Financial Planning Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 10250 words

Financial Planning - Coursework Example I was able to base my financial plan on this. Also I learnt to incorporate various influential factors into my financial plan. On the overall, the chapter provides a framework for financial planning. The first chapter provides the method to derive the goal and the path to achieve the goal. This chapter provides the means of achieving such goal. In other words, it provides us with information on some of the basic tools required such as maintenance of financial records, computation of net worth, preparation of cash flow statement, using financial ratios, and understanding time value of money. The chapter lists out the benefits and various aspects of organizing the documents and records. The issues to be thought about are how long to save a document and how to save it. The purpose of safekeeping devices like safe deposit box or lock box should be understood before investing in one of them. The two financial statements important for an individual are Balance Sheet and Cash Flow Statement. The Balance Sheet reveals the financial position of the individual and the Cash Flow Statement summarizes the cash inflows and outflows. Worksheets 1 and 7 provide the template for preparation of these two statements. Financial ratios such as the debt ratio and the savings ratio give a precise idea of your achievement. It informs you if your debts are well within the limits of the assets you own and the savings ratio keep your savings on track. Time Value of Money is essential to assess one's financial success. A common man thinks that he has earned well on his investment without considering when he is going to get the returns. Understanding the concept of time value of money becomes essential to know if the returns to be earned over a period of time are actually sufficient. Chapter 3: This chapter deals with identifying one's short term and long term financial goals, evaluating one's own abilities and interest in establishing a career plan, understanding and implementing a household budget, and monitoring and controlling expenses. The chapter first provides the precise steps required to establish a set of goals. It is important to list the goals on paper rather than just think about it. The step regarding breaking bigger goals into smaller goals was a good tip. While thinking in the long run, everything looks very vague, whereas in the short run, we are able to think precisely. In the short run, we will be able to execute our long term plan. Career planning, though not directly linked to financial planning, is the very source of the finance that we need to plan for. The chapter gives a detailed explanation on career planning. Through the chapter I was able to learn the real value of my career, which is the present value of it and not just what I am going to earn in the near future. There are also useful websites that give

Unemployment and Government Intervention Strategies Research Paper

Unemployment and Government Intervention Strategies - Research Paper Example Unemployment and Government Intervention Strategies The report reveals that unemployment rate rose to 8.4 %. This is the highest unemployment rate captured since the year 1996. The report further indicates that the statistics of citizens without employment hit a record of 2.67 million in the period between November and January. This increase by 28,000 unemployment numbers was recorded in October in 2011. Moreover, this report shows that unemployment figures in the year 2011 was higher by 148,000 as compared to the year 2010. There were also noticeable differences in unemployment figures between men and women. The number of jobless men was 1.54 between November and January. That of women without employment was 1.13 million in the three months period. According to the Office of National Statistics, the number of people claiming Jobseekers Allowance in December 2011 hit a 1.6 million. This number marked an increment of 1,200 from the unemployment Data collected in October. The report asserts that the number of young people aged 16-24 and seeking employment increased to a new record of 1.043 million. With greater numbers of employees, lay-offs in the banks, public sector, and private sector the unemployment situation in UK may aggravate. This is a matter of urgency concern and the governments in UK should take sound interventions to curb it. Persistently, high unemployment creates huge costs for individuals and the economy of a nation as a whole. Some of costs are difficulty to value and measure, especially the long-term social costs. The economy as a whole suffers because national product falls as a direct consequence of the inability of the market to equalize the marginal products of equally productive labor. Unemployment presents a waste in national scarce resource. The economic output could be higher if the unemployed are at work. It leads to poverty for those people without an employment. Therefore, unemployment is an indicator of nation’s poor economic performance (McEachem, 2011). Unemployment has both private and social cost. To start with, it is a source of stress and ill health to many people. Without a stable income, individuals cannot afford basic health care. This means that an individual cannot get better medical treatment. This results to lower life expectances. Individuals die either out of disease complication or out of incapability to afford proper diet. Second, unemployment destabilizes the living standards of individual. Jobless individuals cannot cater for the basic needs of their families. Inability to provide for the family may lead to homelessness, misunderstanding, divorce, and indebtedness (McEachem, 2011). Third, joblessness leads to loss of skills necessary for individual development. Individuals who stay away from work environment do not have an opportunity to hone their skills to respond to the current labor demand. The prowesses of unemployed individuals lose applicability due to changing trends in the labor market (Kitson, 2010). This in turn can lead to skepticism and pessimism about the true meaning and value of education. This can change individuals to have a narrow focus on education and training. It therefore means that an individual will be less willing to invest in the education system of a nation. The quality of education will dwindle robbing the count ry its potential human resource. Fourth, the

Human Resource Case Study Essay Example for Free

Human Resource Case Study Essay 1. I think his request is reasonable. Nancy should have the time to address Mark’s request to develop an appropriate structure to deal with the growth of both companies. She will be able to present the possible strategies to overcome a shortage of employees. As well, she can discuss reasons why Family Distribution has experienced such a drastic fallout of staff over the past two years. Another topic she should have time to research are the complaints about the hiring practices at Family Manufacturing, whether they have genuine merit, and if so, what can be done to correct the situation. She should also be able to address the concerns of the vice president’s of both companies. . 2. I would not recommend one comprehensive plan for both companies because they are both experiencing different challenges that require separate action plans. Family Medical Distribution is making far less profit than it did at its peak in 1989 and has had to evolve into a specialty distributor of high end supplies just to stay afloat. Family Medical Manufacturing, on the other hand, is continuously exceeding its growth and profit projections yearly. They have the potential to grow the company even further but do not currently have the human resources to do so. . 