Resistance to Change in Chinua Achebes Things Fall Apart Essay example

   Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart chronicles the life of an individual whose carefully constructed world crumbles as his culture is assimilated into a colonizing society. This character, Okonkwo, is prestigious within his community, and in most respects views himself and is viewed by his neighbors as an honorable man. Yet for all his seeming honor, Okonwko self-destructs when his world begins to change. Although the value system held by Okonkwo's village may differ somewhat from that held by other cultures, his particular experience during colonization is universal. When Okonkwo defines himself as an honorable man and thinks back upon his life achievements that have made him so, he focuses most strongly upon his ferocity. He has "brought honor to his village by throwing Amalinze the Cat" in a wrestling match (Achebe 3). Furthermore, his "impatience with unsuccessful men" causes him to "pounce on people quite often" (4). Although it is sometimes problematic for him, Okonkwo's violent and impulsive nature generally earns him great respect in his society. par tab Okonkwo's second most obvious trait is his "inflexible will" (24). This trait enables him to survive the year of the yam famine and build up his prosperous compound, despite his "grim struggle against poverty and misfortune" (27). Okonkwo becomes very proud, knowing that this success "was not luck." He thus believes that he controls his own fate: "Okonkwo said yes very strongly; so his chi agreed. And not only his chi but his clan too, because it judged a man by the work of his hands" (27). As a self-made man, Okonkwo has learned that he can attain his goals through ferocity, violence, tenacity, and stubbornness. His repeated successes have made ... ...ten, to preserve their integrity to their self-image and heritage, individuals intensify their ethnic behavior in the face of obliteration. For many such as Okonkwo, this is a suicidal act, if not literally, then at least socially, politically, and economically. Sources Cited and Consulted: Achebe, Chinua.   Things Fall Apart. Oxford: Heinemann, 1996. Culross, Melissa. "Chinua Achebe and Things Fall Apart." Postimperial and Postcolonial Literature in English. Internet. http://landow.stg.br/ own.edu/post/achebe/ things.htm l. Irele, Abiola. â€Å"The Tragic Conflict in the Novels of Chinua Achebe†. In  ChinuaAchebe’s Things Fall Apart:  A Critical Companion. Delhi: Worldview, 2003. Kortenar. Neil Ten, â€Å"How the Center is Made to Hold in  Things Fall Apart†.  In  Chinua Achebe’s  Things Fall Apart: A Casebook. Ed. By Isidore Okpewho. Oxford; OUP, 2003.

