Research and explanation into e-branding and its impact on the consumer behaviour The WritePass Journal

Research and explanation into e-branding and its impact on the consumer behaviour Research and explanation into e-branding and its impact on the consumer behaviour CHAPTER 1INTRODUCTIONCHAPTER 2LITERATURE REVIEW  INTRODUCTIONINTRODUCTION TO E-BRANDINGTHE IMPORTANCE OF E-BRANDINGDIFFERENT BRANDING STRATEGIESDRIVING ONLINE BRANDS TO SUCCESSE-BRAND BUILDINGBRAND EQUITYONLINE BRANDING METRICSMetrics of brand measurementSTAGES OF BRANDINGELEMENTS OF SUCCESSFUL ONLINE BRANDING  REFERENCESRelated CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Modern day marketing has greatly developed. Companies now use consumer driven approaches to promote their abilities to satisfy needs and wants of the modern consumer. E-branding is one of the processes that let a company to promote their products and services over a broad and open platform, accessible to half the world. More than 4 billion people access the web all over the world. Therefore branding CAN be described as a process of building a positive image for product or service what company provides to its consumers. Moreover effective branding has the emotional element that creates product loyalty, for example Burger King- â€Å"Do it your way† or Nike â€Å"Just do it†. According to Sterne (1999) â€Å"A brand is not a name. A brand is not a positioning statement. It is not a marketing message. It is a promise made by a company to its customers and supported by company†.      CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW   INTRODUCTION In this chapter, the main purpose is to understand various concepts of e-branding- for example- different branding strategies, brand equity and elements of success, importance of e-branding etc. INTRODUCTION TO E-BRANDING   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Commercial internet has been around for over a decade. Many organizations used E-branding to promote their brands on internet. According to Kotler et al (2010, pg 255) e-branding is â€Å"the creation and development of communications strategies specifically for brands to have meaning and context on the web† and the brand stands for â€Å"a name, term, sign, symbol, design or a combination of these, that identifies the product or service of one seller or group of sellers and differentiates them from those competitors†. The Internet is a tactic part of business strategy just like newspapers or direct mail advertisements or business cards. Therefore branding is an important part of Internet commerce, as branding allows companies to build up their reputations as well as expand beyond the original product and service, and add to the revenue generated by the original brand (Carpenter, 2000). According to Kotler et al (2010) strong, successful brand can shift the competitive framework in the company favour, given it intangible, difficult to replicate, values with which to supplement its more basic products, price and distribution benefits. However nowadays people don’t pay attention to the existence of a site as a company, but consumer pays much attention to a good deal for product or service, what could save a lot of money for consumer pocket.   Ã‚   According to Levine (2003) in 1995 July 16th -Amazon.com- was the first company who went live on the Internet, even that time period many people had never ever purchased any goods or services from online shopping.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   According to Interbrand (2011) a survey of Retail Brands Performance 2010 UK, the BEST TOP 10 are Rank Brand Brand Value ($m) 1 TESCO 10.102 2 MARK SPENCER 6.074 3 BOOTS 2.480 4 ASDA 1.395 5 NEXT 1.314 6 ARGOS 912 7 SAINSBURYS 849 8 MORRISONS 429 9 WAITROSE 338 10 DEBENHAMS 284 Source: interbrand.com/en/BestRetailBrands/2011.aspx For that reason Levine (2003) argues that â€Å"E-branding is not just the activity of creating a brand on the internet, it’s not just about making e-commerce site famous and creating brands that end in â€Å".com†, e-branding can create brand awareness, state brand identity, and reinforce brand integrity as well as or better than most other forms of branding communications†.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Internet is as a direct communication with the public, where companies can talk to their consumers what they want to reach or they can talk with consumers who have interest about product or service what organization provides, therefore organizations can reach millions of people for the price of one local newspaper advertisement fees (Sheehan, 2010). Nowadays organizations need to use WEB, because cited from Levine (2003, pg 169) â€Å"Product or service without a web site in today’s market is like a politician without vocal cords: he or she might have great ideas, but who’s going to know about them?† Internet has transformed the image of marketing and branding. Traditional brand branding types such as TV, radio, newspapers etc is always the choice of marketers to brand the business; however the pattern is changing with consumer buying behaviour shifting towards online purchasing, and for that reason e-branding now is more and more important as ever with the globalized access for billions of consumers. Successful e-branding leads to increase brand awareness and potential access to new customers as well as the development of new lines of business, previously unavailable to traditional companies. As customers creates their trust in brands through of use and experience, companies has the opportunity to start building relationship with consumers, strengthening the brand further and making it more difficult for competitors to imitate. Therefore it is very important for business to build up memorable brand in consumers mind. Brand is the product what organization produce, and its represents organizations core values, competencies, attitudes, vision, mission, personality and appearance (Kushwaha, 2009). More over there exist high competition in market, therefore organization need to find a market niche and accurately adjust the offer to the consumers need.   According to study by Cheskin Research (1999) brand is at the top the list of six marketplace fundamentals for building and maintaining trust on the internet: others are navigability, fulfilment, presentation, technology and seals of approval. THE IMPORTANCE OF E-BRANDING According to Aaker (2000) â€Å"branding has been characterised as the process of creating value through the provision of a compelling and consistent offer and customer experience that will satisfy customers and keep them coming back†. However Chernatony et al (1992) says that the companies who have strong history of strong brands -will likely maintain greater control over the balance of power between them and customers, not forgetting that command a higher market share and premium price against generic, unbranded, equivalents. Were Rowley (2004) argues that â€Å"if organization has the strong and successful brand, then it helps to shift the competitive framework in the company favour, giving it intangible, difficult to replicate, values with which to augment its more basic product, price and distribution benefits†. However Steven (1999) explains that e-branding also provide an economy of scale to the company and provide it with a springboard from which to launch addit ional associated products and services. Brand management should aim to build into customers minds a set of perceptions and attitudes relating to an offering, leading to positive buying behaviour (Phillips, 2006). A brand helps in differentiating one company from another. As it was mention before brand marketing is the process of developing the right image or corporate identity of organization to the market place. According to Show (2009) the main element of good brand development include target market research which involves collecting information on potential clients need and preferences, features and benefits of their products in which the target market will be interested. As Show (2009) explains – brand building or brand marketing comprises of brand name development, brand design, logo design, brand communications, corporate branding and product branding. The creation and development of a well-differentiated brand helps in reaching customers in a way that it is compatible with their beliefs, language, need and expectations (Show, 2009). Branding seeks a certain impression with respect to the qualities or characteristics of a product that makes it special or unique, furthermore with branding, organization can brand product/service brand into the consciousness of consumers. In generally the importance of branding a product/ service lies in the fact that branding means recognition and an identity (Scholasticus, 2010). However cited from Scholasticus (2010) â€Å"actual words â€Å"branding† in its origins can be connected to the activity of branding of milk giving animals, where farmers-animal owners- often branded their cows and buffaloes with their signature brands. The milk of animal that were taken better care of, was always in demand and of course-costly†.   But from the point of view of business, the process of branding involves making of a trademark and a good name (Scholasticus, 2010). However in the field of marketing, the brand name plays an important role as it helps the people to promote the brand name and its merits quite easily, it also becomes possible for the marketing people to generate intelligence information about brands popularity and also what people exactly want from the brand owning company, and more over as a resu lt of a brand loyal group of consumers, it also becomes easier for marketing department to asses regular and promised demand (Scholasticus, 2010). E-branding refers to any type of branding by electronic means. Dubberly (2000) describes a brand as a sign, formed by words or graphics that represent or signify the brand and the perception of the brand, which has been shaped by the experience. All traditional branding and e-branding must be customer centric.   However the type of customer that organization hope to attract may be different, for example traditional brands may center or a domestic market, where brick- and- mortar locations exist, but the e-brand may look to have an international reach. Traditional branding may look to move customers to impulse buying whereas e-brands may look more for brand recognition. More over e-branding supplement brand recognition on website through community building for their loyal customers. According to Mega public branding (2011) multinationals corporations operating online face different problems, for example information technologies, but connection with the commercial performance on their online ventures. Often, the budget has been spent on content management system, IT staff, and in local web companies delivering individual user interfaces based on either outdate branding system or on none at all. Such problems derive from the fact that these companies have failed to invest pro-actively in a global strategic branding program- because organization have failed underestimated the need for a strong global brand vision and for a direct marketing program adapted to the internet (Mega public branding, 2011). However Hoeck (2007) argues that there exist three main problems with branding, and the first problem is that the companies try to be what they think their customers want them to be. The second problem is that the companies have done nothing about their brands. The third common problem is that the companies who get mired in analysis paralysis- over thinking market segmentation, competitive positioning, value propositions, long- term objectives, short- term objectives, quality research, quantitative research etc.   