3. Sam is a person who has been with the company for quite a long time. He has served in various positions and moved his way up the ranks, so he would have a good understanding about how the business is run. I think that Nancy should befriend him to understand his point of view and unique insights on how the company has evolved over time. . I think that Sam understands that a plan needs to be implemented to turn the company around. He has spent time and resources trying to evaluate his marketing department, sales, and operations. He’s even expressed that the staff need to work â€Å"smarter† not â€Å"harder†, but has given no specific direction on what could be done to make this a reality. His skepticism towards the value of HR seems to be based on the results of a department that has been running without a manager for the past 13 months. Even though the HR associate, Claire Jackson, has done a great job trying to keep things afloat, she simply does not have the time or expertise to run the entire department by herself. His judgment of the results is fair in the sense that HR is not particularly useful in its current incarnation, but he doesnt seem to have the insight to understand how much it could accomplish if it were running smoothly with competent leadership. . Nancy should explain to Sam that the best way to make the company more efficient and to work â€Å"smarter† is by appreciating how important a structured, secure working environment is to people. In order to make the company more profitable, she needs to convince him that the most important thing to do right now is to sort out how best to utilize people to achieve quality performance while at the same time promoting a business plan that will encourage growth. . 4. One glaring challenge is that there are four past complaints about hiring practices. Trust among the employees for the hiring process has been diminished, and the damage has already been done. Even though Mark Olsen seems to understand the importance of a strategic HR program, he has made some critical mistakes and shown a lapse in judgment in three ways. . Firstly, he has shown a bias in hiring people from his former employer in all cases of formal complaints made against the company. It is doubtful that the interview and selection process for these positions was done in a fair, unbiased manner. . Secondly, he has ignored the resources he already had at his disposal by hiring employees externally. In all formal complaints the employees had the education and training do the job they were applying for. Most people want a sense of purpose and accomplishment from their careers, and ignoring that basic desire will only create discontent among the workforce. . Finally, he disregarded and disrespected the entire hiring process by promising a position to someone before the opening had even been posted. In my opinion, this type of favoritism is one of the fastest ways to demoralize people. . At the upcoming meeting for Nancy’s presentation of her human resource plans, she needs to address these mistakes and explain to Mark how important it is to follow procedure, respect the hiring process, and moreover to respect his own employees. . 2. When Nancy present’s her plan, she needs to explain the different challenges that both companies are dealing with. There are pressures and opportunities to be found in both cases. Family Medical Distribution is a well respected company but has undergone significant downsizing due to government cutbacks. The opportunity here is to create an efficient supplementary business that will complement its manufacturing counterpart. Family Medical Manufacturing has plenty of room to grow, but not enough qualified personnel to help develop its upcoming products. . Next, she should state what goals of the company are to get clear about where they want to be in a five year time frame and what it will take to get there. Mark has said that his goal is to enter the home nursing market, so the plan needs to account for what needs to be done to achieve this goal from a HR perspective. . I think the most important issue that both companies need help with is in utilizing the talents and skills of their workforce in a way that compliments the needs of both divisions. The best solution is to consider both companies as one working unit from a HR standpoint. The deficiencies in staffing at Manufacturing could feasibly be satisfied by transferring the appropriate staff from Distribution. This would be an elegant way of taking care of the staffing needs of both companies while at the same time improving employee relations with upper management, an important first step in regaining a sense of trust and security. Nancy should also suggest that some of the money and employee benefits invested in Manufacturing’s new facility be put into effect at Distribution’s plant. It’s important to show genuine equality to employees and this would help to impart the understanding that both businesses are important for continued success.

Broken Windows Theory Analysis

Broken Windows Theory Analysis Assessing the theory of Broken Windows Wicked people exist. Nothing avails except to set them apart from innocent peopleWe have trifled with the wicked, made sport of the innocent, and encouraged the calculators. Justice suffers, and so do we all James Wilson The basic idea for the Broken Windows theory is that any kind of urban blight – a broken window, graffitied walls, rubbish on the streets, etc. – does no harm to a neighbourhood if it is immediately remedied. However, if left untended, it signifies a lack of care in the community, the kind of environment in which it is acceptable for residents to relinquish any notions of concern. And while the initial damage and disrepair is physical, the next stage is psychological. That is, if it becomes acceptable for people to litter and vandalise at will, why not walk around drunk, or beg for money, or mug others for it? Why not even kill for it? Why follow any kind of rules at all? In sum, the Broken Windows theory postulates that the smallest symptoms can lead to the greatest crimes. This paper will examine the effectiveness of this idea. The Broken Windows theory first became widely known in 1982, when James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling published an article in the Atlantic Monthly called Broken Windows: The Police and Neighborhood Safety. The article articulated the reasons why minor neighbourhood slights should not be ignored: A piece of property is abandoned, weeds grow up, a window is smashed. Adults stop scolding rowdy children; the children, emboldened, become more rowdy. Families move out, unattached adults move in. Teenagers gather in front of the corner store. The merchant asks them to move; they refuse. Fights occur. Litter accumulates. People start drinking in front of the grocery; in time, an inebriate slumps to the sidewalk and is allowed to sleep it off. Pedestrians are approached by panhandlers (Wilson and Kelling, 1982). On the surface, this idea, that small acts of antisocial behaviour can act as catalysts for others, and that a broken window sends a signal to criminals that it okay to break the law, seems perfectly reasonable and logical. The notion that once people begin disregarding the norms that keep order in a community, both order and community unravel, even follows the concept of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics (systems naturally progress from a state of order to disorder). And almost from its inception, the idea took hold. While the Wilson/Kelling article did the most to publicise the theory, there were some precedents, namely Philip Zimbardos 1969 experiment, in which he left two identical 1959 Oldsmobiles in different neighbourhoods, one near the Bronx campus of New York University and one near the Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, California. The license plates of both cars were removed and the hoods opened to provide the necessary releaser signals (Zimbardo, 1969). In the Bronx, within ten minutes, the car was vandalised, and by the end of the day was stripped bare. In Palo Alto, the car remained untouched for a week, until Zimbardo himself broke one of its windows with a sledgehammer, at which point others joined in. Within a few hours, the car was completely destroyed. (Gladwell, 1996). Zimbardos focus was on the psychological aspects of authority and anonymity, and his experiment aimed to understand what factors and to what extent human behaviour was governed by environmental and physiological stimuli, a process