Space Defining Elements And Space Defined Cultural Studies Essay

Space Defining Elements And Space Defined Cultural Studies Essay Definition from Oxford dictionary: the dimensions of height, depth, and width within which all things exist and move. Space is a three-dimensional place where objects and people exist and move and where events take place. In psychology, space is defined as the recognition of objects appearance and how its perceived. In architecture, space is a special form of free space which the architect creates by giving it form, shape and scale. Space is prime material is the designers palette and an essential element in interior design (Ching D. K. 1943, page 10). The function of space is first defined in two dimensions, breadth and width, but the manipulation of space bring out the third dimension, the height, giving the opportunity for the inhabitants to develop yet further dimensions. In reality, architects dont make or create a space, they just cut off a part of the continuum and design recognizable sub-spaces. Each space has special function and represents a special entity expressing the relationship between humans and things besides creating architectural boundaries. Space is a fundamental element in architecture, since architecture is about spatial creation and depends on the disposition of space and form relating to human behavior. [Dimensions Charles Moore page 7] Museums are special buildings designed around a set of characterizing attributes. The main concerns in designing a museum are its interiors and spatial organization. The kind of interior space differs according to the function of the building. Interior spaces in museums are expressive in many ways, not only because they provide information but also because they reflect different concepts. So, space can be seen as a medium of communication and interpretation in museums. It can provide a division in zones, each with its own activities and uses. This paper is mainly concerned with the importance and effect of space in public places, mainly in museums. The relationship between space defined and space defining elements as well as the relationship between objects and the observers are studied. Relationship between space defining elements and space defined: Space itself has no definition or meaning unless visual objects or elements are placed inside it, establishing a relationship between space and the elements and between the elements themselves. Narrowing it down to architectural scale, the main elements defining a space are walls, roofs, floors, coloumns and beams. Interior design considers a deeper definition of space concerned with its layout, furnishing and planning. In design philosophies, the space and form are always regarded as the negative and positive, where the solid is the elements filling the big void, which is the space. Architecture can be considered as a creative expression of the coexistence of space and form on a human scale but its understanding together with all other concepts, is rooted in psychological space of our thoughts.(Tom Porter, 1997: page 26). The display layout depends on some main configurational properties such as control, connectivity and integration, as well as some spatial qualities like hierarchy, symmetry and perspective. Different combinations of these properties result in three different spatial-display relationship strategies: objects enhancing space, space enhancing objects and fully autonomous independent space-display relation. In the first setting, the qualities of the objects are used and exploited to emphasize the qualities of architectural space instead of bringing out the qualities of the exhibits themselves. In the second setting, the architectural space maximizes the impact of the objects while keeping the space in the background. Curators might emphasize certain exhibits by displaying them in high hierarchy areas. These galleries are privileged with respect to others by being directly accessible, visible from far distances and have many connections to and entrances from other parts of the building. To conclude, the link between design choices and display goes far beyond the visual and aesthetic aspects. The spatial aspects and the proximity of spaces combined with the exhibited objects in a certain layout form a correspondence relationship. This helps the observer to identify the relation between the exhibited objects and become a part of their history. Relationship between observers and space: People perceive the interior and exterior spaces in a sensual way, involving movements. Movement can be described as a transition between spaces and different spatial impressions. Each movement in space causes a variety of experiences to the visitor which affect their senses. This causes a huge number of stimulations inside the human brain resulting in different responses and feelings. For example, being in a theme park gives a different response as being in a cathedral. Nature as well as man-made environments are rich in spatial diversity. Wherever you go, you experience different types of spaces. Unlimited spaces could be experienced standing on tall buildings, on high