Managerial Decision Making Bachelor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Managerial Decision Making Bachelor - Essay Example The focus will be on the need for heart failure specialist nurses in the community and how they can improve health care in the UK. The 80-year-old female patient I have chosen to discuss here appears to fit the overall criteria for the above study, which was mainly focused on previously hospitalized patients with interventions through specialist heart failure services in the community. My client was diagnosed with heart failure two years ago and had one additional admission to hospital about one year ago for exacerbation of her heart failure. She felt she had not been given adequate information on her condition. She was referred to community heart failure nurses for education, management and titration of Carvedilol 6.25mg bd. Other heart failure medication prescribed included furosemide 80mg mane, spironolactone 25mg mane and ramipril 5mg bd. The spironolactone was stopped due to increased potassium, urea and creatnine, a decision based on the RALES study (2003). After another admission for chest infection, she was discharged without furosemide, and I was assigned as a community heart failure nurse. She was con cerned about having her furosemide discontinued, and it was recommenced after I contacted the physician. The client feels more secure knowing she has someone to contact rather than "bothering" her doctor, and we have developed a good rapport. I am working with her on pharmacology issues, making sure she is responding well to her medications as well as taking the right medications. Heart Failure - Major Health Problem Heart failure has continued to be an escalating public health problem. Chronic heart failure is the "syndrome of breathlessness, fatigue and fluid retention resulting in impaired ability of the heart to pump properly" (Sanderson, 1994, par. 1), often following a heart attack. By the end of the 1990s, 5% of all medical admissions to hospital in UK were related to chronic, or congestive, heart failure (Bosson, 1997). The Department of Health considers it a major concern because there is no cure at present. It therefore has a dramatic effect on the quality of life, and if not properly managed in the community it can also place very heavy pressures on hospital beds through emergency admissions and re-admissions (DOH, 2003). Local GPs in a 2005 clinical audit who had access to a specialist CHF nurse considered the service far more important than did the GPs without a specialist nurse. Even with the existence of guidelines, the treatment for heart failure in UK continues to be suboptimal, a concern which makes the specialist CHF nurse increasingly valuable (Leslie, 2005). The 80-year-old female client whose care I am monitoring no doubt will find herself increasingly dependent on others, and if she doesn't have proper treatment her quality of life will be greatly diminished. The purpose of this paper is to determine whether this type of care in the community not only will lessen the need for hospital inpatient care but ultimately will

Assisted suicide Essay Example for Free

Assisted suicide Essay Should assisted suicide or euthanasia be legal in situations where an individual is experiencing intense suffering?   This question brings to light moral and ethical issues which have been the cause of heated debate for several years.   In an attempt to find an answer, assisted suicide, euthanasia, and mercy killings must first be defined. Assisted suicide is when someone provides an individual who is physically able, with the means necessary to end his or her own life.   Euthanasia is when someone provides the means necessary and then performs the act that takes the life of another individual.    This act may take place either with or without the consent of the individual who is suffering.   Euthanasia is performed when death is considered to be in the best interest of the individual in question.   (Mathes, 2004)   Euthanasia is often performed by administering extremely high doses of narcotics, sedatives or antidepressants. The patient develops respiratory depression which results in death. (Panzer, 2000) Doctor Jack Kevorkian emerged in the public eye in 1990 due to his involvement in the assisted suicides of at least 130 people.   Although many people credit him for launching the right-to-die movement, he did not.   He acted entirely on his own initiative until he was charged and convicted of second degree murder in the death of Thomas Youk.   Kevorkian didn’t launch the movement, but his actions did bring the right to die issue into the lime light.   (Humphry, 2007) There are pros and cons of assisted suicide.   Both sides of the issue are supported for specific reasons.   All of the reasons are completely understandable.   Unfortunately, whether or not you support assisted suicide is a matter of each individual’s moral and ethical guidelines.   The only factor that is definite is the fact that it’s illegal. The Pros of Assisted Suicide  · Patients are relieved of extreme suffering – Many illnesses including cancer cause a slow death accompanied by excruciating pain.   Doctors know when a patient is going to die as the result of an illness.   Some believe that allowing a patient to experience such unbearable pain when they are going to die anyway is inhumane and unacceptable.  · Every person has the right to choose whether they live or die – The constitution doesn’t state that a person doesn’t have the right to choose death. Therefore, everyone has the right to choose for themselves.  · Patients have the right to die with their dignity intact – Many terminal illnesses cause people to slowly deteriorate until they lose control of their bodily functions.   In situations such as this, patients are stripped of their dignity.   They don’t want their families to remember them this way.   Patients should have the right to choose death with dignity.  · The cost of health care can be greatly reduced – Health care costs for the terminally ill can add up quickly and dip into any money or assets that the patient wanted to leave to family members in their will. If a person would rather die than then should be able to exercise that right.  · Medical staff can devote more time to saving lives Understaffed hospitals are common in the United States.   Situations such as this can affect the quality of care and can even cause overtired hospital staff to make errors that could be potentially harmful to patients.   Caring for dying patients takes a lot of time.   If a patient would rather die and are allowed to do so, then hospital staff could devote more time to the care of patients who will recover.  · Disallowing suicide infringes on the patients religious freedoms – Religious beliefs include life in the hereafter. Laws disallowing suicide allow the government to force their religious and moral beliefs on everyone else.  · Assisted suicide can make it easier on family – Families often experience as much pain as their dying family member.   They are often overcome by grief and stress by watching a loved one suffer, knowing they are going to die anyway.   Oftentimes patients would prefer to die rather than to watch their family members hurt so much.   Allowing the patient to choose death can ease the pain and suffering of the family and the patient.  · Healthy organs can be harvested to save the life of someone else – Hundreds of people are on organ waiting lists waiting for healthy organs needed to save their lives.   When a patient is slowly dying, their organs begin to shut down and cease to function making them unusable as a donor organs.   If a patient is allowed to die, their organs can be used to save lives.  · Patients who want to die may attempt suicide on their own – If patients choose to end their lives on their own, they will use whatever means necessary. Sometimes they choose a bullet or a noose and this can be devastating to the family.   Assisted suicide is a more humane way for patients to die. (Messerli, 2007) The Cons of Assisted Suicide  · Violation of the Hippocratic Oath – When doctors take part in assisted suicides they are violated the Hippocratic Oath which includes, â€Å"First, do no harm.†Ã‚   Furthermore, it would undermine the trust between doctor and patient.  · Assisted suicide devalues human life – In the United States when death occurs, we mourn and part of the process includes celebrating the life of the person who died with memorial services, wakes and other ceremonies.   When there are tragedies that result in loss of life, we donate money to the families who suffered loss.   Americans place value on a human life and taking a life through assisted suicide because it’s the easy way out, eliminates that value.  · Legalizing assisted suicide could lead to abuses – If the United States legalizes assisted suicide for dying patients there will some who will use it as a catalyst to legalize all suicide due to emotional or psychological issues or simply because a person no longer desires to live.   This would be a travesty.  · â€Å"Thou shall not kill.† – Just about every religion has laws against killing.   Allowing assisted suicide would demean the religious and moral values of our society.  · Patients would give up too easily – If a patient is given a terminal diagnosis and assisted suicide is legal, they may choose to give up on life too soon.   There have been miraculous recoveries and incorrect diagnosis.   Patients, who choose death too soon, may forfeit their second chance at life.  · Insurance companies would put on the pressure – If assisted suicide was an option, doctors would be pressured by insurance companies to act.   Insurance companies would save a lot of money by not having to pay for the health care of dying patients  · Too much power for doctors – Legalizing assisted suicide would put too much power in the doctor’s hands which could cause them to act in an unethical or immoral manner. (Messerli, 2007) Although the American Medical Association is against physician assisted suicide, there are still doctors who support and participate in this practice.   In one physician survey done by physicians in Oregon it was found that 53% of the physicians asked, approved of assisted suicide and 24% supported euthanasia. When a patient was experiencing extreme physical weakness, 37% of the physicians asked, supported assisted suicide and 24% supported euthanasia.   In situations where patients believed that they were causing undue distress to their loved ones, 24% of physicians supported assisted suicide and 7% supported euthanasia. When patients had lost all hope in living, physicians supported assisted suicide by 22% and 7% supported euthanasia. In another survey taken by a group of one-hundred and fifty-five oncologists, it was found that 15.8% admitted to participating in either assisted suicide or euthanasia.   In 60.5% of the cases, patients requested euthanasia or assisted suicide.   There were 15.8% of patients who didn’t make the decision that their life be ended, but the decision was made for them. Research seems to consistently reveal that a small number of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers have admitted to participating in ending the lives of patients.   (Panzer, 2000) Incidentally, the American Nurses Association also opposes assisted suicide and euthanasia.   The ANA defines the standards expected and the ethics by which nurses are bound.   The ANA also developed the â€Å"The Code for Nurses† and published it in 1976.   â€Å"The Code† serves as a guide for practicing nurses, as well as a guide for evaluating nurses.   The ANA further expresses that the nursing profession follows in the tradition of the Hippocratic Oath, â€Å"do no harm.†Ã‚   There is often a thin line between the â€Å"preservation of life† and a â€Å"dignified death,† but the Code emphatically observes its opposition to assisted suicide and euthanasia.   However, the ANA views the withdrawal of treatments meant to sustain life such as a ventilator, chemotherapy or a feeding tube, as within the rights of the patient.   (Mathes, 2004) Surprisingly, very few patients actually follow through with assisted suicides.   Many feel that since so few people are seriously interested in assisted suicide that the need for legislation isn’t justified.   Only one in ten patients request the lethal medications and only half ingest it.   Knowing that assisted suicide is an option is a comfort for dying patients.   Even if they never do it, they know there’s a way out if their pain and suffering becomes unbearable. However, many hospice caregivers contend that the pain isn’t so much a concern for the patients as is their quality of life.   (Jeffrey, 2006) Family members, who have experienced assisted suicide first-hand, have mixed reactions.   While some describe the death of their loved one as peaceful or beautiful, some are devastated because their loved one chose death.   Family members give similar descriptions of the natural deaths of loved ones.   (Jeffrey, 2006) The question of whether or not assisted suicide or euthanasia should be legalized or not is a very personal issue.   The answer will depend on such factors as religious beliefs and moral values.   It’s not an issue that the government should even address.   If the government takes a stand and either opposes or supports assisted suicide and euthanasia, they are then imposing their beliefs on the people.   If the government imposes their beliefs on everyone then our country is no longer a democracy.   On the other hand, the United States was founded and built on Christian principles.   Perhaps the government should decide their position on the issue based on the teachings of Christianity.   The debate will likely continue for many years because there isn’t a cut and dry answer.   There is no right or wrong answer.   Everyone needs to decide based on their own personal convictions.