known as deindividuation: a series of antecedent social conditions lead to a change in perception of self and others, and thereby to a lowered threshold of normally restrained behavior (Zimbardo, 1969). Wilson and Kellings article, however, was more prescriptive, and was focused on applying the Broken Windows theory to law enforcement procedures. And it is in this way that politicians and police have regarded the theory over the past twenty-five years, paving the way for a slate of reforms aimed at promoting deterrence through arrests, imprisonment and harsh sentencing, with a heavy reliance on the criminal justice system to impart severe and swift penalties (Conklin, 1992). Within the article, the authors discuss the historical function of police work, which they describe as maintaining public order: From the earliest days of the nation, the police function was seen primarily as that of a night watchman: to maintain order against the chief threats to order – fire, wild animals, and disreputable behavior. Solving crimes was viewed not as a police responsibility but as a private one (Wilson and Kelling, 1982). However, this eventually changed, and detective work (solving crimes) took on a greater role, a shift that the authors feel should be reversed: A great deal was accomplished during this transition, as both police chiefs and outside experts emphasized the crime-fighting function in their plans, in the allocation of resources, and in deployment of personnel. The police may well have become better crime-fighters as a result. And doubtless they remained aware of their responsibility for order. But the link between order-maintenance and crime-prevention, so obvious to earlier generations, was forgotten (ibid). Another criticism felled by Wilson and Kelling was the lack of community policing, or the beat officer on foot, patrolling the neighbourhood. Instead, there had been a steady shift towards keeping the officers in their squad cards, in which case they were isolated, removed from the people of the neighbourhood and the life on the street, whereas what foot-patrol officers did was to elevate, to the extent that they could, the level of public order in these neighborhoods (ibid). In short, the officer on foot was not only more accessible, and thus a part of the community; he was better able to understand it and serve it. The majority of the theory, however, has to do with a new focus on smaller crimes – beggars, drunks, teenagers, litter, etc. – rather than big ones. These so-called gateway crimes are where the real offenses take root; eliminate these, and the major crimes will be stopped before they have a chance to foster and spread: The citizen who fears the ill-smelling drunk, the rowdy teenager, or the importuning beggar is not merely expressing his distaste for unseemly behavior; he is also giving voice to a bit of folk wisdom that happens to be a correct generalization – namely that serious street crime flourishes in areas in which disorderly behavior goes unchecked. The unchecked panhandler is, in effect, the first broken window (ibid). But does the theory work? As of yet, there has been no scientific evidence proving it does. Even Wilson himself a few years ago admitted: People have not understood that this was a speculation (Hurley, 2004). It should be noted that on the very first page of the Atlantic Monthly article, where the authors were giving a history of community policing in Newark, NJ, they mentioned a study by the Police Foundation that discovered that while foot patrol had not reduced crime rates, residents seemed to feel more secure than persons in other areas (Wilson and Kelling, 1982). On the surface, this seems pretty straightforward – because foot patrols did not lead to a drop in crime rates, they didnt do anything to make neighbourhoods safer. However, Wilson and Kelling use the residents testimony to argue that, in fact, the community is safer, because disorder itself is something to be feared: We understand what most often frightens people in public places. Many citizens, of course, are primarily frightened by crime, especially crime involving a sudden, violent attack by a stranger. This risk is very real, in Newark as in many large cities. But we tend to overlook another source of fearthe fear of being bothered by disorderly people (ibid). This is all very well and good, that people appreciate not having to deal with aggressive and disorderly people. But how then is safety being measured, if not by crime rates? The authors certainly arent implying that it can be measured by residents feelings of safety? Regardless, the rest of the article makes no mention of this issue, and concentrates primarily on perceived dangers (how to curb a communitys fears of being bothered by disorderly persons), rather than actual ones (curbing crime rates themselves). The theory had its first test in the early 90s, when the Mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, implemented his own version of it to target the citys high crime rate. This didnt happen simply by chance; George Kelling was a senior fellow of the Manhattan Institute, and was one of Giulianis advisors (DePalma, 2002). The term that was used to describe the new initiative was the no tolerance policy. This phrase, along with another that soon followed (quality of life), acted as the cornerstones for Giulianis mayorship. He aimed to aggressively target even minor infractions (no tolerance) in order to clean up the city and make New York a safe place to live (improved quality of life). Police were given powers that they never before had, and were encouraged to hand out tickets and arrests for anything and everything. For the cops, Chief of Police William Bratton commented, they were a bonanza. Every arrest was like opening a box of Cracker Jacks. What kind of toy am I going to get? Got a gun? Got a knife? Got a warrant? Do we have a murderer here? Each cop wanted to be the one who came up with the big collar. It was exhilarating for the cops and demoralizing for the crooks (Bratton, 1998). In addition to the usual list of offenders – drunks, panhandlers, juvenile delinquents – were added jaywalkers and squeegee men, those homeless men and women who aggressively and without asking would clean a cars windshield while the driver was stuck in traffic, and then demand payment. The effect of the new procedures was instant and irrevocable: crime dropped to its lowest figures in four decades, and stayed there. At the present moment, New York City is the safest big city in America. However, whether this decline can solely or even partially be attributed to Broken Windows is up for debate. At the same time the police were implementing harsh no tolerance crackdowns, the crack cocaine market bottomed out, which resulted in less drug deals, fewer addicts on the street and a reduction in violent turf wars, all of which at one time were responsible for numerous muggings and murders (Harcourt, 2002). In addition, over the same time period, there were dramatic improvement s in emergency response capabilities and medical care, which ended up saving the lives of countless people who previously would have died (Lizza, 2002). There were also important changes at the New York Police department during this time that could have explained the drop in crime, including a significant increase in the number of police officers. In 1992, Giulianis predecessor, David Dinkins, hired over two thousand new officers under the Safe Streets, Safe City project, and Giuliani himself hired another four thousand, and merged another six thousand Transit and Housing Authority officers into the ranks of the New York Police Department (Harcourt, 2002). Because of this, the department increased from 26,856 in 1991 to 39,779 in 2000, giving New York the largest police force in the country, with the highest ratio of officers to civilians of any major city (U.S. Department of Justice, 1992). Another argument against the success of Broken Windows is that the 1990s were generally a boom time. The stock market, employment and wages were all at record highs throughout the United States, and crime rates are usually more prevalent when times are hard. For