Shadow Kiss Chapter 12

TWELVE IF YOU'D ASKED ME six months ago, I would have said there was no way I'd be happy to run into Mia Rinaldi at the Royal Court. She was a year younger than me and had held a grudge against Lissa since freshman year – a grudge so big that Mia had gone to great extremes to make life miserable for us. She'd done a good job. Jesse and Ralf's rumors about me had been a result of her efforts. But then Mia had gone with us to Spokane and been captured by the Strigoi. And, just like for Christian and Eddie, that had changed everything. She'd seen the same horrors the rest of us had. In fact, she was the only one of my friends who had witnessed Mason's death and me killing Strigoi. She had even saved my life then by using her water magic to temporarily drown one of the Strigoi. In the great Moroi argument about whether or not they should learn to fight with the guardians, she was firmly on the fighting side. I hadn't seen Mia in almost a month, ever since Mason's funeral. In studying her, I felt like it'd been a year. I had always thought Mia looked like a doll. She was short compared to most Moroi and had young, round-cheeked features. The fact that she'd always curled her hair in perfect ringlets had sort of reinforced that image. But today, she hadn't gone to nearly that much trouble. Her golden blond hair was pulled into a ponytail, its only curl coming from a slight, natural waviness. She wore no makeup, and her face showed signs of having been outdoors a lot. Her skin looked chapped from the wind, and she had a very, very faint tan – almost unheard of for Moroi, with their aversion to sunlight. For the first time ever, she actually looked her age. She laughed at my shock. â€Å"Come on, it hasn't been that long. You look like you don't even recognize me.† â€Å"I almost don't.† We hugged, and again, it was hard to believe that she'd once plotted ways to ruin my life. Or that I'd broken her nose. â€Å"What are you doing here?† She beckoned us out the door. â€Å"We were just about to leave. I'll explain everything.† We went to a neighboring building. It wasn't like a mall or anything, but it did have a few businesses that the Moroi who worked and visited here needed – a handful of restaurants, some small stores, and offices that offered all sorts of services. There was also a coffee shop, and that was where Mia led us. A coffee shop seems like an ordinary thing, but I rarely got to go to them. Sitting in a public place (or semi-public) with friends, not worrying about school†¦ it was great. It reminded me of when Lissa and I had been on our own, when our entire lives hadn't been contained within a school and its rules. â€Å"My dad works here now,† she told us. â€Å"And so now I live here.† Moroi children rarely lived with their parents. They were sent off to places like St. Vladimir's, where they could grow up safely. â€Å"What about school?† I asked. â€Å"There aren't many kids here, but there are some. Most of them are rich and have personal tutors. My dad pulled some strings and set it up so that I can go to them for different subjects. So I'm still studying the same things, just in a different way. It's actually pretty cool. Less teacher time – but more homework.† â€Å"You've been doing more than that,† said Eddie. â€Å"Unless your classes are outside.† He'd noticed the same things I had, and in looking at her hands as they held her latte, I could now see calluses. She wiggled her fingers. â€Å"I made friends with some of the guardians here. They've been showing me a few things.† â€Å"That's risky,† said Christian, though he sounded like he approved. â€Å"Since there's still a debate about Moroi fighting.† â€Å"You mean about Moroi fighting with magic,† she corrected. â€Å"That's what's controversial. No one's really talking about Moroi fighting hand-to-hand.† â€Å"Well, they are,† I said. â€Å"It's just been overshadowed by the magic controversy.† â€Å"It's not illegal,† she said primly. â€Å"And until it is, I'm going to keep doing it. You think with all the events and meetings that go on around here that anyone even notices what someone like me does?† Mia's family, in addition to being non-royal, was also pretty lower class – not that there was anything wrong with that, but she had to feel the effects of that around here. Still, I found her whole situation cheering. Mia seemed happier and more open than she had during the entire time I'd known her. She seemed †¦ free. Christian spoke my thoughts before I could. â€Å"You've changed,† he said. â€Å"We've all changed,† she corrected. â€Å"Especially you, Rose. I can't quite explain it.† â€Å"I don't think there's any way the five of us couldn't have changed,† Christian pointed out. A moment later he corrected himself. â€Å"Four of us.† We all fell silent, thoughts of Mason weighing us down. Being with Christian, Eddie, and Mia stirred up that grief I always tried to hide, and I could see from their faces that they continually fought the same battle. Conversation eventually turned toward all of us catching up on what had happened here and at the Academy. Yet I kept thinking about how Mia had said that I had changed more than the others. All I could think about was how out of control I'd felt lately, how half the time my actions and feelings didn't seem like my own. Sitting there, it almost seemed like Mia was controlled by all of her positive traits now – and I was controlled by my negative ones. Conversations with Adrian replayed through my head, reminding me about how I supposedly had such a dark, dark aura. Maybe thinking about him summoned him, but he and Lissa eventually joined us. Their bar was probably in the same building, I realized. I'd been blocking her out and not paying much attention. Adrian hadn't completely gotten her drunk, thankfully, but she'd agreed to two drinks. I could feel a slight buzz through the bond and had to carefully shield it out. She was as surprised as we'd been to see Mia but gave her a warm welcome and wanted to catch up. I'd heard most of this already, so I just listened and drank my chai. No coffee for me. Most guardians drank it the way Moroi drank blood, but I wouldn't touch the stuff. â€Å"How'd your thing with the queen go?† Christian asked Lissa at one point. â€Å"Not so bad,† she said. â€Å"I mean, not great either. But she didn't yell at me or humiliate me, so that's a start.† â€Å"Stop being modest,† said Adrian, putting his arm around her. â€Å"Princess Dragomir totally stood her ground. You should have seen it.† Lissa laughed. â€Å"I don't suppose she mentioned why she decided to let us come to the trial?† Christian asked stiffly. He didn't look very happy about the bonding that was taking place here – or about Adrian's arm. Lissa's laughter faded, but she was still smiling. â€Å"Adrian did it.† â€Å"What?† Christian and I asked together. Adrian, looking very pleased with himself, stayed quiet for a change and let Lissa do the talking. â€Å"He convinced her that we needed to be here. He apparently harassed her until she gave in.† â€Å"It's called ‘persuasion,' not ‘harassment,'† Adrian said. Lissa laughed again. My own words about the queen came back to haunt me. Who's she? Just another Ivashkov. There are a ton of them. There were indeed. I eyed Adrian. â€Å"How closely are you guys related?† The answer popped into my head from Lissa's. â€Å"She's your aunt.† â€Å"Great-aunt. And I'm her favorite great nephew. Well, I'm her only great nephew, but that's not important. I'd still be her favorite,† he said. â€Å"Unbelievable,† said Christian. â€Å"I'll second that,† I said. â€Å"None of you appreciate me. Why is it so hard to believe that I could make a real contribution in these dark times?† Adrian stood up. He was trying to sound outraged, but the smirk on his face indicated that he still found all of this pretty funny. â€Å"My cigarettes and I are going outside. At least they show me respect.† As soon as he left, Christian asked Lissa, â€Å"Were you getting drunk with him?† â€Å"I'm not drunk. I only had two drinks,† she said. â€Å"Since when did you get all conservative?† â€Å"Since Adrian became a bad influence.† â€Å"Come on! He helped us get here. No one else was able to do it. He didn't have to, but he did. And you and Rose are sitting there, still acting like he's the most evil person on the planet.† That wasn't exactly true. I was mostly sitting there like I had been hit in the head, still too dumbstruck to react. â€Å"Yeah, and I'm sure he did it out of the kindness of his heart,† muttered Christian. â€Å"Why else would he do it?† â€Å"Oh, gee, I wonder.† Lissa's eyes widened. â€Å"You think he did it for me? You think there's something going on with us?† â€Å"You guys drink together, practice magic together, and go to elitist events together. What would you think?† Mia and Eddie looked like they wanted to be somewhere else. I was starting to share the feeling. Anger burned through Lissa, hitting me like a wave of heat. She was utterly outraged. Her fury didn't even have that much to do with Adrian, really. She was more upset at the thought of Christian not trusting her. And as for him, I needed no psychic powers to understand how he was feeling. He wasn't jealous simply because she was hanging out with Adrian. Christian was still jealous that Adrian had the kind of influence to pull this off for her. It was just like what Jesse and Ralf had described, about how the right connections could open the right doors – connections that Christian didn't have. I kneed Christian's leg, hoping he'd get the hint that he really should stop talking before things got worse. Lissa's anger was intensifying, muddled with embarrassment as she began to doubt herself and wonder if she had been getting too close to Adrian. The whole thing was ridiculous. â€Å"Christian, for the love of God. If Adrian did this for anyone, it was because of me and his crazy obsession. He bragged awhile ago that he could do it, and I didn't believe it.† I turned to Lissa. I needed to get her calm and diffuse those dark feelings that could cause so much trouble for her when they ran out of control. â€Å"Liss, you might not be wasted exactly, but you need to chill out for an hour before having this conversation. You're going to say something as stupid as Christian, and I'll be the one who has to deal with the mess – like always.† I'd gotten worked up and expected someone to tell me how bitchy I sounded. Instead, Lissa relaxed and offered Christian a smile. â€Å"Yeah, we should definitely talk about this later. A lot's kind of happened today.† He hesitated, then nodded. â€Å"Yeah. Sorry I jumped all over you.† He returned her smile, fight patched up. â€Å"So,† Lissa asked Mia, â€Å"who have you met here?† I stared at them in amazement, but no one seemed to notice. I'd fixed their fight, and there'd been no acknowledgment. No Thank you, Rose, for pointing out how idiotic we're being. It was bad enough I had to endure their romance day after day, with no consideration for how I felt. Now I was salvaging their relationship, and they didn't even realize it. â€Å"I'll be right back,† I said, interrupting Mia's description of some of the other teenagers here. I was afraid if I sat there, I was going to say something I'd regret or maybe break a chair. Where had this rage come from? I went outside, hoping a gulp of cold air would calm me down. Instead, I got a face full of clove smoke. â€Å"Don't start in about the smoking,† warned Adrian. He was leaning against the building's brick wall. â€Å"You didn't have to come outside. You knew I was here.† â€Å"That's actually why I'm here. Well, that, and I felt like I was going to go crazy if I stayed inside another minute.† He tilted his head to look at my face. His eyebrows shot up. â€Å"You aren't kidding, are you? What happened? You were fine a few minutes ago.† I paced across the ground in front of him. â€Å"I don't know. I was fine. Then Christian and Lissa started having this stupid argument over you. It was weird. They were the ones who were mad – and then I ended up madder than both of them.† â€Å"Wait. They were arguing over me?† â€Å"Yes. I just said that. Weren't you paying attention?† â€Å"Hey, don't snap at me. I haven't done anything to you.† I crossed my arms over my chest. â€Å"Christian's jealous because you hang around Lissa so much.† â€Å"We're studying spirit,† said Adrian. â€Å"He's welcome to join in.† â€Å"Yeah, well, no one ever said love was reasonable. Seeing you come back together kind of set him off. And then he got upset because you pulled rank with the queen for Lissa.† â€Å"I didn't do it for her. I did it for all of you – but, well, you especially.† I came to a halt in front of him. â€Å"I didn't believe you. That you could do it.† He grinned. â€Å"Guess you should have listened to my family history in that dream after all.† â€Å"I guess. I just thought†¦Ã¢â‚¬  I couldn't finish. I'd thought Dimitri would be the one who came through for me, the one who – despite what he said – could make almost anything happen. But he hadn't. â€Å"Thought what?† Adrian prompted. â€Å"Nothing.† With much effort, I managed to utter the next words. â€Å"Thank you for helping us.† â€Å"Oh my God,† he said. â€Å"A kind word from Rose Hathaway. I can die a happy man.† â€Å"What are you saying? That I'm normally an ungrateful bitch?† He just looked at me. â€Å"Hey! Not cool.† â€Å"Maybe you could redeem yourself with a hug.† I glared. â€Å"A small one?† he begged. With a sigh, I walked over and put one arm around Adrian, leaning my head lightly against his arm. â€Å"Thanks, Adrian.† We stood like that for a heartbeat. I felt none of the crazy electricity or connection I did with Dimitri, but I had to admit that Lissa had been right about something. Adrian was annoying and arrogant at times, but he really wasn't the bastard I often made him out to be. The doors opened, and Lissa and the others stepped outside. They understandably looked surprised, but I didn't care just then. Besides, they probably all thought I was pregnant with Adrian's love child, so what did it matter? I backed away. â€Å"Heading out?† I asked. â€Å"Yeah, Mia's got more important things to do than hang out with us,† joked Christian. â€Å"Hey, I just told my dad I'd meet him. I'll see you guys before I leave.† She started to walk away, then abruptly turned around. â€Å"God, I'm so out of it.† She reached into her coat pocket and handed me a folded piece of paper. â€Å"This is half the reason I found you guys. One of the court clerks wanted me to give this to you.† â€Å"Thanks,† I said, puzzled. She headed off to see her dad while the rest of us strolled back to our accommodations. I slowed my pace as I opened the note, wondering who in the world here would want to contact me. Rose, I was so happy to hear about your arrival. I'm sure it'll make tomorrow's proceedings that much more entertaining. I've been curious for quite some time about how Vasilisa is doing, and your romantic escapades are always an amusing diversion. I can't wait to share them in the courtroom tomorrow. Best, V.D. â€Å"Who's it from?† asked Eddie, coming up beside me. I hastily folded it up and shoved it into my pocket. â€Å"No one,† I replied. No one indeed. V. D. Victor Dashkov.