Joseph Conrad :: essays research papers

Joseph Conrad Joseph Conrad, born Tedor Josef Konrad Nalecz Korzeniowski, was born December 3, 1857 in a Russian-ruled province of Poland. His parents’ involvement in the Polish independence movement had them kicked out of Northern Russia in 1863. After his parents’ deaths, he moved in with relatives where he was often ill and received little schooling.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  At sixteen years of age, Conrad decided to become a seaman and he joined the British merchant marines in 1878. His lack of speaking the English language did not discourage him. During his ten years of service, Conrad became a British citizen, traveled the western continents, developed into a Captain and learned the English language.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Health problems caused his early retirement of the British merchant marines. In 1894, he started his career as a writer, using his seaman and sailing experience to write. In 1895, Conrad’s first novel, Almayer’s Folly, was published, with some of the book being written in the service. One year after his first novel, on March 24, 1896, Conrad married Jessie George. They had two children, Alfred Borys and John Alexander. In Kent, England, 1924, Joseph Conrad suffered a heart attack and died.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  For the rest of his writing career, Conrad would have difficulty being a writer. He found it difficult to write in the English language: he thought it was a slow and unbearable torment. His novel Chance was his first financial success. His other novels and short stories that were published in the first ten years of the twentieth century are thought of as his most important works.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Throughout his career, Conrad examined the ridiculousness of living by a traditional code of conduct: his novels suggest that the complication of the human spirit allows neither absolute loyalty to any ideal nor even to one’s conscience. It is presented in all of his novels that failure is a fact of human existence. The novel Nostromo, which deals mainly with revolution, politics and financial manipulation, is best at portraying failure. This novel is widely recognized as Conrad’s most ambitious novel.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The Secret Agent: A Simple Tale begins with Mr. Verlocs being summoned to a certain foreign embassy. Strolling down the street he did not look like the agent provocateur he was meant to be. He owned an ambiguous little shop where his family lived close by. He often entertained anarchists from London that he had to keep and eye on and hid his actual occupation.

Advanced Physical And Intellectual Competence

I recognize the advancing children physical and intellectual competence by creating learning experiences that stimulates physical, cognitive, communicative and creative growth. To advance physical and intellectual competence it is essential to the growth and development of every child to advance their physical and intellectual needs. There are numerous ways to encourage this type of development. Children are encouraged to participate in daily large motor activities to enhance physical development. One activity that they enjoy is dance children naturally love music and there’s nothing better to get their little bodies moving and shaking.One easiest ways to incorporate physically activity into both you lives is pick a few random songs at intervals throughout the day and just dance like crazy. Even just two or three song quickly add up a 10 minutes session, which is just right for your preschool aged children’s attention span. If you’re looking for more ways to expl ore dance which your preschool aged children, think back to silly songs and nursery rhymes of your own childhood and share those. I help children develop cognitive skills by encouraging them to hypothesize and think things out.For example the main aspects for cognitive growth can be fostered with daily activities such as stacking, sorting, observing and learning cause and effect. Coming up with cognitive activities is very easy. You can sort blocks, arranging them by size and color. You can stack object – books are great for this, you can have a treasure hunt too! For this all you need is a short and easy set of objects and a magnifying glass. I allow exploration to your children’s cognitive development. In my center I help children learn, understand, and use words to communicate. One lesson that is especially effective in developing communication skill is music.Music is a great way to encourage language development. You can find a sort of preschool age songs online ca n help you in this area. You can also use I spy, and question and answer games. Anything that involves word development is good activities since children love to ask you questions. A strength of this lesson is that it incorporate children who are English as second language learners and need a good mix of repetition and new material. By incorporating songs, asking daily short conversation, quick simple things repeated daily and practice basic vocabulary every day, children will understand the lessons.Creativity is fostered throughout our classroom. Children have access to, an area and are encouraged to use various art supplies to create their own artwork. Paint, markers, pencils, crayons, oil pastels, and paper are readily available for children to freely explore. An activity I love to do where children use their imagination is designing butterflies. They combine different bodies and wings to design their own butterflies; then animate them in one of several beautiful scenes. Another example is drawing a mural. They explore line, shape, and space while arranging decorative tiles into an abstract picture. Advanced physical and intellectual competence I recognize the advancing children physical and intellectual competence by creating learning experiences that stimulates physical, cognitive, communicative and creative growth. To advance physical and intellectual competence it is essential to the growth and development of every child to advance their physical and intellectual needs. There are numerous ways to encourage this type of development. Children are encouraged to participate in daily large motor activities to enhance physical development. One activity that they enjoy is dance children naturally love music and there’s nothing better to get their little bodies moving and shaking.One easiest ways to incorporate physically activity into both you lives is pick a few random songs at intervals throughout the day and just dance like crazy. Even just two or three song quickly add up a 10 minutes session, which is just right for your preschool aged children’s attention span. If you’re looking for more ways to expl ore dance which your preschool aged children, think back to silly songs and nursery rhymes of your own childhood and share those. I help children develop cognitive skills by encouraging them to hypothesize and think things out.For example the main aspects for cognitive growth can be fostered with daily activities such as stacking, sorting, observing and learning cause and effect. Coming up with cognitive activities is very easy. You can sort blocks, arranging them by size and color. You can stack object – books are great for this, you can have a treasure hunt too! For this all you need is a short and easy set of objects and a magnifying glass. I allow exploration to your children’s cognitive development. In my center I help children learn, understand, and use words to communicate. One lesson that is especially effective in developing communication skill is music.Music is a great way to encourage language development. You can find a sort of preschool age songs online ca n help you in this area. You can also use I spy, and question and answer games. Anything that involves word development is good activities since children love to ask you questions. A strength of this lesson is that it incorporate children who are English as second language learners and need a good mix of repetition and new material. By incorporating songs, asking daily short conversation, quick simple things repeated daily and practice basic vocabulary every day, children will understand the lessons.Creativity is fostered throughout our classroom. Children have access to, an area and are encouraged to use various art supplies to create their own artwork. Paint, markers, pencils, crayons, oil pastels, and paper are readily available for children to freely explore. An activity I love to do where children use their imagination is designing butterflies. They combine different bodies and wings to design their own butterflies; then animate them in one of several beautiful scenes. Another example is drawing a mural. They explore line, shape, and space while arranging decorative tiles into an abstract picture.

Aunt Alexandra in “To Kill A Mockingbird” by Harper Lee Essay

Aunt Alexandra comes to the Finch residence at the end of chapter twelve, declaring that the family decided that it would be best for Scout and Jem to have some feminine influence in their lives. Scout knows that Alexander usually dictates what she wants upon the family, and uses the term the family decided to make her an even greater point of authority in the Finch family. Usually her dictations give her chances to impress her views on others or increase the family name and work towards the ideal family that she envisions. Examples of her tyranny include the time she made Atticus attempt to impress on the children the facts of life and how she forced herself upon Atticus and the children (dictating that she should move in with in them). Aunt Alexandra makes refreshments for the Missionary Society. These refreshments she makes herself rather than getting Calpurnia to make them; perhaps this is attempt to prove herself superior to almost everybody else while also adding to her reputation of a good hostess. As well as making refreshments for the missionary society Aunt Alexandra joined the Maycomb Amanuensis Club and became the secretary. Aunt Alexandra is slightly hypocritical because as an incurable gossip she has no problem making down almost everyone in Maycomb but couldnt hear a word against herself or the rest of the Finch family. She also said that almost everyone in Maycomb had a streak but when Atticus pointed out that the Finches had an incestuous streak she completely denied it. Aunt Alexandra has many good and bad qualities most concern the maturation and upbringing of the children. Good qualities include the fact she wants the best for Jem, Scout and the rest of the family, she will uphold any moral (page 146), she had plenty of pride in her family and she constantly tries to improve herself (page 147). However she has a lot of bad qualities; she is dictative, she is prejudice and she believes Finches are of a higher class to almost all others. Aunt Alexandra is a major character in the story because of she is one of the only points of authority and the greatest feminine influence for Scout and Jem. Despite her faults she does what she believes is best for the children  and community. Sources: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Make Quick Cash Freelancing †Content Mills Not Included

Make Quick Cash Freelancing – Content Mills Not Included You’re eating ramen noodles for the third night in a row, stopping between bites to nervously run your hands through your hair. You haven’t seen the inside of a Starbucks in months and you’re pretty sure dust bunnies and moth balls have moved into your wallet. As freelance writers, we’ve all been there. . . at least once. The money keeps going out, but somehow it’s stopped coming in. At this point, many of us turn to the content mills to earn some quick cash, grinding out dozens and dozens of articles for a pittance in the hopes that we’ll somehow manage to come crawling out of the red. I know that’s what I used to do. But, friends, there is another way. Yes, there is another way to make quick cash freelancing. So, you – yes, you! Step away from the content mill. And try these tips instead. 1. Tap your networks. Let people know you’re a writer looking for work. Tell your friends, your family, your Twitter followers, your Facebook pals, your dog. . . Someone’s bound to know someone looking for a writer (okay, maybe not your dog). Why shouldn’t that writer be you? When I published my very first writer website, I placed the link in my email signature and thought nothing else of it. The next day, my mother had plastered the URL all over her Facebook page. â€Å"My ba Until representatives from two different companies emailed me about doing some copywriting work for them. Can you guess how they heard about me? My mom’s Facebook page! One of the contacts actually ended up becoming a client. 2. Get in touch with former editors. Be they from magazines, websites, online publications, newspapers, not-for-profits, or anywhere else, tell them you’re available to take on assignments. I’ll let you in on a shocking secret: Reliable, easy-to-work-with freelancers are hard to come I recently tried this tactic the last time I was short on cash and got four assignments as a result. 3. Sell reprints of articles you’ve already written. Find publications that accept reprints, then look through your portfolio to see if you have anything they might be interested in. Because it’s been published elsewhere, you won’t get full pay. But then again, you’ve already done the work, so anything else is just icing on the cake (or this month’s electricity bill). 4. Repurpose old articles and blog posts for new markets. Not all publications accept reprints, but you can rewrite the material to create something â€Å"new† for other markets. If you quoted in the original article, paraphrase in this one. Where you paraphrased in the original, use quotes for the new piece. You can’t copy and paste word-for-word, and you may have to contact one or two additional sources, but for the most part, it’s just a matter of going back to your notes and coming up with a unique piece for the other publication. The next time you’re strapped for cash, resist the urge to make a beeline for the mills and try these tips instead. You’ll be amazed at the amount of money that will roll in without having to chain yourself to your desk.