example, crime fell in many large cities – San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston, Boston and others – at exactly the same time, and in some cases in an even more dramatic fashion: One study found that New York Citys drop in homicides, though impressive, is neither unparalleled nor unprecedented. Houstons drop in homicides of 59 percent between 1991 and 1996 outpaced New York Citys 51 percent decline over the same period. Another study looked at the rates of decline in homicides in the seventeen largest U.S. cities from 1976 to 1998 and found that New York Citys recent decline, though above average, was the fifth largest, behind San Diego, Washington, D.C., St. Louis, and Houston (Joanes, 1999). And many of these cities did not implement the kind of order-maintenance procedures that New York did. For example, the San Diego police department instilled a model based on community-police relations. Their strategy was one of sharing the responsibility of identifying and solving crimes with neighbourhood residents. Because of this, San Diego not saw a marked decrease in crime, but experienced a 15 percent drop in arrests, and an 8 percent drop in complaints of police misconduct (Greene, 1999). In addition, San Francisco made community involvement a priority, and felony incarcerations dropped from 2,136 in 1993 to 703 in 1998, and rape, robbery, aggravated assault and total violent crime decreased more than the rate in New York over the same period (Khaled and Macallair, 2002). Other cities, including Los Angeles, Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio, also experienced significant decreases in crime without adopting as coherent a policing strategy as New York or San Diego. The fact is that there was a remarkable drop in crime in many major cities in the United States during the 1990s, many of which used a variety of different strategies. To attribute New Yorks declining crime rates to merely their implementation of more aggressive initiatives is overly simplistic. However, New Yorks success got the most publicity, and much of the country wanted to learn from Giuliani and to implement their own no tolerance policies. And its popularity in the U.S. was only matched by its appeal abroad. In 1998, representatives from over 150 police departments from around the world visited New York to learn about order-maintenance policing, and in 2000, another 235 police departments, the vast majority from overseas, followed suit (Gootman, 2000). However, even if the Broken Windows theory is correct, it has still never been fully explained as to how it works. It could be argued that those who choose to commit crimes, denied the signals they would normally receive from low-grade disorder, move on to different locales. But where do they go? And if such places existed, couldnt they implement their own Broken Windows initiatives? One possible answer comes from writer and social theorist Malcolm Gladwell, who suggests that crime actually does increase or decrease much like an epidemic, and at certain thresholds will turn, rather than rise and fall in a typical linear fashion (Gladwell, 1996). Wilson and Kelling for their part fail to talk much about the specifics by which public disorder turns into crime. They simply say it does, as do most of the theorys supporters. However, some seem to have taken the idea to illogical extremes, such as a Lancaster, Pennsylvania reporter commenting on the citys new quality of life initiatives: If you put a couch out in a backyard, somebody could get raped on that couch (Van Nguyan, 2001). Bernard Harcourt, who has written extensively on the issue, believes that the aggressive prosecution of disorderly behaviour has had little effect on crime rates dropping. His argument is that the increased number of arrests, searchers, surveillance, and police officers on the streets has had the fairly straightforward effect of bringing more small offenses to light, and that no provable connection has ever made between disorder and crime (Harcourt, 2002). His worry is that this sets a dangerous precedent, and that the unfounded power of the police will only lead to more drastic action against less drastic offenses, especially minorities: Incidents like the NYPDs alleged torture of a Haitian naturally reinforce minority citizens distrust of the police. This mistrust has been boosted of late by numerous television videotapes showing police officers beating up unresisting citizens. In most cases, the cops were white and those on the receiving end of their clubs were black or Latino (McNamara, 1997). However, this is exactly in line with what Wilson and Kelling argue for, this bygone era of policing: The police in this earlier period assisted in that reassertion of authority by acting, sometimes violently, on behalf of the community. Young toughs were roughed up, people were arrested on suspicion or for vagrancy, and prostitutes and petty thieves were routed. Rights were something enjoyed by decent folk, and perhaps also by the serious professional criminal, who avoided violence and could afford a lawyer (Wilson and Kelling, 1982). Kelling himself spent some time accompanying an officer (Kelly) on his beat, the experience of which again illustrates a strange tolerance for lawlessness on the part of the police: Sometimes what Kelly did could be described as enforcing the law, but just as often it involved taking informal or extralegal steps to help protect what the neighborhood had decided was the appropriate level of public order. Some of the things he did probably would not withstand a legal challenge (ibid). After all, what can extralegal possibly mean other than illegal? It seems odd that this is the sort of behaviour the authors advocate, one in which officers are allowed to take the law into their own hands, but anyone who commits even the smallest of trespasses – jaywalking, littering, urinating in public – needs to be several punished. It certainly doesnt put much faith in the fairness of the model. And, in fact, the Broken Windows model is far from fair. One of its constant critiques is that the kinds of offenses it targets are primarily those carried out by the poor. There is no mention of embezzlement, crooked accountants, insurance scams, loan sharks or slumlords, crimes typical of the wealthy. And these offenses, certainly, can have just as detrimental effect on a community as a host of unsightly behaviours, if not more so. The broken windows metaphor is interesting in that it is actually up to landlords to fix real-life broken windows, while it is often those who are not in a position to do so, the community, who are held responsible for the damage. Aside from more people being arrested and subsequently incarcerated, the theory doesnt actually do much to aid a neighbourhood. If the aim is improved public order, couldnt that be achieved with homeless shelters, urban renewal projects and social workers? (Harcourt, 2002). In many ways, the philosophy behind it is almost out of sight, out of mind. And, in fact, this seems to be the view expressed by Kelling and his wife Catherine Coles in Fixing Broken Windows, a book-length exploration of the policing strategies first advocated in 1982: Kelling and Coles take a tough-minded view of who the street denizens we frequently label the homeless really are and what they are doing, sidestepping the politically constructed images of claimants like the homeless that little resemble the aggressive, conniving, often drug-crazed schemers that Kelling and Coles see populating the streets (Skogan, 1997). Skogan, in fact, is so skeptical of the motives of the poor that he cannot even use the word homeless without quotation marks, as if they all have houses somewhere. The problem with this kind of thinking is that it leads to a dangerous two worlds model, where people are either decent and respectable or disingenuous and no good. And, naturally, all the problems in neighbourhoods arise from the actions of the latter. This kind of precedent was set down by Wilson as far back as 1968: The teenager hanging out on a street corner late at night, especially one dressed in an eccentric manner, a Negro wearing a conk rag (a