Patient Risk Essay Example for Free

Patient Risk Essay This example of a reflective essay is presented in association with Price, B and Harrington, A (2013) Critical Thinking and Writing for Nursing Students, London, Learning Matters. Readers are introduced to the process of critical and reflective thinking and the translation of these into coursework that will help them to achieve better grades in nursing courses. Stewart, Raymet, Fatima and Gina are four students who share their learning journey throughout the chapters of the book. In this essay on the assessment of pain, Raymet demonstrates her reflective writing skills near the end of her course. Raymet had by this stage written several reflective practice essays and gained good marks. This time though she was encouraged to deepen her reflections, speculating selectively on how the account of pain experienced by a patient (Mrs Drew) might help her to work more creatively with patient perceptions and reported needs. N.B. Remember, copying essays such as this, submitting them as a whole or in part for assessment purposes, without attributing the source of the material, may leave you open to the charge of plagiarism. Significant sanctions may follow for nurses who do this, including referral to the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Assessing Mrs Drew’s Pain Mc Caffery and Pasero (1999) state that pain is what the patient says it is. If we accept that point, then nurses need to explore the patient’s perceptions of pain, as well as their report of experiences. The two are not quite the same. Patients may report their pain in a variety of ways, dependent on the nature and the intensity of pain and the context in which it is felt (e.g. whether they are ever distracted from the pain). Their perception of pain is a little more though and it includes the meaning that the pain has for them. It includes explanation of why the pain is there in the first place, what it indicates about their body and what it could  suggest might happen in the future (getting better, getting worse). The nurse assesses the account of pain shared by the patient, and this may be given in the form of a story. This is how it began, this is how it felt, this is what that meant to me and this is what I did about it (Mishler et al. 2006) In this essay I explore the assessment of pain as conducted with one 60 year old patient whom I will call Mrs Drew. Whilst the essay describes an assessment of pain with a single patient, I try to share too some ideas and questions that this provokes within me about pain assessment more generally. Mrs Drew made me think about other patients, future assessments and what I had to do as a nurse to help patients. To help structure this essay I use the framework described by Gibbs (1988). Whilst the episode concerned relates a stage in Mrs Drew’s illness when she challenged her treatment protocol, it also includes some of the memories and thoughts that this patient refers to regarding her earlier illness and past ways of coping with pain. In particular, it prompted me to question to what extent I as a nurse should recommend analgesia, drawing on what I had been taught about the effective control of pain. I had learned that it was better to control rather than to chase pain ( e.g. Mann and Carr, 2006; Forbes, 2007). Mrs Drew was diagnosed with lung cancer a year earlier and had initially had her illness treated by chemotherapy. This had helped her to achieve a remission that lasted for nearly ten months (Hunt et al, 2009 describe the prognosis of this disease). The cancer had returned though and spread to her spine and it was here that she experienced most of her pain.It was at this stage that the doctors explained that her care would now be directed towards her comfort rather than a cure—to which she had replied, ‘you mean palliative care’. Mrs Drew was supported at home by her husband Neil and visited on a regular basis by community based nurses to whom I was attached as part of my student nurse training. She was prescribed oral morphine and could decide within stated limits how many tablets she could take in any one 24 hour period. The situation I had visited Mrs Drew on several occasions over the period of a month when the community nurse and I were confronted by a tearful patient who announced that she did not wish to take the oral opiates quite as often as we were recommending. As she spoke she held her husband’s hand tightly, looking across to him as she described her experiences and feelings about the matter. Yes, there had been some bad nights when the pain had woken her and she had to sit up and watch television to try and distract herself. Yes, sometimes the pain made her feel nauseous, but she was alarmed at how frequently she was taking the ‘pain tablets’ and how this made her feel about herself. However well meant the medication was, it didn’t feel dignified to be so reliant on drugs, or quite so sleepy and unresponsive for such a high percentage of the day. Whilst the analgesia was working well when she took the tablets, the quality of life wasn’t what she wanted. The community nurse listened patiently to Mrs Drew and then explained that it was normal to have panic moments about such medication. Morphine had a reputation, one that people associated with misuse of drugs, rather than their therapeutic use. Used on a regular basis, the drug wouldn’t cause addiction and it would provide a great deal of reassurance to Mr Drew as well. The community nurse stated that she was quite sure that he respected his wife’s need to sleep when she wished and to build the rhythm of the day around her needs. At this point Mrs Drew shook her husband’s hand, and said, ‘tell her†¦tell her what we’ve talked about!’ Mr Drew then explained that his wife was used to dealing with pain, she had suffered recurrent pain in her neck and shoulder after a road traffic accident some years before. The pain had sometimes been severe, but he had massaged her shoulders and used heat packs that she found soothing. They had decided that they wished to use this technique now, keeping the morphine for absolute emergencies, when she was losing sleep and couldn’t eat as a result of the discomfort. The community nurse assured them that they were in charge of the analgesia and would be allowed to make their own decisions. She started to make notes though, and announced that she was making a referral to the cancer pain clinic, something that would help them to take stock of the situation. There was very good reason to suppose that this might be a problem associated with choosing the right dosage of the  morphine, rather than using supplemental pain relief measures. Mrs Drew responded sharply, ‘You’re not listening to me though Jane (the community nurse’s name—a pseudonym is used here), I want to use heat packs instead of morphine, at least during the day. I want to be more alive with my husband.’ The community nurse assured Mrs Drew that she had heard what she had said and respected her point of view. There would though be nothing lost by using the clinic to gain a further check on this matter. With that she excused us, explaining that we had a further appointment that morning and we left, having checked that Mrs Drew had a sufficient supply of her different medicines. As we walked to the car the community nurse empathised with Mrs Drew’s plight, saying that if she had lung cancer she would probably grasp at straws too. She would reach out for things that seemed more normal, and then observed, ‘but this isn’t normal is it, the pain she has isn’t normal. It’s not just a whip lash injury and old age.’ Feelings I remember that during this episode feeling a mixture of confusion, surprise, anger and impotence. Mrs Drew had surprised me by the way she had spoken, using what seemed to be a planned announcement. They had waited for and perhaps rehearsed this moment. Nothing in my experience to date had prepared me for such an encounter, at least in such circumstances, where we as nurses were so obviously working to support the patient. It was only later that I called the episode a confrontation. Mr and Mrs Drew had confronted the community nurse and I had been the largely silent witness to the event. As the discussion proceeded I remember making supportive noises, remarking how useful heat packs sometimes were and glancing across at Jane, who seemed to be signalling with her expression that I should leave this debate to her. I was trying to read her reactions to the Drew’s points and concluded that if I couldn’t support her arguments to the patient, then I should remain silent. The re were issues here that I perhaps hadn’t enough experience to deal with, at least, whilst ‘thinking on my feet’. My initial anger (with Mrs Drew for not acknowledging all that we were trying to do) quickly became displaced towards my colleague Jane. During the event I couldn’t explain why that was, but afterwards, when I made notes, I realised that it was because she seemed to have set the agenda in her own mind and to be requiring the patient to comply with concerns of her own. Put rather crudely, Jane seemed to be saying, listen I know about these things, this is a phase, an anxiety; you can work through all this. I believed at this point that she had missed the significance of the event, the way in which the Drew’s had arranged