Argumentative Essay Sample on Cell Phones Pros and Cons

Argumentative Essay Sample on Cell Phones Pros and Cons Argumentative Essay on Cell Phones Before the emergence of cell phones, people used to hang around their houses so as to use voice calling services. Cell phones have improved upon this norm by offering mobile telephone gadgets that could be fixed in cars and also carried around since they are portable and are light in weight. Cell phones that were made in the first years of manufacturing were heavy in weight and also installed in vehicles permanently. In addition, limited services were provided for each geographical area as few frequencies could be available. Later, modern cell phones (also known as hand phones) exploit the idea of cellular network which possesses frequencies that can be used repeatedly in the same area in the city. Cell phones have enabled Americans to travel with technology everywhere they go. This allows many users to access and share the radio bandwidth and also allows calls to be made in a wide geographical area. The user does not have to own the station but is a subscriber. Cordless telephone contrasts cell phones as they can be used only in the range of a one personal base station. Indisputably, ever since the emergence of cell phones people can constantly keep in touch with their loved ones regardless of the distance. One can reach almost everywhere without any difficulty. Additionally, people can immediately get help in case of emergencies. Furthermore, through mobile phones people can lessen their boredom through listening to their favorite music or watching downloaded movies. Emergence of cell phones has lead to massive changes in United States. Generally, people spent many hours talking on cell phones. American culture has tremendously changed with cell phones. The ring tones firms, which enables people to listen to popular music is at the moment a five dollar billion market every year, an enlightening case of an ancillary industry resulting from the use of a mobile phone. Minor firms now market cell phone games as well as video content aimed specifically to be watched on cell phones. Additionally, other creative functions have arisen, such as text messaging, Short Message Service (SMS), as well as fake talking (people pretend to converse using cell phones to fight fear and loneliness). In cases where young people (men and women) are controlled in their capability to socialize; cellular phones have been helpful for social interaction. Cell phones have an effect on America’s built environment, especially through widespread advertising. Cell phones have grown to be popular in the United States unlike the Internet, which on the other hand has caused digital division between various social classes. It is also recognized to be glamorous and inexpensive. The majority of the cell phone subscribers in America personalizes and decorates their cell phones, bringing about folk art cottage sector. The cell phone has grown to be a kind of art, whereby a cell phone users preference of phone and decoration serves as a sort of personal statement. The emergence of the mobile cellular phone has as well brought about changes in various cultural norms in America. Industries, movie theaters, cafà ©s and parks are just a number of spaces where the suitability of cell phone discussions is unclear and doubtful. Cell phones prioritize socialization with people who are far-away over those who share space. Classrooms are also other sectors that have significantly changed in America due to use of cell phones. Nowadays most students use cell phones in class, especially text messaging and the internet. Students can now get information faster through the cell phones. This has significantly affected education standards since most of the students use cell phones to cheat during exams. Despite the presence of moderately small screen sizes, majority of the people in America have started watching TV on their cell phones, this is to distance themselves from jam-packed situations and also prioritize their attention. Regardless of the widespread recognition of the cell phones’ video technology, consumers are still cautious of two-way video, caused by anxieties about privacy and surveillance. The political sector in America has also changed tremendously as a result of cell phones. Cell phones have been utilized to mobilize followers of political causes. Protesters use their cell phones to send text messages to organize activities and also to avoid the police. Evidently, as a result of these advantages, cell phone market in America is very dynamic and competitive. There are several service providers in America that are competing with each other so as to offer America the best possible rates. The majority of cell phone companies launch campaigns that enable America to communicate at a slightly cheaper rate. Furthermore, making international calls though the cell phone is much cheaper than through land line. This has enabled expansion of international trade between America and other states. In conclusion, cell phones have enabled people to form their own micro-cultures. In America, people are changing cultural customs and values, and are greatly demonstrating consumers skill to repurpose and modify technology for their personal use. In my opinion, given that cell phones have allowed Americans to protect their private relations from the culture in their surrounding, they have encouraged the existence a variety of complex but exclusive micro-cultures.

Building Your Email List Part 2 How to Keep Your Readers Engaged

Building Your Email List Part 2 How to Keep Your Readers Engaged Last week I gave you tips for setting up your email list, whether starting from scratch or dusting off an old one. This week we’ll talk more about what to do with that list and how to create content that will keep your readers engaged. First, if you didn’t do it last week, sign up with an email management system (EMS). (I have used   MailChimp, Constant Contact and MyEmma and recommend all three.   Hope Clark uses Aweber.) Besides managing the data, they help you comply with privacy laws Next, you need to decide, and share with your list, how often you’ll be communicating. The two big factors in determining frequency are your audience and your ability to create material. A fiction author may want to have once-a-month check-ins, while a non-fiction author may easily fill a weekly newsletter. For more frequent schedules, offer your audience the option of a â€Å"Digest Version† - once a week for daily emails, once a month for weekly. You’d much rather send them less than have them unsubscribe entirely. Exceptions to the schedule: If you have something big and exciting to share and it’s out of cycle, that’s fine, as long as these random mailings don’t become the norm. If it’s timely, send a special email. If it’s going to be just as cool when it’s time for your next email, hold on to it. probably read it. A short, hyperlinked list of blogs you’ve written recently with a summary no longer than a tweet (140 characters) is okay to draw attention to anything they may have missed. Draft your newsletter in whatever word processor you chose, then copy and paste the text into your Email Management System. Once you’ve found a layout template you like, stick to it. It’ll make formatting future emails much faster, and readers like a familiar feel. Also, try to avoid writing/formatting and sending all in one day. You’re much more likely to catch mistakes if you let the material sit for a day or two between draft and distribution. Things to consider while writing and formatting: Write a greeting and ending (it is a newsLETTER, after all.) Keep blocks of text short and to the point. Lists (bulleted or numbered) make scanning easier. Make use of formatting (bold, italics, underlining) only as appropriate. Use proper grammar/spelling/etc. and have at least one proofreader. This may seem hard for the first couple of weeks or months, but eventually you develop a rhythm. When you provide engaging content on a regular basis, your fans sh

Aesthetics- Philosophy of Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Aesthetics- Philosophy of Art - Essay Example In aesthetics you have to see for yourself precisely because what you have to "see" is not a property: your knowledge that an aesthetic feature is "in" the object is given by the same criteria that show that you "see" it. To see the sadness in the music and to know that the music is sad are one and the same thing. To agree in the judgment that the music is sad is not to agree in a belief, but in something more like a response or an experience" (Eldridge 145: 2003).It has long been recognized that human beings find a variety of visual and auditory appearances to be extremely fascinating. Certain sunsets, flowers, birdsongs, and beautiful bodies, among natural things, and certain pots, carvings, vocalizations, and marked surfaces, among humanly made things, seem to engage eye or ear simultaneously with thoughtful mind. In experiencing such things, we feel we want the experience to continue for "its own sake, " at least for some further time. The Greek uses a phrase to kalon which means the fine, the good, or the beautiful, to describe many sorts of things that are attractive to mind and eye or ear, without sharply distinguishing natural beauty from artistic merit (or moral goodness). "In the Symposium, Socrates reports that the priestess Diotima once instructed him in how a lover who goes about this matter correctly must begin in his youth to devote himself to beautiful bodies, first loving one body, then many (as he comes to understand that they are alike in beauty), next beautiful minds, beautiful laws and customs, beautiful ideas and theories, until finally he will come to love the Beautiful itself, absolute, pure, unmixed, not polluted by human flesh or colors or any other great nonsense of mortality." (Eldridge 47: 2003) In pleasing us, natural and artistic beauty, according to Kant, serve no outer purpose. The experience of beauty does not yield knowledge, and it does not of itself enable the satisfaction of desires for material goods. Yet it is not nonetheless merely agreeable or pleasant; instead, the experience of beauty matters. Beauty in nature makes us feel as though the natural world were congenial to our purposes and projects. In feeling the beautiful natural object to be "as it were" intelligible or made for us to apprehend it, we further feel that nature as a whole, which seems to "shine forth" in beauty, is favorable to our cognitive and practical interests as subjects. To experience a beautiful sunset, according to Kant, is to feel (though not to know theoretically) that nature makes sense. Kant's terminology may be difficult, the experience he is describing is a familiar one. Beautiful objects of nature or art engage our attention. We love them by paying active, cognitive attention to t hem, even if we do not get anything from them or even if it brings out the inner most emotions from us. The above discussion brings us to compare art with emotions, the reason why identifications with artists and imaginative participation in experiences and emotions are available to us is that works of art are made things, products or instances of human action. To understand an action, including actions of artistic making, is to understand its suitable motivation by reasons in contexts. Actions of artistic making, including the making of both narrative art and non-narrative art, are concerned with the shaping of materials to hold attention on a presented subject matter. (In abstract work, the presented subject matters are often centrally the perception and gestural action of the artist and the possibility of the audience's imaginative participation in that perception and gestural action.) Whatever emotions figure in attention to this subject matter are emotions that members of the audience are solicited to experience and explore, as they participate in the attention that is embodied in the work. The understanding of art is much related to exploring, to understand art critically is to explore it imaginatively, guided by a range of relevant

Persuasive synthesis Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Persuasive synthesis - Research Paper Example Other issues contributing to the worsening of cancer’s challenges encompass gender and unstable economic statuses mostly affecting the ailing besides close people. This is especially in the developing states or in regions where culture esteems the male gender to the extent of some experiencing fecal embarrassment when undergoing medical checkups (Consedine et al E410). Unstable economic statuses mainly characterize the developing states whereby numerous states are unable to avail necessary cancer awareness facilities to the natives (Ryder et al 3627). Hence, this leads to severe suffering to the citizens who to some point few cite to have attended cancer screening tests, for instance, women’s Pap smear test (Agunwah et al 364). This is because of utter ignorance that augments cancer severity among numerous citizens though limited by both their individual and states’ unstable economies (Ryder et al 3627). Scholarly studies contacted so far cite ignorance (knowledg e deficits) as one of the challenges hindering effective management of cancer (Van der Rijt et al 1370). Hence, this poses a formidable challenge to the patients, professionals and caregivers whereby the latter two ends up not being of any help to the victims despite their will to offer required assistance (Van der Rijt et al 1371). ... This is because of the latter’s knowledge deficit regarding pain assessment, which could have been leant early via multidisciplinary studies (Van der Rijt et al 1370). Hence, in turn fail to educate patients on how to manage their varied cancer predicaments, which results to painful experiences while away from their respective medical institutions. This is because at home neither the patient nor the caregivers know exactly what to do in alleviating or assessing pain that will alert them to seek timely medical intervention (Van der Rijt et al 1375). According to Van der Rijt et al study, multidisciplinary interventions considerably reduce pain. However, respective authorities ought to ensure adequate imparting of the medical practitioners with this knowledge. Since, they will also inform caregivers who will accordingly apply the knowhow while handling their ailing relatives in the absence of medical personnel. Inadequate level of education is also another aspect worsening ignor ance especially in the developing states, for instance, Enugu in Nigeria (Agunwah et al 362). This is especially among the female gender where most of them due to illiteracy do not see the essence of going for Pap smear tests. Hence, contribute to high mortality rates because only 4.2% of the women’s population in this region contends to have attended cancer screening tests in their lifetime (Agunwah et al 361). However, this percentage does not indicate the attending consistency, which one ought to keep on cancer screening at certain intervals. This leads to people who have gotten cancer resurfacing when the condition is at an advanced stage, whereby the available services for them only work to prolong their lives, but not to prevent or cure the malady (Agunwah

Early Childhood Development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Early Childhood Development - Essay Example at in preschool days between birth and age 5, most of the child development happens through family inputs and all children feel pride in their family members and that pride will decide about how the child thinks about herself. The development of child happens in an orderly manner, for example, crawling happens before walking. Though learning period differs child to child but usually it follows a definite order or pattern. Physical development follows a certain and set pattern. Large muscles in legs and arms grow first and then small muscles in the hands and fingers grow. The act of walking precedes the act of drawing. Development process is initiated from the head to the toes. How to keep head straight is learned by the child first before learning other processes such as crawling on stomach or on knees (Cherry, 2012). Large muscles in the arms and legs that promote the activity of walking, running, lifting, riding fall in this category. Proper nutrition and environment play a crucial part in the development of these activities (Goodheart-Willcox 2012, p.71). Small muscles of the fingers or hands that are used to hold, grasp or related activities fall in this category. Good physical growth leads to the healthy development of other faculties namely cognitive and emotional (Goodheart-Willcox 2012, p.71). Physical activities such as running, jumping, cycling on extended basis will help strengthen muscles. Strong and powerful body muscles not only increases the work stamina but safeguard the children from illness. This also helps forming a healthy social and emotional relationship with colleagues and a positive view point about life. Physical growth is accompanied by cognitive growth. Cognitive abilities such as reasoning, thinking, logic, memory, recognizing continue to grow side by side. Jean Piaget made a pioneering research on the child psychology and their learning abilities. According to him, children are as intelligent as adults. He listed some of the basic