piece of cloth tied around the head to hold flat hair being processed – that is, straightened), girls in short skirts and boys in long hair parked in a flashy car talking loudly to friends on the curb, or interracial couples – all of these are seen by many police officers as persons displaying unconventional and improper behavior (Wilson, 1968). If the police are allowed to restore public order according to their own beliefs and judgments, what is to stop them from carrying out whatever action they deem necessary against the unconventional and improper, including using extralegal measures? Unfortunately, cultural hegemony is nothing new, and many neighbourhoods have enforced rules that govern the actions and abodes of its residents. In every community there is a house that doesnt conform to the aesthetic principles of the rest, a lawn that is never tended or strewn with toys or trash, a derelict car that doesnt meet environmental standards, all of which raise resident ire. But should these things be dealt with under the Broken Windows theory? For example, the town of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, adopted Broken Windows measures in the late 90s, and in 2002, the local newspaper received this letter: This being almost mid-April, shouldnt homeowners have had sufficient time to remove their December holiday decorations? Icicle lights hung year round give the impression of a homeowner with an aversion to work and negatively impacts on neighborhoods (Kelly, 2002). While there are obvious differences between public drunks and icicle lights, in other cases the line is much finer, and the potential for abuse is obvious. Wilson and Kelling, for their part, are aware of the problem, and speak out against it: The concern about equity is more serious. We might agree that certain behavior makes one person more undesirable than another but how do we ensure that age or skin color or national origin or harmless mannerisms will not also become the basis for distinguishing the undesirable from the desirable? How do we ensure, in short, that the police do not become the agents of neighborhood bigotry? We can offer no wholly satisfactory answer to this important question. We are not confident that there is a satisfactory answer except to hope that by their selection, training, and supervision, the police will be inculcated with a clear sense of the outer limit of their discretionary authority. That limit, roughly, is this the police exist to help regulate behavior, not to maintain the racial or ethnic purity of a neighborhood (Wilson and Kelling, 1982). Unfortunately, their only solution is to again have the community put its faith in the integrity and judgment of the law enforcement officer, a notion that does little to quell the doubts of those who might be wrongly typecast as criminal because of their race, age or class. In such a subjective atmosphere, with so much at stake, it seems dubious to give one party the last word, or the ability to render judgment (especially if that party is the one with the gun). By taking the focus off the community, and putting it on the individual, a dangerous precedent is being set. However, not everyone agrees with this line of thinking. In fact, many people, including police officers, understand that the only way for Broken Windows or any other community enforcement project to succeed is by people working together: Without the full cooperation of the community, local government and the courts community policing will not work (police officer Daniel Jenkins, 2002). Unfortunately, the authors themselves dont focus too much on this notion of working together, and, if anything, since the Atlantic Monthly article, have gone even further to highlight the vast differences between people. For example, in 1985, Wilson co-authored with Richard Herrnstein a book called Crime and Human Nature, which describes the various traits by which to classify and identify criminals. The book deals not only with age, class and race but body types, painstakingly sorting and measuring these and other attributes into definable composites of law-abiders and law-breakers. The authors conclusions are fairly predictable, describing those prone to commit crimes as an: Unattached, young, most often racialized other. The youth or young adult, threatening, defiant, suspicious, often black, wearing distinctive designer-label clothes. Or the down-and-out street person in a dirty oversized coat. Or the squeegee man, the panhandler, the homeless person, the turnstile jumper, the public drunk (Harcourt, 2002). In stark opposition to this are the ideas of Felton Earls and his colleagues, who conducted a large-scale study of street crime in Chicago in 1997. The studys main focus was on collective efficacy, which was defined as social cohesion among neighbors and their willingness to intervene on behalf of the common good (Sampson, Raudenbush and Earls, 1997). The concept, according to the study, is the greatest predictor of street crime, and not Broken Windows or any form of disorder: Testing broken windows was not the point of the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, the study planned and conducted by Dr. Earls and colleagues to unravel the social, familial, educational and personal threads that weave together into lives of crime and violenceNonetheless the data gathered for it, with a precision rarely seen in social science, directly contradicted Dr. Wilsons notions (Hurley, 2004). Thus, the seemingly obvious and incontestable connection between crime and disorder may, in fact, not exist at all. Community presence and action may actually be what ultimately fells crime. According to Earls: Its not so much that broken glass or disarray in neighborhoods is the source or root of crime, its really in the social relationships that exist among neighbors, among people who work in neighborhoods, among services and so forth, that the social conditions are there to engage or not to engage citizens, neighbors in watching out for crime or crime-related activity in the neighborhoods (Earls, 2004). And in another no less extensive study two years later, Sampson and Raudenbush found that  disorder and predatory crime were moderately related, but that, when antecedent characteristics were added (such as poverty and neighbourhood trust), the connection between the two vanished in four out of five tests – including homicide, arguably our best measure of violence (Sampson and Raudenbush, 1999). In addition, they discovered that while disorder may have indirect effects on crime by influencing migration patterns, investment by businesses, and overall neighborhood viabilityattacking public order through tough police tactics was politically popular but an analytically weak strategy to reduce crime (ibid). In short, the central tenets of Broken Windows – that disorder leads to crime, and that said crimes are generally carried out by individuals belonging to a criminal class – are questionable. This is not to say that the entire theory is at fault; certainly the notion that a safe neighbourhood is one in which the residents feel secure enough to participate in its defense still holds water. In addition, Wilson and Kelling are correct in urging the community to work with police, and for police to become a part of the community. What they seem to have missed is that the focus of this kind of relationship should rest on there being a real and active presence in the community, and not on crime and disorder. One related irony is that, in the use of Broken Windows policing in New York, for all their effectiveness in cracking down on a wide range of antisocial behaviors, the New York City police never repaired a single broken window, fixed up a single house, or cleaned one vacant lot (Grogan and Proscio, 2000). Furthermore, because of the new aggressive tactics, the city experienced illegal strip searches, extensive sums lost to police misconduct charges, clogged courts and countless traumatic encounters for innocent, ordinary individuals (Harcourt, 2002). In addition, the implementation of a policy of arrest may have had unintended consequences: Someone arrested for turnstile jumping may be fired