Earthquakes result

Earthquakes result from disturbance in the outer layer of the Earth. This causes the vibration of the Earth’s surface. Another reason for the occurrence of earthquakes is the sudden release of energy that had been dormant in the core of the Earth. This energy creates strain in the rocks, subsequently; it is transferred in the form of waves to the Earth’s surface (Bolt, 2005 ). The force or magnitude and the period of time that had elapsed determine the destructive effect of an earthquake. The seismic waves and their intensity determine the destructive power of an earthquake.Structural damages caused by an earthquake depend on the design of the structure and the materials used in its construction. Earthquakes differ in magnitude. They may be small or unnoticeable or they may be so large that their intensity can be detected from distant places. The aftermath of an earthquake may cause the distortion of the ground or damage to buildings. Some earthquakes occur under the se a and cause tsunamis. Whatever the form of the earthquake, many of them endanger the lives of humans through their destructive force (Bolt, 2005 ).The surface of the Earth consists of lithospheric plates. These plates are always in motion and this causes compressional stresses at their edges. The sudden release of such stress can be attributed to earthquakes. Most earthquakes are caused due to the moving of these lithospheric plates. During the course of their movement, these plates collide with each other and enormous tensional stress is released through the faults present in the earth’s crust. The vibrations of the earthquake spread throughout the earth in the form of waves.Shallow earthquakes occur due to volcanic eruptions, the falling of huge rocks, landslides and bomb explosions. Such earthquakes are limited to the area surrounding the place of such occurrences (Earthquake, 2004). The impact of an earthquake spreads through a large area surrounding the epicenter of the earthquake. The surface of earth cracks due to the transmission of faults to the surface from within the earth. This results in horizontal and vertical deformation of the surface for over several meters. There is no such transfer of faults to earth’s surface during major earthquakes.Shallow earthquakes can be felt through the cyclical movements of the earth’s surface, which is termed as fault creep. The characteristics of the ground determine the magnitude of an earthquake’s vibrations and its destructive power. For instance, river beds, or nonintegrated ground surface could carry the effect of an earthquake to large area. Whereas, areas made up of bedrock transmit an earthquake that is significantly weaker. Loss of human lives would be more in places where buildings are not constructed to withstand immense shocks and vibrations.In those areas L waves of an earthquake could cause the pipe lines that supply gas to burst thereby causing destructive fires (Earthqua ke, 2004). Injuries and deaths could result from the collapse of buildings and sharp objects transported by the wind. Structural characteristics could also result in damages. For instance, flexible structures constructed on bedrock suffer less damage where as rigid structures built on loose soil suffer greater damage. In hilly regions, earthquakes cause landslides and mudslides, which could submerge the inhabitants.Earthquakes that occur under the seas could cause tsunamis, which give rise to destructive waves of water from the epicenter of the earthquake and flood the cities on the coast (Earthquake, 2004) The sudden movement of rocks along a fault causes vibrations and the transmission of energy through the Earth. Such waves are termed as body waves and their propagation is subterranean. These waves are classified as P waves or primary waves and S waves or secondary waves. The latter tend to displace the ground forwards and backwards and are consequently known as shearing waves (B olt, 2006).The world experienced a number of earthquakes in the year 1990. The Iranian earthquake in the month of June of that year claimed nearly fifty thousand human lives and its intensity was measured at 7. 7 on the Richter scale. Earthquakes are caused by plate tectonics and most of the earthquakes occur in regions that are in close proximity to the margins of the Earth’s plates. Fault activity is the main reason for earthquakes in these regions. Iran is located on the boundary between the Arabian and the Asian plates.Areas where there was no fault activity also suffered from earthquakes such as Missouri in the US where an earthquake occurred on the 26th of September 1990, Welsh borders and Sheffield in the UK sustained an earthquake on the 2nd of April and the 8th of February 1990 (Seismology: Earthquake Prediction, 2005). Stanford University developed measures to predict the occurrence of earthquakes by detecting the fluctuations in very low frequency radio waves that were transmitted through rocks a few hours before the occurrence of an earthquake.This phenomenon is a result of electrical currents produced by pressure in the rocks and is also attributed to the opening of microscopic cracks in the rocks. Japanese scientists discovered that electromagnetic radiation was emitted before an earthquake. (Seismology: Earthquake Prediction, 2005). A number of earthquakes occur in the seas, which do not cause damage, but major earthquakes occurring in densely populated areas could result in immense destruction to property and life.In order to limit the dangers of an earthquake, it is necessary to develop a system of earthquake prediction. At present the seismic gap theory has met with some success in locating earthquake prone regions. Most earthquakes occur in the region of the San Andreas Fault in California since the North American plate and Pacific plate move past each other. The North Pole is being shifted towards Japan at a slow pace of six centimet ers in every hundred years by earthquakes. This drift of pole is as result of major earthquakes that occur along shore the Pacific Rim (Earthquake, 2005).Despite the fact that earthquakes cannot be prevented the severity of the destruction caused by them can be mitigated appreciably by adopting suitable communication strategies, appropriate structural design of buildings, implementing a well planned course of action during an earthquake, appropriately educating the public and ensuring that safer building standards are in place. Several countries have instituted earthquake safety and regulatory agencies in response to the severe damage caused to life and property by earthquakes.In respect of Tsunamis, a proper early warning system can significantly reduce the damage caused, due to the fact that tsunami waves are propagated at low speeds. These waves are slower than seismic P and S waves and travel at a tenth of the speed of seismic waves in the rocks below. Thus, seismologists have a mple time at their disposal to warn the areas that could be affected by the killer waves (Bolt, 2006). The occurrence of intraplate earthquakes is much less in comparison to plate boundary earthquakes. They occur due to the internal fracturing of rock masses.Examples of such earthquakes were 1811 New Madrid earthquake and the 1812 Missouri earthquake, which were very severe. From the reports of the damage recorded, scientists have opined that their intensity should have been of the order of 8. 0 on the Richter scale (Bolt, 2006). Around eighty percent of the energy released by earthquakes can be attributed to the earthquakes that take place in the area surrounding the Pacific Ocean. More than a thousand tremors of intensity in excess of 3. 5 in magnitude occur in Japan annually.Another region that is notorious for earthquakes is the western coast of North and South America (Pendick). One of the techniques employed by seismologists in order to measure earthquakes is the Richter magni tude scale, which was developed by Charles Richter. The Richter magnitude is determined on the basis of the maximum vibration strength and the distance from earthquake’s epicenter. This scale is logarithmic and accordingly, a 6 magnitude earthquake is ten times stronger than a 5 magnitude earthquake. However, the Richter magnitude is inaccurate if the earthquake being measured is more than 310 miles from the seismograph.Accordingly, seismologists developed other earthquake magnitude scales; however these scales cannot be applied to all type of earthquakes due to the resulting inaccuracies (Pendick). As the distance increases the seismic waves exhibit a loss of strength. In general, the greatest effect of an earthquake will be at its epicenter. Some earthquakes are so powerful that the ground shaking can be greater than the acceleration due to gravity and this could result in rocks and boulders being propelled into the air with great force. This actually transpired in 1897 whe n a major earthquake occurred in Assam, India (Pendick).In the USA, earthquakes are a major cause of loss to property and endanger about seventy – five million US citizens. The loss caused by earthquakes can be significantly mitigated by efficient disaster planning, adoption of preventive measures like implementing better safeguards while constructing buildings and providing information about earthquakes that could occur immediately to the populace. The U. S. Geological Survey (USGS) is the team leader of the effort to warn people in a timely manner regarding earthquakes about to take place in the US (USGS Science Helps Build Safer Communities Earthquake Hazards—A National Threat ).Earthquakes claimed millions of human lives in the past five hundred years. In the year 1976, the infamous T’ang – Shan earthquake that hit China claimed nearly two hundred and forty thousand lives. Earthquakes also cause immense damage to property and structures. Precautionary measures to counter the effects of an earthquake such as education, planning in emergency, and flexible, structural designs could contain the severity of the damage caused by an earthquake . (Bolt, 2005 ). References 1. Bolt, B. (2005 ). â€Å"Earthquake. â€Å". Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2006 [DVD] . Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation.2. Earthquake. (2004). Retrieved June 21, 2007, from 2004: http://www. xreferplus. com/entry. jsp? xrefid=4270901&secid=. 1. – 3. Earthquake. (2004). Retrieved June 21, 2007, from http://www. xreferplus. com/entry. jsp? xrefid=4270901&secid=. 3 4. Earthquake. (2005). Retrieved June 21, 2007, from In The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia including Atlas: http://www. xreferplus. com/entry/6422915 5. Seismology: Earthquake Prediction. (2005). Retrieved June 21, 2007, from In The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia including Atlas: http://www. xreferplus. com/entry. jsp? xrefid=6481861&secid=. 1