grounds or from vantage points. You can also experience partially defined spaces while moving in canyons or through streets and totally enclosed spaces from inside caves or windowless rooms like elevators. The movement from one type of space to another, such as from restricted to a more free space or vice versa, makes the experience more impressive. Psychologically, the volume taken by ones body is related to the ones perception of the space. Animals and humans share similarities in that each creature has his personal space bubble of a certain size, which fluctuates according to the psychological spatial relation. For example, the size of this personal bubble grows in small spaces like elevators and oppositely diminishes in enormous spaces such as cathedrals and auditoriums. That mea ns that humans feel their body larger in small spaces. In museums, space is of huge importance, since users dont only read the information on the exhibits and look at them, they also take in the space and become a part of it. The experience of the visitor is more inclusive, unlike reading the information in a book or in the internet, which is spatially unequal. Space is formed by the relationship between the observers and the elements defining the space. In order to enhance the observers experience in taking in the exhibits, space must be interactive. This means that there should be a physical response from the visitors or receivers. Visitors can be guided by the designs of the space to move in a particular way. Observers can be guided by the designs to an exploratory movement in the space, where they are introduced to an unknown environment with prominent and strange surroundings where the architecture of the space is a foreground element. People move more slowly and whisper. On the other hand, visitors can be guided to a more habitual movement, where the architecture is a hardly noticeable background and people move without awareness of the surroundings, only thinking of their goal. The Psychology behind designing a museum space: The architectural design of a museum can be very difficult and varies with the purpose of the building. The exhibits of the museum must be preserved and yet visible and exposable for the visitors. When designing a museum space, one must understand the psychology of the visitors in crowded rooms. For example, it has been proved that people prefer making right turns than left turns as well as sitting or standing at the edges of a room instead of in the middle feeling more secure and giving themselves the chance to observe others without being observed and without their privacy being endangered. In a museum, the objects must be arranges so as to encourage exploratory movement of the visitors. The structure of space and organization of exhibits should work together to enhance local exploration and decrease the speed of movement of the visitors and slow down the rhythm of perception in order to make them take in all the information conveyed by the displayed objects. For example, a statue placed in the far distance and displayed from the back encourages the visitor to come closer and move around it to fully explore it. What defines a museum space is the existence of two types of spatial organization: the visit-able sequence as well as the gathering space which observers repeatedly visit during the tour. These two types of spaces help create two kinds of interfaces: the informational and the social dimension. The former (informational) is due to the arrangements of the exhibits inside the museum as determined by the curators, while the latter (social) is between the visitors themselves. There are different geometrical layouts for museums which help us to draw a fundamental difference between museums, some give choice of routes, others give a choice of galleries. The former layouts give the visitor the freedom to choose the route from one part of the building to another which creates a probabilistic distribution of visitors, causing less crowding in central gathering spaces. The latter layouts give the visitors only a restricted choice between chambers or galleries and drives him / her back to the overall defined route. In some cases the geometrical layout of a museum causes conflicts between the social and informational functions. This is especially the case when the layout separates the galleries for informational reasons, cutting off the social functions. In other cases, enhancement of the informational function strengthens the social function as well. This happens when the geometrical structure enforces proximity of the visiting areas and galleries. In this case, the randomness of encounter is maximized, causing social interaction. These geometrical layout strategies suggest that visitors dont only experience the objects (informational) and other people (social), another critical dimension is introduced, which is the experience of space itself. While designing a museum space, we should consider the different patterns of exhibitions such as object-based exhibitions, demonstration-type exhibition and topical exhibitions. Object-based exhibitions concentrates on the exhibited object itself, its