As Hoeck (2007) explains companies need to be â€Å"themselves†. Furthermore Hoeck (2007) explains if companies don’t stand out in the marketplace, they are not connecting with potential customers. And the main reason why companies don’t stand out- is because they don’t know â€Å"who† they are (Hoeck, 2007). Nowadays some companies think that they need to be like their potential customers in order to connect with them, so they bend over backwards trying to be what they think the market wants them to be (Hoeck, 2007). Some companies try many different looks and change with the trends, however having many different images and personalities at the same time, makes consumer confused and it dilutes any competitive advantage (Hoeck, 2007). Good example would be Microsoft, when Windows Live online service was introduced in 2005, and company was criticized for the confusing and inconsistent branding and naming of the Live services (Arvidson, 2010). In general Windows Liver service includes Windows Live Hotmail, a free email system, Windows Live Essentials, which includes a package of software including Photo gallery, movie maker, and Windows Live Mesh, which allows user to sync photos and documents between computers (Arvidson, 2010). The brand problems appearance after Microsoft created the â€Å"Live† service brand, because it created confusion when the email service was alternately named Windows Live Mail and Windows Live Hotmail, more over the â€Å"Live† branding term was not consistently used in several Microsoft products, but it made big confusions in consumers’ eyes (Arvidson, 2010). And only in 2007 Microsoft launched The Windows Live Search service, separating it from its â€Å"Live† brand to be a part of its Microsoft ad Centre, which provides pay- per- click advertisement service (Arvidson, 2010). DIFFERENT BRANDING STRATEGIES According to Worsham (2009) there exist four branding strategies- Corporate branding, distinct brand, hybrid brand and umbrella brands. As Worsham (2009) explains- CORPORATE BRAND STRATEGY stands for companies that only offer one benefit for their customers, more over they usually used corporate brand. Advantage- Everything the company does is attributed to its brand Disadvantage Everything the company does is attributed to its brand The next brand category according to Worsham (2009) is DISTINCT BRAND STRATEGY, what stands for when companies choose to release each product or service as its own brand ( for example Proctor Gamble) Advantage each product stands alone so failures do not affect the entire company or other products. Distinct benefit for each product can be directly attributed to a specific brand. Disadvantages according to Worsham (2009) would be that each product will require its own marketing strategy and budget, with no synergy possible between products. Successes will not be directly attributes to the company brands. The next category of brand is HYBRID BRAND STRATEGY according to Worsham (2009). This brand stands for when a product extends the benefit of an overall brand or company. Advantages: marketing and branding can take advantage of the overall brand for budget and reputation. Disadvantage: any problems or negative press for either the product or the overall brand will affect both brands. The last brand category stands for UMBRELLA BRAND STRATEGY according to Worsham (2009). If company provides different products with different benefits, but they all extend the same value to the customer, sometimes they all offered under an overall brand, for example Nike. Advantages: each product contributes to the shared value offered to the customer. More over marketing and branding strategies can be at the shared value level, touting all the specific benefits. Disadvantages: any product can negatively affect the overall brand and specific benefits may be muddled in the overall shared value. Cited from Irvine (2011) – it doesn’t matter in what industry organization operates, but it is important to choose and used the right branding strategy. With branding strategies organization define what advertisement campaigns organization will use to promote their products. Furthermore branding strategy what organization choose will end up forming the identity or image that people will have of the products, causing them to be attracted or repelled by what organization present (Irvine, 2011) DRIVING ONLINE BRANDS TO SUCCESS According to Sharpe (2000) the development of a powerful brand requires money, analysis, planning, execution and time, and for that reason there exist principles for building up strong online brand: KEY BRANDING PRINCIPLES: Defining the brand Selecting the brand strategy framework Developing specific and achievable goals Operational zing the brand Leveraging the features of the internet Monitoring the brand performance Caring about customers Source: Key principles for successful online branding, Sharpe, 2000.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Defining the brand is the first crucial step for success. According to Anonymous (2002) investing time and energy in e-marketing, can help understand brand better, involving its meanings to potential consumers, its relationships to competitor brand, and the brand role in the market. According to Anonymous (2002) there exist three basic brand strategy frameworks, when organizations define their brands- Conglomerate brand strategy means that the companies’ brands stand on their own, for example Procter Gamble with independent brand like Tide and Crest. Corporate brand strategy what means that there exist relationship between the company and its brands, for example car brand Renault and its models like Renault Megana and Renault Twingo Master brand strategy means that there are very close relationship with brand and company, in different words every brand name includes the corporate brand name, for example hotel chain Holiday Inn and its brand Holidays Inn Express. Developing specific and achievable goals is next important principle for building up strong online brand. Quoted from Graham (2002) different objectives demand different strategic approaches. Therefore Goldsmith (2001) recommends distinguish between specific branding goals: Awareness, therefore organizations need to use online and offline advertisements if they want to stand out from the crowd Message association- organization need to design perfect brand message to make customers to associate a message with products what organization provide. Next important principle according to Anonymous (2002) is operationalzing the brand, because the identification and formulation of the brand actions plan can help to increase effective communication and delivery of the brand attributes. Leveraging the features of the internet, offers advertisers unique opportunities allowing them to make stronger brand affinity (Anonymous, 2002). Therefore Bruner (2000) explains that there exist five features, what are the most important for online branding success, and they are – Search engines majority of internet users use primarily search engines such Google or Bing for information research, therefore Web search engines are a key to success by positively influencing a brand awareness among customers Permission email – nowadays web users have become more and more fed up of â€Å"spam† – marketing message bombarding their e-mail boxes, therefore email as online marketing tool can be used for targeting new customers, and retaining existing users if they allowed it.   For example- customer relationship e-mail –by Amazon. Com for order confirmation. Personalization- organization need interact with customer, for example FedEx offering their customers to track the shipment of an online order, and it can also increase customer satisfaction and it can improve brand loyalty. Word of mouth-   can be very cost- efficient tool in acquiring new customers, because usually satisfied users recommends a website to their friends or they give good feedback to another web users who need the same service or product what organization provide Affiliate networks. Nowadays WEB users more and more randomly surf in the WEB sites, therefore the business existence in many web sites are become more important in reaching potential customers.   Therefore Graham (2002) explains that affiliate network allows cooperative advertisements and promotions to be more rewarding than conventional banner and campaigns. E-BRAND BUILDING According to Murphy (1993) â€Å"branding is concerned with assembling and maintaining a mixture of values, both tangible and intangible, which are relevant to consumers and which significantly and appropriately distinguishes one suppliers brand from that of another†. According to Treiblmaier (2006) the origins of brand management can be found in the beginning of the 20th century. Its primary goals include the creation and the development of distinguishable symbols, which could serve as a reference and influence a consumers buying decision. To make a brand competitive, it is important to have preferences for brand, trust and customer loyalty. E-brands are brands what exist in online and it represents an offer or an organization, depending on whether the company conduct business online, offline or both, there can be seen three different types of differentiation, for example pure players, offline brands and mixed players (Treiblmaier, 2006). Source: Brand building on the web (Aaker and Joachimsthaler, 2000, p 237) Aaker et al (2000) explains that there exist six tools for building brand on the web, and they are the most powerful brand-building tool, since it can be tailored to the actual needs of the customers. Advertising efforts and sponsored content on a third-party site help to get known in the online world. An intranet can be used to communicate the brand and its identity internally, while a customer extranet makes users feel like being part of a big community. Web based public relations strategies intend to influence communication measures, which cannot be directly controlled by the company itself, such as private websites, public discussion rooms and chats. It is of vital importance for enterprises to know about their â€Å"online image†, since information is spread easily on the Internet, and can have both positive and negative effects. E-mail enables the organization to send and receive information, thereby simplifying contact with their stakeholders Furthermore Clark (1997) explains that to create a powerful e-brand it is important to compare the impact of various factors, for example- web-design, promotions, positioning, security, name, information and service delivery in different market environment. Website, at the end of the day, is the ultimate one-to-one communication channel, second only to human interface (Sheehan, 2010). A well designed website can be a superb brand extension and sales executive for any company: always on duty, always accurate, always up-to-date (as long as it is maintained) and utterly consistent (Sheehan, 2010). Of course, the web is no replacement for the human intelligence but it is a powerful weapon to extend a brand into the wide world, 24-hours a day (Jacobsohn, 2002). BRAND EQUITY According to Kotler et al (1999) â€Å"Brand equity is the value of brand, based on the extent to which it has high brand loyalty, name awareness, perceived quality, strong name associations, and other assets such as patents, trademarks, and channel relationships†. Therefore advertisements are main force what help increase brand equity.   Brand equity is measured based on how much a customer is aware of brand, in another words it shows how much customers are willing to switch to another brand, especially when that brand makes a change, either in price or in product features (Kapferer, 1997). More over high brand equity provides a company with many competitive advantages, for example powerful brands enjoy a high level of consumer brand awareness and loyalty, for example Coca Cola, IBM, Marlboro and so on (Kotler et al, 1999). Furthermore if brand carries high credibility, then organization can more easily launch line and brand extension for example Procter Gamble (Kotler et al, 1999). According to Stamoulis (2011) † building up brand equity in online can take time, dedication and patience, however the intangible asset that is brand equity can go a long way in building and maintaining an online reputation, building trust factor with the search engines and consumer; and it helps increase online brand presence and more†. Brand equity is not something that just happens; it takes a conscious effort to make sure that the brand equity becomes a valuable asset (Kotler et al, 1999). And for that reason Stamoulis (2011) explains that there exist three ways how to build up brand equity: Invest in content marketing. According to Junta42 Content Marketing (2011): †Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience-with the objective of driving profitable customer action†. Content marketing is art of communications with customers and prospects without selling, in different words it is non-interruption marketing (Stamoulis, 2011). In different words consumer doesn’t care what company is or what they   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   do; all what consumers want is to know what organization can do for them, or how the product what company sell can solve consumer problems (Stamoulis, 2011). This type of marketing used organizations around the world, and good examples would be Procter Gamble, Microsoft or Cisco Systems. The second way according to Stamoulis (2011) would be cultivate relationship with industry bloggers, because influential blogger (person who writes a weblogs) can provide a huge boom for organizations content marketing campaign. A popular business blog may get thousands of visitors per day and a powerful blogger can help Support business not only for building up brand equity; but it can also help drive incredible amounts of traffic to the site. The third way according to Stamoulis (2011) would be- building an online community. ONLINE BRANDING METRICS Consumers often anthropomorphize brands by endowing them with personality traits, and marketers often create or reinforce these perceptions by their brand positioning (Rajagopal, 2008). Brand personality traits provide symbolic meaning or emotional value that can contribute to consumer brand preferences and can be more enduring than functional attribute. Successful positioning of a brands personality within a product category requires measurement model that are able to disentangle a brand unique personality traits from those traits that are common to all brands in the