Ratio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ratio - Essay Example In the example, this year's quick ratio is 0.4:1, which means that the company's liquid assets are at four tenths of the value of its current liabilities. The company will not be able to pay current debts with its current liquid assets. The debt to net-worth ratio measures how much the company is in debt. This ratio compares what the business owes to what it owns. It is a measure of the company's ability to meet both its creditor and owner obligations in case of liquidation. The formula is: (total debt or liabilities) / (tangible net worth). The company's inventory turnover ratio measures the number of times the inventory is sold out, or "turned over", in a year. This ratio describes whether business inventory is understocked, overstocked, or obsolete. The formula is: (cost of goods sold) / (cost of the average inventory). The company's average collection period ratio describes the average number of days it takes customers to pay bills. The formula is: (days in accounting period) / [(net sales) / (accounts receivable)]. The net-sales to working-capital ratio measures how many dollars in sales the business makes for every dollar of working capital, where working capital = current assets - current liabilities. This ratio tells you how efficiently working capital is being used to generate sales.

Essay --

Five thousand years ago lived the immoral societies of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Middle East. The people of these corrupt cities were sinners who lead luxurious lives and seemed like they had it all, even though soon they would lose everything. Their immorality and lack of awareness is what caused God to send fire from the heavens and destroy the towns as punishment. Parallels can be drawn from ancient times to the story of The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald uses the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg to symbolize God watching down and to express the theme of immorality in society and the loss of spiritual values in the American dream. Symbolism is a key part of this passage in revealing the author’s purpose. It becomes apparent that the eyes are symbols when our narrator says, â€Å"The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic-their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face, but instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose,† (24). The significance of these eyes can be noted from their first introduction. The eyes are more than just a faded picture on a billboard; underneath the eerie description lies a deeper meaning. Doctor T.J. Eckelburg’s eyes symbolize God watching down on the Valley of Ashes, judging over society and their actions. The colossal eyes are all seeing and all knowing, scrutinizing all the corrupt lifestyles and values amongst the characters in Gatsby. Fitzgerald’s use of diction in creating the mood centering around T.J. Eckleburg’s eyes supports the immorality and the carelessness seen in the community. Nick goes on to state, â€Å"But his eyes, dimmed a little by many paintless days under the sun and rain, brood on over the solemn dumping ground,† (24). This lin... ...ths, which can be thought of as a punishment from God. Throughout the novel, Fitzgerald instills the theme of immorality using the eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg. These eyes, representing God, dispatch judgment and punishment on society. However the lives of the characters continue, because God has given them a second chance in hopes of changing their immoral ways. This gift was also given to a man named Lot, who escaped death by the grace of God five thousand years ago in the city of Sodom. Thought he wouldn’t live forever, he had a new take on life and a chance to turn his back on immorality. The same can be thought of for the characters of Gatsby-they will continue trudging on with their lives, hopefully having learned a lesson from the consequences of immorality, and if they don’t, they eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg will always be there as a constant reminder.