The Optimist’s Daughter

The old saying â€Å"The home is where the heart is† takes on a special meaning in Eudora Welty's, The Optimist's Daughter. In this short novel, the death of Judge McKelva prompts Laurel and Fay, who are his daughter and wife, to connect with their own homes. A home is a place where one can restore themselves because it gives one a sense of comfort. Home is where people generally feel accepted, regardless of their moods, feelings, or decisions. It is a safe haven where both Laurel and Fay can be truthful with themselves and one another. In other words, home is the obvious place to go when in a time of crisis and change. For Laurel, the town of Mount Salus is her home. For Fay, home is in the town of Madrid, where her extended family likely meets the same needs for Fay as the house does for Laurel. When reviewing the events of Eudora Welty's life at the time of writing this novel, it will also become clear that, for Welty, home is both Mississippi and her writing. Laurel is a grown woman, living in Chicago, who returns to her hometown of Mount Salus, Mississippi, when her father dies. While it may seem that Chicago is now her permanent home, the reader soon realizes that the house in which she was raised in still very much indeed her home. When Fay decides to stay with her family for a few days after the funeral, Laurel has the opportunity to spend some time alone in the house before Fay takes full possession of it. In her privacy and silence, Laurel begins to grieve more seriously than she did while in public at the funeral. There are objects in the house, such as the clock, books, letters, and her father's desk, that bring back memories that are intimately attached to one or both of her parents. She becomes sad because the clock has stopped, and she knows this for a fact because nobody has wound it since her father last fixed it (Welty 73). Although it may seem like a minor detail, this stopped clock signifies both her father's absence and the reality that her time with her family and in her home has come to an end. Her grief is projected onto household objects because they represent the life she once cherished. Similarly, the books remind her of her parents' habit of reading to each other, a precious memory that she both savors and grieves over. In one passage, Laurel blends her memories of the books with the overall feeling of family, which, she feels, infuses the house. She ran her finger in a loving track across Eric Brighteyes and Jane Eyre, The Last Days of Pompeii and Carry On, Jeeves. Shoulder to shoulder, they had long since made their own family. For every book here she had heard their voices, father's and mother's† (Welty 118). Laurel also feels a connection to the house, and thus to her past, in household activities such as gardening. Her mother was an avid gardener (Welty 53), and her father tended to the flowers after his wife's passing, so it is fitting that, as part of Laurel's process of connecting with her past, she should take up the task one last time. The activity of gardening helps her to feel comfortable and close to her parents, as she participates in the rhythm of the household as she remembers it. On another level, Laurel is tending her own â€Å"inner garden† in the sense that she is connecting with her own identity. Her mother loved flowers so much that she named her daughter after one, and now that the mother is dead, the daughter is caring for the mother's flowers (Welty 27). In the house, Laurel finds herself so deeply in touch with her past that she can actually hear the voices of the people she has loved and lost. She hears her mother's voice when she is in the garden, â€Å"Laurel went on pulling weeds. Her mother's voice came back with each weed she reached for, and its name with it. ‘Ironweed. ‘ ‘Just chickweed. ‘ ‘Here comes that miserable old vine! ‘† (Welty 107). Later, in a moment of remembering the pain she felt when she lost her husband in World War II, Laurel hears his voice grieving for their lost future together. Welty writes, † ‘I wanted it! ‘ Phil cried. His voice rose with the wind in the night and went around the house and around the house. It became a roar. ‘I wanted it! ‘† (155). There is no other place besides her own home that Laurel can experience such personal revelations and be given the opportunity to confront her pain from the past and make peace with it. The bond that she has with her home is so deep that she can overcome many obstacles and emotional problems in time. Only at home is she truly able to bare her heart and hear what she needs to hear to heal herself. However, to ultimately make peace with her past and her present, she must become â€Å"one† with the significance of the house so she can take it with her wherever she goes. Incredibly, Laurel is able to do so. Fay is originally from Madrid, Texas, which is a small, low-income town. Although Welty never takes the reader to Madrid, the remarks and personalities of the Chisom family offer some idea as to what kind of place it is. It seems to lack all the charm and warmth of Laurel's hometown of Mount Salus, yet for Fay it is nonetheless her home. In Mount Salus, Fay clearly feels out of her element and becomes extremely rude and insecure. The reader can only imagine whether or not she acts the same way when she is in the comfort of her own hometown, or if she acts the same way. Nevertheless, in Fay's new community of Mount Salus, she is disrespectful, self-absorbed, and rowdy (Welty 64, 85). Fay does not appreciate the home and the possessions of her late husband than she does his friends and family. In fact, she never makes an effort to understand Laurel's grief or her need to be in the house for a few days. Fay's insistence on returning with her family for a visit after the funeral could possibly reveal that Madrid is the only place in which Fay feels secure. Fay is anxious to go back with them, insisting that she needs to be among people who â€Å"speak her language. † In other words, Fay, much like Laurel, needs to go where she feels understood either by others or by herself. In Mount Salus, Fay feels displaced, and her insecurity takes on many ugly forms, such as her tendency to disrespect Becky's memory and to deny her own family back in Madrid (Welty 152). Laurel imagines, â€Å"Very likely, making a scene was, for Fay, like home. Fay had brought scenes to the hospital-and here, to the house† (Welty 131). Laurel understands that Fay's horrible behavior is an apparent sign of her need to feel at home. Fay tries too hard to appear as though she believes that Judge McKelva's home is truly her own, but she never convinces anyone, including herself. At the time Eudora Welty wrote this story, she was grieving the loss of her mother. In fact, the reader can see that the book is dedicated to C. A. W. (Chestina Andrews Welty), which reveals that this work is closely connected to the author's own personal loss (Marrs 228). The autobiographical elements in the novel are numerous, and are especially prominent in the parallels between Becky's background and that of Welty's mother (Marrs 229). Other elements pay respect to Welty's happy childhood and the loving marriage her parents enjoyed. Through Laurel, Welty honors her mother and also works through some of the pain and the issues surrounding the death of a loving parent. Laurel's personal journey to make peace with her past in order to make sense of her future certainly mirrors the author's own struggles. Welty differs from Laurel in the sense that Laurel lives far from her hometown, while Welty lived in Mississippi, where she was born, until her death (Marrs 232). For Laurel, however, the climax of her journey comes from the house. In the absence of a house that holds all of her childhood memories, Welty wrote this book. Welty works through some of her grief in her writing, which is as meaningful to her as the house is to Laurel. Welty comments on Laurel's love of her past, â€Å"Firelight and warmth-that was what her memory gave her† (Westling 159). Laurel, Fay, and Welty are all working toward such comfort in a difficult time during the course of The Optimist's Daughter. In very difficult times, confronted with emotion and uncertainty, people often long to return to the comfort and security of their childhood homes. Fay and Laurel find the havens they need by going back to their homes. Laurel is ultimately able to take a piece of that firelight and warmth with her back to Chicago, because she has finally succeeded in making her heart and her home one.

Discussion post Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

Discussion post - Essay Example The aim of medical management is to remove H. pylori and to control gastric acidity. The methods used in the treatment include lifestyle changes, surgical intervention and medications (Walton, 2010). I agree with Theresa about Benign Prostatic Hyperplasia (BPH). BPH refers to a growth of the prostate gland that is noncancerous. The disease is common in elderly because the prostate continues to grow during a man’s lifetime. The symptoms of the disorder are different in various people. The most common symptoms are urgent or frequent urge to urinate, inability to start urinating and the sensation of incomplete bladder emptying. In addition, the signs include dribbling, weak stream of urine and pain when passing urine. A PSA level that is greater than 10ng ml-1 indicates a higher possibility of prostatic cancer. Methods available to screen prostate cancer include digital rectal examination, transrectal ultrasound, prostate-specific antigen, and a combination of tests (Kaplan & McVary, 2014). Medical treatments include alpha blockers that consist of terazosin, alfuzosin, tamsulin, and doxazosin. Other drugs consist of 5-alpha-reductase inhibitors where dutasteride and finaster ide are oral drugs to treat BPH. Likewise, combination treatment of 5-alpha-reductace inhibitors and alpha-blockers, and anticholinergics can treat BPH. Moreover, alternative and complementary drugs which are herbal treatments can be used in BPH therapy. Other techniques of treatments include transurethral microwave thermotherapy, transurethral needle ablation, surgical methods and minimal invasion treatment (Urology Care Foundation,

The Problem of Consumer Skepticism Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Problem of Consumer Skepticism - Case Study Example However, there are many factors inhibiting development towards greener practices. One might think that any effort made by a company to be eco friendly is well received by those who are concerned about the environment. For example, Coca Cola’s effort towards greener practices has been faced by numerous setbacks. The bottles are still made of plastic and even though it is recyclable most consumers through them away leading to environmental pollution. Secondly, the green idea is no exception as it has been faced by a huge controversy inhibiting its progress. Although, the idea would have positive impacts on the environment, such as reducing rainwater runoff by 38 percent and minimize heat island impact by 26 percent, there are those who are against the idea. Critics state that the new by law behind the idea of green rooftops may dampen the efforts of the green movement, as it will limit developers’ options in constructing, as they will be concerned towards making the building eco-friendly thus increase the building costs. Consumer attitudes towards eco-friendly products limit greener practices since most of them are skeptical about paying a high price for these products.