for missing work; and strained police-civilian relations can create friction between the community and the police force that may be detrimental to solving crimes (ibid). However, this has not stopped cities across the world from emulating Broken Windows procedures, or, for that matter, Giuliani and the Manhattan Institute from exporting their policing philosophies to places like Latin America (despite reservations that what worked in an economic boom in the U.S. may not do as well in extremely poor cities undergoing violent crime and corrupt police) (Village Voice, 2002). The truth of the matter is that Broken Windows is not applicable everywhere, and even within the theory itself there are vagaries, namely the categories of disorder and the disorderly. The concepts are not well-defined; while we identify certain acts as disorderly – panhandling, public drunkenness, litter, prostitution – others – police brutality, tax evasion, accounting fraud – we do not. In addition, the acts themselves are sometimes ambiguous. For example, while people loitering on a buildings front steps or the presence graffiti may signify that a community is disorderly, it is only if they are seen as such. In some neighbourhoods, people loitering may represent strong community bonds, and graffiti may be seen as an art form, or as political or social commentary. The darker truth about Broken Windows is that it attempts to enforce an aesthetically sterile and safe environment, in which one community looks like the next looks like the next. While no one can argue that panhandlers, prostitutes and homeless people, along with litter, dirt and broken windows themselves are not eyesores, their removal is not necessarily a sign of progress. And for those subject to countless and unnecessary searches, acts of intimidation, arrests, imprisonments and the like, it is anything but. Bibliography Bratton, William J. Turnaround: How Americas Top Cop Reversed the Crime Epidemic. New York: Random House, 1998. Conklin, John E. Criminology. New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1992. DePalma, Anthony. The Americas Court: a Group That Changed New York. The New York Times, Nov. 11, 2002. Felton, Earls. National Public Radio, Weekend Edition. Jan. 17, 2004. Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point. The New Yorker, June 3, 1996. Gootman, Elissa. A Police Departments Growing Allure: Crime Fighters From Around World Visit for Tips. The New York Times, Oct. 24, 2000. Greene, Judith A. Zero-Tolerance: A Case Study of Police Policies and Practices in New York City. Crime and Delinquency 45, 1999. Grogan, Paul, and Proscio, Tony. Comeback Cities: A Blueprint for Urban Neighborhood Revival. Boulder: Westview Press, 2000. Harcourt, Bernard. Policing Disorder: Can We Reduce Serious Crime by Punishing Petty Offenses? Boston Review, April/May, 2002. Hurley, Dan. Scientist at Work – Felton Earls: On Crime as Science (A Neighbor at a Time). The New York Times, Jan. 6, 2004. Jenkins, Daniel. Community Policing Problems: Most People Dont Want to Become Involved. The Sunday News, June 30, 2002. Joanes, Ana. Does the New York City Police Department Deserve Credit for the Decline in New York Citys Homicide Rates? A Cross-City Comparison of Policing Strategies and Homicide Rates. Columbia Journal of Law and Social Problems, 33, 1999. Kelling, George L. and Coles, Catherine M. Fixing Broken Windows. New York: The Free Press, 199

Brazil World Trade Essay example -- Brazil Economics Economy Essays

Brazil World Trade From the 1500’s to the 1930’s the Brazilian economy relied on the production of primary products for exports. For three centuries Brazil’s economy was heavily curbed because since Portugal discovered Brazil, they subjected it’s economy to an imperial mercantile policy or a strictly enforced colonial pact. Even though Brazil received its independence in 1822, Portugal’s phase of decisions left a lasting, powerful imprint on Brazil’s economy and society. In the late eighteenth century, when wage labor was adopted and slavery was eliminated considerable changes finally began to occur. Only starting in the 1930’s were the first steps taken to convert key structural changes by changing Brazil into a semi-industrialized, modern economy. The intensity of these transformations caused the growth rates of the economy to remain distinctively high and a diversified manufacturing base was instituted between 1950 and 1981. Substantial difficul ties such as slow growth and stagnation have plagued the economy since the early 1980’s, though it’s potential enabled itself to regain it’s large and quite diversified economy in the mid-1990s still with its share of problems. After World War II, Brazil’s inhabitants that resided in towns and cities grew from 31.3 percent to 75.5 percent. The 146.9 million inhabitants living in the cities by 1991 caused Brazil to have two of the world’s largest metropolitan centers in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. Despite the reduction of the share of the primary sector in the gross national product from 28 percent in 1947 to 11 percent in 1992, the agricultural sector remains important. It’s primitive and intensive, yet also modern and dynamic parts make Brazil of the largest... ... procedures, and contingent protection policies). Many different transactions are possible if a deal in the FTAA can be achieved for both Brazil and the United States. Cutting all tariffs is could be the basis of the deal, with some balance struck between US farm trade reforms and enhanced access to Latin American procurement and service markets. Regarding procurement, FTAA negotiators must be able to agree on principles that give transparency for guidelines for open tendering and for public tenders. Also, such guidelines must be complemented by a promise to negotiate within 5 years or so a list of entities whose purchases would be covered by these new obligations. The desired outcome would be a deal on a negative list that would cover all service under FTAA restrictions excluding ones explicitly written- hopefully these exceptions would be kept to a minimum.

sniper :: essays research papers

Quietly walking behind him in a dark alley, I could see him stalk a young schoolgirl. I didn't want my presence to be known. I could see him, fallowing her closely to her house. Right when she opened the front door of her house, he jumped towards her, and pushed her into the house, bolting the door behind him. My suspicions became clear. I knew what had to be done. I broke down the door, and grabbed a nearby coat hanger. (hehe) Scanning the room, I couldn't see anything strange. Making my way around the house, I could faintly hear a muffled scream from upstairs. I ran up, knocking down a vase on accident. (Freaking coat hanger) Breaking down another door (my foot started to hurt after this one) I could see him desperately trying to part her legs. I threw the coat hanger at him, hitting him right in the head. The impact threw him down to the floor, giving her a chance to get out of the room. It was just between us two now. He removed a knife from its sheath, and pointed it at me. I w asn't really ready for this, but I searched my pockets and I found a†¦ lighter. This is going great I thought to myself. He jumped at me, slicing me in the arm. My wound was bleeding very badly, and my arm began to numb. He jumped at me once again, but this time, I grabbed him by the arm and hit him at the elbow. His arm made a sharp cracking noise, and he screamed in pain. I kicked his knee, and another crack noise could be heard. At least now he won't be jumping at me anymore. I pinned him to the floor, and with a flick of my wrist, lighted the lighter. Pointing it towards his eye, I could see his eye slowly deplete its moisture, and in a few seconds, it was nothing more than a raisin. He struck at me again with his left arm, and hit me right below the eye. I fell back at the attack, and he was quickly on top of me, knife at my throat. I burned his other eye and he rolled back with his hand over his eye. I could already see that his eye was beginning to turn gray from the hea t. He threw the knife at me, and I kicked it away.