background and its social, cultural, historical and religious values. Demonstration-type exhibition is used to demonstrate the existence of non-visible natural phenomena such as heat, electricity, light, sound and wind. Topical exhibitions on the other hand use movies, scripts, articles, collages and stage performances to tell stories and present whole pictures about a certain field. To conclude, a museums space should be designed to be informative, interactive and enforce the discovery and exploration spirit of the visitor. A museums architecture must connect, sense, move, show and site. Not only must a museums design encourage the visitor to learn and discover, but it must also must teleport the observer into another world. Besides, a museums space must be easily accessible and should allow for many public functions including workshops, informative lectures and social events. Case study of two different museums: Griffith observatory (LA USA) vs. Alexandria Museum (Alexandria Egypt) Alexandria Museum Alexandria National Museum is located in an Italian style palace in downtown Alexandria on the main street of Alexandria (Tariq el Hurreya). The building was first built in 1928 and owned by one of the wealthiest wood merchants in Alexandria. It was turned into a museum in 2003. Nowadays, it contains more than 1800 artifacts, revealing the history of Alexandria. The historical building consists of 3 stories, each floor exhibits a different era of the Egyptian history starting from the oldest in the ground floor and exhibiting more modern pieces as the visitors move upstairs. While the ground floor is concerned with the Pharaonic era, the 1st floor exhibits Greco Roman antiques and the 2nd floor demonstrates the more modern Coptic and Islamic eras. The museum is considered as one of the most important in Egypt. The museum is considered an object-based exhibition, where the observer enjoys walking around the objects and focusing on them, understanding their history and the era where they come from. The building consists of a central gathering space, from which the visitors can decide which exhibition room to enter first on the same floor. Its layout can be considered a partly guiding layout, since the visitors are forced to move from the older eras in the lower floor to the more modern eras upstairs in a sequential way. However, it still gives the observer the freedom to choose which gallery to visit first on the same floor when standing in the central area. The interior design of the museum separates each era by exhibiting it in a different floor, but connects the objects from each era together by displaying them on the same floor in adjacent galleries. This partly guiding layout minimizes the control that the layout enforces on the visitors and increases the randomness in the movement, which causes exploratory behaviour of the observer. However, the layout may cause the visitor to miss some of the objects and the fact that the central area is entered every time the visitor go es from one gallery to another may cause local crowding.

Causes of the Civil War Essay

There were several reasons the Civil War began. The north and the south had completely different views on some very important subjects.The north believed that slavery was not needed, but the south had needed slavery in order to harvest the crops. Also, new territories were being settled. Lastly, Abraham Lincoln was elected president. The areas of the United States had different economies. In the North, the economy was based on factories and wages. Everyday people worked in the factories. The South had large plantations, which grew cotton. The plantation owners needed the slaves to pick the cotton. They didn’t receive wages, but they were provided food and shelter. In the Midwest, wheat was the number one cash crop. It was harvested by a machine, so they didn’t need as many workers or slaves. These different economies caused divisions in the United States. Also, new territories were being settled. The South wanted the new territories to be admitted to the Union as slave states. This was to prevent the slaves from escaping into free territories. The North wanted the new territories to be free. Some people thought the new territories should have the right to vote whether they wanted to be free or slave. This is called State’s Rights. An agreement was reached called the Compromise of 1850, which lasted for three years. In this compromise, fugitive slaves were ordered to return to their owners. The abolitionists thought that they shouldn’t have to follow that law. Next, Abraham Lincoln said that slavery should be abolished. He was elected president and South Carolina immediately seceded from the Union. Then, six more states joined South Carolina and formed the Confederate States of America (CSA). The South felt that Lincoln would abolish slavery and take away their economy or their way of life. They also felt that each state had the right to vote on any law. More people died in the Civil War than any other war. The reasons for the Civil War were different economies, state’s rights to vote on laws, and the election of Abraham Lincoln as president.