International Politics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

International Politics - Essay Example This paper aims to critically review the book ‘Why Globalization Works’ which is written by Martin Wolf. In order to support the arguments, evidences from the text will also be presented. Author’s Argument Martin Wolf has presented the topic of globalization rationally. Defending globalization, the author argues that anti globalization, failure of governments and systems have been the cause of global market failures. Wolf also dismantles the argument that rich countries exploit smaller countries. He has drawn a clear picture where the problem exists (Wolf). â€Å"The failure of our world is not that there is too much globalization, but that there is too little† (Wolf 4). Thesis Statement   â€Å"For the greater good, globalization itself is a vibrant channel but as how the political system has mismanaged or mislead this channel of globalization, it has brought the worst affects throughout the world, to the world economies and to their systems†. Bod y The book has a strong appeal for those who are interested in globalization and its future; how democracies will make the most out of this phenomenon and how governments and their free markets will collapse due to its wrong or mere use. In order to understand the author’s argument and to prove the thesis statement, a critical analysis of the book is given below. The idea that distance, space, and technology matters is not disagreed but at the same time a territorial authority of states matter. Even though technology is noticed as a sound source which allows strong territorial control and monitoring of physical objects that crosses the borders, states should not emphasize and rely heavily on the regulation of markets; local or international. The state or a government will itself decide and plan to which extent it is going to utilize the opportunities presented by globalization (Wolf). Market failures are noticed not because of globalization but because of the system failure a nd the weak and ineffective policies. These failures are usually local. It is also due to the central planning as the author has termed it as ‘ludicrous’ as it does not reflect the consumer behavior or his taste, lacking the element of innovation (Wolf 59-60). It is the duty of the government to cater the basic needs of consumers by providing them the basic goods (Wolf). In order to prosper and grow, a state should realize that it needs to clean its debt and at the same time should also protect what belongs to the public. The state must show elements of ‘credibility, predictability, transparency, and consistency’ (Wolf 25). Moreover, the government must refrain itself in interfering in the business deals of merchants and investors. It should let them do business as they want because it is evident that all the Western societies have been crafted by these businessmen using the elements of ‘practicality, rationalism, and freedom of inquiry’ (Wolf) . The author of the book Martin Wolf comes with a very comprehensive definition of globalization that it is something which is meant for the greater good, for the good of the world, for the good of the world’s economies and their economic revivals. The author describes globalization as a method of free trade, and a method where free movement of goods, resources and opportunities are made possible. Globalization itself is an idea to promote the greater integration of the world as the author

Multi-Agency Working and Career Development in the Human Services Essay

Multi-Agency Working and Career Development in the Human Services - Essay Example Employees’ roles in organizations dealing with the above differ significantly. However, all that is required for employees is to assist individuals and communities faced with the above challenges function in the best way possible. In a human service organization that deals with the bettering of the lives of street children and orphans such as St. Michael’s orphanage, a social worker is expected to have the ability to evaluate the different challenges that face the patients in question. He should also show patience, understanding and, care when dealing with children since they all require specific attention since their backgrounds vary, and thus, is their problems. An employee in such an organization should have the ability to identify, analyze and select interventions that are appropriate in helping the organization attain its goals and also help the patients in finding a solution to their problems. This may include social assistance, guiding and counseling as well as encouragement. It requires an understanding of the organization values and goals, ethics of the human service and also the approval of the patients’ lifestyle (Renee, 2012, 4). The worker should be in a position to come up with an action plan, for an identified problem and also implement it. This, therefore, calls for the ability and knowledge to analyze problems, decisions and design work plans (Renee, 2012, p.4). The social worker should show high accountability and coordination abilities with other agencies and professionals in the delivering of services. Excellent communication and interpersonal skills is another quality that the social worker should not lack. The job calls for self discipline, timely management and self motivation to be able to carry out his/her role effectively and efficiently. Should also be ready to attend court hearings, thus knowledge on human rights and law is an added advantage (Renee, 2012, p.4). Nonetheless, the worker is

Case consruction studies for civil engineering Essay

Case consruction studies for civil engineering - Essay Example Twenty-four others were injured, including 11 first responders eight remained hospitalized, officials said. (FOXNEWS Monday, March 17, 2008). This was just another heart wrecking and most unwelcome accident that happened in the construction industry. In an era of highly advanced science and technology as of now, we expect that deaths caused due to accidents at work sites, should be the least ever but survey reports and statistics show an increase directly proportional to the advancement in science and technology applied in the construction and civil engineering sector worldwide. Statistics from the UK Health and Safety Executive show that on average one or two people are killed every week as a result of construction work. Occupational ill-health, which can accumulate over time, accounts for further loss of life. What is health and safety In simple terms, health and safety is about identifying risks and eliminating or controlling them to prevent accidents and occupational ill-health. Even though it's inevitable that no job is free from any occupational hazards, measures can adopted to minimize the risks by eliminating or controlling the factors that give rise to unnecessary ones. What are the risks Statistics show that people falling from heights and objects falling from heights and strik... onal health problems arise from chemical hazards, such as liquid, dusts, gasses and fumes, or physical hazards such as cold, heat, noise, vibration, ionizing radiation, compressed air, lasers and manual handling. Why are good health and safety processes important Accidents and ill-health have both a human cost and a financial cost. Lost time and materials, higher insurance premiums, compensation claims and possibly legal costs are the most obvious potential impacts. There are also indirect costs in terms of potential damage to reputation which can make it harder for a company to attract business or new employees or for a project to obtain funding. Good health and safety processes demonstrate respect for people whether they are employees, clients or local communities hosting a construction project. Long-term health effects are usually slower to be realized but the costs and long-term implications can be far more significant than accidents and should not be underestimated. Construction has one of the highest rates of accidents and incidences of ill-health of all employment sectors. High risk activities, poor training and inadequate safeguards all contribute. It need not be this way. There are measures that can be taken to minimize the risks. Constructing a health and safety policy and program: This is a simple but effective strategic framework: 1. POLICY 2. ORGANISING 3. PLANNING AND IMPLEMENTATION 4. MEASURING PERFORMANCE 5. REVIEWING PERFORMANCE Policy Every organization needs to draw up a statement of policy on how it will manage health and safety, including how responsibilities will be allocated. The policy should take into account the nature of the construction activities involved and the size of the organization. Organizing An adequately resourced and

U.S. and Nevada Constitutions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

U.S. and Nevada Constitutions - Essay Example ed by Bowers that â€Å"the incredibly short span of three years from territory to statehood and the events predating and surrounding that transition make the Nevada Constitution a truly exceptional document† (12). Due to several amendments made to this constitution, it has ended up with more words and more details as compared to the United States constitution; it is more deeply descriptive, while the U.S.’s is more general in terms of its structure. As per the constitution of Nevada, it has 19 articles that describe the basic laws ranging from the organization of the government, power distribution within the government institutions, and the bill of rights meant to protect the people from any form of oppression. In most cases, the Nevada constitution resembles that of the U.S. though in some other instances, there are variations which result in differences in length, for example the omission of individual rights from the U.S. constitution, but present in the Nevada constitution. According to Bowers (15), Nevada’s constitution provides a more direct means of separation of powers into three most basic divisions and has an additional system for checks and balances moreover this constitution has a system for amendments and revision whereby the judiciary has been vested with such powers. These additional clauses makes it longer that the U.S constitution. There are various factors that define the length and details of a state constitution. According to Berman, â€Å"a broad historical factor accounting for this condition was the loss of popular confidence in state legislators† (77). Constitutional amendments made after the civil wars had extensive and detailed policies to prevent corruptions and mismanagement that marred the nation. The ease of amendments provided by the Nevada’s constitution has made it easier to add additional values by the concerned parties. In general, most of the state constitutions are noteworthy constitutions; the differences can be

Business communication Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business communication - Essay Example Giving details of how effective messages can be created or directed. I have undertaken several different tasks and assignments in this course. Various oral presentations by using different techniques were done. Use of slides and presentation transcripts were also part of my study activities. Portfolios part comes with two different parts. Part A consists of article review and speech review. Different tasks were performed which improved my capacity and learning towards article and speech review furthermore part B involved self reaction and poster submission. I learned through a workshop that how effectively one can design posters and what should one consider in order to effectively conveying message through poster. The course started with the focus on history of business communication deriving it from different eras and also telling about different developments chronologically, such as the era before 1600 and so on. Furthermore a brief summary of history of communication was presented. We were then told about effectiveness of business communication, definition, need, importance and trends. Later different communication models were put up such as transactional, transformational and basic model. Furthermore barriers and flow of information in an organization were studied. Started with the topic behavioral protocols and ethical communication in which do’s and don’ts regarding how to be professional on jobs were told. Later four views of ethical behavior and their factors were discussed with further emphasis on how ethics in communication should work. Started with one of my favorite topic emotional intelligence and gender communication. In which IQ and emotional intelligence role and importance were explained. Further managing and developing of emotions were highlighted. Different strategies and models were also explained, such as nine strategies for promoting emotional intelligence and Mayer’s and

Causes, Negative Effects of Child Abuse and Prevention Research Paper

Causes, Negative Effects of Child Abuse and Prevention - Research Paper Example This cause can be because of social-economic factors, parental profile, the family environment or child related factors. Parental related causes: In parental profile there are such factors as stressful conditions, health and mental problems, alcoholism and drug addiction, parenthood at youthful age and finally lack of proper parenting skills. All this factors in one way or another contribute directly or indirectly to the abuse of children or increases the susceptibility of children being abused. Family environment causes : Some of the factors within the family set up that increases the risk of children being abused include; constant marital conflicts and fights of the parents ,high burden of person responsibility and lack of support associated with single parenthood and failure of the parents to recognize and reward good behaviors but instead looking for negative behaviors in order to punish. Child related causes: Children in most cases do not contribute directly to being victims of mistreatment. ... , lack of social support, dangerous and risk neighborhoods and lastly violent communities that support the use of physical force to punish children (stopchildabusenow.com.au, 2008) 2.0 Effects of child abuse Child abuse and neglect results into physical, psychological, cognitive and behavioral consequences which are at times interrelated (Office on Child Abuse and Neglect (HHS), Washington, DC. e tal, 2003) Physical health problems: Health problems in children that are related to abuse include baby shaken syndrome that may result into brain damage, spinal cord injuries, impaired hearing, speech difficulties or even death. Trauma and psychological problems: Children undergoing mistreatment can suffer from complex trauma disorder which does affect the development of brain, interferes with capability of a child to integrate sensory, cognitive and emotional information and this eventually makes the child to overreact to subsequent stress situations. Learning and developmental problems: M altreatment of a child in early childhood does seriously affects the capacity development in infants particularly in area of speech and language. This in turn results in learning difficulties and poor performance and achievements academically. Mental problems: Mental problems particularly in adolescent is associated with abuse in childhood and the rates are generally higher in adolescent than in young children. In children and adolescents mental problems may include depression and anxiety disorders. Behavioral problems: Children abused in childhood portray complex behavior problems in adolescent. These behaviors may include isolation, sadness, depressions, aggressiveness, hyper reaction and improper sexual behaviors (Larmot, 2011) 3.0. Prevention of child abuse Children abuse and neglect