Case Study of Architect Abdul Harris Othman

THEORIES OF ARCHITECTURE AND URBANISMIntroductionAbdul Harris Othman was born in Pokok Sena, Kedah on 4th April 1957. He grew up in Jitra, Kedah and started to prosecute his survey in Australia in 1975 after he won the Colombo Plan Scholarship. He returned to Malaysia after 10 old ages to function the state. He has designated as Principal designer of KLCC and the designer of record for Petronas Twin towers in the twelvemonth of 1992. Armed with these experiences, he established his ain architectural pattern with the aim to supply first architectural and urban design services. Designed by Abdul Harris Othman, the Serendah House is located at the Serendah territory, Rawang in Malaysia. The house attempts to make a new genre for residential architecture that meets the modern modern-day demands of client but at the same clip presents the state heritage and individuality. This house has nominated for several awards globally such as the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for 2005-2007 rhythm and the ARCASIA Gold Medal Award 2003 This paper attempts to convey an apprehension of the architect’s architectural theory through the observation and analysis of Serendah Houe. Using this architecture as primary text, this undertaking is to analyse and analyze the Serendah House in relation to its relevant architectural theories, societal, cultural and rational context.AnalysisClimateThe Serendah House is located at the border of a golf class, next to a wood modesty. Situating in the thick of a wood hill, the design has a great potency in incorporating the climatic factors into its spacial and massing planning. First and first, the major infinites in the house such as the chief deck, life and dining country and the maestro sleeping room are designed confronting to west to capture the green position and the beauty of the Sun set. We have known that the long facade of a edifice facing to east and west will increase the heat addition of the house. However, the west side of the selected site is surrounded by abundant of trees. The designer used the advantage of the site to orientate most of the major infinites confronting west to border a romantic position to the house. Due to the ideal geographical contour, the trees surrounded besides act as the shading devices for infinites like maestro sleeping room, gallery and the chief deck. For the facade confronting east which is non covered by trees, the designer has minimized the gaps to cut down heat addition into the house. Despite the assistance of the bing trees, the design of the roof construction with deep roof eaves, wickets, louvres and operable folding door at the facade besides provide shade over Sun yet let indirect natural visible radiation to perforate the interior infinites. The living country, dining country, chief deck, gallery and maestro sleeping rooms are besides designed to be unfastened or with big gaps to catch the prevailing air current, therefore the house gets first-class airing. The house was designed around the natural contour and bing trees. Assortment of gaps, Windowss timber wickets, roof spreads and louvres that positioned to be confronting the prevailing zephyr provide maximal transverse airing while the hot air will be drawn upwards, to be dispelled through the air current tower. The suites in the house are stacked up non merely for the intent of stack consequence airing but besides to cut down the impact to the wood. Sometimes, the house will acquire excessively blowy at the hillside during dark clip as the chief infinites are confronting the optimal air current way. The encircled trees are happened to be the natural parka at this point. Besides, the designer has intelligently integrated the benefit of the site contour in be aftering the drainage of the house. The broad overhang eaves aid to cast the rain H2O and the deep angle roof directs the rain H2O to the margin without the usage of troughs into the wood, reduced the impact of building to the environing wood. The designer has designed a roof garden extension with a studio infinite below it for the house. The green roof is non merely a great chilling device for the studio below ; it is besides an attack in returning the green land to the nature.ClientThe client of the Serendah house influenced the design of the house physically and spiritually. The client, Nor Aliza Abu Bakar is an creative person with strong sensitiveness to her Malays tradition and Muslim roots, a modern yet dynamic concern adult female. To do this architecture more interesting is that the client besides happened to be the married woman of the designer. Both of them shared a batch of similarities that influenced the design of the house. The purpose of the design purpose is to make a separation between the â€Å"real universe † and the â€Å"illusion† . Harmonizing to the perceptual experience of the client, her ‘real world’ is her private universe and female parent nature whereby the ‘ill usion’ is mentioning to the mundane, public, work, pandemonium and day-to-day swot. In accomplishing the construct of the client, the entryway door, tower and walls at the signifier a symbolic and physical boundary between the two universes. The heavy mass entryway tower contrasts with the visible radiation and aired atmosphere inside, supplying a feeling of come ining the private kingdom for the client. The openness interior infinites that exposed to the beauty of the nature blurred the boundaries between interior and outside, so the client can be in touch with the nature peacefully, reminding her fugitive presence in this planet. In order to heighten the major infinites quality, the private infinites that ruling the private activities of the client such as maestro sleeping room and studio for the client are exposed to the juicy verdure positions. As the client is an creative person, she is able to work in her studio that surrounded by verdure position, as a manner to acquire inspiration. The privateness of the client is concerned while be aftering the layout of the house. Due to the topography contour which is at the border of a hill side confronting the jungle, the client can bask different beds of forest position while standing in different place in the house. The upper portion of the house offers a dramatic distant wood position and it is continuously cooled by the prevailing zephyr, picturing a restful atmosphere while the private infinites such as the maestro sleeping room and studio are positioned at the lower land exposed to the nearest wood positions, offering the closest existent nature image to the client. Therefore, the noise from the exterior, public and semi-private country of the house at the upper land floor degree ( entrance degree ) can be minimize to the lower limit through the well-designed spatial layout, meanwhile it meets the construct of ‘real world’ and ‘illusion’ by the separation of difficult and soft landscape, pub lic and private country. To complement the individuality of the client, the designer borrowed the infinites such as ‘serambi’ the gallery, ‘pangkin’ the raised platform and ‘para’ ventilated kitchen shelves from the traditional slang campong house into the Serendah House. The ground of making that is because the designer and client both have a common apprehension towards their civilization and background. Hence the design of the house must be relevant to their Malayans civilization yet run into their modern life style and needs as to supply the sense of belonging.TheoriesBased onThe Phenomenon of Place by Christian Noberg-Schulz, architecture should hold the ability to do the environment meaningful through the creative activity of specific topographic points. ( Norberg-Schulz, 1995 ) The Serendah House can be defined as a meaningful topographic point for the client as it is her escape path for her day-to-day hustle modus operandi. The designer has designed harmonizing t o the human experience alternatively of barely functional agreement of infinites. The client’s needs, her backgrounds and her thought have been taken into consideration in making a piece of architecture that belongs to her but non merely a conventional house. The ‘genius loci’ of the Serendah House introduced the spirit of a Malayan house that situated at the hill side exposed to the forest