How to Essay Topics for College Students: No Longer a Mystery

How to Essay Topics for College Students: No Longer a Mystery Don't forget, the point of the essays is to demonstrate the admissions officers something they can't garner from the remainder of your application. The main aim of topic choice for a proposal essay is to demonstrate the idea can be put into place in practice. When you choose a topic, you have to react to the query and after that substantiate your response with three or more motivations as to why you think like that. Besides general knowledge you have regarding the subject, you won't mind dedicating some opportunity to research, writing procedure, and other facets essential for the high-quality essay. Technology can be challenging to comprehend, particularly if you use too many terms which may be unfamiliar to your audience. Colleges want to find a feeling of maturity and introspectionpinpoint the transformation and demonstrate your private growth. They want to get to know more about you. The Basic Facts of How to E ssay Topics for College Students An argumentative essay requires you to choose a topic and have a position on it. You need to be very careful when choosing an essay topic. Select an intriguing essay topic, and you'll begin enjoying it. Whether you're looking for good narrative essay topics or aren't certain how to decide on the most appropriate one from the list of good descriptive essay topics, make sure to assess our topics' selection as we guarantee you will definitely find something to fulfill your requirements. So you don't actually need to come across a topic! Try out another topic and do the identical 5-minute writing test till you locate a topic you know you can readily write on. Selecting a writing topic can be stressful regardless of what subject you're writing over. Deciding on the most suitable essay topic can occasionally be rather tricky. A Startling Fact about How to Essay Topics for College Students Uncovered The option of compare and contrast essay topics isn't a simple task because you must clearly show your analytical skills. To compose a fantastic argumentative essay the students first must investigate several sides of the argument, allowing them to make an educated stance. Ultimately, it's important to pick topics that one feels comfortable to write on so you can do justice to them. The essay topics are categorized in various groups only for the ease of readers. There are many essay types, and at times the topic itself is as crucial as the form of the essay you're a ssigned. Thanks to the correct option of presentation style and a thorough understanding of the goals you wish to attain in your essay, there are plenty of categories essay themes may be broken into. It isn't so simple to compose a how-to essay. In this kind of situation, it's more convenient to locate ready-made essays and use them as an example. The standard of your topic will decide on the grading of the paper. If you are a newcomer to writing informative essays or simply struggle when it has to do with thinking of informative essay topics, then there's an excellent chance you may be searching for some help. There are various topics that one may use in writing process essays. How to Essay Topics for College Students Fundamentals Explained To compose a strong argumentative essay, students should start by familiarizing themselves with a number of the common, and frequently conflicting, positions on the research topic so they can write an educated paper. To compose an outstanding essay, it's important to use specific academic language. It's therefore important to thoroughly consider different college essay topics. Most the topics employed for writing process essays are associated with academics. Informative essays are somewhat more descriptive. If you haven't been extended a prompt to write about, you must produce your own interesting creative essays. Argumentative essay topics are so important since they are debatableand it's important to at all times be critically considering the world around us. Moral argumentative essay topics are a few of the simplest to get carried away with. Students lead busy lives and frequently forget about an approaching deadline. Parents should speak to kids about drugs at a youthful age. Teens should be asked to take parenting classes. They should be able to choose their bedtime. Understanding How to Essay Topics for College Students At the close of the day, the essay topics you select can make a big effect on your final grade. Occasionally it only looks simple, but plenty of students forget about the kind of academic writing they have to stick with. 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The Womb A Marxist Analysis Of Surrogate Motherhood