Descriptive Essay Example for Free

Descriptive Essay Time The living room, or family room, is generally considered the main gathering area in most homes due to the television being located there. However, this is not the case in the more than one hundred year old, light grey, two story home in which I live. The main attraction of this particular living room is the comforting atmosphere and warm fires that take place in the wood-burning fireplace. Upon entering the living room, the golden honey colored hardwood floor creaks underfoot and the fireplace stands out from the roughly textured, earthy green walls that rise up to the textured white ceiling. The long narrow boards that make up the beautifully maintained hardwood floor run lengthwise making this room look even bigger than it actually is. The textured ceiling was done in multi-directional, sweeping, fan patterns that resemble seashells. Hanging in the center of the room is a fifty-two inch brass-trimmed ceiling fan with five dark wood colored blades. Below the fan blades are three frosted glass, bell shaped covers which shade the light bulbs. The massive, seven foot wide, brick fireplace juts outward from the wall as if in attempt to invade the room. Leading to, and as wide as, the fireplace are three rows of eight inch square, red brick colored tiles set into the hardwood floor. The dark brownish red bricks that form the fireplace surround are staggered uniformly, rising five feet high to the white painted wood mantle. The jet black mortar that fills the void between each brick and each tile ties them together. The opening, or firebox, is fitted with a brass frame that holds a pair of glass bi-fold doors. In front of the fireplace doors is a freestanding, flat black painted, tri-fold, wire mesh screen protecting the floor from the popping embers of a hot burning fire on those cold winter nights. To the right of the wire mesh screen are the tools used for tending to the fire and cleaning out the fireplace. They are black wrought iron and hang on a metal rack that matches the screen in front of the fireplace. On the mantle above the fireplace are two matching, and evenly spaced, square ‘infinity’ candle holders, as well as a glass, cone shaped reed diffuser. The candles above the fireplace give off an illuminating glow creating dancing shadows on the wall and ceiling in the evening hours, adding to the natural warmth of the room. The reed diffuser has bright red apple scented oil in it that can be smelled halfway across the room. One of the most interesting things in the room is also on the mantle and that is a nearly rocket shaped, fourteen inch tall by two inch diameter glass Galileo thermometer. Against the wall to the left of the fireplace is the large, grey trimmed, fifty inch screen television which resides atop a five foot long by two foot tall wood stand. The television and stand sits with its back to the front windows of the house that look out to the heavily trafficked Campbell Street that leads into town. On the front of the dark honey colored stand are two oak trimmed glass doors, that neatly frame the open center section, dividing it into thirds. The open middle area holds the black dvr and a dull silver colored surround sound system. On display behind the glass doors, on either side of the electronics, are several video games and movies standing as soldiers in formation. Hanging behind the television are a set of long sheer white curtains that shadow the matching white blinds. The standard horizontal blinds are recess mounted between the wide, off white painted window trim that wraps around the windows. The bright white trimmed, four year old, double pane windows take up about two-thirds of the wall, allowing an abundance of sunlight to come flowing in during the early daytime hours when the blinds are open. On both sides of the windows hanging on the wall, in plain dark wood frames, are family photos that captured happy and joyful times that often bring about stories that surround those times and people. The most favored seating area and best viewpoint for the television and entertainment stand is directly across the room against the opposing wall. This is where the large, three cushioned, cream-colored, smooth and soft feeling micro-fiber couch sits. This thing really looks like it means business when it comes to comfort and relaxation. The overstuffed cushions sink just enough to make accidental napping very easy. The padding in the outward arching arms have the feel of memory foam, soft enough to not reach for a pillow when lying down after a long day at the office or at school. Holding the couch about three inches above the floor are four, black, square, plain looking feet. On each side of the couch, tucked against the wall are a pair of small, somewhat ordinary, dark stained, wooden end tables. Further complimenting the space on the end tables, are a few decorative candles in tall holders. Also on the table to the right side of the couch is a bouquet of brightly colored silk flowers in a short, square, clear glass vase. All of the things in this particular living room are only a part of what makes this house feel like home. It is an area where stories are told, laughter is heard, entertainment is had, and cozy fires are enjoyed by friends and family. The living room is not just another room in the house, it is a place where memories are made.