the conversation. For them, this was not a phase at all, but a considered and very important decision, one that they wanted the nurses to accept (Freshwater, 2002 and Edwards and Elwyn, 2009 emphasize the importance of negotiated care planning). My feelings of impotence were associated strongly with my lack of clinical experience. I have met this before. No matter how many placements I do, no matter how good the mentoring I receive, I keep meeting situations where I am unsure about how to respond next. I feel younger, less knowledgeable than I should be at this stage in my training. I want to reassure patients, to support colleagues and to give good advice, but there is not enough confidence to do that. If I felt unsettled and uncertain about Jane’s response to the Drew’s, right then I couldn’t easily explain that. I couldn’t offer a second opinion, couldn’t suggest an idea that might help support the patient. To my annoyance I couldn’t manage that either as we left the house. Jane had made some fair points, she  clearly seemed concerned about the patient’s needs, but perhaps she hadn’t spotted the right need—for Mrs Drew to determine in greater part how she de alt with her illness. Experience evaluated Afterwards, this short episode prompted doubts and debates about several important aspects of nursing for me. Setting aside the etiquette of learning in clinical practice, not challenging a qualified nurse in front of a  patient, there were problems here associated with supporting patient dignity, with my assumptions relating to analgesia and pain control strategies, and I realised, with my assumptions about types of pain and who had the expertise to define these. Dignity is more than simply using the appropriate terms of address, protecting the privacy of patients and attending to their expressed concerns (Price, 2004). It is about clarifying the ways in which they live and accommodate illness or treatment. It is about finding out what benchmarks they use to say that ‘yes, I am doing well here, this makes me feel good about myself’. Upon reflection, I sense that we on this occasion had not worked hard enough to discover how Mr and Mrs Drew define quality of life, or being in charge of their situation. We were more concerned with providing resources, sharing research or theory about medication and questioning the familiar misconceptions associated with morphine. To put it simply, we were ‘missing a trick’, reading the encounter as something that had happened many times before—the report of problems or anxieties, a request for help, rather than a decision that the patient and her carer had already come to. Reading situations well seemed, with the benefit of hindsight, to be the first basis for dignified care. ‘What is happening here, what will help the patient most?’ were questions that we perhaps assumed that we already knew the answer to. I realised that in my training I had already accepted the argument that patients would wish to remain pain free come what may and that the tackling of fears about prospective pain, was something that nurses engaged in. I assumed that because cancer pain represented such a major threat, because it was greater and more all encompassing, that there was little or no doubt that it should be removed. What was so unsettling, and took so much time to examine, was that Mrs Drew acknowledged the possible severity of metastatic cancer pain, but that she still preferred to respond to it using measures that had worked for her whiplash neck injury. Mrs Drew was willing to trade off a pain free state for something that gave her a greater sense of control and which perhaps enabled her husband to express his support for her in a very tangible way (preparing heat packs, massaging her back, rather than simply giving her the tablets). Mr and Mrs Drew questioned all my assumptions about best analgesia pr actice, and seemed to write a large  question mark on the textbooks I had read about chasing rather than controlling pain in palliative care situations (Mann and Carr, 2006). Reflections (learning opportunities) The episode with Mrs Drew left me uncomfortable because my past approach to pain management was theoretical. I (and I believe Jane too) regularly made use of science to decide what could be done as regards pain relief and to assume that patients would wish to achieve all of those benefits. This wasn’t about local applications of heat versus morphine, Mrs Drew could use both, it was about choice and how patients made choices—why they reached the decisions that they did. It was for me, about accepting very personally, that providing that patients are given all the relevant facts, alerted to the options, that they really are able to make choices that work for them. The very fact that Mrs Drews illness was now incurable, that she and her husband usually tackled pain together, meant that her solution to the challenge was different to those that many other patients arrived at. Having dealt with this pain for some time, knowing that it could and probably would get worse, meant that she was better equipped than other less experienced patients to make a decision here. This took nothing away from the benefits of sharing further discussion with pain clinic experts. I thought, Mrs Drew will stand her ground, she will insist on doing things her way if her husband is strong too. What it did highlight though was the importance of listening to patients, hearing how they perceive pain, how they narrate not only the pain but what they did about it. In this instance the narration was all about dignity, and coping, and finding ways to help one another and how this enables us to feel in the face of such a terrible illness. So, in telling us about her pain, what she did about it, using morphine when it was ‘absolutely required’, Mrs Drew was not reporting her ignorance of what could be achieved if the medication was used differently, but what she preferred to do as it enabled her to achieve different goals. Mrs Drew’s goals were about liveliness, alertness and stoicism, showing that she could bear at least a measure of pain. I wondered why I hadn’t listened carefully enough to such a story? Was it because of time pressure, or perhaps complacency, that Jane and I felt that we already knew what account would be  shared? Did we think that the patient would ask for help, more help, as the pain continued? If so, then our guesses had prompted us to behave as experts, and problem solvers, on the patient’s behalf. Perhaps hearing a patient narrative is about discovering what sort of role they would like you to fulfil. If so, then it might be a difficult role. I thought hard about how hard this was for Jane. She was going to be asked to witness Mrs Drew’s future pain, one that was now less perfectly controlled. She was going to be asked to reassure, to suggest measures that might help, without reminding the patient that she ‘already knew that you couldn’t manage pain that way!’ When I think about it now, that is very stressful for a nurse. It is about caring and allowing patient’s to make choices that we personally might not make. Conclusions I have drawn then three conclusions from the above reflection. First, that being patient centred is never easy and requires real listening and interpretation skills. My criticism of what Jane chose to do, to try and dissuade Mrs Drew from a course of action, recommending further appraisal of the situation, is an easy one to make. Nurses confront situations such as this relatively unprepared and react as considerately as possible. It is easy in hindsight to recommend other responses, a further exploration of what motivated Mrs Drew’s pain management preferences. Second, that experience can be a valuable teacher, the equal of textbooks. If nurses are interested in care, then we should be concerned with the sense that patients make of their own illness, the treatment or support that they receive. We need to understand what patients have to teach us and have to acknowledge that this means that we won’t always seem in control ourselves, expert and knowledgeable. Our expertise might be elsewhere, helping patients to reach their own decisions. Third, that one way to understand patient perspectives on illness or treatment, on pain management in this example, is to hear how they talk  about the situation. How do they describe the pain, how do they refer to what they did about it? The way in which the story is shared, how we coped, how this made us feel, is as important as the facts related. Sometimes a patient needs to feel stalwart, even heroic in the face of illness. Future care It would be foolish and unprofessional to recommend to other patients that they might not wish to remove pain, or that overcoming pain doesn’t always mean we don’t continue to experience it. For every Mrs Drew there may be many other patients who would welcome the complete removal of pain, so that they can die calmly, quietly, with their own version of dignity. But it does seem to me, that it will be worth thinking about the diversity of patients and how they prefer to cope when I assess pain and help manage this problem in the future. I won’t be able to walk away from the responsibility of debating whether I have explained all that I could, detailed the strengths and limitations of different ways of coping. I will need to find reflection time to ponder what patients have said and if necessary to go back and say, ‘I’ve been thinking some more about your words last week..’ knowing that this doesn’t make me any the less professional. References Edwards, A and Elwyn, G (2009) Shared decision-making in health care: achieving evidencebased patient choice, 2nd ed. Oxford, Oxford University Press Forbes, K (2007) Opiods in cancer pain, Oxford, Oxford University Press Freshwater, D (2002) Therapeutic nursing: improving patient care through self awareness, London, Sage. Gibbs G (1988) Learning by doing: a guide to teaching and learning methods, Oxford, Oxford Polytechnic Further Education unit Hunt, I., Muers, M and Treasure, T (2009) ABC of lung cancer, Oxford, Wiley-Blackwell/BMJ Books Mann, E and Carr, E (2006) Pain management, Oxford, Blackwell McCaffery, M and Pasero, C (1999) Pain: Clinical manual, Mosby, Philadelphia Mishler, E., Rapport, F and Wainwright, P (2006) The self in health and illness: patients, professionals and narrative identity, Oxford, Radcliffe Publishing Ltd Price, B (2004) Demonstrating respect for patient dignity, Nursing Standard, 19(12), 45-51