product category (Rajagopal, 2008). Therefore businesses need to use brand measurement system to understand how successful they are in the market. However Stewart (2004, pg 382) explains that â€Å"The key benefit of a brand measurement system is that it links brand management and business performance, and the system is most powerful when it is viewed as a strategic management tool for continuous improvement rather than a static snapshot in time of the brands performance†. All measurements need to be considered as a continuous activity (Stewart, 2004). For that reason Stewart (2004) explains that metrics should be grouped in three categories- perception metrics, performance metrics and financial metrics, what allows marketer to gauge the effectiveness of brand- building activity from brand investment (inputs) through to business impact (outputs), (Stewart, 2004). Metrics of brand measurement Source: Steward, Brand Management (2004, pg 383) As Steward (2004) explains that the Perception metrics focus on the range of functional, emotional and latent connections that combine to form an opinion of a brand. This metric also include awareness, familiarity, relevance, consideration and preference, more over all these aspects help to gauge the effectiveness of various brand-building activities across all the points of interaction with a customer. Performance metrics helps to assess how thevarious brand-building activities have combined to drive over- all business results, and range from price premium to loyalty to lifetime value of a customer.Financial metrics represent the economic impact on the business, whether revenue growth or return on investment. However the biggest challenges what marketer can face is an understanding the causal relationship between brand perception, brand performance and financial impact, but once the causal connections are made across perception, performance and impact, the marketer can tie activities directly to value creation (Stewart, 2004) STAGES OF BRANDING Brand changes are related to the expertise of management, the firms’ strategic goals and market targeting activities, the branding activities of other firms, the sophistication of consumers, the level of involvement in the product category, the stage of the product life cycle and the development of branding in the relevant product category (The Star, 2006). The brand evolution process consists of six stages, where each stage and every stage is related to the consumer engaging, learning, and valuing a particular brand (Shahzad, 2010). Therefore The Star (2006) explains that there exist six stages of branding: Unbranded goods. In this first stage, goods are treated as commodities and most are unbranded. This stage can be described as an excess of demand over supply. Producers make little effort to distinguish or brand their goods with the result that the consumers perception of good is utilitarian (Shahzad, 2010) Brand as reference competitive pressure stimulate producers to differentiate their goods from other manufacturers, and it is achieved through change in physical product attributes. Consumer memory network expand beyond recognition of the basic product category to include other product information in order to evaluate goods on the bases of consistency and quality (Shahzad, 2010). Organizations used brand names based on their image of the brand as a heuristic device in decision making. Brand as a personality- by this stage of brand as personality, differentiation among brands on rational and functional attributes becomes exceedingly difficult as many producers make the same claim, and for those reason organisations gives their brand personality. Brand as icons in this stage the brand is â€Å"owned by consumers†. There exist extensive knowledge about the brand- frequently worldwide- and use it to create their self-identity. Brand as a company brand has a complex identity and there are many points of contract between the consumer and the brand. Brand as policy this stage is distinguished by an alignment of the company with ethical, social and even political causes. ELEMENTS OF SUCCESSFUL ONLINE BRANDING   Successful online branding must have excellent management of product positioning, good copy content, good SEO values and an effective online brand presence, all of which require a lot off work (Cleanthous, 2010).   The online market may be the biggest in the world, but it is also is the toughest market in the world, because businesses need get consumer attention to the extent of actually buying a product. Therefore Cleanthous (2010) explains that â€Å"Four Ps† of traditional marketing plays huge role in success, and â€Å"Four Ps† stands for: Products must have a clear target audience online. Core users are the essential demographic for online marketing. Positions internet audience will ignore irrelevant information, and that includes any product related to irrelevant information, marketing information must be positioned correctly in terms of the target demographic. Price online pricing must be considered to be market sensitive, because in a market where everyone can instantly go and check and make comparisons with other products, pricing must be competitive and realistic. Promotion online promotions can be brilliant, incredibly successful or stunningly ineffectual and totally wasteful in terms of time and effort. However small business Trend (2011) argues that there exist 4Cs, what helps create a great brand online, and 4Cs stands for – content, consistency, clarity, cultivate. Therefore Small Business Trend (2011) explains that the most important factor of branding online is CONTENT, not a logo or the colours what company use on their WEB site. Content is a brand message what company are using to unite with their customers (Barone, 2011). The next â€Å"C† stands for CONSISTENCY. Companies try to create a brand with a cohesive message that users will be able to trust over time. Companies’ logo, web accounts, site colour, and text on message or home page everything must deliver the same message and brand must do what it promise to its consumers (Small business Trend, 2011). The next â€Å"C† stands for CLARITY. Organisations must create characters, because it allows the organisation best connect with their target audience, but from the beginning it is important to understand who audience is, what they are looking for, and where organization can fit into the mix (Barone, 2011). Organisation must represent clear about what they want their brand connecting fibers to be (Small business Trend, 2011) The last â€Å"C† stand for CULTIVATE.   In general brand will not grow overnight; therefore organizations need to cultivate it over time (Barone, 2011). This involves- commenting on blogs, participating in appropriate online communities, responding to people when they mention you, being proactive about building relationships, and being open to letting customers inside organization (Small Business Trend, 2011). However Philpott (2008) argues that internet brand development is a relatively straight forward and logical process. It starts with creating and increasing an online awareness of products or service what organization represent. For that reason Philpott (2008) explains that there exist three simple steps to effectively establish chosen online brands by organization on WEB. And these three steps are- exposure, Repetition and build trust. The first step is EXPOSURE. It is very important for organization to build an online brand to get out in front of people. Therefore organizations can use video or different content to increase their exposure on the internet. For example –social sites, blogs, forums or other platforms can be used for organization to target audience. The second step is REPETITION. For organization to create and developed an online awareness of brand will take a repeated, consistent and sustained effort in order to be effective. As Philpott (2008) explains â€Å"branding is making ’lasting’ impression and this cannot be done overnight†. More over the impression what organization is trying to build in consumers’ eye have a lasting effect and repetition is the key. The last step according to Philpott (2008) is BUILDING TRUST. Whatever type of contents organization use to build up their online brand, organization want it to be useful to the people they target. When consumer associated brand with organization, then it is easier for business to target these customers, because when association and reputation increase, so will marketing effectiveness increase, not forgetting trust from consumers (Philpott, 2008). 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Butterworth- Heinemann, Oxford, UK Cheskin Research (1999), ECOMMERCE TRUST STUDY, available from – cheskin.com/cms/files/i/articles//17__report-eComm%20Trust1999.pdf   Ã‚  (Accessed- 19.07.2011) Clark (1997), WELCOME TO MY PARLOR, Marketing Management, 5, page 10-25 Cleanthous Alex (2010), ELEMENTS OF SUCCESSFUL ONLINE BRANDING, available from http://netlz1.wordpress.com/2010/11/14/elements-of-successful-online-branding/, (Accessed 01.08.2011) 10. Dubberly (2000), A MODEL OF BRAND, Aiga Journal of design for the network economy, Nr1. 11.   Goldsmith Ronald (2001) â€Å"EBRANDS: BUILDING AN INTERNET BUSINESS AT BRAKNECK SPEED†, BOOK REVIEW, Journal of product brand management, 10(1), pg 65-66 12. Graham Jeffrey (2002) â€Å"THE ONLINE BRANDING HUB†, available from clickz.com/clickz/column/1698723/the-online-branding-hub, (Accessed 01.08.2011) 13.   Graham Jeffrey (2002), BEING SPECIFIC ABOUT ONLINE BRANDING, available from clickz.com/clickz/column/1718091/being-specific-about-online-branding, (Accessed 01.08.2011) 14. Hoeck Marcia (2007), THE 3 MAIN PROBLEMS WITH BRANDING, available from http:/ezinearticles.com/?The-3-Main-Problems-With-Brandingid=433544, (Accessed- 01.08.2011) 15. Intra brand (2011), BEST GLOBAL BRANDS 2010, available from- interbrand.com/en/best-global-brands/best-global-brands-2008/best-global-brands-2010.aspx, (Accessed 19.07.2011) 16. Jacobsohn, Neil (2002, January 23). On-line branding, Sunday Times. 17. Junta 42 Content marketing (2011), WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING? IF YOU ARE NOT CONTENT MARKETING, YOU ARE NOT MARKETING, available from https://vivipins.com/content-marketing/, (Accessed- 15.07.2011) 18. Kapferer Noel Jean (1997), STRATEGIC BRAND MANAGEMENT: CREATING AND SUSTAINING BRAND EQUITY LONG TERM, Creating and sustaining brand equity long term, second edition ,Les Editions d† Organisation 19. Kotler Philip, Armstrong Gary. (1999), PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING, edition eighth,   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Pearson. 20. Kotler Philip, Pfoertsch Waldemar (2010), INGREDIENT BRANDING, Springer 21. Kushwaha Soni (2009), WHY E-BRANDING NECESSARY, available from faridabadcity.com/articleDisplay.php?a=23, (Accessed- 19.07.2011) 22. Levine Michael (2003), A BRANDED WORLD: ADVENTURES IN PUBLIC RELATIONS AND THE CREATION OF SUPERBRANDS, John Wiley Sons, INC 23. Mega public branding (2011), Capabilities : new media/ e-branding/ e-marketing, available from megapublic.com/branding/global-e-branding.html, (Accessed 27.07.2011) 24. Murphy (1993), BRANDING: A KEY MARKETING TOOL, London: MacMillan 25. Phillips Phil (2006), THE IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING, Business Corner, Strategies Analysis, available from chemarkconsulting.net/docs/articles/03biz_corner_MAR06.pdf, (Accessed 19.07.2011) 26. Rajagopal (2008), MEASURING BRAND PERFORMANCE THROUGH METRICS APPLICATION, Vol 12, No. 1, page 29-38 27. Rowley (2004), ONLINE BRANDING, Information Review, Vol.28, No2, pp131-137 28. Scholasticus (2010), IMPORTANCE OF BRANDING, available from buzzle.com/articles/importance-of-branding.html, (Accessed- 19.07.2011) 29. Shahzad Faheem (2010), SIX STAGES OF BRAND EVOLUTION, available from http://thinking-brands.blogspot.com/2010/06/six-stages-of-brand-evolution.html, (Accessed -01.08.2011) 30. Sharpe Kathy (2000), TIME TO GET BACK TO BASICS: THE NEW BASICS, available from clickz.com/clickz/column/1691696/time-get-back-basics-new-basics, (Accessed 01.08.2011) 31. Sheehan Brian (2010) BASIC MARKETING: ONLINE MARKETING, AVA Publishing SA 32. Show Zak (2009), IMPORTANCE OF BRAND MARKETING, available from zakshow.com/2009/02/01/importance-of-brand-marketing/, (Accessed 19.07.2011) 33. Stamoulis Nick (2011), THREE WAYS TO BUILD YOUR BRAND EQUITY,   Business 2 Community, available from business2community.com/branding/3-ways-to-build-your-brand-equity-040959, (Accessed 04.07.2011) 34. Stamoulis Nick (2011), THREE WAYS TO BUILD YOUR BRAND EQUITY,   Business 2 Community, available from business2community.com/branding/3-ways-to-build-your-brand-equity-040959, (Accessed 04.07.2011) 35. Sterne J. (1999), WORLD WIDE WEB MARKETING, 2nd edition, Wiley, New York, NY. 36. Steven (1999) ISSUES IN BRANDING, Reuters Report, Data monitor plc, London, UK 37. Stewart Henry (2004), BRAND METRICS: GAUGING AND LINKING BRANDS WITH BUSINESS PERFORMANCE, Brand Management, Vol 11, No. 5., page 381-387 38. The Star (2006), SIX STAGES OF BRANDING, available from brandxpress.net/2006/05/6-stages-of-branding/, (Accessed 01.08.2011) 39. Treiblmaier Horst (2006), DETERMINANTS OF ELECTRONIC BRANDING: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY, Innovative Marketing, Volume 2, Issue 2, pg 89- 98 40. Small business Trends (2011), THE 4 CS TO IRRESISTIBLE ONLINE BRANDING, available from businessinsider.com/the-4-cs-to-irresistible-online-branding-2011-3, (Accessed- 01.08.2011) 41. Philpott TJ (2008), EFFECTIVE ONLINE BRAND DEVELOPMENT- 3 KEY COMPONENTS, available from http://ezinearticles.com/?Effective-Online-Brand-Development3-Key-Componentsid=5428268, (Accessed 01.08.2011) 42. Worsham Sarah ( 2009), ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF DIFFERENT BRANDING STRATEGIES, available from http://sazbean.com/2009/03/25/advantages-disadvantages-of-different-branding-strategies/, (Accessed – 01.08.2011) 43. Irvine Tom (2011), HOW TO CHOOSE RIGHT BRANDING STRATEGIES, available from http://article2008.com/Art/528294/374/How-to-Choose-Right-Branding-Strategies.html, (Accessed 01.08.2011) 44. 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Why Tall Presidential Candidates Tend to Win