positions. The designer to the full utilized the advantage of site in making the religious topographic point for the client by unfastened up the position to the tropical alcoholic verdure, bring in the female parent nature into the house. One of the maestro jury fromGold Medal, ARCASIA Award 2003has explained that: â€Å"This house has a strong physical presence. But at the same clip it has blended harmoniously with the cragged nature of the site and surroundings†¦the sensitiveness towards different spacial elements are all manifested into a fantastic expression† The Serendah House enhances the spirit of nature scene, denotes a life to the hilly side by infixing the client’s experience into it. In order to make sense of topographic point for the client, the designer has meticulously positioning every infinites in the house based on the clime, societal and cultural context. The distant hills and verdure provide ocular pleasance while the zephyr gives alleviation from the energy salvaging run downing humidness of the metropolis. The silence of the wood is a great assistance for relaxation. The designer has successfully gives the infinite a specific character. When the client lives indoors, she will be able to orientate herself, and has individuality herself with the environment. The client is able to orientate herself, has individuality about how she is in the topographic point. As an creative person, the house is designed in such manner that allowed her to prosecute her ain ‘private’ universe closest to the Mother Nature. T he client herself stated that the house has a harmonious balance and trade with paradoxes. It is cosmopolitan yet personal, non intrusive and non overpowering. She is satisfied as the house met her demands both spiritually and functionally. Based on the Prospects for a Critical Regionalism by Kenneth Frampton, intercrossed universe civilization will merely came into being through a cross fertilisation between frozen civilization on the one manus and cosmopolitan civilisation on the other. ( Frampton, 1995 ) Therefore, in denoting a new genre of Malayan lodging architecture, Harris has blended the state heritage individuality into the design while accommodating the modern-day societal demands of a house. He believes that a good piece of architecture in this epoch should be able to talk a local yet cosmopolitan linguistic communication. For Serendah House, it deals with the paradoxes. From the transmutation of the stiff concreteness at the entryway tower to the interior dynamic infinites with openness program reveal the combination of the attacks of the designer in uniting the slang and modern architecture together. The usage of concrete construction for the tower and chief construction reveals the cosmopolitan linguistic communication for modern-day architectural stuffs while the lumber construction represents the tropical civilization scene of the house in Malaysia. Critical regionalism suggests the usage of local stuffs and craftmanship, and reactivity to visible radiation and and clime. In this instance, the designer has extensively used the local stuffs such as chengal lumber, ,resak lumber, belian lumber herpes zosters wood, and sand rock slate floors to showcase the presence of the house in response to the tropical scene. He has the designer has intelligently integrated the local stuffs with modern lodging architecture that response to climatic factors. The incursion of natural visible radiation and cross airing through the lumber wickets, lourves and turn uping door show the integrating of basic cardinal elements rule of the peculiar site in farther enhancing that the design is a site-specific architecture. The house is non intended to simply denote the slang ; it does combined interaction of clime, civilization and trade that express the critical regional individuality.Discussion and DecisionSerendah House has no uncertainty in stand fori ng its designing designer, Abdul Harris Othman. Overviewing from his childhood background, educational exposure and working experiences, the award winning Serendah House shows his architectural perceptual experience and theories towards architecture today. From the analysis of the external contributing above, the attacks of the designer in planing the Serendah House have been implemented exhaustively from climatic facet, the demands of clients, contextual and senses facets. It is decidedly a state house that represents the Malaysia context architecture yet non abandoning the cognition that he learned from the West about the modern architecture theory. The house might hold paradoxes in uniting the modern and common architecture. At the first glimpse, one might experience it looks excessively traditional or symbolical to Malay’s common architecture while most lodging these yearss have taken the modern modern-day subject to their place redevelopment design and the traditional elements of the state are hardly seeable except in the types of ornaments used within the place itself in Malaysia. The signifier of the roof of the Serendah house is chiefly influenced by the architect’s background that exposed to a batch of transverse civilization tradition such as Bidayuh and Thai. Through his extensively travel experience, he besides aware the transmutation of modern architecture and the importance of cultural individuality of a state. His sensitiveness towards cultural context inspires him to come across with a design that fulfills the modern and cultural heritage individuality. Our ain state tends to pretermit the ain unique individuality by seting the postmodern design construct without sing whether it is contextually suited or non. In fact, architecture in Malaysia or in tropical regional context should be incorporating the modern functional design yet uniting with the local context individuality. The hybridisation of the functional modern design standards and the spirit of the contextual siteshould be farther heightening in the lodging architecture in Malaysia. The signifier of the Serendah House might be non every bit appealing as other lodging design, but its meaning evokes the liquors of the tropical alcoholic forest Malaysia context that able to remind one’s presence in the planet when you been to the house. Harris has taken a great enterprise in conveying a new coevals of Malaysia residential architecture which can be identified globally as a great piece of Malaysia Architecture but non simply a great piece of architecture. The construct ofmastermind venueis exellently adapted. MentionsAndo, T. ( 1995 ) . Toward New Horizons In Architecture. In K. Nesbitt,Speculating A New Agenda For Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995( pp. 458-461 ) . New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Chan, E. J. ( 2013, June 28 ) .Architechnique Theme for DaATUM: KL 2013. Retrieved from The Edge Malaysia: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.theedgemalaysia.com/property/243348-architechnique-theme-for-datum-kl-2013.html Davies, C. ( 2011 ) . Chapter4: Space. In C. Davies,Thinking About Architecture: An Introduction to Architectural Theory( pp. 62-81 ) . London: Laurence King Publishinhg. Frampton, K. ( 1995 ) . Propects For A Critical Regionalism. In K. Nesbitt,Speculating A New Agenda For Architecture: An Anthology of Architecture Theory 1965-1995( pp. 470-481 ) . New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Norberg-Schulz, C. ( 1995 ) . The Phenomenon of Place. In K. Nesbitt,Speculating A New Agenda For Architecture: An Anthology of Architectural Theory 1965-1995( pp. 414-425 ) . New York: Princeton Architectural Press. Powell, R. ( 2008 ) . Serendah House. In R. Powell,The New Malaysian House( pp. 206-215 ) . Hong Kong: Periplus Editions ( HK ) Ltd. Group, R. H. ( 2013 ) .RDA Harris Architects+Urban Designers. Kuala Lumpur: RDA Harris International. Serendah House, Serendah, Malaysia. ( n.d. ) . Retrieved from RDA Harris Design Group: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.rdaharrisdesign.com/r7.html Traditional Home Design Gets A Modern Twist by RDA Harris International. ( n.d. ) . Retrieved from Habitat: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.habitat-my.com/index.php/design-stories-page/12-article-type/bungalow/170-traditional-home-design-gets-a-modern-twist-by-rda-harris-international? xpert=off