Nestle Boxed Water Executive Summary Management Essay

Nestle Boxed Water Executive Summary Management Essay The main point of this report is to show how Nestle will implement their Boxed Water products in the United Kingdom for diversification of their product line. The report starts by giving some historical data about Nestle, and providing a list of products that Nestle offers to their customers worldwide. It will analyze the business proficiency of Nestle, and analyze the bottled water industry, supplemented by a further analysis of our competitors and the macro environment. It continues by discussing the business principles of the United Kingdom, and show some key business challenges for Nestle. Finally, the study recommends some suggestions to Nestle regarding the business principles and products required to achieve sustainable growth in the long run and the process of the manufacture and sale of Boxed Water in the United Kingdom. Table of Contents 1.0 Nestle Nestle is a well-known Swiss multinational company that specializes in nutritional food and consumer goods. The company is headquartered in Vevey, Switzerland, and was established by Henri Nestle in the year 1866. In its initial year they were named Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company, and in the next thirty nine years the company would change their name twice. Finally, in the year 1905 the company changed their name to Nestle. Nestle is the largest food company in the world in terms of annual revenue, and also acts as major shareholder for LOreal (largest cosmetics company in the world). Nestle offers various products such as Maggi, Stouffers, Nespresso, KitKat, Nescafe, Smarties, Vittel, and Nesquik to global customers. Nestle employs more than 330000 people all together in over 150 countries, and has 461 factories established across the globe. Sales revenue for the company in the year 2011 was CHF 83.7 billion. Major milestones for the company can be summarized in the following man ner: Time Period Event 1866-1905 The Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company merged with Nestle. 1906-1918 Number of factories decreased due to world war I but the company started their operations in the USA. 1919-1945 The company launched Nescafe. 1946-1975 The company acquired Alimentana in order to gain access to Maggi products. They also became a major shareholder with LOreal. 1976-1980 The company entered in pharmaceutical market by acquiring Alcon Laboratories of USA 1981-1995 The company acquired American food giant Carnation to improve their bottom line. In 1986, the company entered espresso coffee segment by launching Nespresso. 1996-2005 The company expanded their operation in the segment of health, nutrition, and wellness with the help of series of acquisition. 2006-2009 The company acquired Medical Nutrition unit of Novartis. The company established shared value forum in New York. 2010-2012 The company launched Cocoa Plan in order to supply disease resistant plantlets to farmers. (Source: Nestle, 2012) 1.1 Nestle Bottled Water The bottled water segment contributes a significant amount of product diversification for the company. A way that Nestle has been able to maintain their dominance of the bottled water industry worldwide is through offering different brands of bottled water. Some of these brands are: Nestle Pure Life The company launched Pure Life in the year 1998. This product is currently being sold in over twenty countries. Perrier This is a form of sparkling mineral water. Nestle introduced this brand in order to enter the sparkling mineral water segment. Poland Spring This is the oldest mineral water brand in the world. Nestle has maintained the brand for many years. S. Pellegrino Nestle launched this brand in order to gain access to top restaurants in the world. S. Pellegrino is a form of drinking water mixed with minerals (Nestle, 2012). 1.2 Analysis of Product portfolio of Nestle Most people know Nestle by their brand and product portfolio. The product portfolio of Nestle can be summarized in the following chart: (Source: Nestle, 2012) The company maintains a broad product portfolio in order to compensate loss from any single segment. Sales volume for the company is increasing at a rate of more than 3% during the last few years. Segment wise product portfolio can be divided into three segments like food beverages, nutrition and ice cream. The company is always thriving to find excellence in product innovation and service delivery. The company achieved 7.7% of organic growth in the year of 2011 by maintain their large product portfolio. The following section will discuss about product innovation in Nestle. Segment Product Target Market Business Strategy Ice Cream Nestle Gold Portugal, Spain, and Greece The company collaborated with Haagen- Dazs in order to provide premium quality ice cream to customers and they did it in order to achieve product diversification Water Perrier 150 countries across the globe Nestle diversified their business into the bottled water segment. The company used a digital platform to engage customers with the Perrier brand Coffee Nescafe Alegria More than 60 countries The company launched an easy to use instant coffee machine to flip the brand. Pet Product Purina Netherlands , Austria and Germany Special TV commercial for dogs and dog owners. With help of this activity the company entered the web 4.0 era Nutritional milk MOM me South Asian countries They expanded their distribution channels by recruiting nutrition officers (Source: Nestle, 2012a) Top performing brands of the company have helped them earn respect from customers. The following section will discuss contribution of brands carried by the company towards overall organic growth. Overall Organic Growth 7.7% Nescafe Nan Milo Nespresso Pure Life Nido Maggi 11% 18% 13% 22% 11% 11% 10% (Source: Nestle, 2012) 1.3 Organizational Structure of Nestle (Nestle, 2012) D. P. Frick (Corporate Service Governance) J.-M. Duvoisin (Human Resource) R. Ramsauer (Corporate Communication) P. Bulcke (CEO) L. Cantarell (Nestle Health Science) P. Brabeck-Letmathe (Chairman) Executive Board (P. Bulcke, W. Bauer, J. Lopez, J. J. Harris, L. Freixe, C. Johnson, P. Bula, N. Nandkishore, W.L. Martello, M. Caira, J.-M. Duvoisin, K. Schmidt and D.P. Frick C. Johnson (USA Head) N. Nandkishore (Asia/Africa/Oceania Head) L. Freixe (Europe Zone Head) J. J. Harris (Nestle Water) M. Caira (Nestle Professional) K. Schmidt (Nestle Nutrition) W. Bauer (Technology, RD P. Bula (Marketing Sales) J. Lopez (Operation) W.L. Martello (Finance Control) P. Bulcke (CEO) 1.4 Global Presence of Nestle The company operates in more than one hundred and fifty countries. Recently the company has launched their nutrition product segment in the South Asian Market. Africa is also becoming lucrative in terms of nutritional product for the company. The corporation started their first global operation almost 100 years ago, and the business has segmented their international operation into two parts: developed market and emerging market. The following chart will explain the international business growth of Nestle. Developed Market Total Contribution to group Sales Organic Growth 60% 4.3% France 6.4% Portugal, Spain, UK 3.7% Japan 3.6% North America 2.5% Emerging Market Total Contribution to group Sales Organic Growth 40% 13% China 23% India 20% Africa 18% Mexico 14% (Source: Nestle, 2012) Global operation of the company understood with the help of zone wide analysis: 1.4.1 American Zone The American market is already saturated due to the presence of a large number of consumer durable companies. In this situation Nestle has diversified their business into the frozen foods and chocolate segment by launching DiGiorno and Skinny Cow to attract customers. The company also did partnership with Hà ¤agen-Dazs in order to increase variation in their ice cream products. In Latin America, the company performed well with their soluble coffee products and achieved double digit growth. 