Commodification of the Womb: A Marxist Analysis of Surrogate Motherhood In the context of classical Marxism, the moral permissibility of surrogate motherhood is forcefully negated. Marxism condemns the practice of surrogacy as an exemplification of commodity fetishism in capitalist society, viewing surrogacy arrangements as a commercialization of the female womb. The term, â€Å"commodification of the womb,† thus arises to describe the process by which services carried out by the female womb are sold and purchased on the market. Through such transactions, the surrogate’s body and the infant it produces are transformed from subjects to objects that have both exchange value and use value in their commodified state. The Marxist criminalization of commercial surrogacy originates from the class divisions produced when the reproductive labors of poor women are exploited by wealthy couples. Because the parties within a surrogacy contract often are not autonomous equals and hold distinct relationships to the means of production, female surrogates unintentionally reinforce class divisions through their participation in womb commodification. However, there are also cases in which surrogates are not drawn from lower economic strata, so the possibility of their labor being â€Å"forced† by economic circumstances is attenuated. These include instances of altruistic surrogacy, in which the surrogate is motivated by a desire apart from monetary need, such as a wish to bestow a gift upon the

The Dependence On Fossil Fuels - 1859 Words

Title Since the invention of the car over a century ago, people have become highly dependent on fossil fuels. Over the past few decades it has become clear that this dependence has been having disastrous effects on the environment, our health, our economy, and our future. Not only that, but fossil fuels are a finite supply and once they are depleted, there is no getting more. If we are to continue to thrive as a society, it is imperative that we reduce our dependence on non-renewable fossil-fuels, and move towards renewable energy sources such as electricity, biofuels, and hydrogen. Fossil fuels have been used to power our vehicles since the invention of the car in the late 19th century. And with more people driving cars over the years, the total consumption of oil has increased dramatically. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States used 8.8 million barrels of gasoline (368 million gallons) a day for transportation in 2014 (Energy Information Administration). This is an alarming rate, considering the world only has so much oil. The EIA has predicted that the world has enough oil to carry the industries that rely on it through 2040 (Energy Information Administration). Beyond that, it is uncertain if we will have enough oil, not only for transportation, but also for the thousands of other industries that depend on it as their primary source of energy. Besides going scarce, another issue with relying on fossil fuels for energy isShow MoreRelatedAmericas Dependence On Fossil Fuels1307 Words   |  6 PagesThe main social issue that we would like to address is America’s dependence on fossil fuels and the possibility of switching to environmentally friendly energy sources. Energy is the key conflict factor during our era. 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Yet, we still have those who deny any scientific evidence of the effect of the dependence on fossil fuels. Climate change is a threat one should not ignore but want to reverse with the trans ition from fossil fuels to clean energy. An issue, which one should consider

Country Analysis †Myanmar Free Essays

Myanmar is a resource-rich country and also known as the Asian rice bowl suffers from pervasive government controls, inefficient economic policies, corruption, and rural poverty. The economy suffers from serious macroeconomic imbalances including unpredictable inflation, fiscal deficits, multiple official exchange rates that overvalue the Burmese kyat, and unreliable statistics. In trade activity, Myanmar’s main imports are fabric petroleum products and crude oil, fertilizers, plastics, machinery, transport equipment food products and also construction materials. We will write a custom essay sample on Country Analysis – Myanmar or any similar topic only for you Order Now The major exports of Myanmar are natural gas, wood products, pulses and beans, fish, rice, clothing and jade and gems. On July 2012, the population in Myanmar is said to be 54,584650 people. Several considerations were made in counting and estimating the population including the effects of excess mortality due to AIDS. This can result in lower life expectancy, higher infant mortality, higher death rates, lower population growth rates, and changes in the distribution of population by age and sex than would otherwise be expected. Most people live in the 40,000-odd villages of the country, while the majority of the urban population resides in the capital city of Rangoon. Among the population engaged in agriculture, 37 percent of the people do not have any land or livestock. Poverty and misery have increased in the past 3 decades. It is estimated in the CIA World Factbook that in1997 23 percent of the Burmese population had incomes that placed them below the poverty line. PRICE STABILITY Inflation is the general increase in the level of price. Each and every country’s government has their own targets for the inflation rate in order to achieve price stability. It is impossible for a certain country to achieve zero level of inflation so an average of 2%-3% inflation is already good enough. The main indicator of price stability is the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures the degree of change in price as a whole. Figure 1. 0 The Percentage of Inflation in Myanmar Figure 1. 