Why Tall Presidential Candidates Tend to Win During one of the Republican presidential debates before the 2016 election, the web search company Google tracked what terms Internet users were searching for while watching on TV. The results were surprising. The top search wasnt ISIS. It wasnt Barack Obamas last day. It wasnt tax plans. It was: How tall is Jeb Bush? The search analytics unearthed a curious fascination among the voting public: Americans, it turns out, are fascinated with how tall the presidential candidates are. And they tend to vote for the tallest candidates, according to historic election results and research into voter behavior. So, do the tallest presidential candidates always win? Taller Presidential Candidates Get More Votes   Its true: Taller presidential candidates have fared better through history. They havent always won. But they were victorious in a majority of elections and  the popular vote about two-thirds of the time, according to  Gregg R. Murray, a  Texas Tech University political scientist. Murrays analysis concluded that the taller of  the two major-party candidates from  1789 to 2012 won 58 percent of presidential  elections and received the majority of the popular vote  in 67 percent of those elections. The notable exceptions to the rule include Democrat Barack Obama, who at 6 feet, 1 inch tall won the 2012 presidential election against Republican Mitt Romney, who was an inch taller. In 2000, George W. Bush won the election but lost the popular vote to a taller Al Gore.   Why Voters Favor Tall Presidential Candidates Taller leaders are seen as stronger leaders, researchers say. And height has been particularly important in wartime. Consider  Woodrow Wilson at 5 feet, 11 inches, and Franklin D. Roosevelt at 6 feet, 2 inches.  Ã¢â‚¬Å"In particular, during times of threat, we have a preference for physically formidable leaders,† Murray told ​​The Wall Street Journal in 2015. In the research paper  Tall claims? Sense and Nonsense About the Importance of Height of US Presidents, published in Leadership Quarterly, the authors concluded:   The advantage of taller candidates is potentially explained by perceptions associated with height: taller presidents are rated by experts as greater, and having more leadership and communication skills. We conclude that height is an important characteristic in choosing and evaluating political leaders.Height is associated with some of the same perceptions and outcomes as is strength. For example, individuals with taller stature are perceived as better leaders and attain higher status within a wide variety of modern political and organizational contexts. Height of the 2016 Presidential Candidates Heres how tall the 2016 presidential aspirants were, according to various published reports. Hint: No, Bush wasnt the tallest. And a note: the tallest president in history was Abraham Lincoln, who stood 6 feet, 4 inches - just a hair taller than Lyndon B. Johnson. Republican George Pataki: 6 feet, 5 inches (quit the race)Republican Jeb Bush: 6 feet, 3 inches (quit the race)Republican Donald Trump:  6 feet, 3 inchesRepublican Rick Santorum:  6 feet, 3 inches (quit the race)Democrat Martin OMalley: 6 feet, 1 inch (quit the race)Republican Ben Carson: 5 feet, 11 inchesRepublican Chris Christie:  5 feet, 11 inches (quit the race)Republican Mike Huckabee:  5 feet, 11 inches (quit the race)Republican Bobby Jindal:  5 feet, 10 inches (quit the race)Republican Marco Rubio:  5 feet, 10 inchesRepublican Ted Cruz:  5 feet, 10 inchesRepublican John Kasich:  5 feet, 9 inchesRepublican Rand Paul:  5 feet, 9 inchesDemocrat Bernie Sanders:  5 feet, 8 inchesDemocrat Hillary Clinton:  5 feet, 7 inchesRepublican Carly Fiorina:  5 feet, 6 inches (quit the race)

Author Richard Wilbur Poem Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Author Richard Wilbur Poem - Essay Example We need to appreciate too that the earlier quotation continues to note that the "beautiful things" "if they had not been in you would have had no being at all." and The charms of the material world are the work of God too, and this is what Wilbur explores in the poem. It amounts, as the critic Paul Cummin says, to "a civilized man quietly and honestly acknowledging the beauty of the world and of the human spirit" (Cummin, 39). The situation posed at the beginning of the poem is a bewildering mixture of the comic and the exalted. We are asked to imagine someone waking in the morning, and in the half-conscious state seeing the washing on the line as a flight of angels. The "pulley" which hoists the washing line also drags open the eyes of the sleeper, whose soul would prefer to remain in the unsullied world of dreams. This is the first example of Wilbur's subtle use of words both literally (the pulley on the washing line) and metaphorically (suggesting the effort involved in bringing the eyes to focus on the material world rather than the spiritual). ... Yet laughter is denied by the solemnity and serenity of the diction. The sleeper is "spirited from sleep", as if awakening is a metaphysical experience. The soul is "astounded", perhaps by the abruptness of things and the sudden confrontation with the heavenly. It stands outside the body for a moment, literally in ecstasy, "bodiless and simple", facing the awe-inspiring, and beginning to delight in its freedom from the merely physical. It is a moment of exaltation; the morning is "awash" with angels - a pun, surely, which again puzzles our responses. Nor is the comic/serious collision brought to a quick and safe end. The angels now appear dressed in "bed-sheets blouses smocks" as the washing flaps on the line. The surging motion makes it appear that "they are rising together in calm swells", ecstatic and miraculous movements, appropriate to celestial beings "of halcyon feeling", hinting at the miraculous bird of myth which could charm the winds and the waters. The motion looks as if they are expressing "the deep joy of their impersonal breathing", the joy of those who live in Elysium, whose personalities no longer plague them, and whose breathing reminds us of the origins of the word "spirit". The metaphorical/literal balance continues even further, as the "angels" who are "really" washing seem, as angels should, to be "flying in space", moving at "terrible speed" and being "omnipresent". Their miraculous ability to move at great speed and yet remain in the same place is like "white water". And finally the wind dies and they "swo on down", and the illusion (if that is what it was) is gone. "The soul shrinks", as it realizes that the physical cannot really be ignored or escaped. The critic Peter

Export-Import Bank Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Export-Import Bank - Case Study Example Ex-Im began issuing loan guarantees after thirty years of existence. This move aimed at encouraging commercial banks to take part in export markets. Loan guarantees focused on reducing the administrative obligations of commercial banks. Loan guarantees surpassed direct loans, making insurance to become popular. Ex-Im guarantees 90% of the outstanding balance of working capital loans from a commercial bank to an exporter. It only authorized transactions that had a reasonable assurance of repayment. It offers medium and long-term coverage for transactions by providing an 85% guarantee. In this case, a 15% deposit is required from the buyer. Ex-Im charges the following costs on direct loans and medium and long-term guarantees; Export-Import bank charged fixed interest rates on loans that were set at the Commercial Interest Reference Rate (CIRR). The cost of direct loans was static; that is, it was set after numerous negotiations among countries in the OECD (organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). All medium and long-term guarantees were subject to a ‘one-off’ exposure fee. The exposure fee was determined by the degree of transactional risk. For example, scheduled payments from Amal to Wells Fargo were subject to a 0.2 exposure risk value. The beta constitutes the transactional risk for the scheduled payments. Ex-Im would charge a 0.2 exposure fee for the transactional risk. Importer payment obligations differed from those of foreign buyers of a U.S. product. Direct loans and guarantees of importer payment obligations are influenced by various aspects such as; market risk premium of the destination country, the repayment period, percentage of exports covered, and whether the exposure fee was financed or paid in advance. Each country has a baseline fee set for sovereign borrowers. Non-sovereign borrowers are subject to a transaction risk increment higher than the

Tootsie Roll Paper Essay Example for Free

Tootsie Roll Paper Essay Tootsie Roll Industries Inc. Loan Package The financial statement of Tootsie Roll Industries provides insightful details into the  financial activities of the decades old organization. A financial statement is the â€Å"summary report that shows how a firm has used the funds entrusted to it by its stockholders and lenders, and what is its current financial position† (Financial statement, 2012). The company is known for products such as Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie Roll Pops, Caramel Apple Pops, Child’s Play, Charms, Blow Pop, Blue Razz, Cella’s chocolate covered cherries, Mason Dots, Mason Crows, Junior Mints, Junior Caramels, Charleston Chew, Sugar Daddy, Sugar Babies, Andes, Fluffy Stuff cotton candy, Dubble Bubble, Razzles, CryBaby, Nik-L-Nip and El Bubble (Kimmel, Weygandt, Kieso, p. A-2, 2009). Strong financial statements aid Tootsie Roll Industries in the submission of a loan package to increase company’s total liabilities by 10%. A loan package requires research to ensure that all details are met as well as a ratio analysis of liquidity, solvency, and profitability ratios. The company must justify the reason for the need of the loan, such as expansion, inventory purchases, or debt retirement. Finally, Tootsie Roll Industries must provide an explanation of how the company plans to use the proceeds from the loan as well as how loan approval might affect the company. â€Å"A loan package is the collection of documents associated with a specific loan application† (Loan package, 2012). Loan packages are instrumental in the startup and growth of many small businesses because it provides initial funding and support. The process begins typically with a cover letter, which  includes the business background, business nature, loan amount, loan purpose, repayment terms, loan benefits, business profile, and management experience (U.S. Small Business Association, n.d.). The borrower must provide proper documentation including Form 4: Application for Business Loan, Form 4-a: Schedule of  Personal History, Form 1624: Certification Regarding Debarment, Suspension, Ineligibility and Voluntary Exclusion Lower Tier Covered Transactions, and Form 1846: Statement Regarding Lobbying (U.S. Small Business Association, n.d.). Lenders and borrowers must work together in order to apply for the most applicable loan to the business. According to U.S. Small Business Association (n.d.), â€Å"Borrowers should provide complete financial statements for the last three years including balance sheets, income statements, and a reconciliation of net worth as well as a current (no more than 90 days old) interim financial statement† (Business Financial Statements). The borrower must also provide projections to the creditor. The projections predict a year out or the positive flow of cash, which includes earnings, expenses, and the reasons behind the projections (U.S. Small Business Association, n.d.). The borrow should include documentation to assist in the predications such as contracts of lease proposals, franchise agreements, purchase agreements, articles of incorporation, plans, specifications, copies of licenses, letters of reference, letters of intent, and contracts partnership agreement (U.S. Small Business Association, n.d.). If the borrower does not provide the proper documentation to the creditor, then the borrower is not likely to receive loan approval. Financial statements are key supporting documents to the loan package.

