (as well as other regions) had the so-called ‘pockets,’ like Krajina between Serbia and Croatia or Kosovo, where various nations, nationalities and ethnic groups were closely intermingled. Montenegrins historically and culturally associated themselves with Serbs although did not want to lose their independence. Slovenia was rather ethnically homogenous, whereas Bosnia hosted people of not only various ethnicities but also of various confessions. As it has been mentioned above, a Bosnian Croat Marković who was the last Yugoslavia’s Prime Minister (March 1989 – December 1991) was the proponent of pan-Yugoslavism so that the country of South Slavs despite its motley ethnic composition would be a solid economic and political body. The Serbs insisted on centralization of the state that resembled a person who carried fire in one hand and water in the other. The Serb leadership called for preserving the federal structure because in case of confederalizing many Serbs would stay outside the Serbian Republic borders. The Bosnians initially supported the idea of a centralized state, whereas the Croats and Slovenes violently opposed it, demanding either to weaken federative bonds or let them secede. In such a hot atmosphere, the Yugoslavs stepped into â€Å"the idiotic chaos in which the state died† (Judah 2000, p. 109). The Slide toward Disintegration Slovenia declared independence on 25 June, 1991, and issued its declaration of sovereignty in July 1991. Croatia seceded from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) the same day as Slovenia although it declared independence only on October 8, 1991. Thus, these two former SFRY-republics were the first to flee the burning house of Yugoslavia despite loud protests of Serbs, both the Belgrade leadership and the common people from northern Dalmatia, Lika, the Kordun, and Banija that were situated in the then sovereign Croatia. By that time, those Serbs who lived on the territory of then sovereign Croatia have already tasted all bitterness of Tudjman’s regime. Croats elected Franjo Tudjman, the leader of Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), as president in May, 1990, †¦ in an anti-semitic, anti-Serb campaign under slogans such as ‘a thousand years of uninterrupted Croatian statehood’. †¦ Slogans like ‘Croatia for the Croats only’, led to excesses against the Serbs, who were not only pushed out of their positions in the police force – a move authorized by the Croatian government, but also from posts in administration and enterprises. (Hudson 2003, p. 79) Once could say that a catastrophe started in January 1990, when Slovenian deputies aired their vision of the Yugoslav Communist League as â€Å"an alliance of republican communist parties† (Hudson 2003, p. 78) at the YCL’s Extraordinary 14th Congress session. They aimed at diminishing the authority of the old partocracy and to pave the road for secession. In April 1990, Milan Kućan, once a communist and then the leader of a centre-right coalition, has easily won the republican elections in Slovenia. In May 1990, the Yugoslav Communist League was dissolved by the Yugoslav Congress, and multi-party elections were held in all republics. By that time the Serbs of the Serbian Republic have been applauding to the three-component strategy of the conservatives and their leader MiloÃ… ¡ević who formally assumed presidency on 8 May 1989. MiloÃ… ¡ević and his allies have already indisposed the Yugoslav army against internal and external enemies, more or less successfully repressed the reported cases of ethnic â€Å"genocide† against Serbs from Kosovan Albanians, and have made multiple attempts â€Å"to portray Serbia as the victim of Yugoslavia, setting the stage for attacks on the other republics’ autonomy free multi-party elections† (Gagnon 1997, p. 150). The Serbian new elite were obsessed with the idea of ‘Pan-Serbianism.’ By the fall of 1990 the Serbian conservative government had dissolved the Kosovo Assembly whose Albanian delegates drafted a 140-article Constitution of the â€Å"sovereign Republic of Kosovo† demanding a status of independent Yugoslavia’s unit for their autonomous district. As Cohen (1992, p. 310) have noted, â€Å"The Serbian government labelled the ‘so-called’ Constitution as an illegitimate action on the part of ‘a movement directly and exclusively targeted at the breaking up the territorial integrity of Serbia and Yugoslavia’.† In 1990, as Judah (2000, p. 165) observed, only Bosnians â€Å"were still talking about keeping Yugoslavia together,† whereas â€Å"MiloÃ… ¡ević ‘s Serbian nationalism was the greatest boost to Tudjman’s Croatian nationalism, [so] that the Pandora’s box had been opened [and] there was no shuttin g it.† On 12 May 1991 referendum in Krajina was held for the local Serbs to choose either to join the Republic of Serbia, â€Å"and thus remain in Yugoslavia with Serbia, Montenegro and others that want to preserve Yugoslavia† (Judah 2000, p. 180), or be labelled as predators. It was one of many Serbian referendums that were to punctuate the political landscape over the next few years. It was a farce dressed up as democracy, by which people who had been bombarded by a single media message were herded to the polls to turn in the requisite popular mandate for the authorities. There was never any public debate on the question and it could be assumed that if you were not going to vote as the authorities wanted then you were not a Serb and hence had no right still to be living where you were. (Judah 2000, p. 180) On June 30, 1991, the Council for the Defense of the Constitution held a secret meeting, when the Serbian representative, Borislav Jović, officially stated that the Serbian leadership would not object to Slovene secession. The Federal Defense Secretary at the time, General Veljko Kadijević, warned that once Slovenia was let go, the JNA would defend the borders of a new Yugoslavia. Judah (2000, p. 178) called that meeting â€Å"simply the last nail in Yugoslavia’s coffin.