Counseling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Counseling - Essay Example This is because the process of being sick includes other aspects of health which is not an individual event alone but also concerns the family and social relationship. When one member of the family is ill, it is normal for the other members to be likewise affected more so, when the illness entails long term care. Thus, becoming ill and recover from it is a challenge. Being sick may lead to many adverse reactions which may further contribute to the process of the illness and recovery. It creates a change in the environment of the patient affecting her behavior. How the patient behaves during the duration of illness is a strong contributory factor in coping with the illness. With this situation, counseling the patient is deemed empirical. However, before counseling commence, case analysis of the patient should be carried out. Analysis of the patient’s experience of illness includes examining the progress of the illness and the process of recovery identifying the patient’s own psychosocial characteristics that may influence the illness and recovery while intervention suggests psychosocial counseling with the application of behavioral cognitive theory (CBT). The Nature of the Case Melinda is a married 50 year old female with six children who is sick of cervical cancer. She claims she did not have any hospitalization for several months prior to her illness. This is her first consultation with her physician. According to her, she is not supposed to have her consultation if not for a fall from the staircase of their house causing her some bruised at her back and arms. However, the bruises according to her doctors are just but minor health problems as compared to the result indicated in her health history taken from her. Her health history reveals that she is showing warning signs and symptoms of cervical cancer. Accordingly, she had been having vaginal bleedings for several months after her menopausal period. However, she never had any consultations nor alarmed because she believes her menstrual cycle had resumed. In May of 2010, she was diagnosed of first stage cervical cancer. Like any individual who is diagnosed with such illness, she was shocked to hear the r esult of her laboratory examination as revealed by her physician and is immediately under a circumstance where she had no prior experience (Clarke, et al. 2005) thus, her reaction to the information is devastating. Shock is followed with denial as evident in her statement, â€Å"I never had any health problems in the past. Why would I be sick of such disease†? Melinda had married three times one after the other and had been sexually active. From the time of her diagnosis, she lost her appetite, has not been sleeping well and been irritable. She also does not want to sleep with her husband anymore. She defends she is more comfortable to sleep alone in a room. This made a gap in their relationship. Most often, Melinda does not respond when her husband tries to communicate with her. Observation also reveals that she rejects foods and drinks offered by her children. However, her family is regarded to be caring and tried their best to adjust to the behavior change of Melinda. Meli nda does not also like to see neighbors and even friends as she shuns away from them whenever they pay visit. When ask if other members of the family had been stricken or have died of the same illness in the past, she answered, â€Å"Does it matter† that shows that she is not interested to know her family health history. Her mother died of breast cancer many years ago and a distant relative recently passed away with lung cancer. Now, she is under the care of an oncologist and several other

Software Engineering Testing tools Research Paper

Software Engineering Testing tools - Research Paper Example This research aims to evaluate and present software engineering testing tools. There are numerous software engineering testing tools available today. Many of these tools have come to be adopted and utilized as solutions to the rising demand for assurance of software quality in the software engineering industry. Within the past decade, there has been a steady increase in black-box testing techniques which are generally called model-based testing (MBT) techniques. This steady increase in black-box testing techniques may be due to the growing popularity of object orientation and modeling in software engineering. Model based testing is a general term used to indicate that a particular testing approach bases common testing tasks (like test result evaluation and test case generation) on a model of the application that is being tested. Engineering software is usually implemented in critical applications, and so improper testing can result in errors that may have severe outcomes that may cau se huge losses. In spite of the inherent limitations, software testing is an integral part of software development. It is usual for more than half of the software development time to be spent on testing the software, and this entails a critical process of selection. The Software engineering testing tools in use today are unreliable largely due to their misuse in development, as a result of poor selection Testing Purposes Testing of engineering software can be broadly deployed in various phases of the software development cycle. Testing of software involves a process of verification and validation of software programs or applications to ensure that the software is functioning as expected, and meets the technical and business requirements that the designers had in mind when designing and developing the software. Software testing is also aimed at identifying important errors, flaws or defects, in software programs that have to be corrected. (Hetzel, William C., 1988) During test planni ng it must be decided what to view as an important defect, through the reviewing of the design requirements and documents. In a broader view, we may start to question the utmost purpose of testing. Why do we need more effective testing methods anyway, since finding defects and removing the defects does not necessarily lead to better quality? The value to be derived from engineering software testing is that such tests go far beyond doing tests about the underlying code. Such activities also involve an examination of the functional behavior of

Counseling Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Counseling - Essay Example This is because the process of being sick includes other aspects of health which is not an individual event alone but also concerns the family and social relationship. When one member of the family is ill, it is normal for the other members to be likewise affected more so, when the illness entails long term care. Thus, becoming ill and recover from it is a challenge. Being sick may lead to many adverse reactions which may further contribute to the process of the illness and recovery. It creates a change in the environment of the patient affecting her behavior. How the patient behaves during the duration of illness is a strong contributory factor in coping with the illness. With this situation, counseling the patient is deemed empirical. However, before counseling commence, case analysis of the patient should be carried out. Analysis of the patient’s experience of illness includes examining the progress of the illness and the process of recovery identifying the patient’s own psychosocial characteristics that may influence the illness and recovery while intervention suggests psychosocial counseling with the application of behavioral cognitive theory (CBT). The Nature of the Case Melinda is a married 50 year old female with six children who is sick of cervical cancer. She claims she did not have any hospitalization for several months prior to her illness. This is her first consultation with her physician. According to her, she is not supposed to have her consultation if not for a fall from the staircase of their house causing her some bruised at her back and arms. However, the bruises according to her doctors are just but minor health problems as compared to the result indicated in her health history taken from her. Her health history reveals that she is showing warning signs and symptoms of cervical cancer. Accordingly, she had been having vaginal bleedings for several months after her menopausal period. However, she never had any consultations nor alarmed because she believes her menstrual cycle had resumed. In May of 2010, she was diagnosed of first stage cervical cancer. Like any individual who is diagnosed with such illness, she was shocked to hear the r esult of her laboratory examination as revealed by her physician and is immediately under a circumstance where she had no prior experience (Clarke, et al. 2005) thus, her reaction to the information is devastating. Shock is followed with denial as evident in her statement, â€Å"I never had any health problems in the past. Why would I be sick of such disease†? Melinda had married three times one after the other and had been sexually active. From the time of her diagnosis, she lost her appetite, has not been sleeping well and been irritable. She also does not want to sleep with her husband anymore. She defends she is more comfortable to sleep alone in a room. This made a gap in their relationship. Most often, Melinda does not respond when her husband tries to communicate with her. Observation also reveals that she rejects foods and drinks offered by her children. However, her family is regarded to be caring and tried their best to adjust to the behavior change of Melinda. Meli nda does not also like to see neighbors and even friends as she shuns away from them whenever they pay visit. When ask if other members of the family had been stricken or have died of the same illness in the past, she answered, â€Å"Does it matter† that shows that she is not interested to know her family health history. Her mother died of breast cancer many years ago and a distant relative recently passed away with lung cancer. Now, she is under the care of an oncologist and several other

In 2007, the potato chip industry in the Northwest was competitively Research Paper

In 2007, the potato chip industry in the Northwest was competitively structured and in long-run competitive equilibrium firms we - Research Paper Example The lawyers hired a firm to estimate varied long-run competitive equilibriums to ensure the successful operation of their business (Swanson, 2009). However, the adapted strategies may not be superior and appropriate. Benefits to the government, business and consumers A monopoly market occurs when a single company supplies services or products that the buyer cannot substitute. The situation mainly happens when one company supplies commodities cheaply compared to other companies. Most monopoly companies include the utilities that offer electric power, gas or water. Wonks would benefit different stakeholders especially the government, business and consumers based on its monopolistic tendencies. Initially, the company will benefit the government because monopolies act as convenient sources of revenue for the government. The government can force companies out of the market causing controversy in the marketplace. The administrators at Wonk can force the government to come up with restricti ons governing the market competition (Graham, Kaye & Rothstein, 2006). However, other companies in the market can propagate negative publicity that may serve as a barrier to Wonk. As a result, the total revenues of the industry to the government will increase Once the firm started running as a monopoly, it came up with different Long-Run Competitive Equilibriums (Graham, Kaye & Rothstein, 2006). These changes benefitted the industry’s stakeholders because they controlled the amount of goods released to the market. Additionally, the industry can control its production, supplies and selling prices to the consumers (Graham, Kaye & Rothstein, 2006). The absence of competition means that the company could increase prices to cover the cost of production. Consequently, the parties involved will draw additional revenues. The consumers will also because Wonk will stipulate prices that the consumers are willing to pay. Graham, Kaye & Rothstein (2006) indicate that the consumers will st op purchasing the products when the industry stipulates prices that the consumers are unable to pay for the goods and services. Changes in prices and output in both structures The potato chip industry restructured from the monopolistic competition strategy to strict monopoly. The competitors sell slightly heterogeneous products but compete for the same customers based on monopolistic competition (Graham, Kaye & Rothstein, 2006). This strategy presents reduced obstacles in market entry and exit. This means that the company was exposed to threats of competition and market fluctuations in the external market. The reduced market entry barriers had the potential of destabilizing the business if a more preferable competitor enters the market. Through monopolistic competition, the producers were constrained from acquiring the full market information (Graham, Kaye & Rothstein, 2006). This is because the market has inputs from other competitors that influence market fluctuations. Any new inp ut by the competitor affects the demand curve of other competitors. Consequently, the consumers must determine the price and non-price attributes of the products supplied. The competing producers must select unique traits that attract customers to their products and realize the targeted higher prices (Boyes & Melvin, 2012). Monopolistically competitive markets engage in imperfect competition by focusing on non-price competition aspects such as product