1.4.2 Europe Zone The European market is going through a financial crisis, so overall sales growth for the company has not been very attractive for last two years. In this uncertain period, Nestle has adopted an innovation strategy to counterbalance poor performance in their different product segments. Nestle has introduced an innovative product line: Nescafe Dolce Gusto, Herta, and Nescafe Sensazione, to attract customers. This strategy was successful for the company to fetch sales from east and central Europe. 1.4.3 Asia, Africa Oceania Zone The company has had a presence in this region for more than 100 years. Recently, they have celebrated their 100 year anniversary in the following countries: Turkey (1908-2008), Philippines (1911-2011) and India (1912-2012). Maggi and Nescafe are one of the most popular products in this region while the company extended their product line with Nido essential and Nescafe Milky in order to cater demand of people belong to the Afro-Asian region. The company recently launched their nutrition division to increase penetration in the region. 1.5 Mission Objective of Nestle The company always thrives for achieving leadership position in Health Wellness, and nutrition segment. Nestle also wants to be a reference in the industry for their financial performance. 1.6 Strategic Advantage of Nestle 1.6.1 Competitive Advantage The company has carefully designed their product portfolio in order to a maintain balance with market demand. The product portfolio maintained by the company cannot be easily copied by their competitors. The company has planned their product portfolio in accordance to demand of each zone such as America, Europe and Asia. The corporation invests large amount of capital on research and development to produce better products. The company already made an agreement with a renowned university to open a research division for their nutritional products. Nestle emphasizes on using local ingredients in their products in order to satisfy demand of local customers. For example, in Malaysia, the company introduced a nutritional product complemented with Asian ingredients such as ginger, Chinese red grass and ginseng to lure local customers (Oxford Business Group Malaysia, 2008, p. 132). The brand has presence in more than 150 countries. They have the opportunity to channelize revenue from strong business unit to a poor performing region. The company also adopted a parent company strategy to control business operations internationally. Nestle has opened multiple strategic business units (SBU) across the globe to expand their business (Pride Ferrell, 2007, p. 32). The company believes employees are their asset and treat them with utmost care. Nestle feels that their employees are their biggest strength. The company has also adopted green earth strategy to decrease their carbon footprint caused by their products, working with Forest Trust in order to prevent Deforestation and decrease carbon footprint in the supply chain (Emmett Sood, 2010, p. 192). The company has announced that they will use befouls instead of tree oils in their future products in order to make their products more environment friendly. 1.6.2 Growth Drivers The business has understood that the consumer food market is becoming saturated day by day due to presence of many players. Nestle has diversified their business into Nutrition Health, and Wellness segment in order to avoid saturation in food market. Nutrition segment is showing more than 20% growth rate for past three years, which is greater than their overall organic growth of 7.7%. The company has shifted their focus on emerging markets because developed markets are already becoming saturated. Nutrition product segment of the company has readily become popular in Asian markets, while Oceanic region has contributed high sales volume for the companys coffee segment. Nestle has recently launched instant coffee machine for customers in order to give them out of home consumption experience. Many schools, colleges, and offices have already installed instant coffee machine to enjoy Nescafe. The strategy helped the company to increase their brand equity among young people. The company adopted premium pricing for their products in order to show status and quality to customers. Customers purchase Nestle products in order to experience high quality products and they are ready to pay for it. 1.7 Shared Value Model for Nestle Shared value model for the company works in triplet format such as sustainable development in water management and nutrition products, protect environment, and maintaining ethical business practices. Stage 1 The corporation invested a huge amount of money in research and development in order to create nutritional products for customers. In recent times, the Vevey based company has introduced nutritional compass customers to measure the nutrition value of food. Nutritional compass is complemented with the nutrition information box, which indicates amount of specific nutrients such as carbohydrates, fats, protein and sugars present in a Nestle product, as well as health related tips, and question boxes. In Poland, the company has partnered with two major retailers to provide health related advice to customers. Ninety nine percent of Nestle products contain nutrient specification in order to provide information to customers. The brand has opened rural factories in order to provide agricultural support to farmers. They have taken an open system approach to boost the growth of the rural economy. Nestle established factories in order to employ rural people and help farmers to sell their product without any middlemen. Survey reports suggest that the company is performing pretty well in developing nations to generate revenue and incentivize the morale of rural people. The company took various initiatives for water resource management. They have planned to implement aquifers, watersheds, and artificial river basins to create efficient water resource management. Nestle started water management initiatives by engaging stakeholders into multiphase pilot projects to increase sustainability of the development. (Sources: Nestle, 2011) Stage 2 Nestle has changed their supply chain management and product packaging in order to decrease their overall carbon footprint. The company uses 12% renewable energy in their factories and also they have planned to achieve zero wastage within the next two years. The company is using recyclable products for packaging in order to decrease plastic contamination and hazards. For example, the company used recyclable packaging products instead of plastic for Ninho caps in Brazil and Purina ONE packaged drinking water in France. The corporation not only reduced the use of plastic in their product, but also optimized environmental performance of the product. Nestle uses Global Environmental Footprint (GEF) and Packaging Impact Quick Evaluation Tool (PIQET) to measure the environment sustainability of bottled water. Environment impact of new packaging systems for bottled water can be analyzed by the following picture: (Source: Nestle, 2011) Stage 3 Nestle has established an Alignment board to measure quarterly performance share value objectives. This board acts as an Umbrella Corporation to design strategic implementation Shared Value objectives. The company implements leadership principles to design proper business ethics conduct. Also, United Nations Global Compact Principles helped the company to create a sustainable business environment. Nestle follows the United Nations guidelines for creating shared value in terms of labor law, human rights, corruption free business policy, sustainable environment, and other important issues. 1.8 Value Chain of Nestle (Bottled Water) 1.8.1 Source The company has developed spring water sites to source their water products. Nestle has transformed open land sources into spring water resources to strengthen their value chain. Generally, the business uses 87% of their spring water sites to source water products. 1.8.2 Manufacturing Nestle has implemented solar panels in their water plants in order to reduce energy consumption and maintain purity of minerals used in the manufacturing process. The company manufactures 98% of packaged bottles in their owned plants in order to reduce cost regarding transportation of empty bottles. The total manufacturing process saves 6.5 million gallons of fuel and eliminates more than 6,100 metric tons of CO2 emissions. 1.8.3 Packaging Nestle has invested a huge amount of capital to change packaging of the water bottles in order to create an eco-friendly bottled water. The corporation is planning to use paper instead of plastic to reduce the carbon footprint produced by their company. The Vevey based company has already introduced the Eco Shape bottle which contains only 60% PET plastic in order to save 250 million pounds of plastic per year. Nestle reduced the bottle size by 33% in order to save 10 million pounds of packaging paper yearly. 1.8.4 Transportation Nestle started to use hybrid vehicles for transportation in the year 2008. Heavy duty trucks and environment friendly trucks are used by the company for transportation purposes. The company has forecasted that they will reach 25% fuel economy within the next three years by using hybrid transportation models. 