Disaster Management Essay

There four phases of emergence planning including mitigation, preparedness, response and reconstruction. Mitigation phase involves efforts made by the charged management and the community in general to prevent any known and foreseeable hazard from developing into a destructive disaster. It also involves reducing the effects associated with the occurrence of a disaster. As such, this phase is different from all others as it involves development of long term measures and strategies useful for avoiding and reducing risks in a society. When mitigation measures are applied after a disaster has occurred, they can be considered as a part of the recovery process. Mitigation strategies can be structural in the sense that they make use of the existing technology or they can be non-structural such as legislation, insurance or land use planning. It is this phase that most of the efforts of emergence managers should be concentrated as this can help in avoiding most types of disasters. Another important phase of emergence planning is the preparedness phase in which emergency managers strive to develop action plans to counter the occurrence of a disaster. Most of the emergence planners spend much time and resources in this stage in an effort to prepare themselves and organize resources needed. The common measures undertaken in this phase include effective communication plans, training and maintenance of emergence services inclusive of enough human resources to deal with any disaster that may occur (Krischenbaum, 2004, p. 21). Other measures include the exercise and development of effective methods of warning the population about the occurrence of an emergency coupled with evacuation plans and emergence shelters, maintenance of enough disaster equipments and supply besides the necessary inventory and finally, the development of emergence organizations of properly trained volunteers among the population in an area. Another important aspect of this phase is the prediction of the casualties that can be expected from a given disaster which helps the planners to estimate the amount and type of resources needed to respond to an emergence. In the response phase, emergence managers are charged with the role of mobilizing all the required resources to deal with a disaster. Resources such as firefighters, police and ambulance among others forms the first wave of responders to a disaster to help save and put to a safe place those hit by the disaster. The planners mobilize all the resources inclusive of human resources and other type of resources such as evacuation cars and ladders, medical supplies among others. The effectiveness of this phase is based on how well the planners had organized and rehearsed the preparedness phase (Krischenbaum, 2004, p. 43). The final phase is that of recovery or reconstruction of the affected area in an effort to restore it to its previous status. Here, planners would organize the reconstruction of infrastructure, and offering aid to the affected individuals to help recover and reconstruct their lives. 2. The process of risk analysis A risk can be defined as a quantifiable probability of specific eventualities. In regard to disasters, a risk can be seen as the probability of negative outcomes of a disaster. Risk analysis involves the application of various strategies and methods in assessing the possible impact of a disaster occurrence in a society. It involves the application of various tools such as cost benefit analysis in an effort to have an idea regarding the potential impact of a disaster. As such, risk analysis is an important step in emergence management as it helps emergence managers to better organize resources for effective mitigation and response to a disaster. Risk analysis help in determining the situations likely to occur and which needs most of the attention in planning process. It involves the identification of threats posed by a disaster inclusive of the economic and social risks. As such, disaster managers should assess the risks in terms of loss of lives, property among other resources in the society. After such identification, the managers should try and quantify the risk through the application of various tools such as socio-economic cost benefit analysis. Whether faced with a shortage of resources or not, managers should undertake risk analysis as this will help them have a clear picture of what they would expect if a given disaster occurs. They will be able to effectively allocate resources during the planning period and effectively respond to a given disaster with the required speed, resources and preciseness (Sundra, 1995, p. 98). An actual assessment of possible risks through the available tools of analysis is thus important if emergence planning process is to be effective as a whole. Managers should therefore conduct risk analysis for better allocation of resources besides better planning. 3. The importance of emergence plan to a community or urgency? There are various types of disasters that can face any given community. Some disasters are easy to mitigate while others cannot be mitigated nor can they be prevented from occurring. For example, while it is possible to mitigate the consequences of flooding, it is not possible to stop the rain from falling. Still, measures can be put in place to avoid certain consequences associated with hurricanes by it is practically impossible to prevent a hurricane from occurring. An emergency plan is important while dealing with disasters as it enables a community or an agency charged with the role of managing emergencies to better respond to any occurrence of such a disaster. For one, an emergence plan helps in mitigating the occurrence of disasters and the risks associated. Measures such as ensuring all the buildings comply with architectural rules and regulations helps in reducing the risk of such buildings collapsing in case of an earthquake. Further, an emergency plan helps the community to be completely prepared in terms of types and the amount of resources that would be needed if a disaster occurs (Alexander, 2007, p. 47). Here, the community or the agency will have the resources ready and this will help the emergence team to respond fast and effectively. It will help in ensuring that all the required resources are available and effectively allocated when responding to a disaster. Such a plan should therefore include all the resources needed besides outlining the various steps to be followed while dealing with a disaster. It should include a cost analysis or a budget covering all the resources required. Still, all actors should be well informed of the plan so as to ensure a smooth flow of all the phases and steps required to deal with a disaster. 