The Three Dimension of Happiness According to Seligman Essay Example for Free

The Three Dimension of Happiness According to Seligman Essay

Trilateral Cooperation in Africa, Germany and China

Trilateral Cooperation in Africa, Germany and China A Model towards Poverty Reduction in Africa 1 Genesis of Trilateral Development Cooperations 1.1 Introduction: The roots of current Trilateral Cooperations The shift towards multilateral cooperations and, more specifically, Trilateral Cooperations (TC) is more visible today than ever before. Many traditional aid recipient countries have recently become donors of development aid as well (Altenburg Weikert 2007: 1). In particular are todays emerging powers such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa. These countries are increasingly providing aid programs for needier developing countries. This thesis deals with this entry level into the donor role. In the case of the country China, which has already provided development aid in the past and holds an important position among the New Donors. In addition the study attempts to find an answer to the question: Is there a common ground, together on which the Peoples Republic of China and the Federal Republic of Germany might engage in a Poverty Reduction Project in Africa? Finally a tentative model shall be introduced, which suggests how Trilateral Cooperation between China, Germany and Africa might look like. Taking a closer look further back in history one will find that development co-operations in general became more significant in the late 1940s, in the aftermath of World War II, following the initiation of the famous Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of the European countries (Hjertholm White 2000: 59). This successful implementation led to the belief that development aid projects have the ability to be effective. As a result of this realization, the notion of development aid received an enormous boost. From the late 1940s until the early 1960s Development Cooperations have been exceptionally in the form of bilateral agreements (Mehta Nanda 2005: 1). Among the existing development aid given to reconstruct Europe, the United States of America was the outstanding donor establishing Development Cooperations in many developing countries (Mehta Nanda 2005: 1). The period from the early 1960s to the mid 1970s saw a considerable progress in multilateral development assistance (source). While in 1960, the original membership of the Development Assistance Group, the predecessor of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), did cover most of the significant aid donors of the day the list of member states comprised Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Commission of the European Economic Community, joined almost immediately by first Japan and then the Netherlands. But even by then, the Russians had famously replaced the US and the World Bank as sponsors of the Aswan Dam, and indeed India and other Asian Commonwealth countries had been providing technical assistance under the Colombo Plan (source) since 1950. In 1961, Kuwait established the first of the Middle East funds: Hence their has been a great dislike of most of the well-established and professional Middle Eastern donor agencies o f being referred to as â€Å"emerging donors† aka â€Å"non-DAC donors†. (source) In addition, China undertook some significant and high-profile interventions, most notably the Tan-Zam railway, which was probably the biggest construction project undertaken anywhere in Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, and where at a time when DAC donors almost never covered any local costs China took a much more generous attitude even if they raised the local currency largely by sales of Chinese consumer goods (source). Mehta and Nanda (2005:2) name four major multilateral institutions as being responsible for providing development assistance during this period: International Development Association (IDA) attached to the World Bank; the Fund for Special Operations of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); the cooperation fund of the European Economic Community; and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), organized in 1965 through the merger of several United Nations (UN) financial facilities. Meanwhile, the idea of South-South Cooperations was born at the Bandung Conference[1] in 1955 when the leaders of 29 so-called developing countries came together to recognize the promotion of collective self-reliance as a political imperative. This event was followed by the establishment of a Working Group on Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC) by the UN General Assembly in 1972. In 1978, many more such leaders gathered at Buenos Aires to formulate a Plan of Action (BAPA), a conceptual framework and programmatic goals, all endorsed by the UN General Assembly a few months later. The Bandung conference was celebrating its golden jubilee in 2005, at which point practical ways to put forth the South-South cooperation agenda was examined. In 1999, the High-level Committee called the Special Unit on the Review of TCDC[2] and resolved that the South-South cooperation should be viewed as a complement and not as a substitute for the North-South cooperation. This effectively meant that the committee was of the view that a North-South-South cooperation was needed. Thus, the recognition for the importance of Triangular Development Cooperation came about.[3] However, on a practical level, Trilateral Cooperation already received a major boost in 1993 at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). It has since become known as the TICAD process in which Japanese resources are used to promote exchanges between Asian and African countries (Mehta Nanda 2004). In May 2004, an international conference on poverty reduction in Shanghai, China adopted the Shanghai Agenda for Poverty Reduction. Commonly known as the ‘Shanghai Consensus, it opposed the central theme of the Washington Consensus by proclaiming that state intervention is necessary for development and that everything cannot be left to the markets (Metha Nanda 2005:2). The agenda shows that stronger cooperation between all development partners including South-South cooperation can facilitate an increase of poverty reduction efforts through exchange of ideas, the transfer of resources and the strengthening of capacity. In this effort, it also reinforced the issue of partnership between all stakeholders to leverage and scale up a countrys development efforts. Today, more than five decades after the beginning of development aid, many principles are still being implemented for Development Cooperation Projects. To mention in particular is the need to correct the discrepancy between providing assistance on one hand and montary discipline and trade liberalisation on the other hand. The, so called ‚New Donors (Altenburg Weikert 2007) present willingness to accept responsibility for international development. The evolving relationship between China and Africa could be one of the most important developments in the international relations in the post-Cold-War era (Ampiah Naidu 2009). Germany is known as a traditional donor and has a long history of development assistance within both geographic entities, China and Africa[4]. The thesis at hand discusses opportunities and limits of Trilateral Development Cooperation between the traditional donor Germany and the emerging country China in a third African developing country. Emerging countries are aspiring economical and political powers, which cannot be ignored in order to solve present and future world order issues (Stamm 2004: 20). Starting with this Introduction, part 1 leads from an historical perspective to the more nuanced assessment of the current plateau of relations of Trilateral Cooperations. The Development of TCs will be discussed in part 2, including Egon Bahrs approach implementing Germanys first Trilateral Cooperation and its failures. Furthermore it will show the specific Establishment of Trilateral Cooperations within the German Development Cooperation for Sustainable Development (GTZ). Part 2 provides a contextual understanding of Trilateral Cooperations by (1) giving definitions, (2) considering preconditions as well as (3) alluding to benefits of Trilateral Cooperations. Two case studies concluding the chapter evaluating German Trilateral Cooperations by contrasting the two geopolitic areas discussed in this work: Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. By tackling the crucial question of the role of governance within Trilateral Cooperations concerning ideological differences between the western and the southern world, part 3 starts with an identification of the ‘term of negotiation, followed by a summary of approaches given by diverse institutions and international organisations engaging within the governance debate. It further contrasts governance as a common term of negotiating with the emerging conflicts arising from clashing perceptions of governance particularly between China and Western Countries. This part also examines perspectives on Chinas alternative governance model. Covering all the geo-strategic positions, part 4 examines the cross-currents of Germanys and Chinas relation to Africa. In opposition to the common myths that often describe Chinas role as that of a ‚yellow peril and Western powers as ‚knights in shining amour part 4 rather focuses on common engagement within the field of poverty reduction. Furthermore does part 4 present a model, showing what a Trilateral Cooperation between China and Germany in Africa will look like. Delineating the triangular relationship, a case study is used as a model suggesting the Congo Basin Forest Partnership as a possible development project with promissing success for all participating actors. The final substantive part provides a collection of lessons learned from engaging in Trilateral Cooperations in general and warns for possible dangers and finally concludes with an analysis of the possiblitities of the developing partnership between Germany, China and the continent of Africa. 1.2 Research to date There are numerous publications on Trilateral Cooperations in general. A more globalized world tends to be open for more cooperation. For this reason many of the former bilateral cooperations are now extended to Trilateral Cooperations. Multilateral Cooperations in general are a common way of working together to solve common conflicts. Trilateral Development Cooperations between traditional donors, non-DAC countries and developing countries however are rather rarely researched (Harmer Cotterrell 2005: 4). More specifically, Trilateral Cooperations with China in Africa have only been researched in recent years by institutions such as the European Union (Commission of the European Communities 2008), Deutsche Institut fà ¼r Entwicklungspolitik (Altenburg Weikert 2006) and Department for International Development (Mehta Nanda 2005). Most of the research compiled for this thesis is therefore based on documents of these institutions. 1.3 Methodology The research for the thesis at hand was compiled during the course of an internship at the German Cooperation for Sustainable Development (GTZ)[5] in Beijing, China. The research was considered as part of the Sino-German Poverty Monitoring Evaluation Project, which was established to introduce a participative Poverty Monitoring and Evaluation System (from local to national level) to the Province Jiangxi. The project has recently been expanded to include the topic of â€Å"Trilateral Cooperations: Germany China in Africa†. The mandate of the intern entailed an analysis of the possibilities for Engagement in a Trilateral Cooperation between Germany and China to the benefit of a third African nation in the field of poverty reduction. For this purpose GTZ experts, project partners such as International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC) and the State Council Development-Oriented Poverty Alleviation Leading Group (LGOP) as well as consultants of the organisations broad network supported and advised the research. As a result, the thesis is mainly based on qualitative analysis, case studies and comparative analysis. In addition, the qualitative methods comprises literature review, policy and legal analysis. Historical as well as recent case studies are analysed for the purpose of presening lessons learned as an aid to future performance. Furthermore, the presented study reposes on one-on-one conversations with the GTZ (China, Indonesia, Germany), IPRCC experts, the German Embassy in South Africa and the China Agricultural University. There has been correspondance with the Bundesministerium fà ¼r wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung[6] (BMZ) as well as with the Deutsche Institut fà ¼r Entwicklungspo litik[7] (DIE). In addition various documents and relevant sources of information, as from the European Union, for example, have been evaluated. During the process of identifying relevant cooperation corridors for strategy-building and the development of new instruments for cooperation, the usage of sources has been a challenge. Some interview partners, exclusivly Chinese contributers, wish not to be cited and some studies, relevant for this thesis, are either not published or they are being kept confidental. The salient information which is free to be used can partly be found in the final chapter as well as in the use of ideas and data, the sources, of which must remain anonymously cited. 2 Trilateral Cooperations in Context 2.1 Defining Trilateral Cooperations Generally speaking, a Trilateral Cooperation is a three-sided joint operation for mutual benefit. In the context of this thesis, the term, ‘Trilateral Cooperations refers to a certain set-up of participants: one traditional donor, one new donor and one developing country. Among the different types of trilateral cooperations this analysis focuses on ‘Trilateral Development Cooperations.[8] According to DIE (Altenburg Weikert 2007), Trilateral Development Cooperations are considered as â€Å"cooperation projects which are jointly planned, financed and carried out by an established donor country which is already a member of the OECD[9]-DAC together with a cooperation country which, although itself a recipient of development cooperation and not (yet) a member of the DAC, is emerging as a new donor, and a third country as the recipient.† The DIE definition is of great importance for the Trilateral Cooperation Model, I will present in part 4 of this study as it points out the special composition of the trilateral cooperation. In this case Germany is the traditional donor, while China acts as the new doner and non-OECD and DAC-member and an African country as recipient. Another imporant aspect of a trilateral cooperation is given by the German Development Cooperation. It states that a Trilateral Cooperation is an innovative form of cooperation: â€Å"A mutual passin g on of lessons learned to technically and institutionally less advantaged third countries.[10]† There are, however, two essential features of Trilateral Cooperations: (1) the importance of South-South relations and (2) the type of capital transfer. (1) In contrast to traditional aid assistance governments of emerging countries are now asked to change their way of thinking. Trilateral Cooperations challenge them to change positions from having been an aid receiver in the past towards becoming a new donor. In other words, money from industrialized countries is transferred on an institutional level to the developing country, where it will be implemented through technical assistance. Therefore South-South relations are of great importance in this matter. (2) Trilateral development cooperation offers new means of funding, as the established donor and the cooperation country organize the know-how-transfer to the third country jointly. 