The Definition Of Downsizing Management Essay

The Definition Of Downsizing Management Essay Given the issues relating to this research field are introduced and research objectives are also be proposed carefully in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, the researcher would like to continuous introduces the concepts, definitions and theories relevant to the issues that already mentioned in Chapter 1, through that, Chapter 2 will provide and build research hypothesis for research. Basically, Chapter 2 includes the main parts as follows (1) The definition of downsizing, (2) The definition of Survivors Syndrome, (3) The research hypothesis (4) Chapter summary. Definition of Downsizing In the economic context of continuous competitive, developing, changing and unpredictable, organizations suffering severe downturns in their business or facing difficulties, downsizing strategy is being used by many organizations in every industries and sectors with different goals and visions. There is not a single downsizing definition accepted by all researchers (Davis, Savage, Steward Chapman, 2003). There are many different definitions or understanding about downsizing, for example Cameron, (1994:194) defines downsizing as a positive strategy which do as a purpose of organizations: a set of organizational activities undertaken on the part of management of an organization and designed to improve organizational efficiency, productivity, and/or competitiveness. In another the way, downsizing is not something just happen to the organization, it is something that the organization knows and act purposively. Downsizing is may be implemented as a defensive reaction to decline or as a pr oactive strategy to enhance organizational performance (Kim S Cameron, 1994). Many organizations for a long time that no longer considered downsizing as a situation solution in the hard time period, but they considered downsizing as an effective strategy to reduce costs, human focus, create job opportunities, increased job challenge and promotion. The expenditure cost can be cut effectively due to better decision making and effective human resource controlling if the organization can maintain the right sized of company. It develops a culture of work where employees can have opportunities for growth, they can easily participate and involvement in making decision. Moreover, employees easily feel be part of organization that they should better participate with more collaboration, fidelity, and accuracy. According to Mishra and Spreitzer (1998) defines downsizing has become the strategy favored by many organizations attempting to cope with fundamental, structural changes in the world ec onomy. Downsizing as a deliberate reduction in size or complexity of a firms activities intended to improve the profitability, productivity, and/or competitiveness of the firms continuing operations(Legatski II, 1998). But in conclusion, most researches have defined downsizing as any reduction in the size of the organization (e.g. Budros, 1999; Cascio, 1993; Freeman Cameron, 1993; Kozlowski, Chao, Smith Hedlund, 1993). Downsizing, in general, refers to the reduction of work for certain organization. For employees, downsizing is considered as a management weapon to enforce greater control over the workforce. To management, it is a strategic measure to bring optimized operation efficiency and productivity in organization. Cameron and colleagues (e.g. Cameron et all., 1991, 1993; Cameron, 1994b) have identified three organizational strategies to achieve downsizing: workforce reduction strategy, work redesign and systematic change. The first strategy is workforce reduction is typi cally a short-term strategy, which simply focuses on reducing organizations headcount. In a confirmatory study, Mishra and Mishra (1994) found that such strategy might lead to loss in valued organizational competency or negative outcome of those who remains. Human resource is essential and is a factor that makes the decision for the development of organizations. Lack of human resource will increase workload, anxiety about losing their jobs at any time, and these feeling leads to insecurity psychological, these are reasons that cause labor productivity reduced. Work reduction is applied by organizations through some programs such as attrition, early retirement or voluntary severance packages, layoffs and terminations. The second and third strategies are work redesign and systematic change strategies. While work reductions resulted is lead to reduction, rather than improvement, the work redesign and systematic change are positively related to organizational performance in term of both cost reduction and quality improvement (Cameron et all.,1993; Mishra and Mishra, 1994) and to survivors (people who remains) of downsizing having a positive learning orientation (Farrell and Mavando, 2004). Many previous researches indicated that the use of workforce reduction is increasing and become popular despite the harmful impacts may arise for organization. Workforce reduction or simply called workforce downsizing is becoming the most popular strategy and a plethora of workforce reduction strategies for downsizing of employees has been proposed (e.g. Greenhalgh et al., 1988; Gutchess, 1985; Leana Feldman, 1992; Price, 1990). Whenever reduce equipments, machinesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ organizations can find out the outcome and its impact through simple calculations, but in workforce downsizing, the emotions, loyalty, and human effort cannot simply calculate. In an organizational context, employees not only contribute their individual skills and knowledge, they also collaborate and integrate their separate skills toward creating firm capabilities. As such, both human and social capital-and therefore the commitment and the loyalty of employees-play an important role in dictating a firms ca pacity to create competitive advantage. Reducing headcount may lead to immediate labor cost savings, but it can also seriously erode employee commitment and loyalty, with negative consequences for firm competitiveness and performance. So the questions are what the impacts of workforce downsizing to organizations are, how it effects, and what the advantage and disadvantage of the impact are? Some researches indicated the opinion that organizational downsizing may create better productivity or better performance for organization; while, others indicate downsizing may create negative impact or threat to human resource, break of existed organization culture. Downsizing has been defined as an attempt to increase organizational effectiveness(Kozlowsky, et. al. 1993). Freeman Cameron (1993) and Tomasco (1990) from their finding indicated that organization downsizing created some benefits to organization such as faster decision making, more flexibilities, and increase in productivity. Cascio (1993:97) suggested that proponents of downsizing generally expect the following benefits: lower overheads, less bureaucracy, faster decision making, smoother communications, greater entrepreneurship and increases in productivity. Dow nsizing can suggest to financial markets or government funding agencies that an organization is cutting costs and reducing waste, which may increase availability of capital for subsequent activities (Cascio, 1993; Dial Murphy, 1995; Palmon, Sun Tang, 1997. Downsizing for some individuals is also a chance to demonstrate the capacity himself, or an opportunity for career development. The people who still remain with organization will be the one who give the most effort for the development of organization, if they can prove themselves at this time, success may comes to their organization and will come to them as well. However, in contrast with the benefits that downsizing may bring, many other previous studies indicate their strongly disagree with those arguments. Downsizing may provide a decrease in operating expenses in the near term, but the long term impacts may not be so positive (Difrances, 2002). Downsizing can lead to a loss of knowledge and experience base because of some laid off will be the people who worked for a long time with organization, old people, who may not have a fast and efficient action in work like young people, but they have extensive knowledge, experiences that young people learn in short time, loss available mentors for existing and new employees, loss of corporate culture, and downsizing can have direct impaction to the customers such as loss of established customer service and contacts. Therefore, whenever workforce downsizing is chosen by organizations in hard time or peaceful time, there is definite and obvious impact good or bad on organizations. But in all the affected elements, the human factor is probably the most affected element. Human capital (i.e., the knowledge, skills, and abilities of employees) is one of the primary factors a business can rely on to differentiate their products or services and build a competitive advantage (Hargis Bradley, 2011). Human resource is one of the 5Ms (Man, Money, Machine, Method, and Material) of management process of production; they are five input resources for any businesses. (http://www.setpointusa.com/blog/lean-manufacturing-5-ms/). Even when the world economy is continuous developing, many modern machines are developed and can somehow a part replace human resource, but no organization can flourish without human resource. Human resource is a decisive factor that can determine the working of remaining four factors, peo ple is the one who ensure flexible operation of machine, the reasonable use of material as well as appropriate use of money and method, all these actions will help the organization achieve their goals. During crisis situation as well as in the peaceful time, man or human resource is the only factor that helps businesses overcome or limit the adverse impact of crisis. Man is the most important Ms among five Ms, the right and stable number of human resource in appropriate jobs will enable the success beyond imagination of the organization. They are staffs of organization, they dedicated their soul to the development of organization, they are people who be laid off or people who lucky enough to keep their job. The individuals who lose their jobs (called victims) are obviously the most affected by downsizing. Numerous researchers have focused on the impact of downsizing on workers whose employment is terminated due to reasons independent of job competence (Cappelli, 1992). These individ uals are often known as the victims of downsizing due to research that documents the devastation of job loss, focusing on negative consequences in terms of psychological and physical well-being (e.g., Bennett, Martin, Bies, Brockner, 1995; Cappeili, 1992; Fallick, 1996; Leana Feldman, 1992). The real pains of downsizing cannot be minimized. Careers change, families struggle, and downsized victims suffer loss of prestige, income and security. While a few downsized individuals may be victims of their own past inefficiency, the vast number are those who have performed well and played by the rules but have become the victims of a changing economic environment. However, several researchers have analyzed those who remain in the downsized organization called survivors (e.g., Allen, Freeman, Russell, Reizenstein, Rentz, 2001; Appelbaum Donia, 2001; Brockner, 1988a; 1992; 1995; Brockner, Grover, OMalley, Reed, Glynn, 1993; Cascio, 1993; Mollica Gray, 2001; Noer, 1993; ONeill Lenn, 1995; Shah, 2000). The survivors of downsizing are not the happy campers, grateful to have their jobs, but rather that surviving is so difficult that continuing employees experience higher levels of stress than displaced employees (Collins-Nakai, Devine, Stainton Reay, 2003). The existent psychological contract between employees and their managers within the organization may be affected by the downsizing. Many researchers reported that it would create feeling of anxiety, uncertainty, distrust and decrease in productivity. The fear and anxiety of survivors who still remain with the organization is increasing due to the increasing feeling of uncertainty, instabili ty and insecurity that downsizing may brings. This is called as survivors syndrome. Definition of survivor syndrome The literature suggests a condition referred to as survivor syndrome, or a set of attitudes, feelings and perceptions that occur in employees who remain in organizational systems following involuntary employee reductions (Collins-Nakai, Devine, Stainton Reay, 2003 p.109-110). Survivor syndrome is defined by some human resource professionals as being the mixed bag of behaviors and emotions often exhibited by remaining employees following an organizational downsizing (Appelbaum, Close Klasa, 1999 p.424-436). Survivor syndrome has become known as the emotional and attitudinal characteristics of those who have survived from a downsizing (Mossholder et al., 2000; Iverson and Pullman, 2000; Allen et al., 2001). The emotional responses of each survivor are different. There are not many previous researches confirmed the positive response for survivor when downsizing occurs, some note that concentrating on core operational competencies can reduce unnecessary management layers and increase the speed of decision-making (DeWitt, 1993; Tomasko, 1989), some researches even suggest that fear of termination may increase individual effort among employees who wish to retain their jobs (Kraft, 1991). A few active survivors feel themselves so lucky because they still have their job, survivors may work more hours without compensation to help the organization through the transition. They believe that they quite understand the difficulties as well as the main reasons why organizations choose to apply downsizing strategy, they are willing to stick with organization for a long time and continue add their efforts to the development of organizations. Contrary to a few positive responses, a lot of previous researches have provided many evidences to prove the harmful impacts of downsizing may bring for survivors such as lower morale (Armstrong-Stassen, 1993), increase stress (Leana and Feldman, 1992), and anger, envy, and guilt (Noer, 1993). According to Collins-Nakai, Devine, Stainton Reay (2003) consistent with the terminology of a syndrome, this collection of symptoms includes anger, depression, fear, distrust, and guilt, or Baruch and Hind (2000) indicates that survivors exhibit a plethora of problems, such as de motivation, cynicism, insecurity, demoralization and a significant decline in organizational commitment. Termination of co-workers may lead to perceptions of organizational injustice and distrust of top management (e.g. Brockner Greenberg, 1990; Mishra Spreitzer, 1998; Noer, 1998). Kinnie, Hutchinson and Purcell (1998) indicated the survivors syndrome include increased levels of stress, absenteeism, distrust as well as decreased levels of work quality, morale and productivity. Lecky (1998) identified the survivor syndrome will le ad to decrease employee commitment, increase concern about job security. A lot of research shows that in case of downsizing, the organization breaks the existed psychological contract between employees and their managers, which is the relationship that make employees get along to their organization or their manager, feel commitment to work, trying their best to the development of the organization. It is a loyalty, commitment with organization. But its consequences may brought by downsizing can create the dependent psychological within employees, they did not want to try, to give their effort because of their worried, uncertain and the loyal feeling may be replaced by a sense of betrayal. Downsizing survivors often curious about management and spend their times to observe the intention of management after downsizing occurs; they have greater concern on their future with the organization. It creates stress among employees in the organization; it affects their next attempt and the willing to stay with the