Partners Healthcare Case Aanlysis Essay

Partners Healthcare had established several financial resources pools, such as the short-term pool (STP) and the LTP, so that they can satisfy different needs of the several hospitals in the network. In more detail, the STP was invested with very high-quality, short-term fixed-income financial instruments. The average maturity of these instruments is about one to two years. STP is always treated as the risk-free part of the hospitals’ holdings. On the other hand, the LTP is thought as the risky part of holdings. It consists of different forms of equity and a smaller fixed-income part. In order to diversify the risks of the LTP, the Partners Investment Committee introduced a new type of assets, real assets, into the original LTP during the past years. Both of the assets’ performance turned to be excellent during 2004. As a result, the Investment Committee was considering expanding the real-asset segment of the LTP. Michael Manning, the deputy treasurer of Partners Healthcare System, was asked to recommend the size and the composition for the real-asset portfolio contributed to the $2.4 billion long-term pool (LTP) in the Partners. Facts and Analysis Due to the fact that different Partners Healthcare hospitals might have different acceptable risk levels for their investment portfolio then the most reasonable solution would be to invest both in risk-free STP and risky LTP. By choosing different mixes each hospital could achieve their acceptable risk level. Since the STP has a nearly fixed rate of return considered to be risk free for each hospital’s own portfolio, the variation from LTP would ultimately determine the risk and return level of individual portfolio. Using long-term historical data, Manning and his staff calculated average annual returns, volatilities, and correlations for each of the asset classes (exhibit 3). Since real assets belong to LTP, there is no direct impact on the STP returns from investing in this category. Given the current mix of Domestic Equities (55%), Foreign Equities (30%) and LT Bonds (15%) and our expected return for each category (exhibit 3), the expected return of the LTP is calculated from the following formula: e.g. E(Rp)= 0.55(0.1294)+0.30(0.1242)+0.15(0.054) = 10.8% In order to find the optimal portfolio allocation, the group needs to find the portfolio structured with lowest risk under a given return. This can be achieved by applying Mean-Variance Theory and Markowitz model find the efficient frontier, which yields the most optimal portfolio under given returns. It can be expressed in mathematical terms and solved by quadratic programming. [Appendix A] In this case, the Partner’s Treasury Department has computed all the portfolios for minimum level of risk with different types of assets, more specifically, adding Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), Commodities or both, from an undefined approach. Since the results are identical as calculated from Mean-Variance Theory, they should be the optimal portfolios for each target level of return. Therefore a graph with efficient frontier, which represents the optimal portfolios with different assets, is constructed based on Exhibit 5 to 8 for comparison. [Appendix B] Technically, any portfolio on the efficient frontier is an optimized portfolio and is indifferent from each other in terms of risk/return trade off. From the Risk VS Return graph, we can see that for any given return, the portfolio with both REITs and commodities would yield the lowest risk. Also, the portfolio with only commodities would outperform the portfolio with only REITs. For instance, if we invest in both REITs and Commodities, in order to obtain a return of 10%, the new proportion of the LTP will be portfolio 4 with approximately US Equity 14.3%, Foreign Equity 27.5%, Bonds 22.2%, REITs 13.8%, and Commodities 22.3%. It produces the lowest risk of 8.49%, comparing to original portfolio of 9.94%, REITs only portfolio of 9.69% and Commodities only portfolio of 8.49%. This is the basic concept of diversification, which means that the more assets with less correlation are introduced to the portfolio; the less risky the portfolio will be for any achievable rate of return. [1] For the overall portfolio, each hospital can allocate between the STP and the LTP. In fact, they can always construct the most efficient portfolio for their acceptable risk level with combination of LTP, which holds the risky assets, and STP, which holds the risk-free asset according to The One-Fund Theorem. [2] For example, if the shareholders want a total return of X, with a 3.2% return of STP and a 10% return of LTP, the proportion of STP and LTP can be obtained through X= w(0.032) + (1-w)(0.10) And it is guaranteed to be the optimal portfolio. Even though Mean-Variance theory can allocate the most optimal portfolio, there are several flaws with its assumptions. First of all, it assumes that assets returns are normally distributed. However, often times, it’s observed that asset returns are more like to be fat-tailed distribution, [3] instead of having thin tails like normal distribution. Second of all, it assumes there is a constant correlation between different assets. However, under certain conditions, for example, severe financial crisis like 2008, all assets tend to be positively correlated with decreasing rate of return. Depending on the total time period used for historical data, it can place an impact on the long term correlation. Aside from the assumptions, the time period of data can also affect each variable. In this case, the client uses data started from 1970 for the new asset classes, which might not be as representative as using long term historical data from 1926 as they did with the US equities and US long-term bonds. This can have some impacts on the returns, standard deviations, and correlations depending on the movement of assets from 1926 to 1970. Recommendation By comparing the data in the table of Exhibit 5a with the numerical results shown in Exhibit 6 and Exhibit 7, as well as the efficient frontier constructed, we can derive the conclusion that with the same expected returns, the most optimal portfolio is to add both REITs and commodities. In other words, we can control the risk of LTP by expanding the portion of real assets. If only one asset is allowed to be added to the real asset category, it’s more efficient to add the commodities than the REITs based on the position of the efficient frontier. Therefore, with a combination of risk free STP and the improved LTP, each individual hospital is able to construct the most optimized portfolio under any given risk level.

Labor Is A Driving Force - 921 Words

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The second reason for unemployment is based on efficiency wages. Firms benefit by paying their workers above the minimum wage so they can produce happier, healthier, and more productive workers. In turn, more people want to work for that position than there are actually seats for that position. Therefore, efficiency wages can increase the wages for workers who are employed but increase overall unemployment. Job search isn’t similar to the other causes of unemployment. When a person decides that they want to work, t hen heShow MoreRelatedAn Analysis of Uk’s Business Environment1018 Words   |  5 PagesAn Analysis of UK’s Business Environment 1. Introduction United Kingdom (UK) stands at No. 12 in ranking out of 134 countries from 2008 to 2011, and has a very good ranking on Infrastructure, Labor market efficiency, Technological readiness and Market size according to GCR (2011). 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