2.2 Preconditions for Trilateral Cooperations To maximize the opportunities for the success of Trilateral Cooperations, it is necessary to set up specific preconditions and ensure that they are met in order to prove that an effective or cooperative work is feasible. Altenburg Weikert (2007) note that common interests are not yet a sufficient condition for Trilateral Development Cooperation and give four elementary requirements, which, from their point of view, need to be fulfilled before entering the triangular cooperation: Increasing alignment with good donor practices, co-financing by the cooperation country, efficiency, and donor coordination. Although the aforementioned requirements can be seen as some sort of core preconditions, there are still other crucial factors that need to be considered. (Altenburg Weikert 2007: 3) Firstly, the right timing, for a successful undertaking is imperative.[11] For all participating actors of the TC, the necessity to enter the cooperation needs to be apparent. The right timing needs to be considered in this context also because there might be countries willing to enter the tripartite operation but are, time wise, either not ready or simply not able to be part of a certain project. Political strategy plays a major role in finding the right timing to engage in a Trilateral Development Cooperation. Secondly, readiness of actors is indispensable for a trilateral dialogue and a cooperation implementation. There are two major considerations concerning this precondition, which might even seem too obvious. (1) The actors need to be ready to engage in both trilateral dialogue and cooperation. Within the past years there has been much discussion between potential cooperation countries but not one single trilateral dialogue has let to the commencement of a sound trilateral cooperation. Thus, the readiness for dialogue but not for the actual cooperation, has been given. This observation has only been made in reference to TC with the anchor country China. (2) The motive one participant holds behind the decision to enter the trilateral dialogue[12] and cooperation is of no greater importance as long as the motives will not interfere with the implementation of the Cooperation. The motives need to be dynamic and resilient. However, the motives of all three parties may but do not have to be identical (Grimm 2008). Thirdly, there is a necessity of one common denominator even if it might be the smallest one. The interface of interest among the three participant countries is a central condition for a successful TC. Furthermore, it would be beneficial to identify potentials of the tripartite dialogue and determine possible limitations. It will be of great advantage to harmonize diverse efforts of implementation into forming a Trilateral Development Cooperation.[13] Fourthly, the importance of political support needs to be verified . Trilateral Development Projects are dependent on the support on the respective governments. Yet, not only policy-makers need to be involved in the cooperation process, but necessary committees and panels have to be considered in the process as well. Agreements, such as the Paris Declaration[14] should also be discussed and applied. Fifthly, transparency should be practised, so that communication is made easy, corruption can be avoided and fair play is guaranteed. 2.3 Potentials and Limits of Trilateral Cooperations â€Å"Trilateral cooperation can be an effective way of bringing appropriate intermediate technology and ‘appropriate policy to developing countries.†[15] The link between proper know-how and adquate policy constitutes the cooperative advantage that Trilateral Cooperations offer as opposed to previous bilateral assistance programs. In the past, consulting services put forth by established donors have, as seen in many cases, not used the suitable type of technical assistance or the services offered may have not been appropriate to the recipient countrys needs. Moreover, donor countries coming to a ‘developing country with their own type of technical expertise can create problems for the recipient country as there can be confusion and duplicity. As a result, the efficiency of the aid put in place remains questionable. These problems can be avoided by implementing a Trilateral Cooperation, by which an emerging country has been in the position of the recipient country itself and will be most likely be able to assist in a proper way. (Altenburg Weikert 2006: 3) Another advantage is that aid is tied to the donor countrys provision of goods and services. On an average, a developing country expert costs one-third of the cost of developed country experts at prevalent international rates.[16] However, if the expertise is carried out by anchor countries as well as by developed countries, the costs will be shared and generally less money will be invested. In this case Trilateral Development Cooperation can be a cost-effective way of promoting development cooperation. Another issue related to tied aid, as argued in Mehta Nanda (2005), is that when the donors tie up with local (donors home country) technical assistance providers, there is a possibility that monitoring by the donors may get relaxed as they are likely to develop alliances. A third country provider of technical assistance is far less likely to develop such a relationship with a donor and hence monitoring is likely to be more rigorous. Hence, triangular cooperations may bring more accountability in the implementation of development programs. With the involvement of a third country technical assistance provider, it is likely that more information will be made public and will thereby increase overall transparency in aid administration thereby creating a positive impact on global Governance. With a transparent aid administration system, the impact of politics on aid would be far less †¦.(source!) Limits of Trilateral Cooperations Trilateralisation of development cooperations may dilute previous political support base and thus lessen the interest of the domestic constituency in overseas aid. They might also question the accountability in the aid administration when the stakeholders from the donor country are not involved. This would lead to a decrease of commitment in donor countries for development cooperation. However, this can be countered by a type of Trilateral Development Cooperation, in which Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) from developing countries with high credibility can be involved in developed countries in appraising the stakeholders there about the utility of the aid that they are providing to the developing countries (Metha Nanda 2005: 2) It may also not always be easy for one developing country to accept technical assistance for capacity building from another developing country. There are political problems even among several developing countries that might thwart the process. Another risk factor Mehta and Nanda state in 2005 is that there may be an unwillingness in sections of policy makers and other important stakeholders to accept ‘intermediate technology or ‘intermediate policy who may be in favour of leap-frogging The lure of trips to rich countries among sections of bureaucracy and the political establishment may also sabotage the process of trilateral development cooperation. LDCs very often do not find the idea of visiting another developing country for training or experience-sharing exciting enough. Even the fringe benefits of visiting a rich country are much higher for them. 2.4 The Beginning of Trilateral Cooperations within German Development Aid Germanys Development Aid Institutions are not singularly structured as they are in other European countries. Several Institutions such as KfW, DED, InWEnt and GTZ all function as German representatives in the field of development politics and provide assistance in developing countries. This might lead to different perceptions on what constitutes German Development assistance and which one represents the leading Development Aid institution.[17] According to Tomecko (2008), GTZ[18] stated a prospective turnover of a little over â‚ ¬1.1 billion per annum and operate through 92 offices that serve 120 countries with about 12,000 employees working in 2,700 projects in the year 2008. About 25% of the mentioned turnover is currently in Asia. A wide geographic presence, access to development cooperation officials and the diversity GTZ projects, the organization is able to provide an infrastructure for Trilateral Cooperations. On a global scale 14 operational trilateral projects are in place, so Temecko (2008); partners are namely (1) South Africa with Ethiopia, D.R. Congo, Lesotho, India on governance and technology, (2) Brazil with 10 countries in Latin America and Africa mainly in the area of AIDS, (3) Mexico with Guatemala, Ecuador and Dom. Republic on issues related to the environment, (4) Chile with several Latin American countries where we have a special fund for trilateral, (5) Indonesia with Timor Leste on national parks development, (6) China, with Chile, Vietnam and India mainly in the area of economic policy dialogue. There are four major issues Trilateral Cooperations established through GTZ projects revolving around: Joint missions, the combined use and exchanges of experts, job training as well as education and fellowships and study visits development, micro-finance, SME promotion and health. Financed are all projects by the parent ministry, the German Federal Ministry for Development and Economic Cooperation (BMZ) by providing additional budgets for activities like enhancing trilateral cooperation projects. 2.5 Lessons learned: Germanys previous Trilateral Cooperations The topic of Trilateral Cooperations is not new, the idea of Joint Development Initiatives in Germany dates back to 1974. (Souce) The demonstrated form of Cooperation has been implemented within Germanys Development Cooperation with different levels of success. Within this study the first Trilateral Development Cooperation, under Egon Bahr, will be discussed intensively as it is the first Trilateral Cooperations in Germany and provides a range of lessons learned for further triangular engagement. In addition, two further Trilateral cooperation attempts are discussed to give a broader insight on what Cooperations have been put into practice and what can we learn from previous experiences. 2.5.1 The Failure of Germanys First Trilateral Cooperation under Egon Bahr „Im à ¶ffentlichen Bewußtsein lag Entwicklungshilfe, sobald davon à ¼berhaupt Notiz genommen wurde, ziemlich nah bei der christlichen Pflicht des Wohlhabenden, mitleidige Menschen in Not zu unterstà ¼tzen. [] Unser Interesse mußte stà ¤rker betont werden, das Interesse an kà ¼nftigen Mà ¤rkten, an Prà ¤vention sozialer Spannungen. Es nà ¼tzt uns, wenn andere etwas kaufen kà ¶nnen, sichert sogar Arbeitsplà ¤tze.â€Å"[19] (Bahr, 1996: 467) The political course of the German Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschanlands (SPD)-politician Egon Bahr was considered as pragmatic in nature.[20] His famous speech in front of the Evangelical Academy Tutzingen in 1963 holds the title „Wandel durch Annà ¤herungâ€Å" Change through convergence[21]. It soon became not only his motto but also the program for West German foreign policy[22]. His concept of „change through convergenceâ€Å" was closely connected to the concept of „peaceful coexistanceâ€Å" and soon led him to, in his eyes, beneficial ideas of establishing trilateral cooperations. Bahrs idea was to bring together the oil money surplusses of the Arab States and the know-how of the industialized countries to engage together in development investments in developing countries.[23] In that, he saw two main advantages: (1) On a global scale the cooperation was supposed to put forth a release of the currency situation and (2) on a national scale the model was alleged to help ease the national finances of the Federal Republic of Germany.[24] The following calculation serves as an explanation for establishing a Trilateral Cooperation. According to UN criteria for the second period of development aid (1971-1980) 0,7% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should be used for Official Development Assistance (ODA). In 1974 the Federal Republic of Germany had already established 0,36%. Due to the oil price taxation the oil-producing developing countries received additional money in form of yields which were financed by the Federal Republic of Germany through their oil purchases. Therefore the West German GDP increased by 1,7 %.[25] In recognizing an interplay between economic and development politics, Bahr tried with his model of Trilateral Cooperation to use the surplus of the oil countries to finance development aid in third nations which are non-oil-development countries. As an outcome for Germany he expected to add new jobs, which would lead to an increase in income as well as in demand. For the developing country he expected that the infusion of know-how and technical assistance would result in a catch-up industrialization with an escalating number of employees. This would have a positive influence on the economic status and would also result in an increase in demand. Brisk trade relationships and the surmounting of the economic crisis were supposed to be the outcomes of his model of trilateral cooperations. However, Nuscheler (2005) argues that some of Bahrs assumptions are weak and would thererfore hinder the Trilateral Cooperation model to succeed. First of all, Nuscheler states the assumption that all developing countries would undergo similar development as would industrialized countries, also known as the catch-up industrialization.[26] Due to geomorphological and climatic preconditions, which are completely different than in western countries, a catch-up industrialization would be rather unlikely. Bahr saw the agricultural sector as the most important one for a country, because it has been of great importance for Germany. Conversely, for most developing countries, the agricultural sector was not the key, since the population rate by far outweighs the provision of food, even if all available fields would be in use. Secondly, Nuscheler questions the assumption that better integration of the developing countries into the world market would stimulate a demand in developing countries as seen in industrialized countries. With the exception of the raw material sector, such demand would not come about in the development countries, Nuscheler (2005) points out. His explanation is that the developing countries have different structures of supply and demand, which is set according to their respective needs. The third and last assumption of Bahrs Trilateral Cooperation Model, Nuscheler critisizes, is that economic growth will have a positive effect on all parts of the population of a developing country. All three arguments, Nuscheler states, can be seen as reason for failure of Bahrs model of the Trilateral Cooperation and can be summarized as errors of the concept „development through growthâ€Å" (Nuscheler 2005: 78). In his Trilateral Cooperation model, Bahr also used elements of the „basic need strategyâ€Å", which maintains that life is a fundamental need and therefore that development politics should take into consideration that education as well as health-care etc. should be provided for all parts of the population. (Bahr 96: 479). That might be one of the reasons why Bahr drew attention of German development politics to the poorest countries of Africa. Egon Bahr tested his Trilateral Cooperation model for the first time in 1975 in South Sudan. German companies were supposed to build with money from Saudi Arabian streets and habours in the largest Afrian country, but Bahrs ambitions were undermined by the Arabs. The Arabs demanded as a countermove from Germany that they will be part of the boycott against Israel and that Germany will exclude those firms from the Sudan-trade, who are in any trade relationship with Tel Aviv.