1.8.5 Retail Retail channels for Nestle water products are focused regionally in order to increase penetration levels. The company transports 90% of bottled water directly to the retailers in order to eliminate warehouse storage and costs associated with storing products. The whole process helped the company to reduce 10,900 metric tons of carbon footprint or carbon dioxide emissions yearly. Benefits of green value chain maintained by Nestle can be summarized in the following chart: (Source: Nestle-water, 2011) 1.9 Financial Performance of Nestle Total group sales for the company were $ 83.6 billion in year 2011 with an organic growth of more than 7.5% annually. It is interesting to note that the company has achieved annual sales growth in a multi-dimensional way without depending on a single product segment. The company achieved maximum sales growth from their nutritional product division. Operating profit has also increased to $ 12.5 billion with a growth rate of 15.0%. The company has also performed well in terms of shareholders value and return on investment. Shareholders return can be analyzed in the following table: Net Cash Returned to Shareholders Return on Investment Dividend per Share $10.7 billion 44.4% $ 5.9 billion through dividend $ 4.8 billion through share buy back 14.1% from goodwill 30.3% from external operation $1.95 + 5.4% (Source: Nestle, 2012) Financial statement of the company is explained in the Appendix A to C. 2.0 Global Bottled Water Industry Research scholars and market research reports suggest that the bottled water industry is dynamic as well as multidimensional. Global reports suggest various companies sold more than 200 billion water bottles in the year 2011. Consumer Food Companies such as Nestle or beverage giant, Coca-Cola, and many others have entered the bottled water market in order to explore business opportunities. Retail channel sales are growing at rate of 11% and analysts have forecasted that the market will reach $150 billion within next couple of years. Although bottled water market is growing at a steady rate, the penetration level is not homogeneous in the entire region. Customers prefer to drink mineral water in order to experience purity and freshness. Nestle also emphasizes on the purity of their bottled water in order to sell the item. Global players try to create their bottled water using underground aquifers, minerals, and springs in order to show purity. Nestle also did the same by changing their product line by adding minerals and aquifers in three of the products: S.Pellegrino, Perrier, and Poland Spring. Industry analysis shows that bottled water market can be segmented into three portions. 2.1 Product Characteristics Bottled water can be segregated into three types: Still (dominant with more than 70% penetration), Sparkling (penetration level is low such as 21%), and Flavored (near about 6% penetration). Nestle has maintained a product line complemented with Still and Sparkling category while they have not took any initiative to add flavored water in portfolio 2.2 Water Source Two types of water sources are available for manufacturers are chemically purified and natural spring water, and both are used in order to manufacture bottled water. Water sourced from natural spring has two subdivisions: Single Spring (bottled near the source location without any chemical treatment except filtration) and Multiple Spring (bottled far from source location after multiple chemical treatments). Nestle offers customers only Single Spring bottled water but they have a future plan of entering in the Multi Spring segment. 2.3 Marketing Channel Companies in the bottled water industry follow two types of marketing channel: on trade- off trade, or retail sales in order to distribute their products to customers. On trade channels focus on distributing bottled water directly to business, houses, hospitals, catering, and various event sponsors while retail channel focuses on tertiary sales. Global sales volume in terms of unit for on trade channel is only 16% but striking fact is that sales volume in terms of monetary value for on trade channel is 55%. These differentiation occurs due to the fact that water bottle price is three times higher in contrast to off trade channel (Gimeno, 2012). 3.0 Competitors Analysis 3.1 Danone Danone is the major competitor for Nestle in the water industry. The company is the market leader in Spain and United Kingdom for purified water business. Danone uses merger acquisitions in order to expand their business and they have achieved more than 24% market penetration by following the same strategy. The company maintains product portfolio complemented with Sparkletts, Alhambra, and Crystal in order to offer still and spring water to customers. 3.2 PepsiCo The company entered the packaged drinking water industry in the year 1994 by establishing cooperation with bottlers. The company provides spring, flavored, and still water to global customers. Aquafina is the major bottle water brand for the company while the brand has achieved more than 10% penetration in UK market. Distribution channels maintained by the company can be termed as their core competency. PepsiCo sells their water product in UK with the help of Directo Store Delivery Method (DSD) and also the company is planning for category extension in the sparkling water segment. 3.3 Coca Cola The company launched their bottled water brand Dasani in the year 1999, spending more than $20 million dollars in sales promotion and advertising to push the brand during its initial period. Coca Cola Enterprise (CCE) is also a big bottler worldwide. The company has launched their multi spring water brand BonAqua in European countries. Market share for the company in the UK is not more than 3%. Hence they have planned to increase market share by incorporating product differentiation in the future. 4.0 Analysis of the Packaged Water Industry in United Kingdom 4.1 SWOT The SWOT analysis method can be done in order to analyze business scenario for the packaged water segment in UK (Ferrell Hartline, 2010, p. 122). 4.1.1 Strength The lifestyle of people in the country is changing with time, and as a result, the demand for pure water is increasing. Packaged water gives people the opportunity to carry mineral water or sparkling water with convenience. 4.1.2 Weakness Companies need to find open water sources to manufacture bottled water, but availability of such resources is low in the UK compared to other European countries. Government is strict about environment norms and pushes foreign companies to decrease carbon footprint throughout business operation. Companies trying to expand business in UK need to redesign value chain in order to decrease environment pollution. Because of this, the Boxed Water product is fitting to combat this weakness. 4.1.3 Opportunity People in the country have become more health conscious in recent times due to the increase of epidemic diseases. The quality of open source water has also degraded randomly within the last ten years. Companies have the opportunity to manipulate market demand by offering mineral and spring waters to customers of the country, and it is Nestles opportunity to offer the Boxed Water idea to fulfill this demand. 4.1.4 Threat Multinational companies are facing threat from regional and small local players in the country. Many small level companies are counterfeiting and imitating product portfolios of large players such as Nestle, Danone, and others. Counterfeiters are selling products at a price lower than market average in order to spoil competition. 4.2 Porters Five Forces Porters five force model can be used to analyze bottled water industry in United Kingdom (Ahlstrom Bruton, 2009, pp. 131-140). 4.2.1 Threat of Substitute There is no substitute for water but the same cannot be said for bottled drinking water. Substitutes such as vitamin and mineral water, and single and multi-spring water can be termed as close competitor for purified bottled water. Tea, beer, and soft drinks are the distant competitors for packaged drinking water; therefore, the threat of substitute for packaged water is moderate. 4.2.2 Threat of New Entrants Threat of new entrant is low for the packaged water industry due to three reasons. Huge financial resources are needed to establish water plants and a wide distribution channels to retailers nationwide. Companies must have sufficient resources to offer high retail margins to distributors (industry average is more than 15% but Nestle offers 33%) in order to survive in market competition. Companies must have the capability to compete against multinational giants such as Coca Cola, PepsiCo, Nestle, and Danone to be successful in the long run. 4.2.3 Bargaining Power of Supplier Nestle uses their own hybrid transportation model in order to decrease dependency on suppliers. In general, companies manufacture and bottle their products near the water source in order to decrease stages of value chain. Large bottlers can purchase bulk volume of 1 liter, 2 liter or 5 liter bottles from manufacturers at minimal cost. Presence of many alternatives has decreased bargaining power of suppliers. 4.2.4 Bargaining Power of Customers Packaged water is seen as a basic product and price sensitivity issue of customers is not a major concern. This means that big brands such as Nestle can charge a premium price for their multi spring and single spring water segments. Bargaining power of customers is moderate for the industry. 