0 shows the graph of the inflation rate of Myanmar from 2007 to 2011. The year before 2007 shows a very high level of inflation in Myanmar which is around 35%. During that time, Myanmar’s economy is at the peak level. The export of Myanmar at that time was at the highest. The increase in the exports of rice and agricultural product caused demand pull inflation. This is because export is one of the components of the aggregate demand (AD). The high export rate causes the income of the local citizen becomes higher. A high income results in the increase in consumption. The increase in export and consumption which both are the component of AD causes demand pull inflation. To get a clearer view, refer to the graph below. In the contemporary, both of this component is also injection in the economy and causes the injection to become more than leakage. This creates a multiplier effect thus expands Myanmar’s economy. Figure 1. 1 Demand-pull Inflation In the year 2007, the basic commodity prices rose from 30 to 60 percent. At this particular time, the workers demand for more wages. The cost of production will increase thus shifting the short run aggregate supply (SRAS) to the left. This causes cost push inflation to the economy of Myanmar. But instead showing the increase in inflation level, the graph shows a slight inclination in the inflation rate. This is because the government implemented a contractionary policy to Myanmar’s economy. To the worst, the Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar and this causes a negative growth of inflation to happen at a very high rate. Due to the disaster that happened, the government spending had to be focused on the welfare of the estimated 2. 4 million homeless victims. The money that should be invested on other things had been used for the recovery from the disaster. Meanwhile, Myanmar kept on exporting the rice in order to gain more profit without considering the number of seed that is reduced due to the destruction caused by the cyclone. This causes the production of rice and other agricultural product to be reduced in a great amount due to the disaster that happened. Besides, the length of production factor also will result on a huge shortage of food supply. This unknowingly converts Myanmar from a net rice exporter to importer. The higher amount of import than the export and added with the decrease in investment, also the government spending causes a shift in the AD to the left and results a decrease in the rate of inflation at a dramatic rate. Figure 1. 2 The year 2009-2011shows an increasing trend of inflation in Myanmar. This is when Myanmar enters the recovery phase of its economy. Probably during this phase Myanmar had already recovered from the cyclone and starts to increase their economic activity. More people will get employed and the consumption will increase. At the same time the government also spends a lot to bring back the economy of their country. This will shift the AD to the right thus increasing back the inflation rate. Figure 1. 3 FULL EMPLOYMENT Full employment means that every person in the labor force gets employed. It has become a significant objective for a country because it is closely related to the efficiency in resource allocation and also in achieving non-accelerating inflationary rate of unemployment (NAIRU). Both efficiency in resource allocation and the NAIRU are important to achieve a stable economy. Figure 2. 0 The Unemployment Rate in Myanmar The unemployment rate of Myanmar peaked at the year 2008. This is probably because the Nargis cyclone that hit Myanmar during that year causes death and destruction. The destruction also includes the farms and fields where most of Myanmar citizen works. This is called seasonal unemployment. Furthermore, during the financial crisis, the lack of import demand from other country causes many shutting down of shops and factories such as clothing factories, gemstone polishing and carving workshops, rubber factories and also the magazine and the publishing house. As a result, during that period of time, crimes such as theft and prostitution rate were seemed starting to rise. From 2008-2011, the rate of unemployment shows a decreasing trend. This is probably because of the agricultural sector that already recovered after the disaster that happened had opened a lot of job opportunities. In addition, an economic reform also had been made and training programs also were conducted such as the market opening policy. This increases the availability for the people in the labor force to get employed. The long run aggregate supply (LRAS) curve will shift to the right due to the changes in the government policy and also the education and training that have been made. Figure2. 1 Shift of Long-run Aggregate Supply In Myanmar, the participation of woman in the work force is still low and does not show any significant change in the labor participation which is majority participated by males. This is due to the trend in Myanmar where only male works while the female stays at home. ECONOMIC GROWTH Reviewing back to the economic problem, wants are unlimited but resources are scares. The objective of the economy is to solve this problem. So, economic growth is very important in order to satisfy more wants. Of course, there are several special consideration placed on the economic growth. One of them is the limitation of usage of resources for the future generation to use. Figure 3. 