† To utilize the concept proposed by Snyder and Ballentine (1996), the Yugoslavian ‘marketplace of ideas’ was not only segmented but multi-layered. That was a time of secret alliances and councils’ closed sessions. In public the presidents of the six republics were still arguing about whether some form of Yugoslavia could be preserved. MiloÃ… ¡ević wanted a ‘modern federation’, which was code for Serbian domination. Kućan and Tudjman wanted ‘an asymmetric federation’, which was code for independence while still enjoying the benefits of Yugoslavia without paying for them. Alija Izetbegović of Bosnia and Kiro Gligorov of Macedonia argued for a compromise, but having little political clout they were ignored. (Judah 2000, p. 180) Gagnon (1997, p. 157) directly called the elite’s policy of shaping public opinion Machiavellian: The Serbian conservatives’ response was to continue to demonize other ethnic nationalities, and also to begin provoking confrontations and violent conflicts along ethnic lines and to discredit the very idea of a federal Yugoslavia, calling it the creation of a Vatican-Comintern conspiracy. While the public had to listen to those hypocritical debates in media, the so-called RAM plan was secretly adopted in 1991-1992. It was said to allow the Serb occupation of territory in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and the invasion of the JNA troops into a Muslim area. Croatia and Serbia armed at full speed and started mutual firebombing. On 27 April 1992, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) was founded as comprising Serbia and Montenegro. It was supposed to enlarge the FRY at the expense of Krajina and some territories carved from Bosnia-Herzegovina to form the Republika Srpska. The FRY constitution proclaimed the newly born state to be the successor state of the old Yugoslavia that caused active protests from other former republics. And only a decade later people could read the sincere opinion of one of the key figures of that period on the issue of preserving Yugoslavia.   Judah (2000, p. 201) reported that on 23 January 1992 Nikola Koljević, once a teacher from Sarajevo and then one of the most radical pro-Serbian nationalists from the SDS (Serbian Democratic Party), said: It’s time to stop this absurd idea of a mini-Yugoslavia this is just a game. If only Serbs and Montenegrins want it, what’s the point of trying to force others to stay? We should start thinking in terms of a new federation of Serb lands. When the SDS leader was pronouncing those words, the Serbs (still federals) and Croats (already non-Yugoslavs) have just agreed to cease fire under the pressure of international community. The Bosnian Serbs have gone through a referendum held in November 1991, in which they voted down the possibility of Bosnia secession from Yugoslavia. A month later upon Koljević’s confession on the issue of federalism, Bosnia-Hercegovina declared its independence. That resulted in the Republika Srpska (created by Serbs leaving in Bosnia-Hercegovina) declaring its own independence under the leadership of Radovan Karadzić. The civil war in Bosnia between Serbs, Croats, and Muslims continued for three and a half years ending on 1 November 1995 due to the armed interference of the United States, United Nations and NATO military forces. In 1997, MiloÃ… ¡ević was elected President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavi. The third wave of terror and aggression poured down onto Yugoslavia at night between March 24 and 25 1999 when the United States bombed Belgrade in response to the reports of Kosovan Albanians about Serbs treating them inappropriately. On 9 June the same year Yugoslav military leaderships agreed to remove their forces from Kosovo in exchange to the withdrawal of the NATO army and the entry of an international security force. The bombardment was stopped on 10 June with the adoption of UN Resolution 1244. In September 2000, MiloÃ… ¡ević lost in the Yugoslav presidential election. As Hudson (2003, p. 138) observed: The US and the EU used these elections finally to achieve what they had been trying to do for over a decade, and had failed to do through bombing – to satisfy their own economic and strategic goals in the post-Soviet period. These included the integration of all of the component republics of the former Yugoslavia into the free-market economic system, and the removal of a government in Belgrade which had not only a socialist economic orientation, but also a strategic orientation away from NATO and towards Russia. That was the end of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Conclusion One would say that it was Serb nationalism that provoked counternationalism in other Yugoslav republics. However, it would be better to state without bias that Serbs are to be blamed as much as Croats or Albanians in the dissolution of Yugoslavia and mass killings. On the level of the state or quasi-state, new elites used national claims over pieces of Yugoslavia’s territory (that was an ethnic mosaic) to pursue their own economic and political goals. The struggle for power was not only for Serbian or Albanian control over Kosovo but for power per se. 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