Medical Ethics: Patient Wishes vs Doctor Actions :: Medical Ethics

A conflict between a doctor who wants to treat his patient a certain way, and a patient who wants to be treated by the doctor the way she wants. The doctor feels the that certain treatment that the patient wants is dangerous and warns the patient that he will pronounce the patient mentally unstable. This is exactly what happened in the case of Mrs. Jackson and Dr. Lowell. The conflict in this entire article is if weather the doctor can, or can not, accuse his patient mental instability to go about the treatment as he sees fit. Is this an invasion of the patient’s wants and desire for a certain way of treatment? or does the doctor have moral rights to do anything and everything even though it is against the patient’s wishes. What justifies as moral and immoral procedure for a doctor to treat his patient. When faced with this hard dilemma, the article suggests that is use Rule Utilitarianism and Kantian Deontology, to help me solve the problem of weather this justifiable or morally incorrect. Rule Utilitarianism basically reads that â€Å"a person ought to act in accordance with the the rule that, if generally followed, would produce the greatest balance of good over evil.†(Mappes & Degrazia, 13) According to this, if anyone faces a moral dilemma, they should always try to sort of do a Cost/Benefits analysis on the outcomes of their actions versus the good that they would cause. So even today when I was debating if or not I should personally write my research essay, or, pay somebody else to write my essay for me, it took me all of 30 second to decides that even though I might not like what i would be doing for the next three to four hours, part of me know that the happiness i would get from it was unparalleled to anything. However, now, if you look at the Kantian Deon tology, you will find a lot of things that are different. What this theory of morality says is the outcomes are not at all important, but your duty hold precedence over anything. Similar to Rule Utilitarianism, this theory of morality says that any act, as long as it complies with a rule, is morally justified. When we think about this problem in a rule utilitarian way, we have to abide by the rules which clearly state that the patient has the final say in what treatment is going to be used on them. Medical Ethics: Patient Wishes vs Doctor Actions :: Medical Ethics A conflict between a doctor who wants to treat his patient a certain way, and a patient who wants to be treated by the doctor the way she wants. The doctor feels the that certain treatment that the patient wants is dangerous and warns the patient that he will pronounce the patient mentally unstable. This is exactly what happened in the case of Mrs. Jackson and Dr. Lowell. The conflict in this entire article is if weather the doctor can, or can not, accuse his patient mental instability to go about the treatment as he sees fit. Is this an invasion of the patient’s wants and desire for a certain way of treatment? or does the doctor have moral rights to do anything and everything even though it is against the patient’s wishes. What justifies as moral and immoral procedure for a doctor to treat his patient. When faced with this hard dilemma, the article suggests that is use Rule Utilitarianism and Kantian Deontology, to help me solve the problem of weather this justifiable or morally incorrect. Rule Utilitarianism basically reads that â€Å"a person ought to act in accordance with the the rule that, if generally followed, would produce the greatest balance of good over evil.†(Mappes & Degrazia, 13) According to this, if anyone faces a moral dilemma, they should always try to sort of do a Cost/Benefits analysis on the outcomes of their actions versus the good that they would cause. So even today when I was debating if or not I should personally write my research essay, or, pay somebody else to write my essay for me, it took me all of 30 second to decides that even though I might not like what i would be doing for the next three to four hours, part of me know that the happiness i would get from it was unparalleled to anything. However, now, if you look at the Kantian Deon tology, you will find a lot of things that are different. What this theory of morality says is the outcomes are not at all important, but your duty hold precedence over anything. Similar to Rule Utilitarianism, this theory of morality says that any act, as long as it complies with a rule, is morally justified. When we think about this problem in a rule utilitarian way, we have to abide by the rules which clearly state that the patient has the final say in what treatment is going to be used on them.

Essay Written Com

Cigarette Smoking and Its Health Risks. Why do I need to know about the health risks of cigarette smoking? Cigarette smoking is the most preventable cause of illness and death. Cigarettes are filled with nicotine, which acts like a poison in your body. What are the health risks of cigarette smoking? You may have breathing problems that make it difficult for you to do daily activities or play sports. You have a higher risk of bone fractures because smoking can cause osteoporosis (brittle bones). If you fall asleep with a lit cigarette, you can start a fire.Cigarette smoking can also cause the following health problems: Cancer: Smoking increases your risk of many kinds of cancer. The most common cancers are lung, lip, mouth, or throat cancer. Heart and blood vessel disease: The nicotine in tobacco causes an increase in your heart rate and blood pressure. Nicotine also causes your blood vessels to narrow. This can lead to blood clots in your heart or brain and caused a heart attack or s troke. Cigarette smoke has carbon monoxide in it. This can decrease the amount of oxygen flowing to your heart and other organs.Lung disease: The chemicals in cigarette smoke can damage your lungs. This causes a buildup of dirt and waste products in your lungs. Many people who smoke have a long-term cough as a result. Cigarette smoking may also cause long-term lung infections or diseases, such as asthma, emphysema, or chronic bronchitis. You are also at higher risk for respiratory illnesses, such as colds or pneumonia. Gastrointestinal disease: Cigarette smoking increases the amount of acid in your stomach. This can cause an ulcer or gastric reflux.Women and smoking: You have a higher risk of heart and blood vessel disease if you smoke and take birth control pills. The risk is more serious is you are 35 years or older. You may have a harder time getting pregnant if you smoke. If you are pregnant and smoke, you have a higher risk of miscarriage or having a stillborn baby. Babies born to mothers who smoke often weigh less and are at higher risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Why should I quit smoking? Your health will improve and your risks for many diseases will decrease. Your breath, clothes, and hair will no longer smell like smoke.Tobacco will no longer stain your teeth. Tobacco smoke is dangerous to others. If you quit, you will decrease the risks to those around you, such as your children or family members. Health Effects of Cigarette Smoking Health Effects Fact Sheets Overview Smoking harms nearly every organ of the body. Smoking causes many diseases and reduces the health of smokers in general. Smoking and Death Smoking causes death. †¢ The adverse health effects from cigarette smoking account for an estimated 443,000 deaths, or nearly one of every five deaths, each year in the United States. ,3 †¢ More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined. 2,4 †¢ Smoking causes an estimated 90% of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80% of all lung cancer deaths in women. 1 †¢ An estimated 90% of all deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease are caused by smoking. 1 Smoking and Increased Health Risks Compared with nonsmokers, smoking is estimated to increase the risk of †¢ coronary heart disease by 2 to 4 times, †¢ stroke by 2 to 4 times, men developing lung cancer by 23 times, †¢ Women developing lung cancer by 13 times, and dying from chronic obstructive lung diseases (such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema) by 12 to 13 times. Smoking and Cardiovascular Disease †¢ Smoking causes coronary heart disease, the leading cause of death in the United States. 1 †¢ Cigarette smoking causes reduced circulation by narrowing the blood vessels (arteries) and puts smokers at risk of developing peripheral vascular disease (i. e. , obstruction of the large arteries in the arms and legs that can cause a range of problems from pain to tissue loss or gangrene). Smoking causes abdominal aortic aneurysm (i. e. , a swelling or weakening of the main artery of the body—the aorta—where it runs through the abdomen). 1 Smoking and Respiratory Disease †¢ Smoking causes lung cancer. †¢ Smoking causes lung diseases (e. g. , emphysema, bronchitis, chronic airway obstruction) by damaging the airways and alveoli (i. e. , small air sacs) of the lungs. Smoking and Cancer Smoking causes the following cancers: †¢ Acute myeloid leukemia †¢ Bladder cancer †¢ Cancer of the cervix †¢ Cancer of the esophagus †¢ Kidney cancer †¢ Cancer of the larynx (voice box) †¢ Lung cancer Cancer of the oral cavity (mouth) †¢ Pancreatic cancer †¢ Cancer of the pharynx (throat) †¢ Stomach cancer Smoking and Other Health Effects Smoking has many adverse reproductive and early childhood effects, including increased risk for— †¢ infertility, †¢ preterm delivery, †¢ stillbirth, †¢ low birth weight, and †¢ Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). †¢ Smoking is associated with the following adverse health effects: †¢ Postmenopausal women who smoke have lower bone density than women who never smoked. †¢ Women who smoke have an increased risk for hip fracture than women who never smoked.Smoking and Others (Passive Smoking)If you smoke, one good reason to give up smoking is to benefit those who live and work with you. If you cannot give up, you should make every effort to keep cigarette smoke away from other people. On this page †¢ How does smoking affect other people? †¢ Some statistics †¢ How can I stop smoking? †¢ Further help and information †¢ References How does smoking affect other people? †¢ Children and babies who live in a home where there is a smoker: o Are more prone to asthma, and ear, nose and chest infe ctions. o Have an increased risk of dying from cot death (sudden infant death syndrome). Are more likely than average to become smokers themselves when older. o On average, do less well at reading and reasoning skills compared to children in smoke-free homes, even at low levels of smoke exposure. o Are at increased risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and cancer as adults. †¢ Passive smoking of adults. You have an increased risk of lung cancer and heart disease if you are exposed to other people smoking for long periods of time. For example, the risk of developing lung cancer is increased by about 20-30% in people who are regularly exposed to other people's cigarette smoke.Cigarette smoke is also an irritant, and can make asthma and other conditions worse. †¢ Unborn babies. Smoking when you are pregnant can harm your unborn baby. See separate leaflet called Pregnancy and Smoking for details. Some statistics the overall health impact of passive smoking i s large. Although the health risks from passive smoking are small for the individual in comparison with the health risks from active smoking, the public health consequences of passive smoking are high due to the large numbers of people exposed.For example, passive smoking by people living with smokers in the UK increases the risk of death from coronary heart disease by 50-60%. It is estimated to cause around 2,700 deaths per year in people aged 20-64, and a further 8,000 deaths per year among people aged 65 or older. It is estimated that children breathing in other people's cigarette smoke resulted in 300,000 GP visits and 9,500 hospital admissions in 2011 in the UK. Up to five million children are thought to be regularly exposed to secondhand smoke in the home. The results of a survey on children’s views on smoking ere published on the Department of Health's website. The survey revealed that children want smoke-free lives. The survey found that: †¢ 98% of children wish their parents would stop smoking. †¢ 82% of children wish their parents wouldn't smoke in front of them at home. †¢ 78% of children wished their parents wouldn't smoke in front of them in the car. †¢ 41% of children said cigarette smoke made them feel ill. †¢ 42% of children said cigarette smoke made them cough. How can I stop smoking? Compare About 2 in 3 smokers want to stop smoking. Some people can give up easily.Willpower and determination are the most important aspects when giving up smoking. However, nicotine is a drug of addiction and many people find giving up a struggle. Help is available. GPs, practice nurses, or pharmacists can provide information, encouragement, and tips on stopping smoking. Also, throughout the country there are specialist NHS Stop Smoking Clinics which have a good success record in helping people to stop smoking. Your doctor may refer you to one if you are keen to stop smoking. Various medicines can increase your chance of quitting. These include nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) which comes as gums, sprays, patches, tablets, lozenges, and inhalers. You can buy NRT without a prescription. Also, medicines called bupropion (trade name Zyban ®) and varenicline (trade name Champix ®) can help. These are available on prescription. See separate leaflets called Nicotine Replacement Therapy, Bupropion (Zyban ®) and Varenicline (Champix ®). Costa Rica's Anti-Smoking Law As Strange As Aliens. The newly passed anti-smoking law is as strange as aliens, because everyone knows about them but nobody takes the subject as an absolute truth.Neither is too surprising, for many the law is nothing more than a continuing joke the government plays on its people. For without a doubt, even with the law in place, in Costa Rica â€Å"the smoker continues to be king†, for even the law cannot respond to the call, as the government has been unable to properly inform the public and the institutions responsible to ensure compl iance. All the information out there right now is mostly by word of mouth, passed on from one person to another and not necessarily the correctRoberto Castro, of the Direccion de Vigilancia del Ministerio deSalud (Surveillance Directorate of the Ministry of Health) recently said that the Fuerza Publica (polilce) is empowered to issue fines of ? 