4.2.5 Competition Market competition is high for the bottled water industry due to presence multinational players as well as regional sellers. They mainly compete in terms of retailer margin, product price, and product differentiation. Companies are investing a huge amount money in developing distribution channels while there is no doubt that beverage giants such as PepsiCo and Coca Cola have a clear advantage due to their long association with retailers. Nestle needs to design distribution network by maintaining equilibrium between on trade and off trade channel. Factors Threat of new Entrants Threat of substitutes products Bargaining power of buyers Bargaining Power of Suppliers Existing Rivalry Level of Impact High Medium Low 4.3 Porters Diamond Model Nestle needs to use porters diamond model in order to explore opportunity in the country (Walker, 2003, p. 177) Uncertain events such as Euro zone crisis can impede the growth of business Market competition in bottled water industry is high from both regional and international players Demand for packaged drinking water is high in the UK Nestle can use both skilled and unskilled labor for their business due to abundance of human resource pool in the country Presence of supporting players such as paper suppliers and other members of the value chain is abundant Government of the country provides tax exemptions to companies investing more than  £10,000 on research development 5.0 Why the United Kingdom?   Ã‚  Ã‚   There were three countries, each in three different continents that seemed very interesting for Nestle to introduce the idea of a new packaging, Boxed Water. The idea of boxed water consists of redesigning the container into a complete new design with no damaging chemicals for human consumption, and at the same time being better for the environment. The first country taken into account in this report is Singapore.   Singapore is one of the nations in the world with a well-established and efficient free-market economy. The government of Singapore has a significant control in most corporations, which constitutes about 60% of the GDP through business entities like Sovereign Wealth Fund. The country has a free business environment with comparatively low levels of corruption, transparency in management of public affairs and constant/predictable prices changes. Compared to other developed countries Singapore has low tax rates with a very high per capita GDP globally. Singapore has a very innovative and stable economy, which is merged with efficient economic planning under the Economic Development Board that helped to establish a free market. Moreover, Singapore has a port that is strategic enough to give it an edge over the neighboring countries that carries trade. Most of its labor comes within the population, which is owed to the efficient education policy in the country that produces skilled labor for the industries in the country.   The government

Explore the Medicinal Benefits of Green Tea :: Essays Papers

Explore the Medicinal Benefits of Green Tea Tea, especially green tea, has been touted in many sources as having a plethora of medicinal properties. Much of the hype surrounding tea is in fact true. Tea is not a wonder drug, but it can combat some of the causes of the most deadly diseases in the United States. For over 4000 years it has been used as a medicine in China (Cheng 2397). By taking a cue from the Asian cultures, we in America are beginning to discover the benefits of this drink. Since green tea is not fermented, and thus enzymes do not destroy many of the polyphenolic compounds, it contains more beneficial compounds than either oolong or black tea. Tea is so powerful in fighting disease because the polyphenolic compounds it contains work as antioxidants. There are thousands of antioxidants compounds that help to inhibit the oxidation reactions caused by free radicals. The antioxidants latch onto free oxygen particles in the body and prevent them from doing damage to cells or tissue. The most prevalent antioxidant in green tea is a compound called epigallocatechin-3-gallate (Voelker 262). Epigallocatechin-3-gallate is unique because in lab tests it induced cell death in cancer cells, but left healthy cells unharmed. Researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine in Cleveland, Ohio exposed it to cancerous skin, lymph, and prostate cells from both humans and mice and to healthy human skin cells. The compound killed the cancerous cells, and left the healthy cells untouched. Present in just 2 mg of green tea, epigallocatechin-3-gallate is a powerful chemical (Voelker 262). Green tea doesn’t always have to be ingested to combat cancer. A study published in the August 2000 issues of the Archives of Dermatology found that green tea polyphenols have both anti-inflammatory and anticarcinogenic properties on the skin (Katiyar, et al. 989). Experimental studies conducted on mouse skin found the polyphenols afforded protection against both chemical carcinogensis as well as photocarcinogenis (Katiyar, et al. 989). This information could be big news for those worried about the detrimental effects of the sun and daily chemical exposure on their skin.

Wordsworth, Social Reform Literature, and Politics of the 1790s Essay

Wordsworth, Social Reform Literature, and Politics of the 1790s The historical mix of social fictions in England and France at the end of the 1780s greatly impacted the literature of the period. Tom Paine's The Rights of Man (1791) and Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France (1791) were the two most widely read works that spurred a decade long debate on how the nation of England was to be governed and by whom. As a young man during this period, William Wordsworth formed part of the circle of writers who fought for the Republican cause of democracy and its ideals. Similar to the poet William Cowper, Wordsworth's early poetry contributed to a larger framework of social reform literature that the publisher Joseph Johnson promoted throughout his career from the late 1770s until his death in 1809. Some of Wordsworth's early prose works mark what he was to later reflect upon in his poem, "Lines Written a Few Miles above Tintern Abbey, on Revisiting the Banks of the Wye During a Tour, 13 July 1798". "Tintern Abbey" reminds Wordsworth's readers of the solitude and "sad perplexity" (61) that its author experiences five years after his dreams of a democratic republic and love for Annette Vallon are dashed by France's Reign of Terror and war with England. He recounts: Five years have passed; five summers, with the length Of five long winters! . . . . . . . And so I dare to hope, Though changed, no doubt, from what I was when first I bounded o'er these hills, . . . Flying from something that he dreads than one Who sought the thing he loved. (1-2, 66-67, 72-73)[1] "Tintern" suggests Wordsworth's wish to move beyond the sentiments and views he once held, as reflected in his unpublishe... ... a friend of Benjamin Franklin, Joseph Priestley, and Horne Tooke; Mary Wollstonecraft listened to Price's occasional political sermons, and was influenced by his view that all people were entitled to equal education. Todd, Janet. Mary Wollstonecraft: A Revolutionary Life. London: Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2000: 59-61. 4. Edmund Burke. Reflections on the Revolution in France (1790), in, Paul Keen, (ed. compiler). Reading (at) the Limit of the Bourgeois Public Sphere. Burnaby: Simon Fraser University Publishing, 1999: 145. 5. Ibid, 147. 6. Tom Paine is referring to William the Conqueror, quoted by E. P. Thompson in, The Making of the English Working Class. Middlesex: Penguin Books Ltd., 1963: 94-95. 7. Ibid, 94. 8. Christopher Hill. "The Norman Yoke," in Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution Revisited. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997: 361.

commentary Dred Scott Essay -- essays research papers

This commentary will focus on the impact of the Dred Scott decision in America. Dred Scott was born a slave in Virginia to the family of Peter Blow originally. The family moved to St. Louis and sold Scott to Dr. John Emerson, a military surgeon stationed at Jefferson Barracks. Scott traveled with Dr. Emerson to different areas such as Illinois and Wisconsin territories, where slavery was prohibited. This is because of the Missouri Compromise, this compromise was created to end expansion of slavery and permitted Missouri to entered as a slave state and Illinois was entered as a free state. Because Scott had traveled to free territory, he felt that he was a free man and sued to be free. The first case is against Emerson’s wife and is dismissed based on a technical issue, the second case Scott wins the right to be free, however the case is appealed to Wisconsin Supreme Court who disagrees with the lower court and Scott remains a slave. Scott lawyers filed suit in the U.S. Federa l Court and this time it’s against Mrs. Emerson’s brother whom took over the estate due to her remarriage, his name was John F.A. Sanford. The United States Supreme Court first hears the case in 1854 and then again in 1856. The case gains public and political attention. It affected the presidential election in which it would cause a candidate to agree or disagree with the high court. Congress begin debates on its power to control slavery specific territories, eventually they left it up to the high court ...