[27] This and German Development Politics under Egon Bahr with the tendency to „more selfishness, less charityâ€Å" has been one of several diffuculties leading to the breakdown of Bah Trilateral Cooperation in Africa, Germany and China Trilateral Cooperation in Africa, Germany and China A Model towards Poverty Reduction in Africa 1 Genesis of Trilateral Development Cooperations 1.1 Introduction: The roots of current Trilateral Cooperations The shift towards multilateral cooperations and, more specifically, Trilateral Cooperations (TC) is more visible today than ever before. Many traditional aid recipient countries have recently become donors of development aid as well (Altenburg Weikert 2007: 1). In particular are todays emerging powers such as China, India, Brazil and South Africa. These countries are increasingly providing aid programs for needier developing countries. This thesis deals with this entry level into the donor role. In the case of the country China, which has already provided development aid in the past and holds an important position among the New Donors. In addition the study attempts to find an answer to the question: Is there a common ground, together on which the Peoples Republic of China and the Federal Republic of Germany might engage in a Poverty Reduction Project in Africa? Finally a tentative model shall be introduced, which suggests how Trilateral Cooperation between China, Germany and Africa might look like. Taking a closer look further back in history one will find that development co-operations in general became more significant in the late 1940s, in the aftermath of World War II, following the initiation of the famous Marshall Plan to rebuild the economy of the European countries (Hjertholm White 2000: 59). This successful implementation led to the belief that development aid projects have the ability to be effective. As a result of this realization, the notion of development aid received an enormous boost. From the late 1940s until the early 1960s Development Cooperations have been exceptionally in the form of bilateral agreements (Mehta Nanda 2005: 1). Among the existing development aid given to reconstruct Europe, the United States of America was the outstanding donor establishing Development Cooperations in many developing countries (Mehta Nanda 2005: 1). The period from the early 1960s to the mid 1970s saw a considerable progress in multilateral development assistance (source). While in 1960, the original membership of the Development Assistance Group, the predecessor of the Development Assistance Committee (DAC), did cover most of the significant aid donors of the day the list of member states comprised Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the United Kingdom, the United States and the Commission of the European Economic Community, joined almost immediately by first Japan and then the Netherlands. But even by then, the Russians had famously replaced the US and the World Bank as sponsors of the Aswan Dam, and indeed India and other Asian Commonwealth countries had been providing technical assistance under the Colombo Plan (source) since 1950. In 1961, Kuwait established the first of the Middle East funds: Hence their has been a great dislike of most of the well-established and professional Middle Eastern donor agencies o f being referred to as â€Å"emerging donors† aka â€Å"non-DAC donors†. (source) In addition, China undertook some significant and high-profile interventions, most notably the Tan-Zam railway, which was probably the biggest construction project undertaken anywhere in Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, and where at a time when DAC donors almost never covered any local costs China took a much more generous attitude even if they raised the local currency largely by sales of Chinese consumer goods (source). Mehta and Nanda (2005:2) name four major multilateral institutions as being responsible for providing development assistance during this period: International Development Association (IDA) attached to the World Bank; the Fund for Special Operations of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB); the cooperation fund of the European Economic Community; and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), organized in 1965 through the merger of several United Nations (UN) financial facilities. Meanwhile, the idea of South-South Cooperations was born at the Bandung Conference[1] in 1955 when the leaders of 29 so-called developing countries came together to recognize the promotion of collective self-reliance as a political imperative. This event was followed by the establishment of a Working Group on Technical Cooperation among Developing Countries (TCDC) by the UN General Assembly in 1972. In 1978, many more such leaders gathered at Buenos Aires to formulate a Plan of Action (BAPA), a conceptual framework and programmatic goals, all endorsed by the UN General Assembly a few months later. The Bandung conference was celebrating its golden jubilee in 2005, at which point practical ways to put forth the South-South cooperation agenda was examined. In 1999, the High-level Committee called the Special Unit on the Review of TCDC[2] and resolved that the South-South cooperation should be viewed as a complement and not as a substitute for the North-South cooperation. This effectively meant that the committee was of the view that a North-South-South cooperation was needed. Thus, the recognition for the importance of Triangular Development Cooperation came about.[3] However, on a practical level, Trilateral Cooperation already received a major boost in 1993 at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD). It has since become known as the TICAD process in which Japanese resources are used to promote exchanges between Asian and African countries (Mehta Nanda 2004). In May 2004, an international conference on poverty reduction in Shanghai, China adopted the Shanghai Agenda for Poverty Reduction. Commonly known as the ‘Shanghai Consensus, it opposed the central theme of the Washington Consensus by proclaiming that state intervention is necessary for development and that everything cannot be left to the markets (Metha Nanda 2005:2). The agenda shows that stronger cooperation between all development partners including South-South cooperation can facilitate an increase of poverty reduction efforts through exchange of ideas, the transfer of resources and the strengthening of capacity. In this effort, it also reinforced the issue of partnership between all stakeholders to leverage and scale up a countrys development efforts. Today, more than five decades after the beginning of development aid, many principles are still being implemented for Development Cooperation Projects. To mention in particular is the need to correct the discrepancy between providing assistance on one hand and montary discipline and trade liberalisation on the other hand. The, so called ‚New Donors (Altenburg Weikert 2007) present willingness to accept responsibility for international development. The evolving relationship between China and Africa could be one of the most important developments in the international relations in the post-Cold-War era (Ampiah Naidu 2009). Germany is known as a traditional donor and has a long history of development assistance within both geographic entities, China and Africa[4]. The thesis at hand discusses opportunities and limits of Trilateral Development Cooperation between the traditional donor Germany and the emerging country China in a third African developing country. Emerging countries are aspiring economical and political powers, which cannot be ignored in order to solve present and future world order issues (Stamm 2004: 20). Starting with this Introduction, part 1 leads from an historical perspective to the more nuanced assessment of the current plateau of relations of Trilateral Cooperations. The Development of TCs will be discussed in part 2, including Egon Bahrs approach implementing Germanys first Trilateral Cooperation and its failures. Furthermore it will show the specific Establishment of Trilateral Cooperations within the German Development Cooperation for Sustainable Development (GTZ). Part 2 provides a contextual understanding of Trilateral Cooperations by (1) giving definitions, (2) considering preconditions as well as (3) alluding to benefits of Trilateral Cooperations. Two case studies concluding the chapter evaluating German Trilateral Cooperations by contrasting the two geopolitic areas discussed in this work: Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. By tackling the crucial question of the role of governance within Trilateral Cooperations concerning ideological differences between the western and the southern world, part 3 starts with an identification of the ‘term of negotiation, followed by a summary of approaches given by diverse institutions and international organisations engaging within the governance debate. It further contrasts governance as a common term of negotiating with the emerging conflicts arising from clashing perceptions of governance particularly between China and Western Countries. This part also examines perspectives on Chinas alternative governance model. Covering all the geo-strategic positions, part 4 examines the cross-currents of Germanys and Chinas relation to Africa. In opposition to the common myths that often describe Chinas role as that of a ‚yellow peril and Western powers as ‚knights in shining amour part 4 rather focuses on common engagement within the field of poverty reduction. Furthermore does part 4 present a model, showing what a Trilateral Cooperation between China and Germany in Africa will look like. Delineating the triangular relationship, a case study is used as a model suggesting the Congo Basin Forest Partnership as a possible development project with promissing success for all participating actors. The final substantive part provides a collection of lessons learned from engaging in Trilateral Cooperations in general and warns for possible dangers and finally concludes with an analysis of the possiblitities of the developing partnership between Germany, China and the continent of Africa. 1.2 Research to date There are numerous publications on Trilateral Cooperations in general. A more globalized world tends to be open for more cooperation. For this reason many of the former bilateral cooperations are now extended to Trilateral Cooperations. Multilateral Cooperations in general are a common way of working together to solve common conflicts. Trilateral Development Cooperations between traditional donors, non-DAC countries and developing countries however are rather rarely researched (Harmer Cotterrell 2005: 4). More specifically, Trilateral Cooperations with China in Africa have only been researched in recent years by institutions such as the European Union (Commission of the European Communities 2008), Deutsche Institut fà ¼r Entwicklungspolitik (Altenburg Weikert 2006) and Department for International Development (Mehta Nanda 2005). Most of the research compiled for this thesis is therefore based on documents of these institutions. 1.3 Methodology The research for the thesis at hand was compiled during the course of an internship at the German Cooperation for Sustainable Development (GTZ)[5] in Beijing, China. The research was considered as part of the Sino-German Poverty Monitoring Evaluation Project, which was established to introduce a participative Poverty Monitoring and Evaluation System (from local to national level) to the Province Jiangxi. The project has recently been expanded to include the topic of â€Å"Trilateral Cooperations: Germany China in Africa†. The mandate of the intern entailed an analysis of the possibilities for Engagement in a Trilateral Cooperation between Germany and China to the benefit of a third African nation in the field of poverty reduction. For this purpose GTZ experts, project partners such as International Poverty Reduction Center in China (IPRCC) and the State Council Development-Oriented Poverty Alleviation Leading Group (LGOP) as well as consultants of the organisations broad network supported and advised the research. As a result, the thesis is mainly based on qualitative analysis, case studies and comparative analysis. In addition, the qualitative methods comprises literature review, policy and legal analysis. Historical as well as recent case studies are analysed for the purpose of presening lessons learned as an aid to future performance. Furthermore, the presented study reposes on one-on-one conversations with the GTZ (China, Indonesia, Germany), IPRCC experts, the German Embassy in South Africa and the China Agricultural University. There has been correspondance with the Bundesministerium fà ¼r wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung[6] (BMZ) as well as with the Deutsche Institut fà ¼r Entwicklungspo litik[7] (DIE). In addition various documents and relevant sources of information, as from the European Union, for example, have been evaluated. During the process of identifying relevant cooperation corridors for strategy-building and the development of new instruments for cooperation, the usage of sources has been a challenge. Some interview partners, exclusivly Chinese contributers, wish not to be cited and some studies, relevant for this thesis, are either not published or they are being kept confidental. The salient information which is free to be used can partly be found in the final chapter as well as in the use of ideas and data, the sources, of which must remain anonymously cited. 2 Trilateral Cooperations in Context 2.1 Defining Trilateral Cooperations Generally speaking, a Trilateral Cooperation is a three-sided joint operation for mutual benefit. In the context of this thesis, the term, ‘Trilateral Cooperations refers to a certain set-up of participants: one traditional donor, one new donor and one developing country. Among the different types of trilateral cooperations this analysis focuses on ‘Trilateral Development Cooperations.[8] According to DIE (Altenburg Weikert 2007), Trilateral Development Cooperations are considered as â€Å"cooperation projects which are jointly planned, financed and carried out by an established donor country which is already a member of the OECD[9]-DAC together with a cooperation country which, although itself a recipient of development cooperation and not (yet) a member of the DAC, is emerging as a new donor, and a third country as the recipient.† The DIE definition is of great importance for the Trilateral Cooperation Model, I will present in part 4 of this study as it points out the special composition of the trilateral cooperation. In this case Germany is the traditional donor, while China acts as the new doner and non-OECD and DAC-member and an African country as recipient. Another imporant aspect of a trilateral cooperation is given by the German Development Cooperation. It states that a Trilateral Cooperation is an innovative form of cooperation: â€Å"A mutual passin g on of lessons learned to technically and institutionally less advantaged third countries.[10]† There are, however, two essential features of Trilateral Cooperations: (1) the importance of South-South relations and (2) the type of capital transfer. (1) In contrast to traditional aid assistance governments of emerging countries are now asked to change their way of thinking. Trilateral Cooperations challenge them to change positions from having been an aid receiver in the past towards becoming a new donor. In other words, money from industrialized countries is transferred on an institutional level to the developing country, where it will be implemented through technical assistance. Therefore South-South relations are of great importance in this matter. (2) Trilateral development cooperation offers new means of funding, as the established donor and the cooperation country organize the know-how-transfer to the third country jointly. 