0 Myanmar GDP by-year Chart Overall, the economic growth of Myanmar on 2007-2011 shows an increasing trend. The year 2007-2008 shows the drop in economic growth and afterwards, the years after that show recovery. The world economy crisis that happened in the year 2008 really gave a huge impact on Myanmar economy because Myanmar is highly dependent on trading activities. The GDP of Myanmar that decreases to 1. 2% was not only caused by the economic crisis but also because of the Nargis cyclone that hit Myanmar in middle 2008. The â€Å"Lehman shock† that happened which causes a huge bankruptcy at Japan which is one of the main importer from Myanmar in the same year really affected the GDP of Myanmar. This results a decrease in economic growth of Myanmar due to the decreased size of natural resources caused by the Nargis cyclone, the uncontrolled inflation rate which is also relatively high in 2008 and also the political condition that was not so stable at that particular time. However, Myanmar shows an increased economic growth trend the year afterwards which is from 1. 2% to 5. 6%. This is because the export in Myanmar increases during these years. Due to some political tension, Korea increased their import share towards Myanmar and it became the third largest importer after Japan and Germany. As a result the combined export share for Korea and Japan reached 51. 5% and this trend seems to have become stronger in 2010. For the next year, it kept on growing on a steady rate due to no serious problem occurred. EXTERNAL BALANCE An economy that practices import and export is known as the open economic system. This means there are money going out and also coming in into a certain country. External balance means a balance between money inflow and outflow resulting from a country’s transactions with the rest of the world. It is a record of a country’s transaction in goods, services and assets with the rest of the world. There are three components of external balance which are the current account deficit as a percentage of GDP, net foreign debt as a percentage of GDP and the exchange rate. It is one of the macroeconomic objectives and its target is to achieve enough inflow from foreign country to buy imports and also being able to meet its financial obligation to other country. Current account deficit as a percentage of GDP. The current account measures the inflows and outflows of a country. It is divided to two categories which are the current flows and also the capital flows. The current flow consist of the export and the receipts of income payment as the inflow and the import and the income paid to overseas as the outflow. For the capital flows, the inflow is the foreign investment and the borrowing. The outflows are loan repayment and investment made overseas. Figure 4. 0 Current Account Balance in Myanmar The figure above shows the current account balance of Myanmar as a percentage of GDP. Over the years, it shows a decreasing trend from 2007-2011. However in 2009, it shows a sharp increase until 2010 and it falls back. It is certainly not highly affected by the export and import because referring to the graph below (graph 4. 1 and 4. 2) there is not much difference in the export and imports around these five years. The low value of the current account balance is due to Myanmar’s spending to meet its debt from other country. Graph 4. 3 shows the amount of Myanmar’s debt with other foreign country. Figure 4. 1 Exports of Myanmar Figure 4. 2 Imports of Myanmar Figure 4. 3 External Debt of Myanmar Exchange rate The value of a certain currency indicates how well a certain country is able to manage the financial inflow and outflow. A stable exchange rate indicates that the economy of a country is healthy and promotes investor to see that the country’s production is a worthwhile investment. The factors affecting the currency are highly related to the supply and demand for the currency. Figure 4. 4 The Graph of Supply and Demand for Currency In Myanmar, of course fluctuations of the Burmese Kyat (BK) happen from time to time. The exchange rate for BK is the price or value of one BK expressed in terms of foreign currency. The figure below shows the fluctuating BK throughout the five years period. Figure 4. 5 Myanmar Official Exchange Rate per US($) Over the five years the exchange rate of Myanmar shows a decreasing trend. A great depreciate if BK in the year 2007-2008 is due to the high inflation rate. The increase of the commodity prices decreases Myanmar’s export. Being a country that is very dependent on trading business, the decrease in the demand for Myanmar’s currency causes the AD shifts at a great amount to the left thus depreciating the currency. The depreciating of the currency will probably cause the current account deficit (CAD) of Myanmar to worsen. On the contemporary, the unemployment gap will also become bigger indicating the increasing in the unemployment rate. Figure 4. 