4. Roles played by emergence managers in planning medical emergence for mass-casualty incident Disasters which results in mass casualties demand a lot of resource allocation and efforts on the side of disaster managers. When there are mass casualties, medical care can pose a big problem and thus managers need to be well informed and knowledgeable of the steps that need to be taken if such a situation occurs. As such, managers should be able to organize all the resources inclusive of medical crew and medical suppliers at least to deal with the minor incidence of injuries. Further, disaster managers should be able to communicate with the existing hospital managements about the casualties and organize with such hospitals to offer space to the casualties. On the other hand, to facilitate medical care to mass casualties, disaster managers can request medical staff from available hospitals besides organizing for transportation methods such as helicopters to air lift those affected and ambulances to take the injured to the hospitals. The managers should fully cooperate with other actors to ensure that the causalities are taken care of. Evacuation and rescue teams should be mobilized to un-trap those who may be trapped in various places and to bring these people into safety (Terry, 2003, p. 56). Moreover, a disaster manager can cooperate with the community for a camp site where mobile hospitals can be erected to help save the situation. Medical help should be sought from various directions including organizations such as the Red Cross among others. A complete and continuous supply of medical resources should be maintained to ensure that all the medical staff are fully supplied and equipped with the necessary supplies. Every effort and measures should be taken to ensure that all the relevant actors are involved and all the casualties attended to. 5. What makes for a good emergency manager or disaster manager? For one to be a good disaster or emergency manager, there are a lot of considerations that need to be put into consideration. Other that the professional qualifications needed of such a manager, other behavioral and character traits are needed to ensure the effectiveness of the manager. A manager can be fully educated about ways and means of dealing with a disaster or an emergency besides all the strategies needed in such a situation but may still be ineffective in his or her leadership. To start with, a manager needs to be a self propelling person. When faced with an emergency, many decisions need to be made and fast. The manager should be able to make quick and effective decisions with minimal reliance on others if the various steps involved are to be successful. Still, the manager should be able to work under harsh conditions as is typical with most of the disasters. He or she should be able to flexible to work at odd hours and be prepared to do all that it takes to save the situation. In general, the manager should be a team leader, self propelling, flexible in terms of space and time and also be innovative (Cahill, 2003, p. 103). Despite the existence of emergency agencies and organizations, there is shortage of resources to many of these agencies. Resources such as ambulances, human resources, tents and other resources are limited thus jeopardizing the whole process of emergence planning and action. Evacuation tools and machinery are today rare to many emergency agencies besides lack of enough man power. In essence, this has resulted to slow response in some situations and foreign aid to fill the resource gap. References: Alexander E. (2007).Moving beyond â€Å"special needs†: A function-based framework for emergency management and planning. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, Vol. 17, pp. 47 Cahill K. M. (2003). Emergency relief operations. Mahwah NJ. Quorum Books, pp. 103 Krischenbaum A. (2004). Chaos organization and disaster management. Westport CT, Praeger Publishers, pp. 21, 43 Saundra K. (1995). Flirting with disaster: Public management in crisis situations. London, Routledge, pp. 98 Terry Cannon (2003). At risk: Natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters. Routledge, pp. 56

Movie Review on The Green Berets