36. 060 colones to anyone disrespecting the law. But, where is the fine paid? For his part, the director of the Fuerza Publica (chief of the nation's police force) said that they will wait until the regulations to comply with the law. The regulations are expected within the next 90 days, but many doubt that they will be ready, as legislators pass a law and the government is not ready for its enactment. Again.Just as with the introduction of the tax on corporations that went into effect on January 1, but not payable until April, again, because because the government was caught with its pants down. some place, like medical centres and schools h ave already banned smoking and have set out their regulations for its enforcement. In some places like elevators, trains, ATM's, restaurants, cafes, bars and shopping centres, among others smoking is banned. Again, a private initiative which is reinforced with the passing of the anti-smoking law, but without the teeth to bite the smoker who persists.With the law in effect anyone can now demand that law be respected. Customers can complain to the manager of a restaurant, shoppers can call on the mall management and employee on the boss, for example, to have the smoker butt out. But, in reality, how is the complaint handled and who has the authority to ask the smoker to quit? In an effort to simplify the process, ideally the Ministry of Health (Ministerio de Salud) should provide a phone number to either take the complaint or at least to provide information on how to deal with the situation. However, Costa Rica is a country where all that is simple is made difficult.Knowing Costa Rica ns there is sure to follow many complaints and without a doubt one or more challenges to the Constitutional Court, smokers allege to be a â€Å"target†. In an ideal Costa Rica, smokers should just quit smoking in public spaces. And if they really care for their health, quit smoking altogether. Thrombosis, hypertension, cancer of the esophagus and pancreas, tachycardia, emphysema, lung cancer and bronchitis are just some of the many ills caused by tobacco smoking. Hopefully the ? 20 colones tax on each and ever cigarette sold will hurt the smoker where it hurts the most, their pocketbook.Or at the very least fund programs to help patients with cancer and prevention campaigns. This is a time for the current administration to really show that it can tie up its pants and act in the best interest of the public by applying the law and get rid of an epidemic in which only a few get rich and benefit from the death of others. The government has a great opportunity here to show that it can act and quickly by introducing the regulations way ahead of the three months set out in the legislation, introduce concise guidelines and make the public aware of the law and its cost for not respecting it.Costa rica? s law The number of countries  with anti-smoking laws is growing, and Costa Rica might soon join the ranks. Lawmakers are debating a bill that would ban smoking in some public places and raise the tax on cigarettes. Costa Rica has been trying to pass the ban since 2008, but the bill has couldn't get through the legislature. If it finally passes, Costa Rica won't be alone among Latin American countries with anti-smoking laws. Of course, just because laws are on the books, doesn't mean everyone is snuffing out their smokes.Some 14. 2 percent of Costa Ricans smoke, most between ages 20 and 39, according to the Costa Rican Social Security System. Casual smokers proliferate in the country’s nightlife. But that could change soon. Lawmakers last week passed a bi ll that will ban smoking in all public spaces, including bus and taxi stops, public buildings, restaurants and bars. The legislation goes further: It prohibits the sale of individual cigarettes; adds a 4-cent tax per cigarette, bumping up the price of most 20-cigarette packs from around $2 to $2. 0; bans cigarette advertising; and mandates that most of the box must carry graphic or textual health warnings. The bill will be reviewed by the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court before it can get the president’s signature and go into law. Costa Rica is considered a progressive country on health and environment policies, but it’s been slow to reform its lax smoking rules. If the court gives the green light, Costa Rica will become the 10th Latin American country to enact a law following guidelines set by the World Health Organization for 100 percent smoke-free public spaces.The legislation is expected to take effect in mid-summer, giving businesses and government some time to adjust. Residents too will have time to cope. â€Å"Every person who comes to a bar here, they smoke and they drink, wherever they go,† Sanchez, 22, said. â€Å"I think it’s a law that’s very stupid. †Aleman, 20, said she’s pleased that inconsiderate smokers will be stopped from carelessly blowing smoke into someone’s face. Still, she sees the law as too strict, since bars cannot maintain a smoking section. But if there’s no area or smokers, she always could walk outside to smoke? Or: â€Å"I’ll smoke less,† Aleman said. â€Å"Go outside to smoke — why bother? It could be raining and freezing outside. That would be the worst. †Her statement typifies why 100 percent smoke-free policies have been successful in other countries. Research shows businesses don’t fold or lose huge profits over a loss of cigarette-smoking clientele. The places simply get cleaner. The most desperate effort to rid Cos ta Rica of ineffective smoking laws started almost four years ago.Lawmakers helped teach doctors in the National Anti-Tobacco Network how to be politicians. The doctors, in turn, negotiated behind the scenes with lawmakers presenting the grimmest of facts and telling them â€Å"this is how the tobacco industry manipulates the truth. † The Social Security System (Caja) conducted a poll showing 93 percent of Costa Ricans supported laws for a smoke-free public. The momentum did little to dull the influence of the tobacco industry lobby that had dictated smoking policies in the country since the 1980s.Only on Monday, long after lawmakers who spearheaded the movement reached their term limits and exited office, did a toughened anti-smoking bill pass the Legislative Assembly. Advocates garnered enough support in the assembly to pass – in a 46-2 vote – a comprehensive anti-tobacco bill on Monday, winning at last an uphill struggle. â€Å"We have demonstrated to the to bacco companies that we are not too small and so weak like they believed we were,† said Teresita Arrieta, of the Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Institute (IAFA). The bill bans smoking in places such as bars, restaurants, public buildings, bus stops and taxi stands.Individual cigarettes will be taxed an extra ? 20 (4 cents). The bill requires cigarette packs to display text and photo warnings on at least 50 percent of the box. The legislation strengthens some of the weakest tobacco-use laws in Latin America. One question in particular lingers in the minds of skeptics. Can the law be enforced? The bill still awaits the signature of President Laura Chinchilla, and then must be published in the official government newspaper La Gaceta before the rules become official. From there, a 90-day adjustment period begins before fines go into effect.Many expect the law’s publication will come around March 15, meaning the day cigarettes must be extinguished from public spaces would be in m id-June. In that time, lawmakers and health officials will determine the reglamentos, or regulations, that define how the law will be implemented. Health Vice Minister Sisy Castillo, who was a major force in pushing the bill through, displayed confidence that the country can create rules that establishments and people   will not have trouble following. â€Å"We are already working on the [reglamentos],† Castillo said. We are far along with these regulations in regards to law enforcement. †Ã‚  She said the Health Ministry has met with members of the National Police and Chief Prosecutor’s Office to discuss how to handle those caught violating the law, and the best way to supervise bars and other localities where smoking will be banned. Castillo emphasized to The Tico Times that the reglamentos will address foreigners, including tourists, who disobey the smoking law. Large percentages of the cigarette taxes will be earmarked toward treating tobacco-related illness es and funding programs that assist people in quitting smoking.In 2010, the Caja spent nearly $146 million on health expenses tied to smoking and tobacco-related illnesses. Tobacco plays a large role in cardiovascular illnesses, one of the country’s leading causes of death. Almost 15 percent of the country smokes, according to a Caja survey. Those caught smoking in a prohibited area can face a fine of ? 36,060 ($70). Producers, sellers and advertisers not following the regulations can be hit with a fine of ? 3. 6 million ($7,022). The penalty for selling single cigarettes, packs with fewer than 20 cigarettes or tobacco products to minors would be ? 80,000 ($351). The government will have the power to close businesses with outstanding fines. As the law moves closer to enactment, advocates expect to parry lawsuits taken up on behalf of the tobacco industry and the Costa Rican Chamber of Restaurants and Affiliates – a longtime mouthpiece of tobacco companies that oversees bars and nightclubs. Carmen Granados, a Citizen Action Party lawmaker, believes the country has taken the necessary steps to prevent legal action by tobacco companies from succeeding.She worked on a committee headed by Rita Chaves of the Access Without Exclusion Party to construct the current version of the bill. When the original bill was written, draftees invited experts to vet every aspect of   it, even bringing in legal advisers from the U. S. ’s George Washington University, in Washington, D. C. , to observe the proposal. Moreover, the bill follows standards set by the World Health Organization, and has been adopted in nine other Latin American countries, including Brazil, which became the largest country in the world to put into practice such measures, in December. We should not fear lawsuits, because if we did a good job, then this law will be unaffected,† Granados said. â€Å"Yes, tobacco companies are going to try to go after the law †¦ but it’s shielded so nobody will touch it. †Lawmakers opposed to the bill attempted to halt its passage Monday. The passage came in spite of a challenge by 10 lawmakers to send the bill to the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court (Sala IV) to review the constitutionality of the reforms. The Legislative Assembly did not receive a notification from the Sala IV in time to prevent the vote.Granados said tobacco manufacturers still can challenge specific articles in court, and the Sala IV can decide whether to review the suits. Tabacalera Costarricense, an affiliate of Philip Morris International, has stated the law could result in an increase in contraband cigarettes in Costa Rica due to the cigarette tax increase. A lawsuit is expected about that issue. Anti-tobacco advocates in Costa Rica dismiss the argument about a flourishing cigarette black market, saying research shows that it is simply untrue. Studies also show that in countries with similar reforms, business rarely, if eve r, suffers as a result of the ban.IAFA’s Smoke-Free Spaces Program created plenty of tobacco-free settings in sports arenas, restaurants and malls before the law’s adoption. Arrieta, who heads the program, believes the difficulty of transitioning from a country where smoking is accepted to one that prohibits it has been exaggerated. This law is designed to protect public health and does not infringe on individual rights, since a person does not have the privilege to endanger the health of another, Arrieta said. She already has seen it work in Costa Rica’s notoriously hazy bars.She visited a place called Blue Moon in Cartago, east of San Jose. Smokers took cigarette breaks outside. The inside was packed with clients. Blue Moon manager Michael Mattey said the bar opened in July and remains successful, an image of how other bars might thrive in a Costa Rica free of smoking. â€Å"It seems all the people who come like it for the same reason, because they donâ€℠¢t smoke,† Mattey said. â€Å"But people who smoke come too, and they also seem to like it. Who knew? : The adverse health effects from cigarette smoking account for an estimated 443,000 deaths each year in the United States