1980: Miami Floridabbegin to Rise as the Crime Capital of the Nation Essay

In the 1980s Miami Florida was just beginning to rise as the crime capital of the nation, but it had been the drug capital for a decade. An estimated 70% of Cocaine imported to the U.S passes through South Florida. When president of Cuba Fidel Castro agreed to allow citizens to leave in response to a tough Cuban economy, many of them departed to the United States and landed in South Florida, unfortunately many of those allowed to leave were convicted criminals. Adding these dubious characters into the mix only served to dilute the population of law-abiding citizens, therefore increasing the crime rate in the city of Miami. Cuba wasn’t the only country that was responsible for the increasing crime rate in Miami throughout the 1980s; Colombia was heavily involved in the Cocaine business. From the movie Cocaine Cowboys, John Roberts, Mickey Munday, Rafa Cardona Salazar, Max Mermestein were all drug smugglers. They were in charge of getting the illegal narcotics into Florida. Jon Roberts flooded Miami with over $2 billion worth of cocaine throughout the ’80s. He was also one of the drug traffickers who turned government informant. Roberts operated in the downtown Miami area and was an associate of Medellà ­n Cartel during the growth phase in cocaine trafficking. Soon after he hooked up with Medellin Cartel he began using his own method to ship cocaine into the United States. He began orchestrating plane shipments of hundreds of kilos of cocaine a week. He was associated with Mickey Munday who is the last Cocaine Cowboys left alive. He too was also involved in the cocaine business during that time. Based on the Movie Jon Roberts was kind of like the thinker and Mickey Munday was like the pilot. Jon would think about where to deliver the drug and how to deliver the drug while Mickey on the other hand was the one who flew the drugs into Miami. In September 1986, FBI and Customs offici als busted the the 38 years old trafficker jon Roberts. Columbia is South America’s fourth largest country. It is about 440,831 square miles long and the capital is Bogota with the population of 27 million people. Columbia greatest agriculture crops are coffee, and coca. â€Å"Columbia is one of the world largest producers of the drugs cocaine, and heroin producing 50,900 hectares of coca that they sold 75% to the United States.† (CIA database) Drug dealers and drugs control Columbia and are the new Mafia and gangsters, who smuggle drugs in the United States, and make millions and millions of dollars a year. Smuggling had its greatest growth in the United States during the Prohibition Era. It became a full-fledged business for organized crime like the Mafia who ran Chicago in the 1920’s. The drug dealers of Columbia are the modern day Mafia who used the power of drug money to control the government. The most famous drug dealers were Pablo Escobar, Jorge Luis Ochoa Valquez and Carlos Lehder Rivas, who controlled the drug trades in Columbia and were, at the time, the new Mafia. â€Å"By the year, 1984 the Medellin cartel had controlled 80 percent of the cocaine in the country.† (Alternatives.com) Pablo Escobar was born in a small village of Rionegro seventeen miles outside Medellin. In 1976, police arrested him for possession of thirty-nine pounds of cocaine, but the officers where soon killed and 9 judges refused to hear the case due to death threats. The record disappeared and he was never tried. Soon he was worth over 2 million dollars that he used to buy himself a huge estate near the Magdalena river that included his own private zoo. Pablo Escobar built low cost housing and a hospital to get the people of Medellin on his side. In 1982, he was elected to the congress, which gave him immunity from arrest. On Nov. 18, 1986 charges where brought against Escobar, on bringing 16 tons of cocaine into the United States. The government of Columbia said they would not deport him because they feared for their lives. On, December 2, 1993, a group of military police shot the drug lord on a rooftop in Medellin, Columbia. Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasguez was the son of Fabio Ocheoa Restrepo whose family was cattle breeders until they began trafficking drugs in the mid 1970. In 1981, guerrillas kidnapped Jorge Vasguez sister for ransom. Ocheoa joined with other drug lords including Escobar to form a vigilante group called Muerte a Secuestadores who kidnapped or killed members of the guerrillas until the girl were set free. This caused these three drug dealers to work together and Escobar and Vaguez made a new pact. Jorge Vasguez and the Ocheoa family provided hitmen, guards and death squads that included high ranked military officers. The Ocheoa family also would handle payoffs to police, judges and politicians. Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez was arrested by police on November 15,1984 and was going to be deported to the United States. When this news reached Bogota a car loaded with dynamite exploded in front of the US embassy in Bogota killing one and injuring four Colombians. On Aug. 13, 1986, Ochea Vasquez was released. He was arrested again on Nov. 21, 1987 but he was released again on December 30,1987. Carlos Lehder Rivas was born in Michigan and was a car dealer until he deiced to use his money to start a drug smuggling operation bringing drugs out of Columbia. He found a remote landing strip in the Bahamas where he bribed Bahamian officials where drugs would be unloaded and depatched into the United States in many different types of transportation. Soon Carlos was working with the Medellian cartel and would unload 300 kilograms a day making over 300 million a year. He was worth over 2.5 billion dollars and owned over 15 cars, three helicopters, and property all over Columbia. Finally the United States government caught up with him, but he got away because he killed 11 Supreme Court Justices, two newspaper editors in Columbia and 26 other journalists. Finally in 1997 he was arrested and was brought to a cell at the U.S. Penitary in Marion, IL that had a telephone. From his cell he made contact with FBI, and CIA agents who used to work in the cartel. Leder was sentenced to life in prison plus 135 years but the FBI and CIA gave him a deal to help them convict Noriega and cut down 30 years on his prison term. A few years after he testified he mysteriously disappeared from prison. These three individuals are only a few of the individuals who used the cartel to control all levels of the government including the president. President Ernesto Sampler accepted millions of dollars from the Mafia to finance his campaign. He said that the newspaper he wrote had over 10,900 subscribers instead of the 1,000 original subscribers his wife knew about. Also the government tried to destroy drug fields by eradicating coca and opium fields by spraying herbicide glyphosate. The problem is drug traffickers are paying guerrillas $200,000 for every plane that they shot down three times what they get for destroying the fields for the government. The police and military forces in Columbia are too weak and easily bribed by the cartels. The police in Columbia are armed civilians who don’t have the right to vote and don’t have much power and only a policeman can arrest someone under a warrant in Columbia. But since most policemen don’t have much power they are afraid to arrest someone, so the military forces usefully have to get involved in order to arrest someone. The police in Columbia can’t get anything done without the help of the military and neither really knows what the other is supposed to do which causes nothing to get done. The illegal drugs that are smuggled into the United States from Colombia come by many forms of transportation. Nova Scotia, Canada, has been a major drop-off point for illegal cargo since the early 1970s. Police say that to prepare for one drug smuggling operation, a group of criminals based in Nova Scotia bought a fishing vessel and used it just for fishing until long-ti me residents took it for granted. It would make runs in and out for two to three months just for fishing. â€Å"Then it went out on its fishing trip, and instead of bringing back fish, it had hashish and marijuana† (Abadinsky 39). Between 1974 and 1986, police recorded 12 major seizures, including boatloads of hashish and marijuana (Allen 1). Drug smuggling attempts by boat usually involve a â€Å"mother ship,† a cargo vessel lying up to 250 miles off the shore. This vessel will off load a variety of drugs onto smaller fishing vessels, which then transport the drugs to other couriers on shore. Cargo vessels, coming from other countries to the United States have become the newest method in drug smuggling. On June 19, 1992, the captain of the container ship Santa Marta radioed ahead to Jacksonville, Florida, that his ship was experiencing difficulties with its ballast ducts. An alert Customs officer suspected that it was a drug shipment unknown to the captain, and he was right. Forty kilograms of cocaine were discovered by divers in duffel bags secured in the recessed ballast duct by metal wire (Goode 10). The growth of hull attachments has sparked the interest of scientists to design an invention that will detect objects underwater. Drugs are not only smuggled into the country by boats, but are also driven across by cars and trucks. Drug lords sometimes hire one-time â€Å"mules,† or