organizations. With survivors, organization may think s they are lucky, but in the reality of many people, their emotions are anger, loneliness, feel lost in broken team work because of missing their colleagues, they do not feel confident enough for work due to their wondering about their job. Downsizing occurs that means organization is left with fewer employees who are expected to put in their best effort in a manner that enhances organizational productivity (Kets de Vries Balazs 1997). They are the ones who organization put their faith in; expect long term commitment, but with few people, it may lead to workload, role conflict, and role ambiguity tend to be high among the remaining staff after downsizing (Hellgren et al. 2005; Parker et al. 1997; Tombaugh White 1990). Workload reflects the perception of having too much work to do in the time available (Beehr, Walsh Taber 1976). Workgroup membership changes also may be associated with the loss of important organizational knowledge (Fisher White, 2000). Role conflict concerns the experience of having to deal with conflicting terms, instructions, and demands in the work environment (Rizzo, House Lirtzman 1970). Role ambiguity relates to the individuals experience of not knowing what is expected of her at work (Caplan 1971). Besides that, survivors may view downsizing as a threat to their job security, an indication of poor organizational performance, or a symptom of unfair management behavior. Survivors may also develop negative feelings toward the organization, as well as perceiving that organizational goals are difficult to achieve. According to Isabella (1989) has noted that while organizations are usually take care of the needs of those being laid off, they are often forget and unprepared for the changing emotions, lower morale and productivity often experienced and expressed by survivors. Managers may expect survivors not only to be grateful they were spared and to forgive what happened to their friends, but also to put their feelings aside and work har der. But the reality is not that, a bag of survivor behaviors or called survivors syndrome has always existed, it is like a contract between employees and organizations, the contract gives survivors psychological control over their work environment, which lets them freely invest themselves in caring for customers. Trust Granovetter (1985) and Lewis and Weigert (1985) define trust as a willingness to be vulnerable to others, based on the prior belief that those others are trustworthy. Another definition of trust is offered by Mayer, Davis and Schoorman (1995), who proposed that trust is the willingness of a party to be vulnerable to the actions of another party based on the expectation that the other will perform a particular action important to the trustor, irrespective of the ability to monitor or control that other party. Or according to Mishra Spreitzer (1998) trust is related to psychological contracts since trust is the expectation of a future action based on the action in the past by observing the rules of behaviors in relationships. If these expectations are not met, the expectation becomes hopeless, frustrated and will lose confidence, distrust will appear instead of trust (Robinson, Kraatz Rousseau, 1994). The trust is an essential part of managing people and building a high performance, productivity organization. Trust is the foundation of all relationship from top to bottom in the organization. If employees believe in their manager, their organization, this relationship will always help to create good working conditions, employees are willing to stand up for their organization at any situations, they will naturally want to do a good things, contribute their best effort for the success of their organization. Conversely, if there is no trust between employees and managers, employees will have negative actions, will not devote their energy to the development of their organization, the relationship is broken. Downsizing organizations appear to suffer a deterioration of trust (Buch Aldridge, 1991; Cascio, 1993) and an increase in fear (Buch et al., 1991). The occurring of downsizing makes employees feel uncertain about organization, stress à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ the responses tends to score lower in problem solving, creativity and the ability to learn new skills, uncertainty and anxiety reduces the focus of work. Trust between employees and organization also reduced because downsizing is usually a headache thought of managers, they need a long time for making the decision, but with employees, downsizing is just a sudden result, sometimes they do not have a chance to prepare or may not believe that they will be the one who be laid off. According to ONeill Lenn (1995), survivors who believe that management is competent and reliable, may view downsizing as less threatening because they believe that the managers will keep their promise, be honest and open for what is going on with their employees. Trust is instrumental in overcoming resistance to change, for it shapes how individuals interpret the implementation process (Kotter Schlesinger, 1979). If they have trust, survivors are willing think that all the things that organization do, have a reason, it is a good thing for them, for organization, downsizing just helps organization stand in difficult time as well as creating opportunities for employees in the future. In other words, trust in top management minimizes the categorization of threat by helping survivors to understand and believe in managements intentions and expected behavior. If they do not have trust, survivors will have negative thinking such as the decision of manager is wrong, or managers put their personal interests above the interests of employees. Without trust, employees are likely to feel threatened by downsizing, leading to resistance and retaliation, rather than the constructive cooperation that is necessary to facilitate deep change (Quinn, 1996). Commitment There are a lot of definitions about employee commitment such as A force that stabilizes individual behavior under circumstances where the individual would otherwise be tempted to change that behavior (Brickman, 1987), or The relative strength of an individuals identification with and involvement in a particular organization (Mowday et al, 1979) or simply A psychological state that binds the individual to the organization (Allen Meyer, 1990). Commitment is loyalty to the organization. A loyal employee identifies with an organization and is involved in being an employee of that organization (Price Mueller, 1986). Committed employees feel that there is a tight string between them and the organization, which, in the positive form, makes them more willing to perform their job. Organizational commitment is the driving force behind an organizations performance (Suliman and Iles, 2000, p. 408). The multidimensional approach poses that organization commitment is influenced by three constru cts: emotional attachment (affective commitment), perceived costs (continuance commitment) and moral obligation (normative commitment) (Allen and Meyer, 1990). Affective commitment is mean that employees stay with organization because they want to, they believes in organization and feel it like their home. Normative commitment is mean that employees stay with organization because they feel obligated to continue to work for many different reasons and purposes. Continuance commitment is mean that employees stay with the organization because cost of giving up the job is too high for them. (European Motivation-Index.com). It has also been proposed that different types of commitment can have different effects on behaviors and attitudes (Iles et al., 1990). For example, continuance commitment can have detrimental effects on job satisfaction compared to the beneficial effects of affective commitment (Suliman and Iles, 2000). Affective commitment has been shown to be the best predictor of i ntention to leave (Stallworth, 2004) and found to be more important than job satisfaction in determining service quality of customer-contact employees (Malhotra and Mukherjee, 2004). It can be seen that in human resource management process, organizations should pay attention to the affect commitment group because these people will add value, increase productivity and quality to the organization, but they also be the most affected by downsizing, or in other word maintaining a high level of employees affective commitment to the organization is assumed to be a critical factor for successful downsizing, but downsizing tends to reduce employees affective commitment to the organization (Lee Jaewon, 2002). According to many research about employee commitment, in downsizing context, employees commitment to an organization is challenged. Moreover, commitment has been shown to positively influence other variables related to survivor syndrome, such as job satisfaction (Liou, 1995; Fletcher and Williams, 1996; Mowday et al., 1974; Wong et al., 1995; Vandenberg and Lance, 1992), performance (Hartmann and Bambacas, 2000) and perceived organizational support (Eisenberger et al. , 2001). A negative relationship has been shown for absenteeism (Iverson and Deery, 2001; Metcalfe and Dick, 2000) and turnover intention (Schnake and Dumler, 2000) Stress According to Casico Wynn (2004) stated that the downsizing create a breach of an unwritten rules that constitute the psychological contract between employer and employee leads to a rise in stress and a decrease in satisfaction, commitment, intention to stay and perceptions of an organizations trustworthiness, honesty, and caring about its employees. Stress has been defined as a stimulus, a response, or the result of an interaction between the two, with the interaction described in terms of some imbalance between the person and the environment (Cooper, Dewe ODriscoll, 2001). When downsizing occurs, like the victims, the survivors often lose control over their employment status and work situation. Survivors often feel angry and overwhelmed by the sudden disruption of the workplace, similar to people who be laid off, survivors also have feelings of betrayal and fury when downsizing occurs. Research also indicates that other stressful characteristics tend to emerge when work has to be carried out by fewer employees (Hellgren Sverke 2001; Hopkins Weathington 2006; Pfeffer 1998). The lack of people to work become overwhelmed, constant anxiety because of imbalance as well as job losses can be happened anytime that creates stress to survivors. Employee stress can take many forms and significant impact on both employees and organizations; it can manifest as anxiety, irritability, dependency, depression and it results in reduced productivity, employee burnout, absenteeism (Valueoption.com). It has been suggested that the stress of the survivor may be great or even greater than the stress of those who has been laid off (Kaufman 1982). Job insecurity Job insecurity is the exact opposite of job security, is defined as the perceived powerlessness to maintain desired continuity in a threatened job situation by Greenhalgh and Rosenblatt (1984). Job insecurity represents one of the most frequently investigated stressors in the context of organizational change and downsizing (e.g., De Witte 1999; Sverke/Hellgren 2002). The string sticks employees with organization is job, in other word, any organization keeps their employees by proper job with many opportunities to learn, to develop, and above all of them, the job has to be durable and security. When downsizing occurs, survivors feel like the promise of organization has broken down, they see their colleagues lose their job and they fear of losing their jobs at anytime, fear of instability of income, loss of status or self esteem. They believe that their work will no longer be safe, if the organization was willing to let the employees go in the past, they would be willing to do it again in the future. Job insecurity leads to dissatisfaction, people intent to leave the organization and come to a safer place; it also leads to greater absenteeism, higher turnovers and disability claims (Boroson and Burgess, 1992; Koco. 1996; Mishra and Spreitzer. 1998; Tombaugh and White. 1990). Previous studies such as Moore, Grunberg Greenberg (2006); Ashford, Lee Bobko (1989); Brockner et al. (1992) or Hellgren Sverke (2003) have concluded that job insecurity are related with organizational downsizing both in short and long term perspective and the worried about future job loss is associated with impaired work attitudes and well-being. Theorists have emphasized that job insecurity is a multidimensional phenomenon (Ashford, Lee Bobko, 1989; Greenhalgh Rosenblatt, 1984; Jacobson, 1991). The first dimension, called severity of threat, consists of the range of work features at risk, the valence of these features, probabilities of losing each feature, and the number of sources of threat. The second dimension is perceived powerlessness, or ones ability to respond to risks. Job insecurity can also be thought of in terms of expectancy (i.e. probability of loss) and valence (i.e. value of job features) from expectancy theory (Jacobson, 1991). Job insecurity is a broad concept , including threats to any desired work features including opportunities for career development or wages. Perceptions of job insecurity also can be considered as stress inducing, so reports of worry and stress are sometimes used as proxies for perception of job insecurity. Results showed that perceived job insecurity increased over time as layoffs unfolded but no new information arrived. Job insecurity was lowest among those employees who had no contact with workforce downsizing, with higher insecurity among those who had friends or co-workers laid off, and the highest insecurity among those who had been warned that they would be laid off or who had been laid off and then rehired. Hypotheses Many organization managers apply workforce downsizing strategy for their organization, often focus their attention and effort for those employees who be laid off and pay little attention to those who remain with organization As the large commercial bank in Vietnam, Techcombank is also applying workforce downsizing like many other organizations to overcome the current difficulties. Get to know the survivors syndrome is very important not only for Techcombank but also for many other organizations. Organizations that understand the causes of survivor syndrome at an early stage can a better chance to find an appropriate way to go. Based on the previous studies, in the scope of this research, researcher would like to find out the impact of workforce downsizing to the behavior such as trust, commitment, and stress and job insecurity of Techcombank staffs to see how they were affected by workforce downsizing and how trust, commitment, stress and job insecurity will be changed between before and after workforce downsizing is applied. Through this research, researcher hopes to put some help for Techcombank managers in order to have a better understanding about their employees so that they can looking for an appropriate direction as well as specific plan to minimize the harmful impacted that may arises from downsizing. Based on the above theory discussion, the Hypothesis is formulated as following: (H1) There is a significant difference in stress of respondents before and after workforce downsizing is applied (H2) There is a significant difference in stress of respondents before and after workforce downsizing is applied (H3) There is a significant difference in stress of respondents before and after workforce downsizing is applied (H4) There is a significant difference in stress of respondents before and after workforce downsizing is applied Chapter Summary Throughout the chapter, the researcher gives a deeper review of previous research on workforce downsizing and its impacted on survivors. There are many different opinions about the effects of workforce downsizing on organizations, some studies indicated