Foreign Policy on Pakistan-India Relation

An aggressive, liberal and a pro-active foreign policy makes way for improved ties with the nations of the world. Predictably, the regional scenario of South Asia, particularly of the region encompassing the countries of Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, China, Iran, Nepal, Bangladesh and the Central Asian States is likely to remain volatile in the near future. Pakistan is a stakeholder in the scenario and regional instability is inadvertently going to have a decelerating influence on the country road to peace and progress.With Pakistan and Indian's relation being strengthened via the tools of negotiations ND diplomacy, it can be expected that inter-regional cooperation will be catcalled. Thus, better ties between the two most significant neighbors in the region, Pakistan and India, symbolize enhanced cooperation in the South Asian region on the whole. The document sets out a two-faceted goal, Short-Term and Long-Term and bridges the proposed solutions to the principal issues between Pak istan and India, through a road-map.Cotton is charged at RSI. 108/kilogram; Tariff on the Dairy Products is from 40-60%, Garments are charged at RSI. 85/piece, Agriculture Items at a Tariff of 35%. These rates are generally considered to be unfairly high. [It must be mentioned that Pakistanis high-quality products like Cotton/Lawn Fabric and Bed Linens are in popular demand in the Indian markets] (g) Pakistani exporters complain that India continues to exercise country-specific Imitation Import Barriers in Pakistanis case, (h) India argues that these NTIS (Non- Tariff Barriers) are the same for all of its trading partners, I) Pakistan itself does not have a standardized import regime.Indian exporters, therefore, have to deal with fewer restrictions of product quality and specifications, O) In August 2012, India lifted its ban on Pakistani businessperson to invest in India. Proposed Solution: Trade between Pakistan and India has the potential to reach US $ 10 Billionaire, thus: (a) P akistan should upgrade its manufacturing industry and improve the value- addition processes of exportable items. Better-Quality products are more likely to have greater access to the Indian markets, (b) Pakistani manufacturers and businessperson are at a disadvantage because Indian exporters have fewer product restrictions in Pakistan while Pakistani exporters have to deal with strict product-quality specifications in India.Pakistan should regulate its import regime and maintain better standards for the quality of import items, (c) Pakistan should urge India to abide by the 3 landmark trade agreements (signed in February 2012) and simplify the following trade requirements: – ) Custom Documentation formalities, – ) Tariff Structure, – ) The whole procedure of obtaining and renewing the Bureau of India Standards (IBIS) License, (d) Pakistan should also urge India to ease the requirement of agricultural permits ND automobile licenses on imports coming from Pakistan , (e) State Bank of Pakistan and Reserve Bank of India should open cross-border branches on the basis of mutual benefits, (f) Both countries should work towards the opening of the Nabob-Cockroach Route (in Kinds, Pakistan) as a feasible trade route, (g) Pakistan and India should finalize liberationists in the Visa Regime, including Multiple-Entry and Greater-Duration Visas for businessperson. Indian Home Ministry has agreed to relax its previous stance that it will not allow relaxations in the business and civilian visa regime, unless Pakistan takes action against the Iambi 6/11 terrorists], (h) Visa relaxations will help Pakistani rice exporters in learning technical expertise for rice cultivation. Pakistani automobile (specifically tractor industry) and cement industry can have strong potential in Indian markets if Pakistani manufacturers will themselves visit India frequently and explore the market of 1. 2 billion people, (I) The Economic Zone between Karts (Pakistan) and Amorist s (India) should be established, O) Pakistan must go ahead with granting the MFC Status to India on 3 conditions: – ) That Pakistan will maintain a well-prepared ‘Sensitive List' for items which can not be imported from India.This will ensure the safeguard of Pakistanis local industry, – ) That India will reciprocate by reducing its ‘Sensitive List' on items which can not be imported from Pakistan, including tariff relaxations on Pakistanis Textile, – ) That India should lift its ban from Indian investors on investing in Pakistan. (II) SIR CREEK Out of all other bilateral disputes between Pakistan and India, the Sir Creek Dispute can be expected to have a relatively quick solution. The settlement of this dispute can be used as an important Confidence-Building Measure to build on to resolve other pending disputes. Sir Creek is a 96 km strip of water. It is made up of marshes which makes it water-logged for most of the year. It runs in the Ran of Ketch area.The Ran of Ketch area lies between the south of Kinds in Pakistan and the State of Gujarat in India. Historical evidence (specifically the 1908 Imperial Gazetteer of India) clearly indicates that during the British Rule in India, the Ran of Ketch was part of Kinds. Later, when India was partitioned in 1947, Kinds became a part of Pakistan (therefore Sir Creek also became a part of Pakistan). According to Paragraphs 9 and 10 of the ‘1914 Bombay Resolution' (which was signed teen the Government of Bombay and the Ruler of Ketch), the ‘Green Line' as indicated in the map clearly demarcated the boundaries of Sir Creek and included the whole of it in Kinds.India then argued that from the technical aspect, the ‘Green Line' is not a boundary but Just an ‘indication of a boundary. India claimed that the boundary of Sir Creek lies manhandle into the water and that exactly half of Sir Creek is part of India. To validate this claim, India endorses the ‘Thales Principle'. In 1965, Indian forces unfairly attempted to seize Sir Creek because India wanted to establish its naval base n the Gulf of Ketch. As a result, India gained control off part of Sir Creek. When the prospect of important mineral resources (oil/gas) was discovered in the subsurface of Sir Creek, Pakistan and India became more serious about their respective claims.Both countries now realize that if they loose one kilometer of Sir Creek on ground, it would subsequently mean a loss of hundreds of square nautical miles of the resourceful economic zone under-water. Indian's current stance is that boundaries should first be marked under-water and according to the under-water boundaries, the land boundaries shall be demarcated. Pakistanis current stance is to first demarcate on the ground and then under-water. Pakistan wants the adoption of the 1914 Bombay Resolution. Pakistan was willing to invite international arbitration because it believes it has a strong case. But India alwa ys wanted to keep this issue bilateral.Proposed Solution-1914 Bombay Resolution: (a) Indian's endorsement of ‘Thales Principle' is not applicable in the case of Sir Creek because Sir Creek is Water-logged and not navigable' for most part of the year. The Thales Principle holds applicable only for navigable areas. (b) The demarcation of land boundaries shall be done first. The demarcation of the under-water maritime boundaries will then follow. (c) Indian's unreasonable argument that demarcation shall first be done under-water will have to be countered. Hydrosphere from both Pakistan and India have declared that environmental changes have occurred over the years and it is not possible anymore to distinguish between territorial waters without demarcating the land area first. D) During the process of demarcation, the ‘1991 Pakistan-India Agreement on Advance Notice on Military Exercises, Maneuvers and Troop Movement' will be strictly followed by both sides to ensure peace a long the coastline of Sir Creek. E) After demarcating Sir Creek, both countries will submit their respective boundary limits to the ‘Commission on the Limits of the Continental Shelf (CLC). The CLC will consider and evaluate the data submitted by each country. (f) Here, Pakistan will automatically have a stronger case because according to the rules of CLC, India can not mention Sir Creek as a part of its continental shelf in the documents which it will submit to CLC. (g) 3 factors will further strengthen Pakistanis case. First, Sir Creek was a major water distributors of River Indus and Pakistan has an undisputed right over River Indus.Second, the ‘Green Line' shown in the maps of 1914 Bombay Resolution clearly brings Sir Creek in Pakistanis territorial domain. Third, the tail of Sir Creek terminates in Baden which is a district in Pakistan. (h) Pakistanis claims are very strong and it is very likely that the CLC will eventually favor Pakistan. According to the United Na tions Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLES), both countries are time-bound to resolve this dispute because unless this dispute is resolved, neither side will be eligible to exploit their respective Exclusive Economic Zones in the sea. (Ill) PRISONERS The settlement of Sir Creek Dispute can be followed with another important Confidence-Building Measure. The area of Sir Creek is concentrated with fishermen.Since territorial borders in water (and on land) are not properly marked, fishermen from both sides end up mistakenly trespassing into each other's territorial waters. They are then arrested. The laws which are used by Pakistan and India to govern their seas and arrest these fishermen have not been conformed by UNCLES. Pakistani fishermen are arrested by India under the ‘Maritime Zones of India Acts, 1976 and 1981'. India is a signatory of he UNCLES but its maritime zone acts do not conform to the United Nations Convention on Law of the Seas (UNCLES). The Pakistan Maritime Security Agency (AMPS) and the Indian Coast Guard (ICC) shall resume the negotiations which were called off after the Iambi attacks. These negotiations will ensure: a.That whenever Pakistani fishermen are detained in India, the Indian maritime agencies will immediately inform the Pakistani maritime agencies and vice versa. B. That the ships and boats of the detained Pakistani fishermen will be handed over to the Pakistani maritime agency by the Indian maritime agencies and vice versa. Two concrete steps can be taken: a. Joint Judicial Commission on Prisoners, 2007: Recommendations of this Commission (which was constituted by both governments and comprises of 4 superior retired Judges from each side) must be given immediate consideration and implemented. This Joint commission (if adequately empowered) can almost resolve the issue of prisoners. B.Agreement of Counselor Access, 2008: Under this Agreement, prisoners (in both, Pakistan and India) must be provided access to a Counselor i mmediately after being arrested. The major role of the counselor is to verify the nationality of the prisoner. This process, however, often gets delayed unnecessarily. Often, this delay is from the country to which the prisoner belongs. Interior/Home Ministries, Foreign/External Ministries and the High Commissions of Pakistan and India must therefore promptly strive to avoid any delays in the verification of the nationality of their respective citizens present in each other's Jails. In June 2012, Pakistan released 311 Indian fishermen. There are 21 deaf, mute and mentally unstable Pakistani prisoners in Indian Jails. These prisoners have also completed their sentences.The Indian Supreme Court is coking into the matter of their release but it is encountering a lot of technical hurdles. Likewise, there are 18 Pakistani Prisoners of War (of 1965 and 1971) still in Indian jails. The next round of talks between the Foreign Ministers of the two countries is expected from September 7 to 9 (2012). There, the return of these 39 prisoners should be a top priority