2.2 Preconditions for Trilateral Cooperations To maximize the opportunities for the success of Trilateral Cooperations, it is necessary to set up specific preconditions and ensure that they are met in order to prove that an effective or cooperative work is feasible. Altenburg Weikert (2007) note that common interests are not yet a sufficient condition for Trilateral Development Cooperation and give four elementary requirements, which, from their point of view, need to be fulfilled before entering the triangular cooperation: Increasing alignment with good donor practices, co-financing by the cooperation country, efficiency, and donor coordination. Although the aforementioned requirements can be seen as some sort of core preconditions, there are still other crucial factors that need to be considered. (Altenburg Weikert 2007: 3) Firstly, the right timing, for a successful undertaking is imperative.[11] For all participating actors of the TC, the necessity to enter the cooperation needs to be apparent. The right timing needs to be considered in this context also because there might be countries willing to enter the tripartite operation but are, time wise, either not ready or simply not able to be part of a certain project. Political strategy plays a major role in finding the right timing to engage in a Trilateral Development Cooperation. Secondly, readiness of actors is indispensable for a trilateral dialogue and a cooperation implementation. There are two major considerations concerning this precondition, which might even seem too obvious. (1) The actors need to be ready to engage in both trilateral dialogue and cooperation. Within the past years there has been much discussion between potential cooperation countries but not one single trilateral dialogue has let to the commencement of a sound trilateral cooperation. Thus, the readiness for dialogue but not for the actual cooperation, has been given. This observation has only been made in reference to TC with the anchor country China. (2) The motive one participant holds behind the decision to enter the trilateral dialogue[12] and cooperation is of no greater importance as long as the motives will not interfere with the implementation of the Cooperation. The motives need to be dynamic and resilient. However, the motives of all three parties may but do not have to be identical (Grimm 2008). Thirdly, there is a necessity of one common denominator even if it might be the smallest one. The interface of interest among the three participant countries is a central condition for a successful TC. Furthermore, it would be beneficial to identify potentials of the tripartite dialogue and determine possible limitations. It will be of great advantage to harmonize diverse efforts of implementation into forming a Trilateral Development Cooperation.[13] Fourthly, the importance of political support needs to be verified . Trilateral Development Projects are dependent on the support on the respective governments. Yet, not only policy-makers need to be involved in the cooperation process, but necessary committees and panels have to be considered in the process as well. Agreements, such as the Paris Declaration[14] should also be discussed and applied. Fifthly, transparency should be practised, so that communication is made easy, corruption can be avoided and fair play is guaranteed. 2.3 Potentials and Limits of Trilateral Cooperations â€Å"Trilateral cooperation can be an effective way of bringing appropriate intermediate technology and ‘appropriate policy to developing countries.†[15] The link between proper know-how and adquate policy constitutes the cooperative advantage that Trilateral Cooperations offer as opposed to previous bilateral assistance programs. In the past, consulting services put forth by established donors have, as seen in many cases, not used the suitable type of technical assistance or the services offered may have not been appropriate to the recipient countrys needs. Moreover, donor countries coming to a ‘developing country with their own type of technical expertise can create problems for the recipient country as there can be confusion and duplicity. As a result, the efficiency of the aid put in place remains questionable. These problems can be avoided by implementing a Trilateral Cooperation, by which an emerging country has been in the position of the recipient country itself and will be most likely be able to assist in a proper way. (Altenburg Weikert 2006: 3) Another advantage is that aid is tied to the donor countrys provision of goods and services. On an average, a developing country expert costs one-third of the cost of developed country experts at prevalent international rates.[16] However, if the expertise is carried out by anchor countries as well as by developed countries, the costs will be shared and generally less money will be invested. In this case Trilateral Development Cooperation can be a cost-effective way of promoting development cooperation. Another issue related to tied aid, as argued in Mehta Nanda (2005), is that when the donors tie up with local (donors home country) technical assistance providers, there is a possibility that monitoring by the donors may get relaxed as they are likely to develop alliances. A third country provider of technical assistance is far less likely to develop such a relationship with a donor and hence monitoring is likely to be more rigorous. Hence, triangular cooperations may bring more accountability in the implementation of development programs. With the involvement of a third country technical assistance provider, it is likely that more information will be made public and will thereby increase overall transparency in aid administration thereby creating a positive impact on global Governance. With a transparent aid administration system, the impact of politics on aid would be far less †¦.(source!) Limits of Trilateral Cooperations Trilateralisation of development cooperations may dilute previous political support base and thus lessen the interest of the domestic constituency in overseas aid. They might also question the accountability in the aid administration when the stakeholders from the donor country are not involved. This would lead to a decrease of commitment in donor countries for development cooperation. However, this can be countered by a type of Trilateral Development Cooperation, in which Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) from developing countries with high credibility can be involved in developed countries in appraising the stakeholders there about the utility of the aid that they are providing to the developing countries (Metha Nanda 2005: 2) It may also not always be easy for one developing country to accept technical assistance for capacity building from another developing country. There are political problems even among several developing countries that might thwart the process. Another risk factor Mehta and Nanda state in 2005 is that there may be an unwillingness in sections of policy makers and other important stakeholders to accept ‘intermediate technology or ‘intermediate policy who may be in favour of leap-frogging The lure of trips to rich countries among sections of bureaucracy and the political establishment may also sabotage the process of trilateral development cooperation. LDCs very often do not find the idea of visiting another developing country for training or experience-sharing exciting enough. Even the fringe benefits of visiting a rich country are much higher for them. 2.4 The Beginning of Trilateral Cooperations within German Development Aid Germanys Development Aid Institutions are not singularly structured as they are in other European countries. Several Institutions such as KfW, DED, InWEnt and GTZ all function as German representatives in the field of development politics and provide assistance in developing countries. This might lead to different perceptions on what constitutes German Development assistance and which one represents the leading Development Aid institution.[17] According to Tomecko (2008), GTZ[18] stated a prospective turnover of a little over â‚ ¬1.1 billion per annum and operate through 92 offices that serve 120 countries with about 12,000 employees working in 2,700 projects in the year 2008. About 25% of the mentioned turnover is currently in Asia. A wide geographic presence, access to development cooperation officials and the diversity GTZ projects, the organization is able to provide an infrastructure for Trilateral Cooperations. On a global scale 14 operational trilateral projects are in place, so Temecko (2008); partners are namely (1) South Africa with Ethiopia, D.R. Congo, Lesotho, India on governance and technology, (2) Brazil with 10 countries in Latin America and Africa mainly in the area of AIDS, (3) Mexico with Guatemala, Ecuador and Dom. Republic on issues related to the environment, (4) Chile with several Latin American countries where we have a special fund for trilateral, (5) Indonesia with Timor Leste on national parks development, (6) China, with Chile, Vietnam and India mainly in the area of economic policy dialogue. There are four major issues Trilateral Cooperations established through GTZ projects revolving around: Joint missions, the combined use and exchanges of experts, job training as well as education and fellowships and study visits development, micro-finance, SME promotion and health. Financed are all projects by the parent ministry, the German Federal Ministry for Development and Economic Cooperation (BMZ) by providing additional budgets for activities like enhancing trilateral cooperation projects. 2.5 Lessons learned: Germanys previous Trilateral Cooperations The topic of Trilateral Cooperations is not new, the idea of Joint Development Initiatives in Germany dates back to 1974. (Souce) The demonstrated form of Cooperation has been implemented within Germanys Development Cooperation with different levels of success. Within this study the first Trilateral Development Cooperation, under Egon Bahr, will be discussed intensively as it is the first Trilateral Cooperations in Germany and provides a range of lessons learned for further triangular engagement. In addition, two further Trilateral cooperation attempts are discussed to give a broader insight on what Cooperations have been put into practice and what can we learn from previous experiences. 2.5.1 The Failure of Germanys First Trilateral Cooperation under Egon Bahr „Im à ¶ffentlichen Bewußtsein lag Entwicklungshilfe, sobald davon à ¼berhaupt Notiz genommen wurde, ziemlich nah bei der christlichen Pflicht des Wohlhabenden, mitleidige Menschen in Not zu unterstà ¼tzen. [] Unser Interesse mußte stà ¤rker betont werden, das Interesse an kà ¼nftigen Mà ¤rkten, an Prà ¤vention sozialer Spannungen. Es nà ¼tzt uns, wenn andere etwas kaufen kà ¶nnen, sichert sogar Arbeitsplà ¤tze.â€Å"[19] (Bahr, 1996: 467) The political course of the German Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschanlands (SPD)-politician Egon Bahr was considered as pragmatic in nature.[20] His famous speech in front of the Evangelical Academy Tutzingen in 1963 holds the title „Wandel durch Annà ¤herungâ€Å" Change through convergence[21]. It soon became not only his motto but also the program for West German foreign policy[22]. His concept of „change through convergenceâ€Å" was closely connected to the concept of „peaceful coexistanceâ€Å" and soon led him to, in his eyes, beneficial ideas of establishing trilateral cooperations. Bahrs idea was to bring together the oil money surplusses of the Arab States and the know-how of the industialized countries to engage together in development investments in developing countries.[23] In that, he saw two main advantages: (1) On a global scale the cooperation was supposed to put forth a release of the currency situation and (2) on a national scale the model was alleged to help ease the national finances of the Federal Republic of Germany.[24] The following calculation serves as an explanation for establishing a Trilateral Cooperation. According to UN criteria for the second period of development aid (1971-1980) 0,7% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) should be used for Official Development Assistance (ODA). In 1974 the Federal Republic of Germany had already established 0,36%. Due to the oil price taxation the oil-producing developing countries received additional money in form of yields which were financed by the Federal Republic of Germany through their oil purchases. Therefore the West German GDP increased by 1,7 %.[25] In recognizing an interplay between economic and development politics, Bahr tried with his model of Trilateral Cooperation to use the surplus of the oil countries to finance development aid in third nations which are non-oil-development countries. As an outcome for Germany he expected to add new jobs, which would lead to an increase in income as well as in demand. For the developing country he expected that the infusion of know-how and technical assistance would result in a catch-up industrialization with an escalating number of employees. This would have a positive influence on the economic status and would also result in an increase in demand. Brisk trade relationships and the surmounting of the economic crisis were supposed to be the outcomes of his model of trilateral cooperations. However, Nuscheler (2005) argues that some of Bahrs assumptions are weak and would thererfore hinder the Trilateral Cooperation model to succeed. First of all, Nuscheler states the assumption that all developing countries would undergo similar development as would industrialized countries, also known as the catch-up industrialization.[26] Due to geomorphological and climatic preconditions, which are completely different than in western countries, a catch-up industrialization would be rather unlikely. Bahr saw the agricultural sector as the most important one for a country, because it has been of great importance for Germany. Conversely, for most developing countries, the agricultural sector was not the key, since the population rate by far outweighs the provision of food, even if all available fields would be in use. Secondly, Nuscheler questions the assumption that better integration of the developing countries into the world market would stimulate a demand in developing countries as seen in industrialized countries. With the exception of the raw material sector, such demand would not come about in the development countries, Nuscheler (2005) points out. His explanation is that the developing countries have different structures of supply and demand, which is set according to their respective needs. The third and last assumption of Bahrs Trilateral Cooperation Model, Nuscheler critisizes, is that economic growth will have a positive effect on all parts of the population of a developing country. All three arguments, Nuscheler states, can be seen as reason for failure of Bahrs model of the Trilateral Cooperation and can be summarized as errors of the concept „development through growthâ€Å" (Nuscheler 2005: 78). In his Trilateral Cooperation model, Bahr also used elements of the „basic need strategyâ€Å", which maintains that life is a fundamental need and therefore that development politics should take into consideration that education as well as health-care etc. should be provided for all parts of the population. (Bahr 96: 479). That might be one of the reasons why Bahr drew attention of German development politics to the poorest countries of Africa. Egon Bahr tested his Trilateral Cooperation model for the first time in 1975 in South Sudan. German companies were supposed to build with money from Saudi Arabian streets and habours in the largest Afrian country, but Bahrs ambitions were undermined by the Arabs. The Arabs demanded as a countermove from Germany that they will be part of the boycott against Israel and that Germany will exclude those firms from the Sudan-trade, who are in any trade relationship with Tel Aviv.[27] This and German Development Politics under Egon Bahr with the tendency to „more selfishness, less charityâ€Å" has been one of several diffuculties leading to the breakdown of Bah