Regulatory Framework for UK Banks

Regulatory Framework for UK Banks Introduction Berger, Molyneux and Wilson (2010) are of the view that banks provide a full range of financial services like banking, securities, and insurance under a single corporate structure and must be supported by the single capital base, the term â€Å"universal bank† has multiple meanings, but commonly it refers to the commercial banking that is making loans and collecting deposits along with investment banking in which there are issuing of underwriting and trading in securities. Ryan-Collins and Goodhart (2012) point out the broader view that universal banks offer a wide range of financial services including commercial banking, investment banking with other activities like insurance, it seems like the multipurpose financial market which provided both banking and financial services. Financial Times (2015) terms refers universal banking as financial services of retail, wholesale and investment banking services under one roof. Demirguc-Kunt (2010) refers that universal banking is a com bination of large banks operate extensive networks of branches, providing multiple services, holding claims that firms about participation in corporate management of firms. Forsyth and Verdier (2003) are of the view that universal banking began almost in 1930 to 1940 and Europe is the home of Universal Banking, although other countries also adopted it. Structure of United Kingdom Banking System Schumpeter (1939) refers the connection between banking and financial system in economic growth and it is most old history of this specified reference of this field. Beck and Rahman (2006) speculate that in the recent economic literature, banking system measures a reasonable ratio and access like banking, loan ratios in gross domestic products, and it is a direction to analyse other financial markets. Banking systems have many other multiple dimensions that bank assets may be kept in one house, the bank required few branches or a large number of branches, but it was very true in the early stages of banking when banks were in their development phase. Heffernan (1996) describes the financial system refers some points very clearly that the system can provide payments, can give support between savers and borrows and play major role in insurance against risk. The British banking industry has many changes from the last 20 years, besides forces which have the power to change the supply and demand functions, change has also been made due to domestic deregulations. Hsbcnet.com (2015) reports that The Bank of England has always shown keen interest in the structure of the financial system because financial stability may have an effect on cost and availability. Many new products emerged over the past 50 years and the United Kingdom banks have full range of financial services and become larger. United Kingdom banking system made a dramatic shift in size from past 40 years and the total assists rise from 100% to 450% of the nominal Gross Domestic Product, banking giants claiming that the UK banking system keeps this pace in future also. Salina and Peltonen (2013) describe that financial stability depends the potential impact size of UK banking, so ultimately there must be some factors behind this huge banking size, description about those factors is important and these are financial hub benefits, comparative advantages and historical factors. Bush, Knott and Peacock (2015) d escribe the size of the UK banking system as shown in figure 1.1 and figure 1.2 refers below. Size of GDP of UK Banking System (2013) Regulatory Challenges of Universal Banking Models Alworth and Bhattacharaya (1998) are in the view that in the recent decades, the banking sector has undergone due to the forces of globalization and lack of technology, secondly it is also recognized de-regulation is due to that higher degree of freedom to financial institutions as a so it requires strong supervisory authorities. Changes in the nature of banking risks, off-balance sheet business and complexity in the nature of transactions all these need strong internal risk management and strengthening of existing capital requirements in 1980 and early 1990 numbers of bank failures were due to the way banks were regulated. Quinn (2012) is in the view of that change is needed in the banking sector, there is some need to show the market trends of entry and switching are enough for competition where customer focus is on the front line. Different advance economies adopted structural bank regulation measures to face the regulatory challenges and one element is mandatory upon them that se paration of commercial banking from certain securities market activities. Treanor (2011) reported in the â€Å"Guardian†, that the United Kingdom is going to act upon Vickers Commission suggestions as a major measure the report, in which Sir John Vicker recommends to Britian biggest banks to implement reforms until 2019, this is going to be initiating after the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008. Conway (2011) is in the view that Vicker’s recommendation is going through to ring-fencing in the United Kingdom banking sector. The Economist (2012) reveils the report that universal banks merging investment banking complexities with commercial banking services, in one extent it is good offering services to the customer while on the other hand analyst have no second thoughts also, the famous universal banking giant Sandy Weill, the mergers of Citigroup saying that the megabanks should be broken up. Shrivastava, Pandey and Vidyarthi (2007) describe the view that banks facing information imbalance which will cause the lack of public confidence in the banking system, so there is the need to protect it from this high risk taking by banks. Because banks are critical for mobilizing the public savings, its safety and return to savers also, so banks need for their heavy regulation in this sense also. Mostly challenges have faced by bank regulators in the early 80s, due to deregulation of economic system, financial innovation waves and internationalization of financial flows all these challenges arise the potential of doubts about the bank’s risk management procedures. Orbell and Turton (2001) speculate that banks take deposits from public to investing these deposits in risky assets and businesses, ultimately banks are in a position to take risks excessively, secondly market discipline, where these deposited are invested, is a mechanism which curb the incentive in taking excessive risk more costly for banks. So after recent events of severe market and re gulatory failure in Europe and United States a point arisen that there should be need for reforms. While on the other hand single regulator model of United Kingdom widely accepted across the globe. Regulatory Challenges, and British Economy Kim and McKenzie (2010) argue that financial crises faced globally in 2008 laid many questions for strong measures to prevent any resemblance in future, bankers, regulators, politicians or economists nobody want accept the blames of crises. Particularly in British banking which has a rich history, which spread out on centuries, founding of the Bank of England in 1694. Bank of England has always had a dominant position in the British economy while other banks were underdeveloped. So due to small in size other country banks were inherently fragile, which made to face them financial crises in early nineteenth centuries, one major example is crises of 1825, and then the first time the Bank of England understood the role of lender of last resort. Gregory (1929) quoted ‘The Economist’ that â€Å"the limited liability of the wealthy may not be expected to prove as good if not better security than the unlimited liability of the poor†. Mullineus and Murinde (2003) urges th at the in 1986, main clearing banks ranked them fully integrated banking, invested more than one billion in the securities business. British banks highly enhanced their standing globally, commercial banking was higher profit gaining business in the United Kingdom and have much concern about the level of competition. Conway (2011) describes that the time of financial crises all had become universal banks, amalgamation of commercial and investment banking activities, on the other hand Barclays, HSBC and Standard Charted faced crises without government support. Treanor (2011) describes that British’s fifth largest mortgage lender Northern Rock, is going to run on, and this disaster situation was not seen in United Kingdom from over 100 years, most dramatic symptom of Northern Rock crises indicated the low grip on financial markets in the United Kingdom. Northern Rock has good use of structured products in funding before to the crises, but still impacted by the turmoil in America ’s mortgage market. The bank has a low deposit ration to loan failed to renew its short term financing and was forced to beg to the Bank of England for assistance. As soon as news broke, the customer quickly withdrew their savings, such panic situation which was not experienced in the United Kingdom since 1866. Salina and Peltonen (2013) describe that at the time of crises United Kingdom government need to inject billions into the industry, also the Bank of England funded many banks for keeping them in running and this bail out costs raised real concerns. Some lesson has been learned from Northern Rock incidents that the regulation of banks on liquidity along capital should be centralized, because Northern Rock faced reduction in the liquidity for securities mortgages rather than the inadequacy of capital. Financial crises and reactions of Regulatory Authorities The Economist (2012) explained that after 2007 to 2010 financial crises banking and finance market faced severe consequences specially on supervision and regulation aspects, the question was not only to build the public confidence again, which is also a very difficult in its but also the future evolution of the financial industry and banks at larger scale. Regulator and supervisors worked hard after crises and there was a lot of analysis has been conducted towards the causes and their solutions. Some of the measures have been taken by regulatory authorities which describes here one by one (i) Adjusting budgetary problems; failure of banks in many countries faced the common budgetary problems, there are many ways that can affect the real economy and budgets. (ii) Rebuilding the structure of responsibilities; in 1999, the G20 was established and made lots of contributions to shaping up international finance regulation. Biannual meeting was held in the early years, but greater frequency of meeting done in 2009 and 2010 due to the issuance of declarations and progress report. Multinational agency standards have been formalized and Finance Stability Board in 2009 formed with core responsibilities of coordination between national financial authorities and international standard setter. Bank of England (2014) in its news release reveals that The Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA) introduces a new (iii) accountability regime about insurance sector, PRA also consulted same regime for banking sector in July 2014. This regime will also take care and account of the need of new measures which relate to governance of individuals as a part of solvency. (iv) new international standards are coming into being both for regulatory activities for financial firms along with quantitative and qualitative approaches. Besides that there are many agreements done for betterment of the regulatory process, but it has also been clear that individual nations not waited for agreements on in ternational standards to regulate financial sectors. Financial Stability Board, (2010) issue a list of scope and scale of activities about reforms which is a) reforming compensations b) refurbish accounting standards c) strengthening supervisory and regulatory standards d) refining the regulatory perimeters. Brunnermeier et al. (2009) argue that (v) reforms in corporate governance were certainly needed to avoid futuristic failure of financial institutions and this was the main lesson to come out of the crises. (vi) Revision in remuneration structure also required as the mentioned structures of remuneration was very poor in financial institutions. The Financial Stability Board also produced some principles for solid compensation practices. (vii) Reforms in risk management practices also observed, as the failure of risk management systems is the most critical, unfortunately, it is shown in a lot of institutions like international banks specially. Johnson and Kwak (2010) speculate that the (viii) accounting reforms, accounting are a basic component of regulatory regime for example calculation of capital is cor dependent on reported, assessed values, one of the core areas of reforms is required in valuation and provisioning of accounting. One of the other lessons drawn from crises that is regarding (ix) risk identification and mitigation, actually authorities, in some views, are not good to identify or projecting the risk so capabilities to resolve these kind of issues need to be improved and financial policies need to follow proportionate principle. The bank should (x) act like a social contract, in the new regulatory paradigm, it is a major challenge that how bank again focuses on retail business, most banks are in the risk business about the turning liquid to liquid loans, while doing this job banks are badly failing in fulfilling their social contarct part and they need to build it up again. There should be (xi) new business models required as in the phase of crises no business model looked fixer of crises, the diversified banking model required in the scenario and that will help to secure the banking business as well as revenues and customers also. Salina and Peltonen (2013) posit the view that (xii) false sense of security is the core reason of financial disaster, describing further that capital provisions are important but only capital is not only sufficient to address the issue. It was also observed that (xiii) there is a need to redefine systemic risk, in current crises which reflects the unpredictable size of the losses and who will bear that losses. Loss distribution will come as battle in financial crises, bailing out also not a good practice and seems to be taking from one to give others. Regulatory Framework – Suggestions Some overhauling required in regulatory framework facing worst financial disaster in Europe and the rest of the world also, reforms are required on regulatory framework internationally in general, and the United Kingdom in particular. Including reinforcing macro-prudential oversight, giving the strength in the overall resilience of banks and shadow banking (or unregulated sectors needs to be in regulation). (i) Optimistic about pricing the assets and risks, much precaution required to observe in risk taking secondly, there is need to be more awareness about regulated and non-regulated structures on information sharing. (ii) Cross border banking resolution required in national and international approaches. (iii) Far-reaching changes required for shaping and functioning of financial institutions with the high pitch of transparency in regard to the financial instruments (iv) In future crises may differ in nature like size, type and its cross border exposure so consolidation and coordina tion among banks should required on local and international level, one other thing should remain in mind that for the survival, some business models may disappear but some may strengthen their risk management. (v) Measures which could be taken in the middle of crises need to be more supportive rather to hide them, it must be planned whether mega project should remain in the market or there is no need of them, there should be some policies without exacerbating the present crises for the long term view of financial systems. (vi) Financial sector scrutiny perimeter need to be expanded to a wider range of better prevention of banking sector and other financial institution. (vii) Management needs to encourage incentives and discourage regulatory arbitrage. (viii) Need to adopt the concept of systematic risk factoring among funding and effects of leverage. (ix) Buffering between good times and bad time, which can help for liquidity norms of capital provisioning (x) Progress required to ta ckle the regulation and resolution of cross border institutions for legal hitches. (xi) Flexibility for central banks in providing liquidity, focus also required in the attention on credit and asset booms. Many central banks, especially in emerging markets facing capital outflows so the provision for extra liquidity may more complex regarding foreign exchange reserves and may work fuel to drain for this. (xii) Better crises responses and fiscal support required from national authorities regarding to increase the concern about credit risk and realization of losses there also needs a clear exit policy for withdrawing market or transit to new markets. (xiii) Market discipline must not ineffective for constraining risk taking other than the banking sector. Consolidation rules required more strict specially for entities and risks, particularly with off balance sheet activities.