The 1968 film The Green Berets, starring and co-directed by John Wayne, presents a very pro-American and jingoistic view of the Vietnam War, sugarcoating the more violent and abhorrent aspects of the US Army’s activities during the war in favor of a more benevolent, patriotic mindset. The film follows Colonel Mike Kirby, leader of a Green Beret Unit, as he fights in South Vietnam and defends his men against actions taken by the North Vietnamese. In this essay, several aspects of the film will be critiqued, comparing the viewpoint explored in the film with the truth of US Army actions during the way. The biggest piece of evidence towards the film being a propaganda piece is its direct confrontation of the negative press that had built up around the Vietnam War in the character of Beckworth. In the beginning of the film, Beckworth is the stereotypical skeptical reporter, the audience’s represenatative for those who doubt the validity of America’s involvement in Vietnam. From the beginning, when Muldoon (Aldo Ray) explains the reasons for entering the war, and the weaponry the Viet Cong have at their disposal, America joining in is painted as absolutely necessary, and even extremely welcomed by the South Vietnamese. When Beckworth protests, challenging these facts, Kirby asks him if he has been there. Beckworth’s admission of never having gone to Vietnam is supposedly evidence of the invalidity of his opinion, as it shames him to the point where he feels it necessary to go there. Beckworth is conveniently missing for the film’s climax, where the majority of the action takes place. This leaves him out of the action until the very end, where it is presumed he has changed his opinions about Vietnam, and will come back with a greater appreciation for American troops. This is also exacerbated by Kirby’s story to Beckworth about the atrocities the Viet Cong inflicted on a South Vietnamese village, adding that â€Å"it’s difficult to talk about the place unless you’ve been there.† While this is evidence of Wayne’s overall intention (to pay homage to the troops, not necessarily the war), it is a clear answer to the critics of the war itself, implying that, unless you have actually been there, you have no right to your opinion of the conflict. The film presents a fairly black-and-white portrayal of the US reasons for entering the Vietnam War, equating the civil war in Vietnam with a potential invasion of America in the beginning. â€Å"They need us, Ms. Sutton,† says one soldier in the beginning, â€Å"and they want us.† The characters of Captain Nim (George Takei) and Ham Chuck are emphatic examples of friendly South Vietnamese figures, both presented as stereotypical but sympathetic figures, who have the respect of the all-American troops who are there to free their homes. In fact, many on both sides of the conflict did not want the Americans there, because they would escalate the conflict, and certainly some South Vietnamese resisted the involvement of a foreign country in their own civil war, despite the assistance they received. The Green Berets (and the US military as a whole) is presented as a benevolent force for good in Vietnam. The film conveniently whitewashes the atrocities that the American armed forces had inflicted on both North and South Vietnamese alike, and the reasons for going into the war were glorified. It offers a very old-fashioned, traditional view of war, more familiar in World War II movies, than the gritty realism and guerilla warfare of the Vietnam War would indicate. Instead of mud, rain and trenches, the base camp is in wide open space, in bright Technicolor, and everyone jokes around with each other, particularly Ham Chuck. The Viet Cong are presented as a band of murderous savages, particularly when a VC wanders into their camp and brought in for questioning; a clear distinction is made between ‘good Vietnamese’ and ‘bad Vietnamese,’ when the alliance was far shakier. The Americans are seen giving things to the innocent South Vietnamese, the only real hesitation seen in the village chief who just wants to talk to Kirby, refusing requests to come into the base. Otherwise, the film paints a very broad picture of the American forces freeing the South Vietnamese from the animalistic atrocities of the Viet Cong. Warfare in this film is presented in a very straightforward, close-distance manner, when in reality it was much more enclosed and chaotic. The climax of the film (in which the Green Berets attempt to kidnap an NVA general), is full of very generic, ordered, bloodless combat, unlike the brutality and animalistic warfare indicative of the real Vietnam War. The general in question is presented as a tyrant, who is living well while his men starve and remain unclothed. This is a very stereotypical, jingoistic way of presenting the NVA as monsters that have to be stopped; yet another method of increasing the sympathy for the American forces and the protagonists of the film. The defensive battle earlier in the film is modeled after the Battle of Nam Dong, arguably one of the more justified and heroic battles of the war, for American forces at least. In it, NVA and Viet Cong forces attacked a military camp (the titular Nam Dong), where many died to defend the camp successfully. The Americans were not the instigators in the battle, making it a PR boon for the United States; a Medal of Honor awarded to Capt. Roger Donlon for defending the camp was â€Å"the first Medal of Honor awarded to an individual who distinguished himself while serving with a friendly force engaged in an armed conflict in which the United States is not a belligerent party† (TIME, 1964). As a result, it is easy to see why John Wayne inserted an analogue to this battle in the film; it presented realism in its portrayal of the war, but in a way that implicated the US as instigators the least. In conclusion, the action of The Green Berets presents a very incorrect and skewed view of America’s involvement in Vietnam, likening it to the positive, straightforwardly black-and-white experience encountered in World War II. While there is a slight presence of skepticism in the form of the character of Beckworth, his presence seems to only be there in order to refute that skepticism and present an objectively positive viewpoint on American involvement. In short, the film appears to be quite narrow-minded in its presentation of the war, and its transparency as a propaganda piece is evident. References Armed Forces: One Who Was Belligerent. (1964, December 11). TIME. Retrieved August 7, 2011, from http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,897370,00.html Wayne, J. (Director). (2007). The Green Berets [Motion picture]. United States: Warner Home Video.