on Pakistanis agenda. If the Sir Creek issue is resolved, it becomes a moral binding on both parties to simultaneously release ALL those prisoners, who were arrested on the charges of ‘Mistaken Trespassing'. THE WATER ISSUE Between the two countries, it is India which is the upper-riparian state.And therefore, in this case it is India which is required to take sensible decisions to protect our peace negotiations from untimely termination. [The Water ‘Issue' must not be treated as a ‘Dispute' because calling it a dispute will have its own repercussions. The solution is already in place in the form of ‘Indus Water Treaty, 1960' and only a re-interpretation of the treaty is required] The ISSUE: (a) sass's Indus Water Treaty gave 3 western rivers to Pakistan. India was allowed to use some water from these 3 rivers before they enter into Pakistan. B) India was permitted to use the water for h ydrophone generation. The condition was that Indian usage must not alter the natural timing of flow and the quantity of these waters as they enter Pakistan. C) With Indian hydrophone projects, the only concern for Pakistan is the timing of flow because hydrophone does not ‘consume' water so the quantity remains unaltered. The timing of the flow is critically important for agriculture in Pakistan. (d) In the 1960 Treaty, India was only allowed limited water storage. This was applied to all the dams which India will build on Jelled and Chance. E) The problem began with the installation of ‘physical gates'. India was allowed to install these gates to flush out the silt/waste (coming from glaciers), but India began using it to unfairly ‘stop' and unfairly ‘release' water into Pakistan. (f) The problem will get more severe when India will complete the construction of Bursar Dam, Shanghaiing Dam, Peaceful Dam, Kowalski Dam, Deal Hustle Dam.In case India decides to go for ‘Cumulative Storage' or ‘Cumulative Release' of water from these dams, Pakistan will be completely vulnerable to mass destruction (which was allegedly the case with the 2010 floods). Words of John Brioche (World Banks Senior Water Advisor and Neutral Expert on Baggier Dam case) must be cited for reference : He says, â€Å"A Journalist colleague in Delhi told me that the Indus Treaty is considered an integral part of Kashmir and when it comes to Kashmir, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs instructs newspapers on what they can and cannot say, and often tells them explicitly what it is they are to say†. Proposed Solution-Negotiations and Negotiations: Pakistan will have to diplomatically assert the right amount of pressure on India for the re-interpretation of the 1960 Indus Water Treaty.Right amount of pressure' on India can be exerted by Pakistan in the form of legal hurdles and calls for international arbitration for Indian power projects being built o n rivers Jelled and Chance. If the two countries can keep ego aside, there can be numerous ways in which the 1960 Treaty can be implemented to benefit both sides. A Joint monitoring system can also be formulated to ensure timely discharge of water from India to Pakistan. But this is only possible when relations are more cordial and more trust has been developed on both sides. In fact, India has the potential to ‘increase' this flow during difficult planting seasons n Pakistan. This is not an unrealistic suggestion.India does have this potential and can do it without effecting its own power generation. But focuses, this can only be made possible when relations between both countries are friendlier. Joint Power Projects (a) Indian's power outage of 31st July 2012 affected 670 Million Indian citizens, and has considerably reduced the Foreign Direct Investment coming to India. (b) This scenario can trigger further collaborations and can get India on board for the Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline Project. (c) USA is particularly interested to normalize relations between Pakistan and India so hat Pakistan can retreat its forces from its Eastern border and redeploy them on the Western borders along Afghanistan. D) On the other hand, why India is reluctant to rejoin the Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline Project (which was called Iran-Pakistan-India Gas Pipeline Project until India backed of is because India is a close ally of the USA and the USA did not want India to be a part of this project because of its own concerns with Iran's nuclear program. (e) But now, Pakistan can seek an advantage from USA. (f) Pakistan shall diplomatically convey this to America that the Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline Project is very essential, not only to address the acute power shortage in both Pakistan and India but also very specifically to enhance developmentalcollaboration between the two countries. (g) After this, it will be America's call to realize that it must not continue to become an unfa ir player between Pakistan and India. Assuming that USA decides to stop exerting pressure on India, it will then entirely be Indian's decision whether or not to pursue the Iran-Pakistan Gas Pipeline Project. H) After the episode of Indian's biggest power failure (dated July 31 , 2012), chances are hat India will now be willing to resume talks on the IP Gas Pipeline Project. (I) Also, India aspires to become the regional power-house of South Asia and in the long term, it aspires to out-do China in this quest. If India actually aspires to become the regional power, it should start acting like one and must play its part in enhancing regional collaborations. This, is another reason why India should be more willing to pursue the IP Gas Pipeline Project. KASHMIR Kashmir Stance: In the words of Mir WAIS Muar Faro (Chairman All Parties Hurray Conference), â€Å"Kashmir is not a bilateral issue between Pakistan and India, but a trilateral one which also involves the people of Kashmir† .SELF Momma Kashmir Liberation Front) Chairman Yak's Mali believes that the option of a deep freeze (that is, to freeze the matter in its current position for a few years before relations become stronger between Pakistan and India) is not feasible, without stopping the Indian operation in the Indian-occupied Kashmir. India can not afford to ‘deep-freeze' the matter because of the suspicion that the freedom movement will take over as soon as the Indian operation is stopped. Three-e-Hurray Chairman Seed All Shah Gelling strongly advocates Kashmir ‘Right of Self-Determination' and purports Kashmir alliance with Pakistan. However, he once said: â€Å"Pakistan has morally, diplomatically and politically supported the struggle of the people of Jam & Kashmir, but this does not mean Pakistan can take a decision on our behalf†.APPC (All Parties Hurray Conference) Chairman Miramar Muar Faro demands: a) ‘Armed Forces Special Powers Act (PAPPAS, 1990)' shall be repealed (UN has called it ‘A Violation of International Law and has asked India to revoke it), b) Indian troops shall be withdrawn from populated areas of the Valley, c) Political Detainees shall be leased, if India wants a peaceful resolution of the dispute. International Community Stance: The International Community wants to resolve the dispute of Kashmir because it sees it as a threat to regional stability in South Asia if two nuclear states, Pakistan and India, are involved in such a tense dispute and are not engaging in economic collaborations with each other.Indian's Stance: India has a two-fold agenda on Kashmir: a) Propagate that unrest in Kashmir is basically ‘Pakistanis Proxy War' and Pakistan is logistically supporting the Kashmir Freedom Fighters, ) Make the Line of Control (LoC) the international border between Pakistan and India. India is intelligently floating the LoC-Solution in the international community; U. S and U. K are also supporting Indian's stance as th e ultimate solution for Kashmir. By proposing the LoC-Solution, India is suggesting that both Pakistan and India should enjoy sovereignty over their respective part of Kashmir and that the Kashmir people can be allowed to travel between both parts more freely.Proposed Solution-plebiscite: (l) If Pakistan wishes to avoid the situation in which the International Community egging exercising diplomatic pressure on Pakistan to accept the Indian formula to settle the Kashmir Dispute, it must come up with more realistic alternatives that take into consideration the popular demands of the people of Kashmir. (II) Pakistan believes that the main issue is not the territorial control' of the land of Kashmir but the ‘right of self-determination' of the Kashmir people. Pakistan should continue to advocate this stance. (Ill) Pakistan should use the global forums to remind its international partners that Indian forces deployed in Kashmir, are violating the very basic human rights by imaging i n acts of rape and child molestation. ‘V) Pakistan should also use the global forums to remind its international partners that so far, the Indian Government has been unable to get any political set-up accepted by the Kashmir people. (V) Pakistan should reiterate its support for the All Parties Hurray Conference (APPC) as the most prominent representation of the Kashmir people. Pakistan should also remind the international community that the APPC comprises not only of Islamic fundamentalists but also of liberal and progressive factions like Jam Kashmir Liberation Front GOLF) and the Miami Action Committee. VI) Pakistan strongly condemns Indian's accusations that the Kashmir freedom struggle is sponsored by Pakistan.In order to counter these allegations, we invite Indian's consent on requesting the United Nations to deploy more international observers along the Line of Control. (VI') Pakistan should counter Indian's LoC-Solution by terming it a ‘military solution which doe s not serve the purpose of the freedom movement. Pakistan believes that even after LoC is made the international border between Pakistan and India, the Kashmir people will not stop their freedom struggle. (VI†) Series of Bilateral & Trilateral Talks: Pakistan should be proactive in the current on-going negotiations between Islamabad and Delhi and should diplomatically ensure that these talks do not come to any momentary halts.Pakistan believes that time is of essence and the bilateral dialogue with India should not be allowed to be influenced and stopped by other factors that govern the relation between the two countries. (a) Pakistan would like to begin the Series with Secretary-Level Talks between the Foreign Secretaries, and then, the Defense Secretaries of the two countries. (b) The Indian Government shall commit to freeze the military operation in the Unanticipated Kashmir for the duration of this Series. (c) The next level of talks will include the Political Leadership ( Government + Opposition) of Pakistan, of India and of Kashmir. (d) To ensure the true representation of the people of Kashmir, an election shall be conducted under international monitoring, to choose the political leadership from all states of Jam & Kashmir.This political leadership will then represent the territory at the negotiation table. (e) Pakistan strictly reaffirms that it will simply not entertain any third-party other than the United Nations, for the role of a mediator between Pakistan and India. In the unlikely scenario that India proposes to invite the U. S on board as the thirdly, Pakistan will rule it out by proposing the name of China. Pakistanis argument is that the U. S is not a neutral choice because it already favors Indian's LoC-Solution on the matter and has greater strategic interests with India. China, on the other hand, is the regional power-house and is a greater share-holder in South Asia.Chances are, that India will not agree to the name of China. Eventual ly, in case of a deadlock, both parties will retreat to the name of United Nations] (XX) Pakistanis principal stance is to vive the Right of Self Determination to Kashmir people via a Plebiscite. This stance will be achieved by implementing UN Resolution 47, according to which: (a) Pakistan will withdraw its nationals (if any) from Kashmir, (b) India will withdraw the excessive military personals from Kashmir, (c) UN observers will be deployed to ensure that withdrawal from both sides, is of a reasonable proportion, (d) Once the withdrawal process is completed, the ‘Owen Dixon Model' will be adopted.This model divides Kashmir into 2 zones: – ) Kashmir Valley + Muslim Areas of Jam + Muslim Areas of Ladder + Muslim Areas of Cargill, – ) Remaining Districts of Jam, Ladder and Lee. (e) Once the Owen Dixon Model is adopted, Plebiscite can be conducted under United Nation's trusted supervision. The people will vote either in favor of Pakistan or India, (f) A 3rd option of ‘Complete Independence' can be included in the Plebiscite. [This option is favored by some Kashmir freedom parties, like Manually Khan's SELF. However, both Pakistan and India are reluctant about the inclusion of this option because that will ignite demands of independence from various areas within India