couriers, who pose as vacationers in the Big Bend National Park They hide the drugs in secret compartments in the walls of trailers and motor homes as they camp through the park. Many times the drug dealers will hire or start their own trucking companies. In one incident, cocaine wrapped in grease-smeared plastic had been stuffed into about ten hollow forty-foot steel beams. They were trucked across the country from California to New York. Drugs have been known to be found in hubcaps, spare tires, glove compartments, and in the stuffing of car seats, and ceilings of cars. Also, they have been found packed in metal boxes and hooked by magnets to the underside of the truck without the driver knowing. One of the most recent techniques is through Postal Service Express. Drug dealers will send a certain amount of drugs through the Postal Service Express. They choose the Postal Service Express because it is delivered the next day, it eliminates the middle man, which means that it costs less, it is also very difficult to monitor and harder to stop. After the client receives the drugs, he/she will send money back through Postal Service Express. Although there are many other next day delivery services, Postal Service Express is connected to the United States Post offices. Which means that opening the mail would be a federal offense. Other express package companies do not face the same problem. These companies assume ownership of the parcel as soon as it is handed to them. This means they can open it if they suspect it contains illegal substances. The only way Postal Service Express can detect a drug smuggler is to watch the packages. If the packages are being sent to the same person constantly, and then packages are being sent back to the sender the next day, postal workers might become suspicious and request a warrant. They have to be almost one hundred percent sure that there are drugs inside of the packages to get a warrant. With a warrant they can legally open the package. If the package contains drugs they will deliver it to the person and then make an arrest. Many packages will have probably been sent back and forth carrying drugs and money long before someone suspects something. One of the most risky and dangerous ways drugs are smuggled is through people. Couriers will sometimes carry drugs in false-bottomed suitcases, in the hollowed-out soles of their shoes, taped to their bodies, or sewed into their clothes. Some have even swallowed them. Some people have even swallowed up to two hundred thumb-size latex pellets. T hese carriers are usually desperate people hoping to escape poverty. Others swallow little balls of heroin wrapped in condoms. Each person swallows approximately eighty to one hundred condoms. This method is very dangerous because if the pellet or condom should break open, in most cases it would cause instant death. For example, on May 12, 1993, a thirty year old man from Bolivia was found dead on the plane. When doctors did an autopsy, they discovered seventy eight packages of cocaine. Two of the packages had broken open totaling six hundred and fifty grams in his stomach. Drugs have also been smuggled in electronic components, potatoes, cabbage, lettuce, peppers, coffee, and just about any product. Because of all these techniques, the government has set up the Drug Enforcement Administration. Coastal Watch Programs have been organized around the coast of Nova Scotia. James Parker, head of the program, has been telling the citizens to keep their eyes and ears open for signs of smuggling. On Parker’s wall there is a map of Nova Scotia with clusters of pins showing the locations of two thousand informa nts involved. Each person has a local number to call in case of suspicion. In the case of passengers arriving by air from known drug places, there are customs agents waiting to ask them a few questions at the baggage claim area. Judging by the passenger’s behavior, the tone of their voice, and their actions, the agents decide whether or not they might be carrying drugs. Columbia sends computer passenger lists to Customs agents before aircrafts arrive in Miami. These lists have the names of possible suspects. The police have developed programs that teach officers to stop motorists for small traffic violations and then search legally their cars for drugs. Many innocent people are stopped before one offender is actually caught. Some indicators are an open map on the front seat, a fast-food bag on the floor, or an out-of-state license plate. Police use these as signs because couriers are in a hurry and usually do not know their way around. After all of the efforts to control the drug smuggling, the new North American Free Trade Agreement between Mexico, the United States, and Canada makes things worse. This agreement makes the United States more accessible and convenient for drug traffickers. It will gradually eliminate tariffs on goods traded among the three nations and allow Mexican truckers to drive their rigs anywhere in the United States and Canada with little inspection. The United States and Columbia need to work together instead of blaming each other to stop drug trafficking and the Columbia Mafia. Columbia needs an stronger police force and to use the money the United States is giving them to make busts. Studies have shown that the money has been going to guerrilla forces helping the cortels instead of training the Colombian police. Second both countries have to recognize the supply and demand of the drugs problem. Both countries need to educate their people on the effects of drugs. If the United States lowered the demand on drugs then Columbia would not produce them. Third the Colombian government needs to be tougher on drug dealers and give them harsher sentences. Also Columbia needs new crops to grow and maybe the United States should teach the farms how to gr ow things other then coca. Coca is the major product in Columbia and many farmers do not know what else to plant. Works Cited De Lama, George, â€Å"US. Unable to Take Much of a Bite Out of Drug Traffic from Mexico.† Chicago Tribune. Chicago: Sunday April 17, 1994. Farah, Douglas, â€Å"Columbia Defense Minister Charges Samper with Accepting Drug Money† The Washington Post. Internet: http://thetech.mit.edu/v115/n66/colo.66w.html. Hallihan, Joe. â€Å"Car Searches Latest Tactic in Drug War.† N.S.L.S. Cd-Rom Database Not Given:1991. John, Harvey. â€Å"Cocaine Poisoning.† The Journal of the American Medical Association, 1993. Kirby, Joseph. â€Å"Mail-order Drug Dealers on Fast Track.† Chicago Tribune. Chicago: Thursday March 11, 1993. Moushey, Bill, â€Å"Hunted Down, then Protected.† Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Pittsburgh: May 1996, http:www.gotti.com/pwhunteddown.html. Powell, Morgan. â€Å"The Rifleman.† Chicago Tribune. Chicago: Sunday March 27, 1994. Treaster, Joseph B. â€Å"Nigerian Connection Floods U.S. Airport with Asian Heroine.† New York Times. New York: Feb. 15,1992 â€Å"Drug Production and Transit Countries DEA- Congressional Testimony,† Internet: http:www.alternatives.com/crime/deacert.html#Columbia. â€Å"In Columbia, Jailed Politicians Reveal Power of Trafficking.† CrimeData base, http://www.latinolink.com/news/0612ncol.html. â€Å"Pablo Escobar,† Internet: http://www.alternatives.com/crime/Escobar.html â€Å"Who is the Mob Today,† Internet: http://www.alternatives.com.crime/mobtoday.html. â€Å"Columbia† Internet: http://www.cia.com â€Å"Jorge Vasques†, Crimedata base, Internet: http://www.alternatives.com/crime/cm15.html.

The Things They Carried Passage Analysis

â€Å"Spin† Passage: The Things They Carried The function of the passage from the episode â€Å"Spin† is to introduce a different interpretation of the concept of â€Å"boredom,† one that pertains to the war and the soldiers specifically and not often experienced by civilians. The type of boredom described by the narrator in the passage is tenser, and encompasses many more emotions that the Alpha Company comes across.Throughout the passage, the reader gets the idea that the soldiers are not bored in the irritated and uninterested way that most people typically are. Instead, the men are anxious, anticipating the next unpleasant event to come upon them at any moment. The narrator explains, â€Å"You’d try to relax. You’d uncurl your fists and let your thoughts go. Well, you’d think, this isn’t so bad. And right then you’d hear gunfire behind you and your nuts would fly up into your throat and you’d be squealing pig squeals † (O’Brien 34).This description of how the soldiers would behave, with curled fists and apprehensive thoughts, jumping at every noise, proves that they are not nonchalant but hyperaware of their surrounding and on edge. When the narrator describes war as â€Å"boring,† he refers to the redundancy of always worrying, then allowing oneself to relax for a moment before being bombarded with another battle. The first three sentences from the quote have a calm, slow attitude, especially when juxtaposed with â€Å"gunfire,† â€Å"nuts,† and â€Å"pig squeals,† which are harsh, callous words.The way in which O’Brien chose to write that particular quote is similar to the repetitive way that the soldiers wait, making the reader understand to some level what it is like to live that way. As a result, O’Brien uses this passage to introduce a new, atypical definition of the word â€Å"bored,† where it is used as an â€Å"umbrella† word for many other emotions, including anxiety and fear.