5 In the year 2008-2009, Myanmar’s currency shows appreciation. This is due to the rate of inflation in Myanmar that is relatively low at the particular time. The low inflation means the price of local product is cheaper. The cheaper local product will make the local product price to be internationally competitive thus increases the export. The increase in demand for Myanmar’s currency will shift the AD to the right thus appreciate Myanmar’s exchange rate. People will also starting to get employed as the unemployment gap has become smaller. The CAD will expected to improve. Prospect Based on all analysis done, I estimated that Myanmar economic growth would continue growing if the government is very aware and carefully observing the fluctuating rate of inflation. The government must know the right time to implement whether a cotractionary or expansionary policy at the right time. For the full employment, it is the responsibility of the government to distribute and if necessary provide training for the population in order to achieve the full employment target. New rules and regulation and also policy must be implemented so that hard core unemployment, frictional unemployment, hidden unemployment and all other types of unemployment could be reduced. The economic growth of Myanmar is now in quite good position. However, it is unpredictable for something unwanted to happen such as global recession, increase in commodity price and natural disaster. So, economist and the government must take a serious consideration on planning a preparation for the economy to face unwanted situations to happen. For the exchange rate, it is better for Myanmar to maintain the value of Burmese kyat than trying to appreciate or depreciate it due to certain circumstances such as a cold diplomatic relationship with other countries and the unstable political condition inside the country itself. If any action is taken it is worried that a riot or the hampering of foreign investment from other country would happen. However, Myanmar should broaden their vision and observing how other country’s economy works. This is in order for Myanmar to improve its economy and foster a harmonious relationship with other countries abroad. If this could be achieved and be done, it is not impossible for Myanmar to leap up to the first rank in the world for the most high income country but with a low rate of inflation. Conclusion To wrap up, it is quite hard to say whether Myanmar have achieved or not achieved even any of the macroeconomics objectives. Although the economic growth and price stability keeps on fluctuating due to unwanted and also uncontrollable events, Myanmar still manage to overcome the problem or crisis even though still consumes a huge amount of time. How to cite Country Analysis – Myanmar, Papers

Fashion Buying free essay sample

Introduction This assignment compares and contrasts the roles, responsibilities and issues faced by UK based retail buyers when purchasing branded versus own branded fashion goods. It draws on examples from retailers, trade press and academic sources. Fashion retailers are an important sector of the fashion industry, and are the link between fashion products and consumers. These retailers have power over the industry and are able to set trends. Over the past few years, retail own-labels have been leading the fashion industry. This has increased the power and important of the fashion buyer’s role.An understanding of the fashion environment – suppliers, wholesales, designers, marketers – is crucial for fashion buyers. Branded and Own-branded According to the American Marketing Association, the definition of a brand is: â€Å"A name, term, design, symbol, or any other feature that identifies one seller’s good or service as distinct from those of other sellers. A brand may identify one item, a family of items, or all items of that seller. We will write a custom essay sample on Fashion Buying or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page † (Marketing Power, 2011) Own-labels or own-brands refer to the products/services manufactured and sold under the retailer’s brand name. These are sold exclusively at the retail organisation’s outlets. These brands are very powerful and are more commonly known than manufacturer brands. Manufacturer brands refer to products/services that are given a brand name by the company that produces it. However, this is usually not the case in the fashion industry, as many retailers source suppliers and manufacturers from low cost countries (such as, in the Far East) to manufacture the goods for them. For example, Nike does not manufacture a majority of its products. The company has switched from being a manufacturing to a marketing company that focuses on the marketing of its brand.If the buyer is purchasing own-brand goods, the brand name and the retailer will be the same. Fashion Buying Cycle A definition of the ‘fashion buying cycle’ is: ‘the key events and processes in which the fashion buyer is involved in order to buy a garment range in for a retailer or mail order company’ (Goworek, 2007:17) The main processes involved in the fashion buying cycle are outlined below, including how the processes differ for buyers of branded products and buyers of own-branded products: * Review of seasons sales – both buyer will review the seasons sales to determine the popularity of each item. This will assist in determining the most preferred fabrics, styles, etc. * Budget planning both buyers will plan a budget on the expenditure of the range. * Comparative directional shopping – both buyers will conduct comparative shopping to evaluate what the competitors are offering. They both will conduct directional shopping to gain insight on the trends and styles of the season. * Fabric sourcing – the own-branded buyer will be involved in this process.